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The Awesome Wife is starting her first day today at Peapod. The nice people there has send us a gift basket from Cookies by Design. I will post the picture later on. A failed experiment on Sunday for dinner. Me and The Awesome Wife had a craving for sushi and she went to pick them up at a local Asian Supermarket. The 5 Year Old was at first excited at the notion of another asian cousine (she loves sweet and sour chicken), but once she saw the sushi she became her usual I-don't-want-to-try-anything-new-even-if-mom-and-dad-say-it's-the-best-thing-since--medium-done-steak self and refused to eat them. She picked one apart for a piece of salmon and the rice. She did try the weed salad, which in my opinion looks less appetizing. And ate couple of pot-stickers. Overall, sushi for her will have to wait a little bit longer.

I was always afraid to put the chicken on the grill. Thought I would either burn it or it will try out. Well, not anymore. We've marinated the chick breast with dijon mustard (my favorite) and after 10 minutes on the grill it was not burned nor dry. Yum!

We grew up in the southern part of Russia. The city of Rostov, was a pretty important trade hub between the north and the Caucasus. Because of that there was always a fairly large and popular mix of Georgian, Armenian, Azerbajdzhanian cultures. There is one delecacy that I always enjoyed eating, it was called Halvah. It's a very, extremely sweet brick of something, made from nuts usually. The origins, in our parts, are Mediterranian, possibly due to a long time occupation of Middle East by Ottoman Empire and Turks. My history is not what it's used to be. Anyway, yesterday ,while grocery shopping, my eyes fell on a pice of Halvah, and I realized that I haven't eaten it in years. I have bought it, and it brought back a lot of memories. I don't rember whather or not Ilya liked it, but I remember that my parents had to stop me from devouring the whole piece all by myself.

The work and school load are still pretty big, so here are some thoughts from the weekend. - Everything tastes better from a grill. - McCormick Grillmates are awesome to put on any meet. Mesquite spices (whatever they might be) add so much flavor to the smoke and to the meat it's possible to drown in your own saliva. - Went to see UP! Another awesome offering from the Pixar. On par with Incredibles. I think Pixar needs to disassociate themseleves from Disney. - Performing arts isn't all fun. The instructions we recieved for a "dress rehearsal" are very similar to what, I bet, soldiers go through for a roll-call.. maybe even SWAT preparations before an all out assault.

Thanks to my Awesome Wife we went for a little food expirimentation tonight. We thought we were going to a Korean BBQ place, but luckily went to Shabu-Shabu place. I have never eaten at one of those before. First, the name is awesome. Shaaa-buuuu. Sweet. Second, the idea is simple but awesome in execution. You are given a pot with boiling broth. The varieties are chicken, sea weed (i have questions about that), and being that a lot of Asian folk here is Korean, kimchi broth (very spicy, to be avoided). After you have the pot you are given very thinly sliced beef (seems to be the favorite meat), veggies, and sometimes noodles (I had pot stickers), which you pick up with chop-sticks and dip in the broth for a duration of 15 seconds. Very filling, and very deliciouss, you are given three different sauses to go with the food. It is also very healthy. Good experience overall, and I think we will return there at some point. Shabu as a style of cooking said to be originated with the Mongols. ...