Today is July 1st, which is Canada Day here. I have the day off, and if the weather holds out, I plan to barbecue, swim, and basically relax as much as I can.

I also plan to catch up on a bit of reading, visit some farmers to plan out a few menus for fall, and I have a Diabetes consultation tomorrow.

I know a lot of readers are from the United States here, so what are your plans for the Long weekend?

Happy Saint Jean Baptiste Day

I will be off today, taking a break with my family. Meanwhile, all of the Province of Quebec will be celebrating their national holiday. The rain threatens to open up and wash away the hopes for a barbecue tonight. Fingers are crossed, and hopefully it will come to fruition.

Last night saw the end of a double shift, where I tested out a new crew and sous chef. We had to plate a 50 person function in a cramped space. I was happy overall with the new recruits progress. Here is the menu for fun: (And no, not at all Primal.)

Antipasti of Italian salumi, grilled vegetables, bocconcini cheese, melon

Cavatelli with mint pesto and toasted pine nuts

Choice of lemon rosemary chicken with pan juices, or herb and lemon crusted Atlantic salmon, both served with roasted garlic mashed potatoes, braised radishes, roasted asparagus, glazed baby carrots

Frosted kulfi malti (a type of malted chocolate, frozen) served with caramelized bananas

In all, a smooth night, and the organizer of the event was overwhelmed with emotion on the food. I could not be prouder of the new crew. They really pulled out the stops, given the situation, and area they had to put out the function.

Photo courtesy of SweetGirl© of Flickr under CC by Attribution 2.0

I am truly blessed

Happy Father’s Day!

Yes, this father is working on Father’s day. The day is not even close compared to what Mother’s day is like in a restaurant. You could almost hear a pin drop.

Days like today make me happy that I have a child who loves and adores me. Yesterday was Loo’s birthday party, (pictures to come, I hope!) and I spent a good portion of it barbecuing like mad, running around playing host to a good sized crowd.

The best part of the day was when I was holding my son in the swimming pool, and him kicking his legs and flapping his arms. Then he called me his super hero.

That is what Father’s day is all about.

I am so blessed to be a father, so really, while this day is supposed to be mine, I thank everything that is good that I have the privilege of being a father.

What are you all doing on Father’s day? Barbecuing? Playing with the kids?

A friend writes:

I’ll drive an electric car if it means my child can grow up in a world breathing clean air! Clothing can be made from hemp, plant fibres and animal hide from the meat we eat…time for us all to sacrifice a little to give back some of what Earth has given us. Stop spending money on space exploration, destroying one planet is enough. Let’s fix on our existing planet, and saving our existing resources.

This is a response:

Course, if you wanted to be a true tree-hugger, you know you’d have to stop eating meat of all sorts too, right? Especially pork and beef (but everything else, too…) Cause meat – production and consumption is bad for the environment too, according to vegan theory. (Seriously, most vegans believe the mere consumption of beef pollutes the environment)

I do love the world … don’t get me wrong…But I also learned years ago that there isn’t much that I personally can do to make any real difference. Only the extremely wealthy can afford hybrids or electric vehicles, big cities, which is where the worst pollution comes from, will continue to get -bigger- and not smaller, and about the only way that the biggest steps toward progress can be made, is by literally sacrificing the poor parts of the earth’s population.

I love the vegan theory myself. I never have gotten the straight answer though for this question:

If meat and saturated fats sate you so you do not eat as much, do you realize you need to triple or even quadruple your consumption of vegetables, fruit AND carbohydrates to make up the difference?

Then you need to raze forests to plant all that wheat, veggies, and fruits. You need to pollute to produce the supplies for the inevitable diabetes plague that will hit the world by this method of eating.

Electric cars, etc: Remember that the energy has to come from somewhere. One could argue that “clean” energy such as hydro is not clean at all. Ask a native who lost their land to supply energy needs for countries. Perhaps wind mills might do, if you don’t mind shit loads of windmills (and the dangers of losing your head.)

I think the answer is consume less. You can do it right from your home. Consume stuff that is in your area as much as possible, or that has a least amount of impact. Eat local, sustainable, or better yet, grow your own if you can. Stop eating cucumbers that are not pickled in January. Those little bits will help more than ever.

Finally, lay off the grains! Might not be popular, but think on this. It takes a shitload of land to grow corn to use for sweeteners. (You know, in those pops we all like to drink.) That land is not used for any other value.

Now, to focus on showing you all how.

Perhaps the crafty spam comments come from the spam mobile?

I love getting comments. I love to read them. I also like to interact.

I even get a chuckle out of the spammy comments. For those of you who blog, you might recognise some. There are also those craft ones that try to get you to hit the submit button so they can get a foot hold into your domain and sell millions of shitty widgets.

Here are a two crafty spam comments, with my responses:

job at home writes:

I like design of your website What is the name of template ?

Oh, I would like to help you on that, I really would. Can you fix your punctuation in those sentences though? You can’t end a sentance and start another just by capitilizing the word.

For your problem on what my template is called, there is just one solution – you can solve the problem yourself by looking at the footer down there. It says plainly what template I am using.

bingo uk writes:

Interesting post i totally agree with the other comments. Keep us posting

Well, I would if I could. See, I have no control over how often you post, or whether you can use a comment to separate your thoughts. Perhaps you mean for me to keep us posted?

Do you get rediculous crafty spam? I would love to hear about it in the comments.

image courtesy of Mulad of Flickr under CC by Attribution 2.0

I received an interesting comment today from a ms_ash_henderson:

you took what they wrote in the study and then generalized that all grains are bad. Basically the study said that high blood sugar levels are bad (which, btw someone with undiagnosed diabetes would have pretty much no matter what they eat, as by definition they lack insulin to take the sugar from their blood and into their muscles, so it would build up). Whole grains are encased in fiber which causes them to break down slowly, thus not causing a spike in blood sugar. Encouraging people to eat animal fat, which will most definitely clog your arteries is a bad recommendation. I notice that you are not an RD or MD, so perhaps you should abstain from giving nutritional advice – as you are clearly not qualified – and stick to showing people how to cook.

Interesting comment. It was in regards to a post I did on a cool Primal Breakfast.

First, doctors – MD’s know little about nutrition. They are there to treat symptoms. In fact, if they need information for a patient for nutritional purposes, they send them to a dietitian.
I just had a dietitian tell me a couple weeks back that I had to eat more grains, so my insulin would not affect me as much. Sure. So I will eat more grains, which will make me even more insulin resistant, so I need to take more, then crash and burn.
Honestly, you are right, I do not have an MD or a RD by my name. I do have diabetes though. I know how grains affect me. My meter can attest to that.

I can read though. I read a lot. I have done a LOT of reading regarding food.
Whole grains are encased in fiber, which delay the breakdown into glucose. They do break down though, only after a longer time. That does not matter in the end, because even though it happens at a later time, you will still have a blood sugar hike, just not immediately. That is why the GI is flawed for a diabetic, a lot of that list that is “good” for you will spike you after 4 hours. Don’t believe me? Test 3 to 4 hours after eating pasta and you will see what I mean.
Diabetics that are undiagnosed have blood sugars that are out of control, exacerbated by fructose. Believe me, protein does not spike me. I know this because my blood glucose meter tells me, not some doctor or a “RD”.
Finally, since you seem to like challenge, put your money where your mouth is. I am not a doctor, but Dr. Bernstein is. He is also a type 1 diabetic that dropped everything he was doing, and went into the medical field to challenge the standard diet for diabetics. Read his book “The Diabetes Solution” for real data from someone who is infinitely more qualified than I am. (Link goes to my Amazon Store)
If that is not enough for you, try Gary Taube’s book “Good Calories Bad Calories“. IT will challenge the fool notion that saturated fats are so bad for you. (Link goes to my Amazon Store)
Finally, it is my blog. Thanks for your suggestion to stick to what I know. I hope you understand that I will not follow it though – I am better because I push myself every day.

Perhaps you need to get out of your comfort zone, to learn more about what you are eating, and how it affects you.

A name is a funny thing. Well Done Chef.

Imagine my surprise, after tracking my stats for a couple of months, that the most popular piece that I have wrote on this site has to do with a rant against Gordon Ramsey and his stance on how a steak was cooked?

I still get about 60 hits  a day on that post, which is pretty surprising. (Notice I did not specify HOW it was, as I do not want to skew SEO results towards that.)

Controversy creates news, but that is a post that I would not like to be assosicated with any more. You see, this site focuses on getting you behind the stove, cooking with nature and love, not on how some rock star chef likes his stupid steak. Or how it is wrong to order it, or how to cook a steak like that.

Don’t mistake me, I think Gordon Ramsey is the shit. He deserves to be up there, as high as he is. He had his share of troubles, but that is what one gets when they are up on a pedestal. People love to knock you down.

I am removing the post because the whole point of the day was – it does not matter how a person orders a steak. They paid for it. I don’t have to agree with it, but I do have to cook it.

Gordon made the same point in the video, but got caught up in the moment, and rightly took off. There was not an intelligent conversation to be had there. Continuing the discussion is not conducive to an intelligent site.

So, let’s move forward, and talk about what really matters. Doing something right, cooking the WDC way, with love, and loving every moment of it.

Boom! The sound of a rocket going off in here. It has been quiet here at WDC; real life yanked pending posts by the hair, forced them not so nicely into the back seat. They are still there. kicking and screaming in my head like a child denied chocolate for breakfast.

No, I have not forgotten about any of you. How could I?

I have been dealing with chest pains, phantom daggers of death that plunge into my chest by some cold unseen hand. That is, until my logical brain tells me to relax, and get over the stress. Irony paints a lovely picture, especially when the pains appear after you have just begun to relax.

Yes, it is hard to push away fear’s dirty, long fingernail as it scratches inside your chest, spiking your heartbeat and scrambling your brains over burning butter like hastily whipped eggs.

What the hell is wrong with me? Nothing. See, that is the irony. Nothing is wrong with me, except that I need to relax.

Diabetes is under control. Check. My numbers have been amazing over the last little while. I have averaged out at 5.4 for the last 30 days by my meter. Since I have tested about 290 times in the last 30 days, I can be confident that the number is true. I compared it to a chart online, and see the the number corresponds with an H1ABC of 5.0% to 5.1% A normal result is between 4.6% and 6.0%.

I have spent my last few weeks reconciling a food cost problem at work. The aggravation of finding the answers has been insidious to me, causing the tense muscles, and the sheer terrorizing pains whose vice-like grip reminds your what an utter fool you are to relax.

Relax I must though.

I have taken up a little urban hiking with Hershey. I bought some hiking shoes, so I shall have to wear those out proper. One thing I miss from my days in Jasper is the ability to go hiking in scenery that smacks you into reality. I still say that to the mountain, my problems are nothing, as the mountain will still always remain. I remember having that epiphany on the top of Old Fort Point. (A small hiking trail outside of JPL.)

Writing releases my inner emotions, and I am truly sorry that I have let it lapse. I will rectify that as best I can. It is one thing that cannot be taken away from me. I will write until they pry that pen out of my icy cold locked fingers. If I can still breathe, I will always have that.

Cheers, and on to brighter thoughts!

A short message dear readers to let you know that it is the end of the month, which means that lovely thing called inventory.

I will be concentrating on that for the next couple of days, so please bear with me.

You have it "here" but not "there".

You’ll never be a chef.

I heard those words February 18th, 1999.

I was taking Patisserie II, at the Southern Albertan Institute for Technology. I had just aced yet another written theory exam, then totally bombed the practical part.

Frickin chocolate mousse. Frickin crème brulée. Frickin macadamia cookie crisps.

No matter what I did, I just could not get it down. The mousse refused to set. I splashed water on the crème brulée while putting them in the oven. I burnt the macadamia cookie crisps.

The pastry chef, (whose name I forget) was a woman high up in the hierarchy of the culinary profession in Alberta. She was on the board of advisory for the red seal examination. In all, she was what stood between me and my diploma of cooking.

I remember her telling me that I should have gone into engineering, or accounting. I had the smarts enough to listen in class, and ace the theory exams. Hell, I didn’t even study. I rarely took notes, except when the chef told us something was going to be on the exam, or on the government exam.

As soon as I touched the practical part, it all turned to poo.

She pointed a finger at her head, told me I had it “there”, then pointed to her hands, and told me I didn’t have it “there”.

Well lady, screw you.

I became a chef. I made it when everyone else in my class failed later on. I made it because I wanted to. Nothing stopped me from my goal.

Oh, I messed a lot of things along the way. I also learned from my mistakes, and never repeated them. I learned what it was like to really screw up something, then took the lesson to heart.

I apply this theory in all aspects of life. I learned the French language the same way. I screwed it up a lot, but I learned.

I think that we give up too easy in this society. We are simply told that we are not capable, so we should just give up.

You have diabetes? Poor you. You should just accept the fact that you are probably never going to control your blood sugar, then lose your toes, legs and life in the end. You won’t be able to see, have a heart attack, and boy, your life sucks.

See, it is too hard to maintain control. You need to follow what we say, it’s easier that way. The other way takes too much work. Besides, you aren’t smart enough.

Bullshit.

You are smart enough, and tough enough. You have grit, and you can do it.

Decide what you want, take control over whatever it is, and just FUCKING do it. Don’t listen to the naysayers. That is too easy. Nothing worth anything in life is easily gained. Resistance breeds strength.

Here is to you chef patisserie. You were partially right. I did only have it in my head once, but I learned, and now I am good BOTH with my hands and head. A dangerous combination.

Photo courtesy of maccun934 of Flickr under CC by Attribution 2.0