Family Breakfast

Every Saturday morning we head to the Talisman restaurant for breakfast with our friends. This leaves Sunday for a family breakfast at home; it may be less glamorous, but it is delicious none the less. A typical Sunday breakfast is coffee (with lots of Bailey's, of course), eggs, mystery meat from the fridge and potatoes. The boy gets a slightly modified meal, with more meat, eggs and no coffee; he's just a little young for the caffeine.

In my humble opinion, it's the potatoes that make or break the meal, so I've spent years trying to perfect breakfast taters. Here is what I've come up with:

Perfect Pan Fried Potatoes

• Potatoes (Yukon Gold are my favorite)
• Olive Oil
• Salt
• Pepper (I love using the pepper they sell for seasoning steak)

The ingredients are simple enough, so as you might suspect, it's the cooking that makes this dish yummilicious. Take out your cast iron frying pan, or oven friendly skillet and heat it on the stove at medium-high. Add a couple glugs of olive oil and dump in your cut up potatoes. As the potatoes are cooking in the skillet, turn the oven to 450 degrees. Cook the potatoes on the stove until the oven is pre-heated then slip them into the oven for about 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, pull the skillet out of the oven (with your oven mitts...seems obvious, but I've made this mistake before and I have the burn marks to prove it) and put it back on the stove top on high. Crisp up your potatoes for about 5 minutes on the stove top. This is the key to success, breakfast potatoes need to be crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. This can be assisted by remaining distracted throughout the process. Leaving the potatoes a little too long without flipping them will give them a great crispiness...just don't forget them entirely and burn them. Serve them piping hot to your husband and dog and reap the compliments (from the husband, not the dog).

As you can see, everyone is satisfied after breakfast and ready for a lazy day.

Sierra posted this on Apr 29, 2007 from the kitchen | | permanent link

The Garden in Spring

I realize this doesn't look like much of a garden. In fact, it looks much more like a sloppy, slobby mess. And while I am definitely a slob (yes, that is a pair of skis in the corner), the yard is not actually as bad as it looks. In fact, it's the product of much thought and effort.

Today was the first of many garden clean-up days. The straw strewn all over the lawn was used to mulch my perennials and keep them warm and cozy through out the winter. Every day, I investigate the beds to see if there's been more melting and I can pull off a little more straw. I'm trying to clear the straw as quickly as possible, so that the dark dirt can absorb lots of sun and heat and make my little plants grow. I'm attempting to hurry nature along by covering some of the beds with leftover roof from the greenhouse (that corrugated fiberglass stuff). I'm not sure if this will prove to be successful, but I figure it is worth a try. As soon as the other beds clear off, I'll probably cover them with some plastic and try a makeshift greenhouse

It's not quite May, but already I have some delphiniums poking out of the ground and, the big surprise of the garden, is a tulip that looks like it may have actually survived the winter. In a couple more weeks the backyard should be well on its way to summer glory.

Sierra posted this on Apr 29, 2007 from the garden | | permanent link

A Hint of Summer...

Look what I discovered while cleaning up the backyard. It's the beginnings of a Maltese Cross and the first hint that the perennials are getting ready for summer.

Sierra posted this on Apr 22, 2007 from the garden | | permanent link

B-I-N-G-O

It's Friday night, which means only one thing...Radio TV Bingo! I admit, for years I have cursed Radio TV Bingo for hijacking every radio station in Whitehorse. There is nothing more annoying that turning the dial to your favorite - and by favorite I mean preferred - radio station, only to hear the sound of bingo balls rustling around. Not surprisingly, rustling bingo balls sound a lot like annoying static. In any other city, you could just change the dial and enjoy actual music, but in Whitehorse every single station is dominated by bingo.

This week I was able to set my radio rage aside because I had the pleasure of participating in Radio TV Bingo. Turns out things have changed since second grade, and bingo isn't quite as easy as I remember. The first major change is the fact that instead of playing one bingo card, you are faced with 18 cards that have to be played simultaneously. As if this wasn't tough enough, there are all sorts of interesting shapes that need to be made before you actually call a bingo. Butterflies, Zs, Ys and frames have replaced the simple lines of my youth. Bingo is actually a very challenging Friday night activity, further complicated by bottles of wine.

Despite the complexity of the evening, Bingo Night was all-in-all an incredible success. We spent $100 on bingo cards and came out with a $75 liquor store bill and no winnings. Some may see this as a financial loss, but my wine-fueled mathematics come up with fairly positive results.

Sierra posted this on Apr 21, 2007 from the livingroom | | permanent link

Life Without a Computer...

You don't realize how much you rely on a computer until it's no longer at your disposal. This week our computer was out of commission due to a busted power cord. Now don't get me wrong - I didn't actually have to cope without a computer, I still had a computer at my disposal for the entire working day. Unfortunately for me, and fortunately for the taxpayers of Canada, my workplace network doesn't actually allow me to search all those guilty pleasure websites that I enjoy so much. So, for the past week I've lived without Facebook and amazingly enough I've discovered that you can actually have friends without a computer screen in front of you and conversations can occur over the telephone, or even in person.

So, what has happened in the past week? Unfortunately, not much. Spring has arrived in the Yukon and teh smell of thawing dog poop wafts through the, not quite warm, spring air. The trails around Whitehorse and mucky and slushy and unfit for walking, biking or running. While I wait for the trails to dry out, I've been riding to work on the road and had the pleasure to experience the incredible rudeness of Whitehorse drivers. So far this year, I've almost lost my life to drivers who are too busy gabbing on their cell phone to stay in their lane and been subjected to honking and swearing from those who don't believe that bikes should be on the road (even when they are in the bike lane). I'm trying to come up with a positive solution to cope with bad Yukon drivers, but so far I've been forced to grin and bear it and hope it improves as the summer gets closer and more bikes join me on the road.

Tomorrow night is TV Radio Bingo night at my place - I'll be sure to blog after I win the $8000.

Sierra posted this on Apr 20, 2007 from the livingroom | | permanent link

Runner's Down

Today is a sad day for Mrs. North of Sixty; her goal of running the Calgary marathon on July 8th seems to be slowly slipping away. It hasn't been for lack of will, or lack of desire, just a pesky knee injury that doesn't want to go away

For the last 4 weeks my left knee hasn't been enjoying runs and today a trip to the physiotherapist ended with the suggestion that I postpone plans for an early summer marathon. I'm tempted to ignore the advice and keep going through my training plan, but I'm slightly concerned about the potential long term consequences of that choice. The only advantage of postponing the marathon is that it would let me do more serious training for the Kluane-Chilkat bike relay and the Whitehorse triathlon. I'm going to try to focus my energy on having strong finishes for those two events, and then run the Victoria marathon in October. This should give me a couple weeks to rest my knee and do some much needed physiotherapy.

So, the new goals for the summer are as follows: the completion of an Olympic triathlon (1 mile swim, 40 km bike, 10 km run) in under 3:15; finishing the second half of the Kluane Chilkat in under 5 hours; then completing the Victoria marathon in 4:40. If I can do these three things I will be a very happy (and tired) girl.

Sierra posted this on Apr 10, 2007 from the outside | | permanent link

Snagging Rabbits

It's Easter - for millions of people around the world, today is the most important day of their religious calendar. I, celebrate this day as the only day of the year where the random chocolates I find hidden between the couch cushions aren't stale and covered with dog hair. In fact, this Easter, I realized that if chocolates were hidden around the house all year round, I might be more inclined to clean on a regular basis.

In celebration of chocolate day and the collateral cleaning that accompanied it, we threw a dinner party . There is nothing quite like celebrating good food and wine with your closest friends - especially when one of them is a chef. Antonio brought over some truly spectacular appetizers, including the best meat wrapped meat (that isn't a typo - it was indeed meat wrapped with more meat) I've ever had. We followed up the fabulous starters with lamb, risotto and roasted potatoes. A meal that seems to have become the Sierra standard for dinner guests. The most exciting part of the meal, for me at least, were the desserts. I decided to try out an interesting recipe I saw a couple of months ago. It was simple to make and loads of fun to eat:

Wonton Mini-Pies

• Wonton wrappers (near the oriental noodles at the grocery store)
• Whipping cream
• Pie filling (home-made or store bought)

I made these using pumpkin pie filling and the green tomato mincemeat canned this fall (the best use of green tomatos I've ever found). Any pie filling recipe will suffice, although I find that the pumpkin pie is particularly delicious with the whipping cream. Put one Tablespoon of pie filling into the center of the wonton. Fold the wonton into a triangle, using a tiny bit of water to seal the edges. Brush with butter and sprinkle with sugar/cinnamon Pop them into a preheated oven at 400F. Leave them in for about 10 minutes, or until golden brown. Serve on a plate with a bowl of whipping cream. Let the guests dip the wonton pies into the whipping cream and enjoy! Be careful, the pies are piping hot when they come out of the oven. I wish I had pictures, but they were eaten before I had time to get a photo.

Sierra posted this on Apr 09, 2007 from the kitchen | | permanent link