Tag Archives: food

Lemon love

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My sister has a lemon tree in her back yard. The lemons on this tree are not normal. First of all, they grow quite large. The phot below show lemons from her tree. The two in my hand are what I’d consider large sized at my local grocery store, the rest are more typical of what comes off of her tree. Secondly, these lemons are sweet. I make a lemonade with them and there is no need for sugar.

The juice of two lemons fills half of a tall glass. Add water, (or if I’m feeling fancy, soda water), a little Angostura aromatic bitters, and some ice and I’ve got the most delicious lemonade I’ve ever tasted.

The lemons in the photo produced a litre of juice. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got some lemonade to make.

Duffy and Crab

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Today was a wonderful first day of holidays, visiting my mom and sister in Tustin. We went for a cruise on a Duffy boat then enjoyed a bag of seafood at a restaurant called Kicking Crab.

What’s a Duffy? It’s a fully electric boat that travels at 5 mph at its maximum speed. I got to captain it, with my wife, sister, mom, and an aunt who I haven’t seen in over 25 years. We circled protected a harbour in the boat, then drove around the beaches before going for a crab, shrimp, and clam feast.

A late afternoon nap was the final part of a wonderful day. I could get used to this!

Breakfast meetings

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I really think that the opportunity to ‘break bread’ at a meeting makes the meeting special. Breakfast and lunch meetings are more than a chance to get work done, they are also an opportunity to connect.

It’s not just about filling your belly, and it’s about the sharing of more than a meal. It’s an opportunity to build a connection that goes beyond the necessities of work. The act of eating together helps to build relationships in a way that a regular meeting doesn’t allow.

Breaking bread is a way to build relationships that simply doesn’t happen when food isn’t one of the things being shared.

In and out

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I joined a gym, and I took advantage of a deal to get 5 sessions with a trainer, for a great price. My trainer had me download MyFitnessPal, an App to track my calories and macros. I’ve been using this app for 10 days now and it has taught me a lot.

What I’ve learned first and foremost is that I have been totally clueless about my food intake. It’s such an important part of living healthy and yet I have had no idea what and how much protein I eat daily. I’m oblivious to how many calories I eat, and have zero sense for volume or weight of the food I eat… which makes knowing the benefits or consequences of my food intake impossible.

I’ve ranged from 1,104 calories with 65g of protein to 4,554 calories with 186g of protein daily: Basically from subsistence to gluttony eating almost 200grams of fat on my ‘big’ day.

I’ve done this with zero connection to how much exercise I’ve had in a given day. My lowest day also included an hour and 16 minute workout going up and down the Coquitlam Crunch with a couple extra loops of the 457 stairs section.

I need to understand what I’m putting into my body, and also how much energy I’m outputting. I want to know what I do to fuel my body and ensure I’m doing so in a healthier way than I have been. Tracking is a start, knowledge is power, but it’s only a start. Tracking has taught me that I’ve got a lot more to learn.

Turkey-less together time

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It was a turkey-less Thanksgiving this year. No big dinner plans, just a couple small family gatherings. I didn’t really miss the turkey, or stuffing, although I admittedly have a bit of a craving for cranberry sauce. I often joke that turkey is just a delivery platform for cranberry sauce.

Joking aside, while it’s nice to have traditions, and plan big meals together, it’s the together part that’s more important than the meal. Sitting in a restaurant with my wife and two girls Sunday night was wonderful, and a slightly larger family luncheon yesterday was enjoyable too, with my in-laws and sister-in-law. Then a quiet movie night ended the weekend.

This morning my oldest heads back to Vancouver Island and we are all back at work. The long weekend is over, and regular routines start again. Turkey or no turkey, what made the long weekend special was being together.

Extra sauce please

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This is a bit of a rant.

I hate ordering food and it comes with a tiny side of sauce. It’s annoying. Would it really be too expensive to add what would be 5-10 cents more sauce on a $15-25 dish?

When waiters walk by can they not see that I’m on my 2nd of 5 chicken fingers and I’m already scraping the bottom of the puny sauce container? Do I really have to ask for more?

When I’m at the bottom of the salad and I’m eating dressing-less lettuce, do you think I’m enjoying my meal? When I’m scraping the last tiny streaks of raspberry purée from an almost perfectly white plate to add a tiny morsel of the flavour to my last bite of cheesecake, am I thinking about how wonderful my final bite is going to taste?

I’m a saucy guy… give me the sauce, don’t make me ask.

Thank you!

Leftovers

I’m still eating turkey. We definitely didn’t need a bird as big as the one we got. We won’t get through all the leftovers we have from Christmas. But I have to say that I do love leftovers.

To me the best lunch I can have at work is yesterday’s dinner. I’ll pass on sandwiches, and skip the fast food, give me the meal I had last night.

That said, I’m just about turkey’ed out. One more day to enjoy my mostly meat diet and it’s on to new meals… and new leftovers.

Family Gathering

Last year I overcooked the turkey. This year I baked the biggest bird I’ve ever cooked, weighing in at 25.8lbs, and it was cooked to perfection. All the food was delicious.

But more than the food, the company was great. Any time that we can bring family together for a meal is wonderful.

Feeling blessed today.

Parking Karma

It’s Christmas Eve and I had some of the best parking and lineup karma I’ve ever had. Five stops and in every case the hunt for a rare open parking stall was almost instantaneous. The stores were busy but in the 3 places that we purchased items, we never waited for more than a couple people in front of us.

The lineup karma didn’t seem to be working at one location where we stepped into a very long line. Then we heard an employee, “Lanr 7 is open, lane 9, lane 3… he just kept going and we basically didn’t pause, moving constantly forward until we were in a lane with a person getting their last 3 items scanned. This was the same lineup we couldn’t get past to walk in the store, that didn’t seem to be moving at all, which made us question if we even wanted to bother shopping at this busy grocery store.

I’m back home and Spanish rice is in the oven. Next is my grandmother’s dish-baked stuffing that doesn’t get stuffed in the turkey. That’s two items that will only need reheating tomorrow, giving me time for all the other cooking to be done on feast day.

Seems the biggest lineup I’ll have to wait for all day is for space in the oven:)

Wishing all happy holidays… as well as good parking & lineup karma!

Doesn’t matter how old you are…

It’s great to spend time with your mom!

We spent a good part of the day shopping for ingredients for some food I remember from my childhood… a simple but delicious turkey stuffing (that doesn’t go in the turkey) and a Caribbean special, Peas and Rice.

And on that note, if anyone knows of a grocery store in Coquitlam that sells pigeon peas, please let me know, we are still on the hunt.