March Break

March Break is almost at an end.
There were a lot of changes and challenges for the little man, but also a lot of fun to be had. I wanted to make sure that even though things might not be going as smoothly as they should in some aspects of his life, there is always some fun, some adventure and some goodness in other areas.
A while back, few months I believe, Little Man said he would like to learn how to cook.
I said ok. You find something that you would like to try and we will attempt to make it happen.
A few weeks go by and there was some epic flu and just other life things that happened but we managed to create something pretty awesome in that kitchen.
He found a recipe for a roast on Ricardo's website. Fair warning. It is in french. So it turned out to be a lesson for both of us.
Before with all the spices rubbed into the meat.

After,

Not opening the oven door for two hours was torture for us!

I cannot find the recipe for the carrots, but they were filled with awesome!

The carrots were sliced thing, placed in chicken broth and brought to a boil.
Then they were left to simmer until most of the juice were sucked into the carrots.
Then we melted some butter and honey over the carrots.
When they were coated, we took them out of the sauce pan and sprinkled chives over them.
They tasted great!

Last but not least, every great meal needs some sort of kick ass dessert.
Cheesecake!
Not just any cheesecake, Peanut Butter Cheesecake!
We found the recipe in an early 90s Taste of Home magazine.


We also had some adventures outside of the house.
We experienced the Biodome and the Planetarium of Montreal.

It was amazing that we could see all these different ecosystems under one roof! Then a 3 minute jaunt and we can explore space!

The Tropical Rain Forest:


They have some strange creatures in that Rain Forest

Laurentian Maple Forest


The Gulf of St. Lawerence and Labrador Coast



And the Sub-Atlantic Islands


Then we ventured into Outer Space,

In incredibly comfy bean bag chairs.


Such a great day!!!

We also decided to explore a bit of Montreal and search for comic books.
We forgot to bring the camera, but here is a few of our efforts we can share:

and to top it all off,
the first installment of my Super Villain Sock club arrived!!

The Joker!
It was an excellent March Break.

Task Complete

It has been a little while since I completed a sweater.
I am thrilled with the results.
Men's V Neck Sweater!

Hubs is starting to try it on,


It fits!

Don't let the face fool you. Hubs assures me he loves it. I shouldn't have told him I'm going to post it online.
You will have to excuse the poor lighting. Taking pictures is not my strong suit.

Now little man seems to have taken an interest in my knitting. He as actually requested a sweater. He has not done this before. I have a few thoughts: He is finally comfortable enough around me; He has never really noticed what all that string on my desk amounts to before.
Either way, I'm happy.

I'm off to cross stitch and watch the latest episode of Pretty Little Liars.

Breakdown

My Breakdown socks are complete and shipped to who I hope will be a very happy wearer.
Is that a word?


I made some excellent progress on Hubs' sweater:


My new transportable project are a pair of socks from the Op-Art Sock book by Stephanie Van Der Linden, Fibonacci.


This is what I have been listening to as I do all this knitting,

Egg Things

So......
I created something pretty cool in my kitchen the other day.
For once, I actually photographed all of the steps I took instead of just before and after shots.
I have been reading on various blogs and Facebook about breakfast snacks.
I thought to myself, well hell! I can do that!
I had some extra dough left over from an apple pie I made,


So I rolled that out,

I cheated. This is stuff I purchased from the grocery store.

Then I cut out circles with a cup and fitted them into a muffin tray.


The goodness that fills up those little cups are the following:
Eggs!


Bacon because everything tastes better with bacon!


Cheese!

The bag labelled that taco cheese. I say it goes with everything.

Big ass mushrooms!


Oh! Found celery!

Might as well add that in there as well.

So, first I scramble up my eggs,
add in my super secret ingredient,

Not so secret anymore.
I mix in some cream and the cheese in my egg mixture, and while I am doing that, I have heated up my fry pan.
I have chopped up my bacon and put that into the pan.
Then I chop up my celery and mushrooms. When the bacon is cooked, I toss in the veggies.

Looks pretty eh?

When that is all fried up, I add it to the egg mixture,


Then I attempt to carefully spoon that mixture into my pastry cups. Note the key word, attempt.


Then they get popped into the oven until they look done.

I was surprised at how they puffed up. That must be the baking soda.

At this point, I must say that muffin tin is the best thing ever. It is a Westin brand I purchased ages ago at a Walmart. No matter how messy it gets, I can always get the goodies out of the tin with hardly any trouble. Which is great. I am a very messy kitchen person.

The end result:


Not bad eh?

The Three Faces of Joce...

When I woke up to get ready for work Monday night, I scared the bejeebus out of me!
I was brushing me teeth, glanced in the mirror was like What?!?!?


Then I was a little scared because I have no idea how this came about,


Then I was angry because this eye would have come in handy for my Halloween costume!


Maybe the eye thing came about because I am stressing about whether I will have enough yarn to finish off this pair of socks.


All I know is that my eye does not hurt, my vision is not affected and I have become somewhat of a conversation starter today in my travels.
I think it is time to call it a night. While Hubs is using the snow blower to clear the driveway, I have an episode of Agents of Shield to watch. I am super excited as well because Stan "The Man" Lee is a guest star!!!!

Night everyone.

The Truth is Out There

I have been watching a lot of sci-fi programs lately. Mainly Ancient Aliens.
I like the idea that there are other life forms in distant galaxies. Why should humans be the only living creatures in the vast existence.
I know I am not the only one that thinks along these lines because we have all of the movies, paintings, documentaries, television programs and comics that fuel our imaginations.
Remember X-Files?

That was pretty popular.
Gillian Anderson is still a widely sought celebrity for panels at comic conventions.
Comic Books have been supporting alien theories in every company from the Green Lantern, Superman, Martian Manhunter, Transformers, and so on and so on.
People love this concept.
That is why I started reading comic books in the first place. For the most part, the stories are amazing. Most of the creative plot lines came along well before all of these superheros became mainstream and franchise moguls.
Which reminds me, let me show you my latest acquisition:

In another lifetime, I purchased these prints at a Toronto Comic Convention. I had finally found the time and money to have them framed properly. Now I have them hanging above my computer so I can look at them whenever I want!

It hasn't only been ancient aliens and comic books. I have also been knitting up a storm with two of my constant companions.


One down, one to go!

On The Mend

We all succumbed to the flu bug that has been going around in our neck of the woods, even Reno.
The cure was to sleep as much as possible and keep drinking, beverage of your choice.
Who knew the human body could produce that much fluid?
I have to stock up on more facial tissue when I run my errands today.

Since going outside was out of the question, I began my marathon of Supernatural and made progress on quite a few projects.
I finished My Cup of Tea socks,


Made a fair dent in my knit a long mystery mittens,


Note all the sparkles! This should keep safe at night.

The yarn I ordered to make Hubs a sweater arrived,

So I began his V-Neck sweater.

It is actually a nice dark blue colour.

I even made muffins.

They are Cranberry Apple Breakfast muffins.
I used my food chopper and diced up a package of cranberries, 2 apples and followed the recipe I found on Allrecipes.
They may not be pretty but they must be good. Only about four remain.

Now it is time to tackle the day.
I should probably get dressed.
Not everyone needs to see my stylish Halloween jammies.