100 Desserts

From WC over at ReTorte.

1. Bold what you've tried.
2. * What you've made.
3. Cross out what you wouldn't like.
4. Italicize something you've tried but didn't like.

I don't bake a lot and I'm not a real fussy eater, so I haven't met many desserts I haven't like. Some of the ones I crossed off, like coconut cream pie, just aren't my favourite thing but I'll enjoy a slice if that's all that's going around and I'm craving something sweet. It was fun to google what some of these things were to see from the ingredients if I thought I would like them or not.

1. Baklava
2. Chocolate Cake*
3. Blueberry Pie
4. Real Italian Gelato
5. Dessert Pizza
6. Lemon Meringue Pie
7. Rice Pudding
8. Spotted Dick
9. Amaretti
10. Jello Chocolate Pudding*
12. Spumoni
13. Angel Food Cake*
14. Creme Brulee
15. Deep Fried Ice Cream
16. Chocolate Fondue
17. New York Cheesecake*
18. Fruit Crumble or Crisp
19. Sacher Torte
20. Jam Roly Poly
21. Crepes Suzette
22. Quark Cake
23. Maple Sugar Pie
24. Key Lime Pie
25. Bananas Foster
26. Creme Caramel
27. Oeufs a la Neige
28. Baked Alaska
29. Gingerbread*
30. Blancmange
31. Linzer Tart
32. Carrot Cake
33. Steamed Pudding
34. Nanaimo Bar
35. Flan (the South American kind)
36. Sernik
37. Pastel de Nata
38. Wagashi
39. Marzipan
40. Dulce de Leche
41. Gulab Jamun
42. Tiramisu
43. Moroccan Date Cake
44. Black Forest Cake
45. Scottish Shortbread
46. Halva
47. Clafuti
48. Pumpkin Pie
49. Gajar Halwa
50. Plum Pudding
51. Pflaumenkuchen
52. Makroud el Louse
53. Eclairs
54. Palmier
55. Financier
56. Napoleons
57. Pastel de Tres Leches
58. Wagon Wheel
59. Treacle Tart
60. Date Squares
61. Eve's Pudding
62. Pears Poached in Red Wine
63. Snickerdoodles
64. Churros
65. Artisan Cheese Platter
66. Caramel Apple
67. Sex in a Pan
68. Devil's Food Cake
69. Red Velvet Cake
70. Mousse
71. Chocolate Dipped Strawberry*
72. Coconut Cream Pie
73. Semifreddo
74. Granita
75. Tortoni
76. Sticky Toffee Pudding
77. Peanut Buster Parfait
78. Zucchini Cake
79. Cannoli
80. Mont Blanc
81. Haupia
82. Eight Precious Pudding
83. Trifle
84. Popcorn Balls*
85. Ambrosia
86. dessert soup
87. Pasha
88. Berry Fool
89. Sweet Potato Pie
90. Bread Pudding
91. Raisin Pie
92. Strawberry Shortcake*
93. Apple Duff
94. Fruit Cake
95. Pineapple Upside Down Cake
96. Waffle Cone
97. Mango Sorbet
98. Truffles
99. Cherries Jubilee
100. Rice Crispy Square*

Mood: tired ... and HUNGRY now
Drinking: water
Listening To: not one blessed thing right there now
Hair: up in a pony tail

Green Festival This Weekend

This Labour Day weekend do something green! ECMA award winning country band, The Divorcees take the stage with 30 other groups covering music genres ranging from folk and blues to rock and jazz at the first annual Green Festival being held near Clairville, NB, from 10am Saturday August 30th until 6pm Monday, September 1st.

Enjoy the great outdoors, catch some live music, buy natural products from local artisans and learn about practical and affordable eco-friendly energy and consumer choices, all while the kids have a blast in a supervised play area featuring bouncy castles, games, face painting, pony and hay rides. With over 100 acres of onsite camping available you can plan to enjoy a few cold ones at the beer garden, catch even more live music, sleep over and do it all over again the next day.

Advance tickets are $10 per person per day, $25 for a 3-day pass, kids under 16 $5 per day, and children under the age of 5 get in free. At the gate it's $15 per day, $35 for a 3-day pass, and $7 per day for kids under the age of 16. Buy your tickets online here. Tickets are also being sold at various locations throughout the province, for a detailed list visit www.thegreenfestival.ca.

Going green is affordable! Plan to enjoy a family fun day out AND save money! For a detailed list of bands, vendors, weekend highlights and directions to the festival site visit The Green Festival online at www.greenfestival.ca.

Back in the Ring for Another Swing

I've been having a recurring dream. I guess it started late this past winter or early spring, perhaps March or April. In the beginning it showed up maybe once a month, but in the past two weeks I've been dreaming it almost every night. And it's started to bother me. I've been wondering what it means, what's on my mind. Recurring dreams, whether they're nightmares or not, drive me a little nuts and make it hard for me to get any decent rest.

The dream varies a little bit each time but the gist is I'm in Toronto, downtown at the Eaton Centre shopping, and the mall is super crowded and I have too many packages to carry and I don't seem to have enough money to get home.

The night before last Stacy was with me in the dream. We took a cab that cost $30 (ten bucks more than I had anticipated) and I was supposed to pay for it as I had invited Stacy along for the shopping trip and she didn't have any cash. It was like an SUV limo and we sat in the back with five of the cabbie's relatives he was taking to Scarborough after he dropped us off ... except he pulled over under the Gardiner ramps refusing to take us another inch until I produced the cash for the fare.

I had so many packages and shopping bags. Stacy and I were covered in them, I could barely find my purse. And then I found my purse and it was huge and bulging with stuff and I couldn't find my wallet amongst all the books, combs, make-up, phones, music, perfume, panty liners, pens, etc. And then I finally found my wallet and it was huge and stuffed with receipts and notes and I couldn't find any bills. I opened the change compartment and it was filled with quarters and dimes. Busting with silver change! I counted out $20 in change and then found a $10 gift certificate for some sort of ladies clothing store that I offered the driver to make up the difference. But he wasn't having any of it.

He took the change for the trip so far and kicked us to the curb. There we were huddling in the rain with a kazillion packages as traffic whizzed by on all sides and above our head.

In the dream I didn't really care about all the stuff; the stuff didn't matter at all. Every time I noticed a new bag or package, when I opened my purse to see all the stuff inside, the feeling was, "Oh God! Something else for me to carry! Something else for me to deal with!" I would have been content to give it all away to the homeless people living under the highway or to just abandon it by the side of the road, but who does that?! No, I couldn't shirk my responsibility. For some reason this stuff was important or I wouldn't be carrying it around in the first place, so I needed to make sure I got it home. There might be something in there I needed or gifts for the kids or ... well, who knows? I certainly didn't. And I couldn't just abandon a bunch of stuff without knowing what it was.

I woke up feeling really frustrated and overburdened. Still drowsy, I wondered again what these dreams mean. "I just have too many things to carry," I grumbled to myself. And then it hit me--I just have too many things to carry! Aha! I can't get where I want to go because I have too many things to carry ... symbolically, of course. As far as stuff goes, in real life, I literally don't have that much and I'm a frequent purger of flabby excess. But figuratively ... well, well, well, that's a whole other ballgame.

There is nothing like a week of the summer cold/flu to put life back into perspective. Or perhaps I only needed a rest. Regardless of what or how I got here, this morning I awoke a new woman.

I've been wanting to do some things lately ... like really sit down and figure out what I want to be when I grow up, like really sit down and determine some goals and direction and purpose for my life, like really take the time to put the Law of Attraction into use for my professional and personal life ... and like so many things worth doing I just haven't felt like I've had time to spare to do these things. But the dream tells me I need to take the time. These things are important and obviously weighing heavy on my mind.

I logged back into Sparkpeople this morning. You'll recall this website from my previous excursions into healthier living. It's a great site for learning all the how-tos of a healthy lifestyle. I have to say I've got the how-to part down pretty well. I know what I should eat and what I shouldn't. I know how much exercise I should be doing and how much I actually do on a regular basis. But logging into Sparkpeople and using the tools there to track my daily habits keeps me focused and gets me back in the groove. So after a week in bed and a weekend filled with cake, chips, and ice cream, I'm ready to put the needle on the record. I'm sure my trainer will be glad to see me show up at the gym to break the monotony of his afternoon. My health is so important to my energy levels.

But that's not all that's going on with me. I'm feeling some creative twinges. I'm getting antsy in the writing department. I'm craving order in the chaos that is currently my apartment. I'm longing for a routine that includes early morning personal writing. I am thinking of taking an extended blogging break in order to focus entirely on writing a book. It is difficult enough to do anything creative of my own with BnM constantly cluttering my brain, let alone blogging too. I think I need some space. I think I need to shift focus.

I know I've said this before but I'm really starting to feel like the time to do something is now. And I'm really starting to understand that I can't be a prolific blogger and finish my book at the same time. It's an either/or situation, not both, I've only got so much writing juice in me.

I guess this summer I've all ready been taking a bit of a break. I've not blogged much. Increasingly I find there are things I want to write about that I'm just not ready to share with the world at large yet. I need to write these things somewhere, while I have them in my mind, but not here, not now.

Anyway, I'm going on a bit of a hiatus. Knowing me I will most likely still blog once every week or two, but I'm not going back to a daily thing anytime soon. I'm going to take my mornings (my usual blog time) and use them for other writing. And hopefully one day soon I'll have good news about the completion of my manuscript.

Meanwhile, you can follow my twitter feed. If you're THAT interested in what I'm doing. It's hard to deplete your creative brain cells in 140 characters or less.

I need to unburden my life and figure out some things about myself. So I'm going to go do that and maybe I'll never have the dream again.

Mood: enlightened
Drinking: coffee, black
Listening To: buddy's washer upstairs
Hair: ponied

Oh Wouldn't It Be Nice

Well a handful of non-drowsy cold meds, half a bottle of hot sauce, 4L of water, and one sleepless night later I emerge with more energy and lust for life than I've had all week. I now pronounce myself CURED!

Of course, just as I'm immersing myself in all the stuff that went by the wayside this week and feeling like I can accomplish everything, I have to pack it in, shut it down, throw some stuff in a bag and blow this popsicle stand. Yeah, my dog needs a sitter. And he's my dog. And I love him. It's not his fault the timing sucks. And I'm grateful he even has a place to live. So I go offline into the dead zone for the weekend and hopefully I will return with gusto intact and totally kill next week.

Mood: hyper
Drinking: coffee
Listening To: the fan! because it's actually sunshine and hot!
Hair: ponied because ... see above

Sickly

I've been having a week. Feeling like crap on crack. Crap to the 10th power. Just crap. So this morning I woke up feeling no better, but the sun was out at least which is something. I got up, showered, made coffee, boiled the kettle for my neti pot, consumed bacon for some protein energy, and then popped some non-drowsy cold and flu medication. Me and non-drowsy meds ... well, it's a touchy situation. At this stage of the week though I really feel as if I have no other option. I need to get stuff done. I need to get better. I'm hopeful I can turn some stuff around today.

Mood: pretending I'm not ill
Drinking: coffee, black, water, wet
Listening To: skill saws and hammering as the renos next door continue
Hair: still damp from this morning's grooming

Scooter

I have a cold or something. Sore throat. Chest filled up. Pain around my eyes. No doubt a result of running around barefoot in the wet grass Friday night. Will I never learn? I really need to buy me some styling rubber boots.

Because I didn't sleep Sunday night and because I have been sickly, I skipped the gym yesterday opting instead to snooze on the futon for a few hours while episodes of Damages looped on the computer. I'm just getting into this series, but I really like it a lot. It's dark and gritty and I sit at the edge of my seat expecting at any moment that Glenn Close will boil a rabbit. Hasn't happened ... yet, but nothing would surprise me.

So today I'm trying to get up the gumption to head back into the gym. I still feel like crap, only slightly less so. Part of me thinks it's probably good for me to sweat out some of the bad stuff lingering in my body. Part of me just wants to curl up with a hot cup of something and suck on lozenges all afternoon. It remains to be seen which part of me will rule the day.

Mood: grey
Drinking: sludgy left-over from morning coffee
Listening To: renovations happening in the apartment next to mine, new neighbors soon
Hair: growing like weeds

The Writer in Me

I think I should write a book about dating in the 21st century. Seriously. I KNOW it would be funny! Oh, and educational. For sure! It could start with, "A magician, a prison guard and a backslid Christian walk into a bar ..."

But seriously. I am putting together a manuscript. I really am. An honest to goodness for real manuscript. I know, it's about time, right? Still, there's a huge part of me that doesn't believe anyone is interested in anything I've got to say. I know there are people who look to me and think I know a thing or two about this writing stuff ... damn! Have I ever pulled the wool over their eyes! :)

Mood: procrastinating, but trying to get back on track and write something
Drinking: water, but thinking maybe tea or hot chocolate is in order
Listening To: train whistling past enroute to Bathurst, Campbellton, Quebec City and Montreal by tomorrow morning
Hair: ponied up and clean

The More You See, The Less You Know

Oh you look so beautiful tonight, in the city of blinding lights ...

Well here I am on a sunny Monday morning. I wish I could say I was early to bed, early to rise, but no such luck. No rest for the wicked. I guess I slept too much on the weekend. I did spend most of the day Saturday and Sunday either lounging or sleeping as I didn't feel very well. This translated into a restless Sunday night of trying to sleep, given up as hopeless by 5am this morning. I feel surprisingly well rested and alert for someone who's been up all night. But the big question is, will I be able to handle the gym on no sleep? Today is only upper body which is never as brutal as lower so perhaps it's possible.

Last week was a crazy run-around week for me.

Wednesday I went to the office for a BnM meeting and then met up with the girls for Chinese buffet supper at the Rice King restaurant in Douglastown. I've only ever eaten there at lunch time. It seems a little pricey for supper in comparison to the other buffets in town ... but I guess you get dessert so maybe it's fine. We got there late and I barely had time to taste my food, let alone digest, before we had to get to the theatre for the movie so I didn't get to enjoy supper much. We saw Mama Mia! And I loved, loved, loved it! I could have walked right back in and watched it again at the late showing. Pierce shouldn't sing, but he's gorgeous so he's forgiven. I even cried. And I never cry in the theatre.

Thursday I met a friend for lunch and had a great chat for a couple of hours about everything under the sun including writerly type stuff and more. Definitely need to do that again! It's so refreshing to have someone else, single, in her 30s, going through the whole dating madness, to talk with. God, I needed that!

Thursday night because it was the last time for The Dark Knight to be shown at our theatre, Stacy and I made a spontaneous decision to go to the movies for the second night in a row. This time we had no time for supper so we munched out on popcorn and nachos and chocolate and all kinds of junk. I loved the movie! The best Batman movie ever, in my opinion. And I really enjoyed the last one because of my boy Cillian, of course. I've never been big on the Michael Keaton ones to begin with, so I'm all about Christian Bale. I just like him. He's a good Batman. But Heath! OMG! He was such a great Joker. Better than Jack. It's such a sin that he's gone and won't be able to do more.

Friday night I went to the Napan Fair with the family and children. It was wet. There were flies. No really, there were FLIES! Like thousands of them! Houseflies, not black flies. It's because of the horses and livestock, but still ... there's something unsettling about bags of cotton candy covered with houseflies. Needless to say any urge I had for a candy apple didn't last long. I was covered to my knees in mud. Very reminiscent of the long weekend family reunion. And my feet are still cold. As if the flies and soggy ground weren't enough, it actually piss-poured rain and I didn't get to enjoy any of the events in the ring other than some border collies herding sheep and ducks and jumping through hoops. My aunt's event was postponed until the following day. So I pretty much ruined my sandals and got all wet for ... the ability to say I've been ... without actually seeing anything. I would go again next year, but only in good weather.

I'm going to Fredericton next month to participate in a Small Press Fair. It's the same weekend as the Side by Side literary festival so I'm going to take in some events for that too. And this weekend I also noticed that same weekend is TNB's midnight production of Rocky Horror, so I got tickets! I'm psyched about it! Makes for a busy weekend, not a lot of sleep, but I think it'll be something to experience for sure. I'd been debating whether to go or not, but since I'm going to be in town anyway, that just sealed the deal for me.

Yesterday, I got invited to an authentic Cajun feast happening next month too. Someone from Louisiana who I've only met through email and has written about Mardi Gras and Hurricane Katrina for BnM is coming to the Miramichi to visit. I'm excited to meet him after all these years and happy to have been invited to the dinner he's preparing. Should make for an interesting evening for sure.

And now I should stog some protein down my throat and try to make my way to the gym.

Mood: getting a little foggy
Drinking: coffee, black, cold
Listening To: email dinging into my inbox
Hair: laundered and wild

Wicked Wednesday

It's happened ... yep. I am addicted to Big Brother. How does this freaking happen?! I didn't watch Season 6 but All-Stars hooked me back in. Then last year I didn't watch at all, but this year I'm right back in the saddle again. Why?!

Big day today! BnM Meeting, supper with the girls, and MOVIE NITE! Yay! Mama Mia! Here I come!

Mood: happy
Drinking: coffee
Listening To: BB10
Hair: ponied

In Repair

We've kind of got this unique situation going on living here in New Brunswick, in the Miramichi region, which our ancestors settled when it was nothing but woods and wild animals and native tribes, where the greatest majority of our family still reside and will continue to call home well after I'm dead and gone. There's this overwhelming sense of family and community here. How could it be any other way? I think we tend to take it for granted until someone comes along who doesn't have deep family roots to any part of the world, who was merely born someplace and then settled elsewhere and elsewhere and elsewhere, who's family are scattered throughout the corners of the earth only to be seen once every few years if they're lucky. These people seem almost like freaks of nature to me, so far removed from my experience is theirs. But in reality there are probably a lot more people living that life than there are living one like mine.

I've been reading Nancy Huston's The Mark of the Angel, which is set in France in 50s, 60s and beyond. The Second World War is close in the public conscious. Memories surface of slaughter in Hungary, Poland, and more. Conflict is happening in Algeria. There are freedom fighters and ethnic killings and displaced persons.

I've noticed the news about Georgia and Russia.

I wonder about Afghanistan and Iraq.

I think about genocide and try to fathom how we the people of the world can allow these crimes against humanity on the African continent and beyond.

I'm reading Sally Armstrong's The Nine Lives of Charlotte Taylor, about the first woman settler of the Miramichi, the Mother of Tabusintac, who left her family behind to come to the new world to live the life she always dreamed of living.

All these people displaced, either being forced to flee their homes for fear of death or feeling they must abandon their roots in order to move forward.

It's something I don't think many of us living here with our deep family ties can even imagine. Yes, some people move away and don't come back. Yes, a whole lot more of our people are going out west to work. But it's not the same. It's not even remotely the same. Imagine if soldiers came in the night with machetes, with guns. Imagine if they slaughtered everyone in their sight and burned our homes and businesses to the ground. Imagine if we had no choice but to run away on foot with nothing but the clothes on our back and try to get out of the country. Try to get on a ship that would take us to refugee camps where we would live like animals in a barn relying on the kindness of the world to feed us and look after us. My God! How would we survive? Would everyone be strong enough and lucky enough? Imagine having to suffer the grief of losing family members forever.

I can't imagine. I just can't. It seems impossible these things happen in the world. And yet Canada is a country of immigrants, many of them first generation, many of them having witnessed and escaped from the terror of war. Meanwhile I sit here in my beautiful life with the roots of my existence so deeply embedded in this place that I physically ache for the river's landscape when I am away and I know there are horrors happening that I cannot even imagine, that I would be better off emotionally and mentally just to ignore and pretend into non-existence, and I know we should do something, the good citizens of the world should do something to stop this ... but what? I sign a petition to pressure government. I say the occasional prayer. I donate the random dollar ... what else is there? What can we do?

Mood: deep introspection
Drinking: coffee, french, black, organic, fair trade
Listening To: jubilee, patti smith
Hair: ponied

Men Are Like Lightbulbs

You just keep screwing them until you find the right one. They tend to burn out with time. All of them are not equally as bright ... Thanks, Swingers!

It's not over until the fat lady tries to strangle you. Ha!

And that's all I'm saying about that.

***

Yesterday was one of those glorious fall-like days with sunshine and cool breezes that make me feel reborn. I needed a day like that. Badly. I've been a little off. All summer. Since before summer even. But no more! I'm back! And I mean business! This week I'm going to take time to do goal setting. Real goal setting. I need to check in and remind myself of the goals I set out with at the beginning of this year. I need to look at my list of 101 things and see if they're still relevant to my life. I need to ask myself what I want and nail down some solid answers. This week I'm focused on seizing control of my life. I feel like I've stepped to the sidelines and been willing to just accept whatever happens, rather than make what I want to happen. I've been without direction, wandering aimlessly, dealing rather than seeking or creating. But no more. Sunday morning I was reborn and also reconnected with the me I used to be--the me I was when I first moved back to Miramichi, the happy me who had a direction and a purpose, the me filled with gratitude and love. I know things are not right in my universe when I'm not blogging everyday. And I haven't been blogging everyday all summer. But that's changing starting today. I'm back! And I'm better than ever!

Mood: energized
Drinking: coffee
Listening To: boats chugging past on the water
Hair: tousled

Renegade

I haven't been doing very well this week. And last, if I'm honest. And the week before that if you want to know the truth. It's mostly physical. Summer is not my best season. Winter is. And I guess I can't do anything about that. It is what it is. When it's really cold. I mean see your breath, fog rolls in the door when you open it, kind of cold, I live a basically pain-free existence. There are no swollen ankles. There are no achy hands. There are no sticky knees. Ten years ago I would have laughed in your face if you tried to tell me that winter would one day become my favourite season. Who could've known?

So I've done myself a great disservice by spending a weekend outside in the rain, soaked to my knees in mud. By the time we left the reunion on Sunday my hands were so achy I couldn't hold a cup. And I would've needed to hold a cup and slap back a bunch of drinks to have lasted the rest of the afternoon. I feel like my feet will never be warm again. My legs are stiff and swollen. My hands are still aching and numb. I haven't been to the gym all week. I have no intention of going (and it appears to be closed anyway, which makes that decision easier). The dampness is right in my bones. It's in my bones and it hurts. And the constant pain puts me in a foul mood. And the pain exhausts me. And the constant exhaustion frustrates me. And I just want to hide under the covers and weep. But I'm too tired and frustrated to even cry. It all takes too much energy. And I have none. No energy.

This is an arthritis flare. It won't last forever. And it's been quite some time since I've had one. I consider myself lucky. I used to feel this way more often than not. And that was not good. Most times I manage. Some times I don't. Right now, I'm not. But I will again. I've been through worse for longer. I'll come out of this too. Maybe all I need is a sea salt soak. Maybe all I need is a pair of wooly socks.

Mood: tired
Drinking: red bull
Listening To: smodcast
Hair: longish