Thai cuisine

I forgot to mention also that on my trip to Guelph that we went to a restaurant called "Ben Thanh". Which is a thai food restaurant. And man was it ever delicious. We called in advance to make sure that there would be something there for me to eat and they mentioned that yes there were plenty of meals I could have that were either naturally gluten free or could be made gluten free. Therefore we went to this restaurant. Stepping in to the place was a bit awe inspired because it was slightly on the fancier looking side. We had a party of 5 adults and a baby, so they sat us at a round table instead of a booth. This was particularly one of the things I liked best because it was easier to include everyone in any given conversation we were having. At looking at the menu I got a little worried because you know when you go to those asian inspired restaurants and they say rice paper but it's the rice paper made with flour or the noodles that shouldn't have flour but do. Well We asked the waitress and ended up ordering 2 types of rolls one was a shrimp roll with whole shrimp in it and the other a beef one, they were not fried so I didn't have to worry whether it was fried in the same oil as everything else, and they came with a delicious spicy peanut sauce. The people who were in my company ordered smoothies which were delicious according to them, I did not get one but I heard you could get them made without milk and therefore could be dairy free. I instead though had the green tea which was one of the best green teas I've had and it was served in a cast iron teapot, heavy as all else but still amazing looking, that kept the tea warm through out the whole dinner. And I ordered a shrimp with asparagus and snow pea stirfry with garlic sauce, no soy sauce. It was fabulous. The shrimp were cooked correctly, they were just right. I mean I've had shrimp in a lot of places and they are usually, almost always over cooked and therefore a little chewy or even sometimes a bit on the tough side but not these ones. I would have to say they are the best shrimp I have ever had at a restaurant. I ate almost everything in front of me. As well they didn't skimp on anything. I've gone to places were it's suppose to be a shrimp stirfry and they will give you something like 5 or less shrimp, this place had upwards of 10 in my bowl... I just kept finding more. As well my sister and mom had a pork vermicelli noodle dish of some sort and it was piled high with pork pieces, my sister's dish also came with I think it was something like 5 or 6 shrimp. And my one brothers pad thai was covered in chicken.
The point of this post: not only to tell you how delicious these meals were but also to say if you ever get a chance and are in Guelph you should check out this restaurant, whether your gluten free or not.
-Photo Alley

Stocking Stuffers and Food

As the semester winds down I find myself with an increasing amount of time. I have but a few things left to do before the end of my semester before I go away for Christmas Break and my co-op placement. So what do I do with all this time on my hands.....
I make dinner early, and I mean way early. I started my dinner at 1 this after noon shortly after getting back from school and the grocery store. Who knew I would want to start dinner so early? I'm use to the good ol' late night dinner around 7 or 8, it's actually been that way since I was younger... never truely had a set feed time. But I was hungry and my lunch idea had fallen through so I thought well I'll make this extra fried pasta sauce into a base for some simmering meat, forgetting I only had a handful of beef stew pieces that I had ordered. Typical. Therefore as it was cooking I thought I would add some potatoes and then I was like "Well I might as well cook the beets and the sweet potato now and then just have left overs later." Let me tell you sweet potatos are not to be reckoned with if you have a bad hand. I could barely cut through the beast of a veggie. But boy did it taste good when it was done. And for beets well lets just say if your having dinner at 5 start them early and I mean way early, I didn't know how long it would take for those yummy purple things to cook. I'll just say I didn't it them with the rest of my meal... or even in the same t.v. show. Overall though the meal was so filling that not only do I have leftovers for tomorrow but I also am so full I barely have the urge to snack.
As well with all this time on my hands I wanted to do something for everyone in my immediate family for Christmas. So I thought what is in-expensive and easy for me to do. Well I'm just going to say I came up with something and I'm about half way through the easy part. I might work on them some more while I watch my shows tonight, after the homework is done of course, and then it's off to the hard part. I'm not looking forward to the work but I'm looking forward to the pay off after.
Keep bright and warm this winter my friends.
-Photo Alley
P.S. after Christmas the picture of the finished stocking stuffers will be up for display.

Girls Weekend

This weekend was a great weekend, I went to spend it in Guelph with my mom and sister for our now annual "Girl's Weekend" which started when my mom had turned 50. I would say this was one of the best weekends, we started it on a Friday.
Friday we went to the theater in St.Jacob's in Kitchner to see the pantomime of Peter Pan. It was quite amazing and the first piece of theater I have seen in about a year and a half, pretty much since graduating from my theater program, which I am ashamed to say is a very long time to me. But I hope to go to many more in the future and keep myself thoroughly entertained with live performance. Anyway the cast did amazing as I said and the singing was great. The actors phenomenal, and I'm not sure if any of you remember "The Big Comfy Couch" which was a children's show when I was younger, but Major Bedhead was playing Smee in the play. Both me and my sister couldn't place his voice but it was sooo very familiar and then someone in our group of people that we went with mention he was from some children's show and it just clicked. Then because we had an inside man on the crew after the show was done and the cast was finished in the dressing room we were able to have a backstage tour. Quite the little set up to say the least. And again so much fun.
Then the following day we went to St. Jacob's market in the Mennonite community and found quite a large selection of gluten free products. Now the it wasn't the whole place and some of the stuff we have tried from buying there wasn't the greatest but there were some good food and the was a much larger selection then some main stream grocery stores. If you get a chance I would say go check it out even if your not going to buy anything it's a great experience. A little busy though
Have a wonderful week and I'll try to post some pictures in the coming days.
-Photo Alley

Heartless and Safety Cones

I had a bit of time on my hands and well I know I said a while ago that I would try and fix Rain Proof Safety Cones hat and guess what? I did.

Here is the new and improved rain hat. I know it still isn't bright yellow but I will have to live with that because I'm sure I can't reproduce this hat exactly the same again. I like snow proof's hat did not write down the pattern. Very unlike me but I did do it anyways. However snow proof hat would probably be alot easier to replicate, and there for I may have to make hats for many other guys in different colours.

 As for the rest of the title of this post I finally got my butt into gear and made a heartless that I have been planning to make since seeing the picture of a crocheted one on deviant art.

 

I based this guy off of the picture of the other person's Heartless Shadow but seeing as there was no instructions I went by trial and error. I also used a picture from the game to help, you have no idea how hard it is to look up a good picture of a Heartless Shadow. I got tons of hits of google but most were the other types of Heartless from the game Kingdom of Hearts and therefore not helpful in the least. But I think I did a pretty good job. And Yes this time I did write down the pattern. Maybe later I will post it. I haven't decided yet if I will sell my patterns or give them away free on here. I bit to consider. The heart however in the image is made from a pattern I found on the net, actually the same one the guy, previously mentioned, made his heart from. And lastly I used a different type of yarn to make the eyes, and therefore if you try and make this patter by look or if I post the patter the eyes are just mentioned as yellow balls. You can make them any way you would like. I personally used a 2mm hook with thread for bracelets and 

ch2

6sc in 2nd st from hook (6)

2sc in each st around(12)

sc2tog in each st (6)

After making Snow Proof Safety Cone's hat my brother had mentioned it looked like a "Jane" hat. And actually has requested I make him one (a hat not a safety cone hat, but real size) for him. Who knows when this will come along, but since then I have been looking up patterns so I can start working on this. At first I was going to make one for my bat but couldn't figure out how to make it go over his ears and then the thought struck me when I found a different yellow from that same bracelet thread. I should make one for my "Heartless", you know make the bad guy look so much cuter. Here is the results:

Now this hat could probably be duplicated but would never turn out the same. I again used different yarn types, this time 3 different ones, the bracelet thread, a bulky washcloth type and my favourite "Red Heart Soft Touch". Now not only did I use different yarns I used 2 different needles. I have faith though that I could make something the replicates or looks better then this hat one day.

I hope you enjoy the geeky nerdness in me this week, and the Jane Cobb hat. To come: a chocobo.

Sincerely,

-Photo Alley

The Spice Cake

I said I would reblog about that quickly made up spice cake after if truly cooled. Well it still tasted eggy and was very dry, I mean very dry. I don't know about the dryness but I bet if I used real raw cane sugar and the proper amount of cinnamon it would not taste so much egg but I still liked it. It went very well with nutella spread on top. However I am not sure why it was soooo dry, it may be because my house is dry or the good old winter chill is making the air dry. No idea but I suggest eating it probably a little warm or at room temperature because when I had it then it was not so dry.

I have planned for either later this week or in a weeks to come, to bake a lot more. And when I do I'll make sure to post here first with my thoughts and comments and the book the recipe came from.
Hang in there Gluten free eaters, there are good recipes out there it just takes some digging and I'm willing to do it.
-Photo Alley

Quick Cake

I came home today after having a stressful week and thought to myself I want to bake something. I originally wanted to make a crumpet or something like a roll, I realized I didn't have the right ingredients so hopefully tomorrow that will be what I make. As for what I baked. I made a cake. It was the Cinnamon Marble cake from "Gluten Free French Desserts and Baked Goods" by Valerie Cupillard. I would say it was very fast. I was able to prepare the ingredients in about 10 maybe 15 minutes and then it was 30 minutes in the oven and voila it was done. I then let it cool because as many of you know quite a few gluten free baked goods do not taste good when warm. So I let it cool for about 20 or 30 minutes somewhere in there and then took a slice. It was still a little warm but fairly good. I did however realize that I had made part of the recipe wrong, it had asked for a tablespoon of cinnamon and I put a teaspoon there for the taste was probably not quite as strong as it normally would be but I liked it. I little eggy though. As well I used brown sugar instead of raw cane sugar, whether those are the same thing or not I am not sure but it doesn't seem to have effected the baking all that much. So I will let you know if it tastes better when it cools later tonight. As well many people would put icing on a cake or dunk in coffee I do neither, if you get a chance I would suggest trying the recipe. The only other thing I have to say about the making of the cake, it says to put the second half of the cake mix with the cinnamon plopped on top and then mixed with a knife to make the swirls, i found this looked messy and it didn't flatten so I swirled with a fork and then flattened the top out smooth.
I will leave you with the two pictures I took.-Photo Alley

Deadlines, Deadlines, Deadlines

The pressure is on now. There is but month left to do all my assignments and print. I recently got news that I would have to get a root canal again on the same tooth as before and they want to do this as soon as possible. This then brought on a mini panic attack. I started to think about what assignments were left when they had to get done, when would I get time to print? What if I have to re shoot? I'm behind already. This is what raced through my mind as I sat in the dentist office planning when my appointment would be. The end of the month, the time my preliminary portfolio is due, the crunch time. Today though even though the thought is back there nagging at my sleep deprived brain I feel oddly calm. The worrying is there but not there and I feel I can do this now. Yes the deadlines are looming but I have a plan and I have a schedule. If all goes according to plan I will be off to that root canal with no extra work to do.
As it stands there are 2 photo shoots to do and 2 re shoots or possible re shoots, plus printing but like I said I am oddly calm and I haven't even crocheted anything in weeks. This is strange but interesting. And when this portfolio is done I will be off on a Christmas holiday, but is it really a holiday? In a way yes but at the same time no, I will be doing my coop placement over the break and therefore more work, so I think to myself these days when will I have time to quilt those new patterns I have designed. I may just have to hijack my mother's quilting machine for the few weeks that I will be in the house so that atleast the tops will get done.
I hope you all have a wonderful week, and remember relaxation is key.
-Photo Alley

Lovely Weekend

As I promised here are the photo's I like from this weekend (warning: tons of photos to come)I absolutely love these images of the water. The anchor is also my favourite of the whole day,
I just love the sun rays coming through the trees.
These images just seem peaceful but if you look closely there are
storm clouds in the distance.

These ones are quite beautiful to me as well. I was getting ready to leave
the one spot when I saw the rosary hanging above the one grave and it was just so.
The angels though beautiful are also a little creepy to me,
very gothic. They remind me of an episode of "Doctor Who" where
the angels are actually evil. And lastly is the father grave. This grave
actually almost made me cry to think that that is all there is to identify the
person.

And then we came home to this amazing sunrise. I know my picture
doesn't do it justice but I'm sure you can picture the
splendor of it. It was a perfect rainbow of colours,
from red straight through yellow to blue.

There you go those are my images from this weekend. It was definitely a long day and very cold, by the end I couldn't feel my fingers. I personally love the water and hate graveyards but this day was quite a nice day. The cemetery was still creepy to me, maybe a little too serene but all in all I got my photo shoots for my open portfolio assignment done and that was all that matter that day.
My advice to you: never don't do a photo shoot cause the location isn't somewhere you would normally shoot. The whole thing about this year for me is doing things I normally don't do, like people shots.
-Photo Alley

Gluten Free and Dairy Free

Hello all,
I had told you about pancakes that were really good and I finally got a chance to check out the name of the book again seeing as it stays at my mom's house. The book is called "Cooking For Isaiah" . It is both gluten free and dairy free recipes. If you get a chance this so far has turned out to be a very good book purchase. The pancakes that we modified were the banana ones and we added an extra egg and then took out the cinnamon, I believe that was all the changes we made. And then today we tried her chocolate cake and I must say it is delicious. It rose like a real cake, it is springy like a real cake, it is moist like a real cake and lets just finish with it tastes like a normal chocolate cake. It is delicious. The only thing was the icing, now that may have been because we used semi sweet chocolate chips to make but you use chocolate chips in water and microwave them and then beat them till they are fluffy and that is the icing. It looked good but it ended up being bitter so we added lots of sugar and gluten free margarine. I think next time if we try that icing we will use a different type of chocolate chip.
As for dining out, Tomaso's has a gluten free pasta. I have had it twice now and the first time it was good and this past weekend it was bad. I'm not sure if it was a new chef or not, but as we all know gluten free is hard to make so I may try it again sometime but for now I'll stick to the pasta me and my parents buy and cook.
Later this week some of the pictures that may or may not end up in my portfolio.
-Photo Alley

Pancakes Galore

Well I went home this past weekend and both me and my dad decided that we would like pancakes the morning that I arrived. We decided to make the pancakes from A new book which I will get you the title to another post. It is a book for both gluten and dairy free recipes. And we did modify these pancakes but they were delicious and get this they even rose I mean they were close to an inch thick by the end. They were so good we made them again for dinner a couple days later.
That's all for now.
-Photo Alley