In case you were wondering, Mr. Liam’s birthday at the cottage went well.

We swam, and ate delicious meaty pasta that had been simmering all day, and attempted to play Catan (although we ended up too carbohydrate drunk/tired to get the rules right).

This is his present. It’s a t-shirt. With a little drawing on it by me. It’s a squirrel. Wearing a sweater vest and a bowtie. Holding an acorn. With a Wodehousian name (Mr. S. Q. Nutterson Esq. to be precise).

He loved it, of course.

I think Mark Bittman lives inside of my brain, scribbling down all my ideas, codifying them and then turning them into concise New York times article.

How else could you explain this great little article about eating healthy by cutting back on meat consumption that pretty much surmises all of my feelings on food, and all of the tricks I use to eat healthier.

It’s obviously because he’s got some sort of portal into my soul, like in that Spike Jonze movie.

Well, anyways, I’m not sure how I missed it (it’s a few months old at this point) but I approve of it. Eating less meat has been wonderful for our health, and especially our pocket book (meat has always been expensive, but with food prices the way the are right now, it’s even more so). It’s kinda a common sense approach to things that in no way approaches a diet, but functions pretty effectively as one anyways.

I think my favorite two tips are to use meat as a condiment, and to pig out on the bad stuff every once in a while. By using meat as a condiment, we get the delicious hearty umame flavour of meat that we enjoy, without the high cost to our waistlines and pocket books. By giving in to our cravings when we feel them, we don’t feel like we’re being denied anything by choosing to eat healthier. So except for those few exceptional moments when we go for fast-food poutine, or bake a frozen mac and cheese (yeah, I’m kinda addicted to cheese, what of it?) we do it all the time, every day, without fail.

This has been a damn fine summer. Not too hectic, not too slow, not too hot, certainly not dry (which I don’t mind one bit – me and my garden like the rain).

I think one of the only bad things to have happened is the raccoons who eat my plants and poo on my deck. Annoying and unsanitary, but they’re pretty cute – especially when they shimmy down the drainpipes of the house next door.

By the way, you might have heard of the saga of Igor the bicycle stealer. He’s made his way to the front (web) page of the New York Times. He was a fixture in the old neighborhood but I – like pretty much every one else who’s ever visited Trinity Bellwoods – ain’t surprised.

His arrest makes me more excited to get a bike someday soon – hopefully by next summer. Now it might not get stolen!

Now, I’ve got to go – I’ve got to get ready to celebrate Liam’s birthday up at my cottage.

As per his request I’m cooking up a big pot of simmer-it-all-day, old-fashioned, Italian gravy (tomato sauce, for those without a Soprano’s Family Cookbook).

I can’t wait for him to open his present, go for a swim and play a game or two of Catan (he’s buying it with his birthday bonus).

Yep. Life ain’t too bad these days.

Everyones doing these new food and manga face memes over on LJ, so I figured I’d participate for once, since they’re actually kinda neat.

So to start off, here’s my cute little manga avatar:

Here’s the link to where you can get your own

And here’s that food meme:

1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.
4) Optional extra: Post a comment here at www.verygoodtaste.co.uk linking to your results.

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros (I don’t really get how you could have NOT eaten this – it’s sooooo yummy!)
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile (Seriously guys. One of the best meats I’ve ever had!)
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp (I may have had this, but I can’t remember for sure – this is what you get when you have gourmets for grandparents – a faulty memory of things you may or may not have tried when you were four)
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush (there should be a separate way to indicate things I make really good at home – this is one)
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras (Gah. I’m missing out on all the good stuff. Somebody rectify this!)
24. Rice and beans (One of my favourites, actually – all though I prefer to call it rice and peas)
25. Brawn, or head cheese (This grosses me out. I will not eat it. It’s almost more the gelatinous consistency than the actually head-meatiness though. And the fact that I once saw a whole pigs head encased in one once. *shudder*)
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper (not that bad if you stay away from the seeds)
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters (This is a recent one, thanks Vivian!)
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi (I’ve had lassi – just not salted)
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar (I love cognac – but I have never, nor will I ever, smoke)
37. Clotted cream tea (I fell in love with clotted cream in England)
38. Vodka jelly (Jello shots. We were all teenagers once.)
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat (One of my favourite childhood memories is delicious Jamaican curried goat at a friends house)
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu (Too much risk involved. Read too many horror stories. No thank you.)
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin (it is the main ingredient in Kaopectate guys. We’ve all probably had it).
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs (I feel like I have had this, and that it tasted like chicken – I can’t be sure though)
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette (I’ve had wild boar sausage, in natural casing – that’s intestines – which is very similar, so I’m going to count this one).
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini (I’m kinda sad about this one. I’ve had roe, of course, in sushi and tarmosolata but not caviar, and no blini – anybody know a good Russian place in Toronto?)
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill (It’s not so much the concept, as the possibility for nasty parasites. No thank you.)
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant. (I wish! – although I have been to a 5 diamond AAA restaurant – which is actually almost the same thing)
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa (I want to change my status on this one ASAP! – anyone know where to get it?)
94. Catfish (not that great. Kinda fishy)
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor (I’ve had Lobster, and I’ve had Thermidor, just not both at the same time)
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake (I would actually love to try this!)

I got 67 or 70/100 – depending on how many points you give me for things that I have only half tried. Yeah, that’s right. I rock.

Other than the four I crossed out, I’m planning on trying all of these, at least before I die. Probably (hopefully) way before then.

UPDATE! Liam reminded me that we had Lapsang Souchong at a Tibetan restaurant a couple years ago. I am up to 71. Liam says we probably also had sea urchin in sushi, which is possible. So it’s a tentative 72.

My first little garden harvest has come in, and I’ve found a couple of collections of recipes in the last couple of days that are going to be indispensable for cooking up my fresh and (very) local produce.

They are both by the New York Times’ Mark Bittman who first came to my attention when he proclaimed that the best chefs don’t need a fancy kitchen filled with pricey gadgets to cook great food – a thesis me and Alton Brown can totally get behind (I’ve actually given away bread makers, George Foreman grills and food processors – they just take up too much space).

The first is this handy compilation of 101 quick and easy picnic recipes. Each recipe is about 2 sentences long and they all sound either deliciously unconventional, or at least, painless in their simplicity.

I think I might just start making my way through them – they sound perfect for avoiding actually ‘cooking’ in this heat that’s finally decided to come and stay.

Then there’s the smaller collection of recipes attacthed to this review of a delightful sounding vegetarian restaurant in the south of France. Good, hearty veggie recipes are so hard to find, but these sound incredibly comforting and satisfying.

In particular, the recipe for swiss chard stuffed with risotto is going to get some use, I think, what with my bumper crop of beautiful, neon-tinged bright-lights chard.