Italian Green Beans

The other night while watching TV we came upon David Rocco’s Dolce Vitaon TLN (The Latin Network). Intrigued by Davids good looks and the sights and sounds of Italy we continued to watch. David was in Florence at a market purchasing all sorts of amazing fruits and veggies. He went back to his little apartment and prepared for his TV viewers Fagiolini in Umido.

Those who know me best know that I am obsessed with Green Beans, or as my family calls them Tegoline. I could eat them any way, every day for the rest of my life. Only problem is Chad doesn’t particularly like them so I don’t make them as often as I like. That was until David Rocco saved the day!

While watching David prepare this Italian dish Chad turned to me and said, “Now, if you prepared them like that, I would definitely eat them”. So I took that to heart and prepared him Fagiolini in Umido!

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Ingredients

  • 1/4 Cup Olive Oil
  • 1/2 White Onion, Chopped
  • Red Pepper Flakes (Optional & to taste)
  • 250ml Can of Stewed Tomatoes
  • 285g String Green Beans, Tips Trimmed
  • 2 Cloves Garlic, Minced (My own personal addition)

This made enough to feed 2 for dinner with some leftovers for lunch!

Steps

Heat up the oil in a sauce pan and add your garlic, red pepper flakes and onions. Stir every so often. Cook until the onions are translucent and soft. Then add the can of tomatoes (including all the liquid) and salt to taste. With the back of a wooden spoon, break up the tomatoes into little chunks and cook until some of the water has been absorbed. Next add the string beans to the pan, cover with lid and let simmer for 10 to 15 minutes. Serve hot or at room temperature. Yes, it’s that easy!

I guess Chad has a point that anything covered in a home made tomato sauce does taste amazing. These beans were like no others I’ve ever had. Even the sauce, though similar to the marinara we make, tasted totally different. The white onions added a wonderful amount of sweetness to it, and the Peperoncino (red pepper flakes) added some nice heat. This is definitely going on the dinner time rotation. Thank you David Rocco!

Pizza for Three

Work has been kicking butt this week. I want to get a handle on organizing the next bit of Fall so it ends up being the only thing my brain can handle during the day which means no breaks for blogging. I’m going a little crazy and I’m falling a little behind. But none the less.

Friday night we took the Italian out for Italian pizza. Marcello’s was an easy choice so we headed there after work.

Marcellos
Elisa & I
Marcellos

We got there around 7 and they were jam packed. The wait was only 20 minutes so we stuck it out and in no time we got a seat.

Marcellos
Caesar Salad
Caprese Salad

Elisa and I split the Caesar Salad (she still says that I make the best Caesar Salad around) and Chad had the Caprese Salad. It was a good starter to our meal, but unfortunately they were so busy that we felt somewhat rushed. They ended up bring out our pizzas 3 seconds after we finished our salads. No breathing room tonight!

Palermo by Night
Artichoke & Zucchini
Artichokes

Chad had the Palermo by Night pizza, I had the Artichoke and Zucchini pizza, and Elise had the Artichoke pizza. While they were fabulous pizzas as per usual, they still aren’t 100% authentic Italian pizzas. Yes, the three of us are snobs. I think we’ve proven that already. The crust could have been a little bit thinner and the pizza could have been a little less greasy, but we still thoroughly enjoyed our meal.

We’ve never been to Marcellos during ‘Prime Time’ so we were a bit taken a back by how busy it was. A couple drinks were forgotten and we couldn’t really relax while eating our meal, but I guess that’s what you get for going to a super popular pizza place on a Friday night. So popular in fact that just before we left former Canuck Geoff Courtnall and some young hockey players came in for dinner. Oh la la!

Cafe Calabria

After dinner we headed down Commercial Drive to Cafe Calabria where Elise and Chad enjoyed an espresso. I didn’t have anything because Coffee hates me and makes me stomach die. Sometimes I suffer for the taste, but Friday night I didn’t feel like it. None the less it was a very wonderful Italian evening.

A perfect Friday night in the E.V.

Tombola Per Tutti

No Entry
Tombola Time
Tombola Teresa
No Pictures
Jim
J & M
Playing
Dario is in Africa
Dinner Time
Foodz
Pasta for Chad
Pasta for Me
Fugase
Jim the Jokester

Italian traditions die hard around here.

A few weeks ago we all got together to play a high stakes game of Tombola, which is basically like bingo but with out the bingo. Chad and I being the unlucky ones only won once at a $1.20 each. Next time we are going to bring an Asian good luck charm with us in the form of Steve Tang.

Tombola Teresa was out in full force this year but would not answer when called ‘Dame Edna’. She won way too many games. I think she’s with the Mafia or something.

Jim decided he would be East Indian at one point.

Dario didn’t want to play anymore and decided to go on a safari.

Every time a number was called out Chad would challenge himself and call out a hockey player who wore that number. Jim, on the other hand, would call out something that reminded him of that number. 66 – Chevy, 67 – Chevy, 68 – Chevy, 92 – How old I will be when I die. I’m surprised he didn’t do what he did last year, 69 – My favorite number. Friggin priceless.

We had pasta for dinner but this year it wasn’t Whore pasta like it was last year. Jim, however, did bring along some home made olive bread which was amazing.

For dessert we had some of Settimos ‘Fugathe’. Yes, it’s that time of year already! I think my Mom will be holding the annual contest around Easter.

Family & Friends + Wine + Illegal Gambling Italian Style = The Perfect Sunday Afternoon

 

Just Give Me a Plum

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danielle2
danielle3

So, after 4 years of working at Plum, they finally asked me to be a model. HA!

They asked me to style a Boyfriend jacket my own way. If this isn’t me, I don’t know what is.

It’s funny how no matter what, your personal style always come through. I can’t even tell you how many people saw these pictures and said “OMG that is SO you!” Yes, well, I do dress myself ;)

You can check out the ad here, and if you aren’t totally bored yet, you can also watch this little news clip about the prices of our clothing over the last 20 years.

Stripes, Sneakers, and BF Jackets for life.

 

The Bitch of Dublins

BFF
Mike and Kevin
Smelly
The Boys

A trend is starting to form in which the drinking establishments that we frequent are quickly becoming my least favourite places to visit. Part of me is yearning for something a little more upscale. Part of me is yearning for something a little different. We all know my feelings in regards to the Cambie, and slowly but surely these feelings are starting to transfer to Dublin’s Crossing.

I guess the thing about Dublin’s is that it is easy and familiar, minutes away from Ryan and Elise’s place. The crowd inside can be OK, depending on when you go, but you have to deal with middle aged adults thinking they’re 20 again and Surreys wanna be gangsters. Luckily, we almost always find a booth upstairs, tucked away in a corner, away from the ‘action’.

The one different thing about Dublin’s is we have probably had the most trouble with waitresses here then anywhere else. We’ve also ordered food here and it was so cold and gross that we had to send it back, which we have NEVER done anywhere else.

Saturday night, after the game, the 4 of us headed over there for a drink. We were joined by Mikes friend Kevin and sat at the corner booth at the back. Our waitress was in a piss poor mood. We’ve had her before and it seems as though shes always got an attitude problem. The night was definitely off to a rocky start.

Early in the night we order a round of drinks and she brings everyone’s but Ryan’s. Ryan doesn’t say anything, he doesn’t make a fuss, he just sits there finishing the beer he was drinking. 10 minutes later she whips by our table and mumbles ‘Sorry, I forgot your drink’, slams it on the table and then walks turns away. She obviously realized she had messed up and was embarrassed by it.

The next round of drinks, everyone orders something. Again she brings the drinks but this time forgets Chad’s. Again, no one says anything about it. 10 minutes later she comes to clear some of the glasses, looks at Chad and says, “Oh, I forgot your drink”. She turns around, gets his drink, comes back, drops it off and doesn’t say anything.

Now, we were so relaxed and casual that it didn’t really bother us that she forgot the drinks, however, if we wanted to, we could have been huge ass holes about it, especially with the way she reacted when realizing her mistake.

So, near the end of the evening, two of Mikes friends join our group for one drink. It was then time for last call and since no one wanted anything else she brought us the bills. Everyone was on separate bills. Most of us were ready to pay with credit cards but Mikes friends were at the end of the table counting out their change, which just seems really weird. They hand Mike their bill and their bucket of change and take off, with out waiting for the waitress to come back. We each pay, everything seems OK, then 15 minutes later the waitress storms up to our table, slams down 50 cents down and then storms away.

WTF?! We had no idea what that was about and assumed it had to do with the friends that paid in cash who were no longer with us.

10 minutes later she comes back to clear our table. Mike takes a sip of his drink and puts it down in front of him. She grabs the drink from him and clears it. Mike looks up at her and says ‘Oh, I wasn’t finished with that’. She glares at him, slams the drink down, pushes it towards him and walks away. It was like her body language and facial expressions were saying ‘Oh, you’re not done your effing drink yet, well here it is.’ I sat there with my mouth wide open. I was SHOCKED. I have NEVER seen a waitress react that way for NO REASON. Mike is the sweetest guy ever, how could him saying ‘Oh, I’m not done with that yet’ garner such a reaction. We had no idea what was going on.

All of a sudden a light bulb goes off in Mikes head, “Omg she must think is was me”.

Ahh…what?

Turns out Mikes two ass hat friend were counting out their change because they didn’t want to leave the waitress a tip. When they handed Mike their money and left, Mike realized this and added a toonie to their bill to somewhat make up for their bone head move, even though it was NOT Mikes responsibility to make up for his loser friend rude ways. Clearly, they didn’t want to stick around to hand the waitress their tip-less payment; cowards. When Mike handed her the payment she must have thought it was his, even though they ordered totally different things and had separate bills. Clearly she was pissed by this. It was the only thing that made any sense. But we were still baffled as to why she threw 50 cents on the table. To prove a point? Who knows. It was lost on us since we all friggin paid our bills and tipped her even though she was less then steller.

As soon as the drink slamming went down, we knew we had to get out of there. This waitress was being a bitch and was wanted no part of it. As Chad and I are heading down stairs we see the waitress coming up. Shes all smiley and social and then looks over, sees its us, and straightens her face and glares. Umm…excuse me!?

Ryan was the last one at the table getting his jacket on and the waitress runs up to him and gives him the 50 cents we left on the table.”Umm, yea, your friend forgot his change”. Ryan tells her it doesn’t matter and to keep it but she makes him take it as if to prove some other point.

We were not impressed at all. If you’re going to be pissed at someone, get your shit straight. Number 1, if we all have separate bills how can you mistake/confuse who has tipped you and who hasn’t. Number 2, not that I condone not tipping a waitress, but if you are rude and forget drinks all night long, who the hell are you to expect any sort of decent tip?

I understand that being a waitress can be difficult and frustrating, but you chose to work in that industry. If you are pissed because you are getting shitty tips then maybe drop the attitude, put on a smile and act like everyone is your best friend. And do NOT ‘accuse’ someone of not tipping you when the sure as hell did.

I have a feeling this waitress is going to remember us for life, just as we will remember her. Let the hate on begin.