Update, Florida '06, Food Porn
It is truly the Dog Days of Summer. We've finally had a break from the oppressive heat of the last week - mid 40s Celsius in temps, high 40s with the humidex. It stormed like Armegeddon last night. The rain came down so fast, the streets were flowing rivers and the light show was unreal. Huge bolts of forked lightening nearly down to the ground, right outside my window. A bit scary, but beautiful. It's been raining on/off all day and right now it's still humid but with a cool breeze and I hope it stays like this for a while.
The Party in Florida: Birthday Bash
I've been planning my birthday party for this fall in Florida with some of the Egypt Reunion Gang. So far, 3 in, 2 out, still to hear from one other. I wanted to do something special this year and I really need to get away. It's been ages since I've seen a beach and swam in an ocean... way too long. We're considering Siesta Key, which is off the coast of Sarasota in the Gulf of Mexico. It's a lovely place and I've been there several times. We may also go to The Keys - the famous bunch off the southern tip from Miami. One of The Gang has a family friend who has a house there and he's going to inquire if we can stay there. Apparently the guy is a mult-millionaire with a gigantic home and he's often away on business. Fingers crossed. It's funny because of the 2 who can't go, one was in The Keys in Feb. of this year and the other will be there in late December. I'm hopeful this is a good synchronicity. We're planning for late Oct. or early Nov.
Food Porn
Well, without pictures I guess it isn't really porn. Perhaps Food Literotica would be a better name ;-) I will get a digi cam some day. Some day soon.
As you may remember, I've had trouble with a bunch of other foods, in addition to gluten. It's well known, however, that because of the damage that gluten does to the intestines, it may seem that you have other food intolerances/allergies but once the damage is healed, you can eat those foods without problems. I regained my tolerance for rice and dairy and now I can add corn to the list! This opens up a lot of foods for me - corn tortillas, nachos, corn bread, etc. and more importantly a lot of the gluten-free-substitute foods which often have corn starch in their ingredient lists like breads, cakes and other baked goods. It's been fun trying things out. I've found a decent bread (although it needs to be toasted to be edible), great crackers, a melba-toast-like product called "Rusks" that is quite good, cookies and just today, butter tarts!
Last week I spent the dough and bought a good French double-cream brie to have with the Rusks and both were delicious. I'll have to remember to bring them with me when I go to parties. They'll be great for patés as well. pgw, I saw Brie de Meaux while I was in Whole Foods but it was a bit too dear for me! Twice as much as the hefty price I was already paying but I will try it sometime.
I also bought some cornmeal and fresh squid and made calamari. Oh my, so delish. Found the recipe at Epicurious, one of my favourite online recipe sites. I omitted the cherry peppers though. The dipping sauce just rocked. I will make this again but will try to find frozen, already cut squid. It didn't take a lot of preparation, but handling fish always grosses me out - the smell, the texture, bleh.
A few days ago, I marinated some tomatoes or Insalata Di Pomodori. One of the great things about Epicurious is that you can search for recipes by name or ingredients and find several to choose from or, as I usually do, make some hybrid of a few. And under the recipes, are comments added by people who have tried them. To this recipe I added dried basil (didn't have any fresh), black olives and parmigiano. I love this time of year when the tomatoes are dark red, thick and loaded with flavour. Today I bought some fresh basil and broke the bank with buffalo mozzarella to pair with the tomatoes as recommended in the comments.
What else? I marinated some lamb in olive oil, thyme and salt & pepper and grilled them. Just perfect. I've been adding thyme to everything lately. The smell alone is heavenly.
I also grabbed some organic strawberries that I'm currently enjoying. They're keeping me from polishing off the rest of the butter tarts although just barely.
The Party in Florida: Birthday Bash
I've been planning my birthday party for this fall in Florida with some of the Egypt Reunion Gang. So far, 3 in, 2 out, still to hear from one other. I wanted to do something special this year and I really need to get away. It's been ages since I've seen a beach and swam in an ocean... way too long. We're considering Siesta Key, which is off the coast of Sarasota in the Gulf of Mexico. It's a lovely place and I've been there several times. We may also go to The Keys - the famous bunch off the southern tip from Miami. One of The Gang has a family friend who has a house there and he's going to inquire if we can stay there. Apparently the guy is a mult-millionaire with a gigantic home and he's often away on business. Fingers crossed. It's funny because of the 2 who can't go, one was in The Keys in Feb. of this year and the other will be there in late December. I'm hopeful this is a good synchronicity. We're planning for late Oct. or early Nov.
Food Porn
Well, without pictures I guess it isn't really porn. Perhaps Food Literotica would be a better name ;-) I will get a digi cam some day. Some day soon.
As you may remember, I've had trouble with a bunch of other foods, in addition to gluten. It's well known, however, that because of the damage that gluten does to the intestines, it may seem that you have other food intolerances/allergies but once the damage is healed, you can eat those foods without problems. I regained my tolerance for rice and dairy and now I can add corn to the list! This opens up a lot of foods for me - corn tortillas, nachos, corn bread, etc. and more importantly a lot of the gluten-free-substitute foods which often have corn starch in their ingredient lists like breads, cakes and other baked goods. It's been fun trying things out. I've found a decent bread (although it needs to be toasted to be edible), great crackers, a melba-toast-like product called "Rusks" that is quite good, cookies and just today, butter tarts!
Last week I spent the dough and bought a good French double-cream brie to have with the Rusks and both were delicious. I'll have to remember to bring them with me when I go to parties. They'll be great for patés as well. pgw, I saw Brie de Meaux while I was in Whole Foods but it was a bit too dear for me! Twice as much as the hefty price I was already paying but I will try it sometime.
I also bought some cornmeal and fresh squid and made calamari. Oh my, so delish. Found the recipe at Epicurious, one of my favourite online recipe sites. I omitted the cherry peppers though. The dipping sauce just rocked. I will make this again but will try to find frozen, already cut squid. It didn't take a lot of preparation, but handling fish always grosses me out - the smell, the texture, bleh.
A few days ago, I marinated some tomatoes or Insalata Di Pomodori. One of the great things about Epicurious is that you can search for recipes by name or ingredients and find several to choose from or, as I usually do, make some hybrid of a few. And under the recipes, are comments added by people who have tried them. To this recipe I added dried basil (didn't have any fresh), black olives and parmigiano. I love this time of year when the tomatoes are dark red, thick and loaded with flavour. Today I bought some fresh basil and broke the bank with buffalo mozzarella to pair with the tomatoes as recommended in the comments.
What else? I marinated some lamb in olive oil, thyme and salt & pepper and grilled them. Just perfect. I've been adding thyme to everything lately. The smell alone is heavenly.
I also grabbed some organic strawberries that I'm currently enjoying. They're keeping me from polishing off the rest of the butter tarts although just barely.