A List of Things Just Because :)

1. Easter is over, which means the little fluffy chicks that were my blog background just had to go.

2. I came home from Ontario to a big basket of easter candy hanging on my back door ( thanks mom!)

3. I am currently working on a post chalked full of our Ontario experiences. It was super fun.

4. Today I went grocery shopping at 1:00 and filled up my fridge with veggies and fruit to counter act the chocolate. Said groceries are still on the counter. So I guess I didn't technically "fill my fridge"...at least not yet.

5. I went to the gym for the first time in a really really long time. It felt good. I watched a show about chocolate on the food network while I worked out. mmm

6. I bought 2 pairs of jeans today for 30 bucks!!! Brand new ones and everything!!

7. My BFF started her own blog just a short time ago! Check her out! She is super fun!

All About Bee

8. The Vancouver Canucks are currently winning 1-0 in the 7th game of the series! This is VERY exciting. 

Thats all :) 

<3 Marie 

8. The V

Ontario

Yesterday was our last full day in Ontario. We have been here since Wednesday and are definitely ready to go home. Back to our new house (that we have hardly been in) and back to the busy hectic life that we live. We will start milking cows on our own little dairy operation super soon! and I am sure the hay orders are backed up till next year. You get the drift. We are busy...but we do love it!

So to make the most of our time here we did a lot of great things!
First and foremost, we stayed at The Fairmont Royal York (fancifully oldish) and visited the CBC building down the road to pitch our business to the Dragons Den. It was fantastically fun and I can't wait till I am allowed to tell you all about it (which wont be till it airs on tv sometime next season).

But...just so ya know...this happened. Unloading hay on John Street in downtown Toronto...with a camera crew) 

While we were super down town (CBC and The Fairmont are down town Toronto) we walked the streets and ate at delish restaurants and went shopping in the hugest mall. It was insane. I didn't take any pictures. Oh but I found some that Gary took...on the escalator.

Lovely. My eyelashes look super long :) 

We also went to an Anthropologie! 

Side note...I will never take Gary there again...I on the other hand...plan to return with money to spend :) 

I was KINDA excited...so Gary took pictures:

(I have a thing for crossing my legs in pictures these days...)

( I wore my winter, bulky coat the entire time...it was cold I tell ya)

Umm Gary this is getting a little embarrassing...(there are 6 more pictures!)

Ok totally time to stop taking pictures..."Gary STOP taking pictures!"

Then, becuase we were in a fancy, expensive shopping district ( cus thats where anthro was) we saw a fancy car...Gary took a picture.

Apparently Robert form Dragons Den drives a car like this...hes rich...a millionaire...obviously. 

I have no idea what kind of car it is... an expensive one.

Then, we left Toronto (actually the next day) and went to Barrie to visit my aunt Lianne ( who is actually not my aunt...but basically). We didn't take a single picture. But we ate yummy food and talked about food and Gary made us watch a painful hockey game. Then I stayed up till 1:00am watching the food network. It was worth it.

The next day we went to a church in Barrie, Ontario and then drove to Kingston, Ontario. It was SUCH a beautiful day and the drive was amazing! 

We even got to take a fun little ferry! 

We honestly pulled up to this stop sign as the ferry was pulling away from the dock. But that was ok. We took some nice pictures while we waited. 

This was our sweet rental car. Nice and roomy. It even had a fun little thing in the glove box where you put your water bottle and it keeps it cool! Super fun! 

Fun little ferry over a bay in Lake Ontario 

The pictures pretty much end here. I took one in our hotel room in Kingston, but Gary is wears PJ pants and there are clothes and coats and shoes scattered all around. 

All in all, we had a fantastic trip and we are home now! I am really looking forward to getting comfortable in our new house and cleaning it and planting a garden and getting goats and baby chickens. 

Picky? High Maintenance? Asking for Diabetes? You tell me...

I am not a picky eater. I pretty much like everything or at least I will eat anything.
I have a bit of a problem going out to eat though.Mostly if we are going out to eat breakfast. I always tear apart the menu and try and find something I either do not know how to make or I don`t usually make because it is too much work. I am talking about creative pancake options, unreal omelette's, yeast breakfast breads you know...stuff like that. I mean I like regular cereal and oatmeal and pancakes and French toast and eggs and bacon and waffles and all that stuff but when I am paying for it...I want something special.

Ok this totally sounds so High Maintenance.
Its true, I am becoming and bit of a "foodie" what ever that means. I like to search for original restaurants that make cool/homemade/unique things. But I totally will eat at White Spot or Boston Pizza and be totally happy too. If there is a cool/homemade/unique restaurant next door though...that will always always always be my choice!

Today though, I realized that when I am trying to pick a breakfast place I am looking for a place with baked goods...
in other words I want to be able to order a cinnamon bun for breakfast or a piece of  coffee cake or something else laced with sugar.
Unfortunately my dear husband is a bit on the opposite side of the fence. As long as the place has a)Bacon, b) runny eggs c) toast we can eat there.

So now the Canucks game is on ( well it has been on the whole time) and its overtime and I totally do not remember what the entire point of this post was besides the fact that I want to eat cake and sugar for breakfast.

Thankyou for reading my nonsense...no point post. :)

<3 Marie

Dragons Den

So as many of you know, Gary and I flew to Toronto on Wednesday so we could be part of the filming for the 6th season of dragons den! :)
Well this afternoon we walked down to the CBC building and pitched our Hay Sales business to the dragons.
Today was the day! It was super fantastic. Gary and Dan pitched away and I sat watching on a screen shaking like crazy!
I cant tell you anything about anything else :) You will just have to wait to see the episode (if we get on TV that is)

Shoot... I had sooo much more written about all sorts of things but I totally lost it all when I tried to post it becauseeeee the hotel we are at makes you PAY for internet. PAY! We already paid a fortune to stay there and now we have to pay 15 bucks per 24hours for internet. Sheesh. Oh well.....

Gary says " You have so much to say honey, just say it all again...its twice as good the second time."
I beg to differ.

So I think I said something about places to eat in Toronto. Perhaps Bakeries?  I love bakeries. Love Love Love.   I think we may walk 10 blocks now to get doughnuts. Gary does not yet know this.
Then we are going to find somewhere to watch the Canucks game at around 10pm if we can :)

Oh Oh, if you missed it, Chilliwack Times did a story on TNT Hay Sales on Tuesday :) you should read it... Its ridiculous. Gary says crazy things and people laugh and then they put it in the news paper...
Read it here.

They also taped him backstage saying all kinds of crazy things...oh my.

Time to venture out of our room :)
Maybe Ill take pictures of my food from now on. Yum.

Blog Look Update!

Please bear with me!
I am in the process of updating the look of my blog to suit...ME :)
and about 1 million other things! (literally!)
Hope to be back up and blogging soon soon soon!

Checkerboard Cake

So I am just going to start this off by letting you know that over the next 6 weeks or so my posting ability is going to be quite limited. Or I should say, I think it might be.

I may have mentioned before that my grandparents own a produce-store-that-actually-sells-everything store. And because they sell everything, of course they have a bit of a home baking operation going on. There is a great lady who has been doing the baking (in my grandmas certified kitchen) for 14 years!
14! FYI that is a long time.
Anyways, she broke something in her hand about a week ago and will be wearing a cast for 6 weeks. Obviously somebody has to step in a bake the pies and the bread and the sweet loafs and the cinnamon buns and the muffins and the cookies. Naturally, I offered. So last week I spent 2 days in the kitchen with the broken hand baker and she taught me the ropes. Basically, she doesn't use recipes...and is super woman and can work harder and faster then anyone I know.

I think the whole time she was probably shaking her head at me as my pie dough ripped or my loafs got stuck in the pan or I spill flour/sugar/raspberries/etc. on the floor.
Anyways, I think I can do it, and I think it could be fun. I look forward to when I can do it by myself and crank up the radio and just get in to my baking world ( my favorite place to be! ).
I do have to mention that when her hand is healed, I will not be sad to give her her job back. I am sure it is going to be very tiring.

Especially becauseeeee ( changing the subject completely) Gary and I have to move. Well we don't have to move, but we are moving. We get to start milking cows in May ( wohoo! this is Gary's life long dream) on our own little dairy farm. Only it wont be our own cause we can only afford to rent a barn with a milking parlour etc. In BC it costs a lot to get started milking cows. Most people are either born into a dairy farm one way o another or start with the help of a program in place by the milk board. The problem with the milk board program is that if we put our name on the list...we could easily not get to start milking cows for 20 years!

So I need to stop rambling...but to summarize everything into point form:

a) In may we get to start milking cows ( ahem....12-15 cows...YES I am going to name them!)
b) On april 15th we are moving to a house much closer to the farm we will be renting then the house we live in now
c) I will get to milk cows too ( Sorry I shouldn't say get...like its a pleasure to get up at 5:30 to go milk the cows...but hey..I will get an early start to my day!)
d) I am baking for the next 6 weeks 3 days a week for the Yellow Barn.
e) I am currently baking 2 9x13 cakes to attempt to make a checkerboard cake. Ok I didn't talk about that before but I am now :)

Has anyone ever made a checkerboard cake? Do you even know what it is? Basically you make a chocolate and a vanilla/white cake. and then you cut it in a special way and put the pieces back together to make a checkerboard look when you cut into it.

With that great description I am sure you are all saying OHHHH I get it. or probably not..

This is what the top of mine looked like:

Next time I would have much more yellow icing and not run out so I could do more decorations :)

I did the words by printing a page off the computer in writing that I liked and then placing wax paper on top and basically copying the writing with my melted white chocolate (with a touch of yellow food colouring) 

and THIS was the inside! Surprisingly enough, this is the only actual picture I have of the inside of the cake..

I know, I know, way to be a good blogger. 

But I was cutting and serving and admiring my cake! 

Ok I am sorry this is taking me forever to post! I have been super busy baking for the yellow barn and starting packing our house! :) 

<3

Ps. can I just say, I am sorry I talk so much!

I think its because my husband talks sooo much too that I don't always get to say the millions of things I want to say and so then I end up saying them all on here and I could just write for ages and ages

I am sorry 

Better-Then-Crack Brownies (for real)

Ok, so have you ever made something that is sooo good that you want to eat the whole pan?
I mean, I make things I like all the time, but LOVE and want to eat every last crumb of? That doesn't happen very often, or at least I don't let it happen very often or else I would be 300lbs. by tomorrow.
I have to admit though...3/4 of this pan is gone and I have eaten every last crumb. :)
I made these once before but for somebody else so I only had 1 piece. (thank goodness)
This time I made a 9x9 pan rather then the 9x13 pan that this recipe calls for.
I found this recipe on How Sweet It Is. Which is my new favourite blog by the way. So many delicious treats that look amazing! I have made quite a few and they are always always always delicious!

So you know what this is??

Brownie ( well I actually used chocolate cake but...same difference)
Peanuts
Peanut Butter Cups
Rice Krispies coated in peanut butter, chocolate and butter

yum

yum

and yum

I never know if I should post the recipe here or direct you over to How Sweet blog.. but today I think I am going to post it here...

Better-Than-Crack Brownies

1 - 9x13 size batch, Brownies
1/2 cup Salted Peanuts
1 cup chopped Peanut Butter Cups ( I used 6 cups for a 9x9 and that was plenty)
1 1/2 cup Milk Chocolate chips ( you could totally use semisweet...I used half semi and half milk)
1 1/2 cup Creamy Peanut Butter
1/2 tablespoon Butter
1 1/2 cups Rice Krispie Cereal

1. Bake Brownies till set and basically done.
2. Remove from oven and sprinkle with chopped Peanut Butter Cups and Peanuts. Put back in oven and bake for a few more minutes. Basically till brownie is 100% done and the PB Cups are melting.
3. When they are done, melt Peanut Butter, Chocolate Chips and Butter in a medium sized pot. Stir over medium/low heat until completely melted and combined.
4. Remove from heat and stir in the Rice Krispie Cereal. ( both times I have made this I added about 1/2 cup more cereal. I am sure it doesn't matter but I just like the krispyness :) )
5. Spread over the Brownie base evenly.
6. Chill till the chocolate is set and not goopy or runny. (about 2 hours)
7. YUM eat and share ( so you don't gain 100lbs like me :) )