Sunday Review

How come weekends are so short and the work week so long?? It's been another productive day on the home front. After mowing the front lawn I spent most of the day in the kitchen. First I made a mung bean & sticky rice concoction that turned out to be very satisfying and tasty. I got the recipe here. It makes a great dessert and would even be good for breakfast, I think. Though it's already quite sweet, I think a little maple syrup or a touch of brown sugar would not be out of place.

Then I tried another new recipe, this one for potato salad. You can find it here. It turned out terrific as well. The dressing is really zingy and the potatoes and asparagus go very nicely together. We had it for dinner along with the usual Sunday night roasted salmon (this time with fresh dill) and with steamed beet greens, which I purchased at the market yesterday as well. We had the homemade vanilla bean ice cream for dessert and it was yummy, too! Lots and lots of tinsy vanilla beans bursting with authentic flavour. We were very well-fed today. Brad spent his day in the back yard again and I'll soon post some photos of his labours back there.

Oh, and Martian Child was excellent. I highly recommend it. It was touching and funny. John Cusack and great as the father and Bobby Coleman was the bomb as the little Martian.

With that, here are some some pics of the week that was:

Brad's dad came for dinner last Sunday, when we again dined al fresco on the deck


This is what we had: roasted salmon & vegetables and tomatoes with feta and chives


All you need for making pesto (except the basil): olive oil, fresh garlic, grated parasan cheese, toasted pine nuts, and some lemon juice. Not everyone uses lemon juice, but I do because I like the added flabour and it keeps the pesto bright green and prevents it from turning black through oxidization.


Here's the basil! Washed and patted dry on paper towels.


Mix all the ingredients in the blender and this is what you end up with! A little pot of summer! After the pesto is made, Jasper and I head out on the deck. I use a spoon to scrape what I can out of the blender container and gobble that up myself. Then I rub my hand all around on the inside of the container to get the rest, which Jasper in turn licks off my hand.


Last night's supper


The mung bean and sticky rice pudding.


Zippy potato & asparagus salad.


Parmesan and gruyère toasts were the appetizers tonight


And finally tonight's supper: roasted salmon with fresh dill, steamed beet greens & the potato & asparagus salad.