Dinner at the Aerie Resort

Gregory and I celebrated St. Valentine's Day by dining at the Aerie Resort. The food, wine and company were all excellent!
**Happy St. Valentine's Day**
Oysters done three ways. The oyster shooter on the left, was the most delicious of the three. It was cold and spicy. So good!
Scallop ceviche with a crab salad. Amazing.
We also enjoyed the wine pairing with the menu, so we always had the perfect wine to go with each dish.
Asparagus soup and asparagus salad. I would love to know how to make this soup.
Here is a wonderful lobster dish.
This berry sorbet was a palate cleanser. Sorry if the picture is a little blurry. How many glasses of wine have I had?
Venison, sunny side up quail's egg, pommes frites, beans and carrots. How cute is that little egg?
This dessert was just...*wow*... perfection.
Strawberry shortcake with coconut whipped cream. swoon.....
Me and my little man, Thomas.

something you don't see everyday

Eva and Mary Margaret took these pictures of me *shiver* sewing.
I very rarely get the sewing machine out, and when I do, I make a big show about how much I HATE (!!!) sewing! This is just a simple little sewing project for a costume that Mary Margaret needed for a musical theatre piece she was singing in the music festival. She was singing "Rainbow Connection" from "The Muppet Movie". I am making Mary Margaret an awesome pair of rainbow legwarmers!! Mary also sang "Gee, I'm glad I'm Nobody Else But Me" from Anne of Green Gables. Luckily, I was able to borrow a costume for that song, including a hat with the red braids attached! (Mary won 1st place. Yay!!)
This was a super easy project, much easier than other costumes I've had to make for skating, dance, or choir. Angels, dogs, mermaids, skirts, vests, ...ick! I've also made coats, curtains, pillow cases, duvet covers, first communion dresses, doll clothes, hats...and then I realized that I really did not enjoy sewing at all.
I usually make lots of mistakes, and have to stitch-pick whole rows of thread. Arg! It is so frustrating. I would much rather bake a cake.

Black forest Cake

My Mum asked me to make a small Black Forest Cake for Rod's birthday. This was my first time making this cake, which is strange because it is one of my favorite cakes.
I used cherries that my mum had canned after a trip to the Okanogan last summer. Yum. I think the cake turned out great.
Happy birthday, Rod!

Tatabun and Emilie

We had a nice dinner here last night, and we were glad Emilie and her boys could make it, as it was sort of 'last minute'. Thomas loves to play with his cousins, and I think everyone had a good time. Greg poured us all a cocktail--Hypnotiq and some bubbly. Cheers!
This is a great picture of Emilie with her dad and her boys, Luc and Huck.

lemon madeleines

I agreed to do some baking for an open house at Queen of Angels school. I was gently encouraged to bake something other than chocolate chip cookies. I guess they get a lot of cookies. I decided to make lemon-glazed madeleines, which are easy to serve, and light and delicious.

penne with red chard and country sausage

Here's a nice healthy meal that is also quick to fix. I got the recipe from epicurious.com, and just tweaked it a bit.First I sauteed some country sausage, then just kept it warm in the oven.
Saute garlic, purple onion, in a bit of olive oil. Add some hot pepper flakes. Oh, I also decided to add some sliced red pepper, but I forgot to take a picture of it.
My very favourite leafy green -- red chard! Swiss chard?
The chard just takes a couple minutes to cook, so I made sure the pasta was ready before I added the chard to the onion/pepper mixture. Then I simply mixed the penne with a whole bunch of freshly grated parmesan cheese, and all the veggies.
This was so good. I added some toasted pine nuts and a bit more cheese, too. Yum! Everyone else had the country sausage on their pasta, and really liked it. I gave up meat for lent, so until Easter, my meals will be vegetarian. We had a nice bottle of wine from Greg's cousin. Cheers, Dom!
Hey, Felicity!

Thomas in the battlefield.

Thomas is an expert at setting up battles with all his army men, pirates, firemen and even the occasional dinosaur.
Yikes!
Thomas placed some snipers on the bunk bed ladder.
This playmobil pirate is taking the wounded soldier off the field.

awesome weekend

The weather could not have been any better at Mt. Washington last weekend.Thomas is snowboarding.
He is really good at it, too.Mary and I were skiing together, and she even went down a black diamond run. Good for you, Mary!
Eva and Mary Margaret came by the bunny hill to check on Heather & Grace.
Grace and Heather are just learning and had a private lesson. Hi, Gracie.
Lookin' good, girls.
Eva snowboards away. See ya at the condo when you're done, Eva.
Home time. Gregory pulls the sled with Grace and Trinity inside.
Look out, Prima! Trinity & Grace are sledding down the hill next to our condo.
Trinity can carry her sled 'all by herself'.
Here comes Heather! Wheee!

a happy picture

Trinity drew this adorable picture on her chalk board. It is a picture of Trinity and Prima, her 'best dog'. I love the huge sun in the sky and the happy smiles.Prima often has to endure getting such things as bows stuck on her head, or sometimes it is a hat, or sunglasses, or necklaces. What a patient dog.
Trinity and her 'best dog', Prima in the summer sun. It looks just like the picture Trinity drew. **Sweet**

awesome job, kids

How do you get seven kids to clean their rooms? You have a contest! The kids had one week to tidy, get rid of old toys, and clean their room. At 7:37pm Sunday night, Dad went to each room and announced the winner. Everyone had a spotlessly tidy bedroom. What a hard choice Dad had to make. A couple rooms had too much help from Mum to win, and it was really between Felicity's room and Heather& Mary's room. It was finally decided that Heather & Mary Margaret were the winners because of the huge difference in their room. (Felicity's room is usually tidy). Here are the winners with their rewards. Mary Margaret received a Mythology book, and Heather got a new toy. I should mention that Felicity won a runner-up prize (a new computer game). The rule was that whoever had the messiest room at the end of the week had to match up and fold the basket of odd socks! This is the ultimate punishment, and I could not bring myself to make any of the kids do that, so Dad said that Mummy should fold the socks! Yay.

chess

Gregory's dad loves to play chess with the kids, and the kids love the fact that they are almost guaranteed to win when they play against Tatabun!Tatabun and Mary Margaret are having a chess game before dinner.

how does he do it

Gregory made an amazing seafood pasta a couple weeks ago. I really love it when Gregory cooks because he usually makes a gourmet french or Italian meal that everyone loves, but just one thing puzzles me...how the heck does he manage to use almost every single pan and dish that we own? Oh, well, the food is definately worth all the time at the sink washing-up!
Prawns, clams, and scallops.... *note*(all in separate dishes)
Ah, the master chef at work! Looks good.
Mmmm it smells so great. * (one, two, three pots..)
This is so delicious, Gregory. What more could anyone ask for? Dessert, perhaps?
Wow! Creme caramel! Gregory has totally perfected the art of creme caramel. Tonight the creme caramel was served with homemade orange sauce and whipped cream. Yum.
Isn't it good, Cin-Cin?
Grace has a second helping of dessert. Why not? Gregory, thank you so much for a lovely meal!