Candy Man.

Well we did our the usual tour of the neighbourhood this evening and the kidlets are now reaping the rewards of not having other little kids living around us. We were greeted with not just handfuls but sometimes small bag fulls of candy. Every year there is a bonfire and fireworks on Halloween here in town. Some people donate money to put it on and then they get a coupon that they can post in their window. The coupon means, "I paid at the office," so you don't go up to those houses. Two of our direct neighbours have those coupons but we still go there anyways. These neighbours make a special compensation for our two little ones. It is a nice warm feeling. We really do live here. Four years in and it is starting to feel like home.You may be wondering about last night's blog. Well I was out with the boys carousing and I gotta say I feel a lot worse for wear today. I felt like total crap this morning. But it was a good night.

The other big activity today was driving over the pass to meet our Midwife. We met her. She was nice. She told us all about everything. We asked some questions. The kids got to use the baby heart rate hearing thing. Everyone got to try it on their own chest. It was quite a different feel then going to a doctor. I think its going to be good. The drive is only an hour and a half. February is a tough time of year to make the drive but that's life. Everything is going well so far.

The son managed to elude being photographed in his superman costume. Sneaky little monkey.

Hump Day

Well I am just delirious. I totally crashed after dinner. Too much work and not enough sleep makes daddy a tired boy. And I still gotta get back to work. Thats life eh. Fortunately dinner was a balm for the soul. No chicken soup though.Lets start with the soup we did have. It was a lovely miso type affair with quite a clear broth and some chopped up bok choy. Gotta love those dark greens to keep your energy up as the days grow short. The salad was lovely. Two major players were the carrots that were pulled out of a friends garden today. She is also a co worker and said she has more than enough to last her and had asked me if I would like some. I was all like, "don't even tease me, we'll be over to pick at 3:00" about it but she brought them to work. Then she was all self deprecatory about the size of the bag and the carrots. Well I should have known. They are delicious, firm and very carroty. They along with the tiny toms that we are still eating from our garden made the salad. The toms are the little red one's we picked still on the vine and are ripening down stairs. Every week the flavour gets more intense. Lovin it. I finally come to this evenings entree. It was a rice and turkey casserole. There was a layer of cabbage layered over the top and it was all topped with some grated cheddar. The seasoning was wonderful and even thought the wife thought it might have needed some salt it did not. With some of my crazy hot salsa and some natcho chips to start and a small bowl (come on I had to finish the carton, it was practically empty) of the fudgesicle ice cream I was in heaven.

Post dinner we finished the last chapter of Harry Potter, the dude in Jail one. Then I suddenly felt a little sleepy. It is now an hour and a half later. Wow, I missed all of As It happens. One more day. I think I can make it.

Falling

Well the leaves are falling, the temperatures are falling and my weight is going up. I thought this was supposed to be fall. In any case, we made it home early this afternoon and spent some time raking and blowing the leaves in our front yard into a big pile. The daughter pretended she was a bird and I was an eagle trying to raid her nest. I never managed to get any eggs but did manage to jump into the pile a couple of times. That is good fun. Thanks Chicago family once again for the excellent tools we acquired in your cross country trek. Every time I use a pot or drill, leaf blower or deep freezer I think, "man I am gonna have to pay up some day." You guys are too good to us.

Post leaf fun and games we came in for a fabulous dinner. The wife had whipped up a vegetarian burrito type dish. The big bowl of lentils was cooked up and resembled a curry or perhaps re fried beans. The lentils were cooked with onions, mushrooms and sliced tomatoes. Then they were wrapped up with some of our home made salsa, a little feta cheese and some of the green salad. Over the top wow. And vegetarian. This was all accompanied by pasta salad and green salad. I managed to suck back a Corona before dinner and it was also just perfect. As I sit and type I look over at the bowl (now empty) of fudgesicle chocolate ice cream I just ate. If I didn't have to go back to work right now I would seriously be the picture of contentment. Unfortunately it isn't meant to be. Tomorrow is another day and if it is going to go anywhere near as well as today went, which was pretty well, I need to get my prep on. Fingers crossed I can get home and do some yoga before bed time.

Cheers.

ps. The batteries were low after taking the video so it wouldn't take a pic of dinner. I did try and it did look scrumptious. Maybe tomorrow.

Let it Burn

So the dinner courtesy of the wood burning stove is back. It was lit at 6:30 this morning and managed to cook our dinner for this evening. We had a lemon flavoured chicken recipe. The chicken was fried with onions. Then it was put in a casserole dish with chopped bok choy, tomatoes, chicken soup stock, salt and pepper. This was boiled until the chicken was done. Then the lemon slices were put over top and it was left to sit and soak up the lemon juice. The pasta salad had a medley of chopped veggies added. The dressing was a creamy number with some grated parmesan sprinkled over top. The plate you see here is the wifes. She decided she needed some leafy greens. The rest of us went without. Below is the daughter modelling our wood burning stove. This is where it all happens from the end of October to the beginning of April. Chillis, currys, soups, broiled dishes. It all happens right here.

Apologies and Sundays

So I have taught three different female students named Katie in the last three years. Two of them twice in that time and they all spell their names with the "ie" ending. I originally got their names wrong using the "y" ending until I was conditioned to go the other way. Sorry for writing it the other way. I did notice after the fact. I even tried to make up for it. I apologize for writing your name incorrectly.

Today was a pretty good day. We woke up late and the kids watched some videos. The furnace was turned on and then we went to the first fire of the year in the wood burning stove. So much nicer. I managed to get my yoga on before heading to work for a few hours. I arrived home at 3:00 and then it was off to ice skating with the new skates. Fantastic and they cost the same as a one time rental. I really can't get over the amazing value I found there. Pre dinner we went to the place where UPS arrives and picked up a package my older sister sent for the kids. The presents arrived! Yeah!! Right before dinner the kids called and said thanks. Nice.


Dinner this evening was lovely. The wife had solicited my opinion earlier and as usual, post gluttonous weekend, I asked for vegetarian. The soup was made with some post Thanksgiving turkey stock. So rich, so flavourful. The beans and lentils had been soaking since last night so they added a nice base. With a mixture of veggies and some of the frozen turkey leftovers it was exactly what this blustery late October afternoon was calling for. The vegetarian stir fry was highlighted by fresh ginger. The daughter kept mentioning how much she liked the cinnamon flavour. It took us a while to catch on that she was talking about the ginger. Tofu, red peppers, celery, onions, mushrooms and carrots all sauteed in a ginger, garlic, soy sauce, molasses, vinegar and ketchup. Too good. After the second bowl of soup I am stuffed. But it is that good soup stuffed which leaves in about half an hour and lets you have another snack later, should one be so inclined.

Tomorrow is another day. Gotta go get ready for it.

Of conferences and championships

Well yesterday(Friday) was the work day, the reason we all were in Vancouver to begin with. I have to admit the Math conference was good and I am coming back to my classroom with some ideas for change. Always change. I guess that is truly the only constant. One lecturer I listened to has been doing this for over 30 years, is recognized as being a master teacher demonstrating practically every best practice you can imagine. And here he is saying he is just figuring out a bunch of stuff and is really looking forward to some of the changes he is planning to implement. Damn... 30 years later and still trying to get it right. Daunting to say the least.

After that I picked up the fam with the curry that has been mentioned elsewhere (sis's blog) and we went and watched some short track speed skating. That Apollo Anton Ohno is something to see. He just blew the other guys in his heat out of the water.

After watching and banging our noise makers together for an hour and a half we headed to Chez Sis and Bro and had a lovely family dinner night. I enjoyed some politics and business in the kitchen over a scotch while the kids and aunts watched anastasia in the living room. Its at least the trappings of adulthood. I don't think anyone is going to buy it but I thought I would give it a try. All the pics were taken on someone elses camera so if you followed the link above you have already seen them.

After getting in the Burnaby lake run this morning we had a nice lunch at mom's and then packed up and headed out. After almost seven hours we finally arrived home at 8:40 Saturday evening. Tomorrow should be a full day trying to pick up the pieces after two days out of my classroom. Lots of big ideas to work on tomorrow. Here is the kids back at home, picking up right where they left off. The son is being dressed and is pretending he is a cat. Good times.

At least half cooked

The raw men we ran into today were actually quite well cooked. We lunched at a noodle shop and enjoyed some nice bowls of ramen with some rice balls and gyoza on the side. We also were afforded the warming companionship of one o' my sisters. Easily worth the price of admission. We then got to check out her new digs. I am sure she will work her way up to a window in record time. Its just her way.After lunch we went to the park at the Mount Pleasant Community center. I really like days like that. Middle of the work week and I am walking around without a care in the world. Like the run I went on this morning. I love seeing people doing their jobs while I don't do mine. Or the other people not doing jobs. Are they indepedently wealthy? Are they out of work? Living off their parents? Maybe they have night jobs and just get to enjoy that part of the day. Anyways we had a nice time at the park. At one point a shark bit off the lower half of my leg. My daughter ingeniously used some glue to glue it back on. It turns out that it is special glue. She told me the blood could still get through. There is some serious detail being added to our imaginative play these days.

Post park we headed back to my mom's. Who we are currently sponging off of her for our weekend. On the way we stopped to pick up fixings for tomorrow nights Japanese curry dinner. As the kids were both asleep I managed to catch a few winks in the front seat while listening to CBC. The wife did the leg work and headed in for the groceries. I don't know how long we slept in the car but the program had changed and the wife looked apologetic when she arrived back at the car. Who cares, I am on vacation.

Dinner was the same as last night with the wonderful addition of Nachos and guacamole, also there were fresh veggies with humus. Tack on a bottle of red wine and some discussion about life and its variety and we had a great night.

I am not kidding by the way when I say there will be pictures. There will be eventually.

(two days later) Okay I lied. I never managed to take a picture of the spaghetti and sauce.

Da Big City

Well we arrived in Vancouver last night. We actually got in by 11:00 so it wasn't so bad. The kids watched two dvd's in the car and though the son was a little car sick on the Hope Princeton all in all it was a good drive. Everyone was asleep by the time we got to my mom's house.

Today we went shopping and ran some errands. The wife had a hair cut. I paid a deposit at SFU (gonna take a math course on line). We bought brown rice and I managed to get a pair of used skates. I had budgeted somewhere around $65 for the skates. I figured I would go up as high as $100 but didn't really want to spend that. We ended up shopping at Cheap Skates on Dunbar in Vancouver. They are a consignment sporting good store. So stuff starts at full price and then goes down a bit every week for 10 weeks. Well I managed to find a $30 pair of skates that were in week nine. Total with tax. $3.36. Nice get. With all the leftover money we bought the daughter a wrist watch and some DVD's for the drive home. The biggest score was a Raising Arizona dvd in the $5.00 bin. Wicked, wicked, wicked.

For dinner this evening we whipped up a pot'a pasta with a salad and some garlic bread. Nothing super special but lots of food served hot. The daughter had a crazy eating night. I think she saves it up and when she likes what she sees she just goes to town. Good day. Tomorrow is looking to be more of the same. Weeeeeeee!!!!

There will be pictures after we get back home as we brought everything but the USB cable. Whoops.

Two for the price of one.

I am looking for a little input this evening. I have tried two different angles of this evenings dinner. Which do you think is better?

The overhead. Everything in its place and a place for everything. Very two dimensional.

The sideways. Hopefully giving a little depth to our meal. Doesn't break the meal down as well but maybe it makes you feel more like you are there.

As for the actual meal, we had a turkey curry over rice. This is the last of the red hot (well not red hot but it had a little kick, like a baby or something) turkey curry. The potatoes are pan fried with slices of cheddar cheese over top. I have great love for this style of potato. The salad was the usual green variety. I managed to snag a slice of blueberry pie with chocolate ice cream for dessert. The kids are eating the neapolitan one flavour at a time. The strawberry is gone and they are working on the vanilla. So I get the chocolate. Not a problem but it actually didn't match the blueberry pie. Which was a shame.

Well we will be eating dinner tomorrow on the road and then three wonderful nights in the big city. Should be good.

Saying no can be good.

Someone should have told Sarah Palin this. I have been very much out of the media loop for the last 3 years so the fact that I didn't realise Sarah Palin was insane until yesterday isn't as bad as it seems. Okay, how the SNL crew talked her into that wickedly funny parody is beyond me. Does Palin really believe that any press is good press. Then I watched all those Katie Couric interviews. Brutal, brutal, brutal. I can see where Matt Damon would get steamed up enough to circulate that lambasting he gives her. In the womans defense she must have something going on up there but it sure doesn't show. I have to think that McCain was searching and searching and no one wanted the job and he called her up and she didn't think, "why is this guy calling me?" She had a big enough ego to think she was the best choice for Vice President, even though she seems to know nothing about foreign policy, economics, or how to answer a question posed by the press. She should have said No. I mean really. I hate to say this but she makes Dan Quayle look like a political genius. The scariest thing is that Damon is right. Should the Republicans win she has a 50/50 shot at running the country some time in the next four years. Strange days indeed, most peculiar mama.

Things back here at the ranch are still moving along well. The kidlets went to a birthday party today. Dad and kids made the cards and shopped the presents yesterday so I let mom go for the ride along today. Everyone seemed to have a good time. I mean who doesn't have a good time when you score a loot bag.
The wife made up some spring rolls for dinner. These are the heavy duty spring rolls. You eat one and you are fullish. You eat two and you are stuffed. I held myself up at one, seeing as I had had a pre-dinner snack. Not a good habit if you were wondering. The rolls were accompanied by a cucumber and bok choy salad and some miso soup. Now that fall is here the miso soup really hits the spot. After some late afternoon trampolining I was feeling a little chilled. The miso put it all to rights.

And once again we back around at Monday. Will this roller coaster never stop. I think we need like a 20 day week with a 7 day weekend. Think about it.

Messing around

So today we combed out the 80's hair do and got some serious volume. Here is a picture of the daughter from behind.
No wait this is actually from the front. You can see below where we have moved the hair to one side. Personally I think she looks like a young Cousin Itt from the Adams Family.Kind of a spooky looking picture. There was also kind of a spooky incident today. The daughter picked up the phone, talked to the person on the other end and then hung up. She has had her first friend friend phone call with no parent interference. How far away is the day we have to get call waiting. Lets hope she doesn't figure out msn messenger for another 10 years. We will call this the beginning of the end. However, there are still the good times. This picture is of the two of them playing Doraemon. He is a 22nd century cat whose front pocket goes to a fifth dimension where he stores everything, and I mean everything. The kids here have stuffed these bags full of stuff and are pretending to be doraemon and dorami-chan, doreamon's sister.

Oh yeah we also had dinner this evening. It was a pizza night. Not super pleased with the result. The sauce was a little thin (I didn't add any salt and used fresh tomatoes) I used more dough in an effort to do something [ed. at the time of posting the author still had no idea what exactly he was trying to do]. The salami on the pizza above was a hot salami. It added a nice punch but the final vegetarian was pretty bland. I gotta get back to mushrooms on top. Its where they belong. How can I keep forgetting that. The kids pizza pictured below was acceptable but it was noted that you really need to dip this guy in some pizza sauce to really enjoy it. I also over cooked the pizzas trying to get a firmer edge. My pizza oven cooks well in the back and almost as well in the front. So I am trying to spin the pizza half way through to get that all over effect. I am just waiting to long post spin. Time to start working on the timing.

Crazy Hair Day.

That is what happens when kids have to go to school on a Friday here. Their hair goes crazy. We spent about half an hour last night braiding in the yarn. It seemed to have gone over pretty well. She now has an square pegs type perm going. Very 80s.

For dinner this evening we went back to the Land of the Lentils. We had home made veggie burgers. For those who want to know, here is how it went down. Last night as I skulked around the kitchen looking for the dreaded 10:30 snack I found a bowl of lentils covered in water. By 11:30 when I went to bed the water had all evaporated and the lentils had grown, weird. Today the wife fried up some onions and mushrooms. Then she put the lentils in with them and either boiled or steamed the mixture until it was soft. This was then mixed. A can of chick peas was food processed until is was smooth. This was added to the lentil mushroom mixture. Finally salt, pepper, garlic powder and fresh cilantro were added. The mixture was formed into patties and fried in a pan. The rest of the dinner consisted of nachos and salsa and a green salad. What a great way to start the weekend. I think I'm gonna get me a beer. Cheers.

Ps. Anyone else having to wait an eternity to upload pictures to Blogger.

Pps. The pictures I couldn't get up with last nights post are finally up.

Ppps. The son had to have his picture taken this morning too. Notice his lack of crazy hair. It must be an elementary school thing.

Double Shot

So I didn't eat at home last night and then fell asleep on the couch after arriving home and joining in the hurly burly post dinner movie watching. Then after waking to find the wife passed out I spent a good while reading a chapter of Harry Potter: The prisoner of Azhkabahn[right beside turkmenistan] Then, with kidlets tucked in I realised I hadn't eaten dinner at home and there probably wasn't a picture so I didn't blog. Of course I was wrong.

The wife pulled out some filo pastry and made turkey curry puff pie. (Note: It was not turkey curry filling but a spicy veggie mix made from lentils and others)I of course had a lunch time course of this and it was awesome today cold in my lunch meaning it was probably a thousand times better warm for dinner.

This evening we were treated to turkey curry over rice. I have a sneaking suspicion this was the very same turkey curry that filled my lunch but I don't have the DNA proof.(note above clears up the debate). Where are those CSI guys when you need them. Heck I would settle for the CSA guys. Everything would at least be safe.


During the meal and then afterwards with ice-cream the perfectly ripe pineapple chunks were a very tangy treat. My tongue is still savouring their passing. Gotta love it when those leaves just pull right out of the top. I only learned that ripeness trick recently. And here is my six year old daughter spouting it back to me. Imagine, a whole life time of ripe pineapple ahead of her. I just need to steer her away from the 100 mile diet or put her on a boat to Hawaii. But that can wait.

Election Night 2008

So we didn't plan a special meal for this evening. I did follow the election with the kids on the internet for about an hour and a half from 7:00. Lots of fun writing down numbers and cheering for the orange guys. Our orange guy was called as elected and after that I kind of lost the kids attention.


The dinner was a fried fish meal. Breaded and pan fried it went well with mustard. I didn't manage to have any of the pan fried yams. I am hoping I get some in lunch tomorrow. The salad was a creamy dill and cucumber concoction over lettuce. The soup was turkey vegetable. It went so well last night with the noodles. It also worked on its own. Well it is time to brush the teeth and get to bed.

Holiday Monday

Lets start with a big shout out to everyone who blogged today. Lovin it. As for me, I actually went in to work today. Two hours of marking and one hour of prep. This was followed by 40 minutes on the stationary bike. The wife and I managed to get a yoga session in this morning. There are some moves she just can't do anymore but was more than game and was obviously way better than me at everything she could do. Is yoga meant to be competitive? Gotta gotta gotta get into that yoga routine.

As for the meal this evening it was leftover-ish.

We were treated to some lovely soba this evening. It was served with a lovely soup, you guessed it, of Turkish extraction. We also had a great green salad. Right before we sat down to eat my son staged a mini coup and he and the daughter ended up also having a cheese omelette, (he calls it a cheesy egg, the daughter who loves the cheese calls it an eggy cheese, when she remembers). Then those of us who were interested had some of the last slices of pumpkin pie. A home hair cut, tooth brushing, book reading later the kids are in bed and its only 8:30. Who knows what we will get up to. Maybe throw around some possible names. Listen to some CBC. It is exciting times here.

All in one day.

So I woke up this morning to the sound of pancakes being made. Then I found my daughter styling my mother's hair. We had cinnamon buns, fruit salad and pancakes with the honey my mom brought from the dutch place in Keremeos. Very good breakfast but I ate a little too much this would be a theme today. Quick aside. I took this book out of the local library. Some guy did a research project on names and his basic premise is the consonant sounds in a name affect the way people see us. Certain consonants resonate with certain words and when we act accordingly we are positively reinforced by those around us. Thus we end up being the people our names say we should be. It sounds like a load of crap but some peoples name descriptions were surprisingly spot on. Especially my moms. So that was a nice point of discussion this weekend. Back to the food.
For lunch we broke out a pumpernickel loaf the wife brought back from the bakery. This was sliced and then filled with turkey, some lovely swiss goat cheese (see. Keremeos) and other left over tidbits. We also whipped up some nachos to go with the guacamole the wife made and some of our salsa. Shouldn't have had the third sandwich.
Then there was dinner. It was like last nights dinner all over again with two major exceptions. We had the turnip this evening and it was great. Also I had seconds.
As for todays outings we went for a bike ride this morning. We took the long way to a coffee shop down town. The daughter made it the whole way there. Can you see it coming. After having hot chocolate and coffee and chatting the daughter decided she couldn't sit on the seat any more. It hurt she said. So the wife got the kid trailer and both kids while I rode one handed carrying the daughter's bike. It was a heavy bike when we bought it. By the time I got home it weighed at least four times as much. On the bright side my arms are longer. I'd help you with that but someone stepped on all of my fingers. I said I'm sorry.

Then this afternoon before dinner we went the park at the school near our house. We played frisbee, soccer, ran around on the climbing thing, swung like monkeys on the jungle gym and I gave my son the ride of a life time. We didn't get a picture of the one where I dropped him.

Because I didn't drop him. Damn worriers. Finally this is mum and Harry enjoying the sun. It so nice having them here. Just wish it could have been longer. Thankfully, it always seems that way with guests.

I am not a Turkey

However, I managed to cook one up quite nicely this evening. I even went with my own version of stuffing. The wife wanted lean ground pork rather than sausage meat and who am I to dicker. I recall an experiment my mother tried a number of years ago with water chestnuts and thought that might be nice. I don' t know where the apples and raisins came from but it may have been the radio yesterday. Someone talking about goose perhaps. After that it was bread crumbs, cooked rice, salt, pepper and some sage type seasoning which we have in our cupboard. All in all I really enjoyed it. Not as heavy as my mom's stuffing but still passable. We cooked the turkey using a meat thermometer and though we may have cooked it a bit longer than necessary there was no way it wasn't done. I think our oven cooks at a lower temperature than it reads. Good to know.
Other than the turkey and stuffing we also had roasted yam and potatoes, brussel sprouts, gravy, cranberry sauce and a lovely mixed green salad. We planned to make mashed turnip too, only we forgot to take it out of the oven where it was warming. Should be good for tomorrow. The meal was followed by the wicked awesome pumpkin pie the wife made yesterday. It was truly great. How great you may ask. The daughter after being convinced to try it had a second slice. This from one who normally shows tremendous disdain for squash of any kind in any meal. We had three guests this evening. A friend from town who doesn't have family around these parts and my mom and her man. Everything was on the table by 5:30 ish. By 7:00 we had finished pie in time for the Canucks. Who won I might add. Damn fine night.

I know Thanksgiving should really be either Sunday or Monday, but this way, as my mom pointed out, we don't have to cook tomorrow. Crafty with a dash of panache. Nice work ma.

Oh for Two.

So last night we ate dinner but it was a haphazard affair as there was some TV watching and other stuff going on and well it just never got to that point where the camera came out. I did have some of that lovely stew again and there was some potato chip action but nothing of note really. This evening if you can imagine it was even less inspired.

The wife after a day at the bakery came home with a monster baguette, some muffins and cinnamon buns and pizza slices that were consumed for lunch. As for dinner I was in charge of slicing the baguette, ladling some of the kids salsa over it and then topping with cheese. These went over well so I sliced up some potatoes and made some french fries. Fortunately, I didn't manage to get those home fries burning. (Nothing like an anagram joke) I was thoroughly filled up by the dinner and the numerous glasses of water I consumed. However, you can probably tell by the daughters expression that she was looking for something a little more filling. This in spite of having like 7 slices of the pizza toast and a really good portion of the french fries. I think it was actually a cry for dessert but it fell on mostly deaf ears. In other news, the wife made two pumpkin pies today using our very own squash. They look to have turned out perfectly. What else happened today. Oh yeah we went ice skating. The daughter and son tried out their new skates and I worked with a crappy pair of rentals. I think I need to upgrade to something I can bring myself. Asides from paying the criminal charge of $3 to skate around in the tupperware I was offered today, I most likely won't grow out of any pair of skates I buy thus making the investment much more enticing. The daughter loves being out there and it looks like the skating lessons will not interfere with dance after all. All in all a good day. We even managed to get in a bike ride and though the son is still not blowing anyone's doors off he can actually get to somewhere. No more half hour for 2 blocks action.

Granma and Harry arrive tomorrow and they are bringing their bikes and appetites. Sorry for those who were expecting ma to serve up some turkey at the coast. Maybe next year.

None for me.

So with another meeting this evening I did not have dinner at home. I will have to wait for the pictures to pop up to put this evenings meal in some perspective before I begin pontificating on its various merits.


The daughter mentioned that this was noodle salad and cucumber salad. I looks particularily nice. From past experience I can tell you that the cucumber salad is a vinegar, dill, and yogurt. From the picture I would have to guess it was the vinegar dressing.This was a stew. There is a big pot of this left and I have been assured that I will get another crack at it tomorrow evening. Looks good.

All things home made.

I made it home in time to sample some of this evenings meal still hot. It was a lovely loaf which had been eviscerated and then stuffed with chicken, veggies and the like then topped with cheese. It was kind of a pizza loaf. It was way more than you could get your mouth around so I made my way through it with the help of Mr. Fork and Ms. Knife. His pointed barbs and her sharp edgy remarks made for an interesting meal. The salad was the wife's classic green with onion vinegar dressing.

After dinner the daughter and I went to work on our harvest. The bale of hay we bought last year turned out to be wheat or barley. When we put it down as a mulch during the summer we had no idea it would grow. So to our eternal joy we had a grain harvest recently. The grain went into our food dehydrator on the weekend and tonight we tried to separate the wheat from the chafe. I am sure this system has been perfected many places in the world, even doing it by hand. However, we sat at the dinner table working at the individual kernels of wheat.
After we had a small handful the daughter went over to our mini coffee grinder and turned it into whole wheat flour. We now have somewhere between a third and a quarter of a cup of flour. If we could have gotten a whole cup I would have made pizza dough. As it is we might just use it for muffins or cookies.
Is it just me or is there and evil glint in her eye as she pulverizes the wheat kernels into powder.

The Plague

Well two hours after having a neo citran I am feeling much better. However, things do not bode well for tomorrow. It may be a highly medicated day.

As for dinner I got home late and sat down to some lovely tonkatsu and rice. Everyone else was in the bath by this point so I ate all by my onesome. After saying hi to the bathers I was reminded of the potato salad that was made this morning. That made a lovely encore and it was all washed down with the aforementioned neo citran. I didn't take a pic and neither did the wife. You'll just have to trust us.

The day after

So there was no post last night. I know. We went out for dinner. We ate at the Collander in Trail. It is a Trail institution. Big spaghetti feed type place. All the pasta you can polish if you order spaghetti. The wife had a Italian chicken dinner. The daughter had the lasagna and the son ate off of my plate. You are allowed to share someones plate until you are four.

Anyways here comes this evenings meal. The wife put together a wicked tofu, rice casserole. It was supposed to contain either salmon or shrimp but all she had was a can of tuna so that was how it was made. Baked cheesy crust over tofu and rice in a white sauce. Seasoned with sea salt and pepper and a ginger, onion, garlic, mushroom sautee. The tuna and some bok choy added a little more flavour and colour. Upon reflection the wife recalls adding some miso. The salad had some of our tomatoes layered over lettuce and carrots. The onion vinegar dressing was awesome as usual. The only problem with this meal was the order in which I ate it. The miso soup was quite muted and though brimming with veggies did not have the flavour explosion. My problem was that I had finished off my salad with that crazy strong dressing.
Anyways, it was a great sunday evening dinner and was followed by some butterscotch ripple ice cream.

On a different note as dinner started the son was on the phone with his aunt. He was going on and on about something and she seemed to enjoy the conversation. This is how he looked while talking.