Can you get more retro than a 1940's murder mystery game?

My friends Sarah and Oli live in England, and every so often make it to Ottawa for a visit. This time around I am pregnant so there was no wild pub nights in the cards for us. Instead we played 'The Last Train From Paris", a murder mystery set in 1940's Paris aboard a... you guessed it... train.
For dinner I made rouladen which was delicious, of course.

pile of meat. yum.

i was able to fit all the meat rolls into my giant Kitchenaid roasting pan.

There is a butcher down the street from me, who has been around since the hood was built in the 50's. They sliced up some inside round roast nice and thin so I didn't have to pound out the steaks like my mom used to do. Considering that I don't have a meat hammer, this was a nice luxury. Inside was bacon, onions and my dad's dill pickles (which are way better to use than store-bought) with some mustard and salt and pepper and garlic powder for good measure. They were a big hit with the crowd.

Speaking of the crowd, here are a few pictures from the night:

meeka the fashion designer

sarah the princess

chris as "the duke"

greg as the international man of mystery

oli as the terrible pilot who likes the ladies

tanis as the socialite

meeka has a sweet american accent

tanis does not belive that ren is not a spy

ren, you are a total spy

it was the princess. BUT SHE WASN'T REEEAALLY THE PRINCESS!!

All in all it was a pretty fun game. The company that makes these particular ones likes to throw in weird twists so it is pretty hard to figure out who did it.
Meeka I still have your weasels.

"Shit From My Garden Stew", with chicken

Yesterday I was the recipient of not one but two bags of tomatoes. Grammy brought some over, and then our neighbour Miguel did too.
What do you do with two bags of tomatoes?
YOU MAKE SOUP.

We grew carrots this year and most of them actually turned out quite nicely. We had harvested some earlier, but I think it was too early as they were pretty puny. The ones we are pulling now are big and tender and delicious! So I pulled some out the ground (a strangely sexual experience I would say) and took their pretty picture.

We also grew potatoes for the third year and most of them where also quite small. We had a lot of rain this spring and I really think it hindered early growth. In any case they still taste like good potatoes so I cut them up too. Here is a picture of the vegetables I used, minus celery (cause I forgot that I had some):

i did not grow the onion or zucchini. maybe next year.

So, I chopped up all these veggies and added a dried herb blend from Heritage Line Herbs. The smell of the tomatoes as they started to cook down was divine.

Then I cooked up some chicken with more dried herbs and some chopped garlic, and threw that in letting it simmer for about an hour. I really liked it, but Else wouldn't eat it. She kept saying "yucky, yucky" so she had PB&J instead.



Silly child.