meansoybean

I had some leftover Filthy rich pasta sauce and decided to make some calzones.
In the middle of each 8 inch circle of dough I put down several spoonfuls of sauce, some diced red peppers, a diced mushroom and a slice of Follow Your Heart mozzarella. Then seal it up, slice some vent holes and bake! Of course, I used my cast iron griddle to get that crisp crust. Yummers!

Is there anyone else who feels kinda unclean after that craptacular 2010 Winter Olympics opener?

I’m not sure why they did it, but there were a lot well known (read: pop) Canadian singers performing songs that didn’t really have anything to do with the Olympics. Not to mention that very American-esque rendition of our national anthem. WTF. As I was watching, I could sense a compilation album in the wings, ready to be hocked. Today I got a newsletter from Chapters/Indigo and there it was. Big surprise. I suspect to see this in the bargain bin shortly after the Games are done. As a whole, the vocal performances felt out of place and meant to tell the world we make “good” music, here in Canada.

However, I must say, KD Lang’s take on “Hallelujah” was brilliant — probably the only great thing about the opener, besides the technology used to put on the show:

The mechanical error of the torch lighting at the indoor stadium was one thing, but the extremely awkward drive to the exterior cauldron, near Vancouver’s waterfront, was shameful. Gretzky, who was the chosen flame bearer for this last leg, looked uncomfortable. It shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone since security was obviously lacking — idiots were running along side the pick-up — and every few blocks or so you’d catch a glimpse of a lone police officer trying to hold back a crowd of people. Talk about a flop-ending to an already flat opening ceremony. Certainly, the opener in Beijing was a lot better and less commercial. They actually took the opportunity to tell a story about China, rather than just fill time with pop songs.

Look at what I made yesterday… the Sticky rice in lotus leaves from Chow Vegan’s blog.

In preparation for this, I took a trip to Hawai. Not the vacation spot, but the grocery store in Ville Saint-Laurent (1999 Marcel-Laurin). Have you heard of it? It’s a pan-Asian market that offers such a huge selection of foodstuffs that you have to visit to believe it. To give you an indication of what’s in store, they have an entire aisle dedicated to noodles — more than half of which contains ramen.Whenever I go, I spend about an hour carefully walking through each aisle — it’s that interesting, even if it’s not all vegan. (This is the place I used to buy vegan ready-to-eat, made-in-China, frozen sticky rice wrappers).

Anyway, lotus leaves and sweet rice in hand, I took a stab at making my own… sticky rice wrappers. Given that it’s a multi-step recipe, I think it went well. I neglected to soak the rice before cooking, chalk that up to not reading carefully. The leaves were a bit awkward to soak, as I didn’t have a large enough vessel to do it in. I used Yves Spicy Italian sausage, but next time I think I’ll use some sort of vegan asian “meat” instead, like the stuff found at Tiende Santé. If I could, I’d totally use a vegan chinese sausage, but the faux versions I’ve encountered have milk in them (why?!).

As you can see, I need to practice the leaf-folding, they look kinda funny, but it doesn’t affect the taste. I don’t have a bamboo steamer, so I just put a round cooling rack, without the plate, in the wok and used the lid. Besides being a little on the wet side, it turned out swell. Horray!

Before the Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec (BAnQ) first opened its doors in 2006, it had been, at that point, over a decade since I had been to a library that wasn’t built into a school. I remember being super psyched to visit this huge building the first week. The building is modern and, as I discovered, has a large variety of seating, some in almost-secret nooks.

Oh, and the top floor of the BAnQ houses music and visual media. The DVD section is always packed with people trying to find gems. The most impressive, though, is the CD collection. Imagine rows and rows of many different genres of music — real variety you wouldn’t expect from a government institution, not just “world” and “pop”.

Coming back to the original mainstay of libraries — books, I don’t know if you fellow Anglo Montrealers know it, but there are a ton of English books there. Cool ones, in fact. Like “Print Liberation” (DIY silk screening), or “The Boss of You” (sassy entrepreneurship for women). Actually, I was surprised to find these titles in their IRIS catalogue because they’re both recently published books. Nevertheless, I was glad to leaf through these books for free, because I have a habit of just buying books online — sight unseen. I’ve since decided that both books would make great additions to my book shelf.

Can’t find the title you’re looking for? You can submit media (books, DVDs, music, etc) purchase suggestions to the BAnQ via their website, here. If you include your email address, they’ll follow up with a form letter letting you know whether the suggestion will be purchased or not. I’m very proud to boast that every book suggestion I’ve submitted, about 15 since 2006, has been accepted. These include the Stitch and Bitch series and other craft books.

In conclusion, if you think libraries are dull, check out the BAnQ. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.
(Libraries rock!)