sarah's blog

Last week we went to the U2 360 Tour in Edmonton. This is our second time seeing this tour except the first time we were super close on the floor of an indoor venue and this time we had nosebleed section seats in an outdoor one. While the experience was not as intense as the first time (the best concert I have ever seen) it was still amazing to see the show from a new vantage point, and get some good shots o my iPhone too.

If you’re going to see this tour I highly recommend you spring for floor seats – if you like the intensity of being caught up in it all. There is nothing like seeing that giant spider/spaceship towering over you with the sound of Bono all around you. There were moments I forgot where I was, it was that all-consuming. If that doesn’t make you want to go out and buy tickets close enough that maybe Bono will touch you and you’ll never wash that arm again, at least go for the lowest level of seating, it’s well worth it.

Both J and I said we’d see them again. In an indoor venue. With floor tickets. Maybe we can even get in that inner ring…

We’re spending the next six weeks living in a house with two other families. We’ve worked out a system of cooking, cleaning and copious amounts of coffee making. Then someone got a brilliant idea to have a lobster dinner party.

So Sunday night we boiled 12, count ‘em, 12 lobsters for supper.

I’ve only tasted lobster once before (on our honeymoon in Cuba) so seeing them come in the door in a cardboard box, being chased around the house by a friend holding a squirmy one and seeing them go into the pot alive and come out red and ready for butter was a stretching experience for me. But I ate some, enjoyed the rest of the feast – and the atmosphere surrounding the whole process.

Ten people living under one roof can be a lot of fun and we’re already talking about our next lobster night.

I started another edition of Eating Down The Fridge last Friday so I’m wrapping it up today. Boy that went fast.

All in all, not a bad round of clearing out and trying some new “creative” ways to use up ingredients. I definitely still have a few things hanging around but without buying ingredients I just wasn’t able to find a way to make them work.

So what did I clear out in the last few days?

On Thursday we did the usual breakfast and leftovers for lunch.

For supper I made a slow-cooker meatloaf which used up the ground beef we had. The recipe is in the Company’s Coming cookbook of slow-cooker recipes so I won’t write it out here but you can ask me for it if you don’t have access to the book.

Then yesterday I had cream of wheat for breakfast which I had to buy because I finally used up those Hearty Medley things. Within the rules. For lunch J took the last of the soup from our friends and I ate a strange combination of the rest of the leftover Spicy Chicken Bake, the last of the yogurt, the last of a box of healthy-ish cookies I bought because I tried them on a plane once. (You can find the full selection here, I bought the blueberry brown sugar with flax. Yum.)

For supper we totally scored: a homemade lasagna from our dear friend, Lynsey, who dropped by to hang out with me in the morning. It was all pre-cooked and ready to go so all it needed was a bit of time in the oven to reach its full melty potential. It. Was. Delicious.

Today we only had coffee for breakfast (it’s Roll Up The Rim time so it was a Timmy’s run) because we were meeting up with friends for dim sum (yes, again). An old friend and former roommate, Laurie, was in town. Sidenote: Kirin at City Square Mall has a great mango pudding.

For supper we got to enjoy more of the lasagna from Lynsey -and there’s still more for tomorrow! Then I did a bit of searching online and found a recipe for a peanut butter pie that would use a couple ingredients I have been really trying to get rid of. I’m not going to put the recipe on here for a few reasons, namely:

a) all the ingredients come from a box and that is too 1980s for even me to be proud of
b) the instructions were basically non-existent and there were a few things that would have been good to know like the fact that the peanut butter and icing sugar would be very tough to mix well, and
c) because it’s pretty ugly and had better taste good or else it has nothing going for it.

The important thing is it sounds like it will be decent and it used a box of vanilla pudding, most of my peanut butter, half my icing sugar (which I can never find uses for and hangs around for ages), the graham cracker crumbs and the milk. Not half bad.

So I’m recipe-less today but here’s the list of what I used up in the last few days of this Eat Down…

Ground beef
Box of blueberry brown sugar with flax cookies
Box of vanilla pudding
Bag of graham cracker crumbs
Litre of milk
Container of yogurt

This wasn’t my best Eat Down – I barely touched the list of example items I gave in my first post – but it was probably the one where I purchased the least new food during the week. Having said that, we ate out more than usual and our meals contained less fruits and vegetables than I’m comfortable with so next time I’ll stock up on those before we begin.

That’s it for this time, I’ll let you know how the pie turns out.

We’ve had a string of house guests this Spring and Summer. Who am I kidding, we are Grand Central Station every year as friends, family and coworkers visit BC and take in the sites. That always means a few sure things: lots of food, good beer, Granville Island and a never-ending cycle of washing and putting out fresh sheets and towels.

Our last guests of the season left today (sounds like we run a bed and breakfast) and this will be our last hosting gig for awhile as we’re taking down the open sign to take care of babies (and ourselves, I cannot feel my feet I am so tired!). You heard it here first folks, better start buttering up some other people you know in the area for next year ’cause there is no more room in this inn.

A few sights, but mostly tastes, from this last visit.

Granville Island Market berries.

Market goodies.

Stand on your tip toes and you can see the ocean.

When you’re pregnant and everyone else is enjoying the seasonal raspberry beer… you get a cola. Sigh.

But then you find a cupcake store.

And buy a berry lemony delicious confection with a name like Raspberry Beret and things start to look up.

Vietnamese dessert drink with almond jelly, mango pudding and extra condensed milk at Richmond Night Market.

Sharing a plate of squid. I did not partake.

I turned 28 on Thursday. As you know from years past, it is becoming an annual tradition for John to be away at training the whole week of my birthday. This year he was again across town in a dorm room with a pile of people but was able to come home on Wednesday night, beautiful flowers in hand, so he could wake up and say happy birthday to me on The Day. Coming in a close second was an early morning text from my mommy!

Last week my in-laws were here and we went out to dinner as an early celebration – I picked Swiss Chalet. My family knows what I’m talkin about. Then we had ice cream cake. I saved the cards I got in the mail to open on my birthday, so thanks Grandma H and Grandma and Grandpa B.

It wasn’t as bad to have John away this year because circumstances aligned to make Thursday an incredibly busy day with work and I ended up having to go in to the office to pick up packages and to do a million last minute things for the this conference I am helping to organize. All this kept me nice and distracted from the fact that my birthday was whizzing by.

But then some people in the office found out it was my birthday and ran out and got a cake and my sister-in-law, brother-in-law and nephew stopped by with desserts. I was starting to feel quite spoiled on a day that is considered to be postponed and will likely be celebrated again when the dust of conferences settles.

All in all it was a very full day and a very good one. I wouldn’t say relaxing, but productive, which can have a similar affect. Not much time to reflect on another year gone by, maybe in August I can think like that!

Hey, if you’re interested, I did a charity: water campaign for my birthday like I did at Christmas, just an opportunity to give a gift to someone who really needs it instead of me who has too much stuff in my house already. The campaign is still open for awhile longer so please consider helping me reach my goal of $280, clean water for 14 people. You’ve heard me go on and on about charity: water before but they’re good people, and 100% of your donation will go directly to the projects.

And don’t feel bad for me not getting gifts. My husband is buying me an iPhone 4.

Before we left for our trip I did a mini Eat Down The Fridge but never finished saying how it went. It’s been too long for me to remember what we ate meal by meal, so I won’t do that this time.

We only had a few days in which to do it and really the main idea was not to buy perishables before being gone for a week so I wouldn’t say there is too much to report other than one good recipe and one good idea.

Good recipe:

As mentioned in my food list, I had four oranges to use up. And I wanted to bake. Thus, SunKist Orange Honey Muffins.

SunKist Orange Muffins (with personal modifications like not referring to them as SunKist oranges every single time)
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt
1 egg, slightly beaten
1/3 cup honey
1 orange -grated peel
½ cup freshly squeezed orange juice
½ cup milk
¼ cup vegetable oil
2 oranges , peeled, sectioned, and drained (optional)
1 Tbsp. sugar

1. In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. In another bowl combine the egg, honey, grated orange peel, orange juice, milk, and oil; add to dry ingredients all at once.
2. Stir quickly until dry ingredients are just moistened but have a lumpy appearance. Spoon batter into 16 paper-lined 2-1/2 X 1-1/4-inch muffin cups, filling about two-thirds full.
3. This step is optional and I would only recommend it if you like cooked fruit. I think I would skip it next time. Place one orange section on top of each muffin and sprinkle with sugar. Bake at 400F for 20 to 25 minutes, watching carefully that they do not become too brown.

We loved these muffins, the grated orange peel gave it a nice flavor without being too sweet. They were easy to make and used two of my four oranges.

Good idea:

I was looking for a way to use/preserve my bag of yellow onions when I came across this idea (I cannot for the life of me find the blog, when I do I will link it up and give credit) to pre-cut and freeze them. So I grabbed all but one onion and proceeded to cry my way through chopping half of them and slicing the other half. Then I spread the onions out on baking trays, covered them with plastic wrap (which still does nothing to stop your whole freezer and fridge from smelling like onion for the rest of the day) until slightly frozen.

The onions were then broken up and scraped into plastic baggies, double bagged and labeled as chopped or sliced with the date. I now have a convenient way to add onions to my cooking, and because the pieces were frozen individually first, there won’t be a big chunk of onion to mess with, I just shake out how much I need. Best of all, no food waste.

All in all a good week of EDTF. I even made eggs benedict one day with homemade hollandaise sauce (the recipe was so-so) which I did not realize used SO MANY EGGS. In one breakfast I pretty much wiped out our dozen eggs. For future reference eggs benedict with hollandaise sauce is pretty much eggs with a topping of butter eggs.

We’re having friends over for supper on Monday and I’m planning to make Pork Tenderloin with Sticky Lime Glaze. Stay tuned.

After over a month of feeling sick just entering our kitchen and a complete inability to cook anything, I am feeling 1000% better. Not a typo, literally 1000.

I mean, I want to cook, I want to eat (okay I wanted to eat the whole time, like 10 times a day) and I don’t lose my lunch over the smell of the refrigerator! My eagerness to enjoy this new-found normalcy has produced some meals I’m proud of, and I have cooked up some recipes that I would recommend to you guys. Since I have not posted about food in awhile (would you really want to hear my “recipe” for canned tomato soup, buttered noodles or plain popcorn?) I am excited to talk about all the delicious flavors and smells I am loving again.

First up: on Friday we had our friends Landon and Lisa over for supper and I made individual chicken pot pies. (more…)

Our friends’ baby boy recently turned one month old.

We were lucky enough to visit him at the hospital the night he was born and to watch him grow so much over this past month. It makes me feel old when I see myself becoming invested in kids and watching them grow over months and years. I understand more now (more…)

I was going to write three. But it seems life has picked up where it left off before I took an Olympic timeout, and has even sped up a bit maybe.

I’m not saying I have a super busy life, I don’t, it’s just that things are moving along and new stuff is happening and I can’t be two weeks behind on blog posting or I’ll never catch up.

All that being said, let’s do one last post about my Olympic experience and move on. If I posted about more I’d just end up rehashing everything you already read elsewhere and blabbing on about identity and national pride and the like.

However, for a really beautiful description of an Olympic experience, by a self-described non-sports fan (my friend Claire) this is a must-read. Reading her short post made me live it all over again. Go there just to see the picture if nothing else.

As for what else I have left to say about the Olympics, it’s really about the extracurriculars. (more…)

There is just so much I would love to post about when it comes to the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games, if I hadn’t been so busy soaking up every minute of it I might have been smart about it and posted throughout the two weeks.

But I didn’t.

I let it all collect in my brain and now I have to sort it out and decide what’s worth telling, how to even describe it and make sure it’s not just a rehash of what you already read on ctvolympics.ca. Or nbc.com if you’re in the States. (more…)