Hello everyone,
So glad you could visit my Skywatch Friday post. These photos were taken at daybreak. I'm always happy to see the pink in the sky in the early morning hours. I hope you enjoy them.
Enjoy the weekend. See you soon.
Thursday, July 31, 2025
Monday, July 28, 2025
Shall We Cook? ~ Tuesday 4
Welcome to Toni Taddeo's Tuesday 4 kept in memory of her.
Let's talk about food this week shall we?
Most people enjoy eating good food after all.
1. What is/are your favorite foods to eat ?
I don't think I have one favourite. There are just so many good foods out there. But if I really have to choose, I would say roasted Greek potatoes and toasted pita bread with tzatziki sauce.
2. How often do you cook at home and what kind of meals do you make?
I cook at home most days. I cook a variety of things. I'm not a fancy cook and I would call my cooking style old fashioned home style cooking. In fact, I came to cooking rather late. I only really started cooking on a regular basis after I stopped working.
My mother was a fabulous cook and she loved to do it. She would often come and visit me for extended periods and do all my cooking, shopping and other jobs I just didn't have time for working very long hours. Once I stopped working I had time to learn how to cook some things. The two main things I wanted to learn were how to bake bread and how to cook beans from scratch. I already knew how to cook basis meals because my mom raised all of her children to have basic skills in cooking, cleaning and even sewing.
Even though I cook regularly, I can't say it's my most favourite thing. I think it's because it just takes so much time with all the thinking about meals, buying and prepping food, cooking and then cleaning. I'd rather be reading, lol. But I'm grateful I can cook and I'm grateful to have food to cook.
Here are the few meals I made over the past week.
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| Sausages with onions & apple, pasta with beans & onions, Caesar salad |
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| Ground beef & veggies in gravy over boiled red potatoes |
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| Spaghettini with meat & lentil sauce, garlic toast |
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| Chicken wings, chips & coleslaw |
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| Roasted chicken served with roasted root vegetables |
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| Spaghettini with meat sauce, green salad & garlic bread |
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| Air fried pork chop, pasta with spaghetti sauce & cucumber salad |
I also made a large Blueberry Upside Down cake with some blueberries that were starting to go soft. We ate some and I froze the rest for when we (I) have a sweet tooth.
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| I didn't make any whipped cream topping |
I go through periods of time where I eat out more than others, anywhere from once a week to once a month. Even a simple restaurant meal is very expensive so I've cut way back on eating out over the past several years.
A meal for one costs a minimum of $20 (Canadian) without a beverage. Of course you need to double that if you are eating out with your spouse or a friend. If you add drinks, I would say a simple meal costs no less than $60 for 2 people not including the tip. That's a lot and I'd rather spend that kind of money on other things I need.
3. When you go out to eat what foods do you find yourself ordering most?
I mostly go for Vietnamese food (Shrimp Salad rolls and a combination meal in a bowl are favourites) or Japanese food (usually a bento box). There are both Vietnamese and Japanese options aplenty in my neighborhood. I also like western foods (Clubhouse sandwich with fries, pork chops and mashed potatoes, Baron of Beef Dip) and Greek foods, especially Chicken Souvlakia platter (Greek salad, rice pilaf, chicken kebab, lemon herb potatoes, pita bread and tzatziki sauce. Greek food is a big treat and I have it once or twice a year.
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| The combo bowl I like to eat |
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| Beef Pho Soup & Shrimp Salad Rolls |
4. Can you recommend a restaurant in your area? Why do you like it?
I would recommend 3 restaurants where I eat my favourite foods (Thai Son Restaurant, Sushi Kaido and Helen's Grill). It just depends on what you like. There are many restaurants in my neighbourhood and most are within walking distance. In fact, 2 of them have Michelin stars (Published on Main & Burdock & Co.). I've never eaten at them because they are both incredibly expensive. But the menus do look very interesting and they seem well patronised. Perhaps I will have a chance to experience one or both of them in future.
Sunday, July 27, 2025
Books Read to Date
Hello friends,
The total number of books I've read so far in 2025 is 36 books and 11,930 pages. My modest book reading goal is 40 books for the year. It looks like I'll surpass the goal but I'm not pushing myself to do a lot more than 40 books. Some of my regular readers might remember that I decided to reduce my reading this year to make time for more arts and crafts projects. I have indeed managed to make more time for creative projects this year but that will be the subject of future posts.
While I very much enjoy reading, I don't like writing book reviews. I think it's because in school I always had to do a book report after reading a book for class. Though I understand there are reasons for such assignments, I have to say that this requirement turned me off of recreational reading for a very long time. If I did read on my own time it was very minimal and 3 books in any given year was my maximum. Nowadays I read much more than that. It's largely because I set a reading goal each year and track my books on Goodreads.
I started keeping better track of reading in the year 2007.
In that year I only read 3 books and the following year I don't seem to have read any books. Back in those days I could barely read a page or two at one time. My concentration levels were atrocious and I would get very tired after reading only 2 or 3 pages. My concentration level has greatly improved but it is still not 100%. It affects my daily life but more noticeably affects my writing. I have perfectionist tendencies and I try not to let this problem get me down. Instead, I thank God for the improvements since 2007. It's been a long road.
I've built up my reading goals starting with the year 2009 when I was able to complete 11 books. That was a significant milestone for me. The quantity of books I've been able to read has steadily improved since then. As you know, books are not equal in length. Some books are long and some are short. I learned a tip from a blogging friend who said she aimed to reach 20, 000 pages. I started aiming for that too.
Since I learned this tip I have reached or surpassed the goal more often than not. It fun to aim for it but I won't always reach the goal and that is okay. In fact, this may be a year I won't reach the goal but if I continue reading at the current pace, I will get close enough to it without straining myself.
I have 6 other books on the reading stack at the moment and have started two of them.
One is called Fell Murder by E.R.C. Lorac
The Garths had farmed their fertile acres for generations and fine land it was with the towering hills of the Lake Country on the far horizon. Garthmere Hall itself was old before Flodden Field, and here hot-tempered Robert Garth, still hale and hearty at eighty-two, ruled his household with a rod of iron. When he is killed, Inspector MacDonald sets to work on the close-knit cadre of suspects in this grim story of evil passions and murderous hate in a small rural community.
The other is called News of the World by Paulette Jilles
In the winter of 1870, Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd travels from town to town, reading current news of ratified amendments and polar expeditions to (mostly) attentive audiences. When he’s asked to deliver a 10-year-old girl back to her relatives in San Antonio in exchange for $50 in gold, he agrees. Johanna’s parents had been killed by the Kiowa, but she was spared and was raised as one of their own for four years. Captain Kidd finds that Johanna has lost nearly all memory of her language, comportment, and upbringing. Facing a 400-mile journey filled with threats of ambush and an uncooperative charge, Captain Kidd wonders if his choice to deliver the girl was the right one.
What follows below are the highlights of the books I've read so far this year.v let me know what books you've enjoyed this year.
A well written, well researched novel. It's part of a series but I didn't know that when I started reading it. It's okay as a stand alone book. It just wasn't really my 'cup of tea' as it was a bit dull in the telling of the story.
I won't summarize the story because so many readers have already done that.
I basically enjoyed the story and read it over 2 evening sittings. One reviewer said that the story could have been told as two separate stories. My own view is...
Alice lives in England with her family but is originally from Nigeria. After her estranged husband Cornelius dies, she decides she wants to return to Nigeria to live out the rest of her days. What follows is the winding journey to get th...
A group of school children and their teachers are held captive in China by Japanese soldiers during WW2. The novel is all about the horrors they endure, their methods of coping and their small joys along the way until the war is ended an...
A dark, gothic murder mystery. This is not a book I would normally read but I picked it from the library shelves and took a chance on it.
The story is told in the form of letters and it kept me engaged from beginning to ending. It seems...
An engaging whodunnit murder mystery set on Camino Island during a hurricane storm. My first read by this popular author and I'll likely read another of his novels.
An interesting novel loosely based on real life events occurring during WW2. The story is about the role of propagandists in demoralizing German soldiers. Many of them were women, hence the title, The Lipstick Bureau.
It took me about...
Dystopian and science fiction are not my favourite genres to read. I picked up this book because the author is Canadian.
In this story, the protagonist, Polly agrees to time travel into the future in order to get the funds to pay for h...
A contemporary love story primarily set in the Canadian province of Prince Edward Island (PEI). I enjoyed this story as it brought the feels of what it must be like on Canada's east coast. Perhaps some day I'll get to experience it for m...
I really enjoyed this mystery thriller. It kept me engaged to the end and I really could not foresee the ending. Well done!
A good, short educative book that will get you started on using plants and herbs to improve your health.
The book is mostly devoted to 2 pages of information for each selected plant or herb that will provide you with adequate informati...
A sweet little book filled with lovely photos of Pamela of her culinary makes and in her surroundings on Vancouver Island. I also love the sweet words she posts throughout the book. There aren't a ton of recipes but definitely some I'm g...
A comprehensive book about the woman, Fu Pei-mei who brought Chinese cooking to the world. Though today's modern Taiwanese don't cook so much at home it seems, and no longer have need of such detailed cooking helps, Fu Pei-mei is an icon...
A sadness permeates this book much like the sadness that seemed to envelop Lisa Marie Presley throughout her lifetime. This book surprised me in ways I didn't expect but it also showed me that Lisa Marie created a family full of love. In...
An interesting murder mystery; well written and with an ending I didn't forsee.
I've read another book by this author which was equally good if not better: The Girl on the Train, which was made into a movie starring Emily Blunt.
There ...
A complicated love story about a woman who ultimately has to choose between two loves. She makes her choice and you think the story is going to end sadly. But there is hope and a renewed love. I didn't think it would pull at my heart str...
This work of historical fiction leads us through the various life stages of American born, Anna Mae Wong, considered to be the first Chinese American actress to reach international acclaim.
She was born in 1905 and died in 1961. Her ca...
There isn't much to say about this book. It's a short novel about a woman writer/teacher who goes to Athens to teach English. There are a few stories about people she meets along the way, her neighbour who is Greek but had been living in...
I enjoyed this book much more than the novel, Olive Kitteridge written by the same author. The 'unrecorded' stories shared could be quite depressing but somehow the book overall is not depressing.
A touching and moving posthumously published memoir of Alexei Navalny. The first half of his memoir is dedicated to a summary of his early life and how that and his education led him to become Russia's opposition leader and political act...
This historical fictional novel is based on the author's indigenous family history and spans several centuries and is set in what is now Ontario and Quebec in Canada. This is a new to me author and I very much enjoyed the book as she mad...
I enjoyed this book by a new to me author. I didn't realize when I picked it off the shelves that it is the 2nd in a book series.
The novel deals with the lives of a mother, Christine and her 3 married daughters, Etta, Cecelia and Jess...
A beautifully illustrated book with wonderful information and instructions. The projects are mostly beyond my capabilities but the information shared is good for those who are learning.
A touching story of an elderly woman's decision to seek medical assistance in dying and what happens while she's waiting on a decision. Far from being morbid, the take is sensitively told with a touch of humour.
This is the first book I've read by this author. It's a short book set in a bucolic fictional village of Thrush Green in the English countryside. The contents are pleasant and life is slow moving as life tends to be in a small village. T...
I didn't know much about the actress Minka Kelly but I had heard her name before. When her book came out I decided to read it.
Wow! What a horrible and precarious childhood this young woman had. I commend her for her survival instincts ...
The book is very short and doesn't tell you much about the woman, Melanie, First Lady of the USA. She deals with some of the controversies such as plagiarizing Michelle Obama and swatting away her husband's hand when he wants to hold it ...
I enjoyed this short book of decorating ideas. What I enjoyed most is that the designer thinks outside of the box in terms of materials and decorating ideas. There are a number of ideas which one can implement quite easily. Her ideas lea...
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