Tag Archive | Chez Geek

Curry, Pie, Tux and Other Happy Things!

Our first truly chilly Saturday has kept us hopping busy! We started out at Michaels with our 50% off coupons. I finally have my advent exchange for my online egroup for stitchers and she is leaning more towards a stitching package so I made sure to go down the cross stitch aisle and pick out a few things. I LOVE 50% off coupons – especially since flyerland now has the Michaels flyer so you can print off as many as you need!

Ken took his coupon and got the green tinsel embossing powder for our Christmas cards. We also go a package of cream/beige coloured cardstock for the same project (it was already on sale for 3.00). Definitely a great way to get what we need and keep it under 10.00! So now all I need is some time to MAKE the cards! I have a bunch of ribbon bits and pieces from other projects I am going to use up making them and then will have to head back to Dollarama for more.

After Michaels we went to H&W… 20 lbs of potatoes for 5.00. This has me frantically using up the last of the 20lb bag mom and Mike bought us. So I made up a huge vat of mashed potatoes (I just wish I had had some sour cream to mix in – but when I use them later I can always add that) and Ken picked up some more containers and into the freezer it went. Apparently you can freeze mashed potatoes for 2 months… I doubt they will last that long in this house!

We go the simple route – peel and cube the potatoes, boil in water until you can pierce them easily with a fork, drain and then add milk and butter and mash! MMM yum!

Mashed Potatoes!

Mashed Potatoes!

I also managed to find the time to make up the newest double batch of sugar cookies with Ken. He is icing these ones red – we are going to try out a bit of cherry flavouring to see how it goes (to match the mint green icing of course!). No time for my applesauce muffins sadly – but there is always tomorrow! And extra apples from H&W so I can make another batch of applesauce anyway!

Laying by the Stove Soaking Up the Warm!

Laying by the Stove Soaking Up the Warm!

In our brainstorming for future lapbooks I came up with the idea of making what we have called “melty beads” spiders. So of course I had to hop on the internet and search… well after checking all over the place I remembered that we had labelled packages (mini ones) of them that I had bought from Michaels which meant I could look up that name! What a great site! The Perler Bead site is an absolute gem, though we currently have Ikea brand ones (way less colour options) I am rather sure I can do quite a few of the patterns they have. (that and I printed out another 50% off coupon for Ken and the boys for tomorrow when they are out and about after Sunday School… hint hint hint) What amazing options for patterns – the one I am DYING to make is the gingerbread house! It is 3D! So up on the wish list it has gone… and tomorrow I am going to try making leaves and a Christmas mitten. It amazes me how many of these sites CANNOT ship up here to Canada! This site, of course, is one of them.

I sorted through the survey groups I am a part of and managed to request 16.00 worth of cheques… one more Christmas present paid for! Or a chunk of my advent. But either way, doing surveys is starting to pay off. It will take a few weeks probably for the cheques to get here but at least I am adding to the family coffers!

Our evening was a gaming evening – game of choice – Chez Geek with Chris and Chris. Tonight was their treat food wise! And what a treat!

Nom Nom Nom

Nom Nom Nom

This was my second experience with curry… total yum though the sticky rice and the steamed bun filled me up quite quickly and even though it wasn’t  totally spicy my mouth was not impressed! Definitely something I would not mind having again AND they left us the leftovers! LOTS of milk was imbibed as well.

Desert was another treat – pumpkin pie and whipped cream… mmm. So we were definitely spoiled rotten!

Pumpkin Pie!

Pumpkin Pie!

Tonight I was back to stitching, this time the Tux to make a spare in case of interest. Again I am tweaking the pattern as the half stitches are just not clear enough in my mind for the right arm. Ken has PROMISED me new patterns as early as tomorrow so I can get back to work on the ideas spinning in my head – as well as the pattern page back up and running.

Tomorrow is Sunday School for the twins, I am planning on keeping the younger two home as a friend is dropping why on her way to picking up another friend. So in order to be here for the relatively brief visit I need to skip out on church. I figure that gives me the time to make a batch of applesauce with the apples we got today and maybe even do some extra cleaning. It is a long weekend here in Canada so I am going to take every chance I get to do more and more sorting and cleaning. Although with this house it is a lack of storage upstairs that gets me every time!!

Keeping Busy and Being Creative! (Zander middle)

Keeping Busy and Being Creative! (Zander middle)


Banana Bread, Dragonfly and Other Points of Interest

This weekend has been full of both high points and low points. Thankfully the low points were nothing we were incapable of handling and the high points were actually shared with terrific friends.

I will start with the sad stuff – yesterday morning Ken was alerted to the fact that our friend Xinny’s grandfather had finally passed on. He had been sick for a while and hospitalized so it was no a shock (they were actually surprised he had hung on as long as he had) but still certainly a difficult thing to deal with. This has cancelled our Sunday plans with the family for a playdate for our kids. I am unsure right now what this means for Xinny and Alan’s trip to China. I know she has been looking forward to heading back there for years now.

Later in the same day my sister in law twittered that her grandmother back in Texas had also passed on. She too had been sick for quite some time. Circumstances are such that I am doubting she and our nephew will be able to head back south for the funeral. This is one of those moments where I wish we lived closer so  I could DO something, send some food over… watch the kiddo…

The loss of a beloved family member is never easy, no matter how sick they have been. I remember when my Grandma MacLean passed, we had known she was not in the best of health but still it was hard, I still miss my Grandpa Reinsch now gone 9 yrs. My Grandpa MacLean also passed that same year. In fact, both Ken and myself each have one surviving Grandmother. There are so many things one could say or not say for that matter but I guess it is all the personal journey now. You really can’t fix the loss of a loved one, just live through it. But I am sending my love and prayers to both sets of families.

The rest of my Saturday was MUCH more positive. We made our foray into Value Village on the hunt for pillowcases (and peripherally a snowsuit for Trinity – though the price was just not right for what little they had there). I managed to find two suitable pillowcases – one in pink gingham and the other a more fleece type material. 99 cents a piece.

Pillowcases

Pillowcases

There was one pair of jeans in Emanuel’s size for 1.99 and two little books for 99 cents that I also picked up. Otherwise the children’s clothes was really not that much of a deal. At Superstore I can get pieces for Trinity for around 12.00. So I figure I will check their prices when we head to mom’s next weekend as well as going to the nearest GoodWill. I am hoping to find a snowsuit for Trinity for under 20.00 which may have me hunting on eBay… of course with her being 18 months in the winter I may find something elsewhere for cheap but I am not going to be too too optimistic.

Last night was the ultimate pick me up! For Ken who has been working so hard to feel and BE better I made up a loaf of banana bread from the last of my bananas and then we had Chris, Chris, Nathan and Ada over for gaming!

Nathan and Ada With Slurpee (We all had our large cups!)

Nathan and Ada With Slurpee (We all had our large cups!)

So no D&D but we did play Chez Geek! So much fun! Ken is now hooked and has read through all the instructions (Chris and Chris have expansions). It looks like we will be pricing out buying either Chez Dork or Chez Goth. Definitely a game we enjoy and could probably hook MORE of our friends on! We are always on the look out for more games.

Chez Geek

Chez Geek

So for our evening I baked a dozen of my applesauce muffins (Nathan alone ate 6 muffins! ), brought out the last of my oatmeal applesauce cookies (I really have to make another batch of those today or tomorrow as the kids and I love them for breakfast! They really are not too high in sugar), some sugar cookies (sent a dozen home with Nathan and Ada) and of course the fresh from the oven banana bread! This is one of the recipes my mom gave me. The kids LOVE it with chocolate chips added in (of course we do not have those in the house) and Ken just loves it without. The loaf was gone by the end of the night except for the two pieces I saved for the kids in the morning. YUM!

Banana Bread

1/2 cup butter

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 cup bananas mashed

1 3/4 cup flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (we left these out)

Cream butter and sugar. Beat in eggs 1 at a time, beating until smoother. Add mashed bananas and blend.

In a second bowl, stir flour with baking soda, baking powder, salt (and nuts if you like). Add to banana mixture stirring only to moisten. Transfer to a greased 9x5x3 (23x12x7 cm) inch loaf pan.

Bake in 350 F (180 C) oven for about 1 hr. until inserted toothpick comes out clean. Let stand 10 min. Remove from pan and place on cake rack to cool. Wrap to store.

Gone Before I Could Even Get a Picture!

Gone Before I Could Even Get a Picture!

I have started participating in something new on BigFish games. With having my own little subpage of reviews and such and listing my favourite games if someone else does any shopping off of my site then I get a reward! I figure I love their games anyway and I don’t mind writing up a quick blurb for the ones I play why not! So feel free to click on my page link and see if you like any of them too! I have been a part of the club for a year (as I mentioned previously) and have found they have GREAT variety! Who knows maybe I can reward myself up a few extra games to give away or something?

http://www.mygamespace.com/Ayjah

This morning had us off to H&W on our weekly produce adventure. Taber corn this time, as well as Granny Smith apples at 1.50 for a 3lb bag (I got two bags – one to eat and one to see how much sauce 3lbs of apples will make!). Bought a cantaloupe and am debating freezing half of it for winter smoothies. We decided not to go to church this week – Ken has work to do to catch up on his last week’s appointments and next weekend is Sunday School registration. The boys HATE going to church and then NOT going to Sunday School – you would think we lied to them or something! So I am taking advantage of this time to get stuff sorted for next week for school – more printing out of letters for the lapbooks and hunting for crafts through the library books. As well Ken has gotten me my newest cross stitch pattern – Dr. Who themed! A bit more complicated than the previous ones we are definitely going to have to tweak the pattern before I can consider posting it here. I have decided to stitch it on a yellow beige aida instead of my usual white – give it a more parchment look. Hopefully it will suit the stitch in the end!

Beginnings of Dr. Who!

Beginnings of Dr. Who!

The stocking is also coming along nicely! I am hoping to get started on the lettering this week as I have finally done stitching all the way to the top of the image. I figure if I can get the lettering done I will get a new burst of interest and just bang it out. I have to start on Trinity’s Halloween costume this week as well (still need to find some sort of green top or sleeper…) so my time is REALLY going to be divided!

Stocking Progress!

Stocking Progress!

I finished the stitch for my nephew in all its shiny Star Trek glory! This will be the first pattern we post on site too hopefully as I know of at least one other stitcher who wants to give it a go! I need to figure out how I can finish it off in a relatively affordable way but I am VERY happy with how it turned out. Definitely one of my more costly projects materials wise! But the actual project looks so nice and shiny!!! (I will post a picture when I post the pattern!)

When we got home from the store there was a dragonfly in the middle of our sidewalk – a BIG one… it sat there forever, Ken even pushed it slightly and it didn’t move though when I looked back later it was gone! What a neat thing for the boys to see and we managed to get some terrific pictures of it!

Dragonfly

Dragonfly

We tried a new recipe for dinner tonight – one my sister in law had twittered she was making! I took this recipe and altered it to not use frozen meatballs as we find it cheaper to make our own. I am going to try and make extra meatballs the next time we do up a nice large batch and freeze them and then try the recipe that way as well! So I will include both recipes – the one for the cheesy meatball subs with my changes as well as the meatball recipe we like to use.

Meatballs

4 lb lean ground beef, 2 cup crushed crackers, 1 large onion (diced small), 2 eggs, italian seasoning, salt, pepper, garlic powder. Mix together all ingredients. Mixture should be able to be formed easily into balls about 2 inches wide with hands. Preheat oven to 400 degree and cook for 20-25 minutes.

Meatballs

Meatballs

Cheesy Meatball Subs

1 cup spaghetti sauce
1/2 cup  water (left the water out)
2 Tbsp. KRAFT Grated Parmesan Cheese (we left this out as we didn’t have any on hand)
3/4 lb.  (3/4 of 1-lb. pkg.) frozen cooked meatballs (1-1/2 inch) (we made our own see above recipe)
4 crusty sandwich rolls, split
3/4 cup  KRAFT Shredded Mozzarella Cheese (we used a marble cheddar we already had at home)

COMBINE first 4 ingredients in large skillet. Bring to boil on medium-high heat, stirring occasionally. (we combined everything but the meatballs and brought them up to a nice simmer and then added in our already warm fresh meatballs and cooked for a bit to get the flavour)

SIMMER on medium heat 8 min. or until meatballs are heated through, stirring occasionally.

SPOON into rolls; top with mozzarella.

We also put our buns in the oven for a few minutes first – cut open to brown. This recipe makes 4 we of course made more than that.

Cheesy Meatball Sub

Cheesy Meatball Sub

Next time we will season our spaghetti sauce more but mmm so good! I think the parmesan Ragu would be better than the original but all 4 boys gobbled theirs down. Trinity had a lovely finger food meal with her very own meatball!

Trinity's Dinner

Trinity's Dinner

So it was not an overly exciting weekend but I would say a good one and we still have one more day! Thank goodness for long weekends, though Ken IS going to have to do some work downstairs. I figure we will take advantage of his doctor’s advice and get started on an evening walk for the whole family, I figure nightly is a bit too much but maybe twice a week or more? Here’s hoping tonight’s windstorm blows past us by morning!

Me and My Baby

Me and My Baby


This entry was posted on 06/09/2009, in Uncategorized. 1 Comment