Cheddar Jalapeno Biscuits

Nothing compliments pulled pork quite like a good biscuit to soak up all that sauce.

I usually stick to a basic buttermilk biscuit but this time around I want to spice it up a bit.

I'm going to follow this recipe (from www.food.com) for jalapeno cheddar biscuits to fill with delicious, delicious pulled pork.

1. Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 400°F.

2. Whisk 2 cups flour, 1 1/2 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp baking soda, and 1/2 tsp salt in a medium bowl to combine. Add 1/2 cup shredded cheese and incorporate.

3. Cut in 8 tbsp butter with a food processor until the mixture resembles coarse cornmeal.

4. Make a well in the center. Whisk 3/4 cup yogurt and 1/3 cup milk in a small bowl to combine. Add 3 jalapeños, seeded and diced.

5. Pour into the well and mix with a fork, adding a tablespoon or so of additional milk if needed to form a moist sticky dough.

6. Drop 12 heaping tablespoons of the dough onto a ungreased baking sheet spacing the biscuits about 2 inches apart.

7. Bake until the tops are tipped with golden brown about 20 minutes.



Thanksgiving/Birthday Long Weekend

Happy belated Thanksgiving!

It's a day late but it's also Thanksgiving Monday (aka stay in your PJs all day Monday) so I'm not that late.

This week there haven't been any posts because I have barely had time to sit still let alone make anything worth blogging about.

Monday I worked, Tuesday I went from the hospital straight to work, Wednesday I worked 2 shifts, Thursday I worked then went to the hospital for an overnight shift, then Friday I had a midterm then Thanksgiv'r.

Saturday John and I went for an adventure picnic to the Terracotta Badlands and to the Forks of the Credit River. I had been feeling somewhat nauseous on the drive up so I didn't get to appreciate the badlands to their full extent. I did start to feel a lot better once we found a nice shaded spot under a tree overlooking Kettle Lake at the Forks of the Credit.

Plus serrano ham and havarti on foccacia with a can of Dr. Pepper never hurt anyone.



Saturday night we went out to The Hoxton for my little sister's birthday.

Hard to believe she's 24!

Yesterday was her birthday so we celebrated with turkey and stuffing and cake and pie.

You can't see it too well in this photo but her cake (courtesy of my best friend over at Blondie's Bakery)  incredible - a carrot cake plate of nachos!

Better pictures to follow.

This week: I'm making pulled pork (right now), have a few nights off (which mean essay writing but also blog post - hurray!) and then my first wedding dress adventure on Saturday! Ah!

I also want to make jalapeno cheddar biscuits but seeing as it's a holiday I'm not optimistic that the grocery stores are open and I'm even less optomistic that Shoppers Drug Mart has jalapeno peppers....

Casserole Night

Yesterday a sweet ol' pup made her way to that big backyard in the sky.

John's family said goodbye to their dog, Molly, after 14 years.

Pets become part of our families so to lose them is to lose a family member.

She was a beautiful dog with those sad eyes and a loving personality.

She will be missed but remembered always.

I've been crazy busy so I think I might start pre-posting in an effort to keep my ramblings from occuring only once a week.

I started my new job yesterday and it's wonderful.

I teach swimming lessons at a kid's rehab hospital and, apart from getting to work with kids, one of the perks is that the water in the pool is like a bath tub. It's beautiful.

I love that they operate on a reverse-integration policy so they register kids with different abilities first (Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Down's Syndrome to name a few of the more common) and then open up any remaining spots to the general public in the area.

As a result there is a nice mix of abilities and the learning opportunities for the kids and for the instructors are immense.

My mom (who I like to think of as the Equity Ambassador to the world) would be so proud.

What else?

I told you about my night shift at the hospital, about picking up any and every shift at (other) work this past week.... I slept for 12 hours last night. John and I went out for dinner then came home to watch a movie (Jim Gaffigen stand-up on Netflix). I fell asleep on the couch at 9:30 pm.

Woke up and moved into bed at 10.

Woke up this morning at 10 am.

Not only is 10 am like a solid 4 hour sleep in for me, but I rarely sleep for more than maybe 10 hours.

My body is quite happy this morning.

 Besides falling asleep before 10 pm, I think now that I am on the closer-to-30 side of my 20s my vision is starting to go.

I am an over-reactor and a slight hypochondriac (see this post for confirmation of both) so I just assume I have some sort of macular degeneration or a brain tumour in my occipital lobe.

I like to prepare for the worst.

Anyway, I need to go get my eyes checked when I get some free time. Not today. Today is my first day with NO obligations in a long time so I'm enjoying it as is.

It could be that being tired is just making me feel wonky-eyed or it could mean always wanting reading glasses has finally sunk deep enough into my subconcious mind that I'm creating symptoms.

I do have this really annoying floater in my right eye though...

Anyway.

I want to make these cupcakes, EXACTLY the way they are made to look in this picture.

Damn you, Betty Crocker and your craftiness.

Then I want to make this.

Maybe tonight.

Note: This picture is actually of a different recipe but I couldn't find a picture of the one I want to make so this visual will have to do.

From Everyday Food:

(picture of Scalloped Potato & Leek recipe on Marthastewart.com)

• Preheat oven to 425. In a large skillet, heat 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil over medium high heat. Add 2 leeks (sliced, white and light green parts only), and 3 celery stalks (sliced). Cook until softened, about 8 minutes.
• Add in 2 pkgs frozen artichokes, 1/2 cup low sodium chicken broth, and 1 bar Neufchatel cheese (just use cream cheese like I plan on doing).
• Remove skillet from heat and add in 2 tbsp lemon juice and salt and pepper.
• Brush a baking dish with 1 tbsp oil. Arrange 1 medium russet potato, very thinly sliced, along the bottom of the baking dish and top with the artichoke mixture. Top the artichoke mixture with another 1 medium russet potatoes, very thinly sliced, and brush with 2 tbsp oil and season with salt and pepper.
• Bake until sauce is bubbling and potatoes are gold and tender, about 35-40 minutes.

Potato, Bacon & Cheddar Tart (For Sarah and the rest of us bacon-philes everywhere)

The lack of posts has been a really good indicator of the amount of free time I've had in the past week or two.

Lots of extra shifts at work, time in the hospital, and trainings at various work locations.

I have the next few hours all to myself, after having slept until 1 pm this afternoon.

I did my first night shift at the hospital last night!

Despite being terrified that I would pass out from exhaustion in a hallway somewhere, I was surprisingly awake for the better part of the 12 hours. I did get about an hour, maybe an hour and a half of shut eye during my breaks but I didn't fall fast asleep at any point in time.

And what really shocked me was that I left the hospital this morning kind of enjoying working nights.

Huh!

The night shift is still busy but it's also much quieter.

Between taking vitals every hour and making sure the patient hadn't pulled his ventilation tube off of his trache (three times, each time I panicked because I thought he was choking to death and the machine's alarm didn't help ease my anxiety), I found time to read through 2 nursing articles and even time to browse through a healthy living/organic style magazine.

I gave my first injection of the year (16th ever and no nervous hand shaking!), gave meds through a PEG tube again, set up feeds, and just about scrubbed my hands raw as the patient had MRSA.

I also narrowly missed my first death on the unit.

When I returned from break I learned from one of the other nurses that a woman had come up from another unit and within an hour had gone into cardiac arrest. They tried CPR but she had died. As she told me, I looked over my shoulder towards the area where the woman had died just in time to see her being covered and wheeled off of the unit.

Sort of a weird feeling at 3 am.

But all in all it was a wonderful first evening shift and I'm almost looking forward to the next one.

One of the nurses lives in the building beside me so she picked me up on my walk to the hospital and drove me home in the morning!

So obviously I'm deciding what gift I'll give her at the end of the semester.

Now.

On to more pressing matters.

The LCBO goLOCAL blog challenge is almost over as voting ends tomorrow and then it'll be a waiting game to see if I got enough votes to put me in the top 5.

My friends and family have been incredibly supportive and I want to thank everyone who has voted for doing so!

There is still today and tomorrow to vote so please click here and click on the vote button 2 last times :)

Lastly, one of my friends (after helping me solicit votes) said that she had recently found this blog and enjoyed the bacon wrapped asparagus post.

So to thank her for helping me with the voting process I give you another amazing bacon recipe - one that I have yet to try but I've been thinking about this one on and off for about 4 years.

The recipe is from Michael Smith (Chef at Home).

You will need:

• 2 pounds room temperature bacon
• lots freshly ground pepper
• 4 cups shredded aged cheddar
• 5 or 6 large baking potatoes (unpeeled)
• a sprinkle or two sea salt and freshly grated pepper
• 1 onion, minced
• 4 cloves garlic, minced

1. Preheat your oven to 350°F (180°C).
2. Carefully arrange the bacon in a radial pattern from the centre of the bottom of a 10- or 12-inch (25 or 30 cm) round non-stick baking pan to the lower edge of the rim and continuing up and over the sides of it. Let the ends hang over. The slices should overlap slightly around the sides of the pan. To reduce the thickness of the bacon in the centre, stagger every other piece, starting it 2 inches (5 cm) from the centre and extending it further than the adjacent slices.
3. With the palm of your hand, flatten the centre area, leaving no gaps in the bacon. Season the bacon with lots of pepper and then sprinkle on several spoonfuls of the shredded cheddar.
4. Slice the potatoes as thinly and uniformly as you can, about 1/4 inch (6 mm) thick.
5. Arrange a circular pattern of overlapping slices around the inside bottom edge of the pan. Continue arranging overlapping layers of the potatoes until the bottom is evenly covered. Season the potatoes with salt and pepper.
6. Mix together the onion and garlic and sprinkle some of the mixture onto the potatoes. Continue with a layer of the shredded cheese. Cover with another layer of the potato, pressing it down firmly before continuing with alternate layers of the potatoes, onion mixture and cheese, insetting each a bit from the edge of the pan until the top is an inch (2.5 cm) or so higher than the pan’s rim. Fold the overhanging bacon neatly up and over the top of the potatoes.
7. Trim a small piece of parchment paper and place it in between an ovenproof lid and the bacon. This will prevent the bacons ends from pulling back and shrinking during cooking.
8. Place the pan on a baking sheet and bake for at least 2 1/2 to 3 hours. You’ll know it’s done when a small, thin bladed knife inserts easily.
9. Pour off as much of the fat around the edges as possible. Let the tart stand for 15 minutes and then invert it onto a cutting surface. Slice into wedges and serve immediately.
10. You may refrigerate any leftovers and reheat them later it in a microwave.

I'm going to finish off this pot of coffee then print out some more nursing articles before I head to work.

It's almost the weekend!

Yaaaayyy!

The Inevitable 'Back To The Real World' Exhaustion

Every September I try and ease myself back into the work/school schedule.

Usually I end up just sort of being thrust into it.

Such is the case once again.

This week has been incredibly busy - although I did find time to bake s'mores cookies on Tuesday afternoon AND madeleine's Wednesday night. I stand by my opinion that baking is the best stress reliever.

Monday was work and school and trying to work around that fact that I had double booked myself for both class (it won) and a training for my new part-time job as a swim instructor at a children's rehab hospital.

A glass of wine and the roast of Charlie Sheen on Monday night was the last time I can remember sitting on the couch totally relaxed.

Tuesday I took the day off work to frantically try and work on my history essay outline that's due this Sunday (still not done...) and to complete an online learning module for how to use the electronic patient records at my placement hospital (Passed! Hurray!).

Wednesday was my first 12 hour shift (ever) in the ICU. The nurse I was working with is probably the sweetest person I've ever met. Everyone was so nice and welcoming on the unit. I spent the day observing, learning how to read the machines, and getting familiar with the goings-on in a cardiovascular ICU.

I have to say, so far I'm really enjoying it.

The nurses in the CVICU generally have one patient which means there is more time to really get to know the unique needs of that person as well as build better relationships with both the patient and the patients family. I did my fair share of comforting on Wednesday.

And I don't want to brag (yes I do, I'm exhausted and want praise heaped upon me) but I got a hug from the patient's partner when she left for the night on Thursday.

Thursday was also spent in the ICU but only until 4:30. Then I had to pack up and head over to a training for my job at the children's rehab hospital. I got home just before 11 pm last night and threw myself into bed.

Today I have a meeting then class, then another training for my job with the City.

Tomorrow...another training. 12-9. Then I have to come home and finish this history outline.

Sunday looks like it will be spent back in the ICU to avoid doing 2 back-to-back night shifts this upcoming week.

Wednesday night will be my first night shift. I didn't want to do 2 straight away because I'm fairly certain it's going to be a rough night.

Monday, once I'm home from class (around 6)...

(original picture from this blog)

How strange that I look forward to Monday rather than the weekend...

I recall, Algonquin Park in Fall

I've definitely used that title before...

but it works so well and, don't lie, you're singing right now

"how you tore your dress, what a mess, I confess..."

Thist weekend was spent paddling, layering, eating, and relaxing on the beautiful waters of Algonquin Provincial Park.

The weather was beautiful.The days were filled with blue skies and sunshine and despite the end of summer high of 17 degrees, I was down to just my tank top during our paddling.

Friday and Saturday night got down to about 2 degrees so I was thankful for my winter snow suit.

And the incredibly warm mummy-like sleeping bag my mom bought me for christmas.

And my cousins and aun and uncle who found it for me (I left it at the fam-jam cottage) and safely returned it to me!

I forgot to take pictures of our meals but I can tell you that just about everything tastes better cooked over an open fire.

Cherry tomatoes? Red, orange, and yellow peppers? Steak? Potatoes?

Yum.

I've picniked some of my photos for you.

Here we have the boys unloading the canoes in preparation for our first portage, from Smoke Lake to Ragged Lake.

This portage felt bad, 240 m half of which was uphill.

After the second portage (590 m, ALL of which was uphill), the first one seemed like a walk in the park.

It literally was - ba doom ch.

Here's a collage of me paddling with (you can't see it but) the paddle that John made me a few years ago, our canoes (the green one John fixed up and unfortunately weighs SO much more than those nice aluminum ones....not fun for portaging, the sunset in Parkside Bay, and our winter wear in contrast to daytime clothing.

My trusty waterproof Hunter rain non-boots. Kept my feet dry and only gave me 4 blisters. That'll teach me to not wear socks.

And perhaps my favourite photo of the entire weekend - I didn't retouch this at all, only rounded the edges of the photo:

John getting in some last minute fishing on Saturday night at our beautiful campsite in Parkside Bay.

Now I must spend the rest of my day writing a history essay outline, doing an online leaing module on electronic patient records, go over IVs, fluids & electrolytes, drugs, cenral and peripheral lines, and all other things I might be expected to know tomorrow when I do my first 12 hour shift in the ICU.

And then I will go on a pinterest binge to reward myself.

And please, if you haven't voted yet today, scroll down to the bottom of this link and click on the vote button!

Your support is very much appreciated!

PLEASE VOTE FOR ME!

I entered my humble blog into the LCBO goLOCAL contest and it qualified, so my work is done.

Now I ask you, oh wonderful readers, friends of readers, people who randomly stumble across this, to help me out.

Please vote for my blog entry!

Click here then scroll down to the bottom. See that button that says 'vote'? Go ahead and click on it.

I'm off to Algonquin for a (cold) weekend of canoeing, camping, and (fingers crossed) moose-spotting, so I'm going to leave this first weekend of campaigning in your trusty hands.

Please vote for me!

I"ve won very few things in my life and these prizes are amazing!

http://blogchallenge.lcbogolocal.com/entry=i-love-ontario-wine-country/

...Just in case.

THANK YOU!!!

and tell your friends.