Monday, January 25, 2010
Thursday, December 31, 2009
2009 wrap-up
I haven't been very good at blogging lately so I figure a catch-up post before the new year is in order.
Culture
Holly and I went to the Sleeping Beauty ballet. It was beautiful, but very, very long. 3 hours was a bit much. The evening overall was a lot of fun though. We had dinner at Penelope's and then had tea at starbucks before the ballet.
We also got to see The Nutcracker. SL sponsors the ballet and each year they get some tickets to the final dress rehearsal. Jer and I entered our names into the draw to see it and Jer won 4 tickets! We took Holly and her friend Diana and it was a lot of fun. We had box seats in the grand ring which had its own door to the box and hangers for your coats and lots of leg room. It was pretty sweet. During intermission we saw Ron MacLean. Oh, and the actual ballet was pretty good too. The first part was less ballet and more dancing, but the second part was more traditional ballet and I enjoyed it more. The highlight was Jer thinking the horse was real, even while the horse was dancing.
A coworker and I went and saw the Shanghai orchestra. They came to Toronto and played at Roy Thomson Hall for one night. The first half had an amazing pianist and I loved it. Afterwards she played some solo encore pieces which were spectacular. The second half was much different. I didn't quite 'get' it. It sounded like psycho knife sounds and screaming. Ie. it was totally lost on me. I'd need to hear a lot more of it to understand and appreciate it. A little bonus to the performance was that we got to sit behind and slightly above the orchestra. I loved it. It felt like being in the orchestra. I could even see sheet music.
Jer's 30th Birthday
Jer was dreading turning 30 for quite a while so I made it my mission to make it enjoyable. We started off by taking the Friday before his birthday off and had a nice breakfast while watching Up. Then in the afternoon we went to see Cirque du Soleil. They did some crazy impressive things like normal which was fun. Jer had never been before and loved it. When we got home, we heated up some shepherd's pie and had a relaxing evening.
On the Saturday was Jer's actual birthday and to start things off I had a surprise for Jer. I managed to keep it a secret although it was difficult because I was excited about it. All he knew was we were going to the distillery district for two to four hours. We went to this old building with exposed ceilings and brick walls and took a waltz lesson! There were two other couples with us and the teacher was great. The two hours flew by and afterwards we practised for a while. We gad a lot of fun. For dinner we had lamb and sweet potato fries then opened gifts. Jer wanted a new man purse for his birthday so I found him a nice, dark brown, leather man purse to celebrate him being all grown up haha. Then we were off to meet everyone to go to Second City. The show was hilarious and people started getting Jer drunk. Afterwards we went to Fionn MacCools for drinks and cake. It was a lot of fun and nobody could tell my cake didn't have wheat or refined sugar in it. To end the evening Jer and I bought a pineapple and mango from Rabba.
Christmas
Work is really busy in December and January for me so all I could take off was Christmas eve. After work on the 23rd we went to Jer's parents. We watched a really bad made-for-tv movie which we mocked so it was a lot of fun. We had some quiet time on Christmas eve before everyone showed up, including 7 kids, when the chaos began. There were many presents and lots of good food. Jer's sister made me a special batch of cabbage rolls that had chicken and brown rice with carrots and squash instead of beef, white rice, and tomatoes. It tasted great and I really appreciated the effort. Christmas morning we took off to Kincardine and had presents and yummy food with my mom. We stayed a couple days in Kincardine and since it was winter there wasn't much to do. We went to the grocery store and the bulk barn. Exciting stuff, I know.
This past week we've been working, so tonight, Jer and I are going to celebrate our Christmas. We're having shepherd's pie (yes, it's one of our favourites), apple crisp, and present. Oh, and champagne for New Year's!! Tomorrow we'll head to my dad's to visit with them, and we'll make a trip to Peterborough to visit my grandmas. At that point Christmas 2009 will officially be over. Well, I guess after we pack up the Christmas tree it will be official.
Random
I haven't had any refined sugar or wheat in over 4 months. It's hard to believe it was possible. My go to dinner was some form of pasta and a day without sugar was unheard of. I went from eating a bag of chocolate in a night until I felt sick cause I couldn't stop myself, to having ferroro rochers in my apartment and not giving them a second glance. At the beginning I would get sad and long for treats when I saw other people eating it but now I'm indifferent to them. My favourite cake and sweets I just shrug at now. I am very happy I've gotten my brain off needing sugar. And I've discovered I love walnuts.
Happy New Year!
Culture
Holly and I went to the Sleeping Beauty ballet. It was beautiful, but very, very long. 3 hours was a bit much. The evening overall was a lot of fun though. We had dinner at Penelope's and then had tea at starbucks before the ballet.
We also got to see The Nutcracker. SL sponsors the ballet and each year they get some tickets to the final dress rehearsal. Jer and I entered our names into the draw to see it and Jer won 4 tickets! We took Holly and her friend Diana and it was a lot of fun. We had box seats in the grand ring which had its own door to the box and hangers for your coats and lots of leg room. It was pretty sweet. During intermission we saw Ron MacLean. Oh, and the actual ballet was pretty good too. The first part was less ballet and more dancing, but the second part was more traditional ballet and I enjoyed it more. The highlight was Jer thinking the horse was real, even while the horse was dancing.
A coworker and I went and saw the Shanghai orchestra. They came to Toronto and played at Roy Thomson Hall for one night. The first half had an amazing pianist and I loved it. Afterwards she played some solo encore pieces which were spectacular. The second half was much different. I didn't quite 'get' it. It sounded like psycho knife sounds and screaming. Ie. it was totally lost on me. I'd need to hear a lot more of it to understand and appreciate it. A little bonus to the performance was that we got to sit behind and slightly above the orchestra. I loved it. It felt like being in the orchestra. I could even see sheet music.
Jer's 30th Birthday
Jer was dreading turning 30 for quite a while so I made it my mission to make it enjoyable. We started off by taking the Friday before his birthday off and had a nice breakfast while watching Up. Then in the afternoon we went to see Cirque du Soleil. They did some crazy impressive things like normal which was fun. Jer had never been before and loved it. When we got home, we heated up some shepherd's pie and had a relaxing evening.
On the Saturday was Jer's actual birthday and to start things off I had a surprise for Jer. I managed to keep it a secret although it was difficult because I was excited about it. All he knew was we were going to the distillery district for two to four hours. We went to this old building with exposed ceilings and brick walls and took a waltz lesson! There were two other couples with us and the teacher was great. The two hours flew by and afterwards we practised for a while. We gad a lot of fun. For dinner we had lamb and sweet potato fries then opened gifts. Jer wanted a new man purse for his birthday so I found him a nice, dark brown, leather man purse to celebrate him being all grown up haha. Then we were off to meet everyone to go to Second City. The show was hilarious and people started getting Jer drunk. Afterwards we went to Fionn MacCools for drinks and cake. It was a lot of fun and nobody could tell my cake didn't have wheat or refined sugar in it. To end the evening Jer and I bought a pineapple and mango from Rabba.
Christmas
Work is really busy in December and January for me so all I could take off was Christmas eve. After work on the 23rd we went to Jer's parents. We watched a really bad made-for-tv movie which we mocked so it was a lot of fun. We had some quiet time on Christmas eve before everyone showed up, including 7 kids, when the chaos began. There were many presents and lots of good food. Jer's sister made me a special batch of cabbage rolls that had chicken and brown rice with carrots and squash instead of beef, white rice, and tomatoes. It tasted great and I really appreciated the effort. Christmas morning we took off to Kincardine and had presents and yummy food with my mom. We stayed a couple days in Kincardine and since it was winter there wasn't much to do. We went to the grocery store and the bulk barn. Exciting stuff, I know.
This past week we've been working, so tonight, Jer and I are going to celebrate our Christmas. We're having shepherd's pie (yes, it's one of our favourites), apple crisp, and present. Oh, and champagne for New Year's!! Tomorrow we'll head to my dad's to visit with them, and we'll make a trip to Peterborough to visit my grandmas. At that point Christmas 2009 will officially be over. Well, I guess after we pack up the Christmas tree it will be official.
Random
I haven't had any refined sugar or wheat in over 4 months. It's hard to believe it was possible. My go to dinner was some form of pasta and a day without sugar was unheard of. I went from eating a bag of chocolate in a night until I felt sick cause I couldn't stop myself, to having ferroro rochers in my apartment and not giving them a second glance. At the beginning I would get sad and long for treats when I saw other people eating it but now I'm indifferent to them. My favourite cake and sweets I just shrug at now. I am very happy I've gotten my brain off needing sugar. And I've discovered I love walnuts.
Happy New Year!
Wednesday, December 09, 2009
Christmas timeish
To get in the spirit of Christmas, this past weekend Jer and I got out our Christmas decorations. We made lamb and sweet potato fries for dinner, with peach and blueberry cobbler for dessert. Afterward we put on barenaked ladies Christmas carols and put up our Christmas tree.
While we were decorating the tree, I was playing with a friend's SLR camera to see if I might like to have one. I enjoyed playing with it. Now I will post my favourite picture from last year using my point and shoot, and this year using the SLR.
While we were decorating the tree, I was playing with a friend's SLR camera to see if I might like to have one. I enjoyed playing with it. Now I will post my favourite picture from last year using my point and shoot, and this year using the SLR.
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Fun food
Lately food has been extremely boring. My elimination diet cuts out so many foods I feel like I'm eating the same stuff over and over, none of which is all that good. The only stuff I'm not sick of is my morning fruit smoothie.
This weekend, I took a break from the monotony and had some really great food.
I took a walk to the Healthy Butcher to get some lamb. It's September, which means the lamb born in spring are ready to be my dinner. Baaaaa. I went with some leg meat, stuffed it with garlic and mint, and roasted it in the oven. Soo freaking good.
Tonight, it was fish. And I don't really like fish. I can enjoy it deep fried in batter with a lot of tartar sauce, but that's it really. We've had tilapia a couple of times and the one time it was okay, the other time bleah. But I'm trying to eat more fish, so it was time to try the Black Cod I picked up at the Healthy Butcher the other week. We just fried it in olive oil and topped it with some garlic. I had some cabbage sauteed in some olive oil and spices in case I needed to eat the fish with something to mask the taste, but I was very surprised. This fish was amazing. It was rich and not fishy at all. Want. More!
Maybe one day I'll get to a real post, but until then, yay food!
This weekend, I took a break from the monotony and had some really great food.
I took a walk to the Healthy Butcher to get some lamb. It's September, which means the lamb born in spring are ready to be my dinner. Baaaaa. I went with some leg meat, stuffed it with garlic and mint, and roasted it in the oven. Soo freaking good.
Tonight, it was fish. And I don't really like fish. I can enjoy it deep fried in batter with a lot of tartar sauce, but that's it really. We've had tilapia a couple of times and the one time it was okay, the other time bleah. But I'm trying to eat more fish, so it was time to try the Black Cod I picked up at the Healthy Butcher the other week. We just fried it in olive oil and topped it with some garlic. I had some cabbage sauteed in some olive oil and spices in case I needed to eat the fish with something to mask the taste, but I was very surprised. This fish was amazing. It was rich and not fishy at all. Want. More!
Maybe one day I'll get to a real post, but until then, yay food!
Wednesday, July 01, 2009
All about the pork tenderloin
Work has been driving me a little crazy lately. Constant questions with quick turnaround required and my brain is tired. Whenever I think the questions have stopped I get bombarded with more. Ack!
Today was a much needed breather. We had a nice easy day by taking a walk by the waterfront, and then I did some cleaning and baking. For supper we made more pork tenderloin with a blueberry bbq sauce which was delicious. Then we ate some chocolate chip cookies. Buttery chocolaty goodness. We finished the night watching the fireworks from Jer's, but the smoke hung around so you couldn't actually see much of them. What we could see was fun though.
Today was a much needed breather. We had a nice easy day by taking a walk by the waterfront, and then I did some cleaning and baking. For supper we made more pork tenderloin with a blueberry bbq sauce which was delicious. Then we ate some chocolate chip cookies. Buttery chocolaty goodness. We finished the night watching the fireworks from Jer's, but the smoke hung around so you couldn't actually see much of them. What we could see was fun though.
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