hoar frost

I know winter can be...a bit of a bummer, but you can't deny how pretty it manages to be sometimes

Now I feel like I have to finish cleaning that box out.

Mmm carroty

I made carrot soup last night. I got the idea here but didn't quite use her recipe right to the letter. Like, when do I ever use anyone's dinner recipe exactly? The only things I follow exactly are baking/dessert things, everything else is a free-for-all. Anyhoo, I just went on her method and the results were fantastic! It really reminds me of that time I made sweet potato soup, and it tasted so good with cranberry sauce dolloped in there. So after providing Idle Husband with some bread and condiments as a side, I gambled and discovered that this soup tastes really nice with a drizzle of honey. It sounds weird, but it works. What did I change?

The liquids: I made my own chicken stock with the carcass from our dinner the night before (and some other bones I had frozen previously), and I used light cream (no cornstarch, it was thick enough after that).

The spices: I didn't have marjoram, thyme, or parsley. Ah well. I used ginger, salt/pepper, vegetable seasoning, obvs the spices from the chicken stock, maybe nutmeg? I can't really remember right now. I just thought about spices that work in a carrot cake and used my brain that way.

OH

Have you tried vegetable seasoning? Uh, specifically Club House vegetable seasoning? I put that shit on everything. Meat, salads, soups, sweet potato fries, baked into bread...It's only the best stuff ever. It makes everything taste just that much better. I swear.

There's plenty of soup leftover (even though I'm pretty sure I didn't end up with 6 cups of stock) and I feel like I should freeze it...but I had it for lunch today and I kinda wanna have it for lunch tomorrow, too.

On an unrelated note:

I accidentally took that soup photo without the memory card in and as soon as I found out, I was instantly pissed off. I had to go through THE BOX OF CORDS. Seriously. Does your husband do this? We have two bags of random cords in our storage room ("but what if I need them at some point in the future?" he says), and then I put all the useful charging cords in our office in a nice box. That I organized. Wrapping the cords neatly et cetera. I don't know how it became THE BOX OF CORDS FROM HELL, but it did. Anyway, amazingly, I found the cord that connects my camera to the computer in less than 5 minutes. I think the cord angels were smiling down on me.

I'm still waiting for my damn response, Fage!

Remember my juice crystal rant? (how could you not? it was yesterday)

Well, I decided to go one step further, so I went to the website, ready to send them a rather unhappy email about my juice predicament (as I did once to Fage Greek yogurt. I think it's vastly unfair that countries such as America and everywhere else get to enjoy this product but Canada, and I also find it super stupid cuz hello! We're about as multi-cultural as any country could ever get! Why isn't Greek yogurt represented?). Kraft didn't have an email (surprise surprise), but they did have a facebook fan page.

Ah ha! I became a fan just to send them this message and literally, the next day, I got a response back:

Finally! After going for years suffering with this plight, someone had to do something. It's the little things that make everything better for everyone, you know.

So, in conclusion, you're welcome, world.

Winter fun

Nothing says, "I am Canadian" quite like eating an ice cream cone with mittens on

Please, pimp my car

We officially resumed our walks for 2010

Rant

Hate: juice crystal singles. Who the hell thought this environmentally-retarded idea up?
Love: juice crystal packages -- the large ones for making a whole jug. Please make them with all the flavours at some point in time, companies -- you know who you are. The fact that all the good flavours are in the singles ticks me right off.

On an unrelated note:
I tasted the Chinese food from The Lingnan over the weekend. I was so engrossed with this family during the last season of Family Restaurant that I just had to try them out. We ordered in since it's so far away from us, but because of our distance, we had to order at least $70 worth of food in order for them to deliver. Great. And I only really wanted to try three dishes max. Good thing my mom was there and was super excited to try other stuff out. I was super excited when I found myself ordering from Amy herself. She's too funny and super great to talk to, actually. I can see why she's got such a devoted following.

The food was kind of...unimpressive. I mean, it was typical Chinese food fare and when I realized that, my enthusiasm dropped dramatically. When we ordered, we ordered things like Sum Gum Goo Lo Pork and Singapore Noodles which turned out to be sweet and sour pork and those thin yellow noodles you find everywhere. Ho hum. These were all items I wouldn't choose for myself at a buffet-style Chinese restaurant. Two dishes I felt like I had to try were the Dry Spicy Chicken and the Kung Pao Chicken. The DS Chicken wasn't spicy at all, but salty instead. It was still good, crispy and golden. Not as exciting as the show lead me to believe, though. The KP Chicken was spicy. Not super spicy, but it did have you grabbing for something to drink (Amy sent the regular KP since she knew it was my "first time"). I liked it, but the vegetables (boo to sliced celery over and over again) weren't very interesting.

Anyway, we probably won't do it again but mostly because of their distance from us and because Idle Husband does not like Chinese food at all. I knew he wasn't fond of it, but I also knew he hadn't really had it before, so I tried to choose things he might like. He picked around and ate a little of the meat, a lot of the dry spicy chicken, but otherwise, I ended up being stuck with enough leftovers to feed a small village. Le sigh. As the only leftover eater in the house, there's only so much sauced vegetables I can take in a week, you know?