Too Cool for School

When you make the decision to have children you never know what you are going to get - I really did not think I would get this.

He makes me laugh all the time - and he LOVES his sunglasses.

This is Anderson - soother, blankie and often sporting his sunglasses - it does not matter if we are inside, outside, dark or light out - he will wear them.

Conversation with a 3 year old

Jackie was asking me a question about my wedding flowers (which I have dried in a vase), since she has recently been to a wedding and we watch The Little Mermaid get married at least once a day, she was asking about our wedding.

Jackie: Mommy, can I come to your wedding?
Me: No honey, it was a long time ago, before you were born, when you were just a twinkle in your Daddy's eye.

Jackie: and Anderson is a twinkle in your eye Mommy?
Me: yes, Jackie, he was.

Baking Together

If you know me, you know I love to be in the kitchen.

I love to cook, I love to bake, and I really love to read a new cook book.

(Barefoot Contessa just released a new cook book!!)

I have some great memories of helping my Mom bake.

* Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins - sitting on the kitchen floor, using a hand mixer while Mom added stuff to the bowl.

* Cookies - she would roll out the dough, we would use the cookie cutters, then after they were cooked, we got to deorate them too.

I want to create some great kitchen memories with my children as well.

I also want them to be conforatble in the kitchen.

So it starts early in my house.

(this picture was taken in the summer)

Right now the favourites are:

* turning on and off the stand mixer

* turning on and off the blender

* putting chopped vegetables into bowls

* mixing

* cracking eggs

When we were hunting for a house to buy, we looked for a very specific kitchen layout.

I needed space.

Adam needed space.

Little did we know how nice it is to have such a wide open floor plan with the stove / oven on the other side of the room.

This allows me to work at the kitchen counter with both kids on chairs and have them no where near the dangers of a hot stove.

Next up: I have 2 of the great little knives from Pampered Chef - My Safe Cutter. I am going to start Jackie on her knife skills soon.

Old Pictures

I was going through some old pictures the other day and I thought I would share a few.

There are so many, so I only picked a few, but I will try and post a few more over the next little while.

Sisters

Cory & Ace

No, you can't count the candles to find out how old I am there - let's just say I was somewhere in my 20's.

Good friends Al & Sarah's wedding.

Adam & Shane

Can you tell we all had a few drinks that night?

Sean

Wedding invitation making party - look at how good Adam is!

My Stagette!

Pear Spice Cake with Pecan Praline Topping

I made this on the weekend when we had friends over. Super yummy.

The original recipe called for walnuts instead of pecans - but I like pecans better, so I made the small change and it was great.

This is a perfect cold day dessert.

Pear Spice Cake with Pecan Praline Topping

Cake:

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 1/2 tsp ground allspice

1 1/2 tsp nutmeg

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup butter, softened

1 cup sugar

3 large eggs, separated

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup buttermilk

3 pears, peeled, cored and diced roughly

1 cup pecan pieces, toasted

Preheat oven to 350 F. Butter and flour bundt pan.

Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into a bowl.

Beat together butter, sugar, cinnamon, allspice and nutmeg in another bowl with an electric mixer until fluffy, about 3 minutes.

Add egg yolks 1 at a time, beating well after each addition, then beat in vanilla.

Reduce speed to low, then add flour mixture and buttermilk alternately in batches, mixing well after each addition.

Fold in pear and pecan pieces.

Beat egg whites together in another bowl with cleaned beaters until they just hold stiff peaks, then fold whiles into batter but thoroughly.

Spoon batter into pan, smoothing top, and bake until a wooden pick or skewer comes out clean, 40 to 50 minutes.

Cool cake in pan on rack 10 minutes, then invert onto rack and cool completly.

(Mine took 60 mintues to cook - not sure if that is the altitude or not?)

Pecan Praline Topping

3/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup butter

1/4 cup whipping cream

1 cup pecan pieces, toasted

Stir brown sugar, whipping cream and butter in heavy saucepan over medium-high heat until smooth.

Boil 3 minutes, sturring often. Stir in pecan pieces.

Spoon warm topping over cake.

I added a nice dollop of whipped cream - I had to buy the whipping cream for the recipe - I could not let it go to waste.

Source: adapted from Joy the Baker - her source - adapted from Gourment December 1992

The Ultimate Suburban Family

I was thinking the other day about "the suburban family" and how we fit into that stereotype / role - whatever you want to call it.

1. We have 2 kids - one girl, one boy.
2. We have a dog.
3. We live in the suburbs.
4. We drive a minivan.
5. We own a trailer and use it for all our vacations.


Can we get any more stereotypical?

10 Rules to Eat By

I found this in Avenue Magazine and loved it, so I thought I would share.

* If you are hungry, eat. If you're not hungry, don't.

* While a glass of wine a day is perfectly good, a bottle is not.

* Never buy dinner from the same place you buy auto parts.

* Eat corn as a vegetable, not as high-fructose syrup.

* Don't eat while standing, walking, driving or typing.

* Ignore the big labels on food packaging; instead, focus on the ingredients.

* Don't buy foods with ingredients that sound like they might also be used in chemical weapons.

* On breakfast cereals, crackers and pastas, the word "whole" should appear as part of the first or second ingredient.

* Skip "All You Can Eat" buffets. If these things had a subtitle, it's be "All Quantity, No Quality."

* Don't eat one food or type of food in exclusion of all others.

Billboard Message

I saw this billboard today while stopped at a red light.

It is such a powerful, important message I thought I would share it.

On My Nightstand - The Passage

Even though I read this book in the summer, it deserves its own post.


As I started to hear about this book I knew it was one I had to own. I follow a few different book blogs and they were given early release copies to review, and the reviews were amazing.


I put this book down as one of the best books I have ever read.
It is long (766 pages), but soooo good.

On the back cover:
First, the unthinkable: a security breach at a secret U.S. government facility unleashes the monstrous product of a chilling military experiment. Then, the unspeakable: a night of chaos and carnage gives way to sunrise on a notion, and ultimately a world, forever altered. All that remains for the the stunned survivors is the long fight ahead and a future rules by fear - of darkness, of death, of fate far worse.

As civilization swiftly crumbles into a primal landscape of predators and prey, two people flee in search of sanctuary. FBI agent Brad Wolgast is a good man haunted by what he's done in the ling of duty. Six-year-old Amy Harper Bellafonte is a refugee from the doomed scientific project that has triggered apocalypse. Wolgast is determined to protect her from the horror set loose by her captors, but for Amy, escaping the bloody fallout is only the beginning of a much longer odyssey - spanning miles and decades - towards the time and place where she must finish what should never have begun.

I really, really liked this book. Even though it s pretty far fetched, it is so well written I actually believed this could happen.

If you are looking for a fantastic thriller novel - this is it!

Rating: 5 out of 5.

On My Nightstand - Catchup 2

Attempting to catch up on my reading reviews.
The Likeness - Tana French

Tana French wrote In the Woods - which I had read earlier this summer, this book was reported to be even better - a mystery thriller - and it was.

You do not have to read the first one to be able to read this one - and I would pick this one over In the Woods for sure.


Looking for a good thriller novel - this is it!


Rating: 4.5 out of 5



Olive Kitteridge - Elizabeth Strout

Another book club pick - I had heard lots about this book and it was suppose to be great.

I have to be honest - not my favourite book. It was more like 10 little short stories all thrown together and with some small details changed to make them "fit".


Rating: 2 out of 5.




Heart of the Matter - Emily Giffin


Again this is a easy on the brain kind of book in the midst of some harder to read books.

I have read all of Emily Giffin's previous books, so I felt I needed to read this one. I did not think this one was as good as her previous books, maybe I was looking for a bit lighter content?


Rating: 2.5 out of 5.

On My Nightstand - Catchup

I know have I neglected this portion of my blog for long enough, so I will attempt a few catchup posts.


I am going back to post a little bit about each book I have read since I last posted.



Chasing Harry Winston - by Lauren Weisberger

Lauren Weisberger wrote The Devil Wears Prada - never read the book, but saw the movie and quite liked it.


Chasing Harry Winston is a great fun read. Good to read in the midst of some other bigger, deeper books.


Rating: 3.5 out of 5




Cutting for Stone - Abraham Verghese

This is my pick for book club, and i have to be honest, I did not like the book at all until I was 3/4 of the way through.

If I had not picked it, I doubt I would have finished it.

I know why I did not like it - the back cover of the book is totally misleading as to what is going to happen.


It turns out to be a great book, but I was expecting something else so I had a difficult time reading it / enjoying it until I was way into the book.


Rating: 3 out of 5.

The Pilot's Wife - Anita Shreve


This is an old Oprah's book club pick. I have been meaning / wanting to read this book for a long time now.


I read this book while on holidays in 25 hours - it did not take me 25 hours to read it - but I was done 25 hours after I started it. It is a relatively short book (293 pages), okay short for me, and I found it incredibly easy to read.

I also really wanted to know why / how, etc.

It is a good book that grips you right to the end.


Rating: 4 out of 5

Grandma & Grandpa

This past Thanksgiving we spent in Canmore where we are lucky to have some pretty amazing people.

Grandma Hill and Grandpa Eric!

Grandma and the kids (this is the Grandma that made both the kids Blankies).

Grandpa and Jackie reading a story together.

Wait, on closer inspection that is a motorcycle magazine. He spend a good 20-30 minutes with her reading the magazine teaching her about each bike.
She liked the blue one.

Puppy Treats

I thought I would share with my readers the best dog treats around.

Waggin' Train Chicken Jerky Tenders are the best!

Brutis approved (actually I think they are like a drug to him - seriously addicted!)

We buy them in a big bag at Costco - they are dried chicken pieces and dogs LOVE them.

Brutis gets one a day. He only gets it after both kids are in bed, but he will lay on the kitchen floor at least an hour prior hoping we might forget and give him one earlier.



How can you not love this face?

Blog Watch

Dinner with Julie is always the first blog I check in my food blog line up.

She is a Calgarian with a small child.

She is regularily on CBC radio and is well known in the food industry here in Calgary and I am sure many other parts of Canada.

I honstly can't say I have made a ton of her recipes, but she is certianly inspiring.

How could this not make you want to start cooking right away?

The link to this recipe is here.

Thanksgiving Parks

This year we spent Thanksgiving out in Canmore.
The weather was beautiful so we hit a few parks - okay, almost all of them within walking distance.

I love this shot of the park with the mountain in the back ground.
How can you not love this?

Brutis also likes the playground, he often goes down the slide - this time he was dragged down.

Brutis has also been known to like a swing or two.

Pumpkin Patch

I thought it would be fun to take the kids to pick pumpkins, however around Calgary, the only places that let you come and pick pumpkins also have admission to other things. Since we were not interested in all the other stuff, just the pumpkins, then next best thing was a farmer's market.

We went to one on Thanksgiving weekend, the weather was beautiful and the kids loved all the pumpkins.
Jackie picked the first one she saw, Anderson picked them all. They each got to bring home one large pumpkin each that Adam will carve up with them the day before Halloween.

5 Years and Counting

Happy Anniversary Adam!

Today marks five years for us.

In the past 5 years we bought our second house.
We started our family with the greatest dog alive!
You learned how to build a deck.
We learned how to make a baby (twice)!
We had 2 beautiful, wonderful children.
We both changed jobs.
There have been weddings, birthdays, holidays celebrations and even a graduation.
We bought a trailer, or two, or three.
We bought our place in Moyie.
We camped, A LOT!
We introduced our children to camping, swimming, playing, and snuggles.
We have cried together, laughed together and loved each other.

I have enjoyed the past 5 years with you, I look forward to 5 more, 10 more and even 50 more!

Happy Anniversary Babe!




For everyone else, I normally only post one picture of us on our wedding day for our anniversary, but this year, I thought I would share a whole bunch more from that wonderful day.