Kitchen Joy.

I feel like today has revolved around food. I went to Cora for a delightful brunch with a university classmate who's getting married in 8 days (congrats again Vince!) and went for appetizers this afternoon with a co-worker (awesome crab dip at the SP Sawmill. mmmmmm).

I still wanted to make something for dinner, so I turned to the blog of my dear friend Lindsey (check it out here!) Even though it was a pretty warm day out, I wanted to try making her Beef Stroganoff.

Stopped by Save-On after brunch for a few ingredients. And was randomly given a rose by a woman who worked there, which made a delightful addition to the bouquet currently sitting on my table (harebells from Danielle's front yard, day lillies from my parents' back yard)






While I was cooking, it occured to me that there a few things about my kitchen that I absolutely love, and think everyone should have.

1. Really good knives.

I have some Japanese sushi knives from Lee Valley tools that I got for Christmas a few years ago. (Unfortunately they do not still stock them in Canada - who knows why, they are AWESOME - but the closest thing they have is the Santoku knife from this set)

These knives are great for anything, but they are especially fantastic at cutting meat (sorry about the bowl of raw meat there..). Those really big, fat steaks from Costco? Slices those suckers in half like it's going through butter.  Having really good knives is guaranteed to make cooking easier. They're definetly worth the investment.

2. This thing...  I don't remember what it's called. (Maybe a garlic twist?)

Never again will I own a garlic press. All that's needed is two plastic pieces with interlocking teeth, and you too could have perfectly minced garlic in less than 5 seconds!

Best of all, it just rinses clean! No more picking away at the tiny holes in the press! For someone who uses a lot of garlic, this is a good thing! These things are also really easy to find, and not very expensive.

3. Cooking movies!

When I cook with my mom, we always have something playing in the background (usually a chick flick). I don't think either of us really end up watching any of it, but it makes for a nice background. The set up at my parents house is really nice, you can pretty much see the living room  TV from all over the kitchen, except right next to the stove.

In my new place, I can't see the living room TV from my kitchen.  So my mom picked this thing up at a garage sale for about 10$. And it's awesome! I can only watch VHS movies, so that pretty much limits me to Disney and the Star Wars original trilogy. As you can see, today's choice was Mary Poppins (Who wouldn't want to vicariously go on a Jolly Holiday with Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke? No one, that's who.)

The stroganoff was a success! I tweaked a few parts of the recipe, but it was pretty darn fantastic as written (pickles+gravy=heaven)

Finished off with some saskatoon/blueberry/rhubarb pie (can you say summer?) that I made using up the end of last years Saskatoons. (Time to hit up the u-picks!!)





Lastly, a cooking tip to all you newbies out there. When straining peas,  it helps to make sure the holes in your strainer are smaller than the peas. ...Not that I speak from experience or anything...