Valentine's Day Guide

The day of celebrating the ones you love has become quite mass marketed these days but you can still enjoy the prick of Cupid's arrow without the help of Hallmark or a large bouquet of roses...

My personal favourite way to spend Valentine's Day is enjoying time together and making each other something special rather than purchasing the common V-Day gifts, here are a few idea's for your sweetie if you're feeling crafty...

Home made chocolate dipped strawberries

These babies aren't as complicated to make as you may think:

All you need to do is get a pint of strawberries (or fruit of your choosing)
Bring a pot of water to a light simmer (do not boil or you will burn the chocolate)
Place a heat proof bowl atop the pot that fits sitting just above the water
Add chocolate chips or bakers chocolate (chopped) and continuously to stir until it melts completely
Lower the heat and dip the strawberries into the melted chocolate
Place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and refrigerate them until the chocolate hardens
You can find a cute box (the loonie store's usually have small boxes or tins that work well)
Place each strawberry inside a cupcake liner and inside the box or container and viola,

A delicious home made gift for your sweetheart!

Red, Red Wine

You can pair the strawberries with a nice wine as well.

 One of my favourites is Ripassa (an italian wine) which you can buy for around $17 at most liquor stores but Lindeman's is another good option at $11 a bottle.

Dinner a la Maison (at Home)

I also like making a special dinner to share in the comfort and privacy of our home!

One of my personal favourite cuisine's is Italian and my favourite go to girl for recipes is Giada De Laurentis - check out the link below for her quick and easy

Lemon Spagetti

I like to serve it with shrimp, pan fried with butter, extra virgin olive oil and italian seasoning.

For an extra special touch set the table and add some candles for a centrepiece!

Scrapbooking

In place of buying a card from the drugstore I've taken to Scrapbooking.

 A few years ago I started a special Scrapbook that I filled with a few pages that I created myself and gave it to D with the intention of adding to it every year. 

It's a nice way to show you put thought and effort into something and also keep it more personal yet it's something you can both look back on and treasure for years to come!

Michaels craft store is a haven for scrap booking supplies but you can usually find great paper and accessories at Wal Mart or your local Dollar Store too!

Make a Mixed Tape (CD)

Kick It Oldschool ... or at least semi old school since cassette tapes are no longer around and create a mixed CD of music for your loved one, it can be romantic songs including one's that may hold meaning to you both or simply music that you know they will enjoy.

If you are above and beyond using CD's then you can also create a playlist for their Ipod.

The bottom line is not to stress out about making it "perfect" after all it's not about what you give or receive but about stopping to take the time to appreciate each other.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Painfully Smooth

A friend of mine passed off a product to me recently because it was too harsh on her skin (she is very sensitive) so being one who is always up for testing out new things I accepted it graciously and this morning decided to try it out for myself.

The product was Smooth Away, I'm sure you've all seen the informercials for it; the small hand held pad that promises to get rid of unwanted hair and exfoliate your skin at the same time, no razor required. It also says it's "Easy, safe and painless hair removal" that "works wonders on sensitive areas."

Sounds too good to be true right? But I bit the bullet to test it out for myself and perhaps being a little too gullible to it's claim my decided test area was my armpits.

I would first just like to state that as somebody who enjoys camping I thought this product would be a genius invention to bring along for those trips, who wants to mess with razors and creams when your camping? Especially when you are roughing it and water is not available as a luxury at your disposal (okay I admit I hardly rough it when camping...but to me a weekend without running water is justified as exactly that!)

So I buffed my pits... stopped and checked them out after a few "gentle circular motions" and I noticed a small change in the hair to skin ratio so I continued... I did so for another few minutes when I started to feel the pad was tugging at my skin uncomfortably and so I stopped to check it out again... for the most part the hair was gone but there was a small patch that seemed to be impervious to my attempts... I put the pad away and decided to call it quits as I didn't want to irritate my skin any further...apparently it was too late!

Mere minutes afterwards my armpits felt like they were on fire, like the worst razor burn I've ever had!!!

I tried cooling them with water, smothering them with my Vaseline Cocoa Butter lotion, lathering up with D's soothing after shave cream and finally my Intensive Repair Hemp hand cream...  I am now sitting with a towel wrapped around myself as I cannot bear to have fabric of any kind touching the skin under my arms, if you find yourself in the same predicament I will tell you that the latter of my efforts to sooth was the winner and that hand cream is from the Body Shop... but I hope that instead you will all learn from my mistake.

Yours Truly,

Smooth(ish) Pits

Revised Beef Soup Recipe

Upon finishing my newest kitchen creation I felt it was necessary to revise the recipe for my favourite soup, so here goes:

Ingredients

Stewing Beef

Beef bouillon or stock (2 cups stock or 2 cups water with added bouillon)

1 Tbsp butter

1/2 yellow onion, diced

1 Tbsp diced garlic (I buy mine already diced)

4 red potatoes cubed

3 large carrots sliced

1 cup red wine (I used Lindemans Cabernet Sauvignon)

1 Tsp smoked paprika

1 Tbsp worcestershire

1 Tsp sugar

salt and pepper

Cube the stewing beef and add it to a dutch oven or soup pot with extra virgin olive oil and butter, brown the beef in small batches (transferring browned cubes onto a plate)

With reserved e.v.o.o. and butter cook onion and garlic for a few minutes.

Add the meat back to the pot and pour in your water & bouillon (or stock), wine and seasonings. Cook over low heat for 1 1/2 to 2 hours.

At that time add the potatoes and carrots and turn the heat up a bit.

Sometimes I will also add chick peas but this time I didn't have any on hand.

Allow the soup to simmer another half hour.

Remember to keep the lid on the pot while it is cooking.

Trust me it's delicious,

Serve it with some toasted french bread or sourdough, YUM!

Dinner Delights

Today has not been an overly productive day, I'm at home with my little man who happens to be running a fever, so between temperature checks and pushing him to drink his fluids I have not accomplished much else; however at this very moment on my cook top sits a beautiful dutch oven pot with it's contents simmering away and wafting their delicious fragrance my way.

I have blogged before about my beef soup so I won't bore you with the details again, I will however add that my purchase of a dutch oven has brought that recipe from great to wonderfully amazing, mouth watering, to die for great! 

(I swear, it's that much better!)

And I have also since found out that adding some red wine with the stock makes for a wonderful blend and deeply intensifies the taste! 

In my personal opinion everyone should own a dutch oven, I purchased mine at good ol' Canadian Tire (on sale for half the price!) 

It's the Kitchenaid version below which is the 3.5qt

This little pot has not only brought me added soup enjoyment but I've also made a delicious roast as well as a bacon and potato frittata.

The options are endless my friends!

So while I sit back watching my creation, content in knowing that once hubby comes home we can enjoy this savoury dish together, I feel that (aside from my child's health and wellbeing concerns of course) maybe it was a pretty productive day!