Outtakes

Here are some photos from recent travels and sojourns. This is the Dotytron and T as another public pool/wading pool in our 'hood:

Some photos from our exciting adventure in stinky tofu land, aka "T & T Nightmarket":

My people love them some giant toast (see the "giant toast" dessert at Phoenix for reference.) This stand was selling toast fingers with all kinds of crazy flavorings - we got the coffee caramel one:

This place was selling store bought ice cream with some fairly pedestrian toppings. I think they were getting mad traffic because they hopped on the bacon bandwagon AND because of the cutesy graphics and names for items (my people have no resistance to the cutesy! None!):

We got a "ninja panda" - which is black sesame ice cream with condensed milk and sugared crushed peanuts. I got her to add some coconut - but this was pretty ho-hum all things considered:

Tuesday night's dinner was tuna macaroni salad with a raw beet, apple, and horseradish salad alongside some blanched beans in a sharp mustard vinaigrette:

This is a photo of the Big Yam rocking the very Frrraaanche swimsuit JSculls bought for him - he modeled it for the first time at our pool hang yesterday - looking pretty cute!

We had the outlaw parents babysit so that the Dotytron could take me out for an early birthday dinner. We went against our gut instinct (our gut instinct is to ALWAYS go to Guu or Guu Sakabar) and tried a new place in the neighbourhood, Le Canard Mort, which is owned by the same people who own Le Rossignol, also in the neighbourhood. It was so-so. The service was a little scattered and inexperienced. One of the servers was too busy chatting up a regular about inane things to notice that we were ready for drink refills and that we wanted our check. I also took the liberty of ordering a cocktail for the Dotytron and inadvertently emasculated him by getting something that didn't come in a lowball glass. I thought a gimlet was a classic, manly drink! How am I supposed to know?!?

This is the girl who didn't understand my neighbour's specification that she was bringing "punch for the adults" to the street party and started took three big gulps of what I thought was juice punch, only to INSTANTLY start to feel a little light headed. BECAUSE IT WAS ABOUT HALF VODKA. I haven't had vodka since an ill-advised trip down puking-vodka-cooler-on-my-friend's-driveway's-lane in grade 11. So of course I got all red-faced and my heart was pounding and I realized I very much DISLIKE the sensation of tipsiness and I yammed a million carbs to soak up the light mist of booze in my belly and went up to our bathroom to splash cold water on my face and drank a million glasses of water to flush out my system. The Dotyron insists that the paranoia of being the slightest bit drunk has a greater affect on me than the actual effects of the alcohol itself. It was precautionary - nothing is more unseemly than a drunk parent at the block party, am I right?

Le Canard Mort was so-so. Kind of ho-hum. We got the sweetbreads appetizer, which is served buffalo chicken style - breaded and deep fried and doused in a buttery-hot sauce. Pros: big chunks of sweetbreads. Cons: the sauce made everything a little to soft undermined the breading. This would have been spectacular if it was crispy.

We also split an order of the potted prawns, which featured chopped prawns swimming in a buttery, rich, cheesy sauce with toast for dipping. This was quite tasty, but you just read the description, so it's a bit of a no brainer. It's like the Obvious Mayor of Obvious Culinary Combinations-ville:

I ordered the duck breast, which, as you can tell from the photo, was delivered well over the medium-rare I was informed (rather smugly I might add) it would be served. I hate that. I hate when the server says to you, "Just to warn you, we serve our duck [lamb, salmon, pork, etc.] medium rare...are you okay with that?" and then they inevitably go over. Actually, it's incredible how that invariably happens - the restaurants where servers tell you that they serve their meat "medium rare" are the ones who have no idea what medium rare is or how to get a protein to that point. The "raspberry sauce" was terrible - literally a glop of barely cooked raspberries that had been mixed with the pan sauces and then pureed - like a glob of unnuanced jam on the poor, unsuspecting duck breast.

The Dotytron ordered the chicken cordon bleu - which he said looked like a melting owl:

True! This was okay. Again it was overcooked (you can see how the breading has separated from the meat because the meat has shrunk from loss of moisture) and under seasoned. The vegetables accompanying our meal though, were perfectly crisp-tender. The desserts were underwhelming to say the least: an earl-grey lavendar creme brulee, lemon shortbread with chantilly cream, and some chocolate banana cake. I am definitely in NO hurry to go back and we decided we should have gone with our guts - our guts filled with Guu. We ended up getting a key lime pie and a coconut cream pie from the Great Canadian Pie Company and scarfed it at home watching Friday Night Lights, which is still a damned perfect evening.

It was nice dining a deux though. I like that guy.

Today we're going to see the Dotytron's culminating concert and then doing some more cottage prep.

Fin.

LL Cool J goes swimming!

Here's a shot of the Big Yam on a family swim...we call him LL Cool J when he wears this sun hat and the brim is down over his eyes:

I've been plugging away at my take home exam these past couple of days. Part 1 is done, Part 2 I'm going to start tomorrow or during afternoon nap today. These past few days have also been about resigning myself to the fact that we're going into debt this summer - maternity leave top up well has run dry and the Dotytron is back to his meagre half-time salary with no possibility of supply teaching gigs to top him up. We saved a good chunk of change, but that's basically all going towards stuff for the Big Yam (I spent $100 on baby gates!) getting our car fixed up for our upcoming Cleveland trip, and the other life stuff that you need to spend money on. It hurts my frugal soul, but what can you do? I'm not even thinking about the tuition payment in September or my pension payments for the time when I'm not getting topped up. Things are looking pretty grim.

It does look like the Dotytron has wrangled enough hooligans to help us demo our garage and the roof of our deck this weekend. You can tell he's a bit nervous about it - he keeps looking for an out (which I'm not giving him.) If we're going to undertake any home improvement this summer, getting rid of the raccoon motel that is our garage is a good one. Then hopefully next year when we've begged and prostrated ourselves before the bank for more money, we can do our kitchen and deck/fence!

In other news: I've started cutting out squares for the quilt I'd like to get done as my summer project. It's going to be a chevron quilt for the Big Yam, in bright orange robot/rocket fabric (from the same line as his crib bumper).

In other other news, my bike kakked out on me on Tuesday, on my way to my lunchtime bocce game! I only made it a few blocks from our house before the gears seized up. Booooo!!! So I had to find a place to take it in to get it fixed. Unfortunately, the closest place I found is this fancy-pants place that sells bikes for racers and triathletes - who were less than impressed with me coming in with my Toronto Police auction repo-special. Serious bikers are the worst. They're such jerks about their Shimano gears and $5000 frames. Why can't they be more inclusive? Serious eaters and music lovers are inclusive! Sheesh. We'll see what the damage is. They charge by the hour and I got them to clean my bike while they're at it. If they do a s**t job on the cleaning I'm going to be mega pissed.

We ate last night's dinner outside, on our neighbour's lawn on a picnic blanket. Our neighbour's kid joined us. Super cute! We had pan-fried smoked, cured pork chops and sweet, creamy, boiled new potatoes from our CSA tossed with creme fraiche and scallions (my new favorite starch) and sugar snap peas steamed and then tossed with sesame oil and fleur de sel (my new favorite veg). So good!

Tuesday night's dinner was that quinoa and brown rice salad with scallions, soft boiled egg, and avocado, dressed with scallion mayo:


This is a video (a short one!) for a change, featuring the little dance the Boobla does when he's grooving on some tunes. We're not particularly fond of the song the cookie jar makes, but we're reassured by the fact that he also does his little butt-bop to Brahms and old skool hip hop and jungle. When the butt-bop is in full swing, it features flappy arms as well:

I love that guy.

Fin.

Le sigh...

...we have crawling! Kind of. It's weird...I feel like when you watch him go, it doesn't actually look like he's moving (the motions aren't fluid in the least - he does these weird Frankenstein arms), but then you notice that he's somehow maneuvered his way across the floor. Happyface! Sadface! The following video also features a Smudgie cameo AND an extended self-examination of the diaper fastenings interlude. Scintillating stuff.

The Big Yam mastered the art of self-locomotion in tandem with the ability to pull himself up to standing. Ai-Ya. He's not consistent at it yet, but all the foundations are there. Time to get baby gates and resign ourselves to everything at knee height being pulled onto the floor.

I ran intervals yesterday. Which is a HUGE leap up from my usual slow-jog-canter-barely-breaking-a-sweat action. Ummmmm...intervals are HARD. On the plus side, I've already met my boot camp quota for the week with three days left to go! Huzzah! I'm also thinking of taking up skipping as a cardio activity. Aaaand...we have my beloved softball tonight. Aaaand...I've had the opportunity to have myself a catch several times this week. Love playing catch. Loooooooooves it.

What a busy week! Wednesday hangs with Hanbo was good times. Strolled the Roncey strip, picked up an awesome takeout lunch of breaded pork and coleslaw, nosed around the antique stores on Queen West, felt grateful that I don't live out there, had a catch - all in all, a successful mission. Yesterday I took the Boobla into City Hall to have lunch with my friend A from my book club. She's my successful, down-to-earth, and really engaged friend. She has 2 boys and is about 6 years older than me, but I still sometimes feel like a kid around her for some reason...or like a little sister.

I'm feeling pretty good about my portion of the research paper. If the nap gods line up, I should have it done by this evening, hopefully, leaving my weekend free for fun and games. The agenda this weekend is as follows: take Poh Poh out to lunch tomorrow, then head to Scarborough to see the final "gala" for the Dotytron's after school program kids (where they do a showcase of all the stuff they've been working on), then head over to B & G's house to help them with their deck if the boys are still working on it, then hanging with Dr. Rei and Hanbo.

Is it totally weird that I love helping people with decks? That to me is a good time. Mainly because I like social activities that combine some hands-on work and learning opportunities. Our friend Gaz used to be a contractor and B is a great, hands-on learner/project tackler, and our friend Fox is always willing to help out. I like having those kinds of dudes in my life. The kind who like doing dude things and don't think that spending an afternoon drinking beer in the sun and building something is work. The kind that will offer to help you demo your deck and garage and are actually looking FORWARD to it. The kind that will get me over my fear of building my own deck. The kind that keep me from being the kind of person (like some of my neighbours) who have their fathers come downtown to install a wireless doorbell.

Sunday is Father's Day - I'm making the Dotytron brunch and then maybe taking him out for a quick dinner if the timing works out...we're supposed to go up to Markham because Bruce Wayne and CHova want to take Big D out to Red Lobster, but I'm pretty sure Red Lobster doesn't take reservations and I feel like that's going to be a shiz-show. So it might just be our family together on Baba's day. No complaints here, really. I always wonder when your family unit gets to claim holidays as your own.

Last night's Polski Ogorki meal - 2 kinds of kolbassa, pickled herring & raw onions on heavily buttered rye bread, a cucumber-sour cream-dill salad on my CSA lettuce.

Tonight we're having another cool, no-cook meal - roasted peppers and tomatoes topped with burrata, some cured meats, and some baguette.

Fin.

can't talk...

too busy putting together ikea furniture with "gs to gents" in the background *shoots self in face* that show is HORRID. it's so mind-numbingly BORING. i had a class A wigout last night putting together our dining room tables while the dotytron lolled around on the couch like a strangely lanky seal. i very rarely indulge in mindless tv watching - like, watching something just to WATCH SOMETHING so when the dotytron does it or when i'm trying to accomplish something and that's happening in the background, it puts me on edge. since i was already putting together ikea furniture and was ALREADY on edge, i was a seething ball of barely suppressed (and frequently unleashed) rage. my mulled apple cider was too sweet! i didn't want to go into the basement to get the drill bits! my butt was sore from sitting on the ground! it's too hot in the house! COULDYOUPLEASEJUSTGETUPANDGETMETHEDRILLBITSCAN'TYOUSEEI'MPUTTINGTOGETHEROURFURNITURE?!?????!!!!

i apologized soon after the meltdown (once the chairs were done). it wasn't even a big meltdown, it was just another in the long line of classic lagerfeld and dotytron he said ("why do you have to do this now?") she said ("i'm doing it now because i want it DONE and the least you can do since YOU'RE not the one doing it is get me the small thing i want to finish the job!") testy, snippy scenario. the point is: i got my dining room chairs done. phew! i had lunch with dr. rei yesterday and she was remarking how people always ask her how her friend karl lagerfeld manages to cook dinner, make a billion crafts, etc. and how dr. rei has come to the realization that it's because i'm INSANE, and the most organized person she knows. lol! what really drove it home for her was this past summer, when we went for lunch and i was buying stuff in chinatown, and she asked me what it was for, and i said the meal, and she asked if that's what we were having tonight, and i said no, it's for two weeks from now. lol! i AM insane. and yet, 95% of the time, my insanity doesn't cause me any stress and i REALLY ENJOY it. i love being organized. i love updating my calendars. i love being a little puttering busybody. in another life, i SHOULD have been the heir to martha stewart's throne.

so, for the dining room chairs, i ended up going with these ones:

ikea gilbert, in white. they're in restaurants all over the place, pretty affordable, sturdy, comfortable, and they go with our vaguely modern mish-mash aesthetic. plus i really liked the contrast of the stark white with our dark table and the clean modern lines with the heaviness of our harvest-y table.

i'm still not happy with our dining room colour. what i wanted to be a cool, blue-grey turned more baby's room blue. a little too saccharine. i think i want to punch it up and make it more teal-y/turquoise-y blue...the exact colour in this youtube video (wait for a few seconds in, to see their kitchen colour) would go really well with the purple wall in the living room:



i'm in LOOOOOOOOOVE with our new plates. being the thrifty little parker that i am, i had originally planned on going to tap phong and loading up. then i was snooping around on crate and barrel online and found that they were having a sale on their essential dinnerware. they sell them in 16 piece sets (4 4 piece sets: 8.5" salad plates, 11.5" buffet plate, 7" bowl, and mug)...so i got 3 of those (to make 12 place settings) and then bought for extras of the plates and bowls (i didn't think i would ever need 16 mugs). we like entertaining at home so i wanted a big set, plus my family alone is 10 people and growing. anyway, ALL of that (16 buffet plates, 16 salad plates, 12 mugs, 16 bowls) in microwave and dishwasher safe porcelain okay for ovens up to 300F, was $200 INCLUDING DELIVERY. score me!

i can't bear overpaying for stuff. it makes me mental. i have two sizable williams sonoma gift cards that i can't even use because every time i go in there, their stuff is so ridiculously overpriced that i literally can't bring myself to "waste" the gift cards in there when i know i can get the item for cheaper somewhere else. it's seriously highway robbery in there - i don't even find it fun, the way other people seem to - for me, williams sonoma is not the cook's playground...it's the dilettante's playground. it's not fun over-spending. you can't take the chinese out of me! it's the same when people ask me if i'm going to trick out my kitchen when i reno with a viking range or all the rest. i mean, yeah, if i had unlimited funds a subzero would be nice, i guess? and a viking or thermidor range? but seriously? i'm not the kind of person to go buck like that. i've been banging out amazing meals on my crappy GE gas stove at the old apartment and now the made-in-mexico discontinued line moffat we inherited at lil' ugmo and i'm doing just fine. cooks can cook anywhere. fancy gadgets are nice, but not necessary, and i don't see the value for it. it's like when dilettantes go and throw money at a new hobby and get TOP OF THE LINE recording equipment or the best golf clubs - why don't you develop your craft/hobby first before going out and shelling out the big ducats? i feel like that's one of the ways you can differentiate between people who are serious about their crafts and people who think that throwing money at a leisure activity will solve everything.

tuesday night we had the ex roomie and l'army over for dinner - it was nice! i miss having her around. i made a root vegetable/squash mash (sweet potatoes, yukons, butternut) mixed with the leftover dill sour cream from borscht the night before. i made beer-braised smoked mennonite sausage and kolbassa with caramelized onions, as well as cabbage and apples braised with some salt pork. for dessert i pulled out a frozen log of pecan shortbread i had from last xmas (!) and sliced and baked those off. having frozen cookie dough that's either pre-portioned or the slice and bake kind is really, truly, a godsend.

last night i went to ikea and got to ride on the rickety wooden ikea bus. the dotytron met up with me and we bought the chairs and some picture frames (yay, credit!) and then headed home to leftovers. i'm not good at this leftovers game. to give you an idea of how bad i am at cooking for two, i ate leftover muttar paneer. we had that like, a week and a half ago!!! i finished it off.

tonight is dodgeball and it's my dodgeball boyfriend's birthday so we're going out someplace after for food and drinks. i'll stay out for a bit (to eat) and then high-tail it home to hopefully finish writing thank you cards and packing for the weekend. team geneseo is coming up! yay! after thank you cards are done then it's time for xmas cards - gadzooks! but that's easy because it's not as much handwriting and profuse thanking.

i have a whole passel of book reviews to do, but first let me say that our tv watching has started to plumb new lows. we've gotten semi-hooked on dr. drew's "sex rehab" on much music. it's the worst/best! the other "celebrity" (loosest possible definition of that term) rehabs are tough to watch because they're kind of depressing and harrowing because of the physical effects of withdrawal. but sex rehab just seems a lot sillier. even though when you start to get into the people's histories it gets really dark. so i think we're going to stop watching. also, dr. drew is the worst psychologist/psychiatrist ever. he gives you this really patronizing, faux-concerned, duck lip/nod combo that would make me turn TO an addiction, not FROM it.

fin.

my love affair with fall

has cooled somewhat. biking in the pitch black, sleety rain last night kind of dampened my ardor. my new canada post pick up location for packages that i have to sign for is WAY FARTHER and out of the way than my last one - boo. i also had a miserable experience trying to ascertain which canada post location holds my packages (i left the slip at home). i called canada post and spoke to the woman who was completely clueless. first she told me that she couldn't find out that information, which i responded to with incredulous indignation. how can they NOT find that out? it's not RANDOM. there's surely some kind of metric in place where postal codes beginning with XXX get sent to blah blah blah, right? then, when i asked her for the phone number of the outlet i suspected had the package (the online canada post location-finder listed canada post's head office number for that outlet, which is what got me into this customer service quandary to begin with), she told me she COULDN'T GET THAT INFORMATION. which made my common sense barometer go haywire. i told her frostily that subway sandwich head office could give me the direct number for all THEIR franchises, why couldn't canada post? then i demanded to speak to someone else who was able to get me the correct info in 2 seconds. 15 minutes of my life, wasted.

i was miserable when i got home, which was a crappy way to start a week, considering my sunday had been so aces. we puttered like crazy and got a good amount of work done...hanging pictures, painting the magnetic primer coat on my magnetic chalkboard wall, raking leaves, cleaning...and then treated ourselves after our exertions to mulled warm apple cider and snickerdoodles:

now if that little vignette up there doesn't scream "idyllic new england cabin" i don't know what does. and we all know how big a sucker i am for buffalo plaid hunting jackets, hats with ear flaps, woodsmoke and maple syrup americana. love it! we settled in for a viewing of "the name of the rose" which is dr. rei's favorite movie (this explains A LOT).

it's pretty standard genre fare - a bookish, aristocratic-method espousing franciscan monk who solves a mystery at a benedictine abbey filled with all manner of seedy monks (this plotline was basically written for the express purpose of titillating an impressionable young dr. rei). there are homosexual monks, creepy hook-nosed monks, a black monk (who is referred to as "the black monk"), fat albino monks, and a daft hunchback played by ron perlman (how did ron perlman get typecast to always play "the beast"?). it's full of suspense and intrigue and some racy bits, but it's not what i would call a thought-provoking, particularly well-executed film that withstands the test of time. it is a creepy pot boiler though.

then we went with my mum to this new chinese hot pot place, called 100 degrees. i was a little suspect at first - but we were soon cajoled into looking more favorably on a new AYCE hot pot place by the fact that this place is much roomier than our usual stand-by. also, at dow's noodles (the usual place - we've been going there for like, 5 years now), they always give you a complimentary glass of this weird smoky plum drink (dr. rei calls it bbq sauce) that no one drinks but my mom and dr. rei. at THIS place, you get a chilly glass of honey ginseng drink which is AMAZING! usually i have to order a coke to cut through the hot pot, but this is tasty and potable (unlike plum bbq sauce one) and serves the same purpose, negating the necessity of ordering pop. AND they give free refills!

then we had the TSN turning point. one of the things that has been a hallmark of our ordering experience at dow's noodles is that they make you pay for each egg you order. chinese hot pot is one of those lovely cuisines that encourages the use of raw egg as a dipping sauce. you basically make a sauce out of a sweet, thick soy and a raw egg, beaten together. whenever we go to dow's with my mum, she makes the four of us (the classic hot pot combo is: me, my mum, my brother cameron, and the dotytron) split 2 eggs cuz you have to pay for them.

well, colour us impressed when we sat down and ordered and were presented with this:

A WHOLE DIPPING SAUCE TRAY! WITH AS MANY EGGS AS YOU WANT! lol! the three of us looked at each other with big eyes and were like, "this place is the best!" hahaha! plus the condiments were way more extensive. they give you the tray and you can mix up your own dipping sauce to your taste before they take it away. it's awesome. they even have a peanut sauce that my mum was really loving.

here are some pics of the actual spread:

the broth (we got half satay and half corn and pork bone, which just tastes like normal broth)


a small sampling of what we ordered. it was delish! we're definitely going to go back with the goosetang clan as dr. rei in particular lurves some chinese AYCE hot pot.

last night for dinner i came home to an empty house as the dotytron was off cavorting with his old teacher's college cronies. i made that spicy three grain soup i've talked about before along with some cheddar jalepeno drop biscuits. these were DELICIOUS and frightfully easy. i've posted the recipe at the end here. they were soooo good, hot out of the oven, all craggy and cheesy and tender.

today i've been researching winter tires. oy vey. what a headache! it's too much to know! but i've got some good leads and i've compiled a decent short list. we're going down to my sis' place next week for a little long weekend in western new york. going to get the captain suited up for the winter, too. some new winter tires, a new stabilizer bar, some new brake pads on the front - she's going to be taken care of. car ownership is a pain in the butt - it's a lot to stay on top of. we've had some people tell us that we shouldn't have bought used...but i don't know that i agree. we paid around $6000 for a vehicle that we're going to get a lot of life out of yet, no interest, and we're just spending the amount of money you would usually spend at this point in a car's life. i have faith in the captain.

i was having a mild freakout about the holidays again today. between my cookie baking and gift buying - who has time for anything else? then i kind of got it into my head that i want to make a felt wreath. a grey-green one with lots of silvery and green holly leaves and hot pink felted ball holly berries on a squooshy wreath form to hang on our door. and then i got it into my head that i wanted to do one of those ornament wreaths. and then i got it into my head that we have a place for a real xmas tree this year and that i'd like to make a quilted tree skirt out of a bright and cheery red flannel gingham. and then i got it into my head that i've got a looooooong list of knitted gifts to get cracking on. and then i got it into my head that i wanted to make even more xmas decorations and then i realized that i'm plumb crazy.

to get a real xmas tree or a fake one? fake ones are better for the environment, because you're not mowing down trees for no reason every year, but they're also really plasticky and hard to dispose of, and won't decompose. real trees smell nice but make a mess when they shed needles. the dotytron has settled the issue: "we're not a fake tree family" - i guess that's that.

i also only want vintage xmas tree decorations - like those old mercury glass ones - like so:

so i've started scouring ebay for ones. i don't need a full tree all at once...i can collect them over time. i just love the look of the vintage decorations.

i gotta get knitting.

fin.