Buscando Host Gratis

Thanksgiving Turkey Wits

Nov 30, 2008 Noticias

Eric Turkewitz invites the legal blogosphere over for Thanksgiving dinner, and Blawg Review #188.

Reid Supply Company

Nov 30, 2008 Noticias

Weekend Herb Blogging #161 Hosting

Nov 30, 2008 Noticias

Ivy from Kopiaste is our host this week.

To participate:

Post about any herb, plant, fruit, vegetable or flower - I encourage participants to read the rules to ensure that your post does qualify. Please include a link to your host and to this announcement post.

Send an email to ivyliac AT gmail DOT com with WHB#161 in the subject line and the following details:

• Your Name
• Your Blog Name/URL
• Your Post URL
• Your Location
• Attach a photo: 300px wide

Emails must be received by:

• 3pm Sunday - Utah Time
• 9pm Sunday - London Time
• 8am Monday - Melbourne (Aus) Time

You can also check out who’s hosting for the rest of the year at this post and find information about hosting WHB.

Stock Picks and Trade Ideas for the week ahead - DLTR, AAPL, FSLR, ADP

Nov 30, 2008 Noticias

Faucet.com

Nov 30, 2008 Noticias

Caramelised Vidalia Onions

Nov 30, 2008 Noticias

Scott from The Real Epicurean is hosting this edition of Weekend Herb Blogging and celebrating some rather special news while this week I’m celebrating the arrival of the new season of Vidalia onions

When I spotted these beauties at Mow’s at Prahran Market it was the cause of great happiness. It’s probably been a good 10 months since they were last available here and I was an immediate fan from the first taste.

Vidalia Onions hail from Vidalia, Georgia and are named after the town. They are a sweet tasting onion first discovered in the 1930’s. It’s said that you can eat them like an apple, though I must admit, I haven’t actually tried that.

The onions I have are grown in Queensland so I can’t really judge whether or not they are exactly the same as those that are grown in Georgia.

When it came to finding something to do with these onions, one thing immediately came to mind. It’s a sweet onion why not highlight that sweetness through low slow cooking - a naturally sweet form of caramelised onions.

Caramelised Vadalia Onions

1 kg Vadalia Onions, sliced finely
knob of butter
olive oil

There are a lot of recipe out there that incorporate sugar in the process of making caramelised onions. This is something that I’d never encountered. As most of cooking evolved from what my mother taught me, I base this treatment on her recipe and her recipe is simple - all you need is time and caramelisation occurs naturally, whatever onion you use.

Over a low heat, place a good glug of olive oil and a knob of butter into a heavy based pan. Once the butter has melted, add the onions. Stir well to coat and let the onions slowly cook. It’s important to keep stirring to ensure that they don’t stick to the bottom of the pan or that they colour too quickly. You want them to slowly sweat and release their natural juices.

You’ll start off with a huge pot but as time passes they will reduce in volume but the cooking juices will greatly increase.

These onions took a little over an hour to reach this stage - an even colouring, soft and sticky and bathed in that beautifully intense but sweet juice.

When they are cooked, store them in the fridge in a sealed container.

With these caramelised onions I made a variation of the French dish, Pissaladière (it’s an onion and anchovy tart). I’ve used my pizza dough as the base, rolled ultra thin and shaped in a shallow rectangular baking tray.

This isn’t anywhere near as dense as a true Pissaladière - the onions only sparsely cover the base, intermingled with a little shredded Provolone. Rather than forming diamond patterns with the anchovies, I’ve laid them out on the diagonal in one direction only and filled the gaps between these rows with wafer thin slice of par-boiled potato. With a final sprinkle of Provolone, it’s baked in the oven until golden.

There’s just enough anchovy to give you that flavour hit but not overwhelm - it’s then tempered with those sweet caramelised onions and the neutral flavour of potato.

Serve it straight from the oven or if you can resist, serve it at room temperature.

Weekend Herb Blogging is now housed from this site and for further information on this event, please check out the following posts:

General Information
The Rules
Who’s Hosting
Year Four Archives

Pizza

Nov 29, 2008 Noticias

It’s actually quite surprising and rather remiss of me but I’ve never written about pizza dough. I suppose like many things, we all have our own special recipe.

This recipe is one that has changed over time - there’s been experiments using different flour types and over the latter period, the addition of fine semolina into the dough. I’ve found that the type of flour wasn’t the main factor in the quality of the dough but it was in fact, the semolina.

I’m not sure what it is but semolina just gives it a bit more character and a bit more elasticity. I’ve tried variations from 50% to nothing and I’ve finally settled on this proportion of 70% flour and 30% semolina.

When it comes to making the actual pizza, the thinner the base the better. There’s no stuffed double crust monstrosities to be found. They are not pizza, they are tarts.

When it comes to toppings, less is more. If you can’t fold your pizza, it’s either too thick or you have too many toppings. If you look at a classic pizza - the Margherita, tomato, basil and mozzarella, it works because it follows the less is more principle. The ingredients are fresh and taste fresh, they co-exist and compliment and they don’t overwhelm your palate. That pizza they advertise with 8 kinds of meat has 7 kinds of meat too many!

Place the dry yeast and sugar into a small bowl and add just enough warm water to form a runny paste. Let this stand for 10 minutes to activate. I like to do this to make sure that my yeast is still alive - nothing worse than making dough and then finding that the yeast was dead.

Sift the flour, semolina and pinch of salt together into a large bowl.

Add the yeast mixture and stir - continue stirring as you add enough water to form a soft, pliable dough.

Knead this on a lightly floured surface for a few minutes until smooth. Form into a ball and place in a oiled lined bowl to rise.

When the dough has risen you can go ahead and use it or you can cover it and place it in the fridge overnight or even for 2 days. Once it has risen it will pretty much keep that lift in the fridge.

When it comes to using this dough, just pull it out of the fridge 15 minutes or so before you want to use it.

Divide the dough roughly into four - take one section at a time and knead it gently into a ball and then roll out to form your pizza base.

I very rarely make round pizza, I tend to make them a bit more rustic looking and opt for a slipper or oblong shape.

This pizza has a touch too many tomatoes on it but I love these cherry tomatoes especially when they’ve just been warmed through during the cooking time - baby spinach and prosciutto are the other ingredients

One of my favourites - a pizza bianco with potato, onion and gorgonzola.

Honourable Madam Justice Elaine Adair

Nov 28, 2008 Noticias

A big congratulations to Honourable Madam Justice Elaine Adair, who was appointed a Judge of the Supreme Court of British Columbia this afternoon!

News releases are available on DOJ website & the GC News Centre.

Madam Justice Adair was a partner with Clark Wilson LLP, Chair of the firm’s Class Actions group, and also a member of its Insolvency & Restructuring and Business Litigation groups. She will replace Mr. Justice H.M. Groberman (Vancouver), who was appointed to the Court of Appeal.

Wonderful news!

Roasted Red Pepper and Carrot Dip

Nov 28, 2008 Noticias

This is a dish that came together quite by chance - an excess of roasted vegetables and a need to do something with them.

I love the flavour of roasted red pepper (bell peppers to those in the northern hemisphere) and sometimes I can go a bit overboard and roast too many. They are also way to easy to eat and I was looking at a way of extending that pleasure.

Enter this idea to make a dip from them. To add some body I found a sympathetic vegetable in the form of carrot - after steaming them to take the edge off, they are tossed in to roast with the peppers. Roasting brings out the sweetness of the carrot and the vibrancy of colour.

To make the dip, these roasted vegetables, are blended with your choice of dairy product, feta, sour cream or in this case, ricotta. The dairy helps to extend and enrich the flavour and gives it an excellent mouth feel.

Roasted Red Pepper and Carrot Dip

1 red capsicum/bell pepper
2 carrots, peeled, cut into chunks
2 garlic cloves
ricotta (or sour cream, or feta)

Cut the capsicum in half, remove the seeds and stem and place in a bowl along with two garlic cloves. Drizzle over with a little olive oil and a grinding of sea salt. Toss well to coat and place on a baking tray.

Cook in a 180°C/350°F oven until softened and the skin has started to blister.

During the last half hour of roasted, add the prepared carrots - steam them first for about 5 minutes to soften them.

When the carrots and capsicum are cooked, remove from the oven and allow to cool completely.

Peel the skin from the capsicum and garlic cloves and place in a food processor along with the carrot and process until almost smooth. Add in ricotta (or sour cream or feta) to taste and continue processing until amalgamated.

Place in a bowl and seal and store in the fridge until ready to serve.

If your guests are like mine, they will be gobbling this up like there’s no tomorrow and combined with those flat bread crackers, it’s a sure fire hit.

Stock Picks and Trade Ideas for Friday - NOVL, RFMD, ESLR

Nov 26, 2008 Noticias