Sunday Afternoon Salmon Tartare 5:53 p.m.

One of the blessings of leaving near the Atwater Market is that you can choose to have a salmon tartare on Sunday afternoon for no reason in particular. This recipe is borrowed, probably mostly in spirit, from Bar & Boeuf. Bar & Boeuf is a wonderful restaurant in downtown Montreal across the street from my office, where my roommate also happens to work. Because my roommate works there (and is such a wonderful person) I was able to spend a shift in the kitchen, mostly observing but also deveining fois gras poorly. Watching orders of tartare being prepared reminded me that I loved these raw bits. I also realized that I had yet to make one at home. Anyway, this is a very basic salmon tartare that's lovely with a glass of Sauvignon blanc on a Sunday afternoon.

From Cooking & Food (Montréal)

Ingredients are as follows:

• sushi-grade salmon
• dash of olive oil
• minced shallots
• chives
• finely chopped dill
• coarsely ground sea salt
• fresh ground pepper
  
• lime zest
• fresh lime juice

Rinse your salmon in cold water and pat try. Cut the salmon with a sharp knife into small cubes. There is a specific way to cut sushi, I'm not entirely sure if it does in the case of tartare. Well, I'm sure it does to some people but it doesn't really to me.

Add a dash of olive oil and coat the salmon until it's got a bit of a sheen. Add everything except the lime juice and mix gently together. Refrigerate for about an hour.

From Cooking & Food (Montréal)

Now that that's done, slice baguette into to fairly thin pieces, drizzle with a bit of olive oil and bake in an oven at 425 for a couple of minutes, or until they're slightly brown.

Assemble and enjoy!

From Cooking & Food (Montréal)

My Cousin Karen's Most Excellent Ceasar Salad Dressing 7:52 p.m.

Step 1 - Take a clove of garlic, smash it, cover it with olive oil and put it in a small container. Then take this concoction and put it into the freezer for 1 hour. (This step is supposed to make the dressing thicker.)

Step 2 - In a blender mix together:

• 0.5 tsp. ground pepper
• 0.5 tsp. dry mustard
• 2 tsp. worchestershire
• 1 can anchovies
• 1 coddled egg
• 2 tbsp. grated parmesean
• 3-4 tbsp. lemon juice (approx 1/2 a lemon)
• 3/4 cup olive oil frozen garlic clove (from Step 1)

And that's all, folks! It's very good, particularly if you enjoy anchovies (which I never thought I would, but at 25, very much do).

My Secret Confession 8:58 p.m.

I can't cook rice.

The Club Sandwich Made Well 10:09 a.m.

There are many things I appreciate about North American greasy spoons. The club sandwich isn't one of them. You know how there are some dishes that even the sketchiest of restaurants would be hard pressed to screw up? You guessed it, the club sandwich isn't among them. You can screw up a club sandwhich alright - and how. I was reminded of this when I ordered the "flagship" turkey club at a greasy spoon somewhere in Orillia on my birthday. Limp iceberg lettuce, mayo in little packets on the side. I dare not recall the horror in further detail. As for the matter of my being in a greasy spoon in Orillia on my birthday, that's a story for another time.

Clubs are the boyfriend's favourite sandwiches, so I made a couple for us last night. Follow these rules and you'll be just fine.

1. Don't use cold cuts. Like EVER. Use yesterday's leftover chicken or turkey, or cook a breast especially for the occasion.
   
   
2. Layer, you haven't got a choice. I hate sandwiches that fall apart and that's what you're bound to end up with unless you work with three pieces of bread. When building a club sandwich, you're an engineer. Test the viability of your structures on a sample sandwich before applying your blueprint to the whole batch.
   
   
3. Speaking of working with bread, skip the standard loaves and splurge for something gourmet. I tried a lovely olive loaf yesterday and it was worth the slightly outrageous price.
   
   
4. Spreads! Each piece of bread should be spread generously with something. A lovely Dijon, or something spicier if you prefer. If you're die-hard for mayo, you could opt for Dijonnaise. Marmalades and jellies can be interesting as well, just remember not to complicate the taste of your sandwich too much. You've already got tons of ingredients coming together in your masterpiece and need to be wary of a clusterfuck (pardon my French).
   
   
5. Make sure your vegetables are fresh - a rule that applies to all recipes. Limp lettuce is the worst. My preference is romaine, tomato (thinly sliced) and avocado. Simple but classic.
   
   
6. To toast or not to toast, that is the question. In my opinion, it's really up to you. Depends on the bread, depends what you like.

We had ours last night (untoasted) with curry cream of asparagus soup and tabouleh. As per usual, there was too much food.

My Mother's Chicken Amman 6:23 p.m.

I have had this recipe scrawled with a dying pen on a crumpled piece of paper stained with red wine for far too long. This was one of the dishes my mother would make when we had company coming over, before my father became a vegetarian, as I recall.

• 600 ml plain yogurt
• 1 tbsp all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp cardamom
• 2 1/4 tsp ginger
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp chili powder
• 3 cloves garlic
• 6 chicken legs

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Press the garlic into the yogurt and let it sit in the fridge for an hour or two, if you've got time. Remove from the skin from the chicken, place thighs snugly in a lightly greased pan. Mix the spices and flour together then blend into the yogurt. Pour spiced yogurt on to chicken and bake for just under an hour.

Enjoy!

Perth Potato Salad 7:32 p.m.

Who doesn't like potato salad? Well, some people, I guess. But some people also buy Viagra online, drive without insurance, think privatizing medicare is a step forward, etc. Basically,
there's no trusting people who don't like potato salad, especially THIS potato salad, which is really friggin' good. My friend Sarah's parents made it for me once while I was at their cottage near Perth. There's been no looking back.

I don't use measurements when making this recipe, or most recipes, for that matter. Use your judgment, adjust for taste.

1) Start by boiling potatoes. Try red-skinned or new and don't worry about peeling them as long as you give 'em a good scrub. I don't keep track of time, but usually poke regularly with a fork until they're easily pierced. Remember that they'll cook a little even after they've been strained because they're still so damn hot. So yeah, boil 'em, strain 'em and then refrigerate for a couple of hours, or overnight, if you can manage it.

2) Now for the eggs. You're going to want (despite what your doctor may say) to use quite a few eggs. I go with about half the volume of the potatoes; remember, your celery, radish and other veg are going to increase volume further. Egg hard-boiling best practice: rather than boiling them for the duration, let the water come to a boil, cover, turn off the element and leave for at least 15 minutes. The heat from the water is sufficient to cook the eggs beautifully and this technique minimizes that grey yolk effect that is kind of gross.

3) Veggie time. Chop celery, green onion, radishes, lots of dill and a bit of parsley.

4) Dressing! There are various schools of thought on potato salad dressing: mayo versus Miracle Whip, mustard powder versus 'tard from the jar, multiple spices versus plain. Generally my advice is to go with what you like. But when it comes to Miracle Whip, I have a bit of a different opinion. As far as I'm concerned, Miracle Whip is one of the things truly wrong with this world. A super-artifical, sugary "dressing" marketed to poor people as a more economical and tasty alternative to mayo. These days, it won't save you much: mayonnaise and Miracle Whip cost pretty much the same thing. And if you're really die-hard for sugar or spice, throw in your own. But for the love of cooking, don't buy Miracle Whip. Stick with mayo; it has a cleaner, more neutral taste and a more useful texture.

My potato salad dressing usually looks something like this: 5 parts mayo, 1 part mustard, onion powder, paprika and last, but not least, lots of black pepper.

5) Get it together: mix potatoes, veggies, eggs and dressing in a big bowl and refridgerate for an hour or two before serving.

Goes well with nearly everything. This weekend we had it with barbecued ribs and tandoori chicken. Yums!

post-modern bohemian cake 7:43 p.m.

the roommate (god bless her soon to be vietnam-loving-english-teaching soul) has made a cake. she added a touch of rat poo and extra-thick chocolate icing for taste. actually, the rats added the poo and she just took care of the icing, but it's a group effort, so credit is shared equally amongst all family members.

tuna pasta salad = yummy in my tummy 4:21 p.m.

take (a) half a big bag of pasta -- the shell kind, you know, the ones that get stuck inside eachother, spooning (b) a couple of green onions, a.k.a. scallions (c) a few stalks of celery (d) more mayo than i'd care to think about (e) two cans of tuna --> don't get the skipjack, come on kids, splurge! (f) half a yellow pepper, chopped because the red ones were sold out (g) s & p (h) a table spoon of dijon (i) tender loving care and two hours in the fridge...best served with beer, and lots of it!