133 posts tagged “food”

• the only problem with having my closet now clean and organized is that i find myself wanting to sit in it. for not particular reason. i want to just go in and plop myself in the middle of the floor. just to marvel at the beauty of how being clean and organized really revitalizes me. of course, there is still that half of a shelf and my cd collection that needs to be done. maybe i'll get some of it down tonight.

• we went to cathy's little M's 5yr birthday party yesterday. it was fun! the kids had such a blast. cath had hired a clown. and when the invitation first mentioned about a clown, i was a bit concerned. i have an irrational fear of clowns. not a phobia, per se. but they have always given me the creeps. i was happy with this clown, though. she was whimsical and cute and really knew how to create good chemistry with the kids. and the children did love her! not only did they get a ballon twisted into something they loved, she put on a great magic show that starred a cute rabit in the end. the kids got to sit on a chair have hold the rabbit on their lap for about 30 seconds each. and then, after lunch, each of them got to have their face painted of their choice. chaeli was so crazy about the clown that she said, before going to bed, that she hopes she will meet the clown again someday.

• i'm hungry. it's a weird kind of hunger. i feel like i can eat a lot today. which isn't good, really. because i know that if i allow myself to go nuts, i'll feel like complete crap at the end of the day. but, i have brought some healthy snacks so hopefully, i can stay good.

actually, the peppermient mocha at starbucks is a tad too sweet for my taste. but i love the minty flavour so it's hard to resist.

the heaven part really isn't just the drink. it's that i took the day off, got the house cleaning done in the morning (so i know it's out of the way for the weekend), gone for a very good, strength-circuit class from hell, had a very yummy turkey sandwich with sparkling water and am now listing to tunes while surfing at starbucks (god bless 2 hour free hotspot a day here).

the mocha latte is my dessert.

and i have about 2.5 hrs more before i have to go pick up little miss.

i'm loving it!

how often does halloween fall on a saturday night? not often enough!

it was so nice not to have to race home from work along with all the other parents doing the same thing, thereby making rush hour even crazier. and then, not having to rush dinner to leave time for trick-or-treating.

and then, it was just so very nice not having to try and rush the whole bedtime routine knowing that it's a school night.

what made the night even better was that we got to spend it with friends. di and rick hosted a little halloween party which ended up being just as fun for the adults as for the kids.

uncle hoa had fun, too!

the food we had was crazy. ada made short bread cookies in the shape of ghoulish fingers. they looked creepy but i will definitely agree that it tasted amazing. doug spent all afternoon making chocolate-chip pumpkin muffins from scratch - yum! and ada also baked a halloween-themed birthday cake for hoa, as his birthday falls on halloween.

i loved that chaeli got to go trick-or-treating with a friend this year. it was differnet - plus, all the guys had a great time taking the kids out. chaeli finally got to be bumblebee (transformers), brayden was a dragon and little maddy was eeyore.

transformers, dragons and a little eeyore

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more then meets the eye

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we turned our clocks back an hour which gave us that extra hour of sleep. heaven! however, i can officially say that i'm officially sick of all the halloween treats. not chaeli, though. that was HER kind of heaven.

last night, we went to hamilton, which is just over an hour away from toronto, for a very fun potluck dinner party.

doug made pulled pork in a slow cooker. there was little time to cook so we figured something we could slow cook overnight would be our best option. we brought some fresh dinner rolls so people could make their own sandwiches. it turned out to be a hit! thankfully, we made so much that we have leftovers for tonight.

the hosts were anthony and kay, plus their two boys and their very anxious and shy chihaha, coco. poor thing was out of sorts with so many people on her territory that she spent a good majority of the beginning and end of the night, yapping away. i tried to get her to warm up to me but everytime i offered my hand to sniff, she would run away.

we spent some time playing rock band - i got a chance to try out the beatles for the first time. excellent - very well made! i was especially impressed with the animated intro to the game.

the only problem i have with rock band is that everyone has to sing at least once. and to be honest, none of us from the posse can sing, really. some of us are not too bad but i definitely can speak for myself and say that i'm a tad tone-deaf. and my range in octives is pretty limiting. so unless it's right in my range, it actually hurts to sing. i think it was hoa that turned to me and said, "cool - you guys can sing in harmony for the beatles" to which i said, "yeah... okay, hoa... because i just got better in the past 30 minutes!" :p

one thing about going to hamilton is cross over the burlington bridge. granted, it's not an incredible bridge when compared to the golden gate in the bay area, but there's something i still love about it.

it was a fantastic night. we had a great time catching up with a few people we don't get to see very often.

i admit that i was disappointed that i couldn't take part in nuit blanche this year. while chinese moon festival and my uncle's birthday were celebrated at my aunt and uncles home on the same nute as nuit blanche, that wasn't the reason why i couldn't go. after all, the dinner party ended around 10pm which would have allowed us to go until around 1am (since it's an all night event). but doug had to do the practical part of his course this weekend and had to be up fairly early. a part of me wondered if i should have gone on my own but no. i had to take care of chaeli on my own the next day. and man - it is not easy doing that when all you want to do is sleep!

next year. it's something i hope to do for sure.

anyway, despite the disppointment, it was a wonderful weekend. chaeli stayed at my parents' place on friday night so the anal nerd in me spent friday night cleaning the house and reorganizing chaeli's summer to fall/winter wardrobe. just as i suspected, the pile of 'too small' clothes was three times bigger then the pile of clothes that fits her. but most of them were mix-matches of tops and bottoms that didn't all go well together. geez - that kid sprout up big time this year.

i also went through her huge pile of books on her night stand, which was so huge that half of it was on the floor underneath the little table. her usual bookshelf, which is very small and a part of her closet) was jammed pack. i had to put some of the bigger books on the very top shelf. i'm going to have to invest in a kid's book shelf to put her books away in. while i have no issues deciding on toys to give away, ones that she's outgrown, i have a pretty huge issue with getting rid of books. i do have a small pile of maybe 8 books i'm prepared to donate to her school, but that's about it. she's got so much more that i didn't even make 1/8th of a dent.

doug came home just near the end of my organizing and cleaning. we decided to head out for a late dinner at a local vietnamese restaurant. i had the lemongrass, grilled chicken, rice, shredded pork and fried egg. doug has his usuall vermecelli with an assortment of goodies in it - vietnamese spring roll, beef roll and shrimp paste on sugar cane. we shared a cold spring roll appetizer and some spicy, fried squid appetizer. what i love about vietnamese food is that it's so affordable. with all that we ordered, it only came to $35 after tips and tax.

saturday morning, i headed off to another power-pump class, making it the first time i've done three in a week. it was at 9:30am which helped getting my butt out of bed early. as usual, the class was great, though this instructor probably would not be considered my favourite one of those i've tried. she wasn't bad but her program was a bit too repetitive. not enough was mixed up which made it easier, i felt. i compensated by adding more weights to my routine.

afterwards, i headed up too shop for chaeli's fall/winter wardrobe. while i was at the mall, i also bought some stocking stuffer items for christmas. i was able to get everything done before 1pm which was nice - i had a few hours to relax and unwind before going over to my aunt's place.

dinner was great, as usual. my doctor and his wife joined the party as well and we had such a great night laughing and chatting away. the food was fabulous though i wasn't able to really dive into it as my appetite has shrunken. it was good, though. at one point, i was able to stop and remind myself that i was satisfied. that any more eating would have just been out of habit and pleasure. but that i would suffer later by being overly-stuffed. so rather having more steak or pasta, i opted to having a couple more of the grilled portebello mushrooms (which were just amazing, anyway, but light).

last night was definitely a great social night.

we went to add and hoa's place around 5:30pm, meeting up with di and rick (plus their two kids). the boys went on a test drive with hoa's stick (as rick wanted to get use to it - in a couple of months, he picks up his new audi and it's been awhile since he's driven a stick-shift).

on the way back, the boys picking up an ultra-large order of two sushi platters. from sushi marché - the sushi chef and owner there trained under and worked for iron chef, morimoto. the whole idea behind sushi marché is high-quality sushi and sashimi using market, fresh ingredients for a very reasonable, affordable price. it's a pick-up/take-out only place so the price of a waiting staff and interior sit-down furniture, etc., needn't be added to the price. it's actually, an amazing concept and, from what i've had here in toronto, probaby the best quality sushi ever. and only at $20 per person.

afterwards, we were so stuffed that we decided to take a 15 minute walk to ed's real scoop on queen east where we had one of the best gelato scoops ever! i wasn't able to make up my mind what i wanted so i got a regular cup size of 1/2 lemon and 1/2 coconut gelato.

doug, chaeli and i stayed for about another hour after diane, rick and their kids left. ada and chaeli ended up cuddling on the couth while chaeli introduced pocoyo to ada. very sweet. :)

today was a nice, relaxing day as well. we woke up extra late and then headed to the zoo for a late breakfast and a two hour walk. the sun was so nice but very comfortable now that there's no humidity.

i live for weekends like this!

• when i went to university for the first time, mom started to give me (as a side gift) a care package for christmas. this would basically cover the 2nd part of my school year in terms of supplies - shampoo, soap, tooth paste, etc. of course, after i moved home, this all stopped. but now that i'm living in my own home with my own family, she still continues to do this. it was a bit strange at first - after all, i'm now taking care of my own family and can afford to buy my own toothpaste. but still, there's something sweet about it. i've come to look forward to my care package. it's not what's inside it that matters - but the symbolic representation it offers from a mother that still looks after her daughter. as we get closer to christmas, i remind doug that we don't have to stock up too much on things that i know we'll be getting from mom soon enough.

• i'm looking forward to fall this year. and i'm hoping that fall will stay a little while before winter hits. it's such a shame that my favourite season of the year is so short. but i do love fall. i love it's smell, the breeze and it's colours. it's also full of fun activities - hiking, apple-picking, farmer's market (during harvest time), thanksgiving and halloween. there's just so much to look forward to but unfortunately, not enough weekends to do them all.

• we're having thanksgiving at my parents' place this year. usually, my aunt and uncle always hosts both thanksgiving and christmas but we've decided that thanksgiving should be at my parents' place. they just bought a deep turkey fryer. i'm excited about that alone! mmm... deep fried turkey. for those who've tried this, you'll agree that it's not at all greasy. the skin is crisp and there's no grease clinging on the outer skin part only, but because it fries up so quickly, it seals the meaty area from getting greasy inside and locking in the juices.

• there is so much to do in the next couple of months, including a live reading-performance from one of my favourite canadian author, stuart mclean. ada got us tickets and i'm psyched to go - especially as her and i have been talking about it for the past two years.

• christmas seems far away but really, it is just around the corner. i've started christmas shopping. in fact, i'm nearly done all my stocking stuffers (except for doug's) and need to focus on just the main gifts. the only person i've finished the main gift shopping is for chaeli. and that's only because when it comes to toys, especially popular ones, there's too much of a risk for it being sold out before christmas. plus, i bought her collector item toys from transformers, revenge of the fallen. some of them are already sold out. anyway, as usual, i plan to finish my shopping by early november so i have time to mail it to my in-laws. i have a great list this year and am excited to see how my ideas are received.

• christmas activities are also really high on my list which is part of the reason why i like to get the shopping done early and out of the way. this year, i'm wondering if i want to do the nutcracker ballet again. i didn't think i would want to do it every year but i feel like it again. it is such a great treat to experience. and of course, especially as this will be ada and hoa's last year in toronto, before moving out west, i do hope to go the the 'sleeping children around the world' charity concert. it's held eary december and kick-starts our christmas holiday season.