Of sausage and learning limits

Since injuring myself over 2 years ago I promised myself once I won my battles with Workers comp I would by myself a piece of equipment I have always wanted but could never Justify buying - A kitchen Aid mixer! Well the time came and went that I was recognized by CSST (Quebec's workers comp) and I finally found the machine I wanted on sale! I bought it and several attachments which In my mind would replace the decreased functionality of my hands that keeps me from working in my career path.



Naturally once I brought it home I decided to break it in and one of the attachments I bought was a meat grinder and sausage stuffer. There was a sale on pork loin and I carted home over 15 lbs or pork destined to become sausage, figuring my significant other and I would work on the project together.


Things became busy and I was stuck doing the task alone, though I was far from discouraged. I looked up some recipes online and let my creativity loose and decided on making 4 batches : Hungarian sausage, Bratwurst, Breakfast sausage and my own creation a Duck and dried blueberry concoction.


Needless to say I was overtly ambitious and before I was done it had taken me 3 days to complete between my machine and my hands needing rest. All the troubles and lessons learned aside things turned out wonderful and I rewarded myself with a supper of good ole Bangers and Mash with Sausage Gravy all made by yours truly. YUM!

Next time I will make smaller batches, enlist help and dust off my old culinary textbooks -  aim to try some cured sausages next time and hopefully this summer some smoked sausage as well.

Fear not my next blog will share the whole process with you :)

Camping Cookery

Last year I started a Project Called Camping Cookery! A blend of two of my favorite things camping and food. I filmed and posted some camping cooking videos and How To's.

This summer I filmed many many interesting videos and now that I have a computer that can preform I shall begin to edit and upload them once again.

Here is a video filmed this summer that I uploaded a few months back:

Part 1

Part 2

Stay Tuned for more videos after the holidays :)

Learning of Surgery

I saw a new specialist last week and after 2 years of not knowing it boils down to having to get surgery to repair the hole in  my Triangular Fibrocartilage  in my left wrist. Hopefully CSST will give me to OK to have surgery with this doctor because I like him Muchly.

I keep flip flopping on surgery - at first I was willing to do anything if it had even a small chance of helping or fixing my hand. Now I'm not so sure - worried about the pain, worried about the 6 weeks recovery in a cast... worried it wont help.

I guess I just have to keep swimming and see where it all takes me....

Vegetarian food and Irish Stew

Last week I was over to a friends house to have a meal and to visit. I was looking forward to having some vegetarian cuisine because my friend is on a strict, no meat, dairy, sugar or gluten diet. Many people would think she must eat only rice and veggies but to be truthful its not that hard to make food that complements her dietary needs - you just have to think outside the box a little!

When I arrived, amongst the greetings and hugs I could smell wonderful things coming fromt he kitchen. After following our host into her dining room she went up to her stove have lifted the lid wafting drool worthy smell towards us and exclaimed I've made Irish Stew!

Now of course a good home made stew is good anytime I was really curious to try hers and my slight disappointment of not trying a new vegetarian dish was replaced by excitement of finally tasting her infamous Irish Stew. My friend has a blog here: and many tims she has mentioned her stew along with various other friends and loved one.... so of course I wanted to try it as well!

Needless to say the stew was fantastic! You can tell the food is good when a satisfied silence descends upon the table while your house guests hapily eat away at thier meal. Another good sign is when all the food dissapears, eventhough you made much more than the amount of guests that had been invited.

I did however get a small taste of the vegetarian dish my friend had made for herself ... I think was an Etiopean lentil stew called Berbere. - In any event YUM

Asian Food Russian Roulette

I have been frequenting what used to be a hole-in-the-wall Noodle Shop since I was in college. 10 Years ago it used to be located near the corner of St Mathew and St Catherine in Montreal Quebec and over the years it has moved from place to place due to fire and condemned buildings. The great thing about all the moves, however, is that each time the restaurant got bigger and better but maintaining the same chef and waitress going back to my college years.

In my Opinion the best way to tell if the cuisine of a certain ethnicity is good or authentic is by how many ethnic people frequent the establishment. Nouille du Chef was certainly no exception then and is certainly the same 10 years later. This being my favorite restaurant in the area I have dined there often and brought along many friends who mostly poke fun at me for ordering the same exact things time after time : Salt and pepper squid and one of their house specialties of Beef Stew.

Since their newest location in 2012 - they added to their menu what used to be on a bulletin board written on panels of construction paper: their house Specialties. A few weeks ago myself and my significant other put ourselves to the challenge of randomly and blindly (since that section of the menu is written in traditional language) order things from this section of the Menu.

Being a foodie that must try everything at least once figured this would be GREAT fun and thus the Asian food Russian Roulette Began. We have been three times since then and have yet to be disappointed but that will be the topic of another blog.