So since I moved out, I found a new love... cooking! Now although I may borrow many recipes from my mum and Devon, and make midweek phone calls where my mum picks up and asks "What recipe do you need?", I think I'm really starting to grow into my own sense of culinary skills. Of course, I've picked up tips (mostly about cleaning as you go) over the years, but this is becoming something that I've developed by myself. I hate hate hate reading a recipe that I really want to try only to realize that I'd have to go to the store and buy 5 ingredients that I'll only use for that recipe, and then they'll become dust collectors in the cupboards. In the beginning I would never try those recipes. I used to see a recipe as a really complicated math equation. If you miss one number or don't do the steps in order you get the wrong product. Now that some of my accidents have actually paid off, I realized that cooking does not require a perfection, or at times a recipe. So I try to look at a recipe as a foundation that I get to build on. I see what kind of ingredients work, the logistics and the timing of all the components and then take off with whatever's in the pantry. I'm really really lucky that Gordon will try anything I put it front of him, he never complains, and he's not picky at all. So I feel a lot more confident and happy cooking for someone who's not gonna scrutinize the food on their plate. Sometimes we find real gems: fast, easy, delicious. So I decided to feature them when we do. The first feature is slow cooker ribs. You can get two racks of ribs for a pretty good price, especially if they're on sale. They're great for entertaining company, and because they're in the slow cooker there is almost zero kitchen time.
Directions
Season both sides with salt and pepper and brown in oven at 450, 15 min a side.
Now you make the BBQ sauce. This is terrific cause you can virtually invent your own, and make it exactly to your liking. If you're really strapped for time you can use about 2 cups of your fav BBQ sauce. Here's a recipe we like...
1 cup ketchup
1 cup fav BBQ sauce (we like sweet ones)
1/2 cup brown sugar (you can add less or more depending on how sweet you want it)
2 tbsps of vinegar
2 tsps oregano
2 tsps worcesteshire sauce
1-2 tsps of chili paste/sauce (optional, we like the kick it gives it)
few dashes of regular hot sauce
You can control the level of heat and the type of heat if you want a mustard spice or smokey spice (like using ancho chili powder) etc.
just pour the BBQ sauce over the ribs and set the slow cooker on low for 6-8 hrs, turning occasionally. They're super tender and flavourful. One of our favourite meals for sure!
Monday, June 21, 2010
Sunday, June 13, 2010
Backstreet Boys and Mum practice
So last week was my 20th birthday...changing decades....eeek. I guess I'm officially "old" now, so says my little sister. Gordon had been really building up my birthday present from him, and was really throwing me for a loop. I'm usually a pretty good detective but this one had me stumped. All I knew is that I was really going to like it (cause my mum told me so) and the he got it online. I thought he got it off eBay since he kept turning off the screen every time I went near the computer and was telling me he needed the car to pick up my present (which I thought he had sent to my sister in-law's), but turns out he was leading me down a false path. I honestly had no idea what it could be... So finally the big day came and inside the present bag there was a little jar of homemade saskatoon jam. I already knew I was getting it, since I love homemade jam, especially saskatoon jam, and he'd bought it at the farmer's market a few weeks before. But there wasn't anything else in the bag, so I knew the present must be in the card. I didn't know if he'd taken a picture of the present or what he was up to, but that card was beckoning me. I knew it had to be big since mum was all ready to record the moment on the camera, so I open the envelope and read the card. Then I finally let myself look at the folded paper inside. There was something printed on it, a ticket. And then I saw it...BACKSTREET BOYS! I can't remember screaming and freaking out like that for a long time. I even started crying. For anyone who doesn't know me, I love boy bands from the 90's, especially backstreet boys. They were my childhood. I went to the black and blue concert with my dad and devon and I just remember being in awe and eating my little teeny bopper heart out. To top it all off, my best friend and her husband are coming with us, so it's going to be FABULOUS!!! Now besides the fact that I love BSB and can't wait for my visions of belting out sappy teen ballads to come true, the present was special to me because I knew that Gordon was really making a sacrifice for me by saying he'd share that night with me. BSB and Gordon is like scream-o and me. The sound makes me want to drill pencils into my eyeballs. If that ain't love, I don't know what is.
Now onto the second part of the blog...Mum practice aka my job. I nanny for three kids, Mariah (8), Thomas who has autism (3), and Evangeline (16 months). I'll try and post pictures later. I've only been with them for a month, but I love them to bits already, and since I spend up to 50 hours a week with them, I really feel like I have a big responsibility in teaching and helping raise them, at least for the time being. They make me laugh, make me think, make me raise my eyes to the ceiling and pray that I'll still want to have kids when I'm done. They test my patience in every way possible, but they also make my job so rewarding. Mariah is such a sweet girl. She's obsessed like no other 8 year old I know, with bugs, especially caterpillars. She's so smart, especially with reading, and sometimes the things she says make me forget she's 8 and not 18. Thomas is...Thomas. He's entranced by baby einstein, wal-mart and shapes. He can be incredibly sweet and happy, giggling to himself for no reason, running up and down the sidewalk laughing away, but he can also be incredibly angry and aggressive, to the point where it scares me. He shows emotion on his face very plainly, and sometimes when he's on the verge of a temper tantrum, I can see anger in every line of his face, in every movement of his body. It means a lot of screaming and yelling from him, and a lot of "hands down", "gentle" and time outs from me. But the small successes I make with him are amazing. Small things like getting him to use his fork or spoon instead of his hands, or him coming up to me and sitting on my lap and squeezing me tightly, or teaching him to pull his own shirt down over his head or even getting him to come down the stairs by himself, all make it worth it. Evangeline aka pussycat, is the cutest little thing. Whenever i'm running errands with her, people always coo at her and tell me I have a cute kid. This is the part where I say I'm just the nanny and am glad that I don't have to worry about looking like a young teen mum. I think she's gonna be so quirky when she grows up. She makes the funniest faces, and the weirdest sounds. She's super ticklish and can do some sign language. My favourite days are the ones I can just play with her. I'm trying to teach her things like colours and shapes, and am grateful for the time my mum spent practicing those things with me. The other day we did the shape sorter and she had a lot of trouble putting the shapes in, even if I showed her where they went. We kept putting the shapes in their slots over and over, and finally it clicked. Although I had to turn the shape sorter to the right shape, she knew how they fit and put them in without any problem. She started clapping after every shape she got in, which was pretty adorable. This small moment of learning really made me feel fulfilled. This is what my job's about...sharing these moments of accomplishment with the little ones. I'm so grateful that I don't have to wait to be a mum to experience it, but until then, it sure is good practice.
Now onto the second part of the blog...Mum practice aka my job. I nanny for three kids, Mariah (8), Thomas who has autism (3), and Evangeline (16 months). I'll try and post pictures later. I've only been with them for a month, but I love them to bits already, and since I spend up to 50 hours a week with them, I really feel like I have a big responsibility in teaching and helping raise them, at least for the time being. They make me laugh, make me think, make me raise my eyes to the ceiling and pray that I'll still want to have kids when I'm done. They test my patience in every way possible, but they also make my job so rewarding. Mariah is such a sweet girl. She's obsessed like no other 8 year old I know, with bugs, especially caterpillars. She's so smart, especially with reading, and sometimes the things she says make me forget she's 8 and not 18. Thomas is...Thomas. He's entranced by baby einstein, wal-mart and shapes. He can be incredibly sweet and happy, giggling to himself for no reason, running up and down the sidewalk laughing away, but he can also be incredibly angry and aggressive, to the point where it scares me. He shows emotion on his face very plainly, and sometimes when he's on the verge of a temper tantrum, I can see anger in every line of his face, in every movement of his body. It means a lot of screaming and yelling from him, and a lot of "hands down", "gentle" and time outs from me. But the small successes I make with him are amazing. Small things like getting him to use his fork or spoon instead of his hands, or him coming up to me and sitting on my lap and squeezing me tightly, or teaching him to pull his own shirt down over his head or even getting him to come down the stairs by himself, all make it worth it. Evangeline aka pussycat, is the cutest little thing. Whenever i'm running errands with her, people always coo at her and tell me I have a cute kid. This is the part where I say I'm just the nanny and am glad that I don't have to worry about looking like a young teen mum. I think she's gonna be so quirky when she grows up. She makes the funniest faces, and the weirdest sounds. She's super ticklish and can do some sign language. My favourite days are the ones I can just play with her. I'm trying to teach her things like colours and shapes, and am grateful for the time my mum spent practicing those things with me. The other day we did the shape sorter and she had a lot of trouble putting the shapes in, even if I showed her where they went. We kept putting the shapes in their slots over and over, and finally it clicked. Although I had to turn the shape sorter to the right shape, she knew how they fit and put them in without any problem. She started clapping after every shape she got in, which was pretty adorable. This small moment of learning really made me feel fulfilled. This is what my job's about...sharing these moments of accomplishment with the little ones. I'm so grateful that I don't have to wait to be a mum to experience it, but until then, it sure is good practice.
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