Lego Mini-Figs Series 18

Snack today -> Triple Chocolate Cookies.
Picked up a box of 50% off Triple Chocolate Cookies from Loblaws Tuesday night.  These cookies are really good.

Triple Chocolate Cookies.

Dinner today -> Steak and Chinese Eggplant
I got a huge 50% of flank steak from Loblaws.  Pan fried it and sliced it up.  Then I cooked a couple Chinese eggplants in the drippings.  Totally stuffed myself.

Steak and Chinese Eggplant.

Useless Lego news:
Went out after work and bumped into Gordon at Toys R Us.  He helped me pick out most the Lego Mini-figures Series 18.  This set contains costumed figs.  I'm 4 away from the complete set, but I don't really like the missing 4.  Thanks to Gordon, I do have the rare retro policeman fig.

Series 18.

I went to Walmart on Baseline and noticed that the last wave of Lego Dimensions had all their prices reduced to match the previous waves.  The single Fun Packs were down to $5.96 and the Level Pack was down to $12.96.

Discounted Lego Dimensions.

I'm only missing 3 sets: Beetlejuice Pack, Beastboy/Raven Pack, and the Lego Batman Movie Set.  Going to check Kanata Walmarts for these and if they are price reduced.

Useless Transformers News:
Got a box from HLJ.  I got Masterpiece MP-40 Target Master Hot Rod, Perceptor with Ramhorm, and Bumblebee with Exosuit Spike Headmaster.

Latest Transformers from Japan.

Happy Birthday Gavin!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GAVIN!!!

Weekend Report -> Gnocchi

Food this weekend ->
I found the Olivieri Skillet Gnocchi at Loblaws on Friday.  It's in the refrigerated section where the pasta and uncooked pizza are.  I got the potato version to try.  It pan fries in 5 minutes!

Gnocchi with Schwartz.

It's really good.  I ate it with some Schwartz smoke meat.  It would be perfect with some sour cream or tzatziki. Washed it down with some discount orange-pineapple-blackberry drink.

Saturday I ate the "Steak on a Bun" from Burgers & Shakes in Barrhaven.  It's a tender steak instead of the beef patty in the burger.  Combo-ed it with fries and a strawberry milkshake.

Steak on a Bun Combo.

Sunday, the family went to Beijing Legend for dim sum.  We got alot of food, because our mom would order food for the table but not eat it.  It's her annoying habit.

Dim Sum

We did special order a couple plates of the fried dough rice wraps.  So good!  One was extra crispy too.

Fried Dough Rice Wrap.

Sunday dinner was my 2-day expired aged steak that I pan fried.  Tasted fine and didn't smell funky.  Cooked that with some sugar snaps and a few more gnocchi.  This time I got some sour cream to eat with the gnocchi.

Steak Dinner.

Useless Transformers News:
Found wave 2 of the TF:PotP Pretenders Prime Masters on Friday: Alchemist Prime and Alpha Trion.

Wave 2 TF:PotP Prime Masters.

On Sunday I found wave 2 of the TF:PotP Legends: Tailgate, Roadtrap and Battleslash.

Wave 2 TF:PotP Legends.

Roadtrap and Battleslash combine into Battletrap.  Elita-One and Hungrrr are out too, but I didn't find them.  Don't know if the other Terrorcons are out yet.

Lobsterfest

Dinner today -> Red Lobster.
Went over to Julie's to watch the new episode of iZombie on Netflix.  OK episode this week (Major on wrestler brain was hilarious).  Then we watch another episode of the Korean cooking show "Chef & My Fridge".  All the zombie brain chowing and the Korean seafood dishes got us hungry for dinner.  We decided on Red Lobster for Lobsterfest.
We started with the Loaded Seaside Fries.  Awesome starter.  It's fries covered in clam chowder and cheese, then topped with deep fried clams.  It's so good.  We also got 8 of the free Red Lobster biscuits :)

Loaded Seaside Fries and Biscuits

We both go the same main course, "Lobster Lovers Dream", but it was tough not to get the "Ultimate Feast".  I was completely stuffed and satisfied when I was done.

Lobster Lovers Dream.

I wonder what they do with all the lobster heads, roe, and tomalley??? 

Doritos Blaze

Snack today: part 1 -> Ed's Pecan Tart.
Ed's homemade pecan tart.  Pretty good.  Not overpowering sweet with alot of crisp pecan topping.  He should make more :)

Ed's Pecan Tart.

Snack today: part 2 -> Doritos Blaze.
Susanna got me a bag of Doritos Blaze from the US.  Tried it out today.

Doritos Blaze.

It's pretty hot with a hint of (pickled?) jalapeno flavour.  Not that good.  It needs to be hot and still taste good, like the jalapeno cheddar Cheetos.

Dinner today -> More Steak and Eggplant.
Made a 2nd steak with Chinese eggplant for dinner again tonight.  The combo just works. 

Steak and Eggplant.

Supervillain

Dinner today -> Steak and Eggplant
Got some steaks from Farmboy today.  I also found some really nice Chinese eggplants.  I pan fried both in oil with just salt and pepper.  Totally hit the spot.

Steak and Eggplant.

Useless Kickstarter News:
Got my copy of Supervillain today.  Read the rules and it seems pretty simple to play.  Might try it out at work on Friday.

Supervillain Kickstarter.

Long Weekend Report: Lots of Takeout

Food this long weekend ->
I took Friday off so I had a long weekend :)

Ben and I went to Loblaws Wednesday after the escape room and we got some discount food.  I got 50% off muffins and strawberries.  The muffins were lemon cranberry.  Good stuff.  The strawberries weren't very sweet, but I only paid $1.45 for the pack, so it was OK.

Discount Lemon Cranberry Muffins and Strawberries.

Thursday night I went over to Julie's to watch the new episode of iZombie.  We had Frank's sandwiches for dinner.  Apparently the prices have gone up since I was last there.  It is now $6.20 from $5.75.  No pic, but I got my usual #1 Frank's Special.
Sherlock the dog hung out with me as usual, but this time Lux came and sat near me by the window.

Lux Hiding His Face.

Cas actually snuggled into my lap to be petted too!

Cas in my Lap.

On Friday, I went out to run some errands and picked up some chicken at The Fry.  I got half a fried chicken in soy garlic sauce and spicy rice cakes.  The chicken was extremely good!  I ate the whole box in one sitting.  The rice cakes were really spicy and very good too.

The Fry.

On Saturday, Arseni, Julie, Jeremy, Gen and Garth came over to play boardgames.  We only played Charterstone, which was OK as it's a very good game.  We took a break for dinner and ordered from Big Bone BBQ.  We ordered the Party Pack 5. 

Party Pack 5

Includes: 3 racks of ribs, 2lbs of pulled pork, 2lbs of wings, extra larger fries, a loaf of cornbread, 2 tubs of beans, 2 tubs of coleslaw, and a tub of sauce.  It was alot of food and feeds 6-8 people; and we pretty much finished the whole thing. 

On Sunday, Ben, Susanna and I went to the new Adonis in Gatineau.  It was pretty packed and it had the same feel as the ones in Montreal.  I got a few things, but it was too crowded to get a good look at everything.  I'll have to go back again for fresh baklava, cheese, and marinated meats.  I did get my L'Orange Maison drink.  So good.
After dropping them off, I went to Hazeldean Mall and got chicken from Chicken Ranch.  I got a 6 piece bucket of fried chicken.  It was made fresh to order so I walked around the mall for 15 mins and then picked it up.  The bucket includes fries, coleslaw and gravy.  The chicken is tasty.  I would have said it was good, if I hadn't had eaten The Fry's chicken on Friday.  It just doesn't beat that.

Chicken Ranch (half of the bucket)

Useless TV News:
Watched the Walking Dead on Sunday.  Does anyone else notice that Simon's character (especially for the past couple of episodes) is scheming and undermining Negan, just like Starscream does to Megatron?  You can totally see it in Simon's face that he is just like Starscream.

2 More Escape Rooms Escaped

Happy Pi Day!!!

We celebrated Pi day at work today.  I got 8 pies for the company: 2 apple, 2 pecan, 2 blueberry, and 2 triple berry.  I got a slice of each and this became my lunch.  All the pies disappeared in less than an hour.

4 Slices of Pie

Dinner today -> Korean House
Ben and I went to Korean House on Somerset.  We got 4 pieces of free Korean pancake (only pictured 1 piece).

Free Korean Pancake Piece.

We got 4 free sides: stewed potato, sprouts, pickled diakon/carrots and house kimchi.

Free Sides.

Ben ordered the Seafood Tofu Soup.  It was OK.  I thought the broth was abit bland, but there were alot of ingredients in the soup.  Ben enjoyed it.

Seafood Tofu Soup.

We shared grilled sliced pork on a sizzling plate.  Very good and tasty.  Abit spicy by itself, but it works with the provide white rice.

Grilled Pork.

I got a beef bibimbap (hot stone bowl).  So good!  I waited abit before I mixed it so the very hot stone bowl was able to toasted the rice to make more crunchy bits.

Beef Bibimbap.

This is after mixing it and adding some bibimbap sauce.  I shouldn't have added the sauce.  It made it spicy.  Since it was super hot it took awhile to eat.  I burnt my tongue :(.

Mixed Bibimbap.

Useless Escape Room News:
After dinner, we met up with David and Jeff and Escape Manor: Hintonburg to play 2 rooms: Psycho and the Panic Room.  We were also teamed up with 2 people who just wanted to play.  They were pretty cool and good at it too.
We played Psycho first.  Good room.  Puzzles took some time to figure out and not easy.  I would say 6.5 difficulty.  We finished with about 5 minutes left (of the given 45mins).  We used our 1 clue too.  The escape rating was 29%
We played the Panic Room right after.  I like this room more than Psycho.  Lots of puzzles that you can do in parallel, so everyone was always busy.  Most were not easy but just time consuming to figure out the answer.  I recommend this room with minimum of 5 people.  4 would be pushing it to finish.  We got out with about 3:30 left.  The escape rating was only 20%.

Moscow Mule Kettle Chips

Useless Food News:
Ed's daughter made a double-stuffed boston cream for Steve.  It was also dipped on both sides.

Double-Stuffed Boston Cream.

Lots of Filling.

I want one, but single dipped!  Ed, are you reading this...?!?!

Lunch today -> Chocolate Brownie Cookies and Stuffed Cannelloni.
Got some discount chocolate brownie cookies last night from Loblaws.  I shared them during a meeting after lunch.  They are amazing!  I would say they are on par with the triple chocolate cookies.

Lunch.

I also picked up a few packs of discount stuffed cannelloni.  This is really good too.  They were stuffed with beef and cheese in a good tomato sauce.  If I had some rice, I would have mixed it in to the sauce.

Dinner today -> Chicken Soup.
Bought chicken legs, beef bones and nappa cabbage from Sobey's.  Threw those in my instapot with some garlic, leftover carrots and dashi broth to make soup.  I made this last weekend without the beef bones and garlic and it was really good.  The addition of the beef bones/marrow and garlic didn't work.  The addition of those flavours made it taste weird.  BTW, no salt added, just alot of dashi flavouring used. 

Chicken Soup.

Snack yesterday -> Moscow Mule Kettle Chips.
Tried these Moscow Mule chips out yesterday.  The chips have a soda-pop like smell and taste.  It tastes like a ginger pop with a hint of lime.  Apparently that is what a Moscow Mule is supposed to taste like.  I didn't like it.

Moscow Mule Kettle Chips.

Useless Garden News:
Found these Miracle-Gro Flower Magic Seeds at Dollarama.  They're a all-in-one flower seed, fertilizer, and compost mix in an easy to spread container.  It was only $4. 

Flower Magic.

I might go back and get a container and use it in my cinder block plots.  Maybe the flowers will boost the bee appearances to help get me more cherry tomatoes.  They have multi-colour, blue & white, and pink & white types.

Useless Kickstarter News:
I got the Liberty+ Zolo wireless headphones a couple weeks ago from the Kickstarter.  I started using them in the gym and they are amazing.  Good sound, battery life, easy to connect with blue tooth, good control options, sweat proof, and voice commands.  I'm glad I backed this.

Liberty + Headphones.

The coolest part is that I can hold the button down for 3 seconds and it goes from sound dampening mode where I can't hear anything but my music, to hearing the outside world with the music, almost like a hearing aid.         

Weekend Report -> Good Kabobs.

Food this weekend ->
I got a box of Kit Kat Rubies on discount from Loblaws.  They aren't the new exclusive Kit Kat Ruby chocolate.  These are just the Valentine leftovers. Nice box.

Discount Kit Kat Rubies.

Each mini-Kit Kat is individually wrapped.  Nice presentation but just slows down the eating process.  They aren't that special either.  Tastes just like a Ferro Roche.

Ferro Roche Kit Kat Rubies.

Watched the new episode of iZombie at Julie's.  This season is getting abit crazy.  Then we went to the Supreme Kabob House by Big Rig for dinner.  Julie got the veggie platter and I got the shami kabob platter. 

Shami Platter.

Very good food.  The naan is excellent.  Finally watch Thor: Ragnarok after dinner too.

Useless TV News:
FYI: Star Wars Rebels series finale is on Monday at 9pm.  3 episodes long.  The marathon leading up to it starts at 2:30pm on DisneyXD. 

US Snacks

Useless Food News:
I forgot to post that Susanna got these snacks for me from the US.  She got me: Sweet Heat Starburst (very good. sweet Starburst with a light kick afterwards), Neapolitan M&Ms, FlipSide Crackers, and Super Mario Cereal (the box is an amiibo).

USA Snacks.

Japanese Animal Cookies

Snack today -> Japanese Animal Cookies.
T&T has a Japan & Korean week sale happening this week.  I picked up a box of double chocolate pocky and Japanese Animal Cookies.  Opened the animal cookies today.  They are coconut flavoured and very good. 

Japanese Snacks.

The cool part is all the animal names are spelled out on them AND there were about 36 different animals in the box!  I was hopping to get a rhinoceros just to see if it actually fit on the cracker.  Most of the shapes were pretty accurate too, but I agree with Katie that the rabbit didn't really look like a rabbit.  Will probably get more of these and I recommend them.


Dinner today -> Steak, Broccoli and Rice.
Went to Loblaws tonight and got a discount top sirloin steak for dinner.  Cooked that up with some leftover broccoli and instant rice.

Steak Dinner.

Long Weend Report: No Egg Tarts or Shrimp Rice Wraps

Took a vacation day on Monday to make myself a long weekend.  Didn't do much.  Just played some Monster Hunter World, watched some Running Man, and read alot.  I wanted to clean up abit and go out shopping, but I felt lazy and push that to another weekend.

Food this weekend ->
Made a quick stir fry of broccoli, white mushrooms, and  chopped maple bacon for a meal.

Broccoli, Mushrooms and Bacon.

Used more of the chopped maple bacon to make eggs and toast.

Bacon, Eggs and Toast.

Went out for dim sum on Sunday with the family at Beijing Legend on Bank St.  It was really busy and food was slow to come around.  We were at the opposite end of the kitchen, so we took what dishes we could get.

Dim Sum.

Ordered some fried dough wrapped in long rice noodle wrap.  So good!

Fried Dough Rice Wrap

Tried out some steamed chicken breast on fish stomach.  Really greasy.  Not that great.

Chicken on Fish Stomach.

We didn't get any shrimp rice wraps or egg tarts :(

Made some spinach, grains, cheese and pork sausage on Monday for dinner.  Got the sausage last year from the Montreal's Jean-Talon Market.  Very good sausage and it wasn't freezer burnt.  Nuked some instant mushroom rice to eat with it.

Spinach, Grain, Cheese and Pork Sausage with Rice.