NYE

Well, all I can say is that Christmas was a blast. An honest to goodness blast. I could go into great details but I won't seeing as how it's mostly my mom that reads this and she was with me. :o)

Now I'm back and it's time to get ready for New Years. While in Kamloops, I went for a walk with some family members and I had a great conversation with Emily, my youngest cousin. We were talking about NYE and all the hype about it and how we both, oddly enough, feel the same that NYE to us should be August 31st. When you're in school, for a great portion of one's life, the "new year" begings in September. New classes, responsibilities, etc. I don't know about you out there, but September has always been my month for better organization, start projects around the house, set goals. It's even better because the Fall is my favorite time of year. I'm motivated to do stuff.

However this year I'm kind of looking forward to December 31st. I don't really have anything plan except I'm excited to start some new goals for 2011. One of which, is running a half marathon. My training commences on January 1st and I can't wait. I bought a Runners Journal to keep track of my training because I would really really really like to run the half somewhere between two and two and a half hours. Crazy goal, but I'm determined. So hopefully it will work!!!

Anyway, I'm off to sweep up my floor for the second time today. For some reason all of the animals have decided to shed their coat. Bastards.

Wellington & Torte...

I decided to make beef wellington on the weekend. Not just any old beef wrapped up in pastry and smeared with some sort of sauce, but real wellington. From an afternoon of shopping to a day of preparing, it truly was the most incredible meals I have ever made. Ever.

First, make the yummy mushroom portion of the spread. Takes about twenty minutes, but worth it. Second comes the chicken livers!!!! Yes, I made my own chicken liver pate and holy cow it was AWESOME. (The recipe made enough for leftovers which Rob and I ate on crackers last night with some herb goat cheese....) I then made some yummy crepes which didn't come out as perfect circles, but close enough. You then sear the beef and let in cool. On a clean surface, lay down the crepes and smear the mushroom/pate spread all over. Place the beef in the middle and wrap in the crepes. You then roll out some puff pastry (I didn't make this as I ran out of time), place the beef wrapped crepe in the middle and wrap in the pasty, sealing the seal with egg. Place seam side down on a greased cookie sheet and place in the fridge for 45 minutes. Heat an oven to 475, then place the beef in and reduce immediately to 425 degrees for ten minutes. Reduce again to 400 until the meat is cooked medium rare.

Simple enough and one of the most delicious things that has ever come out of my kitchen. I also made the Madeira sauce from scratch which was positively amazing. We of course have left overs and I have to say, I liked the wellington better cold then warm.

So the wellington was somewhat of a complicated procedure but completely doable. New ingredients, methods, good times. The one thing that kicked my ass was..... the chocolate torte. It was date night so I decided to pull out all the stops and make dessert. You know the saying? There's cooks and then there's bakers, but not both.... I am now living proof. My chocolate torte recipe only called for five ingredients. How hard could it be? Well holy jesus, but the time it was done, I managed to get chocolate everywhere and anywhere. I don't know how something that only takes five ingredients ended up making my kitchen look like a chocolate bomb went off taking every kitchen utensils and bowls with it. Unbelievable. I had chocolate EVERYWHERE. I'm still finding chocolate stains. At one point I think I cried and declared the torte to be the winner. Nonetheless, I managed to get it done and it was delicious!

So all in all, it was a wonderful dinner, with a yummy bottle of wine and even better company. :)

So far, so good

Last night I had the pleasure of meeting my friend Jen for some tea and cheesecake. Our friend Sarah joined us later. We went to this neat little place we like to go to on Main/8th Ave. It's called Eight.5 (eight and a half). It's a really nice cozy place with good food and drinks. The tea list was pretty good as was the cheesecake.

Today however has so far been the best!!! I woke up and declared it to be my day. I had lots of invitations to do stuff with people but I politely declined. Sometimes, you just need to hang out with yourself. I started off by taking pups to the beach, MacDonald Beach in Richmond. It's such a great off-leash dog park. Big dogs go there and it's hard to find where big dogs hang out in this city. Sadie and I spent an hour there walking around the trails, up and down the river bank. The sun was out so it wasn't really cold.

The only problem with this beach is the river. Sometimes your dog can hop into the car after playing there only to smell like a bog. Sadie smelt like a bog. YUK. So I drove from Richmond to North Vancouver to my favorite dog washing place, Dirty Dogz (she doesn't have a site). For $20 you can bathe your dog. Some of you without dogs might be wondering why you just wouldn't bathe your dog at home. Yes, small dogs, you can totally do at home. Big dogs.....HELL NO!!!! Dirty Dogz is perfect. The tubs are up high so you never have to bend over. Everything is right there and the best shampoo is available (mango is my favorite). You're in, you're out. Within 20 minutes you'll have a clean mango smelling dog.

After that I came home, got changed and went to hot yoga, the studio below my friend Heather's. I did hot yoga about a thousand years ago with my other friend Cari. I really enjoyed it. So today I thought that I would give it a whirl again. With all my running, I know I'm not stretching properly so I thought throwing in the odd yoga class would be a help. OH YES IT IS. I can't believe how NOT bendy I am. I used to be bendy. Now.... not even slightly. So it's my mission to perfect bendiness. I forgot how good the skin feels after. Anyway, I then came home, ran a bath, sipped some bubbles and watched another episode of Being Erica. Made myself a salmon and broccoli dinner and now I'm about to take pups out for a walk. All and all, a pretty darn good day.

Tomorrow I'm off to the Santa Clause parade with Christine and the dog, then maybe a christmas party at night. Or, I just might have a bath and watch Being Erica. That's a nice bonus about living/being alone, you can do whatever you want. You're not "tied" to a schedule, someone else's schedule. So I'll just see how I feel after the parade. Who knows, something else might come up!!!!

Being Erica

My Uncle Stan has been on a trip that sounds absolutely amazing and finished it off in London. So my parents hopped on a plane and spent the last week showing him around. They're excellent tour guides. My mom just called me a few times and the calls kept getting dropped so we went on to Facebook and she got booted, probably bad internet. So I went on to her blog to have a read and wanted to leave a comment but for some reason her latest blog isn't posted properly so I can't comment on it, just read it. So I guess I'm not suppose to be communicating with my mom right now. hahaha.

We were talking about the show Being Erica. For a Canadian production, it's really darn good. It's about a girl her has regrets (don't we all) and meets a therapist who can make her go back in time, to those moments of regret, so she can do things differently. The moral of the show is this: Life is about choices. Some of those choices leads to regret. However, if given the opportunity to do things differently, would you and would the outcome be any different/better? So in each episode, something in her current life happens, she then see's Dr. Tom, goes back to fix a regret but each time she goes back, it applies to the conundrum she's in today. Awesome concept and it really makes you reflect on your own life and choices. Plus the character Erica Strange, is a fantastic. She draws you in (the actress's real name is Erin).

Anyway, mom, if you're reading this, you can watch the complete season 1 and most of season 3 (the current season) on CBC's site. I bought season 2 yesterday so when you're done with season 1, I'll lend you season 2. Maybe we can have a "Being Erica" day and watch season 3 together.

Well, time to get back to work then off for a run, pick up the dog from daycare, eat something then meet some friends for a glass of vino. Tomorrow I think I'll take pups for a hike then spend the evening watching season 2. :o)

Lovely Cold Nights

I know it's been awhile since my last blog but I've been busy!!! SPCA fundraisers, catching up with friends, watching movies with the boyfriend, work..... the list could really go on. Oh, and my new found hobby: running in the rain. God I love it!!!! Once you surrender yourself to the fact that you're going to get wet, it's an amazing experience. Running itself is such a release of stress or any negative thoughts, that paired up with the rain, it's fantastic. It feels like the rain washes it all away.

Last night I got Rob to drop me off on the way home at E. Hastings/Clark. This neighbourhood is, well, a mixture of unique and sketchy, if you stay on Clark. But if you run through Strathcona, you've entered such an amazing hidden treasure of a neighbourhood in Vancouver. The city has done sooooo much at improving this hood and I love running through there. Anyway, I made my way to Science World and I felt as though I hadn't ran far enough so off I went along the seawall into Yaletown, then back up and over the Cambie Street Bridge. By the time I got home I was soaking wet from head to toe and a bit cold because I ran into a neighbour and we stood and bitched about our strata for a bit.

The second best thing about running in the rain, besides it washing away ickyness, is climbing into a hot bath with bubbles. I'm currently addicted to the show Being Erica and you can watch all the episodes off of the CBC website. Once click and you're off!!! So I set my laptop up on top of the toilet, climbed into my bath and watched an episode. I have to say, that's some pretty good therapy!!!!!

So if you ever decide to give it a whirl, either walk or run in the rain, do so then finish it off with a hot bath. I promise you won't be disappointed.