Remind you of anyone???

Dorians full time job is holding the floor down in front of the wood stove.

Where can I find a job like that?

Our neighbor is selling this ....machine.... we would love to buy it to plow our driveway, wouldn't that be fun!

My little sleeping beauties!

Knitting and Borscht.

Our little nook of the Kootenays is famous for its Doukobour History. They have a long history originating from Russia and settling and settling in Saskatchewan, then eventually coming to BC as they were against going to war. Originally they were vegetarians, but the children now eat whatever they want. So of course, these Russian grammies make the most amazing food. Especially borscht. In our town there is a tiny little restaurant called Weezies. There are five tables and it is always packed. They serve borscht, vareniki and pyrihi, all of which I probably have misspelt. I think I just misspelt that too. Whenever someone comes to visit, one of the requests is inevitably....can we go to Weezies????

We also have a little heritage museum were you can see how the Doukobours lived when they first arrived. In one building there is a little pamphlet, you can purchase for a loonie that has some traditional Doukobour recipes! Of course in this phamplet is a recipe for borscht, and I quote "Serves 12 hungry borscht fanatics- and there should be leftovers to freeze." So I thought it was a good wintery time to make a cauldron full of borscht!

And for all you Weezie fans out there.....it was amazing....possibly a little better then weezies. I know. You guys think I'm exagerating, well I can prove it. There is lots to sample.....oh wait, as of today there is only one jar left. Sorry, I'm sure the next batch will be just as tasty!!!!




But I will post the recipe here, for all who would like to try it on there own! I made a few changes, so I will try to change the font color to show that.

Borscht

1/2 cup butter

2 onions chopped

6 cups canned tomatoes

1/2 cup green peppers, cut up

1/2 cup fresh dill, finely chopped

8 cups finely grated cabbage

12 cups water

1 tbsp salt

8 medium sized potatoes peeled and halved

1/2 cup carrots, finely diced

1/2 cup beets, diced

2 cups tomato juice

1/2 cup whipping cream (I used the whole carton of 250ml whipping cream)

finely chopped green onions and fresh dill.

at the end I felt something was missing, so I referred to other recipes and found they call for vinegar, so I added a healthy sploosh, probably about half a cup, and I really think this is what made it over the top delish!

Melt butter in large casserole dish. (And do use butter...not margerine, oh yummmmm) Add onions and cook at low heat for 5 minutes. Add canned tomatoes, peppers, dill and cabbage. Cook at moderate heat for about 25 minutes, stirring occasionally to avoid browning.

Meanwhile, bring salter water to a boil in a large pot. Add tomatoes, carrots and beets, and return to a boil. Add tomato juice. Simmer until potatoes are cooked. Remove potatoes and mash with cream.

Add casserole dish mixture, once it has finished cooking, to the pot along with the mashed potatoes, dill and onions. Season with salt and pepper.

This time I used one package of fresh dill from Safeway, next time I think I will use two. Also next time I will mash potatoes AND carrots and beets. The chunks were kind of weird....beets that had lost all their color...strange and not appetizing.

Everybody should definitly try this recipe, and don't try to half it, if you don't have freezer room, give some away, but if you decrease this recipe, you will be kicking yourself after you taste it!

Tom and I have finished some knitting projects! I these are gifts, so I will post pictures, but I won't say anything more!

Annnnnnnd.......we're back.

Last Friday was my own personal horror movie.

Picture this:
Youngish, okay, middleage pretty girl, okay, middleage girl that was once cute in her younger years....
Nevermind, a lady. A lady on two very very dark acres. Alone on her two very very dark acres for the first time ever! Her husband has gone away for the weekend! But she's okay. She's independent. Lots to keep her busy. Tick tock tick tock....is it bedtime yet....nope only 7:15. Yikes. Okay play with the dogs, lets dogs out. Watch some tv, is it bedtime yet? Nope, only 8:05. So this lady decides to go online and do some blogging. Have I mentioned dial up before? She turns on her computer. Leaves for 15 minutes, comes back, no dial tone? What the? She tries again. Still no dial tone? She checks the cord, yup, everything is connected. Hmph.
She goes to the phone....insert scary music here...NO DIAL TONE? WHAT THE? Okay. We're okay. (Insert dogs barking crazily at the windows at unseen objects outside).
She gathers up the phone number for Telus and her husband in calgary and runs to the car, and DRIVES to her neighbours house...which is only about 100 feet away, but did I mention the dark dark darkness yet? She goes to her neighbours house and barely makes it inside before something is breathing down her neck. Maybe it was just the wind. Maybe.
She phones Telus, the wonderfully kind understanding and sympathetic advisor on the other end of the line WON'T HELP HER UNLESS SHE HAS HER HUSBANDS DRIVERS LICENSE NUMBER!!!! WHAT THE!!!!!
She calmly drives back to her very scary very dark two acres, runs from the car to the house...finds the appropriate information and goes back to the neighbors and back on the phone to Telus, dials and gets a new operator...who requires only her .......ADDRESS!!!! WHAT THE .....!
The new kind operator that does not require information such as a sample of her husbands saliva, kindly makes her and appointment for ........EIGHT DAYS FROM NOW!!!!! And kindly tells her that the problem is most likely her phone or inside the house.
Not much happened in the next week. The lady was not attacked. There was not a mass murderer in her very dark two acres. She didn't die. She didn't get hurt. Her husband came home. She continued to go to work.

And this morning, she went to work, and on her coffee break, she dialed her house, to see if there was a dial tone yet, and lo and behold, there was!

You might think this scary story ends here! But there's more!

About 1/2 an hour later the lady is paged for line 1! Its the service technician from Telus! She hasn't even been to the house yet! Did I realize the phone was working now! YES I DID!!!! ARG.

So the phone fixed itself, a mere hour or two before the technician even got to our house.

The moral of the story is....
How many times can a girl scream at a Telus rep?
No, really, how many??? Please? Anyone?

Babies, balaclava's and zombies!

My gorgeous husband....back off ladies. Need I say more.

And my lastest stunning portrait. I would like to thank my sister, for capturing these wonderful pictures on film. Ang, your the best photographer I know.

On Monday we were doing some shopping at the Wholesale Club, and came across these balaclava for 95 cents, as if we could resist! We must keep our babies ears warm this winter! Obviously they love it, well, I'm sure they will love them when they realize how warm their ears are!

We are please to announce that both our children have passed level one obediance and are moving on to level 2! So smart!

I am posting lots of pictures today, because I am so excited that I finally figured out how to make my pictures be smaller bytes! Yay! Now it takes minutes to upload instead of hours!

My precious Angel. Tonight we played a new game...."Find it" with the Kong! I leashed them up so they couldn't see me, and then hid the kong and then let them go (one at a time of course!). Maddy loved it, she went crazy and was pretty good at! Until I hid it under a dish, and then she was a little stumped! Dorian loved it too, although I'm not sure if he really knew what was going on! But he was very happy when mommy helped him to find the kong! I'm sure he will get better with time!

My first auction experience was severly disappointing. No purchases were made. It was....just so disappointing.

Madeline and Dorian's Christmas Wish List

If anyone out there reading this post, should happen to be very handy with wood and woodworking tools.....well then this post is for you!

We borrowed this book from our class teachers and these games were in the book! Maddy and Dory quickly got out there pens and circled what they wanted just like back in the day when Angie and I would circle our wish list in the Sears catalogue.
There is a third one that I can't get to download with little blocks that have to be removed to find the treat.

This is also my first attempt at trying out our new to us scanner! It works pretty good! We're on the technology bullet train now! Hot diggity!

Tonight is Halloween, and we had one brave little group of children venture up our long long dark driveway! Brave! I get a little nervous myself when I have to walk up it in the dark, and I know what is at the other end! So one candy for the kids, and bag of candy minus 1 for us!

Here is a Sweet and Sour Pork recipe I make that I have been requested to share....it was original given to me from Tom's mom.

Sweet and Sour Pork

-cut pork into bite size pieces ( I like to buy a pork tenderloin, it's a good amount for 2-3)
-dip pork in a beaten egg.
-then dip pork in a mixture of 1 cup flour, 1tsp garlic salt. (The original recipe called for another tsp of salt, but we have found that wayyyy to salty)

Fry pork in oil until crispy.

In another pan saute one green pepper and one can of pineapple pieces ( save the juice for later).

Mix in a small bowl :
-1/4 cup ketchup
-1 tsp sugar
-2tbsp vinegar
-1 tsp worsteshire
-1 tbsp onion flakes

Add sauce to green pepper and pineapple, add reserved pineapple juice, as much as desired depending on how thick or runny you like. If too runny add some cornstarch to the pineapple juice.
Mix with pork.

Serve over rice!

It's better then takeout!

Wish me luck at the auction tomorrow!

And light a candle for Julien tomorrow, three months since he left a hole in my heart. Love you baby.

Cat in a box

As many of you know, earlier this fall, Tommy and I made Purla a fantastic Estate home. We made it Rancher style, so she wouldn't have to go up and down stairs in her arthritic years. The number of times she has enjoyed her new house, we could count on one hand. This week, however, she has decided that she prefers our home! She hovers outside the door, and the second we open it, MEOW, she walks on in! And MEOW, where's my dinner! So, being the good servant that I am, I promptly set to making her a bed. Out of the finest materials. Cardboard. And a pillow. She has moved on in.


Madeline, could give a rats pooper that there is a cat in the house. Dorian.....is in love.


With Purla and her cardboard box.





I can't seem to get this picture right side up, but you get the idea!


It takes 24 hours of surveilance to keep Dorian away from Purla and her bed. It makes us a little nervous, because I think she weighs about six pounds and Dorian is already 17 pounds! He pounces at her, and smells her and bats her and pushes her.....and she loves every second of it! Sometimes I wonder if this is the first entertainment she has had in her whole life!

So everynight night this week, she comes in as soon as we get home from work, and stays in all night curled up in front of the fire until the next morning when we shoo her out for the day.... god forbid, next stop, litter box. Yuck.

Tonight I also discovered that this Sunday at the auction house is all crafts and yarn!!!! Yippee! And then I realize plummeting back to earth......it's the same time as Dorian's class. Poopee. I'm working on a plan. Best case scenario, class will be cancelled due to Halloween the previous night....I am anxiously checking my email for updates. My fathers days projects are coming along swiftly now that my summer hiatus is over!

I will keep you posted about my possible first auction purchases ever!

The baby!

This was Dorian on Thanksgiving day! I think he was trying to get as close to the turkey as possible! He looks so tiny and that was only a week and a half ago! That day the turkey was bigger then him, but today I think he weighs more!

Mommy, Lingy and Dorian, having a snooze....well some of us having a snooze!

This is Dorian today! I took about 10 shots and this was the best we could do! I don't know how anyone photographs puppies! Impossible!