This week's food and a view over Montreal

Here's one of my mom's plants, apparently in Swedish it's called a Christmas Cactus because it blooms in December:







I made roasted cauliflower and mushrooms on Monday, they were delicious:







On Wednesday I made salad and mashed potatoes with caramelized onions and spicy mesquite seasoning, delicious as well:



And yesterday I made the scallops on lamb's lettuce, which turned out really yummy:



I'm not sure I had as many scallops as the recipe said so there was too much oil for the amount of scallops, and when I put them all in the pan with the oil and butter they started losing their liquid and simmering instead of frying. To get them to brown I had to pour them all back into the plate, juice and all, then turn the heat up on high and put them back in without the juice a few at a time to sear them. I also used too little salad for the amount of dressing the recipe made, and the wrong kind of vinegar, so I'll try it again later today.



I went to 3 grocery stores looking for aged wine vinegar and walnut oil, but all they had was vine vinegar or aged balsamic vinegar so I went with the aged balsamic. It was ok, but I'm gonna go back and buy some red wine vinegar so I can retry the recipe with that and make some basic vinaigrette too. The salad had an aftertaste of raw bread dough, which I liked. I'm guessing it was from the walnut oil.

On Monday we had the second snowfall of the winter in Montreal, I was ecstatic to wake up and see white falling from the sky, winter was finally starting, and I could finally wear my new boots! Here's the view from my livingroom window:



Here's the view from where I now sit at work, taken on Monday:



I switched places with a coworker who was beside the windows, now I can look outside all day :D I also discovered that the extra daylight I'm getting helps for my afternoon tiredness. I didn't get sleepy in the afternoon once all week! Thank you God! For a year or more I had been thinking I wasn't getting enough sleep, or maybe I had sleep apnea or some other disorder, but it was simply a lack of daylight.

By noon the snow had already melted:



I can't wait till we get snow that stays!

Here's a view of downtown, at the end of the day a lone ray of sunshine lit up the buildings downtown for a moment:



Tuesday:



Wednesday:



Thursday:



Friday morning:



Friday afternoon:



I'm very much enjoying being beside the windows so I can take pictures of the view all the time!

I'm starting to seriously think about moving back to the country sometime in the next few years. I'm tired of being in the city. The snow being one reason, it never stays white. I look forward to every snowfall in Montreal with eager anticipation to have all the grime covered up!

For breakfast I had minute oats with cold vanilla soymilk, sugar, and cinnamon. That's a childhood favourite. Later today I'll finish off the last two scallops along with some salad with the two other vinaigrettes, and maybe roast the squash I brought.