7 Quick Takes: The Deep Freeze Episode

We have such weird weather here. For most of December we were hovering around 0 C (which is way warm for that time of year, as the average is -15 C). Now... well let me tell you what the temperature is now...

--- 1 ---

-40 C. With the windchill, it has been -40 C nearly everyday this week. For you Americans, I'll do the conversion for you. -40 C is -40 F. Although, it actually "warmed" up today. It's only -20 C (-4 C)! So the rest of this post will be devoted to what I've been doing to keep warm.

--- 2 ---

Tea. I love tea. I buy loose tea and infuse it in my fancy strainer container thing, and revel in the delicious warmth. My favourite variety right now is from David's Tea, and is called Checkmate. It tastes like chocolate, even though there is no chocolate in it! I actually have so much tea that I took all the over the counter medication out of the kitchen cupboard and put it in the medicine cabinet in the bathroom to have more room for tea.

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I could write a mushy post about J here, but I won't embarrass him. I just say that hugs warm me from head to toe!

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Layers. Lots and lots of layers. When I was waiting for the bus this morning, I was wearing a pair of leggings, a pair of jeans, a pair of wool socks with boots, a t-shirt, a cardigan, a hoodie with the hood up, a huge scarf wrapped several times around my head, my winter jacket, and my big furry mittens.

Somehow, I don't think I looked this good...

--- 5 ---

Eating soup. I love soup. I used to hate soup, but I really think I just disliked soup that came in a can. J and I just made this one. It was delicious. But don't forget the parmesan on top! That's the key to the flavours.

Tortellini and Kielbasa Sausage Soup

Photo from alldayidreamaboutfood.com

--- 6 ---

Working. Somehow I ended up with two part-time jobs. That means that I have 4 University classes, 2 part-time jobs, I volunteer with the Lifeteen Core and the Youth choir at Church, and I'm planning a wedding on top of it all. I seem to thrive when I'm busy though, so it's probably a good thing. Until I break down around midterm time...

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livealittlewilder.com

livealittlewilder.com

It's my birthday week! My birthday was Sunday, so Happy 22nd Birthday to me! I had a small get together, and had a great time hanging out with friends and talking wedding stuff. I also made these great cookie dough truffles, and pretzel bites that both went over well with the guests. 

For more Quick Takes, visit Jen at Conversion Diary!

The Most Amazing Cookies My Mouth Has Ever Tasted

My friend Sara is celiac - which means she can't have wheat, barley or anything else with gluten in it. She is also lactose intolerant and deathly allergic to shellfish. So, needless to say, when we hang out the food issue is a bit of a hurdle.

But we managed to get around it. We cooked chicken, rice and broccoli, and topped it off with homemade chocolate cookies (lactose free chocolate chips of course).

Picture from Divine Baking

I have to share this recipe with you. It was amazing. We popped the cookies off the sheet and nearly ended up on the floor in chocolate ecstasy. I even semi-conquered my fear of beating egg whites, although I made Sara beat them for me. But they worked out perfectly! Maybe I can get up enough courage to beat them myself next time!

The original recipe comes from a blog called Divine Baking. The link will take your right to these cookies. They are called Deep Dark Chocolate Cookies. I stumbled upon the recipe at a blog called Grasping for Objectivity. So to both of you bloggers, I am indebted to you for the lovely chocolatey sensation that you let me experience.

My only advice would be to suggest that you have milk on hand. I had run out of milk and was not so pleased with my water and chocolate cookie combination.

The Pavlova Incident

Over the summer in my lack of full-time working I gradually started to learn how to cook. Most of it was in an attempt to have something a bit more significant in my day than getting out of my pajamas. J has been most astounded by the ways my cooking skills have grown by leaps and bounds. Which sometimes rubs me the wrong way, even though its true. I couldn't cook like this before. But still, does he have to point it out?

Anyways, one day, we were supposed to have dinner with J's friend Sean and his girlfriend Megan. And I started to get that pesky female instinct that says that I need to bring something to this dinner to contribute. So we call and decide that J and I will bring dessert.

So that means I have, oh, about 2 and a half hours to find a dessert recipe, get ingredients (because J's house is a little less than stocked...) and make a dessert.

I stumbled upon a recipe called Easy Pavlova. I love pavlova. My aunt Belinda (my cooking aunt) makes it and it is delicious and perfectly light, which was great considering we were having the nicest Indian summer ever.

So I run out and buy eggs, icing sugar, corn starch and raspberries for a sauce.

When I got back I realized I have to beat the egg whites. I thought it wouldn't be a problem. I can follow a recipe/direct J to do it, right?

Except, like I said, J doesn't have a very well stocked kitchen. So it was lacking an electric mixer. And a whisk. So we valiantly tried to whip our whites with a fork.

Unfortunately J had gotten a tiny bit of yolk in the whites, plus they weren't room temperature, and there was no acid in our bowl to keep them together.

We ended up making the raspberry sauce and buying vanilla ice cream, which was still delicious, but made me feel slightly like a cooking failure.

Also, I may have a slight fear of whipping egg whites now.