Runny Eggs

As I sit here at my computer, writing this blog to put off doing more research about 20th century cameras used by professional photographers, I look at my lunch and realize that I really need to work on how to cook eggs.

I love diner style breakfasts with runny, sunny-side up eggs, loads of hash browns and ham slices. I try to redeem the lack of nutrients and vitamins by having Oj or extra fruit with it. Either way, I love cheap, greasy diner breakfasts.

Sadly, I have a hard time cooking them myself. I guess not having the flat, griddle surface that diners have might be my first problem, but I suck at cooking eggs in general. I can hard boil them, and that's about it. My scrambled eggs are a little weird and I can't do sunny-side up eggs without them exposing at one point or another. None the less, I will still try, I hope it's down to practice and a decent frying pan. Today's attempt was going fairly well until the last flip where the yolk started to rip, and moving it to the plate was the breaking point, as can be seem. Tasted really good though, and I was really happy with my potatoes and onions.

In other news, CONSERVATION ROAD TRIP!! Eight of us from my Master's program are going to the 10th Biannual Winter Meeting of the American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works next weekend! Not only have we lucked out that the conference is focusing on photography this year, it's happening in Ottawa and not in the States like previous years. We've all scrapped together our pennies for the conference fees, hotel and the rental cars, and we're hitting the road on Thursday night for the drive to Ottawa.

Professionals from all over North America are giving lectures and workshops about preservation issues in photography, and it's being hosted by the National Gallery of Canada, Library and Archives Canada and the Canadian Conservation Institute.

I am ready to thoroughly geek out for two days.

Also, thank you to our Chemistry professor, Chris for not being understanding about us missing class on Thursday to go to the conference, but for actually encouraging us to go since it's a great opportunity. Thank you Chris, you're amazing.

Back home and some eggs.

So New York was amazing!!

The bus rides sucked quite a bit, but the weather held out and we had a fabulous time.  A lot of food was had and I think I walked off everything I ate. The feet were slightly ruined by the time we came back to Toronto.

We hit all the regulars, 30 Rock, the MoMA, International Center of Photography, Times Square and we happened to be living in Upper Manhattan, so it worked out well I think. We found some great restaurants along the way, although bar food had to be avoided for the most part, there not being too much by way of Vegetarian for one of our traveling companions. However, we were able to placate ourselves with "Wine product" that was $6 at the local 24 hour convenience store. We enjoyed it just for the fun of not having to go to the LCBO during strict business hours.

We found a great sushi an seafood restaurant called Ichiumi on our last day and I wish this was in Toronto! It was like an awesome Mandarin, with MUCH better quality and variety. And Sushi up the wazoo, so much sushi. We didn't have breakfast that day, had this at about noon and we were set for the next 8 hours. Soooo good.

I didn't really get any photos of the food we ate over the weekend since I was kinda busy eating it. I'm not very good at this whole taking pictures for my blog, thing. My buddy Rob (who was also, incidentally, the gentleman who took pictures of the Christmas party, and hasn't posted them yet) took about 400 pictures over the weekend a lot of the food as well. So I've stolen one of his to show off this restaurant. His name is Rob, and he's on the Flickr. Check him out.

Dessert bits. Mango, blueberries and apple tarts, oh my! (Photo by Rob.)

This was one of the two photos of food I took while on the trip, or I guess technically in this case, what was left of the food. We had our first breakfast at a place called Metro Diner on Broadway. Each of us would have paid about $7 for a full plate of food and tea, but the waiter kind of cornered Rob into paying for the ladies.

Dude at diner: "So, are you going to buy these lovely ladies lunch then?"

Rob: "... I guess I am now!"

This is the other photo. Leo's Scrambled eggs with Nova lox and onions with fries at Artie's Deli. Good, greasy dinner for the 12 hour bus ride home.

I did fairly well money wise on the trip. We lucked out with the price of the trip to begin with, it was only $165 for the bus and hostel, and the Canadian dollar is doing phenomenally against the US dollar at the moment. We didn't do as much shopping as we had intended, but we still did the museums, gift shops and a trip to B&H, where I geeked out thoroughly and got a whole bunch of archival materials for my photo collections. Despite that, I'm trying to be frugal for the rest of the month to even things out a bit in the finances. So eggs, pasta and campbell's soup for the next full weeks. That can work though, just have to get creative. Hence, deviled eggs with dill and crab.

 

Back to class, so back to infrequent blog posts... sorry.

The revelers have hit the street, with pots and pans their throats completely knackered from another ringin' in... Let another New Year begin!

Happy New Year everyone!

Right, enough of that.
I don't really do resolutions, never really have. I have however, decided to stop eating pizza pizza as much as I do. I'm starting to notice how awful it is for me, and not just because it's unhealthy, I'm talking about the fact it's just awful. Fortunately, my roommate feels the same way so when we order take-out it's usually something slightly more edible, like sushi or Chinese. She has introduced me to a great sushi delivery place in our neighborhood, and I think we'll be ordering from them a lot, they are great.

I am, however, starting the new year with some major awesomeness, I'm going to New York this weekend! A few amazing people in my department at school decided to organize a trip just for us which included a financial subsidy from the school to help cover the costs. So, $165 covers the return bus trip and 3 nights stay at a hostel in downtown New York. Yep.

I've got a few plans for myself and the group of friends that I'm going with, assuming we all survive the 12 hour bus ride to get there, the only bad part about the trip. For one, I hope that this amazingness is still up on Wall street. It's some pretty cool vandalism if you ask me.

Obviously we'll be hitting up some galleries, and the Met and MoMA seem to be the top choices. Also, since there are three girls in our group, we've planned to do a fair bit of shopping throughout the weekend, and I'm definitely checking out the Antiques Garage in Hell's Kitchen. I have had to make a promise that I won't buy any furniture or carved, wooden bears. Why carved wooden bears you ask? My roommate isn't too fond of Fred, one of my only souvenirs from my working days in Niagara Falls. She was slightly terrified that I'd put it in the living room when I brought him home. I admit that this photo of him is a little scary... but he is quite sweet and innocent as he guards my closet.

He doesn't look so bad in this photo.

Anyway, I can't technically buy furniture since I am relying on a coach bus for my transportation to and from New York. We're also limited to one carry-on and one stored piece of luggage. It was never specified how big that stored luggage could or couldn't be, so I imagine a few people may be taking advantage of some of the shopping opportunities, and the Canadian dollar being above par with the US dollar at the moment.

I will post some of the food, shopping and art excursions when I get back, I've lucked out in the sense that all of us are huge foodies and are going to enjoy ourselves while we're in New York. See you next week!

By the way, my post title is from the wonderful band, Spirit of the West and their great New Year's song, Another Happy New Year. Canadian rock folk at its best.

Happy New Year everyone!!!

I'm off to do some pre-drinking before we go clubbing. Be safe tonight everybody, and best of luck for the new year!

Canadian Cooking for the win!

I used to work at the front desk of a travel hostel in a past life. Every now and again I'd have people who would ask me what Canadian food was, and once you got beyond Timbits, Poutine and Maple syrup, most people couldn't name anything. In actual fact, Canada is a buffet of culinary amazingness that never ceases to surprise me. For one thing, we have amazing fusion foods since we're so multicultural. Second, each region and province has their own traditions and staple ingredients that make a Sunday night's dinner all the more unique.
I think it's in my blood that I love coastal food. I was born in Vancouver in British Columbia to a pair of food-loving parents that took advantage of the local fare as much as possible where ever we've lived. I was lucky enough to do some traveling in Canada while I was working at the hostel and did a week long tour of the Maritimes. I cheaped out on a lot the things involved in the trip, I got the flight, tour and accommodations on sale so I could treat myself to the wonderful cuisine of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland. I also lucked out and did my trip just as lobster and crab season crossed over each other. It was amazing.

It's been a few years since that trip, and I do miss the food a lot. Fortunately, I was in a Value Village a few months back and may have found the answer to my problem: "Nova Scotia Cooking" by Heather Mackenzie and Charles Lief. I finally got around to trying one of the recipes today now that I have a break from school. Herbed Biscuits! I think, if there are any left, they'll be great with tomorrow's planned dinner. 

Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp granulated sugar
1/8 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp dried rosemary
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp dried sage
1/4 cup softened butter
1 cup milk
Full recipe makes 18, half recipe makes about 10.

In mixing bowl, combine flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Stir in herbs and spices.
Add butter and cut into flour mixture with a fork until it resembles a coarse crumb.
Add milk and stir gently, taking care to not overmix as biscuits will be tough,
Turn dough out onto a floured board and quickly knead 5 or 6 times. Roll out dough to 1/2 inch (1 cm) thick an use a floured biscuit cutter or glass to cut out biscuits.
Place on an ungreased baking pan and bake in preheated 400 f (200C) over for 15-17 minutes (My oven seems to be super strong, ten minutes was more than enough).

Time for a makeover!

Makeover!
I figured it was about time to bite the bullet and attempt to personalize the bog a wee bit. I'm not really tech oriented, so I figured this would take a fair amount of swearing to get right. I was right too. Half an hour and many tweaked filed later, I have a new picture to represent the blog! It's also another creative use for Christmas leftovers, since the picture is of a toasted turkey, panko broccoli and smoked Gruyere sandwich. Nice topper too. 

This is the slightly late picture of how I wrapped my family's presents this year. It kind of happened by accident to, I was watching a DVD of a TV program and decided to be slightly productive while I was watching it. What I didn't realize while I was cutting dozens of paper floraly bits was that the TV program was 5, 1 hour sections. I spent a lot of time in front of the television that night..

The presents look awesome though! This one is a CD for my Dad. Yay for double sided wrapping paper from Ikea!