cooking corner: monterey beans and cheese

tonight i made monterey beans and cheese for dinner and oh me oh my was it ever good! it was actually the first meal that i ate here in hamilton back in the fall when my housemate made our first communal dinner. it was soooo good back then and i've wanted to make it ever since, but never got around to actually cooking it until this week.

i forgot to add a little bit of chili and i used mozzarella instead of cheddar (healthier for you) so it wasn't quite the same as i remembered, but it was still good. and so easy to make! i'll definitely need to make it at home sometime. :)

on a completely different note, olympic fever continues - (G)O CANADA!!!!

we love gold

^ image taken from www.zimbio.com

canada scored its first gold medal today! the men's freestyle moguls final was nothing short of spectacular - alexandre bolideau completed a great run and won the gold!! it's our first olympic gold ever won on canadian soil and damn, is victory ever sweet.

kristina groves also won a medal today too - a bronze in the women's 3000m!

what a great night for canada - well done bolideau & groves! our country is definitely celebrating, pumped, and ready for day 4. bring it.

go canada go! :)

one, two, three

1 day, 2 holidays, day 3 of the olympics

chinese new year 2010
happy chinese new year from me and my favourite tiger.


valentines day 2010
happy valentine's day everyone. (bah hah, calvin.)


vancouver 2010: day 3
last night's women's moguls final was crazy and so awesome to watch! we got our first medal of the games and even though it wasn't gold, i thought heil did a great job. go canada go! :) p.s. i love watching freestyle skiing - can't wait for men's moguls and all the aerial stuff!

hello world, welcome to canada

today marks the opening day of the vancouver 2010 winter olympic games and i am psyched! i'm definitely not an athlete nor a sports-addict by any means, but even i get excited and watch sport after sport during the olympics - and that's saying a lot.

go canada go! :)

p.s. i love how quatchi has a tattoo of the olympic logo on his right arm, haha.

sleepy and dopey

the toronto star has some amazing readers.

every so often i'll scan through the online comments that are left in response to particular articles, and while most of the time people just whine and complain, sometimes i come across comments that are just plain gold. today was no exception - here's an excerpt of one that actually made me laugh out loud:

"Everything was going according to plan until last week. He [Giambrone] had a cushy job, nice home and partner and was getting some on the side. Then the fit hit the shan at the TTC with Sleepy and Dopey making the news and suddenly along comes a lady with a story..."

bahaha, sleepy and dopey. if anyone has been following the news in toronto as of late re: the TTC, you'll know exactly who those two names are referring to. so clever!

cooking corner: pasta bake

i'm no chef, but i think i'm *slowly* getting better at cooking. :)

i had things all planned out for this week's dinner (i switched nights for this week so i was in charge of making dinner yesterday), but unfortunately i forgot the food i was going to make at home! that was quite problematic since i didn't have a clue what to make anymore, but instead of panicking i just went with it. after class i stopped by a grocery store to pick up a few things (i.e. ground beef, mozzarella cheese, rotini, and a cucumber) and then i was ready.

i boiled the pasta in one pot and cooked the beef with onions, and garlic in a separate pot (our pans are super horrible here so i try to stay away from those as much as possible). i combined everything together when the meat was cooked (i already drained the pasta) and added pasta sauce and cucumbers to the mix. then i tossed everything into a casserole dish, sprinkled a healthy dose (read: thick layer) of grated cheese on top, and threw everything into the oven at 350 degrees for 10 mins. the result? one yummy pasta bake. :d

i think the best part for me was that i didn't follow a recipe...and it didn't turn out to be a total disaster, haha. chef michael smith (a.k.a. "chef at home") would have been proud.

unfortunately i didn't take any pictures but believe you me, it was quite good. :)

p.s. when cooking the onions, garlic, and beef i added in salt, oregano, basil, and a few shakes of worcestershire sauce - no measuring, i just kind of (literally) threw them in - but i think those things were good for my pasta.

t-minus 6 months

can you believe it? i'm getting married in exactly half a year from today.

sweet. :)
...
for more details and updates, check out our wedding page.

crunch time

for all of january i dreaded february...and now it's here. *sobs* everything for me this term is due sometime this month and things are going to be ugly. first up, my scholarly paper due monday (good lord, i wish i had more done by now.) i think the following picture depicts my present feelings beautifully:



you said it kid. ok, back to writing - wish me luck!

book nook: the luxe series

the luxe series
anna godbersen

oh man, it's been a long time since i've written a book review...or read a book for that matter. so sad. :( anyway, i finished the last of these books back in december during my christmas vacation when i still had time to read, but i just never got around to writing about it until now.

this book series is basically gossip girl set in late nineteeth-century manhattan. (read: drama, backstabbing, betrayal, love triangles, and more drama...this is why it's teen fiction, haha.) the story follows a bunch of socialites on their path towards adulthood...or something rather, with each book being a new year. also weaved throughout the series are 'newspaper clippings' from this time period which start off each chapter and help to set the mood and reinforce the time period.

all in all i thought it was a pretty good series although some of the storylines were kind of ehh and others were just weird. overall, the start of the series was strong, but the fourth book made for a bad ending. i gotta admit though, it was pretty entertaining at times (so much drama!) and godbersen succeeded in making you really like some characters and really hate others.

bottom line: if you're really into gossip girl-type stuff and you're looking for an easy read, then these books could work for you. :)