Rhubarb meringue custard pie

Because what else would I do on a gorgeously sunny weekend in Chicago but stay inside the house and bake!

No, really, there is good reason: Kenn and Cliff have invited us to dinner tonight, and we were asked to bring dessert. Conrad can, I admit, work wonders with boneless chicken breasts and cream of mushroom soup, but I am not sure I want him to tackle dessert without his Mom co-baking. Over to me, then.

Helen used to make this on occasion at the restaurant, but I've never tried the recipe. The rhubarb meringue custard pie comes from a cookbook by Karen Barnaby of the Fish House in Stanley Park. Nice restaurant, and I do like her books. Not-so-secretly, I utterly love this one for its cover alone, but there are some good recipes in it.

I did the whole thing her way, pretty much. I used her pastry recipe even, which was fine though not the same as my own.




Conrad was a little fascinated by the whole process of working with pastry. I have to admit, I'm still a bit haphazard about the whole process. Mine is usually good enough, and it took me a lot more practice than I care to admit to get to "good enough"!




The pie smelled lovely once it was out of the oven. I hope it turns out fine. Rhubarb just struck me as such a perfect spring thing to use for dessert. Yes, those are jam tartlets in the background - what better use to put leftover dough to? You surely know I'd munch on all the raw dough otherwise!


The pie juest came out of its second bake a short time ago. I should say that the second bake - kind of obviously - is to toast the meringue and nothing more. I think it looks decent enough for dinner (though the crust is a little speckly brown - from the butter?). I kind of hope that everyone assumes it's a lemon pie and enjoys the surprise of the rhubarb custard filling!

Beer School

Just home from the 1650 at the State Meet, and despite FXK thinking that Beer School last night might affect my performance, I swam a decent 20:03. Not too bad.

I'm still going to scratch my events for the rest of the weekend. Lots of stuff to get accomplished here, and I really need the time at home this weekend. Truly. Dominic, don't roll your eyes!

But back to Beer School...

FXK sent out the invitation a while back, and when I saw that it was featuring Unibroue beers, I jumped at the chance. I am not a beer person, I will be honest. I drink beer sometimes, but I have a limited palate and a limited vocbaulary and a limited appreciation. But Unibroue is from the homeland, and close to home in that I enjoyed some of the labels when I lived in Montreal.

Fun night at the Globe Pub. Francis and Kim were both there (and old hands at the way the School works), along with CG, CG's friend and colleague Morgan, and Warren, a friend and colleague from our library.

We tasted 8 beers in all. First up was a favourite of mine: Blanche de Chambly. I also liked the apple-scented Ephemère, a bottle of which is in my fridge from a past shopping trip. La Fin du Monde and Maudite were both fine, though I might not order them myself. The Don de Dieu was likeable, but less so. I was not wild about the dark beers, the Noire de Chambly and the Terrible. I can't for the life of me recall the eighth beer either. Hmmm.

Anyway, I kind of felt how Conrad feels sometimes about wine: I didn't know how to talk about what I was tasting. I couched things in terms for wine or food, and so the Noire de Chambly came across to me like coffee and prunes. Valid reactions, but frustrating for not soundng like the people there who knew their beer.

But it was fun, really.





I didn't find a new favourite, but I was glad to get out, have a load of laughs, and hear some new things about some beverages I knew somewhat already. When I got home, I wasn't hungry, but I craved some salt. See, poutine has an important purpose in life!

Of course, it's wine I'm drinking right now, a South African Steen.

:-)

Vancouver (and New Westminster): day and night

Some final shots from last weekend's trip to BC. We stayed at the Terminal City Tower Hotel. My raging cold kept me from really taking advantage of the health club amenities, but it was a good stay nonetheless. After all, it's a lovely city - rain or shine, day or night.

So...

...views from our hotel room of Hastings Street and of the water...

...and of Hastings Street at night.

We were out in the suburb of New Westminster on consecutive days. On the first of these, we snapped a couple of shots of bridges east of downtown:

We're assuming that this is a set of Chihuly pieces gracing the plaza of a residential highrise just north of Robson Street. Gorgeous, to say the least!

3 Vancouver meals

Three recent dinners in Vancouver. How funny it is in retrospect that I ordered halibut each time. Prepared differently in each case, of course, but it leaves no doubt as to what one of my favourite fish is!

First up, Cassis Bistro. We dined there in January with Mum and Roy, and Conrad and I had wanted to go back. Halibut for each of us with a side of glazed veggies (beans and zucchini) to share. Tasty food once again. We'll happily go back.




After the Easter brunch visit to the family, Conrad and I nejoyed dinner with my sister at O'Doul's at the Listel Hotel on Robson. A rainy night out, and my cold was in full swing. That meant I didn't really partake in the wine the other two were enjoying and discussing at length with the waiter. O'Doul's does have a terrific wine list - a lot of BC wines on it - and the private dining room's display was a delight to browse.


I had the halibut.


Marie had a ravioli dish with roasted vegetables.


Conrad went for salmon, not unexpectedly!


The next evening the three of us had an early dinner at Il Nido. I was a little more hungry than the evening before, so I shared in the squid and the spinach salad
with the other two.


Marie's pork was the prettiest of the entrees.


I can't recall what Conrad had, and it didn't photograph well. The beans with the halibut were a touch al dente for my liking, but otherwise the fish was once again a terrific choice.

"Sunshine" Coast

My Grandma kept a weekend home on the Sunshine Coast. We loved visiting there when we were young. The beachfront was rocky, but when the tide was high, we could swim from the decrepit old dock over which a tree full of apples hung. Blackberry brambles grew in profusion in the area, and staining our mouths and tongues purple with the fat berries was an important summer duty. Trolling for rock cod offshore was another fun activity, and once we even went over to Skeleton Island (you know, I don't know if that's what we called it or if that's its real name) and dug for clams. It wasn't fancy, but it was a great part of our summer experience.

By the time Grandma died in 1992, she had sold her house in Vancouver and relocated to the summer home permanently. Dad inherited the house from her, and after a number of years of mixed experiences juggling an array of tenants with vacation use, he retired there in 2005. It then took a whole lot of renovation and landscaping, but it seems that Grandma's old summer home is now a nice home for Dad, Bella, and the boys.

Conrad and I hadn't been up to Pender Harbour since 2005, so on Easter Sunday the two of us (along with Marie) caught the ferry up to the Sunshine Coast. We were planning on brunching with the family, seeing the house, and returning to Vancouver in time for a late dinner. And that's exactly what we did.

The Sunshine Coast is sometimes an accurate name for what was once a bucolic stretch of summer homes and retirees, fishing boats and rocky shores shaded by arbutus trees. Last Sunday, though, the name was anything but accurate. We left Horseshoe Bay under entirely grey skies.




No, not entirely. Off in the distance, toward Vancouver Island, there was a good-sized clearing in the clouds. Could it extend over to brighten up our day?

No. The rain held off, at least until our return to Vancouver, but no, the day remained cloudy. We dawdled up the coast, stopping for an extended coffee break at Wheatberries in Sechelt. Over a snack or two from the bakery, we showed Marie photos from New Zealand.

We met the family at a resort not too far from their home. Conrad, Marie, and I were a little early, so we wandered the grounds a bit and took photos.




The sea anemones caught my eye. Marie took lots of photos of the peeling bark on the arbutus limbs and trunks.


After brunch it was time to see the house and surrounding landscaping. It looked good.
Dad showed us around while Mark, one of his friends, and Nigel hopped in the boat to go fishing for a spell. That didn't last long; even so, we had to start the drive back down to catch the ferry from Langdale. Some family photos - Carlos and Nigel didn't bother taking part - and we were on our way back south again.

Notice anything?

A week ago we flew out to Vancouver, and because it's a four-hour flight, we upgraded. Yes, we're spoiled. Not that the food is super-fabulous (though I'd legitimately argue that it's better than the food served on campus, especially when you get pretty much as much wine as you'd like) but it wasn't a bad lunch of sandwich and soup. But wait, what is that unusual thing I spy?


No, not there. Kind of standard but reasonable food.


No, look here:A metal knife. What? Was this some weird fluke? Did the orange or yellow alert get all beige on us? We don't know, but it happened again with our food on the way back home to Chicago. Kind of nice to see it back, in a small, curious way....

one thing I miss about BC

Time for bed very soon, I think. Still more photos to come from the long Easter weekend in BC, but for now, a couple of shots Conrad took out the plane window as we got closer to BC. I concede, these may be somewhere in Washington state, but really, we can just think of that as an extension of the province above!

:-)

language barriers

I'm always amused when people in this country talk about me having a "Canadian" accent. As if everyone in Canada were from Ontario and said things like "oat and aboat" or "oot and aboot" or however we supposedly say it. Or as if I end every sentence with "eh". Good luck catching me saying that one.

No, there is no single Canadian accent just as there is no single American accent. Correspondingly, we use different vocabulary from Americans at times, and we also use different vocabulary depending on the part of the country we're from.

Okay, I'm not a linguist. Others have done studies, and the results likely contradict what I think. Still, there are words or expressions in use in one part of Canada and not in others. My favourite?



That was a sign in the Renaissance Hotel in Vancouver. Conrad is used to such oddities now. It's one term only, but it's a useful one for picking the BCers out of a crowd. Allison and I have had fun discussing some of them in e-mail.

A few years back the oral surgeon I went to see for my wisdom teeth managed to pick me out as a BCer based upon my pronunciation of "again", which I thought an impressive feat.

Austin (delayed, quick wrap up)

Busy life. Bad cold. You've heard these excuses from me before. On to the Austin photos from the end of March/start of April before I blog the recent Vancouver trip. It's that anal-librarian-chronological order thing I have.

So then, let's see...

...arrived on a gloomy Friday and the threat of much rain.



Dinner that night was at Truluck's. In retrospect, the crab cake we shared and the simply prepared Gulf snapper with chef's toppings were not masterworks of cuisine, but gosh darn was it what I was wanting that night. We ate better in Austin, but that night, after going a week without seeing Conrad, I was having the most wonderful time of it.



Threat of rain? Threat of sunburn! A shame that the cold I still have or allergies or something was again kicking me around (that makes three weekends out of town this year when I've been under the weather. Grrr!) because the sunshine was lovely. After breakfast we walked around the University of Texas campus, taking photos and buying a few t-shirts. Conrad is an alum, after all!









We managed to get an early reservation at a place called Wink that sounded promising. Was it ever! I'll single out Debra, the waitress, as the single best thing about the place, and that's high praise. Many wines by the glass - and she offered us some tastings before we settled on our choices. Who knew I'd like the Italian red so much? The food was delightful as well, gaining in strength as the evening luxuriously unrolled. Spinach salad with granny smith apple, toasted walnuts, baby leeks, and rochetta buttermilk:

Vermouth steamed PEI mussels with verjus pickled garlic and tomato confit:

Dayboat scallops on endive and roasted muscat grape salad with foie gras vinaigrette:

Seared quail breast on fava bean and baby arugula salad with roasted tomato vinaigrette:

Butter basted skatewing with caramelized salsify, spring shallots, and caper pan sauce:

Happy, still sniffling some...


... I made it through to the cheese course before the dessert, which we devoured before we thought to take photos.


I'm embarrassed I can't remember the name of the coffeehouse/diner where we ate breakfast at the counter the next day, but I thought the Coca Cola Cake looked like a hoot. Made with the pop itself. Ah well, I shouldn't laugh: my birthday cake every year was mayonnaise cake.


Between breakfast and the airport we wandered in and around the Capitol. It's a handsome complex, decorated with stars and the state name as much as possible. One surprise was seeing amongst the portraits of Texan governors the face of a woman - back in the 1920s. Elected again in the 1930s. Texas is more progressive than stereotypes might make you think, I guess.

A few more shots from Austin

It's late-ish. I haven't managed to get done a fraction of the things I wanted to do tonight. Too occupied with swimming, cooking dinner, booking ferries on Easter Sunday and brunch with the family. Blah blah blah. My difficult life.

Uh huh.

Anyway, I thought I'd get a few more Austin shots up before I turn in for the night. More to come, including some food. Oh, and speaking of which, no shots tonight of dinner, but I made an interesting side dish. I based it on a Georgian (as in, the former Soviet republic) recipe for a salad of red beans and walnuts. It was strongly flavoured: coriander seed, a bunch of garlic, some onion, a whole bunch of walnuts (I'm on a HUGE walnut kick these days), vinegar, and chile flakes all added some potency to the puree. Yummy with the chicken breast, though, and so bold that we were able to pair the dinner with a nice little half bottle of Qupe Syrah. And then we opened a bottle of a different Syrah to continue sipping while family and Easter were aggravating the heck out of me.

:-P

On to photos:

Cows in Chicago a few years back, guitars in Austin. This was near a place on South Congress (SoCo) where we ate breakfast. The art is from the cover of the Los Lobos album La Pistola y El Corazon, a CD I haven't listened to a great deal lately but do like immensely. We shopped in a neat little store tucked in the strip behind me as well.

The view north on Congress. I have more photos of the Capitol to pull off the camera chip still.


Two views from our room at the Omni, which was a rare case (in my experience) of windows facing an internal space and yet somehow still making for an attractive room. Alas, those are offices right across from us in the same building, and Conrad and I ran the risk of providing free shows had we not kept the drapes pulled whenever we dashed into the shower.

Two nights in Baltimore

I'd already counted Maryland on my list of visited states - in accordance with Geoff's rules (a visit is official if it is outside of an airport and involves a meal, an overnight stay, or use of a washroom). Before last week I'd done two of those - and more than once each - and now I can say I've spent the night in the state. Two nights, in fact.

Baltimore hosted this year's ACRL Conference, but I decided I couldn't justify the expense of registration for a conference I've not gotten a lot from in its two most recent iterations (Charlotte 2003 and Minneapolis 2005). I went in, presented my pre-conference, had a couple of nice dinners, came home. Saw a few people, too, including Kathryn and David who were there working for ACRL.



I will admit, I kind of thought the city would be a bit like Cleveland on the East Coast. Quiet. Old buildings. No life after dark. Dingy. I think there must be parts of Baltimore that are like that. However, I came away thinking I'd like to visit the city when I don't have a work reason so to do. The area around the Inner Harbor was lively, and there seemed to be a good range of shops, restaurants, and attractions. Plus, the weather was entirely springlike and pleasant. What little I saw of the city left a good impression on me.

My hotel did not leave a great impression on me, but it wasn't horrid. The views weren't too bad.
I took a few other photos about the city when I remembered to as well.




The food was good. I spared Anne the ordeal of me photographing dinner when we ate at Pazo, but I'd recommend a return visit. I especially liked the albondigas - lamb meatballs in a sauce in which the saffron was sufficiently assertive. Good stuff. I'll also say that the waitress was friendly and helpful, and her wine recommendation was altogether decent.

Dinner the second night wasn't quite as good ,though it was nicely inexpensive, and the Malbec we ordered (two bottles) was a good match for the Cuban food. Babalu Grill was where I dined with CG, SC (great to see him!), and Heather.



The scallops looked a bit much in their coating and deep red sauce, but they were a highlight.

I do hope to get back to Baltimore one day and roam around a little more. It does seem to be a fine city in its own right, and I'm sorry I was limited to my pre-conference experience.