Menu Plan Monday: Aug 22

I'm a little late in posting the menu plan for the week. Sorry, but I've spent the last 3 1/2 days being sick, sick, sick!

I'm feeling better now and thought a little attention to what everyone is going to eat for dinner (except possibly me - I feel better, I still don't feel great) would be a really, really good idea.

Sunday: Hamburgers done on the bbq. I'd premade these a few weeks

back, then froze them, so hubby was able to just take out how many he wanted and fire up the bbq.

Monday: Club sandwiches, made by my oldest son. He actually requested this before I got sick, but it was still good timing all the way around.

Tuesday: Penne with tomatoes, garlic and chili. I know this is an old standby for us, but I could make this falling over and in my sleep.

Wednesday: Meatball subs.

Thursday: Grilled whole chicken with bbq roasted potatoes.

Friday: Boys are on their own, I will be working.

Saturday: Boys will be at a party, while I work, so no dinner here tonight.

And that's my menu plan for Menu Plan Monday.

Speaking of eating, the hubby's new place for our bird feeder has had some really good results. On any given day we find Blue Jays (a very noisy, noisy bird), Cardinals, Morning Doves, Grackles, Sparrows and Chickadees in our yard. Guess alot of "folks" like to come to our house to eat!

The ongoing computer trials

So after two attempts with two different Dell computers, I am now the owner of a MacBook.

Now how to figure out how to get all my stuff over to this computer!

(Yes, this means there will still be alot of quiet coming from me, while I continue to learn how to use this new computer.)

Welcome to winter

I don't think I'll be using this clothesline for quite awhile.

Out of nowhere non-food photo, just because!

Just because I took it and I like it.

Food photos later. After I get some work done.

Menu Plan Monday: Don't worry, I didn't forget!

I simply took awhile to make my plan this week. And it being a holiday weekend, yesterday did not feel like Sunday.

Last week's plan went exactly as planned. Rather unusual, but it has to happen sometimes!

Be sure to check out the other menu plans at Menu Plan Monday, hosted by Laura!

So here we go:

Sunday: Pomegranate glazed chicken with chive mashed potatoes, corn spoon bread, steamed broccoli. Fancy, I know, and it came together even more so (post about it tomorrow!) It was our Easter dinner with family.

Monday: Happy Shrimp with rice. Which reminds me that I need to go take the shrimp out.

Tuesday: Penne pasta with tomatoes, garlic and oil. Old standby.

Wednesday: Pork with apples and raisins.

Thursday: Crispy chicken drumsticks with mashed potato puffs.

Friday: Hamburgers with caesar salad.

Costco had cases of diced tomatoes on sale last week and I took advantage of it, stocking up, since we do go through alot and they don't go bad. But as a result, I messed up my own budget. This week's meals were partially planned around the concept of "what can I made that will not require me to make a single trip to the grocery store." It is nice having a reasonably well stocked pantry and freezer, so it should be good!

And on a totally unrelated note, I have another swimming "Woot!" to share with you all!
With only a few more swims left before we have a pool closure for 2 months, I have been trying to make sure I don't miss a swim, and that when I am there, I swim for the full time. Saturday saw me up waaaaaay too early, but resulted in a good swim, a new distance record for me: 2400 meters!

I have a feeling that if I keep putting in that kind of distance over the summer, when I come back in September I won't be swimming in the slowest lane anymore. Eeeek!

Want to learn more about me?

The head on over to the Daring Kitchen and read my "interview" with Lis for On the Spot. I'll be highlighted for the next week.

And in case you are wondering, I'm still looking for that "sponsor."

(This, btw, is my kitchen window, looking at it from my porch. You can't see much of my kitchen, but can see my huge basil plant and the pretty flowers that I see each day.)

Product Review: How do you test dishwasher detergent?

Do you have a favorite dishwasher detergent? One that cuts through everything you can throw at your dishes? Or do you just pick up whatever is on sale.

I used to pick mine by which one dissolved best in my dishwasher (the powder tabs did not work well), and left the dishes clean, which left me with lots of options to choose from. Usually I would pick the one that was on sale and that I could easily find a coupon for.

That, however, was before the dishwasher from ****.

That's right, I don't like my dishwasher. I had a beautiful, white, wonderfully efficient dishwasher, but traded it for my bigger kitchen. My new kitchen came with a dishwasher, but one that left most of my dishes dirty and had me rewashing everything.

When you go through as many dishes as I do, that's really not fun.

So when I was offered the chance to try out some Cascade All-in-1 ActionPacs, dishwasher detergent, I thought, "Why not? I can't possibly make my dishes any dirtier."

I didn't really notice a difference at first. That could have been the dishwasher. So just to be sure, and because I had to, I scrubbed out the inside of my dishwasher, I ran it through several cycles with a special dishwasher cleaner, I sprayed it down with CLR and ran it again. Then I went back and tested what I had been using against the Cascade.

If you happen to have a dishwasher that isn't cousin to mine, the All-in-1 ActionPacs are a good choice for getting your dishes clean. The Cascade worked a bit better than what I had been using, but I was still indifferent about what I would buy the next time I was shopping.


Then I bought myself a package of the Cascade ActionPacs with Extra Bleach. Which, coincidentally enough, was on sale, and had a coupon.

And is now my regular dishwasher detergent.

So I guess I've answered my own question: you test dishwasher detergent by making alot of dirty dishes, then letting the detergent get them clean. And you pick one by how well it cleans your dishes.

Think I can find a detergent that will unload the dishwasher for me now?

When one organizing project snowballs

Remember this? My plan to reorganize my recipes?


Well that turned into this. A reorganization of my entire "office" area. Not yet complete though, as there is still stuff to do and doors to put on one of my cabinets and things to put away.

If I wait for it to be complete before I put it up, however, you could be waiting a very long time.

So don't mind the mess. Not only is it a work in progress, I am working on other things at this desk right now.


This was what I was aiming for when I started this project. Instead of one binder with some divided sections, overflowing, print outs and magazine cut outs everywhere, I wanted less chaos. And I think I managed that using nothing more than a few things recycled from home and a few things from the dollar store.

Each binder has its own subsections within it, for example the baking binder has sections for cookies, or muffins, or breads. If I couldn't 3-hole punch the recipe, I put it into a protective sleeve instead.

I hope I've left some room to grow.


While cleaning up my existing recipes, I decided to add one extra binder in: The Menu Plan binder! I still have my list where I write my menu plan, but now I have all the recipes I want to use for the week in one place. On those days where I'm not using one, I either leave it blank or throw in a scrap piece of paper with a note as to what I'm making that night. Each day has it's own protective sleeve so I can just slip something in.

And I've even added in a baking tab so I can keep the recipes I want to make for snacks and such in one place and not have to go searching for loose pieces of paper.

Will this stop me from having printed out recipes everywhere? Likely not, especially since I think I have 3 different pancake recipe print outs on my kitchen counter right now. Guess I forgot I had a binder where I could put them.

Does this inspire you to clean up your own recipe collection? If it does, please leave me a message. My system may not be the best one for you, and it is possible that your system might even be better for me!

Outside the kitchen: Product Review

Shortly before Christmas I was contacted about doing some product reviews that did not involve food. Sure, this is a blog about food, and family, but the connection between eating and the product was a natural one.

I'd been asked if I would review some electric toothbrushes.

Now doesn't that have an obvious connection to food?

After giving it some thought, I decided this was a good type of product to review for the readers of All Things Edible. Afterall, if you are going to eat some of the desserts I sometimes post about, you are going to want to be able to get a good toothbrushing done afterwards. And since I am a "trouble" dental patient with a strong gag reflex who has problems with alot of toothbrushes, I am actually a good person to try out some electric toothbrushes and see how they do for someone who has problems brushing their teeth.

When my package arrived, it had two brushes in it, one of them an Oral B Vitality Pro White, which looks similar to this one here, but isn't exactly this one here.

This is a plug in and go type of toothbrush. Okay, sure, let it charge up first, then use it, but beyond that it doesn't need fancy instructions. Press the button to turn it on, brush your teeth, and it will tell you when you have reached two minutes. Press the button again, it turns off. Pull off the brush head, rinse it off, and then put it all back together on it's charger base. Almost as simple as a plain brush without any power, only with this, you get a better clean.

As I said, I have a strong gag reflex. When cleaning my teeth, my dentist gives me lots of little breaks and if I put up my arm, everything comes out of my mouth right away. So far this has worked for us. So I tend to be a bit nervous about the size of brushes I use in my mouth. Afterall, one thing my dentist has never been able to do is take full, adult sized x-rays (though we manage child sized ones). I was pleasantly surprised to find that this bulky looking toothbrush was actually easier to put into my mouth than the regular one I use. Which helps in getting to those back teeth.

All together, a good toothbrush. If you are looking for a relatively inexpensive electric toothbrush, this is a good investment. Provided you actually use it.

Now the other toothbrush in my Oral B box was a cadilac among toothbrushes, the Oral B Triumph with Smart Guide. It comes with a good set of instructions, batteries, two brush heads, one for daily use (with floss things in it) and one for ocassional polishing. The remote acts as a clock when it isn't doing its timing job for you as well.

I put mine together very quickly, while thinking, "I have toothbrush with a clock and a timer. Who needs this with their toothbrush?"

Let me tell you, I do. I love this thing. The size of the brush head is essentially the same as with the Vitality brush, though shaped a touch differently, but it is such a good brush.

Press the button to start and the little timer starts counting up for you while showing you a little circle, suggesting you focus only one one "quadrant" of your mouth at a time. It gives you 30 seconds per quadrant before moving on to the next. When you've reached two minutes, it still counts but gives you a happy face to show you've made it.

Teeth feeling sensitive today? Well press the lower button and the brush changes from regular brush mode to sensitive mode, again giving you your count up timer to show you how long you've brushed for. If it is only one section of your mouth feeling sensitive, then switch back to normal mode when you are done brushing there.

According to the instructions, the Smart Guide will give you warning when it is almost time to change your toothbrush head. And it won't confuse your daily brush head with your polishing head, telling you to replace one when it really means the other. And if I were to go out and get additional heads, I could also program the Smart Guide to let the brush have two users, each with their own set of brush heads, each monitored for use and replacement warnings.

Who knew a toothbrush could think?

Plus it monitors your rechargable battery life and comes with a carrying case for when you want to go away and bring the brush with you. As with the Vitality, it is easy to clean, just remove the head and rinse it, then you are done.

The downside to this brush? Well, it isn't cheap, costing more than $100, and replacement heads are not going to be inexpensive either. However if it saves you time in the dentist office, well then it is a good investment, isn't it? For our dental money, and my sensitive mouth, this toothbrush is worth the cost.

Now since I've started using these two brushes, I've had a visit with mydental office and they were quite pleased with how clean my teeth were, especially considering I was several months late for my cleaning. As much as I like my dentist office and all the staff, less time with me in the chair is a good thing.

Many thanks to the folks at Oral B for giving me a chance to try these two toothbrushes. My "testing" period for them is over, but I fully intend to keep using them: I keep the Vitality in the downstairs bathroom and the Triumph in my bathroom, so they are both used on a regular basis.

Word of advice

When baking a cheesecake, don't go off to play Rock Band 2 with your guys, trying to get through a set or two with all of you on expert.

It's a bad idea.

Trust me.

And the results are....

Showing off some moves with the demo team - my boy can kick!

I know everyone is just waiting, finger nail biting nervousness, for the results of our tournament today. (And if they aren't, well, they should be!)

Our school, the host school, placed very well from everything I saw throughout my day, but for our little family, we are proud to say, it was a bronze medal in patterns, and a silver medal in sparring.

Have I mentioned?

That I am sick and tired of being sick and tired? Three days so far of antibiotics, for bronchitis, and inhalers twice a day. You'd think I would be feeling alot better by now.

Today I did two things - I asked my mother in law to make the cookie recipe I'd had out on my printer for a few days, so the kids would have a snack for later, and I took a nap.

And, no, I have not yet taken pictures of the cookies. I may not get to it before they are eaten.

It took alot of energy to do those two things, so I have none left and am going to bed now.

Goodnight everyone.

Yahoo! Non-food related milestones!

This morning marked a major milestone for me in the pool. Two actually.

I've always had a fear of water and could not learn to swim growing up. I could tread water forever as an adult, but could not put my face in the water or swim much at all. Going one length of the pool, 25 meters, was very, very hard.

Despite this, I joined a Master Swim program last September and learned how to swim.

Today, I swam 2000 meters, for the first time ever.

And, at the encouragement of my coach, went up on the 3 meter diving board, frightened as I was creeping to the end of that thing, and dove. Well, it was somewhere between a dive and a belly flop.

And now I am celebrating with a breakfast devoid of good nutrition, toasted crumpets with butter.

And later today, I will take a nap.

Come on in and celebrate with us!

image edited from greenclipart.com

As I mentioned yesterday, I'm having a blog party, a HOUSEWARMING party, and you are all invited!

It is very easy to join in to this party, and won't require you to have a passport either. Just cook up something in your own home, your choice of savory or sweet, something to eat or something to drink, and bring it on over by January 30th. Post it on your own blog, then send me the link, with the title "Housewarming" to allthingsedible(at)hotmail(dot)com, so that I can include you in the round-up on January 31st.

For Daring Baker's, I've deliberately set the date for after the challenge so that you can have the option of using a variation of this months challenge (a good one!) for your dish.

Oooh I can't wait to see what everyone bring!

Yes, I'm excited to have you all join in our celebration of our new home.

With all this snow falling, be sure to wipe your feet when you come in, while I get you a hot drink.

Have a safe and Merry Christmas!

It is Christmas Eve and the children are in bed, finally.

Important advice for everyone out there - do not wait until Christmas Eve day to do your baking! Even if you have everything else done, this is not good planning!

This is what I spent today doing. My baking. I had to, or we'd have had nothing to put out for Santa tonight. Not even a box of Oreos. I probably could have found him some chocolates. I do have left over cake. But Santa deserves baked goods that were made just for him. Left over cake won't cut it.


From left, around, are Gooey Coconut Dream Bars (from Phe/om/enon Holly,) Meyer Lemon Squares (recipe later), Raisin Oatmeal Cookies (Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics, minus the pecans), and Spicy Ginger Cookies (from The Canadian Baker, not my usual recipe since I would have had to look for mine.)

In addition to these items, I also "threw together" our Chritmas Eve dinner, a broth fondue with fresh veggies, a bit of this and a bit of that. The children loved being able to pick at what they wanted to eat, but spent a good chunk of dinner running back to my laptop, conveniently found on the kitchen counter, so they could see just where in the world Santa was right then! (And for the record, at 10:17 pm, he was in San Juan, Puerto Rico.)

(In retrospect, maybe the last minute baking was a good idea - I didn't make nearly as much as I might have otherwise, if I'd been doing so well in advance and freezing as I went.)


Dinner was followed by a walk around the block, to see the lights. Unusual that we needed umbrellas and snow jackets to do so, though. Rain is melting the snow, but also making things very slippery around here. So if you are driving, be careful!

Before getting the boys off to bed, we had to assemble our tray for Santa and the reindeer. We break with some traditions, providing the reindeer with apples instead of carrots, and normally we leave him chocolate milk, something he rarely gets. This year, with the cold and the rain, we decided to leave him hot chocolate milk instead, kept warm in a thermos, with a mug nearby. The children chose what to leave him for cookies (the ones they themselves had just been sampling.)

The kitchen is cleaned, the dishwasher is running, the Christmas lights are on. I think it is time to curl up and enjoy a few minutes of quiet before the chaos that is Christmas morning comes.

May you and your family have a wonderful day, filled with love and happiness. And a good cookie or two.

The new kitchen!

What a weekend!

I don't ever want to move again.

Alot of cleaning, boxes, and more cleaning, but we got here, finally.


Fancy stemware present and accounted for, my boys and I, all three, husband included, toasted our first night in our new home with some de-alcoholized bubbly. Pink bubbly. Then we set up air mattresses and sleeping bags and camped out for the night.

Did you know that every house has noises? And when you aren't familiar with those noises, everyone of them is very loud. Especially at 2 am. And 5 am.



This is my new kitchen, pre cleaning, pre influx of boxes and furniture, and devoid of real dishes and food. Unless chocolate counts, in which case, I had lots of food.

Don't you love my pretty pointsetta on my island? That was part of our first housewarming gift, from our agent.

For a quick tour: the window is over the sink, a large sink with a little vegetable sink as part of it. There are lights underneath all the counters, which run around the room. On the island, right behind the plant, is my cooktop, a Jenn-air which has two induction burners and then the other side converts. Included in my gadgets is a griddle, a grill, some coil burners, a deepfryer and a rotissary. On the other side of the island, oposite the window, is the wall oven, again a Jenn-air, with a convection setting. It sits beside the fridge, which was absent at the time this was taken but has since been installed, hooked up to the water line and filled with stuff. Above the oven sits an alcove for a microwave, and above that, a cabinet built specfically to hold baking pans, with racks to hold them up.

I have alot of counter space and cabinet space, which has quickly been filled up with the contents of 73 boxes, at least. In addition to this, though, I have a little bonus room near my kitchen:


The previous owners use this as a sound booth for his music, and built in the shelves. I saw it and thought, "PANTRY!!!" I've since done some grocery shopping and unpacked boxes that had pantry items in it, so it isn't so bared and empty anymore.


This house has required alot of cleaning, even before anything came through the door. I had some help from family, but also had some help from a great Daring Baker, BC, who in addition to scrubbing out my stove and all its parts (isn't she amazing to do that for me!?!) brought me a cooler full of goodies to eat. Some store bought goodies were topped off with even better homemade goodies, such as a glutten free cake (you were right, I could not tell it was glutten free), an apple compote to go with the cake, and a jar full of salsa, which was inhaled by everyone around, it was so good!

Oh, and she also brought me a very important, but necessary ingredient, to this months Daring Baker challenge - and no I'm not going to tell you what it is!

Our first night in the house, we stood around the island and ate roasted chicken from the grocery store, with wedge fries and salad. Our second night, surrounded by boxes, things everywhere, I managed to find enough dishes and pots to make dinner. Unsurprising to anyone who knows our family, it was pasta, whole wheat spaghetti with a meat sauce (made up from equal parts ground beef and hot Italian sausage meat, sauted onions, canned tomatoes and crushed tomatoes) and a whole wheat baguette (part of our present from BC.) I didn't find the Parmessan cheese, but did find the cheddar and a box grater.

Unpacking and organizing is coming along way too slowly for my liking, but like any sensible Mom, Cook and Baker, I started with the kitchen. With a bit more time, and alot more hard work, I hope to be able to get back to baking very soon, and provide alot more pictures of my new kitchen.

When you are a kid, one of the bonuses to moving is the boxes you get to play with after. Especially if your mother orders an appliance and salvages the box for you.

Happy Halloween!

My boys have just headed out a few minutes ago with their Dad, while I man the door. But before leaving they posed for a picture or two for me.

Oh you thought those pumpkins were my boys?

Hehehe

Actually the pumpkin on the right is my son's first ever pumpkin that he carved himself. I chopped off the top, but he emptied it and made the face and cut out all the pieces. I'm quite proud of how well he did, so wanted to show it off.

Here you go, here is my boys, getting ready to go out and see all their friends. They will likely get enough junk to make up for their mother not making them Halloween cookies or funky cupcakes this year. Oh well, there is always Christmas. Or New Years. Or maybe Groundhogs day.

Have a safe and happy Halloween!

Yippee!!!!

One week from first showing to sold sign!

Can't get any better than that, can you?

It was a wet and foggy day....

Summer, oh beautiful summer

This is my front walk way, five minutes ago. Hail, bouncing around and flying through the air. The kids and I had just made a mad dash up that walk way to get in the house.

Isn't this what August is supposed to look like?

At least the hail seems to have stopped, but the rain doesn't look like it is going to let up, so I think I will need to replan dinner tonight as I am unwilling to stand at the bbq, while lightening flashes around me.

Sorry, I know I'm a "foodie" and would do alot for good food, but being struck by lightening, or even hailed on, is not something I'm up for today. Maybe tomorrow. Or not.