The Modern Betty Crocker

I have recently  become fascinated with home-cooked recipes from the 1970's that were designed to make cooking easier for the woman of the house. Canned or pre-prepared products were frequently listed in recipes, allowing many meals to take no longer than 30 minutes! Compared to foodie culture today it's nearly opposite, because like myself, many home cooks desire to make everything from scratch.

This project was inspired by those cheesy, very un-gourmet style recipes. Unlike the ones I read to get here, each component is made from scratch, and vintage labels were printed then attached to modern-day jars. The filters on these photo are there to look like they came straight out of a vintage magazine. I must salut Loretta Lynn and her cookbook, You're Cookin' It Country, for her insanely quirky recipes!

Appetizer

Main

Dessert

See how it's all made: http://humbledpie.blogspot.ca

Foodie Field Trip: Lobster Liquid Dreams

In a recent video on the Travel Channel, Toronto chef Susur Lee and host Andrew Zimmern visited Fishman Lobster Clubhouse Restaurant in Markham, and ordered a truly epic meal. So, my friend and chef Joe Friday gathered a bunch of his food-loving friends, and we took a few cars up to eat the nine course meal.

The circular restaurant was lined with lobster tanks like this, containing gigantic lobsters.

Each table is given plastic gloves to enable clean hand-to-face eating. You'd never see this at any North American style restaurant, but why not? It makes so much sense...

Alex is really happy, he's about to eat a mountain of lobster!!

Here's Steven holding one of the lobsters they were about to kill, fry and stack in order for this malicious and gluttonous night to happen. Steven was also our food guide for the night, as he was the only one who spoke fluent Cantonese.

Manager and part-owner (I forget his name!) served us for the night. He left the IT company he worked for in China to help his family run the restaurant.

Cheers! It was Marie's (second from the left) birthday last week!

First course: Watercress, carrot and pork bone soup. Looks boring but it was like drinking meat. Simple delights!

Monstrous, spicy breaded oysters. Delicious.

Clam soup. The broth was clear as water yet so flavourful. Could have easily eaten the whole bowl if there weren't six other people salivating over it.

Whole white fish covered in slivered scallions. The wine glass of sauce to the right was eventually poured over the fish.

Here comes the lobsters! Took two people to carry it!

Here we have two giant lobsters. Butchered, breaded, fried, stacked then covered with fried fish confetti and shredded lettuce. WHAT!?

Another pic of us. We are overthrown with joy and excitement. We were probably the only table in the restaurant that were in thorough awe. Easily the most annoying tourists.

Here's a shot from the other side.

This is some of the smaller lobster pieces not included in the mound. These were baked in egg whites.

Steven reaches for more! See how he wears the gloves? Genius!

Next course was crab. It was good but didn't stand out nearly as much as the lobster.

The empty platter.

There were some other courses I didn't include such as dessert and sauteed greens. However the one other thing that blew our minds was this baby shark in one of the fish tanks!

Inspiration from a tomato on toast

A few years ago at my grandpas house I saw this photo sitting in a frame holder on a table. He had grown these massive tomatoes and gifted them to his neighbour, who, amazed by their size, sliced and plopped one on a piece of toast, photographed it, then plaque'd it. Drawn to such an odd photo, I asked my grandpa if I could have it, he laughed and undoubtedly said sure. I don't think he understood what he was giving up!

At first glance the photo comes across as odd and funny, which is partly why I love it so much. But it holds so much more meaning than that. It captures the appreciation for the small, odd things in life, that old-fashioned hospitality between two neighbours where what's shared is reciprocated, its the fruit of my grandpas labour and its the unconscious decision to take this photo that represents looking inside and outside of the box at the same time.

To do something with my thoughts, I took a series of photos of some twisted, all- American classic dishes served on a slice of WonderBread, accompanied by some simple recipes I used to make them.

 An ode to the original.

Cashew butter and fried plantains with maple syrup. 

Cashew butter:

2 cups raw cashews 1/8 tsp cinnamon 1/8 tsp vanilla powder 2 tsp maple syrup 1/2 tsp salt 4 tsp veg oil 2 tsp salted butter

 "Bread and butter pickles" Breaded and fried pickles with anchovy butter.

Anchovy butter:

2 tbsp butter 3 capers 1 anchovy fillet 1 squeeze of lemon

Breadcrumbs:

1/2 cup fine bread crumbs 1/8 cup minced dill 1/3 tsp yellow mustard powder 1/8 tsp pepper 1/4 tsp salt

 Smoked pork chop and braised pear.

Braised pear:
water, butter, maple syrup, cinnamon, salt

 Double smoked bacon and an egg sunny-side.

 "Ice cream sandwich" Cream cheese and browned butter.

 Rare sirloin with an egg over-medium.

Can of tuna with "American" cheese.

American cheese:
1 tbsp water1.5 tsp powdered gelatin1 lbs. old orange cheddar
1/2 tsp salt1 tsp cream of tartar3/4 cup milk