Thursday, February 21, 2008

A Recipe, If I May…

Tonight, I decided to treat my boy.  He loves cheese, any cheese, all cheese.  I’d almost say he has a sick addiction to it.   About a year ago, he bought me a magazine subscription to Style at Home, a Canadian decor magazine that always has all sorts of interesting editorials, home decor ideas and recipes.  In my December issue, I came across a recipe for a warm brie.  If a picture is indeed worth a thousand words, then this recipe was going to be better than…well, most things on the planet…


So I decided I would make it for him, and add a little extra something to it as a way of “Jillianizing” it.    I will warn you…it is stupidly delicious, and I think I’ve created a monster…he enjoyed it that much.

Here is the recipe:


Caramelized Pear on Warm Brie

1  small onion
2 tbsp butter
1  pear - diced
Pinch salt and cinnamon
1/4 cup pear juice or apple juice (I used apple)
3  tbsp chopped pecans
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp fresh thyme
1 tsp cider vinegar
1 round (200g) Brie Cheese

  • Preheat oven to 375 degrees
  • Thinly slice onion and dice pear
  • In a nonstick skillet, melt butter over medium heat; fry pear, onion, salt and cinnamon for 5 minutes or until pear is softened
  • Add pear or apple juice, pecans, brown sugar, thyme and vinegar; boil, stirring often, for 5 minutes or until no liquid remains

Now here is the part I added - so don’t feel you have to do this part - just place the Brie on the baking sheet by itself if you don’t care for the idea of the puff pastry

  • Place Brie on puff pastry piece, roughly 6×6 inches (Pillsbury Doughboy Croissant Pastry works nicely).  Top brie with pear mixture. Fold pastry around brie, creating a bowl that folds in at the top with some of the pear mixture still peaking through. Bake at 375 degreesF for 12 minutes, or until cheese is softened.  Let stand for 3 - 5 minutes.  Then enjoy! 

 

Posted by "J" at 03:41:26 | Permalink | Comments (1) »

Friday, February 15, 2008

Happy Single’s Awareness Day…

Compliments of my cousin, Joel.  


(Happy Valentine’s Day…and Happy Birthday, Sweetheart!)
Posted by "J" at 04:20:43 | Permalink | No Comments »

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

I remember a thunderstorm…

A long time ago, when I was just a young girl of twelve or thirteen, I witnessed the most splendid of thunderstorms.  It all began in the late afternoon.  My brother and I had just arrived home from school.  We both stood on our front step and watched the beautiful gray, almost platinum, clouds roll in over the field that sprawled out in front of our house.  We looked at each other, knowing that what was on it’s way was going to be absolutely spectacular exhibit of nature’s zest for life.  My brother and I, both huge fans of any and all thunder and lightening shows, were fully aware, judging by the shape, size and color of the clouds, that the storm currently sweeping over the village of Tracy was going to be, in a word, extraordinary.   The weather in New Brunswick in the early summer is always conducive to some fantastic rain storms, and the humidity always delivers exhilarating performances by thunder and lightening.  The weatherman had been calling for a storm, but had failed to tell us it would be the storm of the century (or so we were more than happy to believe).  Then it happened. The heavens opened and the fine veil of gray came streaming down out of the sky from the cloud line.  There’s such a marvelous feeling of exquisite anticipation when one is waiting for the rain to fall where they are standing as it slowly, but surely, moves towards them.  It poured, falling so hard, you could literally hear it coming towards you in continuous beats.  We timed how long it took before the rain was just a line of haze on the horizon to the time it actually started pelting our step, basically, all of two minutes.  Any puddles that had previously been in our driveway had turned into small lakes.  The ditch in front of our lawn filled with so much water, I’m sure we could have set sale for the land of the elves and gotten there in minutes flat.  Suddenly, what we had been waiting for finally was taking place.  A lightening bolt came shattering through the clouds, and with a loud CRASH, we realized the thunder was not far behind the lightening on it’s journey to the earth.  It was chaos dancing over creation, an absolute madness that was pure genius to my brother and I.  The beautifully green maples and the oaks were being ravaged by the wind and the rain.  In between thunder booms, you could hear the wind howling and screaming as it ran over the earth.   It was thrilling, so absolutely thrilling.  It was so comforting to be inside our tiny house, hidden from the bedlam that was taking place outside, but having the opportunity to observe the majestic splendor of the rainstorm, and listen to the rain beating off our metal roof.  Within minutes, we had beheld the storm, enjoyed it to our very cores, and then, just as quickly as it had arrived, it was gone.  It had taken leaves, sticks, dirt, and all sorts of other debris with it…and most importantly, it had taken our power.  We had no electricity.  That, to my brother and I, meant one thing, and one thing only…


Dad would be bringing home KFC from town for our dinner…

I love thunderstorms…


Posted by "J" at 22:03:05 | Permalink | No Comments »

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Weirdness…

I’ve been having the strangest dreams lately.  


For example, last night I had a vivid dream or vision of an old friend that I am lately becoming reacquainted with.  She was wearing a dress she had made when we were in high school for a regional competition our school was entered in, but her appearance was that of present day (hair, make-up, etc.)  She was standing in front of a pressure treated-plywood, poorly constructed house, of sorts, and she had her hands outstretched.  It was so real, it freaked me out, all I was thinking the whole time is “You still have that dress???”  Crazy dream…possibly she does still have it, I’m not sure, but I remember really loving it when she made it, and maybe that’s why she was wearing it in my dream.  

A few evenings back, I dreamt I was running through a cartoon field, filled with animated flowers, grass and trees, none of the elements of the dream were realistic, except for me…everything else was animated.  The colors were absolutely spectacular though, and the trees weren’t anything like what we have here on earth.  I went through a tunnel that had been dug out of a mountain side, and after I  was in the tunnel, I realized it was a diamond mine, and there were so many beautiful gems that sparkled brilliantly.  When I came out of the end of the tunnel, to the other side, there was a lake.  It reminded me of a lake you’d see in Banff or Jasper.  It was a beautiful green lake but was so clear, you could see right to the bottom.  I went into the lake, and I wasn’t scared of being in the lake, it felt really calm and peaceful.  I floated on the lake and looked up into the sky, which was yellow, not blue, and then I looked back around to go back through the tunnel, and it was a completely different landscape.  Not a scary or troubling different, just completely altered from what it had been.  So, I just stayed in the lake, and then, when I was ready, I went back out into the new surroundings and began wondering into this new landscape.  That’s where it ended.

I’ve always had vivid and wacky dreams, since as far back as I can remember, but I’ve been having them more frequently lately, and more extreme, and what’s more, I remember every detail about them.  

I do believe that dreams have meanings and that there (in some cases) are definitely reasons we have them.

Does anyone else experience this?  

I’d be really interested to know…crazy dream girl signing off…

Posted by "J" at 20:32:29 | Permalink | Comments (2)

Monday, February 11, 2008

My New Blue Blanket…

Whilst the boy and I were going about our travels in Mexico, I stumbled across the most fantastic little marketplace…well, maybe not the MOST fantastic…but it was pretty swell, to say the least.   The most exciting part of this story is, of course, the find…the new blue blanket.  I don’t know if you’ve seen what is known as a Mexican hand-made blanket, but they are quite thick, well-woven, beautifully crafted and very colorful.   


A friend and I decided we just might like to try and get two of these particular blankets, and get a “deal” in the process.  So, we made our way through the various hallways in the market place, eyeing and spying blankets of all shapes, sizes and colors.   We’d inquire at one or two places, and the price usually was the same at each place…$15 for the particular style of blanket we were looking at.  When we had found a blanket pattern that we were happy with, we began implementing our bargaining technique  (we ended up getting the same blanket because I just really liked the way the blues, grays and light blues came together, as did she, and she has three beautiful boys, so the color scheme just made sense).  I call this technique “The Walk Away”…I got REALLY good at it in China…perhaps some of you have implemented this technique in the past - kudos to you…You start with the price you feel willing to pay at the time (2 for $15, and so on).  The vendor, of course, counters with a more reasonable offer in their minds (1 for $15, good price for you)…then you move up and down,  now entangled in this bargaining war, until finally you are at the price that you will not budge on.  ”2 for $20″ I said to the young lady.  ”Oh no”, she said, “how about 2 for $25?”.  At this point, you start moving slowly towards an exit, any exit and start mumbling nonsense about looking elsewhere.  You are determined in your mind that you will leave this shop with 2 blankets for twenty dollars, or you will leave with nothing at all.   You start to panic a little, because now that you’ve seen the blanket, held it and,even, gotten a little attached to it by already thrice imagining the lovely things this blanket could bring into your life (read more for further explanation on that), you don’t want to just leave without it.   You go back to the blanket again, and say, with a slight sigh, “We’ll keep looking, we saw a few back there anyway”…Finally, the vendor says “Ok, ok, 2 for $20″.  So, away we went, with our new blue blankets, feeling happy and somewhat excited about our deal.

Now I know what you’re thinking, I could’ve just paid the $15 dollars for the blanket and supported the economy, but PEOPLE…do you realize who I am marrying? This man is a most wonderful maniac when it comes to a bargain.  He loves a deal.  To some of his friends, he is known as the Coupon King, and is recruiting new people into his kingdom of coupon nuttiness…i.e. there is now a Coupon Prince.  I love this about him, though, and I wouldn’t have him any other way.  However, it can be difficult to shop with him in a place where you know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that the profit margin is quite high (in the case of the blanket: when I got back to the resort we were staying at, I inquired with the young man who was making my pinada [a virgin pina colada - quite possibly my favorite drink ever] exactly how much a blanket like that would cost if I were to buy it as a vendor - he said $3 US, so  they still made a little bit of money even after giving me a deal…longest parenthesis sentence ever, I know, I’m sorry). So, you see, I have no choice but to get the best deal possible, because the boy loves a bargain.

So, after all of that…I have this new blue blanket.   I have every intention of making this blue blanket my new picnic blanket.  I love picnics…I love everything about picnics, especially the picnic blanket.  It becomes an old friend on a late summer’s eve, while you’re enjoying the quiet of the park, the smell of the grass, the trees, and other various scents that might be floating on the air.  It’s a flexible sort of companion that doesn’t mind laying between you and cold ground, or you and the sand at the beach, or even you and the floor in front of your fire place.  It’s the silent third party that doesn’t ever complain about it’s lot in life, holding you up, holding your picnic guests up, holding your picnic “brings” like music, and books, and sketch pads, and journals, and camera’s,and even doubling as a table spread for your picnic lunch.  This is why I love my picnic blanket, and I’m happy that I have a new one to get acquainted with…now, to just have the patience for summer to arrive…

That is the story of my new blue blanket…I think it’s a good story…

Live, Love, Laugh…


Posted by "J" at 06:19:40 | Permalink | Comments (2)

Friday, February 8, 2008

Grandmother…

Happy Birthday, Dearest Nanni!  I’m sending you lovely and wonderful birthday wishes filled with an immaculate chocolate cake topped with whipped buttercream icing, and lots of balloons and confetti, because I like confetti.  


I love you much and miss you immensely.

Many kisses and hugs,
J
xoxoxo



Posted by "J" at 01:41:49 | Permalink | Comments (1) »

Tuesday, February 5, 2008

On the blog name…

If you happen to be curious about my blog site’s name (miss modderpotts), please, by all means,  inquire! It’s a great story about sisterhood, incredible faith in another human being  and childlike innocence.


 I would be more than  happy to oblige any inquiries with a stellar answer!!!

P.S…I really like the word stellar…I think it’s my word of the day



Posted by "J" at 21:34:15 | Permalink | Comments (2)

What my tea told me…

If the headline confuses you, refer back to the prior “What my tea told me” post.


My tea told me “Live for each other”

I like that.  Personally, in my own little mind, I think that  living solely for yourself can’t be very gratifying.  You can achieve things in your life that bring joy and make you proud that you were able to accomplish them.  However, in most cases, I find that I’m even happier when I am able to help someone else achieve something in life that they have the desire to achieve.  It brings me even more joy to help others accomplish something then if it was just something I was doing for myself.    I do believe you have to take care of yourself, because it is in caring for yourself that provides you the strength to care for others and care for them well.  I like the idea of living for each other, though, living for your spouse to help them in whatever way you can…your spouse, children, family, friends, etc.   It doesn’t have to mean just living for those in close proximity to your everyday life, though. It can mean living for all mankind.  If we lived more for each other as human beings, and I mean REALLY lived for EACH OTHER (no hidden agenda’s, no self gratification), we might just find that the world would become a better place.  I’d like that…I’m going to try it out today, I think…and maybe tomorrow…and the next day…and the next day…rambling…moving on…

Yep…good lesson from the tea…Yogi Tea…

Live Love and Laugh, Everyone!!!  Enjoy your day and all that is in it, and if you have the time to take in some Thai food, do that…because Thai food is awesome!!! 

mmmmm…Thai food…


Posted by "J" at 16:56:52 | Permalink | No Comments »

Sigh…

I have returned…


I have returned from sun, sand and surf.  I have returned from balmy, summer breezes.  I have returned from wrapping myself in warm, soft beach.  I have returned from the sound of the enormous waves of the Pacific crashing to the shore. I have returned from one of the world’s most beautiful natural color palettes.  I have returned…to a freeze-your-tooshie-off crazy Canadian winter.  Sigh again…well, while it lasted, Cabo san Lucas was a wonderful place of rejuvenation and relaxation, and I was so thankful to have been able to go, with my sweetheart, and enjoy the warmth of the Baja Peninsula.  The cold, harsh winter that seems to be Alberta’s fate this year can be extremely draining, so Cabo was welcomed with arms wide open.  I will definitely go back, as soon as I’ve visited all of the other places on the planet that lay on my “Places to See in the Wide World” list.  It was a lovely time and I am grateful for it, and even still, I am glad to be home.

I am indeed rejuvenated and ready to tackle February with vigor and fury, but, you know…a classy, passionate and fun  fury.  February is a big month for my love and I.  We just returned from vacation in beautiful Mexico.  We will be celebrating Chinese New Year this week (Gung Hay Fat Choy everyone!!!). Valentine’s Day and the boy’s birthday seem to fall on the same day, so we will be doing some celebrating for both occasions…double the fun! Weeeeeee!  We have curling championships coming up quickly.  There also is the pile of wedding plans I set aside just before leaving for Cabo that have to now be looked at.  Thankfully, we’ve got lots to keep February fun and exciting. 

Sigh…I think I must go back into my rejuvenated state for now…it will not be in the form of a sunny beach, but rather bath salts in my soaker tub.

Here are some pictures from wonderful Cabo












Posted by "J" at 05:12:36 | Permalink | Comments (1) »