Sunday, April 28, 2013

Vegan food experiments from the weekend

3 mashed bananas (ripe), 1/3 cup apple sauce, 2 cups oats, 1/4 cup almond milk, 1/2 cup raisins (optional), 1 tsp vanilla, 1 tsp cinnamon. Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes.


2 lbs fingerling potatoes, cut into 3/4 inch chunks
2 avocados
2 tablespoons lime juice, from a lime or two
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper (optional)
1 plum tomato, chopped
1 small red onion, diced small
1 smallish cucumber, diced very small

Scallions for garnish (optional)

Put potatoes in a pot and cover with water. Cover pot, bring water to a boil. Lower the heat to a rolling boil and cook for 15 to 20 minutes, until potatoes are easily pierced with a fork. Drain and set aside to cool.
Once potatoes have cooled, prepare the dressing. Split the avocado in half, remove the seed and scoop the yumminess into the food processor. Add the lime juice and salt and puree until smooth, scraping down the sides with a spatula as needed. Once smooth and creamy, add the tomato and onion. Pulse until they are incorporated but not completely blended. You should still be able to see the tomato and onion.
Put the potatoes and cucumbers in a large mixing bowl and mix them up. Add the dressing and mix well. Taste for salt and spice. Wrap tightly and chill until ready to use. Top with scallions, if you like.

Both of these were found from two different searches over the past from two different blogs I read. I love to try different things often, sometimes they turn out okay, sometimes they are a flop, either way, what's the hurt in trying!
I made the potato salad on Friday, let it sit over night, and took it to a friends on Saturday for a BBQ, now this was a HUGE experiment for me...letting others try my food experiments, but to my delight...THE LOVED IT! So I was very happy that it worked. Yes I tried it myself first, but you know how that goes, you yourself can like it and think it's okay, but then someone else takes a bite and their nose turns up.
So all in all, both recipes were a good experiment this time round. Now...on to the next one!

Saturday, April 27, 2013

Harold Frank






Today I attended a funeral on our local reserve for this man Harold Frank. I met this man four years ago when I first moved to the Cariboo. At the time I had just started working at a little hole in the wall store out in the middle of no where and Harold was a local man from the rez that frequented this store.
Harold was a quiet, kind hearted, funny as hell, give you the only shirt he had on his back kind of guy. He did not have a home of his own and often slept on any couch he could crash on or do work in order to stay. He struggled with alcohol in his short life of 49 years, but this did not stop him from showing such great kindness to all who encountered him.
There was just something that touched me about him, as I often would see him daily at the store or on the road hitchhiking for a ride. He though if he lifted his pant leg a little that made him a bit more sexy and would possibly secure a ride LOL...he was funny that way. One night after knowing him for a while, he called my home and my husband answered the phone, he told my husband that he loved me, my husband replied to him telling him that he loved me too....Harold would call me his white wife, and I would call him my native husband....we would just joke together that way.....well anyways, on the phone still with my husband Harold asked if maybe he could trade something in order for me to be his wife, and my husband said okay, sure, what do you have to trade....well Harold said he had some fish.....WTF....I am sitting there listening to my husband discuss with my pretend native husband what they were willing to trade for me....when I heard that all I was worth was some fish I was PISSED OFF....I thought I was worth at LEAST a freakin cow, dear, moose......something!!!!
Well....I am truly blessed to have a husband who understand who Harold was and knew that he was totally harmless and innocent and that he meant no harm, he was drunk and just wanted to tell me he loved me, and that particular night I really was a lucky girl.....I had two men agreeing on the phone that they loved me :-)
My daughter even got in on this little joke of Harold being my native husband, that when she saw him she would call him Dad jokingly, she would come to my work and bake cookies  for Harold at Christmas so he felt loved and had fresh home made Christmas cookies, such a precious kid I have.
Years after I didn't work at that store and I was now working in the bigger town from the small one, I would see him in a store, and yell across the store to him "Hey....how's my husband and where's my hug"...he would just grin ear to ear, come over and we would have a big hug, he'd ask how is daughter was, and I would say to him "better if you'd be paying child support", then we'd laugh our asses off as others in the store looked at us horrified, as this is a SMALL town, and they knew HE was not my husband LOL....so we always thought it was funny wondering what all the others were thinking, but we didn't care.
Last Monday I got "the call" at work.....Harold had been found that morning and he was no longer with us. It was heartbreaking, I called my husband right away, he too was saddened. Harold just had this way of becoming part of your life, and he will always be in our memories.
Today at the funeral my heart broke, but it was a great experience hearing his history and stories of his life from his family, and the traditional native drumming that just pierced my soul, one could not help but to be moved by such a profound experience.
So I just wanted to share with the world, that there was a great man in it for a while, and his name was Harold, and to know him was to be blessed in one way or another.
Safe travels my friend and thank you for being in my life for the short time.
I leave you all with this quote I found on line today....

"Life is not a race-but indeed a journey. Be honest. Work hard. Be choosy. Say "thank you," "I love you," and "great job" to someone each day. Go to church, take time for prayer. The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh. Let your handshake mean more than pen and paper. Love your life and what you've been given, it is not accidental - search for your purpose and do it as best you can. Dreaming does matter. It allows you to become that which you aspire to be. Laugh often. Appreciate the little things in life and enjoy them. Some of the best things really are free. Do not worry, less wrinkles are more becoming. Forgive, it frees the soul. Take time for yourself - plan for longevity. Recognize the special people you've been blessed to know. Live for today, enjoy the moment.”




 

Monday, April 22, 2013

City slickers

First of all, let me just say, I love the big city for shopping, but I also love leaving the big city for the peace and quiet that it brings. It's been a while since we did some major driving in a "big" city like we did in Calgary in the last week. Wowzer was it crazy, I had forgot the mayhem on the roads, thank goodness for GPS, I know in time when we are there for visits for shopping we will adjust once again and know our way around that crazy city, but for the short time we spent there finding all the places we needed to check out, it was NUTS. I have totally turned into a country bumkin lol.



Sunday, April 21, 2013

New home road trip

Well we just spent the most awesome 8 days on the road and at our new home!!!!!!!!!! Those days were filled with so much excitement....seeing my son, my daughter getting her grad dress, visiting two of my siblings, and finally....GETTING KEYS TO OUR NEW HOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
All packed up and ready for the first load to the new home!
We left sunny, arrived at snowy lol
Within 5 min of being in the new town, I met the Mayor!!!! lol

Within a day, the snow was gone, and I was raking the yard, these are bags from one small part of the raking...uggg do my blisters hurt lol
So these next three pictures are from when we first arrived in Calgary, we drove all night and got there in the morning, and my son wanted to take us out for breakfast. Well as some of you know, he broke both of his ankles so getting around for him can be a challenge. My sister has perfected the motions of getting my son out of the house, between walker, wheel chair and crutches....she gets him out of the house.
Well he took us to the IHOP, and at this IHOP there are HUGE waits to get in....it's so crazy to see....anyways, instead of numbers to call or last names...they give you famous people's names to call out....and, you will see what we got!
Brother resting legs on sister  in the backseat of the car :-)
Sister pushing Brother in crazy spring blizzard conditions lol
YUP....this is the name we got!!! lol
 This was the beautiful sunset one day we had driving back to our new home from a day of shopping in Lethbridge...sooooooooo pretty :-)
It was so very hard to leave the new home and come back to our current place....but what made it bearable was knowing we'd be back in a few short weeks with another load and then permanently after that in another few short weeks. We forgot how great it was to tinker around in one's own home, not having to worry about anyone else except our selves in the home! Can't wait for the next trip!!!

Thursday, April 4, 2013

Appreciation

Welcome to April!!!! I look forward to what April will bring me, as it's the month that will take me to my new home!
However, in thinking and planning of the new home, I look at the following pictures and think of how lucky and blessed I truly am in life. I am blessed that I had a family that cared about the choices I made in life and that those choices have brought me through what I have been and continue to learn on a daily basis.
The following pictures were taken by my Uncle in Vancouver this morning on his morning stroll through the downtown streets. He sent them to me, and I have sent him a email of thanks.....thanks for reminding me today of how grateful I am of my great life!!!!


My favorite picture is this last one....these kids are sleeping here because it's a heated grate, so they can stay warm while they nap. However, the part I like the best is the sign the one kid made "I dream of poutine". Now that's original, I totally would have bought them some :-)
So, go forward into April and be grateful your sleeping in a bed and not on a grate and that you don't have to come up with innovative signs to attract people.