an updated beef and broccoli recipe

 my mom used to make this beef and broccoli dish for "special occasions"  when i was young, and when i moved out on my own, it would become a special treat meal at my house too.  it was so good and pretty easy, and one of my favorite meals.  but the price of beef has become so crazy that we hardly ever eat any sort of beef other than ground beef.  and even that is ridiculously expensive!!!

 i was grocery shopping recently and saw some lovely broccoli, and immediately thought about my mom's beef and broccoli recipe.  and i was like - why not make it with ground beef??????

and so i did!

 and it was great! even the kids liked it, which is shocking.  i will add this back into my cooking rotation which means the kids will never want it again.  

journaling

 i have been pretty inconsistent with journaling this year, but i have been inconsistent with pretty much everything this year!  so, it's not doing better or worse than anything else in my life i suppose.

i have been the most consistent with my book journal.  i fear i am not on track to meet my goal of 80 books read this year, but i'll try my best.  i have been reading mostly from the library and libby app this year.  support libraries!!!!

 i started keeping a media journal this year for the tv shows and movies we watch.  it's nothing more than a monthly list of the show name but it works for me.

we went to Vancouver this summer and i have a big bag of stuff for my junk journal.

 while there i got to go to a stationary store - i was SO excited!  unfortunately for me, it was very very small and didn't have a lot of the stuff i was looking for - accessories and fun stuff mostly.  but i bought a journal and a few pens.

 

kamloops is beautiful

 

how it feels to be canadian

 

book club 48 - the way of the hermit by ken smith

 2026-48

 

the coconut

 my bff boo and i went out for lunch last month and decided to try somewhere different, and we chose the coconut restaurant on seymour street.

the menu is absolutely huge, but we had done our research before we arrived, and knew what we wanted.  my boo went with the butter chicken, and i went with the butter chicken dosa.

her butter chicken came in a large bowl with rice on the side.

 i had never had a dosa before, and i imagined it would be like a burrito.  i was wrong.

 it was an absolutely gigantic triangle of the lightest, crispest, most delicious thin crepe-like treat.  so SO good.  there was a healthy dollop of butter chicken folded in the center, and 2 sauces and a soup on the side.  it was all delicious, but my favorite part was that the butter chicken had been sauteed in a pan, and the chicken, instead of being soft, had a bit of char and texture on the outside,  it made it even more delicious.

i can't tell you how my boo's butter chicken was, because she did not offer me any.  ahem.  but i assume it was just as good as mine.

head downtown and check out the coconut!

 

book club 47 - the bewitching by silvia moreno-garcia

 2026-47

 

book club 46 - soul searching by lyla sage

 2026-46

 

 

reading watching listening loving eating

 reading - the frozen river.  i am reading it slowly, what a wonderful, sad, sadly timely book.

 

 

watching- season 2 of north of north

 

 listening - blue noise

 

loving - this mushroom shaped soap from lush.  it smells soooooo good.

 

 eating -  the crock pot has been making more frequent appearances for stews, chilis and soups.  it's time to get cozy.

pickled tomatos and other eats

 i wanted to make a tomatoey pasta dish but we didn't have any cans of tomatos or much pasta, so i used tomato paste and orzo.  it was good, but not the dish i had envisioned.

 for months now i have been crazing cinnamon rolls.  i made this cinnamon roll loaf cake which was fine, and of course no one else liked it, and it didn't quench my cinnamon roll thirst.

 i made pickled cherry tomatos, which were ok, but not as flavorful as other pickled vegetables are because of the tomato skin.  i poked some holes in each tomato with a toothpick which might have helped, but it wasn't anything amazing.

heirloom tomatos and mayo on toasted sourdough. 

store bought biscuit dough stuffed with roast beef, cheddar and horseradish sauce.  pinch them shut and bake 'em.

toast, tea and oranges for brekkie

toast with pasta sauce and shakey cheese

the old classic bean salad.  still a winner.

summer day trip

early in july we took a trip to desert hills in ashcroft, and on the way we stopped at juniper beach park.  the scenery was gorgeous, but very smoky, and we watched trains and looked for cacti and the kids practiced their casting techniques at the water.

 we stopped at the taco stand in cache creek for lunch. it was SO hot.

 by the time we got to the market none of us were feeling very great from the smoke and the heat so we quickly bought some produce and drinks for the car, fed the goats and headed home.

 

i used some of the tomatos i bought to make my world famous (to me) bruschetta - tomatos, garlic, olive oil, balsamic, salt.  perfect.

 

 

i haven't given up on decluttering, but i'm not making much progress either

 a few paltry things i got rid of this summer - 

 some were thrown out, some were donated, some were given away.  

a whole 9 small items out of the house, bringing our total to 77. 

lunch at my desk - butter chicken and rice

 

 

book club 45 - escape by stephen fishbach

 2026-45

 

lets go to the wednesday farmers market

 

book club 44 - the road to tender hearts by annie hartnett

 2026-44

 

lunch at my desk - sushi again

 

grocery shop - nuleaf market september 18

 

corn, apples, peaches, rye bread

$23 

summer fruit sauce

 to me summer means trying to eat as much local fruit as i possibly can.  and often i buy too much, and then we freeze, puree, or make sauces from what is getting too soft/old to be eaten in it's original form.  

i had some strawberries and nectarines that were on the way out, so we cut them up and cooked them with some butter and maple syrup into a lovely sauce that was delicious over ice cream, on pancakes, mixed into yogurt, or just eaten on its own.