It’s not really important that you know what SAP is or why these companies run their software, but after seeing these signs in many places I thought that it would be interesting to collect pictures of them as kind of a running travelogue of places we have been.

Barb pointed out that I already have a very detailed travelogue (this web site) and that the pictures were a waste of time and that most people would think that it was a dumb idea. I told her that you can’t have too many detailed travelogues.

To the men out there: never let your wife thinking something is a dumb idea get in the way of you doing something great.

I present to you my SAP collection.

This link will be updated occasionally as I collect more SAP pictures.

Baden

My favourite version of madeleines are Lemon Madeleines (see my recipe here) which contains just a hint of fresh lemon taste.

While I’m sure that people have been making madeleines in France for generations, I only discovered them about 2 years ago from the most unlikely source. I happened to be watching this action movie called the Transporter which was happened to be set in the south of France. In between people getting blown up or kicked in the head, there was this scene in the movie where the hero’s girl makes him some madeleines for breakfast. I was intrigued and searched through several sources to find a recipe that I liked. Several changes later is the end result of my version.

On a leisurely Sunday morning along with coffee, there’s simply nothing better. Enjoy.

Baden

Located on Kingsway in Vancouver, Roman is one of those nice neighbourhood restaurants where the chef (who’s also the owner) comes to talk to you to make sure that your meal is ok. With a cozy 7 tables, you better get there early on busy nights or call ahead for reservations. We’ve been there on a Fridays and Saturdays and regularly see people being turned away due to full capacity.

What keeps people (like us) coming back again and again are the combination of great food, low prices and good size portions. My favourite is their penne salsiccia which I’ve had now at least 10 times and when ordered as a large size, will be sure to provide 1 and a half extra meals the following days. If you’re a fan of food with lots of garlic, Roman is the place to go as it is obviously used generously.

Being only about 10 minutes away from our house, we have gotten into the habit of calling in pickup orders when the desire strikes and in the last 4 months alone this has doubled the number of dinners we’ve eaten at Roman.

Take our advice and give Roman Ristorante a try.

Baden

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Roman Ristorante
3399 Kingsway (just west of Tyne St. across from the Safeway), Vancouver
604-436-4748

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I had exhausted looking through about 10 different stores in the Vancouver area from supermarkets to specialty gourmet-type stores looking for fresh yeast but it was not to be found. My final option, I thought, was to head to the Granville Island Public Market and try my luck there. Going to Granville Island on a Saturday is takes a sense of adventure as it happens to be one of the top tourist destinations in the city and is always packed on weekends (especially as good weather approaches – which it was yesterday). Finding parking is always a challenge but we were able to do so and spent the next hour or so buying things in the public market.

It’s certainly different shopping in a public market when you’re used to pushing a cart through a supermarket. Your hands quickly become laden down and you learn that you only buy what you need as you have to carry whatever you purchase in your tired hands from that point forward. We ended up buying some supplies for our spaghetti dinner that night but after going through almost every stall in the market, were unable to find anyone that sold fresh yeast.

Almost ready to give up, we saw a bakery on the way back to our car called La Baguette et l’Echalote. A good sign, the bakery was packed all the way to the door with customers and they were selling all kinds of fresh baked products.

I was in heaven!

Filling their shelves and wicker baskets in the small store were all kinds of things that looked and smelled fabulous. My eyes were drawn to many breads that I made on my course: Challah (braided bread), Épis (scissor rolls), brioches à tête and of course, several varieties of baguettes. While I wanted to linger and check out every kind of bread and pastry in the store, I had to keep focus on the main purpose that was to try and find fresh yeast. I anticipated disappointment in that I didn’t see any such product being displayed in their cooler. As we wanted to buy a desert for after dinner that night anyway, we ended up buying a Swedish Apple Cake (sorry, it was eaten before a picture was taken). We asked the clerk if they knew of a place that sold fresh yeast on the Island and was surprised to hear that they sold it. So along with the Swedish Apple Cake, we bought a block of fresh yeast.

Picture: fresh yeast on the right with dry yeast packages on the left:

I can hardly wait to try it out. Once I get off the computer, you can find me in the kitchen.

Baden

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Sidebar: I have found that referring to anything as a technology pretty much opens the door to go completely nuts about it. This may have something to do with me working in Information Technology as my “day job”.

One day I’ll tell you about my automotive technology collection. Don’t even ask about my computer stuff.

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In my first article in the series on Kitchen Technology, I’m going to talk about something that has been getting lots of use lately: my KitchenAid stand mixer.

While I’ve only had my mixer for about 2 years, this is actually my second KitchenAid mixer. The first one was a Classic model mixer and the current one is a Custom Edition (for some reason, the Custom Edition model is not listed on the KitchenAid web site. The Professional 600 is the closest in features to the Custom Edition).

Like many people who cook, I had heard of and dreamed about owning a KitchenAid stand mixer for many years. I ended up getting one through Save on Food’s rewards program Save on More.

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Notice: Save on Foods is part of the company that I work for. However, please don’t let this minor detail get in the way of you spend lots of money at our fine, fine stores.

Save on Foods: So Much more in Store.

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When I got my shiny new KitchenAid home and first started using it, I was in heaven. With 250 watts of mixing power, it would surely be able to handle anything that I threw at it. Mixing anything became so easy and effortless. I could start mixing something and walk away to work on something else knowing that the mighty KitchenAid was effortlessly doing its job. Sitting on my counter top it became the symbol of my growing mastery over the drudgery of the cooking. Everything was perfect and my life was complete.

All of this ended when I started to make bread.

At first, it was OK and the small batches of white bread dough that I was making mixed nicely in the 4.3 litre (4.5 quart) stainless steel mixing bowl. As soon as I started to get into making whole wheat and rye doughs, the honeymoon was over. Anything more than that very smallest batches of these kinds of dough would cause my KitchenAid to start making all kinds of horrible noises and often literally stop turning while the top of the unit (near the motor) started to become hot and emit the beginnings of a bad burning smell. Clearly, this mixer was insufficient for the job of making bread.

It was around that time that I had an opportunity to get a complimentary KitchenAid product due to the fact that we had bought new (expensive) KitchenAid appliances for our entire kitchen. I ended up choosing the much higher-end Custom Edition stand mixer in Metallic Chrome finish.

The difference between the Classic and Custom Edition mixers are striking. The biggest difference of course is 500 watts of power compared to the 250 watt motor in the Classic. In addition, the Custom Edition comes standard with a huge 5.7L (6 quart) stainless steel mixing bowl with a built in handle. It’s amazing how much easier it is to hold the bowl when laden down with heavy dough by using the handle. The bowl on the Custom Edition secures to the mixer frame by fitting into two studs that attach to the matching holes on the side of the bowl. This keeps the bowl much more secure and also allows you to place and remove the bowl very easily. On the Classic, the bowl fitted into a holder at the bottom of the bowl by turning it a quarter turn. Removing the bowl was sometimes a chore especially when it got wrenched on during heavy mixing.

Overall, being able to unleash 500 watts of mixing power is a thing of beauty. Other than when mixing double batches of whole wheat dough or my grandmother’s Love Cake recipe, the motor mixes effortlessly.

Summary

To close, I suggest that if you are looking to purchase a stand mixer like the KitchenAid you consider the type of uses that you will be putting it through. If you are going to do any bread making, I would avoid the lower end models and seriously consider models with the more powerful motors. Of course, like many things, the price must be factored in and the KitchenAid Custom Edition mixer is almost twice the cost of the Classic. If you do go with the Custom Edition though, know that once you’ve used it once, everything will be perfect and your life will be complete.

Baden

I made two loaves of whole wheat and rye bread today. The shape and size of the loaves weren’t what I was expecting and I need to make some adjustments of the amount of dough that goes into the bread pans that I have so the loaves will be larger next time. The shape notwithstanding, the taste of the bread seems to be pretty good. I’ve only had a few slices of the whole wheat bread and while it’s not perfect, it’s not too bad.

I was originally planning on putting all of the bread recipes online as I made each of the bread that I made at the Cordon Bleu class. I’ve changed my mind on this because I’ve found that there are just too many variables in bread making that cannot be easily stated in written format. The look and feel and texture of the dough has to be assessed during the mixing stages and depending on the temperature and humidity in your kitchen and the type of flour that you’re using it makes everything different.

For example: when I was making the starter dough last night, I followed the recipe that I had but ended up using 50% more water that I did in Ottawa to get the same dough texture. So, my apologies but there will be no bread recipes here. I guess it’s just as well given that I have about 15 pages of printed material and 20 pages of handwritten notes that I would have to transcribe.

Baden