Cupcake Crazy

I admit it, I'm jumping on the cupcake bandwagon. I caught the baking bug in September when I decided to whip up some Lemon Cupcakes with matching Lemon Buttercream icing for a friend's birthday (which I think were pretty good since they were devoured at the party) and since then I've had the urge to do some serious baking and decorating; so I went out today and bought some supplies. The closest place to my house that sells specialty baking supplies is Bulk Barn... do not go in there with an empty stomach!

There are a few birthdays and occasions in the next while for some bursts of baking and it will be a perfect way to occupy myself through the cold winter months. Despite today being the second day of November, it is gorgeous outside... definitely beginning of fall weather, rather than end of it. On that note, I want to try a recipe that is reminiscent of the summer months, their fun, warmth and general laid back style. Hopefully it turns out as delicious as it sounds! I found this recipe at Cast Sugar Cupcake Blog, as well as many other recipes I hope to try soon.

PINK LEMONADE CUPCAKES

Ingredients:

1 c. all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. baking soda

Pinch salt

1/2 c. granulated sugar

1/4 c. vegetable oil

2 egg whites

1/3 c. thawed frozen Pink Lemonade Concentrate

1/4 c. buttermilk

2 or more drops red food coloring

Preheat oven to 350 F. Line muffin pan with liners.

In a small bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together sugar, oil, egg whites and lemonade concentrate. Alternately whisk in flour mixture and buttermilk, making three additions of flour mixture and two of buttermilk, beating until just smooth. Add just enough food coloring to turn the batter a light shade of pink.

Scoop batter into liners (fill about three-fourths full). Bake in preheated oven for 20-25 minutes or until tops of cupcakes spring back when lightly touched. Let cool in pan on rack for 10 minutes. Remove from pan and let cool completely on rack. Top cooled cupcakes with frosting (see below).

Lemonade Buttercream:

3 c. + 3 Tbsp. confectioner’s sugar

1 stick unsalted butter at room temperature

1/8 tsp. salt

2 Tbsp. pink lemonade concentrate

Red food coloring

Add the butter, confectioner’s sugar, salt, lemon juice, and a few drops of food coloring to the stand mixer and mix on low using the paddle attachment until combined. Turn the speed to med-high until the buttercream is fluffy and uniformly pink. Pipe or spread onto cooled cupcakes.

*cupcake update (Nov 9, 2011)
I haven't actually been able to make this recipe (*gasp*) though I did whip up some delicious banana-lime cupcakes with key lime icing. However, a friend did make them last night and gave me some tips that are essential to follow if you want this recipe to turn out. In terms of baking time, Julie said that the baking time should be kept closer to 20 minutes, rather than 25. Actually, when it is nearing the 18 minute mark, check on your cupcakes because they may not take as long as you think. Julie said that (direct quote): "I think the sugar in the lemonade mix makes the edges extra burny." So be careful unless you want burnt cupcakes... but if you do, no judgment here.

Thai It, You'll Like It

Ok, that entry title might be a blatant rip-off of another absolutely delicious recipe from the Looney Spoons cookbook, but it also describes the dinner I made last night.

Its from the Inspired Magazine you can pick up from a number of local grocery stores and is tasty, low in fat and sodium, quick to make and comes out about $3.25 per person per portion. Let's get to it.

Peanut Shrimp With Bok Choy & Rice Noodles

Prep time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 20 minutes

Serves: 4

1 lime, zested and cut in half

1/3 cup low sodium chicken broth

1/4 cup low fat peanut butter

1 tbsp low sodium soya sauce

1 tbsp minced fresh ginger

1 tbsp toasted sesame oil, divided

2 tsp vegetable oil

2 carrots, peeled and thinly sliced diagonally

3 cups coarsely chopped bok choy

1/2 package Uncooked Pacific White Shrimp, thawed (*I used the whole package because I love shrimp!)

1/2 cup lightly packed fresh cilantro

1/2 lb rice noodles, medium width (approx. half a package)

1. Juice half of the lime and slice the other half into 4 wedges and reserve. Blend the broth, peanut butter, 1 tsp lime zest and juice, soya sauce, ginger and 2 tsp sesame oil  until smooth. Set aside.

2. Heat the oil in a large, non-stick skillet set over medium-high heat. Add the carrots; stir fry for 3-4 minutes. Add the bok choy and shrimp (make sure to peel the shrimp before this step); stir fry for 2 minutes or until shrimp are opaque and vegetables are tender-crisp. Stir in the peanut butter mixture and cilantro. Toss until heated through.

3. Meanwhile, cook the rice noodles according to package directions; toss with remaining sesame oil. Serve the stir-fry over the rice noodles. Garnish with reserved lime wedges, if desired. 

Per serving (1/4 of the recipe): 350 calories. 

This recipe is delicious but very light at the same time. I served it with a sprinkle of zest over the stir fry and I squeeze my lime wedge on it as well. I would recommend this a million times over. 

Hopefully soon I will also post my other favourite peanut shrimp recipe (aka the one I mentioned above.)

Hope you all enjoy it. 

xo Lisa

My name is Lisa and I am addicted to reading

There, it's out! I've said it! I love to read more than almost everything else in the world and have for as long as I can remember. I've dedicated most of my education and a fair amount of my free time to devouring the written word so I was a little put out when I tallied just how many of the world's classic stories I hadn't read. Now of course what makes a list of 'classic stories' is subjective and changes with the list writer but I am came across this one on a Facebook note and wanted to see how well I've done... so let's go!

According to the note, I'm to bold the books I've read and italicize the ones I have started but haven't gotten through.

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen (absolute all time fave!)

2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien

3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte

4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling

5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee 

6 The Bible

7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte

8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell

9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman

10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens

11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott

12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy

13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller

14 Complete Works of Shakespeare

15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier

16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien

17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk

18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger

19 The Time Traveler’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger

20 Middlemarch - George Eliot

21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell

22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald

24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy

25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams

27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky

28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck

29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll

30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame

31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy

32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens

33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis

34 Emma -Jane Austen

35 Persuasion - Jane Austen

36 The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe - CS Lewis

37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini

38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres

39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden

40 Winnie the Pooh - A.A. Milne

41 Animal Farm - George Orwell

42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown

43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving

45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins

46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery

47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy

48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood

49 Lord of the Flies - William Goldins

50 Atonement - Ian McEwan

51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel

52 Dune - Frank Herbert

53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons

54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen

55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth

56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon

57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens

58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley

59  The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon

60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck

62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov

63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt

64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold

65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas

66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac

67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy

68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding

69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie

70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville 

71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens

72 Dracula - Bram Stoker

73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett

74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson

75 Ulysses - James Joyce

76 The Inferno - Dante

77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome

78 Germinal - Emile Zola

79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray

80 Possession - AS Byatt

81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens

82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell

83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker

84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro

85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert

86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry

87 Charlotte’s Web - E.B. White

88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom

89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton

91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad 

92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery 

93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks

94 Watership Down - Richard Adams 

95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole

96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute

97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas

98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare

99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl

100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

Wow, I've only read 39 out of these 100... but at the same time, there are tons of books that I would have put on here instead. 

What about you? What's your book nerd score?

Comfort in the Everyday

I'm not sure what it is about this semester but I find I am way less stressed and way more open to letting things come as they may. This may be because I don't have a whole lot due right now (it mostly all starts after Reading Week) but whatever is causing it, I am all for it.

That being said, I've found a lot more free time. I've tried to devote it to two of my favourite things: cooking and sleeping. I've dedicated the lion's share to sleeping but today I made dinner. My go-to easy, nutritious, quick and delicious meal is my version of Chicken Parm. It's mostly the same as ones you will find anywhere but I don't bread/fry the chicken and I use couscous instead of spaghetti. Om nom nom. The recipe is below and I highly recommend you try it out. 5 ingredients, less than an hour to make. Delicious.

Preheat oven to 350 F. In saucepan, heat up 2 tsp vegetable oil. Place 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts in the oil and cook for 2-3 minutes each side until the chicken is lightly browned. Place chicken in a greased glass 11 x 4 inch pan. Using another 2 tsp of oil, saute 1 cup sliced zucchini and 3/4 cup sliced onion for a few minutes until they are lightly browned and then place them on the chicken. Spread 1.5 cups of tomato sauce on top of the chicken and cover the sauce in 1 cup grated mozzerella. Sprinkle a few tablespoons of parmesan cheese on top of the mozzerella. Cook in oven for 25-30 minutes or until chicken juice is clear when pierced with a fork.

For all those veggies out there, I hear this recipe works very well if you substitute slabs of eggplant for the chicken. You will most likely have to play around with the cooking time though.

On that note, the oven is dinging and the food is calling my name.

Tis the Season... or was the season.

I sit here in bed, still buzzing off the unadvised amount of diet coke I had right before bed time and it struck me that I have widely neglected this blog... something I was so gungho about when I started. Now, it may be different if I had one of those blogs that was read by thousands of people a day but I really just started this for myself as a way of getting my thoughts out there while avoiding having a diary and feeling like I was ten years old again.

Now I can't promise to faithfully update the blog but I will try my hardest to get back on track. Last time I was on here, I talked about the blog assignment I had to do for my social media class. I structured it around eating fresh and avoiding all processed foods. The blog turned out pretty well and I got a fantastic mark but I feel like it will just be a one-off... a blog that served its purpose at the time. If you are curious to check it out, the URL is A Batch From Scratch. Just a disclaimer: this was done for a school assignment and not meant to be released out for everyone to see so I did take a few liberties with stories I posted. For instance, I do not know Chef Susur Lee (wish I did!), have never been to Madeline's (it has since closed down), and did not get in touch with the restaurant for the recipe I posted. However, it was on site for public access so I felt it was ok to borrow for the purposes of the assignment. I'm actually pretty proud of the assignment and maybe in the future will actually do something with the blog.

Back to the present. Today (or yesterday since it is now 1 am) was Valentines Day. A holiday that has risen to prominence on a mountain of roses, chocolate and sappily sweet greeting cards. Now I've never had a special someone on Valentines Day but don't let that fool you into thinking I don't love the holiday. I do! I'm not one of those down with Valentines Day people, though sometimes I do feel the PDA gets a little nauseating. If you feel that way about someone, why can't you express it at anytime? Why do you have to save it all for February 14th?

Anyways, one of my favourite things about Valentines Day is the emergence of the Red Velvet Cupcake. While I am not usually one for chocolate cupcakes, something about this special twist on the classic has me saying "OM NOM NOM" everytime. Only downside: the amount of food colouring used in each batch. It's a little horrendous... but as my friends Sam, Brooke and I found out at Robbie Burns Day this year, it takes way more red food colouring than you think to make your icing red. In fact, it will never actually be red but just very pink instead. But such is life.

Hopefully this means I am back for good. But know this, Valentines Day is very special... so whether you spent it with a loved one or spent the day with Crisis Communication homework and whipped cream whippets, I hope you enjoyed yourself.

XOXO Lisa

ouch

Sorry for my tardiness! Well, not exactly tardiness as much as straight-up absence from the blogosphere. My kitchen is finally up and running, and let me tell you, it is so gorgeous. However, this new kitchen has had more problems with it than the old one. Leaking pipes, backed up dishwasher, it ain't pretty. But we're getting a plumber in this week (thankfully) and he should be able to sort it out. I would love to see a smile on my parents' faces when they step into the kitchen, instead of a frown because the sink still isn't draining. :(

I've also started school again, doing a post-grad in Corporate Communications. While exciting, it also keeps me super busy. I have managed to make a few delicious dinners recently that I will post about, including recipes. Everything is vegetarian-adaptable so for those of you veggies out there (i.e. Julie), don't worry.

I think you'll be seeing a more nutritious swing to this blog in the future as Dad is prepping for surgery and Mom is training for a half-marathon (as of today.) My first step in the right direction: avoiding the Haagen Dazs on at work 3/$9.99.

DIY is on hold for right now since I am trying to figure out the new kitchen myself. Next up is delicious shrimp alfredo. Yum yum!

Also, I have to create a blog for my Social Media class (that includes three different entries on a subject) so I will be throwing my energy into that for the next little bit. But I'll see you soon.

Until then, may your sinks keep draining and your designer ice cream go on cheap at the grocery store,
Lisa

And it continues...

The construction... I doubt it will ever end! In my last post I mentioned that my parents were heading out on a vacation to the East coast of our fair country, Newfoundland in fact. Therefore my brother and I would be on our own in terms of cooking; we knew it would be difficult since the kitchen would be in various states of repair but I'm not sure we knew how limited we would be. As of Monday the only appliance we had was the fridge. Seriously. Even the microwave and coffee pot were bundled and packed away somewhere. The biggest shocker was the complete absence of a sink. It had been ripped out and the water shut off but I had been under the impression that the contractors would have rigged up a replacement. Nope!

It's pretty neat to see the kitchen (and upstairs bathroom) being torn apart and put back together in stages like this. I think it will be even cooler for my parents, who left with one kitchen in place and will return to see a completely different one. Most of our stainless steel appliances have been delivered a few days ago and are sitting in the dining room. They are so gorgeous and I can't wait to use them.

Bottom line: Neil and I are learning to adjust. Washing any dishes we use in the bathroom sink, cooking chicken nuggets and fingers on the BBQ. Over the past few days we have started to use paper towels and takeout. Awesome.

DIY #1

On my first day in Vancouver, Sam took me to Granville Island for lunch, grocery shopping and a little site-seeing. While we were there I ate a slice of Margherita Pizza and it was so delicious that I decided to eat it on a regular basis. Now to avoid the wallet-gauging and waistline-expanding situation that takeout pizza can so easily contribute to, this Margherita pizza must be made at home... by me. It looked easy and delicious enough that I could take the experiment on, even in a kitchen as broken as mine right now, and it became the first attempt in my cooking series called 'DIY: Do It Yourself.' This series will showcase me attempting recipes that look pretty common and easy but that I have never done before... making pizza, frying something in hot oil, making a pie crust from scratch. I believe this series will also help me learn the basics in cooking, the things we take for granted, pretty much by trial and error.

DIY Experiment #1: MARGHERITA PIZZA

I love when foods have a great story detailing their origin and this pizza does not disappoint. In 1899, Queen Margherita came to Naples to escape the cholera epidemic that had gripped the north of Italy and was served this pizza by Chef Raffaelle Esposito. To honour her visit, the chef used tomatoes (red), fresh basil (green) and fresh mozzerella cheese (white) to mimic the colours of the Italian flag. The Queen was so effusive in her praise of the chef and his pizza that he named the pizza after her.

My favourite part about this pizza is that it is so easy to make! You can always make it a little more complicated by whipping up your own pizza sauce and pizza dough but as I was making this (and another tray of the Strawberry Tart with Vanilla Mint Cream from my Vancouver entry) for the family before running off to a soccer game 60 minutes away, I needed it as simple as possible.

Note: I am not the pizzamaker in the family, my brother is. So I knew this would have its ups and downs and since it was my first attempt, would most likely not turn out like any of Neil's creations. Stay tuned for my thoughts.

Margherita Pizza

Fresh basil: 1 bunch
Fresh baby mozzarella cheese: 200-250 grams
Tomato: 2 medium, thinly sliced (or enough to cover the whole pizza)
Tomato Sauce: 1 cup, or enough to cover the pizza dough
Pizza Dough: 1 large
Salt and pepper

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Roll out dough on a lightly floured surface. Transfer to a baking tray and bake until puffed and beginning to color, 8 to 10 minutes.
3. Spread the pizza sauce over the pizza crust. Arrange basil leaves on the pizza and top with tomatoes and baby mozzarella slices. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
4. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until crust is golden and cheese has melted.

The above recipe is the official version I got from the web but I didn't follow it verbatim. The most important thing to remember that isn't listed in the directions to grease the baking pan you are baking the pizza on. My parents dished up the pizza while I was at soccer so I wasn't able to witness this for myself but they apparently lost 1/6 of the pizza since it was stuck to the pan. Grease the pan people!

I couldn't find any baby mozzerella at the grocery store but I did get a gorgeous large ball of fresh mozzerella. I almost didn't want to cut it up for the pizza as it looked too good but I definitely snuck a few pieces for myself while I was setting everything up.



Parental verdict: Delicious! I also thinked they liked not doing any of the cooking or cleaning.
My verdict: Good, not great, not crappy. In my rush I forgot to add the salt and pepper and I think those are necessary for that little extra touch. I also didn't prebake the dough before putting the ingredients on it but that's because I was following the directions I got on the dough bag, not in the recipe, so I am not sure if this would have done anything else. I also believe I went a little overboard with the basil but my parents didn't think so. To each their own I guess!

All in all, I would call my first DIY experiment a success. I also did another batch of the Strawberry Tart with Vanilla Mint Cream as I wasn't super happy with how the Vancouver batch turned out (something about the tart part was a little off.) I wanted to do them on biscuits like in a strawberry shortcake recipe but our local Longos was either out of or didn't stock any Bisquick (how is that possible?) I felt like an idiot when I got home and saw we had our own box but I really didn't have time to make biscuits as I would find out. To fill the void I grabbed some premade individual Angel Food cakes; I cut them in half and layered the cream and strawberries to make a dessert sandwich. They turned out so awesome! The Angel Food cakelets added a necessary touch of extra sweetness.



My parents will be going away soon to Newfoundland for a little over a week, leaving Neil and I to fend for ourselves in our wasteland of a kitchen. I am foreseeing a lot of premade casseroles or takeout in my future. However after an awful fish n' chips incident at Swiss Chalet (don't try them, ever!), I have decided to make Fish and Chips my next DIY adventure. Yum yum!

Until next time, may all your experiments work out!
Lisa

Construction Frustration

I live in a construction zone.

I always thought I was a pretty easy-going person, completely willing to go with the flow. So when the basement flooded on my birthday and we had to replace it all, I thought fine. When we found holes in the foundation and needed them fixed right away, great. Need to change the back siding and a chunk of doors and windows, bring it! We started to see the light in late July as the new basement carpet was due for installation and paint samples had been chosen. Then the upstairs bathroom exploded... and by the upstairs bathroom, I mean the water pipes... and the water destroyed it, the hall, part of the kitchen and the basement. Yes, the basement that was almost fixed from the last flood.

Even with the damage from the bathroom flood, often referred to as our indoor waterfall as that is what it looked like when we discovered it, I just shrugged my shoulders and mopped up (probably helped that I was leaving for the next day for vacation.) As much as the flood sucked, it was way better than it could have been. It could have happened during the next weekend when the entire family would have been away, leaving the water to run for days rather than hours. At least this water damage came from a freak accident and not a natural disaster. We still had four walls, a roof and our health. So all in all, I counted us as very lucky... just very very very pissed off.

Construction started almost immediately, a fact I noticed when I got home from my short vacation, and there is no end in sight. I thought we could get everything done before my brother left for school in Ottawa so he could enjoy our new everything... but that's definitely not going to happen.

I know it's not rational but I am frustrated! I am aware that construction does take time; materials needed to be ordered, crews booked, plans drawn up, and then the actual labour needs to occur. But the copious amounts of dust, lack of counter space and not knowing where anything is in the kitchen is really starting to wear me down. It's not fair of me but I wiggle out of meal duty as much as possible because cooking in that situation frustrates me. The end necessitates the means and I know that eventually I am going to be able to cook in a gorgeous kitchen and have a shower in a gorgeous glassed-in upright shower so for now I must live amid dust and noise.

I did manage my first DIY cooking experiment amid the clutter so look out for that soon. Personally I will be looking out for the smoking hot construction guy my mom swears is currently working on the house. I hope she's right and not describing some figment of her imagination that she created to deal with the stress of the house situation. Fingers crossed!

Bare Necessities

Look for the bare necessities
The simple bare necessities
Forget about your worries and your strife
I mean the bare necessities
That's why a bear can rest at ease
With just the bare necessities of life.
- The Bare Necessities, Disney's The Jungle Book

If you've spent any time around me, you know I do this weird thing where I say "That's so necessary" when I take a bite or sip of something that I really needed. The first cup of coffee of the day... the first sip of an icy diet coke on a hot day... any type of food when my blood sugar is crashing. Sometimes you are just jonesing for something and need to satisfy your craving (like me with chocolate... all the time lol.)

I think of these things as the bare necessities, the stuff I could not live without. Just try separating me from my diet coke, I dare you. Of course I am talking about superficial things, not the basic necessities of life like medical care, clean water, food, shelter, and safety that I believe everyone should have clear access to.

However, not all of my cravings mesh with my newly super healthy lifestyle (in fact, none of them do.) If I let my cravings take over, I'd be stuffing my body with comfort food aka all carbs and that's just not acceptable. So I squash those cravings down as long as I can until they threaten to erupt and I can't deny them any longer.

This weekend I headed out to Kingston with my brother to visit some friends. I usually pack food for the car to nom on (correction: my mother usually packs food for the car) but this time we just hit the road with the intention of getting road food along the way. If you've ever driven down the 401, you'll know that all of the roadside stops have at least one burger franchise in them (when they aren't under construction), whether it be McDonalds or Arbys. Now 49 times out of 50, I can walk by a McDonald's without batting an eyelash. But that 50th time? Look out because I need that Quarter Pounder with fries and a diet coke like whoa... like whoa. Luckily I can hold my McD's fixation to 3 or 4 times a year, which is pretty good under the circumstances. But there is something so satisfying about that burger patty with loads of melty cheese, followed by crispy fries and washed down with syrupy soda. I'm loving it indeed! Suffice it to say Neil and I picked up McDs on our way to Kingston. It was fast, it was efficient and it was delicious.



Please don't think that I am advocating the mass consumption of McDonald's or its fast-food contemporaries. Even based on my minute knowledge of their caloric content and mechanized meat factories, I know I should be avoiding that place if at all possible and excluding this past weekend's Quarter Pounder munch fest, I think I'm pretty good at it.

But sometimes, it has to happen. I'm going to eat that so-bad-for-me burger.

Luckily my friend Julie, who I was staying with, saved my sanity and my health with some delicious vegetarian friendly cuisine when I got to her place so I was able to grab some balance on the weekend. Despite our Eggs Florentine failure, everything worked out quite well.

To sum up the rambles, I feel there are certain things in life unique to each person that help them maintain a constant sense of balance and wellbeing. For my friend Julie, those bare necessities would be things like yoga, her cat Ernie and a delicious vegetarian lasagna (lol.) For my brother Neil, those would include beers with buds, cute girls and someone to joke around with.

Then there are those things that, while aren't necessary to your daily life, need to be indulged in every once in a while. From personal experience, I find you are a lot less likely to binge on something if you don't completely cut yourself off from it. Indulge sometimes, it's good for the soul.

Coming soon, my DIY experiment #1.

Until then, look for the bare necessities,
Lisa