Noodle Making!

I remember a friend of my mom's making spaghetti noodles from scratch when I was young. She had a huge table top spaghetti maker and the noodles were drying all hung over the dowels of a clothes rack. I've been wanting for so long to try this but had no idea how to get ahold of one of those makers. Lo and behold, a friend offered one to me, a smaller version that clamped onto the table and I've been waiting for the opportunity to try it out.

A windy day morning graced us today and I thought "enough with these bored cranky kids! Let's make noodles!" I found some recipes online of course, as well as videos on YouTube and we ploughed right in.

The dough is just flour and eggs and it's super hard to work with. Once we kneaded it awhile it sat for 30mins. We cut it in half and rolled one piece out a bit, just to get it a bit thinner.

The pasta cutter has two parts to it. The first part is simply a roller. It has a dial so you set the rollers at their furthest setting and run the dough through. You run it through over and over setting the rollers closer each time until you get to the last one and the dough is super thin. It's gotten really long by this point so you lay it out, flour it a bit and cut it in half so it's easier to work with.

The second part of the machine has two cutters, one for spaghetti and one for Tagliatelle. (I thought it was a lot like linguine). You run the super thin dough through the cutter and lay the new pasta somewhere to dry. I used parchment paper on different surfaces for drying.

I discovered that once they've dried for awhile, they get crispy so if you do this you need to put them somewhere where you won't want to move them until they're dry.

I made them for dinner, they only boil for a few minutes and we did two sauces; tomato with meat and roasted veggies (zucchini from the garden!) as well as an Alfredo sauce. We were very proud of eating our own hard work. They were good and softer than store bought noodles.

I put the rest of the dried noodles in a container in the fridge. I read that you can keep the noodles in the cupboard for a long time but I just thought with the raw eggs I'd put 'em in the fridge. All in all it was fun! The kids really enjoyed making them. You can use the same dough to cut lasagna noodles, or roll cannelloni or wrap ravioli or tortellini.

This recipe for dough made enough for our whole family for dinner and probably one more meal, so that's quite a bit of pasta.

Dough: 2.5-3 cups flour, 4 eggs + 1 egg yolk and 1.5 tsp of oil. I had to add a bit of water to make the dough workable. I found a million recipes online and they were all just slight variations of one another so I just picked one and went with it.

It seems to take forever to upload photos to Blogger, so click here for an album of all the photos!

Fresh Hurricane Damage Reported in Newfoundland

Following days of devastation along the coast of Nova Scotia and the Eastern United States, more damage by Hurricane Bill has been reported in the small coastal community of Torbay, Newfoundland.

Carman Thiessen, resident of Motion Dr, awoke this morning to find her sunflower patch completely flattened by Bill, now lessened to a tropical storm. "We have intense storms here all the time," says Thiessen, "we've lost many personal belongings left in the yard as well as siding from our house, but this new devastation is the worst of it all."

Thiessen grew these sunflowers from seed in her house, and lovingly transplanted them to a patch in the backyard when they were a mere few inches tall. "It's not the most protected spot in the yard," she admits, "but they'd done so well so far. I just can't believe this is what broke them."

The sunflowers - many of whose stalks exceed 1 inch in diameter - are all about 4ft tall but had yet to flower. "I've been watching every day because they were so close to opening up. I knew that patch of bright flowers would make me smile every time I saw it"

Now, it will only be sadness she feels when she looks out her window into her garden. She is very thankful though, that the pumpkins and zucchini survived the storm. "The veggies are still in tact and the tomatoes. I believe that is because they lie much closer to the ground, not because they were stronger or more resilient in any way."

The sunflowers were unfortunately pulled out at the roots, so while Thiessen may attempt to pack them back in the ground, she fears the worst. "I think this is the end for them. I may try to stake them up and cover their roots, but I'm not holding my breath that anything will help."

Through the hard times, Thiessen still keeps a positive outlook on the future. "I won't let this ruin me forever, the pain will still be as fresh as the churned earth, but I will try again next year."

The T6 news, Torbay.

The Tragically Awesome Hip Story

This is going to be a long story but it’s such a good one that I have to share and you have to promise to finish it all!

I have to give a little background though to start. I’ll begin by saying that I bought my first Tragically Hip album when I was in grade 7, either 12 or 13 years old. I got sucked into one of those Columbia House Club Memberships, remember those? You got 12 CDs for 99 cents but then of course you had to buy a bunch more at ridiculous prices over the next few years. Then the second you didn’t pay you got a collections letter? I wonder if I still owe them money…

I remember that two of those first 12 CDs (which were, by the way, my first CDs ever - not tapes) were En Vogue and The Tragically Hip’s “Up to Here”. It was only their second album, their first hitting mainstream recognition. They released it in 1989 but I guess it was about a year or two old when I got it. At the time, I’m assuming “New Orleans Is Sinking” was on the radio and that’s how I knew who they were; my parents didn’t listen and I think Clay was in a Van Halen phase…

I was instantly a fan. I loved the entire CD. I remember sitting at the dining room table and looking through the CD jacket memorizing words (for which I’ve always had an uncanny knack) and mom looked at the song list and said “Over Opiated”? Is THAT what they’re like?” I was like “NO! Of course not…” I had no idea what over-opiated meant but had a feeling by mom’s response that it wasn’t good. ;)

So 19 years, 10 more albums and countless concerts later – I am still a fan. I would go so far as to say that much has changed in my life since I was 12 – go figure. My tastes, style, life, family, interests and dreams have changed so much and many times. I am not at all sure why I have never stopped loving their music, they have certainly changed their style many times, their music now sounds nothing like their first albums. But it always seems to fit for me. The only things I have known and/or loved as long as or longer than the Tragically Hip are my own family, my best friend Kathryn and her family, Tolkien and Volkswagen…

I know not everyone likes the band specifically, but I’m sure you can understand at least to a point, having an interest like it.

The last time I saw The Hip was only a few summers ago, here in Newfoundland when they played an outdoor show in Grand Falls Windsor. My friend Sonia, whom at the time I barely knew, and I made the 4 hour trek out with the sixth Harry Potter book (released at midnight that night before we left) to rock out in the pouring rain on a muddy field where tents sold fresh mussels and the Budweiser bus sold disgusting beer. (Sorry but Bud sucks). Good times.

So, that’s the back story… now to the present. The Tragically Hip released an album this year and therefore is touring this summer/fall. Barton was in Vancouver for a conference last week when they played the awesome Orpheum Theatre and was lucky enough to go with friends of ours to the show. The concert here in St John’s would be the day after he got back and so, assuming he’d be jet lagged and having just saw them, I bought myself a lone floor seat to go by myself. After the Vancouver show Barton called and said it was so awesome and was he really not able to go with me?! The only places you could get two seats together were pretty lousy so I didn’t really do anything about it. The stadium is small, so really, no seat is bad. But I was determined this time to get some good photos so I wanted good seats.

At the conference, Barton ran into a friend who we knew from here but who is currently living in Vernon BC. He expressed disappointment that he didn’t know Barton was going to the concert because he could have given him great tickets… someone he knew who knew someone’s brother’s cousin’s wife… you know the drill. Anyway, Barton told him that I was going in St John’s the next week, so see what he could do.

Fast forward a few days and Barton is sitting in the Calgary airport, waiting for a connection to come home and he gets an email from said friend who writes, “My brother-in-law is the head sound guy on the tour, can get you tickets and possibly, backstage passes. Scalp Carman’s tickets and you can go together.”

See? Now you know where the story is going… but it’s still a good one…

You know with stuff like this you kind of shrug and go “yeah, whatever.” It happens so often that someone says something and nothing happens because someone forgets, or the wrong name is given, etc. Not that I don’t trust our friend, but I wasn’t about to go and sell my ticket that very second.

The funny part is that, as I’ve previously posted, the sporting season of the summer has begun. As it stood, I assumed Barton was home the night of the concert and didn’t really worry about all the games the kids had to get to. Now he wants to go and we have to find someone to play with Mattea and do a town-wide-sport-pick-up of three kids. I have a wonderful friend who understood the importance of the situation and actually cancelled hair appointments (only my womanly friends will understand the importance of THAT) to have Mattea over and then take our van out and about to pick everyone else up.

As we’re getting ready to go Barton got another email “tickets are at the gate, need photo ID to pick up.” Okay, we’re getting closer, but I still wasn’t ready to advertise my ticket on Facebook. Plus, I figured, if we had two great tickets plus backstage passes, it might be worth the loss of the cost of my ticket.

At the window, the lady tells us she’s still waiting for the list of names for requested tickets, could we wait aside? Great… here’s where she tells us there is no one by that name on her list.
Then she calls out Barton’s name and passes him an envelope with two tickets and backstage passes. I won’t lie and say a few explicative words were not expressed.

So now to sell my ticket. Rule number one for scalping tickets… don’t have just one. Rule number two: try not to scalp tickets to a show that is not sold out. Most of the people walking by were in groups of two and four and everyone already had tickets. No one wanted my ticket and I was about to give up. Would our MasterCard purchase protection cover the cost of a ticket to a concert I couldn’t attend due to illness? I’d need a doctor’s note… but where oh where would I get one of those?! ;)

Then this guy starts coming up the stadium steps, unassuming, looking a little lost. “Do you have a ticket?” “No.” “Do you want one?” “Who’s playing?” “The Tragically Hip” “They’re pretty good.” “Only the best Canadian band ever.” “How much?” “Well, they were 79, but how about $65?” “Hmmm, okay.”

Buddy gives me $70 and walks away. What the…?

So, off we run into Mile One. This time I was smart, I had my good camera and a jiffy marker. Just in case… actually, I was really prepared. I figured I’d get a pretty good picture, so I actually brought a matte from a frame, thinking I could get the matte signed and then get a photo for my office (more about my office later). The seats, of course, were deadly. We were 7 rows up, just off the stage. The show was, of course, awesome, they always are worth it. This tour is called “An Evening with the Tragically Hip.” It’s only them, no opening band, with two full sets. Tons of old stuff and even a few songs I hadn’t heard live before. The singing ran about 2.5 hours and I’m so glad I have married someone who shares the appreciation!

We noticed part way through the show “my guy”. The guy that bought my ticket was just down from us and he was just standing there watching. At one point, he pulled out his cell and took a picture. He didn’t move much, wasn’t smiling or grooving, just watching.

The show ends and we’re like, “What do we do now?” We sit there and wait and the entire stadium empties out. Then we notice a couple of people hanging around with the same passes (actually stickers) as we had. All in all there were about 20 of us. Someone yelled out that if we had a backstage pass we should line up against the wall. In the hockey box actually. It felt a little weird, a few people cracked jokes about being thankful we lived in a safe country then we laughed at the joke being on us and that we’d be asked to start stacking chairs or picking up garbage!

They led us to a room under the stadium with a bar and we all just stood around; a few people chatted, they obviously knew each other. Then I noticed “my guy”. What the heck was he doing back here?! Why on earth, if he could get backstage or have any connections whatsoever, would he pay $70 for MY ticket?! He seemingly didn’t even know who was playing, so if he didn’t have connections how did he end up backstage? Was he sitting beside Gord Downie’s brother? Would I have ended up backstage anyway? He was chatting around with people and seemed to all of a sudden belong. It was the weirdest thing!!!

I suddenly started to think that maybe I didn’t want to meet them you know? What if they’re jerks?

Then Paul Langlois, guitarist, walked in with his two daughters. He walked over, said hi, asked about the show and introduced the girls. Half the group seemed to not notice the entrance. I’m assuming a good group of those people were family and friends but expected, even if that were the case, a little whoop or cheer for a good show. Nothing. No one even seemed to look over. I didn’t want to take a photo as no one else was and he had his kids and that didn’t seem right. So we just watched. Someone came over and introduced themselves, they had made necklaces and gave some to the girls. Barton elbowed me and said “Why didn’t you bring purses?!” Truthfully, I had considered it, but it just seemed too weird. Gord Sinclair came in next with his son, did the same thing, met some people with a hug, shook some hands and said hi.

It was the weirdest most anti-climactic thing! All of a sudden they were just so normal. I’m not sure if it’s a Canadian thing, a Newfoundland thing or what, but it always seems a little calmer here. Russell Crowe can show up in a bar for Open Mic and sing with the Great Big Sea for fun, Kevin Spacey can be told to take off his disguise so people don’t stare and Elvis Costello and Diana Krall can own a home in Flatrock. I knew I wouldn’t been screaming and hyperventilating, but I did expect some excitement, especially within the group in general.

It suddenly didn’t seem to be the “Can you sign my frame matte”? or “Can I have a photo?” type situation. So we just watched. Gord Sinclair and Rob Baker also came in, along with the keyboardist they have on tour, but Gord Downie never did. It was pretty AWESOME.

Then I noticed a couple introduce themselves to Rob and she pulled out her cell to take a photo. The photo etiquette was officially broken… now was my chance. Most of the band members and their families had already left and I was waiting for this lady to quit her conversation.

The big guy at the door starting telling us to finish our drinks and head out - time was limited… we actually started to leave and then Barton told me I had to either do it now or never again. I went back in…

I walked over to Rob and waited for a break in the conversation. All of a sudden the lady pointed out that I was waiting so I introduced myself. I thanked him for the quote he gave me for Smudge Magazine on an article I wrote about local NL guitar maker Chris Griffiths of Garrison Guitars and we chatted about the guitars, which he still uses but were bought out by Gibson. Then I asked if I could have a picture. I snagged a young guy waiting for a word and got the photo. Then the guys were lamenting that all they had were their cells and so I took a photo of them to email later. We said good bye and off we went. I had no autograph, but an awesome photo and just a super cool memory of how the whole night unfolded. Strange but amazing.

I still don’t understand what happened with the guy who bought my ticket, but it’s not a big town and if I ever see him again I’ll have to ask.

See? I told you it would be long, but so good.

PS - with the money from my ticket we bought concert shirts and a poster. I haven't bought a concert shirt in ages but they're really nice. They're using American Apparel so they actually fit nicely and are soft (and ethical). I got a pink one with swirly sketching on it. If you look closely enough (and please don't, it's right on my boob) you can read "The Tragically Hip" in script, Barton got the tour shirt. The poster is for my office... more about that later.

There's a link to the right of my album of photos. Kind of a lot of the same, but fun and they're bigger than these. You can click the photos in this post for larger views...

Rollkuchen fun

We decided today that since it's not only half-way to Christmas, but also the last official day of school we'd have Rollkuchen and Watermelon, a traditional Mennonite treat. (it's deep fried dough... some like it with salt (me) some like it with syrup (the rest of the family). I do it in the garage/outside because the deep frying is so stinky. I get out my Value Village electric pan and fry away.

Here's the outcome...

Close encounters of the Moose Kind

June 24, 2009

We had just left the house and I needed to get gas so we were heading to the gas station. All of a sudden Nikolai was screaming "a moose!! a moose!!" I totally thought he was joking and then there it was, playing in the ditch. I pulled into the gas station and the entire time I filled up it was running around on that side of the road, then it would eat a little and then run around some more. Then it trotted across the road and through the gas station and into the gully behind the station. I didn't have my camera, but Riley did!!!

What happens in Vegas...

Barton and I have been debating for quite some time on where we wanted to get away to this summer. Barton's parents are coming to visit and while we usually don't wanna leave when company is only here for 10 days or so, they're coming for a month, so we decided it was finally time to take off together, which has only happened once since we moved away.

We weighed so many different options; overseas, national, down south - it was all very hard and very tempting! We came to the decision that for just a week, it would be easier to keep the travel and time change fairly minimal (which from Newfoundland is still always very long anyway!) and that with the dollar being so good maybe we'd look to the States. I of course would be in New York in a heart beat or Chicago where I've never been. I love the idea of walking and looking at buildings and eating good food! Barton strays more towards the whitewater-rafting-in-the-Yukon type holiday. Now, I am not at all opposed to doing that sort of thing, but for some reason, that was not in my mind as the holiday I wanted for our 10th anni/graduation trip. I vito-ed the Yukon trip very quickly which I think made Barton reconsider all the reasons he married me in the first place!

Then we heavily leaned on New Orleans which we thought would be really fun. The flights were very cheap, time change reasonable and they have cute B&Bs and obviously an abundance of excellent food. It was also one of those places you don't think to take kids, which was our other problem, every time I thought of a great place, it was also somewhere I wanted to take the kids.

So, we finally came to a conclusion. One day Barton called and said he wanted to go to Utah! I was like, "Utah?!" I know that Salt Lake City is supposed to be really nice, and I knew that he would like to go biking around in Moab but when you think holiday, does Utah spring to mind?! Anyway, I started looking into it and feeling the guilt that I was ixnaying all his exciting ideas (after forcing him into an all inclusive! :. I discovered that Utah is quite close to Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon. So... I emailed our travel agent, the wonderful Lois Barbour, and she gave us a ridiculous package deal. For all the wonders of the Internet, there still isn't anything that replaces a travel agent. Sure, it's quick and easy to book your flights online and it's great for that, but when you want more, they KNOW stuff - they have insider tricks.

Our package includes the flights on West Jet with surprisingly only one stop, three nights at the MGM Grand, a car rental and 2 Cirque Du Soleil tickets. When she offered me this, I looked up the MGM Grand and discovered that that is, of course, where they hold some pretty major events. Thinking I might find some Holyfield fight or something (not that I'm a fan, but hey, just to say you did it?) I found... drum roll please... Aerosmith. Playing, in our hotel, right when we want to go. Is that fate? Yes it is. For those of you who have not known me long, I'll tell you that this is now my fourth attempt (but fourth is a charm right?) at seeing Aerosmith. They have a tendency to cancel Canadian shows or playing in Moncton when I'm too pregnant to fly. So, I figure they'll never cancel Vegas and as long as I don't get knocked up (insert nervous laugh here) it'll be fine! Any-who... this is our trip:

We leave on Friday July 24th and that night we see the Cirque show "Ka". On Saturday is the Concert and Sunday I made reservations at Emeril's restaurant which was recommended to me by a friend. We're not gamblers, so while in Vegas we will walk and look at all the hotels, shop a lot at the outlets and go hiking if it's not 41 degrees. On Monday morning we will drive out to the Grand Canyon via the Hoover Dam. We'll spend the day there and then move on to Moab either that night or Tuesday morning. We'll spend some time there and then be back in Vegas by Wednesday evening. We head out Thursday afternoon but unfortunately we have an overnight in Toronto so hopefully we'll be able to see some friends. We arrive back Friday morning. I'm hoping it all goes well, the older kids will be fine but I'm not sure about Mattea! The Thiessens will have been here a week by the time we go so hopefully she feels like she knows them by then.

So, how's that for a super long post about nothing? No, I don't give refunds on those 5 minutes of your life...

Iceberg - dead ahead!

This is probably our final iceberg visit of the year, but this one came in the other day. We saw it from the house like this (left) so we went out to hike down to it for a closer view.

The first view:

After it spun a bit: