Hasse

For the first time in many weeks, Rob and I had a day off together.  Luckily, it was a beautiful day, so we drove out to Lake Hasse, about 45 minutes away, for some canoeing and fun in the park.  

 

We fished for about an hour, but no luck.  We ended up having hotdogs for lunch.

Isabella loved being out by the water

After more than half an hour on the swings, I finally had to pull her off so we could go home (she didn't like that one bit)

On the way home: Isabella was very dirty but very happy.  Nothing suits her better than a day outdoors.

It was a perfect day.

Isabella the Terrible

It turns out the "terrible twos" phase is not just a myth.  Isabella is turning into the cutest little monster I've ever seen.  Besides being hyper and always getting into trouble, she also screeches like a banshee whenever we suggest she do something she doesn't feel like doing.  Or even when she does want to do it, sometimes.  

I came home from work today to discover my living room had been redecorated.  The walls, floor, and cabinets were all a beautiful shade of crayon blue.  Where Rob was when all this was happening I don't know, but at least he helped me clean it up.  I don't think Isabella quite got the point from my stern lecture; now she'll point to the walls and say "bad Bella, very bad" -- while giggling.

If she weren't so adorable, that girl would be in big trouble.

I didn't think of taking a picture of Isabella's "artwork" until after most of it had been cleaned up.  I could have saved it for my blackmail folder...

Cake-cakes

I like to make something special for breakfast on Sundays.  You know, a break from the usual oatmeal and cold cereal.  This is the one day of the week where all three of us are together, rather than spread all over the city in our various pursuits (work, mostly).  I've been eyeing up a recipe in my quinoa cookbook for months, but I've never had all the ingredients on hand.  Yesterday I decided I didn't care and would make Pumpkin Pancakes anyway.

Pumpkin Pancakes

1 1/2 cups quinoa flour                     1 3/4 cups buttermilk/sour milk

1/4 cup packed brown sugar             1 cup pureed pumpkin

2 tsp baking powder                         2 large eggs

1 tsp baking soda                            2 Tbsp vegetable oil

1 tsp allspice                                  1/2 cup toasted pecans

1 tsp cinnamon                               whipped cream/maple syrup optional

1/2 tsp ginger

1/2 tsp salt

Mix together all the ingredients on the left side.  In a separate bowl, mix together the wet ingredients.  Add the wet to the dry and mix just until blended.  Cook like you would regular pancakes.  Serve with pecans and maple syrup.

Sounds pretty good, right?  Don't tell Rob (he liked the pancakes) but I didn't have any pumpkin so I used sweet potato instead.  You would never know the difference.  I also used half the amount of quinoa flour and used regular flour for the rest.  And I mixed the pecans right in with the flour because I like pecans and it's easier to eat that way.

Despite all my interference, the pancakes were delicious!  The "pumpkin" added a sweet undertone, but wasn't overwhelming.  And I loved all the nuts.  Isabella calls them "cake-cakes" and ate more than Rob and I together (that girl can eat!).

Verdict: I'm definitely going to make these again!

This is the picture from the book.  Mine didn't look this deliciously gooey.  But they were still great.

  

I've got a fever! (and not for Beiber)

I know there are millions of you out there right now who are enjoying the sweetness of Spring.  The warm sun, the crisp, fresh air, blossoms poking their heads out of the ground, maybe even green grass?  It should be spring here.  But it isn't.  Last week we had a couple days in a row where we actually took the negative sign off of the temperature, and in those two days I got spring fever so hard that now I can barely sleep at night.  As I lay in bed, I can feel my blood tingling with anticipation of the coming months, when the snow will finally melt!  When I can plant my garden, and go for picnics, and take Isabella to the playground and the park... there are so many possibilities!  While I was out shovelling snow yesterday (yes, we're still getting more snow here) I put Isabella in her snowsuit and let her play outside with me.  After I had scraped enough snow away, a bit of our brown, dead lawn was revealed.  Isabella was fascinated with it; she kept looking and pointing and asking me "what's that Mom?"  How sad that my daughter doesn't know what grass is!  She is, however, very familiar with snow, and points it out at every opportunity.


To help me cope with my need for spring, I bought some daffodils.  There are thousands of gorgeous varieties of flowers, but none carry the promise that early spring flowers do.  A lilac, while beautiful, doesn't say that winter is finally over; a rose, while sweet, is a last lingering taste of summer.  Daffodils are so wonderful to me because they are they heralds of spring; they declare that things are only going to get better.  

(As an aside, I do really like winter; I couldn't live anywhere that doesn't have it.  But after six months of -40 and piles of snow, I'm ready for spring!)

32

This last weekend was Rob's birthday (I won't say which one- some people are so touchy about their age).  No crazy partying for us old folks, but we did manage to have a nice dinner together.  Isabella and I made lasagna and monochromatic greek salad (I didn't realise until it was too late that we were out of both cucumber and green pepper, so there was a lot of red) and carrot cake with nuts and cream cheese icing for dessert.  Yum!  Isabella is big into "helping".  While I cut up the vegetables for the salad, she mixed them together, yes, but a lot of them mysteriously disappeared.  But icing the cake together was fun, even if it turned out a little less professional than I had originally intended.  I wanted to get a picture of Isabella licking out the bowl afterward (she's so dang cute!), but as soon as I brought out the camera she turned into her I'm-crazy-because-there's-a-camera-in-view self.  Maybe next time.

Happy birthday Rob!
 

Sweet, Sweet, Valentine's Day

What I am about to say may make you think differently about me.  Maybe even less of me.  But I don't care, because this is just too exciting to keep to myself!

Rob and I aren't big into Valentine's Day.  I know a lot of people (or at least a lot of fictional move/tv people) go all out- have a fancy dinner with rose petals strewn all over the house while an airplane writes "I love you" in the sky, a string quartet plays romantic music, and an ice sculpture of cupid melts in the corner.  We're more the type to say "happy valentine's day" with an accompanying kiss.  Maybe something special for dinner, maybe not.  One year when I went to bed I found a box of chocolates under my pillow.

This year, though, Rob went a little crazy.  He decided that in the interest of improving our relationship, he would buy us ... a dishwasher!  I haven't had a dishwasher since I moved out of my parents house 81/2 years ago.  That's 3138 days of standing over a sink of hot water for at least half an hour, scrubbing, soaping, rinsing.  I didn't really mind doing them by hand, or at least I didn't mind before I had a crazy little girl to take up all of my time.  Ever since Isabella was born almost two years ago, I've tried to cram most of my tasks into the time when she's asleep (have you tried spending half an hour doing dishes while someone else is either tearing the house apart or howling for your attention?  It's very difficult).  

Our dishwasher was delivered Saturday morning (for free, of course).  We did a couple loads right away to get caught up; it was so nice to see bare counters after such minimal effort!  (By the way, our dishwasher is so awesome that it cleans off even weeks-old caked on nastiness; the secret is the steam cycle.)  When Isabella took her nap that afternoon my first thought was "Well, I guess I should do the dishes now."  I even went so far as to start walking toward the kitchen before I remembered there were no dishes for me to wash!

Maybe I'm a nerd, or someone who gets overly excited about kitchen appliances, but I have such a feeling of freedom!  Those precious minutes when Isabella is asleep do not have to be filled with the mundane task of washing dishes.  When I'm done with a dish, I just throw it in, and that night or maybe a day or two later (depending on how much cooking we've done) I press a button -- and go do the next thing on my list.  Or ignore the list and read a good book. 

Does anyone else do dishes by hand who can empathise with me here?  I wouldn't want to be labeled crazy...

Next, Please

I have many fond memories of growing up...climbing trees...eating oatmeal (or pretty much anything) slathered in thick fresh cream from our cow...playing trampoline ball with my siblings... eating bread fresh out of the oven.  My mother made pretty much everything from scratch, and I blame my current robust health on her excellent cooking.  She even made granola for us.

So when I saw a recipe for the "Ultimate Granola" in my quinoa cookbook, I knew I had to try it.  It's packed full of tasty yet healthy ingredients, like almonds, walnuts, quinoa, oats, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, cranberries, and has a hint of cinnamon for a bit of extra flavour (like all that other stuff isn't enough).

Making it was super easy - just mix everything together and throw in on a baking sheet - and it looked so pretty and smelled so nice when it came out of the oven.

After it cooled, I tried to take it off the baking sheet.  Maybe I did something wrong, or maybe it's supposed to take half an hour and scratching up my favourite baking sheet to pry that stuff off.  I had my doubts about the recipe after that, but of course I still had to try it.

And it's good!  A bit of a jaw workout, perhaps, but delicious and healthy at the same time.  I keep a bucket of it in the living room (weird place, I know) so when I feel the munchies coming on I've got the solution right at hand.

Play Date

Because every 21-month-old should know their way around a Playstation.

True Love

 

Can you hear it calling?

Hidden Goodness

Yesterday I read a friend's facebook update describing how much her daughter loves spinach smoothies.  In my mind I pictured a dark green slurry that only an unsuspecting toddler would ever drink.  

But I decided to try it anyway. 

I filled the cup (does anyone else find the magic bullet cups super convenient?) half full of fresh spinach, then added yogurt, fresh strawberries, milk, and a few frozen blueberries.  And it was good!  I tumbled that smoothie on my tongue, searching for the spinach taste, but I couldn't find it.  All I could taste was yummy fruity goodness.  I let Isabella have a taste -- and she didn't give it back until it was almost gone.  

I'm converted!

Our breakfast: homemade raisin bread and a spinach smoothie.

KEEN - wah

Ever since watching the movie Julie & Julia, Becca and I have wanted to write regular posts about new recipes we've tried.  We had a hard time deciding on a cook book to use, or even if we should use a cookbook, so eventually our idea was more or less forgotten.  

Until Christmas.  Becca gave me a quinoa cookbook (and got one for herself, too) so we could try it out.  Maybe in health food circles this -- what do I call it?  It's not a grain, but acts like one -- stuff is well-known, but I had never heard of it before.  To tell the truth, while I was excited to try it out, I was also worried that my family (mostly Rob) would never eat it.  Maybe I would end up eating it all by myself.

So for my first try, I decided to go with a recipe where the quinoa is in the background, where the other flavours would mask its presence.  And I wouldn't tell Rob it was even in there until after he said he liked it.

Cheesy Spinach and Quinoa Stuffed Pasta

1/2 cup quinoa

2/3 cup water

1 box jumbo pasta shells

2 eggs

1 1/2 cups shredded mozza cheese (I'm sure I used a lot more than that, though)

1 cup ricotta cheese

3/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

1 package frozen spinach

1/4 tsp salt

pinch black pepper

3 cups tomato sauce (I also added ground beef to the sauce for my carnivore husband)

Cook quinoa in water, set aside to cool.

Cook pasta shells.

Beat eggs, add quinoa, mozzarella, ricotta, parmesan, spinach, salt, pepper.

Spread tomato sauce over the bottom of a casserole dish.  Fill the pasta shells and place on top of the sauce.

Cover and bake at 350 for 20 minutes, then uncover and bake for 10 minutes more.

So good that all of this was gone by morning!

I'm no chef, but you have to admit that looks tasty.

Since my first experiment was such a success, I've added quinoa to a lot of my regular cooking: spaghetti, Isabella's food, and I always put quinoa flour in my bread.

Does this make you want to try it?

Snow Day

I remember as a kid hearing about the mythical 'snow day'.  Apparently on this day the city sort of shuts down: kids don't have to go to school, buses don't run, many businesses are closed.  Growing up in the Okanagan, I knew that day would never come.  Living in a semi-desert does have its downsides.  Even here in the prairies, though, where we get more than enough snow and cold weather, it's such a norm that everyone just carries on regardless of the weather.  -50 degrees?  Whatev.  Two metres of snow?  Annoying, but no biggie. 

Today is the closest I'll ever come, I think, to getting a snow day.  It's been snowing heavily here for the last two days without pause.  While the accumulating snow could be dealt with with shovels and plows, the wind has to get a part of the action; it blows all the snow you just shovelled off your sidewalk right back over it again.  It piles the snow up in huge drifts. 

This is normal for Alberta.  Unfortunately.

I know you can't tell since the background it just all white, but the snow level  behind Isabella is above her shoulders.

Anyway, due to so much snow in so short a time, our church meetings have been cancelled today.  For the first time in my life, I actually can't go to church.  It's a very weird feeling.

Eventually we went back inside because I was too cold.  She was fine, of course, and was upset that I made us go in so early (1hour).  She just loves the outdoors, that girl!