[Jake]

Looks like you did a wonderful job Mar!, and thanks for your kind compliments

[Marlene]

Two nights ago was spaghetti with meat sauce and my husband's garlic bread. Spaghetti doesn't really photograph that well!




Last night we did a chicken on the rotisserie with mashed potatoes, and glazed cumin-honey carrots. The carrots got seriously overdone because the rotisserie was having trouble battling the cold temp here and therefore took a lot longer to be done than we figured it would.

[Matthew Kayahara]

Those photos look a touch shaky to me... the last one is showing 6400 ISO, 1/20th of a second with a 70mm focal length and 9.93 aperture. The rule of thumb I've heard is that anything longer than 1/50th of a second is going to be prone to shake, so is better with a tripod. Are you using a vibration-reduction lens? Personally, I'd try using a shorter focal length or stopping up the aperture (or both), but maybe James could chime in.

In any case, spaghetti may not photograph well (though really, it looks fine), but the garlic bread is making me drool!

[Marlene]

Matthew Kayahara, on 04 January 2011 - 01:17 PM, said:

Those photos look a touch shaky to me... the last one is showing 6400 ISO, 1/20th of a second with a 70mm focal length and 9.93 aperture. The rule of thumb I've heard is that anything longer than 1/50th of a second is going to be prone to shake, so is better with a tripod. Are you using a vibration-reduction lens? Personally, I'd try using a shorter focal length or stopping up the aperture (or both), but maybe James could chime in.

In any case, spaghetti may not photograph well (though really, it looks fine), but the garlic bread is making me drool!

How can you tell what the camera settings are?
Or, it could have something to do with the several drinks I had before dinner.. I changed some of the settings today so we'll see what tonight's dinner photo's bring. And yup, I'm using an IS lens

[Matthew Kayahara]

Marlene, on 04 January 2011 - 01:22 PM, said:

How can you tell what the camera settings are?

It saves all that info in the metadata; I just saved the picture to my computer and took a look. You can strip all that sort of thing out, if you prefer, though I'm not sure how to do it in Picasa.

[Marlene]

Matthew Kayahara, on 04 January 2011 - 01:32 PM, said:

It saves all that info in the metadata; I just saved the picture to my computer and took a look. You can strip all that sort of thing out, if you prefer, though I'm not sure how to do it in Picasa.

oh cool! We had burgers tonight, but I didn't take pics, so further analysis will have to wait till dinner tomorrow. But I'm always interested in the feedback, so thanks!

[kim shook]

I had the exact same thought that Matthew did about the garlic bread!

[Marlene]

kim shook, on 05 January 2011 - 04:59 PM, said:

I had the exact same thought that Matthew did about the garlic bread!

thank you, Kim and Matthew! My husband really does excel at making garlic bread.

[Madge]

What's his secret? It always looks so good. I'm going to the "local" for dinner and now thinking "mmmmm.....maybe something with garlic bread"

[Marlene]

Madge, on 05 January 2011 - 05:45 PM, said:

What's his secret? It always looks so good. I'm going to the "local" for dinner and now thinking "mmmmm.....maybe something with garlic bread"

What's the "local"?

This is all I've ever seen him do.

Melt a bunch of butter and garlic powder together in the microwave.

Slice baguette, put the slices on a sheet pan and place the pan under the broiler for a minute or so till they brown. Turn the slices over. Spoon the garlic butter over them and broil till golden and crispy.

How much garlic powder and how much butter? I have no clue, but will see if I can pin him down on quantities. Maybe I can get him to make more tomorrow night to go with our fondue.

[Marlene]

This is the only thing I made myself for dinner last night, but I figured I'd take a couple of shots since I'm still playing with the new camera

[Madge]

Local = pub around the corner.

That garlic bread looks easy enough. Thanks.

Fantastic picture of your steak.

[Marlene]

Thanks Madge!

Last night we had a beef fondue.

The dipping sauces were, garlic aioli, chipotle aioli, roasted garlic dijonnaise, and a sweet chili sauce for me. I made a spicy chili sauce for Don.


Served with peas and my husband's garlic bread. I forgot to ask him about quantities. I'll do that this morning.

[Marlene]

A couple of nights ago we had pork chops with a mustard cream sauce, parmesan rice pilaf and corn.


last night was steak and fries, no pic,

We were supposed to go home today but we are staying one more day, so I'll do our Sunday prime rib here I guess!

[kim shook]

Marlene - I love those fondue plates - we have some, but not nearly as cute! What's in sweet chili sauce? I am too tender tongued for a spicy one and that sounds interesting.

[Marlene]

Thanks Kim! I think they are Trudeau plates. I have a set at home in the box so I will check when I get home. As for the chili sauce, I got it off the internet so I'll see if I can find it because I can't really remember what was in it but it certainly wasn't spicy.

[Marlene]

Dana, on 30 December 2010 - 10:40 AM, said:

Is the 4 hour roasting time determined by the roast's weight? I really am going to have to get a new oven this year. Mine is so undependable, it racks my last nerve to put in a good piece of meat for fear that it comes out overcooked.

I'm trying this method tonight with a 6 lb roast so I will report back later or when I get home in the morning!

[Marlene]

So I tried this again last night at the cottage. This roast was 6.5 lbs as opposed to the 9.5 lb one the first time. I was curious to see if there would be a big time difference. Not a lot, about a half an hour. I put it in at 2:30 and took it out at 6:30 pm when it hit 135. As I mentioned, my oven doesn't go to 135 so I just took it out and let it rest while I did the yorkies and other stuff, so it rested for 25 minutes. This time I made sure the roast was at room temp


Bingo. Again. Uniform colour throughout, and very juicy and flavourful.






I'm back home now, and I've discovered that my main oven goes as low as 140 and the wall oven does get down to 135, so in a couple of weeks I will try this once again.

No cooking tonight or tomorrow likely. But prime rib soup on Wed!

[Madge]

It is snowing hard here, can barely see across the lake. Yesterday,my partner shovelled off part of the lake and made a skating rink. She skated and I sat on a deck chair and had a beer. It was a beautiful sunny day. So peaceful.

Last night we made pizza using some of the tips from the latest CI plus others we have been accumulating. It was good but we continue in the quest for the perfect pizza. Seems we get one part right and a bit of a miss on something else. Considering the delivery crap we pay $25 for in the city I think we are being too picky.

We have some pea soup on the stove for lunch and a boiled/Jiggs dinner (it's an east coast thing) for dinner.

We were talking to our neighbour yesterday..."saw a big black bear walking down your driveway in the fall" Um, OK. YIKES!!!

[Madge]

Mac and cheese seem to be making the rounds here on CK. We had guests for the weekend so lots of good food and drink. Friday night Chef Michael Smith's lobster mac and cheese. Bought a can of lobster that was all tail and claws. There is a can of evaporated milk plus the usual cheese and milk in the sauce. Added some curry powder along with some cayenne and dijon. This was delicious but low cal it ain't!!!! Last night prime rib and gravy with roasted potatoes,brussel sprouts with evoo,balsamic,and bread crumbs and some steamed green beans. Excellent.

Bread and water for the rest of the week.