Herb and Garlic Roast Pork

I have made this recipe umpteen times before and it's one of my favourites... it's quick, easy and even great for last minute company! It makes the kitchen smell amazing while it's cooking and tastes fabulous! What more could you ask for?

Herb and Garlic Pork Roast

6 cloves of garlic

1 tsp thyme

1 tsp marjoram

1 tsp dry mustard

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

1 tbsp olive oil

1 x 2lb pork loin roast

Begin by pressing the garlic into a small bowl. If you don't know a garlic press or don't feel like using one that day, you can mince the garlic really fine and it works just as well.

(BTW, did you know that you can also "press" garlic by mincing, then adding some salt and mashing it with the back of your knife? Works great!)

Then add the thyme, marjoram, mustard, salt, pepper and olive oil and let hang out on the kitchen counter for a few minutes.




Trim the roast of any unwanted fat, then slather it all over - top and sides.





Roast at 325 until a thermometer reaches 175F, (or whatever temp you roast your pork to).
Slice and Enjoy with mashed potates and a veggie. Whala! Supper is complete.




(Just to prove that this recipe is that easy... I whipped it up one night when I had impromptu company - from a frozen roast none the less, in about 1 1/2 hours flat!)

Recipe adapted from Canadian Living's Garlic Roast Pork Recipe

Green Goodness Smoothie V. 2.0

This version of the green goodness smoothie doesn't come out in a bright emerald green shade (it's more like swamp water :)) but it was pretty good none the less. It was much sweeter than the Green Goodness Smoothie. I tend to like my smoothies to have a bit of tang, but M is more apt to drink it if it's quite sweet, so he enjoyed this one.

If I made it again, I'd might substitute the orange for grapefruit and add a squeeze of lemon juice for some tang. I didn't use any frozen fruit in this one, but if you froze the banana and grapes, you could probably eliminate the ice cubes.

Green Goodness Smoothie V. 2.0

**Note: This smoothie was made in a vitamix blender.

1 c red seedless grapes
1/2 banana
1 apple, cored, but with the peel left on
1 orange (peel sliced off), throw in whole
8 ice cubes
4 c spinach (loosely packed).

Add all ingredients to the blender except the spinach. Blend until smooth consistency. Taste to ensure it is sweet/tart enough. Then add the spinach and blend until smooth. Makes about 3 c.

Green Goodness Smoothie

This is definitely my new favourite smoothie recipe! (pls excuse the bad picture - the camera phone was all I had available) Both M and Daddy gave it 2 thumbs up, and what better way to get a 3 year old to eat spinach.

I have made other green smoothies before and you can sometimes tell that there is a leafy green in there, but in this one, you 100% could not!

Green Goodness Smoothie

1/3 c water
3/4 green seedless grapes (I used fresh, but frozen would work)
1/3 c frozen pineapple chunks
1/3 c frozen peach chunks
1/4 c apple juice

1/2 banana
2 big handfuls of spinach (it would fit in a 4 c measuring cup not squashed down)


**Note: my smoothie was made in a vitamix blender.

Put all ingredients into blender except the spinach. Start an low and move to high, puree until smooth. Then add spinach into the blender and puree until smooth. Makes about 4 x 1 c servings.

Recipe adapted from Vitamix Recipe: Going Green Smoothie

Just a little break, eh?

So I imagine that I'm probably just writing this post to myself because since I haven't written in this blog for well over a year, anyone who read it before has long since disappeared.

That's ok.... I really only ever started a blog as sort of an online journal for myself and a place that I could keep my recipes.

So, I'm going to give it another crack... let's see if I can keep it up this time.

Two Little Feet ....

p.s.  Two Little Feet is back in business... check it out.

www. 2-little-feet.blogspot.com

10 years in a nutshell....

It intrigued me to see what I remembered about the last 10 years if I sat down and thought about it.  Here goes... 

These were the 00's....

Had just moved out of my parent's home during my last year of University ~ With my good friend and maid of honor.  Was a good experience to live with someone outside of my family before moving in with my boyfriend (one day husband).  Graduated from University with a degree in Mechanical Engineering.  Look back on it and sometimes can't believe I did what I did.. Engineering school was crazy!  Took a trip to New York with D.  Remember standing in Times Square and watching people yell at someone in a window who was supposedly Brittany Spears  (she was big then).  Moved back in with parents temporarily after school finished and no job yet.   Went out to Vancouver to explore a job on a whim as D was out visiting his Dad.  Ended up looking for an apartment and moving a few weeks later!  Moved all of our belongings in a cube van all the way from Saskatoon to Vancouver with Mom and Dad's help!   Remember the feeling of "h** c**", we are really on our own now!!  Started a job that led to a (hopefully) life-long career and many good friends.

Moved out of apartment and rented house in Burnaby.  Got 2 cats.  First cat D didn't want, but he was calling my name and I can still see him sitting in his little box at the SPCA.  Token was his name and still is.  He is my baby and the biggest brat you'll ever find at the same time.  Tia came in December from the jail in Abbotsford (long story).  She was D's pick and has remained his baby ever since.

D decided to try a stint at going to school to be an air traffic controller.  Secretly, I was happy when it didn't work out as I really didn't want to live in Portage la something, somewhere... which is where he would have went.  Was proposed to just before he left... it was that or, well, you can guess.  But it was time; we had been dating for 6 years at that point!

Went to Europe in 2003 with my Dad.  Very thankful I went on said trip with my Dad.  Will never likely get to do something like that again.  Lost my Grandpa the first day we got to Europe.  Remember getting the news and then walking and finding Princess Diana's memorial's a few blocks away.  Most memorable parts of the trip are the cliffs in Ireland, trying to hold the camera still to take a picture of the eiffel tower at night with no tripod and getting an crazy bill for laundry in our hotel room the size of my office in Spain. Oh at the train ride.  I will never sleep on a train again.  Ever.

Came home and planned wedding.  Got married the next fall in Saskatoon.  One of the best days of my life.  Went by too fast though.  Probably loved the planning experience more than the day itself though.  Got to see my best friend from elementary school, whom I'd lost touch with, and who got married the same day.. hadn't seen each other in probably 15 years.

Went to Vegas on a girls trip with my Mom.  Saw Celine and Elton.  Had a great time.  Need to do it again soon.

Got married and thought more and more about where we wanted to "settle".  Decided it wasn't Vancouver.  Too far from home.  Not enough community.  Started to talk about moving to Calgary.  Asked my friend at work one day about her previous employer in Calgary.  Sent an email.  Went on a covert interview.  Handed in my recognition a week later.  One of the hardest things I've ever done, for I loved those people dearly.  Packed up and moved within 2 months.

Got to Calgary and realized there was a housing boom on.  Drove one Sunday and saw sign for new area.  Checked it out.  Left cheque for $15K.  Went into house lottery.  Got first choice.  Started to build house.  What an adventure!  Moved into house in spring, 2006.  Started to talk about babies.

Baby (M) came in May, 2007.  Enjoyed a wonderful year at home with him and went back to work in 2008.  Had lots of fun with daycares before deciding Nana was the best choice and still is.

Took trip to California in 2009 with M.  Had the times of our lives.  Loved it so much, we want to go back, to the exact same hotel, this year.  Took trip to Cape Cod in fall.  Again, recorded some memories we will keep forever.   Sent our angel baby to Heaven in October.  Hoping M will have a new brother or sister sometime.

Wrapped up 2009 with a beautiful little boy, a loving husband, a stable job, a comfortable home and a positive outlook on life.  Here's to the next 10!

Merry Christmas.... again!

Happy New Year everyone!  Hope you had a fun and safe holiday season.  Sorry, I've been absent from the blog for a while, but enjoyed a lot of time with M and D.

We have, however, been celebrating Christmas over and over because it appears that Mr. M has been hiding Christmas presents since before the big day!  It seems he hid half of Nana's presents to us and because I didn't see her put them under the tree, I didn't miss them!

It started a few days after Christmas when he "found" a present in his kitchen that was from Nana to Daddy.  Then this weekend he "discovered" a present somewhere and came running to me yelling "look what I got!!" whilst holding a wrapped present!  Yesterday, as I was trying to recover a ball from under the couch, I encountered a third present.

It sure has been fun rediscovering a little bit of the fun every day.. maybe M was onto something after all!

A little bit of this and a little bit of that.....

Sorry for the lack of posts lately...  I have been so busy I don't know if I'm coming or going some nights.. and it's not like I try to do a million things, it's just that work is always super busy at the end of the year, coupled with all the extra work events going on and fitting in some Christmas stuff for us inbetween makes for very busy weeks!

So where to start...

The 25 days of Christmas have been a lot of fun!  Matthew is probably a bit young to care if we do an activity every day, but he sure loves getting his letter every morning from Crinkle. 

last weekend we visited Santa at the mall.  I was determined we would see our favourite Santa, so we had to endure almost an hour and a half in line... luckily Matthew was well entertained so he didn't even notice!

We also had Darren's work Christmas party last week.  It was a lot of fun!  This year they did it completely different than the traditional sit down dinner and served everything in little stations so you had to walk from one to the next to complete your meal.  My favourite was the Martini potato bar.. I'll have to do that for a party some day!

I got in a session of Dashing Dishes last week... Have you ever done them?  They are a life saver and I look forward to going and assembling my dishes every month!

We also had a girls night at work last week... it was a lot of fun to get together with just all the women who work on the 3rd floor of our office building... I think they should open it up to all women next year.. us girls don't do enough stuff like that where it's just us and no guys!

I tackled Cross Iron Mills last night.  I hadn't been there yet.  For those of you who don't know, it is a mega mall that opened up North of Calgary.  I fell in love with it!  I love shopping where everything is nice and new and the stores are huge and there is just about every store you could want in one place!  It is my new go to place for sure.. and I walked the whole mall in under 2 hours (that must be a record)... although when you have to walk as far as you do carrying as many bags as I had, I had to wonder if I could go into business renting little scooters out to people.  Seriously, I'd make a killing.

Matthew finished his last class of 2009 this morning at "school" ... they got to pretend to be Santa Claus sneaking around and reindeer prancing around and had a lot of fun!

And today Matthew informed me Santa is coming "all the way from the North Pool!!"...  I couldn't stop giggling....

If only it were that easy...

M woke up this morning and called me into his room as he does every day.  I try to tell him it's still night time and he has to sleep for a little bit longer, but it never works!  So, he ends up telling me all kinds of random thigns while we lay there.

This morning:

m:  After my nap I want to go on a trip to a hotel!

m:  uh..... yep, Boston!  I want to go to Boston!

M:  Buddy, Boston is pretty far away

m:  no it isn't!  It's 47....  uh.. it's just by the other hotel by my house!  It's not far...

I hear ya buddy....

I wish we didn't have to look at this either..

and were still looking at this instead!

Dear Matthew....

Here is Mr. M and his Christmas Mailbox.  Yeah, I know it's pretty pathetic so far, but we haven't had a chance to make it all Christmassy yet.  I think Crinkle might bring some stickers tomorrow to help us decorate it!

On the second day of Christmas....

Matthew got his first letter from Crinkle, the Christmas elf!  It read:

Dear Matthew,

Hi!  My name is Crinkle.  I am an elf and I live at the North Pole with Santa.  Your Mommy asked if I could come and bring you a letter every night until Christmas so that your family can do all sorts of fun Christmassy things together.   I hope you will enjoy getting my letters in the mailbox each morning!  Today, I would like you and Nana to make some snowflakes so that you and Mommy can decorate the house with them later.

love,
Crinkle

So, Nana apparently didn't read the letter quite right and thought that Crinkle wanted Mommy to make the snowflakes so she got all the paper ready but they didn't make any!  Doh!!  We ran out of time in the evening, but we did manage to get our tree up (literally, just the tree... decorating was to be the next day!)

On the third day of Christmas..

Matthew got another letter!  It read:

Dear Matthew,

Did you put up your tree last night?  It is very beautiful!  I hope you ahve fun today.  I would like you and Mommy to make gingerbread cookies!  Tomorrow I will have a new surprise for you.

Love,
Crinkle

So Gingerbread cookies it was! Mommy and Matthew had lots of fun making cookies together as we always do.  This time, Matthew discovered that cookie dough is even yummier before it goes in the oven :O)  adn as always, there was more flour on the cupboard and kitchen than there was in the cookies!

Cutting the shapes out

Gingerbread Men of course!

Tasting the final product :o)

Together,  I must admit, Matthew and I ate almost the whole batch throughout the day!  We rounded off our night by watching Franklin's Christmas special on T.V.  I couldn't have asked for a better night than to be cozied up under a blanket with my baby :O)

On the Fourth Day of Christmas....

Yep, another letter was waiting!  This time, Crinkle brought a little Snowman ornament for Matthew to keep on the shelf.  His letter read:

Dear Matthew,

Brr... it was cold flying here last night!  There is going to be a big snowstorm tonight so make sure you stay home cozy with Mommy and Daddy!  Did you have fun watching the Franklin movie last night?  I watched it at Santa's workshop too!   Today, I want you to paint me a Christmas picture.  Here is a present from me!

Love,
Crinkle

Matthew thought it was pretty cool that Crinkle watched the same movie as he did up at the North Pole!  Crinkle was right, it sure was a miserably cold day yesterday!  Mommy had planned to do a big shopping trip to Cross Iron Mills since she missed her trip to Vancouver, but it wasn't meant to be either. 

For some reason, I always feel like cooking when the weather gets ugly... So, at 9am , when the big flakes were already starting to fall, I darted over to Sobey's and loaded up on some essentials to make some freezable dishes.  After a full day's work, I accomplished 30 cups of chicken broth, a huge bowl of chili and a batch of spaghetti sauce! 

Matthew watched The Little Drummer Boy on TV, and learned more about the baby Jesus.   Which I'm hoping is why at bedtime, out of the blue, he said:

m:  Do you remember when I was born?

M:  Of course (um, pretty sure I was there.. (I didn't say that though))

m:  When I was born, everyone was sooo happy and they all brought me presents!

uh huh... maybe we better work on the baby Jesus a bit more....


So today is the 5th Day of Christmas...

We managed to sleep a bit although the house was rockin' and rollin' to the windstorm all night long.  I looked out the window in the morning and thought.. hmm... I can see the grass in the backyard, we couldn't have gotten that much snow.... Only to find out that all of it was up against the side of our house thus requiring hubby to shovel for an hour so that I could later get out of the garage!

And of course, there was a letter from Crinkle this morning, but you'll just have to wait until tomorrow to find out what he said!

Tomorrow we are venturing out to Daddy's kids' Christmas party... cross your fingers it isn't -30 in the morning!

The 25 Days of Christmas - Day 1

So today, at precisely 10:43 a.m., when I was supposed to be working, but actually was taking a little blog break and catching up on a few blogs, I came across a few bloggy moms who were writing about the 25 days of Christmas starting!

Oh Junebugs! (as Matthew would say).... I had first seen the 25 days of Christmas last year and decided that it was something that I wanted to do with Matthew this year for 1 reason:  Christmas always comes so darn fast and goes so quickly.. and I wanted a way to savour the Christmas spirit for longer....

But then I forgot about it for the next 340 days!  And Oh Junebugs!  I just remembered today...

So the wheels in my brain started turning as fast as they could!

We enjoyed learning about the advent calendar today and Matthew was super excited when he foudn out there was chocolate behind Number 1!

We then got to work on making our mailbox.  You see, Mommy explained that because Matthew has been such a good boy lately (and Mommy was thrilled that he went to daycare yesterday without any tears!!) that one of Santa's little elves, named Crinkle, was going to come visit our house ever night until Christmas and bring Matthew a letter!

So you can imagine that naturally led to being asked 50+ times how Crinkle was going to get here (fly his airplane of course) and then where the airplane was going to land (on the roof because it's easier)... and how he was going to get into the house (he's magic)...

So tune in to see what Crinkle has in store for us over the next 25 days

and of course, I did have a picture, but Blogger has other ideas about me posting it this morning, so I will try again later tonight.

and yes, I probably will go crazy trying to think of activities over the next 25 days, but the excitement and 100 questions about Crinkle that already came tonight are going to be well worth it!

Bring it home Boys!!!

Phew! Much better....

Ok, so apparently I am the only one who must have days like yesterday since no one else left me a comment....

Regardless, today was a much better day!  I am over the moon happy that my mom is here for a few days and that means just a little bit more me time while Matthew gets extra spoiled ;o)

Forgot to mention in my rant yesterday that we had a wonderful little getaway to Edmonton on the weekend!  We visited with friends, went to the mall to go on rides, saw a hockey game and spent lots of quality family time together... hopefully I will get a chance to blog about it very soon....

And isn't it great that we have weather that still allows us to see these?  Can't believe it's Nov 25 tomorrow and +8... I guess this is one time I won't complain about global warming!

There are Days Like Today

There are days like today when all I want to do is run away... far, far away....

Do you other moms out there have days like today?  A day when it seems like all you can see is every inch of dirt in your house.  A day when you want to hire every housekeeper that you could find because you feel like you're just going up the escalator the wrong way.

Today was one of those days.

Some days, I just can't do it.  There is a lot of stress at work right now.  Things getting shuffled, people getting moved.... change.  And don't we all love change.    Come home, see mess.  Child wants to play.  Feel torn between going to play and going to clean.

aargh....

Mondays are especially nuts days because I throw piano lessons into the mix.  Well then why do you do it you might ask?   Because not every day is like today.  I teach only because I love teaching.  Not because I need the money because 2 hours a week doesn't buy me much.  But I always wanted to be a teacher, and some eensy weensy part of me regrets not doing that and this is how I compromise.  I really do love it and I really do love my kids.

But there are days like today when all I want to do is run away... far, far away....

When I put M to bed, he tells me that he "wants to have a short nap so we can play" and "what do you want to do when I wake up??"  This question tears my heart out every time because the next sentence has to be "sweetie, Mommy has to work tomorrow", which is followed by "I don't like it when Mommy works.  It makes me sad..."

So why don't I just quit work then, you might ask?   Because I love my job.  Because I don't think I would be a whole person if I couldn't satisfy that part of my life that craves the challenges and makes my brain grind.   Does that make me less of a mom?  I hope not. 

But there are days like today when all I want to do is run away, far, far away.....

So, I am asking you, other moms out there, to tell me... how do you do it?  And do you ever feel like you want to run far, far away?   Maybe I'm the only one out there who feels like this, particularly around the 3rd week of every month (get my drift?) but I suspect not.

I do everything I do because it makes me who I am.  I give 110% of my energy to M when I can because I love him more than anything in the world.  I give my energy to my husband because I love him more than anything in the world.  I give my energy to my job because I love the satisfaction my job gives me.  I give my energy to my passions - to piano, to photography, to cooking, to gardening, because they make me whole. 

My challenge is only to figure out how to divide up the pie each and every day and that, my friends, is something I'm still learning.  There may be days like today when I want to run away, but really, in the end, I wouldn't change my life for anything in the world. 

There are days like today when I want to run far, far away... but they are luckily few and far between and even if I do run away, by tomorrow, I'll want to come back.

Sunday Chinook

Today was a Chinook day which meant 2 things....

1) the weather was warm enough to finally get the rest of the backyard cleaned up for winter.

2) I'd have a headache.. it's the small price you have to pay for the nice weather.

Anyhow,  today's chinook had quite the arch, so I photosynthed it here:

Chinook Arch

Pretty cool eh?


M and I took advantage of the warm weather today and decided we would finish cleaning up Mommy's flower beds!

Not long after we got outside, M's friend Miss M and her Mom and Dad came by our house on a walk. Miss M decided she wanted to stay, so M and I said "sure!" and her Mom and Dad kept walking..

So what do you do when you have two 2 year olds in the backyard? Put them to work naturally!! Raking, digging, collecting leaves... whatever kept them busy!





Don't worry though, it wasn't all work, we had some fun playtime on the swingset too!





But, like all Chinook days, eventually the wind picks up a little too much, and it's time to go inside...

But who's going to complain when on November 15... there's still no SNOW!

Today Just Sucked

In the 10 years I've been in the workforce now, I'd not yet encountered a day like today.

A black Friday   err Thursday.

I felt sick when I realized it was happening.

I felt horrible for those it was happening to.

I felt angry and frustrated knowing why this had to happen but wishing there could have been some other way.

I was thanking my lucky stars inside that I was spared.

And now I just feel sad.  And I am sorry.. so sorry to those it happened to.

In my spare time....

in my spare time, I like to take pictures.... in fact I love editing pictures more than I love taking them.  I guess it's where I release all of my creative energy  :o)

anyhow, I finally have our website somewhat close to finished, so I thought I'd share it with you..

Ever After Images

And I couldn't help but share these pics with you... this little guy was an absolute cutie and quite well behaved for the camera too!

Better Late than Never

...Sorry, the Hallowe'en pics didn't make it up as quick as I would have liked.

We did have a fabulous Hallowe'en. M had so much fun that he didn't even mind when I left him at the neighbours by himself for 10 minutes!

He collected a pail full of candy which thankfully he forgot about the next day when the Hallowe'en stuff went back into the bin for next year.

It was a bit hard trying to explain to him that he had to wait an entire year to go trick or treating again though!

Here I am!

Finishing Touches...

Make sure the Jack-O-Lantern is working!

Don't forget the balloons you promised your friends!

And off we go!

He refused to wear a buzz...

Let me start this post by clarifying a "buzz" is a nighttime pull-up with a picture of Buzz Lightyear on it.

Last night, after a meltdown because he didn't want to go to bed and the fact that we had company over, I gave in to the fact he refused to put a pull up on and put extra pads on his bed and said, "ok, we'll see you in the morning"....

I couldn't sleep last night. I kept waking up a million times thinking "has he already peed? Is the bed wet?" So upon hearing him at 6:30 this morning, I bolted to his room, thinking maybe, just maybe, he's still holding it, but I knew better.

Nope. Shirt, socks, jammies, bed, all wet. Good thing it's sheet washing day.

Now, I'm not the one saying he doesn't still need a pull-up at night. I know very well he does. But he doesn't understand why he can wear big boy undies in the day and has to have a pull-up at night. What to do? Let's just hope this is a very short lived protest because I ain't doing laundry every 24 hours.

Back to School Jitters

Today is my first day back to work in over a month... A month doesn't seem that long, but it's long enough to feel like I'm out of the loop on everything and I already forgot how to do my job! (which I know I didn't)...

Yep, I feel exactly like I'm in grade 4. I was up at 4am. Not by choice. Thanks to Mr. M. Tonight I teach piano, so this should be a marathon day!

Wish me luck.