You shouldn’t even exist and yet you do.  I followed your scent as you walked into my kitchen.  I only purchased you for the evening and wondered if there would be more evenings with you.  I felt like a lusty, horny predator when I slipped you out of your clothes.  My eyes drank your beauty from head to toe.  My tongue flickered out like a snake and sampled you.  My hands continued to slide over your luscious skin.  You didn’t mind at all. 

Ah… the bacon, ham, pineapple pizza w/ cheese.  I didn’t think I would like you but I will sleep with you again.  

This is a bit late…

Over the holidays, hotpot at a friend’s place

shrimp, crab, salmon & scallops

I think this is lamb or maybe it was pork?

mushrooms, veggies, tofu

Chinese  / Lunar New Year:

This is the temple that J and I go to every year.  It was jammed and very hot in there and I didn’t take a lot of pictures.  I couldn’t even move.

In the last couple of years, they had a wishing tree.  This year, they had the wishes hung up against the wall.

I can’t believe we’re about to head into March soon.  2013 seems to be moving so fast. 

I ate too much this past week.  I think I need a wheelbarrow to support my tummy when I walk. 

J cooked Xmas dinner for his family.  I got in just as J was dispatching the last of the lobsters and crabs.  He had a bandage on one of the fingers courtesy of a death grip from a crab.  I love these moments.  I put on my innocent face and asked “Did it hurt?”    

Here’s some of the pictures of the food.

The crab and lobsters dusted with corn starch before being dropped into the wok.

I was demoted to kitchen help and was asked to keep an eye on the tofu as they were being fried.

BBQ Pork

There were 2 heaping plates of lobsters and crabs stir fried in ginger and green onions.  It was very good.

After the tofu was fried, I drizzled some of the sauce that J made for it.  It’s a sweet / salty / tart sauce with shallots that
 complimented the fried tofu very well.  I took the extra sauce home.

There was also a dish with mushrooms, greens and sea cucumber.  I also took the extra sauce home too.

One of the relatives brought over sushi / sashimi. 

It was a long day for J and I gave him a backrub and leg massage afterwards.

For my family Xmas dinner, we went to a member of our extended family.  It was a potluck supper with everyone bringing in food.

My sister made butternut squash soup. 

Some of the candies that were scattered all over the house

The hostess made roast beef.  There were a lot of other dishes too but I was too busy eating.

Someone made cherry cheesecake for dessert.  I had a small slice and it was good but very filling.

What did I make?  Nothing, I was demoted to bringing wine.  Just as well, I didn’t have anytime this year to shop or cook.  Although we agreed not to exchange gifts, both my brother and sister got me presents.  What did I get them?  Nothing.  I guess I’ll have to find a way to make it up.  But I’m thankful to see dad smile at his gifts and for another opportunity to enjoy wonderful meals that were lovingly prepared.

Here’s some recent food pics.  I didn’t cook any of it though. 

Roast beef cooked by my brother and his wife, it was medium rare inside. 

Peking duck – yummy.

Lobster w/ ginger and green onions. 

Stir fried filets of fish

Four fruit pie from Dufflet

(strawberry, apple, rhubarb and blueberry)

Lemon Parfait cake also from Dufflet

When I have time, I prefer to make a nice home cooked meal.  Now you may think I eat like this every night but I don’t.  Sometimes it’s just peanut butter and jam or a quick meal of cereal. 

I can’t remember if this is salmon or trout.  But I simply put some pesto on it, threw it into the oven and served it on some veggies.  The veggies are zucchini and carrots stir fried with garlic, salt & pepper with a dash of soy sauce.  It’s simple and fast.

Roasted chicken thigh with asparagus and onions and carrots.  I placed the chicken on the onions and carrots.  The chicken simply had salt, pepper and some garlic underneath the skin. 

This is zucchini, carrots and shrimp stir fried.  I added a sauce that J had used for another dish (fried tofu) when I was over at his place for dinner.  I took home the extra sauce.  I used the sauce in this dish and it worked very nicely.  It was like a sweet soy sauce with shallots and other secret spices. 

This is the only thing I know how to bake.  It’s whole wheat banana walnut muffins.  I added a bit of sugar at the top.  It was still a bit dry.  I’m trying to find the optimum level between a moist muffin and a healthy muffing.  I don’t want to dump a lot of butter into it.

This was a lamb chop that I got from the farmer’s market a couple of weekends ago.  I simply marinated it in olive oil, garlic, onions and pepper overnight and panfried it.  I boiled the potatoes first until they were soft, crushed them a bit to open it up and roasted it with a bit of olive oil, salt, pepper and the onion that I used for marinating the lamb.  I added some tomatoes (same size as cherry tomatoes but I think they call these heritage).  It was big enough for two meals.  But I was hungry and ate it in one seating.  I went into a food comatose afterwards.

No more food porn… the well is dry.  I have to reload.

I was roasting some chicken legs the other day.  I usually pull the meat out and use the bones for stock.  I saved most of the meat for my dad and my sister.  This is what I usually do on Sundays.  I try to make one meal and/or one soup (usually Chinese soups) for them.  It saves both of us a bit of time during the weekday.  As I peeled the chicken skin off, I noticed how the skin was nicely browned.  I knew it would taste good.  It was just salt, pepper, garlic powder and a bit of paprika.  I drizzled some olive oil on it as well.  Although I let the chicken rest for about 10 minutes, it was still hot.  Almost all of the fat from the skin was already rendered. I was so tempted to just try one. I just have this weakness for crispy skin – e.g. the crunchy skin from a roast pork

But I’ve been trying to eat healthy foods lately.  I’m not always successful though.  But I knew if I ate the chicken skin it would just go to my waist.  So I use one of the oldest tricks in the book.  If I eat this, my dick will shrink.    That seemed to do the trick.  My male ego took control and said NO. I just took the skin, bones and used it to make chicken stock.  (I skim the oil off).  I worry though that at my next physical, my doctor will be thinking “I think Matt has been eating a lot of chicken skin.”  Of course she’s too polite to say anything to me.  It doesn’t help that her office is right beside a Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet. 

The evil chicken skin:

Sorry for the juvenile entry.  My brain isn’t functioning properly.

Food is always on my mind.  I can’t remember if I’ve posted these pictures before.

I got this Bahn Mi from Chinatown on my way home one day.  Once I got home, I heated it up in my toaster oven and wolfed it down.

One of my favorite dishes is poached chicken with ginger / green onions / salt / oil dip.  I add some green onions, onions, pepper to my poaching liquid.  I save the bones afterwards and reuse the poaching liquid to make stock.  If you aren’t planning to do this, you can always add more salt to the poaching liquid. 

Beef, string beans & onions stir fry. 

This is a simple meal.  I had left over bbq pork and some homemade chicken stock.  So I boiled up some noodles, added some frozen wontons (yes… frozen, packaged wontons from a supermarket), some napa cabbage and made a soup.  Garnish with green onions and sesame seed oil (and hot sauce if you prefer).  It’s better than instant noodles.

I sometimes make smoothies for breakfast or lunch.  This is a blue berry smoothie with soy milk, wheat germ, a bit of honey, a splash of vanilla and some plain low fat yogurt. 

I think that’s all the food pictures I have.  I guess I better get cooking. 

There are times when I buy take out food.  Recently I got some meatloaf from the Healthy Butcher.  It’s a local store that specialize in organic meats and food.  I don’t make meat loaf and I thought it would be good to have a change from my own cooking.  But the meatloaf looked a bit bare and dry.   So I thought it would be good to just dress it up a bit. It’s a very simple thing to quickly improve take out food.

Here’s what a slice of meatloaf looked like.  It has some cheese on the top.

I sliced up some onions and caramelized them over low heat.  As it cooks, you can add a bit of water or stock near the end if it looks like it’s getting too dry.  You just have to be patient with this.  Turning up the heat doesn’t really help. It’ll be sweet and soft when it caramelizes. 

Slice up some mushrooms.

I used a separate pan to saute the mushrooms w/ olive oil and a bit of garlic.  I also added salt, pepper and some paprika. 

I added a bit of garlic to the onions (optional).

Then threw in the mushrooms.

Take your favorite tomato sauce and pour it into the pot.

I added the meatloaf as well, covered the pot and & gently simmered them.  I uncovered it after a few minutes and waited till the meatloaf absorbed the sauce and the sauce was a bit thicker. 

Since I was hungry, I added some lots of pasta.

All you have to do afterwards is eat.  The meatloaf was nice and soft but still had a lot of texture and flavour.  I had lots of pasta and sauce leftover which I used for dinner the next day. 

I also cook this for my dad since it’s easier for him to eat soft foods.  The tomato sauce with onions adds some vegetable to his diet as well.  Sometimes I’ll finely dice carrots into tomato sauce.  When it cooks down, it’ll just blend into the sauce.  It’s just another way to increase his intake of vegetables. 

When you work long hours, it’s hard to find any enjoyment in cooking.  There are times when I just have bread or cereal for dinner.  But I’ve been trying to claw back a bit of time to make some decent meals.  I usually cook a big batch on Sunday, take some to my dad and leave some for myself.

Beef in black bean sauce with baby bak choy in rice noodles.  Ok – I used the sauce from a jar.  But I was in a rush.  I did add a bit of ginger, garlic and oyster sauce.  I eased up on the oyster sauce because I don’t want dad to have too much sodium in his diet.  I want him to have some veggies so I used the baby bak choy which is a bit more tender. 

I can’t remember if the soup is chicken stock or pork stock.  But either one works.  I simply used ground pork, added some preserved salted vegetables that have been finely diced.  I also chopped the ground pork a bit more to make it smoother.  Another trick is to simply grab the pork and slam it back into the bowl several times.  I use a big metal bowl for that.  Don’t over do it though otherwise you will have bits and pieces of meat all over.  The veggies were a bit of the baby bak choy and Chinese cabbage. 

I roasted a pair of chicken legs (with thighs) in the oven.  I added some potatoes and carrots (the carrots were too dry though).  I sliced some garlic very thinly and stuffed them under the skin.  I then coated the chicken with salt, pepper, oregano and olive oil.  I did the same for the veggies.  While they are cooking, you can clean up the kitchen.  I used the second chicken leg for dinner the next day thus saving me more cooking time.  I used organic chicken although you don’t have to.

I had some skinless chicken breast coated with olive oil, salt, pepper and oregano.  I sliced some potatoes thinly, coated them as well with salt, pepper and olive oil. It didn’t take long for them to cook and they didn’t dry out.  I found some red rice I had in the cupboard and used that. 

I can’t remember if I posted this one before.  It’s quinoa, I added some peas and carrots.  The shrimp was simply sauteed in olive oil with some garlic, salt and pepper. If you take the shrimp out the night before and defrost it in the fridge, it’ll be a lot faster to prepare.

I can’t remember if I posted this one before too.  This takes a bit of time to make.  I used the cook ham and some Chinese sausage.  I usually use BBQ pork instead. It took a bit of time to dice the ham.  I don’t use the skin (rind?).  But I save that to make soups.  I usually cook a large batch to last a couple of meals.

J came by one night and I ordered pizza (not spicy).  This was chicken, roasted red peppers, tomato sauce, cheese, onions, garlic, olive oil and oregano.  I had a nice cold beer to go with it.  I tripped over the garbage can to get my camera to take a picture.  J just rolled his eyes. 

But trust me, cooking during a weekday can still be a chore.  I just have to plan and organize things a bit better.  If I have time the night before, I’ll wash the veggies after doing the dishes (if I do the dishes at all).  

Enjoy your Monday.  

J and I were at the T&T Waterfront Night Market a few weeks ago.  I’m just getting around to posting some pictures.  The organizers were smart this year, they took the whole parking lot of the supermarket instead of half like last year.  This gave everyone lots of room to move around.  The only downside was the rain.  We got there just as the rain stopped.  But the skies opened up and we (along with hundreds of others) search for shelter in the supermarket.  Parking was across the street at a reasonable $5.  (it’s a pretty dark lot so take a flashlight if you don’t remember where you parked). 

The usual grilled food was there and they smelled awesome.

Snails, shrimps and lobster

This booth had very good jerky.  I’m pretty sure they are Bagahon.  Here’s a video I found of them <click here>.

Oyster Omelet

desserts

juices

From Banh Mi Boys.  This was their “display”.  I tried the pulled pork boa and it was very good.   

The smelly tofu booths – each of them had long lineups. 

Beaver tails! (It’s actually fried pastry with various toppings)

They even had cars including an old style CRX (last picture below). 

Overall, a well run feast which I’ll be returning to next year.  I hope the weather will cooperate.  When J dropped me off at my condo, he told me to shower before I sleep.  Apparently I smelled like stinky tofu (which explained why I didn’t even get a good night kiss).