Mr.Shawarma

Dinner today -> Mr.Shawarma Super Family Special.
Ordered the Super Family Special from Mr.Shawarma for dinner and took it to my parent's place.

Family Special Shawarma.

Ben already had plans for dinner, so the four of us tried to destroy it, but couldn't.  I was only able to eat 4 wraps full.

Good stuff, but this time I found the chicken really dry.

Useless Idol Info:
I got the Type B and Type C of the Not Yet "Already" album from HMV Japan.  Included Sasshi bonus photos.

Not Yet "Already" Album, Type B and C.

Not Yet Play Button

Dinner today -> Roast Pork and Wings.
CMC Strikefighters softball practice was cancelled today.  Since I was already halfway to T&T, I went there and picked up some groceries (forgot to look for your shrimp chips, Ed) and some cooked food for dinner.  I got some Roast Pork (with lots of crispy skin) and some wings.

Roast Pork and Wings.

Useless Gaming News:
Got my KickStarted Elemental Blast game in the mail.  It's a quick and simple card game.  Got to sleeve the cards and try it out.

Elemental Blast.

Useless Idol News:
Got my Not Yet type A album "Already" today in the mail, with a couple bonus photos.  I also got the special type D Play Button version. 

Not Yet "Already" Album.

The play button is an actual pinable button that plays the album, like a mini iPod.  It's a pretty cool and unique item.

Not Yet Play Button.

Cherry Focaccia

Dinner today -> Pita
Made some pitas filled with BBQ steak, lettuce, onions, mayo, and garlic sauce.  The steak was abit chewy so it didn't work well inside the pita, so I should have sliced it into small pieces.  BTW: Pitas are on sale at Sobey's for $1 a bag.

Useless Food News:
I also picked up a "Sweet Cherry Focaccia" bread from Sobey's.  It's pretty good.  Similar to a bearclaw donut, but not as sweet.  It was also on sale for $3.99 ($3 off). 

There was also a "garlic rosemary" version with huge chunks of garlic cloves, I may want to try while the sale is still on.

Weekend Report: Soup

Food this weekend ->
I had some lettuce and steak in the fridge and I didn't know what to do with it.  I decided to make a soup with it, along with some shitake mushrooms and egg.

It turned out very tasty.

Lettuce, Steak, Mushrooms, and Egg Soup.

I got a rack of BBQ Texas Ribs from The Butchery.  It wasn't on sale, but I wanted beef ribs.  I slice up the ribs and roasted them in the oven uncovered, then covered.  I added Sensations "No Limits" BBQ sauce from Sobey's on them too.  This sauce is really good on ribs, or meat in general.

Roasted Ribs.

Useless Idol Info:
Didn't do much this weekend.  I was at work alot of the time.  In a small window in the background re-watch a bunch of AKB48 concerts while reviewing stuff for Montreal.  I re-watched Kasai's graduation concert, and both days of the 2011 Aki Matsuri Concert. 
2011 "Candy" (Kasai, Yuka, Yukirin version)

CrossKix Shoes

Got a package in the mail today with a pair of my KickStarted CrossKix shoes.  They are like Krocs mixed with a running shoe.  Pretty comfortable.  I got the Black Gold and Greystone.  I should have gotten a different colour if I had known the highlighting on the Greystone was not as light as in the pic in the KickStarter site.

CrossKix Shoes.

Useless Food News:
Ed told me that PoutineFest started today.  Ben and I went last year and wasn't impressed.  It was expensive for little return.  This year has 17 vendors, but I don't think I can be troubled to go on the weekend.  I'd rather go try out Flapjack's Pancake Shack that Bobby Ryan recommended on twitter.  Besides, the poutine place "Spuds" in Barrhaven is pretty good and you get alot for the price.

Dinner today -> Steak and Fries.
Speaking of fries, I decided to roast some quick cooking fries with a side of steak for dinner.

Steak and Fries.

Convection roasted at 450F for 5 mins, flipped the steak, and 5 more minutes.  Steak came out medium.  Next time I'll take it out 2 minutes earlier for a more rare steak.

Steak and Fries.

Useless Idol News:
Got a heavy package of mostly Idol books in the mail today too.  In the package was AKB49 manga, Matsui Rena photobook, AKB48 in Hawaii photobook, AKB48 2013 Kouhaku DVD, and Kasai Tomomi Photobook!

Idol Stuff.

This fan has some sample Kasai scans from the photobook on his site.

Lots of Cards in the Mail

Useless Gaming News:
Got a huge box in the mail today, but inside it was mostly filled with crumpled brown paper.  At the bottom were a bunch of packs of gaming cards.  Don't know why they used such a large box.
I didn't realized the KickStarter "Village in a Box" shipped and I just got 8 new card games.  Other than "Village in a Box", I also want to play "Noueni", "Trade Fleet", and "Monster City Planners".  It was cheaper to buy all the games in a bundle than picking and choosing individual games.

KickStarter Games.

Useless Idol News:
I finally got my HKT48 card set in the mail.  I won it off eBay and it took quite awhile to arrive.  But now I've got a complete set and don't need to buy any more boxes (and the fact that they are sold out everywhere too).  Still like to track down a Motomura Aoi or Okada Kanna autograph.

HKT48 Set.

I don't know what I'm going to do with this redeemable insert for an HKT48 Event.

HKT48 Event Card.

Canadiens Sweep Lightning!!!

Lunch today -> Vera's Burger Shack.
Got a couple of Vera's Burgers, fries and a drink today for lunch from The Butchery.  I had a coupon for buy 1 get 1 free with 2 drink purchase (got a second coupon for another time).  The burger is very good ($5.99).  I only put lettuce, tomatoes, onions, mayo and ketchup on them.  I wanted Vera sauce, but they didn't have any left.  The fries were so-so.  I found them too crispy (not like Glen's at Canadian Tire), but the fries gave a good crunch when I put them inside the burgers :)

2 Vera's Burgers, Fries and a Drink.

Dinner today -> Parmesan and Herb Pasta.
Made some spaghetti and then dump a good helping of "Parmesan and Herb" from a spice bottle on it.  I also added some shitake mushrooms, black pepper, garlic butter, leftover roast beef bits, and abit of oyster sauce.  Made a big helping for dinner and a smaller bento sized helping for tomorrow's lunch.  (Scaring the mushrooms make the presentation much more appetizing.)

Parmesan and Herb Pasta.

Useless Easter News:
Got some discounted Kinder Eggs at Target from their leftover Easter supply sale.  Most of the good stuff was gone, but I was sick of Cadbury Creme Eggs anyways (too sweet).

Kinder Eggs.

Useless Hockey News:
Whoo hoo!  Montreal Canadiens SWEEP the Tampa Bay Lightning!!!  They were a different team without Bishop and trading away St.Louis.  It also helped that all the calls went Montreal's way.

Bakable Kit Kats

Dinner today -> Roastbeef Sandwiches,
Took my leftover roastbeef to my parent's place and used their slicer to slice the meat thinly. 

Sliced Roastbeef.

Then we ate roastbeef sandwiches.  I used fresh Italian bread, honey mustard, and mayonnaise in the sandwich.

Roastbeef Sandwiches.

Useless Food News:
I got my bags of the limited edition Bakable Kit Kats from Japan.

Bakable Kit Kats.

I baked them tonight in a toaster oven.  Use aluminum foil on the pan, and place the pan on the middle rack.  Set it to broil or toast (whichever one that activates the top heating elements) and wait 2-3 mins, and remove when it turns brown.

Move it to Middle Rack (wrong above).

Let it cool for a minute to let the hot melted caramelized chocolate re-solidify.  It tastes pretty good.  Alot like creme brule.

Baked Kit Kat Tastes like Creme Brule.

Long Weekend Report: Happy Easter!!!

Happy Easter!!!
I spent half the long weekend at CMC, and the other half cleaning up the house and watching hockey.  I would be playing Diablo 3 but I'm getting super lag.  I tried playing but the lag was so bad that I even died a few times.

Food this long weekend ->
On Thursday, Ed, Steve, and I went to Ox Head for lunch.  We all got the V13 Ox Head Vermicelli.  It's the best one as it has everything in it.

Ox Head Vermicelli.

When we got back, Susanna's work was visiting our building to inspect where they are moving in to, and they had a pizza party in the cafeteria.  They ordered a ton of JoJo's Pizzas (26 pizzas).

Leftover Jojo's Pizza.

Susanna was able to get Ed and myself a few slices.

On Easter Sunday, family went to Panda Garden Buffet for lunch.  The selection was so-so.  The only normal sushi they had was California Roll (which I never eat) and Salmon Avocado.  All the others were not that good and had some kind of sauce on it.

As you see, all my plates at mussels on it.  They were big and was the money food.  I had wings on each plate too, as I think it's their best dish.

For dessert, they have a very good coffee cake.  Goes well with vanilla ice cream.

Desserts.

Sunday night I made a beef roast.  I turned out pretty good.  If the stores weren't closed, I would have gotten some potatoes, carrots and onions to cook on the bottom.

Good-looking Roast.

It was between medium-rare to medium. Needed abit more salt, but it's better than too salty.

Roast Beef with Rice.

Burrito Filling

Are stores open on Friday or is everything closed for Easter?

Dinner today -> Burrito Filling
I cooked some ground beef in a pot and added mushrooms, chipotle beans, garlic, spices, and a little yellow curry.

Ground Beef, Mushrooms, Beans, and Spices.

Then I mixed in some white rice to soak up the liquid and topped it with a raw egg.

+ Rice and Egg.

After mixing it together and eating it, I realized I just made a burrito filling, LOL.  I made it without knowing.  I just need to add some chopped tomatoes, avocado, cheese, and sour cream.

Useless Hockey News:
Watched most of the Montreal @ Tampa Bay game.  MTL won 5-4 on OT.  MTL dominated :)  The neat part was during the pre-game warmup when CBC featured TB's Victor Hedman.  In the warmup he would use his stick blade and chop up and down between the spread fingers of a trainer (ie like using a stiletto knife between fingers).  I wonder if he hits the trainer sometimes?

Useless Gaming News:
I got my KickStarted copy of Ancient Terrible Things boardgame in the mail.  Need to read the instructions, sleeve the cards, and play test it.  2-4 player, 60 min game using worker placement and dice rolling.

Ancient Terrible Things.

Too Many Whelks

Dinner today -> Steamed Pork & Soup Dumplings and Whelks.
Steamed some frozen pork & soup dumplings.  There wasn't much soup in these, but it's still good.

Steamed Pork Soup Buns.

I also steamed some frozen whelks from T&T.  They were like extra large snails.  I dipped them in some Hoisin and Sriracha hot sauce.  They were good at first, but after while it wasn't as good.  Some where abit slimy too.

Steamed Whelks.

Useless Food News:
As Anthony and I term it, the "caviar of the chocolate milk world" is on sale at Sobey's (dark chocolate milk).  There is a new design on the carton too.

Dark Chocolate Milk.

I tried some limited edition Fudge covered Ritz.  They are so-so.  Tastes like non-sweet chocolate covered Ritz crackers.  Maybe if the chocolate was more sweet and the Ritz cracker was more salty, it would have been good, but it wasn't. 

Fudge Covered Ritz.

Useless Toy News:
I got these new Amazing Spider-man 2 Legends figures a couple weeks ago: Spider-girl and Black Cat (Gordon found me Spider-girl).  Somewhat hard to find as they are 1 per case and it's either Black Cat or Spider-girl in the case.

Hard to Find Spider-man 2 Figures.

Congratulations K-Lowe!!!

Congratulations K-Lowe 
on winning the "Robot Hockey" hockey pool!

Dinner today -> Rice Mix.
I cooked rice with some marinated pork belly.

Pork Belly Cooked in Rice.

Then I chopped up the pork, fried some onions and garlic, and made some scramble egg to mix into the rice.

Mixed Rice.

It was OK.  The rice was alittle greasy but very flavourful.  Will probably use less of the pork belly next time or switch to chinese sausage  Could use some fish tofu and green onion too.

Useless Food News:
Susanna picked up some "Tortilla" Pringles and Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies for me from the US.  Give these a try later.

USA Snacks.

Weekend Report: No more Tree

I decided to cut down the bush/tree plant infront of my house.  It was getting too big and I want to grow something else (maybe bamboo and strawberries).  This is the mid-way point after I cut most of the smaller braches off with a branch cutter.

Cutting down the Tree.

I removed the remaining bigger branches with a hand saw.  Still have a stump left to saw off when it stops raining; and the roots to chop up with a spade later.

Food this weekend ->
Got some discount medallion steaks from Walmart.  Quick fried it and made a side of mushrooms.  Steaks were abit tough, but OK for $4.50.

Steak and Mushrooms.

Baked Crescent Rolls with hotdogs and bacon.  The hotdog ones are more satisfying than the 2 bacon ones.

Hotdog and Bacon Crescent Rolls.

My parent's went to Montreal and brought back some leftover lobster my uncle made.  It had lobster tails, giant scallops, and colossal shrimps in lobster sauce.  It's so good!  Too bad I don't know how to make it as good.

Lobster, Scallop, and Shrimp in Lobster Sauce.

I got some Frank's sandwiches on the way home from Comic Book Shoppe.  Lunch for Monday and Tuesday.

2 Frank's #1

I made some toast and removed some of the filling from the Frank's sandwich to make 2 more sandwiches.  I was completely stuffed after destroying that plate.

2 Additional Sandwiches from 1 Frank's Sandwich.

Useless Gaming News:
Played some games at Brian's place this weekend.  Started with 3-player Haggis.  It's similar to A$$hole but it has 5 suits and everyone has visible wild cards.  I think this is a good 3-player game.  I won :)

Haggis Card Game.

Next we played 4-player Fleet with expansions.  The expansion adds more boat varieties and buying license options.  I only bought and launched Processing Ships and Artisan Ships.  I had a huge fleet of 9 ships in the end while the others only had 3 ships each.  Brian was giving up again halfway through the game when he couldn't buy anything or launch any ships to compete with my fleet.  I won again, but only by 6 points over Paul.

Fleet Card Game.

We finished the night with Pandemic + In the Lab expansion.  We won with 3 turns left, so I was undefeated all night :).