Weekend happenings

Last night Lenny and I drove to KW to visit with my sister and her boyfriend Mike. There was a huge snow storm on the way there and what would normally take us an hour, took over 2.5 hours. There were quite a few spans on the 401 where we weren't even travelling over 35 km/hr. In any case, we had a great time once we got there :) . We had some delicious lasagna, bread with oil and vinegar straight from Italia, and some Angelo's apple coffee cake. Mike had his birthday at the beginning of Jan, before I had a job, so his gift from us was a tad post-poned. Here he is demonstrating a lovely football dish (he's a huge fan of both football and cooking) and some whiskey rocks. 

Well that's it for now. Tomorrow will be a long day with my first full day of work followed by an orchestra rehearsal. There's going to be one sleepy Heather soon!

January Pictures

Seeing as it's almost the end of January (*ahem), I suppose it's time to post some pictures from the month!

This was the first thing I made with our new Kitchen Aid Mixer: oatmeal M&M walnut cookies. De-licious.

A blanket knitted by Lenny's nonna has been another favourite Christmas gift that is getting a lot of use in our house. Sally isn't normally the cuddly type with Lenny, but throw in this blanket and she thinks it's a pretty sweet deal.

Sally's been doing a lot of this lately. How cute :)

 This was Lenny's first use of the Kitchen Aid mixer. My goodness was it delicious. I highly recommend you check out the Wolfgang Puck recipe he used for the dough.

Lenny bought us a bread maker in mid-January and this is a picture of his first loaf! He has wanted one badly for quite some time, but the price never seemed right. Canadian Tire was having a 50% off small appliances sale when we went to pick up an 8-qrt (!) crock pot for a birthday gift, so it was meant to be. We've enjoyed two loaves so far and I'm looking forward to finding some recipes to try myself.

Tonight we're off for a doggie play date and dinner date with my sister Paula in KW. We'll also be giving her boyfriend Michael his birthday gift... from January 1. Hopefully I'll remember to take pictures and post them -- it's a cool gift ;)

Sally love

Sally found two mallard ducks on our walk behind the house after work today. It was pretty awesome. She's afraid of getting in over her chest in the water so watching her decide whether or not it was worth it was priceless. She chased them down the creek, caught a feather off of one of them (much to her delight), and proceeded to chase them across the park as they flew overhead. She looked so proud and had the hugest of grins on her face. What a lucky gal she is to live on such a big, little-trafficked park.

This past weekend was a bit of a whirlwind. Saturday evening I did a concert with the Stratford Symphony Orchestra and Rant Maggie Rant. We then headed up to Toronto to celebrate Lenny's mom Silvana's birthday. We had a delicious lunch at home and celebrated with a cake from the Delicious St. Phillip's bakery. Nom nom nom. 

Well Sally is super cuddly and has her snout shoved into my arm, so I'm gonna go cuddle up with her and enjoy her sleepy demeanor for all it's worth :)

It's Sunday it's Sunday!

This weekend was a Great one with lots of friends and new memories :) . On Saturday afternoon Lenny and I met up with Justin, a friend who has lived in Ottawa for the last two years, and some other mutual London friends and went to the London Food and Wine Show. This was Lenny and my's third year going and I think this was by far the best one yet. We went much earlier than previous years and started at about 4:00 which meant you could actually move around and all the vendors actually had food and wine left; awesome! We had some fantastic fantastic wines, a really great pear cognac, a phenomenal honey waffle, delicious local cheeses and meats, and various desserts. Continuing in the fun, everyone came back here afterwards and played a funny board game called Apples to Apples. This morning, we had blueberry pancakes (Thank You Lenny!), turkey bacon, and hash browns. 

Today for dinner I made the broccoli soup from the Milk Calendar. It turned out pretty well and we have enough left overs for about 25 people, so if you're in the area and want to try some...

Here's a picture to inspire you:

This weekend was pretty bad for Sally in that she probably peed half a dozen times. Poor kid just doesn't like being too out of routine and having too many visitors over. It's been pretty frustrating and I think I will make an appointment with our vet to see if he has any suggestions and just to make sure it's not a health problem. It's been comforting to hear that this isn't a new problem to us (I just learned this today from her original rescuer), but I wish she felt more secure here. Time will help too I'm sure. 

Well back to some cuddles and the Golden Globes!

Sally

I've just finished Facebook stalking some pictures of Sally's puppies. It was so cute. This little girl has been through so much and is still such a great dog. Today she was crated for her longest time in probably the whole three months we've had her, 8 hours, and did fabulously. She wasn't even crazily anxious like she's been previous times when we got home. I think little by little she's adjusting to the fact that we won't leave her and that she can feel safe and at home here.

Picture Update

So here's the Christmas picture-recap I've been promising.

Christmas Day dinner was at Lenny's Aunt & Uncle's place. There were approximately 20 of us there. I thought I'd show some pics of what a Christmas Day Italian-Canadian style looks like:

Sally sitting laying down under the family Christmas tree. We brought her bed to chill on and sure enough she slept for a good portion of it. Too bad that later in the evening she took the live tree as an excellent place to empty her bladder...... Ah Christmas memories!

The table all set-up with the antipasto.

A close-up of the antipasto: delicious olives, prosciutto (sliced ham), bocconcini (soft cheese balls), and a bread stick.

Primo (first course): Nonna's mannicotti-filled pasta shells. 

Il secondo (second/main course): mashed potatoes, peas, another type of ham... the name is escaping me right now, and turkina (flattened turkey that is wrapped around with layers of stuffing in between).

After this, there was also a veggie/fruit tray, but I was getting too full and did not take pictures ;)

Lastly, we had dessert. There were a lot of desserts to choose from including the above (and below) Candy Cane Cheesecake that I made with a recipe from my mom.

Delicious!

Now I didn't take the above pic, but there was also a Bindi cake. These cakes are flown in from Italy to Toronto and are quite something :)

The last pic I'm putting up showcases Lenny's Aunt & Uncle's dog, Sophie, who was much better behaved than Sally that evening. He she is posing with one of the fruit bowls. She sits atop Matt's lap (Matthew being one of Lenny's cousins), with Aunti Pina to her right (Lenny's Aunt's sister... I think...).

I wanted a family pic for the books. This was taken at Lenny's family's house. Note Sally's jingle bell anklets courtesy of his mom ;)

Sally has rested a lot since we got back from our Christmas travels. Here she is napping with her new favourite toy - a green squeaky happy face that she tears to shreds (although miraculously, nothing has torn off of it yet).

The last pic is from Lenny's maiden voyage with the Kitchen Aid mixer. He made the most delicious foccacia bread now that we have something that can handle mixing bread.

Well that's it for now. Time to get some dinner!

January

It's hard to believe it's January when I just took the garbage out only wearing a t-shirt on top. It was snowing, but it melted as soon as it hit the ground.

I'd upload some pictures, but the camera cable is in the car so that will have to wait until another day.

All in all the holidays went really well. I've been suffering from the flu since Boxing Day. It's definitely been no fun but it has encouraged me to enjoy the relaxing part of having holidays. Sally has been getting lots of cuddles and Lenny has been very good about picking up some extra housework. Tonight he made a delicious slow cooker curry - yum!

Today I was able to rearrange the kitchen a little bit to make room for a new cupcake transporter (thank you Paula and Mike), a new Tassimo coffee maker (thank you Silvana and Mark), and a new Kitchen Aid Mixer (thank you to Mom & Dad!). There still needs to be further juggling to get everything into their new homes, but I think it's going to work.

I was also able to find room for a stack of chocolate boxes (YUM!), some vino (YUM!), the largest bag of flour you ever did see, enough wonderful smelling body lotion/shower gel/shampoo/bath salts to last me the year (incredibly grateful), and some fantastic knitting books. It's been difficult to know where to start and what to do: there are so many wonderful gifts that I will enjoy.

Sally got a New Year's bath today and is smelling quite lovely. She has thoroughly enjoyed one of about 12 candy cane compressed dog bone treats as well as some gifted Beggin' Strips. She will also get to enjoy some milk bones (both soft and hard), Denta Sticks, Iams dog food, and a new favourite stuffed squeaky toy. She got so much stimulation over the holidays though that she's nearly slept the entire day despite coaxing her with toys and excited voices. She was alert for her two walks though and did eat all of her food so we're not too worried.

Well that's all I can think of for now. It was great to spend time with family and spend some more relaxed time with Lenny. Here's to a wonderful 2012 for everyone!