Breakfast Bribery

I hate getting up. Especially on the weekends. To take the edge off Romeo made the most delicious breakfast for us the other morning; chocolate chip brioche french toast with caramelized over ripened bananas. Sure, that may be a lot of sugar to start the day off with but at least it got me out of bed.

Sleep that knits up the ravelled sleave of care 

The death of each day's life, sore labour's bath 

Balm of hurt minds, great nature's second course, 

Chief nourisher in life's breakfast.

Mum's the Word

Mom always knows best.  And tonight our dear Lady Capulet gave us the base recipe for our mini meal.  Asparagus, lightly tossed with extra virgin olive oil and pepper, wrapped in prosciutto with either spicy havarti or creamy cream cheese tucked inside the rolled up and broiled until deliciously crispy.  We also toasted up some caraway rye bread for dipping in balsamic and oil.  

Thanks, Lady!  Twas delicious.

The Lady doth prosciutto too much, methinks.

Snack Attack

We love nothing more than making a leisurely breakfast on a slow Sunday morning.  The issue is we end up hungry at an odd time; too early for dinner, too late for lunch.  What to do?

Entre Romeo with his snack french bread sliders.  From left to right as follows:
1) Cream cheese, spinach, tomato and a balsamic reduction
2) Pesto, herb goat cheese, spinach, tomato and fresh basil
3) Avocado, tomato and fig goat cheese

Parmesan and chive chips complete this delicious mini meal.   

Come, madam girlfriend, sit by my side and let the world slip,
We shall ne're be hungry

p.s. - A thousand pardons to Lady Capulet for the lateness of this posting.
Us star crossed lovers have a life you know. xo

Ketchup

I don't like ketchup.
My brothers used to lick it off their plates when they were young.

Some people's children are weird.

Tonight's burgers were stackaliciously awesome with spinach, cream cheese, avocado, tomato, sautéed red onions and feta cheese, and of course mine was void of red condiments.
Romeo is going back for seconds.  Great dinner!

I'll have ground beef

More relative than this - the burger's the thing

Wherein I'll catch up on the consumption of the King

Eclectic Ethnicity

What happens when no one wants to go to the store?  We eat Greexican.

Shrimp with red onion, corn and cheddar cheese quesadilla with tzatziki for dipping.

¡Oplé!

If men could be contented to be what they are, 

there were no fear in marriage of greek and mexican.

Comfort and Joy

Some days all you really want to do is stay in bed, like all day.  Life, however, does not allow for that.  No, instead you've got to go to work, actually produce drawings and fix everyone's problems while trying not to freak out on them.  Either that or have a day off in the middle of the week while everyone else is working so you try to build a bike from the old frame you found in the basement but can't pry the crank and bottom bracket off as it's rusted solid making the chain not line up and fall off when pedalled.  So, what can be done?  Take comfort in comforting food, like tonight's dinner; chicken pesto penne.

Sunday nights are usually our pasta night but lately we've been on a major salad kick.  It all worked out because tonight I got to eat a big ol' plate of goodness.  Sauteed chicken with a few minced garlic cloves and double smoked bacon, atop penne which was mixed up with whipping cream, a spoonful of cream cheese and of course pesto.

Creamy carb-y comfort.  Truly a joy to eat.

Now, God be praised, that to believing souls gives light in darkness, 

comfort in despair, bacon in pasta.

Orange you glad I didn't say falafel?

I went to bed Wednesday night with a sore throat and woke up the next morning with a full on cold.  My nose is conflictingly stuffy and running and my whining is out of control.

What happens when you feel awful?  You eat a falafel.

Romeo stuffed us some whole wheat pita pockets with falafels balls we got from Costco and added romaine lettuce, shredded carrot, red onion, cherry tomatoes, crumbled feta cheese, cucumbers and tzatziki sauce.  And he's still bringing me orange juice with ice cubes just the way I like.  What a guy.

Give not this watery orange juice to your friend;

She's but the sign and semblance of your girl.

Midday Summers Lunch

Lucky me, today I got to share my lunch hour with Romeo!  His new job is just down the street from my office and since he didn't start until late afternoon, we were able to eat together at the very north end of Granville Street.  They've made an extremely attractive space for spending your midday time away from your desk there, with picnic tables, benches and even some grass with shade from a few deciduous trees.  It's where I get a tan in the summer, one hour at a time.

On the menu today was two day old tuna and avocado salad spruced with some cashews, grape tomatoes, grated smoked gouda and fresher spinach.  We also ate cucumber and cream cheese sandwiches and drank homemade iced tea, made with a mixture of earl grey and green pomegranate along with some freshly chopped mint, which is quickly becoming a lovely addition to almost every drink.

One mason jar, two straws.  What more could you want?

The Prince of Cucumberland! - That is a step, 

On which I must fall down, or else over eat.

Solstice

Tonight we are celebrating the longest day of the year and the beginning of everyone's favourite season with a lovely, large, leafy green summer salad.  Added to our big bed of fresh spinach, we have juicy and ripe strawberry slices, bits of fig goat's cheese and homemade roasted candied walnuts.  A light drizzle of sweet balsamic reduction dresses our meal and this time we've got garlic bread.

We're also opened our favourite bottle of red, Bear Flag, chosen not only for it's amazingly bright and vibrant label but also for it's steal of a deal with a $13 price tag from the BC LDB stores.  With this we're making Bumbos; a Czechoslovakian traditional drink (or so says Romeo) where you add wine and coke together, making a poor man's sangria.  Romeo put mint leaves and a squeeze of lime to take it up a notch.

And then we're going to watch 'Chocolat' with Johnny Depp.  Slappadabase mon.
Happy summer!

Shall I compare thee to a summer's salad?

Thou art more leafy and more tasty.

What's Old is Dinner

What happens when the cat's away?  In this case the mice would starve.

My Romeo starts his first day at the iconic Save On Meats on Hastings which reopens today so instead of arriving home from teaching my Monday evening yoga class to another lovely meal, I arrived home to our empty apartment.  That means I have to fix my own dinner.  Aye me!
Thank goodness for leftovers.

I made a little garden salad to accompany our delicious angel haired pasta meal from last night.
And now I wait for my man to return home again home again, jiggity jig.

Absence doth sharpen love, presence strengthens it;

the one brings fuel, the other blows it till it burns clear.

Hair of the Angel

When I was growing up we were always told that cheese was more expensive than steak.  
Thankfully, I have found a place where the cheese is reasonably priced and comes in humungous quantities.

Romeo and I went to Costco!

We added some of the spoils of our plunder to our angel haired pasta tonight, which included creme cheese, smoked gouda, bacon and shrimp.  We also added some chives, not from the garden up the Arbutus tracks where we ran tonight but rather purchased from the over priced, gouge your wallet, solitary grocery store in our neighbourhood, Meinhardt's.
($2.99 for a bushel of chives, seriously?)

We both really enjoyed the flavours of this meal; the smokiness, the creaminess and the baconness.  The only thing missing was garlic bread.

Good-night sweet prince, And flights of angel hair pasta sing thee to thy rest.

The First Attempt

Hello!

We are starting a blog.  How original, right?
Romeo makes it, photographs it, and I, Juliet, will compose the prose.

Then we both eat it!

Without further ado...
 Below is a snap from a lovely breakfast we shared last summer.

So, we've got some grilled tomates avec rosemary, potato and scallion pancakes, small egg and cheese soufflés, grapefruit wedges and of course bacon and coffee.

Adieu, adieu, parting is such sweet sorrow.  *burp*