more cooking

So we haven't given up on the cooking - I just haven't posted anything... tonight I went to our new favorite - the yummy steak mushroom sandwich or salad with spinach leaves.. but we did try...



Pork Cacciatore and a Potato Sage Salad - the pork cacciatore with rice was really good. I mean I didn't think I was going to like it at all but it was good. The salad - well I doubt I'd ever make it again. The dressing wasn't very flavorful, and putting warm potatoes with the lettuce - well they just weren't that well suited. The potatoes in the recipe would probably have been fine on their own, but then they need to be cooked longer.

egg flower

of course

Tonight the easter bunny made a mad dash to Wal-Mart to pick up some goodies....

So I'm cleaning off the kiosk that is in the Wal-Mart parking lot - this is part of my part time work job... so I clean it off and walk back to the car and hear something hissing and fancy that... my damned rear tire is going, going, gone. I call Andy and tell him what's going on and ask him to call BCAA... only to find out that because he isn't with me it doesn't count, but that I can become a member... right... so I change the tire. It actually didn't take too long - about 20 minutes. The tire was flat - flat as a door nail as I told my husband and then immediately thought - ok it is dead as a door nail and really - what the hell does that mean.

I took the whole thing in stride.... and then went into Wal-mart to find NO CHOCOLATE! I couldn't even believe it. I actually walked most of the store thinking they'd thought it would be a nice little bit of easter fun to hide the remaining chocolate... no such luck. So that sucked... drove there for nothing and got a flat tire. I ended up at save-on which is about 2 minutes from my house and got more than enough chocolate... I actually thought that as I drove by save-on when I went by, but I thought - oh I'll have a few minutes to look at Wal-Mart and have an outing... HA.

Now I'm home after my fun outing sitting with my sick little boy who has yet another round of swollen tonsils.

I do want to note one more thing - the people in this town are great - AGAIN! - four people stopped to ask if they could help. FOUR!

Good Friday... darn right!

Happy Good Friday :)

I hope everyone has a great long weekend.

home again

Made it home this afternoon... and yawn I'm tired... of course it didn't stop when I got home I still had a board meeting to attend tonight... but now it is the weekend... hip hip hooray!

And now for something from the - I don't know what the hell people are thinking file...

Why do we boil eggs for Easter and paint them... THEY STINK!

STINK

Now I get it - it can be a fun little activity but really... really - this is the best we can come up with - is there someone eating all these hard boiled eggs. It is not only a wasteful activity - it is disgusting... does anyone like that smell... come on... anyone... I thought not... I think a solution is needed! I don't want another Easter to come and for the boys to have a dozen smelly boiled eggs return to my house... blah! Here's my suggestion - next year, let's have those kinder eggs in classes and let the kids decorate those... this will be both a yummy and pleasant addition to easter... we won't be wasting eggs and we won't be stinking up the homes of parents everywhere.

I humbly implore everyone to consider abandoning hard boiled eggs. Thank you.

hotel

My hotel/motel is not very nice. I know - I've been spoiled staying in some of the swanky places in Vancouver, but really I don't think this would rate two stars for a hotel.

Really I just wanted to come and complain. Thin walls, thin doors, funny smell... old, run down, needing a definite makeover...
on the upside... it has high speed - so I guess I shouldn't complain too much :)

away

Tonight I'm at a conference in Williams Puddle :) So no food cooking for me tonight.. which I gotta say I'm missing tonight. Dinner was ok, but man - the portions were disgustingly large - two pork chops, probably a cup and a half of mashed potatoes, beans, carrots, applesauce, cheesecake, salad - most people could barely eat half... CRAZY! The food was good - but not as a good as some of the stuff we've been cooking at home... and sadly I won't get to cook tomorrow night because I'm at another meeting...

My cold is still plaguing me - I'm just not shaking it. With any luck tomorrow will be a better day... I'm feeling better -but just not one hundred percent. Now I'm going to just lounge... conference doesn't start until 9am tomorrow... which by conference standards is actually kind of late.

honey ginger salmon

Well I gotta say that tonight's recipe wasn't exactly fabulous. I mean it was ok... but...

So basically you stir together 1/4 cup of liquid honey, 2 tbsp of rice vinegar and 1 tsp (ish) of grated ginger- stir, stir, stir
Then brush or spoon onto some thawed or fresh salmon. Then the salmon goes in the oven - broiler on - (that's 500) and cook for 8-10 minutes. So it is a quick process... now here's what should have been in the book...




really - the salmon isn't going to pick up much flavor by just sticking on the sauce and chucking it in the oven - it really needs some time to marinate... so I think you should marinate the salmon in the sauce for at least 30 minutes to really capture all the yummy flavors...

note#2 - if you don't have liquid honey, cause you're like me and you use honey sometimes, but not all the time and so the honey goes hard you can warm it up in the microwave... this should be closely monitored... honey explodes - as I found out tonight and when it explodes it also burns... so tonight I was lucky that it missed my face, but got my toe and stomach - yeehaw - so don't microwave honey unless you are going to pay attention to it and then when you do remove it put on a coat of armor :)

So this recipe also called for a salsa - so you cut up some yellow pepper (1/4 cup), 1 cup of cucumber, 1 tbsp of that fun liquid honey, 1 tbsp of rice vinegar, little salt, little pepper, 1 green onion chopped - then you just mix them together and serve with the salmon. Now I served all that with a salad and used the salsa as the dressing for the salad... light - no carb dinner...



Would I make it again? Well if the salmon had been marinated it would have been way better - the salsa was nice, but I don't really think it is a salsa... no heat - which this recipe could have gotten away with because the salmon is so sweet.

the lazy chef

Ok - I'm sick so I can cut myself some slack...but tonight's dinner was blah - some frozen chicken cordon blues for the boys and a 1/2 a bowl of tortilla chips with about a tbsp of cheese microwaved - plus half an avocado - booo - it was awful... back to the book tomorrow night. I think I'm going to make a honey baked salmon dish tomorrow night - assuming I'm not feeling crappy. I did manage to pump out 2 dozen cupcakes and about 20 chocolate dipped eeyore cookies...

The sun came out today... fabulous! It felt warm, but with this flaming cold I didn't get to really enjoy it... sadly I hear it isn't going to last... but at least it feels like spring - the snow is leaving - hooray.

more cooking

So I mentioned the cashew tofu stirfry and I bet to most - that was like - har har Ape's that can't be something you really cooked - so I took photographic proof. It was good - good spice, good flavours, colorful... good with rice or noodles...



Update
So here is the great recipe.... it is from Company's Coming - Healthy in a Hurry recipe book - it is awesome - we've cooked six recipes now and we've got another 4 planned to try...

Combine 3/4 cup cool water, 2 tbsp sweet chili sauce, 1 tbsp cornstarch, 1 tbsp soy sauce, 1 tbsp sesame oil (optional) I didn't add the sesame oil... Set this aside once mixed and re-mix before you are asked to use it...

Heat large frying pan or wok on medium-high until very hot. Add 1 tbsp of corn oil (recipe says canola but I say NO to canola - it is terrible for you). Add 4 cups of chopped suey choy (also called chinese or california cabbage), 2 cups of sugar snap peas, trimmed, 1 1/2 cups of sliced onion (I just cut up one small/med onion), 1 cup sliced red pepper (if you like red pepper use this amount - if you don't... well might want to use less - we did this amount but then the pepper didn't really get eaten), 1 tbsp of grated ginger (I've bought a small container of ginger that is grated that I keep in the fridge). Stir fry for 2-3 minutes until vegetables start to soften.

Add tofu (1 package of extra-firm tofu, cut into 2cm pieces) and a 1/2 cup of salted cashews. Stir-fry for 2 to 3 minutes until vegetables are tender-crisp. Stir cornstarch mixture (early made sauce). Add to vegetables mixtures. Stir-fry for about 1 minute until boiling and thickening. Awesome with some rice and if you are really anti-tofu - replace the tofu with chicken...


I'm coming down with some kind of cold - my sinus and throat just don't feel right.

Despite that we did manage to take in some lead up to the games stuff today...



The mascots were on hand but Kyle decided he would rather hide than see them and Michael cried when we met Quatchi... so that part wasn't great - but trying out some of the winter olympic sports was good fun.

Company's Coming

Andy and I bought a healthy cookbook from Company's Coming and have made a meal plan for the week. Our first kick at the healthy dinner menu was a steak mushroom bun and apple carrot slaw.



Now to be honest, I've been on the 20 dinner rotation for months, if not years, and it was about time I got back making something from a recipe... and it was super yummy.

Yummy steak and mushrooms and then it was placed on a bed of spinach - the spinach was tossed with some light mayo, sesame oil and ginger - man - it was soo good! Tonight I made dill turkey burgers - yummy too - but that steak and the spinach together - I'm still thinking about how good it was.. and we made it - which makes it even better.

spring

spring break fun

We spent some time at Exploration Place in PG - definitely one of favorite places in Prince George. We highly recommend it to any families and if you get a annual membership you can use it at science facilities all across North America - which is definitel worth it!


The staff at Exploration saw that we were (me mostly) interested in the bearded dragon so she took it out so we could touch her... it was AWESOME!

a small political statement

my first swap

So this is what I sent to my sister who agreed to swap craft things with me :)

rain

I've been going to reiki for a few months now. Reiki - well I don't even know how to describe it - initially I was pretty meh about it... mostly meh... and then during my second session I just let myself relax and then it started, my mind just kind of drifted.

During my most recent session I had this sensation like it was raining and I could see the drops of water hitting the surface of a puddle or lake and how calming the entire experience was. It was about as far away from 'meh' as you can get. On top of the calming power of reiki I'm really digging the song 'fix you' by coldplay right now. The torch relay is using this song in their promotional marketing (not sure if it is all public or not... I just know I've seen the 3 minute torch relay commercial at meetings and it usually doesn't leave a dry eye in the house - I see Terry Fox and I just cry now...). So I'm driving back from PG tonight and it starts to rain - just slightly - and then it starts to come down a bit and then my ipod starts playing 'fix you' and I just had one of those extra calming/soothing moments. ahhhhaaaahhhhhhhh - and those are the moments I'm desperate for.

I was sad to see the rain stop. Watching it hit my windshield made me thirst for more. I'm so glad spring is here, or at the very least trying to make an appearance.

Happy First Day of Spring - may all the days ahead be happy, loving and calm for all of us.

slurpee heaven

So this nice lady at 7-11 has made it her job to make me laugh every time I stop by - now I am a regular - for sure - I'll admit that much - but in the last two weeks or so she's started to give me free slurpees every time I go in - tonight she had a joke ready for me - (why does the easter bunny not want people to know that he lays eggs? because he doesn't want everyone to know he sleeps with chickens) so I have a good laugh and then I come up to the counter with my slurpee and she tells the other guy - no we don't charge her for slurpees... I love the people in our town - ok and it isn't just because I get free slurpees - people are friendly, happy and I love that...



oh and Happy Hump day - thank god the weekend is approaching - I've had enough of work this week - more than enough...

Happy St Patrick's day

This morning we talked about wearing green for St Patrick's day. Kyle dressed pretty much in green today - head to toe. Michael wasn't interested in the green. He picks his outfits every day and isn't very interested in having someone even suggesting what he should wear. Tonight we are talking about the green stuff and I kind of made a comment about Michael not wearing green today and he stops me. Mom I'm wearing green - rolls his pants down to show me his green undies... priceless... I can just imagine that he was doing this same thing at daycare this morning... gotta love them :) How can I worry about anything - this part of life is all that really matters...

what happens after a long day

Tonight we went grocery shopping and that is always a joy with the kids... stop doing that, don't run, don't touch that, no you can't have that, yes we have to buy vegetables, please stop (please being used in the presence of other shoppers)... so we do the aisle thing and I say I'll take the kids to the car while you pay.. ok - so we go outside... and that was the mistake - I'm so busy telling Michael to please hold hands that I just walk out into the parking lot - click the "alarm" off and open the door. The door opens and my first thought was... "we've been robbed" and then I hear someone laughing behind me and these two women are having a great laugh at me trying to get into their car... I turn and laugh along but feel like a giant ass... and try to make a quick escape - exit stage right... thank god at least it was the same car - as I turned and walked off to were we parked Kyle is providing me with notes on how the cars were different - and really the only striking difference is the roof racks - I'm so used to are car not having them that I honestly thought I was at the right car... so there you go - just another maniac monday

because I am the fashion police

Now I am not super into fashion. I like to wear a lot of the same stuff and like to be comfortable. I also know that sometimes it is better to just stay in the house if you can't find clothes from the last 10 years.

I was getting a yummy slurpee (I know they aren't great for me... put that aside for a moment) and come out to find a woman standing by a pay phone (yes those still exist) wearing a big winter jacket - fine... but then she is wearing the biggest pair of hammer pants I've ever seen. I don't think clowns even wear them like that. They were fitted around her waist but the pants flared out like she was smuggling people in them. On top of that they weren't just plain old black or blue hammer pants they were blue with giant stars on them.

My plan tonight was to draw a picture and load it up to give you a clear idea of just how terrible they were but I instead worked on cleaning up my basement - which was very valuable - I will work on my drawing for tomorrow...

Happy weekend to all and to all a good night...