My Birthday

As I turn 25 again, I reflect back over my past birthday's and this one was definetly one of the best.

We decided to invite my family over for a birthday brunch where I cooked bacon a fritatta and hashbrowns all in the oven - made for a very easy to prepare and easy to clean up breakfast.

Of couse what brunch is not complete without Mimosas?  And what birthday is not complete without cake?

I did ask Adam to make my cake this year, but then I saw this beauty at Superstore and let him off the hook.

An Award

Alison, over at Life and Times of Alison and Justin, awarded me the "Stylish Blogger Award".

Thank you Alison!  Go check her out, she has a great blog.

The Rules are:

1. Thank and link back to the person who gave you the award.

2. Share 7 things about yourself.

3. Award to recently discovered bloggers.

4. Contact these bloggers and tell them about this award.

 

Thank you Alison, I thouroughly enjoy your blog.

 

Many of my readers do not know who Alison and Justin are:

Justin is my brother Blake's best friend and Alison is his wife.

 

7 things about me:

 

1. My nickname growing up (used only by my Dad) was Weed. (This name is no longer used by anyone – so don’t even try).

2. The ONLY person allowed to call me Jen is my mother. Not even Adam is allowed.

3. My name is actually Jenny, not Jennifer, and I HATE it when people try and call me Jennifer to be more formal even though I have introduced myself as Jenny. (This happens at work more than you would think.)

4. My earliest memories start at age 4. (Scary that Jackie is about to be 4 and that means lasting memories.)

5. As much as I love to cook, there are still things that scare me, like making pie pastry, I have no idea why, but I do plan on conquering this fear this year.

6. If we did not have kids to feed and set an example for, I would still have popcorn for dinner at least once a week.

7. I would rather eat a salty snack than chocolate any day.

 

Now the rules say to award recently discovered bloggers, I am just going to award a few blogs I love.

 

1. Dee Ann at Once Upon a Time

2. Starr at Starlite Studio

3. Sarah at Stuff and Things

Winter Smoked Tomato Bisque

Winter Smoked Tomato Bisque

Olive oil
Salt & pepper
8 large Roma tomatoes, cored and halved
1 red pepper, cored and halved
1 large onion, peeled and halved
2 celery stocks, large dice
1 carrot, large dice
4 cloves garlic, minced
½ tsp dry oregano
½ tsp dry thyme
½ cup white rice
2 litres chicken stock
½ cup chopped fresh basil
½ cup whole cream
White wine (optional)
1 tsp liquid smoke

Place, tomatoes, red pepper and onion on a large baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil, and roast in the oven on broil setting for 30 minutes. Remove from oven, cooling slightly then dice and set aside.
While vegetables are cooling, heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a large stock pot over medium heat, add celery, carrot, garlic, oregano and thyme and sauté until soft.
Add the roasted vegetables to the pot along with the rice and chicken stock and bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer 25 – 30 minutes or until rice is cooked.
Using a hand blender, puree the soup then add cream, fresh basil white wine and liquid smoke, adjust the seasonings with salt and pepper to taste.

Source:
If you do not know already I work at Trail Appliances where we have a full time chef on staff. 
He is not a chef for making staff lunches and food, rather he is a chef to help the customers make the right decision about what they need to buy for their kitchen, and once that happens he also will help them learn how to use a their new oven.

He also puts out a monthly newsletter that includes recipes, I do all his recipe editing and work very closely with him.

This is his recipe, as I was editing it, I knew this was one I had to make.

Adam LOVED it, Anderson LOVED it, Jackie, I know she will like it, she was just being picky that day.
Oh, and I LOVED it too!

Our New Year's

At Adam's company Christmas party he won a pair of hockey tickets.

Lucky for us our amazing babysitter was available, so off we went.

Calgary vs hmmm - honestly - I can't remember, but we won!

Self portriat at the game, I was the DD this time, Adam, well he enjoyed himself.

I thoroughly enjoyed my nachos, the company and night out.

One of the best parts was after the game they did some fireworks inside.  I tried to get a few pictures but all I brought was my iPhone - so not the best pictures.

All About Us

I saw this over at Alison's blog and thought I would join  in the fun and sharing.

All about Adam and I!

1. What are your middle names? Desmond & Marguerite

2. How long have you been together? married 5 years, together 7 1/2 years
3. How long did you know each other before you started dating? a few months
4. Who asked who out? Adam asked me out
5. How old are each of you? Adam - 37; me - 31
6. Did you go to the same school? No, never - however we have worked at 2 different jobs together.
7. Are you from the same home town? No - Adam is from Toronto, moved here after University; I am from the Prairies.
8. Who is the smartest? Me - hands down!
9. Who majored in what? Adam - hmm - not sure what exactly - nothing he is using now.  I did not do any post-secondary.
10. Who is the most sensitive? Me.
11. Where is the furthest you two have traveled together as a couple? Mexico.
12. Who has the worst temper? hmm - we both have a bit of a temper - but he tends to lose his faster with the kids.
13. How many children do you want? 2 - we are done!
14. Who is more social? We are both pretty social - but I would say he is more than me.
15. Who is the neat freak? Neither one of us - but I tend to be neater than him.
16. Who is the most stubborn? Both - it just depends on what it is.
17. Who wakes up earlier? Me - well, he might be awake before me, but I will get out of bed before him usually - unless it is my morning to sleep in and he takes care of the kids.
18. Where was your first date? We had a small date - drinks at Melrose - but I would say our first big date was dinner at Murrietta's
19. Who has the bigger family? We both do - I have more sibblings and we all live close, he has a bigger extended family, but they all live far away.
20. Do you get flowers often? No!  Adam has a terrible time remembering that even the grocery store sells flowers!
21. How do you spend the holidays? Holidays - Christmas - with family usually. 
22. Who is more jealous? Neither of us.
23. How long did it take to get serious? Do you want that in hours or minutes?  Once we started dating it was serious from minute one!
24. Who eats more? Adam
25. What do you do for a living? Adam is in sales; I am an executive assistant.
26. Who does the laundry? Both of us.
27. Who's better with the computer? Me.
28. Who drives when you are together? Adam 75% of the time, me 25%.
29. What is your song? We don't really have a song.