As I said before, Gen and I decided to do Valentines Day a little late so that we could spend the whole day together, as he regularly works evenings. We both got up late, I meandered into the kitchen and Gen set up the Die Hard marathon for us to settle into for the day. Huzzah!
I’ve been watching a lot of Harry Potter. The movies are great to watch but also good background noise for when I’m trying to do really important stuff. I’ve also been watching Dexter on Netflix because I was really into the first season and then it fell off my radar, well there is a lot of catching up to do. So, much like before, watching shows, applying for jobs, and working on my paper has been my life. I had an interview yesterday for a great new position at an exciting firm, but we’ll see if anything comes of it. I am keeping my eye on the market and have been seriously looking into jobs in the UK (yaaaay Caelin), Toronto (yaaaay Heidi, Lauren, and Andreé) and the states (yaaaaay Trader Joe’s)! I am so incredibly tired of the never-ending weekend, but trust that something will come along soon. I am enjoying the search so far, I am definitely getting a feel for the job market in Vancouver.
OH! And also, happy Valentine’s Day! Gen and I aren’t celebrating today because he’s working all night. We are postponing our festivities until Sunday when we can spend the day together. The plans? We are having a Die Hard marathon (at my request, I haven’t seen them) and I am making us a series of delicious meals that are sure to be feature on Not Crocker! But for all of you lovers out there, happy love day! To all those without someone special to smooch on today, make some Scotch Truffles or Rum Cupkrakes and know that someone, somewhere thinks you’re awesome!
I am a week into unemployment (or uninternshipness) and have been slowly but surely working on my paper, moseying about my apartment, and applying for a stack of really great job opportunities. I’ve finally opened my mind to the possibility of moving away from Vancouver, somewhere like Toronto, if I am able to find something great out there. I’ve just applied for a really wonderful position at a progressive company that I’ve had my eye on for the last year, so it would be wonderful to work with them. It will be a very sad thing if we have to leave Vancouver, we’ve certainly felt like we belong here, but sometimes you have to do what’s best for your career and Gen is on board. So, we’ll see where all this goes.
Well, we’ve had an awesome few weeks of fundraising for the Brain Tumour Foundation of Canada Spring Sprint. So far our team has brought in over a thousand dollars and we continue to climb towards our goal! We have all the way to May 26th to raise money, so keep the donations coming, knowing that it is going to a great cause! Thank you to everyone who has donated and/or joined our team! I am really looking forward to walking/sprinting with such an amazing group of people. Gen has started volunteering with a new Hospice centre that has opened near our apartment. He heard about these Hospice walks for people who have recently lost a loved one and he really wants us to go. I think that we are going to try to make the Saturday walks, see what it’s about and get some much needed fresh air. I think it will be cathartic to spend time with people in similar situations to mine.
Anyway, I’ve been very busy this week already with job interviews, applications, and resume tweaking. I am only two business days out of my internship at Appetite and I am already wondering how they are doing. I hope I can work with the two of them in the future again, as it was such a wonderful experience. In the last two weeks of my internship we discovered my passion and intensity for cookbook proofreading. Now to find a job, preferably in the publishing industry in Vancouver (HA!), where I can put all my new-found, or newly-honed skills to work. We’ll see. In the meantime, I am going to keep on cooking, baking, and candlestick making, well no, but that would be great. This recipe is a nice, healthy base for awesome pasta sauces, meatballs, and anything else you want to throw on there.
I’ve mentioned it before, my husband likes to buy in bulk. This would be less of a problem if we had more storage and a bigger family. Instead, what it means is that I have to make enormous batches of food that we either eat for days straight (which Gen is totally okay with, but I get really bored) or I try to make it freezable. Last round of ridiculous batch cooking came with Gen’s purchase of a box of mussels. That turned out deliciously but we literally ate ourselves silly on mussels that night and the next day. This time it was tuna.
I am not a particular fan of tuna, my parents never really made anything with it. I don’t remember growing up with tuna casseroles or tuna salad anything. I went through a brief tuna salad sandwich phase in my first year of university when my roommate showed me that a little mayo, relish, salt and pepper could make a killer sandwich. I ate a tuna sandwich a day for a week or two, loving the convenience and frugality (we got all our relish from Ikea as it was the only condiment that came in packets that we stuffed in our pockets after buying our $1 hotdogs). But then crepes came into my life and I ditched tuna forever. Really, I made crepes all the time, it was ridiculous. I’ve since perfected my recipe, actually even beyond the crepe recipe I have up here on Not Crocker, so I will have to post the new version soon.
Anyway, I haven’t had canned tuna for years. Mom made Kel and I tuna melts when we were in the Yukon this fall, and I remember thinking that that had been my first canned tuna experience since that period in school.
That is a 32oz waterbottle. Annnnnnnd a 1.88kg can of tuna. This is 8x the normal can size.
This means that it is unlikely that Gen has had much tuna in the last three years. I do most of the cooking in our house, and it’s never come up that he was craving it, so I never bought any. But one inspired day at Costco, Gen buys the BIGGEST can of tuna I’ve ever seen. At almost 2kg, the can dwarfed my big waterbottle. I was stumped. I didn’t want to make an enormous batch of tuna salad that I would be hardpressed to help eat and that Gen would be tasked with eating for days. I had to think, so I put the can into the cupboard and thought long and hard about a plan. A month later, I decided that burgers were the answer.
These burgers are pretty tasty with lots of flavours going on, a nice crust from the cheese, and they hold together well. Top with some crisp, cold veggies and a dollop of sour cream. I’ve included the recipe amounts for a single can of tuna-sized recipe in [square brackets] beside the amounts for this ridiculous amount. But don’t fear the giant-sized can, it made 20 patties and I froze all but 2 for later. Make them!
Spices ready to be in there
Three layers of deliciousness.
Grilled up.