Food Memories

Friday the 13th. And on the freeway to Orange County. Lunch at the Bowers museum was very good. Joacham Splichal of the Patina group owns the restaurant and they have some unusual items on the menu. "Airline chicken" caught our attention and we asked what it was. Turns out they get their chicken breasts from a farm on the east coast. The chicken breasts are flown to OC and logically became airline chicken breasts. They also serve "soup of yesterday" instead of "soup of the day", because everyone knows that soup is better the second day.

We had four appetizers: the spanish cheese with grapes baked in sherry, eggplant and carrots cooked with cumin and pomegranite syrup, skirt steak on skewers with mache salad and crab cakes. They were all good but the skirt steak and the eggplants were my favorites. For dessert we had the chocolate pyramid which was a really delicious chocolate mousse served with real, creamy, buttery caramel sauce dotted on the plate. The caramel was so good that I'm sure either Shari or myself would have licked the plate. After lunch we visited the gift shop briefly and then I shot over to my brother-in-laws to help him organize his closet. It wasn't a big job as he doesn't have too much. He took me to dinner at Le Brasserie but it was closed for remodeling so we went to an Italian restaurant in Orange where I had cannelonni and Jim had veal marsala.

Jim is going to Winnipeg and my thoughts turn to the foods we used to love there. Kelekis' hot dogs and chips, Blakes fish and chips, Salisbury house nip and chips, the malts at the Hudson's Bay, Jeannies cakes, pierogis with sour cream and onions, Mrs. Wiebes cream puffs, my mother's paper-thin crepes slathered with butter and brown sugar, fresh green beans out of the garden steamed about a minute and eaten with butter, salt and pepper, pickerel fillets, fiddle head ferns, stewed rhubarb, fresh raspberries with cream, fresh blueberries with cream, smoked goldeye.

From the web, author unknown:

Jeannies cake icing recipe:1 CUP MILK 3 TBSP. CORNSTARCH 1/2 CUP WHITE MARGARINE 3/4 CUP SHORTENING 1 CUP FINE GRANULAR SUGAR (icing sugar) 2 TSP. VANILLA Extract. Combine cornstarch and milk in a sauce pan. Cook over medium heat until thick, stirring slowly and constantly. When thick remove from heat and keep stirring until mixture is cool. Combine margarine, shortening and sugar and beat with electric mixer until creamy. This takes about 7 - 10 minutes. Add to cooled milk mixture, add vanilla and beat on medium speed till icing resembles whipped cream. Butter can be substituted if white margarine is not available but will color the icing off yellow. This icing is best when made fresh as it does not keep well.