Sheltered Girl Meets World

The Whalesbone Sustainable Oyster & Fish Supply

Walleye Sandwich

I hate bringing my lunch to work, I hate making my lunch at home, I hate lunch! The only thing that makes lunch good is when someone you like lunches with you or you go someplace where the lunch food is amazing. Well, I happened to find a place where the lunch food is amazing and I brought my Mom with me. Great gossipy conversation, good food – amazing lunch!

The place I’m speaking of is The Whalesbone Sustainable Oyster & Fish Supply – not just fish and oysters but a famous brown bag lunch available from 10am – 2pm Thursday through Saturday. The sandwiches cost anywhere between $6.00 and $8.00, on this occasion you had your choice of walleye, smoked salmon, oyster po’boy and seafood chowder but the menu changes depending on what’s available. The sandwiches come on a wonderful thickish white bread with caramelized, lettuce, mayo and with the inhouse smoked salmon, capers. The chowder has potato and assorted chunks of yummy fish swimming in a smooth, light cream base. You have the option of eating there or taking the sandwiches with you – they really do come in a brown bag. While you’re waiting check out the fridges full of fresh wonderful fish, you might come out of there with a sandwich and a slab of something for dinner.

I can see myself becoming a regular here. The staff is fun and friendly, the atmosphere relaxed, and the food is wonderful. If you haven’t been, go! Take a break from the brown bag lunch you brought and check theirs out.

The Whalesbone Sustainable Oyster & Fish Supply
504-A Kent Street @ Arlington

Ottawa Food Blogger Meetup

Making pate
Originally uploaded by klwatts

Last week I got the best e-mail ever, a little note inviting me to an Ottawa Food Blogger meet up hosted by the Chicken Farmers of Canada. This e-mail was way better than the previous Facebook funwall notification and the following PC MasterCard “your bill is due” e-mail, so I deleted those right away and RSVPed immediately. I then began my obsessive compulsive page refresh of the event to see who else had RSVPed – foodiePrints, Tracey Black of Epicuria, Whiskblog – big names in the Ottawa food blog world. After a few more refreshes more and more blogs were added and my excitement turned into anxiety as I checked into their blogs and discovered their knowledge and talent – here I was a girl who can’t pull off cupcakes being invited to an event with them!

Anxieties aside... The event, hosted at the Urban Element, was wonderful. I got to meet several people in person that I only knew online and was introduced to countless other bloggers. I’m sure my days and nights at the second job will be filled with local food blog reading, trying to catch up on all of the content that I’ve missed! The event staff were very nice, they provided a small menu that listed the hors d’oeurves and the names of the staff – it saved the detailed oriented (not me!) bloggers a lot of notebook writing. There was also an open discussion about food writing and sodium with Ron Eade and a chicken liver pate demo with Chef Candice Butler. You’d think that since this was an event sponsored by the Chicken Farmers of Canada that we might be somewhat overwhelmed with well, chicken. But we weren’t, in fact the chicken farmer and Board of Director’s member I spoke to, Erna Ference, really didn’t talk much about chicken. The topic of conversation really was blogging, writing and the state of food/cooking in society.

There was some wonderful food; my favourites included the sundried tomato strata with C’est Bon goat cheese, cod cakes and the pulled pork sandwich with smoked tomato jam. The demonstration was great; it was wonderful to see a Chef in action – something I rarely get to see unless it’s on the Food Network. After sampling the three varieties of pates that were available, I think I’m going to try and make it myself.

In summary, I had a blast – great food, great location and great people. I suffered at work the next morning, but I didn’t care. My only question is, when’s the next one? Do we have to wait till the Cow Farmers of Canada host a meet up?

Failure Is Always an Option

With me and cooking it's incredibly true, that's why it's always important to have a back up plan.  Ooop, dinner went up in a gigantic plume of smoke?  Mad dash to Shaan's Curry House to pick up a lamb curry and chicken curry to satisfy a hungry Dima and a frustrated Katy.  Cupcakes are mushy on the inside and crispy on the outside, we'll pick up a fruit tray on the way to the party - we shouldn't have that much sugar anyway.  No matter how much you try, how much you prepare yourself, when you try a recipe for the first time you have a high probability of making a mistake or two.  There is also a good chance you might scream, throw the bowl on the floor and run around the living room in frustration.

But maybe that's just me.

Today I tried the vanilla cupcake recipe from Thomas Keller's cookbook 'Ad Hoc' and failed miserably.  The cupcakes smelled like scrambled eggs, the buttercream looked like mush.. it was awful all around.  I was so incredibly upset, not because I had spent most of my morning trying to make these things, or because I wasted about $15.00 worth of ingredients, but because I wouldn't be able to bring the cupcakes into work and share with my co-workers.  I wanted them to experience that same joy I experienced when I bit into that red velvet cupcake.

I didn't throw the buttercream on the ground but I did throw it, hard, in the garbage bin and did the dance of frustration in my living room.  I guess I'll try again tomorrow, but maybe not with this recipe.

The Red Velvet Cupcake

Today during my break at work I bought a cupcake.  Not only was it a cupcake, but it was a gorgeous red velvet cupcake with white buttercream on top - it was beautiful.  This wonderful cupcake came in it's own box and since I didn't want to eat it when I bought it I carried it around with me at work.  It became somewhat of a joke - co-workers asking what was in the box, wanting to steal it when they found out what was in it and then speculating how upset I would be if I dropped the box.  Come to think of it though, if I had dropped the box I would have been incredibly upset!  It was my perfect, special indulgence - so special that it came in it's own box.

I didn't eat the cupcake at work, I was too uncomfortable - worried about interruptions that would prevent me from getting the correct buttercream to cake ratio that I  so desired.  I took the cupcake home and despite a near topple during the car ride home it was undamaged.  Once home, I sat the cupcake for a few short moments, changed into my infamous pink housecoat, turned on Jersey Shore and slouched in my loveseat - made comfortable by years of reality TV watching.  I opened the box, sighed, and enjoyed the moment.

Packed Lunch

I am trying to save money for a summer European getaway with Dima.  I'm pretty sure I need to save a gazillion dollars because I can't drive to Europe from Ottawa and I will most likely want to explore every tourist trap imaginable.  To save extra money I've cut out my two, sometimes three times daily double double, the Starbucks run at work and am working extra shifts at my second job.  But I think I need to do more if I really want to save money - I need to cut on food costs.  I need to stop buying filet mignon and start buying those cheap cuts, I also have to start eating the leftovers instead of letting them rot and turn different colours in the fridge.

Step one?  Create a meal plan I suppose.  Step two would be to buy some nice reusable containers to put those leftovers in.  I'll report back.

The Thousand Demons!

According to Wikipedia, sleep apnea is defined as being "a sleep disorder characterized by pauses in breathing during sleep."  It says a lot of other mumbo jumbo but what you need to know is that one of the common symptoms of obstructive sleep apnea is snoring and it is most likely to affect men.

My friends, Dima has fallen victim to sleep apnea.  When we went to bed the other night he fell asleep before me and the sleep apnea snoring was unleashed.  Now, I can take some snoring - it happens!  I'm pretty sure I snore, but when I do I'm sure it sounds like angels humming.  But Dima's snores, my God, it was like a thousand demons were trapped inside him and the only way to escape was to scream every time he opened his mouth.  Of course, after ten or fifteen minutes of this demon snoring I am still awake - staring at Dima mostly wondering if anything is going to leap out of his body and then he stopped breathing.  I wait.  And wait.  Then he kicked back to life with a snore that may have scared away the demons .. for a few moments anyway.

Thankfully for Dima he has me who immediately put on her pretend lab coat and stethoscope and logged into WebMD for a diagnosis.  It's either sleep apnea or he's possessed by a demon.  He doesn't believe me but he has given me permission to video tape the thousand demons so he can see it.  Very tempted to add some music to it and post it to YouTube...

Happy New Year

Welcome to 2010!

I know, I’m a bit late with that sentiment – but better late than never right?  I’ve been busy working, playing with my Wii and thinking about my New Year’s Resolution.  I didn’t want to make something serious like ‘lose weight’ or ‘get out of debt’ because those have been my resolutions for the last few years and really, what good have they done me?  Let’s do something fun, something I might actually work hard to achieve, something other people would be able to have fun with too. 

Here it is my resolution or rather my theme of 2010 – I will be more bold, daring and spontaneous.  I will not back down from a challenge or shy away from a recipe that has more than 5 ingredients.  I will do things I have never done before, even the things I’m afraid of doing.

Watch out world Ottawa!

Happy New Years!

I'm tired of going to work during the Christmas/New Year holiday season and pretending to do work.  I'm also tired of pretending that everyone around me is doing work as well.  There might be the occasional thing that happens where I'll have to do something but generally my productivity level is at 15%.  I'm really day dreaming about what video game I'll beat Dima at later on in the evening - trying to think of some clever trash talk which will aggravate him.

So why don't we mutually agree that we won't continue this work charadeanymore.  We will all take time off, enjoy the holiday with our friends and loved ones; play Wii till we smash the controller through the TV and then return to work refreshed and ready to solve the company's problems.

2009 Christmas Card Update

I received a total of four Christmas cards this year - a far cry from the hundreds upon hundreds that I actually want to receive.  As promised I scatter bombed my friends and work colleagues with Christmas cards hoping for the last minute card to come my way only to be denied.  Next year however, with some strategic Valentines, Easter and Halloween planning I hope to build enough social obligation to receive the Christmas card and I will settle for no less than 25.

Dreaded Christmas Cards

Christmas Cards

Christmas cards are one of the worst parts of Christmas. They let you know how popular other people are and how unpopular you may be. If you are one of the chosen few who arrive to work and have several cards waiting to be open in your inbox, well, congratulations, you're popular. If you're on the opposite end of the scale and you have no cards and you sit at your desk staring at the pile of cards your neighbor has, well, you're unpopular - like me.

This year I've started something that will hopefully put me on the road to becoming Christmas card popular. I went out, purchased a whack of cards and have addressed them to everyone. This way if they don't feel pressured by the social custom to give one back this year, perhaps they'll remember me for next year.

2010 - The year of being Christmas card popular!