Notes from a Weekend of Improving and Eating

1. I made butter chicken from a recipe that Ai was kind enough to pass on to us from Canadian Family magazine, and it turned out to be really good and it completely met with The BF’s approval. It was a no-fuss, no-frills way to fake butter chicken without all the dairy and the best of all, without the huge complicated process of preparing the chicken.

2. We saw Alice in Wonderland in 3D. I’m totally inspired by Johnny Depp’s makeup in the movie and one day soon I will open up my kit and transform The BF into the Mad Hatter. You know, for fun.

3. We went for our first swimming class on Sunday morning. Not that we need to learn how to swim, but I signed up so that I could learn how to make my stroke more efficient, and as well to increase my endurance. I also need to work on my breathing. When I learned to swim as a child, I had never made the connection back then as to why we were taught to blow bubbles under water. Up until a few years ago, I would hold my breath while my face was in the water during the front crawl. Turning to breathe every few strokes meant exhaling, then inhaling. I didn’t know that I was supposed to be exhaling while in the water. I’m still having some trouble with this, because I was swallowing a lot of water, especially when diving. Much to The BF’s amusement, I would surface each time after a dive sputtering and choking on all the water that I had swallowed through my nose. I hope to be a master breather and an expert underwater bubble blower by June 20th, which is our last session.

4. On Sunday afternoon, we had a brunch date with one of The BF’s oldest friends B. and his girlfriend C., who happens to be a good friend of my brother’s. Their relationship makes me happy, because it goes to show you that people can find each other and connect through links within their own networks of friends, and by making your way through the degrees of separation

5. We went to West Elm again, hoping to spend the gift cards that my brother has given us for the last two Christmases. Again, we didn’t really love any of the coffee tables there and are banking on the hope that they will get some new styles really soon. I ended up just buying a recycled glass water carafe. We also finally got some white sheer linen panels for our sliding glass doors in the kitchen and he installed them last night. Also on the home improvement front, like everyone else and their little brothers it seems, we took advantage of the sale that Ikea was having last weekend on their Expedit bookcases. He has a couple of them upstairs, as they are the perfect size to store records. We bought the small one to use in our living room as a console table.

6. I decided to try a recipe for Green Tea Poached Salmon by Claire Robinson (5 Ingredient Fix on The Food Network) in the latest issue of Clean Eating Magazine. It calls for limes, honey, fresh ginger, green tea and salmon. Just 5 ingredients, including the fish! Genius. It ended up being totally delicious, especially with the lime ginger sauce you make to go along with it, and is completely not bland as you would expect of poached salmon. I took it to work for lunch today, and it tastes even better the day after as leftovers.

It was a productive weekend, and a good lead-in to this short work week, which is supposed to progressively get warmer for us. What? 28° this Friday? I’ll take it!