Some good deals and SOAP MAKING!

Tonight KT and I had some random adventures! First we went to Winners and found some DEALS!!! WHOOOOOP!!! DEALS!!!!

 A couple of sweet black frames. The big one is by Valerie Bertinnelli or however she spells her name. Who is she anyways? What was she in? Who cares about her? I like the frame though.

 The one on the left had a small imperfection and KT encouraged me to mention it to get a discount. Totally worked and I got 4 box off. Thank you KT and your thrifty sensibilities.

 A pretty wooden spoon. I like cooking with a good wooden spoon.

 The cutest easel ever! Obvs I was gonna buy this.

 This box is why we went to Winners in the first place, KT had it and she said that I need one too. I LOVE THIS BOX! There is glitter all over it and kittens dancing on the side. So pretty.

 A ruffley photo album. If you need a different looking photo album, go to Winners, lots of nice albums.

This rockin' Sippy cup for adults! Another thing KT suggested I buy. I drink SO much water these days cause it takes nothing for me to get dehydrated, damn cancer drugs, so I need to always have water nearby! I thought these were "faggy" before I saw this one.

We went to Micheals after Winners, and found MORE DEALS there! WOWWWWW

 A COCK CALENDER!

12 COCKS, ONE FOR EVERY MONTH OF THE YEAR! BIG COCKS, RED COCKS, SMALL COCKS, PRETTY COCKS, ALL FINE COCKS!

Haha, I couldn't resist that. 

I got two, one for home and one for work. 

Thems some fine lookin' cocks.

I paid $4 for two.

KT and I also picked up a gigantic container of glycerine on sale for SOAP MAKING!!!

It was almost 6o bucks on sale for like 30. So we picked up that bad boy and took it home to melt in into soap!

Now I can't give away our the secrets of our alchemy, but we melted down the glycerine in a bowl over a pot of boiling water, added shea butter and rose petals, then secret witchy oils to make em smell purdy. Kt bought a mould of roses to pour the soap in, to make them look like roses. 

Here are our beauties:

We will be buying new moulds to make other shapes.

So the Dudesons is on and their crazy shenanigans are distracting me!
I need a little time to be a lazy sod and watch tv, eat cheeseball and mangoes.

Stay tuned I will be making sweet potato fries in the next couple of days, and I'll be posting that recipe!

-E.

Sacred Stew

So, last night I made beef stew for ten people. Ten of the very best people I know. These lucky folks got to get "stewed", it is was delicious. This is a Joy of cooking recipe, and I've been making it for a few years now in the winter, I have copied the Joy of cooking recipe, but added my own notes in red because I've added things and taken things out over the years. Great for warming you up, and perfect to give the hubby in his lunch bag. This recipe makes 6-8 servings, but you can adjust it to make less or more.

INGREDIENTS

• 2 lbs. boneless stewing beef, cut into cubes
• 1 teaspoon dried herbs (thyme, marjoram, savory, oregano, and/or basil) (I recommend lots of oregano, and use fresh basil at the end before you serve it.)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground pepper
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 cup chopped onions
• 1/4 cup chopped carrots
• 1/4 cup chopped celery
• 1/4 cup chopped leeks (optional)
• 2 tablespoons chopped garlic (optional) (Put the garlic in. I do four cloves.)
• 2 bay leaves (Personally, I am not a huge fan of the flavour of the bay leaf in this stew. If you know you like the taste of bay leaf, but if you don't cook with them all the time I wouldn't recommend using them.)
• 2 to 3 cups beef or chicken stock, dry red or white wine or beer ( I do it with half stock of choice, and half wine. Make sure it's a dry red wine, a cheap Cabernet Sauvignon will do just fine.)
• 2 to 3 carrots, peeled and cut into 1 inch chunks
• 3 or 4 boiling potatoes, peeled and cut into 1 inch chunks
• 2 turnips, peeled and cut into 1 inch chunks...( I have never put turnips in this stew, turnips are yucky. But put em in if you fancy a turnip.)
• I have added yams into this recipe. I find that they give the stew that really delicious flavour where people say, What is that taste? I would put two yams sliced thin so they turn to mush and become a part of the broth. It thickens up the stew and makes it ultra "stewy".
• 2 parsnips, peeled and cut into 1 inch chunks ( I sometimes omit the parsnips, but I like their sweet flavour. If you are gonna add them I'd cut down the carrots, that way the stew doesn't get too sweet.)

Green beans! I always add them in the last ten minutes. Throw a handful of those on in that stew now ya heard!

DIRECTIONS

• 1
  Pat the meat dry and season with 1/2 of the dried herbs, salt and pepper. Dredge in the flour and shake off any excess.

  
  

  

  
  
• 2
  Heat the oil in a dutch oven over medium high heat. Add the meat in batches and brown on all sides, being careful not to crowd the pan or scorch the meat. Remove with a slotted spoon. Pour off all but 2 tablespoons of fat from the pan (add more if needed). (I really don't think I even know what a dutch oven is, but I just use one of my Henkel pots!)

  
  

  

  
  

  
  
• 3
  Add the chopped onions, carrots, celery, leeks, and garlic. Cover and cook, stirring often, over medium heat until the onions are softened, about 5 minutes.

  
  

  

  
  
• 4
  Add the bay leaves, remaining dried herbs, salt, pepper, cooked meat and enough stock to cover the meat at least halfway.

  
  
• 5
  Bring to a boil. Reduce the heat, cover, and simmer over low heat until the meat is fork-tneder, 1 1/2 to 2 hours.
• 6
  Add the chunked carrots, potatoes, yams, turnips and parsnips. Cover and cook until the vegetables are tender, 35 to 40 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and skim off any fat from the surface. Taste and adjust the seasonings.

  
  

  

  
  

  I also like to add green beans ten minutes before it's done, slap those beans on in there!
  

  

  I usually thicken it up at the end by adding a little cold water to corn starch and cold water, then turning it up to high and pouring a little in there. Stir for five to ten mins and you are ready to serve your STEW!!! By this time, you would have made your guests sit for three hours and they are drunk and hungry, some are angry. (KT) I suggest serving it with buns in case someone wants a stew sandwich or two ( Mike) . YUM YUM YOU BET!!!

Source: Joy of Cooking

So follow my delicious recipe and I promise you will one day have your own stew party! Lots of happy folks full of stew!!!

 A Strange dark pic of Charlen, KT and her zombie lover Mike.

 Slim approving stew, his lovely lady Elaine and my husband who dislikes being photographed. They came for STEWWWW

Lucas rode in on his horse for STEW!!!

So I stopped taking pics at this point cause I was balls deep in stew and after stew I was too tired from stew, I just need time to be warm and stewy for a while.
I suggest you get stewy too!!!

 Feel free to email me if you have questions about the sacred stew.
e.welshie@gmail.com

-E.

Hanging at the parents, strange yogurt, running

My parents are in Vegas so I get to take care of their Kitties!

I don't mind lying around their place eating their hummus watching their TV and smoking weed in their basement. Mittsy is a super cute, super crazy kitten who runs into and up walls, and just wants to play all the time. Old Rosie girl is off sleeping somewhere warm, and Mittsy lives to torment her. Ol' Row swats at little crazy boy and gives him a warning growl. That's pretty much what happens all day in that house.

Mittsy in a rare moment of stillness

 Mittsy thinking about going for a fly

Mittsy running up the cabinet

 Mittsy having a brief snooze before resuming mission Terrorize.

 ROSIE!! AKA OL' ROW

 So, you gotta raid the fridge. There was very little of interest but there was soy yogurt which is like sorbet to my mom, as she doesn't eat dairy or sugar, so I thought I'd try it out.

 I couldn't eat it. The texture was just not right, it seemed like it would make me gassy and it was clumpy and yucky. Sorry mum, I just couldn't eat it.

Next is some cable Tv watchin'

Obligatory bathroom mirror vanity shot!

 More bathroom VANITY SHOTS!!

Time to go

(Just kidding, I'm captain sober for a few weeks. I didn't take my dads wine ;))

So I have decided I need to get back to running. I really got into running a few years ago and found I started to love it.  When I was running I felt like I was in good shape, and loved the way it feels to blast music and just give'er. So good!

Problem is right now I lack the motivation.

Intron a raped me of motivation to exercise. 

It's just that jarring movements will make me ill, 

and sweating makes me nauseous,

my muscles hurt on a regular basis, they hurt more after exercise.

One thing that I thought yesterday that may be enough to get my ass off the couch, is to organize a run for Melanoma research. I think it would be cool to do it and hopefully get attention from the media, get people thinking about this disease!!!

Anyways, I am off to KT'S for a couple of hours, she has some witchy new products she wants to show me... 

Tomorrow is stew night! I'll be making stew for some dear friends. I am going to be balls deep in stew. It will be delicious and there will be a recipe up soon. I can't give you the recipe yet or you'll make your own delicious stew and all my friends will go to your stew party and love you forever! 

Stay warm!!!

-E. 

Sephora, Shrimp cracker, Limbo

Ok, just for Angie, here is the rest of my Sephora Spree !!!

 So KT has always raved about this lip balm, and I was always too cheap to shell out $26 for it. I finally caved and she was right, it is the best!

 So I have been having incredibly sensitive skin lately, rashy and dry and ouch. I read about this stuff and thought I'd give it a try. So far so good.

 OMG LOVE THIS STUFF! It's a dry oil mist that makes your hair super soft and shiny and tamed. Smells good too! 

KT made me buy this solid perfume ring cause it was on sale and it could be like our friendship rings. It is so heavy. But pretty awesome.

So today I slept in then when to mail a wedding album to my Grandma in Ontario, then I stopped into Edmonton's Best Custom Tattoo Shop

CAPITAL TATTOO!

YOU WANT THIS GIRL TO DO YOUR TATTOO!

JESSASAURUS REX!!!

Then I went to John's place to eat a falafel Jer made and smoke a doobie. We went to Gay Church (watching an episode of Golden Girls) and went to Wal Mart for general sundries - cheapest place in town to get paper towels, laundry detergent, soap and whatnot. Love those deals. I also found big bags of SHRIMP CRACKER on sale! OMG I LOVE SHRIMP CRACKER! 

Now most people I tell about these get a throughly disgusted look on their faces but they are SOOO GOOD! Super addictive too. So don't eat any of these unless you are prepared to gain a few pounds cause they are so hard to stop stuffing in your mouth.  I bet Mrs. Angie Leashures Loves them though because..... she's Asian.....

In other news!

I can't stop thinking about this new game I got on the app store called  LIMBO. My brother Daley told me about a dark game that was haunting his soul and I knew I had to play this. Just look it up right now.

I am not going to tell you all about it, you go discover it for yourself. Definitely haunts my soul. 

ME TODAY! WITH BLACKBERRY JUICE ON MY FACE!

Big, fat, juicy blackberries. 

-E.

NYE wedding and other stuff

So, my last entry was drunken at 3 am, Francesca and Ryan's New Years Eve wedding was a blast. Matt and I came home round one thirty and we kept partying here. It was a beautiful ceremony that I don't have pics of, but here are a few from the party, courtesy of the photo booth!

 Kirsten and I 

 The Beautiful Bride Mrs. Francesca Roznicki

 Me and my charming husband

From left: Alicia, Daley, My masked man and myself. That's KiKi's creepy head in the background!

I was feeling good all night and the wine was tasting especially delicious I gotta say, I had myself a good time. I recall dancing FOR the DJ and my brother Daley doing a solo performance of Oklahoma for the entire wedding, the Rice Crispy cake, and ruining my makeup by crying during the ceremony and first dance! Overall, it was a cute and super fun wedding. I should also mention they had a mashed potato bar, complete with all the fixin's including chill. There was also jalepeno poppers. Yessir!

Yesterday was spent recovering, although I have felt worse after a night of being a wine afficianato, I ate a donair and I felt better. Amazing, I swear that's why donair shops never close, they have to stay open cause someone somewhere any day of the week needs them a greasy meat slab covered in sweet delicious sauce to bring them back from the dead after drinking all night. 

I took yet another day off work and decided to go shopping. Yes, life is pretty rad at the moment. I have gift certificates and enjoy spending them. I went into Sephora to use my GC from Matt's Mom, and of course wound up spending an extra 100 bucks on top of it! I won't post all my products on here but, I must show off my new eyeshadow palette! Be jealous!

Now I don't usually buy Kat Von D makeup cause I don't completely support her whole bringing tattoos into mainstream culture but I have had my eye on this palette for quite sometime. The colours are so pretty IT HAD TO BE MINE!!!

WANNA SEE SOME CATS?!

 Sabbath, aka Princess Sabbie

She is chilly but wants to hang out and wait for bugs.

 Salem, he's a little less adventurous than Sabbie. He's somewhat timid, my cute boy.

My glowing eyed puss

HERE'S MY ALBUM OF THE WEEK!

Jeff Martin of The Tea Party has a solo project, and I highly recommend this album. A mix of dark rock and middle eastern melodies, it is truly a beautiful album. GO CHECK IT OUT!

Anyways, Beavis and Butthead is on, and I laugh my ass off to this show, I gotta go.
I'll be back soon to inform you of my shenanigans this week!

-E.

Drudkh- Microcosmos

I am so into this album right now. Ukrainian Folk/Black Metal. Man I am so in love with the melodies and progressiveness of this band, they push the boundaries and really create an atmosphere with their music. I love all their albums but this one is intense. Even if you aren't a metaller listen to this for a while and I promise you will melt into this music, it is truly beautiful.

http://youtu.be/x_iZZOC2_Fg
http://youtu.be/_qGn14Trsr8
http://www.metal-archives.com/bands/Drudkh/9344

Or just look it up on iTunes. Maybe you won't be as into it as I am but when you are looking to zone out but feel something intense and magical please listen to this album.

HAPPY NEW YEAR FOLKS! I LOVE YOU ALL!!!

-E.