May catch up

In way of preparation, I find myself scrambling to put together some posts to cover the events in May.  I honestly was thinking of writing, but you know how it is in the spring ... there's always something interesting to do outside. (In Calgary, its shovelling snow.  ::grin::)  Fortunately, my camera was there to record things and keep them somewhat fresh.

First, I guess we should cover acquisitions.  My office lamp packed it in early this month.  I loved the look of that lamp, but it had a major design flaw that caused the lampshades to drop down and rest on the lightbulb instead of in their housings, with the last event causing a bulb to burst into tiny shards.  I'm often barefoot in this room, so ... I packed the lamp off to the garage and I headed out on what became a three-day quest to replace it.  I think I did okay.   This is my first Tiffany style lamp.

Right around the same time, we were having a disagreement with our kitchen faucet over what the proper rate of flow should be.  Pressure had dropped off  (only in the kitchen tap) to the point where it seemed you could turn on the water to fill the cofee pot, go take a shower and return before the pot was full.

I'm not sure why we put up with it for weeks.  Maybe we hoped that it would miraculously fix itself in the way that gadgetry sometimes does.  You know, when you're trying to describe to a puzzled repair expert what the thing had been doing 100% of the time until they arrived and it mysteriously stopped.  Well, it didn't do that.

A call to Superplumber!  Did you hear that echoey reverb in your head as you read Superplumber? Yes, they have superheroes on their vehicles.  Its kinda cute, kinda funny and a whole lot dorky.  Which may be why we chose them in the first place.  You gotta call someone, right? Fortunately, they've been good to us over the years.  They'd even repaired this particular problem once before.  Unhappily, this time they could not.  But our rep did recommend several extremely pricey options as replacements.  I'm betting she gets a bit of commission on up-sales.  She was good, she almost had me.  Then I remembered Ian, so I turned down her options in favor of a consultation with my brother.

Ian's advice was somewhat along the same lines, although he didn't necessarily agree that Delta wasn't a good tap.  He did suggest I steer away from in-store brand names and use a plumbing supplier rather than a outlet store.  So I found myself at Splashes one afternoon looking at pricey faucets and mentally putting them on my own sink.  I'll bet that, other than Ian, you don't know how much variety there can be in simply getting a sinkful of sudsy water.

With the help of the lady across the desk, we found a discontinued Delta product (discontinued only because they no longer package soap dispensers with taps) with the auto-touch feature in the swankier stainless steel type .. for less than half the cost of the taps quoted by our Superplumber friend.  Who came back to install it.

She also freaked Mr. Tippy out so badly that he wouldn't come eat until he knew she was not in the house. No telling what's going on there, but its happened twice now.  Same person.

Please tell me that your kitchen window sill is also a collect-all for stuff you have no idea where else to put

I've got another post coming up for family stuff, including a shot of Ian's new tattoo, but for now, I'd like to say hello to Bruce's sister Bonnie.   Up to this point, she's likely been unaware of my blog.  Bonnie, the site address is www.neumansofnanaimo.blogspot.ca if you care to catch up on any older material.

Bruce Fest - the First

To celebrate Bruce's birthday yesterday, since I was coaching on Thursday evening, we invited Richard and Cécile over for a tapas sort of evening .. a bit of this, a bit of that .. with wine and food all night long. We had a somewhat eclectic menu, and I thought I'd share ideas.

A quick note .. with the exception of the green potatoes, none of the pictures here are mine.  I just didn't think to take pictures yesterday!  I spent more time cooking than I did for Christmas!

Flatbread with tomatoes and basil

Panini bread, Sliced tomatoes, Fresh chopped basil, texmex cheese. Mmmmm.

Sweet and Sour Ginger Pork Meatballs

Orange juice concentrate, water, vinegar, brown sugar, juice from fresh grated ginger, 

red peppers and green onions - simmered in a crockpot for about four hours.

My sauce was a bit too vinegary, but the meatballs themselves tasted divine.

Pea & Radish Salad

Recipe here from Molly Stevens on Epicurious. I was looking for an alternative to the usual green salads and came up on this one.  For the first time in a decade .. or maybe a generation .. I have peas in my house. Everyone swore this tasted more like fresh peas than cooked.  I'll take them at their word.  No point in taking chances, right?

Dolmades

Céc and Richard brought Dolmades and a selection of green and black olives.  Bruce loves olives in limited quantities and prefers that I don't purchase them, but he's a huge fan of people bringing them over.

Tiger Prawns

Sauteed in butter with garlic and fresh basil

Twice-baked Green Potatoes (no cheese version)

Baked potatoes, sour cream, avocado, green onion.  These are always a huge hit.

Yam Salad

We all know a good potato salad recipe, right?  Just substitute cooked yams (don't overcook) for the potatoes for a much healther version.

Grilled Salmon with fresh dill

Candied Pecans

Pecans.  Sugar.  So simple.

Cheddar Popcorn

This cake was so easy, it felt like cheating.  I can't recall ever eating a better chocolate cake, however, so I'll probably cheat again. This recipe came from Live | Craft  | Eat, a site I stumbled upon when I was looking for ideas for a DIY project.  The icing I chose to use was again, something of a cheater recipe, but was the perfect complement for the cake.  From Tunisianswife on Allrecipes.

Yup, the first time I bought it, it was because of this label.

A perennial favorite

There is no better way to finish a meal

This was such a resounding success, we've determined that we'll be holding Brucefest each year.  

Save a spot at the table, make your reservations now!

Heart of Stone

You might recall that I posted a birthday card a  few years ago that included a heart made of stone, which is a recurring theme in the life of the Neumans .. ever since he found a huge stone in the river one day while we were on a camping trip.

He's produced various heart-shaped rocks for me over the years.  I have a 2" one that resides under the seat of my car, because of course, you cannot ever dare throw them out and where else would you put it?

The other day, he brought me a few seashells from outrigger session as well as .. you guessed it .. another heart of stone.  This time, it was a bit larger, being about six or seven inches across at its widest. I thought I'd show him that the rock gifts, while not always kept, were always appreciated.

So I got out my paints ....

Look to see this one on my doorstep with the collection of driftwood and last autumn's oak leaves from my neighbour's tree.

And .. happy birthday once again, my husband.