valentine's day: redux!

here is a post that i wrote in 2012 about Valentine's Day! we wish you all a Happy Valentine's Day, but for us, our big day to celebrate is February 13th! as February 13th is our big day, and i have learned over the past 13yrs together that i actually love my jambaloney more with each passing day, i thought i would just re-post what i had already written about him.

that...and the fact that we are getting ready to climb on the couch to cuddle, snack, watch movies and nap - bahahahahahah!

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this is a very meaningful day to me and jambaloney. not because of today - but because of yesterday - February 13!

13 years ago on February 13, jambaloney told me he loved me for the first time! i near swooned and/or fainted. it was touch and go at the time with the knees all week and my stomach doing backflips - but somehow i managed to hold it together and tell him that i loved him, too. it was the first time i said it to his face but i had said that i loved him many millions of times by that point to just about anyone who would listen to me. we had only been dating since January 19, almost a month, but i knew the moment i looked at him that he was mine. plus there was a big, flashing sign on his head, put there by angels, that blinked "kymber - he's yours!!!" over and over.

i worked at my absolute favourite job at the time. i worked with some of the greatest colleagues and friends ever. i would walk into work, floating on air, and dead tired from another night of no sleep. jambaloney and i used to be phone hogs during the first few weeks of our dating, and we would stay on the phone all night talking during the work week. we fell asleep together so many times on the phone it's not funny! anyway i would float into work and as i approached my desk i would hear all of the little songbirds (my colleagues) singing - "kymber's in lerrrrrve!". i loved it! two of my friends, J and my boss V, would invite me into V's office for a full run-down on the previous evening's marathon phone session. and they would ooh and ahh with me. they always said that he sounded to good to be real, or true, for that matter! but when they met jambaloney they fell in love with him almost as much as me. i was fighting those women off until the time i left that job!

speaking of fighting off women - man oh man - i have been doing that since the first day i met him! needless to say, i am a pretty good fighter! naw, jes' teasin' wit' ya! but i have yet to encounter a woman that doesn't fall in love with him on sight. he is incredibly gorgeous, ya know? but when they see how kind and generous he is - they love him more! when they realize that he is a true and proper gentlemen (you did good, Liz!), they love him even more! when they find out that he can fix anything, lift anything, cook, clean and do laundry - that's when i have to get the boxing gloves out!

did i tell you that i won a chainsaw from the VFD raffle? no? well i did - woohoo for jambaloney! anyway, last saturday, at the Fourchu Spaghetti and Meatball Dinner, everyone was congratulating me on winning. one of the women said, "now kymber, you can take the chainsaw out in the woods and jambaloney can do the dishes"! at the exact same time, both jambaloney and i said that he always does the dishes. i then said that he cooks, cleans and does laundry, too! the next words out of her mouth were, "can he please come and live with me, then?". we all laughed. but trust me, she was dead serious. i might need to get the gloves back out soon. jeesh!

so today is happy love day and i have a stupid, little homemade love day gift for him. but yesterday was the important day for us. February 13 will always be my second favourite day of the year. January 19, the day i met him, will always be my first!

wanna see something goofy but fills me with incredible happiness, joy, awe, wonder and a feeling that someone so wonderful really loves me?

here's 2 pics from a summer day not too long ago. we were laying in the sun and jambaloney braided my hair and put flowers in the braids.





i hope he knows just how very much i love him. i know that he knows...but i don't think anyone other than me could ever really know just how much.

~you have no idea, babe~
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again, i hope that you all have a wonderful Valentine's Day...and be sure to tell the one that you love, that you love them, everyday, NOT just on Valentine's Day.

LobstersRUs and a whole schlew of other stuff!

it's been a crispy couple of days this past week!

 

although it has been a little chillier than normal, we haven't been hit with any more snow - thank goodness!

anyway, i mentioned in the previous post that jambaloney was doing some contract I.T. work at LobstersRUs. here is a link to LobstersRUs for anyone who is interested. LobstersRUs is a pretty huge facility that holds, handles and sells all of the lobsters in our area of cape breton island. LobstersRUs is also the EXCLUSIVE seller of the now world-famous Fourchu Lobster! here is a link to an article about the founder and CEO of New York City's premier chef school, the French Culinary Institute, who believes that Fourchu lobster is the best lobster in the world!

you will recall that our tiny sister community is Fourchu! Framboise and Fourchu share our Volunteer Fire Department! our best friends c & b live in Fourchu! our bf c works on the crab boats all summer long and our bf b is a lobsterfisherman, as is our dear friend d and just about everybody who lives in our 2 communities!

Fourchu lobster is really making a name for itself due to it's inclusion on the menu at the French Culinary Institute's restaurant.

i don't have a pic of the sign that says Fourchu - but i do have one that shows South Fourchu and Framboise.

here is a pic of the tiny harbour from the main road.

 a different shot which shows more of the houses.

across the harbour.

one of the docks.

some of the boats at the dock.

lobster traps!

Fourchu is a tiny little community that we just love! the charity game that we play every friday night called "chase the ace" is held in Fourchu. it's such a pretty village!

anyway, last wednesday night we went with our Fourchu best friends, c & b, to our nearest little town, St. Peter's, for a night on the town to celebrate their daughter c's birthday! we had much awesome food, great conversation and a wonderful time was had by all! then on friday evening, c & b invited us over for supper before chase the ace - we had delicious fried rice, pineapple meatballs, pineapple pork, and the most awesome beef stirfry with onions and peppers - it was to die for! c also made her delicious potatoe salad and macaroni salad. because i was stuffing my face on the rice and beef stirfy, i didn't have much room for the potatoe and macaroni salad. that was ok because for my dessert i chose a plate of potatoe salad - bahahahahahah!

we had a great meal and then jambaloney and b went down to the community centre to open it for chase the ace. me and c stayed behind and did the dishes to some awesome 80's music radio channel that she found and danced and chatted. then we went down to the community centre to wait to see who won this week. once we cleared the hall - we went back to c & b's house. a tiny bit of a party ensued and yes i drank a whole bottle of wine!!! over the course of 4 and a half hours, mind you, but still eh? jeesh! blame c - she's always telling me to have another glass of wine!!!

then saturday night was a benefit dance for one of our friends. our small communities and people from other small communities in our area managed to raise $8,600 to help offset travel costs and other expenses associated with our friend needing chemotherapy. a wonderful time was had by all - we had a hypnotist do a show and it was pretty hysterical. our friend b goes under in a blink and the hypnotist thanked him especially because b has been to several of his shows and always acts as a volunteer. our other friends who volunteered to be hypnotized were all really funny - but the funniest was when the hypnotist told all of them that they were michael jackson. they were all trying to pull of michael's moves but when b started trying to moonwalk all the way across the dance floor - we really lost it - bahahahahahah!

anyway, jambaloney is under the kitchen floor trying to prop up some sagging spots. that poor guy's work just never ends!!!

and for anyone interested - i have started up the Framboise Manor Good-Eats blog again. today's recipe is carrot/ginger dressing.

tomorrow's recipe will be kimchi!

a night out on the town!

woohoo! tonight we are having a night out on the town...something we haven't done since we moved here in 2010!!! yes, we have gone to a variety of events and dances at our community centre...which is exactly 1km down the street!!! and we have also gone to events and dances at our sister community centre in Fourchu...which is about a 12 minute drive from here! but we haven't had a "night out on the town". more about that later!

these next few pics are for Mamma Bear at Challenged Survival...actually, they are really for her Marine. i thought that he would like to see what the cats have been up to while we have been having such a nice couple of warm, sunny, winter days.

here's our cranky little Nudie-Noo....he's the oldest of the bunch, we think he is about 12 or so. doesn't matter how old he is - he loves getting up on truckdura!!!

 

we were all on the porch when we heard a thud - so of course, both of our other cats went running to see what was going on!



Nudie-Noo is on the truck, Mobie-Moe is sitting on the stones looking at him and Frankie Blue Eyes is on the step. Frankie Blue Eyes does everything his brothers do.



The Man was craving some steak yesterday but i was craving teriyaki...so we split the difference! he almost cried when i took a beautiful t-bone and cut it in strips to marinate. we used 2 steaks and i cut a bit off of each one to marinate. here's one of his cut-up steaks:

with cabbage, green pepper and hot pepper in a ginger carrot dressing...with kimchi of course!

and that there is my teriyaki-marinated steak strips with delicious sticky rice, a bit of the cabbage salad and of course - kimchi!!! we love our kimchi around here! it's so good for you!

 next up - we love an afternoon snack to share between dinner and supper. here's one that's loaded with goodness and will keep you working until suppertime!

that's some spinach sauteed in butter with salt and pepper, kimchi - of course! some pickled onions and some pickled hot peppers - what a great afternoon snack!

to be followed 2hrs later with stirfried cabbage, 4 different coloured peppers, onions, broccoli and cauliflower - served with spagettini and all of it drenched in garlic/ginger olive oil. some parsley, some parmesan and kimchi round out the meal.

speaking of meals - woohoo - tonight we are going out to dinner. if the weather holds, that is. we have a storm warning of anywhere from 2-40cms of snow so it's anyone's guess?!?!? if the weather holds, we will be going out to our town of St. Peter's - a prettier town just doesn't exist! we'll be going with our friends c&b to celebrate their daughter's birthday which was like 3 weeks ago - bahahahah! the weather has not been co-operating for this birthday celebration/night out on the town for a few weeks now. fingers crossed eh? we want to spend time out on the town with our friends and their daughter! i am not sure if i will order the fisherman's platter or the regular fish and chips.

anyway - jamby is working at LobstersRUs today. my friends will pick me up and take me into town and we will meet jam there. i am quite excited. it should be a really fantastic time!

woohoo - it's feb 1st!!!

today was an awesome day! have a peak:



pretty eh? here's out back:




it was about 0C(32F) but the sun was shining so strongly and brightly - it was a super nice day and a great way to welcome the middle of winter! winter is half over and spring is right around the corner!

today was also "first-naked-playing-cards-on-the-plastic-wrapped-porch" day - woohoo! we went out on the porch at about noon, after many dips in the hottub all morning and after doing some odd jobs around the house. but at noon, the porch was about 20C (70F) and with the fresh air blowing in through cracks and holes in the plastic - it was like a balmy, sunny, summer, suntanning day out there. we promptly stripped off, got some cards and brought our robes out. the cats all enjoyed being out on the plastic-wrapped porch almost as much as we did!  we played a hand or 2 of cards and then ran out to the front step naked to let the sun work it's magic and get us some vitamin D, then we would run back into the porch, grab our robes and run to the hottub - it was tons of fun and we did that for about 3 hours. doing odd jobs in between.

2 of our cats are older and don't much care for snow. our newest little guy, Frankie Blue Eyes goes out in the rain, hail, sleet and snow - he's out all night and day running around no matter the weather! but on a day like today, our 2 older cats get the chance to get out and run around a bit.

here's Nudie-Noo charging across the deck. jambaloney keeps the deck cleared for him every day.



we call him "the country man" because he loves being out in the country - NOT! he comes out once a day, charges across the deck, acts like he's been hunting mountain lions, sneezes and then comes right back into the house. today he managed to stay out on the deck for about 10 minutes before the sneezing started but instead of running right back into the house he stayed on the porch suntanning with us for about an hour.

here's Mobie-Moe just loving the sun and being outside - he loves rolling around, back and forth when he is happy. he was really happy to be out today and also suntanned with us on the porch.



because Frankie Blue Eyes had been out running around all night and all morning, by about noon he was crashed on his little sheet in the living room.



yes, he sleeps on his back with half of him sideways and the other half sideways the other way!

here's some delicious deep fried haddock - i dipped it in egg, flour, egg again and then panko bread crumbs - man was it good!

we made french fries out of our homegrown irish cobblers - deelish! and some kimchi to round out the meal!

this morning i made a "cleaning-stuff-out-of-the fridge" salad.

it was quite an interesting flavour combination but we like trying to combine different flavours and textures in our food. this salad is romaine lettuce, corn, cucumber and pomegranate seeds. the dressing was EVOO with ginger and lime juice. it was fantastic! we ate some of it for breakfast and some of it for our mid-afternoon snack!

 supper was a chicken, potatoe, cauliflower and onion curry with blood oranges and kimchi.



we had a blast at chase the ace this past friday. our friends c &b invited us over for supper. they had also invited c's sister and husband, m&p. we had a delicious meal of spaghetti and c's homemade super buttery buns. all of us ate more than we planned on eating and were stuffed. then we all headed off to the community centre and much fun ensued. jambaloney and i drew the winning ticket and we won $58.50 - woohoo! that's 5 weeks of playing chase the ace already paid for! our kitty for our 2 community centres and volunteer fire department is almost $800!!! it was a real hoot when we won as jambaloney went up to pick his card out of the deck. we all near fainted when he pulled the ace of clubs - THAT was a close one!

after chase the ace a pile of us went back to c&b's and there was much joking, talking and laughter. have you guys ever heard of Tom, The Talking Cat? it's a cartoon cat that says back whatever you say to him. oh did we ever have a hoot with that.

ya. we're like a bunch of 12 year olds when we get together - it's a blast!!!

so we came home last night, watched half a movie and then went to bed. got up today and did "first-naked-playing-cards-on-the-plastic-wrapped-porch" day, did some odd jobs and had a pile of hottub dips. i can't think of a better way to greet february 1st!!!

one last thing - thanks to all of you who left comments on our previous post which showcased the beautiful sign that our friend MDR handcarved out of wood. we love that sign and it will have a special place at the Manor forever. we can't thank MDR enough for the time and care that went into the sign. but we appreciate all of your positive comments about our beautiful sign...that our friend made for us. so thank you!

our friend MDR and his family are off on a huge chili cook-off this weekend - we wish them all the best and hope that they win a bunch more trophies!!!

the most beautiful piece of handcrafted woodwork that you will ever see!

jambaloney, and myself, have seen some fine handcrafted woodworking pieces in our lifetimes. both of us are always amazed when artists can take a beautiful piece of wood and turn it into something even more beautiful.

have you met my friend MDR? you can go to his blog from that back-link. he is also listed in our blogroll on the right side of the page. he's not just an exceptional father with a houseful of daughters, he's a great guy, loves raising animals, loves chili cook-offs, and built his wife the most amazing aviary. he's really good with wood - he is an artist extraordinnaire! be sure to check out his solar bathroom and awesome outdoor kitchen, here, too! just go back through all of his blog posts - you'll be glad that you did as he has much to teach!

this is what we received in the mail the other day....from MDR. we knew that it was going to be beautiful. we knew that it was going to be hand-made. we couldn't wait to get it. have yourselves a gander at this:

i hope that the pic does it justice. it is the most beautiful piece of handcrafted woodwork that either of us have ever seen. now for some back story.

how our mail works: we have a community mailbox at the bottom of our street. as we don't get much regular mail, we check our mailbox about once a week. it's usually just junk mail as we receive all of our bills online. however, if we receive a package, we get a parcel slip and then have to go to Gabarus, which is on the way to our city of Sydney, to pick it up. as we try to limit trips to the city to about every 3 months - if, for some reason, we get a package slip, we give it to our friends c&b and they will pick the package up for us. (c&b go to the city at least once a week - alghgglglgll. bleck!)

so 2 weeks ago, we got a parcel slip. the slip didn't mention where it came from other than the US so we thought it was fishing lures that jambaloney had ordered from ebay. then i get an email from my friend MDR asking if we have received our package??? he said he made something and had sent it to us. we near went crazy!!! that week, we gave the slip to our friends c&b to pick up the following week (which was last week) and they would pick up the package and we would get it from them after chase the ace last friday.

so last friday, we, and a couple of our other friends went to chase the ace and then some of us went over to c&b's. they got out the package and everyone was surprised that we had a package from TEXAS - how amazing! it took a good 20 mins to cut through all of the tape - bahahahahah! but when we opened the package, tears sprung from my eyes...i couldn't believe it. have another gander:

 

that beautiful, handcrafted piece of art was passed all around the table while everyone oohed and ahhhed. everyone felt all of the letter shapes and the shape of the fish. jambaloney was near crying himself because MDR made the sign out of a fish shape which meant the world to him. none of us could believe the beautiful choice of wood or how perfect each letter was shaped. here's another look:

check out the beautiful detailing of the letters:

it always amazes me when someone has such an eye for detail...MDR is a true artist.

our friends couldn't believe that a friend of ours from Texas would take such time and care to make us such a beautiful sign!!! i could. i know MDR and i know what he will do for a friend.

anyway, this next pic is for MDR's wife, C, she has the cutest Texan drawl!!! C, this is the backwall of our living room. the shelf is a piece of handsawn lumber that a friend of ours made for us. i plan on re-arranging what is currently on the shelf so that i can put our Framboise Manor sign just above the candle stick in the middle. i will move the candle stick so that the sign will hang just above some of our little favourite things. the awesome thing is that when you walk in our front door...that back wall is the first thing you see. everyone who comes through the front door will see that beautiful sign and it will be such a conversation starter!

the grain of the wood that MDR chose is simply breath-taking and beautiful. we will spar varnish the sign so that it will last forever, and as the spar varnish is clear, the beauty and grain of the wood will show through.

MDR - thank you so much for the time and effort that was put into that sign! thank you for choosing such a beautiful piece of wood. thank you for thinking, and caring, about us. that beautiful sign will forever be a part of the Manor's history.

here's one more look:

 

imagine...here at the Manor we have beautiful skies, a beautiful river, a beautiful ocean, a beautiful forest....and now - we have a little bit of Texas!!! come to think of it, the only thing missing from the Manor was a little bit of Texas!!! thank you soooo much MDR!

MDR - i could send you a bottle of kimchi but i don't think you would touch it - bahahahah! i could send you some of my stick to your ribs chili, but you are a chili master and you don't think my chili is real chili - bahahahahah!

so instead, i will give you a true and proper MDR/Texas/cape breton sunset.



much love buddy. you don't know how much that beautiful sign means to us! xoxox to you and yours!

some random this, that and some other stuff!

another beautiful blue-sky day here at the Manor...tho it be windy, it's actually quite warm!

 

 the cat paths that jambaloney shoveled are melted down to the dirt so the cats don't have to walk on the snow. the back deck is all cleared off for them, which they love! and the driveway is melting almost down to bare ground again - woohoo!

here are the tomatoe tires and cages out back...they almost look like artwork. i think that they are beautiful...as are the snow covered trees!

here's some yummy steak that jambaloney bbq'd even though it was freezing out. we had a hankering for steak. with some steamed broccoli, garlic and butter, with sauerkraut and black olives - yummeh!

ginger/carrot coleslaw makes a nice mid-afternoon snack!

delicious everything in the fridge kind of salad.

yummy veg-only stirfry with almond rice and orange slices.

check out this awesome little gift:

  my friend E brought it over the other night when they visisted. it says " Friends are how God gives hugs" - and when it sits in the sun the little butterfly flower dances back and forth and the leaves move up and down. i love it - but Frankie Blue Eyes loves it more. he's in the corner of the pic cleaning his little face and watching the dancing flower - bahahahah! he's a hoot he is!

here's another little gift that i made for myself:

kimchi baby! i am cracking that sucker open this evening for our supper of bulgogi - yummeh!

as you may have noticed in the dancing flower picture - the cats have the rule of the house. they get on tables, lick food from your plates and drink water from your water glass! some people might be grossed out or offended by that but these cats are spoiled rotten!!!

this one here, Mobi-Moe, is the size of a small bear. here he is sleeping on the dining room table on a laptop case.

why do you have a laptop case full of cat hair on your dining room table, kymber? i'll be glad to answer that. i won't point any fingers, but somebody (pointing at jambaloney) put a laptop case on the table when he was working on his laptop. out of nowhere 3 cats all come running from 3 different directions and are on it in minutes. this was sometime last year. there is not an hour of any day that there isn't a cat laying on that laptop case - arghghghghgh!

last up is Nudie-Noo, our grumpy little man. when we first arrived here, the cats jumped up into this shelf in our ONE closet and stayed up there for a few days. they finally came down but little Nudie-Noo still goes up there during the day and night.

i know what you are all thinking..."nice, unfinished, piece of crap closet you got there". ya, i know. but we can't get in to this closet shelf to fix it and we certainly can't use the extra storage space in our ONE closet. cats. jeesh.

here's the Manor's very sophisticated way of drying clothes in the winter.

this set up actually serves 2 purposes - one - we can dry our clothes inside when it's too cold outside. and two - because we use apple cider vinegar in our rinse cycle, the clothes dry and add humidity to the house as well as the fresh cent of apple cider vinegar. we love it.\

here are a bunch of our pepper plants that we are over-wintering.

we have herbs and whatnot in the greenhouse that can handle the fact that the greenhouse isn't heated but these peppers could have never survived. they are still producing flowers and peppers if you can believe that! these babies will be put in much larger pots in april and brought out to the greenhouse for a real quick start to producing a glut of peppers this year. ohhhh - i just can't wait!

in other news - jambaloney is over at our neighbour's working on the atv. he's got the new carburator in and is now working on the shift thingy. i hope he gets it finished today but our neighbours will be storing it for the rest of the winter for us. such good neighbours!

speaking of good neighbours/friends - we went to our fourchu friends' house early last friday before the chase the ace game. they invited us over for home-made donairs - woohoo! our friend b makes delicious donair meat and he stuffed jambaloney's donair so full of stuff that jambaloney could only eat one of them!!! he can usually eat 3 of them!!! we also had some delicious turkey soup that my friend c made. of course, after chase the ace, we went back to their house, sat around and chatted a bit and then left with a bag of food!!! yum. i am not known to have ever turned down food - bahahah!

this is a crazy/busy week for us. it might be normal for most people but if we leave the Manor once a week - that's crazy busy! this week jambaloney has to go in to our town to do some contract work, wednesday we are invited to our friends' daughter's birthday dinner out in town, thursday we have to go in to the city for an appointment, and then friday is chase the ace again - we'll be bushwhacked by saturday!!!

we like the peace and quiet of the Manor and we can go weeks without leaving the Manor. we are only going out every week since chase the ace started and it is held every friday.

oh and one last thing - being snowed in all christmas/holiday season and not getting out for a few weeks was no prob for us - we've got our backups to backups and our pantry is super well-stocked. i know. i just spent the morning going through all of our food storage and preps and i was mighty pleased. the absolute only thing that we are lacking on is maple syrup. we buy maple syrup from quebec and use it regularly - the SUPER GOOD STUFF that we get from jambaloney's step-dad, we only use that on special occasions. we can stretch the super good stuff a long time by supplementing with the ok stuff that we buy. so, Ted, if yer reading this..................bahahahahahahaha!

got rid of all of that snow....and then got dumped on again!

we had several enjoyable days of watching all of the snow melt....and looking at this:

and then we got dumped on - AGAIN!!!!



 it is pretty to look at - look at all of the beautiful grosebeaks on the apple tree branches and in the sky. they are soooo pretty to watch when they are flying - they always travel in large groups and they swoop and sway and fly together as if they were dancing. we love to watch them first thing in the morning. when they are all out in the tree, and down on the ground, they look like little yellow flowers, especially with the snow as background. here's another pic of them:



i could sit and watch them for hours!

anyway, an update on the past 2 weekends - what a blast! the monday before last we had our friends E & D come over for some supper and a visit. these are our next-door-neighbours whose boys come over regularly to help work around the Manor. anyway, they are also the people that are letting us keep our atv in their big barn, firstly, to keep it out of all of this snowy weather, and secondly, so that jambaloney can go over there this weekend to try and fix it. he's got a new carb and stuff for it and should have it running lickedy-split. poor jam has been back out shoveling the driveway by hand - but man, is he getting good at it - poor guy!

back to our friends! they arrived bearing gifts!!! woohoo! E is such a sweetie and i don't know how she remembered that our 13th anniversary together was on the 19th, but she remembered!!! (we of course forgot, her gift reminded us, and then we forgot again!!! we celebrated on the 20th when we remembered. we celebrated by pretty much doing what we do everyday - spend time together, work on projects together, many hottub dips, good food and lots of hugs and kisses. it's our anniversary pretty much everyday!!!)

E gave us our new dining room table centrepiece - 3 ornate-looking candle stands with stones in the glass tumblers. and she put small candles in small dishes inside of the tumblers to catch the wax so it didn't drip on the stones. the card she chose was very thoughtful and the sentiments expressed were from the heart!

oh and one thing that i forgot to showcase on the blog was D's beautiful wreath that he made for us - isn't it gorgeous! it has been hanging in the plastic porch at our front door since Christmas. i am not taking it down until it completely falls apart - i love it sooo much!!! if it stays alive and together until august, then i will have a beautiful wreath on my porch all summer long!

so we spent a fantastic evening with our friends laughing and chatting about just about everything. we love E & D and love having them as our friends and our neighbours! the only downer of the night was i made an apple pie out of our friend D's apples for dessert and of course, used a new recipe that seemed good, but the filling didn't cook enough. i used large chunks of apple because i wanted the apples to be the stars of the pie but the dang filling wasn't quite cooked enough. oh well. win some and lose some eh? my friend D and jam still ate 2 pieces each - they didn't seem to care too much!

we had a hoot, a holler and much laughter was shared by all - we can't wait to have them over again!

then last saturday we had our friends C & B over - they are from our sister community of Fourchu and we love them to death! B always teases the crap out of jambaloney but it's always in good fun! we were having pizza night so after they arrived and we chatted a bit, i made a combination pizza for us all to share. then the plan was to make our own little individual pizzas but everyone was too full from the first pizza and snacks. so B made his own particular pizza - he was driving me nuts - bahahah! i had all of the ingredients prepped but he had to cut up the onions more and cut the bacon slices in half. he was mostly putting on a show because i was acting OCD about how he was making his pizza. he was driving me nuts though, putting pepperoni in some places, ham in others, chorizo on other places - then he had to cut up the green peppers - bahahahahahah! next time he's over I am making that pizza!!! he did make himself a nice little pizza that he took home. my friend C just took some dough and all of the ingredients to make herself a pizza the next day.

we had a hoot and a holler with them, too! C brought this incredible dessert - it's called banana split squares - it was soooo deelishous - and tasted just like a banana split!!! she makes the best desserts around here and i am not a "sweets" person but i always have some of her desserts! we spent the evening laughing together and jam making C some fancy kahlua and cream drinks. she, of course, brought me a bottle of wine that i had opened at her house last week - she knows that the wine only keeps for about a week and didn't want me to waste it. we had a bottle of her favourite shooter, baja rose, and i always have one with her but i can't usually do more than one. bleck - i hate that stuff. so jambaloney always has to do the shooters with her at dances and whatnot.

at this point it probably sounds like all of us are a bunch of lushes - bahahahahah! but we don't see each other too regularly so when we get together we like to celebrate! now that we have the chase the ace game every friday night, we get to see most of our friends weekly. and it is very nice to be able to socialize together weekly.

so, we had 2 really nice evenings with 2 sets of our friends and we plan to have them, and others, over more regularly. we finally feel that we have the Manor done well-enough to not scare people off - bahahaha! i can't wait for this summer as we will be able to have several of our friends over at a time, hanging out in the backyard and bbq'ing! it's gonna be awesome!

plans for the next few days are draining and refilling the hottub, then jam has some contract IT work to do and i plan on cooking up some lasagna, a meat pie and some bulgogi. until then, here's some teriyaki pork and stir-fried veggies:

i am not a big fan of pork but i love it with this recipe for the teriyaki sauce - it's even better on chicken - yummeh!

and here's some yummy all-veg quinoa salad - make sure to add crumbled feta cheese - it's to die for!

lastly, sorry for the sporadic posting lately - we have been getting dumped on with the snow, and snowed in regularly which is fine for us. but i find when we are snowed in and whatnot - i just enjoy doing little jobs around the house, curling up on the couch and reading or watching movies and whatnot. i don't know why but i just don't make it to the computer very often when we are having so many flumping days in a row  - strange, eh? anyway, i'll be popping in to your blogs and catching up on posts that i have missed and leaving comments.  it's only 1pm and we have put in a full day already - made a bunch of hummus, prepped veg to go with it and made the quinoa salad. played several hands of cards, many hottub dips, folded laundry and ran the dishwasher (you don't think running the dishwasher is a big job??? that's because your dishwasher is probably in your kitchen and not down in the basement. and you probably don't collect your dirty dishes in 3 big bins on your plastic-wrapped porch until you have enough dishes to run the dishwasher!!! and then getting those bins through the snow and down to the basement without killing yourself. told ya - it's a job!!!).

oh one last thing. jamie just made a beautiful shelf for our little cat, nudie-noo. he's getting up in years and can't jump as well as he used to. his little hidey-hole is the top shelf of our one closet! but he loves it up there and i just can't take it away from him, even though i have lost ALLLLLLL of that storage space!!! he has his blankets and one of my nightgowns and one of jambaloney's t-shirts up there and that's where he goes to sleep during the day. long story short, he jumps on a nighttable, then to a dresser and from the dresser, he jumps up to the shelf in the closet. a few days ago he was having a hard time just jumping up to the couch or table without slipping and we think he hurt himself as he was favouring one leg. he seems ok now, but jambaloney built him a little step out of the closet so that he doesn't have so far to jump from the dresser. jambaloney is always good for coming up with things like that.

speaking of jambaloney - he's outside right now making all kinds of racket and banging around. i have no idea what he is doing. time for me to go check on him!