To catch a thief

The VPD caught a person in the act of trying to break into hastings on Sunday. Do not pass go, go directly to jail! I wonder if this is the same person who broke in before? Good job VPD

Hastings update

Another break in this am...these guys are determined, yet there is nothing to steal.

Final review of the plans this week. There are only a few things to fine tune like hot water tanks, plumbing lines and some minor electrical items. It looks really good. While we wait for the final kitchen exhaust drawings, we can start with security upgrades and the last little bit of demolition.

Scuplinfish (our designer) has come up with a brilliant alternative for accessibility at the front of the store. The design allows for a wheelchair ramp, which also makes it easier for persons with baby buggies to enter. The other alternative was a small electric lift on the side, but I think this will look much nicer. The center of the ramp area looks like a planter, but over the long term, it will have a thick glass window that allows for a view straight down into the cheese caves.

Hastings Update

The climb is slow but steady with all of the engineers and technical design folk. I'm glad someone made us think about the fact that we don't want our kitchen exhaust blowing into the air intake. So just where exactly does one find out which way the winds blow? I found out that the government of Canada has a 1-800 number you can call at $2.99 per minute for all your weather needs. Weather operators were waiting with the answers. Sexy...

We're basically trying to get all of our ducks in a row before we start any work. We've sorted out quite a bit of stuff. During the process we had to flip the design so to speak, meaning the kitchen is now on the east side, and the store is on the west side.

We took a brief trip last week to NYC to check out the Fancy Food Show, and also to have a look at wine bars. Why would we want to do that you might be asking yourself. Well...we wanted to be sure about what we were doing before we committed to opening our own cheese and wine bar at Hastings. 20 restaurants and 4 days later and we were convinced. It will take some time before it is open, but sometime in 2009 you can look forward to Au Petit Chavignol.

Rabbit Confit

I took a break from making pate this week. Last week I picked up a new electric meat grinder. That cut down on a substantial amount of time. It also helped with the overall texture.

Allison made some rabbit confit at home today. The plan is to either add it to the list of entrees, or to transform it into Rabbit Rillettes. Maybe both?...

Trou de Cru

Trou de Cru has a name that sounds a lot like "Trou de Cul", which is french for a certain part of the rear anatomy. Perhaps it is a play on words. This tiny 60 gram cheese comes to us from Burgundy, and is brushed with marc de bourgogne. Essentially this smelly cheese is a baby epoisses.

Soup

I've been researching soup packaging over the last few months, and we've decided to switch over our packaging to a 600 ml clear boilable bag. We'll start off with a few flavors to "test the waters". I think it is going to work great. It's a CFIA approved clear bag that is not made using BPA (BISPHENOL-A). Other advantages are that you can now heat the soups by simply placing the bag directly from the freezer and into a pot of boiling water and heat for 20-30 minutes. It can also be heated in the microwave, or it can be thawed and heated on the stove in a pot. It's going to be a big improvement for our customers.

Pork Terrine

I've been toying with the idea of making our own terrines at les amis. In case you are wondering...no, i don't think I can keep up production just using the grinder in the picture. However, old technology sometimes is more than adequate. I borrowed this grinder from Alice and it worked great. I tried the basic recipe out of a recently purchased cookbook Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing by Ruhlman and Polcyn. The recipe was straightforward. I didn't have any Italian parsley, but I did have some lovage that is growing like crazy in the yard. I added some Madagascar green peppercorns and I placed a seared pork tenderloin with Esplette pepper down the middle. It worked like a charm. I'll have to tweak it a tiny bit, but I think I'm on the right path. Alice has a few recipes she is going to share, and maybe I'll practice with those next.