Posts from — January 2008

I hope you had a safe & happy New Year’s Eve everyone. I had a fun time with some friends out at a pub. We played the 80’s edition of Trivial Pursuit (Canadian edition, although the Canadian questions were few and far between), and had a blast. A nice thing was the fact that the TTC (that’s the public transit company in Toronto for you non-Torontonians) was free from midnight to 4am. Normally it stops at about 1:45am or so, at least the subway does, so this was a really good thing for all the happy partiers. Capital One sponsored the evening, meaning they paid for the free rides, which was great.

Another wonderful part of the evening was that it was snowing! And not a lot, and not nasty snow, but very pretty snow. It wasn’t that cold last night, only about -1 or -2C, so it made it a veritable winter wonderland out there.

Even though it was 1:35am, there sure were a lot of people walking around!

This morning I woke up to this:

And the snow is still falling! Just wonderful. A friend & I were thinking of going to the movies this afternoon, but quite frankly, I don’t know if I want to go outside. Not that it’s cold, and not that the snow is too much to go out, it’s just too pretty, and besides, I don’t really have to go out, so why do it?

Now this morning I’ve gotten up, had breakfast, chopped up some veggies, browned a pot roast and dumped it all in my slow cooker. So tonight I’ll have a nice roast and potatoes n’ veggies for dinner. Yummy! I used my own recipe which is:

1. Chop up a red onion and a bunch of carrots (coarsely).
2. Dump them in the slow cooker.
3. Pour some flour on the roast, pat it in.
4. Heat up a frying pan.
5. Put the roast in the pan for about 90 seconds a side, and brown.
6. Pour some salt and pepper on the veggies in the slow cooker.
7. Add two beef bullion cubes to the pot, along with 1/2 a cup of water.
8. Place the roast on top of the veggies.
9. Add some salt & pepper to the roast.
10. Add some steak seasoning to the roast.
11. Douse the roast with some Worchestershire sauce.
12. Put the lid on the slow cooker and turn it on to high.
13. Wait for yummy goodness to cook up all day.

That’s it folks, it doesn’t take much to make a roast in the slow cooker. This is basically the same recipe I used for some beef stew about a month ago, except with more water & corn starch to thicken up the sauce, but it was tasty, tasty, tasty! Can’t wait to see how this one turns out.

I’ll also be celebrating the new year by watching the NHL Winter Classic, which is a regular season game between two teams outside! This year it’s between the Buffalo Sabres & the Pittsburgh Penguins at Ralph Wilson Stadium in Buffalo. Should be a good game, as the boys get to relive their pond hockey childhoods in front of 70,000 fans. I personally don’t think it should be a regular season game and therefore count in the standings, but of course I’m not the Big Cheese, and so can’t really change that. But it should be fun, as it looks like the weather in Buffalo is cooperating, and it should be pretty good. Not like the first Heritage Classic outdoor game in 2003. That was played in Edmonton, and it was about -15C or so, and that was without the wind chill! Jose Theodore, goalie for the Montreal Canadiens at the time, wore his touque above his goalie mask, it was that cold. He couldn’t really wear anything underneath like the other players, so he figured he’d save some of his body heat with the touque. I actually called up the Bell Centre in Montreal the next day to order mine, and have been putting it to good use ever since.

(That’s me and Christine & Owen on New Year’s Day 2006.)

Once again, I wish you a happy, healthy & safe 2008! Ciao!