start with onions in a pan.....

butternut squash, chickpea and lentil casserole with tahini dressing

Errands, market, some writing, some downtime, and.... supper!
So tired.... need....something.....

the girls can cook

The gorgeous Melissa came over last night with flowers and wine and while I prattled on about my life and finished up the chicken salad, she prepared the peaches and the sauce based on my "the first rule of Dina's kitchen is there are no rules" philosophy. Peaches, butter, cinnamon, brown sugar, rum - bake - wow so good with that homemade vanilla ice cream! She coming over to make that for me again!
We had a great meal and the wine went down easy as we sat in the diningroom until late talking and talking.
Girlfriends always make you realise what a kickass person you are, and I needed a little of that. What would I do without my friends? We talked about people coming into your life for a reason, and relationships, and her new duplex, and her fantastic new guy, and life and the endless possibilities that await us. Live here, live now, because you never know when it's gonna stop. Leap, try, dream, do that crazy thing you've been thinking of, embrace the time you have.
Ok, stopping now....geez Dina, get a grip....

Went over to Lysanne's last night for supper. She dove into her fridge and pulled out tons of fresh veggies and fruit and suddenly there was a meal! I helped by putting together a huge fruit salad. I was soooo stuffed! The simplest meals are often the best, especially when they're shared with a friend and a bottle of wine. We talked till late and I wandered home. I had a hard time getting out the door this morning. It's a grey day and to be perfectly honest I'm having one of those curl-up-into-a-ball-and-cry days. When these hit, and as you know they have been hitting often, I ache for that perfect hug. So far, that hug has not produced itself.
I have Naomi all weekend so that Steve can do his annual blogathon. Ben will be spending some quality time with his grandparents this week, so I fear that Nomi will be missing her favorite playmate. I'm looking forward to spending some time with just her, I think we are due for a girl day.

lunch

lunch

That radish salad turned out really well! I got out the old Benriner and sliced them up thin and soaked them in salted water for 15 minutes and then tossed them with lime juice and some pepper and then I left them in the fridge overnight and when I opened the fridge they were a lovely pinky shade.

I also did more granola last night. It was nice waking up to this for breakfast.
Today was Ben's first official day of no school, so I went over to pick him up after breakfast and brought him back to my place where he amused himself while I got some work done and then we went out for errands. One of my errands was to get some strawberries, but the selection was appalling, so I got blueberries instead. Ben went to therapy and I did some more work and then dug out the ice cream machine! It was still soupy after supper, but Ben liked it. Naomi was rather fussy and wasn't that interested.

I really have to start running regularly again. Since I got back to Canada my routine has been lax and I know that I have to start all over again to build up the lungs I've lost. Time has been a definite factor - between the move and work I haven't had anything left. Time to get back on the road!

food

Back to the kitchen!

I was tired all day and when I left work I was pretty uninspired about food. While running another errand I started to perk up, so I stopped by Akhavan on the way home and their produce was divine! Some veggies and a small piece of Bulgarian feta and it was home for frittata!


I prepared everything and started cooking and then stopped to open a bottle of wine and misjudged the timing because I'm not using a non-stick pan (which is now added to my list of errands for this week) my frittata became scrambled egg and veggie thing - still tasty, but not photo-worthy.
After supper, I wandered over to say goodnight to my kids (I couldn't go a night....) and then back home to make some granola and a radish salad because the radishes looked too darn good at the store to abandon.

Appliance lady: 1 - Dina: a little bit broker

Went out as soon as Steve and the kids left for Ottawa to hunt for the elusive affordable appliances. I still had to get a fridge, a stove, and a dishwasher. The stove had to be new, that wasn't negotiable. For the amount of baking I do, I need something that's not going to give me a hassle. The oven had to have convection as well, which pretty much adds $500 on no matter what. Found a flat top, convection, with a warming area for under $1000, a standard fridge, and a cheapish dishwasher and now I have many interest-free payments to look forward to. The plus is that they are new, waranteed, and somebody else will deliver them to my door and haul them upstairs so I don't have to. They arrive Thursday, an early birthday present. After this was done, I went and test drove that Volkswagon. The guy gave me the keys and told me to get lost and take my time, so I drove out to the West Island, picked up Debbie, and drove out to Hudson and back. While I listened for noise and concentrated on the ride, Debbie flipped all the switches, tried the radio and air, and gave me her opinion on the passenger experience. Verdict? Nice ride, very stable car, comfy. There's a hum though that I'm not sure is regular VW engine noise or something else. I brought it back and the sales guy is going to have the mechanic look at it and get back to me. I'm talking to my guy at the garage to ask about general repair costs, because VWs aren't cheap to fix. The more I think about having a wagon though, the more sense it makes. All the things you have to haul around with kids and stuff would be so much easier if I didn't have to borrow someone else's car all the time.
Still, if it doesn't work out with this car then it simply was not meant to be, I haven't fallen in love with it or anything.

Not worth

Today I got a better idea of what I'm not worth and yet how much stuff still has to be divided and potentially paid for. I hate money, I hate dealing with money, talking about money, investments, taxes, and about anything else having to do with the almighty moolah. The only thing that my parents have really ever fought over is money, so I've always made it my mission to avoid having to argue about anything concerning cash in my relationships. Luckily, I don't have any money, so this has been relatively easy.
But now we have to put everything under a microscope and figure out our debt and assets. I don't want to do it, but I have to, the courts demand this. Part of me wants to run screaming from that little round table I sat at today, shouting "just want to be free! we don't have enough to even split!", but that wouldn't be adult and mature under the circumstances. I'm guessing I have to keep up the pretense of being both of these things for a little while.
I need to throw together a cookie dough tonight so that it can sit in the fridge for a day. I have a bake sale at work Thursday and what else says bake sale little cc cookies? Ok, a lot of stuff, but I'm going with choc chips.......
I other news, Cafe 92 has now expanded into the empty shop next door! Hurrah!!!

What I would like from today:

Understanding, patience, love, cooperation, friendship, agreement.
I think this is very attainable.

close fit and snickerdoodles

I bought a used washer and dryer today and I paid almost as much to have them picked up and delivered as I paid for the appliances, but I can honestly say it was worth it. First, they drove all the way out to Ile Perrot to get them, then they had to tackle an NDG house. They made basement doors really small way back, I guess they never figured that people would invent massive square metal boxes to wash their clothes. I got very standard ones, and the guys had to take the doors off, remove the latch, then take the washer and dryer apart to remove the sticking out bits. I have to get some new washers for the hoses before I set them up but - I can do laundry - woo woo!
I got home, and after some park time, then supper time, then bed time, it was snickerdoodle time! I've been wanting to make some for over a week! I love this simple cookie and it's one of the few that Ben eats.

Going granola

Time to get back to blogging and back to the kitchen!
It's been a CRAZY couple of months - work, business trip, some other stuff that is changing my life significantly, and it's going to stay crazy. As some of you know, when the going gets tough, Dina goes .... to the kitchen! Yup! I am surfing for new recipes, opening my cookbooks, and getting set to litter the counters with appliances and dirty bowls.
While I was in Sweden I had a room with a kitchenette so that I could buy some food and make breakfasts and some meals. I can't eat at restaurants all the time, especially not when I just want to grab something quick and get into the office or out sightseeing. There were two grocery stores in the mall downstairs, so I was able to wander the aisles, looking at all the products. Oops, I'm getting distracted, I'll talk about my love of grocery stores later, back to the topic. At the grocery store I bought a big box of granola and some yogurt and I ate that for breakfast every morning. Their yogurt is delicious! It's not as sweet as ours and thicker and obviously not the ultra 0% variety. When I was in Amsterdam and Breda in Holland, breakfasts were included with the room and in both places there were multiple granola and fruit and yogurt choices, all equally delicious.
Then I got home.
I went out and bought some granola and some yogurt, and the granola was, well, disappointing and expensive! What to do? Go to the Internet of course! I found a recipe on one of my fav sites, went back to the grocery store, and a few days later when I had some time - voila!

Yummy granola, and lots of it! Twice what was in this jar (I stored the rest in a ziploc bag). I used walnuts, coconut, dried mango, apricot, raisins, and cranberries. Cheap, easy, and a million times better than the store-bought stuff.
Next step - making yogurt..... I can't wait!

Books!

Once again, the online bookstores were calling to me. This time, it was initially for Gaston Bachelard's The Poetics of Space. I first heard the term "desire paths" about a year ago and since then I have been interested reading this work. It includes a foreword by John Stilgoe, whose own work on the American landscape is pretty interesting.
Next is a flyer called Simplexity: Why Simple Things Become Complex (and How Complex Things Can Be Made Simpler), by Times editor Jeff Kluger. It showed up in a 'you might like this list', and looked like something I could read.
The last is a book that I heard about ages ago, but didn't pick up, Hot Sour Salty Sweet: a culinary journey through southeast asia, by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid. This book is full of gorgeous pictures and recipes, including a glossary of flavourings and a glossary of ingredients.
Now, if I can just resist the temptation of reading them before my exam.....sigh.....