Meat Cakes

It was my pal Dave's birthday. Dave is fellow foodie and I asked him if he wanted a special cake for his birthday and he threw me for a bit of a loop when he told me that he isn't a cake fan. He's not a huge sweets guy and prefers savoury flavours hands down. So, I did what any good friend would do, I decided that I would make Dave meat cupcakes for his birthday.
I hyped up them up quite a bit- so I was feeling some pressure to knock it out of the park. After some research, I found an interesting recipe online that fit my concept, took a shopping trip to get all of the supplies, and went for it.


Ingredients I used:
-1 medium white onion chopped pretty fine
-1 cup oats
-2 eggs, beaten
-1 can of V8 juice
-1/4 cup pitted prunes, finely chopped
-2 tbsp prepared horseradish sauce
-1 and 1/2 pounds lean ground beef
-1/2 pound ground pork
-3 tbsp ketchup
-1 tsp dry mustard
-6 large yellow potatoes, peeled and cut in quarters
-3 tbsp butter
-1/2 cup 1% milk
-3 tbsp light cream cheese
-salt to taste
-bacon bits


Makin' Meat Cakes:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a large bowl, combine onion, oats, eggs, tomato juice, prunes, horseradish sauce, salt, dry mustard and mix well.

Add the beef and pork and mix until just combined. Use your hands and really get in there!
Scoop the meat mixture into the cupcake tin, pack the meat in there and level off, then add a rounded scoop of meat on top to create a rounded "cupcake-like" top (these cupcakes won't rise).

The recipe said to bake for 30-35 minute but I think that would've made the party-goers pretty sick because they still looked pretty pink at that point. I ended up turning down the heat slightly (300 F) and baking them for just over an hour.
Take out and let these meaty cakes cool.


Makin' Mashed Potato Icing:
Boil the potatoes in salted water for about 25 minutes, until tender, drain completely let cool and then move to a mashing bowl and start mashing with a hand masher. In a small pot, heat up butter and milk until butter is melted completely and milk is warm. Pour in the milk/butter mixture slowly and work in using a hand blender to whip potatoes into a creamy texture. Add cream cheese and mix with hand blender. Add salt to taste and stir in gradually.

When meat cakes have cooled- spread a large dollop of mashed potato icing on each cupcake and top with bacon bits for garnish.
The recipe I used called for piping the mashed potatoes like regular icing using a plastic bag with the tip cut off. I tried this and the bag pretty much busted open and covered my kitchen table and myself with creamy mashed potatoes. I wouldn't recommend that technique unless you are experienced and have the proper piping gear. I wish I could've taken photos of the mess but I didn't want to ruin my iphone with mashed potato covered hands.

These were fun and pretty simple to make. Next time, I would sub V8 juice for tomato paste (I think the mixture was a bit too liquidy and I might sub chopped olives or jalepenos in for the prunes. Also, I had to serve these cold at the track, and they were pretty tasty, but it you have access to an oven, I would recommend toasting these puppies up a little bit before serving to make them even better and forming a slightly crispy potato crust on top. YUM!

A Tasty Roadtrip Brunch at Calico Cupboard

Another trip to the Sea Tac airport means another opportunity for some good cross-border eats. Every time I drive the I-5, I always find myself wanting to stop in the quaint historical, riverfront town of Mount Vernon, home of the Annual Skagit Valley Tulip Festival. After my last trip, I googled the town and I found some information about the tulip festival, but more importantly, some tasty sounding restaurants. I pulled into Mount Vernon around noon, drove around for about 15 min in an attempt to find some tulips, but my grumbling belly encouraged me to give up and head to the Calico Cupboard Cafe and Bakery for some grub.

The Calico Cupboard is actually located in a heritage building that used to be grainery, and is now an antique mall.

The first thing you notice when you walk in is their giant bakery counter filled with an huge assortment of massive, drool-worthy cookies, pies, pastries, and desserts.

I was seated right away and even though they were quite full and everyone was moving with some hustle and bustle, their was a calm, sociable, vibe throughout. It seemed to be full of regulars, couples (young and old), families, co-workers....a real mixed crowd for a Wednesday lunch.

The decor has an antique theme (no big surprise here) and feels cozy yet spacious due to an open floor plan with high ceilings. Historical photos of the town's early years cover the walls and phrases like "Enjoy life...it's delicious" and "A balanced diet is a cookie in each hand" are painted on the walls.

My table with a view of the antique shop

Their menu is quite large and let me tell you, between the regular menu and their daily specials, it was tough to decide on what to order because everything sounds amazing. Also, I kept watching as servers delivered delicious looking dishes to all the surrounding tables. So confused, so hungry.
I was tempted by Calico Clam Chowder, Vegetarian Chili in Bread Bowl and all of their amazing sounding sandwiches.
In particular:

WASHINGTON TURKEY ON GRILLED FRENCH BREAD ($10.99)

Fresh roasted turkey grilled with Havarti cheese, cream cheese, cranberries, Dijon mustard and red onion.
GRILLED ROAST BEEF BARBIE ON SOURDOUGH ($10.29)
Grilled lean, thinly-sliced beef, grilled onions, Swiss cheese, BBQ sauce, horseradish and mayo.
PORTABELLA MUSHROOM ON GRILLED FOCACCIA ($11.79)
A giant portabella mushroom marinated and grilled. Topped with melted provalone cheese, grilled red pepper, lettuce, tomato, red onion and a spicy chipotle mayo.
MONTE CALICO ON COUNTY FAIR EGG BREAD ($11.59)
Triple deck of turkey, ham, jack cheese, tomato, Dijon mustard, light mayo and herbs dipped in egg batter and grilled in butter.

I asked my friendly server for some guidance and she recommended pretty much all of the delicious sounding sandwiches and a specialty hash from their all day Breakfast menu. I've been eating a lot of sandwiches out lately, so I decided to go a different direction and get the hash. It arrived a short 10 minutes later and I was pretty happy with the large bowl of country-breakfast-feel-good-eats that was placed in front of me.

LINDA'S BROTHER-IN-LAW HASH ($10.99)
A load of country style potatoes, farm fresh eggs scrambled with smokey ham, spinach, tomato, mushrooms, garlic, feta and parmesan cheese.

It was a large portion but I polished this off. Everything was well cooked (I typically prefer my hash browns crispier, but the softer chunkier potatoes worked well with the other elements) and the flavours all worked well together. The feta and parmesan cheese was salty and plentiful. The ham was crispy, smoky, and also plentiful. The spinach, tomato, mushrooms, parsley added bursts of fresh flavours. An added bonus was the nice assortment of hot sauces at the table which I used liberally.

My food and overall experience at the Calico Cupboard Cafe and Bakery left me with a big smile on my face and a full belly as I hit the I-5 back to Vancouver. Thumbs up!

Royal Wedding Tea Party Photos

I didn't get up in the middle of the night last Friday to watch the highly anticipated nuptials of Great Britain's Prince William and Kate Middleton. But I did attend a Royal Wedding Tea Party later that evening where we watched a PVR recording of the ceremony and chowed down on british/royal/tea party themed eats. Loved the fashion, loved the afterparty in Hyde Park, loved the hot siblings (hello Harry and Pippa), and all the gossip and fun facts. But like many of these events, I was actually more interested in the food than the ceremony....

Getting in the spirit with tiaras and stiff upper lips.

Custom sugar cookies for the occasion.

Ready to toast the newlyweds.

Tiara and scones. Together at last.

Delicious scones baked in an elementary school staff kitchen.

Royal Fruit Skewers

Crustless Tea Sandwiches (Cucumber and Cream Cheese/ Eggplant and Spinach)

English Trifle. Heavenly layers of Strawberries, Ladyfingers, Shortbread, Whipped Cream and Lemon Curd. 

Photos are courtesy of the immensely talented Jenna Haylock...not only does she take gorgeous photos but she makes a mouth-watering English Trifle.

Play-off Hockey with Schnitzel, Pretzels, and Steins

Is your favourite Canuck Christian Ehrhoff? Do you like Schnitzel? Want a guaranteed seat to watch the game? Then you should probably watch some play-off hockey at the Vancouver Alpen Club.

They have a 17" HD projection screen, tonnes of seating, and a $15 special for Schnitzel, potatoes, salad, and a stein of beer.

I watched game 2 of the Nashville series at the Vancouver Alpen Club and we were pretty much the only people there. At first it was pretty disappointing but we ended up having a pretty fun night, despite the loss in double overtime.

Quite a few of my fellow Canucks fans got the special and really enjoyed the schnitzel. I had a bite and it was super crispy and flavourful. The portion was large and a few people ended up with supersize schnitzel. One diner commented that the schnitzel would've benefitted from some creamy sauce.

We also ordered a round of pretzels ($3 each) with savoury, slightly spicy dijon mustard. The Alpen Club gets their pretzels from a local german bakery on commercial drive near Venables (Andy's Bakery- apparantly they also make the best German rye bread in the city). Andy knows what he is doing with pretzels. These bad boys are chewy, yet soft, with nice giant chunks of salt.

Again, a disappointing loss but a fun night out with friends, some good eats, and delicious german beer.

Seattle's Salumi Sandwiches

Seattle keeps rocking my world with its amazing sandwiches. On my last trip I tried two mind-blowing sandwiches - a blackened salmon sandwich at the Market Grill and a Post Alley Favourite at the Pear Deli.

This week I drove a colleague to the Sea Tac airport. We left at 7am to try and beat traffic/border lines so it was early, the weather was kind of crappy, but the day started to shape up nicely shortly after we crossed the border and he said, "You know, I don't need to be at the airport until around 1pm...I know you are a foodie. Have you heard of Salumi?"

The evening before, I'd done some research on possible lunch destinations around Seattle, and Salumi - a small storefront deli owned and operated by Mario Batali's family, who make and sell salami, cured meats, sandwiches and weekly specials of soups and pastas - was at the top of my list. I've never been able to hit it since I've only ever been to Seattle on weekends (it's open Tuesday-Friday 11am-4pm). As a sandwich enthusiast, I was eager to try their famous Porchetta sandwich and their in-house cured meat and salamis.

We drove around Pioneer Square trying to find it and finally saw the signature Salumi pig sign and a tell-tale lineup starting to snake out the front doors and around the corner. There are very few times I get excited to see a lineup, but when it's 11:30am and there's already a queue for food...you know it's gotta be good!

The lineup in this narrow deli/restaurant was long, but moved quickly thanks to four highly efficient sandwich gurus behind the counter. These ladies were MACHINES...pleasantly barking out sandwich orders and working as a team, slicing, scooping, topping, wrapping. They were quick. I also didn't mind the lineup because it gave me plenty of time to drool over the menu and watch the assembly process for a variety of sandwiches (mmm...meatball and prosciutto-wrapped chicken breast). They do have vegetarian options, but hot damn, this place is really all about MEAT!

This was Tim's second visit and he was dead set on getting a Porchetta. I'd also heard that this was the best sandwich they make, so I convinced him to split it with me and order one of their other sandwiches to get a bit of a variety.

Tim was kind enough to order and pick up the tab for the two sandwiches, and since the three medium-sized tables in the very back for communal sandwich scarfing were full, we headed outside, found a bus stop area with make-shift stools/seating and began scarfing our sandwiches.

The Porcetta

"Salumi's tribute to the pig. Pork butter-flied and stuffed with our own sausage meat and spices ($9)."

This sandwich is stuffed with nice, big chunks of hearty porchetta (boneless pork roast). It's tender, juicy, yet fairly lean (no greasy, fatty film whatsoever!). The meat is slow cooked to drool-worthy perfection, fully absorbing the wonderful flavours of the the ingredients it's cooked with (onions, carrots, garlic, whole fennel seeds, green pepper).

The best bites of this epic sandwich experience were the sections of the sandwich when the juices from the meat had fully soaked the bread, so it was almost fully infused with slow-roasted pork juice, but amazingly the structure of the sandwich remained stable thanks to the thick crusty baguette. I couldn't taste any condiments on this sandwich and it really didn't need any. This is a big statement for me because I'm obsessed with mustard, spreads, salsas and hot sauces.

The Coppa

"Delicious, marbled pork shoulder cured in sugar and salt and then spiced with cayenne and chili peppers." ($8.75, with cheese add $1.50).

Our other sandwich was one of their cold sandwich offerings that was highlighted on the feature board. This sandwich was awesome, but very different from the porchetta. It was a bit more complex, with ingredients that worked with one another to tie all of the flavours and textures together.

The meat was generous, thinly sliced and really delicious: buttery, savoury, salty, flavourful and slightly spicy. I was expecting spicier, but the subtle flavour worked well, especially with all of the other ingredients. There were slightly cooked onions that added a slight crunch and subtle flavour kick and sliced roasted green peppers that also provided some subtle heat. Also in the mix were finely chopped herbs (parsley and cilantro?) that added a burst of fresh flavour. Tim chose to add provolone, and it was a fantastic choice: soft, gooey and it almost glued the ingredients together. The bread on this was a squishy flour-dusted ciabatta/portugese bun hybrid that worked well with this thinner, multi-layered sandwich.

All-in-all another amazingly awesome Seattle sandwich experience!