Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Reflecting on a lovely weekend

On the Easter weekend, we had a lovely brunch at an upscale restaurant with my mother-in-law. It was busy, so I'm glad we made reservations. Everyone liked their food, including my mother-in-law who had a delicious grilled salmon well done. It was the perfect summery weather as I keep mentioning. I had a lobster and squash bisque followed by a seafood linguini.



The kids had gourmet pizzas, and L opted for yummy sweet potato fries with hers.


M had a ham and egg breakfast dish. The desserts were to die for. M had creme brulee.



K had carrot cake and ice cream.


L had a double scoop ice cream and coconut sorbet. I had a rum butter latte that was laced with alcohol and spices and put me in a good frame of mind considering I don't drink. This reminded me of our Barbados vacation in March, I keep saying I don't drink.

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Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Motivational Speaking



PJ posted this on her blog recently and I loved it, maybe identified with it! How about you? lol.

We had a fabulous dinner with my sister and her family over the weekend. My brother-in-law discovered this Viet-Thai restaurant in the neighbourhood. Tasteful, quiet atmosphere, authentic, artistic cuisine at great prices. We ordered a combination dinner for six with a few extra side dishes. Starting off with a delicious mango salad, followed by thai and vietnamese spring rolls, chicken skewers, a yellow curry chicken, an eggplant and chicken dish, singapore style noodles, pad thai, seafood fried rice, and a bowl of beef tendon pho noodle soup. We had a sweet sticky rice with mango slices for dessert along with deep fried banana. Yum. Sorry, I didn't take any photos, more's the pity as the food was so beautifully presented.

Afterward, we watched the war movie 'Inglorious Basterds'. This is not my kind of movie, but it was a good, suspenseful one.

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Monday, April 5, 2010

My Noodle Dish



I'm quite proud of myself. Pete of PeteFormation Foodie Adventure recently posted a simple prawn noodle soup recipe. He calls it 'Quickie Hokkien Mee'. Anyway, I tried it with a few variations. It became a noodle dish as opposed to a soup (as pictured), but I've always had trouble making palatable noodle dishes, so now I have a base to work with. Thanks Pete.

Have a look at this cute video called 'Single Ladies Devastation'.

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Sunday, April 4, 2010

British Goodies



I was on Main Street a couple of days ago and noticed a new store opened up at the bottom of the street. It's called something like 'A little bit of this, a little bit of that'. They sell British goods! I saw some clothing and other knick knacks. They had a good supply of English and Scottish treats. They seemed to be clearing their Easter chocolates and pictured above is a photo of the bunch of goodies I picked up for Canadian $10.50.
They had Cadbury Roses, etc, etc. Mmm, yes, I thought of you.

I decided to clean up the front garden a bit yesterday morning as the weather is so fabulous. I notice this pile of leaves on the front door mat, so I clear it away and notice a robin's egg neatly tucked into one of the links on the mat. The birds must have built a little nest at the front door! I left the egg there, thought that was the best thing to do. The I start clearing some leaves under a shrub and a baby duck (I think) comes out from under it! I decided to go clean another area and not disturb it. M asked me if I'm sure it's not a rabbit. Well, I think I know a bird when I see it!

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Saturday, April 3, 2010

Dance-Off

Happy Easter!

M and I sat in an outdoor cafe yesterday morning and split an egg salad sandwich on whole wheat with decaf coffees. I had lunch not long after that and snacked on chocolates. L was at a sleepover 18th birthday party for one of her best friends. K's friend organized a C-Walk dance event and more than 20 of them went to a mall for a few hours to have a dance-off. The security guards kicked them out after a while so they continued outdoors. He reports having great fun. Teenagers need a safe place to hang out, I think.

K gets a haircut this morning then we're doing dinner with my sister and her family as our Easter gathering and also to celebrate my nephew's 16th birthday. We're planning to take M's mom to Easter Brunch at a nice restaurant on Monday.



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Friday, April 2, 2010

When there is only one tree in the neighbourhood



We are having gorgeous, sunny, summery weather this long Easter weekend. M was saying we had no snow in all of March which is unusual. People are taking their snow tires off a month earlier than usual, not to mention thinking of barbecue season. The grocery stores were crowded yesterday because they are closed today and Sunday. I heard Costco (in the States anyway) sells a spiral ham in red foil that is already cooked, so you just warm it and pour the accompanying sauce on it. Well, that's the American way for you.

I went for a walk down Main Street in the afternoon and it was bustling, the sidewalk cafes were overflowing with people enjoying the good weather. The ice cream/chocolate store was doing brisk business.


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Thursday, April 1, 2010

Panda Tantrum

Happy April!

I was at my hairdresser recently. He told me an interesting story of when he first came to Canada 28 years ago (he's Armenian from Lebanon I believe). He spoke no English and got a job at a hair dressing salon owned by an Italian man. After only about 3 or 4 months working there, the owner decided to take a 3 or 4 month trip to Italy and left him in charge of running the salon. My hairdresser was surprised and his co-workers were upset because some of them had been there for years. The owner had his mind made up. Upon his return he was so happy with the job my hairdresser had done that he insisted on giving him a $200 tip. The whole conversation started because my hairdresser was telling me he can't go on vacation because he has no one to look after the business when he's gone. The last time he went away, he entrusted and paid 3 people and ended up losing 3 times what he should have made. It's not easy running a small business, even more difficult to find people you can trust.

Then 2 of his customers walked in. The man was 96 years old and his wife looked around the same age. My hairdresser says he still fights with his wife!

Here's a cute video called Panda Tantrum.

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