Rambling & Christmas

Finally used that spa gift certificate from my mother in law last night (that she gave me way back on Mother's Day). A facial was in order! I feel a hundred percent better and re energized for our move and all that comes with it. I knew that if I didn't use it this month, it might be another six months before we could afford to have me use it.

After my facial, the esthetician applied a bit of Jane Iredale pressed powder (a mineral makeup). I fell instantly in love! I couldn't even tell that I had makeup on, and the way it made my face look blew me away. I wrote an epic saga on Krystal's blog post about how much makeup she spends in a year, detailing how I've always just picked up the cheap Cover Girl pressed powder - but I'm seriously considering forking over the $59 for the makeup and $44 for the applicator. Papa Bear couldn't believe how much younger it made me look, and how fresh. Yes, the facial had a lot to do with it, but that makeup. Wow. So - what's your opinion on Jane Iredale? Worth the expense? And hey Jane - I'd love to do a review post of the pressed powder, why doncha go on and send me a compact to try?

I've got two questions for you and you aren't allowed to laugh at them, deal? Okay. First, is it more frugal to turn down the hot water in the shower or bath as opposed to simply turning up the cold, when adjusting water temperature? My instinct says yes. What do you think? Does it even really matter?

Second question: when trying to save on heating bills, should all of the windows in the house be closed tightly or can the bedroom window be open just a crack for fresh air?

Don't laugh, you promised. But I'd love to hear your thoughts. Comment!

I finally (finally) listed my thrift store items on etsy (although they've been on craigslist for a little while now). You can check them out by clicking HERE - forgive the pictures, they're awful. I took them, uploaded them to Flickr to compress them and then etsy compressed them again so they are horrifyingly blurry.

So that work at home telephone job I twittered about? Scored an interview. It was advertised as just 15 hours a week but it turns out that I could sign up for extra shifts if I wanted to, so that's a plus. Haven't had the interview yet, but I just sent them my response a couple of hours ago and they are located in Ontario, so I'm not expecting to hear anything till tomorrow. It will be a scheduled telephone interview and I'm pretty sure I'll get the job - professional telephone work is second nature to me, despite my discomfort of talking on the phone socially.

I'll be able to work out of the spare bedroom in our new house, the company provides great benefits and the hours suit our family lifestyle. It won't be a massive paycheck but it will definitely give us some breathing room!

Some of my Facebook friends asked if I didn't think I was busy enough (with Bear and Sweet Rina already) - yes, I'm pretty busy. But you gotta do what you gotta do to make ends meet, and this extra income will really help out our household budget.

So, Christmas. Only 37 sleeps until the big day! What are your feelings on this? Fear? Excitement? Both?

My paternal grandparents always give us cash for Christmas, and then we are supposed to tell them what we purchased at our Christmas get together. We're stuck as to what to use it for: new ink cartridges for our printer (which I can write off at tax time for Sweet Rina), improvements for the house (numerous including a bag of insulation, storm window material, paint, updated furnace ducting, putting towards a new electrical panel...) or using it on the three of us in the way of a new piece of clothing or shoes. What do you think?? Help! Update: we've spent half of it on a sweater, bag and slippers for me, and a t shirt for Bear. Papa Bear will be using the rest for a piece of clothing for himself, we think...

Speaking of Christmas...my brother emailed us all recently letting us know that he and my sister in law would not be participating in gift giving this year. They live off my sister in law's income while my brother attends university and are about as able to afford Christmas as we are. Not only that, but that they were both tired of the stress and materialism that comes with gift giving. I wanted to stand up and applaud when I read the email.

Don't get me wrong - I love Christmas and I do enjoy gift shopping/making. But it's true that Christmas has become so materialistic and greedy and consumeristic (is that even a word?). So, after talking with my Mom, I wrote a mass email in reply letting my brother and siblings know that we were in agreement and would also not be participating in the gift giving extravaganza; at least on my family's side - haven't broached the subject with the in laws yet... My Mom talked to my Oma (maternal grandmother - Oma is Dutch for grandma, essentially) and let her know the situation, as well as other members of our family and it was generally agreed upon that gift giving would not be happening this year (typically we do a gift exchange and there is a set amount to spend). I suggested bringing food for the Food Bank or if a person felt a strong need to spend money, make a donation to a favorite or well deserved charity instead.

So that's a huge relief for us, at least partly anyway. I'm still planning on making a few edible gifts for friends and family but it will be pretty random.

Regardless of whether or not we mention this idea to Papa Bear's side of the family, I'm pretty sure we're going to stick to the homemade gifts anyway. A basket for the brother, his wife and kids (plus cash for the kids; we do that every year) and a basket for Mom and Father in law. All homemade, mostly edible but a few non edible items as well.

I'll probably put together a small basket for my parents, too.

How are you handling Christmas gift giving this year?

PS - shout out to Frugal Changes for including my POM cake post in this edition of the MIFs carnival!

Giveaway Winners & Me Whining About It Being Monday

What a weekend it's been so far! Do you know, that when one needs boxes for moving, no boxes can be found? And when one does not need boxes for moving, liquor stores and the like are plentiful with them? Do you also know how frustrating this is??

How on earth am I supposed to pack up our apartment when I can't find any boxes to pack our apartment into?!? Gah!!

Ok I can't really complain that loudly - I did pick up a few totally awesome produce boxes from the grocery store on Friday. Banana and apple boxes rock! They're sturdy, a good size, and have handles! I'm going to be grocery store stalking as much as possible now. Forget flimsy small liquor store boxes!

I can hear FB tsk tsk tsking already - if we didn't have so much stuff, right? We actually don't have a lot of 'stuff' - but the things we do have need to be packed. Bedding, clothing, Bear's toys, the kitchen/bathroom/office area...thank goodness for having done a de cluttering during spring cleaning.

Alls I gots to say about packing up your entire home is goodness gracious what a mess. The apartment looks, well, it looks like there are boxes stacked anywhere boxes could be stacked. I even skipped Thursday cleaning day because what's the point? I'm going to do a spot cleaning today and probably run the vacuum over any exposed areas of carpet.

One good thing about Mondays: Papa Bear has the day off. Mondays are usually pretty cram packed with appointments, errands and more because A: Papa Bear is home and B: so is the car. Today, however, Papa Bear is working with his Dad as well as meeting with the mortgage broker so the Bear and I are on our own. We'll keep busy.

Oy vey can you believe how fast this month is zooming by?? Only two weeks before we lock up the apartment for good. Oh dear. Getting weepy already. I've already warned Papa Bear that once all of our things are out and we're leaving for the last time, I might break down. I'm getting teary just writing about it! Going to have to keep a few tissues handy, and I'm going to make sure we take a few pictures so Baby Bear can see where he spent the first two years of his life.

I'm not trying to be a downer, really, I'm not! How about some good news, then? Giveaway winners!

The winner of the 18x24 poster print is comment #4, Michele P!

The winner of the 50 custom thank you cards is comment #3, Small Footprints!

The winner of the 16x20 canvas print is comment #11, Dolphin Girl!

I've emailed you all as well as forwarded your info to UPrinting; they should be in contact soon with details on how to get your goods!

How's your Monday so far?

POM Wonderful Pomegranate Juice Cake

Well over a month ago I received an email from a POM Wonderful rep, asking me if I'd like to try some of their POM pomegranate juice - um, yes please! The only stipulation? Use it in cooking or baking. Hmmm...

When I did a bit of internet research, I realized that everyone uses it in savory dishes (reduce, use as glaze or sauce) or as a beverage (mix with something, drink). While those uses are fabulous, I wanted to try something sweet. As if I don't make enough sweet things these days...

May I tell you a bit about POM Wonderful first?

They are the only company that grows, harvests, processes and ships their own pomegranates - and their products have over $32 million dollars worth of research under their belts. Talk about knowing what you're selling.

Because they're based in California, minimizing water usage is high on their list of priorities, and they've got the latest in drip irrigation technology to prove their dedication to this. POM Wonderful is also determined to use every last bit of every last pomegranate; whatever is leftover after processing is used as cattle feed (happy cattle!).

In order to avoid extra transportation, the bottles that hold POM juice are produced right next door to their filling plant - brilliant!!

That's not all: their corporate office based in Los Angeles is LEEDs Silver certified. Impressive.

So why choose POM Wonderful over the several other pomegranate juice options out there? How about simply reading labels. POM Wonderful encourages you to check out the labels of the other brands, and compare them to their own label. You may not know this but by law, an ingredient list is required to list ingredient content in highest to lowest order. So you'd expect pomegranate juice to read, well, pomegranate juice. All I'm going to say is - read a few labels, then compare them to the back of POM Wonderful's bottle. You might be surprised. I was.

Do I really need to alert you to the health benefits of drinking pomegranate juice? It's not a new 'thing', is it? You are probably already aware of it's antioxidant superpowers and it's free radical neutralizing skillz. And hey, it tastes pretty good, and it's fairly versatile!

You can reduce pomegranate juice and sugar to create a sticky, tangy sauce for duck or chicken; it makes a fantastic glaze and the arils of a whole pomegranate are wonderful in salads. We won't even begin to discuss the loveliness that is a pomegranate martini - I only discovered those last New Year's Eve and now I'm hooked!

So on to my recipe.

I knew I wanted to make a pomegranate flavored cake, with some sort of thin icing or glaze, or maybe a pomegranate frosting. I also knew I wanted to use a bundt pan, because I never get to use my bundt pan, and I've been drooling over the Food Librarian's I Like Big Bundts - 30 Days of Bundts series for the past, oh, 26 days...so a bundt cake it would be.

A plain ol' vanilla cake would work well, I thought - omit the vanilla and sub in a fairly large amount of POM juice. I would make it one of those old fashioned poke cakes where you stab your cake repeatedly (hi-yah! hi-yah!) and then brush it with some sort of POM reduction while still warm from the oven...then once it totally cooled, slather it, nice and thick like, with a silky pinkish pomegranatey frosting. Mmmmm...that's right.

So, after I mixed up the dough for a client's paska order, and set it aside to rise, I made my cake. And ohhh yes, it was good.


Pomegranate Poke Cake
Makes 1 bundt or an 8 inch layer cake
Adapted from Martha Stewart

For cake:
1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for pans
2 1/2 cups flour, plus more for pans
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 large eggs plus 3 large egg yolks (reserve whites for frosting)
2 tablespoons POM Wonderful pomegranate juice
1 cup full fat plain yogurt
smidge pink food coloring gel

For reduction:
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 cup POM Wonderful pomegranate juice, divided

Preheat oven to 350F. Butter and flour bundt pan.

Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl. In a large bowl, using a mixer, beat butter and sugar till pale and fluffy. Beat in eggs and yolks one at a time. Beat in pomegranate juice. Alternating dry and wet, beat in flour and buttermilk; begin and end with flour mixture. Add smidge of pink food coloring. Mix till just combined.

Pour batter into bundt pan. Bake till cake pulls away from edges; 30 to 35 minutes.

In the meanwhile, prepare pomegranate reduction: simmer 20 minutes till reduced, thickened and quite aromatic. Stir in remaining 1/4 cup pomegranate juice and set aside.

Cool cake 10 minutes in pan then invert onto cooling rack. Using another wire rack, flip cake over so decorative top is up. While cake is still warm, use a wooden skewer or toothpick to poke holes in the cake. Brush with pomegranate reduction. Allow cake to cool completely, then frost.

Pomegranate Whipped Frosting
Makes 5 cups
Inspired by Martha Stewart

3 large egg whites
3/4 cup sugar
pinch salt
1/3 cup water
1/2 teaspoon POM Wonderful pomegranate juice

In a heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water, combine and cook all ingredients, stirring constantly, till sugar has dissolved (rub a bit of the mixture between fingers: if smooth, sugar has dissolved. If grainy, keep cooking). Transfer to a large bowl and beat on medium high until glossy, stiff peaks form - but do not overbeat, about 3 minutes. Reduce speed to low, add pomegranate juice and beat until just combined. Use immediately.

I wish I had picked up a whole pomegranate so I could have sprinkled a few arils over top of my cake - how pretty would that have been??

This bundt cake turned out well; the cake was moist and just mildly flavored of pomegranate, the frosting was a lovely color and tasted fantastic with the cake and the appearance overall was so pretty! A very girly cake...but Papa Bear didn't complain, and he rarely eats dessert!

I found that it tasted the best after it spent an hour or so in the refrigerator - the frosting firmed up and the flavors developed even more.

Thanks POM Wonderful for letting me experiment with your juice - I still have some left and am already thinking about my next plan of attack!!