My Free Pot Giveaway Experience

I have been absent for some time here.... you know how life gets in the way sometimes, right? OK.... am I forgiven? Great :)

I have spent a great deal of time in my basement... (crawl space in a split level....) As some of you may know, these perfectly usable storage areas in split levels suffer from one major flaw... they become black holes where you just keep adding things... like bankers boxes full of papers you 'need' to keep (read: kids doodles, drawings, paintings, report cards and paid utility bills), clothes that don't fit, decorations for every holiday you celebrate, winter clothes, summer clothes, sporting goods, that old tube TV that you thought you'd keep just in case this new fangled flat screen technology wasn't built to last like they did in the good 'ole days, a couch, a wagon, building materials from a renovation that never quite got finished, touch up paint, a couch, a VERY big spider with fangs and other assorted sundry items... OKAY. Enough, right? You get the idea.
Amidst all of this stuff I discovered an old pot.
I loved this pot. At one point in my life this was my 'go to' pot. It was perfect for boiling water for pasta, making homemade soup and it has held many a mean pot of chili.
Alas, a few years back I bought a new set and this fabulous pot got shuffled into my crawl space only to reappear during my recent purge.
I decided to give it away using kijiji free ads. Seemed simple enough. Post photo with description and wait for people to line up begging for this amazing piece of kitchen cookware.

The ad read something like this:
Single Pot With Lid Seeking New Home
(description)
I will do my best to boil water, heat up sauces and fit neatly into your cupboard.
Pick up only.

Well, it was only moments before my inbox dinged with a potential new owner. He asks if he can immediately come over and claim this pot as his very own. I did get a few other replies, but I tell them the pot has been claimed, but good luck on their quests to find more free cookware.
I gave a perfect stranger my address and basked in the glow of having done a good deed.
So I waited, and waited and waited and waited..... as midnight drew closer, I decided that some major disaster has befallen this nice man and go to sleep praying that he is okay, but deciding that he must have been in a car accident on the way over and is either dead or comatose.
So the next morning I send off an email to a lady who had responded second... I tell her that the pot is still here, you are welcome to have it.... unless of course you've found another... and she quickly replies back saying 'I REALLY need this pot. Thank you so much! I can come and pick it up after work today. Thanks so much, again, I REALLY need this pot. Have a great day!'
So feeling thoroughly pleased I sit back, basking again in the glow of having done a good deed.... thinking everything happens for a reason... the first to respond to the ad surely did not NEED this pot, otherwise he would not have been stricken down on his way over. Yes, this lady NEEDS my pot... she DESERVES to have my pot and she will be oh so happy when she gets it home only to find that it is indeed a fabulous piece of kitchenware, fit for duty!
So I continue on my day of cleaning only to discover that I had more junk (I mean fabulous stuff) to get rid of. I get out my camera and take a photo of my daughters old bike and realize that the original picture of the pot was dark and dingy, taken in my basement, so while my camera is out I quickly snap another shot of the pot.... why, you ask? Well here's the deal.... I have a little web store, where I pride myself on taking great photos.... I think they are great, I realize that my opinion is simply that, but nevertheless I wanted to show this nice lady who needed my pot so badly a better photo so she could see what she was getting, y'know... just in case she checked the ad again before she came over and decided it didn't look so great in the dingy low light basement photo...  ok, so I'm a little neurotic... I wanted her to see the pot shiny and bright in the light of day!!! (and hey, I was listing another item on kijiji so it didn't seem like such a big deal to simply swap the photo to a better one while I was already logged on!)

This is the better quality picture (still not my best work, but much better than the original!)

This turned out to be a terrible choice on my part because moments later I received a very terse email reading 'I thought you were giving me the pot. Why did you repost it? Have a great day!' I reply, 'I am holding the pot for you, I thought you would like to see a better photo of it :)' Another ding in my inbox. 'Well why did you repost it? Seems like you are trying to give my pot to someone else. Have a great day!' Again, I reply (but with more detail regarding my perfectionism with photos and my embarrassment at posting such a lousy photo to begin with) 'I am saving the pot for you, and only you. It is going to be your pot. I am not trying to give it away to anybody else. Looking forward to you coming over to get your new pot.' Ding! Inbox again... 'Well it seems like you are trying to give it to someone else so I don't want your pot. Have a great day!' I was crestfallen. Sad. Tears welled up in my eyes for the rejection my perfectly good pot was receiving from this woman.... but confused because she kept telling me to have a great day.... did she think my day could still be great when she had crushed my dreams of giving this lonely pot a new home? Then I was suddenly angry! Like a mama bear protecting her cub I furiously smashed down on the mouse.... I replied: 'Well I don't want you having it anyways!' I resisted the urge to tell her to have a great day.

Spring!!!

Wow, not a lot of time to post here... not a lot of time to make fabulous meals and desserts either :(

But it's spring today!!! Yay!

My Mom is a bit sad today.... it's the day her Dad, my Grandfather, passed away. He was the most amazing man I've ever met and I find myself forever comparing other men to him... I know I shouldn't. It's not really fair... but I do it. He was amazingly handy (I thought all men were until I started dating!)... he had a gentle nature about him with those he loved and could sometimes come off a little gruff.. though I rarely saw that side of him. I have such wonderful memories of him and am blessed to have had him in my life. Sending out a virtual hug to my Mom today (gently).

In other news I have finally found a reputable source for rough diamonds... pretty unassuming in the rough eh? I know that others could have done it in less time than it took me.... but I researched carefully in the time that I had. Having an online 'gig' is great when there's time but I find that my real life has been very full lately (which is really nice).

Charlie's birthday was on Saturday... he was a rescue so we got to pick his birthday! We knew approximately how old he was but didn't have an exact date when we got him. So the girls and I put our heads together and picked March 17th. He is now 2.

Carnitas a la Ange

We've had it pretty easy this winter. Although everyone said spring's coming, I knew that winter was coming back with a vengeance. It's baaaaaaaaack.... So I stumbled upon a blog entry on Smitten Kitchen for carnitas and instantly knew that I had to make some. Not only did they look yummy, but I knew right away that I could modify the recipe to a crockpot version that would make my house smell delicious and keep my kitchen warm all day long.
Fueled by the ingredients I have on hand I set out to make my own tasty version.

1 pork shoulder roast

3 blood oranges
6 navel oranges
2 limes

2 tsp cumin
3 Chipotle peppers in adobe sauce

8 cloves garlic

1 tsp sea salt
1 dash cinnamon

Cut roast into cubes.
Juice the citrus fruits and add spices to juice. Add garlic and chipotle peppers. Stir and taste. Adjust seasonings to taste.
Place pork into crock pot and add the citrus concoction.

Turn your cooker to low and let cook for 6-8 hours until meat is fall apart tender. Please don't stir it and fuss with it... You want the meat in chunks, not shredded... Unless that's how you like it.
At this point the meat could very well be served up on tortillas... But traditional carnitas have browned, caramelized meat on the outside and fall apart tender meat on the inside... So my solution is to gently pick the meat up and place it on a lightly greased cookie sheet... Then broil it for 7-10 minutes rotating it gently a few times along the way.
Serve this yumminess on tortillas with the condiments of your choosing. I chose to make a cabbage and apple slaw.

Super Yum not Superbowl

So I'm not a big fan of football in general, but Superbowl Sunday fuels a desire in me to find something else to do... Like cooking! Or sleeping... I  spent some time this week looking through recipe files and trying to find enough recipes to keep me occupied leading up to the big event, and filling enough to keep me comatose while the actual event happened..... So this is what I made: yogurt, pita bread, chicken shawarma, hummous, falafel, garlic sauce and a yummy yogurt tahini sauce...  Oh yah... I cooked way too many chickpeas so with the leftovers I whipped up some crunchy candied chickpeas.... Super yummy...
Since I'm too full to think coherently I will have to post recipes later.. But here are some photos of my hard work :-)

A Beef Jerky Kind of Day

The weather here in Calgary has not been kind this last week... After weeks of balmy unseasonably warm temperatures and no snow, we got hit hard with frigid -29 and colder days along with a few inches of snow.  After what seemed like forever (only 5 wicked days) we got the news that Saturday was going to be a welcome relief at only -12.
In anticipation of some tobogganing weather, I decided to prepare some yummy snacks to take along and keep us fueled for the inevitable, repeated trips up the hill. First thing that came to mind was beef jerky.
A little prep goes a long way when toboganning with kids... having snacks and drinks ready to go makes a couple of hours at the hill a breeze!

Here is my recipe for a yummy jerky marinade:
3/4 cup soy sauce
3/4 cup Worcestershire
1 Tbsp garlic powder
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 Tbsp coarse ground black pepper
1 Tbsp liquid smoke (I like the mesquite with this recipe, but have used hickory which was nice too)
1 Tbsp tobasco or your favorite hot sauce (totally optional)

Mix all ingredients together and pour over thinly sliced meat (I use beef, but this would also work for deer, elk or moose)
Marinate overnight and then dehydrate in your oven or dehydrator at 160 F.
I slice my meat around 1/8 of an inch thick and it is finished dehydrating in about 3 hours.

This is a super awesome energy boost when out toboganning, hiking, camping or even when you're sacked out playing video games.
I served mine with hot chocolate :-)

Enjoy!

Getting Coloured On... AKA Tattoos

Permanent art... Some people like them... Some people hate them. I love them! Well, I love mine... Good thing, cause they are permanent. I just had some work done this afternoon and thought i'd share it with.... The Entire World.

My Salsa Doesn't Come From A Jar.

So I was just whipping Up some salsa and thought... Hey! I downloaded a mobile blog app on my phone so I'm going to attempt to use It! Weird... It capitalizes strange things... Anyways... Salsa is my favorite condiment, and i'm not talking about the somewhat homoginous (yeesh how is that word spelled?) Stuff that comes out of dusty jars on a grocers shelf. I mean the good stuff!
So here's my recipe(ish). Play with It. Taste It. Make adjustments to your liking.

This time I used:
2 mangoes
2 tomatoes
1 onion
2 limes (just the juice)
1 yellow pepper
1 small bunch of cilantro
And this is Dead simple... Chop Up the ingredients... Squeeze lime juice over it and mix. Taste. Add salt & pepper if you like. Add a jalepeno... I didn't because the kids don't like it like that.
I've used peaches or upped the tomato and omitted the fruit. Whetever you like. Just enjoy. Serve with tortilla chips or over chicken.