One Year Anniversary

It's hard to believe it has already been a year since Christopher and I got married.  I guess time flies when you're having the best time of your life.

Recently Christopher told someone that he loved being married, and loved getting older.  I couldn't agree more.  Each year of life just keeps getting better, and we're both so excited for what our future together holds.

We bought ourselves something paper for our anniversary, as paper is the traditional first year anniversary gift.  We got it custom framed, and it's not ready yet, but I'll post it once it comes in.  As for celebrating, we've planned a wonderful, romantic, long weekend of love - hehe! 

We kicked the weekend off with bee bim bop on Friday evening, which is what I had the very first time we went out for dinner together. 

I guess it comes as no surprise that our first dinner date was at a Korean restaurant.  Tonight we're getting dressed up and heading out on the town. 

We're so excited for our looooooove weekend.

What do you have planned for the weekend?

Valentine's day plans?

Saturday Night Delight

After breakfast on Saturday we spent the rest of the day visiting, laughing and cooking at home.  For dinner we steamed some lobster tails:

And then used them in a rich, creamy, lobster mac and cheese:

On the side we served an easy corn salad, made with corn, jalapenos, lime, cilantro, and red onion.  It was cool, crisp and refreshing, and paired so well with the mac and cheese.

For dessert, we had the chocolate cake that I made earlier in the day.

The cake was gone in a day and a half.

That's how things go in this household ...

How was your weekend?  What did you do?

Seven on Saturday

1)  This has been the best winter ever!  It's February 6th, and +7 C.  We basically have not had winter this year, and there is very little snow.  We thought 2015 was the best year of weather we've ever had, but with how 2016 is starting out, we could beat that this year. 

 

Nothin' like puddles and grass peeking out in February!

2)  Christopher made a delicious Thai bowl the other day.  He crisped up some tofu, made a Thai yellow curry, cooked up some rice noodles, and topped everything with fresh, raw veggies.

 
3)  We made coconut ginger, carrot soup this week, using this recipe.  We served it with a Greek salad.

4)  On Thursday evening we had Thai food again.  We made some shrimp fresh rolls:

And also tried our hand at laab moo, a spicy pork salad.  We served it alongside jasmine rice.

We toasted and ground some sticky rice and sprinkled that in for a crunch.  Other ingredients included a lot of fresh lime juice, chili flakes, shallots, cilantro, and fish sauce.  We're going to make it once more, and will share a recipe after that, once we're sure we've perfected it.

5)  For dinner last night we had clubhouse sandwiches, and crispy potatoes cooked up in jalapeno flavoured olive oil.

6)  Breakfast this beautiful Saturday morning was a potato, bacon, egg, veggie, and herb skillet.

Christopher loves making me breakfast on the weekends, and what can I say, I love it.  Weekend mornings are always so relaxing.  I started on a dessert for tonight while he made the coffee and breakfast ...

7)  We're cooking a pretty tasty dinner tonight.  We were planning on having dinner guests, but unfortunately they couldn't make it.  We've slashed the menu by about two-thirds, but are still whipping up a few yummy dishes for two :-)  It should be a nice, quiet little weekend.

What are you up to this weekend?

"Veggiful" Eats & Perfect Puffed Wheat Cake

On Saturday night we had chicken salad before heading out on the town.  Christopher's band was headlining a show at The German Club.

On Sunday morning Christopher made breakfast, and we spent the rest of the day relaxing, watching movies, etc..  For dinner we whipped up a roasted carrot, turmeric soup.

It was so flavourful, a touch spicy, and loaded with veggies.  You can find the recipe here.

Last night's dinner was a warm salad.  We're so into these lately; it's just regular salad, but the veggies are roasted first.  I sauteed some kale in garlic and a touch of cooking wine first, and sprinkled that with a bit of salt.  Then I covered that with roasted veggies (olive oil, salt & pepper), and some pan-fried chicken.  We poured salad dressing over everything, and it totally hit the spot. 

Roasted veggies make me really, really happy. 

I made a pan of puffed wheat cake last night too.  If you find that your puffed wheat cake often turns out hard, it's likely your white sugar to brown sugar ratio that is off a bit.  Some people like chewier puffed wheat cake, others like sticky, softer puffed wheat cake ... for the latter, try this:

Perfectly Soft Puffed Wheat Cake

1 cup brown sugar (I use golden brown, not the dark brown stuff)
1/4 cup white sugar
1 cup corn syrup
1/2 cup margarine
5 T cocoa
1 tsp vanilla
9 cups puffed wheat

Heat the first 5 ingredients in a pot over medium, stirring regularly.  Bring to a light boil for about 30 seconds, stirring the whole time once it's at this point.  Remove from heat, add vanilla, stir that in.  Pour over the puffed wheat.  Stir together, then use parchment paper or wax paper to press it firmly into a sprayed/lined 9x13 pan.  Let cool.  Cut into squares.

It stays soft even after cut into squares, as long as you keep it in a sealed container/bag.  If you have never heard of this dessert, you have to try it.  I think all kids in Saskatchewan had this at home growing up.  It's a similar idea to rice crispy squares/cake, but with puffed wheat, and it's chocolatey!

How's your week going so far?

Random Eats - No Groceries

We didn't really plan not to buy groceries, but for two weeks in a row we didn't go to the grocery store, and just ate things up around the house.  Some of our dinners were really fancy, like Velveeta mac and cheese:

Haha!  Soooooo good!

We made a shrimp curry over rice:

Pasta with a straight-up jarred sauce:

As you can see, we've really been getting into the gourmet cooking lately ;-)

This was our dinner one evening:

Don't worry.  We got groceries today.  There will be some real cooking around here very soon.

Today we met up with our friend Diana at Flip for lunch.  It was so great to catch up with her and meet her little baby girl! 

I had the spaetzle for lunch; it's one of my favourite dishes in town:

We'll be heading out tonight, as Christopher's band has a show.  Tomorrow, we're takin' it easy.

What are you up to this weekend?

Weekend

Our January weekends have been busy so far.  The weekend following New Years we hosted a wine and cheese party, and then the weekend after that we had dinner guests ... and then this past weekend we were off on a little road trip.

On Friday evening we headed to Saskatoon for the weekend to see my mom.  We got into town only about an hour before our favourite restaurant, Seoul, was closing.  We ordered a Korean beef stew for two, and gobbled that down before heading back to our hotel room to crash for the night. 

The next morning we were up bright and early.  We had breakfast in the hotel before going to see my mom for the day.

I had a bit of a headache, so we ate again around 4:30 p.m., and then headed back to the hotel room for the evening.

Our weekends in Saskatoon can be a little bit emotionally draining sometimes, as it's really hard with my mom being in a care home.  That being said, we tend to spend any time not visiting with her either eating, or in our hotel room just zoning out and relaxing.

The next morning we tried The Brasserie for breakfast, but weren't impressed.  The crepes were more like tortillas, and they weren't very warm.

After breakfast we went grocery shopping for my mom, grabbed her some lunch, and then spent the day with her again, before heading back on the highway in the evening.

We didn't feel like buying groceries when we got home (that makes two weeks in a row now of not buying groceries), so we ate Velveeta mac and cheese for dinner.  Mmmmm, carby-cheesy goodness!

How was your weekend?  What did you do?