Moroccan Chicken and My Relaxed Weekend

I have officially fallen in love with my crock-pot. It makes meals so much simpler, and I have not come across a bad crock pot recipe yet!
I took out a bunch of books from the Library on slow-cooker recipes, and have now tried recipes from 2 out of 3 books, and they've both been awesome.

A few nights ago I tried "Moroccan Chicken" it was flavourful, easy and went wonderfully with some hot couscous!

I've been asked to supply the recipe, so here it is! :

Moroccan Chicken:

• 1 Tbs. Oil
• 1 Onion, thinly sliced
• 1 Garlic clove, crushed
• 2 Carrots, thinly sliced
• 1 tsp. Salt
• 1/2 tsp. ground Turmeric
• 1/2 tsp. ground Cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. ground Ginger
• 1/2 tsp. ground Black Pepper
• 1 large can of Chickpeas, drained
• 12 oz. Sweet Potatoes, cut into cubes
• 2 c. Chicken stock
• Finely grated rind of 1 Lemon
• 1 Tbs. lemon juice
• 8 Chicken thighs, skinned

Heat oil in large saucepan, add the Onion and garlic; cook for 5 min, stirring occasionally until beginning to turn golden brown.

Stir in Carrots, Salt, Turmeric, Cinnamon, Ginger and Pepper. Add the Chickpeas, Sweet Potato, Stock and Lemon rind. Bring just to boil and transfer to slow-cooker.

Arrange the Chicken on top of the veggies, pushing them gently into the liquid.

Cover and cook on LOW for 6-8 hours. Stir in Lemon juice just before serving.

I then just served it with some couscous and it was a lovely meal! Also, a great leftover; re-heated it almost tasted better!

I am very excited! Jeremie and I have our tickets to go back to Ontario for Christmas! We'll be down for about 2 weeks - a nice long visit, perfect for visiting all of our relatives and friends.

The house finally stopped smelling of paint, and I'm hoping today I can get my painting re-hung on the wall. I also dug through my photo's and I'm putting out more photo's of my family. I have hung a few on my fridge and I'm going to use up some of my many, unused frames and hang some nice ones on the walls.

I have also finished my Christmas shopping! YAY! All finished and it's not even December yet! My mother would be proud. :) I even started Christmas baking.
I had some girlfriends over to help, and we made "Butterscotch Confetti" , a wonderful Christmas recipe from my Mother. It freezes beautifully and keeps well until that busy December season.

My Husband, however, found out that he quite liked Butterscotch confetti, and now I need to make another pan! But I can't really point fingers, as I'm just as guilty....They just taste SO good!

Today is a relaxing Saturday. No plans this weekend, just hanging out and vegetating. Jeremie took me out for Breakfast this morning to our local Mennonite restaurant: "Country Cousins." It was a nice treat.

I just took this photo - Jeremie is trying to watch his Ottawa Senators (hockey) play, a rare treat out here in Alberta. Normally we just get local games. Notice the intense attention he's paying to the game. Lol, he loves his Hockey.

Have a good weekend, and God Bless!

~ Jenny

Painting Day!

Well, it's November. Cold winds and snow have already visited my small town, giving warnings to the freezing winter that is starting to settle around us.
I decided this would be a good time to paint my little apartment; we're in a sub-level apartment, and I knew that once winter was here - I'd go squirrely with all the white, bare walls. I painted my living room and half the hallway a bright not-quite-neon green. I absolutely love it, getting a tinted primer really made the difference.

My kitchen I wanted bright and cheery, so I got yellow. In truth I wanted it more golden, but I'm still happy with the result.

My dining room and other half of the hallway is a rich Burgundy. I can't wait to see our Christmas tree against it in just a few weeks!

I wish I had taken a photo of the "painting crew" that showed up at my house. It had started with the youth pastor at my church offering to help me paint. (which is awesome, considering he used to be a professional house painter!) He then enlisted the help of another young man, whose wife I am good friends with.

Lance, the youth pastor helped me buy the right paint and primer as well as the proper amount - he said he and Paki (the other young man) would be by at 8:30 am to start painting.

Sure enough, they showed up at 8:30 on the dot and got right down to business helping me move furniture and clean the walls.

Jeremie, unfortunately had to work that day and missed out on the painting adventure.
A few hours into the painting, Lance got a phone call from the Pastor, who offered to help as well.

Now I had three people painting my house! Lance wouldn't even let me paint, he said they "got it covered."

A few hours later I got a knock on my door, happily I invited another mutual friend of all of ours, James, who had heard I was painting my house, and as he "wasn't doing anything" decided to come over and help as well!
I had four men painting my house - my only job was coffee runs and making "man-wiches" for them at lunch.

None of them would accept any payment, instead they all agreed they'd like a hot curry dinner instead, at some point....So! I told them that I would be happy to feed them dinner next week.

They painted and put all the furniture back in the time period between 8:30am to 5:30pm.

It was absolutely amazing! I love my apartment so much now, and Jeremie really liked how it turned out as well.

Today I did my grocery shopping and took care of Jeremie who is suffering from either food poising or the stomach flu. He's been so sick and has no energy, as he was up almost all of last night. I made him some chicken noodle soup and bought him the proper drugs, as well as easily digested food like applesauce.

Oh! Speaking of dinner I should check my soup!

God Bless,

~ Jenny

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween Everyone!

While Jeremie and I didn't celebrate too large this year, we still put out our pumpkin and I had some chip bags nearby, in case we had any little visitors.
Even if we don't get any, I'm sure Jeremie will appreciate the extra snack of Doritos in his lunch for the next few...months. *It was a BIG box.*

The last few weeks have been more than busy! Last week I was down in Ontario visiting my family. It was wonderful being able to cuddle my little nephew and go out for a "girls day" with my mom and sister again.

The week before that I was flat on my back with a horrible cold/flu. It really hit me like a ton of bricks. I had a scratchy throat for the morning and afternoon, but by the evening I could hardly talk.

The next day was so horrible that Jeremie stayed home from work to take care of me and drive me to the hospital - I thought I was coming down with either strep or laryngitis, both of which I'd want the antibiotic for as soon as possible.

It took a good week to get over, but many Popsicles and orange juices later, I was myself again.

Today I woke up feeling good and refreshed. I decided that I wanted to try making a pie.
My Father's an awesome pie-maker and for years I was his 'right hand man' making pastry and fillings from scratch.
So I decided on an Apple Pie Recipe that I found on www.allrecipes.com . It seemed simple and had awesome reviews.

My big dilemma came when I had to peel the apples - anyone who knows me knows that I am not very handy with a peeler. But, I do own a "Rotato" , an electric potato peeler. Apparently it works on Apples too! *laugh* It didn't core the apples for me, but I was happy enough just getting them peeled!

So I cut up my apples and started on my pastry. It went well enough, no little catches and the pastry felt right. I remembered all the little tips my dad showed me and sure enough I had a bottom crust!

Now the Recipe I used asked for a "lattice top" on my pastry. I knew what it looked like but had never actually done it myself. I went first, to my "Joy Of Cooking" and sure enough, there was a written description of how to do it....unfortunately it really didn't make any sense to me.
Being the resourceful Librarian I'm supposed to be, I went to my next best source.

YouTube.

Sure enough, after a quick search on "Lattice top pastry" I came across this video the chef explained clearly what he was doing and filmed it step-by-step. Perfect!
Clearly he had good instructions, because I was able to finish my pastry top, and feel pretty good about how my first attempt looked!

It really does look much more complicated than it really is. The trick is to keep the bottom crust edges long enough to tuck up and over the edges of your strips. But not too long that it's too bulky. *which mine was, but meh, it's yummy crust, who cares if it's thick?*
About 15 minutes at 425' and 45 minutes at 350 later I came out with this!

I was very happy with it - and so was my husband! ;) It turned out better then I thought it would, and now I know better how to make my crusts for next time.
I'll be posting the recipe later for anyone who's interested!

Have a Happy Halloween!

~ Jenny

Happy Thanksgivings!

Happy Thanksgiving from Canada!

Today starts off my busy Thanksgiving season - I'll be heading off to Edmonton with Jeremie to visit my sister-in-law and her husband.
We'll be down from Friday to next Monday, a good length of time I think, not too short but not too long either.

Because of the long drive, Jeremie and I decided I would go to school with him, and from there leave straight to Edmonton, effectively cutting almost an hour of driving.

He's in the middle of a welding test and I'm hanging out in the library - which I must say is very nice. Much better then my old college's library!

This morning, it was -5 and the weather has called for flurries this afternoon and evening. The high today is only 2 degrees!
I know I'm more north then Ontario, but getting snow already?!

In Ontario it would at least hold off until mid to late November.

I have already pulled out all the winter gear such as our coats, hats and mitts.

Our landlord said that someone would be coming around soon to re-do all the windows in our apartment. I am really looking forward to that - this week we had a wind storm and I could hear it howling through and around our kitchen window.
Jeremie has told me that he's woken up to a small snowdrift sitting on the windowsill through last winter.
On the plus side, heat is included in our rent, so if we need to crank it up, at least it's not on our dime.

Well I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and for you Canadians, I hope you have a good Thanksgiving!

God Bless,

~ Jenny

They Call Me Mellow Yellow

I can't believe it's happening already! In fact, here in Alberta it's almost finished! The trees have all turned bright yellow (some orange - no red :( ) And most of the leaves have fallen. My entire backyard was covered with leaves.

We have some young boys (ages 6 & 7) living in the apartment beside us, today they were out "raking" the leaves and, as they explained to me, making an Igloo out of leaves.

I wanted to go help, but groceries had to be bought! So I wished them good luck with their igloo building and went on my way.

Last week was beautiful weather, warm 20's and 25's. I would drag out one of our large blankets and all the pillows I could carry, and Jeremie, my friend Amy and myself would sprawl out in the backyard reading, talking and in Jeremie's case, attempting to study.

My new floor pillow's really came in handy! ;) We would spend a few hours watching yellow leaves fall off their branches and the little boys would come and visit, telling us all about how their day at school went.

I would have my sketchbook out ~ I'm currently working on some "Art Noveau" style poster art that was so popular during the 60's, coloured simply with bright markers.

Today, though beautifully sunny out, had a nip in the air. Winter is creeping up, and all the locals can feel it. To me however, it was a perfect "airing out" day, all the windows got flung open, I washed all the bedsheets, including the duvet cover while the duvet itself was airing out on the line. *laugh* I'm really looking forward to crawling back into bed with all my fresh smelling sheets!

It's amazing that Thanksgiving is next weekend! It's even more amazing that it was exactly a year ago I came down to visit Jeremie and meet some of his family, never thinking in a million years that I'd be living there!

Time can fly so fast sometimes.

But you know what they say: "Time flies like an arrow.....fruit flies like a banana" (*laugh* well my dad would appreciate that one, even if I can hear you rolling your eyes from here. ;) )

But I digress..my Thanksgiving will be spent in Edmonton with some of my family-in-law. I'm really looking forward to it and the awesome food I know that's in store for me. (even though no one can beat my mom's stuffing or my dad's pumpkin pie)

I work with a young Korean boy who suffers from Asperger's syndrome, he's seven years old and adorable.

Jaisa mostly just seems like a hyperactive child, but loves to play and has a passion for cars - he can hardly speak English yet he can ramble off every car make and type perfectly.

I basically am just there to play with him and speak to him in English.

His mother, Sunyi, is a lovely woman who can speak passable English, but always talks to Jaisa in Korean due to convenience.

We've become good friends and she's offered to teach me how to make some traditional Korean meals.

...I hope she knows what she's getting into, I'm horrible at making rice. I burn it all the time, even so far as to ruin one of my mothers pots. (sorry mum) Even at home Jeremie makes the rice! If she can just teach me to make rice without burning it, I'll call it a smashing success!

So that's where I am! In the middle of Fall and surrounded by piles of leaf "igloos"

God Bless you and yours!

~ Jenny

Badly Timed Projects.

I generally tend to do this - start projects at the worst time possible! I decided a few weeks ago I would make use of my wonderfully large window sills by getting some plants. Herbs would be nice, I thought.

I found out however, that practically no one has any plant or planting projects in October.
But, after making some changes to my plans I found that I could still start some plants from seeds, and I was able to find (three hardware stores later) some clay pots at a second hand store!
My friend Amy, who is up for the week from Ontario helped me paint the pots with acrylic paints found at our local dollar store.

Because of my off-season project I was able to get 5 for a dollar seed packets.
Two herbs and some flowers.

I also started my "floor pillow" project. I was able to find a couple good pillows and some great on sale material! The total for the fabric only came to 18.00 and change ~ I was very happy! The pillows themselves are pretty nice, but I really wanted my own fabric that I could take off and clean if need be. One is a cotton Indian paisley, the other a golden light upholstery fabric.
I'll hopefully be sewing them next week.
I love the smell of incense, if it's the right type. There's a funky little store in a town about half and hour away from me. Amy and I went on a day trip and ran into that store, where I bought 6 sticks of assorted scents. I got Egyptian musk, sandalwood, jasmine and a few others.

So! Thats where I've been so far!

God Bless,

~ Jenny

Keeping up!

My sister told me today that she's sad I haven't been blogging regularly. I guess I feel like I need to make my blogs fancy and complicated, but she just wants to know whats going on in my everyday life!
So I am going to try my best to post, even though they're not as pretty as I would like them to be!
So what has been happening lately:

I had my sister-in-law and her husband come down for a few days. It was so much fun, they're a great couple!

I also went to the Ladies Bible Study kickoff potluck. It was lots of fun, full of chatting and great food. I'll be attending the bible study led by the pastors wife, who is a lovely woman.
We meet every Thursday and the third Thursday of every months is spent doing community work, like making a meal and dropping it off to families in the community who we know could use the food.

This weekend will be a busy one too! My friend Amy will be down for a week and we plan on taking a day trip to the Edmonton Mall and just catching up in general.
Today I received a wonderful gift in the mail - my sister sent me a "sister necklace" - it's a beautiful silver sparrow, courtesy of "Jeweled Blossoms" http://www.jeweledblossoms.com/

A card was included along with this poem:

Song Of My Heart

"Quietly humming along

like a sweet sparrow's song

the song of my Heart.

Every moment of every day

while she is away

I look to the sky and wonder why

it should ever be this way

I close my eyes and make a wish

exhale softly and let my thoughts adrift

to sail across the warm breeze

carrying to you a wish from my lips."

It was so sweet! My sister is so wonderful to me!

I'm also working on maybe painting the apartment - I'm thinking of some Indian boho colours. Like yellow golds and rich plumbs.
I'm also taking on a sewing project, I realized with my family over that if we have more then three people in the house we have no where to seat them! So I'm making some big "floor" pillows.

Nice cushy ones that people can sit comfortably on. I realized that it'll be cheaper to buy a big pillow at WalMart and re-cover them with material of my choice, rather then buy the batting for the pillows.

I was so excited! I was invited by a girl friend to an Organics party, everything from cleaners to candles but unfortunately it got moved to Sunday - the day I'm taking Amy to Edmonton, so I'm missing out on that. But I think she and I will still hang out Saturday and just go out for coffee.

She's a new stay at home mom, and she tells me she gets bored sometimes, so I think I'll start hanging out with her more. (her little one is absolutely adorable too!)

So that's what I've been up to lately! Lol!

God Bless!

~ Jenny