My Adorable Small Town Life

Going Into Darkness

2013-05-17T08:23:00.000-04:00

In just a few short hours Mom, Bro-in-law, and I will be checking out the new Star Trek movie! A continued Mother's Day treat for Mom, who is really excited to see it. She texted me last night to say she was watching the first one to get ready.

We are going to see it in 2D, as none of us are really swayed by the allure of 3D. I'm pretty sure it is going to be great either way. I'm super excited for Benedict Cumberbatch as I absolutely love him in BBC's Sherlock.

Are you planning on seeing Star Trek Into Darkness? Do you like 2D or 3D?

After the movie we are heading to Applebees for early bird specials! So excited!

Happy Friday everyone!

42 Posts and My Continued Obsession With Space

2013-05-14T16:22:00.000-04:00

This is the 42nd blog post I've published this year. The Douglas Adams significance of that number aside, this is a milestone for me because I only published 41 posts last year. I didn't set out to write more posts this year, I've just been feeling good and have been really excited about blogging. My returned drive is now showing in the numbers and I'm very happy about that!

Also, as with yesterday's post, I am still very obsessed with space. Canadian Astronaut Chris Hadfield returned to Earth last night and I spent the entire day talking, thinking, and tweeting about it. I watched webcasts via NASAtv and the CSA, I obsessively checked Twitter feeds (mainly CSA, NASA, and Chris and Evan Hadfield's), and I spent much of the day reading and learning about how we return people to Earth from the International Space Station. It was a very exciting day!

Periodically John would try to talk to me about other things and even though I thought I was answering appropriately, my response was always something like: "So basically they have to go 12km from the Space Station before they can start the deorbit burn." I was very focused!

And I'm still talking about it today. Still marveling at the wonder of going in and out of space. Forever in awe of those who dedicate their lives to exploring what is out there. And very happy that we can get astronauts safely back to the planet.

If you missed it and are interested, this CSA video sums up how the crew returned to Earth.

Commander Hadfield's Space Oddity is Awesome

2013-05-13T06:43:00.000-04:00

Like many amazed fans on Earth, I am pretty obsessed with Canadian Astronaut Chris Hadfield. He has spent the past five months on the International Space Station, tweeting us photos of our hometowns, answering our questions about space and how things work up there, and being an all around nice, interesting, funny, insightful, inspiring, and amazing dude. There probably hasn't been a day in the last few months where I haven't talked about him to someone, or retweeted one of his tweets, or learned something new about space from a video he's posted. If we ever need an ambassador for all of Earth, we would be smart to select Commander Hadfield for the task. He is already the coolest guy in space!

For Commander Hadfield's last full day on the ISS he covered David Bowie's Space Oddity...in space! I can't think of a cooler way to say goodbye to the International Space Station and to all of his fans here on Earth. I have already watched it at least ten times, and will probably have it on repeat for the next few days. IT IS A MUSIC VIDEO THAT WAS FILMED IN SPACE! The lyrics have space references! It is beyond cool!

Commander Hadfield is coming home tonight and they are broadcasting it live on NASAtv starting at 3:30pm. I will be watching. Get home safely Commander Hadfield!!

This video is awesome! Enjoy!!

Mother's Day Bouquet

2013-05-12T12:01:00.000-04:00

Wait, those aren't roses! Those are dishcloths! My mom absolutely loves knitted dishcloths and luckily I just made a whole bunch of them. Just in time for Mother's Day! She was very happy! :)

Happy Mother's Day everyone! I hope you are having a great day!

Evening Walk

2013-05-09T19:29:00.001-04:00

We went on a lovely walk through the woods earlier this evening and I actually remembered to bring my camera!

A favourite hiking trail


White Trillium - The official flower of Ontario

I have been absolutely loving the beautiful weather lately. Hope you have been enjoying the sunshine too!

Growing Dishcloth Pile

2013-05-08T16:27:00.000-04:00

There was sale on Handicrafter Cotton yarn recently and I planned on picking some up so I could knit some dishcloths. The only problem was, I already had a tonne of the stuff in my yarn stash, and I haven't been knitting much lately. So I made myself a deal: use up all the yarn in my stockpile and I could buy more. It was a pretty motivating deal, as I have since knit ten dishcloths! I guess I really hate missing out on a yarn sale!

I only have about five more to knit before I get to replenish my stock. I hope there is a sale, as I am excited to pick up some fun new colours!

I love having a pile of these around!

Coupon Deal Worth Bragging About

2013-05-06T15:00:00.001-04:00

I bought an excessive amount of air freshener this morning! I say excessive because I bought 15 cans! FIFTEEN!! My house doesn't smell that bad, but I had a coupon and there was a store sale, so we got a super deal on a product we normally use anyway. I love getting a deal on practical items.

So here was the coupon deal: Buy $15 worth of Glade products, get $10 off.

Normally the air freshener sells for $1.29, but this week there was a sale and it was on for $1.00!

So 15 cans = $15 = $10 off. Awesome.

So before the sale and with tax, 15 cans cost: $1.29 x15 x1.13 = $21.87

And with the sale, with the coupon, and with tax, 15 cans cost: ($1.00 x15) -$10 =$5 x1.13= $5.65

Each can cost only $0.38. DEAL!

Now that is a lot of air freshener!! :)

The Internet Told Me What To Bake!

2013-05-05T16:47:00.000-04:00

I had planned on making peanut butter fudge for gaming night tonight, but the recipe called for Reese Peanut Butter Cups (16 of them!) and the econmy pack I usually buy was all sold out. Instead of buying the higher priced Reese Cups, I decided to put the fudge recipe on hold and look to the internet for suggestions of something else to make.

I had some Oreos on hand, so I asked the internet what to make with them. I don't usually go to Pinterest, but my Google search led me to a Pinterest page filled with photos of Oreo Cookie recipes. So I began surfing and clicking and ended up at The Picky Palate, finding a recipe for "Gooey Cookies and Cream Double Chocolate Cake Bars". Sounded good to me.

The recipe called for a devil's food cake mix, which I didn't have on hand, but decided to use the sprinkle cake mix I did have as a substitute.

The recipe and photos over at the The Picky Palate are great, so if you are thinking about making these, head over there for the original instructions. These are layered bars, and the layers are super easy to prepare.

Bottom Layer: Cake mix, mixed with 1/2 cup butter and 1 egg,

spread evenly in a 9x13 pan.

Layer Two: Broken up Oreo Cookies (I used 20 cookies).

Layer Three: A can of sweetened condensed milk.

Top Layer: Chocolate chips!

It bakes on 350 for about 30 minutes and comes out of the oven looking like this

(I think it looks like a dessert pizza!):

These bars are really sweet and really gooey as their name suggests. The sprinkle cake worked, but they probably would have been better made with the devils food cake. This version is still pretty good, but these bars are really super sweet. I could only eat one!

Book Review: The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling

2013-05-03T13:38:00.000-04:00

My favourite book from 2012 was The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling.

I know I like a book when I can't sleep. I either stay up way too late reading page after page, or I wake up in the middle of the night thinking about a part of the story. With this book I did both of those things.

The plot surrounds a small town council, an empty council seat, and all those involved in vying for power. The plot initially reminded me of Game of Thrones, but instead of seeking the Iron Throne, these characters are fighting to be elected to local government. Not all the characters are likeable, and there are a lot of bad things happen, but I couldn't put the book down.

I think this book works because Rowling is such an excellent storyteller. Each page made me want to know more about these people and made me anxious for what could happen to them. She even made me care about characters I didn't like, which I find amazing. There are some heavy themes in the book, including domestic violence, child abuse, drug addition, mental health issues, poverty, and classism, but these themes didn't make it any less enjoyable to read. Rowling writes in such a way that despite the tragic elements, I was still enthralled by the story and desperate to know how it would play out.

The Casual Vacancy had the potential to be a complete disaster, and I'm filled with "Team Rowling" pride that it wasn't. Writing anything after of the success of Harry Potter had to be a gamble, especially in a different genre, and the pressure for it to be 'good' had to be great. Not everyone liked the book, but I really enjoyed it and I applaud Rowling for having the guts to go for it and try something new. It find that very inspiring.

This book review was part of the Author Appreciation Day Blog Hop, happening over at Book Reviews by Sus.

Author Appreciation Day Blog Hop

2013-05-02T14:51:00.000-04:00

Book Reviews with Sus is hosting an Author Appreciation Blog Hop tomorrow.

The goal of the blog hop is to promote doing book reviews and rating books for authors.

I have been reading a lot of books lately and even joined Goodreads in January to encourage myself to read more. I am pretty good at rating a book when I finish it (you just have to click which star you like!), but I haven't actually reviewed a book yet. So tomorrow's blog hop is going to challenge me to do just that! Do you have a book you feel like rating or reviewing?

If you are up for reviewing/rating a book tomorrow, hop over to Book Reviews by Sus and join up so everyone can read your review!

Signs of Spring

2013-05-02T13:35:00.000-04:00

Only a week and a half ago it was below zero, and yesterday it got up to 26. A quick change that gave me a headache at first, but now that The Weather Network is showing consistent temperatures, I am feeling good and happy! It looks like it is going to be a beautiful weekend!

With such a beautiful day yesterday, I spent most of it outside reading a book. The sun was hot and there was a lovely cool breeze. It was just perfect. It was also just perfect for getting my first sunburn of the year. I will be more cautious when I am out there today. Shade and sunscreen!

Here are some of the signs of spring I found in the backyard:

Some Dandelions were out!

The Narcissus are well on their way.

Also saw this Robin - a sure sign of spring!

Hope the weather is amazing where you are!

Meal Planning Update - II

2013-05-01T13:46:00.000-04:00

After three successful months of meal planning and eating at home for most meals, we fell off the wagon in April. But don't worry, we didn't fall too hard.

At the start of April we failed to make a written meal plan. Basically we thought we were meal planning pros who could just wing it. And actually, we mostly did. We have gotten into the habit of having food on hand and we (mostly) had enough ingredients for the meals we like to eat. The problem came with making meals that involved day-before planning (thawing and cubing meat, making sure we bought eggs, etc.). We didn't plan for certain meals so certain meals were skipped. It turns out we eat a lot of shake and bake chicken if we don't plan for variety.

Also, despite having food at home, we were feeling super lazy in April. I think the way winter just

dragged on really affected our motivation. We also learned about the King Deals menu at Burger King, which only encouraged our laziness. They have a daily combo deal for only $5.30. Super deal! I happened upon it accidentally early in April and we ended up going four times in one week! We are silly like that.

April wasn't entirely without planning, as we decided to add home made sushi to the weekly schedule. It is one of my favourite meals, but I normally leave it for special occasions because I tend to make ALL the sushi. It takes me hours and I have to purchase and assemble numerous ingredients. I always make too much and eat too much, but I'm always soooo pleased with myself. John suggested I make smaller, human sized portions for us to eat. What a fantastic idea! I have made it twice since he suggested it and I couldn't be happier to be eating it weekly. I only make spicy California rolls (no hand rolls or smoked salmon rolls), but it is still extremely satisfying.

Now that April is over and the sun is back, we have written down our meal plan and are getting back on track. I've also expanded the meal plan to include a daily walk. Thankfully the weather has cooperated and I'm getting my walks in. Speaking of which, it is about time I get myself outside.

Marshmallow Buttercream

2013-04-28T12:36:00.000-04:00

I am pretty obsessed with cupcakes right now. Actually, I'm obsessed with icing cupcakes. Ever since I got my 1M star tip I've been happily making up any excuse to bake some cupcakes so I can pipe delicious icing onto them. Are we meeting friends later? Cupcakes. Is it Friday? Cupcakes. Have we gone a whole day without cupcakes? Cupcakes! I have made peanut butter buttercream twice now (I think it is my all time favourite icing ever). And this week for gaming night, I was eager to try a new icing recipe: Marshmallow Buttercream.

I'm new to buttercream and piping, so it wasn't until about a month ago that I had ever even heard of Marshmallow Buttercream. I saw a post on Annie's City Kitchen that included a recipe for Marshmallow Buttercream, and the idea blew my mind. Icing with Marshmallow taste? I had to try making it.

I had a cherry chip cake mix on hand, so I decided to pair it with the Marshmallow Buttercream and the flavour combination turned out to be pretty stellar. Here are some actual quotes from friends at gaming night:

"Don't forget this recipe."
"He normally doesn't like icing, but he likes this icing!"
"It's so light!"

I made the cherry chip cupcakes as per package directions and set them aside to cool. The real event was the Marshmallow Buttercream, made using the recipe found at Annie's City Kitchen.

Cream 1/2 cup of room temperature butter.

Add 2 cups of icing sugar in 1/2 cup intervals until blended.

It's time to add the Marshmallow Creme!

Fold in 1 jar of marshmallow creme until blended. Look at that shine!

I added some pink food colouring to match my cherry chip cupcakes.

My new favourite thing is to pipe icing onto cupcakes. Such fun!

Marshmallow Buttercream cherry chip cupcake

Blogging Holding Pattern

2013-04-26T15:04:00.000-04:00

This is where a blog would go if I wasn't so completely distracted from writing.

The weather is currently gorgeous and the sun is demanding I walk beneath it.

I have 175 pages left to read in a book that is due back at the library tomorrow by 3:00pm.

I have been getting up earlier all week and it is making me sooooo tired (can't wait til I'm used to it.)

I am completely obsessed with social networking. Everything I click leads me to more things I want to click and then all of a sudden hours have passed. The internet is probably my main cause of distraction...from all things!

But I am not discouraged. I will write again!

(Source)

April has found me wavering between being really focused and really unfocused. I am bursting with energy and ideas for projects but then all too suddenly the energy is gone and I find myself distracted. Instead of fighting to regain my focus, I plunk myself in front of Twitter for 3 hours. Not good. This is a habit that I am getting out of this weekend. No excuses!

I have a few saved drafts in Blogger that need editing. I have a list of post ideas that I can start writing. My first goal is to just start. Happily, this post about not starting has kinda gotten me started!

I'm still heading outside for a walk (I'm taking advantage of every moment outdoors that isn't bitterly cold) but when I get back in...it is writing time!

Gourmet Cupcakes: Reese Peanut Butter Cup Style

2013-04-14T14:40:00.000-04:00

I was tasked with making dessert for my brother's birthday dinner and wanted to do something different. My usual fancy cake is just making a normal cake and decorating it with as many chocolate bars as possible. I still wanted to use chocolate bars, but decided to work them into some gourmet cupcakes. They were a little more work than just making a cake, but I have met some amazing baking bloggers recently and was inspired to try something new.

I did a quick Google search and found a tonne of recipes out there for Reese Peanut Butter Cupcakes. Many offered "from scratch" recipes for cake, but for better or worse I'm a cake mix kinda girl. I was able to confirm here that peanut butter cups can be baked right into a cupcake - an idea I just had to try!

Some key ingredients

I cut snack size peanut butter cups into four. Each cupcake got 3 pieces baked right in.

Simply place the peanut butter cup pieces into the batter and bake.

The cake bakes around the peanut butter pieces.

Once the cupcakes were baked and cooled, I made my first attempt at buttercream. Now that I have made it (and eaten an unhealthy amount of it) I completely understand what all the fuss is about. Simple truth: buttercream is amazing! It is probably because of the butter. I was raised in a margarine household but I am spreading my wings and hopping on the butter train. It is a tasty train.

For the frosting I used a recipe found at Allrecipes.

Cream butter and peanut butter together.

Add icing sugar by the half cup until blended in.

Giant bowl of peanut butter buttercream...Mmmmmmm....

And finally the main event: I decorated them using my new 1M star decorating tip. The internet claimed this was the perfect tip for decorating cupcakes and the internet did not lie. It was incredibly easy to use and decorate with and it made the icing look really pretty! I had a lot of fun icing them - and it was so fast and easy that I wished I had made twice as many cupcakes so I could have spent more time doing it. Loads of fun!

This is my 'decorating cupcakes' art shot.

Top with a peanut butter cup piece.

This is what they looked like cut in half.

The only complaint I had about these gourmet cupcakes is that the baked in peanut butter cup pieces sunk to the bottom of the cupcake and if the wrappers weren't carefully removed the chocolate pieces stuck to them. Not a big deal, just something I didn't expect.

Recipe Recap:

For the Cupcakes:
- 1 box chocolate cake mix
- Reese peanut butter cups (18 snack size, cut in 4)

Prepare cake mix as directed and divide equally into 24 muffin cups. Place 3 pieces of peanut butter cup gently into the batter. Bake as directed (about 20 minutes).

For the Peanut Butter Buttercream: (from Allrecipes)
- 1/2 cup butter, at room temperature
- 1 cup creamy peanut butter
- 2 cups icing sugar
- 3 tbs of milk (or as needed)

Cream butter and peanut butter together. Add icing sugar in half cup intervals until incorporated. Add milk by the tbs until desired consistancy is achieved.

For the Decorating:
- 1M star decorating tip (Wilton)
- Decorating bag
- Reese peanut butter cups (6 snack size, cut in 4)

Pipe buttercream onto the cupcakes. I watched this video to get the idea. Top with a piece of peanut butter cup. Enjoy!

April Ice Storms Bring May...Flowers?

2013-04-12T15:50:00.000-04:00

The school buses here in Simcoe County were cancelled for the past two days due to our (spring) winter weather. This winter has seemed never-ending, and with two "snow days" in April it is hard to believe spring will ever actually show itself! I'm Canadian so I like to forget certain things about our climate, like the fact that it sometimes snows on May 24th weekend (shh...don't talk about it!). Last year we were spoiled with summer-like temperatures in March, so this year has been cruel by comparison.

Ice storms in April aren't all bad, the icicles actually make everything look quite pretty. With my boots on (boo!) I went walking around and documented this April event.

How is the weather where you are?

Getting Fancy With My First Wilton Decorating Tip

2013-04-06T22:40:00.000-04:00

It's my brother's birthday today and the family is getting together tomorrow for a Mom-made turkey dinner to celebrate. I was tasked with dessert and at first I was going to make a cake, but then it turned into cupcakes, and now it's fancy cupcakes. I have been reading a tonne of new blogs lately and have been feeling really inspired to try new recipes and new techniques. Birthdays are a great excuse to learn some new baking skills.

After researching how fancy cupcakes are decorated at Wilton, I made a list and headed to the Bulk Barn so I could add some cake decorating tools to my collection.

I love Bulk barn when I'm trying something new. You can buy as much or as little as you want, which means you don't have spend a lot to try something out. I spent around $5 today and bought the bare minimum to decorate my cupcakes. I got one decorating tip, the 1M star shape, which the internet says is great for cupcakes. I also picked up a "large tip" coupler, which helps secure the decorating tip to the icing bag. Lastly I bought two disposable icing bags, which were sold in bulk. I loved that I was able to buy bulk icing bags! They also carried a box of 12 bags, but this is my first time fancy decorating, maybe I will hate doing it! Then I would have 11 useless bags lying around. I went with the safe option of 2/$0.99 (they are the faint triangles in the photo).

My cupcakes are already baked, but I'm holding off icing them until tomorrow. I hope it is fun!

Do you use cake decorating tips? What is the most fun or elaborate thing you have decorated?

I Love Leftovers - Especially Turkey!

2013-04-01T19:25:00.000-04:00

Everything we ate for dinner tonight was entirely John's fault! :)

It's the first of the month, which is often when I think about going for more walks and exercising a little more portion control at meal time. I had to put those thoughts on hold though, as we had turkey leftovers in the house and John excitedly announced that we should make awesome club sandwiches. How could I disagree?

This is only one sandwich, you guys!

So we had triple-decker club sandwiches full of turkey, bacon, cheese, and mayo. Apparently others put lettuce and tomato in theirs, but we forgot about vegetables! Whoops! We fried up some mashed potatoes and had some leftover sweet potatoes, so our meal wasn't completely vegetable free, right?

We followed that up with some cake John's grandma made.

It was a yellow cake but she told us: "It's a chocolate cake, I just didn't add the cocoa". Adorable.

I am very full and very happy right now. Hope you are too!

Anniversary Card - 1 Year Smoke Free

2013-03-30T19:00:00.000-04:00

A friend of mine is marking one year free of cigarettes today and is having a get together to celebrate. According to her count, over the past year she did not smoke 9500 cigarettes! That is amazing! I bet her lungs feel great!

A congratulatory card was needed to commemorate her achievement. Over the past few months I have gotten out of the habit of making my own cards, but I've been socializing with quite a few card making bloggers recently and it has inspired me to get back into it.

For this card I did a spin on the saying 'quitters never win', changing it up to 'quitters always win", as they always do when they quit smoking!

When I first looked at the finished card I thought the design looked like a quilting square. I quickly read over the words and it looked like it said 'quilters always win'. It is true that quilters always win. The way the card turned out may mean that I'm subconsciously into quilters, but I accept that.

So a big congratulations to my friend celebrating her 1st year smoke free! And many more to come!

Spring Oreo Truffles

2013-03-29T14:59:00.001-04:00

I have been itching to make some Oreo Truffles, which are the amazing combination of a bag of crushed Oreos, a package of cream cheese, and some chocolate coating [find the recipe here]. For some spring flare, I used white chocolate coating that I dyed pastel colours. I have made these truffles before, but they were trickier this time around, probably because I gave myself the added pressure of wanting the colours to look good (normally I just cover everything in milk chocolate, which hides any imperfections).

Good Looking Spring Oreo Truffles

Not pictured (love editorial control!) are the truffles where the coating was too thin, or where the truffle part got mixed into the coating, giving them a dirty snow kind of look. I had made these before so I only skimmed the recipe, but it turned out I skimmed the part about using two forks to help coat the truffles evenly. Oops. So these ended up being a little harder to make than I thought, but the amazing thing about baking is that even if the end result doesn't look like it's supposed to, it still tastes pretty good!

Tasty Spring Oreo Truffle

Cinnamon Sticky Buns - Can't Have Just One

2013-03-24T17:40:00.001-04:00

Cinnamon Sticky Buns: a time intensive but oh so satisfying treat that I love to bake. My new rule when making them is that they must be taken to an event of some kind, as having 20+ sticky buns in my house is very dangerous.

I would like this and seven more please.

I use my bread maker to make the cinnamon bun dough, using a recipe taken from the book that came with my late '80s machine. I adapted the original recipe to enhance yumminess (sugar, butter, and cinnamon need not be restricted by measurements!). My bread maker has passed through three generations in my family, from my dad's mother, to my mother, and now to me. Sometimes we talk about getting a new one, but honestly, this one still works great!

Late '80s bread maker - still working hard!

Cinnamon Bun Dough (adapted from Sanyo's The Home Bakery Book, 1988):

3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
   1/3 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
   1/4 cup butter or margarine, softened
   2 eggs
   1 cup lukewarm water
   1 package active dry yeast

Add ingredients to bread maker and let stand 5 minutes. Use Dough setting and press start. This takes 1 hour and 15 minutes on my machine. When dough is finished, remove dough from bread maker and place in a greased bowl, turning to coat evenly. Cover and let rest for 30 minutes.

Punch down dough and divide in half. On a lightly floured surface, roll out each half into a large rectangle.

Spread melted butter or margarine over entire rectangle so that it is completely covered. I don't measure, I just keep covering it until it looks adequately drenched. Next sprinkle with enough brown sugar to completely cover. I spread it out with my hands to make sure it is even. Finally, sprinkle with cinnamon.

Roll up the dough lengthwise.

Cut into buns. Put buns onto baking sheet, cover, and let rise for 1 hour. I normally get around 10 buns per rolled up rectangle (about 20 buns total).

Now for the "Sticky" part.

Heat 1/2 cup of butter or margarine, 1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar, and 1/2 cup corn syrup in a small saucepan. Heat until combined. Pour mixture into baking pan (I use multiple 9x13 glass baking dishes). Place risen cinnamon rolls into the sugar mixture. Bake in 350 oven for 20 minutes.

When rolls have finished baking, spoon sticky sugar mixture from bottom of the pan onto the rolls so they are sticky all over. This makes them extra delicious.

Enjoy!

St. Patrick's Day Stew

2013-03-17T15:45:00.000-04:00

To celebrate St. Patrick's Day we made some stew and a loaf of bread that I dyed green. That sounds kinda Irish, right?

I grew up on a beef cattle farm, so stew is one of those meals that makes me feel comfy and warm with good memories of home. The recipe I use is pretty similar to the one Mom used to make, with the addition of a few more exotic vegetables (yams!) and spices.

For our stew we used a beef roast that we cut into chunks. The roast was crazy cheap and that made the stew beef we cut even cheaper. I love saving money by doing some of the prep work myself (plus I really like doing the prep work!).

Beef Roast

Beef roast cut into stew beef chunks

Jen and John's Simple Stew

Ingredients:

1 lb (or so) stewing beef
onion, finely diced
garlic, finely diced

2 medium carrots, chopped
1 yam, cut in chunks
2-3 potatoes, cut in chunks
1 can of diced mushrooms
1 cup frozen corn kernels
Broth packet (beef or what you have)
Various spices to taste: garlic salt, salt, pepper, basil, turmeric
Corn starch + water

Method:

1. Brown beef in pot you intend to use for your stew. Once browned, add water to pot, almost covering the beef. Add in finely diced onion and garlic (I use a small food processor) and simmer on low heat with lid on for 2 -3 hours. I recently learned that this is called braising the beef.

2. Add in chopped vegetables and enough water to cover them. Add a broth packet or two to add flavour (beef if you have it). Add various spices to taste. Soften the vegetables over medium-low heat for 1 hour.

3. Continue simmering as long as desired. The more it cooks the more it thickens. To thicken to desired consistency, add corn starch mixed with water until it looks right.

Serve with bread (dying it green for St. Patty's Day is optional).

Sometimes we make the stew the day before and let it sit in the fridge overnight to allow the flavours to intensify. It makes it super yummy.

Enjoy! And Happy St. Patrick's Day!

March Break Recap

2013-03-16T14:05:00.000-04:00

I spent most of March Break in Barrie house/cat-sitting for my brother who spent the week in the much more exciting Montreal. My Bro's cat is an interesting dude who wants to be alone but doesn't like being left alone. It is a subtle difference and my presence was required to keep him company so he didn't pee on things he shouldn't. I also kept him fed and watered, gave him attention when requested, and removed a large quantity of cat barf from the carpet. I am a hero.

Pippen - my Barrie cat buddy

Since I normally live in the country, I was excited for my cat-sitting trip to Barrie so I could do city things. When I think of city things, I think of walking and ending up somewhere interesting, quickly traveling to multiple places, and the freedom of getting treats late at night if so desired. I enjoy my country life of trees and nature, but I miss destinations on my walks (like coffee shops) and I long for sidewalks and 50km/hr roads. While in Barrie, I wanted to walk around and see things!

So I made a plan. I wasn't just cat-sitting, I was going on an adventure. I mapped out stores downtown that I would walk to, explore, possibly buy things, and probably get some take out sushi to walk home with. I also mapped out places in the south end that I could drive to and walk around and explore. I'm not necessarily interested in buying things but I l love walking around and looking at stuff.

But you know what they say about best laid plans...

The weather didn't cooperate. Last week it was nearing spring like temperatures and I forgot that it is still winter in Canada. So it was cold and rainy and then it was cold and snowy. The sunny afternoon walkabout I dreamed of is probably still a month away. Stupid winter!

Also, my body refused to sleep properly. I'm often a bad sleeper when I sleep somewhere else, and this time was no different. My motivation to walk around and do cool stuff during the day was thwarted by my lack of sleep.

But I didn't let it get me down. I'm in a new phase of my life where I'm trying to accept things as they are and not as I expect them to be.

So I pretty much just hung out with the cat. And watched tv shows and movies. And ate ridiculous foods. I have stuck pretty well to my meal plan over the past few months, so I let March break be an excuse to eat whatever I wanted. Basically I just didn't eat vegetables for a number of days in a row. It was fun and super tasty, but I am happy to be back on my meal plan.

Sidekicks and curly fries for dinner - almost 100% vegetable free!

I'm back in the country now, eating vegetables and thinking about going on a walk to nowhere. I'm also back with my own pretty kitty, who always gives me the best cuddles and love when I've been away.

How did you spend your March Break? I hope you had a good one! :)

Reading What I Used To Eat

2013-03-08T20:14:00.000-05:00

We are now on our third month of meal planning, and this month was by far the easiest to map out. As we created the newest plan we realized there are meals we want to eat more often (breakfast for dinner) and others we will no longer schedule every month (chili). Meal planning was once intimidating to me but now it is easy. I couldn't be happier with how it is going.

An awesome result of our meal plan is that we are saving money. I have kept a budget for as long as I can remember and part of that is tracking my spending. I was curious how much money I used to spend eating take out/restaurant food in the months before I started meal planning, so I did some math. It turns out that I would spend about $75/month on take out. I realize $75/month isn't that much, but the majority of that spending was not planned. It wasn't special food or a treat. It was mostly "I need food and we don't have any" spending. With the meal plan in place we haven't had that desparate need for take out, so we saved money.

So what to do with the money I used to just blow on take out? I bought a book series I really wanted to own. I am a very frugal person so most of the books I read come from the library. I am happy to borrow a book and return it, as I don't really have the desire to own everything I read. But there are some books I want in my house permanently. 1984 is one such title. The Harry Potter series is another. And over the past two months, with the savings from meal planning, I picked up Jim Butcher's Dresden's files.

Now I can re-read them whenever I want, John can start reading them too, and they look really pretty on my shelf!

Check Out The Happy Whisk For A Chance to Win (and to read fun stuff!)

2013-03-04T17:29:00.000-05:00

The Happy Whisk is giving away e-books to celebrate reaching 444 blog posts on her amazing blog!

She is accepting comments on her blog for the next 4 days so head on over and leave her a comment for your chance to win!