It’s not that I don’t have recipes or dishes to talk about these days – I do! I just really don’t feel up to doing it. Maybe it’s because winter is just dragging on and on and on…I’m sure a little bit of spring would get me motivated again. Thankfully, it’s daylight savings this weekend, so I’ll finally get to enjoy a bit more sun at the end of the day.

I do have a little bit of foodie news though! A few weeks ago, Soli attended the open call for Food Network’s new show, Recipes to Riches. It was definitely a fun experience being on the other side of the TV, the side with all the lights and cameras and headsets and stressed out people. When it airs, we’ll definitely share more!

We’re also on our way to the Au Pied de Cochon sugarshack this weekend. Last year’s was amazing, and I can’t wait to go again. We’ll be giving a nice detailed description, packed with photos, once again.

We were just on a short trip to Tremblant for a weekend for Soli’s birthday, where some of us enjoyed snowboarding more than others. We had a lame meal at one resto (lackluster chili and a burger with an unidentifiable margarine-mayonnaise sauce), but at our super-fancy condo (complete with two bathrooms, two floors, full kitchen and enough beds to sleep about 6 people), Soli cooked up some Dungeness crabs one night and a breakfast of duck, bacon and eggs the next morning. No pictures of that, but check out the view from our bedroom window! There’s also a few other pics from the weekend:

Happy New Year! I can’t say I had the best holidays this time around, but that only means that I can try to make things better for next year. I hope everyone else had a great time and that people are looking forward to 2011 and excited for everything the year has to bring.

Before stepping into the new year, here’s a quick look back at some of the dishes we made in 2010 that I loved. Here’s my top 10 list, in no particular order:

Montcarte’s 2010 Top Ten!

1. Breakfast Tart with Fiddleheads, Mushrooms and Bacon

2. Salsa Verde or Tomatillo Salsa

3. Roasted Banana and Rum Raisin Ice Cream

4. Chili Cheese Bread

5. Buttermilk Vanilla Cupcakes with Chocolate Sour Cream Frosting

6. Berry Lemon Cake with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

7. Chewy Chocolate Gingerbread Cookies

8. Spinach and Sweet Potato Gratin

9. Cinnamon Apple Butter with Raisins

10. Maple Pecan Banana Bread

I’m also going to tack this next list on to this post…it’s not food-related, but here it is anyway! I attempted to complete the 50-Book-Challenge last year. I failed miserably, having completed only 35 books, but I blame a lot of that on summer. I do two hours of public transport commuting a day in the winter, which gives me ample time to read, but in the spring, summer and fall, I ride my bicycle, thus taking away a lot of my reading time. I suppose I could make up the time elsewhere…maybe this year, as I am going to be attempting it again in 2011.

Below, the list of the books I got through last year. The ones in bold are the ones I really, really enjoyed and would recommend.

1. What is the What – David Eggers
2. I Know This Much is True – Wally Lamb
3. Illusions – Richard Bach
4. The Husband – Dean Koontz
5. Of Love and Other Demons – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
6. The Coma – Alex Garland
7. The Underground Man – Mick Jackson
8. Write Great Fiction: Dialogue – Gloria Kempton
9. Oryx and Crake – Margaret Atwood
10. Fugitive Pieces – Anne Michaels
11. Old Friend from Far Away; The Practice of Writing Memoir – Natalie Goldberg
12. Headhunter – Timothy Findley
13. Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden
14. Fearless Confessions: A Writer’s Guide to Memoir – Sue William Silverman
15. Writing Down the Bones – Natalie Goldberg
16. Too Much Happiness – Alice Munro
17. The Cheese Monkeys – Chip Kidd
18. Rose Madder – Stephen King
19. Bel Canto – Ann Patchett
20. Kit’s Law – Donna Morrisey
21. Child of God – Cormac McCarthy
22. Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures – Vincent Lam
23. The Lovely Bones – Alice Sebold
24. The Human Stain – Philip Roth
25. Stories from the Vinyl Cafe – Stuart McLean
26. A Star Called Henry – Roddy Doyle
27. Black Bird – Michel Basilieres
28. Oxygen – Annabel Lyon
29. Generation X: Douglas Coupland
30. The Year of the Flood – Maragaret Atwood
31. Cell – Stephen King
32. The Golden Mean – Annabel Lyon
33. Red Plaid Shirt – Diane Schoemperlen
34. Angela’s Ashes – Frank McCourt
35. The World According to Garp – John Irving ( a much needed reread)

Christmas Eve dinner is kind of a big deal at my parents’ house. This is not a dinner of turkey, stuffing and potatoes (which we usually get on Christmas Day) – it’s a dinner of all the things we love. The dinner has no star player, nor does it have cohesion; it’s a mishmash of all the loved foods we rarely eat during the year. It’s a serious meal of indulgence, and probably the thing I look forward to the most on Christmas.

We all contribute some dishes to the meal, as well as desserts. I will slowly get around the writing about the dishes and desserts I made, with recipes and more detail, but for now, a taste of all the delicious, carb-heavy, cheese-laden things we devoured over the course of one short evening.

Baked Artichoke Dip

Made by my sister – this stuff is a meal on its own! When she offered me a spoonful while she was doling it out into the baking dish, I thought I was getting deviled egg filling…the garlicky, cheesy, tangy dip was quite the (pleasant) surprise. This stuff always, always gets quickly devoured when served as an appetizer at parties.

Jalapeno Pie and Pork Buns

I made the jalapeno pie and will do a post about it in the coming days. Cilantro, roasted jalapenos and cheese – how can you go wrong. My mom makes the pork buns, a Christmas staple. I’m not quite sure what goes into the mixture except for ground pork and chicken gumbo…I do know that I love these things.

Pastrami Rolls

These are probably my favourite Christmas Eve dinner addition, and I can’t even say why. Pillsbury crescent rolls wrapped around pastrami, mustard and cream cheese. Simple, and completely addictive. I can’t stop eating them – fresh out of the oven, nuked in the microwave, or straight from the fridge.

Baked Beans

My mom makes these. I have no idea what’s in them or how she does it. I know my sister loves them, and I know they are a fun addition to the meal. I like to scoop some of them up with my beloved pastrami rolls.

Turkey Salad with Grapes

My mom makes this as well. I haven’t had a better chicken or turkey salad ever. I think it’s the grapes that do it – the juicy sweet crunch does me in every time. The dill is also one of my favourite parts…also, I believe she only used the white meat, and when it comes to a chicken salad, dark meat is not something I want.

Scalloped Tomatoes

I made these, and will be doing a separate post about them. This was not my first time making them, and I love them. They were a good addition to a very carb-heavy meal!

I made some desserts, and again, I’ll write about them soon. Here’s some of the desserts my sister and mother made…cherry chews from my sis and toffee chocolate bars and Greek Christmas cookies from my mom:

I think our Christmas dinner is pretty unique – what does everyone else need to have on Christmas?

And – happy holidays to everyone!

We enjoy drinking absinthe. I appreciate its taste, and even more than that, I appreciate its strange (if not often-exaggerated) effects. It has a certain tingle that other alcohols just can’t produce.

However, we’re not often pleased with the selection available. We once found a great bottle, but for the past few years, its only been the swill that is Hill’s that’s been offered at the SAQ, and that really doesn’t have any of the warmth or tingle…it just gets you really drunk really fast. We recently read about a small influx of new absinthes that have reaches Quebec, these ones from Switzerland, the birthplace of the magical drink. This week, we picked up a pricey bottle of Clandestine absinthe to enjoy over the holidays.

We’ve sampled it, and it’s nice stuff. It’s got the tingle, it’s got the heat, it makes your cheeks flush and your toes vibrate. I think we made the perfect choice, though it’s hard to say after just a few sips. We’ll keep everyone updated once we get more…involved…

We also enjoyed a pretty beautiful walk through the snow to get it. Montreal’s gorgeous during the holidays:

The Eating Project posted a list of the 100 Chinese foods one should eat in one’s lifetime. I think I did okay, all things considered, but 50 out of 100? That’s a fail, and a long way off from the eating project’s list! Looks like I have some (really fun and delicious) work to do.

100 Chinese Foods to Try Before You Die

If you want to play along, copy & paste this list to your site. Put in bold the items you’ve already eaten and cross off the ones you would never try. Let me know your score by leaving a comment!

1. Almond milk
2. Ants Climbing a Tree (poetic, not literal, name)
3. Asian pear
4. Baby bok choy
5. Baijiu (chinese white liquor)
6. Beef brisket
7. Beggar’s Chicken
8. Bingtang hulu
9. Bitter melon
10. Bubble tea
11. Buddha’s Delight
12. Cantonese roast duck
13. Century egg, or thousand-year egg
14. Cha siu (cantonese roast pork)
15. Char kway teow
16. Chicken feet
17. Chinese sausage
18. Chow mein
19. Chrysanthemum tea
20. Claypot rice
21. Congee
22. Conpoy (dried scallops)
23. Crab rangoon
24. Dan Dan noodles
25. Dragonfruit
26. Dragon’s Beard candy
27. Dried cuttlefish
28. Drunken chicken
29. Dry-fried green beans
30. Egg drop soup
31. Egg rolls
32. Egg tart
33. Fresh bamboo shoots
34. Fortune cookies
35. Fried milk
36. Fried rice
37. Gai lan (Chinese broccoli)
38. General Tso’s Chicken
39. Gobi Manchurian
40. Goji berries (Chinese wolfberries)
41. Grass jelly
42. Hainan chicken rice
43. Hand-pulled noodles
44. Har gau
45. Haw flakes
46. Hibiscus tea
47. Hong Kong-style Milk Tea
48. Hot and sour soup
49. Hot Coca-Cola with Ginger
50. Hot Pot
51. Iron Goddess tea (Tieguanyin)
52. Jellyfish
53. Kosher Chinese food
54. Kung Pao Chicken
55. Lamb skewers (yangrou chua’r)
56. Lion’s Head meatballs
57. Lomo Saltado
58. Longan fruit
59. Lychee
60. Macaroni in soup with Spam
61. Malatang
62. Mantou, especially if fried and dipped in sweetened condensed milk
63. Mapo Tofu
64. Mock meat
65. Mooncake (bonus points for the snow-skin variety)
66. Nor mai gai (chicken and sticky rice in lotus leaf)
67. Pan-fried jiaozi
68. Peking duck
69. Pineapple bun
70. Prawn crackers
71. Pu’er tea
72. Rambutan
73. Red bean in dessert form
74. Red bayberry
75. Red cooked pork
76. Roast pigeon
77. Rose tea
78. Roujiamo
79. Scallion pancake
80. Shaved ice dessert
81. Sesame chicken
82. Sichuan pepper in any dish
83. Sichuan preserved vegetable (zhacai)
84. Silken tofu
85. Soy milk, freshly made
86. Steamed egg custard
87. Stinky tofu
88. Sugar cane juice
89. Sweet and sour pork, chicken, or shrimp
90. Taro
91. Tea eggs (actually made these myself!)
92. Tea-smoked duck
93. Turnip cake (law bok gau)
94. Twice-cooked pork
95. Water chestnut cake (mati gau)
96. Wonton noodle soup
97. Wood ear
98. Xiaolongbao (soup dumplings)
99. Yuanyang (half coffee, half tea, Hong Kong style)
100. Yunnan goat cheese

Here’s a quick post of some more of the local food we feasted upon while away on vacation. These two sandwiches are made with smoked seafood from Fumoir d’Antan, a smokehouse on the islands that specializes in smoked herring.

We went for the “tour” of the smokehouse, getting to see all the herring strung up over smouldering piles of wood. The atmosphere was great – very traditional and it felt like we had stepped back in time.

In the end, we bought all sorts of their smoked products. We brought back a jar of the smoked herring, and little tins of smoked mussels and lobster roe. We also bought some of their smoked mackerel, smoked salmon and a tray of smoked scallops. These were great to eat on their own, but even more fun to eat on sandwiches!

One lunch was smoked scallop grilled cheese, made entirely out of local products. We toasted up some of the amazing sourdough bread from the Madelon bakery, placed some of the smoked scallops on top, then smothered it with some of the unbelievable cheese from Pied-de-Vent fromagerie. Top with some black pepper and a little salt, and this was a great lunch.

Another day, we enjoyed this seafoody concocotion. Soli took some of the smoked herring and smoked salmon, tossed that into a bowl with fresh cherry tomatoes, two hard-boiled eggs, some chopped onion and a dollop of mayonnaise.

Mash it all up together, spread on some island baguette, and I was soon eating what soon became one of my most favourite sandwiches. Salty, smoky, fishy, and bright with the tomatoes – just perfection.

I loved eating these things on our porch. Who wouldn’t, when you walk out your front door and have this view?

Next post – the fishing trip! Until then, a few more photos from the islands:

We’re back from our Iles de la Madeleine vacation! We managed to miss the massive Montreal heatwave and instead enjoyed hot, windy weather and all the seafood we could possibly eat.

Soli did lots of cooking there. We had rented cottages with kitchens, so cooking up our own mussels and lobsters was easy. We only ate one small snack from one resto (a pretty pathetic lobster roll), and ate fresh, homecooked meals the rest of the time.

I’ll leave the cooking posts up to Soli…but until then, a small sampling of the things we got to eat that required no preparation or cooking.

Lobster Roll
While in Prince Edward Island, the urge for good seafood overcame us, and we ordered one sandwich with our beer. This was just way overdone with the Miracle Whip. We could barely taste the lobster, so we vowed never to eat at a resto during this trip again.

Snow Crab
We got these at a STEAL at one of the fish markets in Iles de la Madeleine. They were already cooked, so all we had to do was warm them up. We had them boiled, BBQ’d, and everything, and they were a staple in our island diet. Just heavenly.

Fresh Scallops
We made some friends while we were there (Hi William and Elodie!), who brought us down to the fishing harbour our cottage overlooked late one night to meet a boat that had just arrived with a massive haul of scallops. We bought about 3 kilos fresh off the boat and enjoyed them raw all that night and for breakfast the next morning (and then for a few days after). If you’ve never had a scallop fresh from the ocean, then you haven’t had a scallop!

We also bought some in their shells, which were also sooo amazing.

Pied de Vent Cheese
The islands have a fromagerie that produces some of the best cheese I’ve enjoyed. We bought curds that were still warm and enjoyed other cheeses with a chilled glass of wine.

After driving for about 20 hours, then getting tossed about on a 5-hour ferry ride, we got to spend a week on Iles de la Madeleine, eating and exploring to our hearts’ content. Food isn’t the only reason to go; this place is one of the most idyllic places we’ve had the opportunity to go to, and here’s a couple of photos to prove it:

Just wait until you hear about the food we actually had to work for!

Two years ago, montcarte was born. It’s been a great and delicious two years and I’ve gotten so much out of keeping this blog. I’ve stumbled across so many talented cooks and bakers, communicated with them, learned a lot about food and food photography and overall, have experienced food in a completely different way than before.

So this post is to say, Happy Birthday!

Often, the things we’ve made and loved aren’t always the dishes that bring us the most visitors. So to celebrate two years in the blogosphere, I’m going to make two lists: the first is our top 10 posts according to Google Analytics and the second is my own personal top 10 favourite dishes of the past two years.

Montcarte’s Top 10 Posts
(according to Google Analytics)

1. Vanilla Cupcakes with Lemon-Lime Curd Filling and Lemon-Lime Frosting

2. Greek Pasta Salad with Feta and Olives

3. Caramel Apple Cupcakes

4. Mini Pumpkin Whoopie Pies

5. Eggs Benedict and Toasted Crispy Spinach

6. Chocolate Crackle Cookies

7. Raspberry and White Chocolate Muffins

8. White Chocolate Raspberry Cookies

9. Blueberry Lemon Loaf with Lemon Glaze

10. The Neiman Marcus Chocolate Chip Cookie

and now…

Montcarte’s Top 10 Posts
(according to ME!)

1. Asparagus and Mushroom Bread Pudding

2. Tomato Tart (or Tarte à la tomate)

3. Crepes Terrine with Spinach, Mushroom, and Smoked Turkey

4. Orange Chocolate Chunk Bundt Cake

5. Baja Fish Tacos

6. Tomato-Basil Upside Down Bread

7. White Chocolate Raspberry Cookies

8. Butternut Squash and Pecan Lasagne

9. Schwartz’s Smoked Meat Pizza

10. Low and Luscious Chocolate Cheesecake with Cappuccino Swirl

Thank you to all the readers – half the fun of this site is getting the chance to know you.

So…montcarte has joined the world of tweets!

I wanna see what all the excitement is about. I also want more people to follow, so leave a comment with your name.

Follow us on Twitter!

I just made my first attempt at making my own dill pickles. I won’t reveal the recipe I used until the pickles are tested.

I had a lot of fun making them. There was something satisfying about sterilizing the jars, stuffing them with fresh dill, garlic, onions and dried chilies…and then waiting for the telltale pop!

Now I just have to wait three weeks. Well, at least they’re pretty to look at.

Stay tuned for Spicy Dill Pickles – Part II!