learning: bacon & sausage making class
08 Mar 2012 2 Comments
in food & cooking, vancouver Tags: cured meat, learning, pig, vancouver
thanks to the magic of groupon, myself, my husband and moonbeam (otherwise known as the tricycle of fun) embarked on another food learning adventure.
this time; to learn to make bacon and sausages.
the sausage part was intriguing, but not an oh-my-god-i-have-to-do-this thing… i mean, i love sausages (non sexual, i swear) but i feel like i could make sausage myself, i just don’t have the equipment. (again, so not sexual, lol)
so it was more a this-will-be-neat-to-make-my-own-and-if-i-ever-have-room-i’ll-buy-a-meat-grinder thing…
and lets face it, it’s hilarious to manhandle large quantities of sausage. (sexual jokes allowed now)
anyways. our class took place at the landmark Save On Meats on hastings street.
this is a place i’ve eyed up all my life and not once set foot in.
but clearly, their signage is among the best in the city.
we received an apron, a nametag and a doutang of recipes.
thumbs up for this idea. it was great to just watch and learn without being worried about remembering the correct ratios and recipes.
we were divided into 2 groups. one went to bacon first (that was us) and the other did sausage.
then we switched.
our friendly, knowledgeable and easy on the eyes chef/teacher/butcher introduced us to a big pile of pork belly and we got to making bacon. (teehee – again)
basically we just mixed pre-measured spices & salt and coated our bacon and stuck it in a plastic bag where it will hang out for the next 7 days.
definitely not *hard* but it was interesting to learn about various bacons and how to make your own smoker and such.
we then moved on to pancetta making. basically the same thing as bacon. you salt & season it, let it hang out for 7 days and then roll it up, tie it and dry it to cure.
it was so easy that i can’t believe i haven’t been doing this myself all along.
so then we moved over to the sausage station.
our sausage guide went through the whole process once so we could see it start to finish and then we got at it.
first step was to weigh our meat and then double grind it.
there was a hand crank and an electric one. i went electric.
we then mixed in the pre-measured spices and loaded it into the sausage pump thing (what the hell do you call that?) and got down to business.
again this was easy. but fun.
and we laughed and make dirty comments about cranking meat and squeezing sausage.
obviously.
all in all, it was a lot of fun and i was satisfied with the experience.
if i was going to make any comments it would be that the groupon said it would be a 3 hour class and it definitely was not.
we started at around 6:45 and we were gone by 8:30 and people left before us.
so total, it was less than 2 hours.
i don’t feel like we needed to be there for longer… in fact, i think 3 hours is too long possibly…
but if you say 3 hours, it should last close to 3 hours.
maybe they should have incorporated another element or maybe done a tour of the facilities or something else to add content. i don’t know…
anyways, we’re headed back to save on meats for a cheese making class in May and i’m really looking forward to that.
i know how to make cheese, but its been a long time since i did it and i’m looking forward to learning about aging cheeses because that’s a new thing for me too.
and now i have bacon, pancetta and sausages to eat from my class which i am very much looking forward to.
yey for learning!
food: the red wagon, vancouver
07 Mar 2012 2 Comments
in food & cooking, restaurants & dinning out, vancouver Tags: as seen on tv, pig, restaurants & dinning out, vancouver
on monday, we made a visit to one of the places featured on diners, drive ins and dives.
the red wagon in east van.
http://www.redwagoncafe.com/
this is has been a place i’ve driven past a bazillion times and always noticed it looked funky and busy. really busy. like, there’s usually a line up outside during peak times.
i’m a fan of el bario, with is in the same block, but this was a place that intrigued me… and so i’d listed it on my mental “to do”, but never been particularly fussed about it.
and then guy fieri showed up.
the episode of DDD aired on 27 Jan, and ever since, this place has been even busier.
my husband and i were in the area, buying produce at donald’s and since we were parked and RIGHT THERE, we decided to pop in for a meal.
unfortunately for us, we weren’t starving. so we just ate a lighter meal. (kinda, lol)
the signature item here is the pulled pork pancakes.
now, obviously, i don’t eat pancakes and my husband had just eaten a pretty big breakfast, so he wasn’t in the mood… so we looked longingly at the stacks of deliciousness on neighboring tables, but decided we’d save it for another trip.
my husband went with the Ruben.
the phrase “house brined beef” sold him.
he deemed it to be an excellent sandwich.
i honestly, chose poorly.
i got a cobb salad. and while it was good, it was just a cobb salad.
nothing crazy or special about it, just a really good solid salad. the dressing was really nice. but the rest was just pretty normal.
one thing though… it was MASSIVE. i only made it about 1/2 way through before giving up.
i also ordered a cup of the smoked tomato soup.
wow. now here’s where i ventured into “something special” territory.
after picking out what looked like absolutely beautiful buttered croutons, i devoured this.
the pesto on the top was perfect… the soup itself smokey and creamy and rich.
i love a good tomato soup and this was one of the best i’ve had in vancouver.
and then… the real magic.
we got a side of the crispy pork belly and JD syrup to dip it in.
i know *insert heart attack here*
i’m not sure this picture really does justice to the fact that this is a slab of pork belly.
as we saw on DDD, they confit it until perfectly cooked and rendered and then slap it on the flat top to crisp it to order.
the word WOW is a freaking understatement.
and the syrup… i don’t even like jack daniels and this was incredible.
you got the hit of the booze with the most delightful maple finish.
these two items are friends. make sure you pair them together.
all in all, a massive success.
we’ll be back for sure.
the woman at the table across from me ordered the crispy pork belly sandwich, which looked like a play on a banh mi and she declared it to be the best thing on the menu.
she was a regular.
i trusted her.
food: eating out wheat-free
17 Jan 2012 4 Comments
in food & cooking, restaurants & dinning out, vancouver, wheat free Tags: gluten free, restaurants & dinning out, vancouver, wheat free
okay, confession time. i’ve been kind of avoiding eating out while being wheat-free.
for one, i’m broke these days (ie – after hawaii) so it’s money that i don’t *need* to spend. also, it’s tough. it’s a similar situation to what i’ve dealt with before when restricting certain types of food; you just never know what’s going on in the kitchen.
the wait staff can swear up & down that something doesn’t contain whatever, but if the cook doesn’t give a shit, then you’re eating it anyways.
trust me. i’ve been a cook in kitchens.
because i’m also still learning all the secret ways that wheat is snuck into our food, it’s a struggle on my end too.
so basically its been a lot of sushi. because generally, what you see is what you get. except i can’t eat soy sauce. or tempura. sadness.
but i have learned to enjoy salmon nigiri with no soy sauce and it’s pretty much my go-to eat now. also miso soup. always miso soup.
anyways, a few pizza places have started offering gluten free crusts, which are hit or miss.
i ordered one from Me & Ed’s a few weeks ago, and while it technically allowed me to eat a delivered pizza, it was overcooked and basically a flat cardboard disk dripping through with oil. so i ate a few pieces and ended up just eating the toppings with a fork. for the price, i definitely wouldn’t rush out to order it again. which is a shame because i do love me & eds pizza.
when i do a google search, i see that boston pizza offers a gluten free crust… and while megabite shows up in my search, i can’t actually find a mention on their online menu of it. so there’s a few other delivery options around my house to be checked out. and i’ll definitely be sure to report back in.
for the most part, if its not sushi, its been burgers or salads. yes, burgers.
i am one of those weird people that will happily eat a bun-less burger. i actually have always been a fan of a burger patty on my plate with some ketchup or mayo for dipping. so this one is no sacrifice to me. i just have to remember to ask if they use fillers in their patties, but thankfully in this day & age of the gourmet burger, it’s not that common anymore.
most places have been very cool about the bun-less burger. i had an absolutely killer burger at Vera’s (duh – they’re the BEST) and they wrapped it in tons of leaf lettuce for me and i scarfed that mo-fo down with my hands. it was definitely on the messy side, but that’s not unusual for a burger.
and while i happily can knife & fork a burger, it is nice to do the handheld thing too. because let’s face it, it’s some of the appeal of eating a burger.
i’m also a big lettuce lover. i’m always requesting extra lettuce on my burger (since it’s the only vegetable i get on it) and it never seems like enough. so literally wrapping my meal in lettuce is a beautiful thing to me.
so last night i had a meat craving. i really wanted a steak. which is RARE for me to crave. i eat steak like 2x a year. if even. i am not a steak girl. but i kinda felt like a petit filet would treat me right last night.
unfortunately, while there are some excellent places by my house to get a steak (Onyx, the Keg, The Boathouse…) it would have meant a pretty pricy meal out. and i’m on the budget. so it was nixed.
next best suggestion is the burger.
we decided on red robin. my husband worked there in his youth and so he loves eating there still. old habits, you know. and i, for one, would never speak ill of the red robin bacon cheeseburger.
i was all geared up to eat that burger out of the paper wrapper with my hands regardless, but then i spied at the bottom of their new menu “gluten free bun – $.99″
what the what?
the server told me they just started doing it and that the feedback had been great.
now, as i’ve said before, i’m not huge into the substitution products. i would likely never buy gluten free buns, i’d just skip the bun. but thats just me. i don’t want to eat a faux version of something, i’d just rather not eat it at all.
and so, while i appreciated this option, i actually was planning on skipping it.
but my husband suggested i try it, just to try it. and of course, there’s my blog to think about 
but his theory was that if the bun sucked, then i could tell the server, get the 99 cents back and eat it anyways with no bun. which i would have done anyways. it seemed like sound logic.
so i ordered up my usual… bacon cheeseburger with pepperjack, only lettuce and chipotle mayo instead of regular mayo.
it was… okay.
here’s the caveat. i haven’t eaten any gluten free bread products yet. no buns, no sandwich bread, no muffins or cookies. the closest i’ve come is the english muffins, but they were so cornmeal-y, they were nothing like the real thing and weren’t trying to be IMO.
so basically i have nothing to compare it to.
this certainly looked like the real thing. it was browned all around and fluffy and white in the middle… but something was definitely amiss.
the texture. it was spongy and made me think of undercooked yorkshire puddings.
all in all, it wasn’t bad. i ate the whole thing and it got the burger to my mouth with less mess than the lettuce wrap does… but i’m not entirely sure i’d choose it every time.
i LOVE having the option, and will probably choose it from time to time, just to make sure it stays on the menu… but a good 50% of the time, i’ll probably just stick with the lettuce wrap.
this is what i’ve been finding to be true overall. while these substitution products have their hearts in the right place, it’s really not necessarily what i want to eat.
and i feel like restaurants are still learning how to navigate the wave of gluten-free eating that’s so abundant right now. and very few of them are getting it right IMO.
when i go out for a meal, what do i want?
essentially i want an option that doesn’t make me feel like i’m eating fake food.
i want a piece of meat. steak, chicken, pork chop, sausage… whatever.
i want vegetables. side dishes, salad, whatever.
i want a small amount of something else. potato, rice, quinoa… nuts, hummus, beans… whatever.
it doesn’t seem like too much to ask, and i’m getting better at figuring our which restaurants can do these things for me.
and if worse comes to worse… there’s always sushi, lol.
the comfort food chronicles: mac &cheese
17 Jan 2012 2 Comments
in food & cooking, restaurants & dinning out, vancouver, wheat free Tags: comfort food, gluten free, mac & cheese, vancouver, wheat free
ah snow days. is there anything that just makes you want to build a fort on your couch and nest in heaps of blankets like snow days?
not for me anyways. when its cold outside, that’s the hint from mother nature to stay the fuck in.
the past couple days i’ve had some fierce cheese cravings. and not necessarily like i want to eat a block of cheese… more that i want cheesy rich stuff.
i have a sneaking suspicion this is the byproduct of cutting my beloved kraft dinner out of my diet.
i’ve decided i have 3 options.
first, i could eat other packaged gluten free mac & cheese meals…
second, i could poach the cheese packet from a box of kraft dinner and make it with rice pasta…
or third, i can make my own version from scratch.
so, option 1. i bought this a few weeks ago at home sense. it was $5 and i figured, what the heck. the pasta is made with quinoa, which i love… so let’s give it a go.
i have a few notes on it… first and foremost, why this is packaged in a resealable bag is beyond me. this was basically one portion of food (or at least i ate the whole thing – don’t judge me). but that’s just kinda nit picky.
it was pretty decent. really salty tasting, but the pasta was nice and the cheese sauce nice and fake. so i ate it and it did the job on my hangover day.
i’m not sure i’d rush out to buy it again, but i wouldn’t say never. if i saw it on sale, i’d do it.
option 2: poaching the cheese package from a box of KD. ya, this might be the winning option. when you’re craving that awesome fake cheese sauce taste, there’s just no substitute.
i came to the conclusion years ago that it wasn’t necessarily “mac & cheese” that i loved, it was the crack cocaine that is kraft dinner.
which brings me to option 3. making my own from scratch.
for all the kraft dinner i’ve eaten in my life, i’ve maybe only made homemade mac & cheese 4 or 5 times.
generally, i don’t really care for it. it’s often too creamy and too greasy and the pasta is mushy and the cheese is grainy… and ya. i want to like it, but my tastebuds just scream THIS ISN’T KRAFT DINNER!
but damnit, i figured it was worth a go.
i bought a 12 month aged white cheddar from granville island and went from there…
roadblock one – pasta. easy fix; i used rice macaroni. this worked. well. rice pasta can sometimes be gummy and everything about mac & cheese is gummy anyways, so… it works.
roadblock two – the roux. everything delicious and creamy in the sauce world seems to start with a roux. since i’m still new to gluten free cooking, i decided to take the easy way out. i made the sauce and then i added a little cornstarch. i also used a little heavy cream, when normally i would have thickened a 2% milk. not low calorie, but hey… it works.
roadblock three – the crunchy topping. gluten free panko crumbs exist (i’ve seen them at safeway) but they’re expensive and i don’t think they’re mandatory. normally my fix would have been potato chips, but we didn’t have any of those either, so i went with just another layer of cheese. and black pepper. again, it works.
and voila! mac & cheese done gluten free.
it was very good and my husband certainly dug in with no complaints… but here’s the funny thing… we both agreed that it was better the following day as leftovers. the cheese flavour seemed stronger and the texture was really nice.
also, we ate it with a hearty dose of hot sauce. because you have to with rich dishes.
in addition to my usual addiction, i’ve been thinking about mac & cheese for a few months because of The Mac Shack that opened in Kerisdale. i was one of their first twitter followers and so they gave me a coupon for a free meal with them, but i forgot about it (and i’m NEVER in kerisdale) so it expired. and i was kicking myself thinking “now i can’t even eat their food”, but then i tweeted them to enquire and they responded with, yes, they do make a gluten free mac & cheese! so i’m back in. and if anyone is in the mood to make the trek, i am SO DOWN.
food: delicious cured meats
21 Nov 2011 1 Comment
in booze & other drinkables, food & cooking Tags: cured meat, pig, vancouver
on sunday my husband and i went on an impromptu adventure for meats & beer.
we decided to head to granville island and find inspiration in the market… easy to do, but dangerous if you’re not focused. distractions are plentiful.
after a delicious shared lunch and some coffee, we headed to our favourite place for all things meat. oyama sausage company. this place is ridiculous. http://www.oyamasausage.ca
i’ve sampled some delightful cured meats, including from the famed bocalone in san francisco… but this place is always on point. and they have EVERYTHING.
with a spread like that (and that is one case of 5) it’s easy to see how one could get distracted… and say… spend $60 on cured meats. (whoopsie)
it’s hard to say what i was most excited about, but i may have to say it was the wild boar prosciutto.
honestly, this is probably some of the best prosciutto i’ve ever eaten. it was rich, incredibly salty and so so tasty. it had very little fat, which was a big selling feature for me… and the flavour of wild boar is just so much deeper and complex than a run of the mill pig prosciutto. we bought 100g of it and pretty much inhaled it. lesson learned: buy more next time.
my husband, however, was most excited about this:
now, he said this is called grelots and after some extensive googling, it looks like they may be called “grelots noisettes ” in french, so roughly; hazelnut sweetmeats.
ummm… yes.
so, as we were waiting for our meat to be put together, a lady came bounding up to the counter, visibly excited that they had these grelots since apparently they only have them once a year.
at $4.50 per (and they’re about the size of your thumb), she bought 10. she was kind enough to ask the clerk to cut off a little piece of one so my husband could try it, and bam. he was sold. we bought two… and wow.
the creamy salami-esque meat with the tender hazelnuts and the sharp moldy rind… so. fucking. good.
but, let it be known that i’m a total sucker for the moldy bits. they’re always the yummiest, yes i am that girl that only eats the rind of the brie.
but this is good. like, definitely worth $4.50 each and we regret not buying 10 as well. there may have to be a mission back down there this week to rectify this oversight.
and really… look how beautiful this is:
so, we put all these treats together with their “country ham” – like a prosciutto but more mild and a dry aged wagu beef which was freaking unreal… and created the meaty masterpiece you see below.
yup. $60 in cured meats well spent.
i will also say that we got 10% off a delicious beaujolais with all this meat purchases. which was excellent and perfectly matched with the above plate.
beer: winter ale (love letters to granville island)
04 Nov 2011 2 Comments
in booze & other drinkables, vancouver Tags: beer, vancouver
truth be told, i’m not much of a winter girl.
i’m a sun lover and i hate being cold… and in a lot of places winter = sun, but not in vancouver… it usually means grey weather. now, grey weather i can dig when it’s not freezing, but combine the two and i’m fucking out.
which is why i’m spending 15 nights in hawaii in december. i like to call it “the great winter escape!”
one of the things that i really do love about winter is the seasonal return of winter ales.
in particular, this one:
granville island’s lions winter ale is the first one i had ever tried and still remains my absolute favourite.
now, if i may back up… i have a long and healthy relationship with granville island beers. i have been drinking them faithfully and at times exclusively for about 10 years now. they have never done me wrong.
and my personal palate leans me towards full flavoured beers on the darker scale, and GI definitely had my back there.
i first fell in love with their pale ale. it was rich and not hoppy like a lot of pale ales and oh-so easy to drink. believe me, i tried to stop (no i didn’t) but it’s just too tasty to resist. and it was local & independent (at the time), so wins all around.
then they wowed me further when they introduced their kitsalano maple cream ale. oh the maple cream… i honestly do not have the capacity to count the number of bottles of this beer that i drank over a solid 5 year period. this was my absolute go-to beer. rain or shine, this one went with everything. and i know, because i tried to pair it with everything. and it all worked.
i would say that this beer was a signature item in my fridge. i always, and i mean ALWAYS had at least a 6 pack on hand… usually more. one time i had a keg of it on my balcony, lol.
now, around this time, the robson hefeweizen came out for the summer. and it was a delight. i remember when my work teamed up with GI to promote it and i spent an entire summer drinking this for free at various bars with rock stars… ah, good times.
and my beer soaked memory fails me, but i believe it was the same year that the hef was introduced, the winter came out in the fall. and wow. if i thought i had swooned before, it was nothing to my mad lust for this beer.
and at first, it was hard to find… certain liquor stores would carry it and when i’d see it, i’d buy all of it. no jokes, like 6 or more 6-packs at a time. i was obsessed. when i found out it was to be a seasonal release, i started hording.
then bars started to carry it. the first place i recall was the cambie… and they served up super cheap ($8 was it?) pitchers of it on mondays. -as a sidebar, drinking draft at the cambie is a terrible idea, but that’s a whole other blog-
there was something about the vanilla symphony in my mouth hole that made my taste buds sing. it was like they had taken my favourite beer -the maple cream- and turned up the volume on it. it was darker, heavier, more flavourful, but still had the qualities that made me fall in love with the maple in the first place.
now this beer… well, to me, it pairs perfectly with winter nights… hockey games, fireplaces, couch forts, movies… you know… all those things that you want to do with your winter. stay indoors.
but i’ve also roadtrip’d this beer and found that it also pairs well with playing in the snow and outdoor ice rinks. and hot tubs in whistler. in short, it’s the booze soundtrack to cold weather.
winter beers are pretty common nowadays… most of the indie breweries make one, and even some of the larger breweries… and i’ve tried a number that i’ve enjoyed, but none that i love like the granville island lions winter ale.
it’s like it’s set the gold standard for my tastebuds and everything else is just a weak imposter in my mouth.
the winter showed up a few weeks ago in liquor stores and my fridge is fully stocked. in fact, i’ve already gone through 4 6-packs of it. *note – they now sell it in cans – don’t do it. it’s best out of the bottle, no glass required*
and last weekend we had a guest over in the form of captain charles and i gave him his very first GI winter ale.
he opened it, smelled it, looked up at me with amazement and said “WOW, this smells incredible” and took his first sip and just smiled. and that’s how you know a beer is good.
…and now i’m going to drink one, because it’s my day off dammit and it’s all i can think of…
night vision
29 Oct 2011 1 Comment
in photography, vancouver Tags: photography, vancouver
last week i took a night photography course with my friend and her parents in the effort to learn more about properly working my digital SLR camera.
i’ve had it for about 2 years now i think, and i use it, but it’s not my primary camera (sadly, that’s my iphone) due to its bulky weight & size. but the pictures are incomparably better with the SLR. (duh)
i lusted after this camera and pestered my hsuband for about a year before i got it… and then, like most children after christmas day, i all but abandoned it with complaints of size and delicacy (i can’t possibly bring it somewhere it may get harmed!)
also, i never *really* learned how to properly use it.
i mean, i know how to use an SLR camera… at least i did at one point in high school…
but i didn’t really know how to use the digital version. or didn’t know how to use it to the best of its capabilities.
and so, the vast majority of my pictures were happening on the automatic setting… with the occasional tweak when i had a result i really wasn’t happy with.
so, an actual photography class was long overdue.
i have groupon to thank for this one… back in march they posted it and we bought it… and then we waited. and waited. until FINALLY we had a date for our class. in october. lol. kinda ridiculous, but honestly, worth the wait and VERY worth the $50 spent.
the first 30 minutes-ish was spent going over the basics. i had to buy a tripod for this class, which made more of a difference than i think i anticipated. i’d actually never shot from a tripod before… and i liked it. so i think it’s a purchase that i’ll use again in the future. so we learned how to muck with our settings to get the lower ISO and the long shutter speed we wanted and a few other points, like shooting in RAW instead of JPG and so on.
then we started shooting.
we practiced first on the iconic steam clock in gastown. good subject. here’s a few of my favourite shots that i took.
now, it terms of the technical… definitely not “correct”. but those are the shots i liked most from an artsy point of view. but technically that blinding white burn out is what i was supposed to be avoiding. and the shots without it are boring to me. so, big surprise, i didn’t want to do things the right way, lol.
then we moved on to those cool pictures where the cars turn into streaks of light.
i LOVE these photos. i’ve ALWAYS loved these photos. so i was pretty excited to learn how to make my own. and behold… SUCCESS!
so that was pretty exciting for me. like, actually i was REALLY excited to learn this.
we also did one other exercise which was where we tried to shoot cars driving and moving the camera with the car so that the car stays in focus and the background blurs. that shit was hard. didn’t go so well for me. but here’s my most successful shot…
so all in all, a great experience. definitely well worth the money to learn some new skills, and it was just FUN. we laughed and chatted and enjoyed the crisp fall air and the lights of gastown…
it’s definitely inspired me to take some photo excursions this fall. get some use out of that tripod… and now i’m also pondering the possibilities of snow shots… and sunsets in hawaii on time lapse… ah yes. my love of photography renewed for only $50. now *that’s* a good deal.
pumpkin beer tasting
05 Oct 2011 1 Comment
in adventures with moonbeam bouvier, booze & other drinkables Tags: beer, booze, seasonal beer, vancouver
hey. do you know what’s *awesome*?
PUMPKIN BEER!
when done correctly.
a disappointing pumpkin beer can be a downright disgusting experience.
so, in order to save you from the aches & pains of sub-par beers, moonbeam and i took one for the team and tried all the pumpkin beers that we could get our hands on. (and by *we*, i mean her. because i’m more of an ideas drinking girl)
so, here was our final collection on friday night…
beautiful, isn’t it?
now, it came to our attention later that those whores at phillips also make a pumpkin beer, but we could not find it. and since pretty much everything phillips brews is like unicorn cum in your mouth (that’s good, i think), i can only imagine it’s a pretty magical experience.
sorry. back to business.
we decided to start with the st ambroise – the great pumpkin ale. it was… pretty freaking great. nice amount of spice to it and a decently strong pumpkin flavour. this beer doesn’t fare so well on beer advocate, but we quite liked it. and just to be sure, we drank 2 bottles. i enjoyed that it was a little more cinnamon & ginger and a little less clove. the clove thing is so hit or miss with pumpkin beers. too much and it’s just gross, but you have to have it in there.
next up was the granville island – pumpkin beer. no clever witty names, just a straight up beer. now, i am a huge fan of GI, but this one was a bit of a disappointment. the pumpkin flavours were weak at best to me, in fact, if you gave me this beer blindfolded and asked me to describe it, i definitely would not use the word pumpkin. but it was a tasty little beer and i enjoyed it overall… but not pumpkiny. i got earthy, a little spice… and… GI beer. not so much on the pumpkin.
number 3 was fernie brewery – pumpkin head brown ale. tasty, definitely… and i love a brown ale, so i was excited about this. it was a delight, but again, not heavy on the pumpkin taste. it did have a nice mouth feel and went down really quickly. i would buy it again.
last but not least was the howe sound – pumpkineater. the thing i like most about this beer? the size. and the swing top bottle. because sometimes you don’t drink it all at once. or so i’ve heard… weird, i know. anyways, this beer was also on the darker side, which again, works for me. it’s also billed as a “strong beer” so it’s around the 8% alcohol mark. we found this one to have a nice spice & pumpkin flavour and for a strong beer, it was nice and smooth.
at this point the “notes” kind of start to slide… it’s hard to remember what the first beer tasted like… but we’re pretty sure we liked it best. so we had to drink the last 2 bottles of it to be sure.
and we were. the st ambroise won for us.
butchery class
29 Sep 2011 3 Comments
in adventures with moonbeam bouvier, food & cooking, vancouver Tags: butchery, pig, pork, vancouver
lots of people have asked about the butchery class that we did a few month ago.
basically there were 2 responses from friends & twitter lovers. either: a) why? that sounds gross. or b) cool! how did you do that?
well, to be honest, it was a bit of a whim.
it was nothing i’d ever considered, but when the opportunity presented itself, it really seemed to easily fall in line with my dedication to really KNOWING what i was eating and focusing on local, whole ingredients.
plus, i’m a total whore for knowledge. my brain craves being filled with as much random knowledge as possible. its how i become such a know-it-all.
so a few months ago a groupon appeared for butchery classes at Big Lou’s Butcher Shop.
i had been looking for something fun to do with my husband ~ you know, like a hobby or some junk, and my pal moonbeam (of metal & muffins fame) is always down for some pig handling, so it really just all seemed to make sense.
so we each paid $100 in exchange for a class that lasted a few hours and a take home of 20lbs of pork each. give or take.
a pretty solid deal IMO, since 20lbs of organic local pork would probably have been in that price range anyways.
the class itself was quite informative. good class size – 6 of us and the instructor moved things along at a good pace so it kept it interesting.
we started with this:
basically it’s half a pig. or a pig cut in half. depending on if you’re a glass half full person or not
after being shown all the parts (ie – this is where the bacon comes from… this is a ham…) then our instructor started breaking it down.
and then it was our turn…
my husband was pretty eager to get in there and make the magic happen. me & moonbeam took a backseat for a bit, but don’t fear, we made our mark.
here’s my husband removing the pork tenderloin. the delicious delicious tenderloin.
and then he got to do the real fun stuff… because all men like taking a saw to a carcass. essentially he’s separating the ham from the midsection where the ribs will come from.
now, here’s a few shots of me cleaning up a piece of the piggie… for the life of me, i can’t remember what i’m doing from these pictures, so… you know, just make up something good.
(but my hair looks fabulous)
there you have it. our butchery class highlight reel.
it was pretty awesome and i would definitely do it again and recommend it.
i really enjoyed the understanding that i gained about the process that generally happens behind closed doors. and i genuinely felt like i acquired some life skills that not everyone has.
our instructor mentioned that they will be doing game classes, and indeed, i see them on the web site now.
http://biglousbutchershop.com/bouchery_classes.html
as much as i would be totally into learning how to do a whole deer, the $250 price point is a bit high for me. $500 for both me & my husband to go? eeesch, that’s half a trip to vegas.
so i’m going to keep my eye out for a future groupon or deal and maybe something awesome will happen. for me, the $100 class was just right and i felt happy paying it. even $125 i might have done.
anyways, this experience also left me with an amazing amount of pork. 40lbs between my husband & i. the big prize was a 16lb bone in shoulder. it’s going to make magical pulled pork. i just need to find some pig eaters to help me with the sexy results. *currently accepting applications*
