Lobsterlicious 2011!

It's one of my favourite times of year* - it's Lobsterlicious at Scaramouche!  Here's the current menu, which has been revised to exclude their yummy Lobster Ravioli since I first saw it last month and when a friend went a couple weeks ago with his family.  I won't complain though because everything was pretty damn awesome - including the service, which was impeccably attentive yet unobtrusive. 

As usual, each prix fixe includes 1.5lbs of lobster spread across 2 courses.  My dinner started with an amuse-bouche of 1/2 a quail egg with beurre blanc, crisp bacon pieces and deep fried onions and holy moly did this little bite pack a tasty punch!  I can still taste the smooth egg and butter sauce juxtaposed with the savory crisp texture of the bacon and onions.  Mmmm....

I started with the Lobster and Celery Root "Lasagna" - so-called because in place of the pasta noodle, the chef used shaved celery root.  Ingenious because the texture was rather similar to a pasta noodle - maybe more tender, and super-mild which allowed the sweetness of the lobster to shine through.
 

My second course was the Butter Poached Lobster because I like artichokes and king oyster mushrooms and I had the risotto last time.  There is something super-decadent about having so much lobster served up out of the shell and done so well! 

Finally, dessert...ah dessert...what we have here is their famous Coconut Cream Pie, which, as you'll see from the menu, did not come with the prix fixe.  I had to have another taste of this pie though - and since I was being bad anyway, I figured I'd go all the way - and paid the extra $3 for it and OMG it was as good as I remembered it to be - so light and just the right amount of sweetness.

 The Lobsterlicious Menu is available Monday through Thursday through March 31st so if you're feeling indulgent or in need of a place to celebrate a special occasion between now and then, check them out!  I promise you won't be disappointed! 

* The last time I indulged at Scaramouche was in the summer of '09 - so...leads me to wonder if there will be a Lobsterlicious - Redux come the summer...!!!

Weekend Update

My weekend got off to a bit of a rocky start since I was forced to go to bed Thursday night at 11:30 because my power went out. I didn't worry too much about the outage because I figured it was temporary - but alas, not so much. I woke up Friday morning - thanks to my iphone alarm which I had set after the power went out - to grey skies, darkness and cold water, which wasn't too big a deal since I prefer showering at night. Turns out a contractor for Rogers and/or Bell was digging holes outside our building and managed to cut the electrical conduit or tube running into our building. The rain of the last few days flowed into this tube, into our electrical room located on P1 and blew our building's transformer - thank goodness it didn't cause a fire!

There was no word on when we'd get power back so when I got home after work, I tossed out some perishables in my fridge, packed up my freezer, and decamped to my mom's at least for the night. And thank goodness for my mom! One of my neighbour's spent an hour calling around trying to find a hotel that would take kids - with 3 conferences going on in the city, supply was apparently tight. Big bonus? Lobster was on sale for $5.99/lbs and my mom served up lobster not one, not two but THREE ways! SO YUMMY! (And yes, I know I'm spoiled.)

Incidentally, it was a big food weekend for me. But first, can I tell you about my bag score? With my spending fast over, I decided it was safe to head on over to the Shops on Don Mills to see what was on sale at Anthropologie. I tried on a bunch of different things but ended up leaving with just one top. My best score though was the gorgeous red Village Satchel from Roots to the left. I mis-read the sales tag as $119 when it actually read $149. When the cashier rang it in, it was $139, but with the current promo, spend $100+ and get $25 off, it ended up being $115 - cheaper than I had anticipated! Sweet!

Back to the food though, I dined on lobster and E-Fu noodles before heading back downtown to my place because we got power back around noon. I stayed long enough to re-pack my freezer and headed out again to see Yellow Face at the Hart House Theatre. The anger I felt while watching the play has since faded and I don't want to get into it because I don't want to focus on the negative. So I'm going to go back to food because it makes me happy.

I slept in until 11am this morning, which, because of Daylight Savings, was actually 10am and made myself a pile of yummy pancakes. I spiked the mix with a scoop of chocolate whey protein and added some chopped walnuts too and spread Nutella between each one. SO GOOD! I'm going to come absolutely clean and tell you today wasn't the first time I had them this weekend. I made them last night after I got back from the play too. There. Now you know my shame. I feel mildly better having shared that.

My regular Sunday trek out to Chinatown put me in the way of BBQ pork on rice so I had that for a late lunch and dinner tonight was a salmon steak paired with mushroom & broccoli quisotto - imagine risotto with quinoa instead of arborio rice - a recipe from my now favourite cookbook.  I'm going to have to do better with my portion sizes - dinner tonight was rather large but damn was it ever good!

I'm chilling out now with Season 1 of The West Wing on in the background and am thinking of giving this Hatha Yoga for Better Sleep video a go.  G'night!

Weekend Update

Another weekend is drawing to a close.  This one for me was pretty low-key on purpose after getting my geek on last weekend playing Settlers of Catan/America on Friday/Saturday and spending Sunday night coming in 3rd in my cute neighbour's Oscar party pool. 

I ran some errands uptown yesterday before spending the evening at my mom's for dinner.  It was a quiet night in just relaxing and as per usual, I didn't get to bed until the wee hours.

Just before I did though, I perused Quinoa 365 which was delivered mid-week and found a bunch of recipes that I immediately wanted to try, including Maple Walnut Cereal.  With that to look forward to, I read a bit from Swan Thieves before finally settling in to sleep...when next I opened my eyes, it was 1:06pm!

This sounds bad, but I can't remember the last time I slept in past noon and wasn't hung over!  I was well-rested after more than 10 hours of sleep but woke up with a bit of a pain in my neck that hasn't gone away.  I thought I might get to my favourite yoga series for neck and shoulders but one thing led to another and I never did. 

What I did get to was some cooking.  I tried a couple recipes from my new cookbook and if the cereal is anything to go by, I've got some really yummy meals to look forward to!

Maple Walnut Cereal
1 serving
2 Tbsp chopped walnuts
1/3 cup quinoa
2/3 cup water
1 Tbsp oat bran
2 Tsp maple syrup
Milk, vanilla yogurt or cream (optional)

Place the walnuts in a small saucepan on medium-high heat. Stir frequently until the walnuts are toasted and fragrant (about 3-4 minutes).  Remove the pan from the heat and let the walnuts cool slightly.  Set aside in a small bowl.
In the same pan, combine the quinoa, water and oat bran.  Cover and bring to a boil.  Reduce to a simmer and cook for 12 minutes.  Leave the saucepan on the burner, covered, for another 6 minutes.  Remove from the heat and stir in the walnuts and maple syrup.  Transfer to a bowl and top with milk, yogurt or cream (if using).

I tried it as-is but if felt like it was missing something so added cream (I had no milk or yogurt) and it was so so good. 

Blueberry Coconut Scones

I don't know what it is but I've been feeling the urge to bake of late. Last week it was cupcakes and this week it's scones.  I've been wanting a taste of these scrumptious blueberry coconut scones again ever since a colleague shared the recipe with me a few weeks ago. 

Here's my not-so-pretty attempt:

I used whole wheat flour in an attempt to make it a little healthier and because I wasn't really paying attention, cleaned it up a little further by using just over 3/4 cup of coconut cream instead of the 1 cup the recipe called for.  I also forgot to brush the tops with coconut cream before putting it in the oven.

These were my first ever scones so I was a bit worried I'd messed up the recipe since the dough was crumbly and didn't seem to want to come together - in hindsight, it was probably because I didn't use enough coconut cream - duh.  Check the super-homely before and after above.

Despite how ugly they are, they came out rather yummy, although not as coconut-y as my colleague's version.  I can definitely taste the whole wheat and there's just a hint of coconut...I'll have to make it as directed next time. 

I prefer my scones with a very healthy dollop of cream and jam spread atop it - certainly more than is pictured below - but it's late so I decided to go easy on the toppings.  I'm rather looking forward to breakfast tomorrow though!

TGIF!

Finally!  The first long weekend of the year is here!  It's Family Day in Ontario (as well as in Alberta and Saskatchewan) on Monday so we have the day off.  To be honest, much as I was looking forward to it, it kind of crept up on me so I haven't got a whole lot planned.

I kicked it off with an impromptu visit to the Art Gallery of Ontario to check out the Maharaja exhibit after leaving work a bit early and was inspired to head out afterwards for dinner at Little India, my favourite Indian resto on Queen West.  Seriously - they have a great lunch buffet for $11.95 (IIRC) and there's a queue every time I've been there so call ahead and reserve!!

It's shaping up to be a bit of an eating weekend.  I thought I'd break out my waffle iron for brunch tomorrow after catching a fragrant whiff of them on my way home last night but after a quick stop at Loblaws tonight to stock up on my hair colour which is on sale and coming home with a jar of Devonshire cream too(!!!) so I've been daydreaming about scones ever since. 

I've come across a few recipes and thought I'd maybe bake some tonight but I generally don't stock butter and most recipes call for butter.  Gah!!  So...maybe I can stamp down this craving with some chocolate waffles...with buttery-maple syrup and Devonshire cream...?  Hmmm...maybe....

Royce' Chocolate

S&W served melt-in-your-mouth Royce' Cherry Marnier-flavoured chocolate direct from Japan after a crazy cheese course that included a decadent triple cream (!) Brie after shabu shabu last night.

Like most things Japanese, the packaging for these chocolates made from the milk of Hokkaido cows is impeccable.  When you make your purchase in stores, they provide you with ice packs to keep the chocolate fresh and the box comes with its own mini serving utensil - completely necessary since the moisture content of these chocolates is so high and therefore super-melty. 

I had 2 pieces and they were over-the-top!

Chocolate and Roses

What is it about chocolate and romance that it makes such a wonderful combination?  In the last couple weeks I've collected several recipes for tempting chocolate treats and decided to give this one I found over at Desserts for Breakfast a try.  I've had a bottle of rosewater in my pantry for ever so these double chocolate espresso pound cakes with rose-scented cream cheese frosting were just the excuse I needed to finally open the bottle!

The recipe as written called for 30-40 minutes baking time - I left them in for 35 but they came out rather dry so I'm thinking of cutting the time down to 25 the next time around.  I also couldn't find black cocoa at my local grocer so they didn't come out as rich and dark as Steph's.

Here's my attempt - amateur frosting technique or lack thereof - and all. I'm bringing them for dessert to S&W's where I've been invited for shabu shabu tonight:

And here's Steph's gorgeous cakes which inspired my efforts this weekend:

Photo via Desserts for Breakfast

Super Easy Turkey Chili

It's Super Bowl Sunday and while I don't care about the football - I never learned the rules of the game so a bunch of guys running around a field in tight pants and protective gear has no appeal - I do like the excuse to make a hearty chili.

I wanted something healthy so I used lean ground turkey and skipped the salt, save for whatever sodium was in my canned beans and it turned out rather yummy if I do say so myself.  If you want a spicier kick, I'd add a diced up jalepeno or two - I personally prefer that my chili give me a friendly nudge.

Ingredients
1 kg of ground turkey
1 tbsp ground cumin
1 tbsp cayenne pepper
2 tbsp chili powder
2 tbsp paprika
2 tbsp oregano
vegetable oil
1 red onion, diced
5-6 cloves of garlic, minced
1 large can of unsalted diced tomatoes
1 can of black beans, rinsed
1 can of white kidney beans, rinsed
1 can of whole kernel corn, rinsed

  
Directions
1. Brown and drain the ground turkey. Set aside in a bowl and add the cumin, cayenne pepper, chili powder, paprika and oregano.
2. Coat the bottom of a large pot with vegetable oil and toss in the onions and garlic to brown.
3. Stir in the diced tomatoes and let simmer for 5-10 minutes on medium heat.
4. Add the turkey, beans and corn. Stir and simmer on low heat for 20 minutes.

This makes enough for 6-8 people, depending on the serving size.  I've got plenty left over so I'll be refrigerating some for a lunch and dinner later through the week, and freezing the rest for a particularly lazy day.  Enjoy!

Fabio Rex

Came across these gorgeous graphic cocktail recipes by Brazilian illustrator Fabio Rex via Gizmodo. 

This led me to his flickr stream and that's where I came across his collection of Chinese Zodiac illustrations. Adorable, right?  That's me, the dragon - while I was born the year of the Fire Dragon, the dominant element according to my birth chart is wood, as depicted here. LOVE!

Alright, I'm on-side

I had quinoa the first time in Peru over 3 years ago - maybe it was the grain-y texture or the flavours with which it was prepared by our porters on the Inca Trail but whatever it was, I was not a fan.

But, I thought I'd give it another chance since I need to add some variety to my clean eating diet.  Much as I enjoy my roasted sweet potato bean salad, it was certain to get old day in and day out as a healthy snack in lieu of my apple in the afternoon.*

So, I spent some time last night on my go-to site for recipes, Epicurious and made this one, Quinoa and Black Bean Salad, tonight.  I tweaked it a bit, skipping the jalepenos and the cumin (eww!) altogether, added lime zest to the dressing and replaced the green peppers with red.  And let me tell you, it was yummy!  I'm now converted to quinoa and am so glad because it's so good for you.

Quinoa (pronounced keen-wa) though technically not a grain, has been touted a supergrain because it's high in fiber, a good source of iron, an unusually high protein source for a plant food and has all eight of the essential amino acids.  Pretty awesome right? 

Anyway, I'm rather pleased with myself for coming around on quinoa, just as I came around on couscous.  Before I went to Morocco, I thought I didn't like couscous either but I gave it another chance and it did not disappoint - unlike asparagus.  Asparagus has failed me each time I've given it a go to change my mind and I've since decided that it's dead to me. That's right, asparagus, you're dead to me!

I have my eye on Quinoa 365, a very well reviewed cookbook filled with quinoa recipes but I'm going to give some of my saved recipes a try before committing to the purchase.

* I'm trying to cut fruits and dairy from my diet - at least during the week.  I had a chat with my trainer about my progress and while I'm getting stronger every day, I'm not seeing the obvious changes in my body like I did in the early days.  We've figured out the training side of the equation so the other side is my diet, hence the effort to cut fructose and lactose from my diet.  

Home-made Protein Bars

I got this recipe for home-made protein bars from my trainer before the holidays and finally decided to give it a try. I made a number of tweaks to the recipe, including steel-cut oats instead of the rolled oats the recipe called for which made for a harder chew; rather than prepping yogurt cheese, I mashed up a banana and mixed it with a couple eggs; I used 1 tsp of nutmeg (only because I mistook it for the cinnamon) and because I didn't have a 9"x13" pan, I used an 8" round pan.

The bars - or slices in my case - turned out quite well, despite my not following the last directions precisely because of the late hour.

Not only are these healthy for you, but because of chocolate, they smell awesome when they're baking - you can totally trick yourself into thinking there are chocolate cookies in the oven!

Ingredients
1 cup whey protein powder
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
2 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup oat bran
1/2 cup ground flaxseed
1/2 cup wheat germ
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 cup Agave nectar or honey
1 cup dark chocolate
1 1/2 cup yogurt cheese
1/4 cup canola oil
2 tsp extra virgin oil
1 tsp vanilla
cooking spray

Preparation
1. Preheat oven to 350F. Coat 9x13 baking pan with cooking spray.
2. In a large mixing bowl, combine all the dry ingredients and the honey.
3. Stir in the broken pieces of chocolate
4. In another bowl, mix the yogurt cheese, oils and vanilla.
5. Add the yogurt mixture to the dry ingredients and use clean bare hands to combine these well.  Coat hands in olive oil to help prevent sticking.
6. Place mixture in pan and press down evenly.
7. Bake on middle rack in oven for 15 minutes.
8. Let cool and cut dough into bars.
9. Place bars on a Silpat-lined cookie sheet and bake for another 15 minutes.
10. Remove from heat and transfer to wire cooling rack.
Makes 20 to 24.

Weekend Update

How was your weekend? Mine was quite nice - I spent the day catching up with wL.  We took in a musical together yesterday at the Canon Theatre: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.  I was drawn to it because of Chilina Kennedy, the female lead, who I'd last seen in the Stratford Festival's production of West Side Story which played to rave reviews - and she really was a stand-out because I don't normally remember details like actors in the shows.

Quick review: the show was funny - literally laugh-out-loud funny - and the performances were all very good, although I was a little disappointed that Kennedy's role was so small - but that's a function of the story.  Check it out quick if you're so inclined as its current run ends a week today on January 16th.

We went to Campagnolo for dinner afterwards and had a great meal.  The cocktail list was creative and the menu was short (which is how I prefer it), and printed daily in order to take advantage of fresh ingredients and stem boredom in the kitchen.  We had 2 appetizers: fresh burrata cheese on a crostini with roasted grapes which creamy goodness and braised rabbit with rapini and pine nuts which was also rather tasty.  I can't remember when I last had rabbit or what it tasted like, but this was perfectly braised and tender.  For our mains, we had fresh whole grilled sea bream and the chef's specialty: ragoût of wild boar, spare rib and tripe on polenta.  The sea bream was perfectly grilled and while some people are put off by fish that looks like fish with head and tail on, it doesn't faze me at all because that's how Chinese serve their fish.   On the chef's signature which is his nonna's recipe - I found it too salty for my taste, otherwise, the boar, spare rib and tripe were tender (although there was only 1 piece of the latter to be found in our dish.)  (Apologies for being a bad blogger and not taking photos of the mains...I was distracted by the conversation.)

My Sunday was pretty low-key.  I slept in (again) until 11am (YES!) and puttered around before heading out to pick up groceries in Chinatown.  I vegged about for a bit and proceeded to prep my meals for the week: my Monday through Thursday lunch of grilled chicken, fresh broccoli and bell peppers, and a roasted sweet potato, corn and black bean succotash to serve as a good carb to snack on through the week and to accompany a few dinners, including the salmon steak I had tonight.  Slowly getting back to a routine...

Holiday Alphabet Mugs

Remember the Alphabet Mugs I picked up early last November?  For the last few years I've baked cookies for friends and this year, I packaged them up in personalized mugs with mini ornaments picked up at my local Dollarama(!!):

In addition to my usual soft and chewy Old-fashioned Molasses Cookies from one of Martha Stewart's Holiday Cookie Specials and Brown Sugar Shortbread from Mrs. Field's Cookie Book, I baked a batch of Chocolate Chip Surprises which I tweaked with a Hershey's Chocolate Mint Truffle and my new favourite, Pikkuleivat, aka Cardamom Sugar Cookies which were both Star Kitchen-Tested.  None of their recipes have yet failed me - granted, I've only ever tried 3, including my all-time favourite carrot cake recipe that's yellowed with age.

Mast Brothers

S&W went to NYC before Christmas and came back with a Pecan and Maple Dark Chocolate bar made by Mast Brothers Chocolate in Brooklyn. My first impression: adorable packaging. Check it out below:

Each bar is hand-wrapped in gorgeous patterned papers.  And the taste?  My bar was crazy dark chocolate with whole pecans and none of the sweetness I would have expected from the maple, but oh so good! I wish I had a glass of red wine to go with it!

Here's a video W sent me of their artisanal bean-to-bar process:

Mast Brothers from Cool Hunting on Vimeo.

Perfect Weekend

After the steamy discomfort of the past week, this weekend has been perfect - sunny, warm and relaxing.

I haven't been up to much beyond reading, eating, sleeping and a couple loads of laundry.  I had S&W over for dinner last night after failing to get last-minute Summerlicious reservations at Celestin (scallop ceviche and lobster lemon risotto?  C'MON!) I had loads of limes left over from the caipirsakes I made last Saturday and my basil plant looked ripe for some harvesting so I browsed Epicurious - my go-to website for some refreshing summer recipes.

Our al fresco evening started with glasses of Stonechurch Vineyard's Syrah Rose and my new favourite salad, mango-radicchio caprese salad with basil vinaigrette.  The sweetness of the mangoes and white balsamic vinegar tempered the slight bitterness of the radicchio, nevermind how colourful it is!  (I had it again for lunch today, which is what you see below)

For mains, I grilled up some salmon steaks which I topped with lime butter sauce and paired with another past favourite, arugula salad with lemon-parm vinaigrette.  This we had with another bottle I picked up from Stonechurch last weekend - their 2008 Riesling.  I wish I had gotten more than one, but fingers crossed, I'll see it at the LCBO soon.

I woke up a little earlier than I would have liked this morning before 10 and lazed about before making myself a stack of pancakes spiked with vanilla protein.  As an added treat, I added some frozen mixed berries to a pot of simmering maple syrup and soaked in some sun out on my balcony. 

The fragrant yumminess of steaks grilled by my neighbours permeated the air yesterday, and even W, a long-time pescaterian was tempted so I'm due at their place later for a BBQ.  More eating!  And no working!  A girl can get used to not working on weekends!

R & R

It was a 4-day weekend for me and I did not ONCE check my work email.  The thought had crossed my mind a few times, like every time my cursor hovers over the link to webmail which is in my bookmarks toolbar.  But I resisted. So proud of myself. :)

The last couple days have been pretty stress-free - I had the tasting menu for lunch at La Cachette, the restaurant at Strewn Winery, and even managed to squeeze in a few tastings at Stonechurch and Palatine Hills.

Clockwise from top left: Baby Spinach with Bacon, Benedictin Bleu & Croutons; Saute of Shrimp with Pernod Cream & Pink Peppercorns; Brome Lake Duck Confit with Molasses & Chili Pepper Gastrique and Orange Lavender Creme Brulee

I didn't think there would be time for tastings since I was due back in Toronto for a Chinese family association dinner with my mother but the sign here says it all:

All told, I came home this weekend with 14 bottles - 9 of which I picked up at the vineyards and the others at the LCBO.  The cross-border shopping coupled with my booze binge made for a a very, very expensive weekend.

My last work-free day started with a bit of a hangover after last night's condo crawl.  I managed to make it back into my place after 4am, guzzled some Gatordade, showered and fell into bed, waking up too early this morning around 10.  I suppose the upside to waking up at that hour is that Mickey D's was still serving breakfast so my post-drink-up cure of a sausage'n'egg mcmuffin was readily available. And was it ever good in all its greasy glory! 

I wish this break could be a couple days longer but such is life.  I'm well-rested and chilled out and (mostly) ready to take on Monday now.  Bring it on!

Working Weekend

It's a working weekend for me. I spent a few hours in the office this afternoon and then made myself a yummy healthy dinner of baked salmon with black bean salsa and quick corn saute. The meal's a quick and easy recipe out of Clean Eating magazine. I got a subscription with my personal training package and had been meaning to try a recipe out of it forever now. So glad I did because it was so tasty!


Now, back to work!

Help closer to Home

It's Winterlicious in the city again - 150 restaurants in the city of Toronto will be offering 3-course prix-fixes from January 29 to February 11 - and the lead sponsor, American Express, will donate 5% of purchases charged to Amex Cards at participating restaurants to Food Banks Canada, up to a total donation of $40,000.

I've taken advantage of this promotion and its summer incarnation, Summerlicious, almost from inception. It's a great way to try out the city's pricier restaurants if you have the patience to wait out the inevitable busy phone lines, or discover hidden gems at what is usually very good value.

Of my Winterlicious plans so far: I've a lunch next Friday and a dinner 3 weeks tomorrow...hopefully I'll be able to keep it at that...though I suspect there may be a couple more impromptu dinners thrown in the mix.

With my training, I've been eating clean consistently and it's paid off: I tried on a dress I bought a couple years ago in Vancouver last night that had gotten too tight and it fit again! Plus, my CEO's EA commented on how I'd lost a lot of weight. Now, truth be told, I've only lost a few pounds. What I lack in weight loss, I've gained in muscle mass. I'm more toned and tight and I can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to "burn," aka the next phase in my training where we "shrink wrap" the muscles that have developed.

I'll just have to make up for these indulgences by eating super clean the rest of the week. You only live once, right?

Bacon Cups

Seriously. Bacon cups? I'd love to give these a try for my next brunch, except for the fact that they'll be hell for my healthy diet. Check Not Martha for the How-To.

(via Lifehacker)

Weekend Update

It was a fairly productive weekend in that I crossed out about half the things on my To Do list, a list which is always ambitious to begin with. I woke up early yesterday and was out the door by 10am and ran through my errands, which included reading the paper over a latte before heading over to Camden Spa for my appointments. If you're off for the holidays and need a little pick-me-up, check out Camden Spa - they've got a special on through the end of the month which includes a manicure, body scrub and a tube of body cream for $60.

I spent a relaxing afternoon a couple hours there before heading home to change for afternoon tea at C5. The holiday tea is very contemporary which was a nice change, however the service was disappointing to say the least. I think we sat for at least 15 minutes before our server came by to ask for our order and then he seemed to disappear - perhaps his shift was over - and we were left without anyone to tend to us. I think it was another 15 minutes from the time we realized we were out of devonshire cream to the point we realized that our server was MIA and making eye contact with another to ask for more.

Anyway, it was frightfully cold last night so N and I headed over to the new Owl of Minerva in Chinatown for soon tofu stew which was a perfect meal to warm up the soul. We rounded out the night with a movie night in - Julie & Julia and Public Enemies.

Today was another errand day. It started with a call from my aunt to ask if she'd woken me - go figure. I was supposed to pick her up to go uptown for dim sum with my family, which ended up being pushed back an hour to accommodate my uncle. More errands followed, including a trip to Home Depot where I picked up this runner for my kitchen. I wasn't completely convinced when I first bought it but I love it now that it's down.

The rest of the evening was spent cleaning with Hugh Grant keeping me company first with About A Boy and then Love Actually. I love how my place looks and feels when the floors are properly cleaned - by properly I mean on my hands and knees washing them - but it's such a chore that I don't do it all that often. It's catch up time now - I'm going to try and cross off one more item on my list and call it a night....