Ariannland

Lazy Saturday

2012-02-18T14:43:00.002-08:00

When we first got married, we would sleep in and make a big breakfast every Saturday morning, and then just hang out and enjoy being together the rest of the day. It seems like things have gotten pretty busy lately, and we haven't had a proper Saturday morning in a really long time! So this morning, we decided dust of the waffle maker and make waffles! I used the ATK Buttermilk Waffles recipe, which calls for folding egg whites into a thick, lumpy batter, with a little cornmeal added to make nice, crispy waffles.

We paired the waffles with sliced strawberries and peaches, and some whipped cream. Now, I didn't want to make just boring old plain whipped cream, so I threw a bit of vanilla sugar and some Amaretto cream liqueur. Oh my gosh, that was a good idea! Mmmmmm. Perfect Saturday morning.

Bright Spots

2012-02-05T20:57:00.001-08:00

This week wasn't a whole lot of fun, but I found a few little cheerful things to brighten things up. I've been craving chips all weekend, but didn't get around to buying any. I finally decided that mozza sticks with my summer marinara sauce would do the trick. They're super easy - get some string cheese and cut each one in half (or, if you don't have string cheese, take regular mozza and cut it down to size. Dredge them all in flour, dip them in egg, and cover them in panko and spices (I used parsley, but anything delicious will do the trick). I put them on a baking sheet covered in parchment paper and stuck them in the freezer while the oven was warming up. Depending how long they're in the freezer, 8-10 minutes at 350 degrees does the trick. And voila! Gooey, delicious, cheesy awesomeness.

And while I ate my yummy mozza sticks, I admired my pretty little mini daffodils! Acutally, they're narcissus - or should that be narcissi? Either way, they're so happy! Huzzah for the little bright spots on not-awesome days. :)

Experimental Food: Raspberry-Citrus Chocolate Cake

2012-01-28T15:49:00.003-08:00

It was Dad's birthday yesterday, and he asked for something chocolate for dessert. I wanted to go with something lighter - not overly heavy or sweet. Inspired by Pinterest, I decided on a chocolate layer cake with citrus and raspberry accents.

I used the chocolate sheet cake recipe from the ATK Healthy Family Cookbook. It's a pretty basic chiffon-style recipe: melt chocolate, cocoa and some instant coffee with boiling water; whisk in sugar, eggs, vanilla, and oil; sift in flour, baking soda and salt. It was lovely - fluffy and moist, with a really great chocolate flavour.

For the filling, I made a basic pastry cream and mixed in fresh raspberries and tangerine slices. I think this was my favourite part - it was so yummy!

I slathered the whole thing in whipped cream, and then decorated it with fresh raspberries and various citrus: blood oranges, lemons, limes, and tangerines. The juices and oils from the oranges really lent a lot of flavour to the cake, so it had a nice chocolate-orange flavour.

Finally, I served it up with a scoop of homemade raspberry sherbet. I adapted the recipe to use agave syrup, since I was watching the sugar levels in this dessert, so I added extra raspberries and lemon juice to balance the flavour of the syrup. I think if I were to do it again, I would also add a bit more milk.

Raspberry Sherbet
Adapted from The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz
Makes: 1 quart
4 1/2 c. (450 g) raspberries, frozen
2 c. whole milk
3/4 c. blue agave syrup
2 tsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice

1) Put the raspberries in a blender or food processor, along with the milk and sugar. Puree until smooth.
2) Strain the mixture through a fine sieve to remove the seeds.
3) Stir in the lemon juice.
4) Freeze the mixture in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s directions.

The intense tartness of the sherbet made a nice complement to the fluffy, moist chocolatey goodness of the cake. I would definitely make this again!

Happy birthday, Dad!

Experimental Food: Tart!

2012-01-21T23:55:00.002-08:00

I've been really enjoying cookbooks lately, particularly David Lebovitz's recipes. I had so much fun experimenting with pears at Christmas that I decided to keep going and try out the Pear Tart with Brown Butter, Rum, and Pecans from Ready for Dessert. It was a reasonably involved process - I started by putting together the tart shell, which had to chill in the freezer for an hour before baking. The custard base, made by mixing eggs, flour, sugar, salt, brown butter, and toasted pecans, also needed to chill before assembly. Once that was taken care of, I layered brown sugar and rum-soaked pear slices in the pre-baked tart shell and then poured the custard over top before sliding it into the oven.

Once it cooled, I slipped it out of the tart pan, and voila! It looked beautiful!

I decided to make the rich vanilla frozen yogurt from The Perfect Scoop (3 c. greek-style yogurt, 3/4 c. sugar, and vanilla) to accompany the pastry. I opted to use about 1/3 regular greek yogurt and 2/3 fat-free greek yogurt, and it turned out beautifully. I had a few vanilla beans I've been itching to use, so I omitted the extract and scraped a vanilla pod in instead. The flecks were so pretty in the ice cream!

(This stuff is thick! This is how it came out of the machine!)

Derek had a few friends over, so I used them as guinea pigs. I think they liked it!

The yogurt was delicious! I will definitely be making it on a regular basis. The tart was good, but not my favourite, although sometimes things grow on me over time. The pears were lovely, but I think I would have liked a deeper flavour in the crust (maybe brown sugar instead of white?), and perhaps something like a sprinkling of cinnamon for a bit more colour. I had so much fun trying out something new, though, and I can't wait to try out a fresh berry tart in the summer!

Tea and Sauce

2012-01-19T22:58:00.000-08:00

Today, my husband met me downtown after work and we went onan adventure! We started at the games store, where Derek spent his Christmasmoney on a new game that he’s really excited about. Then we meandered up thestreet and found a TAIWAN TEA SHOP called La Tea Ah! It’s not easy to find good bubble tea here,and the owner made my passion fruit green tea with coconut jellies perfectly.The shop also serves a few dishes, and I’m hoping their beef noodles is just as nice as the tea. It's close enough to work that I should be able to skip over for lunch sometimes, so I'll definitely be frequenting this establishment.

(On a side note, if you look closely at my hat,

you can see where a kid stepped on it on the playground

when I was walking under the jungle gym!)

We spent some time looking in little shops and thrift stores, and then used a groupon for Sauce, a "Canadian fusion" restaurant in downtown Victoria. We'd driven past it lots, but it had never really caught my eye. I'm so glad we took this opportunity, though, because we had so much fun there! We started with the artisan plate, featuring local meats and cheeses, mushrooms and olives, roasted garlic, and red onion jam. The jam surprised me - usually I wouldn't really like that sort of thing, but it was lovely - mellow and sweet. I would love to try it with their phyllo-wrapped baked brie.

For the main courses, Derek ordered the beef short ribs in Thai bbq sauce with a panko-crusted onion ring and fantastic parmesan-garlic smashed potatoes. So delicious! I ordered the sesame tuna steak with bok choy and bean sprouts, served on a bed of coconut jasmine rice. I'm a sucker for perfect bean sprouts, and these were awesome!

In some ways Sauce is kind of like 5th St. Bar and Grill - it uses local ingredients in fresh and creative ways and has a similar feel - but it has its own charm. I think I'd like to go back and try some of the other things on the menu sometime. It seems like a really versatile place, with a $10 lunch menu; delicious, generously-portioned dinner options; a nice selection of appies; an extensive drink menu; and a killer desserts. We didn't get to try any of those sweets, but I really like that they come in two sizes - you can get a small serving if you like! And because it's a bar as well as a restaurant, Sauce stays open until 1:00 am, which is unusual here in Victoria! The service was excellent (the manager held the door open for us as we were leaving!).

On the way home, we stopped for groceries and now I'm dreaming of ways to use passionfruit and persimmon (not necessarily together). A day doesn't get much more perfect than that! Sigh.

Snow Day Indulgence

2012-01-18T13:34:00.001-08:00

We have a snow day today! I decided that celebratory cinnamon buns were in order, but I didn't want to wait for a few hours for the dough to rise. I wanted cinnamon buns for breakfast, dang it! I did some quick looking around, and found a quick cinnamon buns recipe in the quickbreads section of my America's Test Kitchen cookbook. They took under an hour from start to finish and only made 8 rolls (a definite bonus if you're stuck at home with just the two of you and the landlords upstairs)!

The recipe called for cloves as well as cinnamon, which added nice colour to the recipe. I think, if I make these again, that I will reduce the sugar amounts for the filling and add pecans and/or raisins or apples.

The finished product! They tasted heavenly with the (VERY liberally applied) cream cheese glaze. We took them upstairs and had a little party with our landlords. Yum!

Winter Warmth

2012-01-17T19:24:00.001-08:00

I started blogging again over Christmas and rediscovered how much I really enjoy sharing the little things that make me happy. I decided that I wanted to spend a little more time here, and today feels like a good day for it.

We have SNOW! I hate driving here when there's snow, but it makes everything pretty and so much brighter! For a former prairie girl, that's a big deal during sunless winters here. Winter skies are always so pretty against the snow! I love walking out in the morning, or home in the evening, to see all of the muted winter colours.

We have frosty lace all over our sidwalk! It's not quite as beautiful as frosty lace on windows, but I still like it.

The roads are pretty scary here when it snows, but the trees are so pretty! Our snow is very wet, and it clings to the trees kind of like hoar frost.

I've been excited about January because spring comes so soon here - sometimes we have blossoms starting to wake up already! I finally saw a few this week, just in time for the poor things to be covered with snow. That's okay - they'll just come out to play a little later.

Warm food always feels so nice during cold weather, so I decided to make soup! I started with a bunch of vegetables from around the house: acorn squash, carrots, celery, leeks, and potatoes, and then added a couple of handfuls of pot barley for good measure.

I cooked them all up in turkey broth from our Christmas turkey, and added some bay leaves, sage, parsley, garlic, a bit of mustard powder, pepper, and salt.

And I ended up with nice, hot, economical lunches for the week! Yum!

Experimental Food: Maple-Bacon Ice Cream Cake; or Happy Birthday, Dr. Awesome!

2012-01-08T01:15:00.000-08:00

The party is over, and the cake was a success!

For his birthday this year, Derek planned "Epic Meat Time" - a bunch of guys, each bringing some kind of meat to share, hanging out at our place. It was pretty spectacular; our counters were lined with everything from homemade jerky, to pulled pork, to chicken satay, to steaks the size of my head. And they ate it all! Crazy.

I usually make Derek an ice cream cake, and I decided this year to put my new ice cream maker to good use. In honour of the party, I put together a maple-bacon ice cream cake, with a pecan crust and maple caramel drizzled over the top, sprinkled with candied bacon. I figured that even if it was a little more weird than delicious, it was worth the contribution to the party.

I started with a pecan crust (I used the Joy of Cooking recipe), and then scooped David Lebovitz's candied bacon ice cream for the first layer, pressing it into the pan and smoothing it with a spatula. I was pleasantly surprised by this recipe; the base is amazing enough to stand as its own ice cream recipe, and the candied bacon really complements the brown sugar and cinnamon-rum flavours. It's not my personal favourite, but Derek loves it.

I let the first layer set in the freezer for about an hour and then added the maple ice cream (also by David Lebovitz). It'd really like to try this with walnuts; maple walnut is one of my favourite flavours, and this is a lovely maple ice cream. I had just churned it today, so I let this layer chill a little bit longer, about 2 hours, before removing the cake from the springform pan.

Usually I make ice cream cakes DQ-style, with an oreo crust and a filling of oreo crumbs and chewy hot fudge filling. I didn't want to overpower the flavours and textures for this cake, so I decided to just drizzle the top with a maple caramel sauce and garnish with candied bacon. The first batch of the caramel sauce thickened really quickly and went grainy, so I made a second batch, reducing the cooking time, adding a tiny bit of light corn syrup to keep it smooth, and making sure not to stir too much or scrape out the pot at the end.

By the way, if you haven't had the good fortune to experience the goodness of candied bacon, it is magical. You take nice, thick bacon and sprinkle it with brown sugar, and put it in the oven, and it goes from this:

to this! I wasn't sure this would be a good idea - candy and meat? - but trust me, this is delicious:

The end result doesn't look spectacular, but it went fast! Derek says it threw a hush over the room as everyone ate. There is one piece left in the freezer for Derek to enjoy tomorrow. Happy birthday, love!

Happy New Year, Mennonite Style

2012-01-01T01:44:00.000-08:00

I remember my mom making new year's "cookies" when I was younger. Portzelky are raisin fritters (basically homemade doughnuts), and they're delicious! When Derek and I got married I decided that they would become a new year's tradition for us. I missed making them last year because we were travelling, but I decided that we must have them this year! The new recipe I used from Mennonite Girls Can Cook was great!

My oil temperature ended up being a little too high, so my portzelky were a little doughy on the inside. I finished them off in the oven as a quick fix.

Derek obligingly rolled the fritters in cinnamon sugar. I cut off his head in this picture, but really, we're only interested in the food, right?

The finished product! It's a good thing I only make these once a year, because they are NOT a good idea to keep around the house - I would eat them ALL.

Happy New Year, everyone! May the year ahead be filled with the joy of many blessings, and the assurance of peace.

Experimental Food: Coconut-Saffron Ice Cream

2012-01-01T01:25:00.002-08:00

*Update: When I first wrote this post, I was a bit disappointed in the ice cream - it wasn't what I was expecting, and I didn't really like it at first. However, a couple of weeks later I ate some of what was left in the freezer, and was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked it. This time, I appreciated that it wasn't very sweet, and I really liked the complexity of the flavours together. I guess this was one recipe that just had to grow on me. I think I'll be making this one again.

I've been thinking about what to make for the inaugural run of my new ice cream maker, and Indian food for dinner with our friends upstairs helped me make my choice: David Lebovitz's quick coconut ice cream with saffron.

I dropped by the grocery store to pick up some palm sugar. I'd never used it before, but it's kind of like cross between those little white sugar cubes and a light brown sugar. It looks like this:

I was a little worried that it wouldn't work, but my ice cream maker magically turned the custard from this:

to this:

Lovely, creamy ice cream goodness. The recipe itself isn't my favourite; the saffron flavour was a little strong, and I thought it could be sweeter. I started to get used to it as I indulged in a scoop, though, and I think that maybe with the right pairing (as in Mary Mary Culinary's Coconut Ice Cream with Passionfruit Caramel?) it could be quite nice.

Regardless of the recipe itself, I was thrilled with the results. I made ice cream at home!! This might become a new obsession...

Bright idea of the day:

2012-01-01T01:10:00.002-08:00

I use whiteboard markers to write little messages on my mirror: things to remember, encouraging quotations, notes to my husband, etc. Today I went to store some leftover coconut milk in a mason jar (they make for GREAT food storage) and wanted a way to date the jar without using a sticky label. Voila! Whiteboard marker on glass - simple and effective.

Foxy!

2011-12-29T23:30:00.000-08:00

We finally went to the Blue Fox today! We've been meaning to go forever and just didn't get around to it until now. A good friend of ours was in town for the holidays, and we thought it would be a good place to meet up. It was delicious! Derek ordered Huevos Rancheros, full of all kinds of good things like tomatoes and avocados and beans and tasty, tasty giant hashbrowns.

I orderered Oranges del Sol - perfect, delicious, lovely:

It reminded me of the orange buns I make at Christmas (like cinnamon rolls, but with orange and coconut filling and a sour cream orange glaze). I think I'll definitely be attempting to recreate the magic at home.

Warm fuzzies

2011-12-28T00:34:00.002-08:00

My lovely friend Sarah brought me a special gift tonight! I love it! Does anyone want to come over for hot chocolate and ice cream?

By the way, if you haven't checked out Hello Kitty Hell, it's lots of fun for HK fans and detractors alike, featuring things like HK Bacon, wedding rings, airplanes (I've been on one of these!), maternity hospitals (of course), and contacts (!). Good times.

Experimental Food: Eggnog Pear Trifle

2011-12-26T23:30:00.000-08:00

It all started with a bowl from Ikea and an occasion for dessert: Christmas dinner with friends. I was thinking about trifle to begin with, and then found a recipe for eggnog pound cake on Pinterest. Eggnog trifle sounded heavenly, and I figured I could use eggnog to make the custard and double the fun. I was stuck for a bit thinking about what to use as the fruit layer, and then thought of pears. I asked Google, and lo and behold - someone else had thought of the same combination! So I borrowed her recipe and tweaked it.

I don't really use cake mixes, so I started with the America's Test Kitchen recipe for pound cake, substituting eggnog for 2 of the 4 eggs required. I think next time I might just go ahead and make a full substitution for added flavour.

I was really not impressed with the pastry cream recipe; it ended up quite thick and lumpy, and was generally difficult to work with. I found it too thick to strain though a sieve, so I heated and added around 2 cups of eggnog and 1/4 cup butter to thin it out, and then strained the mixture through cheesecloth to get the larger lumps out. The resulting cream had great flavour (it was a bit faint before that extra eggnog) and worked really well, but I think that some adjustments could make for an easier and less frustrating result.

I used Bosc pears for a really lovely texture and substituted spiced rum for the brandy in the poaching liquid (it seemed like a better pairing for the eggnog flavours). Because I served the trifle as one dish instead of individual servings, I chopped all of the pears, using rings only as a garnish for the top. And voila! Here is the result:

It ended up being a bit more work than I thought it would be, but with a few modifications, I think this will be a nice addition to my holiday recipe rotation. Merry Christmas, everyone!

Update: My mom pointed out that I didn't actually say how it turned out. Everyone at the party loved it! The pears were really lovely, and all of the components blended really well together. Experimental food success!

Hail the Conquering Hero

2011-12-26T00:39:00.003-08:00

My husband prides himself on giving really great, thoughtful gifts. He prowls second-hand shops on a regular basis and has a knack for finding the perfect things for making the people we love feel special. So you can imagine that it has really frustrated him that his talent for finding great presents does not extend to me. According to him, I am notoriously difficult to find the right gift for. Every year we've been together, he tries to find something awesome for me, and not once yet has he been able to get it just right - until today. My husband won Christmas today.

He started by giving me a bunch of sweet little things he found at thrift stores: a fluffy blanket, a pretty scarf, and a new Stuart McLean book, among other things. Then he presented me with a gift from my siblings: an ice cream maker! (Oh my gosh, I am so excited about this! I have spent the day reading the instruction manual and dreaming about what I can make first.) I thought everything was finished at this point, but he handed me a little card.

I wasn't expecting much; I thought maybe it was a homemade gift certificate for a dinner out or some time together (which I would have loved). I was just impressed that he braved GLITTER (Derek is the only person I know who actually gets angry about glitter) to make me happy.

I turned the card over to find this:

He drew me pictures! It took me forever to decipher the message, but it left me speechless and close to tears. The pictures say:

Angel + Laugh + Lying + Hear + Spoon -P

(Wheel + Hell + Pain -N + Herd -D + Ticket)

Eye Heart Ewe.

For those of you who want time to figure it out, I'll put the answer at the end of this post.

All of that hard work tired him out. He actually nodded off while playing the video game I got him for Christmas (!), and finally succumbed to napping on the couch. Dad also took the opportunity to catch a few winks. Aren't they cute?

The rebus, translated, reads: Angela flying here soon (we'll help pay her ticket). I love you.

Derek is triumphant. Finally, he won Christmas. And I am so excited about planning Angie's visit! Now I just have to figure out what kind of ice cream to make for her when she gets here. :)

Pinterest to the Rescue!

2011-12-24T23:06:00.001-08:00

Today we celebrated Christmas Eve with a delicious brunch! I found this idea on Pinterest, and it worked! Bacon and eggs with a twist. Perfect for dads and husbands. And it's so pretty! The actual "recipe" is from Apron Strings.

I think the avocado slices were just a bit too thick to allow for the eggs to cook fully on their own (I had to flip them to finish them off), but that only affected the appearance, not the delicious flavour!

We made guacamole out of the extra avocado, and it was perfect on toast with the avocado and egg. The lime, tomato, and garlic flavours really complimented the egg and bacon. New breakfast idea for the win!

Smells like Christmas

2011-11-21T22:00:00.001-08:00

Christmas is here a little early this year! I was shopping with a friend this weekend and found this:

Of course, I immediately bought a package for Derek. Because who doesn't want their candy canes bacon-flavoured?

A day in the life of a kindergarten teacher:

2011-11-15T23:01:00.002-08:00

For the past year or so, I've hated my computer (I literally couldn't use it without yelling at it!) so much that I avoided any internet activity that wasn't absolutely necessary. We finally replaced our 6-year old computer, and I've been meaning to get back into posting again now that I don't feel like smashing things. So here goes:

I substitute taught in a kindergarten class last week and had to facilitate a brainstorming session on transportation. I realized that the students would likely need visuals to complete their assignment, so I bravely drew little pictures for each mode of transportation. My animals are a bit sad, but I can draw planes, trains or automobiles for you any day. I was so proud of myself that I took a picture:

Please feel free to contact me with all your graphic design needs. :)

Ari, Ari, how does your garden grow?

2011-08-03T22:42:00.004-07:00

I decided to try gardening this year - nothing too involved, just a little salad garden as an experiment to see whether I could keep plants alive instead of killing them (so far, all of the inside plants have died tragically). I started off with an heirloom cherry tomato plant, some cucumbers and peppers, and a few strawberry plants.

After the deer nearly finished off my tomatoes and strawberries, I surrounded my garden with netting and waited to see whether or not it would survive. It's been 3 months, and thanks to some wonderful friends, I've ended up with a bigger garden than I anticipated: 2 cucumber plants, 3 pepper plants, mixed lettuce, strawberries, 4 broccoli plants, chives, basil, dill, parsley, cilantro, and 12 tomato plants!

And vegetables are growing! I've harvested several cucumbers and a handful of strawberries, and am delighted every time I go out to the garden and find something new growing: blossoms and then fruit on several of my tomato plants, tiny little peppers, and the beginnings of some very lovely broccoli florets. I can't wait to eat it all!

You can see all of the progress here in my photo album, if you like. I hope you enjoy!

Her children rise up and call her blessed.

2011-05-08T00:39:00.004-07:00

Dear Mom,

I am so thankful to have you for my mom! You are beautiful, funny, strong, incredibly wise, and practically perfect in every way. If I grow up to be even a little bit like you, I'll be happy. Thank you for investing so much of yourself in us and helping us become the confident, happy, fantastic people we are now! You rock.

Love, Ariann

Obsessed with Cake

2011-05-06T17:52:00.006-07:00

My husband has declared that he cannot listen to me talk about cupcakes for another minute, which is unfortunate because I have been obsessed with them lately. When I made my coconut-lime pavlova cupcakes, they were all I could think about for days, and pretty much all I talked about for at a day and a half. I suppose it's only fair that I let him off the hook (seeing as I don't want to hear an endless monologue about hockey or business meetings or how to organize our bookshelves); I'll just have to call sympathetic friends and post about it here to try to get it out of my system.

So, here's what I've been obsessing about this week: peanut-butter filled devil's food cupcakes with caramel frosting and a Skor garnish.

I'm not a huge fan of chocolate cake, so it's taken me a while to work my way around to trying it out. A friend asked for a chocolate-peanut butter cupcake combination, and I thought about a few frosting options before I settled on caramel. I found a fantastic (and very easy) recipe at allrecipes. Some of the comments suggested adding whipping cream and confectioner's sugar to achieve a good consistency, so I tried that. For the filling, I mixed:

1 cup smooth peanut butter
3 tbsp peanut butter
2/3 c. icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla

I used the devil's food cake recipe from the Joy of Cooking, but I think I'll look for a new base; it's a very nice cake but I'm looking for something really chocolatey. If anyone has any suggestions, I'd love to hear them!

I'd like to have a few more tasters; Derek doesn't really care for chocolate cake either, and rated this "very good." I prefer to make things that are "kick-you-in-the-face delicious," and need a few more people to test it out to see how it fares with chocolate cake lovers. Overall, though, I'd say this experiment was successful. I'll probably end up trying these again.

Sugar and Spice

2011-04-24T00:02:00.007-07:00

Spring is finally here, and I've been feeling creative again! I bake with the seasons, and spring is definitely a cupcake kind of time. A couple of weeks ago, I tried making Julie Hasson's Kahlua Cupake recipe with a chocolate ganache frosting.

Today, we had guests for dinner. I had planned on making pavlova, but then I ran across this recipe at Cupcake Bakeshop for a pavlova cupcake! Persimmons aren't very spring-ish, so I decided to experiment and make my own version. I really like the interplay of textures and flavours I chose, but I think this would be easily modified, too; try a different base and use berries or even chocolate to dress it up. This is the first time I've tinkered this much with a recipe, and I was really pleased with the result. Here are my coconut lime pavlova cupcakes!
Here's what I did, if anyone wants to give it a try:

I decided to modify the Kahlua Cupcake recipe as a base - I used Godiva White Chocolate Liqueur instead of the Kahlua and added 2 tsp coconut extract. I think coconut rum or even coconut milk would work as substitutes for the liqueur.

I used 1% milk for the pastry cream, and added lime zest and juice (to taste, after it had cooled a bit) instead of fruit.

I reduced the amount of vinegar in the meringues and added 1 tsp coconut extract. I also didn't bother with measuring and creating templates - freehand worked fine.

I added kiwi slices for garnish and as a complementary flavour for the coconut and lime.

This was the result - my new favourite cupcake!

Gone With the Wind

2010-11-16T10:54:00.003-08:00

It was so windy last night that our neighbour's fence blew over!

The lights were all flickery, but the power didn't go out - which was good because Derek was away all last evening, and it's much nicer to spend a candlelight evening with your love than it is to spend it all alone. Today seems much nicer, and hopefully it will stay that way!

Thoughts on Remembrance Day

2010-11-11T22:18:00.003-08:00

Our band played at the Chief and Petty Officers' Mess today. This was my second year to spend Remembrance Day in the company of military people. During the last song, several couples got up to dance. It was very sweet.

A few days ago, I found two poems written by my great-grandfather, W.G. Young, when his sons went off to fight in WWII. I vaguely remember my grandmother talking about her brothers; I wish I could have asked her more about them before she died. Moving around a lot has sometimes meant that we haven't had as much time to steep in family history and traditions, and I really appreciated the insight into this branch of my background. Today, I remember my great-uncles: George Morley Alexander Young, Delmar Gould Young, and Ralph Warren Young.

What I've been doing lately:

2010-10-28T00:04:00.003-07:00

I woke up today feeling like Christmas! Sleeping in until 8:30 felt amazing after the last few 6:00 mornings. I went to a workshop for the day and came home to prepare for a party! I've really been enjoying the opportunity to be creative in my kitchen, and today was a lot of fun. I didn't make the mushroom caps or pepperoni, but I whipped up the ginger snaps and managed to find a spectacular spanakopita recipe. I was a bit dubious about the amount of onions required, but they ended up being fantastic!

And to top it all off, I finally perfected my strawberry cream cheese frosting! This is raspberry, but it's basically the same thing, just a different puree. And the cupcake wrappers are so pretty! I found them at Ikea - theyr'e taller and narrower than your average cupcake wrapper, but I think the bit of fringe at the top makes for really pretty cupcakes. This lemon cupcake with raspberry frosting is my new favourite combination.

Day 1: Sun, please go away.

2010-07-07T22:39:00.003-07:00

Today was HOT! The temperatures have been on the cool side all spring, and they choose this week to skyrocket! We drove through Washington and into Oregon today, in our little Honda Civic with no AC, power steering, or cruise control! By the time we stopped for the night, we were all kinds of gross and sweaty. And tomorrow we could have highs of 36 degrees! Yikes!

Highlights of today included stopping at the Southern Kitchen in Tacoma for fried chicken and catfish, and checking out Voodoo Doughnut in Portland for a maple bacon long john. Mmm, delicious! Hopefully I'll have pictures up in the next few days. San Francisco, here we come!

So we've been watching a lot of Glee...

2010-05-04T23:20:00.003-07:00

Derek and I are both night owls, and tend to take a while to get going in the morning. It's not uncommon for one or both of us to be at work already before we're really starting to function for the day. We were getting ready for work the other morning when Derek very quietly started singing, "I don't think you're ready for this jelly...." He wasn't really awake yet, but that's what was stuck in his head. It was awesome.

Derek's version of Bootylicious is definitely my favourite.

Tea & Cupcakes

2010-05-03T20:07:00.005-07:00

I've begun collecting tea cups at garage sales and second-hand stores this year. On Saturday Derek and I went shopping and found a new thrift store. I went to look at the tea cups right away and found this pretty pink one!

I almost talked myself out of buying it, but Derek convinced me that I should get it. So now I have 7 tea cups to serve tea in when my friends come over!

I've been obsessed with strawberries lately, so I've been making these delicious strawberry cupcakes with strawberry cream cheese buttercream frosting to serve with tea. I made up the frosting recipe myself! I got the setting on my camera wrong when I went to take a picture, but I decided to post it anyway just for Angie, my cupcake fiend of a sister.

Hopped Up On Goofballs

2010-04-17T22:48:00.005-07:00

I stayed up late last night, and then this morning I dreamed that I was at a teachers' conference somewhere (it wasn't your typical teachers' conference; at least one of my sessions was inside a tree, like in The Incredible Mr. Fox), and I was choosing my sessions just to hang out with friends. I decided to go to a math session (of course) and went to sit further back so I could spend the session hanging out and chatting.

I was sitting next to Matthew McConaughey, who picked up my foot to talk to me about how to tell whether or not my shoes were good for my feet, and the person next to me was tickling me to make me ask the prof (yellow shirt, brownish sweater vest, beard, with a pointer stick, and curmudgeonly) where I could get a sweater vest like that for all of my math teacher friends. I was trying really hard not to give in (which is not easy when someone is tickling you like that), and then my friend Jenn called and woke me up, saving me from total embarrassment. I'm sure Jenn thought I was crazy when I answered the phone half asleep and giggling incoherently. I'm not sure whether or not I was going to give in and ask about the sweater vest, but I'm pretty sure that Matthew McConaughey was about to get in trouble for all of our racket at the back - which is a shame; it really wasn't his fault.

My Continuing Pop Culture Education

2010-04-15T15:57:00.004-07:00

In my first year of university my friends realized that I have fairly significant gaps in my knowledge of pop culture, and took it upon themselves to educate me. This consisted mostly of watching a bunch of movies and listening to a lot of music.

This week, Maryanne made a CD to brush me up on my knowledge of distant relatives. It's aptly titled The Neil You're Actually Related To (And One that You Aren't). She made it for me because I've never really listened to Neil Young or Neil Diamond, so I get them confused all the time. I'm not sure yet whether or not I'll like it, but I will definitely be able to tell them apart from now on. Thanks, Mary!

Here's the playlist, for those of you who are interested:

1. Unknown Legend - Neil Young
2. Blackbird - Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
3. Teach Your Children - Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
4. Harvest Moon - Neil Young
5. After the Gold Rush - Neil Young
6. Only Love Can Break Your Heart - Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
7. Dark Star - Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
8. Cinnamon Girl - Neil Young
9. Southern Man - Neil Young
10. Ohio - Neil Young
11. Old Man - Neil Young
12. Harvest - Neil Young
13. Heart of Gold - Neil Young
14. Like a Hurricane - Neil Young
15. Love is a Rose - Neil Young
16. Long May You Run - Neil Young
17. Love the One You're With - Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
18. Ever Neil Young Song You've Ever Heard - Dana Carvey
18. Sweet Caroline - Neil Diamond

Mom and I were going to keep her story going this week,

2010-03-19T00:51:00.004-07:00

but we've been too busy having fun to keep up with it!

We've been taking lots of pictures, though, and have started chronicling our memories in this album. Tomorrow we're planning on staying home and playing in the kitchen. I can't wait!

Today,

2010-03-15T00:29:00.000-07:00

you will walk through my front door

and we will go on adventures for a whole week. I love you, Mom.

Tomorrow,

2010-03-14T00:28:00.001-08:00

you will fly from Saskatoon to Victoria!

You will not see any of the Russian Olympic team in the airport,

but you will see Derek and me when we pick you up at the airport!

When you come,

2010-03-13T00:26:00.000-08:00

We'll visit the Fisgard grocery in Chinatown

and then come home for BBQ.

We'll go to the beach

2010-03-12T00:25:00.000-08:00

and sit on the shore

or look at ships.

We'll finally

2010-03-11T00:24:00.000-08:00

look at my wedding photos together.

Photos by Nigel Lacey.

We might

2010-03-10T00:24:00.000-08:00

visit the flamingo in my backyard

or take a walk in the forest.

We'll visit Chinatown,

2010-03-09T00:22:00.000-08:00

and we'll want to say ni hau and xie xie. But this is a Cantonese Chinatown.

They still have jen ju nai cha and bai xian leu cha though.

We'll go

2010-03-08T12:21:00.000-08:00

to the inner harbour to see ships.

and walk through the Empress Hotel.

When we're out for the day,

2010-03-07T12:20:00.000-08:00

We'll go look at the buildings downtown.

There's even a store wrapped up like Christmas presents.

Derek is excited to see you, too.

2010-03-06T12:18:00.000-08:00

He will probably want to take you to some thrift stores,

and he might even do some of the cooking for you.

There will be lots of flowers...

2010-03-05T12:16:00.005-08:00

cherry blossoms (I call them popcorn trees because it looks like bunches of popcorn from a little ways away),

daffodils,

and maybe others.

When you go outside,

2010-03-04T23:13:00.000-08:00

it might be misty out

or there might be a pretty sunset

but it will be green, and it will look like spring.

Soon,

2010-03-03T23:29:00.002-08:00

You will be sitting in my house and visiting with Derek (and me!).

And the best part is that there will be no snow outside, because it is spring here!

When you come to visit,

2010-03-02T22:12:00.004-08:00

I will make you cupcakes

and take you to see Victoria in my car.

Dear Mom:

2010-03-01T22:35:00.004-08:00

You are coming to my house 2 weeks from today, and so I thought that every day for the next week, I would give you a bit of a taste for what's to come. When you come to my house, you will see:

My favourite store in Victoria,

and my new green tea cup.

Captain Awesome

2009-12-31T00:35:00.002-08:00

My husband is about the most wonderful thing ever. He is patient, unselfish, strong, caring, sweet, funny, smart, confident, successful - all of those things I wanted in a spouse but didn't think I'd find in one person. I don't know how I managed to end up married to someone so amazing, but I'm so thankful for him, and happy to be looking forward to many more years together. I love you, babe.

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.

2009-12-25T11:59:00.003-08:00

Christmas has been completely lovely this year, full of beautiful moments with loved ones. We spent Christmas Eve night at our church's candlelight service, contemplating the Light of the World and the hope, love, joy and peace of advent. This morning Derek and I exchanged small gifts and then spent hours talking with both our families. Our webcam is finally set up and working, and it was nice to talk face to face with my mom for the first time in over a year. Chris, Maryanne, Ky and Lyn came over for Christmas dinner, and we spent the rest of the evening alternating between playing games and snacking on all the Christmas goodies we have around here. It's been completely wonderful.

On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me a panda in a Christmas tree.

2009-11-28T22:49:00.004-08:00

When my family lived in China, they bought a whole bunch of enamel Christmas ornaments at one of the markets. Dad picked out a whole box of them shaped like pandas and insisted that they be put on the tree even though the rest of us thought they were really ugly. My sister Angie's solution to this every year was to put a few of them on the back of the tree where no one would see them, and it became a family joke. All of those pandas were lost in a move, but I have a little enamel ball with a panda on it and I stuck it on the back of my tiny tree tonight while Derek and I were decorating to fill my heart and keep home close even when everyone is far away.

Content

2009-11-27T22:58:00.003-08:00

I've been looking forward to the weekend all week, and it's finally here. My house is tidy, my kitchen is clean, and I'm all set to enjoy a perfect weekend. I'm staying up a little later than usual because I can sleep in. Tomorrow I'll get to spend time with friends and then set up our tiny little Christmas tree and watch a movie for date night. And on Sunday, Derek and I are going over to Maryanne's to watch the Riders win the Grey Cup! I might even start some Christmas baking - we'll see what the weekend brings.

Feeling Groovy

2009-11-07T17:26:00.002-08:00

I'm feeling happy today for the first time in a long time. It's nice. I'm sitting here and Chris and Maryanne's, watching the Riders and feeling content. It's about time I started feeling more like myself.

Jumping on the Bandwagon

2009-09-08T23:11:00.003-07:00

Derek and I joined the Westshore Community Band today. I'd been thinking that I wanted to join a choir or band this fall, and then Derek decided it might be fun to pull out his old trombone, so we attended our first rehearsal this evening. Derek's in the low brass section, and I've just become the second percussionist for the band. I get to have fun playing mallet instruments, crash cymbals, triangle, and whatever other "toys" might be called for.

I'm really excited that Derek and I will get to do this together; it'll be this fall's equivalent of the dance class we took last winter. It's nice to be able to enjoy hobbies and grow in new skills together. And the band seems like a lot of fun - enjoyable repertoire and good personalities. It's going to be a good fall.

The trees are greener on the other side?

2009-08-17T10:53:00.003-07:00

I just scared two deer out of my backyard. They were eating the leaves from our baby trees in the backyard. Knocking on the window only made them pause for a second before going back to grazing, so I stepped outside the door and made a step towards them, and they were gone. I never thought I'd have to chase deer off my yard. The silly things would rather eat from the 3 trees in the backyard here than from the forest just past the yard!

27 Hours Until Liftoff!

2009-06-26T02:09:00.002-07:00

And only 14 or so more until we start travelling. We've been packing like mad tonight, getting everything ready so tomorrow isn't crazy. Derek is quite unimpressed with all of the travel regulations...it's really fun to watch him get grumpy every so often as he has to comply with nitpicky rules.

We take the ferry to Vancouver after school, and then spend time with a wonderful friend who is kind enough to drive us to the aiport at 3 am! And then we're off to Taiwan for the summer. I can't wait!

Everything's Coming Up Ari

2009-06-26T01:46:00.004-07:00

I have had the best week:

My house is still pretty from my birthday party on Friday. I have flowers everywhere, and lanterns hanging from the ceiling, and it looks beautiful. We had the house full of people I like, which made it even better.

We found a fantastic restaurant on Saturday. Derek and I went out to Smoken Bones for my birthday dinner, and it's our new favourite restaurant here in town. Everything we had was delicious, and in sizes large enough that we enjoyed it again for lunch on Sunday. My favourite was the pulled pork. Mmmmm.

Tuesday was Awesome Mail Day and the last day of school. Derek got a package from his Dad, I got two birthday gifts, and we got a wedding gift (I love it when things are spaced out like that - it makes special occasions last longer)!

Our visas for Taiwan finally came through just under the wire on Wednesday, and we found a wii with several games on usedvictoria.com for an amazing price. Derek has wanted one since before we got married, so we decided to go for it as an early anniversary present. He's been floating for the past 2 days, shouting "wiiiii" every so often.

My camera was ready for pick-up today, and it's all ready for documenting the summer of Sunshine and Trouble in Taiwan.

And to top it all off, I bought a really pretty shirt yesterday. Life is beautiful.

Mennonite Guilt

2009-06-08T22:33:00.004-07:00

Christopher has been bugging me about what he calls my "Mennonite Guilt". He teases me that if I don't feel like my meal is perfect, or if I have one thing out of place, or if I give fewer than three choices for dessert*, my MG kicks in and I rush around trying to fix it. Apparently I overdid it this time, though - we had friends over for dinner on Sunday and I accidentally tried to feed 15 people instead of 6. I had an ice cream pail's worth of pasta left over! I still don't quite know what I did to the recipe to end up with so much food, but I had pasta for lunch and dinner today, and the pattern will continue until we've used it all up! It doesn't help that Derek had a school camping trip this week and won't be contributing until tomorrow evening. I guess I'll just have to chalk this one up to experience and be careful with my kitchen enthusiasm next time!

*He tends to exaggerate on occasion. :)

Up, up, and away!

2009-05-26T20:34:00.003-07:00

We got plane tickets to Taiwan today! I'm so excited I think I'll explode. I've been afraid to think of our trip as something that's actually going to be happen, because it's not real until you have tickets. But we're set! We're leaving for Taiwan on the last weekend of June, and we'll be staying a whole month! I can hardly wait. I'm going to go float around for the rest of the evening.

It's been a good week.

2009-05-21T21:58:00.007-07:00

For the first time in a while, I felt like myself this week. I had energy to get things done, tackled tasks around home, and enjoyed trying out a few new things. On Monday, Maryanne came over and we played in the kitchen:

Dark chocolate mousse in milk chocolate cups, with raspberry garnish.

On Wednesday, Derek and I explored some of the areas near our house, and had fun checking out some of the local stores. And today, I got a new Hello Kitty mp3 player! Very exciting.

Also, I took up crocheting today and started a scarf.

The Granville Island experience

2009-05-19T22:31:00.002-07:00

apparently includes being pooped on by the local wildlife. Yup, I got a little present from a passing pigeon as part of my visit. But other than that unpleasant occurence, our trip to Vancouver this weekend was delightful. We enjoyed a great visit with friends of ours who just moved back to the province, and had fun picnicking at a local park (with a wee baby boy), going to St. John's Shaugnessy, eating at THE BEST Korean BBQ/Sushi place ever, and visiting Granville Island. It was a nice getaway and a good break before the long stretch to the end of school. I heart Vancouver, even if I don't so much like its flying rats.

Maybe I'm a closet Trekkie?

2009-05-10T22:51:00.004-07:00

Derek and I went to see the new Star Trek movie with some friends on Friday, and we loved it! It was so much fun. I watched all of the old Star Trek movies with my cousins when I was younger, so I caught most of the lines and jokes, and I really enjoyed the characters. Scottie was my favourite. We're planning to go again on Tuesday (huzzah for the cheap theatre near our place!). Yay!

In other news, I've hit another burst of creativity and energy this weekend. I've gone through the house like a whirlwind, cleaning and organizing and getting things done. My productivity is even starting to spill over into my internet time (hence current blog posting), and it's felt so good to remedy past procrastinating and start getting back in touch with people. I'm feeling more and more peaceful as my pile gets smaller and smaller. I should do this more often.

happily ever after

2009-04-11T23:10:00.003-07:00

I never expected to be this happy when I got married. I didn't expect to be unhappy, but I guess I kind of thought more about the work of a relationship, and commitment, and serious subjects like that. I'm suspicious of the "happily ever after". So I've been a little - not surprised, exactly, but maybe pleasantly reminded - that marriage is sweet and wonderful and full of thousands of beautiful little moments that all come together to equal unbelievable happiness. I know there will be seasons that are more serious, but for now, I'm so happy I can hardly believe this is real. My cup overflows.

Unspoken Traditions*

2009-03-20T12:46:00.007-07:00

When we were going through our pre-marriage counselling, our pastor talked to us about "unwritten rules and unspoke traditions". I knew exactly what he was talking about. Holiday traditions (generally including church and a lot of baking, cooking, visiting, and eating) are very important to me, but I go even beyond that - any "first" or "last" thing gets celebrated. I have airport traditions - when someone special leaves, you accompany them to the gate (often with tears, hugs, and lots of pictures if it's going to be a long separation) and stay there, waving, until you can't see them anymore.

Derek generally doesn't care too much about what happens on major holidays; he appreciates the spiritual aspect of most religious holidays, but as far as long-practiced traditions held dear to his heart, he's pretty easygoing for most of them. As long as he gets turkey at Thanksgiving, he's happy. He doesn't really like all the kafuffle around Christmas, and has no particular attachment to easter hunts and such. He has a special dislike for Valentine's Day. But I found out on Tuesday that he's saved up all of his traditions to use on St. Patrick's Day!

Dressing in green is important; the more, the better. We had to go to Value Village to find soemthing green for me to wear, because heaven forbid I should wear another colour. When we got into the car to run errands and I asked if we could change the CD, he informed me that he only listens to Irish music (i.e., a lot of U2 and a little Thin Lizzy) on St. Patrick's Day. And apparently acceptable St. Patty's activity includes going to a pub and drinking green beer. I should have known that he'd choose this holiday to get all fired up about. I think I did pretty well, though; I bought some green eyeliner and nail polish to go with my green shirt, and pinned a green flower to my hat. And it's all ready to pull out again for next year!

*I was going through some of my drafts and realised that this one was pretty much ready to post, so I did. Better late than never.

Will wonders never cease?

2009-03-14T23:45:00.002-07:00

My husband took me to a dance tonight - my husband, who didn't want to have a dance at our wedding because then he would have to dance. It was wonderful! We (well, I more than he) had a little trouble remembering how all of our dances went, but we worked it out and really enjoyed spending the time dancing together. We tried at least one of every dance we've learned. Derek's favourites were the tango and the jive; mine were the cha cha and the rhumba. We also learned a merengue line dance that was really fun, even though it made me a little nervous to be switching partners all the way through. And best of all, I think maybe Derek enjoyed himself enough to take me to the next dance! (fingers crossed!)

I've been pied!

2009-03-05T10:39:00.008-08:00

"On first degree charges of being sweet and charming and fresh as morning dew, yet having the tenacity of a pit bull."

Pies are scary.

Apparently, it's a tradition around here to ambush the new staff with a pie attack. I guess it's a fundraiser the UVic engineering students put on: people pay money to send pie attackers to you, and in order to escape being pied, you have to pay more money to redirect it elsewhere. Of course, no one told me about this, so there was no escape for Ariann. Derek got pied, too, as did several other new staff members and a bunch of students.

Isn't he cute, awaiting his doom with that little hood on?

Oh, and by the way, this executioner was not wearing pants.

So now we know to keep a healthy stash of cash on us during March, and we'll be prepared for next year. It's a good cause; the money goes to a childre's health charity and the food bank downtown. And next time, maybe I'll be able to plan a sweet revenge.

Solitude

2009-03-04T19:37:00.005-08:00

Report cards are due tomorrow, so Derek is staying at the school all evening to finish them up. I almost don't know what to do with myself -- it feels weird being all by myself at home for so long. I've been feeling introspective lately, but we've been pretty busy lately, so I haven't taken the time to sit down with my thoughts. Now that I finally have an open evening with few distractions (having given up reading fiction and playing video games for Lent), I'm feeling a little restless as all of those thoughts are threatening to spill into my consciousness all at once. It's kind of nice, though, being able to sweep some of the cobwebs out of my mind. I think maybe I'll need to kick Derek out of the house a little more often.

In other news, our car is in the shop (we had a water leak that needed fixing - what's with the leaks lately?) and we have a courtesy car for a couple of days! For some reason, I find courtesy/rental cars very exciting, and I've been having fun playing with the "magic" locks and other fun buttony things. I'll probably be finding excuses to do some extra driving for the next little while. :)

Unconventional Romance

2009-02-14T23:34:00.004-08:00

So, while everyone else celebrates St. Valentine's Day alone together with fancy restaurants and chocolates and roses, we had a bunch of friends over for a fondue party yesterday and then planned a games night at our church tonight. I'm almost tempted to roll my eyes at us, but I like the way we work.

During my last couple of years at university, some good friends planned a fondue party for Valentine's Day. We had so much fun that we've continued the tradition, and scheduled this year's for last night to accomodate everyone. Derek and I left a little early from our dance class (we learned the rhumba this week - I love it!) and came home to find two of our friends already here (at our request), getting everything ready. Everyone brought something to contribute, and we had a delicious evening with lots of laughs.

The games night tonight was a blast! We had about 15 people attending, and it was a great opportunity to get to know some of the people in our church a little better. Everyone had a lot of fun, and I think we'll be planning another one over the next few months.

We did get some time for just the two of us this weekend. Derek made me omettes for breakfast this morning, and then took me into Victoria for some exploring downtown* and a magical banana split at Roger's Chocolates Old-Fashioned Soda Shoppe. We barbecued steaks and baked potaoes for dinner, and even enjoyed some sparkling wine with our meal, and then went over to the church for the evening.

And now Derek is back at the church. We have a 24-hour prayer day once a month, where people sign up for an hour at a time so that each hour is filled. Derek volunteered to be one of the people in 4-hour sections who keep watch and make sure everything is safe and cozy. He'll be home at 4 a.m. Today was kind of a funny way to spend our first Valentine's Day together, but it's been a lovely day - about as close to perfect as you can get.

*Some of the trees are blossoming! Spring has officially sprung.

in loco parentis

2009-02-05T16:55:00.003-08:00

I was drawn in by a newspaper article about a teaching situation here while I was in line at the grocery checkout today. The cashier noticed and promptly offered her point of view: "Half the teachers out there shouldn't be teaching. I have two kids, a 13-year old and a 17-year old, so I've been around for a while, and I can tell you that half the teachers out there shouldn't be teaching." Half of me was laughing inside myself, thinking that it was funny she happened to tell a teacher about the problems with teachers, and the other half wanted to give her a piece of my mind; but of course the grocery checkout isn't exactly an appropriate place to engage in debate.

It bothers me more and more lately to hear people attacking teachers and the job they do. I know we're not perfect, and there is a lot of room for improvement in many teachers' professional practice. I have no problem with sincere concern or legitimate issues. Most of the time, though, the criticism seems unfair. I think most people would struggle with the responsibility of working in the classroom, especially with average class sizes (in BC) of 30 students at various levels and often inadequate support. Most parents wouldn't survive a month in those conditions, let alone a career's worth of months. And the perks aren't all they're cracked up to be: assuming teachers spend only 50 hours a week working in their high-stress positions (and I know many who easily reach, if not exceed, that), actual vacation time works out to 2 weeks. The teaching work hours just happen to be crammed into the months between September and June.

Teachers do a lot more than just dealing with academics (which is a big job in itself - taking extensive curricula and specialized information, planning lessons and activities that appeal to different learning styles, evaluating student abilities and needs, and adapting where needed for individual needs), and most of the teachers I know are extremely dedicated people who selflessly go above and beyond the technical requirements of their positions to serve their students and community. Like everyone else, they have bad days and face discouragement and on occasion lose sight of their purpose and vision. But most of the people I have seen and worked with (and I have been in a lot of schools) are dedicated professionals who try to do their best in an often thankless job. I think they would agree that it's worth it. And they deserve respect and support.

My throat still hurts a little.

2009-02-01T21:12:00.003-08:00

Yesterday we brought dinner over to Ky's house and then set out to watch Slum Dog Millionaire, only to find our showing sold out! We were a little disappointed, but we went back to Ky's and decided to watch Wait Until Dark, with Audrey Hepburn, instead. As we were getting things set up, Ky said something about probably screaming at some point during the movie, and I thought, "Really, Ky? Screaming? I mean, I'm jumpy during movies, but I usually don't scream."

My throat still hurt this morning. I think I might have awakened Ky's entire neighbourhood. But I loved the movie. It's definitely a new favourite.

Climb every mountain

2009-01-25T22:25:00.003-08:00

West definitely met farther west when some friends of ours took us hiking today! I think it was only a big hill by BC standards, but it was definitely a mountain in SK eyes. We went a bit slower than our friends ususally would due to my need for frequent rests, but I made it all the way up! I've awarded myself 2 gold stars for my efforts today. And it was well worth it; the view was gorgeous.

It's been a pretty exciting weekend. We drove Derek's parents to the airport on Friday and enjoyed our last few moments together for a while. We learned how to dance the jive (and how to resolve conflict!) at our dance class! I can't wait to learn the rest of the dances. A friend of mine sent me Hello Kitty magnets from Korea (just like the pins I was collecting in Taiwan, except they're magnets and have Korean writing on them)! On Saturday I had a girls' day with some friends in town, and then Derek and I watched Casablanca with Chris and Maryanne. And then we got to try extreme hiking today. It's been a good weekend.

Playing tourists in Victoria

2009-01-18T22:25:00.004-08:00

It's always fun when people come to visit, because you get to do all of the fun touristy things you don't take the time to do during everyday life. Derek's parents arrived on Friday night for a week-long visit, and we've had a great time exploring Victoria. On Saturday, we went to Miniature World (hands down, one of the best attractions we've seen here; we definitely want to go back to explore more later) and Rogers' Chocolates Old-Fashioned Soda Shoppe (I've been wanting to go there since we first moved here, and it's now one of my favourite places here in Victoria). And today Derek's mom and I started to explore the hiking trails near our house.

So far we've had a good visit, and it's been fun to introduce the in-laws to our friends and the places we love here. I think it's going to be a good week.

Hee Haw

2009-01-16T21:36:00.002-08:00

We had so much fun at our first dance class tonight. We learned the fox trot, and we did okay, I think, although Derek told me that dancing with me was like "dancing with a stubborn mule." (In all fairness, he said it mostly for comedic effect.) It's hard to just follow someone else when you can't see what's going on behind and you're trying to have good technique and afraid of bumping into someone else. I ended up closing my eyes so I would have to just follow his lead and wouldn't have to worry about being distracted by the things around me. It worked pretty well, and eventually I got to the point where I could dance with my eyes open. We both really enjoyed ourselves, and we're looking forward to learning more and getting better. So now we have to practice at least 10 minutes every day, and hopefully by the end of it I'll be less of an ass. ;)

Shall We Dance?

2009-01-15T20:44:00.003-08:00

Derek and I are taking dance lessons! I'm so excited, and a little nervous, too. A couple we work with took ballroom dance lessons several years ago, and want to take it up again. They were going to take the 2nd level course, but decided that they could brush up on their skills and would rather take the 1st course if they could go with friends. So we start tomorrow! We'll have 10 lessons and learn the waltz, tango, fox trot, jive, cha cha, and rhumba. I have the uncomfortable feeling that we're going to be a bit of a gong show, what with my half-Mennonite-ness and Derek's (up till now) aversion to the dance floor. But I think it will be fun, and hopefully we'll come out on the other side with a few more skills. Wish us luck!

Entertainment-Value Husband

2009-01-12T22:27:00.004-08:00

I tickled/poked Derek's ear just to bug him today, and luckily moved my hand away just in time for him to slap himself and yell, "AAH!" It made my whole day. I laughed myself silly, and he couldn't help but laugh too, even though he felt a bit sheepish. It was the funniest thing that's happened since we went to the theatre on Friday and sat next to a hilarious old couple. All things told, it's been a pretty good weekend, between comedic episodes and catching up with old friends.

P.S. I'd like to clarify that Derek was beyond tired, so when he slapped himself, he really surprised himself and then was kind of frustrated with himself for pulling something like that. It was adorable.

The other, gold.

2009-01-09T23:11:00.004-08:00

We got together with old friends tonight for coffee. We've been wanting to meet with them ever since we moved here, but things have been busy for all of us and it just didn't work out until now. We went to a very cute old diner (I couldn't really find any good pictures) and had a lot of fun chatting and catching up, and then took a walk down to the inner harbour and back. After a full week at work, it was nice to have a refreshing evening with pleasant people.

As we've had friends visit and been able to reconnect with people we haven't seen in a while, I've been reminded of the quality of friends we have. In the weeks after our wedding, we had quite a few people tell us how impressed they were with our friends. The calibre of people we developed relationships with in our university years continually amazes me. We are very blessed in our friendships, and I'm so thankful for all of the wonderful people I know.

Humming along

2009-01-07T23:17:00.004-08:00

It's been a busy couple of days:

Yesterday was Derek's birthday, so we went to Chapters to look at books and then went out for dinner at a nice pub downtown. It was a very nice evening, pouring rain notwithstanding.
We watched The Savages tonight, and I think I liked it.
I am really enjoying my job; it's challenging and rewarding, and I know I'm good at what I do. It's so nice to be back in my field. I've been really happy this week, even though it's tired me out a bit - I have to rebuild my endurance.
It's been raining buckets for the past two days, and we have a new lake in our house (or at least a couple of small puddles). Apparently there was a building error, and so the builders have to come back and fix a couple of small leaks. We haven't had any real damage, and we're hoping it won't take too much to fix.

I haven't been keeping to my goal of blogging every day, but I think I'm following the spirit of it in that I'm much more active and pretty much keeping up with things. It's nice to be back, even if I'm a little boring. :)

Best. Landlords. Ever.

2009-01-05T19:15:00.002-08:00

Our landlords installed a gas BBQ upstairs when they built the house, and so they've given us the use of their very nice old one as long as we're living here. They were even thoughtful enough to fill it with propane! They've been nothing but wonderful ever since we've moved in, and I hope they get blessings back a hundred fold for all of their kindnesses.

Today is the third day in a row we've barbecued. I have never done that in Canada in January, and definitely never when there's been snow on the ground. But we have a very useful covered patio which makes it possible to use our BBQ in almost any weather.

Mmm, mmm, good.

2009-01-04T19:48:00.003-08:00

I had a post all planned for yesterday and then didn't get around to it with all of the birthday preparations. My very first attempt at an ice cream cake was a smashing success. I will never buy another cake from DQ if I can help it. I would have taken pictures to post, except that I accidentally dropped my camera a couple of weeks ago (we couldn't get our car up the hill and had to walk all the way up to our house, and then on the way down I was trying to take pictures of Victoria being all snowy and dropped my camera) and now it doesn't work. But trust me, it was awesome (the cake, not the demise of my camera).

Today, I am feeling a little miserable, and fairly grumpy, and quite tired. But I am lucky enough to have a wonderful husband who does all sorts of little things to make me happy and takes good care of me. I definitely picked a good one.

Whohow in the whatnow?

2009-01-02T22:45:00.004-08:00

I told a friend today that she is invited to Derek's "birthdaycue barbie" party tomorrow. I bet you didn't know he'd gotten that creative with his party planning. Perhaps Malibu Barbie will show up!

xin nian kuai le!

2009-01-01T23:30:00.000-08:00

Today has been lovely and peaceful and perfect for contemplation. I realized today that this is the first time I can remember where I didn't come to the end of a holiday and wish I could start the whole thing over from scratch. Usually I'm just starting to relax and function after the inevitable crash, and suddenly it's time to go back to work and the craziness of real life again. I regret the way I've spent my time and feel unbalanced and unsatisfied. But this year, I feel fairly peaceful and unhurried. I spent my holidays well and my to-do list is manageable. It's a nice feeling.

The year ahead is going to be very different from the last few years, I think. I have a feeling there might be more constancy and less transition. But I guess I'll just have to wait and see if I'm right. At any rate, I'm feeling stable enough to live constancy or transition, and that makes me happy.

Happy New Year, everyone!

New Year's Preparations

2008-12-31T17:05:00.004-08:00

Derek's gone to the ferry to pick up Mike and Julia, and Chris and Maryanne are on their way over. We're going to barbeque this evening, and possibly play a game or two, and just enjoy the pleasure of spending time with people who know us well and love us anyway. What a lovely way to bring in the new year! I hope all of you have as pleasant an evening as I intend to.

Slacker

2008-12-31T00:16:00.002-08:00

I have managed to post a stunning total of 17 times this year, including this one. I have a lot of very good excuses - I was without internet at least 4 months of the year, I had 4 different jobs, moved 3 times (one of them halfway across the country), and got married. But I miss blogging, and I've been slacking off even when life wasn't too crazy to blog. So I think I'm going to take after May-B and try blogging every day for a month. I'm not sure whether I'll do the official NaBloPoMo thing, but I'm going to start off the new year with good intentions that hopefully will pave the road to better blogging. Fingers crossed!

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-25T15:52:00.005-08:00

It's hard to believe this is my 5th Christmas here in Ariannland. I've been really excited about our very first Christmas together, and it's been completely lovely. We've had lots of snow (to the point of not being able to drive up our hill - grr) and enjoyed the company of good friends, new and old. I did a tonne of baking yesterday, and we ran the last of our Christmas errands (all of the snow has kept us pretty much house-bound for the past week-ish). Last night, we went to our church's Christmas Eve service and then went to midnight mass at the cathedral.

And today was just about perfect. We woke up and opened stockings, and then read the Christmas story, and then opened presents. Derek gave me a very pretty travel mug and the new Christmas CD from Starbucks, and I got him a board game he's been wanting for awhile, and a new movie. We spent a few hours on the phone talking to family and friends, and a few hours in the kitchen getting ready for Christmas dinner tonight. Chris & Maryanne brought the turkey and gravy, and we made the rest. We had a ridiculous amount of food - we both have enough now for another whole Christmas dinner tomorrow! Yum. And we spent a lovely evening with good friends, and now get to enjoy the happiness of being together in our own home, with no definite plans for a whole week! I'm hoping to catch up a bit here in Ariannland, and maybe post some of the pictures I've been taking lately. But for now, I'm just going to relax and enjoy the rest of the evening.

Merry Christmas, everyone! Xen dan kuai le!

Why?

2008-11-02T20:09:00.002-08:00

For the first time ever, I set my clocks back one hour for daylight savings time today. I've been resentful all day. Numerous people have tried to explain to me the benefits of this system, and I just don't understand it. It makes me angry. Grrr.

I'm a good wife.

2008-10-31T11:27:00.009-07:00

Derek's school put on a bit of a carnival for all the kids a couple of weeks ago, complete with dunk tanks and sumo suits. It was awesome. I supervised kids in a bouncy dinosaur castle and thoroughly enjoyed watching all of the kids have a blast. I got to play in the sumo suits with Chris

and my favourite part was when I paid off a few students to take Derek down in the dunk tank.

It was awesome. :)

No Lazy Sundays around here

2008-10-19T21:27:00.002-07:00

Sunday is fast becoming our most exciting day of the week! A few weeks ago, we were rear-ended on the way to church - nothing serious; just a small dent and a few little scratches on the back of the car, and a bit of a jolt for us. The family in the other car was really nice, and we were able to get information and go our separate ways fairly quickly.

Today took things to a whole new level. I opened the bathroom door while Derek was taking a shower this morning, and the steam escaping from the room set off our fire alarm right outside the door. I tried to clear the air by waving a towel, but our new-fangled alarm doesn't turn off that way. And we found out this morning that our alarm trips our landlords' alarm upstairs, which alerts the security company, which alerts the fire department. By the time we got hold of our landlords at their church, the fire department had been dispatched to our house. They sent two big fire trucks and a couple of little SUVs as well, just for good measure. They were really good-natured about things, and we feel very secure knowing just how quickly we'll have help in the event a real fire breaks out here! Apparently, our security company will stop by this week to fix some wiring that will allow us to turn our smoke alarm off ourselves. Hopefully we won't have any more of that kind of excitement around here anytime soon!

Close call

2008-10-15T16:47:00.003-07:00

I was excited to have the opportunity to vote yesterday, and I'm glad I did - the guy I voted for won by only 68 votes! It's been good to get caught up on my country's politics again, and even though a lot of people have been cynical about this election, I still enjoyed voting and the anticipation of watching election coverage. My favourite part was when Peter Mansbridge interviewed Rex Murphy and Rick Mercer for their thoughts on how things turned out.* I'm hoping that this minority government will turn out to be a good thing, with all the parties working together for the good of the country.

*My second-favourite part was when that reporter tried to get Michael Ignatieff to say that he wanted to be leader of the Liberal party, seeing as Stephan Dion wasn't able to succeed in this election. She asked him the same thing in six different questions! Talk about tenacity!

Blessings in Disguise

2008-10-13T11:38:00.008-07:00

Thanksgiving was everything it should be this year. We got together with a bunch of friends who are also far from family, and had a great time enjoying each other's company. Dinner was at our place, thanks to our comparatively large space, full-sized oven, and our fabulous dishwasher. Chris and Maryanne brought the turkey and stuffing, Meg and Karl brought the pumpkin for the pie (deliciously assembled by Maryanne), Ky brought mashed potatoes, and Derek and I provided beverages and veggies.

The most exciting thing about the evening is that the power went out - with an hour's cooking time left for the turkey! Apparently the whole south island, up to Ladysmith, was out of power for about 2 hours! Fortunately for us, our amazing landlords offered us the use of their gas BBQ and stove, so we were able to continue cooking the turkey, and the power came back on in time to put the finishing touches on the meal without candlelight! We ate a bit later than we'd planned, but things went pretty smoothly and we had a great evening playing games and having fun together.

I'm happy that things didn't quite go according to plan; it was nice to be reminded that we're blessed with electricity, plentiful food, and good friends and neighbours when so many go without. We have so many things to be thankful for.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Back with a rant!

2008-09-16T16:49:00.004-07:00

We finally got the internet a couple of weeks ago at our new place here in Victoria, and I've been trying to keep up with the news while I've been searching for jobs and getting things organised here. The CBC's website has a comment feature for articles, and I've started reading comments on various issues from people all over the country. It's been driving me nuts! I know that for every crazy who leaves comments, there are many sane, rational people out there who don't, but some of the viewpoints are something else. There's a "report abuse" icon, but the site creators forgot to add a "report stupidity" option. Grr.

Rants aside, the move to Victoria was successful and we're just about settled in here. Our place is lovely, and we really like the city so far. I'm still looking for employment, but Derek's enjoying school and has started off the year well. I'll post pictures and a longer update soon.

Westward, Ho!

2008-06-23T23:14:00.004-07:00

Ariannland is way overdue for an update! I haven't posted anything really substantial since September, and there have been a lot of bends in the road since then. I guess I'll start with the really big news: Derek and I are moving to Victoria come August! When we first moved here to Moose Jaw last fall, we kinda thought we'd be here for awhile. Derek only had a temporary contract, but things looked fairly hopeful for staying on, and as the months passed we made some good friends and grew to love our church family here. God has a way of changing our plans, though, and this change sure surprised us! Both of the jobs we applied for at Caronport didn't work out, and there didn't seem to be much for teaching jobs in the fall. We'd been joking with friends in Victoria all year about going out there to teach, and Derek shot off an email to their school after things fell through at Caronport. After a lot of inquiry and prayer, we decided that God was closing doors in Moose Jaw and opening them in Victoria. I don't think the reality of everything has hit me yet, but things are humming right along and we'll be leaving Saskatchewan a little more than a month after we get married.

Which brings me to the next big event: our wedding is only 12 days away! I can't believe how quickly time has flown this year. What with figuring out plans for the fall and attending Alyssa's grad, the wedding has been on the backburner lately, but I think most things are done (and all of the important bits sure are!), and we're getting really excited to celebrate with friends and family and finally tie the knot after 7 years. It's about time!!

So things are going well, and I'll try to keep you posted as I work on my tendancy to hide from everyone when major stuff is going on (which is an unfortunate tendancy to have, seeing as there is almost always major stuff going on).

Let the bells ring out and the banners fly!*

2008-05-28T15:26:00.002-07:00

My mom is here! I came home right after school yesterday and started cleaning and getting dinner ready, and then I put my little sister to work when she came over early (siblings are really good for that kind of stuff). Derek picked Mom up from the bus depot, and now she's here, staying at my place, with me! Yay. I have a feeling there's going to be a whole lot of nonsense and silliness coming from this corner of the province over the next couple of weeks. Oh, and she brought my Hello Kitty banner back with her (it's hanging in our living room - awesome!), along with a bunch of other stuff I'm very happy to have. But I'm happiest of all to have Mom.

In other news, there are a tonne of apple blossoms around here, and they're making me very happy. And almost all of the really big stuff for my wedding is done, so I think I can enjoy myself with the fun stuff now. I'm excited. Only 37 more days!

*My mom says this little rhyme all the time: "I'm here! Let the bells ring out and the banners fly! Feast your eyes on me; it's too good to be true, but I'm here!"

Maybe I should do it this way?

2008-04-30T23:09:00.001-07:00

Some of you may remember the Taiwanese romantic comedy I was hooked on last year. Well, a friend recommended this Korean one to me and I love it! And I think this episode has the best wedding ever. Except I would add Hello Kitty to the dry ice and stylin' wedding gown. What do you think, Angie? Hau bu hau?

Note to Mr. Winter:

2008-04-21T10:33:00.003-07:00

This may come as a surprise to you, but winter is over. Spring officially started nearly a month ago, and the weather has been behaving appropriately since then. This little visit of yours is not appreciated. Last night when I went out, my car was covered in ice. And this morning when I woke up, there was snow everywhere! Now, I know that you often stay this late in the year, and sometimes even later, but to go from 28 degree weather last weekend to -10 degrees this weekend is not to be tolerated. Please go visit somewhere else until November, okay? Thanks.

Sincerely,
Ari <><

p.s. The Milky Way is already open! Really, you should know better.

Why?

2008-04-17T23:51:00.004-07:00

I was looking through posts on my funwall (which I have since deleted - the wall and the posts), and two people sent me a very creepy picture which was not very nice. And THEN someone sent me an optical illusions thingie that popped a scary face up and screamed just when I was immersed in studying the pictures. And of course I screamed back at the top of my voice. And then I went and sat with my roommate and couldn't come back to my room until I'd prayed and calmed down, and even then I had to put happy music on. Horror everything should be outlawed. For serious. Grrr.

All That Glitters

2008-04-07T21:47:00.003-07:00

I love glitter - well, sparkly things in general. They're so pretty and happy. I have a glitter bronzing powder from the body shop that I love. It's fairly subtle, and it makes me feel pretty.

Derek hates glitter. He fumes and rages every time he finds some accidentally attached to him (which happens more often than it used to, I think, now that he hangs out with me). Some friends of ours put fluffy, shiny, pink confetti pieces in their wedding invitations, and Derek was furious when he opened it (and it didn't help that he kept finding bits of it on his clothes and among his things)! Unfortunately for him, I get endless enjoyment out of this. And tonight, when he bugged me just a little too much, I grabbed my glitter brush and attacked. Needless to say, he wasn't happy - but it was the most fun I've had in recent memory. And it was pretty!

How 'bout that weather?

2008-04-04T22:17:00.003-07:00

I subbed at my little sister's school today, and we walked outside after school to see sleet coming down. As we ran to the car, Lys cried, "What is this?" I laughed myself silly. She hasn't lived here for 7 years, and I guess she didn't remember there being a cross between snow and rain. Very cute.

Huzzah and Trouble

2008-04-02T20:59:00.002-07:00

For the first time since before Christmas, I have the interweb on my computer. Oh, bliss! This is also likely to be trouble, seeing as I have lots to catch up on. It will probably take me several months to catch up, but it's nice to be back. Expect increased activity around here. :)

Just around the corner.

2008-03-31T15:05:00.003-07:00

I was driving home from work today (huzzah! for having work!), admiring the sky. I can almost taste spring. The snow is almost completely gone, but the bare ground doesn't look like spring; the green hasn't come out yet. But the sky is blue and white and fluffy and full of promise. I can't wait.

p.s. I know I have a lot of backblogging to do, but I decided I'd never get it done if I kept waiting, and my new roommate's computer (and internet) was free. And really, three months between postings is just silly. I'll update soon with the news and a few thoughts that have managed to stick in there through the past few weeks. I'm so happy to be back.

shen dan kwai le!

2007-12-25T13:36:00.001-08:00

Merry Christmas, everyone! I hope your day was as lovely as mine was. It's been close to a perfect day, spent with family and friends, with all of the wonderful Christmas traditions I love. Sigh. :) Have a beautiful night, and sweet dreams.

Every good and perfect gift

2007-12-11T12:55:00.000-08:00

It figures that as soon as my computer breaks, I have tonnes of things to blog about. And now I can only remember a few things! Grrr. This week has been fabulous, and exactly what I needed. I've been sad (and a little grumpy!) lately, feeling all of the uncomfortable things transition brings. It takes me a long time to feel at home in a place and figure out how I fit, and this move is no exception. But this week has been a nice reprieve. I went to Regina for a couple of days to visit a friend, and it was wonderful. I stayed in the same place I lived in university, and it was like coming home - I knew where everything belongs, and how everything works, and even thought things have changed, it was still familiar and comfortable. Becca took me to check out wedding dresses, and I got a bunch of stressful errands over and finished with. Yay.

And things just got better! I got a package from my mom, with one of my favourite sweaters, and hi-chews (I love the lychee ones), and Chinese on the box! And I found out that I'll probably have four days off at Christmas, which is completely unbelievable. And Derek and I won a 3-day, 2-night hotel package from a wedding show I went to. It's been a good week.

No one tells me anything!

2007-11-14T22:04:00.000-08:00

I found out today that there's a new holiday in February! I had no idea. Apparently Saskatchewan decided that we needed a long weekend then, so now we have "Family Day." What the heck?