Being Canadian

I'm proud to be Canadian. I like to believe that I don't normally go around being obnoxious about it, but I am proud of it. I usually make it back up to Canada to visit a couple times each year, but it's still nice to have an experience down in the US once in a while to help feel connected with the Great White North. Here are a few of the things that have happened since I've been back in Provo after Christmas.

1. I went to a BYU hockey game. I had only ever been to one other hockey game down here (back when the BYU team was still the Provo Ice Cats), and I had forgotten how fun it was. I'm pretty sure you could have described me as giddy when the teams took the ice.

2. I used the word "dandy." This probably sounds silly, but some

body asked me how my day was the other day and I told them it had been dandy. At this instant I felt a certain connection with home. I think part of it is connected to hearing that word used a lot on Hockey Night in Canada. Another part of it is due to an episode of the Simpsons where the Simpson family ends up in Toronto. At one point Bart and Milhouse end up crashing through a curling match and the announcer says "What's this? Two young Yankee Doodles have turned this matched into a dandy."

3. I listened to O Canada. I was walking home one day, listening to some of my music on my mp3 player, when O Canada, performed by Big Sugar, came on. I was very happy to hear this.

4. I made Nanaimo Bars. For our grad seminar this week we had a cultural and culinary exchange. We were asked to bring food related to our home country or another country/culture with which we are familiar. I decided to represent Canada by bringing Nanaimo Bars. They are always a huge hit anytime I make them. This has nothing to do with my cooking, Nanaimo Bars are just plain delicious. Anyway, it was fun to make them and share them for the seminar, but I think my Canadian pride was affected the most when I got home. There were some bars left over, so I decided to take them to share with my dinner group for dessert. When I uncovered them, one of the girls there said they looked like "fudge cream brownies," or something along those lines. I replied and told her that they are called Nanaimo Bars because they originated in Nanaimo, B.C. This was followed by a short discussion about them possibly being the same thing, just called something different. We're friends, and this was all very friendly conversation, but inside I felt myself getting very defensive, with my thoughts being something along the line of "they are Nanaimo Bars, not fudge cream brownies. Nanaimo Bars are Nanaimo Bars, and they are Canadian. These are not fudge cream brownies. Even if you call them fudge cream brownies, that's not what they are. They are Nanaimo Bars" It's not as if this was going to be a source of contention or anything, but I was very happy when she ate one and informed me that they were not the same thing as fudge cream brownies.

Delicious Nanaimo Bars

Picture taken from www.eclecticcook.com

Dinner

So, I'm kind of proud of myself right now. Yesterday I was watching "Secrets of a Restaurant Chef" and the host, Anne Burrell, was making risotto. Well, I decided that I'd try making my own risotto. I found a recipe online (on the Food Network website, of course) for lemon risotto. I think it turned out pretty well. I realized after finishing it though, that I had forgotten an ingredient or two, so it can still be improved. Also, I didn't have the right kind of rice and I didn't want to buy more rice just to make it, so I tried using my plain old long grain rice that I already had on hand. It worked okay, but it didn't get as creamy as it would have with the right kind of rice. I definitely think that I could do a better job in the future.

Anyway, I'm happy to say that for dinner today I made myself Garlic Balsamic Chicken with Lemon Risotto. There's a picture below. The plating isn't wonderful (slicing the chicken and adding a little bit of garnish would have made it look much better), but you have to remember that this is just me living in a college apartment making dinner for myself. If I was making this and trying to impress a girl with it, I definitely would have fancied it up a bit.

Florida

This last Christmas I had the opportunity to fly out to Florida and visit my sister, Kimberly, and her family. I caught the red eye after my last final and arrived in Orlando around 11:00 the next morning and stayed for about a week. These are some pictures, mostly borrowed from Kimberly, of my trip out there.

It was nice to see Charles and Aerie again. Charles warmed up really quickly and pulled out a book to read as soon as we got home.

We went out to eat at Panera. My sister told me that they sold wonderful lemonade, so I got some. Apparently Charles thinks it's pretty wonderful too.

We tried to go to a boat parade, but it was postponed a day due to rainy weather. This lone boat came around to announce the delay. The next day we went back, but all of the boats turned around before reaching our end of the canal. Well, not all the boats, the same boat that came the night before managed to make it down to us.

Aerie helped me make gingersnaps.

We went on a wilderness drive and saw some neat birds.

We also saw an big alligator. A bobcat ran out in front of the van as well, but we didn't get a picture of it.

Aerie and Charles love dancing. Here they are spinning in a circle together while Aerie sings "Baby" by Justin Bieber.

Books in 2010

I've mentioned before that I enjoy reading. If I haven't on this blog, I definitely did on 100 Things. Anyway, here's a list of the books that I read during 2010 and the order that I read them in. I don't really get a lot of reading done during the school year. Most of these were read during the summer.

1. Believing Christ - Stephen Robinson

2. Nobody's Safe - Richard Steinberg

3. Double Cross - James Patterson

4. The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins

5. Catching Fire - Suzanne Collins

6. The Second Chair - John Lescroart

7. Fever Dream - Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child

8. The Face - Dean Koontz

9. Sleeper Spy - William Safire

10. The Four Phase Man - Richard Steinberg

11. One Door Away From Heaven - Dean Koontz

12. Mockingjay - Suzanne Collins

13. Chain of Evidence - Ridley Pearson

Adventures on State Street

So, I had kind of an interesting experience last night, and you won't be surprised to hear that it has something to do with meat. However, it was nothing that I could have ever expected. And no, it had nothing to do with me dropping ribs on the ground, although I'm sure there were some ribs involved. Anyway, I should probably just get to the story.

Our ward had a small activity last night involving a bonfire and a spiritual thought. It was really quite a nice activity. I got a ride up there with some people in the ward, but then decided that I'd like to get a ride back with a friend of mine who was going to be leaving a bit earlier than the others. So, we had a good time at the activity and then took off. The ride back was just like any other ride for the most part. We talked, laughed, sat quietly, etc. Then, out of nowhere, her truck (which is an old, small Nissan) started making a funny squeaking sound. My best guess was that it was a belt slipping somewhere, but I really don't know a whole lot about cars. Anyway, we kept driving hoping that it wasn't going to be a problem.

Well, here I am listening to the squeaking when all of a sudden a dead deer appears out of the shadows on the road ahead of us! By the time we could see what was in front of us, it was too late to try to swerve out of the way without causing more trouble, so the truck just went right over top of the deer. There was a great big bump and it was all over. Fortunately, the squeaking stopped. Unfortunately, after driving for a little bit, my friend started to notice a bad smell and then I noticed it and it kept getting worse. So, my friend pulled into a parking lot and told me that I had to get out and check things out because I was the man. She didn't really need to tell me this because I was planning on checking it out anyway, but it felt good to be called a man. Anyway, I got out and looked under the truck to find that there was a hunk of deer carcase hanging from the bottom of the truck. So, I figured that the smell was this, and other smearings of deer, burning on the hot and moving parts of the truck. Well, that mixed with the inherent stench of deer carcase.

Anyway, I went and found some sticks and used those to dislodge the hunk of deer from the bottom of the truck. We had parked next to some mexican fast food restaurant that was advertising 99 cent tostadas, so after I finished with the deer I went inside and washed my hands. I did not buy a tostada.

We got back on the road and started searching for a car wash. It took a couple of tries, but we found one that was open and that had an undercarriage wash. Trying to get into the car wash was an adventure in and of itself. It kept rejecting our money and has this annoying voice that would tell us which wash we had selected and kept demanding more money. I swear I heard the creepy electronic voice repeat "plus wash" about a hundred times. We finally got into the car wash, cleaned the truck, nearly had the roof of the truck cave in on us, and got out alive.

Anyway, that's the tale of the deer on the road. I hope all the discussion about deer carcase and such didn't gross anyone out.

Trip to Ottawa

This summer was the first non-missionary summer of my life that I have not spent some amount of time at home in Alberta. Normally I spend about a week up there sometime during the summer months. This year, however, I decided to fly out to Ottawa instead. My brother lives out there with his family and my parents were going to be visiting him, so I figured I would join them. I had a great time out there and it was great to see Patrick, Michelle and the kids. Some of the stuff we did included a picnic at Rideau Hall, a boat ride around the Thousand Islands, visiting various museums around town, going out for sushi, and just visiting and having a good time.

Emily had a great time playing with Grammy

Dad couldn't believe that, after flying across the country to visit, Patrick and I ended up playing Street Fighter

A guard in front of Rideau Hall

Getting ready for our boat ride around the Thousand Islands

Gananoque, Ontario

It was really windy on the boat.

A house on an isand

Another house on an island

The Canadian Museum of Nature

Frontside of the museum

A moose on the museum

The Canada Agriculture Museum

Before and After

So, I meant to put this up a couple of months ago, but it took me a long time to get around to putting any pictures on my computer. In fact, that's the reason behind a few posts not having gone up yet.

Anyway, I went to Lake Powell this summer for about 5 days (Monday through Friday). My roommates were shocked to see me when I came home. I wasn't ugly or anything, but it was a change from the everyday.

Before~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ After