cooking thread...

[ketchenany]

11 hours ago, Old Ironmaker said:

You know Tom 20 years ago they had some of the best Italian style bread anywhere. Dad would come out here and s tock up on it before heading back to Hamilton. Then they changed bakers and that good bread stopped. They have some sales occasionally but then No frills or Food Basic has the same sale. With all the good local Beef, Pork and Poultry we have around here you would think they would carry some. I stare at that disgusting meat display and shake my head then head to Hanson's. Not cheap but the best. A few years ago I said to the meat mgr. "You need to put in another dept. in here next to your meat." What dept? he asked. "A loans department." Ridiculous, and the veggie and fruit isn't much better. I bought a bag of taters there last week and they had 2" eyes growing  on them. No competition sucks. Their canned goods are fresh!!!!! I miss the poultry farm on Kohler Rd. I supplied many a Hamilton restaurant with their wings at a great price, and could still make some money. If I were 20 years younger I would open a deli in town and make money at it. Now that the Brown Water is closed you can't buy anything in town worth eating. Margaret from the radio station  is opening a restaurant across #3 from Haldimand Motors, soon I hope.

Where and what is Pusateri's Tom S.?

OI Pusitaris is a high end food store in TO they have two locations. I knew the founder when H was on St Clair.

He had worked loading trucks at the food terminal and then started his own store.  The kids moved I t high end.

Their cheese is so expensive it is kept locked up I’ve heard. Where the store is located the people don’t worry about money they have a lot of it.

A friend  of mine had a meat store in the same area and he never put a price tag on his meats. He had nothing but the best. I also heard Mel Lastman’s wife would bring pots to a restaurant and have them filled and take them home for dinner!!!! 

 

 

 

[dave524]

11 hours ago, Old Ironmaker said:

 

Dave my go to places now are Food Basics and The Banana Store. Best value all under 1 roof. The problem out it here is they are about an hours drive apart. So usually it's one or the other or I plan my week so I will be going by one or the other while the sale is on. However meats can be suspect, like chicken at Food Basic, not grade A often but you can't beat the 10 buck a bag or less for wings, works out to 2 bucks a pound when 30% off. Food Basics had Gallo EVO on for $5.99 a few weeks back, I bought no less than 36 bottles. It's $9.99 or more elsewhere. When Unico canned Tomatoes are on for 99 cents I buy 5 cases. They are good deep red Ont. tomatoes. Right there I saved clos to $300.00.

 

Yeah OI, I don't get meats much at Basics, the one in Grimsby doesn't cut meat, it is all bused in prepackaged, so I question the freshness and handling. Make the trip down the road to Superstore for meat and more recently the new Costco. Really, I don't see how our Sobey's stays in business, their sales flyer prices are often higher than Basics regular price 

[bigugli]

1 hour ago, dave524 said:

Yeah OI, I don't get meats much at Basics, the one in Grimsby doesn't cut meat, it is all bused in prepackaged, so I question the freshness and handling. Make the trip down the road to Superstore for meat and more recently the new Costco. Really, I don't see how our Sobey's stays in business, their sales flyer prices are often higher than Basics regular price 

I don't trust factory pack meats. Freshness is not the only issue. A number of area meat shops/butchers have better prices on better quality meats, and certainly a lot fresher.

[dave524]

1 hour ago, bigugli said:

I don't trust factory pack meats. Freshness is not the only issue. A number of area meat shops/butchers have better prices on better quality meats, and certainly a lot fresher.

Yes, we use this place locally for specialty  meat items http://50pointmarket.ca/

[smitty55]

15 hours ago, akaShag said:

back to OIM I think Pusateri's is where they cook that placenta dish that you and Smitty 55 were talking about back in the spring...............

Lmao Doug,  I think that dish OI and I were commenting on was Caponata, an eggplant dish with olives and capers. As for Puttanesca, we had my recipe again this past week and OMG it is so good. It still amazes me to make such a fantastic Italian dish in a 1/2 hour start to finish. It's makes enough for 4 large servings so we had it twice, once with sausage and once with shrimp. I could have had it again the next day even. You do have to like strong flavours though, which I do, and every time I try it I'm still thrilled at how well all those strong tastes come together. Just the aroma coming off the plate itself is wonderful. My own fresh garlic used twice and fresh grated parm on the plate help with that too.

Cheers

[Old Ironmaker]

On ‎2017‎-‎12‎-‎15 at 8:54 PM, Tom S said:

LOL. Our Foodland is awful. They could do so much better, but I guess when you don't have have any competition within 25km you get lazy. I can remember my wife breaking down one night because we were on our last diapers for the twins and they did not stock newborn size. Ridiculous. 

Any of you gents been to a Pusateri's? 

Tom send me a PM. for some reason I can't send PM's.

[Old Ironmaker]

I don't know if it's on my end or the site, I can't send open to send a PM and the page goes fuzzy and there is no interaction when I tap or use the moose, I have to re open the site to get in. Weird.

[Old Ironmaker]

A few years back I bought a bag of thighs and legs on sale cheap from Food Basic to make stock. When I opened the bag the smell made me step back. Nothing worse than bad chicken smell. Never again. And I'm not driving 30 minutes to take back 10 bucks of meat. The frozen wings are fine so far. They do have the best frozen Pizza dough anywhere, Molinari brand, 1/2 the price of Fortino's, An ignorant 20 something I worked for 15 minutes at a Golf course called it Forgino's only to me, she called a First Nations employee Wagon Burner. She got reamed and started crying when I hauled her into the owners office . She got the best education in 10 minutes she could never get in her 2 year Management course in Community College. I think she managed a Tim Hortons on nights after that.

Even Superstore. I only bought fish there once, they had Grouper and it is rare to get here so I was excited to get some. When I put it in the car the smell was bad, really bad, I took it back in and stunk up the entire customer service desk. They asked if I wanted to replace it, no way. 1 bad fish can contaminate the entire fish counter.  Never bought fish there again, actually never shop there at all as the prices at the Simcoe store is ridiculously  high.

[Tom S]

On 12/16/2017 at 9:57 PM, Old Ironmaker said:

Tom send me a PM. for some reason I can't send PM's.

PM sent yesterday. Did it work for you?

[bigugli]

One week til Christmas day and the kitchen now kicks into overdrive. Pulled pork simmering in the slow cooker, while I finish cleaning up today's baking assignment, traditional shortbreads. Tommorrow will be a stack of mini pizzas for the  grandchildren and their friends.

[akaShag]

1 hour ago, bigugli said:

One week til Christmas day and the kitchen now kicks into overdrive. Pulled pork simmering in the slow cooker, while I finish cleaning up today's baking assignment, traditional shortbreads. Tommorrow will be a stack of mini pizzas for the  grandchildren and their friends.

Thanks for the reminder!  I think I have a couple pork butt roasts from a Tamworth hog half that I bought this fall.  Pulled pork, gotta love it!!!!!

 

Doug

[grimsbylander]

Well, I kind of hit the jackpot this month.  I love to cook...a lot, and read books and video on everything from knife skills to french cuisine. If I won enough money to retire, I'd go to culinary school for sure. So with Sears packing it in, I thought I'd check out their cookware "bargains" and found none. But I did buy a brand new GAS 5 burner convection range! lol Always wanted to switch to gas and getting a $250 off was just the incentive I needed. I figured it would cover the cost of running a gas line to the kitchen. So the day they drop it off, I notice a small dent in the side panel and the driver calls Sears to let them know. With no option of switching ranges because of supply, I decide to keep it and take the $100 rebate they offered over the phone. Nice, $350 off! Yesterday they call to let me know they processed the refund...$291 with tax. What the??  Woohoo! $541 off! Now we cookin' lol

And, there are very few young families on our street but across from us is a family with 3 little kids. With our kids grown up, we still like to see "happy little Christmas faces" so we went out and picked up a gift bag of cookies, Lindt chocolates and Christmas-y smartie figurines for them. I dropped them off last night and struck up a conversation with the stay at home Mom while the kids tore into the chocolate eggs and ruined their dinner lol. She was a chef! She showed me her library of instructional cooking books, professional texts, recipes, etc and told me to borrow whatever I needed! I left with books specifically on beef, pork and chicken. Lots to photocopy for future use...ie butchering. 

Next week will be great...the whole week off and family coming over. Perfect time to spend long hours in the kitchen, enjoying a drink, blasting silly Christmas tunes and creating some new dishes! 

[ketchenany]

Can’t go without lamb at Christmas/New Year. I got my fresh Ontario half for $6.99 lb. just vac packed it and we are good to BBQ New Year’s Day! 

Considering, the price is good. 10years ago it was $4.00 or so. Fresh rosemary pot in the garage ready for the marinade.

 

 

[akaShag]

Today at lunch we had a "Christmas dinner" for some folks we know that have no family in the area.  One of the ladies is 93 and can't drive at night any more.  So I brined a small turkey (13 pounds) and we had turkey and dressing, whipped potatoes and gravy, and carrots, YUM YUM!!!!

 

Doug

[Fisherman]

3 minutes ago, akaShag said:

Today at lunch we had a "Christmas dinner" for some folks we know that have no family in the area.  One of the ladies is 93 and can't drive at night any more.  So I brined a small turkey (13 pounds) and we had turkey and dressing, whipped potatoes and gravy, and carrots, YUM YUM!!!!

 

Doug

Nice of you Doug, lots of lonely folk out there.

[Spiel]

Lunch for my daughter today. Partridge breast deboned then marinated all day in Teriyaki.
When ready to cook dredged through seasoned flour and then browned quickly in hot bacon fat with capers. Served with red rice and roasted asparagus and mushrooms and then topped with fresh grated Grana Padano.  And of course a plate for me. 

[akaShag]

2 hours ago, Fisherman said:

Nice of you Doug, lots of lonely folk out there.

Thanks buddy.

How you doing these days?  Maybe THIS year I will get down to fish Simcoe with you!!!

Doug

[Fisherman]

Still moving with cranky bones.  3 more scheduled days to work and then it's retirement.   Can't quite wrap my head around that idea yet.

[akaShag]

10 minutes ago, Fisherman said:

Still moving with cranky bones.  3 more scheduled days to work and then it's retirement.   Can't quite wrap my head around that idea yet.

Retirement is GOOD, buddy!!!!!

I've been doing nothing, professionally, and being paid to do nothing, for fifteen years, and I highly recommend it. 

 

Doug

 

 

Edited December 20, 2017 by akaShag

[Fisherman]

I think I'm going to sit on the park bench and wave at everyone going to work in the morning, lol.

[misfish]

2 hours ago, Fisherman said:

I think I'm going to sit on the park bench and wave at everyone going to work in the morning, lol.

You could sit on the bank with Harry, and Mic and Ernie all morning. They seem to like the lazy laid back thing. LOL

I just watched a video from the east coast. Bacon,potatoe,cheese pie. Will be making very soon. 

 

[akaShag]

15 minutes ago, misfish said:

You could sit on the bank with Harry, and Mic and Ernie all morning. They seem to like the lazy laid back thing. LOL

I just watched a video from the east coast. Bacon,potatoe,cheese pie. Will be making very soon. 

 

Bacon, potato and cheese pie, please tell me more.............

 

Doug

[misfish]

5 minutes ago, akaShag said:

Bacon, potato and cheese pie, please tell me more.............

 

Doug

In due time . Let me make it first Doug.

[akaShag]

11 minutes ago, misfish said:

In due time . Let me make it first Doug.

OK thanks bud.

[bigugli]

On the subject of bread...  First batch of Finnish pulla is now resting on the counter. The house just reeks of yeast, cinnamon and cardamom. The kids wanted sticky buns for Christmas morning. I'll probably hunker down to batch #2 on Saturday. Tomorrow we be feasting on fish head soup and good dark rye