book club 14 - Girl, Serpent, Thorn by Melissa Bashardoust

 2022-14

 

cookbook clean up 31 - Aces - More Recipes From The Best of Bridge

 If you are Canadian and grew up in the 70's, 80's or 90's, there is a good chance that your mom had at least one Best of Bridge cookbook in your house.  My Mom had a few and while I loved everything she cooked out of them, I also loved just reading the books for the recipes and cheesy jokes too.

 

This is Aces - More Recipes From The Best of Bridge - and I think The Mister bought this one from the used bookstore for me.  This one covers pretty much all the categories - breakfast, appies, mains, veggies, desserts..... 

It's a straightforward book, most recipes are less than a page, with few photos.

 This book was already a winner for me based on this chicken and asparagus recipe alone, but we tried a whole bunch more stuff.

We tried 3 cookie recipes - granola cookies, chocolate chocolate chip cookies, and macadamia cookies in which I subbed walnuts for macadamia nuts.  Soooooooo good.  We made a honey mustard chicken that was good, and a sticky chicken that was bland.  Pesto lasagne  - delicious!  Fried noodles Singapore made with pork instead of chicken and shrimp, and pasta with artichoke sauce.

 

This one is definitely staying on the shelf - there is lots more I want to try!

Back on the bookshelf - 16 Donated -15

small photo dump

 I'm not cooking anything interesting, I'm not reading hardly at all, we try not to drive anywhere unnecessary  because of the cost of gas.  I go for a daily walk but that's the extent of my self care.  I'm not drinking enough water - are my headaches stress related or from dehydration?  I get tired of saying this but holy crap, how quickly is this year going by???  The middle of JUNE already?  

The Boy has become obsessed with bubble tea and after a few excursions with his friends, he took his sister and me for some.  I haven't had bubble tea in years and years.  It was pretty good.  Saw a sign in the mall that there is a bubble tea place opening there this summer.  Kamloops is always behind on the trends.

What IS this?  I am truly drawing a blank.  It looks just terrible.  I don't think we ate it.  Why can't I remember this?

A couple of walk photos I guess I felt were important, a rock, and a good bumper sticker outside the bubble tea place.

I made the mac and cheese and pulled pork from the Unofficial Disney Parks Cookbook.  Very good and very easy.

We tried soup dumplings from Eastuff.  We did not like them.

I made these cauliflower and hallomi sandwiches from the Love and Lemons cookbook I borrowed from the library.. SO good.

book club 13 - Meaty by Samantha Irby

 2022-13

 

Big Mac Bowls

 

I loosely followed the directions for these Keto Big Mac Bowls  - didn't measure anything, left the cabbage raw and used lettuce as well, used diced pickles instead of relish, no huge changes - and it was wonderful!  Even, and I cannot believe I am going to type these words - BOTH KIDS LIKED IT.  

The Boy was especially impressed and thought we should contact McDonalds to tell them about this amazing meal, in case they hadn't heard about it yet.  :)

This was easy and delicious and very customizable.  Give it a try.

snapshot - first trip to the library in a loooong time

 

book club 12 - The Love Hyothesis by Ali Hazelwood

 2022-12

 

carrot ginger dressing

 

I foolishly decided that Buddha Bowls would be a fun dinner that everyone would like, so I spent a bunch of time chopping, prepping and cooking, laying out all the delicious choices, even with some homemade sauce.  I did all that only for my kids to walk into the kitchen and immediately start complaining that this was NOT what they wanted for dinner, and did we have any ramen or macaroni instead.

These people make me tired.

So I enjoyed my buddha bowl, with a bit of rice, some crunchy cabbage, shredded carrot, sauteed onions and peppers, tomatos, a couple of other veggies I no longer remember, with a bit of chicken, and drizzled with some delicous carrot ginger dressing.  I used the recipe linked below and it was very good - a bit too vinegary for us, but we added a bit more honey to balance it out.

Carrot Ginger Dressing

bang bang broccoli

 This is one of my favorite things that I have made lately.  It was so easy and so good - and even the leftovers reheated nicely.

The Boy is still hanging in there on his vegetarian journey, although his interest does seem to be waning.  I always give him the option of a meat or vegetarian meal, unless I'm cooking all vegetarian, and he has been choosing meat a bit more occasionally than before.  It's fine, and we don't put any stress or expectations on him.  I don't always come up with the most exciting menu plans for him, so I'm sure sometimes he's just not interested in more fishless fish and veggies.

But anyway, I thought this would be a fun side/main to try, and I was right.  Not that The Boy felt the same because he got invited over to his friends for dinner and so he abandoned us for cheese pizza and a hockey game.  Humph.

The Girl hated it, of course, but she doesn't like anything fun or interesting.  I made this in the air fryer and it was 100% the way to go.  If you have one, use it for this recipe.  Just so good.

Recipe - Bang Bang Broccoli

Dallas-Barnhartvale Nature Park

 Our first time at this excellent park.  We saw a moose!