Grilled Cheese gets a makeover

This recipe is based on something I had at a restaurant in Minneapolis called Cafeteria. It has an amazing rooftop patio and great food so if you're in that area, definitely stop in. But, that's not what this post is about. It's about the grilled cheese sandwich (and salad) that was inspired by a sandwich I had at the restaurant.

What you will need:

2 slices of rye bread (or any grainy bread)

2 slices of Swiss cheese

Crumbled blue cheese

2 strips of bacon

Pear

Basil

Red onion

No instructions really for this - just simply make a sandwich and throw it in a frying pan. Flipping is a little tricky because there's a lot of stuff in there so just be careful (I kind of used my hands a little bit). Also, don't get anxious when you're making this. Put your burner on low heat otherwise the bread will get dark before the cheese is melted inside.

Salad:

Mixed greens

Strawberries

Crumbled goat cheese

Red onion

Craisins

Sugared walnuts

Poppyseed dressing

Toss everything together (I like to just sprinkle the craisins, goat cheese and walnuts on top so they don't sink to the bottom) and you're ready. 

Voila! The perfect summer lunch.

Tis the season

Well, it's that time again folks. Yep, I'm talking about gardening season!! (Que cheers and applause) Yes, as you may have guessed by now, I love gardening. (Are you really surprised? Come on now.) One of my favorite things about gardening is the fresh herbs. I do love flowers and I like to fill a few of my pots with them but I really like to be able to just add fresh herbs to any dish. In the winter, it's really hard because fresh herbs don't last that long in your fridge. You have to plan out a recipe and know that you need to go get a handful of fresh basil or rosemary ahead of time. In the summer though, you can just step outside and it's all there!

Last year, I grew lots of different herbs and this year, I think I'll buy a few plants of the herbs I really like and use a lot.

Some of my favorites to grow are:
Basil - when the plant starts to flower, make sure you clip them off otherwise you won't get as many leaves.
Rosemary - no issues last year except I don't think I had enough!
Lemon balm - this fragrant herb is part of the mint family. I didn't use it much in my cooking but one day I added it to hot water and it was delicious.
Mint - unlike the other herbs I grow, (which I typically put in pots) mint is a perennial (meaning it comes back every year) so really doesn't require much work. We grow this stuff called cat mint and if you cut off a stock and give it to the cats they go crazy!
Oregano - I grew it last year but I'm still unsure where/when to use fresh oregano in recipes.
Thyme - Same thing, I don't think I had enough of it last year. It's awesome on chicken.
Lavender - I grew lavender last year but didn't really do anything with it. I'm told you can bake shortbread cookies and add the lavender and it's really good. Never got around to doing it last year though. I found it to be a really low maintenance plant.
Dill - Awesome on potatoes and also low maintenance. Watch the flowers on this one too.
Cilantro - I had some trouble with it last year because it just grew really tall and then the leaves were super spindly. I need to figure out how to trim it properly.
Parsley - Grew it but don't use much of it in my cooking. Italian flat-leaf parsley is much better, I think.

Fresh basil pesto (nom nom) I have this to look forward to.

Recipes from the beach!

Hi friends - I won't go on and on about how nice it is here because even though it's gradually getting warmer in Winnipeg, I don't want any of you to virally "spit at me".

Instead, I'll share a lovely and easy recipe that we used to make our fresh tilapia last night.

tilapia filets - they're about the perfect size for one per person
1 or 2 eggs
flour
panko bread crumbs - we used a kind we got here (I don't think it's available in Canada) that's already lemon pepper seasoned. You can just use regular panko but you must make sure to season either the crumbs themselves (quite generously) or the flour.

All you have to do is set up a simple breading station. First your flour (I just use dinner plates for this), eggs and then panko. They say you should try to keep one hand in the dry and one in the wet - I always fail at this so I have to rinse my hands once or twice when they get so caked with breading.

Once your fish is breaded, I like to fry them before I put them in the oven to give them a bit of colour. However, I didn't do that this time because the smoke alarm kept going off in the condo so I just put them right into the oven and they were just fine.

We had rather larg fillets so they were probably in the oven for about 13 minutes but it's very important not to overcook them or they'll get dry. Just watch them closely and if you have to take them out a few times to check, that's no big deal. Better than eating dry fish!

That's it for now - here are a few pics to show you where I am and the panko I used.

Mennonites, Homosexuality & Adultery - Armin Wiebe's play

You wouldn't think the words Mennonites and sex would belong in the same sentence, let alone in the same play. In fact, Armin Wiebe's first play, The Moonlight Sonata of Beethoven Blatz combines them in an entertaining and comedic way.

The play is about a Mennonite couple in the 1930s who is trying to get pregnant and find an old, broken piano that fell off a wagon. Obrum finds the piano and brings it home. He wants his wife, Susch to learn how to play. Not only does he bring a piano but he also agrees to let Beethoven Blatz stay at their house with them to fix the piano and "teach Susch" to play. I put that in quotations because Blatz doesn't really want to teach Susch, he just wants to compose his own Sonata.

This is actually the first time in a play where I've actually seen a sex scene. It's weird, I know because we see sex in movies and on TV all the time. I think it has something to do with the fact that when you're far away, it's hard to create intimacy and would just end up looking overly sexual. Wiebe avoids this by adding a comedic spin to the sex scene in the play. The two characters aren't actually connecting with each other - they both have their own objectives, neither of which involves the other person.

The one thing I struggled with in the play was the complicity of Teen's relationship with Susch. That character left something to be desired for me. I almost felt like I do when I'm watching a film that's based on a novel. I felt like lot of her importance was left out because of time issues. I wanted more of a conclusion to that relationship and it just didn't really play out the way I had hoped.

I was disappointed that we didn't get the talk with the artists and the actors that we were promised at the end of the play. It would have been interesting to hear some insights from the actors on what they thought of the play when they first read it and how they shaped the characters they played.

I thought the discussion with Armin was very interesting, however it would have been nice if he had brought something he had prepared to speak to us about. 50 minutes is a long time to fill with questions. I think one of the biggest things that struck me was when he was talking about how you have to think about what will work on stage in a play. He mentioned writing that the characters would turn off the oil lamp but never actually when they would be turning it on. He also said there was a part where Obrum was eating a banana that he had to cut "because bananas on stage are just a nuissance." These are the kind of things you don't have to think about when writing a short story.

I will remember you - love you, CreComm

I'm writing this blog post because I was walking to school today feeling all lovely and warm-hearted about CreComm. As we near the end of this first year, I'd like to pay homage to arguably one of the best years of my life.

As I was walking here, I was thinking about the Live Hit Derby that we have tomorrow and how a year ago, if you told me that would be something I'd be doing, I literally would have laughed in your face. This year of CreComm has pushed me so far out of my comfort zone time and time again, that I don't even know where my comfort zone is anymore. My comfort zone is a football field away. Never have I felt more uncomfortable, terrified, stressed and bad about myself than I have this year. And I wouldn't change a single second of it.

In addition to school, I have met and become friends with some of the very best people ever. People who are different than me but people who I don't feel I have to pretend in front of. I can literally be just exactly who I am, and guess what? People like me - I mean truly ME.

I couldn't possibly write a little diddy about every friend I've made and everyone I care about in CreComm and don't think you aren't important if I haven't said something about you.

To Lindsey - The girl I will ALWAYS go to for fashion advice. I live vicariously through you sometimes and I believe our mutual love for all things feline will always keep us together.

To Amie - My other "uncool" friend. She doesn't know she's actually so cool and doesn't even have to try. She's my other first-born friend who's personality is so similar to mine, it's unbelievable.

To Lorilynn - I'm so happy we rekindled our relationship and understand each other so well. Our interests are so different in some ways but it's amazing all the things we see eye-to-eye on.

To Brian - You make me laugh so hard and I love how you seem to think I'm such a good student (I'm really not!). I'm so glad we didn't do a horse magazine.

To Mike - My class 2 friend. Thank-you for always making sure I didn't lose it. I'll always remember to keep it at a 4, I promise.

There are so many others but not enough room. I hope everyone has an awesome summer. I know we'll be back next year but if I was depressed from not seeing everyone over Xmas, imagine how shaken up I'll be going a whole summer without CreComm!

Here's a little video that explains a bit more about my feelings:

My montage

My blog is a little off-topic this week as I'd like to share something very special with you guys. Our last TV assignment in CreComm required us to shoot and edit a 2-5 minute video montage. I had a wonderful time shooting and an even better time editing.

It's about a girl named Kelsey who died (as the song says) one day before her 19th birthday. She went to my high school and was a year older than me. Thank-you so much to the King family for letting me use their home videos and to Mimi for starring in my video and for writing and recording the beautiful song.

Glad it's over

The Magazine Trade Fair was yesterday and all the groups had an amazing time. Not only because it was fun but because it meant everyone was done with their magazines. It was a long and gruelling project but it was a lot of fun too. I am glad it's over though!

You can check out some of the fun people had at our booth here: http://www.thingamajigmag.tumblr.com/

Also, for those of you who read my blog and weren't there, Thingamajig won best magazine overall! That's right, the judges liked ours the best!

Thanks to everyone who supported us and who made it out to the fair.