New Blog

I started a new blog today.

Not that I don't like this one, but I thought that perhaps I needed a blog with a theme. Rather than just some random stuff that I put on here for random purposes.

I will likely still post here, just probably not as often.

Here is the new site:

This Is Why I'm Strange

Happy reading

Turkey Shepards Pie

So,

I tried my first recipe from the book. I was feeling for a "comfort food", so I headed to the Comfort Food section and made the first thing on the list.

It was delicious and I made it as written as to have lots of leftovers. In fact I am going to have the final quarter of it today for lunch. *YUM

A few things I found out about this cookbook:

1. It's nice to think that these meals will take thirty minutes to make, but I am doubtful, this one took me about an hour to do......Then again, I am not Rachael Ray (good call). It likely does take her 30 minutes to whip up this wonderful meal.

2. I might need to consider getting some all purpose flour, whole wheat flour just does not thicken the same.

3. Skipping the egg on the mashed potatoes was my best choice ever :D

4. Although I am not a huge fan of sour cream, I think it is what made the recipe better :D

5. Turkey bacon is delicious. Although If you are going to post that regular bacon is better, I will just have to take your word for it, since I haven't eaten pork for a very very very long time.

In all I am satifisfied with the book. Of course I have only made one thing/have yet to spend up to an hour making something that is disgusting and wanted to toss out the book.


In other news: I decided finally to give up bottled water for Lent........It's a tradition for me to participate non-religiously in Lent every year.

Why bottled water?

For one thing, I spend way too much money on it.........It's more expensive to purchase bottled water than it is to buy gas (which is wrong on a number of levels). For another, North Vancouver has some of the best water in the world, why would I buy water that is less good from some place else when I can get it for free.... Finally, the school just installed some new chilling water fountains, I'm trying to get more people to use them, so maybe they will install more fountains more places in the school.

So far it has been going well. Although I think I lost a water bottle along the way and will have to replace it.... :( . Although I will have to replace it for Peru anyways....... :D

So in summary: The cookbook is good and I didn't eat out ALL WEEK!!!!! and drinking regular water is good too :D, which means in general.....life is pretty good right now.......because all of the above is helping me save money for my Peru adventure....(paying for the Spanish school is coming up which will make my budget pretty tight for the next few months)

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Cookbook

So,

I got a new cookbook at Chistmastime from a friend. It's called the "Rachael Ray 365: No Repeats - A year of Deliciously Different Dinners (A 30 minute meal cookbook)". I finally had some time to crack it open today and take a look.

I have seen Julie and Julia - So don't think I'm about to spend a year making all of these recipes and blog about it here. I barely have the time to cook, let alone blog about the cooking. I would like to blog about some of the recipes thou. Especially the ones I like a lot.

I think that the goal of said person was to encourage me to abandon my terrible life of take out too often and cook more. Which is something I talk about doing, and do for a few weeks but never follow through on.

But I think this time I might just give it a try. The fact that each recipe should take no more than 30 minutes to make might just be the carrot I need to take this project on. Of course I won't be making one of these every night. All the servings are for FOUR. So I can either make loads of left overs or divide the recipe by 4. Only time will tell what I will do.

The other nifty thing about the book is that it includes a tab on the side: of "I'll try this later" and "It's a keeper". Although I think it is missing the "that was gross, don't cook that again". Which I'm going to add to the recipes I try and don't like. (crosses fingers that there aren't many)

And of course I will be substituting all the ham/pork/pig death products with other meats or tofu.

Hopefully this little project will also encourage me to break out some of my fav. recipes from my year of being a Foods teacher (Yah, you can laugh now :D).

Wish me Luck,

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Heidi Montag: Forever changing the way I think of "A$$ Cheeks"

So,

I'm writing this to Heidi Montag in response to this article I read not to long ago:

HERE

Dear Heidi Montag,

I know you won't read this and frankly I never thought I would spend that much time thinking about you. But I just wanted to get some things off my chest.

I had a listen to your album today: It's not terrible, but it's not great either. Yes, it's better than Paris Hilton's album and it might even be better than that new Ke$ha album. It does have some catchy night-club tunes. But there is way too much auto-tune used for my taste and it sounds much to overproduced for any independant album that I have heard in recent memory. In addition, you have made one horrible business error for the album. You released the album SHORTLY AFTER Christmas. January. 25th is deemed the worst day of the year because people have to pay their credit cards from Christmas. In a nut shell, people don't have the money to take a risk on a first album right now. Plus, I think people would rather spend money on Haitian relief.

In regard to your plastic surgery: I think you may have Body Dysmorphic Disorder. It is evident to me because you thought that you had a "Jay Leno" chin before (not even close to accurate), you went ahead with the surgeries (both times) against the better judgment of your loved ones and you want to further increase your breast size soon (I see "fail blog" videos of you falling forward in your future). I just wonder when it will stop. It makes me sad that one day I will be watching you on "Dr. Drew's Celebrity Body Image Disorder Rehab". I fear the only thing that will be "as famous as Michael Jackson" will be your deteriorating nose in years to come.

Overall, I think creating a "perfect" image both professionally and personally will actually hinder peoples desire to purchase your album. Which in turn will make it difficult for you to recuperate the money you have spent to date.

I know you will say I don't know what I am talking about, because I can't understand the pressures of Hollywood and life there and you are right. I cannot! But what I do know about Hollywood is you need to be tough to endure and survive and frankly I just don't think you have what it takes. You say you don't care what people say about you, but obviously that is not true or you wouldn't have done all of "this" to appear more "body perfect" and accepted by the industry.

Sorry, but someone had to tell you the truth.

Wishing you the best,

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Hype Machine - the music of 2009

So,

I have started quite actively using a site called Hype Machine.

So here is a re-cap of what I like a lot from Hype Machine in 2009. (The links take you to blogs with songs)

1. Florence and the Machine - Lungs
   
2. Little Boots - New in Town
3. We Plants are Happy Plants - Apollo
4. Adele - Hometown Glory
5. Passion Pit - Little Secrets
6. Mumford & Sons - Little Lion Man
7. Deadmau5 feat. Swire - Ghosts n' Stuff
8. James Yuill - This Sweet Love

Enjoy!

I highly recommend you check this site out, it's really great as well for mash-ups and remixes. I have given you some links to some of the blogs, but there are so many, I really think you should try a search and see what you get or just click on the Popular tab. I think you will like it.

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Reads of 2009

I'm taking them off the site today, so before they go here are all my reads of 2009:

In reverse order:

Reads of 2009

• The 19th Wife - David Ebershoff
• The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins
• A Curse as Dark As Gold - Elizabeth C. Bunce
• Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac - Gabrielle Zevin
• The Carbon Diaries - Saci Lloyd
• LA Candy - Lauren Conrad
• The Sweet Far Thing - Libba Bray
• Rumors - Anna Godberdson
• The 10 Pm Question - Kate De Goldi
• The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
• Three Day Road - Joseph Boyden
• Adrian Mole: Minor to Major - Sue Townsend
• Coraline - Neil Gaiman
• The Colour Purple - Alice Walker
• Inkheart - Cornelia Funke

The Album's of the Decade Challenge

S0,

I was challenged to figure out what my favorite albums of each year were and post them. I found this task to be quite difficult, as there were multiple things I could have chosen. In any case here is what I liked the most in any given year. Remember in the past 10 years I was in University, Lived in Northern Manitoba, Southern Alberta, the Kootenays, the Island and finally Vancouver (now).

My Favorite albums of the decade:

2000 - Dandy Warhols - Thirteen Tales of Urban Bohemia
2001 - Jimmy Eat World - Bleed America
2002 - DJ Sammy - Heaven
2003 - ATB - Addicted To Music
2004 - The Dresden Dolls - Self Titled
2005 - Metric - LIve it Out
2006 - We Are Scientists - WIth Love and Squalor
2007 - Iron and Wine - The Shepard's Dog
2008 - Your Vegas - A town and Two Cities
2009 - Mother Mother - Oh my Heart

Honorable mentions:

Sam Roberts - We were Born in a Flame
Stars - Set yourself on Fire
Dashboard Confessional - A Mark, A Mission, A Brand, A Scar
Thrice - The Alchemy Index Vol 1-4
The Watchmen - Slowmotion
Bloc Party - Silent Alarm
Jack's Mannequin - Everything in Transit
Arcade Fire - Neon Bible

What I really liked from this year:

Faded Paper Figures - Dynamo
Florence and The Machine - Lungs
Arkells - Jackson Square
Metric - Fantasies
Pheonix - Wolfgang Amadeus Pheonix
Temper Trap - Conditions
Blizen Trapper - Furr
The Waking Eyes - Holding onto Whatever

It makes me wonder what I will be listening to in 2019?

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