JamieOliver.com

I have mentioned I have been obessed with perfecting poached eggs this past month or so . These pictures were taken over that time period.

eggs bennedict

it isn't obviously visible but the bread is light rye, under the egg is a slice of peameal bacon, poached egg, slice of avocado , hollandaise sauce , fresh minced parsley and fresh cracked black pepper.

Salmon cake made by my wife with some leftover salmon and mashed potato..  poached egg on top with a good spoon of garlic chilli sauce .

this is a  hash of potato, kielbasa , onion, kalamata olives, celery, smoked parika, berbere powder, dried oregano, fresh cracked black pepper. . with a poached egg on top and a small salad of fresh minced parsley and shallot dressed with EVOO,lemon juice oregano   to give a fresh bright counterpoint.

Sorry folks , no picture for this blog entry as we forgot our camera at home. this is really a shame because it was a gorgeous day and every few minutes we were saying. I wish we had  brought the camera

It was a very foodie enjoyable day today..

My wife and her parents and I  went for a drive/ winery tour down in the twenty valley of Niagara. If you ever spend some time in niagara falls and want to get off the beaten track , or if you have been to the falls and and niagara on the lake and want something different, a winery tour of the twenty valley  is a great day.


A full day of tastings for my FIL and I   and some nice knick knack shopping for my wife who was the DD and MIL who doesn't drink.   we only eneded up paying for one sample out of all of them  . most of them have an official sampling fee but most don't enforce it except for the icewines but  I even managed to get a complimentary icewine sample while the people next to me had to pay for theirs.    It pays to be interested and smooze  and know or at least pretend to know what you are talking about , so that the sample people try to upsell you  with comp samples.     I was especially proud of getting a comp sample from this one really crusty lady  at one of the wineries back up on the ridge. I am willing to bet it was one of maybe two or three she hands out a year .   It is really too bad I didn't actually like the wine and ended up leaving most of the sample   but it was fun working the process.



stops in order and things tasted or bought

kittling ridge estate wines and spirits  .. this distillery makes my favourite canadian whisky..
forty creek barrel select.

sampled 

black stripe rum .  decent for a white rum but not a patch on appleton
a small cask brandy  not very nice at all.  I picked up an almost soapy aftertaste .
OH Canada maple liqueuer.    This was the highlight of the day.  wow..  like drinking maple and honey . yes we bought this..
also a cookbook for my wife and a bottle ofa decent table  red that was end of run and reduced in price .

rosewood estate winery and meadery

semilon  . a white that was very subtle and structured  but didn't wow me ( semilon is the grape varietal that is the base for sauternes but in france the keep the grapes on the vine much longer to concentrate the sugars . )

Mon cherie  .. a sour cherry mead.     again very subtle but great structure.  sour cherry juice is added in with the honey  for this wine.. 

mead Royale.. very good mead , sweet but balanced.  I would have bought a bottle of this but as much as I liked it there is a meadery near where friends of ours live that has one I like even better.  I will just  wait til we visit to stock up.


thirty bench  winery. (this was the place with the crusty sample lady )

thirty bench riesling  (the one sample I paid for all day) nothing special  but not unpleasant by any means.
thirty bench red.     comp'd...   so nasty I ended up having to spit once outside  much to my wife's ammusment..  ( i guess the moral is you get what you pay for or something like that)

We were going to stop at Wayne Gretzky Estates   winery but needed to  find lunch for my father in law so pushed on to stoney ridge winery where we have had a nice lunch in the past

stoney ridge winery..  inside room was booked for private function  and outside was too cold so we   didn't eat here.

sampled and bought some cranberry wine

this stuff is amazing and not the first time we have bought it.   It literally tastes like fresh cranberry juice but without the extreme pucker . 

we ended up having a  nice lunch in this funky little restuarant with great food 
Zooma Zooma in Jordan village . 
small menu but everything  we tried was not only good but excellent.  open faced rueben sandwich  and a south west corn chowder for me. My wife and mil had a personal pizza and salad.  double smoked bacon, mushrooms, and asiago  , mixed greens and raspberry vinegrette.   FIL had a crab & lobster salad sanwich on a croisant with the same salad.   coffee for three of us and two pieces of pie   was just 60$ including tx.

Across the street in jordan village is Cave spring winery. 

sampled
2009 Cave spring riesling indian summer select late harvest
I really liked the 2007 version of this wine but the 2009  vintage just doesn't have the acidity or balance I loved in the 2007

while sampling this I think my interest  made the sample lady think she could upsell me so she comp'd me a sample of their 2008 Riesling Icewine.  at 50$ for a 375 ml bottle  it really wasn't happening even though this is really a great icewine.  It was a generous pour too, probably about 10 $ worth of icewine.. I should feel guilty but well 



We stopped in at the Upper Canada cheese company .


sampled through some of their newer cheese I havn't had before

cottage gold.  it had an almost parm or asiago type of thing going for it.. very nice cheese
smoked comfort cream   a brie type cheese that is cold smoked.. very good
wine infused comfort cream same starting brie type cheese that has been wine washed  intense and very good
Nosey Nanny Goat  .. a limited run camebert style cheese..  I wasn't fussy on this but I am picky about what I like in goatsmilk cheeses.

I ended up buying a couple containers of guernsey ricotta  and some guernsey girl cheese.( a grilling cheese  somewhat like haloumi iin texture if not taste)




Last stop of the day was  Ikea  ,which was actually for my wife in exchange for her   DD  duty for the day.  ..
She was very excited  to see all their new christmas decorations and gift wrapping.

Another pie from our thanksgiving supper last weekend.   

still not a tart Minnie.