Summers Over

Hard to believe summer is over.  Well not officially but the children returning to school is always the start.  Miles is starting high school this year and is really enjoying it.  He is trying out for the football team but from the sounds of it, they try not to turn anyone away.

My niece, Liz came over on the weekend.  She always seems to come when we are eating something good.  We are not big fish eaters but since everyone has become uber healthy, we bought some sardines.  I love grilled sardines.  Hugh gutted them and stuck them on sticks and onto the barbie!  Of course we had to do some shrimp and scallops also.  It was delicious.  I am amazed how everyone loves seafood, I wouldn't touch it when I was their age!

I had also bought some pizza/bread dough.  Though in the end it turned out to be more pizza dough.  I wanted to make the Chinese buns we used to buy downtown on Baldwin St.  The bakery seems to have shutdown and I am having withdrawal symtoms for some fried rice buns.  So I made some curried beef and Detta had made some fried rice.  We made the buns and baked the buns.  They turned out more like Pizza Pockets.  We all enjoyed them and I sent a few home with Liz and a vegie one for her sister.  I will have to try and make proper bread dough and give it a go again.

Sodium101 Part 2

http://www.sodium101.ca/
I was looking at my blog and saw that I didn't put the website so here it is. 

Another good website is Nutrition Action.  I received their newsletter for years, it is short but very informative:
https://www.cspinet.org/nah/index.htm

And if you want a great place to track your food and it's free try eaTracker http://www.eatracker.ca/, this is through the Dietitians of Canada http://www.dietitians.ca/.

And of course there is the Canada' Food Guide http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/fn-an/food-guide-aliment/index-eng.php/ which is always good.

Sodium101

Yes, I am starting to blog again.  I recently found this website Sodium101.  This is close to my heart.  Too much salt is used in our food.  When my daughter was little, two slices of bread would put her over her limit of salt for one day.  I don't think most people realize that - all the hidden salt in our food.  Start looking!!

Cupcakes

Last night Detta went to Oshawa Library - Northview Branch where they had a Cupcake Decorating session for Mother's Day.  All the girls did such a beautiful job decorating their cupcakes.  Here are Detta's, needless to say they didn't last the night.  The cupcakes were by Aunt Aubreys.  They were very good!

The weight loss has had its ups and downs.  Hugh is doing well with over 18 lbs lost.  I gained 4 lbs last week but still have an overall 9 lb loss.  So much of my clothes doesn't fit me.  I need a good clear out of my closet.  Maybe next weekend.

Detta and I are off to Dorchester camp this week with the Pathfinders.  It is going to be a blast, I can't wait.  This is in conjunction with Scouts.  There are lots of good activities to do.  The official name of this camp is Dorchester International Brotherhood Camporee or DIBC.

Weightwatchers

I didn't mention before but Hugh and I joined Weightwatchers about 6 weeks ago.  Today was our regular weigh in, I have lost in total 11 lbs (20 lbs from my heaviest) and Hugh has lost 16 lbs.  I am feeling so much better, I can fit into quite a few items from my closet.  I even managed to put my wedding ring on, now that has been a long time.  I never thought my fingers could get slimmer but they are!!  I think my engagement ring is smaller, it just would not go on.

I finished knitting the baby jacket for my cousin's granddaughter.  I actually finished it on Tuesday.  I started it on Saturday evening.  The pattern called for 2 balls and it was exactly 2 balls.  I probably have enough to sew it together.  It is really cute and I love the way the collar worked out.  I have used the same method on sock heels.  The Smiley Stripes by Sirdar was so nice to knit with.  I have also been using bamboo needles, I still undecided as to what I think of them.

Mother's Day

I had a lovely Mother's Day. Hugh made me breakfast which was delicious. Left over potatoes fried, Hugh does a great job of them with an English muffin and cheese. But there were so many potatoes I gave half to Detta and Hugh. Detta gave me a lovely peppermint scrub and the boys gave me some lovely plants for the garden. Donovan also made a flower for me.

Then the boys and I headed off to Church. I think Donovan is really enjoying himself. I may yet have Miles and Donovan baptized. After Church, we went back to Kath's house. Another little boy came along which I think helped keep the arguing to a minimum. Alan made us grilled cheese sandwiches and Miles had crackers and cheese.

After lunch Kath and I looked at the material I had brought over. I wanted to make some knitting bags with them. Knitting bags for my different projects, better than plastic bags and prettier. So I had this lovely purplish silk scarf so we split it in two and had a bag each. It was nice to be able to reuse something rather than purchasing more "stuff". We added some beads on the bottom to give the bags some weight.

I gave Kath her gifts which I had bought at the Knitters Frolic. She loved the antique sock stretchers. I was going to keep one but then I thought that is silly. Who only knits one sock, it is much easier to block both socks at the same time. I will have to buy a set another time (I am only on my second set of socks)

Cheese Cakes

Anyways the picture presentation went really well. I picked Joan up and away we went. New Zealand is definitely a very scenic country. It is one place I will probably never make it to. I can't really see my husband doing all the walking that Alan and Katherine did. They did a blog while they were away which is on my list of links. Midway through the presentation, we stopped and had coffee/tea and dessert. The cheese cakes were a hit with everyone.

Yesterday, Kath and I made a whole bunch of cheese cakes. Kath and Alan are having a presentation of pictures from their 3 month trip to New Zealand. It is being held at their local church.

I drove up after the school assembly. Miles was presented with a Lion Leadership Award. He was very pleased with it. Detta was in the Battle of the Books and her team placed 4th, just missing out on going to Provincials. Hugh and I didn't even know she was in it!

I put all the graham crackers through the food processor. Kath mixed in the butter and sugar while I started on the cream cheese. Then we started the dream whip and mixed it with the cream cheese. This is the uncooked, fridge method of cheese cakes. We had a large assortment of dishes to put this all in. Then we had cherries and blueberries to put on top. I took one home and did up a mixture of blackberries and raspberries (which I took back the next day).

What a couple of Days

On Tuesday night, Kath called me and asked if I wanted to come over to her friends on Wednesday as she was dying!!! I thought that seemed a bit strange. Why would I want to watch someone dying!! What Kath meant to come and see some fabric being dyed!

So on Wednesday morning after my dentist appointment which went very well except at my next appointment I am having my gums measured. My husband informed me that it is excruciatingly painful, thanks for that darling. Anyways I went to meet Kath. I know Kath's friend also but we will just call her Mrs. P.
Mrs. P was demonstrating how to dye wool for hooking. She was finishing dying the background for a friendship rug. We had a very good demonstration on dying fabric though I can't remember what this method is called.

While the material was cooking/steaming, we went through a bunch of Mrs. P's quilt and rug books. I just might hook a rug myself. I found one of a cow I really liked. I also finished the heel on my sock. We then left there and had lunch in Orono. I had a beef sandwich with fries, delicious. By the time we got to Kath's house there wasn't much time to help pin her rugs but I did get the wool to start a hat to match the baby sweator Kath knit for her friend Jan's daughter.

I was home by 5:30 and started casting on the hat. After a couple of trys I got it right and started knitting. But then it was dinner, Hugh cooked a lovely dinner of baked chicken, vegies and rice. It was delicious. Everyone loves this chicken.

Then Detta and I were off to Pathfinders. We were all meeting at Greenwood Conservation area and going for a hike. Detta and I forgot our whistles, water and flashlights. We were not very well prepared. Anyways the hike was great, what a workout. This is the trail I was trying to find when we went on the snake hunt at Easter. The boys would love this, right by the river and lots of mud. I was so sore, up and down hills. I want to do it again this weekend. My legs and butt were killing me.

I knit more on the hat while watching CSI. I did say I was going to stop watching CSI. The episodes seem to be in for the thrill factor and their lack of wearing protective gear for the crime scene is beginning to irritate me. I just love all the high heels and loose hair!!!!

Today I headed to Kath's early. I was so stiff I could hardly get out of bed but I was there by 9am! We had some coffee and Kath started to put the finishing edge on her carpet. I think it is called 'Queen Anne's Lace'. It is so pretty. I kept knitting at the hat and finished it. The curly q's on the top look so cute. It was a good morning and afternoon.

I had a really had a surprise when I came into work. I had a message from one of the staff in the fashion dept. Earlier in the week I had bought some raffle tickets and then you put them in the envelope of the item that interests you. Well I had put all of mine in this Dior make up set (there were quite a few of them). So guess what, I won one!!! YES. I better go and buy a lottery ticket now.

Drive Thru's

Why do I use them? I have made it a standard practice for myself not to use Drive Thru's. I have been doing this for the past few years. But yesterday, the children and I went to the KFC drive thru. We placed our order and paid. Then we were told the popcorn chicken would take 3 minutes and could we drive around to the doors and wait, I said sure. 8 minutes later I had had enough and walked in, the food was just being put in the bags. I don't mind waiting, especially if the food is freshly cooked but tell me 8 minutes not 3!!!

You think that would have been enough for me but at the next stop, Wendys, I went to the drive thru. We placed our order and went to pay. Well my bank card wouldn't work. They swiped a pile of times and no luck. I then had the supervisor tell me it was because my bank card wasn't a chip card and perhaps I should have it changed. I informed the supervisor that the card had been used less 10 minutes ago and there was nothing wrong with my card. So I then gave them my credit card, lo and behold, it didn't work either!! The supervisor then asked me if I could come inside and pay as the hand held device wasn't working!! What a surprise, no apology mind you. So I went inside to pay and then asked to speak to the manager. I told the manager that I did not appreciate her staff giving me a lecture on my bank card . She didn't even give me an apology and just said she didn't know anything about my issue. You would think if a customer asked for the manager, they might take a few moments to discover what the problem was especially as it took this manager some time to come and speak with me. As you can tell I was totally unimpressed by the service I received. I made a complaint on their website.

I think I will go back to my old method of parking and going in. I thought that since there was no queue, it would be quick. That was the reason I stopped using Drive Thru's because of the lineups. I don't like to waste my fuel sitting idling in a queue. Also it is nice to see and speak to a person when you place an order.

Christmas Day

The children didn't wake us up too early. They are supposed to open their stockings (we use pillowcases) in their rooms, that was the way we did it in my family but they all came in our room and piled on our bed. I am so glad we have a king size bed with all these people on it. After the stockings we headed downstairs.

Hugh and I even managed to get dressed before the presents were opened. Everyone was in a mad rush to open gifts. Donovan loved his new guitar for the WII guitar hero. Miles received a load of Lego and Detta had a new painting set with travel case. Plus there were some other stuff for them also.
I turned the tv on to Citytv for the fireplace but they didn't do it this year. I was so disappointed. Hugh and I got the potatoes roasting. Hugh very kindly peeled them last night after I went to bed.

Then we headed off to Anne's. Next year I think we will have to start just a little later. Twelve noon is pushing it to get all of us ready to go. There were lots of people, Anne, Al, Alex, Liz, Joan, Tom, Kath, Alan, Andrew, Sue, Aimee, Lizzie's friend (can't remember her name), Margot, Sandy (Alex and Liz's uncle) plus Hugh, me, Detta, Miles and Donovan. Nineteen people in total. As soon as I heated the bacon wrapped sausages up, people were stealing them. I had to swip a few hands.

Dinner was fabulous. There was so much food. We then opened some more presents which was mayhem. I think next year we should wait till the tables are put away.

Christmas Eve

Detta had a great birthday. Kath, Sue and Aimme came over. We all went to Pizza Hut for lunch. This was Detta's choice this year. Pizza Hut had their lunch buffet which the children loved. Then we all walked over to Dairy Queen and had dessert.

Earlier in the week, Anne and Elizabeth came over with gingerbread houses and trains. Detta, Alex (Detta's friend) and Donovan all decorated. It was lots of fun. Miles was out at karate. He now has his orange belt. Anyways back to Detta's birthday. Anne also brought a cake with her. So we had cake and ice cream.

Detta received lots of good presents. We gave her a portable DVD player. I am sure she will get lots of use of it. You can even plug in a memory stick and play movies off that.

Sue and Aimme are here in Canada for a visit. Sue is a good friend of my sister, Joan and lives in Australia. Aimme is the same age as Miles.

I managed to get the mushroom and apricot stuffing ready yesterday. It is mainly for the vegetarians since there are lots of nuts and seeds in it. But I used gluten free bread so Kath could eat it also. Plus I wrapped all the sausages with bacon, there are at least 40 of them. Then Hugh and I made two batches of German biscuits. I bought rice, potato and some other gluten free flour to use in the German biscuits.

Min's Visit

Our friend Min (Munindra) was in Toronto for work from the UK. We used to go to the pub every Friday night with a large group of friends and Min was one of them. The guys used to all drink ESB which Hugh still misses. I usually had half a bitter. Everyone called the pub, the Slaughtered Lamb (after a Werewolf in London) but it was actually called the Goat House. But Min was telling us it is not there anymore, it has been torn down!!

Anyways he was over here to work on some project with Rogers. He emailed me out of the blue and said he had a few extra days. So Hugh and I made arrangements to meet him at College Park for lunch. Min is a vegetarian so we went to a Thai restaurant. I am not too particular about Thai food but in actual fact it was quite good. We had a great time chatting about old times, friends and life in general.

Afterwards Min wasn't up to much so we invited him back to our house to meet the family. As usual it was quite hectic, Miles to Tai Kwan Do, Detta to skating. But he got to see the house and meet the children. The last time he saw Detta, she was about 3 years old and Miles was 1, (Donovan wasn't even a twinkle).

It was great to see him. I didn't meet up with this group of friends when I was England. I should have made more of an effort, oh well.

Cookie Exchange

Well I made 6 dozen German Biscuits for a cookie exchange. This was a first time for everyone taking part. Of course, I left making my cookies to the day before. I popped out to the grocery store to buy plum jam but there wasn't any!!! I ended up going to three different grocery stores and none of them had plum jam. I did know of a European deli/shop near where I used to live in Toronto so away I went. They had lots of plum jam!! So I headed home and started making cookies.

Hugh and I made two batches at the same time. There is so much butter in these cookies. We ended up with a assembly line of cookies. Hugh was rolling and cutting out, I was putting the plum jam between the cookies and Detta & her friend were doing the icing and cherries. Detta & her friend ended up helping with rolling and cutting out also. They had lots of fun. Did anyone notice the yellow bowl? I bought a set of those old pyrex bowls in the different colours. My Mum had a set.


We all needed a much earned break after all this so we went off to Lynde Shores Conservation Area with some bird seed. We did a short walk on the bird trail. We put seeds in our hands and the little birds would come and take some seeds. Detta's friend had never done this before and she really enjoyed it. But it was freezing!!! If you click on the picture, you can see the birds in Detta & her friends hands. Everyone had a bird in their hand at one time or another. If anyone can help identify the birds, please let me know.

My Day

Had a quiet day for my birthday. We decided to leave dinner till the weekend since Miles has robotic club till 7pm. I opened my presents. I received the DK Star Wars Lego Visual Dictionary which I love, a Star Wars Lego set, the 3D Monopoly and a box of Turtles.

We haven't had a chance to play the Monopoly game yet but it seems a little more complicated than the original one. Miles, Donovan and I have poured over the Lego Visual Dictionary. I didn't realize it has only been 10 years since Lego started making sets for Star Wars. I have it beside my bed and Miles also borrows it every night to pour over. It even comes with a unique mini figure of Luke Skywalker!

For my birthday dinner, we went to the Imperial Buffet. The children love it because they get so much choice. Actually their sushi bar is very good. And the chocolate fountain was in operation!! YUMMY!!

Craigslist

Today I have been searching Craigslist for a desk. I am in the midst of redecorating my daughter's bedroom. I finally found a desk I liked so tonight we are going to Kensington Market to pick it up. Detta has a new bed and on Saturday, we are heading back to Ikea to buy the wardrobes for her. These wardrobes only have shelves in them so no more drawers. I am hoping this will help to keep her room tidier or is that just wishful thinking!!

I forgot to mention, the tacos were delicious the other night. I had a taco salad for lunch yesterday and today.

Tacos Tonight

I am so looking forward to dinner tonight. I bought a huge ground beef and cooked up 2/3's of it with taco seasoning, salsa, onions, celery and of course, the juice from a tin of pineapples. Yes, we have pineapple with our tacos. Hugh being British never had tacos at home until I introduced him to them. Hugh added the pineapple to our tacos many years ago and it has always stuck. I did add a couple of packages of soya mince to the mixture also. It just seems like too much red meat to eat at one sitting. There will be plenty of leftovers so I bought large tortilla shells. I will put together a couple of dishes of enchiladas. All this talk of Mexican food is making me hungry for Hernando's Hideaway on Yonge Street.

The other third of beef I just fried up with some onions, celery and another package of soya mince. That one is in the freezer, the in case of what do we cook for dinner.

We did manage to make up a menu this week, something we haven't done in a while. In this way we can buy the groceries we actually need for the week. I did find frozen pizzas on sale, our favourite ones, McCain Crescendo Rise 'n Crust, only $2.97. A very good deal so I bought 15. We will actually go back and buy some more. If we take them out of the boxes, we can fit more in the freezer. We have pizza every Friday night and ordering out for it, is just too expensive. But the children do like these ones.

Halloween

The big event is finally over. OMG, the trauma of it all. I told my children, next year we will NOT buy anything. All the costumes must be homemade. Miles spent over $20.00 on bits and pieces and then decided he must have horns!! Well do you think we could find horns, NO. But then this was yesterday. Detta wanted vampire teeth. I did buy some earlier in the week but they had diamonds in them. So yesterday we went to Party Packagers, these things cost over $25.00 but the queue was to the back of the store, so we said forget it!!

Anyways everyone wore what they had. Anne and Joan came over and decorated Miles' face. He looked very good. Detta went over to her friend's house. She had these boots on that made her at least 5' 10". Detta towered over me. I did find out later that after half a block, her feet were killing her. Hugh took the boys out with their friends so he had to herd 6 little rambunctious boys through the neighbourhood.
Anne and Joan popped out and bought 2 buckets of KFC. Then Al and Tom also came over. We made short work of the chicken but I managed to save some for Hugh. But by the children got home, they were starving so Miles and Detta finished off the rest.

We didn't have a lot of visitors this year. There were probably only about 25 children, if that. I don't know if it was because it was so windy or with all this H1N1 stuff going on.

Mushrooms

There recently was an interesting article in the Globe and Mail - DIY fungi. Now this is something I would love to try. Not that I am particularly a big fan of shitake or oyster mushrooms but I certainly would give it a go. My backyard is not that glamorous so a log would probably be a great focus point.

I recently borrowed a book from the library call the Knopf Mushroom Book. It was very interesting. I didn't realise that there were so many poisonous mushrooms. Not that I pick wild mushrooms, well I would pick morels. Maybe next spring I will organise an outing and find a location to pick some.

Salt

I was reading some interesting articles in the Globe and Mail online - Hard to Shake. There is this really cool Salt Calculator or rather Salt-O-Meter. It really is amazing how much salt there is in processed food. I was allowing my sons to use soya sauce. I think I need to monitor this more than I was already. I do love my potato chips though.

I also had a look on the BBC website. When I was there last summer, my cousin mentioned that there was a government push to reduce the amount of salt at restaurants and prepared food. Our government should be doing the same thing, it certainly would reduce health costs

Thanksgiving

Well Thanksgiving is past. We had a wonderful dinner. I bought a 20lb turkey and there was only 9 of us for dinner. There was roast potatoes, roast sweet potatoes, brussels sprouts with bacon, carrots, broccoli and cauliflower, oh and stuffing. Though this year I didn't make the stuffing from scratch. Andrew, Lizzie and Joan were with us and Tom came later after work. Joan made a wonderful dessert, Better than pumpkin pie. At least that is what I think it is called. It had this lovely cream filling and then Joan put caramel bits on top with hot caramel sauce - mmm mmm good.









The previous week has flown by. I had a lovely dinner with Tom and Joan on Tuesday evening. The courgettes with breadcrumbs were delicious and there was carrots and beets. The pork chops also were done with breadcrumbs but I believe these were Japanese breadcrumbs. It was all very tasty.

Then on Wednesday, one of my old professors (though she isn't old), asked me if I was still looking for work. She had someone call up looking for a person who could catalogue and she thought of me. Anyways she put the two of us together and I had an interview after work at Environment Canada. It would be a temporary contract through an agency so essentially not a job with the government. But the pay was so low I just couldn't accept it. I emailed her on Thursday to tell her. Come Thursday evening she called me and said if she could get more money for the position would I still be interested. So I said yes. So the short of it is I have registered with a employment agency and will have to wait and see what happens.

Detta and Hugh went out on Saturday and bought the paint for her room. As of today, Detta and I have painted two coats of the purple and one coat of the orange, yes purple and orange. But we chose "nice" purple and orange. I still need to do one more coat of the orange paint. I think Detta wants a stripe, I really shouldn't have suggested it!!

And tonight, there was a call on our home phone from 'Laurie's Cell'. Well I wasn't going to answer the phone because I thought it was one of the children having fun. Miles answered the phone and didn't know who it was so I took it. It seems I dropped my phone while I was at the grocery store. I have a pocket on the side of my purse where I have been keeping my cell phone lately. It won't be there any more. So I drove by the person's house and picked my cell phone. I think I may write the Star about this for their section on the kindness of strangers.