Food – Don's House of Fine Patisseries

August 27, 2026August 27, 2026

Making Pork Custards — Photos

This recipe came about after another conversation with ChatGPT about easy-to-chew foods, and the recipe was suggested by the chatbot. To my pleasure, it’s tasty, and Mom likes it!

To be clear, this is a savoury, main meal component, not a dessert that might elicit a reaction of “I’m not having that for dessert!”, or at least cause you to scratch your head and wonder to why it was being offered for dessert! (As in, usually, custards are sweet desserts.)

Making the Pork Custards:

First, a pork roast, which had been purchased last December on special and frozen right away, was taken out of the freezer the night before the cooking project, and kept in the fridge to defrost overnight:

Note that the weight of the pork roast is about half as much larger than my base recipe, so as I was preparing the dish, I adjusted measures upwards accordingly.

The roast was left on the counter for a couple of hours to begin defrosting, and then it was placed in the refrigerator to continue defrosting overnight:

Pork roast placed in refrigerator to defrost overnight

When I began the cooking project the next day, a cast iron frypan and a braising lid were taken out:

A bottle of olive oil was taken out:

The bottle of olive oil was opened:

Olive oil was poured into the frying pan:

Olive oil poured into frying pan — yes, you can see a reflection of the extraction fan above the stove in the oil!

A spatula / egg flipper was taken out:

The oil in the frying pan was spread around with the egg flipper:

The oiled pan was put aside for a few moments.

The defrosted pork roast was taken out of the refrigerator:

Scissors were taken out, to open the packaging:

The packaging was opened up with the scissors:

And the pork roast was removed from the packaging:

A kitchen knife and knife sharpener were taken out, and the knife was sharpened:

Kitchen knife and knife sharpener taken out

The sharpened knife was brought over to the pork roast:

The pork roast was sliced into pork chops:

Note that I intentionally did not trim off the fat, since it will be integrated into the custards later.

The pork slices were then cut into cubes:

The pork cubes were transferred to the oiled pan:

The stove burner was turned on to a low setting — and oh, my! the cleaning work I had done two weeks ago while making pulled pork was obviously inadequate! (And yes, during the mounting of this post, I started cleaning again!)

As the pork began to cook, I started turning it over:

During the heating up process, a good amount of liquid was rendered — but, of course, not thrown out:

Pork cubes cooking, with rendered liquid

Broth concentrate was taken out, in this case, beef broth, instead of the vegetable broth suggested in the recipe, simply because that’s what I had on hand:

Measuring spoons were taken out:

The broth concentrate was measured out, and transferred to the cooking pork:

Concentrated broth measured out and brought to cooking pork

Water was drawn into a glass:

The water was brought to the pan of cooking pork and broth:

The water was transferred to the pan with the cooking pork:

Water transferred to pan of cooking pork

The burner was set to maximum:

The liquid in the pan was brought to a boil:

The stove burner was turned back down to a low setting:

Stove burner turned down to a low setting

The braising lid was placed on the pan:

The timer on the stove was set to 60 minutes:

About halfway through the braising of the pork …

… the lid was removed and the liquid level checked:

Liquid level checked — lower, as expected

Given the (expected) loss of liquid via evaporation, more water was transferred to the pan:

The lid was placed back on the pan:

At this point, while waiting for the pork cubes to finish cooking, onions were taken out:

The onions were trimmed:

The onions were sliced in half:

The onion halves were sliced into half coins:

The onions were coarsely chopped:

The onions were momentarily put aside.

A food processor with a chopping blade was taken out:

… and its lid was removed:

At this point, the timer on the cooking pork had run out:

The lid was removed from the pan:

Yes, I tasted the pork — it was tasty, and importantly, it was tender!

The pork cubes were lifted with the cleaned egg flipper:

The cooked pork cubes were transferred to the food processor:

Pork cubes transferred to food processor

The braising liquid was kept in the frying pan:

The stove burner was again turned to high — and oh, my, when I was handling the photos, I could really see the need for another cleaning here:

Stove burner turned to high, and it was obvious how much another cleaning was needed!

The braising liquid was brought to a boil in order to reduce it:

Oops I perhaps reduced it a bit too much — but without burning it:

The reduction was transferred to the food processor, and the frypan was deglazed with a bit of water:

Reduction transferred to food processor and pan deglazed

This is a good time to turn on the oven, in this case a countertop convection oven:

More olive oil was transferred to the fry pan:

The onions that were chopped earlier were transferred to the frypan:

The chopped onions were fried — quickly, it seems, since I’d forgotten to reduce the heat from the liquid reduction!

The fried onions were transferred to the food processor:

Fried onions transferred to food processor

Eggs were taken out:

The eggs were cracked on the edge of the food processor:

Milk was taken out:

The milk was measured out:

The milk was transferred to the food processor:

The lid was placed back on the food processor (yes, in the lower right hand corner, you can see that a bit of liquid spilled through the middle hole in the food processor):

The food processor was turned on, and all the ingredients were liquidized:

A soup ladle was taken out:

Some of the liquid was picked up with the ladle and the liquid was transferred to a ramekin, filling it to about an inch or so high:

Four — half — of the filled ramekins were transferred to the hot oven:

A timer was set to 35 minutes:

While the custards were baking, strips of paper were cut off from some old, used labels from my other food projects (in this case, picked eggs, stewed apples, and stewed rhubarb) in order to create some labels for when I place the custards in containers:

Strips of paper reclaimed from old labels

The strips of paper were identified:

The timer ran out on the baking of the pork custards:

The baked custards were taken out of the countertop convection oven:

The other four custards were placed in the hot oven and were baked the same way and for the same amount of time.

The edges of the custards were released from the ramekins for cooling:

The cooled custards were cut in two:

Plastic food containers were taken out:

When the pork custards had cooled, I scooped them out of the ramekins with a spoon and transferred them to the containers (as you can see, I probably should have used a bit of oil as a release agent while cooking):

The covers were placed on the containers, along with the labels made earlier:

Covers placed on containers, as well as labels put in place

The containers were placed in the freezer, where you can see a bag of my cut up bierocks hanging over an edge!

Containers of pork custards placed in freezer

When the rest of the custards were baked, they were transferred to containers as well, and the containers were placed in the freezer beside the other containers:

That evening, a piece of pork custard was a part of Mom’s supper! Yummy!

August 14, 2026August 14, 2026

Making Goat Cheese Muffins — Photos

This recipe is another recipe in my muffin collection that has been developed over time — in this case, with the help of chatgpt.com (AI chatbot) to provide my mom with some variety. Interestingly, this recipe started as a goat cheese omelette — which I occasionally make for Mom — but which came about as a result of Mom asking last year “Can you make it less eggy and with more flour?” I still have no idea if she was providing raw, unfiltered, and candid feedback regarding taste and texture, or if she was employing some dry humour to ask me to come up with another kind of muffin using goat cheese. 🙂 Either way, Mom was pleased with the result!

Conveniently, this recipe is also tailored to making six muffins at a time (instead of the customary dozen muffins) and in a countertop convection oven. This avoids turning the making and baking of these tasty muffins into a grand affair by not having to heat up a conventional oven, which might well create a strong temptation to give in to notions of “well, the big oven is heated up … what else should I bake while I’m at it?” (Of course, should you want to make more, or otherwise engage in such a grand affair, all you need to do is scale it up to 12, 18, 24 or more units!)

Note that a small handful of the photos were taken out of order, and that in sorting the photos there are also some minor jumps in my file numbering; all is presented as below for the sake of the narrative.

Making the goat cheese muffins:

All the ingredients were taken out:

I believe that I performed the following slightly later, but now is a good time to turn on the countertop convection oven:

A mixing bowl was taken out:

Flour and a measuring cup were taken out:

Flour was measured out:

The flour was transferred to the mixing bowl:

Baking powder and measuring spoons were taken out:

Baking powder and measuring spoons taken out

Baking powder was measured out:

The baking powder was transferred to the mixing bowl with the flour:

Baking powder transferred to mixing bowl

Salt and a measuring spoon were taken out (oh my — yet another surface in the kitchen to clean!):

Salt was measured out:

The salt was transferred to the mixing bowl with the flour and the baking powder:

Olive oil and a measuring spoon were taken out:

The olive oil was measured out:

The olive oil was transferred to the bowl with the flour, the baking powder, and the salt:

A bottle of honey, which was starting to crystallize and kept upside down to aid in being able to squeeze it out of the bottle, was taken out, along with a measuring spoon:

The honey was measured out:

The honey was transferred to the mixing bowl with the flour, the baking powder, the salt, and the olive oil:

(By the time I’d finished measuring out the honey, I decided it best to re-liquify the honey in the microwave oven over several short 15 second heating bursts.)

Next, an egg was taken out:

The egg was cracked on the side of the mixing bowl:

The egg was transferred to the mixing bowl with the flour, the baking powder, the salt, the olive oil, and the honey:

Milk and a measuring cup were taken out:

The milk carton was opened up:

Milk was measured out:

The milk was transferred to the bowl with the flour, the baking powder, the salt, the olive oil, the honey, and the egg:

A fork was brought to the bowl in order to mix the ingredients:

The ingredients were thoroughly mixed:

The mixing bowl with the muffin batter was put aside for a moment.

A bowl was taken out; yes, I seem to have taken the photo at a funny angle.

A package of goat cheese and a very sharp knife were taken out, and cut in two in order to have two roughly 56g (2oz) pieces; the other piece was placed in a bag, returned to the fridge, and in fact was used the following morning for a second batch of goat cheese muffins:

Goat cheese and sharp knife taken out, and cheese divided in two

The goat cheese’s packaging was opened in order to allow for the use of the cheese:

The goat cheese was transferred to the bowl:

The goat cheese was cut up into small chunks with a knife:

The bowl of goat cheese chunks was brought over to the bowl of muffin batter:

Chunks of goat cheese brought to bowl of muffin batter

… and the goat cheese chunks were transferred to the bowl with the muffin batter:

Goat cheese transferred to bowl of muffin batter

The goat cheese was folded into the batter:

The goat cheese muffin batter was again put aside for a moment.

Muffin paper liners and a muffin baking tin were taken out:

Muffin liners and muffin baking tin taken out

Paper muffin liners were placed in the muffin tin wells:

Paper muffin liners placed in muffin tin wells

The bowl of goat cheese muffin batter was brought over to the muffin tin with the muffin liner papers:

Bowl of goat cheese muffin batter brought to the muffin tin with paper muffin liners

Goat cheese muffin batter was picked up with a spoon:

Goat cheese batter scooped up for transfer to muffin baking tin

Goat cheese muffin batter was transferred to one of the paper muffin liners:

Goat cheese muffin batter transferred to muffin liner

The goat cheese muffin batter was divided roughly equally amongst the muffin paper lined wells:

Goat cheese muffin batter transferred to muffin liners

Once the muffin tin wells and paper liners were filled, the goat cheese muffin batter mixing bowl was empty:

The door to the now-preheated countertop convection oven was opened …

… and the filled muffin baking tin was placed in the countertop convection oven:

Filled baking tin placed in countertop convection oven

The countertop convection oven door was closed, and a timer was set for 17 minutes:

While I was waiting for the muffins to bake, I took out a cooling rack, and placed it on the counter:

While the muffins were baking, I could see them rising in the countertop convection oven — and a reflection of the cooling rack in the window!

When the timer ran out …

… the goat cheese muffins were nicely baked!

The baked goat cheese muffins were taken out of the countertop convection oven, and placed on a cutting board on the counter:

Goat cheese muffins taken out of countertop convection oven

While they were still warm to hot, the fresh goat cheese muffins were taken out of the muffin baking tin and placed on the cooling rack:

Goat cheese muffins placed on cooling rack

After a bit of cooling, a fresh muffin was taken from the cooling rack, and the paper muffin liner was removed from the goat cheese muffin:

Paper muffin liner removed from goat cheese muffin

The goat cheese muffin was sliced in half, exposing the chunks of goat cheese inside:

Goat cheese muffin sliced in half, exposing chunks of goat cheese inside

The piece of goat cheese muffin was placed on a plate, and served to Mom:

Goat cheese muffin piece placed on plate for serving

A short while after Mom had eaten the still warm and fresh out of the oven goat cheese muffin piece, she told me that she had been dreaming of having another goat cheese muffin with her supper. High praise indeed!

As for the rest of the muffins — five whole goat cheese muffins and the unserved half goat cheese muffin, their paper liners were removed:

Paper muffin liners removed from goat cheese muffins

At this point, a whole goat cheese muffin was put aside for Mom’s supper; she later told me that she had indeed fully enjoyed the goat cheese muffin during her supper!

A freezer bag was taken out and identified:

The bag was filled with the remaining four and a half goat cheese muffins:

Goat cheese muffins placed in freezer bag

And finally, the bag of goat cheese muffins was placed in the freezer, by happenstance alongside two other kinds of muffins — bran muffins, and strawberry jam muffins, both made earlier in the week:

Goat cheese muffins placed in the freezer alongside other muffins

And as for the rest of the goat cheese package? Mom got more freshly baked goat cheese muffins the following morning!

August 11, 2026

Making (Simple) Meat Lasagnes — Photos

This is another recipe focusing on a simplification — in fact, two separate simplifications — allowing for easy assembly of as many or as few units that you are willing to mount at once, as well as depending on the number of containers and freezer space you have, or to which you have access.

In the process of mounting this post, a separate, overarching narrative from how I originally viewed the recipe emerged: I originally thought that I had a recipe for (what now used to be) four lasagnes, using commercial tomato sauce in a jar. I eventually realized that I actually had a recipe for one lasagne, which happened to be particularly convenient for making four units at a time, specifically tailored to some conveniently-sized baking pans I possess, measuring 7-1/2″ x 5-1/2″ x 2″.

This led me to calculating the surface area of the particular baking pans, about 41 square inches (266cm2) each, which I realized was about half the 81 square inch surface area of somewhat more common 9″ x 9″ (22.9cm x 22.9cm) baking pans; I further realized that the fairly common 9″ x 13″ (22.9cm x 33cm) baking pans, with a surface area of 117 square inches, have almost three times the surface area of the baking pans I use.

With this realization, the core recipe and process of making my lasagnes emerged from the base unit of my small pans:

about one pound (about 450g) of ground beef;
about 600mL (about two to two and a half cups) of sauce;
about five to six sheets of oven-ready lasagne sheets;
ultimately making four layers of lasagne, and five layers of meat and sauce;
about 100g (about 3.5 ounces) of grated mozzarella cheese;
for a lasagne of about 41 square inches, allowing for about up to four modest but hearty servings.

Having realized this and adjusted my recipe accordingly, this leads to the easier scaling of the recipe either to the number of pans I would be making at once, or to one or more other baking pan size(s).

And to be clear: The two simplifications to this recipe lay in:

the use of commercial spaghetti sauce in commonly available jars of 600mL (20oz) or thereabouts, which forms the basic unit of the lasagnes, and,
the use of oven-ready lasagne sheets, which require no precooking or soaking before use, making the production of any number of units or even larger units vastly easier and quicker.

Note that I think that you should use a tomato (or other) sauce that you like, be it a commercial tomato sauce in whatever size format that suits you, or your own (or your grandmother’s) homemade tomato (or other) sauce. I can only imagine that making extremely large amounts of lasagne — especially several large format units — may well favour the use of larger commercial formats of tomato sauce, or the outright making large pots of your own tomato sauce!

Lastly, a small handful of photos may have been reordered and/or re-taken afterwards for the sake of the narrative.

Making the lasagnes:

On cooking day, I decided to make two units of lasagnes in my small baking pans.

First, all the ingredients were gathered together. I will underline (given the prominent “reduced price” sticker) that the beef was purchased at a clearance price a couple of days before its due date, “a couple of months ago”, and kept in the freezer; it was defrosted overnight in the fridge before use.

An electric frypan was taken out and plugged in, as well as a spatula / egg flipper being taken out:

Electric frypan taken out and plugged in, and spatula / egg flipper taken out

The defrosted (overnight in a fridge) ground beef was taken out:

The ground beef package was opened with some scissors:

Onions and a kitchen knife were taken out:

The onions were trimmed:

The onions were cut in half:

The onion halves were sliced into half-coin shapes:

The onions were coarsely chopped:

The ground beef and the onions were placed in the electric frypan:

Onions and beef placed in electric frypan

A spatula / egg flipper was taken out, and the electric frypan turned on:

Spatula / egg flipper taken out, and frypan turned on

As the ground beef and the onions were cooking, I started breaking up the ground beef, and turning the mixture over:

Ground beef broken up and mixture turned over while cooking

Ground beef broken up and mixed with onions

While the ground beef and onion mixture was cooking, I added some salt:

Salt added to ground beef and onion mixture

While the ground beef and onion mixture was cooking, I kept on breaking up the pieces of ground beef.

Once the ground beef and onion mixture was cooked …

… I separated the ground beef and onion mixture in two, for when I’d be mounting the lasagnes:

Cooked ground beef and onion mixture separated in two

The frypan containing the cooked ground beef and onion mixture was transferred to the nearby counter where I was going to start mounting the lasagnes:

Since I had decided to make two lasagnes of the size I was accustomed to making, two baking dishes were taken out:

A serving spoon was taken out to start transferring the cooked ground beef and onion mixture to the first baking pan:

Serving spoon taken out to transfer cooked ground beef

Cooked ground beef and onion mixture was picked up with the spoon:

Cooked ground beef and onion mixture picked up with spoon

The cooked ground beef and onion mixture was transferred to the first baking pan:

Cooked ground beef and onion mixture transferred to baking pan

The cooked ground beef and onion mixture was spread evenly over the surface of the bottom of the baking pan:

Cooked ground beef and onion mixture spread over base of baking pan

A jar of commercial tomato sauce was taken out:

The jar of tomato sauce was opened:

… and a portion of the tomato sauce from the jar was spread over the cooked ground beef and onion mixture:

Tomato sauce poured over cooked ground beef and onion mixture

A box of oven-ready lasagne sheets was taken out …

Box of oven-ready lasagne sheets taken out

… and the box was opened:

A sheet of lasagne was taken out of the box:

… and it was gently broken to size in order to fit in my baking pan:

Sheet of lasagne broken to fit in baking pan

I began layering the lasagne sheets in the baking pan on top of the cooked ground meat and onion mixture:

I began to repeat the layering with the cooked ground beef and onion mixture …

… until I had four layers of lasagne sheets, and five layers of cooked ground beef and onion mixture and tomato sauce:

I should note that despite the lack of a photo, some of the layers of lasagne sheets were composed of varying amounts of the broken off pieces of lasagne sheets.

At this point, as planned, half of the cooked ground beef and onion mixture had been used up, and half remained:

Half of cooked ground beef and onion mixture remaining

Because I had planned on making two small lasagnes, I continued by taking out the second baking pan, and starting the layering process again:

Cooked ground beef and onion mixture layered in the second baking pan

I continued with the layering of the second lasagne in the second baking pan — on the left — until I also had four layers of lasagne sheets and five layers of cooked ground beef and onion mixture and tomato sauce (yes, sometimes sauce distribution was somewhat uneven amongst the layers — although each lasagne contained a full jar of 600ml of sauce):

Again, at this point and as planned, the other half of the cooked ground beef and onion mixture had been used up:

Frypan of cooked ground beef and onion mixture emptied of its contents

The frypan was brought over to the sink for washing later.

A box grater and a large soup bowl were taken out:

… and the box grater was placed in the soup bowl:

A block of mozzarella cheese was taken out:

The package was partly removed to facilitate grating about 200 grams of cheese:

Approximately 200g of cheese, estimated visually as about two fifths of the 500g block, were grated off of the block of mozzarella cheese:

Approximately 200g of cheese grated off the block

The bowl of cheese was brought over to the two baking pans of lasagnes:

About half of the cheese, approximately 100g, was transferred to the top of a lasagne:

About 100g — about half of the grated cheese — were placed on one of the lasagnes

The rest of the cheese was transferred to the other lasagne, ensuring that each unit received approximately the same amount of cheese:

Two freezer bags were taken out, and identified and dated:

Freezer bags taken out and identified and dated

The lasagnes were individually placed in the bags:

The lasagnes were then placed in my deep freezer for when I’ll want to take them out and bake them:

Are they tasty? Of course!

A little postscript: Canada — where I live, in the province of Québec — has this funny equilibrium about the spelling of a bunch of words due to simultaneous historical and current day British English and American English influences, as well as our own Canadian conventions (and even regional ones too!) In the case of this post, I use the spelling of “lasagne” due to British influence, as well as French influence, since Québec is a French-speaking region in Canada, instead of “lasagna”, the American spelling. Hence, please don’t write in telling me that I spelled “lasagne” wrong throughout this post. 🙂 (And, we also have lots of fun with measuring systems, too.)

August 9, 2026

Making (Braised) Pulled Pork — Photos

Following having enjoyed a friend’s pulled pork a few times at church functions over the years, I asked her for her recipe in late 2023 / early 2024. I successfully made her pulled pork … and shelved the idea, because her recipe featured star anise — meaning, there was what I considered a weird black licorice taste to the otherwise tasty pulled pork. Also, I asked my friend “what do you do with the braising liquid afterwards?” to which she responded “Oh keep it in the freezer for the next time, or add corn starch to some of it to add to the pork.” These responses didn’t sit well with me either. I resigned myself to enjoying pulled pork whenever my culinary adventures happened to meet with it at restaurants and the like.

In early 2026, I saw pork shoulder on sale, and decided to buy some “so that one day I can try again to make pulled pork.” A couple of months later, I looked up pulled pork recipes on the internet, did my own experimentation on the spot, and decided upon keeping my friend’s basic method; but instead using a 2:1 mix of commercial BBQ sauce (I settled on Kraft) and molasses for the flavour base to the braising liquid, to which I have kept ever since. Once exception was to have found a generic taste-alike recipe for Kraft BBQ sauce on the internet, which I integrated into the recipe, and which I used to partly make up the BBQ sauce portion in this session. (As a side note, I did *not* show extra photos for this makeup, in keeping with the spirit of the recipe that intentionally simply calls for “barbecue sauce” — meaning, you should use your favourite barbecue sauce.) And, as shown below, I reduce the braising liquid down to a sauce to mix in with the pulled pork. 🙂

Extra note: In a few instances, my photos from the session have shown some kitchen surfaces that were in need of some cleaning, and the aluminum foil lining at the bottom of my countertop convection oven needing changing. All the “extra cleaning” and foil replacement were performed after the cooking session, and during the course of mounting this post. I think I’m going to claim “Welcome to real life!”

Extra note #2: “A photo or two” may have been slightly presented out of order compared to their having been taken, and at least one make-up photo was staged after the cooking session, both for the sake of the narrative.

Making the pulled pork:

First, some frozen pork was taken out — in this case, some pork loin (instead of pork shoulder, which I concede is still more appropriate for the job — but pork loin does well too) — because I had bought a lot of pork loin a few months ago at a not-as-great-as-I-thought-but-still-good sale price given how thick the fat layers were in some cases:

The pork was placed in my microwave oven using the “defrost” function, entering the pork weight that I had marked on the plastic wrap before freezing:

Frozen pork placed in microwave oven for defrosting

The time for defrosting was automatically set based on the weight I’d entered:

Defrosting time automatically set based on weight

In the meantime, an oven-proof cast iron pot with a lid was taken out:

Critically, the use of an oven-proof pot that can be covered, be it with a lid, or aluminum foil, is important — in my case, I use a cast iron pot with a lid that happens to fit in my countertop convection oven, and which allows for pre-heating on the stove.

An onion and a kitchen knife were taken out:

The onion was trimmed:

The onion was cut into rounds:

The onion rounds were then chopped coarsly:

The chopped onion was transferred to the pot:

Olive oil was taken out and added to the pot:

Once the pork had defrosted, I started trimming off excess fat with a particularly sharp knife:

The pieces of fat trimmed off the pork were put into a bucket for disposal through the municipal curbside composting programme.

The pork was cut into three pieces, which would fit into my pot:

The pieces of pork were placed in the pot with the chopped onion and olive oil:

Pork pieces placed in pot with onion and olive oil

The stove burner was turned on — and oh my, it’s a bit dirty:

I also turned on my countertop convection oven:

The oven rack was placed on the bottom level of the oven — and oh my! again, a bit of cleaning is needed, including replacing the aluminum foil at the bottom of the oven:

Back to the pork on the stove, the pork was turned over:

Molasses was taken out and measured out:

The molasses was transferred to the pot with the pork and chopped onion:

Molasses transferred to pot with pork and onion

Some barbecue sauce as well as some ketchup to help make up the volume were measured out:

The barbecue sauce was added to the pot with the pork, onions, and molasses:

Just a reminder here: Since my recipe for pulled pork and this post are predicated on the notion of “use the barbecue sauce you want to use”, although the ingredients for a taste-alike replacement of Kraft BBQ sauce are in my recipe for pulled pork, showing the makeup ingredients won’t be done here. Also to note, the apparent measure above takes into account the following steps, which washed out the rest of the barbecue sauce and ketchup clinging to the insides of the bottles used.

Water was added to the pot with the other ingredients, enough to cover the pork pieces:

Water added to pot with the other ingredients

At this point, the stove burner was turned up to maximum:

The pot was brought to a boil:

The lid was placed on the pot:

The pot was placed into the countertop convection oven — the pot just fits!

Pot placed in countertop convection oven

The door to my countertop convection oven was closed — and again I noticed something that needed a cleaning!

After about an hour, the pot was taken out and checked, and the liquid was indeed just bubbling:

Liquid in pot just at the point of bubbling

A timer was set to an hour and a half:

While the pot with the pork and braising liquid was returned to the countertop convection oven:

Shortly before the timer was to run out, a heatproof container was taken out:

And at less than a minute before the timer ran out …

The pot was taken out and placed on the stove beside the counter:

The lid was taken off the pot:

A piece of pork was taken out of the pot with a slotted spoon, and its tenderness was tested: The pork definitely pulled apart easily with a fork!

So I continued “pulling” — shredding if you prefer — the pork with some forks:

The shredded pork was transferred to the heat proof container, and another piece of pork was removed from the pot and braising liquid using a slotted spoon:

The piece of pork taken out, as well as the other piece of pork, were both shredded with the forks, and transferred to the heatproof container:

Pulled pork transferred to heatproof container

Throughout the pulling / shredding of the pork, bits of fat and grissol were separated out and put aside, to be put into a bucket for disposal through the municipal curbside composting programme:

Fat and grissol separated for disposal in composting programme

In the braising pot, a layer of rendered fat had risen to the surface:

Braising liquid with layer of rendered fat on top

A soup ladle was taken out to skim off the rendered fat:

The rendered fat was skimmed off the top of the braising liquid:

Rendered fat skimmed off top of braising liquid

The skimmed rendered fat was transferred to a fat separator with a slotted top:

Skimmed fat transferred to fat separator

The braising liquid at the bottom of the fat separator was poured off:

The ladle was then used again, this time to transfer some of the braising liquid from the cast iron pot …

… to a frypan, in order to help reduce / thicken the liquid more quickly than all at once just in the pot:

Braising liquid transferred to pan for reducing / thickening

Two stove burners were turned on to maximum:

Stove burners turned on to maximum under frypan and pot

The frypan and pot were brought to a boil to reduce the volume and concentrate the ingredients, by evaporating off excess water:

Boiling braising liquid to reduce the volume and concentrate the ingredients

After a time, as can especially be seen in the pan on the left, the reduced liquid with become what I will characterize as “gloopy”, and the bubbling will be more audible:

Braising liquid especially on the left thickened

Thickened braising liquid becoming a sauce

The now thickened sauce in the pan was transferred to the pork in the heatproof container:

Of course, the pan was scraped to get all of that goodness to put on the pulled / shredded pork!

The rest of the braising liquid was reduced to the desired thickness and transferred to the container with the pulled / shredded pork:

All sauce transferred to container of shredded pork

The (now cleaned) slotted spoon was taken out to distribute the sauce throughout all the pulled pork:

Slotted spoon taken out to redistribute the sauce in the container

Plastic containers of a one-cup capacity were taken out (this is the recreated photo):

The pulled pork was transferred to the plastic containers:

And lids were placed on the containers:

The containers were placed in the freezer for my future enjoyment:

Fortunately, there was a taste, albeit small, of pulled pork left in the container:

The tasty leftover bits were served on a plate, ready to eat:

Yummy!

And as an extra note … I have been asked to bring my pulled pork again to the next church pot luck meal, along with one of my tiramisu cakes!

August 5, 2026August 14, 2026

Making Tiramisu Layer Cake — Photos

Since I don’t care much for coffee, I have perhaps tried tiramisu once or twice in my life, although I am struggling to recall said occasion(s).

That being said, I was very interested in a “quick tiramisu” (here’s my archive) I saw being made on a “30-minute meal” TV show. The “easy shortcut” of using a store-bought loaf cake as well as the recipe in general completely captivated me, and I decided that I must make it. Of course, I sidestepped the defining shortcut of the recipe by realizing that “I know how to make a loaf cake!” (loaf cake recipe here). As such, I make my own loaf cake “in-house” for this recipe.

This last part being said, in this post I won’t show the making and baking of the loaf cake for two reasons:

The recipe and this post are still predicated on the shortcut of using a loaf cake commonly available in many (although presumably hardly all) grocery stores’ baked goods department(s); and,
The making and baking of my plain cake in loaf form has already been highlighted elsewhere on this site.
- Incidentally, I therefore recommend, such as in the case that you have your own favourite “plain” or “vanilla” loaf cake recipe or other favourite loaf cake, that you use the loaf cake that you like.

For the record: Yes, I indeed licked the utensils and the bowls used for the coffee cream and whipped cream. 👨‍🍳

Making the tiramisu cake:

First, I baked a plain vanilla loaf cake earlier in the day, and I let it cool:

Plain loaf cake baked earlier in the day

Also, cream cheese was taken out soon after baking the cake so that the cream cheese could warm up to room temperature or thereabouts:

Later, when I was beginning to make the tiramisu layer cake, all the ingredients — loaf cake, cream cheese, milk, instant coffee crystals, icing sugar, whipping cream, and cocoa powder — were taken out:

Water was quickly drawn into a kettle to boil to make the strong coffee:

The kettle was plugged in and turned on, so as to boil the water:

While the water was boiling, instant coffee crystals and a measuring spoon were taken out:

Two teaspoons of instant coffee crystals were measured out:

The instant coffee crystals were transferred to a heat-proof measuring cup:

Coffee crystals transferred to measuring cup

At this point, the kettle of boiling water was brought to the measuring cup, and water was transferred to the measuring cup:

I noticed that I poured out three ounces of boiling water instead of two ounces of water:

Ooops! A bit too much water was added … but don’t worry, it’s not a disaster

A bit of commentary: The thing to remember here is that in this case, a fixed amount of instant coffee was used instead of fresh espresso, so the water is doing two things: While the water is dissolving the instant coffee so that it distributes more evenly than the dry powder alone would, the coffee taste and intensity in the final product come from the fixed amount of two teaspoons of instant coffee in the recipe, and obviously not that the crystals were dissolved in three ounces of water instead of two). And, secondly, the water is also affecting the liquid balance in the recipe to smooth out the cream cheese in the mix; since a bit too much water was added to dissolve the otherwise fixed amount of instant coffee, the amount of milk added in the upcoming step was reduced. (Were fresh espresso be used instead, the liquid balance issue would remain; however, an even stronger coffee flavour would be brought to the dessert, which may be either a good or not so good thing, depending on your perspective and preference — or what you might want to do with the extra ounce, like top up your own cup of espresso! 🙂 )

The hot strong coffee was placed in the freezer to cool it down quickly:

Hot coffee placed in freezer to cool down

The package of cream cheese was opened with a pair of scissors:

The cream cheese was transferred to a mixing bowl:

An electric beater was brought over in order to cream the cream cheese:

The cream cheese was creamed with the electric beater:

Milk and a measuring spoon were taken out:

As mentioned earlier, one less tablespoon than specified in the recipe (to compensate for the extra water added to the instant coffee crystals) was measured out:

Milk measured out and added to mixing bowl

… and the milk was transferred to the bowl with the creamed cream cheese:

The milk and cream cheese were briefly mixed with the electric beater:

Icing sugar and a measuring cup were taken out:

Icing sugar was measured out:

The icing sugar was transferred to the bowl with the cream cheese mixture:

The cream cheese mixture and the icing sugar were blended together with the electric beater:

Icing sugar blended into cream cheese mixture

The cooled coffee was taken out of the freezer:

The cooled coffee was transferred to the cream cheese mixture:

Cooled coffee transferred to cream cheese mixture

All the ingredients were mixed again with the electric beater, and a couple of spoons were used to scrape the edges of the bowl:

Ingredients mixed, using spoons to scrape edges of the bowl

The cream cheese, milk, icing sugar, and coffee mixture was put aside for a few moments.

Another bowl and some whipping cream (237mL, about a cup) were taken out:

The carton of whipping cream was opened:

The whipping cream was transferred to the bowl:

The electric beater was brought to the bowl with the whipping cream:

The whipping cream was whipped using the electric beater …

Whipping cream whipped with electric beater

… until I had stiff peaks in the whipped cream:

A bowl scraper / spatula was taken out, and the bowl of whipped cream brought over to the bowl with the cream cheese, milk, icing sugar, and coffee mixture:

Whipped cream brought over to cream cheese / coffee mixture

The whipped cream was transferred to the bowl with the cream cheese, milk, icing sugar, and coffee mixture:

Whipped cream added to cream cheese / coffee mixture

The whipped cream was gently folded into the cream cheese, milk, icing sugar, and coffee mixture, henceforth called the “coffee cream”:

Whipped cream folded into the coffee cream

The bowl of coffee cream was put aside again for a few moments.

At this point, the cooled loaf cake I baked earlier was taken out:

I sliced the loaf cake horizontally along its length with a sharp knife about an inch above its base:

Slicing loaf cake horizontally along its length

Loaf cake sliced horizontally along its length

The loaf cake was sliced horizontally along its length again with the sharp knife, creating three layers of cake:

Loaf cake sliced horizontally along its length again

The base slice was placed onto a removable tray for a poultry / meat transport container (see below):

A layer of coffee cream was transferred to the sliced cake:

The coffee cream was spread over the whole surface of the cake slice:

Coffee cream spread over the slice of cake

The middle slice of cake was placed on top of the coffee cream:

Middle slice of cake placed on top of the coffee cream

More coffee cream was transferred to the top of the middle slice of cake, and spread over the whole surface of the cake:

Coffee cream spread over middle slice of cake

The top of the cake was placed on top of the coffee cream:

The rest of the coffee cream was transferred to the cake, and spread over all surfaces:

Balance of coffee cream spread over whole of cake, top view

Balance of coffee cream spread over whole of cake, side view

Here’s the empty bowl from the coffee cream:

Cocoa taken out:

Cocoa powder sprinkled onto the cake directly from the container of cocoa:

The cake and tray were lowered into the container:

The lid was placed on the container with the cake:

The cake was placed in the fridge to gel the coffee cream:

Later when the coffee cream had largely gelled in the fridge for a few hours, a couple of slices were cut off the cake, ready to be served for dessert!

Mom is over the moon with this cake, effectively having declared it her new favourite dessert!

(And, I’ve been asked to bring it to the next church potluck I attend, along with my pulled pork!)

July 28, 2026July 28, 2026

Making Date Squares — Photos

This recipe was developed and added to my collection of recipes as a result of chatting with an online AI chatbot discussing church culture, during which the chatbot listed at one point some typical desserts to be found at church potluck luncheons. It listed the item which is the subject of this post as “Matrimonial Squares”. My interest was piqued because I did not know what “Matrimonial Squares” were, as well as said name telling me nothing of what the dessert was. As such, I bemusedly asked whether it was a dessert to be typically served as part of a wedding feast, or if there was something somewhat more prurient to them along the lines of being considered an aphrodisiac! I got a response along the lines of their description — date squares! — and how the name was a florid and traditional name meaning how well all the parts “marry together to make an ideal dessert”, an absolutely church-safe name. 🙂

Incidentally, this recipe is vegetarian tending toward vegan if you use margarine (as I did) instead of butter.

This batch was the second batch made at the cottage during my holidays, and will likely be served at the lake association BBQ later this week.

Setting up:

First, I decided to take out all the ingredients:

Although I actually did this a little later, now is a good time to preheat the oven:

An 8″ x 8″ baking pan and a piece of paper towelling were taken out:

Paper towelling and baking pan taken out

The paper towel was taken over to the tub of margarine, and some margarine was scooped up with my hand and the paper towel:

Paper towel taken over to tub of margarine

The paper towel and margarine were taken over to the baking pan:

Paper towel and margarine taken over to the baking pan

… and the margarine was slathered onto the surfaces of the baking pan:

Margarine slathered over all surfaces in the baking pan

The baking pan was put aside.

Preparing the date filling:

Dates and a knife were taken out — in this case dates I had been keeping in the freezer, hence the fuzzy condensation on the bag:

The dates were pitted:

At this point, I took out a kitchen scale and a bowl, and set the reading to zero with the bowl on the scale …

… so that I could weigh out the required amount of pitted dates, which I kept on pitting until I had enough pitted dates:

At this point, I should have chopped the dates up a bit, but I forgot, and no matter.

The pitted dates were transferred to a pot:

Transferring the pitted dates to the pot

Water was measured out:

The water was transferred to the pot with the pitted dates:

Transferring water to pot with pitted dates

Lemon juice was taken out:

The lemon juice was measured out:

The lemon juice was transferred to the pot with the pitted dates and water:

Lemon juice transferred to pot with pitted dates and water

A burner on the stove was turned on to medium heat:

The pot of pitted dates, water, and lemon juice was placed on the burner:

The pitted dates were largely left alone for the next several minutes, although I kept an eye on the pot and occasionally stirred it.

Making the oat crumble base and topping:

Flour was taken out:

Flour was measured out:

The flour was transferred to a mixing bowl:

Oats were taken out:

Oats were measured out:

The oats were transferred to the mixing bowl with the flour:

Oats transferred to mixing bowl with flour

Brown sugar was taken out:

Brown sugar was measured out:

The brown sugar was transferred to the mixing bowl with the flour and the oats:

Baking soda was taken out and measured out:

The baking soda was transferred to the mixing bowl with the flour, oats, and brown sugar:

Salt was taken out and measured out:

The salt was transferred to the mixing bowl with the flour, oats, brown sugar, and baking salt:

Another bowl was placed on my kitchen scale, and the display set to zero:

Bowl placed on scale and tare weight set

Margarine was measured out:

The margarine was transferred to the mixing bowl with the flour, oats, brown sugar, baking soda, and salt:

An electric mixer was brought to the mixing bowl:

The ingredients were mixed thoroughly:

The ingredients in the bowl were roughly divided into two parts:

Ingredients in bowl divided into two parts

Mounting the date squares:

About half of the oat crumble mix was transferred to the baking pan:

The oat crumble base was spread out over the whole surface of the baking pan:

Oat crumble spread over base of baking pan

The oat crumble base was flattened with an egg flipper:

At this point, after having only occasionally glanced at and stirring the dates in the pot on the stove, I took the pot off the stove, the mix having turned into a nice jammy consistency:

Cooked date filling with a jammy consistency

The cooked date filling was transferred to the pan with the oat crumble base:

Cooked date filling transferred to pan with oat crumble base

The date filling was spread roughly evenly over the base with a spoon:

The rest of the oat crumble was transferred on top of the date filling:

Second half of oat crumble transferred to baking pan

The oat crumble topping was spread roughly evenly over the date filling:

I gently patted down the topping with my hand; note that I said “gently”:

Gently patting down the oat crumble topping

Baking the date squares:

The pan was placed in the preheated countertop oven, and a timer was set to about 35 minutes:

Baking pan placed in countertop oven and timer set to 35 minutes

When the baking was finished, the baking pan was taken out of the oven and placed on a cooling rack:

Once cooled (I did move the cooling along by placing the pan in the fridge for a while), the whole large date square was removed from the pan. Yes I tasted the bit of the base that was left behind: It was yummy!

Large date square removed from baking pan

I began cutting the large piece off-center, with a goal of cutting a 5 x 5 grid for a total of 25 pieces:

Cutting the date squares, starting from off-centre

Three more slices were made, in order to have five long bars:

The cutting board was rotated 90 degrees so as to continue with four more cuts, to have a total of 25 squares:

… and since I implied that I still had a few leftover from last week, and that I outright suggested that this batch would be placed on a dessert table at this week’s lake association BBQ, I bagged up the freshly-baked date squares, and placed them in the freezer for later in the week:

And yes, of course they’re yummy — I got to taste a bunch of crumbs while I was cleaning up!

July 24, 2026August 3, 2026

I’m a lumberjack and that’s okay …

(In case you’re wondering, here’s the link to wikipedia (and my archive), and to youtube (and my archive).)

During my holidays at the cottage this year, I had the usual plans: A lot of relaxing, maybe a bit of boating, possibly some cycling on some nearby cycling trails, definitely a lot of cooking especially at the beginning, mostly of desserts to be frozen for eating during my stay at the cottage, and of course, some wood splitting to fill up the wood pile. No matter that said wood shed is already three quarters full after last year’s work and what I did burn over the winter.

View of my wood shed that is already three quarters full

Side view of my wood shed that is already three quarters full

As you can see, I already had a lot of wood on my woodpile.

Part of my plans, nonetheless, involved cutting up a couple of big birch trees which we had had felled by a real lumberjack last autumn, because the trees were liable to fall any time, possibly the wrong way.

One of two birch trees felled on the property

I also had some branches and pieces of another birch tree we’d asked the real lumberjack to trim, for fear that said branches would eventually tear down our electrical and phone entry to the cottage:

More wood ready to be cut up, before I would start cutting up the felled trees

Early on during my vacation, I met friends at a flea market somewhat nearby to the cottage, and afterwards I welcomed them at the cottage for an afternoon meal and visit. However, that day, 21 July 2026, we had a little bit of weather at the cottage (here’s my archive).

My friends were ready to pack up anyway as it was starting to rain heavily, and there had already been a few rounds of lightning and thunder at that point. As it turns out, they had to drive through the worst of the weather!

In the meantime, the cottage lost power from 20260721 at 17:41, shortly after my friends had departed. I was slightly beside myself without power, receiving advice to pack up not even five days into my holiday to go home … but I waited it out, and I won my bet in sticking through it all. Yay Hydro-Québec! … but, I have just jumped a bit ahead of myself.

I almost immediately started making a lot of calls back home (good thing old fashioned phones usually work during power outages!) to get Hydro-Québec (the power company here in Québec, where I live) updates on the storm. Said updates went from:

19:45 power return a mere couple of hours after the storm;
to noon on the following day;
to noon on the second day after the storm;
to still noon on the second day after the storm, but because crews had “finished” a lot of the work in the grouping around my address and the number of affected clients had dramatically dropped, it seemed that on said second morning, a work crew hadn’t yet been assigned to fix the branch of wires my cottage was on.

But again, I’m getting ahead of the story.

During the storm, I heard a tree fall; I figured it came from our spare lot beside the cottage. As it turned out, it was indeed from our spare lot, and it fell onto the road!

After the storm had passed, I went out onto the road to investigate, particularly since I could hear other people talking, and in fact said persons were walking down my driveway.

On the road, we found the following:

As can be seen above, people were hoping to pass, and the person who usually deals with events such as this had appeared on site and began to cut up the tree, in order to clear the way.

Cut up tree placed on the side of the road, for later, collection of the long pieces for milling, and cleanup of the rest

The power came back on on 20260723 at about 11:35. ~~As of this writing, we’re still waiting on~~ Update 20260724: According to La Presse (here’s my archive) (yeah it’s in French, deal with it) and CBC news (here’s my archive) ~~Environment Canada~~ Northern Tornadoes Project (NTP) t~~o announce whether~~ has confirmed that it was indeed a tornado.

At this point, this story is going to take a bit of a detour.

During the power outage, I learned that my two Ryobi 7.5 Ah batteries for my lawnmower, using a Ryobi converter, can each power my cottage fridge for a bit over an hour on a full charge.

Ryobi 7.5Ah battery from my lawnmower on an inverter, which was used to power the fridge

To state what may be obvious, I had to protect two weeks’ worth of food and groceries and already-done baking in the fridge and freezer.

Fridge full of food (photo taken after power restoration)

After the storm but long before the power came back on, I learned from people with whom I’d spoken on the road, that the effects of the storm was worse but a kilometre or two north of me. I didn’t drive there, but I hear that it was like a disaster zone and would take several days to a week or more to repair everything.

Stories from neighbours convinced me to embark mid afternoon on a folly of a trip to secure a generator, something I could not fully convince myself that I’d need after a hopefully short period of time.

I went down to a nearby city (Lachute) to get a generator for the fridge … but between gasping at the prices, trying to figure out what I’d do with a generator after the power came back (or after I evacuated if it were to be too long), and remembering that I used to have an inverter for my car which I had used before to power the same fridge, I decided to buy a new inverter instead. Immediately prior to leaving on the folly of a trip, I brought with me my lawnmower batteries to recharge at the community centre as a backup plan, since I had also learned that the power had already been restored there.

Inverter meant to be attached to a car battery

On the way back to the cottage, I stopped at the community centre, and I spent about two and a half hours at the centre charging my two lawnmower batteries, and then I made it back to the cottage at approximately 8pm.

As it was starting to get darker (and outright dark by 9pm) I found myself a bit befuddled and I couldn’t quite grasp how to get the inverter to work; as such, I was pleased with myself that I had spent the time earlier to charge my lawnmower batteries, and one was set to work to get the fridge going for another hour or so before the battery drained, and in the process I also went to bed.

The next morning, I managed to get the purchased inverter working perfectly on my car engine, and the fridge was running for a bit over two hours before the power came back on.

At this point, I had a couple of priorities:

take a bath, which I couldn’t do during the power outage because the water system is a private system on the property dependent on electricity, putting aside the possibility of taking a swim in the lake beside the cottage — and when the power came back on, I was pleasantly surprised that the water in the hot water tank was still relatively hot after roughly 42 hours of no power, and therefore requiring little time for it to get back to temperature;
and wash the dishes from my entertaining on Tuesday!

Dishes from the previous two days, including a large number from my visitors on Tuesday, after washing

… And at this point, the little detour has come back to the wood story.

After finishing up the dishes, I could tell that there was activity going on on the road where the tree had fallen: I ended up helping the person who maintains the roads clear up the tree that he’d cut up a couple of days earlier, mainly during the part when he was shredding the branches less than 3″ thick.

I asked what he was going to do with the rest of the wood, viz. the branches larger than 3″ but which were not the main trunk wood that he had recovered; I already knew from a couple of days earlier that he’d said he’d take the main part of the tree trunk so that he could season the wood, and then mill it and dry it out for lumber. As such, I said I’d take the rest — which was substantial — that he would have otherwise driven to the local ecocentre (here’s my archive) (yes, it’s in French, deal with it.)

Here is a photo of the branches packed into my car:

A little note at this point: The person who was leading with clearing the road noticed my car filled with the wood, and “strongly suggested” (jovially, though with an air of being serious along the lines of “they may feature your story, and perhaps even give you a credit”) that I take photos in order to send to the manufacturer to tell a story of how I use my car … whether I end up doing this remains to be seen, but in the meantime, I mounted this post. 🙂

And, now I have this pile of wood to cut up to place in my wood shed … while you can see on the left of the photo, just behind the propane tank, one of the birch trees that was felled last year, that at this point will at best be cut into logs for seasoning for another year, and hopefully be kept somewhat out of winter snow and spring wetness!

Now larger pile of wood to be cut up and split

A second post “I’m a lumberjack … — Part Deux” was mounted to showcase the actual woodcutting and splitting, and stacking of the split wood, that for the purposes of this post, are left to the implied and unseen.

And as for the rest of the Monty Python sketch … well it’s as old as I am, and it’s still funny!

May 15, 2026

WordPress updated again, more recipes added, and recipe updates

Yet another note to underline that WordPress on www.malak.ca has been updated, this time to version 6.9.4. And, when I was checking, I deleted 3,344 pending comments — I have long since stopped inspecting them 100 at a time for the possibility of a legitimate post; though I did notice that this time around, about 1,400 (presumably) spammy comments were lined up for my post on making Sour Cream Muffins! 🙂

New recipes:

Savoury Pork Custard: A recipe developed with — actually initially proposed by — ChatGPT to create a pork based dish that is very soft.
A Tiramisu-inspired Layer Cake: A recipe based off a “quick tiramisu” seen on a “30 minute meals” show, and reworked again with the help of ChatGPT. Tasty! (Optionally) Uses the loaf cake version of my Plain Cake. At this moment, the recipe is still an early draught along the lines of a “Release early, release often” model (here’s my archive).
Pulled Beef: Basically, beef cooked in the kitchen braising or stewed beef method. The first time I made it, it was a spot on recreation of what one would expect! (Adapted from my pulled pork recipe for beef, with … the help of ChatGPT.)

Updated recipes:

Pulled Pork: A recent addition, but listed as “updated” because I had already transferred this recipe to malak.ca/food several weeks ago. Pulled pork cooked in the kitchen braising method. This has become a recent favourite! The second time I brought it to a church dinner, it was sufficiently popular for it to be characterized as “Don’s Famous Pulled Pork” — much to my amusement, given that in those circles it is more my vegetable soup that would be characterized as “famous” when associated with me, while another parishioner’s pulled pork would best characterized as the “famous pulled pork” in those circles. 🙂
Vegetable Soup: Updated a couple of months ago; I don’t recall the latest updates.
Bacon Wrapped Chicken Pieces: Updated to suggest pairing their preparation with my turkey stuffing / dressing should the latter be prepared for its own sake sans turkey.
Turkey Stuffing / Dressing: Updated to include a cooking section, including to suggest pairing with the bacon wrapped chicken pieces if cooked for its own sake sans turkey.
Barbecups: General updating, the specifics of which I no longer remember, after making them a few weeks ago.

Enjoy!

December 24, 2025August 13, 2026

WordPress updated and recipes added

Just a quick note to note that:

www.malak.ca blog:

The WordPress on malak.ca was updated from 6.8.3 to 6.9;

Food / recipes:

The following new recipes were added to my collection:
- goat cheese omelettes, which is effectively an evolution of the ham and cheese omelettes I used to make for Mom; I started making goat cheese omelettes after Mom preferred a goat cheese omelette my brother bought for her at a high-end pastry shop and bakery;
- goat cheese muffins, an addition (developed at my mom’s behest, after having one of my goat cheese omelettes) to my growing collection of muffin recipes that I serve to my mom, to cater to her evolving tastes;
- scalloped potatoes;
- 20260105 updated: My lasagne recipe was added yesterday.
The following recipes were updated:
- stewed apples;
- chocolate buttercrunch (“English Toffee”); along with among other things generally updating the recipe text, a section was added stressing the importance of and outlining the mise-en-place (here’s my archive) that I find to be crucial to this recipe (as in, “of course mise-en-place is always a good practice and a good idea and really helpful when cooking, however in the case of this recipe, mise-en-place is essential to the success of, and simply, the execution of this recipe“);
- plain cake, mostly adding for the addition of the optional use of fruit and stewed fruit, the use of either a loaf pan or a square cake pan, and allowing for the distinction between the use of either the “old fashioned” greasing and flouring of the pan method and the parchment paper method;
- ham and cheese omelette, updating principally as a function of also using the recipe as a base for the above-mentioned goat cheese omelette;
- chocolate chip cookie dough cheesecake squares, mostly for minor turns of phrase, as well as any updates I may or may not have done (oops bad memory, it’s been a while!) since the previous version;
- shortbread cookies, again mostly for minor turns of phrase, as well as dividing some “multi-step” instructions, and fleshing out a number of implied steps (call my recipe style ridiculously verbose and overly detailed … in order to … live up to a lesson learned at a computer conference I attended in 2011. 🙂 )
- 20260105 updated: The recipe for roast potatoes was updated yesterday.

Happy cooking!

PS: as a personal reference, I have made seven batches of chocolate buttercrunch — representing 3-1/2 pounds of butter, over 4-1/2 pounds of chocolate, over 3-3/4 pounds of sugar, and over 200mL of maple syrup — over the past roughly two weeks, to plan for Christmas giveaways. That’s about 90 to 91 bags of 60g of crunch each!

April 14, 2025June 1, 2026

Making Plain and Easy Sour Cream Muffins — Photos

I started making these tasty and easy to make muffins as a result of trying to make another kind of muffin (here’s my archive) for my mom, to add a bit more variety to the muffins I make for her. The story to the recipe, for me, had an alluring appeal that seemed to fit the bill. They turned out mostly nicely; however, the experience unfortunately taught me that when a recipe calls for unsalted butter — such as for the topping, especially since it also calls for a “pinch of kosher salt” — one should use unsalted butter. The resulting topping had just enough saltiness, however mild that it was, such that while of course the muffins were really nice, the slight saltiness was a distraction that did not appeal to my mom. (I enjoyed the rest of the muffins, but I agreed with her regarding the distraction.) In the process, I decided that the amount of effort required to execute the recipe was a bit more than I cared for.

As a result though, I had some sour cream for which I had no further use, since I don’t have a taste for sour cream by itself, nor does my mom ask for it for other dishes. And, I was still in the position of needing another muffin recipe to add a bit of variety for Mom. I looked up “sour cream muffins” or somesuch on the internet, and I landed on a recipe here (here’s my archive), which I adjusted down to a half-batch of six muffins that can be easily and quickly made in a countertop convection oven, and which of course scales up to a dozen or more muffins at a time.

Note: Some of the photos were taken somewhat or a bit more out of order, or were outright recreations — albeit all during the preparation of, or immediately after baking, the same batch of muffins, including separately preparing the wet and dry ingredients the night before baking them fresh the morning of for breakfast for Mom — but are presented here in the order presented below for the sake of the narrative.

Making the muffins:

The countertop convection oven was preheated to 350F:

A baking tin and paper muffin liners were taken out:

Baking tin and paper muffin liners taken out

Paper muffin liners were placed in the wells:

Paper muffin liner placed in baking tin well

Paper muffin liners placed in baking tin wells

Flour and a measuring cup were taken out:

Flour was measured out:

The flour was transferred to a mixing bowl:

Sugar and a measuring cup were taken out, and sugar was measured out::

The sugar was transferred to the mixing bowl with the flour:

Sugar transferred to mixing bowl with flour

Baking soda and measuring spoons were taken out:

Baking soda and measuring spoons taken out

Baking soda was measured out:

The baking soda was transferred to the mixing bowl with the flour and sugar:

Baking soda transferred to bowl with flour and sugar

Salt and measuring spoons were taken out:

Salt was measured out:

The salt was transferred to the bowl with the flour, sugar, and baking soda:

Salt transferred to bowl with flour, sugar, and baking soda

Nutmeg was taken out:

Nutmeg was measured out:

Nutmeg was transferred to the bowl with the flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt:

Nutmeg added to bowl with flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt

A fork was taken out:

The dry ingredients were mixed with the fork:

Sour cream and a measuring cup were taken out:

The sour cream was measured out, and since I was missing a very small amount, I topped it up with a bit of milk:

Sour cream measured out and slightly topped up with milk

The sour cream was transferred back to the plastic container:

Sour cream transferred back to plastic container

Vegetable oil and a measuring cup were taken out, and the oil was measured out:

Vegetable oil and measuring cup taken out, and oil measured out

The vegetable oil was transferred to the container with the sour cream:

Oil transferred to container with sour cream

Eggs were taken out:

The egg was cracked with a spoon:

The egg was transferred to the container with the sour cream and vegetable oil

Egg transferred to container with sour cream and oil

Vanilla extract and measuring spoons were taken out:

Vanilla extract and measuring spoons taken out

The vanilla extract was measured out:

The vanilla extract was transferred to the container with the sour cream, vegetable oil, and egg:

Vanilla extract added to container with sour cream, vegetable oil, and egg

The wet ingredients were mixed together:

(As mentioned earlier, at this point, the container had been sealed and placed in the refrigerator overnight, and the dry ingredients had been sealed and kept on the counter overnight; as well, immediately prior to the next step listed below is when the countertop convection oven had actually been turned on and preheated.)

The wet ingredients were brought over to the dry ingredients, and a clean fork and spoon were taken out:

Wet ingredients brought to the dry ingredients

The wet ingredients were transferred to the bowl with the dry ingredients:

Wet ingredients transferred to bowl with dry ingredients

The last bits of the wet ingredients were scraped into the bowl using a spoon:

Wet ingredients transferred to bowl with dry ingredients, and last bits scraped into bowl using spoon

A fork was taken out to start mixing the wet and dry ingredients:

Fork taken out to mix wet and dry ingredients

The wet and dry ingredients were mixed together with the fork:

The baking tin with the paper muffin liners was brought over to the bowl with the mixed ingredients:

Baking tin with paper muffin liners taken out

The muffin dough was transferred to the paper muffin liners in the baking tin:

Muffin dough transferred to paper muffin liners

The muffin tin filled with muffin dough was placed in the preheated countertop convection oven …

Muffin tin placed in preheated countertop convection oven

… and a timer was set to 22 minutes:

While the muffins were baking, a cooling rack was taken out:

At about half-way (after about 11 minutes), the baking tin was rotated in the countertop convection oven, to help ensure even baking:

Almost 11 minutes passing, the rough halfway point during baking

… and at this point, the muffins had clearly begun to rise:

Muffins rising at roughly halfway point in baking

At the end of the baking period, here are the fully baked muffins, which had begun to brown:

Fully baked muffins while still in the countertop convection oven — note the light browning

The muffin tin was taken out of the countertop convection oven and placed on a board, ready for the muffins to be removed from the baking tin, and placed on the cooling rack:

Fully baked muffins taken out of countertop convection oven

The muffins were immediately — hot! hot! hot! — removed from the muffin baking tin …

… and placed on the cooling rack:

… which was continued until all the muffins …

… had been transferred to the cooling rack:

Here’s the bottom of a muffin that had sufficiently cooled in order to safely handle it:

A still warm and definitely fresh! muffin was placed on a plate, and the paper liner was carefully removed (so as to not tear off pieces from the muffin):