Still no burger.

The Mrs. just reminded me that the last time we had burgers I didn't leave it open faced and the fact you couldn't see the burger was mentioned. Well her timing is impeccable as I was already sitting here getting ready to type. You know cracking the fingers, doing the vocal exercises, snorting violently. Anyways it wasn't much to see tonight. Just ketchup and mustard with some sliced dill pickles. The nachos on the side were also rather spartan. Just melted cheese and homemade salsa. No guac. No lettuce or tomato. Didn't even put a slice of cheese on the burger. But the actual burger patty was great, diced mushrooms, onion and garlic, two eggs, some bread crumbs, basil, cumin, salt, pepper and some garlic powder all went into the patty mix. There are six in the deep freeze downstairs and once they are frozen they will be transferred to a freezer lock bag and we have another dinner ready for another day. Finally Friday here. Looking forward to a busy weekend. Now I sit down to rest. Ahhhh....

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.

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.

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.

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.

Barely the will to live

Man it is only a four day work week but the part that should be on Friday is packed into the other days. So by the time we get to Thursday we have actually done five days worth of work. As a result I am totally shwacked by the time I get home Thursday after noon. The result, I have nothing to give in the dinner help department and tend to indulge in snack foods. Not that anyone here seems to mind. A dinner of cheesy nacho's with homemade guacamole and salsa, bowls of ice cream, cookies, dill pickle chips and all that after having slurpees on the way home. The wife did put together a wonderful tofu infused yaki soba. This was all the base that was necessary for this evenings meal. Honestly, anything more solid and I wouldn't have had the energy to chew it. Well, I have had a sort of 30 min post dinner nap so am functioning again. Gonna be a busy weekend. Gotta get the rest of the wood chopped, tonnes of planning and marking for work, tomorrow is pizza night so that is also on the agenda. Lots brewing here. If anyone is going to make it for pizza please give me at least 3 hours notice so I can increase the amount of dough. Your all welcome.

Up to no good

Arriving home last evening I, still hungry after the meager crackers and cheese that were brought forth at our meeting, was deflated to find that things on the home front had not been much better. There was a nice pork soup and some seki han (rice with red beans) but as for an entree I was shut out. So I went to the cupboard to get some nacho chips to make a plate of nachos. Bag empty. Oooh, so I got in the car. Drove to the store. Bought the chips. Back home. Whipped up some guacamole. Grated some cheese. 24 seconds later we were sitting down to a nice hot plate of cheesy nachos. We used the last of the second to last jar of red salsa last night. Now down to one jar of each type of salsa from last fall. Will we make it to July and the beginning of fresh salsa season. I sure hope so. Anyways, good dinner, soup was great and I am making beans on toast this evening. See you then.

Everything Mexican.

This evening my mom gets back from her second trip to Mexico this year. In a quasi celebration we have made our version of chicken fajitas. I do not claim to have any aspirations to making authentic Mexican food. I do really like our versions though. The chicken is sprinkled with salt and pepper, beaten with the back of the big knife and then cut into strips. It is fried with garlic, paprika, nutmeg, and chili powder. Then sliced red peppers and onions are added in and the whole mess is fried up till the onions go brown and the chicken starts to get little black spots. With fresh tomatoes, lettuce, our home made salsa (canned last august, only 9 litres but all five varieties remaining), the guacamole and shredded cheese rounding out things the wraps came out great. Chips, salsa and guacamole filled up the plate and my daughter and wife made lemon pudding in individual serving cups for dessert. Interestingly, I was the only one unenthusiastic about the salsa. The first batch I made last year I put peach in and didn't add many jalapenos. Well the kids loved it and my wife really enjoyed it. I was disappointed because there was no discernible heat. Can't please everyone. We have this weeks menu whipped up and though it was a bit of a mental hurdle we have not repeated anything from the first three weeks. Look at that, we can make at least 21 different entrees. Can you hear my sore elbow popping.

Tomorrow: Chili, with garlic toast. I promise to make it juicy enough to warrant the toast.