Boys Night

Not that we had any special night, it was just the wife was taking the pics and the daughter had already finished. So yeah just us boys.


I think we all look pretty much the same. Da Boys. Well onward and upward. Lets talk about dinner.

We made wraps this evening. There were two types of filling for the wraps. There was a curry tofu filling and a bean and pepper filling. The bean and pepper went better with salsa and guacamole. I had the tofu filling just with rice and cheese. They were gooey and a little sloppy and just great. I had three in total and am now feeling quite full. Although... when the wife offered up the idea of cracking open a bottle of red wine I was in. We also had two bags of chips this evening. Dill pickle for the boy, sea salt for the girl. I had a huge amount of both. Well after the fact, and with me quite oblivious as I was getting my blog up and listening to some "This American Life", the kids talked mom into making another set of "Mug Cakes." These are some crafty little cakes you make in a small mug in the microwave. We had some last night and they were tasty yet a little tough. This evenings fare however was springy, chocolaty and reminded one somewhat of pudding and somewhat of cake.

And the daughter managed to get in the show. You had to know she would.

It was a banner day here. Library, shopping, filling holes with drywall compound, talking to possible realtors, swimming at the pool, renting a wall paper steamer. I cannot be overly critical with the fact that I didn't get a run in. Tomorrow will be here soon enough. Moving to Japan in the Summer is starting to get pretty darn real.

Winter Show 2009

Well first off lets talk dinner. We had wraps this evening. They consisted of rice, bean and cauliflower sauce, fresh mozzarella, spinach and salsa. Quite a lovely mixture if I do say so myself. After dinner it was right out the door.
Because it is that Christmas season again and we were fortunate enough to have our daughter get a solo in her pageant at school. The video link is at the bottom. In the show she played Cupid. Here she is with the make up and antlers on. I think it works.Here is the full effect with brother doing his best to steal the scene.The best part of the night was right after being told not to take off her make up from the dress rehearsal this afternoon she walks back into the dining room with her face pristine. Apparently she wanted to get made up again. We put some fear into her that they weren't going to redo her make-up and even she was hard pressed to explain why she had cleaned her face when she was going right back out to do the show this evening. But in the end she got her make up done and had a great performance. The performance can be seen here. Along with some video of the boys playing at home.

Gratuitous Baby shot.

Tofuesday again.

well we managed tyo get bsack on the tofu wagon today. the mrs also made her mint bean salad. with a little miso soup on the side it was great. love out.

Back in the Saddle

...once more. Wow now there was a break. Life has gotten pretty hectic and there just doesn't seem to be any time anywhere. We were away for about four days and so I do have that natural excuse. However, life is just really really busy. This week should prove to be no better and the week after that will be a little nutty. The third week on is going to be crazy but the week after that ends in a weekend where I don't leave town at all. Asides from Halloween it should be a nice weekend of catching up and getting the garden ready for an ice rink.

While we were away I managed to take one picture of the kids. Here are the three of them basking in the electric glow of a television. I am now dealing with the discussion of why we don't have cable. Seven years, it was a good run. I wonder how long I will be able to stick it out. Fingers crossed.On the food front last night we had beans and rice. I crafted the mostly jalapeno salsa on the right. It was hot. The Mrs. whipped up the rest, while I ran around doing all the things that need to be done when you get back to town: Cross the border for gas, pick up our fishes from the fish sitter (Status Report: All fishes still alive), go get milk and veggies. Then it was dinner and off to work to get ready for today. Which thankfully is now in the books. Tomorrow is another day. Parent teacher interviews and Annie practice. I am booking rooms for anyone who plans to come and see the show, Thursday the 26th of Nov.

Double Dipping

Without the sauce. I couldn't get the blog to pick up a picture last night so here is yesterday and today. Last night we had some wicked awesome fish cakes. The Mrs. steamed the potato for mixing with the salmon and it was so good. The daughter was literally raving about them. Up top you can see some cheese buns that were whipped up while I worked. My favourite portion of the meal was the bean salad. The crispness of our beans is just crazy. Beans are my new garden food. If I forget please remind me the next time I am planting a garden. More beans. The other salad was also a garden gala. Tomatoes and cukes with a little bit of dressing. A fully satisfying Sunday supper.Below is what we were treated to this evening. The Mrs. got on it early today. She was working on the squash salad (similar to potato but with ... well you get it) as I left the house for work. I arrived home with the oldest to find meatballs in sauce sitting on the stove. After a hand off at the rink (Mondays two kids skate) I sat and froze while the pasta was boiled. Then we arrived home to this. Still hungry but I think I have had enough. Probably just need some water.
Well I'm busy busy. Lots to do before wednesday at lunch. Wish me luck.

Finger Food.

Well we have made it through another week. How about coming home to this. The daughter who stayed home sick (dubious sore throat) mentioned that she had added some love to the bean dish. Apparently she didn't want to make chili as last night they had had curry (I got it for lunch as I had a union meeting last night, sandwiches). So they made this interesting dish with brown beans and veggies. It was served over rice and thought i had brought out the hot sauce I didn't end up using any. Seeing as there was some searing hot fresh salsa right next door it seemed both like overkill and a waste. I didn't pick out the fresh basil flavour of the beans until my last few bites but in retrospect it was there the whole time.
I had whipped up the fresh salsa. September may just be my favourite food month. I can have fresh home grown salsa almost every day. I did head out and pick up my organic produce for another salsa session this weekend. Still need to wrangle up some onions and a few more coloured peppers. But things are looking real good. Hoping to bring home about 20 liters this weekend. That is 3 really full pots of salsa. I am figuring one kids, one medium and one crazy. Need more habaneros.

Below is the what happened today while I was at work. So nice dunked in a glass of milk. The wife ran out of some stuff so she used real butter. Wow!! Yes love is a worried that is often bandied about but I have to say. I had feelings of the four letter persuasion.

Home Cooking fo Sho.

Well we got our home cooking on this evening. The only really unfortunate part was I started to late and everyone had to snack before the main course.

So after the afternoon nap I got up to the idea of having steak fajitas wrapped in home made tortillas (the wife was egging me on). I tried to get the Mrs. to go for steak but she was not in the mood and told me to take out a can of beans instead. I'll give her this, at least she made the rice. I was in salsa mode as we had been to the local produce farm and had u-picked a bunch of tomatoes and peppers. So I started in making a batch of kids salsa (no hot peppers allowed) and then got to work kneading up some tortilla balls. These were then rolled and fried on the pan. One got way over done and surprisingly turned into Nan. Who knew. The other tortillas were nice. I whipped up some fried onions, pepper, zucchini and garlic to round out our wraps and voila.Wrap glory ala us. There is a little kids salsa and a few shots of hot sauce on there too. Very very nice.

With the wraps under wraps I started ladling kids salsa into jars and then it was into the water bath for them. And into the bath for the kids. Once all the bath times were over I got into adult salsa mode. Sultry and hot. Two giant jalapenos and four big chiles really added some punch. Then I put in one Habanero. As I was chopping it with some tomatoes in the food processor I actually had a moment where it was tough to breath. Man those are hot. So yeah this first batch of adult salsa should be pretty kick ass. Especially two or three months from now when the heat has seeped into every corner of the jar.Although I have already got two jars accounted for as I have to pay back some friends for some pretty good favours this summer. Damn friendly people liking salsa. Just once I want some favour doer to say, "no I don't like spicy food." Either that or I should start offering something else.

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.

Cupboard Snooping.

So we planned to go shopping today. I just didn't happen. So around 4:00 the Mrs. and I started to shuffle around in the kitchen. She pulled out that random can of pad thai sauce that we had. I had been worried it was hot but she assured me there were no chili pepper symbols anywhere on it. After cracking it open I decided it would go nicely with our last two cans of beans (kidney and chick peas) and whatever vegetables I could muster: carrots, onions, celery, and another zuch from the garden. With a little garlic squeezed in it was quite a nice bean stew of sorts.

This was followed by a serving of chocolate cheese cake ice cream with some home made apple sauce. Sweet and tart. Just like my wife... Please don't tell her I wrote than. Wait, she reads this blog. Okay honey, I meant it the best way possible.

I gotta go, the dog house is calling.

Easy Party

Usually when we have people over for dinner we snow ourselves under with the entree. We make something that is time consuming and tricky and spend a lot of time after the guests arrive cooking. Last night we made the smart choice of having hot dogs and smokies as our main course. On the side we had a caesar salad, a bean salad, veggies and dip, nachos and guacamole. We accompanied our home made buns/mini loaves with some store bought buns and that definitely kept the younger set satisfied. We also barbecued some yam fries, onions and mushrooms to go with the smokies.The caesar salad was made from a recipe I picked up on the net and it was good. The bean salad with mint was great as usual. We had real sour cream in the veggie dip and that was tasty.

As well as a lovely meal we also had a great time with the people who came over. The kids played from 3:00 to 9:00 and were just awesome. They played outside and down stairs and for the most part we didn't even notice them as we chatted upstairs. Yes, other kids makes for a good time.

Here is the picture of me making hot dog buns last night. To my family I have to say, whoa. For the first time I see it. I do bear an uncanny resemblance to my father. To me it looks like someone has pasted his face onto my body.
I must be getting old.

Three Times the Fun

Well I have been a little remiss in my blogging so this evening you get not one, not two, not three, not four, okay actually it is three blogs. I just got carried away.

Lets go back to Thursday. It was a warm afternoon and I had a school function to attend starting at seven so we decided on something simple. Smokies. I have come to enjoy my smokies on a split cheese bun. Really the bun should be toasted but even just right out of the bag it is still good. Coincidentally, these were cheese smokies so it was a double cheese night. The kids aren't much into the buns. They are all about the smoky. Unbeknownst (first time typing that and boy it sure feels wrong to type) to them there were side dishes with this evenings meal. I whipped up some garlic mashed taters to ride side saddle with some pasta salad that had been featured in the lunch portion of Thursday's menu. A grand meal all around. However, with smokies in the mix it would take another day before the daughter managed a, "these mashed potatoes are so good."

As for Friday I was feeling much the worse for wear. Late nights and general festoonary tend to have that effect on me. I am sure other people had something else but I was more than satisfied chowing down on the wifes bean salad mixed with the last portion from the third to last jar of our homemade hot salsa. I have to say the mint and cilantro in the bean salad really take the salsa to a strange and wonderful place. Once again other people ate other stuff. It just isn't coming to me right now.

Today we spent a fair bit of time out side picking stuff. It started with the last of the Hoary Alyssum in the front lawn and ended with these bad boys. Now you might be thinking that they should be a little more red before we pick them.Well the birds don't wait so if you don't get them just as they are breaking into ripeness, you just plain don't get them. Also at this stage we have yet to come across any wormy cherries. Everyone keeps warning us and I did find a few cherry pests while in the tree but so far everything is looking cherry licious. And yes we are warning the kids about the possible side effects of eating too many. But that is probably something they just have to experience first hand.

As for dinner it was a pizza night this evening. I bought some hot "something something" salami. I know it will come to me.... Not yet. Anyways, I really need to stick to the chorizo sausage I bought last time. The salami is good but not great. We managed hold off on eating the third and fourth pizza for the most part so lunch or breakfast should be pretty good tomorrow.

This last picture is a testament to the satisfaction factor of my pizza. The came, they ate, they slept.

Funky Pancakes.

So the wife likes this new recipe for pancakes with cottage cheese. It is quite a savoury cake and went very well with the rest of dinner. The rest of dinner was pan fried green beans and garlic in one pan. And a sausage and bean stew in the other. Vegetably there was red pepper and celery in the bean dish. I really enjoyed the combination tonight. Initially the kids were skeptical but once they got into it they powered it down. Then we all headed to the last day of swim lessons. It went well and the son is now off to level four. Tomorrow will be busy. Hope to be back on Friday.

Dai Shippai

That was the original title I was working with for this evenings blog. It means "complete screw up" and refers to the fact that neither of my kids would even swallow one bite of this evenings meal. It was kind of a bean curry. The wife thought I was being hard on myself but let me lay out my case.
So we had this packet of vinadaloo curry paste sitting in the cupboard. I knew it was hot but figured a big pot of beans and veggies with some vinegar and crushed tomatoes would spread that heat out and everyone would enjoy. Well, I really liked it. The wife enjoyed her bowl too but the kids. Well the kids are just not into spicy. I think I should take my mother's avenue of attack and start making two batches of everything. Then I will tell the kids they are not allowed the hot one. Slowly the spicy will gain esteem in their eyes as they are not allowed to eat it. Eventually they will be converted, probably right around the time I develop heart trouble and have to lay off the spicy food. Well I said it here first.

The watermelon was nice and my son chiseled in on the boarders pork chops. The daughter had her "last day of dance class" party and was pretty snacked up by the time she got home. So it might not be all my fault. But it might be.

Long weekend warrior.

Now that was one long weekend. We left on Wednesday afternoon and arrived back home at 1:00 am this morning. We had a great time visiting family and celebrating with friends. Here is a brief synopsis.

Thursday: Downtown for some Japanese paper work and sushi for lunch. Met up with three of the sisters. After that we went back to a sisters house and made a shrimp stirfry and guacamole with chips for dinner. With some beers to wash it all down it was great.

Friday: Saw us getting some runs in during the morning. In the afternoon the whole family made a trip to the North shore to have a visit with my dad. It was a little strange as I haven't really talked with him for 20 years. But in the end it was okay. After that is was back home to make dinner at my mom's place.


One of the sister's came over and helped us put away some spaghetti and meat sauce. We also had a green salad and way too many potato chips. I really have to learn to keep my mouth shut.

Late that night I went to the airport and picked up my mom and her guy. They were returning from two weeks in Mexico. The pick-up went off perfectly and we were home by midnight.

Saturday: This the day of the wedding. In the morning we took the kids swimming in Richmond at Watermania. We had some tears on the diving board as the daughter really wanted to dive in but was too scared. After dropping off the two older kids with my sis we got our best duds on and headed to the wedding.
Hopefully this is how the couple will look within the next year or two. Of course it will be their child rather than ours. The food was awesome (this is a food blog after all). I had the steak and soup, the wife had the salmon and salad. The steak was awesome but the salmon actually went to the next level. I have been told the name of the sauce three or four times but it keeps eluding me. Maybe it was bechamel, anyways it was superb. Individual cheesecakes for dessert. Could they have chosen a better choice for us. I had one of both flavours. So did the wife. With a little bit of dancing, some nice speeches and good conversation it was a great night. I spent most of the evening toting the littlest one around and he was awesome. A great advertisement for having kids. Which was my theme of the night for anyone who would listen.
This guy wouldn't listen but I definitely bent the ear of the lady he was with.

Sunday: Hung over we got up around 9:00 and headed over to brunch. This was at the same spot where the kids had been dropped off the night before and fortunately everything went well. Brunch was good with me on the french toast. I thought it was passable but far from outstanding. The potatoes on the other hand were wicked. We said our good byes there and headed back to my mom's for a late lunch with other friends. Cheeses and roast chicken with veggies and buns to make sandwiches. Lets just say I was stuffed. I didn't not partake of any libations as I was on driver duty. We left around six and as I mentioned previously got home early this morning.

Tonight I made a bean and tomato sauce for the pasta and the wife whipped up her usual salad magic. I plan on making a pasta with sausage tomato sauce later this week. I hope it isn't too repetitive. Although when I offered up pizza for next weekend the wife gave me an, "again." So maybe I am pushing my luck. Back to the factory again tomorrow. However, after such an amazing long weekend I really can't complain. I just have to get to bed early.

Keep the good meals rolling.

As we finished up our dinner this evening the wife said to me, "you really enjoy making dinner don't you." I responded, "When I can use my thinking power to think about dinner instead of work it is a pleasure. However, when I am working I just don't have the power left at the end of the day to think about it or I am still thinking about work." Which is to say, I am loving taking care of dinner and making it to the best of my ability each night. It really is something that you can think about all day.
Tonight I made a marinated steak salad, mashed turnip and beans. I went on line to find steak marinade recipes and the advice seemed to be either soy sauce savory or lemon juice acidic. I put in a little bit of both. I also added vegetable oil, prepared mustard, mustard powder, garlic powder and honey. There may have been something else but I forget. I put the still frozen steaks in a Ziploc with the marinade and left it on top of the fridge for most of the day. I turned it a couple of times and once the steaks had thawed and I could separate them I moved them to the fridge. The turnips were boil and mash with some butter, salt and pepper. Kids loved it. The beans were right out of the can cooked in their own tomato sauce. I liked the accent they added to the meal. The Green salad was romaine lettuce, green onions, cucumber and tomato. I forgot to dress the salads before putting the sliced up steak on, but no one was overly put out.
The wife had made her healthy chocolate brownie yesterday so we had that with some hokey pokey ice-cream. Delish. Funny story. The ice cream was on sale, normally 8 dollars on for 4. So we got two. One was hokey pokey (toffee chocolate) and the son requested vanilla. At the check out stand we had an incident with some chips which I thought were over priced but you had to buy four to get the deal though there was no sign indicating this. Then the wife bought some feminine products which she thought were on sale and when the check out lady rung them back through they were indeed discounted we just hadn't seen the price as they went through due to the chip debacle. So at this point I am apologizing and just wanting to get out the door. Once outside the wife makes me check the receipt and I notice that the vanilla ice cream was charged at $8.19. So I head back in to the frozen foods and just as expected, the only ice cream of this brand that was not on sale was the french vanilla. I am sure it should have been on sale or at the very least should have been separated from all the other flavours (everyone of which was on sale) but after having the two ring through refund ring through agains I was in no mood to debate the relative merits of their pricing schemes seeing as the ice cream was priced correctly. I get back outside and relate the details to the wife. She thinks we should return the over priced ice cream. I don't and we walk home. So the son is an $8.00 ice cream man from now on. Although I can't complain. I managed to get a free four pack of red peppers the other day for noticing that they charged me twenty cents too much. Literally every time we shop there we find something that isn't properly priced in the system. The store's policy is that if you bring it to their attention you get one of the item for free. Every time I have found a mistake I get the item for free. The wife says that from the tens of times she has found a price mistake she has only gotten the item for free three or four times. Crazy. It makes me angry and sad at the same time. It is just much tougher to be a woman than a man. I wonder how many times harder it is when you are a minority.
Speaking of gender, here are the men of the house having some quality bonding time while the daughter is at a play day at her friends house. I took everyone (including the friend ) swimming this afternoon before making lunch. Definitely getting my shots in while I can.

Ta Daaaaa!

You should see some of the dinners I have made recently. Let me start with... Okay the kid pictures come at the end but I do have expectations about this blog so I will start with dinner. On Friday evening I made breakfast for dinner. Or more correctly I thought of the idea and the wife put it into practice. By the time the daughter and I arrived home she and the son were no where to be found but this is the dinner we got. I kind of like breakfast for dinner. However, I am a once every four years kind of guy. Definitely couldn't do this even once a month.

Then some stuff happened on the weekend (more down below) and we came home from our adventure and I made this for dinner. Mashed potatoes, tofu bean stew (not chili in even a broad sense) and some peas and corn. The tofu bean stew was the usual sauteed onions, mushrooms and garlic. Diced medium tofu and small zucchini chunks were added in after the seasonings. A can of crushed tomatoes with some vinegar and molasses and a final salt and pepper splash finished the deal. I was worried it would be flavour poor but the kids were starving for anything home cooked after three days on the road and they both came back for seconds. I will have it noted for posterity that I had a load of laundry in the washer and had just taken the daughter to, and picked her up from, ice skating practice. I even managed to squeeze a grocery shop in there somewhere. Now to be at the point where I can be blogging, I have put the first and a second load through the dryer, given the kids baths, put away the leftovers and read books for bedtime. I realise I am not pacing myself but holy crap. This housewife gig is for the birds. Have I really signed on for five weeks of this. The real bummer is I still have marking to get done for a test I gave last week.

Okay here is the gravy. This first picture is of the mom tummy mountain two days before delivery.Here is the boy about 3 minutes after birth. You will note the mother is still wearing her regular clothes. That is the speed with which the actual labour came on. No time to change into a hospital gown.Here is the boy just after being scrubbed clean.
First family four shot.First all kids triple shot. I really like this one.Do you think the wife looks tired in this next picture? I can't imagine why. I mean lets face, when real labour is only twenty minutes long you should be up for a little doubles. Uh oh, I can hear you all pulling out your daggers. I was just kidding.I guess I cut the daughter out of this picture. Although it turned into a nice picture of the little guy. The rest of the pictures are not really up to grade. You will have to forgive me. I was running on two hours sleep and had a pretty high fever. It was tough to get any sympathy though. However, I didn't take any grief over my inability to perform so that says something. The video is still in the camera and will probably not make it to the blog.

Super Snack Attack

So you can see last nights dinner in both a good and a bad light. Lets start with good. Well done me. I have now made dinner three nights in a row. And I even have plans for this evening so I am getting er done as the boys say. I also even managed to serve up another vegetarian meal, complete with beans for protein and a wide variety of vegetables. The bad light would point to two things. We had snack food for dinner again and I served chips for two dinners in a row.
I made three dipping options. There was the kids salsa on the right. No spice, lots of flavour and surprisingly not that well attended. Then there was the old stand by guacamole. They have been devouring this stuff recently. This bowl however was the not the sentsation it usually is. The real shocker was the new import. I took a can of brown beans in tomato sauce. This was added to some already browned minced onion and crushed garlic. Once it was bubbling I mashed it up and added a few shots of vinegar(I am a big believer in vinegar). They both came back for multiple spoonfuls so I am going to call that a success. My nacho making was anything but. I was in a hurry so I used the broil and then the cheese in the middle didn't get melted. I gotta work on the lead time into dinner. Which means start cooking and/or planning before 5:00pm. If I can master this everything else should fall into place.

Oh yeah the wife and I also had insta-salad from those plastic containers with the fresh baby organic greens in them.

On the family front the daughter attended her first pool party in our newly refurbished pool. Still looks that same to me but I think most of the refurbishments were structural. Something about the exterior walls. Hey at least we still have a pool.

Invitation Night.

Well this evening was smokies and salad. I managed to score a DQ double cheeseburger for lunch on top of a fried egg sandwich for breakfast so I believe I had already met my caloric needs for the day. However, I still managed to make my way through two pan fried smokies. Now if you are starting to cringe at the unwholesomeness of today's fare then I will add that there was also a green salad as well as a bean salad. Our garden continues to produce an abundance and neighbours (with the u joey always with the u) are starting to bring us some of their extra produce. We will be drying our own dill this weekend and that should see us through another year. Upon further consultation my chef and I decided that the bean salad could have used a touch more vinegar but it still had a snazzy assortment of flavours. The post dinner family outing was dropping off birthday invitations to the friends that do not attend kindergarten with us. We will get the kindergarten friends as soon as we know all the addresses. Already have one no and one maybe. Have played charlie brown to a summer birthday's Lucy myself I shouldn't be surprised at the number of people going on vacation. Heck we are doing it ourselves. But it still hurts a little bringing back those memories of all the, "sorry we are going to be away then." Meh, more cake for me.