Cheeeeeeeeeeeese

Is there a better food?

What food is more versatile and as widely loved as cheese? What food will keep kids from moving out of their parent's homes? What food can ignite as much pleasure as cheese? (well, other than chocolate).

The hubby and I discovered a new cheese recently while shopping at a specialty cheese shop.  It is called Drunken Goat Cheese.  This is a Spanish cheese that is soaked in red wine (how awesome is that!!?) for a few days, which causes it to develop a thin purple rind. 

Drunken Goat is a flavourful cheese and one of my new favourites.

I snacked on a few pieces this week.

I even put some in my chicken soup yesterday :-)

 

Don't judge.

What else have I been eating the last couple days?

Turkey sandwiches, veggie and fruit packed smoothies, glo-bars, fruit (oranges, pears, grapefruit) and a couple cabbage rolls.  I also nibbled on a small piece of baking at work and a couple of chips.

What are 3 of your favourite kinds of cheese?  

What is the most unusual cheese you have tried?

My faves are goat cheese, drunken goat, and Gruyere.  

10 on Tuesday and Perfect Scrambled Eggs

 Ten on Tuesday 

1. What’s your favorite color to paint your nails?
Black or dark purple.  Only on short nails though. 

2. Do you like to sneeze?
Yes, it feels pretty good.  I don't like it when I can tell a cold is coming on.

3. How often do you fill up your car with gas?
Once a month.

4. Were you named after anyone?Yes.  My first name and each of my middle names are after someone (family).

5. Have you made any good recipes lately?
You bet!  Look here, here, and here.

6. What’s an easy money-saving tip that you use regularly?

 I won't put anything on credit that I will not be able to pay off in full at the end of the month.  Credit card companies will not be getting my money!

7. Would you rather have a sore throat or an ear ache?
Yikes!  Neither.  I haven't had an earache before, but it doesn't sound good.  I suppose sore throat, because I know what to expect.

8. Do you have any scars? What are they from?
A couple small ones on knees from little scrapes/ childhood injuries.

9. What are you “known for” in your circle of friends/family?

Liking to cook/bake/entertain/blog.  I don't know ... that's about it maybe!?

10. How do you like to eat your pancakes?
I like to dip them in syrup so that they don't get soggy.

I started my Tuesday morning with blackberry banana oats and a cup of coffee.

Lunch was a turkey sandwich, an orange and a pear, and dinner was veggie chili (Costco) and a slice of toast.

I was excited to come home to a package in the mail!  I have been a long-time reader of The Pioneer Woman Cooks, and finally ordered her book.  I am excited to dig in and make some of her picture-perfect creations.  I find the recipes on her blog extremely easy to follow, and I love how she does step-by-step pictures.  

 

Jolene's Perfect Scrambled Eggs

(It only took me 28 years ...)

Separate the eggs and yolks in to 2 bowls.

Heat the pan, and spray or add 1 tsp butter and swirl around.  

Pan is at the right temperature when a drop of water will sizzle when dropped on it.

Dump in the egg whites (they take longer to cook than the yolks) and stir with a wooden spoon until it is white and looks kind of like a snow storm (cloudy/ snowy lines).

Add the yolks and stir in for about 20 more seconds, until still wet and just barely holding together.  

Don't over cook!

Sprinkle with freshly ground sea salt and pepper ... and if you are brave ...

Add some of the best store-bought hot sauce around.

What are your answers to the questions above (all or whichever you would like to answer)?

Do you like scrambled eggs?  What do you put on them?

Year of Celebrations

On Saturday night the hubby and I went out for dinner with some friends to celebrate a few different career related happenings in their lives.  We have some pretty amazing and successful friends, and they deserve to be celebrated BIG time!  This year is going to be full of celebrations of all sorts, and I am really looking forward to them all.

We ate dinner at a traditional Thai restaurant called Siam.  I have been to this restaurant a few times but I always forget about it, even though it is some of the best food I have had in our city.

A friend and I shared the Tom Yum soup (we only managed to get through half of it), and then I had a chicken and rice dish that was so good that I had to make sure everyone else tried it too.  I sipped on red wine throughout the night.

On Sunday morning I woke up very refreshed and full of energy.  We went for breakfast with my family, where I had a plate of eggs, sausage, potatoes, and fruit.  This meal kept me full until dinner at the in-laws, where my MIL made lasagna and Caesar salad.  

This morning the hubby woke me up and told me breakfast was ready :-)  How sweet.  He made me a perfectly cooked omelet.  Somehow his omelets always stay together perfectly.  Mine look like a scrambled mess.  Lunch was a small piece of leftover lasagna and an orange.

Around 4:30 I ate a Lara Bar to hold me over through my workout, and until our late supper which we had around 8:00 this evening.  This was by far the best Lara Bar flavour I have tried.  We can't get this kind in my city ... I bought it in San Fransisco.  Don't know when I will be able to have one again!

Dinner this evening was a couple slices of turkey breast, steamed cauliflower with nooch sprinkled on top, and organic brown rice with cilantro and lime.

Cool New Product

Santa put this treat in my stocking:

I nibbled on a few pieces tonight and was really impressed with the organic coconut chunks covered in organic dark chocolate, in a 100% biodegradable bag. The chunks of coconut are real, unprocessed pieces ... so they are quite hard, and have a nice texture to them.

What do you have to celebrate these days?  What celebrations do you have coming up this year?

Were you off of work today for MLK day?  If so, how did you spend the holiday?

These are a Few of My Favourite Things ...

1) Vegan Overnight Oat Parfaits

(Breakfast Yesterday)

Brownie Batter VOO

1/3 cup quick oats

1 tsp pure vanilla

1 T unsweetened cocoa

1 scoop chia seeds

2/3 cup unsweetened Vanilla Almond Breeze

Mix above ingredients together, cover and put in the fridge overnight.

Make banana soft serve in the morning (1 frozen banana, 3 T Almond breeze/ milk - in food processor or Vita-Mix). Layer with the VOO.

 

2) Dinner for 1 from Angkor Restaurant

 

(I had this for lunch yesterday, and there was enough leftover for both the hubby and I to have it for lunch today!!)

3) Pasta

(Dinner yesterday)

Asiago and Herb Pasta

4 cups Fusilli 

2 T butter

2/3 cup grated Asiago cheese

2 T dried parsley

1.5 T mayo

1/2 cup whipping creme

2 cloves minced garlic

1/4 cup crumbled bacon

Cook and drain pasta.  Meanwhile, melt butter in saucepan.  Add all the rest of the ingredients and warm (do not boil).  Toss with pasta and serve immediately.  Season with pepper.

4) Organic Fresh Fruit

(Breakfast Today)

5) Green Tea in Pretty Tea Pots

I enjoyed my fruit breakfast with a small pot of loose green tea.

6) My new coffee mug.  

I always drink my coffee out of a to-go mug, even when I am at home, or have brunch guests.  I hate when coffee cools off too quickly.  My new mug keeps it HOT for hours, and is a really pretty copper colour.  I am really into metallics lately.

7) Donna Hay Magazine

This is an Australian magazine, and the issues are all back-ordered, so I read summery issues in the winter, and vice versa - but I don't care!

8) Derma E Products

These products are paraben free, cruelty free, etc..  They also make my skin feel fantastic.  I don't have psoriasis or any eczema, but the cremes can be used by anyone, daily, under makeup.  I want every single product that they make (Disclaimer: I bought these all on my own, and have no connection to the company, and received no free samples from them).

9) New York!!!

The hubby and I are checking Expedia daily, and plan on booking another trip to NY this April!

10) Going out with friends on a Saturday night ... off to do that now!

Have a good weekend peeps!

What are some of your favourite things at the moment?

Signs of the Times ... Another Reason Astrology is Horse Poo

Apparently the earth's rotation and orbit has shifted, and the sun moves through 13 constellations instead of 12.  You may no longer have the zodiac sign you once had. So much for those "personality descriptions" that always magically seamed to fit a person just perfectly ...

Pisces (March 13 - April 19)
Aries (April 20 - May 12)
Taurus (May 13 - June 20)
Gemini (June 21 - July 19)
Cancer (July 20 - August 11)
Leo (August 12 - September 17)
Virgo (Sepetember 18 - October 31)
Libra (November 1 - November 21)
Scorpius (November 22 - November30)
Ophiuchus (December 1 - December 18)
Sagittarius (December 19 - January 18)
Capricorn (January 19 - February 17)
Aquarius (February 18 - March 12)

I was a Libra. Now I am a Virgo. Big deal.

Some people are genuinely upset by this.  I couldn't be bothered.  There are more important things in life to worry about, stress about, or get upset about than an astrological sign.

 It's a good thing I never got that Libra tattoo ...

On to eats.

Yesterday I ate a simple breakfast (apple with PB and 1 slice toast).  Lunch was leftover spicy egg meatballs on rice, and dinner was a pita pizza.

Breakfast this morning was a green monster and a slice of toast.  Lunch consisted of mushroom soup, yogurt with PB, and this bar:

AKA - Best bar in the history of the universe.

Dinner this evening was Greek chicken and organic brown rice with creamed corn:

 

What's your sign?

And the best new pick up line ever ... What was your sign?

What's for Dinner?

uring the week the only meal that I get to eat with the hubby is dinner, and so it is my favourite meal of the day.  It is the meal I love to enjoy with friends, and family, and the meal that I have time to cook, and savour with a glass of wine.

Although I have found a love for breakfast through blogging, I have never really enjoyed lunch.  It always seems rushed, and I never have creative lunch ideas.  Dinner, on the other hand, inspires me.  I love trying new creations and spending hours in the kitchen preparing something for the people that I love.

My breakfasts and lunches for the past 2 days have been dull and un-photogenic (green monsters, soup, leftover veggie burrito, yogurt, fruit), but my dinners have been anything but ...

On Monday I made chipotle lime salmon, with basmati rice and a cilantro/onion/jalapeno/lime topping:

This evening I made Moroccan Kefta Mkauouara
(Spicy Egg, Meatball and Tomato Tagine):

Before

After

This dish was very easy to make, yet very satisfying.  I served it over basmati rice, and topped it with a generous sprinkle of cilantro.  The hubby and I were very pleased with the egg in this dish - it was a nice touch.

What's for dinner at your house tonight?

What's your favourite meal of the day and why?

10 Things

My girl over at Baking 'n' Books tagged me to answer 10 questions ... here are her questions and my answers:

(1) If you were going to watch a TV marathon all day and night on TV (think snowstorm, day off work, sick – or being just plain lazy) – what show would you choose to watch all day? 

I would choose Big Brother or Sex in the City

(2) What’s one food that you must always have in your house to eat and “panic” if you realize your out? There is no food that I need to have in the house at all times, but my husband can't live without bananas, apples, oranges, eggs and yogurt.

(3) What is your favorite movie of all time?

Tough question.  I am going to go with Home Alone since I have seen it more than any other movie, and I couldn't imagine a December without it.

(4) Are you doing the job you love now? If not, what would you give anything to be able to do for a living tomorrow?

I am doing a job I love now.

(5) If you won the lottery (or were rich), what Charity would you donate money to?

Something local, and non-medical.

(6) What’s your ideal way to spend a Saturday night? On the couch in jammies with a movie and food or getting dressed up (or decent-looking) and going out for drinks with pals?

Having friends over for dinner, then going out dancing.

(7) Do you ever go to a coffee shop to read, do work, blog, write, do work on the computer? Do you enjoy it, find it distracting, find it a waste of time…?

I only sit in coffee shops to visit, but I am not opposed to working in one.

(8) Do you drink coffee or tea? Do you flavor it or drink it ‘black’?

I drink both.  Black.

(9) Are you going to watch American Idol when it starts in a couple of weeks? What do you think of J.Lo as a judge?

I will give it a chance.  I don't care who the judges are ... I watch for the talent.

(10) What would you do if you went to school for years, have enormous debt, but are now working a related job that you realize you simply don’t like. No matter the change in jobs – the profession, the going to school…wasn’t you.

What would you do? 

Quit and go back to school for something I would enjoy ... or quit and use the education I have to get a job that requires a degree but nothing specific.

Last night the hubby and I went to our friend's 30th birthday celebration.  We started the evening at a restaurant called the Fainting Goat.  The hubby and I shared an appetizer, and then I ate 1/2 of this pasta and packed the rest up.

We then headed down the street to a Korean karaoke place to finish off the night.

This morning the hubby made me oatmeal.

 

He used vanilla Almond Breeze, chocolate milk, maple PB, 1/2 tsp coconut, and 1/2 banana. 

We spent the day with our nephew and had lunch at the mall.  I ate 1/2 bowl of Tom Yum soup.

This evening we went to the hubby's parents for dinner, where we had sausage, perogies, and potatoes. 

This is my portion:

My MIL made creme brulee for dessert, and it was perfect.

My SIL didn't like the burnt sugar, but that is my favourite part.

 

Do you like creme brulee?  Have you ever made it? 

I have decided I am buying a creme brulee torch.  Soon.