A beautiful sunny Week-end!

Lynn came over for a little getaway this week-end.. and what lovely weather we had, day and night!
Saturday night we had a long soak in the hot-tub and watched the stars and jets going over head.
(Oh yes, on Saturday morning around 5:25 am, I jumped out of bed and threw a jacket and pants on and ran out to the front yard in time to catch an awesome view of the Spaceshuttle Endeavor and the International Space Station flying in tandom right above the mountains south of us .The shuttle had undocked from the space station and was on its final trips around the world before landing at 10:30 pm.As I have mentioned before, join up to Spaceweather.com to get these announcements .)
However , when we were in the hot-tub, I did see a major ball of meteorite fall down between the Kokanee mountains.. I didn't see the trajectory... so maybe it came from behind the mountains...it was bright and looked like it just fell straight out of the sky. I hope it wasn't flare from a lost skier.....


Although it was sunny out, we still needed a toque...in case you are wondering why Lynn's hair turned purple.

We took our chances and crossed the property owned by a large barky black lab named Rex!
We ended up doing a long long walk and I was wishing I had brought some water with me...
I have to say we worked up a little sweat!

Now here is your laugh for the weekend... This pic below is of Silky and myself with Ranjit! Isn't he a site?
Yes, it is Randy all dressed for the big Indian dinner that his wife Frangit cooked for Deb and I on Friday night...

Chef Frangit in the middle, Deb on the left and moi on the right.

Frances cooked up a storm for us... yummy samosas baked in phyllo dough, Curried shrimp, Butter chicken, and fresh home made Roti that she cooked up right before dinner. Thank-you for the nice treat Frances, and Randy!


"The Creator"

Linda's Plum Delight (Cottage Pudding topping)

Prepare your fruit filling as for a pie
eg:
Put frozen plums into pot and cook till broken down. Thicken with cornstarch or bakers starch Pour into pie plate and top with cottage pudding.

Cottage Pudding Topping. Combine:

1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar ( or splenda) or half and half
2tsp Baking Powder
!/2 tsp salt

Beat in a seperate container
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup margarine or butter melted
1 egg

Mix dry and wet with spoon till completely mixed kind of like muffins...don't overmix

PAt onto fruit in a pie pan that you have prepared like a pie filling one spoonful at a time starting at the outside and working around to inside. I often leave the centre free of crust.
Bake 350* 25-30 minutes or until topping is crisp and toothpick comes out clean.

It tastes yummy when it is warm fromt he oven with a spoonful of icecream on top!

This is an excellent way to serve up those frozen plums from the freezer, but any fruit could be used.
How about canned peaches for a peach cobbler... use a little cinnamon and sugar to top the topping!

"The Creator"

Happy Birthday Robert!

The Happy Johnsons

Abs looking all dolled up!

The Cuz's!


What a nice afternoon at Lynn's with Denise, Shayne, Robert and Mattie and of course Lynn and Bob. Lynn had baked a fat yummy home made chocolate cake that was to die for-in honour of Robert's 16th birthday , which is coming up soon. Lynn's dinner of ribs and rice and turkey and veggies along with a salad that I brought, filled everyone up...very delicious Lynn!
It was very good to see both Shayne and Robert... I think it has been a few years at least! We had a nice little visit, not to mention cute Matthew, who has the vocabulary of a law proffessor! He explained a Playstation 3 game to me in great detail leaving me wanting to get a Playstation 3 for myself! Too funny! Sweet Abby was ever helping in the kitchen which showed her maturity level for sure.
I left for home around 7:30 and made it home in record time due to all the traffic...holeeee that highway is a busy one. I was home before 9:30 and still pretty wide awake!

Today was clean up and get beds changed and laundry done , vacuuming and all of those household chores tackled. I did get out in the rain to walk Silky for a short walk on the beach, but even she wanted out of the sogginess, and opted for an early return home.

Ok, time for tea and a piece of my plum delight...
made with Linda's recipe for a cottage ( cobbler drop dough) on top of a fruit filling. I used the thawed plums and strawberries that were in my UNPLUGGED freezer. Seems like the E-Man in his infinite electrical mode, left it unplugged... probably since last Wednesday. Fortunately only the top stuff was starting to thaw...hence the plum and strawberry delight.
I'll put the recipe in a separate post.
Have a great week everyone!


"The Creator"

Gung Hay Fat Choy and The Olympics begin!

Oh yes, and Happy Valentine's Day and Watch for an unusual conjunction of the moon and several planets on the night of the 14th... Yep, we might as well tie everything into one post since I haven't been at the old blog since my big win, last weekend... I spent the week basking in the glory of being a winner!( Oh yes, and reading the Time Traveler's Wife!) Also it has been a busy week at the store and at home. Emil headed down to Victoria on Thursday to be house marm to our lovely grandaughters in case Sonia works late during the Olympics. He needed a little time away from his project in the basement, anyhow.

Gung Hay Fat Choy... or Happy Chinese New Year...t is the year of the beautiful Golden Tiger...one who brings wealth by the sounds of it.. I wish all of you a lucky and prosperous and healthy Year in 2010!

Now to the Olympics! Whew! They made it through the opening ceremonies with only a few major glitches adn protests, but nothing that took away from the spectacular special technical effects, that shed a light on British Columbia and Canada's Cultural history,especially as represented by the First Nations People . I am glad they scrapped the dogsleds that they presented at the close of the last Olympics....the Northern lights effects, whales spouting and Aborigian dancing more fairly represented BC, I thought.
The sadness was in the loss of a Georgian Athelete during the Luge trials. The news shot of the accident turned my stomach. At least there was a minute of silence at the opening ceremonies in his honour...what a way to begin the games that are already seen as a fiasco by most of British Columbians outside the lower mainland.
A tear came to my eyes when KD Lang broke into Hallelujah !
I have only been to one of her concerts, but have been a fan of hers since I first heard her ,and this rendition was her finest... She has one heck of a powerful voice, but not quite as overwhelming as the singer of the Olympic Hymn.. holy mack!

Back to KD Lang... This version of Hallelujah will be in her new four cd set called Recollection .
Oh my, I just listened to a replay of her performance on tv and again a tear came to my eyes... reminded me of her concert back in Vancouver years ago... her voice sent shivers up my spine...I am thrilled she was chosen to sing!

In the end, some of my most favourite Canadians brought out the Olympic flag... Donald Sutherland, Anne Murray, Jack Villneuve, Barbara Ann Scott and Julie Payette and Bobby Orr and Romeo whom I don't know about. I lovveeee Donald Sutherland,and was happy he was recognized!

Oops, did they forget Celine Dion?

My most favourite torch bearer was Nancy Green, but Rick Hanson, Steve Nash and the always amazing Great One, Wayne Gretzky, did Canada proud.

So with a few hitches and glitches, it all came together in the end. Were the flying circus skiers from Cirque de Soleil? I think that is a pretty Canadian group... and where were the Ukrainians in all of this?
After all,they are Canadian homesteaders... ...Oh yes, probably at home playing poker !

Then the Asians and Indo Cnadians where were they? Vancouver is more than half full of them. (I think some were disguised as Aboriginal drum beaters. Yes, I'd say they missed that whole diverse part of Richmond and Surrey. )

The wierd part was the boy floating over the wheat fields.????.. maybe he was a Cirque de Soleil performer...but who was that bluish pimple faced kid they kept showing???... hopefully not some celebrity I was supposed to recognize from the Miracle Network.

Ok, enough Olympic bashing. I hope the games continue and that Canada wins lots of gold, and for a legacy, I pray our kids and their kids aren't still paying for these 2010 games in 20 years. Oh yes, I said enuf O bashing. The Fiddle playing was awesome too !

What will they do for the closing ceremonies????? I guess we will have to wait!


Meanwhile, have a Happy Valentines Day!
+
Gung Hay Fat Choy!

GRRRRRRR........

"The Creator"

Da Big Winner...is...

Here are a few preliminary pics from the acceptance festivities at Safeway today.
This is the store manager, Norm



My award...a trip for two to the Dominican ...perhaps Punta Cana...

The magnificent bouquet of flowers they presented me with

Last but not least, my huge cake which we shared all around.
Much to my surprise I had a little crowd there to share in my happiness... my sister Joyce, my sister-in-law, Lori, and her mom and dad, Ron and Phoebe, and of course, Emil , my sweets, who took all these pics! Thank-you all for making a special effort on my behalf, and thank-you to all who congratulated me and said their thoughts would be with me today when they couldn't make it.
The back of the cake was one huge slab of chocolate... and the cake was vanilla, all done up very neat with the poker chips and the poker hands...very cute.. Thank-you so much, Canada Safeway and their promotional group, Promotavate, and the supplier of the trip...Redtag. A huge thank-you to all my sweet rellies and friends who came to support me today... I wish that I could take everyone on the trip with us! We'll try to give everyone a heads up of our dates, then maybe others can book a trip there at the same time.... It will be a party for many reasons!
Love you all, and it was the best day of 2010 for me!
"The Creator"

Sat. Feb 6th, 11:00 am

Mark the date on your calender, as this will be my big moment of stardom at the Nelson Safeway store. This is the date that has been arranged to make the grand presentation to me! ( and Emil)...Yes, everyone, he has opted to come on the trip with me! So if you aren't doing anything and you want ot see me cry, then come on out to Nelson Safeway this Saturday and see what its all about. I'd love to see a few familiar faces amongst all of those cameras and media people!
I have no idea what it will be like, but hey, maybe they will give out free doughnuts and coffee or something.. who knows???
Sorry my blog was thin over the weekend. I cooked a big Chinese dinner for our friends from across the lake, on Saturday night. After dinner we got into a couple of games of Euchre and then it was late to bed. We had fun and I think I am catching on to Euchre finally.
Sunday was a busy day with clearing up the main side of the basement. Emil has visions of getting drywall hung in there before the end of the week, so we had to move everything away from the walls and then cover everything with plastic that couldn't be moved . That was an all morning project, and half the afternoon. Randy and Frances came over for Happy hour and then back to laundry and bed. I have to say that the new sheets we ordered from Costco are devine to sleep under. My pillows came today...Yay! I have woken up with a sore neck about three nights out of four ,due to my very mashed ,flat pillows. I have a knack for killing them whilst I sleep. In one year, my $60.00 Obus form pillow is a bag of dust particles and a hardened bar of foam underneath...enough to make your neck cry out in pain... I totally flattened it!
Okey dokey...Have a great week... I sure intend to!


"The Creator"

Wanye and Derrick are the winning guessers!!!!

Both of them did a little googling around to find that my surprise is not so secret if you want to find it out!
Lucky me had my name drawn by Safeway in their recent Texas holdem contest and I have won a trip for two to the Dominican Republic. Yes that is the DR that is attached to Haiti in case you were wondering. More details to come when I get them! Have a great day!
Sent on the TELUS Mobility network with BlackBerry from Bea

1 in 1,561,267

Thats what my odds were... Stay tuned to my blog for news of my extraordinarily lucky day!

Giggle giggle!

"The Creator"

Vancouver Fog in High Definition...a Time Lapse Video

A friend sent this to me from You tube... a video that captures some of Vancouver over a period of time... done to an upbeat musical score - it is quite interesting. Just double click in the black area of the video to the right and it will open a new window at You tube . From there you can click the grey arrow to the right to see it full screen. It is worth looking at. Now I am going to go back and see the one of the Grand Canyon... Enjoy!
Well, the Grand Canyon was good, but the typhoon coming in at Hong Kong was even better...especially if you watch right to the end when the city lights turn on... very cool...

"The Creator"

Costa Rican Coleslaw and Fahitas

On Saturday night I decided to make that yummy coleslaw with the whole head of cilantro in it... I call it Costa Rican Coleslaw. I took so many pics that you will have to look at the web albumn
to see them all. Here of course, I've loaded them up in exactly the opposite order, but am too tired to exchange them all, so bear with me and you'll get the gist of it.

Here is the finshed beef fahita and coleslaw. Yum... Serve with grated marble cheese, sour cream, salsa, chopped tomatoes and guacamole if you have it. You can also do chopped lettuce, but I figured that the coleslaw did the trick.
You can heat the tortillas in the nuker one by one, or do a pile of them in tinfoil in the oven. Don't overcook them or you'll have tortilla chips!





Rolling it up is important... flip up the bottom of the tortilla and then roll it. That way the filling stays inside.

No quacamole, but here it is... a layer of grated cheese on the hot tortilla, then the pepper, beef and onion fahita mixture, topped with tomaotes

I marinate the meat in a half can of beer and also some lime juice and all my spices , for about a half hour or so before beginning to cook.

A squirt of lime on the beef or chicken mixture at the end of cooking gives it a little pizazz. I use lots of tex mex spices, fahita mix spice, and anything else I have around the kitchen. This time I added a hot sauce and that brought the heat factor up a notch or two.

I cook the veggies first in the wok. I added plenty of chopped garlic too. Then I empty the veggies out into a bowl and throw in the chicken or beef... this was beef from a little striploin steak.
Once the meat was cooked , I added the veggies back into the meat. Usually I cut my red peppers in rounds but slipped up and made them chunky this time... still tasted good. Always check for saltiness...usually that is the spice I am lacking in the meat.

Here is my finished colesaw. Yummy! The dressing is nothing more than vinegar, oil , salt and sugar and garlic and a dash of hotsauce. The key , once again is to add suficient salt. This brings out the flavour of the cilantro and helps soften the cabbage. i used a bag of coleslaw mix to make my life easy peezy.

This is a cute little Ikea chopping board than came in my stocking. I used it to do most of my chopping. Here are the green onions getting chopped up.

here is my coleslaw with the chopped cucumber, tomatoe and cilantro. I went on to add chopped red pepper to the colslaw as well.

This is the nifty double bladed chopper that comes witht he chopping board. The chopper is good for herbs and a small dice.

This is the culmination of my fahita night. I have a new understanding of the word "Trajectory!"

The salsa bowl slipped off the counter and when it smacked ontot he floor, it produced a 360* radius of spewed salsa all around my kitchen... on every cabinet, on the baseboards, the rug, on top of my stove, and ever place unimaginable! Silky did her darndest to help me out but wound up hacking and sneezing from the jalapenos in the salsa. She gave up on being miss floor cleaner.

Two hours later I finshed cleaning every cupboard, my stove, my dishwasher, and anything else down low that I don't even usually see. It was a mess and looks much better now, but I'd recommend not to ever try it!

"The Creator"

Ray's Kayak...9 years in the making...

This a labour of love so to speak...Ray L. has spent nine years cooking up this baby in his basement or shop and now it is done... a piece fit for a museum...but he intends to put it out on the lake at some point. We'll be watching for it. Thanks Ray for sending the photos my way...

 

 

 

 


"The Creator"

Amarylis Blooms!

 
Here's my beautiful amarylis ,at various stages of bloom...note they aren't in the right order. Do you have any tips to keep them so they bloom next year?
 
 
 


"The Creator"

Beddingtons.com

Beddingtons.com
This is a Canadian web store that sells loads of lovely looking bedding and towels. The shipping is very reasonable and is actually free if your order is over $150.00. I might have to check this out a little more myself!


"The Creator"

Taking it easy at Canon Beach

Our lovely hotel room at the Surfsand.Note you can see the soaker tub from the livingroom when the privacy screen is open. From the tub, you have the view down below...of the Pacific ocean and huge beach.

Nice gas fireplace and flatscreen tv. In fact there was a flatscreen in each of the three rooms.
We had a microwave, coffeepot, fridge and a toaster..perfect for our little breakfasts.
I liked the idea of having a coffee and looking out at the ocean...oh yes, I guess we can look out at the lake...but it isn't quite the same!

We enjoyed the complimentary turndown service too... those are little Ovation chocolates on our bed! I heard on the radio today, that some hotel in England is introducing human "bedwarmers"...employees dressed in complete suits who jump right into your bed and warm it up for five minutes while you brush your teeth or whatever...ha-ha...The bedwarmer person probably goes home exhausted and half frozen, then jumps under an electric blanket...

A bit dark, but you get the idea...big waves, loads of beach for miles in every direction. In the old days, the beach was the main highway for horse and buggy and for early cars. The Surfsand hotel was one of the first ones built on the beach, and also the first one to claim the beach in front of the hotel as private property. The state Governor of the day stepped in and created a law that gave the cars right of way to driving on the beach. To hotels, like the Surfsand, they took the legislation to mean that cars could drive on the damp part of the beach, but the dry sandy sand in front of their hotel was private and for their guests only. Another stink grew and once again it was thrown back to government , who eventually declared all of Oregon's beaches public...on all parts and none could be owned. I don't think it ever harmed the hotel's business, judging by the size of it and how they have totally renovated it since we were last there in the mid nineties.

"The Creator"

Haiti Relief

Haiti Relief

CBC Canada has this page set up so you can choose how you'd like to donate and to which agency. Funds will be matched by the govenment of Canada for any donations made. No limit now...so pick a charity and send money. They were able to pull out people that were alive today,after five days of being trapped.
Also, the Kootenay group of teenagers with Father Jim Reimer are at the Canadian embassy now, awaiting a flight out of Haiti. It was so touching watching the news forecast about it. The kids and members of their group took $2500.00 and bought 4500 pounds of rice which they distributed to needy staving people. When the rice ran out, they line continued on and on and this broke the hearts of so many of these Kootenay kids. It will be a memory engraved in their brains for the rest of their lives.


"The Creator"

Sunny Saturday!

"The Creator"