Cheesy Vegetable Chowder (In the Crock Pot!)

2 Tablespoons butter

1/2 cup chopped onion

1 cup finely chopped carrot

1 stalk celery, finely chopped (feel free to add more celery if you like celery; I don't, so I don't add much)

1 Tablespoon minced garlic

4 cups chicken broth

2 large baking potatoes, peeled and chopped

1 Tablespoon flour

1/2 cup water

2/3 cup milk

2 cups chopped broccoli

2 heaping cups shredded cheddar cheese

Melt the butter in a large soup pot. Add onions, carrots, and celery and saute over medium heat until tender. Add garlic and cook 1 or 2 additional minutes. Add chicken broth and potatoes, bring to a boil, and cook until potatoes are tender. Mix flour with water, add, and simmer until soup is slightly thickened. Add milk and broccoli and cook until broccoli is just tender and soup is heated through. Stir in cheese, allow to melt, and serve.

Recipe From: http://luluthebaker.blogspot.com/

Scrapbooking!

I was most recently at the BC crop for kids conference here in Abbotsford! I have to say, spending the weekend with my lovely mother-in-law was amazing! I got our entire wedding album done! Here are some of the layouts I did... (sorry for the flash)

The Cabin

This post is not about food or recipes.
This weekend in Nanaimo is bathtub weekend. Bathtub weekend has always been the weekend every year where my family gets together and enjoys each other's company. My grandparents used to own a cabin where we spent most of those weekends. This place is and was simply and permanently my idea of paradise. The cabin is full of so many memories that I get goosebumps when I think about it. My mind fills with days that consisted of bike rides on the dirt and gravel roads... I basically just feel like making a list of all the things I loved about the cabin.... feel free to add any if you have some

- All of the signs grandpa had around the cabin like "kangaroo crossing" and "beware of alligators"
- Sitting on the "poop deck" being shaded by that huge umbrella that looked like a hula skirt
- Listening to all of grandpa and grandma's stories about all the animals that lived on Protection Island
- That styrofoam surf board that always gave you a rash on your stomach
- Picking all types of berries that grew around the island (huckleberries, blackberries)
- Pirates park and the old wooden playground
- The ferry driver that always had the crazy converse runners
- Poking geo ducks with our toes and always freaking out when they squirted us (even though it happened every time)
- Playing games in the mud and having to wash off with the rain bucket in the back yard
- The outhouse
- Tractor rides with grandpa
- Happy hour: filled with soda, banana cake, chocolate chip cookies and everything else that is great!
- Fishing for bullheads and perch (the perch were always hard to get)
- Mr. Ruff next door and his dog max
- Rides in grandpa's boat
- Making the long trek to the lighthouse to watch the bathtub races (seemed like the longest walk EVER)
- Granny's clam chowder
- Feeding Louseal. Truly an experience I will never forget.
- All the toys we played with: like the little cast iron kitchen set and the felt winnie the pooh set
- The bikes that grandpa worked so hard on to keep them working for us
- That old stroller that we all rode in at one point
- The ice cream bowls that looked like boats and oars
- Horseshoes!
- The granny tree on newcastle island across the bay
- Always wanting to row to snake island, but never succeeding

I think it's safe to say that a big part of me every summer wishes that the cabin was still around. It was seriously full of so many memories it's hard to name them all. I love you guys, and I hope you have a wonderful bathtub weekend!

-Carlye

Almond Milk!

After having a conversation with my sister in law about what soy milk does to your body, I started looking for alternatives for my lactose-intolerant husband. Lactose free milk is so expensive. Then I thought about Almond milk and found this instructional video, I wouldn't use dates myself, I would probably use vanilla or honey... but whatever you would like to sweeten it with would work!

Possibly the best meatloaf ever

I made this with my mother-in-law when we were cooking one day and Jordan and I were very sad when they were gone from our freezer.

Meaty mixture:
2 pounds of ground beef
1/2 cup bread crumbs or saltine cracker crumbs
1/2 cup graham cracker crumbs
2/3 cup milk
1/4 cup of onion, chopped finely
2 eggs
1/2 tsp pepper
1pkg or 3 tbsp onion soup mix

Sauce:
1/4 cup brown sugar
1Tbsp dry mustard
1/2 cup ketchup


Place meat and sauce on top in an 8x8 pan and bake @350 for an hour uncovered

The creepiest way to make Iced Tea

I dont know if I can ever drink iced tea again....

Super Tasty Caesar

1 coddled egg (1 minute)
3/4 c. vegetable oil
1 tsp. salt
1/4 c. lemon juice
1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1/4 c. Parmesan cheese
1/4 tsp. pepper
2 to 3 cloves garlic

Place coddled egg in blender and turn on high speed; pour oil in slow steady stream. On low speed, add remaining ingredients. Pour over Romaine lettuce and croutons.

Cinnamon Buns

I've never really enjoyed baking other than cookies (those are hard to mess up). But recently I've started to enjoy baking other things such as cinnamon buns (obviously), bread and other adventurous things. I think it started a couple months ago when I tried to bake my Great Grandmother's German buns (seriously so delicious). They turned out exactly how I remembered them. Then I thought I could definitely get a handle of this. I love making cinnamon buns because you get to knead the dough and do many other things with your hands. But mostly I love cinnamon buns because 1. Cream cheese icing is probably one of the best things in the entire world, 2. Even if you mess up, they will still probably taste delicious, 3. Everyone loves cinnamon buns! (except maybe people with a massive amount of cavities!)

I found this recipe on "foodess.com", it's a cute little site with some great pictures and recipes!

Ingredients:

Dough:

• 1 cup whole milk
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 3 1/2 cups (or more) unbleached all purpose flour, divided
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 large egg
• 2 1/4 teaspoons rapid-rise yeast (from 2 envelopes yeast)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• Nonstick vegetable oil spray (I just use butter)

Filling:

• 3/4 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
• 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature

Icing: note to self: do not lick beaters without thinking about what you are doing. Your lip ring MIGHT get caught in the beaters.

• 4 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method for Dough:

Combine milk and butter in glass measuring cup. Microwave on high until butter melts and mixture is just warmed to 120°F to 130°F, 30 to 45 seconds. Pour into bowl of stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment. Add 1 cup flour, sugar, egg, yeast, and salt. Beat on low speed 3 minutes, stopping occasionally to scrape down sides of bowl. Add 21/2 cups flour. Beat on low until flour is absorbed and dough is sticky, scraping down sides of bowl. If dough is very sticky, add more flour by tablespoonfuls until dough begins to form ball and pulls away from sides of bowl. Turn dough out onto lightly floured work surface. Knead until smooth and elastic, adding more flour if sticky, about 8 minutes. Form into ball.

Lightly oil large bowl with nonstick spray. Transfer dough to bowl, turning to coat. Cover bowl with plastic wrap, then kitchen towel. Let dough rise in warm draft-free area until doubled in volume, about 2 hours.

Filling:

Mix brown sugar and cinnamon in medium bowl.

Punch down dough. Transfer to floured work surface. Roll out to 15×11-inch rectangle. Spread butter over dough, leaving 1/2-inch border. Sprinkle cinnamon sugar evenly over butter. Starting at 1 long side, roll dough into log, pinching gently to keep it rolled up. With seam side down, cut dough crosswise with thin sharp knife into 18 equal slices (each about 1/2 to 3/4 inch wide).

Spray two 9-inch square glass baking dishes with nonstick spray. Divide rolls between baking dishes, arranging cut side up (there will be almost no space between rolls). Cover baking dishes with plastic wrap, then kitchen towel. Let dough rise in warm draft-free area until almost doubled in volume, 40 to 45 minutes.

Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 375°F. Bake rolls until tops are golden, about 20 minutes. Remove from oven and invert immediately onto rack. Cool 10 minutes. Turn rolls right side up.

Icing:

Combine cream cheese, powdered sugar, butter, and vanilla in medium bowl. Using electric mixer, beat until smooth. Spread glaze on rolls. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Tonight's dinner

Tonight's dinner was a chicken caeser pizza. The main idea was from a restaurant in Ucluelet called "Romans Pizza and Pasta" that had the most amazing pizza. I used the dough recipe from my breadmaker cookbook (a little bit of a cheater, I know). We used caeser dressing for the pizza sauce, then added parmesan and a tiny bit of finely grated cheddar. Then we added mushrooms and red peppers and a little bit of rosemary and oregano. We baked the pizza for about 25-30 minutes at 350 (or until it is golden brown) When the pizza came out we added fresh spinach and grated a tiny more cheddar on top of everything...

simply delicious!

Falafel

While on our honeymoon in France, Jordan and I found a fast food falafel place called "Maoz". They served falafel pitas, and it was the first time I had ever tried them. I immediately fell in love and we ate there about 7 times over the course of our two week vacation. I wanted to find out how to make my own, but I was scared that they wouldn't taste the same. I found this recipe online and they turned out amazing! Easy, simple and fast to make.

Ingredients:

1 Can of chickpeas

1 onion, chopped

2 (or more) cloves of garlic, chopped

3 tablespoons of fresh parsley, chopped

1 teaspoon of coriander

1 teaspoon of cumin

2 tablespoons of flour

salt and pepper

and oil for frying (I use sunflower oil because it's lighter than the others)

Method:

Blend your chickpeas, garlic, onion, coriander, cumin and salt and pepper together in a food processor or with a hand blender. Add flour until it reaches the consistency of cookie dough. Roll the mixture into balls about the size of a ping pong ball and fry them in about 2 inches of oil until they are golden brown (about 5 to 7 minutes). Place on paper towel to drain. Serve warm.

You can serve with hummus, tzatziki, or any other sauce/dipping apparatus that you are a fan of.

I personally love this recipe because you can taste your falafel mixture as you go along and you can add other things if you want to as well.

I found this recipe on "about.com"

Tasty Tasty Pot Roast

Jamie Oliver's Pot Roast

(this ain't your grandmother's pot roast!)

I found this recipe very VERY easy to do. Very quick and tasty and doesn't take up a lot of the ingredients in your refrigerator.

Ingredients:

1 pot roast

2 or 3 carrots

1 onion (or half if you're not too big on onions)

4 potatoes (I like red and yukon gold the best)

3 or 4 bay leaves

fresh or dried rosemary (fresh is always better)

5 or 6 garlic cloves

Method:

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees (this is something I ALWAYS forget to do). Peel and roughly chop all your veggies and place them in the bottom of a roasting pan. I like to give them a little toss in some olive oil so it keeps them moist. Add your garlic cloves and bay leaves around the veggies and sprinkle with some rosemary. Place your roast on top of the veggies (in the one in the picture I actually stuffed some garlic cloves inside the roast). Sprinkle some rosemary on top of your roast as well (if you are so inclined). Place your roast into your preheated oven for about an hour. If you prefer rare, take it out 10 to 15 minutes earlier and if you like it well done leave it in for 10 minutes longer.

And there you have it. The best roast I have ever tasted. It's moist, it's flavourful and the veggies are very very tasty to use as a side dish!

(this recipe is in Jamie Oliver's cookbook "Food Revolution")

Almost June...

I can't believe it's almost JUNE.

I've been working at school as a housekeeper, so I feel like my days are relatively the same, but I'm not ACTUALLY going to school... The temperature outside is staying at a mild sort of warm state and I'm okay with that. I'm not looking forward to the nights that are so blistering hot that I don't know what to do with myself... but I'll take those when they come. Jordan and I have been watching a lot of Jamie Oliver's cooking shows and it has definitely inspired us to eat more locally and to be more adventurous and experimental with our cooking. There's a weekly farmer's market here in Abbotsford that we would like to check out this following weekend. Cooking is something that I've always loved to do and I'm finding that it's something that really relaxes me. I love finding new recipes and finding out new ways of doing things that I never thought of. My good friend Hillary and I are trying new recipes every week or so. We did stuffed mushroom caps and falafels. The next on our list is strawberry rhubarb pie and raspberry lime cupcakes. If you've ever seen the move Julie and Julia you will probably think I'm a total copy cat, but I would love to share recipes that I have found, made and loved. I've always wanted to find a reason to blog. A reason that isn't just me rambling about my boring little life. Maybe I've found it....

These days...

I can't believe the semester is almost over! It went by SO FAST. I'm in the process of transferring to the ECE program at school (all I have left to do is a tuberculosis skin test... gross) I'm excited to work with children and to learn how to work with them better. I think it will be a good switch for me. I've found I'm not into psychology as much as I thought I was. Even though people say the first psych courses are the hardest, I'm still not as passionate about it as I thought I was. I'm hoping I find passion in the ECE program, because I love kids and it would be amazing to have that be my career.

On a different note, I bleached part of my hair the other night... first time I've dyed my hair in about 5 years... It was fun! (just a little section behind my ear)

But I don't think anyone reads this anyways... so who cares?

Awake My Soul

I've been listening to this song on repeat all day...

God Is Not A White Man

Abbotsford.

I've been slowly adjusting to life here in Abbotsford, but I think it's coming to a point where I'm actually feeling like this is the place to be. When I'm not here, I find myself missing our apartment, our cat, our friends, our tiny japanese grocery store down the street... Our friend Darcy sang a song last night at his house show, it is currently untitled but he sang a line that really stuck with me. He sang "Home isn't home until you go away..." and I understood that. Home isn't home until you're somewhere else and you have that longing to be where you are comfortable and safe. The Island will always be my home, and I find myself missing it terribly the last couple weeks coming on to summer. I will miss the river, I'll miss hikes and beaches in walking distance. I will miss the bathtub races in Nanaimo and protection island... But I am intentionally in Abbotsford to build community with my friends and within CBC. Abbotsford is my home these days, and I'm okay with that...

This summer I am going to....

*Begin/Finish our wedding scrapbook

*Read 3 whole books (this is big for me, seriously.)

*Grow a herb garden

*Go for long bike rides

*Spend some serious time in natural bodies of water

*Attempt to get a tan for the 3829752385th time

*Start taking photos again

*Possibly sell pre-made scrapbooking pages on Etsy.com

*Finish photo wall in our apartment

...I'll add more later as I gain more ambition...

Thinking..

Sometimes I find it hard to gather my thoughts. It's almost like I'm trying to collect them in a colander and they keep sifting out the bottom. But sometimes it does happen. Sometimes I can make sense with the multiple situations, possibilities, stresses and thoughts floating around in my head. I enjoy those times when I can sit and actually think about one thing for more that a millisecond. When I can sit on my couch and enjoy a nice cup of tea with a book and not get distracted by anything that moves or makes noise around me...

It's interesting being taught to think again....

Thoughts..

I've never really felt comfortable sharing my writing with anyone... which makes me wonder why i started a blog in the first place. I've recently decided to get over this fear.

It would take me days to summon up the courage to read an essay I'd written in front of my class, or it would take tears to share a story I'd written in elementary school... I was told today that in one of my classes that we were going to have to make copies of all of our assignments and hand them out to the other students so they could critique them. My first reaction was fear. I didn't want people to read anything I've read at all.. But then some weird switch happened in my brain. All of a sudden it was like I took it as a challenge. I took it as a challenge to make myself a better writer so I would and could be confident about the things that I was handing out to the rest of the class, and my papers in the other classes...

Writing? bring it on...