http://aperte.org Jeremy Handcock Wed, 08 Dec 2010 07:23:41 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 en hourly 1 http://aperte.org/2007/10/24/nasty-coffee/ http://aperte.org/2007/10/24/nasty-coffee/#comments Wed, 24 Oct 2007 22:43:51 +0000 Jeremy Handcock http://aperte.org/2007/10/24/nasty-coffee/

]]> http://aperte.org/2007/10/24/nasty-coffee/feed/ 0 http://aperte.org/2007/07/12/okanagan-wine-tour/ http://aperte.org/2007/07/12/okanagan-wine-tour/#comments Fri, 13 Jul 2007 05:06:07 +0000 Jeremy Handcock http://aperte.org/2007/07/12/okanagan-wine-tour/ See Ya Later Ranch (formerly Hawthorne Mountain) and enjoyed some surprisingly good local bubbly along with some lunch. Of course, we ordered a whole bottle so I was a little buzzed after. The view from up there was beautiful: I sampled a typically Canadian sub-par Pinot Noir and then we decided to hit the road for Burrowing Owl. By then it was really starting to roast outside: Yep, that really says 44 degrees Celsius (111 degrees Fahrenheit for my American friends). Remember that I'm now a West Coast boy and I'm not used to such heat. I was a huge sweaty mess just from walking to the winery from the truck and I had to go towel off in the washroom. Burrowing Owl is a nice place, though: Unfortunately, the available selection in their wine store there was kinda disappointing. All they had for (red) tasting was a young Merlot and they were only selling their 2004 Pinot Noir in addition to that. I think it was just bad timing because their web site says they're releasing a bunch of their 2005 reds this summer (but when?). Anyway, I'm sure the Pinot is good so I bought a bottle of that to try out. Then it was off to Summerland to get some fish and chips at a place that was supposed to be good. It was great food, but I felt like such a grease ball after. Seriously, did I eat it or rub it on my face? (shamelessly stolen from Jim Gaffigan) Share:

]]> http://aperte.org/2007/07/12/okanagan-wine-tour/feed/ 1 http://aperte.org/2007/04/03/cake/ http://aperte.org/2007/04/03/cake/#comments Wed, 04 Apr 2007 06:12:00 +0000 Jeremy Handcock http://aperte.org/2007/04/03/cake/ All this cake talk of cake intake brings to mind Jim Gaffigan's cake bit. Good times! Share:

]]> http://aperte.org/2007/04/03/cake/feed/ 0 http://aperte.org/2007/03/20/adventures-in-prepared-food/ http://aperte.org/2007/03/20/adventures-in-prepared-food/#comments Tue, 20 Mar 2007 17:21:41 +0000 Jeremy Handcock http://aperte.org/2007/03/20/adventures-in-prepared-food/ a first-hand account of preparing spray cheese-filled, bacon-wrapped hot dogs. "If syphilis was a food product, this is what it would look like." Sorry if I ruined your appetite. Share:

]]> http://aperte.org/2007/03/20/adventures-in-prepared-food/feed/ 1 http://aperte.org/2007/02/22/fat-banana-nut-pancakes/ http://aperte.org/2007/02/22/fat-banana-nut-pancakes/#comments Fri, 23 Feb 2007 06:31:33 +0000 Jeremy Handcock http://aperte.org/2007/02/22/fat-banana-nut-pancakes/ Each of us had about three and a half fat pancakes with pecans, walnuts, and bananas baked into the batter. As if that wasn't enough, we topped them with whipped cream, cinnamon, strawberries, and jam. We couldn't quite finish them all in one sitting though, so we had a second breakfast a few hours later. It was super tasty. I felt a bit fat afterwards. Share:

]]> http://aperte.org/2007/02/22/fat-banana-nut-pancakes/feed/ 2 http://aperte.org/2007/01/14/my-private-dinner-parties/ http://aperte.org/2007/01/14/my-private-dinner-parties/#comments Mon, 15 Jan 2007 07:31:19 +0000 Jeremy Handcock http://aperte.org/2007/01/14/my-private-dinner-parties/ How To Eat: The Pleasures and Pricinples of Good Food. Here are my Gooey Chocoloate Puddings made from fine dark chocolate in my new ramekins. They turned out beautifully. Silky smooth, sinfully rich deliciousness. Nigella takes a line from Woody Allen: "Don't knock masturbation, it's sex with someone I love." Besides being indulgent, cooking for oneself usually produces more delicious results. Inhibitions are lower (especially when I'm enjoying multiple glasses of a fine wine while preparing), time constraints are non-existant, and there's less stress about serving bad food. It's about "... enjoying life on purpose, rather than by default." I cooked up some stuffed chicken breasts with mushrooms, onions, celery, bread crumbs, and rosemary. Of course, there was butter involved. It turned out pretty good, but I had to leave it warm in the oven because I got paged to deal with something just as it was finishing up and it got a bit dried out. Phooey. The best part by far was the chocolate pudding. It was really easy too. The chocolate pudding goes on the guest list. Now I just need to find more foodies in Seattle to cook and eat with. Shall I post a signup sheet? Share:

]]> http://aperte.org/2007/01/14/my-private-dinner-parties/feed/ 2 http://aperte.org/2006/12/18/lemon-bar-tragedy/ http://aperte.org/2006/12/18/lemon-bar-tragedy/#comments Tue, 19 Dec 2006 06:35:46 +0000 Jeremy Handcock http://aperte.org/2006/12/18/lemon-bar-tragedy/ World Foodies blog, but I just couldn't stand to have my reputation there tarnished by this tragic episode of lemon bar production. The recipe is really quite simple: it's just a shortbread with a lemon custard on top. Margot on the Best Of Bridge site calls it "A very easy fool-proof recipe." SherryL seconds that with "Very yummy; very easy!" Well, it just wasn't so. I think my 70s oven runs a bit hot, so at the recommended temperature the shortbread came out quite crispy. We decided to forge ahead, vowing to at least scrape off the delicious lemony custard if the shortbread was too awful to consume. Well, the custard came out decent, but we took it out of the oven and set it on top of my stove without realizing that the burner I just finished pan-frying chicken on was still running full-blast. Smells of burning pastry filled the air and the lemony custard began to vent like a steaming volcano on the verge of eruption. So, after we pulled it off, the whole thing was a crispy mess. The shortbread was quite seriously black. We tried to salvage some of the custard, but the shortbread had infused it with a savoury scent of burnt cigarettes that made it largely inedible. Alas, the quest for lemon bars ended in tragedy. Anything that occurs in my kitchen is on my record, but Fruit Loops was kinda in charge of the lemon bars, so I can selfishly shed some of the responsibility. Isn't that right, Fruit Loops? Share:

]]> http://aperte.org/2006/12/18/lemon-bar-tragedy/feed/ 2 http://aperte.org/2006/11/05/world-foodies/ http://aperte.org/2006/11/05/world-foodies/#comments Mon, 06 Nov 2006 04:48:31 +0000 Jeremy Handcock http://aperte.org/2006/11/05/world-foodies/ International Blog of Food, a new collaborative foodie blog that my brother's friend started to record interesting experiences in food in his travels around the globe. I just made my first post! Hopefully I'll start making regular contributions. Share:

]]> http://aperte.org/2006/11/05/world-foodies/feed/ 0 http://aperte.org/2006/08/02/syrah-talk-ii/ http://aperte.org/2006/08/02/syrah-talk-ii/#comments Thu, 03 Aug 2006 05:02:05 +0000 Jeremy Handcock http://aperte.org/2006/08/02/syrah-talk-ii/ 2004 Twisted Tree Syrah (~CAD 35) and the 2003 Cedar Creek Estate Syrah (~CAD 35). The Twisted Tree was decent, but it was a little too over-oaked for my tastes. It smelled nice: herby like my brother Nicholas said. Unfortunately the finish was all oak, which really overwhelmed the rest of the wine. It kinda left me wondering if the oak was just added because the rest of the wine couldn't stand alone by itself. Overall it was fine, but I can think of other, much better wines in the same price point that I'd rather drink. The Cedar Creek was excellent: inky, full, nicely acidic, it smelled really interestingly like creasote and had a long, long finish. It could stand up to a fine K Syrah any day (I think the K Syrahs are aguably the gold standard in Washington syrahs). Share:

]]> http://aperte.org/2006/08/02/syrah-talk-ii/feed/ 2 http://aperte.org/2006/08/01/syrah-talk/ http://aperte.org/2006/08/01/syrah-talk/#comments Tue, 01 Aug 2006 15:08:02 +0000 Jeremy Handcock http://aperte.org/2006/08/01/syrah-talk/ 2003 Burrowing Owl Syrah at a local Italian restaurant. The food was rather underwhelming, but the wine was really tasty. It was leathery and smokey on the nose, lush and full-bodied, and had the nice acidity that is also common in the Washington syrahs. It was an eclectic mix of old and new. I was chatting with a dude at one of the wine stores here the other day and mentioned this wine; he scoffed at it as a Burrowing Owl label whore wine, over-extracted, and unable to decide if it's a Rhone syrah or a new world syrah. He was actually pretty obnoxious. Someone at Burrowing Owl must have rubbed him wrong. I totally disagree with him: it's a big wine, but it's definitely not over-extracted, and I think the mix of old and new in this wine is what makes it so interesting. I tried to find a few bottles of it to take back with me, but of course the 2003 is all sold out and you can only get the 2004 if you drive out to the winery. Forget that. Even though this dude at the wine store was a rather unpleasant, stocky little man, I still bought two bottles of local syrah from him: a 2004 Twisted Tree Syrah and a 2003 Cedar Creek Syrah. I'm going to drink them both before I leave. Share:

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