Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Brunch Wedding

Oh no, I am being captured! Friends to the rescue!!
 I was captured this weekend by my gorgeous girlfriend of seven years. We got married at the Winnipeg Rowing club, a great place to have a ceremony and/or reception in Winnipeg. We had a superb brunch buffet provided by Exceptional Thymes Catering and I set-up a photo booth for all our guests to have some fun with. It was a great day. A big thank you to all my family and friends that helped organize, decorate and bake to make our day so special. With that out of the way now it is time to finally think of Christmas. I hope everyone has a great holiday.

Testing out the photo booth while Jiggs goes for some ice.
Our set-up at the Rowing club, we couldn't have made it look this nice without help from all our family and friends.

Saturday, November 19, 2011

Anniversay Pancakes


Anniversay Pancakes
Originally uploaded by The Tedster

Cassandra and I have been together for seven years now. For breakfast to celebrate I made banana pancakes with grapefruit slices and apple. We are going to have Moussaka for dinner after we watch the Jets hopefully beat the pants off of the flyers.
I finally got around to uploading my pictures from last month so there is new stuff up on my Flickr page. I hope everyone is doing well.
- Theo

Saturday, September 3, 2011

The Tablelands


The Tablelands
Originally uploaded by The Tedster

Cassandra's parents are on their way home now. We had a good time with them and were glad they could spend their holidays here. Especially since they arrived for our two weeks of summer. This picture was taken from our 2nd hike on the Tablelands. Our first time out was for an interpretive tour in the rain. During the hike the weather just got worse and it started to rain sideways. Cass' mom didn't have rain pants and went back to the car to change and wait while us three quickly walked the rest of the way leaving the tour behind. We spent the rest of our day at the Discovery center drying off and found a quaint coffee house near by. We decided we could come back on a sunny day.

Sunday, August 28, 2011

Cape Spear 2011


Cape Spear 2011
Originally uploaded by The Tedster

Cass' parents are in town for a visit. Last week we went to Cape Spear to hike around and take some pictures. This one I grabbed from Rob's camera. This past week we spent at Gros Morne National Park on the West coast of the island, hiking and camping. There are lots of pictures for me to put up still from that, so more to come.
- T

Thursday, August 4, 2011

Regatta Day


Regatta Day
Originally uploaded by The Tedster

Yesterday was race day in St. John's, NL. Down at Quidi Vidi lake they hold fixed seat rowing races all day, a lot like the corporate rowing challenge, except bigger. The lake is lined with booths for food and games and buskers take to the streets. There is also a beer tent for the older crowd. The city gives everyone the day off to attend.

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

St. Pierre et Miquelon


St. Pierre et Miquelon
Originally uploaded by The Tedster

Cassandra and I along with a couple friends went to Europe for the weekend. A french Island off the coast of Newfoundland. Lots of baguette and wine and European cars. We were lucky enough to see a music festival that was on the night we were there. The town only has 6000ish people and we were told that it can sometimes be lacking in things to do. We had a great weekend though.
(Click the picture to view my Flickr account)

T

Sunday, July 24, 2011

Middle Cove


Middle Cove
Originally uploaded by The Tedster

Cassandra and I were lucky enough to see either a dolphin or a Minke whale off of the coast this afternoon. We went to a place called Middle Cove about 10 min from where we live. We plan to head out there more often, it is an awesome place.

This morning Cassandra ran in the Tely 10. A road race that has been going on since before WWII. She did a great job, although I missed her running through the finish. I got some pictures of the other 3000 participants, a new enrollment record. Maybe I'll run it next year.

Sunday, July 17, 2011

Molly Bawn Whale and Puffin Tour


Molly Bawn Whale and Puffin Tour
Originally uploaded by The Tedster

Cassandra and I went to Mobile to go on the Molly Bawn whale watching tour. We didn't end up seeing any whales on our trip but we did catch some dolphins.
It felt good to just be on the water and go for a boat ride in a small vessel. They only take 12 people at a time and the boat rocks like crazy. I felt all wobbly when I got to solid ground. We will probably try going again this summer.

Monday, July 11, 2011

My Birthday Cake


My Birthday Cake
Originally uploaded by The Tedster

Cassandra made a delicious restaurant quality devils food cake with raspberry meringue buttercream icing. It was reeeeeaalllly awesome. The chocolate melted in your mouth. I have more pictures posted on my flickr. What a great birthday.

Saturday, July 2, 2011

Canada Day on Bell Island


Canada Day on Bell Island
Originally uploaded by The Tedster

Cassandra was obviously laughing at something hilarious. I caught a few good laughs on our trip. I locked my keys in the car which was fun, wasn't much trouble to get a door open though. We ate a pot luck picnic when we got to the sports field and Cassandra made some hand pies so we could eat the pie as finger food. I had fun taking pictures hope there are some you like. Take a look on my flickr page by clicking the picture.

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

"Oh Common"


Cassandra
Originally uploaded by The Tedster

Cassandra has been getting a little tired of me trying to take photos of her and has started to ignore the camera pointing at her. I have enrolled in a DSLR1 course and it has been pretty good. I enjoy it and it has been solidifying my knowledge in some basic principles. It's through Shane Kelly photography.
I've got two weeks now till the next class to take a load of pictures and practice.

Saturday, May 21, 2011

Choclate Chips


Choclate Chips
Originally uploaded by The Tedster

Today was a day I also decided to make chocolate chips. I saw these on Foodgawker.com and decided they looked delicious and I had to make them. I melted some chocolate and dipped in some regular ripple chips. I then placed them on some wax paper and chilled them. They make for some awesome addictive treats.

Weekend for Flowers


Weekend for Flowers
Originally uploaded by The Tedster

This weekend seemed to feel like spring. We cleaned up the apartment and thought flowers would be a good idea. We have a nursery near by that we went to. It turns out they have a huge green house that was fun to walk around in.

Friday, May 20, 2011

Radiation Therapy

The national certification body for my profession, CAMRT, has undertaken an initiative to re-brand the image of my job. They want to make it a more visible profession to the public. So they have put together a website, feel free to look at what they have done and see what it is I do.

http://imageofcare.ca/home.php

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Photography and Drawing

I haven't been able to find any summer courses to take by distance education. So upon Cass' urging I am looking at taking an introductory photography course from Shane Kelly photography. Cassandra just finished her first drawing class at the Anna Templeton center yesterday, of which she thoroughly enjoyed. Who knew willow charcoal could be so much better than compressed. I also have ventured into the provincial biking organization here and started taking part in their weekly Monday rides around town which is turning out to be really fun.  The hardest part, St. John's isn't flat. I haven't ever used all the gears on my bike in one ride before.

Monday, April 25, 2011

Running

I work until after 7 pm today so I didn't go to work until 11 am. This gave time for Cassandra and I to go for a 3 mile run. We did a loop in the opposite direction we usually go. The up-hills were a nice change to down-hills. I felt like I was a dead weight though, couldn't feel light on my feet but at least my lungs were good and my legs didn't give out on me. Cassandra has started to more often now take off in the middle of a run leaving me to catch up. She told me she just has a terrible image of me sprinting past her at the end of our run like I did a few times last year. I'm not in that kind of shape now but maybe I'll get to it in time for the Tely 10, a famous 10 mile run here in St. John's. I have taken up some friends on a cross country challenge. On July 1 we all must up-load a video to a private youtube channel of how many push ups we can do continuously. If you want to participate let me know. Time to eat some left overs for lunch.

- T

Sunday, April 24, 2011

Easter Weekend


Easter Weekend
Originally uploaded by The Tedster

Cassandra and I headed out to an Easter Weekend potluck with some friends this Saturday. Cassandra made some delicious Ukrainian Easter bread. Babka being sweet bread usually with raisins and Paska, always made in a circle wrapped with braided dough. Click the picture to see more on my Flickr page. They both tasted delicious and drew several oohs at the Potluck especially the decorative flowers she made on top.
I put together a fruit salad which didn't draw nearly as much attention but was fun to make and even better to eat. I used whole fruits so we have plenty of leftover melon and pineapple to eat for breakfast this week.

Apple Swan


Apple Swan
Originally uploaded by The Tedster

Last week I saw pictures of fruit carvings and came across carved apples. I thought it was something I could do so I tried out a swan. This one here got it's beak accidently taken off. The Apple was pretty soft and fell apart. It turned out pretty well I think. I might try some more feathers next time.

Sunday, April 3, 2011

Cinnamon Buns


Cinnamon Buns
Originally uploaded by The Tedster

Freshly baked puff pastry covered in brown sugar, cinnamon and cream cheese icing is a very good end to a morning run. There were also some delicious strawberries and oranges to go with them. Today was pretty care free but the run this morning was pretty tough for me. I haven't exercised in a while and I was sore right from the beginning.
I hope the future ones will be better.
- Theo

Sunday, March 27, 2011

Summer Rolls


Summer Rolls
Originally uploaded by The Tedster

Another food endeavor. Cassandra and I ventured to make same summer rolls. We had bought rice paper a while ago and it had been sitting around for quite some time. We decided to make use of it tonight and the wraps turned out pretty good. The peanut sauce Cassandra made was delicious. It had peanut butter, soy sauce, onions and garlic and topping it with plum sauce was a treat.
Rice paper is easier to work with than I assumed. It's too bad we don't have any left overs for lunch tomorrow; I can't show off at work and I have to make something else to bring.

In other news I got bed rails after going to four different stores looking for them and it has snowed a fair amount in the last few days. I wish it would stop and wait till next year. I hope you all have your party hats on and are ready for another election. I have a feeling not much will change. Minority governments are a blast.

- T

Saturday, March 12, 2011

Another Delicious Meal

Sorry, but I was too hungry and busy making the food to actually take pictures of it but I can tell you about it and hopefully still make your mouths water.
Cassandra and I made lentil and chickpea burgers. We mashed up red lentils, chickpeas, onion, carrot, bread crumbs and an egg to make patties that hold together fairly well in a frying pan. I cooked them on medium heat in a bit of olive oil and they were terrific. They didn't even really need spicing, a little bit of curry powder and pepper was all. What made them all the more excellent was the curry and cayenne pepper mayonnaise Cass whipped up to go on top of the multigrain bun with the burger. I could see these burgers beating up the green lentil burgers from the sprout restaurant here, especially since Cass served 'em up with a side of shoe string sweet potato fries that could be dipped in the curry mayonnaise to create a mouth watering sweet treat. Which got me to thinking.
Cass and I have received numerous compliments from pot luck to the smell of left overs I bring for lunch. I have seen a business model work where you offer a limited menu selection of one or two items a week. Collect orders and then have them ready for pick up or delivery that Saturday. I wonder how many burgers or meals we would need to sell to make it worth while?

- T

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Birthday Nanaimo Bars


Birthday Nanaimo Bars
Originally uploaded by The Tedster

On Monday I made Nanaimo Bars for Cassandra's birthday. They are delicious and already half gone. Filled with butter sugar and chocolate, who could resist.
The snow banks here are still hanging around. It rained today but only shrank them a little bit, and made a lot of slush.

Click on the picture to see the Nanaimo photo series on my flickr account.
- T

Monday, February 14, 2011

A Valentines Dinner


A Valentines Dinner
Originally uploaded by The Tedster

Instead of going out for dinner I thought it would be good to stay in and make a full meal with Cassandra. It was a delicious idea. We had this great baked brie for an appetizer. We made asian noodle soup for a main course filled with cilantro and lime and other vegetables. To top it off for dessert we had key lime pie with coffee. I had to squeeze 15 key limes to make 1/2 cup of lime juice for the filling. (click on the picture to see the photos on my flickr account, http://www.flickr.com/photos/tjerrettenns/)

Sugar Cookies


Sugar Cookies
Originally uploaded by The Tedster

Cassandra made some sugar cookies for potluck. She used our new baking mat to make them golden brown and iced them with royal icing. It seems all we did this weekend was make food and eat it.

Sunday, January 30, 2011

Porkchop Night


Porkchop Night
Originally uploaded by The Tedster

I like this. I had fun creating a brine for the pork chop and enjoyed the suspense of whether or not it would taste good. Discovering I had cooked the meat just enough and roasted the potatoes so that they got golden brown spots just added to my happiness. Then came the actual taste test. I was hooked, it was delicious.

I made a salty, brown sugar, and apple with cloves and pepper brine. Boiled it, cooled it and left the pork in it for 5 hours in the fridge. I added more sugar than salt to the brine and it made an addictingly sweet hunk of meat.

I surprise myself a fair amount actually. It's like a competition with myself; how delicious can I make food taste today? It may just be my low expectations and the anticipation of tasting what I created. I rarely follow a recipe, I consider them just guidance and leave most tasting until the final product is made. I find it all adds to the final enjoyment of the meal. Top it off with a beer and it was a great evening. Now back to the homework I have been avoiding. (Maybe that's why I enjoy cooking!)

- T

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Potluck


Potluck
Originally uploaded by The Tedster

Food led to games after. The game Jungle speed came out. When certain card combinations were flipped the first one to grab the totem in the center of the table won. If two people grabbed the totem at the same time it led to a one armed battle of who could wrench it out of the other persons hand. This created a few battle scars but made for a pretty fun evening.
- T

Potluck Cupcakes


Potluck Cupcakes
Originally uploaded by The Tedster

Cassandra made a couple kinds of Cupcakes for potluck on Saturday. Chocolate with a sprinkle of cayenne and a chocolate gnash icing as well as a lemon with a lemon glaze icing. They were delicious and didn't last long.

Saturday, January 15, 2011

Making Focaccia Bread


Making Focaccia Bread, originally uploaded by The Tedster.
This wasn't a very picture filled week but I did grab one off the camera. At the beginning of the week I remade my Pureed soup of lentils and carrots and such and Cassandra baked some Focaccia bread to go along with it. It was great, and we were even able to make it while our land lord fixed the seal on our kitchen sink!
Our first real snow fall came this week too. It dropped 37 cm of snow in one day. We now have some large snow banks and a lot of people that walk on the road because the sidewalks aren't clear. We'll see how long the white stuff sticks around.

T

Saturday, January 8, 2011

Perogies


Perogies, originally uploaded by The Tedster.

I just figured out how to blog my flickr photos, I think this will make my life easier.

Christmas and New Years

Instead of re-uploading pictures I have posted a link to my Flickr site which has a few photos from Christmas for you to see.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tjerrettenns/

There are also some pictures of Cassandra and me making our first batch of perogies. They were pretty good, we made them with a potato filling and hope to try others soon.

Blogger isn't behaving with up-loads but the perogies are on my flick account too. The left overs tasted great fried the next morning.

T

Monday, January 3, 2011

Uploaded pictures

So I took the plunge and bought a Flickr Pro account after a few years of only using the free account provided. My username is the Tedster and has a stick figure as a profile pic. Add me as a contact so that I can select you as a family member or tell me your username so that I can to add you to see the christmas pictures. They are all private so only who I select as my and Cass' family can see them. If there are pictures people would rather not have online send me an e-mail and I will remove it. If there are pictures you do like I have larger original copies on my hard drive I can send you.

I had a great christmas with everyone and I think I caught some nice smiles over the Holidays.

Love Theo

P.S.

There is a collection of all the christmas pictures categorized into sets. I will probably create a blog post with some pictures here to highlight holiday fun.

Saturday, January 1, 2011

Christmas and New Years

Christmas came and went and took New Years Eve with it. The holidays seem to have gone by fast and sifting through 400 pictures to pic ones to edit and post might take a little more time to accomplish then motivation I can muster this weekend, but we'll see what I can do. Thank you to everyone for the great holidays.

To tide you over until I get more pictures posted I will give you a recipe for a soup I created this evening. It was enormously delicious.

Pureed Red Lentil soup with a fruit kicker

- 1/4 cup or lump of butter
- a small onion
- a peeled potato
- a peeled carrot or two
- a peeled parsnip or two
- a peeled apple
- a peeled pear
- 1/2 cup red lentils
- 1/2 cup of soy milk
- 1 1/2 cups of water (I might have used 2 1/2 cups actually)
- a heaping teaspoon of curry powder
- 1/2 a teaspoon of cumin
- a teaspoon of paprika

In a medium pot on medium heat melt the butter and add onions and all other fruit and vegetables cut into cubes. Let cook until onions are translucent. Add salt and pepper to taste if desired. Add 1/2 cup of rinsed red lentils. Add soy milk and water and spices. Stir and let simmer till everything is soft about 25 min. Once everything is soft blend soup until it looks like a milkshake. Add more liquid if a thinner soup is desired. I liked the consistency I got and cooked the soup with the lid on most of the time. This probably makes enough for 4 servings.

Many things could be substituted in this recipe like the soy milk with milk and the butter with olive oil and water with stock but this is what we had and it was really good. I will be posting again soon.

Love T