Roast Pork Sirloin

This was on sale at 50% off at Maxi a few weeks ago so we grabbed two. Here's the one we made for dinner tonight with carrots and potatoes. I didn't know how long to cook it so I looked it up here, it took 4.5 hours to cook @ 350. I seasoned it with salt and freshly ground white pepper, and stuck several cloves of garlic in it. I also sliced an onion and spread it underneath and on top. I had to remove the onion afterwards though as it was quite charred:



It turned out amaaaazing. It was incredibly tender:



Here you can see one of the garlic cloves I stuck in it:



I took Thursday and Friday off this week cause I had a cold. I hung around at home on Thursday, and then yesterday we went to Mat's mom's place, then to the garage to put his winter tires on, then to the store for a roasting pan and some groceries, then we came home and watched 17 Again. Today our old roommate Kris and his girlfriend Kristie came over for a visit, then we dropped them off at the metro and went to the grocery store and then came home and started cooking the loin at 2pm. Mat played DDO (Dungeons & Dragons Online) all afternoon and I went on the internet. Our friend Dew came over for dinner and we all ate ourselves into a food coma. Afterwards Dew and Mat continued playing and I sat and watched them for a while, then sat down to post the pictures of dinner. Tomorrow after church we're gonna go to Zellers to buy a Christmas tree on sale, to Sears for my winter boots and then to Ikea for some Swedish food, I can't wait!

Live-action cartoon

This is amazing.

On repentance, a re-post

I've started reading through old blog entries from when I first started this blog over a year ago (I cringed a bit at some of my first few entries) and I wanted to re-post this, it bears re-reading more than once:

Taken from the Evergetinos - “On Repentance: No one should despair ever, even if he has committed many sins, but should have hope that through repentance, he shall be saved.”

A certain brother, overcome by the passion of fornication, sinned every day. However, each time, with tears and prayers, he would fall before the Master and Lord and receive forgiveness from Him. And as soon as he had repented, the next day, being misled again by shameful habit, he would fall into sin.

Afterwards, having sinned, he would go to the Church, where he would prostrate himself before the honorable and revered Icon of our Lord Jesus Christ and tearfully confess to Jesus: “Lord, have mercy upon me and take away from me this fearful temptation, for it troubles me fiercely and wounds me with the bitter taste of the pleasures. O my Master, cleanse my person once more, that I may gaze upon Thine Icon and see Thy holy form and the sight of Thy face, brighter than the sun, that my heart might be sweetened and thankful."

And though his lips had just whispered these words, no sooner would he leave the Church than he would fall once again into sin.

Despite this, however, he did not despair of his salvation, but, returning from his sinful deed, would cry out in the Church the same words to God, to the Lord, Who loves mankind, adding the following: “My Lord, I swear to Thee on my word that I shall no longer commit this sin. Only forgive me, Good and Most Merciful Lord, whatever sins I have committed from the beginning to this moment.”

No sooner would he utter these awe-inspiring words, than he would find himself the captive of this evil sin. Let no one cease to marvel at the sweet love of God towards mankind and at His boundless goodness, with which He each day tolerated the uncorrected and evil transgression and ingratitude of the brother. Indeed, God, because of the greatness of His mercy, persistently accepted the repentance of that sinful brother and his inevitable return. For this happened not for one or two or three years, but for more than ten years.

Do you see, my brother, the measureless forbearance and boundless love of the Master? How He continually endures, showing to us kindness, tolerating our terrible transgressions and sins? And what evokes astonishment and wonderment with regard to the rich mercies of God is that He did not become wrathful with the brother in question, though the brother, agreeing not to fall to sin again, continually broke his word.
At any rate, one day when all that we have described again occurred, the brother, having fallen into sin, rushed to the Church, lamenting, groaning, and crying with anguish, to invoke the mercy of God, that He might have compassion on him and take from him the sin of immorality.

No sooner had he called on God, the lover of man, than the Devil, that evil of old, destroyer of our souls, seeing that he could gain nothing, since whatever he accomplished by sin, the brother expunged by his repentance, became infuriated and appeared visibly before the brother. Facing the Icon of Christ, the Devil said to our compassionate Savior: “What will become of the two of us, Jesus Christ? Your sympathy for this sinner defeats me and takes the ground I have gained, since you keep accepting this dissolute man and prodigal who daily mocks you and scorns your authority. Indeed, why is it that you do not burn him up, but, rather, tolerate and put up with him? … It is because one day you intend to condemn all of the adulterers and the dissolute and you will destroy all sinners.

“Actually, you are not a just Judge. But by whim your power is sometimes applied leniently and overlooks things. So, while I was cast from the heavens down to the abyss for a little breach of pride, to this fellow here, even though an immoral man and a prodigal, you calmly show your sympathy, just because he throws himself down in front of your Icon.

“In what way can you be called a just Judge, then? For, as I see it, you receive individual people with great kindness, but ignore justice in general.”

The Devil said all of this, poisoned with great bitterness, whilst there poured forth from his nostrils a black flame.

Having said these things, he fell silent. A voice was heard in response, coming forth from the divine sanctuary, saying the following: “O, all-cunning and ruinous Dragon, are you yet not satisfied with your evil and destructive desire to gobble up the world? Now you have even the nerve to try to do away with and devour this man here, who has come with contrition to entreat the mercy of my compassion, too? Can you offer up enough sins that, by them, you can tilt the balance of justice against the precious blood which I shed on the Cross for this man? Behold my murder and death, which I endured for the forgiveness of his sins.

“You, when he turns again to sin, do not turn him away, but receive him with joy, neither chastising him nor preventing him from committing sin, out of the hope that you might win him over; but I, who am merciful and love mankind, who counselled my laudable Apostle, Peter, to forgive sins seven times seventy (St. Matthew 18:22), should I not show him mercy and compassion? Indeed, simply because he flees to me, I will not turn him away until I have won him over. Furthermore, I was crucified for sinners and for their salvation; my immaculate hands were nailed to the Cross, that those who so wish might take refuge in me and be saved. For this reason, then, I neither turn away nor reject anyone, even if he should fall many times a day and many times return to me; such a person will not leave my Temple saddened, for I came not to call the righteous, but to call sinners to repent.”

During the time that this voice was heard, the Devil was fixed in his place, trembling and unable to run away. The voice then again began to say: “We have heard from all that you say, O Seducer, that I am not just; to the contrary, I am just beyond all. In whatever moral state I find a person, in that state I judge him. Look at this man who a few moments ago repented, having returned from sin and having fallen at my feet with a sincere resolution to abandon sin, and thereby having conquered you.

“Therefore, I will accept him immediately and save his soul, since he did not lose hope in his hard toil for salvation."

“Look how much he merits by his repentance before me, for which he is honored. As for you, let your hate be shred to pieces and you disgraced.”

While this was being said, the repentant brother had thrown himself before the Icon of the Savior. With his face to the ground and lamenting, he surrendered his spirit to the Lord. At the same time that the repentant brother departed to the Lord, a great tempest fell upon Satan, like a fire from Heaven, and devoured him. From this incident, my brothers, let us learn of the limitless compassion of God and of His love of man—a good Master we have—, that we might never again be disheartened by our sins, but rather look after our salvation with zeal.

Qing Hua Dumpling and Chinatown

So today I finally got around to going to Qing Hua Dumpling with my friend Stephan. Here he is in front of the restaurant laughing at me cause I was standing in the middle of the street in the rain trying to take this picture and hold my umbrella and not get my camera wet all at the same time lol:



Here's the front door:



Inside, very nice decor:





Our table:



And... the dumplings! I got a 1/2 order of cabbage mushroom and a 1/2 order of pork and shrimp, they were delicious:



We also wandered around Chinatown a bit. Here's some "wife cookies" they had at a bakery:



Here's a cross-section of the ox-tongue pastry, you can see it's a different texture in the middle:



More pastries:



Here's some ornamental cabbage that I mistook for roses at first sight at a flower shop in Chinatown, they're so pretty!:





Here's the view from my livingroom window today:



The chandelier at the Red Ruby in Chinatown. I want to go there for dim sum sometime too:



The two-toned sky on the way to work the other morning:



This morning I was woken up at 9am by one of those pneumatic bolt-tightener-thingies since the janitor and his friends had decided to set up a makeshift garage under my balcony so they could put their winter tires:







Simple breakfast is delicious:



We didn't go to Ikea finally cause Mat wanted to sleep in, we'll go next weekend instead. It's just as well cause I'll be out of money after I pay the rent and my buss pas lol.

So it's all set, I've invited a bunch of friends to Kam Fung for my birthday dinner on the 15th, I can't wait:D

Dim sum at Kam Fung

So we're going to Ikea for Swedish food tomorrow morning instead since Mat worked on Thursday. Then tomorrow afternoon I'm going to Qing Hua Dumpling with Steph for the first time, I can't wait! I've been meaning to go there for months now. And for my birthday I've decided to go to Kam Fung in Chinatown for some dim sum on Sat. the 14th. I'm going to invite a few friends and see who shows up.

Schroedinger's rapist

I found this an interesting read.

Casserole, patty melts and artichokes

I saw this on my way to work yesterday morning. I've never been able to get close enough to a live pigeon to take a good picture so I took a picture of a dead one instead :P



Here's my patty melt and artichokes:



The artichokes:



This old military vehicle was stopped at a light near my job last night:



Here's the view out the windows at work yesterday, I liked the contrast between the dark clouds and the sunlit trees:



And here's the pics of the chicken and ham casserole I made last night. I forgot to check if I had enough croutons and I didn't, so I sprinkled the last few with the crumbs in the bottom on top instead:

Homemade puffed snacks.

I have to try this soon!

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

Fall leaves, patty melts and artichokes

Autumn Days by ^budgie on deviantART

Last night I was so busy. I went to the grocery store, they had artichokes on sale at 10/$1 so I got some along with the other stuff. When I got home I started a load of laundry, made a giant ham, mushroom and cheese omelette for Mat (with leftovers for my breakfast this morning on toast with mayo, garlic salt and freshly ground white pepper that I ate on the bus this morning) and artichokes and patty melts for me. I'm so proud of Mat, he actually tried some artichoke! This is amazing for someone who hates trying new stuff. I offered him more but he didn't want it. Oh well, maybe next time.

It was my first time eating either that I can remember, and they were both delicious. I had to look up how to cook the artichokes since I didn't know how. It's simple, just cut off the stems, stand them up in a pot (I had to wedge them in tightly together otherwise they'd float on their side), cover 2/3 with water and boil for 20-30 minutes. When they're done remove them and turn them upside down to drain. Melt some butter and add garlic salt and/or herbs, and eat them by taking the leaves off one at a time, dipping in butter and scraping the soft inside off with your teeth. They're soo yummy! I overdosed on too-salty garlic butter last night though lol, I'm going to try dipping them in herb garlic bechamel sauce next time :P

After dinner I slumped on the couch in a food coma for 10 minutes until Mat pointed out that it was already 9:30. I wanted to try to be in bed by 10 so I dragged myself off the couch to finish hanging the laundry and get a few more things done before bed. I only managed to get to bed by 11:15, but it's better than Sunday night anyways. Hopefully tonight I'll be in bed at 10:30 :P

I took pictures last night but didn't have time to put them up online so hopefully I'll be able to tonight.

I forgot to take my cortisone pumps last night but thank God there seems to be a bit of an improvement, I didn't hack my lungs up before going to bed last night for the first time in a few days, I didn't cough as much this morning, and it's a bit better today too. I'm praying it keeps getting better.