Christmas baking

With visions of sugar plums dancing in my head it is with great relief that I have finished my Christmas baking. Yum!

Every year, I try a few new recipes as well as incorporating some of the tried and true. New for 2009: raspberry ribbon cookies, a new caramel recipe, cinnamon roasted almonds, cashew brittle and both mincemeat (homemade!) and butter tarts. Reappearing: turtles, almond bark, shortbread, and five cup slice (a combination of chocolate chips, raisins, peanuts and coconut that I love.) This year, I also opted to make two kinds of fudge - peanut butter that is decorated with mini Reece's pieces and good old chocolate fudge.

I don't know how long I spent searching for the perfect recipes this year, but it was lots of fun.

Now, I look forward to our annual Christmas party this weekend and I hope that everyone will enjoy eating the treats and much as I enjoyed making them!

Looking to Dec. 1

It is the most wonderful time of the year. Well, almost. But it's coming soon and I can hardly wait! I love all things Christmas - trees, music, shopping, baking, presents, decorating and so on.

This will be our first Christmas in this house and my parents are coming to spend it with us. I couldn't be more excited.

However the "rule" is no decorating to Dec. 1. For the record, that is now is only 20 days away. Do you think I could pull out all of the decorations before that?

Our Almost New House

At long last, all of our renovations are done!

Kudos go to my wonderfully talented husband who can do everything from electrical to plumbing to installing hardwood. He is also expect at pulling out his laser level and ensuring that all pictures etc. are hung straight : )

A special mention of thanks goes to my Dad for all of his help in painting the upstairs and our front and back doors.

My Mom offered invaluable advice and I take all the credit for design.

Now that everything is done, it is the best feeling to come downstairs in the morning and touch the nice clean hardwood, sit on the furniture that still smells new and enjoy relaxing in our home.

National Stay at Home Week

The television networks have dubbed this week "National Stay at Home Week." While this is a complete commercialized, made-up, non-holiday, I have decided to embrace it.

This week season's premiers of some of my favourite shows! How could I resist Dancing with the Stars, Criminal Minds, Grey's Anatomy, Cold Case and more! Next week - Pushing Daises!

So, while I am spending a little bit of time becoming better acquainted with my new flat screen TV and couch I love it. Three cheers to National Stay at Home Week!

The Joy of Canning

There is something that is extremely satisfying about preserving fruits and vegetables. What makes canning so great is knowing exactly what has gone into your food, being self-sufficient, and using fresh, local products.

Last year, I was quite ambitious and made strawberry jam, raspberry jam, saskatoon berry jam, red pepper jelly, bread and butter pickles, kosher dill pickles, cranberry salsa, tomato salsa and green tomato mincemeat.

Since there are only two people that live in my house, that is quite a lot.

This year, I was not quite as ambitious with my canning so I made only raspberry jam (with raspberries I picked) and tonight I have just made more kosher dill pickles. Mmmm. They look so good!

Still to come this year - homemade ketchup. Perhaps some pickled beets. Possibly other tomato -related products, depending on how many tomatoes ripen in my garden.

Be sure to let me know if you have any good canning recipes!

Success!

After many months of hard work the basement is done!

Well, there is still a bit of touch up painting to do, but that is about 30 minutes worth of work. In fact, I am currently sitting on my couch, watching our new TV that is on our new TV stand with my feet up on our new coffee table that are all sitting in my newly finished basement.

What a great feeling!

Watch for photos coming soon.

A favourite, easy, dinner recipe

Everyone who knows me, knows that I am a huge fan of cooking. Much as I love spending time in the kitchen, there is not always the opportunity for that to happen. So, I like to keep a few fast, yummy dinner recipes on hand.

I made this one the other night for the first time since last summer and I was reminded of how delicious it is! I used cherry tomatoes and rosemary from my garden.

Spicy Roast Chicken with Cherry Tomatoes

Makes 4 servings.
4 cups cherry tomatoes, stemmed
3 Tbsps olive oil
5 garlic cloves, pressed
3/4 tsp dried crushed red pepper
1 Tbsp fresh rosemary (or basil or oregano), chopped
4 chicken breasts - bone-in and skin on

Preheat oven to 450°F. Toss tomatoes, olive oil, garlic, crushed red pepper, and rosemary in a large bowl. Place chicken on rimmed baking sheet. Pour tomato mixture over chicken, arranging tomatoes in single layer around chicken. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast until chicken is cooked through and tomatoes are blistered, about 35 minutes. Transfer chicken to plates and spoon tomatoes and juices over to serve.

My notes:

• This really does taste a lot better if you use the bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts.
• Be sure to sprinkle salt and pepper generously!
• It is great to serve this with a nice crusty bread to sop up all of the yummy juices.

Enjoy!

If you make this recipe, let me know what you think!

One step closer...

Our basement is so close to being finished! Tonight, the handiest man I know finished installing the counter top, sink and faucet in the basement bathroom. It is looking sooooo good. All our (his) hard work is paying off.
After the carpet is installed later this week there are only a few things left to do. A little touch up paint, a closet door, some trim and before you know it the furniture will be moved down there. I can hardly wait!
The end is in sight.

Me, a picky eater?

Maybe.

I had always imagined that picky eaters were the ones who only had a few things that they would eat - a rather limited culinary repertoire. Since I enjoy a variety of foods, I never considered myself a picky eater.

Perhaps I need to reconsider.

I can't tolerate spicy foods. Anything beyond "mild" is too much for me. Even then, sometimes it is still too spicy. I don't to chicken wings or ribs. Generally, I try to avoid any meat on the bone. Forget about the dark meat or any sort of gristle. Cucumbers, cantaloupes and couscous are all out. And that's just to start.

Now, there is one more thing to add to the list. Watermelon. I realize that this is one of the most popular summer treats. The more I think about it, the more I think that I just don't like it. Even as a kid, it was always painstaking to eat since it required me to pick out each and every seed. Now, most watermelons that are sold are "seedless". I say, false advertising. They are filled of those little white seeds. While I appreciate that many people eat those little white seeds and don't even notice. I am not one of those people.

Tonight, it took me about 10 minutes to eat a single piece of watermelon. With a knife and fork. Even an 18 month old managed two pieces of watermelon in the same amount of time.

So, what it comes down to is the fact that I do not enjoy watermelon enough to make eating it worth the effort.

If that makes me a picky eater, so be it.

A Horticultural Experience

Every year, the Edmonton Horticultural Society (http://www.edmontonhort.com/home/homepage.asp) has a tour of some award winning gardens.

Until late this week, I'd wasn't even aware that Edmonton had a horticultural society. Fortunately, I have a friend who is much better informed then I. She invited me to participate in the garden tour and we went to several of the featured properties. They were incredible! The amount of time and resources that people dedicate to their gardens is impressive. Naturally, there was an amazing diversity in the flowers and shrubs used. I loved all of the colours - one place must have had 15 variets of day lilies. Another place had calla lilies - I didn't even know that those grew in Alberta!

In additon to the flowers and shrubs, there were some spectacular water features, winding paths, gazebos and more. One person even had a chess board in a corner of the garden. Wow.

One of the most impressive things we saw was the grass at our first stop. I know it sounds silly but this was the most lush, perfect grass I have ever had the pleasure to step on. Seriously, it was actually softer than most carpets.

And while I may not be prepared to dedicate my life and backyard to gardening, I think that there will be a few more flowers in my garden next summer.

I took a few photos today so I'll try and post them soon!

The perfect treat for a road trip...

Can you guess? You may be thinking fruit, energy bars, or baggies full of pre-cut veggies. However, over the past few days of travel, I have discovered the perfect treat to enjoy while driving...Nibs. That's right, the licorice.
I made this important discovery after a visit to the famous Clareshom 7-11. While buying a bottle of water and a small Slurpee I impulsively grabbed a bag of Nibs. Mmmmm. That delicious, low fat, fruity flavoured (and therefore not altogether bad for me) licorice was most enjoyable. As I contemplated the wonder that licorice is during my drive - I had a lot of time -and compared it to the alternatives. Chocolate is always a favorite but can be quite messy, especially if some happens to drop on your seat, then you get it all over your pants...you can imagine. Ice cream is not much better, plus it is awkward to eat. Fruit is yummy, but if you aren't able to cut it up ahead of time, there is always the issue of the core, or pits or peel. Granola bars and pretty much any decent carb will just leave a mess all over.
So, what is a girl with 1500 kilometers of driving ahead of her to do? By some Nibs. The good tasting, non-messy, somewhat healthy treat! Enjoy!

Zucchini R Us

For the second year in a row, our garden is growing really well! We have three kinds of potatoes, two kinds of beets, beans, carrots, radishes, herbs and, of course, zucchini. Gardening experts recommend thinning out your zucchini plants to three. However, four of the seedlings were doing so well that I kept them all. As you can imagine, My garden looks beautiful with all the big green plants and the orange-yellow flowers that adorn the flourishing zucchini plants.

Today, one of the zucchinis was getting so big that I figured that I had better pick it. So using about one-eighth of the zucchini I was able to grate the required two cups for for a new recipe - Zucchini Brownies.

I see many zucchini recipes in the future - zucchini Parmesan, sauteed zucchini, almond zucchini cake, chocolate zucchini cake, zucchini loaf, orange zucchini bread, orange chocolate zucchini cake, zucchini muffins, etc., etc. I am hoping to make many friends and neighbours beneficiaries of my bountiful zucchini plants. Some may receive baked goods while others will have the opportunity to have whole zucchini's of their own.

Be sure to check back for a selection of the best of the recipes!

My Life as a Model

Today, for the second time in my life, I had the opportunity to participate in a photo shoot. Oh yes, I was a model. I had a coyote pelt wrapped around my shoulder, stood in a teepee and examined some beautiful handcrafts. I smiled ever so slightly, pretended not to see the camera and tucked my hair behind my ears so they could see my face better. I am a star.

Ghosts of Roommates Past

Tonight, my wonderful hubby and I had a chance to go out for dinner to celebrate the birthday of one of my fabulous former roommates. I haven't seen this girl in years but when we met with a bear hug it was as if the time passed was nothing. I was reminded of how much I totally loved living with this girl. She was so kind and fun with a ready smile and laugh - the kind of person who always made you feel good about yourself.

That got me thinking about the places I've lived and the roommates I've had. From the time I moved to Alberta in 1998 until we got married in 2006 I lived in seven places - apartments, townhouses, houses and even a summer in a mobile home! Between those seven places I had over 20 roommates. Lest you think that I was so difficult to live with that I drove them all away, let me explain that some of the places were shared with two, three, four or five roommates. Six girls, four bedrooms and two bathrooms is not always fun! However, rent and less than $150 a month was a pretty good thing for a student : )

Some roommates I lived with for as little as a couple of months and others were roommates for years. Some people I lived with more than once and at different times in different places.

As I think about those years, there were definitely some very fun times! I really enjoyed almost all of the roommates I had and am still friends with the majority of them : )

I learned so much from my roommates and I love all of the memories. All the same, I'm glad to have a permanent roommate now.

To all of you former roommates that read this - I love you! Feel free to share your memories (but only if they make me look good!)

Good Friends (warning: mushy thoughts below)

Sometimes people close to you just know when you need a phone call, e-mail or hug. And sometimes the don't : ) It doesn't seem to matter if you see them every day, every year or even less.

I am blessed to have good friends - when we are together we can laugh, joke, rant, and talk about the important and not so important things. Some are friends for sharing stories, discussing politics or religion, trading books, learing new recipes or share dessert. I love that I have friends who are a lot like me and friends who are very different from me. I learn from them all and I think they help me to be a better, smarter, kinder, more talented, well-rounded etc. person.

Mostly, it is great to know that my friends will read these somewhat cheesy words and will try not to tease me too much about it.

Becoming Smart...at home

We have apparently reached the stage in our lives where we have become consumed by home renovations. It's all we think about, it's all we talk about and it seems to be where we spend all of our money.

Hours upon hours are spent choosing paint colours, looking at carpet samples, and considering all of the toilet options. I think that all of our date nights in the past couple of months have been to home improvement stores. Oh yes, we make get around - Totem, Rona, Home Depot - we equally share our time and money : )

At any rate, we are finishing the basement and doing minor renos to the main floor of the house. All of the credit has to go to my wonderful hubby who seems to be able to do anything. As for me, I pick the colours.