folkmann.ca » Personal

Turkey dinner

jfolkmann — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 01:42:26 +0000

Every month we get together with a few friends and we make recipes from a specific country. Yes, it’s a bit suburban but it’s a great way to try out new dishes and stretch your culinary abilities. This month’s chosen country was Turkey and the results were delicious (if I do say so myself). We were lucky as another set of friends were able to supply us with some authentic recipes (he’s Turkish), the others we found in various places online.

Our menu:

Marinated olives
Humous
Borek
Gozleme
Manti (by far my favourite dish of the night)
Pide
Tomato, cucumber & olive salad
Turkish delight
Yoghurt cake

Thankfully I didn’t have to make all of the dishes myself, although it did take a fair bit of planning and preparation. I’ll be putting up pictures and recipes for some of the dishes over the next few days.

List of spices and dried goods

jfolkmann — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 04:46:12 +0000

When we moved back to Canada we were forced to get rid of all of our spices and dried goods. Since buying our new house we’ve been restocking and we came up with this list. I thought others might find it handy. It’s not exhaustive, but it consists of those things we use most often.

Spices:
Salt
Pepper
Paprika
Oregano
Basil
Thyme
Marjoram
Chili powder
garam masala
cardomom pods
mustard powder
mustard seed
vanilla pods
cumin
coriander seed
cayenne
pepper flakes
rosemary
bay leaves
turmeric
cinnamon sticks
cinnamon powder
nutmeg
allspice
cloves
star anice
ginger

Dried goods:
raisins
choc chips
prunes
basmati rice
arborio rice
popcorn
barley
yeast
couscous
lentils
nuts
baking chocolate
flour
caster sugar
brown sugar
demerera sugar
oats
baking powder
baking soda
cocao
corn starch
wheat bran
oat bran
flax

New features at forkd.com

jfolkmann — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 04:47:48 +0000

The team at Forkd released a whole bunch of new features today, including the tag brush which is a personal favourite of mine. In addition to all of the new features you’ll also find that Forkd is now completely open and invites are no longer necessary to sign up (but that shouldn’t stop you from inviting your friends). So what else is new? I’ll let David one of the chefs from the Forkd test kitchen explain…

David says:

Activity Panel - You’ll find it on the home page when you log in. Now we’ll tell you interesting things that have happened to your recipes and your favourite chefs’ recipes.

Feeds – We now aim to feed you in more ways than one. We’ve added RSS feeds to the activity page, everyone’s recipes and your favourite chefs’ recipes so you can keep an eye on what’s happening through your favourite feed reader.

Change Message - When you change someones recipe by forking it and editing it, you can now add a short description of what you have done and why.

Blog to Wordpress – Now you can blog your recipes to your Wordpress blog, too. – YAY! Now i won’t have to cut and paste!

People Search – The Forkd community is growing. You can now search through the chefs by name.

Tag Brush – We’ve enabled the Tag Brush on your recipes to make it easier for you to add tags (because tags are good). What does it do? Why not try it out?

Show off your culinary genius at http://www.forkd.com

Christmas!

jfolkmann — Wed, 20 Dec 2006 13:45:48 +0000

It’s been a busy few months and the holidays seem like their going to get busier. That and taking pictures in the dark evenings gets a bit tougher than doing it in the summer. I hope to start writing again in the New Year…until then. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

What do you eat when you’re sick?

jfolkmann — Fri, 18 Aug 2006 13:44:45 +0000

My wife is feeling a little under the weather and that got me thinking about the things we eat when we’re sick. She likes Tomato soup, so that’s what we had last night. I’m more traditional when I get sick, here’s a few things I like:

1. Soup. Preferably chicken noodle, or if you really want to kill that cold Tom Yum Gai. Apparently Drs. B. Rennard, Ertl, Gossman, Robbins and S. I. Rennard. have proved that chicken soup does indeed make you better. They’ve even listed out store brands to help you choose the most effective remedy.

In order of effectivness:
Knorr’s Chicken Flavor Chicken Noodle
Campbell’s Home Cookin’ Chicken Vegetable
Campbell’s Healthy Request Chicken Noodle
Lipton’s Cup-o-soup, Chicken Noodle
Progresso Chicken Noodle.

2. Honey. Take a spoon full when you’ve got a sore throat or a cough. Mix it with some hot water and some lemon juice as a decongestant. It’s natural, tasty and it works.

3. Flat ginger ale. If you’re praying to the porceline god, nothing helps calm the stomach quite like flat ginger ale. Maybe it’s the ginger, or maybe it’s just because it’s the only thing that will stay down. Either way, it’ll give you back some of the salts you’ve lost by heaving into the bowl.

4. The B.R.A.T diet. Bananas, Rice, Apples, Toast. All easy on the stomach.

5. Orange juice. This one’s only for colds and better for prevention rather than a cure. The vitamin C keeps the nasties at bay, and the cold liquid is soothing.

6. Whiskey. 1 shot. Sleep. Repeat.

BTW. If you’ve got man flu, there’s absolutely nothing you can do to make it better as we all know that it’s the worst type of cold to get.

Webernet down

jfolkmann — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 22:52:52 +0000

I’ve just moved home and my internet connection hasn’t been set up yet…so you’ll have to wait until Monday for more yummy recipes.

A change in focus….

jfolkmann — Tue, 20 Jun 2006 22:15:26 +0000

After much umming and awwing, and serveral resurections, i’ve decided to focus on what I enjoy most…and that’s food. Much of my life revolves around when I can eat, what I can eat, where I can eat and what interesting new things I can try. I’m making my belated New Years resolution and I’m going to give this blogging thing one last kick at the can, and write about the one thing i’m really pationate about. Over the next few months, you’ll see some changes to the look of the blog as I switch the focus to food…I’m quite excited.

Happy 2006!

jfolkmann — Wed, 04 Jan 2006 17:30:03 +0000

My wife and I spent New Years Eve on a sleeper train running from Shanghai to Beijing, didn’t hear a single firework and had none of the pressure to find the right party. Might just become a tradition. We travelled from Beijing to Xian, Xian to Shanghai and Shanghai back to Beijing in 12 days.

China is amazing. Stubornly holding on to their communist past in some areas, whilst pushing forward at break neck pace in others. I would have liked to have longer to explore, but i’m glad to be back.

I’m only now just getting through the mountain of email and trying to access the vast amount of work already piling up for the upcoming month. Can’t wait!

Happy New Year all!

Time capsule

jfolkmann — Wed, 14 Dec 2005 12:44:26 +0000

On June 15, 1957, a new gold and white 1957 Plymouth Belvedere Sport Coupe was buried in a time capsule in downtown Tulsa, OK. The time capsule was part of Golden Jubilee Week: Tulsa‘s celebration of Oklahoma‘s semi-centennial. The car is buried under the sidewalk in front of the Tulsa County Courthouse, approximately 100 feet north of the intersection of Sixth Street and Denver Avenue.

In Hinton, Alberta, Canada, behind 141 Reimer Drive, next to a large rock is buried the time capsule of the Folkmann brothers. The time capsule included such glorious items as a McDonalds chicken McNuggets box and various other plastic toys. I’d love to go back someday and dig it up.

I “heart” NY

jfolkmann — Wed, 14 Dec 2005 12:29:10 +0000

I’ve been away for the past 2 days in NY on business. What a fantastic city. I wish I knew it better than I do. The quick turn around has completely screwed up my internal clock.