Red's Diner

Cross-Posted from Calgary is Awesome.

I'd been curious about Red's Diner ever since I saw them renovating the former chiropractic clinic after my tap classes at DJD. Since it opened in the spring, my perennial brunchmate Tiffany and I had always meant to go, but we didn't make it happen until yesterday.

I would describe Red's as a "greasy spoon" without all the grease and a bit of a hipster twist - while they serve traditional diner fare like eggs benny, hash browns and milkshakes, there are also lots of vegetarian and vegan options, and half of their milkshakes are filled with booze. The space is clean and sunny, with a few rustic touches, and instead of old waitresses with southern drawls calling you "suggah", most of the service staff are young with tattoos and piercings.

I was feeling pretty hungry, so I went for their Short Rib Hash with Eggs ($12.79). I like my eggs poached.


If you're looking for a heavy breakfast, the hash will hit the spot. It's filled with beef, chunks of potato, diced peppers, celery and onion, and topped with a touch of gravy. Instead of my usual whole wheat/multigrain toast, I opted to try their sourdough cheese - I was slightly disappointed when I first saw it that it wasn't as cheesy as I envisioned, but upon closer inspection you can see and taste the tiny streaks of cheese baked throughout the bread.

Tiffany ordered their Traditional Eggs Benny ($9.89).


She liked it, but it didn't "wow" her.

I know people have complained about the service at Red's before, but that was certainly not an issue in our case - the waitress took our orders, got our food and refilled our coffees in a timely manner; when we asked for milk for our coffee we were asked "2%, 1%, skim or soy?" When we were asked if we wanted hot sauce, the waitress brought over three kinds!

Perhaps we lucked out because it was Saturday morning, but Red's doesn't seem to have lines that stretch out the door just yet - I will definitely be back for more hash, or to try some of their more unique dishes, like the vegan scramble, red quinoa, chai ginger milkshake or Jack Daniel's ice cream float!

Red's Diner
1415 4 St SW
Calgary AB T2R 0Y2
(403) 266-3448
Open every day 7 AM-4 PM.

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Food Blogger BBQ Potluck Roundup

I'm a little embarrassed to put up this post, because I've seen everybody else's blog posts on our little potluck and clearly I was too busy watching over my chicken, eating and chatting to take photos of everything, let alone good ones! So if you haven't already, take a peek (not peak) at Jen, Lauren, Julie and Pierre's take on the afternoon.

The potluck was a smaller, more private affair than the bake sale, but it was certainly no less fun. A forecast of rain and ominous, grey skies in the morning made us nervous as to whether or not the potluck would still go on. The forecast was downgraded to cloudy skies, so we nervously began trickling in to Edworthy Park - the rain held off just until the picnic was scheduled to end, and we even got glimpses of sun! Perfect.


All of the bloggers contributed to a gorgeous spread of food. Early birds got to share a watermelon which Pierre smashed open with the back of B.'s axe as he'd forgotten a knife. He also brought giant, cake-like cookies from Evelyn's Coffee Bar in Banff, and of course, a beautiful salad made from lettuce, dill and pansies picked fresh from his garden. The greens were dressed with a sweet vinaigrette made with blackcurrants he'd picked at Kayben Farms in Okotoks. (Yes, there are local blackcurrants - who knew?)


Jen brought some delicately crafted hors d'oeuvres, like this truffled mushroom bruschetta, dotted with caramelized onions, fresh basil and parmesan on multigrain bread from the new Wilde Grainz bakery in Inglewood. She also made some adorable skewers with yellow watermelon balls alternating with cubes of feta wrapped in strips of basil.

    
Julie graced us with two delicious salads - one was a quinoa salad made with black beans and some leftover fruit salsa from the fish tacos featured in Swerve today, and the other was a lovely, garlicky take on potato salad, with green beans and garlic scape pesto. Julie also brought a pan of fudgey, gluten-free brownies.

Speaking of dessert, there was lots to be had - aside from the brownies, Lauren brought over a pan of moist, gluten-free plum quinoa cake. It was hard to believe she'd only returned home from Fernie that morning!

    
Wendy brought over these bright, tangy lemon bars, made with a touch of hostility from an upstairs neighbour leaking onto her ceiling - poor girl! Her cousin Carina is a talented baker too, having baked these almond-studded bars with gooey, cheesecake centres.


Last but certainly not least, Chelsey brought these boozy cups of champagne-marinated fruit, topped with fluffy clouds of whipped cream. They're "not for kids", but I know a certain Celiac Teen had her share! I'm pretty sure this was the first (and hopefully the last) time I heard a mother tell her child that she was only allowed to eat the cream, and not the fruit!

Oh, and if you'd seen pictures of me in my completely mismatched orange top with black sweater holding skewers of chicken, I figured a BBQ couldn't be without, well, barbecuing, so I made the chicken part of this recipe, subbing in dried thyme and fresh dill for the oregano. Manly B. helped build a fire for me and I built a makeshift grill out of some extendable BBQ forks. I also made a tub of tzatziki using the grated cucumber method and the thick but healthy Liberté 0% Greek Yogurt. The tzatziki turned out nice and thick but a little too lemony! Needs a little more tweaking ;)

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Famoso Neapolitan Pizzeria

Cross-Posted from Calgary is Awesome.

    
I'd heard good things about Famoso, the Calgary offshoot of an Edmonton-based franchise that specializes in Neapolitan pizzas. The only other place where I'd had a Neapolitan-style pizza was at Pulcinella over a year and a half ago, and I didn't really enjoy the charred, burnt-tasting crust. Since then, I've become more familiar with the idea of a Neapolitan-style pizza, and the fact that Famoso is the most "talked about" Calgary restaurant on Urbanspoon right now made me curious to give it a try.

I have to echo most people's sentiment that the service at Famoso is confusing. Seriously, if you have to dedicate a page on your website to how the restaurant works, then it's probably not a good format. They make it sound easy - you seat yourself, read the menu, order at the counter, and the service staff take care of the rest. However, since it was a busy Friday night, they had hostesses seating people that night. To add to the confusion, there are also four tables downstairs, which you can jump the line and take if you're ok with not sitting in the main dining room with the cathedral-style roof and floor-to-ceiling windows. Downstairs, the waitress offered to take our order, but she seemed busy when we were ready so we went upstairs and ordered at the counter anyway. At the end of the dinner we paid our bill at the table, though in the past I've heard that some people had to go up to the counter to pay.

I'm sure this "fast casual" style of dining works when the restaurant isn't filled to the brim, but still I don't see any speed/service advantage to it, especially in a two-storey space. It just feels like a sneaky way for the restaurant to save money on staff... somehow...

Still, the service was pretty friendly overall, despite the fact that the server at the counter couldn't really hear me over the noise and seemed really perplexed that we only ordered one glass of wine - the Monte Antico Sangiovese ($11.25 for 9 oz), which was a smooth blend of Sangiovese, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon.

We chose two pizzas - one from the traditional Pizza Rossa (red sauce) menu, and one Pizza Bianca, which forgoes the tomato sauce in favour of a simple drizzle of olive oil with fresh garlic and oregano.


Our Pizza Rossa was their Vesuvio ($13.50), which features a fresh-tasting tomato sauce studded with red pepper flakes and topped with mozzarella, spicy sopressata (a type of salami) and fresh basil. I ordered it because I generally don't believe the "spicy" icon on menus at non-Asian restaurants. However, the Vesuvio delivered - while real spice fanatics would probably laugh it off, for me it was just a little too intense (especially the sauce).


I preferred our Pizza Bianca, which was the simple Prosciutto Arugula ($14.50). This was a very light-tasting pizza, especially with a squeeze of lemon, that highlighted the "sauce" of olive oil and garlic. Eating a mouthful of the peppery arugula made me feel a little virtuous, even though I know in reality that pizza is not healthy by any means!

All of Famoso's pizzas are about 11" - slightly too big for one person but also too small to split between two - but we managed to finish all but one slice. The pizza here is definitely better than Pulcinella - the thin, chewy crust still features those charred bubbles, but without the burnt taste. Still, there's room for improvement - the pizza was not piping hot for something that came out of a wood-fired oven, and I was quick about taking my photos (notice how there are only two of each pizza and they are all very similar); parts of the crust, especially on the Vesuvio, were more soggy than chewy as well.

B. and I were too stuffed for dessert, but if I wasn't, I would've probably gone for a scoop of Fiasco Gelato while he would've probably gone for their tiramisu. Overall I think I might be willing to go back on a weeknight, but it's missing that "wow" factor for me.

Famoso Neapolitan Pizzeria
105, 2303 4 St SW
Calgary AB T2S 2S7
(403) 455-3839
Open 11 AM-11 PM every day.

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Hamburger Soup... and my personal nutrition "campaigns"

Hey, kids and parents, school is back in session in about three weeks (and for some, it's already back on). Naturally, the idea of getting back on track after vacation and getting ready for back-to-school season was the theme for the monthly newsletter at work. I decided to share some healthy, transportable lunch ideas (good for adults too!) and inevitably found myself on a quiet campaign...

...to bring back the Thermos!

Hear me out for a moment, people - yes, there are microwaves in a lot of schools now, but not enough to service a lunchroom full of kids who have one hour to eat and play outside. So, they either have to waste their time standing in line, or put their food in at the same time as all the other kids, so they all end up with food that's still cold in some parts, or worse, food that might make them sick because it wasn't heated properly. You can stick to foods that don't need heating, like sandwiches and salads, but having the option of something hot, in a Thermos, opens the door to lots of other potential lunch foods.

Now that we're on the topic of my nutrition "campaigns", here's another one I want to get started - Stop fretting about how late dinner is! I always cringe a little when my clients come in and they guiltily say, "Oh, I eat dinner at 7... sometimes even 8." Because, uh... that's how late I eat dinner. Oprah and personal trainers everywhere have led people to believe that our body slows down at a certain hour - that's simply not true. Our hearts are still beating. Our lungs are still breathing. Our guts are still digesting. Our brains are still thinking. Sure, you may not be moving, but as long as you've done some moving during the day, you should be fine.

Some people may argue, "but what about that study in Obesity that found that mice fed during the day (their sleeping time) gained significantly more weight than mice fed the same amount of food at night (their waking time)? Well, first of all, that is just one study, using animals. I can show you another study with animals that gives the opposite conclusion. But even if our circadian rhythms did have an effect on our metabolism/weight gain, they are affected by our environment (see: jet lag) so the answer is not as simple as not eating after a certain time.

The main reason why I want people to stop fretting about how late dinner is, is that perhaps by subconsciously pressuring ourselves to get dinner on the table by a certain time or make dinner within a certain timeframe, we rely on convenience foods instead of taking the time to prepare a healthy meal. Or maybe we disallow ourselves from having an afternoon snack at 4 or 5 so as not to "spoil" dinner, only to find ourselves nibbling on the vegetables that we're chopping or the chips that are in the cupboard as we are preparing dinner. I would much rather see someone eating a meal that they took the time to prepare from scratch using fresh ingredients at 8 PM, versus someone eating a microwaveable dinner or take-out at 6 PM. Just sayin'.

So, hamburger soup!


Two of my coworkers actually have a pretty good hamburger soup recipe, but when it came time to write my newsletter article, strangely they were both away. So this recipe actually comes from Healthy U, the government of Alberta's healthy living website - I figured they would have some easy, family-friendly recipes. They actually have three versions of hamburger soup... I think that says a lot about my province.

This recipe is aimed toward the busy parent and is very basic - you chop up some vegetables, open up a few cans and throw everything into the pot. And I'd like to think anything with the word "hamburger" in it would be welcome to little kids (unless you were me, and your mom didn't like hamburgers so you grew up on Filet O' Fishes) If you are averse to canned tomato soup, tomato paste can be used, though you may want to add some sugar to taste. You can also substitute the canned tomatoes for fresh. Once you get the basic formula down, feel free to play! Substitute the ground beef for another ground meat or even TVP, swap in your favourite vegetables, herbs and spices, or use a gluten-free grain instead of barley, etc.

Hamburger Soup
Adapted from Healthy U
Makes about 12 cups

• 1 tsp (5 mL) vegetable oil
  
• 1½ lb (700 g) extra-lean ground beef
  
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
  
• 1 onion, chopped
  
• 4 cups (1 L) water
  
• 2 cups (500 mL) low-sodium beef broth
  
• 1 × 284 mL can (10 fl oz) low-sodium condensed tomato soup or 1 × 156 mL (5½ fl oz) tomato paste
  
• 1 × 796 mL can (28 fl oz) diced tomatoes, undrained or 3 fresh, ripe tomatoes, diced (save as much of the juice as possible)
  
• 4 carrots, diced
  
• 2 stalks celery, diced
  
• ½ cup (125 mL) pearl barley, uncooked
  
• 1 tsp (5 mL) dried parsley or 1 tbsp (15 mL) fresh, chopped
  
• ½ tsp (2 mL) dried thyme or 1½ tsp (7 mL) fresh, chopped
  
• Black pepper to taste

1. In a large saucepan, heat oil over medium heat. Brown ground beef, garlic and onions over medium heat for about 10-15 minutes. Drain off any excess fat.
   
2. Add remaining ingredients and bring the soup to a boil before lowering heat. Simmer until barley has fully expanded, about an hour (if you are impatient the soup should be edible within 25-30 minutes.)

Nutrition Info (per cup): 173 calories, 6 g fat (2 g saturated), 36 mg cholesterol, 15 g carbohydrate (3 g fibre, 5 g sugar), 14 g protein, 264 mg sodium. An excellent source of zinc and selenium. A good source of vitamin A, niacin (vitamin B₃), vitamin B₆, iron and potassium.

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Wishes & Goals 2010 Check-Up - August

It's everyone's favourite time of the month! And of course, the usual refresher of the goals and the calendar. Just a reminder that the calendar is a good reference of what mood I'm most likely in, based on what time I went to bed the night before, which brings us to our first goal...

7.5+ hours of sleep
This past month I have been consistent in... going to bed late every Sunday. I managed to get to bed on time on at least one night a week. I would blame it on staying with B., but since I've moved back home, so far in August I only seem to have red nights and yellow nights (defined as getting to bed and having trouble falling asleep, or on Wednesday nights going to bed later than 11:15 PM but sleeping in on Thursday). I think the reason behind why I'm up late every individual night is different, so it might be a matter of paying closer attention to them and trying to snuff out the problem.

Each snack must contain a vegetable or fruit.
I consistently did not snack on Thursdays all month, due to sleeping in and then just not eating later for whatever reason. I did find myself snacking as I made dinner - bad. Even now as I'm typing this it's [past] snack time and I'm not eating because I'm not hungry, even though I saved half my lunch to eat. For the past three weeks I've been lazy about making sure I have some protein to eat too, so lots of "yellow" days. I've started getting creative, like taking leftover salmon to eat with crackers, or getting a 6" sub at Subway and eating half. And today I bought some Liberté 0% Greek Yogurt and trail mix to bring to work - so hopefully I'll be better the rest of the month. Hopefully.

Be able to do 100 full, proper pushups without stopping by December 2010.
On July 15 I made the "mistake" of doing my biweekly checkpoint after not having fully recovered from kickboxing class in the morning and could only do 20 pushups. This forced me to change "levels" in the hundred pushups program, which was actually nice in the end because it changed my routine a little bit. Now I'm on "Week 5" and will probably be here awhile again, but it was nice to have some change! For most of the month I would keep on missing Day 1 on Friday and then not make it up on the Saturday so there was a lot of shifting around. Bad.

Drink at least 48 oz of water at least three days a week, INCLUDING Thursday, Saturday or Sunday.
For some reason as the month went on I got less consistent about it, and the calendar doesn't look as bad as it was really because I drank more water at B.'s house after work than how much I usually drink at home. I think it has to do with the fact that I'm usually dressed for nice weather outside and then it's ridiculously cold at my office. When I remember a sweater, it helps. I might also try bringing citrus slices or frozen berries to work to add to my water and spice things up...

I will save at least ⅓ of my paycheque every month in hopes of buying a house/condo within walking distance from my work by 2011-2012.
I saved the equivalent of about half a paycheque this month, even though I wasn't living at home. B. needs to stop paying for everything.

My Wishes for 2010
Do a thorough room purge
Moving to B.'s for a month forced myself to do a bit of a closet purge - I got rid of lots of jeans and "bar clothes" that still fit me but I don't wear anymore; I can't wear jeans at work and on my days off I find myself lazing around in yoga pants more often now, and I don't go to bars, nor am I looking to "pick up". My mom's cleaning ladies whisked away the pile of clothes for themselves and their friends. Very convenient. I also did a bit of a book purge, including getting rid of my entire Babysitters' Club collection. I was so choked that Fair's Fair only took two of my books and paid $2.50 for them - the rest went to the Drop-In Centre.

Recipes/Techniques I wanted to try this year
I didn't end up trying anything on my original list, but having a "to try" label in my Reader has been very helpful, especially when it came to menu planning with B.!

Blog Stuff
Continue upward trajectory of posts this year
I posted 9 entries in July 2010, vs. 7 in 2009.

Include nutrition information for my recipes whenever possible
I haven't done this for past recipes since April.

Rewards/Positive Reflection
I didn't meet any of my goals this month and I've had a nasty start to August, so there's no point thinking of short-term rewards to treat myself with. However, B. and I went shopping for glasses for him last week and I found a nice long-term reward for myself: these Lafont Borgia frames. I probably can't afford them until next year, when my health benefits reset. I haven't picked a goal to attach them to yet though.

And to end this on a positive note - although I didn't meet any of my goals this month, staying with B. was a nice reminder that I'm still ok living on my own, even if it's just for a month. Using that as a motivator to purge parts of my room was nice too. Now I need to get my act together for the rest of August!

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Camping and Pasta Salad

B. and I went camping at Peter Lougheed Provincial Park in K-Country for August long weekend. It was gorgeous.


We went on two hikes; both were fairly short but strenuous - one was to Ptarmigan Cirque where we saw wildflowers, mushrooms, and lots of Rocky Mountain Sheep.





    





    


Our second hike was to Rawson Lake, and part of the trail takes you around the beautiful Upper Kananaskis Lake and past a waterfall. We had lunch by the lake, where we saw many people fly fishing. We saw some people fishing up at Rawson Lake too, but they have a zero catch policy in place - I am still trying to wrap my head around the appeal of catch-and-release.



    




I also decided to try my hand at tone mapping/HDR, and I learned the hard way that it is nearly impossible to align images taken without a tripod. Photomatix to the rescue! I only have a trial version now though; don't know how often I'll be using this technique to buy it in full.

    



    

    


Of course, we also ate. We decided to not pack the camp stove and simply cook everything over the fire, which resulted in quite a bit of trial-and-error in terms of trying to get the timing right. My only regret is that B. convinced me that we didn't need to buy marshmallows because it would be too much for the two of us and we forgot to pick up Jiffy Pop! So instead of entertaining ourselves around the campfire with marshmallow torches and s'mores, we ate pretzels, made makeshift tongs and cracked macadamia nuts with rocks instead. Never again.

    

    



    


We learned the hard way that baked potatoes do overcook, rendering the outside edge crusty and inedible, but the soft flesh in the middle stays intact, which is perfect for scooping out to include in your breakfast hash the next morning (along with some Spolumbo's chicken apple sausage, vegetables, and way too much rosemary.)


My favourite meal was the one we made the last night there - we brought chicken and chopped red peppers and mushrooms marinating in bottled Korean BBQ sauce in separate ziploc bags in the cooler. B. skilfully skewered the chicken and vegetables, and we roasted everything over the fire - so good.



    
We rounded out the meal with a pasta salad, which I'd made before heading out on the trip, allowing the flavours to sit and mingle in the cooler for a few days. I'd originally saved it on my Reader from Serious Eats, but when we got around to actually making it we ended up going with an adaptation of the same source recipe from Aud Monster's Kitchen. It's a fun twist on traditional pasta salads - B. took one bite and described the flavour as, "what you'd expect as 'Asian' from a chain restaurant like Moxie's or Earls". I like the mix of vegetables in it and appreciate that they are lightly sauteed before adding them to the salad to really bring out their flavour. The only change that we made was we used honey roasted almonds instead of peanuts just because we couldn't find the latter, and they add a very pleasant crunch. I must warn you though, after eating this salad for several meals straight it is easy to get sick of it! I personally will have to wait a while before pulling this recipe out again...

Spicy Asian-Style Pasta Salad
Adapted from Aud Monster's Kitchen, who adapted it from Epicurious/Bon Appétit
Makes 4 servings

• ½ lb (227 g) whole-wheat rotini, or other short pasta
  
• 2 tbsp (30 mL) sesame oil, divided
  
• 1½ tbsp (22 mL) honey
  
• 1½ tbsp (22 mL) soy sauce
  
• 1½ tbsp (22 mL) balsamic or red wine vinegar
  
• ¼ teaspoon (2 mL) cayenne pepper, or more to taste
  
• 1 large red bell pepper, seeded, thinly sliced
  
• 1½ cups (375 mL) sugar snap peas, trimmed
  
• 1 medium red onion, thinly sliced
  
• ¼ cup (60 mL) fresh cilantro, chopped
  
• ½ cup (125 mL) honey-roasted almonds or peanuts, coarsely chopped or left whole, depending on personal preference

1. In a large saucepan, cook pasta according to package directions until al dente. Drain well and transfer to a large bowl.
   
2. While pasta is cooking, whisk 1½ tbsp (22 mL) sesame oil, honey, soy sauce, vinegar and cayenne pepper in small bowl to blend. Set aside
   
3. Heat remaining ½ tbsp (7 mL) oil in large wok or skillet over medium-high heat. Add bell peppers, peas and onion and sauté until just beginning to wilt, about 2 minutes. Remove from heat and add to pasta.
   
4. Add cilantro and dressing to salad. Toss to coat. Add nuts immediately before serving.

Nutrition Info (per serving): 429 calories, 16 g fat (2 g saturated), 62 g carbohydrate (9 g fibre, 11 g sugar), 13 g protein, 370 mg sodium. An excellent source of vitamin C, thiamine (vitamin B₁), folate (vitamin B₄), iron and magnesium. A good source of riboflavin (vitamin B₂), niacin (vitamin B₃), vitamin B₆, phosphorus, potassium, zinc and copper.

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