tuesday night

Drove home in the rain.

Ate a quesadilla.

Didn't bake cookies. 

Watched hockey.

Live.

Husband proclaimed "baby's first game!"

Husband watched intently while I took photos of his head.

Canucks win. All is well.

bookmarks

I still haven't made anything. I ran out of flour earlier in the week and just haven't replaced it yet. But of course, all week I've been surfing my favourite blogs and finding things I want to bake.

My bookmarks are out of control. With Christmas cookies, and cakes, and quick breads, and brownies.

Time to share!

- This cake. The layers look amazing. The fact that it takes a day and uses an obscene amount of butter should sell you on it. I'm thinking Christmas morning.

- No bake cookies. With nutella. And peanut butter. I showed these to a girlfriend and her mouth dropped.

- Sponge toffee / honeycomb, whatever you call it, it's amazing. Great for edible gifts.

- Pear + custard + short prep time = heaven. Need to find a party to make this for. Or just go buy flour. And some pears.

- apple onion rings. my. god.

- It's soup weather. It's even better with toasted bread and cheese.

- My kick ass cookie exchange cookies. I'm not allowed to make anything else according to the host.

I need to get on making some of these. And blogging about them.

Or I'll do it later.

Remind me next year NOT to participate in nablopomo.

sunday

It's a short post, haven't had much time this weekend to bake anything. Well, I did make pudding, but that's not set yet.....


In the last 24 hours;

I've had 5 hours sleep.

My insides have been used as punching bag.

I visited another country.

I bought a baby shirt for 28 cents.

I bought 6 lbs of butter.

I've thought about how to deal with the enormous pimple on my forehead.

(I'm ignoring it by the way. Hoping it will disappear before tomorrow.)

I bought the best baby shirt ever. It was not 28 cents.

9:49 am

I've been up since 6:30 am.

It's Saturday, what the hell right?

It's not even 10 am and I've already,

- made more chai concentrate

- had a chai latte and breakfast

- snuggled with cats

- gone for an hour long walk

- wearing mittens

- morning blog surf

- eaten second breakfast

- found the perfect apple turnover recipe

- talked to my mom

- talked to my step mom

- snuggled the cats

- thought about cleaning the bathrooms

- changed out of my pajamas, then changed back into my pajamas

- listened to 2 Joy the baker podcasts

Now it's only 9:49 am and I still can't go back to sleep.


Is this what nesting is?

the realization

As fall becomes winter, the air gets a little bit colder, the rain is a lot more frequent, I try and still enjoy the weather.

Before I become a house monster, I want to enjoy the nice-ish weather.

I like the cold finger tips and the rosy cheeks. The bronze leaves scattered everywhere. The crisp, cool air that you breathe as you take that first step outside.

Armed in my wardrobe of Lululemon, hand warmers, and scarf, the bump and I hit the pavement.

The view is spectacular. A winding trail, in amongst the trees, all golden with fall colours.

I can't move as quickly as I think I can, I have to remind myself to slooooow down. If I don't remind myself, someone does a giant roll to remind me, oh yeah, I'm large and in charge now, maybe power walking is a bad idea.

I'm going to miss this. These fall walks. Not only because I'm no longer going to be able to take a minute to sit and enjoy this view, because of course we will be moving away from the area in a few short weeks. But that it no longer be as easy to pop my headphones in, listen to the latest homefries podcast, and just escape into the fall surroundings.

I just won't be alone. I'll have a tiny person with me.

I think it's finally starting to sink in.

november rain

Today is the first day of a long weekend. 

I woke up, at 7 am thanks to my lil girl, with intentions of baking and cooking and lunching and resting. 

Then I looked outside. 

Pouring rain. 

Typical November morning in Vancouver. 

I love the sun, and I love the heat. But sometimes it's okay to take a hint from the cats and hide inside from the rain.

I didn't hibernate all day, I did for for lunch with my dad and his girlfriend. Hot, delicious pho. 

But soon after, was back at home, with the cats, on the couch. I did end up making calzones, but those won't be up on the blog until tomorrow.

I needed my rainy day.

wordless wednesday ~ 29 days and counting

summer vacation : Palm Springs

Last week, I had the pleasure of travelling to Palm Springs, California for a few days with some family.

It was 5 days of laughs, sunshine, overeating, over-spending, and over-tanning.

Let's recap, shall we?

When it's 119 F outside, nothing cools better than a couple of plastic baby pools filled with hose water and a very large, ice-filled glass of lemonade mixed with iced tea. Also note all of the glorious palm trees, you do not see those in Vancouver. Ever.

Watching my aunt skip breakfast, yet drink 3 caesers (aka bloody marys) on the plane ride down.

Going to the cheesecake factory, only to get cheesecake to go and eat it on the way back to the house. Cousin A got red velvet cheesecake, I got oreo cheesecake. Next time, I'm tackling that amazing looking carrot cake. Seriously, it's like 12 layers high. Not really, but kind of.

Try on and buy, tons and tons of maternity clothes. My cousin likes to call them fat lady clothes, which I think is mean, but funny nonetheless since you get to try the clothes on with a fake belly. See below, me wearing fake belly. Looks so strange.

Celebrate my 27th birthday with my family. A Cousin who is more like a sister, an Aunt who is more like a second mother and their neighbour who I had just met, and absolutely love. Going for a wonderful dinner, where my Cousin freaked out when she saw Tamra from the Real Housewives of OC walk in, proceeded to get a photo and text everyone in her address book until some one would answer. I have no idea who that woman was and walked right by her several times, without even thinking. Also, was completely surprised to find a gift from my mother followed me to California.

This baby.

I am in love.

Nikon 3100 has me love struck. Besides the fact of being completely floored that I recieved the camera to begin with, I was now OBSESSED with photographing everything.

Mostly of cats. And food. And new babies. But really, mostly of cats.

Also, I need this. And I'm pretty sure Nikki does too.

last night...

Last night, we lost a hockey game.

And I watched my city burn.

I am embarrassed to say I am from Vancouver this morning. The actions of a small handful of douche bags left a huge black mark on the city of Vancouver.

I have no words to describe how angry and ashamed I am about what happened last night. I had to sit in horror watching some drunk idiots riot, loot and burn cars for no reason. Sure, we lost the Stanley cup, the better team won. Tim Thomas was amazing.

Inside Rogers Arena, a standing ovation and cheers were given to the winning team, very much deserved, while the scene outside was horrifying. Innocent people in stores, scared to death by people smashing windows and looting. I was watching a guy come out of London Drugs with an armful of pringles. You've got to be kidding me? You're looting for pringles? Moron.

The Vancouver Police Department and the men and women of the RCMP, including all the riot squad and mounted police, did everything they could and they did a fantastic job. We are lucky to have men and women like that to save our city and arrest the d-bags who decided it was a great idea to riot.

As for the morons who were rioting, did you forget we were in the digital age? Did you notice everyone taking your photo and video? If you have any photos or videos of idiots causing destruction, please email them to robbery@vpd.ca or send photos to Vancouver 2011 Criminal Riot list and put these idiots in jail.

" don't be mean, be green "

This pretty much sums up how fantastic our city feels right now.

I do not feel sorry that she's crying. It's been a long 17 years.

Go Canucks Go!





(images via Google)

chocolate bundt cake + cats of the sea

It was our anniversary over the weekend.

First year. Not such a big one, but my mother did thank the husband for staying married to me for a year. He laughed. My mother, the jokester.

We thought about going for a fancy pants dinner to our favourite Italian restaurant, but then I thought well, I have to work the next day, it'll no fun if I have a food/wine hangover.

What can you do on beautifully, sunny Sunday afternoon in Vancouver ?

Why go to the Aquarium silly.

paper

Happy anniversary cookie monster.


xo

life at the baked life

Do you ever read your favourite blogs, especially food blogs and wonder what the heck they do when they aren't cooking?

I do.

All the time. I'm so nosy like that.

Well, I'm about to show you what goes on in my life. Ready?

I get up reaaaalllll early to get pretty for work. I usually get up at least an hour before I have to leave. I don't have to but I like to sit and stare blankly at the television with my coffee and bean for at least 15 minutes.

bean in all her cuteness

I need that time to get out of dreamland and become normal. If I don't get this time, watch out. Raving wild monster on the loose.



working breakfast.


This is a food blog, so I will share my eats. I usually stick to a couple things for breakfast and one of my favourite things is oatmeal. It's warm, hearty and since I make it in the microwave, it's easy. I usually enjoy it with some unsweetened applesauce and cinnamon, maybe some walnuts if I have them.

I have to commute to work, in my car, over a bridge for about 30 minutes. It's my time to myself. No husband chatter, no meowing, just me and the radio.

And then, here's the exciting part, I count beans for 8 hours. I'm the baking accountant. Debits, credits, debits and credits.

Now, in a perfect world, one could eat all the treats she wanted and never gain an ounce. I unfortunatly have not found that world. I can't eat all the treats I want without my thighs expanding outside of my pants, and there's only so many skirts one can wear. Every evening, I visit my friend, the treadmill. We have a love/hate relationship. Many of you might know the same.

counting the beans.

I slowly make my way back home, talking to my moms on the phone, talking to the husband on the phone, figuring out what I'll cook for dinner ( I'm not lucky enough to have a husband who thinks of it ), figuring out what I will bake for the night.

It was scones. Apple scones. I'll share the recipe later.

I'm kind of a homebody, I love just being at home, with the cats, reading books cookbooks, enjoying the quiet time with the husband. Weekends are made for wineing and dining, but not during the week.

this is a bad cat

This is pretty much an average day, kinda boring, but I love it.

Signed,

GIT (grandma in training) Jen

just a friday reminder......

best. game. ever.

via Canucks.com

Oh yeah, we're going all the way.

grilled brie sandwiches aka the fancy lady sandwich

A few Saturdays ago, I met my Mom, Aunt and Uncle down at a Vancouver landmark, Granville Island.
I love Granville Island.  The husband and I used to live a few blocks from the entrance of it and it was quite common for us to take a Sunday walk along the seawall to visit Granville Island and take a look at all the shops and of course the market.

On this particular visit, we visited a few stores, the most odd being the broom store , which if you know my Aunt, isn't quite that odd that one of the first places we visited was the broom store. Side note : If you are looking for a really nice handmade broom, great place to check out.

With our $60 decorative broom in hand, we were a little hungry. Off  to Bridges, which again is a Vancouver staple. In my opinion, it has the best patio in the city. Of course it's too cold at this time of the year for the patio, but if you ever come in the summer, make sure to go to Bridges, but be prepared to wait. From your prime waterfront patio seat, you'll be able to look at the Granville Street bridge, along with taking a look at the cute little water taxi's going back and forth between the westside and yaletown. Plus they have some pretty kick ass food.

This afternoon began my obsession with making a grilled brie sandwich. I ordered off the menu and when it came, it completely blew my expectations. Thick sliced grainy bread with a smear of avocado mayo, melted brie and fresh sliced tomatoes.

It's the things dreams are made of.

After lunch, I immediately texted T, who is hands down the biggest brie freak I know. I've seen this girl eat 3/4 of a wheel of brie. Oh yeah, she's hardcore like that.

I told her she needed to come over and we would recreate this.

So this past Friday night, with a jug of T's homemade Sangria (she makes a killer sangria), we tackled making a homemade version of the grilled brie sandwich I enjoyed a few weeks back.

Besides my over-zealousness on the brie, turned out amazingly. Creamy avocado mayo with the bit of fresh, juicy tomatoes and perfectly melted brie all squished together with crunchy toasted bread.

Goes down really well with Sangria and girl talk.

Grilled Brie Sandwich
[ inspired by Bridges Restaurant ]

Makes 2 sandwiches.

4 slices whole grain bread
1 avocado
1 tablespoon mayonnaise
4-5 tomato slices
slices from a small wheel of double cream brie


Liberally spread butter on one side of each slice of bread, set aside. Cut open and scoop out the insides of the avocado, add in mayonnaise and mash until well blended. Season avocado mix with salt and pepper to taste.

Spread avocado mayo on unbuttered side of 1 piece of bread, top avocado mix with a few slices of brie and tomato slices and then finally with the second piece of bread, buttered side facing out.

Place sandwich in a non-stick pan over medium heat and cook for 3 minutes on each side, or until cheese is melted and outsides are golden brown. Remove from pan and let rest for a few minutes before slicing in half.

Eat with your favourite brie-aholic with some great sangria.