17.

On Sunday Catherine and Trevor of Wheelhouse Seafoods & Specialty Meats held a party to celebrate their 10th anniversary in business.

As part of the celebration they held a salmon burger contest. Anyone was eligible to enter; all he or she had to do was make a burger and bring it to the store. Chef Luis Montalvo from El Barrio Restaurante Latino cooked the burgers on the grill, and the judges were Debbra Mikaelsen and Philip Solman, Editor and Publisher of Edible Vancouver magazine.

My mom and Matt both entered, and I suffered as intermediary to their boasts and threats all week long. Of course, I also was delighted to serve as Matt's guinea pig for different recipes and really enjoyed being served fresh and interesting salmon burgers when I got home from work.
Mom's two entries - one served with roast peppers and one with fried onions.

The judges hard at work: tasting, conferring and noting.

Matt and Catherine

Luis paying very close attention to the burgers.

It got ugly for a while there when Matt went after my mom and fellow competitor with a plastic fork.

Matt's Asian style burgers with ginger, cilantro and sesame oil.

In the end, neither of them won. The ingenious goat cheese stuffed burger took it all. But it was a really fun time and excellent eating nonetheless.



Afterward, Matt and I met my sister and her family at my parents' place for dinner.

What did we eat? Salmon BBQ of course!

16. It's Pesto time!

Mamma swears that if we were in Italy we would be thrown out of the country for making a year's worth of pesto in a food processor and freezing it rather than using a mortar and pestle to make it fresh each time it's needed. But when basil flourishes for only a short period in an even shorter summer, you do what you have to to preserve it.

Mom harvested all of the pesto from her garden and Ananda and I brought the pine nuts, olive oil, garlic, lemon and parmesan cheese. In October and November, after the last of the fall tomatoes have been eaten and the rain has become a daily companion, we'll pull out the first of the pesto and that whiff of garlic and basil will carry us back to the sunny day in the kitchen when we put it together. In December, after a long day at work, we will rush home and make a quick dinner of pesto linguini and will remember the perfume of all that basil cut fresh and waiting for us in a huge, aromatic pile. And in January or February, when we've all but lost hope; when we start to believe that there is no blue sky, only a thick, impenetrable mass of grey clouds, we will make pesto pizza and remember the sun.


16 oz Basil
15 or 16 cloves Garlic
16 oz Pine Nuts
2 tsp Salt
4 cups Cheese (either all Parmigiano Reggiano 3/4 Parmigiano Reggiano/1/4 Romano)
4 cups Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Wash your basil leaves gently so as not to bruise them. Be careful and run the salad spinner softly and then place the bundles of leaves on a dry clean piece of cloth, cover them with another piece of cloth and let them dry. Do not rub or dab them, they are extremely delicate.
Using a metal blade, process the garlic and pine nuts with a little olive oil for a few seconds. Add the basil and process briefly. Stop occasionally to scrape the edges of the food processor with a rubber spatula. Add the olive oil and process again. When the ingredients are well blended, pour them into a bowl and stir in the cheese by hand, using the spatula. At this point add a little lemon - not enough to alter the taste! Just enough to keep the pesto nice and green. Pour pesto into clean ice cube trays (continually mixing the pesto so it doesn't separate) and leave for several hours until frozen solid. Then turn it out into containers and zip lock bags.

Summer in a cube. Seriously.