Monday, August 31, 2009

what's for dinner tonight???

That is the question my husband despises!!! I'm not the type of person that has dinner meals planned a week in advance and we're not the type of house that orders out - for one, it's all garbage and two, it's sooo expensive and I love to cook - except when I don't know what to cook!!!

It is such a dilemma for me sometimes and it bothers the heck out of me. So I am going to try my hardest to come up with meals while I'm at work (of course on my own time - what are you thinking??) instead of looking up people.com or cnn.com I can look up recipes for dinner.

So tonight, I know I have a lot of seafood in my freezer that needs to be cooked so I think this is what I'll make tonight.

Oh yeah, I got these recipes from http://www.lcbo.com/fooddrink/index.shtml




Grilled Whole Snapper Mediterranean Style
By: Lucy Waverman

4 small snappers, about 1 lb (500 g) each or two 2 lb (1 kg) snappers1/2 cup (125 mL) olive oil1 tbsp (15 mL) chopped garlicFresh oregano stalks, with leavesMediterranean Dressing2 tbsp (25 mL) chopped fresh oregano1 tsp (5 mL) chopped garlic2 tbsp (25 mL) chopped roasted red pepper3 tbsp (45 mL) balsamic vinegar1/2 tsp (2 mL) grated lemon rind1/2 cup (125 mL) olive oilSalt and freshly ground pepper


1. Rinse fish. Whisk together oil and garlic. Brush onto the fish, both on the skin and in the cavity. Stuff the fresh oregano stalks into the cavity. Leave to marinate for 1 hour.


2. Meanwhile, in food processor or by hand, combine oregano, garlic, red pepper, balsamic vinegar and lemon rind. Slowly whisk in oil and season to taste with salt and pepper. Reserve.


3. Preheat grill or broiler to medium-high. Brush grill with oil before placing fish on it. Grill about 7 minutes per side for the smaller fish, 10 minutes for larger, turning only once until flesh is white and moist, and it just comes away from the bone.


4. Place on platter and cut fillets off the bone if the fish are big. Otherwise serve one whole fish per person. Place on serving plates and drizzle over dressing.
Serves 4







Grilled Coconut Shrimp (On Bamboo Skewers)
By: Lucy Waverman

A shrimp cocktail that is Asian in flavour. You can roast the shrimps in a 500ºF (260ºC) oven for 5 minutes or grill them on the barbecue or under the broiler.


One 400 mL can coconut milk 2 tsp (10 mL) green curry paste1 tbsp (15 mL) chopped ginger4 lime leaves or 1 tbsp (15 mL) grated lime rind 2 tbsp (25 mL) fish sauce1 tbsp (15 mL) granulated sugar2 tbsp (25 mL) chopped fresh mint 2 tbsp (25 mL) chopped fresh coriander 2 tbsp (25 mL) lime juice1 lb (500 g) large shrimps Salt to taste¼ cup (50 mL) unsweetened coconut


1. Place coconut milk in a skillet and bring to boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes until reduced by a quarter - it should be the consistency of heavy cream. Stir in the green curry paste, ginger, lime leaves, fish sauce and sugar. Cook another 5 to 6 minutes or until sauce is thickened and fragrant. Stir in 1 tbsp (15 mL) each of mint and coriander and all of lime juice. Cool.


2. Divide sauce in half in 2 bowls. Season shrimp with salt and stir into half of sauce. Marinate shrimp in sauce for 30 minutes. Reserve other half of sauce for dipping sauce.


3. Remove shrimps from marinade and discard marinade. Preheat grill on high and grill shrimps about 1½ minutes per side or until pink and slightly curled. Cool. Stir in coconut and remaining mint and coriander to dipping sauce. Serve with shrimps. Place shrimps on bamboo skewers, if desired.
Serves 4 to 6










Scallops In Herb Butter Sauce
By: Jennifer McLagan

Scallops have a voluptuous texture, especially when served in a sauce enriched with butter and cream. If you have them serve scallops in individual gratin dishes.




24 scallopsSalt and freshly ground pepper1 tbsp (15 mL) plus ¼ cup (50 mL) unsalted butter1 tbsp (15 mL) vegetable oil½ cup (125 mL) white wine1 tbsp (15 mL) whipping cream¼ cup (50 mL) chopped chives3 tbsp (45 mL) chopped parsley1 tsp (5 mL) thyme leaves, chopped



1. Preheat the oven to 300ºF (150ºC).



2. Place the gratin dishes in the oven.



3. Pat dry the scallops and season with salt and pepper. In a large frying pan heat 1 tbsp (15 mL) of butter and the oil over high heat. Add the scallops and cook for 2 minutes. Turn the scallops and cook for another 2 minutes or until opaque in the centre. Transfer the scallops into the gratin dishes and keep warm in the oven.



4. Add the white wine to pan and bring to a boil, scraping any browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Continue to boil until the wine is reduced by half. Cut the remaining butter into cubes.



5. Whisk the whipping cream into the reduced wine and then gradually whisk in the butter. Add all the chopped herbs, stir to mix and then check the seasoning. Spoon the sauce over the scallops and serve immediately.
Serves 6

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

i wish we could do it all over again

well not the planning or the stress that mostly my wonderful Mom and I went through...just the ceremony....to be back on the beach with all our loving family and friends and to say I DO again to my wonderful husband. You're probably thinking, your nuts but I'm not, if you had the wedding that I had, you'd want to do it again and again and again...it was our dream come true.

What is making me nostalgic??? We just got our professional wedding photos back - all 2000 of them and I absolutely love every one of them. We were lucky enough to have my uncle Kirk who is a professional photographer take photos of our 7 day vacation and wedding. I love the raw emotion he captures and I'm happy to say there were very few "posed" photos which we're both not a fan of.

Anyway, look for yourself...here are some of my favorites but definitely not all of them.

My beautiful parents and my husband to be wiping a tear...aw *tear*
Exchanging rings

Who knew you could still throw rice on beaches! Only in the Dominican!

My gorgeous sister and brother


Our family and friends

I think this is a great pic - totally us!

And at the end of it all, after all the stress we went through ...we're still so madly in love with each other!
xoxo

Monday, August 24, 2009

i just found a new lunch spot

We all go through i t - we say we're going to make our own lunch so that we can save money and eat healthy but do we actually do it....I say I do it about 50% of the time. It's not that I'm lazy, or that I don't have food in my fridge, I just actually dispise making my own lunch. Don't ask me why - it's just that way!

So working downtown, you get your usual chip stands, food courts, subways, McDirty and thai places and expensive sit down restaurants but after a while that all becomes boring and adds pounds to your hips and your budget which between you and I - don't like either.

So I'm always on the look out for that "healthy/cheap" lunch spot and today I think I may have found my new fave spot.

It's called VITAE MINE http://www.vitaemine.ca/ Their site is not up just yet and neither is their interac but I totally give it a thumbs up.

As far as I could read, everything was organic, fresh and even had tofu for you fellow vegetarians. They even had Gluten Free cakes. They're priced reasonably well - I ate for $12 - I had the Modena's Greatest Chicken Balsamic Tiny Sandwich - and it's not tiny at all - its a 6 inch sandwich on your choice of white, 12 grain or spicy cheddar bread, then you get a choice of 4 vegetables with your base (spinach, mixed greens or mesclun mix), then on top of that you get the balsamic sauce, your choice of cheese and any other topper such as eggplant, olives, tapinade etc - then it's grilled to perfection! Nom nom nom!!! Plus I had a large raw drink called Apple Sunrise (seen below) a mix of fresh orange and apple juice - squeezed right in front of you.

Then for my afternoon snack, I bought some Almonds with cranberries, honey and sea salt...talk about satisfying your sweet and salty tooth!!
It's a pretty open space, very clean and bright - although relatively new, I give it my full thumbs up!





Although you can't see their menu on line just yet, I assume it will be up and running shortly, so in the meantime, here are a few items that caught my eye!
Tiny Sandwiches or Tiny Salads $6.00
Mighty Sandwiches or Mighty Salads $9.00
To any of these great recipes, add 4 topper veggies of your choice - green and red peps, sliced tomatoes, cucumbers, celery, onions, shredded beets, cabbage and carrots.
Cool Curry Chicken
Chicken breast baked with our Indian coconut curry dressing topped with a dollop of cooling Kefir
Thai Fightin' Chicken
Baked chicken breast kicked up with carrots and cucumbers, slammed with cripsy noodles and K.O.'ed wth sesame tamari sauce.
Zen Macrobiotic Salad
Tossed buckwheat pasta with shredded carrots and cabbage, sprinkled with sesame seeds and pickled ginger slices. Drizzled with organic raw blue agave nectar.
Smurfy-Hemp Salad
Friendly blueberries and cheery hemp seeds dropped onto cucumbers, paired with goat chees and drizzled with Omega-rich hemp oil
Pumpkin Pumkin and Feta
Pureed pumpkin nestled in your greens and scattered with tamari pumpkin seeds and feta pieces and drizzled with our organic sesame tamari dressing (I think i'll try this one next!)
Go check it out - corner of Laurier and O'Connor (140 O'Connor)

late bloomers

Happy Monday!!!

What did you do this weekend?

We were knee deep into our renovations again but I took some time to do some gardening since the weather man was wrong again! Check out some of my late bloomers!

Greek oregano - who has a few mushroom friends!

Our pond lilies and hyacinths exploded in the past two weeks! Our ponds are covered with these little beauties!
Finally, Andrew's Hibiscus tree decided to show it's beauty - look how vibrant the colour is!

I have a Hibiscus bush that I am proud to say has bloomed all summer - thats why we were so happy to see Andrew's tree finally bloom.

This is what I woke to this morning - Meet Sonny Valentine (dog) and Fat Tony (cat) - I've never seen them sleep together - FT is a baby still - only a year old and Sonny the old man of 5 yrs sort of just tolerates him hanging out.
LOOK WHAT I FOUND MA!!!

So this weekend - another reno weekend started by having to empty the china and buffet cabinets that have not been touched in probably 10 years (they were there before me otherwise I would have already been all over that - ocd - right). Anyway, it was my job this weekend to empty these and find the treasures and figure out what to do with it all....
Well to my surprise I found so many treasures there are too many to even think of where they will all go again....

So I did what I had to and hand washed everything - all day... and almost all night. Unfortunately after washing it all, I couldn't do anything with it - I had to box it until our floors are finished and then I can put it all away again. Even when that day comes, what am I going to do with it all? How do I display or use all of this?!

Meanwhile, Andrew and the boys finished our hall closet, moulding from the kitchen all the way to the front entrance, 2 door casings, removed the existing moulding from the living room and dining room and started to place our new subfloor to prep for hardwood.


Almost finished - don't worry this room will not stay blue!!!

Even my ceiling got finished -


Jordy screwing my floors down - no squeeks! Around 6pm, we were all finished - had a great filling homemade spaghetti dinner and enjoyed the rest of the night in our back yard.
We can see the light at the end of the tunnel though and that's a great feeling.
What's left:
patching - all the niks and cuts we made (oops)
sanding
repainting the whole main level - ceilings too
hardwood
moulding
case the main window
stain the oak trim in the kitchen and front closet
cleaning
decorating
Doesn't seem that bad when I make it into a list....I'm sure Andrew does not see it that way though!









Friday, August 21, 2009

happy weekend!!!

HAPPY WEEKEND EVERYONE!!!

We're laying new living room and dining room subfloors and painting the whole main level this weekend - phew that tires me out just writing it....what are you doing this weekend?

Since I'll be working and NOT shopping, I thought I'd get some online shopping in...check out what I bought...


Well I didn't buy this necklace today - I bought it before I got married for my husband and I - since we're both "A's" I got us two A's - they're super cute and not expensive at all - check out Gems by Emily on ETSY to buy one for you and your sweetheart.

I needed a laptop bag and came across this great one on ETSY too - how awesome is this homemade beauty!?

It's our 1 year proposal anniversary on Labour Day so I thought I'd buy something small for my husband - since we can't travel too far this year for our honeymoon, I thought that he would enjoy picking out places to go together in our future years with this great travel book I bought from Amazon!
Have a great weekend everyone - I'll post new pics of the house in the a.m. on Monday!
Ciao!!!

Thursday, August 20, 2009

i'm falling head over heels...

With summer on it's way out the door and the fall just around the corner, I couldn't help but start sneak-peeking at the new fall collections coming out from some of my fave stores - OMGoodness, I am going to look so cute this fall!



Love the grey boots - you can buy them cheap at http://www.chineselaundry.com/indShoe.asp?type=n&store=c&id=4353&sess=08200937523879512

Cute for work - love the ruffles




Hello cuteness!!! I'm usually not a fan of pink but I think coral is an exception to my rule



I heart this capelet - matched with some nice black pants for work - you're stylin'



I'm all about jackets this year - I've always loved layering




Everyone needs a hobo bag - this one is great from JCREW AND it comes in grey too.


Check out that huge collar on the chek coat - love it.

I call this look the weekender!



I can't wait to start wearing grey again - I love the lines on this work dress
All these looks can be found at JCREW, JOEFRESH, BANANA REPUBLIC & CHINESE LAUNDRY

stunning pix of BONDI AUSTRALIA today







Everyday I wish that I could wake to the sound and smell of the ocean in the morning!

www.aquabumps.com

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

finding design inspiration

Now that I get a clean slate on my whole main level I'm super excited to start finding inspiration to design my "new/old home".



We curently own A LOT of beautiful antique furniture passed down from generations of Dutch and English family heirlooms which I LOOOOVE but find it difficult to fit it all into our home since they are all quite large pieces. I'm not a fan of the "frilly" antiques with lots of engravings and designs but I have to say that ours are bold and quite beautiful.



My first plan of action is to start mixing old with new - I don't want to alter any of the furniture because they are all in great shape and are dark brown - the colour I love so it really is just a matter of accessorizing and placing our already exisiting furniture.



Andrew (my husband) is a man of water, and I'm an earth girl so naturally we both like earthy colours such as browns, taupes, greens, blues and a splash of red. We have two beautiful hibiscus trees that bloom constantly and many other plants now blooming in our backyard that need to be transferred back into the house for the cold Canadian winter but I don't want my main level to look like a jungle....hmmm...what to do with so many plants - create a green room??? Yes, I think so.

Before I drop that bomb on Andrew for another "project" lol, here are some design ideas I love from www.bellemaison23.com....




I love the red and white coral - too bad they're almost extinct - I'll have to find some fake coral while I'm in Florida.


We have a large window in our living room exactly like this - I love this set up - I have the perfect chairs for there too...and I love that there are still plants in the room.


I have an identical entrance to my living room from the dining room

I love the two drum floor lamps although I prefer wood stands - I found some fab ones at Home Depot of all places ...but I'll keep looking. And my couch is not white - thankfully - we have a deep chocolate brown leather couch and chair set.

We have an antique desk just like this - with a bit more detail in it - I think I'll put it at my entrance.
This is so fun - I can't wait to find more ideas.....