Goal Oriented

We've been very busy this past week round these parts.  Busy-ness which has included, but was not limited to Gracie's four month shots, swim class, moms' group, lunch with nana, coffee with friends, and my triumphant return to (substitute) teaching.  All of this activity has meant the nap schedule has gone.  Off.  The. Rails.  And I knew I would have to pay the piper eventually. And pay I have.  So, at four thirty this notmorning notnight, I vowed that we would not be messing with the tattered remains of the nap schedule for at least two days.  Our public will just have to wait to see us for awhile.  Which will of course help build our mystique.  I know Suri would approve.
So, knowing I would be under house arrest for the next couple of days, I began setting my goals for the day.  Did I mention it was four thirty?  That may explain why my goals are somewhat mismatched.  But whatever - the important thing is that I have goals, right?
Here they are, in no particular order: Have a nap, bake this chocolate zucchini cake, work up a sweat to my new Jillian Michaels DVD.  Guess which one is yet to be accomplished?  But it's only four thirty in the pm.  Coincidence?  I think not.

It's busy-ness like this that will get you into trouble . . . 

The Pay Off

Well, it turns out whining via internet pays off.  A lovely friend took pity on me after my moaning and groaning as seen here, and delivered the most thoughtful of gifts. Knowing how I love Pinocchio's Royal Vanilla ice cream, she made a special delivery complete with blackberries and a trashy magazine.  What more could I ask for, really?  The blackberries are long gone, so I've moved on to strawberries and bananas, with a little chocolate sauce I had in the fridge for just such an occasion.

Healthy, right?

No wonder this baby isn't in a hurry to go anywhere.  He or she knows that there will be no ice cream for them on the outside.  

Shelby

Uh Oh!

I really made Blogger mad with my not so kind comments yesterday.  Now it won't show me my Reader of all the other blogs I religiously follow, nor will it allow me to obsessively pore over my stats page.  I can't believe it's still letting me write a post. I'm off to buy it some flowers to try and make amends . . .

While we routinely wake up to weather like this (just last Saturday was the latest storm), I know that spring will come eventually.  It may be time for summer when it arrives, but still, I know it will come at some point.  You only have to look to this past September when summer arrived for about a week to know that I'm right.  So while the weather here may not follow conventional time lines, you can create a spring like feeling by baking up a batch of these award winning bites of sunshine that I found on Pinterest.  They turned out crinkly just like the picture showed, and are perfectly tart and chewy-crisp.  I LOVED them.  No surprise they took the top prize at LDS Living Magazine's website, a site I have to admit I would never have been exposed to if not for Pinterest.

Lemon Crinkle Cookies

Award Winning recipe by Lauren Brennan 

Ingredients:

½ cup butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 whole egg
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon baking powder
⅛ teaspoon baking soda
1½ cups all-purpose flour
½ cup powdered sugar

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Lightly spray cookie sheets with non stick spray and set aside.

2. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Whip in vanilla, egg, lemon zest, and juice. Scrape sides and mix again.

3. Stir in all dry ingredients slowly until just combined, excluding the powdered sugar. Scrape sides of bowl and mix again briefly. 

4. Pour powdered sugar onto a large plate. Roll a heaping teaspoon of dough into a ball and roll in powdered sugar. Place on baking sheet and repeat with remaining dough.

5. Bake for 9-11 minutes or until bottoms begin to barely brown and cookies look matte (not melty or shiny). Remove from oven and cool cookies about 3 minutes before transferring to cooling rack.

Jimmy turned his cookies into what he calls a "chip-wich", even though there are no chips in these cookies.  I would have made mine a chip-wich too, if he could've found Pinochio's Royal Vanilla ice cream for me to sandwich in between.  Alas he could not, and came home instead with cocnut ice cream.  Blech.  He said it was good, so if you go for coconut, you might like to try it.  I'll wait until I can get my vanilla. 
Meanwhile, Ellen has issued a pregnancy dance dare to all expectant mothers who should really be dancing for two.  She wants them sent in for mothers' day.  Should I do it?  I don't know if I can compete with this guy.

Until next time,
Shelby

Wanted

Seeking a replacement for my motivation which has suddenly gone missing.  Said motivation has been replaced with an approximately 17 pound muffin top, shortness of breath when walking distances of more than a foot and sleepless nights punctuated with the most bizarr-o dreams outside of Tim Burton's REM cycle. Limited budget prevents an actual paid transaction for any motivation you may be selling, but a trade is possible.  Upon receipt of your gently used motivation, I will bake you a batch of the most delicious chocolate chip cookies you have ever eaten. It will not be a full batch, as I will have undoubtedly eaten several dozen, but still.
Interested parties may contact me by phone or email, which I will have my husband respond to. 


Ugh!  Seriously - I have no energy for anything.  I know everyone says this, but I can't imagine the steep decline that is yet to come over the next seven weeks. Neither can Jimmy.  My digestion is also lacking motivation, and so I am rarely hungry at dinner time.  It would take way too much energy to prepare a meal that I have no interest in eating, so it's been toast, fruit and yogurt at the timely hour of eight o'clock 'round these parts, poor guy.  He's really missing his meat and potatoes.
Never mind the decline in motivation and productivity, my supportive spouse and I are having a hard time imagining what my mega sized muffin top will look like in seven weeks.  In my opinion, James could have kept his horror to himself, but he never does.  Last night, wide eyed in amazement he declared, "I think you're going to be as big as a house by the end of this!"  He later amended this statement of love and support by adding, "It's just that you're still small everywhere else!  It's going to have to go somewhere!"  Indeed.  
If only I had this kind of airbrushing available to me at all times, because one of these things is not like the other.  Really - click these links, it's worth the energy needed to tap the mouse.  I wouldn't lie about what is or is not worthwhile energy expenditure in my current state.
Rest assured that I will work up enough energy to ask Jimmy to turn on the TV so that I might turn my eyes toward the screen to take in The Bachelor finale.  I can't wait!
Shelby

Book Club

Are any of you blog readers out there part of a book club?  As you might have guessed, I am a card carrying book club member, and it was my turn to host this past Wednesday.  For your viewing pleasure, here is a picture of the spread I prepared.

See that cake proudly standing at center stage?  I found the recipe on Pinterest and was drawn in by the name.  A chai spiced cake with honey ginger frosting?  Sounds like the perfect spice cake, and it was good.  Jimmy pointed out that it could have been more moist.  Isn't it weird when people use "moist" to describe cake?  It's just an odd word.  But he was right.  It was near inedible the second day.  If you're a master baker and can tweak this recipe to bring the moisture back, I'd love to hear your thoughts, because the level of spice was just right.  I didn't take a close up of the cake because it was the worst icing job ever known to man.  As my sister-in-law said "You could've definitely used a crumb coat."  But the copious amount of crumbs came from my inept cake-removal-from-pan procedure.  Did you know you shouldn't let a cake cool completely in its pan before trying to remove it?  All the experts on Google say ten minutes maximum cooling time should be given before removing your creation to a wire rack to cool completely.  So, I threw the pan back in the oven for a few minutes to try and help loosen the thing, and it worked like a charm!  But the crumby damage was already done.
I digress.  Back to the topic of this post: book club.  I was a part of one book club before this one, having joined my current book club after a break from all the clubbing.  It's the same old story.  I got busy and wasn't finishing the books, then felt guilty attending book club when I knew not how the book ended.  Everyone tried to discuss in vague terms so I could finish the book, ending unspoiled.  I also missed picking my own books, because all I had time to read were book club choices.  
When my sister-in-law and her friend started up a new book club, I decided to try again.  We would be meeting every six weeks so there would be more time to finish the selections, there was a good mix of members, and each month had a fun theme.  For example at Christmas everyone brought a children's book for Santa's Anonymous, and before our summer hiatus we exchanged good (read: trashy) summer reads to be returned in the fall.  But after two years, our book club is losing members, and I am losing steam again.  I've not been finishing books, and even though I've always loved reading and read a lot, I'm finding it's becoming a chore again.  It seems like a long time since I've read something I've been totally absorbed in.  There were The Hunger Games books last spring and summer (just like Grace), and Jaycee Dugard's book this fall, but I just haven't been able to get into anything else lately.  Next up on our reading list is Cutting for Stone. If you've read it, leave me your comments so I can get pumped up for it.  It's around 800 pages, but I've got till the end of April, so hopes are running high.  Although by that point in my pregnancy, holding a book upright to read it might seem like a lot of work.  
Obviously the book club's fate is at a cross roads.  We'll see what happens after the summer break.  Any tips on keeping the choices and meetings lively or finding new members to fill our ranks would be appreciated, because I do love book club.  And cake.  And wine.  And in the fall I'll be able to book club and booze again, and I'll probably really, really need it.  In case you missed it, there have been no less than seven requests for your comments this post, a new Chez Quinlan record.  So please do!!
Shelby

Happiness is Strawberry Cake

When I moved out of my parents' house, my mom started the tradition of Sunday dinner.  I think her inspiration came from the Gilmore Girls and the fact that she couldn't think about me having moved out without weeping.  But mostly it was because of those fast talkin' Gilmore Girls.  A little over five years later, and the tradition is still going strong, although with my sister and her family having moved to Calgary, the crowd is a little smaller.  We try to make up for it through Skype, but it's not quite the same.
Dean is the master chef, creating delicious meals every week, with the exception of that one time that he went all Iron Chef and used apples as his special ingredient. Spinach salad with apples and grapes, pork with sauteéd apples and scallions, and apple pie brown rice (no one was a fan of this particular dessert inspired grain). The salad and pork are lovely dishes on their own, but all together it was apple overload. Below is a better combo.

Dean's beer braised short ribs, garlic mash, and asparagus
in a balsamic reduction.  Inspired!

Since the Smith's have moved, not only do we miss their presence, but equally so their desserts.  Homemade pies, cakes and cookies were pumped out of their kitchen on a weekly basis.  I thought they might Fed-ex their baking our way after they moved, but no such luck.  So I've been trying to keep up the dessert standard at our Sunday dinners with stunning results.  Just look at how happy Jimmy is with this latest creation.

So, how can you reproduce this delight amongst your family members?  It's easy!

Strawberry Stripe Refrigerator Cake

Inspired by the back of a cake box I saw once

Ingredients

1 box white cake mix, baked according to package directions (if you have discerning tastes like mine, I recommend Duncan Hines Moist Deluxe.  Much better than Betty Crocker.  I'm not kidding)

1 box of instant vanilla pudding, 4 serving size, prepared according to package directions

1 1/2 cups whipping cream, whipped

1 container of frozen strawberries in light syrup, thawed and blended until smooth

Directions

1. To make icing, fold whipped cream into vanilla pudding.  Set aside.

2. Using a chopstick or straw, poke holes in your cake at regular intervals.  Pour a small amount of blended strawberries into each hole, tamping the sauce down into the hole using your chopstick or straw, and adding more berries until the hole is filled.  This is a painstaking process.  Jimmy decided to help, as you can see below.  He thought pouring the sauce in generous portions would make this process easier, I think it made the cake look like it was seriously wounded.

3. Once your holes are filled, ice the cake.  Allow to set in the fridge for a few hours before serving.  This cake must be served out of the pan or the filling will leak out.

Look at those stripes!

Do you do a weekly family dinner, or are there other traditions you've started with your family?  I love this tradition and can't wait to bring bébé along, if only so that I can pass him or her off to someone else while I guzzle a glass of red.

Happy Tuesday,

Shelby

Road Trip

We hit Highway 2 today on a journey down south to visit family and watch Jimmy's game.  My mom drove, but felt a migraine coming on after about an hour and a half of driving.  Her solution?  Sustenance, a fine remedy if you're most people.  But my mom has different ideas about nourishment than most.  She wanted me to feed her m&m's.  I vetoed this proposal and instead made her eat some carrot sticks and a chocolate flavoured protein bar I had packed.  She complained the whole time, but the migraine didn't get worse, so my work as co-pilot was done.
My dad and I enjoyed a beautiful sunny walk to Starbucks upon our arrival while my mom, sister and niece went to run errands.

Coley is two, and talking more and more, but it often comes out as a dialect only his sister can understand. Without his interpreter present, poor Cole had to repeat "Me not see" numerous times before I realized his hat had fallen into his eyes.  Clearly he has unwavering faith in me and was trusting that I wasn't leading him into oncoming traffic.  Sweet, naive, little thing!  Little did he know I was too busy texting to pay attention to traffic.  We were lucky this time, I guess!  Next time I refuse to take him anywhere without his translator. 

Shirts off party.

The interpreter.

I Like Big Butts . . . ?

I asked my sensitive and supportive husband if he thought my posterior region was getting larger as part and parcel of this beautiful pre-natal state.  Instead of answering one way or the other, he said "Have I got just the thing for you!"  That thing is this:

I can't believe I didn't fully appreciate until now how complex the butt really is! Thank you Leandro - I look forward to getting whistles and cat calls in short order.  
I mentioned to Jimmy that all the cardio and jumping around may not be appropriate for a woman in her third trimester, but as always he had a simple solution. "For after then!"  Thanks honey.  In fact, I think this video series may just be the perfect push present.  Are you taking notes out there, expectant dads who read my blog in droves?
In the meantime, I'm doing everything I can to make sure Leandro has to work for the three easy payments of $19.95 plus $12.95 (American!) shipping and handling my husband will be forking over.  Case in point, the frozen hot chocolate I made last night for a Valentine's treat.  Made with 1/4 cup of hot chocolate mix and cream (not milk), this delicious treat should ensure Leandro has his work cut out for him.  I will be making this again, but if I switch to 2% milk (don't you dare get crazy and suggest skim!) I think I can have one every second day with little to no guilt.  I'm positive this is the healthy alternative to a Blizzard.  I will still have Blizzards too, but only when I get the two for one email from the Blizzard fan club.  What?!  You can't let a two for one coupon go to waste!

 

Happy Hearts

Jimmy surprised me today with an extra special bouquet of flowers.  They're special because he made the arrangement himself at a charity event with all proceeds being donated to the Lois Hole Hospital for Women.  

He even upgraded to the fancier vase, because as he said to me upon presentation of the bouquet: "You're worth it!"  The funniest cutest part of the gift was the mugshot card that came along with it.  

It's a nice idea, but this card is a little strange.  It reminds me a little of a kindergarten student showing off their work. 

Jimmy has been so busy lately with his own lacrosse season starting up, coaching basketball at school, and coaching lacrosse in Leduc, that he was only home for a quick 15 minute dinner this evening between coaching responsibilities.  In honour of Valentine's Day I made his favourite dinner which was inhaled on his way out the door.  It's an Asian chicken salad from The Best of Bridge, and it's delicious and easy.  Just make the dressing, stir-fry some chicken, peppers, pea pods, and asparagus, and serve over rice noodles.  I forgot to take a picture before dinner, but here are the left overs.  

We're such healthy people, there are hardly any vegetables left.

Dressing for Asian Chicken Salad

from The Best of Bridge

1/2 cup olive oil

2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

3 tablespoons soy sauce

1 1/2 tablespoons sesame oil

1/2 tablespoon honey

1 clove garlic, minced

1/2 teaspoon minced ginger

1 teaspoon salt

ground pepper to taste

1. Place all ingredients in a jar and shake to mix.  If you're lazy like me, you can skip mincing the ginger and garlic and throw it all in the blender. 


When he returns later this eve, I plan to serve him this sweet treat that I found on Pinterest.  I'll let you know how mine turns out, but it looks delicious and is reminiscent of our first date.  

Hope you're enjoying something sweet today.

XO

Shelby

Mission Accomplished, Sort Of

Today was a good day.  Hugs from friends I haven't seen in awhile, yoga with some excellent students, laughs over lunch, and a delicious (albeit misshapen) dipped cone eaten outside in the February sunshine.

Doesn't misshapen look like it's spelled wrong?  Spell check assures me it's A-OK, but I don't know.
Anywho, I was riding this lovin' life high when I came home to find not one, not two, but three (!) birds trapped in my sun room.  There they were, flapping their wings madly, pecking at all three glass walls in futility, and otherwise freaking out.  Sadly, this is not the first time this has happened, but in the past, only one bird was trapped.  Never three!  Three is just madness.  You see, the sliding door on the sunroom is broken and does not slide, so open it sits, acting as a cruel trap to our back yard friends.
Today's rescue mission involved several failed attempts.  First, I used a field lacrosse stick (because it's longer than a normal lacrosse stick) in an attempt to get the birds to perch while I ferried them to the door.  Seeing as these are the type of birds who can fly, this didn't work.  I got one to perch on the end of the stick, but once I tried moving the stick to the door, the bird flew back to the window to resume pecking and flapping madly.
Back to the drawing board.
I put on my MaCgyver hat and strapped a peanut butter and bird seed coated treat on the end of my lacrosse stick perch.  Interestingly enough, these birds held escape from the sunroom/death trap higher on their list of priorities than settling down with me for an afternoon snack.
And to the drawing board again.
This time, a good old cardboard box with a makeshift lid.  You know when you trap a bug under a glass, then slid a sheet of paper underneath to keep it inside so you can dispose of it without touching it?  This is what I was attempting to do with the whirling dervishes at the sunroom window.  And . . . it worked!  Although I shuddered every time I heard the soft thud after I forced their little body into the box, not to mention how awful I felt as they flapped away inside the box while I transported them to safety.  And the sheer terror that they might break out during the rescue mission and retaliate against their savior, mercilessly pecking her eyes out was nearly unbearable.  Thankfully, lifting soup cans has really been building my upper body strength, so I was able to hold the lid tight while I walked the three steps to the door, and no eye pecking escape took place.
As I said, this has happened before, but the volume of birds trapped, coupled with the fact that I was alone had me a bit nervous.  The last time this happened, it was almost cute!  And I caught it on camera.  This clip is just as good as any action you'd see in a Mission Impossible movie, I swear, and I've been trying to upload it for the past half an hour, and I give up.  Thanks for nothing, blogger help.  What does server not supported mean?  If I ever figure it out, I'll post it.  Wow, talk about anticlimactic.
I hate technology,
Shelby

Cupcakes (and an ice sculpture festival)!

Tomorrow is the first day of the Ice on Whyte Festival here in Edmonton.  The festival runs until January 22nd, and I have a feeling it will be fairly busy this weekend with temperatures of plus two to minus four in the forecast.  Come Monday however, the temperature is slated to fall to a spine numbing minus 26 degrees Celsius .  For our American friends that translates to about minus 15 degrees.  Sadly, the temps are doomed to stay at this mind boggling low all week, climbing up to a balmy minus 15 for next weekend.  


I suppose I can't complain too much, as we've been very lucky this winter.  The bébé and I have been able to enjoy almost daily walks, and we've only had to shovel twice.  Had the temperature stayed above zero as it did last week, the ice sculptures would have been sad and drippy looking, and the giant ice slide for the kids could have quickly turned into a perilous activity.  In fact, the festival was supposed to open today, but they have delayed the opening until tomorrow at 2 PM due to "recent extraordinary weather conditions". 

The sculptures really are beautiful, and there are a couple of perks that could draw you out of your Snuggie and off the couch.  First, the Youth Emergency Shelter Society will be holding a café in a heated tent where you can enjoy coffee or hot chocolate and defrost your toes.  All profits from the café will go to support at risk youth in our community.  Also in the heated tent you can enjoy live music every evening.  And that's not all!  Onto the cupcakes promised in the title of this post.  


I don't know if you know this or not, but Flirt Cupcakes makes THE best cupcakes in the city.  I know there are those who are devout supporters of other cupcake bakeries in the city, but I have tried them all (yes, it was a very arduous and thankless task) and I have made my decision.  This paragraph is a lovely tangent, I know, but how does all of this relate to the festival, you ask?  


Well, many Whyte Ave retailers have special offers running for the duration of the festival, and you may have guessed by now that Flirt is one of those retailers.  Two-for-one cupcakes!!  If that doesn't get you out of your Snuggie, I don't know what will.  And honestly, if you have a long winter coat, you could just wear your Snuggie underneath (not that I've ever done this).   


So print off your coupons (there's even a two for one admission coupon for the festival itself) and get out there to enjoy some icy art and cupcakes!  And if all of the above mentioned enticements still aren't enough to spark your interest, observe my underwhelming photography skills in evidence at last year's festival for a taste of what's waiting to be seen:

It's Buddha.  My skills do not allow for any depth perception whatsoever which is why poor Buddha has no visible facial features.