Magical Monday (plus a bit)

Food Friday: Beef and Noodle Casserole

Beef and Noodle Casserole

Ingredients

• 600g lean round steak, cut into 1-inch cubes
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• ½ cup water
• 2 beef bouillon cubes (or equivalent powder)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon pepper
• ½ teaspoon ground cardamom
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 200g medium noodles
• 1½ cups cooked green beans (or frozen beans, thawed and drained)
• 3 tomatoes, cut in wedges
• dash sugar, if desired
• salt and pepper
• 1 tablespoon chopped parsley (optional)

Instructions

1. Heat oil in a large frying pan, over medium-high heat. Add beef and sear.
2. Stir in water, bouillon, salt, pepper, cardamom, and lemon juice. Simmer, covered, for about 30 minutes or until beef is tender.
3. While beef is simmering, cook noodles and drain.
4. Place noodles in a greased 2.5L baking dish. Spoon green beans around the edge of baking dish over the noodles. Put beef mixture in the middle, then pour the juices over everything. Arrange tomato wedges over the green beans, then sprinkle with a little sugar, salt, and pepper to taste. Cover tightly and bake at 350° for 30 minutes.
5. Garnish with parsley before serving.

20 hours with ButtonBoy

This past weekend, the kids cashed in their birthday present coupons from friend Giggles: a sleepover for Mustang, and an afternoon at the movies for ButtonBoy.

So there I was, back down to one kid at a time for a whole 20 hours!

It was a calm and quiet evening, just me and ButtonBoy, while Mustang enjoyed her sleepover. We watched a movie - with a bit of puppy-snuggling beforehand. We read some stories, then went to bed and fell asleep in short order. The next morning also passed in relative tranquility, with an orderly visit to the grocery store and library. Nothing out of the ordinary, right?

Well, except that it was calm and quiet and orderly.

The usual grocery store trip with both kids goes like this:
They take one cart, I take another. At the beginning of the rounds, I tell them they can each pick one treat and it has to be a healthy treat – no candy or junk food. I then send them off to fetch 3 jugs of Mustang’s milk and 1 bag of ButtonBoy’s. They come back with 1 jug of Mustang’s milk, 1 bag of Buttonboy’s, and 3 kinds of chips they love and absolutely must have and after all, Mommy, they’re off price and we need chips, don’t we?

I send the chips back (unless I want them and they’re on the list), then send the kids off to get the two missing cartons of Mustang’s milk and also some eggs and butter. They come back with a dozen eggs, margarine, and 4 cartons of juice that they absolutely must have because they want juice in their lunches and juice is good for you and this is off price, too, Mommy, and can’t we have some please?

I likely accept the juice because by now I’ve trained them in which varieties I will accept, and then send them off to replace the margarine with butter, find a bag of sugar, and don’t forget the two missing cartons of Mustang’s milk! They come back with butter and four boxes of cookies that are the best kind in the world and so yummy and Mommy we don’t have any cookies at home and please Mommy just this one thing?!

I tell Mustang we can keep one of the boxes of cookies as it’s relatively healthy and that will be her treat, right? She looks at the boxes, changes her mind – not quite the treat she was thinking of – and takes the cookies back, along with instructions not to forget the sugar and Mustang’s milk!!!

They come back with sugar, three boxes of crackers that are off price, and a ring of shrimp which is the best thing in the world Mommy and we can have it for movie tonight and we all love shrimp don’t we?

I tell Mustang we can keep the shrimp as her treat (and because it’s the small ring that’s not too expensive and yes, we do all like shrimp and it’s healthy) and she figures that’s an okay treat so we keep it. I tell her to return the crackers as we have lots of crackers at home, but she says nope, we’re keeping them and pops them into the cart. By then I’m at the milk counter so I pick up Mustang’s missing milk myself, and send the kids off to fetch a cucumber that I forgot back in the veggie section. While they’re fetching, I return the crackers to the shelf. Kids come back with a cucumber, a quarter watermelon, and a package of cow cheese because it’s very yummy, and watermelon is healthy, right Mommy and we love watermelon don’t we? I ask Button which he prefers to be his treat – the watermelon or the cow cheese? He rejects both as he wants a more treaty treat, but then he can’t think of what to pick so I suggest the watermelon as it will go well with the shrimp for movie snack. He ends up agreeing as he can’t think of anything else.

Compare that to this grocery store visit with just Button:
He takes one cart, I take another. I send him to pick three of his favourite kinds of fruit. He loads up with apples, oranges, and grapes. I then send him off to find 2 cartons of Mustang’s milk and one bag of his, as well as a dozen eggs. He comes back with 2 cartons of Mustang’s milk, one bag of his, and a dozen eggs. I ask him to go find 2 cartons of zoo juice and he comes back with two cartons of zoo juice. I take him to the fish counter and ask which kind of fish we should get and he suggests one that at first seems a bit expensive, but when I do the calculations to convert the price I’m given (per kg) to price per pound (the way everything else is posted) it’s not that much more than the other fish on offer, so I agree and we get one big fillet (I mean big – almost a kg!). He needs to go pee but the bathroom is out of order so I take him outside and we find some bushes with a bit of privacy and he does his business there (the advantage of being a boy!). The last thing on the list is some tea, so we head to the tea aisle together and as we go he notices that the cookies are on sale and asks if we can have some, but I say we still have lots of home-baked cookies at home, so he accepts that and doesn’t push back. We head to the check-out and are done – he’s never asked if he could pick a treat, and I never mentioned it.

If I had two kids like ButtonBoy, life would be easy.

Not nearly as interesting or exciting...

Mind you, there are days I’d pass on exciting for a little bit more easy.

Magical Monday

Food Friday: Grilled Lime & Ginger Rainbow Trout

Grilled Lime & Ginger Rainbow Trout

Ingredients

• 600g rainbow trout (4 fillets)
• ¼ cup vegetable oil
• 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
• 2cm ginger root, minced
• 1 tsp grated lime peel
• 1 tsp crushed red pepper

Instructions

1. Sauté the minced ginger and grated lime peel in the oil over medium heat, until lightly browned and aromatic.
2. Remove from the heat and stir in the crushed red pepper. Once cooled, whisk in the lime juice. Set aside.
3. Heat the grill to a moderate temperature. Brush the grill with some oil to reduce sticking, and grill the trout fillets with the skin side down for about 2 minutes (or use a fish basket). Gently turn the fillets and grill for another 2 minutes or until flesh turns opaque. (Alternatively, grill under the broiler in the oven.)
4. Serve immediately with a dash of the ginger-lime mixture.

Magical Monday

Food Friday: Chinese Chicken Wings

Chinese Chicken Wings

Ingredients

• 1 cup soy sauce
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 2 cloves fresh garlic, minced
• 1 green onion, minced
• 2cm fresh ginger, minced
• 1.3kg chicken wings, split and tips discarded

Directions

1. Marinade: Stir the soy sauce, brown sugar, garlic, green onion and ginger in a pan. Cook over medium heat, stirring until the sugar dissolves completely. Remove from heat and allow to cool.
2. Place the chicken wings in a large bowl. Pour the marinade over the wings and coat evenly. Marinate in the fridge overnight or 8 hours.
3. Preheat oven to 350°.
4. Pour the chicken wings and marinade into a 9”x13” baking dish. Cover with aluminum foil.
5. Bake for about 45 minutes. Remove the foil and continue baking uncovered another 15 minutes.

Back to School - already??!!?

I could easily enjoy another month or two of warm summer weather, sunshine & shorts, no need for jackets, and long summer days. That’s one of the most noticeable things already – the days are growing shorter as fall approaches. It’s getting dark already before 8pm, which is a sure sign that summer is drawing to a close.

So here they are, the young scholars: Mustang entering Grade 5 and Button starting Grade 2.

Grade 5!!?!! How did that happen so fast? It seems just a short while ago I was dropping a little girl off at the school door for her first day of Kindergarten. Some days you think they grow up so fast. (These, of course, are offset by all the days you wish they’d display a lot more grown-up behaviour!)

Another cycle of life – plans for Thanksgiving, Villages season, Christmas and the winter to come and finally the burgeoning of new life once again. All in its due time…


So here it is – the beginning of another school year. I know Mustang would have loved another month – or two or three – of holidays. Button too, though he’s somewhat more academically inclined, is still not a fan of spending days at a desk.

Magical Monday

The lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer

Other than our big holiday and summer camps, the summer was spent with swimming lessons for the kids and just plain having fun.

True to my word, once home I gave Laoye $50 to pick up some more fishing equipment. He found a nifty collapsible rod and reel set for only about $25 at Canadian Tire, and a second set for even less at another discount store. Since then, at every opportunity Mustang has wanted to go fishing. We spent one Sunday afternoon at a park down along the river an hour’s drive from the city, where we camped one weekend last summer, and took in a pretty good catch. But we’ve also just spent the occasional hour along the banks of the canal, dropping a hook with a bit of bacon as bait. The fishing has been plentiful – in one evening the kids caught 13 fish, on another occasion 11 (those are the ones big enough to keep; it doesn’t count the little ones we tossed back)! We’ve had several rounds of fish chowder and a couple of fish frys as well. Mostly they’re catching bluegill and yellow perch, with the occasional pumpkinseed, rock bass, or sucker thrown in for good measure. I even found a slough of recipes for bluegill on the internet – apparently it’s a great sport fish in the US!




We’ve made occasional trips to the dog park with MoMo, as well as jaunts to our neighbourhood field and forest. Oh, and we took in the Shrine Circus with some young friends


Button has played soccer again all summer, including three weekend tournaments in June, August & one yet to come in September. (We missed the July tournament.) He enjoys it and we’ve missed very few practices other than when on holidays, as the weather has been quite good.


Another past-time has been fox-walks through the forest at night. A family (or two?) of foxes inhabits the neighbourhood urban forest, and if we walk there around sunset, wearing dark clothing and being as quiet as we can, we often see them wandering rhrough the meadow or along the paths as they head out of an evening’s hunt.

On the days when we’ve had time to kill, Nanny has done crafts with the kids and gone bike-riding with them, taken walks to the library and just hung out around the house. Or Laolao has engaged them in various activities, from shopping to iced caps at Timmy’s.




All in all it’s been a good summer – though never long enough.

Summer camps

This summer, in addition to our holiday trip and two weeks of swimming lessons, the kids each took in three weeks of summer camps.



Mustang loves animals so when I discovered in spring that a nearby zoo offers summer “Junior Zookeeper” camps I knew she would love it. Indeed I was right – they got to meet the animals, learn about their habits and how to care for them, and participate in preparing food (chopping lots of fruit & veggies!), feeding, cleaning some of the cages, and also playing games and doing crafts. The final Friday afternoon there was a graduation ceremony after which campers could show their families around the zoo, so I took the afternoon off and we all headed out to take it in – even Button, whom we picked up early from his camp.

Unfortunately for Button, campers have to be 8 to attend the Zoo camp so he was too young to go this summer. Instead he went to a Science and Technology camp at a local museum that same week. They learned about gadgets and gizmos – made a rocket, a real working model lighthouse, and some goop – as well as the usual camp crafts and games. He enjoyed it but wants to do zoo camp next year!


The second camp they enjoyed was overnight church camp off the shores of Lake Huron. As it’s a fair distance from home – and to provide a “security blanket” for Mustang in particular – I stayed the week to volunteer in the kitchen. The kids both enjoyed themselves immensely, with evening campfires, after-supper games, archery (a hit with both), Gaga ball, Quest, and other activities. The food was also awesome (if I say so myself) – we worked hard from 7 to noon every morning and then had afternoons off before heading back for final supper prep at 4:30. MoMo came too and spent the morning relaxing on the deck while I worked, and afternoons on walks with me or resting in our cabin.



The final day-camp, back home, was the week after we returned from church camp and was again all about animals, this time at a local agricultural research station / farm. The younger kids, Button’s age, get to look after a cow and help feed and care for it all week. Mustang’s group helped to care for the rabbits and sheep. Both groups also had water games and crafts. They also spent time in the kitchen making their afternoon snacks – and getting another perspective on how the food we eat has its origin on farms, from the earth we tread.

Food Friday: Mexican Quesadillas

Mexican Quesadillas

Ingredients

• butter or olive oil for toasting
• one 10" flour tortilla for each person
• 1 cup grated cheese (cheddar, Monterey jack, etc)

Optional - one or more of the following:

• grilled chicken, shredded or diced
• mushrooms, sliced
• fresh tomatoes, diced
• black olives, sliced
• avocado
• sweet peppers of different colors
• green onions, sliced

Instructions

1. Heat a cast iron pan over medium heat. Add a small amount of butter and spread it evenly over the pan, then place on large tortilla in the pan. Wait ten seconds, then flip the tortilla, repeating until it begins to bubble.
2. Once air pockets have begun to form in the tortilla, sprinkle a small handful of grated cheese onto it, and then add a thin layer of optional ingredients. Fold the tortilla in half.
3. Reduce heat and cover the pan. The cheese should melt and the tortilla should brown without burning or smoking. If this occurs, remove pan from heat and reduce heat slightly before continuing.
4. Once cheese is melted, flip with a spatula and slightly brown the other side, then serve whole or cut into wedges, with guacamole, sour cream, and/or salsa.

Serve quesadillas with a salad to make a hearty, nutritious meal.

Puppies!!!

We have puppies!!!


Four beautiful little darlings, to be precise. They arrived in the wee hours of the morning yesterday, September 1st – right on schedule.

Mo had been acting a bit antsy during the afternoon, according to Nanny & the kids, but when I got home from work she seemed a bit more settled. We even took her out to the field after supper with Pigster and played out there for an hour. But as soon as we got settled for bed, it became apparent that she was in serious labour – and that I wasn’t going to get much sleep at all.

The kids were asleep by 9:30 and I had almost fallen asleep by 10:00 when MoMo woke me with barking and scuffling. I got up and let her out to pee, after which she jumped onto the kids’ bed and settled there. That lasted for all of about 3 minutes, then she was up and pacing back and forth from kitchen to bedroom, pawing in her crate, pawing in the whelping box, jumping on my bed and off, and about a half hour later barking again. That was the pattern for the next 2½ hours. Button slept through it all, but Mustang awoke around 10:30 and couldn’t settle again what with MoMo being so unsettled. So she kept me company with MoMo until half past midnight, at which point MoMo headed straight for the whelping box and settled down to push. We saw a puppy sac begin to emerge, so Mustang rushed over to wake Button and tell him the puppies were coming. That puppy went back in, though, and it actually took another hour before the puppy finally popped out. The others followed in short order and within an hour we had four little darlings.



However, an ultrasound in late July had shown 5, maybe 6 puppies developing or so the vet said, so we were expecting another two or at least one to arrive. But MoMo didn’t seem to know that. She settled in to nurse her pups and didn’t act at all like there was anything more happening. After an hour of waiting with nothing happening I sent the kids back to bed, promising to wake them should another puppy arrive, and sat down to keep watch By 5 am nothing had happened so I headed to bed myself. Nanny arrived at 7:15 and tried to sneak into the house (I’d posted a notice at the front door to alert her we were sleeping) but MoMo barked a bit which woke me. I went back to bed for another hour, but the kids got up to show Nanny the puppies.



After breakfast I called the vet and said I wasn’t sure whether to be concerned about the lack of puppy/ies #5 and possibly #6 or not, as MoMo didn’t seem to be labouring any more. They recommended coming in for another ultrasound to be sure, so just before noon – after having taken Mustang to the dentist and slept a bit more – we bundled the pupsters into a little basket and took them with MoMo to the vet’s office. The ultrasound revealed that no, there were no more puppies in there – so four it is!!

Introducing:

Sapphire Sea Star
born at 1:48 a.m. – a lovely dark chocolate girl (the only girl of the litter) who came in weighing 175g.

Zircon Ocean Spume
born at 2:01 a.m. – a lighter chocolate boy, weighing 230g.

Carnelian High Tide
born at 2:34 a.m. – a cream-coloured fellow, who was a hefty 290g (Mo really had to push to get him out; I helped along a bit).

Jasper Jellyfish
born at 2:44 a.m. – a darker apricot-coloured guy who already seems to have the calmest personality of the lot, weighing in at a mere 174g.

Stay tuned for more pix as they grow and develop!!

Home!

Sunday morning dawned clear and sultry once again. After a cool beginning to our trip we now were into a heat wave!


In mid-morning a prospective puppy purchaser came to meet us at the Sanctuaire. She’d contacted me a month or so back and I’d offered to meet her during our trip so she could see Mo and check us out, and me her. She was a very outgoing lady and likely a good dog owner, though it emerged she wasn’t necessarily looking to buy a puppy from Mo’s upcoming litter but possibly down the road, once her current dog (aged 9 and not faring well) passes on.

Button and Mustang had been fishing along the St Lawrence prior to the lady coming and, after greeting her and posing for pictures with her and MoMo, I told them to come to the bus “and don’t forget the fishing rod” which they’d been using mere moments before. But the fishing rod was nowhere to be found. Button had last had it down along the river, but had likely dropped it once the lady came in his excitement to meet her. We walked along the entire shore, looking for it, and even asked at the campground office if anyone had turned it in. Nothing. I was rather disappointed, not merely because we’d only had it less than a week and used it all of twice, but also because this was after all a Christian sanctuary and wouldn’t you expect people coming here to be honest folk? Apparently not. Although the folk along the riverbank were not necessarily pilgrims but could also have been general city folk enjoying the beach.

A final wave good-bye to the Sanctuaire and we once again boarded the bus for the final leg of our journey home.

At supper-time we finally rounded the corner to our house and gave a cheer! Home at last!

It was good holiday and an adventure for us all, but it was good to be back home.

Potato Museum, beach-time, & no-whale watching

The best place in a campground to catch moths is at the toilets. In case you didn’t know.


After a leisurely breakfast, we headed back to the main road west, out of the park and towards the Saint John river valley. This is a rich and fertile area, with excellent farming and good soil for potatoes. McCains has their headquarters in the area, and a Potato Museum at which we stopped to learn more of the lowly spud.





One thing I learned is that potatoes have the highest protein content, next to soybeans, of any vegetable or legume. No wonder the Irish could, not just survive, but fare well on little more than potatoes.

Further up the river we stopped at a beach. It was a lovely hot day, near 30°, and all sunshine and blue sky. The kids played in the water for an hour, then we got out the fishing rod and wandered down to a nearby dock where they tossed the line into the water for another half hour or so, without success.




From there we crossed into Quebec and went into the city of Rivière du Loup, a bustling small metropolis. Near the centre of town is a park with a series of waterfalls (and hydro-electric works). A system of walking paths follows the gorge, and we embarked on a walkabout. The kids and I with Mo headed in one direction, while Laolao and Laoye said they’d go the opposite way. We had gone about half the distance when the heavens opened and rain began to pour down. In no time we were all soaked to the skin – so might as well keep walking! Shortly along we met Laolao and Laoye who, wisely, had read the clouds and fished out their raincoats before setting out. By the time we got back to the bus the rain had stopped and we all dried off and put on dry clothes.


That night we spent in the Zellers parking lot.

I’d said I’d pay for a whale-watching expedition for all of us – hence the stop in R-du-L. As luck would have it, the next morning dawned rather foggy, but we made our way to the cruise dock nonetheless. We had been told, after all, that there was a money-back guarantee if no whales were spotted.


No sooner had the ship left shore than Laolao and Mustang spotted a beluga. That was the first and last whale anyone saw. The riverguide / naturalist gazed through the fog non-stop and called out whenever he saw a grey seal – of which we saw, or rather glimpsed, quite a few – but no whales were to be seen, no doubt in large part owing to the fog.

Upon returning to the shore we were informed that they could not refund us our money but we were free to take the afternoon cruise at no charge, or we could take a voucher to take the cruise again at a future date this year, again at no charge. As we had no time to linger I took the voucher, with little hope of making it back out to R-du-Loup for another chance to see whales, at least not this whale-watching season.

From there we headed west again, towards Trois-Rivières, and found the Sanctuaire Notre-Dame-du-Cap, a Catholic retreat centre with a small campground for pilgrims to the Sanctuary. We took up residence there for the night and spent some time that evening exploring the lovely grounds.