After spending the morning at the computer today, we headed out into the sun for a walk with the dog. Upon returning home, I pulled out a head of lettuce, gave it a quick chop and then julienned some veggies. I tossed it all in some store bought sun dried tomato dressing and we had a lovely, healthy lunch in less than 5 minutes.

Sometimes simple really is best!

Unfortunately, The Dude and I are the only ones in the house that will eat sushi and he’ll only tuck in to the occasional bit of salmon or tuna. That means that I don’t get to eat it all that often now that I work from home. Fortunately there is a wonderful little spot in Whitby called The Villa which does a pretty good job with the sushi and an even better job with teppanyaki.

Today I needed a sushi fix so I dropped in to get some take out. 14 bucks includes a nice size assortment of sushi, salad and miso soup. Pretty good deal if you ask me! I had the camera out so I thought I should grab a few shots before I scarfed it all!

Gallery after the break

Many foodies are afraid of a big piece of meat like the one above. That folks is a whole beef tenderloin. We regularly buy them at Costco, where recently the price has dropped drastically. This guy cost us only $62. To put that into perspective, I often watch people at the butcher’s counter paying $15 a piece to make filet mignon or $60 for a 6-8″ tenderloin roast. That is just poor economics, but many people don’t think of buying a whole loin because they are afraid to clean it.

That’s a shame, because not only is it a great way to make one of the nicest cuts of beef affordable but it is also really easy. As a muscle, the tenderloin has a fine layer of sinew around most of the flesh. Basically all you need to do is remove that layer or silverskin. You will want to work with a small, very sharp knife, as you want to slice it off cleanly, not tear the flesh. Another reason for using a very sharp knife is that you want to have good control while you are cutting, as you are working in very close quarters with your fingers. Don’t slip because you were using that old paring knife you stole from Mom when you moved out. Yes, we all have one or two of those in the drawer!

Find a spot near the fattest part of the loin and slip your blade through the silverskin and under the fine layer, holding the knife as close to the sinew as possible. Bring the tip of the knife out of the skin, about an inch from your first incision. Holding the blade at an upwards angle towards the skin, draw the blade away from you, down the length of the silverskin. You want to try to glide the blade along the back side of the silverskin removing the flesh. Now that you have “broken in”, you may find you can remove much of the sinew by running a finger under it. The stuff that you can’t get under, just run the knife under it as before.

As you remove that stuff, you’re going to find a few ribbons of fat towards the thicker end of the loin. Most of them are small and you can just clean off the edges with your knife. There will likely be one thicker ribbon of fat that separates the main section of the loin from another nice plump piece. Remove that piece and retain it for another meal. Clean up where that piece was, removing the remaining fat and sinew with your knife.

You know have 1 long piece of beef tenderloin, a small cast off piece of meat and a pile of fat and sinew with little bits of waste beef attached. More on that pile later. You will notice that the loin is very slim at both ends. You will probably want to cut those ends off so they look like small roasts. Now, you have some great looking cuts of meat that you could have easily spent double for at the meat counter.

In this case, you’ll see the small end at the back. In front of it is the piece that I’ve separated but haven’t cleaned. That will be reserved for another use. Then there is the thinner part of the center of the tenderloin. We used that for a smaller Wellington without mushrooms for the kids. The big part in the front was used for the main Wellie. We’ll give you all of the deets of the wellies in another post. The pile of fat and off cuts on the right side was used in our tenderloin stock experiment.

Really, when you buy a whole beef tenderloin, you can get 3 or 4 meals from it for the cost of 1 meal if you buy just the filet’s already cut.

I came across Food Porn Daily today, pun intended, and spent about 20 minutes captivated by the rotation of simply salacious photos.

You see, not only are we Foodies, but Mooby and I have sort of become photography buffs over the past few years. This isn’t to say that either of us are overly skilled, but we like taking photos. More so, we can really appreciate the skill it takes to really create captivating photos.

Food Porn Daily is guaranteed to make you hungry and it just might make you feel a tiny bit naughty…

Ladies and gentlemen, may I present to you the frightening vision of Bacon Cheese Turtle Burgers!

Yes, you really are looking at a turtle shaped lump of heart attack on a plate. This artery hardening vision was sent my way via This is why you’re fat. Believe it or not, the little snappers are not the most unhealthy things on the menu, though certainly the most disturbing.

Some of the other treats include Meta Meat Cake, Corn Dog Egg Rolls and the Bacon-Wrapped Burrito Log. All of this is just part of the first page! I’m almost afraid to delve further into the site to see what awaits me.

It was a big weekend here in the FAB South kitchen, as the chefs from the FAB NorthEast kitchen invaded for some culinary adventures, not to mention the draining of more than a few beverage containers.

The big experiment of the weekend was the creation of two different Beef Wellington dishes. We began with a full beef tenderloin, which always creates lots of tender little beef scraps and rich, soft fat. Neither the fat or the little bits of beefy goodness are really good for anything, yet it is a shame to just toss them in the bin. What to do? Make stock!

This morning, out came the big pot, filled with water. I added in all of the beefy bits, a few shallots, a couple of heads of garlic and some no longer fresh celery. A bit of poking about in the fridge also produced half of a root veggie of some sort, I think it is a turnip. To finish up I tossed in a bit of thyme that was in the crisper. The pot has been simmering all morning and smells absolutely FAB.

Once cooled and strained, this gallon or so of beef stock will go into the fridge next to our latest batch of chicken stock.

I know, Valentines Day weekend is upon us and you were hoping for something a little more sexy than chicken stock. Not to worry, we’ll have some fun stuff for you over the weekend. For now though, it is time to get down to the basics. Basics that any serious foodie should always have on hand.

I’ll never forget the first time I noticed a chef making stock. I say the first time I noticed, as I’m sure I had walked past a stock pot hundreds of times in the several kitchens I worked in but never noticed. I was the floor manager of a marina restaurant here on Lake Ontario. The resident chef was a crusty, mean old Dutchman who had very little patience for anything outside of his kitchen and even less for anyone who ventured into it. One day I noticed him loading a chicken carcass and a bunch of veggies into a giant pot. I asked what he was making and he told me he was making chicken stock before shooing me out of his domain.

A big pot of water, chicken scraps and a bunch of veggies. Simmer all day. Strain.

So simple and yet I didn’t start making my own stock until recently.

A decade or so ago, I was growing tired of using store bought chicken stock powder for my turkey gravy so I started to make a turkey stock while I was stuffing the bird. A pot of water, giblets, turkey neck and a few handfuls of whatever veggies we were having with dinner. Simmer all day long, deglaze roasting pan with white wine and add the day’s stock. A bit more wine, some S & P, maybe a bit of sage and you have the best reduction gravy ever. For years I’ve wanted to toss the turkey carcass into our biggest pot, but by the end of Christmas dinner there is no energy left for more work. Only more wine.

Over the past year or so, tetra pak chicken stock has replaced powdered stock mix in our pantry. It is just so darned easy to have ready made stock at hand while cooking. Soups, sauces, gravies are just the beginning. We use stock to cook veggies, in mashed potatoes and even in risotto. Why are we buying stock instead of just making it from our scraps like every experienced chef has done for years?

This Christmas I took the entire carcass and tossed it in the big black pot, along with a couple of onions, a celery end, some carrots and a bunch of other stuff I don’t remember. It simmered for most of Boxing Day. The end result was about 2 gallons of turkey stock that lasted us for most of the month of January. All from scraps. We used it to make the best chicken pot pies, a couple of different soups and lord knows what else.

The golden jar you see above was created a couple of days ago with the carcass of a wonderful roast chicken that we actually bought from a local grocer. You know, the ones you see at the doorway looking all golden brown and smelling awesome? Convenient, affordable and easily as good as any bird you might roast at home. Once we were done, I tossed the remnants in the pot with: You guessed it, a bunch of veggies and topped up with water. Simmer forever. Cool, strain. Jar. With a tight lid, it will keep for a few weeks in the fridge. Just as convenient as a tetra pak but without the expense.

There is no recipe. Add whatever veggies you have on hand to the pot. The more variety the better as everything you add builds flavour. In the end, you will be rewarded with a flavourful, golden stock that forms the basis to many great dishes.

It used to be that a real foodie would never talk about the little shortcuts used in the kitchen lest they be considered less of a cook by their friends. The reality these days is that many large chain stores have gone to a lot of trouble to create ready made products that are not only easy, but taste great too. Here in Ontario, we are lucky to have the President’s Choice brand that offers many unique products that can’t be found elsewhere. The do sauces particularly well. In this recipe, we’ll use their Memories of Lyons peppercorn sauce as the base for a quick, easy and flavorful pasta.

The beauty of cooking like this is because there is no recipe you can make as much or as little as you need.

What ya need:

Boneless chicken breast – we used 3 big ones, but you can vary depending on the size of your clan
1 package of the pasta of your choice. We used penne.
1 bottle PC Memories of Lyons 4 peppercorn sauce or similar.
Whipping cream

How ya make it:

Preheat a large, non stick pan with a splash of veggie oil.

Heat a big honkin’ pot of salted water for the pasta.

On a clean cutting board, cut the chicken into bite size chunks. Season with salt & pepper (we prefer fresh ground) and carefully add to the hot pan.

Sear the chicken on all sides, then turn the heat down and allow chicken to cook through, being careful not to overcook it. Then, remove chicken & put in a bowl.

Add pasta to boiling water and cook as per instructions. Ours took 9 minutes to al dente, but yours may vary. Read the package as each pasta is different.

Add the peppercorn sauce to the pan and heat. Once sauce is hot, stir in the whipping cream a little at a time until you are happy with the creaminess and pepper heat. Add chicken to reheat & soak up sauce.

Drain pasta well in a colander and then add to sauce & chicken mixture. Cook on medium heat for a couple of minutes to allow pasta to pick up the sauce.

Serve in bowls, grating fresh parm on top if you so desire.

As an automotive writer, I often have the opportunity to visit places that I wouldn’t likely ever see otherwise. The down side is that I am usually only in a city for about a day and a half and I have little more than a few hours to explore on my own. This past Fall I was in Portland for the first time. Once I woke up from my cross country travel induced nap, I headed out for a walk to see a bit of the city.

What I discovered was this really cool food phenomenon. It seems like every parking lot in downtown Portland has a row of these old travel trailers that have been converted to little take out food joints. They are all very brightly painted, looking more like a collection of pop art than a row of kitchens on wheels. It seems as if every culture on the planet is represented by their culinary traditions. Sadly, I had eaten during my transfer in Vancouver and was about to endure enjoy a huge meal at the press event. This meant that there was no way I was going to sample anything from any of these vendors.

Since that trip, I’ve spoken with a couple of people who have lived in Portland and it was explained that these food carts have been in town for years and are a serious lunch staple of office dwellers. Yesterday I came across Food Carts Portland, a great blog devoted to these reviewing these semi mobile sources of lunchtime nutrition.

If I have the opportunity to return, I’ll be sure to arrive on an empty tummy and sample a couple of carts.

When a Milestones restaurant opened in our neighbourhood, we just had to try it.  All of us loved  their Baked Goat Cheese and Slow-Roasted Garlic Flatbread Plate and decided we had to try to duplicate it to take to neighbour’s 40th birthday bash.  it is so simple and wows guests. We liked it so much we used it in our header image.

What you need:

1 log of goat cheese (small)

1 cup poppy seeds

2 head of garlic

4 tablespoons of olive oil

1 jar of corn relish

package of pitas

How you do it:

Cut the top off 2 heads of garlic.  Place in a shallow oven proof dish, drizzle with olive oil, cover with tin foil  and bake in a 400 degree oven for approximately 1 hour.

Take the goat cheese and roll into a ball.  Roll in the poppy seeds until covered.  Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate.

Cut pitas into bite sized wedges and place in a serving bowl.

Place store bought corn relish in a small serving bowl.

When garlic is cooked, place garlic on serving platter along side of corn relish and goat cheese and a side bowl of pitas.

To serve, spread goat cheese on pita, top with roasted garlic and top with corn relish, as desired.