BF made dijon chicken and sauteed spinach, and my potato salad (minced shallots, fresh thyme, olive oil, salt & pepper - only he peeled them where i would left the skins on) - delicious, all of it, but especially his spinach - nice and garlicky.
22 Likes
103 this weekend in mt Shasta. Freind is coming up to celebrate my pre birthday
Grilling outside. wearing shorts . On the deck with a great view a bucket full of ice with beers . Of course there will be wine and some vodka shots . Cheers 
19 Likes
yikes. I would die. happy pre-bday!
4 Likes
And the fresh mountain air (hopefully no smoke!) and good conversation! Best wishes on your next trip around the sun!
3 Likes
Last night:
After a long day, BF and I went to grab a drink at a Houlihanâs which is less than a mile from our house but we never go to. Actually had not been since I was a kid. That will definitely change. They made a great Bombay Sapphire Martini (BF had a Chocolate one) and we got an order of their âFamous Shroomsâ appetizer which were hilariously gigantic and really good.
Pic taken after we had eaten two. The size is not given any justice here.
We then had takeout Indian food from a place a bit farther than our usual spot. BF brought it after visiting his family who live near it. The food there is actually light-years ahead of our go-to place, owing to the Indian population in the area. An excellent Chicken Biryani and Tikka Masala, both lethally spicy!
Tonight:
Stir-fry with sliced sirloin petite filets (they were tiny-- thereâs actually three here), broccoli, onion, and dried red chilis in a spicy Szechuan sauce. I bought the steak today planning to cook it in cast iron and serve with fries. But then I remembered I had Szechuan sauce that I ordered on the side from the Chinese restaurant the other night and plain basmati rice that went untouched last night from Spice House. So I gave it an Asian spin and figured this would be a chance to use up some ingredients in the fridge. Perfection, though the chilis I added brought the spice levels off the charts.
G & T to drink.
28 Likes
Rigatoni with ground beef, grated zucchini, red onions and parsley in a sauce made with feta and milk.
16 Likes
To those of you experiencing cooler weather I will gladly trade our heat wave for your lower temperatures. Itâs been in the high 20s Celsius for a couple of weeks now in Ottawa and Iâm done with it.
Last nightâs dinner was linguine with roasted red peppers. I will have to work on reducing the portion size of the pasta I eatâŚ
14 Likes
Looks good to me!!
1 Like
What restaurant? Weâre always looking for good Indian restaurants.
Mr Bean wants to get one of those table-top sized pizza ovens. It seems like a lot for the number of times we make pizza (though he tells me if we had an easy way to make them weâd make them more often). Then I remembered we have a small, classic Weber Kettle Grill thatâs been sitting under the deck for a while so I decided I needed to make pizzas on it. I havenât quite got it down which helps explain the variation in doneness. Iâm used to a bigger oven and pizza peel and need to get better at sizing the dough for the grill grate too, hence the lack of roundness. I think Iâve saved us a few hundred dollars.
Tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella, pepperoni, and caramelized onions.
Ricotta, sliced fennel, garlic scapes and roasted red peppers.
25 Likes
SK Everyday Meatballs using ground bison and sweet Italian sausage (excellent!), SK Perfect Garlic Bread (good).
23 Likes
Spice House in Edison. They also have a whole Indo-Chinese section of the menu that we have yet to explore.
As a lifelong customer of our usual spot, in the last couple of months Iâve noticed something different and then we ordered from this place two or three times and it really just blew us away.
2 Likes
Dinner today was a homemade pork schnitzel with roasted potatoes and lemon as my veg for the evening but itâs ok because Iâve had fruit and salad for my other meals.
24 Likes
Damn that schnitz looks fantastic! Vedge, shmedge 
3 Likes
Related: During the pandemic, a new freshman class moved into the NYU dorms and - because of the lockdown - had to have all their meals delivered to their rooms in boxes. Each was supposed to contain a sandwich, a piece of fruit, you know, normal box meal stuff. My friendâs son was in that class, and once his piece of fruit was a lemon. Tuition at NYU is $60K/year. Youâd think they could afford an apple or something.
8 Likes
Haha thank you! I didnât feel the loss of the veg myself 
Ha! I can just imagine the poor guy thinking if they really expected him to bite into it for the nutrients. And yeah youâd expect a lot better from a university like that.
1 Like
We went simple tonight with grilled cheese and soup.
For the first time ever, I managed to buy the special sandwich bread the bakery claims to make but is always mysteriously âfinishedâ no matter what time of day I go â but, disappointingly, it was a bit dry for sandwiches. So, toasted sandwiches instead.
Mom requested very little cheese, so I mixed a bit of onion and tomato into her filling, and just a dash of green chutney in lieu of cilantro.
I had plain Amul cheese, sis had that and Zabarâs house ham.
We had a light but filling squash and lentil soup alongside.
18 Likes
Wrong threadâŚ
Gotta admit, Iâm a little jelly that your life and your job(s) permit this length of get-away. Weâve never been able to do anything like that. Kids in school. 2 âofficeâ jobs. Even when working from home, we had the school issue. Now that we have only 1 left at home with only 1 year of school left, work from home is becoming a thing of the past with many many more workplaces starting to require back to office, at least 3x/week.
Happy to live vicariously through your pics and descriptions though. Have a great time!
