Friedy and I popped over to her sister’s last night for dinner and a few drinks, and as always happens with this little crowd of ours, a few drinks rapidly turned into a flood of wine.

I didn’t know this in the past, but it seems that whenever I buy a cask of wine, it turns into about five hundred glasses worth. Good trick.

I struggled to get a decent photo of this, but you’re looking at a delicious plate of sauerbraten – admittedly not the most photogenic dish to come out of Deutschland, but super tasty.

Essentially a German version of the good ol’ pot roast, sauerbraten is – in this case – beef that has been marinated with various spices and a whole mess of vinegar. The smell of vinegar is strong, to be honest, but not unwelcome.

Friedy’s been practising her winks – she’s nailed the left eye, but the right eye is amusingly uncooperative. That’s alright; I prefer it that way.

After dinner, it was somehow determined that we’d play a couple of hands of UNO. It turns out that we all share a competitive streak, so this turned into about 5 hours worth of good-natured shouting and arguing.

(Also, I totally kicked arse.)

Pia familiarises herself with the rules, busts a few brains cells in the process.

I wound up drawing a whole bucketload of cards after a run of +2s caught up with me, but my hand turned out okay.

Interlude: Captain, in his gangsta get-up. Boy’s got his colours on.

Poker face. Not a shared trait among these sisters…

With UNO wrapped up, it was time for the night to get serious. Pulling out the games drawer, we decide against the classic Guess Who?, and move into dangerous territory: Mensch ärgere dich nicht.

Similar to Ludo and Parcheesi, Mensch ärgere dich nicht (“Humans do not Annoy You”), is one of those games where you can be kicking arse all over the place one moment, only to find yourself back at square one in the next moment.

Suffice it to say, I came dead last and never really got far at any point in the game.

Next time, Gadget, next time…

v.

I’m out too often, lately. Well, not necessarily too often, but being out as often as I have lately has meant that the nice vegies and other eats I buy for a week tends to go unused.

That means that come the Monday week after the weekend I bought it all, I’ve got a fridge and pantry full of items on their last legs.

This afternoon I cooked up some burgers that weren’t going to last much longer (I should have froze them, I know), and tonight I ended up cooking up a huge wok full of vegies – with tofu and falafel, just for kicks – before they ended up in the bin.

I didn’t end up using the asparagus; I do like it, but it would have been too powerful a taste in this concoction, I think. The sweet potato and onion were both fine, but I figured I’d throw those in anyway.

I also kept a section of sweet potato to fry up some delicious chips, inspired by the ones Friedy cooked on the weekend while we prepared our mushroom pizzas.

Describing these little suckers as tasty would be a major understatement… wait, I already called ‘em delicious. Very good, move on.

Chopped up and good to go. Onion, field and flat mushrooms, falafel, tofu, zucchini, Lebanese cucumber, vine and mini roma tomatoes. I fried up the tofu and falafel with some sweet paprika, and chucked the whole lot into the wok afterwards.

I forgot to take any more shots, but here’s the final product.

There’s enough here to last me the rest of the week. Friedy laughs about me always eating the same thing, but I usually mix it up a little each week; sometimes tofu, sometimes chicken, and often a different variety of veggies and spices.

Different sauces find their way into the wraps as well, so by the time I’m done, there’s usually a different taste each time.

Right on.