YEAR WEEK IN REVIEW

On December 31st, many reflect on the year that has passed and although it sounds enlightening, I’m not sure where or how to start so I have chosen to start with a (vacation) week in review.

So I've been on vacation since December 22nd but I don't really think the 22nd through the 26th should count as vacation time since a) I was sick, b) there was too much to do in preparation for Christmas (shopping, wrapping gifts, shopping for baking ingredients so the girls could participate in our annual Christmas cookie bake-a-thon (I was actually too sick to bake but not too sick to sample) and c) Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day don't really count as vacation days (as enjoyable as those days are spent hanging out with family...I'm a lucky girl!) so basically this week-in-review consists of 5 days (of pure laziness)!

Day 1 - stayed in bed and finished reading a book that was started months ago (Freedom).

Day 2 - watched 6 movies (Bridget Jones's Diary, Love Actually, The Holiday, Last Holiday, Funny Girl and Santa Clause) and started a blog.

Day 3 - watched more movies (Rent, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Serendipity and Santa Clause 2), put away one of my Christmas gifts (iron cast dutch oven) and posted on my blog.

Day 4 - made my bed ( I wondered if I could go an entire week without making my bed - the answer is no), put away another gift (juicer), ordered pizza, watched season 1 of How I Met Your Mother (HIMYM), watched another movie (The Joneses) and started reading a new book (The Confident Creative) - Yay...my most productive day!

Day 5 - only counts as a half day because I'm leaving around 3pm for a New Year's Eve party but I still managed to do almost nothing today - read the October issue of Oprah magazine (I still have November and December issues to read), watched a few episodes from season 2 of HIMYM, and for the first time this week, I got ready to go out in public.

Now the fact that I was able to watch a total of 11 movies and 1+ seasons of HIMYM in 5 days astounds me. Can you imagine what I could have accomplished or how many books I could have read during those waking hours? You have no idea (actually, I have no idea) how many books sit on my bookshelves waiting to be read!  Maybe a resolution for 2011 is in the works...reading more of the books on my shelves!  To conclude this year week in review, I can't help but wonder: how am I able to "waste" so much time doing nothing? Is it really worth taking time off to do nothing? I can proudly say that “YES” it has been worth every moment because I feel relaxed and happy!  The best thing about this year week in review is the reminder that I still have 6 more days of nothingness to go...

P.S. In 2010, I loved and was loved, and right now, that's all that matters to me :)

J-J-J-JUICE!

In October, Sarah and I discovered a new vegetarian restaurant in Toronto called fresh and we loved it so much that we bought a fresh cookbook called refresh which includes juicing recipes...yay! At the restaurant, we tried the Singing Grasshopper Wheatgrass Elixir (mango juice, banana, honey, pure oil of peppermint and wheatgrass) which was super yummy!!! From that moment, I wondered what it would be like to have my very own juicer...would I use it? do I have the space for it? would it make me healthier? could I have juicing parties? I need not wonder anymore because I have my very own juicer...Jack LaLanne’s Power Juicer Elite!  In addition to juicing, I can also make soy milk and almond milk with it!

So another Christmas gift was put to good use today... I let Sarah choose the juicing recipe based on the ingredients we have in the house (being on vacation has turned me into a hermit so running to the grocery store was not an option!) so she chose the Refresher Cocktail. The recipe yielded two glasses so we ended up juicing the ginger, lemon and cuke into the first glass, and the carrots and apples in the other. We combined the contents of both glasses, stirred it, poured it then made a toast to the new juicer and drank. It was really good and soooooo refreshing :) I was impressed with the power of the juicer but not so impressed with the clean-up! In the end, I guess the juice was worth the time I spent washing the pusher, the blade, the chute, the filter, the filter holder, the spout and the pulp dispenser. Cleaning aside, if I had to rate the juicer based on the machine’s ability to extract juice and the dryness of the pulp, I would give it A+ because the pulp was extremely dry; I don’t think it could have extracted another drop of juice. I’m now wondering what to do with the pulp...it seems wasteful to throw it away! So it’s in my fridge waiting for some ideas...anyone?

Refresher Cocktail

It’s very important not to overdo the lemon in this vibrant cocktail so you can taste the rest of the ingredients, which are more subtle. The high silicon and sulphur content of the cucumber promotes strong nails, healthy hair and smooth elastic skin. Cucumber is also a natural diuretic.

½ inch ginger root
½ lemon, peeled
½ cucumber
2 medium red apples
3 medium carrots

Juice the ginger first. Follow with the lemon, cucumber and apples. Finish with the carrots.

From:
refresh
Contemporary vegan recipes from the award-winning Fresh Restaurants
by Ruth Tal with Jennifer Houston

Holy Trinity...this is not a religious post!

As I was cooking ginger lentil stoup (thicker than a soup but thinner than a stew) today, I started thinking about what I consider my holy trinity: carrots, onions, celery and garlic then I started thinking about the fact that a trinity represents a threesome not a foursome so I decided to find out if a trinity could include four ingredients.  Here’s what I found:

Each type of cuisine has a different “trinity”.  French cuisine, for example, has carrots, onions and celery, is sautéed in butter and is called a mirepoix (meer-PWAH) while a trinity in Italian cuisine includes carrots, onions and celery sautéed in olive oil and sometimes includes garlic...bingo!  I am now calling my “holy trinity” a soffritto.    

Since I’m on the topic of cooking, I guess this is a good time to share a recipe. 

Disclaimer: Although I need quantities to successfully reproduce a recipe, I don’t actually measure anything if it’s a dish that I’ve tweaked and am very comfortable cooking.  

Ginger Lentil Stoup *

*I learned from Rachael Ray that you can prepare a stew, soup or stoup...it all depends on the amount of veggie broth that you add to the pot (don’t forget that the lentils absorb the liquid as they cook!)

Olive oil

Onions (chopped)

Carrots (chopped)

Celery (chopped)

Garlic (grated)

Ginger (grated)

Green lentils

Canned tomatoes (my favourite canned tomatoes are Thomas’ Utopia Organic Diced Tomatoes – No Salt Added)

Veggie broth (my favourite veggie broth is the PC Organic Vegetable Broth which is salty so I don't add any salt to this dish)

Ground coriander
Fresh cilantro (chopped)

      1.      Sauté soffritto (onions, carrots, celery and garlic) in olive oil (I guess that’s now implied!)

2.      Once vegetables are sautéed, add grated ginger.

3.      Make room in the pot for another splash of olive oil and to lightly sauté the lentils (don’t let them get brown).  Stir the veggies and lentils together. 

4.      Add can of tomatoes (the size of the can depends on the amount of tomatoes you want in your stoup).  Stir. 

5.      Add veggie broth (the amount used depends on whether you want a soup, stew or stoup).  Stir.

6.      Add ground coriander.  Stir.

7.      Bring to a boil then simmer until the veggies are soft and the flavors have melded.

8.      A few minutes before serving, add the chopped cilantro (it will turn brown if you add it too early).   

ENJOY!!!

The ginger lentil stoup was made in my new cast iron dutch oven (Christmas gift!).  As I type this, I can't help but wonder if typing "cast iron" before "dutch oven" is redundant...are all dutch ovens cast iron?  I guess that's a post for another day :)

Looking for your face

Now that I've morphed the photos of my dream men into one and the search for him has begun, I thought it appropriate to post one of my favorite poems.  I may as well get as much "blogging" in while I'm on vacation :)

All joking aside, it is one of my faves!

LOOKING FOR YOUR FACE

From the beginning of my life
I have been looking for your face
but today I have seen it

Today I have seen
the charm, the beauty,
the unfathomable grace
of the face
that I was looking for

Today I have found you
and those who laughed
and scorned me yesterday
are sorry that they were not looking
as I did

I am bewildered by the magnificence
of your beauty
and wish to see you
with a hundred eyes

My heart has burned with passion
and has searched forever
for this wondrous beauty
that I now behold

I am ashamed
to call this love human
and afraid of God
to call it divine

Your fragrant breath
like the morning breeze
has come to the stillness of the garden
You have breathed new life into me
I have become your sunshine
and also your shadow

My soul is screaming in ecstacy
Every fiber of my being
is in love with you

Your efflugence
has lit a fire in my heart
for me
the earth and sky

My arrow of love
has arrived at the target
I am in the house of mercy
and my heart
is a place of prayer


The Love Poems of RUMI
Edited by Deepak Chopra
Translations by Farsi scholar Fereydoun Kia

Love Actually...John Cusack or Colin Firth?

From a very early age, I pictured myself marrying John Cusack (possibly the reason why I've never married...still waiting!) but having watched Bridget Jones's Diary and Love Actually back-to-back today, I feel somewhat confused...John Cusack or Colin Firth?  Especially when you consider Colin Firth in Pride and Prejudice!  Since I've been pondering this question, I wondered if I could morph the "men of my dreams" into the perfect man (notwithstanding character, qualities, strengths, morals and values).  I found a photo morphing website (http://www.morphthing.com/) which yielded the photo above...a lovely morph of John and Colin (Johlin?).  Yummy!  If anyone beholds this man in real life, please let me know :)

Inspired by Bridget Jones...really???

On day 7 of my Christmas holidays (I'm off from December 22nd to January 6th), I decided to spend the day watching movies.  My picks for today:  Bridget Jones's Diary, Love Actually, The Holiday and Last Holiday (in order of priority).  While watching Bridget Jones's Diary, I decided to start blogging.  Who knew that Bridget Jones, wanton sex goddess/spinster, would inspire me?  We do, afterall, have many similarities and I would like nothing more than to meet and fall in love with a man like Mark Darcy...or Colin Firth :)  Bridget is reminded throughout the movie that she is loved "just as you are" thus my blog name.  I will post stuff about movies and tv (my brain-numbing past time), books and quotes (my passion), recipes (my meditation), my progress learning to play the piano (my goal), and anything else that may be interesting to share; all with the hope that writing a blog will inspire me to write a book.  I've had a book sketched out in my mind for a while so let's see what happens in 2011.  Cheers!