Everything in the fridge pasta!

Here we go again! I have signed up for another summer/fall of the organic vegetable baskets. So today when I got home at 6:30 I realized I haven't been to the grocery store all week. Lucky for me my vegetable crisper was overflowing with our new crop!

So here is the starting line up:
Tomatoes (from my garden)
Basil (from my garden)
eggplant (from costco :(
zucchini (from the farm basket)
swiss chard (from my garden) I know it's weird but I have to use so I figured a strange substitute for spinach)
garlic (from the farm basket)
chili flakes
parmesan
gluten free spaghetti

This is not really a recipe but for those of you that need directions here goes:
Saute the eggplant until soft over med heat with some olive oil, add the zucchini. 


Once the zucchini are soft add the tomatoes, garlic
& chili flakes. I add a bit of the pasta water to make it more of a sauce.

When your pasta is almost ready add the swiss chard and the basil.



Add the pasta to the sauce and grate parmesan toss and serve!

This entire meal can be prepared in 30 mins. The ingredients can be adjusted to what veggies you have in your fridge, I have used asparagus, broccoli, if you happen to have some Pancetta it really makes it yummy. Buffalo Mozzarella or bocconcini are good too.

Bon Appetit

Cooking for Baby!

It's been 3 weeks since I started Emily on vegetables. At first I was so excited, everyone kept making comments about how luck Em would be, cause I would be cooking for her. I guess she will be eventually, but right now there is no culinary skills need to steam, roast, boil and then puree food with no seasoning! All in all still very happy to be making all the food myself. She is being exposed to more variety than the jarred foods offer, and of course it is all fresh with no additives. Her first vegetable was carrots which as you can see by the picture she was not a fan of! I'll have to try it again soon. Vegetables that she loves so far include: butternut squash, yellow beans, sweet potato & green beans. Still to come are sweet peas, buttercup & acorn squash & zucchini. After which I will start her on fruits.

She is a great eater! She gets so excited for the food, her mouth is open and ready before I even get the spoon filled! I am loving this experience and the opportunity to give her so many different fruits and veggies. I'm not finding it too time consuming, I make a pretty big batch freeze it in an ice cube tray and then pop the cubes out into a freezer bag and defrost as needed. I have a pretty good head start so I think that will help once her appetite picks up.

Also soon I will actually get to test my cooking skills by making pureed meat taste good without the addition of salt, pepper & butter! Herbs are ok to use so I'm not too worried. We signed up for the vegetable baskets in the summer again so that will give me a chance to give her something different every week.

She will be 6 months next week and is growing up so fast, boy does time fly when your in love!

Things that make me smile

I thought I would quickly share a few things that make me smile. In no particular order

EMILY! I think when she smiles it is contagious! She has been such a positive impact on my whole family. It's really amazing for such a little person to have such a huge effect on people!

Jeremy clean shaven...it doesn't happen often so I'm very happy when it does

My dog Harley! He also has that happy effect on that when I walk him people start smiling

Flowers or in this case a painting of flowers from my favorite artist Bobbie Burgers

A good meal, preferably dinner! 

Champagne, which makes me smile so much my cheeks hurt the next day! 

My vegetable garden, it gives me a great sense of accomplishment to plant, tend to and grow some of my own food. 

The relationship I have with my husband. We have been together for almost 12 years now and I find that we are more in love and more solid now than we ever were. We just fit, it works, I love the way we interact and understand each other. We don't complete each others sentences or anything, but if we have a dinner party we complete each others actions, it is like a well choreographed play. I love that I am so in love with my husband and I love our new family. 

photo taken by Annalie Young http://annalieyoung.com/

I thought I was tired!

I find it hilarious that Emily (my 5 month old) sleeps for about 10 hours, wakes up eats plays for about an hour and then goes back to sleep! It's amazing, she is exhausted after being up for 2 hours. Maybe the parents have it all wrong and the kids aren't tiring us out and it's the other way around.

Emily has also made me think more about the saying "fall asleep" because sometimes she literally looks like she fell and then went to sleep! Check out some of Em's favorite sleeping positions, I think her favorite is the face plant!

To Blog or not to Blog & how much to blog!

A lot has happened that I should have been writing about in the last few months. First and foremost I had a baby! A beautiful baby girl named Emily. Jeremy and I couldn't be happier, we now have what we have wanted for such a long time...a family. Each day we learn something new courtesy of our 5 month old!

So where does this leave my blog? Well for a while I literally moved from the kitchen to the couch! But now I am back in the kitchen, not as much as before but enough not to have to go into the freezer for meals anymore. I am trying to find the balance between being a mother, a wife and a cook. Somedays are easier than others but I'm not complaining....well not too much!

I hope to find the time to continue to blog, not so much for my die hard 4-5 followers! but for me, it is a good outlet and in some ways a journal. I will continue to post recipes and cooking tips, but will now also be blogging about life with a baby and the many things they teach us. I think what took me so long to start writing again is the fear of sharing too much info. I hope to find the right level of info and stories to share so that my readers are interested but while still keeping some things for just me and Jeremy.

So tune in for many stories to come! And pictures!

Holy Tomatoes!!

The tomatoes in my garden are out of control! For the last few weeks we have been picking about a liter of cherry tomatoes every 2 days. Yesterday I swear we picked a bucket and there are more ready to be picked today!! So with this many tomatoes new recipes were in order and a recipe that used a lot of the tomatoes cause I don't want them to go bad. I made a cherry tomato sauce and tossed it with rigatoni, parmesan cheese, & arugula very yummy and fresh tasting! 

Roasted Cherry Tomato Sauce
2-3 pints Cherry Tomatoes (slice half of the tomatoes in half)
3 tbsp sliced garlic (approx 4-6 cloves)
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes (more if you like it really spicy)
3/4 tsp salt
pepper
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
1 tsp chopped oregano


Preheat oven to 350
In a large glass pyrex (13x9) toss all the ingredients except the herbs. Roast in the oven until the tomatoes are tender, stirring occasionally for about 40-45 minutes.  
Remove from the oven and toss with the herbs


I used this sauce for pasta but you could also use it over chicken. As mentioned above when you toss the pasta with the sauce you can vary the recipe by adding arugula, spinach, parmesan, sliced chicken, or shrimp etc. See what's in your fridge that's what I do!

A healthier Carbonara Sauce?

So Thursday is my official yummy dinner night! After picking up another basket of veggies i made my meal plan...easy.  The basket this week had carrots with the green tops, purple romaine lettuce, green beans, yellow zucchini, another type of zucchini (to be discovered later) basil, italian parsley, and cucumbers.
This weeks produce was a little more basic so I just went with what I was in the mood for which was pasta. Recently my favorite and easiest pasta has been a carbonara. Not a lot of ingredients and by the time the water boils and the pasta cooks everything is ready to assemble. Here is the recipe for what I made this week, but feel free to sub in whatever fresh ingredients you have as long as you keep the basics intact you should be fine. Oh and the healthy part, I just figure since I am throwing in a bunch of vegetables to a pasta sauce that normally doesn't have any it makes it good for me right?! I also cut down the amount of egg yolks. My way of thinking is if all the ingredients are pure & fresh, i.e. no preservatives or things I can't pronounce, then I am one step to being a healthier human, I never said low fat just healthier!

Carbonara with Yellow Zucchini, Lima Beans & Fresh Peas


2 1/4" slices of Pancetta diced (bite size pieces)
1 Yellow Zucchini diced (bite size pieces)
Handful each of fresh Peas & fresh Lima beans ( I bought mine at the Atwater market and shelled them myself! You can taste the difference)
1 Garlic Flower if you have finely chopped
1.5 tbsp chopped fresh thyme (this brings all the flavour so use fresh)
2 egg yolks
200ml cream
4 handfuls of freshly grated parmesan
Salt & Pepper
365 G fussili Pasta or rigatoni

Bring salted water to a boil, add pasta and cook for time on package. Meantime over med/high heat saute pancetta until slightly brown, then remove from pan onto a paper towel. Add zucchini to pancetta oil and leave it in the pan for a few minutes without touching it so it can brown nicely, then toss it to brown all sides, takes about 5 mins total. Add  lima beans, peas, garlic flowers & thyme saute for 3 mins then remove pan from heat, add the pancetta back to pan. In a bowl mix the egg yolk, cream and parmesan together. Before the pasta is finished cooking reserve about a cup of the cooking liquid to add to the sauce later. Drain Pasta, toss directly in the pan with the veggies, stir it up a bit, and then add the egg mixture and toss all together right away, be sure to toss the pasta with the egg mixture quickly or you will make scrambled eggs! Adjust seasoning by adding salt & pepper if needed. If you find it isn't saucy enough add a bit of pasta water and sometimes a bit more parmesan is needed. Serve and enjoy!

The Veggie and Pancetta cane be a side dish for any meal

Organic Vegetable Basket Inspires Dinner!

In my previous post I mentioned that I signed up for an organic basket program for the summer. It started this week and the picture above is from the first basket. All the vegetables are organic, more important to me is that they are fresh and local. They come from a farm in Franklin, Quebec which is just an hour out of the city. The program is 20 weeks long, so from now until mid November, there will be a basket available once a week. I foresee Thursdays being my new big dinner days! This week I didn't prepare a thing until I picked up the basket, then I went to the grocery store to get any missing ingredients. I think this is the best way to cook...to be inspired by your ingredients, instead of starting from a recipe. I gathered the ingredients and then said "what I can I cook from this?"

So for the contents of this weeks basket: Radishes which are bigger than golf balls!, Beets with greens intact, green onions, 1 zucchini, oak leaf lettuce, bok choy, thai basil, savory, garlic flowers & I exchanged cilantro for a huge napa cabbage. I was really pleased with the contents. There are a few items that I have never cooked with before but that is part of the adventure, plus it forces you to create new recipes!

So for dinner I made a garden fresh salad with honey/champagne vinaigrette & cabbage rolls.

 For the salad I used the oak leaves (new ingredient for me) they have a soft texture like a bibb lettuce but with a bit of a kick like arugula. I peeled and shaved a beet (if you slice a beet very thin it is enjoyable raw), green onions, radishes, & zucchini flowers (from my garden) I just tore them into the salad at the last minute. Ingredients not from my garden or the basket were goat cheese & tomatoes (next week hopefully). The recipe for the vinaigrette is at the bottom. The combination between the soft lettuce, crispy beets, smooth goat cheese and overall freshness of everything went really well with the sweet vinaigrette. When I tasted the vinaigrette on it's own it was very sweet from the honey, but it worked really with the earthiness from the beets and the tangy goat cheese.

For the cabbage rolls, I picked up a meatloaf mix (ground pork,veal,beef) at the grocery store and used some leftover tomato sauce that I had made earlier in the week. I sauteed onions, the zucchini and garlic (from my garden) together until softened, added the meat. I chopped up some of the Savory herb which I would say is like rosemary, sage & thyme got together. It is a very woodsy herb. I cooled the mixture added 1 egg whisked and 2 good handfuls of freshly grated parmesan. I blanched the large cabbage leaves in boiling water for 2-3 minutes until they were softened then drained and dried them. Then the assembly began. Put a little tomato sauce in the bottom of a baking dish so the rolls don't stick. Place a cabbage leaf on a board and add about 2 1/2 good spoonfuls of filling at about the middle of the leaf. Fold the bottom of the leaf up, tuck the sides in and roll to create a little package. Some of my leaves were broken it's not a big deal after-all cabbage rolls aren't exactly a gourmet meal! Place the rolls in the baking dish, top with tomato sauce and bake covered for 30 minutes  @ 350.  I topped them with a little more parmesan, they were pretty yummy and not as much of a pain to make as I thought they would be! They also reheat really well. 
Honey Vinaigrette

• 2 tablespoons Champagne vinegar
• 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
• 2 teaspoons honey
• 5 tablespoons extra-light olive oil
• Ground white pepper

Whisk together the first 3 ingredients and then slowly whisk in the oil so the dressing emulsifies. Add pepper to taste. 

Growing Dinner

Planting a vegetable garden is one of my favorite summer activities. The freshness and rewarding feeling you get from going out to literally pick and see what you will be cooking for dinner is unbelievable, and the veggies really do taste better!

This year we planted eggplant, zucchini, purple romaine, boston lettuce, cherry tomatoes, monte carlo tomatoes, jalapenos, green beans, butternut squash, pumpkin, heirloom tomatoes (courtesy of my aunt Jackie) and red & yellow beets. We always have raspberries, blueberries and Jerusalem artichokes which come back every year (perennials). But this year we had a few surprise veggies, green onions that I planted last year and never grew and Garlic!! I guess maybe they take a year to grow or maybe because they are bulbs they will come back every year. (fingers crossed) I also have a huge pot of herbs (Basil, oregano, thyme, mint, chives, arugula, and sage)

Everything is growing really well this year, I haven't bought lettuce in 2 weeks and now that the eggplant and zucchini has started I can cross that off my shopping list too! It amazes me every year that I spend 20-25 dollars to plant the garden and then don't go veggie shopping for months. That is the best investment return I have seen in a while.

The only thing that isn't growing is the beets, but this is the first year we have tried them and we planted them from seeds, which doesn't always work. The best advise that I have to people wanting to try a vegetable garden is go for it! I would suggest buying the plants already started instead of trying from seeds which is very difficult because our summer isn't long enough to allow everything to mature. For what it costs to try to grow veggies it is worth it even if you don't have complete success on every front. At the end of the season, you have saved money, eaten healthier (no chemicals) and you have the rewarding feeling of growing your own food despite the fact that you don't live on a farm. If anyone has there own garden stories please feel free to share them I would love to hear about other people's successes and failures!

Big News!!!

So I have a huge announcement to make, for those of you that don't know already...I am pregnant!!! I am due in October and we are very excited! I am at the exciting part of the pregnancy now, I am starting to waddle around and there is no way to hide the belly now. Also I think I am carrying a gymnast or the next karate kid, because I am being kicked or punched left right and center! It is a wonderful feeling. Sometimes at night I just lie down and watch my stomach move, which at first a little creepy (looks like an alien is moving inside, as you see your stomach move from the inside). Now it has turned into one of my favorite activities.

It took a while for us to get to this point so the anticipation is killing us, we are so excited to have this baby and be parents. The last month has been all about make room for baby. Easier said than done, boy did we collect a lot of crap over the years! The furniture has been ordered, I just got the bedding this week, which was way more difficult a task than I anticipated. Apparently now that everyone has the technology to find out what the sex of the baby is most people do, so looking for gender neutral bedding isn't easy.  It doesn't help that I am picky and had an idea in my mind which didn't involve, bunnies, elephants, giraffes or frogs!

So I'm almost in the home stretch, 3 1/2 more months to go! If your trying to do the math and can't figure it out, it's because women are pregnant for 10 months not 9!!!!!! Technically the first month doesn't count cause your not actually pregnant, but a full term pregnancy is 40 weeks which is 10 months. Why don't they just say 10 months, what made 9 the magic number?

In the future I definitely see this blog moving from the kitchen to the couch! As of now I am still cooking, I just have to manage my time a little better, so I'm not standing for more than a few hours. But I am feeling great now and am looking forward to the bounty of my vegetable garden and trips to the markets to see what else is coming in locally. Summer is the best time to explore and cook fresh delicious food. I signed up for a direct from the farm vegetable basket this year, which means that every thursday I get a basket of whatever is fresh from the farm that week, from now until mid november. This week is my first basket I will keep you updated on how that works out.

And of course many more updates on how my little eggplant is doing (every week the book I am reading compares the baby to a fruit or vegetable so we can gauge the size)

New Plan....Personal Chef

I have decided to add another facet to my business: Personal Chef. The plan is to book customers for each day of the week to use my culinary services. This will hopefully provide some stability and consistency into my life. Here is how it will work. I will go grocery shopping for the customer for whatever I need to make them the meals plus whatever they might need for groceries that day. I will charge them the cost of the groceries plus the time I spent shopping and cooking at their house. The idea is that they will get 1 meal fresh and served to them for dinner, and then I will also depending on what they prefer make meals for lunch, snack and dinners for the next few days. I think it is a win win, I will have set hours for work on specific days of the week set in advance. The customer will have a larger menu selection since now I will be cooking ready to serve instead of reheating. So now I can do more fish and red meat which can be cooked properly without the concern of being overdone.

I'm pretty excited about this next step, I have two customers that I think are interested. Spread the word if you know someone that might be interested in having a home cooked meal, prepared in there home. Oh and of course I will be leaving the kitchen the way it was presented to me....hopefully clean!

Tribute to Julia Child

I remember watching Julia Child on TV when I was very young, I found her peculiar and hilarious. Her larger than life characte made quite an impression on my ten year old self. She always looked like she was having so much fun, and her voice was unlike anything I had ever heard. I am very surprised and dissapointed in myself that it was the release of the movie Julia & Julia that pushed me to buy her famous cookbook "Mastering The Art of French Cooking". The book is filled with good old fashioned hearty recipes. The layout of the book is very different from a traditionanl cookbook. For example, in her book she lists the ingredients as they appear in the recipe with the instructions beside them, sometimes you have to flip 2 or 3 pages to make your list of ingredients before going to the grocery store. Once you get used to her methods it is very clear and easy to understand, which was the whole point of her book. She wanted women that don't know there way around the kitchen to be able to read a recipe and execute it deliciously.

Yesterday, I set out to make a beef stew from the book. No not Boeuf Bourgignonne, I didn't have a whole day to spare! I made what I would call it's cousin Boeuf a la Catalane. She described this as a mediterranean stew, although the only thing that is mediterranean about it would be the tomatoes and parmagian. The stew was easy to make, the only change I made was that instead of using a skillet to start the cooking and then transfering everything to a casserole I cooked everything in a dutch oven. The stew was hearty and delicious. It resembled a Jamabalaya because of the rice. I am defiinitly going to use this cooking method for other proteins (chicken, shrimp etc). It was yummy and my hubby had thirds, so I think it is a keeper!!!

Try the recipe below and let me know if you like it as much as we did. I change a few things but just for convenience. Sorry there are no pictures because Jeremy didn't want to wait for me to take them. Oh and there was no leftovers!

Boeuf A La Catalane-Julia Child

1/4 lb chunk of bacon cubed
2 Tbsp Olive oil
3 lbs stewing beef but into squares about 1"
1 1/2 cups sliced onions
1 cup unwashed white rice (raw)
1 cup dry white wine
2-3 cups beef stock
2 garlic cloves minced
1/2 tsp thyme
pinch of saffron ( didn't have)
1 crumbled bay leaf ( I used  dried and left it whole)
1lb ripe red tomatoes, peeled, seeded, juiced and chopped. ( I drained a can of diced tomatoes) about 1 1/2 cups
1 cup grated parmesan

Equipment needed: medium sized dutch oven (I used a 5.3L round), slotted spoon, a large bowl, a small bowl. wooden spatula (so not to scratch your pot)

Preheat oven to 325

In a dutch oven heat a tsp of the oil and lightly brown the bacon, remove with a slotted spoon to the bowl.

Dry the meat on paper towels, heat the dutch oven until the oil/bacon fat is almost smoking, add the meat a few pieces at a time to brown. When it is brown place in the bowl.

Lower heat to moderate and brown the onions lightly, remove them and add to the bowl.

Stir the rice into the oil/fat for 2-3 minutes until it turns a milk color. Scrape into the small bowl with a  spatula for later. '

Pour off any remaining fat, add the wine and stir for a minute over the heat scraping up all the yummy brown bits. Add the bacon/beef/onions back to the dutch oven.

Add the garlic, thyme, salt & pepper, bay leaf & saffron (if using)
Add the stock almost to the height of the beef, bring to a simmer, cover and set in the lower position of the oven to simmer slowly for an hour.

Remove dutch oven from oven, stir in the tomatoes, bring to a simmer, cover and return to the oven for about another hour until the meat is fork tender.

Remove from oven and raise temp to 375.
Skim off any fat if there is any, add more stock or water so that it almost at the height of the beef. Stir in the rice bring to a simmer and cover. Place back in the oven and keep it at a full simmer, do not stir it anymore at this point. Cook for about 20-25 minutes, the rice will have absorbed almost all of the liquid and should be cooked.

Remove from oven, just before serving fold in the Parmesan (if you want)

Bon Appetit!

Travel as much while your young

My husband and I love to travel, we try to plan a big trip every year or at least that is the plan until we have kids and are a little more restricted. From the beginning of our relationship we traveled. On our 1 year anniversary (dating) we spent 6 weeks backpacking through Europe. We started in Germany, France then Switzerland, Italy & Greece. It was our first time traveling together and we survived it. I find that traveling together really tests your relationship. Your not at home, you don't know where everything is, you get lost, you don't speak the language. That was probably when I realized our relationship would stand the test of time....and travel!

Everyone has their own travel style, some people like to bake in the sun and swim up to a bar in the pool, others like to cities on guided tours through museums cathedrals and landmarks. Luckily, Jeremy and I have similar travel styles. We are not crazy about guided tours unless they are short. Museums we prefer to walk at our own pace and neither of us is that interested in Churches or Cathedrals unless something particularly interesting happened there. We always hit all the key sightseeing spots but don't go the extra mile. We prefer to walk around a city and do our own tour, always on our list is markets whether they be for food, crafts or antiques. We find you learn more off the beaten path than you would following the Frommers guide to (insert city name here) We always try to learn a few basic words in the language of the city we are in. Obviously it doesn't hide the fact that we are tourists but at least we can be polite.

We have been to other Greek Islands (Crete & Corfu) as part of family vacations. Trips closer to home have included NYC & Florida and we were engaged in Bermuda.

When we planned our honeymoon in Tahiti and Bora Bora our thought process was "let's go as far as we can, where we wouldn't bring kids, and probably won't get a chance to go back to" The plan worked! Our honeymoon was very special definitly a once in a lifetime trip.

Last summer we sent to London and Prague. We put those cities together randomly.

Neither of us had been to London and I had been to Prague and wanted my husband to see it too. Another hugely successful trip. Great food paired with sightseeing at our own pace.  

Now we are planning our trip for 2010. We have yet to go to Asia and since we don't have kids yet it is on my high priority of things to do before I get pregnant! My thought process is that we can travel to Europe with kids the flight isn't too long but a 16-18 hour flight with children running up and down an airplane is not fun for anyone.

So we are looking at a cruise of Asian Capitals and Vietnam it will hit all the key cities: Singapore, Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh, Da Nag, Hanoi and end in Hong Kong. The cruise is 14 days which will translate into an 18 day trip factoring in travel time etc. On the one hand I feel like I am rushing to make these travel plans but on the other it makes sense because I am going to get pregnant eventually and then travel to asia is out of the question for a while. Planning such a substantial trip makes me a little nervous, it's kind of like the honeymoon, you want to get it right because chances are you won't be going back, and if you do it will be much later in life. 

So if anyone has traveled to the far east and has any suggestions please share them!

We still have a lot of the world we want to see, our list goes across the atlantic to Ireland, Spain & the south of France, or just across the continent to San Francisco. I look forward to exploring the world with my husband well into the golden years of our marriage. 

Turkey Turkey Turkey

I think the best part of a Christmas dinner isn't the meal itself it is what you get after the meal.....Turkey Soup! After the turkey has been carved I put in it in the largest pot that I have and fill the pot with water, put in on the stove and begin the soup. You boil the soup for about an hour skimming the icky white stuff off as it rises to the top. Then you add carrots, celery and an onion (with the skin on, it helps give the soup a nice yellow color.) Simmer it slightly uncovered for another hour, drain the soup chop up the veggies and bits of turkey that are left, season with salt and pepper and voila the most flavourful soup you will have ever tasted! If you would like to freeze the soup don't add the vegetables and turkey to it, just freeze the broth.

The reason why I find turkey soup so much more flavourful than chicken soup is because of the carcass to water ration. A small tueky is about 8-9lbs, whereas a small chicken can be 2lbs. The flavour is all in the the bones so the larger the bird the more flavour ther will be for a soup. It's also super convenient and your not wasting anything! You already ate the turkey and instead of throwing the carcass out, just throw it in a pot! ( you can also do the same with a roast chicken)

The smell of turkey soup will float through your house...mmmmmm.

It's funny that before meeting my inlaws I had never tasted or even heard of turkey soup, when I mention it to friends and family they give me a strange look as if I am talking about a ufo. Come on people turkey soup is the exact same thing as chicken soup except with TURKEY!

Try it out, let me know what you think. I was lucky enough to roast a 15lb turkey this christmas so I will have turkey soup until easter!

Long Term Relationships and gift shopping

It is that time of year again where we all head out into the malls or surf the web looking for that perfect gift for your loved one. Is it just me or do you feel that you ran out of good gifts? My husband and I have been together for 10 years now, I think I ran out of good gifts. I used all the classic mens gifts a little too early in our relationship, but seriously I think I ran out gifts!! Cufflinks, case for the cufflinks, winter vest, gloves, scarf, belt, socks, boxers, sweaters, pajama pants, swiss army knife, watch, money clip, tools, valet, wii, games for the wii, lingerie (for me, but for him ;), ipod, hammock, magazine subscription.....and list goes on.

So now I am starting to repeat gifts, but I'm not happy about it. I have to things which make it difficult to shop for my husband, lack of ideas, and when he wants something he buys it right away. I have returned 6 gifts during our relationship because he came home with what I bought him a week before his birthday, our anniversary or christmas!

I know there are a ton of gifts out there I just find it difficult to stay unique and keep to personal for my loved ones. I guess it doesn't help that he doesn't have any hobbies, he works and comes home. He has interests but nothing that needs accessorizing. I just finished wrapping all his gifts, I thought I was all good, but then after looking at what I got him I realized by gifts are lacking....ugh. I can't tell you what I bought him just in case he actually reads my blog (long shot!)

If anyone is actually reading my blog and has any ideas let me know, I am at a loss. Oh did I mention that his birthday is in February so I am back to the malls in January. Yay......BoooooPublish Post

Email Signatures!!!

So apparently someone that is close to me that will remain nameless isn't a fan of my email signature. My signature consists of 2 lines, my name and my blog address. How is this too much? It is quick and too the point. If I don't put my blog address on my email how will anyone know that I am blogging? Apparently those 2 lines bug them. Now let me give you a little bit of insight into this person, he is a young male in his thirties, is technology inclined so it isn't bugging him cause he doesn't understand it cause he does! Now here's the issue for me,  he works for a very large organization, where his email signature is 7 Lines!! Oh yes 7. Now I personally think that is way too much information but I don't complain! So get over it man, deal with 2 line signature or get rid of your 7 lines of which 3 of them are repeating the same information over just in a different language!
Geez 7!

My first car accident

Ugh so not the best day, woke up got all my stuff together went out to start my day, filled up my car with gas and then as I was pulling out of the gas station was hit by a car! Don't worry I'm ok.
The guy must have been coming pretty fast because I didn't even see him coming I only heard him upon impact. He hit the rear driver side of my car. The passenger side side airbag deployed. Holy fucking scary!!!
We called the police who promptly came 25 minutes later, asked if we were injured and needed an ambulance. (neither of us did) and then gave us the accident report forms to us and left!!! What the #$@?
So here is what happened I was pulling out of the gas station turning right, the car in the middle lane was letting me in so I pulled out the other car must have been driving super fast because I didn't even see him. He hit the rear driver side of my car and my side airbag deployed. The airbag looks like a raft you would put in a pool. I'm ok other than a banged up left arm and shoulder and some whiplash of course. The other guy is ok other than some whiplash although his tiny car had a lot of front damage.
I hope I never get into another car accident that was the scariest thing that has ever happened to me. Even scarier was the cop telling me to drive my car home, but to drive slowly and carefully. I'm pretty sure that after an airbag is deployed and a tire is bent the wrong way a police officer should not allow you to drive your car home. I assume there was an emergency elsewhere cause the cop could not get out there fast enough.
Anywho car accidents suck, my arm hurts, my shoulder hurts, and I can't tell my boss I can't work because I am my own boss!!! BOOOO

Great way to start a weekend, no car, and in pain. UUUUUGGGHHHHH

Living with Celiac

I was diagnosed with Celiac Disease about 4 years ago. Some people would think that living without pasta, pizza, bread and fried food in general would be impossible. But it's not, well at least not after the adjustment period of panic and self pity, followed by the "I can't eat anything" phase, which lasted about a month. Followed by the holy crap what am I gonna eat phase!!!!

It was at this point that the planner in me kicked in and I started to deal with my diagnosis. Celiac as stated on mayoclinic.org states the following:

"People with celiac disease are allergic to proteins (glutens) found in wheat, barley and rye grains. In these people glutens stimulate an immune reaction in the small intestine, which causes an inability to absorb certain nutrients from food.
The treatment is to avoid foods containing glutens. Untreated, celiac disease can cause many medical complications. However, when a diet plan is implemented, patients can experience almost complete reversal of symptoms and complications from the disease."

So I dove head first into the gluten free diet, researching, reading labels, shopping in new aisles of the grocery store and testing out recipes. This took a lot of patience because the trial and error period had a lot of error. But thanks to the fact that I already cooked most of my meals instead of ordering take out and eating at restaurants I quickly learned that it is very easy to live a Gluten free life and still have delicious meals.

So flash forward to today I am living gluten free and not even noticing. I have found the perfect gluten free pasta that can be cooked al dente and tastes delicious. I can enjoy the same fried food that I did before except in the comfort of my own home or at a restaurant where I have made friends with the chefs and brought them gluten free ingredients. My favorite gluten free accomplishments are: fish n chips, fried calamari, spaghetti & meatballs, brownies, chewy chocolate chip cookies and they are all made gluten free and delicious.

So to all the people trying to live gluten free, have a little patience try all the different brands until you find the one you like and basically if you cook from scratch with fresh ingredients (nothing from a can, bottle, or package) your cooking life will be very easy.

There will be many more posts on celiac and gluten free diets, but if you have any questions or topic suggestions let me know!

Concierge to All

Ode to Bobbie Burgers

Last year for my bridal shower my stepmom did a collection for the gift and I ended up with a huge gift certificate to an art gallery. I held on to it until December when a particular artist was showing her work. The artists name was Bobbie Burgers and she paints the most beautiful paintings of flowers. I selected one and it is hanging in my dining room where I can admire it everyday from the kitchen.
I wish I could have a whole collection of burgers!
Here are a few of her paintings just to tease you guys too!

Photographer Update!

So I spoke to the photographer and in the end we agreed that there was a misunderstanding. I truly believe that an album was included and he says there is no way an album would have been included in the price. In the end he offered me my already printed album that is in his office for a low price of $500! He came down from his initial $2500 bill. Given everything that we have gone through with this photographer and all the problems, excuses and lack of respect, my husband and I cannot in good faith give him any more money. I know some of you may think I'm crazy, yes I know it is my wedding album but it's the principle of it. I feel like we are being swindled out of something that was promised to us.
I remember when I was in greece shopping with my stepmother, there was a few small pottery shops, in greece you can negotiate on the price. There was a vase that I had my eye on so we tried to bargain them down, I remember my stepmom saying that I will have to be willing to walk away from it if I didn't get the price I wanted. I though I was ok, with that, turns out I wasn't cause I went back and paid full price for the vase. Well I am willing to walk away from my wedding album, which I think shows how sure I am about my decision.
I told the photographer we will not be paying for the album, so he has offered us our picture CD in high resolution so we can print our own album. I am happy to be getting my pics in high res at least.
I hope this is the last chapter to this long story. I am disappointed with the ending but at least feel that we have our principles intact.