Will things ever return to normal?!

I was all set to pop up some Greece photos here yesterday, honestly, I was! I meticulously went through about 400 of them and started picking out the best of the best. Well, that was Friday, anyway. Saturday early morning (like 3 a.m.), Idle Husband woke up with terrible stomach pains and after some convincing, I managed to get him to the emergency room. After being there until about 4 in the afternoon, we finally started to get some answers. His gall bladder was inflamed and had to be removed. Don't worry, he's already had his surgery (quite speedily, too) and he's home resting comfortably! I just have to say, Canadian hospitals and doctors know how to get it done. I can't thank them enough for actually taking the time to figure out what's been causing IH's stomach so much pain for so long. And thank god for health care, too. I don't know why some Americans are so against it.

Here's an idea: IH had a stomach episode when he visited the states for a conference about 2 years ago. He had to go to the ER. They had no idea what was wrong with him. They did no tests. They gave him Pepsid AC (what's that? $7.99 at the drugstore?) and sent him home with a bill of about $800.

We got to the emergency room. About 30 minutes after arriving, we were in and they were getting pain killers into him. They took blood. They took x-rays. They took an ultrasound. Discovered the problem. By 8 p.m. he was in surgery. He stayed the night, had a nice breakfast. I picked him up and brought him home today by noon with a bill of $0.

We're so lucky to be Canadians. I will gladly put up with a little snow and cold temperatures just to have emergencies like that taken care of thankyouverymuch.

I'm going to spend today babying him (like a proper wife), and I promise there'll be pictures tomorrow!

Planes, trains, and automobiles

Sorry I've been away so long. We just returned from a trip to Greece! I took a lot of pictures of food so I could remember stuff and maybe try making it myself (there's a new Greek salad in my life), so after we've settled back into the snow (oh the snow! oh the temperature!), I'll make sure to post some of my favourites from the trip.

Merry Christmas!

Bits of our weekend

We ate dinner at a fancy ballroom (where I got hooked on sushi)

We saw a  super amazing Dragon Age (and Mass Effect) cake!

It warmed up so the birds came back to the feeders

I found a pack of 60 paper doilies at the dollar store so I made a bunch of snowflakes!

I also found some that stick on your windows. (I've got a little bit of a crush on snowflakes right now)

We made our first (sorta) lifesize snowman!

Idle Husband cracked open a walnut to find a heart inside (awww)

Sushi for breakfast lunch and dinner! YAY!

Finally! Homemade ravioli! Well...sorta

This picture doesn't express the yummy very well

I have to mention this really quickly, too. On top of making all that antipasta yesterday, I also tried a new dinner recipe I found on Citron & Vanille blog, ravioli gnudi. It's like a ravioli without it's clothes on, just the inside portion, really. I kinda stumbled on it and after reading the recipe, I thought it looked like something relatively fancy I could actually make. That was about two weeks ago and it's been on my mind since.

The recipe was super easy to put together. I used low fat ricotta, frozen chopped spinach (that was probably the hardest part, draining and squeezing out the spinach because the little chopped leaves would stick to everything), Kraft shakin' parmasan cheese, and canned tomatoes. Even with those substitutions (if you can even call them that), the flavour wasn't lost. When I started forming the gnudi, it was really sticky and messy, so after the first batch, I switched to using my cookie scoop which worked really well plus ensured that each piece was about the same size. This was great too, because it allowed me to have one clean hand so I could put them in and take them out of the boiling water a little easier.

I can compare it to eating a meatless, noodle-less lasagna, so I immediately thought to make this the next time we have guests. I think it'd be one of those meals that's easy for the cook, because I really think it could be made ahead of time and left in the fridge until, well, 20 minutes before you eat. Then you'd have no dishes save for the actual dinner dishes. Plus it would be an interesting and impressive meal for everyone else, making it look like you fussed when you actually didn't do that much. It's also really filling! We didn't eat all of it (there's a lot leftover, so I'm thinking it's going to make a nice casual meal on Saturday) and we didn't feel like having a snack later. Which is a really good thing, I think.

Anyway, if you're looking for something new and different to make, that's also easy and simple, you should really try this one out!