You know you want some!

I'm sure. This totally looks like I staged this shot. But no, this is my fall table and I really did make this delish dessert/bread. This is probably my most sought after and revered recipe. Doesn't it look so good?! I got it from a lady in CO. I LOVE IT--but I love everything almondy. During this time of year, you can hoopty it up with a cup or so (I like lots so sometimes 2 cups)of chopped, fresh cranberries. I'm also waiting to add some chopped almonds to the mix. Basically without the poppies, it can be a general sweet cake base for lots of desserts like ice cream or fruit. With no glaze, it would be a to die for strawberry shortcake. But ok, I'm getting ahead of myself. Try the basic first and then you can pimp it up yourself. We call it "Cakey Bread" but here's the real name:

Almond Poppy Bread

3 c. flour
2 ½ c. sugar
1 ½ tsp. baking powder
1 ½ tsp. salt
1 ½ c. milk
1 ½ tsp. vanilla
3 eggs
1 1/8 c. vegetable oil
1 ½ -2 T. poppy seeds
1 ½ tsp. butter flavored extract (optional)
1 ½ tsp. almond extract
Glaze:
¼ c. orange juice
¾ c. sugar
½ tsp. butter flavored extract (optional)
½ tsp. vanilla extract
½ tsp. almond extract


For bread: Mix together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, milk, vanilla and eggs. Once mixed, add vegetable oil, poppy seeds, butter flavoring, and almond flavoring. Mix for 1-2 minutes with electric mixer until all combined. Grease two bread pans or one bundt and pour in mixture. Bake at 350.

For glaze: Mix ingredients and then put on top of bread (duh). I like to use a basting brush to coat with the glaze.

p.s. I've tried to sub applesauce for the oil and it just isn't as good.
p.s.s. Tell me if you do a variation of this that I should try.

Roll With Me Here

So I always forget to mention some of the funny things this canucks say. Tonight was a doozy. So I have to share. Nobody says "roll" here as in bread product. They all say "bun". Sure, it is a hamburger "bun" or a hot dog "bun" but when you have a bread ball with dinner, it is definitely a roll, right? A dinner "roll". Nope, here it is a bun. A "dinner bun" sounds bizarre, right? At the ward party, they served chili and buns. I thought it was a weird like chili sloppy joe party but no, that just means you get a roll with some butter. The weirdest one though is for cinnamon rolls. They say cinnamon "buns". It gets some getting used to but I felt like at least I was understanding everybody but tonight I was reminded of just how American and frankly how childish I really am. I was at church waiting forever for an interview and surrounded by all these old people. It was getting late and we all had been waiting for a while when token foyer joker starts to say, "When are we going to get a treat?" and things of that nature to the secretary in charge of the order. Anyway, token joker starts talking to all these people also waiting about all these junk food items that apparently sounded really great to him at the moment. First he's talking about donuts, then cake and pie and then he starts going to cinnamon rolls--but he says "buns". Here's a little taste of it. This is two men with their wives next to them all the while straight face:

"I could really go for some buns right now."
"Oh yeah, that sounds good. My wife's buns are great!"
"Sister So and So makes some really delicious buns."
"Yeah, her buns are fabulous!"
"Yeah, but not as great as Sister Other So and So's buns..."

The whole time, I'm like trying to be serious and not laugh but it's like I'm in 7th grade again and I can't hold it in. I finally had to excuse myself to the drinking fountain for a break and a giggle. Good thing I was all alone. If Greg had been with it, I'm sure we would've just lost it. I don't call it "The Crazy North" for nothing.

Scootaloo

Happy Canada Thanksgiving Day. Thought I'd add some new pics.

Tati is ALL OVER THE PLACE but not in the way it sounds when I'm saying that. She isn't crawling persay but more of a backwards scoot thingy. She goes after toys, explores and even gets stuck under the couch. It is funny and cute. It also makes me sad though because she is growing up so fast. So here she is stuck under the couch:




With her favorite toy, the bowling pin. They come from this dumb game that taunts you while you try and bowl. She can be crying like crazy and all you have to do is say, "Where is your bowling pin?" and suddenly she is laughing. It is pretty hilarious. It came in a pack of six so we have them all in funny places like the diaper bag, the car, her room, etc.


And here is a total Tatiana personality shot. You can zoom in and see her little teeth. She is so smiley and happy. At least during the day.


P.S. We had our first frost on Saturday and all our plants and flowers all officially died. And all the fall leaves have all fallen down now too. Outdoors is starting to look really pitiful. Scary thought that winter is just around the corner. And Chloe's cousins are still wearing tank tops in CA and AZ. The injustice of it all.

Before & After

You ever notice how every time you see a "Before" picture, the person looks all sad and the lighting is like awful and then for the after, they have a smile, make-up and great lighting? That is especially true for those mineral make-up infomercials (Maybe ProActive is the worst). Well, this one wasn't really planned but it turned out great that way. Chloe just had her first, real haircut. By real, I mean she actually went to a hair place. Previously in her life, either I'd trim it or my sister did it. I had been telling her for a while that she needed a trim because her hair was taking over our lives. She woke up ratty and unless there was some major hair-do intervention (which we regularly scheduled), she looked like a coo-koo bird. She was a little resistant to the idea because as all the disney movies will tell you, princesses have LONG hair. So I was surprised when she approached me randomly one day and said, "Ok, Mom let's get my hair cut today." We talked about how much we could cut off and she said she didn't want it shorter than her shoulders. So off we went. She was so cute and so grown up about it. She was just chit chatting away with the hair cutter guy about her Halloween costume and how even though her hair will be to her shoulders she'll still be a princess and how now she can look like Nancy Drew because she is a detective and super sleuth too [I watched the new teenie Nancy Drew movie and she actually watched it with me. If you know Chloe you know that is a major shocker. We also recently found this cartoon with Christopher Robins little sister, Darby, who is a super sleuth with Tigger and Pooh. She's got her detective kit (a magnifying glass and pretend camera) and just goes around "investigating" everything and looking for clues. It is fun. Honestly it is a nice break from ponies and princesses.

The Before:


And the After:



Her hair is so bouncy and fun now. I can just brush it and it falls all perfectly. Plus, with the new layers, it awakened all her cute little waves.

Frisbee Golf

Or FOLF as it is sometimes called. I remember once upon a time my friend Heidi was telling me about frisbee golf and I laughed at her thinking she was joking. Surely it couldn't be a real thing. Golfing with frisbees? Come on. Well, it is real and I've finally done it. I'm not really a golfer and luckily neither is Greg (aside from the expense, neither one of us really has the patience for it) but we both enjoy throwing a frisbee around quite a bit. Greg is actually really good at frisbee. It is one of his secret talents. So a friend of his here let him borrow some fancy "discs" and we were on our way. Usually in most cities, if you know where to look, they have a course set up. Oh, and did I mention the course is FREE?! Of course you do need some frisbees but even if you don't have the official ones (which are pretty cool), we did see people with just normal frisbees too. Here are the basics of what you'll need to know before you go.


The frisbees have names. Some of our faves were: The Marauder, the Sting Ray, and the Tee Bird. Ok sure, they have their official names too: there is the long range, the middle range and of course the putter. It was funny to see some people actually have these really fancy hip bags full of their frisbees and before each move they make they are like riffling through their bags and deciding which one to use.

Chloe with the Marauder.


Me with the Tee Bird. I don't know if it was the reference to Grease or what, but I LOVED this frisbee.


This is what you're aiming for:

The problem is that you can't always see it because trees are in the way. You're supposed to make each basket in three tries but it was more like 6-8 for us. Maybe with practice.


If you take your kids, pack a lunch and just let your kid throw their frisbee over and over while you and your husband compete to see who is better. We just strolled little Tats around with us too.


Here is more or less what our course looks like:


These are a few options for throwing your frisbee:

The Kid Throw:





The Master Throw (notice the concentration):


The Horse Shoe Throw:

Just like you're playing "Horse Shoes". This was my Dad's throw of choice because it is so much easier on the back. Be careful not to be too vigorous ("he's so vigorous father, very very vigorous"--name that movie) because you will be sore.

Then there is me. The Wonder Woman Throw. For some reason everytime I take my turn, somebody watching falls to the grass in hard laughter. Mostly that somebody was my dad or husband but some randoms got a kick out of it too. Good thing my skin is so thick. How else was I supposed to get the needed strength to throw it super far?

We did about 6 holes the first day and then we did about 5 the next time we went. We just start at the number we left off on and eventually we'll do all 18 holes. It was really fun and I would highly recommend it for a family activity. We may actually break down and buy some fancy frisbees.

If you're bored and want to watch a silly documentary about frisbee golf, check this link. It reminded me of a movie that my husband and little brother would make.

LOL

What is so funny? Why is everybody laughing? And why are they all laughing out loud? Couldn't you just laugh to yourself quietly? I mean if I'm going to Laugh Out Loud, it better be something so funny I want to slap my booty. But then again, this is the cyberworld and things here are all messed up and weird.

I think the problem is that people either are afraid of how their audience will view them. Or they are talking too extreme and mean and want to soften up their "mean-ness" with a "lol". It is like the days of yore when we'd throw down the ole "J/K" everywhere. "You stink. J/K!" and of course the ole smiley face is always a nice addition too. "You're the worst friend! :-)"

Ok, let's supppose something funny does happen and it does cause you to laugh. Is it really necessary to publish the fact that it made you laugh to everybody else? And if so, why use a dumb acronymn like "lol"? It's not even a complete sentence! As a matter of fact, when I see "lol", the last thing I want to do is laugh. I'm more apt to throw my shoe at something. (Notice the lack of a 'J/K', ':-)' or 'lol'?! That means I'm serious. And I'm not laughing.)

So to all of you "lol-ers" out there, shut up and stop laughing out loud. So next time try: "IGOTI" (I'm Grinning On The Inside.) or "IJPMP" (I Just Peed My Pants.) or "OCIRMS" (Oh crap, I Ruptured My Spleen.) or whatever.

If you want to really read some annoying acronymns, check out this link.

p.s. (added at a later date) I should have mentioned that Greg is the co-author of this post. Thus that extra push of passionate writing was his.)

Double Time Annette

So I go to this community aerobics class held in the basement of this random church. It is filled with a wide array of women of different ages and different bodies. I swear it is like an episode of Seinfeld in there. I can just picture Elaine making comments or going home and talking to Jerry and George about all the characters in this class. Normally, I stay on the right side with the other "young" people that I know and that told me about the class to begin with but unfortunately I was running late this week and ended up in the middle next to "Double Time Annette". I'd heard about "Double Time" before and of course she does stand out because whatever the teacher tells us to do, she does two or four. Whatever speed the teacher does anything (even stretches--which I'm pretty sure is bad for her) Annette is faster, bigger, stronger. From my side of the room, I would only notice Double Time when we would like rotate around the world. But this week, I was directly behind her. I mean directly. It was intense. I mean, here I was trying to figure out the aerobic line dance that Joyce my teacher was talking us through all the while Double Time is well double timing the line dance. Plus, it, isn't like she's super coordinated or super quick at catching onto things either so she was just kind of trying to catch onto the routine but at the same time she can't let anybody else be faster than her. So it was making me laugh but I couldn't really like fully laugh because she was RIGHT in front of me. So I'm holding in my laugh, mesmorized by her double time-ness, trying to listen to the teacher, trying to aerobics line dance AND trying not to look at any of my friends at the same time. I got a really great abs work out though. See how it sounds like an episode from Seinfeld? Don't you wish you were here? I wonder what secret nicknames people give me.