a good foods kind of day

so i worked the social this evening.  i wanted to make something amazing and challenging.  i wanted to wow myself with foods.  i was working with alison and the only meat alison really eats is chicken.  and i thought she might like pasta.  she seems the pasta loving type.  so i found a recipe for chicken alfredo stuffed jumbo shells.  all this was to be able to make what  i really wanted to make, and that was a recipe from my favourite guy ottolenghi.  roasted brussel sprouts with pomelo and star anise.  yes you heard right and what did you hear?  that's right, you heard yum.

the weak point in my plan were the jumbo shells.  i knew very well that jumbo shells can be difficult to find.  and let's just stop and say what needs to be said.  it's not right.  it's unjust.  it's blatantly incorrect for jumbo shells to be as scarce as they are.  moving on, a little googlebird told me that wal-mart might have jumbo shells.  i left home early in case i had to go to more than one store.   what i'm saying is that the scarcity of jumbo shells caused me to shop on my own time.  so wrongo in the congo of life!

first i faced facts and put on the boot.  ugh. dr q said my foot is getting better and i would like to believe him but what i feel is different.  it even hurt to walk in the boot.  my foot feels worse.  but i hope it gets better.  i'm invested in a better foot because a bum foot bums me out big time.

i got a pretty close parking spot at wal-mart which was a turn of good luck.  i limped in and up the stairs wondering how i was going to get through all this grocery shopping on my bum foot.  the greeter lady took one look at me and motioned me over to the complimentary scooters.  thus began a conversation of sorts when i would speak words and she would speak motions and it worked for us.  she showed me going forward and back and turning and stopping etc.  then i was set loose in the store.  i jolted forward wildly wiggling from side to side.  greeter lady of the motions looked quite alarmed but i smiled at her and pretended that what she saw and what i did didn't really happen and that all along i was smooth sailing.  shopping in a scooter with a basket in front is F-U-N.  so fun!  almost right away i saw a group of members from pathways.  they are all chinese heritage members and they were on a group outing.  they all gathered around me and michael w. hugged me and they all asked me questions at once and asked me if i needed help, but i told them i was ok and we parted ways. wal-mart thankfully DID have jumbo shells and for that i will praise them for their rightness.  i found everything else but not ricotta so i just got a bigger cottage cheese.  after going through the till i ran into the chinese contingent again and michael w offered to carry my bags to my car.  they were all very cheerful and helpful and off i drove.

mireya parked in my spot.  and so she incurred my displeasure.  but only momentarily, because we all park in other people's spots sometimes...

ottolenghi's recipes are always 100% of the time delish and always 100% of the time a labour intensive affair and the chicken alfredo shells were labour intensive too but we had a lot of helping hands and we got it all done in plenty of time and wow, everything was so yum.

here are some cell phone pics of the brussels and shells repectively:

 after dinner we cleaned up and we went around the corner to jack frost's for some shaved ice.  no, it's not too cold for shaved ice.  shaved ice is for all weathers and all situations!  long live shaved ice!  i got mango and well it looked like a bunny and nothing is more right than this bowl of mango shaved ice.  nothing. we had jack frost all to ourselves.  it's decor is so cute and the korean ladies working there are super cute and nice too.

it was a good foods kind of day.  then i went home with a gurgly tummy.. because i'm lactose intolerant now.  who cares.