{ romantic dinner for one }

After a long (LONG!) week of working (and still having tomorrow's early morning shift to dread), I decided that I definitely needed to set tonight, Friday night, aside as a total wind-down night. What I was totally in the mood for was a mellow, romantic-feeling night of relaxation. Derek, however, had church commitments set up, so that left me, myself, and I at home to enjoy the wide open evening.

It is now quarter to seven and I just finished my romantically luxurious homemade dinner. I picked up a carton of gourmet Gardonnay soup from the grocery store along with some fresh veggies. I came home and made myself a fresh spinach salad (drizzled with my favorite poppyseed dressing) and served it up on my favorite square plate. I heated the soup and put it into a nice, wide bowl with a dollop of sour cream and a couple fresh spinach leaves on top. I poured myself a glass of the Coke I was so desperately craving, but I used a wine glass instead of the usual tumbler. When I set the table for myself, I couldn't believe how glamorous this simple meal looked! I felt like I was sitting down for dinner at an expensive downtown restaurant or posh hotel. Keeping myself company with Rachel Ray and Bob Blumer, I took my time eating, swirling the sour cream into my delicious soup, munching each veggie to enjoy the individual tastes, and taking slow, deliberate sips of my bubbly drink.

Right now I am absolutely stuffed and am already feeling more relaxed and at ease. For the rest of the evening I have Elizabethtown lined up (with popcorn and a Twix bar), with the possibility of a bubble bath and early bedtime to follow. I am tingly with anticipation. It's nice to finally be learning how to enjoy my time alone.

{ take me to the beach }

I am craving a day at the beach like you wouldn't believe. I've been working 2:00-10:00 every day this week, which leaves just enough time for me to enjoy an episode of The Barefoot Contessa on the Food Network before I hop on the bus for work. Smiling out at the camera from her quaint Hampton kitchen, Ina Garten seems to say "life is happier when you live by the ocean". Being an interior prairies girl myself, perhaps this is just another case of "the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence," but perhaps not. Wherever I go, I can't seem to escape the beauty of the coast.

Here are some of the vicariously thrilling blogs and posts I've stumbled upon this week. They are helping to stave off my need to get in the car and drive for fourteen hours to reach the Pacific.

Amy's seaside home at Atlantic Ave.

Pea Soup's week away to the coast.

Keri Smith's message from the ocean.

Superhero Journal's beach birthday party.

Got any more beachy goodness to share? Please send it my way!

{ big beautiful cinnamon buns }

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, I took a short morning class on how to make baked goods containing yeast. The crowning glory of this course was the cinnamon bun recipe (which really is delicious). I will now share this glorious recipe with you, as my instructor shared it with me.

First, make basic sweet dough:

BASIC SWEET DOUGH

Activate yeast in a liquid measuring cup:

Put ½ cup warm water in measuring cup. Stir in ½ tsp sugar. Then sprinkle 1 tbsp (or envelopes) yeast over the surface of the water. Let it sit for about 10 minutes, or until it has grown.

While the yeast is growing, start your dough:

In a large bowl, using your hands, rub together 5½ cups flour, 1 tbsp salt, ¼ cup sugar, and ¼ cup butter or hard margarine (softened at room temperature).

Once dry ingredients have been rubbed together, create a well on the side of your large bowl.

In a large (4-cup) measuring cup, lightly beat 2 eggs. To the beaten eggs, add warm water to the 2 cups mark. Put this mixture into the well of your bowl.

Add yeast mixture to well of your bowl.

Add ¾ cups of milk powder to the well of your bowl.

Using a wooden spoon, beat the wet ingredients with approximately 50 quick, back-and-forth strokes. Then mix in dry ingredients. Once incorporated, turn dough out onto floured countertop and knead with hands, adding flour to prevent sticking (up to ¼ cup flour total). Knead until dough bounces back. Place dough ball back into large bowl. If bowl has a lid, place the lid on; otherwise, oil the top of your dough ball and cover the bowl with plastic wrap.

Place bowl in warmest place of your house and allow it to rise until double its original size (approximately 2 hours).

Two hours later ... now make your cinnamon buns

CINNAMON BUNS
(above sweet dough recipe will make 2 batches of 16 buns)

Wet your hand with some water and then uncover your dough and punch it down. Oil counter top and turn out HALF of dough ball. Roll dough into a large rectangular shape. Have rectangular cake pan at the ready.

Grease pan and top of dough generously with approximately ¾ cup softened hard margarine or butter (be generous).

On top of butter layer, sprinkle brown sugar generously (both over pan and dough).

Over brown sugar layer, generously sprinkle cinnamon (both over pan and dough).

** LEAVE ONE LONG EDGE OF THE RECTANGLE WITH A HALF-INCH BORDER (For rolling later)

Once toppings are on, roll dough into a long log, moving towards the edge with the border. Once at the free edge, pinch dough to stick shut and seal the log.

Cut the log into 16 even pieces (end pieces will be a bit smaller).

Place the sixteen pieces, swirly side looking up, into your cake pan, overtop of the sugar mixture. Once the sixteen pieces are in place, flatten them out with the palm of your hand so that they fill the pan to the edges.

Let this pan of raw buns sit out until they double in size (approximately 45 minutes).

Once risen, bake buns in a 350°F oven for 20 minutes. After twenty minutes, remove from oven and allow to rest 7 minutes in pan (will allow sugar to congeal). Then turn out of pan to cool.

ENJOY!

{ ambitious spring projects }

Can you sense the mood I'm in? I'm invigorated by the fresh season, and am caught up in wild ideas of how I should use my spare time. Here is my to-the-date list of ambitious spring projects:

One. Create a better organizational system for the spare room storage closet (the "everything" closet)

Two. Help my mom organize a garage sale at her house.

Three. Make topical scrapbooks from all my piles of old magazines (one for recipes, one for home ideas, one for fashion, etc.); this way I can clear out the hordes of dust-collecting mags.

Four. Build shelves for my (literal) closet of a laundry room, which is an explosion of dirty clothes and cleaning supplies.

Five. Revive my journal writing habits.

Six. Read before bed at night.

Seven. Make a patchwork quilt out of all my old favorite t-shirts.

Eight. Hang our large wedding photo (it has been propped against the wall for years).

Nine. Do my paint by numbers kit :)

Ten. Write a few hand-written letters to friends (it's been a while).


At the end of the season, I suppose I shall have to evaluate how productive I actually was ... I'll keep you posted.

{ welcome to the home hotel }

my new bedroom reading nook

All that talk about spring last night put me in a spring cleaning mood this morning, especially since the dust in my bedroom has been keeping me up with a cough and a wheeze late at night. While Derek took a nap, I began cleaning, pumping the radio to keep me motivated. Mountains of clothes were separated for laundry, clean items were put away, the rug and drapes were vacuumed, and the whole room got a thorough dusting. I reorganized my closet, tucking my woolen sweaters higher out of reach for the new season, and I organized all my scarves and belts into a nice little shoebox.

Despite the cleanliness of the room, however, I still was not thrilled with it. I stayed up till three AM last night with an intriguing book, squinting through the dull light till my eyes burned. I wish I had somewhere in my house where I could read in the evenings, but all my lights are too dim, except for the light that I keep beside the computer in the office.

Well, I decided, there was no reason why I couldn't rearrange things in my own house! While Derek was still sleeping, I started making the big haul. I cleared a spot in the corner of the bedroom and tugged our faux leather chair out of the living room and into the bedroom. I dug around in the closet and came up with a pretty blue throw that we got for a wedding present but have hardly used, and it looked just perfect against the chocolate brown chair. I added a throw cushion from off our bed and went to get the office lamp. The above photo shows the end results, which I am quite thrilled with, overall. I have the radio and CD player right beside me, a nice halogen light to save my eyes, and a basket of books and magazines down below. A blanket and pillow will help cozy things up a bit late at night.

I have a potluck church dinner to attend tonight, but I am almost more excited to get home and enjoy my picture perfect bedroom!

I remember once when I cleaned my bedroom as thoroughly as this, a friend said something quaint to me: "Enjoy your stay at the home hotel." As my room got cleaner and cleaner today, her cute phrase kept popping into my mind. This room really does look like a hotel room, I thought as I cleaned.

Tonight I will indeed enjoy my stay at the home hotel.

{ in honor of spring }

Well, I've been doing the seasonal layouts all along, and this year I considered switching it up a little and doing more random layouts. However, I just couldn't shake the fact that I get so fired up about the beauty inherent in the transitions between seasons. I always think that autumn or spring will get less exciting, or that the first snow will become a bore, but that really never happens.

These days I've had to do a lot of outdoor walking around in slushy conditions. Unfortunately, I own no rubber boots, so my sneakers have had to suffice. I've done a bit of slipping and sliding, and have tracked much muddy water indoors with me in the process of hiking through the sloppy terrain. This afternoon I had to walk from the school I was substitute teaching at to get to the nearest bus depot, about fifteen minutes away by walking distance. My eyes locked onto the street gutters where miniature ponds and rivers were flowing. I had an urge to throw a couple toothpicks in the dwarfed rapids and watch them race as I always did when I was a kid. Unfortunately, one never has toothpicks on hand when one needs them.

Toothpicks or no, my slushy afternoon trek helped me make up my mind about one thing: my blog definitely needed a spring makeover. The first day of spring has officially come and gone already, and today, this Friday afternoon, was the first official day of Spring Break for school aged kids and for us, their teachers. I craved Easter-y, brilliant pastel colors, with the hope that they help rekindle in the human spirit.

I selected the quote on the right because it seemed so true to my life this past winter. Our winter was full of adversity. We went through intense financial difficulties in November, right in time for Christmas. Our car was a heavy burden on us, and the government incorrectly processed our taxes, declaring that we owed them $3000 (this has finally, just this week, been remedied). In January our family had to bear the loss of a brother, right around the same time when Derek went back to school while still maintaining his full time job. Yes, it was indeed a winter of adversity, a winter so lengthy that there were days we felt we could not make it through another single day. There were days that we (especially I) cried, and days when it was too hard to even do that. Some of those dark days we faced made it especially difficult to remember the hope of spring.

And yet this week something in me realized that spring had come without our noticing it. Derek and I had days of such immense joy and laughter. We've become so playful with one another again. Our home has regained a relaxed feel. Our bathroom is even squeaky clean for the first time in ages. We've been blessed in regards to job and school opportunities, and we're slowly making repairs on our car. Our dear friends and cousins Jordan and Joelle had their baby just a few weeks ago, and we've already had the beautiful baby girl in our home, snoozing, while we talked and laughed, eating our first barbequed meal of the year. When did all this newness of life and hope creep up on us, without our noticing?

I do not by any means dare to say that all adversity is necessary or beneficial. Surely death, especially, can never be considered a happy occasion. However, I must say, ironically, how especially blessed I feel this spring. The sight of melting heaps of snow is especially beautiful; the wide open windows and crisp air, particularly refreshing. Colors come alive in new ways and my words find their way back to me in startlingly pleasant ways. This spring layout is a celebration of all these things in my life.

I hope this cheerful layout helps you remember the pleasantries of spring, too.

{ WARNING! }

Have you ever encountered a stupid warning label? Here is my first personal encounter with one. Derek and I were sitting, solemn in our own thoughts the other night, when the warning label (not to mention the ingredients label) caught my eye and I got a serious case of the giggles. This is a jar of Dry Roasted Peanuts (no salt, no oil, no nothing!). First off, the fact that the Ingredients are "Peanuts" is slightly hilarious in itself, but the fact that the allergy warning indicates "Caution: This product contains peanuts" was enough to get me doubled over and pointing, breathless, so that Derek could read it as well. Of course he had to laugh.

Thought I had to share it with you, too.

* * * * * * * * * * *
See a list of other stupid warning labels. Or, read a funny book about them.

{ oh my achin' back }

It's been one long, productive day. I woke up, just getting over my flu, to head back to junior high and teach grade sevens, eights, and nines some science while their regular teacher was away. They were demure and good for the most part, save a couple of wily grade seveners that always seem to give me trouble when I visit their school. At lunch time I was done officially working, although now that I was up and out of bed for the first time in two days, a spark was beginning to flame within me! There would be no more naps for me! No more Doctor Phil and Martha and Regis and Kelly! I decided that perhaps I would make some cinnamon buns from my Saturday baking class at the community college.

Alas, when I got home and peeked in my cupboards, I realized that in my zeal for buying my new, needed supplies (even a new rectangular baking pan and a wooden spoon!), I forgot to buy the powdered milk, which was an essential main ingredient in all my teacher's handed-out recipes. So, having to put my baking off till tomorrow, I decided that I would at least get my kitchen ready for the anticipated task. I could wash down my counters, getting them nice and clean to roll out some bread dough. However, I looked at my counters and realized how overall messy and crowded they were. I would start with the dirty dishes--if I cleaned those up, then I could clear some counter space. I washed one load in the dishwasher and another load (of delicate and finicky items) by hand. I let them dry while I moved over to the side counter and sorted my bills, magazines, teaching papers, and junk mail. I turned around to put the clean dishes away but stopped in my tracks as I noticed what an awful jungle of cables and cords our computer was spewing all over our large penninsula-shaped countertop (the most useful kitchen workspace by a longshot). Neglecting the clean dishes for a while longer, I resolved to move the laptop, which had been camped out in the kitchen since Christmas-time, back to its original home in the office. I yanked out all the cords and plugs, untangled them all, and made neat little piles, using twist ties to harness the mess. I picked up the laptop and moved into the office to set it down, and then I remembered why I hadn't moved it back in there sooner.

The office was a complete and utter disaster. The computer's old spot had been completely taken over by junk that had been moved off the bookshelf. Things from the bedroom had made their way onto the bookshelf. Bills, Christmas cards, magazines, and who knows what else was strewn on the floor, under the desk, on the chair, and, basically, everywhere. I set the computer down in the living room while I resolved to at least clear a spot for it on the desk.

But, when I went to clear a spot for it on the desk, I quickly found I had to clear a spot for all the stuff that had just previously been on the desk. Some of it belonged in the overly engorged filing cabinet, so I began emptying the whole thing out and rearranging all the files, alphebetizing it, and clearing out old bills. In the meantime, I worked my way around the room picking up other items that needed to find their way into my new filing system (there were a lot of said items, let me tell you!).

Once spaces were slowly clearing so that carpet and desktop were visible, I could start dusting, wiping, rearranging, and placing things in my quaint new leather organizers that I got for Christmas. In total, I threw out nearly two garbage bags (!) full of mostly paper (keep in mind that I also purged my University notes for the second time).

And now, I'm sitting in my cute new (old) office, typing away, happy as can be. I'd forgotten how much I enjoy having this space, being able to look out the window into the empty lot (instead of staring at my sink full of dishes).

However, I started this whole amazing frenzy at 1:00 PM and now it is five after midnight. I cleaned for eleven solid hours. My back is just now reminding me of that fact.

Sheesh, I think they should have retitled that course that I took on Saturday. Breads: Big Beautiful Cinnamon Buns was not an adequate title. I've hereby retitled the course: Breads: How to prep your counter space for Big Beautiful Cinnamon Buns and somehow end up with a clean office, two bags of garbage, and no bread.

{ the wisdom of a young girl: }

{ pizza, cinnamon buns, cakes }

cakes baked on Sunday
This past weekend was a weekend of baking. On Friday night my two good friends, Angela and Christine, who happen to be high school aged sisters, came over for a girl's night in. We made homemade pizzas (eight mini ones with various toppings) and baked them off a few at a time, enjoying the traditional, laid back Friday night pizza and coke meal. We sat on bar stools for roughly five hours, doing nothing but talking, laughing, munching, and reading cookbooks. For dessert we enjoyed Dr. Oetker's Chocolate-Raspberry Lava cakes (to which I added some fresh whipped cream and frozen, hand-picked raspberries that were in my freezer). It was the perfect evening, altogether.

Saturday morning I woke up bright and early and headed out to the baking class that my mom gave me for Christmas. It was across town in a large high school's Foods classroom, which was reminiscent of my own junior high days spent in HomeEc class. The class was entitled: Breads: Big, Beautiful Cinnamon Buns and was supposed to teach beginning bakers how to properly use yeast when baking. An older lady, an experienced baker, was our teacher, and luckily all of us students were beginning bakers who had never used yeast before. I picked up many good techniques and recipes, and came home with my own container full of yummy treats. I will try, sometime soon, to make those same cinnamon buns at home (hopefully they will work for me!). Once I have them mastered, I will share the recipe with you all.

Sunday morning, I woke up to more baking tasks. Christine came back over to help me bake cakes for our Sunday night church cafe. We had settled on baking three types of cakes (but we doubled up on the raspberry and made two). You can see our beautiful cakes from the pictures above; we made a Chocolate Brownie Torte, a Rasberries and Cream cake (aka Raspberry Poke Cake), and a Pineapple Upside Down cake (recipe follows). The Pineapple cake was the only one we made from complete scratch (the others used boxed cakes to start). I couldn't believe how beautiful our Pineapple Cake turned out! The top tasted delicious, with the carmelized brown sugar and butter. The brownie torte, whether you can see it or not, was decorated by Christine with a beautiful basket-weave design on top and little chocolate icing stars and rosettes dotting the plate. Overall, it was a complete success.

And so now, I leave you with the recipe for our Pineapple Upside Down Cake, as found in the Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook (page 164).

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

2 tablespoons butter
⅓ cup packed brown sugar
1 8-ounce can pineapple slices, drained
4 maraschino cherries, halved
1⅓ cups all-purpose flour
⅔ cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
⅔ cup milk
¼ cup butter, softened
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla

1. Melt 2 tablespoons butter in a 9 x 1½-inch round cake pan. Stir in brown sugar and 1 tablespoon water. Arrange pineapple and cherries in the pan. Set aside.

2. In a medium mixing bowl stir together flour, granulated sugar, and baking powder. Add milk, the ¼ cup butter, egg, and vanila. Beat with an electric mixer on low speed until combined. Beat on medium speed for 1 minute. Spoon batter over fruit in the prepared pan.

3. Bake in a 350ºF oven for 30-35 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted near center comes out clean. Cool on wire rack for 5 minutes. Loosen cake from pan; invert onto a plate. Serve warm.

{ africa bound }

photo from the Gwembe Valley, Zambia, Africa trip 2004
Well, I thought maybe today was the day I should tell all of you about my plans for this summer: I will be travelling to Africa with a team of 18 to build an orphanage, work with street kids, and, in short, to share God's love to people halfway around the world who are hurting.

We will be visiting Jeffrey's Bay, South Africa, and a tiny village in Zambia called Muuka (think grass huts, dry soil, and free-roaming chickens!). We will spend close to two weeks in each place, making our total trip approximately 4 weeks long. We'll be leaving at the end of May and coming home near the end of June. I am terrified and excited, and even the preparations for this trip (which for me have been a long time in the making) have been quite a journey in themselves.

Derek first went to Africa when we were dating. We had been dating for only three months but were already very much in love and thinking down the road to marriage. He had to leave for two months for his missions trip to Africa, which was part of the practical component for his last year in Bible College. Tearfully we said our goodbyes and knew that the two months ahead of us would be a huge testing time for our relationship. Nevertheless, once two months were up, Derek came home a changed person, but he was still very much wanting to spend his life with me. I, somewhat less changed, was both mystified and terrified by how much a trip could change a person (even for the better). I am a person who is somewhat afraid of change and who is very comfortable with the familiar, and such a risky trip was one of the things I dreaded most for myself.

When we started working at the Korean church, Derek wanted very much for other young adults to experience the same things he had, so he organized another trip to Africa through his mentor who lives in South Africa. I was originally supposed to go on the first trip (2 summers ago), but I found a way out by making up some University courses during the summer. Since the courses conflicted with the trip, I could no longer go (much to the relief of my deep-seated terrors). This past summer Derek and four other college-aged young adults led 17 jr. and sr. high students into the jungles of Panama to do other ministry-related tasks with a Panamanian tribe. I skipped out on this 10-day trip as well, hoping to sink myself a full-time teaching position with the public school board. Thus, I evaded another life-changing trip (but my teaching job evaded me as well).

This year when Derek said he planned to repeat the college and career trip to Africa, I was in deep conflict with myself. I wanted very much to go and to finally experience all the amazing things that I had seen in countless videos and pictures from Derek's other two trips. I very much wanted to help others who were in need. I wanted to prove to myself that I am a strong woman, stronger even though the strength that God can provide for me. And yet, I was still so afraid that I would die, get a disease, or be shot or raped or mugged. Truth be known, there is still a part of myself that remains afraid of these things. And yet, little by little, I am allowing my excitement to overwhelm my fears. I signed up for the trip without allowing myself the luxury of second thoughts, and I hurried up to start saving money, to book my shots, to begin my passport application. There's no going back, I promised and threatened myself.

Two days ago I got my shots. My blood now queerly swimming with Hepatitis A, Yellow Fever, Typhoid, and Flu viruses and bacteria, I know there truly is no going back. My passport application sits in front of me now, waiting to be turned in. My recent prayers have been forward-focused, looking ahead to the four weeks that I will spend in Africa. I pray for the safety of the whole team, including myself, but I've also been praying that we would sincerely be able to make a difference. I've been praying that we would have wisdom and compassion when entering into this tremendously different culture. I pray that God would take us (me) through the difficult and painful time of purging the self of its selfishness. I am daily struggling to find new ways to do away with my own greed, vanity, and self-centeredness. I have stopped trying to quench every one of my own desires and am trying to learn more about the responsibilities I have as one of the haves in this world (as opposed to the have nots).

And now, strangely and surprisingly, I find that I am truly looking forward to May 25, when we will begin our long journey by plane to the other side of the world. I still have butterflies in my stomach when I think too long on it, but I suppose that's only normal. I can't even begin to guess what I will see and experience, and who I will meet and come to love during my time away from home.

I wanted to wait until I was more overcome with excitement than fear before I announced this trip publicly to all of you. I woke up this morning, knowing that today was finally that day.

{ quaint }

the hotel down the street from ours, Banff AB

{ tagged }

I've been tagged by Karel!

Four Jobs I've had
1. Movie theatre concession worker
2. Booster Juice smoothie maker
3. Hospital foods worker
4. Substitute teacher

Four movies I can watch over and over
1. Little Women
2. Under the Tuscan Sun
3. Cold Mountain
4. The Sandlot

Four places I have lived
1. The little green and white house where I was born
2. The house where my family still lives
3. The apartment Derek and I first had when we were married
4. The condo we live in now
(all these homes are within the same city, believe it or not!)

Four TV shows I love
1. Grey's Anatomy
2. What Not to Wear
3. ER
4. Survivor

Four places I've vacationed
1. Banff
2. Mayan Riviera (Mexico)
3. Montana
4. San Diego

Four of my favorite dishes:
1. BLT/Clubhouse sandwiches
2. My alfredo/mushroom rotini
3. Pizza from Pharoah's pizza
4. garlic mashed potatoes

Four websites I visit daily:
1. google.ca
2. sks
3. maganda.org
4. superhero journal

Four places i would rather be right now
1. gardening in the summer sun on my balcony
2. working as a full time teacher
3. New Zealand and the South Pacific
4. out of debt

Four people i am tagging
- any four people that want to play along! let me know!