Vegas and Palm Desert

After being in Saskatoon and running around with lists, and plans, and things to accomplish it sure was nice to go down south for a little sun and relaxation.

I went with my parents, and our first stop was Las Vegas.  We stayed in the Cosmopolitan, next to the Bellagio, and across from Planet Hollywood.  Above is the view we had from our hotel room.  My big gambling achievements for the 4 days we were: $0.00  I went up $10.00 on my first night there, and the day we left I managed to lose it.  ah well.  Never gamble what you aren't willing to throw away anyway.... right?  On a positive note I got to see Terry Fator with my parents the second night we were there.

He was entertaining, and quite a bit of fun.  Our third night there we saw Viva! Elvis.  Elvis was a bit before my time, but it was a fun show that we left smiling. 

We drove to Palm Desert from Las Vegas and decided to go through the Mojave desert.  This is my picture of the salt flats out the window of our moving vehicle.

Palm Desert was great as well.  Sunny, warm, and GREAT sunsets!

Running Back to Saskatoon

I can't help it, every time I get on a plane to come back to Saskatoon this plays in my head:



The song is from 1972 by The Guess Who.  I wasn't born when this song came out - yet ever since I used to take the Greyhound bus back home from University I have hummed this song in my head at least once along the way.

Travis and I were back in Saskatoon for two weeks - and I managed to not take a SINGLE picture!  How does that even happen?  Travis has a bunch on his camera, but he shoots in RAW and I can't read .CR2 files on this computer.  I'll get around to pulling them off on his laptop and converting them so that I can post some soon, but at the moment I get frustrated just thinking about it. :)

We got an enormous amount of wedding planning done while we were there.  Ceremony location, reception location, rentals, flowers, rings, tuxes, etc.  We even managed to visit with a few people and see some friends along the way.  Doing all that planning has started getting me excited!  I'm sure once the wedding gets here it will feel as though time flew by, but for now I wish it was next summer already!  lol

Cooking Fish

I seem to be on a food kick these past few weeks.  I never intended for this to become a food blog, and I'm sure my interest in writing about food will wan once I have other things to talk about.  Travis and I are trying not to gad about to much right now - because we are coming to Saskatoon in 11 days! 

Growing up, I always hated fish.  It had a funny texture - and just tasted, well, fishy.  I remember my best friend in elementary school and I discussing how much we hated fish, and she suggested I try dipping it in Ranch dressing.  So it came that (much to my mother's chagrin) any time she cooked fish I would either refuse to eat it, or completely cover it in Ranch dressing.  Tastes change however, as they should once you start to mature.  I've started eating mushrooms, and *SHOCK!* I've discovered that I may actually like fish!  Here's the problem though - years of avoiding anything that once had fins means that I am woefully uneducated in the ways of cooking fish.  I have no idea what a "done" piece of fish looks like.  Do I bake it? Fry it? Grill it? For how long?  Do different types of fish cook differently?

It isn't like I haven't tried looking it up - most recipes include a marinade, or a sauce, and then say something like "and then cook until done".  If I knew how to do that, I probably wouldn't need the recipe much, now would I sport?

When it comes right down to it, I guess the old adage of "practice makes perfect" will have to come into play.  Either that, or I'll just have to call and ask Mom.  Hopefully I can learn fast enough that she doesn't start answering the phone like she did when I first moved away for University.  I'd call, she would see that it was me, and instead of saying "hello" she would answer with: "350 for 45 minutes".

Wish me luck!

Food

One thing I've discovered since being in Japan is that I love to try new recipes.  Not only that, but I love to create new recipes - look in the cupboard or the fridge and throw things together that you think might work well together.  Over the past few months I've had a couple of great successes (The kabobs from the previous post point in fact), and a couple of edible-disasters.  I call them edible disasters because though we ate them (and Travis even said some of them were good, bless his heart) I would never make them again.

The stuffed peppers and the shrimp fried rice turned out rather well, if I do say so myself.  I have learned a few things though.


1) You CAN overuse Worchestershire sauce.  Small doses only
2) Saffron is extremely overrated.
3) Garlic can basically be put in everything
4) Everything is better with bell peppers
5) Celery goes bad faster than two people can eat it.

Happy Cooking! :)