Japanese Curry, Football, Onion Rings, and Fries

I went running this morning for the first time since October and lasted for about 15 minutes. Darcy wants to do another half marathon (Mississauga Half Marathon) in May, so we're gearing up. I can't believe we're doing another one. Yikes.

Later in the day, I was looking at my Saveur magazine. January is a great time to buy this magazine because they have what they call the Saveur 100, which is the editorial staff's picks for their 100 favourite food finds of the past year. It's a really fun list with lots of great pictures and write-ups. One of the picks this year is Japanese curry. My mom used to make this for us when I was a kid with sauce from a package made by S&B. I love this kind of curry and I've made it myself a few times. The S&B sauce comes in kind of a plastic ice cube tray and you can take pieces of it, add it to water, and then add vegetables, chicken, etc. It's kind of like Japanese Hamburger Helper. In Saveur, they had a recipe to make the sauce from scratch. I didn't really believe that it could be done. I thought it was sort of like how you can make your own Mac and Cheese, but it will never taste like Kraft dinner because it's a completely different animal. But, I followed the recipe and it tasted EXACTLY the same. And it's probably miles healthier. I totally recommend it.

Tomorrow is our friend Jeff's birthday, so we went to a sports bar in the Junction called Shoxs to have some drinks and watch the late NFL divisional game (New Orleans Saints vs. Philadelphia Eagles). I gave Jeff one of the handpainted cards from India with the elephant (supposed to be good luck), so I figure our team (New England Patriots) should have a good game tomorrow (knock on wood, fingers crossed). Jeff ordered some fries and onion rings to go with our drinks and the waitress brought out an enormous basket of each. So much for trying to eat healthy in the new year. They were actually really good and cheap (fries $2.95; onion rings $3.95).

Jeff and Trina just recently bought a house in the Junction. On our way home, we walked across Dundas from Keele to Runnymede to catch the bus and saw some pretty funky shops on the way. I loved the upholstery store with chairs and tables piled in huge mountains against the windows with more than one sign saying, "Come In. We're Open", even though it was 12:30AM. A little further down was a used bookstore that said: 'Voted the messiest store for 6 straight years...and proud of it!!!!' and 'If you can't find what you're looking for inside...don't worry, neither can I!!!!". Across the street was Vesuvio, a great place to order pizza from if you live in the West end. And right at the corner of Runnymede and Dundas was a 7 Eleven with a huge sign saying they are serving Kona Blend Coffee, which we bought as souvenirs when we were in Hawaii in August. That coffee and has come a long way to get here.

At a bus shelter, we saw this sign for a Found Cat. We thought that was so sweet that someone had taken the trouble to both care for the cat and try to find its owners. The cat looks pretty relaxed in the photo though, so maybe he likes it better where he is? Anyways, spread the word if you know anyone who is missing a kitty.


We're going to try to run again tomorrow if I'm not completely incapacitated by stiff muscles, so I'd better get to bed. Everyone send some love and energy toward the Patriots tomorrow at 4:30PM. Hope everyone's having a good weekend.