spring cleaning

For the past 3 weekends Nuno and I have been doing a spring house cleaning. It's been very intense. We've cleaned the windows, cleaned out the refrigerator, organized drawers & closests, moved every piece of furniture and cleaned & vacuumed it and under it. The finale of this blitz is this weekend in our basement. The basement is huge and seems to have turned into a catch-all since we moved. Right now it's cluttered with all the items that came with our home and decided not to use, tons of artwork and life drawing, cardboard boxes from every purchase we've made since buying the house (why do we keep boxes?) and spare pieces of furniture. Well, what doesn't get sorted into storage is headed to Habitat for Humanity or recycled.
I can't wait till all this is done. Once our house is totally clean we will be ready to focus on our Easter Brunch! More on that later...

cravings and maternity clothes

This week I'm having strong cravings for lunch meat. Last week it was cream cheese and the week before it was fruit smoothies. This latest one concerns me. I swear my body is playing chicken with me because I'm quite aware of the warnings of pregnancy and listera. But I can't feel satisfied without having a Subway sub. So I'm having them toast it and hopefully the heat will better our chances.

I did a lot of shopping for maternity clothes this week. I know, totally silly right? Well, my reasoning behind this is that I want to buy up all the winter items from the stores while they are discounted seeing as how I'll be at my largest in the fall and winter. So this plan has been working out great. I've picked up super cheap maternity clothes at Thyme, Motherhood and Target ($5.00 shirt!).

Being pregnant has made me so happy. I'm almost thinking I'm the happiest I've ever been. I swear it's the hormones or the multi-vitamins but I feel incredible. My thoughts are always so pleasant. I'm so excited, I just love life and am charmed by everything around me. I do a lot of thinking and planning and the future is so bright and happy.
Feeling this way is just so unexpected to me. I anticipated the same old thoughts I've had for the past 15 years - the pain, morning sickness, getting really big. I felt it just couldn't be worth it. Wow, does your perspective ever change. I can't believe the way I thought before this, I'm almost ashamed. But, I had my sister in law say to me, you know when the time is right.

Nuno and I worked together on Sunday dinner dessert of Creme Brulee. They turned out perfect!

I heard you can scorch the top of a creme brulee in the oven under the broiler - but I don't have a lot of faith in that method. I decided that to make creme brulee, I need a torch. Do you think they are easy to find? No. We ended up finding a high quality one at Niagara Kitchen & Restaurant Supply for more than we wanted to pay for it. So it looks like I'll be making loads of meringue pies and brulees to justify this investment.

I've been wanting to talk about my recent discovery of Niagara Kitchen & Restaurant Supply. This store has it all! It's located in the most inconspicuous neighbourhood in St. Catharines, but the place is always busy. It's pretty much Crate and Barrel in Niagara. I even found some items I purchased at C&B there! It's quite high end, and if I'd known about it a few years ago I would have definitely had my bridal registry there.

woah! my pregnancy test is positive *squeeeee!*

Nuno and I decided we wanted to start our family. Who knew it would happen this quickly. Our pregnancy test came back positive today.
I'm not sure how to describe my feeling other than complete shock and excitement. I took 3 tests before this which came back negative. But I know my body and I just knew I was pregnant. So it's a relief to have an answer. Nuno cried at the result - the happy & excited type of cry. It's so very exciting and a little scary not knowing what is to come.

totty can you hear me?

This week Hot Tot went to the vet for flea, heartworm and kennel cough meds. She used to love visiting the vet because she could meet so many people who were willing to love her up as well as meet other dogs. She was always a little ham and enjoys being the centre of attention.
But this time she wasn't too enthusiastic about her visit. She somehow shed half of her fur in fright! It's probably because her last vet visit lead her into an Elizabethan collar.

Unfortunately, she seems to have reoccurring ear infections. The vet gave us drops to administer daily. At night Nuno and I must get together and surprise her with an ear drop attack disguised as a family cuddle.
Poor girl. You know what? She's so good about it.

pizza is easy!

After watching last Thursday's episode of Martha Stewart featuring the owner of Co. Pizza in Chelsea NYC I got inspired to make homemade pizza. It's been a couple years since I've done it and I really don't know why it's been so long. It's so quick and easy when you have a pizza stone.
This time around I picked up a couple really awesome techniques I wanted to share. First is to heat your oven to 500 degrees. This works to get that really rustic thin crust style. Second is to dress your pizza once you've placed your dough on the hot stone. This pizza is a Margarita with homemade tomato sauce, a little mozzarella and basil leaves.

shrove sunday

A co-worker of mine always hosts a pancake lunch every year on Shrove Tuesday. She made crepes and shared me with me the techniques. That night, I rambled on an on to Nuno telling him how delicious and simple it was. My absolute favourite is to squeeze lemon and sprinkle a teaspoon of sugar over the crepe.

So we decided to invest in a crepe pan and have a dessert style crepe buffet this morning.

We had Caramelized Apple Crepes and Bananas Foster Crepes.

They are so delicious.