Family Feast Saturday

It wasn’t an explosion out of bed today, it was a slow, lingering start. But I was trying to pace myself, there was excitement coming. I did make sure that rather than lounge in bed I got myself showered and dressed right away, then lounged. I was killing time until I got word from the Chef that it was on. Today was the big day, the first time we’d try to meet up for breakfast since the previous summer. It really was a long time. We figured that it had been since December 12, 2020 since we’d seen each other. You can go back and try and figure out the circumstances of that. We’d opted to meet at the greasy spoon near my house. I checked on the availability and we both reviewed the rules set out by the government before locking it in. He arrived ahead of nine. While I was waiting for him I went to the gas station and used $2 to pump some air into my low pressure tire on the truck. I balanced out a couple others before my time ran out. The first one has more air than the other three but that will show me if it’s leaking or was just cold and angry from a long winter of under usage. We met up and I was pretty excited for a couple of reasons, one was obviously to see my friend. Another was to eat at restaurant for the first time in many months. The third and maybe largest was that I was finally going to present the Chef with his Christmas gift. I went out on a limb with it and was anxious to see what he thought. So much so in fact that I forced it to happen before we went in. He gave me a packet of egg roll wrappers that he’d grabbed for me (I couldn’t find any where I looked) and I gave him his gift.

It is a replica of a 2017 MLS championship ring that his beloved TFC won that year. It’s got fake diamonds but it still weighs quite a bit. I chose the version that comes with a nice wooden box for him to store it when he’s not wearing it. I took a shot on the size, of which options were quite limited. He immediately dropped it on the pavement and I thought it might be damaged but not enough that it matters if it was. He seemed to enjoy it, wearing it throughout the meal. He says he’ll wear it to games when he’s allowed to go again. I thought it was a pretty unique item that he’d enjoy. He can chose to wear it or display it, whatever is the more pleasing form of enjoying it. He ordered his meal first and as it turned out, it was my exact order. The only order I’ve every made at this spot. Triple pork eggs benedict. It was good, maybe from the nostalgia or maybe from the different taste from my now usual flavours, either way I loved it. We stayed for quite awhile after the cheque was settled and talked and caught up. We stay in touch but it’s a different animal in person. Eventually we had to shut it down and move on with our days. For my part, I decided to do something productive when I got home, likely inspired by the fun morning thus far.

I finally started some of the work on the boat that I had planned. I needed to replace the carpet and wanted to get a feel for what was in the benches. There are two benches like this on either side at the back of the boat and a little spot that is used for storage with a lock. I was able to cut away the carpet easily and learned that they tried to weatherproof the wood with plastic. It appears to have held up alright. Recall that the boat sat in the elements for over five years before I took it over. The wood was still solid but should be replaced. The screws were all rusted out and filled in with dirt and dust. I had to use a knife to open up the slots to remove them. This was a very tedious task and eventually I had to enlist the aid of a flat screwdriver to destructively dig them out of the wood to get a red robertson on them. I had the drill but found that most of the work had to be done by hand. When finally I got the board off I discovered a foamy mess inside. Here was that concept again of foam inside a boat. I’d debated with GRP previously on this concept and it just didn’t compute for either of us. The neighbour was literally making a stink and it, combined with the effort of the task, were making me lose interest in further investigation. I felt I’d better go in and do some research on why this foam is important. At least before I painstakingly removed it. While I was on my computer I decided to listen to some podcasts and rip through a backlog of MSC challenges. I nearly got myself caught up when I noticed that it was past lunch. Because of the upcoming Family Feast I knew I needed to space my meals out appropriately. Breakfast was recent so I went small for lunch, finishing the last of the chips from the previous night and a pair of Viva Puffs with a couple glasses of water. After that I made my descent and fired up FS19. I felt safe playing it today with a hard stop on the horizon. I played it from half one to five and then started to prepare for the family fest scheduled for six. The meal was Philly Cheesesteak Egg Rolls. I had my ingredients lined up and ready when I checked my phone, I had several missed calls. Apparently it was decided between my STL sister and Mother that it would start at half five instead, so I was late out of the blocks. I quickly caught up, cooking my sirloin steak lightly on both sides and prepping my peppers. They went in the air fryer too for a spell. I hate onions so instead substituted in some mushrooms. Everything got a healthy chop and then combined in a bowl with a cup of cheese. I didn’t know that sharp cheddar is apparently the same as old cheddar so I went with shredded Tex Mex. Also I know I’ll have more uses for the majority of the bag that would be leftover. It was a fairly simple meal in the end, just took some time. Once your mixture is satisfactory you spoon out a 1/4 cup on the egg roll wrapper and make it like an evelope and roll, sealing with water. It didn’t take long to get the hang of it and when the dust settled I had fourteen little morsels to cook in two batches. I’ve included more photos than normal for you.

Parents had some chicken fried rice with their’s

STL sister had well rolled version and ranch dip

After the feast was done, the dishes were washed, and the conversation waned it was time for the Leafs. I shuffled back downstairs to watch the rubber match with the Jets, the third in a row this week. The game was entertaining with back and forth action and scoring until the third. The Leafs laid an egg and when they went down by two goals I dejectedly turned it off and trudged to my bed. I was able to get to sleep at a decent hour. That was good considering that the time changed in the night.