Leftover eggnog?

I love eggnog. In years past, I've guzzled away entire cartons of this creamy drink. This year, I had homemade eggnog ice cream instead, and it was delicious.

Due to my diet, I have to eat homemade probiotic yogurt every day to make sure there are enough good bacteria in my system. I was never a big yogurt fan to begin with, but after over a year of daily yogurt consumption, I needed a way to spice things up.

Enter bananog. Recently, I'd been craving a banana milkshake with ice cream. The ice cream in my freezer was eggnog-flavoured. I thought it might be worth a try... and oh, it was. If you like these two things, you'll see that they complement each other quite well. They're also strong enough flavours that with a bit of help from vanilla and nutmeg, you won't even notice the tangy yogurt!

So if you have leftover eggnog in your fridge, give this guy a shot. You can use vanilla ice cream and eggnog instead of eggnog ice cream and milk like I did, or if you're feeling ambitious, you can put your eggnog straight into the ice cream machine and make your own!

Bananog
sliced frozen banana (I keep this in my freezer for smoothies and banana ice cream)
eggnog ice cream
yogurt (about the same quantity as the ice cream)
milk (or cream if you're feeling really decadent)
splash of vanilla
sprinkle of nutmeg
honey to taste, if needed

Put all ingredients into your blender and go to town! Adjust quantities to your taste - I like being able to taste the banana and the eggnog equally. I also prefer a thicker beverage; sometimes, I have to add more liquid just to get it to blend! If you like something thinner, go easy on the banana and ice cream. Have fun!

The Christmas Adventures of Norman the Gnome.

I've had an affinity for gnomes since I was 16 or 17. I remember trying to come up with a name for my livejournal (oh, those were the days). Inspired by a scene from Amelie where she was carrying a suitcase (actually, a satchel, but I'm never been the most observant person) and a gnome, I dubbed myself "suitcasegnome", and it's been my online handle ever since.

Despite my love of suitcases and gnomes, though, I've never gotten any gnomes as a present - until this year. My best friend Becca knitted me a gnome named Norman the Doorman, and we made VERY merry.

Here's how Norman spent his Christmas day.

 Norman tries on a Santa hat. We decide his own pointy red hat is festive enough.

 Norman gets tied up in the excitement of opening presents! Sorry, Norman, but you can't borrow my Tweety Bird pajamas.

Norman gives his presents a whirl. Lookin' good, Norm! 

Norman! Did you drink that whole bottle by yourself? You party animal...

Thankfully, Norman's recovered from his hangover now. I hope you all enjoyed meeting him, especially because he will be back tomorrow to share a recipe to use up the last dregs of eggnog in your fridge. 

Now, it's off to the new job with me! I'm so excited to have such a great opportunity.

Resolution inspiration.

Happy 2012, everybody! I had a great holiday season: I got to spend time with family and friends, play cards into the wee hours of the morning, drink wine, open presents, eat delicious food, go thrifting with my mum, finish my wedding thank you notes (FINALLY), watch trashy shows on TLC (Extreme Couponing, anyone?), check out the Boxing Day sales, and receive THE most fabulous coat (thanks, Mum!). My husband and I capped off 2011 last night with a small get-together with a too-large menu. We watched "Trading Places" and played cards, again. It was a wonderful time.

Now, it's a new year, and I feel a need to make resolutions, as I often do. This year, I decided to link my resolutions to amazing people I've read about as inspiration and motivation.

First off, I want to stay healthy: continue on the Diet, drink more water, take care of my skin, get enough sleep, and take up exercise, especially yoga and/or meditation to reduce stress. If people in their 80s and 90s can do it, so can I!

Next, I want to give a Spending Fast (or at least a Spending Diet) a shot. Anna's story is so inspiring, and this year people are pledging to join her. Having a group of people with this shared goal will be a great motivation. Now I just need to figure out my parameters...

Of course, I want to improve my creative side: writing this blog, getting back into making art, and possibly start posting outfit photos again (like these fantastic ladies!). I need to focus more on this and less on just noodling about on the internet.

Lastly, I want to focus on all the wonderful people in my life: my husband, our families, our friends, our cats (they're people too!), and all the lovely folks out there I have yet to meet. Watch out world - you're getting a hug!

Too good not to share.

As it turns out, repairing my computer would cost... a lot, so I decided to deal with my screen problems and save some moolah. I popped online for a few minutes tonight and saw a quick and easy updo tutorial for New Years' Eve that I couldn't keep to myself. Follow the link for the video diy.

Happy New Year!

The best SCD birthday cake.

This year, I knew I wanted a bonafide birthday cake. I had adapted a clementine cake recipe for Thanksgiving, thinking that if it passed muster I would make it again for my birthday. When I was talking to my mom about it, though, she seemed really intrigued, and I decided that the clementine cake would instead become my Christmas dessert while I was visiting, which left me free to figure out a more birthday-appropriate cake - something with layers and frosting. After much deliberation, I finally decided on this recipe for yellow cake with chocolate ganache (check the comments for the ganache recipe).

It didn't start out quite like I was expecting - the batter was quite frothy, and I only had one pan, so I baked a layer before lunch and one several hours later. I was worried that the "lift" would be affected for the second layer, but it actually rose much better than the first.

I changed the ganache recipe around a bit. I used lactose-free cream and not as much chocolate - 240 grams instead of 340. I added crystallised fructose because the chocolate was very dark and I wanted to be sure it was sweet enough. The ganache separated a bit when I chilled it. We ended up warming it closer to room temperature and whipping it in our standing mixer so we'd be able to frost the cake.

 The final product was delicious. A friend of mine had to leave early, so she had a slice before we actually sang happy birthday. My husband used this to his advantage...

The cake barely lasted through Sunday. On Monday, there was one solitary chunk left, but it soon vanished...

Tired...

{I could use a nap, like these guys...}

I had an incredible weekend - on Friday I ran errands, got a birthday haircut, and stayed up way late cleaning the apartment (too excited to sleep). On Saturday, my uncle Dale paid us a surprise visit and took us out for a birthday lunch (complete with a dessert mimosa, yum!). When we got home, we cooked and cleaned some more until a record number of guests arrived and got the party started. At the end of night, new friendships had been born, plans had been hatched, there was a friend sleeping on our couch, and a pile of stuff needed to be cleaned up and put away.

Sunday was spent recovering and hanging out with said friend - playing video games, manicures, a bang trim, eating birthday cake, and a loooooooong chat on the couch. Then there were phone calls and a Skype session and cuddle time with my husband.

In the whirlwind, I took an insufficient number of fort photos, so I'm fixing that tonight and doing a post tomorrow. Today I've got a pile of chores and dishes to plough through... wish me luck!

blanket fort!

If you've ever read XKCD, you'll notice that the comic sometimes delves into adults acting like kids, just for the fun of it:

I read this strip a few years ago on my husband's birthday, January 10th. He was napping, and when he awoke I was building a blanket fort in our living room. His FAR superior engineering skills (and his grand ambition!) took over, and we created a fort that took up most of our living room and stayed up for about a month.

At the time, we were engaged and living in Nova Scotia, but John had to return to Kansas due to immigration and money issues. He was leaving at the beginning of February for at least 6 months, so we spent our last bittersweet month together in that fort, playing Tetris and watching Naruto and sleeping.

John is a Permanent Resident now, thank goodness, so we never have to be separated like that again. Now, despite how sad we were at the time, remembering the blanket fort that took over our living room is a fond memory that we've been meaning to recreate. Last week, John had the brilliant idea to turn my birthday party into a giant blanket fort party. We're collecting sheets galore to make an incredible giant project that will probably stay up for months.

If you want to try this out for yourself, this article, written by a father with extensive fort experience, has some pretty great tips. If you'd prefer to fill up a portion of your house with a ball pit, check this piece out. :)

Pictures of the completed fort and birthday party to come next week!

Christmas light contest.

When I was growing up, the Christmas season involved long drives to all our relatives' houses. I would be stuck in the car for up to 30 minutes with my bratty little brother for company.

Being competitive children, we soon developed a way to keep ourselves entertained in the backseat: the Christmas light contest (not game, CONTEST). It also gave our parents some entertainment of their own (often Mom would drive while Dad would play referee). We have since shared this game with family and friends, and over the years, we've perfected the rules.

Want to try it out for yourself? Here are the rules.

1. Each player picks one side of the road (you can do this in teams, too, and they don't have to be even - we've done this with three players).

2. Count all the houses with Christmas lights lit up on your side of the road. A house does NOT count if:

a. it's on a side street - corners are fine, but the house must be right next to your side of the road. If you were driving PAST this street, only the house on the far left would count.

b. the lights are turned off. Driving past an unlit house was agony as a kid! I'm not even sure this one HAS lights... also, this game works best at night. :P

c. the only lights are the ones wrapped around the Christmas tree. The lights should be in the windows or outdoors (even if the Christmas tree is in the window, it doesn't count!!!) This one below counts ONLY because it has lights on the front porch railing.

d. it's a business. A house with a business attached is fine, but nothing in a commercial district. This game works best if the driver adjusts their route accordingly - my parents were known to drive around the neighbourhood instead of going straight home to break ties or to up the tension. Don't drive down a street like this if you can help it:

3. Each house only counts as one. Same goes for apartment buildings (we do this because it would be hard to keep track of how many different apartments are lit up).

{Yes, even if it looks like this.}

4. Generally, this game operates on the honour system. Sometimes someone will play referee (a good idea with younger kids), but usually everyone gets involved, and then sometimes you can cheat and the other player(s) won't notice. Cheating isn't nice, though.

That's pretty much it. We usually do this in a car (or a bus if desperate), but it could be done on foot, I suppose. It wouldn't be as fun, though.

Happy competition!!!

Wingsgiving.

I have a lot to be thankful for, especially this week. I've had two job interviews (fingers crossed!), cuddles with my husband, and a lot of time spent with wonderful friends.

I also celebrated one year on the Specific Carbohydrate Diet, perhaps my most significant achievement this week. It has been challenging at times, but it's so rewarding to be proactively fighting my illness every single day. To celebrate, John made me a lovely dinner of steak, onions and bacon, mushrooms in red wine sauce, meadow beans, and peppermint hot chocolate ice cream. We also tried out our first loaf of almond flour bread, since I've missed bread so much. It was better than coconut flour bread, but it was a bit too sweet and didn't rise as well as I would have liked. It was wonderful to eat a grilled cheese again, though.

We're having our "real" Thanksgiving meal tomorrow, complete with turkey and all the fixins, but tonight we came home after running some errands and made dinner to share with our pals who graciously drove us and all our groceries home. We sat around watching Adventure Time while chowing down on honey-garlic and buffalo chicken wings with carrot sticks and ranch dressing. We laughed and snuggled and I drew a pile of fanart.

What a wonderful night we had, and what a wonderful life I've been blessed with. I hope everyone is having as great of a time as I had today. Love.

Remembrance Day.

Here in Canada, November 11th is Remembrance Day - a day to reflect on all those who have served to protect our country in the past and present. I will be attending a service, as I always do when I'm able, and think fondly of my maternal grandfather, who fought in Europe in World War 2. I will recite this poem at least once, written on the battlefield by a Canadian soldier and memorised by schoolchildren ever since. 


Lest we forget.

Mom's Thanksgiving idea.

This year, we went to Thanksgiving dinner at my grandmother's house. We were staying at my parents' house, though, so we had a lot of food to transport! This would have been easy, except we also needed to fit four adults into one small Echo.

Thank goodness for my mom. She grabbed a laundry basket and started piling in apple cider, mineral water, salad, stuffing (two kinds - SCD for me, normal for everyone else), pumpkin brownies, steamed asparagus, an entire carrot cake... and it all fit! We just stuck it in the trunk and off we went.

Obviously, other people have done this, as evidenced by these photos (neither of which are mine). I would never have thought of it, though - leave it to a Mom.

Thanksgiving.

For any non-Canucks out there, the Great White North has already had its Thanksgiving weekend (unless you're like me and are married to an American, in which case it was "Thanksgiving: Part One of a Delicious Two-Part Series"). Thanksgiving is pretty much the best holiday - great weather, no gift-giving (seriously so stressful - I'm forcing my best friend to be my "present consultant" this year), a long weekend to spend with family and friends, and FOOD.

Of course, that last part becomes a bit more challenging on the Specific Carbohydrate Diet. While turkey and veggies are usually okay, the fun and special Thanksgiving trappings like stuffing, gravy, cranberry sauce, and DESSERT get a bit more complicated.

I started this diet last year right before American Thanksgiving, which was very discouraging, and the Christmas season was a very long exercise in willpower. I made it through with one cheat (a bite of brownie) and a bit of gastric distress.

This time, though, I was ready. My dear Mum made me a homemade cranberry sauce with spices, and I made myself some steamed asparagus, breadless vegan stuffing and almond butter pumpkin brownies with chocolate chips.

I was also an enabler, forcing the people around me to eat all the foods I could not consume. It was especially bad since I was sitting the middle of the table, with all the desserts in front of me, so I kept asking if anyone needed a slice of cake or pie. One of our guests said of the meal, "It was like Man vs. Food. I won Thanksgiving at your house!"

To see what I thought of the stuffing and brownie recipes, check out my mini-reviews on pinterest. I find it really helpful to have my impressions of a recipe there, since it's usually what I use to find my favorite internet recipes (and I hope it comes in handy for my fellow pinterest browsers).

As for American Thanksgiving, a.k.a. Part Two? I plan to make this stuffing again (sans tomato), attempt gravy made with a pureed onion, try mashed cauliflower, and try a different dessert (maybe do a test run for my birthday cake in December?

Next week, I want to feature another Thanksgiving idea, courtesy of my genius mom. 

Thanksgiving dinner.

Turkey, gravy, stuffing, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, corn, pickles, olives, pickled beets, salad, rolls, pumpkin pie, apple crumble pie, and more dessert... and yet, part of me wonders if there's room for sweet potatoes with marshmallow topping...

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

(Edit: We had an hour to spare, so sweet potatoes with marshmallows were made, and were tasty. So were the pumpkin spice cookies with vanilla glaze that our guests brought).