Ugly room

Today I got a good reminder from my mother to keep blogging.
I know it has been awhile, but at least this time I have a good excuse.
Since I last blogged we were thinking about moving; well, we up and went to Edmonton.
Right now we’re splitting a house with my sister-in-law and her hubby. It’s a lovely house – three bed, two bath, half finished basement.
However it has been without tenents for a year and does need some serious TLC.
There’s one master bedroom and two smaller ones. Right now Jeremie and I are in the smaller room, as we gave the master to SIL and hubs since he’s going to be in school full-time and will need the study space.
Our small room, however, is proving too small. It’s seemingly impossible to keep clean, I clean it and the next day someone puts a shirt on the ground and the room is a bomb again. (It’s really quite amazing.)
The third unused room, we affectionately call it “the ugly room” for a reason.
Apperently the previous tenent decided to start a home salon in her house and turned that bedroom into a hair studio.
Horrible blue and flaked white linoleum covers the floor, stapled in even in some places. A large yellow ring sits dead center in the middle of the room, apparently where the styling chair was, and for some unknown reason, she spray painted the closet doors that textured black, so that it looks and feels like asphalt.

Hence the “Ugly room.”

Previously it was full of unpacked boxes, toolboxes, a keyboard and several suitcases, but we’ve since cleared it all out and scrubbed every inch of our ugly room.

Thankfully our landlords agreed to pay for (almost) any renovations we decide to do. We have been given full permission to fix up ugly room and paint the house, all out of their pocket.
So Jeremie and I are hoping to clean up ugly room and move in there before too long.

Right now it’s an ugly guest room.
Thank goodness that it's family who is visiting right now. My mother-in-law and father-in-law are down right now, and they can overlook the 'ugliness.'

God Bless!

~ Jenny

Moving and Working

I am currently in Edmonton, using my sis-in-law's laptop to write.

Jeremie and I are looking to move down here, and he is dropping off resume's all this week. Thankfully Jeremie's sister Emilie, and her husband live right downtown and are letting us stay the week with them.

They visit us quite a bit, even though Edmonton from where we currently live is a good 3 hours away. We like taking turns coming over and visiting at each others houses.

It's a little different now, looking more at living here, rather then visiting.

Brad (Emilie's husband) grew up in Edmonton, which is a blessing, as he'll be able to help us look for housing in good areas and know which areas of the city to avoid.

Right now, Jeremie and I are just doing a lot of praying. Praying about work, moving, money - all those earthly things that can bother us so much.
It's a huge relief to know that our loved ones are praying just as much!

Just thought I'd post a note. I know I'm overdue for a good, loooong post. And I will! You'll see!

God Bless!

~ Jenny

Time To Bake and Make

Dear Friend,

Today I did more Christmas baking - with the help of my friend Rachel; we made: Chocolate 5-Minute Fudge, and my family's Chocolate Truffles.

Jeremie and I got our Christmas tree and decorated it all prettily. It's slightly "charlie-brownish" but then again, we're not spending Christmas in Alberta anyway.

I am just happy that we were able to get a tree for my first Christmas as a married person anyway.

My mother and father have a tradition where every year they buy a new ornament together; I decided that I would like to follow this tradition as well! Jeremie and I bought that little knitted stocking as our first ornament together. The reason we picked it is because...well...it was the only one we could agree on. *laugh*

I adore my nativity set, it's by the "Willow Tree" company, and I have been able to collect it over several Christmas' and birthdays as gifts. The only thing I'm missing now is the stable.

Christmas is coming quickly upon us, and I'm thrilled. If I don't post before Christmas, Merry Christmas to all of you, and God Bless in the coming year.

~ Jenny

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