Love Well, Learn Well: #aweekwithchubs

Chubs the Pug

Week 2!

Week 2 with this little guy!  Definitely doing better then last week with the nibbling and house training!

We took him for his first walk and been walking him ever since!  Only issue is that it's rather difficult walking him if only one of us goes with him.  So hopefully we can correct that soon.

This week Chubs' other love Tobias passed away :'(.

About to go for a walk..... lazy butt.

Getting the hang out of brushing his teeth haha.

No words; he sleeps in the weirdest positions.

Yet he is so adorable <3.

<3

Took him out for a long walk.  He likes to rest between John's feet.

He loathes bath time, but he gets soooooo stinky!

He has a thing with faces...

Tires us out all of the time.

We also found he's a tad clingy... every time I moved or switched my foot position, he followed and plopped back down again.

Bear pug!

Sweet dreams Chubs <3.

Eat Well: #abcsofyyc #mugshotz

ABC's of YYC (Week 13: M)

Mug Shotz
12, 2808 Ogden Rd SE

Similar to how we stumbled upon Longview Steakhouse, Mug Shotz Grill and Bar is rated best wings in Calgary and has been for multiple years.  So many flavours to choose from, so we picked some classics as well as the adventurous sounding flavours.

Mug Shotz Salt & Pepper

These reminded us of salt and pepper squid served at Chinese restaurants.  It had great flavour, super moist and the skin is oh so crispy.

Lemon Pepper

This one was unfortunately super salty, but the chicken was moist!

Louisiana Garlic Parmesan Suicide

The skin was quite soggy rather than the crunchy texture we were used to.  The flavour was still great, but the texture threw us off.

Suicide

Great level of heat where you can still enjoy the flavours in your mouth.  The topping of diced peppers was delicious!

Whiskey Maple Bacon

The sweet flavour of the maple was balanced out by the savoury bacon bits and also had a nice hint of whiskey.  There was so much bacon!  A unique wing flavour.

Honey Hot

Honey was definitely the star of the show, yet it was not overly sweet and was balanced by the chili.

Ginger

We all took a chance with this because the server suggested this flavour to us.  It reminded us of ginger beef and was surprisingly delightful.

Mug Shotz Salt & Pepper Suicide

The same deliciousness as before but with some heat added.  We found we liked these better then the regular salt and pepper wings.  This was unanimously the favourite flavour of the night,

Greek

So much flavour!  These were so good and thankfully not too salty like the lemon pepper.

Overall, all of the wings were juicy, plump and delicious.  There are a ton of flavours to try and we enjoyed the majority of them.  Mug Shotz definitely exceeded our expectations.  This place gets really busy, so we suggest you go early!  

Enjoy!

Eat Well: #abcsofyyc #maruju

ABC's of YYC (Week 13: M)

Maruju
919 Centre St N

M week!  We definitely had to go to one of our favourite sushi places, especially after a long morning at work.  We've heard good things about the ramen and we were really excited to try it.

Deluxe Assorted Sashimi- Chef's choice

MMMMM the shrimp was so good, just like the one we had at Japanese Noodle House.  Sadly, there was only one again *le sigh*.  The salmon was quite flavourful and tasty.  All of the pieces were full of flavour with great consistency.  Maruju is one of the few sushi restaurants where John can enjoy his sashimi without wasabi.

Tonkatsu Ramen- with chashu and egg

The broth was creamy yet light with a nice hint of heat from the chili powder John added.  The egg was at a nice soft boil and deliciously runny in the center.  The chashu had a great sear and tasted amazing due to the balance of fat vs lean meat.  John could always use some more fat though hehe.  The noodles had a wonderful consistency which complemented the simple and clean broth (Simple and Clean from Kingdom Hearts was playing in the background).  Overall, it was a bowl of ramen that was easy to eat served with delicious toppings.  

Hurricane Roll- avocado tempura topped with crawfish and salmon salad

The roll was presented in a simple yet elegant manner.  The toppings were quite tasty, but the creamy avocado blended with the rice which made the roll seem heavy and rich.  This roll had a very unique flavour profile that we have yet to experience.

Baked Oyster- John's favourite :)

Oh man!  Big juicy oysters.  These are the reason we love coming to this place.  The oysters are cooked and seasoned perfectly.  Tons of flavour from each bite.  There was a perfect balance of acidity from the Japanese mayonnaise. There was a light crunch from the toasty exterior.  It's also great that it was not overloaded with cheese like a lot of places considering John is lactose.

As per usual, loved the sashimi here and we became giddy children when we saw that they had their Baked Oyster!  Come get em while they're hot, because they're not always on the menu.  The ramen was delicious and we are glad that we gave it a try.

Enjoy!

Eat Well, Learn Well, Feel Well: #themapplechips

Apple Chips

An excess of apple and a mandoline calls for apple chips!  I got the recipe off of Nom Nom Paleo's cook book "Nom Nom Paleo Food for Humans"

5 large Fuji Apples, cored and cut horizontally with a mandoline (approx 1/8 inch thick)

2 tsp Ground Cinnamon...or more... much more like I did

Preheat your oven to 225F (convection oven)

Ensure your racks in your oven are spaced evenly.

Place your slices on baking sheets lined with parchment paper.  I had about two cookie sheets full.  Dust with cinnamon... violently....

Bake for 1.5 hours in a convection oven, if you do not have the convection option, about 2 hours.

Flip them halfway through.  Turn off the oven and leave the chips to fully dehydrate.

Once they've cooled, store them in a sealed container for up to 3 days.

Totally want an apple corer... so the holes in the center were quite jaggedy from using a paring knife.

Love this contraption!

There was some fruit ninja going on in my kitchen.

Again, violently dusted my chips with cinnamon...

Ta Da!  Loveeee these!  I found that they were still a tad soggy, so I will definitely play around with the times more.  Nevertheless, they were still tasty!

Enjoy!