Month: March 2013

The Daily EO: February 27th, 2013

And tonight was the dinner from yesterday’s dumpling extravaganza.

The hard part was done, now it was just the chiffonade of sage, browning the butter and frying them up.  I wonder how we could ever not like something that was made with white flour and fried in butter, topped with real parmesan cheese?  I am not sure.

Our dinner guest and my husband had some beer – I held off from the wine because I had to work on said project later that night – and we commenced with mincing, browning, frying and grating to finish off this recipe.  Oh, yeah, he threw some pork chops on too.

They were.. . . chewy, slightly sweet, buttery, sage, cheesy. ..  pretty damn good.

February 27th, 2013 Extra-Ordinary:  I wonder if I could buy these at Granville Island?  That was pretty involved.

 

The Daily EO: February 26th, 2013

I challenged my husband to make something from his Alton Brown cookbooks in the month of February.  So he invited his friend over for dinner on Wednesday night and selected Butternut Squash and Potato Dumplings as his recipe.  I do the grocery shopping and he does dinners, so he gave me the list of ingredients to pick up.  Tuesday night he was tackling it and this is an involved recipe.  Not only that, despite following it pretty closely, the recipe ending up needing 3 times as much flour as it calls for.  (ever try rolling muffin batter?)

Roasting, scooping, stirring, kneading, rolling, boiling, ice bathing, draining, drying, oil drenching.  Then the next night, frying.

I love white terry bar clothes for my kitchen clothes of choice.  They always absorb, never shrink in the wash, easily replaceable.  making dumplings is a messy event and for once we used up almost every cloth we had for the draining and drying.   By the time we were finished, we had a pile of wet clothes and a mess of a kitchen.  We tackled clean-up and I threw a load of laundry to clean up all my bar mops.

Our washing machine in our condo is some fancy european apartment sized ones.  Ones that have no patience for North American foolishness of adding something mid cycle.  So, once it is started, there is no going back.  Sure you can turn off the machine, then turn it to spin & drain, and eventually, it might let you inside.  I threw a little extra soap in to tackle all the oil and flour on the bar mops, but nothing unusual.

I noticed about 15 minutes in that the soap level was quite foamy, but figured that was due to my increased soap usage – afterall, I generally have the door closed to the laundry while I do it, so I really had no idea how foamy it gets during the cycle.

I was in the other room – and let’s face it, that’s not too far away when you live in a downtown Vancouver condo – when my husband called for me to grab towels for the washing machine.  It’s leaking!  Alas!

Wha?!

Okay – quick.  Towels.  Mop it up.  Hmmmm.  Not too much of a mess.  Just a small leak from the very front of the machine.  Weird.

But as stated – I can’t open the damn machine.  So we mop up the water, turn it to spin & drain and keep a towel under there to pick up the water.  And wait.

Long Night.  And we haven’t even eaten them yet.

February 26th, 2013 Extra-Ordinary:  Apparently, if you wash Butternut Squash Dumplings in a washing machine, they wedge in the door and break the seal.  Who knew?

The Daily EO: February 25, 2013

You know those weeks where you sit at the beginning of it and wonder how you are going to get everything done.  This was such a week.  Which is why I am telling you about it at the very end of it, breaking my own rule of trying to write within 24 hours.

It wasn’t necessarily the number of things (though there are quite a few), it is a huge project that is due on March 1st at noon.   It feels huge, but it probably the same size as term paper and everyone knows you never do those things ahead.   Just exactly when you need to.  Just in Time.

February 25th, 2013 Extra-Ordinary:  The beginning of an insurmountable week – that I know now from age and experience  I will get everything done.

The Daily EO: February 24th, 2013

I awoke early.

I always seem to awake early these days.

I futzed around a bit while in my pyjamas.  About 9 am, I changed into work out gear because I knew I was going to the gym.

I ate greek yogurt.

I played Plants vs Zombies on my phone.

I thought about catching up on work.

I ate a tofu hot dog.

I watched an episode of Castle.

I checked on my taxes (that are waiting for the last T4).  Haven’t changed.

I re-read a  book.

I ate a box of macaroni and cheese.  Yes, I did.  I am proud of it too.

I kicked off my running shoes.

I flipped through Chatelaine and considered cooking one of the recipes.

February 24th, 2013 Extra-Ordinary:  I changed out of my workout gear about 9 pm into my pyjamas after never leaving home.   Lazy Sunday.  Needed that.

The Daily EO: February 23rd, 2013

I do not have problems with germs or thoughts of contamination.    I don’t use disinfectant really.  I don’t worry about washing new items that I buy in a store.  I use public toilets.  I eat food that I have dropped on the floor (so long as it is a reasonably clean floor)  I think that there are germs all around us and that my body is equipped to deal with them.  Granted, I seem to have a solid immune system, so perhaps that is why I am careless.

Okay, yes, if food is rotten, smells funny, been in the fridge too long, or anything else like that.  I stay away.  But I really find it weird that other people avoid shaking your hand if they have a cold.

Perhaps I am too lenient in these things, perhaps I am not concerned enough.  I don’t know, but there are all kinds and I try to be understanding of that.

My friend Alison is different than me.  She washes all of her fruits and veggies, washes all new towels, avoids dirty items, frequently washes her hands and teaches her children the same.   And I don’t think she teaches the “2 second rule”.   Potential germs give her the heebee geebees.

I don’t think this is an issue of who is better or worse, but just we’re different.

She and her family were over for the day today and we spent it using the facilities that our building has to offer.  One of which is the rooftop hot tub.

The hot tub was clearly needing additional chlorine added as it had turned slightly green like all outdoor pools and hot tubs do when the chlorine levels drop for too long.  There was no algae build-up or bad smell, just the colour was off.  When I was a kid, my job was to check the chlorine in our pool, so unfortunately, our pool was green once or twice a summer much to my mother’s annoyance.

It was cold outside with a biting wind and we were in bathing suits.

February 23rd, 2013 Extra-Ordinary:  Potential germs won out over cold.  But Alison didn’t complain, she didn’t say we couldn’t go in.  She just hesitated for a mere moment and then got in.  That’s cool.