Truffle Mutt

Crab Cakes

Wanna be a better cook without quitting your job, leaving home for four months and heading off to cooking school in Vancouver?  Well okay then, you should head over to Rouxbe and sign up for their on-line cooking school.  Pronto!

The site is a scrumptious collection of detailed video recipes and lessons that come complete with on-line quizzes.  The recipes have yet to disappoint and I've learned tons of kitchen stuff you just can't find in books, like how to sharpen knives and recognize a properly heated pan.  It's an invaluable resource and the instructors on the site are from NWCAV so it's serious business - borrowing a few words from Alton Brown it's a veritable pantheon of culinary "expertise".

And once you sign up, I have to recommend proceeding directly to the crab cakes.  I switched up the recipe a bit by adding a touch of orange oil, Sambal Oelek and roasted sesame oil and they were nothing short of heaven.  Happy cooking school for everyone! 

Book Club #?

Yeah I have no idea how many book club evenings I've catered now - quite a few anyway.

This one was the last meeting of their season, but more importantly (for me anyway) it's the last one before I head off to school.  Holy smokes is it ever getting close!

So, a celebration was in order.  A fun menu, featuring a compilation of my favorite bites.  The lamb and beef/pork sliders were inspired by my TV addiction, Diners Drive ins and Dives and maybe a little bit by the nerdy good looks of Galen Weston serving President's Choice sliders to his make-believe neighbors - haven't you seen the ad?  The Asiago and roasted vegetable phyllo pockets by a dinner I had at Storm Mountain Lodge...

Add to that a bottle of wine, crispy crab cakes with lemon dill sauce, maybe a few more bottles of wine, lemon cream blackberry napoleons, coffee granita and mini pecan praline layer cakes and you have the makings of a great time.  

So, cheers to you the Witches of Word!  You've been the best guinea pigs I could ask for.  See you next year!  But, no letting your expectations get too high.  :)