montreal poutine reviews

OK… most people around the world don’t know what poutine is, but that is what us Quebecois are here for, poutine is a classic Quebecois  meal, it contains french fries, cheese curds, and gravy, it may not seem very appetizing but believe me. it is good, and i will explain why it’s good, first off all, who doesn’t like french fries, right? and plus cheese,  i mean cheese, there is just nothing to say about it other than it goes awesomely with anything (but most deserts) and then there is the gravy, the gravy melts the curds over the french fries and once its all ready its like gooey heaven, but anyway, my dad and i decided that we are going to go around Montreal and try the poutines, what we decided is that when we eat the poutines we rate them…from the quality of the cheese and gravy, to if the french fries were frozen or not, after we rate the from 1-30, ten for each ingredient, a lot of the places that sell poutine are at restaurants called “la belle province” which means  “pretty province”. so that was the introduction, now you know all about what and where poutine is. the review was:

• fries 7.5/10   good but not crunchy enough on the out side,

• cheese curds 7.5/10      nice and stringy but not “squeaky” enough, thats how you tell if its good or not

• gravy 8.5/10      very good, not to watery, not to thick, just right, but not the best i’ve ever had

overall review: 23.5/30

good poutine, im am satisfied,  when we walked out we saw that the fries were hand cut, not frozen so that boosted their mark.

address: corner of rue marquette and mont royal

Ernestos pizza parlor review

When I was on vacation we went to Boston, Massachusetts, we walked around  and saw the famous historical buildings and went to museums and Harvard and all that cool stuff, but when we went out to dinner we went to Ernestos pizza. it was…amazing, it was so small but very good, the pizza we got (that the owner recommended) was the pepperoni with ricotta cheese, we also got the special which is peperoni, peppers, onions, olives, mushrooms & mozzarella, they were both really, really good. The cheese on the ricotta and pepperoni tasted like cheese but didn’t feel like cheese, but in a good way it crumbled in your mouth with a cheesy taste, very good, recommended by an 11 year old boy who loves to cook and eat, but I’m not fat.

grilling with peaches

Hello people of the internet, i have been on vacation for about 1 and a half weeks so i have to do some catching up to do. Anyway,  about a week ago my dad was flipping through the ” bon appetit” magazine and he found  a recipe for grilled chicken and peaches, it was pretty complicated and we didn’t have all the ingredients, so we decided to use the idea and make it our own. so first he took some peaches and cut them into very small pieces then dice some shallots and saute them. he threw the peaches into a pot of boiling water with some honey and balsamic, boil until peaches are soft. then he put everything (including the shallots) into a blender and blended everything up. that is the sauce for the chicken we are going to grill now. he marinated the chicken in cumin, oil and vinegar. he put that on the grill with the sauce and grilled some peach wedges and they were done. by the way the peaches are amazing when grilled lightly with the grill marks. sooooooooooooooo good.

cream puffs with lemon-cream filling, 10 servings

lemon cream filling:

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
• 1 1/2 teaspoons grated lemon peel
• pinch of salt
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, diced
• 1 cup chilled heavy whipped cream

cream puffs:

• 3/4 cups water
• 3/4 cups whole milk
• 1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• 1 1/2 cups sifted all purpose flour (sifted then measured)
• 6 large eggs

lemon cream filling

combine sugar, egg, lemon juice,lemon peel, and pinch of salt in small heavy saucepan.whisk to blend. Add butter. stir constantly over medium low heat until curd is hot a thick enough to coat spoon (do not boil), 4-5 minutes. Transfer lemon curd to small bowl. press plastic wrap on surface; chill until cold and slightly firm, at least 2 hours.

cream puffs

Position 1 rack in top third and 1 rack on in bottom third of oven and preheat to 450 F. Line  2 large rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper. Bring first 4 ingredients to boil in heavy large saucepan over medium heat, stirring with wooden spoon until butter melts. Add flour all at once and stir vigorously until dough forms and pulls away from sides of pan. Continue to stir until film forms on pan bottom, 1-2 minutes longer. Transfer dough to large bowl. cool 5 minutes, stirring ocasionally. add 1 egg, still using wooden spoon, beat until blended. add remaining 5 eggs, one at a time, beating until blended for each of them, then beat until dough is smooth and shiny, 2-3 minutes. working in batches, transfer dough to pastry bag fitted with 1/2-inch mounds spaced about  inches apart, onto prepared baking sheet, using wet fingers, smooth mound tops. bake for 15 minutes. reverse baking sheets. reduce oven temperature to 350. continue baking until puffs are dry, firm and golden brown, 30-35 minutes longer, cool on baking sheet.

asembly

Cut each puff  horizontally in half; pull out any soft dough.fill puff with one tablespoon of cream filling, place top half on top and enjoy.

nice fluffy pancakes

yesterday I made pancakes and I was looking up fluffy pancakes on the internet. it led me to a site called allrecipes.com, anyway we saw one recipe  that got 5 stars from 31,000 people! so obviously I clicked it, the recipe was:

• 1-1/2 cups milk
• 1/4 cup white vinegar
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 egg
• 1/4 cup butter, melted

yeah i know i asked the same question, “vinegar in pancakes?” well yeah we tried it out and they work really well. anyway,basically, mix milk and vinegar   let it sit for 5 minutes, when the milk mixture is sitting mix the rest of the ingredients together.put the eggs and butter in the milk mixture and stir it all up so the butter isn’t in one big clump, once that is done mix the dry ingredients and mix until nice and smooth. put pan on the stove at around 8, or medium hot, put a little butter and make sure it gets stick free. then place pancake batter on and flip when ready and etc. voila! they are done. serve them with some good canadian maple syrup and enjoy.

lavender cookies?

the other day I was watching the food network on TV. the show was called “french cooking at home” then my dad calls and says to get some ideas from the food channel that we can make at home. so i am watching, its kinda boring and then she says she is going to make lavender cookies, and i thought “lavender?”  but then she explained that lavender can be very good in cookies and then she showed us how to make them so i quickly scribbled down what she said. the recipe is:

• 1-1/4 cups butter
• 1 cup white sugar
• 2 egg
• 2 tablespoons lavender flowers
• 3 cups all-purpose flour

it is really simple. first preheat the oven to 350 F, then mix it all together ( i used my hands because its so much easier) then roll it up and  place it on a cookie sheet, flatten, and bake for 15-20 minutes

they are sooooooo good. they are like shortbread cookies, so nice and flaky and buttery with a hint of nice perfumy lavender, unfortunately i don’t have any pictures because we ate them all be fore i got my account on this blog website.

Barbeque in laval

Today I biked to Laval from my dads apartment,  when we got there it looked like the house was a cabin in the woods , but it was right on the street next to a depanneur (corner store). Our friend, Alex, was on his two piece barbecue,  the small piece on the left was a the actual heat and the wood chucks for the smoke and the other piece in the middle for the meat. he was smoking pork. one big pork shoulder and other little cutlets. we sat down and talked and he brought out his homemade beer for the older people. when the little cutlets were done he brought them over, we ate them and they were delicious! we had tomato salad and bean salad and we really couldn’t stop eating. the pork was smoked with hickory and wild cherry wood chucks. I really wish we didn’t have to leave.