Lunch Counter

 Linking up at Marg at The Intrepid Reader 

Weekend Coffee Share

Sunday Salon

2014 - Charlottetown PEI

I did an online order from a close by gluten free bakery - Bread Essentials. John is enjoying their white wholegrain bread so far.

Tuesday John went for his first physio appointment. It was a horrible rainy, sleet, snowy day, which made me change my mind about going out.

He stopped off to see the swans.

The plumber had an appointment at 1 but he asked to change it, which was not a problem to us. We went to Longo's to get some groceries.

It is spring break here and the line up for the aquarium was insane especially since there are no walk in tickets they are all online timed entries, it doesn't make sense.

I have to find out the story behind these, at the corner of Bremner and York. Perhaps paying homage to Union Station, just steps away?

We attended a virtual town hall for the condo. I have attended before John hasn't. This was the presentation of the budget and it was very interesting. We will have an increase in monthly fees, the first in three years. We came away with several follow ups, in particular water damage insurance. 

Thursday was another foggy morning but it burned off around noon and went to 15 C! We both had 10 AM mani-pedi appointments, our first since December. 

I took this on my way home. The fog is finally burning off and as mentioned in the town hall, the window washers are at work. This is the loading dock entrance and the two guys on the ground are clearing away all the winter ice salt. The gardeners were busy at the front. 

The plumber finally came and we came up with a plan for the dishwasher and washer /dryer. He fixed the heating valve ($450) and will be back when I need him for the dishwasher.

I finished John's scarf from leftover wool.

John's new golf cart was delivered.

And it is that time of year again, so John took our taxes to the accountant.

COOKING

So my bright idea of a week of new recipes quickly feel apart. I won't be so ambitious in the future as we sometimes just don't want something or we decide on something else based on what we had on hand or our plans that day.

Saturday Peanut Butter Chicken with cauliflower rice, broccolini, onion pancakes (the last)
I used chicken stock instead of water in the chicken and added the broccolini and some onions into the stir fry. Cauliflower rice was the packets from Costco, first time using. Next time I wouldn't bother cooking on the side, the rice is already cooked so just add it to the sauce. This rice is not as good as a fresh container, but it is more economical and less waste for us. John rates the chicken 9/10.

Crispy pork with saucy spicy noodles use pork belly I didn't fry the pork belly in oil, I put it in the oven instead. For the noodles I used Le Veneziane GF fettucine nests I found at Farm Boy as they reminded me of egg noodles. These noodles were disgusting, they all stuck together. The sauce was okay nothing to write home about. John's score pork belly 8/10 sauce okay noodles 0/10.

Thai coconut curry shrimp soup hamburgers instead.

Grilled lemon curry haddock slow cooker pot roast with vegetables served us Tuesday and Wednesday,

St. Patrick's Day corned beef, boiled potatoes and buttered cabbage and for dessert  lime mousse.

Friday - I baked this super healthy ginger banana bread, I used almonds instead of macadamias.

I also made mushroom ketchup and chimichurri.

Steak and sauteed broccolini and bok choy with garlic bread. 

John finally enjoyed chimichurri. He had turned his nose up at the mushroom ketchup but then really enjoyed it. We spread it on the garlic bread and it was a great pâté. We both agreed it could use a little more spicing. The recipe contains mace which I don't have (I just looked it up and it is the sister to nutmeg), I did use nutmeg so perhaps a bit more. I also see that there are substitutes for mace such as allspice.

WATCHING

I continue to watch Great British Menu.

The Gateway is an American crime thriller film.
A troubled but dedicated social worker assisting a working and struggling single mother and her daughter intervenes when the father returns from prison and drags his family back to his habitual world of crime.

Kajillionaire is a 2020 American crime comedy-drama film written and directed by Miranda July. The film stars Evan Rachel Wood, Debra Winger and Richard Jenkins as members of a petty crime family whose relationship becomes frayed when a stranger played by Gina Rodriguez joins their schemes.

READING

Browsed through Bunner's Bake Shop Cookbook. Bunner's is a local gluten free vegan bakery. It gave me some ideas for using up the GF pastry that I bought.

Here is their donut recipe which looks good.

It uses apple sauce for egg replacements which is something I have been doing for a while.

I finally had a book that I couldn't put down Little White Lies. You definitely get into the characters, especially the girls. The sisters sound like most sisters, one overbearing and bossy. Like all families it gets a bit messy. Although I guessed quite early what the mother's secret was and I had an inkling of what might come, it was nothing like I imagined, I was WOW!