Recipes

Friday, November 30, 2012

Food Waste Friday

Just one item that had seen better days.  Not bad, not bad.  Keeping an eye on the refridge daily keeps the potential for waste in check.  This one was overlooked because I had other lettuces to use up, some spring mix and a little of spinach.  

Looks pretty ugly.  After the picture I pulled it apart and the whole head looked nasty so out it went. 

There were some veggies that needed using up, so on with the pot with some homemade chicken stock and it became chicken veggie soup for my dinner.  Yum!  :)



Thursday, November 29, 2012

UseIess Gift For Pet

Advertised in the Bed, Bath & Beyond brochure





Electric Doggie Biscuit Kit..... 15 piece set, non stick cooking surface; includes recipes for all natural dog biscuits, recipes to ice biscuits.   Ad has it priced $29.99.   
Are You Kidding Me?????  The worst waste of cash I've seen so far this Christmas season.  $29.99 plus HSTax of 13% would bring it to $33.89.  


Please post, if you have seen some items that fall into "The Worst Waste of Cash" category 





Reminder that Winter is on it's Way

"It's a marshmellow world in the winter, when the snow comes a tumblin' down...."

Not so fast!   No snow here just yet, but it's trying. 

I spent some hours yesterday shopping for Christmas in nearby Ajax and Pickering.  As I drove toward Ajax I could see the dark, angry looking clouds in the distance with the snow showers descending.  I just had to pull over to snap a couple of pics.




Mr. Sun is struggling to overtake the snow clouds.

Small specs in the picture are snowflakes on my car window.  The snow came down really hard for about a minute and none of it stayed.  

So winter isn't here just yet.  Yay! 

Saturday, November 24, 2012

All Things United Kingdom



God Save Our Gracious Queen,
Long Live Our Noble Queen,
God Save Our Queen

I am a citizen of the Commonwealth, along with a whole lot of other people throughout the globe.  During the time I attended grammar school I recall singing the anthem (all of it) at the close of the school day.  Along with lovingly and loudly proclaiming my love for Canada at the start of classes, I did the same toward Her Majesty.  I don't ever remember singing God Save Our King even though I attended school for a bit prior to her coronation.  Maybe because I don't have a lot of memories from that time and only a couple of good ones from that time.  But that's another topic (or maybe not).

Passing through a lot of years, and we are in 2012 and the Queen's Jubilee celebrations and the Olympics have awakened a renewed interest in me for everything British, Scottish, Irish and Welch.  And to a certain degree Australia.  Time is limited so right now, the Kindom is number one in interest.  I've stumbled upon some really wonderful blogs over the past months.  The history, the pictures, the stories, more pictures, frugal tales, charity shop visits, the expressions that I have to figure out and I could go on and on.  I haven't figured out how to shorten a URL just yet to post the links for the blogs.... I will work on that.  lol to myself, of course.  In the meantime I am learning and enjoying my searches.  When I see the name of a city, town, village off I go to Google maps, Google Earth to check out it's location.   I've  discovered a shop in Port Perry, a town nearby called The Wee Tartan Shop which advertises "When Only The Best of the British Isles Will Do"  http://www.theweetartanshop.com/ (copied & pasted  :).  I plan to take my neighbour there in the next couple weeks to visit.  She is 86, married a Canadian and is a war bride and just so lovely.  She would enjoy this shop so much.

So sorry, Brits, Scots, Irish, Welch.... I didn't know what I was missing out on.  I am going to enjoy these visits very much.  Those to the land of Oz and Kiwi's too! 

Off for now.  Toodle pip to you too!


Friday, November 23, 2012

Way to Use Up Miscellaneous in the Fridge!!

Gives self great big pat on the back.  LOL!

Food Waste Friday??

Nope, not today.  A thorough search quick scan of the refridge revealed some small sprouting but still firm potatoes, some baby carrots that didn't have "eat 'em raw" appeal, a bit of corn, and maybe a half cup diced onions and some cooked chicken left from a bird roasted mid-week.  Hmmmmm, what to make?  I know.... brain wave....chicken pot pie.  Easy enough to do, just need to make up some gravy, crust and into oven.
 
All veggies cooked, gravy added.  Yum.














Portioned and topped with pastry.  Portioned to be frozen after baking.















Cooling for a while prior to packaging.













Dinner tonight along with steamed broccoli and a small garden side salad!
I'm hungry already and dinner isn't for another hour..... that's okay, I can wait.  A cup of Timmy's will hold off the hunger!  LOL!

I know posting what I've prepared with leftovers isn't an original idea to a blog, but bear with me, I am pretty new to blogging..... just finding my way here.  So right now, going with what I know.  :)

I picked up "Blogging For Dummies" from my library...... getting some wonderful lessons from this book.  The authors are Susannah Gardner and Shane Birley, and as with all the "Dummies"  clear and concise.


Thursday, November 22, 2012

Happy Thanksgiving

A Canadian Happy Thanksgiving to all of our American friends south of the border.  I hope you have eaten  and drank and now are relaxing as it is late in the day when I write this. 

So many, many blogs featuring pictures of your food choices for this day.  There are pies, cornbread for stuffing, green bean casseroles and more, much more.  They all looked so scrumptious and made me salivate more than once.  Thanksgiving truly is a wonderful holiday to enjoy  the bounty of the harvest, to be grateful for what we have now and not to be always looking forward to something more.  A time to just enjoy today.

I hope all is well in your world!  :)

Thursday, November 15, 2012

Making a Big Change

My home for the past 13, almost 14 years has been in a "vertical village" and I can honestly say that I have enjoyed every day that I have lived in my mortgage-free residence.  Basically, I live in a condo  where I own everything inside the walls, a parking spot and a storage locker located on an easily accessible floor.  Prior to this home, I owned my home on a street nearby.  My daughters had finished university and moved on with their significant others and I was ready to downsize.  I did see an ad at work for a unit in this village and turned out the individual who put up the ad was the wife of the individual who owned it and wanted to sell.  Her name wasn't on the title.  They wanted to move due to lack of space for two people.  I looked at it, loved it and put in an offer the first business day after viewing and my offer was accepted immediately.


This couple turned around and bought my house; the price was right, they loved the location and the house.   We agreed to close the deal one month after presenting and accepting our offers.  Whoa!  Only one month to pack, dispose of and sell items.  With help the process was completed and I became a condo dweller.

There are a lot of advantages to living in a condo for a senior but some disadvantages also.  I'll share some of my thoughts another time.

 

Sunday, November 11, 2012

Remembering

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Remembering all who were lost in all wars.

Thursday, November 8, 2012

Canadians Plans for Christmas Spending







I read a couple of times today that Canadians are expected to spend 15% MORE this Christmas than 2011.  The Canadian Press reports that  the Bank of Montreal holiday outlook is suggesting our spending spirits have improved this season and we are ready to open our wallets even more. 

Shoppers were surveyed and said they plan to shell an average of $674 for gifts this year, compared to an average of $583 last.  Top reasons for spending more are having more people to shop for and being better off financially.  And one in five of those surveyed said they didn't plan on creating a budget at all.  

Okay.  Time out everyone.  Wasn't it just a month ago  that our country's Minister of Finance was telling all of us that our debt load is too high.  The ration of credit market household debt to disposable income hit 163.4 percent in the second quarter of the year and that was up from the first quarter.



What the heck are people doing spending excessively at Christmas when they are so deeply in debt?  I know this is the time of year that some retailers make their profit, but I can't help but think that it's at a cost to those who can't afford it.  The emotional buying is an indication that Christmas is being treated as a feeling, not a season.  I read where a specific large retailer is "going to be speaking more to people's hearts than their wallets" through it's marketing .   So is the message going to be, buy, buy, buy, it'll make you feel so good to give, give, give. 

My fellow Canadians (and everyone facing the next 6 weeks), disregard the advertising, please turn the TV Christmas commercials to the Weather Network instead, plan, budget and think about this time of year and consider whether it is worthwhile going into more debt to create that "perfect" holiday.  We all know there is no such thing anyway.  Give thought to what the holiday means to you and who you share it with, and think of doing things in a scaled down manner. 

The B of M didn't survey me.  I won't be increasing my spending; in fact, I am scaling way back from previous years for my own reasons among them being that  I'm retired now and the income is less.  I've budgeted for the gifts and I plan to stay firmly within that budget.  I don't have any debt nor do I plan to indulge in spending to create debt.  I will have no regrets come January 1, 2013.

Monday, November 5, 2012

Lesson Learned A Hard Way

I had read about a little trick that bloggers sometimes do to ensure that they don't lose a post before it's published, that being to write out their post in OneNote or Word.  Well I thought I was going to be smart and ignore that advice; that I didn't need to take that step of writing, copying and pasting, that losing a post just wasn't going to happen to me.  Ha!  Who do I think I am that something like that could never possibly happen to me.  Huh??? ??? ???
Last evening, had a long message about my retirement plans written out and damn if it didn't vapourize into thin/thick/whatever air when I hit publish.  Poof!  Gone!  Completely gone!  Made me very, very cross 'cause it took a lot of time, thought, rethinking, rethoughts, more rethinking, editing, more editing to come up with the finished product.  It was the kind of post that was going to serve to remind me of my goals, one that I would be able to go back to from time to time or as frequently as I felt it necessary to review my retired life.   It was going to be a record, a starting point.  And it's gone with so little effort.  Hit the publish button and gone.  Can't locate it anywhere.  Feeling a little deflated right now.  Think I'll put this whole process to bed and work on it again tomorrow.  

Lesson Learned!  You bet! 
Night all..... on to a great day tomorrow.