Hey Megalomaniac

We went to see Incubus play at the Molson Amphitheatre last night. It was gooood. Do you know what the meaning of incubus is? Disturbing.

Here's some pics from the concert. They're terrible, but concert pics usually are unless you pay the big bucks. These seats were $10 (plus $15 in fees of course) which I think is quite a steal.

M was as happy as can be because they played "Redefine", which I had never heard before. It was funny to watch him rock out though. Later he said, "My life is now complete."

I'm happy my husband finally got to see Incubus play, he's been wanting to forever. He has now seen his top 3 bands play live - NIN, Incubus, and Coheed and Cambria. In no particular order, because I'm not sure of it. Maybe he'll comment and tell us.

What would your top three be?

I'll go first:
1) U2 (maybe one day)
2) City and Colour (seen a few times)
3) The Tragically Hip -old school styles only (seen a couple of times)

Veggies in a Wine Glass

I love edamame (ed-ah-mah-mai), which is just another name for soybeans. I buy them in bulk at Costco in these easy to steam bowls. It's perfect for snacking on. The other day my husband said I should eat some because they're kinda taking over the freezer, as they come in a pack of 12 containers. So, it became my mission to make a salad using edamame.

I made this for my parents for dinner and I luurrrved it so much I made it again the next day.

The vegetables I used were edamame, snap peas, carrots, corn, and tomatoes. I mixed up a dressing using plain yogurt, honey, garlic, lime juice, olive oil, and salt. Just a bit of each. Then I added a bit of basil - look at her, she's growing up so quickly.

Mix it all up and you have a lovely, colourful salad.

Donut Holes My Arse

I've been wanting to try this recipe for donut holes for a long time because who doesn't enjoy a good donut hole once in a while?

Here's the lineup. All "raw" foods.

First you grind up the almonds.

Then you try and grind up the pineapple and dates, but learn they are too sticky for the food processor, so proceed to chop them up by hand.

Then you realize you forgot to soak the almonds overnight, so the mixture is too dry to stick together. Then you search your fridge and find applesauce, which does the trick.

Now you roll them into balls and pray they don't fall apart.

Next you take a picture of yourself with a strange look on your face.

Last, you share them with a friend and whoever else will try them!

The verdict from five taste testers:

Me - I'm not crazy about them and won't make them again.
M.S.G. - She's neutral. This could be good considering she doesn't like any of the ingredients.
The mother - She likes them, she really likes them!
The father - He likes them, he really likes them! And he had seconds!
The husband - He says it tastes nothing like a donut but it's alright! (OMG I can't believe he tried it.)

The Time Traveler's Wife

I am reading this book right now and absolutely loving it. I loved it from the first page of the prologue.

I have 150 pages left to read and hope I still love it at the end. I was very, very confused for the first chapter because well.. it's about time travel and I couldn't figure out what was happening.

The movie is coming out on August 14 and if you're like me, I can't see the movie if I haven't read the book! You can watch the trailer to wet your whistle, but be forewarned there are spoilers.



If I had to rate this book now I'd give it 5 out of 5 stars. It's just so good. Thanks to M's friend at work who lent it to me. Go find a copy, pronto!

More Cake Talk

Two cake posts in a row, wow!

The top tier of our wedding cake sat in my parents' freezer for over a year, until we decided to open it to celebrate our first anniversary. We brought the cake to the cottage to share, thank goodness, otherwise we would have been eating cake for days!

My dad packaged it up really well. Two garbage bags, a huge ball of saran wrap, and duct tape!! It took me 10 minutes to unwrap it.

Not bad, not bad! The flowers on the top had flattened, but other than that it looked pretty good!

Not quite as good as the before picture, but I'll take what I can get.

A lovely picture of us, especially since I'm wearing my pyjamas.

Here's the inside. Vanilla bean cake with espresso frosting. For year old cake, it was delicious.

And some action shots! Oh aren't we so adorable.

PB for the Birthday Boy

Last week was M's birthday. I wanted to make him something special so I searched around and found a recipe for the perfect cake. This chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting took me three hours to make but it turned out super delicious!

Here is the middle layer filled with frosting and chopped up peanut butter cups.

And now, the finished product! A real beauty if I do say so myself!

We packed this sucker up and brought it to the cottage to enjoy on our first night. Yum.

It Tastes Like... What?

I'm back from a great week at the cottage and have so much to write about! First up... beer tasting night!

We tasted a total of 10 beers and 1 cider, most from microbreweries in Toronto. Now I must caution that out of the 8 tasters, only 3 or 4 are actual beer lovers, so the results could be slightly skewed! It made for a funny night though!

I recorded some of the comments people made as they were tasting plus the overall thumbs up/down rating. Here we go!

1. Hoppin' Mad - Granite Brewery (Rating: 7 thumbs down, 1 thumb up)
"Oh my God. That is the worst stuff."
"That's like cough syrup. Buckley's tastes better than that."
"What have I swallowed that tastes like that? Bug spray?"

2. Wit - Mill St. Brewery (Rating: 4 thumbs down, 4 thumbs up)
"Ech, that was horrid. It tastes like piss... not speaking from experience."

3. Tankhouse Ale - Mill St. Brewery (Rating: 6 thumbs down, 2 thumbs up)
"This tastes like some sort of chemical... Windex."
"My favourite so far. It's good."

4. Natural Blonde - Amsterdam (Rating: 8 thumbs up)
"I can handle that."
"I already drank a couple of bottles of that. I love it."

5. Framboise - Amsterdam (Rating: 3 thumbs down, 5 thumbs up)
"That tastes like raspberry juice - just terrible."

6. Orange Peel Ale - Great Lakes Brewery (Rating: 8 thumbs down)
"Terrible aftertaste."
"That is just repulsive."

7. Steamwhistle Pilsner - Steamwhistle (Rating: 1 thumb down, 7 thumbs up)
"Not bad!"

9. Keith's White (Rating: 1 thumb down, 2 devil horns, 4 thumbs up)
"They should stick to brewing what they brew right."
"Do you taste the cinnamon? Ginger snaps?"

10. Rekorderlig Wild Berries Cider (Rating: 1 thumb down, 7 thumbs up)
"That's what beer should taste like."
"Whaaaaat?? What is that? That ain't good! Go back to Sweden."

11. Bud Light Lime (Rating: 2 thumbs down, 1 devil horns, 5 thumbs up)
"It's good but then it's kinda too limey."
"Weird."
"It's just wrong. It tastes like hot tub water."

There you have it. I think this needs to become an annual event! Any suggestions for next year?

I Must Be Adopted

We were aiming to leave for the cottage at 12:00 (which really means 1:00) but now it's 1:30 and the mother is applying makeup and the father just got out of the shower. The van looks like this

but the hallway still looks like this.

Lord love a duck. I must be adopted. Who brings a spice rack to a cottage????

It's A Miracle

My dad installed my parents' dishwasher! After a year and a half of it sitting there unused, it is finally back up and running. Hallelujah. Especially after all the baking my mom and I did tonight! Major dishes.


I never thought this day would come. Good for you, dad! No more pruney hands for you. You'll wonder why you didn't finish it sooner, but better late than never!

Babies and Recycling

This week I got to meet my friend A's new baby! I stole this picture from facebook and I think she's a day old here. Look at those perfect little lips!

And here she is two weeks later at home with mumma. Such a cutie pie! Congratulations!

Here's the nursery. Ah, I just love baby stuff. Yes, husband, I have gotten my baby fix now, don't worry.

Other than babies I have been up to a lot of organizing at my parents' house. I love Wednesdays because it's garbage and recycling day! Most normal people have one bin of recycling, we have four. I love getting rid of stuff. Especially when it's not mine. Hehehe.

I'm On Vacay!

I am on vacation within my vacation for 2 sweet weeks! This week I'm at my parents' house and next week at a cottage. Ah, fresh air.

Here's how I started the weekend off. Hot tubbin' at my bro and sis-in-law's!

It's so nice to spend time with my niece and nephew. We made cookies, painted nails, and then they did my hair. Round brushes are dangerous.

The water is c-c-c-cold still!

My nephew played cameraman for a while. Not bad for an amature, right?

Time for his self-portrait!

Get Thee To A Nunnery!

Last night we went to see Shakespeare in the Square. M's colleague was one of the three main actors and he was so good! They put on "The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)" and although I didn't understand some of it, it was very entertaining and funny. It almost made me want to go read some Shakespeare!

I guess the perks of knowing one of the actors and sitting in the front were that M was thrown up upon and I was called a virgin.

If you're near Brampton and looking for something different to do, it's playing until August!

Ch-Ch-Ch-CHIA-Pudding

Did you ever have a Chia Pet growing up?

source

Today I made a recipe using chia seeds, which are all the rage these days in the healthy eating world, if you can believe it. Look out flax, there's a new seed in town! Read about the nutritional benefits here.

I found a pudding recipe online and changed just a few things, based on what I had in my cupboards.

Ingredients:
- 2 cups of Almond Breeze (or milk)
- 1/2 cup chia seeds
- 1/2 unsweetened shredded coconut
- 4 dates
- tbsp vanilla
- tsp cinnamon
- 1 pkg stevia (or sugar)

Directions:
Blend everything together except chia and coconut. Once blended, add those two ingredients. Stir and let sit. Repeat this a few times. Refrigerate.

This pudding is shockingly delicious! It has a tapioca like texture so if you're not into that, don't try it! This recipe makes six servings at 175 calories each (20g carbs, 3g protein, 9g of healthy fats).

Biking With The Dead

Do you like my shiny new bike?

I think she's real purty and now biking is my favourite outdoor activity! I had to take one day off for my buttocks to heal, but I've used her everyday since we bought her, which isn't too impressive since it's only been five days.

I am not a good bike rider at all (although I'm definitely improving). While testing the bike in the store I almost rode into a bunch of stands. I've already fallen over once, but that's a whole other story. For these reasons I don't feel comfortable riding on Toronto streets. So, the next best option is... the graveyard. Spooky, but true.

The cemetery is the only green space close to where I live but it's actually not spooky at all. It's a huge area, all nicely paved, and there are loads of other bikers, runners, and grounds people. This is also where the Running Room takes their running clinics, so there's always lots of living people around.

I like to carry my book with me so I can bike, take a rest, then bike some more. I've had some trouble finding a good place to sit though. There are tons of benches around, like the one in the picture below, but they are all dedicated to people. At first I didn't know if those were gravestones or actual benches, but my husband assures me they are just memorials. Still a little strange.

I didn't want to sit on anybody, or so close to anybody, so instead I found some wooden benches. Unfortunately, they were all covered in moss and rotten crud, so I didn't want to sit there either.

Luckily I found this "Garden of Remembrance" that has a nice fountain and lots of flowers and graves that are a far distance away. Perfect!

Do you think biking in a cemetery is weird? Or just sad that it's the only green space near me?

One Year + Three Days

I can't believe it's been one year and three days since I woke up to this:

I had the BEST night's sleep before my wedding day. It was seriously so good. I wore ear plugs so the birds wouldn't wake me up and I didn't have to set an alarm, which always puts me in a happy mood. And I actually slept the entire night through, which rarely happens.

I was absolutely stress-free on the wedding day and actually had time to do this...

and of course do some of this.

The only time I had a little panic was when I forgot the ring bearer pillow in the limo and thought the limo had taken off, but my great bridesmaids ran out to get it.

I love reliving the day through our fantastic pictures. Here's two of my faves.

Aren't I just the luckiest girl in the world? I sure got a winner!

Happy Anniversary, Buddy!

PS - Thank you for the cards!