Come From Away...

I know it's been a while since I've posted, and a while since I've seen the show... but I feel NOW I can post. 9/11 has a special mark on me... a few special ones. I knew people in New York, I had a show cancelled (and I was called back to hours later), and have had the writer work for me...
I went the first preview  with some people 'from the rock' and the second time with a good friend of mine. I cried each time! I NEVER do that... I work in a lot of emotional work...but just seeing this was almost too much. Seeing this beautiful show, feeling the feelings I felt that day, and the compassion of those who helped that day that had NO obligation to do what they did was... healing and compassion...

What my friend David and his wife Irene did with these stories was fantastic.... 16000 stories, 12 actors, 100 mins. All pulled off flawlessly.

As many of the actors have said... the people coming have been saying :"this is where I was..." Well...this is where I was, and I know many people I know where there too...

Where I was... On a GO train home to Oakville when it started. The second plane hit about 10 mins after I got home. I saw it live on CNN. I got a call back to go an load out the show which was cancelled because we were noted as a TARGET! I...for more reasons than one said no... I was awake for more than 24 hours that day...

I knew many people in NYC, given my business, this is a daily occurrence for me. David and Irene were there...but I didn't meet them until later... This was the first of many hard days in theatre and entertainment for me... Not only people passing (as I was afraid of at the time, and after), but also doing things that were legal at the time, but also NOT a good idea! I've also had days where things have happened that I've seen on hte news, but not had information on until much later.... and not having a lot of access to press conferences...

Fast forward... I was also doing a sound design and rehearsing a show that was going on tour to BC...We were on the plane making edits with the MD as we were on the flight...

Once we landed, we got a limo to take us to our destination. The driver asked us if we wanted to know what happened while we were in the air... we found out that the US declared (though, really, they didn't) declare war.

Literally...we were in the air when the US went to war! We Left Pearson with NO armed guards and landed at Vancouver with army personnel with M16s... Though...the worst part was the breaking of one of my cases (though marked fragile) and it being broken and an adapter missing (that I needed).

This was my 9/11 story (continued)....

Not NEARLY as bad as others for sure, but a shareable moment...

Proposed Menu 2015

Cold Cucumber Soup - with or without vodka. Cucumber, cilantro, green bell pepper, vidalia onion and mild jalapeno. Served in Black Salt rimmed glass.

Stuffed Braised Squid - braised in tomato 'sauce' served over handmade papardelle, roasted lemon on the side.

Coleslaw with fresh mayo, cilantro, cucumber, onion, pepper...


Tomato Soup - Braising liquid from squid, reduced and creamed to make a soup, with added onions, roasted peppers, bacon, garlic, and fresh tomatoes. Served with a  dollop of plain yogurt with dill/mint/basil and crispy guancale and fried squid tenticals...

Fresh Ground Pork Meatballs in a butter cheese sauce... This one I might change... the meat course for me is always hard since I really LOVE to cook meat...and change my mind constantly!


"Rum Balls"...I'm not going to give too much of this away, but, lets say, I'm experimenting here... it's a 'rumball', but looks...NOT like one.
It DOES have alcohol (and for someone, I will make a non alcohol version), but will still have the rum flavour. The rum flavour, being an extract, will have an alcohol content, but very minimal, about the same as a peppermint extract.

Was asked for this...and I obliged...lawyers are...well... :) Love you guys!

X Company

X Company... wow...
Well... I NEVER write posts about TV shows...at least no usually...
Sometimes there's a diatribe on Facebook, or multiple posts on Twitter...but...not...this...

First off... thank you to Mark Ellis and Stephanie Morgenstern for creating this WONDERFUL, beautiful, and heartbreaking show. I was fortunate enough to be able to see it before everyone else did, so thank you to the Writer's Guild for that as well! I also got to see the preview of it with the cast a few weeks before the premiere on top of that... can you say I was looking forward to it?

I'm not going to talk much about the show itself... I think more than enough people have done that. I want to focus on something a little different. And I need to get a few things of my chest first...

1. The cast. Holy hell you guys are great...individually, and as an ensemble! Hugh, Evelyne, Jack, Warren, Connor, Dustin... You make a team a team...and you show it. (Well, okay, Hugh is 'away'...but still intricately connected...) I'll get back to this later...

Torben... Man...great job... every episode you showed something that...well... I'm NOT SUPPOSED TO LIKE NAZIS! But...somehow...you did it... and the final scene... I wanted to both hug you and kill you... (or, at LEAST your character...)

2. Directors: David, John, Jaime, Craig... what you brought to the 'stage' was... amazing. You could see each individual 'personality' in the episodes, while keeping to the overall tone set in the first two episodes. You didn't try to make it your own, but kept it as true to the story itself.

Finally...

3. Mark and Steph... dear god you guys are great! I met you guys at the Writers Guild event, so I'm not going to re-hash to much since this is for you...but... the first episode meant a lot to see it with you, and talk to you after... Steph... I haven't been able to do anything more on my grandfathers story since we talked, but I CERTAINLY saw a lot of him in the plot lines of ALL the characters this season. And for that...I thank you and Mark and any other writers on this immensely. As you know, he passed in 1995, and obviously I miss him. Walk With the Devil premiered on the 20th anniversary of his death... so... ouch... I don't know how long Steph and I talked...it felt like an hour... (Even being in the entertainment business myself, I can get nervous talking to people I admire and respect...) Talking about my grandfather chokes me up sometimes because of many things... Mark, I wish I had more time to talk to you that night, but... well... next time my friend!

Now... to what I really want to say...

This is a WELL researched show... while of course there are 'not real' people, I can easily say this is one of the best shows on TV right now... it's hard hitting in EVERY scene, and is so close to reality (based on historical things I've read) that it might as well be a documentary! If it weren't for the quality of the shooting (and, well, colour) it'd be hard to say some scenes WEREN'T shot during the war...

The real reason I'm writing this... my Grandfather... where I'll bring the cast, and my chat with Stephanie back into it...

 My grandfather may (or may not) have been a commando during the war (same as the cast are playing). Trained as a medic, joined underage, and was 'in theatre' for the duration of the war... pay records indicate he was in the most dangerous places in the most dangerous times during the war... not associated with a single company at all (which was common practice). A year into his deployment (shown as a nurse or medic) his pay records go silent for 3 months. I have it on good authority (not verified) that he was in Scotland at the time...training for new missions. As with many...he never talked about his time in the war... Others, who have talked...have mentioned that something like the pre-cursor to CampX trainees did train in Scotland to be deployed... not in the same thing as like in the show, but for the same purpose... to disrupt, destroy, and eliminate Nazi infrastructure and soldiers. He was in Amiens when it fell back into allied hands, and his best friend died in his arms (the ONLY thing from the war he ever mentioned...) This reminds me of Rene from the first episode... though he was hanged for what he did...it still triggers an emotional response...
I seriously don't know what else he did during the war since he never talked about it, and, since he died when I was 15, I don't know if it was due to me not being 'old enough' to handle it or other reasons, my guess is the latter... he never talked about it in detail with anyone really... was it what we now call PTSD? Who knows...but...likely... I say that since there were many things found upon his death that even my Grandmother didn't even really know about. There were a few German bullets found hidden in a chest, a star emblem which is NOT allied affiliated (which I have now), and a ring which I wear EVERY DAY which is (as confirmed by a former British Officer) an authentic WW2 officers ring which is ONLY handed out to Officers and Allied Commandos (who, apparently at the time were ALSO considered officers within the British ranks...no matter their actual rank...). All of this, combined with the stories from some of his close friends who came home and spoke after his death lead me to believe that this is true. He was a "commando" ...one the FIRST ones in the war...

This makes XCompany hard to watch. Every single episode evokes his memory to me...

Steph and I talked about the OSA, the Official Secrets Act, which keeps British secrets classified for 70 years (so next year will/should release a TROVE of things) and other things.... things that have...for all intents and purposes have kept them from many other things that have happened during the time they are trying to tell in the story. It's not clear whether anything WILL be open to the public, or how we'll be able to access it...

So...to end this, I want to say, THANK YOU Mark and Steph, from the bottom of my heart for bringing this to the screen. Many have, and many have failed. You have not! And to the actors (not just the ones I've mentioned, but to all involved... thank you... You've been SO amazing...


All in all...thank you everyone...

'Twas the Night Before Halloween - Forded

Twas the night before Halloween, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even the louse.
The arrest warrants were hung by the mail slot with care,
In hopes that the Emergency Task Force would soon be there.

The lawyers were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of search warrants danced in their heads.
Mama in her kerchief, and I in my cap,
Had just settled down after a rather LARGE nightcap.

When out on the lawn, arose such a clatter,
I sprang from my bed to see what was the matter.
Away to the window, and in came a flash,
Blew open the window, and made the glass smash.

Police lights flashing cross new fallen snow,
Gave the lustre of mid-day to a new bag of blow.
When what to my wandering eyes should appear,
But my own police chief...not bringing me beer.

His little loud lapdog, so lively and quick,
I knew in a moment, it must be that dick.
More vapid than Douggie, the curses they came,
And he gestured, and shouted, and called them by name...

"Now Jonesie, now Blair buddy, now Mark and Sue-Ann!
On, subways, on buses, on taxpayers and the man"
To the top of the porch, to the top of the wall!

Go away, go away so I can save you all!"

So...I shot a few cops today...

And I wasn't even arrested!

Today I had the pleasure of attending my first media launch at Police Headquarters.
Here are a few photos:

 Chief Blair demonstrates how to remove his cap.

 @TPSChrisBoddy and @GraffitiBMXCop (Scott Mills) going for the Twitter shots

 A Fire Chief with a plan! A Fire Safety Plan no less!

 A juice box for the auxiliary officers.

 @GraffitiBMXCop Scott Mills not posing for a photo!

Media Setup

 Peter Sloly (@DeputySloly) laughing in the foyer.

So here's what I'm thinking for Sunday.

Arrival at 3:30 - 4pm
Start dinner around 4 - 4:30pm
Drink from then until we're done. : )


Meal:
Roast Rabbit
Roasted potatoes and carrots with sage and rosemary
Mango Ice Cream
Cookies

Argue among yourselves in the comments for the following.
A few people should bring booze of some sort.
I also need someone to bring a  salad. I'll have some homemade "ricotta" cheese to go with it...
Anything else you want to bring is also fine!

So far, the guest list includes
 - Paisley
 - The Pope
- probably Chef Wendy
- and someone I KNOW I've forgotten about...but can't figure it out...

Thanksgiving Dessert

 I haven't blogged in a while, and, the food was good enough yesterday that I forgot to take pictures until dessert! So, as opposed to a overview of yesterdays food, I'll give you the recipe for the dessert!

What you see plated is a Raspberry and Peach in Prosecco Tart with Maple Whip Cream, Pumpkin Ice Cream, and a bowl of mixed fruit (also in Prosecco).

Recipes:

Raspberry and Peach in Prosecco Tart with Maple Whip Cream

Peel and cube 3 peaches and place in a bowl.
Add equivalent amount of raspberries (or any berry)
Add 1/4 cup of sugar and gently mix.
Add 1 250ml bottle of prosecco (or other sparkling wine)
Let sit for 4 hours in fridge or overnight.

Meanwhile, bake tart shells according to instructions on package.

Maple Whip Cream

Put 1 cup of whipping cream in a mixer. Whip for 3ish minutes until soft peaks form.
Add 1 1/2 tbsp of icing sugar and 1tsp of maple extract.
Whip for a minute or so more until hard peaks form.

Putting it all together:

Take the baked (and cooled) tart shell and place a little whip cream in the bottom. Arrange a few berry and peach cubes on top. Add a little more whip cream and garnish with a sprig of mint, and a little grated chocolate (see below).

Pumpkin Ice Cream

This is a very basic recipe:
Take 2 1/2 cups of whipping cream and 1 1/2 cups of whole milk. Add 1 cup of brown sugar, and mix on low until sugar is dissolved. Add 2 cups of pumpkin puree (spiced) and 1 tsp of vanilla extract mix until incorporated. If using real pumpkin or unspiced mix add cinamon, ginger and nutmeg to the ice cream. Taste until it's what your looking for.
At this point, you can freeze it in an ice cream maker, OR you can add a lot of rum and make pumpkin nog. Alternatively (if you don't have an ice cream maker) you can mix in about 1oz of alcohol (like Grand Marnier...) and freeze in the freezer. You'll need to take it out a few times as it's freezing and mix it again. This will keep large ice crystals from forming, and the alcohol keeps it a little softer.
Serve it with a little maple syrup drizzled over top, and some grated chocolate. I used 5 Chili Chocolate, a mix of 5 chilis, achiote, and sea salt.

Lemon Honey Ginger Tea "Marmalade"

I saw a photo of this on Facebook this morning, so, after getting my roast in the oven, I decided to make it!
This is deceptively simple, and a great idea to have ready to go in the fridge for those days when you've got a sore throat, or just aren't feeling well. At its most basic what you are making is a 'marmalade' of lemon, honey, and ginger? If that sounds familiar, it should, it's the same thing that you make as a tea when you're sick! But, who wants to spend the time doing that when you're sick? I know I don't. So, make this ahead of time, keep it in the fridge and add a teaspoon or two to a glass of hot water and mix.

For this you'll need:
- 1 lemon
- a 1"x1" piece of ginger root (after peeling)
- honey (local is best)
- an 8oz jar (or 250mL, or 1 cup)

Slice the lemons fairly thin, removing the ends, but keeping the rind on the rest of the lemon. Remove the seeds and then cut in quarters.
Slice the ginger very thin. You should be able to get about 12 pieces or more out of the 1" cube of ginger.

Once everything is prepared, pack the jar with a layer of lemon, then ginger, and top that with some honey. Let that settle a little bit. Then add another layer of lemon, and ginger, and honey. Keep doing this until the jar is full (or you're out of lemon and ginger). Make sure the lemon and ginger are fully submerged in the honey.
I actually filled the jar and then added the honey. I think this was a mistake since it took a while for the honey to make it down to the bottom and needed the use of a chopstick to move the pieces around so that the honey could penetrate the mix. It was just a little harder and messier than it needed to be!

Leave it on the counter for a few hours, tap the jar or roll it around a little bit if there is air trapped below the honey. After a few hours, check to see if you need to add any more honey. If you don't, then go ahead and hide it in the fridge for a few weeks at least. Eventually the lemon and ginger will break down forming a marmalade like substance.

Add a teaspoon of that to hot water and you have an 'instant' tea for illness.

What Did I Capture...

On the night of August 12th, I went out to see if I could shoot the meteor shower over the City of Toronto. I didn't even see a single meteor that night before the clouds came in, but I did see 'something'. EXIF data shows that the photo below was taken at 11:03PM, though, I tweeted what I saw at 11:02PM (so, 11:01 - 11:02PM is a likely timeframe). The photo was shot from about 10 feet from the waters edge adjacent to the H20 'beach', shot north over the Skydome.
This was a 10 second exposure, and the light 'flash' lasted approximately 5 of those seconds.

What I saw was what appeared to be a light, growing in intensity, then snapping out. There was no visual movement across the sky, it stayed in the same place. Note, it MAY have been moving, just not visible as such to the naked eye. I've seen something similar to this before, being close to the flightpath of the Island Airport, it's looks similar to a plane coming at you head on, barely being able to see it, then it gradually getting brighter. However, you can see some movement in the airplane headlights that was NOT visible with this.

Photo 1 - Full Shot of Location. (If anyone wants a reference, the CN Tower is 1815' 3" tall)

(Click for Larger View)

Photo 3 - Reference shot, taken immediately after previous photos.

(Click for Larger View)


If you think you know what it is, please leave a comment.

EDIT- Here's a 'better' view of it's location in relation to the stars. The object in question is the white object to the North East of the bottom of the Big Dipper, just to the North East of the smaller reddish star.

EDIT 2 - Removed photo 2 to avoid confusion.

Smoking in the Oven Part 2

I decided to do this in two parts to keep each one shorter.

When we last met, we were waiting 4 hours for the ribs to smoke in the 175f oven.

 

After 4 hours, the ribs should look like this. Because this was done in a 'smoker' that didn't allow the smoke out, it kept the ribs moister as well.

 

Transfer the ribs to a baking sheet.

 

Baste the ribs in sauce. No, I won't give you the recipe for the sauce.
Move the rack up in the oven.

Place the ribs back in the oven, under a 500f broiler this time. Baste the ribs with sauce every 5 mins or so, turning once over 20 - 25 mins. 

 Ribs!!!

Eat!!

PART ONE

Smoking in the Oven

If you're like me, you like smoked foods. Not chemical flavouring, but REAL smoke. And, if you even more like me, you don't have any place to do it. But fear not, you do have a place where you can control temperature to the degree that you need for smoking. Your home oven. Now, this isn't traditional smoking where you use a lot of smoke chips and create a lot of smoke to bathe the meat in. There is very little actual smoke produced during this, but since it's all captured, you don't lose much smoke.

What you need:
- Dutch oven
- Pan that fits tight in the bottom of the dutch oven
- Screen that fits over the pan
- Smoke chips (small handful, you don't need a lot)
- Brulee torch (possibly)
- MEAT!

 Heat the dutch oven over medium heat.

Take it off the heat after its almost hot, about 5 minutes on medium heat.
Add the wood chips and spread them out, use a spoon as the pan will still be hot.
If you wish, you can use the brulee torch to start some of the chips on fire. This step is not necessary, so if you don't have a torch, don't worry.

 Put the pan in the bottom of the dutch dven. This will catch any drippings from the meat, protecting the wood from getting wet.

Add MEAT!
Make sure there is room around it for the smoke to flow. This is probably just a little too much meat.

 Put it back on medium heat until you can see a little bit of smoke coming up from around the drip pan. If you don't see any after about 5 minutes, increase the heat a little bit.
You don't want it really smoking, just a gentle smoke.

Put it in the oven preheated to 175f. for 3 or 4 hours.

PART TWO

Street Pizza!

So, I was wandering around downtown yesterday and I came across this: a wood burning pizza oven on the sidewalk. I love a good pizza, and there is nothing better than pizza cooked in a real wood burning oven. Unfortunately they were packing up when I came by. so I didn't get a chance to have any, but next Tuesday, I'll be there!

 

You can find this oven at King and Spadina every Tuesday from what I understand.
More info at www.pizza700.ca

So, today was the day that Pat Tabler and Buck Martinez took to the sky high above the Rogers Centre to raise money for charity. Here's a few (bad) shots that I got from my window. I'm pretty certain based on timing that this is them. Still, not bad from over 2000' with only a 200mm lens.

Test link to

Twitter and Facebook

Test 3

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CN tower with rainbow


Pasta maker



Pots and pans

A Culinary Idea

I have lots and lots of ideas, I rarely write them down. This one has been gnawing on my brain for a while...

     I've been watching a lot of cooking shows lately. A better thing to say is that they're on in the background quite frequently. While 'watching' those, I get little ideas here and there. Today I made Bacon Ice Cream, but that's a different story... The final piece of the puzzle was fit in today for my idea. Guy Fieri did a special DDD on Worth Our Weight, an apprentice program for people who have faced major challenges in their lives. They do not pay for tuition and come out of the program with culinary and restaurant management training.

     Then there's Chuck's Day Off, where the chef prepares food for a wide variety of people who 'work' for his restaurant. Be it staff, suppliers, or just friends. It's a cool idea to bring people together for a meal who ordinarily would not eat together.

     And of course, Chopped with their secret ingredients, and Iron Chef with the theme ingredient.

     Now, in my mind, I've put them ALL together. Everyone into the pool as they say...

     My idea is NOT a cooking show. In fact, it would be seen as a community service. The idea: a soup kitchen for the homeless, staffed by the less fortunate.

     What I would envision is something like Worth Our Weight, taking in the underprivileged, those who have had difficulties, and those who simply cannot afford a proper culinary school; and giving them a place to learn and thrive. These people would be supplemented with either volunteer grad students OR chefs from around the city, kind of like a mentorship program That's where Chuck's Day Off comes in, chefs who are not working would have the ability to come in and 'teach', or simply cook meals in a different venue, while others gleaned info of what they were doing.

     Chopped and Iron Chef give me the idea of essentially NOT buying many products. IE, ingredients are given to you, and you make do with what you have. Obviously some things will need to be bought, but with the number of grocery stores, the Food Terminal and various Farmers Markets, more than enough food is ditched on a daily basis to make at least one restaurant work.

     I have two trains of thought on this. One is simply for the homeless. The other is a little more complex and has regular customers coming into the kitchen and paying for their food, which then in turn subsidizes the feeding of the homeless.

    I'm not in any sort of position to make any of this happen, but if any of YOU are, feel free to take this idea and run with it!

Test 2

Phone test

Here's a test blog from my phone.
Edit test

Delete -A -Tweet

I caught a tweet this morning from the Toronto Police Service about the need to delete a tweet due to the legal authority having expired for some of the information contained within the tweet to still be public. This does happen from time to time due to the way some laws are written. It's a good idea to be able to remove certain information from twitter as some people only follow a few, and I've seen tweets re-tweeted that are a few days old and the information is either no longer valid, or the crime itself has already been solved, or the missing person has already been found.

Some people tweet a lot and may not be able to find the tweet that needs to be deleted, which could run them afoul of the law. Though, I don't think this has ever actually come up, it would be good to have 'protection' against this. Basically, I think there should be an app for twitter developed for Police Services, and other services where information can/needs to 'automatically' expire.

Key features should include:

- a "tweet/link tracker" to keep track of tweets/re-tweets so ALL information can be removed.

- auto-deletion of tweets after a certain time period, settable for each tweet, follows for all re-tweets and associated links.

- manual deletion of tweets, including all re-tweets for removal of 'event' based conclusions. (IE, missing persons).

- A "store house" for the original tweet, since it's an electronic communication and I think the information has to be kept.

At it's most base, the application should be able to remove all traces of the particular tweet from twitter, no matter how it's been re-formatted, including links changed, but still going to the original location.

So...who wants to develop this!

 A Police Officer smiles as a group of cyclists pass by Yonge/Dundas Square - Sunday June 27, 2010