an especially creative day

I got the latest issue of Creating keepsakes in the mail and was very inspired while flipping through it. Some wonderful ideas to scraplift for my Book of Me! Once I plan my sketch and print the pictures I need it doesn't take long to create, I just need the kiddies to nap at the same time and they had a nice long one yesterday. Here are my creations:

Julia & Julia

After going to see the movie "Julie and Julia" with Dawn I was inspired to take out my copy of Julia Child's classic and make some Boeuf Bourguinon. BTW, the movie was excellent and I had a great time getting to go out.

You start by simmering some bacon (I got the thick cut kind since we couldn't find the solid chumk of bacon). Then I fried it up in oil and transferred it to a bowl to drain.

Then I dried off the chunks of beef (so they brown. Turns out I've been doing it wrong all along and that's why I was so lousy at browning my meat)

and browned them in batches in the oil and bacon fat

I was sooo proud of myself for making such pretty browned beef!

then I browned some carrots and onions in the left over juices and scraped up all the lovely brown bits from the pan

I put the beef, bacon and veggies in a casserole and seasoned with salt and pepper

and tossed with 2 tbsp of flour and then cooked at 450 for 4 minutes, tossed it around again and cooked for 4 more minutes to brown the flour.

Next I added 3 cups of red wine

and 2 cups low sodium beef broth to cover (I had to switch back to a pot for the stovetop. If you have one of those fancy and very expensive pots like in the movie you don't have to switch back and forth). I also added some tomato paste, garlic, thyme and bay leaf.

and into a different pan (needed a bigger one. Oops!) in the oven at 325 for 2.5 hours to simmer.

while simmering I heated 2 pans with butter and olive oil

in one I cooked some pearl onions until browned

and in the other pan I fried up some mushrooms

the onions got some beef stock, thyme, parsley, s&p and bay added in and then were simmered for 40 minutes until the juices were gone

the finished mushrooms:

the finished onions (they didn't retain their shape like they were supposed to, but still tasted great):

when the stew was done the sauce was strained out and boiled until reduced and thickened slightly

and the onions and mushrooms added to the beef mixture

then the sauce was added and simmered for a few more minutes

Here is the completed dish! It took almost 6 hours to make (prolly will be quicker next time, now that I know what I'm doing) but the taste is sooooo worth it!

Bon appetit!

busy busy

Summer is going by way too quickly. DH has been going back to school to prep and will be going even more next week. All of us really miss him already, it's been such a treat to have so much family time. This past couple of weeks have been fun. DD went for a sleepover at my parents house so I got to go along to hang out with our friends - yay! The Bergen's came over and we made dinner and then they babysat while a group of us went to see District 9. What a luxury to be able to watch a movie all the way through in one sitting! That is very rare ever since having kids! And today we went to a local pool with some friends and DD played in the kiddie pool and LOVED the slide. It was so cute how she went from holding my hand and slowly walking around and going on the kiddie slide to climbing up all by herself and sliding down into my arms. It was great to see her so happy and having so much fun (we didn't have our camera though). Also at my 8 week measuring I am up to 3 inches total lost from my tummy - yay!

Here are some pics from this past week:

me and DS

I love his smile!

DD eating mac n cheese

the lasagna I made (recipe is here only I use a 500mL container of 1% cottage cheese instead of ricotta. And you can totally use no name brand everything (their jarred sauce and cheese are so much cheaper!) and it tastes great for not much money. Easy too.)

Eggplant casserole - I combined her recipe and the original. I used seasoning salt in her recipe instead of salt, and used a smaller amount of thyme. This worked well as a main dish, but we think it would be a great side with some steaks. If we could afford steaks and knew how to cook them that is.

My homemade burgers. I only took a pic of the burgers cos we forgot we were out of buns and it looked weird on bread.

And last but not least, My page about my hamster Sugar for the latest challenge. You can click on it to see it in more detail

Recessed Window card

This week's tutorial on splitcoast was a recessed window card. My Grandma's birthday is coming up and I don't know what to get her so I decided to just make her a really detailed card. This took quite a while, but I'm happy with the results. I hope I can stamp again with Dawn in the next few days.

Stuffed Mushrooms and Wacky Cake

We had a board game night at our house this week and I made these stuffed mushrooms as a snack:

Yesterday we got together with DH's family to celebrate my SIL's birthday. Here is the card I made her (using some of the new In Color paper)

And here is the cake that DH made her. It was cute, I was gonna make the cake but he wanted to make it all by himself for his sister :). It turned out really well and was super yummy!

challenges #5 & 9 combined

from last weekend's online crop:

Turbo Jam progress - YAY!

I'm still doing Turbo Jam. I had a couple of weeks where I didn't do it, but I was going to aquasize and then the days were busy and full of other stuff so I didn't make time for myself. I felt kinda bad that Patrick helps out so much and then he has to take extra time to look after the kids while I exercise. I talked to him about it and he says I shouldn't be feeling guilty, I should do my workout and that he doesn't mind looking after the kids so I can do it. So I'm going to increase my workout time again. I never stopped, just wasn't doing it as much. I want to keep on track and not stop like I have other times so everybody please keep me accountable and on track! I'll try and post more about my workouts online to keep myself accountable.

I really love the 20 minute workout and especially love the Cardio Party workout. I've ordered the next Turbo Jam package cos it has more cardio party. I don't wanna get sick of these workouts so having more to rotate is a good thing. I did the 20 minute workout today and I have to say I looooove it when it gets to the party train part and the energy ramps up. I get so into it!

I never weighed myself at the start (and still don't have a scale!) so I don't know how much progress weight wise I've made, but I took my measurements again today and am so excited with my progress. It's been 6 weeks and I've lost 1 inch from my hips, 1 inch from my chest and TWO INCHES from my waist! I'm not sure about arms - they seem the same. Maybe lost weight but actually have some muscle now? And I measured my thighs wrong to start (in the middle, not at the widest part) so I'm not sure where to measure to compare. I've measured them correctly now so I can track my progress there in the future.

I'm most excited about my waist though. I hate my big fat belly - it looks like I'm pregnant even when I'm not! Plus it's super unhealthy to carry your weight around your middle like I do, which is a big reason why I want to lose weight. I'm feeling much more energized. I don't eat perfectly but I'm doing really well at making a conscience effort to make healthier choices every day. And of course the whole using up calories to make breastmilk helps too! I have to be careful to eat plenty of healthy nutrient rich foods and lose weight slowly so it doesn't affect my milk supply. I keep praying that Liam will continue to thrive on my milk and that I can continue to nurse. So far so good!

online crop

Here are my submissions for this weekend's MSS online crop:

challenge #1 : Say it with a song

Book of me online challenge : scrap a layout about your job

Happiness is...

The latest MSS Challenge - to scrap a page about something that makes you happy (other than the obvious things like kids, scrapbooking etc.). I love love loooove the fresh strawberry milkshakes at Warky's so I decided to make my page about that. I love the new October afternoon patterned paper I used here. I find that my fave layouts use this paper!

I also used iTunes to make a playlist and album cover collage of my current favourite songs and made a page about it. I saw this idea in a Creating Keepsakes magazine and have been dying to try it out for a while now.

stuffed squirrel roadkill

We went for a walk to get fresh strawberry milkshakes and saw this on the road:

It totally made me laugh. Love it!