What the heck, while I'm here, I'll post another one. We had meatballs for dinner tonight - another family favorite - though much less fancy than the boeuf bourguignon. I usually use a recipe I got from my mom a long time ago, but we ventured out a bit tonight and tried a different recipe. We preferred my mom's meatballs (texture and flavour) but did enjoy the sauce so we'll likely try my mom's meatballs with this new sauce. I don't have links for those, so here they are:
Mamie's meatballs:
1 lb ground beef
1 egg
1 onion, finely chopped or shredded if my dad is coming for dinner!
1 clove of garlic, minced or 0.5 tsp garlic powder
pepper, to taste
1 cup 'minute rice' (can use regular rice, but I find it the beef has to be over-cooked for the rice to be properly cooked - this is the only reason we keep minute rice in the pantry but it's worth it)
Mix and make into 3/4" balls. Bake at 375F for 20 minutes. Add sauce of choice (see 2 below) and bake another 20-30 minutes at 350F.
Mamie's sweet and sour sauce:
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup ketchup
1 tsp dried ground mustard
3/4 cup water
3/4 cup vinegar
Mix all ingredients and add to meatballs. We also prefer this sauce to the one that comes with M&M meatballs and have added to those meatballs when in more of a rush.
'the other' sweet and sour sauce (source: New Maritimes Seasonal Cooking by by Donna Young, Marg Routledge):
2 tbsp lightly packed brown sugar
1 tsp minced fresh ginger
1 clove garlic, minced
2/3 cup orange juice
1/4 cup vinegar
1 tbsp light soya sauce
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tbsp cornstarch
Mix all ingredients and add to meatballs as per instructions above. If following this recipe, it is recommended to place in covered dish for the additional 20-30 minutes as there is not as much sauce and the meatballs may dry up.
These freeze very well.
Saturday, January 2, 2010
Not sure this will last, but...
I don't typically do well with New Year's Resolutions, so I won't call this one. I just thought that since I don't 'do' too much lately (life with young children...) I thought I should share more about what I do actually do. And one of the things I find myself doing a lot and truly enjoy is cooking. So when I come across a recipe I like, I will try to post it here - both for your reading pleasure as well as to make notes for myself about what I did or would do differently for future reference.
This one is a family favorite. It requires some planning and a fair bit of time, but definitely worth it. We're having it tomorrow with some friends. I've only ever made it on the stovetop so far, but we may try the slow-cooker method for tomorrow. We'll see...
Enjoy!
Cooking class: Boeuf Bourguignon - Holiday Countdown - Food - Canadian Living
Posted using ShareThis
This one is a family favorite. It requires some planning and a fair bit of time, but definitely worth it. We're having it tomorrow with some friends. I've only ever made it on the stovetop so far, but we may try the slow-cooker method for tomorrow. We'll see...
Enjoy!
Cooking class: Boeuf Bourguignon - Holiday Countdown - Food - Canadian Living
Posted using ShareThis
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Gardening
Christine and I have planted a vegetable garden this year. The house we bought had a garden already set up in the back of the property, complete with a somewhat decrepit fence (but it does keep the rabbit out). It was all set, basically just had to pull all the weeds out, mix up the soil a bit and seed. So we bought a some seeds for fast growing and fast producing vegetables so that we would actually get some production this year. We were only able to plant the first week of July versus the end of May or early June that would be more typical for NB...
For record keeping measure more than anything, here's what we've planted: snow peas and regular peas (at the back of the garden) and left to right: beats and radishes, carrots and mescalin lettuce, yellow beans, green beans, tomatoes and cucumbers. The latter two were plants that we transplanted. I may need to put tomatoes in a different spot next summer as I'm not sure how much sun they get where they are. We haven't had enough sun for me to know where it is at what time of day... what a crummy summer!
We'll see how it goes. The peas, radishes, beans and lettuce are starting to come up. I hope we get to eat lots of great vegetables later this summer!
That's it for the garden. I'll post pictures when there's something other than mounds of dirt to see.
J
For record keeping measure more than anything, here's what we've planted: snow peas and regular peas (at the back of the garden) and left to right: beats and radishes, carrots and mescalin lettuce, yellow beans, green beans, tomatoes and cucumbers. The latter two were plants that we transplanted. I may need to put tomatoes in a different spot next summer as I'm not sure how much sun they get where they are. We haven't had enough sun for me to know where it is at what time of day... what a crummy summer!
We'll see how it goes. The peas, radishes, beans and lettuce are starting to come up. I hope we get to eat lots of great vegetables later this summer!
That's it for the garden. I'll post pictures when there's something other than mounds of dirt to see.
J
Thursday, July 2, 2009
House updates
Many of you are probably wondering... or have stopped looking at the site for lack of new posts lately...
We closed on our house with no issues last Wednesday. That night, I met with a painter who came in and painted Christine and Nicholas' rooms on Thursday and Friday. Trev also started moving some boxes on Wednesday night. Thursday, Trevor, my dad and his dad moved pretty much everything out of the apartment and into the house. A ton of work! By the end of the day, the beds were put back together, the kitchen table was back together and there were boxes and toys EVERYWHERE! We spent the night at my parents', obviously!
Friday, my mom and I spent the entire day unpacking and organizing. By that night, the main floor was basically done and we started actually living there already. I said it 7 months, but I'll say it again and this time I mean it: we're not moving again for a long time! I figure we can stay here until the kids put us into a home... :)
Where we're at now: the garage is almost at the point where we could park in it. Still some things to move out of there and clean up/organize, but yesterday, we made a lot of progress there. The basement: one of the bedrooms has the bed set up and ready for guests, while we need to put the bed together in the other room and make it up. We could definitely host on a moment's notice. The downstairs play area though is currently being used as storage depo for all the boxes not yet unpacked (the boxes labelled miscellaneous of items we haven't missed for 7 months... perhaps they will end up in a yard sale!) and things for storage. We laid everything there so that we can put things in our storage area in a more organized fashion. That will come.
Other than that, Trev mowed the lawn over a couple of evenings - big job with all the rain we've had and with pushing a mower around the acre... I've been working at weeding the gardens and still have a lot of work to do. If it could stop raining for a day or two, I may be able to plant a bit of a vegetable garden too... it's getting quite late already...
Hmmm... that's it for now. Better get to work.
Oh and the other thing: we haven't got our internet working at home yet. Stupid Aliant. We had a tough time setting it up at the apartment and this should have been simple. BUT, for some reason, they actually disconnected our phone for a few days and reconnected so everything was all screwed up. We haven't got it going again. So I apologize for lack of communication over the last week! I'll have a lot of catching up to do when we get on line again!
We closed on our house with no issues last Wednesday. That night, I met with a painter who came in and painted Christine and Nicholas' rooms on Thursday and Friday. Trev also started moving some boxes on Wednesday night. Thursday, Trevor, my dad and his dad moved pretty much everything out of the apartment and into the house. A ton of work! By the end of the day, the beds were put back together, the kitchen table was back together and there were boxes and toys EVERYWHERE! We spent the night at my parents', obviously!
Friday, my mom and I spent the entire day unpacking and organizing. By that night, the main floor was basically done and we started actually living there already. I said it 7 months, but I'll say it again and this time I mean it: we're not moving again for a long time! I figure we can stay here until the kids put us into a home... :)
Where we're at now: the garage is almost at the point where we could park in it. Still some things to move out of there and clean up/organize, but yesterday, we made a lot of progress there. The basement: one of the bedrooms has the bed set up and ready for guests, while we need to put the bed together in the other room and make it up. We could definitely host on a moment's notice. The downstairs play area though is currently being used as storage depo for all the boxes not yet unpacked (the boxes labelled miscellaneous of items we haven't missed for 7 months... perhaps they will end up in a yard sale!) and things for storage. We laid everything there so that we can put things in our storage area in a more organized fashion. That will come.
Other than that, Trev mowed the lawn over a couple of evenings - big job with all the rain we've had and with pushing a mower around the acre... I've been working at weeding the gardens and still have a lot of work to do. If it could stop raining for a day or two, I may be able to plant a bit of a vegetable garden too... it's getting quite late already...
Hmmm... that's it for now. Better get to work.
Oh and the other thing: we haven't got our internet working at home yet. Stupid Aliant. We had a tough time setting it up at the apartment and this should have been simple. BUT, for some reason, they actually disconnected our phone for a few days and reconnected so everything was all screwed up. We haven't got it going again. So I apologize for lack of communication over the last week! I'll have a lot of catching up to do when we get on line again!
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Updates and News
It's been a while, I realize, so I have a bit of catching up to do. I'll try to be brief.
Nicholas:
- is completely recovered from his surgery - everything looks great and he seems to be fine
- always seems to have a bit of a cold and cough, but all in all is doing great.
- continues to walk and climb on everything and is LOVING spending time outside
Christine:
- seems to be growing at a ridiculous rate - I'll have to measure her, but all her size 3 pants are about 2-3 inches too short. Guess I have some shopping to do :)
- she got her haircut a few weeks ago (Easter weekend) and it's so much cuter and easier to care for! We all love it and should have done it a long time ago. But this way, a donation for making a wig is possible, so it all evens out in the end
- she makes me laugh on a daily basis with things she says and how grown-up she's getting
- she makes me mad on a daily basis for being more stubborn them me! Man, she can be a challenge!
Trevor:
- don't know what's new with him - he seems happy enough at work, same routine at home as always.
me:
- have an interview on Tuesday for the job I'm in (but term position vs. casual) - wish me luck.
- enjoying work more and more. It's getting busier (a good thing for me!) and I'm really enjoying getting out at lunch time, either for a run or aerobics class in the basement a few times a week. The work is getting more and more interesting and the people I work with are great.
The biggest news (I guess it's not news yet, but hopefully will be before long): we found a house and we're putting in an offer this afternoon. Hopefully with a quick closing so that all of you who want to come visit this summer will have your own "suite"!! Check it out. We'll let you know how that works out. http://www.propertyguys.com/properties/29543-hanwell-new-brunswick-single-family
That's it for now.
Nicholas:
- is completely recovered from his surgery - everything looks great and he seems to be fine
- always seems to have a bit of a cold and cough, but all in all is doing great.
- continues to walk and climb on everything and is LOVING spending time outside
Christine:
- seems to be growing at a ridiculous rate - I'll have to measure her, but all her size 3 pants are about 2-3 inches too short. Guess I have some shopping to do :)
- she got her haircut a few weeks ago (Easter weekend) and it's so much cuter and easier to care for! We all love it and should have done it a long time ago. But this way, a donation for making a wig is possible, so it all evens out in the end
- she makes me laugh on a daily basis with things she says and how grown-up she's getting
- she makes me mad on a daily basis for being more stubborn them me! Man, she can be a challenge!
Trevor:
- don't know what's new with him - he seems happy enough at work, same routine at home as always.
me:
- have an interview on Tuesday for the job I'm in (but term position vs. casual) - wish me luck.
- enjoying work more and more. It's getting busier (a good thing for me!) and I'm really enjoying getting out at lunch time, either for a run or aerobics class in the basement a few times a week. The work is getting more and more interesting and the people I work with are great.
The biggest news (I guess it's not news yet, but hopefully will be before long): we found a house and we're putting in an offer this afternoon. Hopefully with a quick closing so that all of you who want to come visit this summer will have your own "suite"!! Check it out. We'll let you know how that works out. http://www.propertyguys.com/properties/29543-hanwell-new-brunswick-single-family
That's it for now.
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
The big day
I woke up around 5am this morning when Nicholas made a little sound, so I got up and had some breakfast, got cleaned up, etc. I went back to see him around 5:30 and managed to get dressed before he woke up. I changed his diaper and we got in the car and headed to CHEO.
Once we got here, we knew exactly where to go and everyone has been super nice and helpful. It’s a really great hospital. Nicholas got to play in the waiting room and climb over every chair and bench and make pretty eyes to all the other patients and nurses. He flirted constantly. One of the nurses checked him over and we were back in the playroom. Eventually, she came to get us and Nicholas got some pre-medication (slow-down drugs) and some Tylenol and we made some bubbles for a while. His eyes started to close a bit, but he fought with all his might to stay active. At least he was ok in my arms – without the drugs, he would have been running around all the hallways. We hung out for a little while longer and his anesthetists came to see him, check him over and explain things again. His surgeon/urologist also came by to check things out and put his initials near the location of the incision. He found the teste very easily by palpating, so didn’t believe he would need to do a laparoscopy and it should be a simple surgery.
Once everyone saw him and were satisfied and they were ready, they dressed me up and we went to the operating room. We laid him on the stretcher and I sang to him as they held a mask on his face to put him to sleep. He fought it a fair bit, but did quite well. Once he was asleep, I had to leave him, but I think he was in good hands. Once asleep, they put in an intravenous and give him the meds that way.
I then went down to the café to get a coffee and came back to the waiting room so they can find me when things are over (it was 8:15 when I was sitting down again). From there, I don’t have any details of how things went. Dr. Guerra, the urologist who performed the surgery came to see me after the surgery (9:30). He said everything went well, no issues. I’ll spare the details.
Shortly after, the nurse came to get me so I could be with Nicholas. She said he was really hungry! He woke up crying, but settled very very quickly after they gave him a bottle of sugar water. I guess if he’s really desperate, he’ll take a bottle!! He also drank a ton of apple juice, so he was much happier after that. He was very groggy from the morphine and other drugs in his system, so he slept on my shoulder on and off for the next couple of hours. We hung out with a nurse coming to check every now and again. Around 11 or so, she felt good that everything was ok, so I got him changed back into his pj’s and left the hospital around 11:30. We stopped by Shoppers to fill the prescription (codeine) and pick up some polysporin and headed back to the Herages. He ate well, had a massive pee and poop (it was everywhere! – probably from all the AJ) and is now sleeping in the pack’n’play. I’ll have a nice shower.
He was full of it (piss and vinegar!) after lunch, so doesn’t seem to be in pain. For now, we’ll stick to just Tylenol, but if he’s looking like he’s in pain, we’ll give him the codeine (or if he’s uncontrollable and jumping on the couches :) ). Hopefully everything heals well and he continues on the road to recovery!
Once we got here, we knew exactly where to go and everyone has been super nice and helpful. It’s a really great hospital. Nicholas got to play in the waiting room and climb over every chair and bench and make pretty eyes to all the other patients and nurses. He flirted constantly. One of the nurses checked him over and we were back in the playroom. Eventually, she came to get us and Nicholas got some pre-medication (slow-down drugs) and some Tylenol and we made some bubbles for a while. His eyes started to close a bit, but he fought with all his might to stay active. At least he was ok in my arms – without the drugs, he would have been running around all the hallways. We hung out for a little while longer and his anesthetists came to see him, check him over and explain things again. His surgeon/urologist also came by to check things out and put his initials near the location of the incision. He found the teste very easily by palpating, so didn’t believe he would need to do a laparoscopy and it should be a simple surgery.
Once everyone saw him and were satisfied and they were ready, they dressed me up and we went to the operating room. We laid him on the stretcher and I sang to him as they held a mask on his face to put him to sleep. He fought it a fair bit, but did quite well. Once he was asleep, I had to leave him, but I think he was in good hands. Once asleep, they put in an intravenous and give him the meds that way.
I then went down to the café to get a coffee and came back to the waiting room so they can find me when things are over (it was 8:15 when I was sitting down again). From there, I don’t have any details of how things went. Dr. Guerra, the urologist who performed the surgery came to see me after the surgery (9:30). He said everything went well, no issues. I’ll spare the details.
Shortly after, the nurse came to get me so I could be with Nicholas. She said he was really hungry! He woke up crying, but settled very very quickly after they gave him a bottle of sugar water. I guess if he’s really desperate, he’ll take a bottle!! He also drank a ton of apple juice, so he was much happier after that. He was very groggy from the morphine and other drugs in his system, so he slept on my shoulder on and off for the next couple of hours. We hung out with a nurse coming to check every now and again. Around 11 or so, she felt good that everything was ok, so I got him changed back into his pj’s and left the hospital around 11:30. We stopped by Shoppers to fill the prescription (codeine) and pick up some polysporin and headed back to the Herages. He ate well, had a massive pee and poop (it was everywhere! – probably from all the AJ) and is now sleeping in the pack’n’play. I’ll have a nice shower.
He was full of it (piss and vinegar!) after lunch, so doesn’t seem to be in pain. For now, we’ll stick to just Tylenol, but if he’s looking like he’s in pain, we’ll give him the codeine (or if he’s uncontrollable and jumping on the couches :) ). Hopefully everything heals well and he continues on the road to recovery!
Monday, April 6, 2009
Green light
Nicholas' and my travels to Ottawa were pretty uneventful. The plane was almost empty, so we had two seats which was really fantastic. Nicholas got to roll around and climb up and down the seat next to me for 2 hours. He was a happy baby/toddler.
When we got to Ottawa, Ed was already there waiting for me (thank you!). We drove down to Brockville and Nicholas slept the entire day. He's adjusting a bit (aka not sleeping all that great), but overall not doing too bad. Hopefully he'll go to sleep early tonight and be in full swing tomorrow.
We met with the anesthesiologist today and everything looks good. Nicholas has developed a bit of a runny nose and cough over the last couple of days, but I truly believe it's teeth related and not a cold. As long as he doesn't pick up something before 8am tomorrow, in all likelihood, he's going into surgery.
So, tonight and tomorrow night for sure, we're at the Herages (thank you!). We'll get up super early tomorrow morning to be at CHEO for 6:30am. They'll give him some premedication to help him relax (ok, so for those who know Nicholas, you'll know why! they need him to be a little slower...) and get him ready for surgery to start around 8am. It should last less than 1.5 hours, depending on where things are, etc. He'll wake up very shortly after that and depending on how he's doing, I'll either be with him from then on or he'll be recovering on his own for a little bit. He'll likely be under observation for about 4-6 hours, depending on his drinking, eating and peeing. And then we'll be headed back to the Herages. I'll try to write sometime tomorrow to give an update of how things went.
Speaking of peeing - he won't have a catheter for the procedure!! So guess where the pee is going if he has the urge during surgery!! :) Not sure sure how sanitary that is, but that's what they do!
Until then, positive thoughts and prayers!
When we got to Ottawa, Ed was already there waiting for me (thank you!). We drove down to Brockville and Nicholas slept the entire day. He's adjusting a bit (aka not sleeping all that great), but overall not doing too bad. Hopefully he'll go to sleep early tonight and be in full swing tomorrow.
We met with the anesthesiologist today and everything looks good. Nicholas has developed a bit of a runny nose and cough over the last couple of days, but I truly believe it's teeth related and not a cold. As long as he doesn't pick up something before 8am tomorrow, in all likelihood, he's going into surgery.
So, tonight and tomorrow night for sure, we're at the Herages (thank you!). We'll get up super early tomorrow morning to be at CHEO for 6:30am. They'll give him some premedication to help him relax (ok, so for those who know Nicholas, you'll know why! they need him to be a little slower...) and get him ready for surgery to start around 8am. It should last less than 1.5 hours, depending on where things are, etc. He'll wake up very shortly after that and depending on how he's doing, I'll either be with him from then on or he'll be recovering on his own for a little bit. He'll likely be under observation for about 4-6 hours, depending on his drinking, eating and peeing. And then we'll be headed back to the Herages. I'll try to write sometime tomorrow to give an update of how things went.
Speaking of peeing - he won't have a catheter for the procedure!! So guess where the pee is going if he has the urge during surgery!! :) Not sure sure how sanitary that is, but that's what they do!
Until then, positive thoughts and prayers!
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