Going Domestic

Bananas are the perfect food

Last week, we all packed into my trusty car and spent three days in the mountains, thanks to Chris having the brilliant idea that we needed a holiday. We stayed at Emerald Lake (yes, the lake actually appears green!). I had the most delicious breakfast there - banana bread french toast! I'd seen this offered on a few menus in Calgary, but I'd never tried it before. I'm more of an omelette girl at heart. The banana bread french toast was divine - warm, with a thin coating of egg on the slices, served with warm slices of apple with cinnamon sprinkled over them! Chris wasn't so lucky at our last breakfast - his hash with game meats was way underdone!

Where did all of my flowers go?

I think I understand now why people who have spectacular gardens and a lot of money often have a personal gardener. I loved our flowerbeds last year, but since all we planted were annuals, we now have to do all of the work all over again! I really don't want to re-plant pansies and snapdragons every May ... We've made one trip to the greenhouse so far this year, and this time we didn't stray outside the perennial section except to pick out some veggies. I tried to find perennials with lovely colours, so we have some bellflower, two kinds of foxglove, a few violets, an English daisy, and a few more that I can't remember.  I also planted two dahlia tubers in the front yard last night - Chris picked them out. They're peach. I had a dream last night that I planted them all wrong *sigh*

linen envy

A few months ago, one of my friends, who travels as part of her job, mentioned in an email that she takes photographs of some of the better-decorated hotel rooms that she has stayed in.  Joking, I emailed back asking if that means that her condo looked like a hotel. She replied that she hasn't gone that far yet, but she was inspired to buy a set of nice-quality linens for her bed.

Ah. I can related to that. Last week I took the flannel sheets off our our own bed and put on the so-soft 100% cotton ones that we had put away for the winter. I can't remember what their thread-count is exactly, but they're so lovely that it's hard not to lie around in them for an extra ten minutes every morning.  Maybe it's silly, but each time we stay in a nice hotel, I look forward to discovering what the sheets are like. One of these days, I want to sew a satin-y duvet cover for our bed, too, like the ones at the Union Bank Inn.  If I could only arrange for someone to clean my bedroom every day and provide Chris with unlimited wake-up calls ...

Lovely bunch of coconuts

Chris and I had take-out Thai food for dinner last night, and I had to laugh when I saw the gigantic container of coconut rice that he chose for our order!  We both love coconut rice, but are a sorry excuse for a pair of Thai chefs when it comes to making it on our own!  The last attempt was undercooked and not very coconut-ish in the end. Boo. I might try this recipe from Epicurious next time coconut rice strikes our fancy; hopefully one of these days we'll find a fool-proof recipe *fingers crossed*

Something Special for Ani :)

Courtesy of Foodiechickie:

THREE NAMES YOU GO BY:
1. Laura
2. Mum-mum-mum-mum ...
3. Sweetie

THREE SCREEN NAMES YOU HAVE HAD:
1. Laura
2. Neatfreak
3. Clementine

THREE PHYSICAL THINGS YOU LIKE ABOUT YOURSELF:
1. not too tall
2. not too short
3. dark blue eyes

THREE PHYSICAL THINGS YOU DON’T LIKE ABOUT YOURSELF:
1. too-straight hair
2. feet (but I don't like feet in general)
3. stretch marks

THREE PARTS OF YOUR HERITAGE:
1. Czech
2. Scottish
3. Ukrainian

THREE THINGS THAT SCARE YOU:
1. fire
2. strange dogs
3. the thought of my dear husband being in an accident

THREE OF YOUR EVERYDAY ESSENTIALS:
1. brushing my teeth
2. chapstick
3. drinking lots of water

THREE THINGS YOU’RE WEARING NOW:
1. Old Navy T
2. Adias trackpants
3. diamond studs

THREE OF YOUR FAVORITE BANDS OR MUSICAL ARTIST*
1. Paul McCartney
2. Oysterband
3. Big Sugar
* my husband has been a big influence

THREE OF YOUR FAVORITE SONGS
1. Marshmellow World
2. Embraceable You
3. Logdrivers Waltz (fulfills the Canadian content requirement!)

THREE THINGS YOU WANT IN A RELATIONSHIP:
1. Love
2. Companionship
3. Agreement on pizza toppings

TWO TRUTHS AND A LIE: (Which is a lie?)
1. I'm right-handed
2. I haven't had a cavity ever
3. My hair caught on fire once

THREE PHYSICAL THINGS ABOUT THE PREFERRED SEX THAT APPEAL TO YOU:
1. Soft shoulders
2. Sparkling eyes
3. Taller than me :)

THREE OF YOUR FAVORITE HOBBIES:
1. Baking
2. Sewing
3. Photography

THREE THINGS YOU WANT TO DO REALLY BADLY RIGHT NOW:
1. Go on an extended vacation
2. Sleep through the night :)
3. Eat a bunch of cookies

THREE CAREERS YOU’RE CONSIDERING:
1. Photographer
2. Pastry Chef
3. Designer of a line of baby blankets and such

THREE PLACES YOU WANT TO GO ON VACATION:
1. Iceland
2. South Africa
3. Turkey

THREE KIDS NAMES YOU LIKE:
1. Madeline
2. Henry
3. Amelia

THREE THINGS YOU WANT TO DO BEFORE YOU DIE:
1. Learn to play an instrument (besides the recorder)
2. Have a career I love
3. Hike the Machu Picu (sp?) trail

THREE WAYS THAT YOU ARE STEREOTYPICALLY A GIRL/BOY:
1. Memory like an elephant (well, before M came along)
2. Like jewellry
3. Like being tidy

THREE CELEBRITY CRUSHES
1. From the 1980's: Michael J Fox
2. From the 1990's: Antonio Bandaras in "Philadelphia"
3. From the 2000's: Colin Firth, I guess. I seem to like actors with accents.

Big Brother Likes Pizza, Evidently

Since our daughter was born, Chris and I order pizza for dinner much more frequently. We usually order our two pizzas (a ham and pineapple and the other something else) from Panago, but sometimes we order from Dominos instead because they're really close for one of us to go and pick up the order. I think that we've been ordering a little too much, though. This coupon was attached to our last Dominos order:

 

Blind Leading the Blind

My daughter, bless her little heart, has decided that it's not cool to go to bed at 7 pm when it's still light outside. Nor is it acceptable to continue sleeping when the sun has risen in the morning. As neither Chris nor I think that it would be ideal to have a ten month-old go to bed when the sun sets at 9:30 pm or wake up at 5:30, we recently bought one of those room-darkening roller blinds from Home Depot. I installed it in Madeline's room this weekend, a process which was extremely straightforward, though I am surprised the hardware kit came with nails instead of screws. But that's besides the point!

The point is that I chose a possessed blind. It won't cooperate. When I first hooked it up on Saturday, the blind would allow itself to be pulled down. But it wouldn't go back up. I re-rolled it a few times but didn't experience any change. On Sunday, I tried re-rollling yet again to adjust the tension, but still, it would only go down. Then on Sunday night, after Madeline was sleeping, it began to spontaneously roll up!  It did this at least three times, and none of us were impressed. Since then, I've tried re-rolling it numerous times, and now it won't stay down! Argh!  I am so frustrated with the blind that I have actually given up on it for the time being, and covered the window with aluminum foil ...

Building a Better Burger

When I was living at home, I was often teased about my culinary abilities (or lack thereof). One thing that I was trusted to do was prepare hamburger patties for the odd barbeque. I basically followed by mom's instructions, which meant adding an egg, some cracker crumbs, and a variety of basic seasonings to the ground beef. I have stayed pretty true to that formula over the years because the burgers always turned out very good. I might add some chopped onions, or some interesting sauce, but I didn't dabble much.

Then, we read a newspaper article about Michael Noble and his recipe for excellent burgers. We paid attention to this because Michael Noble is the only Canadian chef to appear on the original Iron Chef (didn't win) and more recently he was the executive chef at a restaurant we like. Anyway, he proposed the idea of adding oatmeal to the raw hamburger mixture, which I took to be a stand-in for the cracker crumbs I was accustomed to. We've tried it twice so far, and the burgers are actually really good with the oatmeal. They don't remind me of breakfast time Quaker Oats at all, thank goodness!