Halloween Costume

It's not quite complete yet but...

in the words of Jigsaw, "Let's play a game."

It's called Guess My Costume!

Clue 1:

Blonde hair (BIG blonde hair), and a flashy outfit. Hmm that could be a number of people though.

Clue 2:

Cowboy boots. Pointing you in the Country direction? Put the two together and you should be able to narrow it down. She's a legend.

Happy guessing!

Answer tomorrow.

Cute Animals Have Reached a New Level of Hilarity

Watch this. You'll be forever grateful that you did.

I laughed almost the entire time.

Amazing.

Thanks to John for the heads-up.

And a special shout out to my Aunt Wendy who reads my blog!

Love you Aunt Wendy!

Halloween Party Ideas

Only a few more days until Halloween!

I'm sure by now most of you have finalized your plans for Saturday night. If you haven't and have no idea what to do, why not throw a house party?

I had some friends over last year and had so much fun decorating and preparing. It doesn't take a whole lot of time AND Dollarama (aka the best store ever) has such a great variety of decoartions.

In terms of food I made:

• Lady Fingers - for the nail your best bet is to use an almond but if you have nut allergies (like me) you can use maraschino cherries. Don't forget to put in a few lines around the knuckles to make it look more like the real thing.
• Gingerbread Skeletons - just make a regular gingerbread man and then draw in some bones with white icing.
• Gooey Brain Spread aka baked brie with whatever you want to spread it onto. Delicious.
• Bloody Eye-balls - meatballs in some sort of red sauce. I used a can of stewed tomatoes to make it look more like blood and guts. Plus the tomatoes were seasoned with Italian spices so it added to the flavour of the meatballs.
• I won't lie, I can't read what I wrote on the sign in the very back and I've forgotten what exactly the dip actually was. I think it might say "guts and gore dip" but just use whatever you want for dip and give it a gross name.

All of the decorations on the table as well as the orange tissue paper all came from Dollarama. The black napkins I already had.

Happy Halloween Decorating!

58 Days till Christmas...not that I'm counting

58 Days.

58 agonizingly long days until Christmas is upon us.

In case you weren't previous aware or didn't make an inference from that little blurb above, I am addicted to Christmas. Like, we're talking painfully dependent, makes my heart beat faster to think and talk about it kind of addicted. It is ABSOLUTELY without a doubt the best time of year.

See what I did there? With the colours? See?

Every year, around Halloween, I am reminded that the next major holiday is Christmas. It's hard not to be reminded of it because as soon as Halloween is over, those decorations and bags of candy are relocated to another aisle of the store and the priority shelfing is allocated to all things Christmas. Not to mention that there's a reminder every so often of how many shopping days are left until Christmas. Talk about pressure. Plus November is kind of a blah month, much like February and March (no offense to those who have birthdays then, I'd like to thank you from the bottom of my heart for giving me a reason to celebrate during those months), so extending Christmas into November is perfectly excusable.

Last year, my first Christmas living with John, was a harsh wake up call. I learned the hard reality that not everyone is as Christmas gung-ho as I am. Not completely unreasonable, but I was not allowed to decorate until at least December 1 (took an entire day off from studying to do so and took a day off school in November to craft stockings) and Christmas music was nixed until about 10 days before. I downloaded something like 125 Christmas songs. I listened to them secretly on my ipod every chance I got. This is not a joke.

*Mental picture: me on the elliptical machine, sweating to The Nutcracker soundtrack, Trans Siberian Orchestra, etc*

To satiate my need for all things Christmas, and to try and keep myself in check (still well over a month to go) I have decided that the best thing to do is to designate one (1) day a week (just one) to bringing you something in the Christmas spirit, whether it be a craft, gift idea, or recipe.

As today is Wednesday I guess from now on you can look forward to Christmas Wednesdays!

Today I have for you a craft. An adorable button ornament creation taken from the Martha Stewart Website. I am definitely going to try making these at some point. I'll let you know how they work out.

Please feel free to send me any and all Christmas ideas. I live for them.

Happy (Merry) Christmas Wednesday!

Banana Bread

I love banana bread. It's so easy to make, it's delicious, AND it doesn't have to be bad for you. I have some in the oven as we speak so while I wait for it to finish so that I can take a picture of it I'll post the recipe for it:



In a bowl mix together:

• 2 1/2 bananas


• 1 cup packed brown sugar


• 1/2 cup sour cream


• 1/4 cup oil (I used apple sauce)


• 1 tbsp vanilla


• 2 eggs

Add, in a separate bowl,

• 1 1/2 cups flour


• 1 tsp baking soda


• 1 tsp baking powder

Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir until combined.
I then added about 1/4 cup of wheat bran, and 1/3 cup of chocolate chips.

Bake at 350 for about 1 hour. Then let cool, cut, and enjoy!

To go with your banana bread, and for your viewing pleasure, click here
No one celebrates Autumn, halloween, and pumpkins like Canadians :)

Niagara Weekend

It's only Saturday night and already I am worn out from a crazy weekend.

Seven of us headed down to Niagara Falls last night for an evening of gambling and general debauchery. We managed to squeeze 7 people into the presidential suite while only paying for 4 guests.

Fraud might not be a good thing but saving money definitely is.

Our room was amazing. We had two rooms, in fact: a party room and a bedroom/party room. The picture below is an almost accurate representation. In ours the fireplace was in the room without the bed.

That tub is designed for 2.

Or 7.

Fallsview. Can you believe last night was the first time I've ever stepped foot in a casino? It was fun and I even got a tutorial on how to play the slots. I was going to put some money on the roulette wheel but the minimum was $15 and my spending limit was $20...so....

On the way home, John and I took a detour to the Jackson Triggs winery. Beautiful. We missed out on the tour because it was booked solid but we did some sampling and bought a bottle of Gewurtraminer. The BEST I had was a Cabernet Franc icewine ....soooo good. I'm very partial to overly sweet wines so that one was right up my alley (it had a sweetness rating of 23). The building has this open passageway sort of thing - the smell from the winery and the fireplace was incredible. I wanna go back!

I am tired as all get out so I'm staying in, going to watch a little SNL and then fall fast asleep.

Oink Oink Delcious

Here is how I make John want to live with me:

Pigs in a blanket.

I made these yesterday for my friend's birthday and John said he was craving them today so I made some more! All you have to do is:

• Place sausages (I used Italian) in a pan, cover with about 1/2 cup of water, a lid, and leave over medium heat for about 10-12 mins.
• Drain the remaining water and fry the sausages for another 10-12 mins or until done. It works much better if you cut into the sausages the way street meat vendors do - it cooks the insides faster and renders out some of the fat that no one wants.
• Roll out thawed puff pastry and shape into a long rectangle. Spread with a mustard or condiment of choice, then roll up the puff pastry.
• Bake at 375 for about 15-20 mins or until golden brown.
• Let cool, cut into bite-sized peices and enjoy!

I'm watching National Lampoon's European Vacation. I forgot how much I love these movies. Not the new ones though. Just terrible without Chevy Chase.

Have a great week

Pumpkin-Cheesecake Charlotte

Here it is! Here's my Thanksgiving Pumpkin-Cheesecake Charlotte in all its glory!

It was a hit! I got lots of compliments. I had to "fake" a crust because when I pulled out the graham cracker crumbs from the back of my baking cupboard there were bugs in it. Gross. Good thing I keep everything else sealed in glass jars. I should have done the same for the crumbs. Live and learn, I guess. Anyway because of that I crumbled up cappuccino cookies we got from Ikea (good!), oreo thins (those 100 calorie pack ones), and a pack of lady fingers. It worked pretty well.

Also, John's mom got me pie cutters from Williams-Sonoma so I cut out some puff pastry and put it on the top. They're shaped as 3 leaves and an acorn. Darling.

I made some healthy apple bran muffins today for my friend's birthday. He and his fiance are on a more health-concious diet these days as they prepare for their upcoming wedding in Jamaica! So to avoid their wrath for bringing sugary crap I made some healthy ones and made them smaller too so that they're portion controlled.

I am sooo thoughtful.

I'll post the recipe tomorrow maybe.

That's all for now.

Have a wonderful Saturday night!

I Give Needles!

I know this has nothing to do with "Good Things" but...

I gave my first needle today!

How exciting.

I gave erythropoeitin (which is a subcutaneous injection) in the guy's arm. It looked something like this only you administer it in the fatty area that hangs from your arm, not the bicep. And you wear gloves.

I was suuuuper nervous but also very excited. It went a lot better than I was expecting and the poor patient was so patient (ba-doom-ch) with me cause I was talking to my clinical instructor the entire time I was giving him the injection hahaha. I'm fine with sub-Q cause the needles are only like 5/8 of an inch long...the intermuscular ones....that's going to be scary. We've been told to give 'em in the bum too to minimize the risk of hitting a vein, etc.

Anyway, just wanted to share!
I'll update tonight/this weekend with food-related stuffs.

P.S.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KRISTIAN!!!

Short and Sweet

Lots to do...

Learning to insert catheters tomorrow so I still have lots of readings to do.

And I haven't uploaded pictures of my charlotte (a success!) yet.

This weekend.

Promise.

Anway, on my back log of things to put up: The Metcalfe Fair!

It was a grand ol' time. I may write more about it one day but as of this moment I have other things I have to do first.

Here's me milking a (fake) cow!

Here's a GIANT pumpkin! It won the blue ribbon. At 762.6 Lbs I wouldn't eff around with this pumpkin.

Those are all the pictures you get tonight. This weekend when I have free time I'll do some proper updates.

Hope you all had a wonderful thanksgiving!

Jamie

Not Your Average Thanksgiving Desert...

I'm home sick today. I feel like I'm in elementary school again, catching up on all the daytime TV I never get to watch.

I've made my plans for my two Thanksgiving dinners this year: Sunday night at John's gradnfather's house, and Monday night at my parents' place.
Always wanting to put my best foot forward, I told John that I would make something to bring to his family's dinner. He suggested a potato dish but I know in advance that there will be like 3 or 4 of them already. Mashed, yoters (note to self: google search/wikipedia this), and the candied yams his aunt Sindy makes. Or better make if she knows what's good for her. So delicious.
We decided I'd go the tried and true desert route and I decided I'd finally try to make a desert that I've had my eye on for awhile:

The Charlotte

This is a chocolate-coconut charlotte a la Martha Stewart. My mom pointed this one out to me in one of the magazines. So pretty, though I can guarantee that mine will not look like that. Everyone knows I can't tie ribbon.

And here, ladies and gentlemen, we have a pistachio charlotte. I will not be making this one for fear of having an allergic reaction. I do like the colour scheme though.

I really want to tie my charlotte into the whole thanksgiving-pumpkin theme. I wonder if a pumpkin pie type filling would work.... maybe a pumpkin cheesecake filling? Something a little more substantial to hold up under the lady fingers...hmmm. I'll be figuring this all out either tomorrow or Sunday (frantically, last minute) so I will certainly take pictures and follow up with its tastability and workability.

Two new words. All mine. Watch out Truthiness.

*Update: YES! and NOooooo!

One new word I guess...I'll take it.

Have a great long weekend!

P.S. HAPPY BIRTHDAY ROBIN!!!!!

Birthdays!

Turns out John DOES read my blog.
Oops.
I'm both embarassed and very much in love with him.

This will be a short blog as I have a lot of work to try and cram in tonight before bed.
My sister's birthday is on Friday and since I won't have time either Thursday or Friday to do any baking, I made her some cupcakes.

First - a quick bit of info on my sister. She is, as of late, enamoured with everything Country. The music, the lifestyle, John Deere...you get the drift. Also, since she was a child she's loved pigs. She had a stuffed one named Thomas that was her constant companion for a lot of her childhood. So in that vain I decided I would theme-up my cupcakes.

Little piggies!

These also owe a big thanks to John's sister who brought us back these delicious gummy candies called Percy Pigs (the one's in the bottom row that aren't misshapen :s). The top row are ones I bought at Metro, 2/3 of the bag had faces like monsters.

Adorable!

I bought this from Costco a few weekends ago - best purchase in awhile! There's a third carrier also but I didn't have enough cupcakes to fill it.

Anyway, I'm very much looking forward to the Thanksgiving long weekend. I'll put up some photos from the Metcalfe fair and add some thanksgiving recipes too.

And perhaps some stories from Robin's birthday on Friday!


So, to leave off - in the words of Mr. Jack Donaghy himself, Alec Baldwin, happy birthday you "rude, thoughtless pig" - on Friday.

Love youuuuu

It's a 'good thing' no one actually reads my blog...

Do you get the joke in the title there? A 'good thing'? Eh? Eh?

I'm clever, I know.

As I was saying, though, it sort of suits me that no one actually reads this blog because I can do things like what I'm about to do with no reprocussions! Hurrah!

I\ve just spent the last few hours doing intense school work and decided that as a break I would catch up on my internet gossip, and do my usual google image search of whatever random item should tickle my fancy that day.

Today was wedding cakes.

Which is why I'm glad no one reads this to make fun of me or comment on how uber-romantic-girly my hormones make me during my period. Yes, I know I have no plans to marry soon, and yes I know it'd be kind of creepy for John if he found out what I do in my spare time, but this is my blog and as the sole reader of it I will do as I please.

So without further ado, I present to you my google research: Wedding cakes I want!

I'd say that these are my top 2 favourites. I want yellow and I want calla lillies. Criteria 1 and 2 met.

I kind of like the sunflower one but I also don't like it at all. I can't decide. Maybe the middle one is my favourite in batch 2. Then the cake on the far right but it's a bit plain...

Hopefully I haven't just jumped the shark for this blog :s

On a somewhat related side note, do you know where the term "jump the shark" originated?

Let me tell you!

It was an episode of Happy Days where the Fonz went water skiing and quite literally jumped over a shark. It was supposed to be the moment where the show went downhill so the term "to jump the shark" is the moment anything takes a turn for the worse, generally never to recover.

There's a website somewhere where they just talk about the moment that most of the popular tv shows jumped the shark.

Wait....

I found it. It's here. It's not exactly what I said it was but just google search it for yourself and you'll find tons o' results.

Enjoy

'Good Things' for October

It is officially fall here in Toronto, as the leaves are just starting to change colour and the weather has certainly seen a drop in the mercury. Brrr.

I meant to do this last month but forgot so beginning this month you can expect a 'Good Things' list for each month. Here are my 'Good Things' for October:

Nature walks.

When the leaves start to change colour and fall it makes for some very beautiful scenery. I suggest planning a day trip to a park and checking it out. I went to Edwards Gardens last Thanksgiving long-weekend and it was wonderful.

Warm Sweaters.

As the temperature continues to drop these become a necessity. I actually really like autumn for this reason. I love being able to wear warm, cuddly sweaters without being too cold. It's a very nice in-between and I love being able to cuddle up in sweaters.
Even in sweater-overkill like the models above.

Thanksgiving Dinner(s).

I don't know about you but I live for the 3 times a year I am guaranteed a big turkey dinner with all the fixings (Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter). I love that it takes upwards of 6 hours to cook the turkey, I love the smell it gives off, and I love the wonderful sleepiness of the tryptophan. I love that I have one dinner with my family and another with John's family. Turkeyyyyy. I should start demanding turkey for my birthday dinner.

Squash.

I really love everything about squash. They make for such great decor peices and they also taste really good. Nutritious and delicious. I made a surprisingly good squash tart earlier in August (recipe here) and I think I will make it again. My favourite would probably have to be the spaghetti squash. You cut it in half, bake it for about 45 mins and then go at it pulled-pork style with a fork. I often eat it like spaghetti too with sauce and cheese. If you've never had it, BUY ONE.
This is what it looks like and the open side on the left is what it looks like when you scrape it out.

Halloween Fun-Size Candy.

I love Halloween. I get to dress up and pretend I know how to put on makeup. I went trick-or-treating until I was 15. No joke. My best friend and I are both under 5'3" and withour youthful visages we still get mistaken for teenagers. I could probably go this year and only get a few "aren't you a little old for this?" looks. Or I could just do what I learned from my mom and buy several packages of the candy and eat most of them before Halloween actually rolls around. Important life lessons. Thanks, mom.

So there you have it, your 'Good Things' for October.

I'm off to a country fair this weekend so you can expect some pictures and hopefully some good country stories.

Jamie