Le paté chinoise

So, as a kid, my grandmother and nanny used to make this shepherd's pie type thing with mashed potatoes, corn, and beef... All neatly stacked, baked, and served...

I have never heard any of my usual friends have this dish, unless their family was chinese...

And lo and behold, I'm in Sherbrooke, Quebec, and my host, Pascal, says, "Geoff, we're having le paté chinoise tonight!" And, it's exactly the same!!! According to him, the dish was brought to Quebec by the railway workers, and according to a recent poll in Quebec, was one of the most common family dishes...

Interesting... I will make this when I get back! :P

Phoebe's Apartment

Watercolour, 11"x14"

So, I painted this a while ago. This is sorta the look that I want "Project 1" to look like. Something about those slightly off angles really appeal to me. The dark buildings in the foreground - on the edge of the piece - act like a frame which I found really cool.

Project 1

I'm going to attempt to paint this with watercolour...

Baked Apple Pie

Yay, apple pie! Even though I don't eat sweets... Something about baking is very therapeutic... First time at crimping; notice how it starts off really rough, then gets better (sorta)?

Light Creamy Pepper Soup

Not a huge fan of bell peppers... But, I had them in my fridge the other day. My housemate bought them. And we had yams... or sweet potatoes... (In either case, they're the ones with the orangey coloured meat inside.) So I decided to make a soup!

So I sautéed some garlic and onions. Threw in an orange bell,  a red bell, and a Roma tomato (all de-seeded). Finally, I tossed in a yam, diced.

I looked in the fridge... only had about half a litre of milk. Poored that in. The liquid in the pot wasn't covering everything so I topped it off with water (hence the 'light' creamy pepper soup). I'm thinking that it would have been nice to add a concentrated beef broth. But, oh well, next time.

Last, I tossed in a couple of bay leaves, rosemary, black peppers, and basil. Also, I threw in a chili pepper I bought at a Mexican store in Kensington Market... Don't remember the name...

Boil, blend, re-heat, season, serve! (Drizzle olive oil on top! I would imagine a light drizzle of truffle oil wouldn't be bad either...?)