We be {brewing} beer, ya'll!

So, if you didn't know....booze is EXPENSIVE in Canada.  I am talking like $15 for a 6 pack...and it doesn't matter what of...could be Busch Light or Kokanee or Sam Adams.  My $10 bottle of wine from the states cost twice that here.  Crazy!  Anyway...because of this...the hubs and I really don't drink a whole lot.  A glass of wine here or there, maybe a beer on a Friday night, and I can't remember the last time we "went out" for just drinks...the prices at restaurants and bars is crazy!

Every time we come back into Canada, you can bet we import the allotted allowance of alcohol free of duty and taxes.  That means we can each bring 1 bottle of wine (750 mL), 1 liter of booze, or a case of beer.  Ugh....and who has room to pack a case of beer in checked luggage?!?!

Because of this, and Dan's beard, we decided to brew our own.  Dan's parents gave us money to go buy a home brew kit, which includes all this:

We don't have all these things, but most of the big things you see...we do...

Brewing beer is quite the process, with the hardest part being making sure everything is clean and sanitized and rinsed...alllllll the time.   This project started about a month ago, and we just bottled our first batch on August 22.  We are a bit worried that there is no alcohol in it, which there is, but according to our little gravity reader thing, it is only a bit over 1%...ha! 

This batch will definitely be a learning experience, and we are going to have to go ask the dude that sold us the stuff what we did wrong.  Ha...anyway...here are some pics.

UPDATE:  The home brew is not bad.  Very light and refreshing, but gets more flavor the longer it sits in the bottles.  Still not sure if it has alcohol in it.  I guess we didn't do the gravity reader right.  It is something you have to check at the beginning (who knew)!??  AND the end.  So there's that.  We have another batch in the carboy right now, and it smells delish.  We will be bottling this Thursday!

Have any of you brewed your own beer?  Any tips??

--E

In a bit of a {jam}

So Canada is known for it's berries...strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, etc.  Did you know that?  I didn't. So my friend, Sixteen Sunbuckles, her daughter, and I went to Prairie Gardens Adventure Farm, where they have a u-pick strawberry field.  We spent the morning picking strawberries, or in this little girl's case...eating them.

Dan loved making fresh strawberry milkshakes, and I enjoyed gulping them down.

Then at the end of a week, I noticed the store bough jam jar was in the sink.  It was gone.  So, I had to be true on my word, and make the homemade strawberry jam that I had been talking about.

Sixteen Sunbuckle's Mom's 

Strawberry Freezer Jam

Ingredients:

Strawberries

Sugar

Lemon Juice

Jars

Step 1

Mash 4 cups of strawberries.  Mine were frozen, so I just put them

 in my Ninja and pushed a button.  Easy peasy.

Step 2

Put in a pot with 2 cups of sugar, and heat to a full rolling boil.  

Stir constantly and keep at a boil for 2 minutes.

This is what I consider a full rolling boil to look like.

Step 3

Add 2 cups (yeah...that is 4 cups total...yikes!) sugar, and heat to 

a rolling boil again and keep it there for 3 minutes.  Remove from heat.

Isn't my spoon cute?  My sister in law gave that to me!

Step 4

Add 2 tablespoons lemon juice.  The recipe called for fresh, 

but all I had was the stuff in the jar.  Then pour into a bowl and

skim foam off the top.  

Let sit overnight and then pour into jars in the morning.

This is after I skimmed most of the foam off.

Step 5

Put jars in the freezer.  You don't need to use actual canning jars.

I used an old salsa, saurkraut, and pesto jar that had been rinsed

out really well.  We kept one jar in the fridge for eating now!

My freezer jam, next to the raspberries I picked, and need
to do something with...raspberry jam??!  Maybe...

Dan's pb and j in the morning.

I thought this would be a lot harder than it really was.  Jam is runnier than jelly, which I learned after this...I was thinking I did something wrong, which I could have, but there is so much sugar in this that no one would be able to tell!  There is an easier version of freezer jam that involves pectin and no heating (this was my original plan), but I started following the recipe from the first.  Whoops!  The husband has no complaints about my mishap!

--E

{Revamp} your lamp!

Lamps are expensive, and anyone who knows me, knows I HATE spending money.  It drives Dan crazy because I will literally drive across the street to save 5 cents on a can of soup.  I get this from my mother. I am sure he secretly appreciates it.  So, after spending more than enough money on a wedding,  I am back to my frugal way of life.  I had the same bedside lamp since 2007, you know, the one from Target?!  This exact one. Works great, but I am married now (good excuse, huh), and I wanted grown up lamps.  So here is what I did....

I bought 2 of these...

and turned them into 2 of these...

following White House Black Shutters' directions on her website. 

One key step...don't forget to wipe down!  I forgot to do this on one of my lamps, and you could see the layer of dust on the bottom after I painted it!  I had to sand down, and redo...don't make the same mistake I did.

This project cost me around $40 for both lamps.  I bought the lamps for $15 off of Kijiji, and the two shades at Target for around $15 a piece, and the spray paint was around $7.  I used Rust-oleum Painter's Touch Semi-Gloss in Ivory Bisque.  It dried quickly, and went on smoothly (minus the dust mishap!

What have you "revamped" with paint??

--E

The {Life Changing} Guacamole Recipe

A few years ago, Dan and I had some people over on a Saturday to watch his Boilermakers play some football. We always made some sort of appetizer, and our friends would bring over other delicious goods. Our friend Randy, was notorious for bringing over interesting choices. Like, once we made burgers, and Randy brought over tamales from HEB. The next time, we had a "mexican" themed menu, and he decided on the world's largest pumpkin pie from Costco. Always made for a good laugh. During this mexican themed menu, Dan and I made homemade guacamole. Our friends raved about it, and one friend said that it changed her life. Ha! What a compliment. Ever sense, it has been some what of a {Moore} Zaleski staple food item. It is our dish, and here is the recipe!

Ingredients:

3 Haas Avocados 

Onion (I prefer white, the husband likes  yellow, do what suits your fancy.)

Jalapeno 

Tomato 

Cilantro 

Garlic 

Salt 

Tostitos chips (we prefer the multigrain scoop kind...always.)

Steps 1, 2, and 3

Step 1

Cut Avocados in half and put in a bowl.  I mash them with a potato masher.

Step 2

Add onion to your liking.  We like onion, so I don't cut it into super small pieces, and I add a lot.  Add more or less, small or big, however you want.

Step 3

Add jalapeno.  In Canada, the jalapenos are not spicy, at least not the ones I have bought and tried, so I leave all the seeds.  I always put in the onions and jalapenos in first since they are firmer in texture, then mix.

Step 4

Cut up a tomato and the cilantro.  I like the ones that come on the vine.  I just got these fresh from the farmer's market on Wednesday.  However, I have also used roma tomatoes as well, which means I would use 2 tomatoes, since they are typically a bit smaller.  I LOVE cilantro, the husband, not so much.  I add enough to give the flavor at the color.  Not the whole bunch, which I totally would, if I was eating it by myself.  

Step 5

Add about 1/8 tsp or less of salt (remember the chips will be salty too!) and a spoonful of garlic.  If you don't have garlic on hand, you could always use garlic powder or garlic salt.  If you use garlic salt, then obviously, skip the salt part.  Then just mix with the masher (don't mash !), if you don't want to do more dishes, or get a spoon if you do.

Step 6

Serve with your favorite chips.  We love the Tostitos multi-grain scoops.  Delish!

My mom always used to buy the packet that you just add to avocados, but I think this is so much better!  

--E

DIY Doormat

So, D and I recently tied the knot, and now my last name is Zaleski.  Zaleski.  Yep.  Totally Polish.  Totally unpronounceable by those who have never been exposed to it.  Even the DJ at our wedding couldn't get it right.  I can't imagine what will happen when I get back in the classroom.  Pretty sure I will be "Mrs. Z" to those cute little 6 and 7 year olds.

Zaleski.  Z.  Zed (to those Canadians).  It is the LAST letter of the alphabet.  My poor future children...they will forever be at the end of the line.  And poor us...I mean, think college graduations.  I pray they go to a small school because I might have to take a little nap between A-Y if it is a huge public institution.

Z.  Do you know how hard it is to find things that are monogrammed with a letter Z?  You know those cute block letters?  Have you ever seen a Z?  Nope.  What about those cute towels all my friends have in their bathrooms with their initial sewn perfectly?  Not the Zaleskis.




While I was back in Houston, I noticed a few friends had these great doormats from Bed, Bath, and Beyond.  I went to a few to scope it out.  Can you guess what happens next?  I didn't find one. UGH!  So, I decided to make my own.  Of course, HGTV, has decorations on how to make your own here.  I used this as a guide, and it was pretty simple, however I did have some variations.

Materials:

Sisal doormat

Square cardstock (HGTV had a circle around theirs, and used plates)

Initial Stencil

Sharpie

Acrylic Paint

Paint Brush

1.  I cut my cardstock to be 10x10 for the outer square, and traced on the mat with Sharpie

 after measuring equal distances from the sides and top so it would be centered. I was thinking the Sharpie would come out darker than what it did.  I thought I wouldn't be able to see it, but I could...

2.  I then cut the cardstock 9.5x9.5 for the inner square, and traced on the mat with Sharpie.

3.  I freehanded my Z on the remaining cardstock, and cut it out.  I traced it on the doormat with Sharpie.

4.  I then used black Acrylic paint and "colored" it in.  Don't be scared to get a good scoop of paint on your brush...it takes a lot!  After I got it all filled in, I went back with my paint brush and filled in some spots using a blotting motion.

Can you see the outline of my Z?  It is pretty light, but still there!

After filling it in with a blotting motion.

5.  Put on your doorstep!

See Sadie Cakes in the window??  Ha....I love her.

I am pretty happy with the result.  It was so much cheaper too!  I think I paid less than $10 for the doormat, and had all the other materials at home already. HOLLER!

--E

Sadie Cakes

So when we moved to Nebraska, and I did not have a job, we thought it would be the perfect opportunity to get what I we always wanted.  A puppy.  Meet Sadie Cakes Zaleski.

This was a video from the first day we got her.  How cute is she?!

Sadie is now 27 weeks old, and I love her even though she eats everything including my rug and her own feces.

--E

6 months and 2 moves later...

Wow...I am not good at keeping up with things!  So, in the last 6 months?! (really...that is soooo bad!), D and I have moved.  Twice.  Yep...we left Newfoundland and drove around 3,100 miles back to the good ol' USA!  This included the 10 hours to get the ferry, and the 8 hour ferry ride. Take a peek at some of the sight seeing we did along the way...

Our room on the ferry.  It left around midnight from Newfoundland, and we made
landfall around 8 am in Nova Scotia. The ferry was GINORMOUS.  It had numerous floors full of cars and semis, and then plenty of cabins for passengers.  It was our first "cruise"...

Have you ever heard the song "King of the Road" by Roger Miller?  In that song he
says, "Third boxcar, midnight train, destination, Bangor, Maine".  Yep...that was
our destination after we got after the ferry.  Stephen King is actually from Bangor,
Maine, and this is his creepy house.

Our next stop was in Boston.  We stayed here for 2 days.  The first day we walked the Freedom
Trail, and took in some night life at a local pub.  We also ate at the Union Oyster House,
which is the oldest restaurant in Boston, and the restaurant with the longest continuous
service in the United States.  Also, the Red Sox were in town so we stopped by Fenway
 for a game.  I loved Boston, and D and I will definitely go back. 

Our last stop before D's hometown in Indiana was Niagara Falls.  We stayed on the America side,
but would not recommend it.  The Canadian side has so much more to offer, and it is so much
nicer.  Also, the view of the falls is a lot better if you do not plan to take the Maid of the Mist
tour, which we did, and it was well worth it.  Check out the amazing pictures D took!  

 After New York, we went to Indiana for a few days to rest at D's parent's home.  We went jetskiing, hung out at his parent's pool, and just hung out...not in a vehicle!  Amazing!  We made it to Omaha on a Friday, and moved into our corporate apartment Saturday morning...and I took D to his first Husker game Saturday night.

You think that would be it...we could settle down, and just chill, buttttt we went to visit my family for a few days in "western (but really central)" Nebraska.  My car and our TV were there...definite necessities in order to function in an actual city.

The Moore family goes skeet shooting in the middle of a field to bond as a family.
Cue the redneck jokes...

We finally made it back to Omaha, Dan started work, I volunteered at a nearby school till I got hired as a substitute, we played co-ed soccer and sucked, annnnnnnnddd we got a puppy (next post!).

So blessed that we got have so many adventures and experiences on the way to our new home.  Now you might have noticed earlier I said we have moved twice...yep...that was not a typo.  In January, we moved to Sherwood Park, Alberta, where we are currently residing.  However, that is another post for another day...hopefully not 6 months later!

--E

Wedding Websites

Here are some websites that are making this wedding planning a lot easier.

Postable - Once you create your own address book, all you have to do is send this link to friends and family.   They enter their information, and wala...you click the button that says export, and it gives you several options...my personal fav is the Avery labels option.  Easy.  Plus, if you have guests that do not have a spouse, you get some pretty humorous responses...my favorite was Ms. Notquite Sureyet.  I went back and added Guest in the spouse information for those people.

The Knot - Obvious, I know.  At times, this website has TOO much information.

Pinterest - A continued obsession.  A great way to get inspiration for the upcoming nuptials.

Myregistry.com -  This website makes creating and maintaining your registry so easy.  You have access to a lot of stores on one website, then it makes one registry for you!  We went to Target and Kohl's and did the whole scanning thing, then synced it with the website and added things we wanted that those 2 stores did not have like luggage and tools...  Plus, so convenient for guests to access, AND saves paper!

--E