A bottle would also make a perfect hostess gift. I got my glass bottles at IKEA. The labels are from Martha Stewarts’ line at Michaels.

Fuji Apple Bourbon: Combine a 750-ml bottle of bourbon (I used Jack Daniel’s), four cored, sliced Fuji apples, and four cinnamon sticks in a pitcher. Cover; chill for three days. Strain and sip or use in recipe below.

Honey-Bourbon Toddy: Stir two Tbsp. honey and one cup hot water in a two cup measuring cup until honey dissolves. Add 6 Tbsp. apple bourbon. Divide between two mugs or glasses. Twist a strip of lemon peel over each drink, then add to mug or glass.  Stir each with a cinnamon stick and serve. Makes two.

Katherine and Tim hosted the meeting at their house on July 2, so of course we also celebrated America’s Big Day: the Fourth of July. For our token American, Kate, we broke out the red, white and blue. We also invited a special guest, Brendan’s sister, Carmen. With another judge in the mix, the pressure was definitely on. 

Katherine began the appetizer round with her ode to Mickey Ds, a Bic Mac slider. She served it with a buttermilk onion ring. Tim paired the dish with another American classic, Coca-Cola.

Sabrina went next with her gourmet take on the Philly Cheesesteak.  She served beef carpaccio on mini-sour dough rolls with cheese espuma, chives and smoked sea salt. They were so pretty and yummy. Aaron whipped up a Bud Light Lime slushie to go with the appetizer.

Brendan rounded out the first round with another “heart healthy” option: deep-fried, bacon wrapped mac and cheese. They were little pieces of heaven fried in peanut oil. Kate made a pitcher of spiked Kool-Aid to go with it.

After the votes were tallied, Katherine’s fast-food classic clinched the appetizer round.

The next round almost killed us. Take Katherine’s main course – fried chicken and waffles. She used Thomas Keller’s fried chicken recipe. The acclaimed American chef serves a version of fried chicken and waffles at one of his many high-end restaurants. Tim offered two drink selections, either Pabst Blue Ribbon beer or Jack Daniel’s iced tea.

Sabrina also picked a southern American classic for her main – a Carolina pulled pork sandwich with homemade smoky BBQ sauce. She served it with a baked mac and cheese loaded with bacon, panko crumbs, thyme and parsley. Aaron paired the dish with refreshing strawberry basil lemonade.

The round ended with Brendan’s dish: a steak sandwich served with a roasted red pepper and gorgonzola spread on a homemade ciabbata bun. The sandwich was topped with caramelized onions and arugula. On the side were homemade potato chips (I could have eaten an entire bag!). Brendan made the chips by thinly slicing Yukon potatoes and then frying them  in peanut oil. Kate helped Brendan out by making the buns and sandwich spread. She also went above and beyond the call of duty in the drink department by make beer hats for the boys and decorated plastic wine glasses for the girls.

In the end, it was a neck-and-neck race between Sabrina and Brendan. B’s steak sandwich eventually won out. Thanks to Kate for bringing decorations and dessert — a patriotic JELL-O poke cake.

THE SCOREBOARD

Brendan: 6
Katherine: 5
Sabrina: 6

Brendan pulled out the win by using these five ingredients:

1) Tuna
2) Soy sauce
3) Wasabi
4) Ginger
5) Mayo

Using those ingredients, he made simple but elegant tuna skewers served with ginger and a wasabi dip. He marinated the tuna in soy sauce before lightly cooking it in oil (cooking oils and salt and pepper didn’t count as ingredients). 

Kate paired his dish with a ginger saketini. Sooooooooo tasty.

Sabrina came in second with her tuna appetizer. She used:

1) Tuna
2) White onions
3) Ponzu sauce
4) Green onion
5) White truffle oil

She made tuna tataki served on white onions, ponzu sauce and infused with white truffle oil. Green onions served as a garnish. The dish was both tasty and beautiful.

Aaron paired the tuna tataki with Sapporo beer.

Kat finished out the appetizer round by using:

1) Flour
2) Eggs
3) Butter
4) Boursin cheese
5) Cream

All simple ingredients but together it became spaetzle, a delicious German dumpling dish. I bought a spaetzle maker at Call the Kettle Black in Edmonton.

Tim paired my dish with a buttery white wine.

For the main course round, Brendan also came up with the win. We were tasked with making a veal dish and B. treated us to veal scaloppini and a warm potato salad.

His veal was coated in bread crumbs and herbs and then cooked in butter. It was topped with charred radicchio, arugula and other greens, along with thinly sliced cheese.

Kate paired his dish with a white wine.

Kat came in second with a slightly different spin on veal saltimbocca. Instead of just using prosciutto, she also slipped in a piece of buffalo mozzarella during the frying process. Heavenly. She served it with an arugula and white onion salad dressed in a lemon vinaigrette. Tim paired the dish with a light Greek beer. While saltimbocca is an Italian dish, he wanted to try something different. It was a good gamble.

Sabrina finished out the meal with her take on veal saltimbocca. She served it with poutine topped with a veal reduction sauce and garlic chili broccolini. Aaron paired the dish with a crisp French white wine.

Thanks to Kate & Brendan for hosting.
The next meeting is scheduled for July 2 at Kat and Tim’s house. The theme: “American cuisine.”

Bring on the Fourth of July party!

THE SCOREBOARD

Brendan: 5
Katherine: 4
Sabrina: 6

Here is their email with the rules:

1. Simple Appetizer: The appetizer must be made with 5 ingredients or less. While salt and pepper do not need to be included in the ingredient list, everything else will count. That means all sauces, spices, and accompaniments will count. So, choose your ingredients wisely to ensure gastronomic success.
2. Veal Main: The main can be as complicated as you like, but it must include veal.

As always, spouses are requested to pair both the appetizer and main with a beverage of their choosing. The beverage pairing for the appetizer will not be included in the 5 ingredient maximum.

The battle will take place at the Storey’s Kitchen Stadium on Saturday, April 23rd starting at 5:00pm.

Allez cuisine!
B&K

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads This blog is doing awesome!.

Crunchy numbers

The Leaning Tower of Pisa has 296 steps to reach the top. This blog was viewed about 1,200 times in 2010. If those were steps, it would have climbed the Leaning Tower of Pisa 4 times

In 2010, there were 15 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 18 posts. There were 39 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 41mb. That’s about 3 pictures per month.

The busiest day of the year was March 9th with 31 views. The most popular post that day was A clean sweep.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were acanadianfoodie.com, ugonnaeatthat.com, palatebliss.com, crispandchewy.wordpress.com, and facebook.com.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for edmonton gastronomic society, arriba mexico edmonton, tapas, greek yogurt edmonton, and www.edmontongastronomicsociety.ca.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

A clean sweep March 2010

Arriba Mexico December 2009

EGS Primer December 2009
1 comment

Basil blues? February 2010

The society begins December 2009
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Wine is often a bit of mystery for most folks but this cheeky and fun article by The Globe’s Beppi Crosariol helps vino lovers sort out all the lingo and snob talk that sometimes comes along with uncorking a bottle. 

A side note: I used to sit beside Beppi when I worked at the paper’s Toronto office before I was sent out west. We were all jealous of him because boxes and bottles of booze used to be regularly delivered to his desk. In the journalism world, that’s about as good as it gets!