EBGA on Rails

*2014 EBGA on Rails events and tickets can be found here.

I managed to poke my head up from Folk Fest madness long enough to secure a couple tickets to the late August version of Edmonton Beer Geeks Anonymous' rail car cask session with Hog's Head Brewing.

As we pulled away from the Strathcona street car platform, a volunteer from the Edmonton Radial Railway Society gave us some history about the area and the streetcar itself. Once we reached the High Level Bridge, Shane from EBGA let us know that we would be stopping in the middle of the bridge so we could tap the keg and hear from the head brewer at Hog's Head. From there we continued to hang out for an hour or so, mingling and taking photos. It was a lovely way to enjoy some beer.

This was similar to a cask night at Sugarbowl or Next Act. The brewer came up with a one time only brew for the evening - Hog's Head Death by Pumpkin with some blood orange added. The citrus and spice made for a perfect 'transition to fall' beer, and I'm going to make sure I check tap lists for their Death by Pumpkin this fall.

The evening ended back in Strathcona, where we all left with a bottle of Yukon's Saison. Definitely looking forward to more of these events next summer!

New York, New York.

This is no longer an excuse for my lack of posts, but it's Festival time! I hope everyone attending or volunteering at Folk Fest has a wonderful time!

We're off to New York for a couple weeks this October, and I could seriously use some recommendations. We'll be on the upper west side for about a week, and then in Williamsburg for another.

Remember last year when I was feeling overwhelmed by London... New York is doubly so. Thankfully, we are going with a friend who visits the city once or twice per year, but of course, I'd love to surprise him with some newbie finds.

Leave 'em below!

Well, hello Mast Brothers Chocolate. See you in October!

Double Chocolate Cookies.

Tartine's Deluxe Double Chocolate Cookie recipe has been floating around the interweb since the book came out in 2009, but since I've only come to own the recipe collection recently, it's still new to me. I settled on the chocolate cookies for several reasons, mostly because I have several large bags of chocolate that are out of temper, and any recipe allowing me to melt the chocolate and bring it back to life is golden.

What I was really looking for was a dense, chewy chocolate cookie, a la Duchess' Rosemary-Fleur de Sel cookies. These cookies are opposite in texture - cloud like and closer to a cake style brownie - but they remain incredibly chocolate-y. Very good on their own, I think these cookies are best with a generous pinch of Fleur de Sel.

I kept the batter in the fridge so we could eat (and share) a batch or so a day. Ultimately, they ended up with a centre of Alice Medrich's vanilla bean ice cream. I've made a few different vanilla custards, and this one is by far the best - A solid level of sweetness (1/3 cup sugar), and a near perfect balance of milk and cream (1 cup to 2 1/4), make it super smooth and delicious.

So, another post on cookies and ice cream.

On a separate note, some co-workers and I headed over to What the Truck!? this past Friday in McIntyre Park. It was sort of epic - We planned on a post-it note earlier in the day, left early to avoid the lines, and divided up our tasks accordingly upon arrival. Here's what we ended up with... all delicious, by the way.

Left to right - Lamb and potatoes (Little Village), Big Fish (The Act), Turkey and bacon sausage meatballs (Bully), Crack n' Cheese (Nomad), more potatoes and Seitan Reuben (Sailin' On)

Congratulations to everyone involved! A great kick off to the 2013 season for sure!

Belgravia Hub

After celebrating my dad's birthday at my parents' earlier in the afternoon, Charles and I stopped in at Belgravia Hub for dinner on the way home. Since my grandmother (Nanny), parents and aunt and uncle all living in the neighbourhood, it turned into a bit of a scouting mission that we were, of course, happy to take on.

We arrived for our 7pm reservation to a relatively full space. Although it was a little chilly, I was happy that the front windows - probably my favourite feature of the design - were still wide open. The rest of the space is beautiful, and takes full advantage of the natural light.

Drinks wise we opted for a bottle of Yukon Red each. While they have a few beers on tap, we were told the Alley Kat Amber had just been switched out for Sleeman's Honey Brown - A little disappointing. Other than the Grapefruit Squeeze (also Alley Kat), the rest of the beer offerings were standard fare. Here's hoping it's something they can work on.

For food, we skipped the 'Fill Up' section, opting to share items from the extensive Beginnings' list. Everything arrived at our table shortly after.

Lamb meatballs.

Fries and a very delicious sweet-smokey ketchup.

Mixed greens salad with pancetta and a perfectly poached egg.

Short rib sliders topped with a very enjoyable fennel slaw.

While I'm going to miss having a 'little bookstore' in the neighbourhood (some incarnation of it has held fast in that building as long as I can remember), this is a great addition to the neighbourhood. Throughout our visit, residents and neighbours clearly made up the majority of patrons, making the space incredibly friendly. Additionally, we found the prices accessible, meaning we wouldn't hesitate to stop for a drink and snack at the bar.

We are already looking forward to our next visit to Belgravia Hub (and I'm also hoping that brunch is in their future plans).

There is a bike rack on the side of the restaurant. Thoughtful!

Lunch at The Local Omnivore

Although it was very wet and snowy today, Claire and I held fast to plans to walk up to The Local Omnivore for lunch. The truck was ready for lunch a little after noon, already serving up soup and sandwiches to a small line up of patrons.

The order of the day seemed to be the special. We didn't deviate, both opting for the potato and bacon soup with a grilled cheese sandwich for $8. Service was fast - My order came up in no time at all, and we waited a few minutes longer for Claire's to come up in the next batch of specials. Wet and slightly cold at this point, we ducked into the nearest building to enjoy our lunch.

We were both impressed with the grilled cheese. Pretty classic, with sliced cheddar, but pushed over the top with incredibly crunchy yet tender bread, and some sort of herb butter/spread. While we enjoyed the texture of the soup, and appreciated its warmth on such a cool day, we agreed that a little more salt would have helped to round out the flavours.

Claire and I wouldn't hesitate to head back - The menu changes daily, giving us lots of options. I'm looking forward to venturing a little further for a fried egg sandwich on the way to the office next week. You can find The Local Omnivore at 100 Ave. and 108 Street (Drift's old spot) for breakfast and lunch, and on Whyte Ave. Fridays and Saturdays, from midnight to 3pm for late night snacks. The menu is updated daily via their Twitter feed.

On a related note, Tanya and I cooked up a pack of their bacon last weekend, and while I wasn't a huge fan of it's sweetness alone, it worked much better in their soup (and I imagine it would be excellent on top of a fried egg sandwich, or something else super savoury, at breakfast). You can purchase packages of their very smoky-sweet bacon directly from the truck for $5.

Easter Breakfast.

Hopefully everyone enjoyed the easter weekend. We ate a lot of eggs; both the chicken and chocolate varieties. There was also a satisfactory amount of ham and bacon.

We rounded things off with breakfast yesterday morning at our place. Claire came to join us, armed with juice. I made these beet pickled deviled eggs from Not Without Salt, and Bill Granger's Coconut Bread that was recently posted on Smitten Kitchen. Charles cooked some bacon and I cut up some grapefruit to lighten things up... just a little.

I neglected to pick up the camera, but Claire took a photo of the situation:

This type of breakfast is our favourite. There's a good variety, and it's easy to prepare, since nearly everything is served at room temperature. More breakfast dates like this are definitely in order.

Some cookies. And a little ice cream.

Right after my January/February cake phase, I quickly moved on to cookies - Our little oven needed to be tested. First up were the Quinoa Cloud Cookies from 101 Cookbooks... Sadly they didn't turn out, though with nearly a kilo of quinoa flour left over, I'll be trying them again to fix whatever mistake I made (I suspect it was measurement of the flour; I should always use a scale is the weight measurements are there).

Moving on, I picked up a copy of Pure Dessert by Alice Medrich early in March. With easy access to great ingredients (I settled into a lovely "off-festival-season" gig at Provisions by Duchess), the desserts in this book, featuring the flavours of a great chocolate, fresh cream or fruit, nuts and grains, are exactly what I want to make when I step into the kitchen.

I started with her recipe for Whole Wheat Sables, though I swapped out the whole wheat flour for spelt, as suggested, since that's what we had on hand. The dough comes together easily, with just a few ingredients, and is then shaped into a log before being refrigerated over night. I found I needed to cook them about four minutes longer than the suggested 12-14 minutes to get that perfect sandy texture, and to bring out the nutty flavour of the spelt flour (again, our oven...). I made Tartine's Lemon Cream to serve atop the cookies after a lamb dinner made my Rachel.

Next up were Nibby Buckwheat Cookies - Definitely the best of all the cookies I've baked this month. If I can get buckwheat flour into something, I will (these scones, for instance), and I was happy to see it featured prominently in this book. The pairing of buckwheat with cocoa nibs is genius. The flour has a wine like flavour, and cocoa nibs, depending on the brand and origin, often have a fruity flavour that compliments the flour well. She also notes that the buckwheat flour acts like cornstarch - but with better flavour - to give the cookies a fine, sandy texture. Alice Medrich knows her stuff. You can find the recipe here.

Now that things seem to be on the up weather wise, we've found a permanent spot in the freezer for the ice cream bowl. At Cally's Teas the other day, I found dried Lemon Verbena, and picked up a little to make a mint and lemon verbena ice cream also found in the book. This was my first attempt at "Philadelphia" style ice cream, without an egg based custard. The base is made with a fifty-fifty cream-milk mixture, along with a little sugar, and then your flavourings of choice.

I took my pint of ice cream into work on Monday, and I think everyone enjoyed its freshness, particularly since it happened to be the first real warm day since last week's storm.

Cookies and ice cream. Clearly the next step is ice cream sandwiches.