Best food of 2012

I've had wonderful food in 2012 at home and in restaurants.

At home we've had amazing pulled pork, smoked turkey, the best smoked salmon (thanks Dad) and countless asian dishes.

In restaurants....well of course there was The Ritz and Maison Boulud (we are still talking about that meal), new BBQ joints in parking lots and in Verdun (Blackstrap BBQ on Wellington)

But one of my best meals in 2012 was because of the food and because of the company!

This is baked tomato pasta.

 

It is a recipe from my grandma Granmimi.

 

All I know is that you have onions,garlic,tomatoes,cheese (ricotta I thik), long macaroni and bread crumbs.

 

I'm not too sure about the recipe but it is delicious.

This is filling, delicious depression cooking.

If you ask my Dad for the recipe; he will tell you this: You take an onion....all his recipes start like this....

 

some days he will call me just to give a recipe! 

Now long macaroni is very hard to find, so my Dad is on the hunt!

I found some Greek ones today; they are used for Pasticcio (Greek baked pasta).

 

Thank you for the love Dad!

 

Here's hoping to a lot of baked pasta on Fridays in 2013

Stress periods of 2012

Well most of my stress was reno induced. There were screams,sleepless nights,tears and much drama!

All coming from me! I had no idea what was happening and I wanted everything done immediately. If I'd had my way Dan would be constantly on the phone with the contractor!

 That trench was soooo scary I was afraid I would forget, open the door and fall!

OUCH!

 

This totally got to me! And when Dan got onto the mini ladder it actually sank in the dirt sideways.

 

We couldn't open the front door and then we couldn't close it, Dan had to use chisels to carve a new hole for the bolt. Lord thank you for Dan, his ingenuity and tools, lotsa tools! 

 

You can't do that to middle aged people! Of course if someone had put a rare piece of Pyrex on the mini ladder....

 

We are still enjoying and giving thanks for the new balcony every day.

 

 

We now need to choose a color to stain it.

 

Maybe espresso

 

Now we don't get water in the basement anymore; they had to install a sump pump (or is it sum pump, probably for sumbergible pump it is hard to understand when people mash french ,english and speed together)

It is the quietest thing around, I've never heard her run, but we see the water pouring out.

 

Now the dirt around the house is settling and going wonky. I can't wait for Spring so we can get people here to level everything (create a grade AWAY from the house) so we can sow some grass, build a new patio (or 2) and have a BBQ party for the families.

 

Apart from that the only BIG source of stress was the LOMA course (Life Office Management Association). It is a mandatory course for my insurance job.

 

I needed to suceed because it will lead to better pay and letters after my name (LOL)

 Ad if I failed I had to pay for the course!

NO WAY JOSE!

 

 

 

Top things of 2012

Now this is totally random and might not amount to anything...

In the next few days I will post about top things,people,places of 2012 . Things that totally made a difference in my life!

Here goes!

Now the first thing that pops in my mind is Sriracha  sauce!

I just can't get enough of this. I use some in omelets, sauces,spaghetti,burgers, brussel sprouts,tuna salad(with black olives), soup...

Here's a link to Wiki if you want to learn more! Sriracha sauce

Here I am ready to make a fritatta with my spicy friend sriracha.

 

It is not just about the spice it is also about the flavour.

 

Go ahead try it you'll be glad!

A Seasonal Surprise

I got an email a couple of weeks ago about the Tassimo Nice List; I was asked to name a deserving person to receive  a Tassimo coffee maker.

Well I was skeptical for sure, so I did some research. I found out that the PR company representing Tassimo was in fact the same company that represented Clamato!

And last year I was a Clamato Embassador! So I said to Dan; why not let's give them a whirl.

So who was deserving more than Dan? A really good, generous person who had to pay more than his share of bills since I was getting a smaller paycheck and still managed to spoil me!

So I gave Dan's name and let's face it we weren't really expecting anything because almost half the time someone from the internet tell you:I will send you something, well they don't come through which is a shame.

Well lo and behold, 2 days after there was a big ass box at my front door and there was Dan's new Tassimo.

If you are a regular reader you know that I don't like these things as they are expensive to run and not really eco-friendly.

But we got one and Dan was really excited about it and we went and got disks for it....

And the coffee is excellent! Now it won't be our main coffee maker, but our late night decaf weekend coffee maker.

And I'm really grateful that they choose me. By the way no one asked me to review it or blog about it.

Now while I was in Massena NY , I tried to find funky Tassimo disks

and couldn't find any.

 

Is the U.S a Keuring nation?

 

Have a great night!

 

I can't believe I have to go to work tomorrow! 

 

Merry Xmas to ALL!

It was a lovely Xmas with good company, good cheer, plenty of food and excellent company!

And it is just beginning! We will be visiting Dan's mother and my Dad later on today!

Here are a couple of pictures from the house.

                                             The tree slightly less fuzzy than last year....lol

The centerpiece...a gift from Suzanne one of Dan's co-worker.

The candy canes are Dan's touch...

 

This is an ornement gifted from our dance teacher, Sylvia.

 

 The sweet reindeers were a very thrifty decoration.

$2.24 plus tax. The right one was free because of a mixup in pricing

and the  left one was bought yesterday at 75% off!

 

I love boxing day before Xmas!

 

Speaking of deals....

 

Too bad I don't have a dog! I would so buy one!

It was reduced to $3.50 from $14.

 

Maybe one day we'll get a dog, no 2 dogs....

 

So I digress this was supposed to be about the joy and gretefulness of Christmas!

 

So I want to wish all of you and your families a wonderful Xmas and a super New year!

 

May you all be healhty, loved and prosperous.

 

May you find thrifty deals all over.

 

May you fill you sweet sealed can with loads of  money to fulfill your goals

And may I find some interesting stuff to write about so you will continue to visit and

leave comments!

 

See you soon! 

 

 

Xmas Lights

Time flew right by me and we are December 20th already???

I did some decorating but not as much as I wanted...

 

This is one of my interior vignettes...

The house on the left is really a box of tissues.

The Santa left for a new home and I replaced it with my snowman blowmold.

 

The snow fellas are hanging out with Santa...

 

The penguins are checking up on Robbie the reindeer.

 

In the backyard another Santa and his snowman friend are

keeping watch on the shade garden.

 

Can you tell I love snowmen?

 

The tree has been up since December 9th and it is still unfinished!

 People at work keep asking me if I'm ready for Xmas?

 

Who is?

 

Not me! It doesn't matter because I will be with loved ones and we will have fun whether  the turkey

is dry, the jell-o mold collapses or we run out of chips!

 

I'm off to bed because Bandito was signing all last night and I didn't sleep a wink!

 

 

 

New Pyrex & some thrifting

Last week when I went to visit my Dad he surprised me with this....

                                A 401 Homestead bowl in Navy ( it exists in Brown)
                                a gift from a Pyrex soldier.
                               And what about that brick wrapped in waxed paper?

A brick of maple sugar! YUM ! Such a cool gift!

 

We took Friday off for our annual creamer capper to Massena NY.

 

Why creamer capper? Well, I suffer from ( among other things) a liquid Coffee Mate addiction and December is a great time to go across the border and look for it!

 

I didn't find the Coffee Mate I was yearning for but decided to try some International Delight creamer instead...Still unopened in the fridge....

 

I did find 2 new thrift shops, one with mostly clothes and the other was kind of an antique mall with booths, but not really.

Very clean, bright and warm.

 

I got the measuring cup

 

  

                               I also got a kitty kat beatnik Xmas tree ornement (no pic yet) for $1.

                                  The Butterfly Gold casserole came from Value Village in Cornwal, and I also got other cool stuff from there, but I didn't think of capturing those finds for posterity
                                  It was a beautiful  day full of finds and laughter and we both and a ball.
                                  We were asleep in the living room by 9:30 pm...

                                   Good times!

I just noticed I have a couple of new followers! WELCOME!  I hope you will enjoy your visits

Must go beddy bye because the morning comes really fast!

Norah General Store

There was an article in the Montreal Gazette a couple of weeks ago about a new cool store:

Norah Magasin General....you can read about it  HERE. They were actually selling Pyrex and new things.

I was so excited to go there.....

 

What I liked?

They are able to mix vintage and new and it looks seamless.

 

What I didn't like?

 

 

 The Pyrex was expensive....

and like Dan says I had everything displayed and more!

 

But what I disliked the most was that the girl behind the counter didn't acknowledge us, didn't look happy to be there and had the general vacant look that Bristol Palin so often displays....

 

Right besides is a restaurant, which surprisingly , has no kitchen to speek of it was on the side of the Pyrex, no menu outside and doesn't smell of food....  

Dan decided that it wasn't worth investigating....

So we went for BBQ at Bofinger (a Montreal based BBQ chain). It lasted less than 6 months in Ile Perrot, yet managed to thrive (survive?) in NDG for 5 years....

Now the service was sooooo slow and God knows what the cook was doing because we waited about 20 minutes (it's supposed to be fast food, well kind of) and when we finally got our food....

 

IT WAS COLD!

 

Ok LUKEWARM!

We didn't bother to complain, we were just too famished!

 

now why is it that everytime I go to Montreal West/Westmount/NDG

 

I am so disappointed by the service?

 

 Do you want to trip over GIANT dogs and be treated like a second class citizen ? be sure to visit

 

Ben & Tournesol on Sherbrooke st west in Montreal; you won't be disappointed

 

Well folks that's it for me,

 

sleep tight

Busy Friday

I took a day off today because I was expecting company....Mike the friendly plumber!

Remember when I wrote that we needed an adapter and we needed to change to pipe in the floor?

Well when I told Mike he just looked at me like I laid a big fat rainbow egg!

Excuse me? Said he; there's no need for anything like that; your new toilet fits perfectly!

Needless to say the Home Depot guys had NO idea what they were talking about!

In by 7:30 out by 8:15 Mike did a splendid job.

 I'm glad they sent him, he was here before when our toilet backed up and the pipe was full of roots and the city ended up digging up our whole street because all the city pipe was full of roots!

                                            Bye bye wobbly friend!

 

Hello new bright and shiny friend!

See how the tank is smalled and all the dust shows? LOL

We will have to clean and paint over this!

 

I also spent close to 2 hours outside, fixing garlands and putting up Xmas lights.

It's not finished so no pictures!

 

And since Xmas is fast approaching, I'm a French Canadian and I love to cook...

I made meat pies!

 

 

Jeez! The crust is not really that yellow!

 

I made 16 small ones like the ones on the right and a big one.

 

This is the most I've ever done ,CRAZY! 

 

I AM POOPED!

 

So I will go to bed, so I can wake up early because I need to make meatball stew and we need to fix the sidding in the back.

 

Did I mention that I have a family gathering too?

 

Thank God I'm not hosting!

 

Sleep tight!