P & P (Pasta and Peonies)

I love pasta, especially fresh pasta. I don't know about where you live but fresh pasta is very expensive where I live. To wrap your head around the numbers a bit, a package of dried pasta of good quality is very inexpensive, 900gr (about 2lbs) for about 1.30 and fresh pasta runs for about 4.50 for 300-350gr... not even a pound!! I don't get it... they don't even have to dry it...and they sell it for about 10 times as much.

Anyways, my boyfriend and I have talked about trying to make some ourselves, not because of the cost, but just to see if it was hard to make and if it would taste good, (the price would be icing on the cake).

Well, yesterday we did... and it's so easy to make.

1 egg, 1 cup of flour, 1/2 tsp salt... and a couple tbsps of water if you need it.. you probably won't. that's it..

take a bowl, mix flour with salt, make a well, throw in the egg..and scramble with your fingers until all together. Knead a few minutes, roll out, cut and presto... almost instant homemade pasta:

See...here it is before cooking...(I made fettuccini) looks great doesn't it?:



This morning I took a few pictures of my peonies. They have just started blooming, and they are just so luscious I had to show you.







I can't help thinking of a remark Meowza made on some of my previous flowers... on how they looked good enough to eat. Well, these really do look so good, I think I could just put them on an icecream cone and take the biggest bite... they even smell good!

St-Jean

Not much happened that is bloggable..

this is the little I have:

I love being barefoot. Unless it's really cold and I'm freezing, I am always barefoot. The other day, I was leaving to go to some stores, and I was just out the back door and had locked it, when I looked down and realized I didn't have any shoes on.. lol!

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My finger is slowly healing. I'm trying to go plasterless more and more, but tend to jab it on everything, which feels like a spike going through the top of my thumb. It also looks quite horrible. The top part has gone completely black and dry around the edges, and is shrinking. It's very hard. It looks a bit like I have a baby turtle on the top of my thumb.. just sitting there. Also, the part of the thumb that wasn't cut and is still alive, is peeling away, because of the detachment of the skin... so now I have a pink and very tender thumb. When I slide my finger across it, it is very sensitive..and just below where there is a layer of protective skin, you can still feel but the difference in sensitivity is striking. Kind of makes me feel bad for guys having to wear condoms.

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Today is St-Jean, Quebec's provincial holiday. Last night there were celebrations, nothing very elaborate, but you could hear fireworks being set off here and there and then about 11:30 at night, the town also sets off some fireworks too. It was quite cold out and I sat on my porch with a warm sweater, a jean jacket and a warm blanket around my shoulders. I could partially see the fireworks on the front porch of my home. A few years ago, we could see them pretty well, but the neighbour's trees have grown since then and from my viewpoint always end up smack dab in the middle of the fireworks.

An awful fireworks shot: :-P


and another :


As you can see, nothing very exciting.

Early this morning, when the sun was just creeping up over the horizon, I got up and took a pic of my neighbour's porch, where they hung up a couple flags to commemorate the day.

when the heat is on...

oh... boy, yesterday was quite a doozie of a day. It was again over 30C. What do you do when the weather is that hot? Heh, well, you bake of course! :-D. I know, I know... but when it's that hot, your brain doesn't function properly and well, you understand, it is a dry heat. ;-)

Anways. I made something called wienerbrod which probably started off as a recipe to wrap around little wieners, but now it was posted on the net as a puff pastry dessert type of deal. You start by making a dough, and then smashing as much butter as you can get your hands on between layers of it. It's crazy the amount of butter that goes into this! It's not only crazy, it's almost scary!... I swear you are literally putting slabs of hard, cold fat and then folding it over and over into what turns out to be a very flaky dough, which in french we call "mille feuilles" (a thousand leaves or pages).

The recipe calls for 1 egg, that you separate and add the yolk to the dough part and reserve the white for a glaze. My recipe however changes that to 3 eggs, as after putting the yolk in the dough, you must absolutely knock over your container with the egg white and let it drip all over you counter. Then you must crack open another egg... separate that and then step back and think...hmmm.... what would it take for me to actually wipe down these cabinets... well, heck, I think if I dripped something on them, that would give me enough incentive... so then you put your second egg white in a small saucer and set it on the rounded edge of your counter so it will dutifully slide off and all along the the surface of your cabinet door beneath... of course, you just need a bit of glaze so you'd think there would be enough left in the saucer... but no!... the gooey whites band together and slip and slide as one. So that's why my recipe takes 3.

When you finally are ready to put them in the oven, you do brush on your white egg-wash and then because what looks like 14kgs of butter is just not calorie intensive enough, you sprinkle on a bunch of pearl sugar. Pearl sugar tastes like regular sugar but is in balls that look like little styrofoam beads, exactly like those found in bean bags. Sprinkled on pastries, it makes them sweet but also gives them a very nice crunchy texture.

Here is what they turn out to look like:

more flower pics

Well, it's the weekend and I 'm just taking it easy, spending time with someone I care for deeply and relaxing. The weather yesterday was crazy hot again... 30C .. let's just say, that's hot! We are expecting much of the same today. Who says it's cold up north?

Well, I thought I'd show you some of my flowers as they come and go quickly.


Here is a very pretty iris that only blooms for a week to disappear for another year. It's called "Steppin' Out" and cleary, is dressed to the 9's!



As I was leaving to do groceries on Friday, I was just locking the door when out of the corner of my eye, I saw this butterfly fluttering amid my lilacs. I immediately went to get my camera... and took a few shots. It was a bit difficult, the darn flutterby just wouldn't stand still for a pose.



I also have roses. Now, I know I told you I'm not a roses type of girl... but that's not entirely true. I'm not crazy about the formal type of roses, you know the ones that come in a box of 12...sure they are pretty..butI prefer the more lush ones that actually smell spicy and are much more feminine. Here is one that's just a biddy, buddy baby!:



but will turn out to be as glorious as this one:



and finally a pink lobelia, which I think has such a cool shape!

I'm so over it.. I'm happy

Well, yesterday ... after over a year, I finally decided to clean out the garage. When my ex left, he took whatever he wanted.. well, I didn't exactly stop him, I was a sobbing wet rag that couldn't see farther than the blur of tears in my eyes.

He took all his tools, and he had plenty of them, duplicates, triplicates... and left me with nothing but a bunch of junk, some shovels, gardening tools, the lawn mower and our freezer. The garage is full of junk though.. left over bits of wood, of wool isolation (let's just say, it's yellow and it's very itchy). There is stuff in the rafters, but I 'm going to have to search through all that... I hate going up in a ladder but I don't have much choice.

The night before I went out to the garage and found the light was burned out, so I brought in 2 different bulbs, mostly because one looked a little grey and I figured it might already be blown, and I guess I was too lazy to do 2 trips. So I set up the ladder to the side.. and barefoot (yes, you heard me right... you'd think someone who recently had chopped off the top of her thumb would be more careful, but hey... I'm reckless... a real James Dean ;-) ) Anyways, I climbed up a few rungs... it hurt quite a bit as the rungs are round...and holding on with one hand (which incidentally was holding on to the second bulb) and outstretched in the opposite direction, I tried out the grey bulb first. Yay!... it worked.. then I dropped the other bulb which exploded with a soft shatter on the cement floor. Heh.. of course ,you remember that I'm barefoot right.. well.. I did get down and manage to get out without cutting myself.

Last summer, I was not ready to clean out the garage. To start with, I had no energy... and emotionally, I just couldn't deal with it. Everything that was his, that was ours... it was just too much to deal with. I wasn't sure what my reaction would be now, but I was pretty secure in the fact that I would be alright. Since several months now, I feel very happy, very strong.. (ok, not confident about everything... but strong in a different way, in a quiet way, which is hard for me to explain). I truly knew that I was alright though when 2 incidents happened that really showed me I was on to my own life now and I had really turned the corner.

Last thursday, I went downtown and stopped into an office supply store and one of the women that works there, was all.."Maggie... it's so good to see you, I haven't seen you in ages, you look well... bla, bla"..and I explained to her that I was no longer with my husband... and a short synopsis of what happened..and she said, you know what? I just saw him the other day and he looked embarassed to see me, and odd... and I was wondering what was wrong with him that he looked unhappy. And it just didn't bother me.. didn't make me happy, didn't make me sad... I just felt very indifferent about it. Then on Monday night, as I was bringing the garbage to the curb, my neighbor from across the street started to talk to me. I went over to see their new porch they built and we were talking. Edith starts with.. you know, we saw Sylvain the other day... and Alain and I were remarking that he didn't exchange for better.. bla, bla.. that his new partner works as a cashier and that she doesn't smile and she's "bête comme ses pieds".. an expression to say that someone is unhuman, and not friendly etc., and so different from you that is always friendly, and smiling etc., and I just thought.. I just don't care! ... you'd think I'd get some satisfaction out of that, but it just didn't affect me at all.. I had no sense of revenge or YAY!! .. I know that seems implausible.. but I swear that's just how it felt.

If you are out there in a similar situation.. feeling that your life is over because someone left you like you were a piece of trash... I promise you... you'll be happier and much better for it. Anyone who could leave you that way, without trying to work it out, without any remorse, without any caring for being together for years... never really loved or appreciated you... you are better off without them. I couldn't see that last year. I do now.

So, anyways, I haven't cleaned much of the garage..there is a ton of stuff that's got to go.. if I find anything that is good, I'll try and sell it in a garage sale later this summer. It was actually quite liberating.. taking back "MY" space.

When I came in I was pretty pooped, and a bit tired, but started watching a show called "So you think you can dance?" I thought .. ok, cheezy..but actually , these people could really dance.. they could move to the groove, push their tush... swing those hips. They were paired in couples and each had a different style to do...there was everything from ballroom dancing, 80's disco and hiphop. Heck, even the ones the judges said were not so good, were pretty amazing to me. I was very tired, my eyes.. just wanted to close... but I couldn't stop watching. Anyways, I don't care what anyone says.. I was very entertained. I was literally cheering them on.

Well, that's it for today... if you stopped by.. please leave a word.

Oh, I updated my list of blogs, but there may be a few I haven't added yet, if I missed you and you'd like to be added..please let me know.

signing off for now, see you all soon :-)

little bit of this, a little bit of that

First of all, I have to thank all of you that visited and left comments. What a great way to have people stop by. You tell them about your day, it's short and sweet (well, most of the time) and heck, you don't even have to clean the house before they get here.

Either later tonight or tomorrow, I'm going to update my list of blogs. If I miss yours and want it to be included, just leave me a note about it and I will add you.

Oh, and if you dropped by today, don't be shy!! Say hello! :-)

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The weather here has been really very erratic. Huge extremes of temperatures means one day you have the neighbor kids screaming and having fun in their pool, and the next morning it's so darn cold, there are tiny snowflakes falling from the sky. We've had over 32 (that's 90F) and then -1 (31F)! What's up with that?

It was cold and rainy and I just didn't want to go out at all during the weekend. On Sunday I started having a craving for black licorice and the weather was just so awful, I didn't go out and get any. I thought that would be the end of it, but then on Monday, I still had the craving... but the weather was again cold and wet. Well, today, I just couldn't stand it any more. The weather has started to warm up a bit and I decided I couldn't live without them anymore and went to the store to get some. I bought a huge bag and well, I'm munching on some right now. I just love them.

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I took a few pics in my garden today... and I know everyone has their fill of flowers and are tired of seeing them, but I just had to show you at least one of my irises. They only last a few days and then are gone for the rest of the summer. I do love their sweeping, swaying leaves though... as they bend and dance in the wind, flowers or no.. they are still pretty.

Siberian Iris:


Tonight for supper I had a something my boyfriend showed me how to make and I just love it so much, I have it at least once a week since. I thought I'd share it with you.

He calls it kebab, but it's nothing like shish-kebab... and I had never eaten it before. It's tender curried meat, with either crème-fraîche, or sour cream if you can't find that. You add curry spices, mayonnaise and lemon juice to your sauce and then mix that with a bunch of thinly sliced veggies.. I normally use thinly sliced lettuce (ice-berg for the crunchiness)red peppers, cucumber, green onion, tomatoes and then some marinated banana peppers that are cut up in tiny slices. Different kinds of hot peppers can be used but these are available where I live so I use them. They also come with red, orange and yellow ones in the same jar, which makes them very pretty in the dish. You mix these veggies with your sauce.

You take either porc or chicken, I guess you could also make them meatless, but I like the meat. You heat up some curry spices and add garlic and your meat. Takes only a minute or two to fry as you have cut your meat into really very small tender pieces.

Now, he and I make these differently, he makes his own tortilla bread. I guess I'm lazy, cause I just use the ones from the grocery store. He also makes them on his stove, and I make them in a George Forman grill. It just happens to be the perfect size.

I put a tiny bit of butter on the outside of the tortilla so that it doesn't burn and it gets those really nice golden grill marks. I then flip it.. put a bit of meat, the veggies and sauce mixture and then fold the sides in and roll it.. put it in the grill for only about 2 minutes and TADA!! instant amazingly tasty and spicy food. Yum.

You have to try these ... they are just SO good! :-)

dishes and stuff

Well, ELBradenabra posted a thread in the Worth1000.com forum archiving members blogs. I think it's an awesome idea, and decided I wanted to participate. Heck, like the "Field of Dreams" people may actually come by.

Unlike everyone else, I did not post on June 10th, ... gah.. even Galoot said that everyone posted so they wouldn't look like total slackers!! Well, guess that makes me one!

Most of you know that my dad died this year. Well, my mom died oh..geez.. 23 years ago and she had some pretty dishes and stuff but nobody took anything ... simply because my dad was still alive and even though he might not use them ever, it just didn't feel right to have leave him with emptiness anywhere, when there was already this huge void in his life, losing his wife at such a young age.

Well, a couple of weeks ago, my brothers and I and their wives and kids all gathered and each took a few momentos. I wanted a few things that were my mom's. She had some nice cups and saucers that I just adored. I will probably never have occasion to drink out of such fancy cups and saucers, but she bought them on a trip to Germany and I always thought they were gorgeous.

Here is one of the sets... It's simply a small coffee cup (or tea) with a saucer and a cake plate. It's full of gold but somehow doesn't look in the least bit garrish... it's very art deco.. with it's black and gold design.



Another of the sets is a deep raspberry pink with gold stripes. It is also very much of the same style but not as sleek I guess, softer looking but still very gorgeous.



The third set is a round cup with flowers both on the inside and outside of the cup. This one is more feminine and soft looking with a very pretty handle.



Besides these cups and saucers, I didn't take very much. A nice tablecloth, simple yet summery and fresh looking and a crystal vase. I'm not sure exactly how old I was when my parents bought it while on vacation in Europe, but I remember distinctly always caressing the cut ridges with my fingertips... it fascinated me somehow... the feeling of it, the texture. I always loved that vase. Now, I am not the type of person that would go into a store looking for a crystal vase, it's just not my style, but this is different. It's nostalgic. Funny how the first thing I did when I saw the vase, that was up in one of the bedrooms, was to drag the tip of my finger down it, just like I used to do as a kid.

I filled her with lilacs, irises, bleeding hearts and a small of forget-me-nots. She's so beautiful.





And a closeup where you can see a bit of the cut ridges:



While I was at it I took some pics of my bleeding hearts.. they are spring flowers that are very typical here in the north. Further down south they would just wilt and disappear underground. These flowers are so pretty. They are a brilliant pink heart.. which opens up just like a small locket and appears to let drop a tear. If you look at them very closely, you can often see a drop of water in that white section.. which only goes to prove they really are crying. I've always loved these kinds of flowers.. swooping, swaying.. lilacs, daffodils, daisies, very friendly flowers. I know, that most people love tea roses and orchids, but I just prefer the more informal ones. I guess they ressemble me more, more my style.



I did however take a pic of roses. These are roses from my dad's funeral. I put them upside down and let them dry.



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Besides that, well, I've been the shoulder for Carmen lately. Her husband left her several weeks ago and this week she just found out that he left her for a girl that was someone they had gone out with as 2 couples, someone who she entertained in her house, and a person who she told about what had happened when she met her at the grocery store...who held her and told it "I'm so sorry for you"... can you imagine?

She is so distraught. I wish I could do more for her, but all I can do is listen and try to keep her calm. I make her look at me.. and say... LOOK! I'm fine.. I'm better than ever! I was so broken up a year ago, I never thought I would be able to say those words, but I am much better, happier and stronger. She will be too, it 's just so hard for her to see right now.

I went to see her the other night, yes.. the night I should have blogged... (see, I have a great excuse ;-) ). She called and was really very upset. Her son was supposed to come to her after school and he never showed up. She then found out that not only did he not come over, but that the new-girlfriend had picked him up from school and brought him to her house. See, the thing is she has a boy that is the same age. They play soccer together, and this is actually how her husband and this woman met. Oh... she was a wreck. I stayed with her until she was calm and then got her to bed.

She's started smoking again, after having quit, gosh over 10 years ago... maybe even more. I didn't say anything though.. she's got enough on her mind.

Talking about smoking... my boyfriend sort of half-quit smoking on the weekend. He had no cigs and didn't smoke all weekend. It was a tough weekend, let me tell you. He actually physically was ill. I remember many years ago, when I used to smoke and I quit. Oh, it's over 10 years now and I don't even count how long ago it was anymore, but I never had a reaction like he did. I was tempted to smoke but I would just simply distract myself and I would be fine. I didn't get muscle pain, or stomach-ache etc., I don't know if he will tough out the no-smoking or not. It's just so hard... I know we all say 'cold-turkey' is the way to go... just don't take another and never turn back, but wow.. this was really not easy for him. He probably really needs some sort of help like a nicotine patch to help him get through as it just seems too difficult this way. Saturday he was very ansy without any and although Sunday was better, he was not feeling well all day long. Tomorrow is another day, a new day... whatever happens, I just want him to feel good again.

If you're from Worth and stopped by because of the thread, would be awesome if you left me a note! :-)