Hey good lookin', what's cookin'?

There's a place called the Empanada Company, but they're in Etobicoke: www.empanada.ca

Empanada dough discussion at Chowhound, but old: http://www.chowhound.com/post/empanada-dough-713424 Most of the rest of the discussions, even specifying "tapas" or "dough" are about ready-to-eat empanadas. One of the strangest discussions was someone asking for the frozen dough, but IMPORTED from Argentina. There is a difference between the Argentine/Uruguayan and Chilean styles, but my corner grocery sells both.

I pulled out the Julia Child books last night and made Caneton roti a l'Alsacienne* (Roast duck with apple and sausage stuffing).  It was sublime. 

*Please excuse absence of proper accent marks. I'm lazy. ;)

Lamb's liver is delicious; I've never had liver from an adult sheep, but the lambs I see (yes, quite literally) at the nearby Moroccan butcher are quite large, not the little milk lambs.

I don't think it is a bad thing to see where meat comes from, if one does eat meat.

I find the flavour much more delicate than beef liver. Yes, of course you want the liver. And the kidneys. And the heart.

No idea!

I use a heavy- bottomed stainless pan for steaks so I can use the browning for peppercorn sauce. I have two griddles that came with my gas range, one non-stick and the other cast iron, the latter two- sided so you can opt for ridged or flat surface. Very handy items.

Of course I've heard of haggis, and even eaten it, but I confess I've never cooked it. And like andouillette, I don't really like it very much. Actually, andouillette is (IMHO) much worse than haggis.

Since I'm currently looking for work and am on a tight budget, my food choices have been rather plain and budget conscious.  Generally whatever cheap goods I can throw in a pot and eat.  Mostly soup with either yellow split peas or red lentils with some brown rice, or potatoes with carrots and peas (I'm a vegetarian). 

Recently I bought a bag of 1/2 price rough-looking kale from No-Frills.  While I'm not familiar with kale, I figured I'd try it.  I read that while the stems are edible, most people don't eat them.  In looking at the kale I bought, it seemed over half of it was stems.  So, waste not want not.  I separated the leaves from the stems, chopped the leaves, then chopped the stems, and in it all went with the potatoes, carrots, peas, onions, beets, garlic powder, coriander, cumin, red pepper flakes, salt (sometimes I'll use different spices -- depends what's lying around and/or what I'm the mood for), and some canola oil. 

Tasted fine.  I mean, kale leaves are kinda disgusting, but I didn't really notice anything much.  And the stem bits were fine -- sort of like little bits of tasteless fiber like celery, in my opinion.  I may try frying chopped kale stems for snacks in the future.  Maybe with sesame seeds, kale leaves, red pepper flakes, and garlic.  Any food, even kale, can be made palatable with red pepper flakes and garlic, I feel.

Well, I just ate the stems in the soup a while ago.  Time will tell what effect on digestion it has.

PA Supermarket, that Greek place I often mention, often has deep discounts on cheeses, as does the sometimes even cheaper Segall, known as "the stinky store" or "the United Nations of Rudeness".

I'm fine with caldo verde (in a fine julienne) but don't eat the stems of the kale. By the way, Tuscan or black kale, also known as lancinato, is much less tough. It isn't black when cooked; it is a pretty dark green.

I know very well what effect eating the stems would have on my digestion (euphemism).

Yes, Metro was originally from here. Actually, Metro has bought up the Lebanese Adonis chain, which has expanded to the GTA (Mississauga and now Scarborough). I consult the flyers (online) for Metro and IGA (Sobeys) and even the Loblaws banners, for loss-leaders and other specials, but their produce is usually ridiculously expensive, and I have a Vietnamese supermarket closer.

Even Jean-Talon Market has become far more posh than when I moved into the area, and Atwater, which is more similar to St. Lawrence Market, even physically, much more so.

Do your Portuguese butchers have good frozen fish? That is very handy especially for single people. Some even have mixes of fish and seafood to make a Portuguese fish stew.

Oh dear, that hipster place sounds deplorable. It couldn't survive here without being able to bake decent breads.

I won't bore you with how many bakeries I can walk to. Not just French and Italian - I'm not far from a good central European kosher one, on the edge of Park-Ex, and of course Arabic (Maghrebi and Lebanese) bread bakeries, and a Moroccan grocery/butcher shop that has great packaged breads.

No good bread (even sliced) at that good walkable grocery store?

Crêpes are really easy to make, if you can enlist some of your teenage labour ... which might not be so easy.

Thing 2 visited Norway??? Family, I presume?

The reason I mention crêpes is that they are fairly cheap - the most expensive ingredient is eggs; actually buckwheat galettes can be made without them, and were, but I think that was more an example of poverty on the Celtic fringe than a gastronomic choice. I actually like the extra nutrients from eggs. And they are very impressive to serve to guests - a great thing for students to know how to make. It is just a matter of getting the hang of them, and yes, you are likey to "wreck" your first tries, but they'll still be edible. You can even freeze a stack of them - better with cooking paper or something between them.

Sounds lovely. Gang didn't do anything this weekend (some parents and granparents were busy with rugrats) but we'll be doing that next weekend. Person hosting (as in at her house, not that she is doing everything) is making goulasch - I think I might make red cabbage as it is still wintry enough for that, but perhaps also green salad. I don't know whether i'll have the energy to make a Pasqualina: http://www.visitgenoa.it/en/torta-pasqualina-easter-tart (note that this recipe is in several languages). You can also add or sub spinach - traditionally there are many seasonal greens, some wild. No, you won't find the cheese they specify, but good ricotta (like the Skotidakis kind) or the dry cottage cheese for cooking, mixed with some other creamier cheeses, would also do. I use the ricotta.

I don't have anywhere to cook a whole turkey - my stove died a few years ago and since then I've been using a countertop convection oven. I can cook a chicken in it, or turkey parts. I also like to braise turkey thighs. But for this meal I'll make non-meat stuff, as at least one of the guests is vegetarian, but not vegan, so he can eat the Pasqualina.

We do have reindeer, but it is wild. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reindeer Reindeer and Caribou are the same species, though there are sub-species. Evidently they are reared/ranched in Canada, but I've only eaten wild caribou, and it was a gift from Northern Indigenous colleagues (Inuit, Northern Cree, Innu)...

Venison or elk are much closer to caribou/reindeer. Bison is of course a bovine.

I grew up on wild game. Venison, deer sausage, most years. The years Dad got a moose or elk license, we filled the deep freeze and ate that for a year. Antelope, one year. Birds in season - duck, goose, Hungarian partridge, prairie chicken. I don't know anyone who hunts anymore, so I haven't had wild game in a long time. Farmed is fine, though.

Yup, pronghorn! Basically, they're a wild goat. Pretty tough and gamey, so we didn't do it a second time.

We also fished.  Dad, who liked forage fishing and tournament fishing, referred to himself as The Walleye King. After he died, the tournament guys instituted a special award for sportsmanship in his name. The winter before he died, he invited me to join him for an ice fishing tournament. It was a lot of fun. I don't think we caught anything, just sat out on the lake, drank schnapps and laughed a lot.

Urgh, a little verklemt, here.

Anyway, fall meant tramping around various sloughs, ravines and valleys, spring and summer meant a lot of time in the boat. Pickerel, sometimes jack, we knew where to find perch and even lake trout. Nothing like fresh pickerel or lake trout. And we even had pickerel cheeks.  :)

Mr. Magoo wrote:

Did you actually make the pecan pie??

No, there's a local bakery that makes a good one.  Never made one myself.  Off the top I've only made apple, rhubarb, pot pies, coconut cream and lemon meringue.