Yes, the name is offensive, but this is not the reason I got this cola. I found this gem in a huge cooler of independently branded sodas at a store at the Pike Place market in Seattle. There were dozens to choose from, and I was dying of thirst after hauling ass through the market in less than an hour. I did not have time to mull things over, and although I was torn between “Rat Bastard Root Beer” and “Fukola Cola”, I grabbed the last bottle of the cola. That had to be a good sign, right?

I was in for a treat!

The cola is syrupy but not too sweet, well carbonated with a spicy buzz after, and mildly herby tasting. Not surprisingly, there is a long list of herbs in the drink: lime oil, orange oil, cloves, American, Siberian and Korean ginseng, African capsicum, dill weed, skullcap, echinacea, ginkgo biloba, kola nut, sage, damiana, and kava kava.

In the car after, I felt like I was vibrating, and thought “Gee, I don’t consume enough caffeine, that really got on top of me.” Turns out, there is additional guarana and caffeine added, though. This was basically a tasty energy drink.

Fukola Cola is a “resurrected” soda made by the Californian company Skeleteens as a “counter culture” drink. How apropos for Seattle. Coincidentally they also make the Rat Bastard Root Beer I was hemming and hawing over. Skeleteens products can be difficult to find apparently. If I’d known how rare it was, I would have loaded up.

By the way, according to Bones Jones, the creator of Skeleteens, it’s pronounced foo-cola.

Most of my cooking starts with a single ingredient. I see something unusual or new, buy it, and then find a way to learn a new recipe.

Although I have been stockpiling ingredients (masa harina, corn husks, dried peppers) from trips to the U.S. to make tamales for some time, it was actually the purchase of pasilla peppers from Sobeys Urban Fresh that prompted the tamales finally get made. I’ll admit it, I was intimidated. I have learned how to roll cabbage rolls and make perogies from my Gran before she died, but she’s Ukranian, not Mexican. So I did not know how to roll tamales, and it seemed complicated.

Oh, I had books. Rick Bayless has a multi-page section dedicated to the filling and making of tamales. There are diagrams, tips and descriptive paragraphs, but it just wasn’t the same. Luckily, Youtube came to the rescue with a visual guide on what to do.

Zarela runs a restaurant, and has a series of videos up on Youtube on Mexican cooking. She also had an easy going attitude, and was knowledgeable. In four minutes with her help, I was rolling tamales.

I made the masa dough for a filling and stuffed the tamales full of roasted pasilla peppers, adobe tomato salsa and Monterey Jack cheese. I made a few vegan tamales by making the masa dough with vegetable shortening instead of pork and omitting the cheese.

And you know what? Just like perogies and cabbage rolls, tamales aren’t that hard to do.

First you must acquire corn husks, and soak them so they are pliable. I used the hole filled ones to tear into strips to tie the tamales with. This isn’t a necessary step, but it’s a pretty one.

Bob’s Red Mill masa harina from a Whole Foods in Minneapolis. I would have bought a bigger package, but my luggage was already grossly obese.

I cannot find masa harina in Edmonton. I’m hoping the latin markets will have it, I just haven’t had time to look yet. It’s easier to do my grocery shopping while on holiday, apparently. Safeway, Save-On and Planet Organic all carry a wide assortment of Bob’s Red Mill products, just not this.

What gives?

Masa harina is a corn flour, mixed with lime. It’s used to make a variety of things, including tamales and tortillas.

The masa dough being stirred. You need strong arms and a wooden spoon if you don’t have a mixer. Luckily I’ve been making cookie dough for years, so I can handle my spoons.

Peeling the roasted pasilla peppers. I broiled them in the oven on all four sides, tossed them in a bag for a bit and then peeled, cored and seeded them.

After making an adobo tomato salsa, and cubing the cheese, I rolled. It’s really easy.

Tied with strips of corn husk. Not as easy. I had to redo a few, and some popped on me.

The tamales were steamed for about an hour. The dough gets fluffy, and the smell of corn is wonderful.

A bit moist, still, but I think I had a good dough to filling ratio.

If it seems like I’m proud, it is because I am. The key thing is to have the ingredients. The rest is easy.

Vegan Masa filling for tamales

• 1/2 cup of vegetable shortening
• 2 cups masa harina
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup vegetable stock, plus 1/4 cup of water
• 1 teaspoon baking powder

Beat the shortening in a bowl with a whisk until fluffy. In another bowl, mix the masa harina and salt. Combine stock and water. Mix the masa and liquid into the shortening, alternating, until the dough stiffens. Mix in the baking powder. This makes enough for about 15 mid sized tamales.

I made mine sort of chile rellenos tamales, with peppers and cheese. You can use any variety of ingredients however, and make them any size.

Upon arriving in Las Vegas, we did three things: check into the hotel (this time we stayed at the Mirage, and got a free upgrade!), place some sportsbets and go for dinner at Bar Charlie again. Our first visit was so wonderful, a return visit was almost mandatory.

The last time we visited, we were the only diners for most of the evening. This time, there were two other couples eating. It helped the restaurant feel not as stiff, although it was much, much busier for the kitchen staff. Visiting on a Friday evening probably had something to do with it. Bar Charlie is also garnering more mentions on culinary forums as a “must visit” place, so I hope this helps it succeed. It truly is a fine restaurant.

I don’t have much to say other than that, except that this time the service was above par. We were recognized and our return visit was mentioned by several of the staff. Everyone was very chatty, and it was a great evening. When the chef promised a printed menu for us when we left, I was not confident I would see it. Others had complained that they did not receive theirs, but I got mine, all tied up with colour co-ordinated ribbon and everything.

Again, we got the 14-course chef’s kaiseki. Here are a few of the highlights. As you can see, the descriptions of the dishes are very simple, but the dishes themselves were anything but. Another couple down the bar complained that there were many elements not mentioned on the menu, making it hard to record notes on the meal. Most dishes started with atleast six ingredients. That doesn’t begin to take into account the components of the various sauces and garnishes and powders.

I will maintain my viewpoint that Bar Charlie is one of the most complex meals and best values for high end dining in Las Vegas. But, enough. I’ll let the photos do the talking.

After a record four visits to Las Vegas since mid December, I don’t know when we’ll get back there again, but if we do…you know where I’ll be going again.

While my parents have considerably trimmed back their raspberries bushes and apple trees and we do not have as much to pick, I know not everyone is in the same boat. With no time or simply too much fruit to get to, some home owners have buckets of fruit left to waste on their plants, once the animals have had their fill.

However, a new group of people in Edmonton have gathered to rescue your fruit: Operation Fruit Rescue! The team of volunteers representing OFRE comes to pick your fruit, and the bounty is divided into thirds. 1/3 to the pickers, 1/3 to the home owner and 1/3 to the Food Bank or other food centre. How great is that?

A garden fresh dinner last night turned out to be a team effort.

Beets, raspberry vinaigrette, pecan and goat cheese salad. As a co-main dish, (pre-made) garlic mushroom ravioli in a brown butter sauce with sage, chanterelle & brown mushrooms, and a sprinkling of pine nuts for crunch. My boyfriend roasted the beets and made the dressing as well as sauteed the mushrooms. I boiled the ravioli and made the brown butter sage sauce.

Voila!

By the way, the Pasta Time frozen ravioli from the Italian Center was shockingly good. Tender, flavourful and easy to prepare. I normally shy away from frozen foods, but this is an exception. The filling was creamy, and not dried out or freezer burnt.

Brown Butter Sage sauce

• 5 tablespoons butter
• 3 tablespoons coarsely chopped sage leaves (fresh)

Melt the butter at medium heat until the milk fats separate and float on the top, about five minutes. Add the sage leaves until they just being to crisp, then remove. The butter should be darkening. When it is a darker brown, remove from heat immediately.

Great on pasta, mushrooms, chicken.

For dessert, I used some bits of chocolate from left over bars and melted it in a double boiler with butter and cream. Drizzled (more like clumped) it over vanilla ice cream and sprinkled super ripe raspberries on top. I lack the words to even describe to you how insanely simple and delicious this was.

ham + cheese baguette

It’s no secret that I enjoy the bread Cobs makes. For a chain, they make damned fine bread products. Their pane di casa italian rolls are crispy, light and airy with a hint of chew, and I’m a fan of the new Turkish rolls, with the same consistency of the pane di casa, but a generous smothering of olive oil and seasonings on top.

When I visited the other morning, one of the bakers came barreling out of the back. “Behind!” he shouted to the front clerk, before loading a wire rack laden with French baguettes into the display. He then rang a cowbell hanging above, and yelled “FRENCH BAGGGGUUUETTES!” while the other bakers cheered in the back. Turns out the French baguette is a brand new item at Cobs. It was amazing and it immediately brought me back to the first time my Mom brought my brother and I to continental Europe in the early 1990s.

We were living in England at the time, and caught the ferry over to Bruges, in Belgium for a day trip. The food had a huge influence on me, and I still remember every meal we ate that day. There was a serving of spaghetti bolognese that could have sunk a ship (and indeed sunk me, I was ill after overeating it) and the crispiest most delicious pizza ever eaten at an outdoor cafe on the main square of the town. But the best was a last minute picnic of fresh baguettes and some cheese and meats we found at a small market. God, was it ever delicious.

After I finished day dreaming, I naturally had to get a baguette and desired to fill it with ham and cheese. I swung by the Italian Center and loaded up on meats and cheeses. I wasn’t home two minutes when I was tearing into the meats, cutting cheddar and assembling a delicious rosemary ham and cheese baguette. So simple, so delicious.

Two new beverages this week. One was a vintage sodie pop I had been saving for some time. My boyfriend purchased it while on a road trip over a year ago, knowing I love to try new drinks, but I only got around to drinking it recently.

I had been saving it for a float, but I’m glad I didn’t. The ice cream would not have been good enough for it.

The bottle recommends “no ice” but I did not listen.

Virgil’s was a flavourful cherry cream soda with a subtle vanilla taste, and very very creamy in the mouth. It wasn’t overly syrupy or sweet, either, maybe because they use cane sugar. I’ve heard good things about Virgil’s other sodas, namely the Root Beer, and after trying the Black Cherry Cream Soda, I can tell you I will be searching it out. Apparently their parent company, Reed’s, makes SIX types of ginger beer.

Although I’m not sure it’s available in Edmonton yet, there are two bottles of Virgil’s Root Beer sitting in the fridge at work. I don’t know where they came from, but I will have to sleuth out the answer.

The other soda was a completely different story. I found myself at Sunterra one day, craving a soda as good as the Virgil’s Black Cherry Cream Soda, but faced with the same old soda selections. I saw the busy, eye-catching label for Jones’ “Jones Jumble” mixed flavour soda and decided to give it a shot. Jones are the people famous for oddly flavoured drinks like “Turkey & Gravy” and “Antacid”. I should have known better is all I can say.

The crazy label (one of three limited edition ones) serves as a wrap hiding the horror within: a grey/green/blue colour that is similar to that seen at sewage outlets on Thai beaches. The sewage blends into the gorgeous turquoise water making a colour distinctly recreated in the Jones bottle.

I did sample it before I saw the colour, so one cannot imply I let it put me off. The flavour is a “secret” blend of four different kinds taken from the stock of Jones Soda flavours. The overwhelming first grape flavour hid a later zazzy lemon lime, melonesque middle and FuFu berry finish. Of course, these are only my guesses. I’m not sure what the real flavours are.

I did not like this. I dumped it down the drain at work, but not before taking these photos at our copy photography set up area and attracting attention from nearby copy editors. “Looks like swamp water,” one said. Another stated, simply: “You kids will drink anything.”

The flavour was created as a novelty, obviously, and the makers challenged consumers to put their tastebuds to the test and identify the flavours hiding within. Are you brave enough to be a soda sommelier? The contest ended on July 15, but the flavour lives on, just like the lingering grape flavour my burps have.

I have always found it a challenge to cook using what is hanging around the house already. Odds and ends that never seem to go together, things you’re not sure are still good. It’s so much easier to just start new.

However, I have decided it is an important skill to start using up leftovers and have made a concerted effort to cook with them. I made a simple dinner of a BLT salad and grilled cheese last night.

The meal used up many things: some salad greens, half a container of grape tomatoes, a loaf of bread and some bacon. Why do they make the packs so big?! I often  have to wrap up some pieces and preserve them cryogenically in the freezer.

The secret to having a great grilled cheese versus a good grilled cheese? Grated cheese. It’s an extra step, but it makes all the difference. Here, I use the six-year-old Balderson from Costco. My mom says it’s not a grilled cheese unless the cheese is orange, but I beg to differ.

I crumbled the bacon and threw in these great little grape tomatoes. I actually bought them because I was swayed by the packaging. They came in this little UFO container, and the tomatoes were extra crisp and delicious. I’m unsure if the container played a part, but I did notice the shape helped keep the tomatoes from weighing on each other.

And the end product. A perfect melty and crispy grilled cheese (with bacon thrown in) and a BLT salad with a balsamic dressing and sprinkle of cheese. And, most importantly, several ingredients now freed of their impending refrigerator doom.

When I was a kid I used to spend hours plucking the juiciest, biggest raspberries off my grandma’s bushes. We would eat them, freeze them in four litre ice cream pails, bake with them, and even play with them.

Some things never change.

All year, I wait for this to happen. For cherries to flood the marketplace. The king? Rainiers. They’re approximately double the price of regular cherries, and a delicious hybrid of Van and Bing varieties. They’re incredible, and I eat them like there is no tomorrow.

And there really isn’t a tomorrow. Friday night at Costco I got the last clam shell of Rainiers. Seems like the season may be coming to an end. Who knows when I’ll get to taste their sweet meaty flesh again, but I’m hoping it’s in a few weeks when I go to Kelowna to visit my brother. BC Cherry says they’ll be in high production when I’m there.

Maybe by then my stomach will have settled down again, and I’ll stop finding pits in weird places.