Getting Organized - Simple Ways to Calm Problem Areas

Do you have any guilty secrets in your home?

No, not skeletons in your closets, silly!  I'm referring to those areas so terrifically terrible that you fear someone will discover them.  Or those places that, despite you best efforts, you never seem to be able to tame.  Or maybe it's simply a place once blissfully organized that, over time, has disintrigated into a messy, confusing place that you just can't stand to be.

We all have them, at least once in a while.  I find that the winter months are particuliarly hard times to keep my house neat.  I blame it on the extra layers we have to wear that never seem to find their way into the closet, on the snow that comes in on our dogs, and on the lack of sunlight to give me the motivation and energy to clean clean clean!  I also find there's a bit of a let down between the holiday season and spring cleaning; there's really nothing to prepare for in January and February so it's easy to let things slide a bit.  Indeed, I remarked to my husband the other day that the house seemed easier to keep tidy two months ago when every inch of it was "be-decked" and there were two Christmas trees taking up space!

In my home there are a few places in particuliar that drive me nuts, and this week I concocted a plan to tackle them.  After all, Nesty is about leading a better life through simplified living; nothing derails simplified living faster than disorder and mess.  I'll be sharing my progress with you. Some are my own ideas, while others are inspired by magazines and blog posts.  With so many great resources out there, there's really no excuse for not getting it all together!

My first project was the kitchen "junk drawer".  I'd been inspired by the latest issue of Real Simple magazine, which included an article called "Streamline Your Supplies."  The article detailed what essentials you need in order to organize your medicine cabinet, utensil drawer, tool kit, desk drawer, and cleaning cabinet.  I decided to tackle the desk drawer; with my kitchen "junk drawer" standing in a for desk drawer.  I realized that, scattered throughout the house, I had all the items I needed for a neat and tidy startionery center except mechanical pencils and stamps (which are on my to-buy list). 

Sometimes when you get an idea from a blog or magazine, it's easy to think that you don't have all the nifty stuff they're suggesting.  What you have to remember is that they're just that, suggestions.  Around your home you probably have equivalents to what they're suggesting.  Here's what Real Simple's experts suggested, along with my two cents or substitutions:

• Forever Stamps (In Canada I believe we call them fixed rate stamps; but basically they are stamps that don't lose their value even if rates change)
• Personal Stationery (I don't have personalized stationary, so I used a set of notes and envelopes my mom sent in a care package.  You can find adorable note card sets at stationery and office supply shops, as well as department and dollar stores).
• Permanent markers in black and silver for regular and dark papers (check and check!) plus a highlighter (I like pink)
• Correction Tape
• Sticky notes, large and small (I only had large so small go on the list; they're great for leaving notes in cookbooks!)
• Mechanical Pencils
• Titanium Scissors (I have a lot of non-titanium scissors so a pair of those went in the drawer.  FYI, apparently titianium scissors stay sharp a really long time)
• Paper clips
• A weighted tape dispenser (a real time saver when wrapping gifts, but you could use a roll of tape if that's what you have.  Weighted dispensers are surprisingly economical, however)
• A classic stapler
• A box of your favorite pens (I often buy pens by the box but I have so many pens right now that I really couldn't justify purchasing another box.  I do have my own favorite, a Papermate retractable, medium tip, blue ink, rubberized barrel, in pink because for some reason pink pens don't seem to wander off.  I wonder why?)

I added a Moleskine accordion file notebook to hold reciepts and important stuff, as well as a box of self-adhesive security envelopes. 

Here is a picture of my lovely new stationery drawer.  Thanks, Real Simple!!

I realised as I was editing this picture that my paperclips and tape dispenser are making a run for it.  In the interest of proving that I can keep it real, I did not re-take the photo! 

Now of course all the "stuff" that was in the junk drawer had to go somewhere!  I'll be detailing my progress over the next few weeks.  Next week I'll be sharing how I tamed a really bad problem area in my home - my cosmetics drawer.  Oh, the horror!!!!

I'll see you on Friday for the Christmas Calmdown!

Happy Thanksgiving, Again!

Hey there American friends!  You have a very big week coming up!  If you're anything like me, you'll be spending a lot of this weekend planning for next week's festivities.  To help you along, today I'm listing my Thanksgiving posts from a few weeks ago:

• Apple Turkeys make a fun craft and are a traditional Thanksgiving centerpiece in my family.  I've included an easy to follow tutorial, complete with pictures!

• Need to bring dessert to a Thanksgiving potluck?   Turtle Pumpkin Pie is sinfully delicious and beyond simple to make.  But shhhh!  Let them think you laboured in the kitchen all day!

• Turkey time doesn't end with the feast!  Hang on to that frame and make Homemade Turkey Soup!

• A few hours of "me-time" is always something to be thankful for!  Why not do some scrapbooking?  Check out this adorable Bo Bunny Pickin' Pumpkins album kit I found at our local scrap-book store.

• Sweet Potato and Pumpkin and Maple, oh my!  Fall has the very best flavours, so why not serve them all up at An Autumn Coffee Party!

• Curious why I celebrated Thanksgiving last month?  Click here for an explanation AND a recipe for Apple Pie with Cheddar Crust.

• And of course, in the midst of all the fun, don't forget to reflect on what you have and what you love, and give thanks.

Have a fun, wonderful week!  Safe and happy travels to all of you who are on the road this holiday season!

A Good Cow

This week we observed the end of something we had become very fond of.  It was reliable, convenient, versatile, and, well, delicious.  I'm referring to, of course, our cow.

Not a whole cow mind you.  Those of you who have been reading along since the beginning will remember my post about purchasing a half a side of beef last Fall.  Well, this week we finally ate the end of it.  Now, if we hadn't experienced the Great Beef Thaw of 2010, last year's cow would probably have gotten to room with this year's cow.  With that in mind, we've decided to purchase less beef this year and will be getting an eighth instead of a quarter.  

A few weeks ago I took stock of what was left of the cow.  We had consumed almost everything I'd prepared during my Beef Cookoff, or as I like to refer to it "Iron Chef - Battle Thawed Cow." (To briefly summarize what I'm referring to, last June my freezer somehow got turned off.  By the time I discovered it, the contents had thawed, including A LOT of beef.  Thankfully it was still icy but I had to cook for several hours and refreeze all of that.  The grand finale was a Prime Rib feast with our friends, since I couldn't bear to see those cuts fried and re-frozen.)  Now, almost 6 months later, we were down to a container of beef and onion broth, a freezer bag of cooked stew meat, and a container of meat pie filling.

I made the meat pie a few weeks ago.  Isn't it pretty?

 This week I decided to use the broth and the beef to make a stew.  However, by the time I would have thickened it, the soup looked and smelled so great that I decided not to thicken it.  It was wonderful, especially with the sourdough rolls my husband picked up at the store.

And so, adieu Good Cow!  We enjoyed having you around, and we look forward to meeting your tasty replacement!

Halloween Primer - Treats A-plenty (But Hide Them Well!)

Now that we're into the final half of October, there is no denying that Halloween is coming up and coming up fast!  Halloween is one of my favorite holidays and I've been having lots of fun decorating and planning for the big event!

While planning the perfect costume / party / menu / all of the above, it's important not to forget a very pivotal part of the Halloween experience - buying the treats!  It may sound obvious, but think back: how many times have you had to make a quick trip to the store on October 29 or 30?  And were you sometimes shocked to discover that there was almost nothing left to purchase? If you mentally raised your hand to either, then you know that it's time to add "Buy treats" to your to-do list.

The next item you'll want to write on that list is "Hide Treats."  Why?  I'm willing to wager that a good portion of you who have made that emergency treat trip did so because you did the unthinkable and dipped into the stash.  It is a well-known fact that, once opened, a bag of mini chocolate bars will not last long (or mini chips, or mini licorice, take your pick).  Regardless of your choice of treat, once its containment perimeter has been breached it's not long for this world.  And so, to prevent this from happening, you should hide your treats, and hide them WELL!!  My treats are residing in a basement storage room with my Christmas decorations right now, and they have been there undisturbed for over a week.  This may be a new record.

There are other steps you can take to protect your treats (and, subsequently, your wallet and your waistline).  One is to not pick out the treats yourself.  My husband picked out the treats this year (our last trip to town was a "two carter" at the department store and he swung by seasonal before I did).  He picked out Pringles and mini bars.  A good pick; although I do love chocolate, I am entirely more likely to rip into Twizzlers or Nibs.  And while I will eat a chip or two if a bowl is placed in front of me, they just aren't tempting enough for me open an entire case.

If you are faced with picking out the treats yourself, you could pick out something that there's no way on earth you would ever, ever eat.  Like those bags of sour powdered sugar objects, or things that look like slime.  I could have a truckload of those items and would feel absolutely no temptation to dip into them.  Now a Tootsie Roll or Pop, that's another story....and that's why I didn't throw a bag of those in the cart!

Do you have a Halloween Treat survival (or disaster) story?  If so, we'd love to hear them in the comments!

Have a great week!  See you on Wednesday!

Retro Recipes - Don't Toss That Turkey...Make Turkey Soup!

I've had a bit of a cold this week; nothing major but enough to make me feel a wee bit yucky.  Luckily, before I was stricken, I had whipped up a batch of turkey soup using the frame from my Thanksgiving turkey.

Now, I understand that traditionally one turns to chicken soup for a cold, but growing up, we were roasted turkeys far more than chickens.  It made sense; we were a large family and the average chicken probably wouldn't have made it through one dinner, let alone have enough left over for soup.  So, turkey wasn't just a holiday meal for us.  My mother always made turkey soup with the leftover frame.  Since it's just my husband and I in our current household, we have chicken more often than turkey; but regardless of the bird, I always make use of as much of it as I can.

Making homemade soup and stock is a little bit of home economy that I am fairly strict about.  To me, tossing a poultry frame in the garbage is essentially throwing away food, especially considering that making homemade soup couldn't be easier.  I've never really followed a recipe and neither did my mom; the knowledge of how to make homemade soup just passed along from generation to generation.  Essentially, I place the leftover frame into a stock pot, add enough water to cover it, throw in some aromatic vegetables like onions, carrots, and garlic, and some herbs and spices.  Then, I bring the whole thing to a boil and let it simmer for a while.  Once it has simmered down to stock-y perfection, I drain the stock into a soup pot and and pick the meat off the bones once they are cool enough to handle.  To make the soup I simmer winter vegetable like potatoes, carrots, parsnips and turnips with onion, garlic, and herbs and spices until the veggies are tender and then stir in the turkey and simmer a bit longer.  Served hot with homemade biscuits this soup is comfort food at it's finest and has cured many a common cold (in my mind, at least).

There are many, many variations of turkey soup; if you'd like to explore some of them here is a link to Better Homes and Gardens Recipes for Leftover Turkey.

I often hear people complain that turkey is expensive.  However, when you consider that, with soup, you can get almost a week's worth of meals out of one bird, turkey suddenly becomes something of a money saver.  Watch for sales (especially with the holidays coming up) and buy an extra turkey to have in the freezer.

Halloween is coming up and in Nesty-land that's a very big deal!  I'm looking forward to sharing lots of tasty treats and crafty tricks with you over the next few weeks!

Have a great weekend!  See you on Monday!

Today I'm linking to:

The Thrifting Continues...And Filing, Too!

The weather has been cool and crisp the last few days, and it feels like "Back to School."  Of course, I haven't gone "Back to School" in years.  Despite that, I still feel like going shopping for school supplies.  As an adult, I fulfill that urge by purchasing office supplies.

Oh, office supplies, how I love you!  One of the highlights of my professional career was that, in many of my positions, I was responsible for office supplies.  Pens, sticky notes, correction fluid, notebooks, folders and files.  Oh the files and folders were the best!  I adore filing systems!  

Yes, it is safe to say that I truly love office supplies and filing systems.  Yet strangely, I have never successfully implemented a filing system at home.  We've tried a couple options, and we can always find what we need, but when compared to the meticulously organized systems I've maintained in the workplace, my own system was sadly lacking.  Many times we agreed to do something about it, but we never seemed to get around to it.  

Until now.

We recently purchased a filing cabinet at our local thrift store.  It is missing its lock, but that's OK, and it has a sticker on the front, but other than that it's in pretty good shape!  I am toying around with the idea of getting some spray paint and painting it a funky colour, but for now it is going to be put into use "as is".  In this spirit, we picked up some folders and files on our recent trip to town.  I was getting excited; I was getting to indulge in two loves - filing and shopping for office supplies!

Tonight, I took my new supplies and sat down with some Sharpie markers and labeled the folders and files.  I made a few categories, like "Utilites," "Accounts," and "Household," and then spent a happy hour neatly printing "Hydro," "Gas," and lots of other prosaic stuff on manila folders.  And I loved it!

Tomorrow I'm going to get out the not-so-system we are using right now and refile everything into the new cabinet. I can always take the files out if I decide to spruce it up a bit.  The cabinet is going to live in my husband's study so I will have to take this into consideration if I'm going to paint it.  If I do pretty it up, I'll be sure to document it for a future post. For now, I've included a picture of with my pretty kitty, Junior Mint, lounging in front of it.  We put it on one of her favorite blankets so it wouldn't scratch the floor while I'm doing my filing, thus the rare picture of our elusive white cat.

Normally I would not share a picture featuring a velour blanket on the floor, but so rarely do we get a photo op with Mint that I couldn't not share.  She literally walked (okay, rolled) in front of the camera.  So enjoy!

Sigh.  Some people get excited about racing, sailing, or sports. I get passionate about office supplies and filing.  It takes all kinds!  Is there anything "nerdy" that you secretly enjoy?

Have a great weekend!  I'll see you on Monday!

Hidden Treasure

One of the (many) great things about reading blogs is that I get inspired.  I have found so many amazing ideas, projects, and recipes that I want to try that I don't think I will ever get to all of it!  But recently, I decided to try my hand at one of the activities I'd read about that seemed particularly intriguing: thrifting.

As far as I can gather, "thrifting" refers to the process of shopping at a thrift shop, that is, a second hand store.  Not necessarily an "antique" store, but a store who's function is to sell second hand items, no matter what their vintage.  Back home in Cape Breton, I'd loved going "thrifting" with my mother; she is one of those people who is always making amazing discoveries at second hand and antique stores.  Indeed, I owe many of my better "finds" to her shrewd eye.  However, it took me a while to get back into thrifting in Kitimat.

We started going to the local thrift store more frequently and we began to find some real treasures.  Once, it was a pair of marble rook bookends which found a home in my book and chess loving husband's study.  Another day we found a metal mortar and pestle which I will use to grind oilier, more fragrant spices so that my marble one will not get discoloured.  And then finally, one day, we struck gold!

Now, don't get all excited. We've all heard of people buying "costume" jewelery at a thrift shop only to discover that they'd acquired an expensive bauble for mere pennies.  No, what we found was gold in colour alone.  

We found brass. In pairs.

First, we found the ducks.  There they were, sitting atop an old shelf, gleaming in the afternoon sun.  I couldn't decide if they were wonderful or hideous, but I was leaning toward wonderful.  I like ducks, and these were lovely shiny ducks.  We also love literature, and our home is full of books that, well, sometimes need something to hold them up.  And so, I decided to point them out to my husband, who was perusing, you guessed it, more books.  Well, as luck would have it, he loved them too, and so the shiny fellows came home with us. (They are nowhere near as smudgy as my photo would imply, I'm going to blame this picture on my camera.)  We haven't decided yet exactly where they will end up, but for now they are hanging out on our end tables, keeping company with our next shiny find...


Lamps!

Brass lamps!  I know, I know, if someone had suggested brass lamps to me I would have told them they were crazy (well no, I'm too nice to have actually verbalized that, but I would have thought it).  But, one day while browsing I noticed them and decided to take a closer look.  However, upon approaching the display I noticed that they had both the glass hurricane and wick key of oil lamps, and disregarded them as such.  I was later informed that they were indeed electric lamps, and I hastened in to purchase them.  My husband and I had a bit of a laugh over all our shiny purchases, but we realized that surprisingly, the brass items complemented many of the items we had in our living room. On our mantel we display a small pile of favorite books as well as a few nautical tools, both of which have gold coloured accents.  The hardware on our doors is brass.  And so our new items, which seemed so "not us," actually fit into our home quite well!

We love our living room now!  It's really coming together nicely.  It still needs a few things but our "thrifted" items really brought the room together and have given us focus as to how to decorate the room.  We purchased a few brass frames to contrast with the black ones we were already using and I have to say, all in all the golden touches have really warmed up the space. 


Have you found a treasure in a thrift store?  If so, I'd love to hear about it!  Have a great week and I'll see you on Wednesday!

Cinnamon Caramel Coffee Cake

Whenever anyone asks me "How do I learn how to cook?" I advise them to start with the basics.  Purchase a great basic cookbook, like The Betty Crocker Cookbook or The Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook, and start cooking.  Whenever you do something, whether it's thickening gravy or boiling eggs (really!) look it up and do it the right way.  Even experienced cooks can sometimes fix a "bad habit" by revisiting the basics on occasion.

The great thing about this approach is that this is how you evolve from "cooking" to being "a cook."  Over time, you will find yourself playing around with recipes and putting your own spin on them.  For example, take a basic marinara sauce.  I made one the other night, and on a whim decided to puree half an onion and stir it into the sauce while it simmered.  It was great!  With experience, you will learn what flavours and textures work, and what ingredients you can switch and alternate.  It's a great feeling when you learn how to keep going with a recipe despite the fact you are missing an ingredient!

Baking can be a little bit trickier.  In fact, it's only recently that I've been comfortable enough with my skills and knowledge to start experimenting with the major components of a recipe. But now that I'm gaining confidence I'm having a great time developing my own recipes.  My method for doing this is to pick a recipe, decide what elements I want it to have, and then research and try many, many existing recipes.  Eventually, I learn what I like and don't like, what works, what doesn't work, and where I can experiment.

My project the last few months has been coffee cake.  I've baked a lot of coffee cakes during that last little while, but I've finally established a few really great recipes. I knew that I wanted to use a tube pan, and that I wanted a moist, sour cream type of cake.  I have found that this chocolate chip coffee cake recipe from Cooks.com is a great, reliable recipe that always brings rave reviews.  However, I wanted to do a sweeter, caramel flavoured cake.  So, I decided to try a little tip from my Nana.  Her advice is that mixing white and brown sugar will give a great butterscotch flavour so I tried it with this recipe.  As well, I swapped the white sugar in the topping for brown, and I used butterscotch chips instead of chocolate chips.  And, it worked great!  It's really sweet, so it's perfect for those times that your sweet tooth is crying out for something.  I'm thinking that next time I'll try some Skor or toffee bits in the topping as well.  And for presentation, I think a drizzle of caramel ice cream topping would be perfect!

Have you put your own touch on a recipe?  I'd love to hear about it!  Have a wonderful week!

What Leftovers?

We've continued to enjoy beautiful, sunny, warm days here in Kitimat, and at our house, we're taking full advantage!  The grill has been going every evening, and we're having tons of fun coming up with new creations.  Sometimes, it's new spins on old favorites!

One of the best things about barbecue season?  Delicious leftovers!  Rummaging through the fridge for a midnight snack is so much more fun during grilling season!  Not to mention how easy it is to pull together a quick lunch or speedy supper.  Like tonight, for example; we enjoyed one of our favorite meals, Barbecue Chicken Pizzas.

Now, normally when we enjoy this dish, it requires quite a bit of preparation, or a phone call to the local pizzeria!   And to be perfectly frank, in this weather, I wouldn't be turning on the oven.  However, since we had grilled a chicken the night before (butterflied, over apple wood chips, and finished with sweet chili sauce), we were half way there.  I knew that I would use my charcoal grill to cook the pizzas, so there was no need to turn on the oven.  But what about the dough?  I like to make my own pizza dough, but tonight I was looking for something a bit less fussy.  What to use?  And then I remembered....the three Naan bread that were in my freezer!  After defrosting on the counter for a few hours, they were thawed and ready to go!

I was able to use ingredients that we already had on hand for the majority of the recipe.  Picked banana peppers are a staple in our house, and we had a large bottle of President's Choice Tequila Habenero Barbecue Sauce that served as the sauce.  I opened new packages of cheese, but cheese is another staple that we always have in the fridge.  Another leftover served as our started; I had prepared a bowl of Greek salad the night before.  The tomatoes, cucumber, feta and olives had been marinating in a bowl of Greek vinaigrette and were delicious served over a bed of crispy greens.  

Leftovers sometimes (well, a lot of the time!) get a bad reception, but I think they're great!  There's so many ways to bring leftover food to life again, aside from popping it in the microwave!  Here's the recipe that I (loosely) followed:

Charcoal Grilled Barbecue Chicken Pizzas

1 barbecued chicken breast, shredded

3 Naan bread

Prepared barbecue sauce

Pickled banana peppers

Grated cheese (I used a combination of cheddar & mozza)

Olive Oil

Light charcoal in the grill and allow to reach a "high warm" temperature.  Brush both sides of the naan bread with olive oil and heat over the grill until lightly toasted. Spread sauce on bread, and then top each bread with chicken, peppers, and cheese.  Close the lid and allow to cook, checking occasionally, until the cheese is melted and the pizza is heated through.  Enjoy!!!

My next challenge will be to actually make the dough from scratch and cook it on the grill.  I've been doing some research on this and I'm sure you'll be seeing the results soon!  

I've also been looking into grilled desserts (in fact, I'm field testing one tonight!) and I'm looking forward to sharing the results of my "study" with you in the near future!

Have a great week, and I'll see you on Friday!

Retro Recipes - Bread Pudding

I love desserts, and make no apologies for my sweet tooth.  The dessert course is a tradition I have gladly carried over from my childhood table, and we embrace it.  While sweets in all their forms are always very welcome, our favorites do tend to be the time-tested, well-loved traditional recipes that have graced family tables for decades.   Pies, crisps, and puddings of all kinds are frequently on our menu.

There are two puddings in particular that fall into the category of "favorite" in our home; rice and bread.  Yup, we love our carbs almost as much as we love our sweets.  We never even bothered to try Atkins; it wouldn't have lasted a day in our house.  I haven't made either in a while, so I decided to save up bread slices and heels in the refrigerator for a special treat.

Why use old bread?  I could have picked up an artisan loaf at the local grocery store and used that, and indeed, it would be tasty.  However, I've been on a bit of a mission lately when it comes to food.  You may recall a post from a few weeks ago called Food for Thought where I discussed Kerry Leonard and Christopher Greenslate's book On a Dollar a Day: One Couple's Unlikely Adventures in Eating in America, which is based on the experiences chronicled on their blog One Dollar Diet Project.  While I've always hated wasting food, since taking a closer look at the issue of food costs and world hunger, I find that I'm really loathe to toss out food.  So, we decided that we would do our very best to eat what we had in the fridge and try reallyreally hard not to make a bunch of visits to the grocery store between official grocery shopping trips.  This week, we had a leftover buffet one night, and it was great.  I read about leftover buffets at I'm An Organizing Junkie; this site has an amazing weekly menu planner and a leftover buffet is usually a part of the plan.  As we filled up our plates with pasta, ribs, salad, and meatloaf, it occurred to me that we were basically having a potluck, except that I'd cooked everything myself!  

And so, instead of tossing out the heels and other weird looking pieces of bread, I saved them up.  Tonight, I had enough to make our pudding.  I got out my Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook and found my favorite bread pudding recipe.  After some consideration, I decided to make the chocolate chip variation.  Bread Pudding is super easy to make, and before long the house was full of wonderful, chocolate-y smells.

We had some for dessert (of course!) and it was great!  I had a bit of a giggle, because bread pudding is usually more of a cold weather dessert; in fact, the description accompanying the recipe suggests that the cook "Settle in on a cold winter's night with a bowlful of this rich delight."  Well, I'm hear to tell you that it's just as yummy on a cold summer's night as it is in December.  So much so that we were half-way through our dessert when I realized I hadn't photographed the final result.  It was so pretty, too, all puffed up in it's French White casserole. Oh well, it's pretty darn cute in a dessert bowl, too!

I found two recipes on the Better Homes and Gardens website that are similar to the ones I use.  One is for Bread Pudding with no variations, and the other is for Chocolate Chip Bread Pudding.  Neither of these recipes are exactly like the one in my cookbook (the 14th edition) but they are similar and I'm sure they'd be delightful.  The Brown Sugar Sauce recipe with the Chocolate Chip version sounds just wonderful; I may have to whip some of that up for our "midnight snack" course of pudding.  Like I said, Atkins never, ever would've worked in this house.  Oh well, nothing a good brisk walk in the bracing July air can't take care of!

Today I am linking to Just Something I Whipped Up Monday, hosted by The Girl Creative.

A Fun Bit of Canadiana!

Hello again!  I hope that all my Canadian readers had a wonderful Canada Day, and that my American friends are having a great time getting ready for the big Fourth of July holiday weekend!  I had a very nice Canada Day.  We attended the local parade and later in the evening watched the fireworks display with some friends.  In between the events, however, we spent a nice amount of time just relaxing on the patio with good books and cups of coffee.  It was pleasant to take a few hours to relax and do nothing, since we have been working on a project that has been keeping us busy and, for the most part, indoors.

We have been purging.


Our belongings, that is.  This isn't the first time we've done this; I did a major purge before we moved out West over a year ago.  But this time, we're being really, really ruthless.  We've tossed stuff we swore we'd never get rid of!  We have several boxes ready to go to the thrift store, in addition to a large box of garbage and a bankers box of papers to destroy.  In addition to discarding items, we are also re-organizing and properly storing items that we are keeping, but won't be using on a regular basis.  I'll post more on that later.

One of the really fun things about purging your stuff is that it's a bit like treasure hunting.  We've recovered a lot of items that we thought were gone forever, as well as lots of stuff we are scratching our heads about.  Do you ever stop to wonder why some of the stuff in your house ever got in in the first place?  We discovered a collection of Pez dispensers.  Pez dispensers!  We're placing a lot of blame on Christmas stockings, those beloved dispensaries of "stuff".


Another discovery has actually made us $5.00 richer.  That may not seem like a lot, but those familiar with what we found will appreciate that it could take quite a while to get $5.00 worth of it.

 Canadian Tire Money is a cash bonus rewards program run by the Canadian Tire company.  Every time you make a purchase at a Canadian Tire store, gas bar, or online store, you earn Canadian Tire money.  You can read more about it here.


I enjoyed reading the facts listed in the article posted above.  I could definitely relate to the point that, since it feels like real money (the coupons are produced using the same materials and processes as legal tender) customers don't throw it away.  This is exactly how I came to be in possession of $5.00 worth.


Our collection began simply enough. Since moving to Northwestern BC, we shop at Canadian Tire a lot more than we did at home, so our cache of "money" built up fairly quickly.  As we began to purge our belongings, we discovered more and more of the coupons.  It got to be kind of funny; we would open an old wallet, or a book, or an envelope and there it would be.  We even discovered a more unusual fifty cent coupon, which was a bit of a thrill.  Apparently there are $1.00 and $2.00 coupons as well, but we haven't received one of those yet.

Watching our little pile of "money" grow made me happy and brought back other Canadian Tire money memories.  I can remember that as a little girl with her first bright purple Cabbage Patch Kids purse, a note or two of Canadian Tire money made me feel very grown up indeed!  Even as I got older, there was something about those brightly coloured, yet somewhat official looking bills that kept me from tossing them.  Perhaps it was that "legal tender" feel, or maybe it was Sandy McTire's smiling eyes and jaunty tam-o-shanter, but something kept me stashing the notes away, only to be discovered many years later.


We're keeping our cash, at least for the time being.  Right now we're making a game out of it; earlier today my husband noted that we were five cents short of $5.00.  A few hours later, I triumphantly held up a ten cent note.  We are going to build our pile for now, and then put the collected coupons toward a purchase.  


Canadian Tire money is one of those uniquely Canadian things that warms my heart.  And since yesterday was Canada Day, it seemed like the perfect time to share one of the quirkier pieces of Canadiana with you!


Today I am linking to New Friend Friday, which is co-hosted by The Girl Creative and Trendy Treehouse.

I am also participating in the Canada Day Blog Party which is hosted by Canadian Mom Blogger.


 
Have a wonderful weekend!  And a very happy Fourth of July to my American readers!

Lemon Fresh and Oh So Cute!!!

I have a confession to make.  I'm a fool for packaging.


It's true!  I try to control it, and most of the time I do quite well.  However, every so often, a product makes its way into our home solely on the merit of its packaging.  Which is how a bag of lemons made its way home from the wholesale warehouse with us a few weeks ago.  One look at the adorable Mr. Lemon on the label, and I was sold.  So to the Bee Sweet lemon company, a hearty BRAVO!  Put a little lemon puppy on them next and I'll be buying them by the caseload:

Who could resist?  Luckily, I had plenty of recipes that called for lemons, so I made the following:

• Lemon Coffee Cake
• Lemon Salad Dressing
• Lemon Pepper Roast Chicken
• Lemon Basil Roast Chicken
• Gimlet Au Naturel Cocktails (a tasty little cross between a gimlet and a G&T that we came up with)

And while they were waiting to be consumed, the lemons looked quite pretty hanging out in a lovely blue and white china bowl. 


As I was unwrapping the lemons, I set aside the wrapper.  The scrapbooker in me said "save it, it's fabulous" while the woman who's been purging her belongings snapped "throw it out!"  This time, the emotional scrapper won, although I did neatly trim one incidence of the repeating pattern from the label and threw the rest away.  I put the scrap in my junk drawer (dangerous, I know).  Several times over the next few days, I would see it and think that I should just toss it, but one look at those big lemony eyes and back in the drawer he'd go.  I just knew he had a purpose!  And one day, while cleaning the kitchen counters with my homemade lemon cleanser, inspiration struck!

Here's how my lemon cleanser looked before inspiration struck:

Nothing wrong with it, but other than the "L" scribbled in Sharpie on the bottom, there's really no way to differentiate between the lemon, the cinnamon, or teatree scents.  But now...

This should barely qualify as a craft, it's so simple.  All I did was position the scrap of label on the bottle (hold it in place with some double sided tape if you need to) and then I neatly placed strips of clear packing tape over it until it was completely covered.  That's it!  I have no idea how long it will last, but the bottle cost a dollar and the label was free (since I used the lemons, it doesn't count as a useless impulse buy.  My blog, my rules!)  So if it wears off in a few months, oh well!  The label is plastic-y, so it will probably last longer than if it were paper.  Plus, it's a great bit of free advertising for the Sweet Bee company!  Anyone who makes labels this cute deserves a plug!  Now I'm on the lookout for labels for my other scents!


This may have been the quickest turn-around of any bit of ephemera I've saved in the name of scrap-booking.  If you don't think this is a big deal, ask any scrapper about their "stash" and you'll quickly understand!


Today I'm linking to Trendy Treehouse's Creative Share!


Have a wonderful week!  See you on Friday!

Summertime, A Sip At A Time

It's June, and the first day of Summer is just around the corner.  Summer livin' is everywhere, from backyard barbecues and campfires at the river, to long evenings on the patio and long weekends at the lake! Everyone is ready to enjoy Summer!  Like any other season, Summer brings with it it's own special menu, including a variety of icy summer beverages.

From left, Sweet Tea, Lemonade, and an Iced Mocha

Summer beverages are everywhere!  On television, in magazines, and on blogs, it seems that everywhere I look, there's another great recipe for a delicious frosty drink! And of course, the more I see of a food, the more I want to get into the kitchen and start creating!  I was particularly inspired after reading the most recent issue of Everyday With Rachel Ray, in which she discusses how much cheaper it is to make your own summer drinks, such as lemonade and iced tea.  Intrigued, I decided to research a few recipes and give them a try.


I've always been a big iced tea fan, and a large tin of lemon iced tea crystals is a summertime staple in my kitchen.  However, as I become more and more conscious of processed food, my powdered drink mix is becoming less and less appealing!  And so, I decided to try my hand at iced tea.  I've heard a lot about Southern style sweet tea, so I decided to give it a try since it would be something different than what we're used to; in Canada, iced tea is generally flavoured with lemon.  I found this recipe and tried it with great results, although upon closer inspection I realize that the cook is actually from Canada!  However, it is very similar to many of the recipes I looked at from the Southern US; this recipe worked well for me because Tetley is "my" brand of tea.  Many of the recipes I looked up called for "family size" tea bags, which is something I'm not familar with.  I didn't use six tea bags; I believe I only used four and I liked the flavour a lot.  It was very, very sweet tea, but I really liked it.  If you don't like sweet drinks, then you may want to pass on this drink and try a lemon tea recipe instead.


Next up, lemonade!  I've made homemade lemonade in the past, usually following the recipe on the bottle or just adding lemon and sugar to my glass until the ratio was right. A little online research revealed that the combination of 1 cup of lemon juice, 1 cup of sugar, and 6 cups of water is quite popular.  However, I found this recipe a little sweet (I like my lemonade a bit tart) and so I reduced the sugar to 3/4 of a cup.  Perfect!  This recipe has been a hit in our house, and my husband and I are drinking quite a bit of it. No scurvy for us!!  We decided to pick up a 3.78 liter jug of lemon juice at the wholesalers this week; when I was hemming and hawing over the 10.00 price tag, my husband pointed out that we'd probably spent that on bottled beverages this week alone.  The jug went in the cart!


Another summer beverage we've been spending a bit of change (okay, bills) on is frozen coffee drinks.  As I was sipping on a less than inspired version from a fast food joint on the way home from a shopping trip to nearby Terrace, I thought, I can do better than this!  When I purchased my Magic Bullet blender, the recipe book that came with it had several recipes for frozen coffee drinks, so I decided to make these my project for this evening.  As luck would have it, my husband and our neighbor were chatting at the kitchen table while I was creating, so I had test subjects!

Homemade Chocolate Syrup!

The tastiest of all coffee drinks, I believe, are ones that are chocolaty, so I chose a recipe for Iced Mochas.  My testers and I decided that more chocolate was required, so I added an additional 2 tablespoons of syrup.  Yum!  You need quite a few ice cubes to get the really great frozen texture, and I found that the recipe pretty much filled the cup with liquid, leaving little room for ice.  I made the second batch using half the amounts listed so I could fit more ice in the cup.  However, if you want an "iced coffee" kind of drink (thinner, with the consistency of chocolate milk) use less ice.  We really enjoyed these; I even made them with soy milk and they were great!


For a special treat, I made a homemade chocolate sauce to use in the mochas. (The things I do in the name of research!)  You can find the recipe I used here; it is dairy free, which I love!


Do you have a favorite recipe for iced tea, lemonade, or iced coffee?  If so, please share in the comments!  Have a wonderful day and I'll see you on Friday!

Food for Thought...

A few months ago, I was reading an issue of MacLean's magazine and came across an article about Kerri Leonard and Christopher Greenslate's book On a Dollar a Day: One Couple's Unlikely Adventures in Eating in America.  In September of 2008, the couple decided to challenge themselves to eat for a dollar a day each, just as many people across the world have to out of necessity, and they chronicled their experiences on a blog.

I Heart Pulses!

Since the couple is vegan, they used a lot of grains and pulses in their recipes, and so  I was reminded of their project a few weeks ago as I perused Indian, vegetarian, and rice recipes while preparing for a healthy eating kick. Every few months I'll do this; make a bunch of  veggie and bean dishes that are high  protein, low fat, filling, and nutritious.  We'll eat these for lunches (and often supper) and before long my rings are looser and my energy is up! We still have meat and some treats within reason; I find that simply adding the healthier dishes makes a difference.  That being said, I also occasionally put us on a week or two of "clean" eating where we cut out all white sugar, white flour, and bad fats.


In addition to being healthy, these dishes can also be really cheap if you do your homework.  Even though it may seem expensive initially, the groceries you purchase will last a long time.  For example, the bag of dry bulk chick peas we bought cost $8.00, which seems like a lot for a bag of boring beige beans.  However, so far I've made a big pot of Italian Chickpea Soup, Chana Masala, and four batches of roasted chick peas.  And there's still almost half a bag left!  In addition to the chick peas, we also bought big bags of bulk green and red lentils.  With the lentils I've made two different daals and you can't even tell that I've dipped into the bags.  Daal and Chana Masala are East Indian vegetable stews made with tons of delicious spices.  I made a pot of garlic rice pilaf to serve the stews with, and I made a very happy discovery at one of our local grocery stores: authentic Indian naan bread sold by the dozen for $5.49!  Yum yum yum!

As I was preparing for this post, and reveling in how cost effective these dishes are, I realized that I hadn't done a post on eating economically in a while.  I enjoy reading blogs and articles on how people are dealing with rising food costs in difficult economic times.  In particular I like when people look at how much "fat" you can cut from your grocery order.  It got me looking at how I shop for, prepare, and utilize the food we eat.  As well, reading over the "On a Dollar a Day" posts really made me realize how much food we have access too, and that for most of us, the fact that we can make a decision to reduce our food intake, whether for diet or budgeting purposes, is a luxury when you consider how many people have to do this out of necessity.

Now, as many of you have realized by now, cooking is something of a passion for me.  I LOVE to cook, food and cooking are my hobbies and I adore shopping for groceries.  What this sometimes means is that, despite a well planned grocery order, I might get inspired to make, say, a traditional Mexican meal and off we'll go to the grocery store.  Even something as simple as "let's get some sandwich stuff" gets pricey when a foodie like me is involved.  It didn't take long to figure out why our grocery budget was going off the rails.  Multiple trips to the grocery store to pick up ingredients adds up quickly.  Sometimes, it was for non-glamorous items like bread, or an everyday ingredient (like onions) that I had run out of and needed for a dish I was preparing.

And so, armed with a full grocery order tucked away into cupboards, fridge, and freezer, I challenged myself to use what I had.  No trips to the store because I was out of onions!  I could've avoided the shops completely, except that we had an unusually high number of social activities this week that required me to pick up a few items that I hadn't planned for originally.  However, I stuck to the plan as much as possible.  Today, for example, I was inspired to make Chana Masala after reading the "On a Dollar a Day" blog, but I was out of onions.  Where before I would either have abandoned the recipe or made a quick call to my husband to drop by the grocery store on his way home, today I decided to plow ahead and make do with what I had.  A quick peek in the crisper revealed green onions and celery, so I used those items instead.  I was following the recipe on the "On a Dollar a Day" blog, which is adapted from a recipe by Madhur Jaffrey.  They list the original ingredients and then their adaptations in italics.  Since I am not aiming to eat on a dollar a day, for the most part I used the ingredients and yields from the original recipe, but found their adaptations helpful for items I didn't have on hand, like fresh green chilis and amchoor powder.  


While I'm happy that "Grocery Day!" is approaching, I am pleased with my little challenge and what it taught me:

•  So often we find ourselves groaning "there's nothing to eat" when what we really mean is "there nothing easy to eat."  Preparing the chick peas for stews and snacks required me to soak them overnight and then simmer them for three hours before I could cook with them.  It is possible to eat well economically, but it requires more work than purchasing prepared foods.
• Snacking becomes a habit when food is too easy to access. This ends up costing us in both money and our health.  By limiting my shopping this week, I though twice before popping bread in the toaster or making a latte; was I legitimately hungry and in need of nourishment, or was I bored or simply "liking" the idea of having a snack.
• I use more of certain items than others.  Well, no kidding Kim!  Yet, why is it that we seem to always run out of the same items?  And, when we are putting away our fresh groceries, we seem to throw away the same spoiled items week after week?  By not running out to the store when I ran out of, say, soy milk, I got a better idea of how much I actually need to buy on my grocery order. This grocery cycle alone I identified that I need to buy more onions, soy milk, and coffee.  
• Portion control.  Have you ever written down what you eat?  I sometimes do this when I am trying to get my diet "back on track" and it's revealing.  By agreeing not to replace items until our next order, we had to be aware of our consumption so that we didn't run out of items.  This cut down on taking un-necessary seconds, as well as casual snacking.
• Planning Helps Remember those social gatherings?  Some of those I knew about but didn't consider when I shopped for groceries.  Others came up suddenly and had to be accommodated.  As well, we had several camp fire weiner roasts over the last two weeks which sent us to the local grocery store a few times.  So, going forward this summer, I'm going to make sure I have the ingredients on hand for impromptu potlucks, and we are going to visit the wholesale warehouse for better buys on hotdogs and marshmallows.
• Wants versus Needs I love this phrase, a friend said it to me once and it's a great mantra for staying focused on budgeting.  Again, do I really need a latte (ie - I'm hungry and a big mug of soy milk will fill me) or do I want a latte because it's a rainy day and I'm curling up with a new magazine (in which case a cup of tea would serve the same purpose).  I'm not saying to never indulge, but if I notice I've burned through two litres of soy milk in less than a week, it's time to curb the lattes!
• Make sure you use what you make Have you ever made a big batch of something only to get invited out a few times and it doesn't get eaten?  Or, you eat a lot of it but get tired of it and end up throwing out the last serving or two?  If you can't possibly eat all of what you've made, try freezing it.  I've decided to pick up some freezer safe plastic containers so that I can pack up those last few servings of a dish and freeze it in individual servings.  Voila, instant lunches for my husband!!
• Creativity Saves Money  As I was picking up some fizzy fruit beverages to take to the river with us the other night, I got to thinking about the cookouts of my youth.  We never took along individual prepackaged drinks.  Mom had a big thermos jug that she would fill with lemonade or Kool-Aid that she made at home and took with us.  Why don't people do that anymore? 

This was a great exercise to do at the beginning of summer, since this season seems to lend itself to impulsive activities and get-togethers. I remember a few years ago, after a week of many, many barbecues, we remarked that we had probably eaten our weight in ground beef that week.  I'm going to take some time to plan for summer so that we can have a lot of fun without spending a fortune and gaining a ton!  We've already started planning some alternative fireside eats like potatoes and corn, and I'm definitely going to be looking for a Thermos jug! 


There's just something about "auditing" your diet, both in terms of money and nutrition, that feels so wonderfully virtuous, isn't there?!  If you have a tip or observation to share, I'd love to hear it!  Have a wonderful week, and I'll see you on Friday!