Holiday Report -> Christmas 2018

Food this Christmas ->
Christmas Dinner #1 at my parent's house on Dec 25.
I made the prime rib roast with the 500 degree oven method.

Christmas Prime Rib Roasts.

It came out a nice medium-medium rare :)

500 Degree Method = Medium Rare.

My dad cubed up the roast at Ben's request.  It was actually a good idea, as it made it easy to eat with rice bowls.  We also had Chinese greens, tofu soup, mushrooms, and mix veggies (mini-potatoes, carrots, brussel sprouts, king oyster mushrooms, and red onions).

Christmas Dinner #1.

Desserts: lemoncello frutti de bosco cake (from Montreal), rice crispies (made by Susanna), snowball cookies, and mini cup pastries (from Costco). 

Christmas Desserts.

One of the mini cup pastries was a lemoncello flavour.  It was disgusting.  Tasted like Lemon Pledge!  Actually most of those cups were not good.  The chocolate one was tolerable.

Christmas Dinner #2 at my cousin's house on Dec 29.  We had this Christmas later because some people couldn't make it for our usual Dec 24 Christmas party.
I prepared sushi.  I prepared 10 rolls with a mix of salmon, avocado, cucumber, and egg.

Fongpay Sushi Preparation.

Lots of appetizers: sushi, smoke salmon, bacon wrapped water-chestnuts, Peking duck wraps, pate, and Chinese meat pastries.

Christmas Appetizers.

Main Dinner: roast lamb, shrimp and scallops in lobster sauce, butter chicken, Chinese greens, sweet potatoes & brussel sprouts, daikon with beef, and salads.

Christmas Dinner #2

View from the other end.

After eating all this food, we had a ton of dessert to eat too: black forest cake, chocolate toffee cake, lime cake, vanilla cake log, 3 kinds of cookies, eclaires, mille-feuilles, candied apples, rice crispies, sweet tapioca and taro soup, and fruit. 

Lots of Desserts.

Useless Ugly Sweater News:
We had a fun Christmas party at Anthony's place before Christmas.  (Anthony: you need to have it earlier next year.)

Anthony's Christmas Tree.

I wore my Spiderman Ugly Christmas sweater Jeff and Linda got me last year.

Spiderman Ugly Christmas Sweater.

Christmas Sweater

Wore my Ugly Christmas Sweater: Prime to work today :)  Julie got it for me last Christmas, but I had to wait a year to wear it.

Ugly Christmas Sweater: Prime.

Friday will be Ugly Christmas Sweater: Spiderman.

Montreal Business Trip

Been super busy mostly with work the past few weeks and I did abit of Christmas shopping.  I would have posted some pics, but that would have spoiled any Christmas presents I bought.

Food last week -> Scores.
Was in Montreal last week for work.  Spent a few days in a hotel and the rest of the time in a simulation lab.  The bad part was that most of the testers were sick or coughing.
The good part was I got to eat alot of Scores chicken.  I got the "2 Leg Meal" each night with some excellent pita bread from Adonis (not in picture).  I would save the chicken skin for last, rolled it in a pita, and dipped it in gravy to before chowing down. Washed it down with some L'Orange Maison drink too (only available in Quebec). 

There was a promo going on that the meal included super mini Turtles chocolates.  They were so tiny with amazing detail (shell was patterned), and they were tasty.  I wonder where you can buy these?

Useless Idol News:
Other than DC's Titans, I'm into watching the Korean show "Sister's Slam Dunk Season 2".  It's fun to watch as they bring in female celebrities of different ages (17-43) to form a girl group.  I'm on episode 9.  It probably helps that I know most of the celebrities from them being on Running Man.   FYI: Somi is a Canadian girl!

Weekend Report -> Botbots Set But No Box

Food this weekend ->
Tried out the new Man'oushi Restaurant on Friday for lunch.  I only ordered peis as they have a BOGO deal right now for the next week.  I ordered 6 pies: 1 meat, 1 zaatar, 1 cheese, 1 sujouk (spicy sausage), and 2 chicken and cheese pies.  When I got back to CMC, I noticed I only had 5 pies.  They forgot to give me the cheese pie (it was the one Becky wanted too).  I would have gone back, but since it was free, it wasn't worth my time.

The pies were OK.  They all tasted good, but I found the bread too thick and abit dry.  They were also smaller than Simbad's Bakery for the same price.  I think I prefer Simbad's.

Steve, Ed and I got some Christmas doughnuts from Tim Horton's.  It was basically a Boston Cream with sprinkles. 

I prefer the Boston Cream.  The sprinkles made it hard to chew and slowed me down.

Got a Hot 'n' Ready pepperoni pizza on Sunday night from the new Little Ceasar's by Sobey's.  I was scarfing it down, but on the 4th slice I found part of a long hair in the crust :(  Gross!  Stopped eating right there.  Made ramen a couple hours later when I got hungry.  I'm dumping the rest of the pizza.

Useless Transformers News:
Bought an unopened box of Transformers: Botbots Series 1 from Toys R Us Kanata.  As I was paying, the manager came by and told me I wasn't allowed to keep the box!?!?  So the manager opened my box and put all the packs into a bag.  I don't know why, and that is really stupid.  I almost didn't buy it, but I'm hanging on to the receipt and waiting for a sale to get money back.  If I had gotten the box, I probably wouldn't have cared.

Anyways, I got the blind pack set of 24 Botbots.  No doubles.  Just waiting for the 5-set and 8-set packs to finish the overall set.  (Preferably from Walmart.)

Black Friday and Cyber Monday Gets

Dinner today -> Spaghetti.
Used the Bravo pasta sauce to make a meat sauce tonight.  Browned ground beef, onions, and garlic before adding the Bravo sauce.
Made and drained spagehtti, then added mixed butter, garlic butter, Kraft cheese powder, sour cream and the meat sauce.

Spaghetti.

Useless Toy News:
Received all my Black Friday and Cyber Monday toy purchases now.  I got the Ghostbuster's Headquarters and alot of Batman Lego sets I was missing.

Lego!

I only 1 Transformer: Rodimus Unicronus.  I wanted to order Novastar too, but there were none left online.

Rodimus Unicronus.

Weekend Report -> Bravo!

Food this weekend ->
Went to Ox Head on Friday with Ed and Steve.  I wasn't very hungry as we just ate cake at 10am, but I still destroyed my bowl of vermicelli.

Ox Head Vermicelli.

I got some Korean Fried Chicken and Rice Cakes on Saturday from The Fry in Barrhaven.  The chicken is so good.  I got the half & half deal with sauce on one half and soy & garlic on the other half.  The rice cake was very good too, but it was abit too spicy while it was hot.  When it cooled down it was perfect.

The Fry.

Useless Food News:
I had thought Bravo pasta sauce was discontinued, as I haven't seen it on shelves for the past year, but Sobey's is carrying it again!  Yes!  This is the best spaghetti sauce.  It's a simple sauce without all the extra spices that are added in the other brands.

Bravo Pasta Sauce.

Happy Birthday Susanna!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SUSANNA!!!

Titanfall 2

Useless Food News:
Ed, Steve, and I went to Tim Horton's on Tuesday.  They finally have the new coffee lids!

New Tim's Dome Lids.

Useless Gaming News:
My informant (thanks Gordon) told me that PS4/XBoxOne Titanfall 2 game was for sale at Dollarama for $4!  After getting a copy for myself and spreading the news at work, everyone wanted one.  I picked up 5 more copies on the way home for them.  Still alot left at the Kanata North Dollarama (beside Sobey's).

Titanfall 2 at Dollarama for $4!

Weekend Report -> Shanghai One

I ran the United Way Jelly Bean count last Thursday.  I couldn't find a cheap jar that was uniquely shaped.  So to avoid calculated guesses, I added gummy bears and pop rocks to the jar.  Only the number of jelly beans counted and we used "Price is Right" rules on the guesses.

Shirley won by guessing exactly 400 jelly beans!


Food this weekend ->
I got some Japanese "Seasoned Plums" from the Kanata Chinese Grocery Store.

I've never tried these before, but I've seen them in bento boxes in the middle of rice.  They are really sour and salty.  A big pit in the middle too.  Becky says they are very good for digestion.

Made "5-minute" fries, a sandwich and a couple hard boiled eggs for lunch on Saturday.  I hate when the ketchup bottle shoots that watery ketchup water on the first squeeze.

Sunday night the family went to Shanghai One for dinner.  It was Susanna's pre-Birthday Dinner.  It was pretty good.  We got pipa tofu, fish, half steamed chicken, squid on greens, BBQ short ribs, salt & pepper shrimp, and beef chow mein (because you have to eat noodles on your birthday).

Everything was very good, except for the pipa tofu.  It was very doughy, ie they added too much flour as filler to the tofu.  The fish was excellent.  All the dishes had big portions too.

Useless Gaming News:
We played 5-player gaming at Gen's place.  We played the last 4 rounds of Charterstone.  Jeremy won and became the new King, just beating me out by a few points.  This is an excellent legacy game that does not involve backstabbing or any heavy competitiveness.  Lots of unique elements too.

Useless Food News:
Susanna got the new holiday Mountain Dew drink from the USA.  It's called Merry Mash-up.  It's Mountain Dew flavoured with cranberries and pomegranate.

It tasted like orange crush with a hint of cranberries to me.  It's something different to try and it's not bad, but not super good either.

United Way Volunteer

United Way events at work this week.  I volunteered this year to help with the events.
Tuesday was the Pancake Breakfast.  We had fresh pancakes cooked with lots of maple syrup and fruit as toppings.  I ate 3 servings and was so stuffed :)

Pancakes Assemble!

Today was the United Way Bake Sale/Buffet.  Pay what you want and eat as much as you want.  There were lots of bakers that donated the goodies.  There was so much variety, that I couldn't try everything.  This became my lunch and snack all day.

Table #1 of Goodies.

I made my Monkey Bread fresh in the morning.  It was still warm and gooey when we started eating.

Monkey Bread in Center Position.

Weekend Report -> Happy Birthday Jeff!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JEFF!!!

Food this weekend ->
I was off on Thursday and Julie and I spent the day shopping at Adonis, Trainyards, and at Costco.
From Adonis I picked up a few bags of fresh pita bread, some salmon mousse to dip it, duck in a can, L'Orange Maison juice, and a big slice of a Mille-feuille.

Mille-feuille.

We went to the new Sansotei Ramen location on Merivale for a late lunch.  Julie got the Spicy Tantan (Can't see anything in the bowl.  Everything was under the broth).

Spicy TanTan Ramen.

I got the Shoyu.

Shoyu Ramen.

These were ok, but we both agree that the Tonkotsu/Tonkotsu Black is better than both of these.

I got a pack of wings from costco.  I pan fried about 70 wings with just salt & pepper; then I finished them in the oven on broil.

Wings.

Ate some plain and some dipped in sour cream mixed with hot sauces from Meow! That's Hot.  I have the Lynx Lava (watermelon flavour) and the Bengal Burn (berry flavour).  The Bengal Burn is uber good.

Weekend Report -> Softball Party

Food this weekend ->
Made a big tray of cold egg white noodles marinated with soy sauce, oyster sauce, sesame oil and cooked vegetable oil.  Add a divider of blanched gai lan mixed with abit of oyster sauce and sesame oil; and finally added some fresh BBQ pork from Chinatown.  Brought this big tray to the annual softball party at Gary's on Saturday.

Egg White Noodles, Gai Lan, BBQ Pork.

There were lots of food and drink at the party.  I was stuffed after 3 plates.  The best dessert was Jes's chocolate cupcakes AND I got to take home 4 of them :)

Chocolate Muffins.

Made some ramen for dinner on Sunday.  I made a "tare" in the bowl with soy sauce, mirin, green onions, and fish sauce.  I then boiled chicken broth with some dashi adding glueten balls, gai lan, and ramen noodles.  Then I added the broth to the tare and the combo tasted amazing.  Added the noodles, glueten balls, gai lan, and an egg; and destroyed the bowl.

Ramen.

Useless Gaming News:
3-player gaming at Brian's house on Friday night, with Ben and I.  We played Stem: Epic Heroes, Everdell, and Exploding Kittens.
Stem is so-so.  I'm not sure if we played it right.  If we did, it's just a game that is pure chance.
Everdell is very good.  It's a worker placement game where you build a city to gain abilities and score points.  I think it's smilar to Charterstone's resource collecting/recalling workers with 7 Wonders' card playing/free card playing.  I think I want to pick up this game.

Everdell and Stem.

We finished the night with Exploding Kittens.  Pure luck game.  Fun for abit, but meh.

ByWard Market Butcher

Lunch today -> Muffette.
Got a sandwich from Sobey's for lunch.  Steve recommended the Muffaletta sandwich.

Muffaletta Sandwich.

It was good, but very greasy.  It was lacking something for me too.  Maybe it was the bread type?  Not sure if it was the right choice?

Useless Gaming News:
Did a 7-person escape at Jigsaw Escapes downtown tonight.  We did the new The Byward Market Butcher.  It was a very good and very tough room.  We had 1 hour to complete it and we technically got out with 32 seconds left.  The last door jammed and wouldn't open due to mechanical failure, but they still counted us as out.  They said we were the first group to escape.
The last 2 puzzles were very tough, but there were some really cool puzzles too.

Jigsaw Escape.

Clear Japanese Drinks

Lunch today -> Pork Bun.
Got a pork bun the other day from the Kanata Asian Market on Hazeldean.  I had forgotten how good it was.  It has a good amount of juicy pork, a chunk of chinese sausage, and half an hard boiled egg in it.  The bread is slightly sweet and fluffy.  I'm going to get a couple more next time I'm there.

Pork Bun.

Dinner today -> Sushi and Manchu Wok.
Susanna and I went out shopping tonight and on the way home we hit Bayshore for discount sushi and chinese food.  We got 4 trays of sushi as they were BOGO, but the only good tray left was the Avo Crunch Salmon, so we got 3 of them.  The Manchu Wok was $5 a box.  They both had fried rice and sprouts topped with honey garlic chicken or sweet & sour pork.

Discount Dinner Food.

Useless Food News:
At T&T they had the new clear tea drinks from Japan.  We got the clear matcha latte and clear lemon tea.  Susanna and I watched a video of this online but they didn't have this in Ottawa til now.

Clear Japanese Drinks.

The clear matcha latte tasted like milk tea!  It's good.
The lemon tea didn't taste like lemon tea.  It tasted like McDonald's orange drink or a flat orange crush.  Not very good.  Actually abit disgusting.

Weekend Report -> Nepean Sprotsplex Christmas Craft Show

Food this weekend ->
Went to Farmboy at lunchtime on Friday.  I got a pile of fried wonton poppers, perogies, and couple of drumsticks.  Their lunch bar has a really good selection of food.

Farmboy Lunch Bar.

I also picked up a couple Frank's sandwiches and McDonald's over the weekend.  Didn't eat much else or anything special.

Useless Food News:
Went to the Christmas Craft Show at the Nepean Sportsplex Friday night with Julie.  Lots of neat stuff, but most of what we bought was food.  I got 4 jars of tapenade (3 black olive and 1 Moraccan).

Christmas Craft Show Food.

There was also a new jam lady.  Her stuff was very tasty with hand painted Christmas pictures on the jars.  It was a very nice touch.  I got a jam, but can't show it, as I may give it away for Christmas. 
We also chatted with the Carmichael's Meat guy.  He let us sample a few of his meats and explained why there was no more duck sausage til spring; but the new one we tried, that was extremely good, was the Jamaican Jerk sausage.  It's really well seasoned like jerk chicken.  I got one of those and 3 bags of honey garlic pepperoni sticks. 

Useless Gaming News:
I wasted my whole weekend playing video games.  I was either playing Family Farm Seaside on my phone, playing Magic: the Gathering Arena on computer, or playing Star Atlas on Nintendo Switch.  So much gaming and so little time, but I gained an hour Saturday night.