Still Bucktown, After All These Years

This batting stance from Lindsay = everything to me, right now.  After our epic family whiffle ball game at my sister’s house, the Dotytron and I immediately went out and bought some bases, a bat, and a whiffle ball and have been having some (exhausting) games with the kids on the street after dinner.  Lindsay’s batting stance is simultaneously unconventional and ineffective, but he really commits 100% and for that, I cannot fault him.  That lunge, and that tongue sticking out, do me in, every time.

Have I talked to you about how Quincess falls all the time?  Seriously, all the time.  He never puts his hands out and always falls and conks his head.  He gets GIANT, ugly goose eggs on his little misshapen noggin.  Even if he doesn’t make impact with the floor, when he falls, the goose eggs stick out so far that it gets conked again. We suspect it was from his time in the helmet, when he was a crazy man who “crawled” like this: 

Never forget.

Recently I took him to the doctor because we were starting to worry – how often does a kid have to fall and get a giant goose egg on their head before you start to be concerned?  Well, as it turns out,  depending on how they react post-fall:  it can be quite a lot.  Like, more than the Quincess’ current number, which seems to be averaging a head-conk a month (this month he’s got 2).  His pupils have never been wonky (one bigger than the other), he always cries immediately, he doesn’t get sleepy, or nauseous.  He eats normally, he doesn’t act funny, he responds appropriately, so there hasn’t been any indication that he’s had a concussion, which is when the doctors would be concerned. 

The other week we had my ex-bf and his new gf over for dinner.  I was just telling them about how he falls a lot, and he was standing beside me and somehow tripped, from standing, over his own feet, hit the ground, and rolled onto his back, crying.  “Quincess! What happened?” I cried.  “Ionow,” he said, through his own tears, on the floor on his back, which made me laugh so hard.  I’ve been trying for months to record a Quincess “I don’t know” because it’s the cutest disavowal you’ve ever heard in your life.  Lindsay tends to give you cow eyes and spread his hands out, but he doesn’t run the words together in quite so winning a way.

However, Lindsay is taking after the Big Yam in his ability to articulate.  Behold:

Quincess is usually very good about sharing.  He’s never so attached to whatever he’s playing with that if Lindsay comes barrelling up and acts like a giant baby about not having the toy in question, if I ask him to give it to Lindsay, he usually does it, with no fuss.  The other night, he was carrying a tennis ball and was running from one end of the backyard to the other, dodging and ducking and somehow managing to keep it just out of the hammy grasp of Lindsay, who was crying in frustration.  At one point, Quincess looked up and caught my eye and gave me the most knowing, devilishly pleased grin, it slayed me.  He’s a sneaky one, that guy.  When you catch him fiddling with something he’s not supposed to be touching and you say, “Quincess!” to stop, he’ll drop whatever he’s doing and do this exaggerated arm flail, both arms back and forth in tandem, which is a dead giveaway that he’s been up to something no good.  It’s a caricature of: “doo-de-doo, nothing to see here.”  I’ve been trying to catch that on video too, because like that Arrowsmith song, I don’t want to miss a thing.

We took the Big Yam to see the new Pixar movie, Inside Out.  Somewhat predictably for a Pixar film, the Dotytron and I were bawling our eyes out.  I would say that it is one of the least child-appropriate Pixar films in their entire catalogue (depending on your child, of course).  The Big Yam got basically nothing out of it.  I kept asking probing questions, "why is she scared?  Where are they going?" and he was consistently, "I don't know."  To put this in perspective, we recently showed him the original Jurassic Park and when the T. Rex first comes chasing after the jeeps, the Big Yam breathed, "Goll-lee!" It was so cute!  I mean, really.  Kids using anachronisms are just the best.

Inside Out is a journey through the emotional growth of a pre-teen girl, taking place almost entirely within her mind, with lots of clever nods to brain science and psychology concepts.  SUPER KID-APPROPRIATE, AMIRITE?!?  Obviously, because it’s Pixar, the story is nuanced, touching, emotionally resonant and at times, quite funny.  Does my kid understand a bit about entering the “abstract thought” room and “deconstructing”?  No!  It shouldn’t even be marketed to children.  I also found the characterization of the central character’s interior emotional life, lacking. 

A design critic friend of mine recently talked about how the “colour relationships” in Pixar films are terrible and I have to agree.  After recently watching Dumbo, Sleeping Beauty, and Miyazaki’s Spirited Away, there is something to be said for the subtlety of older Disney animated films and animated films that aren't made in the North American vein.  Pixar films frequently look like a daycare exploded on film (see: Toy Story, Up, Inside Out).  The beginning part of Wall-E escapes this trend, but otherwise the animators tend to err on the side of garish.  Bill Peet, whose stories I loved as a child, was one of the animators on Sleeping Beauty:

Can you imagine ever seeing anything looking like that in a modern, mass-produced animated film?  Or, check out Eyvind Earle’s concept art for Sleeping Beauty and try not to have your heart sing:

Kids can handle subtlety.  Look at the vast range of illustration styles in children's picture books.  It's one of the reasons why I can't stop buying them.  As a rule, I generally loathe kids movies that are too pop culture referential.  For a shorthand: any film that features an extended anthropomorphic dance sequence to a modern pop music number (Reel 2 Real's I Like To Move It - I'm looking at you here), makes my skin crawl.  I think my reactions to a lot of kids' movies can be summed in this trailer for the new Peanuts aberration:

This is what the Peanuts are about now  I mean, really.  Charles Shulz is spinning in his grave.

It’s been a jam-packed start to summer vacation.  We’ve had a lovely couple of weekends.  The Big Yam, being the risk-averse, self-preservationist soul that he is, has not been a fan of his new two-wheeler.  He’s been very much against it.  Our neighbour gave us a Co-Pilot Wee Ride bike trailer (like a tandem bike that attaches to the parent bike), so we hooked that up, loaded the twins into the Chariot, and spent a windy morning at the beach two Saturdays ago.  It was so nice, even if the beach did stink, and even if the whole process of setting up, packing, and tearing down did take just as long as the time spent at the beach itself.  

One Saturday we met MHui and co at the new Guu in North York and we brought the Big Yam.  I hyped him up about it and pitched it as a restaurant where “everybody yells at you” and he was so thrilled with the novelty of taking his shoes off in our section. 

Proof that the Dotytron and I have very different ideas of fun: on Father’s Day, me and the kids were booted out of the house so he could sleep in (until 7:30am) and then wax his car (???)  Last night, I went upstairs to read (current bedside reading: Atul Gawande’s Being Mortal – I am so fun!  Party time!) and went back downstairs near midnight to find the Dotytron eating all dressed chips I didn’t even know we had and watching Adventures in Babysitting, “It’s SUMMER VACATION!” was the answer I got in reply to my raised eyebrow.

SUMMER VACATION INDEED! This past week was intensity in ten cities.  I took the days after Canada Day off and it was non-stop action.  Canada Day: park hangs, bike ride, frantic street party prep, taking the Big Yam to see Inside Out, and then the Street Party – which was exhausting.  The next day: first Micelli Monday of the summer – Children’s Discovery Centre, home, nap, swimming, dinner.  Then the next day, my sister and her family and my youngest brother and his gf Aunt Viv (has to be said in your best Fresh Prince of Bel-Air voice), and my mom came over and we went swimming and we hosted dinner and then the boy nephews slept over.  The next day, we went to a memorial service for the Dotytron’s uncle, went back to my mum’s house, had dinner out at Congee Queen, then BACK to our hood for ice cream, games, and another round of nephew sleepovers.  Sunday we woke up, took the kids to the Farmer’s Market, then to my grandma’s nursing home for a birthday lunch, then grocery shopping, then home, then swimming, and then I STRAIGHT UP PASSED OUT AT 8:30PM FROM BONE-TIRED EXHAUSTION.  

It was the good kind of exhaustion.  On our way back downtown on Saturday, as I drove onto the off-ramp of the highway, dusk settling into the nooks and crannies of the Don Valley Parkway, a car filled with sticky, sun-kissed and rice and lobster e-fu noodle-stuffed children, I had one of those moments where I marveled at my life.  Sometimes, I have to turn to the Dotytron and say, "When you were in high school, did you ever think you'd be an adult, driving in a minivan to get ice cream, with KARL LAGERFELD from Markham High and our 4 year old and 2 year old twins?!"  

 We've had my friend E staying with us for the past few days, and now the 2nd edition of Micelli Monday is happening, followed by the most ambitious weekend of life: TWO NIGHTS OF PARTYING for me and the Dotytron.  TWO! WHO AM I?!?  We are planning on hitting a rave on Friday night followed by an EDM festival with my youngest bro on Saturday.  If we manage to survive to tell the tale, it will be a legendary feat.  The kind of weekend that sustains two former partiers through years and years of 6am wake-ups and bleary, weary contemplations of how to fill the interminable hours that stretch before us on a rainy weekend day.  The stuff that will make us feel forever young again.

Sorry, didn't mean to end this on a downer.  We are going to try to suck the marrow out of life this weekend - will report back.

Fin.

Epic funtimes

Big epic fun-times this weekend.  A *little* too much driving around doing ghey errands (why, Costco, why?) but other than that, it was really nice.


I had the morning with the Big Yam on Friday and we hung out and chilled and then met up with J and the Big Yam's homies at the park.  I had a massage.  I skipped out on softball to be in solidarity with the Dotytron who was helping our neighbour that we've hired to build a fence (in exchange for a break on our share of the cost), tear up the existing chain link fence.  It's a good thing, because apparently the team we played on Friday was big on the smack talk and fisticuffs almost broke out.  Rude fact: in any competitive sport situation in which trash talk might lead to a physical altercation - it's best if I'm not around, as I am more help (in terms of fanning the aggro flames) than hindrance. 

I wait all year long for Ontario strawberries to be in season to make this fresh strawberry pie.  It's divine.  Recipes like this are one of the reasons I lament the ending of Gourmet magazine. So good.  I brought this to a park picnic I had with my friend E last Thursday night.

Friday night's dinner was salmon burgers with tzatiki, lettuce and tomato. Tasty! We had a salad alongside.

Saturday was a fun, fun day.


#1 I made us an awesome breakfast.  We got chanterelles from our CSA so I sautéed them in butter and thinly sliced CSA spring onions and we served them over scrambled eggs with breakfast sausage, toast, and an arugala salad.

#2 PINGY IS IN TOWN!!!  So she came over and I loaned her a pretty slamming outfit to wear to a wedding she was going to and then we went and visited the Roomie and L'Armi and the wee babe who has a provisional first name (FINALLY) but they're still waffling on the middle name.  I love me some Ping.


#3 Badminton & splash pad!  SMckay and the FroYo Baron came by and brought their badminton set and we took the Big Yam to the splash pad.  The Dotytron had spent all day tearing up fence posts and doing hard labour and was covered in dust and dirt and so he came with us to the park to cool down.  Then he kind of went all foul owl on us, which was kind of funny, because it's the first time SMckay has seen the Dotytron in one of his "moods."  Dr. Rei is well familiar with how awful it is when the Dotytron flips the switch and turns all foul owl.  Basically, it's like the entire sky darkens and there's no light in the world and your ONLY GOAL becomes making the Dotytron go back to being Captain Funtimes Easy-go again and it's like the hardest and most demoralizing thing ever because he gets STUCK in his foul owl-ness pretty hardcore.  Luckily, taking a shower at the splash pad helped.


#4 Lolly came over!  She was at our place before we got back from the splash pad and was all like, "Sooo, I let myself in and the Dotytron said, 'I'm just getting out of the shower!' and then he put jazz on and I didn't know if that was an invitation or not."  LOL x 1000000000000000!  So funny.  We got Burger's Priest and manged that and then went to see Snow White and the Huntsman but not before,


#5 SMckay gave the Big Yam a very Friar Tuck haircut.  Which ended up being topical because now the Big Yam looked like one of the baddies in the movie:

This was also topical because SMckay gave me the gears when I accidentally cut the Boobla's hair too short and made him look all dumb & dumber:

Really though, I don't think there's anything you can do about the Boobla looking like a monk when you trim his bangs.  It's just the nature of his head shape.  He does still look awfully cute though:

#6 The trailer for the Les Miserables movie was one of our previews and at the opening notes of the music I raised my fist in the air and looked around...to find a completely indifferent theatre.  That didn't stop Lolly, Steph and I from holding hands for the duration of the preview.

#7 The movie.  This movie has been getting middling reviews, and yet I found it pretty entertaining in a high-gloss, low-narrative consistency kind of way.  It's over-the-top like a slick music video and some of the imagery is fantastic.  It's also got this feminist narrative (ie. what makes Charlize Theron's deliciously campy Queen Ravenna so vicious is because she was taught that men only give power to beautiful women and she learned to use their sexism against them) and Snow White isn't some maiden to be rescued, she leads the army in the charge to take the castle back.  But: does it make me a bad feminist that even though I intellectually appreciated all that, I wanted a big, juicy, make out scene between Snow and her hottie huntsman, Chris Hemsworth?  Chris Hemsworth is definitely the hotter of the Hemsworth bros.  I'm awarding him the title because he also had the good sense to NOT propose to a 19 year old Miley Cyrus.  What the heck are you thinking, Liam Hemsworth?!?  Jeez.  Anyway, elder Hemsworth is super-hot and buff and alpha male.  He's also wicked as Thor.  So, done and done.  The movie plays around with the outlines of the Snow White story and comes up with something that has some of the same tell-tale elements (dwarves, apple) but makes them a little more contemporary and inserts a political point about womyn, that in the process robs audiences of the making out scene they so desperately want AND garbles some of the story elements (ie. why does Snow need the Huntsman to kiss her awake? Why does the Wicken Queen have to be the fairest? We dun know.)  Anyway, this was a fun enough disposable viewing, although not something for the ages.

Sunday was Father's Day.  We slept in, schlepped up to Markham to have breakfast with Big D and company and then went to Costco and dim sum.  Then we came home, I finished a quilt top while the Dotytron and the Boobla napped and then we went to J & S's house for dinner with the Discerning Coyote and his gf.  It was a delicious meal.  I made us pimento cheese spread which we ate with pita chips.  The Discerning Coyote made a lovely, light potato salad.  J & S made ribs and baked beans and a roasted beet and goat's cheese salad and biscuits.  I made that toasted almond, lemon curd semifreddo and J made cheesecake with rhubarb sauce.  I was full to bursting and we had a great time eating and hanging with their kids, who are adorable, punchy, smart little tykes.  


The little Boobla might be teething.  He's been a fussy fussbudget mini-St. Bernard drool monster lately and he woke up crying at an ungodly hour Sunday morning so I hustled him into bed with us and he slept there. On my arm. Which was awkwardly trapped in a weird twisted position under his giant head.  And yet. And yet having him in bed with us is one of my greatest, secret pleasures and I will take my sore arm as payment gladly.

Pingy came over for dinner tonight.  I made us that torched spicy salmon rice bowl thing that I like to make.  It was delicious.  We chased it with cheesecake and my homemade mint crackle ice cream, which is divine.

I've been going a little crazy with the chilled desserts action.  This is a fresh mint bittersweet chocolate crackle ice cream I made.  It's soooo good and minty!  If I had had US-style Girl Guide Thin Mint cookies (the kind without the mint goo) I would have folded some up in there for some more texture.

Fin. 

Ag.

Been meaning to post more, but haven't had the opportunity - I've been plugging away at my school stuff pretty prodigiously and the Big Yam's napping ain't what she used to be. Monday's belated Father's Day meal for Poppa D was fun! We constructed a collaborative meal and sat in Momma and Poppa D's gorgeous backyard, eating in the waning sunlight and playing Cranium together.

The finger in the mouth means he's working on dem teefs again. His top right tooth is coming in something fierce. I'm going to his goofy smile with just the bottom two chompers. Momma and Poppa D made a pork tenderloin stuffed with prunes on the grill, served with a currant jelly glaze. Ehmdo brought asparagus for grilling and a cabbage and apple slaw. I brought a spring new potato salad and the orange creamsicle tart:

Tuesday night's dinner was a bit of a write off - we just grabbed pizza from Queen Margherita takeout because we were home so late from the after school guitar party (kid in the class, sighing happily while munching on banana bread, "I love guitar parties" and then being rapidly corrected by someone else, "You mean you love the Dotytron's guitar parties!" - so cute!) and then we had to grab our CSA pickup. For Wednesday night dinner I made us a cold antipasti pasta salad - whole wheat farfalle tossed with sliced hot genoa salami, roasted peppers, tomatoes, mini boccaccini balls, basil, black olive tapenade and olive oil.

Tonight the plan is to make a cold soba noodle salad with shrimp, salad greens, and asparagus in a sesame-ginger dressing.

Last night was Academic Book Club, discussing the Hunger Games. I almost didn't go - the hostesses' house was all the way across town and I just wanted to loll around with the Dotytron and the Big Yam and the roomie who came for a walk and a visit. But I'm glad I did. I love those ladies and we have some pretty awesome conversations. Plus, my friend A gave me her old Britax Marathon car seat! Wahoo!!! Fancy fancy!

As promised, the Baked Orange Creamsicle tart recipe follows, with my adaptations.

Fin.

------------------------------------------------------------

Baked Orange Creamsicle Tart

adapted from Baked: Explorations

makes 1 9" tart

For the Orange Cream Soda Filling:

1 stick of unsalted butter, cut into small cubes

1 1/4 t. unflavoured gelatin

zest and juice of 2 medium lemons (approx 1/4 c. juice)

zest and juice of 3 large oranges (approx 1 c. juice)

1 c. of orange cream soda (regular orange pop works)

3 large eggs

2 large egg yolks

3/4 c. of sugar

pinch of salt

1 prebaked 9" tart shell

1 c. of whipping cream

2 T. of sugar

Make the Orange Cream Soda Filling:

- place the butter in a mixing bowl, set aside.

- sprinkle the gelatin evenly over the lemon juice in a bowl. set aside so that the gelatin can soften.

- in a medium saucepan, stir together the orange juice and soda. Bring to a boil and simmer until it is reduced by half or 1 cup. Take it off the heat and whisk to cool slightly.

- in another bowl, whisk together the orange and lemon zest, the eggs, egg yolks, sugar and pinch of salt until combined. Pour the mixture into the saucepan and cook over medium heat, whisking constantly, until mixture thickens and evenly coats the back of a wooden spoon. Take the saucepan off the heat.

- whisk in the gelatin mixture until all the gelatin is dissolved.

- pour this mixture through a sieve into the bowl with the butter and whisk thoroughly until all the butter is incorporated. Place a piece of plastic wrap directly onto the surface of the curd and set in the refrigerator to chill for 4-6 hours or until firm.

Assemble the Tart:

- take out the curd, it will be quite firm. Whisk it to loosen it slightly.

- spread the curd into the prepared tart shell.

- beat the 1 c. of whipping cream with 2 T. of sugar until firm peaks. Top the curd with the whipping cream. Serve immediately.

Baba's Day weekend

Oy vey, another mondo mondosian (that's a signature Dotytron catchphrase) weekend catch-up post. Pre-softball dinner on Friday was a beauty of a meal - roasted peppers, hot house cherry tomatoes, torn basil, topped with a custardy ball of burrata imported from Italy, drizzled with olive oil and coarse sea salt and black pepper. We ate it up with a toasted baguette, some capicollo, and some balsamic & olive oil for dipping. I'm absolutely loving these no-cook, summertime, composed meals:

We lost our softball game, which I wasn't happy about and I didn't play as well as I did last time, but I'm still in looooove with the game.

On the way home, I ended up going a little buck and spending like, 40 bazillion dollars on those new Magnum ice cream bars. We were totally under the sway of the pervasive advertising campaign (featuring Rachel Bilson! Photographed by my namesake, Karl Lagerfeld!!!) and thought we would treat ourselves to a bar. So we went on a mission, hit up 3 convenience stores with no luck, before striking gold at Shopper's Drug Mart. As I'm settling up at the cash, a little bit shocked that A SINGLE BAR goes for $4.25 or something, the cashier says to me, "did you know the boxes are on special?" So I go to the freezer section and lo and behold, the boxes ARE on special, from $6.99 to $4.99 for a box of 3. So of course, I went a little buck and bought FOUR boxes. In my defense, it's because I couldn't decide on a flavour. When we finally tucked into them at home, I gotta say, I was a little disappointed. The ice cream is really pedestrian and lacks the richness of Haagen Daaz and the chocolate has a nice snap to it, but still tastes like cheap, wax-infused crap. So not worth it.

The Dotytron's end of year recital was kind of amazing. A billion judo demos, hip hop, jazz, ballet, and the Dotytron's guitar classes. So cute! Then we headed over to B & G's for deck building. I feel like our friend Gaz totally helped demystify the process for the Dotytron and I. Gaz's approach comes down to "keeping up the intensity" (in his words) - working quick, fast, making sure stuff is level, and not being too precious about the process. I can dig it. Then it was meeting up with Dr. Rei, Hanbo, and Dr. Rei's bro for some Burger's Priest action. As I got out of the car to pick up the Burger's Priest, I saw that there was a KFC next door (I had forgotten the close proximity) and shouted, "Go in without me, I'm going to grab a Double Down to go!" to Dr. Rei. This was my meal:

The Double Down is aight. I wish they used dark meat, and I wasn't fond of the cheese - but the concept is pretty solid. My priest burger was overcooked - they used to serve them pink in the middle and this was cooked all the way through. When they do that, the meat becomes indistinguishable from a Five Guys burger, in my humble opinion (and I've got a pretty finely attuned palate for these nuances, let's face it).

Sunday was Father's Day so I made the Dotytron a breakfast of warm biscuits with strawberry butter, fried duck eggs, and Bob Evans sausage patties:

Then we possé-d up and headed to High Park with the Boobla. We hung out in the Jamie Bell Adventure Playground which is all kinds of awesome and checked out the zoo, which is sad. I can't handle the zoo tip anymore - it's just too damned depressing.

Headed over to Barque Smokehouse and got in line (they reserve 1/2 the table for resos and 1/2 for walk ins). We got a seat on the patio, were informed that it was a $25 prix fixe, waited about 15 minutes for our server to take our drink order and then began the longest wait. We waited and waited and waited. About mid-way through the wait, a bucket of popcorn seasoned with their dry rub was unceremoniously plunked down in front of us. The rub is nice - slightly sweet, with a good amount of paprika. Then we waited some more, watching all the while while EVERY OTHER TABLE in the restaurant received their first course. I could tell the kitchen was in the weeds - it was obvious. Less obvious is how a kitchen gets into the weeds when you're serving a PRIX FIXE. Not just that - a predominantly BBQ DOMINATED PRIX FIXE! All that shiz should be DONE, son! It's really just a matter of expediting! One of the courses is SALAD! Why isn't someone in the kitchen doing 40" bowls of the stuff at a time? The dessert course is an ice cream sandwich! Why aren't they premade and sitting in the freezer? Also, with barbecue, all your smoking should be done and you should just be warming the food. Ugh. I was getting increasingly antsy but the Dotytron was losing his mind.

After three unsuccessful check-ins, 1 with our nerdlinger server who gave us the empty, "I'm going to check on that right away for you" (apparently "checking on that right away" means "opening wine for 10 other tables") and 2 Abercrombie-blonde ditzy busboys "your food is coming out in 1 minute," the Dotytron was apoplectic. We had been waiting for 1 hour and 20 minutes with nary an ingestible substance save for popcorn to be seen. The interesting thing about these scenarios is how we always end up playing against type. You would think that **I** would be the one dropping F-bombs and losing my shiz, wouldn't you? FALSE! It's always the Dotytron who wants to walk out without paying and gets all wiggy. So I informed the waiter that we were leaving, he apologized profusely, and then the Dotytron wanted justice so he talked to the owner/manager who also apologized and said that he would send us home with 2 complete meals, packaged to go, on the house. Classy. They won us back right there.

It was kind of the best-possible scenario. I would generally prefer to eat at home and we got our meal comped...save for the waste of almost 2 hours of my time, they did the right thing. The food is really good. Prix fixe included: smoked chicken wings, Asian-style scallop, watermelon mint soup shooter (nicely and unexpectedly jumped up with a hit of chili), pork ribs, smoked chicken, chicken fingers for the Big Yam, surf'n'turf of striploin & shrimp served with hollandaise, smashed potatoes, sautéed peas and mushrooms, a salad of mixed greens apples and almonds, and ice cream sandwiches (ours just the cookie) for dessert. I was impressed with the creativity of the kitchen to go beyond the standard fare. I'm also a sucker for steak and hollandaise. Nice smoke ring on the smoked stuff with all of the meat getting a dose of the rub, and served with what I'm pretty sure is a Lexington-style sauce and a Kansas city style sauce (I prefer the Lexington). The food is incredible value for $25 and I will be going back. If they don't sort out their service issues, then I am the kind of person who values service enough when I'm eating out that I wouldn't go back...but I'm hoping that they learn how to manage the flow better. I place the blame squarely on the servers who didn't know how to make things right, manage their tables, or comfort their guests. The owner/manager was great and the kitchen ended up turning out really tasty food.

For dessert I made us the orange creamsicle tart from the Baked: Explorations cookbook, with some minor tweaks. I find the Baked boys really like to complicate things needlessly, so I did some streamlining of the process. Tart is great - a silky orange curd topped with whipped cream really does mimic the delicious summer pleasure of an orange creamsicle - will post the recipe with my adjustments on the morrow:

Tonight we're heading to Momma & Poppa D's for a belated Father's Day bbq - I'm bringing a spring potato salad (new potatoes, asparagus, radishes, tossed with a mustardy dressing) and the rest of the creamsicle tart for dessert.

Fin.

my cup runneth over...

and over and over and over...sure life can be hard, and it's full of trials and tribulations and challenges, but after weekends like this, i'm reminded of how lucky i am and how grateful i am for the ability to be aware of the multitude of joys in my life. let's face it, folks, winning the vagina sweepstakes and landing in the northern (read: mostly developed) hemisphere is reason enough to rejoice in our good fortune. having a minimum of one person out there who loves you is enough and knowing that so many of us have a multiplicity of love in our lives is the sweetest, fluffiest, most decadent buttercream frosting on the cake.

this weekend was filled with moments of gratitude and laughter.

1) look at this bowl of pierogies. isn't it divine?

 

i've finally figured out my pierogi making technique. you start with bacon, sliced into little thin lardons. render those out until they're crisp, and then set aside on a paper-towel lined plate to drain. into the bacon drippings go a large spanish onion, thinly sliced, to sweat and caramelize and turn into silky shreds of allium goodness over a long, slow cook on medium heat, with some assistance from a big blob of chopped garlic. back in go those bacon bits, topped with your frozen pierogies and a sprinkling of salt and a good hit of freshly ground black pepper. then into the oven they go, to be annointed upon their emergence, all browned and crispy-chewy with a mountain of full-fat sour cream and a heap of thinly sliced scallions. that there is good stuff. and while it's not the most seasonal of summer dishes, it is an intensely satisfying one when you're coming home ravenous on a friday night.

2) the diemonds were super fun! they were on a mixed bill with some other grindcore and hardcore bands, so it wasn't the best crowd, though there were some hair-a** dudes giving it their all in the headbanging arena. there were multiple points of hilarity en route with the classic M-R-I team made up with dr. rei in the backseat nattering on and the three of us frequently dissolving into riotous bouts of laughter over the following:

i) dr. rei mistaking a fat, pasty, frequently topless and man-boobs sporting old weird-al yankovic guy for cousin al.
ii) dr. rei realizing her mistake upon meeting cousin al and seeing his neck tattoos.
iii) us going for ice cream at the drake's "ice cream and t-shirts" store. as dr. rei and i are ordering our scoops, we see the server's eyes get big as she gasps out, "that's not a bench!!!" as we hear a crash behind us, to find that the dotytron has tried to sit on a remarkably bench-like piece of furniture that it turns out is ACTUALLY a miniature bowling game, but that has stupidly been placed in the EXACT spot in the store where you would expect a bench-shaped piece of furniture to be.
iv) the three of us getting so taken with the idea of massimo's pizza and poutini's poutine and ice cream and wanting to grab all the food in the general vicinity and then picturing the three of us, the most unlikely and out ouf place people at an 80s hair metal show, grooving in a corner to grind core with our hands full of pizza, ice cream, pop and poutine. lol!!!
v) it taking us AN HOUR to get home, more than 45 minutes of which was spent arguing with an overweight, highly stressed out mcdonald's drive thru clerk who was losing his mind, forgot to punch in 1 of our big mac combo's and then insisted that we would have to DRIVE AROUND TO THE END OF THE 15 MINUTE LINE OF CARS WE JUST SAT THROUGH TO GET TO THE PICK-UP WINDOW AND REPLACE OUR ORDER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! it was unbelievable.

3) this is c.c. diemond. who is AMAZING. i mean, i love my l.a. glam metal as much as the next person, but i've never beeon one to find the rangy, skinny, acid-wash jeans-bedecked dudes attractive. but there's something about the boozy decadence of c.c. diemond that is VERY appealing. he EMBODIES this scene. the tightest jeans you've ever seen, a tiny shrunken leather vest, ankle boots, giant hair, pure swagger. boss.

4) saturday we loafed around and dr. rei watched me bake and we went grocery shopping and i told sordid tales from my promiscious past which titillated and shocked dr. rei and then we watched the cameroon denmark world cup game and hated the danes and their winning ways.

5) this is us at ribfest. ribfest was decent. the food was aight. not as good as dinosaur but i've come to expect that at ribfest. we shared a full rack of ribs with beans and coleslaw and a pulled pork sandwich and corn that was FOUR DOLLARS AN EAR and sat on a tablecloth i had brought and listened to crappy blues. i'm never going to quibble with this ribfest's food because the proceeds go to a camp for kids who are burn victims, which totally made the dotytron tear up when he found out about it, which in turn makes me grateful i found such a sensitive, good hearted bloke.

 

 

bwong was supposed to meet us but was like a billion hours late because he was secret-shredding a billion pages of paper on his way down with his cousin of privilege. they finally met up with us while me, dr. rei and the dotytron were playing a game of 2-on-1 basketball and then 21 with this random dude lee at the basketball courts at jimmy simpson park. basketball is fun! it's a good workout...but only if dr. rei is with me going 2-on-1 against the dotytron. otherwise, it's pretty unfair if it's just me and him playing.

we came home with bwong and the cousin of privilege in tow and ate peanut butter pie, but not before bwong was again mysteriously waylaid on the way to our house - for THIRTY MINUTES?!??

6) sunday morning we woke up and then biked out to mitzi's on sorauren for a father's day brunch with poppa d and the d family. the brunch was really good, although i think it was a titch overpriced for the serving sizes. everything was also priced the same, which made no sense to me - there's no way that french toast costs the same amount as scrambled eggs. i had poached eggs on a sausage hash with a tomato-y sauce and homefries - i shared with the dotytron who had scrambled eggs with basil and parm with an olive biscuit and homefries. they were good...i wish i had photos to show you. i don't know that we'd come all the way back though. after biking home we google mapped the distance and we had biked over 25km!!! it was crazy!

7) then we had my family over for a father's day dinner with big d. i made us a pile of big d's favorite things: clam linguine, steamed lobsters, and his favorite dessert, chocolate swiss roll cake with whipped cream:

 

 

 

do you see what i have to be so grateful for? how much better can a summer weekend get? how lucky am i to have spend my weekends surrounded by friends and family and laughter and being outdoor and active in the sun?

tonight we're having tuna mac salad for dinner with a bean and grape tomato salad in a mustard dill vinaigrette. tuna mac salad was something that my sister and outlaw bro introduced me to that i'm OBSESSED with. at it's most basic, it's essentially cold pasta (shells or elbows), chopped celery, canned tuna, and mayonnaise. but the end results belies the simplicity of the ingredients. i'm going to make it the classic way this once and resist the urge to muck around by adding red onions or garlic or parsley or herbs. it was so good when it was kept simple that i want to replicate what got me hooked in the first place.

we also have a standing date with the kids across the street to play frisbee. K seems to think our date is for "after school" so i had to gently tell him that i get home after he does and that i also have to eat dinner first. there's also a potential visit from the roomie in the works for this evening.

my cup continueth to be filled and runneth over.

fin.