Pork Stir fry.

So that is what the young'ns had to say about the pork stirfry this evening. I hurried home from the arena to get cooking and by the time the herd had made it back, dinner was practically on the table. The wife had cubed, salted and peppered the pork before marinating it in a little cooking sake. I wok-ed it up an then poured the ginger, garlic, honey, vinegar and soy sauce mixture over it. Then the veggies were fried, (onions and carrots first, after they lost their edge I added the green pepper, celery and green onions). The cooked meat and sauce were poured back in the wok and that was cooked with lid on for five more minutes. A little bit of corn starch to thicken up the sauce and it was ready to serve. We had grapefruit for dessert. We purchased a 40 lb box on the weekend (neighbours fund raiser, good fruit) so we are making liberal use of it.

That is all.

Say Good bye.

To all the wall paper on the main floor of our house. With the help of a handy dandy rental steamer it is all officially gone. And getting ready for sale season has begun.

Well this is what the before pictures look like. Yes the wall paper is all stripped out. Now it is time to fill holes and cracks, sand and smooth and get ready for the primer. Up first is the bathroom. We are definitely getting rid of the peach. I am thinking something lighter. Like a really light yellow/white. With white trim around the mirror and window.
The kitchen entry will be tied in with the rest of the house in a light brown or tan. The advice I have received it to stay away from anything with a red tint in it as that always ends up with a pinkish hue. Nice in a cheek, not so good in a living/dining.What you do not see in this next picture is the paper wall boarder that ran around the room transitioning the light green into the dark green. This room will most likely also get the tan/brown treatment. The look we are going for is uniform, clean, and light enough to paint over easily. Have had two realtors through and they were both very friendly. They had very different perspectives through which they saw the house. Differing takes on what should and shouldn't be done to the place. It has been really informative to have the two of them come through. Really hope the third guy gets back to me so that I can put these first two visits into perspective.

For dinner I whipped up a whole mess of pork stir fry. First mistake was listening to the Mrs and chopping up all the pork. Could have really used about half that much and would have been just as good, if not better. Second mistake was using the big fry pan and not the wok. Not as easy to mix and stir. Couldn't do as much with the veggies. Mistakes aside it was a nice dinner. I put a little sweet chili sauce on top of mine but everyone else enjoyed it as was. I had seasoned with salt, garlic powder, basil, vinegar and soy sauce. I also hit it with a little okonomiyaki sauce right before taking it out of the pan.
There was a little debate about the seaweed flakes on the salad this evening. The wife was trying to spice things up but the rest of us just wanted tomatoes and cucumbers with balsamic vinegar. Back to the grind stone tomorrow. Only seven teaching days left in this semester. Yee haw.

Birthday Wishes.

Well we had a birthday today so we were busy all day with getting ready. It started with some serious stirring as we tried our hand at making a castella. The hand whipping has us promising to get a hand blender by the fall of 2011. We also talked about getting a good mixer. Yes we are planning to seriously settle down. After that was done the kidlets and I went out shopping. We got some prezzies for mom and some fixins for dinner. Upon arriving back home the Mrs. took an afternoon off for herself. Her last directions as she left were to bake the loaves at 325 for 50 minutes starting at 3:15. So at 3:30 I turned the temp gauge to 325 and set the timer for 50 minutes. What I didn't do was turn on the stove. So at 4:20 I looked in the oven to see some seriously deflated loaves. That were still moist. After barking at the kids for turning the oven off I realised I was the bad guy and turned it on. The loaves pictured below would have easily blocked all views of the little shelf behind them if they had been baked properly. It was a body blow for the wife when she returned to these shrunken sad looking loaves. They still taste good but I messed that one up good.

Trying to recover from the bread debacle I had stuffed the pork roast with an apple, celery, onion, garlic, and cilantro stuffing. There were other spices, salt and pepper and bread combs added as well. This was then roasted with yams and onion slices for about 2 hours. It was delicious but really really late. Once again the extra hour for bread put everything behind schedule.
At seven when we finally sat down to eat the kids had already polished off a whole round of brie and crackers. They had also had some sparkling blueberry drink and an "almost" greek salad, perked up with a bunch of cilantro. It was a long eating up and down evening but I think the birthday girl would give it more thumbs up then thumbs down. Although she lives and dies with her bread. Well I have the rest of my life to make it up to her and probably will spend most of it trying. Here is the kids helping me bake bread, stuff a roast and decorate cupcakes while their mother is out for the afternoon.

Bath Time.

Well its bubble bath tonight so I have a quick second to get a blog off. The Mrs. made some nimono magic this evening and accompanied it with a caesar salad. Delish.

Last night we went and saw this show. It was decent but the real story is the son on the way home. He was way over tired and after the kids got to meet the magician and get his autograph and a hand shake, I pulled them away and we headed out the door for the car. It was 9:30 on a school night. When we got to the car we had a fifteen minute stand off. Apparently I had pulled the son away before he got to ask his question (note: he couldn't come up with his question when asked) There was no way he was getting in the car without going back to ask. I tried my best but no amount of bluffing or logic made any difference. He was not coming home. So finally I just went around and got in the drivers side, sat down and closed the door. I was just looking for somewhere warm to wait. However, this wasn't how the son interpreted my action. In a really pathetic and dejected voice he walked back towards the building in front of the car and said, "I would come in the car if you asked me." He thought I was leaving him behind. It nearly broke my heart. I jumped out of the seat and said of course I wanted him to come with us. I spent the better part of the ride home and a couple of minutes after getting home explaining how important he is to me. Even now I feel a bit misty just writing about it. So I guess I just chalk another black mark up against my name.

I now have an answer to the question, "Where does our children's innocence go?"

We steal it from them one day at a time.

Tough Times.

Well we have been off line for the last two days. Still eating well but just busy and the blog has taken a bit of a hit. First off we were dealing with this.If you go back a couple of days you can actually see the celery seeds that were used to season the chicken. It is now my belief that what we have here is an allergic reaction to celery seeds. It seems like an obvious choice because he ate a bunch of the chicken and we haven't had anything else out of the ordinary recently. He is feeling a whole lot better today and all the hives are gone. In a few more day I plan to do my own scratch test with some celery seeds to see if it was indeed the culprit.This is us enjoying dinner tonight. Kids are currently outside playing as the light slowly settles into a warm late summer dusk.This evening was barbecue pork with rice and finger food. The pork was done in a miso garlic paste and turned out very well. The salsa was made with store bought garlic so it was a little spicy. It also took up all of the lemon so the veggie dip was without. Both were noted by our oldest and it was a cause of some gustatory friction. However, with a little vinegar and some sweet talking a catastrophe was avoided and the kids are both now crunching on mint chocolate chip ice cream cones while the wife eats toblerone in the kitchen. My treat was beer.

Finally we have a little gaffer who can now play on his own. I am sure he is saying something really important. Just haven't decoded it yet.

Sorry the video never loaded. It is up on youtube however, check it out. Very cute.

A lucky Star

Or something equally fortuitous is following me around these days. How else can you explain the amazing dinners I have been getting. Either that or there is some bad news coming and I am being softened up. I won't get into my lunch because that wouldn't be fair but lets check out this evenings meal.

The pork roast that was on special was finally purchased, two to be exact. They were both cooked up as Cha-Shu which is basically the sliced pork that you would have with a really nice bowl of ramen. We had ours liberally drenched with the ginger soy broth beside a heaping bed of rice. Next to this was the spinach salad, accomapanied by some of our very own tomatoes. Up top we have a home made cream of broccoli soup. Tonights mystery seasoning was fennel seed in the soup. Yum a yum yum.

Maybe the balance comes from the older boy having a rash/hives/pox turn up all over his body. Even managed to get some swollen lips. He is itchy but no fever, eating well and feeling good. At the hospital they said bring him back if anything changes but I have a feeling this will be another mystery virus. Either that or he has brought back fleas and they only want to bite him. But that would be weird.

Finished.

Well that took a while. However the bedroom is now officially painted. I mean I still need to rehang the doors and there are probably some touch ups to do and all the tape has to be cut away and taken down. However, the big part, the difficult part, the part where I spend three days sucking in paint fumes. That part is done. Once it is in display mode I promise to get some pictures taken and posted.

As for dinner this evening, I took an hour long break to barbecue and then devour some ribs. Of course ribs went on special today at the grocery store. We bought ours on Friday. Nice. They were good and yummy and with the green salad and roasted zuchinni it was a great dinner. Just would have been nice to buy the ribs on sale. Now the sale ribs are side ribs and we did have back ribs, hey lets live a little here. I mean the room is painted. Its time to celebrate.
Speaking of which, today the Mrs. went and baked up some cupcakes with the kids as an activity and then she made apple crumble for dessert. Talk about having it all. I will not go on at length but the apple crumble made with fresh transparent apples that were just picked ( I didn't manage to get all the apples when we made sauce) was so tart and sweet. I kissed it, slapped it and devoured it. Mmm good.

Evening Stroll

So before the after dinner stroll and after the countless games of candyland we ate dinner. We had barbecued pork chops (filled the propane and washed the car at the same time) with coleslaw and rice. You will notice that though my plate is full it is also a mess. That is because I did the hacking for the kids and wife (she was holding the littlest) before I sat down to eat. No don't cry for me Argentina, I ate well.After dinner we took a stroll to the local elementary school. It had cooled off sufficiently to be nice outside. Notice the wife is smiling. A real candid moment.The kids did a bunch of climbing and chasing. Some of which I was involved in.
There was also some showing off. But not in a bad way.
Then I got them all to pose for me and amazingly they pulled it off. Shocker.My cup runneth over.

I had a good title.

But I totally can't remember it now.

Well anyways, we had dinner. The daughter had her favourite salad this evening. It is a really spicy vinegar and ginger bean sprout salad. There may also be some raw grated garlic in the dressing as well. The pork stir fry with vegetables was light and summery. Honestly it was a great meal to have on a summer evening. After dinner we got into the salsa pretty heavy. Oh, that was it, I was going to call this post, "the last of the red hot salsas." I thought it was pretty good.

Anyways,we are down to two and half jars of grown up salsa. Perfect timing once again as we are coming in to fresh salsa season. Which reminds me I have to, have to plant some cilantro. I think planting cilantro and basil right now will have it coming up at just the right time. Okay, I gotta get on that tomorrow. Definitely tomorrow, next day at latest.

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.

Nice work Pork Chop.

Well, after getting in the Tuesday after school run I arrived home to pork chops soaking up some barbecue sauce and a hungry family. I quickly whipped out to the porch and set things a blazing. I know I am pushing my luck with how little propane is left in that guy but it keeps getting the job done. Anyways, once the heat got up there I threw on the chops and hit the showers. By the time I made it back out there was some good smoke and a tiny bit of flame so I turned, doused, brought the flame down and covered it up again. A few minutes later and we were ready to tuck into these bad boys.
Of course the wife had also whipped up a rainbow style salad. Great dressing, vinegar, onion, and feta for sure. Something else but I can't think of it now. Also some fluffy rice to top it off. Great. Post dinner we headed up to the dogs for a bit and then came back to ice cream cones and bath time. A little book reading later and all is quite. Ahh, until tomorrow at 5:30 or 6:00... little rest for the sort of wicked.

Swine and Cheese

Well I know it is going to be a good day when the daughter manages to put together an outfit like the one she had on today. There was pink in the socks, and an orange design on her shirt. I actually asked her to pose for a couple of snaps before we headed out the door. I especially liked the necklace accessory. Unfortunately, this moment of grace and light was followed by one of utter exasperation. This guy was found for the second day running in the garden. One more of my precious yellow cherry tomato seedlings was unceremoniously toppled. Now all the remaining seedlings have tin foil wrapped around them. Strange days out in the garden. We have caught and killed more than a dozen of those little buggers. The real question is how many more lurk out there. It could be in the hundreds. In one little patch of dirt the daughter managed to rustle up six. Really kind of staggers the brain. Lets hope tinfoil does the trick.

As for dinner the wife said she was going to do something simple as I went running after school. Imagine my great delight to arrive home to steamed vegetables with a tangy sour cream topping. Also some perfectly fried porkchops and a healthy (both in size and content) serving of rice. After dinner we managed to get in some gardening time, didn't make it to puppy play group, did play some pokemon, and finally brushed teeth and sent everyone off to bed. Full day and I am bushed. Lets hope tomorrow goes well.

Some Other's Day.

So yeah, it wasn't my day today. However, it was our fabulous wife and Mother's day. And I think we did it up right. We started by sending her off for a run and whipping up some waffles. What we don't have a waffle maker, you say. What we've never made waffles before, you say. Pish tosh. The wife has a great winter holiday recipe magazine and the yogurt waffles were sitting right there, waiting to be made. I improvised and used our favourite sandwich maker to make the waffles. It took three attempts before I realised I had to turn it over right away after closing it. By the sixth set they were pretty good. Nothing a good waffle iron wouldn't top but still we were happy and eating waffles.

After a lunch made of leftovers it was outside to pickup, edge, and then mow. This is the correct order and a little under two hours later I was able to hold my head up and look my neighbours in the eye for the first time in weeks. The pledge to do this weekly has been made. Don't think it will go very far but the pledge has been made.

Late afternoon we sat down to watch Monsters versus Aliens. I liked it. We also went over to our neighbours for an afternoon tea: iced tea, cinnamon buns, peanut butter cookies and fresh strawberries. The kids were in heaven. I was feeling pretty good as well.

After the wife arrived at the neighbours (she had been out for a walk with the baby and the baby was the real reason for the invite to tea, once again I thought I was the draw only to be proven wrong) we came back home to make stuffed roast pork and baked yams. It was a little messy and a little behind schedule but it was tasty and that makes up for most other faults. The apple crumble became apple rhubarb crumble on the insistence of the Mrs. and she was so right. Very very good. Now the kids are in the bath and asides from not getting in to work today (I needed to put in about an hour) I am pretty satisfied with the day. Just a sec... I checked with the Mrs. and she is pretty satisfied too. Phew, now about topping this for next year. Time to start planning.

April Fool

Well that was me this morning. On the walk to school I discussed with the daughter the various things that can occur on April 1st. However, I clearly stated that most of them are not good and she should hold off on trying any April Fools today. The temptation was too great. She tried an April fool on some of her classmates and got in trouble. Then she got the double whammy of getting it again from her parents over dinner. Tough day. I would appreciate if no one ever brought this up with her as it is done now and I have said we don't need to think about it anymore. I think this was the first really heavy conversation we have had to have with one of our kids. They sure do grow up fast.So that was eventful. Fortunately, the dinner was also really eventful. We had a wicked combination dinner. The wife wrapped up the leftover curry in some spring roll wrappers and then pan fried them. Totally totally awesome. I fried up some pork chops with salt pepper and garlic powder. Delish. The kids just ripped through the meat. I was definitely thinking leftovers. Fat chance. There was also rice and some broccoli, corn and peas. I have to get it through my head that I am the only one loving the heated up peas and corn. The broccoli was well received.

Well that was the first day of April. Lets hope the rest of the month isn't as "lesson filled" as today.

I missed it.

Dang, I missed my blog anniversary. I think it is okay though. We had to drive to see the midwife today, everything is going great. Then we stopped for a visit at the friends where we stayed after the baby was born. Very nice. After a lightning fast dinner the wife had a baby shower and I didn't manage to escape after walking over the carrot cake she made. Then when we got home we had bath time, brush teeth, book time and bed time. Once that was done it was 11:00 at night. So the Mrs. and I sat down and watched The Wrestler. I enjoyed it. The wife wasn't so impressed. And now it is the 26th and I missed my Blog-versary.

Can you believe it has been 300 posts in the last year? I can't believe its been a year. I can't believe I have kept at it. I look and see that pizza is not the most made meal at our house but it is way up there. Yup lots of meals have been eaten but the blog has definitely shifted away from a strictly dinner blog and has become a nice record of our family's goings on.

I look forward to the next year and the oncoming fame and fortune. And remember. You were here at the beginning. Take care and talk to you tomorrow, although technically that is today now.

ps. We had pork stir fry for dinner. Nicely marinated because the wife was smarted enough to thaw it in the freezer over night.

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.

Different

So we had quite a different feast tonight. Different in that there was a starch/carb side. No rice in a bowl, no potatoes, I mean there was some bread under the pizza toast but it just wasn't the same. I enjoyed my dinner yet somehow it feels like something is missing. So lets take it piece by piece and see if you can help me out. We had the pizza toast. This is a simple yet to me inspired notion. Take the leftover pizza sauce. Slather it on bread. Add some cheese slices and voila. Instant pizza. I tell you even after all this time I still get fooled quite regularly.

Beside the pizza was some cha shu. This is a pork roast which is boiled in a ginger, garlic and possibly sugar mixture. Well sort of half boiled. The water only comes up to about the middle of the roast in the pot. I don't know how long said roast is boiled but it was cooking this morning as we left for school and the aroma almost kept me from getting out the door. This evening it was sliced up and served warm (some help from our friend Micro Wuave (rhymes with rico suave)).

Finally there was a green salad with daikon radish spears. It had a very Asian flavour. Some sesame oil with vinegar and soy sauce would be my best guess. There were probably some other flavours added into the dressing but as it is bath time I cannot get the information from the source. But take my word, it was yum.

The son had a preschool field trip to the ice arena for skating today. Mom was there to give us the inside scoop and play by play. However, I will paraphrase from what she told me.

"He was great. Really enjoyed himself. Totally zoomed around with the little bar contraption. Even skated pretty well without it. He is better than sis at that age. Maybe its a boy thing." or he could have inherited some amazingly athletic genes. You know, from the wife. Come on my head isn't that big... at least give me the benefit of the doubt.

On a different note I am starting to feel a little self conscious about the raw photos that I upload to my blog. I have just recently started reading some more polished blogs and it looks like photoshopping all of your photos might be deriguer. And I have always wanted to be French. What do you think? Can I get away with the folksy charm of my uncentered, no perspective, overexposed pictures or do I have to step it up a notch?

Ps. I am resisting the urge to look up derigurre. I know I have spelled it wrong but ... damn it here I go. Blogger gives me drogue, trigger, derringer, draggier and dredge. Nope. My second version gets even more obviously wrong words. At the bottom of Dictionary dot come I finally got de rigueur. I guess the space was important. Oh but I was close.

Surf and Turf

Eating like kings we are. Not that we had a classic surf and turf. We had pork chops and a shrimp pasta combination but never the less, two choices of protein. I try not to think about how good we have it here. But we do. On top of this there was left over coleslaw salad and a green salad featuring some nice juicy chunks of tomato. Even had some ice cream for dessert. Yes we do live like kings.

I managed to leave work early and walk home with the daughter today. As the snow melts during the day it makes a fragile jagged formation all over the southern face of any snow bank. The kid was all about kicking, karate chopping of various other forms of destruction. She left a swath of carnage five feet wide in some places. Between that and pretending she was mountain climbing it took us quite a while to make it home, more than double our to school time. But that was okay. We weren't in a rush to do anything.

Just now she popped out of the bath to see if we could still go skating this evening. It had been part of the plan but before dinner she didn't want to do her home reading. She wanted to play balloons with her brother. Which was great and I can totally back that as being a fun thing to do. But now I have to go back to work and she still has her home reading and homework to finish. Grade one is tough. You should hear the tears coming from the bath right now. Well this hard hearted dad has to sign off. Manyana.

Froming Pouting to Pork.

Well as usual Sunday was had a melancholy feel to it as the weekend ended and it was time to start getting ready for the week ahead. We started with some more shoveling. After I finished the rink I went to do the driveway and the daughter spent some quality time on ice. After I was done I went out back and managed to get this video.



And that is after having one lesson. I don't even think they have taught her to spin yet. She may be a natural but after hearing about the cost involved with being the parents of a figure skater I don't know if we would survive. This is the picture that I took after the son made his request.We followed this picture taking with a marathon snowball fight. The snow was that perfect grab a handful instant snowball consistency. This was the first snowball fight for the son and he was into it, I mean the fire was in his eyes. We have unleashed a monster.

As for the rest of the day I went into work this afternoon and returned home to some wicked awesome pork roast with roasted potatoes. I even cracked a jar of our home made apple sauce which made the meal other worldly. In a crazy turn of events the daughter wouldn't even eat it. She had chosen ramen noodles for lunch but wanted to eat the scooby doo alphagettis from a shopping trip on thursday or friday. The pout was really impressive and after a slammed door, some shouting on my part and lots of discussion she ended up having the noodles. On a slightly positive note, as the noodles were cooking she said she was feeling very guilty. Is this good or bad? hmmm....

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.