Falling Through the Rabbit Hole

The letter never sent

2010-10-24T10:02:00.000-07:00

Dear mom,

I'm very sad that you passed away and that you'll never see this. I'm also disappointed that you didn't get to see your best friend or your other daughter before you died. But

I'm glad you had your faith (even though I don't agree with it)
I'm glad you had your friends (even if they are insane, overbearing and over religious)
I'm glad you got to see a lot of the world
I'm glad you and dad had 49 years of happiness and hell together
I'm glad I was off work and able to spend time with you at the hospital
I'm glad the foot massages I gave you made you more comfortable and even put you to sleep at times
I'm glad I could relay your messages to dad when he was too hard of hearing to hear your soft voice
I'm glad I could make you laugh
I'm glad you were aware and cognizant up until the end
I'm glad your last meal was chicken and mashed potatoes, which was what you ordered, rather than what food services wanted to give you, and that the chicken tasted like chicken
I'm glad we had your last meal in a room with a spectacular view

You thanked me for being your daughter, but I'm more grateful for having you as a mom.

Love,

your daughter

It's a long way to the end of therapy, it's a long, long way

2010-09-01T17:33:00.000-07:00

Strange to think I'm in therapy. We never like to think of ourselves as needing help, especially not psychological, I tend to think of therapists as residing in the world of rich New Yorkers (think Sex and the City) or the truly deranged. But here I am, going to see someone about my issues.

It's not a bad thing necessarily, a good therapist will help you take a good hard look at yourself and determine if you're going down a path you really want to go, or if you're supposed to take that path that's obscured by a few more trees. I'm looking forward to the journey of finding myself; if I was really honest with myself, I'd say I should've done this at least 20 years ago, but coulda, woulda, shoulda. Perhaps I wouldn't be as forthcoming if I had gone into therapy earlier on in life, but that could've led me down a path I wasn't ready for at the time. I'm grateful for my time so far in meeting the people that I have, making the friends I've made. So despite the mistakes and hardships, overall I'm grateful to be me.

Love is...

2010-08-29T15:16:00.000-07:00

Remember those old cartoons? Well for me, love is gutting and cleaning fish so that the husband doesn't have to deal with it. It's more a matter of self preservation; I don't want to listen to him gagging over fish guts and blood. Actually gutting the fish was the easy part, my father in law came over to help (he gutted 4, I gutted 3) and he got one to take home for his efforts. And really, cleaning fish is nothing compared to eviscerating chickens. The more difficult part was actually determining how to cut them up.

Our kitchen reminds me a little of Kitchen Stadium, but only in that the husband and I are always battling for supremacy, although neither of us are master chefs. He likes to remind me that he's worked in restaurants before, including one fine dining restaurant. I refrain from reminding him that that was many years ago and he was a bus boy at the upscale place. My experience on the other hand, is based on watching my mother cook, reading cookbooks (or more to the point, drooling over the pictures) and watching Food Network like it's going to save my life. So we both bring something to the (kitchen)table; he's more into beautiful presentations, I'm more inclined to have a main ingredient or theme running through each dish in the meal. If we could only learn to work together in the kitchen, we'd make beautiful meals together.

Love at first bite

2010-08-25T10:13:00.001-07:00

Thanks to my sister, I got hooked on making bread. Not by hand so much, but with a bread machine where you throw everything in and walk off and let it do its thing. Hubby bought me a breadmaker a couple of years ago and despite what his co-worker said to him ("she'll use it once or twice and then not use it again), it's been put to very good use making loaves of bread and lots of pizza dough.

More recently however, my sister turned me onto artisan bread using the bread machine. I finally made a biga, and made a loaf of Italian bread. Hubby had a slice, toasted and he thought it was manna from heaven. It will be hard to go back to regular bread after this.

Thanks sis, for inspiration yet again.

Things that go bump in the night

2010-08-23T10:50:00.000-07:00

Call me old fashioned, but to me, tattoos are for Japanese warriors who fight to the death. Tattoos are not supposed to be cutesy permanent marks on a person's body that's going to look like goodness knows what when everything starts to sag.

A friend of ours used to date a gal who was into tattoos, a lovely gal actually but I just couldn't relate to her because I can't understand using your body as a canvas. Unlike a normal canvas, your body does not stay taut and tight forever.

If I met this gal in a dark alley late at night, I'd be looking for a quick exit. In broad daylight, I know I could take her with one arm tied behind my back because she's such a tiny thing, but at night, I'd be worried her tattoos would come to life and beat the living crap outta me.

And now back to your regularly scheduled program

2010-08-21T16:00:00.000-07:00

I'm currently reading a book called Sex and Bacon (not the only thing I'm reading; another book is about an undertaker who solves murders, and the third book is about a sea monster terrorizing a small town who's sheriff is a pothead), written by a former porn actress. it wasn't the sex part that got me interested, but rather, what is this person writing about in terms of food and why did she get published?

I picked up the book because I needed something else to read that was non-fiction, other than cookbooks and it was there staring me in the face. This book is great in that each chapter is like a new story and so for someone like me with ADD it's possible to read it when I feel like it and not have to keep yet another storyline straight in my head.

Her writing style is like Anthony Bourdain in some sense, so not for everyone. She's blunt, swears and of course reveals things from her past life that are funny, poignant, and sometimes, for a chickenshit like me, even gross. But hey, that's what makes the world go round right?

I figured after all my whining and complaining and feeling sorry for myself for the last while, it's time I wrote something that was in some ways semi-related to the title of my blog.

The World has to come to an end

2010-04-18T19:55:00.000-07:00

And not because the Mayan calendar says it will, although in some ways I think they were right; the world as we know it has to alter in some way and hopefully for the better.

I'm hoping that by 2012, all these so-called reality shows will just die a sudden death. The final show that got to me was "What would Brian Boitano Make" on the Food Network. C'mon are we really that starved for something to watch that they need to put some former figure skater on a cooking show? I thought the food network showed only serious cooks, but then again, they let Rachael Ray on as well, don't they? Maybe it's just time for me to stop watching tv.

Wherefore art thou, bluebird of happiness?

2010-04-05T21:23:00.001-07:00

You know that old joke about "I want to die peacefully in my sleep like my grandfather, not screaming and yelling like the passengers in his car." I'd like to take it to a more serious note and say I want to die thinking I've lived my life how I want and not regretting a single moment. Okay, I'll regret a few moments, but overall, I hope not too many.

Why this morbid thought? Mom's dying, as we all are, but she's reflecting on it, and not in a good way. She's focusing on how all the negatives in her life, how her kids didn't embrace religion like she did (I'm crazy, not stupid), how she wasn't the best mother she could've been (the whole motherhood book wasn't on sale at the time), etc., etc. Even dad has told her, you live each day, how you want to live it is up to you. You can either be happy and grateful for what you have, or be pissy and negative, the choice is yours.

I hope that when I get to my mother's age, I won't be incapacitated with a major illness, as I know that's a big reason why she doesn't have the bluebird of happiness perched on her shoulder. But I think having the right attitude will also see you through a lot.

And on that note, I will get off my soapbox and make way for someone else.

New Year's Resolution? Nah!

2010-01-11T21:09:00.001-08:00

I don't do New Year's resolutions, I don't have that type of determination nor memory to remember what I said I would do. Instead, I'm going to make an affirmation (is that the right term for it?) to be a more positive person. I'm not going to be a Pollyanna by any means, that would go against my very essence, but I can try and be a more happy, forgiving person. So for the 2 to 3 people who actually ready my blog, you can hold me to this.

Is Sorry really the Hardest Word?

2009-10-01T21:49:00.001-07:00

As an asian, I apologize for everything, something I did, something someone else did, First and Second World War, it's all my fault. But it seems to me that so many people don't say sorry anymore. They can literally run you over and you can expect at the most, a grunt. So what's happening in the world? It's sad that I'm starting to get to be like them, I will stand my ground when walking, I won't move out of the way for those who're walking in my path.

I had a guy today on the bus elbow me a few good ones. I think he could feel my sideways death glare and that's the only reason why he apologized. It probably would've been more effective and a quicker apology if I had elbowed him back, but again that apologetic nature doesn't allow me to react in a physical manner, I can only fantasize about how much I'd like to beat this kid over the head with my umbrella.

Thinking of posting on Buy&Sell

2009-03-29T13:44:00.000-07:00

Wanted: one new body. Preferably something that looks like Heidi Klum, but will take a Victoria Beckham if that's all there is available. Would like the face of Audrey Hepburn at an early age.

Willing to trade in one half-used, short body, in not bad shape and a bag of choc chip cookies. Please respond soon.

(I'd keep this one, but it's just decided to go into "that time of the month" without proper notice. I'd like to have been able to eat lots of junk food and be really bitchy for a good reason.)

Twitter: Facebook for ADD

2009-03-09T18:55:00.000-07:00

I'm sorry I haven't written in a while, nor have I been on Facebook. I've been Twittering instead because it's so much more my style. A sentence or two is all that comprises each post and I'm meeting new people on there I'd never have thought I'd meet. I mean, I'm following GodtheFather, SeverusSnape and Hugh_Jackman of all people. Who'da thunk you'd be hanging with celebrities?

Talk about rose coloured glasses

2009-02-18T14:06:00.000-08:00

Hubby was telling me an anecdote from work about this woman at work who’s so stupid...

(Audience shouts: How stupid is she?)

Well I’ll tell ya. She’s been living here for a while now, but her daughter’s been living in China on her own. Her daughter’s 20 years old, which is legal age by all accounts.

SW (stupid woman): I’m worried about my daughter; she’s at Granville Island by herself.

Hubby: Why are you worried about her?

SW: She’s there by herself.

Hubby: And?

SW: Well, she’s special.

Hubby: Special how?

SW: She doesn’t speak English very well.

Hubby: There are a lot of people here from China who don’t speak English well.

SW: But she’s special.

Hubby: Special in what way?

SW: She’s pretty.

So apparently the rest of us our dog meat and her daughter is the latest Helen of Troy. I will now go kill myself in shame of my ugliness.

Can I have my own planet please?

2009-02-18T12:03:00.000-08:00

It’s amazing the mentality of many single men out there. I follow a guy on Twitter who has posted how he went down to some skanky Mexican strip bars and received lap dances galore, but then laments how he can’t meet women.

Hello, Earth to typical single male who thinks with his penis! Women are no longer sitting around (never have been actually) waiting for some guy, any guy to come along and marry them. These guys all want pure girls, but think it’s all fine and dandy to go out and do things that they probably wouldn’t want their mother to know about, let alone someone they want to sign a marriage certificate with. I admit, I’m old fashioned, but I appreciated the fact that my husband had less sexual encounters in his single life than he has toes. Way less.

And on the note of male bashing, please visit http://stupidstuffmyhusbanddoes.blogspot.com/ and share your stories with Kelly. I personally will be visiting that site at least once as week to see if I find stories where I can point at the computer and say “OMG, I know exactly what she means!”

So much Twittering, so little time

2009-02-17T21:13:00.000-08:00

I really don't know how my sister does it. I'm now following 31 people on Twitter, and have 19 following me. That's already enough to keep me distracted from working, not that it takes much when I'm transcribing minutes. I guess that's why people have Tweetdeck, to respond directly to those twitters that are directed to them, but there are some interesting comments floating around in general.

Good food even in the 'burbs

2009-02-09T19:19:00.000-08:00

In my econ class, someone had written about an article about how McDonald's is still making money in these hard times. The funny thing is, it's not cheap to eat at McDonald's, ethnic foods is so much better, tastier and better bang for the buck.

We went to a little Japanese restaurant the other night up by our place, where, there were actually (gasp!) Japanese sushi chefs. Hubby, being his usual conservative self, had a miso soup and chicken and beef teriyaki. He likes miso soup, who woulda thunk it? Not that this was his first time having it, but I always figured he had it because it came with the dinner box.

I on the other hand, perused their fairly extensive selection of rolls, and ordered a Fire and Rock Roll. I can't remember exactly what else was in it, but there was spicy scallops and a sweet sauce and a tangy sauce. That and the miso soup I had for a starter was the perfect meal for about $10. Beat that McDonald's!

Be grateful

2009-02-04T19:54:00.000-08:00

I was cranky yesterday (I know, what's new) but then I was thinking, there's so much more I should be grateful for than to be cranky about. It's been a beautiful few days, I really like the people I work with, my husband will actually help with cooking and cleaning (if I let him) and I don't work in a toxic environment anymore.

Now if I could just win the lottery...

Help, help, fashion police, fashion police

2009-01-22T08:23:00.000-08:00

Although work is a place of higher education, it obviously doesn't translate to higher fashion sense. Sitting outside yesterday with a friend, we observed the comings and goings of the students. One had on a jacket that went down past her her bum, but I think her legs were bare until her fuzzy boots started. How many poor innocent dust bunnies had to die to make those boots for her?

Another girl was almost worse, she was wearing a bomber jacket with white short shorts, dark leggings and boots. White?!!?! Unless you're in a winter photo shoot in the middle of the Arctic, trying to pose with those cute seal pups before they get clubbed to death, white bottoms are not a good look. Especially when all it does draw attention to your ass. Yet another was wearing those super high waisted jeans that I hope died a quick death. Those remind me of old men who pull their pants up to their armpits. It doesn't look good on them and it certainly doesn't look good on the young, I don't care how good looking you are, or you think you are.

And although I admire people who wear what they want, fashion or societal decrees be damned, I really don't want to see larger people wearing very short skirts that ride up in the middle when they walk. There was a girl the other day who was wearing exactly that, and even her pantyhose could not hide the fact that she had Costco sized containers of cottage cheese hidden (actually not so hidden) on her back thighs. I guess I'm just old, but I long for the days when people dressed to hide flaws, not put up neon signs pointing to them.

Hubby's antics

2009-01-21T09:28:00.000-08:00

Our usual routine in the morning is I get up to exercise and put our lunches together and hubby makes coffee. We got a real lunchbag for him now so that he's not trying to juggle all his glass containers and coffee while getting into the car. It's a better system this way. This morning, I went to put his lunch into his lunch bag, and he hadn't even taken out his empty containers from yesterday. I chided him about that and his response was, "Musicians don't remember things, they're absentminded." That's professors you forgetful person you!

He also stole my book to read on the weekend, since I was away. The book is called "The Forger's Spell" and it's about a forger called Van Meergren who managed to fool the Nazis into thinking his paintings were real Vermeers. In fact, he managed to fool a few people, not because his paintings are as beautiful, but it's the art of illusion and deceiving people into believing what they want to believe (kinda like religion, wouldn't you say?) Anyway, hubby wasn't feeling well on Saturday, so he spent most of the day in front of the fireplace reading this book. He said he got through about 80 pages, which is amazing for a man who can't finish most books because of his lack of attention. Will wonders never cease?

rants and raves...missed

2009-01-20T21:36:00.000-08:00

I was rather cranky on Monday, having one of those whatever can go wrong will go wrong sort of days so it's a good thing I didn't write here, otherwise, no one would visit again. I will instead, relay a funny story that happened early this morning. This is for the benefit of anyone who is passing by.

This morning, around 3:00am, I got woken up by hubby talking in his sleep. He was facing me and I was on my back. Normally, because we have a king size bed, by morning he's on one side and I'm on the other, as far away from each other as possible, but not this morning. After he woke me up with his yelling, I closed my eyes to get back to sleep. I heard him spit and I felt moisture on my face. The guy had actually spit at me!

I asked him in the morning, after we were both more fully awake if he had been having strange dreams. He said yes, that he dreamt he was having to face a 16ft. high llama that was going to eat one of our dogs (we don't have dogs in real life, so better in his dreams) so he spat at the llama. He hadn't realized that he had actually physically spat. Luckily for him I'm not too antagonistic otherwise, he would've ended up off the bed at that point.

Positive Thoughts

2009-01-15T19:21:00.000-08:00

A friend of mine was telling me how she's find a new man...sort of. It doesn't appear that either are wanting to make a commitment but they're having a good time so that's what matters. Although I don't know her that well, it seems to me that she's a very good person and deserves better than what life has handed her. I've been thinking that she needed some goodness in her life and now she's got this. So that begs the question, does positive thinking help? Even by someone else?

My dear sister has won many a gift through blogging contests and deservedly so. She's got so many good friends that she's met on-line and I think it's because she's a positive person who goes out of her way to help out others and make people happy. I didn't realize, for example, that she had sent roses to a blogger friend to cheer her up. That to me, is what good karma is all about.

A new resolution

2009-01-14T20:40:00.000-08:00

I'm going to take a page from my sister's blog page and try and write here a little more frequently. Granted, probably no one will notice except her, however, if someone happens to drop by looking for the end of the internet (and kudos for that link to a prof I knew) stops by and peruses, welcome. Pull up a chair and make yourself comfortable.

This will be less about food from now on, since there are so many good food blogs out there, but rather more my thoughts du jour or just rants because I'm PMSing. I'm doing this for several reasons: 1) it's as good a way to procrastinate as any, 2) hopefully I'll learn how to take thoughts out of my brain and put them down in writing again and 3) with any luck, this rant will give someone a good chuckle or piss off anyone I didn't like in the first place.

So happy reading through this and all the much better posts out there.

A Fresh Start

2009-01-12T22:19:00.000-08:00

Reading my sister's blog and seeing all her friends posting there has motivated me to write a bit more. I was spoiled this Christmas with a breadmaker. I've been wanting one for a while and made do with the food processor and mixer (and the top of the coffee machine for proofing) but this is so much easier! It' s so easy in fact, that we bought our dear friend one for Christmas so that he can tell all the girls he meets that he bakes. What gal wouldn't love a guy who can do that?

With all the snow we got this winter, we got rather snowbound, which isn't a bad thing, until you start to get cabin fever. For me it was a chance to do alot more baking (3 different types of bread in the first couple of days of having the breadmaker) as well as doing other cooking. I decided, since I had bought 36 eggs, that it was a good time to make pasta. I have 2 different pasta machines, one which kneads and rolls out the dough (kinda like the Playdoh machine for making hair) and the second one is just the one that rolls the dough. I decided to use the latter because I thought I would try and make some turkey tortellini/ravioli. There's something very comforting and down to earth about running the dough through the pasta machine. As you turn the dial to get the dough thinner and longer, it's almost sexy in a way. I think I'm chanelling Nigella.

I made the ravioli but as we weren't having it that same night, I decided to store it. Note to self for next time, dust with more flour! By the time I got around to cooking it, the dough had congealed into one big lump and wouldn't separate nicely for love or money. Come to think of it, what would ravioli want with either anyway? So I ended up cooking it for a lot longer than I would've if the pasta was fresh, but the porcini mushroom sauce I made to go with it made it all worthwhile.

Christmas baking

2008-11-24T09:11:00.000-08:00

Well the idea was to start my Christmas baking this weekend, but somehow it got waylaid with the here and now instead. I had grand plans to make some icebox cookies so that they could just be thawed out when it came time, and thrown in the oven and save myself tons of time. But then I noticed I had two lemons to be used, so first I had to make lemon poppyseed muffins and a lemon bread. Then I had a hankering and R. always has a hankering for chocolate chip cookies, so those had to be added to the list. But I wisely started on the famous UBC cinnamon buns first, at least scalding the milk and waiting for it to cool and made the peanut butter chocolate chip cookies while the milk cooled down. While the cookies were in the oven, I continued onto making the dough for the buns.

I have to remind myself next time to halve the recipe. While I love the idea of having 18 buns (or however many I ended up with), the mixer just cannot handle that much dough. It mixed it, but it also went all the way up the mixer and I spent almost as much time cleaning the mixer as I did making the buns.

At least the black and white cookies were also easy to make while the dough was proofing. That's the great thing about cookies, everything goes together so quickly and the baking time isn't that long, it's almost instant gratification.

The best part is how nice the house smells when there's baked goods in the oven, and how warm it gets. It was a good prelude to doing the Christmas baking at least.

Food, in a manner of speaking

2008-11-07T20:50:00.000-08:00

We had an administrator's retreat today and for the professional development part of the retreat, a speaker was brought in to do a presentation on the Power of Food (that's what he called it). Now far be it for me to say how much you need to pay a motivational speaker but no matter what the cost, I think it's important that the person does due diligence in researching their topics before speaking.

I'd heard of the talk before, in fact, this gentleman has been on campus to speak a few times now, and he's almost as popular as Rachael Ray. His talk is on how the foods affects how we feel, our energy level, blah, blah, blah. I'll give him credit in not talking about one hit wonders, like the Atkins diet, however, he was there mostly to promote his product line which he sells, along with his motivational books and recipes, and services as a life coach.

The main reason I found this entertaining is that being in the field of Medicine, two of our faculty members attended the session and you could tell that they were not nearly as impressed by his talk as some of the administrators. In fact, in discussion over lunch, our director said that some of his statements were downright false. Of course the faculty members are far too polite to say anything, but I wonder if they were having thoughts like I was. I was sorely tempted to raise my hand during the session and ask if his background was in Nutritional Sciences, or Chemistry, knowing full well from reading his website, that it was neither. Also, as my boss pointed out, the speaker said when he opened his fridge, he could see his cooked quinoa, his flax seeds and hemp seeds and whole oat groats waiting for him; when she opened her fridge, she has a large bottle of wine and some different jars of sauces for flavouring. My boss looks great and so you think I'm going to follow the sayings of some snake oil salesman, I mean speaker, or a doctor who's studied the science of health? I also managed to lose a fair bit of weight in my early 20's, I just wasn't smart enough to make a living out of telling people how I did it.

The birthdays that keep giving

2008-10-28T19:42:00.000-07:00

Friends of ours took us out for dinner the other night, as part of my birthday gift. It was a dinner at Bacchus Bistro, at Domaine de Chaberton in Langley. My first thought was, what would a place out in Langley know about good food. Well they obviously know a fair bit. The service was impeccable, very friendly server who reminded R of Drew Barrymore, and of course our friends were fun and great conversationalists. We began with appetizers, L had the foie gras which of course came with brioche toast, fig marmalade, pickles and dipping sauces. He'd never had foie gras before, but loved every bite of it. C had the onion tarte, which smelled absolutely divine. For some reason, I think R & I had the seafood bisque, which while it didn't have the salt air about it that the one at The Chef and the Carpenter had, was still absolutely amazing.

Dinner was the venison roast for L (the special of the night), the salmon for R, and I had the halibut special. (don't ask what C had, I can't remember). But everyone definitely oohed and ahhed over their meals. Oh, and they brought us scalloped potatotes to share, which was so rich and yummy, I would've scarfed the whole thing down if I hadn't been feeling so full already. I wasn't thinking of having the menu prix fixe, but it turned out that since I had already ordered two of the specials, I might as well have the dessert as well. I had the lemon tart, which was a perfect way, I thought to finish off the evening. L had the chocolate mousse which looked sinfully delicious.

It was nice sitting outside on the covered patio as there was a large party of 30ish women inside, and we all know how rowdy a group of women can get. We finished off the evening with some chocolate at home to make it the perfect evening.

This past Sunday, N took us out to dinner for his birthday. Silly I know, but he had a gift certificate from the Washington Avenue Grill for a free meal for him. We'd been here before with R's parents for brunch which was very lovely. The one thing about going to White Rock is that you have to pay for parking, all the time practically. They're worse than downtown Vancouver about their pay parking times. But I guess they figure they're a small area, so they're going to milk it for all it's worth. But I digress.

We all began our dinners with the seafood chowder, which was really tasty. It was a difficult choice since so many items looked so good, but that turned out to be a very good decision on our parts. For entrees, N had the mixed seafood trio, I had the ahi tuna and R had the special of the night, Alaskan king crab legs and an 8 oz. steak.

I guess I had expected more out of this restaurant since they do call it fine dining, and the chef had done a really nice job with the food, but the service left something to be desired. I'm not expecting, or even wanting a super bubbly server and a prancing pepper boy, but at least show that you've had some training in service. The girl who re-filled our glasses would reach across the table to re-fill N's glass, rather than going around to his side. The only good server really, was the one who brought us our food and knew to serve from the left. However, they didn't bring R either a shell cracker or the seafood fork so that he could extricate the meat from the crab legs. They completely forgot the crab legs for another table.

I'm not upset by this, but I think that the owners should try and have the servers put a little more effort into their jobs. Or maybe I'm used to Vancouver restaurants where they actually have to compete for business.

And the free things in life

2008-10-01T20:44:00.000-07:00

are best. Got my book from Joanna today (yay!). Can't wait to read it, however, wait it will, until I finish at least a couple more questions for my homework. I flipped through it quickly and it looks like exactly what I need.

We had a surprise farewell for a guy at work today, so of course, that meant more free food. I helped get the food ready and got kudos for presentation. It's amazing how the little things can make people ooh and aah like that. I had placed the strawberries around the outer edge of a plate, all facing the same way and in the middle of the plate, I had placed orange wedges. Then I took some more strawberries and placed them between the oranges. Simple, but people seem to like it.

The good things in life

2008-09-30T21:16:00.000-07:00

Not the best things, those are free; the good things cost a lot more. well some at least. The surprise bday party hubby threw for me was good. Lots of good food like BBQ duck and soy sauce chicken (which BTW, I didn't get to eat nearly enough of, being the guest/host of honour), fried rice, fried noodles, lasagne, cheeses coming out of the yin yang, spinach dip, hummus, hors d'oeurves, cheesecake, chinese pastries and the birthday cake. Yes, a beautiful cake from PICA which was way too big for the amount of people we had there. It was a lemon flavoured cake with bits of strawberry jam making a checkerboard design on the inside. Absolutely wonderful.

The best thing is unrelated in a way, altho it happened on my birthday (or close enough to it that I'm going to count it as such), I won a prize from The Soapbar Blog. Mind you, it's not nearly as good as winning something that was made by Joanna, however, it was still winning something, and as my dear sister said, maybe this means my luck is turning.

Back to reality

2008-07-22T12:22:00.001-07:00

Well my sister and her family have gone home again, after two weeks of fun and lots of eating. The best part of when they come to visit, besides the fantastic company, is the eating. Besides the fact that our parents try and kill us by feeding us chicken that's been left out overnight, we do get to eat all sorts of other wonderful things. Our parents would go and get crazy chinese things for us, such as the squid dyed to a bright orange, or the boneless chicken feet (WTF?)

Almost every other day, our parents would go to a chinese bakery and buy all our favourite buns. And because I was off for the whole time this time, I was able to go for dim sum with them. Oh boy did I miss doing that. Just don't get into town enough to do that, although it's probably a good thing.

On our own, we visited tons of great restaurants. Thanks again to my wonderful sister and b-i-l who treated me to all those meals out. I hadn't been to Bridges up until then and I can see why it's so popular. Great food, incredible view and a sunny day doesn't hurt either. We also went to my sister's fave restaurant in Vancouver, the Afghan Horsemen. For once she didn't go with her usual entree of Bandejan Borani, which I'm sure surprised the proprietor more than how much the kids have grown. The food there is always great, and now in their new location, while a little more difficult to find parking, at least you can fit yourself and another personality in the bathroom without hurting yourself.

We also ate from Green Lettuce, various vendors from Granville Island, McQueen's Upstairs and Salmon House on the Hill. The boys were enamoured with Dolce Amore on Commercial Drive, and were very disappointed when they first thought it had changed to be a full time wine tasting establishment. Once they realized it was just more streamlined they happily went there as often as they could with their dad.

Another great thing about my sister's visit is they bring the nice weather with them. Course that meant that the weather was also nice enough to go for long walks at Bunzten Lake, and thankfully they didn't take me along to hike Lynn Headwaters. But we certainly did a fair bit of walking, almost enough to walk off all those calories that we ate.

Lucky number 13

2008-06-23T18:06:00.000-07:00

Considering the circumstances, this has been a nice weekend. First I had my friend come over on Saturday for the first time. Then an old, dear friend dropped by on Sunday to offer more moral support. It was a gorgeous day out, as well as our anniversary, and so hubby said that we should go for a walk and then he'd cook me dinner. To me, a walk means a pair of shorts and runners, so I was a little surprised when he was all dressed up in dress pants and a jacket. He finally admitted that we were going out for dinner and he was hoping I'd dress up.

We drove downtown and surprisingly, he didn't bite anyone's head off for being a stupid driver. It took a little while but we managed to find a parking spot and went for a nice long walk from Sunset Beach to Stanley Park. I was a little overdressed for the walk, in my little black dress, with a black blazer and black shoes, but then again, there's a real cross section of people down there, including one guy we saw who was probably only 2 inches taller than me, except he had his hair teased up so high, he must've stood 5'5" to 5'6". Here's a picture of the guy. It's hard to really tell from this picture, but his hair is quite high.

Dinner ended up being at The Fish House at Stanley Park. We began with martinis, I ordered hubby a Lemon Drop (Absolut Citron Vodka, lemon liqueur, Triple Sec with a sugared rim), and I had the Lost Lagoon (a variation on Blue Lagoon). These were our substitutes for our appetizers. Maybe not the smartest alternatives, but they were tasty nonetheless. For our entrees, hubby had the Salmon Wellington, and I decided to indulge (at the server's recommendation) and had the Ahi Tuna "Diane". Both were served with roasted organic new potatoes, asparagus, two types of summer squash, (pattypan and a mashed butternut) and kale. The nice thing about finer restaurants, as I pointed out to hubby, is that the food is about quality, rather than quantity. We were both too stuffed for dessert, but since it was our anniversary, the resatuarnt provides a free dessert, so we shared the raspberry sorbet.

So for us, 13 wasn't such an unlucky number afterall.

Good company, good food

2008-06-21T20:27:00.000-07:00

I'm always stressed about having the parties; having enough food, not having people wait for the food, etc. We had a friend over today, a gal I met at work who's over from Ireland. Hubby and I have been wanting to expand our repetoire of friends, and she seemed very nice when I talked to her at work.

We ran a bunch of errands prior to picking her up from they skytrain, and so I didn't have as much time to prepare as I wanted to. I had my menu set out already, but I was thinking of more of a sit down event. We spent part of the time in the kitchen as I had to make the crepes for our entree. Thanks to mom, the chicken broccoli filling was made, and with the addition of some fresh sliced mushrooms, no one seemed to mind (or notice too much) the plastic cheese mom used in the sauce. Or maybe that was because we were drinking sparkling wine at the time which makes everything seem good. To complement the crepes, we had several varieties of cheese, chips and salsa, bread, olives and biscuits.

Hubby had bought a beautiful sauvignon blanc we had that to go with our meal. It had an incredible peach scent and a very light taste which sparkled on the tongue.

For dessert, we moved to banana chocolate chip cookies and a chocolate cake. I whipped up fresh whipping cream and mixed into it, fresh strawberries and blackberries. A delicious way to end the meal.

My friend is a wonderful conversationalist, having travelled to many parts of the world and also gave us a sampling of the Gaellic language. The time just flew past before any of us knew it, and she had to go home again. Next time she might even stay overnight and we can get really drunk.

A silver lining to every cloud

2008-06-17T12:48:00.000-07:00

And it was a very dark, ominous cloud too. When it's in the form of your boss, it makes it all the more scary.

Last Thursday, my boss asked me for a moment of my time at 4:20pm. Sure, I say, thinking she's got a project for me. Turns out they're "reorganizing" and my position was no longer needed. Imagine the shock, there was no warning, no performance reviews. Terms of my termination letter was 2 months pay. I went home and had a few glasses of wine and a good cry after telling hubby. Of course I decided not to go in on Friday, preferring to stay home to lick my wounds. I called into my boss and she had the nerve to ask if it was a mental health day. Hubby was sweet enough to come home and take me for a walk on the beach.

The weekend was spent wallowing a little bit, but then I realized that I wasn't happy there anyway, and I would've been leaving if I could. I just wish I could've left before they kicked me out.

Monday, I went to see the management union for advice. I was informed that the letter was missing a number of things, including the options I have in terms of how I would like to be paid out, and better yet, the terms should be based on a month's pay for every year of service at UBC, not just the time I've been in this position. This means I get 15 months pay if I decide not to go back to work right away. I could go to school full-time or sit around and eat bon bons if I so wanted. Life is good afterall.

What a week!

2008-05-31T21:14:00.000-07:00

Stayed in town with mom this week while dad went on a mini vacation (an Alaskan cruise, his 4th). The upside, besides the fact that mom & I got to aggravate each other a little every day (grin) was the good eating.

Not often I get to pretty much eat a half a BBQ duck on my own. Not all in one day, mind you, but still, that's a lot of duck. Plus, I got to enjoy foods from my culture, and some from my youth including the egg and tomato dish, salty fish with pork and dong gua soup. Yummy! It's no wonder I gain weight when I go stay with other people. Between the two weeks at my sister's and a week at mom's, I'm sure I've gained weight. So now it's back home again to try and lose it all. Guess I better get exercising since summer's coming.

Summer time

2008-05-25T12:56:00.001-07:00

Third time's a charm

2008-05-24T20:28:00.000-07:00

Hopefully it is, at least in hard lesson's learned.

I'd had a rough week (don't ask and I won't bore you to tears) but by the end of Friday, I was ready to go home and have a drink. Well being asian, I don't tend to tolerate alcohol that well. I had a martini (gin and 2 olives) when I got home, and after I polished it off, I was feeling a little less pain, but decided to go have a second one. This was, afterall, dinner. So I gulped down a second martini and we sat down to watch a video. I decided to have some Pirate's Booty since hubby suggested I should probably eat something. About half an hour into the video, I slumped in the chair and passed out. I was awake enough to pull the now empty booty bag closer to me as I felt like I was going to need a barf bag. I guess hubby knew I wasn't feeling well from my moaning noises, so he grabbed me a bucket, and I unceremoniously proceeded to expel anything and everything I had in my system.

I could feel the earth spinning around me, and it wouldn't listen when I asked it to stop. Hubby carried me to the main floor (I wasn't going to make it to our bedroom without having to throw up again) and I managed to stumble into the bathroom to make sure I didn't have anything else on my stomach before falling into the guest bed. Hubby was kind enough to empty out the bucket (I think I heard him making some puking noises himself) before bringing it back to me in case I needed it. He also brought me a cool towel and a glass of water. I managed to sleep for a few hours before waking up to brush my teeth (there's nothing worse than puke breath) and headed back to bed.

This morning, hubby was very disappointed to find that I didn't suffer from any sort of a hangover, and wasn't going to pursue hair of the dog. This is only the third time in my life that I've gotten this drunk, and the first time that it was truly self-inflicted. I've sworn of gin for at least a week, and any form of alcohol until at least Monday. We'll see what a new week brings.

Home again, home again

2008-05-18T20:40:00.000-07:00

I'm happy to be home, if only for my own bed. No offense, but sleeping on an air mattress with spiders ready to crawl into bed with me, for some reason, doesn't appeal to my senses. Although I'm as always, grateful for my own bed, I do miss my sister and her family a ton. We had a great time (I think, the nephews may disagree) together, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

We baked lots, including black bottom coconut bars and my sister re-made chocolate coconut bars for me to try, as well as Mark Bittman's brownies. Yum! The workers working on their shed were also very happy to get to try out the treats as well.

I was treated to a wonderful dinner at Tallent's for my sisters' birthday. One thing I'm never missing there is good food, beit my brother in law's wonderful cooking and fresh ingredients, or being taken to the nicest restaurants around.

I also got given some wonderful soaps made by my nephews, as well as had the privilege of being their first customer. I'm looking forward to more stuff being made by them (hint, hint) as well as their visit in July.

Good Times Good Food

2008-05-09T17:49:00.000-07:00

Staying at my sister's place always means a relaxing time (even if she doesnt' think so) and lots of good food. My b-i-l is the best cook and my sister makes some mean baked goods. Plus, I've gotten her into having pomtinis, so to celebrate, we got some stainless steel martini glasses.

We always eat well, and with the completion of their greenhouse, we've had amazing meals of mixed greens (beet greens, salad greens) and choy sum. Yummy! And organic to boot! Even the simplest meals, such as hummus with pita is kicked up a notch with their own homemade sundried tomato paste in the hummus. The slow cooker curry beef was to die for, and of course, the banana bars were heavenly. I can't remember all the wonderful things we've had, but we sure have plenty.

My sister and I have been enjoying our times, chatting it up and getting caught up on things that just take too long to write by email. Unfortunately, this trip is only two weeks long, but we do cram in as much fun as can.

The Chef and the Carpenter

2008-04-03T19:14:00.001-07:00

We went out for dinner Monday night, courtesy in part to hubby's workplace. We decided to go somewhere different for a change, and that's probably why we bought the Entertainment book, to have something to look through because heaven knows we've barely used it.

I decided to look up the Chef and the Carpenter, a french restaurant that has been around since god knows when. They don't have their own website, but the reviews I read all said what a great place it was, so we thought we'd give it a try.

Being a Monday night, it was fairly quiet, especially down that stretch of downtown. Not that we mind, we like peace and quiet. What a quaint restaurant it was. As we walked down the street, we saw a group of young asians hanging around, and hubby thought that was where we were going to eat. Turns out it was a noodle house of sorts, must be cheap for so many students to hang out there. The Chef and the Carpenter on the other hand, was very traditionally french. The exterior was painted a french blue, and as you walked in, it was very reminiscent of the french restaurants we visited in Paris.

Hubby started the meal with a potato leek soup, which must've been made with whipping cream, it was so creamy and smooth. I opted for the lobster bisque, which was heavenly. You could smell and taste the sea in the soup. For the main course, I had their roasted halibut in a lemon butter sauce while DH had their chicken breast in a maple syrup cognac sauce. Both of course came with the usual roast potatoes and seasonal vegetables, and the sauces were to die for. Since DH was having the menu fixe prix, he got to have a Creme Brule to end the evening.

Not only were we the only couple in the restaurant that night, it was very Parisian in that there was an old gentleman who was eating htere by himself. We saw many patrons in the Paris restaurants who obviously frequented their neighbourhood restaurants as the chef and the server would greet these diners heartily. This old gentleman was no different, he wandered out after his meal and came back later on to chat with the owners.

I'm sure it gets busy there on the weekends, so we were fortunate to have the attention of the owners all to ourselves that night.

Strange cravings

2008-03-21T14:13:00.000-07:00

No, I'm not pregnant, just fluish and feeling run down. And you know how when you're not feeling well, very few foods appeal. So what have I been eating? Soup (even if it is only Knorr out of a box) and Pirate Booty. Not the healthiest thing to get you better in a jiffy, but I'm compensating by drinking green tea. The lovely T-bone steak I have marinating in the fridge will just have to wait another day.

The Joys of the West Coast

2008-03-13T21:24:00.001-07:00

Mom had invited us for an Alaskan king crab dinner tonight. I knew she'd invited some of their other friends, so I didn't know what to expect. It was a fairly small restaurant close to their home, but the nice part was where we were sitting was tucked away in a corner, away from the rest of the regular patrons.

The set menu was delicious. They chose a 12 1/2lb king crab. We started with the legs being cooked in a butter garlic sauce, and of course, with king crab, you just pull the meat out of the legs. Hubby, not being one for pulling apart shellfish appendages, enjoyed this one since it was so easy. The next dish was the remaining legs being cooked in egg white/wine concoction with ginger and spices. After that, they came out with what I called nouveau chop suey. A mixture of deep fried julienned taro root, salted mini fish, jicama, peanuts and some other things, all cooked up. Tasty in it's own way, but not nearly as good as the black bean zucchini cod hot pot. The final dishes were noodles which could be mixed with either of the first two sauces, and seafood fried rice in the body of the king crab.

The whole thing little more than what the two of us paid for eating at The William Tell, and suprisingly, the company wasn't bad either.

Tis the season for eating seafood

2008-03-09T22:14:00.000-07:00

Or so my mother tells me. Without trying to make my sister drool too much (but at the same time, maybe giving some incentive to come visit at other times of year) mom's getting some friends and us together for Alaskan king crab dinner this Thursday. The only downside is that we'll have to spend time with their loud friends. Gotta remember to get hubby to OD on St. John's Wort prior.

Sometimes I even amaze myself

2008-02-29T20:32:00.000-08:00

We had bought 4 lbs of mussels one weekend (okay, I did, hubby could've cared less) and so while we did the steamed mussels the first night, hubby didn't care too much for it, so I had to fiugre out a better way to cook them.

I found a recipe for Thai curry mussels and changed it just enough to make use of what I had, and added some prawns into the mix. Boy was it good! It was one of the few meals I've made that I could eat and eat even when I was full. The base is something that could be used with any type of seafood and it would taste great.

I also made a triple chocolate cake for hubby. 'Nuff said. That's why he loves me.

Ah, the French

2008-02-02T09:45:00.000-08:00

Friday was a great food day. I had a (much belated) farewell lunch with a friend and former co-worker (my fault, I kept putting it off with new jobs). He took me to Provence Mediterannean Grill, a french restaurant.

I find french cuisine amazing because it's very simple for the most part, but oh so good. We started the lunch with antipasti. I should've looked at the menu beforehand because just going up to peer through the glass counter doesn't provide enough information. So, I ended up ordering the bocconcini and tomato salad, grilled artichokes and roasted veggies. If I had to do it again, I'd go with the grilled lamb or merguez, eggplant lasagne and grilled squid. Course, that would be a meal in itself, and I could've saved my friend some money that way. LOL.

He had the Queen charlotte wild salmon, and I had the special of the day, arctic char wtih a artichoke tapenade over grilled zucchini and asparagus with roasted potatoes. It was delicious, and the company was a blast.

For dinner, we went to The William Tell with friends. We got there early, so we ordered drinks from their extensive cocktail menu. Hubby asked me to order him a drink, so I ordered him a Razztini, which was raspberry liquer, raspberry Stoli and cranberry juice. For myself, I order a Dragon Queen; Hypnotiq, peach schnapps, and some other stuff. Man was it good, although the server did rib me about being a Dragon Queen. You are what you drink. I had heard that the servers there can be quite obsequious and/or grumpy, but I found it to be nothing like that. Darryl, our server was funny, polite but still professional. It turned out he knew our friend C. She had housemates once upon a time who worked at Lumiere and Darryl, being also in the restaurant business, had been to a party with C once before.

We did the Taste of Vancouver menu, and 3 of us had the vol au vent for an entree, while hubby was written down for the lamb shank. It was, delicious, or at least we thought so. C didn't care for the sauce, I'm not sure why. We also ordered a bottle of Gewurztraminer, which was wow. Who knew that BCers actually knew how to make wine? ;)

I don't do lunch

2008-01-31T20:11:00.000-08:00

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

2008-01-27T10:24:00.000-08:00

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

2008-01-21T21:37:00.000-08:00

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?

2008-01-20T18:20:00.000-08:00

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

2008-01-13T08:51:00.000-08:00

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

2008-01-12T16:16:00.000-08:00

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

2008-01-11T22:33:00.000-08:00

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

Three weeks of fun in the sun

2007-10-17T20:23:00.000-07:00

Without having to go anywhere tropical even. It was hot and humid at my sister's place. Not her house, just the area, but a good time was had by all. Or at least sis and me; drinking every night (not to excess mind you, since sis can't take too much alcohol), baking up a storm (as always) and eating tons of good, organic food. She made some wonderful sticky buns, and we made carrot cake with cream cheese frosting, thumprint cookies with orange marmalade, and was it lemon cookies? I can't remember now, it's been a whole 3 days since I've been back. My dear b-i-l, a wonderful cook made some incredible congee, not once, but twice for us. I don't make it myself because I'd be eating it all by myself, but after having his, I'm thinking that might not be such a bad thing.

Hubby of course came back from Paris before I got back, and he came home with tons of chocolates. Absolutely to die for. His major binge: a 1kg Valhrona chocolate bar.

Hubby's also been making dinner while I'm taking my accounting (blech!) course, which is very sweet of him. We have very different styles, he and I, so it's best that we stay out of each other's way when the other person is cooking. Or maybe that's just me, I prefer to not cook with him.

He's also doing all the food shopping, which is also different from my style. He came home tonight with a big Costco size (I was being redundant, wasn't I?) container of ground black pepper. I asked him why and he said it was for when we needed large amounts. Me, I dont' believe in any pepper that's not freshly ground. It just doesn't taste the same, no matter what the bottle says about finest peppercorn and all that crap. He also brought home a box of grapes, which I would call table wine grapes. They're the type with seeds, and thick sour skins. And he thinks I can eat this at work?

I'll be happy when this course is over and I'm back to doing the kitchen things. It's more of a passion for me and I think I'll get some ethnic foods that way too.

Something deliciously fattening

2007-09-18T20:00:00.000-07:00

Our friends had us over for a brunch on Sunday, and of course you have to bring something. I knew our friends would be making tons of meat (her hubby is a little carnivore) and I needed to clear out our fridge in anticipation of hubby and me taking trips. So after scouring the internet, I fell back on my favourite site, Epicurious.com for inspiration. Needless to say, they didn't disappoint. I followed the reviewer's suggestions in splitting the recipe in half, but made sure I followed the instructions of using a souffle dish to make the sundried tomato and pesto torta. Didnt' turn out quite as pretty as the picture shows, but hey, it tasted good and that's all that matters, right?

The rest of the food was fabulous too, but you can never go wrong, according to our Polish host, with sausages, pork, and potatoes. I have to agree with him on that one.

Cravings

2007-09-11T19:09:00.000-07:00

I'm not liking anything I'm cooking these days. We had friends over last weekend, and they oohed and aahed over the food, but after they left, I was bored of it. I'm still fine with the cheeses and the spinach dip, but the roast pork, I wish I had given more away.

I'm craving what I'm not getting. A friend of mine told me about a chinese banquet she attended: cold plate, abalone, lots and lots of seafood, fried rice with two types of sauces. Made my mouth water just to hear about it. I guess it's cuz I don't make much ethnic foods; hubby's a white guy through and through, so I'd rather make something he'll eat than have him pick his way through dinner because I've made something I like.

I'm looking forward to visiting my sister and getting some good food. I've started a course again, so hubby said he'll cook. It's a scarier proposition for me than him. Not that I don't think he can cook, but my kitchen is my refuge, just like the wood workshop is his. I don't go into his sanctuary, but he's quite happy going into mine, and he feels like I'm saying he's inadequate in his culinary skills. It's more the fact that I know what's where in that jumbled mess of mine, which drives him crazy, because he can't find things. Course, being a typical male, he won't look past what's right in front of him, which is half the battle.

Like I said, I'm looking forward to time spent with my sister, where I don't have to cook. Not that I mind cooking, it's more the battles in the kitchen with hubby that I find wearing.

Double Whammy

2007-08-31T21:12:00.000-07:00

I'm going to tax my poor little brain and see if I can do this. I got it off my friend Rosie's site:

Use the first letter of your name to answer each of the questions. They must be real places, names, things . . . nothing made up! If you can't think of anything, skip it. You CAN'T use your name for the boy/girl name question.

Famous Singer: Madonna
Four letter word: mime (can you tell I hit my head?)
Color: Magenta
Gifts/Presents: Music box
Vehicle: Mercedes Benz
Things in a Souvenir Shop: map
Boy's Name: Merlin
Girl's Name: Minerva
Movie Title: Memoirs of a Geisha
Drink: Margarita (Cheers, Rosie)
Occupation: Magician
Celebrity: Madison Mason
Magazine: Marie Claire
U.S. City: Maryland
NCPro Sports:
Fruit: Mangoes
Reason for Being Late for Work: Missed the bus
Something You Throw Away: mismatched socks
Things You Shout: "Me, me, me!"
Cartoon Character: Marvin the Martian

Eech, ooch, ouch

2007-08-31T20:55:00.000-07:00

As my sister noted, things change as you age. For instance, she said her clothes and how they fit has changed. For me, I'm getting clumsier and clumsier. I'd like to blame it on association, as a friend of mine is an absolute klutz (and fully admits it) but I have to say, it is just me.

For instance, when said sister was here visiting, we were walking along, and next thing you know, she turns to me and I'm on the ground. It wasn't like the walkway was terribly steep, I just kinda misstepped and fell.

Today, I did one better. I was walking down the stairs when I caught my heel on the cuff of my pants and went ass over head down the stairs. Thank my lucky stars for landings. This time, instead of my pride being hurt (which happened when I fell 3 times this past winter in the snow and mud), and people seeing me fall, I managed to have absolutely no audience, instead, just hurting parts of my physical body instead.

So much for tai chi teaching you how to balance and compose yourself. I should ask my tai chi master (a.k.a my dad) for a refund. :-) And yes, I'm looking for sympathy...tons of it. ;-)

Salmonella, anyone?

2007-08-28T21:20:00.001-07:00

I swear our parents are trying to kill themselves and anyone else who comes through those doors. If I'm a bad cook in terms of getting the food to the table all at once, I'm going to blame it on my parents from now on.

Mom had me get the fish fillets ready (her usual mayonnaise and onion soup mix), and it wasn't until that was sitting there on the kitchen table that she had dad prep the squash. Now, even an idiot knows that squash will take longer to cook than fish fillets, right? So what does that make mom? And then, because she is the queen of micromanaging, she tells me to keep the spoon I had globbed the mayonnias onto the fish with, instead of using it to spread the mayonniase, in case I needed more mayonnaise. I didn't tell her that I prefer to have a bit of seasoning with my fish, and not the other way around.

Meanwhile, she's preheated the oven for the last half an hour before the squash is ready to be cooked. And then they wonder why their hydro bill is so high. Sheesh! I put the squash in for a good 10 mins before the fish, and the squash still didn't turn out soft enough. I'd say the best part about dinner was the BBQ pork that our aunt had picked up. Sad state of affairs, tonight's dinner.

I'm baaack

2007-08-26T20:36:00.000-07:00

Thanks for missing me Rosie. :-)

I wasn't really planning on taking a hiatus from blogging, but I started a new job this past week, and it didn't seem appropriate to blog at work while I'm still the newbie.

It's a great department to work in, they are so organized. Every new person walking through those doors gets a welcome package which includes an internal directory (and they update it regularly to reflect all the newbies), policies and procedures, and a pin of the department's logo. But the best part about this place is that week 1, they have a farewell party for a couple of people, and we all know what that means: food. They ordered in cookies and tea and coffee. I had already resisted the Rolosicles that had made its way around the office, but I couldn't pass on the chocolate dipped shortbread at the party. I had to be polite afterall, right? Next week is their monthly tea party to celebrate the birthdays for the month and I guess just overall have an excuse to socialize. Works for me.

Back to Basics...sort of

2007-07-30T21:48:00.000-07:00

I was in a funk on the weekend, don't ask me why, it's not worth going into details. But having woken up early on Sunday (and not getting back to sleep cuz there was a freight train next to me) I decided to do some baking.

I checked out my yeast, which to my surprise, was still good. I've been using a book that shows how to use the microwave to proof bread, and their pictures always showed beautiful breads whereas my breads were always kinda blah. But I think I finally figured it out.

Their recipes use a food processor to make the dough, and for the longest time I only had a mixer. Albeit, it had a dough hook, but it didn't seem to do for the bread dough, what the processor managed for some reason. So lo and behold, by using the food processor, I managed to make bread as beautiful as what they showed on the cover of the book. Now if they'd only show how to make brioche using the food processor.

One way or another, hubby got to wake up to fresh baked bread, and even though it wasn't kneaded all by hand and set to proof for half a day, it still made him happy.

And now for something completely different

2007-07-21T12:57:00.001-07:00

I think they got it wrong, it was my sister who caused this. ;-D

Turn on your speakers -Breaking News: All Online Data Lost After Internet Crash --Officials confirm that all online data has been lost after the Internet crashed and was forced to restart.

http://www.theonion.com/content/node/63609

Last day full of fun, eating but no tears

2007-07-07T17:07:00.000-07:00

Well, yesterday was my last day at my old job. We went for drinks after work on Thursday, but since it was me and the guys for a good portion of it to start, I stuck with just drinking cranberry and orange juice. I know I was leaving but you still have to be sort of on best behaviour. It was good though, mostly it was just the people I wanted there so it was much more relaxed than the sushi lunch.

A co-worker was going to take me for lunch at Provence yesterday, but came down with something nasty. I'm assuming it was nasty because he's not one to not come into work. He swears it wasn't the two or three Guinesses the night before either. Oh well, I settled for a coffee and a lemon blueberry scone for coffee instead.

They also had cake for me at 2:30, and I thought it was going to be a quiet affair with just the staff, but it turned out my friend had gotten a chocolate cake, key lime pie, and lemon cheesecake for the occasion, and anyone who wanted to show up could show up essentially. It was touching to have people around, and they gave me some lovely gifts. I could tell it was my girlfriend who chose the gifts, because who else would've gotten a gift certificate for Miraj Hammam spa, her favourite spa; gift certificate to my favourite restaurant, and another gift certificate for The Bay? I guess being in the same place for 6 years must account for something. This was quite a show of support from the department considering it is summer and many people are away right now.

Another friend came by to give me Nigella Lawson's Forever Summer cookbook, and yet another friend gave me a couple of beautiful chocolates and a couple of mangoes (because she didn't have time to make me mango pudding).

It's nice to know you're appreciated, even if it only seems to show when you're leaving.

More eating today

2007-07-03T18:22:00.000-07:00

The department had my good-bye lunch today; take out sushi brought in at my request. I was stupid enough to meet with a friend for coffee at 10:00am, having a coffee and scone at the time, and that screwed up my sushi fest. Oh well, I'm not that good at eating lots when I'm in a large crowd, so that was probably a good thing. One prof showed up late, so it was probably a good thing I didn't scarf down everything in sight.

The great thing about leaving...

2007-06-29T20:09:00.001-07:00

is all the food. I was taken for lunch today by a couple of my co-workers to the ritziest spot on campus. Which doesn't say much, just that the price is steep. But I enjoyed my food, and the company. I went for the farfalle, because one of the guys ordered the halibut, and thes erver said that it was a smaller portion, and I was starving. I don't normally order pasta when I'm out, and even DH expressed surprised that I did, but it was the sort of day that I really wanted to eat something heavy. For dessert, the guys had a chocolate thyme pate, my girlfriend had the Snickers pie with butterscotch sauce, and I had the strawberry rhubarb crumble. I know, mine was the most boring, but I wanting some fruit.

Staff Gorge

2007-06-27T14:18:00.001-07:00

They had a "staff appreciation" tea yesterday. It was nice in that there were tons of food, but not so good in that it was 2:30 in the afternoon and how much can you eat then?

The catering was good though, they had various types of sandwiches, with the crusts cut off of course. The one that was unusual and nice was the cucumber sandwiches, but it also had cream cheese and pesto. The curried chicken salad was also a nice one. Of course, since it was a tea, they had to have scones wtih marmalade and jam and cream there, along with a big bowl of strawberries. I tried not to think of how much pesticides I was ingesting. There were also several types of quiche and sausage rolls. Oh, and they had two cakes to celebrate whoever's birthday was this month; one was a chocolate mousse cake, no idea what the ther one was.

There was so much food in fact, that we had leftovers for lunch today. So is that a staff re-appreciation?

Too much eating!

2007-06-24T18:26:00.001-07:00

DH and I took a long weekend down to Seattle for our anniversary. It was nice to get away for just a few days, and certainly cheaper than going somewhere exotic. It was a nice drive down too, sunny enough to be warm in the car, but not so hot that we were scorching in our long pants and shoes though.

We stopped off in Fairhaven, WA for lunch at the Colophon Cafe. DH had their bacon potato chowder while I had the African peanut soup. I'm glad I ordered a small as it was very filling and I was full all the way down to Seattle.

For our anniversary dinner, we went to some restaurant close to our hotel. Can't remember the name of it for the life of me, but it's some chain seafood restaurant for all the chi chi poo poo people. How else can you explain the fact that people were coming in for dinner at 8/9:00 at night? No one who has a family to go home to, or works normal hours would want to eat that late. Dinner was nice enough, DH's french onion soup was cheesier than a Disney movie, and my half a dozen oysters were divine. For dinner, he had the tilapia in a Jamaican rum butter sauce, while I had the marlin crusted with macadamian nuts and served with a mango salsa. The entrees themselves weren't badly priced at all, ($20ish per plate) but wouldn't you think that a more upscale restaurant like that could serve rice timbales that didn't have the stuff scraped from the bottom of the pan? I mean, I grew up with that stuff, so me is was more reminiscent of my childhood, but for a more typical client, don't you think they would've wanted their grains of rice all separated rather than a part of it clumped together?

Dessert was very nice, a chocolate tower filled with mousse, topped with blueberries and rapsberries, surrounded by a raspberry mango coulis.

I don't normally have a 3 course meal, but I couldn't resist that night, pig that I am. Plus, it was our anniversary dinner afterall.

The next day, we were headed down to the Sci-Fi and Music Museum, but DH needed to stop for breakfast. We didn't know where to go, but stumbled on The Five Point Cafe, which was unique to say the least. I didn't realize a bar could be open 24 hours, let along people would want to be drinking at that time of morning. The server looked like Bettie Page with an attitude, no she didn't have an attitude, but she looked like she could. It's not the sort of place I'd want to visit more than once in a lifetime, especially not after reading some other reviews on it, but it was certainly an experience.

The Science Fiction museum was amazing. Okay, totally cool for geeks like me who enjoy that sort of thing and can recognize some of the authors they talked about. What was really cool though, was the travelling exhibit of costumes used in some of the movies and tv shows. Like all good museums, they had some interactive exhibits (not with the costumes) that kept kids interested. The museum is linked to the Music Museum, which was not nearly as interesting. Great for kids because there was lots of interactive stuff, but really, what's more interesting, George Clooney's Batman outfit (or Robert Patrick's T2 police costume for that matter) or a piece of Jimi Hedrix's smashed guitar?

Dinner that night was next to impossible to find. We didn't want to do another big dinner night, even though our hotel was supposedly in restaurant row. So we drove around, and we'll be darned if we can find a good little local Mexican restaurant around there. Ended up going to Azteca, yet another chain restaurant. Is there no such thing as an independent place anymore. The food was so middle America blah, we might as well have saved the running around and gone to Red Robin. No offense to anyone who likes that sort of thing, but our idea of a good meal is to go where the locals go, where the food is homey and the restaurant is family run.

Today, we ended up going to the Museum of Flight. Managed to get there early enough that we could go check out the Concorde and Air Force One without anyone else being on the plane, so DH could take some cool shots. The museum also has their Space museum area open now, and boy are there some neat exhibits there. Pictures to be posted at a later date. We ended up spending about 5 hours in there, because there was so much to see. Well worth the price of admission, and we only encountered one real bratty kid (blame it on the dad for not putting a rein on the kid, I should've hit the dad with my umbrella).

Something unfoody again

2007-06-24T18:17:00.001-07:00

But this time, I won't piss anyone off, or at least not intentionally. For those who I haven't already screamed my news to, I got a new job! I'm very excited by the prospect since my brain was atrophying in my current position, and it shows that I'm still loved.

There are some drawbacks to the new job though, mainly that 1)I'm not in my own office anymore, and that means no cranking the radio 2) I work later hours than I would like 3) I wont' be able to carpool back and forth from work anymore. But I'm taking the position cuz it's going to be exciting learning new things and hopefully I can put some of the things I've learned to practice.

I will miss my friends on campus, and campus itself, which is so beautiful at this time of year. I'll also really miss being a cougar at the start of the fall term. What I won't miss are all those dangly worms hanging off the oak trees. Yuck!

Like a kid in a candy store

2007-06-17T18:49:00.000-07:00

DH and I went to Ming Wo today, the idea he had was to buy me a martini shaker. I had seen one once, and should've bought it and just kept it for prosperity, even though at the time I didnt' drink maritinis. It was one where it didn't just list some mixed drinks, but you actually turned it to find the right drink. Okay, that doesn't make sense, but it looks like this. Too cool, huh?

Anyway, they didn't have any like that there, but who can come out of a cooking store empty handed? So, we bought two colanders, a towel holder, and a funky curvy long dish that holds olives. Well the olive dish is a start, isn't it?

You'd think I'd know better by now

2007-06-12T13:14:00.001-07:00

Ended up taking mom & dad to Accent's on Broadway. It was safer than trying something new on them since they tend to be critical anyway. So the only real complaint they had was that the restaurant was too noisy. That's cuz it was almost all asians in there. That's when you know it's too much of a good thing, cuz Asians can't let a good deal pass them by.

I made the mistake of having a triple raspberry dacquiri with dinner. It was hard to pass up since it was only $8. The last time I recall being sick after drinking was our first visit to the Afghan Horsemen. But that was many moons ago, when I didn't know better. On the bright side, throwing up so soon after a meal means that you didn't really consume all those calories, right?

Time for a career change

2007-06-05T19:29:00.000-07:00

As opposed to a cool change as suggested by Little River Band? I was thinking, after that last rant, that maybe my true calling in life should be one of those annoying talk show hosts, you know, a combination of Dr. Laura and Jerry Springer. Lord knows I seem to intimidate my classmates and I've managed to piss off a good friend. If that doesnt' lead to a career in trash talk shows, I don't know what will.

Actually, I'm feeling kinda like that fellow in that joke. Y'know, the one about John the Greek saying, "you build a great city, but do they call you John the architect? No! You build the biggest, best yacht in the world, and do they call you John the Boat Builder? No! You screw one goat..." My notoriety precedes me I'm afraid.

But I think I'm going to go back to writing about food. It's a safer topic, and I shouldn't get into any trouble writing about that. So, to start, since it was a dark and cool night, we decided to have spaghetti for dinner. I had sauce in the freezer already, so it was just a matter of boiling up some pasta. But the thing that makes the pasta worth eating is the freshly grated Parmesan. I will never go back to the stuff that spills out of a container by Kraft anymore.

Gotta find a restaurant to take mom & dad to this weekend as well. Dad's birthday today, so we said we'd take them out on Sunday. Mom wants us to choose the restaurant. Should be interesting. Last time we took them to a place, mom felt she was too dressed up for it. I think mom's idea of dressing up is having the colours compliment each other rather than clash. So once I find the restaurant and we try it out, I'll write more.

Gripe Time!

2007-05-19T20:50:00.000-07:00

Okay, this has absolutely nothing to do with food, except for the fact that there's no food involved. I feel I can gripe here because the only people who read this are: 1) my sister, 2) Rosie who wouldn't know me if we walked past each other and 3) my friends who don't fall into the realm of this gripe.

What is with people and their self-centred, non-thinkingness? My sister has a friend who won't RSVP to things until 2 mins prior to the event happening, which is totally inconsiderate if you don't take into account that her friend is a complete flake. But even flakes should have a brain, shouldn' t they?

In my case, well, actually it's my husband's friend, so in his case. Anyway, I digress, our friend is heading off on vacation, and DH had offered our new camera for his friend to borrow. They had talked about splitting the camera, but at the time of purchase, friend hadn't been sure if he wanted to partake since he didn't have a subject to photograph (nude girlfriend). So anyway, DH had offered it to him, but nothing had been solidified. Friday, DH talks to friend, and friend once again expressed interest, however, between his schedule and ours, we were unable to get the camera to him. Today, he calls from out of town (on his way home before heading out again) and suggests to DH that we can drop off the camera in friend's garage, and voila, here's the code to get into the garage. This is the same guy, who we have seen thru 2 partners, multiple dates and god knows what else. He gave codes not just to the garage, but to the house to a previous partner who he knew for less time than I've known some of the clothes in my closet. But us, no, we're not worthy of knowing how to get into his house.

As we're coming home from the hockey game tonight, friend calls again to say he's still at home and if we'd like to drop off the camera to him, we may do so. Now, if friend's house was en route home, we may've considered it, but it would've taken us out of our way and for what? As I said to DH, what's in it for us? Not that everything one does has to be for selfish reasons, but why the hell should we waste our time and gas (at $1.30/litre) to drop off something to him that he wants? Would a reasonable person not say, "Gee, if you're going to be home in the next little while, do you mind if I drop by and borrow that camera? It'd be much appreciated."

So if anyone has a response that tells us we should've dropped off the camera, I'd sure like to hear it.

6 Weird Things

2007-04-24T20:42:00.000-07:00

Well Rosie has tagged me, so I'll try and answer with something interesting. The idea is to post 6 weird things about yourself, and tag 5 other people and let them know they've been tagged. I don't know anyone else who reads this site regularly except for Rosie and CountryGarbo, so that makes the second rule difficult. So if anyone else reads this, I hope you play this as well, and let me know where your answers are.

1) People think I'm taller than I actually am (I'm 5')

2) I love reading murder mysteries, but I can't watch movies based on the books.

3) I am the most passive aggressive person you'll ever meet.

4) I am learning tai chi, which is supposed to teach me balance, but I can't even walk without tripping.

5) Taking after our mother, I hardly have any body hair at all. (makes it easier in terms of personal hygiene).

6) I can sleep practically anytime, anywhere. How else can you explain my falling asleep on the train ride in from the airport in Rome?

Caffeine Extravaganza

2007-04-24T20:36:00.000-07:00

We finally got out to the farm to get our eggs. Picked up 8 dozen for $20. Mind you, we only kept half of that, and I've used more than a dozen already. One of the things I really wanted to make were Black Gold Cookies, they sounded very decadent and I had to see for myself if the reviews were true. They were definitely decadent, even without the espresso powder, and with more flour than the recipe called for. I think where I made my mistake was measuring out the chocolate rather than weighing it.

DH and his best friend had 3-4 cookies apiece after dinner on Sunday night, and then they wondered why they couldn't sleep that night. Just goes to show that you shouldn't get greedy.

Just a happy thing to share

2007-04-16T11:57:00.001-07:00

Since we're having a dreary wet Monday, I thought I'd share a link that will take you to a more pleasant realm.

Gourmet foods

Another one bites the dust

2007-04-14T19:09:00.000-07:00

Friday the 13th wasn't a bad day for me, I was just happy it was Friday. It was also a hockey night in Vancouver, which meant alot of cars everywhere. It didn't help that it was rainy out as well, so more people were driving for that reason too. Hubby picked me up and we went to Accent's for dinner. I behaved myself, and just had the prawn and scallop tornao over seafood risotto and leek tempura for dinner. DH went for the full deal, starting with the chicken bliny crepes with wild mushroom sauce, panko prawns over grilled romaine(?) with goat's cheese and a triple chocolate cake for dessert.

The game we went to was good, the Giants wrapped up the second series 4 games to 1. Meanwhile, at the other end of town, the Canucks lost to Minnesota. And people paid how much to see them lose?

Tartans, tartans everywhere

2007-04-07T12:27:00.000-07:00

We went with a friend to Doolin's Irish pub for Tartan Night. Since our friend was in a kilt, DH got a free Guiness. Not bad for just having a guy show up in a skirt. Lots of men there in kilts, including the guy who runs the Gung Haggis Fat Choy, a mix of Chinese New Year and Robbie Burns Day.
Food there was good, and the fashion show of kilts was interesting. I guess the night would've been perfect for most people if the Canucks had actually won.

Pineapple Orange Muffins

2007-03-31T18:32:00.000-07:00

For Rosie:

1 cup crushed pineapple (8.5 oz can)
3/4 cup milk, approximately
1 large egg, beaten
2 tsp. orange peel, grated
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp. double acting baking powder
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg (optional)
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup margarine, melted

Drain pineapple, reserving juice. Place juice into a measuring cup, adding milk to equal one cup. Combined with orange peel and beaten egg. Sift together in large bowl, flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and nutmeg. Blend juice-milk mixture into dry ingredients, alternating with melted margarine. Mix until just blended; do not overmix. Stir in drained pineapple. Pour into lightly greased muffin tins. Bake in preheated 400 degree oven for 18-22 minutes, or until golden brown. Yield: 12 muffins.

Eggs, eggs, everywhere

2007-02-26T10:09:00.000-08:00

The farm I usually go to for eggs is only opened regularly in the summer, so I've been without eggs for a while since I don't want to buy conventional eggs. I'll buy organic when I can. Anyway, I got a hold of the owner and he was there on Saturday, so we went to get eggs.

And boy, did he have eggs, he's got enough eggs there to feed the entire area. So I bought 6 dozen eggs, 2 dozen went to mom, and I plan on doing a lot more baking and eating eggs. I did do some baking this weekend; made pineapple coconut muffins, bumblebee cookies, and butterhorns. That only used up less than a dozen eggs. But at $2.50 a dozen, how could I refuse getting so many? And they've still got dirt and poop on them!

Cat Stevens needs an update

2007-02-25T12:01:00.000-08:00

Cat Stevens once sang about a wild world. Well it's changed since then, it's now just a selfish world. Case in point: I saw a breadmaker on sale on craigslist, and emailed the seller. We corresponded a few times, and I had every intention of purchasing it, but either he gave me the wrong phone number, or I wrote it down wrong. In any case, I didnt' get it on the day I wanted to, and emailed him the next day to apologize for not getting there that day. He emailed back and told me to contact him when I wanted to come out again. I did email him again after that, and he never responded. So eventually I checked out craigslist again, and his breadmaker is now off the site. I don't mind that he sold it to someone else, but could he not have the courtesy to email me back and tell me not to waste my time trying to figure out when I could come and see it?

It's the same in everything, people on the road are too busy talking on their cell phones to care that they're tying up traffic, or they just change lanes without looking to see if there's a car coming. What happened to common courtesy and respect for others? If I was religious, I'd say the end was coming, but being that I'm not, I'll just say, phooey to you Alvin, for being rude.

A new fave

2007-02-16T12:03:00.000-08:00

I'm thinking of changing the name of my blog to something a little less food related, since most of my brain farts aren't actually related to food, but in the meantime, I'd like to say that 101 Cookbooks is a most wonderful site. I stumbled upon it by accident; it showed up as a google ad on my gmail account one day, so being a cookbook addict, I checked it out.

The pictures are fabulous and her writeups are neat and easy to read. And of course, there's always the recipes which are enough to make anyone drool.

Thought for the day: Never put a square of chocolate into your pant pocket and then sit with a laptop computer on your lap.

Happy eating.

Putting things into perspective

2006-10-26T11:08:00.000-07:00

I haven't written in a long time because there was nothing really to write about, especially nothing food worthy. However, I thought I should make a note here of any incident that happened recently. DH had to go to a funeral for a co-worker. This guy who passed away was 38 years old, and the only son of some more elderly parents. After all the whining and complaining I've done in the past, this incident reminded me to be grateful for what I have, and that whatever my problems may be, they are insignificant in the whole scheme of things.

Back for more

2006-08-10T08:20:00.000-07:00

We went to our favourite restaurant last nite before going to see The Phantom of the Opera, a gift from hubby's parents as an anniversary gift. As always, the food is impeccable and a steal. We both went for the menu prix fixe, and at $30 per person, what's not to like?

Hubby started with the borscht, and their borscht is amazingly sweet and tasty. He went for one of their specials for the day, bison stroganoff, and he said that was very yummy. For dessert, he had their signature cake, which looked very, very good.

I decided to go with the lox stuffed with crabmeat lobster, and that was only because they didn't have the elk and zucchini starter. The entree was lobster tail which was completely surrounded by tons of scallops, shrimp, mussels and prawns and vegetables in a lightly curried cream sauce. The lobster tail was sitting on top of a seafood risotto which was to die for. I joked with hubby that this was so unlike the chinese way of serving lobster; this one was out of the shell, and the shell was just there to raise the meat up. I ended my meal with the tiramisu, but couldn't finish it, it was just too decadent.

We both had tons of our entree to take home, which means we basically got two meals for the price of one. Guess what's for dinner tonight?

A different sort of fusion cuisine?

2006-08-01T11:06:00.000-07:00

I gave DH a bowl of borscht to take for lunch yesterday, as well as a container of yogurt for coffee break. Later that evening, I asked him if he ate his yogurt, and he looked at me incredulously and then made a face. I asked him what was wrong, and he said, he though the yogurt was the sour cream to go into the borscht, and he wondered why the borscht was so sweet. It was vanilla with peach flavoured yogurt, so it probably put the borscht taste over the edge.

On a grosser note, did you know that having large amounts of beet will give you a different,
but just as interesting, effect as eating asparagus when you do your bathroom business?

A taste of the old world

2006-07-31T12:08:00.000-07:00

My parents have been talking about this wonderful Japanese restaurant they've tried and wanted us to go, so this past Saturday, we went out for lunch there. My parents, wonderful as they are in their own way, have no blinkin' sense of direction, and with DH driving, this made for an interesting excursion to start. We had the address, but an old map and on our map, the road didn't exist. Good thing mom knew the approximate streets to where this restaurant was, but it was still a bit of like we were exploring the new world.

What our parents didn't tell us, maybe because they thought it'd be a nice surprise or something (lord knows what goes on in their minds) is that this restaurant is not in a commerical area, but rather is a part of the dining room of an assisted living complex for elderly Japanese people. This meant, of course that they aren't going to be serving what you and I would normally go out to eat when going for Japanese. Oh sure, they had tempura on the menu, but the samples they had out were mostly fried this and fried that, with a panko breaded exterior. The menu was a hand written one pager with about 10 items on it, and like I said, almost everything was fried. Mom ended up ordering udon with chicken off the placard that sat at the table, DH had the salmon patties plate, and dad and I each had a different fried seafood platter. With the exception of mom's dish, the rest of the platters came with a mixed green salad, potato salad and miso soup. We also ordered some tempura starter.

As this isn't a normal restaurant, you can't expect it to function like one either. They brought out our meals in drips and drabs, and I was halfway through one of dad's fish pieces (thinking, mistakingly, that it was my platter) when mine finally came out. The tempura, which we had thought would be a starter came at the very end.

All in all, it was very filling, DH's plate had two large salmon patties on it and between that and the salad, it filled him up alot. I couldn't even finish my plate there because I had to finish off the tempura. Not that that's a bad thing, and the price of all the dishes was about $7-$8, very reasonable.

Afterwards, dad said how much he liked this place because it wasn't all sushi, which he didn't like. Personally, I would much rather go out for a sushi meal, and that's why when I go out with the folks, we go for Chinese, something we can agree on.

Anniversary dinner

2006-06-23T10:56:00.000-07:00

For our 10th anniversary, DH thought it'd be nice to go back to the restaurant that we went to after we got married. Le Meridien is now Sutton Place Hotel, but we figured the food would still be as excellent as ever, since it is a 5 star hotel. The menu looked incredible and I was looking forward to it.

When we finally found a parking spot (some bastard stole the parking spot we wanted) and almost had to run back to the restaurant, we found that it had changed. For one, the restaurant used to be in the back, but that room is now changed to a lounge, and the formal dining room area is out where the chocolate buffet resides, so it wasn't as quiet and intimate as we hoped. We had dressed up for the occasion, and was disappointed to see that it wasnt' a dressy place anymore. (As an aside, always try sitting in your outfit to see how it sits. I didn't realize my coat dress would open up in the front like it did and spent a good part of the evening trying to keep it more closed).

They started us with a complimentary sampler of halibut tartare, and that was delicious. DH started with the trio of lobster, and he said the chowder was excellent, so much so that he tried to lick the cappucino cup that it came in. I had the trio of tuna and the tartare was brilliant, but I was a little disappointed in the tuna roll. Next, he had the quail breast and I had the sablefish. I have a bad feeling that sablefish is on the endangered list, so to all the sablefish out there, I apologize for eating your bretheren. It was quite nice, but my scallop was a little overcooked, so a bit tougher than it should be. In hindsight, I should've gone with the table d'ote, which would've been 4 courses, for about the same amount of money for the 3 courses we ended up having. Although I wasn't considering having dessert, the chocolate buffet was too tempting to resist, so we went for it. I loved the bread pudding made with croissants partly because it wasn't overly sweet, but really I couldn't eat my money's worth from that buffet. Even DH couldn't do it.

We went home a little poorer, but full and sleepy, and we can now say that we managed to stay together for 10 years plus!

Wasn't that a party

2006-06-20T12:58:00.000-07:00

Actually, it wasn't. When it's almost all JW's and/or wankers (some people fall into both categories, unfortunately) the party tends to be fairly boring. However, we managed through it; I did it by taking 4 Midols and 2 margaritas, don't know what DH did. But then again, it was his parent's 50th anniversary party, so it was not so bad for him.

We did our part by making 4 crockpots of chili, guacamole , spanish rice and buying chips and ice cream. I did get to try out my new handy dandy food processor for this, and it works like a dream, so in that way, I really didn't mind helping out with the food. A friend at work taught me a trick with the guacamole, which really made it nice. She said to soak the sliced onion in apple cider vinegar for 15 minutes to take out the sharpness of the onions. I found it also added a very nice flavour to the guacamole, even without adding more vinegar to the avocadoes.

My s-i-l, who planned the party did all the decorating, inviting, hiring of the mariachi band, and the rest of the food. The b-i-l, well his contribution was ice. Hope that didn't put too big of a dent in his time and money.

To give my s-i-l credit, she put in a lot of time and money into making this a special occasion for their parents. I personally wouldn't host a party for 60 people and try and make all the food for it. That's what caterers are for in my opinion. Guess that's why our parents always just go out for big meals, that way there's no prep, no clean up and no more than 3 hours with people. That's what I like.

The best part is that it's all over.

The more people I meet

2006-06-16T11:56:00.000-07:00

the more I like my dog, the bumper sticker says. Well I can see that, at least the dog is doing what comes naturally and not being pretentious.

I find alot of people are like dogs, they seem to feel the need to mark the territory with their scent, or in this case, their own way of doing things. For example, our exiting president has turned this from a campus into an elitist neighbourhood. A more recent reaffirmation of my theory tho, is a woman at work who is trying to change the way things have been done here for at least 15 - 20 years. Not that it's right or wrong, but it was never seen to be broken in the first place, so why fix it? It doesn't affect anyone, it has no relevance to her little world, so why make a big deal of it?

The more people I meet, the more I like my imaginary dog.

Stupid is as stupid does

2006-06-12T09:03:00.000-07:00

You try and help someone out, and what do you get in return? Ignored for a full day.

Our friend is going through (or was at least) a breakup, and so we tried to support him by keeping him occupied on weekends. He got an email from his (hopefully soon to be ex) girlfriend and nex thing we know, he went AWOL for a day. I joked to DH that it's too bad we aren't better computer hackers; we could've sent an email back to her, from the law firm of such and such on behalf of our client Mr. X, and that she should cease and desist all communications at this point. Ah, to be smart enough to do such things.

Wonder if those people who help with removing people from cults work with people in destructive relationships?

Snakes and Ladders

2006-06-09T09:36:00.000-07:00

Remember that game you used to play as a child (or for those of you who're parents, that you played yesterday with your kids)? Well that's how my life is feeling right now, at least work wise. I've been climbing up the ladders for the last 12 years I've been here, short ladders mind you, and now I've hit a snake. Actually it's more like a pit of them and theyr'e all venomous.

Guess that's the way things are these days, it's a dog eat dog world and everyone's out for their own asses. There's no longer a sense of comradaerie, and doing things for each other. Despite what they teach nowadays about corporations flattening out and having no managers, it doesn't seem to work that way in practice. Kinda like communism really. Maybe it is happening with all these newer companies that are run by younger people, but when you work at a place that has done things the same way for a long time, it takes someone with energy and a high rank to change things, and it's so much easier to just pay lip service.

To sum it all up

2006-05-31T21:25:00.000-07:00

I went to my reunion afterall. Got guilted into it because my dear friend had said she'd go if I'd go. Well how can you refuse that, plus the offer to buy me drinks (I had two club sodas the whole night).

It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, but it wasn't as great either. Most people don't seem to have changed that much in 20 years, which means we either all have great genes, or people have gotten hair transplants and been to the gym for 8 hours a day every single day prior to this event. We received booklets with updates on most people, as well as name tags with our pictures from our high school grad. Needless to say, I didn't wear my name tag, bad enough I looked the way I did back then, but who wants to be reminded of it as well?

It's funny how even after 20 years, some things never change. We all hung around the same people that we did 20 years ago, a few people did venture out to say hi to other people they haven't talked to in a long time, but overall the cliques remained, the snobs were still snobs and the rest of us, well we just were. I enjoyed having people look at me and not recognize me, that was the most fun of the night. The scene was a little too young, I haven't gone clubbing in 20 years and I hadn't planned on going back to a club anytime soon. At least it was only us old farts there, so it didn't really matter. Some people dressed like they go clubbing every weekend still, which made me wonder, do they and if so, how do they do it? I'm in bed by 10:00 every night, but I probably get up earlier than most as well. Age, it's a wonderful thing.

Reunions continued

2006-04-14T08:49:00.000-07:00

Seeing how someone I haven't talked to in a long time just gave out my email to the reunion organizers (obviously someone doesn't work in a field that views privacy of information as a major issue) I decided to respond and continue to read the emails.

An evite was sent out and the cost of this "exciting" event? $45 a head. I told my friend who was going to attend with me, for the money, I want George Clooney and Hugh Jackman there feeding me peeled grapes. Call me cheap,but I prefer to be considered economically wise.

That time of the month

2006-03-08T12:16:00.000-08:00

I think that I've solved the mystery of having periods. You don't actually lose an egg or two in the process, what you're actually losing, are brain cells, which is why I'm getting dumber and saying more stupid things as I get older. Also, after your period, your mind adjusts to having a few less brain cells and you talk like you normally do. When you get pregnant, you actually hold in all your brain cells until that final push, then you push out nine months' worth of brain cells.

Why do I say this? Well I just insulted our finance officer and I'm blaming it on my period. I told her I thought she was older than I was, and her driver's license told me that she's actually about 3 years younger. Oops.

Reunions

2006-03-07T11:43:00.000-08:00

I was talking to a friend about our upcoming reunion and how I received an email from one of the people who's organizing it. I checked out her website www.asweetbegining.com and I was surprised to see how much she's aged. I know it's been a while since we've been in high school, but my goodness, I dont' think I've changed that much. Okay, I have, but for me, I just took a long time to grow out of the ugly duckling stage. This woman, as my friend exclaimed, looked at least 7 - 10 years older than what we actually are. I think she must have kids on top of the business, kids seem to age people considerably.

I'm almost tempted to go (again) just to see who else has aged as badly. Plus, it'd be an opportunity to flog my business, something more on the edge to contrast with this event planning woman. I think I've gotten jaded as I got older.

New foods ahead

2006-03-07T11:23:00.000-08:00

I haven't bothered writing cuz I've got nothing interesting to write about. We've been busy getting ready for our trip to Rome, Paris, Istanbul and New York, in that order. I'm looking forward to trying out new foods and going crazy in the spice market buying all sorts of things. Nephew #1 wants basalmic vinegar from Rome. How many 10 year olds do you know who would be asking for vinegar? Nephew #2 is a more typical kid, and asked for chocolate from Paris. Guess I better ask how much cocoa he wants in his chocolate.

Speaking of chocolate, DH and I went to pick up milk from the grocery store the other nite. True to all shops, you never come out with only what you went in for. They had the Callebault chocolate on sale, so we picked out the largest piece of dark chocolate we could find, and the second largest piece of dark chocolate. So we head to the check out with our 4 items, 2 giant pieces of chocolate and 2 things of milk. The cashier asked what we were going to do with all that chocolate and DH says with a straight face, "Oh, it should hold me for tonite." I better hide that chocolate.

Who's PMSing

2006-03-01T20:56:00.000-08:00

Just finished talking to my sister's mother (I refuse to be connected to her when she's acts up). I've already had a long day at work and just wanted to unwind and have a nice conversation. It started well enough, mom told me that they couldn't use my credit card to book their cruise for whatever reason. And that's okay, it would've been nice to get the air miles but whatever. So I asked her about the cruise; she had mentioned New York and Rome in passing when she asked for my credit card, and Rome is the one place she really wants to see, being the religious fanatic that she is. She said she wasn't happy about it because both New York and Rome were just going to be stopovers and not really a destination point.

She said the people that they're going on the cruise with, had been to both Rome & New York before and therefore, didn't really want to spend that much time there. Plus staying in Rome would be several hundred dollars in hotel alone, she said. I told her that it didn't have to be, that we booked cheaper places to stay than that, and she gets all exasperated with me, saying how because her and dad don't speak English well, they have to rely on other people to take them to these places. (The implication there, for anyone who's not of asian descent, is that while DH and I happened to plan a trip for there, we weren't taking her along, so she had to go with other people.) I said her English was fine, and she pretty much told me not to patronize her. Well so much for honesty. The cruise itself sounds nice, sailing around Italy and Spain, all in all about 2 1/2 weeks of cruising. She said she didn't really care once she found out they weren't staying in Rome for any period of time, but dad really wants to go, so that's why they're going. Gee mom, that's the attitude alright.

The conversation then moved on to her saying she should give me the phone number of the girl who called me about our high school reunion. I told mom that it was alright, that I got an email from another former classmate with the organizer's email. Mom asked if I had emailed back yet, and I said no, I'd been busy. She retorted with "What, she only emailed you today?" As a matter of fact yes. Mom made it sound like it was a horrible thing for me not to get back in touch, she wanted to know why I didn't just take the phone number and call this person back. Well I've been dealing with more people today than I care to, I've had a woman at work on my case, and then send a snarky email all round to everyone about how we weren't doing our jobs. Plus, on top of all that, I'm PMSing, so if I don't want to f***ing talk to anyone, I don't think I should have to. But you'd think, from talking to mom, that she was the one having the bad day and PMSing. It's no wonder people become alcoholics.

Read twice, measure once

2006-02-27T10:54:00.000-08:00

That's what I need to keep telling myself, course I'll forget by the next time I do any baking. I decided to make cranberry scones last nite and mis-read the 1 cup plus 2 tbsps. buttermilk, to 2 cups, plus some amt of buttermilk. And then I was trying to figure out why the mixture didnt' come together in a soft dough. I also figured out why they say to mix the dry ingredients together first before adding wet; cuz brown sugar just doesnt' break down that well. Plus, I found it never did come together as a soft dough. I remembered my sister had a recipe for scones in which you didn't knead the dough, but instead, plopped it onto the baking sheet, so that's what I did. They turned out beautifully (to look at at least), and it was so much easier and less gunky. At least my chicken fettucine with peanut sauce turned out well, even without the basil and cilantro.

I think I just wasn't meant to bake this weekend; I made a chocolate cake for a client of ours, as his birthday was coming up, but I forgot some key ingredients and it turned out flat and not tasting great. So I filled it with cherry pie filling and frosted it with chocolate frosting. DH was happy cuz there was frosting left over, even tho he never did get to try out the cake.

The Most Expensive Restaurants in the US

2006-02-23T13:17:00.000-08:00

I was reading an article about the most expensive restaurants in the US (so I can drool and no I would never be able to afford to go). One of the ones that's actually close by and not as unreasonable is The HerbFarm in Washington state. I read the review about them, how they use fresh herbs and veggies grown on site and I'm thinking to myself, hey, my BIL could open up a restaurant at his home and charge these exorbitant prices. Something to think about after the kids have moved out and he needs a new career. ;-)

The original article was in Forbes and is an interesting read.

People are funny that way

2006-02-23T13:03:00.000-08:00

I was talking to a co-worker the other day, let's call her Jane. We were talking about another co-worker, Sheila, and how Sheila didn't like a former colleague, Joanne, who she found to be too abrupt. Jane said that Sheila was just too critical of others, and that she, Jane just took people for who they are.

The next day, Sheila comes into my office and said that Jane was critical of her planning on retiring. So who's right? Is Sheila just being too sensitive, or is Jane not seeing the log in her own eye? At least Sheila's still happy about retiring, which is good. It's always nice to have something to look forward to.

Pot or skunk?

2006-02-22T11:21:00.000-08:00

It used to be that people would tell me that pot smoking smelled like skunk and that was all I had to go with. Nowadays, pot is probably the biggest income earner for people living in the Greater Vancouver area, and skunks are ruling the west side of Vancouver and therefore, being run over and permeating the vicinity with their stench. I can tell the difference between the two, which is really sad. It means that while pot smoking is still illegal here (as far as I know), people do it so openly that I know it from a single whiff. I have no problem with legalizing marijuana, heck, I think they should so they can tax the heck out of it and stop taking so much from the rest of us, but I think it should be stipulated that people can only smoke it in certain areas, such as their own home and that rule would be strictly enforced. I don't go outside to smell things that smell worse than durian, I want to enjoy the fresh air.

Okay, enough whining for the day. Here's an interesting site that has nothing to do (for the most part) with food or my complaints.

Guess it's what makes us individuals

2006-02-20T13:02:00.000-08:00

I just finished reading my sister's blog and decided to check out a random blog. Just my luck, ran into the blog of an ultra religious who thinks HP books are basically evil and should be banned from households. She said she felt a bad presence when she was reading it and was trying to convert a young girl over to Christianity.

IMHO, good is not just in religion but in all things that are not harmful to others. We all know what's right from wrong and if you need some organization to tell you, then you've got major problems. As for her feeling a bad presence, how about mind over matter? It's the case of the medical student syndrome; if you believe in it enough, you'll exhibit symptoms of the illness you're reading about. She believed it to be a bad book and that "witches" are all bad and therefore felt this horrible thing around her.

I'm not against religion, as long as people don't use it as a crutch of justification for doing harm to others. I believe there could be a higher being, not necessarily just one, and not the one preached by religions. There, my rant for a Monday.

Think happy thoughts.

Winning is so much more fun

2006-02-19T10:07:00.000-08:00

Went to see the junior hockey last nite (junior my ass, they're all towering over me. Course, so will my nephews in a few years) as they played their final game of the regular season against Seattle. They've whupped Seattle's butt all season so far, and this game was no different. Seattle's team, while not the best as far as scoring goes, does have a bunch of goons to fight, and due to the history between the two teams, plus the fact they sucker punched one of our guys in Friday's game, there were fights to be had.

DH (I"m going to start calling him DH #1 soon if he doesn't stop annoying the heck outta me, which would mean there's a DH #2 in the sidelines) was heckling the Seattle players whenever they were in the penalty box, in particular the guy who did the suckerpunching. There were hoots and hollers of laughter at DH's ribbing, and at the end of the game, a young man (early teens if that) came up to DH and said, "Man, you made this game enjoyable, I esp. liked the comment about his nose being a banana." So there ya go, DH has a fan club. Mind you, the fan club is due to crude potty humour, but people like to be appreciated any way they can.

The Giants are now number one in their division and tied for first place overall in the WHL with Calgary. As the Virigina Slims ads used to say, "You've come a long way baby."

Olympic gear

2006-02-17T15:35:00.000-08:00

There's an ad going on right now, advertising "exclusively Canadian" wear. The ads on the billboards show a model wearing a fuzzy hat with earflaps. It doesn't even look good on her, how's it supposed to look good on the average person. And they're flaunting this while the Olympics go on in Italy, a place that knows good fashion from bad. If people don't already think of Canadians as being laughing stocks, they will after this.

If you want to see what I'm talking about, check out the HBC site