Girls Night Out

Dinner & a Movie: Girls Night

 

Countdown Clock: 12 days left until Australia.

 

With so little time left until Siyani and I leave the country I felt it was time for an evening with my mom and my sister.

 

Katrina and I surprised mom by forcing her into the car and not telling her what we were up to. It ended up being one of the best nights. We went to this place in Westbank called Bamboo Chopsticks and had one of the best meals any of us had enjoyed in a long time. The service was great and the food fresh, like you can taste how fresh it is fresh. Katrina as with any Asian restaurant had the won ton soup, I ordered for mom and I, the seafood pho and a rice bowel with pork, salad, lemongrass dressing and spring roll. I'm dying to know how they make  their spring roll, it was so buttery and flaky and awesome. Their drink special that night was Sangria and it was yet another thing i wanted the recipe for. It had the perfect blend of wine and juice flavor to make it the perfect thing to sip on as we enjoyed our meal.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After dinner we went to the movie.

 

This whole last minute girls night came to mind because a while back mom had said she wanted to see the movie Hope Springs. Westbank has a new theater but the old Capitol is still kicking around now known as Encore and it keeps movies for forever and it was still playing Hope Springs, so I decided to to take mom.

 

 

 

Katrina describes the movie as "the reason she no longer needs sex ed in school" while mom and I being married saw the truly sweet side of movie and very much enjoyed it. Mom even cried little, but then again if my mom isn't crying it's most likely cause she is sleeping when it comes to watching movies.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A great night, just us girls, one last time before I leave with my husband on a wonderful adventure. I'm going to miss my family so much but I am so looking forward to Australia as well.

 

 

 

 

Simple Pleasures

The Frothier the Better

 It is amazing how life in it's simplest forms can change in an instant. 

October 1st hit and it was the like the weather knew "time to be cooler" and in a moment the need for warm sweaters, boots and glow plugging the car (because we drive a diesel) was upon us. 

I love fall, I love the feel of fall and I am very happy to get one month of it before we leave for Australia. 

T-minus 29 days and counting

My favorite love of all when it comes to this time of year boils down to one awesome food. Pumpkin!!!! And I will be sharing some amazing pumpkin recipes before we leave.  

This post though is about something entirely non pumpkin related, a new love that steams from two old ones. Eggnog and Tea. 

While on a business meeting at a local cafe I pondered over the menu items trying to decide what I wanted to drink. To my dismay they did not have a pumpkin spice latte so I fell back on a drink I had not indulged in for some time, a London Fog. Steamed milk, vanilla syrup and Earl Grey Tea, a perfect substitute for the very fall day we were experiencing. 

Later that evening while at home a desire for another London Fog prompted ingenuity. One of our wedding gifts was this cool milk steamer/frother. Easy to use and two settings for either hot or cold. I dug this out of a box as I had already packed it away, this just shows how much I needed a frothy drink. As I was about to froth the milk I realized that adding just sugar wouldn't have the desired sweetness or flavor that vanilla syrup adds, and then inspiration, I had Eggnog in the fridge how perfect. Add that to Lady Grey tea with some cinnamon on top and WOW. 

Since Tuesday I have been making this every morning, lunch and night. It's a new addiction. The addiction continues to my totally gigantic cup as well, which is what I use for my evening indulgence. Drink this while eating fresh popcorn with M&M's on top and it is movie night perfection. I like to mix it up, so the M&M's usually consist of Peanut, Peanut Butter and Cherry all on top the popcorn at the same time. 

It's what I love about fall, that change in the air, the crispness of it all and the amazing things we create from life's simple pleasures.

A Foodie Adventure: Five Guys Burgers and Fries

A Great Food Update

 

 

Thursday September 20th Siyani and I decided to head up to West Kelowna (although I still call it Westbank) to look at buying a laptop for our trip to Australia. We stopped in at Future Shop and after an hour of looking and two sales people, CC was still having trouble committing to the piece of technology.
 

Thankfully for me deciding on a computer is harder for him then committing to me for the rest our lives. Buying a laptop, tough choice, asking a girl to marry you, no problem.
 

All joking aside, I was getting tired and pretty hungry so we decided to split a burger at this place across the parking lot. Five Guys Burger and Fries. We have driven past this place a number of times and always commented on we should we try it out.

 

Now that we have less than 6 weeks left in the country, we are trying to "do" more and not just say "one day". I am so glad that we tried this place out. Not only was the food amazing, like burgers don't taste like this anymore amazing, but the staff were beyond awesome.

Let’s start with the food. The burger was huge, it fed both me and CC. The taste was everything you would imagine a classic diner burger to taste like. It wasn't this miss-mash of flavor, they put their burgers together so well you actually taste each element working together. Again the size, like I said, it fed both me and CC and we were full after. Talk about portion overload (but in the best way) and it continues throughout the whole experience. We also ordered fries, but you don't just get fries here, you get a wide range of choices and we went with the Cajun flavor. I watched the girl pack up our bag and thought she was making a mistake, not only did she put our container of fries in, but then she filled the bag with the rest of the basket. I almost couldn't find the burger under all the fries. That’s what you get at Five Guys, every time you get a whole basket of fries.

 

Now to the experience, I don't think we have ever had so much fun at one place (except for the time at Montana's Cookhouse where they gave the boys helmets with antlers and they almost started a head-butting competition). CC and I walked in and were deciding on which burger to get, I said "Why don't we get the Bacon Cheese Burger with everything" and CC replied with "You want both A-1 and BBQ sauce". I shot him an eye roll and said "No, when you order "loaded" it comes with all the black lettered stuff, the red letters are extra free ones you can add." The guy waiting to take our order laughed and said "You know the menu better than most, you could take my job."

I offered to input our order into the till and he said if I could figure it out I had a job. So I leaned forward, he turned the till towards me and I put it in. After working at McDonald's and Tim Horton's, tills aren't a very big mystery to me but the guy was still impressed and offered me a job twice more, while another guy said I was so good he was going for his break. The rest of the night went awesome, we laughed with them and really enjoyed our food.

 

The biggest thing that impressed me though was how every time a customer left someone always remembered to say "Thanks, have a great night" Not a single person left without hearing those words.

 

Great Staff, Great food, Best Burger experience in Westbank.

 

Oh ya, on the other side of this post, CC finally did decide on a laptop. Now we have a Sony Vaio. Nice, easy to use, lightweight, perfect for our big adventure.

 

 

July 25th 2010: The begining

Before we head out on our adventure, I thought it best to quickly go over the last year and bit and show you "Us". How we met and fell for each other and how everything we have done together has been leading up to us jetting off to another country.

July 25th 2010 is the day Siyani told me he loved me and the day I knew for certain he was going to be my husband. What is so sweet about that day is at the time we were not even dating and had only really met and hung out together two weeks prior to his big revelation.

"Megan, I have something to tell you and I know if I don't just say it then it won't come out right......I love you"

My world froze, but his words didn't hang in the air long as I looked him in the eyes and said "I love you to". How was I able to respond so quickly and with absolute certainty? Because two weeks earlier at the summer Convention of Jehovah's Witnesses, Siyani had sat next to me as I sat next to his best friend, my cousin Owen and as he smiled at me and the day went on my stomach flip flopped that way it does when you have fallen in love.

Earlier that week, before the I love you was said, I had a phone conversation with my sister Shaina and my exact words which I remember so clearly to this day were, "Shai, I met this guy and he will either be my best friend for the rest of my life or I am going to marry him".

This is how we fell love, fast paced and with only a smile. That smile still gives me butterflies when he shoots it my way.

July 25th 2010....The day we were officially in love.

CC & Me: An Introduction

Welcome to The Life of the Lindows.
That's us in the picture, obviously, Megan and Siyani. I call him CC and the story of how he got that nickname is to come.

This blog was created to share not just our everyday life but our adventures. We have been married since May 2011 and finally life is about to go beyond interesting to extraordinary.

Click on the CC's favorites tabs to see the cars, music, games and everything else Siyani loves about life (maybe he will remember to put a picture of me in there to)
I love to cook, food to me is an expression of everything: love and friendship and style. Food is an icebreaker when meeting new people, a sign of "I'm here for you" in good and hard times and a symbol of how everyday we can create beauty and love from the simplest of things. Click on the Meg's Recipes to see what  I have been cooking or even eating as we live our lives in as many different places as we choose to.

Join us on our most exciting journey ever........Everyday Life!!!