Saturday, March 31, 2012

Smoken Bones

Matt and I have been going to Smoken Bones since it opened in Langford. It, in the beginning, was awesome; then it was decent; then okay; then not great; and then kind of gross.

Tonight when our night out with the Ladies Dining Club fell apart, my preggo friend and I decided to hit up the new Smoken Bones downtown. The new decor is nice, and the dining area has a lot more seating.

At first we thought we would be disappointed, as we were told it was going to be an 1/2 hour wait for a table for two. Ouch.

Luckily, there were two seats at the bar, and it was fine for us to sit there. Actually, it was more than fine for a couple reasons: (1) the bartender is quite handsome and (2) we got our drinks quickly and our food orders went directly in. My friend and I are both quite chatty, outgoing people, so it was nice to sit there and even briefly chat to the bartender and owner/manager (?) who both seemed to be doing a great job running the place.

For drinks we had Caesars, virgin. Man, these were good. I love a Caesar. The bartender asked how we wanted it (cloudy, muddy, spicy). I like mine muddy, so I am glad he asked, because most places don't.

We shared the oysters for our appie. It was a good size portion (there are already one or two missing in the picture). They have changed something about the cornmeal batter though, and even though it was good, I liked it better before.

My friend had the Royals Burger with blue cheese and mac and cheese as her side. It looked good. The burger patty was very thick, and the blue cheese all melty as it should be.

I ordered a small side of the butter fried cabbage and a pulled pork poutine. I love love love love the cabbage; I always have, and I always will. Even the times that it came cold (just before we stopped going to the Langford location), I still did not want to share with Matt. It is such a simple dish. I know it isn't healthy--duh, BUTTER FRIED--but it is perfection. I just had the side ($2.50) rather than the full order ($5) and I am glad for it, as it was a large serving.


My other favorite at Smoken Bones was always the Mount Poutine, now just Pulled Pork Poutine. It is so different from any other poutine, and that is what I love about it. No gravy; delicious smoked cheese sauce. Lots of pulled pork. My complaint tonight would be there were not enough fries to go with the dish, and the pulled pork was not "pulled" enough. Sometimes, I would think I was going to have a fry, and it would be a chunk of pork. Also, I kept having to spit out chunks of fat--significant chunks. Regardless, it was a good dish, and a huge portion. Matt, who already pizza and a bagel, is currently finishing the half of it that I couldn't.



Smoken Bones Cookshack on Urbanspoon

Boys' Night


I have a rule: if I am not here to eat dinner, I will not make you dinner.

Charlie and Matt were on their own! Charlie had a fudgesicle as an appie, and then I am pretty sure they had pizza. But for now, I am going to pretend I have no idea or that they ate chicken breast on spinach salad with yoghurt dressing.

Meal Planning

Matt and I are currently trying to meal plan BEFORE going to the store based on what is already in the freezer.

We have:
-chicken legs
-pork chops
-2 packs ground beef
-tenderized steak
-burgers

and much much more!

Hmmm, what to make this week?

Weekend Treat: Red Feather Cafe

Our little family ventured out to Keating this morning to try the Red Feather Cafe. We had bought a Couvon and are always looking for a new breakfast joint. I am not going to "rate" whether I like it or not on Urbanspoon because our family's reviews are very mixed.

Matt was a big fan. He said he would do the drive again to eat here.

I said that I wouldn't, even though it had some positive attributes.

Charlie said, "Mamama ball ba ba da ca ca ok".

Charlie enjoying the decor
I really liked the decor: flowers and chickens, bright and clean--very clean. The service was okay, although the waitress who sat us did not even acknowledge that we had a small person with us, bring a highchair, or bring a water for him. We had to ask for a highchair, which may be because 18 year old girls think toddlers will sit in a booth? I don't know. Regardless, the next waitress who visited offered crayons, which we turned down so we need not repeat "Don't eat the crayons!" for the rest of the meal.

The menu was decent; although, again, no kid's menu. Breakfast places: put on your menu a $3 single pancake for kids (the awesome Willie's Bakery does) or a $4 single piece of toast, 1 egg, 1 bacon.

Matt and I both ordered the Crab Cakes Benny. This is where we have mixed reviews.

I thought it was strange that it was still served on an English muffins. Yet, the crab cake was on an English muffin. This worked in our favor, as Charlie had some muffin, but it is unnecessary. I ended up deconstructing mine and eating the crab cake separately.

Charlie eating eggs, I mean a napkin
I wasn't a fan of their eggs or their Hollandaise. Both were very bland. I, like Charlie, might as well have been eating my napkin. Also, the eggs were incredibly watery.

The crab cake, however, was good. We had a disagreement over it at first; I thought it was made with imitation crab. But I did concede to Matt, who argued that it was real, and we later agreed that it probably was so spongy because it is canned crab meat.

We also both agreed that the hashbrowns/home fries were well done. Very crispy with lots of green onion! My only complaint about these is that I had one that tasted very dirty (ie like soil still).

I don't really have anything else to say. The Red Feather Cafe was okay; I wouldn't recommend it, but I wouldn't caution people against it either.





Red Feather Cafe on Urbanspoon

Look What We Bought

Near our house there is a housing development for old people. Today we noticed a sign for a garage sale, so we put Charlie on his bike and wheeled over there.

Some people had crazy expectations for prices, but we still bought a couple things, even though we shouldn't have!

I got 5 Val D'or fruit cups for $4. It isn't my pattern, but it looks fine with my pattern (Moonlight Rose). Plus, my coffee pot and a few of my tea cups are Val D'or that I have picked up over the years.

Matt almost bought a weird unopened pack of 1970s tennis balls, but in the end, he passed.

He did, however, agree to buy these glasses. We thought they were very beautiful. Each set has 6 in a tray, and the tall tumblers also have coasters.

We have similar versions of the short glasses. We found them in my parents basement in the section of "store stock" from when my grandma owned an antique store.

These, however, are frosted, silver at the top that lightens progressively, with a flowery pattern on top of the silver that protrudes. We paid $25 for the 2 sets. We aren't sure if it was a good deal. These are beautiful though. I am secretly hoping that these are something really special though.

Has anyone ever seen something like this before?

A Real "What the Crap is for Dinner?" Moment

Cost: $6

Prep time: 10 minutes

Health: 0.5/1 000 000

Did you like the new health rating I added? I did that to point out to you how crappy the dinner I made was.

This dinner was unhealthy for mainly one reason: lack of vegtables. This was due to poor planning. I shouldn't make excuses, but I usually only work 1/2 time, and this week I worked full-time. I didn't plan the meals any further than the protein source.

So when I went to start dinner last night (Italian sausages), I realized we had NO veggies save for 1/2 a cucumber and baby carrots. I did manage to track down an onion, fry that up and add it to the 25% less calories (and 80% less taste) Ragu.

We ended up eating whole-wheat noodles (hence the 0.5 healthiness) with sausage, Ragu, onion, and cheese. This is the kind of meal Matt enjoys, and Charlie ate a little too, but I was not into it.
Charlie's
Mom's
Dad's

Thursday, March 29, 2012

Special Hotdogs

"What is this?"
Cost: $8

Prep time: 20 minutes

In our house, special hotdogs are a comfort food. I associate really warm childhood memories with special hotdogs.

The first and only time I had these as a child was at my friend Chelsea Clark's house. Her family always seemed so perfect to me: a married mom and dad, two little girls, mom always home, little dog, living near the school, etc, etc. They just seemed like such a picture perfect family in my inexperienced childhood mind.

I remember being there for dinner one night. I must have been between 6-8 years old. Chelsea's mom made special hotdogs for dinner. I'm sure she made things to go with it, but the yummy wrapped hotdogs really stood out, as did the name "special hotdog".



Matt and I have been eating special hotdogs for years. We have tried many variations to try to make these healthier. Tofu dogs was a failure; a quarter hotdog is not quite enough. For a while we could buy low-fat hotdogs that were only 70 calories each, but those seem to be out of production.

What we have settled on is using 1/2 a wiener of the lowest fat or best quality wieners we can get. Tonight, it was Natural Selections variety. I know I know I know that everyone says this "no preservatives" stuff is just as bad for you, but I can't help but keep hoping they are wrong. Plus, the taste is really top notch.

We have also been using the lowest fat cheese we can find. It actually cooks better this way, as when it melts out, it does not get things all greasy but rather stays in a solid piece that can just be wrapped around  the outside.

I paired it with a simple salad tonight. Matt was out past the time when Charlie and I finished eating, so it was easier to just make things that were quick, easy, and didn't involve a lot of time, energy, or components (although I did put tomato, pepper, and cucumber on the salad).

I have a problem with salad. I tried a spinach salad at lunch, an then this one with a mixed greens base at dinner, and I just can't handle it. I hate the texture of raw spinach and lettuces. It is so hard for me to choke down. I ate all the other veggies, and the majority of the lettuce, but I couldn't do it all. Awful. Maybe next time I will switch up my dressing. Charlie and I both had a balsamic vinaigrette tonight, but I have had that on every salad not from a bag for months, so I should really mix it up.

Anyway, Charlie really enjoyed his dinner. I want to create positive memories around meal times with his family, and not just tied to what I serve. He is such a sweet boy, and we love him so much, I want to give him every possible thing and advantage in life.




Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Italian Pork Roast

Cost: $12

Prep: 20 minutes

We tried Walmart meat again tonight, and it wasn't bad. We bought an Italian Pork Roast. Although it was very fatty, it was tasty. But, it was REALLY fatty, like an entire inch on the top, and I am not sure if it is just the cut or if it is supposed to be like that.

We paired this with some 1/2 baked finished baking bread, steamed broccoli, and an alfredo noodle Sidekick.




Tuesday, March 27, 2012

B for D

Cost: less than $5

Prep time: less than 10 minutes

Matt did not join us for dinner tonight; I had had a very busy, long day; Charlie enjoys pulling my wet shirts from the laundry and running around with the shirts over his face, regardless of walls in his way. So, anyway, Matt had rugby until 6PM and Charlie and I cannot wait to eat until then, so we had a quick breakfast for dinner. I didn't make for Matt, as it would have been cold before he got home, so he still hasn't eaten yet.

I tried to make this dinner healthier by serving it with a lot of fruit. We picked up a little water melon, about the size of a bocce ball, when we were at Walmart the other day ($2.50). We ate 1/2 of that, although it was difficult as I had to take it apart for C because of the seeds. We also shared an orange and a few grapes.

The bacon is the Natural Selections variety, even though I hear it is not actually any less full of nitrates than regular bacon. Still, it is really nice bacon. I like to broil it so it is flat.
I fried our eggs: 2 for me, 1 for Charlie. I like my yolk soft, and it was a little harder tonight, but C gets his completely cooked through. I'm not sure if I am supposed to feed him runny eggs, but I have no idea how he would manage to eat a runny egg anyway.

For our grain product, we shared an English muffin with light herb and garlic cream cheese. This was very satisfying, especially when combined with the bacon and eggs; it was almost like having a Hollandaise sauce or something.

Honestly though, I am still hungry and looking forward to a snack tonight...


Monday, March 26, 2012

From the Baby Shower

Because this is mainly a food blog, I wont post a bunch of pictures of my lovely friend, her family, the beautiful gifts, or decorations. I will focus on the food.

The meal was staged as a tea, and I had a lot of help. The main dish I made was finger sandwiches. My mom helped a lot, and we made four varieties: cucumber cream cheese, egg salad, salmon, and curried chicken. The curried chicken is one we picked up from attending teas at higher echelon establishments. It is delicious, lightly curried chicken with raisins and a bit of mayo. And there is something about the way my mom makes her salmon, even though it is made with the same canned salmon I use, that is to die for.
I also prepared a tray with high protein nibblies: cheese (Havarti, Monterey Jack, and Cheddar), sausage rolls made fresh (with help from Pilsbury), and olives and gherkins.  

My friend, Maureen, knows I love her extra now though. I baked her TWO products, as readers already saw: mini-cupcakes and owl cookies (the shower was owl themed). The cupcakes were butter pecan flavor with cream cheese icing, coated in coconut, with two mini-eggs on top to look like a nest. The cookies were cinnamon sugar cookies, with an almond for the beak and two chocolate chips for eyes.

Other guests brought lovely treats as well. My grandma did deviled eggs. A sister of the mom-to-be did veggies and dip and fruit. The other sister and mother did sushi. The other grandma-to-be did an almond puff pastry and mini-cheesecakes, which I had three of, oops! An auntie did a layered dip and brought a lovely lemon cake. Another auntie did all the dishes, cutlery, napkins, small snacks, etc. A friend did the cold beverages (and wine, lots of wine). It really was a group effort.



Our Freezer

I wish we had room for a deep freeze. We could take advantage of more sales if we did. Right now, our freezer is so full, we cannot possibly put anything else in it. Matt has some frozen products that he needs to take to work, and we have the giant box with only two ice cream cupcakes in it, but it is still far too full. Whenever we deviate from our meal plan, whatever we don't eat ends up in the freezer. There are probably some things that will need to be tossed (like the burgers from last summer) but the majority is not old, just crammed.

The plan for next week is not to buy meat and to try to eat things we have in the freezer before it turns to waste.

Salt-fest 2012

Cost: $8 + dessert (about $3.70)

Prep: 15 minutes

Tonight's dinner was not our high point. In fact, it was a lot like the dinners that Matt and I would eat pre-Charlie. We ate many sausages, mainly because they are quick, easy, and cheap. We also ate a lot of instant potatoes.

And tonight, that is exactly what we had.

We had sausages from Walmart, $4 a package, turkey variety. Honestly, the sausages were very tasty, but very salty. I also had an instant of almost losing a tooth from biting into a piece of bone and many times when I had to pull gristle from my mouth. Otherwise, the sausages were good, but now that I am reading what I wrote, maybe we wont buy these again.

As the side dish, I made a Sidekick, instant mashed potatoes with instant gravy, Rich Beef flavour. Both of these are high in salt, but man oh man, are these delicious. This is one of our comfort foods, and interestingly enough, one of the things I could not stand when I was pregnant with Charlie. I know it is unhealthy because of the salt, but I did drink 1.4L of water with dinner to try to deal with this. I also had fully intended to lie on here and claim I had made mashed potatoes, but the only person I would really be lying to is myself.

We also tried to go healthy on side dish two: steamed veggies, broccoli and green beans, but our third side dish was also not the greatest: one of those 1/2 baked loafs of bread that you finish baking. Our baby loves carbs, and I thought this would be a bit better for him than the mashed potatoes.

After Charlie went to bed, Matt and I also indulged in dessert. On Friday, we stopped at the Marble Slab to use a Groupon we had purchased. The Groupon was $10 for a $20 credit. When we walked in, we realized how difficult it was going to be to try to spend $20 on ice cream for two, especially when I really didn't want to eat it then. So, instead, we spent the entire credit on a box of ice cream cupcakes (6). We ate 2 that day, but there were still 4 in our enormously packed freezer. So, Matt and I each had one. Mine was Turtles, and Matt's was Double Chocolate. The ice cream was nice, but whatever weird frozen icing was on the top is gross. The waffle bowl is very tasty though.

Double Chocolate
Turtles, minus 1 bite

Anyway, we are full now. We will see if Matt can control his grazing tonight.




Sunday, March 25, 2012

My Mom Rules the Kitchen

Sunday dinner at my parents again! Yay and yum!

I will never be able to cook as well as my mom. She is a fantastic cook. I cannot speak highly enough of her or her cooking.

Tonight's dinner was roast beef with all the fixings. The roast was done perfectly medium rare.


The Yorkshire puddings were so puffy and delicious.


The gravy was thick and rich, as was the cheese sauce for the carrots and broccoli.


Honestly, I ate a delicious meal, but I didn't try to make it as healthy as possible. There were other choices for vegetables, spaghetti squash and frozen green beans, but I chose to have a white dinner roll from Safeway (BEST every day bakery) that our friend Claudette brought.


Charlie ate a much healthier meal, since he had a little of everything and didn't smother his veggies in cheese sauce. He did, however, also have a large serving of dessert.


For dessert, my mom made an apple crisp. It was fantastic. I love my mom's apple crisp; her crumbly topping is like no other, absolute perfection.

I wish I had appreciated my mom's cooking my entire life as much as I do now. My brother is in the phase where he TOTALLY does not relish in it, but I'm sure some day he will also look at all her hard work and talent fondly.





Shopping Trip

The last two weeks, with all the craziness, we did not do our big weekly "official" shopping trip. We just picked up stuff here and there as we needed it.

And we spent way more money...

Tomorrow we are back at school, and grandmas/grandpas are back with Charlie, and we will need to eat like normal people again.

The problem is, we are still so busy. We had to sit in our jammies, eat breakfast, play in our room, read books, make animal noises, sit in the grass, run on the deck, go to the park, throw sand, pull the heads off daffodils, eat soup, spill soup, clean up soup, crap our pants, AND go to Walmart. Well, Matt and I needed to go to Walmart, and Charlie needed to do all the other stuff. So, uncharacteristically, we decided to do our weekly shop at Walmart.

I am not one of those people who are all boo-boo bad Walmart. We shop there because things are cheaper. Some things. When I see people doing their entire grocery shop there, I judge them. I think they are probably not very bright because not everything is cheaper at Walmart, and I think when it is economical, it is worthwhile to support smaller, more local businesses (which Thrify's used to be, but I guess isn't really anymore). Also, Walmart's produce taste like crap.

We have also had a bad experience with some steaks. We made the steaks, went to eat them, and quickly realized they were the worst steaks ever to be steaked. So, because the package had a 100% satisfaction guarantee, on our next trip, we took the package with us and tried to return it because we weren't satisfied. The woman working was such a hag, and even got another two involved. They didn't want to give us a refund because we didn't have the steaks. I'm sorry, you wanted us to keep and bring in two week old cooked steaks? What would that have show you? That meat spoils? Thrify's trusts their clients; if you say something was some way, they believe you. Walmart assumes you are a liar, and treats you as such. Why would we cheat you out of $5 of steak on a $200 bill? Ridicules. Anyway, we made a big enough hubbub that time, they returned our $5, but I still feel like if they aren't willing to honour a "satisfaction guarantee", don't offer one.

But, this week, we decided to do our shopping there. I needed to pick up my prescriptions, get some baby D drops ($3 cheaper), laundry soup ($2 cheaper than Zellers), diapers (but they didn't have C's size), an alarm clock (I smashed Matt's after he went away but left it set to 5AM), and a bunch of other non-grocery items.

For all the negatives about Walmart, some prices cannot be beat. Eggos are less than $2.30 a box. They are over $4 at Thrify's. And, if you buy Great Value brand, they are only $1.50 a box. This way, if Charlie needs a quick breaky, and then refuses everything I make him, I don't feel put out in the wallet department when the toaster waffle goes untouched.

Crackers and small cookies (Teddy Grahams, Animal Crackers) were on sale for $2 a box, so we stocked up on some of those. Orange juice was also a good price.

And we did buy some meat. We shied away from those "thin cut" steaks, but we bought an Italian style pork roast (whatever that means). Stayed tuned to see how it is. We also got a couple packs of sausages, dinner and breakfast style. We will see how it goes. I wanted one of those marinated chickens, but a guy scooped up the last two in front of us.

This weeks bill is hard to say, $1...ahem...6...ahem....7, but we need to estimate at least $50 being other things, maybe closer to $75. We have a fully stuffed fridge and freezer, as well as cupboards (when I get around to putting things away).

Oh, and we forgot milk.

Saturday, March 24, 2012

Baby Shower Treats

I hosted a baby shower for my dear friend Mo today. I told her she should know that she is extra-special to me because I baked her TWO things.

I will post more pictures of the other food later, but these are the treats I baked. The theme of the shower was "Whooo loves you baby? We do!" so I decked everything out in owls.
Successful owl cookie
Non-successful owl cookies; I made them too big.
Butter pecan mini-cupcakes with cream cheese icing, coconut and mini-eggs to look like nests.
As part of the favor, a boxed mini cupcake. These went in a bag I made with book marks (with a owl that Mo painted on them) and tea.

Post Village Stir-fry

So, after our delicious lunch at Japanese Village, I couldn't even think about dinner. However, Matt and Charlie still needed to eat.

So, first, Charlie spread Cheerios all over the floor and ate those.

Then I told Matt I was on a cooking strike, but there was some pork he could cook in the fridge. He decided on a stir-fry. He used some lime leaves, specifically kefir. He used the last of the Chinatown carrots, some beans, broccoli, maybe some other stuff, some sauce, the pork, maybe some spices, I dunno.

I did have a couple bites off Charlie face, but I really couldn't eat. Charlie ate it though and loved it!

My plate: still clean