Kyrie Eleison

Non-person humans and non-human persons

2012-01-19T15:26:00.002-05:00

People go read this.

Hiding Place

2011-12-30T09:22:00.001-05:00

Here's another pic my sister took with her film camera that really made me look twice lol.

in hiding. by ~FriendlyArt120 on deviantART

Deep-fried bacon, egg and cheese sushi

2011-12-29T17:14:00.001-05:00

You can guess who inspired this :P I woke up on Christmas morning and lay there in bed thinking about random things and then started thinking about what to make for breakfast, and I wanted to make a conglomeration of everything I love breakfast-wise and deep-fry it. So here it is:

Start with two bacon weaves. You make these by weaving the bacon, putting them on cookie sheets, and baking them at 350 for 10 minutes, drain, flip, cook another 10 minutes, take out of oven and let cool for a few minutes and then trim off the burned edges.

Make a large flat omelette on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper, consisting of 12 eggs or so, depending on the size of your cookie sheet. I made a mistake and cut them a bit more narrow than the bacon on the sides and ended up having to trim the bacon to make the ends of each roll even. So make the omelette squares the same width, but a bit shorter on the length cause when you roll it it'll stick out otherwise. My omelette was a bit too thick for my taste, and a tiny bit overcooked so I'll make it thinner and watch it better next time.

Cut nice big slabs of cheddar and put them in the middle:

Roll it up tight and tape it all around so it doesn't come apart:

Slice into roughly 1" pieces and set them out on a cookie sheet with more parchment paper and then put in the freezer for an hour or more to freeze them completely solid so they don't unroll when you remove the paper to fry them:

Take silly pictures of amusing random household objects while you're waiting for them to freeze:

Preheat your deep-fryer. Then make some beer batter. Once the batter is made, take them out of the freezer a few at a time so the rest don't defrost while you're frying the first batch. Remove the tape and parchment wrapping, coat it in batter and fry till golden. I made a cheese sauce to go with it by making some bechamel and adding some Imperial cheese (use something cheaper if you want, we just happened to have some in the fridge for Christmas) and pepper to it.

Ooey-gooey crispy goodness!

The cheese sauce was a bit...I dunno it didn't go that well with it so I put some mild salsa in and then it was delicious!

Here's a chocolate-covered pretzel that I wrapped in pastry dough and fried, it was so good!

Pictures Dec 23 - Dec 29 2011

2011-12-29T15:54:00.000-05:00

I had last Friday off and went shopping for some last-minute Christmas presents. Here's what I was greeted with when I walked out the door, finally!:

In the evening we went to Three Amigos for Carlo's supervisor and friend Phil's birthday with a few other people:

On Christmas Eve Carlo's mom drove me to my parents place and had lunch with us. Here's my mom:

Here's Carlo's mom with my parents:

My sister in front of my parents house:

I brought the dog for a walk after lunch and took some pictures of two of the three buildings (the third is just a bungalow across the street used as a hall for meals) of the Orthodox church down the street from my parents place. Here's the "winter church", which is also a skete which was built first, it's the only one of the two that's insulated:

And here's the "summer church", seen across the cemetery:

In the evening my sister's boyfriend came over and brought homemade gnocchi and I made some tomato sauce to go with it:

I took a nap on the couch with the dog afterwards:

On Christmas morning it was snowing again, here's the view out my bedroom window at my parents place:

And that's the last of the pictures I took while I was at my parents place except for the ones involving a special recipe I made, which will be put in a separate post.

My dad drove me back to Montreal on Monday evening, and stayed to have dinner of adobo and potato salad at Carlo's grandfather's house with us and watch us open some presents, my sister came with too. Here's Carlo with this:

Carlo's grandfather:

Carlo's mom:

My sister:

And guess who:

I got Carlo's mom some flowering tea and a glass teapot, it's so pretty!

Here's some pretty chocolates I got. I love blueberries!

Then yesterday I went to my friend Stephan's house for a Naruto Shippuden marathon. Here we are toasting some good cognac in the chocolate shot glasses my sister gave Steph for Christmas:

We watched a good 25 episodes or so. I brought some of the tourtiere and pasta sauce from my parents place and he had some good venison steak and filet mignon of caribou as well, it was amazing!

Today I worked, and I'm working tomorrow and Friday as well. I've started defrosting my turkey to make the turkey-stuffed-turkey for the NYE dinner party at Steph's and I'll be able to use my new meat grinder for that too :D I can't wait to start making it! We tried making it two years ago at my parents house but lack of proper planning, preparation, organization, proper tools and listening skills made it completely inedible lol. It took us 3 days to make it in between all the other activities, when we tried to grind the leg meat it took forever cause we weren't using the right blade and the grinder just plain sucked (which was why I wanted a new one this year!). Then my dad over-brined the meat and it became inedibly salty and we ended up having to use it chopped up in cubes in (delicious!) soup. I might have to make that soup again with leftovers from my mom's NYE butterball.

Dunkin Donuts

2011-12-29T09:37:00.000-05:00

This is the first picture that my sister took with the new (old) film camera she bought a while back. It's just the kitchen table at my parents place with my dad in the background but I love it :)

Dunkin' Donuts. by ~FriendlyArt120 on deviantART

A white Christmas finally!

2011-12-26T00:28:00.001-05:00

Christ is Born! Glorify Him!

So we had a white Christmas finally! Here's the little church/skete down the street from where my parents live:

More pics tomorrow when I'm rested.

A green Christmas?

2011-12-22T15:50:00.000-05:00

If it keeps being like this I don't think we'll have a white Christmas...

I took this out the window I sit in front of at my job. Today is my last day, I have tomorrow off and I'm gonna finish up my shopping and go eat somewhere with Carlo since he has the day off today and tomorrow. On the 24th Carlo's mom is gonna drive me to my parents place and have lunch there, Carlo can't come though cause he's working 4-midnight both the 24th and 25th since he's only been at that job a few months now. I don't have anything planned while I'm at my parents place except exchange presents, stuff my face, sleep in and bum around in my pj's :) Oh and take pictures and upload them.

I'll come back on Monday since I have Monday and Tuesday off, nothing planned Monday and Tuesday either. We have Monday the 2nd of January off too, and there's a NYE dinner and party planned at my friend Stephan's place. He's planning to cook a wild boar roast that his dad hunted himself, and I'm gonna make some turkey-stuffed-turkey, since my mom won't let me touch her freezer-to-oven Christmas Butterball (shudder). This year though I'm gonna eat early, around 6-ish, and let myself digest properly BEFORE starting to drink, last time there was a big meal/drinking evening last spring for our sugaring off/sugar shack meal I made the mistake of eating and drinking too much at the same time with bad results :P

And seeing as I'll have to return to Rawdon on the 7th of Jan. since there's no Christmas liturgy there on the 25th I'll get to make yet another holiday meal! Today I found on Serious Eats an incredible over-the-top recipe for... *takes a deep breath*... deep-fried sous-vide 36-hour all-belly porchetta :D Now I've never even made porchetta OR done sous-vide cooking before so this is definitely jumping in at the deep end, but I think it's a good place to start nonetheless, I like a cooking challenge and I can kill 2 birds with one stone :D And IT'S GONNA BE AWESOME!!!!!! :D:D:D:D I'll get my family to help take turns watching the temperature while it's in the water bath cause I don't have a Sous-Vide Supreme, I'll have to obtain a large cooler somehow. I CAN'T WAIT! This thing even rivals the Bacon Explosion!

Pictures copyright Serious Eats/Kenji Lopez-Alt

Great post regarding women in the Orthodox Church

2011-12-20T12:29:00.002-05:00

Here it is.

Pictures Dec 16-19 2011

2011-12-19T15:54:00.000-05:00

Here's Teddy my MIL's dog looking cute while he sleeps:

The view from my job last week:

Here's Christelle at the L2 in Chinatown on Saturday night after we went to Carlo's office Christmas party. I took some pictures with his camera at the party, I'll upload them once he puts them on the computer.

Something funny I saw on a wall in Chinatown:

We stopped at a pharmacy on the way home and one of the clerks, a young guy, happened to pass by us carrying this. I said to Carlo "That's one big-ass Toblerone bar!" and the clerk heard us and said "Oh yeahhh!" lol. It's $80 though so I didn't buy it :P It must have weighed 15lbs!

And here are the presents that I wrapped last night. I can't wait to see Carlo open his cause I put all sorts of weird things inside them to confuse him if he tries to pick them up and shake them to guess what they are :P

The tree isn't up yet as Carlo's mom has yet to put the armchair where it will be in storage. I'll take pics if we manage to get it up in time for Christmas :P

Pictures Dec 2 - Dec 15 2011

2011-12-15T17:50:00.001-05:00

Here's my with Carlo's grandpa's meat cleaver, trying unsuccessfully to look evil/insane, my sister took this pic last Saturday when she came over to hang out and help me make Carlo's birthday cake before we went out to dinner:

Here's the resident elderly Maltese named Teddy that lives at my MIL's house where we are currently staying, with a Subway bag on top of him, a.k.a. Subway Dog:

Here's something I came across on my way to work one day, someone had put up a piece of real artwork inside a tunnel that regularly has graffiti (not even nice well done stuff either) sprayed all over it to the extent that they have to re-paint it every 2 months in the summer:

This is outside the tunnel:

And inside:

Here's my dad and Carlo at the Kandas all-you-can-eat sushi in Laval, Carlo's mom brought us there for his birthday (it was on the 10th)

Me & Carlo's mom

My sister and I went to an Asian market and I decided to buy this. I had read about it on the internet, the flavor was good, I enjoyed the texture too, except for the fact that the seeds were too small and slippery to actually crunch between my teeth, which drove me crazy because I'm the type of person that has to chew the tapioca in my bubble tea. I ended up giving it to my sister hehe.

Some funny packaging on a box of cakes:

Here's the bowl of pasta I stuck a candle in for Carlo's birthday, it was in one of the pretty bowls I bought for him at the Asian market:

Here's the birthday meat cake I made for Carlo. Last year I decided to make him a meat cake for his birthday because at the time he was an assistant pastry chef and quite tired of sweet things so I decided to make him a savory cake. I got the idea from This is Why You're Fat, a now defunct website that featured over-the-top food. I decided to make it a tradition and repeat it every year since he liked it last year :)

Last year's was a total fail though, instead of cooking the sausage meat and potatoes separately, I cooked them together and I got a soup of sausage grease and potatoes with two meat discs floating in it, and had to remove the grease and potatoes and serve just the meat covered in cheese. It was too rich, and I screwed up the icing, so I decided to get it right this year. And I did! :D

To make it I took 4 large toulouse and blue cheese & green onion sausages each (maybe a kilo of each?), and cut open the casings to put the meat into separate bowls for each flavor. Then I added a good half a cup if not more of sriracha sauce to each bowl and mixed it in and set them aside. Then I peeled about an equal amount of potatoes and cubed them and boiled them.

While they were boiling I took a large pot, lined it with parchment and pressed the contents of one of the two bowls of meat in the bottom, as flat as possible, and baked it at 350 with the lid off for 20 minutes, or until I judged that it was cooked through and had shrunk away from the sides 1-2 inches.

I poured off the juices into a bowl and set it aside to make gravy with, then put a paper towel or two on top of the meat, and holding the pot over the sink with an oven mitt on the hand catching the meat I gingerly tipped it sideways and removed the disc of meat and set it aside on the cutting board that I would build the cake on. I did the same with the second bowl of sausage meat, changing the parchment paper in between.

When the potatoes were done I drained them and mashed them with a bit of water (we had run out of milk), about 1/2 a cup of butter, a few tablespoons of powdered fat-free chicken broth and a teaspoon or two of ground white pepper.

I layered an approximately equal thickness of potatoes on top of the meat and spread it out as uniformly as possible, then did the same with the second layer of meat and potatoes. For the cheese "icing" I used a mix of room-temperature cream cheese and Imperial cheese, it has a very soft spreadable texture that's a cross between very old crumbly aged cheddar and cream cheese. I used 2 packages of each, and had 1 package of cream cheese left over for the trim. To that I added several tablespoons of tuong ot toi (rooster sauce) until I thought it would be spicy enough for Carlo's liking. I gobbed it on roughly and then used a large chef's knife heated under running hot water to smooth it out. Then I added the cream cheese trim and candles.

We also went to another all-you-can-eat sushi place, Sushi Crescent for Carlo's birthday dinner. Here's Kristina and Stephan:

Stephan and my sister:

Christelle, me & Carlo

One Saturday morning Carlo's mom decided that she wanted to straighten my hair:

I did some mini-home improvement, I changed the light bulbs in the lamps over the kitchen table (they were long ones that stuck out the bottom of the shade & looked ugly) and the tablecloth too, although this one is a very thin one I got at the dollar store just temporarily till we get a good one:

I covered this patch of counter with some adhesive plastic shelf covering stuff, it was originally painted white and the paint had been all scratched off in places and it looked horrible:

Dinner Dec 12 2011, instant ramen with dried shiitake mushroom and roasted eel

2011-12-13T19:32:00.001-05:00

Lunch Dec. 10 2011: Avocado salad and toast

2011-12-13T15:53:00.000-05:00

Toast not pictured. This is a nicer picture of this salad than the last one, I took this before mixing it together, and the avocados weren't as ripe and mushy either. The recipe is here.

Moving again

2011-12-02T13:29:00.001-05:00

Oh look, I have a blog! Amid the craziness of moving my blogging and a lot of other stuff has been pushed aside for a while.

We're currently living with Carlo's grandfather and mom while we wait for his uncle to move his stuff here too so we can take his place downtown. We were supposed to move straight there last weekend, but he wasn't ready so we put our stuff in storage and went to my MIL's instead. Our kitties are staying with our friends Braeden and Christina, and they're getting along fine with their 3 cats thankfully. We had to ask them to take the cats while we're here cause his grandfather doesn't want cats in the house.

We're still getting used to living in a house with several broken things that nobody wants to fix and remembering to close all the doors so the old senile dog doesn't do his business where he isn't supposed to. There's lots of good restaurants nearby though and we get along well with the family, his mom is a very kind sweet person. His uncle says he'll be ready to move on the 3rd or the 10th of January.

I'm looking forward to moving downtown, I've never lived there before and it'll be a bit closer to my job. The neighborhood we're moving to is called Chinatown 2 for the higher-than-average proportion of Asian grocery stores and restaurants, and I love Asian food :D We'll be on the 22nd floor and from what I hear it's a nice sunny apartment, if slightly smaller than our old place.

The rent is cheaper than apartments of the same size in that area because it's been in the family for years (Carlo used to live there when he was a kid) and there's laws against raising the rent too much if the lease stays under the same name apparently. It'll only cost a bit more than where we were living before because the electricity is included in the rent and we won't need to pay for public transport in the summer when we can bike to work. I think it might be about a 20-30 min. bike ride to get to my job and maybe 10 minutes for Carlo.

In the meantime we're slowly shuffling stuff around, this weekend my MIL is renting a truck and moving some of her furniture into her storage so that Carlo's uncle can start moving his stuff into the living room and den at her/our place. We're gonna rent a truck again next weekend for him to do so. It's been somewhat complicated organizing all this but it seems like it's getting done. I'm not looking forward to hauling all our stuff out and into a new place again in a month or two but hey, at least we have a roof over our heads, and we're saving on rent :)

Tomorrow I'm going Christmas shopping with my friend Stephan, Sunday after church I might go visit the kitties at Braeden's place, or just stay home and relax. They live a good 45 minutes away by public transport from our place so it would have to be an afternoon trip if I want to spend some time there with them.

I'm glad they were able to take them, I really wanted to find someone we knew to keep them for us because once when I was a kid we asked strangers to take care of our cats for a few weeks while we switched apartments, they assured us they loved cats and would take good care of them, but ended up dumping them in the street. So no more dumping of kitties! And here are the kitties in question:

Lunch Dec.02, 2011

2011-12-02T13:15:00.001-05:00

Here's some delicious avocado salad my MIL made yesterday, and my favourite tomato pizza from Dolce Piu. The salad is really easy to make, just cut an avocado in half, take the pit out, slice into wedges and then cut the flesh out of the skin and roughly chop into 1-in cubes. Put in a bowl with 1 chopped tomato, half a diced onion, some salt, the juice from a quarter of a lemon, and a glug of olive oil. Mix it together and serve.

Noodles and stuffing, and again a curious kitten

2011-11-18T22:15:00.001-05:00

Here's tonight's dinner, with my sister and my kitten Oliver Twit. Oliver: "I can has cheeznoodles?" My sister: "Gah! Don't jump on my lap!"

Dinner Nov.17th 2011: Stovetop brand instant stuffing, a persimmon and a curious kitten

2011-11-17T21:09:00.001-05:00

I figured I'd re-download the Blogger app and try posting something consistently, and an easy thing to blog about daily is dinner. So here you go:

P.S. Please forgive the crappy cell-phone pic that seems to have been compressed and rendered even worse by the blogger app.

Orthowe'en

2011-10-19T17:25:00.002-04:00

Thanks to Orthogeeks I found a post about a cool approach to Halloween for Orthodox :D

Christians in the Workplace

2011-10-18T13:03:00.002-04:00

Here's a few great articles I just read :D Another something strangely (or not so much) appropriate to help with my situation, I really liked these :)

A quote on failure and stubbornness

2011-10-13T10:49:00.002-04:00

"However, God does not wish to crush us, to break us beyond all recognition. He is, after all, a kind God.
Embrace the failings that come naturally as we are humbled before ourselves and others. Flee from pride and stubbornness. Beware of being “right.” Give thanks for all things, in all circumstances, and always. God will make Himself known."

I needed this today, I seem to be losing sleep, patience, control over things lately. Here's the rest.

Tonkotsu ramen and Oliver Twit

2011-09-17T22:18:00.002-04:00

We ended up naming our new kitten Oliver Twit. He's an orphan and an annoying twit. But very cute and cuddly :)

Here's the tonkotsu ramen that I've been meaning to make for 6 months or so now. It took me ALL DAY but it was good :) I won't make it again though cause it was too much work, I'll just make a much simpler broth and add homemade noodles & chashu. The chashu was amazing!

Hamburgers, parties, and a kitten :)

2011-09-10T16:45:00.000-04:00

My dad and I went to Burger de Ville on Wesminster a few weeks ago. I had been meaning to go there for a while after hearing good things about it from several people.

My medium bacon cheese burger, delicious:

The "spicy" fries, also delicious:

My dad's medium St. Paulin burger, also delicious:

Here we are at l'Auberge du Dragon Rouge, a medieval restaurant, last weekend for my sister Emily's birthday:

Us with the waitress, Delphine. She's awesome! :P

The day before that I had a bbq/party at my place. Here's Tiffany in a dress that Carlo's mom gave her (I told her to strike a sexy pose) since it was too small for me. We managed to zip it up but 20 minutes later she came to me saying "I breathed too much"; the zipper had split open and we couldn't get it to open or close any more so I had to tear it open :( She was very sad. I gave her some consolation icecream.

Here almost all of us are piled onto the couch, with Stephan smoking shisha (I put Tiffany's hair in ponytails):

Here's the pictures from Carlo's grandfather's birthday party the day before (Friday). Here I am about to try some of his uncle's failed dessert. Apparently it got smoked from the lechon grease. Greasy smoke doesn't give a good flavor to desserts.

Here's the whole gang, minus me & Lisa. My dad, mom, his uncle, grandfather, Olga (friend of the family), Veronica (other uncle's girlfriend), and his other uncle with the dog.

A few weeks ago a friend of ours visited from Korea where's she's teaching English and she brought Steph a Korean outfit, so I took a pic of him and his Xangetsu sword:

To give you a better idea of how big it is here I am with it. Yes it's sharpened:

Meeting of Styles put Epic Mealtime up on the wall beside my job this year!!! Epic!!! lollll :D

And here are more pictures of our new kitten which we finally brought home last weekend. Here's my sister and the kitten:

Carlo sleeping and the kitten:

REAL vegan mayo!

2011-09-02T11:09:00.002-04:00

I've tried buying vegan mayo before, I don't remember what was on the ingredient list but I can bet it would be longer and more strange than potatoes, garlic, salt and oil. I have to try this sometime! I love mayo...

Chances of survival...

2011-09-01T17:40:00.001-04:00

I just read the first paragraph of this post and it made me laugh and think to myself that God really does want to heal us as much as possible before we leave this earth so as to have the best chances of getting into heaven...

That blog is great. Go read it.

Bored and sleepy at work on a Friday afternoon looking forward to tomorrow

2011-08-26T17:55:00.000-04:00

I've been looking at the list of Blogs of Note, between bouts of pretending to sound professional and caring on the phone, and got bored of that and decided to finally blog myself a bit. I would have done it from my phone to include a picture but I'm too close to my data limit of 1G for this billing period (yes Canadian phone plans suck compared to Americans, I'm told they have UNLIMITED internet on their phone plans!) and have to wait it ends on the 6th of Sept. for it to reset.

I came across a non-functional link to a blog called Picture a Day or something, which sounds like a cool idea to me right now and I'd start doing it, but probably won't cause I can't be bothered to take the time to do it the old-fashioned way (i.e. not by phone) and by the time the next billing period begins I will have probably forgotten by then.

Ok so let's see what has happened and will be happening lately in my life...

I watched the newest video by Epic Mealtime (which I can't link to since YouTube is blocked at work so look it up yourself), and didn't like it much except for the fact that they used my FAVORITE SANDWICHES to make SAUSAGES with! I used to work there when I was going to cegep at Abbott and have loved the stuff ever since. So I decided that I had to get myself food grinder and sausage stuffing attachments for the ancient KitchenAid that me & Carlo inherited from his Italian grandmother so that I can do that too! So I posted on Facebook saying I wanted that for my birthday.

Last year I asked for and got a pasta machine which I had also asked for, and is currently not being used enough. Hmmm maybe I should resolve to use all my unused kitchen appliances (rice cooker, slow cooker and pasta maker) at least once a month and then post about it... Lollll yeah right. Like THAT'S gonna happen... It would be cool but I know I'll never get around to doing it for all the other shiny things that distract me, and even if I put a reminder on my phone to do it or something I'll just turn off the alarm and put it off cause I can't do it right away, or don't feel like it at that moment, or something.

I have a serious lack of self-discipline when it comes to personal cooking projects. My cooking style is more of "do-what-I-feel-like-doing-at-the-moment-and-don't-try-to-plan-ahead-cause-I'll-fail-to-do-so". Example: my solemn vowing to make tonkotsu ramen upon discovering what it was and buying all the ingredients except the kansui and then when I finally found the kansui a few months later I had eaten half of the ingredients already and couldn't be arsed to get more any time soon.

Well, that turned into a ramble...

Yesterday I got a call from my friend Kris who I hadn't spoken to in over 6 months. He said he's moving back to Montreal with his girlfriend Bailey and that life is good and asked if we could shelter them while they looked for an apartment at the end of September since they're arriving from out west. We told them no problem, we'll be happy to, they can even inherit our apartment when we move out at the end of November if they can't find anything till then if they want, although I doubt that they won't be able to find anything.

I was really happy to hear from him since last time we spoke he was all depressed, drinking and taking drugs, going crazy and in a bad relationship etc, but now all is good :) He asked me to make friends with Bailey cause he feels bad that he's taking her away from all her friends and family in Alberta. I told him I'd be more than happy to, and last night I couldn't sleep for the excitement of thinking up plans of all the things I want to show her around Montreal when we have time :) Stuff that even I haven't done yet, like go on the Saute-Moutons, to the top of the Olympic Stadium tower, and the Biodome. I know, and I call myself a Montrealer? :P He says she's a "vegan hippy artist chef" chick, I bet she'll love going to the tams :P

Tonight my sister is coming over for the weekend and we're going to Carlo's mom's place to help them move her stuff out of Carlo's old room so his uncle Reno can move his stuff into it so we can eventually move our stuff into his place downtown in November lol.

On top of that tomorrow I'm having a bbq at my place with about 10 people, I can't wait! I'm gonna make burgers, corn on the cob and crispy baked potato wedges. I can't wait! I hope it goes well :) I'll try to remember to take some pictures :)

Then on Labor Day weekend we have the usual double birthday bash for my sister and my friend Steph, their birthdays being the 5th and 6th of Sept. So far we're planning on going to LaRonde on Saturday and l'Auberge du Dragon Rouge on Sunday. Search for Epic to find last year's posts about it.

Almost time to get off work, yay!

Best Study Ever

2011-08-19T09:32:00.000-04:00

Apparently wasting time online boosts worker productivity. Gonna have to show this to my boss...

Matsuri Japon

2011-08-18T11:55:00.001-04:00

I have to go to this next year! And in the meantime make some of those dishes...

Sushi Palace and an awesome zombie-mario-themed tattoo

2011-08-15T01:53:00.006-04:00

We went to the restaurant that opened up where the Hotpot used to be. It was delicious, clean, beautiful and had decent service. $23 for all-you-can-eat sushi for dinner on weekends. Clicky to see full size!

Inside with a view towards the bar:

At the top of the stairs in the entrance:

With a view of the sushi bar at the back:

The front entrance:

Inside, with a view towards the front:

At the top of the stairs in the entrance there was a waterfall:

Now I just have to convince Richard and Elias that it isn't too fancy for them to at least try ONCE...

Sonia's friend Greg had a really cool zombie-mario themed tattoo on his leg that he drew himself:

Tiffany's birthday party and a cosplayer

2011-08-14T15:12:00.001-04:00

Here's Dalia and Tiffany with the french braids I made them:

Dalia and I:

Dalia and a stray kitten Tiffany found:

Tiffany, Dalia and I:

Here's a cosplayer I met at the bus stop in front of my house on her way to Otakuthon:

I had lots of fun at the party. Tiffany had made beef & pork burgers, pasta salad and cake, and I brought 2 dozen cobs of corn which we boiled and grilled. The food was delicious! And I also brought her a bottle of cherry brandy and some baileys, which I used to make her bloody brain birthday shots since she and her sister like zombies. It was the first time I made them, and I didn't use a recipe, but I knew adding lemon juice to the baileys would curdle it, so I filled the shot glasses half full of baileys and added a few squirts of lemon juice and poked and stirred it with the handle of a teaspoon till it was all curdled, then added the cherry brandy on top, and stuck a candle in it. They both really liked the idea, especially the little zombie candles :) And a few people managed to choke them down, me included :P Next time I'll use this recipe though, they're much prettier!

We ate and had the shots and then sat around the fire talking and drinking for a while. My friend Dalia who I hadn't seen in forever showed up later, it was nice to see her :) Me & Carlo left at around midnight.

We didn't go to the tams today cause almost everyone is gone to Biccoline this weekend. This evening we're gonna go to the L2 in Chinatown, a favourite bubble tea place of ours. I can't wait!

Random pictures and Tony's birthday party

2011-08-13T16:53:00.001-04:00

Here's are some pics I took on our way back from Chinatown last Monday:

This I took on my way back from the Ikea where I bought some Swedish food to bring to my mom since she's from Sweden:

Among other things I bought crayfish and me and my mom devoured them, they were so delicious. This is what I did with the tails after:

Someone at the larping area at the tams last weekend:

Here's my cat Licorice being cute:

And some pictures of Carlo's uncle Tony's 50th birthday party. Here's Carlo's grandfather, a friend of the family named Olga, and Tony:

His grandfather, Olga, me, Teddy and Carlo:

My dad, Carlo's mom, my mom:

My dad, me, Carlo, Carlo's mom, my mom:

My mom and Teddy:

The food was great, there was random store-bought appetizers, lumpia, menudo, lechon kawali, roasted chicken, salad, rice, tiramisu made by Carlo, maha blanca and cantaloupe.

Feast of St-Seraphim

2011-08-13T16:25:00.000-04:00

I went to the feast of St-Seraphim on July. 30th in Rawdon where my parents live and I was baptized. There was also a deacon being ordained:

Trip to Rawdon July 3, 2011

2011-08-13T16:11:00.000-04:00

Here are the pictures from the trip to Rawdon I took with Carlo to visit my parents during my vacation.

We went to the beach:

And to visit the buffalo farm:

And had a campfire and stayed up till 6am watching the embers die out:

And visited the Dorwin Falls:

Link to a post on conversion, and my weekend

2011-08-01T12:57:00.000-04:00

Something good I found today on Steve's blog.

I went to visit my parents this past weekend since it was the feast of St. Seraphim, the church where I was baptized. There were a lot of people on Saturday, over 150. I had never seen so many people there, especially as the church building itself is so tiny. Someone mentioned that it had been done at the multiethnic center in the past, but I seem to remember attending that feast at the church a few years ago, but it's possible that I remember wrong. I took some pictures but have yet to take the time to upload them.

Bishop Irenee was there, the food was really good, I helped serve, and went home at around 3 or so. My parents live right down the street from the church so it's really convenient. On Sat. evening I made homemade mustard with my mom. She tried making it in the food processor which failed completely as the seeds were too small and hard, so she dumped her batch out lol. I made mine in a mortar and pestle, it took an hour or two but I got it done!

Yesterday I didn't do much, I made some banana muffins in the morning and in the afternoon me & my sister went to the beach to go pedalboating but there were no boats left so we walked home. My dad drove me back at 5, we picked Carlo and Christelle from the tams and headed home. My dad stayed and watched an episode of Mythbusters with us and then left.

I had a really nice weekend, it was nice to be in the country and see my family. I'll try to make the time to post all my pictures this weekend, I've been meaning to do it forever but never take the time to do it, I usually end up trying another few new recipes and doing stuff with friends.

Ponderations on conscience

2011-07-25T15:32:00.000-04:00

Here's an amazing blog post I just read about conscience, sociopathy and our society. What she says about having a sense of community reminds me of how Orthodoxy stresses the importance of community and how we are always connected to others whether we see it or not.

Duckling feeds koi

2011-07-21T09:55:00.001-04:00

VACATION!

2011-06-23T17:54:00.001-04:00

Finally, I'm only 4 minutes away from my 2-week vacation! And oh boy am I ever ready for it... Canada Post went on strike two weeks ago, and work has been busy as hell since then, being a courier company and all. We're refusing service to anyone who hasn't shipped with us before cause we're insanely overloaded.

Add to that a cold I got at the same time as the postal workers going on strike that caused my chronic cough to go into overdrive that not even my cortisone pump, nasal cortisone spray and antihistamines could take care of. And the fact that talking CONSTANTLY makes my cough X times worse as well, as in "Is she DYING over there or something!??!" And my cough preventing me from getting to sleep (thankfully that only happened 2 nights this week).

So finally, FINALLY! I got some antibiotics on Tuesday morning after coughing my lungs up for the past week and a half, and they have started to take effect today, just in time for my vacation! [/sarcasm][/whinerant] All this to explain how freaking ready I am for an effing VACATION!!!!!! [/yelling]

So.

I have planned:

Go visit my parents with Carlo, don't know when yet, and enjoy all that there is to do in beautiful Rawdon in the summer

Cook my ass off from the list of recipes I've been meaning to make FOREVER

and put my apartment in order.

And relax/have fun of course!

Pics by my sister week of June 13th

2011-06-17T10:16:00.000-04:00

a summer haze. by *FriendlyArt120 on deviant ART

our gentle ending. by *FriendlyArt120 on deviant ART

butterfly, fly away... by *FriendlyArt120 on deviant ART

The gamers

2011-06-12T20:23:00.004-04:00

Steph working on d&d and Carlo playing Dragon Age: Origins at Steph's place just now.

And here's Christelle with about two weeks worth of lunches that she just made:

She made what she calls "smush", a mix of chicken, rice, kimchi, fried mushrooms, soy sauce, cheese, hot sauce and chipotle pepper. It's spicy, but reeeally yummy!

Phone pics week of June 6th

2011-06-12T20:16:00.002-04:00

So it turns out that using photos is not conducive to phone blogging. You can upload the pics easily, but have no way of moving them around or putting text between them in the Blogger app, so you have to use your phone browser and then can edit in the "edit HTML" mode only, but you can't see the pics so you have to open another browser window to see what to write above what pics and have to keep switching back and forth between browser windows and it's a lot of hassle. So I uploaded the pics from my phone and now I'm editing on my computer. Sigh. I can't wait till they update it so I don't have to do this. I've submitted my feedback on the form thingy they link to in the Blogger Buzz post about it. Oh, and I just realized, the pics I upload via the Blogger Droid app can't be clicked on to view them larger. Argh!

Here's Licorice being cute as usual:

Some flowers I saw on my way back from the gym one afternoon

Here's my friend Tiffany, she came over last weekend after we went to a yummy Greek restaurant. She came over yesterday as well for some bbq with me, Steph and Carlo:

Here's me, Carlo, Licoric and Tiffany:

My livingroom just now, Carlo's computer is at Steph's at the moment though:

Licorice being affectionate:

Here are the kebabs I made last night. They didn't turn out great cause the boxed mix I used said to let it sit once mixing with the meat for 3 hours, and I let it sit for 4 1/2, so the meat tenderizer turned the meat to mush, and they were falling off the skewers. They were too spicy for my taste, too onion-y for Steph's, and too mushy for either of our tastes, so Carlo is gonna throw them into some pasta sauce:

Some delicious burgers I made last weekend for Steph, Christelle, Carlo and I:

Carlo's uncle's dog Teddy in the back of his mom's car, she was driving us back from her place after we went there to pull up a small tree stump and plant her hydrangea last weekend:

Some peonies I saw on the way back from the gym, they smelled soooo good!!:

Some eggplant, portobello mushroom and shrimp I grilled, this time I didn't fail on the shrimp and they turned out great. I mixed them with oil, garlic salt & pepper beforehand instead of just slathering on some bbq sauce:

Some delicious grilled eggplant and chicken ballotine I made:

I've been sick all weekend and I can't wait for this stupid cold to go away. Yesterday I grilled more burgers and some chicken, the chicken I wasn't satisfied with though. I tried doing like I had seen at the cafeteria I worked at where they cooked the chicken in the oven for a while before finishing it on the grill, but the chicken wasn't smoky enough for my taste. When I've tried cooking it only on the grill in the past they burn too quickly since I don't have a way to make a two-zone indirect fire with my gas grill at the moment, and forget wrapping them in tin foil, the skin sticks to the foil and comes off. I'll have to try something else to get smoky, perfectly grilled chicken.

We didn't go to tams today, it was cold and rainy and I stayed in bed a lot. Next weekend my sister is coming over, and us and a bunch of friends are gonna go back to the Pho 88 on Sunday, and the weekend after that I start my two weeks of vacation! :D I don't have anything planned yet aside from visiting my parents with Carlo and doing lots of grilling!

Kitty gets a foot rub

2011-06-10T22:49:00.001-04:00

Mother Nature FTW! 2

2011-06-09T17:30:00.002-04:00

see more Hacked IRL - Truth in Sarcasm

First phone post

2011-06-09T12:49:00.001-04:00

Yay! It works :) Here's a pretty picture of downtown Montreal seen from my job.

Blogger app

2011-06-09T12:42:00.000-04:00

Ok a while back blogger announced they were coming out with a blogger app, I downloaded it but hadn't been able to get it to work since then. Apparently I downloaded the wrong app, I got the one by Anders Hedstrom, I should have gotten the one by Google. Or maybe the one by Google wasn't even available back then? I seem to remember the one I got being the only one on the app market... anyways. Phone blogging here I come!

I wanna go catfish noodling!

2011-06-07T15:17:00.000-04:00

The Perennial Plate Episode 56: Mississippi Hand Grabbin' from Daniel Klein on Vimeo.

2011-06-07T13:46:00.001-04:00

Ummm, so I'm bored at work. It's only 11:49.... I dunno what I'm gonna do between calls the rest of the day, I've checked all my usual websites... The posts I haven't posted need pictures that are on my computer at home...

It's supposed to be 27 (80 farenheit) degrees today, I made sure to bring a tank top to change into after work on my way to the gym. The a/c is on in the building where I work and I have bad blood circulation so I have a thick fuzzy blanket wrapped around my waist/legs and thin cotton hoodie and a thick sweater on top of my t-shirt.

I've been bbq'ing (grilling for those in the US) a lot lately, on Sat. night I got everything ready but then realized my gas tank was empty and there was no more to be had anywhere at that time of night so Sunday morning I woke up with one thought on my mind: BBQ! I texted Steph and Christelle: "You two! Bbq! My place! 1pm SHARP! Be hungry! Be very hungry!" So I went and got some more gas and then bbq'ed up a storm for them and Carlo.

This time I didn't make the mistake of closing the lid for too long, not watching the burgers closely enough and letting some of them burn black on one side like I did last Monday. Oh, and the wood chips I used gave them great smoky flavor, it was soooo good! I also mixed in a lot of Spicy Mesquite seasoning mix (which is not spicy but I like it that way) and some of Steph's Dante's Inferno Smoky Chipotle Grilling Sauce, which I can't find a picture of on the internet but I might take one myself sometime if I think of it.They turned out really delicious, and I can't wait to make more. Our fridge is overflowing with leftovers at the moment though so it'll have to wait. Now it's 1:45 and there's lots of calls so more blogging later hopefully.

Mother nature FTW!

2011-06-07T10:56:00.001-04:00

see more Hacked IRL - Truth in Sarcasm

Phone pics May 21-Today

2011-06-06T17:53:00.000-04:00

It quieted down enough at work finally so that I had time to blog a bit. It's been crazy busy this week since Canada Post has gone on strike, we're refusing service to anyone who hasn't used us before to maintain the level of service for our current clients.

May 21st: Here's a nice bottle of port that my friend Steph bought and shared with us, it was soo good!:

Later in the evening I arrived home to Carlo's feat of epic dish stacking. The wok and spaghetti pot practically live in the dishrack, Carlo uses them so often cause he's always cooking pasta (he's half-italian) or noodles (he's also half-philippino):

23rd of May: This was a pic taken after an evening of drinking, gaming and watching movies with Sunny, Steph, Christelle, my sister and Carlo. I couldn't participate much in the drinking unfortunately due to a mild case of food poisoning that luckily passed quickly. The guys were playing Borderlands as usual, and us girls were watching Tangled (not my choice). I generally dislike Disney movies because of all the singing (give me a Pixar any day!), and after the first song I asked Cri if there were more and she replied only one. Two songs later I escaped to the bedroom to avoid the rest of them and take a nap. This pic was just before me and Carlo left, Christelle was trying out her drunken motor skills by high-fiveing Sunny in different ways. This was just before she tried a spinning one and ended up on the giant beanbag:

24th of May: Here is a pic of some really delicious ice cream I bought at the Asian market/depanneur across the street from Steph's place. Unfortunately when I brought it home later I forgot to put it in the freezer so it melted completely, I re-froze it and ate it anyways, it was still delicious :D:

Here's Licorice enjoying the view of our back yard:

Our back yard, mostly gravel and no stairs down from our balcony to access it but pretty nonetheless compared to my old one:

And Licorice enjoying the new bed I made for her from unused bedding in our closet:

May 25th: Here's some broccoli and staff-meal noodles with homemade cheese sauce. Carlo brought the noodles home from the restaurant he works at, they were just rice vermicelli with some shrimp and chicken and weren't that great on their own, but with cheese sauce were delicious (what ISN'T delicious with homemade cheese sauce???):

Here is the air conditioner we spent two hours during the wee hours of the morning setting up cause we knew we wouldn't have time to do it during the coming week. All the stores were closed so we had to kludge together a support for the thing with whatever we found on hand. Carlo took a plank from a small printer desk/cabinet thingy that we rested on the windowsill, and then to keep it from falling outwards we took an old utility belt of Carlo's that dated back to his cadet days and screwed it into the plank, and then into the windowsill. Beautiful aint' it! Lol :

May 27th: Here's me & Carlo being sleepy and silly at 7am before I headed off to work for the day. He works from 6pm-12am and I work 9am-6pm so the only time we really have to spend together during the week is early in the morning. I have yet to perfect the skill of going to bed early enough to be able to wake up an hour before my usual waking-up time though so some sleep is lost, but it's for a good cause! :D:

After work that day I went to the Jean-Talon Market to get some smoked lardons for Steph to make pea soup. Here's the belly of a lobster I saw, I find them really cool, I've never cooked one myself though. I should probably do that this summer:

It was apparently the lobster festival:

Here's my coworker Jenny who I went with:

Here's another pic of the market:

Some pretty graffiti near the entrance:

May 28th: Here's licorice trying to lure me in for some attention with her cutest pose possible, you can't see it well but her paws are tucked into her chest making her even cuter. This is on her favourite perch in the livingroom, a box on top of the air conditioner that is now installed. She'll have to find herself a new perch:

May 29th: Being cute on the dining room table again:

Enjoying the view from the balcony again as I fire up the grill that Carlo's mom gave us for the first time.

Licorice getting a foot rub on her usual spot, the kitchen carpet in front of the stove:

I went to Chinatown to pick up some stuff and noticed that our favourite restaurant, the Hotpot, has closed down. Very sad:

I fired up the grill Carlo's mom gave us for the first time:

Licorice enjoying the view:

Some wood chips I bought at the Canadian tire to try out smoking for the first time:

The grill is ON baby! Blood sausage and 2 kinds of burgers, mmmmMMMMM!!!:

Smokin'!

DELICIOUS!

More delicious!!

And the perfect dessert, an egg tart from Chinatown:

Carlo had to move the cat's perch so we could install the air conditioner. The cat couldn't care less... lol:

She soon found a new spot, an empty ramen box:

A notice I found near my apartment. Very sad :(

It has my name on it! :D

This is the result of me attempting to grill on a windy day and therefore having to keep the lid of the grill closed otherwise the flame would go out, preventing me from checking on my food often enough... I ate it anyways though:

Here's a powdered mix I found at a small store nearby for a delicious middle-eastern dessert, a kind of milky pudding scented with rose water and orange blossom water:

Another missing cat:(

And the view from my job:

Update-that-is-not-an-update

2011-06-03T12:38:00.000-04:00

I just realized I haven't posted anything here in a while. I would post a lot more of the blogger droid app would work but it doesn't, and my attempts at asking for help on the blogger help forums have produced nothing so far, but that was a while back, so maybe I'll try again soon. When I have the option of uploading things online directly from my phone instead of plugging the phone into the computer, uploading the pics to the computer, then uploading them to blogger, I don't bother to take the time to do the second option. But then again maybe the quality of my blog posts would go down if I randomly blogged every single picture I took with my cell phone camera? Well "quality" is relative anyways, I blog whatever I want really, I'm not doing this for money :P

Well now I have to take a nap on my lunch break if I want to survive this afternoon without coffee or nodding off during calls since I got home late last night. I locked myself out on my way to the gym after work and had to hang out at Steph's place till 11pm. Maybe I'll post more tonight.

Cat and dog play with string

2011-06-03T11:41:00.000-04:00

FiveFingers, fusilli & cheese, pig nipples and tamtams

2011-05-24T00:03:00.001-04:00

On Friday I was looking around online for new running shoes to buy and came across the Vibram FiveFingers and after some thought decided to buy them on Saturday. Here's a pic my sister took with my phone while I tried them on in the store:

Here's a pic I took in the grass outside after I bought them:

They're super comfy, although they take some getting used to because you're not used to using all the muscles in your legs and feet when you walk. I had stiff calves this morning cause I went to the tams with them yesterday and danced and ran around all day in them even though you're supposed to start wearing them gradually lol. I don't wanna take them off though cause they're so comfy :P

I've always liked toe socks and these are even better, toe SHOES! I nicknamed them my frog feet when I noticed the resemblance, a few people at the tams yesterday remarked they looked like frog feet too :P That's ok, I love frogs :D They're a bit too long for me, but 37 was the smallest size they had. Hopefully they'll come out with a 36 next time I have to buy a pair. Comments on these from my friends have ranged from "ummm not my style" to "whoa those are awesome!" :P I haven't gotten any comments/questions from strangers yet though. I'm planning on wearing these everywhere, I'm wondering if people at work or at the gym will say anything :P

Carlo and I made some fusilli and cheese this weekend:

500g fusilli
A lot of grated cheddar
~750ml milk?
1 tsp freshly ground white pepper
1 tsp garlic salt
1 tbsp powdered chicken broth
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup flour
1 package of bacon
1 medium onion

Dice the onion and bacon and fry together on med-low heat till golden and starting to crisp while the water for the pasta is heating. Melt the butter in a saucepan and mix with the flour. Add the milk a little at a time, whisking constantly till incorporated. Add the chicken broth, garlic salt and white pepper on med-low heat, whisking often till it's simmering, it should thicken once it has started simmering. If it's too thin, add more flour and simmer a while longer, if too thick add milk. Add the pasta to the water when it starts boiling and cook according to instructions and/or taste, drain and set aside. Drain the bacon fat from the bacon and onions once they're done, and set them aside. Once the sauce has thickened, turn off the heat and add the cheese a handful at a time while whisking it in till it's completely melted and incorporated. Add the bacon and onions and stir till incorporated. Add the pasta and stir till incorporated. Eat!!!

I buy double-smoked bacon at the Charcuterie de Tours at the Atwater market, and they sell it in whole slabs with the skin on so you have to ask them to skin and slice it for you. They give you back the skin in the package to use for soup and stews and things. I took this piece of skin out of a pot of hamburger helper with bacon I was cooking and noticed it had nipples on it lol. My bacon has nipples!! XD

Here's a snail that was crawling across the sidewalk towards the road. I took this pic and then tossed him into someone's yard. I love snails!

Oh, and speaking of slimy things, on Saturday at 4am as me and Carlo were walking home we saw a skunk out hunting worms since it had rained a while before. I tried to take a pic of the skunk but I was too far and I wasn't gonna get any closer!. I did have fun catching some worms myself though, they're surprisingly hard to catch, they keep their tail in the ground and as soon as you touch them the snap back into the ground like an elastic. You have to grab them really quick and yank hard. At first I thought I'd rip them in half when I pulled, but they don't. I collected a handful of nice long ones which I tried to show off to Carlo but he apparently finds them disgusting lol. Oops... XD

Here's the tams this weekend, I didn't take any pics at the larping field though. This was earlier on in the day so there weren't as many people, me and my sister went to dance later at around 4pm and it was packed:

My sister wearing someone's cosplay goggles:

Kitteh demands you open this!

2011-05-12T10:27:00.000-04:00

My cat, Itsi-Bitsi and Pho 88

2011-05-08T21:11:00.001-04:00

Here's my cat Licorice the other day:

Here she's inspecting the grill that Carlo's mom gave us. I'm so happy, it's my first real grill!

Here's the corner decoration at Itsi-Bitsi, it was closed when I went though:

The storefront:

Here's a great Vietnamese restaurant I went to last week with Carlo:

I had the specialty pho bowl, with 3 kinds of beef and chicken, it was soooo amazingly good, I can't wait to go back there and try the rest of their stuff! And the bowl was huge, I had enough leftovers for lunch and dinner the next day, for only $7. It was so flavorful, I didn't need to put any of the sauces in, the basil, bean sprouts and lime were plenty enough:

Carlo's Ramen/Spicy Ramen Carbonara

2011-05-08T19:06:00.006-04:00

350g double-smoked bacon (or any old bacon), chopped
3 tbsp. tuong ot toi
2 cups milk
6 packages of instant ramen
2 tsp garlic powder
3 tbsp chopped chinese fermented black beans (optional)
~3 cups grated cheddar

Heat a large pot of water. Fry the bacon on med-low heat with 1 packet of ramen flavoring and the tuong ot toi.

When the bacon starts to get brown and crispy add the milk and 2-3 more packets of ramen flavoring and let it simmer for about 5 minutes.

That thing you see sitting in the middle of the pot there is the pork skin from the piece of bacon I bought, at the Charcuterie de Tours in the Atwater Market they sell the double smoked bacon in whole pieces, so you have to ask them to skin it and slice it for you, and they give you the whole thing back along with the skin, which is full of delicious smoky pork flavor and is great used in soups and stews, just remove it before serving as it is quite chewy.

When the water is boiling add the ramen without the flavoring packages, let it boil for 3 minutes, then drain.

Remove the milk and bacon from the heat, and stir in the cheese till it has completely melted, then add the ramen and stir till completely covered in the sauce. The ramen will absorb the sauce. Eat!!!

You can also add whatever you want to this recipe, Carlo likes to substitute the bacon for canned tuna sometimes, or add baked beans or canned green peas. I'm gonna try a version of this with kimchi added in sometime.

It's Tams Season Again!!

2011-05-08T00:13:00.000-04:00

Tamtam season has arrived!! Last Sunday it was a beautiful 20 degrees Celcius outside, and the mountain was packed. Here's my sister and Carlo:

Here's the larpers further off in the woods:

Most Adorable Crash Test EVAR!

2011-05-06T10:06:00.002-04:00

Chinese Chili-Scallion Oil

2011-04-23T22:16:00.000-04:00

I came across the D.I.Y. Cooking Handbook on the New York Times website, and I want to eventually make and blog about all the recipes in it.

I made the chili oil, and it turned out delicious! Here are the ingredients (I put the optional stuff as well) looking all pretty before being fried up in oil:

I used my remote thermometer in the oil, wasn't sure if it's made for that kind of thing (probably not) but it worked fine anyways:

Prawn Chips

2011-04-23T21:06:00.002-04:00

Whenever we go to the Hotpot place in Chinatown I always stock up on the prawn chips cause I love them. Recently I found some in a little Asian grocery store near my place and decided to try making them myself for the first time. They look like this when you buy them:

And then you fry them up, I had so much fun doing this for the first time!:

And then I ate them with some spicy dipping sauce which I made from a mix of about 1 part spicy Vietnamese chili sauce and 3 parts mayo, you can also make a sauce with Mam Nem except using about 1 part fish sauce to ~8 parts mayo, depending on preference, and a bit of salt and freshly ground white pepper:

Here's Carlo's giant jar of Tuong Ut Toi that he got for about $15 in Chinatown, he puts this stuff in almost everything he eats:

Pictures at Radisson Metro Station

2011-04-23T16:24:00.003-04:00

Two weeks ago I went to visit my parents in the country, and Carlo surprised me by going to meet me at the bus terminal at the Radisson metro station since I had a hour to wait for the bus to Rawdon there. Our friend/old roommate Christelle happened to be there as well on her way somewhere else.

Here's me & Carlo:

Christelle (who likes to randomly dress in medieval clothes:

Some fooling around:

St. Seraphim Cemetary II

2011-04-18T10:03:00.003-04:00

our demise. by *FriendlyArt120 on deviant ART

Egg within an egg!?

2011-04-15T17:42:00.001-04:00

Is my cat plotting to kill me???

2011-04-15T15:19:00.001-04:00

St. Seraphim Cemetery

2011-04-12T12:29:00.001-04:00

Here's a picture my sister took of the cemetery at St. Seraphim church just down the street from my parents house last week:

arise, awaken wihin. by *FriendlyArt120 on deviant ART

Moving

2011-04-09T23:43:00.004-04:00

Last weekend (yes I'm finally getting closer to the end of my pictures!) Carlo finally got a friend with a truck to help us move the big stuff over from his grandfather's house. Here's the view of my street from inside the truck:

My friend Stephan (permanently incapable of keeping a straight face for a picture):

Christelle:

Steph trying to imitate a turtle and Cri laughing at him:

Braeden (the friend with the truck), Carlo and Cri:

Braeden just before we started moving out Carlo's massive old 200lb tv:

Moving the tv:

I didn't think to take any pics of the livingroom after that but I suppose it's just as well cause when I do things will be more or less put in order :)

And we finally have a proper mattress to sleep on, my old one was ruining our backs, even with extra memory foam pads on top. Donated memory foam mattresses are the BEST, Carlo was lucky enough to get one for free from his uncle who moved away.

Our livingroom looks really nice and homey now, with bookshelves and a dresser and a giant tv, not just bare walls, a couch, and a computer desk :P All that's left at his grandfather's house now are some boxes and small stuff that can be taken in a car, and there's no rush to get it so I suppose we'll do it sometime over the next few months whenever his mom can help us out. Yay for not having to move everything in one day, and having lots of friends to help move the big stuff! It took us all of 20 minutes to get everything out of the van into the apartment, if that. I'm hoping it'll go as well next time we move!

(Mostly) March pictures

2011-04-09T20:25:00.000-04:00

Here's a picture I took of a Facebook fail (and the only picture I took with my camera in Feb.):

Here's the forest of cranes building the new Children's Hospital that can be seen from my job:

Here's St. Benoit de Nursie during the Forgiveness Vespers:

My sister and I in my kitchen:

My sister did her hair up all pretty that day:

Here we found 2 very badly parked cars at 2am on our way back from Steph's place:

Here's some pea soup with baby clams, and toast with marmite. I used canned pea soup, but added a spoonful of margarine, a squeeze of Dijon mustard, and a good sprinkling of thyme, it's soo good like that!:

My cat Licorice being cute:

And the first few rays of sunshine in my kitchen that I saw all winter! :D

Oh, and I put up a new post (or two) on my other blog :)

January pictures

2011-04-09T19:19:00.000-04:00

Ok so I'm slowly trying to post up the backlog of pics I have on my computer before I post up the new ones. These are the ones I've taken with my camera in January.

Here is a picture I took at St. Seraphim's in Rawdon when I attended the Old Calendar Christmas there:

Here's the view from the parking lot on the upper floors of Place Alexis Nihon, a mall downtown on St. Catherine St.:

And here's a picture of a sunset I took from my friend Stephan's place where I used to live:

Watered down rainy day

2011-04-08T16:23:00.001-04:00

Here's a pic I took last week on a rainy day that I took just so I could use the watercolor effect on it in the crappy Microsoft Photo Editor on my computer at work, click to fullview:

New Cooking Blog

2011-04-02T03:53:00.000-04:00

I decided to start a new blog dedicated to cooking French Canadian, Swedish and Filipino food. Here it is if anyone is interested. Still lots of work to be done, don't be surprised if the look keeps changing over the next couple of days.

Eggy noodles without eggs, with baked baking soda

2011-03-30T17:37:00.000-04:00

I love reading Cooking Issues, and today came across an article that talks about corn and the process used to make tortillas. In that article he linked to a NY Times article that talks about baked baking soda, a stronger base that you can use for certain cooking applications, among other things, springy egg-like noodles that don't need eggs to make them springy. Nice coincidence that I came across this during lent! And also good to know if ever I can't find any kansui (see under noodles) in Chinatown to make noodles for my tonkotsu ramen!

Culinary traditions

2011-03-29T12:40:00.000-04:00

I've been reading Eating Asia for a while now. This morning I decided to search for posts about the Philippines by them since Carlo is half Filipino (and half Italian) and I was curious as to what I'd come up with. That and I've been reading Burnt Lumpia for a while too, all of which makes me want to cook Filipino food lol. I came across this post on Eating Asia and started to think about how blessed I am to have been exposed to so many different culinary traditions, Swedish from my mom, French Canadian from my dad and my friends, and now Filipino food with my boyfriend, in addition to all the ethnic food browsing I do on the internet.

I've thought before of starting to make and post Swedish recipes once a month or so, and now I'm thinking it would be cool to do that with French Canadian and Filipino food as well. Oh, and early-settler-era Canadian food too, I have a cookbook called the Canadian Food Book with a bunch of recipes from a hundred or more years ago that sound really yummy. Assuming I actually get around to doing it lol. I should really start planning ahead for stuff like this, instead of just going "Hey this would be really cool to do someday!!!" and then never get around to doing it, as usual lol. And it would give this blog some direction other than "random life happenings" lol. Well it's nap time now so I'll think about this more after lunch :) Here's to hoping I actually get it done lol.

Les Delices de l'Ile Maurice, and other phone pics

2011-03-26T19:53:00.003-04:00

The view from Boul. Pie-IX on our way back from a failed trip to the Botanical gardens to see the live butterfly exhibit 2 weeks ago. We went too late, arrived at 3:45 and there was an hour and a half wait to get in, it closed at 5:00.

The calamari in sweet and sour sauce I had at Les Delices de l'Ile Maurice last weekend, been meaning to go there for years now! It was really good:

My sister and Carlo on Sherbrooke St. E, we decided to take a walk after going to the botanical gardens, the Olympic Stadium is in the background:

The fried cabbage at Les Delices, absolutely addictive! Especially with the homemade chutney they have:

Inside Les Delices:

My cat licorice this morning enjoying a ray of sunshine:

Another shot of the Olympic Stadium as seen from Boul. Pie-IX:

The mussels in curry sauce at Les Delices, delicious!:

Tiffany, Carlo and Scott in front of the restaurant last weekend:

And here's a video of a kid with squeaky toy shoes across the street. I can't imagine why any parent would want to do that:

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Hopefully I'll have time to upload all the camera pics tomorrow or Monday...

Tonight going to visit Steph and watch some more Beck, waiting up for Carlo to finish work at around midnight, then going home to watch some Stargate Universe and/or Mythbusters. Tomorrow church, then lazy afternoon, then dinner at Carlo's mom's place. I'll have try to remember to take some pics of all 3 of us! Off I go to vacuum, then off to Steph's..

Second week of Lent

2011-03-19T13:24:00.002-04:00

So true! loll XD

An Orthodox View on Salvation

2011-03-16T12:30:00.000-04:00

Taken from Steven's blog, read the quote by Elder Paisios in the comments:

Love is War Cosplay

2011-03-16T11:12:00.000-04:00

Ok here's to my geeky-anime-fangirl side, I found a really nice cosplay pic of a song I love by Miku Hatsune:

LOVE IS WAR by *kirawinter on deviant ART

I would post a video of the song too but youtube is blocked at work and the Android Blogger app doesn't work for me yet. Just search Miku Hatsune Love is War on Youtube and you'll get like a billion results lol.

Parsi Tomato Chutney

2011-03-14T15:15:00.000-04:00

Here's something that I really want to make right now...

GO MAKE THAT SOUP!!!!

2011-03-11T21:34:00.004-05:00

Ok people go out and make that senegalese peanut soup I posted about earlier, I just made some and it is SOOOOOO GOOOOD!!!!!! OM NOM NOM NOM NOM

*goes to have a bowl*

Seriously! Go make some! NOW!

Edit: I didn't put any jalapenos or cayenne pepper when I made it, please leave them out if you don't like spicy stuff! Oh, and I used about 3 times as much mild curry powder lol. Maybe the stuff I had wasn't that flavorful? Anyways adjust to your liking!

Okra Stew

2011-03-11T16:44:00.001-05:00

Here's something I just came across, that reminded me of another delicious okra recipe that my boyfriends mom gave me once but I lost, but I'll ask her for it again so I can post it here. I love okra! I eat it so rarely though, I should make it more often. Anyways here it is!:

2 Must-Try Cakes

2011-03-11T16:06:00.002-05:00

Ok these are non-lenten (actually I think the first one can be modified to just remove the eggs), but I just have to post them so I remember to make them when Lent is over because it is SO rare that I find a cake recipe that I actually want to try! I'm not a big cake person, so when I ran across not one, but TWO intriguing, absolutely amazing-sounding cake recipes chock full of things I love, I knew I had to try them. I love anything with rosewater and almonds, and Early Grey tea too, and these cakes are full of them. I've never tried recipes with either of those ingredients yet, and I bet I'll be kicking myself for not doing so earlier once I make them! Here they are, Love Cake:

And Earl Grey Cake:

I'm so glad I came across those two websites that bring out the ethnic-food-lover in me, The Traveler's Lunchbox is so much fun to read, and has so many recipes I want to try, and Taste of Beirut makes me want to try making everything Lebanese! I already love our Montreal-Lebanese favourite Shish Taouk, which apparently is mis-named Chicken Shawarma. I almost always go for that at the mall food courts, but I prefer the chains that serve it with garlic sauce instead of lemon, I've never been a big fan of lemon. Anyways, have fun browsing! I'll have to look through those sites and find a few Lenten recipes to post here too. Off I go to drool some more...

Mafé

2011-03-11T12:06:00.001-05:00

Ok this is supposed to be made with beef or chicken but I'm gonna try it with shrimp or scallops. I read a lot of comments about this on the peanut soup recipe so I decided to look it up, it sounds really yummy!

Senegalese Peanut Soup

2011-03-11T10:43:00.005-05:00

I found a really yummy-looking recipe courtesy of Byzantine in the Bible Belt:

Normally I don't like stuff with peanuts but this looks delicious!

Edit: I didn't put any jalapenos or cayenne pepper when I made it, please leave them out if you don't like spicy stuff! Oh, and I used about 3 times as much mild curry powder lol. Maybe the stuff I had wasn't that flavorful? Anyways adjust to your liking!

Lenten quote of the week

2011-03-09T16:09:00.000-05:00

Me, last Monday: : "Owww... my leg"
Non-Orthodox boyfriend, to me: "what happened to your leg?"
Me: "I pulled it at church yesterday"
Boyfriend: "How'd you pull your leg at church?"
Me: "Well, the last Sunday before lent starts we celebrate something called Forgiveness Vespers..."

Rice recipes with saffron, and a seafood recipe (finally!)

2011-03-09T11:51:00.001-05:00

I came across this recipe just now, and it reminded me of an article they wrote a while back in the Spice Hunting column about saffron, and this recipe. I think the second one looks yummier.

And I bet you're thinking "enough with the starch and veggies already!" so here's a seafood recipe that I came across while searching for the second saffron-rice one:

And I think that's enough recipes for today, I'll go do something else now...

Parsnip Soup with Vanilla

2011-03-09T10:39:00.000-05:00

I can't remember the last time I had parsnips. This looks yummy!:

Deep Fried Spinach

2011-03-09T10:17:00.000-05:00

I LOVE this!!! I've had it a few times from asian restaurants, usually sprinkled with sugar, maybe a little salt? It's addictive! I've never made it at home though, I can't wait to try it :)

Corn with Aromatic Seasonings

2011-03-09T10:02:00.000-05:00

I'm sure you can modify this recipe to make it with water, or coconut milk:

Coconut-Vegetable Rice Pilaf with Peppercorns

2011-03-08T17:45:00.001-05:00

Here's another great lenten recipe I found:

Moong Dal and Red Lentils with Browned Onions

2011-03-08T16:35:00.003-05:00

Here's another lenten recipe I came across in the same column by the same guy:

Koshary

2011-03-08T16:16:00.000-05:00

Here's a great lenten recipe I found just now on Serious Eats, gonna try it tomorrow night! It's looks simple enough, and I have everything already needed in my pantry. Serve this with some seafood and salad you've got a complete meal!

From Fr. Stephen's blog: On Inner Stillness

2011-03-04T14:27:00.000-05:00

Here's a good pre-lent read. I'd encourage you to read the entire article linked to at the end of his post as well.

A really cute cheesefare recipe! Cheddar cat muffins!

2011-03-04T11:41:00.000-05:00

I love cats. And I love cheese. And this is just too cute to bear, I wanna make some now! And I can ice them with the same cream cheese/imperial cheese icing I used on the meat cake I made for Carlo's birthday (which I want to remake properly after Lent)... GO BASK IN THE CUTE DELICIOUSNESS!

Another snowstorm

2011-03-02T17:04:00.000-05:00

The one I posted about 2 posts ago was the snowiest snowstorm I had seen in a while, you could barely even see the building across the canal. Well this afternoon we got an even snowier one, it went from this:

...to this in the space of about 5 minutes, then back to sunny again after another 15 minutes:

In other news, I have a big weekend coming up. Sister coming over, friend from Rawdon coming over to crash at my place for the weekend so he can attend the Geekfest, a trip to the botanical gardens on Sunday afternoon to see the live butterfly exhibit, and my parents and mother-in-law coming over for dinner on Sunday night. I can't wait! :D

2 Cheesefare Recipes, potato leek soup and cheese casserole (strata)

2011-03-01T11:20:00.003-05:00

I made these last night. Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of the soup but it's pretty plain to look at anyways. I love this soup! I remember my mom making it when I was a kid, and last night at the grocery store I wanted to get lots of fruits and veggies, and spotted the leeks so I said what the heck I'll buy one and call my mom to get the recipe for that soup she used to make. So I did, here's the recipe:

2 leeks
4 medium potatoes
1/2 cup cream
1L chicken broth
2 cups grated cheddar
1 tpsp butter

(all measurements are approximate since I just threw everything together without measuring yesterday)

Peel and cube the potatoes, then boil in the chicken broth. While the potatoes are boiling, cut the tough green part off the top of the leek, then slice it lengthwise and wash it out if needed. Slice into 1/4in. slices, and fry in the butter on med. heat till limp but not browned, then set aside. When the potatoes are done mash with a masher, and puree with a blender if you have one. Add leeks, cream, and cheese, and heat until the cheese melts, but not to boiling

Here's the cheese casserole, when I made it I filled the baking dish to the brim, and it puffed up like crazy in the oven, but luckily didn't spill much. It flattened once it cooled though:

Here's the recipe, which I doubled for this batch. I added some fried onions in between the layers too. That's it...just onions... >.> *whistles innocently* XD

Sorry for the crappy cell phone pics, I have to get back into the habit of using my camera, it's just that for posting this stuff to fb the phone is much more convenient.

So go forth and MAKE CHEESINESS!!!

Oh, and look at the cool t-shirts we're getting! I'll have to post some pics of us with them on soon :D Hopefully we'll be able to wear the to the Montreal Geekfest this weekend XD

On miracles. And some pictures of stuff.

2011-02-28T13:40:00.006-05:00

Something good I read in regards to miracles.

It's been a while since I posted anything substantial...my laptop has been sitting on a shelf unused ever since I got my new phone at the beginning of the year, and my camera has been sitting unused in my purse for the same reason. Most of the pictures I've taken are with my phone and uploaded to facebook, and I haven't gotten around to putting them on a computer yet. I think I'll finally set up my laptop tonight and start doing that. In the meantime here's what I made for dinner last night:

I decided to make an african-themed meal: bobotie, fried plantains, and rice.

Bobotie:

1 lb ground pork

2 tbsp tomato paste

1 slice white bread

45ml milk

1 tbsp white wine vinegar

2 tbsp curry powder

1/3 cup heavy cream

4 eggs

1 onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1tbsp olive oil

Pre-heat the oven to 350 Farenheit. Fry the onions on med-high heat in the oil till they begin to brown. When they do, turn the heat down to medium and add the garlic, and fry a minute or two longer while stirring, just enough to fry the garlic without burning it. Add the meat and spices, and cook for about 5 minutes while stirring and breaking up the meat. When it's about done set it aside. Soak the bread in the milk and mash it up, add it to the meat, along with the tomato paste and vinegar. Spread the meat out into a baking dish. In a separate bowl whisk together the eggs and cream with some salt and pepper, pour it over the meat mixture, and then bake for 25-30 minutes.

I do realize meatfare ended yesterday, but I figured whoever is interested can save this till after Lent if need be. Which reminds me I should continue working on my list of fasting recipes.

Here are a few other pictures I've taken since the beginning of the year:

Here's something I bought for the first time last Friday. It's delicious! I wasn't expecting such a strong heady flavor and aroma. You just need half an ounce to flavor a whole drink. Mixed with mango juice and a bit of ginger ale it's heavenly. It's the first time I've seen this flavor, I'd seen the lemon and mandarin flavors many times before, but not this one. They have it at the SAQ on the corner of Decarie and Queen Mary. Pity you can't read the text, I'll have to take a better picture tonight.

Here's the view from my job in the middle of a snowstorm we had:

Here's my sister reclining with my cat Licorice and a can of juice at my place when she came to visit a few weeks ago:

Here's the view from the livingroom window in my new apartment a few weeks ago before the temperature rose for a few days and melted most of the snow. That's our balcony you see, the door to the balcony is in the kitchen:

My plants on the computer desk in the livingroom before Carlo set up his computer/xbox/stereo on it. I'll have to take another picture tomorrow morning from the same vantage point to compare:

Here's my sister and the cat again:

The view of the street corner while waiting at the bus stop one snowy morning:

Something my friend Stephan had me try, it's the first time I've ever seen this, it tastes quite similar to coke/pepsi I find.

The menu at the Island Pride restaurant 2 blocks away from my apartment. I've been meaning to go there for a while, but I'll have to wait a while longer still. I'm eager to try the food there, I've never had roti or jerk chicken before, can't wait to try them since I've read about them often, and I love anything with goat or lamb.

Here's the only other sign out front in the window:

Opening hours:

A cake I made based on Paula Deen's Gooey Pumpkin Butter Cake, I screwed around too much with the original recipe when I made it the first time and it didn't turn out right, and was way too rich anyways, so I decided to modify it:

2 eggs
1/3 cup melted butter
1 box butter pecan cake mix
2 small bags of pecan pieces
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup icing sugar
1 tsp each ground cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves
1 can of pumpkin pie filling

Preheat the oven to the temperature indicated on the box of cake mix. Mix everything except for the cake mix and the cream in a bowl, then add the cake mix and stir that in as well. Bake according to instructions on the box. While it's baking whip the cream with some sugar. When it's done, let it cool for a while, cut and serve with the whipped cream. Sooo good! And this recipe we can still enjoy for the next few days :)

Here's the little fruit & veggie store on the corner of Walkley and Cote St-Luc that I decided to stop at on the way back from the gym last week. It's more convenient than going to the big grocery store cause it's closer and doesn't require a detour. It's a tiny kitchy little hole-in-the-wall mom & pop place. I love those kinds of stores, the non-chain ones that you can find unusual things in. This one had a weird mix of mexican and middle eastern foods, with fresh fruits and veggies, dry goods, meat, cheese and dairy. I was surprised how much stuff they had, considering the small size of the place. The guy that was working there that night looked mexican, I told him he had a cool store cause I found a couple of things that I'd never seen anywhere else, he said he's been there for 8 or 9 years. I got some fresh tortillas (never had those before) some Jack Daniels bbq sauce (never seen that in any store), an avocado, some turkish delight (had been at least 10 years since I'd had any), and a brand of sausage pomodoro spaghetti sauce in a glass jar with a pretty label that I'd never seen before. This is the second fruit and veggie store I come across that sells way more than just fruits and veggies, the other one is the Fruits Rocky Montana 3 or 4 blocks away from my apartment, that one's chock full of a variety of stuff.

Feels Like Forever

2011-02-18T21:09:00.000-05:00

Here's a pic I took of me and Carlo last summer. He quietly, patiently, courted me for 6 months while I had my head elsewhere, and now we are, like in the picture, finally, together and smiling. As we always will be. It happened just in time for Valentine's day :) I can't wait for the rest of my life with this guy :)

And here's a really cute video that's being passed around on FB recently:

Danny & Annie from StoryCorps on Vimeo.

2011-02-07T21:01:00.001-05:00

Bromance by *ratofthelab on deviant ART

2011-02-07T09:41:00.001-05:00

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

QFT

2011-02-01T09:58:00.000-05:00

"On Demolition, Canons and Spiritual Direction" Great post.

On God's Love

2011-01-27T13:27:00.000-05:00

Here's a quote that I really like from this post:

F: I was just writing a passage saying that God is not angry or wrathful towards us, but that it will feel like wrath towards those who resist him. Just like fire gives us light and warmth, fire also burns you. But it’s the same fire. I was trying to express this to an editor, and she said, “But if it’s God’s love, how could it possibly not feel good?” The example came to me like this—these special needs kids—what is the disorder—reactive affection disorder? You show affection, and it’s frightening, and they try to pull away. Intimacy is painful to them. And you just try to hold them and love them and you think that will work. In some cases kids get older and start attacking the parents. It’s good to know that love is not enough.

2011-01-24T10:15:00.001-05:00

A moment in time pt.III. by =realityDream on deviant ART

Hand pulled noodles and hard cider

2011-01-20T16:42:00.001-05:00

The two things I've been reading about this afternoon and really wanna try in the next couple of months (after I'm done moving) are hand-pulled noodles and hard cider. One apparently much more difficult than the other. I can't wait to try these! I'm gonna go to a brewing supply store tomorrow evening to get some equipment for the cider. I'll be moving this weekend and next so don't know if I'll have time to do it before next month though. I can make free booze!! w00t!!! Lol XD

Xiao Long Bao - Soup Dumplings

2011-01-19T15:58:00.000-05:00

I want to make these some day!!!

On riches

2011-01-19T11:30:00.002-05:00

Here's a good post about money.