Archive | 5:32 am

3 Random Finds

8 May

They say things come in threes (and we all know that They can’t be argued with) and today was a day of three totally weird and random finds, only two of which I am happy about, as you will soon see.

Find #1

On my old blog, I once wrote about my exciting and wonderful discovery of the Riverside Grocery. If you’re looking for something unusual, you’ll find it there: fruits and veggies (mostly organic), exotic cheeses, ethnic ingredients, hard-to-find baking supplies. Despite my enthusiasm for the place, I don’t get there very often. It’s only half a block away from my office, but it’s in the opposite direction from everything else and the traffic flow around it makes the street-crossing part inconvenient. Plus for full-on groceries, it’s still a lot easier to go to one of the more conventional stores.

This morning, however, I took the bus in to work so that Michael could drive Jade to daycare later if he decided she felt well enough. Since I hadn’t packed a lunch or snacks the night before, I got off one stop early and stopped in at the Riverside Grocery. Not only did I find some great snacks to stock my office with (organic cheese crackers, beautiful plump green grapes…) but I discovered that the Born Free glass bottles that we use for Jade, the ones I painstakingly researched and bought off eBay… the Riverside Grocery sells them! They also sell replacement nipples (for the bottles, silly) which I was desperate for a few weeks ago because Jade had chewed holes into all of the old ones and I was worried she’d suck a chunk off one and choke on it.

I can’t tell you how flabbergasted I am to find these bottles sold in Whitehorse. Once again I have to say that the RIVERSIDE GROCERY ROCKS!

Find #2

Jade stayed home sick with Michael today. Her eyes have been watery and occasionally oozing pus, she’s been on-an-off feverish, and her nose has been exceedingly runny. I swear when I got her out of her bed this morning it was like she had some kind of creepy Halloween makeup on, there was so much crustified snot around her nose; it brings on a whole new level of meaning to “snotty-nosed kid”. Um, anyway…

She’s also had no appetite. This evening when I offered her chicken (her favourite) and she said no, I decided a bath was in order. She agreed readily to that and she had a grand old time playing with her rubber duckies. Since she’s been kind of sweaty, I washed her hair and then started hunting around the upstairs bathroom for a cake of that natural goat’s milk soap I just knew we had around. That’s when I spotted it: a hair brush, tucked in among the feminine hygiene products I never use anymore because I’m always in the downstairs bathroom since we moved our rooms. (Well, and I don’t really need them much at the moment.) But! Not just any old hair brush, nope. My best and favouritist boar bristle hair brush from The Body Shop that I’ve had since high school and that I have been trying in vain to replace since I first lost it in November…of 2006!

There is no way for me to convey my astonishment and pleasure. The Body Shop doesn’t sell these anymore, and the only boar bristle brushes to be found in the drug stores and grocery stores are wimpy ones whose boar bristles must have come from anemic boars because they barely have the balls to scratch through the top layer of my hair. The day was just getting better and better.

But now comes the low point of the day with…

Find #3

After her bath, Jade found her appetite, so we enjoyed a plate of BBQ chicken together. I happened to glance down and noticed, nestled in the V of my neckline, a rather short, quite fine, and rather dark hair. I reached up to brush it away… and it stayed put. It stayed put because that awful hair was growing out of my chest.

I plucked it away immediately, of course. Except it didn’t work because fingers make pretty ineffectual tweezers. But I’m about to head down to the downstairs bathroom to get ready for bed, and let me tell you, that Frankenstein hair does not stand a chance against my Tweezerman tweezers. It’s history.

I am hoping never, ever to repeat this experience. Now, please, let us never speak of this day again.

My party shoes

8 May

McMommy does it again!  Today is her 30th birthday bash; she’s hosting a party at her blog!  Since I can’t resist a party, I’m going over there to celebrate, and here are the shoes I am going to party in:

My Party Shoes

Cute, no?  I haven’t had a chance to wear these shoes in years, and they’re so pleased to be going out again.  They’re made with raw silk; I love the texture of raw silk and how it catches the light.  This shade of blue makes me think of peacocks, so who wouldn’t be proud to wear it?  I originally bought these for a Scottish wedding, and with those glittering little mirrors on my toes, I was told I was the best bet for finding out what the men really wore under their kilts.  (One of them had tartan boxers.  No lie.  But we only saw them because he wasn’t used to sitting in a skirt.  I mean a kilt.)

Now, you can’t go to a party without bringing a little something tasty along, and since I’m in practice and there are still some strawberries left, I figured I might as well make another lovely fruit pizza.  Isn’t it wonderful how there’s always enough to go around?Fruit Pizza

Here’s what you need:

FOR THE CRUST

  • 1/2 cup butter, softened
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
  • 1 cup flour
  • 1/4 cup rolled oats
  • 1/4 finely chopped pecans (you can use a little food processor for this, but I don’t have one, so I just put them in a baggie and crush them with a rolling pin)

FOR THE FILLING

  • 8 oz. package of cream cheese at room temperature (I usually cheat and nuke it to soften it up a bit)
  • 1 can condensed milk (a.k.a. Eagle Brand)
  • 1/3 cup fresh-squeezed lemon juice
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
  • fruit for topping (strawberries, kiwis, bananas, canned sliced peaches, canned mandarin segments, or whatever else you have on hand)

FOR THE GLAZE

  • 1/4 cup apricot jam or orange marmalade
  • 1 teaspoon water

To make the crust, beat butter and sugar together.  Add flour, oats, and nuts.  Spread on pizza pan and prick with a fork.  Bake in a 375°F oven until lightly browned (mine took 8 minutes).  Meanwhile, put all the filling ingredients (not the fruit!) in a mixer and beat the heck out of it until it’s smooth and completely combined.  Once the crust has cooled, spread the filling on it, then top with fruit.  Make the glaze by mixing the jam with the water and pressing the mixture through a sieve.  (I sometimes add a bit more than a teaspoon of water if I find it’s too thick.)  Brush the glaze over the fruit.  Chill and serve.  Thanks to Michael’s mom for sharing the recipe with me years ago.

By the way, I put saran wrap over my fruit pizza when I put it in the fridge, but every year I forget that the toppings start getting syrupy after they’ve been in the fridge for a few hours.  The syrup migrates along the plastic wrap and then drips down under the pan and then all over the recently painstakingly cleaned fridge shelf.  Don’t make the same mistake; either try not to wrap the plastic under your pan, or else find a bigger pan to put underneath and catch the drippings.

Well, I’m all ready to get over to McMommy’s and party!  There’s going to be a little contest for best party shoe, and I can’t wait to see what the competition looks like.

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