Washoku Warriors - Challenge 8

Yes - Challenge 8. If you're wondering where the first 7 are, they're over at La Fuji Mama's blog: La Fuji Mama

Washoku Warriors is a group that Fuji Mama started based on Elizabeth Andoh’s Japanese cookbook, Washoku: Recipes from the Japanese Home Kitchen. As a lover of all food I was excited to take up the challenge. (Except for fish. Remember folks, fish are friends, not food.)

This time the challenge was tempura pancakes known as shojin kaki age. This is one of my favorite dishes so I was excited to try it. The deep frying made me a little nervous thanks to a previous "incident" but I was still willing to try. (For the record, 350F oil hurts when it runs down your arm.)

Also included in the challenge were some optional recipes. I chose to make three of the five flavored salts to dip the tempura in. I made the green tea, fragrant pepper and black sesame. Super easy! Just two ingredients for each:

Green Tea:



Fragrant Pepper: (Our favorite)



Black Sesame:



Yes, I used French fleur de sel for this. Yes, I know it's stupidly expensive. I figured it wasn't doing any good sitting in the pantry and it saved me from buying more salt.

For the tempura itself, I used julienned parsnips, sweet potato, carrot and burdock:



The burdock was new to me but we liked it. Overall, we liked this dish. I'm already looking forward to the next challenge and plan on making the tempura pancakes again! Here's my final result:



Yummy! Thanks for the challenge Fuji Mama!

A Trip to the Mountains

One of the great things about living in the foothills is how close we are to the mountains. If I look out my kitchen or bedroom window, I can see their beautiful snow capped peaks. In fact, the picture in my blog header was taken from my bedroom window.

Yesterday we decided to take a trip to the mountains. We were actually scouting out locations for a Search and Rescue training course but we thought we'd also take the time for a weiner roast as well.

This is the highway that heads past our house to the mountains. Today we're going to see how close we can get to Devil's Head Mountain. It's the one the arrow is pointing at.



Pretty small now but it'll get bigger!

West of town there is some pretty clear evidence of our province's main industries - cattle and natural gas.




Longhorn cattle aren't very common around here but their horns are certainly impressive!

Once we left the highway, the road narrowed considerably...


And then it narrowed some more...


And then it became icy/slushy in places where springs were located close to the road...


(We went around this spot)

Finally, we drove across the river and were treated with a beautiful view of Devil's Head mountain.





We had our weiner roast:



We learned that cowboy boots aren't the best footwear when the snow is deep:


We gained a greater appreciation for indoor plumbing. (No pictures of this thankfully!)

We learned how to use the camera's timer function:


Heading west of town is one of my most favorite thing to do around here. I'd love to see what other's love about the area they live in!

How to Make French Macarons in 10 Steps

I made macarons a few weekends ago and I thought that sharing my experiences would be a perfect way to resurrect my poor neglected blog.

Before I start, I want to clarify - I'm talking about French Macarons made with almond flour and egg. Not Macaroons which are yummy little coconut treats.

Here's a picture of my result:
Yum - Almond macarons with lemon custard filling!

Since these are often refered to as one of the most difficult pastries to make, I thought I'd share my technique.

1. Take a class from a French chef who makes Macaron baking look like the easiest thing in the world.

2. Make a special trip into the city to buy almond flour. Accidentally buy almond meal.

3. Try to make almond flour out of almond meal. Get frustrated.

4. Have a nap.

5. Make a special trip into town to buy a flour sifter.

6. Realize that the almond meal is still too coarse to go through the sifter and that you only have enough icing sugar for a half batch. Refuse to go into town again and half the recipe instead.

7. Use the almond meal and hope for the best. At the very least you can make an interesting trifle.

8. Discover that cheap aluminum cookie sheets result in mutant macarons and that expensive double bottom cookie sheets result in nice looking ones.

9. Run out of parchment paper. Refuse to make another trip into town since the stores are all closed anyway. Discover that macarons stick to parchment paper when it's used more than once. Also discover that sticky macarons = mutant macarons.

10. Eat the mutant macarons to hide the evidence.

That's it! You now should have about 10 perfect macarons to show for a whole day of baking! Easy right?






MUTANT MACARON!!! RUN AWAY!!!

Another Baby Card!

I'm not so sure if I like this one or not. Hmmm....

Oh well, I can make more!

Congratulations to my cousin Sue and her husband Whip on the safe arrival of Brady William! A baby brother for Coby and Evan!



(By the way, this card was made with Core-dinations paper. For some really great examples of what you can do with this paper check out Lydia's Blog:
Scrap Notions)

Midterm

Writing my midterm today. Wish me luck!

Back to School Shopping!

I love back to school shopping!

This year we went up to West Edmonton Mall to do our shopping. More than 800 stores to choose from!

We try to make a special day out of it for Cassidy and she gets to be involved 100% in picking out her new outfits.

This year we didn't really need a lot since Cassidy had a growth spurt at the end of the last school year and needed all new clothes in June. Clothes that still fit! (Thank heavens!)

We still got quite a bit:



2 pairs of pants, a skirt, 3 long sleeve shirts, 2 short sleeves, indoor shoes, church shoes and a backpack. (Okay, the church shoes aren't for school but aren't they cute?)

Also, thanks to a wonderful school district, I only need to buy one more thing from Cassidy's school supply list: a box of tissues. Woot!

Another quick card

Just a pink version of the baby boy card I posted a while ago.

Congratulations John and Andrea! Welcome to Tabitha Rose - a little sister for George!

Head Smashed in Buffalo Jump

One of the neat things about the foothills is the history. We have some great museums and some amazing historical sites.

One such place is Head Smashed in Buffalo Jump .

This particular buffalo jump was used by the Blackfoot tribes for almost 3000 years.

Here's the view from the top:

And the view from the bottom:

The museum at the site was really well done and I learned quite a bit of local history that I didn't know! (Did you know that when the Europeans came to Canada, they would look for buffalo jumps and mine the base of the cliffs for the phosphurus found in the bones?) I was also able to pick up a stone tool identification book and some archaeology field reports from the Lethbridge Arcaeology Association.

Here's a few more of my favorite photos from the trip:

999 Challenge - update

Here's what I have read so far!

1. Course related books
1) The Western Humanities, Volume 1 by Dewitt and Platt. This was for my History 201 Course which was the course that inspired me to change my major from History to Anthropology. Yuck

2. Books written by men
1) Assegai - Wilbur Smith I've read the majority of his books and this one was one of his best. Not as violent or as gory as some of his others and I'm OK with that!

3. Vampire books
1) Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris
2) Living Dead in Dallas by Charlaine Harris
3) Club Dead by Charlaine Harris
4) Dead to the World by Charlaine Harris...Yeah I'm going through 1 of these every day.

4. Books by Kathy Reichs
1) Cross Bones
2) Death Du Jour
3) Devil Bones - So Far I've liked this one the best!

5. Non-fiction books
1) Ancient Futures - Helena Norberg-Hodge. AMAZING! I highly recommend this book to anyone. It was very eye-opening.

6. Historical Fiction (my favorite category!)

7. Authors I've never read (the scariest category - venturing into the unknown!)

8. Classics
1) The Scarlet Letter - Nathaniel Hawthorne. This was a harder book to read than I thought it would be. I guess I'm not used to the writing style of the mid-1800's. My copy of this book was bought at an antique shop and doesn't have a publication date so I don't know how old the book itself is.

9. Business/Leadership (I have several that I have never started)

My Baptism - Part 2

As promised, here are some pictures from my Baptism on Sunday!

This is Pastor Bryn and Sharky. Pastor Bryn is the one with the wiiiide mustache on the left!



There were five of us baptized. Here we are listening to Pastor Bryn explain how things are going to work. Why do I always look so unimpressed with everything?



I was lucky enough to be baptized in a river - just like in the Bible! This is the Little Red Deer River just north of my home. I grew up on an acreage a little further north from here and spent a lot of time in the summers cooling down in this river!



Here we are getting out of the water. It wasn't too cold which was nice! Fortunately the thunder and lightning didn't start until after lunch.



Pastor Bryn presented each of us with a brand new Bible and a certificate.



I'm so thankful that I had this opportunity - as Pastor Bryn said "It's been a long time coming".

999

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I'm going to attempt the 999 challenge. Since I'm starting so late in the year though I'm going to cheat a little and count the books that I read earlier this summer.

Basically, if it hasn't made it's way from the living room to the bookcase in the basement, I'm going to count it!

Here are the categories I'm going to try for:

1. Course related books (textbooks and other required reading)
2. Books written by men (I don't read a lot of books by men. I wonder why?)
3. Vampire books (My BFF got me hooked)
4. Books by Kathy Reichs (my new favorite author!)
5. Non-fiction books (non-fiction that doesn't fit into #1)
6. Historical Fiction (my favorite category!)
7. Authors I've never read (the scariest category - venturing into the unknown!)
8. Classics (the older the actual book, the better!)
9. Business/Leadership (I have several that I have never started)

Baby Card

Just a quick little card for a coworker. Congratulations Mishar!

My Baptism

Today I was baptized!

Yes, I finally made the trek down the river bank, told the members of the church about my commitment to Christ and let the pastor dunk me!

I was asked to give a testimony but I was so overcome with emotion that the most intelligible thing to come out of my mouth was ``I am ready``

Pictures will be coming soon as the church website is updated.

100%

That's the mark I got on my latest Anthro test! :-) I really thought I flubbed the first one though. I kept mixing polygyny and polyandry up.

Now I have three essays and a midterm to write...

999

9 books in 9 categories in '09.

81 books.

Do I have time for this?

Probably not.

Could I do it in 4.5 months?

Not likely.

Am I going to try it anyway?

Of course.

999 Challenge on Library Thing

Why Anthropology?

I am a student of Anthropology at Athabasca University. I'm also taking anthro classes at the U of C. I'm often asked "Why Anthropology?"

My answer is found in this quote:

"The purpose of Anthropology is to make the world safe for human differences" - Ruth Benedict

That's why. I can't imagine a world without human differences. I wouldn't want to.

We are so busy "civilizing" the world that we're destroying the diversity that has allowed us to thrive. I want to learn what I can from other cultures before they disappear completely.

Anthropology has many different areas of study. Archaeology, linguistics and primatology are just a few examples that are often considered part of the Anthropology department at various universities.

My area of study is Cultural Anthropology: the study of human behaviour. Why do we do the things we do?

My hope is that as I learn about other cultures and how they behave, I'll learn about myself in the process.

Maybe I'll also learn why I do things like this when I think no one is looking:



PS - Yes, I realize that shirt isn't very flattering but it's super comfy. I promise I'll change it before I go out in public again

PPS - Pictures like this are what happen when you don't hide your telephoto lens from your husband.

If your age increased everytime you celebrated your birthday...

My 8 year old would be 30 by now.

Seriously. I blame my lack of updates on all of the birthday parties we've done recently.

First was the party with Robert's family. His sister and brother live in the northern part of the province while his parents and we live in the south. Since Robert's niece also has a March birthday, we thought we'd all meet in the centre of the province. Birthday number 1

Next came the actual birthday which we celebrated with my family. Cassidy recieved lots of Star Wars goodies - her current passion. Was this good enough? No. We had promised her that we would drive to the mountains and go out for dinner. An afternoon in the mountains is another one of her favorite things to do (and mine too!) Due to a storm and crummy roads we had to postpone.

Next was the party with her friends from school. Whose bright idea was it to take a bunch of second graders to the pool? Oh yeah...mine.

Finally, the weekend after, we made it to the mountains. 4 weekends worth of birthday celebrations. At dinner we toasted to the completion of another birthday season.

We also thought it'd be a good time to get a family photo done. I can't believe my little girl is 30!! Um...I mean 8! :-)

Menu planning

I've recently started planning my menus and I'm wondering why I didn't do this earlier!

Benefits I've noticed:

1) One grocery trip on Sunday instead of several during the week.
2) Cassidy can help pack her own lunches, she just needs to read what I've posted on the fridge and she can put everything in her lunch bag.
3) It satisfies my obsessive need to organize every little detail of my life.
4) Less stress after a long day at work
5) I can passively aggressively make my husband help in the kitchen by simply typing "Bob makes us something yummy" in one of the dinner blocks
6) I can use all of those fancy cookbooks I have since I'm planning instead of scrambling.
7) I can ensure everyone is getting a heatly, balanced meal.

This week is easy, I'm only cooking twice. :-)

Anyone else out there a menu planner?

A very busy week

After baking cookies the other day, I still needed a few more. Wednesday after work I decided to go the easy way and use some store bought dough. Apparently "convienient" does not equal "easy". The dough wouldn't roll properly and when I lifted the hearts onto the cookie sheet, the hearts stuck, ripped and cracked. Finally, when I got the cookies in the oven, they expanded!

I think it's safe to say that store bought dough also tastes better raw than cooked. I have no idea why though. Great. Now I have a sudden craving for cookie dough ice cream.

The cookies (another homemade batch) were finally completed on Thursday night. Thank goodness I didn't leave the baking until the night before! They were a real hit by the way!

The other crazy little thing I decided to do was these:



They weren't too bad but the little baggies were very difficult to open. Cassidy gave them to her classmates and to the support staff at her school.

I had help with them though:



He's my Valentine. :-)

Then, just to prove to the entire world that I was crazy, I did this for Cassidy's lunch:



Yes, that's a heart shaped hard boiled egg. I don't know if I want to gag or giggle.

FINALLY, if anyone ever needed definitive proof of my craziness, this is what we did on Valentine's Day:



We adopted Sniper...



...and his brother Nemo.

O_o

Baking

See these cookies?



I hate them.

I don't like baking but I like the idea of baking. Therefore, I own fancy baking tools and ingredients but I hate the actual process of baking.

With cooking you finish a dish and you're done! Woot! Commence eating!

With baking you finish a batch of cookies and....you have to put another batch in the oven...and another...and another...

It's 9PM. I started these cookies at 6PM.

3 hours for 21 cookies! (Truthfully, an hour of that was spent at Canadian Tire while the dough chilled)

3 hours for 42 cookies actually:



See?

Freaking sandwich cookies. 2 cookies and a tablespoon of jam per person. 21 times.

Want to know the worst part?

I need 30 cookies. Guess I start all over again tomorrow.