"The Boy" knows how to cook!

wow...how forgetful am i??? oh my, he's now so insulted 'cause i didn't soon enough...anyhow...

Boy likes to cook a family meal on occasion to try out his culinary skills - Wifey and i certainly enjoy as he makes some amazing food

a few weeks ago, as he sometimes does, he randomly out of the blue asked if he could cook...We had Our taste buds enlightened with his own first-time success of right-from-scratch General Tso Chicken! *as my mouth involuntarily starts to drool*

so, huge kudos to Our Boy...below is a minimized version of the meal he cooked...

Thanksgiving - Canadian Lesbian Style :-)

this year, TG was a bit different for sure. all around family decisions were that my mom would not have a TG dinner this year as we are all getting together anyhow for The Boy's big upcoming 18th birthday and since my mom had been putting in a lot more hours than usual into her funeral-catering p/t job, i thought she should take a well-deserved rest rather than cooking one of her wonderful family meals. plan was, then, to go only to M's family TG get together on Sunday which is about a 5 hr drive in total.

well, the nasty-ass fall i had last week, didn't allow for that either. so, as amazingly usual for my Woman, She decided to make Us a TG dinner but with a slightly different twist...kind of a one-pot meal deal. seems the idea light-bulbed into Her mind - but then again, She always comes up with wonderful ideas to cook food in different ways - a definite asset in a wife ;-)

Our meal was an authentic homestyle Thanksgiving dinner as shown below with all the fixin's 'n trimmin's required including the homemade cranberry sauce done up in one full swoop of a skillet...mmmm, yum!

in this lovely dish, We had a layered TG dinner with peas, potatoes, squash, chicken (meh, not much diff) with a layer of gravy smothered on top of it and then it was all topped off with (Her) Grammy's secret gourmet stuffing - oh my, each spoonful aromatized itself onto Our plates and into Our tummies - i had 3 servings! and, on the side, some more homemade gravy which melded the whole meal smoothly together.

We's had Ourselves a fiiiine Thanksgiving dinner, yes We's did :-)

GREAT CHEESE but...

not everything :-(

so, wifey and i were in the area of this fab cheese shop we'd heard about on Toronto Living. We happened to be in the area over the long weekend and decided to drop in and see what kinds of delish cheeses We could leave with. ;-) 'cause wifey and i are most certainly cheeseLovers galore!

by recommendation of one of their 'cheese specialists' (dude was a wee bit on the weird side...caught him taking the broken slices of our order, chopping off the rind and hauling it into his yap like there was no tomorrow!), We bought some amazing Vieux Bruges Gouda - a smooth sliceable cheese with a spicy edge that melts amazingly on grilled cheese, westerns or just by itself alone on some nice cracked wheat bread! 'crackle, pop, mmmm, yum'!

cheese, however, is not all We spent Our hard-earned pennies on...alongside numerous other goodies, i spotted a beautiful green jar of Mint Sauce priced @ $7.99 but i thought, "hey, i've always wanted to find Mint Sauce already made" since i've had the privilege of eating it several times at a famous Indian restaurant...i, of course, didn't expect it to be the same as the restaurant style but i certainly wasn't expecting what i got when i opened the jar...

to my utter disappointment, it took 3 of us to even open the jar...once the jar was opened, a weird odour emitted and i noticed how it was 'just not right looking'...see what i mean below...

it looks like 'someone' had already eaten out of it...or it was just plain bad. all i know is...i can't eat my anticipated Mint Sauce.

being respectful, i'm not naming the store chain and i've cropped the receipt part although i do have other photos with a clear copy of the receipt.

i go to cheese company's website...living in the far north of TO and not having regular access to a vehicle, i was not about to venture via TTC-snail-mode plus umpteen buses to return an $8 product...i want to write to them and send them my photos of product-gone-wrong...well, conveniently, their website only allows for written communication through a form rather than actual email address...wtf?? can't send them any photos that way either, now can i??? makes me kind of suspicious as to how well they stand behind their products...

so...looks like i have no choice. i'm going back on their website - back to the form so i can send them the link to my blog, hoping they'll be kind and find some way of reimbursing me?

that would be nice :-)

Julia Child i'm not...

ok, so not only am i not great at online games but i've sadly discovered i'm no longer so great in the kitchen either! (especially since Honey and i have gotten together...She's a fucking amazing cook!)

huh...since turning 50 this year, it seems all my original talents (yes, including video games, online games, etc. and now cooking) have completely left me.

W T F???

my Baby's been away for the past few days, visiting her folks 'cause She has to, stupidly, use up her vaca time before the end of the year, unlike me, who can carry mine over into the next fiscal year. anyhow...

so, i want to bake something nice for Her return home today. visiting one of my fav cooking blogger's, i see sumzing totally delish to bake for Her...YUM (if you visit Rosa's page, it's the Pure Bliss Plum Focacia)

needing a few things to make this awesome food, last night "The Boy" and i hike over to the nearest grocery store together to buy the goods. i'm all pumped and ready to go this morning - nice and early @ 8:00 a.m. i read every instruction and figure it's not difficult at all. i start to make my focacia...this, of course, requires the preparation of a yeasty dough...

ok, for most of you, this isn't a big deal, making a dough with yeast but, as i was reminded quickly and bluntly, I have never been successful with anything that involves baking with yeast (gawd, don't even remind me of the pizza dough incident!)

i call my mom as i sadly, and angrily, look at what is supposed to be dough ready to knead, laying like some puked up leftovers on the counter (seriously, i was actually able to find an image of exactly what it looked like!)

thankfully, mom came to the rescue again as we shared a chuckle together that neither of us can bake with yeast...go figure. she gave me a 3 ingredient recipe for a crust that tastes fairly good so i was able to finish what i wanted to bake in the first place, only with a different type of dough.

meh, i could take a picture of how it turned out but i'm too freakin' tired from baking all morning...not only did i make the plum dessert, i baked two loaves of banana/apple bread and am, currently, baking a meatloaf for my Baby's homecoming. in between all that, i cleaned, did all the laundry, changed our (new! KING) bed and did about 10 loads of dishes during the course of the day so far...man, i really miss a dishwasher!

so let's just say, it turned out 'almost' like it was supposed to...

but really...wtf is happening to me?? i can't seem to put nothing together anymore...my mind is like an empty tomb of cobwebs where there used to be trillions of ideas for leftovers or some self-concocted amazing dish flowed from the brainage of my talents...none of that exists anymore and it's so damn frustrating! since my Baby moved in with "The Boy" and i last year, She's proven Herself quite the talented chefy and Boy is totally in love with Her food. it's been him and me for the past few days and if it hadn't been for the frozen pizzas, we'd have been in some hard way for food - ok, i DID manage to put together a totally delish egg sammie for him which he totally loved.

ok, enough whining...blame it on menopausal hormones

a happy sammie :-)

so, wifey and i are sitting down for breakie this morning...i'm in a pissy mood and i'm feeling even shittier as i see Her trying hard to be non-chalant until i, basically, 'come around' to a better frame of mind...things just pissing me off all around and doesn't help that the menopausal period is now officially a week late...wtf?? couldn't be that i'm pregnant, right? lol

"honey, can i make you breakie this morning?" She asks. "no, i'm not hungry" comes a solemn reply.

but, in Her usual manner, She comes to the table with PB, 2 jams, 4 toasts and a jar of Cheez Whiz. Oh, no...She's going to make the gross concoction of a sammie that She's been telling me about for a while now! ewwwww, gross! Cheez Whiz & Jam??? W T F????

As She happily slathers on the Whiz and plops a good tsp full of berry jam on it, i' m about to empty the contents of my tummy when She lovingly turns to me and says "Baby, wanna try it? just a little bite?"...i take just a wee bite off the end of Her toast and...

wow...this is NOT bad at all...interesting but definitely not gross :-)

i get as adventurous as trying my own on 1/2 a toast - this time with Carrot Marmalade We picked up in St. Jacobs.

thinking this would be great blog material, i go in search of a Cheez Whiz & Jam image on Google...i don't find one BUT what i do find is even more interesting...

look at this! holy shit, are ya jivin' me?? LMAO....Cheez Whiz

try it...you may just like it ;-)

yummy foods....

OMG...if there is ONE thing that is a constant with me....

it's the LOVE of FOOD!

yes....yes....yes

apparently, according to those who love me, i eat A LOT! lol

so, i'm always happy to find new sites with new recipes, new food ideas, new things to EAT!

here is one i found by accident...totally...while looking up yummy t'ings i want to bake for mine and M's families for this Thanksgiving weekend....check out her site, it's got LOTS of yummies on it!

btw...so, i'll be up and baking...
a healthy version Pumpkin Tart w/Toasted Nut Crust, Peach Cobbler (Paula Dean's version - NOT healthy), M will be bringing her delish Cranberry/Apple Chutney - these for my parental units/family;





a Lemon Mascarpone Custard topped with Strawberry Mousse (mostly for my future mother-in-law) which will be topped with M's scrumptuous Raspberry Coulis and a White Bean, Tomato & Avacodo Salad for the rest of my new upcoming extended family ;-)





HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE! enjoy all the family closeness and goods eats this weekend and remember.....

there are ALWAYS things in our lives we NEED to be thankful for.