A Birthday, a Restaurant Review, a Recipe, and a Spaz

Last Friday was Dave's special day. Dave and I both had to be at work early, so in lieu of a more elaborate breakfast, we had birthday bagels (with a candle!) and birthday berries.


This birthday was very low stress, which was great! The breakfast was easy, which was a good start. The gift was easy - I had ordered it a long time ago and I knew that it was something Dave would want. He actually told me about it after I ordered it. Perfect! (Here it is if you're curious!) The birthday date was easy, too. Early show of Ironman 2 (we haven't been to a movie in AGES!) and a late dinner at The Melting Pot.

The food was great, except that they were out of bread. Out of bread? Seriously? Anyway, as I said, we really enjoyed the meal. We had a spinach artichoke cheese fondue first (sans bread), then lettuce wraps, then the traditional European-style fondue in canola oil, and then (drumroll, please) the long-awaited chocolate fondue. Oh, yum. Probably my favourite thing in the world, and this chocolate (with a swirl of peanut butter) fondue didn't disappoint. Really the only disappointment of the night was the service - we had to wait forever in between courses, and I couldn't figure out what we were waiting for. After all, we were the ones cooking the meal. And did I mention that they were out of bread?

Here's the main course.


And here's Dave keeping track of the cooking times on his phone. I thought it was hilarious. Though it did make for perfectly cooked meat!



On another note, here are the remnants of a very delicious pot roast we had on Sunday.


And here is the recipe from Campbell's.

I love recipes with minimal ingredients, and all this one calls for is a roast, potatoes, carrots, one can of mushroom soup, and one package of Lipton onion soup mix. It smelled good all day long, and it tasted amazing!

For dessert we made ice cream in Dave's new ice cream maker! (And by "Dave's" I mean "ours.") Again, a recipe with minimal ingredients: cream, milk, sugar, vanilla. It was so good. And so much fun! Next up: chocolate ice cream and lemon sorbet.

You can find this model at Costco.



Dave didn't get his birthday cake until Victoria Day, but it was worth the wait. Aren't Martha's recipes always worth the wait?!

Here he is getting ready to blow out his one candle.




Disclaimer: I didn't take these pictures (Dave did!), but I'm sure glad we have them! Chanelle is a sweet little girl, but she does spaz a lot, so there are many opportunities for documenting it!

Chanelle was trying to take her (button-up) shirt off by pulling it over her head. And getting very frustrated in the process. Can you hear the shrieks through these pictures??

























And some other random pictures:

A few weeks ago we went on a Sunday evening stroll by the river. Here are a couple snapshots:


And here's Elysse riding in the Cat with Chase - a highlight because she was riding in the Cat, and a highlight because she was riding with Chase!


Coming soon:

Doing Disneyland with Kids










and

B & R's Grad!