Sara

Fruit Filled Oatmeal Squares



★ 1/2 cup salted butter, room temp
★ 1 cup light brown sugar
★ 1 egg
★ 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
★ 1 1/4 cups flour
★ 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
★ 2 cups oats
★ 1 cup jam/preserves of choice (homemade or store bought)
★ 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon*

*I have used all sorts of jam for this recipe. Raspberry, cherry, pear, and now apricot. Usually I only add the cinnamon when making this with the lighter jams like pear or apricot. =)


1. Preheat oven to 350°F
2. Prepare a 9×9 inch square pan with butter or cooking/baking spray
3. In a medium size bowl, mix your butter and sugar. (2-3 minutes)
4. Add the egg and your vanilla and remix.
5. In a separate, smaller bowl, mix your flour, baking soda, and optional cinnamon
6. Add to your butter mixture and mix. You can use a mixer, whisk or fork to mix these. ( I just used a fork.)
7. Stir in 1 3/4 cup of your oats, set the rest aside and remix.
8. Put about 2/3 of your dough mix on the bottom of the pan, flat like a pizza, and then spread your jam on top.
9. To the remaining dough, add the rest of your oatmeal oats and either spread or crumble on top of the jam. What I usually do is flatten the mixture either with a rolling pin or my hands and then gently place it on top of the jam.
10. Bake 25-30 minutes
11. Enjoy!

Boats and Birds



Eco Friendly


New house shoes! They’re made entirely of recycled yarn and that makes me warm inside. Here’s a strange quirk for me, I try to keep my footwear as eco and animal friendly as possible. I’m not vegan, and I’m not big on the animal rights part of vegetarianism (sorry my veggie friends) and the only reason I prefer vegetarian foods is because I don’t like the hormones and the crap that industries put into the food. I don’t mean to say that I enjoy or support animal cruelty, because I don’t, but I’m fine with eating free range meat and I don’t mind diary if it’s organic and the like.

But something I did want to bring up is something I’ve sort of been a little confused over the last few days. I get upset, really upset, when I’m in a store and I see pretty much everything being advertised as “Eco Friendly” or “Green”. It’s been happening a lot lately. This shouldn’t upset me because it means we’re being good to our environment, right? Right. But I look at places like Claire’s, or big companies who have done absolutely nothing over the past years except be terrible to the environment suddenly pushing the “Green” agenda and it. infuriates. me. I get so mad that I want to kick stands over, which is so unlike me. Why? Because in my heart I know the only reason why they are suddenly making things like recycled slippers, or recycled cloth bags with the words, “No Plastic Allowed!” on it because it’s the fad.

That whole indie, be good to your environment, I like tea and floral print is the hip and in thing right now and because of that, it’s everywhere. But the confusing part is that this should make me happy, even if it’s only here because of a fad, it’s here all the same. But I’m not. It just infuriates me because I think, it was this easy all along. It was this easy to use recycled materials for our clothes and shoes and make up products. But we weren’t doing it.

It just makes me feel a bit heavier.

On a related note, check out these awesome wrap boots, or these ridiculously awesome vegan boots:

The Heidi Braided Hairstyle


I’ve been wearing my hair in two braids recently, mostly due to the weather and the fact that I’m still trying to decide what to do with it. It’s three tones right now: my natural roots, a small chunk of healthy red, and then left over bleached blondish red, and I can’t decide what my next step shall be. Egads!

Anyway, I tried this on my dry hair, loved it, but found it a little tricky because my shorter layers would tend to peek out. I tried it wet and it was much easier to deal with, so perhaps I will try some product next time and see what happens! Anyway, I found this video to share in case you want to give it a shot, “The Heidi Hairstyle”, according to the sweet Aya:

Family Dinner


Last Saturday Tom and I went to his mother’s to celebrate his grandmother’s birthday. Dinner was set for seven, and we ended up staying until around eleven! The food was delicious (especially the steak, ho hum) and I really enjoy spending time with Janet (Tom’s mum) and her husband Brian. We’ve only been able to go out a few times with them and it’s always a delight catching up.

Janet is a wonderful cook, and a healthy one at that! She uses whole wheat flour and tons of other organic ingredients (she even makes her own salad dressing without vinegar) and everything tastes so delicious! I didn’t have any of the salmon, but Tom tells me he was delighted by the taste. And we were both pleasantly surprised by how well Brian grilled the steak.

For dessert was apple tort, your choice of ice cream, and raspberry brownie cake. Well! I had, and loved, the apple torte. I enjoyed my strawberry ice cream. But I had one bite of the raspberry brownie and let Tom eat the rest. (Surprise surprise.)

DAMN YOU BROWNIES! Why can’t I enjoy you!? You look so good, and I try you every time, but I never succeed!!

Windswept Hair

Well, it’s that time again! Time for another feature. I am on Flickr daily, favoriting away, and this week, with all the blustery weather I figured I’d share a few of my favorite compositions involving windswept hair.

Enjoy! Click on the image to go to the photo on flickr!









Photographers featured, in order are: David Urbanke, Sasha Nikitin, Aleyn Comprendio, Alex Catt, Madden Vallis, Buenaventura, Matt Caplin, Isabella Valerie, and Maya Fiala Grau.

Tom’s Box of Beautiful Things

A professor at the University Tom attends passed away and left all of the things in his office to the school, but his collection spanned three whole rooms!

Tom was one of the few allowed to take a few things home with him before they donate the rest to make room.

I think what he chose to take home says a lot about him as a person, but that might be just me.

The Jurassic ammonite was exciting and new for me! This thing was around in the time of the dinosaurs, of course that gets me giddy! And the pure amethyst and shells are positively beautiful. The shells weren’t new to me, having lived on the ocean most my life, but they were new to Tom. “Exotic, fascinating, and a little bit of home for you.” He’s always thinking of me, you see.

Frozen Hot Chocolate


I find this is the perfect summer beverage. Sweet and soothing. For those of us that love our hot cocoa, but don’t want to sweat the heat. =)


? frozen hot cocoa packet or powder of choice
? milk (soy, almond, rice, etc)
? ice cubes
? blender


1. Put approximately 1 cup of ice cubes into blender.
2. Pour in approx. 1 cup milk (so that the milk just covers the ice cubes)
3. Add hot cocoa packet or powder (one packet or enough for one drink)
4. Blend to perfection!

YUM!

Victoria Day


Yesterday was a holiday for Canadian’s (Victoria Day) complete with store closings, days off work, and fireworks! Quite the exciting surprise for me! I wonder how it would feel if an entire country celebrated your birthday? Strange, I’d imagine.
Tom and I went to the park (maybe some of you remember the delightful walk Tom and I took last month, where I saw a beaver for the first time- this is that same park) and had a little picnic in the sun.

Speaking of remembering things. Perhaps some of you remember the suspension bridge I was hesitant about, spanning the river? (I guess this depends on if you read my LJ or blog.) You do? Well, great, because it broke.


It appears that the actual bridge itself is completely fine, but on one of our recent blustery days, it whipped so hard that the frame cracked.

I must admit I’m a little disappointed because Tom tells me they may not fix it at all, but simply take it down. I thought it was a fantastic addition to the park and I’ll be sad to see it go, if that’s the case.

In other news, our neighborhood smells of lilacs and it leaks into our room thanks to our lovely window fan. It reminds me of my mother’s back yard, which in turn makes me a tiny bit homesick. I miss the pear blossoms.

Walking

Sometimes you walk and walk and you are really tired of walking but everyone else continues walking so you find yourself still walking along side everyone else when you really just want to stop and lie down where you are. And sometimes you do take moments to stop and everything keeps moving but you’re still. And you focus on your breathing and your bleeding. And then sometimes you go to stop and there’s someone already there and so you stop together and occasionally, if you’re lucky, when you get up you get up together and the rest of your walking and stopping is always done with instead of without.

Full.

Blueberry Muffins



★ 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
★ 3/4 cup white sugar
★ 1/2 teaspoon salt
★ 2 teaspoons baking powder
★ 1/3 cup vegetable oil
★ 1 egg
★ 1/3 cup milk
★ 1 cup fresh blueberries

Additional Crumb Topping
★ 1/2 cup white sugar
★ 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
★ 1/4 cup butter, cubed
★ 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon


1. Preheat oven to 400° F (200° C).
2. Grease muffin pan or line with muffin liners.
3. Combine 1 1/2 cups flour, 3/4 cup sugar, salt and baking powder.
4. Pour the vegetable oil into a measuring cup (1 cup/250 ml); add your egg and enough milk to fill the cup. 5. Mix this with flour mixture, and fold in blueberries. Be careful not to over mix! Just whisk it together until it’s even, then stop.
6. Fill pan right to the top, and (optional) sprinkle with crumb topping mixture.

To Make Crumb Topping: Mix together 1/2 cup sugar, 1/3 cup flour, 1/4 cup butter, and 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon. Mix with fork, and sprinkle over muffins before baking.

7. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes in the preheated oven, or until done.

Waterfall Picnic


Tom took me on a picnic today, but what I thought would be your average day in the park turned out to be quite the surprise adventure! He took me to see waterfalls. Two of them. For a picnic. Gosh, what a romantic.


Let me see if I can do today justice. We wore matching outfits (I wore my new summer dress and earrings), packed a homemade peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, a tuna sub, cranberry orange breakfast pitas, tea, and water and set off.

At first I thought we were just at a regular wooded area, we followed a path, and I was a little picture happy. There was a beautiful stream that we passed, and I asked if we could stop near the stream for the picnic. (It reminded me of Huck and Finn.) He told me yes, but there was a better spot yet to be seen. Boy, I had no idea. (PS, if you didn’t know this, you can click on these images to see the larger version pop up.)

So we climbed a cliff and the first thing I saw was the view. My pictures don’t even do it justice, it was so incredible. I felt like we’d just been transported to Never Never Land. I was also reminded of Homeward Bound, for some reason, if I’m honest. I could hear the water somewhat by this point, but I could see the river down below so I assumed that was the source of the noise.
Not a waterfall. I mean, come on, right? I was also a bit nervous, as there weren’t, you know, railings or anything (when did I become a city girl?) but it was so beautiful. I wish I wasn’t so afraid of heights. I didn’t used to be.

And while we’re still talking about things that reminded me of movies, we stumbled upon the perfect tree stars and I resisted the urge to call out, “MOTHER!” Land Before Time, anyone? Come on, it’s dinosaurs! (I own this on dvd.)

Anyway, I was able to hear and smell the second waterfall long before we could see it. When we reached it I was stunned. From where we were standing we were still getting a light spray of water. The view reminded me so much of The Last of the Mohicans. I thought maybe they filmed here at first, but it was filmed in North Carolina I’m pretty sure. But you can walk behind the waterfall when the water slows down in the fall. We’ll probably come back for that.

After the second water fall, and reaching the top, we followed the river to a clearing with a beautiful bridge and even some picnic benches! We plopped down beside the river, had our food, napped in the sun, read (his: Ubik, hers: Neverwhere), and Tom played his PSP while I went on a photo adventure. Oh, and we blew bubbles. My favorite shot of the whole day was taken then. I call it “bubble guts”. This entry has made it alarmingly clear that I’m quite the movie-holic. Yikes. All in all, it was a fantastic day. Tom is fast asleep and really I should go to bed too, but I wanted to write this down first, of course. I think I sunburned my face again.

Page 36 of 39« First...102030...3435363738...Last »