I miss CocoBean

Well hello Strangers,
Ok, so it is actually Christie and I that have been the strangers and we quite frankly feel terrible about it. I have been going back and forth between Montreal and Ottawa to spend time with my brother, so I have been just so busy and distracted by all of this. Here is my update, my brother ended up having what is called a degenerative Mitral valve, which required immediate surgery as the valve had actually ruptured. Luckily Ottawa has a state of the art Hospital/Research center dedicated to the study and health of the heart, and the chief of surgery himself was going to be performing my brothers surgery. The surgery went well, and the surgeon was actually able to repair rather than replace the valve, which is excellent news as the recovery and long term quality of life are better with your original valve over a porcine replacement. Christie, along with my mother and I headed out to spend four days with him while in the hospital, and on the last dayhe was released. Unfortunately, shortly after my 2nd visit, my brother was brought back into the hospital and once again admitted due to unusual chest pains. It was found that he had a fluid buildup around the heart, which was dangerously constricting on it. A new sugery was performed yesterday, at which point almost 1 full litre of fluid was drained....

So, as you can imagine, Christie and I have been very worried and concentrating on various other concerns for a little while. On the bright side, Christie has found some employment that is close to home, although not in her field, she is still happy about it, and she can continue her search for work in her field while worrying a little less about bills. As for me, I have have decided after a long stint at my current job, where things just keep getting worse and worse, to find new employment as well, something which I have been looking into every night after work lately. A positive out of all this is that I've decided, with Christie's loving support, that I should pursue photography professionaly, and I am enrolling in a highly regarded Commercial Photography program at a local college :D

Balsamic Baked Onions & Potatoes with Pork Loin

Well hellooooo everyone!
Got some good news back today, my brother Scott had his heart surgery this afternoon, and the surgeon was able to repair the valve rather than have to replace it, which is really great. Its still scary that he had heart surgery, but such a relief to know that it went well. Thank you so much for all the wonderful vibes, I’m sure it all helped. Christie and I are heading out to spend some time with him this week, and hopefully the extra company will cheer him up and get him going on the path to a full recovery.
Now I know you’ve been waiting for Food, am I right? Well we’ve got some. Over these past few busy weeks, I have actually been stockpiling photos that we just have not had the time to post, such as the event photos from the past two “Supper Club’s”, and all the wonderful, and I really mean wonderful homemade ice cream Christie has been making (hello Chocolate Guinness ice cream, and get in my belly cantaloupe sorbet!!). So here for today is a little something I decided to try out myself. A short while a go, I headed on by a grocery store nearby my work in order to find something interesting to make for dinner, and ended up walking out with a nicely large Pork Loin. Of course by the time I got it home, I decided to try something different with it, and finally, yes finally try out cooking a Jamie Oliver recipe myself. I watch Jamie’s many shows on Food Network Canada whenever I see them, but it was that day that I realized that I had never actually made anything based on one of his recipes.
I found a dizzying array of recipes for Pork loin by Jamie Oliver (try googling Jamie Oliver Pork Loin and you’ll see) , but just couldn’t resist a really interesting recipe calling for quite a lot of Balsamic. I had the feeling that I would somehow mess this recipe up totally and absolutely, and that it would end up turning out awful, with me confused about where I went wrong. Surprisingly, it didn’t go that way at all. I followed the recipe pretty closely, only making a small change in the onions (I left some in the roasting pot with the loin, and then mixed those in with the baked balsamic potatoes and red onions afterwards).

For the full Jamie Oliver recipe, please click here

Speaking of the Food Network, Christie came across an recent posting on their website that uses and talks about one of our postings, and uses one of my pictures! Seriously, how cool is that? Check it out here

A Review for the Daring Kitchen

A month ago Ian and I were asked to write a review for a very summer-ie cookbook from Bobby Flay called Burgers, Fries, and Shakes. We were so excited and had a great time cooking and eating our way though the book.

Please click here to read the review and see all the beautiful pictures that Ian took. Also check out the Daring Kitchen website while you're at it!

Get better soon Scott

Hi everyone,
Ian here. Christie and I have not been kidnapped, so don’t worry, we are okay! Phewwwww, now that that is over with, I can tell you that Christie and I have had our hands so overwhelmingly full it’s unbelievable. Since graduating, Christie has been hustling every day from morning till night working on writing and sending out resume(s) for various jobs in her field. As you can all imagine, she is fairly upset that she hasn’t had the time to post anything, but she needs to prioritize and find a job first, which is exactly why it has been my responsibility as of late to keep the blog up to date, which of course you can see I have failed miserably at.

On to the bad news, a little over a week ago, I had received a phone call that my brother had fallen ill during a camping trip, but I didn’t take it too seriously as I was told that it was just a bug or something of the sort. Since then, I have found out that it is more serious than a simple cold, and that a problem has been discovered with my brother’s heart. He has developed a type of infection on a valve, as well as a problem with the valve itself, and it may very well require some sort of heart surgery. I really hope the problem can be solved with a medication/antibiotic, but we won’t know anything until the result of some tests he had come in this week.

He had a pretty bad string of luck with injuries and the like over the past few years, recently been doing so much better, and things had begun to brighten up for him until this. I am not really a church going, prayer kind of guy, but he is in my thoughts, and I feel that if I hope hard enough, maybe everything will be alright for him. If anyone reading this is inclined to do so, any little thought, any little prayer, or any little shared hope or whispered word that he will be okay would be much appreciated.