2 Meh Meals in Saskatoon, and 1 Great One

Last weekend we were in Saskatoon to see my mom.  For dinner on Friday evening we tried a new-to-us restaurant, Primal Pasta.  We were pretty excited to go to this place, as they make all the pasta in-house, and had good reviews.  Unfortunately, we were disappointed in our meal.

To start we had the caponata with buffalo mozzarella and bread:

It was decent, although for the price, we expected more (both in amount of mozzarella, and quality of the dish).  The bread was soft, and pretty good.

I ordered the rigatoni with goat cheese, mushrooms, tomatoes, greens and truffle oil:

And Christopher had the squid ink puttanesca conchiglie bottarga, with olives and capers:

Mine was alright, but not worth the price, as we could easily make this dish at home for a couple of dollars; it was was very basic.  Christopher's pasta was really under cooked; the shells were crunchy!  He is a puttanesca lover, but this one just didn't cut it.  We would have mentioned something to the server if it wasn't 20 minutes before closing time.  Since it was late and we were tired, we just ate quickly so we could get to our hotel to sleep.

Next time we want fresh pasta in Saskatoon, we'll go back to Little Grouse on the Prairie.

Unfortunately we had another mediocre meal the next morning, this time at Park Cafe.  It's hard to screw up an omelette and hashbrowns, but this place just doesn't have it down yet ...

The eggs were super dry, and the potatoes were bland.

The next day we had an excellent meal though!  We picked up a pizza from a newer place called Thirteen Pies.  My brother-in-law Riley recommended this restaurant to us.  The pizza is made with a sourdough crust - mmm!

We went inside to order the pizza to-go, and then sat and enjoyed a beverage while waiting for it.  The service was wonderful, and when the pizza came out it smelled amazing!  We couldn't wait to get it back to our hotel room to dig in.

If the pizzas have the same base (tomato sauce, or white sauce), you can get 1/2 and 1/2 to try two kinds.  We had The Killer Cheese (fior de latte, mozza, provolone, truffle honey, leeks, white sauce), and The White Walker (roasted mushrooms, provolone, mozzerela, ricotta, white sauce, truffle oil), and we couldn't pick a favourite of the two.  Both were fantastic!  It's Brooklyn-style pizza, but I think it is better than any pizza I've ever had in Brooklyn.

The sourdough crust was excellent.  We're looking forward to going back to Thirteen Pies many, many more times in the future.

The photo isn't great as it was dark, but the pizza is well worth a visit.

Our server at Thirteen Pies was surprised that we had a bad meal at Primal Pasta, and he encouraged us to give it another try sometime, so we might head back to Primal Pasta to see if they can impress us on a second visit.

Have you tried any new restaurants lately?  

Where is the best pizza in your city?

Summer

Two weeks of my summer holidays are done, and they have been wonderful so far!  I've been getting up early, and have been taking my time with making breakfast.  Some mornings I have had baked eggs loaded with veggies and cheese, and sometimes farmers sausage too.

And I always have fruit and coffee on the side.

Other mornings I have had toasted homemade bread, with an egg.

One morning I had leftover rice and kimchi coleslaw for breakfast.  I love non-traditional breakfasts, and sometimes prefer lunch/dinner leftovers for breakfast over typical breakfast foods.

After breakfast I always leave for a walk around the lake, and sometimes I do a couple laps.

At lunch time I make something for Christopher and I to enjoy on his break.  Last week we had pizza, leftovers, and grilled cheese:

In the afternoons I've been doing all sorts of things, like visiting family, baking bread, making dessert, grocery shopping, cleaning, reading in the yard, visiting the bookstores and library, running errands, etc.

When Christopher gets home from work we usually sit outside for a while before starting supper.  Our flowers are loving all the rain and heat we've been getting!

Most days we eat outside.  Recently we had a veggie dinner with bread, which we grilled for a bit.

And last night we made mustard maple salmon, potato, and sweet peppers with halloumi:

Last week we met up with family in the park near our house to celebrate our nephew's 2nd birthday.  It was so much fun!

There is still so much summer left, and I have a stack of books that are calling my name, recipes that want to be made, babies to snuggle, and paths to explore. 

How was your weekend?  Do you have time off this summer?  How have you been making the most of the summer days?

Eating Outdoors

Many days this summer it rained hard for about 10-20 minutes, and then it went back to being beautiful out again.  We've been eating outside as much as we can, to take full advantage of the nice weather.

Recently we had Christopher's brother's family over for dinner.

Snacks first!

I prepped the meal during the day, and then Christopher did the grilling when our guests arrived.  We had Greek ribs, homemade bread, dill pickle pasta salad, bourbon bacon coleslaw, and baked beans.

Dessert was berries on a cloud:

It was wonderful to spend time with Mel, Steve, and our precious niece Charlotte.  She is the sweetest little girl, and she loved helping auntie and uncle.  She's excited to come back to our house soon to play the drums, while uncle plays guitar.  He can't wait to jam with her!  She's only four, but she's a natural on the drums.

Another day we had a really simple meal outside.  We hadn't got groceries yet for the week, so we were eating up random stuff from the fridge/freezer, and it ended up being delicious.

The bell pepper was stuffed with halloumi cheese, which was really good!  We had to dump some water from the pepper a couple times while grilling, as it accumulated in the bottom of the pepper, but other than that, it was great.  We'll make these again for sure.

I made my burger taste like a Whopper Junior.  I used to love Burger King when I was a teenager, but I got brutal food poisoning from there twice (the only two times I've ever had it), back-to-back, although years apart.  I will never eat there again, but this replication hit the spot (lettuce, tomato, mayo, ketchup, pickles, white onion).

On the weekend we had breakfast outside, which was a lovely way to start the day.

On Sunday my aunt and uncle had all the family in town over for a BBQ.  My cousin Janine and her family were in from Toronto, so we got to visit with them, as well as cousins, and second cousins, and another aunt and uncle that we don't get to see too often.  The little kids all got to meet and play together, and us big kids got to catch up.  The rain held out for a while, but then we got a few raindrops, although no one minded.

The food was really good, and I think Christopher ate his weight in chicken:

And check out this dessert spread!

Wow!

I think everyone really enjoyed getting together with so many extended family members.  We used to all get together at Christmas when I was little, and those are some of my fondest memories.  There haven't been any family weddings in a while, and no major milestone birthdays (my great grandma's 100th birthday was a fabulous family occasion), so it was such a nice surprise when my auntie and uncle invited us over.

We stayed out past our bedtime, but it was worth it.

On Monday we ate dinner outside again.

Potatoes with sesame oil, garlic, and ginger, and chicken thighs with a Korean marinade that Christopher made:

We also made a kimchi coleslaw to round out this meal.

Last night we had plans to cook and eat outside, but it started pouring just as we were about to head out back.  We cooked inside instead, which wasn't ideal for the shrimp and pineapple skewers, but it still worked.

On the side we had mushrooms cooked with herbs, garlic, butter, and shallot, and an easy baked rice.  You can find the recipe for the skewers here, and the rice recipe here.

Tonight's dinner will be in the park, as we're heading out later to celebrate our nephew's second birthday.  Happy birthday Kingsley!  We love you so, so much 💜

How was your weekend?  How's your week going so far?  Have you been eating outside at all?  How often do you get together with extended family?

Thai Cooking

Over the long weekend we spent some time making Thai food.  Since our trip we've been dreaming about northern Thai dishes.  We're still tweaking a few things, so I will wait to share recipes until we perfect ours; we're almost there, but there are a few things we might adjust.

We made larb moo:

It's a ground pork "salad" that we served with rice.  It's tangy from the lime juice, a little bit spicy from the red chili, and loaded with flavour from ground toasted rice, shallot, etc.

We made khao soi, which is a cross between a Thai red curry and an Indian curry, with noodles and chicken, and crispy noodles on top (along with other garnishes).

Minced pork with Thai basil:

Green curry with chicken:

And for dessert, mango with sticky rice:

We bought a bamboo steamer, which is a necessity when making Thai sticky rice.  We dyed some of the rice blue by using butterfly pea flower blossoms.  The rice is mixed with a coconut milk syrup, and drizzled with coconut cream.  It is topped with deep fried mung beans, which give it an amazing crunch.  This was a dessert we got addicted to in Thailand. 

You'll be seeing these dishes around here in the future, and I'll be sure to share recipes after we've made them a couple more times, and we keep better track of everything we did.

What is your favourite Thai dish?

Canada Day

It has become a bit of a family tradition on Christopher's side to get together on Canada Day.  On Monday afternoon we went to Christopher's parent's house to spend time in the back yard.

We made some cake pops to bring along, and also picked up a fruit tray.

Others brought spinach dip, and veggies, and my mother and father-in-law supplied the KFC,  beverages, and a cake.  It had been a long time since we had KFC (probably a year or two), and we realllllllly enjoyed it.  We had to stop ourselves from eating way too much chicken.

The kids played on this amazing blow up water slide, that I totally wanted to go on.  I am a kid at heart, and this thing just looked SO fun!  You hook up a hose to it, and you can spray people out of this water gun thing, and the water runs down the slide to make you go really fast.  I also like the climbing wall to get onto the slide.

And there is a basketball hoop!!  I need to find an adult version.

Our nieces Charlotte and Elizabeth played so well together, and were adorable as usual.

We had a really nice time, and fortunately the rain held off for most of the day.  In the evening the torrential downpour started.  We had planned to walk to the park for some of the Canada Day festivities, but the rain put a damper on that (pun intended).  The rain died down in time for the fireworks, but we just listened to them from inside the house.

If you're Canadian, how did you celebrate Canada Day?  

If you're from the United States, what are your plans for the 4th?  

If you're from neither, do you have any holidays coming up?