Ladies' Day Out!

This past Saturday, I had a whole day of fun girly stuff planned:

• Cabela's Ladies' Day Out from 10am until probably 4pm with S
• Dinner at Three Amigos with S
• Suicide Girls Blackheart Burlesque at the Starlite Room with S

The highlight of my day was definitely the Ladies' Day Out at Cabela's, even though S ended up bailing on me. I did all sorts of neat stuff, like learn how to back up a trailer (it's been years since I've even tried), learn how to tie a lure for fly fishing, carve a feather out of wood, shoot a compound bow, and of course, shop! 

Tying the first bit of feather on the fly

My completed fly!

Second time I've shot a bow - good aim!

Ladies' Day Out included employee-level pricing on all items in the store, so I definitely took advantage of that. I bought:

• SKS tactical stock (for R)
• 110-round .22 drum mag (for R)
• duelling .22 target
• dry box for ammo
• Bone Collector steering wheel cover (for R)
• Real Tree squirrel dog toy for Koda
• Bucket of Bullets 0.22 ammo
• clays for skeet shooting
• Browning orange and fuchsia hat

After all the time spent at Cabela's, I did a bit more running around and met up with S to go to Three Amigos (a local Mexican restaurant) for dinner. I always feel bittersweet about visiting Three Amigos, because the food is usually quite good and authentically Mexican, yet the service always leaves something to be desired, and they're usually out of at least two menu items. Unfortunately, Saturday was no exception, but they had mariachis!

He even smiled for me!

The rest of the night was spent at the Starlite Room to see the Blackheart Burlesque, but we unfortunately left a half hour into the show since we couldn't see anything. It was a shame to miss it, since what we did see looked quite good. But overall, it was a pretty decent day!

Savory Creations Round Up: Part 1

I've been keeping track of a lot of my more complex or "impressive" meals by posting photos of them on Facebook. Since I'm in the middle of packing up to move and all that jazz, and probably won't have much time to post anything extravagant here for the next while, I figured I'd give you a round up of sorts of some of the things I've cooked so far.

Fried Chicken

I was prompted to make fried chicken by my boyfriend, R, after purchasing a deep fryer from Costco (it's the T-Fal Ultimate EZ Clean Deep Fryer). He actually gives me all sorts of ideas for stuff to make, and they usually work out quite well.

Fried chicken, test run number one.

The feedback I got on attempt number one at making fried chicken was that the consistency of the batter was perfect, but that it was a bit bland. The drumsticks worked out well, though.

Fried chicken number two, with waffles!

For round two, I went way heavier on the paprika and garlic salt added to the batter, and it came out better, though I could probably stand to go even heavier going forward. This time, I used bone-in chicken breasts for frying.

Chicken Neptune

My parents came to visit mid-January for my mom's birthday this year, as well as to go to the (postponed) P!nk concert and hit up the Edmonton Motorcycle Show. My mom knows I cook a fair amount when I'm motivated to do so, and she's been bugging me for a while now that I've never cooked anything for her. So I decided to go all fancy and make her a dinner comprised of Chicken Neptune (grilled chicken topped with home made Hollandaise sauce), oven-roasted asparagus topped with a bit of Parmesano-Reggiano, and garlic cheddar mashed potatoes.

Chicken Neptune and its accoutrements.

Salsa Verde and Salsa Roja

One thing that I make on a fairly regular basis is salsa. When I lived in Mexico, I picked up a few recipes, and this was one of them. This particular time around, I made salsa verde, or green salsa. When I can find tomatillos ("green tomatoes", which are oddly more closely related to gooseberries than tomatoes), I whip up some salsa verde, and when I can't I use tomatoes instead and make salsa roja (red salsa). Part of the process involves charring the tomatoes and chile peppers first.

Tomatillos and hot peppers being charred.

Then you throw everything in a blender (maybe one day I'll share the recipe, but not today!) and blend it until you have your desired consistency.

Salsa verde that looks more like salsa roja, haha!

It's so easy to make, and so fresh and delicious, even just as a dip for chips (though I do use it for many more things). Unfortunately, this batch came out looking more like salsa roja instead of salsa verde because of the color of peppers I used. I usually use serrano peppers, but the store didn't have any this time around so I improvised.

I think I'm going to stick with three food items for now, since I have quite a few more don't want to bombard you all at once! Stay tuned for the next round up, which will include lasagna, stromboli, and schnitzel with German potato salad...