Odds and Ends

Five on Thursday

It's that time again.  This week it seemed to come even sooner than normal what with Monday having been a holiday here.  Today it's all about blogs both old and new.  

As part of Sian's, whose blog I mentioned in this post, "Christmas Club" and now her "Story Telling Sundays" group I've discovered Mel and her wonderful blog "I Speak Melsh".  Among other things, lately Mel's been on a decluttering project and with her sharing how well that is coming along it's inspired me to get back at decluttering/downsizing here at home. 

Another blog from Sian's "Christmas Club" and "Sunday Stories" groups is Becky's Scrapbook Burblings.  Becky aside from sharing about scrapbooking also shares her miniature work on Mondays and I'm truly amazed at the amount of detail she can get in those projects.

The Inspired Room is a home decorating blog that I love drooling over the pictures at and figuring out how I could get those looks in this house.

For craft storage ideas I love checking out the Crafty Storage blog.  And boy some of those craft room pictures she shares - I just wish mine looked like that.  :)

Finally, I couldn't forget about food now could I?  One of my favourites for that is the Tasty Kitchen blog.  

 

 

My Day in Photos

 

 

 

 

   
   
  
 
 
See more days here.

 A Beyond Blogging for Scrapbookers class project.


 

2 New Recipes in 2 Days

One is a definite keeper in J's words and the other needs some adjusting.  And of course I don't have pictures of either one.  (:   I have got to remember to keep the little camera handy when making a new dish.

Sunday we were having breakfast & for some reason the tv in the kitchen was on.   It was on Giada de Laurentiis' show on the Food Network and she was making a Pork Tenderloin dish (Roasted Pork with Smoky Red Pepper Sauce).   As we'd already decided we wanted to have pork tenderloin and the dish sounded good we decided to try it that night with one change - we'd use regular paprika instead smoked paprika.  I read some of the reviews of it on the Food Network site and decided that I'd use less paprika than it called for but we think I should have used even less.   There was also a timing issue with it but we will try it again but just adjust it for those 2 things.

Now for the definite keeper.  Yesterday I felt like chicken but wanted something different from our usual ones we do weekdays so got out my "Weight Watchers Everyone Loves Chicken" cookbook and found Chicken and Mushroom Casserole.  We hadn't tried it before but it sounded like something we'd like & best of all there was no dairy in it so J would have no problem.  I had everything it called for - skinless, boneless chicken breasts, cremini or white button mushrooms (had both so I did a mixture), scallions, dry vermouth, fresh thyme, the usual salt & pepper, chicken broth, dried cranberries & brown rice - I made a slight change here as J doesn't care for brown rice and instead used white rice.   I've got to get him to try brown rice more often.   It worked in great with the plan forr the day at only 6 points a serving. 

New Recipes

Funny how some that look like they'd be really great just do not turn out at all.  In the new issue (Thanksgiving one) of the Food Network magazine there was one such - a Bobby Flay recipe for Macaroni and Cheese Carbonara.   Its supposed to be one of his Throw Down recipies but there had to have been a misprint in there.   First of all it saves it serves 4 - more about that later.  After reading all the ingredients I knew that it was going to have way more than 4 servings in this house so I cut everything by half - but that still meant 2 1/2 cups of milk and 12 oz of various cheeses along with 1/4 cup of grated parmesan, plus the 2 tbsp of each cheese (there were 5 of them) for the topping - all this to go with 1/2 pound of uncooked macaroni.   I followed directions (except for the cayenne pepper) and just knew this was going to be way too soupy.   So after the 12 to 15 minutes of cooking as said in the recipe, I looked at it and it wasn't anywhere being near light golden brown on top - instead it looked like cheese soup (with noodles).  Finally after 24 minutes (double the amount of time and it still wasn't golden brown) I decided enough was enough & took it out of the oven.    Now remember this was half the recipe which according to the magazine then should have been 2 servings.   I don't know what kind of 2 servings they're talking about because we both took a large helping and there is still room for 4-5 more servings in the dish.   We thought we'd have a bit of it for lunch so when I get it out of the fridge I'll take a picture to post on here.   Now for all it's problems it still tasted good but we'll definitely make changes to it the next time.

Busy Day Ahead

Thanksgiving Day we were in Las Vegas and had decided to have Thanksgiving dinner when we got home - so today was the day.   Now if only the turkey breast would thaw in time for me to put it in the oven.    Cranberry Grand Marnier Relish is made (needs 24 hours to sit).   Just have to make the stuffing - oh right seeing as its not going in then I guess it's dressing, the green bean casserole, sweet potatoes, carrot dish and asparagus.   Guess I'm lucky that neither one of us are really dessert people so I don't have to do that.

I'll try and get some pictures later on of the whole spread.   For now I'm off for last minute stuff that I forgot about yesterday.  :)

Busy First Week of October

So far it's been pretty busy and I need a rest - just joking.

The month started off with a bang - with me either getting food poisoning or becoming allergic to something I ate - whatever it was boy was I sick!  We had our suspicions of what it was because I only ate one thing that John didn't - a Weight Watchers Chocolate Brownie that I'd just bought earlier that day.  On the Monday I called our local health department and they've started an investigation that has also brought in the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.   One thing that was mentioned as being very unusual is that the packaging does not make any mention of a Canadian importer or distributor  - just that it was made in Michigan.  I even had the CFIA representative here at the house picking up the package & the rest of the brownies in it.  He said that it would probably be 3 to 4 weeks till I heard from them.

The rest of the week was taken up with getting ready to go to Las Vegas on the 10th for a visit with John's brother Gordon & his wife Paula.  I was busy making sure all the bills were paid that would come due before we left and had to throw a Dr's appointment into the mix when I realized I didn't have any renewals left on my prescriptions.  Got that done with only an hour's wait in the waiting room  -  maybe it was only an hour because by then it was noon.  :)   Even managed to get my flu shot while I was there.   Once I got out of there I called John to let him know the shots were in so he stopped off on his way home and got his too.  Saturday was spent packing and making sure that we had totally safe, bland food for John so that he would not have any issues while traveling.

 

We've Been Experimenting With New Recipes

A couple of years ago I challenged myself to try a new recipe or food item (namely vegetable or fruit) every week for 12 months.   I did pretty good at it and think I only missed 2 or 3 weeks over that time.  We discovered some new favourites & some things we wouldn't want to eat again (namely Swiss Chard, although maybe it was the way it was cooked).   Well lately it seems like I've been doing that again but it's not a challenge to myself just a desire to try something new  and ever since we got the new barbecue (which cooks so much better than the old - or at least when it was on it's last legs) we seem to be trying new recipes.   Some are bbq ones & some are stove or oven ones - yeah I know who wants to heat up the kitchen in this weather.  Well I guess I could & should say - thankfully we have AC. :)

I have got to be better at taking pictures of the dishes we make so I can share them on here - note to self keep one of the little cameras down in the kitchen.

 Over the past week we've done Tequila Shrimp on the barbecue (a definite keeper) from the Weber's Big Book of Grilling cookbook, an Ellie Krieger Pasta Primavera which we added grilled chicken breast too (the perfect touch) last night, a Giada De Laurentiis recipe for Penne in Almond Sauce and Sunday night we tried grilled Bison - John had a new york & I had a filet.   The Bison was surprisingly (at least to us) tender and didn't taste gamey at all, in fact it was better than the Bison we've tried at the Bellagio Friday night buffet.  All of the recipes we'll most definitely make again as for the Bison we'll have it the odd time - it's more expensive than beef so...   I think I've mentioned this one before, a few months ago we tried another Giada recipe that has become a favourite  Chicken and Cheddar Souffle - it sounds weird but the combination is really good.   We're actually thinking of having that for Christmas brunch.   That's horrible already talking about Christmas.  :)  As for that recipe, if you're thinking of trying it please read the comments on it by clicking the link on that page.   The timing can be a little off, it was for us but maybe that's just our stove.  Finally another one we've tried is Hail Caesar Salad (a light version or should I say healthy version of Caesar Salad) from the Eat, Shrink and Be Merry show on Food Network Canada (I haven't checked to see if it's in there book by the same name) by the Podleski sisters.

We have a tv in the kitchen that is usually on when I'm in there cooking and it's usually on the Food Channel (Canadian version).   Invariably I'll be writing down notes to look up certain recipes we've seen on there when I get up to the computer.  I have a big list of them right now downstairs.   But I definitely need more barbecuing ones.   Today, another really hot one, it's going to be hamburgers done on the bbq (even if it is weigh in day tomorrow).   All I'll be doing is caramelizing some onions & getting the toppings ready for John who of course will be doing the barbecuing (I haven't even found out how to turn on the new one, lol).

Party Time!

Soon we were back at the house to help out with the very last minute stuff. 

Mackenzie got dressed up in a party dress and shoes that she thought she really needed to taste.

Julie, the bride to be, arrived much to the delight of Parker who just adores his "Apple".

The happy couple - my nephew Jeff & his Julie

Pretty soon, there was hardly any room on the deck as family and friends arrived and they spilled out into the  driveway & garden.

 
  
Jeff's Best Man, Brendan, and his wife, Sujin (sp?), flew in from Korea (definitely the furthest anyone had travelled for the wedding) where he's teaching to be at Jeff's wedding.  Jeff told us all later that the wedding could only be in certain months because he wasn't getting married without Brendan there.  :)

While Julie's Maid of Honour, Krista, flew in from Europe and for some reason we didn't get a picture of her - we'll have to correct that today.

Before we knew it Chef Joseph and his assistant were back to take care of the lamb and other food.   Wish I had better pictures of the lamb on the spit or them taking it off but those pictures need some work done on them - namely by brother-in-law's car is in the picture with his license plate very easily read.  But here's the lamb in my sister's kitchen.

 


Jone & Jeff found a little bit of Mother & Son time in amongst all those guests.

That was before Ted, Lisa, Terrance, Jeff & Julie surprised her with a birthday cake - her 60th was last month and there really wasn't time to celebrate it so with all those family & friends present they thought it would be the perfect time to surprise her with a cake.  And what a beautiful cake it was. 

We do things kind of backwards - normally you have the cake after the meal but she almost happened on it twice so we thought better do it first and get it out of the way.  :)

The food

 

Some more party pictures

After another very late night we headed back the short 1 block walk to the hotel and some much needed sleep.  :)

 

 
 
 

 
 
  

 

 

 

Busy Busy Day Before the Rehearsal

After a nice breakfast in the hotel an some pinning with my sister about what needed doing, I headed over to her place while John figured out where he was going to go to get his assigned errand done (get lots of ice) for the party tonight.  We had the lightest assignment list mostly because it's been awhile since we've been to Halifax and don't know where everything is while Ted & his niece Pam had the longest list.  Jone had already had a busy day by the time I got there and her & Parker had already made a lobster dip (got to get that recipe too).  We had planned a couple of hours of sister time shopping (think it's the only time that we'll have to just "visit" with each other over the next 4 days before we fly home on Monday.

Ted dropped us off shortly after the stores opened - we could have easily walked it but this was shorter and time was going to be tight today.   I did pretty good - got some sandals for the wedding, a necklace & bracelet & a cardigan (sleeveless dresses & I aren't meant for each other currently) for the wedding while Jone got an evening bag and the 2 of us really eyed a couple of unique purses that we'll have to think about.  We ended up at Starbucks before walking back.  While we were at Starbucks John pinned (loving  that you can pin each other so easily if you both have blackberries and it's the smart-phone of choice for our family) to see where we were & what were we doing as he had finished his assignment, had been to the liquor store and was having no luck finding the museum he had wanted to visit the last time we were here (it must have closed or moved).   After a bit of pinning we decided to check out a Greek restaurant just up the street after meeting backup at my sister's place where we had a short visit with Lisa and Parker and Mackenzie.  John of course couldn't resist getting some pictures of Mackenzie and Parker but he wasn't wanting his picture taken just then.

  We left them and headed off to the restaurant.  Lunch was really good and they were able to accommodate John's being lactose intolerant

The afternoon was spent back at Jone & Ted's getting things ready for the party including watching the chef from Jeff's restaurant and Ted put a lamb on a spit to cook for that evening's party.

 Parker wasn't too sure about this whole thing but watched intently from the deck steps.

Meanwhile things were busy in the kitchen - they may have had the meal being done by Joseph but appetizers were another story altogether.  Speaking of Joseph - he came back with the most beautiful fruit platers with all sorts of carvings but we didn't get a picture - the space was needed for other stuff at the time and they got taken down to the basement till we were ready for them later that evening.

 

Soon the lamb was starting to look like this and smelling really good

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After a wee bit of some time to relax, we all headed back to our various places to get ready for the party.

We're In Halifax

I got picked up at 12:10 yesterday and was off to the airport.  I called John to say I was on my way -thankfully he took his bag & carry-on to work with him so I only had to handle my own.   Called again as we got off the 401 so that he could meet me there pretty close to when I arrived - we got there within 1 minute of each other - pretty good timing thanks to John S giving him a ride over.  They saw me getting out of the limo (ok I'm not a splurge - limos & taxis cost the same thing when you're going to Toronto Intnl so you may as well be comfortable in a limo) but couldn't stop there. 

Had a nice chat with the guy sitting beside us who was from the Halifax area and was also in the power plant business so John and him had a lot to talk about.  Before we knew it (2 hour flight) we were landing.  After picking up the rental car at Avis (a Challenger - about the only thing good to say about it was it had a big trunk) and a 30 minute drive we were checking in at the hotel just down the street from Jone & Ted's home.   Parking the car was weird to say the least - you had to drive down the wrong side of the ramp which really made it fun - not - going around the curves.  After a quick drop off of our bags & hanging up of our clothes for the wedding we walked over to the house where it was great seeing everyone again. 

After a lot of talking and a few drinks Ted barbecued dinner - delicious pork tenderloins (a special one for John as Jone didn't want to take any chances with him getting sick) that I'll have to get the recipe for.

Ted manning the bbq

Comparing notes on DSLRs

My sister Jone

 
My niece Lisa 

We talked for ages (when you only see each other every couple of years or so there's a lot to talk about) but we thought by midnight we really should go back to the hotel as today is going to be very busy.   I'm surprised how well John held up as he'd been up since 4:30 our time and is usually in bed by 9:30 at the latest.