Poker Friday

    What a day of poker.  We began with a very nice breakfast at a new place (for off of us), named Clarks. The price was excellent and we had a very entertaining waitress.  Our original destination (chosen by stupid me), Cafe Haven turned out to have only a weekend brunch  and I didn't think everyone would want a veggie burger and vente chai tea.  My bad!
   Poker can be summed up in three words: THAT FUCKING SCHIEBELBEIN.  He kicked our asses. Not that he didn't play well, but the cards he was getting were unbelievable.  I told him he was so lucky that he should go looking for wallets. I believe he will win the lottery tonight.   It was incredible.
    We ordered in pizza for lunch from Nitza's Pizza and it was very good.  BP order and entertained us by talking  to the owner like they were old friends.  The guy was going to send the pizza to Madonna before we told BP to stop bullshitting the guy and get them sent to my place. The highlight was a donair pizza that I have not had before.  It was delightful.
    PR enjoyed his last day of freedom and we gave him a pretty hard time about what we will be doing on Monday while he trudges back to school.  Lucky Pete!
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DDDD
    MDW continued with her Asian theme and cooked spicy cashew chicken stir fry with rice.  The ingredients were: chicken, cashews, red peppers, Thai basil, onions, mushrooms, broccoli, Thai chilli peppers, and various Thai sauces.  Laid on a bed of rice, made for a yummy meal.  You can always tell that it's spicy-ness, when your lips go numb.  My lips were still numb a half hour after eating so it certainly had some kick to it.
    On Wednesday we had a class downtown so we went to Sofra's Turkish Restaurant and had the 3 dip appetizer and their scrumptious pizza.  The dips we had were the red pepper, feta, and olive.  The pita is freshly made and baked in their wood burning oven, as was the pizza.  Excellent meal, however the cost is quite high which makes for less frequent visits than what we would like.
    On Thursday, MDW had banquet for Habitat (she got a five year service award) and I was left to my own devices for supper. This is always dangerous as I have neither the desire or talent to cook anything for myself.  I ended up having like a breakfast.  I am so pathetic; but I don't care.  I like cereal and bagels. Fuck it!
     Tomorrow: Piccolino Bistro for a little Italian food with MDW's cousin who fixed my treadmill.  Yum, yum.

DDDD - Jan.25/11

    What a lovely day.  Don't we all love winter?  I know I do!  Friday is going to be another retirement treat of playing poker during the day whilst everyone else works.  This one's for Peter!
    After subbing for two day, I need a little break.  I'm like that guy on T.V. that says he's got the 'turkey brain': a little sluggish.  I haven't shovelled for a couple of days and I don't know what to do with myself.  I would try moving snow off of my roof, but the fact is that I am a wuss and I am afraid of heights.  God brought it: God can take it away; that's my motto.
   For supper tonight, MDW made 'Whole Wheat Pasta with Skinny (no dairy) Clam Sauce.'  What a nice name and delicious also.  I have always liked meat sauce with pasta, but I now like this pasta the best.  MDW always puts Parmesan cheese on top which adds a sharp taste to the pasta.
     I feel bad that I didn't remember to say that there was noodles in the Thai Beef greens last night.  A thousand apologies!  The noodles were very tasty and an important part of the dish.  See; turkey brain!

Modern Day Athlete Creed

    I vow to 'take my talents' to the highest bidder, no matter where that may be.  

    I will repeatedly tell the world that,"You know me;  I'm all about winning", as long as I can showcase my talents of course.          

    I will never admit fault when there is an issue, whether it is legal, athletic, or domestic.  This will ensure that my earning potential and portfolio will continue to expand.  

    I will explain myself when there is a problem, by beginning with 'IF I have offended anyone?' and end it with 'I just want to MOVE FORWARD'.  Apologies are not part of my talent. 

    I will be surrounded by an entourage of my 'boyz from the hood' who will tell me exactly what I want to hear, at all times.   

    I will not work on my game in the off season as that will infringe upon my celebrity status.  Even though I am as I have said before; 'all about winning',  I am more about looking good, being cool and making money. 

    I will know nothing about the history of the game that I play, and I will ignorantly say that present day players are the greatest of all time, despite them not having accomplished anything, other than looking cool, of course.  

    I will go to, and work hard at practice, as I see fit.  After all it's 'just practice'.  It's jjjuuusssttt practice. 

    I will enter into a state of collusion, with others like myself,  which will ensure me winning without ever having to go through any tough times.  

    I will get some face time on 'The Mother Ship' (ESPN) to announce my intentions. All the better to showcase my talents and increase my celebrity status (street cred). 

    I will dance before and after each game; not really caring if I am showing up the opposition (remember it is all about looks).  

    I will cry and moan about being 'disrespected' if I do not get whatI want in all things.  

    I will (must) be the centre of attention.  My agent will be demand respect or else! 

    I will pretend to love everyone by giving them the pre game 'air kiss'  and two hand shake and hug, which really is just insincere fluff, but it looks good.   

    I will talk about always being a winner, despite never winning anything since junior high school. 

    This will ensure that I become the world wide icon deserving of someone of my talent. 

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DDDD - Jan.24/11

   My dear wife is on an Asian kick these days.  Lucky for me. She recently took a Thai cooking coarse and was dying to try some of the recipes so tonight we had 'Thai Beef Greens'.  This tasty little number combined, bison (a beef substitute of equal taste and a lot less calories - which is always good!), peppers, onions, greens (I don't know what they are called but they taste great), stir fried with several different Thai sauces. It was tasty and a bit spicy, which I must admit I didn't used to like at all, but I am now really enjoying.  Rice on the side, made the meal complete.  She topped it off with sticky black Thai rice for dessert. 

DDDD For This Week

    Well, I have been a slack ass as you can see.  My excuse is that My Dear Wife has had a cold and being a wonderful husband, I have taken care of her, from morning till night.  When you do as much as I do on a normal basis; it is difficult to squeeze in doing anything else; but I have. So, this extra work (or should I call it pleasure), has resulted in me being a little behind in reporting the daily fare that MDW provides for me.  I will give you a week's recap.
    I will begin with Wednesday, as I have already done Monday/Tuesday.  MDW was feeling under the weather today so I cooked up a wonderful Chinese meal (Chefs Temptations!), including a steaming bowl of Hot & Sour soup, which really helps her cold.  It also allows for us to have left overs tomorrow.  In this way, MDW doesn't have to cook for a couple of days.  Aren't I wonderful???
    With left over Chinese on Thursday, I take it upon myself to cook pizza on our Big Green Egg on Friday night.  As I stoked up the BBQ,  MDW did her little part and rolled out the dough, fried some onions and mushrooms, cut the pepperoni, made the sauce, put all the ingredients on the pizza, and placed cheese on top.  All the while I was panicking about the BBQ heating up, which really worried me.  Gawd, I have to do everything!  I did put the pizza on the fire and take it off, twenty five minutes later.  This cooking is tough.  It was wonderful.  I love home made pizza.  No more Pizza 73 for me.
    Saturday was a rest day and a little shopping and I felt so worn out from cooking the night before that I took my poor, still sick wife to our favorite Thai restaurant; Boualouang. It was hot and spicy, just right for someone with a cold.  I liked it also.
    Sunday is always MDW's favorite day to cook, which is good for me.  Today she made my very favorite meal: Japanese Chicken Wings.  I love them.  I would marry them if I could.  Along with the wings, we had; rice, green onion cakes, springrolls and peas from the farm (a curious choice of vegetable that Diana likes with Asian food!)   For dessert we had black Thai rice, which is becoming a big favorite of ours. It was all wonderful.

My Favorite Drivers

    You know that old song 'These Are A Few Of My Favorite Things'?  Well, I have a list of my favorite drivers that I would like to share with everyone.
    1) Dog drivers - is there not a fucking law against a dog sitting on the steering wheel?  I just love to see see some car driving along stupidly, and when I pass it (and of coarse I have to give the driver 'the look'), and there driving is Rover.  Isn't that nice?  Most driver have an IQ of twelve and now I have to put up with the dog driving.  Drives (no pun intended) me fucking crazy. Does these pooches have a drivers licence or what?
2) Texting drivers - they are too stupid to live.  How dangerous is it to drive while texting? The only people who could possibly complete this task are the techno-geeks, and everybody knows that they don't drive!  Jesus, I can't text sitting in my basement in my bubble, how the fuck can you do it while driving through traffic?
3)  Cell phone drivers - they are so common place that you can almost always tell that the person driving like a fucking idiot is on the phone. That unenforceable  law in the County of Strathcona (I refuse to call it the other way around) has not really stopped anyone from talking on  the phone, nor have they caught the millions (well thousands!) who still do it. Have you heard of anyone stupid enough to get caught?  Well other than Nestorovich, I mean!
4)  Readers - the entire fucking world is illiterate and yet you have people driving along reading. Here's some advice: do your reading with your children, not in your car.  We can't get the moron parents to read at night with their children, but they don't mind driving along with a magazine in their hands in the middle of rush hour traffic.  Maybe they are all read-out by the time they get home.  No wonder they don't read to their children. Idiots!
5) Coffee drinking/cigarette smoking/greasy burger eating/make up artists - everyone including myself fall into this category at some point; however it is the idiot who combines two or more of these minor driving faux pas at the same time that piss me off or the ones who can't do one of these things and drive. Let's face it; most drivers piss me off, I justify it by putting them in categories!
    Now the thing to do is tomorrow when you are out on the road, just look around a little and see how many of these fucking morons you see just in a short drive anywhere in our fair Hamlet.  It will boggle your mind.
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DDDD  Jan. 18/11
    Well, yesterday I was in the midst of a serious problem; trying to get my treadmill going (successfully - hurrah!) and we went out for a quick bite of supper at the Vietnamese place in Sherwood Park.  Today, D. made chicken burritos, along with refried beans.  The burritos were filled with chicken of coarse, beans, onions, green peppers, cheese and topped with melted cheese, sour cream, green onions, spicy salsa and avocado.   I particularly like the refried beans and D. made enough that I will have a delightful lunch tomorrow.  Ole!

Living in a Bubble

    Before I get to DDD, I would like to talk about one of the reasons why I live in a bubble.  Yesterday was a brutal driving day.  If you were out there, it really sucked.  Combine the icy roads with new snow; and the now narrowness (is that a word?) of the streets, made for incredibly bad driving.  After going out and about for most of the day, my dear wife and I lunched on Whyte Ave. and were making our way home eastward towards Sherwood Park.  Ahead of me, stopped at the lights was a bike rider.  A fucking bike rider!
   Mr. Bike is going to save the world by riding his bike... today!  There is not enough space for two cars to drive down the roads, due to piles of snow on both side, and this fucking guy is going to take up an entire lane because he is ecologically responsible.  Well fucking good for him. There is a hundred thousand cars on the streets of Edmonton and one bicycle rider and he is demanding his space, whilst going thirteen kilometres an hour.  He blocked an entire lane of traffic for over a block, but that's ok... he has his rights to the road.  It is snowing, it is blowing, there is exhaust everywhere, all making driving a nightmare.  Now the cars have to put up with Mr. Bike dodging in and out of traffic, snow and exhaust, like a ghost on wheels.  And if he get run over, whose fault will it be?  Of coarse, the driver of the car.
   Hey, I am all for saving mother earth.  The alternative sucks,  now and for the future; however, riding a bike down Whyte Ave. in a snowstorm, at twenty-five degrees below zero, at 3:00 on at Saturday, is the wrong fucking time to make a statement about saving the environment.
  Mr. Bike will argue until he is blue in the face that it is his 'right' to ride a bike down the mean streets of Edmonton.  Well, how about my rights?  Don't I have the right to be able to drive without someone travelling thirteen kilometres an hour in front of me?  What would a police officer do if I was driving a car in front of him, at that speed?  I would most certainly get a ticket for obstructing traffic or some other charge.  But Mr. Bike can go at whatever speed he wants and we are all supposed to sit and eat a shit sandwich because he's saving the earth.
   That is the exact reason I go home, lock my door and live in my bubble.  It seems to me that everyone is more special than me and their rights get precedence over mine.  I'm not sure why that is, but it is (rights bullying perhaps?).  One of the reasons that I stay home and try to be not around people, is because I know I am a selfish person, who wants everything when I want it.  Realizing this, I don't  want to be seen as this kind of person, so I don't put myself in the position of imposing my wants and  desires on other people.  It is just easier to stay home and do whatever I want there. That way, hopefully no one can say I am a selfish prick who doesn't think about others (Even though I am a selfish prick who doesn't think about others, but ....)
   Most people in the world, today are selfish and they have no qualms about putting their needs and wants ahead of everyone else. It comes out in every form or life; at work, shopping, driving, at school, at play, everywhere.  My wife once had a kids sitting at his desk working and singing a little song that went like this. " I do what I want, whenever I want, however I want, to whoever I am ..."(true story)
    If that doesn't sum up today's world, nothing does.

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DDDD - Saturday, Jan. 15/11
    As I said in my earlier rant; we ate out yesterday.  I, being a wonderful, caring, thoughtful husband, took my wife out for lunch/supper in the afternoon.  Well actually, she told me I was doing that, but that's beside the point.
    We lunched at our favorite south side Italian restaurant: Chianti's on Whyte.   The food was very good as usual, and due to the time of our meal; the place was far from crowded, which I liked. My wife loves Creme Brulee and Chianti's always scratches this itch for her.

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    Another snowy, cold night in paradise.  My dear wife had an entire day inside to consider, prepare, and cook another awesome supper.  We will start out with the farm chicken (which is the size of a city turkey), sausage stuffing, garlic mashed potatoes, wild mushroom gravy,  glazed carrots, a creamy coleslaw and for dessert; a chocolate, banana crepe.  Needless to say, it was delightful.  As Gido used to say, "You can't get a meal like that at a restaurant."
    Where to start about what I liked the best?  How can you go wrong with gravy on anything?  The chicken was very tasty and I particularly love the creamy coleslaw.  The crepe was filled with banana of coarse and the devilishly wonderful Nutella. I usually don't eat desserts any more but...
   After doing my husbandly duties and cleaned up, I rushed outside and shovelled snow to burn off a few calories.  Yes I will run outside tonight in the snow and cold.  God knows I have to ...

    
 

DDDD - January 14/11

    We had every intention of going out for supper tonight.  We had chosen our favorite Greek restaurant and Diana was looking forward to having a day off from the kitchen, after chasing her twenty-six grade one's around on a field trip today.  Unfortunately I; in my leisure, had come upon a near tragedy: my treadmill had fucking died! OMG! What will I do? I have streak of over 170 days in a row going and did not want it to end.  You're thinking hey, just run outside.  Have you noticed, it's fucking cold outside? (Of coarse I ran outside - I've got a streak going!)
    I called Flamans, where I bought the treadmill and talked to my wife's uncle's son, who is a person of some importance in that company.  He was able to get a 'guy' out to look at it at 4:00, which fucked up our supper plans.
    Instead, Diana made sausage and cheese omelettes.  It was very tasty.  For dessert we had a choice of fat-free yogurt, scones or some Swiss gingerbread, sent to us by Daniel our friend from Switzerland.  I added a little raison and nuts to the yogurt and enjoyed it completely.
    Ahh, the weekend.  Time to take a break after a busy week.  Hardy-har-har!

DDDD January 13/11

    Another day is retirement land.  I was off to get some groceries at the Italian centre on the south side and I managed to escape without incident.  Well, I managed because of tremendous self control.  While looking for Pepperoni, a women with her hand plastered to her ears blabbing on the phone, stood in front of the sausage cooler for over five minutes, blocking anyone (me), from doing any shopping.  When am I going to grow the balls to yell at someone like that to "either shop or talk but get out of the fucking way!"?  Of coarse I would be an asshole if I did that.  It's ok for her to rudely stand in the way, yapping about whatever bullshit she wants, for as long as she wants, whenever she wants and that's ok because she 'wants' to do that. This is a perfect example of today's world: complete and total selfishness.  No body cares about anyone else, as long as they get to do what they want to do. Back to the bubble for me.
    Well at least supper was wonderful.  Diana put a ham hawk in the slow cooker, with carrots, onions, and lentils, and let it cook all day.  She then made a delicious pot of lentil soup.  The tomatoes that were added were delightful.  I did my part by going to Cobb's Bakery and getting a jalapeno twist, along with a ham/cheese twist.  Both of these breads are very good, although the jalapeno is pretty hot if you get yourself a decent chunk of sliced jalapeno.
    A big thank you to JS who helped me set up Netflix today (well actually he did everything).  He's an electronic whiz and I am an idiot, so it worked out well.  Now my dear wife can rest from a hard day at school by watching movies till she drops.  She is forever indebted to JS.

What a Day!

    What the hell could be better than day poker while the rest of the world works?  Fucking sweet!  The usual suspects gathered for breakfast: LK, PR, JS and myself.  BP would meet us later (ya much later!) After JS arrived he was subjected to the the usual amount of verbal ball busting that comes with being late.  He told us his adventure with Purolator Couriers and the problem of getting a package delivered (more about this later).   Pete soon came with a story that proved for the first time of many this day, that he is a much better man than I.  He said he had waited for fifteen to twenty minutes while a lady filled her tires with air.  He said he felt sorry for her as she kept running back and forth to look at the reading of her tire pressure on her dash.  I personally would have bludgeoned her with a tire wrench (at least I would have liked to!)
    We finally arrive at JS's and began playing.  BP was to arrive at 10:15.  By 11:45 we had begun taking bets on if he was coming when the phone rang.  Of course it was him and he was 'on his way'.  Since he was late we told him to go to the Italian Centre ad get us sandwiches for lunch.  An hour, and at least five phone calls later, he finally arrived. Yes, he took considerable shit from each of us.
    While we had played in the morning, JS had told us about his daily routine of sitting in his front window, playing his mandolin (we may have claimed that it was not his 'mandolin' that he was playing with) and watching the happenings of his neighbourhood.  He told us of the people across the street that ran a business out of their home; manicures etc.  Well after watching both male and females coming and going all morning, we concluded that this was obviously not a manicure business but most certainly a 'brothel'. We shared many laughs and theories about this situation, including why an apparent eighty year old guy was back for the second time in the morning.  We may have mentioned to JS that his chair in his living room that had a message/heating apparatus, looked very much like it would be a gift given to a frequent customer at a brothel.
     BP regaled us with many 'interesting stories and when JS mentioned that he had won the opportunity to buy World Junior Hockey tickets for next year; BP's interest was tweaked.  He then asked a question that I am proud to say that I have never asked another person, or more importantly; never been asked before" "Is this legit?"  The fact that he would ask that question tell you about BP.
     As we played, lo and behold Purolator Couriers pulls up in front of JS's home.  Now,  because of BP's late arrival, he had parked between JS's and the brothel.  The 80 year old had parked in front of the brothel which made for a narrow little path for the big delivery truck to traverse.  A young delivery man came and gave JS his package and then tried to leave the area, needing to back up to get out.  I was sitting next to BP and decided to get him worked up and told him that I think the big truck had hit his car.  BP instantly starts getting excited.  I was wrong.  The truck had hit the old man's car and the poor young kid had to go into the brothel and get the old man and show him what happened.  The old guy came out and started really giving it to the young guy who could only stand there and take it.
     I wrote a blog about poker being a lot of fun... when you win.  Well, today was no fun what so ever.  I got my lunch handed to me.  I don't mind losing but to these fucking guys?
    All in all it was an interesting day.  Breakfast, poker, brothels, accidents, Italian sandwiches and many laughs.  The food was good and that leads me to ...
DDDD - January 12/11
    Today was an eat-a-thon. Diana kept it going by cooking burgers and fries for supper.  Keeping up with our  once a week vegetarian meal; Diana cooked veggie burgers that I like.  I never thought that I would enjoy non-meat burger but I really do. You can't really taste the difference and they are certainly not as fattening as beef burgers.  The home made fries are a particular favorite of mine.  Diana saw on Oprah about a french fryer that cooks fries using only one tablespoon of oil.  The fries are cooked by air and it takes about forty-five minutes.  One teaspoon of oil will cook enough fries for four or five people.  The fries are crisp, browned nicely and delicious.  I really love our fry maker.  You can cook many other things with it including egg rolls, springrolls and a whole recipe book full of other things. Diana topped it off with a creamy cole slaw and a zucchini muffin (for her) for dessert. The burger was garnished with the usual condiments such as mustard, relish, mayo, ketchup, onions, cheese and tomatoes. I talked her out of frying bacon!
    Time to hit the treadmill for the second time today.

Diana's Daily Dinner Delights and Other Complaints - Jan. 10th, 2011

    The Mamas and the Papas once sang 'Monday, Monday .... so good to me.'   How will Diana be good to me today?  That is the questions.  The answer is a hot, steaming bowl of beef stroganoff.   We haven't had stroganoff for a long, long time. I think the fettuccine egg noodles really make it, along with the creamy mushroom sauce.  It also leads to many good lewd jokes, if you choose.  Of course, I would never stood that low ... or would I?
  
Other Thoughts Today
- teachers... how did you like being a babysitting service today?
- teachers  ... how did you like risking your life going to school because you HAD to?   But remember;  'they care about you and your wellness.' Ya, right!
- doesn't Sherwood Park do a wonderful job clearing snow?  NO money?  Here's an idea: sell some of those fucking traffic lights.  Or maybe give a few tickets to the assholes who go through every yellow and red light in the world?
- great news: more snow Thursday.  Remind me again why I live here
- can't wait until spring to hear the farmers complain that there is TOO MUCH MOISTURE IN THEIR FIELDS
- got to sub tomorrow at FKK.  Why do I feel like crying?
- poker on Wednesday.  During the day.  Isn't it great to be retired?
- anyone need a good fridge cleaner.  I'm experienced and reasonably cheap
- isn't there something that they can do with snow?  It seems like such a waste to pile it up and let it melt away in May

Diana's Daily Dinner Delights and Other Complaints - Jan. 9th, 2011

    A shitty day culminating a shitty weekend.  What exactly did we do to piss off the gods and give us this weather?  What are the benefits of living in this fucking country?  Don't get me wrong, I love Canada, but WTF?  Summers are not altogether wonderful either.  Rain and mosquitos dominate our one summer month. However; what is the alternative?  Live with our less than clever neighbours to the south? Not fucking likely!  So here we are: cold and miserable.  That is our lot in life.  Luckily we have great food in Canada!
    It seems that it has been two things this weekend. Number one is that it has been a shovel-a-thon.  Just what we needed; more snow.  Fucking great.  Number two is that with the staying inside all weekend it has kind of been a food-fest.  I am really glad that Diana decided to make a 'light' supper.  She must has cooked herself out by making a tremendous soup for her staff at school tomorrow.  It is a spicy seafood chowder with more baking powder biscuits.  Wish I was at Colchester Elementary Monday for lunch.
    So for supper, Diana made Thai appetizers.  We had springrolls with hot, spicy Thai sauce and springrolls with peanut sauce.  Both we delicious and spicy.  I have come to like spicy food after spending the first fifty years of my life being a wuss.  "Ohhh, it's too spicy.  It hurts my mouth." What a pussy I have been (Hey, I'm only one generation out of the trailer park, [which means I have basically trailer park tastes] so it is not really my fault).  But no more.  I have learned from the boy.  The spicier the better.
    For dessert we had some Thai black rice (from last night) and a zucchini muffin with chocolate chips.  Luckily I ran nine miles before eating today.  Ahhh the price I pay.
  

Diana's Daily Dinner Delights

Note: I have decided not to worry about spelling and punctuation any more.  YES I HAVE BEEN TRYING TO EDIT MY WORK, but I really suck at  editing, obviously. I will read it over a couple of times and that's it.
 It stresses me out that people (Mr. K) give me a hard time about spelling/punctuation/word use.   I told Mr. K that screw spelling, it's all about the words!  That's what I am going with! 


     I enjoy a good meal.  My usual response when someone gives me food: "That's just the way I like it... within reach."  As I have always said to anyone who said they needed to gain some weight: "Just follow me around for a couple weeks..."
    My wife is wonderful cook.  Most of you who read this blog have had the pleasure of her cooking.  I have decided to show you one of the reasons why I have had... shall we say, a little weight issue during my lifetime.   I mean really, how could I say no to these meals?
     I will try each day to write the evening's menu and my favourite part of the meal.

Jan. 1st, 2011
    We had a tremendous meal on New Year's Eve (Lobster - yum yum!) and decided to eat out to begin the New Year.  We went for an afternoon meal at Mikado, a favorite Japanese Restaurant in Edmonton.  It was great as always.
Jan. 2nd, 2011
    Our last day with our linguistic son, as he travels back to Ithaca tomorrow.  We went to one of his favorite restaurants in the city: Blue Plate Diner.  It was  a very good home cooked meal.
Jan. 3rd, 2011
    My dear wife was back to school today and we decided to go to Camrose for some shopping at her favorite women's clothing store (Lou's - yes in Camrose!  It is really great, try it sometime).  So of coarse we had to eat out again at some allegedly nice place in Camrose.  It was ok. Go for the shopping not the food!
Jan. 4th, 2011
    Diana made vegetarian chilli. This is one of my favorites.  Since my big diet, we have tried to eat red meat only once a week and this chilli is a really good alternative.  Diana puts about six different kinds of beans in the chilli and the canned tomatoes that she buys at the Italian Centre are the best I have tasted (Sam Marzano).  They are excellent tomatoes.  Of course Diana couldn't just eat the chilli by its self.  She loves to put a several garnishes on such as: sour cream, grated cheddar cheese, green onions, and  avocados.  Diana also fries some palenta (sp?), (corn meal that comes  in a roll.  Delicious!)
     All in all, a very good vegetarian meal.  It also makes for good left overs for lunch tomorrow for both Diana and myself.
Jan. 5th, 2011
     Diana belongs to a slow food group in Edmonton called 'Tira Madra' and at one of their functions (I went along and the food was great - I would have liked to have killed all the pretentious foodies, but the food was great!) and we had some pizza made by the lady who owns the Italian Centre.  She brought the dough that they sell at the store and they were great.  The balls of dough can be rolled into pizza shells are fantastic tasting and only cost about $1.00 each.  It is a great deal.  I highly recommend you trying it!
    Diana made pepperoni pizza tonight on the 'Great Big Egg', our charcoal burning BBQ.  She buys the pepperoni at the Italian Centre.  She makes her owe sauce.  I may never buy from a pizza place again.  It is wonderful.  Diana adds both mozzarella and goat cheese. We also had a Greek salad of which I had none.  Pizza - salad?  Hmm easy choice!  One ball of dough makes enough for supper and little lunch for me tomorrow. Delightful!
Jan. 6th, 2011
    Diana had a hankering for some beef tonight and she BBQ'd some tenderloins.  She marinated them before hand and rubbed them with some steak flavouring.  She wanted a little pasta to go with it so she made some ravioli  with creamy mushroom sauce, and some beets and mushrooms (Ukrainian Christmas Eve treat).  The smoky flavour of the 'Big Green Egg' really adds a lot to the meat. It was delicious.  The only way it could have been better is if there were more of it!
Jan. 7th, 2011
    Bad winter storm made going out inadvisable.  Diana make a creamy, hearty pot full of corn crab chowder. Or as the French waiter on the Simpsons says "Chow-dair."   Diana always makes baking powder biscuits along with chow-dair.  Wonderful on a cold, snowy night here in the 'Great White North.'
This also makes for a yummy lunch the next day after shovelling for a couple of hours.
Jan. 8th, 2011
    Snow bound.  After her wonderful husband cleaned, organized and charted available eats in the deep freeze, Diana discovered we had a rump roast that needed devouring.  I am not a big roast beef eater but as I said at the beginning: it was within reach so...
    This was our culinary delight for the day: Roast beef, steamed baby potatoes, steamed carrots, mushroom gravy and a creamy cole slaw.  Dessert was Thai black sticky rice; which was wonderful.  The meal was delicious, especially the cole slaw.  Is it any wonder that I must run twice a day on the treadmill to maintain my girlish figure?
More snow predicted.  What will Diana create tomorrow?  I can hardly wait...