A New Book

I put a hold at the library for this book 'Dinner with Edward', and was able to pick it up after 3 months, looking forward to reading it. I already got this cooking tip to add balsamic vinegar to pasta to allow the sauce to cling, I intend to try this! Really the book is about a warm friendship that develops between a younger woman and a man in his nineties, it grows over their weekly dinners together. He is a fantastic cook, in the style of Julia Child I think, all about the precious, perfect details.

Seasonal Treats

Son K brought these seasonal treats from his workplace recently, it's fun everywhere at this time of year!  I am happy to say I got some Christmas shopping done yesterday and have started on my Christmas cards.  After doing cards for so many years what's happening now is that my friends' kids have moved out in some cases and it's difficult to decide what to put on their family cards.  Some of the kids are even living with partners.  A couple of people have changed addresses and haven't bothered to let people exactly know what their new addresses are.  I buy one international stamp for $2.50 every year to send to an aunt living abroad.  Of course, I lost it and had to buy another one.  It may show up at some point.  It was the tiniest stamp too.

An Unhappy Coincidence

Display at the Mall

Our newspaper delivery man left us a card one morning. It said he would be on vacation soon. We usually leave him a small tip in his card every year, so I was sure to put it out early enough so he could receive it in time!

Within the past week or so, in an unhappy coincidence, my mom fell out of her bed one morning, and so did husband M's mom at their separate residences. It might be time for them to get bed rails, or use them if they already have them. Fortunately, they were both okay.

Sunday Sketches - Tall Grasses

Welcome to Alexandra's Sunday Sketches. This piece features 'Tall Grasses' in the fall, because I like the look of them with the colourful trees acting as a contrast in the background. It's done in my art journal (8 1/2" x 11") in watercolour pencil.

Thoughts now turn to the Christmas season as it is upon us! 

Seasonal Decoration

I thought this was a cute decoration at the doors of the shopping mall.

So have you watched the Disney movie Frozen?  They have started running it on regular TV now.  I absolutely love the ending!

My mom is having fluid retention issues due to her congestive heart failure condition.  Every few years she has these episodes where her ankles become swollen and she can gain 5 pounds within only a few days. She becomes very short of breath.  She tells me she is not tired, just out of breath.  I keep records of these occurrences and the doses of the water pill she takes.  The pills really help her but the body can develop a tolerance for this medicine.  The pharmacist was really helpful and faxed a requisition to our family doctor asking for refills we can use 'as needed'.  So I have a plan in place and my fingers crossed that she can weather this episode!  She lives with my sister and her family who are now ready and anxiously waiting for her to move into long term care as she needs a lot of assistance day to day.

Paint Party Friday - Cleanup Time

Welcome to Paint Party Friday, hosted as always by Kristin and Eva.  The leaves were all over the ground everywhere a few weeks ago, it was time to get them all cleaned up.This piece was done in my art journal (8 1/2" x 11") in watercolour pencil.

Santa Clause Parade

Well Toronto had its 112th Santa Clause Parade this past Sunday, it was appropriately very cold with snow flurries. It was nice to see some of the parade on tv (yes, all warm at home) and hear the Christmas songs being sung by live artists. I love to see the little ones all bundled up, excited to see Santa at the very end!

So the season is well underway! In fact, I've already received my first Christmas card, pictured above. The bauble had to be pasted back on as it detached in the mail. Husband M and I are already invited to a party in early December.

Do you mail Christmas cards to friends and relatives?  I do.

Poached Salmon

This healthy meal was inspired by Jan of The Low Carb Diabetic. She recently posted about a healthy salmon and broccoli bowl and it made me decide to try a poached salmon. Mine was done with white wine, water, tarragon, onions, lemon juice, a generous amount of salt and pepper. It is simple to make, just bring ingredients to a boil and simmer covered for about 10 minutes depending on the amount of salmon fillets. I ate it with blanched vegetables.

Mince Tart Bites

My church had its annual Christmas craft and bake sale this past weekend. I bought these delicious mince tart bites that my friend S spotted. I also bought stamps for the Christmas cards I mail out. Are you starting to get ready for the season?

New granola bars

I signed up for these free samples on a website that my friend had told me about, and received 2 new granola bars among other things. One is a Kellogg's nutrigrain cranberry nut bar, the other was a blueberry nut bar. Everyone liked them and so we bought a box of the cranberry nut ones. It makes a change from the rice krispie squares son K takes to work for snacks. The problem with the free sample site is that you are supposed to do quick reviews of the product, I didn't read the fine print. So I will be receiving an email survey soon, but I might refrain from getting more free samples. I felt obligated to try the detergent, pain reliever, and daughter L tried some of the hair products and creams. Fortunately I had only requested stuff I thought I might really use. Here is the website if you think you want to join.

Leafy Pathway

Alexandra's Sunday Sketches has been postponed as she is ill, hope she feels better soon.  Anyway, I had this piece  ready to go, entitled 'Leafy Pathway'.  It is done in my art journal (8 1/2" x 11") in watercolour pencil and crayon.  It very much looked like this around here last week. Today it has gone very cold and is more like winter.

New Spiralizer

I got this inexpensive new Veggetti Spiralizer device that turns vegetables into neat spaghetti-like spirals. It is really fun to eat these. This small manual device is great with zucchini, cucumbers and carrots so far. It's not so good with beets and larger vegetables. Maybe the larger machines are better for those. But so far it has encouraged us to eat more vegetables in a fun way. I did cut my finger already, you have to pay attention when you are cutting anything.

Paint Party Friday - The Girl

Welcome to Paint Party Friday! Thanks to our hosts Kristin and Eva. This piece entitled 'The Girl' in done in my art journal (8 1/2" x 11") in watercolour pencil and crayon.

Intriguing Story

This new cottage cheese treat is available in our area, it tastes like cheesecake, we have tried the vanilla bean and lemon flavours both are delicious. It says it's 100 calories per 100g serving.

This is an interesting story I read in the paper recently and saved for you.

It is entitled 'The stabber, the victim, the lost son, and the wedding'. 'In 1999 Sean Clifton stabbed a stranger, Julie Bouvier. This summer they stood together, attending a wedding only made possible by the extraordinary aftermath of the crime and the filming of a documentary about it.'

Tortilla Soup

Fish Ceviche

Banana Eel Sushi

Tortilla Soup

It would be remiss if I didn't talk about the food we ate at the all-inclusive Secrets Resort on our recent vacation. Being all-inclusive you eat too much to begin with. I tried to taste food from the region as much as possible.

It was my first time trying jicama (pronounce the 'j' as an 'h'), it is a Mexican turnip and delicious eaten in raw strips, with none of the bitterness of fresh raw turnips.

One night featured Mexican food from the region. It is where I had this delicious tortilla soup for the first time. It starts with ladling a tomato based soup into your bowl. Then you add tortilla chips, cheese, sour cream, roasted peppers and avocado. It was sooo good. I also tried a fish ceviche at another meal, which I also enjoyed.

There was an Asian restaurant that surprisingly made delicious sushi. Apparently the chef had trained in Japan for a year.

It was also fun going on the trip with friends.

La Crucecita

On the day following our arrival husband M and I took a taxi to the nearest shopping square in Huatulco called La Crucecita to do some shopping. We were waiting for our suitcase to arrive and were told this would be a good place to get some clothes meanwhile.  It was a nice reason to see a bit more than the resort where we were vacationing.

Our Mexico Vacation

View from our Room

Sunrise from our balcony

Sunrise

Bathroom Glass Doors

wooden shower floor

Room Service Included

Husband M, daughter L, son K and I went with 6 other friends to an all-inclusive resort called Secrets in Huatulco, Mexico. This was in the last week of October. One of our suitcases was lost for a few days and was finally located in Calgary and returned to us intact. It contained my and M's clothes mostly. The Westjet airline said they would compensate us for up to US$250 that we could spend for essentials meanwhile.

In spite of this we all had a fantastic time there. Best of all, we had free wifi so we could have complete internet access.  Daughter L and I enjoyed taking Zumba classes by the pool every day. I will post some more photos in the coming days.  Son K enjoyed lots of room service breakfasts and late night snacks which were included in the cost.

Sunday Sketches - Treescape

Welcome to Alexandra's Sunday Sketches, the last one from England! I did a 'Treescape'for you in my art journal (8 1/2" x 11") in watercolour pencil and crayon.

Moving On

holiday arrangements already on sale

Son K and I were at Costco the other day.  We shopped and he was tasked with getting all the stuff into the car while I went to the washroom.  Once we arrived at home, I said 'where are the socks I bought?'  They had been sitting at the top end of the cart in the 'baby seat'.  K had been so busy getting the toilet paper and case of diet coke from the middle and bottom row of the cart he completely missed the two 6-packs of socks in the front!  Off we went back to Costco, but the socks were gone within that half hour.

At customer service, this man was ahead of us with a similar problem.  His whole cart of purchases had gone missing.  He said his baby had been crying and he got distracted and drove home without unloading his cart of purchases!  He had diapers and bottled water and a whole bunch of stuff. Customer service had pages listing found items  but we were not lucky, and neither was this poor man.  This must happen all the time and some people do recover their items.

I don't think this was a lesson learned, more of 'things happen'.  I re-purchased the socks and we moved on!

Paint Party Friday - Three Trees

It's time for Paint Party Friday! Thanks to our hosts Kristin and Eva. This piece is done in my art journal (8 1/2" x 11") in watercolour pencil. I called it 'Three Trees', I seem to paint a lot of trees at this time of year, based on my observations around the neighbourhood.

On this Remembrance Day, lest we forget, let us honour our veterans and be thankful for our freedom.

Chicken Save

Daughter L made some breaded chicken the other day and felt the dish didn't quite work. She told me 'we' have to re-invent it in some way to make it a good dish, and basically so we wouldn't waste the good chicken. She said she had already put garlic and parmesan cheese in the seasoning.

I went to google searching for tomato based chicken sauces. I had a can of diced tomatoes. So I added 1/2 tsp dried basil, 3 tbs balsamic vinegar heated everything (including the chicken) in a bit of olive oil. It was delicious and we saved the chicken!

On Judgement-free Acceptance

I was reading this newsletter from professional organizer Hellen Buttigeig. She had a topic on 'organizing your life'. She advises us to practice judgment-free acceptance. Don't try to change people, accept them for what they are. They are what they are. She asked us to stop measuring situations. Don't try to change or control things. It is what it is. Judgments hold us back from a full life.

These are good, perhaps relaxing words of wisdom, I thought.

On Self-Acceptance

I read an article by Neil Pasricha (a happiness guru) in the paper recently discussing his 3 steps for self-acceptance. And you need self-acceptance to be happy. He uses himself as an example, saying he hid the fact that he worked for Walmart. He kept apologizing for it, which he says is self-judgement. Finally he accepted that he worked at Walmart and owned the fact. You have no responsibility to be what others expect you to be. It's their mistake, not my failing he says. Thereby he removed self-judgement. Accepting yourself communicates confidence.

Well, I thought this was very interesting, and good advice.  Do you know people who define others by what they do for a living?  It's their problem.

On Kindness

I took these photos a few weeks ago, no guarantees of what it looks like now.

This is a wonderful story I saw in the newspaper recently. 'Stranger pays $5K to reunite Kimbo the dog with his family' is the caption. 'Kimbo the dog was lost in August and ended up being adopted. When Kimbo's family discovered that he had been adopted out his adoptive family did not want to return him. Lawrence Dalle Vedove offered $5000 to the adoptive family to release the dog.'

Then the next day this follow up story appeared in the paper. 'Hero who paid to return stranger’s dog rewarded for generosity'. Expedia Canada gave him a free trip to Australia and the family who lost their dog started up a crowd fund which promises to amass more than the original $5000. Any excess will be donated to an animal welfare organization.

Sunday Sketches from England - Cool Dude

Welcome to Sunday Sketches from England! I did a 'cool dude' for you today in my art journal (8 1/2" x 11"). The piece is done in watercolour pencil and crayon.

Low Carb Lunch

I have been meaning to post this low carb lunch I had when I was discovering some newer dishes. This is a hamburger with cauliflower mash and eggplant pizza. It was very satisfying and filling as I remember.

Paint Party Friday - Tree in Early Fall

It's time for Paint Party Friday! I did a tree in early fall based on a photo I took at the time. It's done in my art journal in watercolour pencil and crayon (8 1/2" x 11").

At the Hairdresser

I was at the hairdresser the other day. The assistant was telling me they offer Groupon discounts in an effort to attract new customers. Unfortunately they received a few groupon certificates from customers only to discover they were already used and now worthless. The profit margin on these Groupons is very low to begin with. It is the first that I am hearing about Groupon fraud.

Pesto Chicken Fettucini

 

The Pickle Barrel is one of our favourite restaurants these days, they always have nutritious choices compared to others. Husband M likes that they offer an all day breakfast. Son K loves their potato latkes. The pesto chicken fettucini pictured above is quite delicious, with sun dried tomatoes in a white wine pesto cream sauce.

Creative Tuesdays - Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore!

Welcome to Creative Tuesday's new theme 'Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore!' My piece was inspired by the Arenal Volcano in Costa Rica where my sister visited recently! Definitely not in Kansas and it seems like a dreamy magical place to be!

And welcome to November!