David Beckham

OK, David Beckham and his $250 million contract with Los Angeles Galaxy is all over the news. $250 million?! Scandalous!! Who needs that much money? For playing soccer?! At least this gives me an excuse to put up some photos of him. *wink* Please enjoy!

My goodness, he's an attractive man. Yummers!

Yep! Now we're talking!

Hey! How'd this get in there?

XO - I loves you Bry!

My Egg Substitute

I find using tofu as an egg replacer in cakes, cookies, quick breads, etc. is so easy and I've always had great results.

This is the brand I usually use, but any soft tofu will do. 1/4 cup of blended tofu is equal to one egg. I usually wizz it around in the food processor and then add the other wet ingredients, pulse a bit to mix it up and that's it. You could also use a blender I'm sure.

I've taken some recipes that I've had for years that call for eggs and replace them with tofu and have never had a problem. In fact, I find that cakes are moister (is that even a word??) more moist(?) than baking with eggs.

Jim Can Cook

A couple of weeks ago, Jim decided that while I was at work, he would make dinner. He wouldn't tell me what he had in mind but to just leave it to him. Holy doodle! Was I impressed.

I was presented my plate and it looked very nice and smelled wonderful.

He made pasta with lots of garlic, asparagus, fresh tomatoes and some olive oil. It was so incredibly good!





There was also phylo pastry filled with a light cheese sauce and artichoke hearts! It was rich, but oh so delicious.

Jim even made the wine selection of a Pinot Grigio which was a perfect match.

Why is this "cooking Jim" not around more often? Granted, if he made meals like this all the time, I would weigh a million pounds.

What a nice treat to come home, have dinner already made, eat a superb meal with my sweetheart and even have him clean up! I felt like a pampered princess. Thank you Honey!

Well, that sort of makes my cookies pale in comparison, but since there is chocolate involved, they can possibly be redeemed.

These are Coconut Chocolate Chip cookies from La Dolce Vegan. They are very much like regular chocolate chip cookies, but with coconut added.

I thought it made an interesting addition and livened things up a bit.

The recipe called for "egg replacer equal to one egg". I used soft tofu. I've never tried a commercial egg replacer like Ener-G because I almost always have tofu around or flax seeds, although I've never tried the flax seed sub either. Every time I use tofu for baked goods, I have such great success that I don't even want to tinker around with something different. Just out of curiosity, what do you like to use in your baked goods as an egg replacement?

Another Gold For Canada

As I'm sure you know, organized hockey was invented in Canada. And, I'm sure you've figured out by now that we are a hockey crazy nation.




Yep. That's us in the picture. Potty-mouthed yet polite and down right nuts when it comes to our official winter sport.

Today we got to add another feather to our cap thanks to the young boys who represented our country at the IIHF World Juniors. Gold medal winners for the third straight time - today with a 4-2 win over Russia.

Way to go guys! This team didn't lose a game during the whole tournament. It came close against the USA, but goalie, Carey Price, saved the game. He was named MVP of the tournament.

Watch for him in the NHL very soon. He's unbelievable. Too bad he got drafted by the wrong team. Booooo!!

A Little Bit of Christmas Cooking

I'm a little bit behind with my Christmas posts. I worked almost everyday between Christmas and New Year's, so I have an excuse. The store was open on New Year's Eve from 11am-6pm and you wouldn't believe how many people showed up at 5:45pm and were totally pissed that almost all of the champagne/sparkling wine was sold out. I always have bubbly on hand but even if I didn't, I certainly wouldn't wait until the last minute. Anyhow, I hope everyone had a wonderful New Year's Eve. We visited with our friends Michelle & Joe for a couple of hours. Michelle has been sick all over the holidays, so we didn't want to stay too long. She needs her rest. We then came home and watched Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve and had Riblets. Aren't we such the party animals!?



On Christmas Day, we had dinner at Mama Rita's. Aunt Peggy was visiting for Christmas.

Jade arrived early Christmas afternoon. Here she is looking as lovely as ever!







Jim & I had picked up the bottle of Trius Dry Riesling on one of our many trips to Hillebrand winery in Niagara-on-the-Lake. We'd had it for a few years and decided to break it out for Christmas. After all, it was a 2002 vintage, but the real treat was the size. It's a 1.5 litre bottle!







Mama Rita was eyeing it with delicious delight.


We usually share the cooking duties. Ahead of time we'll talk and decide "OK, I'll do this and you do that." It's worked out really well over the years. One cook isn't overwhelmed trying to make everything. Because I'd been so tied up with work, Mama Rita took most of the load this time. She had made a pan of her delicious vegetarian lasagna for herself and Peggy to have on Christmas Eve and there was enough left over for me to have with Christmas dinner. There was the usually Christmas fare: turkey, cranberry sauce, gravy, potatoes, stuffing - with some left separate for me, and veggie gravy, pickles, rolls, and so on. I contributed some of the dessert sweets. From Vegan with a Vengeance, I made Coconut Heaven Cupcakes.

I made these in the summer when we had our Christmas in July party at the wine store. They were so good that I wanted them again. Cupcakes are easily portable and after a big meal, much more appealing that a big slab of cake.



I also made these. Chocolate P-Nut Butter Squares from Vive Le Vegan. These were so simple to make and took almost no time whatsoever. And they are delicious! The combination of chocolate and peanut butter is one of the best!

I also made a Cranberry Orange Nut bread but forgot to take a picture and now it's pretty much gone. I was in charge of vegetables as well and had requests for roasted carrots and beets. The beets I make from a Weight Watchers recipe that always turns out great. I'll add the recipe at the end of the post.

Here they are going into the oven.

And finished! All of these dishes were easy to transport over to Mama Rita's and the veggies just needed a zap in the microwave to be reheated.



Mama Rita set a pretty table. This picture was before we did our Christmas crackers and put on our silly hats. I forgot to take a photo of that too, darn it! The meal was great and it's my favorite part of Christmas Day because everyone is together. This is a much smaller gathering than we used to have back home when I was young, but just as nice.



OVEN ROASTED BEETS & GARLIC
(this recipe can easily be doubled or tripled)

4 large beets, trimmed, peeled and quartered (about 2 cups)
6 garlic cloves, peeled and quartered
1/2 tablespoon minced thyme (I used 1/2 tsp. dried)
2 teaspoons olive oil
1/4 cup + 1 tablespoon orange juice (I usually just use 1/3 cup OJ)

Preheat oven to 375F. In a 9 x 13" baking pan, combine the beets, garlic, thyme and olive oil.

In a small bowl, combine the orange juice and 2 tablespoons of water (I usually just skip the water) and pour over the beets. Cover with foil and roast until tender, 45-50 minutes. Remove the foil and roast 10 minutes longer.

**If you use fresh thyme, you can sprinkle some on beets before serving. I use dried, so I don't bother. I'll sometimes sprinkle chopped parsley on top though.

What I Got From Santa

It was finally Christmas morning. I wanted to sleep in, but Mommy & Daddy just HAD to get up at the unGodly hour of 10am. Geez! Why those two can't sleep all day like me I'll never know.

There was an awful lot of activity going on. Hmmm, presents. What's in that one Dad?

A bottle of Scotch. Well a lot of good that does me.

What else have we got? Come on. Look at me wearing my Christmas handkerchief. Don't I look cute enough to deserve something? I've been a good boy.

What's that Mom's got? Tickets to a show and a CD?! I can't eat that. Mom's happy about the CD though. She lost hers a long time ago, so Santa brought her a new one.

Come on Santa! I know you must have left me something.



Ahhhh YES!! Now we're talking!

A NEW BONE JUST FOR ME!

Mmmmmmm!!!! Delicious! Thanks Santa!



Whew! I'm pooped now. I'll sleep while those two read their new books.

Boozers.