We were invited for lunch with some business associate when we were up  in the city recently and one of them was into body building and was going to bring us to his health club at Robbie Street after lunch.  And knowing that I’m a food blogger – he had asked me about muscle food – and what he should be eating – if he wanted to be more muscular.  Truth be told, I haven’t thought about it – so I fumbled and I didn’t want to say anything that I didn’t know – just to make myself look good right?  So we asked the waiter – and he in turn was more knowledgeable than I was.  It was a pretty refreshing talk with the waiter from Jack Astor’s – and he really knows all about muscle food and even the top creatine supplements – impressive – I thought!

Well, I didn’t get any muscle food – but I sure got a home made apple pie with ice cream on top – of course – I couldn’t finished it – and had to share it with Chloe and PB.  So you know any muscle food?

As you all know we spend a lot of time at the store – PB worst ! for spends a lot more hours in the store than I.  But during the weekends when Chloe is at her Grammie’s I get to stay in the store till it closes at 9pm – sometimes even later.  After closing up the store – we head home – long hours with no one at home.  This year we are very blessed – business at the store had been really steady and we have a friend who introduced us to the home automation software for our home – so that we can monitor our home even if we were at work.  And knowing how paranoid I am – PB decided to invest in this software.   I’m a very happy gal now – coz’ I can heat up the home before we go back from the store – real time video that I can watch from the store.  No worries about breaking in – and even if we went on vacation – I don’t have to worry no more nor do I need to get a friend to go by the house everyday.   I’m so blessed!

PS :  I bought my So Blessed coffee cup from downtown – for my birthday!  you like it?

I love weddings – but this one holds a special place in my heart – because I was just but a young girl when his mother – Diana married Prince Charles.  Oh my !  time flies!!   I’m sure you are with me – in wishing happiness forever for both Kate and Prince William.

I’ve never eaten sweet potato biscuits before and home made ones has got to be better right?  so when PB’s Aunt made some during Easter’s supper – i was waiting anxiously to eat it during supper.  She made everything from scratch – love the ang mohs – for they love doing everything from scratch.

Grampie loves them – Aunt Helena had said – so at least she had a fan there – and after tasting it during supper – they were really good.  I wished I had more – but being diabetic and all – i didn’t dare eat more than 1 piece – plus I had so much turkey that day.

Very original – and seems easy enough to bake – maybe I can ask for the recipe the next time.

Happy Belated Easter everyone!  we had been so busy with work and visiting and friends in town – it was crazy around here.  But Easter bunny did come and visit us at home and Chloe had lots of treats.  The Easter bunny also brought a cake to bring to Grammie’s and Grampie’s and left it in the fridge for Chloe to find.

We had a really good Easter this year – despite the fact that we were open for business on Good Friday and Easter Monday – the boss is a slave driver – did I tell yer?  Chloe and I and some friends went to watch the movie HOP  on Good Friday.  On Easter Sunday – we had gone to church and then the easter egg hunt in church, followed by dinner at her Grammie’s.  We also went to pick up Chloe’s trampoline enclosure for this summer – that way she won’t worry about jumping on the trampoline.

Chloe had so much fun that day – we also went to visit Sarah – Chloe’s oldest friend – and brought her some Easter gifts – and of course Chloe had gotten a gift too from Sarah.

Look at how lovely the two friends are – sure melted my heart.

My lunch is usually pretty simple – some noodles in soup and a vegie but once in a while – I like something a bit different – and I would asked the Chinese restaurant – the Zhu’s at the New Century Restaurant – to whip up something a little more for me.  Today, I asked for some Foo Yong Eggs with char siew.   The Zhu’s refuses to charge me extras – but I insisted.

This is my noodles in soup – and as you know – there isn’t much to choose from in terms of restaurant – and I can’t eat a steak during lunch – so chinese had to be it for me almost every lunch at the store.  Poor me right?  but for those in Asia and where you can get all sorts of food easily – count your blessings today!  And tell me what you had for lunch eh?  send pictures would even be better.

A few weeks ago, we had gone to the local Farmer’s Market at Beacon Church to see if they had anything new – as you all know I love the Farmer’s Market and for someone who loved food as much as I do – I loved trying all sorts of goodies.  I came across this table where this two gentlemen were explaining about the lavender baking sugar to a lady – and in the end the lady replied that she doesn’t do much baking *slap forehead* – what a disappointment eh.  But the guys were nice – they just continued smiling and I had wanted to stop and chat with them – but it was impossible – because Chloe was tugging on my jeans already *sigh*.

I quickly checked out the lavender jelly (jam) but alas – the sugar content was pretty high – so I didn’t even dare try it – I should have !  There were the lavender syrup too – for making drinks or cocktails and lavender pepper made outta lavender floret – ground black peppercorns and citrus peels.  They had told me that they used it on everything they cooked.  I had to get a small bottle of course.  The small bottle of lavender pepper wasn’t cheap – it was $7.99 but worth every penny for sure!  it was yummy!  I tried it with my food and things I cooked with.

This is the lavender jelly – slightly behind the plate were the lavender pepper.  Unfortunately, they don’t ship outta Canada – else I can send some to everyone.   The two gentlemen were Gordon Tingley and Martin Mcgurk and they own Sledding Hill Farm and they produces high quality and uncommon foods – I hope to be able to catch up a little more with them during the summer – at the Farmer’s Market and maybe get an interview with them – so stay tuned.

This episode jamie oliver prepares some crispy salmon - with jazzed-up rice, baby courgette salad, gorgeous guacamole and berry spritzer in just 30 minutes. Enjoy and Happy Easter !

I do loved pasta a lot – before coming to Canada – but since coming to Canada – I don’t eat it as much as I would like – for both PB and Chloe doesn’t like pasta as much as I do.  But a month or so ago – my favorite restaurant – The Peg’s Family restaurant had this red pasta that I fell in loved with – so I sought it out at the local grocery store and found it.  It’s actually the sun dried tomato & basil pasta and it was really delicious – one can taste the basil quite strongly inside the pasta – so for those who doesn’t like basil – this is not for you.

This is how the box of sun dried tomato & pasta look.

After cooking it for 8 minutes since I liked it el dente – this is how it looks.

I cooked them with my usual chicken and mushrooms – lots of mushrooms – but the next time I’ve going to cook this with seafood – since both PB and chloe didn’t want much to do with my pasta – rather sad eh?  Oh well – more for me.

I had actually seen this in one of our local store down on main street a few weeks ago – but i didn’t buy it immediately because Chloe doesn’t bring a cupcake or a muffin to school often.  Then last Sunday we bought her some banana chocolate muffins for snacks for school and I asked myself – why was I so el cheapo and didn’t get her the cupcake on the go ?  so PB brought me out to the gift shop – after sending chloe’s lunch and i bought a pink one for her.  woohoo!!

So there – muffins or cupcakes can fit into the cupcake on the go holder and only for $3.99 + tax of course!  the government wants their share (blood suckers!)  They come in a few different colors – i think blue, yellow – and green.

While most people have a cake for their birthdays – I have corn bread – from Chloe’s grammie – because I’m not a cake person and she knows it.  So nice of her to make corn bread for me and a cake for Chloe and PB.   I love corn bread and wished I could eat more of it – but as we all know corn bread contains lots of sugar too – so I didn’t finished it all but froze it instead.

I like my corn bread warm – what about you?

A week or so ago, Chloe came home from school with some Candies from her home room teacher – Mexican candies for all of us.  How sweet and kind her teacher is right?   Such a nice gesture – we are grateful to Chloe’s teachers – they have all been really good with her – and her home room teacher is someone that Chloe likes a lot and talks about all the time.   Teachers play such an important part in our child’s life – and it’s only right for us to show our appreciation.

And a thank you card from her home room teacher too – so nice of her – we are grateful for her and count our blessings everyday.

Brianna is my buddy’s daughter – and she doesn’t realized she is such a pretty lil’ girl – she only only but 12 yrs old I think – but can passed off as 14 yrs old.  If only Brianna knew that – if I had looked like her when I was 12 back in Asia – I would have the boys in my school lining up from St Michael’s to Marymount Convent.   Brianna is such a sweet girl – and I wished, I wished – the kids here in Canada know how blessed they are – with so much luxury and freedom.  Brianna loves pizza but not just any kind of pizza – it had to be from a specific place and a specific kind.   Brianna doesn’t have as  custom laptop like we do – that we can order our pizza online from our favorite pizza store – now if only the pizza store she goes to – is as tech savvy too – but alas they are not.

Nevertheless, Brianna loves her all cheese pizza and she gets to eat it whenever she wants.   If you all have met Brianna – you would like her too – she has the loveliest smile – just like her mom.  Her mom has such a big heart – you cannot ask for a better friend.   Now if only she would use the pizza place that we go to – she doesn’t have to wait to come to town to order her pizza anymore – she can order her pizza online with our custom laptop -  but I’m guessing her mom would get her a custom laptop when she goes to college. Of course, our custom laptop can do more than just order pizza online – we can do heavy gaming on it – and open multiple windows to do our work – and for me – my laptop is capable of me watching a show while I am working on it – pretty cool eh?  especially for a multi-tasker.

Mr Sweet Ep 07 for your weekend pleasure.

This episode Jamie Oliver  creates cheat’s pizza, three delicious salads, and squashed cherries and vanilla mascarpone cream in just 30 minutes.  Now when he says 30 mins  – take it with a pinch of salt as he didn’t calculate the washing time and the preparation time for all the ingredients.  Enjoy your weekend folks!  i am – we started with going to the Farmer’s Market.  Woohoo!!

I’ve tasted the black pepper beef at the New Century Restaurant once during a buffet – but having Chloe with me for a buffet means not a good meal at all lah!  so I tried the black pepper lunch instead – because I loved black pepper beef and the Zhu’s did not disappoint at all.  The beef was tender and the black pepper was just right and not too spicy.  In fact it was so good – I could have eaten it in an entire meal – but i was really too full.   So if you are eating at the New Century Restaurant – don’t give the black pepper beef a missed – it was yummilicious!

It was my birthday last week and I decided to treat myself with a chocolate croissant for the local grocery store – so yummy right it looked.  But alas, it wasn’t as yummy as the ones from Tim’s – I guess I should have warm it up in the oven a bit?  before eating them?  But what a waste – it sure looked awesome though – the next time I will warm it up and see if it make a difference.  The texture of this croissant was definitely different from the regular croissant that we had – this was like a bread like texture and not fluffy at all.

Maybe L.A. Was a Big Mistake

i thought i should share this with all of you – especially those who wants to lose weight.

A few weeks ago, Chloe had to attend a birthday party – so we decided to have a quick lunch at Macdonald’s – yes! we eat junk too hahahah!!!

Nothing spectacular of course – just some fish burger for PB.

And a quarter pounder for me – I think I didn’t have a quater pounder for more than 15 years now – this was my first and all because it was buy one get the other one free – and they only had chicken, fish and this – so I decided to do something different that day.  Nothing spectacular of course, tasted the same like a cheese burger but bigger.

Chloe had the happy meal of course – hahah! it was an ok lunch – nothing spectacular – as we all know of Macdonald’s.  Plus this one got no Wifi – nor a playground – very 70s.

So we had the Princess Tea Party for the Children’s Wish Foundation a few weeks ago – and Chloe and her friends had a blast.  I know that this is for a charity event – but surely they have to take care of the parents too – who had to go with them and pay only $30 for the tickets right?  For cupcakes for princesses is fine – but a few finger sandwiches for the parents would also be great – haha!!  for we were freaking hungry when we got out – and from what I heard – Wendy’s and Macdonald’s was packed – when the draw gates closed at the Princess tea party.

And here is Princess Chloe – getting ready for the tea party.

All 250 tickets were sold and more than $10K raised during the Princess Tea Party – for those who have sponsored some kids of Chloe’s class for the Tea Party – give yourself a pat on the shoulder.

Some of the other Princesses at the Tea Party. Princess Sophia and Princess Talli.

Princess Jasmine and her friend – another very pretty princess.

Princess Sarah and her mummy.

And princess Skye and the Seafest Princess.