Edmonton Corn Maze 2007

Mack and I made a trip out to the Edmonton Corn Maze on Monday night, and like last year, brought a camera with us to capture the experience.

Like tourists!

This year, the maze was shaped to celebrate the Edmonton Oil Kings, though really, the aerial shots and overall design are good for publicity only – once inside the corn field, the shape is irrelevant.

We arrived at dusk as planned, paid admission, and entered the maze just after 7 o’clock. We were both shocked at how low the stalks had become. The website had warned than an early frost and winds had caused the corn to die and fall over, but it was worse than I had thought. When on the lookout bridge, Mack and I were actually able to count the number of people “getting lost” in the maze (twenty), something not possible during our visit the year before. We hope the corn stalks hold up for the Maze’s Farm of Fear event that starts next week.

Poor corn.

View from the lookout bridge

Mack, ever impatient or adventurous (more likely a bit of both), decided to take us through a stalk-infested short cut. And a few photo stops later, we were out.

Dying corn stalks

A cob of corn

The website pegs the average time spent in the maze to be over an hour, but with some creative directionality, we made it out in less than 30 minutes (besting our 40 minute route last year). It occurred to us for a second to go through it again honestly, but with the chilly conditions, we decided it wasn’t worth it.

We’ll be back next year, hopefully earlier in the season, armed again with a camera, my crank-powered flashlight, mittens, but this time with a desire to finish the maze without self-made shortcuts.

Food Notes

  • Sorrentino’s really is taking over the city – a second location of Caffè Sorrentino is set to open in the old space previously occupied by the Polka Cafe in Edmonton City Centre.

  • Daawat, purveyors of Indian cuisine, just opened up a second location on Whyte Avenue, with a third planned for Mayfield Common. I’ll have to try it some time to see how it holds up against New Asian Village.

  • A bistro called The Passionate Plate will be opening soon next to the south side Italian Centre. New food related ventures are always exciting. I can’t wait to pay it a visit.

  • Speaking of the Italian Centre, I shared a panini with my family at Spinelli’s, the cafe attached to the grocery store. After high expectations fueled by a glowing review I read, I was quite disappointed with the cold sandwich. Perhaps we have been spoiled to anticipate warm or toasted sandwiches, but the cafe was not equipped with anything to heat the panini up. I will say that the spread used on the bread was quite tasty, but other than that, the panini was like any other cold cuts sandwich.

  • Via eat drink one woman, I found out about the Edge Brownie Pan – where every square is guaranteed two edges. Genius!

  • Bacon lovers unite! The Grateful Palate will help you demonstrate your love of pork with bacon scented candles, a bacon-shaped ornament, and yes, even bacon-print toilet paper.

The Cooking Chronicles: BBQ Pizza

Taking advantage of what may have been the last warm day before the cruel plunge into winter, I pulled out a recipe I had wanted to try all summer – pizza on the barbecue.

Using Ricardo’s recipe for dough, and guidance on grilling pizza from an MSN Lifestyle page I can no longer locate, I can’t say this is one for impatient cooks. Waiting the hour for the dough to rise was painful, and as I had got started late to begin with, I’m not sure I wouldn’t have been better off heading to the nearest grocery store in that time to pick up frozen bread dough to work with instead. For toppings, I went with a blend of asiago and mozzarella cheeses, roma tomatoes and green peppers (I couldn’t for the life of me find fresh basil that afternoon).

After the hour, I split the dough in half, and Amanda and I each pounded out a disc with our hands. With my Dad’s help, we toasted one side of the bread for a few minutes, flipped it over, then topped it with tomato sauce, cheese and vegetables. The last step involved closing the lid and allowing indirect heat to melt the cheese and finish cooking the pizza.

I was quite happy with the finished product – the dough was crunchy, and the grill for the most part acted like pizza stone of sorts.

So, perhaps it may be time to invest in a pizza stone (just in time for winter)…

On the grill (it was dark by this time…)

Ready to eat!

Quotable Women (and Men): Installment Five

  • “Inside me lives a skinny woman crying to get out, but I can usually shut her up with cookies.” – Anonymous
  • “Strength is the capacity to break a chocolate bar into four pieces with your bare hands – and eat just one of the pieces.” – Judith Viorst
  • “Behind every successful woman…is a substantial amount of coffee.” – Stephanie Piro
  • “If you always do what interests you, at least one person is pleased.” – Katharine Hepburn
  • “A beautiful woman seductively dressed will never catch cold no matter how low cut her gown.” – Fredrich Nietzsche
  • “A dress makes no sense unless it inspires men to want to take it off you.” – Francoise Sagan
  • “It’s not really a shorter skirt, I just have longer legs…” – Anna Kournikova
  • “You know what charm is: a way of getting the answer yet without having asked any clear question.” – Alberta Camus

The Beauty of Autumn

It might surprise you to know that autumn is actually my favorite season. I just love the changing foliage, the soft rustling and subsequent dispersing of leaves, and the cool (not crisp) evenings.

This time of year might be construed by some as merely the calm before the onslaught of winter, but in my view, the world seems genuinely at peace – no bustle of spring or bright lights of summer. Nice in their own right, I still prefer those two glorious weeks of autumn when the breeze is light and the midday sun scatters over the reflection of the fallen, but still glowing leaves.

Coincidentally, I came across a quote that expresses the beauty of the season better than I ever could (from the Globe & Mail‘s “Social Studies” section, compiled by Michael Kesterton):

“The summer is over now. It is October and autumn. We are having delightful fall days, misty and purple, with a pungent, mellow air and magnificent sunsets, followed by the rarest of golden twilights and moonlit nights floating in silver. Maple and birch are crimson and gold, and the fields sun themselves in aftermaths. But it is autumn and beautiful as everything is, it is the beauty of decay – the sorrowful beauty of the end.”
– Lucy Maud Montgomery, in her journal, 1899

A view of the river valley from Ezio Farone Park

Theatre Network: “A Beautiful View”

My first show of this theatre season was Theatre Network’s A Beautiful View, showing at the Roxy Theatre (with newly renovated bathrooms!). Website synopsis in a nutshell:

“Two nameless women come together, drop out of each other’s lives, and meet again to the realization that some things are impossible to give up.”

The two women were played by Davina Stewart and Caroline Livingstone, and were the principal reason behind why I decided to see this play. But even now, after some reflection, I’m still not sure what to make of it.

The play began on a laboriously slow note – without any speaking for the first few minutes. And between the dim lighting and soundtrack of crickets, May and I struggled to keep up. The set throughout was very much bare bones (something I am not used to seeing at the Roxy), almost to the point of Fringe-like simplicity. This did ensure that the audience would not be distracted from the two leads.

The constant repetition of the phrase “nothing is enough” (whether it is interpreted as nothing can ever be sufficient, or to have nothing is fine) was and interesting thread throughout, especially as the women traversed jobs, marriages, and deaths in the family.

At the crux of it, I did resonate with the central message of the play – questioning society’s constant need to label everything (e.g. “couple”, “heterosexual”) because I know I am sometimes guilty of jumping to naming as the easy conclusion. I could see that for these women, whether they were friends and/or lovers really didn’t matter – their connection, and only the connection that they felt with one another without judgment or expectation was important.

The ending was another story entirely, and one that felt to me like a cop-out. But I am willing to admit that I may simply not have understood or appreciated the possibility of it coming across as beautifully simple.

A Beautiful View wasn’t the best way to start off the new theatre season, but then again, it can only get better from here.

Brought to you by Sugar: Vi’s for Pies

In an effort to kill two birds in one night, May and I followed up on a new restaurant with dessert at a cafe we had both been meaning to visit for some time – Vi’s for Pies (13408 Stony Plain Road).

Not too far from our next and last destination, we had just enough time to ogle the dessert case and have something to round off our meal. There were at least fifteen tempting selections to choose from, including various cheesecakes, tarts, cakes, and pies. May could not resist trying their mango cheesecake, while I opted for a lemon tart and a hot chocolate. But beyond sweets, Vi’s also serves homemade soups and sandwiches,and instead of the traditional paper menu, display their daily creations on a chalkboard and easel moved to accomodate patrons still deciding.

While we waited for our plates, we admired the cute outdoor patio (it reminded me of the location of Carrie’s simu-date in an episode of Sex & the City), and is definitely worth checking out in warmer seasons. The dining area itself wasn’t too shabby either, featuring a fireplace and walls painted in a warm red tone.

Our desserts were ready in no time, and we were both pleased with the presentation – little florets of whipped cream dusted with cocoa accented the plate. When we sampled our treats, however, we found them much too sweet for our liking. The lemon essence in my tart was much too strong; the shortbread base wasn’t bad, but the overpowering tartness of lemon flavor prevented me from enjoying my dessert as a whole. This pattern of saccharin saturation was also continued in my drink, unfortunately.

I would return to Vi’s for Pies in the future, but only to sample their hearty lunch/dinner options…or perhaps their pie.

Vi’s for Pies

Outdoor patio

May admires the dessert case

May’s mango cheesecake (top) and my lemon tarts

Another Bacon: Skinny Legs and Cowgirls

May and I were late to the party. After most of the city’s food critics jumped to review Skinny Legs and Cowgirls (9008 Jasper Avenue) in the spring, we tried valiantly to secure reservations to this “sort of bistro”, but the timing was never right. On Tuesday, we finally made it.

Pulling into the parking lot just after five, we more than beat any rush the restaurant might have seen later that night. The dining room was tiny, a total of seven tables occupying the small space. The decor was undoubtedly charming, with a cozy, autumn-perfect color scheme of orange and red running up the walls, continued on the place settings, and in the Chinese lantern stem on each table. However, the room itself was virtually unlit and seemingly unheated, forcing us rely on the tabletop candle as not only the light, but the main heating source as well.

The menu reminded me very much of Bacon (which I visited in June, but have yet to post about) – organic, sparse, and without many dishes that appealed much to my personal taste. Our server explained that all of their plates were built to be shared. Their piece de resistance was the “mixed grill”, a platter with several different kinds of meat, including rack of lamb and striploin steak, but priced at a staggering $73, it was something we couldn’t stomach on that particular evening.

Instead, we ordered the Chorizo Plate (chorizo sausage sauteed with onions, tomato, cilantro and finished with red wine), and the Franco Pollo (chicken sauteed with spices, onions, tomato, lemon juice and finished with fresh cream). In hindsight, we should have also selected an accompanying carb of some kind, but as the prices of the polenta and rice plates equalled that of the chorizo and chicken items ($15!), we didn’t think we would get our money’s worth.

With a cool, unobtrusive Sirius Radio station on in the background, dim lighting, and an intimate setting, I could see how Skinny Legs and Cowgirls would make a good date venue. The service was all right, but erred on the side of giving us too much space.

Our food arrived on very stylish rectangular plates, coupled with serving utensils that allowed for easy sharing. Our favorite was the chorizo dish – the sweet tomatoes complemented the savoury sausage slices nicely. The Franco Pollo wasn’t bad, but with a thick orange sauce, I had trouble convincing my eyes that I wasn’t eating some variation of butter chicken.

While we didn’t have a bad experience, May and I agreed that Skinny Legs and Cowgirls wasn’t appealing enough to add to our short list of restaurants. Still, I wouldn’t mind giving their mixed grill a go some time in the future…just to see what haute meat really tastes like.

Exterior

Dining room

Choizo Plate

Franco Pollo

The Cooking Chronicles: Chocolate Brownies

Debating between a recipe of low-fat brownies by America’s Test Kitchen and a regular-fat one from Jamie Oliver, I selected the latter and began the prep work.

Besides the inconvenience of having to convert the measurements, it was a fairly straightforward recipe (and I must say I adore melting chocolate in a double boiler for some odd reason). I used semi-sweet baking chocolate squares instead of the recommended dark chocolate, but the final product turned out just as rich.

My goal with this recipe was to try to achieve the perfect chewy coating and gooey centre, but unlike with cookies, I wasn’t able to watch for batch browning to guide me. As well, because I ended up using an 8 x 8 pan instead of a 12 x 12 dish, I couldn’t rely on the recipe’s suggested baking time. Though I left the tray in oven ten minutes longer to compensate for its increased thickness, it turned out not to be enough. After cooling, I cut into the tray and discovered what was essentially a molten chocolate pudding underlying the crisp crust. Thankfully, after fifteen additional minutes in a reheated oven, the brownies came out edible and held their shape when cut.

Definitely fit only for those with a sweet tooth, the richness of these brownies are best experienced as a full-fledged dessert – warmed in the microwave slightly, then served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Yum.

Chocolate brownies (before reheating)

Poor Planning and Bad Timing: Sorrentino’s

I have mentioned Dine Alberta a few times this month, it being a September program that promotes the use of local ingredients at select restaurants across the province. I finally got around to arranging for dinner at Sorrentino’s, a much-loved local Italian chain that seems to be something of an institution in Edmonton (beyond Sorrentino’s proper, the purveyors also maintain That’s Aroma!, Oliveto Trattoria, Caffe Sorrentino, a sports bar, and a pub). I poked around the website and was looking forward to trying something off of their featured Mushroom Harvest menu – specifically, the porcini mushroom risotto.

With Dickson at the wheel (though that phrase is a bit redundant…), we headed for the downtown location. Count me embarrassed when we were confronted with a closed sign. Vowing better research before future outings, we checked to make sure the southside location was open before driving there.

Arriving around 8:30pm, we were given the “S-Bar” menu, a condensed selection of dishes meant for late diners. I inquired about the Mushroom Harvest menu, but to my disappointment, was told that it wasn’t offered on Sundays. The website failed me – nowhere on their otherwise comprehensive webpage was it written that the specials were only served Monday to Saturday. So not only were we deprived of sampling the regular fare (of which a chef’s daily risotto is a part of), but I also wasn’t able to get my Dine Alberta fix.

That said, the after-9 menu isn’t bad; there were quite a few comfort dishes that were tempting. I settled on a margherita pizza, while Dickson opted for Mamma’s lasagna. The food arrived after a bit of a wait (the main dining room had been fully booked for a private function), though Dickson would have been appeased had they simply brought more baskets of their salted baguette. The pizza wasn’t great, and tasted very much like the fare I had at Three Bananas Cafe, and easily loses up against the phenomenal slices at Leva. Dickson’s pasta was quite good, but he was left wanting more because of the small portion.

When the bill was presented, we were surprised to see we had been charged full price. Checking the time our plates were entered, we realized that had we waited twenty minutes to order, we could have saved $6. Sure, that isn’t a lot of cash, but after the mushroom menu mix-up, it was another instance of our bad timing that night.

I’ll have to return to Sorrentino’s for a full, triple fact-checked dinner to see if it really can live up to the hype.

Margherita pizza
Mamma’s Lasagna