Diary of a Cooking Challenged...

I have a feeling that my blog will eventually turn into a food blog.

I started this blog when I was planning the wedding last year, so at that time, it was a wedding blog so all friends and families could get update on the wedding planning. When the wedding was over, I once thought about stop writing the blog as I did not know what to write about... until recently... when I was flipping through Eat Shrink and be Merry... why not turn the blog into a food blog...

So, here I am... sharing with you my newly founded hobby... diary of a cooking challenged.

I am not a good cook... when I first moved out to Ottawa in 2001, my mom came out to Ottawa with me for 4 weeks, just to make sure I had food and clean clothes. For those 22 years living home... I was spoiled. I never had to cook and clean. My only duty was getting good grades at school. Until I decided to move to Ottawa alone, things changed. I relied on my mom to give me a crash course on housekeeping and cooking 101 during those 4 weeks. My poor mom... while I was at home during the day, she stayed at the hotel, writing recipes for me. On the weekend, instead of touring the new city and discovering the city jewels, we stayed at the hotel (luckily the company I worked for got me a fully furnished unit with a kitchenette) and cooked.

4 weeks went by fast, and the night before my mom left, I was lost and sad. I was sad as the time had come for me to say goodbye to my mom, and I was just about to begin a new journey of my own. I was lost as I knew cooking and housekeeping was not my game. My mom started teaching me how to sort laundry (dark vs white), and I asked my mom, "So I sort the laundry into two piles, the dark and the white, and then I put them in the washer... but they will be mixed once they are in the washer... so why waste time sorting them?" My mom sighed and she said, "Well, call me at home next time when you need to do laundry."

For the first two years living by myself in Ottawa, I had accumulated a lot of white tee-shirts that had a stash of pink, orange or blue here and there! At the end of the second year in Ottawa, I had decided not to wear white again. Until this day, it is rare to see a white tee shirt in my closet.

Uninstalling a Husband...

UNINSTALLING A HUSBAND



Dear Tech Support,

Last year I upgraded from Boyfriend 5.0 to Husband 1.0 and noticed a distinct slow down in overall system performance, particularly in the flower and jewelry applications, which operated flawlessly under Boyfriend 5.0.

In addition, Husband 1.0 uninstalled many other valuable programs, such as
Romance 9.5 and Personal Attention 6.5, and then installed undesirable programs such as
NBA 5.0,
NFL 3.0 and
Golf Clubs 4.1.

Conversation 8.0 no longer runs, and Housecleaning 2.6 simply crashes the system.

Please note that I have tried running Nagging 5.3 to fix these problems, but to no avail.

What can I do?

Signed,

Desperate



DEAR DESPERATE,

First, keep in mind, Boyfriend 5.0 is an Entertainment Package, while Husband 1.0 is an operating system.

Please enter command: ithoughtyoulovedme.html and try to download Tears 6.2 and do not forget to install the Guilt 3.0 update.

If that application works as designed, Husband1.0 should then automatically run the applications Jewelry 2.0 and Flowers 3.5.

However, remember, overuse of the above application can cause Husband 1.0 to default to Grumpy Silence 2.5, Happy Hour 7.0 or Beer 6.1.

Please note that Beer 6. 1 is a very bad program that will download the Farting and Snoring Loudly Beta.

Whatever you do, DO NOT under any circumstances install Mother-In-Law 1.0 (it runs a virus in the background that will eventually seize control of all your system resources.)

In addition, please do not attempt to reinstall the Boyfriend 5.0 program. These are unsupported applications and will crash Husband 1.0.

In summary, Husband 1.0 is a great program, but it does have limited memory and cannot learn new applications quickly. You might consider buying additional software to improve memory and performance. We recommend:
Cooking 3.0 and
Hot Lingerie 7.7.

Good Luck Babe!

Tech Support

Goody Two Chews

I love baking on the weekends... usually sunday afternoons after church.

I made this cranberries clusters a month ago, and it was soooo yummy and easy to make that Joe asked me all the time to make it again.

1/3 cup light peanut butter
1/3 cup pure maple syrup
2 egg whites
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
2 1/2 cups low fat granola
3/4 cup dried cranberries

Preheat over to 250F. Spray a 12-cup muffin with cooking spray and set aside.

In a medium bowl, beat together peanut butter and maple syrup on a medium speed of electric mixer. Add egg whites and pumpkin pie spice and beat again until smooth.

Stir in granola and cranberries. Divide mixture evenly among muffin cups. Bake on middle oven rack for 45 mins. Remove from oven and cool completely on a wire rack before removing clusters from pan. Store in an airtight container.

New Dog Breeds

New Dog Breeds

The following breeds are now recognized by the AKC:

Collie + Lhasa Apso = Collapso, a dog that folds up easy for transporting

Spitz + Chow Chow = Spitz-Chow, a dog that throws up a lot

Pointer + Setter = Poinsetter, a traditional Christmas pet

Great Pyrenees + Dachshund = Pyradachs, a puzzling breed

Pekingnese + Lhasa Apso = Peekasso, an abstract dog

Irish Water Spaniel + English Springer Spaniel = Irish Springer, a dog fresh and clean as a whistle

Newfoundland + Basset Hound = Newfound Asset Hound, a dog for financial advisers

Terrier + Bulldog = Terribull, a dog that makes awful mistakes

Bloodhound + Labrador = Blabador, not a popular dog with CIA agents

Malamute + Pointer = Moot Point, owned by… oh, well, it doesn't matter anyway

Collie + Malamute = Commute, a dog that travels to work

Deerhound + Terrier = Derriere, a dog that's true to the end

Meal Planning

I find myself cooking a lot more lately. Ok...that's a bit misleading. What I meant to say is I find myself trying out new recipes a lot lately. I bought a copy of Eat, Shrink and Be Merry about a month or so ago, and the book and I have quickly become friends.

I have never done meal planning until recently. One night after dinner, I was sipping a glass of wine, sitting comfortably on the couch, waiting for my favourite TV show to start. The copy of Eat, Shrink and Be Merry was lying idly on the coffee table. I picked it up and started flipping through it.

The more I read, the more interested and excited I got. By the time my favourite TV show started (Private Practice), I had scribbled down at least 10 recipes that I was going to try out.

Last week was the first week I started meal planning and here was the menu:
Monday -- Thai Beau (Joe rated 9/10)
Tuesday -- The Soprawnos (Joe did not like it so much)
Wednesday -- Chop Soooo-ey
Thursday -- 8hr Turkey Stew (I could not find turkey breast so I substituted it with beef sirloin roast)
Friday -- Joe had the Venture's Meeting, so I was lazy and did not cook. I had a glass of wine and a slice of toast with tuma cheese.... :-)
Saturday -- Joe was out all day in Merrickville with the ventures, so I had Butternut Squash soup for dinner (I made the soup a week ago from scratch and I made a big batch that I froze most of it in ziploc bags)
Sunday -- Artic Char with baby mix greens

I found this recipe this month's Reder's Digest and I am going to try it today...

Thai Sweet Potato and Coconut Soup
Ingredients:
1 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 tbsp chopped ginger root
1 tbsp thai red curry paste (I have green curry paste at home so I am going use that instead)
2 lbs sweet potatoes, peeled and diced
4 cups vegetable stock or water
salt and pepper to taste
1/3 cup canned coconut milk

1. Heat oil in a large saucepan. Add onions, garlic and ginger and cook gently until fragrant and tender about 5-7 mins
2. Add curry paste and cook 30-60 seconds until fragrant. Add sweet potatoes and stir to coat well. Add stock or water and bring to boil. Add 1 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp pepper if stock is unseasoned or if using water.
3. cook approx. 20 - 25 mins until sweet potatoes are very tender. Puree. If mixture is too thick, add additional stock or water.
4. Add coconut milk and cook 5 mins longer. Adjust seasoning with salt and pepper.
5. Serve soup in wide soup bowls. Drizzle decoratively with remaining coconut milk.

Makes 6-8 servings