13 Sunday Oct 2024
Posted in family, food, health, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, cheated, dinner, family, food, lobster, moments, pie, steak, thanksgiving, weather, widow
for Thanksgiving dinner we had steak and lobster… enjoyed setting the table a little fancier than normal..
a fun change, and happy to have the steak grilled..
and it was delicious…
as was the cute little half pumpkin pie for dessert, lol…
even cheated and used canned whipped cream, which saved time and energy;-)…
18 Thursday Apr 2024
Posted in business, family, food, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, technology, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, birthday, blessed, bliss, cards, dinner, family, flowers, food, friends, happy, hot tub, moments, nature, pedicure, Technology, treats, weather, widow
what a lovely day…
had a pedicure, which was a real treat as I haven’t had one since covid… the massage portion was bliss…
received cards, gifts, texts, and numerous phone calls… my kids were trying to see how many times they could sing happy birthday to me throughout the day, lol…
enjoyed the technology that let the Ottawa kids send me presents via Amazon…
treats turned up throughout the day, and a gorgeous bouquet arrived in the afternoon;-)…
dinner was barbecued steak and lobster with asparagus, mushrooms and tiny potatoes prepared by my housemate…
and considering the crazy weather – rain, snow, and bits of sunshine – barbecuing was a gift…
a final touch was a small portion of chocolate mousse;-)…
ended the night with a hot tub…
I am truly blessed…
26 Tuesday Dec 2023
Posted in family, food, health, life, moments, retirement, travel, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, chicken, Christmas, Christmas lunch, dinner, family, grandson, gravy, memories, moments, potatoes, preparing, stuffing, thawing, tradition, turnip, widow
I found out in the morning on Christmas Eve that we were going to have lunch on Christmas Day between trips my grandson was making between his various family clans;-)…
it was a quick trip to the freezer to pull out a beautiful chicken and get it thawing… I had been planning on a Cornish hen, with all the fixings, so it wasn’t a lot more to do to cook the chicken;-)…
a turnip was peeled, cut, boiled (so that the water would be available for the chicken gravy), and mashed…
mashed potatoes were also prepared and put into the fridge which helps with making a resistant starch…
stuffing was made and packaged, ready to go into the chicken…
took most of the day to thaw the chicken, lol, but it was ready for the oven in time…
everything turned out beautifully and we had a delicious Christmas lunch…
possibly a new tradition;-)…
23 Saturday Dec 2023
Posted in business, family, food, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
Assiniboine Park, big girl pants, biomes, blessed, dinner, evening, family, Gather Kraft Kitchen and Bar, grandson, koi, lush, moments, nature, night, plants, plastic, pond, The Leaf, walkways, widow
nearly a year to the day, we went back to The Leaf in the evening…
we ate dinner at Gather Craft Kitchen and Bar and then wandered through the biomes…
the restaurant was very busy, but we were seated by the window at a two-person table, so were quite a distance from the other diners…
we shared chorizo spiced seitan tacos, I had pork and veal meatballs, and my grandson had a fancy hamburger and everything was tasty… we decided to skip dessert and go for blizzards after our visit to the biomes…
as we wandered through the Tropical biome it was quite amazing to see how the plants have grown… the place is absolutely lush;-)… leaves fell over the walkways in a number of spots, lol…
looking down from the bridge on the third floor it was striking to see how much everything has grown…
it was the first time since that inaugural visit that I’ve been at night… unfortunately it was too dark for my Nikon so all my photos were with my iPhone… got to see some bananas, a pineapple, coffee beans and cacao pods…
it looks like the inside of the biomes have been wrapped with plastic, and the fans in the Tropical biome were blowing rather vigorously…
it was exciting to see that there were a great number of various-sized smaller koi in the pond… babies, maybe;-)…
the next post will be about the Mediterranean biome;-)…
21 Thursday Dec 2023
Posted in family, food, health, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, dinner, family, grandson, grandsons, happy, moments, time, treat, visit, widow, wishlist
one of the items on my Christmas wishlist was a visit from my grandsons, so I was excited on Sunday to prep for their visit…
had fun setting the table all fancy for our dinner…
I haven’t seen them since the summer so this was a great treat…
it was fun to watch them open their Christmas presents after dinner…
thanks to the oldest for making this happen;-)…
24 Sunday Sep 2023
Posted in food, garden, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
beans, big girl pants, blessed, boiled, dinner, food, garden, last, moments, nature, plants, tasty, veggie garden, weather, widow
between the bits of rain yesterday, I went out and picked the last of the beans…
well, I think it was the last of them… I’ve thought that a few times, lol…
cut them and boiled them up for supper… they were delicious, even if they were a little on the overgrown side…
24 Monday Jul 2023
Posted in business, food, health, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, dear, dinner, fish & chips, food, friend, garden, moments, time, treat, widow
enjoyed some delicious fish and chips Thursday…
a dear friend, who I have not seen for ages, came for dinner and brought the treat…
it is our pattern to always have fish and chips as it is one of our favourites, lol…
we had a wonderful visit and I also had leftovers for my lunch the next day;-)…
such a special time…
19 Wednesday Apr 2023
Posted in business, family, food, life, moments, retirement, technology, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, birthday, blessed, blizzard, bouquets, cards, dinner, family, flowers, food, friends, happy, hot tub, lobster, miraculously, moments, presents, Technology, treats, widow
had a lovely day yesterday…
started with an early morning hot tub as the sun shone… then had pie for breakfast…
there were phone calls, text messages, visits, it was great and a DQ blizzard miraculously appeared;-)…
I spent time reading, napping, and watching a few programs…
we had steak and lobster for supper and I didn’t even have to clean up;-)…
my kids gave me another subscription for eight bouquets this summer… I loved the ones last summer… and this afternoon flowers arrived to brighten the dull day…
all in all, a pretty fine few days…
birthday week’s are fun;-)…
01 Saturday Apr 2023
Posted in family, food, health, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
beige, big girl pants, blessed, cooking, dinner, family, food, grandsons, happy, home, home cooked, moments, widow
had a delightful day yesterday… got to cook for my grandsons…
made stuffing (one of their absolute favourites), prepped mashed potatoes, boiled a turnip (to use the water in the gravy), cut up cucumbers, cooked mushrooms, and opened a can of cranberry jelly…
such a treat to have them for a home-cooked meal, lol… and fun to make dinner for more than one or two people…
put the chicken into the oven and the final piece was to make the gravy and pull out the cranberry jelly (only two of us like that)…
as always, while I work away making the pieces of the meal, I am thinking about the people who will be eating the meal with me…
dinner turned out delicious, although it was a bit on the beige side, lol… sadly, only one of them was able to come as the other was home sick with a stomach bug;-(… I did send home a goodie bag for when he feels better…
04 Wednesday Jan 2023
Posted in family, food, life, loss, moments, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, dinner, dishwasher, escargot, family, food, home, lobster, memories, moments, New Year's, preparations, remembering, steak, time, treat, widow
for years we celebrated New Year’s Eve with steak and lobster… this started with friends before we had kids;-)…
at some point it moved to New Year’s Day as the kids wanted to participate but were off celebrating on the night before…
this year I enjoyed the preparation as I worked on getting escargot stuffed mushrooms, baked potatoes, fried mushrooms and sautéed Brussels sprouts ready…
the kids arrived, got the barbecue going and then grilled the steaks and lobster tails…
dinner was delicious and we had a great time…
on Monday, as I emptied the dishwasher and put away all of the pieces we used, I revisited the fun and special moments…
and the tradition continues…
herbiggirlpants 