tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34801291091132998692024-03-05T07:01:21.115-08:00Mrs. Vander LeekThe domestic undertakings of a closet-foodie and full-time mommy.Mrs. Vander Leekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14368148301058222111noreply@blogger.comBlogger366125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3480129109113299869.post-19898670729555623312014-07-07T22:52:00.001-07:002014-07-08T22:42:40.533-07:00Yummy Camping 101My family finally got out for our first camping trip of the year this past weekend, and the stars aligned to make it a great time; we had excellent company, a great campsite where nearly every neighbour surrounding us spent the day away, the weather was determined to remain pleasant for us despite thunderstorm warnings and severe weather watches, and everyone seemed set on having a good time. Now, some of our weekend's niceness was fortuitous, but some was 100% thanks to planning and preparation. The food was one such area.<div>I used to think the only things that could be cooked over an open fire were hot dogs and marshmallows - after all, that's all that my family ate whenever we went out camping. But over the last few years I have been enlightened; I concluded that if something could ever be cooked over direct heat, i.e. A stove top, that it could be successfully done over a campfire. </div><div>I've been working to hone my skills of fire building and coal stirring ever since this epiphany, observing that consistent and even heat are often crucial to the success of a recipe, and this weekend I finally felt like every meal was well done. </div><div>In the past I've cooked Peach Bourbon cobbler, pasta primavera, and grilled maple peaches all over the campfire, but this weekend we were looking to make things that I could prepare mostly in advance, and that wouldn't necessarily need constant attention. With that in mind I set out meal planning, and here's what we came up with:</div><div>Friday evening: Whole stuffed salmon and fried mushrooms</div><div>Friday dessert: premade S'more cones for the kids</div><div>Saturday breakfast: bacon, sausage, egg + toast pie irons</div><div>Saturday lunch: nachos, beans, ham + cheese melts</div><div>Saturday evening: pizza pie irons</div><div>Saturday dessert: biscuit dough pie irons and jiffy pop popcorn</div><div>Sunday brunch: pie iron egg mcmuffins, and bannock </div><div><br></div><div>There are a few key tools to producing a menu such as this:</div><div>Pie irons - cast iron, not aluminum, and we used both round and square ones </div><div>BBQ tongs</div><div>Cast iron pan</div><div>Foil tray</div><div>Lots of aluminum foil</div><div><br></div><div>In anticipation of arriving at our campsite about an hour before supper time, I pre-stuffed a whole pink salmon that had been taking up space in my freezer ever since I found it on sale for about $0.20/100 g a while ago. I used my Grandma's recipe which calls for a Lemon Thyme rice stuffing. I stuffed the fish and wrapped it in foil, then set it on ice in our cooler. Any leftover stuffing I also wrapped up in a foil packet. Once we hit our campsite I built a fire right away, and laid the salmon on the grate over the fire to cook while we set up camp. I turned it after about 30 minutes - around half way of its total cooking time. I could smell the lemony stuffing when it was getting close to being done, and at that point I cooked up the mushrooms in both oil and butter to give it maximum heat tolerance and flavour! I hate mushrooms, but I loved this - no additional seasoning required! The mushrooms cooked until they had a crisp coating, and the salmon was perfectly cooked to flaky goodness. Slice up some lemon wedges and you've got one epic campfire meal!</div><div>The next morning we cooked the bacon and sausages in the cast iron pan. The only thing I'd change for next trip is to bring a second pan! But given that I was awake since 5:30 a.m., I suppose I had plenty of time to cook in small batches... If you've never used pie irons, I pity you. I was only introduced to these wonders after I got married; my husband's family fully embrace the pie iron cooking method. As a brief rundown, you butter the heated insides of a double sided square pan, about the size of a piece of bread. Then lay your bread on one side and add fillings to it. That can be an egg, pizza fillings, sandwich toppings, pie filling, pulled pork, Caprese salad fixings... Anything your heart desires. Then you top with another piece of bread and close it up, then cook it in the coals until the bread is nicely toasted and the fillings are heated. As I mentioned in my menu, we tinkered with the traditional methods this weekend. First, I brought a tube of refrigerated biscuit dough that we filled with chocolate and/or cherry pie filling. The secret to these was to coat the biscuit in butter as soon as it was out of the fire and to let the butter bake in a bit as the dough cooled. Sooooo yummy. Experiment #2 called for the round pie iron; I cracked an egg in a well greased iron (bacon grease worked best for this one) and set a piece of back bacon on top. While that cooked I opened up an English muffin and heated it on the grate, with a cheese slice on one half. After a very short time, the egg and bacon were perfect, and popped right out onto my English muffin. So, so, so good.</div><div>I also mentioned doing nachos for lunch. I pre-diced tomatoes and peppers at home, and even brought pre-grated cheese, so it was as simple as dumping everything into a foil pan, covering with foil and cooking. For the beans we merely took the label off a can before we opened it up and set it to cook on the grate over the fire!</div><div>Bannock is a family tradition in many families, although the traditions can vary widely! My husband's family are bannock rolled in cinnamon sugar, and cooked it as a tube wrapped around a stick.My family cooked it as a cool on a stick, and ate it rolled in butter alongside steak strips with seasoning salt. Many people I know enjoy it with jam, and lots of recipes call for cooking it in a pan. Long story short, it's hard to go wrong with bannock. This trip I could not find Bisquick at the grocery store - my morher's 'secret ingredient' for her bannock dough. So instead I used my actually-top-secret scone mix recipe to make base that would only require the addition of water, and mixed it up on Sunday afternoon for our brunch. The only complaint I got (from my husband who does not believe in tampering with tradition) was that it was 'too flaky'. Is that even a real thing? Anyway, I thought it was perfection on a stick. And the kids sure loved it, too.</div><div><br></div><div>I suppose I should mention one more critical kitchen tool for camping: a French press! No need for inferior coffee while you're out camping - just use your French press and enjoy every last drop! I loved our camping coffee so much that when we got home I broke out my French press for my morning brew!</div><div><br></div><div>I've got some ideas for new pie iron fillings next time we head out camping, and I might see just how gourmet I can make those bad boys! But looking back over our weekend camping trip, mostly I'm just glad we didn't spend the whole weekend eating hot dogs!</div><div><br></div><div>Mrs. VanderLeek ;)<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsSU1zpTh8TrIsdzdlTHisaURhtQ-GZF20TwsXCH5WeB4ACgpWEqn6YtWGa7RG3cYm4p7qt9jFkx6Rjk0-VJD_dFM22QjhieSnDOdHtUd5QEqtmshsVVaMGmcXvuSyFSdw-ErSunxW3NY/s640/blogger-image-2006842307.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsSU1zpTh8TrIsdzdlTHisaURhtQ-GZF20TwsXCH5WeB4ACgpWEqn6YtWGa7RG3cYm4p7qt9jFkx6Rjk0-VJD_dFM22QjhieSnDOdHtUd5QEqtmshsVVaMGmcXvuSyFSdw-ErSunxW3NY/s640/blogger-image-2006842307.jpg"></a></div></div>Mrs. Vander Leekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14368148301058222111noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3480129109113299869.post-36201099400756537272014-06-20T13:49:00.003-07:002014-06-20T14:08:46.617-07:00Airplane Birthday PartyOur middle little dude, whom we affectionately call 'Goose', had this third birthday party today! This was his first 'real' party. At one, they don't really get what's going on, and the fact that they get to have cake for the first time ever is awesome enough for them.<br>
At two, they're a bit more clear on the idea that this is something special, and it seems to be about them, but add sparklers on top of that cake and throw in a present or two, and honestly they pretty well max out for their excitement anyway. <br>
At three, they can finally get it - this is a party, and it's all about you. Granted, Goose is one of the most generous-hearted, artless and easily-pleased little boys in the world, so all he needed to have happen to ensure it was an exciting time for him would be cake, candles and a rendition of "Happy Birthday". But I knew he'd still like a party :)<br>
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I asked him months ago what party he would like, and this little boy always has an answer. Some kids need prompting. Some kids shyly hide and refuse to offer up a word. This kid knows what he likes, even if the answer often surprises me. He chose airplanes. He could have picked Spiderman. He could have picked Cars. He could have picked anything he wanted because that's how we do birthdays around here, but immediately he answered, "Airplanes". Which is nice, because he could also have picked something like Triangles I suppose, and how do you plan games for a triangle party? (k, I just came up with a couple ideas as I typed that, but still, airplanes is a nicer theme)<br>
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A few things were quite fortuitous about this choice of party theme. First off - unbeknownst to Goose, I had long wanted to do an airplane theme in his bedroom, but kind of gave up when older brother started hanging hunting posters and archery targets on every inch of empty wall, and ceiling, space. But I had already fashioned some cotton 'clouds' that hang from fishing line. Score. <div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7NAe-2HKG_EqeQmr5wgQY1uwpFTjKOuv9DG6OFYPnzxjARmMcw2LRJQilhKEMwzwk8n6E0vkF8PKNgx4xH_dGOnv-NBFOsa5hyQR8xD5-cJTdTIVODk2T6Hy7ji-Wj7wJ4K3HfXFXF8k/s640/blogger-image--1320112430.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7NAe-2HKG_EqeQmr5wgQY1uwpFTjKOuv9DG6OFYPnzxjARmMcw2LRJQilhKEMwzwk8n6E0vkF8PKNgx4xH_dGOnv-NBFOsa5hyQR8xD5-cJTdTIVODk2T6Hy7ji-Wj7wJ4K3HfXFXF8k/s640/blogger-image--1320112430.jpg"></a></div> And I had bought him an airplane comforter for his bed that we could use as a backdrop should we need one. Awesome. Secondly - at Easter time, my uncle <strike>unloaded on us</strike> gifted us with half of the product of his 'Paper Airplane a Day' calendar from the previous year; he made 365 paper airplanes, and sent half of them home with us. We picked out the very best and reserved them for the party, and the rest we let the boys play with for a few weeks before they were crushed enough to justify recycling them. But right there: built in party entertainment!<br>
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The dollar store was a treasure-trove for this party; we picked up those foam airplanes that come in a flat pack and then you assemble yourself as party favors, a giant one of the same variety to show off to the kids, and an airplane shaped cookie cutter. <div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-sOt1BtXyUFC1IBcPZVzfcaojLqbqCvFdqyN0xBRbhDiYlU6rpWEPJRbj7GOLg3v7o-qIKm1xSqeONa3-wRRqv8uQDgCnBlFQ82tdn0-apLij6-qs28S1rhWk6GOMtKEEv7wAu9zWHN8/s640/blogger-image--1516779604.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-sOt1BtXyUFC1IBcPZVzfcaojLqbqCvFdqyN0xBRbhDiYlU6rpWEPJRbj7GOLg3v7o-qIKm1xSqeONa3-wRRqv8uQDgCnBlFQ82tdn0-apLij6-qs28S1rhWk6GOMtKEEv7wAu9zWHN8/s640/blogger-image--1516779604.jpg"></a></div> I made a runway on our coffee table for the kids' toy planes to sit on as a party centerpiece, and then used cardboard boxes to make our games: a target practice game, and Pin-the-propeller-on-the-airplane!<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgwNTcSzWuOF-EWi781IKyUYvYlNMLQ5rfa1PBeRv02WhiU5x0eHaggyVFsdU5i81FjenfxK8pHl0z3hM9Yx2XajYk0zBuThgjW5XqPBet7xik80Ugq_ZI87VxkU8dIeM6XXNUU-7wLJ0/s640/blogger-image--1674581772.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgwNTcSzWuOF-EWi781IKyUYvYlNMLQ5rfa1PBeRv02WhiU5x0eHaggyVFsdU5i81FjenfxK8pHl0z3hM9Yx2XajYk0zBuThgjW5XqPBet7xik80Ugq_ZI87VxkU8dIeM6XXNUU-7wLJ0/s640/blogger-image--1674581772.jpg"></a><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgwNTcSzWuOF-EWi781IKyUYvYlNMLQ5rfa1PBeRv02WhiU5x0eHaggyVFsdU5i81FjenfxK8pHl0z3hM9Yx2XajYk0zBuThgjW5XqPBet7xik80Ugq_ZI87VxkU8dIeM6XXNUU-7wLJ0/s640/blogger-image--1674581772.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuNe9reSxy3dF0F51D6Cac26ux_ukxp4LFVdS3PI3bc3x2bNN1WS-fuURbLOea5Vt7BNABZLNlaHtKIcuyk0lT5pO3U95_XZ16y0PIDJsAg2VnQwwBZrrBHdIWWJedGkIrKpwlQslUDMA/s640/blogger-image--1916094234.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuNe9reSxy3dF0F51D6Cac26ux_ukxp4LFVdS3PI3bc3x2bNN1WS-fuURbLOea5Vt7BNABZLNlaHtKIcuyk0lT5pO3U95_XZ16y0PIDJsAg2VnQwwBZrrBHdIWWJedGkIrKpwlQslUDMA/s640/blogger-image--1916094234.jpg"></a></div></div> I even found an airplane book from the library that I borrowed in case the kids wanted a story! <br>
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Snacks were pretty simple since I was super sick all week and didn't have the energy to prep much: carrot sticks, cucumber slices, and pita chips with hummus, I used the airplane cookie cutter to cut out watermelon pieces, and then I bought a 40 pack of Timbits, stacked them high, and set a candle in the middle for a cake that the kids adored! <div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVUXPXyDJDidtQlk_YMg85ycLxLqSpFUN0JfZx5hyphenhyphen0s7ifUkoLt2wGmoi_9D2VV2xneE5jeiBFqE10rPkVE17uOkr7PK4ecB3Ss08HHfw5einUNaN6foKfbyfR2esjx8koFDqgFXsF7OY/s640/blogger-image--404253970.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVUXPXyDJDidtQlk_YMg85ycLxLqSpFUN0JfZx5hyphenhyphen0s7ifUkoLt2wGmoi_9D2VV2xneE5jeiBFqE10rPkVE17uOkr7PK4ecB3Ss08HHfw5einUNaN6foKfbyfR2esjx8koFDqgFXsF7OY/s640/blogger-image--404253970.jpg"></a></div> <br>
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Lastly, I ordered an Aviator hat from Avon for little Goose, which he proudly wore and got called 'Captain' by everybody. Any excuse to wear a costume in this house! <br>
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I've said it before: we don't rent out Chuck-E-Cheese. We don't hire petting zoos. We don't have professional planners for our parties, or major excursions for them either, but my kids' birthday parties are fun - for them, their guests, and for mommy - and certainly seem to be the highlight of their year. <br>
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Mrs. VanderLeek ;)<br>
Mrs. Vander Leekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14368148301058222111noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3480129109113299869.post-8038015013272504562014-06-09T14:29:00.000-07:002014-06-09T14:34:51.194-07:00Grandma's Lemon ButterEveryone has those recipes that remind you of your childhood. This is one of mine. <br>
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My Grandma is renown for her excellent cooking skills, and her ability to feed any small army that unexpectedly pops by for supper. She always has food ready to go in case of last-minute invitations and visitors, and one trick up her sleeve is to always have a jar of her fantastic lemon butter in the fridge. This Lemon Butter is perfectly tart, but with enough sugar that it won't cause anyone to pucker. It's thick, and creamy, and an instant fix for any boring dessert. Stir this in with cream cheese for a fruit dip. Fold in Cool Whip for a lemon mousse. Use it as cake filling for an angel food, or serve a dollop on top of a Blueberry Brunch Cake. Or, do as my Grandma does and throw a scoop in a tart shell for super fast mini-pies. <br>
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I usually zest just two of the lemons in for the perfect amount of tartness - Grandma does three, my mom does one... It really just depends what your personal tastes are. And if you are using Meyer lemons, use 6 whole lemons instead of the 3 the recipe calls for. And above all, don't be intimidated by the idea of having to use a double boiler - this recipe really is simple. <br>
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Grandma's Lemon Butter recipe:<br>
2 cups granulated sugar<br>
3 lemons - juice and zest *see note above<br>
6 eggs<br>
scant 1/4 c of butter<br>
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Combine all ingredients in double boiler. <div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_giPKwKKnIHRus2ulI4Wvz82VTiPL7303oqTXzaFkYf-wAkVpzOb5WXukAbnvCHCDRQdruq2LvyYJwAe4VKrWS1QkzYxtMFPKAuEJqLpg_It3kYKMPrOoUtMXyIVHUn_QSOR6M0co_oY/s640/blogger-image--1445836156.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_giPKwKKnIHRus2ulI4Wvz82VTiPL7303oqTXzaFkYf-wAkVpzOb5WXukAbnvCHCDRQdruq2LvyYJwAe4VKrWS1QkzYxtMFPKAuEJqLpg_It3kYKMPrOoUtMXyIVHUn_QSOR6M0co_oY/s640/blogger-image--1445836156.jpg"></a></div> <br>
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Don't forget the butter (I nearly did this time!)<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGhYehBDrNRNkYZaRozsOksRESLQHTI-vKV_MuQnpQvVx3aqF8HIfcpM5xbXhrCB45GR3EsjX0emAt3AfxWwDPQEmXOaCj5UF-5XljjM8xntaLNYnkB1nlk0L6YDFruPTAwF2qJFoXl3o/s640/blogger-image-302034627.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGhYehBDrNRNkYZaRozsOksRESLQHTI-vKV_MuQnpQvVx3aqF8HIfcpM5xbXhrCB45GR3EsjX0emAt3AfxWwDPQEmXOaCj5UF-5XljjM8xntaLNYnkB1nlk0L6YDFruPTAwF2qJFoXl3o/s640/blogger-image-302034627.jpg"></a></div><br>
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Bring water in bottom pot to a boil and cook mixture, beating continually. As the mixture cooks, the color will get lighter, and it will eventually begin to thicken. The mixture may boil a bit - this is okay. Once it looks as thick as pudding, remove from heat and transfer into a separate bowl to cool. This will stop the cooking process faster to make sure your egg doesn't decide to do anything funny and clump up on you. <div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_ap_3VjrkShyphenhyphenuO0oJ3Pq1WV8noC-eC6s7XFpSEum6MXFhqsrBZldVHSRdIrZUSkBliUlTac2c1DrqaOoqmvxMVoUNi4RgpbAVC9quwIAXKSPLTkalHxjMRrUH7feLx_MO6xuoahi39fY/s640/blogger-image--1194757172.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_ap_3VjrkShyphenhyphenuO0oJ3Pq1WV8noC-eC6s7XFpSEum6MXFhqsrBZldVHSRdIrZUSkBliUlTac2c1DrqaOoqmvxMVoUNi4RgpbAVC9quwIAXKSPLTkalHxjMRrUH7feLx_MO6xuoahi39fY/s640/blogger-image--1194757172.jpg"></a></div> <br>
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Store in a jar in the fridge for two weeks - if it makes it that long without being eaten up! The Lemon Butter with thicken further as it cools - FYI.<br>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAxqjRGdZ89wPR-TvUmrBxO1KVmMcnvI6pbVTEG1XpuuZ2JDcKRrxxZ0XO8IjjyAHd9j56oBkPYxnQZw3f4kEkRVQDPUX_8EJlubNQGfg3f7Ih52ArxoaBgRKbSiRIT7ydmNdYtU-YxhQ/s640/blogger-image-1059129230.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAxqjRGdZ89wPR-TvUmrBxO1KVmMcnvI6pbVTEG1XpuuZ2JDcKRrxxZ0XO8IjjyAHd9j56oBkPYxnQZw3f4kEkRVQDPUX_8EJlubNQGfg3f7Ih52ArxoaBgRKbSiRIT7ydmNdYtU-YxhQ/s640/blogger-image-1059129230.jpg"></a></div><br>
This recipe makes about 3.5 cups of Lemon Butter. But hey, who says it has to be lemon? Try grapefruit, or blood orange! And if you don't have whole lemons, you can use bottled lemon juice and sub in a couple drops of lemon essential oil to replace the zest! <br>
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I laugh when I see Lemon Butter for sale in stores - this recipe is so fantastic, and so simple, I've never had a desire to try any other! I hope you agree!<br>
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Mrs. VanderLeek ;)<br>
<div><br></div><div>*credit to Grandma Free for this wonderful recipe!</div>Mrs. Vander Leekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14368148301058222111noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3480129109113299869.post-693264894732817972014-05-26T18:05:00.001-07:002014-05-26T18:07:53.740-07:00Work-out Tips for Real PeopleDo you ever go through the Health & Fitness boards on Pinterest and feel totally defeated? Seriously, those 'Fitspiration' posts are the worst! Actually, that's not true. The 'motivational quotes' are the worst. You know, the ones that tell you to keep pushing through it after you're vomiting and feel like passing out, because quitting is for losers? Yeah. Those are great... <br />
Anyway, I have persevered through the demotivating feelings and downer days, for the most part, and have been having some success getting in my daily workouts! And now I want to share some of my wise wisdoms with you! Nothing mind blowing, but definitely practical advice for people looking to up their workout schedule!<br />
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First, some basics:<br />
<b>1. Just start.</b> We can have lots of reasons we're not partaking in a regular exercise routine: no time, physical limitations, injuries, etc. But the reality is, something is better than nothing. So take the time and abilities you do have, and start using them. You don't have to carve out an hour a day yet. If you're really off the wagon, start with 10 minutes of gentle stretching or yoga every night before bed. If you're up for something more, find a 10 minute video that you can follow and do it during nap time, lunch break, or before your morning shower. <br />
<b>2. Keep going. </b> You've started! YAY! Now keep going. Once you're moving, it's easy to keep moving, and move a little bit further, faster, and harder each day. Find more time you can convert into work-out time. If you watch TV at night when the kids are in bed, run in place while you're watching. One episode of Big Bang Theory later, and you've got a nice little workout in! Everyone starts slow, but that doesn't mean you have to stay slow. Start with a jog, work in running intervals, start to see how long you can run for, and if you're down to the last 5 minutes, and you're still feeling like you've got some steam to burn, working in high-knee and jumping jack intervals! But the point is, take what you're already doing, and expand on it. <br />
<b>3. Warm up, stretch, cardio, strength, cool down, stretch.</b> K, I'm going to blame High School gym classes for this, but I was unaware until recently that stretching was not part of warm up, but actually a separate step that takes place after your muscles have had a chance to warm up! What does that mean? Well, if you're a runner, jog the first half km, then stretch, then run. I was doing this wrong (stretch before I leave, jog, then run) and it can't have done my knees any favors... If you're not a runner, do a burst of low intensity cardio, then stretch, then feel free to do your jumping jacks, burpees, etc. And remember to not stop cold - do a cool down to help you heart rate regulate, and don't forget to stretch at the end; not only will stretching help you to avoid unnecessary pain, but <a href="http://www.prevention.com/health/healthy-living/healthy-power-pairs?s=8">static stretching between exercises has been shown to increase muscle development</a>. <br />
<b>4. Drink water. </b> Everyone says it, because it's important. I've personally found one of the easiest ways to drink more water is to add a drop of lemon, grapefruit, or lime essential oil to it. No added calories, great flavor, and added health benefits? Awesome! Just make sure you use therapeutic grade oils - I recommend Young Living. *Note: some people recommend adding an emulsifier to the water to break up the oil. Even adding a tsp of ground flax seed would help with this. <br />
<b>5. Track your body measurements.</b> I worked out nearly every day through January, along with a very healthy diet. You want to know how many pounds I lost by the end of the month? NONE! Zero! BUT, I can tell you my face was noticeably leaner, as were my thighs. My biceps were more defined and there was much less jiggle in my arms. Oh, and my clothes fit better than they had in a while. <br />
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And now for something completely different (or rather, just some more tips):<br />
1. <b>Change into your exercise clothes each morning.</b> I read this somewhere, tried it, and realized I was infinitely more likely to exercise if I were dressed for it, than otherwise. However, I will point out that your workout clothes should be more than just your pajamas. That's really just luring you back for a nap, more than a workout. And if you're like me and want to look more put together by the time hubby gets home (if for no other reason than to convince him you didn't just sit around all day) then you'll have a deadline in your mind for when you need to be done your workout by.<br />
<b>2. Find something small to do every night before bed.</b> Squats, planking, crunches... anything that can be done every day, on top of your normal workout, that will make big improvements over time. Often I find if I workout early in the day, I feel great by night and I'm craving more. This little habit fills my craving, gets in one more bit before bed, and I can do these in my bedroom - some even when I'm lying in bed! <br />
<b>3. Don't waste a perfectly good shower on a body that hasn't sweat that day.</b> It's been a long day. You didn't fit in a workout. Now that the kids are finally asleep, you're about to climb into the shower. Stop. Do 40 jumping jacks, or high knees. Do something, anything, that will make you sweat. It's all coming off in a minute anyway, and you'll feel much better about the day knowing you at least did that, whatever else the crazy kids in your household kept you away from accomplishing! <br />
<b>4. Pick one body part to put priority on.</b> Why? Because if you only have time for a short workout, or you have room for one more workout before you have to call it for the day, then you'll know exactly what you want to target. Want to tone your tush? Make sure you get those squats in. Need to develop more core muscles? At the very least do some planks. Need to shed some flab? Cardio, cardio, cardio. Not to say these are the only things you should do, but having a focused goal is more helpful than, "I want to look better." <br />
<b>5. Make a playlist.</b> This CANNOT include anything by Raffi or The Wiggles, and would preferably have some 80's glam rock songs worked in. Just sayin'.<br />
<b>6. Encourage your spouse.</b> I'm sure there's a study somewhere that I could reference with hard scientific evidence about this, but I've seen it in my house and I can vouch that it's true: it is SOOOO much easier to live a healthy, active lifestyle when your spouse is doing the same. Even just asking them to help you by working out with you will likely be enough to get them going on their own healthy path. It's hard to stay on the healthy-eating track if you feel obliged to serve baked mac and cheese for family dinner, or take the family out for ice cream whenever the hubby gets a craving. <br />
<b>7. Use Pinterest or web videos.</b> I don't know about you, but I have neither the time or the money for a gym membership. All of my workouts are done at home, or in the few blocks around my house. That's why I love my <a href="http://www.pinterest.com/mrsvleek/health/">Health board on Pinterest</a>. I see a new exercise I want to try, I pin it. Then when I have time to workout, I usually have that board open so that if I need a couple more exercises, I can just scroll through quickly and pick something. I don't have a personal trainer, but for now, these pins are working fine! There are some great resources out there, and you can find exercises to target different muscle groups that are very useful. And those 10 minute workout videos? Actually a lot of fun to follow! And this is coming from the girl who hates turning on any video on the internet! I find you push yourself harder when you follow people leading, in person or on video, than if you just try to lead yourself.<br />
<b>8. Don't push it too hard.</b> Everything I said in comment #7? Take it with a grain of salt. There is also A LOT of bad stuff out there. For example: ever see those '5 minute power workout' lists? You know, where you go between jumping jacks, burpees, mountain climbers, high knees and squat thrusts as fast as you can? If you do those your first day in - actually, even your first few months in! - you're likely going to hurt yourself. The other day I read some "Tips to lose weight" by Prevention magazine, and I sincerely hope it was a typo that caused them to suggest you go every other day only eating 600 calories. That's not safe, not healthy, and just plain bad advice. If you hurt, take a break - don't plow through it. It's one thing to push through the burn, it's another to tear a ligament because you're being an idiot. If you do throw up while you're working out, please stop, contrary to some of the 'fitspirational quotes' I've seen. <br />
<b>9. Fall in love with it.</b> This one is easy. Exercise is addictive; your body gets used to having a rush everyday, and you start craving it, and wondering if it's too soon to start your next workout (and yes, 4 hours is likely too soon). Get into a routine, and soon you'll hate to miss it. And if you fall out of it, and have troubles getting going again, go back to the very first point I made in this post: Just start. And pretty soon you'll wonder why you ever let yourself stop.<br />
<b>10. Get your kids in on it.</b> I talked a lot in this post about workout after bedtime, or while the kids are napping. That's not going to work for everyone. So, what else can you do? Make it part of your daily play! My kids now love when I roll out my exercise mat, and they do all sorts of 'exercises' saying, "This is a good one, right Mommy! This will make me super strong!" If I'm doing cardio and the kids want to join in, I'll sometimes narrate a 'scenic run' where I ask them what we see as we're passing imaginary farms, cities with street cafes and running alongside the ocean. Sure they can get underfoot a little bit, but involving them is often much easier than hoping they'll keep occupied elsewhere, and not interrupt you. And toddlers often love to watch Mommy from their perch in their high chair while she jumps around, apparently doing a clown act purely for their enjoyment. Bonus: not only are you making your body healthier, you're also setting an example for a healthy lifestyle for your kids. If they see exercise as part of every day life, instead of something that you enter into by coercion, you're making it easier for them to incorporate it in their every day life as they grow up.<br />
<b>11. Take the kids out more.</b> For someone who struggles to find enough time in the day, this may seem counter-productive, but hear me out. What fills up the most time in a day in the life of a mom? Kids. So keep those kids occupied by a trip to the park, or a walk, or even an outing to the zoo. And you know what? That can very likely count as your daily exercise if you do it right. Pushing a stroller? Do walking-jogging intervals. Kids think it's a blast! At the playground with older ones? Get on there with them! Playing at a park? Be another ninja with your kids, running, rolling and diving along with them! I know I struggle with getting out of the house some <strike>days</strike> weeks - it all just seems to be too much work. But what if I viewed it as my exercise that day? Then would it be worth it to take the kids to the trails and go for a nature walk? What about pulling them around the block in their wagon? Just keep in mind the basics of exercise: make sure you warm up and stretch, work in some high intensity, and even flex certain muscle groups during different activities to get the most out of them. And then drink lots of water :) <br />
<b>12. Equip your home.</b> As I mentioned above, I have no money and no time (away from kids, that is), to use towards regularly attending a gym, so I workout in my home with the aid of the interwebs. And while you can do without, there are a few things that I find supremely helpful in my workouts: <br />
- an exercise mat<br />
- training shoes<br />
- 2 lbs, 5 lbs and 10 lbs hand weights<br />
I have hard floors, so I use the mat for a more comfortable exercise. In the basement we have carpet... on top of concrete. The mat is extra helpful here to ensure I don't get hurt from joint compression during high intensity workouts. <br />
Training shoes are a must for a runner. Find a pair that fit your foot and your step well. Some people work out indoors with their shoes on for added comfort, balance, grip and protection. I'm hoping to get a pair of <a href="http://store.nike.com/us/en_us/pd/studio-wrap-pack-three-part-footwear-system/pid-665899/pgid-1544505">Nike Studio Wraps</a>, but until that happens, I go barefoot inside. <br />
The hand weights are great for strength exercises - muscle burns fat faster, so even if you're just working to lose inches instead of build muscle, having more muscle will help you attain that faster. So muscle = good. Lower sized weights aren't just for beginners - they're ideal for toning. As you get stronger you may want larger weights, but typically you can increase reps and set length to get the increased burn. <br />
I buy all of these things at Winners (for a fantastic price) or at Canadian Tire. <br />
<b>13. All you Mommy's - start at the basics!</b> You know those post partum exercises where they tell you to lay flat and then lift your head? And that totally kicks your butt? Yeah, you need to ease into things. If you were one of the Mom's who ran your last half-marathon at 5 months, you'll likely bounce back a lot quicker than, say, me - the mom who laid on the couch for 9 months and could barely get up to go to bed each night. But all of us will have had our bodies damaged to some extent by the burden of carrying 6-10 lbs of baby inside us. So once you're ready to upgrade from head lifts, try holding a Tabletop pose, then lowering your bum, and bringing it back up, flexing your abs. Once this is easy, try doing it balanced on one leg, with the other ankle resting on your bent knee. You can also lower down to your back for this, instead of planting your hands. <br />
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I'm not a doctor. I'm not an expert. I'm not even that fit - but I'm getting better. And as a mom of three kids, these are the things that I have found to work in my life, and I hope you have some success with it in yours!<br />
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Mrs. VanderLeek ;)<br />
Mrs. Vander Leekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14368148301058222111noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3480129109113299869.post-85279297357677801492014-04-28T09:41:00.001-07:002014-04-28T09:41:47.405-07:00Fishing Birthday PartyI FINALLY figured out how to skirt around my issue of picture uploading! YAY! So, check out the Beer Tasting Party post from a couple months ago to see a picture of that shindig, and hopefully I'll be posting more frequently now!<br />
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On that note, our most recent event around here was my oldest son's 5th birthday! We held a small party for him with a few of his friends who would most enjoy a fishing themed party! Yep - my 5 year old is a fisherman. He LOVES it. Fishing is often the highlight of our Summer vacation in the mountains, and thanks to some sweet fishing holes, and Grandpa who is an expert, my little dudes have caught far more fish than the average 5 and 2 year old. Rainbow trout are his favorite, since that's what we catch at some of the stocked ponds we frequent, but he can identify brook trout, perch, walleye, pike, bass, crappies, salmon and sturgeon to boot. He originally wanted a fireman birthday party so he could get a fireman costume, but when I wasn't able to find a costume his size at this time of year, and he started to talk more and more about fishing in the summer, I knew I'd have a good shot at persuading him to change the party! <br />
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There were some great ideas on Pinterest for a fishing party. Far more ideas than I could actually incorporate into one party. So I decided to keep it kid friendly, given the average age of our party goers was 5. The décor consisted mostly of my kids' toys! I transformed our living room into an outdoor paradise - stuffed animals roamed the piano and bench seat, our giant stuffed teddy sat in the corner of the room, I fashioned a pond out of fake pussy willows and blue plastic tablecloth and then set some fake fish in it. My boys also have a <a href="http://www.cabelas.com/product/Home/Toy-Sale%7C/pc/105625080/c/499750380/Cabelas-Adventure-Deluxe-Camping-Set/1084348.uts?destination=%2Fbrowse.cmd%3FcategoryId%3D499750380%26WTz_l%3DSBC%253BMMcat104799780%253Bcat104726880&WTz_l=SBC%3BMMcat104799780%3Bcat104726880%3Bcat499750380">hunting/fishing action figure set from Cabela's</a> which I set up as a diorama on our coffee table; I created a whole mountain scene, with a campsite by the edge of a pond, and outdoor action man catching a bass from his boat while deer and wolves looked on. This served the dual purpose of decoration and entertainment - as soon as the kids came in they started playing with the set while we waited for everyone else to arrive! In addition to the toys I also had some paper fish printed off. They were realistic looking artist renderings that I had printed to nearly life-size (ranging between 6-11") I cut them out and strung them up as a banner. <br />
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For our activities and games I planned a couple crafts - decorating rainbow trout pictures with confetti glitter, and making 'fishing lures' out of popsicle sticks - and a number of fishing games such as scooping sponge fish out of a tub of water with a net, and casting a real rod with a plastic fish on the end into a box fashioned to look like a fish mouth! The kids took turns for the first round of games, then were left to a bit of free play as they each sought out their favorite game to hover around. We had more than enough activity to keep them entertained for the hour-and-a-half party.<br />
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The food for the party was a bit different than usual. We had one child with a severe nut allergy, one with a mild nut allergy, two of them also had a gluten allergy, and the another one was lactose intolerant, but could have greek yogurt. So cake was out of the question. As was ice cream cake. I had a few options I looked at, such as 'bobber' meringues, marshmallow pops, and fruit. I resolved on the fruit - but with some changes. I made a watermelon cake! I had seen these done on Pinterest and thought they were brilliant! I cut the rind off a watermelon and shaped it to look like a cake. Then I 'iced' it with a mix of non-dairy whipped topping and coconut greek yogurt. Just a tip: if you plan to make a watermelon cake, pat the outside dry with paper towel before you try icing it! I topped the cake with blackberries and raspberries, but for another audience it would also have been nice to use flaked coconut and sliced almonds! I put on some (new) fishing lures, and sparklers for a bit of a dramatic look. For our treat bags I filled a clean tackle box with Swedish fish, gummi worms and colored mini marshmallows as faux bait and lures, and gave the kids each a paper 'bait bag' that they could fill with candies to take home!<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjn5xhnY-buTYgmj1wgmbNqP85agtY9KvHoA-u7vCvWAwVQ3E-rVwpu6NOvQuiBWEIR2srmftSelpjSim6AyEq84V4k-Xg3GS4o2q4ICtJQcNgB2CEECu1V0A6_-iP9SD_NYHY8Xv7xZdo/s640/blogger-image--1619442030.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjn5xhnY-buTYgmj1wgmbNqP85agtY9KvHoA-u7vCvWAwVQ3E-rVwpu6NOvQuiBWEIR2srmftSelpjSim6AyEq84V4k-Xg3GS4o2q4ICtJQcNgB2CEECu1V0A6_-iP9SD_NYHY8Xv7xZdo/s640/blogger-image--1619442030.jpg"></a></div><br />
After that party with the kids, we had some family over the next day for birthday lunch. I wanted my boy to have a real cake for his birthday so I whipped up a modified box cake (1 cake mix, 1 box of instant pudding mix, 4 eggs, 1 c. water, 1/2 c. melted coconut oil) and some almond/chocolate chip flavored buttercream. I opted for buttercream to make a 'splash' effect, and poked a hole in the top of the tiered cake to stick my fake pussy willows in. I added a jumping trout fridge magnet for a super easy on-theme cake! <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgE1ULPO9k1j0OdY6fqy2_TOId0jFIj4QeDsz8zJaQSmRCj4BN5DjtRTQuW3elzRw1J-xUs6UQJGp2kb11jQrRvViVvLnVh8YXLpijn7gxmxaCw0aLSwT-QbC6DE8EC8M77SdRFByD8Vkc/s640/blogger-image--1005005085.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgE1ULPO9k1j0OdY6fqy2_TOId0jFIj4QeDsz8zJaQSmRCj4BN5DjtRTQuW3elzRw1J-xUs6UQJGp2kb11jQrRvViVvLnVh8YXLpijn7gxmxaCw0aLSwT-QbC6DE8EC8M77SdRFByD8Vkc/s640/blogger-image--1005005085.jpg"></a></div><br />
My little man got some awesome fishing themed gifts, like a<a href="http://www.basspro.com/Bass-Pro-Shops-Giant-Stuffed-Fish-for-Kids-Rainbow-Trout/product/50568/"> giant fish pillow from Bass Pro Shop</a>, a gift card to a local sports store, a fishing garden gnome, and enough tackle from his uncle to make sure he never needs to use Mommy and Daddy's stuff again! Lures, leaders, weights, bobbers... that kid has it all now! All in all, it was a great fishing party, and a nice way to celebrate turning 5 :)<br />
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Mrs. VanderLeek ;)Mrs. Vander Leekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14368148301058222111noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3480129109113299869.post-66596425650746775712014-04-03T09:50:00.002-07:002014-04-03T09:50:22.844-07:00EtsyWell, I've opened an Etsy shop! <br />
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I know - I'm a little surprised myself!<br />
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What actually happened was my sister opened an Etsy store, and her and I had talked about having one store that all the members of the family could list things in, expanding our product offering to increase traffic. So I had planned to help my sister by putting on some things that I'd made up in the past year or two, and I made up some extra things just to bulk up the store inventory. But then after looking at the money aspect, and how all transactions would go through her bank account, and how it didn't actually cost anything to have a store, just to list and sell things on it, we decided it would actually be easiest for everyone to open individual stores. Honestly, I hadn't planned to sell things on Etsy seriously - I was really just trying to help my sister's store - but now I had a load of items that I was going to list, and after a short talk with hubby we figured, "Well, why not?"<br />
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So now I have an Etsy store. <br />
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Feel free to check out my store, <a href="https://www.etsy.com/ca/shop/MrsVanderLeekAtHome">MrsVanderLeekAtHome</a>, and my sister's shop, <a href="https://www.etsy.com/ca/shop/HonuDesigns82">HonuDesigns82</a>. The name of my shop is derived from Regency-era Calling Cards; all of the ladies would carry cards and leave them when they called at someone's house. Essentially a business card, except that their 'business' was to pay visits, and have those visits returned. So the card would read, "Mrs. __________, at home." <br />
Currently I have a couple different things listed in my shop: bird nest wire necklaces, and crocheted accessories. I've actually put a hold on production of the bird nest necklaces until I get some pendant clasps in. I found some on eBay that I think will look great - better than a loop of wire for sure - so I'll hold off on making any more until those come in. The crochet production is still going strong however, thanks in part to the fact that I started watching the BBC series Sherlock on Netflix. Sure, each season only has 3 episodes, but each episode is an hour and a half, so that's lots of crochet time! Anyway, I plan this summer to do some wood crafts and maybe some sewing, and in the fall perhaps I'll make up some clay owls to list as well. I think the best part about having an Etsy store is the potential it has to clear out my finished project cupboard. I've made too many crafty things to keep them all. Now I can still make more, and hopefully make some money, too!<br />
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Mrs. VanderLeek ;) Mrs. Vander Leekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14368148301058222111noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3480129109113299869.post-63579898975937033942014-02-19T23:43:00.000-08:002014-04-03T09:56:15.609-07:00The $75 Grocery BudgetOne day, after a few weeks of limited work, a man's van broke down. He had his vehicle towed to his mechanic who graciously dealt with it in a timely manner so as to impose as little as possible on the unfortunate man. While inspecting the vehicle - whose starter was found to be faulty - the mechanic also noticed that the brake master cylinder was for all intents and purposes dead. It was with much relief that the poor vehicle owner heard this, since in all likelihood an issue wouldn't have been detected before the brakes suddenly stopped working! What a wonderfully fortuitous circumstance that potentially saved him from harm! The grateful man praised God, kissed his wife, and paid his $900 mechanic bill. <br />
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That, my friends, is a true story. However I did leave out a few details... like that the 'poor' man was in fact 'poor' for the time being due to limited work for a contractor in February. Perhaps it was a financially inopportune time to have a major vehicle repair come along, but I am so grateful knowing that the brakes in my hubby's work van will function properly that I hardly care about the money! <br />
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Having said that, it doesn't change the fact that I now have a $75 budget for groceries for the next two weeks. Not $75/week - $75 in total. Sweet, hey? <br />
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But, I'm gifted with such heritage (*cough* Scottish! *cough), and upbringing (*cough* Scottish Grandparents! *cough*), and support (*cough* DUTCH HUSBAND! *cough*) as to find this budget restriction as a mere challenge! And I do enjoy a good challenge :)<br />
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So today I am sharing my meal plan. This, you will find, is not a typical I-have-no-money meal plan. It does not assume that everything we eat is accounted for in the $75. It rather assumes that I keep a well-stocked pantry, stocking up on things when they go on sale for awesome prices, and have a few surprise cuts in my freezer that I can tap into for a treat! However, some of the principals are golden rules for eating on a limited budget: plan around what you have, use similar ingredients for multiple meals, and don't limit yourself to one cuisine! <br />
I was actually requested to share my meals and their approximate costs on my personal Facebook page so that some of my girlfriends could attempt similar cost-effective meals, which is what truly inspired this post. Well, that and the fact that it's absolutely necessary for me to spend no more than $75 on food in the next two weeks... But I digress.<br />
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So to start the week, I went out and spent $65. WHAT?!? I spent most of my money already?!?!? Yes, but with good reason! Our local Co-op has their Warehouse sale on right now! Pasta, canned beans, and pounds of apples and oranges are all 10/$10 this week! I actually cannot beat that price, and bought enough of those things to easily last me to the end of the two weeks. I also grabbed some key veggies to use in my menu, eggs (cheap protein!) and some yogurt that expires on Monday, but hey, it was cheap and I'll be the one eating it. I had plenty of baking supplies, leftover from Christmas baking that I never got around to, in my pantry, and tonnes of meat. This would be a lot harder if I didn't have a freezer full of deer... But still doable. (I write this fully aware that many people around the globe would be ecstatic with $75 for groceries for a full month. I am blessed, undoubtedly.)<br />
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Anyway, here is the breakdown of my meal plan. My weekends I left open since we'll eat leftovers likely, or go to my parents' house (Booyah for free food!!) <br />
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Monday - Week 1: Roasted Pork Chops, canned beans, roasted sweet potatoes, applesauce (my mom gave me a pack of pork chops to help clear out her overfilled freezer! Yay!) approx. cost assuming I actually bought everything: $6<br />
Tuesday - Week 1: Salmon Potato Casserole (potato, peas, celery, cream of mushroom soup, can of pink salmon, panko, spices) approx. cost: $4 (bought the salmon on sale for $1 a can!) Served sweet potato fries from the freezer on the side - roughly $1.50 cost<br />
Wednesday - Week 1: Beef Barley Soup (beef, bouillon, celery, carrots, onion, garlic, corn, frozen green beans, can of tomatoes, spices) approx. cost: $4 (I did it for less... my mom gave me a big steak from the freezer too!) Served with homemade drop biscuits for additional $1.50 - And did I mention this makes enough to feed me for lunch for the next few days??<br />
Thursday - Week 1: Fried rice (leftover pork chop, rice, 2 eggs, carrots, peas, green onion, soy sauce, oyster sauce) approx. cost: $2.50 Served with oyster sauce broccoli on the side for about $1.50<br />
Friday - Week 1: Quiche (6 eggs, leftover cream from the fridge, broccoli, leftover prosciutto from the fridge, leftover Havarti from the fridge and homemade pie crust) approx. cost: $5 Served with tossed salad for extra $1. Fillings are totally negotiable, that's just what's in my fridge. Oh, and I'll make a double batch of pie crust and freeze half for next week!<br />
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Monday - Week 2: Borscht (Beets, cabbage, potatoes, carrots, veggie stock, dill, sour cream) approx. cost: $3 (I bought a HUGE bag of beets when they were on for $0.80 a pound a few weeks ago!) Also - loads of leftovers for lunch again!<br />
Tuesday - Week 2: Venison Pot Pie (pie crust from freezer, frozen peas, frozen corn, frozen green beans, carrots, potatoes, cream of mushroom soup, venison) approx. cost: $4 <br />
Wednesday - Week 2: <a href="http://lemonsandanchovies.com/2013/01/pancit-bihon-stir-fried-rice-noodles/">Pancit Bihon</a> (rice noodles, fish sauce, soy sauce, celery, carrots, onion, cabbage, chicken) approx. cost: $3.50 ...And more lunch leftovers! Which is great, because Pancit is even better the next day!!<br />
Thursday - Week 2: Refried Bean Burritos (<a href="http://www.asksarah.com.au/recipe-homemade-refried-black-beans/">homemade refried beans</a>, <a href="http://jazibesrecipes.blogspot.ca/2007/07/tortillas-de-harina-flour-tortillas.html">homemade tortillas</a>, guacamole, tomatoes, sour cream) approx. cost: $3 ('homemade' is a huge part of the cost savings in this. Store-bought tortillas are about $0.50 apiece - homemade are about $0.05 apiece. And homemade refried beans are 1/3 of the cost of a store-bought can.) Served w/ tossed salad for $1<br />
Friday - Week 2: BBQ Stuffed Salmon (whole frozen salmon, rice, celery, onion, lemon essential oil, dried herbs) approx. cost: $6 This one requires quite the footnote... every summer I buy a whole frozen salmon when it goes on sale for $0.19/100 g, then I freeze it til I feel like cooking it. I don't expect anyone to find a whole frozen salmon for under $5 at this time of year, so this is definitely my 'cheat' meal! This bad boy will be enough to feed the company we're having that night, too!<br />
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Now, what that looks like to me is about $47 for suppers for about two weeks! The rest of the $30 we have will go towards breakfasts and lunches, but if you remember, I've got quite a few meals in there that will produce a LOT of leftovers for lunchtimes. For breakfasts we mostly have cereal or oatmeal, so the $10 I haven't yet spent for groceries will at least in part be spent on milk. The remainder will restock our fruit, which is our primary snack. I'll be making bread at home instead of shelling out $3 for a crappy store-bought loaf, and instead of buying Mum Mums or Gerber Puff snacks for the baby I bought a giant bag of puffed rice that he actually really likes! And for a fraction of the cost! <br />
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And as a reminder, while I wrote out the cost of buying exactly what you would need to make these meals, many of the things I listed I've had in my pantry or fridge for a while, because one of the easiest and best ways to only spend $75 on groceries in two weeks is to prepare for it by stocking up during sales. If I were to go out and buy a can of pink salmon at Safeway today, I'd likely pay around $3 - not the $1 I actually paid when I bought it at Co-op a few weeks ago. This is not a flawless meal plan that you can follow week-after-week and save copious amounts of money on regularly. Remember, the cheapest meal plan will change, depending on what's on sale, and what you have. And this week, this is what I have. <br />
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Mrs. VanderLeek ;) <br />
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Mrs. Vander Leekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14368148301058222111noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3480129109113299869.post-63328482897193503102014-02-18T11:17:00.000-08:002014-04-28T09:43:04.570-07:00Beer Tasting PartyUpdate: Pictures!!<br />
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This past weekend I hosted a Beer Tasting Party for my beloved husband's early birthday party! It was a BLAST! A lot of careful consideration went into this event to ensure it would stay classy, and the biggest contributing factor was my guest list - I put a cap on the number of people coming (5 couples) and knew that each of those couples knew how to moderate themselves. This was not an event for wearing lampshades, but rather for tasting high end brews and finding some new favorites, and I think we had the perfect group for achieving that end!<br />
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Once the guest list was established, the next big piece of planning was to figure out how the tasting would actually work. I asked each couple to bring 16 oz of their favorite beer. Most people opted to bring two varieties, mostly because they just couldn't decide on one! I had mini parfait glasses that worked perfectly for a 1 - 2 oz sample, but perhaps the best idea I had was the coasters we used! I did almost all of my shopping at dollar stores and found some thin sheets of cork for a buck a pack. I cut them into squares and set out a sharpie for each of the guests to write their names on the coaster. The plan was whenever they set down their cup to set it on their labeled coaster again - that way we'd limit the number of, "Is this my glass? Or your's?" situations. I also provided everyone with tasting sheets! I found a free printable online and had copies printed out for everyone. We used a numbered scoring system, and had a master sheet, so that at the end of the evening we could see which beers ranked highest overall, but people could also see which their highest rated beer was. This was really helpful, since even by the third selection it can be tricky to remember what you liked so much about the first one. By the end of the evening some of the guests were really surprised about which ranked in their top 3. <br />
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Next on the planning front was the menu. Again, the point of this party was not to get drunk, so I planned the menu with that in mind. There were LOTS of carbs. This was not the type of party where you want to serve exclusively veggies and meringues. I made an uber dense Chocolate Stout Cake, my family's classic Honey Garlic Chicken wings, Jalapeno Popper dip with chips, and sliced peppers and cucumbers to dip, I served sweet potato fries with a lemon dill aioli and I bought soft pretzels from a store in the mall! I make soft pretzels at home, but I really didn't want to worry about the labour and the mess of that before the party, so I instead opted to buy them, and I'm so glad I did. They were a huge hit! This was a great make-ahead menu plan. I marinated the wings the night before then threw them in the oven 3 hours before the party. The Jalapeno Popper dip took 5 minutes to throw together. The Sweet Potato Fries were from Costco and baked on my stoneware beautifully (I actually replenished these through the night, which was really easy - I'd just throw a fresh batch in the oven whenever I noticed we were getting low). The cake was more labor intensive, but so worth it. <br />
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And lastly came the decorations. I want to improve my decorating efforts, so very early on I picked a color scheme: Manly. Ha! Bet you didn't know that was a color, hey! But it made sense: blacks, wood grain, metal... totally worked. I had some wood grain scrapbook paper that I alternated with black and white cardstock for a hanging banner. I had black and tan tissue paper that I made into pinwheels that I hung on the wall behind the table for a cute backdrop. I served out of black bowls, on wooden trays and metal buckets. I even found wood grain printed paper straws at HomeSense! And while I was at the dollar store I found some chalkboard signs for buffets and I spent the $5 to get the pack. I KNOW I will use those again sometime soon! Oh yes, and lastly I found a use for some of those beer bottles we cut down around Christmas time! We cut a large bottle to make into a Pint glass for my brother-in-law, and had cut some smaller ones which we never ended up using. So I did a quick sand-job on them, and used them to hold the cutlery and straws. Very apropos. <br />
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I hope you find these tips useful if you plan on hosting your own Beer Tasting Party! It was a lot of fun, and everyone loved the idea! <br />
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Mrs. VanderLeek ;)<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjq9phys_vuPGGoEYSipAdCS826MJ5y5sKARN_AlSGaIONvK8336E5HANPFTxNJOKqOFBXiRf6V0NaPCrwbV2xNyefbSXDGNApjsLYuPATP_Gojk5e-44MDuJCPs4Xh0BzewjP8rbQI8y0/s640/blogger-image-1560561517.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjq9phys_vuPGGoEYSipAdCS826MJ5y5sKARN_AlSGaIONvK8336E5HANPFTxNJOKqOFBXiRf6V0NaPCrwbV2xNyefbSXDGNApjsLYuPATP_Gojk5e-44MDuJCPs4Xh0BzewjP8rbQI8y0/s640/blogger-image-1560561517.jpg"></a></div>Mrs. Vander Leekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14368148301058222111noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3480129109113299869.post-55117991974275340982014-01-23T22:36:00.000-08:002014-01-23T22:36:21.915-08:00Burrito Bowls + Healthy Living UpdateLaziness is totally a relative thing. <br />
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Today, I was too lazy to go to the store. So I made refried beans from scratch. <br />
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See how this works?<br />
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I've done this before. Last time it was ricotta that I decided to whip up because that was easier than packing up the kids and heading the two blocks over to the grocery store. Very often it's bread that I make for no other reason than that my kitchen is closer than two blocks away. Sigh. Lazy me.<br />
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In any event, I made refried beans today! And you know what? They were pretty great. And cheap. And easy. <br />
I followed a <a href="http://www.asksarah.com.au/recipe-homemade-refried-black-beans/">recipe</a> I found through Pinterest, and at first I thought the recipe might be wrong - it all just seemed too simple. But hey, it worked! I did leave out the jalapenos, and I added a touch more stock at the end, and I let it cook on med-low for a while longer just to make everything extra soft, but hey, follow this recipe and you too can make refried beans in about the same amount of time it would take you to walk to your nearest grocery store and back! And you don't have to change out of your sweats! <br />
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Now where did these refried beans go? Into my delicious bowl of burrito love. Do you ever eat tacos and feel gross afterwards? I always do! Probably because they are sooooooo good when you pile on the cheese, the greasy meat and the sour cream into the huge flour tortilla! And then I eat 3. Or more. Yeah, that's likely why. But have you ever gone to a Mexican restaurant and had their rice and refried beans and realized you were full, but didn't feel gross? Funny how that works... <br />
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We've been working on having healthier, lighter meals in our household, that will still fill us up well, and I stumbled across the idea for <a href="http://www.thegardengrazer.com/2013/11/burrito-bowl-with-creamy-chipotle-sauce.html">Burrito Bowls </a> (again, thank you Pinterest). Rice instead of flour tortillas. Beans instead of meat. Chipotle instead of cheese. I could do this! Ah yes, and the recipe also enlightened me about how to kick my rice up a notch. You take the rice, and stir the salsa directly into it!!! If you are not as amazed as I was, well, you just might be smarter than I am. But don't rub it in. Seriously, this was an epiphany for me! I happened to have some cilantro around so I snipped some of that into the rice too, and had this gorgeously aromatic rice base for our burrito bowls! Then came the refried beans, with a generous helping of veggies (we did tomatoes, corn, avocado and lettuce), then my chipotle sauce. There was a link to one from the original Burrito Bowl recipe page, but I had been gifted a jar of Epicure's Citrus Chipotle Ketchup spice blend from a local vendor who said she couldn't use it because she didn't like ketchup - and that's what they told you to put it in. Well, I don't like the idea of chipotle ketchup, but when on earth have I ever really followed a recipe (see refried beans explanation above...) So here's how I rolled with it:<br />
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Creamy Chipotle Sauce:<br />
1/4 c. low-fat greek yogurt<br />
1/4 c. fat-free sour cream<br />
juice of half an orange<br />
1/2 tsp sugar<br />
1 1/2 tbsp. Epicure's Citrus Chipotle Ketchup spice blend (OR 3/4 tbsp. chipotle powder and 3/4 tbsp. chili powder)<br />
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This stuff was great on the burrito bowls, and would be awesome on a taco salad! <br />
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My family loved the burrito bowls, I loved that they ate everything without complaining, and I also love that I have some of that chipotle dressing left over for lunch tomorrow!<br />
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The burrito bowls are really just a cunning way to put more veggies in my body. I've been doing well with my personal eating habits and our family meals have been succeeding at filling us with more than just fats and carbs. Last night we had <a href="http://www.mealplanning101.com/search/label/Vietnamese">Vietnamese Pork Vermicelli</a>. I found a great recipe a while back and it remains my go-to. This is one of the few that I follow to the letter - except I triple the amount of veggies I put in each bowl - at least! Sure the sauce has fat, and yes pork isn't the leanest meat, but when your bowl is full of that much lettuce, carrots, fresh herbs and rice noodles, who needs more than a couple small pieces of pork? The umami of the sauce carries so well, it feels like so much more than a salad when you eat it, yet that's very nearly all it is in our household. We've also been upping our protein intake throughout the day, which has me snacking less, and I've started making matcha smoothies with a couple dates, a banana, and almond milk - super yummy. Oh yah, and if you want to drink more water, try putting a drop of therapeutic grade Grapefruit oil in your water! I got mine this week and I've been loving it!<br />
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Both Hubby and I have been keeping up with out workouts. Yesterday was the first day I needed a day off thanks to a lovely thing called "Wall Sits". Those were the first thing I'd done that kept kicking my butt the next day. But I went right back to it today, and I'm hoping tomorrow will feel better!<br />
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I noticed my knee had been quite touchy still with some of the exercises that I thought were tame enough, so I've had to throw in even more yoga and pilates to my routine. Believe me when I say by nature I am much more of a P90x girl - I love high impact exercises - but my left knee does not. However, that doesn't mean I'm not seeing results. And yoga and pilates, along with targeted knee-strengthening exercises will give me the advantage of forming a long, lean muscle base to build on. In other words, perhaps my thighs will be less thunderous in the not-so-distant future. If you want to check out some great low-impact exercises, check out <a href="http://www.pinterest.com/mrsvleek/health/">my Health board</a> on Pinterest!<br />
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Anyway, getting more sleep is the next big thing on my Healthy Lifestyle to do list, so I'm signing off!<br />
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Mrs. VanderLeek ;)<br />
Mrs. Vander Leekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14368148301058222111noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3480129109113299869.post-26561604198234157582014-01-17T11:39:00.001-08:002014-04-03T10:29:48.428-07:00Healthy Living 2014I have been desperately trying to post a Christmas write up of all the gifts I made, complete with pictures and maybe even a tutorial (felted play macarons for a tea set, anyone?) but my computer and Blogger are having some disagreements right now concerning pictures. So instead of waiting on that one post, I've opted to do this one so you have something to read!<br />
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I don't necessarily approve of New Years Resolutions - they tend to imply short term change, with an understanding that most people won't follow through with them. I instead prefer to look at my life and see where I want real change, or set a specific goal, and work towards that until I achieve it, and keep that lifestyle change as a new part of my every day life. <br />
Back in November I posted how I was ready to get my body back to normal, which I planned to accomplish through a no-cheat, lower fat dietary plan. Well, I wisely decided to forego the cold-turkey approach to all baked goods until after Christmas. For the two years prior I had been deprived of some of my family's traditional Christmas treats thanks to gallstones and food poisoning, so this year I ate butter tarts, shortbread, and pie, and I'm not even sorry. That being said, as of the end of our New Year's celebrations, I was ready to be done with indulgence and crack down on my fitness approach. <br />
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Now, when I talk about a diet plan, I don't mean a fad diet. I mean looking at what I normally eat and changing it, because changes will see results. If you drink a pop a day, and then stop drinking that and replace it with water, you will absolutely see changes, even if that's the only thing you change. Your body gets comfortable with what you do, so mix it up sometimes! For me, that means restricting fats. I don't often watch my calculated intake of nutrients (bad me, I know...) but I can guarantee that I'm often over my intake for fats. It's easy: butter your toast, creamer in your coffee, sandwiches made with bread, cheese, ham and margarine, a snack of who-knows-what in the afternoon, then something for dinner that I can be pretty well assured will have anywhere from 20 - 40 grams of fat (not often 40, but sometimes we eat out). Daily recommended intake is around the 50 g ball park, but I know that by just watching it more closely, I won't be too far below that number anyway, and it will still be enough of a change to my system to start seeing change in my body. <br />
A couple years ago when I had gallstones I got to the point where the most fat my body could tolerate at a time was 5 g/meal. That's when you really start to realize how much fat is in things! White sandwich bread, salad dressings, a slice of deli ham... all of those things could set me off. So I know this time to find alternatives for those things. I also know it's easier to limit fats some times more than others. My breakfast is low fat, whereas my supper is less-so. Why? Because I've got a husband and three little boys who do not have the same restrictions in their diet right now, and I want us to enjoy our meal times together, eating the same foods. But whenever I tend to make myself something different anyway, I'll opt for low-fat. <br />
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One of the other changes I've been making to my diet is increasing my protein. I've decided to work out more right now, and so I have enough activity to make proper use of a higher protein diet. I look for protein in all three meals now, whereas before I'd often only see it at supper time unless we had lunch meat in the house. This is probably the trickiest change for me, especially since I can't eat eggs because my still-nursing baby can't handle them on his stomach... But I'm making do! And while I'm at it, here are some tips about how I'm making this work!<br />
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More Protein, Less Fat Tips:<br />
When choosing breads, go for the crusty/artisan breads instead of soft sandwich loaves! Baguettes and crusty buns often have 0 g of fat. <br />
For deli meat, opt for fat-free chicken or turkey breast. Steer clear of bologna. <br />
Better yet, cook a whole turkey up and save the white meat for sandwiches! A turkey takes a while to cook, but it yields a lot of meal potential. That dark meat will be great for family meals, too. (Mango Chutney Turkey with Coconut Rice!)<br />
Use stronger tasting cheese so you don't have to use as much! Opt for sharp cheddar, smoked cheeses, asiago, bleu, or goat cheeses. <br />
If you need dressings on your salads, invest in a good, high-end aged balsamic. This stuff is downright drinkable. Mix with a tiny bit of olive oil if you need, and drizzle all over!<br />
If you can do eggs, buy pre-separated egg whites. I suggest one whole egg + 2 egg whites for a morning serving. <br />
Soups can be great low-fat - fat-free options! Make soup for dinner one night, and eat the veggie and protein-filled leftovers for lunch for the remainder of the week! This is my new Monday meal plan! Good soups to try for this are homemade turkey (use that turkey carcass you cooked up for meals and lunch meat!) or chicken noodle soup, mulligatawny, beef barley, taco bean or Vietnamese ox tail. <br />
Make small changes - don't butter your toast, or use half the amount. Drink better coffee that you don't need creamer in. Put herbs and spices on your popcorn instead of butter. <br />
I drink SlimFast shakes in the morning. Since my go-to breakfast is often a bowl of (sometimes sugary) cereal, this is a big improvement for me. If you have the time though, go all out and make a well-rounded breakfast with a mosty-egg white omelet with veggeis, half a grapefruit (or the less tart Pomello!), and a small bowl of yogurt. <br />
It can be tricky to always come up with healthy lunch ideas if you don't plan ahead. Pick one lunch you'll have for the week, and switch it up at the beginning of each new work week! If sandwiches are your thing, try chicken breast, mozzarella, apple, artichoke and spinach, or turkey breast, tomato, cucumber, mozza and cranberry relish. <br />
When making sandwiches, avoid oils, butters and fatty spreads. You can get enough moisture from fruits and veggies typically. <br />
Opt for good fats when you have them! Salmon makes a great sandwich, filled with protein, calcium (if you eat the bones), and fats that are great for your body. <br />
Make homemade energy bars with equal parts dried cherries, dates and almonds. Throw them in a blender and shape into balls or bars. (add a touch of coconut oil if you need them to be a bit wetter.) Add cocoa powder or matcha, too!<br />
Eat real food when you have snacks. Those "100 Calorie" snack packs in the grocery store are awful for you - low calories does not mean low sugar, low sodium, low fat... it just means small servings. Eat veggies, fruit, nuts, seeds, and look for raw food diet recipes for making great snacks that your body will appreciate!<br />
Try drinking matcha - it's unparalleled in the amount of antioxidants it has, and those antioxidants are a rare, anti-carcinogenic variety. Which means it's great for battling cancer, too. It's an anti-ager, helps to regulate and prevent diabetes, and is surprisingly low in caffeine. <br />
DRINK LOTS OF WATER! (a well known, but often underestimated tip!)<br />
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Remember, fats are important, even if you are limiting them. I chose fats because I see that as a more out-of-control area than regulating my sugar/salt/carb intake. But going totally fat-free is never a good idea - my doctors were alarmed how much weight I was losing while I had my gallstones, and by the end of that season, just before my gallbladder was removed, I could no longer eat anything other than some grains, some veggies (but not all), and white poultry or venison. Especially since I was nursing, that was a tough time, and I'm still amazed my milk supply didn't dry up, because your body really does need fats to operate properly. So if you do choose to limit something, unless your doctor tells you otherwise for some reason, don't eliminate it completely. <br />
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Beyond my diet, I'm also working on exercising regularly. So is my husband, which helps a lot! If I can make one suggestion for helping you to stick to your goals, it's to do it with someone else! My husband is my weakness - I often bring junky foods into the house for his enjoyment, I am infinitely less productive when he's around because of the opportunity to spend time with him, and I always spend too much money when he comes shopping with me. But, when he's set on the same goals that I am: eating healthy, exercising regularly, lower fat and higher protein foods... then I'll do anything to help him achieve his goals, which makes it easier to achieve my own! <br />
I've also got my kids in on it. They see that Mommy and Daddy are taking time to go exercise, and they want to participate. About half the time I exercise with them now. What does this look like? I narrate a scenic jog while we run in place in the basement. I show them a new move and by the time I've got 3 reps of 12 done, they've finally mastered it. They pull out my yoga mat and do stretches on it while I do balance exercises. They certainly are enthusiastic, and we're setting them up to work regular exercise into their own lives! <br />
On those other days where I don't exercise with them, my workouts are different. And they change quite frequently. Remember what I said about how your body gets used to things easily, and change in routine produces change in your body? That applies to exercise as well as diet. So where do you start? Well, if your current exercise regime constitutes, well, nothing, start with stretching! A few years back I wanted to start exercising and started with a few weeks of stretching every day after work. 30 minutes of stretches everyday for 2 weeks resulted in losing 5 pounds. Plus, it prepped me for the next level - cardio. Cardio makes you lose like no one's business. It gets your heart pumping, burns fat, builds endurance, and is easy to get into. Start by walking. Take your kids or your dog for a daily walk. The weather is absolutely ridiculous in my province right now: -40, +10, so much snow you can't get your car out of the driveway, crazy high winds... that sort of thing. I'm opting for indoor cardio right now. I quite simply run in spot while I turn on a show. One episode of a mindless show on Netflix and I've got a good cardio circuit under my belt. Just remember, even if you're not on a treadmill or the road, start slow with a warm up time, increase your intensity, and don't skip your cool down. And that stretching you mastered in the first few weeks? Keep it up, before and after your work out. <br />
If you check the Health boards on Pinterest you're sure to find lots of "Lose 10 lbs in 2 weeks by doing this crazy circuit!" posts. Often they involves lots of jumping jacks, squats, burpees, etc. Lots of high impact exercise. Don't do those. Not yet. Not for a while if you're just starting out. After baby number 2 I had great success with running every morning at 6 a.m. When the weather got cold and it was darker for longer, I decided to move my workouts indoors and tried one of those circuits. I did two jumping jacks before I got hurt. It was stupid of me to try without proper shoes, and on a concrete floor, and without working up to it, but I blew my knee out and it put a stop on even my running for a long time. So now that I'm working out again, I need low impact exercises, and if you're just starting out, you need them too. But low impact doesn't mean no-results. It just means easier on your joints. Try <a href="http://www.pinterest.com/pin/24910604163338590/">this move</a> and I guarantee you won't complain about 'not feeling a burn'. And if you can't seem to find time to exercise, look at any time in your day where you're sitting. If you watch TV in the evenings, run in spot. If you send emails in the morning, do ballet poses or stretches while you type. <br />
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And lastly, another thing I'm trying for improved health is essential oils. Health is a big picture, not just what weight you are at. My household last year was sick from the beginning of November 2012 to April 2013. At any point, someone was always sick. I've noticed a difference this year though. And the biggest thing I've changed in that capacity is using essential oils. If you're not aware, EOs are the steam distilled oils from plants. Therapeutic grade oils are very potent, where a single drop can produce great effects. If you ever read somewhere that lavender is great for relaxing, or clove is a antifungal, or that peppermint can ease pain, the EO is far more effective than taking a dried herb, or even a fresh one, simply because it is so concentrated. We first got oils because our middle boy has Reactive Airway Disease, where if he gets a cold, it turns to a croup cough almost instantly, and his airway gets overstimulated, causing him to cough endlessly even when there is no underlying illness - and it can cause asthma attacks. Our doctor suggested we get 'some sort of an oil to put in your humidifier to help clear his sinuses' (she's a very old-school, blunt doctor, and I love her for it!) so I bought a starter kit of oils from Young Living and waited for his next illness. Well, first came a full-on asthma attack. We got him through it with his puffer and a trip to the hospital, but it scared the crap out of me. He was coughing for no real reason, and I was worried the next night would result in the same flare up, so I ran his humidifier with a few drops of lavender oil in it. No coughing. The next night I wondered if it was simply the humidifier helping, so I ran it without the lavender - cough, cough, cough. But at 3:00 a.m. when I held the open bottle of oil under his nose to smell, it soothed his coughing, and after I put a couple more drops in his humidifier, I didn't hear any more coughing for the rest of the night. I now keep lavender on hand for prevention, sitting right next to his puffer in case he has a full on attack again.<br />
Another oil I've seen results with is called Thieves. It's a mix of Clove, Cinnamon, Rosemary, Lemon and Eucalyptus Radiata. They claim this oil has a 99.96% kill rate for airborne microorganisms. Clove oil is actually renown for it's antibacterial/antifungal properties. And Eucalyptus is a known expectorant (helps to make your coughs productive). I figured I'd at least try it since I had it. Bennett, Hubby and I all got sick after the week of Christmas - you know, seeing everyone, not caring if they're sick or not because you're just so glad to see them - and the first full day at home after Christmas, we were sicker than dogs. Right away I started running Thieves - this was its chance to show me what it could do! And it's the darndest thing... I got better, quickly! And so did Bennett! And hubby didn't even need to miss a day of work! AND, most impressively, Gabe and Nathaniel (you know, the boy who catches everything that comes within a mile of our house.) never caught it at all! Two weeks later Gabe and Nathaniel both had a bad cough (I think I know who they caught it from too, and it wasn't from our household!). Uh oh... Nathaniel has a cough?? But I ran Thieves during the day, and got him to smell lavender before bed, and that little boy's cough didn't even last two days. That's unreal for this kid. I also had some tooth pain in November that freaked me out, and after three days of popping Tylenol and I was ready to try the 'hippie oils' (as I lovingly refer to them) - I mixed coconut oil and Thieves, rubbed it on my gums and dabbed it in my tooth, and that evening the pain was lower than it had been the whole time I was popping pills - and the next morning it was gone. Turns out clove oil has long been regarded an effective option for dental pain. Next up I'm trying their Thieves line household cleaner, and seeing about making a relaxation massage oil with Chamomille and Vetivert! And if I can help our household stay healthier by diffusing oils around cold and flu season, I'll absolutely be willing to at least try it!<br />
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What do you do to stay healthy? What changes are helping you? Seriously, I'm asking, because I'd like to see about trying them!<br />
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Mrs. VanderLeek ;)Mrs. Vander Leekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14368148301058222111noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3480129109113299869.post-44881007572435814722013-11-05T13:57:00.000-08:002013-11-05T13:57:06.696-08:00Halloween 2013Happy very belated Halloween! <br />
<br />
I was oblivious to how much I enjoy dressing up before this Halloween - dressing up was just always something you did, kind of like a non-optional social convention. However, when I look back at how we kind of really enjoy dressing up for Halloween, and make excuses to dress up for birthday parties, and how I'm willing to put in a good amount of effort for our family's costumes, it struck me that I really do enjoy dressing up. <br />
<br />
And also that I'm a geek. <br />
<br />
That's right - I let my geek-flag fly this year! I've always wanted to dress up my boys as ewoks (come on, who hasn't??), and I saw it as a great opportunity to dress up a Princess Leia! But not the cinnamon buns outfit. Or the slinky bikini, either. Nope, I had to dress like Leia on the forest moon Endor. Which basically left me with two outfit options: brown dress, or camo poncho. After a trip to Value Village, I decided the poncho would be my best bet. Not from the presence of any ponchos on their racks, mind you. No, I found a scrap sheet of white fleece and decided to make a poncho from that. So, I cut a hole for the head, trimmed some excess fabric off an end and reattached it from a collar on the poncho. But Leia's poncho isn't white - it's camo. What to do, what to do? Well, having never dyed anything before in my life I decided to start easy by dying with tea! I did a base color of a camel-brown from orange pekoe tea bags. The fleece took it very well actually, and while tea dying can result in an uneven color with a marble effect, that works perfectly for camo! I washed and dried the fabric to let the color set and then got some acrylic paints to sponge on the contrasting camo colors. $2 for the fleece, $1/acrylic color, and I've got one Rebel leader poncho! A few braids, a belt, some light pants and a blaster, and I was set to be Leia!<br />
My biggest boy found an Optimus Prime costume at a garage sale this summer, and he's been waiting ever since for Halloween, so he was all set, and for the other two, my little ewoks, I made ewok hoods! Well, first I crocheted a cowl hood with bear ears attached, then I sewed a felt hood on top! The bigger ewok got the spear :) Oh, and my husband went as James Hetfield from the 80s.... Yah. <br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoz_Z_A87adRzsJqmi2qpOOm0HEk4hwELqTPdUdo7eud22o7u31j_zyQr2vP0s4wCYK9f5chPMUlG2NghVfFYL_97KeMuDhPi_GEk8nMwap78LX_9hWOdMBzfkp9RgL8U3LqSGLNrXw2U/s1600/DSCF2071.JPG" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoz_Z_A87adRzsJqmi2qpOOm0HEk4hwELqTPdUdo7eud22o7u31j_zyQr2vP0s4wCYK9f5chPMUlG2NghVfFYL_97KeMuDhPi_GEk8nMwap78LX_9hWOdMBzfkp9RgL8U3LqSGLNrXw2U/s320/DSCF2071.JPG" /></a><br />
<br />
Happy belated Halloween!<br />
<br />
Mrs. VanderLeek ;) Mrs. Vander Leekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14368148301058222111noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3480129109113299869.post-86847846632630239572013-11-04T12:49:00.000-08:002014-04-03T10:38:37.811-07:00Thanksgiving 3 & Catchup PostAgain, too much busy-ness in life for me to be able to sit down and post! I promised you a recap of Thanksgiving 3, so here it is. <br />
<br />
It was wonderful! Everyone was able to make it, which was the sure sign of success. The turkey was fully thawed that morning (whew...) so prepping it was low-stress... until I realized I didn't have the proper recipe for the turkey and stuffing. "No worries," I thought, "I'll just call my grandma!" But, alas, Grandma is always out shopping Saturday mornings and was hence unreachable. So I wung it (my computer tells me that's a typo, but I'm sure that's the past-tense verb for 'winging it'). I knew the basics of our old family recipes - and the fact that they were horrifying. For about 50 years now, my family has made turkeys by rubbing butter all over a brown paper bag, wrapping that over a bird in a roasting pan, turning the temperature up for the first half hour, then dropping it down to 325 to finish baking. Why is this horrifying? A better question is: How is it NOT??? SERIOUSLY - who came up with the idea to rub an accelerant all over paper and put it in a hot oven??? Anyway, I thought that I'd Google How to cook a Paper Bag Turkey and see what came up... I was even more horrified. <br />
Some of the top hits? "WORST ways to cook a turkey!", "Why NOT to cook your turkey in a Paper Bag", and a slew of resources informing me I'd surely kill my guests with this ill-advised cooking method. <br />
<br />
Pleasant. <br />
<br />
Turns out, it's not just dangerous to throw greasy paper in your oven, but there's a big concern about using low-quality paper that might include inks, dyes, adhesives and even metal filings. Oh, and someone said NEVER to cook turkey at a temperature less than 350 or a guest will die.<br />
<br />
Again, pleasant.<br />
<br />
By this time I was panicking a little bit. I was running low on time to think, knowing I'd need 4.5 hours to cook my turkey, plus resting time, so I needed that bird in the oven. But then I remembered that it truly has been around 50 years that my family has been cooking large birds like this, and not once has anyone started a fire (beer can chickens on the bbq are a totally different story...), and no one has become sick from chemical leeching from the paper bags. That, and Martha Stewart recommended you cook her featured turkey recipe for this year at 325 (sans dying guests).<br />
So I stuck with what was familiar, cut off all the parts of the bag which had ink or glue, and buttered that bad boy up! The real trick is to put butter on every inch of the bag, so much so that the bag turns translucent. Then you press it down around the turkey and the roasting rack in your pan. I was planning to make a gravy, so I poured some white wine in the bottom, and threw in some onion and a couple garlic cloves with the turkey neck. Then I let it cook at 425 for 30 minutes, and 325 for the remaining 4 hours. The result?? PERFECTION! Honestly - this thing had crispy skin, juicy meat, and looked like something from a Thanksgiving magazine ad. <br />
<br />
I forgot to get sage at the grocery store, so while my turkey was perfect, my stuffing was under-seasoned, but I even got a compliment from a guest on that (apparently a guest who has been subjected to over-seasoned stuffing many-a-year). My potatoes were wonderful, the sweet potatoes were a hit, and the gravy turned out perfect! My guests brought pickled beets, roasted carrots, homemade wine, kale salad, pies and port! It was a wonderful, normal, down-home cooking meal, which is exactly what I was aiming for! I have to admit, I toyed with the idea of sweet potatoes fries with a chili mayo, prosciutto cups with pear and asiago, and deconstructed pumpkin pie cups, but I figured that wasn't what this crowd needed - they needed something that tasted like home. The craziest we got was that the pies were smoked! Concern for oven space, and the presence of a new smoker in their household, lead our friends to opt to smoke the apple and pumpkin pies they brought! The apple pie was particularly well suited to the method - although I heard that a peach pie they made was even better! <br />
<br />
And so it came to pass that Thanksgiving 3 was finished.<br />
<br />
Now, I mentioned that this would also be a catch-up post. I'll do that quickly!<br />
<br />
1. Halloween has also passed since my last post. I plan to do a separate post about that to do it justice, just not today.<br />
<br />
2. We got snow. LOTS of snow. From Saturday morning to Sunday night, we went from zero snow, to people-are-stuck-in-their-driveways snow. About a foot dump. It's beautiful :)<br />
<br />
3. 'Tis the season for tea! So while everyone else was staying home Saturday night because it was snowing so much, I trekked out to do a tea party! The weather was particularly mood-setting! I try to only do two shows a month, but this month everyone wants stuff, so between Nov 2 and Dec 5 I have 5 shows booked, and another person wanting to book in somewhere! In addition to that, I've agreed to donate to a Christmas giveaway that my friends' company is hosting. I'll put together a prize package, and anyone who likes my business page that day will be entered for the draw! Then, on the 11th I'll have a table at their Christmas Wrap Up party where I'll be selling tea for the holidays!<br />
<br />
4. Our hot water tank is leaking. And for some reason the soonest we can get a plumber is the 13th. 9 days with a hot water tank leak? Oh joy...<br />
<br />
5. I'm crazy. Sometimes I don't realize it, sometimes I do. Today, I realized it when I was making plans to do a 100% healthy-eating household from the middle of November to Christmas. ...and then I realized it wouldn't feel like Christmas without my Christmas baking. And even though I could bake the stuff and personally hold off from eating it, that wouldn't actually help the household hold to their healthy lifestyle as well (and, you know, the kids would flip if I made cookies and they didn't get them). So I'm really not sure what to do. Perhaps totally healthy meals but snacks still allowed until the New Year? Basically I got sick of being fat and intend to do something about it (once again), and hubby's eager to join the effort, but I don't want it to encroach on our festivities, or be unnecessarily hard because I picked an arbitrary start date! I'm really stumped on this one...<br />
<br />
Anyway, that's all for now! I'd best be off!<br />
<br />
Mrs. VanderLeek ;)Mrs. Vander Leekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14368148301058222111noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3480129109113299869.post-35557930106588687062013-10-15T09:00:00.001-07:002013-10-15T09:00:56.002-07:00Thanksgiving - Round 2As you may remember from my previous post, Thanksgiving this year is being broken up into 3 rounds for our family. Round 1 involved brunch and supper in Calgary, Round 2 was a dinner with the in-laws, and Round 3 will occur next weekend, when we host our own turkey dinner for friends who missed out on time with family this past weekend! <br />
As a quick recap, I made the prosciutto egg cups for the brunch on Saturday, and they were a huge, gluten-free hit! I didn't have my onion jam on hand, which I'd normally place a dab of in the prosciutto cup before I crack the egg on top, but nevertheless, they were delicious. <br />
Here's my recipe:<br />
Prosciutto Egg Cups<br />
<br />
12 eggs<br />
12 thin slices prosciutto (double-check that it's gluten free if that's what you're going for!)<br />
Cream<br />
Italian seasoning<br />
Parmesan<br />
<br />
Line each cup of a muffin tin with a piece of prosciutto, wrapping it around the sides of the cup to make a little bowl. If you're planning on adding a boost of flavor (crumbled blue cheese, truffle, onion jam, smoked salmon, etc) add it now. Crack one egg into each cup and pour a small dab of cream in the white of each egg. Draw a line through the white with a knife to mix the cream in. Sprinkle with fresh parmesan and herbs, and bake at 375 for 15 minutes. For quicker assembly, crack all of the eggs into a mixing bowl and beat with the cream, then pour out even portions amongst the prosciutto cups. <br />
<br />
Later that afternoon we had our gluten-free turkey dinner. No one insisted we make everything gluten free, but that's how it happened for the sake of my cousin who is struggling to find food worth eating since his recent diagnosis. I made a cornbread stuffing with gluten free farmer's sausage, which was a nice stuffing if you like cornbread. The taste was fine, but the crumb was, well, cornbread. So if that's you're thing, it's great, but if you're used to a normal bread stuffing, perhaps you wouldn't like it. <br />
I also made my individual pavlovas! And I learned some valuable lessons! Lesson number 1: use the proper beaters to make your egg whites stiff. If you don't, basically they'll never get there. I stood with a hand mixer for 25 minutes, hoping that eventually the soft peaks I had would stiffen up. Eventually I called it "good enough" and piped my pavlovas. Lesson number 2: use the proper type of sugar! I've seen recipes that insist you can use icing sugar. Perhaps you can, but I've not had luck with it! After mixing for a ridiculous amount of time, I was dismayed to find that my labour of love resembled piles of turd after their time in the oven. No lie. That's all you could think as you looked at them. And a good amount of the sugar had seeped out of the bottom and caramelized around the base of each pavlova. They were next to impossible to peel off. Then when I checked them again in the morning, they had shrivelled. They were horrible, disgusting little turd piles. And while in some instances you can say, "It doesn't matter how it looks if it tastes great!" I didn't even have that consolation this time. The outside had never hardened properly (and I kept them in the oven too long hoping that it would, which gave them a brown hue), and so they were essentially angel food cake flavored marshmallow. They were essentially unservable as anything other than an individual marshmallow. <br />
So what's a girl to do? I remade them. And this time, I used granulated sugar instead of icing sugar. Ideally, I'd be using castor sugar, but I didn't have it, however I'm now aware that between icing and granulated, the latter is a better substitute. <br />
Again, I was only using the bad beaters, so those stiff peaks never came, which meant that instead of pavlova towers I had pavlova mounds, but joy of joys, these bad boys worked in every other way! And the best part was what we did with them!<br />
For half the batch, I mixed up a chocolate whipped cream (so rich that it wasn't even whipping at first until I upped the cream ratio a bit - basically it was a ganache that I thinned enough to whip properly!), and then after layering with the cream, we topped it with pomegranate arils. For the second half of the batch, I made a maple syrup flavored whipped cream and topped each one with a slice of red pear. The whole point of this exercise was to make a gluten-free dessert that my poor cousin wouldn't feel was the consolation prize of desserts, and I think we nailed it! (I personally saw him inhale three of those bad boys, and he insisted that if we left the remainder there, he'd finish eating them all)<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh36WxvbJpAO-9EOKuyudK60cWlKpCXENF3Xo8qiDMI7xHC1G-zWpzO94xl3J5xRSMw1_3U7jtzOD3_1dfXzbQwdSeoLK1G5Jao0-gdtNEHH6-I7giA083JJTpVO0TDXv8nN959wthyyS8/s1600/pavlova-chocolate-pomegranate.JPG" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh36WxvbJpAO-9EOKuyudK60cWlKpCXENF3Xo8qiDMI7xHC1G-zWpzO94xl3J5xRSMw1_3U7jtzOD3_1dfXzbQwdSeoLK1G5Jao0-gdtNEHH6-I7giA083JJTpVO0TDXv8nN959wthyyS8/s320/pavlova-chocolate-pomegranate.JPG" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikGpTBk8m5B9BHI13KRyVJ3bs1nO1NOwnWUjIRoRxgzHG58RRMCA2gKERpumXamIo_UJsYZf8J1aT7soeKm-fLCCwiqsdfaKqIkTFyKc_pMIzz9bOIC8SX4g9XuTBC48CGMThIM6tr0i8/s1600/pavlova-maple-pear.JPG" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikGpTBk8m5B9BHI13KRyVJ3bs1nO1NOwnWUjIRoRxgzHG58RRMCA2gKERpumXamIo_UJsYZf8J1aT7soeKm-fLCCwiqsdfaKqIkTFyKc_pMIzz9bOIC8SX4g9XuTBC48CGMThIM6tr0i8/s320/pavlova-maple-pear.JPG" /></a><br />
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Now, onto Round 2 recap. We regularly have turkey dinners with this side of the family, but this year was different. Due to some major stressors in my MIL's life, us kids took over the brunt of cooking. She made the turkey and stuffing, and we were in charge of all the rest. Oh, and there were 14 adults who were going to be there. So the out-of-towner kids brought things they could pick up (pies, salads, and buns), while my local sister-in-law and I divvied up the rest. I took on the mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, extra desserts, and decided to make use of that leftover cornbread stuffing I brought home from Calgary. But I decided to improve it: Corn cakes! I stirred in a can of creamed corn and an extra egg, then made patties which I spritzed with oil, then baked on my stoneware. The result was super yummy! And since another gluten-free person was in attendance, it was a welcome thing for her! For the mashed potatoes, every year that side has "Swedish potatoes" - mashed potatoes with cream cheese and a bread crumb topping. Well, the problem with doing mashed potatoes just with cream cheese is that they can often be dry and dense. So I got my Auntie Brenda's recipe for the best ever mashed potatoes, added the bread crumb topping, and passed them off as an improved Swedish Potato. <br />
Here's the recipe for what my aunt calls "Elsie's Potatoes":<br />
<br />
5 lbs Russet Potatoes, peeled and chopped<br />
1 - 8 oz package cream cheese, softened<br />
1 c. sour cream<br />
2 tsp onion powder<br />
1 tsp salt<br />
2 tbsp. fine bread crumbs<br />
1 1/2 tbsp. butter<br />
<br />
Boil the potatoes until they are tender. In a mixer with a paddle attachment, beat the potatoes until they are mashed fine. Add the cream cheese, sour cream, onion powder and salt, and mix until combined and fluffy. Put potatoes into a large casserole dish and sprinkle bread crumbs on top. Dot the butter around the top and bake at 350 for about 30 minutes - until crisped on top. <br />
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All I was supposed to bring was 2nd dessert and potatoes. But I kept changing what I thought I'd bring for dessert, and so my husband saw an opportunity to make a request: lemon bars. So for dessert I made Dulce de Leche bars and Lemon bars as well. Then he figured he might as well ask for 'Marshmallow casserole' too, since I was in a generous mood. Ergo, the candied sweet potatoes I made with a marshmallow topping. <br />
Supper was eaten, we had loads of food, and now to rest up and get my house ready to host another dinner next weekend!<br />
<br />
Mrs. VanderLeek ;)Mrs. Vander Leekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14368148301058222111noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3480129109113299869.post-92224745807774542572013-10-09T19:46:00.000-07:002013-10-09T19:46:18.944-07:00Thanksgiving - Round 1Yep, Round 1. I'm doing multiple Thanksgivings this year!<br />
<br />
First up, I'm headed to Calgary to celebrate with family from my side. Our first stop will be a Thanksgiving potluck brunch. I've been trying to be more considerate of people with restrictive diets, specifically gluten sensitivities, so everything I make for this weekend will be gluten free. However, I also acknowledge that a lot of the households attending this brunch are also restrictive of meats and dairy... and I'm much less considerate on that front. Well, the husbands might think I'm being considerate of their inner carnivore at least; I'm bringing my Prosciutto Egg cups! Minimal prep time (I can throw 2 dozen of those babies in a pan in less than 10 minutes), gluten free, and super, super yummy. <br />
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Next stop will be a dinner at my aunt's house. My 16 year old cousin was recently diagnosed with a severe gluten sensitivity, so I offered to bring GF foods for the group. I'll be making a Cornbread and Sausage Stuffing: it'll be enough of a switch-up from our regular stuffing that no one will be comparing it to the 'normal kind' all night. Gluten Free cornbread is a breeze to make, but the real trick will end up being making sure my sausages are gluten free and yummy. <br />
I also offered to bring a dessert, and my brain almost exploded from the potential of this. I toyed for a long time with the idea of a seasonal fruit tart with an almond crust and some caramel drizzle, and for a lesser time on things like poached pears and pumpkin Fro Yo, but I finally landed on a Pavlova - a gorgeous, beautifully elegant dessert that demands to be made ahead! <br />
But even once I landed there, I needed to figure out what would top this tower of yumminess. I pictured something tall, opulent, and decadent. But alas, I had a heck of a time deciding, especially considering some chocolate allergies in the family. I needed to keep it more simple than not, but something that would be beautiful in its simplicity. And to be honest, in the back of my mind I always had the nagging that a pavlova as big as I was hoping to make (with at least 2 layers, plus filling), would be pretty hard to cut well. <br />
Then it struck me: why make decisions when I can use variety to my advantage?? <br />
<br />
Individual pavlovas, people!<br />
<br />
I'll be making 2 dozen individual pavlovas. The first dozen will be topped with chocolate whipped cream and pomegranate arils. The second dozen will have a maple flavored whipped cream with red pear slices! <br />
<br />
Silly aside, while discussing this plan with my mother, she seemed a bit taken aback. I asked what she thought I should have on them instead and she suggested, "Every time I've had pavlova they've just been topped with whipped cream and fresh fruit!" It took her a while to clue in that that was essentially all I was doing. Funny how differently two people can see the same thing! <br />
<br />
In any event, making the individual pavlovas might be a bit more of a pain, but they'll be much easier to serve!<br />
<br />
I'm excited for this round of Thanksgivings! And FYI, Round 2 will be on the holiday Monday with the in-laws (I'm making pecan strudels and potatoes), and Round 3 will be a hosted event at my house with a family from church that won't get a Thanksgiving this year with their family!<br />
<br />
Mrs. VanderLeek ;)Mrs. Vander Leekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14368148301058222111noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3480129109113299869.post-46468862773323239102013-09-19T11:02:00.000-07:002013-09-19T11:04:55.004-07:00How to spend less than $400/month on groceriesI've got to be honest - that really could read "less than $300/month on groceries". For my family of 5 - 2 adults, 2 pre-schoolers and a baby - that's what we spend. And while you might count that as 2 full appetites and 2 small ones, truth is, my 2 year old eats as much as I do at dinner time now. <br />
But really, that's what I spend per month to feed our young family. Mind you, that's not really by choice; it's a necessity. We don't have much more at the end of bills and automatic withdrawls to pay for groceries. What does this mean for our family? Do we go without? Are we deprived of quality, healthy, good-tasting food? <br />
<br />
Well, you read this blog - you decide. <br />
<br />
Truth is, we eat well in our home. I quite enjoy cooking, and experimenting, and trying different flavors and techniques. I like to make my own recipes up, and I've grown to dislike most packaged and frozen foods. In part because, well, we can't afford them. Things like taquitos, pizza pops, chicken fingers and the like... those bad boys cost money. More than I'm willing to pay. And since I started limiting my exposure to them, I've grown an intolerance for their tastes. So really, we eat better because I'm too cheap to pay for the bad stuff. <br />
<br />
Now, I know prices vary regionally. Some people may read this and not have access to bountiful, inexpensive produce the same way that I do. Living in Alberta, there will always be some type of fruit for less than $1.20/lb. Living so close to some of the best meat in the world, I can also get high-quality beef, pork and chicken for a reasonable price. But wherever you live, there are some general rules you can hold to, to help you save on groceries. This isn't a specific list of recipes using lower-costing ingredients, because those change, but rather a list of principals, that never change. Stick with these, and you may find you don't need to spend what you've spent in the past. I know it's worked for me. <br />
<br />
How to Spend Less Than $400/month on Groceries<br />
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Rule #1: If it's not on sale, DON'T BUY IT!<br />
Some households have certain foods that they always keep in their house - be it a favorite cereal, a specific type of snack, even a preferred fruit. Not so, in my house. We constantly have different foods in our house, because sale prices constantly change. It doesn't matter if I love peaches - I'm not buying fresh peaches in the middle of winter when they're imported, flavorless, and $3.50/lb. It won't happen. And if my boys love Lucky Charms, but Lucky Charms aren't on sale, they know we won't have them in the house for a while - and they're okay with that. <br />
I remember when we were on vacation in the mountains and my husband was looking at some item in a gift shop. My oldest boy, who would've just been 3 at that time, walked up and said, "Sorry Daddy - you can't buy that. It's not on sale." My boys have been trained to look for the deal, and they don't feel like they're suffering because of it; they just understand that's how shopping works. <br />
Now, there are a handful of items this rule does not apply to: milk, bread, eggs.... that's very nearly it. If we run out of peanut butter, but peanut butter isn't on sale that week - no peanut butter. If we run out of margarine but it's not on sale that week - dry toast for Mommy for a while. <br />
Things like juice, snack foods, favorite cereals, frozen foods and canned items all fall to the mercy of the sales flyer. I will not pay full price for any of those things, unless someone has asked me to bring a specific item to a meal. <br />
We eat seasonal veggies because that's what's on sale. I have recipes for squash, potatoes and apples in the fall, and asparagus and artichokes in the spring, and beans, tomatoes and peaches through the summer. <br />
We have favorite dishes that are our go-tos, but if we don't have it stocked in the house, and it's not on sale, we won't be eating those for a while! This means I have to be willing to experiment with different foods, but it's worth the money we save. Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts might be an ideal blank-slate for cooking with, but until the frozen 4 kg box goes on sale for $2.99/lb, we won't be eating those. Actually, that's my general guideline: no cut of meat over $3/lb, unless it's a special occasion. And usually I shoot for less than $2/lb.<br />
<br />
Rule #2: When it is on a good sale, BUY LOTS OF IT!<br />
If you see a good price - pounce! And stock up! To spend this little on groceries each month, it's basically necessary to have a good freezer. Ours isn't huge; we have a half-sized chest freezer, but it gives us enough room. Warehouse packs of meat often go on the cheapest sales, so if ground beef, chicken thighs or pork loin are on sale, I buy more than just what we'll need for that week. Buy it, portion it, and freeze it! I mentioned my $3/lb meat rule above. Well, when drumsticks hit $1/lb, I buy a couple warehouse packs! <br />
In the summer, lots of produce goes down to $1/lb, or less, so it's not unusual for me to pick up a flat of blueberries, of which 90% of will go into my freezer! <br />
Canned goods that get marked down to $1/can (beans, tomatoes, etc) I will stock up on as well, and I always load up on pasta when it's on a good sale; when everything else is expensive, pasta can be a cheap meal, but if you stock up when it's on sale, it's extra cheap!<br />
<br />
Rule #3: Even if it's on sale, DON'T BUY IT UNLESS IT'S A GOOD PRICE!<br />
A local flyer was touting their whole Wild Pink Salmon for $0.89/100 g as their sale price. Sounds good, except I happen to know that the same grocer had them down to $0.39/100 g a month before. When regular price off-season is $1.29/100 g, sure $0.89/100 g looks like a good price, but if you know how low the price can go, and stock up when it gets there, you'll get the goods, but for even less. <br />
I laugh at 'sale prices' sometimes. Sometimes all you need to do is look at the 'Amount Saved' area on the sale tag to notice that the store was just trying to get you in the door; 3 cents saving off a can of tomatoes hardly counts as a sale, but I've seen places do that plenty. <br />
Just because it has a sale tag doesn't mean it's the best deal you can get. Familiarize yourself with pricing cycles (ducks go on sale in the late winter/early spring, fresh fish are on sale in the early summer, beef is often cheapest during grilling season, while pork is often your best bet in the winter), and get to know the best prices for your region. <br />
You see that beans are on sale 2/$5. You know that your grocer has a warehouse sale on in a few weeks where the beans usually go for 5/$5... hold off for the good price. <br />
And don't be fooled by sales for "$1 a pork chop" - what size of chop? Is it a decent cut? It's much safer to shop by price-per-weight than per piece. <br />
<br />
Rule #4: Meal plan using flyers<br />
I never know what I'm making 2 weeks in advance. Why? Because I don't know what will be on sale! Sure, ground beef seems like a fairly cheap go-to meat, but what if pork side ribs are down to $1.30/lb that week? Of course we'll be having ribs! <br />
Some people stick with their same rotation of 'low cost' meals, using ingredients that tend to be cheaper than others on a regular basis. The issue with doing this though is that sometimes you'll spend more for that 'cheaper' cut, than you will for a better cut on a good sale. <br />
I have Duck Night on an annual basis. Honestly, who can afford to eat duck? I can - when the sale price goes down to cheaper than their chicken is! A big batch of pulled pork can be pricey when you pay full price, but when pork shoulders go on sale, that's a hefty amount of food for not a lot of money! <br />
I'll never turn down a cut of meat for $1/lb. This week in our flyer, Fresh pork picnic roasts are $0.99/lb. I'm not crazy about ham typically, but I'm sure I can make it taste yummy when it's that cheap. And if you're super adventurous, keep your eye out for unbutchered cuts. One local grocer sells pork legs (literally, the whole leg - hoof and all) for $0.19/lb. If you're not opposed to handling the meat, you can feed a lot of people with that. <br />
Don't miss out on the chance to save on good food, just because you're convinced some meals are 'cheaper'<br />
Oh, and check multiple flyers. I check 4 different flyers each week to see where the best prices are, and while I have a 'regular' store I shop at, I'm not unwilling to drive down the road to another store to save $1/lb on produce. <br />
And even if you're opposed to shopping around at multiple stores, you can watch for sales trends. Grocers get the 'okay' from manufacturers to put items on sale typically. So if Breyers ice cream is $2.50 at one store this week, but $5 at your preferred store - wait a week. Odds are, your grocer got the same deal, they're just waiting a bit to promote it. <br />
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Rule #5: Don't compromise on quality<br />
I sent my husband to the store for me this past week. I needed maple syrup, and knowing my take on spending as little money as possible, he bought the store brand syrup for me. That was all well and good until I opened the syrup yesterday (while I was making a special meal for another family, mind you), and I was highly disappointed to find that their was almost no maple smell to my syrup. And syrup was a generous title, actually. It smelled, and tasted, like slightly burnt sugar water. It didn't matter that we saved $1 for the bottle of syrup; in reality, we wasted $8 on a crappy product. There are some things that you can get store brand on - overall I have been very impressed by Compliments brand products at Sobeys. But some things, like Fruit Loops, ketchup, canned beans in sauce, soy sauce, margarine, and boxed macaroni and cheese, need to be bought by brand name. This doesn't change my rule about only buying on sale - it just means I won't always buy the absolutely cheapest thing on the shelf. What's the point if I just feel like throwing it away once I taste it? I eat good food. And I do it cheaply. But I won't let me cheapness affect my culinary expectations. <br />
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Rule #6: Keep a couple splurges<br />
Sometimes, you really just need prosciutto. Or goat cheese! Or Modena balsamic vinegar that comes corked in a bottle and you could drink straight if you felt so inclined... It's true, I buy those things. Granted, I also have a cheaper balsamic vinegar on hand, for when you need the taste but the quality doesn't matter as much, but that Modena holds a special place in my cupboard. I had to juggle some grocery purchases the month I got it, same with when I buy my high-end Black Olive Oil; it's not usual for me to spend $20 on a bottle of anything! But it happens from time to time, and I'm so glad I've made the decision to carry on with that. During the summer, it's good steaks. Around Christmas time it's Hickory Farms smoked cheese. I don't let it break my budget, but sometimes I do need to budget around it. But I never feel like I'm deprived when I know I've got the good stuff kicking around in my house. And those Chicken Breasts that finally went on sale in the frozen warehouse pack for $2.99/lb? They taste awesome with some of my Modena poured on top.<br />
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Rule #7: Go Vegetarian from time to time<br />
Health professionals recommend it for keeping cholesterol in check. Vegans promote it for awareness of conditions animals are raised in. Chefs suggest you do it to expand your culinary offerings. I'm saying you should do it for your bank account. Quinoa may cost more than rice, but it still costs less to fill up on than steak does. And in a big stir fry with lots of veggies that were leftover in your fridge, no one's really going to miss the chicken strips. A good chili is possible without the beef. And black beans can be seasoned in chili powder to complete your Taco Salad. Give it a try, maybe once a week. <br />
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This is how I do it. It's nice not being tied down to habit or feeling stuck in a rut. Really, saving money on groceries is adventurous! <br />
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A couple of disclaimers: While I write this, I am not pregnant, which means I am not plagued by cravings or a highly limited list of foods I'm able to keep down. I do not currently have gallstones or another restrictive diet. I do not have a formula-fed baby. This list is NOT intended to make ANYONE feel bad about their current grocery budget! If you have other circumstances in your life that make it complicated, and sometimes even impossible, to spend this little - I get it. You are by no means a bad person for spending more than $400/month on groceries. Location, time of life, circumstances and busyness all affect this. As a stay-at-home mom, I'm blessed with ample time to think on the meals I'm going to make and to actually prepare them. <br />
This list is meant to give help, and hope, to those who wonder how they can cut back. If you're already doing all these things, and you still spend more than I do, you're likely doing all you can. How much we do, or do not, spend on our groceries doesn't determine our degree of success in life. I'm not 'winning' because I spend so little. I spend so little because that's all I have! And if you are in a similar financial situation, and are looking for ways to save a few bucks, I hope you found some helpful tips on this post!<br />
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Mrs. VanderLeek ;)Mrs. Vander Leekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14368148301058222111noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3480129109113299869.post-12469721412712786882013-09-15T13:52:00.000-07:002013-09-15T13:52:35.412-07:00Honey Roasted Pork LoinSometimes I post things on here so that I can find it again. This is one of those posts!<br />
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The other day I needed to have supper ready for my family so I could run out to do a tea party. I'd pulled a pork loin the day before and that was about as far as my plans went. I didn't want to roast it the way I normally do; hubby had been getting home late the last couple of nights and I didn't want to have it dry out (I think he was getting sick of dry food...). I needed it to have a sauce that it could soak up in case he were later than we anticipated. <br />
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Well, my boys have been loving honey lately, so the thought of a honey-glazed pork loin was appealing to all of us. Some honey, some citrus juice, some chicken stock to round out the flavor... yum yum yum! And at the end, straining the juices and then reducing them into this wonderfully sticky glaze that the pork would continue to soak up! It just goes to show that sometimes those overly-simplistic recipes you find on Food.com can really turn out yummy and balanced!<br />
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So, here goes!<br />
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Honey Roasted Pork Loin:<br />
1/4 c. honey<br />
2 tbsp. orange juice<br />
1/2 c. chicken stock<br />
1/2 tsp thyme<br />
1 tbsp. olive oil<br />
<br />
Combine and pour over pork loin in roasting dish. Bake at 375 for 45 - 60 minutes (depending on size of pork loin) - baste a few times. <br />
Once meat is cooked through, remove it and let it rest. Meanwhile, strain juice into a saucepan and reduce until slightly thickened (as it cools it will continue to thicken.) Carve pork and top with glaze. <br />
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*Originally posted on <a href="http://www.food.com/recipe/honey-roasted-pork-loin-29493">Food.com</a><br />
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I had done up quite a lot of pork; I was expecting to have at least a third of it leftover, especially since my oldest boy hasn't been great at eating his suppers lately, and hubby's favorite meat isn't pork (unless it's smoked pork belly... aka BACON). I ate a few pieces hurriedly before I ran out the door and quite liked it... but I had to keep stopping to refill the boys' plates with more meat. Still, there was about half of the loin left when hubby got home and I left to my party. <br />
And when I got home, there were two measly slices. TWO. (I sopped up the rest of glaze on the plate and ate them with my fingers while I put things away that evening)<br />
And furthermore, when I asked hubby what he thought, instead of his cover-all answer of "it was good", he gave a real answer of, "I quite enjoyed it actually!" Even he was surprised! <br />
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A success.<br />
<br />
Mrs. VanderLeek ;)Mrs. Vander Leekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14368148301058222111noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3480129109113299869.post-45422347557985543592013-09-11T10:50:00.001-07:002013-09-11T10:50:11.720-07:00Life with an iPhoneI'd like to say my absence from blogging for over a month now wasn't a side-effect of getting an iPhone, but I'd be lying. It's not that I've been so hunkered down tweeting, or playing games, or mindlessly surfing Facebook, that I've forgotten about blogging. On the contrary - I'd say that it's because I now spend less non-intentional time on my computer! I don't check Facebook unless I can see I have a message waiting. I don't keep hovering around my computer while I wait for an email - my phone will ding when it comes. And I can get things done, written out, and printed, as I think of them, instead of needing to hunker down on the laptop to catch up on things. As far as productivity goes, an iPhone has been great for me!<br />
But, all the same, I've now missed blogging for over a month. In that time I've finished a few more crochet projects, had my birthday (I got my Dust Buster! Yay!), saw my family a lot and did a ton of fun, summery things. We went camping, we went to the beach, we had tailgating parties with our church... fun.<br />
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I also had a number of tea parties - and I have a few more coming in the next week. It's been lots of fun doing these, and I'm turning semi-pro at doctoring teas into amazing punches and fun party drinks. For example: Iced Mojito green tea, lime syrup, fresh mint leaves and white rum! Or Clementine Biscotti cold brewed, with blackcherry-cranberry juice and club soda for a holiday punch that tastes like sparkling mulled cider! And if you drink powdered hot chocolate, you should absolutely steep Hot Yoga or Dark Chocolate Chai tea in your water before adding your powder! <br />
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As far as crocheting goes, I'm getting better, and faster. I've completed a few Christmas presents, including an Underwater Themed blanket for my nephew, some chain necklaces, and a chunky wool infinity scarf. I also made a hooded cowl with ears to be part of an ewok costume for one of my boys this Halloween. I still need to find a supplier with really chunky yarn, preferably synthetic, so I can make this gorgeous fire-side blanket I dream about at night. <br />
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Speaking of suppliers, I also need to find a fabric store that carries Timber Creek fabric. I want to make a quilt for my eldest boy for Christmas, and have my eye on a couple designs by them, but can't find it in Canada - and hate the price on shipping from down in the States! <br />
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Anyway, I've got a tea party tomorrow, a garage sale on Friday, and far more things going on in the following week, so this is all I actually have time for. Such is life, when you're working on being productive :) <br />
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Mrs. VanderLeek ;)Mrs. Vander Leekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14368148301058222111noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3480129109113299869.post-71023778852485868972013-07-26T21:56:00.001-07:002013-07-26T21:56:18.641-07:00Double Post Day!Okay you lucky people! (All 4 of you followers...) You get 2 posts tonight! <br />
My last one was more of a rant than anything (we can call it musings if you prefer.), so I figured I'd best leave you all with a bit of inspiration. <br />
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First, of the culinary sort. <br />
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I had a Summer Tea Tasting Party this week and was eager to showcase as much tea as possible - in as many ways as possible. This included cocktails (Mojitos made with mojito tea + white rum, and Earl Grey Martinis), virgin cocktails (fruit tea + club soda + lime syrup), typical iced tea (Coconut tea + vanilla syrup), Two-Bite Brownies with Matcha Mousse and a classic fruit tart with tea-infused pastry cream. Yum!<br />
I've got a couple more summer tea parties yet this season, so we'll see how many more treats I can put tea in! (Tea pots de crème?)<br />
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Tonight for supper I pulled out some pork dumplings I'd frozen a while back, and was going to make coconut rice but opted instead for saffron. The Indian inspiration soon beat out the Chinese inspiration when I opted to make a tamarind sauce and garam masala peas and carrots. And after a full week of struggling every night to get my pre-schooler to eat his supper (no spaghetti, no shepherd's pie - not even grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch!) he inhaled his whole supper. The peas and carrots were the surprise hit! I sautéed the carrots first with a bit of oil, then added the peas and the garam masala near the end. It was so simple, and the boys loved it, so I think that's going to be a staple in our home now! And saffron rice is always delicious, and the extra step of toasting your rice and adding sautéed onions really goes a long way. <br />
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Next: craftiness. <br />
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I have been successfully crocheting for about 2 weeks now. In that time I've mastered the <a href="http://vallieskids.blogspot.jp/2010/07/to-brim-or-not-to-brim.html">brimmed toque</a>, learned how to read the stitches far better than I ever could with knitting, can now make <a href="http://todolwen.blogspot.ca/2013/01/my-little-flutterby-tutorial.html">the daintiest butterflies you ever saw</a>, and am determined to <a href="http://stitchingupastormcrochet.blogspot.ca/2012/01/star-wars-twilek-hat-pattern.html">make a Twi'lek hat for myself</a>, and Ewok hoods for my boys. I've also started making a stacking ring toy which was actually one of my initial attractors to crocheting; at a baby shower the mom-to-be was presented with the most adorable crocheted stacking toy and we were all amazed to hear that the girl who had gifted it had also been the one who made it. I want to give wicked awesome gifts like that, too. And so now I crochet. <br />
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Last: Gardening.<br />
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This is my first year of having a real vegetable garden, and thus far it is surviving. You may think I'm being over-dramatic with my word choice, but if you'd seen the hail storm we got last weekend, you'd be grateful for anything of yours that survived! Fortunately the trees in my yard shielded the garden from the hail. ...UNFORTUNATELY, the branches that blew off the trees landed on my peas. So we'll see what happens with those. <br />
I've had to come to terms with the fact that everything in my yard takes at least a month longer than the exact same plants 5 blocks away, at my parents' house. And really, at everyone else's house in town. The west-facing yard really takes a toll on my growing times. My delphiniums have not bloomed yet, my tiger lily just opened, my peony hasn't even produced a bud yet and my rose bush is growing well, but not looking like it will flower at all this season. My strawberries refuse to fruit too. But really, this is the best my yard has ever looked in the 4 summers we've been here, so I can't complain too much I suppose. <br />
As far as good news, my carrots and beets are coming along nicely, my beans are starting to produce, and I even might have a tiny pumpkin by the end of the weekend! <br />
<br />
There. <br />
<br />
Go be inspired now.<br />
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Mrs. VanderLeek ;)Mrs. Vander Leekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14368148301058222111noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3480129109113299869.post-34307586290526589762013-07-26T21:30:00.001-07:002013-07-26T21:30:51.707-07:00I want, I want, I wantHave you ever gone through those seasons of your life when you just feel like you have everything you need, and you can't think of much more that you even want? <br />
I was going through one of those recently. My wish list was reduced to a new Dust Buster to help make cleaning my upholstery easier, and an early edition copy of Pride and Prejudice, which I know I'll never actually get. Sure, I also wanted things like a new tattoo, or a new piercing, and even to attend a show or two, but as far as material possessions went - I felt like I had it all.<br />
<br />
Notice how that was past tense?<br />
<br />
Seriously, no idea where it came from, but suddenly my wish list is a mile long! I suddenly feel like my kitchen is incomplete without a mortar and pestle, I feel like I'm seriously deprived because I don't have a great salt/pepper grinder set, Target has a sale on dresses this weekend that I'm excited to go check out, and between jewelry I want to get, makeup I need to restock on, and things to help me expand my cooking skills, it's going to be a long time before I acquire everything on my wish list, which, if I may remind you, was nearly empty last month. <br />
<br />
Seriously - what's up with that???<br />
<br />
Granted, I've been cooking more lately, and watching more cooking shows thanks to a 3-month free trial for cable (which we won't keep, but I do love me some Chef Michael's Kitchen). As I see new techniques, or even flavor combinations, I feel like I need more things in my kitchen to help me create some of these things. <br />
Currently lacking from my kitchen are:<br />
Jelly Roll pans - 3 of them, actually. I feel like it would be wise to have these in case I ever need to make petit fours for a large crowd (which isn't a totally outrageous thing to expect of me...)<br />
A mortar and pestle - the ultimate of all I-got-this-because-it's-pretty kitchen tools, but something I feel like I'd actually use. I currently have my coriander seeds in a mini pepper grinder, I'm sick of crushing up candy canes with a rolling pin and having the shards poke through the plastic bag they're in, and tonight I had to crush saffron threads between two spoons. Sure, it worked, but it would have been a quicker and neater job if I had the right tool.<br />
And while I'm on the topic of grinders (kinda), I've been wanting a really good salt/pepper grinder set for a while (I'm picky about my salt, preferring only freshly cracked sea salt in most dishes, and I might as well have a matching set) but I can't find anything I really like! Which means it will likely be more expensive when I do get something. <br />
A fine mesh sieve - I have one... that has little bars running under the bottom. It's great for draining quinoa, and a pain for straining pastry cream or tamarind sauce. I need one that allows for an uninterrupted flow of liquid down into a bowl. <br />
Molecular Gastronomy tools - I'm determined to make caviars, foams, emulsifications, powders and all of those other fantastic things I've been reading about lately (nutella powder dusted over affogato caviar anyone???) but I need some tools, and ingredients first. Luckily I've got some inside information that this will be my birthday present from my husband (...since I had to buy it online myself since he wasn't sure where to get it!)<br />
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This is just the list of thing I have plans to get within the next few months! This doesn't include my desire to expand my Sophie Conran for Portmeirion collection, or to try out her covered black casserole dish, or any of the far-fetched scheming things I'd love for my kitchen (commercial manual espresso machine with a direct water line, please!)<br />
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Gah - maybe I'm just being greedy, but I'm not convinced enough of that to refrain from spending my birthday money on the first pepper mill that strikes my fancy...<br />
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Mrs. VanderLeek ;)Mrs. Vander Leekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14368148301058222111noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3480129109113299869.post-52579368445980211062013-07-18T14:10:00.000-07:002013-07-18T14:10:43.768-07:00CrochetingI finally have managed to tackle a real crocheting project!<br />
<br />
I've been a knitter for years, and while I never bothered to try making garments or anything overly complex, I felt happy with my ability to knit, purl, work in the round, and cable. But what frustrated me was all the super cute things I'd see on Pinterest that had obviously been done by crocheting. I wanted to learn to crochet to open more doors for my crafting. But I was having troubles learning.<br />
<br />
I had assumed that crocheting would be simpler if you started with a larger needle. But turns out, I was pretty wrong on that. I fund this fat thing from Value Village that had a totally rounded top on the hook, meaning that I had to use my fingers to get it into any stitch. So I definitely didn't learn any proper technique at the time. And my stitches were so loose that sometimes it was hard for me to spot the tell-tale "v" - so I wasn't learning to read stitches very well either. And when I finally felt sure enough to try working in the round, the first pattern went something like this: "Ch 2, 11 hdc into 2nd chain from hook." For those of you who don't crochet, that means to put 11 stitches into the exact same hole. Turns out, with such a big hook, after 5 stitches I couldn't even fit it through the hole anymore. It was ridiculous. <br />
<br />
So I waited a couple of weeks, until I bought new hooks, to reattempt it. In the meantime, I filled my 'project time' with writing books, composing a song, gourmet cooking, reading a novel and planning to launch a webpage. (Hubby's been working a lot lately...) <br />
<br />
Anyway, I now have the new hooks, and my next attempts were much more successful! The very first thing I did was set out making a hat for my little boy! <br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEju6jQu3BGv473WjCFUEUBptwLdeLhF5eKnpcKtb5OMYpsapYnoEQh7mcsX4lgCJP_FSVbgqZKw8rcD4cSl77DDWpB64wUOIRzfDljNc6Z40n2Q7V5v4mlYpc6eYte8GCYLghhdgpkG_jY/s1600/Picture0254.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEju6jQu3BGv473WjCFUEUBptwLdeLhF5eKnpcKtb5OMYpsapYnoEQh7mcsX4lgCJP_FSVbgqZKw8rcD4cSl77DDWpB64wUOIRzfDljNc6Z40n2Q7V5v4mlYpc6eYte8GCYLghhdgpkG_jY/s320/Picture0254.jpg" /></a> <br />
Okay, so maybe besides having the proper hook, learning to count is an important part of successfully crocheting... I accidentally added in a whole extra row of increasing on every stitch, which made what ought to have been a newborn hat, and hat that would fit an adult. No worries though - I've got a cute hat now! <br />
And in two hours, I whipped up a proper sized hat for my boy! (I reversed the colors of the one I made for myself, so now we'll be all matchy-matchy!)<br />
<br />
I must confess, I never had that degree of success with my first time knitting a hat. Crocheting is a lot simpler to read the stitches in my opinion, which has the big advantage of being more 'fixable'; if I can look at what I've done, and decode it, I can see if I've made a mistake and know how to fix it. Something I never learned with knitting. <br />
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So, now that I know that I can fire off a baby hat in two hours (and that time will likely go down as I get more comfortable), I'm on the hunt for other fun projects! And I must confess, I see <a href="http://uk.news.yahoo.com/yarn-bombing-bristol--nylon-spiders-web-doily-stapleton-road-railway-bridge-bristol-152953375.html#fEUvVea">Yarn Bombing</a> in my future...<br />
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As a slight aside, I did a bit of inventory today of my craft supplies while I was reorganizing my craft storage. I have shoebox-sized containers of supplies for jewelry making, candle making, knitting, sewing, stamping and paper crafting, painting, Christmas crafting and misc. crafting (glitter, magnets, clothespins, etc). That doesn't include my stash of fabrics and yarns, or my kids' crafting supplies! Me-thinks I have a touch of ADD... Shiny things, anyone?<br />
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Mrs. VanderLeek ;)Mrs. Vander Leekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14368148301058222111noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3480129109113299869.post-67274357596776327132013-07-12T15:01:00.000-07:002013-07-12T15:01:25.653-07:00Culinary Aspirations Well, it looks like last week was the week of crafting, and this week has been the week of writing. <br />
I had lots of writing projects at the beginning of the week, which left me mentally drained by the end of each day. As a result, I've been a lazy blogger. <br />
The last couple days however I've taken a break from all of my writing projects (not because they're done or anything - just because I can only think that hard for a few days before I need a break!). For two days now I've been focusing more on cooking.<br />
<br />
Cooking truly is a joy to me. When I was in high school, I fully anticipated entering the culinary field as my life-long career. For an honor roll student this was apparently odd, and when some teachers heard I wanted to go to cooking school they tried to dissuade me from it, arguing that chemistry or English would be a much more 'deserving' job; if I didn't <i>have</i> to have a job cooking, then why would I settle for one? <br />
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Clearly those teachers didn't cook, themselves. <br />
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I moved away in anticipation of enrolling in a culinary program... just in time for them to cancel all correspondence and evening courses for that term. The reality was, I couldn't afford to live away from home and attend school full-time (any scholarships I had been eligible for wouldn't cover culinary training), so I had planned on working a 9-5 and taking classes in the evening. I had the job lined up, but no school. Time passed and I opted to move back home after a year and do business school instead. That was 7 years ago that I made that decision, and now with 3 kids, I can't foresee a point in the next 10 years at least that I'll be able to attend a culinary institution. <br />
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But that doesn't mean I can't learn more about cooking.<br />
<br />
The internet is filled with tutorials, videos and articles aimed at technical instruction. What's the proper way to hold a chef's knife? How do you bone a duck? What's the ideal process for preparing sushi rice? I've never been to cooking school, but I've learned a thing or two about those subjects thanks to living in the 'information age'. A desire to learn need not go unquenched thanks to all of the resources available to us in this day and age. <br />
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I first started making a conscious effort to expand my skills and knowledge in middle school; I made bagels and caramels in my downtime, just to see how it worked. In high school I found employment in a café where I was the morning baker, the weekend kitchen manager and eventually the recipe tester and perfecter. I made batches of bread, muffins, scones and cookies every day, created paninis and salads for the lunch menu and learned to make a bounty of soups from scratch. I didn't play too much with cooking in my spare time at this point in my life - goodness knows I spent enough time in the kitchen working split-shifts and going to high school. <br />
Through college I had more of a break from cooking, except when I could work it into some form of a school project, but when I got married the year I graduated from the business program, it was full speed ahead when it came to my kitchen experimentation. <br />
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For that first year of marriage I relied almost entirely on the internet for my recipes and inspiration, but when our first son was born I discovered the joy that is The Food Network. Watching Chef Michael Smith explain the simple framework of a recipe, and leave the doors open for any changes you could imagine... I was truly inspired. I perfected a few of my staple recipes like roast pork or chicken, and duck served in every way I could think of. To this day, I still find Chef Michael's Kitchen to be one of my favorite, most helpful resources. I like to buy exotic ingredients and figure out how to prepare them best. I dare myself to try new things - basically anything I can get my hands on in Hick-town, Alberta. This summer I'm looking forward to trying mussels, lobster, and squid, and today I bought a coconut and made fresh coconut milk and toasted coconut chips! <br />
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I've also worked hard over the last few years on expanding my knowledge of other regional cuisines; I've dabbled in Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Italian, French and Vietnamese food to the point where I'm comfortable with the flavors and techniques involved. Pho is a regular menu item in our house, and it's not crazy for us to break out the escargot from time to time. Butter Chicken is a breeze now and sushi is easy enough for a weeknight meal.<br />
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But the next major step for me will be in the direction of molecular gastronomy. I recently came across the technique called 'spherification' by which you form tiny caviar-like beads by dripping liquid mixed with sodium alginate into a solution of water and calcium lactate (typically - you can use other agents, but the presence of calcium and acid are the essential components). So, you mean I can make Coconut Caviar? Oh my...<br />
Another modern technique is foaming - which is all it sounds like: you turn things into foam. But it's the range of foods that people are turning into foam that's truly exciting: bacon foam, beetroot foam, fennel foam and lemongrass foam... I have lots of ideas for this. Picture a triple-layered 'cappuccino' dessert with a bottom layer of mocha pot de crème, a middle layer of almond milk custard and topped with a coffee and cream foam... preferably served in a sliced white chocolate "mug" so the layers are all visible. Oh my... I could have <i>lots</i> of fun with this. <br />
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In any event, my birthday wish list includes Sodium Alginate and Calcium Lactate, along with books on molecular gastronomy, and perhaps some textbooks from a culinary institution. <br />
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And who knows - maybe some day I'll finally get to cooking school, but I would hope by the time I get there, that I at least know the proper way to hold the knives. <br />
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Mrs. VanderLeek ;)Mrs. Vander Leekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14368148301058222111noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3480129109113299869.post-26657433811039633052013-07-05T08:19:00.000-07:002013-07-05T08:19:08.975-07:00Crafty projectsOver the last few years I have acquired ample amounts of fabric. I have silk, cottons, wools, linens, felts and everything in between. The reason for having so much material? An over-zealous creative streak, that rears its ugly head, spurs my on to start some amazing project, but then dies down before much can be accomplished. The fabric store is a dangerous place for me to go, since I <i>will</i> leave with something, often developing my schemes of grandeur while digging through a remnant bin. <br />
My number of completed projects pales compare to my number of projects I intended to undertake. So that means that most of my fabric sits largely untouched. <br />
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Well, I found myself with a couple extra days with not much on my schedule, so I set out to rectify the situation a bit. <br />
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First up, I attempted to sew a stuffed whale out of old jeans. I <a href="http://valaanvillapaita.blogspot.com.br/2011/05/tee-se-itse-valas.html">had a link</a> on one of my Pinterest boards that I never got around to trying, but I hadn't realized that there was no patterns to go along with the picture tutorial. So I drew a template free-hand. Let's just say that drawing is not a strength of mine, but I did manage to make the pieces that would assemble the whole. Except, just like the lady did in the tutorial, I made the stomach-section of the whale too large. (In my defense, I was following her lead!) As a result, what should have been a humpback whale turned out to be a lumpy blue whale! Whoops! But my boys still enjoyed it, and they could even tell it was a whale!<br />
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Next, I dug into my pile of pretty fabrics! I had attended a fabric sale fundraiser a couple months ago, where everything was $1/yard. I had found some beautiful fabrics, some of which I had no idea what to do with them! First up was this beautiful linen-type fabric that actually more closely resembles cheesecloth with a painted design! I had more than a few fears about using this stuff! The very open weave would likely snag in my machine, but I hate hand stitching unless absolutely necessary. The solution? Paper. I readjusted the length of my stitches to be a bit wider to accommodate for the open weave, and pinned a sheet of paper under my hem. Once I was done, I tore the paper off (very gradually and carefully might I add). Project #2 was a pair of pretty little scarves for my mom and I (don't tell her though - it'll be a Christmas present!) <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqe_QALwhjk5Z3QXDUkHvkxUHc5_7K-GAxtI05acNpMjOqIdejXCTpB0AniKnNT9dxjU3dv4rnxZPbx0JG8to0sAI4Gkg2-cyJmoT9uMdJ_Dm1HaNGZoRrb751M4MKtNLl73KkDmUfHPA/s1600/Picture0248.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqe_QALwhjk5Z3QXDUkHvkxUHc5_7K-GAxtI05acNpMjOqIdejXCTpB0AniKnNT9dxjU3dv4rnxZPbx0JG8to0sAI4Gkg2-cyJmoT9uMdJ_Dm1HaNGZoRrb751M4MKtNLl73KkDmUfHPA/s320/Picture0248.jpg" /></a></div><br />
The next fabric I put a priority on was some beautiful 'postal' printed cotton. I had seen pictures on Pinterest of pillows made in a similar fabric, so I scooped up the two yards I saw of this at the fabric sale. The issue being that pillows made of this wouldn't actually 'go' in any room in my house, so they'd likely be gifted, but I really wanted to make something with it first that I could keep for myself. Fortunately, you can never have too many fabric bags! I whipped one up sans pattern (sometimes the easiest way to make something is to draft it yourself - some people tend to overcomplicate the pattern process) and my last bobbin of dark blue thread lasted me all the way to the end! <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgu4Ah4AaiJ_ImEcrjzcpxywKzPVZzWcizDrMxPJsCTPTRAOn4nLhLweCYtqS38K5qNxkbBVCMtC_61fFECn03P9QsJU1Ck4rOexOHKG6WRfznjPh3pdyvsG6VbVOXZyfopjru0Nf8dx4/s1600/Picture0251.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgu4Ah4AaiJ_ImEcrjzcpxywKzPVZzWcizDrMxPJsCTPTRAOn4nLhLweCYtqS38K5qNxkbBVCMtC_61fFECn03P9QsJU1Ck4rOexOHKG6WRfznjPh3pdyvsG6VbVOXZyfopjru0Nf8dx4/s320/Picture0251.jpg" /></a></div><br />
I whipped up three bean bags for the boys (I had made some earlier in the year, but my sister stole them because they were too cute!) and then I set out planning an upcoming quilt I'll be making. I may have mentioned before, but I'm going to make a quilt for Matt now too. The idea struck me when he planned to get rid of a bunch of shirts he really liked, because they had holes in them. And while I was proud of him for having the desire to clear unnecessary things out of our house, I got sentimental on his behalf and decided to make a t-shirt quilt for him. I cut out the designs from the shirts and laid them out in a small rectangle.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQTVJ4ojQ9tFp8ThNdWh9jM9GEWuhp0Nm79hgfqwEGJC9edpoAiqsSGVQM_Tp_ZHN4GQqyVEQKq6zgbF3fihJYKLjInmOY2TFBbKm1L2_RdMzbBcE-My7MlAL7WqmCq5fsCDNJ0ygU3ss/s1600/quilt.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQTVJ4ojQ9tFp8ThNdWh9jM9GEWuhp0Nm79hgfqwEGJC9edpoAiqsSGVQM_Tp_ZHN4GQqyVEQKq6zgbF3fihJYKLjInmOY2TFBbKm1L2_RdMzbBcE-My7MlAL7WqmCq5fsCDNJ0ygU3ss/s320/quilt.JPG" /></a></div><br />
I didn't have enough t-shirt material to make up a whole design, but figured I'd keep the t-shirt design as an interior rectangle, then put an outer border of a dark grey material, with a black bias tape edge. For the back, I'm thinking I'll find some winter camo fleece. The biggest trick was going to be the batting. I've never worked with the loose stuff before - just the super-easy sheets that just stay in place and don't pull apart. I was hugely intimidated about using the loose stuff, but didn't think I'd be able to find a sheet in the size I wanted, for a price I'd be willing to pay. Then along came my lovely Mother! She had an old mattress pad that had torn on the fitted portion, but since the pad was in good condition still, she was having troubles accepting that she'd have to throw it away. So she gave it to me to use as the batting for my quilt! It's a queen-sized, pre-quilted chunk of batting that will work perfectly! But, this quilt is going to be a surprise (another Christmas present), so I'll have to be sneaky about hiding my project!<br />
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The other quilt I'll be working on is Gabe's. We had planned to pick up the primary fabric for his in Canmore while we were on vacation, but thanks to some good old-fashioned flooding, we were unable to do so. So his is still up in the air. However, my mother also gifted me with some sheet batting that will be the right size for his project! Major expense out the way? Thank you very kindly!<br />
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You may have noticed that some of my Christmas presents this year will be sewn projects. I plan on making a couple more of those 'blue jean whales' (modified to look accurate this time) for my nieces, I've got some Hawaiian patterned cotton-blend that I'm going to make a folding beach mat for my sister, and depending on whose name I draw for Christmas on hubby's side, someone may get those 'postal patterned' pillows!<br />
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Mrs. VanderLeek ;)Mrs. Vander Leekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14368148301058222111noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3480129109113299869.post-29597569649773721542013-07-02T11:59:00.001-07:002013-07-02T11:59:47.362-07:00Happy Canada Day, eh?This past weekend was filled with lots of great, summery enjoyment! On Saturday it was just the boys and I since hubby was off helping a friend do some roofing. I didn't want it to simply be just any other day, so we partook in some garage saleing! Our searching landed us in Sylvan Lake, and after a hot morning driving around in the car, I figured it would be cruel to not let the boys out at the beach for a bit. We took a walk down to the water, dipped our toes in, popped in at a few shops and headed home before things got too busy! That evening we had dinner with my parents before a nice overnight storm rolled in to cool things down. <br />
Sunday was mostly an indoors day since everyone was super tired. We managed to get a lot done though, and after church that evening we ended up back over at my parents' house for a campfire to roast some marshmallows. <br />
Monday was Canada Day. Traditionally we will go with Matt's family to some local Canada Day celebrations, where we indulge in some international cuisine: pancit and Filipino pork satay, perogies, bratwurst... <br />
But this year, thanks to the recent flooding, the events were relocated to a field fairly close to our house. The upside: it was walking distance. The downside: there would be no shade. No shade, hot sun, big crowd... Ugh. And, Matt's parents were unable to attend this year, so it'd be tougher to keep the kids in line on our own. <br />
So instead of braving the heat and the crowds, we opted to make it all ourselves!<br />
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A couple of months ago I gave pancit a try in my kitchen and was thoroughly pleased with the results. I knew I had that recipe down, and this time I'd make the only adjustment I would need: making it ahead so it has a chance to sit in the flavor more. Cold pancit is just as good as hot pancit! <br />
The pork satay is everyone's favorite dish at the Canada Day festivities, but it costs about $5 for 3 skewers. I knew that the pressure was on to present a great flavor-match, but I thought I knew how to, and for considerably cheaper, too! Enter <a href="http://www.mealplanning101.com/search/label/Vietnamese">a recipe that I use for Pho</a>. I found this wonderful little tidbit through Pinterest a couple years ago, and it's become a bit of a traditional meal for us on family vacation. The pork marinade tastes just like restaurant quality pork. But it also tastes just like those Filipino satays my family enjoys so much. I used the recipe verbatim and let it marinate for a few hours. I had bought a pork tenderloin since they were on sale, used my sharpest knife, and sliced as thinly as I could. Once it was go-time, I skewered them, leaving ample space between each coil of meat, then BBQed them on a fairly hot grill to make sure that the sugar in the marinade would caramelize a bit. And it was perfect! <br />
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I also whipped up a non-traditional dessert: <a href="http://shewearsmanyhats.com/2011/06/frozen-strawberry-squares/">Frozen Strawberry Squares</a>. These are dreamy when they start melting just a little bit so that the cream gets a foamy texture! <br />
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Our company brought more pork skewers, some smokies, drinks, and a watermelon and we had a great feast that evening! <br />
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It was so fun, we may opt to do it this way again next year!<br />
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Hope you had a Happy Canada Day!<br />
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Mrs. VanderLeek ;)Mrs. Vander Leekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14368148301058222111noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3480129109113299869.post-65414669212572231592013-06-24T13:47:00.001-07:002013-06-24T13:47:45.351-07:00Mountain Vacation, pt 2<i>This post picks up where my last one left off - the evening of Wednesday, June 19th. For details on why this is a two part post, please see part 1!</i><br />
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<b>Mountain Vacation, pt 2</b><br />
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We'd just got home from a busy day, and a very large dinner. Both Matt and the baby fell asleep quickly, but being in a wood construction chalet with a vaulted ceiling during a rain storm made for a noisy night. Between concerns about landslides (which might seem silly, but another timeshare we have visited had a massive landslide last year) and the sheer volume of the rain, I couldn't sleep. Fortunately we had a TV in our room which picked up the Discovery Channel, so I watched documentaries for a few hours. At around 1 Matt woke up and watched a few shows with me and I was finally able to get some sleep around 3:30 a.m. <br />
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When we woke up on Thursday morning at around 9 a.m. we checked our Facebook and found out that the rain had been doing more damage than we thought. We did not experience any adverse affects on the mountain, but according to updates on the internet, Canmore had declared a state of emergency thanks to a swelling creek. Cougar creek, whose creek bed I have at times seen completely dry, was swelling, rapidly. Houses were being threatened, and the road wasn't faring well. We watched the news over at my parents' chalet and commented on how we might not be going into Canmore that day... and after a while we started to realize this wasn't an isolated incident. Turns out, we weren't going anywhere for a while. It was about midmorning when we heard that the highway was being affected, and mid-day when we realized the highway was blocked all around us. Lac Des Arc, just a few miles East of us, had flooded and the road was blocked. We watched with almost a sense of addiction for news updates and found that the highway at Canmore was washed out. We'd seen pictures where a chunk of overpass was missing, and thought that was crazy enough, but it didn't compare to the devastation to the road not even half a km ahead, where the entire road was washed away. We sent out a message to family members as we realized that they might hear about this on the news. We assured them we were fine, we had ample food and supplies since we have a tendency to over-pack (which, in light of this situation, is not a habit we're going to kick anytime soon!), and that by some miscommunication when we were buying groceries earlier in the week, we had a spare flat of water, as well as our own water supply on the mountain. By that night though, we realized we were some of the luckiest ones in the affected areas. We soon heard about relatives being evacuated from their homes in Calgary as a state of emergency was announced there. We heard about sour gas leaks in Turner Valley. We saw images of High River, completely flooded by the swollen river, and forcing people to ride on combines to safety. Earlier on in the day, Matt and my brother-in-law road down the road leading down our mountain, and got stopped before they reached the bottom by a river that formed through the quarry that operates on Pigeon mountain. All of the rain was funnelling through the quarry and was washing rocks, trees, cars and trailers down the road. The boys watched as a tree tipped onto a power line and started smoking and a pickup truck tried driving through the water and started getting swept sideways. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDNeZu1V9DYrJu7_VnHQVEQU0yYlCLP4VpneZrho0whuMe5LfilhhMX-dQWfOGEIRiNWlHayAS_NC8xVzY7T4iTd0QtlM1DYlDLDlFopGW_CZZLebhkGSbNsHACUjkc5FNQrwgKfeugI4/s1600/2013-06-20+10.56.48.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDNeZu1V9DYrJu7_VnHQVEQU0yYlCLP4VpneZrho0whuMe5LfilhhMX-dQWfOGEIRiNWlHayAS_NC8xVzY7T4iTd0QtlM1DYlDLDlFopGW_CZZLebhkGSbNsHACUjkc5FNQrwgKfeugI4/s320/2013-06-20+10.56.48.jpg" /></a> We heard talk of an evacuation at around 3:00 on Thursday afternoon, but it was called off when RCMP determined we were at least alright. They had more pressing concerns than people stuck in nice chalets with food and water. We had packed all our bags so we'd be ready to go at a moment's notice and decided to leave them packed, in case the RCMP changed their stance. Later that evening we found out that the gas was turned off, since the flooding had brought the gas line to ground level. But we still had lots going for us, so we had a hamburger supper and threw together a 'party' for Nathaniel, complete with a jello 'cake'. <br />
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Friday brought much of the same. We obsessed over getting news reports, but part way through the day our Wi-Fi went down, making it harder for us to access news. On the TV, almost all of the coverage was focused on Calgary and the flooding that was happening there, which made it harder for us to find out any information about our situation. We knew the highway was still closed east-bound, but we didn't now if it was washed out, or just blocked. The waterflow across the mountain road was lower, so the boys managed to get down to the grocery store to buy food and supplies for everyone, including a stock for the resort to distribute. Once people heard the road was passable, they went down the mountain to Dead Man's Flats and checked into a motel in the tiny hamlet. About half of the guests at the resort left at this point. But we figured staying on high ground was the smarter decision at this point, since we still had supplies for ourselves. We threw together a supper using whatever leftovers were in the chalet: steak tacos with a variety of toppings. My tortilla had rose sauce, peppers, tomatoes, steak, parmesan and pineapple. Can't complain about a meal like that! Matt and I started to get anxious about getting out. We were supposed to leave on Friday so we'd be home in time for his sister's wedding the next day. But as night rolled in, we realized we weren't going anywhere on Friday either. <br />
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On Saturday we felt sure we'd get out of there and some point in the day. Unfortunately at 8 a.m., reports indicated that the roads were still closed. That was our last chance to catch the ceremony. And since Wi-Fi was down at that time, we couldn't even FaceTime the ceremony. We were hugely disappointed, and it was a tearful phone call Matt made to his sister to wish her a happy wedding day. But we still had hope that we could make it to the ceremony that night. Around 10:00 however we received word that the resort wasn't counting on us being able to get out today. We'd been stuck in limbo the last couple days, filling our time with endless news reports, but now the sun was shining and we resolved to make the most of it. We took the kids to the tennis courts where we played with balls and badminton rackets. Later we sat on the deck while the kids 'painted' it with water. The weather was gorgeous, as is the resort, so there was no shortage of enjoyment for the kids that day. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcMBNMSwp69IJ7j9y36wWsiI4gSpawzcioLc14tjrCM83d2kaygo1Kws_RiAuwQHHOe8lrK40iwhqpmFkxkFjspzOuj5ts7N3fw77rWeOGmIS-z8Y0AGqvNnMhQs8XYJl9ee4a1NqlyJg/s1600/Fri57.JPG" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcMBNMSwp69IJ7j9y36wWsiI4gSpawzcioLc14tjrCM83d2kaygo1Kws_RiAuwQHHOe8lrK40iwhqpmFkxkFjspzOuj5ts7N3fw77rWeOGmIS-z8Y0AGqvNnMhQs8XYJl9ee4a1NqlyJg/s320/Fri57.JPG" /></a>We watched a couple shows, and volunteered to help set up a mass meal for all the remaining guests since one of the workers scored a police escort into town to get more food supplies. However, just before we started making supper, the RCMP indicated they were contemplating a mandatory evacuation for our resort. We were all instructed to get packed and wait for the verdict. They were worried the road would wash out down the mountain. They brought in an engineer who assessed the road and said that it could go either way. The RCMP was pleased to see we were well supplied, so they made it a voluntary evacuation. About another half of the group left at this point. This was a bittersweet time. The sun went away and the rain came again, and while we were relieved we wouldn't have to spend the night in a gym with a couple hundred other people, there was no way we'd be able to make it back for the reception now. We'd missed the wedding completely. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQ7EtXVBTKjUnSqJbDoutpF6wYdmlKCnPf3oKCX8oGZQFAsa7J4Jhog8Gm_gZMn-y8rG2Jdnhjcoi9nqfg6_SVLKi2lVtMrcPci-cjoPv2pggJjiHHhpYFt2fQtwwrXz7zaAwaI_QvrD0/s1600/Sat14.JPG" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQ7EtXVBTKjUnSqJbDoutpF6wYdmlKCnPf3oKCX8oGZQFAsa7J4Jhog8Gm_gZMn-y8rG2Jdnhjcoi9nqfg6_SVLKi2lVtMrcPci-cjoPv2pggJjiHHhpYFt2fQtwwrXz7zaAwaI_QvrD0/s320/Sat14.JPG" /></a>It was around 7:00 when we went down to make supper: pasta and garlic toast done up on the BBQ. Around 40 people were still on the mountain and we tried to make the best of the situation. It was Nathaniel's second birthday and I'm sure he felt in part like this was a party for him. As I was walking back to the kitchen to see how much pasta we had left, I heard the last bit of an announcement on the radio that hinted at the highway being open. We caught the next announcement: they were allowing eastbound traffic from Canmore to Calgary for 48 hours in an attempt to clear out so of the traffic. Canmore had just issued a boil water advisory for the whole town, and their resources were becoming strained. We were tempted to leave right then, but we had to look at what was wise. If we got stuck on the highway late and night, we'd have no one to help us. One of the vans in our group was very low on gas, and AMA had other things to worry about. We didn't want to be driving through sketchy roads in the dark, and we were all tired already. We made the decision to get up first thing in the morning and drive out then. We spent the rest of the evening packing up our cars.<br />
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Sunday morning we were up at 5:30 a.m. The kids were all drowsy as they ate their bowls of Fruit Loops - the only food we left unpacked - and we loaded them into the cars. It was 6:00 as we pulled away from the resort. The biggest concern was whether the road down the mountain was still safe to go over, but as we were going down, someone else was coming up, and informed us that he made it over fine. There was a fair bit of debris left on the road, and the water was still running over it. We could see trailers with trees through them, and cars underneath them. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhN6mMM9YD6n2DexwpIxybDjw17B4KHx3iLbdJtafIS0mFAKdEANDkhCxbACWtkJoymt1o9iJcczuzOmDCqIKNHeXDvNq5z5FK77WzRzO7OtzDQwdrr4MKVDw1wajUP29-mzykua2omIfs/s1600/Go4.JPG" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhN6mMM9YD6n2DexwpIxybDjw17B4KHx3iLbdJtafIS0mFAKdEANDkhCxbACWtkJoymt1o9iJcczuzOmDCqIKNHeXDvNq5z5FK77WzRzO7OtzDQwdrr4MKVDw1wajUP29-mzykua2omIfs/s320/Go4.JPG" /></a>A load of trees had got stuck at the entrance to the quarry and blocked a good amount of debris from clogging up the roadway even more. We could only access the highway on the east-bound direction, but it turns out that the road was technically only open on the west-bound lane, going east-bound. As a result, we drove between 4 foot piles of rock until we found an opening in the highway that helped us jog over to the other side. We beat most of the traffic out that morning, which was our hope, and we managed to find a gas station that was open between Canmore and Calgary, so no one ran out of gas. We got home by 9:30 that morning, refilled with coffee, relieved to be out of the mountains, and glad for a hot shower. After spending 72 hours stranded on a mountain, we had to admit we were some of the lucky ones. With the death count currently sitting at 4 people, over 100,000 people displaced in Calgary alone thanks to evacuations, hundreds of homes lost across the province, and the whole town of High River under water, to spend three days in the mountains where we still had beautiful accomodations, king-sized beds, Wi-Fi and satellite TV, with plenty of food and drinkable water, our experience, while taxing and nerve-wracking, was really just a blip on the radar. This will be an interesting story for me to tell down the road. For others, the last few days may have changed their lives forever. <br />
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My prayers go out to everyone who has been affected by the recent flooding in Alberta, and I look forward to seeing our beautiful province restored. <br />
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Mrs. VanderLeekMrs. Vander Leekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14368148301058222111noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3480129109113299869.post-73097224656974524332013-06-24T12:26:00.001-07:002013-06-24T12:26:25.793-07:00Mountain Vacation, pt 1<i>My family went on a vacation to the mountains that we had booked from June 15 - 21st. I've broken up my blog post because, as you'll read, the events that occurred that week were of two very different extremes: one of joy, and the other of anxiety and worry. While the latter half of our trip threatened to overshadow all the fun and happiness of the first half, I don't want to forget that the good times did happen. So I'll share my time away over two posts, although I'm sure that you, much like myself, will have difficulty dwelling on the first half, once you get through the second half. <br />
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<b>Mountain Vacation Pt. 1</b><br />
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Every year my family has a joint vacation at our timeshare on Pigeon Mountain, just 5 minutes East of the town of Canmore. We had been looking forward to this trip for a long time; Matt had been overworked for a while, and I was looking forward to time with the family, as well as a break from my normal routine. We had prepped for a week by cleaning, packing and making sure everything at home would be taken care of while we were gone. On Saturday morning, it was finally time for us to head out! <br />
We loaded three very sleepy boys into the car on Saturday and drove South to hit up Bass Pro Shop. One of the mainstays of our vacation each year is fishing and we wanted to be ready for that. We picked up a number of lures, mostly for rainbow trout in murky water since we knew there had been a fair bit of rain the week prior at the stocked ponds we normally frequent. $90 later and we had lures, bait and licenses for all. We grabbed a quick bite at the sandwich shop in the store and then went back out to the car to drive to the mountains - well, actually we needed to wait inside for a few minutes since there was a torrential storm that blew through and dumped a load of water everywhere, but soon we'd be in the mountains, away from all of that!<br />
We got in the mountains to check in and quickly settled into our vacation lifestyle. We'd done this same thing for the past 5 years, so it was quick and methodical as we pulled out our food, supplies and clothes. We had everything we needed!<br />
On the first night we had a pasta dinner before we headed down to make use of the pool in the main lodge. The boys had a great time swimming! Then it was back up to the chalets for bedtime (but I slipped away to play cards with the rest of the girls!)<br />
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The next morning we go up in good time to go fishing. We grabbed Tim Horton's for breakfast and then drove a very long and dusty road up to Spray Lakes. First we actually stopped just past the lakes to a little pond called Buller Pond, where many locals had been having a lot of luck. We, on the other hand, didn't see a thing. So after an hour we went back down the road to Spray Lakes again. The water was very low, so we figured we'd have more luck since the fish would be concentrated more... but we got nothing. Although, it was still a beautiful spot to go put a line in the water on Father's Day. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdi6r4WS2fP77pE0q9Wf-7eulWUw5ENgW9vjXpp1y-_xeKmhEQ5xW6lSptp6o40g3LQeWZKm8i1VNYaizzVqEQXydByj0CLOjOfshpxg5wJOSmmKTUUT-vvLfPE__Dsz1TEscYm6YxqGk/s1600/Sspray9.JPG" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdi6r4WS2fP77pE0q9Wf-7eulWUw5ENgW9vjXpp1y-_xeKmhEQ5xW6lSptp6o40g3LQeWZKm8i1VNYaizzVqEQXydByj0CLOjOfshpxg5wJOSmmKTUUT-vvLfPE__Dsz1TEscYm6YxqGk/s320/Sspray9.JPG" /></a><br />
On our way back down the winding mountain road (with a massive cliff right beside you), the dust cleared just in time for us to see a herd of Mountain Sheep on the road right beside us. We had a rest back at our chalet before we joined up again for a steak dinner, then spent the evening watching a show at our own chalet.<br />
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I felt bad for Matt not catching anything the day before, so I arranged for him to go with my brother, his wife, and my parents down for a bit of fishing on the river, while the rest of us stayed up at the chalets with the kids. They were gone by 6:45 so they could get in a Timmy's run before putting a line in. But, alas, they had as much luck as they had the day before. At least they got to come home to a bacon and egg breakfast we whipped up while they were out! Once everyone was ready we set out for a game of Frisbee golf - a game we've come to embrace on our holidays. The kids only lasted a couple holes, so we took them to the playground while the boys played on. We cleared out of there just in time to miss the rain rolling in. We had vermicelli noodle bowls for supper that night and watched the Hobbit at one of the chalets. <br />
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On Tuesday morning Matt and I had plans to use, what the weather network said would be our last rain-free morning, for a hike. We had hoped to do Grotto Canyon with the whole group, but we knew our good weather wouldn't hold out forever, so since the rest of the group had a tee-time booked, we resolved on doing Grassi Lakes. But good news came in the morning - the tee-time got cancelled and everyone opted to revert back to our plan of hiking Grotto Canyon. Each of the parents strapped on a child into a carrier, and the grandparents had charge of the four-year-olds on foot. The canyon is rocky, with a creek running through it, and filled with fossils. There was one section where it was a bit tricky, and nerve-wracking, to get everyone down, but it was fairly smooth sailing for the rest of it. Matt stumbled upon a tiny nest with two eggs in it, and we were pleasantly surprised to see Momma Hummingbird return to her nest while we watched. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFPgkBROEgAqO-P1mv2sTQu4p4feLbxOeH7nRcpOKUYRq7KtoZoaDtE_u0xQ1wBRrQ5Kk9GfKb60hBr6FJYCWYOkuOs0ZDsPVKrqrqJAlHrdXRzpdLiYyoxHJiHKmI5Rp139nz_EodPD0/s1600/2013-06-18+11.37.01.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFPgkBROEgAqO-P1mv2sTQu4p4feLbxOeH7nRcpOKUYRq7KtoZoaDtE_u0xQ1wBRrQ5Kk9GfKb60hBr6FJYCWYOkuOs0ZDsPVKrqrqJAlHrdXRzpdLiYyoxHJiHKmI5Rp139nz_EodPD0/s320/2013-06-18+11.37.01.jpg" /></a> We saw the paintings on the canyon wall, done hundreds of years ago, and made it to the waterfall at the end of the first section of the canyon. We did encounter a slight mishap here, involving rocks being dropped by younger brothers onto the older brother's head. My boy Gabriel had quite the headache, but fortunately was alright. Although he was quite attached to his Bumpa for the rest of the hike back. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigeBJxAD0IayBmgt05rkEYfvGA91VG18fdXQ2eWzZRRczeK4AV7IcQ5HFnXjAreVBFFfeCFgofbqMcHWg88pv4p7IbAmS2WFj627_I03e72T89yI6MrZdtU485iPyS-05i0FRoBrPZK0Q/s1600/grottobumpa.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigeBJxAD0IayBmgt05rkEYfvGA91VG18fdXQ2eWzZRRczeK4AV7IcQ5HFnXjAreVBFFfeCFgofbqMcHWg88pv4p7IbAmS2WFj627_I03e72T89yI6MrZdtU485iPyS-05i0FRoBrPZK0Q/s320/grottobumpa.jpg" /></a> Once we got down from our hike, we were eager to go fishing, but also quite hungry. We resolved to head back to our chalet for a quick bite before we came back to do some fishing. Grotto Pond is our regular fishing hole on our vacations, but it's a regular fishing hole for a lot of people, so sometimes the fishing isn't as good as we would like. We'd been warned that this year in particular the fish weren't biting very well. But we'd tried Buller, where everyone else had so much luck, and that didn't work for us, so why not stick with what we know? We came back armed with our worm powerbait (after receiving a tip from another fisherman) and could not believe our luck. Everyone caught something, including the 4 year olds. We kept five of the fish, and threw back at least that many. By the end of our fishing trip, every cast was a catch. We actually called it a day because we were catching too many and it was getting taxing to have to keep digging our hooks out of the mouths of the fish! While we'd got a bit of rain during our hike, it stayed shiny for our whole time fishing. We went home that night for our taco and trout dinner.<br />
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Wednesday we'd expected it to be rainy, so we scheduled our shopping trip into Banff for that day. We filled up on bacon and eggs in the morning, then drove in to the townsite. First we stopped at Cave and Basin to show the kids around. It's a neat place to check out every couple of years at least. When we finally got around to shopping people were starting to get hungry, so we stopped to pick up a couple items we'd intended to get that day, and ended up at The Old Spaghetti Factory - our regular lunch destination in Banff. Manicotti, clam chowder, and bread made up my meal, and it wouldn't be a meal at the Spaghetti Factory without their spumoni ice cream for dessert! People were full, and a little tired, and sore from the day before, so we didn't spend a ton of time wandering the stores, but rather everyone hit their favorite shops. We bought a small Daase print from a local gallery, some rocks for Gabe to start his own rock collection, and even went to the candy store so Gabe could spend some of the money he'd been saving for a while. Finally, at the toy store, we picked up a present for Nathaniel's second birthday. There were a few more things we'd intended to buy on our vacation, but since we planned on shopping in Canmore the next day, we figured we'd get it done then. We drove back through the rain, which was finally picking up, and got ready for a date night; my parents offered to watch all the kids while we went out for a little date. Since it was raining heavily, we didn't want to drive too far, so we opted to check out the little roadside restaurant at the bottom of the mountain. We went for dinner at <a href="http://thejunctionhouse.ca/">The Junction House</a> in Dead Man's Flats. We had originally intended stopping in just for dessert, but when we read the dinner menu, we opted out of the hot dog meal we'd planned to have at the chalet, and went for our full meal. When we pulled up the parking lot was pooling a lot of water, and we half expected the place to be dead, but it was bustling inside! The setting was quaint and friendly - people talked to everyone who came in and chatted about where the were from and the crazy rain. We went all out for dinner, since we'd opted to not get massages on our vacation (which we'd saved a pretty penny for). For starters we got an order of the beef samosas and the Indian Poutine. The Samosas were large, authentic, and delicious! The Poutine was fantastic! It used real paneer instead of normal curds, and had a good bit of bite to it. Matt got the Butter Chicken for his entrée, while I got the Deadman's Burger with the chutney and paneer added on. Matt liked his meal, and my burger was great: sirloin patty, spinach, tomato, a cream sauce, tamarind chutney and grilled paneer. The side of fries were perfect. The taste reminded me of New York Fries, but they were thick cut and crispy. We were stuffed, but since we'd been drawn to the place because of the dessert menu, we made ourselves order some. I got a cup of their homemade chai latte as well as the rice pudding, while Matt got the Fried Cinnamon Naan with Caramelized Cardamom Bananas. The rice pudding was exceptional. I love indian rice pudding and this had just the right amount of spice with a smooth coconut flavor. The fried naan was great too. We headed back up to the chalets, picked up the baby while the rest of the kids had a sleepover, and went back to our chalet for the night.<br />
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Mrs. VanderLeek ;)Mrs. Vander Leekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14368148301058222111noreply@blogger.com0