Little Weekend Adventure

What a great weekend!!  On Friday my friend Nicole came to pick me up, and then we grabbed Edith and headed out of town for a little road trip to see our handsome men play in their band, Screaming Daisies. 

We drove a few hours to Brandon, arriving at our hotel Victoria Inn Hotel and Convention Center around 10:30 p.m..  We changed, freshened up, and made it to The Double Decker Tavern just before the boys hit the stage at 11:00.

They put on a sweet show, and we cheered like crazy, all while stuffing our faces with really healthy food.

After crashing in the most comfortable hotel beds ever, and then showering in our epic hotel shower (the water sprayed from more than one angle), we grabbed Tim Horton's and were on the road again.  We drove two more hours to Winnipeg and hit the mall for a little retail therapy, and some bubble tea.

After a couple hours of shopping we met the boys at Nicole's aunt and uncle's house where we would all be spending the night.  They are such a welcoming and fun family (they only knew 2 of the 6 people that they had staying the night)!  They even made us a delicious dinner:

After dinner, laughs and a little visit, the boys headed to the venue to set up their gear while the girls got crepes for dessert.

I got mine filled with pear, Nutella and toasted coconut.

After thoroughly enjoying our dessert, we walked across the street to The Cavern, where the boys made us laugh until they took the stage.

They opened for a pretty incredible band called Zrada.  We had an awesome night, but were exhausted by the end of it.  This morning we grabbed breakfast at a Winnipeg landmark, The Original Pancake House.

This restaurant was named one of Canada's best pancake houses in Canadian Living.  

I ordered the biggest breakfast on the menu, and when Christopher saw that, he knew that all he needed to order was cottage cheese and fruit because he'd "... end up eating half of my meal."  I tried to tell him that I'd eat it all, but as usual, he was right, and my eyes were bigger than my stomach.

After breakfast and a couple of last minute stops, we were on the road home.  Half way through the trip we needed a little pick-me-up ... 

I hate it when the convenience store is out of kale, and we have to buy all of the above instead.

We're all home and happy now after a fantastic little weekend getaway!

What did you do this weekend?

Costco Short Ribs

We didn't know what to cook tonight, so I stopped at Costco and found some maple chipotle short ribs that I remembered to be quite good.  

These ribs are very thin, so they need to be BBQd on low, for a short time and watched very closely.  Christopher cooked them perfectly.  On the side we had Greek salad and asparagus.

It was a simple, easy dinner, but it hit the spot.

We won't be cooking anything for the next couple of days ... it's going to be a fun-filled, busy weekend.  Check back for a recap on Sunday.

What are you up to this weekend?   

What is your go-to meal when you just don't know what to cook?

Family Dinner

This evening we didn't have to cook anything, as Christopher's lovely parents had us over for a family dinner to celebrate his sister (Vicki) who was conferred with two degrees!  Congratulations Vicki!  She was doing a work term in Phoenix all winter, which was pretty cool, but she was also lucky enough to miss the worst winter we've ever had. 

Dinner was a rice, salmon, broccoli dish with an herb yogurt sauce.

We also had fried white fish, with a homemade tartar sauce.  I looooove tartar sauce.  When I worked at DQ I used to dip my fries in the stuff ... although it wasn't as good as this homemade sauce is.

All together now ...

All together now ...

Ummmm, anyway ... back to the food.

Dessert was fruit pizza - a perfect summer treat.

Pretty nice little Wednesday.  

The rest of the week is looking pretty good too ...

How's your week going so far?  

Anyone you know graduating/convocating this spring?

Pad Thai

I've always loved pad Thai and often order it when I am at a Thai restaurant.  Tonight we tried making it at home and it turned out beautifully.

Pad Thai  

(Serves 2-3)  Adapted from this recipe.

Sauce:

2 tsp Korean chili powder (or regular)
1 T coconut/palm sugar (go to Bulk Barn!)
1 T white sugar
2 T fish sauce
2 T oyster sauce
2 T tamarind juice (or mix tamarind paste with water and strain to get juice)

Mix everything together and set aside while you chop other ingredients.

Ingredients:

2 T sesame oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 small onion, minced
15 shrimp (approx), shells removed
3 T salted Chinese radish, chopped (can buy it packaged, chopped or not)
1/2-1 package extra firm tofu, diced (optional)
1 package fresh rice noodles (we used the thick, flat ones)
2 T water
1 cup bean sprouts
approx. 8 green onions, chopped
2 eggs
peanuts, cilantro, lime for garnish (optional)

Heat the oil in a wok on medium.  Add the garlic & onion and cook for a few minutes.  Add the shrimp and Chinese radish.  Once shrimp is cooked add tofu, rice noodles and water.  Put the lid on to help the noodles break apart - you might need to use a wooden spoon to help them out.  Add the pad Thai sauce.  Add the bean sprouts and green onions.  Once softened, move the pad Thai to one side of the wok and crack two eggs in.  Scramble them into the pad Thai.  Garnish with peanuts, cilantro and lime as desired.

Do you like pad Thai?  Have you ever made it?

What is your favourite dish to order in a Thai restaurant?

Mosaic and Other Things

Last week I had a bunch of veggies to use up.  I sautéed them in ginger and sesame oil, and added a bit of soy sauce and a touch of sake.  They were soooo good!  I'll have to remember to do this again.  I enjoyed them with some salmon. 

It was my dad's 72nd birthday on Thursday, so we went out to Teppanyaki to celebrate.  Christopher and I shared some sashimi to start, and then I had the lobster.

Mosaic, a cultural festival, was on in town this weekend.  On Friday evening we went to three pavilions, the First Nations, Scottish and Caribbean.  We shared a bit of food at each one ...

Indian Taco

Scotch Egg & Haggis (we only each had 2 bites of the haggis - it was awful).

Jerk Chicken with Corn Fritter thingy

We were home very early, but hit up a bunch more pavilions on Saturday, including:  Irish, Korean, Italian, Philippine, Chilean, and German.

The best food that we had all weekend was definitely at the Korean pavilion where we had bulgogi, and pageon.

We shared some spaghetti at the Italian pavilion, and some noodles and dessert at the Philippine pavilion.

I'm pretty tired today after a late night, but it was an awesome weekend!  

How was your weekend?  Do you have a cultural festival in your city?

10 on Tuesday

1)  We made dak galbi for dinner last night and it made great leftovers for our lunches today.

2)  Trying to properly number the pages of my thesis will be the death of me!!  Ummmm, well at least the flowers outside the university library are pretty.  Now if only they'd figure out the formatting issues of Microsoft Word for me ... #firstworldproblems

3)  Dear neighbors, please take care of your weeds so that my yard doesn't become as hideous as yours.  Other than that, you're cool.

Sincerely, Jolene Sickofpullingweeds.

P.S. Mowing your dandelions does not constitute taking care of your weeds.  Nice try though.

4)  I'm currently making chicken stock for soup.  It's a great way to use up almost-bad veggies, and I enjoy eating soup all year 'round.

5)  I love juicing!  Tonight it was cucumber, beet and grapefruit.

6)  I've been buying Silver Hills brand bread.  From what I can gather it seems to be the healthiest choice in the grocery store, next to another favourite of mine, Ezekiel.

7)  I didn't really understand or even know what Instagram was until a few days ago.  I had a look at my sister's page, and was told by a friend that I should be on Instagram, and now I sort of need it.

One small problem ...

Yeah, not really Instragram-capable.  Maybe it's time for a new phone.  One of these days.  And by one of these days, I pretty much mean a few years from now.  Probably.

8)  We grabbed some Shallot infused olive oil a couple of weeks ago and have been cooking with it quite a bit.  Oliv is a cool store because you can try all the oils/vinegars that they sell.  They have stores in both Moose Jaw and Saskatoon.

9)  I'm going to try and get to bed early earlier than usual tonight.  I have some important reading to do ...

10)  And now for something adorable ...

Christopher and I sort of, unofficially, take turns picking series to watch, or movies, etc..  Anyway, there is a series that I own that he definitely does not want to watch, and he's going through great lengths to hide it in hopes that I will forget about it ;-)  Verrrrry sneaky!

What are your Tuesday things?  Do you Instagram?  

What TV series do you love?