Cooking with T

So now that the wedding blog is out of the way I can get back to the food blogs. Most of my life isn't all that interesting to write about, so if you want any new material to read here then you will just have to put up with food stuff.

It figure T wouldn't mind me adding the odd photo of her crazy cooking skills too, so from time to time I will throw some of her culinary masterpieces in too.

Right, well I had better be quick with this. I have some cinnamon rolls in the oven and hope to have this blog all done before they are done. (Hopefully I will find time to do a bread blog soon and will be sure to give a cinnamon roll review as part of that.)

Slow Baked Salmon

OK first up there is the slow baked salmon. This was a neat looking idea from a blog I have been looking at a bit lately called steamykitchen. It is a pretty entertaining read at times and the photography is really good. The dish simply involved laying the salmon on a bed of sliced oranges and onions and baking it at a very low temperature. The salmon tasted pretty good, but the oranges were sadly lacking in flavour and juice, and the onions didn't really do it for me. The asparagus was wonderful though as was my new favourite vegetable, broccolini. A friend of T's (Kate) who was staying with us a few weeks back introduced us to it and I just can't get enough of it. YUUUUMMMMMM,

Bacon Wrapped Halibut with Asparagus and Lemon Mayo

This has been T's favourite meal I have made her so far (and a really simple meal too). The lemon mayo was nice and tangy, but the asparagus and fish worked well to offset the tanginess (just like Jamie Oliver said it would).

Oh well the cinnamon rolls are ready now, so I guess I didn't meet my target. Still I am have the other photos uploaded already so may as well continue.

Satay Chicken Curry

My wonderful wife made this for dinner one night recently, and she didn't use a box. It was a kind of Thai inspired chicken curry. It was scrumptous. I even enjoyed taking it to work for lunch the next day as well.

Tandori Chicken with Sour Cream and Chive Asparagus and Perogies

Yet another T creation, this time she still didn't use a box, but made good use of a bag of perogies from the frozen food section of the supermarket. As you may be able to tell there is plenty of asparagus around here in Vancouver at the moment and we have been making the most of it. I can't believe I disliked this wonderful vegetable for so many years.

Well that will have to do for today. The cinnamon rolls are smelling jolly good and I can't wait a minute longer. So I am not even going to bother spell checking this blog entry, you can just live with any poor spelling or grammatical errors that may have made their way in.

After a long break....

I am back!!!!

Apparently having T back in North America was even more of a distraction than she was when she was in PNG, as I kept finding my time disappearing and the blog was sadly neglected. Of course there was 3 weeks in Arkansas at Christmas, so that took me well out of my routine, and then another 10 days in Arkansas in February preparing for our wedding, then there was the wedding itself closely followed by the honeymoon. So really, I just simply have not had time to update all y'all with the goings on in my life and in my kitchen. Now that we are back in Vancouver and getting back in to a regular routine maybe the frequency will pick up.

So, I was discussing with T all the requests I have been getting to update my blog, and she made it quite clear that there would be trouble if my next entry was about what I have been cooking. Apparently it is important to her that I write something about the wedding and our honeymoon. So to keep the peace I will break from tradition and not write about my culinary adventures this time. All that said I will now start this entry again.

The Wedding, the blog post.

In case any of you have not heard the news yet, on 28 Feb I was married to the lovely Tiffany (more commonly known simply as T). The wedding took place in Hot Springs, Arkansas, the 8th most dangerous city in the US [edit: later research has shown it is the 13th most dangerous metropolitan area] , but thankfully through meticulous planning of security we managed to dodge all the bullets.

I flew down 9 days before the big day on American Airlines, and amazingly my luggage arrived with me this time (my bag was lost twice on my last trip to Arkansas, once on the way and then again on the way back to Vancouver). By that stage most of the wedding had been planned already, and there were just small details to sort out and organise. I was very supportive of T in this. I don't think I got in the way too much and just let her do what she needed to do. I'm sure I helped her laugh at the odd things stress was making her do. In between the organising we did manage to make a trip to Little Rock to watch the NZ Maori women's rugby 7's team play against the US women's 7's team. It was great to finally get to see a game of rugby again. But I digress, that is not really wedding related so much.

On the Sunday my family started arriving, starting with my parents who had just been on a cruise in the Caribbean. Then my brothers arrived with their wives on the Monday (sadly Craig's bag didn't get there for a few more days). The next few days involved showing the family around Hot Springs, including several trips to "the Walmart". I think we were averaging at least 2 Walmart trips a day. My family seemed to take great delight in mocking my navigational skills. I would like to point out that some of the directions I was given were not entirely accurate. The 1 hour drive from T's sister's place to the house were staying at managed to become a 2 1/2 hour drive, but at least I found the way eventually. By the end I thought I knew my way around pretty well. As it turned out I didn't, and we got a little lost trying to make our way to the church, oops.

The wedding itself went very well indeed. I made it there, so did T. We got married. A smashing time was had by all. T would really like me to tell you all about how I felt on the day. How seeing her walking down the isle took my breath away etc. but I think I know my readers well enough to know that they wouldn't want to read that kind of sappy stuff. If by any chance I am wrong, then feel free to visit T's blog, I'm sure she will update it soon or she will be in big trouble :)

I would like to point out a few very memorable things about the day though. First off, the wedding cake. This was an area I was did get involved in during the planning of the wedding. I didn't want a typical white wedding cake, and I knew T well enough to know she probably wouldn't want one either. So I had done a bit of a search on the internet for cakes and found that I really liked the topsy turvy style of cake, where each level of the cake is at an angle. One such cake I saw had a cute car on top with a road leading down the cake. We both loved this idea and totally stole it, but our one is way better (ok maybe I am a little biased). We even had little signposts down the road for the 4 countries that have been such big parts of our lives, USA, Canada, PNG and New Zealand.


The next memorable part of the day I would like to mention was the weather, and especially the weather during our photo session outside the bathhouses in downtown Hot Springs. It was freezing, so much in fact that it was snowing, making it rather cold. Fortunately I had a nice warm suit jacket on so I was ok. T on the other hand was a bit cold, but I'm sure she has learned a valuable lesson, when going out in the snow wear long sleeves.

Throughout the time my family were in Hot Springs a favourite passtime was looking for a good cup of coffee, a task that proved difficult. The store that looked most promising was unfortunately closed Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, leading us to wonder how they managed to stay in business at all. As it so happened they were open on the wedding day while we were getting our photos done, so we stopped in at the end of the photo session. I now know where to go if I am ever in Hot Springs and feel the urge to have a decent cup of coffee. It was really very nice.

There are copyright issues stopping me from posting our official photos on the blog, but I can give a link to the photographers website where there is a highlight gallery. We are both very happy with the photos and are looking forward to getting our album printed. But in case you are not feeling inclined to follow that link, I will post a few other photos that friends took at the wedding.

Kitchen Update

It occurred to me tonight that I have not posted for a while about what I have been cooking. So here is a quick update on some of the meals I have enjoyed lately and that I remembered to take a photo of.

First up there was a rather tasty slow baked salmon dish a few weeks ago, with a herb sauce thingy on top, and accompanied by some jolly good caramelized onions. The herb thing had a nice lemon note to it and was super tasty.

A week or so ago I decided to try making eggs benedict. I used to order this pretty much whenever I went out for brunch in New Zealand, but I haven't really been getting up in time for brunch most Saturdays lately, and weekdays and Sundays I never allow myself enough time for making a cooked breakfast. So I had it for dinner instead. The hollandaise sauce tasted good, but was a little bit too thin, otherwise it tasted pretty good. I don't know how highly it would rank on Andrew's eggs benedict ratings but I assure you the coffee that went with it was very good and I couldn't fault the ambiance. After making hollandaise sauce and seeing what goes in to it, I have decided maybe I should sometimes choose a different item off the brunch menu, it is not all that good for me.

Canadian thanksgiving happened to fall on my birthday this year and I was fortunate enough to have 2 thanksgiving dinners to attend (the first one the day before thanksgiving). For both events I was asked to bring dessert. For the first dessert I decided on poached pears with a red wine caramel sauce. The red wine in the poaching liquid colours the pears really nicely, it would have made for a wonderful photo, but alas I didn't have my camera handy so sorry no photos. They tasted pretty good though. For the second dessert I only had 1 days notice, so pretty much had to do everything on the Monday; and given my tendency to not wake up in the morning when I don't really have to, I had to make something that would be ready quickly. After a quick search through my cookbooks I settled on a bittersweet chocolate mousse. I realised a little late that I was 1 egg short, so had to adjust the quantities a bit, but it still seemed to work. It was super rich, so the reduced volume didn't matter so much.


As I was walking home from work on Friday I decided to stop in at the HomeSense store and see if they had any pasta machines. I had been thinking of getting one for a good 8 months or so, so I was very pleased to find there was 1 left in the store, and at only $20 it was too good to pass up. My first attempt at pasta on Friday night was not entirely satisfying. I made fettuccine, and it was not great to say the least. I still had half the dough left so put it in the fridge and decided to try it again the next day. This time I made sure the dough was well dusted in flour before running it through the machine at the various levels. It worked way better, and the Alfredo sauce that I cooked to go with it was a tasty little saucy thing indeed. Excited at the success I had with Saturday's efforts, today I decided to experiment a bit. First experiment didn't go too well. Turns out corn meal is just too coarse to work well in pasta, or maybe it needed another egg, I don't know. What I do know is that the pasta was just not coming together so I gave up and started over. This time I stuck to the basic recipe with just the addition of some finely chopped fresh basil. Bingo. I decided to have a go at making a filled pasta, so I mixed up some ricotta cheese with wilted spinach and diced prosciutto. Mmmm. And to finish off the dish I made a quick pasta sauce with canned tomatoes, artichoke hearts, garlic, shallots, olive oil and red wine vinegar. It all tasted rather good, so good that I am going to take the leftovers to work for lunch tomorrow. Hopefully reheating it won't spoil it too much.
Sorry the photo doesn't look all that good, I was in kind of a hurry to eat it.

GIIP photography outing to Ladner

A few weeks back a bunch of us from the photography club at church (GIIP) took a trip out to Ladner, about 30 minutes from downtown Vancouver. Charles had planned a pretty full day of shooting for us, with 4 different spots that we were to visit.

The first spot was some broken down jetty thing. It was a lovely little spot. The water was almost perfectly still and gave wonderful reflections, except for when someone came and launched their boat there. Apparently the lighting was better an hour before we got there, but I still found it pretty good anyway.



Next up there was a spot where we could see a bunch of boats. We didn't stay here for long because the light was perfect pumpkin light.




So off we went to the pumpkin patch. The week before the trip I bought a new toy for my camera, a polarizing filter. It did a splendid job of removing the glare from the pumpkins, and also made for some very blue skies.





Our final stop was at the Reifel Bird Sanctuary. There was a big potato field there that was just full of thousands of snow geese. We were lucky enough to see them all take off at once. Charles was pretty excited about this. He has been going there for years in the hope of seeing this site, and kept telling us how incredibly fortunate we were to see it on our first visit. Unfortunately I only have a little mini-lens for my camera, so couldn't get much detail of the geese taking off, but I guess you can get the idea of the scale of it from the photo.


It was very nice to get out of Vancouver for a change. It kind of made me miss having a car, but I think I am over it now, buses are so much cheaper.

Yes I'm still alive.

Hello everybody,

I thought I would dispel any rumours that may or may not have been going around. I can confirm that I am still very much alive, I just have not found the time or more to the point the motivation to update this blog in a while. So this will be a bit of an update on what has been going on in the last month and a bit.

First off I have moved apartments, just. When I say just it is because I only actually moved to the next building along, in the same complex. My old landlord needed the apartment back again so his daughter could use it while attending university. So the new apartment is kind of similar to the last one. The kitchen is almost identical, except there is slightly less room next to the sink, resulting in a more cluttered coffee area. Not ideal, but certainly workable. The layout of the apartment is a bit nicer, it is on a corner, with the bedroom having windows on 2 sides. Hmm, actually it may be easier if I just post a few photos of it here and you can all see for yourselves.




Hmm, so what else have I been up to? Good question. Not a great deal is my answer. I have been in the mood for roasts lately. In the last couple of weeks I have had both roast chicken and roast pork. The chicken was super simple and really tasty. I simply got a lemon that had been in with the potatoes as they were par-boiling, stabbed the lemon a few times and stuffed it inside the chicken along with a bunch of garlic cloves and some thyme. Par-boiling the potatoes and letting them get a bit fluffed up in the pot after draining made for wonderfully cripsy potatoes once they had been roasted in the juices that were coming out of the chicken. The roast pork was OK, but nothing special. I made a sauce to baste the pork with by combining about 1/4 cup of pomegranate molasses with some balsamic vinegar and sugar. That bit tasted really good, but the pork was a bit dry for my liking. Actually part of the pork was really good, but that was the part that I had for leftovers.

The french onion soup I made a week or so ago was fantastic, especially with the ciabatta bread and gruyerre cheese floated on top. Mmmm, yumm. I found it was even better the second or third day after making it, the flavours had developed more and it was oh so good. I think it would be my favourite soup.

Today I woke up and decided I would like some Saturday afternoon pancakes (yes I slept in this morning). I happened to have some apples in the fridge that I didn't use when I had my pork, so I decided to have apple pancakes. They were very nice indeed, especially with the maple syrup/honey mixture drizzled on top.

Autumn seems to be starting now, so with any luck I will find some nice autumn colours to photograph. Next week the GIIP photo club from church is planning on going on an outing to the Reifel Bird Sanctuary, and also some pumpkin patch somewhere on the way. It should be a good trip if the weather behaves.

Winter cooking has started again

So this last Sunday it was raining in Vancouver (actually something of a rarity over the last 2 months). And although not exactly cold, it was still cool enough to put me in the mood for some kind of stew type dish. I had spotted some lamb shanks in the local supermarket a few weeks ago so thought maybe I would try cooking them for a change.

So I found a nice looking recipe from my Bishop's cookbook and got together a shopping list. Then I fell asleep. I guess I was kind of tired after a late night of card playing on Friday night followed by an afternoon of kayaking fun on Saturday. Eventually I woke up and after a quick chat with Tiffany and putting together some bread dough to rise for my bread rolls, I finally made it out to the supermarket. Given the not so pleasant weather I decided against a trip to Granville Island so just had to make do with whatever the supermarket had. Unfortunately they were all out of turnips and there was no sign of parsnip (not that I was all that keen on using parsnip anyway). They also had no celery root so there were a few ingredients I had to make do without. But they did have the lamb shanks, they are the most important part of any lamb shank recipe.

When I arrived back at the apartment I shaped the bread rolls and let them start their second rise. I hadn't made bread since leaving PNG, it is just so much easier to go to the shop and buy some, but home made bread certainly does smell good and even tastes good sometimes. Once the bread was set to one side to rise I got started on the lamb. Lamb shanks are jolly easy to cook, just season them a bit then brown them nicely then whack them in a casserole dish with some stock and and a bunch of vegetables. Then go talk to your fiance for a couple of hours and dinner is ready.


And the really nice thing about lamb shanks is they taste just as good reheated the next day. So today I had leftover lamb shanks with garlic mashed potatoes. Yummy.

Surprise - We're engaged!

Yes that's right folks, the worst kept secret ever is now official, Tiffany and I are officially engaged. I had the great pleasure of having T come to visit me in Vancouver last week before we both flew down to Colorado for her family reunion.

Given that I am absolutely useless at keeping a secret and also needed to know T's ring size I didn't think trying to keep the ring a complete surprise was going to work. I did however surprise her with how and when she would get the ring. I had been dropping hints that maybe it would be at dinner on Saturday night as we celebrated her birthday. But I decided that proposing then would be far too predictable. I also wanted to make sure she had the ring before church on Sunday and didn't want to leave it until Sunday morning. So this left Saturday morning or Saturday afternoon. As I would be with her all day I figured that I wouldn't really be able to prepare much if I left it until afternoon, so decided to propose after breakfast.

I guessed she would be a bit tired after the long flight from PNG so planned breakfast for around 9:30. I got up extra early (for a Saturday at least) and mixed up some crepe batter and then went back to bed while it rested. Then I got up again, made the crepes and just as I was finishing them (a little later than anticipated) T knocked on the door (she was staying in the guest suite in my apartment). We sat down at the kitchen counter and hoed in to the crepes (very yummy crepes with ricotta, cream cheese and lemon filling with a blueberry sauce). This was followed by a coffee for me and a cup of tea for T. And accompanying the tea was a plate of dark chocolate truffles that I had made the day before. In the middle of the plate of truffles was the ring. I asked the big question and surprise surprise she said "Yes". What a relief.


We had a wonderful few days together, walking around Vancouver, taking a trip up to Grouse Mountain, going to Granville Island. I managed to reclaim the 2 player 500 title, with a rather convincing win, but I was at a bit of an advantage as T couldn't remember how to play.

On Wednesday we flew to Grand Junction, Colorado where I met my future in-laws for the first time. They were all very friendly and I liked them a lot (and no I'm not just saying that because they will likely be reading this). They are a bit louder than my family.

On Thursday we went on a trip to see Grand Mesa, a big flat topped mountain. It was a really pretty place. Then in the evening there was an extended family get together where I got to try and impress everyone with my culinary skills. I cooked a leg of lamb cooked in a blend of lime leaves, lemon grass, chili, cilantro (coriander leaves), lime, ginger, olive oil and salt. Once the lamb was cooked the leftover juices were made in to a bit of a sauce by adding some coconut milk. Thank you Jamie Oliver for the recipe. It seemed to work out OK, although I think it was ever so slightly overcooked. This was the second time I have made this recipe (the first time was for Lucas and Shannon) and both times I overcooked it, I really should adjust the cooking time next time.


The next day was white water rafting day. It was great fun. I hadn't done white water rafting since I was 14 and was looking forward to this a lot. Last time I managed to be the only person in the group to fall out, so I was keen to do better this time. It was a blast. We did the triple so got to do the rapids 3 times, each time taking a slightly different approach.


Saturday was the day of the big family reunion. The Burbridge family all had matching T-Shirts made up for the occasion, each with the person's name and an aka. Mine was Paul - aka Newest-son-in-law. I guess someone must have guessed the engagement was going to happen and had the t-shirt made up in advance.

For those of you who have keen eyes, you may have noticed in some of the photos that I am sporting a beard. This was a special request of T's and so I grew it over the last 4 weeks or so. On arriving home last night it was quickly removed so I am now back to the clean shaved look you may be more accustomed to seeing. And yep, I really do need a haircut, I will have to get on to that, 5 1/2 months between haircuts is probably a bit too long.