Remission.

In that I have been remiss in my blogging about dinner. First a quick strained smile. Interestingly, after downloading the pics I realised that two of the three meals I will present to you have the same guest in them, but first, more kid shots.The meal we will begin with is our almost thanksgiving dinner. This was last Monday. There was chicken roasted with assorted other stuffs. We had our local Japanese friend over. First there was a driving lesson (she passed her test on Thursday) and then there was some dinner. Good times had by all.Next up is my return dinner on Saturday night. It was yaki-soba grilled up on our teppan yaki. Big shout out for the wonderful wedding gift that keeps on giving. We grilled up a whole mess of noodles and vegetables. This was followed by some hot apple crumble with ice-cream and the jello and fruit mixture which the same guest provided. Gotta love guests.
This kid wasn't happy because all he got was breast milk and apples. Get used to it is all I can say.
So we finally make it to this evening. From conception to table there was a very short timeline on this evenings dinner. Basically at 3:30 we had no idea what we were going to have and by 5:00 everything was hot on the table. This included a shop for ingredients. The soup was a squash bisque (I saw bisque written somewhere recently and I liked the sound of it) with tomatoes and carrots. It was a little sweet for my taste but we served it with rice and the kids didn't complain for the most part. In my second bowl I added a few shots of tabasco sauce and the flavour literally exploded off the old flavo-meter. Definitely hit that nail on the head.We will see if my consistency stays spotty or if I turn things around on the old blog front. It seems my life has been a little too busy recently. I am sure it will calm down again soon. Say December 27th or there abouts. I won't hold my breath. Finally a shot of me and son. Serious, deadly serious.

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.

What day is it?

This is the question I was posed as my enlisted help got down to business chopping. Why the day of the week was important I did not know. I puzzled for a second and the realised I should just give up the answer so I replied, "Saturday." To which my daughter replied, "but we are having tofu, its not tofuesday." Talk about starting something without even realising. So Tuesday has officially crossed over. I think that is kind of cool. Anyways I explained how we can have tofu on other nights as well. And then we got down to making dinner. The Mrs. made a greek salad. She went a little light on the cheese and vinegar (her call) but it was still delish and having our own cukes in the mix was nice.

I made a squash and basil soup. The squash was boiled in 4 cups of water with onion, celery, salt and pepper. Then it was pureed in the food processor with some fresh basil. This puree was added back to the remaining water and then we put in some broccoli and frozen corn. Next I added cumin and half a cube of vegetable stock. This was simmered until the broccoli had softened. Finally I threw in another handful of fresh basil leaves. I turned off the heat and let it sit for a bit before serving.

The stir fry was our now classic tofu in peanut sauce number. The vegetables included zuchinni and beans from our garden. It was great. (I used the bowl which held the tofu while the veggies were stir fried, don't tell anyone but you get extra sauce that way)

On a non food note the room was painted today. Tomorrow is for trim and the closet door. Pretty happy with how things have gone so far. Some small touch ups will be necessary but overall I think not a bad job.

See you Monday.

Well we are off for the coast for a few days. The newest needs his Japanese citizenship and a buddy needs to kiss of his singledom for all the joys of marriage. I honestly tried to talk him out of it but he was havin none of it. Just kidding, they have our best wishes.

As for the lack of dinner yesterday and Sunday it was chili and seemed so leftover-ish and uninspired I couldn't get anything going. I know there are those of you out there who want the down to earth nothing special meals but its my blog so pooh pooh to you. As for the rest of you, I feel the love.This evening the wife took everything that was left in the house and whipped us up a bon voyage dinner. She roasted the squash and yam that we bought last weekend and then marinated some boneless skinless chicken breasts after cutting them into little slices. I came home and microwaved some rice and pan fried the chicken. And dinner was ready.
Now I've got to ask. Is roasted Yam not the yummiest of all cooked vegetables? I mean I go gaga for the stuff and the wife seems to tear up when she eats it. Yet the daughter quite literally turns up her nose. She has got a mental set against roast yam. Its down right un-American (okay we are Canadian but un-Canadian doesn't have the same ring, don't you agree?) to not love roasted yam. She sure does pack away the chicken though. And has never met an ice cream cone she didn't like. Well I guess that is part of being a kid. Well, if things go exceedingly well we will have some posts from the coast. But don't hold your breath.

The return of Monday

So I know things have been a little suspect as of late. Weak dinners with no thematic substance. Whole days missing off the calendar. But it was back to things as usual today. My son was playing with the camera so I ended up with a short video clip of dinner. Then the batteries died so I couldn't actually take a picture. However, things were back to normal in more ways than one. Dinner was a feast for all of the senses. From the heat of the miso soup wafting up over my face, to the succulent taste and smell of the salmon cooked with dill it was awesome. The squash omellete/quiche was exquisitely sweet, the wife actually said, "taste this its amazing," as I walked in the door. When you have a chance to leave a squash out in the cold I find it really brings out the sugars. The green salad was served with our old standby vinegar and onion dressing and the sharp sweet flavour offset the more muted tones of the rest of the meal wonderfully. We had frozen raspberries for dessert.

Interesting story related to me by my wife today. The Mrs. is starting to feel like she is seven months pregnant and has taken to having little naps downstairs by the fireplace. My son, with his new more highly refined reasoning skills, has taken to foraging for food up stairs when he figures she is trying to catch forty winks. His favourite targets are the frozen fruit in the freezer (right at easy grabbing level), apples in the fruit drawer (he is now tall enough to reach one of his hooks over the drawer) or candy from the cupboard (you know the chair as a ladder then standing on the counter routine), usually some of those mints the daughter bought a week or two back of some dentyne chewing gum. Between this new found resourcefulness and his increasing capacity to act like a marauding transformer from another galaxy he is a handfull, as the boarder puts it, "he sure is a boy."

Ready in 5 Minutes

Well we made dinner at home last night and it was great to have the home cooking. The roast is one of those pre cooked jobs that takes 10 minutes in the microwave. Too much salt but the meat is really cooked to perfection. The soup was Miso soup so we had a nice change of pace from the fare in Japan. A little bit of bean sprout stir fry mixed things up nicely. I enjoyed the rice which was cooked in our new rice cooker. We lugged this baby all the way back from Japan and I hope it was worth it. The stewed pumpkin was great and I enjoyed the salad. The wife bought baby arugula and it turned out to taste really bitter to her. The kids jumped right on that band wagon and I was the lucky recipient of most of the salad. The real feature of the salad was the homegrown tomatoes and cucumbers.

The garden has done well considering it suffers from four weeks of neglect. My bell peppers have not done much of anything. The hot peppers are hit and miss and the tomatoes are all producing well. The Toms we have eaten so far are really sweet as we haven't been gobbling them up as soon as they were barely ripe. Cucumbers are growing and we have maybe ten squash sizing up. The morning glory has taken over everywhere it could and will take some major work to get back under control. However, all in all I am glad with how the garden has managed under less than ideal conditions. Already looking forward to next year.