Death or Glory

Tom Brokaw explains Canada to Americans.

This video aired on NBC prior to the Olympics. Love it!

Wow, a little late posting this – I know!
I’ve been fairly busy lately, still no excuse though.

Last weekend for the gold medal hockey game I made the trek up to Newmarket to visit my brother and check out his new place. He was hosting a birthday party for his roommate/friend and they made it Olympic themed. Everyone had to dress as an athlete, representing a specific country. Then, after the hockey game (which was awesome by the way) we participated in a mini Olympics complete with a whole bunch of different games/activities. Including beer pong, hockey, curling, wii skiing, wii bobsled and wii skeleton.

I dressed as a haphazard Scottish athlete (mostly because the week got away from me and I didn’t have time to make a costume. I brought my friend Dianne along with me and she dressed as a Hungarian, not really an athlete though.

Movies watched: The Never-ending Story and Frailty
Books read: None
Recipes made: Delicious vegetarian chili, Ricotta Pesto Pasta

I want to know why, out of all of the great musical talent we have here in the country, that Avril Lavigne, Simple Plan and Hedley were chosen to rock out at the Olympics.

Fail.

My roommate, Sarah, also created a list of things she wanted to accomplish in 2010. It’s not the same type of thing that I’m doing, a list of 101 things, but rather just a list of things she’d like to accomplish this year. On her list was a slumber party. On my list, a dinner party.

We decided to combine the two and have a games night, dinner party, slumber party. That happened last Friday. It was pretty fun, except some friends got a little too competitive and ruined some of the fun.

This is everyone at the end of a VERY long game of Trivial Pursuit and the start of another round of Apples to Apples.

Recipes made: On Tuesday, I made some delicious jalapeño cheddar potato chowder. It was from the Betty Crocker vegetarian cookbook that Betty bought me for Christmas. I had been wanting to cook some chowder for a while, and finally got around to it.

Movies watched: Nightmare on Elm Street II, Whip It
Books Read: none

Also accomplished – the light fixtures in the hallways have been put up and they look good!

I’ve been lacking in the picture department, apparently.

New recipe cooked: Banana Nut Muffins. I have never made muffins from scratch before. I followed these directions exactly – using the oil not margarine and I added some crushed walnuts. They turned out so good, really moist. I brought them into work and everyone ate them up.

Books read: Dear John by Nicholas Sparks

Movies watched: The Way We Were

I can almost cross off the creation of a recycling centre. We needed a microwave stand and were having problems finding one we liked. I asked my dad to make me one, based on one I had seen online. The one I saw not only had two shelves, but a giant drawer that housed a garbage can. I didn’t need a garbage can, but I did want somewhere to put our recycling (cans and plastic). Sarah and I use those giant blue bags for recycling and it would just kind of sit on the ground – not very aesthetically pleasing. Anyway, my dad made me a version of that and now there’s a hidden place for the cans.

Now, I just need to work on some sort of solution for the paper/cardboard.

It seems that I’ve fallen a bit behind in my updating… so here’s the update for my second and third week.

Books read:
Salem Falls by Jodi Picoult
The Corrections by Ian Rankin

Movies watched:
My Sister’s Keeper
Inglorious Basterds
Bright Star
The September Issue
Euro Trip

New recipes I’ve made:
Sadly, I’ve didn’t take pictures of the meals this time around.
Week 2: Thai Vegetable Coconut Soup – I’ve never made soup from scratch before. This soup tasted delicious, but the recipe called for a carrot and for some reason when I went shopping all I could find was GIANT carrots. And when I say giant I mean HUGE! So, I think the soup ended up being a little more carrot-y than called for, but it still tasted amazing.

Week 3: Tonight I made veggie pineapple chicken. This wasn’t as great. It was like everything went wrong. The vegetables weren’t as crisp as they should have been, the rice was a little overcooked and I think I put on a little too much pineapple sauce.

I’ve been super busy over the past week and haven’t worked on as many of these as I had hoped I could.

However, I was able to get my recipe made. I went with Better Than ‘Beef’ Stroganoff. It was pretty delish and gave me tons of leftovers.

Looks kinda gross, but tastes delicious

The finished dish - doesn't look so bad once it's all done.

Also, the kitchen cupboards and linen closet have been organized. Life is already much better!

I’ve challenged myself to complete a list of 101 things in 1001 days. To see the list, check out the page about it.

I encourage you, my fellow bloggers, to follow along and if you`d like, embark on a challenge of your own!