This is...something I'm surprised I like

I'm not sure how I started eating these sandwiches; but I love a toasted Peanut Butter and Bacon Sandwich.

Picture from: Roadfood.com

Every now and then the Big Man and I go out with a friend of ours for "Breakkie". I almost squeal with delight when a restaurant has the little packets of peanut butter; not all do. OMG I can not describe to you how much I love this concoction of greasy, salty, peanutty goodness.

I know your thinking EWWWW, but try it, I'm sure you'll be pleasantly surprised...let me know! Quilting Newbie you may want to pass on this one....ha ha!

This weeks question was asked by Victoria at "Earl and Cookie".

Brown Sugar Buttons

Well, I feel bad that I haven't posted since Sunday. It has been a super busy week for me. I went to the Creative Sewing and Needlework Festival on Sunday and worked on a Bunny Rabbit Halloween costume for the daughter of one of the Girls at Work.

The Big Man and I are on Holidays this coming week. I wish I could be packing for a cruise somewhere but alas hard work is planned. We are doing a severe kitchen makeover which should take us all week.

BROWN SUGAR BUTTONS

I thought I'd leave you with a quick and EASY cookie recipe I found in my Canadian Living magazine. Sometimes they include little cooking pamphlets; this one was by "Simply Homemade".

Recipe here: Brown Sugar Buttons

My only suggestion is to bake them for about 12-13 minutes. I've already made the recipe twice and will keep it in my collection of favourites.

Don't forget to follow Lauren from The Blonde Excuse and her fellow "What Now Wanderers" on their exciting journey.

This is...my favourite film

This weeks question has been asked by Hollie at Hokey. My absolute hands down favourite film is "Sixteen Candles".

I remember my Mum and our next door neighbour Abbey took me to the Pickering Town Centre Cinema to see it when I was about 12 years old. I'm sure the rating must have been at least an AA14+ show but I non-stop begged, and begged and begged for her to take me.

I clearly remember the shocked gasp of air that left my mother the minute Molly Ringwald stood on the stairs and exclaimed "I can't believe it. They fucking forgot my birthday"! HA, HA CLASSIC!

It all went downhill from there for my poor catholic hearted Mum; between Jake's girlfriends boobs in the shower, to Long Duc Dong, hard Chapstic on Sam's leg and the birth control pill breath mints. I'm sure she must have felt it was one of the worst parenting decisions she ever made!

Don't worry Mum it was the BEST decision you ever made! I freaking love this movie and know every single line by heart. I still have a secret girl crush on Molly Ringwald. Thankfully even she got a a little pudgy with age!!

Final Round Robin Border

I met up with the girls on Thanksgiving Monday to trade off on our final Round Robin swap.

The border I added starts from the solid green out to the blue and red checkerboard. Ugh, this looks pretty simple however it took me the better part of Saturday afternoon and ALL of Sunday to complete this in time. I swear I am the worst procrastinator in the world.

I enjoyed participating in this Round Robin. It was fun picking out the fabric choices, but I found it really hard to design my own border patterns. I'm more of a follow a pattern kind of girl. If I was going to consider participating in something like this again, I would prefer to do a block of the month challenge where you just basically follow a pre determined pattern.


I'm not sure who's quilt this is but if it was mine I would name it "Hollie Hobby" because of the colour choices and pattern layout.

Check out what Jocelyn at "Rock Star Diary" just made. I absolutely love stained glass and her craft-work is just beautiful. I think that quilting and stained glass have a lot in common; it's like a puzzel of glass compared to a puzzel of fabric.

Do you think Kraft peanut butter would be interested in hiring my Girl for quality checking? I really think she needs a job....all this sitting around and napping all day can't be good for her!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

1. Happy Thanksgiving, 2. Charlie Brown and Ball, 3. Opinionated Turkey, 4. Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade 06, Turkey - MDPNY20061125, 5. 22 November 2007, 6. Gobble Gobble - Happy Turkey day!, 7. WOODY & helpers......, 8. "gobble, gobble" -- Happy Thanksgiving, Canada! (20070930-145408-PJG), 9. let the pilgrims and indians live together in peace and harmony

I hope all my fellow Canadians have a very Happy Thanksgiving! I have been very busy this weekend finishing off my last Round Robin Quilt Border. I'm also working on some Baby Burp Cloths for one of my husbands co-worker AND a Bunny Rabbit costume for Halloween for one of the girls at work.

Please don't forget that Tuesday is Election Day in Canada! Get out there and......VOTE!

Weekend She-nanegans!

Last Saturday my friend Marilyn invited the "Girls" over for dinner and drinks. We all brought a little something. I decided to bring "Macho Nacho Dip".

I caught a show on Food Network Canada called "Eat, Shrink and be Merry" the other morning while doing the treadmill. The premise of the show is they find a dish that is typically not good for you and give it a healthy make over. This episode centred around the famous Layered Nacho Dip that always seems to make an appearance at parties.

It took a bit of time to make because there are 5 steps to the dish but hoo-boy was it worth it. YUMMY, and nutritionally good for you as an added bonus. Take the time to check out the recipe above; very interesting how they manipulate the ingredients to make it better for you.

Dinner consisted of Lasagna, BBQ Chicken Breasts, Asian Noodle Salad, Veggies and Dip, with Fruit dips and Squares for dessert. It all went down with with a few of the below........

...which eventually led to girls who looked this silly by two in the morning.

OMG...what the hell is going on with my chin?

My cousin Chris from New Brunswick confirmed indeed that Aunt Rita still makes the Red Pepper Relish. This is her new batch from last week....I love Aunt Rita, she's over 90 and look at the spread she lays out!

The Exciting News

So after 3 weekends of back and forth it's a signed deal. I'm so excited to share that my parents have bought a Condo in the same town as us.

About nine years ago my parents moved to a town about an hour away. That might not seem far, but when you have your own responsibilities to take care of, I don't get to see them as often as I would like. If you factor in that they also go to their place in Florida from October to April, on average I only see my parents about 5-8 times a year.

It's going to be great to have them so close to home. I'm already envisioning home cooked dinners, shopping trips, movies, arts and craft days. The best part of all is DOG-SITTER! My girl is getting older so it will be really handy to have someone to let her out on the days when the Big Man and I are both working afternoons.

Their condo is being built by Kaitlin Group in their community called "Mainstreet Brooklin". Their unit is called "The Brentwood I" and is located on the 3rd floor in the Dynasty Building. If everything goes according to plan, they should be moving in September 2010.

Congratulations Mum and Dad and welcome to the neighbourhood!

Red Pepper Relish

Come see what these lovely beauties became!

My Mum gave (cough, OK I might have stole it when I left home) a fantastic old cookbook called "The Canadian Catholic Ladies Treasured Family Recipes". Inside is a recipe for Pepper Relish that my Mum has amened the ingredients and renamed "Aunt Rita's Red Pepper". Now if you know my mother, she NEVER follows a recipe, she's always gotta tweak it!

Here's our friendly group of ingredients. My friend Quilting Newbie came over last Sunday to supervise, gab and join me for dinner.

Vegetables all nicely washed, pre-cut and ready to go through the food processor.

Onions and Peppers fresh out of the processor. Stinky!

Onions and Peppers after their "presoak" in boiling water and squeezed dry.

All the ingredients gently boiling away. MMM-HMM, how can the smell of home made relish be so good? I think it must be something that comes with age and appreciation. When I was a kid my Mum would make "chili-sauce". Ugh, back then I used to whine and complain that it stunk! (Sorry Mum!! PS if you feel like making some, I'm more than willing to help this time)

Look at that! A thing of beauty!

This Red Pepper Relish is great with cheese and crackers and we really love it beside roasted meats. It's great added to ground meat for burgers and cocktail meatballs. From beginning to end I would say took about 2 hours and was really fun to make.

Aunt Rita's Red Pepper Relish

8 large red peppers

5 medium onions

1 1/2 cups white vinegar

1 1/2 cups white sugar

1 Tbs. salt

1 tsp. celery seed

Wash and prepare onions and peppers to run through food processor with coarse grating blade. Place chopped peppers and onions in pot and cover with boiling water from kettle and let sit for 5 minutes; then drain very well.

Place drained onions, peppers and remaining ingredients in pot. Bring to a gentle boil for 15 minutes. Pack in hot sterilized jars. Makes 3 pints.