Yumma yams.

Our cuties - cuddling - Magnum loves it - Jozie is wondering if she should stay or go.

It seems like Friday night was just last night - why do weekends go by so fast?

I have had a great weekend - it's been a full one. Action packed. 

Yesterday - Jules and I hit the mall - and I found my dress for my work Christmas party! I was so excited. I wasn't looking for it at all - which is the best time to buy something. Typically I would be stressed out to the max (similar to Halloween) struggling to find something the night before. Here a sneak peak!

This is not a colour that I would ever consider - but I actually really love it. It's a little too big in the boobie area - so I'll have to have it altered. So, now I just have to think of shoes - any suggestions? 

Matthew Good last night. Meh. I like his music - but in all honesty Chris and I found the show to be lacking energy. He came out - barely spoke - sang his songs - and that was it. It was at the McPhearson Theatre - so it was an intimate setting - but it just wasn't the best show. There was a woman in front of me that I pretty much think was wearing a bottle of perfume - and her bf was trying way too much PDA (gag).

This morning I was up early for a dog walk - it was a gorgeous morning. Unlike yesterday's dog walk - we got caught in a torrential down pour - and got soaking wet. After that, Jules and I headed to the Root Cellar, then to watch a bit of Callum's hockey game, and then off to Broadmead Village for a bit of shopping. I found a few things - some Christmas decorations (it's just around the corner), a new Epicurean Cutting Board, a new whisk and another wooding spoon. It was a great day - full of adventures - lots of laughs - thanks Mom!!

Tonight's dinner was taken out of November's Cooking Light. I found the recipe on Friday night - and was very excited to try it. It wasn't a hard recipe - but it did take a bit of time. Your multi-tasking will come in handy. It was a delicious dish something that I will definitely make again.

Yam and Butternut Gratin

Ok - before I get into the recipe - the recipe actually called for 'Sweet Potatoes' - but any time that I am watching a cooking show - when they refer to sweet potatoes it's yams that they are using - the orange ones. So, b/c it is an American magazine and it said sweet potatoes, I thought that it would use yams. I guess you could use yams or sweet potatoes. The yams were delicious. I tweaked it a bit - here is my version.

2 tbsp butter

1 shallot - 1/4 cup chopped

3 cloves of minced garlic

1/4 cup flour (and 2 tbsp separated)

2 tbsp fresh thyme

2 cups skim milk

3/4 cup shredded parmesan cheese

2 bakers potatoes - around 1 pound

1 yam - around 1 pound

1 butternut squash - around 1 pound

1/3 cup gruyere cheese

Pre-heat oven to 375. In a medium sized saucepan melt the butter. Add the shallots and garlic. Heat over medium heat for about 2-3 minutes. Add the flour and whisk thoroughly - cook for two minutes. Add they thyme. Slowly add the milk - continue to stir - then add the parmesan - it will thicken into a nice creamy sauce.

At the same time (we're women, we are multi-tasking divas) boil the potatoes and yams. I cut them into medium size pieces that I could cut into thin slices after they were boiled. You could slice them first and then boil - this way would probably take less time. When they are soft, put them in a bowl and sprinkle them with 1 tbsp of flour. Do the same thing for the butternut squash. 

In a 11x7 broil safe dish, do a layer of potatoes and yams, and then a layer of butternut squash and repeat this one other time. Cover the vegetables with the cream sauce. And then sprinkle with the gruyere cheese.

Bake in the oven for 35 minutes and then broil for about 2 minutes. And that's it. 

Deliciousness and loveliness is served. This will impress anyone - I dare you to give it a try.

I served this with a roast chicken. I used my mom's method. Super easy and super moist. I just put it in a roasting pan, drizzled a bit of olive oil and rubbed it all over. Added kosher salt. Covered with aluminum foil and baked it in a 350 oven. The rule for cooking it Jules' way is 1/2 hour per pound. Very delicious.

Well - I am calling it a night. I hope you all had a weekend full of the adventures that you were wanting.

Loves. 

Enjoy!

Healthy addictions.

Well, our Friday has arrived. TFIF. It's been a typical week - some ups, some downs, but it's over - and the weekend is going to be full of goodness. 

To start this fine weekend off - even though it took me over 30 minutes to get home - a typical 7-10 minute drive - took way longer - I have put on my 'cozy clothes' - pretty much any sort of relaxation clothes - we had chicken wings and spinach and artichoke dip from M&M b/c I just didn't feel like cooking. Chris and I are loafing about, watching the hockey game, hanging with the pups and taking it easy. 

For the rest of the weekend - we are going to the Matthew Good concert tomorrow night at the McPherson - really looking forward to that. I have plans to do a little shopping with my mom tomorrow morning - and Sunday visiting the Root Cellar and a new kitchen shop that she has discovered - and a bit of a hockey game. 

I think that I have talked about some of my addictions before: chocolate, Mark Wahlberg movies, chocolate, kosher salt, chocolate. Well another addiction - cooking magazines. I love them. I love the different varieties that there are, I love the ideas they give me, I love the new techniques that I've never tried, I love the pictures, I love the new gadgets, I love it all. So... it's probably an expensive addiction - but I like to think that it could be worse. I could have an addiction to Gucci shoes, watches, perfume or china ponies that I would have to fill each room with. The only problem that I see with my addiction is what to do with them? How can I stop from filling my kitchen desk, and my coffee table - and the large baskets in my spare bedroom with them? WHAT???? 

Tonight I started looking through November's 'Cooking Light' (oh how I love thee) I used a little bookmark on each of the pages that I liked the recipes for - and as I was doing this, I thought that it would be good to remove those pages from the magazine and recycle the rest of the magazine. Oh hello Miss Magazine Organizer. I have started step 1, and hopefully I can go through the rest of my magazines and pull out the faves, which would be step 2. 

Now, once I get through step 2, I would need to go on to step 3. I know - step 3!!!! I think that step 3 would be 'filing' the pages somewhere - or trying to type them up and storing them somewhere on my wee little laptop - aka - my cooking sidekick. 

I will work on this 4 step program. What is stop 4 you ask - cooking the recipes! I will work on it and give an update as to how it is working.

I have two cookbooks to go through. 

Cookbook 1 - 500 Pizzas & Flatbreads. This was a gift from my co-workers for my 9th year anniversary. Each of them wrote up a nice little thing about me and they were put in as book marks sporadically throughout the book. They all made me cry. There are some great recipes - and some dough recipes that look pretty easy.

Cookbook 2 - The Pioneer Woman Cooks. So excited for this one. I would recommend this one - not just for the recipes - but the photos are beautiful and her dedication to cowboys - ooh lala. I ordered it on Amazon.ca and it arrived in 2 days!

So, hopefully with some hardcore recipe mag and book reading this weekend - it will inspire me for some new recipes.

I hope you're all enjoying your Fridays - live it up this weekend. Go out and smash it - let go your guard - jump off that sofa.... 

Loves.

Enjoy!

Oh Winter is on it's way!

Day 4 of November - already. Only 26 more days and it's December. That will come fast - just like October came and went. Do you ever feel like time just passes by way too quickly? And when you look back on a period of time - it seems like you did too much of what you didn't like doing and not enough of what you do like doing? November is an 'off' month for me. I think that it's the transition from Fall and then Halloween and then all of a sudden it seems like it's already time to think of Christmas.

Vacation update:

We had a great time. U2 was AWESOME. They put on such an amazing show. They played a lot of new stuff, but a lot of old stuff - the stuff I heart. The Edge - he has always been my favourite. In fact, I'm pretty sure that I mentioned him in my grade 12 year book write up. The Black Eyed Peas were also fantastic. They were so entertaining. There were 13 of us that gathered in our hotel room for a little pre-concert party and had a few libations - so all in all it was a great night.

We spent the Thursday at Point Roberts. I kid you not - after having lunch I planted myself on the comfy couch and napped and watched tv for about 4 hours. 4 frickin' hours! So lazy - but oh so fabulous.

On the Friday we were off to Dallas. We had a great time. We had a few 'issues' with directions - I had to yell 'red light! RED LIGHT!!!' a couple of times, and had to say stuff like 'oh, I think that we should have turned there' - but all in all we found our way around ok. Our hotel - The Magnolia - really was great. They offered a beer and wine reception every night, a cookie bar in the later evening and a big breakfast every morning. The location - kind of strange. All reviews mentioned it was in the 'heart of downtown', which I'm sure that it was, what they didn't mention was the heart didn't have a heart beat. Seriously, it was a bit of a ghost town. There were so many enormous sky scrapers, lots of restaurants - but barely any people around. 

The game was fun! The stadium is unreal - so huge. I mean huge!! Our team, the Seahawks, didn't win - but it was still an awesome experience. We had a group of 3 drunkens sitting in front of us - and when Seattle came on the field they yelled 'go back to Canada!'. Rrrright. I didn't have the heart to tell them that Seattle was part of the US. 

Will we go back? - probably not - but we're so happy that we did have the experience and the chance to go. Anytime I travel outside of Canada - I am reminded just what a wonderful country we live in.

Dog walking stories for today:

I have two. The first - since winter is among us and the days are shorter (which I secretly love) I can't do the usual park walk with the pups b/c it's too dark. Instead we venture out and tour our hood. Tonight we started at the baseball parks by our place so that the dogs could get in a little bit of running and sniffing. A woman entered the baseball diamond with a beautiful Australian Shepherd - my pups sniffed it and followed it around for a bit. Then another woman entered with a Springer Spaniel - the two women I think knew each other - and went past me and walked away talking to the other woman so that she would follow. The SS owner said to the AS owner - 'I like my dog to play with the big dogs b/c then it runs more - I don't like the small dogs'. I was thinking 'WTF?' - ironically - the AS just wanted to chew on a beat up frisbee that they found in the park - and my dogs were playing tag and running like crazy - the SS wanted in on the action - but it's owner kept calling it 'Biscuit. Biscuit' . Then the SS ran out of the diamond and the SS owner couldn't get her dog back. Karma!

Second story - as we started our walk after the field - a man and a woman were approaching us. The man yelled out 'Oh look - here come two guinea pigs on leashes!' Then he bent down to try and pat them and said 'Oh hello little guinea pigs on leashes'. Good thing that it was dark - b/c I had a very disgusted look on my face - and I wished that I had said something like 'Kujo, don't attack! KUJO DON'T ATTACK' and then started to pretend to pull Magnum back. Oh well. He is probably a dumb dumb anyways. Isn't there a song - 'Oh the people that you meet in the neighbourhood, in the neighbourhood...' - I think it's from Sesame Street.  

Now let's get on to making some dinner. I did a bit of a shop last night - but am trying to hold off until Sunday - so my mom and I can do our weekly vegetable shop at the Root Cellar. So this evening's dinner is dedicated to what I think that my life would be like if we lived on a farm.

If you don't know that I would like to live on a farm some day - you should. I really want to. My cuz Margo and I have talked about living on a farm for years. Years ago, we did a road trip to Plato, SK, with my grandma - so that she could visit her sister-in-law and nephew and family, and the farm that my great uncle had worked for years. It was an amazing trip - and I will definitely have to dedicate a blog or two to that trip. It was so memorable - every bit of it.

Anyways, back to farm cooking. I pulled things out of 'my root cellar' - which is basically this basket that I bought years ago when we had a rental house and very little cabinet space. I bought the basket to sit on the counter so that I could put onions, potatoes, yams... in it. I still use it to this day and it sits in a little nook in the corner of the kitchen - in the area which I am sure is supposed to be filled with fancy appliances like mixers, blenders, etc. 

So tonight, I pulled out yams - a lot of them and an onion. I dug in my 'pantry' and found some canned goods - and I think that I pulled off a pretty good dinner that turns out to be very healthy too.

My Interpretation of Farmer's Winter Chili

1 onion

6 small yams 

2 packs of ground chicken breasts 

1 can of Heinz beans in tomato sauce

1 can of white kidney beans - drained and rinsed

1 large can of diced tomatoes 

1 cup of mushrooms - sliced (that's all I had left)

3 stalks of celery - thinly sliced (that's all I had left)

1 cup of frozen corn - I love the O brand at Safeway - it's Organic and always seems fresh even though it's frozen

Garlic

Chili powder - as much or as little as you like

In a large dutch oven - saute the onion in olive oil until golden. Add yams - that have been sliced into very small pieces. Continue to saute. In a separate pan - I used my cast iron, brown the ground chicken until it is fully cooked.

Once the yams start to soften, add the rest of the ingredients - and the meat to the dutch oven. 

And that's basically it.

Let the chili simmer until the yams are softened and the flavour is where you want it.

I am just about to dig into a bowl, the smells are making my mouth water. 

Sorry for the novel. Lots to say.

Loves.

Enjoy!

Home Sweet Home!

Home sweet home, alas.  We're home - we're done our quick whirlwind - it's good to be home. I seem to struggle after getting back from a trip - I feel like I need a couple of days to unwind - I just have no rush to get things done. Oh how I hope that the luggage on the spare bedroom's floor doesn't stay there for too long. Please wish me luck.

We really had a wonderful trip. We loved the U2 concert - LOVED IT!!!! - we enjoyed Dallas - I think that we both thought it would be different, but nonetheless, we had a great time. Alright I have lots of stories - but just don't have that energy tonight - need another day or two. But, I did download all of my pictures and I thought that I would share some of my favourites. I don't have any recipes to try from our trip - unless I ever get the courage to make onion rings - I had them twice. What??? I was on holidays :)

Ok, here are some pictures, I hope that you enjoy. 

Our best friend - without 'Castro' we would still be driving around the car rental garage.

Loved this sign.

Deep thought for the day.

There's the boots!

Unreal stadium. We were really high up!

Love this pic. 

And this one too - I dislike getting my picture taken A LOT - but I liked this one. 

Ceiling in our hotel lobby - 100 years old. 

View from one of our windows - Chris spotted the moon - so lovely.

Our hotel sign.

Chris - oh Chris. And, I think that my nose is getting bigger - it's the Cumiskey coming out.

Alright friends - until tomorrow. I hope you're all well.

Loves.

Enjoy!

Blog Hiatus.

Adios friends - I am off for a wee bit. Looking forward to it all. U2 - Dallas  - time off work...

I will hopefully bring some splendid recipe ideas home with me. 

I am almost all packed - I always bring too much.

Take care of yourselves and let me know what you are cooking while I am gone.

Loves,

C.

New BFF? no. New Fave Chicken Recipe? yes.

Oh hello Monday. Wow did you ever sneak up on us.

So excited - my fave cuz, Margo, got me on to a new blog - and I love it. It's got everything - delicious recipes, amazing photos, lovely stories and so much more - check it out HERE. Anyways, I just love how she writes - and I have this weird feeling as if I know her. Not in a 'stalkerish' sort of way - but b/c of the way she writes - it just seems like she opens herself up and it's easy to relate* and befriend her. We share a love of kosher salt, panko breadcrumbs and cowboys**. I guess her site is what I inspire to work towards. Not exactly - but close. I have dreams my friends - big dreams. I know that they will develop - I just need to find the time to start putting together my puzzle - and hope that I'm not missing any pieces.

*Relate: I like to cook, she likes to cook. She loves dogs, I love dogs. She loves kosher salt, I love kosher salt. See where I'm going with this.

**Cowboys: She is married to one and I have dreamed of marrying one. Chris we are sizing you up for a pair of Wranglers and boots when we are in Dallas!

I suck at puzzles. I don't have the patience, misplace pieces, don't know where to start - should you start in the center or make the outside first - so no missing pieces get away??? See - this is a perfect analogy of my life. I'm not going to stress though - Halloween is over - I will just take it in stride. Make a list maybe. Maybe play around with my lovely Mac (Chris my love - this is one of the best gifts you could have ever gave me - loves). Maybe call over my gf's to help me figure out this fiasco - that's what friends are for.

Tonight's dinner was extra special: 1. Because I made a crispy lemon chicken recipe that I 'borrowed' from The Pioneer Woman and 2. Because Chris is home. What - home on a Monday??? Don't worry - everything is fine - he's on holidays this week - so when he does holidays - he doesn't do them half ass - he does it all. That's my boy! I had visions of me coming home from work - him greeting me at the door with a cup of tea and a bouquet of flowers and we would laugh and dance - and then we would make dinner together sipping wine and sit at the table while dinner simmered and gingerbreads danced 'on' our heads. Um... that didn't happen. Instead, I came home - was greeted by two lovely puppies - one that gently gnaws on my hand and the other that shakes from pure excitement. I then gathered up my laundry (crap it's still in the washer) and headed downstairs to find Christoff playing a little PC. Then I told him to fix the door, we then cozied for a couple of mins to try and get warm and then I started dinner and he watched the Flinstones. 6 pm tv on a Monday is a bit of a novelty I guess. Lucky. 

Alright, dinner was divine. I served it with sauteed cabbage and mashed potatoes.

Crispy Lemon Chicken

Now this is my interpretation - measurements aren't exact to hers.

12 chicken legs - washed off and seasoned with kosher salt

2 cups of plain yogurt

Juice of one lemon

4 cloves of garlic minced

2 cups of panko breadcrumbs

Butter

Pre-heat the oven to 375.

In a large bowl mix the yogurt, lemon and garlic.  Layout the breadcrumbs on a plate so that you can easily coat the chicken. 

With one hand, dip the chicken legs (one by one) in to the yogurt and then with the other hand coat the chicken leg in the bread crumbs. Try keeping one hand dry - it makes life so much easier. Place the chicken legs in a large baking dish. On each piece of chicken, place about a teaspoon of butter. 

Place in your pre-heated oven and let them cook for 1 hour. 

Chris rated this a 10+!! 

Here is a pic - I know that it's hid - but I am trying to learn - TF for TF.

The crispiness of the breadcrumbs and the flavour from the yogurt, garlic and lemon is completely divine. If you haven't used panko breadcrumbs before - run out and get some. They are so delicious and can be used in a lot of different recipes. You should be able to find them in the Asian section of any grocery store. 

Well friends that's it for me. I am off to sneak a piece of chocolate cake from last night. Holla!!!

Loves.

Enjoy!

ING'ing it up kind of weekend

My attempt at a Fall wreath - it's definitely not an Auntie Marcia's masterpiece

Whirlwindy loo. Last couple of days - super busy - caught in a bit of a whirlwind - and now the weekend is almost over. Thankfully it was a good one - or I'd be losing my shi-ite. Whassup?? 

My weekend was full of visiting, celebrating, partying, stressing, birthday'ing, shopping and little sleeping.

Friday - visiting and celebrating - it was my 9 year anniversary at AbeBooks. 9 years!!!! I still can remember my interview, my first day - lots of good memories and a few not-so-good. To celebrate, I took my mom and Chris out for a nice dinner - my treat. 9 years ago - I wasn't really treating anyone. When I applied for my job as a Customer Support Rep - I said that I had extensive computer skills. Rrrrrighttt - I wasn't completely honest about that. I knew how to write up a paper in Word and how to check my email - but that was pretty much it. I worked very hard to try and not look like someone who didn't know how to turn my computer on. In time it paid off. I often wonder what I would have been doing if I didn't get a job there. 

Anniversary flowers from my Mom! Thanks Mom.

Saturday - stressing. Halloween - why do I let it get to me?? Anyways - Jenny's reminder of being Cavegirls back in high school - so that's what I did. I ran to the fabric store, bought a meter of leopard print material - called my mom - ran over and she sewed me up a costume in literally 15 minutes. It was great. THANKS MOM!!!! Chris went as a 'Ninja Annihilator' - don't ask. Zellers special. 

Saturday night - partying. Such a great Halloween party! There were some fantastic costumes - Octo-mom, Dr. Seymour Vagyna, Fred and Wilma, Kenny from Southpark, and so many more. I was the DD - I had two drinks (over a timframe of 4.5 hours) - we got home at 12:50 - way past my bed time - and I feel so burnt out and hung over today! What is up with that?? I purposely did not 'party' b/c I didn't want to be hung over this morning - and this what happens. Oh well - it was worth it, so much fun!

Birthday'ing - today we had a pre- party for Callum's birthday. We're going to miss his birthday - so we did dinner here tonight - so we could have cake and I could spoil him. I made his favourite chicken wings and prawns for appy's and then for dinner a big thai stir fry with coconut milk and rice noodles. Delicious. 

I wanted to do something a little different, so I served up the stirfry in the little paper boxes that traditional chinese food is served and we ate (well some of us did) with chop sticks. We ended the dinner with a delicious chocolate brownie cake - that I did not make :)

My-tie stirfry

This recipe is enough to feed 6 comfortably - I doubled it tonight and we still have lots left - and seconds were taken. I find this recipe so easy - and so tasty. Give it a try and let me know what you think.

3 boneless skinless chicken breasts - cut into thin strips

1 medium onion - chopped

4 cloves of garlic - minced

2 red peppers - chopped

2 yellow peppers - chopped

1 green pepper - chopped

2-3 cups fresh mushrooms - I used fresh button mushrooms - sliced are perfect too

1 small zucchini - julienned

1 bunch of bok choy - chopped 

1 can of coconut milk

Juice of half a lime

Hot sauce

1/4 cup of sweet chili sauce

1/3 cup of peanut butter

2 packs of rice noodles - each pack comes with 2 packs - so in total you will need 4

In a wok - or large frying pan - saute the onion in a small amount of olive oil. Cook the onions until they they are softened - don't forget give them a dash of kosher salt. Add the chicken and garlic and continue to cook over medium high heat - after a couple of minutes add the coconut milk, lime juice, hot sauce (how hot do you like it) and sweet chili sauce - stir in and continue to let it cook. After another couple of minutes add all of your vegetables except the bok choy. Continue cooking - once your vegetables are getting close to the consistency that you like - probably 10 minutes add in your bok choy - give it a good stir - and then add in your peanut butter. If you like the peanutty flavour add more. Then add your noodles. Mix continuously to ensure that the noodles break up. 

And that's it!!! This is one of Chris' favourites - so this dish is always rated a 5+.

Alrighty then - that's it for me for this evening. Only 3 more sleeps until my U2 - Dallas adventure - I'm getting so excited. 

Bring the week on - we can handle it - let's show us what we can do!

Loves.

Enjoy!