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Archive for October, 2009

October 24th, 2009

Grown-up girls get to have sleepovers too

“When I first attended a slumber party some 25 years ago, we prided ourselves on avoiding sleep. Sprawled out on the floor of a friend’s basement with pillows and sleeping bags, my companions and I would heartily fight any drooping eyelids by ingesting sugar and cola. Fast-forward to this morning, and slumber — in lush, high-end bedding no less — resumes its rightful place in the term “slumber party.”

Tip-toeing down the stairs to join me in the kitchen, my sister-in-law has an amazed but pleased expression on her face …”

To read the rest, please support your city’s paper (and its writers!) by picking up a copy of The Ottawa Citizen today.

This article is on page H6 in the Travel section. And on page H1, you’ll see me in the header with — surprise! — a coffee in my hand.

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October 23rd, 2009

4 Ingredients — episode 4

It’s been a while since my last “cooking with Julie” episode, but I wanted to assure you that your advice and counsel have not got to waste. So, without further adieu, I shall present to you a (drum roll please ….)

Oh, okay, I admit it! I did yet anotherchicken recipe! Yep, go ahead, call me a chicken in the kitchen! (That’s right Ken, the self-proclaimed ‘kitchen-bitch,’ I can take it.) Bock. Booock. Cluckity cluck.

Now that we got that over with, I shall begin.

It was a dark and stormy night, so I was not able to venture out to the grocery store. (Yeah, there was no storm. I was too lazy.) I opened my fridge to see what I could find. No surprise there: chicken breasts. We always seem to have chicken breasts and bags and bags of that pre-shredded cheese for some reason.

Bingo! I recalled Nat’s idea for “Mexican chicken” that she shared in the comments last time. Here it is:

Nat’s Speedy Mexican Chicken
1. 12 oz. salsa
2. 1 cup plain yogurt
3. 1 cup of cheese
4. chicken breasts

Mix the salsa with yogurt and pour over chicken breasts. Then cover with cheddar/mozza or Monterey Jack cheese.

Preheat over to 350.
Bake for 40 minutes.

I didn’t have yogurt, but I had sour cream. I consulted Nat’s notes and she said that was fine for a substitute. I was good to go! I followed the directions above, although I have no idea what kind of cheese I used. Nat also suggested to go heavy on the cheese, so I probably used about 2 cups instead of 1. Now, I know what you’re thinking … it’s a bit high-fat at this point. But next time I will use the yogurt and some light cheese.

I paired the chicken with some very fancy side servings: mashed potato and garden salad. Not imaginative, but healthy, right?

mex-small

And here’s what happened: It cooked without any incident. We all ate it and loved it. It was super-yummy and so easy! Woohooo!!

The ratings for this one were as follows: Hubby = 9/10, Stella = 9.5/10, and Julie = 9.5/10.

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October 23rd, 2009

Some housekeeping items

Thanks to all of you for following me here to this custom blog site!

I’ve been working with Brendan to learn the in’s and out’s of some of the more technical aspects of blogging. (I’m still at the Sesame Street level, but he’s really patient.)

Some of my learnings include:

1. Techies do not like Internet Explorer. I had no clue that it was such a big issue, but I think Brendan has pulled out his hair on many an occasion as a result of IE. He’ll create something that looks super-cool and ask me to take a look, but when I look via Internet Explorer, it will be all wonky. Do you use Internet Explorer? I had never really considered using anything else, but I guess I will now.

2. Photos. I’ve been loading enormous photos into my blog since I started this adventure in June. My blog doesn’t like this. Now I have learned to resize photos before posting them. I still haven’t quite figured out the art of this … what size is best for what photos, and what not. But I will keep fiddling on my coffee breaks and work it out.

3. Embedding video. I wasn’t able to embed videos on my old blog and now I can! Check out the groovy way that I’ve embedded a video into the right sidebar now. I’m so inordinately impressed with myself, even though all I did was follow detailed instructions from Brendan. Woohoo!

4. RSS subscriptions: Last but no least, if you were having trouble with your subscription, that has now been fixed and I hope you’ll re-subscribe with me.

If you have any more tips for me, I’m all ears. Also, if there is something that bothers you about the blog design, just let me know. This is a big self-learning adventure for me and I’m very open to suggestions!

Have a great Friday everyone!

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October 21st, 2009

How do you feel about Sigg now?

About a month and a half ago, I wrote this post “Sigg: not so super, after all?” I don’t get attached to brands much, but somehow I had developed an affection for my Sigg.

The news that Sigg’s original liners had been made with BPA felt like a sneaky little trick had been played on me. Sure, I understand that the company says it never claimed its liners were not made of BPA, but rather that its liners didn’t leach BPA. (I wanted to provide you with the CEO’s exact words in explaining this issue, but it looks like his letter has been taken down from the site now – strange.)

I’ve since sent my old Sigg bottles back (we had four in our family) and requested ones with the new liner. This voluntary exchange program was likely a major logistical nightmare for the company, but to its credit, I did receive new bottles this week by courier and it was a pretty quick and easy process from my end.

But still … I don’t have the same warm & fuzzies for this brand like I used to. How about you?

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October 19th, 2009

Caffeinated MacGyver to the Rescue!

If you’re of my vintage, you’ll likely remember the MacGyver television series. If you’ve never heard of him or if your memory would simply like a little jog, each episode went like this:

Cute-guy lead character (i.e. MacGyver) would face a huge crisis without breaking a sweat. He’d calmly concoct a solution such as a bomb de-fuser from a paperclip and a piece of gum stuck on the bottom of his shoe.

In our family, we like to refer to my hubby as MacGyver (behind his back, because he is modest type and he would hate us for it). Boat dock collapsed and small child who can’t swim flailing about top of it? No worries — MacGyver will take a studious assessment of the situation and save the day (and fix the dock while he’s at it)! Decide you need a specific stainglass for your kitchen window but can’t find it anywhere? No worries — MacGyver will create one for you! Find an injured person on the street? No worries — MacGyver will saunter over and begin First Aid until the paramedics arrive.

Okay, so you might think I’m exaggerating. Maybe I am, just a teeny tiny bit. But not only does he look cute in his Levis and carry himself in a laid-back manner, my man can come to a caffeine rescue! And we know that’s what really counts in my book.

For instance, this past Sunday, we had no power in our home from 8am to 11am. He gets up, calmly assesses the situation and without a word leaves the house. He comes back in a couple of minutes and sets this up:

mcgyver1

A propane camping stove to boil the water … ingenius, I say! Although he’d probably say it was a basic survival skill because, hey, would wants to deal with me on a morning without caffeine. Let’s face it, it’s not pretty.

Here’s one more caffeine-related MacGyver move that really impressed me. We were in Hawaii and the hotel room did not have a microwave. So, how does one warm up a baby bottle for breakfast sans microwave? Voila, my friends: