Slow cooking Sunday

So last week before we went skiing on Sunday morning I browned up some round ground and threw it in the slow cooker with the other ingredients I would normally use in chili and we left for a day on the slopes.  The aroma we came home to was so awesome. Even better was the realisation that we would not have to do much preparing to have dinner in the table real soon.  I think you can tell by the faces below that the chili was well received.

I also managed to capture one dinner this week.  It was salmon with cheesy mashed potatoes, vegetable soup and a festive summer salad.  The Mrs. has to be careful not to treat us too well or we may get used to the good life and be spoiled for anything else.

I can't recall if I missed this or not but the Mrs and the oldest also made cookies last weekend.  Gotta love people with baking habits.

Finally the tab managed to catch this evenings crock pot sensation(sideways unfortunately).  The Mrs. and the youngest stayed home from the hills today because he was running a fever.  But true to form I managed to get the crock pot stuffed with a Korean ribs recipe before we headed out for another glorious day at the hill.  And as before we arrived back home to the fabulous aroma of dinner almost ready to be served.  Unfortunately we also arrived back home to a hot little tyke.  Well kids get sick and then they get better.  Just part of life eh.  Back to dinner.  The Mrs. put together a cabbage salad which was nice because the ribs were pretty rich.

Finally here are some of the views we are enjoying from the top of the hill.  Hopefully next week we will get some video of the kids in action on the slopes.

Love out,

Friday Night Highlights

Well we got us some good at home Friday night last night.

We managed to stick our heads together with Crazy glue.  This is us trying to pull them apart.

Earlier in the day we got some turns in up at the hill.  It was a beautiful blue sky day with some nice fresh powder.  The youngest had a pretty good day but he can't seem to get the hang of slowing down.  Speeding up we have covered.  So it is a kind of heart in throat adventure.  

We got home just after lunch and had a slow afternoon.  Mine was pretty much wrapped up in spider solitaire.  As the evening progressed it was time for me to get dinner on.  We had kind of a snacky, slow progression on dinner.  We started with some Kettle Chips, good eatin.

We moved onto some Jackons Triggs,  for our unrefined pallets it was some good drinkin.

Then I got down to making the dough for the pizza.  Best part is giving the youngest a small ball of dough to work but setting him up right next to a sink full of soapy dish water. Well or course the ball goes in the drink. We rinsed it and then dried it.  Weird doing that with a ball of dough where you just carefully created the right balance of water and flour.  However, when the dough was all put back together it all worked out well. No harm, no foul.

All of these shots were taken with the Galaxy Tab.  I am still working on the steady hand.  However, which ever of my kids took the picture below they did an amazing job.  Two of my favourite people.

Love out.

Cookies Afternoon

We had a great morning skiing today.  We had a few fresh centimetres last night so the whole family got in on the powder action.  I also used our two new apparatus for kidlet skiing.  An edgie wedgie to keep his skis in line and a harness to keep him in control.  The little guy loved it.  It was a perfect end to our Christmas vacation.


Then this afternoon while I went into work the lovely ladies of the house made cookies.  Yum.

We had some friends over for lunch yesterday.  We had a great time catching up and hanging out.  Burk and Merry send their best to everyone.

After the party ended and our Midway friends went home, some people had a make over session.

Good times.

Sorry no food shots from the afternoon party.  It was a beautiful table.  My Pavlovian response got the better of me.

Colossal Borscht

Today the Mrs. Decided to make borscht.  I decided to try blogging on  the tab.

 In other news we are off to the races with skiing.  The little guy is actually getting it done on his own.  I am loving it.  So is my back.


The other three are doing very well.  The Mrs. seemed to really catch the hang of it today and cruised into the lodge on her final run like a real pro.  The oldest boy has found the feel for speed and basically enjoys going straight down the mountain.  It is nerve wracking but he hasn't killed himself or anyone else yet.  He has had one major public run in with a garbage can but he was right back on the horse. The daughter is doing her best to keep up with her friends who have many years of skiing experience.  After skiing with her I can definitely say she is holding her own.  Family ski passes has been an excellent gift to ourselves this winter break.  We are taking a day off tomorrow but hope to get up one last time on Sunday to finish off the holidays.

Not making any promises that we are back in the blogging game but with all the extra technology you just never know.

Year End Tidings

So here is what happened to finish up the year.

We cut down a tree at some friends house and the kids decorated it.  The adults touched it up a bit afterwards but for the most part the decorating was child driven.

We made some Ginger bread cookies.  It was very festive.

We even had a friend over to make the cookies. With three colours of icing, M and M's and Jelly beans in the mix it was a fun yet surprisingly laid back affair.  Both parents noted that there didn't need to be anywhere near the level of supervision from previous years.  Are we starting to chill out?  Perhaps.

Christmas Eve saw Dad making some meat pie.  It wasn't tortierre but it was still good.  The kids were allowed to open one present on Christmas Eve.  Never have pajamas been met with such fanfare.  Definitely hit the spot on that one.

The next day was Christmas.   We were woken at 5:00 but managed to go back to sleep till about 6:30. Here is the daughter decked out in her Christmas finery.  We ate breakfast before digging in to any presents and managed to skype with the people who sent them as they were being opened.  Good times.

Didn't manage to get a real money shot of dinner before it was massacred.  We didn't stuff the bird this year. Instead I made a sourdough, apple, cranberry dressing on the side.  No roast potatoes or bread sauce (sniff sniff) but everyone was satisfied.  The wife's chocolate mousse was pooh poohed by the masses so I managed to get a second a part of a third bowl.  Love that light Christmas dessert.

Tomoka was our fabulous guest. This picture was taken with the daughter's new camera.  That is why she ain't in the picture.

So this puts 2012 behind us.  As we sit around on New Years Eve imaging what the future will bring we wish all of you a Happy New Year and send our best wishes to where ever you may be around the world.

Love out,  The Dunnets.

Kiyomi sings shima uta.

Another version of the song can be found in the following link.

Rimi Natsukawa

Blink, Halloween

It is like a great suspense novel.  How did the summer end?  Well it was like this.

We went to Kamloops for a couple of days.

I was busy, the kids were entertained by the Mrs. 

We tried boating.  We really like it.  We really really like the people we do it with.

These are people who know how to stop and smell the roses.  We are trying to learn from them.  Hopefully we find it somewhere in our nature because it is definitely the good life.

 They even took our relatives boating.  Those kinds of nice people.

 Can you see the fish in the river.  You can do a crazy overland hike to get to these spawning grounds or, you guessed it, you can take a boat.

The damn deer ate all the beautiful tomatoes I had growing in my garden.  We had eaten some but they got the rest.  We did end up with some peppers that were nice.  The squash are pretty good but the carrots were stunted.  Surprise of the summer.  How nice our home grown broccoli was.

 Then, yes, we had to say farewell to the boys of summer.

However, we rolled right into a beautiful fall.

 This is the kids tossing horse chestnuts in the air in Moody park on the Thanksgiving weekend.

 This is the view from our date hotel.  First real date night in so long.  Izakaya, room service, walked all the way around Stanley Park.  We both loved it.

 We also got in some quality cousin time at their place.

 As they had been kind enough to come and see us way back in the middle of the summer.

And now it is Halloween.  We had a Superman, an Assassin and a headless guy.  From 20 meters out the headless guy looked so real.  The Mrs. and I were laughing pretty hard watching him walk into school.  I don't think the picture does it justice.  Nothing like a $2.50 shirt from the thrift store, some mandarin orange boxes, construction paper and some lipstick.

We are back at the coast this weekend in what has been a crazy October.  Life is busy, but oh so good.

Love out...