Merry Christmas!

Bits of our weekend

We ate dinner at a fancy ballroom (where I got hooked on sushi)

We saw a  super amazing Dragon Age (and Mass Effect) cake!

It warmed up so the birds came back to the feeders

I found a pack of 60 paper doilies at the dollar store so I made a bunch of snowflakes!

I also found some that stick on your windows. (I've got a little bit of a crush on snowflakes right now)

We made our first (sorta) lifesize snowman!

Idle Husband cracked open a walnut to find a heart inside (awww)

Sushi for breakfast lunch and dinner! YAY!

Finally! Homemade ravioli! Well...sorta

This picture doesn't express the yummy very well

I have to mention this really quickly, too. On top of making all that antipasta yesterday, I also tried a new dinner recipe I found on Citron & Vanille blog, ravioli gnudi. It's like a ravioli without it's clothes on, just the inside portion, really. I kinda stumbled on it and after reading the recipe, I thought it looked like something relatively fancy I could actually make. That was about two weeks ago and it's been on my mind since.

The recipe was super easy to put together. I used low fat ricotta, frozen chopped spinach (that was probably the hardest part, draining and squeezing out the spinach because the little chopped leaves would stick to everything), Kraft shakin' parmasan cheese, and canned tomatoes. Even with those substitutions (if you can even call them that), the flavour wasn't lost. When I started forming the gnudi, it was really sticky and messy, so after the first batch, I switched to using my cookie scoop which worked really well plus ensured that each piece was about the same size. This was great too, because it allowed me to have one clean hand so I could put them in and take them out of the boiling water a little easier.

I can compare it to eating a meatless, noodle-less lasagna, so I immediately thought to make this the next time we have guests. I think it'd be one of those meals that's easy for the cook, because I really think it could be made ahead of time and left in the fridge until, well, 20 minutes before you eat. Then you'd have no dishes save for the actual dinner dishes. Plus it would be an interesting and impressive meal for everyone else, making it look like you fussed when you actually didn't do that much. It's also really filling! We didn't eat all of it (there's a lot leftover, so I'm thinking it's going to make a nice casual meal on Saturday) and we didn't feel like having a snack later. Which is a really good thing, I think.

Anyway, if you're looking for something new and different to make, that's also easy and simple, you should really try this one out!

Angela's antipasta will change your life!

This all started back when I worked for a kinda major (winkwink) retail establishment. When I first started there, I worked overnight stocking shelves. It's not the most glamourous job nor is it the hardest intellectually, but believe me, some people can do it well and some people cannot. This is when I first met Angela. Honestly, I was super afraid of her. Or maybe afraid's not the word for it. I respected her boundaries. Yes...yes that's probably the best way to put it. She was (by far) the best stocker they had. It sounds silly to type that, but it's true. Just her method alone made her the fastest most productive member of the team.

At first, I didn't work with her very much. We would all start in health and beauty every night and this was the only time I would be able to (secretly) watch her work. I was careful not to take her aisle (shampoo) and even more careful not to get in her way or ask if she needed help. I don't know if I was so much conscious of it then, but now I realize that I really aspired to be as good as her. Strange as that may sound, but I didn't want to be one of the stockers everyone else was complaining about behind their back. So I watched her and kept track of what she was doing in health and beauty and her other usual departments.

Until one night. One night, we were put together. Oh, my nerves! It was like all my training and prepping had boiled down to this one night. The one chance I would get to impress her with my not-at-all crappy stocking skills.

We worked together for about a week and nothing really happened. I must not have pissed her off (or I'm sure we would have been seperated) but we also didn't talk or bond or anything. Things felt awkward for me. I didn't want to get in her way, but it was kind of impossible not to when we were in the same department. Conversation was limited to what we were doing with displays and general complaining about what the day staff had screwed up. Until finally, we happened to be stocking in the same aisle and one of us made a joke, the other countered, and that was it. Friends at last!

After that, we primarily worked together. Mostly (I think) because management quickly discovered how much we could put away when teamed together. Not to brag or anything (haha), but we were putting away a large chunk of the product for the team in some of the more difficult, fiddly areas (health and beauty, infants, housewares, and seasonal foods). What we got out was amazing when I think back to it. I really don't know how I managed to work that much and that hard and overnight no less (not even kidding, some nights I would work on less than an hour of sleep). Even funnier, sometimes we would spend almost the whole time before first coffee just chatting it up in infants doing barely anything (there're perks to working in the department furthest away from everyone). Most people wouldn't have even made it out of that department by the end of the night let alone had the time to go and finish two more.

Enough of my bragging -- I just really love merchandising and stocking. I really do. I also love assembly line work. Weirdo!

Right. So the first Christmas after all this she was telling me about how she always made antipasta as gifts for everyone each year. I'd never heard of it before, so I got her to explain what it was and what was in it. It sounded terrible, to be honest, but she insisted it was so good and super addictive. On our final night before Christmas eve, she brought me a small jar to try. "Eat it with Ritz crackers!" she said, "You're gonna love it!"

Crackers purchased, jar opened, and oh. my. gawd. It really was delicious. It really was fantastic. I thought it was about the best thing ever concocted!

Last year, I asked her for the recipe, intending to make it as gifts for friends of mine. She gave it to me, I whipped it up (or destroyed my kitchen -- messiest recipe ever! Curse you cauliflower!), and it was exactly as I had remembered it. Everyone I gave it to raved over it and whatever was left over, Idle Husband and I devoured in less than a week. Nothing says Christmas to me like this anymore and after all the baked goods, I decided I had to make up a batch of this for us to enjoy. I mean, how can I not go through this season without it?

I'm curious about the name of this dip now, because after searching for it on google and on wikipedia, I keep getting 'antipasto' and every picture shows plates of meats and cheeses. That's not what this is. But this is what Angela called it, so I have only that to go on.

I'm not going to string you along, it's a lot of chopping, but with a food processor, I think it takes me about an hour, start to finish. So depending on how you decide to do your chopping, you should seriously spend an afternoon and make this. It will change your life.

Angela's Antipasta

1 cup finely chopped cauliflower (about 2 [2 1/2] larger florettes like from the bottom of a head)

1 cup finely chopped ripe olives (drained)

1/4 cup finely chopped green olives (drained)

1/2 cup finely chopped pickled onions (drained)

1/4 cup oil

1 can finely chopped mushroom pieces, drained (10 oz)

1 small green pepper, finely chopped

1/4 cup finely chopped red pepper (I have yet to use this, I usually just go with green and omit it)

2 1/4 cup ketchup

1 1/2 cup (or 500 ml jar) sweet mixed pickles, finely chopped (no juice)

3 tblsp sweet pickle juice

1 (7 oz) can tuna, drained and flaked

1 (4 oz) can broken or tiny shrimp, drained and flaked

I cannot stress this enough: Chop all this stuff. Chop it real good. I just measure the ingredient (heaping) in my measuring cup, dump it into the processor, chop it super fine, and it seems to always work out to the amount needed. You shouldn't be able to tell what the ingredients are. That's the fineness, peeps. Also to be noted, I don't freak out if my processor misses a few. Whatever, so what, who cares!

Put the first five (5) ingredients into a large saucepan. Bring to boil over medium heat. Add the rest of the ingredients except the tuna and shrimp. Simmer for 10 minutes. Add tuna and shrimp. Stir

Jar as you would jar anything and let cool -- or try to! Serve with Ritz crackers (or whatever other crackers you like, but these are the recommended brand). Try not to eat the entire thing. It will be hard.

Makes about 4 large jars (three at about 500 ml, one at about 375 ml)

Hair, why do you hate me so?

I thought I'd share a page out of my sketchbook. I've noticed my hair doing weird things on it's own, so yesterday I decided to document it.

I kinda wish I'd have left space for more styles because you should have seen what I woke up with this morning. Gah! One side is perfect, the other side has completely lifted and turned away from my head. I can't even tuck it behind my ear. It still looks terrible.

True life, I'm not kidding you. Styling option #1 happened a couple weeks ago, when I woke up to find a tiny clump of hair on each side of my head turning out while the rest obediently turned in. How does that even happen?!

I don't know how I upset the toilet gods, but I'm very sorry and I won't do it again

So remember when I expertly fixed my toilet? Well, this weekend, as I went to flush, nothing happened. I pushed the lever several times and nothing. Off with the lid, and I discovered the lever had broken. Great. Just when I fixed the other problem a new one's come up. Even though I didn't want to fix every. component. in that tank, it's starting to look like that's what I'm going to end up having to do. Awesome sauce.

This is how it's supposed to look. It's broken right where my thumb is -- disregard the colour of my thumb as I just removed some nail polish, and I couldn't get it all off, also note how cool it is that I can bend my thumb like that! Doncha wish yours could do that? I bet you do now that you've seen it's possible.

Happily, we spent the weekend with the top off. It wasn't hard to flush, we just had to lift up the little plastic lever thing. But yesterday I thought, "Hey! Why don't I duct tape the broken plastic together so we can at least use it properly until I can buy a new one!" cuz frankly, I was getting a little tired of the industrial look aka: being able to see into the tank.

And then I did it. And it still didn't work.

And then I thought, "I should just leave the tape on..."

And then I thought, "But...I'm going to have to remove it anyway because I'm not going to be able fix it with the tape on since I can't see any of it now..."

So I proceeded to take the tape off which was the dumbest stupidest waste of 10 minutes ever (it was super hard to get that stuff off), because in that process, I ended up breaking the lever completely off.

Now, it's slightly harder to flush than before and it's like a balancing act trying to keep the little plastic stick from falling back into the water.

This is how it looks now. We have to pull it up like some fancy toilet pull-chain device.

Another job well done. If the temperature ever gets above -32 (apparently, it was a record breaking -46 here on Saturday with a windchill of -- wait for it -- MINUS 58), I'll actually consider going out and buying the necessary fix for this. Until then, we're making do on what little groceries we have and our super swanky pull-chain toilet until I can venture out without having my exposed skin freeze within 5 minutes.

Bits of our weekend

We went to the Make It! craft fair

where we found him

Then we went to the WEM Anthropologie, where I spotted this clever gift tag idea

I enjoyed a chocolate mint bubble tea with green apple jelly for breakfast (I'm soo healthy, I know)

Idle Husband made snow angels

I worked on some Christmas cards

Thursday wore me right out

The whipped shortbread recipe (with the cherry) is absolutely to die for!

After a long day of baking, this is the final haul I gifted for friends: Rosemary cornbread, buttertart squares, gingersnaps, coconut banana fruitcake, and whipped shortbread. Nothing was working out for me yesterday, though. All these recipes (save for the shortbread) I'd made before and after pulling them out of the oven, I was like, "this isn't supposed to look like this! What the hell!" which ended in me nervously sampling everything because THESE WERE INTENDED AS GIFTS; therefore, it's not ok to serve them the junk I'd normally serve myself and Idle Husband. Now, I am so sick of baking and baked goods, I can't even describe it to you. In a way, this is a good thing. I can get back on track and leave the sugar and the flour in the cupboard for...well...I'm hoping I don't want for these things until Easter, or past Easter, or never for the rest of my life, actually. But let's be realistic because I'm a total bread and sugar whore. So I'm just going to hope until February at the earliest.

The next day, I deconstructed this puppy.

As mentioned before, I went out to dinner last night with friends to a place in WEM (well, not technically in WEM but it is relatively attached to the mall) called the Cactus Club Cafe. I guess it's a pretty famous restaurant that has a bunch of creations from a pretty famous Canadian iron chef, Rob Feenie. I guess? I've heard the chef's name before, but I'd never heard of the restaurant until this week. The atmosphere was really nice, the service was ace, the food...could have been better? I think my dining out standards have drastically changed since I started making everything from scratch.

We started with the smoked cheddar spinach dip full of grilled chicken cubes (I don't like that chicken suddenly comes cubed. It immediately makes me think it's that fake chicken) served with white and blue tortilla chips. It was ok. I found it really bland and the chips were saltless making everything even more bland. My friends devoured it and loved it, so I don't know what was wrong with me.

I decided to try the (Rob Feenie created) BBQ duck clubhouse sandwich since I've never had duck before. It also came with chicken and prosciutto on pecan fruit bread and I had the seasonal green salad instead of fries. The sandwich was super salty. Probably because of the prosciutto, but one friend seemed to think that BBQ pork is really salty, so perhaps the same applies to duck. Who knows. It would have benefitted so much just by dialing down the salt a tad. It wasn't inedible, it just needed to be followed by lots of water. Anyway, because of that, I couldn't eat the second half. I'd filled my daily salt quotient with the first.

The salad was really great. I was impressed with that the most, actually. It had strawberries, almonds (I think), and curls of what looked like possibly beet -- something purple, anyway. Oh wait. Actually, take the -ies of the strawberries. I think there was only one strawberry cut in half (like the cherry tomato) -- that really helps you understand the extra $1.50 for changing out whole french fries for salad, hey? Oh well. It was something different than my usual idea of a seasonal salad, and it was so good and refreshing next to my salt sandwich. None of us had dessert, so I have no idea about that.

I'd only go back if the friends wanted to. I wouldn't suggest it for Idle Husband and I. It wasn't that amazing and honestly, looking at their menu again (online),  I fail to see anything I really have to try. It doesn't help that I don't particularly like eating out, but you know, I do get cravings for things I can't make at home...then again, this restaurant isn't offering anything I can't make at home so it doesn't really entice me into going again. Sorray.

Idle Husband's dinner, eaten in front of the computer, of course.

I was worried about what IH would eat without me around to fix something, so I coached him on how to make his own personal pizza. Honestly, I really just wanted to see how my little mini-frozen pizza rounds would fare after having a short amount of defrosting time. It looks pretty good, hey? He was really pleased with the results (so pleased he produced pictures for me)! The funny thing is, though, that he couldn't find the BBQ sauce (we like that on pizza instead of tomato sauce) and he didn't see the tub of cooked hamburger I'd left for him to top his pizza with, only the turkey bacon (even though they were side-by-side). Silly boys. So he filled it with cheese, mushrooms, and the bacon. It looks pretty ace and I bet it was a smidge better than what I ate. He said the dough was pretty well unfrozen by the time he got home (4:30-6) so that was interesting. I really wanted to know how it would cook up when frozen. I'll have to test that this weekend maybe. Anyway, I'm so proud of how far he's come when it comes to cooking. Mr. Order-in is actually preparing his own dinner -- cooking it himself and cooking it properly (aka not burning it). Fantastic! Soon I'll have him preparing meals for me!

Cherries on top

Fruitcake's not for sissies.

Yesterday, I discovered I'd be meeting with a couple of friends over dinner on Thursday, so I had to get my butt in gear and get their presents together. I've thought about a bunch of different food-gift options, but as I was making this fruitcake yesterday, I had a revelation. Since there was so much batter, along with two loaves, I made some fruitcake cupcakes as well. They were so cute and small, that I immediately thought, "hey! Why don't I do a Christmas treat sampler for each of them!" Of course, this completely negates my whole I-don't-want-to-bake-a-bunch-of-stuff philosophy, but then again, how great would it be to get that as a gift? A little fruitcake, some cookies, some bars...just some tasty samples. I don't know how much of each yet, but I'm going to stick with two or three portions for now and see how much I can cram into the brown paper bags I've decided to use. I know their family sizes, so I want to include enough so no one feels left out.

Today I plan on making a butter tart square recipe I used to make all the time. I remember it being so delicious and easy to make, and it's a very Christmasy flavour, I think. Then, I'll make some chocolate chip cookies or maybe spicy molasses cookies or maybe shortbread. I haven't made up my mind. And that's it! Hopefully, I can get it all together by tomorrow evening!

Golden Walnuts

Hey look! One of my Christmas ornament craft projects actually worked out this year! This is such an exciting and proud moment for me. Since I finished these last night, I've been using every excuse in the book to slowly walk by the tree just to stare at these lovelies, and poor Idle Husband had to hear me go on and on about them when he got home. I get excited about strange things.

I got the idea over on Design Sponge all the way back in October, and I just kept it up in my head until I could work on it. I've looked at a lot of do-it-yourself Christmas decoration tutorials this year, but I think this one is by far the best (even though it's technically a Thanksgiving decoration tutorial). Anyway, why do I even need to convince you? I'm talkin' 'bout walnuts. Spray painted gold. How can you resist that, crazy?

I didn't really follow the directions that much. I mean, honestly. Who really needs directions to do this? Show me the picture, I'll figure it out on my own, I'm not blind. Anyway, now that I've read the instructions again, I guess the only thing I really changed was the wiring part. For this little project I wasn't about to go and buy heavy gauge wire when we had an entire box of paperclips just sitting around doing nothing (who's using paperclips? I've never understood their purpose. But sometime in the past, Idle Husband felt the need to buy a huge 1000 count paperclip box with about 5 different sizes of paperclips. For all and any possible paperclipping needs, I guess). All I had to do was cut the paperclips apart (keeping the bend if I could), then I held one side with pliers, as I used another pair of pliers to twist the ends together. Easy!

This project took so little time, I'm kinda thinking about making 10 more (afterall, about half of these are going to be given as part of my present decorations). The hot glue dries pretty well the moment it leaves the gun so that's nothing. The longest wait time was spent in between coats of paint. I could have given these another shot of gold spray paint, too, but then I kinda liked some of the nut wispily showing. It's barely noticeable. I don't know how other colours would look (I did NOT like the red they used), but the gold really shows the pattern in the nut and highlights it's natural beauty -- omg! Where once I really hated gold, I think...I think I love gold!

Anyway, if you're looking for a nice gift or something interesting for your tree, make these!

At least the sun's shining

This is what -30 looks like

I really have to laugh when people describe snow as magical

Let me tell you about my Saturday night.

After we got about 8 inches of snow on Friday (yes, that's right. We had nothing. Then, in one measly day, we got that much. It's insane outside), Idle Husband and I decided to just relax at home instead of trying to brave the snowdrifts with his car just to look around the Future Shop for nothing in particular. So besides shovelling off our walkway and our driveway (a bit), we had a great movie/computer/game day.

Then, around 6, Idle Husband got hungry. We'd been eating cookies all day and just sitting around, so really I wasn't that hungry. I offered him some of the leftover lemon chicken from Friday's dinner. Nope. I offered to make him a pizza with the frozen dough I'd made Friday (I'm experimenting with pizza dough right now to see if I can get the same results if it's cooked directly from frozen or if I have to unthaw it first). Nope. He didn't want me to cook, saying that I deserved a day off from kitchen work, too. So he said he was just going to run over to the Safeway and get something there. I tried to talk him out of it, but he wouldn't budge. It's not that bad! My car can make it! Sigh. I decided to tag along, and good thing I did.

We weren't barely out of the driveway when we got stuck in the snow just off the street. Since I can't really drive a stick shift -- well, I CAN but my problem is starting and stopping and that's kinda the important thing to know how to do well when trying to get free from a snowdrift -- I got out to push. Now that I think about it, I don't really have the power to push a whole car out of the snow, but when you're desperate you don't really think about these things. So I'm pushing and instructing him on what to do, when these two, 18ish aged boys came over to help us. Thank goodness they did because the extra muscle helped to get us out.

We got to Safeway, picked out our dinner, and came home. Just as we were headed into the driveway, we got stuck again. Pretty much in the exact same place. We were really counting on having momentum going in, but it didn't seem to matter in snow that deep. So there was our car, sticking perpendicular out into the road, facing our driveway. We couldn't even pretend like we were parked on the street. After a while of rocking back and forth (going forward a bit, then in reverse a bit), amazingly Idle Husband got it free and parked it across the street. Then we both grabbed a shovel and began shovelling out the snow on the street in front of our driveway. I don't think I can adequately describe to you how much work shovelling 8 inches of snow is. Unless you've experienced it, you probably can't imagine it. Snow isn't the fluffy, light, and serene stuff it's made out to be sometimes. Especially when it all settles on the ground together. It's so heavy and dense that it's impossible to pick it up in one shovel-ful. I had to keep skimming the top off of the drift I was working on until I had dug my way down to the ground.

What an adventure we had! I hope the hamburger was worth it! (Idle Husband insists that it was)

White Winter

I think we got close to 8 inches of snow yesterday!

Actual snowdrifts on the windows! I thought this sort of thing only happened in the movies

It's hard to see, but because of all the wind overnight, there's now pretty snow ripples everywhere

I like how the snow left this pretty pattern in our junipers

Rainbow bread!

Loaf One: better picture, junkier rainbow

Loaf Two: Better rainbow, junkier picture.

So last week, I attempted making rainbow bread. It was one of my Christmas gift ideas since I've been pondering doing a bread theme. I'd never attempted dying dough so these were my tester loaves. Anyway, I honestly thought it was my idea alone. I really did. Then, as the dough was rising, I googled it, and apparently this stuff's everywhere. Not that I wanted to have a unique idea for something, but you know, I kinda did.

Here's what I learned:

1. It's really hard to divide dough that's meant to make two loaves into seperate colours while still leaving some white to encase the whole mess.

2. I should probably figure out how to do this just before it goes in the oven, as the second proofing flattened my rainbow effect.

3. Add in all the flour needed, don't skimp. The white portion didn't have enough so this bread was really soft and squishy and hard to cut. Not that that's a bad thing, but it is.

4. It's kind of embarrassing for Idle Husband to be eating sandwiches made of rainbows at work. He got a lot of questions the first day.

Inquistive programmers: Is that bread blue?!Oh wait! It's green, too! What? What's going on there?! [they start coming over to inspect it closer]

IH: It's just bread, ok?

5. Don't make this again. Make more sophisticated, manly breads in the future.

owly

Check out  my Christmas decorations!

Actually, never mind cuz I'm really disappointed in them. Well, not THAT disappointed, but last year's Christmas was our first Christmas in this house, and, well, I don't know if that had anything to do with it, but at the time, I was feeling like I wanted a very understated Christmas-y look. I just wanted a simple tree with simple decorations and since I didn't have any, I made a bunch of stuff.

While unpacking my decorations and setting up the tree this year, I thought, Oh. These decorations are terrible.

I made stupid baked play-doh mushrooms which I spent forever moulding and, surprisingly, I was super happy with them last year (save for a few that took on a more squished appearance). This year, I'm a little embarrassed of them. I mean, What was I thinking?! When did I think misshapen pink and tan mushrooms looked cool and modern? I think being bent over a lump of pink play-doh for 5 hours played a big part in me believing they were awesome and folksy. But they're not. And I realize now I could have shaped them so much better. I'm about this close to redoing them, but then I think that I'll probably hate the new revised version next year and then I'll end up making mushroom decorations every year for the rest of my life until I get it right which will probably be never.

And I suppose I still don't mind the owls...I suppose...

Otherwise, I'm a little ashamed of my underdecorated house. Where last year I wanted quiet and unassuming, this year I want it to look like Christmas threw up in our living room.  What's up with that?!

Blah to baking

I've been on this huge baking kick lately. Not because I have a ton of different cravings but because I've been coming across all sorts of interesting recipes lately, all of which I've immediately thought: OMG! That would be the best gift EVER! I have to do a test run! So last week, I was kinda focused on bread (when the light is right, I'll post something that didn't quite turn out the way I wanted, but damn it looks pretty). This week, I had at least 3 recipes I wanted to try and I was scarily low on all supplies. I got my list together and went out and bought everything I thought I'd need.

But after baking this:

Rosemary Cornbread from an old Martha Stewart Living magazine

(I haven't tried it, but the batter tasted pretty fantastic so I have high hopes for this one. The third bread better be a charm, Martha, jus' sayin')

and these:

The winning chocolate chip cookie from Omnomicon's Recipe Round Robin

(T and I actually participated in this one back in June so that's how long I've been waiting to make this recipe -- also, so sad she's not writing over there much anymore!)

and then eating my fair share of these, I'm suddenly over the whole baking thing. I've been wanting to make these cookies for what feels like forever so naturally, nothing else could satisfy my baking needs until these were mixed up.

I think my baking world has finally righted itself.  Funny, that.

So. My original plan was to gift (only the few close friends I do make gifts for) three different types of bread with homemade butter and one fancy fruitcake (to the friend who likes fruitcake). Now I'm thinking, make these cookies, omit the nuts (allergies!), and call it a season.

Maybe I'm just tired today. I was up at 4:30 afterall!