Thinking about my dogs

And missing their goofy, eight-going-on-eight-months selves.

The past week (and a half) at a glance

Hey guys! Well, it looks like my old camera that I brought back to school with me (instead of my spanking new SLR) has gone bust; after a healthy and worldly five years, it finally crapped out last week. So, from now until April, at least, it looks as if I will have to rely on the kindness of strangers for lovely pics here. Anyways, I present to you highlights of the last week and bit for me... Some through pictures, others through links.

Blood oranges are my new favourite things

Same with Being Human (Mitchell+George=aww. I need the second season.) Image from here

Snow. Lots of it. And possibly more to come.

Cake balls! While they weren't perfect looking as they are here (and chocolate, rather than red velvet), they were delicious. Ohhh my goodness, they were.

Brie cheese. I can't get enough of it!

Cats falling asleep.

Studying theatre. Working in theatre. Graduation. Teaching. Careers. Options. Forever-ness. Arrrgghdfklhflsslkdfsk;h

The music to unwind to.

1000 Awesome Things.

Bangable Dudes in History. Hot-nass.

Remembering the days when I played the violin. Image from here

The Lil Bee! She is such a wonderful writer/photographer (her snapshot of family are darling), and I love reading the stories and thoughts she shares--very so homey and familiar. She looks to be a great mom; plus, she has another "lil bee" coming along soon! All the best to her!

And finally... The subject of weekends: it has come to the point where I don't want them to end.

And yet here we are, about to start another! Have a good one!

Image from here

Chicken avec Dumplings

You know it as well as I do: winter requires comfort in the form of warmth, staying inside, and food. Obviously, we find it best in the form of the latter! This weekend, I experimented with the slow cooker (a gift when you're living on your own), making chicken and dumplings; what a novel idea! I have never made this before, but now it has earned a place among my top comfort foods. I got it from allrecipes; I followed the basic instructions, along with some handy advice of people who had also tried it out. Since I only planned to make a small batch, I just cut up two chicken breasts and that was enough. You can also use a different cream soup (like mushroom) instead of two cream of chickens. And lucky for those of you away at school (or elsewhere), it's another dead-easy recipe! I've just put down my variation of this recipe, but check out the original for other ideas.

Chicken with dumplings

• 2 skinless, boneless chicken breasts
• 2 tablespoons butter
• One onion, finely chopped (but I used a Spanish onion and only required half)
• 2 cans cream of chicken soup (or one of a different kind to your preference)
• 1 can chicken broth
• 1 package of refrigerated biscuit dough

Directions:

Place chopped chicken, butter, soup and onion in slow cooker; cover and cook for 5-6 hours on high. When it's been about four hours in, drop bits of dough* in with the chicken and continue to cook until the dough is no longer raw in the center.

*On another note, I didn't need to use all of the biscuit dough (having broken them up into small pieces); since they were pre sliced, I used about five and baked the others. Not a bad thing to have along side it, no?

It sort of looks like a glob here... but it was delicious.

Pictures I took this morning of the frost on our kitchen window. Isn't pretty? It was a super cold weekend, at least -16! When I came into the kitchen this morning, I decided it was far too good not to take a snap shot of.

The Go-To Cookeh

Or, to be more accurate, Erin's. Last week, I was looking for a good cookie to send off to Karen, and once again I found solace in The Happy Baker cookbook. It did not fail to satisfy my qualifications in a cookie: the salty sweet combo of peanut butter and chocolate chips, the chewiness from the oatmeal... Ahh. (It calls for coconut, but I omitted it to my own taste.) What's best of all is that it's super quick, and you can whip these up in absolutely no time.

Erin's Go to Cookie

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 smooth peanut butter
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 egg
• 3/4 cup flour
• 3/4 cup quick cooking oatmeal
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup coconut

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees (175)
2. In a large bowl, mix butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
3. Add peanut butter, vanilla and egg; mix well.
4. Stir in flour, oats, baking soda, and salt; then, stir in chippits and coconut.
5. Drop by tablespoonfuls onto lined baking sheet, 2 inched apart. Flatten with fingers.
6. Bake for 10-12 minutes.
7. Allow to cool on wire racks.

Then, take a glass of milk or tea and devour soon after!

Back to the work grind

Painfully adorable. From this spot on wehearit

Ahh, the holidays were too short, as always. However, they were also a wonderful time where I could go home, take a breather from the school work, and eat lots (mostly cookies, which I do not regret at all). But now here I am! Back for my final final semester of university. !!! My future is looming! Thankfully (and this would be the only reason to be thankful), I've got school work to keep my occupied for the next few months. After that, let the job hunting commence. Right now school work consists of mostly reading to do, which I don't mind at this point. Currently on the assigned reading list? Robinson Crusoe and Tom Jones, both very good 18th century novels in you like a good adventure read.

Have never been here before, but looking at this image reminds me of summer. From here.

In other recent news, I saw Black Swan!! It's terrifyingly beautiful movie. After a search through weheartit I came across some very lovely pics.

From weheartit

Same with this.

And this.

And this one, because I couldn't resist.

From here.

Today was definitely the kind of day for hot chocolate; a snow storm blew into the Maritimes! I Classes were canceled this afternoon, but I didn't have any to go to. I was happy to stay at home. Will there be class tomorrow morning? Hard to say at this point.

This is the snowfall we had previously on Sunday.

Oh, and experimented with another cookie recipe, which I will share soon. Getting tired of cookie recipes here, yet? Fear not, I hope to expand outside the cookie field and into teabiscuitry (though not exactly a word). Or better yet--cake balls, om nom nomz.

Have you heard about Vivian Maier? She was a street photographer in the 1950s and 60s. She passed away last year, but recently hundreds of her pictures have been recovered from storage, and they can be considered nothing short of fantastic.

These are just a few, but you can see more at at John Beloof's blog Vivian Maier--her Discovered Work. Check it out! Her photography is amazing.

And to conclude, I leave you with an image of a dough baby; last Friday my housemates and I made pizza, but the dough didn't turn out so great, so we used the left overs to make this lovely, although perhaps creepy creation.

Have a good rest of week!

Turning over a new leaf

Puppy! From weheartit

Happy New Year, all! Was 2010 good to you? I hope so. If not, ready to start afresh?? 2010 was fairly good to me which came with many firsts, but of course it had its lows at times. Needless to say, I am ready to kick off 2011 with a list of goals I could certainly work on, and try to keep to.

-Take a picture of something every day. Even if it's nothing important.

-Get to bed early. As in, 12.00 early! Or earlier, if possible.

-Speak out more often in class.

-Bake bread at some point.

-Work towards getting my G-1.

-Maintain a good sense of humour when things get low.

-Remember reasons why I'm awesome. Not to sound boastful or anything, but a little self-encouragement is always nice.

-Practice the guitar more.

-Go to the ballet.

-Find a permanent job for next year.

-Wear more dresses/skirts.

Just some of the many goals I have for this year. But I was doing some blog-surfing and I came across Erin who had non-goals, meaning habits she was doing during the year that she loved and wanted to continue with--take for instance, drinking water frequently. Here are mine:

From here

-To continue my ballet dancing. I've been dancing for so long, I can't imagine just stopping for good!

-Lying in bed at night, and thinking about what I'm grateful for. I've been doing it for about a year now, and it certainly makes me more content with myself and where I'm currently at.

-To continue to push for what I really want to do with my life! Right now, I'm certain I want to go into studying theatre (which I am currently enjoying), and possibly teaching it later on.

-My curly hair! Although I love it when straight, I love it even more in its curly glory. Even on those humid and rainy days.

-Learning from my flaws, and working on them!

-Speaking in foreign accents. Not in public of course, but to myself and friends, because it's fun and I love how it sounds. And it's part of my zany personality, along with my impressions of various characters.

If you have any non-goals, think about them and keep them up! You'll discover your best through them, as I have found out (and yet already knew--ha!).

*Zoom* Weeee! From here.