Drunk With Courage

It’s Monday.

I have one more day of living at my mom’s house, where I’ve been living since moving away from my old university town one month ago.

One more day of living in my hometown, home province, and the Maritime region of Canada of which much of my identity comes from.

One more day before I embark on a journey with Holly and Karen through the Canadian Rockies.

One more day until I begin the next chapter in my life, which includes eventually settling down in Toronto.

What better way to signify this than by making one of the most intimidating dishes I can think of. 

 

Yes my friends, I am talking about poached eggs.

Ooohhh, how I love those little yolky pockets of goodness. I tried making them when I was around 12 years of age, but ended up with scrambled eggs. And not the good kind.

Since moving back to my mom’s, I go to bed every single night telling myself that tomorrow will be the day. But then I wake up, and in my morning grogginess, chicken out and go with a breakfast that is tried and true.

Not today. As of now, I’m all about grabbing life by the horns. Taking on a sense of adventure. Naturally, my first call of action was to poach those damn eggs.

I followed Jenna’s step-by-step tutorial for poaching eggs. She lived in France, so I immediately consider her an authority on the subject.

I brought my water to a low boil, added my teaspoon of vinegar, and lightly slid each egg into the pot. After two minutes, my water started to break the surface with a boil, and I got nervous. I held the pot ever-just-so over the burner for the last minute, terrified my precious eggs were going to get mangled.

Lo and behold, they came out okay!

There were a few egg-white casualties, but much of the egg was still retained. Better yet, the yolks were perfectly runny.

Don’t let these photos fool you. I do not eat my poached eggs on top of toast. Ohno.

When poached eggs are involved, the bread must be dipped into the runny yolk. Brownie points if the bread is homemade Irish soda bread ;)

By the bye, I had a blast reading through everyone’s favourite kind of bread! Sourdough, french/crusty and naan were probably the fan favourites. Although, Madeline mentioned her favourite is Irish brown bread. This is most certainly next on my bread-baking list. I think soda breads are a good transition to yeast breads. Sister Sara – I hope you’re up for some bread baking when I get to Ottawa!! ;)

Okay, back to the topic at hand.

After my poaching success, I began to get a little drunk with courage. I reeeeally wanted to run today, but rain was in the forecast, and the skies were most definitely reflecting that. As I’ve mentioned before, I am a bit of a running Goldilocks. I typically don’t run outdoors unless the conditions are just so. But today I strapped on my running shoes and camelbak and took to the soggy trail!!

The first 15 minutes were great. The temperature was perfect, and the cloudy skies made for good visibility.

Then it started to rain. And it was actually really fun!! It was only a light rain, just enough to soak through my shirt a little. If anything, it was kind of refreshing! Ended up running for 50 minutes in total, finishing with a strong 5-minutes sprint. Felt gooood.

I was positively starving by the time I got home. It called for more soda bread.

Topped with tuna salad and cheese.

Then toasted to melty perfection. This may have been the best tuna melt of my life. Homemade bread makes a world of difference.

Veggies to round out the meal!

I put the rest of the tuna salad on top of sliced cucumber. I’ve been snacking on this combo in the evenings as well. It’s awesome.

Afternoon snack featured my last Homemade Wholegrain Maple Oatmeal Scone. *tear*

Toasted, then topped with blueberries and vanilla yogurt.

Ohmygosh. I love the combination of a baked good with fruit and yogurt. Maybe I will need to make scones when I go to Ottawa as well?? :P

We had some extra buffalo meat in the fridge, so I offered to make meat balls with it for dinner.

I couldn’t decide what kind of meatball I wanted, or what recipe I wanted to use. So I ended up combining Danica’s Healthy and Spicy Meatballs with Canadian Living’s Classic Italian Meatballs.

First, I soaked 2/3 cup panko bread crumbs with 1/2 cup water for a few minutes until it was absorbed.

Then I added:

• 1/4 cup finely chopped onions
• 1/4 cup finely chopped celery
• 1/4 cup parmesan cheese
• 1 large clove garlic, minced
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 1 tsp dried basil
• salt and pepper
• 1 tsp hot sauce

Frank’s for the win.

After all that, I rolled up my sleeves and mixed in 1 lb lean ground buffalo meat.

I really love mixing up meat with my hands. I swear I used to be a vegetarian.

Rolled the mix into little balls (I got 31 balls) and browned in a frying pan. It took two rounds of frying, then I transferred to a baking sheet, drizzled with more Frank’s, and baked at 350F for 17 minutes (I’m all about the uneven numbers apparently).

While that was going down, I prepared a garden salad.

 

And a dressing of laughing cow cheese + buttermilk + Frank’s + herb seasoning blend.

 

Zee ballz!!

 

A feast for three:

The step-siblings are only here every other week. Although, I think they totally would have dug this meal. Please note that is not my red wine. I despise the taste of wine. But alas, my new place in Toronto is above a home wine-making shop, so these things could change.

My plate!

Or bowl, rather. I opted to eat my meatballs on top of a big salad.

These were really, really good. Much better than my last attempt! Not only did they get another “gold star,” but Mark confirms they are great for dipping in ketchup, barbecue and plum sauce. He would know, he tried them all ;)

Mom said the meal was so good it required a coffee afterward.

At least it’s not a cigarette :P

And then I took pictures of Archie just because.

Even though his wet nose wakes me up at 7am everyday, I still love the furball.

If there is anyone out there experienced in Grand Theft Poodle, please let me know.

 

Well that’s all she wrote!! I will be back tomorrow with a short update of sorts. I say short, because I have to be up at 4am to fly out on Wednesday. I also have a sneaking suspicion that I’ll be so excited I won’t be able to put together a cohesive sentence.

I will have you know though, I am so far doing good on my Goal for June.

With a lot more smiles to come :)

 

Question of the Day: What is one thing that has made you smile recently? I’m watching How I Met Your Mother – the one where they all take up smoking. Barney said “Yeah and the coughing really works my abs.” I laughed. Hard.