The Surly Dad award for worst fast food place goes to…

The McDonald’s at Hamilton Road and Highbury Avenue! Let’s hear it for this awful “restaurant”, folks!

Sure, there are a lot of fast food joints that are dirtier or less-maintained than this one. Actually, I’m wrong-there isn’t much worse than this. Grimy and cheerless in general. But what really sealed the deal and earned my disapproving look was the ‘funzone’. It is not meant for children to have fun, it is meant for people who hate children to cackle as fun goes into the room and dies. Other than one sad puzzle board, there is nothing appropriate for a child under 8.  Of course that’s hypothetical since the old lame video games in there were turned off, and there wasn’t a child to be seen for miles. This was at dinner time on a weekday, so there should have been a horde of tired parents looking to shovel quick food into themselves while the kids ran around like crazy pixies. Not one family was in sight (other than us, and we left when we saw how lame it was).

Oh, and the foosball and air hockey tables cost money to play.  The cash earned goes to Ronald McDonald house, so that’s not so bad, but it still stinks to have something that costs money inside the kid distraction area. Luckily, the air hockey paddles were nowhere in sight so even if we had put money in the table, there would have been no fun taking place.

Smart McDonald owners know how much return business they get from frazzled families looking for a little break, and the playland is a big part of that break. Steer clear of this place unless you’re really desperate.

Eat!Eat! You’re skin and bones!

I threw together a roasted pepper couscous salad yesterday that was pretty tasty, and was enjoyed by the little dude as well. Here’s what you need:

1 cup chicken broth (use vegetable broth if you want to go vegetarian)

1 cup couscous

2 shepherd’s peppers, halved and cleaned

1 cup kale, washed, stemmed and chopped

2 cups of broccoli florets

1/4 cup sesame seeds

neutral oil (peanut, for example)

lemon juice

soy sauce

First, put the peppers on a baking sheet, and baste with a small amount of oil. Throw the sheet into a 425 degree Farenheit  oven. after 5 to 10 minutes, flip the peppers over. Take them out when the skin has darkened considerably.  Let the peppers cool.

While the peppers cool, boil the chicken broth, add it to the couscous, and cover.

In a hot pan (medium high heat), put a drizzle of oil in, and after a moment, throw in the chopped kale. Keep stirring the kale, and sprinkle some lemon juice on top. Take the kale out of the pan just as it starts to brown, and add it to the couscous bowl.

In the same pan, throw in the broccoli. Add soy sauce, about a tablespoon ( or more if you like soy). After a few minutes, no more than 5,toss the broccoli into the couscous bowl.

Back to the pan-throw the sesame seeds in and vigilantly watch them and shake them around the pan as they toast. They will toast very quickly so pay attention. Burnt seeds are very unpleasant. When the seeds have a nice golden hue, they go into the bowl.

Now that the peppers have cooled, peel the skin off and dice them. Add them to the ever popular bowl.

Last thing to do is mix it all together and serve. Add salt/pepper to taste.

Hey, soda Jerk! Gimme some cash!

I love to see philanthropy being used as a marketing tool, and I don’t mean that sarcastically. Every company is going to dump millions of dollars into convincing you to buy their widgets and doodads, so when they choose to give money to good causes as a part of that buyer coercion, I’m onboard.

The particular business doing the wooing is Pepsi, with their “Pepsi Refresh Project”. Good ideas for projects in a variety of categories are submitted, and the people (that’s you!) vote on the best ones. There are a lot of great cause that could really use the money, and if you can find one that you support, mobilize and vote frequently. The competition gets pretty fierce.

My choice? http://www.refresheverything.ca/braintumourfoundationofcanada.I did some writing work for Brain Tumour Foundation, which included some survivor interviews, and their stories affected me so profoundly that I’d love to see them get some cash. So go, my minions, flock to the site and start voting! Show them what over 10 people can accomplish on the internet!

Today’s fun fact: the iPhone spelling auto-correct changes ‘pcp’ to ‘oxo’. These things are not similar.