Family History

Strawberry ice cream and other treats.

Don't the photos say it all? I made the ice cream in my magic bullet using, yep, strawberries and cream. The berries were frozen so it was a snap. There is nothing quite so luxurious as real frozen whipping cream and strawberries. Sure, it's a caloric nightmare but there were two ingredients and I could pronounce them both. Also, in the bullet, it's easy to just make one or two servings. If you need a decadent treat, think back to the 1800s and do your ice cream old school. You will not regret it I assure you. I have been under the weather for the past week or so but before that, we went to Vancouver Island to see my parents on their birthdays. We had a seafood feast, which was delightful. I somehow forgot my camera and only had my phone to snap pics, but here's one of our dinner. My sister named them all before they went in the pot. This one was Jim-Bob. We cooked them in a boiling pot on a campfire in my mom's back yard along with a big roaster full of clams and muscles. We also had a dozen oysters on the barbeque. What a great time.

Homemade with love.

We had a wonderful Valentine's Day and celebrated it  fully. We made all of the classroom valentines in the week leading up to the day using my scrapbooking supplies. I am realizing I use them much more for cards than I ever do for photos. I also made an apple crumble pie, which was amazing with whipped cream for dessert. Hubby took care of dinner, steak and prawns and spoiled me rotten with roses and chocolates. I am truly blessed to have so much love in my life.



We have also had a new baby born in the family on Valentine's day. I won't share her photo here because she is a second cousin but let me tell you, she is some cute. I had the opportunity recently to snuggle a newborn baby during a baby shower at work, The baby slept on my chest while the parents opened their gifts and had cake. They were glad for the break and I relished in the chance to have a warm baby sleep on me for well over half an hour. There is nothing better in this world than to hold a new born baby. Never pass on the chance to hold one if it comes up.

Clutterfly

I have some trouble with clutter, I always have. I guess I have a difficult time throwing things away that may be useful. I have no problem throwing broken, useless things a away. Anything that may have a future use, however, that is a different story. This becomes a huge problem when you live in a tiny space. This container is just a small example of things that I don't know where they go and I can not get rid of. These things end up in the funniest places and the randomness of them is at times overwhelming to me. I so wish I was one of those people who got up early, opened a drawer and found exactly what they needed, clean and in it's proper place. These wonders elude me. So, while under the guise of "organizing" which always ends up with me making even more of a mess, I photograph my chaos and call it art.

Cleaning it up occasionally actually saves me money because I do not buy new things, but always, halfway through cleaning I get distracted and begin another art project. In this case it was a blog post, complete with photos. I think I`d like to blame my Grandma for this, her post war habits were passed down to my mother and now to me. A ball of string represents a useful thing that must never be parted with. I need to have an attitude of abundance, where I needn`t worry that there will not be enough..
 Maybe next lifetime.
 In this one, I`m a keeper of things, a guardian of goobledegook, a champion of chachkes.
Could be worse.

Beating the February Blahs

 I admit it. I don't like winter very much, I find it tough to get going out of bed, to eat anything that doesn't have chocolate in it and especially to do anything remotely physical. So, when I was asked to play broomball in the winter carnival tournament, I didn't really want to at first. I mean, run in the street with a broom after a ball? In minus twelve degree weather? It turned out to be super fun and a great way to bond with my new co-workers and clients. It also warmed me up and  made me smile. We played against BMO and their team was pretty good. There was a rule that two females had to be on at a time and luckily we had four girls on our team, the Mainstreet Maniacs. We could spell off. Since I am an ex- smoker

(and did I mention my fondness for chocolate?) let's just say I was so happy to be able to switch off when I couldn't run any more! We played hard and with spirit and gave them a run for their money in the first half, scoring two goals right away. Then they got one in and then we got another in. In the second half they owned us, and we finished 6-3. At the end, everyone had rosy cheeks and a feeling of accomplishment and team work. If that doesn't warm the heart in the coldest of months, I don't know what will.

January wind up.

Do you ever sell things online? I know I like to buy things online, so I thought I would give it a shot selling things. Sometimes I sell the things I bought but didn't need. It all started long ago with a slipcover for my recliner. I paid about $40 for it, used it once and then it sat in the closet for like a year because I didn't know what to do with it. Finally, I put it on Craigslist and it sold the very next day for half of what I originally paid. Not bad! So, now, I am trying a few things around the house: new shoes that were worn once or twice, costume jewellery, and, uh, vintage 50's lingerie. Well, one woman's junk is another woman's treasure, as they say. I think of it as holding a virtual garage sale. Since I have no where to do that, this is my solution. I have started the New Year trying to find little ways of bringing in extra cash and this is one of them. Sure, it's peanuts, but if I save the peanuts, then I have enough for peanut butter. I'm also collectiong coupons again, we'll see. Coupons can end up costing me money if I am not very careful. I have a goal for all my meagre earnings, they are going into my vacation fund. I robbed the jar a couple of times last year when I was desperate, but I am vowing not to do it anymore because I really want to go somewhere next year! We also have a goal of buying a new couch and we are very close to having enough saved. It feels so much better paying for things when you have the money than putting them on credit. I don't want to pay for my couch or vacation twice or three times over. Been there, done that. Work has been picking up lately as well, which I hope will help me grow a debt snowball this year. So, I'm off to a good start and I think I will keep up the good work.

Keeping the home fires burning.

We had a cold snap last week. It wasn't that bad, in fact, we have had it pretty good this year, but there were a couple of frosty days where the temperature dipped into the minus high teens and even down to minus thirty with the wind chill. I avoided it at all costs except for the coldest day when I had to work, there was no choice. I managed to stay warm and cozy by finding reasons to put the oven on and staying home as much as possible. Instaed of running to the store, i made do with what was on hand. I didn't make too much, some chili warmed us up, so did some french toast. I thought i was just being a lazy bum staying in my jammies and finding sweaters and slippers and blankies,  but I finallyI realized I have been fighting a cold. So, that has led to less motivation for cooking. What I did today though, was very frugal, and I got to warm up the kitchen at the same time. I made homemade bread crumbs. Now, why would a person do that? Well, for one thing, I use them all the time. Whenever I make meatballs or meatloaves or macaroni and cheese that needs a crunchy topping, I need bread crumbs. So, I save all the ends from my bread loaves in the freezer until I have a full "loaf". Then it is time to toast the bread and make the crumbs before my husband comes along and throws them out and tells me I am nuts for saving old bread crusts. He doesn't get me sometimes. That's O.K. The other reason I make my own crumbs is that the bread crumbs at the store are ridiculously expensive. Three dollars for crumbs? It seems crazy to me, especially when I imagine that the process used for making the crumbs is probably exactly the same as what I do in my own kitchen, albeit on a much smaller scale. I remember my instructor in high school drying out the crusts in our school's commercial kitchen, on top of the ovens using the residual heat. He was a very thrifty cook, nothing was ever wasted. That was how he kept costs down and provided healthy and cheap meals for the students. I always remembered the bread crusts and how much bread he saved from going into the garbage can by making his own crumbs and croutons. I didn't think to take a photo of one of my more routine chores, but I thought that being the third week in January a nice austere post on saving more of the staff of life seemed appropriate. The weather is now back to being quite mild and while I am certainly glad for it, a nice drop in the mercury gives me pause to remember to waste not want not and to be truly grateful for the relative ease and comfort we enjoy during the cold winter months. How is your winter going?