Teething Biscuits

My nephew bought his new daughter (9 months old) these teething biscuits. They look just like cheesies, and are whole grain. What's not to love?

My Swedish Meatballs

I decided to make some Swedish meatballs the other day, just wanted to try something different, other than having it at Ikea. They tasted pretty good, really just a cream sauce over meatballs. It is very quick to make.

Paint Party Friday - Jenn's Cardinal

For Paint Party Friday I painted one of Jenn's delightful cardinal photos. It is done on good quality textured grey cardstock (6" x 6") using Winsor Newton acrylics, outlined with a PITT marker.

Words for Wednesday on Thursday

This month Mumblings has been hosting Words for Wednesday.  Her word for this Wednesday was 'television'.

I thought you would enjoy my true television story here, I usually just post it within the comments on the WFW hosting blog:

Many years ago I was going to a Parent’s Luncheon and fundraiser for my kids’ elementary school. One of the moms offered to car pool to the event. It was one of those events where you get all dressed up and go to a banquet hall. The hall was beautifully decorated for the party. There was a silent auction, I had a look through the items. I decided to buy a $20 ticket to the raffle that was being held for a 40 inch flat screen television. It was a pricey raffle ticket I thought, but what the heck it was for a good cause.

We went to sit at our assigned tables. As we ate, we chatted and enjoyed our formal meal. The principal made a nice speech, among others. Finally, it was time to draw the raffle prize. Unbelievably, it was my number! It was beyond exciting. I had won the television! It is not often that I win anything and this was a fabulous prize!

The mom who had driven me helped me load the television into her car, I had not even thought of how I was getting it home, still euphoric. She then helped me transfer the television into my own car when we got back to the school. I still have so much appreciation for her efficient kindness and thoughtfulness.

Needless to say, it was a happy moment arriving home that evening with brand new, state of the art equipment! For months I had fun telling my family and friends the story of my free television.

Pencil Puzzle

I very much enjoyed doing this spatial reasoning puzzle and thought some of you might too.  Let me know in the comments if you want the answer and I will leave a comment on your blog.

The mailbox keys

daffodils sprouting last week

I went to the super mailbox to collect our mail on the first day of spring. The ice around the community mailbox had melted somewhat. There is always garbage around it, shame on some of the neighbours. Anyway, I decided to pick up some of the scattered papers and discovered some rusted keys at the back of the area. They looked like identical mailbox keys so I put them in the mail slot. The mailman can best decide what to do with them.

We wanted the ice to melt away but then the weeds and lawn chores will start, sigh!

Vegetarian Sausage

Recently, I tried the new Beyond Meat sausage and egger breakfast burger at A and W restaurants. It costs a dollar more than a regular sausage and egger. It did have a sausage taste and was very filling. You have a choice of whole grain or white bun which is good. The whole grain bun was fresh and delicious.

I heard the vegetarian hot dogs at Ikea are quite good, made with chick peas. So that is on my list to try at some point.

Cocoa Pods

Have you ever seen cocoa pods? This photo that one of my sisters sent me shows the cocoa beans inside the pods, which will be dried and processed to ultimately make chocolate.

Pangolin

Artist Linda Calverly featured the Pangolin on her website for a recent Paint Party Friday.  I had never heard of this mammal with reptilian scales.  It seems they are highly trafficked in Asia and Africa for their meat.  'Their meat is considered a delicacy and pangolin scales are used in traditional medicine and folk remedies.' They are protected but endangered by illegal trade.

Paint Party Friday - Girl and Horse

Welcome to Paint Party Friday! I have a 'Girl and Horse' (12" x 12") for you today done in permanent marker in my sketchbook. It is based on a photo of my niece with her horse who she obviously loves very much, she gave me permission to paint it.  The feeling is mutual between them I think.

Thanks to Eva and Kristin for always hosting.

Happy Spring, it is official!

Icy roads

There is still so much ice on the ground outside, I took these photos on Sunday when I met friend S for a cold walk.  One of the walkways had too much ice at the end of it, so I turned around and did a detour.

However, spring is now here and as someone said to me today 'the glaciers are melting'!

Coffee on the Go

Did you know that convenient disposable coffee cups are not recyclable, not in the Toronto blue bin program anyway.  Apparently the cups are lined with plastic so they should just go to landfills.  They also do not accept black lids, other colours are fine.  Recycling machines cannot distinguish black plastic from the conveyor belt so it cannot be sorted.  And even if it could be sorted, there is no market for black plastic.  The paper sleeves are recyclable.  There is a cost to the convenience of 'coffee on the go'.

I was guilty of throwing coffee cups into the recycle bin thinking they are made of paper, not knowing that they have plastic liners.  Unfortunately, I hardly see people bringing their own mugs.

Cauliflower mash with cheese

The other night, I was looking for a snack. Earlier in the day, I had made some cauliflower mash. I decided to add some cheese to a portion and melted it over top. It was delicious. It is a good idea to treat it as you would mashed potatoes.

In case you think I am always a healthy eater, I also had 2 slices of Belgian chocolate cake after dinner. Husband M noticed people were buying it at the grocery store and we decided to try it. It is a winner.

Wieners and Beans

I had an idea to use up some turkey hot dogs that were languishing in the fridge and decided to do wieners and beans. I found a recipe on Allrecipes. It just required adding 2 cans of pork and beans, a dash of mustard and some barbecue sauce to the turkey hot dogs and simmering it all for 15 minutes.  It was all gone by the next day!

St. Patrick's Day

This meme I got from Martha looks green in honour of St. Patrick's Day. It's also hilarious. Have a happy one if you celebrate. 

Last week I was driving through the neighbourhood and saw this middle-aged man walking to the mailbox.  He stepped onto an icy patch and fell flat on his bum.  A lady was jogging by and stopped to see if he was ok.  Fortunately he got up and continued on his way.  Hopefully the snow will all melt away soon.

Artisanal Soaps

I bought these wonderful handmade artisanal soaps from a good friend. She taught herself to make them and has no doubt learned a lot.  It required experimenting with recipes and different scents.  It sounds a lot like cooking and of course a lot of work.  I cannot wait to try them.   Do you like soaps?

Paint Party Friday - Seascape ACEO

Welcome to Eva and Kristin's Paint Party Friday! I did a Seascape ACEO (2 1/2" x 3 1/2") for you today on canvas in permanent marker and Sharpie water based white marker.

Almsgiving

Well Catholics are in the season of Lent, working towards Easter. Our archbishop included a letter in the church bulletin last week urging us that while prayer and fasting is good, they are encouraging more almsgiving. According to wikipedia this means 'giving to others as an act of virtue, either materially or in the sense of providing capabilities (e.g. education) free.'

I ordered a book from Amazon way back at the end of January but it never arrived.  I contacted the seller through Amazon and they replied immediately saying they will credit my account, track the package and redeliver for free.  It would be great if this all works out.  It was a used book for about $7.  Have you had any similar experience?

Cashew butter

cheese, cashew butter on toast

cranberry cocktail

I thought I better start using up some cashew butter I have in my fridge. Here is a breakfast I had, cheddar cheese melted on toast, cashew butter melted on toast. The cashew butter gets quite hard in the fridge, but it microwaves well for about 25 seconds.  Have you ever had cashew butter?  It is a lot like peanut butter.

Every morning I also have a glass of cranberry cocktail to help ward off urine infections!

A new burger

We finally got around to trying McDonald's new spicy chicken jalapeno. That is my half of the burger pictured. It was good, the spicy part comes from the sauce.

Dinner and a Movie

barg kebab

Recently we went to see the movie 'The Green Book'. We had dinner before that at Bamiyan Kebab, a casual Afghani restaurant. My barg kebab (a tender steak) dish was very good. We took the leftover  bread and rice home. They use a sumac spice in this type of food, something different. The movie was very good, we enjoyed it.

The drink of choice

I noticed that Costco has this water bottle machine right beside their eatery now, the bottles are only 25c and it is a much better choice than soda. Water is the new drink of choice.

Hope you remembered to move your clocks forward for Daylight Savings Time if it applies where you live.

New Canada Food Guide

Have you seen the new Canada Food Guide? I thought I would share it here with you today.  This article explains more about the changes.  The food guide was last revised in 2007.  Food groups and recommended servings have been eliminated.  It is more about proportion than portion sizes.  So they recommend half your plate should consist of fruit and vegetables, a quarter of your plate should be proteins, with the other quarter consisting of whole grains.  Water is the drink of choice.  The emphasis is on home cooking.

This would require a huge adjustment in terms of milk and cheese, not to mention meat.  

Paint Party Friday - Happy 8th Birthday PPF!

It is Paint Party Friday's 8th birthday and we are celebrating. It has been 8 wonderful years where my art had grown so much and I have met so many talented artists. My piece is a greeting card done on textured pink cardstock in permanent markers. It is one I had previously posted in another art coop and seemed perfect for today.

She Shed

Pam had this on her blog recently and I loved number 4. Which she shed is your favourite?  We have had a lot of snow this winter, necessitating a few cancelled appointments.  It is nice to think of warmer weather.

Some of you may know I slipped on the ice and hurt my wrist last Saturday.  I am happy to report that the xrays are okay and nothing was broken.  The wrist is improving everyday and it was a good warning to beware the ice.  I am so glad spring will be here soon.

Humour at the Hairdresser

silk flowers at the liquor store

Daughter L and I were sharing humour that we experienced at our respective hairdressers recently. At my hairdresser last week, an older male customer walked in and greeted the older esthetician, 'everytime I see you, you look ten years younger!'. The assistant and I looked at each other and smiled, that was a good one!

Daughter L said her hairdresser, he has an adult daughter if we are to guess his age, was discussing artificial intelligence with her. He said he was in Walmart one day and lined up to cash out with his regular cashier. He heard a voice 'young man, come this way, I can take you here'. 'Young man!' she repeated trying to get his attention. He said he looked left, he looked right, there was no other man there. 'She must mean me!' he realized. He continued, 'I was so flattered and happy, that really made my day! That is one thing artificial intelligence cannot do, it cannot make you feel as good as I did that day!'

My tooth Implant status

I thought some of you may be interested in my tooth implant process:

I had an appointment last week with the dental specialist to have imaging x rays done as the first step to having an implant done to replace a tooth I had extracted last fall.  At that time he could not put bone chips at the extraction site because they might become infected along with the existing abscess I had developed.

It was a good day, because after the dentist looked at my x rays he was able to see that I have enough bone of my own at the site and we can start the implant surgery immediately.  The dentist said that one lady had just been told that her bone graft had not taken thus she is not a candidate for an implant.  She will have to have dentures.

My next appointment is in early April for the implant surgery.  A week later, I will have a follow up appointment to check progress, then another follow up appointment a month later.  There will be another surgery 4 months after that to put some kind of cap in place.  At that point I will go to my regular dentist to have a crown made.  All things going well, I should have a new 'tooth' by Christmas.  The cost of an implant/crown is between $4000 - $6000.  Typically, most health insurance policies don't cover this.

Another good thing that day was son K found my missing pair of gloves!  It was just annoying when it disappeared.

Chocolate cream cake with ganache icing

Daughter L made me this chocolate cream cake with a coffee ganache icing to cheer me up after my recent wrist injury. It is delicious.  A get well soon gesture she called it.

Wrist injury

I never thought about this, it is good advice!  Well, just thinking way ahead to spring.

So I went out to shovel yesterday and slipped on some black ice, hurting my right wrist.  I have never fallen so hard on an arm, did it ever hurt.  We decided to go to the walk in clinic to have it looked at.  The doctor didn't think it was broken but ordered xrays anyway.  He will call if there is a problem.   On a lighter note, the technician asked if I could be pregnant prior to doing the xrays.  I thanked her, as I am turning 60 in June.  I know it was just a precaution.  Luckily I am left-handed.  Unfortunately I will be missing my aerobics classes for a bit.

Roasted Eggplant with Miso Glaze

This roasted eggplant with miso glaze came out very well, it is easy to make and I know many of us are looking to add more vegetables to our diet. Miso paste as pictured below is very salty so you can adjust the amount used to your preference.


5 Japanese eggplants sliced in half lengthwise


Miso Glaze

1 tbs mirin
1 1/2 tbs miso paste
3 tbs olive oil
1/2 tsp sesame oil
1 tbs white sugar

Preheat the oven to 350F

on a baking tray lined with parchment paper, arrange the eggplant slices. Mix your miso glaze together.
spread the miso glaze over the slices with a spoon

bake 20 minutes.

Paint Party Friday - My March 2019 Calendar Page

For Paint Party Friday, I am sharing my 2019 March calendar page with you, I have a calendar printed up every year by Shutterfly. The quote I selected for it is:

'Where life plants you, bloom with grace.'

And welcome to March!

Kay had kindly allowed me to paint her photo when I first showed it.  I selected it for use in my calendar.