Tea

I have a friend coming over for tea this afternoon so I thought it would be a good idea to make some scones to eat along with the tea.  Having seen this recipe on Yes, I want cake and was determined to try it soon.  So here I go.

 So here I have all the dry ingredients together in the bowl.

 Add the butter.  I made 2 batches so in this batch I cut the butter with a pastry cutter and in the other batch I used my hands.  They came out surprisingly different but I am not sure which one I like better.

 Here is the Vanilla Bean Icing that I made for the top although next time I will add less milk since it was quite runny.

 I have added the milk, sugar, and vanilla bean.  Shaping the dough into a thick rectangle and then cutting that into 6 and then cutting the small squares into triangles as seen here.

Here they are all baked up.  The ones on the very left side of the cooling rack are the first batch and are already iced but they are thinner and have a slightly less light, fluffy and delicate as the second batch (which I used my hands to incorporate the butter.)  Both very good, just different.

Now I am going to take the left overs to my Mum's house so I don't have to eat all of them.

*I edited this post just to add this picture.  Isn't it pretty, plus the scones were delicious. 

Hard Day

It was a trying day with the kids today, so I was determined to make sure that they got enough protein to stop the tantrums since low blood sugar is a key factor that lead to Ladybug's tantrums.

So today I decided to make what I like to call Peanut Butter Broccoli. My brother and I have been making this for years. I don't make it very often but my kids generally love peanut butter and noodles so it is a perfect combo for the kids. Usually I make it with chicken but I didn't have any chicken so I used some of the tofu we had in the fridge.

First we start by cutting up the tofu. Rosie is helping with this part.

We had a jar of natural peanut butter that was unusable for sandwiches since it was really hard and stiff and would break up the bread, but I used the remains in the jar to make the sauce. I added soy sauce, garlic chili sauce, chicken stock concentrate, sesame oil, some cornstarch and some boiling water. That makes a lovely sauce for the veggies and noodles.

This is relatively simple recipe, so here are most of the ingredients. Broccoli, Carrots and the tofu.

I used my handy dandy strainer to cook the veggies at the same time as the noodles but without having to fish them out separately.

Saute the tofu, some garlic and a bit of oil.

Add the veggies.

Add the sauce and let it thicken up a bit with the heat.

Finally add the noodles and stir to coat the noodles with the sauce and mix up the veggies and tofu.

Peanut Butter Broccoli:
1lb chicken, tofu or other protein
head of broccoli
2 large carrots
2 clove garlic
1/2 package of Farkay noodles or 1/2lb noodles (or what ever quantity works for you)

Sauce
3-4 tbsp peanut butter
3 tbsp soy sauce
1 cup of hot chicken stock, or chicken stock concentrate and 1 cup boiling water
1 tsp sesame oil
1-4 tsp garlic chili sauce, to taste (the milder smooth sauce not the seedy sauce)

OMG

Okay it is nice when my husband feels the need to tidy but OMG that man scurries when he cleans and it almost seems like he is angry about dirt and mess(and those who make it).

For example, I was frogging a hat last night and I had taken the bag with all the bits and left them on the bed while I went to the other room to take the knitting apart and within 5 minutes of starting this I see one of the needles that I had just taken out of the project and had left on the bed, rolling under the bedroom door. He decided that since I wasn't touching it at that moment that I had left it a mess and decided that the best way of dealing with it is to through it all in the corner. Well, I was pissed. I have to ask him where anything is. If I am in the middle of doing something and go to do another part of it in another room, I will come back and find that all the stuff I was doing is gone and then I have to find it again.

I'm betting that nothing is on the counter where I left it. ARGh

The Joy of Home

Well I arrived home on Monday night after a long day of travel from CT. I did get some pictures of my trip through New York City although I only really saw Grand Central Terminal and then the highway to the LaGuardia airport.

Here is the outside of Grand Central Terminal on 42nd st.

Here I am outside the 42nd st entrance to Grand Central Terminal.

I arrived home, had a shower and then went to bed.

Monday:
Ladybug had an early ultrasound to make sure that her bladder was structurally sound since she is still having daily accidents although she is almost 5. So I had to drop of Rosie off at my parents and then head to the appointment at the hospital. It all went fine except that Ladybug was shy as usual but that was ok.

Stopped by my parents to pick up Rosie and since I was heading to Costco and my mother wanted to go to Costco we went together and did a bit of shopping trip together. Rosie fell asleep on the way to mum's house so mum offered to watch Rosie while Ladybug, J and I went to lunch at the Village Cafe. Melty Ladybug was a bit of handful at lunch but did much better after having some eggs.

Did all the boring things that don't get done whilst on vacation. I went to the bank and paid property taxes. At some point I blew a bulb on my running lights so stopped by the dealership and they replaced it for me. Boyd didn't even charge me for it, score. Then off to pick up Rosie but she was still asleep so Ladybug and I played in the park for a bit.

Then off to Karate for some kata, and self defense work. I got home and had a Strongbow cider and then shower and bed.

Canoeing and Costco.

We had a slow start to the morning but decided that a trip down the Mill river in the canoe would be a fine way to start the day. I was going to take my camera but the boat was really tippy and I didn't want to loose the camera to the water, so it went back into the car so I have no pictures :( We paddled all the way up to the waterfall and the Eli Whitney Museum. They had the coolest water park thing, it was meant to get to be used and it was meant to get wet having fun and that is what I did.

As we paddled back to the car, we sang a few songs we knew including "Canada's Really Big" and "The Naughty Young Maids of Antir" That last song we spent most of the trip back to the house trying to remember the lyrics, Good thing for the internet.

Laos Szechuan for lunch. It isn't my favorite style of chinese, but it was good. The szechuan peppercorn was a little over powering for my tongue since I'm not really a fan of it's numbing affects. This was Rabbits and Peanuts in Wild Pepper Sauce.

Bamboo Shoots with Wild Pepper (Szechuan Pepper)

My favorite is the pea tips with a hit of garlic, delicious.

STV's favorite Mapo Tofu with pork.

Then off to Costco we went. I didn't intend to buy anything but I found a cute dress for myself and super cute skirt for Rosie.

Off home and Night at the Museum while STV look a nap. I frogged my elefante but I started it again on larger needles and it is looking so much better. The colour is pooling nicely on the main body of the beast. Pictures later.

After a dinner of whatever was in the fridge STV decided that a walk would be nice, so we headed out and we decided that a 40 min walk to get ice cream was a nice walk. Miti and STV were talking about blinky bugs and I so wanted to see some and what do you know, we found some by some bushes in the park that we were walking by. I wanted a picture but they only blink so I wasn't able to catch one on film. That was my first encounter with blinky bugs, so cool. We kept walking and made it to the ice cream store and I had a yummy Coffee Oreo ice cream at Ashley's Ice Cream . Sorry I ate it without taking a picture, it was that good.

The plan was to catch the Yale shuttle so we headed to the nearest bus stop but discouvered that the shuttle goes the wrong way at that stop and since it is Sunday and it is 10pm, we decided to head over to the nearest stop to catch the same bus that had just gone by. Thank you YaleGuest wifi, my smart phone and that fact that the Yale shuttle has GPS on all the busses so you can see how far away they are. Bonus, at night the Yale shuttle drops you off where you want to go, Score.

Now this was night shuttle and in general Connecticut drivers suck, royally since they don't follow any known rules of the road. These shuttles are scarily relaxed in their driving habits. He didn't even slow down his break neck pace to go around a corner, slidey, slidey.

I have packed my bag and I have some how made it all fit in the suitcase (except my new shoes) so I will only have 1 bag and my backpack. I wonder if Air Canada has a weight limit for carryon items, if not I may just carry it on the plane and not have to worry about baggage claim.

Dressing Up

We went to return someone else's Keg and on the way back we stopped in mosquito park and got bitten alive while we looked at some pretty scenery. The first picture makes it look darker out then it actually was but the flower turned out so pretty. STV decided to go by the lake so I decided to try out some thing and this was a pretty good shot with STV being a it blurry while the pond/lake looks in focus.

So I decided that we should dress up and head out for drinks and wings. So I put on one of the dresses I brought for Njola's wedding and my new shoes.

We had wings, margarita's, peanut butter pie and mud pie. Here is STV eating the last of the wings.

Our server, gladly help take a great group shot of our fancy outing. As you can see STV dressed to the nines in his "How much wood, would a woodchuck chuck, it a woodchuck could chuck wood" in old norse, t-shirt..

Saturday, June 25th

It was shopping, hanging out day today.

And I bought shoes.

I also tried on some hocker shoes.

But since I couldn't really walk in them it was probably for the best that I left them at the store.

After shoe shopping and more shoe shopping and some craft store shopping we went for lunch at Taqueria and I had a carne asada torta,

Miti had the tongue torta,

STV had the barbacoa burrito.

It was so good that I ate it allllll gone.

We are now watching The Princess Bride and I get to start on the Elefante

Friday, June 24th 2011

It was a relaxing day. Miti had an appointment so we had arranged to meet up at that Au Bon Pain since they have the bestest Asiago Cheese bagel ever. I managed to get up, have breakfast, make tea although I was unable to actually drink it since I didn't notice the time, and then I made it to the 10:30 Yale shuttle to downtown. I did this all by myself, of course, I did have the map that Miti made.

I go to sit at ABP, knit and listen to my audiobook. Then off to lunch with Miti's friends who had moved to NYC, Molly and Silas. Very nice and interesting conversations were had and some very delicious Indian, which makes me happy.

After lunch we walked around the downtown core and chatted our way back to the house. One of the store that encountered was the New Haven Free Store I love free store and I have a free store on Denman Island and it is great and a great place to catch up with people. I picked up a wool sweater that I am going to felt up and make into a hoodie for Ladybug.

It has been felted in this picture and my plan is to add a hood from some of the red felted sweaters that I have at home and then shorten the sleeves and put in a thumb hole, use the extra sleeve to make pockets and add a zipper in the front to hide the stain on the front. Totally excited about this, I don't know about Ladybug since she is in a blue faze but I hope that she will like the sweater.

We stopped in to visit the hat store and there was a lovely fascinator hat but I couldn't figure out how to get it home and it was $75 which was a bit more then I was willing to pay for a hat right now.

The rest of the afternoon Miti and I watched the movie Dogma while we did our handycrafts.

After the movie I decided to make some granola bars since they are the easiest thing to make and there are few ingredients and no sugar. I started calling them "Kitchen sink granola bars" only because we just started throwing different things in to them.

I think they ended up having cinnamon, cardamon, chocolate chips, raisins, dried cranberries, sunflower seeds, flax seeds, pumpkin seeds, and loads of coconut powder which is finely shredded coconut. Soooo Good. Although, STV wants more chocolate. So good

Once STV got home we decided to go to C.O.Jones for Margarita's and the happy hour special of free blackbean burritos

Here were are together for a lovely picture that I tried to take of all of us.

This is my Diablo Margarita with Blood orange, Pomegranate and Passion fruit. I got a large so I was totally tipsy by the end. The home for Shawshank Redemption Ahh, it was a lovely day :)

Tomorrow is the start of the weekend so Stephen will be able to join us on our exploits.

Apple Cozy #2

I have knit another cozy and I actually followed the recipe which is different from the last one that I did. Unfortunately I thing that this cozy will be too big for out apples, oh well. Still really cute.

Quick Knit

So I started a knitting project whilst visiting Miti. I picked out some yarn from her stash, a small ball of verigated yarn and I decided to make an Pear Apple Cozy and here is the finished project

That little bit of yarn on the side is all that is left from the ball. So cute, I hope Ladybug likes her new apple cozy.

Relaxing in New Haven

I have started a new sleep rhythm here in New Haven, I sleep until 9:30am although this morning I slept in until 10 to give Miti a bit more work time in the morning.

The weather has been wet. Tuesday was hot and muggy, Wednesday was stormy, rainy, thundering and muggy, Thursday is raining and it is coming down in sheets, and the thunder and lightening are impressive. Today is a day to stay inside, thank you very much.

I started an Pear Apple Cozy with some of the leftover yarn in Miti's stash. Here is what I have done so far

I haven't done much since I have been trying to catch on my blog posts, yeah me for keeping up to date - ish.

Stephen and I decided to head to the grocery store last night to get stuff for dinner while Miti was out at a Medieval drinks thingy. We ended up getting too much but dinner was absolutely delicious

a delicious veggie wrap with yam, black bean, corn, red pepper, vidalia onion, home-made tzatziki, pico de gallo, cheese and lettuce. OH My, that was so good.

So guess what I had for lunch...

This did get some lettuce too, but it wasn't as picturesque with the lettuce but it was delicious. The cheese on the lunch wrap was this lovely feta that they had in their fridge. I also had some Chobani honey greek yogurt, I kept hearing about it but hadn't tried it until now. It wasn't bad but I think I prefer Fage 2% greek yogurt with the little cup of honey on the side, now that is to die for delicious.

Miti and I will head out for Pilates again tonight like we did on Tuesday night. My body apparently likes it better when I don't work out. I haven't been waking up with a sore back until the morning after the pilates. It is unusual for me to wake up without back pain. I will have to think on this. I am still trying to watch what I eat, and I see it and it looks lovely, hardy, har, har. My goal is not to gain any weight on this trip but I will have to see how that goes when I get back. I am trying to be good-ish but I haven't really had internet so I haven't been able to input my food into the bodymedia site. Although NOW I realize that I did have data whilst in Iceland and I could have done it there but didn't - oh well that is the a past and so I have to move on to the future.

Oh here is my lovely sister-in-law

Monday, June 20th - Our Last Day in Iceland

Sleep was elusive and hard to get. Apparently I am used to falling asleep at 3am not 12:30am, we both tossed and turned. We didn't have a clock in the room and our phones were across the room charging so if we wanted to find out the time we had to get out of bed. I was anxious about sleeping in so I didn't sleep well at all and I know that J was watching Night Court at the wee hours of the morning.

Tom dropped off the phone charger we had lent him but we didn't manage to see Carson or Audrey off. We had a quick bit to eat and then waited for our shuttle to The Blue Lagoon.

We arrived and stowed our bags and went to book some massages. We couldn't get anything together since they were all booked up so J got an indoor hour long massage and I had an outdoor, half hour massage, just before we had to leave so I had to run off as soon as my masseur was done.

We spend the day hanging out in the lagoon trying to find a good warm spot since it was rather cooler then it was in March. In the process of lounging and getting a massage I got burnt :( darn sun. Oh well I will have to survive.

After a super speedy shower, and change into regular clothing I made it to the bus in time to catch the 2:15 to Keflavik so that we could catch our 5pm flights. J and I aren't flying home together, in fact, I am not heading home but heading to JFK airport to then get a train to New Haven CT to visit my brother and sister-in-law.

Long flight, annoying seat-mates, tired Kathy, then bed at Miti and Stephen's house.

Sunday June 19th - Hanging with Tom and Carson

10am here we come again. I like 10am, it is the time that I wake up free of kids while going to bed at 3am.

We met up for Brunch around 1pm since everyone slept in past 11am when the original time was set.

Here is Audrey having breakfast before she broke the juice glass

The remains of the brunch that J and I shared, it was the Luxury brunch. I was happy with my half but J as still hungry which is usually the other way around, so he finished off someone else brunch. My husband the mooch, I love him so.

Here is the remains of Carson's English brunch.

Everything was rather nice. We got to visit with some of J and Tom's old chums from school. J had to repay Neil for the sim cards and had run out to the bank machine, unfortunately he had misplaced the decimal point and tried to withdraw 100,000 kronar but the bank machine wouldn't let him withdraw $850 but still he managed to withdraw too much although he wouldn't tell me how much. So I have now checked to see how much was taken out $691.41, Ah my lovely husband.

We headed over to the Maritime Museum and we were totally surprised that it was already 4pm, luckily we had another hour before the museum closed.

My dear husband has been to Iceland twice previous to this trip, he had been elected to the Player board for a game called EVE Online which was created by a company in Iceland called CCP. He was on CSM 4 which is the player board. CCP was having some sort of Alliance tournament in Iceland and they were filming it while we were here for this trip, so my darling husband when to watch and chat with his CCP friends while Tom, Carson, Audrey and I went to the museum. We did learn a lot about the 3 Cod wars that Iceland had with Britain and Denmark. All because they wanted to enlarge their territorial waters. At 5 when the museum closed we(not J) decided to do some shopping along Hafnarstraeti and then we decided to go to the thermal pools out near the sports arena, it was far enough away that we took the bus. J did run to meet up with us. We took a horrible bus, at the suggestion of the visitor center, so we had to hoof it to get to the pool, luckily I knew where it was.

After the thermal pool where J lost his sunglasses:( we grabbed a better very full bus back into Hlemmur and then tried to decide where to eat. I decided on Indian since we hadn't tried the Indian that was supposed to be excellent. And it was excellent.

Mmm, lovely Indian. We were futzing over whether we should get the set menu 2 or the set menu 3, Carson smartly suggested that we have 4 people which means we could 2 for set menu 2 and 2 people for set menu 3. Such a brilliant idea. Everyone loved the food and a good time was had by all. Audrey slept through most of it on Carson's chest which made it a bit more difficult to eat her dinner but she is quite used to this and did a fine job polishing off her meal.

Then off for an early sleep, since we had to be up for an 8am shuttle to the Blue Lagoon.