Wednesday, November 20, 2019

Weekend Things

Rewind to the weekend ...

On Friday evening Christopher and I got groceries and then settled in on the couch with a tray of nachos.  We've started watching Arrested Development and Schitt's Creek, and are finding both super funny!


Breakfast on Saturday morning was overnight oats, and then I don't think we ate anything else until much later in the day when we whipped up creamy parmesan fusilli.


The next morning Christopher made shakshuka for breakfast.  We haven't been eating eggs lately, but we thought we'd give them a try again, and this was really good.


After breakfast, we got a pot of bolognese sauce going on the stove, as well as a pot of chicken and dumplings.  These would be our lunches and dinners for the next few days.


I made a pan of puffed wheat cake/squares, and one of Rice Krispy cake/squares too; these are such easy desserts to throw together, and nice to have on hand when we're craving a little treat.


Our next two weekends (and probably more) will be busy, so we really enjoyed having this weekend at home to get some stuff done around the house, and do some cooking.

This week has been flying by, and it has been nice not having to cook for the past three days. 

How is your week going? 
What is the easiest dessert you make?

(The two above are definitely my easiest.  The puffed wheat recipe is linked above, and the Rice Krispy one is from the cereal box.)

Monday, November 18, 2019

Bread and a Dinner Out

I have made a couple giant loaves of no-knead seeded morning bread within the past week.


It uses spelt flour, which I don't always have on hand, but Bulk Barn to the rescue!  I love making all our bread and buns at home.  It's easy, I know what the ingredients are, and we feel great when we eat homemade food.

This bread is loaded with flax seeds and sunflower seeds.  It's probably not the best for sandwiches but is great for toast or dipping in something saucy.  We enjoyed it with chicken noodle soup last week, which Christopher made with a stock he simmered all last Sunday.  I also had it for breakfast all week, along with fruit.

Other happenings last week included a fun tasting evening at Willow Park, and also dinner with two of our faves, Mel and Steve 💙


They took us to Ginger Garlic for a belated birthday dinner, which was awesome, as this was one of the places we had been wanting to go; they also got us a gift card for another restaurant on our list - how thoughtful!  We're looking forward to trying Bar Willow very soon!


We ordered a bunch of dishes and shared everything.  It was all delicious, and the honey rice complemented everything really well.  My brother-in-law Steve wants a wheelbarrow full of this rice, haha!


We really need to get together with these two more often, as we always have fun together.  It helps that Christopher and his brother are so darn funny; Mel and I hit the lifetime-of-laughing jackpot marrying these brothers!

Our plans for Friday night got canceled, so we wrote hibernation weekend into the calendar.  More on that in the next post!

Do you make any type of bread or buns?  
What is your favourite kind of bread? 
(We don't have a favourite, as we are both carb-crazy, and need all the breads.)
How was your weekend?

Saturday, November 16, 2019

Celebrating my Father-in-Law's Birthday

My father-in-law turned 75 at the end of October (you'd never guess it if you met him), so last weekend Christopher picked his parents up, and we had them over for a belated celebration dinner.


When they arrived we had brie-stuffed mushrooms and pico de gallo with chips, while we caught up in the living room.


The main course was smoked pork shoulder with mustard sauce, borscht perogies, cabbage rolls, peas and corn, and bread.

 
 
 

Dessert was chocolate peanut butter banana cream pie.


I know not everyone is close with their in-laws, so I consider myself lucky that Christopher's parents are two of our closest friends.  We love spending time with them, and always have lots of laughs, and a lot to talk about.

We all enjoyed the leftovers for supper the next day.


Leftover meat and bread even made it into one of my breakfasts:


This weekend Christopher and I are hibernating, and just enjoying each other's company at home.  Weekends like this are the best part of the cold, winter months.

What are you up to this weekend?

Wednesday, November 13, 2019

Last Week's Meals

Last Sunday I made a pot of sausage and kale soup.  We had that for dinner and then packed the leftovers up for lunches.


I also made a pot of rice and roasted some mushrooms, zucchini, and eggplant.  This would go into the fridge, and then be used to make fried rice for my breakfasts for the week.  In the morning I just added oil to a pan, and once it was hot I tossed in a handful of rice and a few spoonfuls of the roasted veggies.


Then I cooked one egg on the other side and mixed that all together with gochujang sauce, and kimchi.


This non-traditional breakfast kept me satisfied until lunch.

Last Monday evening we made meatloaf, creamed corn, and broccoli mashed potatoes.


Tuesday's dinner was andouille sausage with peppers and onions, served over crispy polenta.


On Wednesday we made salmon with wild rice and a coconut curry sauce.


On Thursday we cleaned the house, then warmed up leftover sausage and polenta.  After going grocery shopping on Friday night we made an easy dinner of Lipton noodle soup, and egg salad sandwiches.


What have you been cooking lately?  
Do you ever make egg salad sandwiches?

Sunday, November 10, 2019

Seven Local Restaurants We Want to Try

Our city is growing, and there seem to be new restaurants popping up all the time.  We don't often go out to eat in our own city, so it is hard for us to keep up with all the older places we still haven't been to, and all the new ones that friends have recommended.

Some older and newer restaurants we've got on our list to visit include:

1) Homestead Bar A Vin

We have heard nothing but good things about this restaurant.  It is not a place we ever drive by, so we didn't know about it until people started to ask us if we had been there yet.  Someone at work said that it was totally, "Jolene's kind of food".  After scoping out the menu, I know I want to try the bratwurst sausage with mustard, fermented veg, arugula, and cantaloupe.  The pomme gratin also sounds good!  I believe it is all smaller plates that are meant for sharing; I love eating that way!

2) Ginger Garlic

Both Christopher and I drove past this place on our way home from work one day, and it instantly caught our attention, simply because of the name.  Two of our favourite ingredients - it must be good!  With a rating of 4.9 on Google and high reviews on every other site, we're really excited to try this restaurant serving up Nepalese cuisine.  After a quick glance at the menu, I know Christopher will want to order the smoked eggplant bharta (and probably one of everything else too, haha)!

3) Luna

One Saturday morning we went to Breakfast Bistro, a restaurant in the east end that changes to Luna in the evening.  The breakfast was excellent, and we asked to see the dinner menu, which also sounded fantastic.  Luna is family owned and operated, and it has a Greek/Mediterranean influence.  The dinner menu is large, so it's sure to have something for everyone, from soups, salads, and burgers, to fish, lamb, ribs, and steaks.  This would be a perfect place for a nice evening out to celebrate something.

4) Bar Willow

Bar Willow was once Willow on Wascana, and we had been there before, however, it has been revamped as a small plate restaurant.  It's in a beautiful location in Wascana Park, and it's classy, perfect for a date night or a celebration.  The 2019 Holiday fixed-price menus are catching my eye, especially the wild boar meatballs with creamy polenta and almond crumble.  On the regular menu, my eyes are drawn to the duck wings and the ramen, among many other dishes.  Oooooh, and I am just seeing that they have a $10 brunch!

5) Fresh Carnival

I think we're probably the only people in town who haven't been to Fresh Carnival.  It's downtown, and it has all sorts of wild poutines, donuts, burgers, hotdogs, and milkshakes.  It's definitely a place to go when we're looking to indulge. I am a sucker for poutine, so I know we'll share one of those, and probably a fancy hotdog too.

6) The Cure

We stopped into The Cure in the summer, but we didn't order food.  The menu items sound delicious, so it's somewhere we definitely want to visit. I think I'd try the housemade fettuccine or the fish tacos.  They seem to keep their website up to date with events, which is great, as they often have live music and no cover charge.

7) Savory Food Trip

This is a restaurant we've been wanting to visit for about two years.  It's a Filipino restaurant and the food pictures we've seen look incredible!  I've glanced at the menu, but I don't know what many of the dishes are, so if anyone wants to toss some recommendations this way, that would be much appreciated.

Are there any restaurants you want to try in your city?
If you're from Regina, have you been to any of these places?  What do you recommend?  Anywhere else we should add to our list?

Thursday, November 7, 2019

Ordering Groceries Online

We usually get our groceries on Friday evenings, but it didn't work out last Friday, so we planned to go on Sunday instead.  That morning, there was a fresh blanket of snow covering the ground, and it made us want to stay inside and hibernate; the last thing we wanted to do was go shopping.

We decided to try something new and order our groceries online, and then just go out to pick them up.  (Delivery wasn't available on Sunday, or we would have done that.) 

After a breakfast of fruit, cottage cheese, and potatoes, we took our coffees into the living room and started clicking away.


I was surprised by how easy it was!  We logged into our PC Optimum account, and most of what we buy was already there as suggestions for us, so it didn't take long to find the other items we needed and add them to our virtual cart.


You can select the brand, see prices, etc.  It took about four minutes to grocery shop and pay.  We chose a 1:00-2:00 pick up time.  At 12:30 we got a phone call from the store; three products weren't in stock, so they let us choose replacements if we wanted.  We arrived at the store for 1:00, called to say which spot we were in (there are reserved spots for grocery pick up), and a minute later we drove away with our supplies for the week.


They are particular about picking good produce, and we were impressed with what was chosen.  Our order was perfect - no complaints! 

We enjoy browsing the aisles, so this won't become a regular thing for us, but it was really nice on this chilly day.  It would be convenient to order online on the way home from a vacation, or if we had a jam-packed week.

Have you ever ordered your groceries online?
Who does the grocery shopping in your house, or do you go as a family?  Do you tend to buy the same products quite regularly?

Sunday, November 3, 2019

Korean Food with Friends

On the weekend we had our good friends Matt and Alissa over for dinner.  They used to live in Korea, so we knew they'd be down for some dak galbi (like a Korean stir fry).


Christopher made the dak galbi, and I made dessert.  Dak galbi is usually served with crispy rice after, but we don't have the stone dish to do this (nor room for one), so instead of the rice, we carb it up with udon noodles.


Matt and Alissa came over with two Korean side dishes and perilla leaves.  They taught us to put the dak galbi in the leaves, wrap them, and eat.  It was so good!


We'll be eating dak galbi with the perilla leaves from now on.  The leaves have cooling properties, so they are perfect with the spicy dish

It's always so fun when we get together with Matt and Alissa; the conversation is interesting, and we have a lot of laughs. 

Dessert was cherry berries on a cloud:


At the end of the night, our friends walked home (one of the perks of living close), and we tried to watch a show but ended up falling asleep. 

How was your weekend?  What did you do?  
Do you like Korean food?

Last Week's Eats & Halloween

On Monday and Tuesday last week it was really cold!  We warmed up with some hearty eats, including one of our favourite pasta dishes, Linguine with Green Olive Sauce and Zesty Breadcrumbs:


If you like briny flavours (capers, olives) you need to make this dish!


It reheats well the next day, but good luck having any leftover!  Mmm!

We also made a new recipe, Thai Red Curry Chicken Thighs with Zucchini:

 

This was really easy to make, and it hit the spot.  I love zucchini, and you can never go wrong with a Thai curry.


Christopher smoked a couple chunks of salmon outside in the cold, and it smelled incredible in the cool air.  I went outside with him when he was glazing it, just to take in that wood-smoke smell.  We enjoyed some of the salmon one evening with cream cheese, paratha, and fresh dill.


My breakfasts all week mostly looked like this:


The weather warmed up for Halloween, but we only got 13 kids!  We bought way too much candy, so I guess I'll be taking it to work to share.  Our Halloween tradition is to order in pizza, so we called for Dominos and got comfy on the couch, so we could easily hop up to get the door.


We didn't dress up or go out for Halloween this year.  It was very low-key. 

How was your Halloween?  Did you hand out candy?  Take someone out trick-or-treating?  How many kids showed up at your door?  Did you dress up?  Do you order in on Halloween?