Chai and Samosa

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Weekend Coffee Share

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Sunday Post

January 2023 - Toronto ON

January 2023 - Brookfield Place Toronto ON

Saturday morning we relaxed as usual. Fruit for breakfast and bacon and tomato sandwiches for lunch.

I got everything set up for John to make a third loaf of the bread we like, knowing now what we do about our oven we tried using the bottom oven of our dual oven. We also proofed it in the air fryer as it has a proofing feature.

John commented after watching the video "that he deserved a degree after following those instructions", so I made him one.

My friend who moved to a retirement home, called as she was in her condo (closing day) and asked if I wanted her plant stand that I liked, so John scooted down and picked it up.

Sunday I did some Lunar New Year posts with photos from Singapore.

Sunday snowflakes around 1:30!!! And just a dusting, again.

Monday Mural was from Queen West last week.

John took some photos while out on Monday.

We have been having ice cream after dinner (John bought 4 last week), don't judge us, but we eat it out of the carton! I had an AHA moment and asked him to put it in a coffee mug so we are not freezing our hands off!

Tuesday I went downtown to take advantage of Rexall's (drug store) seniors' discount on Tuesdays. I also had $10 on my loyalty card that I cashed in.

When I got off the bus I noticed that the Royal Bank had a Lunar New Year Rabbit on top.

I was hoping for more Lunar decorations but I only saw this at the LCBO.

Walking by the Hockey Hall of Fame.

Wednesday

BTW we are being warned about a huge snowstorm today. It is called a Texas Low and coming up to us through the States.

Well, that was another non-event for us!

The kitchen guy brought his cabinet maker to do measurements. He had done an initial drawing suggesting moving the fridge, good idea but it would cut into my counter I like to use, so no to that. He will move the sink so that we have a little more room. The OTR microwave will be raised to follow the line of the upper cabinets.

We decided the dishwasher stays in the same place. 

Next steps: final drawing for approval, visit showroom to select materials, condo paperwork, schedule.

I decided to tidy up the bathroom cabinets. I wanted to put all the cold/flu items in one basket. Some pain medications are in short supply so I have been stocking up.

It's amazing what you discover while cleaning, I found I do not need a trip to Bed and Bath Works for hand soaps or air fresheners!

I had some golden pothos rooting forever in water and finally planted it into another pothos planter, it now looks much fuller.

I am also thinking about the kitchen redo and what I can rearrange. So far I have moved the slow cooker to cupboard under sink, that is the side of the kitchen that I usually use it on.

The breadmaker wouldn't fit on that side, it is too tall.

I spent time cleaning out the stationery basket, threw out pens, junk, envelopes  and consolidated everything into the desk (will sort that later)! I also found a bunch of keys that I have no idea what they are for, but just in case...note to self in sewing table drawers. Do I need to save elastic bands??

I then used the basket to store the tea towels in the kitchen.

John did a run to the butcher shop on Bloor for steaks and pork chops and picked up vegetables at a local store.

Friday was International Holocaust Remembrance Day so I did a post on some holocaust museums we have visited.

COOKING

Saturday roast pork, roast potatoes, oven roasted broccolini and a real mish mash of leftover vegetables, potatoes, cauliflower, carrots and turnips with garlic butter.

Sunday is Lunar New Year so I made moo shu pork with the leftover pork on lettuce leaves.

Monday I made a pot of pea soup for during the week.

Smash burgers aka hamburgers and potato salad. Smash burgers are smaller patties that are made by smashing the meat patty down on the grill. This creates a crispy outer crust while keeping the center of the burger juicy and moist. Instead of making two patties I made four.

Tuesday when I got home I felt like making gluten free cheese danish with lemon curd. I adjusted a recipe to my liking and added it to my recipe box. Recipe says to make 10, I got 12 and I would even make them smaller and flatter so that you could put more filling on them.

One sheet chicken fajitas

Wednesday ham and au gratin cauli potatoes.

I baked a favourite of John's, he made the topping, blueberry breakfast crunch cake.

Thursday last night's leftovers with beets.

Friday I made a batch of ham salad for my lunch and extra for the weekend, using this recipe from my recipe box (added today!) 

Steaks, lazy loaded baked potato and chimichurri.

WATCHING

OSCARS 2023

We are going to try and watch as many of the Oscar nominations as we can before the awards, it makes it a lot more fun.

So this week we watched Everything Everywhere All At Once

We have already seen:

Elvis

Banshees of Inisherin

Top Gun - Maverick

Blonde

OTHER

I watched a Prime series Whitechapel. It is a British police procedural in which detectives in London's Whitechapel district deal with murders which replicated historical crimes. The first series  depicted the search for a modern copycat killer replicating the murders of Jack the Ripper.

A second series depicted murders focused on the Kray twins. The third season is broken into 3 separate 2-part stories.

We watched The Iron Lady (2011) starring Meryl Streep. We had both thought we had seen this but it didn't ring any bells for us.

Streep does a fantastic job of playing the former prime minister of the U.K. at the height of her power and later as an elderly woman. There is a lot of use of flashbacks and we see the formidable woman become vulnerable with age.
However, just as in The Crown, it does not dive into the controversial issues, they merely mention them. For example, 10 Irish hunger strikers protesting Thatcher’s policy in Northern Ireland died in 1981. There is scant coverage in either.
While there are some images of violence as protesters clash with police and some surround Thatcher’s car, there is no strong analysis of her policies, again particularly with regard the coal miners.

 

The Princess - Princess Diana's story is told exclusively through contemporaneous archive creating a bold and immersive narrative of her life and death. It also illuminates how the public's attitude to the monarchy was, and still is. This was good as there was no added contextualizing text or talking heads. The media footage speaks for itself, as do Princess Diana and Prince Charles themselves.

The Raid: Redemption is a 2011Indonesian action thriller film. In the film, an elite squad is tasked to infiltrate a high-rise building run by a ruthless drug lord in the slums of Jakarta; among them is Rama (played by Uwais), a veteran member of the team. More John's cup of tea, than mine, I'll skip the sequel.

Vault is a 2019 American crime thriller film It was released on June 7, 2019. It is based on the Bonded Vault heist in 1975 in Rhode Island.
Two small-time criminals and longtime friends, as Deuce (Theo Rossi) and Chucky (Clive Standen), graduate from robbing pawn shops and jewelry stores and become involved in a plan to rob a mafia vault.

This was my kind of movie, we both enjoyed it.

Fauda (Hebrew: פאודה, from Arabic: فوضى fawḍā, meaning "chaos") is an Israeli television series The series premiered on February 15, 2015. It tells the story of Doron, a commander in the Mista'arvim unit and his team; in the first season, they pursue a Hamas arch-terrorist known as "The Panther".
The second season premiered on December 31, 2017. The third season takes place in the Gaza Strip and was aired in 2019 and 2020. 

We had watched this back on 2020 but since season 4 is now airing, we decided to binge watch the whole series.

READING

Very little reading done, still on The Palace Papers!

I did read a bunch of gluten free bread making posts and cookbooks.