Salty's Beach House

The last time we ate at this restaurant it went by a different name, and we were different people - living in Calgary, no kids, more time and money to drink and eat out, less grey hair and wrinkles.

Ah memories.

 

This time we had 2 hangry kids in tow when we had dinner at Salty's.

The Boy had the strawberry lemonade, and it was pretty darn tasty.

 

The Grandmother had the lettuce wraps

The Boy had a really, really good cheese pizza.

And the photos stopped so we could start stuffing food in our mouths.

I had an odd but very tasty plate of fish and chips, The Grandfather had a burger, and The Mister announced he was the winner of the evening with his oyster and shrimp Po Boy. 

 I didn't try it because I don't like oysters, but it must have

 been pretty great because he talked about it for days.

Farmers Market July 30

I nearly made it out of the market without buying anything today. I resisted the zucchini, 

the pickling cukes, the gorgeous lettuces, the carrots and little potatos, 

but I could not say no to nectarines and cherries. 

We've bought cherries a few times this year, and they've been.....ok.... but these 

are the wonderful, deep flavored, meaty ones. Delicious! 

 We also bought 2 cookies - well, we bought one and The Grandparents bought the other - 

this one is a oatmeal raisin pumpkin seed, and it's darn tasty. 

Happy Saturday. When The Girl gets up from her nap, we are heading to 

Wal Mart (wheee.....) and then home for chores and salad for dinner.  

With mayyyyyyybe some ice cream for dessert.

Sunday Dinner - Shrimp Rolls and Blueberry Fool

No photos of this one, so sorry.  Hee hee.  

Both of the recipe came from Ten by Sheila Lukins, where the Brooklyn Brownies came from for another recent Sunday dinner.

The shrimp rolls were easy to make - shrimp tossed with lemon zest and juice and a bit of olive oil - and I added some garlic - and grilled, then mixed with a mayo sauce and bunned.

The adults ate the sandwiches as is, and the kids just had the shrimp.  Salad and veggies on the side.

They were good - I am not a huge shrimp person, usually a couple will do me just fine, so I was done after half my sandwich, but The Mister gallantly jumped in and finished mine off.   If I needed to make a shrimp sandwich again, I'd go back to this one, but it's not high on my priority list.

Dessert was Blueberry Fool - different than other fools I have made before.

This one was a fruit salad - the recipe calls for blueberries and blackberries, but I used blueberries and strawberries, topped with a chunky fool - blueberries and sugar briefly cooked down, then cooled and mixed with more fresh blueberries,  then stirred into whipped cream.

Again, good.  Again, not going to rush back to it.

I need to either win the lotto and move into a house with A/C, or find some no cook or BBQ recipes.  It's heating up out there.

Roasted Cabbage

I can't even pretend to try to get a good photo of a slab of roasted cabbage.  It had no good angle.  But lots of delicious flavor.

I found this recipe on Facebook, thanks to a friend. 

The children, shockingly, did not share the grown-ups enthusiasm for it, but whatevs.  More for us!

Recipe: Oven Roasted Garlic Cabbage

Sunday dinner - Chicken with Coconut Pineapple Sauce and Coconut Tea Cake

This was a GREAT Sunday dinner!  We tried 3 new recipes, and they were all hits.

First was Chicken with Coconut Pineapple Sauce.  This was a recipe saved from my recipe collection purge.  I've probably had this recipe at least 10 years.  No idea where it came from.

We served the chicken with salad, green beans and delicious roasted carrots 

from Gwyneth Paltrow's second cookbook.  The book is growing on me, 

but I don't like it nearly as much as I like her first.  

The carrots could change my mind though - so good.  

Dessert was Coconut Tea Cake from Dorie Greenspan, from her very good book, Baking. 

 I omitted the rum, and served with berries and whipped cream.  

It's good on its own, but so tasty with berries and cream. 

Chicken with Coconut Pineapple Sauce

source unknown with some changes from me

6 boneless skinless chicken breasts

3 Tb flour

salt

2 Tb oil

Sauce:

2/3 cup coconut milk

6 Tb pineapple juice or orange juice

4 Tb soy sauce

2 Tb lemon juice

2 Tb brown sugar

2 tsp cornstarch

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 tsp ginger, minced or grated

Preheat oven to 425'.  Spray a baking dish with cooking spray.  I used a 9x13.

Stir flour and salt together.  Lightly coat the chicken with flour.  Shake to remove excess.

Heat oil in a large pan over medium heat, and cook chicken until brown and nearly cooked through.

Place in one layer in your baking dish.

Meanwhile, whisk together the sauce ingredients.  

Pour the sauce over the chicken and bake uncovered for 15-20 minutes, until the chicken is cooked.

Coconut Tea Cake recipe here, with bonus icing recipe.  I would try this bonus icing recipe.....

Carrot recipe here - although note that the website says the recipe 

is suitable for vegans which it is not, because of the honey.

Bad Tattoo Brewing Company

When the possibility of a weekend in Penticton came up, almost the first thing everyone said was - 

We've got to go back to Bad Tattoo!

 Our last visit made us big big fans of the pizza (and for The Mister - the beer!).

Once again we started our meal with the soft pretzels, which are SO GOOD.  

The mustard dip is out of this world.  On the way out I asked if it was possible to buy some.  

A lady told me the name of the store in Penticton where they get it from 

but I didn't write it down and forgot it 2 minutes later.  

An internet search reveals the possibility it might be Il Vecchio's.....

Then we moved onto 2 pizzas; the Chicago pizza and Los Muertos.  

Both were pretty good.  I could have done without the arugula on the Los Muertos, 

but the pork was fabulous.  

The Chicago was good too.  

Caprese Salad, fresh and delicious.

Service was pretty disappointing - our waitress was super unfriendly, inattentive and actually rolled her eyes a couple of times when we attempted to ask her some questions. 

 If the food wasn't so good, and if our last visit hadn't been so great, I would probably not go back. 

They've got another chance out of me for another visit though.  

Can't get those pretzels out of my head...

Website here

Mountains and stuff - Field BC

A"heart shaped leaf" given to me by The Boy.

Book Club - Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

"When the sun was too hot we fell back into the water, and when the chilly sea made us shiver we crawled out again, and so it went until our shadows began to lengthen across the cove."

"She laughed and ran off to catch up with the others.  I didn't know what to call it, what was happening between us, but I liked it.  It felt silly and fragile and good."

For The Summer Reading Club - Juvenile or Young Adult.  Because I've wanted to read it since it was published, and now I'm on a list for the sequel.

Too much

“Until he extends the circle of his compassion to all living things, man will not himself find peace.” ―Albert Schweitzer 

These weeks and months have done me in.  

So much hate, anger, intolerance, cruelty, devastation.

Indifference.   

Why?  When will it end?  

This is not the world I wish for my children.  

For anyone.  

Believe there is good in the world.

Be the good.

Be it.

Be compassionate, be kind, be caring, be strong,  

be supportive, be a voice, be a shelter from the storm.

Be love.

Sunday Dinner - Mac and Cheese and Brownies

Another Sunday Dinner.  

This time I knocked it out of the park with Chrissy Teigen's Mac and Cheese.

I just love her book - everything we've made has ranged from good to amazing.  No real duds.

I must admit, I am a Kraft Dinner girl, having made mac and cheese from scratch only a handful of times in my life.  

But photos of Chrissy's M&C are all over Instagram and I just had to make it.

The recipe is super easy to make, once you get over the shell shock 

of how much cheese you have to buy.  

The garlic breadcrumbs are AMAZING.  They should be sprinkled on everything I eat.  

I made a half batch, and it was a good call as we had enough for 

4 adults and 2 kids with a bit leftover for lunch, 

and I had to only buy half the cheese in the world, not all of it.

This recipe is a keeper.

If you have her book, you'll see Chrissy talks a bit of smack about her husbands M&C.  

Here's a throwdown between the 2 recipes.  

For dessert I made Brooklyn Brownies out of Ten by Sheila Lukins, which were so delicious.  

I'd bought this book a few years ago for $5 at a bookstore. 

 I had no idea who Sheila Lukins was, but the book was in near perfect condition, and Bobby Flay had a blurb on the cover, so I figured why not.  

I've nearly got rid of it a few times over the years without trying anything from it, but I'm glad I hung on to it.  

I've got some more recipes marked to try for my Instagram cookbook test.  

If these brownies are any indication, this book will be a winner.

Snapshot - I am Walnut

Words cannot express how awesome I find these signs at Bulk Barn.

I imagine the voice to have a heavy Russian accent, or even better, perhaps sound exactly like Andrea Martin in My Big Fat Greek Wedding.

Book Club - The Tenth Muse - My Life in Food by Judith Jones

"Then she looked at me and asked: "Tell me, Judith, do you really like garlic?"  I couldn't lie.  Yes, I admitted, I adored garlic.  She looked so crestfallen at that moment that I was sure she felt a sense of finality about the wayward path her younger daughter had taken."

"Back in Paris, I reveled in the pleasure of being on my own.  I found cheap lodging at Hotel Lenox, four flights up, with one shared bathtub on the second floor, and I learned to enjoy a meal by myself with a half bottle of wine in the little local bistros.  I could really only afford one meal a day, so I had to choose carefully."


For the Summer Reading Club - An Autobiography or Memoir.
Why did I choose it for the Club?
It fit the category!  I bought this second hard last summer on holiday and hadn't
got around to reading it yet.  This gave me the push I needed.
It was a fun summer read - she has had a most interesting life!
I especially enjoyed reading about her childhood and early years on
 her own in France - what a dream.

Recipes

At one point, not that long ago, I had nearly 20 notebooks and binders filled with recipes. 

 Recipes from friends and family, newspapers, websites, books, magazines... You name it. 

 It was a hobby, collecting recipes. 

Would I ever try them all? Who cares? That wasn't the point. 

Until something in me changed. 

 I no longer have the same passion for cooking and eating that I once did. 

Recipe hunting, menu planning, even grocery shopping were things I used to enjoy. Not any more. 

Last year I went through all my books and binders and 

pulled out the recipes I knew I wanted to keep, 

or really really thought I would try, and recycled the rest.  

I put them all in a box and a few months ago I did yet another purge. 

Below is all I've kept, for now.   A huge difference from the literal boxes I had before.

Years back there was a great website called Naughty Curry that was 

both hilarious and a great source for recipes.  

Their spiced avocado butter was beyond amazing and I truly mourned 

when the website went offline.  

But look what I found in my purge!

Can I get a Hallelujah.  

This Fyltd Blonkal was the highlight of our Swedish Christmas dinner all those years ago.  

It was provided by Mary from Breadchick, another long gone blogger.

My whole collection now fits easily into 2 of those cardboard magazine holders.

There are some good family favorites that need to be re-made, and more exploring for new flavors that needs to be done.  I am just hoping that I'll go back to that place one day.  One day.  

If it's not soon though, it is a comfort to know that I have some of my very 

favorite and special recipes close by - my mom's cheesecake, her lasagne, a big handful 

of recipes from my talented friend H - and some new standbys as well as some

not yet discovered by us deliciousness.  

But I sort of hope it's soon.

Book Club - i'm just a person by Tig Notaro

"She was bold and uninhibited, and didn't care what anybody thought of her."

"I found myself doing and saying things that I never did or said when my mother was conscious, like running my hand over her hair and forearms and kissing her forehead.  I didn't feel like my mother heard or felt me, but I wished desperately for her to know that I was there with her, that I was doing everything she had ever wanted me to do and saying everything she had ever wanted to hear me say."

"Halfway through my show, I took a beat, realizing that this was a really special moment in my life that would never come again."

Golden, BC and Happy Canada Day!

This Spring we stayed a night in Golden and were totally charmed by the 

mountains, water, trees, sky, people and streets. 

So much fun! 

Have a Happy and Safe Canada Day today!  

The Girl is too young for the party at Riverside Park, so we are staying home 

and hanging in the backyard.  

There will be burgers, chips and dip, popsicles, and sprinklers.