The Adventures of a Calamari Queen – Page 33 – Christian, Wife, Mommy, Homemaker, Retired nurse, Fur-mama,living a simple and minimal life!

Father’s Day 2016!

Hello everyone! I wanted to share our Father’s Day this year (I know it’s kinda late). It’s just fun to look back on how we spent our day celebrating with the family. My Dad passed away 3 years ago (Happy Father’s day in Heaven Pa), so it’s just my Dad IL,and my brother(he’s in the Philippines though) who I get to celebrate Fathers day. We had a simple dinner at home for my DIL. My husband went to the asian market and got lots of goodies for his Dad! It’s dangerous if I send Hubs alone to get groceries because he doesn’t stick to my list and blows my grocery budget! My DIL wanted some clams and mussels, so we cooked some in butter and white wine, along with some crabs, some sushi (fresh geoduck and uni), and wagyu steak (so DECADENT and worth the price, IMO). It was a nice sunny Sunday afternoon too,so we had dinner out on our patio. Happy Father’s Day to all the Dad’s out there (a belated one!).

Hubs made watermelon juice too!so refreshing and perfect on a summer night!

Mac and Cheese

Hi friends! The hubs made this Ina Garten Mac and Cheese recipe a couple of months ago. This is one our favorite pasta recipes ( so decadent). Mac and Cheese is such a comfort food. We skipped the tomato part because I personally don’t like fresh tomatoes, but we did add bacon to our dish. I got the recipe from foodnetwork.com!

Ingredients:

kosher salt

vegetable oil

1 pound elbow macaroni or cavatappi

1 quart milk

1 stick of unsalted butter,divided

1/2 cup all purpose flour

12 ounce Gruyere cheese, grated (4 cups)

8 ounce extra sharp Cheddar,grated (2 cups)

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

3/4 pound fresh tomatoes (4 small) * we skipped this part of the recipe

1 1/2 cups fresh white bread crumbs (5 slices, crust removed)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Drizzle oil into a large pot of boiling salted water. Add the macaroni/cavatappi and cook according to the directions on the package, 6-8 minutes. Drain well.

Meanwhile, heat the milk in a small saucepan, but don’t boil it. Melt 6 tablespoons of butter in a large pot and add the flour. Cook over low heat for 2 minutes, stirring with a whisk. While whisking, add the hot milk and cook for a minute or two more, until thickened and smooth. Off the heat, add the gruyere,cheddar, 1 tablespoon salt,pepper,nutmeg. Add the cooked macaroni and stir well. Pour into a 3 quart baking dish.

Slice the tomatoes and arrange on top (*we skipped this part). Melt the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter,combine them with the fresh bread crumbs, and sprinkle on the top.Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until the sauce is bubbly and the macaroni is browned on the top.

In laws Bday celebration!

Hello everyone! We celebrated my in-law’s bdays 2 weeks ago. We decided to do a late celebration due to previous commitments and other Holidays (Mother’s day). We ended up spending mother’s day this year with my husband’s grandmother. The b-day celebration dinner took place at a local steak house in our neighborhood (Jaks Grill) and my MIL requested that my husband bake her a chocolate cake for her bday. After dinner we had the cake and coffee at home, just hanging out and relaxing. Happy Birthday (belated one!) to my MIL and DIL, I’m so grateful for what they both do for our family.

2016_05_23_DSC_7552 — Ina Garten recipe!

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2016_05_23_DSC_7536 — Auntie Puss and Riley Puss

2016_05_23_DSC_7540 — Mom In law Kathy and her havanese dog Lexi lulu!

2016_05_23_DSC_7548 — with our fur babies!

Vancouver Eats!

Hello friends! This post is a continuation of our Vancouver trip. We had a quick getaway so we weren’t able to dine at some of the restaurants we wanted to try (poor planning on our part too).

Our first night we had dinner at Lupo Restaurant (it’s an Italian resto) and just walking distance from our hotel (so convenient for us). According to our research it’s one of the top 5 places to dine in Vancouver. So off we went! We ordered Burrata and it was amazing! So creamy and out of this world goodness. We loved it so much that we asked our waitress where they get it (so we can go to that store and hoard burrata for ourselves), she said they get it from a supplier which gets it directly from Italy! It crushed our burrata dreams! We ordered ravioli and gnocchi (for the hubs) it was good food but pricey!

2016_05_01_DSC_7394 — Burrata with fresh tomatoes and balsamic glaze.

2016_05_01_DSC_7396 — Ricotta Gnocchi with pork cheeks (this sauce was pretty acidic)

2016_05_01_DSC_7398 — Mascarpone Polenta

2016_05_01_DSC_7399 — This was their special that night, ravioli with short ribs!

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2016_05_01_DSC_7405 — ambiance was cozy, feels like you’re having dinner at a friends house!

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Nero Belgian Waffle Bar

We had brunch in this small waffle place located at Robson Street. We kinda get lucky because the line wasn’t crazy when we got there, once we were seated the line got really crazy! If you’re in to waffles this place is a must! Just be ready to wait and be patient because this place is amazing and people line up.

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2016_05_01_DSC_7454 — I had the Banella waffle

2016_05_01_DSC_7458 — Brie Cheese waffle with walnuts and honey!

Cafe Crepes

The Hubs and I also wanted to eat some crepes before checking out Gastown. The crepes are tasty here, but the service took forever. I don’t understand why, it’s not like they’re serving steaks or complicated dishes. Good thing the crepes were really good!

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We also visited a Japanese restaurant that I honestly forgot the name of:

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Had Ramen one late night!

Tried Vancouver’s best cheesecake:

2016_05_01_DSC_7439 — the famous Soft Peaks at Gastown!

2016_05_01_DSC_7443 — I kinda agree that this is one of the best cheesecake I’ve had!

Footo Croissant and Tim Hortons before coming home!

Till Next time Vancouver!

Vancouver, Canada!

Hi friends! It’s been a while since my last post, got a little busy here and did a little get away with the Hubs to celebrate our wedding anniversary. Two weeks ago, we spent 4 days in Vancouver, Canada. It’s just 3 hours drive from our place (plus more depending on the traffic). We’ve been to Vancouver a couple of times before. We really like the city. It reminds us of Seattle, but a lot bigger. We mostly relaxed and did a few “touristy” things like visited Gas town, Stanley Park and window shopping at Robson St. We stayed at Rosedale on Robson. We really liked the location because it’s so accessible to downtown Vancouver. Till Next time Vancouver!

2016_05_01_DSC_7391 — we had a mini kitchen!

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2016_05_01_DSC_7431 — The famous Steam Clock at Gas town!

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2016_05_01_DSC_7512 — Forgot the name of the place, but this is where their soccer games are held!

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Gotta have Tim Hortons when you’re in Canada!

8 years of Married life!

Hi Friends! Happy Wednesday! Yesterday, the Hubs and I celebrated 8 years of married life. Wow! It seems like it was just yesterday that we had our simple and intimate wedding at a Chapel in New York City (less than 25 family and friends were there). I’m so blessed to be married to a guy that I don’t just love but actually really like. I like spending time with my Hubs, and planning our future together. I just can’t imagine life without him. I’m so grateful to the Lord for the gift of a Christ centered marriage ( we strive to have this) and a loving husband, I don’t take this blessing for granted because I know not all marriages are like this. Successful marriages don’t just happen, it takes works! Thank you, God!

I told my Hubs,not to get me flowers because I’d rather have food. HA! He stopped at Costco to get us pizza and sundae that we shared during lunch. The Krispy kremes were a personal request from me! We didn’t do any grand celebration (just dinner at our fave place) but we plan to have a little road trip later this month to have a fun get away and “celebrate” the special occasion.

For dinner, we went to our local fave restaurant Flat Iron Grill. We really didn’t want to go to Bellevue or Seattle just for dinner. The traffic isn’t worth it. We like Flat Iron Grill because the food is great and the service is even better. It’s always a bonus when we can support our local businesses too.

Top sirloin steak with goat cheese polenta (pretty Good!)

Happy Easter!

Hi friends! Long time no hear from me (it’s been a busy March here). Anyways, Happy Easter! As a Christian, we celebrate today as resurrection Sunday. The day that Jesus rose from the grave. He is Risen! He is Risen, Indeed! Thank You Jesus for what you’ve done for our sake, we are so unworthy yet you died for us all. The greatest love story that the whole world will ever know!

After our easter service, the Hubs and I together with our In laws had brunch at Embassy suites hotel (a Hilton affiliated hotel) we’ve been going to this brunch buffet for a couple of years now except last year (they had to renovate, so they closed the buffet section). The buffet had a decent selection but I was disappointed today because their meat (their beef, and lamb) was really dry. Their bread wasn’t very good too. Poor Hubs and Dad In law, they both love bread. The ambiance and the service was great though!

I hope that you had a lovely Easter weekend with your family and friends! I’m off to watch College basketball here. The Hubs is enjoying his Sunday nap, together with our fur baby, Riley! Have a great evening friends.

What’s for Dinner?

Hello friends! It’s Tuesday evening ( almost midnight) but I can’t sleep because it’s so windy and it’s freaking me out! I decided to just post our meals for the last couple of weeks in the month of February. Can you believe it’s already March? Where did the time go?! Anyways, back to our meals. I didn’t go to the grocery store in the last week of February but I got some Smith brothers delivered. I’m under budget this month (not by much though), so this made me happy. A little savings is always good!

We’ve already consumed the clam chowder and chocolate milk!

Crispy pata (deep fried pork hocks) a Filipino recipe

we did a couple nights of take out these last two weeks (especially Friday and Saturday nights). Chilling out with good food and watching some good T.V. / Netflix is one of our fave weekend things to do. We got a generous gift card from my In laws to one of our fave local sushi places so we used that. We also had Italian for dinner, courtesy of the In-laws. Thank you God for such a generous family!

Vitos in Seattle! My In laws treated us!

Weekend Fun!

Hi Friends! I hope you’re all having a great Saturday! It’s been a rainy weekend here in the PNW and we’ve stayed inside most of the time. I wanted to share some pictures of our weekend fun a couple of weeks ago. We watched the ballet version of Romeo and Juliet! It’s funny because this was our second time watching this ballet and I honestly don’t remember watching it the first time and neither did my husband. The show was good, but it was kinda slow for us. We will most likely not watch it again.

We had Mexican for dinner after the show! We really like our local Mexican place, authentic Mexican food and reasonable prices. They have the best Carne asada for me.

Today, I got up early and convinced the Hubs to get breakfast at Chick fil-A. If he had a choice he’d rather sleep in than eat! We almost didn’t make it before their breakfast hours ended. They were changing their menu when it was our time to order! I ordered their sausage burrito but they gave me a chicken burrito instead. Unfortunately we were already on the freeway when we realized the mistake. Oh Well! I didn’t like it:( No chicken burritos for me in the future for sure!

After breakfast my Dad In law dropped by to give us this maple tree (Hubs said it’s going to be pretty during the fall season.)

I’m kinda sad my favorite Filipino romcom show is over! “On the wings of love” is the only filipino show that I’ve watched from start to finish. They had a live viewing of the Finale and I was able to watch it live! I had to set the alarm for 5 am! HA! It was worth it though, I was so KILIG! Honestly, I don’t like most filipino drama/comedy shows personally. I subscribe to the Filipino Channel mainly because of the news, I still want to be updated in whats going on the Philippines.

Hubs and the puppy napping on this rainy Saturday afternoon!

Mexican dinner at La Casita (a new Mexican place for us)

Have a great evening friends! Off to watching the NBA game right now!

Whats’s for Dinner?!

Hi Friends! How’s your day going? I hope it was a great one. Mine was awesome! I did my grocery shopping today, I usually do it after my Ladies Bible study on Tuesdays but it’s winter break this week at our local school (the church follows the school district schedule, so no study for us this week). I got some good deals at the grocery store but the cashier forgot to scan some of the coupons (I only noticed it when I got home) that were on the products. $6 worth of savings 🙁 I’m not really sure if it’s worth going back to the store tomorrow, we’ll see. Anyways, the first 2 pictures are of my grocery hauls last week, I’m thinking that I probably don’t need to go grocery shopping for the rest of the month because we’re pretty stocked up. Maybe I’ll just buy some fruit (we have frozen veggies that I really want to use) and we’re good. I’m excited because if I’m going to stick to my “plan” I will be under budget this month. It’s always a good thing when I’m under budget with my grocery money! Happy cooking, eating and savings friends!