Weekend Recap

A long weekend, my favourite!  We kicked off Friday night with a meal that I saw on Pioneer Woman, roast beef sandwiches.  She had made this recipe for about 150 football players, but I managed to figure out how to make just 5 instead and I ended up with the right amount of sauce.  Basically you make a mayo/horseradish sauce, spread it on a bun, top with shaved roast beef and some provolone cheese, wrap it in foil and let it heat in a low oven until the cheese is melted.  They were very tasty.  E claimed he could eat too but barely managed one. 

Then we were excited to watch the NBA All-Star Weekend Celebrity Game. It was Canada vs. the USA and Canada won!  Milos Roanic (our tennis star) even dunked it!  It was fun, and E was excited to have his Raptors jersey on (signed by Demar Derozan no less). 

 On Saturday morning we woke up arctic temperatures and decided not to go skiing.  It was nice to go back to bed and stay warm for a bit.  Our house is actually quite warm for being old, but this photo is the window on the stairway, far from a source of heat.  At least it is pretty!

This is the inside, in case that's not clear.

So with our skiing plans cancelled, my morning consisted of menu planning and grocery shopping.  I came home with this lovely collection of produce.  I love the colours.  E picked out the purple and white striped eggplant.  I needed them for a recipe but I let him pick out which of the three he wanted; he said they were "beautiful".  I also picked up a dragonfruit since E had never tried it before and I wanted to let him guess what was on the inside and what it tasted like.  He liked it. 

This is my new sweatshirt for the Gap. It is cozy and perfect for Valentine's Day.

E and I made some cookies in the afternoon. Here is the recipe. I used a can of buttercream icing but added some almond extract for that extra special flavour.  These cookies are so good, and so easy!

Then we cooked up some pizzas for supper.  I am an impatient pizza maker, since I want to eat it without always waiting for it to be done perfectly.  Dave has more patience than me so he took over the pizza making this time.  He did a great job and the tasted better than delivery. 

One of our friends came over that evening to watch the NBA Skills Competition.  This is always a highlight of the weekend and this was no exception.  I am partial to the 3 point contest but the dunk competition this year was phenomenal.  Toronto did a great job of hosting the All-Star weekend.  I think even the extreme cold was a good thing.  You know the Americans were going to talk about how cold it was anyway, so at least these temperatures were legit (-40C).

We woke up early on Valentine's Day.  I had set out some cards, gifts and candy and then forgot to take a picture before they were all opened.  This is the best I could do:

I bought all of the candy wrapped in red at Shoppers. 

Dave usually spoils me when he buys gifts, and this Valentine's Day was no exception. He went to Anthropologie and picked out some tea towels, napkins and a new dress.  He is a good little shopper. 

Our card collection

E and I went to church and then we came home, grabbed Dave and the cookies we had made and headed out to visit some friends.  We wanted to drop off some treats and have a quick visit with some friends we hadn't seen in awhile. It was a really nice afternoon and good way to spend a cold day.  Of course I forgot to take photos!

When we got home, I made this delicious recipe for our Valentine's dinner.  It is a Jamie Oliver recipe.  I will definitely be making this again.  The recipe called for curry leaves which I could not get at the grocery store (surprise, surprise), so I just sprinkled in some garam masala and it was still delicious.  Hopefully I can find curry leaves at the fruit and vegetable stand up the street for the next time I make it.

 On Monday, we took our time getting ready and then when Dave went off on his 25 km run (!), E and I walked up the street to get some bread and some things at Shoppers.  It was a long walk but we made it!

When we got home, I put on a Robert Munsch record.  I used to listen to this when I was little and loved it.  E loved it too, this is him laughing at "Hey you dumb pigs!!".

Then we played with some Transformers and then we watched movies for the rest of the day. The best!

Show and Tell Tuesday

Linking up with Andrea for another instalment of Show and Tell Tuesday.

Today's theme is favourite Pinterest pins.  You can follow me on Pinterest @sarahamacd.  

I have 23 boards, 12 of which are devoted to food.   I have pinned many recipes and there are a few that I make all of the time.  I pinned my Go To Pinterest Meals last year and these are still true today. A couple of others that I really like now are:

This Chicken Enchilada Soup is amazing.  I have made it for guests and for us.  

I love making curries and this Butter Chicken for the slow cooker is the best.

When there are things on my Boards for too long and I haven't tried them or when I've made them a couple of times without really enjoying them, I will delete them.  I used to make notes in the comments when I'd make a substitution for something, but they sort of took away that's option.

I also have a board for "My Style",  "Places I'd Like to Go" and "For the Home".  

When I browse Pinterest, I first look to see what people I'm following and then I go to Popular pins and sometimes Everything.  I often use the search function too. I love being able to find any recipe I want, how to match clothing, and travel tips for anywhere.  

Since I don't attempt many crafts or intricate cake designs, I haven't had many Pinterest fails. But they are my favourite thing to look at, like these ones.  The photography fails are my favourite; there is a reason why we have professional photographers.  

Some people have very well curated Pinterest pages, so I am looking forward to clicking around on the link up today.

Happy Family Day!!

We are still enjoying our long weekend and celebrating Family Day today.

Whether you have a holiday today or not, I hope you are enjoying some time with your family.  

They aren't kidding when they say the days are long but the years are short.  We hung out with some babies on the weekend and it seems like a lifetime ago when E was that little.  

Things I love about my family:

Going on adventures - whether to another country or just down the street

Making and enjoying meals together

Snuggling on the couch

Playing outside

Reading together

Family dance parties 

Happy Family Day!

Friday Favourites

Linking up with Andrea, Erika and Narci for Friday Favourites.

Let's get to it:

One of my favourite things is correct grammar (#nerdalert).  Twice recently I have run into the misuse of an adjective when an adverb is required. So quick lesson for everyone - an adjective describes a noun, an adverb describes a verb.  Most adverbs end in -ly. Therefore, to say "Dress warm" or "Think positive" is not correct.  In these instances "dress" and "think" are verbs so they need to be described with adverbs and the correct phrases would then be "Dress warmly" and "Think positively".  Know the difference and use them properly (properly because I'm describing the verb "use").  Thank you.

The NBA All-Star Weekend is coming to Toronto this weekend!! Now, I do not have tickets and will probably not even be going downtown but I'm still excited.  Dave and I always enjoy the All-Star events and I know there will be a lot of focus on Toronto and its local offerings.  If you're a basketball fan, tune in and see my city being showcased. 

The food court at Square One (the mall in Mississauga near my office) has Chipotle so I usually go there, but recently I have been eating at Basil Box.  I had it this week and it was delish.

We made Valentine's Day cookies for E's class party.  I found the recipe here (we used strawberry jello instead of cherry but it still worked).  They were very bright and I think more suited to children because of that, but they weren't bad.

This is the inside of one of our tulips, I didn't know it would have that touch of blue but so pretty.

Sometimes at work people ask me for our fax number (mostly real estate lawyers and doctors) and I wish my response could be:

(I love this especially because of Michael Scott)

I read Mix and Match Mama's blog on Wednesday and actually went to the store that day and bought one of the sweatshirts she had worn.  It looked so cozy and different than a normal sweatshirt.  I haven't worn it yet but I'm looking forward to the weekend!  I borrowed this photo from her blog, I got the pink one. 

I love this pillow, it will be in my life at some point.

Have a Happy Valentine's Day this weekend with your loves, whoever they may be.

See our decorations here.

Theme Suppers

I love cooking for a theme.  I am also the person who wears red on Valentine's Day, green on St. Patrick's Day, etc.  I celebrate every holiday and when there is an excuse to prepare a special meal, I am in!  This week was a special week for holidays.   

On Sunday night, it was Super Bowl night of course.  I talked about what I was going to make last week and that's what we had - wings, potato skins, carrots and celery sticks.  We bought frozen wings instead of making them from scratch.  I put lime zest, salt, pepper and lime juice on mine.  They were delicious.  The potato skins turned out pretty well.  I sliced the potatoes and baked them for about 30 minutes until they were soft, then moved them to a baking dish and topped them with cheese, bacon and green onion.  The skins could have been crispier, so next time I will cook them longer first.   

Then on Monday, it was Chinese New Year.  I love ordering Chinese take out, but I also like making it myself because it is just so much healthier.   I made this beef stir-fry with mushrooms and snow peas and mushroom fried rice based on this recipe.  It was all very tasty.  The stir-fry makes a lot of sauce so next time I would serve it with just white rice.

And then on Tuesday it was Pancake Tuesday!  We love our pancakes around here but for supper, I wanted to mix it up a little bit so I made a favourite recipe of ours, corn and cheese pancakes topped with maple pancetta, tomatoes, avocado and cilantro.  Every time I make this I am amazed at all of the different flavours.  It is so good, and very easy.

The recipe for the pancakes is:

1 cup of flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 cup milk

1 handful frozen corn

1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese

1 red or green chili, sliced (optional)

Whisk the flour, baking powder and milk together.  Fold in the corn, cheese and chili.  Pour onto hot griddle in small pancakes.  

When the pancakes are cooked, serve them hot with as many of these ingredients as you like:

chopped tomatoes

diced avocado

fresh cilantro

cooked bacon or pancetta (while it's still in the pan but cooked, drizzle over some maple syrup for a sweet glaze)

plain yoghurt

a squeeze of lime

hot sauce

Try it, you will not be disappointed. 

Want it Wednesday

I haven't done one of these posts for awhile, but I was browsing online the other day and thought I'd put together some of the things I'm looking at right now.

People love Chip and Joanna Gains from Fixer Upper, and after watching a few of their shows, I love them too.  They have this big store down in Texas and I like some of the home decor things from there.

This wreath is one of their signature items.

I also like these metal serving trays. They would be something different than what we usually have.

There are so many awesome things on the Society 6 website but my very favourite is this throw pillow.  I will own this pillow someday!

I love Stella & Dot.  I bought a scarf the last time I was at a party and it is really nice.  This white one is beautiful.

What's on your shopping list?

Weekend Recap

On Thursday of last week, I had a small day surgery so I was laying low on the weekend, which was actually quite nice.  It is very rare that I am able to rest all day and watch movies without feeling like I should be doing something else.

On Saturday morning, Dave and E got up early and headed to the slopes for E's morning lessons and then an afternoon of the two of them skiing on their own. It sounded like the perfect day to be skiing. 

I rested on the couch and Cuddly Pal kept me company.

On Sunday while Dave went for his run, E and I attempted some crafts.  I am not a fan of crafts, as I have said before, but E's Chirp magazine had some plans for dinosaur feet made out of Kleenex boxes and he had set aside two empty boxes so I got the stuff out for him to decorate them.  I mixed some glue and water to make decoupage type glue and cut up some green tissue paper.  He did pretty well decorating the tops.  Then we put together a wooden bulldozer kit that Dave's sister had given him for Christmas.   

After lunch we went up to Bellwoods Brewery on Ossington to grab some beers from the bottle shop and also got a coffee across the street at Crafted Pilot Coffee Roasters, my kind of afternoon!

Then we went to High Park to play at the playground.  There were people skating and also playing tennis in shorts on the same afternoon.  The weather has been crazy!

A blur on the slide circuit

We did some more crafts when we got home and then I made some food and we settled down to watch the Super Bowl.  I was going for the Panthers, but you cannot deny the Denver defence that win.  And good for Peyton to end on a high like that.  Happy to see my boy Aaron Rodgers at the beginning when they brought out all of the MVPs.