Half-Priced Frappuccinos Anyone?

Has anyone else noticed that Starbucks has been giving away a lot of half priced drinks lately?

Anyway, they're at it again. From May 6-15 Starbucks is offering 1/2 price Frappuccinos between 3pm-5pm.

I need to find a job soon, because there is a coconut blended creme out there with my name on it...

2 Bucks

I mentioned a little while back that I'd be doing a post on a $2 dinner party. I was driving down Whyte Ave yesterday when I remembered a) that I hadn't done the post yet, and b) that the dinner party was this weekend and I hadn't planned anything yet! Crap.

Anyway, the $2 dinner party is essentially a cost controlled potluck where no meal component costs more than $2 a serving. The party host provides the main course, and a topic of conversation to discuss. Everyone else brings either an appetizer, salad, dessert, or something else to add onto the meal. Since the number of people attending will vary from party to party, your available funds for preparing the meal is going to vary as well.

The friend who originally came up with the idea hosted the first party in March. She prepared chicken pot pies with a biscuit topping, and rosemary focaccia bread to start. I believe she had $12 to work with, and she only went over budget slightly because she threw in a sweet potato she had on hand that wasn't actually required (there was more than enough food, trust me!). It was a tasty success.

I checked the attendee list yesterday (we organize it on Facebook), and I had 3 people attending, with 2 maybes. After asking the maybes to give me an idea if they were going to be able to make it, I had one attendee drop out, one maybe bump up to attending, and one non-response bump up to maybe. So, I'm again back to 3 attending and 2 maybes. Ah well.

I'm going to assume that 1 of the 2 maybes will actually show up, so I'll be feeding 4 people. That gives me $8 to work with for the main course. My first thought was a pasta dish, such as a carbonara, which is still my standby if need be. I can get good pasta and individual slices of bacon cheap at the Italian grocery store. However, I'm thinking more along the lines of Indian food this go around. My goal meal for the party is to do vegetarian samosas, dal (daal, dhal, dahl, etc...), and naan bread for under $8.

I'll put the price breakdown for what I end up making on here for you guys when I'm done.

If I buy something that doesn't get used in it's entirety, I'm only going to be counting that fraction of the price towards my total. I'm already planning to take the remaining tomato paste and turning it into pizza sauce for leftover naan bread pizzas anyway(Om Nom Nom). Because there are so many different spices in small quantities (does 1/4 tsp of cinnamon even register on a bulk scale?), I'm going to assume my spices/salt/pepper will cost me $0.75. That may be a little on the high side, but oh well.

So, I'm off to the grocery store this morning. Wish me luck!

Waiting...

I expected unemployment to hit me much harder than it actually has. That's not to say I'm comfortable, I'm not at ease with the situation at all. If my recent posts are any indication, it's on my mind 24/7. It's been the first thing on my mind every morning I've woken up since then. The whole prospect of being unemployed makes me all creepy crawly. *itch itch* To quote a text from my best friend yesterday:

"Rawr. Get a job. Youre happier when you work."

Yes sir.

All things considered though I've been having a surprisingly decent time since I lost my job. I'm going to chalk that up to the fact that I've been getting enough sleep and spending lots of time with The Boy.

Eh, maybe I'll just chalk it all up to spending time with The Boy ;)

My financial frittering has come to an absolute standstill. I'm not in class anymore, so I don't have the temptation of the University coffee shoppes. If my stomach gets growly at 3pm, I go to the kitchen and make something to eat. Heck, even the Starbucks I had on Thursday was free because the girl at the till felt that the other barista was being snarly and therefore I needed a free drink (score!)

Oh yeah, little heads up from the barista, Starbucks is coming out with coconut syrup this summer. I need a job, because I'm going to be ALL over that sucker. Possibly vanilla bean frappuccinos with hits of coconut. Mmmmm.....

It'll be like a vacation in a cup.

I could go for some vacation in a cup.

What would the drink version of Om Nom Nom be?

Urp Slurp Slurp?

Yeah, I'm waiting for that.

Anyway, I'm off to get a massage before my benefits run out. Have a good day everyone :)

Leftover leftovers?

Okay, so it's really freaking cold outside, and I don't really want to go out there right now.

Which kinda sucks, because I need to pick up groceries soon.

I looked over my fridge, tossed the items that needed tossing (how did 4 month expired yogurt get missed in the last clean out?), and assessed what was left. Not much. A couple eggs, a splash of milk, some mouldy cheese and a container of spinach cheese dip from going out with a friend a couple days ago. On the counter was some bread crusts leftover from having some friends over for an english tea a little while back.

My fridge is not usually this barren. I blame the weather.

I have a reasonably stocked pantry, but I was feeling the need to use up what was in the fridge before tapping that. Well, tapping that too much anyway.

I trimmed the mould off the cheese and cut into small, meltable pieces (there was too little to shred). After cooking a pot of penne and draining it, I threw the cheese pieces to melt, and added the remaining spinach cheese dip. The result was a cheesy spinach pasta, with a little kick. For whatever reason the restaurant we got the spinach dip from does theirs with a tex-mex edge. If I find the pasta is too dry when I reheat it, I can throw some salsa in quite easily to fix that.

The bread crusts (about 1/2 a loaf's worth?) were torn up into little bite sized pieces and spread out in a baking dish. My last 3 eggs and splash of milk were whipped together with a few handfuls of homemade vanilla sugar and vanilla extract. I say handfuls, because I was too lazy to get a measuring cup out of the cupboard. 3 handfuls - That's about as precise-ish as I can get on this recipe. On top of the crust pieces I liberally sprinkled nutmeg and cinnamon, as well as a few handfuls of crushed walnuts and a handful of dark chocolate chips, before pouring the egg mixture over it. I pushed the bread down to make sure it all soaked up some egg mixture, covered the dish in tinfoil, and put it in the oven at 350 Fahrenheit for about 35 minutes.

Om nom nom.

I have some Devon cream in the fridge at work to put on that bad boy.

I now have breakfast and lunch for the rest of the week :)

Then I really have to go get groceries :s

Has anyone made anything interesting out of their leftovers lately?

Avoiding Temptation

Reason #437 to bring something interesting (and filling) to work for lunch:

Avoiding the brand new shiny restaurant downstairs. Damn does it smell good.

For the last 8 months or so the restaurant on the first floor of our building had been under renovation. And I believe new ownership. What that meant for me was that my office, conveniently located directly above the bulk of the work, has been noisy as hell with them sawing, drilling and banging away to their hearts content on the kitchen ceiling and plumbing. Those pipes run up my office wall, and the sound was downright deafening at times. I actually went to the safety department, got a stash of ear plugs, and went around my corner of the office offering them to people. Everyone took a pair. I think someone may have finally taken us seriously and lodged a complaint, because towards the end the louder noise held off until 5pm on the dot. We all thought we should get coupons to the place for having to endure that, but no such luck.

But, it's over now, and what was once a fairly dated run of the mill restaurant and salad bar is now a brand spanking new Brazilian BBQ joint.

*insert drool here*

If I'm not mistaken it will be featured on the show "Opening Soon", because their camera crews were hanging around the last few days. Opening day came, so I decided to check out their website rather than tempting myself by going in to have a look.

Holy crap. It's going to be a while before I go there.

It's a fixed price meal that uses what is apparently called a "rodizio" concept. You have a little disk you flip back and forth between the red and green sides. Green signals the servers to bring over a selection of meat skewers from the BBQ, red signals them that you don't want any more meat at the moment. You pick up your side dishes from some form of salad bar off to the side. It doesn't say whether or not appetizers, drinks and dessert are included in the price, but considering they have a bar in there and the dessert pictures look plated, I'm going to say probably not.

Lunch is $22

Dinner is $45

This girl will go broke(r) in there.

I can see why they need the keep the price up, especially since it looks like an all you can eat meat bar. Very Alberta friendly. Very not Cassie's wallet friendly.

And I smell it every time I go downstairs now.

So not fair.

Staple Soup

Kelly over at Almost Frugal did a post recently on the 6 key ingredients she uses in her day to day life to make quick easy meals. It's good to have fall back stash of multi-purpose foods you can rely on in a pinch when you need to make a quick, easy and cheap meal.

Reading through her list I realized a) I don't bake as much as I should, and b) I'm running out of my staples at home and need to stock up! Haha. It got me thinking though. While initially I looked at the list and thought "Yep, those are my staples too", I realized afterwards that they really weren't anymore. My staples have shifted.

These are Kelly's 6 Staples:

1. Flour
2. Baking Powder
3. Salt
4. Oil
5. Milk
6. Eggs

These are my 6 Staples:

1. Tea
2. Milk
3. Sugar
4. Bread
5. Eggs
6. Pepper

That's not to say that I don't use the other items, because I do, it's just that these are the 6 I use most frequently and almost always have on hand. I'd be lying if I said I never skipped meals and just had a cup of tea instead because I'm busy or on the run. I almost did that tonight :s Add on some squash, onions, garlic and canned tomatoes to this list and I'm pretty content for quite a while.

I'm not going to put up a recipe for my top 6, because I'm pretty sure most of you can figure out what goes into an omelet or french toast yourself, but I will put up one I did recently with squash and garlic. Actually, I do it frequently. It's stupid simple.

Basically:

= 

You take a medium sized butternut squash, cut it into chunks that are similar in size to a golf ball, and put them in a roasting pan. Then take the papery peel off ~8 cloves of garlic, and throw them in the roasting pan with the garlic. Drizzle with olive oil, wrap top with foil or lid, and put them in the oven at 350F/175C until they're softened and toasty (about 45 minutes). Let them cool enough to handle, and take the peel off the squash (you're supposed to do it first thing, but I find it's easier this way). Put the squash and garlic into a pot, and cover with either stock, or water with bouillon cubes/powder. Simmer on medium-low for about half an hour or so, then remove from heat. Either transfer this to a blender, or use an immersion blender, and blend until smooth. Add salt and pepper to taste, reheat if necessary.

It's really easy to make, and super forgiving. You can put the stuff in the oven and walk away to do something else while it's roasting. Ditto when it's simmering. It's really adaptable too, you can add all sorts of seasoning to it. I usually like mine with just salt, pepper, and a dollop of either yogurt or sour cream.

Anywho, I have homework calling my name. Have a good night everyone. Happy eating :)

Weekend Update

Sometimes I just feel like appreciating the little things going on in my life. This a quick blurb about some of the things that made me happy this weekend:

• I went on a first date. It went well. We'll be going on another this week :)
• I hung out with one girls from work. We've been trying to do something since September, but the timing has never worked out! We finally got a chance to hang out :)
• My credit card minimum payment is down below $100 for the first time in months.
• While I'm still a tad under the weather (turns out the cold/flu was actually a sinus infection. Boo that), I can actually breathe through my nose again :)
• We've had gorgeous weather! It's been +3 degrees here for the last couple days :)
• Breakfast cinnamon bun. Om nom nom :)
• I spent over an hour talking to my grandfather on Skype, and gave him a virtual house tour with my laptop. I love how he stays reasonably up to date with technology :)

You'll notice I'm quite enjoying using my smily face for punctuation :)

Anyway, I hope you all had great weekends as well. See you all in the blogosphere early Monday morning!

Ode to the Sugarbowl

This is my favourite breakfast spot. Quite frankly it has been since I was introduced to it 4 years ago by my then/usual/current dining companion. It’s been an institution in this area since the 1940’s. Originally a burger and fries type joint, it was converted to a Belgian style cafe in the 80’s. I can’t attest to the accuracy of the “Belgian style”, but I can promise they have an assortment of tasty Belgian beer.

 In the late spring, summer and early fall the front garage door style walls open up to allow fresh air into the interior of the restaurant, while the patio opens for patrons to sit outside. Seeing as it’s minus-freaking-cold outside, we sat inside where it’s a cozy little restaurant during the winter. There is an ever rotating selection of local art on the walls that you can usually buy, and if I’m not mistaken they hold live music nights as well. I’m kicking myself for not inquiring about some of the photographs they’ve had up in the past. They had a beautiful photograph of an arctic fox on the tundra a little while back that I would have liked to have at home.

Om Nom Nom

They do a good job of syncing with the community. It’s in Garneau, one of the older areas of Edmonton on the south side of the river. It’s somewhere that has equal appeal to older locals who have lived in the area for decades, and the ever rotating student population that filters through here. Some of us stick around, though the area is far too expensive to buy in, especially when you’re just starting out. It’s understandable, almost everyone who has lived in the area wishes they could stay. Instead we make the drive in the mornings on the weekends.

If you don’t get here before about 9:30, you’re going to be waiting for a table. Most people have discovered it’s worth the wait, as there is typically a line up out the door, especially during the summer. Why? You see that cinnamon bun, the one about the size of my friend’s head? It costs $3.50. Perfect student food! Most people can’t finish one in a sitting. I don’t know if I’m proud or ashamed to say that I can, lol. They’re made fresh every morning, and they’re still warm if you get there early enough.They’re extremely popular, and are frequently sold out by 10:30 when school is in. A cinnamon bun, a cup of tea (same kind they use at Starbucks), tax and tip comes to $7. You are FULL afterwards. I love this place.

That right there is my ode to the Sugarbowl. If you’re ever in my neck of the woods you should check it out. We’ll probably be there ;)