My passion for food, my love

A night together

I am continually amazed at all the intelligent, dynamic, talented, inspirational women I have the privilege of knowing. Worldly, well-informed, spiritual (now I mean this in the sense of inner connectedness), just plain amazing. I feel I have so much to learn from them, most are older than me and have this rich tapestry as well of life experiences I hope to glean bits and pieces from. It is most exciting. But what sincerely concerns and depresses me is how way too many seem to not have married equally dynamic partners-or even supportive or complementary partners. What I mean by complementary, is someone who through their contrast of personality, enhances the person they are with, rather than dragging them down. However, that is just it-way too many seem to be dragged down by their spouse, rather than walking side-by-side, they seem to be needing to pull away. They have no connectedness, no passion, no true happiness. This greatly saddens me. How can this be?At this point in my life, I can't fathom a marriage without passion. It may sound completely ridiculous to say I want someone that makes my heart race (and I don't mean causes afib and call the ambulance sort), but someone whom I can truly say I am wildly in love with, and is the love of my life.  Mom called my Dad the love of her life, and I really believe it. What they had was a perfect complement of personalities, and somewhat unbeknownst to me as a child, they had passion. Support of one another, acceptance of faults, all matter, but passion is what helps you to weather the worst storms.

I express my love for my love in many ways, but my most subtle seduction is what I prepare for him in the kitchen. Our late night dinner dates are a tradition with us, and preferable to any restaurant. The innuendo ranges from blatant to subtle, but it always keeps our life exciting. When we get too busy, too stressed, too overwhelmed with all that is life, these dinner dates pull us together. I spend days designing a menu, and the whole day preparing. Now, as I wait for his next return home, I must set to task deciding what to make. Bringing two of my biggest passions together makes me feel so very alive.

The day, the day....and what of it?

Henry and Amelia's cactus

I have a fair bit done in the garden. After having 3 yards dropped on the driveway, we manually moved it to the back yard. I actually really love hard physical work, it is extremely satisfying to work outdoors to the point of physical exhaustion. I have a large assortment of lettuces, beans, peas, carrots, and pumpkins in. For herbs,  sage, chives, lavender, rosemary, lemon balm, mint, thyme all in and up, all these things winter here (as in stay green and alive all winter!), and I also planted dill. I will be putting the basil and cilantro in later, when the temperatures are warmer. I have tomatoes and hot peppers as well, but again, I will put them in the ground later. I am quite thrilled about the garden at this point, my hours of work should pay off all year. Dave and I also want to put in some raspberry canes, but I have not got around to it. All beds are weeded, I moved a shrub and a large rosemary that was crowding. The kids have been good helping to water and weed-well Lauryn and Josh, Amelia only helps when I force her to. Josh is particularly enthusiastic, I can only imagine how he will harvest.

The kids played well today, no arguments, a big switch from yesterday. They picked and bickered and Josh had a meltdown in the Gap. I squared him around, we made our selections and left. Once I felt everyone had chilled, we walked over to Pier 1, bought a few things then over to Chapters to browse and have a coffee. It was the most delicious americano I have had in weeks for some reason. We came home and grilled some burgers. I topped mine with blue cheese and we had large salads with maple balsamic...divine. I am so done today, need to relax to prepare for two days of assessments. I cooked most of the day today, made an apple tart, apple butter, butter chicken, naan bread, oven bbq chicken, and we went for a hike in the afternoon. The woods were warm, the drop-offs and climbs steep and fern filled, and the kids enjoyed themselves, throwing rocks in the stream and looking at the flowers, and looking for good "adventure sticks". All in all, not a bad day.

Dave and Norm are training together, which is neat since Norm is army and Dave is airforce. It is such a small world ours, but I enjoy that smallness, and seek it out. Once I avoided the whole scene, preferring to associate with non-military, but now I cherish such connections. No one on this earth could comprehend it unless they lived it, so I enjoy this bit of connectivity we all secretly share. Dave and I skyped off and on today, his connections were poor, so it was disjointed here and there. Mike also called, and I am glad to say he is in a better place these days. Ana has a very optimistic prognosis, so we will keep them both in our thoughts. Hopefully we can visit him when we next go to Cali.

I miss Sandy. We travel our eerily similar lives thousands of kms apart, connected via fb mainly, but really, when we talk it is like no time has passed. Funny how good friends are. You never have to worry about offending them when you don't talk for ages, and you always get their line of thinking. You also still, after many years know exactly what sarcastic comment they would have in any given situation, and know what monty python reference would also suit. Whenever I need confirmation on my thoughts or anxieties, I can count on hers. Cheers to good, good friends. We plan to have a getaway somewhere soon, to celebrate the foolishness that is graduate work. It is long overdue.

I sat tonight and enjoyed the brilliance that is Natural Pastures cheese. Their camembert is mushroomy and creamy, so good with Helene's pepper jelly and a glass of wine. A bit of indulgence, after a long hike and my usual run. You are daring to imagine a new life....yes stealing a quote. But as I embark on major change I step forth with no hesitation. I can and I will. I will do so with bravery and fearlessness (stealing again!). It is rapidly approaching. I have no choice, it is written in my path, my life journey. Because as it stands, I have a real zest for life don't I, so I will do it with style.....hehe. I would love to capture my thoughts on here better. I have so many in the day I need to record them when they happen, document on my ipod like some idiot as the day goes by. Josh observing that Dad has been at work a really, really long time, the expression on Lauryn's face when she realized Josh had deftly blamed her for the dessert disappearance, Amelia being in charge of the activity schedule in the back yard...and things such as my thoughts on choosing action or choosing inaction-there is no true neutrality. You either do something, or you choose to do nothing (hell I spent a lot of time discussing the veracity of that one). Either way, you are making a choice to act or not to act. Choosing inaction IS an action, a statement in one direction.....I choose to be effective in my own world....

I will get there...that profound blog does exist....

It's the end of the world as we know it...and I feel fine....

The kids, in the beach "tiki" we built a couple of weekends ago

Do you have the time, to listen to me whine? There has been so much going on, I don't know where to begin. Since I last blogged, we have been on a crazy rollercoaster. Prior to Easter, we found out that Dave might be getting an overseas deployment. We weighed our pros and cons and now it is a certain thing. He will be gone between 6 and 10 months, we don't know right now which, but he has already left for a couple of months training. I realize people think what could the pros be, but trust me, its the pay. That part will eliminate debt, and free up time for us as a result, time and money to travel and have more of the relaxation time we have been needing. So that aside, we have taken it, and are now on the countdown with the time we have left before then. It will be a long, long time for us, but we have done it before, we can do it again. So life as we know it is changing again, but I am quite ok with it right now.
My course is done, I am taking the summer off. When Dave gets back we are hitting the road to go camp, enjoy the island for all that it has. We are going to enjoy our family time, until his first leave. Dave and I may travel alone for the first time since the kids, depending on the length of his tour (and if he has one or two leaves). We won't know for awhile which length, so i am putting no more thought into the trips till then.

Lemon Cream Cake

This was our Easter dessert, delicious white cake, the recipe my mom made every year for our birthdays as kids. The filling layers are a lemon curd with whipped cream folded in. It was very lemony and creamy and spring-like. Nice ending to our turkey dinner. Auntie and Uncle joined us, we had a great time, they are always enjoyable company.

Just chocolate cupcakes, kid-style

The kids and I also made peeps cupcakes. I love peeps. Not to eat so much, but I love the idea of them. Something neat and seasonal. I love going to the states to pick up the ones I can't get here, like the cats at Halloween or the peppermint Christmas ones. We even made peeps one year, I tinted the marshmallow green. Some were a bit messy, but it actually fairly easy to make them. I also recall making marshmallows as a kid. We made blue ones rolled in powdered sugar. We thought they were so cool. I loved making unusual things then, I recall the yogurt we cultured too. It was then I developed a love for plain yogurt. Mind you, I sprinkled a bit of sugar on it when I was a kid, but I loved the tang it had. 

Chilean prawns-I have been meaning to make these for ages. They are simple and insanely good. Poached large prawns in a paprika and spice mixture of peppercorns, coriander seeds, sea salt and a few other secret ingredients, with a cilantro and citrus sauce. I will be serving this at our next party- a BBQ with these prawns, empanadas, and some grilled veggies and carne...and sangria!!!