Battle of the Popping Styles!

Well!!!

Last week i had a craving. A craving for popcorn! What kind of popcorn? NOT MICROWAVED!

After poking around in my cupboards I found a trusty package of JIFFY POP.

Now, my mother hates Jiffy Pop and gets annoyed everytime i bring it into the house. Since my mom is very sure Jiffy Pop is not only unhealthy but full of chance to accumulate bugs...I never had it growing up. I did have it once or twice when i was younger, always at my cousin's cottage. In college i made an attempt or two or three at popping it...and every time i BURNT THE HELL OUT OF IT!

My attraction to the Jiffy pop was not merely its flavour, but its attitude! I had so much insane fun watching it puff up into its aluminum ball! After my first successful go at the jiffy while camping, i went jiffy wild! I discovered the real secret to this bundle of corn! GAS RANGES!

Three or four more time since then i have made the Jiffy on my gas range at home (i will never go back to electric..AMEN!) and everytime it was PERFECT!!!!!

However, one fateful night, matt was soo tired to come into the kitchen with me and take pictures of the popcorn bubble growing! So i attempted to do it myself! When i opened the package, it had a small hole poked into it... i put the hole there..no bugs this time. So not only did i try to pop it anyway and take pictures, but i had it turned away from me on a funny angle and...well...I BURNT THE SHIT OUT OF IT AGAIN! Not only did i burn it but it actually STOPPED popping half way through!

WEEEEEEEEEP! WEEEEEEEEEEP!

But like a phoenix, i found happiness in the ashes. I decided to make much tastier popcorn...which is actually more fun to pop just not as fun to watch...

The amazing, the incomparable, WHIRLY POP MACHINE! The Whirly pop rocks..... Here is why...and How! You need but 3 items.... butter and salt discluded....

2 Tbs Oil (corn, vegetable, your choice)

1/3 cup popping kernels

your whirly machine!

Coat the bottom of the whirly machine with the oil and drop the kernels in so that there is no overlapping.

Put the Whirly lid on and turn the heat on to medium low. Spin the handle semi-rapidly for a couple minutes. The popcorn starts popping rapidly within 2-3 minutes i find on a gas range. Spin the handle rapidly until the popcorn slows. As soon as there is 3 seconds between pops and you feel a resistance against the handle, TAKE IT OFF THE STOVE!

Important tip: have your bowl out and ready BEFORE putting the popper on the stove. It goes fast and it needs full attention!

The Whirly popper has a swinging lid on top so just TIP IT over in the direction of your bowl and pour it out! Salt and melted Butter (or if you are me, margarine) to your liking and enjoy some ridiculously delicious popcorn!

tHESE POPPERS..I DONT KNOW WHERE TO BUY THEM OR WHERE WE GOT OURS! GO TO THE SITE THAT YOU GET WHEN YOU CLICK ON WHIRLY POP!

hard times!

I know i don't usually blog about my personal life so much, and that mostly when i talk about my life its always the happy undramatic things i like to share. But given this week, i can only deem it an appropriate exception that i write something that totally bums people out!

On November 21st, we woke up in the morning to discover Matt's father Tom, had passed away in the night. Tom lived in the states but came to canada to stay with us at the end of october after a 3 month stint in the hospital. He suffered an aortic aneurysm in July and miraculously, survived. He was staying with us until he could find a new, suitable rehab. Due to flatlining on the operating table he ended up with a brain injury, causing his short term memory to be damaged.
He was doing better and life was adjusting. During his stay with us Matt and I were his daytime care givers, staying with him, making sure he got his proper daily exercises done, taking him to the doctor, making him lunch, joking around, shopping, etc. He was functional, just a little bit lost sometimes.

Tom died on his 52nd birthday of a second aortic aneurysm. He had been to the hospital the night before, and was released less than 24 hours before he died.

We spent 3 weeks with him, which we are thankful for. I know he approved of Matt and I because he recently asked Matt what his intentions were with me. When Matt told him he wanted to marry me, Tom told him GOOD. That I am good for him and something else nice~! Either way, he told matt he liked me!

Here is Matt's Eulogy... i thought it would be nice to include

I wish I knew the words
I wish I knew the way
To ease your hurt a little
and cheer your heart today
But i'm not sure exactly
What to say or what to do
I just know i really care
And want you to know that i do too.
Tom enjoyed his life, and lived it on his terms.
He enjoyed all that he did.
As a boy he excelled at sports. Growing up in the shadow of the Bata ski hill, time spent in hot summer days at the swimming hole, in later years motorcycle and golf. Tom has been away from us for the past nineteen years, he chose to make his life in the United States.

Tom suffered and aneurysm this summer. He spent many weeks recovering from this, he was given this time to visit us one more time. To see his mom and dad, spend more time with his sons.

We will always be very grateful for the time Tom was given with us.

Thomas Albert Hunt

November 21st 1954- November 21st 2006

You'll always be my father in law big Tommy!

Disney and Pizza

Last wednesday i had a small girls night with some lovely ladies from work. I set up a small pizza bar with a bunch of ingredients and let the girls make their own pizza! So we made those and watched "Max Keebles something".

Here are those very pizza's!

Magali's Pizza

Sauce
fresh mozzarella cheese
pineapple
red peppers

Bianca's pizza

Sauce
fresh mozzarella
red peppers
Italian sausage under oil
pickled italian mushrooms

Angie's prissy pizza

Pesto,

fresh mozzarella cut into small wedges

pickled italian mushrooms

italian sausage under oil

sundried tomatoes

The girls being silly

Meatball Stroganoff with brussel sprouts

So... i like beefy gravy like dishes as much as the next fat person. Now, i like cooking them, even though i haven't fully tackled this end of the cooking sphere. My newest small goal of the month is taking a recipe and augmenting it a little bit. So i came across a yummy looking recipe created by the lovely michelle at Jemangelaville for mushroom stroganoff with homemade noodles. RECIPE HERE... But i wanted to fuel my beef craving one saturday and so...i came up with this...

MEATBALL STROGANOFF WITH BRUSSEL SPROUTS

First up, GARLIC BUTTER BRUSSEL SPROUTS

Clean, trimmed Brussel sprouts (5-8 a person depending)
Chicken broth (enough to cover them in their pot)
2 tsp butter or margarine
1 teaspoon minced garlic, prepared or fresh!
Salt and pepper to taste

Cut the larger brussel sprouts in half and put them in a small pot, covering with chicken broth.

Boil until fork tender but still slightly crisp and drain. Add butter and garlic to pan and add the sprouts back into the equation. Heat until butter melted keep on low.

**Turn the burner on at around the time you add the mushrooms to the onion mixture**

Meatballs:

1 lb ground beef
1/4-1/2 white onion, finely diced
2 tbs worchestershire sauce
another 2 tbs worchestershire
1 tsp butter
1/2 cup fine bread crumbs
1 egg
1 generous sprinkle of garlic powder
fresh ground pepper
a pinch salt

Stroganoff Gravy:

3 tbsp butter

3 tbsp AP flour

1 onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

1-2 pints button mushrooms sliced in quarters

1 1/2 cups chicken broth

1/2 cup red wine

1 cup sour cream

In a small frying pan, melt butter and add onion and 2 tbs worchestershire. Saute the onion until just tender, about 5 minutes.

In the meantime, squish the meat down in a bowl, adding the egg, garlic, bread crumbs, salt, pepper and remaining worchestershire. When the onions are ready, scrape them into the bowl with the meat. Gently work the mixture together and form into a ball.

depending on how much time you have, pull off pieces of meat and roll into however size balls you like. If you want to move fast, you can always make CHEATER MEATBALLS where you set the mixture in a square dish and cut into squares. (Sandi Richard’s fun tip)

Melt a dollop of butter in a large deep pan and brown the meatballs on all sides. When meatballs are browned, remove from pan and cover with aluminum foil.

In the same pan:

Heat the remaining butter and melt over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic and cook until tender, (5 minutes) Add the mushrooms and cook until they shrink down a bit and release their liquid. Add the flour and stir, cooking a couple of minutes.

Next, add the wine and the chicken broth, turn the heat up and bring to a boil. Throw the meatballs back into the pan with the sauce. Try to submerge them as best you can and cover. Reduce heat and simmer stirring occasionally for about 15 minutes, until the sauce thickens. Stir the sour cream in gently, and serve over buttered egg noodles with delicious butter garlic brussel sprouts!

nevermind i like this one better

yay new profile picture!

the d on piracy

i am actually trying to embed a flick in here, using html, which i have never actually really tried, and i think i could shit!

hahahahahahahah

THE D! one more week! after 3 years of waiting! See Tenacious D and the pick of destiny or i will come after you! Also... here are a few words from Jack Black, on Piracy

Niagara Family Reunited!

Keegan + Camera = an easy day at the office for angie

***The photos from the other night are all throughout this post with absolutely no reason for their placement, so don't bug me! haha***

Once upon a time....

I went to school 2 hours away from home, and on top of that i had no adjustment period for moving out. I was a late acceptance so thusly, i got the call on thursday, went to niagara falls on friday to find an apartment, bought an apartments worth of kitchenware and bedding and packed on saturday and was in my apartment by sunday.
The monday however i was ready to throw up, because the students i was about to join had all been working together for 2 weeks already.
5 minutes into my first class on my first day, we had a pop quiz! yay! the girl behind me, HOLLY,offered me her notes, and after class i hung out with her and 4 other people.
Melody, Trevor, Mark and Andrew. We have been dearest friends since! Along in the mix was James, Chantilly and Gigi, Matt too!



We all were roomates somehow someway. James lived with mark, trevor lived with chantilly. then Holly and I lived together, while mark, Mel and andrew lived together. Then holly decided she wanted to save lives (hey, this works for me!) so i was roomateless. The next year mel and mark moved in with trevor, it was madness! Not only that, but we are all in couples now! good, functional couples! there is Me and Matt, Holly and Mark, James and Melody, Andrew and Gigi and Trevor and Chantilly!


Now that we are all graduated and we all live scattered, at least an hour between all of us, we make sure to get together on holidays and birthday.
We had a late thanksgiving this year, just had it last week! but we were lazy and didn't want to cook so we went to Montana's. HURRAH!



Here is a tiny rundown of our day!

Angie and Matt, Mark and Holly meet Mel and James in Hamilton
Mall....
Taco Bell...
More Mall...
Cigarette...
More Mall...
Popcorn...
Cigarette...
Little More Mall...
Watched Just Friends at Mel's Apartment...
Andy, his wife Gigi and their son Keegan meet us at Mels...
Convoy to Montanas...
Hilarity Ensues... (happy birthday Gi Gi)
Convoy back to Mel's...
20 minute Chill Session...
cigarette...
Head home!
Run over dead man on highway 407 (no...that's not a joke... i may post about it another day)



I posted all the pictures i took, but the studio photographer in me concentrated most of my camera love to Keegan, as i haven't seen him since April! I cant even believe how easy it is to get him to smile! I didnt get any shots of mark, which is strange. I thought i took one!

Well anyways

Thats about it!

Yay for seeing mel next weekend and holly and mel 2 weeks after that! kachow!

(This is not mel's baby! ha)

It's Delicious, It's Nutricious, it's veggie sausage pizza

It's funny what you make when you just don't feel like ordering in!

The other night matt had a massive hankering for pizza. Specifically delivery style pizza. I myself, was in anything but a greasy pizza from pizza pizza mood.

What i did want to do however, was cook. But matt wouldnt give up on the pizza, and he DOES prefer my pizza. But he wanted this super manly meat lovers pizza. EWW EWW EWW.

After much deliberation and convincing, he convinced me to make pizza and i convinced him to let me try a new recipe. what recipe? A super veggie packed recipe...

Now this is my take on the veggie pizza at Molisana Bakery, a family owned, reallly YUMMY italian bakery/eatery. im posotive i left out a few ingredients and that i cooked it differently, and obviously their veggie pizza doesn't have sausage.....

huzzah!

SO HERE WE GO!

ANGIES WINTER VEGGIE SAUSAGE PIZZA

Ingredients

1 whole wheat pizza dough
1 cup pizza sauce (i simmer crushed tomatoes with salt, oil, basil and garlic for 30 minutes)
1 pint button mushrooms, quartered
2 green zucchini, diced into larger chunks
1 red pepper, diced (i used green but have learnt from that mistake!)
1 white onion, diced
2/3 ball of fresh mozzarella
2 sausage under oil, cut into pieces (ours are home made but you can buy them in the specialty cheese area by the deli, dry or jarred)
1 tsp dry rosemary or 1 fresh sprig, stripped
2 tbs extra virgin olive oil
Salt and Pepper

1. Heat the oven to 425, use your pizza stone if you have one

2. lightly spray a round pizza pan with non stick (pam...blah blah),

3. roll out, press out, however you like to 'out' your dough.

4. heat oil in a deep fry pan and add vegetables. Season with salt, pepper and rosemary. Cook until just soft, but still crisp.

5. spread the pizza sauce on the dough, covering as close to the edges as possible.

6. lay out the mozzarella slices about an inch apart, without overlapping. DO NOT FULLY COVER THE PIZZA. half a ball is fine, trust me. we used a whole one and we had some VERY THICK cheese.

7. Spread the veggies over the cheese

8. Distribute the sausage all around the pizza

9. Keep the pizza on the pizza pan and place on the pizza stone.

10. Bake on the pan until cheese is melted, sausage is browned and the bottom is JUST starting to brown.

11. Baste edges lightly with oil, spinning it in the oven (careful!)

12. Pull the pizza off the pizza pan and onto the stone. Bake another 5 minutes, or until bottom is browned to your liking!

13. pull out of oven and let sit for five minutes.

14. cut it up, eat it, be happy!

YAY YAY!

Don't judge me, monkey

After a lot of bitching at blogger, I have finally discovered my picture posting drama. All my pictures are ONE MEG too large for posting. UGH! Bleeding hearts of the world unite!

The post I have been trying my hardest to load up is THIS ONE! YAY!!!!!!!!!
So here it is, 2 weeks later than I wanted to post….

MATT’S HALLOWEEN BASH ON THE LAKE!

PART ONE!

Matt’s birthday is Halloween weekend. For our birthdays we head up to the cottage and spend a few days on the lake. For those of you who are avid readers of my blog, you would have seen my own birthday blog. So I sat there, planning this bday for my matty, and I thought. How can you have a birthday party for someone around Halloween and NOT have a full out birthday party! It’s ridiculous! Hahaha so I sent out the longest email of all time, telling everyone they have to show up dressed in a costume!

From there I got all nutsy and I went all out Halloween style. I went to party packagers with my trusty shopping companion Kristin, and bought up a ridiculous load of Halloween party stuff. I got plastic Halloween tumblers, which I later filled with bags of candy for everyone to take home. I got everything from orange and black streamers, balloons, black tablecloths, black candles, cookie cutters, bowl, I had a blast!

Me in my Sacred Space

Naturally, I spent the entire Friday at the cottage in the kitchen, making fresh food. I had lots of helpful hands from my buddies and it made the day easier. For my costume I was “Gertie The Dirty” a teasingly wholesome homemaking witch!…one of the extremely few occasions I show any real skin is Halloween so I thought…get ‘er done!

My purty table decorated with treats!

At the party I served:

Creamy Macaroni Salad
Dijon Red Skin Potato salad
Cucumber Tomato Greek Salad
Buffalo Beer wings
Swedish Honey garlic meatballs.
Halloween cupcakes with glow in the dark rings
Ghost and Pumpkin sugar cookies with sugar icing
Swamp water

I was insane happy with the table I dreamed up! Again, I had help! Kristin was kind enough to be my paparazzi for the evening. I even managed to use all our old orange bowls from the 80’s for the food. It was match-tastic

I was really happy with the feeling of the table once the lights were out!

The GUESTS!

Shane, Matty,, Me! Dave, Holly, Mark and Kristin (Kristin did not come in front of the camera! She likes to make me cry! Hahahah)

I had my yearly cigarette as we all took a shot out on the front porch, every one of us holding a smoke. (mom, I love you! Once a year!)
Half of the night was spent outside. Most of the people at the party are smokers, and when I’m really hyper or drinking I can’t stand being inside for longer than 20 minutes at a time. Apparently neither could anyone else!


We made a set of 4 cd’s all funky fun jumpy music, some Halloween music, essentially, fun music that makes people jump around and dance and laugh and have a good time! We danced all night, in the kitchen of all places! Our buddy dave brought us a strobe light which made the decorations in the house extra insane to look at while bouncing around on the dance floor. Shane and I even found ourselves happy sitting on the dance floor together!

THE COSTUMES!

Its crazy how much they each really look like the characters

Me: Gertie The Dirty
Matt: Jack Bauer of 24
Shane: Tony Almeida of 24
Dave: Mental Patient
Holly: Redneck Prom Queen
Mark: Diablo!
Kristin: Spider Wed lady!

AND THE OSCAR GOES TO:

Best Costume: Shane
Prize: King Kong screaming action figure
Best Drunk: Kristin
Prize: Small Silver Flask

*prizes decided by who was the most in character and who made me laugh the most while drinking, not necessarily who drank the most.

We danced the night away, even after I changed into comfier clothes…which were inside out and nobody, not even me, noticed.

Dance your pants off while your shirt is inside out!

We all wound down around 2:30 in the morning and sat together laughing all over in the family room. We finally packed it in at around 4am, and life was good!

We will DEFINITELY be having this same party next year. Hands down the best Halloween party we have ever thrown or been to!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AGAIN MATTY!
(boy what a lucky boy you were this year!)

this years letter to santa!

haha! my friend kristin sent me this email today where you fill a bunch of spaces out and it puts them all together and makes you a letter to santa claus.
Its a little early to be dealing with christmas in my books but i thought it was come funny shit!

Santa Claus North Pole, Earth

Dear Santa,

I have been a good girl.
It really wasn't my fault what happened at holly's Office party. It was melody who spiked the punch with too much tom collins. I can't help it if I drank 21 glasses. It was so good---smelled and tasted just like cat pee.

I thought it was funny when I put Matty's scarf on my head and danced the jitterbug on the bed while singing `over the rainbow'. I didn't mean to break holly's dvd player and don't know why holly would accuse me of holding.

I don't remember calling andy's wife a generic sheep---even though she looked like one with yellow eye shadow and purple lipstick!
And when I threw up on vanessa's husband's shoulder, it was only because I ate too much of that pasta.

After all that fun, I admit I was a little tired. So I fell asleep on my way home and drove my vw convertible through my neighbor's washroom. I don't think that was any reason for my neighbor to call me a delicate platypus and have me arrested for hit n run!

So, Santa...here I sit in my jail cell on Christmas Eve, all inspirational and insane. And I'm really not to blame for any of this domineering stuff. Please bring me what I want the most---bail money!
Sincerely and boldly yours,angie (Really a nice girl!)

P.S. It's only 10 bucks!

A "blue" night out in T.O

"It Appears I Blue Myself" - Tobias Funke

Matt's birthday is halloween weekend. This year we all went to the cottage and had a small but huge costume party! Those pictures, WONT POST.

The weekend after that, Matt and I hit the city for what we called "our blue night out" why you ask? For matt's birthday he received the following gifts, all of which were orchestrated by myself, but bought by other people. SNAP!


1 set of 3rd row seat tickets for BLUE MAN GROUP

1 gift certificate for THE PICKLE BARREL

1 snazzy new outfit

a couple weeks prior to recieving his presents, i talked matt into getting a hotel in toronto to celebrate our anniversary late. (we had planned to stay at a hotel for our anniversary but our funds ran dry and we had to cancel)


SO!!!!!!!!!



Saturday afternoon matt picked me up from work, bags in tow, and we headed down to finch station. We got a spot in the very front by the subway. NICE!

We got off the subway 20 minutes later and walked 2 blocks before we found the panasonic theatre. WEE! 2 blocks down from that we found our hotel! SWEET! We went inside and i asked matt if he thought i should ask about getting a balcony, as they had prior told me it was not available. He said he didnt think so. I asked anyway. The man handed my a key for a 15th floor corner balcony overlooking yonge street. AWESOME!






the room was adorable, the view was pretty sweet ass. And FINALLY! we had some alone time! We hung out in the hotel for a while, smoking out on the balcony.



I had a bath and ate some chocolate while i was relaxing in it. YEAH MAN! i was relaxxed. We took off down the road, gift certificates in tow, to the PICKLE BARREL AT THE ATRIUM. It ended up being a 10 minute walk! YAY! We only had a 10 minute wait but the people who flooded in behind us got shafted with a 35 minute wait! LUCK BE A LADY TONIGHT! Matt had the Orange Monsoon chicken, which was an orange home made chicken ball on rice with fried noodles and sesame seeds. I dont know what the hell I WAS THINKING but i had the chicken fingers with mashed sweet potatoes. I always get the corned beef on rye. Why did i not go with what i know? CRY!




We headed back to the hotel where we had a couple more smokes and relaxed. After about a half hour we headed back out in the other direction to the panasonic theatre.



When we got there we sat in our seat, third row, poncho seating. We got our ponchos on and wrapped the recycled paper string around our heads. Yes, the audience does that. i wasnt alone! the show started up and matt was SO EXCITED he was squeezing my hand! little did matt know, i had another suprise up my sleeves!





The blue man show starts with a red L.E.D message board that makes a couple announcements, which i wont repeat here! too long! but they use people who are really in the audiences name.



MATT HUNT IS ALSO HERE TODAY. MATT IS AN AVERAGE JOE OF NO PARTICULAR DISTINCTION. ALL THE MORE REASON TO GIVE HIM EXTRA ATTENTION RIGHT NOW. LETS ALL TELL MATT WE LOVE HIM!



The audience all at once yells out "WE LOVE YOU MATT". then it read...



"STAND UP MATT SO WE CAN SEE WHERE TO DIRECT OUR LOVE!"



matt jumped up out of his seat and pumped his fists in the air, yelling out in excitement. Then the message board red

"OK MATT SIT DOWN, THAT'S ENOUGH". matt was laughing sooo bad. Then the lights faded and the big water tubed did their thing, and the show went on. I wont tell you what happens in the show but at one point a blue man walked right THROUGH the audience, climbing over the people. Using MATTS HEAD for support! it was delicious! Matt squeezed my hand and laughed and hooted and clapped like mad, shaking his legs like he was 10 again! it was AWESOME!

After the show, covered in recycled paper, we trudged out to the front where we took a picture of the blue man talked to the blue musicians about the show and more.





We skipped excitedly back to the hotel, pumped to the nines and starving again. HOW? i dunno! we got pizza and burgers and headed up to our room where we smoked, talked, pigged out and watched BEERFEST. Then we smoked again, and...went to bed?

The next day we hung out a little more on our precious balcony before heading home.

SEE BLUE MAN GROUP!