Phyllo Vegetable Pie

Straight from my vegetarian cookbook, I decided to make a vegetable pie, because it was full of vegetables and the deliciousness that can only be cream cheese, cream and (you guessed it) cheese.

It was super easy to make. The most difficult part was layering the phyllo without it ripping, and that was pretty easy in itself too. I didn't use the right cream or cheese, so it came out a bit differently (not as thick and rich). Aside from the liquidy mess that resulted from the knife attack, I didn't mind it at all.

Plus, Adam devoured his (nearly 1/3) dinner, and took another big piece home for leftovers.

Delicious!

Valentine's Day

So I'm not the biggest fan of the most over-marketed, over-commercialized, over-hyped (read: stupid) "holiday" of the year, but I figured we should do something to honour St. Valentine.

Adam's gift consisted of:

• a super fantastically awesome card from Papyrus
• home made sugar cookies decorated like candy hearts
• a box of cheddar penguin cookies
• Valentine's Day dinner

I made the cookies on Friday night and they literally took forever. It was a new sugar cookie recipe, and one that I probably won't use again. The dough was difficult to get to stick together, so rolling it out was a massive pain in the arse. The cookies had to be refrigerated for 20 minutes before baked. And cooking time was more than double my normal sugar cookie recipe. All in all, not worth all that extra time and effort.

This was the first time I used royal icing, and I have to say it was quite the experience. I learned a few things:

• you must add a LOT of colouring to get red. Read: red, NOT pink
• disposable icing bags are NOT great at all
• cut the disposable icing bags PERFECTLY to ensure icing spillage mishaps do not occur
• Piping bottles are a Godsend

For dinner Saturday night, I assumed (a while ago) that Adam wouldn't plan on making dinner, so I had plans... =)

I didn't let him know what dinner was, but I posed the question of whether he will eat all types of seafood. He let it slide as he walked in the door, that he had guessed lobster from the beginning (shucks!).

Indeed, I had planned on a lobster dinner. I got my lobsters fresh from the store just a few hours before dinner, and was planning a garlic tomato butter to go with it (yum!). Lobster was the most terrifying cooking experience to date for me. They wouldn't get into the pot, and when they finally were they tried to crawl out too! =(

Regardless, with bread and a green salad with avocado, pears and a lemon vinaigrette on the side, dinner was a hit!

Valentine's Day lobster dinner

I made bittersweet chocolate pots de creme (chocolate pudding) for dessert before Adam's portion of the evening.

He wouldn't tell me what his plan was, but I managed to figure most of it out (poor him, I always figure out his secrets). He borrowed the building key from Kendra to set up a little something in the back of the tropical greenhouse. With a keepsake box filled with envelopes and little gifts inside, there was also one placed under my "favourite plant in the greenhouse". Which, unfortunately for Adam, wasn't really my favourite plant, but was ONE of my favourite plants. That's okay, I figured that part out too. It was one of the sweetest, cutest things anyone's done for me before, so I very much enjoyed my little surprise.

With a nicely decorated platter of cut fruit, and sipping pina coladas on the bench, we sat around enjoying the quiet hum of some sort of pipework (har har) and talked, before deciding it was time to clean up and go home.

Best Valentine's day ever because I have the best boyfriend ever =)

not-so-hidden cookie messages

No Strings Attached

Natalie Portman has four movies this year (I'm including Black Swan in this) AND a baby. What a year!

One of her movies, No Strings Attached, was the feature of our Friday night last weekend.

Cute. Funny. Sappy. Sad. Loving. All the things you expect a typical chick flick to be. Plus, Ashton Kutcher. Oh. And Kelly Kapoor (Mindy Kaling) from The Office.

I'd say this is a good year for Portman, and you should absolutely got see at least one of her movies.

Chinese New Year 2011

In keeping with the theme of Adam learning all things Chinese, it was convenient that our biggest holiday was coming up. It was even more convenient for me that the eve of the new year was deemed a snow day by the University. Woohoo free day to make all the goodies I want!

Adam was over for the day, learning all about Chinese culture. I made:

• spring rolls
• steamed dumplings
• pan-fried pot stickers
• "neen gow" stir fry noodles
• dinner, including a steamed whole fish
  

A ton of food, given that Peihua told Adam the week before that we aren't supposed to cook on New Year's Day. This is not typically a custom for my family, but if given free reign to not cook for a day, I sure as hell am taking advantage of that.

delicious steamed spinach and shrimp dumplings

For dinner, I made a classic dish that I see all the time. A whole fish, gutted, cleaned, de-scaled and steamed - head, tall and all. Covered with garlic, green onion and soy sauce. Mmmmm.... too bad I don't have a photo of that lovely fella'!!

January 2011 pt. 2

The weekend after my birthday was to finish off the rest of my Christmas gift for Adam. I had originally got him all the tea and coffee stuff, the Jarome Iginla figurine, Storm hockey tickets for before Christmas and Marlies hockey tickets for after Christmas. I was confused about where my Marlies tickets were, but they finally arrived in my inbox a couple weeks before. So hence, the planning began.

We weren't going into town overnight, so it was a quick whirlwind trip of the west downtown area. We got to Ricoh Coliseum without (read: minor) any problems and enjoyed a pretty good game. Much better skating and skill level than the Storm, but I didn't think it was worth the hassle and cost to go see them on a regular basis. We beat the Peoria Rivermen, woohoo! (this is the only time I will ever cheer for a Toronto hockey team).

After the game, it was ridiculous trying to get out of the parking lot. Eventually we did, and we made out way to the green P off Spadina for dinner. The wait for a table was just a few minutes (the advantages of being a table for two), and we were set. Dinner was yummy, but not sure I will head back because of the extravagant cost of it, but Adam got a good lesson in chinese eatery. After dinner, we walked the whole 25 feet to get to a chinese bakery so we could get some more deliciousness. And enter stage left: Adam's love for pork buns.

The following weekend when I went to Toronto again to visit family for Chinese New Year, I indeed, did buy him more pork buns... Oh Adam, you are one lucky man... =)