I have been drinking a lot of tea lately. I took a hiatus from my usual G & T. Mainly because a) the weather has been cool, and G & T is my hot summer day drink, and b) my bottle of gin is empty. Nonetheless, my latest shipment of wine from Opimian has arrived, and tonight is designated “testing” night to make sure it’s “okay”.

I find it very cool to pick up my wine at a warehouse, where, when you drive in the yard of the warehouse it’s like riding a bucking bronco for all the holes and heaves in the road. One dip was so severe that I actually shouted WOO HOOOOOOOO out loud in the car, followed by a bunch of giggles because I couldn’t believe that bits of my body could move in a certain way, or that I could shout spontaneously and so loudly.

Hubby is off to a staff meeting tonight. They are going to discuss the break in at his downtown office. Someone broke through a wall for $200. $200!!!  I am not a criminal, but to me, it seems you only break through walls when there are chests full of gold, pearls, and precious gems, all nestled on top of piles of ancient Roman coins, on the other side of said wall.

So, while Mr. is off discussing crime, I am here, wondering what to cook for supper to accompany this getting-better-with-every-sip bottle of wine. I can tell you this, I need strong flavours to get rid of the god awful, horrible taste of chemicals I have after eating some Uncle Ben’s Microwavable Rice for lunch today. Ew. I cannot get rid of the smell. Convenient? Yes. Tasty? Yes. So long as you plug your nose.I cannot totally poo-poo this rice, because I had a fairly lengthy conversation about it with a co-worker who thinks this stuff is The Greatest Thing Ever. To each their own.

I am a little fearful of cooking these days, as on the weekend I made two things:

1. A Breakfast Cookie, recipe provided by the Canadian Heart and Stroke Foundation.

2. Baked Chickpea Patties, recipe also provided by the Canadian Heart and Stroke Foundation.

Evidently, I’ve lost my cooking mojo. My husband deemed the breakfast cookies to be “not sweet enough”. My mom was a bit harsher with “these are raw”.  And she proceeded to unwrap the individually and lovingly wrapped cookies I gave her and put them back in the oven to finish them off. Hm.

The chickpea patties tasted like they were meant to be healthy. Michael tried one and chewed through it – it took a long while – and at the end deemed the accompanying lemon herb yogurt sauce to be delicious. Hm.

To regain my confidence, I have rummaged carefully through our humble little kitchen, and have found a nice container of  a frozen, now defrosting, robust, homemade meat sauce! I don’t mean to brag. Well, I do actually. But I make a mean meat sauce.

But fear not my vegetarian friends, I will learn to cook “a mean chickpea pattie” one day too. Perhaps if I learned that the chickpeas should be the same consistency throughout, and not a whole one here, a pureed one here, etc. etc.

And a final few words. Remember people, this is a blog, and not a skilled piece of journalism or English literature:

1. Life is too short to not drink good wine.
2. Let’s get on city council’s case to get owners to pretty-up their surface parking lots downtown Edmonton.
3. The riots in England are NOT cool and are making a mess of my London.
4. Rachel better not win Power of Veto tonight.
5. Fringe is on!!! Fringe! It’s here! Now! Go.