This year, I’m giving my birthday up…

http://mycharitywater.org/GABB

Let’s see how long Friendfeed is going to keep my attention. It requires less maintenance than keeping a blog up to date…lol

http://friendfeed.com/gabvoie

No updates until at least February 20.  I’m heading to Asia (including Japan! YAY!) for pleasure…  When I come back, you will be greeted with tons of food pics from the trip! lol

Yesterday, once again faced with the issue of having to cook for myself, I began plotting my dinner options.  I really had a craving for General Tao chicken but decided against it.  I had just came back from a 2 hour gym session and felt guilty eating such an unhealthy dish (although what I ended up eating might not have been the healthiest thing…lol).  Then I thought about eating Subway but decided against it as I didn’t like the fact that I would be eating a sandwich for dinner.

Still unsure what I would eat, I decided to watch the Food Network while I decided what I would feed my now noisy stomach.  Micheal Smith’s Chef at Home show was playing.  It was an episode where he made his own smoked salmon.  Towards the end of the episode, he made Smoke Salmon Penne.  It was a very basic recipe with ingredients that most households have.  I knew I had most of the ingredients in my house but smoke salmon I had not.  I was lucky enough to have canned salmon and used it as a substitute for the smoked stuff.

These are the pics of my Salmon Penne à la bonne franquette!

The ingredients...

The ingredients...

Cooking the penne...

Once the penne is cooked, add all the ingredients together with a splash of pasta water...

Make sure the cheese is all melted before serving...

I served the pasta with a side of uber ripe tomatoes with a drizzle of EVOO, salt and pepper...

Child labout is a very complex.  I myself, as a business graduate, am unsure how to tackle this issue.  I remember doing a case presentation last semester in my Business Ethics class about IKEA.  In the case, IKEA’s carpet suppliers in the carpet belt (India, Pakistan and Nepal) were found to have used child labour in the manufacturing.  As our group realized in the preparation of our recommendation, there is no easy answer, no easy solution.

Nicholas D. Kristof is widely known for bringing to light human rights abuses in Asia and Africa, such as sex trafficking, human trafficking and the Darfur genocide and is a regular contributor to The New York Times. I’m not sure this article offers anything new about the issue of child labour but it does underline the complexity of the matter.  Kristof argues that  sweatshops are only a symptom of poverty, not a cause, and banning them closes off one route out of poverty.

Read the article and watch the accompanying video for yourself: here.

I made this pumpkin pie for a potluck I had to attend during the Holidays.  Paula Deen provided the recipe.  The pies that I made were a success!  However, the recipe left me with tons of extra filling leftover.  Good thing I bought several packs of pre-made pie crusts and was able to put the leftover filling to good use…lol  Here are the pics of my pie making adventure…

The completed filling...

Pumpkin purée...

Tenderflake pre-made pie crust poked to death...lol

Ladling filling into baked crust...

Before baking...

After baking...

For garnish, I tossed some pecans in warm honey and salt...

Some tossing action!

The masterpiece!

Ta-da!

I ended up making 4 pies out of one batch of filling.  I still have 3 can of pumpkin purée left!  I plan on using some when making pancakes…lol  IMO pumpkin pie is not really enjoyable when eaten alone.  For the total pumpkin pie experience, you gotta eat your slice topped with whipped cream.

Next recipe: Anything that will allow me to use my 3 cans of pumpkin purée! lol

It’s great to have all this free time.  For the past year, I’ve have been eyeball deep in my textbooks.  I haven’t had the chance to read just for the heck of it.  But with all this leisure time on my hands, I plan to attack that stack of books and magazines that’s been pilling since summer.  The first book I started reading is the one pictured above.  This book was recommend to me by a guest speaker who presented in my Business Ethics class this fall.  The speaker was from the organization The Natural Step.  Her presentation was about how sustainability was becoming a big part of the business world.  Organizations like Nike are changing their processes in order to better achieve the “triple bottom-line” or the “3 Ps”: People, Planet, Profit.  Written by Bob Willard, a former IBM executive, The Sustainability Advantage presents seven sustainable strategies that would allow companies to reap bottom-line, social and environmental benefits.  This looks like a book that would be a required reading for one of my university classes…lol  However, the Business Ethics course I took in the Fall really struck a cord in me.  I do believe corporations need to act more responsibly socially and environmentally.  This was a major theme in that class.  But the professor pointed out that corporations often face difficult decisions when it wants to act responsibly (a quick search of the issue of child labour reveals that this problem is not as simple to resolve at first glance).

The complexity involved in achieving a sustainable organization led me to buy the book and delve deeper into how companies can achieve this… But…

After reading the first few chapters, I received my weekly copy of The Economist.  This week, the magazine was accompanied by their annual The World in 2009 report.

This report contains over 50 forward looking articles addressing issues that will be important in the upcoming year.  There are so many articles that interest me that Bob Willard’s book is now playing second fiddle to The Economist’s report.

This highlights one of my faults.  My bookcase is filled with books and magazines that I’ve partially read.  They are partially read not because they are not interesting, but because some other book, magazine or topic always seems to grab my attention away.  I always seem to come across some great article, book or magazine that appeals to me more than the topic of my current reading.

Thus, let it be known to all that read this blog: from now on, I will finish my current reading before moving on to the next book or magazine.  I’ll start this right after I finish The World in 2009 report…lol

Now that I finished grad school, I can now update my blog more often…lol

Today, we received quite the snow storm here in Montreal.  The buses were running slow so Mommy was late getting home.  So I  put my chef hat on and decided to cook dinner.  She had defrosted some boneless chicken breast so that was the meat I had to work with.  I looked in my many cookbooks for ideas but couldn’t find any real quick recipes that I wanted to make.

Plan B was to see what I had in the cupboard and an improvise a meal.  Like they say in french: à la bonne franquette (without any preparation).  So here are the ingredients I used.  Measurements aren’t really exact”cause I didn’t really measure anything…lol

3 boneless chicken breasts

1 can of diced tomatoes

1 can of mix beans

Dried oregano

Chili pepper flakes

Cayenne pepper

White wine

3 bay leaves

1 tablespoon of flour (for thickening the sauce)

Dried Parsley

Salt & pepper to taste

What I did:

Cut the chicken into small cubes and brown them in olive oil.  Once the chicken is browned, add the can of tomatoes, about a glass of white wine, dried oregano, chili flakes, cayenned pepper, bay leaves and salt & pepper.  Bring everything to a boil and simmer for about 15 minutes.  Add beans and turn heat to medium for 5 minutes.  Add flour until you obtain your desired sauce thickness. A couple of minutes before serving, add the dried parley.

This is the result of my concoction…lol

Now time for dessert…lol

Until my next written update when school ends in December…lol Here is a trailer for all of you to enjoy…