smokin' barbecue

smokin' barbecue
Originally uploaded by Julep67

We had another barbecue tonight. It was awesome.

There are many things I like about barbecue season. The first thing would be that Mark is an awesome barbecue chef (not to mention that he's just a plain old fabulous chef no matter what he's making, he is a chef afterall). The second thing would probably how quickly dinner can come together when we're grilling. The third is really how fast the clean up is.

One thing that Mark does is he makes stuff for our meal, like grilling off veggies and some meat. He always cooks way too much stuff though so we always have leftovers. The next night we'll have pasta or a stir fry which is made up of grilled, smokey delicious ingredients. It's awesome and really yummy.

If this is too much food talk and it's making you hungry, I'm sorry about that but I really felt like Mark deserves some serious kudos for this.

etouffee

etouffee
Originally uploaded by Julep67

Oh, by the way, did I mention that Mark cooked up an amazing Mardi Gras dinner last night?

It was so yummy. He made etouffee with shrimp and chicken. It was just amazing, very tasty. It was a perfect meal to warm us right up after a cold yucky day.

We'd both almost forgotten that it was Fat Tuesday yesterday because it's happening so early this year.

I have to say, we joked about pancakes last night but this was just so much better than a pancake could have ever been!!

fresh ontario strawberries

fresh ontario strawberries
Originally uploaded by Julep67

I love the autumn. I love the cool air, the crunchy leaves, wearing sweaters, the lot. I miss strawberries though. Fresh Ontario berries specifically. The ones you get the in stores at this time of year are woody and from texas or california and cannot hold a berry scented candle to them.

Mark's feeling a little bit better tonight. We now realize however, that he did break his toe. It's a mess. He's hobbling around. Whatever virus he has, is still there but he actually got through an entire day at work. He's under strict instructions to take it easy this weekend.

I have to go out of town for work tomorrow so I won't be home to bitch at him if he tries to do too much. I hope he just sits on the couch and puts that foot up. It's what he needs to be doing, imho anyway.

free lunch

Don't ever let anyone tell you that this is no such thing as a free lunch. Today, I had a free lunch! The directors in our office sent all of us admin types downtown, to a nice waterfront hotel, for a slap-up meal. It was such a nice treat. We also were given flowers and some chocolate and entered into a draw for a shopping spree / spa day / night in nice waterfront hotel. I don't think that I will win but it's nice all the same.

Ordinarily, I eat a sandwich and some raw carrots at my desk so to actually get out of the office for a couple of hours was very nice. I really enjoyed catching up with "the girls" from the other functional units of our department. It's a big place, I think we have about 120 people in total in our area so there were about 20 or so admin types at lunch.

Of course, tonight, because we had a bit meal at lunch (salmon, it was delicious!), I'm not overly hungry for dinner but I promised to cook all the same. I hope Mark doesn't mind something vegetarian-ish for a change.

baked

Chewy Skor Toffee Bits Cookies
Originally uploaded by Julep67.

I've been inspired to bake more.

I baked a lot before christmas, literally hundreds of cookies, most of them were given away as gifts.

We didn't keep too many in the house and I still have the best part of a huge ass bag of flour in the cupboard so I baked some cookies today.

I didn't bake the ones in the photo (the skor cookies), instead I made a batch of chewy coconut cookies and a loaf of banana bread. the banana bread could have done with an extra 10 minutes in the oven but it still looks okay. I'm sure it'll taste just fine.

the two things I like most about baking, besides the obvious yummy results, are the way it makes the whole house smell good and the way it warms up the kitchen floor.

home feels more homely when it's full of yummy smells.