Playoff fever is hitting the city of Vancouver, and even though I haven’t made a post about it yet… rest assured, I have been watching every Canucks game and following the team with dedication this year. After all, I did wear my jersey every single day of the playoffs last year as my “playoff beard”. You can check out some of my other posts on the Canucks.

I think the Canucks have a pretty good shot at the playoffs this year, despite some problems in the last two games against the Kings. I think they will pull through and get a win tonight, and we’ll see the Sedins step up again and hopefully Edler will come out hitting. It’s been a humbling time for Luongo and I think many fans are falling off the Lou bandwagon as his performance has been less than stellar as of late. Still — I believe in Blue and Lou (get it?  ha ha) and I’m rooting for my ‘Nucks all the way.

Go Canucks Go!

Anyway, in other news, this past weekend Allan and I cooked up some pretty ridiculous fish and chips. Yes, we cooked it in duck fat. Wait… before you recoil, know this: animal fat gets a bad rap but it’s actually pretty good for you. It doesn’t contain any of the chemicals that some butters, margarines and oils do… and it certainly tastes a lot better. Still, if you don’t want to cook using animal fat, simply modify this recipe and use canola oil instead.

Other compliments to the meal that we made?

Homemade aged-cheddar cheese buttermilk biscuits… (see recipe here) …

And dark chocolate chunk cookies (see recipe here) for dessert.

DECADENT GUINNESS-BATTERED FISH AND CHIPS COOKED IN DUCK FAT RECIPE

1 package of duck fat (approx 8 oz or more, you can find this at your local butcher or in Vancouver at Oyama Sausage on Granville Island)
Canola oil for frying (a few cups depending on how much duck fat you use)
2-4 large russet or other starchy potatoes, peeled and chopped into fry strips the size of a finger
1 cup flour
1 cup rice flour plus 1/2 cup rice flour for dredging
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon chili powder/cayenne/paprika (choose one or use a mix)
2 Tablespoons chopped parsley (optional)
1 large egg, beaten lightly
1 can of Guinness beer or other dark beer (use about 75% of the can) .. THIS MUST BE COLD.
2 fillets of cod, halibut, haddock or turbot fish (approx 8 oz each, cut into half on an angle)
Tartar sauce, malt vinegar and lemon squeezes if you want

1. Heat the duck fat and enough canola oil (likely 1-2 cups, enough to cover the chips and eventually the fish) in a large bottomed pot or a deep fryer to 325 degrees F. Use a oil/candy thermometer if you have one, otherwise try and eyeball it on medium-high heat.

2. Place the chips in the oil/fat and dry for approximately 2 or three minutes. They won’t be fully cooked yet, but remove them to a plate lined with plenty of paper towel to drain.

3. Raise the temperature to 375 degrees F and then start mixing your dry ingredients.

4. In a large bowl, mix together the rice and normal flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, pepper, chili powder, and about 75% of the parsley. Now, mix in the egg. Whisk in the beer until the batter is smooth. Now quickly coat the fish in the rice flour (on a separate plate) and then dip them into the batter, making sure you shake off the excess batter. Too much batter will cause your fish to be kinda mushy with overly thick batter.

5. You are now going to fry the fish and the chips in the same pot. If there isn’t enough space for both, do it in batches (fries first and then fish for 4-5 mins each). Otherwise, place the fries and fish in the pot making sure they are submerged completely. Fry for 4-5 mins until crispy brown. You may want to flip over the pieces of fish at around 2 minutes so that both sides are evenly brown. Remove to a plate. Let sit for a couple minutes (the fish will continue to cook inside and this will allow it to retain the juiciness).

6. Sprinkle with freshly ground salt and pepper and a little fresh parsley.  Serve and eat… yum! I ate mine with a biscuit instead of fries, but Allan had his with the chips. Both taste great! Sooooo good. It was really crispy.

Okay, so it’s a little early… but for those of us working office day jobs, many workplaces are celebrating Halloween today… so, I dressed up today instead of tomorrow. I don’t have any particular Halloween plans this year. I think I’m going to enjoy taking a little break at home, as it’s been a mad rush the past few weeks. With starting the new job, apartment makeovers, party planning, and events with friends, my life has been crazy hectic.

Anyway, back to Halloween

This year at work I recycled an old costume and dressed up as Minnie Mouse. I don’t have a photo of me in costume today, but it looks kinda like this, except with bright red pumps. I know, lame right? I have to admit I was feeling a little uninspired.

Here are some of my costumes in previous years, which were a little more creative.

My absolute favourite costume, Cortana from Halo. It’s a little nerdy, but it’s works well at a video game company

Some sort of fairy with wings. Okay, so maybe these aren’t creative at all. I believe this is now called the “duck face”.

Trevor Linden! My all-time favourite Canucks and hockey player.

I hope everyone has a fantastic day today and of course, night out tomorrow for Halloween… hope you all stay safe and have a lot of fun!

We celebrated Thanksgiving here in Canada this past weekend. I hope everyone had a good one!

My long weekend was filled with Canucks hockey, a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner and time with the family, and of course… more furniture sanding, painting, and refinishing.

Thanks to the awesome people at Canucks Hockey Blog (Hi JJ and Mozy!), Allan and I won tickets to the Canucks Open Practice this past Saturday. Now, tickets were free anyway, but they scored us awesome seats in Row 1 right beside the players’ bench!

It was great to see all the fans come out to support the team… and also great to see all the families and kids there. It’s a great event that everyone can afford to go to, and the team put on an exciting performance.

The practice was filled with various drills and scrimmages, and lots of goofing around from the players. I especially enjoyed the showboating during the shootout at the end of the practice. We had an awesome time and it got us all pumped for the game on Sunday night (which the Canucks won in an awesome shootout of course… must have been all that shootout practice … right?).

The rest of Saturday and Sunday was spent mostly hunting for furniture, and sanding and painting. It’s amazing how much time it takes. We’ve spent dozens of hours already on just our dressers.

I spent Sunday afternoon cooking in the kitchen with my mom… and I think we put together a pretty nice spread! My dad did the turkey, which is (in my opinion) the best… he makes an amazing overnight brine for the turkey with fresh herbs from the garden… and of course it is cooked all day in the oven until it is fall apart tender.

We also had Kansas City ribs (no pre-made sauces, only fresh herbs and tomato sauce made from tomatoes from the garden, and oranges), avocado and beet salad, home made Ciabatta bread, roasted potatoes with carrots and blue potatoes from the garden, a vegetable tian with parmesan and bread crumbs, sparkling grape juice punch made from homegrown grapes, and some homemade chocolate crème brûlée from dessert.

Judging from the amount of food on Allan’s plate I think it turned out pretty good!

Monday was spent hunting for furniture, and finally completing the last coats of lacquer finish on the dresser. Here’s a shot of our setup in my parent’s garage. I will have before and after photos for you when all the bedroom furniture is done. We still have the bed to do!

Although I try to remember what I am thankful for every day at some point during yoga or prayer, Thanksgiving is always a good time to formalize it. So, here is what I am thankful for…

- Allan… my wonderful partner who means everything to me in this world! Thank you for always making me laugh and that we never get bored of spending time with each other.
- My amazing parents and my little brother… my whole family who I’m so grateful to be so close to.
- Our beautiful city and province where we can do all the activities we love to do
- Friends, for always being there for me
- My job and my coworkers
- A healthy body and mind!

What are you thankful for? What did you do this past weekend?

I really love baking, especially when it starts to get a little bit rainy and cold. There’s something about having the heat of the oven warm your living space, and the aromas of freshly baked goods spreading through the apartment…

First up, I tried out the Barefoot Contessa’s Buttermilk Cheese Biscuits recipe from the cookbook Back to Basics. I found a copy of the recipe online here so you can check it out as well.

I really loved this recipe. The biscuits came out flaky, cheesy, and savoury. I will admit I was only slightly disappointed, because the best cheese biscuits I have EVER had were at this little bed and breakfast at Apex Mountain. Maybe it was the snowboarding that made them taste better… I don’t know. I think I will play around with this recipe a bit to get it tasting exactly how I remember them. Or maybe I’ll call up the B&B and see if I can get a cheat sheet

These are SO good when they just come out of the oven. They actually keep really nice in the fridge for a few days as well and you can heat them up in a toaster oven or the microwave when you are ready to eat.

In other baking news, I have fallen in love with a new banana bread recipe I have been working on. I originally found it in one of my mom’s cookbooks when I was younger, and have adapted it over the years in university and so on. This is the most recent iteration Try it out and let me know what you think!

The Most Absolutely Delicious and Moist Banana Bread Recipe

3 or 4 extremely ripe bananas (over-ripe)
1 stick of butter at room temperature (1/2 cup)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup regular sugar
2 large eggs
2 Tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 teaspoons real Vanilla extract (I like Madagascar Bourbon vanilla)
1.5 cups cake flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 heaping teaspoon salt
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cinnamon (Cinnamon is really good for you, so I use a bit more, but you can use less if you don’t like it very much)
1 cup good quality dark chocolate wafers
3/4 cup of toasted walnuts, chopped (Just toast them gently at 350 degrees F for about 8-10 minutes)

1. Cream the room temperature butter with a mixer. Add in the sugar. Mix in the eggs one at a time.

2. Using a wooden spoon, mash the bananas until mushy and relatively smooth. Add the lemon juice, vanilla, and the bananas into the first bowl (with the butter) and beat. This is Bowl A.

3. Sift the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt into a separate bowl. Make sure they are mixed well. This is Bowl B.

4. Mix some flour into the chocolate wafers and walnuts in a separate small bowl. This is Bowl C.

5. Mix Bowl A and Bowl B together gently, until smooth. Do not overmix. Then using a spatula, fold Bowl C into the mixture.

6. Grease a bread pan with butter if you have one, or you can use a casserole dish, and gently fold the batter into the pan. Bake for one hour (or until done with the toothpick test) at 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Let it rest before cutting! Don’t make the same mistake I did and let your boyfriend get into it too early!

I really loved the way this banana bread turned out. It was crispy on the outside but sooo incredibly moist on the inside.

Does anyone have any of their favourite recipes to share? I’d love to hear some if you have any so I can try them out!

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In others news, it’s the first game of the regular season tonight for our beloved Canucks! Canucks vs. Flames tonight. Should be absolutely incredible.  Check it out on CBC… I can’t wait!

Huge game tonight, Canucks vs. Blues for Game #4. The Canucks have a chance to take it all, and for the Blues it is do or die. Will St. Louis be able to elevate their game tonight and play desperate?

So far my playoff streak of wearing a jersey every day of the playoffs continues. I’m not stinky yet, but the playoffs ain’t over yet either… *cough* I haven’t had a chance to go to a playoff game yet this year and with trying to save up for all the surf trips I have planned this summer, I don’t think I’ll get a chance to. That said, if they make it to the Stanley Cup finals (and I think they have a pretty decent chance), I’ll be there

For most bandwagon fans, the Canucks continue to surprise them with their speed and toughness. For us die-hard fans, it’s just the good team we’ve seen playing most of the year taking it to the next level. They got better and better as the season progressed and now they are finally showing what they can do when they play with a little heart… something that has been sorely missed on a Canucks team for a long time, especially since Trevor Linden retired in my opinion

Mats Sundin is supposed to be a game-time decision tonight. I’d like to have him back, but definitely don’t want him rushed through his injury to play. Kariya has said he’s not going to play tonight, but if they make it to Game 5, I’m almost certain he will. Special teams is going to be the story again for tonight. Canucks will need to continue their excellent penalty killing and continue scoring when they get power play chances.

Tonight is going to be a tough game. The Canucks aren’t known for their killer instinct and have only swept a playoff series once before. We’ve seen a lot of the young guys on our team step up, like Burrows, Kesler, Bernier, and Raymond… and even the Sedins! Now I’d like to see some of the veterans really pull out all the stops and play hard tonight. The Canucks are going to need to play every game like it is their last and not get complacent if they want to keep up their momentum into the second series. But let’s not count our chickens before they hatch. It isn’t over till it’s over.

As I mentioned, my friend who is a Blues fan is a little unsettled by the series so far but I have to give it to him — he hasn’t jumped ship and continues to support his team. I have something to admit that no self-respecting Canucks fan would ever admit. I secretly want St. Louis to get the next game… not just so my friend can have a smile on his face, but also so the Canucks can come back home… and win the series in Vancouver for the fans. But don’t tell anyone I told you that!

In other news, what’s with Library Square kicking out a guy for wearing his Canucks jersey? What a shame. I’m boycotting them from now on. Come on — get with the program! It’s playoff time and this is a hockey town. Here’s the link for those who haven’t read the story yet on CBC: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2009/04/20/bc-canucks-jersey-ban-library-square-pub.html

Shame on them.