Smart Food

A nice Valentine Dinner :)

This year was our first Valentine with both our sons. Even though it's Valentine's Day everyday in our home, we love to use that special day as an excuse to dress up and dine in a fine restaurant, and splurge into some extravagant new flavors we wouldn't normally eat everyday. This year, with a toddler and a baby, it was harder to leave the house, find a sitter, not worry, and sprint back home to make sure everyone was ok.

My sweet hubby came home with a bouquet of twenty red roses. He chose that number of flowers because I was twenty years old when we met. He then offered to cook us a nice dinner and had it all planned ahead of time. Now, THAT was special because he normally wouldn't consider himself as a cook. The dinner turned out to be FABULOUS! I was blown away and so did all my taste buds. It was a scrumptious rack of lamb marinated with thyme, mint, rosemary, sea salt, black pepper, plenty of garlic and extra virgin olive oil. He served it with a side of Potato Purée au Gratin and some Butter and Garlic Dijon Green Beans. I was so proud of him that he pulled off such a nice dish!

I must say, it was a great Valentine evening and the best gift I could get: I got a break from the kitchen, both kids were in bed early, and so were we. For the tired and sleepy mom that I am these days, I couldn't have wished for a better outcome. Thank you my love for all these special attentions. I am so grateful that he still puts so much energy into taking care of me, even after over a decade already. We celebrate our love everyday, but on Valentine's Day, it is our time to celebrate all the little attentions we have for each other and emphasize on them on that special day.

On that note, Happy Valentine's Week and I hope that everyone had a special someone they got to take care of, and vice versa. :)

Free Range Chicken and Cacao!!

Who said TV was junk food for the brain?! Unless all you watch is Jersey Shore or those type of shows...

We just discovered Portlandia over the week-end. My mind got blown away by this astounding witty and clever show mocking all kind of hipsters. Their acting and parody are SO accurate. I could recognize all my hipster friends though their dialogue. I absolutely LOVE this show and cannot believe it took us this long to tune in. For those who's been watching it, that episode where they put a bird on everything gave me chills..as I discovered, as much as I enjoyed mocking hipsters, that I was one myself at some levels. Yikes! He he he. I also never realized how much Montreal ad Portland's liberal mentality were similar... This show is brilliant!

Sparkling Water vs Spring Water

Sparkling water can surely add some fun fizz to our palate, but once the fizz is gone, all there is left is a tart-tasting water. Water is way more versatile, cleansing and quenching (as long as it being kept fresh).

I once heard a woman talking about her divorce and said "He was my best friend, but after being married for twenty plus years, the spark wasn't there anymore".

I don't think she tossed away two decades of great chemistry with her best friend solely over an absence of spark. If that is the case, 'tis a very sad ending for such a nice relationship. They most likely had deeper problems because, to divorce over a lack of sparks? Really? Does that mean that she would rather start all over with a stranger just for the spark and renounce on her "best friend"? Maybe he wasn't such a great friend after all...And when she refers to the spark, does she mean the physical attraction only?

Spring water, as dull as it may seem, is so quenching and just as strong, if not stronger. Instead of always trying to keep that initial spark, why not focus on transforming or molding the relationship together? How about keeping the relationship fresh like spring water by remaining connected, trusting and playful with each other? Sadly too often enough, people see the first crack on their water glass, but wait too long before addressing the problem, and let the water spill all over the place.

Sparks bring people together, but it is not what should keep them together. It is just the initial stage of love. Well at least, in my belief. "From a little spark bursts a mighty flame." Real love is the Art of mastering that mighty flame, keep it alive, and controlled so that all the emotions, strong or weak, are kept safe and channeled the proper way. Too much fire can burn the entire relationship in whole, and not enough fire can freeze the room, create a distance and make everything cold.

Sparkling or Spring Water, even when all the water seems to have disappeared, it simply changed its form and can return to water...It does not mean it is completely lost, especially when so much water had time to accumulate through time...

Coq au Vin people really need to eat some humble pie...

"Whatever makes us feel superior to other people, whatever tempts us to convey a sense of superiority, that is the gravity of our sinful nature, not grace. " Phillip Yancey

Haven't we all met obnoxious people with manifestations of a superiority complex? I try to tune off their behavior, especially when they fish so blatantly for compliments. I already promised my grandmother that I would never go fishing, since she believed it would take away some brownie points from my karma. (the whole killing a living thing with my bare hands sort-of-thing)... :P Ok, I digress...

The sad part about people with a superiority complex is that beneath that proud golden crust lies a gooey person who truly suffered from an inferiority complex and decided to act superior to mask his inferiority. Overcompensating a flaw just makes it worst most of the time. Even when they know they feel miserable from within, it doesn't seem to stop them from acting arrogant. I find their attitude very appalling but at least, I try not to let it drain me anymore.

It is wonderful to feel a new sense of confidence, but not to confuse it with arrogance. Looking at ourselves in the mirror does not mean gloating at our reflection and looking down on others, but seeing our true self and working on strengthening our weaknesses. Or at least, learn to bake and eat some humble pie...

A Carrot of Hope

A cute article one of my dearest friend sent me on New Years Day as a message of hope for 2012. :)

Sweden: Wedding ring 'found on carrot' after 16 years

Lena Paahlsson had long ago lost hope of finding the ring, which she designed herself, reports Dagens Nyheter.A Swedish woman has discovered her wedding ring on a carrot growing in her garden, 16 years after she lost it, says a newspaper.

The white-gold band, set with seven small diamonds, went missing in her kitchen in 1995, she told the paper.

Although the ring no longer fits, she hopes to have it enlarged so she can wear it again.

Mrs Paahlsson and her family live on a farm near Mora in central Sweden.

She took the ring off to do some Christmas baking with her daughters, but it disappeared from the work surface where it had been left, she explained to Dagens Nyheter.

The family searched everywhere and years later took up the tiling on the floor during renovations, in the hope of finding the ring.

It was not until 16 years later when Mrs Paahlsson was pulling up carrots in her garden that she noticed one with the gold band fastened tightly around it.

The couple believe the ring fell into a sink back in 1995 and was lost in vegetable peelings that were turned into compost or fed to their sheep."The carrot was sprouting in the middle of the ring. It is quite incredible," her husband Ola said to the newspaper.

"I had given up hope," Mrs Paahlsson told Dagens Nyheter, adding that she wanted to have the ring adjusted to fit her.

"Now that I have found the ring again I want to be able to use it," she said.

Thanks to my dear Daphney for sharing this article with me. ♥ ♥ ♥

Cleaning our Fridge ☺

Good riddance 2011. Welcome 2012. Time to clean our fridges. Every year, we get a new chance to reset and start fresh. Out with the old, in with the new. I don't really believe in resolutions, since we should be at our best most of the time but I do believe in cleaning my Love Cake refrigerator. It's a great thing to preserve my fresh and relevant Love Cake ingredients, but not everything that accumulates in there needs to be kept.

On January first, it's time for me to "clean my soul". On that day, I try not to spend too much money, make choices according to what I believe to be virtuous, and talk or meet only those who are truly important in my life.

As I clean my fridge, I like to take that time to introspect and also re-evaluate my surroundings. How did I grow since last year? How did I transform? Who helped me grow and were by my side? Cleaning the fridge often means finding spoiled food in the way back of a sticky shelf....

It's a great time to trash what we need to trash, and filter all the elements that are not enriching our lives in any form, whether it's in our state of mind, relationships or anything really. This year, I tried to get rid of the clutter in my house, in my fridge, in my mind and in my social life. We accumulate so many things, and even people through our lives and after a while, those can drag you down and drain you instead of uplift you.

I like to think that a good smooth first day of the year will mean the rest will be smooth as well. I will admit having my own double standard, as I will ignore this belief if the first day of the year turns into a catastrophe. Then, I will rationalize it by saying all the bad had to get out of the way on the first day so that the rest of the year can be blissful. I am not a half glass empty type of person, nor a half glass full neither. I like to think the glass is completely full : half with water and half with air. I will have all the superstitions I can as long as it helps me remain positive.

I hope you enjoy your cleaning and have a great fresh start for this year. :)