Lake Quinault Lodge, Washington State

On July 2, 2007 By Rick McIn food, McCharles family, product endorsements, travel, traveloguesLeave a comment

En route to Idaho, my parents and I were happy we scheduled dinner at the “Roosevelt Room”. The best meal we’ve had in a long, long time.

Recommended.

Ancient towering trees…sun splashed lawn…a tranquil lakeside setting

Welcome to Washington State and the glorious Olympic Peninsula.

Find your true retreat at historic Lake Quinault Lodge, a landmark on the shores of beautiful Lake Quinault. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the Lodge is the perfect place to leave the cares of the work-a-day world behind.

Lake Quinault Lodge, Olympic National Forest, WA

TV – Top Chef – Opening Soon

On June 14, 2007 By Rick McIn food, product endorsements, TVLeave a comment

By complete accident, I awoke from a nap with the Food Channel playing on TV.

Reality show Top Chef was on. Gripping, dramatic. Really fascinating!

It’s a reality TV competition where … (ah, … the usual). I saw the second last episode of Season 2.

It was no Amazing Race, but almost as good.

Reality TV editors must be fantastic at their work. (I suspect they could turn a day in my boring life into an interesting half hour if they tried.)

The audience for Top Chef is passionate. A fan of the show attacked season 2 runner up Marcel Vigneron with a bottle, requiring 30 stitches to close the wound over his eye.

Next up after Top Chef … was Opening Soon. I LOVE that show!

STOP Vegetable Cruelty

On May 21, 2007 By Rick McIn food, humourLeave a comment

I love Veggies

The Vegetable Rights Militant Movement (VRMM) is a nationally active, grassroots, vegetable liberation and defense organization. … it does all that it can to stop people from torturing, killing, humiliating, and ultimately eating vegetables and fruits. …

Fruits and vegetables have been victims of cruelty throughout all recorded history. Humankind’s so-called advancement into agriculture was also it’s moral demise. Once people began farming crops they sold their souls to the god of violence.

VegetableCruelty.com » About the VRMM

STOP the madness. Become a fruitarian today!

Diet Coke PLUS – now even healthier

On May 9, 2007 By Rick McIn food, health & fitness, humourLeave a comment

The best thing to happen to food since they fortified Cap’n Crunch.

The GOOD NEWS is that Diet Coke is now “health food”.

Diet Coke Plus was introduced in April 2007 in select areas for test marketing.

Each 8-ounce serving of Diet Coke Plus provides 15% of the daily value for niacin and vitamins B6 and B12, and 10% for zinc and magnesium.

Diet Coke Plus – Wikipedia

The BAD NEWS is that Diet Coke Plus tastes like health food. Yuck.

Pepsi, always the bridesmaid when it comes to marketing, will call their competitor “Tava”. What?

Jane loves Le Petit Ecolier

On April 21, 2007 By Rick McIn food, product endorsementsLeave a comment

I calculate these “biscuits” cost about US$11 each.

But they are DELICIOUS.

Especially the dark chocolate: Magnifique!

Le Petit Ecolier – Milk Chocolate (5.3 Ounce) by igourmet.com

a Tim Hortons miracle

On April 20, 2007 By Rick McIn food, good news, product endorsementsLeave a comment

I love the Tim Hortons coffee franchise as does most everyone:

Canadian Business magazine has twice named Tim Hortons as the best-managed brand in Canada (in 2004 and 2005).

Tim Hortons – Wikipedia

But I often pass them by as they are simply too crowded in Calgary. Line-ups of 25 caffeine addicts are not unusual.

Then, a miracle.

The newest franchise opened in Calgary over Easter. No street signage had yet been mounted.

I had a double double, the Sun and 11 employees to myself in an empty cafe.

top 9 leftovers – 2007

On April 2, 2007 By Rick McIn foodLeave a comment

The definitive list.

Food that gets EVEN BETTER when eaten the next day?

pizza

pumpkin pie and whip cream

roast turkey

chopped up roast chicken and gravy on toast.

Kraft dinner, fried till it’s kind of chewy

cold roast beef, sprinkled with Kosher salt

pancakes (with white chocolate chips) – Jake

leftover turkey sandwiches with mayo, cranberry sauce and cold stuffing

Kentucky Fried chicken

revenge

Leave a COMMENT below if you have a candidate for the 2008 list.

THANKS.

E lost 40 pounds

On January 16, 2007 By Rick McIn food, health & fitnessLeave a comment

Congratulations.

His diet / exercise regime is working well. He hopes to lose even more to get to a goal weight.

I happened to see an excellent TV documentary on the history of research on the Atkins diet. Current thinking is that the high protein content “sates” the appetite. That Atkins dieters who are “allowed” to eat all the fat and protein they wish … actually choose to eat fewer calories.

Interesting.

This is the truth about the world’s most famous, most glamorous and most controversial diet. The Atkins diet says that eating fat can make you thin. It says you don’t need to bother watching the calories.

… But many scientists think it is scientific nonsense. Some even believe it is dangerous. Horizon cuts through the confusion and provide the answers.

When Dr Atkins first launched his diet, he was accused of breaking one of the most fundamental laws of nature. Scientists said that if you eat more, you’ll get fatter. They also said it could kill. Fat
increases your cholesterol levels. You’d get a heart attack.

The only problem was that people who followed the Atkins diet got thinner. Much of the rest of us got fatter. Then came studies showing that cholesterol levels can actually improve on the Atkins diet.

So what was going on? Horizon’s investigation seems to show that the diet may really work – but for a reason and in a way that no scientists or even Atkins himself had seriously considered.

The Atkins Diet – BBC

The Piton: There Is A Post In Here Somewhere

Twinings Earl Grey – tea of the Gods

On November 21, 2006 By Rick McIn food, product endorsementsLeave a comment

Earl Grey tea is “any blend with the addition of oil extracted from the rind of the bergamot orange, a fragrant citrus fruit.”

I’ve tried every Earl Grey I’ve come across.

Twinings is the brand poured in my castle.

The blend is named after the 2nd Earl Grey, British Prime Minister in the 1830s, who reputedly received the blend as a gift from a Chinese mandarin.

The tea proved so popular in the Prime Minister’s drawing room that his tea merchants, Twinings in the Strand, were given a sample and asked to come up with a close match. Twinings sold the first “Earl Grey’s tea” in the British market. Twinings Earl Grey blend includes China tea, Indian Darjeeling, Ceylon, and a hint of Lapsang souchong, a strong, “smoky” black tea.

Earl Grey tea – Wikipedia