sarah's blog

We spent our anniversary dinner at Kobe Steakhouse in Vancouver. I got the steak, John got the steak, lobster and shrimp. I tried the shrimp and lobster and agreed seafood is delicious when it’s quality.

Watching them cook your food was all part of the experience, one that we both agreed was an excellent way to celebrate 4 years together.

We’ve had a string of house guests this Spring and Summer. Who am I kidding, we are Grand Central Station every year as friends, family and coworkers visit BC and take in the sites. That always means a few sure things: lots of food, good beer, Granville Island and a never-ending cycle of washing and putting out fresh sheets and towels.

Our last guests of the season left today (sounds like we run a bed and breakfast) and this will be our last hosting gig for awhile as we’re taking down the open sign to take care of babies (and ourselves, I cannot feel my feet I am so tired!). You heard it here first folks, better start buttering up some other people you know in the area for next year ’cause there is no more room in this inn.

A few sights, but mostly tastes, from this last visit.

Granville Island Market berries.

Market goodies.

Stand on your tip toes and you can see the ocean.

When you’re pregnant and everyone else is enjoying the seasonal raspberry beer… you get a cola. Sigh.

But then you find a cupcake store.

And buy a berry lemony delicious confection with a name like Raspberry Beret and things start to look up.

Vietnamese dessert drink with almond jelly, mango pudding and extra condensed milk at Richmond Night Market.

Sharing a plate of squid. I did not partake.

Yesterday I was already getting sick of all the ground beef so by today I just couldn’t eat it again. I was temporarily discouraged but rallied and decided to do some baking. Here’s what we’ve been able to make from our kitchen in the past two days…

Breakfast yesterday: Took some leftover millet cereal to work. Cup of coffee.

Lunch yesterday: Leftover peas, leftover rice and red beans. Grapes for a snack and then leftover pasta salad. (I’m trying to eat at lunch and then again around 3pm because I was finding I got tired in the afternoons and too hungry by the time I got home)

Supper yesterday: John got creative with the ground beef and also used up the rest of the frozen mixed vegetables to create a spicy beef and veggies on rice dish. Brownies for dessert.

Today was another unusual food day but I guess even if I don’t use stuff from my own kitchen, if I get free food elsewhere it helps the bottom line.

Breakfast: Cup of coffee and a donut courtesy of Tracy.

Lunch: Went out to Moxie’s because it was Tracy’s last day. Would have had leftover yam fries and battered fish from the lunch but I left them in Tracy’s car for the second half of the work day and we voted it wasn’t worth the risk. I made a batch of granola, recipe courtesy of Adrianne, to take to work for Tracy’s goodbye party in the afternoon. There were lots of snacks so I filled up on spinach dip and real fruit popsicles and there will still be plenty of granola left to munch on next week.

Supper: As I said before I just couldn’t bear to eat the last of the ground beef with John so he made a hamburger for himself and I split the last of the baby bok choy with him.

After supper I rummaged again and discovered I had cornmeal. So naturally I whipped up some cornbread muffins. I used a recipe from my Betty Crocker cookbook but there were plenty of good ones online too.

I have also found during this process (and even before) that if there’s something you want to make and it always seems to be made with one ingredient you don’t have, googling “____ recipe without ____” can bring up all kinds of recipes that fit the bill. For example, tonight I looked up a recipe for lentil carrot soup because, well, I happen to have both those things and we like soup. I kept finding recipes with onion (which I do not have and from now on will stock up on before I do something like this) in them so I did my googling trick and got advice someone had given to a person trying to make lentil carrot soup for a guest with an onion allergy. Problem solved.

Another trick I use all the time is to google a substitute for whatever I don’t have for a recipe. For example, don’t have buttermilk, a search for “buttermilk substitute” will give you all kinds of replacements you’re guaranteed to have. Just make sure you pay attention to what kind of recipe you are using it for because a good substitute for an egg in a meatball recipe will not be the same in a brownie recipe.

Two more days and we will have made it a week buying only the items I listed in my previous post. I don’t think the coffee cream will make it and I know for a fact John is out of bran cereal but I am already so proud of how much we were able to make by just getting creative with what’s there.

Today was my birthday. I feel like it went by pretty fast but it was actually a great birthday, for no extraordinary reason but more because it was just, happy.

I should back the story up and say that since John joined Campus Min it is a fact of our lives that he will never be home for my birthday. It sadly falls in the middle of a mandatory Campus training time for which one must have a copy of their own obituary to be excused. This is a sad thing not to have John home but for the last two years it has worked somewhat in my favor. You see everyone feels sorry for me when they hear I will be home alone and they all join forces to make it up to me. And John feels worst of all so he usually tries to celebrate me before and after the day.

That’s the background of why my birthday started last night and went all day today. John was able to get away from the training time last night and come home to take me out to Cactus Club for dinner and drinks. Then we relaxed at home and he said I could choose our activity and I decided I wanted to play Tiger Woods on the Xbox. We haven’t played video games together in so long and plus it was my birthday so he let me cheat by moving his controller when he was trying to swing. I still lost.

So hanging out with John was fun but he was gone by 7am, back to captivity. I had to work at home in the morning so I could go to a doctor’s appointment (not a bad thing, everyone there knows your personal info so they were wishing me happy birthday all over the place).

Then at work in the afternoon I got lots of “happy birthdays” from everyone. Tomorrow I get my birthday cake at work too. (Dairy Queen ice cream cake with the gel icing!!) After work my sister-in-law picked me up and we went for Starbucks and some shopping for baby clothes for her and then supper. We had a little cheesecake at the end and called it a day. Now I am all cozy on the couch because they let me sleep over. I told you I get the royal treatment.

I don’t think I have any great revelations about getting older this year. I didn’t have any thoughts of what I planned to be doing at this age or where I saw myself by now. 27 seems similar to 26, though it has much more of an almost 30 ring to it than I’d like. It was reassuring when my doctor remarked, “I mean, you’re only 27, you’re young.” Thanks Dr. H.

So thanks to everyone who wished me a happy birthday with phone calls, texts, Facebook wall messages, skypes, cards and gifts. Thanks to Mom, Dad and Charity who sent early gifts and cards which I love. The jacket you gave my is beautiful, sis, it’s too warm now but I can’t wait to wear it to work in the fall. Thanks to everyone who made my day special by making me feel valued.

It’s a good time for me to be reminded that I do have people in my life who care about me. It’s sort of become a joke based on truth that I don’t like most people. Selectively sociable the personality tests call it. You won’t notice it at first introductions because I learned to adapt and find common ground in any conversation at a young age, but I can count my real friends on one hand.

The reality of our lifestyle the last few years (and probably, for me, for many years before that) has caused me to be cautious about putting down roots. I never expect it to be long before we move on, they move on or both. There are so few people who’s presence can be counted on for years to come but as I look at my life, one year older, is this how I want to it to be in 27 more years? I wonder, will I still find it hard to put down roots and invest in people at 52?

Maybe that was a revelation after all. Happy birthday to me.

John and I got invited to a food tasting at the Cactus Club at Broadway & Ash in Vancouver by John’s coworker who knows the head chef. That night will forever go down in history as the most enjoyable eating experience I’ve ever had. It was amazing…

A little background: Rob Feenie, Canada’s only Iron Chef recently left his own restaurants (long story) and came to Cactus Club to head up development. The location where we ate is the test location for all new things for the chain, outfitted complete with offices and a test kitchen. So Feenie is in there every day, creating dishes, finding the freshest local ingredients and raising the bar for the restaurant as a whole.

The waiter just kept bringing us cocktails, beer and appetizers to sample and we couldn’t stop laughing at how indulgent it all felt! Little mini burgers, yam fries, westcoast pockets. But that was just the beginning. Then our friend the head chef, Wil, comes out and explains each dish, describing the thought process, taste combinations and incredible artistry in each of them. He pretty much spent the whole meal chatting with us. Then came the salads… smoked salmon, port-filled dates, goat cheese… everything fresh, everything unique, everything better than anticipated.

Then we took a break and went on a tour lead by Wil. We saw the kitchen, the huge walk-in fridge, the offices and even the test kitchen. When we had finished our tour we headed back to our table for the main course. I mean main courses. Mouth watering four mushroom demi-glace steak, I can’t even remember half the things we got to try. Wil chose a wine for us and we just soaked up the flavors, the knowledge, the experience.

Finally came dessert: vanilla ice cream with candies nuts and a gourmet chocolate sauce, key lime pie made with fresh squeezed limes and a chocolate fudge lava cake with a berry compote. I think I might have cried.

We all had so much fun. In North America we rarely allow a meal to be more than food. In Europe, it’s a whole event. I know that this kind of thing won’t happen every time I eat at Cactus Club but the fact that they think building a reputation for fresh thinking and an incredible dining experience is important has made a fan out of me. I would recommend it to anyone.

Check out our favorite Cactus Club location, and keep your eyes peeled for Rob Feenie..