Monday, September 27 2010

Alexias stayed home today, lying on the couch and watching CSI re-runs, and episodes of Hoarders. I caught one scene where they were shovelling out junk from this one person's house, and found a mummified cat at the bottom.

* * *

For dinner, I decided to try Romanian Tenderloin Steak, as described by my friend Spike on his blog here.

The recipe is quite simple: take a piece of skirt steak, or flank steak if you can't find it, and grind black pepper over the front and back and set aside. Pound up a few cloves of garlic in a pestle and mortar with some salt until it is a nice pasty mess. I used four cloves for just over a pound of steak, but I think I could have gone with more. I then whisked in juice of half a lemon. Anyone who knows me knows that this is a ridiculously small amount of lemon for me, and believe me I had to struggle not to add a lot more. I also whisked in a couple of tablespoons of olive oil just for kicks. Spread the marinade all over and leave for an hour or longer.

A brief word about the steak: I looked around for skirt steak but the two places I checked don't carry it. It is going to look like flank steak, but fattier, like this:

If anyone knows the Chinese name for this, please let me know.

I was going to cook it on a nice hot barbecue grill outside, but just as it was time to eat, it started raining, so I ended up doing it inside. Served with rice, broccoli a sauce on the side made from the pan juices, a thin tomato juice, a little Lea and Perrins, black pepper and butter.

I cooked half the steak medium rare and half medium. Here's a shot of the medium one.

* * *

I liked this a lot. The dish is very tasty, extremely easy to put together and quick to cook too. It is also right up my own personal flavour street: garlic, lemon, pepper, meat ... Thanks Spike!

* * *

To round off a perfect day: I remembered to buy my Marmite. All is right with the world.

Sunday, September 26 2010

Farmer's Market today. Alexias stayed home as she was up on her feet from 9:30 am to 6:30 pm yesterday, had ankle exhaustion and was working on a cold, so Serena went to fly the Panayi flag.

I wandered along at around 12:30 to go have lunch. I found out the name of the guy I have been talking to at the burger stand for the whole summer. It is Nick. Why now, you may ask? Well, there are only two weeks left of the market, and it seemed the polite thing to do. Besides, I didn't need to know his name. I knew where he'd be every week.

First thing I saw after ordering my burger was these:

Twelve fresh artichokes, each on as big as a fist if you have small fists, for just $5. I could throw away eleven of them, and they would still be cheaper than I can buy them in Hong Kong.

I boiled six of them that night, and Serena and I shared them, dipping the leaves in a simple lemon vinegarette. On Serena's request, I bought a big head of broccoli too, so we ate some with the artichokes.

* * *

Watched Machete in the evening, a Roberto Rodriguez film starring Danny Trejo, Jessica Alba, Robert DeNiro, Michelle Williams, Don Johnson (yes, that Don Johnson) and a bunch of other people. I was going to let the girls watch, but after the first seven minutes was glad I didn't. 

* * *

Saturday, September 25 2010

A friend is someone who looks in on you when you are not feeling well.

* * *

Friday, September 24 2010

Serenaville. Population: 1. A place where Serena spends a lot of her time, and where she is always happy.

Sometimes, she invites a friend along.

* * *

Thursday, September 23 2010

Serena's grand plan today was for her and Alexias to walk to the mall today from school, where Alexias would buy some shoes, and they might have a bite to eat. I'd pick them up from the mall. However, Serena forgot her phone, so Alexias couldn't find her after school. By the time they found each other, Serena had decided she wanted to work on her science project with her study buddy instead, so I had to come and pick them both up.

Serena's friend Jim came by at four, and the two of them set about gluing popsicle sticks and newspaper together so that they could have an egg drop from a great height without breaking. Around 6:30 I ordered a pizza for everyone, but Jim said he wasn't hungry and it was time to leave anyway. I thought there must be something wrong with him, as he is 14 years old and should be eating every two hours. Turns out, he was starving and barely had enough strength to make it to the door, but felt he didn't want to appear rude.

Tomorrow is a PA day, so I have planned to meet the Wans for dim sum lunch, then take Alexias to the mall to get her shoes before she goes into work. Jim is coming by tomorrow to finish the egg carrying device.

* * *

Wednesday, September 22 2010

Nearly caught up with the leftovers today. Serena ate fried rice with salmon, egg and veg. I finished off half of the turkey breast - and gave the remainder the next day to them with salad.

Apart from that, a quiet day. Though I did make an inroad into converting some of my hi-8 tapes to edit on the computer. Our favourite clip so far? This one:

Serena says 'Aaargh!"

* * *

Tuesday, September 21 2010

The Harvest Moon: All full moons rise around the time of sunset. Usually, the moon rises about 50 minutes later each day, as it moves in orbit around Earth.  The Harvest Moon and Hunter's Moon are special, because around the time of these full moons, the time difference between moonrise is shorter than usual which means that the moon rises approximately 30 minutes later, from one night to the next.  Thus, there is no long period of darkness between sunset and moonrise.  Autumn moons were said to help farmers working to bring in their crops (or, in the case of the Hunter's Moon, hunters tracking their prey). They could continue being productive by moonlight even after the sun had set. Hence the name Harvest Moon. The reason for the shorter-than-usual rising time between successive moonrises around the time of the Harvest and Hunter's Moon is that the ecliptic makes a narrow angle with respect to the horizon in the evening in autumn. - from wikipedia.

* * *

In the morning, I roasted a turkey breast I had bought the day earlier but it wasn't ready in time for the girls to take to school. So, Serena brought the rest of the pork from last night for lunch. Alexias just brought snacks with her as she only has first period free. As it was her first day of work today, I decided to make her something she could eat there instead of food court stuff, so I pan-fried a piece of salmon, with some white rice and a small tomato and cucumber salad.

Serena ate the rest of the salmon with rice for her evening meal. I had a roast turkey sandwich.

* * *

Alexias was tired but happy after her first day and wasn't hungry. Later though, she did have some salmon with rice and egg.

* * *

Monday, September 20 2010

An after-school day for Serena so I picked up Alexias and we went to the Chinese supermarket, forgot the name now. As usual, I had no idea what to get until I actually walked in. Ended up with a pound of ground pork, spring onions, tofu, fresh dumpling wrappers, miso paste, gai laan, soy milk, and parsley.

I made a new dish, called "Serena's pork, celery and tofu". Fried the pork till it was nice and brown, then added some sliced celery, cubed tofu, some beef stock, and black pepper. Served with fried rice and gai laan.

Serena and I made some dumplings too. I used the pork with some finely chopped spring onions, parsley, rice wine, cornstarch, black pepper. Boiled them for a few minutes and then served them with a sauce made from: my home made chili paste which seems to have got even hotter, soy sauce, vinegar, water, spring onions.

* * *

Flora came by later to help look over Alexias' work contract for her new job at the shoe store in the mall. She starts tomorrow and is pretty excited. I am very proud of her for being able to handle so much - a new school, a new job, homework, her schedule, laundry, her sister ... She really is an amazing girl!

* * *

Sunday, September 19 2010

Ahhh .... yet another early day. The girls went off to the Farmer's Market today as they have changed their schedule there to every other week. 

As for me, I had arranged to meet Louie Castro, who was in Toronto for the mid-Autumn Festival. I thought I'd keep everything fairly relaxed, based on how much time he had. Turns out he didn't have that much time after all, and had to be back at Fairchild by three, and I was meeting him at one.

So ... we ate at the Farmer's Market, then walked to the Firehall for their excellent ice cream, followed by a typically Canadian event - coffee at Tim Hortons! Lucky I remembered where Fairchild was, so I managed to get him there on time.

Back home and met with the girls. Cleaned up a bit, then early to bed.

* * *

Saturday, September 18 2010

Can't help thinking it is someone's birthday. I know it isn't immediate family, and I have checked my passport so I know it isn't mine. Regardless, whoever's birthday it is/may be should know me well enough to know I am not great at this kind of thing, which means I am in the clear.

Memory is hard to figure out. Every morning, after I get back from running the girls to school, I come back and have a piece of toast. What I like to have on my toast is this.

But I have none left. And by the time I get to the supermarket, I have forgotten about it as it is so far away from breakfast. I could make a list I suppose, but my shopping lists are all ad hoc lists and Marmite never makes it on. I will have to wait until I see it in a shop somewhere and remember.

* * *

Serena had to wake up at 6:15 today in order to make it to her Saturday job in Aurora's Farmers Market. I also helped Flora bring Keiffany to ballet, so picked her up and then went to get Serena, and from there to the Upper Canada Mall to where Flora works. We were all going to have dinner together but they had something else on. Serena bought two boxes of sushi from the food court and brought the rest back for Alexias who stayed home to do homework and housework. 

I had mediterranean; two kinds of salad and two pieces of kofta. Kofta is basically just seasoned ground meat smooshed round a stick and barbecued. Theirs were pretty good, except they asked if i wanted hot sauce on, I said no and they put it anyway. I will definitely eat at that place again, and pay more attention at the hot sauce stage ... if I can remember its name. Medina? Medusa? Madonna?

* * *

Friday, September 17 2010

* * *

Must have driven about 500k today. Serena went to meet Kim at Silver City to watch a movie, and Alexias  went to meet her old school mate to watch a different movie at a different location. But ... the location was wrong, so I ended up going back to where she was and taking her to the new place which was quite far away. Of course, their movies finished at different times.

Before that, I took them to the bank as they wanted to deposit their Hong Kong dollars they had saved and brought with them. Alexias ended up with around C$ 150, while Serena ... Serena had nearly a thousand. Canadian. We were all shocked, though Alexias less so as Serena almost never brings any money with her. I guess she has been just squirrelling it aways for the past few years. I do remember her giving me a fat wad of cash all rolled up just before we left Hong Kong "for safekeeping" but I had no idea it was that much.

* * *

Thursday, September 16 2010

Yesterday was the first time since school started that Alexias was free after school. She left her job and decided to look for a retail position. Makes sense as she is good around people and will enjoy the interaction a lot more than sitting at a desk for four hours. It is remarkable how much choice you can have when you are willing to work for minimum wage or less.

Today we were on the way home but the girls were hungry so we stopped for fish and chips. Ordered a smaller plate this time. Serena said she wasn't in the mood for fish and chips but she might have a few chips. Of course, she ended up not eating many chips, but half of Alexias' fish instead.

After that, we went to FMP so Serena could practise putting in and taking out contacts. This only took about an hour and a half. 

Back home, we finally got to the tomatoes. Last time, I peeled and chopped the tomatoes,which added a lot of time to the process. I could also chop the tomatoes and cook them down, then press them through a strainer or food mill (which I know I have but couldn't find). Or, a third option, is to cut them in half and grate them. This is the one I went with and even though it is still a fair amount of work, it is just two steps - cutting and grating - so you can easily make a small production line, even if you only have one person there. 

I ended up with seven jars of marinara sauce and four of just plain crushed tomatoes before I ran out of lemons. I might have enough tomatoes to make three more jars.

* * *

Wednesday, September 15 2010

Serena decided she wanted to be in school by 7:30 today. Huzzah!

After taking her, came back and waited for Alexias to get ready, then took her in, came back home again, took a shower and went out to meet Flora to go and pick up a new couch I found on kijiji. Came back (again), helped Flora run an errand, then we went to Eggsmart for breakfast. Flora is like me: as far as we are concerned, there is no bad time to eat breakfast. Three in the afternoon? No problem. Midnight? Bring it on.

Today is absolutely 100% the day I do my tomatoes. I thought it best that I do all that in the downstairs kitchen, so I brought all the tomatoes, onions, celery and so on down, plus the big pot and a couple of mixing bowls. 

Last time, I boiled the tomatoes to remove the skins, then crushed them by hand into a big bowl. Then, using the only big sauce pot, I sterilized the jars three at a time. Next, made the sauce, poured it into the fars, sealed them up and boiled them again for about 30-40 minutes. The whole thing took about 6 hours just for half a dozen jars.

This time, I planned to use the dishwasher to sterilize the jars. I would save another step by chopping the tomatoes in half and grating them into a bowl.

All was ready to start. But then ... just one game of pool. Just to loosen up.

* * *

Tomorrow I will do the tomatoes. For sure this time.

Tuesday, September 14 2010

Nothing to report today, except this:

Yes, I now have a pool table in the basement. Tournaments start this weekend. $ 10 entrance fee and bring your own beer.

* * *

The whole day was consumed with preparing for the pool table installation. Guess the tomatoes will have to wait until tomorrow.

Monday, September 13 2010

 One of those days where it seems I was busy the whole day, but with little to show for it.

I did make what Serena says is her favourite: spicy minced beef with carrots and potatoes, served with rice. Grabbed some celery to make a start on the tomatoes that I bought on Saturday. I was going to have Serena help me, but she had homework and then was tired.

The tomatoes will wait until tomorrow.

After about a week of back and forth to the hardware store to get the right little bits, I finally managed to install the chandelier I got from craigslist. Yes, that is a picture of Alexias when she was a baby in the background.

* * *

Sunday, September 12 2010

Finally, a day when at least one of us doesn't have to wake up at 7 am or earlier!

After shopping for Serena's dancewear for her class tomorrow, I had it in mind we would go and eat, but the girls decided they weren't hungry. I was, so I thought we'd go to nearby Tom's, not knowing it is closed Sundays. I did a swift U-turn and headed for here:

All day breakfast for $ 4.99. And it actually looks something like the photo too:

Or it would if the arrangement was a little better. The tiny sprig of parsley has been replaced by the orange slice. Do I come out ahead on this deal? I mean, nutritionally?

The girls were hungrier than they first thought, ordering soup, salad and souvlaki dinner with salad, rice and roast potatoes. Cups of coffee and an extremely thick chocolate milkshake, so dense even Serena couldn't drink it all, and she had to chase it down with dozens of tiny coffee creamers, rounded off the meal.

* * *

Saturday, September 11 2010

Serena has a Saturday job, from now until Thanksgiving - whenever that is. She is working at the Aurora Farmer's Market, helping the stall/farmer Andy. The downside ... she has to be there at 7 am, which means we have to get up at around 6:15 am. So there I am, sitting there with a coffee and waiting on Serena. Before we leave I wake up Alexias as her Saturday job starts at 8:30 am, so by the time I get back we have to leave again. I will pick Serena up at 2 pm, and Alexias at 4 pm. Busy day.

I pick up a bushel of tomatoes, and some onions, from Andy when I drop Serena off. A bushel looks like this.

Yup. Four pecks' worth of tomatoes. Now, I am not sure if this is an actual bushel's worth, or if they just call this bug basket a bushel. It is a lot of tomatoes though and when done should make about three times this amount.

These are big jars. One-quart, or one litre jars.

* * *

After arriving at Alexias' work place and waiting a while, no one showed up to open up so we went back home. Turns out - class starts next week. 

* * *

Chicken wings today. Marinated with my Jamaican seasoning and some lemon juice. Tasty.

It's zombie movie tonight (again): Shaun of the Dead.

* * *

An additional note: the tomatoes you see above, plus the onions and an entire basil plant cost C$ 25. To put that into perspective, you can buy six tomatoes in Hong Kong for C$ 5.

Friday, September 10 2010

Decided to mow the lawn today before it got so long I need a scythe to chop it down.

Before.

After.

Neighbours.

As you can see from the photo below, I have three. Two have swimming pools, the one on the left, and the one at the back (you can see a touch of blue in the left hand corner). The one to my left has used the pool, since we moved in at the beginning of July, around five times. The one behind - zero. Their pool guys have been out twice.

The neighbour to the left with the enormous hedge, I have only heard. Or seen driving away from the house. The neighbour to the rear - not at all. They are the people who built a row of cedar trees to block the view, and then ... built a fence to hide their own cedar trees!

The neighbour to the right, with the chain link fence and the vegetable garden? They have given us cherries from the tree, fresh zucchini, cucumber, and tomatoes from their garden. I have met them and their two grown-up sons, and my two girls have gone over a few times to help out in the garden.

Now ... who among these can really be called a neighbour?

Lastly. This is a photo of a little ring of stones round a tree in the front. The owner is the one to my left. They have a team of gardeners who come in and mow the lawn every week or so. No problem with that. They are busy people and I totally understand. Here's the thing. Their gardeners only trim grass around their part of the stones. They leave the 18 inches that faces my property for me to do. Which, of course, I won't.

* * *

Tonight we all went to FMP to watch The Other Guys, with Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg. Good movie, but worth the $ 10? Maybe not. I'd have paid $ 5 or $ 6 tops as it did have some good scenes and some laughs.

* * *

Thursday, September 9 2010

Well, a really uneventful day. I think I had a piece of toast and two cups of tea; the girls had sandwiches and salad for lunch. I planned on mowing the lawn but the intermittent rain put paid to that.

After school, after dropping off Alexias, Serena and I went to Costco to buy paper towels. Naturally, we didn't manage to escape with just paper towels. Sadly, they weren't doing food samples; I guess it is just weekends.

* * *

After dinner, we all watched Zombieland, another film that tackles the subject of zombification with some humour. Nice try, but comes a poor second to, say Shaun of the Dead, or 28 Days - even with its sappy ending.

* * *

Wednesday, September 8 2010

Today, we went back to an old favourite of meatballs. I had Serena do all the work this time - mixing a combination of beef and veal with egg, bread, onion, salt and pepper. We added a bit of cinnamon this time, but I think it was about 1/4 of a tsp too much. It did give it a very Middle Eastern flavour though.

When done, they looked like this:

I also made good on my plan to make some basic marinara sauce to put away for later consumption, which was a far more complicated process than I had imagined. A little research on the subject helped, and I picked the simplest-sounding process. Still, doing the tomatoes I bought the other day at the farmer's market - about 1/3 of a bushel's worth, took the best part of three hours what with peeling, roughly chopping, cooking, and then sterilizing the jars and lids ...

I ended up with six one-quart jars of sauce (pic coming later).

I still have 18 jars left, so I ordered a bushel from Farmer Andy, Serena's employer, to be picked up on Saturday, together with some onions, parsley and basil. Now I have the process down, I should have 24 quarts of sauce done by Monday.

We shall see.

* * *

Tuesday, September 7 2010

Back to school day, but only for Grade 9s, which is Serena. Alexias decided to go in anyway as she still didn't have a confirmed schedule. It is a bit difficult to fit her in at the moment but this problem will go away as time passes.

I could tell Serena was very excited, and a bit apprehensive, so I made her favourite breakfast - egg and rice. A big glass of peach juice and she was ready to go!

I had planned to take them to see a movie that evening, but the one they wanted to see, The Other Guys, started at 6:30 and Alexias didn't finish work until 7:30, so we came home and ate this

with and rice and Caesar's Salad (from the packet).

I had a two scoops of vanilla ice cream with my homemade pear puree. The girls had their usual fifteen scoops of chocolate and vanilla under a carpet of chocolate chips.

After that we watched Clash of the Titans, which was fine until they started making stuff up. Djinn? Kraken? Surprised we didn't get the Predator from series of the same name. 

The only interesting thing I found out about the movie: the actor who played Perseus did not wear sandals while filming, he instead painted toes on his Nikes. That about says it all.

* * * 

Monday, September 6 2010

Today is Labour Day, and the last day of summer before school starts. It looks like being one of those days when it is warmer outside than inside. A small amusement. See the headline under the picture?

What did we do today? It has only been two days ago but all I seem to recall is driving around places. I know we didn't go to the shops as everywhere was closed.

Ah! I remember now. We went to see two chandeliers that were on sale through craigslist. Bought one, after bargaining him down, and took the measurements for the second to see if it would fit. It did, so I went back the next day to get the other one.

After that, we drove by Sunny's which was about two minutes' drive away,  and had a lunch of pizza, followed by ice cream and freshly ground coffee. That makes me more eager to get my macchinetta from Hong Kong.

Sunny took us to the nearby dog park, which is the neatest thing I have seen. There are two parks - one for big/all dogs, and one for little dogs. Dash and Ella would love them!

There we met Tom and Scarlet. Tom is a sort of ubertrainer and Scarlet is an extremely frisky 18-month old German Shepherd he has trained as a police dog, drug dog, search and rescue dog. You name it, she is trained in it. He has her trained by voice, whistle and even foot signals! Are you reading this Ella? He (Tom) likes to go into the middle of the dog park when there are a bunch of people there, and ask them if their dogs are trained. Oh yes, they will say, we trained them at Petsmart. He then offers them $ 100 if their dog will come when they call him/her/it. His money is pretty safe.

After that, we drove round to King City where there was an auction going on. It had been going on most of the day so all that was left was expensive looking collectibles. We stayed for a couple of items but they seemed kind of pricy. No chance of picking up a Picasso for $ 5. There was even one person with a laptop, checking things out online.

Leftovers for dinner.

Alexias arranged the flowers we got from Sunny's garden. They are called Lazy Susans or something like that.

* * * 

Sunday, September 5 2010

The weather had taken a distinct downturn the past two days, so much so that when I left for my usual lunch at the Farmer's Market, I had to wear a shirt and socks.

I heated up a small tub of my own chili to bring along, so that I could have my own chili burgers. Yes, I was the only person to think of doing this.

* * *

I had planned a small barbecue this evening; just me and the girls, Flora and her two, and Jessalyn, Alexias' new schoolmate who is a vegetarian.

A simple meal, with corn and eggplant and sausages for starters.

Burgers and a salad.

Some local concord grapes.

Plus this kobe beef that Flora brought round and insisted I grill. Luckily, it turned out OK and I didn't totally ruin it. I also found out that the striploin from Price Chopper is half the price of that at Foody Mart, and about half as good too. So I guess that $ 4 a piece is the lowest I can go for steak.

* * *

FOOD COSTS:

Farmer's market burgers $ 10.00

Peppers $ 1.50

Sausages $ 3.99

Burgers $ 7.97 / 8 pieces

Veggie burgers $ 7.99 / 8 pieces

Eggplant $ 0.65

Striploin $ 7.74

Sunday totals $ 39.84

Saturday, September 4 2010

Last night, Teresa sent me a recipe for chili beans that they had made in Hong Kong for the kids. So, inspired, I made my own version. I added diced carrots and celery to it, and used as the heat my ferocious home-made chili, being a little more cautious this time and only adding about a tablespoon of the stuff. While in the mood, I also made a couple of quiches, using this as a basic recipe, making a couple of adjustments and taking mental notes to see what would happen.

The quiche ...

The chili, with grated feta and finely chopped celery. It wasn't so red really.

FOOD COSTS

Ground beef $ 5.55

Onion $ 1.57

Feta $ 9.98

Kidney beans $ 1.99

French onion soup $ 1.99

Celery $ 1.99

Saturday total $ 23.07

Friday, September 2 2010

Alexias has Fridays off from her job, so she decided that she wanted to go with Serena to Keiffany's tonight. Serena spent the morning making a card and then we went off to FMP to get notebooks for the two of them from Staples, and to Bank of China to change their little pile of Hong Kong money. After waiting in line for 15 minutes, the bank to them they didn't change Hong Kong money. Seriously, bank? You set up in the middle of the most Chinese part of Toronto, and you don't change HK money?

Banks. You wonder why people as so resentful of you.

* * *

We ate a late lunch/early dinner at FMP. Serena did not repeat her previous mistake of ordering from the faux Japanese place, instead opting for the Vietnamese noodles. Alexias got a char siu fan, and I ordered the chicken curry with roti. It was not bad at all, so much so that I might have to go back and give it another look. A taro bubble tea rounded off the meal for the girls, while I had a VN iced coffee.

That was it for food that day, though I did have a small cheese and cucumber sandwich later in the evening.

* * *

FOOD COSTS

Three meals at FMP $ 18.00

Bubble tea $ 2.25

Friday total $ 20.25

Thursday, September 2010

Not a very adventurous day - I had two TCI students come over to help with boxes and stuff in the morning, so I got some chicken wings and barbecued them and some sausages for lunch. Nothing new here, just same we had eaten here and here.

Leftovers for dinner.

FOOD COSTS:
Chicken wings $9.09
Sausages $ 3.99

Thursday total $ 13.08

Wednesday, September 1 2010

My frugal healthy tip for the day: start it off right by taking your out-of-date and about-to-spoil foods and blending them.

Luckily for all of us, this only comprised mangoes and soy milk.

Still in food preservation mode, I peeled a bunch of pears from our tree that had ripened in the kitchen and made pear sauce out of them - just like apple sauce but with pears. I got them to just the right consistency and then put them on low heat and went off to do something else. Of course, I forgot about  them, and when I came down again they had burned.

Or had they?

Turned out, the bottom layer of the pear sauce hadn't burned. It had started to caramelize, so I just whisked it all together to make a medium brown sauce. I am thinking it might be pretty nice warmed up and spooned over a good vanilla ice cream.

Also, I used the last of the plums from the fridge and made a quick jam which made a good accompaniment to tonight's meal.

* * *

Lunch for the three of us at Wonton Hut, and afternoon 'tea' with Flora at Cinnabon.

* * *

For dinner, a recipe I made up myself. Not that it is a majorly creative one, and I am sure it has been thought of before but here it is.

Six chicken thighs, marinated for about 20 minutes in olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper, then browned in a hot pan, just to get the skin crispy. Take out the chicken and set aside.

Next, I added diced carrots, shallots, onions and cooked till soft. I'd usually use celery too - as in a classic onion/carrot/celery mirepoix - but forgot (again) that I didn't have any so made do with what I had.

Into that, I emptied a can of this

And almost a whole can of hot water. Stirred and transferred to a casserole dish, placed the chicken on top and baked in a hot oven till the chicken was done. As to how long, well, a lot depends on the size of the chicken and how long you fried it for. I know mine was about half done already, so it only needed about 15-20 minutes at 350. You have a lot of sauce that can go with rice, mashed potatoes or whatever you like.

FOOD COSTS:

Wonton Hut $ 24.00

Cinnabon $ 9.32

Soup $ 1.43

Chicken thighs $ 5.19

Parsley $ 0.99

Wednesday total $ 40.83

Tuesday, August 31 2010

Everyone knows that some dishes taste better the second day, and meatballs in tomato sauce is no exception.

Sorry for the blurry egg; it was not my fault. I think the egg had something to do with it. I have half a mind to take the remaining eggs back to Loblaws and complain that their eggs are out of focus. I bet they'd give me my money back too, just to get rid of me.

After taking Alexias to work, Serena and I made a stop at Tom's Burgers, right there on Hwy 7. Good tasty  burger, properly cooked fries - what more could you ask for? It has that GCF - Grease Credibility Factor - you look for in this kind of restaurant. Nothing, to me, is a more off-putting than having burger joints look and feel totally sterilized. I'm not saying Tom's has cockroaches doing swan dives into the ketchup but ... Either you know what I mean or you don't.

After work, Alexias opted for a slice from Pizza Pizza. Not bad. Not bad at all.

FOOD COSTS:

Tom's Burgers $ 13.00

Pizza Pizza $ 10.00

Tuesday total $ 25.00

Lost the receipt for these two so this is from memory ...