Call Me Vladamir Poutine

Today's plan was simple: Hit the road by 6:00AM so that we could get to Montreal around lunchtime. Usually when we set a goal like this I know in my heart that it is comical to think that it will actually work out this way. Jen, I think, still believes these goals to be something that could actually happen. I feel that setting an unrealistic goal and then do our best to attain it will make us leave earlier than if we didn't set a goal at all. Jen, every time, somehow thinks that these goals will be met and was a little disappointed as we didn't get our of bed until 7:00 and on the road until 8:30.

This late start meant that we'd get in considerably later than lunch. However, our last trip to the motherland was such a disaster that we ended up giving up and getting a hotel room in Buffalo at 2:00AM. Therefore, this trip was still promising to be a tremendous success by comparison.

Our trip was largely uneventful, save for a rest stop that had a myriad offers for sexual favors complete with locations, exit numbers, and even a website where you could meet up with people who would "keep you company" so to speak.

We stopped in Westport, NY, where we went to Everybody's Market to see about getting some lunch. Apparently "everybody" is in the market for Double Stuf Oreos, Old VHS tapes of Stephen King made for TV movies, and an antique chest of drawers. While food didn't seem to be too plentiful they did have some freshly baked brownies which had a sign suggesting that you might want to share them with a friend. I purchased a brownie with no intentions of sharing them with anyone.

After the market we traveled a little further into town and went to Me & My Girls where we ordered two Reuben sandwiches. When we opened them in the car it turned out that each Reuben was actually two sandwiches which meant that after lunch we had a net gain of two sandwiches. All for just $14. Four Reubens for 70% of what it costs for one Reuben at Katz's Deli.



After horrendous traffic in Montreal we got to Jen's Nana's place around 5:00PM where I immediately passed out and Jen, thankfully, started taking pictures. Now you don't have to use the power of your own imagination to picture our adventures.



We went out to dinner at Jen's Grandpa's favorite restaurant, Brasserie Le Manoir. Note that Grandpa has two Molson X's. He ordered them both at the same time. That is style. Fifty-or-so years his junior I ordered my Molson X's individually because I am nowhere near as cool as he is. Also, his shirt advertised something about snowboarding. Jen's Grandpa could only dine with us until 8:00 because he had an appointment. Presumably he was going to be skydiving while drinking a pair of martinis.



Jen ordered the tourtière to see how it compared to her own recipe.



I had the poutine because I'd been in Montreal for two hours and I didn't want to waste any more time not having poutine.

After dinner we went back home, had some tea, and Jen helped her Nana refine her Facebook account. We also went through her unread email. All of her email subject lines appear to be spam except that every one of them is from one of her friends. Two of the subject lines were "This MUST Be a Beer Drinking Dog" and "This Bird Loves Ray Charles." I think this friend of hers may have the best eye for email forwards I have ever seen. They were videos of a dog peeing creatively and a bird dancing to Ray Charles, respectively.

In the Commonwealth of Canada emails forward YOU! What a country!

Pre-Montreal Cleanse

On the eve of our journey to the motherland (i.e. Canada) it is slim pickins in our fridge on this side of the border.



There were some raggedy old baby greens that I fashioned into a quick salad with the remains of a dying lime, some tomato, and a bit of olive oil. This went well with some two-day-old Prairie Boule which held up surprisingly well.



I sauteed our last onion, one of two remaining potatoes, and then seared some bone-in chicken breast that I'd defrosted from the freezer. I used an over-ripened avocado, some line, and tomato to create a makeshift salsa/relish for the top of the chicken then tossed some arugula into the hot pan to wilt it.

Now the apartment is devoid of any notable fresh produce so that we may flee the country in search of the adventure and indigenous foods promised by Montreal.

With any luck there will soon be pictures of French Canadian things. Like the Beer Store. Or some Montreal bagels.

A tout à l'heure!

Fiddlehead Pizza

Just a note to start off: You should follow our blog! Everyone that follows gets a free T-shirt^*!

We're leaving town on Friday morning so this week is dedicated to cleaning out our fridge and minimizing any food that will need to be thrown away. However, the real challenge this week is to make meals that are not just milk, eggs, and bread.



First off was tackling the baby beets. Combined with the now middle-aged salad greens and a little feta cheese and a some lemon juice from a lemon half that may be eligible to start collecting Social Security.



There have been some fiddleheads in the fridge for a few days. Since they will likely be the last of the season I wanted to use them up tonight. I laid out some pizza dough, topped it with ricotta then topped it with the fiddleheads and some grated Gruyère over the top. Twelve minutes at 425 degrees on the pizza stone was all it took. I got this recipe from an ancient Roman cookbook. As the legend goes this is what Nero ate while Rome burned. It also goes well with playoff hockey.



We also went out to the ice cream truck. I got a Merlin Cone which is apparently an ice cream cone dipped in hard chocolate sauce to resemble a wizard's hat. The only difference was I've never seen a wizard sweat giant globs of vanilla ice cream from the cracks in his pointy hat.

Also, if I paid as much as $7.00 for a wizard's cap it had damn well better give me the ability to control magic for real.

^* While supplies last^**.
^** There are no supplies.

On a Seafood Diet

We're on a seafood diet -- we eat a lot of seafood!

Today's dinner comes from the waters of Portugal (sounds exotic), Massachusetts (sounds liberal), and New Jersey (sounds dirty) as well as the fields of upstate New York (sounds expensive), Connecticut (sounds like a traffic nightmare), and Idaho (sounds like potatoes).



The first course consisted of these delicious fresh sardines from Portugal. I fried a little rosemary and garlic in olive oil, removed it, then pan-fried the sardines which I dredged in a little flour. After they came out of the olive oil I drizzled them with a little lemon juice and served on top of some greens with grape tomatoes from Connecticut.



for the main course I seared some New Jersey day boat sea scallops, some catfish (from scenic Massachusetts), and served them with a baked potato, some carmelized shallots, and wilted ramps.

The dish was a little white and it featured the now redundant ramps but they're only available for like five days out of the year so I'm trying to make the most of them.

While we watched the NHL Playoffs tonight we did not visit our neighborhood ice cream truck. This made me sad because I was really looking forward to having that Sabrina the Teenage Witch Popsicle that I spied last night.

Maybe if I play my cards right I'll be able to partake in an Animaniacs snow cone this weekend.

Dinner For Tiny Little Babies!

It was a chilly day here in the big city. It was so chilly that I didn't leave the house all day! It's the same tactic I use on hot days and rainy days.

And breezy days. And temperate days.



I made a boring salad then decided to (for reasons unknown) cram about three separate courses onto one plate for dinner. I marinated some salmon in garlic, olive oil, lemon, salt, and pepper which I served with blanched, sauteed pattypan squash and baby cauliflower. I also made a baby beet goat cheese stack and some lemon artichoke, asparagus ravioli which I inexpertly piled on top of the salmon. While it may not be a standard plate presentation it was a pretty good meal. The baby squash and cauliflower were all from upstate New York. The rest of the meal? It's anyone's guess.

Being that it is Spring it was primarily baby vegetables for dinner. You may think it cruel that we murdered all these vegetables in their infancy but we wouldn't have done it if we hadn't thought it would make a delicious meal.



For wine we had a bottle that we picked up recently from a vineyard about two hours north of here. We recognized it because we'd visited this vineyard a few summers ago. I just like it because the varietal is tocai friulano which is as fun to say as it is impossible to remember. Go ahead an ask me in an hour what it's called. I usually something along the lines of: "Toscalali Froo Froo."



After dinner we went to the ice cream truck on the corner and got a pineapple sundae. Jen was upset because of the inclusion of jimmies (sprinkles to some people) but was delighted because we got to come home and watch playoff hockey. Jen thinks that pineapple sundaes and playoff hockey go together like peas an carrots though she prefers if the sundae is from Dairy Queen. Personally, I prefer the truck in our neighborhood that also sells Sabrina the Teenage Witch frozen treats.



C'mon, you've got to admit it: that's nice!