Cozy corner

Ignore the crappy photo, the Mouse is miraculously in bed before 12:30am (maybe our 9 month sleep regression is done?!?), so I’m having to move as quickly as possible in order to get anything done, and I’ve already wasted a precious thirty minutes having a hot bath and finishing my book.
Side-note: I just finished In Arabian Nights, by Tahir Shah. It’s really good. If the Mouse is in bed by a reasonable hour tomorrow, I might just tell you a little about it.
This cozy little corner was assembled using an Ikea shelf, pot lid holder, some ugly ceramic dogs and candleholder and some dollar store art supplies. It came together really nicely, didn’t it.
The dogs and candle holder were picked up at our local Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) Thrift Store, and repainted by myself. I’ve also painted an elephant, and need to find a nice home for him. I love finding these ugly ceramic creatures and dressing them up, where they’re ugly but by dressing them up you discover they’re beautiful inside and out. It’s kind of like an arts and crafts version of “She’s All That.”
I think the next time we’re in town I’ll drag Mr. L to the Ikea and pick up another pot lid holder to store more of the Mouse’s books. They multiply like rabbits!

My best friends..for life!

Sorry Slamdance and Mr. D, sadly I am not talking about you – though you are thoroughly awesome. I’m talking about my books.
Apartment Therapy just ran a post about decluttering, which when you have children becomes more of an issue, and we already have a cluttery house to begin with. In my defense, many people have told me they like my cluttery house and that it makes them feel at home, but that’s beside the point.
In the article they talk about needing to get rid of books in order to make room for new ideas, which I think is rubbish! I love my books, as does Mr. L. We love reading, being able to reference something without needing the interwebs, and I think there is something wonderful about holding a book in your hands and having the ability to indelibly imprint it with the experience you have reading it, be it through a note, or pressing a flower or leaf from the park or city where you’ve read it, or through spilled batter on its pages.
Mr. L and I do a book purge roughly every six months though, though at this point we’ve become so particular in what we purchase it’s been over a year since we’ve done a proper book purge. Normally it’s things we end up not using as much, or duplicates that we’ve amassed, or books we just didn’t like enough to keep after we’d finished them. And now the Mouse is developing her own library of board books, picture books and her current favourite, touch and feel books.
She loves turning pages on her books, though she isn’t really interested in the story yet, but that will come with time. It makes me so very happy to see that she’s already in love with literature, and it gives me hope. It’s so easy to turn to television, or computer, or any tablet or smartphone, but I just can’t believe that we’ll stop printing books. Sure I could take a thousand books with me on an ereader, and read whatever I want anywhere in the world, but they’re just bits in a machine, they aren’t a reminder of that place where I read it.
The best example I can think of is when I bought my copy of Ex-Libris, by Anne Fadiman. I was 18, and I was in London for the first time. I was on my own, and a little homesick, so I went to the British Library. After looking at the exhibits, I stopped in the shop to look around. I didn’t intend to buy a book, but for some reason this book caught my eye, and I had to buy it. It’s become one of my favourite books since then. When I’m feeling sad, I’ll pic it up and read one of her essays, and it makes me feel better. I doubt that I could get the same feeling from an ebook that I downloaded one afternoon while waiting in line at the grocers.

Soup should totally be described as cuddly!

Ahh, autumn is here – time to pull out the sweaters and touques and gloves. Autumn is my second favourite season, after spring, and everything delicious comes alive in autumn! Apples, and squash, stews and fruit crumbles, mmmm. Plus, everyone looks fabulous while shopping at the market.
Autumn is also the time for warm and filling soups. Sometimes I think we should describe soup as cuddly, because it’s like getting a hug from the inside.
This evening I was inspired by a recipe I was on The Kitchn, and tweaked it to suit our needs, even the Mouse had some of it for her dinner!

Autumnal Udon

Ingredients
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp canola oil
1 onion, sliced into chunks
1 pork cop, or chicken breast, or fish fillet, thinly sliced
4 cups chicken or vegetable stock
1 pack of udon, with seasoning
2 large mushrooms, thinly sliced
1 large carrot, grated
2 cups fresh spinach leaves

Steps
1) Saute your onions and pork in your oils until the onions are soft an the pork browned
2) Add your stock and mushrooms and bring to a boil
3) Add your udon and cook according to the package instructions. Add your carrots at the same time
4) Once your noodles are cooked stir in the seasoning if it came with some, turn off the heat, and stir in your spinach leaves and then serve!

The finished product!

Mr. L’s Long Day

It’s been a long day here. Our bank messed up with our rent transaction, and we had to drive forty minutes away to drop it off in person with our landlord, who is just lovely by the way, and was excited to see how much the Mouse had grown.
So in honour of our long day, I mixed up a drink for Mr. L. He doesn’t often indulge anymore (a wild youth tends to wane after a while), but when he does I like to be able to make him a nice cocktail involving whiskey.
I wish I drank whiskey, it’s such a tough drink, but sadly I hate the taste of it. Occasionally I can abide a whiskey sour, and sometimes after I’ve had a couple of glasses of red wine I do enjoy a sip of Bulleit Bourbon (it’s almost whiskey).

Mr. L’s Long Day Drink

Ingredients
1 oz Whiskey or Bourbon
1/2 oz Peach Schnapps
1/2 tsp sugar
1 oz Champagne or sparkling white wine

Steps
1) Place a martini glass in the freezer to chill while you prepare your drink
2) Combine everything but the champagne in a martini shaker with a few ice cubes
3) Shake vigorously and pour into your martini glass
4) Add you Champagne to your drink and garnish with a maraschino cherry if you wish

Not a creature was stirring

Not even the Mouse. Both the Mouse and Mr. L. are fast asleep in their beds, somewhat of a miracle, given that the Mouse went down last night at 9:30pm. This is the longest she’s even been asleep I think, and she is still breathing, I checked!

I’m hoping this is a glorious change for the better, but I’m not crossing my fingers, this isn’t the first time that she’s had a really sleepy day, and then returned to her daily routine of cat-naps and going to bed at 11:30pm.

Mr. L’s parents were down for the weekend, we didn’t get to see too much of them until Monday, as we were all volunteering at the Mission Folk Music Festival. The Mouse even had her own wristband, and spent her shifts charming performers and volunteers alike. At one point Mr. L, and Slamdance (who were on driving together) started their shift before mine, and everyone was asking where the baby was!

I think my favourite part of the weekend was when Lorcan Mac Mathuna, an Irish singer, spent about 10 minutes holding and chatting with the Mouse. Slamdance says it was good thing that she wasn’t there, as her ovaries would have exploded. Yes, her vital weakness for Irishmen is shining through again.

On Monday Mr. L’s parents took us to Victoria for the day; at first I was nervous, but it turned out really well! The Mouse was really well behaved, and I had a Cafe Afgatto for the first time at the Soda Shoppe; it was amazing! Espresso poured over top of delicious vanilla ice cream, amazing!

We also went on a carriage ride, had a delicious lunch, and visited Beacon Hill Park, where the Mouse got to pet a goat!

I also was able to visit my sister, Mrs. M, while Mr. L. and his parents were at Miniature World, which does not add up against Madurodam.

Well I just heard a peep from the Mouse’s room, looks like it’s time for us to get moving, even though it’s too late for exercise class. I’m both happy and sad at the same time, someone was bringing snacks today!

Because Mr. L. is really a blond sometimes

I adore chocolate, but Mr. L much prefers vanilla, and if it’s vanilla and almonds he is in heaven. At the same time he isn’t a fan of sweets, he’s definitely a savory kind of guy, but he will deign to eat this with a cup of tea.

These are easily adapted to feature any flavour you want, simply halve the vanilla and then add a half a teaspoon of your preferred flavouring. You can also add chopped nuts, dates or chocolate chunks to the batter for some extra deliciousness.  A topping is totally optional, but I would recommend against an icing, as it might be too sweet.

Almond Blondies

Ingredients
1/2 cup butter or margarine
3/4-1 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup flaked almonds, lightly crushed

Steps
1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2) Melt butter and brown sugar and mix
3) Add egg and vanilla and combine
4) Pour into a greased 8×8 pan and top with almonds
5) Bake for 25 minutes, let cool on a pan

Oh spinach, you saucy beast you

I don’t mind the taste of spinach, but I’m not a big fan of the texture. I know it’s super healthy and full of iron and other wonderful things, but I just hate how it feels in my mouth. So I’ve been trying to find ways to eat more spinach without having to eat it whole.
Obviously I could blend it into a smoothie, but that wouldn’t really fly for dinner, so my next choice was to figure out a way to serve it pureed, but in a delicious way, not just a blob of green goo, which by the way, is the Mouse’s new favourite word.
This pesto is more saucy than a normal basil pesto, but it’s a quick and easy way to get some more vegetables into a meal, plus it’s super yummy.
Check out my twitter feed @meringuefail for a picture.

Spinach Pesto Sauce

Ingredients
1 medium onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, sliced
1 bunch spinach
1/4 white wine
1/ cup feta cheese, cubed or shredded
1-2 cups shredded Parmesan
Salt and pepper
Pasta of choice

Steps
1) Saute your onions and garlic in a little olive oil until soft
2) Add your white wine to de-glaze the pan
3) Add the spinach and heat until wilted
4) Pour everything into a blender or food processor, and add the feta cheese
5) Blend everything until smooth, adding a little warm water if needed
6) Stir Parmesan into pesto and season with salt and pepper to taste
7) Serve with your pasta, orzo is a lot of fun for this pesto sauce, feel free to serve with some cubes of feta over top

Some sweet heat!

I will admit, sometimes I find it hard to enjoy eating my vegetables, but with the Mouse here my slow and steady crusade to eat healthier has become more important.

After a while salad loses it’s charm, and I know that potatoes don’t really count as a vegetable, so I’ve been trying to find more ways to prepare vegetables. This challenge has only been made harder by the fact that we try to eat in season, and winter pretty much means root vegetables and cabbage, and cabbage tastes like dirt. So I’ve been eating a lot of carrots.

The easiest way to eat carrots would be raw, but I don’t enjoy raw carrots, they’re too cold and I don’t find the flavour too appealing, but when you roast them they become delicious and sweet and amazing. Plus you can add whatever spices you want, changing the flavour from smokey to hot to sweet.

Roasted carrots are incredible easy to prepare, and can also be a great snack in the evening if you’re craving some sort of healthy, filling evening snack.

Roasted Carrots

Ingredients
Carrots, cut to about the same size/thickness
Olive oil
Seasonings, I prefer a pinch of red pepper flakes, and Italian seasoning mix, but they’re also good with cumin, or curry, or paprika and the list goes on
Salt, to taste

Steps
1) Preheat oven to 425 degrees
2) Chop the tops and bottoms off your carrots
3) Rinse carrots, but don’t peel the skin
4) Dry them and place on a cookie sheet
5) Drizzle with a bit of oil, and sprinkle your seasonings over top and mix them with your hands until evenly coated
6) Cook for 20-30 minutes depending on the thickness of the carrots, turning them halfway so they don’t burn

Sorry, my eyes just glazed over a bit. Mind the drool.

Babies make things hard! I’ve only been able to actually get to cooking a couple of times since the Mouse was born, which is really getting me down. Mr. L has been trying to step up, but to be honest his repertoire is a little limited. Not that I don’t love it when he cooks for me, I just wish he would include more vegetables.

Granted the Mouse was complaining the whole time I was cooking, she didn’t want to be anywhere else but in my arms and it’s a little challenging to cooking with a squirmy nine week old in your arms. This dish is quick and easy, which is nice given that my time away from the Mouse is very little, and goes well with a nice green salad.

Pasta with a Pancetta Glaze

Ingredients
4 slices pancetta, diced
Pinch of red pepper flakes
1 cup water
1/3 cup red wine
1 tbsp tomato paste
1 tbsp capers, including brine
1 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
Spaghetti

Steps
1) Saute the pancetta and red pepper flakes until mostly translucent, then and all your other ingredients except the Parmesan and spaghetti
2) Let your sauce reduce over medium high heat while your spaghetti cooks
3) Let your sauce reduce down until it’s thick and mostly gone, then remove from heat
4) Add your cooked spaghetti to the saute pan and stir until covered with glaze
5) Add Parmesan and stir until mixed in
6) Serve with some fresh Parmesan grated over top

Lazy magician, table for 2.5

Mr. L loves red peppers, I hate the texture but love the taste, and have recently become just made about soft goat cheese. I mean I loved it before, but now I’m crazy about it. Maybe the baby is already setting food preference?
We had a hodgepodge dinner last night, left over sage and bacon grilled pork chops, parmesan peas and we had some left over pasta but no sauce. Mr. L was just planning on eating it plain, bleh :p So I checked out the fridge to see what we could make as a sauce for the pasta and chops.
I love being able to look into the fridge and throw something together in minutes, it makes me feel like a magician :) So this is the result, an easy red pepper sauce, so long as you have some roasted red pepper sitting around, which I think should be a regular fridge item. They go great on sandwiches, in pasta sauce, pureed into a veggie dip, etc.

Lazy Roasted Red Pepper Sauce

Ingredients
1 red pepper, roasted
1/4 cup soft goat cheese
1 Tbsp tomato paste
1/2 cup stock, chicken or vegetable
1/2 cup water
Herbs/spices of your choice (I used garlic salt, rosemary, thyme and oregano)
Salt (I mixed it up a little by using some basil salt and chili lime salt)
Pepper

Steps
1) Heat red pepper strips in a saute pan over medium heat, mash with a spoon as they warm up
2) Add your tomato paste and stock, stir to combine
3) Add your herbs/spices, then add your cheese, stir to melt
4) Add your water, whatever you think is best, and puree is still chunky
5) Let reduce to the consistancy you want, season with salt and pepper and serve!