The Week In Yum Dec 20-26 The Week Before Christams and All Through the House.... WE ATE OUR FACES OFF

first time at Yamato for a requested teppanyaki birthday dinner turned out to be great. Sometimes I worry about teppanyaki because the show gets more attention than the food and you end up with little rubber shrimps and overcooked steak but the food at Yamato was great. My scallops and shrimp were perfectly cooked, we had a great show and will be back for more.

The week started with a trip to Kensington so that means a pizza slice at Pizzeria Mare for Shack

this was our xmas pooch, Stella. Her family is away for the holidays so we are the lucky babysitter to this gal. She enjoys pistachios, bbq chips, longs walks on the beach and kicking me out of my own bed so she can sleep in my spot, which I let her do because she is so pretty.

if you can make it out to SanRemo Bakery by 8am you can still snag a box of the best apple fritters in the city before they run out and they will run out. They will also still be warm.

We finally got a tree a couple of days before Xmas. It wasn't looking good when we drove into the Canadian Tire parking lot to see a couple of lonely trees lying on the ground beside what looked like an abandoned trailer. A dude eventually made his way out of the trailer, smoke firmly planted in mouth and looking pretty shocked that anyone would want to pick their family tree here, but hey, it's $45 bucks he wasn't expecting to pocket so Merry Christmas to you!

The tree ended up being absolutely perfect and once we dressed it up, it was a lovely, found lying on the ground in the parking lot at Canadian Tire but still full price tree. 

Later that day, this thing of beauty showed up on my door step. I had won an amazing giveway on MBAmamamusing's blog  and the gift package from ESC Coffee . A super duper merry merry to me

I never get any really good photos of the spread from our annual Xmas Eve open house because A) I have been cooking and cleaning all day and by the time it all comes together, I am exhausted B) it's always too dark to get many nice photos because I appreciate mood lighting more than the need to get a really clear shot of my fava beans and C) I am too busy enjoying my gathered family and friends, drinking prosecco and belting out carols to think of taking more picture. I prepared a middle eastern mezzes spread courtesy of Ottelenghi, the foole recipe from Maha's and Adonis supermarket, the chain that has a greek name with greek font but it's really Lebanese.

It's not Christmas without our customary Christmas morning dim sum at Perfect Restaurant. This year, we were joined by our MVPs (most valuable Peruvians) for a giant feast of steamed and fried porky and shrimpy delights. We then had four hours to get hungry again so we downloaded The Interview from Google Play, laid around like slugs and tried not to go back to bed.

We had a wonderful Christmas dinner with our dear friends, neighbours and part of our chosen family,  The Neighbours. They cooked the entire meal and it was absolutely delicious, from the turkey right down to the crazy assed chocolate trifle and apple crisp desserts.

If you are hitting the boxing day sales, pick up a tv at Target for me and God Speed. 

We are going to Washington DC in a few days for NYE so there will be lots to tell next week! In the meantime, Happy New Year and let's hope that next year is even half as great as this year has been (or better than that asshole of a year 2014 if you had a crappy year)