I don't do lunch

One of our temps is leaving so I made the suggestion to take her out for lunch. I don't like to go out for lunch on workdays, it gets too rushed. Today was no exception. We went out for sushi, which I normally love, but an hour is not enough time to appreciate any sushi.

Tomorrow I get to go for french food twice, hopefully those will be more relaxed and more enjoyable.

Just when you think you've got it all worked out

Life decides to make you re-evaluate. No, this isn't some major deep thinking going on here. We needed to buy a new dishwasher, so we went to look. Found what we thought was a great deal for a Bosch dishwasher, but when it came time to pay the final deposit on it, it turned out the sales guy had not given us the correct amount when we first talked to him, and he also wouldn't back down and apologize for his error.

So we went elsewhere, and ended up at Sears. There was a Kenmore dishwasher for sale, and our first though was, not a Kenmore! That's so middle America. Still, we let the sale guy give his spiel, how Whirlpool makes both Kenmores and Kitchenaids, and showed us the stainless steel interior and the turbo wash feature. We ended up purchasing it with the thought of hanging our tails between our legs in shame.

When we went to unpack it, we found that lo and behold, there was no name on the front of the dishwasher, the only place you could see that it was a Kenmore, was a label just inside the door. And we thought we'd have to ask for a Bosch sticker to put over the Kenmore tag.

Something to be said about tradition

As I mentioned previously, we're going to try and take advantage of Dine Out Vancouver this year. We asked our friends to join us in the festivities, and they agreed. C made some suggestions of restaurants she had tried in the past, but hubby and I figured we'd like to go with something less trendy and has withstood the test of time.

Listening to the news this morning, they mentioned a shooting that happened at Gotham, a trendy restaurant located in the heart of downtown. Now I know that shootings can happen anywhere, anytime, but I think they're less likely to happen in places where people aren't there to be seen, and if I'm going to get caught in cross-fire, I'd rather be enjoying good food at reasonable prices.

Clash of the Titans?

I hear more and more these days about people ordering chai lattes. What the heck is that? Chai, according to the American Heritage dictionary is "A beverage made from spiced black tea, honey, and milk." Lattes, on the other hand, are "hot espresso with steamed milk, usually topped with foamed milk." So is a chai latte a coffee drink or a tea drink? I read, when I googled, someone describing it as chai tea with foamed milk on top. So to me, that's just a chai tea with foamy milk. How the heck does that make it into a latte? If I put foamed milk on top of my hot chocolate, does that make it a hot chocolate latte? Am I just being too obnoxious and persnickety about what should mean what?

Don't try this at home kids

I thought I'd try out a coconut muffin recipe today. It sounded good, really simple, as all muffin recipes are, and it would be good to have during coffee break.

It asked to toast coconut flakes in a 400F oven for 7 mins. No problem, I think to myself, I can sit down for 7 mins. I don't know if it's the type of coconut flakes I have, or what, but 7 mins later, I open the oven door and there's smoke coming out because the coconut is completely burnt. You'd think I'd know by now to check a little more frequently to see if it's burning or not.

Note to self: have more coffee before attempting baking.

I've found my dream site

It's called foodporn. And before you all start making assumptions about me (which are probably true anyway), I found it through an article in the NY Times. The article itself was about food stalls in Thailand, but they had made reference to the foodporn site (or something in the article had linked back to the foodporn site). But anyway, it's a wonderful site full of interesting links to other food sites.

So in case I am remiss in writing here for a while again, you can always go to that site and think of me.

It's been a while

I was told by a friend recently that it's probably a good idea to write something here, just so people know I'm still alive. So I'm here!

Not much to tell of late, baked probably 10 dozen cookies over the Christmas holidays of varying types (gingerbread, shortbread, neopolitan, christmas icebox, candy cane) to give away. This year, hubby put together the care packages; they looked way better than what I usually do, but there were also less cookies per package. More leftovers for me!

Our friends invited us for Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve get together, which was really nice. Instead of the normal turkey dinner for Christmas Eve, our lovely hostess set out a variety of finger foods ranging from goat's cheese with a lovely cranberry sauce to hot swedish meatballs. I love having meals like that, it provides for so much more variety and I probably end up eating more than I would during a regular meal.

We're headed to the Pacific Institute for Culinary Arts on Monday for dinner. They've got a special running right now, and looking at their menu, I can't wait to try it out. There's also Dine Out Vancouver coming up. We'll probably try at least one or two restaurants again this year. Hope we won't be as disappointed as we were going to C a few years ago. The food was alright, but the decor was just too @#$%^ pretentious for our taste