Happy Fathers Day!

Happy Fathers Day to Will. A great husband and an equally amazing father! Watching you play and love Daphne makes me fall more in love with you every day. Barf. You are a really awesome and patient dad and we are lucky to have you!

Happy Fathers Day to my dad as well! I love sharing a glass of red wine and a heated "discussion" with you. 

They both look so good holding my girl! 

Have a great day to all the fathers, father-in-laws, step fathers, fathers with fur children, fathers of invention, fathers of confederation, fathers of mercy...okay stop me...

--Siobhan xoxo

Weekend with Nona and Bapa

As we are leaving for two and a half weeks for Alberta. to so spend long awaited time with our other two G kiddos we had Miss D for the WHOLE weekend.
Mommy and Daddy brought her Friday night and after a play and Daddy put her to bed they went home.
Bapa and I were anticipating a few Jocelyn (its what we call the soother) retrievals during the evening.
BUT she slept til about 4 and once had her Jocelyn slept til about 6;30 ---- YAY
Up we got and came downstairs to the kitchen after opening the front curtains to greet the glorious morning.
We made coffee and fed the cats.... Miss D munched on a few pieces of banana.

After playing with blocks and having a few concerts it was time for her morning nap.



Bapa was all set when she woke to take her to store for pizza ingredients
so after a quick snack and a wee bum change off they went.....

When they got home it was lunch time .
I think groceries were exhausting because she ate a peanut butter and banana sandwich, a wee bit of yogourt, and applesauce.
Another wee play and a few stories ..... then a 2 hour nap.

Of course after such a fantastic nap it was time to get lathered up and get outside to play.
We splashed in the pool ... ate some grass ... dug some dirt (may have eaten a bit of that too) ... crawled all around the backyard ... watched Bapa shingle the shed ... had a popsicle ...



Then helped Bapa make pizza ... got ready for bed ... read some stories ... in bed at 6:30

Slept through til 6:30 the next morning.
Sunday morning Bapa made pancakes with raspberries and blueberries.
After the morning nap it was time to clean up and get ready to go home.

It was a fantastic weekend and we look forward to the next one -----

Click here to see how happy she is to be home!




ciao for now
susan

Gordon Ramsay Inspired

Well I am going to start by saying I am NOT a Gordon Ramsay fan.
There I said it ......
Blasphemy!! I know.

But the other night I was doing some knitting and HB was watching him.
I heard Gordon say "bruschetta" and "risotto"
Two of my favs.
He toasted slices of ciabatta brushed with garlic oil

Spread the toast with a ricotta herb mixture --- I added a bit of garlic to the mixture.

Topped it with slices of grilled zucchini.

Then he made a roasted beet risotto -----
Wellll I am not a fan of beets and the colour the risotto turned was terribly unappetizing to me.

So I roasted asparagus spears with olive oil sprinkled with good ole S and P

When you visit leave a comment so we know you are enjoying our Blog!!


ciao for now
susan

Instagram Week

OOps.
Kind of missed my Friday Instagram.
Had a sweet girl visiting and well sort of forgot
So here is my Friday Instagram .....

Beautiful peonies ..... lazy kittys ........ Miss D ...... and my Alberta countdown (which as of today is 3)

 

 

 

 

Let us know you have visited us .....

 

 

ciao for now

susan

Instagram this Week - Sio Edition

This week on Instagram Will and I had a baby free weekend practicing golf and having a long long breakfast, I was attacked by the cutest baby ever. 

D experienced a thunderstorm  and ate a bunch of blueberries (LOVED THEM)

--Siobhan xoxo

Friendship and a Canopy Installation

Another wonderful weekend @ 44.
Friends were wanting to sell a patio canopy in lieu in getting an upgrade.

HB and I have been chatting about getting one to extend our sitting time outside
What a windfall for us...
and all we had to do was have a terrific evening with them with good food and fabulous wine.

 HB  was totally in charge of dinner.....
Started with crackers topped with fig goat cheese and a piece of bacon --
D-E-L-C-I-O-U-S

BBQ Steaks
Homemade pasta with pesto made with basil from the garden
Wonderfully roasted veggies
Homemade bread ---- a new one he tried --- Filone

So they showed up with the canopy in hand ... a bottle of cote de Rhone .... fresh baked muffins.
Then to make it even better Paul arrives in the backyard with all the tools to put it together....
True true friends...

 

Yes I made cheesecake topped with a mango sauce and rascal berries....

Now you say what could possibly top that ...

Yup a weekend with our Miss D.
She is cruising now and it appears in no time those first few tentative steps are just around the corner.

Sunday it was pizza and yup she was right there chewing on Bapa's homemade za..

 

And ice cream for dessert....

We get to have her visit us ALL next weekend....
Nona and Bapa will be pooped .. but happy..

Thanks for visiting ---- leave a quick comment so we know you have been here :-)


ciao for now
susan

Saag Chicken Night

I love trying to make Indian food. One of my favorite is saag chicken. I love spinach so I'll saag almost anything. It's fast, healthy and full of spicy flavour!

Cut up the chicken into bite sized pieces and cook in a pan.

I grate the onion and mix it in with the cooked chicken.

Add all your spices. Salt, pepper, cumin, paprika, curry powder, turmeric, garam masala, ground ginger, garlic powder, cinnamon, and cayenne.

Add tomato paste and dijon mustard.

Add in thawed (or fresh - if you're rich) spinach and about half a cup of chicken stock. 

Then simmer until its at your desired thickness.

I serve with naan and brown rice.

This is Will's "OH MY GOD stop taking pictures and let me eat!" face

I make this probably once a week cause it's fast and cheap! It's also really easy to adjust to seasoning from flavorful to super spicy depending on who your feeding.

I'm full!

--Siobhan xo

Friday with the Fam

Took me a whole week to get to this post. Daphne really doesn't seem to care about the blog...humph.

Had my parents over last Friday for a visit with D and dinner. 

There is a restaurant in the states called Chipotle which I hear a lot of people are totally obsessed with. One of the dishes on there menus is called a Chipotle Bowl (I think...) which is basically a taco on rice...so I decided to recreate it. Kind of.

I used that idea and made it my way. With slow cooked pulled pork, coconut lime rice and lots of fresh veggies. Sriracha for kick and a yogurt/chili powder/garlic sauce to top. Everyone seemed to like it. Especially the yogurt sauce...which was the easiest part but I also think the dish would have been lost without it.

For dessert ma brought angel food cake, strawberries and cream. Yum.

My dad had spent about an hour that afternoon cleaning my backyard up for me and Daphne had a good 30 minutes in her pool. She passed out quick and we gobbled this up real fast.

I'm having my friend, her boyfriend and their daughter over next weekend and I think I will make these again. Quick, yummy, they will feed a crowd, and I don't have to have the oven on. Thank god for slow cookers. 

--Siobhan xoxo

Gardening

As you can see from a couple posts back Sio and I got really sick after our D R trip.
Great balls o Fire ----- finally feeling better altho still a nagging cough cough cough but
at least now I feel I can get a few things caught up before my next venture -----
It felt so great being in the garden...
Deb from    Just Cats    and her retired guy visited with us and we dug and dug in the rain lots of perennials for them.

Check her blog for more pics.
As a gardener it is a fantastic feeling to share your spoils.
We will be visiting the Mouse House soon..... :-)

Got my veggys in
Kale
Beans
Carrots
Radishes
Onions
Tomatoes
Lots of Herbs
Zucchini

And my gardens are looking mahvelous

 

 

And a lil sumthin for the butterflys and bumbly bees to get a drink

 

 

Senor Rana is back ----- Ribbit  Ribbit!!

 

 

 

ciao for now

susan