UPDATE: Fromage

I just counted... there are 13 different kinds of cheese in my fridge at this moment... just thought you should all know.

I lied, I just found a block of jalapeno havarti... takes the count up to 14, 15 if you count the gross fake parmesan Boy insists on sullying his pasta with.

Crotch Blowout and other inappropriate descriptors

Last week was a bit of a write-off, I mean, I was pretty mopey, and spent most of my time avoiding cooking, so there isn’t really much to post about, but I’m gonna try…
for the good of the blog!

I’ve been taking the Pug to underwater treadmill sessions for some post-surgical rehab. Essentially, Ruby lost a lot of muscle mass on her injured leg, and we need to build it back up, mostly so she won’t be lopsided and y’know, a stronger leg means she’ll actually use it. Her hind right leg (the injured one) is 5cm less in circumference compared to her hind left leg. We have a lot of work to do. Ruby is pretty freaked out by the treadmill apparatus. Firstly, to get to the treadmill we have to walk by all the sick dogs in their kennels, and a sick dog is a whiny dog. Then the tread mill is pretty much an aquarium with a conveyor belt as it’s base. So it’s echoey in there, and the water fills up to about Ruby’s chest and there are bubbles, and then she has to walk, and she’s so damn whiny the entire time….

So Damn whiny! Apologies for the crooked picture, I'm not used to my new Ipod yet...

I normally go buy a few pairs of jeans once a year, on Boxing Day, at Unlimited Blue on 17th Ave. This year, in the spirit of saving money and being less wasteful, I’m choosing to only buy one pair of (probably skinny) jeans. This means I have to mend all my old jeans. All of my jeans since jr high have suffered from what is known as “crotch blowout” by denim aficionados. This means that because my thunder thighs rub together while I walk, the crotch of my jeans will wear out significantly faster than the rest of the pants. Normally I don’t bother to mend my old jeans because I like shiny new things, and I usually need to change sizes due to weight changes (usually gain). This year however, I’ve lost weight (hurrah!) so I still fit comfortably in all my jeans and a few pairs of old one’s too. So I spent Saturday was avoiding mending like the procrastinator that I am. I did patch up 2 out 4 pairs of jeans, and Ruby’s stuffed squid; she has a habit of tearing out the eyes of all her plush toys, it’s kinda disturbing.

I feel like I blew my creative load with all the Christmas decorations I concocted over the past few weeks. The past week I had a few projects that I could’ve worked on, but my heart just wasn’t really into it. So my sock remains unfinished, it’s pair un-started, and there are no cookies to be had. However I have lots of plans for this week interms of baking, so hopefully that gets the juices flowing again. I also bought a gigantic new pot for canning, so now I have no excuse not to jam.

I didn’t really cook this past week (see “blowing of creative load” above) so I only have one recipe for you, and it really wasn’t that good. It made better leftovers, and the addition of sundried tomatoes and a few spoonfuls of bacon jam elevated it from “meh” to “mmmmmm”.

• Poitimarron Soup

Going through the motions

I was supposed to post this two days ago, but I kinda forgot... so here's a cute picture of a bunny

I’ve been struck with a whopping dose of lassiez-faire melancholy moods. I’m not super sad per say, but definitely going through the motions. I’m at the tail end of my second cold in two weeks; I’ve reached the hacking cough and stuffy nose stage, so I know that the end is near, just not damn well near enough. I have to think about how I position myself when I sleep so I can manage the flow of snot, and therefore ensure I can breath and not honk through the night. The cough is another matter entirely. I can go for hours without a peep, breathing normally, and feeling fine, and then I spend the next 30 min trying to dislodge my lungs from the chest via my mouth… unpleasant to say the least.

I’ve also kinda given up at work. My vacation starts next Friday, and I’m finding it very hard to concentrate on much of anything in the meantime. It’s like my brain is already sleeping in and hang out with the dog, baking gingerbread and skating, but my body is still begrudgingly dragging itself to work every day. Next week is going to be brutal! I don’t think the extreme carb and sugar loading I’ve been doing has been helping much either. Thanks to all the fine folks who came over last Saturday for my friend Jenna’s Wine & Dessert Birthday Party, I’ve been over run with cake. The fact that I baked two cakes for said event, isn’t helping much either. My first cake wasn’t served at the party because it didn’t de-pan properly, so I ended up with a delicious mess of a cake… it was mildly tragic. I still have my block of Nectar’s fruit cake to consume and I ordered a Stolen from Aviv for next, next week… I’m going to gain back all the weight I lost…wah! Due to the colds, I haven’t been going to the gym as much either… December you sugar coated, fat filled, excessive month!

I haven’t really done much else this past week. I cleaned and decorated the apartment for the previously mentioned B-day party. I did buy a (fake) tree and decorated it on Sunday. I also bought a bunch of canning supplies to make jam, but all my pots are too small to fit the canning racks, so now I have to buy a bigger pot. I’m almost done my Christmas shopping too, which is also mildly exciting. Basically I’m in limbo until I’m on vacation when I can jump into my winter break activities whole heartedly (who wants to help me clean out my storage locker and reorganize my pantry?), I feel useless going through the motions of everyday life.

I do suppose I can look forward to mending all my jeans and a few of Ruby's plush toys… mending…sigh…

I didn’t cook much last week, there were a lot of leftovers and I went out for my office xmas party and with my parents. Boy also ordered pizza one night… so yeah….

This past week’s menu

• Leftover Cranberry Sauce Yogurt cake
• Another Upside Down Gingerbread Pear Cake
• Broccoli, Chicken, Cheese and Rice Casserole (this was mediocre, and I'm too lazy to search for the link now)