Lazy Sunday Dinners

On a  lazy Sunday I like to make one pot dinners. This past Sunday it was raining and coolish so this dinner hit the spot.


Ingredients:

2 small washed and diced yams
2 small washed and diced russett potatoes
1 1/2 peeled and roughly chopped yellow onions
1 large stalk of celery, washed and quartered
2 medium carrots, washed, peeled and quartered
1 head of garlic with outer skins peeled off and top of head sliced off
1 medium pork roast
salt and pepper

After preparing the vegetables, place the celery, carrots and onions in the center of a baking dish. Then place the pork roast on top and put some coarsely ground pepper and salt on the top to season. Spread the remaining ingredients around the roast and season with more salt and pepper. Cover and cook in a 400 F oven for 1.5 to 2 hours until everything is nicely cooked and the pork is soft and crumbly.

Scenic Sunday in Kamloops

Kamloops, British Columbia is a very different place from where I live in Vancouver. Kamloops is about 4 hours drive north and is located in what is called the Interior of the province. It is cattle country and for years this small city was more like a frontier town.

[Panoramic shot of the North Shore, Kamloops]

I'm happy to say that in the past decade or so things have changed a lot. New commercial buildings have gone up aplenty. New areas of the city have seen significant residential development and there are new facilities and services to be used such as the new downtown library and the one that will open on April 19, 2010 on the north shore. There are also new hotels and restaurants.

[Photo of the newest hotel opened in February 2010]

If you are a golfer there are numerous golf resorts. If you are a mountain biker, the city is known for it's mountain bike trails. If you love the outdoors the entire region is known for fishing and camping. If you like hot weather you are also in luck as the summer temperatures can frequently get over 30ºCelsius. So you will likely want to hang out in one of the city's many beautiful parks just to stay cool and relax. Or you might participate in a community or national event like Canada's birthday on Canada Day, July 1st.

[Collage of photos taken at park on Canada Day 2009. 
Click on photo to enlarge]

Whatever you want to do, you will likely be able to do it in Kamloops. But you better hurry. Those real estate prices have been going up, up and up.

Here now are a few photos taken downtown in February 2010.

[Plaza Hotel, a landmark in the city centre]

[Zack's Coffee shop, a long time business in downtown core]

[City sidewalks are nice and wide downtown and planter pots await Spring]

[Traffic is not exceptionally heavy]

[Buildings downtown retain their history. Big malls are on the hill & across the river]

[This mall has undergone about 3 complete renovations in last 40 years]

[One of the local radio stations]

[Bus routes are extensive and run every 15-30 minutes depending on time of day]

Click on the badge above for more scenes from around the globe.

Savoury Eats

I was googling recipes for non-gluten eating a few days ago. While I didn't find quite what I was looking for, I did find a tasty looking vegetable dish. Here is my version of it.

Ingredients:

half a red pepper sliced

half a yellow pepper sliced

handful of broccoli chopped in large pieces

handful of cauliflower chopped in large pieces

two small yams washed and sliced lengthwise like fries

half a zucchini chopped in larger pieces

two medium carrots, peeled and sliced in long pieces

olive oil

cracked pepper

tuscan seasoning

After washing and chopping all the vegetables, toss them with olive oil cracked pepper and tuscan seasoning (recipe here).  You can eyeball the amounts. You  just need enough seasoning to taste and enough oil to coat the vegetables.

When done, place the veggies in a nice casserole dish and bake until the vegetables have enough crunch. I think I left mine for about 202-5 minutes in a 350ºF oven but you can experiment on this as I find that no ovens are created equal in terms of heat distribution.

The vegetables were very good and very filling. I didn't make a salad or any dessert that day. I just had my vegetables with two small hamburger patties (minus the bun) and was very full.

I was reminded yesterday that today is Earth Hour. This is a global call to action for business and individuals alike. During this hour one turns of all electricity from 8:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. local time. Just think how much energy we can save around the globe when we all stop and turn off our power supply for one hour. At the same time, we can use this time to pray for others, meditate on God's Word and give thanks for all that we have.

In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in 

Christ Jesus concerning you.

2 Thessalonians 5:18

Tasty Chocolate Chip & Raisin Cookies

Do you ever get a craving for something late at night when you have no snacks in the fridge or cupboard?

The other day I had a craving for chocolate so made these chocolate chip cookies. The recipe was from an old Quaker Oats promotional mini-cookbook I sent away for many years ago. I added the raisins to the recipe.

Ingredients:

1 cup butter or margarine
1 1/4 cups of brown sugar
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
3 cups uncooked Quaker oats (or other oatmeal brand)
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup raisins


Beat the butter and sugar together until it is light and fluffy and then add the eggs and vanilla. Blend it all together. Next, combine flour, soda, salt & spice and mix well.Then stir in the oatmeal, the semi-sweet chocolate chips and raisins. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto a greased cookie sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes in a 350°F oven. If you  fing that the dough doesn't stick together simply by stirring, use your hands to mix and form the balls to place on the cookie sheet. You can use the tines of a fork to press the balls of cookie dough down.  Makes about 2 1/2 dozen cookies.

I may have made these cookies once before. I don't remember as it has been awhile since I've used this cookbook or even made chocolate chip cookies. The cookies are not heavy or dense. They are quite light and have a bit of crunch. Yum.

Vancouver Sky ~ Skywatch Friday, March 24, 2010

Song of Solomon 2: 11-12

See! The winter is past;

the rains are over and gone.

Flowers appear on the earth;

the season of singing has come,

the cooing of doves

is heard in our land.

Another winter passes and glorious sunlight is on the way!

Though the skies have been unsettled this week, Winter's earlier warmth meant the blossoms came too soon to the young magnolia trees and to the mature cherry trees. The cherry trees were in full bloom during the Winter Olympics 2010 while I was up country.

On a walk the other day I did manage to find some beautiful blossoms though most trees are now bare in preparation for the late blooming plants and trees. These snap shots will give you a small idea of the annual beauty I so look forward to. With beauty like this every year, it is not hard to see why Spring is my favourite season.

Spring Greetings

Greetings from Vancouver to you my lovely readers!

 

I want to say thank you to my blogging friends for their faithful support. I also want to especially welcome the new readers. Thank you for following me. In turn, I will be reading the blogs of long-time followers and new followers alike. 

Many of you know how I love to post my comments :-) though with an ever increasing list of blogs I love to follow, I may not comment as often as I would like.  I will not be posting every day as I once did but will likely post 4 times a week on average.  This is so that you busy readers can read in a more leisurely fashion.  I know how hard it is for people to make time to read and comment on blogs as well as write their own blogs, especially when they have busy jobs and families also.   Please feel free to comment on any blog, including those in the archives (see the archives of old posts in the side bar to the right). Whenever someone comments, I am notified.

 This blog is primarily one where I get to share the many photos I snap. But it is also a place to share some of the happenings in my life as well as address some of the issues my readers have asked about. I haven't forgotten ;-), nor have I begun to run out of ideas for blogging.  It is just a question of time before I am able to post on some of the things I've been wanting to share for awhile. I also have items to post from the ideas some readers were kind enough to offer up, not so very long ago.

With that I wish all of you in the Northern Hemisphere a wonderful Spring.  To others from further afield, enjoy the season whatever it is where you are. There is something beautiful to behold in all the seasons and passages of time.  See you again soon :-)

Japanese Udon Noodle Soup

I made Japanese Udon Noodle soup today. I didn't use a recipe, I just made up a version based on what I thought would go into it and it turned out rather nicely.

First I boiled a few cups of water in a saucepan and mixed to taste, a few tablespoons of prepared miso mixture into the hot water.

Once the water boiled I put in two small packages of udon noodles, zucchini chunks, a chopped up stalk of broccoli and a small bunch of baby bok choy.

In a frying pan I cooked and browned some minced beef with a finely slice red onion.  This is not your usual meat accompaniment to udon noodles but it was what I had on hand and it turned out quite fine. If you have some prawns or slices of beef you can top the udon soup and vegetables with these if you prefer.

Enjoy!