The Pen-Ultimate Dinner

So we tried to play ultimate tonight but we are down to the three die hards. So we just chucked it around for about an hour. To make it to ultimate on time I quickly threw together a pasta and meatballs dinner. Wife had pre made the meat balls the last time she made burgers so that was quick. Used some of our home grown garlic in the sauce. So fresh and juicy. I am really excited to have the rest of it cured and hung. The carrots and daikon spears were once again care o' wifey. They were devoured with the last of the creamy dill dip. My daughter actually used the word starving five times waiting for my pasta and sauce to be ready. Interestingly I had to use the stewed tomatoes. On our last shopping mission they store was right out of diced tomatoes. I food processed the tomatoes before cooking and everything turned out well. The sauce was a little sweet however. I don't know if that has anything to do with the type of tomatoes used or what but it still worked. Got the late night munchies right now but I think a glass of h two o will have to suffice. Its hot and time for bed.

We missed it.

Okay we had three salads tonight, a green salad from the garden with a sour cream and dill dressing, the left over chick pea and chard salad from last night and the wife whipped up a tuna salad which was eaten by some in sandwiches and by yours truly on top of the previously mentioned green salad. I was in charge of the grilled cheese and grill them I did. You will notice none of these dishes feature in this evenings meal. My son had worked his way through dinner and was onto a post meal snack of carrots and sour cream dill dip. He was also naked. Really cute until he decides today isn't a toilet day. Newman! Well I guess that is what elbow grease and febreeze are for. So the picture of dinner was not the only thing we missed this evening.

On the plus side we went to the Canada Day festivities here in town, had a lazy afternoon, and then went swimming by the river. We almost got blown away by a crazy sudden windstorm which managed to blow down a tree by the river but everyone made it back safely. We watched two videos, skipped bath time and now everyone is going to bed. Teeth are brushed, everything else can be dealt with tomorrow. If Dora reads this, "Look at what your missing. We love you and the phone message was meant in jest." Night all.

Of Chard and Chicken.

The last of June saw us getting some birthday preparation shopping done and then we went out to the lake in the afternoon. The weather was brilliant and the water was refreshing. However, the water is starting to get warm and soon we will have to swim in the river instead. Some of our friends were at the beach as well so the kids had other kids to play with and we had some friends to go wading with. Just a great afternoon. It was a toss up whether or not we would go out for dinner on the way home but we persevered and it paid off. I made the chick pea and romaine salad from here although we used swiss chard and lime instead of romaine and lemon. The lime should have been a lemon but the chard being from our garden couldn't have been better. The wife barbecued the chicken. It was marinated in soy sauce, honey, japanese wine, salt, pepper and minced garlic. The rice was leftovers from a lunch and had bits of seaweed mixed in. What you do not see, is iocane powder, no it is actually some fresh salsa. I have taken to blending an avocado into my salsa and I am loving it. We made a spicy and a not spicy version so all enjoyed. As you can tell from the picture the spicy version was spicy. My t-shirt is actually blue.

Garden Gnomes

So here are the aforementioned pictures of the garden. I also have some pics of the kids to fill in the mix.This is the garlic. Apparently when the bottom four leaves are brown you are supposed to pick it. I just hope it is dried and cured before we leave for Japan. I think 2 weeks should be sufficient. I plan to dry it on my work bench in the garage. Fingers crossed. Up next you can see our Raspberries. They are doing very well this year. I plan to give them an extra soaking today as we really want them to plump up soon. We may just have to resign ourselves to the fact that we won't get a lot of raspberries before we have to leave for Japan. We knew this going in so I should be prepared for it but I know that packing up and leaving with hundreds of berries just getting ready to burst with flavour will be tough. This next picture is of our tomatoes, beans, cucumbers, peppers and squash. The are almost all starting to train up the twine. The tomatoes are going great guns and the cucumbers have finally started going. The drip hose seems to be working great and the trench method does seems to have a good nutrient base for all the plants. The landscape fabric is keeping a lot of the weeds down but there is still more work to be done than I had imagined. Finally we have the pics of the kids. Just snapped these off before typing. Man they are cute.

Sunday Soup and Stirfry

Well it almost cracked 40 here today. Dang, I forgot to take those garden pictures. Of course the fact that it is still weed filled may have had something to do with that. Anyways back to Dinner. It was Africa hot, little guys in purple robes bursting into flames its that hot. (Just realised that true nuance of that joke from good morning vietnam, with the monks who commited suicide that way.) Anyways, the idea of dinner did not strike anyone as being that urgent. We had some chips and dip to start. The we had the soup shown to the right. It was a yam, leek, and onion base with the cool organic pea soup in a can thrown in afterwards. I used turmeric, coriander and some bay leaves. A little salt and pepper and it was all done. The kids ate the soup almost cold thanks to a liberal serving of ice cubes. The portion in the picture was served over rice. After this I took up the job of creating a tofu dish. The tofu was pressed so that it would soak up the sauce. The question was what kind of sauce. I had pulled a beat earlier in the day so that became the base. You may have noticed the tofu looks like cubed pork. Gotta love dyeing your food with beets. The remainder of the sauce was made with garlic, ginger power, salt, soya sauce, vinegar, peanut butter, and molasses. I fried up the onions and broccoli and then set them aside. Then I fried the already sauce encumbered tofu in a small bath of oil. Reintroduced the vegetables a few minutes later and voila. A misspelt instrument. I should never had cooked so much on a hot evening. The added heat just won't leave the house. I'm sleeping downstairs so it isn't such a big deal.

Summer Begins

So with today being the last day of work and the first day of summer I think it fitting that I get a little slack for not posting last nights meal. There were no pictures taken and I was off gallivanting with friends so I cannot complain. Anyways, we had a great day today and from here on out it will only get better. We had friends over this evening for dinner. The same friends who had us to their house for a pool party. Note to siblings thinking about rearing children. The best baby sitters are children the same age as your own children. They have intimate knowledge of what will interest your children and keep them occupied. Back to dinner. You see I was a little enthusiastic getting into my dinner and took a whopping bite before remembering the picture. It was a great burger and in spite of what my mother says about improving my odds of getting cancer I like the blackened charcoal exterior. The overexposed white stuff is a home made garlic/dill dip dressing. We had a tangy green salad with crunchy noodles on top. There was also a potato salad but I couldn't get it onto the first plate. Those of you who follow this blog will know that I have learned never to have seconds with potato salad. Unfortunately, my learning curve is pretty shallow. The mildly over full feeling I have leads me to believe that my whole eating responsibly thing isn't working out. Tomorrow is another day. On a different note, our guests seemed to enjoy the meal and they brought wine which was enjoyed by all. Well most of the kids only had half a glass but that toddler man he can put it away. Good conversation ranging far and wide followed dinner and no one left till it got dark. A perfect start to what hopefully will be an awesome summer. I will try to take some garden pictures tomorrow, after the massive weeding session I have planned. Everything grows in the sun.

Good day.

Yes this was the day when I had excess under control. Did my yoga before lunch. Had a reasonable dinner and then played ultimate in the sun. We had a quick go at dinner as we had to ge to the pitch by 6:30. The salmon was pan fried with garlic, salt and pepper. Can you really go wrong with salmon. I put the big wok lid over it to get the juicy steamed fish feel. So good. Rice and coleslaw were back from last nights dinner. Or was it the night before. With two working days left my mind is actually shutting down. I am trying to remember what else was on my plate as the picture loads... oh here it is. The veggies from the lunch left over veggie platter. A nice accompaniment to a light meal. I am out for dinner tomorrow (colleagues retirement get together) but I have my fingers crossed a picture will be taken of the pork chops.

So this line came to me in the esprit du lescalier. "Thanks for the guilt trip. I haven't been on one for a while." You know when someone just loads it on you. From now on, if I am keen enough to react I plan on using this line. I mean what the hell. Do I really need someone else pushing my guilt buttons. Grow up and run your own life but leave my shit alone. I will make my own decisions and live with them. This was a work issue and I am trying to let it go. Deep breath in, pause, deep breath out. Time for bed.