Theres no shame in a Birthday

How did I get here?
Today.
This City.
At this table.
In these pants.
With this job.
Liking this food.

With the haircut!

Wow, I have changed over the years, and that's what its all about!

Birthdays should never be lied about, or pushed aside. Its one day, only one, where you rein supreme over all that is. This is your day, the only one that you can mark on a calendar as the first day of your next turn around the sun.

This is it, we have time on earth. And time is reflected in dates, and time is counted in years. YEARS............................OLD..........................YEARS...........................OLD

Why do people not like birthdays? Maybe because on this day you will undoubtedly be asked...

How OLD are you?

This is how I see it. One day, long ago, some crazy women decided that with each passing day they were one step closer to hopping on the Ugly Bus. The only way to avoid this non-stop ride to Ugly Town was to lie about their age, because if anyone knew their REAL age, they would have to pack it in and die right there. I know, I know, the logic is flawless but its all the lies I just can't live with! (Cue the laughing track now)

OK, maybe its just a flaw in the space time continuum that some how sucks the 'Happy Birthday' out of the memories of these helpless ladies and replaces it with 'Fear the Birthday'

JULY 15, 1983

That is the day I was born and therefore I am having a PARTY. You may think "Well you're in the prime of your life of course you don't care who knows how old you are, just wait until you are my age (still not disclosing their age) then lets see how excited you are about your Birthday"

Oh Negative Nancy, when will you ever learn!

coming back from oblivion

Toronto Island "Bike For Africa"

So Steve and I have moved to a great new apartment, settled in, and FINALLY got our laptop back! We moved into this fantatic place with 'Free High Speed' Internet but alas!

That isn't to say I haven't been busy!

Murder Mystery Night, I am Countess Von Orlock

Climbing at Rattlesnake Conservation

Toronto Island "Bike For Africa"

self sufficient dough

I was given a bread making machine.
It sat on the floor in the bedroom, propping the door open.
I read the cookbook that came with it.
I bought the yeast.
Yet there it sat.

There are so many things I want to do, so many things I think about, and I can't seem to fit them in between the things I need to do everyday. Like dishes, laundry, eating, sleeping, you know.

But with our new apartment almost in our hands, there is a feeling of excitement in the air, the feeling that anything is possible. We feel like we will be freshening up our lives in this new apartment, but that really stems from how our perspective has changed.

Steve is changing jobs, finally finding that niche where he loves to work, loves it so much, he doesn't even call it work. And you know what they say, "When you find something you love to do, you will never work another day in your life" He has found this, in Yoga.

I just like change. Controllable, foreseeable change, mind you. I like to start new and fresh, switch up the old routine. The biggest perk of a new apartment is INTERIOR DESIGN! Different colours schemes, different placement of pictures and furniture. Because if you live in a small apartment you know very well that you are limited to where you can place your furniture, functionally.

So with a hallway full of empty collapsed boxes and an apartment scattered with full boxes, It felt like the time to sit and relax to the churning sounds of a bread maker. I started with Pizza Dough, if it turns out, I'll move to bigger and better things like Cinnamon bread and Hot cross bun dough.

I'd never used a bread machine before, and I felt like the instruction booklet wasn't holding my hand enough. It just felt too easy. Pour wet in, dump dry in, sprinkle in yeast, select dough setting, press start..... "2 hours later you will have dough" the book tells me. I wanted to ask the book to send my love to the machine.

It is nice to know that I make almost everything that we eat. I buy pre-made pie crusts (making sure its made with vegetable shortening and not lard) I buy soy yogurt, canned soups and beans, rice cheese, almond milk and soy protein items. But otherwise we stock the fridge and pantry with whole ingredients and start from scratch every meal of the day.

I was given an Ice cream machine for Christmas, a digital Crock Pot for my Birthday and now a bread maker, watch out, I'm a cooking machine... or the machines are cooking machines.

so I made a pizza

and topped it off
fresh pineapple, marinated tofu, tomato sauce, mushrooms, sun dried tomato's, fresh spinach, rice cheese, brushetta spice

baked it and sliced it up

and ate it

Start to finish, full circle, I made the whole thing! I love it!

If my cooking machines took over the world, I think I might have to serve them blindly.

A blurb from one of my favourite Bloggers

"But cooking — the process of thoughts throughout the afternoon of what to make, the slow chopping, the simmering, the dreaming? That’s almost better than eating. Tackling a new recipe and then taping it into my giant black notebook, because I certainly want make that one again — that made me feel more capable than my job ever did. For years, the stove was my sustenance, the place I skipped to after a long day of teaching, or on Sunday afternoons instead of grading papers. In the kitchen, I stop thinking. I breathe in the smells. I sing along with Johnny Cash or Talking Heads, songs I know in my toes instead of learning new ones. I chop sloppy, I sometimes don’t clean up as I go, and I enjoy every damned moment of it. Cooking slows me down. There are times that nothing makes me happier than standing in the kitchen in my bare feet, warm air from the opened oven ruffling my hair, and my fingers feeling that the cake is done. It’s the relaxed time of the hands.." Gluten Free Girl

Its nice to hear it from another persons mind. Its nice to read something that registers with every molecule in my body.

2=1

I'm engaged today.

I have been playfully tossing the idea out into the open for so long now that since this precious time has arrived it isn't a screaming fit of surprise that I have seen so many times before. In commercials, movies, or on YouTube video's, today feels like any other day.

But when he asked me, sitting in the front seat of the Yaris, our bellies full of delicious Thai Food. He started to say the sweetest things, but as his eyes welled up and his hand reached into his jacket, I have to admit, I heard nothing more. It was all happening so fast. I first thought he was joking with me, then I thought it was real, then I felt it was real, it was really happening.

There aren't too many things in the world that I experience for the first time anymore. And when I experience new things, I always compare the real feeling I had, against what I 'thought' it was going to be like. What I felt was absolute completion. I felt like so many years of love were colliding into one moment in time. But on the way home, it was just us, we were still the same people, on the same path. And I liked it. I liked that nothing changed, because we didn't change, we have always been soul mates, and will always be.

But ya know, I have been wanting to Marry this man for years, wearing the pearl ring he gave me for my 25th Birthday on my wedding finger, with another plain band to keep it on (Since the Pearl one is a little too big for my ring finger). Looking down at it on a daily basis, knowing I was long off 'the market' and loving this little imaginary world I lived in where Steve was my Husband. But now, its for real, and there is nothing greater than that feeling.

I can't explain our relationship beyond saying He is Me, my Best Friend and my True Love. We are so remarkably similar, and yet he is one of the most influential role models in my life. He seems to never tire of balancing my energy, and I never tire of making him happy.

He is where I begin and where I end.

I believe Love is something you know, in your body. Saying it to each other, this sentence "I love you" feels good, but the words mean nothing. It is the feeling inside, that you think of when you say these words, that means so much to us.

It really is true, all the old stories and sappy romance movies, that climax in complete chaos, then end with two people coming together to express their love, and in that, knowing that everything will be OK. That all that other stuff, isn't as bad as it seems, because you have someone to completely support you and only you, through the rest of your days.

Here's to the rest of our life!

Ying and Yang

I sat,
on my couch,
my mind a wander as such,
the greatest cookie ever made,
being mixed and measured in my mind.

One cookie with two hearts,
two minds,
good and evil?
no,
delicious and daring.

what if?
yes it could work,
one batter,
with two results,
together as one,
a cookie as a muffin,
it must be done!

Quinoa you complete me, you complete protein, you!

Quinoa in the wild!

Quinoa (pronounced KEEN-wah or KEE-no-uh) is a species of goosefoot (Chenopodium) grown as a crop primarily for its edible seeds. It is a pseudocereal rather than a true cereal as it is not a grass.

Quinoa originated in the Andean region of South America, where it has been an important food for 6,000 years.

Quinoa has become highly appreciated for its nutritional value, as its protein content is very high (12%–18%), making it a healthful choice for vegetarians and vegans. Unlike wheat or rice (which are low in lysine), quinoa contains a balanced set of essential amino acids for humans, making it an unusually complete protein source.^[3] It is a good source of dietary fiber and phosphorus and is high in magnesium and iron. Quinoa is gluten-free and considered easy to digest. Because of all these characteristics, quinoa is being considered a possible crop in NASA's Controlled Ecological Life Support System for long-duration manned spaceflights.

Well, you learn something new every day. I learned that if I want to live on a space station, I will still be able to eat this salad!

This takes no time to whip up and it keep in the fridge easily for 3-5 days!



Quinoa Salad

(Adapted from "Crunchy Quinoa", Mmmmm Steph you make it the best!)

1 cup Quinoa (I used red and white mixed)
** cook according to package directions
** Spread out on a cookie tray to cool before adding to salad mixture

1 Carrot, diced
2 Green onions, diced
1/2 cup Peas ( I used frozen)
1 can Chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1/4 cup Pumpkin seeds

feel free to add: red pepper, celery, sunflower seeds, parsley and black sesame seeds.

Dressing:
1/4 cup Olive oil
2 tbsp Apple cider vinegar
1 tbsp Lemon juice
1 tbsp Tamari (soy sauce)
dash and Salt and fresh cracked Black Pepper

Eat on its own, or over a bed of mixed greens. It has an amazingly rich flavour, DIG IN!