Walk to the library

Yesterday Gus and I walked to the library. I love where we live- the trails, trees and mountains are so beautiful.

Selfie before we left...:)

He loves the books:

Pulling magazines off the shelf. 

I love this baby area where we can make a mess in peace (and clean up before we go:) 

Found an awesome book about a scary dentist so I had to take pictures to show Calvin as a cautionary tale:

The walk home:

Toronto 2015! Part 2

The view of mom's house from behind. Don't let the blue sky fool you, it was cold!

Milk in a bag.

Gus' fave spot to play.

Gus loves Gertie! In fact, it was his first word that he repeated! Every time Gertie entered the room he would say "Gertie, Gertie!" And Gert was a saint, so gentle with Gus even when he poked her nose and pulled her fur:)

Passed out in grandma's bed 

Playing with his little friend Ellory!

Toronto 2015! Part 1

Gus loved being at Grandma's house.

But first- thank you Gus for napping in the airport when we missed our connecting flight and before we got upgraded to business class in the next flight out! And thank you to the mother of a college football player who waited for me to get my flights sorted out and helped me get to my new departure gate and prayed for me and gave me a big, warm hug when we parted ways. The kindness of strangers is magic.

We were greeted at Pearson International by ms. maddie herself!

Gus made himself right at home

 

Outside:

Inside:

Mandatory stroll past the crazy house in the neighbourhood. 

Lunch at Completo 

Hang out with Gertie and Ellory

Walk to Lake Ontario

Canadian breakfast of champions

SLC: Sophisticated Ladies Club

For the past few weeks, a good friend and I have been meeting up on Mondays to go for a walk and cook a healthy lunch together as a way to start the week off right. We decided to call ourselves the sophisticated ladies club:)

Yesterday this was what my plate looked like: 

We roasted a whole chicken with thin lemon slices, cauliflower and carrots and served it with boiled broccoli and a fresh green salad and a little leftover rice.

My mom sent me home from Toronto with her china that she bought as a teenager to put in her hope chest! It makes me so happy to serve food on it. 

Deep dark chocolate cookies- for one!

I love the recipes I've found online for small servings of dishes. Sometimes I crave cookies but I don't want to be surrounded by a big batch, if you know what I mean:) My recipe is adapted from this recipe of a fantastic single serving chocolate chip cookie! I changed a few things, including making it a little less sweet :) 

Ingredients:

2 Tablespoons butter

2 Tablespoons sugar (white or brown)

Pinch of salt 

1/4 teaspoon vanilla

1 egg yolk (if you double the recipe, use the whole egg rather than two yolks:)

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/8 cup special dark cocoa

1/8 cup whole wheat flour

3 Tablespoons dark chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, cream together the butter, sugar, vanilla and egg yolk. 

Add the rest of the ingredients except for the chocolate chips and mix by hand until just combined. Stir in the chocolate chips. Do not over-mix the batter unless you want a tougher, "cakey-er" texture:)

You can make one large cookie or up to five smaller cookies. Place on parchment lined cookie sheet and bake for 8 minutes. Let the cookie(s) cool on the pan for at least 5 minutes so it can continue to cook out of the oven. 

Happy anniversary, Calvin!

Photo by Lee Anne Havens  

I am so grateful to be celebrating 5 years of marriage to my sweetheart, Calvin. I can't imagine having a more thoughtful, generous, kind and loving partner. Our wedding day is such a happy memory for me; picture this: snow and wind outside, the cozy warmth of love and friendship inside old rock buildings in a little town surrounded by mountains, live music, good food, dancing....it was just SO much fun!

And marriage has been SO fun. I'm especially grateful this year to be celebrating for the first time with our little boy who is crawling around as I write!

Thank you, Calvin for being my truest friend and my one true love:) ❤️❤️❤️

A simple lunch

After a beautiful walk on the trails and quick trip to the library, Gus and I came home starving for lunch.

I got him settled in his chair with a few snacks and whisked together three eggs with a splash of buttermilk (I prefer cream but didn't have any on hand) and salt and pepper. I cooked a big omelette (with feta) for us to share and got some water boiling. Guys- I like boiled vegetables now! It's all Tamar Adler's fault! She is the author of the book, "An Everlasting Meal", where among other things, she extols the virtues of cooking with boiling water. I eat so much more cauliflower and broccoli since my boiling conversion because it's so much faster than roasting and I dislike raw crudités. I salt the water as Tamar would like you to and I prefer boiling medium size spears for about 4 minutes. The tough crunch is gone but they aren't mushy. Also- salt your eggs and veggies directly and I had a lemon on hand so I micro-planed some lemon zest over it all. It was so satisfying and felt so good for my body too. Broccoli is the original kale, don't you think? And I like it way better than kale even though I don't mind kale that much. Gus gobbled it up too!