Pineapple and shamrocks

Firstly, I must tell you that shamrocks and four-leaf clovers are not the same thing. A shamrock only has three leaves and is a symbol of Ireland, whereas a four-leaf clover, as the name suggests, has four and is said to be good luck. I guess that is my little lesson for the day and one I learnt myself from my lovely Irish housemate. You might wonder how this is relevant to the topic at hand; well on Thursday we had a farewell at work for said housemate, whom I also worked with. I decided to make some shamrock cookies so I could finally use the cookie cutter and sprinkles I had purchased ages ago and because she is Irish. I have previously made sugar cookies as mentioned here. However, I did want to try a new recipe, which ended up being this one. For the frosting, as I so often do, I mixed some of this with a little bit of that before tinting it green. I find that the key frosting ingredients for me are icing sugar, butter, vanilla essence, milk and meringue powder to help it set. I usually just work with the quantities I have on hand to achieve a flavour and consistency I am happy with because experimenting when baking is really enjoyable. I used a Wilton 21 decorating tip to pipe the frosting onto the cookies.

The cookies didn't fit the Hawaiian theme we had decided on, but the pineapple upside down cake I made sure did. I was pretty nervous about making this cake because I haven't made one since high school. Although there was a massive flaw to the recipe I choose in that it didn't list the oven temperature, which I decided should be 350 degrees celsius. I baked it in an eight inch round cake tin for fifty minutes and it turned out pretty well. I think if I make it again I would like to add some more pineapple to the cake as the four slices left a bit of a gap in the middle.

I think we did a really good job at making it more of a celebration than a farewell, but either way it marked the end of our working time together.

Sunshine and shopping

Having an extra day off on the weekend is such a wonderful thing. However, having it be sunny on all three of the days off makes it pretty perfect. Today was another glorious day as evidenced by all the short and singlet wearing people I saw out and about. I took the opportunity to head downtown today to do some errands and indulge in some spontaneous retail therapy. Shopping makes me happy, but finding bargains is even better because there is no residual guilt or buyer's remorse once you get home and take a look at your bounty. I did a lot of window shopping today, lusting over various items, some just outside my means and others way out of reach. Still I picked up a few, non-essential things from two of my favourite stores - American Eagle and Forever 21. Ballet-style flats were the order of the day from American Eagle with two pairs purchased.

As you can see they are very different, but equally as cute and I got them both for a steal. Forever 21 was all about accessories as I selected some adorable, yet fun earrings at a bargain price.

I'm excited to have different colours and shapes to play with depending on my mood and my outfit. The last item to come home with me was a brightly coloured scarf. I must admit that this scarf wasn't my first choice of the day, but the one I loved was a bit too much to justify. I don't feel like I am settling as I do love the weight of the scarf and the colour combination, but I haven't given up on buying the one I did fall completely head of heels for.

Musical musings for March

March has been a memorable fun-filled month as mentioned here. It is ending on a much welcome warmer note, which is hopefully a sign of what is to come. Every great month like this needs a soundtrack and the songs that were mine in March were:

1. Sweet Nothing (feat. Florence Welch) - Calvin Harris
2. I Will Fall (feat. Clare Bowen and Sam Palladio) - Nashville Cast
3. One Way or Another (Teenage Kicks) - One Direction
4. Mirrors - Justin Timberlake
5. Storm Warning - Hunter Hayes
6. I Found You - The Wanted
7. Kiss Goodnight - Tyler Shaw
8. Blow Me (One Last Kiss) - P!nk
9. Stay (feat. Mikky Ekko) - Rihanna

As you can see a lot of these artists have already appeared in my previous musical musings, but that just means that I know when I am onto a good thing. Having said this, I am pretty sure the only new artists were P!nk and Tyler Shaw.  Some of P!nk's music has been in my iTunes library for a while, but I obviously hadn't purchased anything in some time. I am also still hoping to make her concert in October. TV shows are still a big influence when it comes to the music I purchase as evidenced by another Nashville song making it onto the list.

March's music can be found on these albums (images courtesy of iTunes)

Music and sunshine are excellent ingredients in a recipe for happiness...here is to more of both next month.

March happenings

March has definitely been a busy month for me with some highlights being:

Maroon 5 concert

Such a fun concert with good support acts. Adam Levine is a very charismatic man with great stage presence. I love going to a concert where I know pretty much every song sang. The four song encore was really cool especially during 'She will be loved' where there was a lovely crowd harmony achieved. Concerts are definitely one of my favourite things to do.

Canucks ice hockey game

I don't think it is possible to love a sport and a team any more than I do ice hockey and the Vancouver Canucks. If I could go to every home game I would. I was privileged enough to see a great game this month versus the Nashville Predators. It was one of those games that had pretty much everything you would want to see in a game especially a win. Better yet, we got there early enough to plaster our faces on the glass and watch the warm-up. I was smiling and giggling like a schoolgirl during this bit. Maybe I will be able to attend one more game before the season is over.

Macaron making class

A friend and I attended a macaron making class at Simply French Cafe on a week night recently as we had purchased a Groupon coupon to do it at a cheaper rate. It wasn't a super hands on class, but really informative and the instructor was great with the demonstration and instruction. The macarons made in the class looked and tasted delicious. I came away thinking that I could definitely make macarons myself some day soon.

Whistler weekend

This past weekend I was in Whistler, which was picture perfectly sunny and snow lined. I didn't get up on the mountain because I am pretty sure I still have a bruised tailbone from my last snowboard attempt earlier this year. However, a lovely time was had wandering around the village, watching a Canucks game in the pub and hanging out with friends. Whistler is such a gorgeous place and hopefully I will make it up there again in the summer time.

One week left to go before we are a quarter of a way through 2013 and I am sure I will do more fun stuff as well as take some time to just relax.

To go without

Once more I have found myself near the end of the month and realised that I haven't really dedicated as much time as I would like to my blog. So to make up for this before March becomes April, I am going to inundate you with some posts possibly on the same day so keep your eyes peeled. This month has been a busy one for me with some change a brewing, but one of the big things I decided to do for the month of March was give up a few of my guilty pleasures. I have a big sweet tooth - I love candy and chocolate, but I also love chips and have been known to indulge in soda too. However, on the first of March I made a promise to myself to give up all of these things for one whole month. With one week to go, I am not going to lie and say it has been easy because it has been tough, some days tougher than others. It doesn't help that there is chocolate and candy on offer at work almost daily, but it did help that Easter Sunday isn't until the last day of the month. I have to confess that I do already have chocolate to consume once the clock strikes midnight turning March into April, but hopefully I can practice the art of moderation next month. Going without or sacrificing is definitely tough whether it be something that may seem trivial like what I am doing or more significant things. What I have learnt is that it is healthy to test your will power, self-control and determination every now and then.

Apple crumble

Once upon a time I didn't like apples, strange, but true! However, I was always quite fond of the crumble part of an apple crumble. I am glad now that I like both the apple and the crumble, which is why when the opportunity presented itself I made an apple crumble. A little while ago I bought some apples that were too waxy so I couldn't bite into them like I have grown accustomed to doing. They have been sitting in the fridge without further thought or purpose until now. I only had two of them so I had to find a recipe that could accommodate this. I settled on the recipe I found here, which I adapted to fit my needs. I tripled everything in the recipe because the crumble is still the best part in my eyes. However, I only used two apples and I left the cinnamon the same because while I love crumble I didn't want all the flavours overpowered by this ingredient. I had some disposable pie trays so I used one of them to bake the crumble in. I initially baked it for 40 minutes at 350 degrees, before turning up the oven temperature to 375 and adding 15 more minutes to the timer because the apple didn't seem tender enough. One of the wonderful side effects of baking an apple crumble is the lovely scent that wafts through the air as it bakes. Instead of serving it with cream I used vanilla ice cream. In case you were wondering, I can confirm that it tasted as delicious as it smelt.