Craft Day

It snowed today. Big giant pieces of snowflakes came floating down but didn't stick around. Snow days like this I don't mind.

I finally completed one of my sewing projects. To begin the story, I purchased some oven mitts several years ago which the kids love using for retrieving hot dishes from the microwave oven. It was the perfect size for their hands. They were not too oversize like some potholders which can often dip into the food. What I liked about these mitts was that they had magnets sewn into them so they can be easily attached to the fridge door. But after years of use, they became quite decrepit looking.

Time for a new pair. So, here's my version. I searched far and wide the past few days for some magnet strips to go into the mitts, but I never did find them. So, I tried cutting up some old fridge magnet ads (like from pizza places and dental offices)and inserting them into my newly sewn mitts. But these magnets just weren't strong enough to keep the mitts stuck on the fridge. My last resort was to attach a tie on them so they can be hung on kitchen cupboard knobs or hooks instead. I also made a round version of the oven mitt because they are actually easier to make but like the square oven mitts, my kids found them too cumbersome. Even though they are more difficult to sew, the oval design won out. Stick in a cute little Pillsbury Doughboy and it's ready to be part of a gift arrangement.

Another sewing project I may work on later would be the little personalized hanging stocking ornaments. I try to make new ornaments each year to hang on the Christmas tree. The Derek & Colin Stockings are 2 of my favourite keepsakes.

I didn't get around to playing with Model Magic this year yet. I love playing with Model Magic. It's like Playdough, but much nicer to work with and air dries into a soft dry product, perfect for ornament making. The boys and I have made many Model Magic ornaments over the years. One of my favourite is a Beaver I made last year for Connie Tam because that's her favourite animal. I liked it so much that I made one for myself to keep. Colin likes the angry snowman. Derek likes, what else, the christmas turtle.


Big Giant Snowflakes come floating down from the sky .... So pretty

Old pair of microwave oven mitts with fridge magnet inserts

Very old & decreipt looking

New microwave oven mitts

Pop a pillsbury doughboy in

Assorted microwave mitts

Hanging mitts

Hanging Stocking ornaments

Snowman & snowwoman ornaments

Personalized on the back

More ornaments

Angry snowman and friendly beaver

Home Cooking & Cooking Abroad

Today, I finally started some sewing projects but will not be finished til maybe tomorrow. Meanwhile, I baked some banana muffins, banana bread and some Frosty Flakes Christmas Wreaths. For dinner I made some Shrimp Pad Thai. It turned out really well, but I must give credit to a girl who hails from Bangkok for all her good tips on how to make Pad Thai. If you want to give it a try, I recommend you go to Chez Pim's blog to learn how to make Pad Thai at http://chezpim.typepad.com/blogs/2007/01/pad_thai_for_be.html She goes into very fine details, but it's well worth the read.

After our most excellent meal, we sat down to watch "Chef Abroad". Tonite's episode featured Chef Micheal Smith dining in Tokyo restaurants. It turned out to be a horror show for Derek as they were showing us how turtle soup and turtle sushi were prepared. Derek coudn't bear to watch this portion of the show. He finally resumed watching when they switched the topic to eating Fugu Sushi. Fugu (blow fish/pufferfish) is a fish which contains deadly poison in the organs. Fugu sushi is the World's Most Deadly Feast. We witnessed Chef Michael Smith eating it. He was extremely hesitant, but he did it. He was quite worried when he said he felt a strong tingling sensation on his lips. We think this might be his final episode. Just kidding of course. He was quite proud that he survived the Fugu Sushi eating challenge at the end of the show. Way to go Chef Michael!!! He's one brave soul.

Banana muffins, Banana Bread & Frosty Flakes Wreaths

Yummy Shrimp Pad Thai

I got 2 thumbs up for this dish

Derek couldn't stand watching his beloved turtles being butchered for soup. Even Colin was crying about it

Okay, it's safe to view again

Fugu Sushi Chef

Cute Fugu (Blow Fish/Pufferfish)

Life at a slower pace

Here's a recap of my first week of holidays at home with the boys, sans Dick.

I love waking up late every morning (around 8AM), so much better than 6AM. I love that there's no need to rush here and there. I can take my time doing whatever I want, whenever I want. No schedules to follow. I love it! love it! love it!!!

So, 2 whole weeks of indulging in all my favourite activities: cooking, shopping, crafting, baking and surfing the net.

First, the cooking. I love surfing the net, looking for ideas for new recipes or to just improve on old ones. On Monday, I made Korean Beef for dinner, always a family favourite, especially for Derek. He loved it so much, he had a helping of the leftover beef each morning for breakfast. Tuesday was my first attempt at making Hainam Chicken. It's basically chicken boiled with salt, garlic, ginger and green onion, served cold with a sesame oil coating and a green onion & ginger paste. It's a very simple and tender way to serve chicken. I got the thumbs up from the kids on that one. On Wednesday, I made 2 styles of pork. One portion was marinated with Chinese BBQ sauce (another family favourite). The other portion was marinated with soy sauce, ginger, garlic and lime leaves. The lime leaf portion had a nice flavour, but came out a bit dry. I also roasted some potatoes, squash and onion along with the pork. That provided enough food for 2 days. Friday was good’ole pasta night.

As for shopping, I ventured out to the Mall on Tuesday just looking for Christmas Gift ideas. I got sidetracked at Zellers when they kept announcing that they were giving away free kitchen gadgets. And of course, I'm always a sucker for free gadgets, so I stayed to listen to the food demo. I didn't stay for long tho, as I didn't want to be suckered into buying more useless items. I did try out the free gadget at home, but it never works out as well as how the demonstrator shows it. I swear they must use extra soft fruits and veggies for their demos, because I had a hell of a time trying to remove the core from an apple when I got home. I struggled with it so much, I ended up using a regular knife to cut it up and then removing the core the old fashioned way.

On Wednesday, I broke down and used the old lady cart to cart back some groceries. I noticed that we were halfway through the bag of rice and since there was a sale on our favourite brand of scented rice… Well, I had to pick a bag up, but there was no way I was gonna lug that thing back using a shopping bag alone. I also bought a GIANT bag of Mini Marshmallows since the kids love having those with their Hot Cocoa and Colin enjoyed the Frosty Flakes Squares so much that I will have to make another batch for him this weekend. I also picked up some Baby Bok Choy which the dopey clerk insisted was Shanghai Bok Choy. I didn’t argue too hard back because I got a better price on it anyways. I tried to be helpful, but she seemed to think she knew better.

Thursday was a doozy. I promised my in-laws that I would water their houseplants and pick up their mail every Thursday, which worked out well when I was already working downtown. But since I was uptown this week, I had to make the loooong trek down to their place. Well, I thought my daily commute to work was hellish, this beats it. It took me nearly 2 hours to get there! On top of that, when I went to pick up their mail, I actually pushed the whole pile too far back and all the mail fell into a gap at the back wall. Needless to say, I was devastated. When I checked with the front desk what to do, he suggested that I wait until around 12 noon or 1 PM for the postie to come by to retrieve my mail for me. It was only 11AM, so I decided to head over to meet up with my niece for lunch first. As always, I had a nice time chit-chatting with her. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to stay as long as I had hoped since I had to head back to my in-laws’ place to retrieve the mail.

After that, I made my way up to Chinatown where I did some quick browsing. There were so many shops there, I couldn’t decide which shops to go to. Time goes by so fast when there are so many places to visit. While there, I wanted to buy some Gai Lan (Chinese Broccoli). There was a bunch piled on top of a table and I started to pick through for the best selection but the vendor comes by and tells me that I can’t pick and choose but he will bag some up for me. I asked him why can’t I pick and choose and he said because I CAN’T. So I thought, fine, I won’t and left. I saw he did the same to some other customer. I guess some people don’t really want to sell their stuff?!?!. I ended up buying some Thai Basil, a package of firm tofu and some tamarind paste. I’m gonna make some Pad Thai Noodles later this week. Wish me luck.

As I travelled north up Spadina, there were so many shops I wanted to visit, but alas, it was getting late and I didn’t get to spend time at Gwartzmans Art Supplies Store. That was an old haunt of mine from my U of T days when I thought I could make a go at being an artist. Then I dropped into one of the numerous Chinese Knick Knack shops and I knew if I entered one of those, I’ll be in there for hours. But because I also wanted to scout out the Sickkids Hospital, I forced my way back out after only spending half an hour in there.

So off I went to Sickkids. I thought about visiting a high school friend while I was there but because it was getting late, I decided to just check out the exact location so that I won’t get lost, should I need to take Derek there for his upcoming Job Shadowing assignment. Michael Tropak was kind enough to offer the time to show Derek around his lab working as a Research Associate for Sickkids. He is only available on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday to do that, so I hope that Derek’s teacher will allot one of those days to be the Job Shadow Day. Otherwise, Derek will end up job shadowing one of my colleagues at the Bank instead.

On the way back to the subway station, I came across the “New” Ryerson University Business School sitting atop the Big Canadian Tire store on the corner of Yonge & Dundas. Ryerson, my Alma Mater. I attended it when it was known as “Rye High”. Such memories. Those were fun times. Oh well, time to go home. Gotta get back before dinnertime or the kids will be wondering where I’ve been all day.


Korean Beef

Hainam Chicken

Roasted Veggies

Useless Kitchen Gadget. It's suppose to be a fruit corer, among other things. I'm sure I'll fiddle with it some more on another day.

My saviour - The Old Lady Cart

Baby Bok Choy, Shanghai Bok Choy

Ginormous Bag'o Marshmallows

A hangout from my U of T days

Knick Knack store in Chinatown. I can spend all day in one of these stores

The "New" Ryerson University Business Building sitting on top of Canadian Tire

Cookies, Crafts & Shakespeare

I was in the mood to do some baking today. Since we still had some candies leftover from halloween, I decided to make cookies with them. It's basically a chocolate chip cookie base filled with Smarties and chopped up KitKat and Coffeee Crisp pieces. I made some Frosted Flake Squares too, a variation on Rice Krispies Squares.

Since a few of Colin's friends were coming by today to practice their script for a Hamlet Play, I had to basically make myself scarce because there's nothing worse than having a parent around to ruin a bunch of teenagers' fun. I decided to hide in my bedroom to do some reading and to spend time in my Craft Room to do some crafting. I had made a Japanese paper washi doll artwork a few years back but wasn't entirely pleased with it. So, I re-worked it by adding in some dried leaves and berries from the dried plant collection I had gathered earlier last month. Dick likes to refer to my dried plant collection as "yardwaste" and doesn't understand why I need to collect so much of it. Well, I am finally finding a use for them. I may find more uses for them in the upcoming weeks.

Oh, besides being a possible source of embarrasment for Colin and his friends, I was also told that I can't hang dry our clothes in our family room. I had to move the clothes rack to an insconspicuous area. So, I had no choice but to move it into my bedroom.

Derek and I had fun making these treats

Japanese Paper Washi Doll Art (This was what it looked like after I removed the previous dried up looking cedar needles. They were looking tired and faded)

Japanese Paper Washi Doll Art (After addition of dried leaves & berries)

Clothing Rack had to be moved into my bedroom ...

So that Colin's friends can practice doing their Hamlet Script in the Family Room.

2nd Week as Lone Working Parent

So my second week as lone working parent went really well. I was worried at first, mostly about my office workload and the weather. Turns out that both points fell in my favour. I was afraid of having to work overtime or being stressed out at work, but it turned out to be a managable busy, instead of my usual frantic busy work week. As previously mentioned, the weather couldn't have been any better for the month of November. So, the commute wasn't as bad as I had feared.

On the home front, I did rather well also. I managed to home cook all our meals from scratch, with the frozen lasagna as the only convenience food item. For the kids lunches, they had leftover chinese BBQ pork sandwiches, boiled egg slices with Spam sandwiches and salmon salad sandwiches. The kids have been great. They've making their own sandwiches, washing the morning dishes, taking out the garbage, doing the family laundry, including folding and putting away the clothing. They still refuse to hang dry the clothes though. The only complaint I have is that they often monopolize the main computer to do their homework, which makes it hard for me to do any meaningful blogging. Just kidding. I know their homework is more important than my blogging.

Here's a recap of this week's dinner menu: On Monday, we had Lasagna with Chickpea salad, using the last of our cherry tomato harvest. Tuesday, we had Chicken Cordon Bleu with Chinese Greens. I used the Chickpea broth from the previous night for cooking and flavouring the steamed rice and I boiled eggs along with the Chinese Greens to conserve on cooking. On Wednesday, I served Pasta with a Ham & Mushroom Sauce. On Thursday, I made fried rice with the last of the cooked ham and hotdogs. On Friday, I re-heated the second tray of Lasagna and served it with another salad using up all remaining salad veggies. On Saturday, I made 2 types of pork ribs: Ribs Stewed in Tomatoes; and Steamed Ribs with Blackbean Sauce. The kids loved the "fall-off-the-bone" Rib Stew.

Also on Saturday, I went shopping with the kids for more groceries. Between the three of us, we easily toted back more fresh food supplies, using reusable bags and a knapsack. We even did it without having to use the dreaded old lady shopping cart. So, I'm proud to say that we are trying to live a fairly low CO2 emission lifestyle.

My only disappointment of the week was that I didn't get to see the entire Burton Cummings performance at the First Canadian Place' Waterfall Stage. Unfortunately, I had to attend a group meeting scheduled halfway through his performance. I was happy that I did catch part of it. Despite being an aging Rocker (He's turning 61 next month), he put on a lively and fun performance. It was like watching a big kid play on stage. I've always enjoyed his style. Also, due to his immense popularity and the huge line-up, I didn't get his signed autograph. I went back twice after my office meeting to see if I could get in line, but no such luck. I had a listen to his new album, "Above the Ground". It had some good stuff, but definitely not as good as his 1978 album, "Dream of a Child". That was by far his greatest work, even better than some of his work as a member of the "Guess Who". I just discovered that his best album yet was one released in 1997 called "Up Close And Alone". It contains many of my favourites including "Gordon Lightfoor Does Maggie May".

Preparing Sliced Egg & Spam Sandwiches


Lasagna & Salad


Chicken Cordon Bleu


Pasta with Ham & Mushroom Sauce


Lasagna & Salad


Pork Rib Stew


Steamed Ribs with Blackbean Sauce


Burton with is Classic Grimace while pounding the keyboards


Burton's New Album


My favourite Burton Cummings Album

My 2-Week Vacation Begins

Well, today was the end of a very lovely week in November, with temperatures hovering in the mid to high teens for most of the week. But, more importantly, today at 4:30 PM, or to be more precise at 4:45 PM, my 2-week vacation started!!!!

The morning started nicely enough. All week long, due to the roll back of one hour, to revert back to Eastern Standard Time, my morning commute became lighter, as in I can see more daylight. As I make my way to the bus stop each morning, starting around 6:40 AM, I can actually see streaks of sunlight, fighting it's way out from behind the dark grey sky on my one hour plus trek to work. Can't say the same about my commute back home though.

For my lunch break, I decided to go for a walk outdoors to take advantage of this balmy November weather we are having. It reached a high of 18C on Wednesday, but didn't break the record of 20C in 1938. It was more like 12C today, although some people must have thought it was still summer. Throughout my walk, I spotted many people dressed in short sleeves.

I made my way towards the St. Lawrence Market area and made a pit stop at Dominion, now being re-branded as Metro. I will still refer to it as Dominion because Metro sounds too much like a newspaper or a transit system, not a Supermarket. After that, I wandered into the nearby Sculpture Garden. It's such a different part of the downtown core where it feels like you are in a small village. It was a most enjoyable walk. I made my way back to the office to spend my final 2 hours before I head home to begin my Glorious 2 Week Vacation. Woohoo!!!!

Dawn breaks as I make my way to the bus stop.

This is the ravine I passed by each day. It looks dark in this picture, but it is actually quite light out for being 6:45 in the morning

Here we have some more light peeping out as I get closer to the bus stop

Here I am at Finch subway at around 7:15 AM. I'm half way there.

At my lunch break, I went for an afternoon walk towards King & Bay. Somebody thinks it still Summer. Probably some dumb Ryerson student, not like us smart Ryerson Grads.

You can tell it's November by the Poppy being worn, but otherwise, it looks more like late September weather for some people. It is actually about 12C

Here's a man enjoying the lovely November weather while strolling along St. Lawrence Market with his pooch.

Here's a nice courtyard, just outside of the Dominion Supermarket.

Just north of Dominion is a Sculpture Garden

Contrast the bare trees or nearly bare trees with the Flower Pots. It's hard to tell what season this could be.

Isn't this Mushroom Sculpture so Kawaii?

It looks like maybe a Hobbit lives in there

Post Halloween

Halloween came and went. I missed not carving a pumpkin this year. I wish we could have played some harmless tricks, like placing real spiders on top of our bowl of treats for the little kids to pick from. The idea came to me when we spotted a scary hairy spider crawling on our wall the next day. Actually, it was a rather cute little fellow, quite tiny. Maybe next year, I'll start collecting a whole bunch of spiders beforehand and place a jarful of them right next to the treats. That would be a neat trick. In case you were wondering, Dick, do not worry. We had our fun with our fuzzy little friend and shoo'd it outdoors when we were done playing with it. I know how you feel about keeping wildlife indoors.

My sister Irene, b-i-l Wayne and my niece Patricia came by to visit yesterday. They very kindly offered to drive me to the nearby supermarket to do my weekly grocery shopping. That saved me a trip of having to lug back a big bag of milk. My kids and I will be living a carless life while Dick is away. That's because even though I can drive, I'm choosing not to. Partly because I don't enjoy driving and partly because I wanted to test out if we can survive for a short period without the use of a car. It's my on-going attempt to teach my family to be more environmentally friendly. I'd say we are doing rather well so far. I know I should have resisted Wayne's offer, but it was just too tempting to refused. Even if Wayne hadn't offered us a ride, I would have managed since the supermarket is less than a 15 minute walk away and I have 2 strapping young men who can help me haul our groceries back. Anyways, I made sure that we were fully stocked in our non-perishable items, so that we only needed to pick up fresh produce each week as needed.

I'd like to thank Irene Wayne and Patricia for treating us to chinese take-out last nite, so I didn't have to cook. I will be doing major cooking today though. I'm thinking of making some fried rice with last nights leftovers and some ham, then preparing some stuffed chicken breast and heating up some frozen lasagna to make full use of the oven. That ought to provide us with enough ready to eat meals til about mid-week.

So, on top of all our own leftover treats from Halloween, Irene brought over a whole bunch of their leftover Halloween treats. We are now up to our ears with sweets. Looks like I'm gonna have to bring some into the office to reduce the stash.

The day after Halloween, we found this creepy crawlie climbing on our wall

It's a cute little guy, quite tiny

Leftover Treats

More Leftover treats