Holidays!

On Friday after work Christopher and I got some snacks ready and headed to the back yard.  This is always how we celebrate the start of my summer holidays.

I had the absolute best work year, which makes the celebration even nicer. 

We spent the evening visiting, laughing, and snacking, while soaking in the humidity and sunshine.  It was perfect.

On the side-burner of the BBQ, we cooked up some halloumi cheese with tomatoes, olives, herbs, and olive oil.

 

It was delicious served over baguette slices.

Other than hitting the farmer's market yesterday, we didn't do much else.  I made 1-hour cinnamon buns, which were okay, but not as good as my mom's which take many hours.  You can't rush good food.

We had more outside time yesterday, watched some Netflix (A User's Guide to Cheating Death is really interesting), and did some more snacking.

For dinner we made a Thai dish - more on that in the next post.

It's a long weekend since tomorrow is Canada day.  We're looking forward to taking part in some festivities tomorrow to celebrate.

What are you up to this weekend?

Rainy Days

It was a rainy weekend, so we just stayed inside and made waffles ...

Lemon waffles, topped with fresh whipped cream and blueberries.

Had a snacky supper:

And watched movies.

We also went to a 4th birthday party for a sweet little girl, and got to see our friends' incredible new home, which I am hoping will be the location of many more gatherings to come.

On another recent rainy day we made Mexican haystacks for dinner:

And last night Christopher made a delicious dinner of lamb kofta, baked potato, salad, and a haskap berry vinaigrette, which was much appreciated when I got home late from work.  I dug in too quickly to grab a good photo of it.  Oh, and it rained yesterday too. 

I thought we'd be free from rain today, but minutes ago, just as we were finishing our perogy dinner, the sky darkened, and the drops started falling.  Better today than tomorrow when I'm at the beach!

This week will be fun, busy, and exciting for me.  We didn't plan to do much cooking this week; instead we're just winging it with whatever we have around the house.  This coming long weekend we have fun cooking plans though, and we also plan to spend a lot of time outside, as long as the predicted rain doesn't actually arrive.

How was your weekend?  What did you do?

Are you getting lots of rain where you are? 
(It was very needed here, so I am not complaining).

What's up Wednesday

This evening we made rigatoni with sausage and fennel, which was a perfect dinner for a rainy day.

We need this rain so badly!  It has been a dry couple of years.  It's looking like the next few days will also be rainy.  Hopefully it stops before the weekend though, as we have some BBQs planned, that I would prefer not to postpone. 

Other eats recently have included two vegetarian meals.

Daal with rice:

And cauliflower rice:

We also made Moroccan chicken and served it over teff.

It doesn't look that pretty, but it tasted great!

Dessert - cappuccino pavlova!

Things are getting busy, and also winding down for me at work.  Just over a week, and I'll be on holidays!  I've been really tired lately, so I am looking forward to resting, relaxing, and recharging.  I also can't wait to go on my morning walks around the lake!

How is your week going?  

What are you looking forward to this summer?

Local & Fresh

Someone recently told me about a newer store in town, Local & Fresh. 

Local & Fresh sells a variety of locally-made grocery items and other products, all out of one place.  Christopher and I try to support local businesses as much as we can, so this will be a regular stop for us from now on.

They are located on 1377 Hamilton Street, in a gorgeous old building, and there is more to come in this space!  There will soon be pop up restaurants with local chefs!  We cannot wait.

You can buy veggies, dairy, eggs, meats, baking, supplies for baking, grains, condiments, spices, desserts, etc. all from this store, and all made close to home.

This was our first haul from Local & Fresh:

We bought:

Bacon from Pine View Farms
Sourdough Bread from Lockwood Sourdough
Haskap Berries from Northern Lights Orchards
Kimchi from Baechu Kimchi
Frozen Saskatoon Berries from Prairie Berries
Frozen Pizza Dough from KOKO Patisserie
Cottage Cheese, Potato and Dill Perogies from Kathy's Kitchen
Edible Cookie Dough from Go Big Treats
Kombucha from Crave Kombucha
Free Run Eggs from Gold Egg

The parmesan, black pepper and thyme sourdough bread was absolutely fantastic.  We ate it toasted for the past few days.  This bread alone is worth the trip to Local & Fresh!

I'm so happy that as our city grows, we can support so many more awesome businesses, owned and operated by local entrepreneurs.

Are there any locally made grocery items that you buy regularly?

Weekend

After work on Friday we drove to Saskatoon to spend time with my mom.  After a late Indian dinner at Spicy Bite, we crashed at our hotel.

Saturday morning breakfast at Grainfields:

We don't have to open the menu, as we order the exact same thing every time.  I always have the pico de gallo omelette, with the pancakes on a separate plate.  Christopher has the traditional breakfast with shredded hash browns, scrambled eggs, rye toast, and bacon.  Mmmm!

After breakfast we went to my mom's care home for the day.  We ran out to grab her perogies for lunch, and Christopher and I got a snack to share:

That evening we had a late dinner at La Bamba Cafe.

Our Sunday was basically a repeat of Saturday - breakfast at Grainfields, then time with my mom.

On Sunday evening we made burgers and salad:

How was your weekend?  What did you do?

Thursday Things

After doing our Spring cleaning on the weekend, we had a bunch of stuff in the garage to haul away, so Christopher and his dad took care of that yesterday evening. 

While they were out, I worked on making dinner - meatballs with chimichurri sauce, Greek pasta salad, and a spinach salad:

We're growing a bunch of herbs (both inside and outside), so I will be making a lot of chimichurri this summer.  I love how many herbs we can consume using them in this way #micronutrients, and I also happen to think it tastes amazing.  You can find my recipe for chimichurri here.

Look what we found in the salad dressing aisle of the grocery store!

Before my darling devoured the whole bag as a snack, I tucked them away in the cupboard. 

I wasn't trying to deprive him of snacks, but I knew they would taste great on shrimp tacos:

They added a satisfying crunch and a nice bit of heat.  We also put sour cream, purple cabbage, avocado, tomato, and onion on the tacos, with the tequila shrimp that Christopher cooked up.

My next plan for these is to put them on Velveeta cheeseburgers. 

Do you like jalapenos?  

What would you make with crispy jalapenos?

Cooking and Cleaning

Last week we went out for dinner to Rotisserie, to celebrate my dad's 78th birthday! 

Another day we had escargot in the backyard after work, and then made lobster tails with baked potato and salad:

And one evening we had tofu steaks with grilled zucchini and corn:

It has been so incredibly hot outside, so we've been getting out as much as we can.  A few days ago I whipped up a white bean hummus, and we had a snack outside after work. 

On Friday after work we ate a quick Velveeta mac and cheese, with bacon and jalapenos:

And then we got to work on cleaning the house.  Mosaic (a cultural festival) was happening in our city on the weekend, and normally we'd go with friends, but this year we decided to be responsible, and stay home to do a major Spring clean.  We got through the kitchen, bedroom, and garage, and purged a lot of junk, scrubbed, and organized.  They were big jobs, but it feels so good to have them done before summer.  There are still a few more spaces we want to tackle in the coming weeks.

Before cleaning on Saturday, we had breakfast, and ran out to the farmer's market.

By about 8:00 p.m. we were completely wiped, and had no desire to cook, so we ordered in Thai food and watched Bird Box.

Breakfast in the morning:

On Sunday evening Christopher's parents had us over for dinner.  We enjoyed a few snacks on the deck, including these delicious feta watermelon bites:

Then we moved inside for lamb, potatoes, tomato salad, and zucchini with tomatoes:

Yummm!

Lemon meringue pie for dessert:

Yesterday Christopher grilled dinner, while I was inside making noodles for our lunches.

He grilled eggplant steaks, asparagus, and mushrooms with halloumi cheese:

Tonight we grilled chicken breasts, and had those over large salads:

How was your weekend?  Is it hot where you are?  Did you do any Spring cleaning, or do you have any that you hope to get done?