Meals - Week Seven and Cheddar-Scallop Cakes Recipe

Week Seven and our meal planning is going - okay. I'm not as focused on it this week, and it showed. I forgot to buy the ingredients I wanted for Tuesday's original dinner, so we had to change it at the last minute. This definitely takes time to plan and execute. Mr. E is helping out as much as he can, and the kids are getting involved in helping chop and make the basics (not by choice, but hey - I have to take what I can get)

Sunday: Cheddar Scallop Cakes and other appies – every now and then, I go on a mission to clean out the freezer. Today was one of those days. I found some frozen appetizers from last weekend, and this recipe for Cheddar Scallop Cakes. I had all the ingredients, so we ate these, nachos and the rest of an Oriental Party Pack, while sitting and watching tv. This was a nice relaxed dinner and didn’t take long to make.

Monday: Tuscan Pasta – not going grocery shopping on the weekend can make for some interesting meals on Monday J This meal has no meat, but white kidney beans for protein, and is fast and easy before tae kwon do.

Tuesday: BBQ Pork Chops - Mr. E to the rescue!

Wednesday: Ground Beef Gyros – even though the pitas fell apart, the kids loved being able to eat dinner with their hands J

Thursday: Slow Cooker Pot Roast – a Sunday dinner special on a weeknight! I love my slow cooker and it’s getting used a lot these days.

Friday:  Leftover night. All these great meals made more than enough for seconds, so we cleaned out the fridge.

Saturday:  Pizza. Mr. E and I were on our own for the night, and we put in a full day of house stuff, so we wanted something quick and easy. A frozen pizza loaded up with extra veggies and bacon was just the thing.

As we try more and more new recipes, using a simple ‘like’ or ‘don’t like’ to rate each of them isn’t very effective at keeping track of our make-agains. So, I’ve started asking the kids to rate each meal from 1 to 5. Let’s see how well it works J

Cheers! Kim

How to Ripen Avocados Quickly and my Simple Guacamole Recipe

This might be common knowledge for some people, but it doesn’t seem to be well known around here (although I suppose avocados aren’t really common in Alberta!) Mr. E told this to a woman in the grocery store a few months ago, and she thought he was nuts.

Maybe men aren’t supposed to know things like this?

Anyway, I guess that’s besides the point.

Do you know how to ripen avocados that are still hard?

I have no idea where I learned this – Martha Stewart maybe (she knows everything). Anyway, if you have the urge for guacamole and want to make it yourself, finding avocados out of season means they’re more than likely hard and not usable right away. (although I realize that I don't know when avocados are in season, since they don't grow in Canada. When are they in season?)

I’ve learned the hard way (pun intended!) that you need to buy avocados that are a bit ripe – if they’re rock hard, they probably won’t ripen at all and you’ve wasted your money. They make absolutely horrible guacamole. Blech. Trust me when I say that.

Anyway, if you put your avocados in a paper bag, close it and sit it on the counter overnight, by the next day they’ll be the perfect consistency. And you can make this:

My recipe for guacamole is as simple as it gets: two avocados, about ¼ cup of finely diced red onion, and about a tablespoon of lemon or lime juice. Mush the avocado, mix in the onion and juice and let sit for half an hour or so (this lets the flavours mix together). It’s delicious. It doesn’t need any other ingredients, in my opinion.

Mr. E and I love this as a simple snack, along with whole wheat nacho chips. A little goes a long way since it’s high in fat (the good fat, but you still don’t want to overdo it). It lasts a few days, but starts to turn brown on the top pretty quickly.

This version of guacamole is simple, fast and delicious – a great snack.

I might have to make this again soon. It's that good.

Cheers! Kim

52 Projects - Week Three - Framed Recipe Card

This project is appropriate for the week three project because that’s how long it took – three weeks. I learned a lot about glue with this project, specifically what does and doesn’t work.

Anyway, here is the finished project: 

My framed recipe card - finally finished!

A close-up view

Making this frame definitely tested my patience – this was not an easy project, although it should have been.

The frames themselves are simple Ikea Ribba shadow box frames. I attached some faux leather to the back, to blend in with the frame and allow the recipes and fork to stand out. (I just used spray adhesive to put the leather on – like I did for these frames)

For the first try, I used glue dots for the recipes and the fork. The recipes stayed attached just fine, but the fork had fallen down by the next morning.

Fail with the glue dots.

My next attempt was to use my glue gun on the fork – hot glue works on everything, right?

Wrong. The next morning, the fork had fallen down.

Fail with the glue gun.

By this time, I was frustrated slightly annoyed that this wasn’t the easy project I thought it would be. Heavy duty help was needed so that fork wouldn’t go anywhere.

Enter Gorilla Glue.  

And if this didn’t work, this project was done – I’d pretend it didn’t happen and I’d move on.

Gorilla glue didn't let me down. Or the fork. Three cheers for gorilla glue! J

  

So, why did I frame two recipes and a fork? Seriously? A fork.

There is a piece of each of my grandmothers in this frame. The recipes are handwritten by my maternal grandmother, and I remember her pulling these out of her recipe box and making them, again and again.

  

The writing is hard to see, but the recipes are for Arrowroot Squares (an unbaked dessert made with – you guessed it – arrowroot cookies). The second is for Jam Thimbles, which are her version of jam thumbprint cookies.

I spent a few of my childhood summers with my grandparents, while my Mom went to University (what a role model!) so I remember these recipes, and many others, well. I learned how to cook and bake by watching her, and being allowed to help out and try on my own. Wonderful memories were made those summer days.

And, the silver fork was my paternal grandmothers – she used it as a child, my Dad used it, and so did I. There’s a spoon that matches it somewhere in the house, so hopefully I’ll find it as I clean and organize things.

Displaying these in the kitchen makes me smile – they are pieces of my history and both of these women helped shape who I am.

Cheers! Kim

Meals - Week Six

Some weeks are definitely more challenging with meal prep than others. While the meals aren’t challenging or time consuming, a long demanding work day means I have less patience when things don’t work out quite the way I envisioned. Oh well, nobody went hungry and nothing ended up in the garbage J

Sunday: Steak and Potatoes – since it was just Mr. E and I for dinner, we had one of our favourites. Mr. E is a great BBQ-er and it’s so nice not to have to cook once in a while.

Monday: White fish fillets with warm corn relish. This was fairly quick and easy – using cornmeal for the breading made it nice and crunchy. Next time I’ll bake it in the oven – that might make the breading stay on the fish instead of ending up on the bottom of the frying pan. Grrrrrr.

Tuesday: BBQ Pork Chops with edamame beans. Mr. E came to the rescue again by taking the cooking off my plate. He’s the best J

Wednesday: Ginger Chicken – this was a delicious combo of soya sauce, grated ginger and garlic on oven baked chicken. It was quick too, so we could get to activities with lots of time to spare.

Thursday: Slow Cooker Spanish Rice – have I mentioned how much I love my crock pot? It makes Thursday night dinners a breeze. And this recipe made enough for leftover lunches for Mr. E and I for two days, which is an added bonus.

Friday: Swiss Chalet – the boys turned 12 today (where does the time go?) so they got to pick dinner Friday and Saturday (they each have different favourites). Aidan, as the oldest, picked first and chose Swiss Chalet, so I took the easy way out and had it delivered.

And every birthday needs a cake, right? I didn’t have time to make one (I made 40 cupcakes on Wednesday for them to take to school on Friday, so I was ‘baked’ out this week), so I picked up cupcakes from Bliss, which is close to work. They have amazing cupcakes and it gave the kids the option for different flavours.

Bliss Cupcakes - yum!

Saturday: Subway – tonight was Zachary’s turn to pick dinner, so Subway it was. And since there’s one in the neighbourhood, dinner took about 10 minutes. And the best part was no dishes to wash after!

So, no recipes to share this week – I’m only linking to ones that are online. The cupcake picture makes up for that, right? They are delicious J

Cheers! Kim

Meals - Week Five, Pasta e Fagioli and Spinach/Artichoke Dip recipes

I think we're settling into the groove of menu planning - it seems easier as we go.
Here's what we had for Week Five:

Sunday: Pasta e Fagioli soup - I love Fine Cooking and have a lot of their special focus publications. So, when Mr. E and I were looking for a bit of a treat, where else would I look?

It was fantastic - and we had leftovers for Wednedsay dinner, and Thursday lunch. What a bonus!

Monday: Mediterranean Chicken Casserole - this was made on Sunday night and just needed to be baked for half an hour. Which is exactly what we need on an activity night - something fast.

Tuesday: Spiced Pork Tenderloin - with pear and cranberry relish. This was tasty

Wednesday: We had enough soup from Sunday left over that we had it again for dinner tonight.

Thursday: Homemade Egg McMuffins - Mr. E made these as I laid low wits the flu. Good times - but the boys love these so it all worked out.

Friday: Mr. E and I went out for lunch today, and we had leftovers. So, the kids had take-out pizza and we had leftover lunch. It was quick and easy after a long week of work.

Saturday: With no kids, it was a relaxed evening. We decided to have appetizers and French Onion soup. Except we had enough appies that we didn't need the soup.

Spinach and Artichoke Dip

and

home-made Guacamole (avacdo, red onion and lemon juice - a healthy, but rich and yummy dip)

This was another successful week of meals - here's hoping that the winning streak continues!
Cheers! Kim

Cleaning my studio - a creative result

So, when I finished cleaning my craft room / studio (you can see that here), I figured I'd use the space to finish the projects I've got planned, instead of using my kitchen table. I had no idea that there would be other benefits.

My creativity came back!

As I mentioned in my post about cleaning my studio, most of the time I would walk right back out again. Which meant very little impromptu creativity, and zero scrapbooking at home.

Not any more.

In the past week, I've completed three layouts - three!

That may not be many for some scrapbookers, but I haven't completed a single scrapbook page at home in more than three years. This is a huge deal for me! Woohoo!

As I was cleaning up, I found a few pictures I had printed a while back - ones that I wanted to scrapbook. I saw them after everything was put away, and *BAM* I had an idea of what I wanted to say about the photos. I pulled stuff out - because I had a clean table to use - and I did it. I scrapbooked.

It felt great - it was fast (which is unusual for me) and I love the layouts.

Wanna see?

I hope that everyone else who completed their 'impossibilties challenge' feels as good as I do.


Cheers! Kim

52 Projects – Week Two - My Mission Impossible

Blog-land is definitely the place to go for inspiration – and a whole lotta challenges to get things done!

In early January, a group of blogs challenged those who read them to ‘Imagine the Impossibilities’ and do something that you thought was impossible. (the blog where I found about the challenge is here)

I admit, I read the challenge and thought nothing about it – I mean, how could I find the time in my schedule to finish something that I didn’t have time for? But, the thought kept coming back to me and I started to think about how I ‘could’, not how I ‘couldn’t’.

And, the impossible happened J

My ‘impossibility’ was my office/studio/craft room. It’s at the front of the house, so its the first room that people see when they walk in the door. And it sure didn’t make a good first impression – it was terrible. There was nothing on the walls and piles of stuff were everywhere – on the floor, covering the table, on the bookshelves. It was an awful mess – no wonder I had no creativity when I walked in – I usually turned around and walked right back out.

Here is a collage of my workspace – can you imagine trying to find or do anything in there? Working on the table meant moving everything over to the other side of the table, or piling stuff onto the floor. I couldn’t find anything either, so I’d have to search everywhere to find simple things.

Not any more – it’s a great space now.

(Details going clockwise from top left)

1. I hung my bulletin board and some pictures from the kids – I have two plastic frames that I use to display my latest scrapbook pages. The shelf above holds a scrapbook album that a group of my dear friends made for me as a wedding shower gift J
2. My paints are now in a metal basket so I can see them – and remember to use them.
3. Small photo frames are in a basket on the bookshelf, and larger ones are tucked in beside the other bookshelf (you can see the side of it). Now when I’m looking for a frame, I know exactly where to look.
4. Lots of scrapbook supplies are hung up in my ‘clip-it-up’ which sits on top of a storage unit for my chipboard and flowers.
5. My scrapbook paper is now, mostly in one place. I keep finding more, so I’ll have to purge and get rid of the paper I won’t use. The boys’ school will gladly take it, so it won’t go to waste.
6. My spray paint has its own basket too, so I know where to go when I need some. And I won’t buy the same colour more than once anymore.

The space underneath my table now has two bins – one for stuff I’m still not sure what to do with, and a box with pending project supplies. Having items close together makes it easier to start a project – and that’s the whole goal of this challenge!

Is it perfect? Not at all. Am I happy with how it turned out? Definitely.

And the best part? This makeover was free – yup, it didn’t cost me a penny. I had the baskets and frames – all I needed was the time. And really, that wasn’t that bad either. It only took me about a week of working for half an hour or so in the evening, and two afternoons on the weekend.

I love my ‘new’ space. I feel more creative just walking in there.

So, thanks for the challenge, ladies!

Cheers! Kim