Sunday, November 8, 2015

The Making of a Mountie

The stuffed eggplant I made yesterday was great:
I browned one-third ground lamb to two-thirds ground beef in garlic and olive oil;
added capers, a few golden raisins + chunky tomato sauce;
and served it with a fresh mint & yogurt sauce, with plain rice on the side, since it was all so flavorful, and baby spinach salad with pomegranate arils.

Tip: roll the pomegranate on the counter first, to loosen its seeds---seemed to help pop them out. 

For dessert I made a maple cake, sweetened only with maple syrup (fluffed a bit with beaten egg whites, so not as heavy as it sounds).
It turned out well, but I didn't like it much:
a one-note flavor, and sort of sickly sweet. It's be better cut with orange peel or something. 

Or, what about pine? That'd be interesting.

An article on cooking with evergreens says,
"The tender needle shoots and tips of the white fir "taste like tangerine"...."

I made maple cake because I'm thinking about Canada, since I'm watching Due South... 
also because of their new p.m. 

I remember his parents--we south of the border are not the only ones going in for hereditary offices.

Of course, Canada still has the real thing, too: 
< Queen Elizabeth II, "Trooping the Colour", on her horse, Burmese, a gift from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. (AP Photo/Tim Graham Picture Library) 06/16/1979 

The stuffed animals I'm living with are so demanding: 
half of them are now clamoring for a Mountie coat. 
They're thinking of Due South's Fraser though, not the queen:

So, this morning at the coffee shop, I'm starting to make a Mountie coat for the Duluth bear;

I'm cutting up an old scarlet-red wool sweater with beaded cuffs--

--too pilled and stained for the Thrift Store to sell, so it was another 25¢ save-from-recycling.

Here we are--you can see I'm wearing a T-shirt! 

It's unseasonably warm outside (54ยบ), and here in the sunny window, it's almost hot.

4 comments:

Zhoen said...

The red against the black fur is stunning.

Butter tarts, that's Canadian. Oh... butter tarts.

Fresca said...

Fraser's fur? :)

I'd never heard of butter tarts; looked them up and they look good, except I don't like baked raisins (too soft).

Laura B said...

As the very lucky recipient of this delicious food described, I can say the Eggplant dish was sublime, and for me the Maple Cake was not TOO sweet, though it was oddly reminiscent of eating pancakes, which was confusing to my mind because it was not shaped like pancakes.
I feel a little guilty acknowledging that i was the very fortunate consumer of all this largesse, so I wish all the blog readers a lovely meal of their own someday...
Thank you Fresca!

Fresca said...

You are the ideal guest, Laura: wishing you happy birthday *all year long*!!!