Ossington Village

I have been spending most of my time online blogging for www.ossingtonvillage.com
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Highly Recommend: Rock Star Karaoke

What a fun night last night at Cadillac Lounge. Every Sunday now they have a live band who knows a ton of covers as support for karaoke singers. It was cool: some of the people were good singers, and some were just fun performers. The woman who sang/danced to/commented upon George Michael's "Faith" and the guy who flipped his hair around while singing Metallica's "Enter Sandman" came to mind.
No cover. Good entertainment. Who's to complain? I don't know that I will be a regular, as most non-holiday Sundays at 9, I am ensconced on the couch, but we had a blast last night, and no one in our group even got up to sing. A fun night for a pack of wimps!

Caesar Salad: Gourmet vs. Joy Of Cooking

Brian came home from the supermarket late last week with romaine lettuce and anchovies, all excited to make a caesar salad, as we haven't done it in a long time.
So this past weekend, Brian made us caesar salads, using the recipe from our Gourmet cookbook, as I suggested, and it was good. But... I found it too liquid, not creamy enough. And, it got me thinking. I still have romaine, and anchovies, so let's try a different recipe and see if I can make a creamier caesar salad dressing.
OK, this thought just came to me today, and as such, was a completely unscientific experiment. Two different cooks, for one! I am not even sure how closely Brian adhered to the Gourmet recipe, but still, I thought it would be fun to try the Joy of Cooking recipe and compare. This is the old school Joy of Cooking. I bought it several years ago on amazon.com instead of the updated version, because I thought the classic recipes would be preferable. I prefer butter over "spread", sugar instead of aspertame, etc, so I thought I would prefer the classics, and most everything I've made from the book has been good.
The Gourmet cookbook was published in '04 and I asked for and received it as a Christmas gift the following year. This, too, has a lot of classic recipes and all have been successful for me, I am thinking of the lasagna and the pea soup as recent successes.
I have gotten into the habit of going to blogs for recipes, when I have these two great books as resources. Instead, I am going to utilize these cookbooks more often, especially when I am craving a traditional dish.
In this case, I preferred the Joy of Cooking recipe for Caesar salad, as it was less oily and creamier. It was a good dinner!

Scones on Saturday

I found this recipe for scones on Everybody Likes Sandwiches and have been waiting for a good day to make them.
Yesterday turned out to be that day. I woke a little earlier than the hubby, got up and made some tea, and turned on the oven to bake.
The scones were relatively easy to make and turned out delicious. I followed the recipe almost exactly except a little more whole wheat flour and a little less white, and for the raw sugar I only had maple sugar, which someone had brought for the Canadian party. The maple sugar worked really well though. I was lucky it was on hand, because the raw sugar on top was a nice touch.
The link to the recipe is here.

Blogs I like

I have been spending so much time reading other blogs, that I haven't updated this one in months.
Therefore, I thought I'd give a shout out to some of the blogs I've been reading and enjoying a lot. These folks are much more dedicated than I have been.

Taste TO

Pioneer Woman

Zoilus - Carl Wilson on Music

TV Tattle TV News


I'll try to take a cue from these regular updaters and do the same.

Canadian Party

We had a Canadian citizenship party yesterday and committed to serving Canadian food and drink. It was great!
I think the biggest hit was the peameal bacon. We bought it on our St. Lawrence market run and baked it in the oven at 350 for a couple hours. I didn't even get to try it, but apparently it was delicious.
We also served Malpeque oysters, smoked salmon and Montreal bagels, ketchup chips, Montreal smoked meat served with Kozlick's mustards, and crudite with a Canadian cheddar cheese dip. Guests bought Canadian wines, Smarties, timbits and local beer. It was really fun, and now I have tons of Canadian memorabilia, eh!

My First Vote in Canada

I have been a Canadian citizen for just over a week, and the timing was right, because today I can vote. I realize this isn't that important an election, as the Conservatives are likely to maintain their minority leadership. I still am happy to be able to exercise my right for the first time. Don't forget to vote!