Showing posts with label weekend. Show all posts
Showing posts with label weekend. Show all posts

Saturday, April 23, 2011

Happy birthday, Freyja!

It's hard to believe that this cute little puppy...


...turned into this beautiful dog.


But it's true. 

And we got to celebrate her first birthday yesterday!


First, we opened presents...


Which she's really starting to get the hang of...


And even a dog friendly birthday card. Made of rawhide, of course. 


All in all, three presents and a birthday card... could the day have gotten any better?

Of course... there had to be cake.

The bf took the photo, so I apologize for the blurriness

If I don't get a post out tomorrow, have a happy Easter, everyone!





Sunday, April 17, 2011

Frittata 101

Every Sunday, we try to make a real breakfast. 

Sometimes, the bf cooks, some times I do.

But last weekend, I wanted to do something different than eggs over easy with bacon and toast, which is pretty typical around here.

So I did a little searching for something new... And decided to make a frittata.

I love eggs, but I'm always nervous about under cooking them and doing something like a frittata or a quiche seemed beyond my abilities, but I gave it a go anyway.

And it's super easy. And reheatable. And versatile.

And just to show you, here's my recipe:

Ingredients:

- 8 large eggs
-1/2 cup milk
-salt & pepper
- whatever you want to put in it: meat, veggies, cheese etc.
-1 tbsp olive oil

Method:


1) Scramble your eggs with a whisk


2) Add milk. I used skim this time, but I used left over half & half last week. Turned out great both times.


3) Add cheese if you want to. I usually use about 1/2 cup, but the bf shredded it right into the bowl for me and I'd estimate this is closer to 3/4 cup.


4) Add whatever seasonings you want. I used about 1/2 tsp pepper, 1/4 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp garlic power (not  garlic salt!)

Note: You want to mix the eggs VERY well. Use a whisk to incorporate as much air as you can so your frittata will be very light a fluffy.


5) Heat (on medium) 1 tbsp olive oil in a 12" pan. MAKE SURE it can go in the oven, because you're going to put the whole pan under the broiler at the end.


6) Chop up everything that needs to cook for awhile. I used misc breakfast meats we had on hand and onions. 


7) Toss in pan and cook.



8) Next, chop up any thing that's pre-cooked or doesn't have to cook for very long. I used spinach and mushrooms.


I added the mushrooms when the meat was almost done, just so they'd cook a little bit.


If  you're using spinach, toss it in once everything is done.


It will wilt really, really fast. It only took about 30 seconds.

You're also going to want to turn the broiler on here, so it'll be hot when you put the pan in the oven.


9) Once all the meats/veggies are cooked, toss in the egg/milk/cheese mixture


10) Scramble the mixture. When it's scrambled but still wet (still too raw to eat), even it out and let cook for about two minutes.

The whole point of doing this is to let the bottom set up.


11) Pull the top of the eggs aside with a spatula to check the bottom. It will look more like done scrambled eggs, while the top will still be very wet.

12) Even everything back out and stick the pan under the broiler. You want it about 6 inches away from the broiler. 

Another note: You can top it with more cheese before putting it in the oven if you want to.

13) Broil until top is browned and a knife inserted in the center comes out ALMOST clean. Leaving in the oven until done will result in dry eggs.


14) Let rest for 5 minutes. This will allow the eggs to finish cooking without drying out.


15) Cut into 6-8 slices, serve and enjoy!

Freyja's a little jealous when we make breakfast...


But she's having breakfast with Rocky the Raccoon instead.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Saturday, April 16, 2011

I've been a bad blogger

No, really, I have. My re-found love of my kindle has kept me reading for days...

And lately, I've been reading Joanne Fluke's Hannah Swensen Mysteries. If you like murder mysteries and an easy read, they might be for you... The main character is a baker (and I'm realizing how lame and ridiculous it seems as I type it) and the author lists recipes in the book, much like the Leslie Meier Lucy Stone Series, if you've read those.

So I've been baking. I made an awesome batch of peanut butter cookies from my favorite cookbook:

And they were gone so quickly, I never had a chance to take a picture.

So, I decided to make my FAVORITE cookies in the whole wide world: ginger molasses cookies.

I was so excited to finally have the ingredients and the bf wanted to help. Somehow, I got distracted... It happens to me a lot when I'm baking. My mom can attest to my many baking fails growing up. But I'd been on such a roll and I don't think I'd messed anything up in at least a year.

But, I only added half the flour needed.

So they looked less like this:

Courtesy of my mom @ Red Gate Farm
And more like this:


They taste fine, but they aren't the cookies I grew up eating.

I think I'll have to give it another go today.

On a better note, the table is DONE!

It looks quite different in different light, so I did one photo with and one without flash:

With flash

Without flash


With Miss Freyja playing fetch in the background

I love the new chairs. Not only are they much more comfortable than the old ones, but I don't feel like my chin is on the table when I'm eating.

And the chairs still need some work done...


Sorry it's so blurry; my camera didn't want to focus (and you can see we really do live in a basement!). But some of the joints need to be re-glued....


And I'd like to recover and re-pad the seats... Maybe something from tonicliving.com?

I haven't decided anything on that front yet.


Freyja seems to feel right at home at the table....


Maybe the salt and pepper shakers are at fault?

And an EVEN BETTER note, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 came out on blu-ray yesterday, so we picked it up at Costco.

For those of you who don't know, I'm a big Harry Potter nerd. 


Lucky for me, it's stormy outside. I'll be on the couch in my sweats for the next few hours dorking out to my favorite guilty pleasure if you need me :)

Sunday, April 10, 2011

A walk in the park

I've been pretty distracted this week... Which isn't good for my blog... or keeping up with the housekeeping work.

Last Sunday, while playing with little Freyja, it got a little out of hand and she scratched my cornea. Fortunately it wasn't bad and I'm fully recovered, but it made for a rough start to the week.

And school started this week! For those of you who don't know, I'm studying for my advanced paralegal certificate... And reading 6 chapters on Medical Paralegal Law, it takes a lot of time.

Speaking of reading, I also broke out my Kindle again this week. I haven't used it in months and after using it 3 days straight, I can't seem to put it down...

I did manage to stop reading on Saturday for a little outing. First stop: Starbucks.

Anyone know what these cute little boxes hold?


Starbucks mini cupcakes.... I'd never seen them before and we just had to try them.


On the left, carrot cake for me and the right, chocolate peanut butter for the bf


After our Starbucks run, we took Freyja for a walk in our favorite park. It was a gorgeous day and surprisingly warm. 


It's really starting to feel like spring, even if there is no evidence of that in the plants.


Freyja had a blast, as always.


But she was one tired pooch when we got home.


And she really likes to cuddle up.


We also put the final coat of stain/poly on the new dining room table... I'm really hoping we can get it moved in sometime today.

And for dinner? It was so nice, we decided to do all of our cooking outside.


We just couldn't bring ourselves to go inside when it was so nice and warm.

Hope you all are having a great weekend!

Saturday, March 26, 2011

Sick Day #2

Now we're both not feeling so hot... Today will be pretty unproductive and lazy.

But we did give Freyja a much needed bath and toothbrushing last night

Post-bath
The hooded bunny towel was a Christmas gift from the bf's mom... Freyja only hates it because it means she's all wet. 

Mid-brushing

She really doesn't like having her teeth brushed, but sometimes, it's just necessary...

Hope the rest of you are having a more productive weekend :)

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

New dining set!

I've been spending a lot of time on craigslist/kijiji looking at new dining room tables and chairs. What we have now is fine:

Yep, that's a dog on the table.
But it's not something I want to have forever. So I found a set I liked and we drove an hour to get it.

That wouldn't be that big of a deal if we had a truck, but we drove home like this:


It's a good thing the bf and I have experience tying down sailboats, or this could have been a complete disaster...


We unpacked everything out of the car and here's what we came home with:

A dining room table w/ leaf
4 chairs
A hutch





Unfortunately, the table got a little damaged in the move... We were planning on refinishing the whole set anyway, so it's happening sooner rather than later.










We're not sure when the furniture is from, exactly (we think the 50's), but it all has these cool old tags still on it. I'm going to have to  do a little research on this, I think.

And we don't have room for the hutch downstairs... so we're leaving it upstairs for now until we're in a place that has more room... It will be replacing the rickety old bookshelf.




We started the refinishing work this weekend, starting with the leaf in case we seriously messed something up. And let me tell you, it was a lot of work. Whatever they used to seal tables when this was made, it works.

The leaf, after one coat

The bf hard at work

Still sanding, 45 minutes later

Even I did some of the work...


And after an hour and a half of sanding... We were finally done.


It's still a little wet here, but you get the effect. I'm just hoping we get some nicer days so we can get this table inside and use it!

And Freyja? She wasn't much help at all. 


She played fetch for about an hour...


And then decided it was nap time.


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