Home for Dinner

So after chasing the kids around today while they played with friends I was delighted to find, upon entry to the house, that dinner was ready. With all the vegetable goodness that our garden has given us the Mrs. decided to make ratatouille (forgive the spelling). It was good. She also cooked up some beans with fresh basil that also came from the garden. Mmmm good. I topped it all off with some fresh salsa. With all the ingredients coming from our most recent harvest I was feeling particularly satisfied. So so good.

Tomorrow it is back to work but for now I am just enjoying the final glowing rays of what has been an excellent summer.

Chops and chips

Well the first part of dinner was home made and the second came in a bag. After dance class pickup we went to the grocery store and got the toothpaste that the kids have been needing. We of course had to get two tubes of identical toothpaste. My treat was a bag of buffalo wing and blue cheese chips. They are pictured on my plate to the right.
The home made stuff consisted of a really yummy pork chop covered in a nice sauce. No details on how it was seasoned but I enjoyed it. There were some green beans cooked up the same way but as the wife pointed out they came from a can so they lacked that crispness you get in the summer. The kids were all over the noodle salad. The son was eating it by the fistful. I think this may have been the last day for the stew. Everyday the beef gets more tender. It was actually hard to pick up with a fork because it was so crumbly.

Gotta go chop some fire wood before getting back to work.

Fundamentally sound.

This is how I would describe tonight's dinner. Let us start with the stew. Big chunks of carrot, japanese radish and other assorted root vegetables had a heavy influence and really pulled their weight. The chunks of beef were nicely seasoned and that added to the broth. I don't know if the wife used turkey stock or plain old water but the broth was great. Also our friend the mushroom found his way in as usual. The caesar salad rang with authenticity. I mean look at those croutons. Finished with a simple bowl of rice it was everything one could want on this first day back at the grind.

I planned to stay and work after school but it was the first day of skating lessons so I had to ride along to help out with the registration and what not. The daughter loved it and the son wept and wailed enough for me to buy him a chocolate bar out of guilt at not signing him up too. But for $120 bucks he can wait till next year when he might actually spend some time skating around the ice. The daughter swept effortlessly into her group and was really happy to be able to skate backwards. Not that the instructor told her anything I hadn't already. I think it is just the official setting and the pressure of everyone else doing it that lead to the breakthrough. That and the smoother ice.

Funnily enough, after shelling out for the lessons I got home to find a permission slip that needs to be signed. It turns out that her class at school is going to have five weeks of skating classes starting this week. So that is Monday and Thursday with organized skating. A couple of days at home on the weekend and I will be expecting a double axel by March. She better get on it.

Oh and a shout out to the reader from Texas, glad to see you coming back. Hope your enjoying it.

Arctic Housing

It was pretty darn cold this morning, -26 without taking any windchill into account. The power went out around 7:30 am and I imagined us all huddled around the stove down stairs in the dark for the next four days while people worked furiously trying to get power restored. However, at 9:00am the lights came on and everything seemed a little better. Even with the stove going the furnace still kicks in regularly. Without the furnace the rest of the house is pretty cold. Anything less than -10 and the wood burning stove can't get the job done on its own.

After that near miss we played it safe and ate cheesy noodles and cheesy eggs for lunch. Then after mom came home we went out shopping for our gingerbread decorations. Smarties and Jelly Bellys, that is about as much diversity as I need. Trying to put to put the house together nearly gave me an aneurysm. The wife had to mention that this was a fun activity as I was snapping at the kids every time they bumped me or reached across the roof for more smarties. Once I got a handle on myself we had a great time decorating and sampling. We hope there will be some left by the time our guests arrive but we aren't making any promises. For dinner I massacred a few can's of tomatoes with some veggies and beef. It was a blood bath, or at least that's how it looks in the pictures. I added some of that curry paste in a jar to my first bowl and it was nice. My second bowl I had as is and it wasn't bad. I wouldn't share the recipe but it was food and now we are fed. Hope to get out for some skating tomorrow. It really was too cold to get in any turns today. Probably because the warmest part of the day was spent lunching and then shopping. They say it might be only minus five by Christmas Day. Perfect tobogganing temperature. It's gonna be great.

Six Layers and Yoga.

That is what happened this evening but first lets hear about dinner. I arrived home at 4:45 to my family already at the table. A little early I thought but hey, when you're hungry. The wife had created a fabulous pork and squash stew. I infused mine with a little hot sauce and the hot and sweet thing was great. After dinner we headed out back to the rink. I managed to score a puck from friend at school so we played some "real" hockey. The boy and I were in boots and the daughter had her skates on and was whizzing around the rink. When we first got outside I spent about 20 minutes putting up christmas lights along the back fence. How festive it looks now. I will try and get a pic tomorrow. Oh yeah, the son played a great game and buried the puck... somewhere. I guess we will find it in the spring. Once the youngin's went inside for a bath I put down another six layers of water. It is really smoothing up nicely. I figure in about 3 more days even I will be able to skate backwards on it. Post icing I went in to school for some evening work and then came home and did yoga. I really wanted to put another couple of layers on the ice but with two days to go my stress level is peaking. I had to get some of it out and I am feeling, if not blissful, at least half released right now. Time for bed. Or maybe I could squeeze in a little ice making. Night.

Festivities.

Well it was a busy evening. To start with we had a lovely stew that was cooked on the wood burning stove this morning. Big chunks of meat and potatoes, real stick to your ribs goodness. The accompaniment was some of our home made bread slathered with garlic butter (crushed garlic in butter) and then baked in the oven. It wasn't huge but the kids were too excited do to the approaching commotion so they didn't eat much anyways. The son has come down with a bit of a cold but that didn't stop us. It was concert night.

When the son and I finally made our way into the stands we were fortunate enough to find the wife with some seats saved for us. Right in the middle of the stands 3/4 of the way up perfect. Except that the daughter was situated right behind the glitter ball. No line of sight when she was standing up singing. C'est la vie. She had her moment on the floor which is caught here for eternity.




The son enjoyed being crashed out on between mom and dad and even took this wicked shot of the sprinkler directly overhead. I am telling you he may be a genius.

Sorry this didn't get up last night. The video and pics just wouldn't upload.

2 for the price of one.

Well as I was out at a meeting last night I did not have the opportunity to get in on the pork chop fest. The boarder who has had our dinners recently wanted to do his part and came up with a bunch of fast fry pork chops. This is manna from heaven for the son. That along with some coleslaw salad and it looks like I missed out on a nice evening. I managed to get the curried chick peas and spinach in my lunch today and have to say I would have loved to try it hot at my table. I had pizza with veggies and dip at the meeting. Not bad but not the same as eating with the fam.

This evening I managed to get a run in with the boys and we all came back to the homestead for a beer. One of them had to go home to eat dinner but the boarder joined us for an amazing beef stew. Anyone who has had a bowl of Tony's beef barley soup would have thought they were living in West Van again. It was amazing. A start time of 9:30 let this cook all day and by 6:00 the beef was falling apart good and the flavours had totally blended. Filling out the dance card were onions, garlic, carrots, tomatoes and beets. It was seasoned with red wine vinegar, salt, pepper, bay leaves and parsley. It rocked. The wife just mentioned that if we had had an open bottle of red wine she would have added that instead of the vinegar. It still rocked. The meal was rounded out with two salads. The boarder's chicken breasts were fried up and served over a green salad and last nights coleslaw was re-mealed. Some homemade bread was grilled after being slathered with margarine and crushed garlic. This extraordinary Thursday nighter was capped with a serving of super healthy browny and mint chocolate chip ice cream. My eyes are currently only a third of the way open and the head is drooping visibly. Too bad that work is calling my name this evening. Perhaps a cup of coffee is in the offing. One more day this week. Fridays, what is the deal with that.

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.