PHAB Lifestyle » Back to reality

So we are back from our little Vancouver holiday! I have been going and going since we got back. Grocery shopping, laundry and meal planning for the week took up my day today.

Our last evening in Vancouver was spent in a lovely Wine Bar at the Fairmont Hotel. We had a great time.

After trying a couple of wines we decided to share a bottle of Burrowing Owl Cabernet Sauvignon.

It was delicious! I liked the full body taste and the hubs liked the oakyness.

We had it along with a little cheese plate.

and some crackers. The cheese tasted so good with the wine. There was a hard cheese, soft camembert and a stinky cheese. It was all very good.

We sat and enjoyed ourselves for just over an hour.

Yum!

Also there was a little tomfoolery!

A bottle of wine can make you a tad goofy!

After our little night cap we made our way back to our hotel and went straight to bed. The next day was home time!

It was good bye Vancouver….

and hello to home! The flight is only 56 minutes so it goes by really fast!

We got home last night just in time to hand out treats to the kids and hangout with our friends for a bit and play a game. I was having fun and did not pull out my camera to document it.

Today was a busy day for me. First J got up really early because the clocks went back and he was up an hour early. So I was making him some breakfast at 6:30 am!! I also started the laundry and started my meal plan for the week.

After my hubs got up I took a shower and got ready. I grabbed my grocery list and hit the store. Of course it was busy and I stood in line for 20 minutes to pay!! I hate that! Only a few cashiers open and a TON of people. But the good thing was I was home around lunch time since I had an early start.

Supper tonight was an all afternoon process. I decided to use my new Dutch oven to cook some beef stew! This little baby is thanks to Airmiles and arrived while I was away. I have been wanting a Le Creuset pot forever!

I took a recipe from Cooking Light.

I got started at around 2pm. I assembled the first part of the ingredients and salt, peppered and floured the beef.

First the beef was seared.

Then I added the beef broth, beer, bay leaf and garlic. It went into the oven for 1.5 hours. In total it took about 3 hours to cook. I later added carrots, onions and potatoes and different times since they all have different cooking times. I made this with potatoes because the hubs does not like turnips which the recipe called for.

The finished product. It smelled heavenly!

All ready to eat.

I served mine on top of some sautéed Kale. The beef was mouth-wateringly tasty and just fell apart. The gravy that it made was oh so good! It was a wonderful Fall meal. I loved how the dark beer flavoured the meat.