Hotashi - Jack’s Blog

I haven’t cooked much since moving back home from Waterloo. Not sure why, but when I’m at home I just don’t feel like cooking much. But, now that I am living by myself in Toronto I really want to try out different dishes. Today, I made halibut fillet with mustard and white wine reduction, and penne with chicken thigh and black olive sauce.

The first recipe was one I made up myself with some knowledge of what may go well with halibut from cooking shows. I usually don’t cook with fish, but I thought I’d give it a try. I started by putting some salt and on sides of the dish, along with some olive oil and lemon juice. I boiled the fish on both sides. I was planning to do maybe 5-6 mins each side, but left it in too long so it came out a bit dry and flaky. The sauce was about a cup or so of white wine, with some dijon mustard, grainy mustard, and lemon juice. I let the whole thing reduce to about half its original volume. Towards the end I threw in some dill. The fish was garnished with fresh dill, then the sauce poured over it. It turned out alright, even though the fish was dry. If I were to do it again I’d play around the sauce a bit more.. maybe take out the grainy mustard and add some honey or maple syrup.

The second recipe was actually inspired by two recipes from Michael Smith’s show, Take Home Chef: pasta with chicken thighs and peppers, and penne with black olive sauce. I began with browning the skin-side of the chicken, and cooking on the other side for a bit, then removing from the pot. I cooked onions in the same pot until caramelized, then added the garlic. After about three minutes I added canned plum tomatoes, dried basil, and some salt. I used a hand-blender to smooth the sauce out a bit, then I added the thighs back to simmer for about an hour — until cooked through. The penne pasta was mixed in with the sauce. Baby spinach was used as garnish on top of the pasta, and the chicken placed on the top. This dish turned out very well, trés delicious! I’ll definitely cook it again, and maybe play around with some ingredients.

I bought a new suit in time for Tony and Tracy’s wedding this Saturday. I originally went to Moore’s to look at their selection, but I didn’t see any style that I liked. I went to Mexx today after work and saw a sexy pinstripe suit. The great thing about Mexx is that everything they have is slim-fit. Well, I guess that isn’t so good if you’re not skinny.. but I am, so ha! With the suit, I also bought a French-style shirt and cuff-links. I’d post some pictures, but the jacket and pants are being tailored right now and I’m picking them up Friday night.

I went to Waterloo with Ams this past weekend. It’s weird to be back and not have school. :( Ams went there mainly to check out some apartments with her new roommate for the coming school year. It was pretty tiring going around to see all the different places, and one of them was a really long walk from WLU/UW campus. She did see one apartment that she liked so hopefully she’ll be able to get that.

We went to Morty’s on Saturday night and had some food + beer. Hmm, pizza and beer, what can be better? :p

Summer is going by pretty fast. It’s already the last week of July! I was watching the weather forecast today and there is a heatwave warning for this week, stretching into the weekend. I think the forecast on Sunday was something like 29 degrees Celsius, and feels like 40 degrees with humidex. Oh man, I don’t think I want to be out this weekend. I’ll probably just bum around the house with the A/C on.

My blogging frequency has been pretty low for the last little while. I’ll try to change that, but it’s hard to get into the mood to blog nowadays, with work and all.

This past weekend I was over at Ams’ place. We had BBQ for dinner on Saturday, and we made our own burgers! It turned out quite well. It’s always more satisfying to make your own food. And even more satisfying when it turns out well. =P

This week so far has been pretty blah. The weather has been just horrible! Very very hot and humid. Oh, will it just rain already!

On further news, I bought Resident Evil 4 for the Wii. Only played about an hour today, and it’s pretty scary stuff. And I haven’t even encountered any zombies yet! Gah!! Those stupid farmers have some high resillience to bullets. Three shots to the head with a shotgun and they are still running at me with an axe. What the heck! >.>

I had my convocation this past Friday. It was pretty hot that day, and I was dying in my long black robe! The ceremony wasn’t too long, lasting about an hour and a half. We went up three at a time shaking hands with either the chancellor, the vice-chancellor, or this other guy. I shook hands with the Chanellor! haha

I went to Waterloo with my parents, Joyce, and picked up Ams at her Waterloo house on the way to campus. Marvin, Steve, Mo and Stephanie also attended the convocation. Neither Peter nor I knew that they were coming, so it was a pleasant surprise. We all went to Ye’s Sushi afterwards for some all you can eat sushi! Peter’s dad paid for all of us, it was very nice of him.

I stayed over on Friday night at Ams’ place. Didn’t do that much, basically just hanging out. Maki and Vanessa were packing to move out. Maki went back to Japan today. On Saturday I went back to Ams’ place in Brampton with her, and had some BBQ in honor of the new grads. And that’s pretty much my weekend. Saw a bunch of people that I probably won’t be seeing again. Oddly, I don’t really feel sad or anything. I guess I’ve done this so much already, now it doesn’t affect me.