Chicken and Waffles

While we were on holiday in Florida, I found out something shocking...Most of the people we were with had NOT HEARD OF CHICKEN AND WAFFLES.

Are you one of those people?

Maybe I watch too much Food Network, but I somehow can not comprehend how this many people have never heard of this dish.

Although I had seen it created, I had never tried it, so when it was on the delightful breakfast menu at Doreen's Cup of Joe, I had to oblige. Side note: if you're ever on Marco Island, I would recommend going there for brunch.

If she had it her way, Ruby would have just eaten the menu.

Just look at this plate. Fried chicken served on waffles topped with leeks. This photo was taken before I doused it in maple syrup. Yes. Syrup on the chicken and leeks. Buddy the Elf would be proud.

Here are Nick's and Ruby's breakfasts (just so you can see how it all went down). Clearly mine was the best choice.

What's your favourite breakfast/brunch item?

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Christmas Time

Well Christmas is just a few days away. Last year was a little different because (most of) Nick's family were here. This year will be different again with our little Rubester on the scene :)

We're really looking forward to having Christmas morning with her and even though she's too little to really understand, we will delight in watching her open presents (and probably just try to eat the paper). I am so excited to start our own little Christmas traditions.

Until the day arrives, indulge in some Christmas movies (like The Grinch), and tune in to your favourite Christmas music (you can find my favourites here and here).

Have a lovely holiday!

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Happy Halloween!

Well this Halloween is a little different from Halloweens gone by. It's Ruby's first Halloween! No costumes for Nick and I (although if someone was having a party I totally would have put a costume together). I kinda cheaped out for R's first Halloween...not intentionally but hey, it's not like she has any idea (unless she reads this one day).

We had big plans to take her to the pumpkin patch for that first Halloween pumpkin hunt. Then I dropped a chair on my toe and couldn't walk. We did end up taking her to the farm to get a pumpkin but we didn't spend much time doing it and I certainly haven't carved it #halloweenfail.

{token photo of Ruby with pumpkins}

Nick wanted to dress her as a witch or a pumpkin. By the time we went looking for costumes, they were all gone. So I grabbed a cute cozy costume from the sale rack. I thought it was a watermelon, but it's a strawberry. Total cost for her first Halloween costume: $2.25.

{my little strawberry}

It's a pretty cold and rainy day here so I'm thinking we won't take her trick-or-treating either. It's really our loss (in the candy department). Hopefully when we look back, all we'll see is the cute picture of her as a strawberry. :)

Have a spooky day/night!!

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Ruby's First Trip to England

{four generations} 

We are back from England! Actually, we've been home for a few days but the jet lag was a killer so I couldn't bring myself to do much until now.

We had such a lovely time introducing Ruby to her aunties, uncles, cousins and especially to her great grandmother. Her granny and grandpa were also very excited to see her again. Every morning we would wake up, stumble downstairs, I would drink I giant French Press of coffee (all to myself) while Ruby was enveloped in cuddles.

We had lots of time to catch up, as well as do some sight-seeing and tourist activities. We had family dinners, trips to the pub, sing-alongs, walks around town, a trip to Liverpool to see my cousins, a trip into Chester for shopping, we visited a beautiful garden that had a monkey forest, took a trip to the beach in Wales, and we even got a night out with friends while granny and grandpa looked after Ruby.

Here are some pictures of the trip...

Happy St. Paddy's Day

For the most part I've been able to cope with no alcohol whilst growing this little baby. One thing that is really making me miss it? Today. St. Paddy's day. Perhaps it's just the nostalgia I'm feeling for my university days where it was a full-day event but even last year we had ourselves a nice little pub date with family and friends and pints of beer. I'm sure I'm romanticizing it in my mind, since for the vast majority of St. Paddy's Days I was likely passed out by 11pm, but since I'm feeling whiny about missing out on all the beer-drinking, Irish-dancing-fun today can someone please go out drinking on my behalf?

To those who are celebrating today have fun! To those who celebrated over the weekend I hope your hangovers are tolerable today ;)

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Our Wedding Day

The last couple V-days I have introduced you to Nick and told you the story of our engagement. So today I thought I'd tell you about our wedding and show you some of the photos. There's nothing like reliving such a special day through the pictures to up the love factor for the day.

Read on after the jump...

Christmas Morning Traditions

What is your Christmas morning like? Back when my brother and I were little kids, we'd be awake from about 4am on. Good thing my parents allowed the opening of stockings before they were up. Eventually (probably around 5:30am) my parents would crawl out of bed, clearly desperate for coffee, and indulge their annoying children. At the time, I knew it was early, but I had no real concept of how crappy it must have felt. For that I say, thank you dear parents.

Since we've grown up, we've changed up the tradition a bit. Whereas before, all gifts would be open by about 7am, now we don't even make it over to my parents place until about 10:30. Nick and I open presents together at home, followed by a lively Skype with our family in the UK. Then we head over to my parents' place. We will drink coffee and leisurely open our stockings. Then, we will all sit down to a big Christmas brunch of french toast, bacon, sausage, fruit, mimosas, sometimes followed by cinnamon buns (because the rest wasn't indulgent enough).

Eventually, we'll drag our full tummies back to the living room to open gifts. This ends up lasting into the afternoon. If weather and energy permits (as it did last year) we'll head outside for a walk. So our Christmas morning really turns into an entire day.

This year will be slightly different, but for a wonderful reason. Nick's parents and sister are coming to town! We'll change up the routine just a bit (Nick and I are hosting brunch), but they will still get to experience our version of a Canadian Christmas. Just a couple more days until they arrive :)

I will be taking a holiday blogging break, but I'm looking forward to 2014 and all the excitement it has to bring. Have a very wonderful holiday!

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A First Grinch Experience

Most, if not all, of us have seen How the Grinch Stole Christmas (the original cartoon version). Yesterday, Nick watched it for the first time. I was bouncing off the walls to see it again. I'm not sure why he hadn't seen it. Either it's not a popular story in the UK or his issue with Dr. Seuss (the rhyming freaks him out) prevented him from seeing it.

So we watched it. I sang along. I glanced in his direction every so often to see if he was smiling. I heard him laugh at parts. He liked it!

He did say that it's weird that the Grinch doesn't wear pants. He then crafted a little song to the tune of 'You're a mean one, Mr. Grinch' that detailed the lack of pants, and some other observations (like how creepy it is when he slithers like a snake around the Christmas tree). I pointed out that Daffy Duck doesn't wear pants either. I guess I'm a little defensive of the dear old Grinch. Did anyone else notice that when his heart grew three sizes, his eyes turned from red to blue??

One week until Christmas my friends! Get rid of your inner-Grinch and watch some Christmas movies!

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Gift Idea: Infused Liquor

If you're looking for a gift idea, here's one that's easy to make but delicious. Infused liquor. I was inspired by a friend who makes variations of Christmas cheer each year. The best thing about this is that you can personalize it to the taste of the person you're giving it to. For my first round, I decided to keep it simple and choose one flavour to infuse into each liquor. I went for bourbon infused with figs and gin infused with cucumber. Put your infusing item into a jar, add the liquor, and shake daily. I let them infuse for 6 days, but from what I've read, 4 days is enough time. Afterwards, strain into a bottle, label and gift away!

Tips from experience:
I took the seeds out of the cucumber so it wouldn't water-down the gin.
I used a coffee filter (in a funnel) to filter the little bits out. It's not the easiest - cheesecloth or a fine mesh sieve would likely be easier.

Cheers!

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Christmas Playlist

I've gathered up some of my favourite Christmas songs, divided them into delightful categories and listed them here for your Christmas party planning and enjoyment. After all, it's best to create a mix so that there's a little something for everyone...if you use the list below, then it's basically just for me :) My personal favourite is Fairytale of New York. If you've never heard it, I suggest you do so immediately. We play it every Christmas morning without fail. 

Happy Rockin' Around that Tree!

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O Christmas Tree

I have held out on any Christmas posts for a long time. Today I'm holding out no longer. I've been listening to Christmas tunes since November 2nd. This is my all-time favourite holiday and I want to enjoy it for as long as possible.

This past weekend, we got our Christmas tree. It's real and it's spectacular ;) It was so fresh that I was covered in sap by the time I put the lights on it. Anyway, here it is!

I like a tree with tons of decorations, so I have a ton of basics (like baubles) on hand, but I also have some special ones that make me smile when I pull them out each year. How early (or late) do you put your tree up?

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C'est L'Halloween

C'est l'Halloween, c'est l'Halloween, hey! I can't help it - that song gets stuck in my head every year.

Anywho, it's Halloween! Usually, I am excited and have a costume planned, but for whatever reason this year it sorta fell through the cracks so I'm basically over it. I think if I were young enough to trick-or-treat, I'd be singing a different tune.

Last night I was reminiscing about all my trick-or-treating memories. Forcing down dinner because I was really too excited to eat. Running from door to door and then decanting my easy-to-carry Halloween bucket (from McDonald's, obviously), into the much larger bag that my dad was carrying for me (thanks dad!), arriving home and dumping out all the candy to count and sort (and see who had the most). Ah, those were the days. I made it sound so glamorous that Nick may even attempt to trick-or-treat tonight (it wasn't very popular in England when Nick was a kid, so he doesn't remember ever doing it).

Then I brought up the part about going through and finding all the home-made stuff. You know, the Rice Krispie Square from the old lady down the street. Or the homemade candy apples. They were always from the most thoughtful people, and yet the automatic reaction was: throw it away immediately. Nick thought I was just being picky, until I explain the whole 'razor blades being hidden in the candy' scenario, at which he was shocked and speechless. Maybe there's no trick-or-treating in England for good reason: no need to check your innocent child's candy for hidden objects that are intended to harm them.

So, if you or your kiddos are out trick-or-treating tonight - enjoy! Watch out for cars and hidden razor blades.

Ps. How accommodating am I? I bought two boxes of candy. One of them is peanut free, so I can offer those allergy-ridden children some candy they can actually eat. Gold star for Emma.

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Do You Like Scary Movies?

I don't. Well, not anymore anyway.

With that being said, I went through a phase in my early teens where watching scary movies was the thing to do. In the spirit of Hallowe'en, I thought I'd give you a list of my (former) favourites:

The Sixth Sense

The Poltergeist

Jaws

Child's Play

Black Christmas

When a Stranger Calls (the original)

The Exorcist

Scream

The Ring

The Shining 

Movies I can’t even bring myself to watch because I know I’ll be terrified:

Any of the Friday the 13th series - the mask alone scares me.

Nightmare on Elm Street

Any of the Saw movies

Texas Chainsaw Massacre

Any of the Paranormal Activity movies

I can’t even stop to think about some of the content in these movies because it still scares me. But if you’re looking for a good scare this Hallowe'en, give them a try.

Boo.

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Thanksgiving Weekend

Happy Thanksgiving weekend to my fellow Canadians!

What do you normally to do celebrate Thanksgiving?

We always have a family dinner and I usually try to get in some outdoor activity. Going for a hike to check out the changing leaves is my favourite. While this holiday isn’t quite as ‘big’ as American Thanksgiving, it’s a really lovely way to kick-off the fall season. This year, I’m just looking forward to spending quality time with my family and enjoying the deliciousness that is my mom’s Thanksgiving dinner.

Enjoy the little things this weekend.

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Holiday in Review

While everyone is getting back to school and work today, I'm relishing in the afterglow of our amazing vacation. We spent 10 days touring through the UK, visiting family and friends, and enjoying our holiday.

Some highlights include:

+ cooking and baking with the family
+ going to the beach in Wales
+ learning to play Cricket
+ eating proper fish and chips
+ playing Croquet while drinking tea
+ sipping on Pimm's
+ going to see the North Sea
+ visiting Newcastle-upon-Tyne
+ crossing into Scotland
+ visiting Edinburgh
+ spending time with my cousins in Liverpool
+ getting together with friends (remembering old times and making new memories)
+ dancing to musical songs with my sisters-in-law
+ playing Cow-Monkey-Fish-Goat (I'll post on how to play another day)
+ going for Cream Tea with the girls (tea and scones)
+ watching our cousin play guitar/sing at a local pub
+ meeting the furry new addition to the family
+ long lazy mornings just spending time together

Here are some pictures, if you'd like to see...

Canada Day

On yet another birthday for Canada it's a good time to reflect on just how lucky I am to call this country my home. This is the greatest country in the world and we who live here are privileged.
Happy birthday Canada, you beauty.

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Father's Day

There are tons of great gift guides for father's day floating around the blog world, like this, this and this. Here's my take on gifts suited specifically to my dad. 

+ He's a self-proclaimed chocoholic, so that usually must be part of any good gift.

+ He loves good quality skin care products.

+ His two sports of choice are golf and biking, so some brightly coloured golf shirts and golf balls are a must. Plus the iphone case is great and reflects his hobby.

+ He listens to a lot of radio and I thought the old-school portable one was pretty cool.

+ Last but not least, a favourite DVD. Sorry Dad, I've outed you on your very odd totally normal taste in movies.

Ps. Despite the fact that my dad likes to tease us about it being the cost of the gift that counts (not the thought), time spent together is by far the best father's day gift (deep down, I'm pretty sure he agrees!)

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