Author Archives: jackmansjourney

It doesn’t always turn out!

27 Wednesday Oct 2010

Posted by in baking

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Cooking.  I love to cook and for the most part what I make is good!  I enjoy my food.  But I made something new and it didn’t quite taste great.  Butternut Squash Soup.  I’m doing a little more cooking with different kinds of squash like spaghetti squash and now butternut squash and soon acorn squash.  I never knew all these different types of squash existed!   I didn’t like squash as a kid, no matter how much brown sugar Dad put in the mashed up squash.  Maybe that’s why it didn’t turn out so good.

I followed the recipe except I had some asparagus so I added that in.  Maybe that is what made the difference.  Even the fiance didn’t care for it too much and he loves food.  After he had it I knew it wasn’t just me!  We had a little bit of it and then went out.  When I got back I decided to heat it up and add some brown sugar.  My Dad put brown sugar in his squash so maybe that will work.  Or wait, now that I think about it was it turnip?  Either way I didn’t like either vegetable.  Ok, back to the soup.  I didn’t have a bowl of it, but I did try some on a spoon.  It seemed to bring out the taste a little more.  It still isn’t a favourite and won’t make it into my personal cookbook.  I’m going to have it for lunch today and see if I change my mind, but I highly doubt it.

Maybe if you are a squash loving person you would love the soup!  Here is the recipe if you want to try it out:

Butternut Squash Bisque


  • 1 tablespoon canola oil
  • 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
  • 1/2 cup diced onion
  • 3/4 cup diced carrots
  • 4 cups peeled and cubed butternut squash
  • 3 cups vegetable stock
  • salt and ground black pepper to taste
  • ground nutmeg to taste
  • 1/2 cup heavy cream (optional)


  1. Heat the oil and melt the butter in a large pot over medium heat. Cook and stir the onion in the butter and oil under tender.
  2. Mix the carrots and squash into the pot. Pour in vegetable stock, and season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer until vegetables are tender.
  3. In a blender or food processor, puree the soup mixture until smooth. Return to the pot, and stir in the heavy cream. Heat through, but do not boil. Serve warm with a dash of nutmeg.

Things I changed:
I used Olive Oil instead of canola and butter.  I baked the squash first.  It is really hard to cut when it is raw.  Others on the site that I got the recipe recommended doing this.  I didn’t have nutmeg.  I also used a little bit of skim milk instead of heavy cream.  Others recommended not using the cream or using 1/2 and 1/2.  I also added asparagus (not recommended).

Maybe I should give it a second chance without the asparagus.  What do you think? 

For more great recipes visit http://www.allrecipes.com


Today I am going to try making Honey & Orange Glazed Chicken.  It looks very tasty. 

20 min jog – still sweaty but amazingly not still catching my breath!

22 Friday Oct 2010

Posted by in exercise

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Today was the big day.  5 minute warm-up and then 20 minutes of pure jogging for our Couch to 5K.

Our thoughts before the run:
20 min…oh my goodness.  I don’t know if we will make it.
Don’t think of it as 20 minutes but as 8 minutes.
Yeah, 8 very long minutes.
We will just run until someone has to stop.
Let’s jog for 10 minutes and then walk for 2 minutes and then jog another 10.
15 seconds and we run!

Thoughts during the run:
12 minutes and 30 seconds left to go.  We ran just over 8 minutes!
Let’s run to Krug St.  We can do it.
Krug St, that’s far.
We can do it ladies!
Look, the end of Krug St!
Woo hoo the end of Krug St.
6 minutes and 30 seconds
We’ve almost doubled our 8 minute jog!  Let’s just keep going.
3 minutes …. 1 minute and 30 seconds …. 30 seconds …. 10 seconds

Thoughts after the run:
WE DID IT!  WE JOGGED FOR 20 MINUTES STRAIGHT!
So proud of my running ladies!
High 5’s all around.
I’d hug you guys but I’m too tired.

The above thoughts weren’t all mine.  They are from all three of us.

We are pretty amazed that we jogged for 20 minutes.  Yes, we didn’t run, we jogged and we had a good pace to accomplish our goal, but just think by the end of this jogging for 20 minutes will be a piece of cake and we might even be able to jog a little faster.

I had said to the girls we should run for 10 minutes and then take a 2 minute walk and then run again, but as we got going I thought we should really try and push ourselves.  So once we got closer and after Julie gave us the 12 minutes left mark I said, “Let’s run until Krug St.”.  I didn’t want to stop.  I wasn’t breathing heavy.  I wasn’t so dead I needed to stop.  I was hoping the girls were feeling the same way or had the encouragement to keep going.  I know for myself if I didn’t say that, I would have stopped since we got past the 10 minute mark.

A few years ago, actually after my first year at Heritage (2001 I think) I walked every morning from Monday – Friday.  I went at 7am.  I remember wanting to jog, but it was so hard and there was a lot of hills.  At one spot in my run it was flat.  I would tell myself just one more telephone pole. Just to the next tree.  This would help me get there.  I thought I would try it today.

After we got to Krug St. I said just to the next turn.  Although that was great I think we were more motivated by the fact we only had 5 minutes left.  Probably if we stopped jogging we might not have wanted to start again.  Thanks to Julie for voicing this as it was another motivation to keep going.  We turned the corner and 30 seconds later we were finished our 20 minutes.  Wow!  I don’t know how to express how excited we are.  I am sure we will have a great day today!

We woke up before most people are awake and we jogged.  We jogged for a full 20 minutes!  I wonder how many times I’ve written that in this blog!  It’s Friday and we have two days to recuperate before our next run on Monday, which will be a breeze.  We started 7 weeks ago (although we are only on week 5) thinking that we would never reach the goal of jogging 20 minutes, but we have.  I don’t think that I have every been able to jog this long in my life.

My thoughts now:
I wonder if it will be easier as the weeks continue on (only 4 more left)?  Our obstacles now – the weather, sickness, and injuries – not that we can’t do it.  We have been really fortunate to have good weather.  We haven’t had to run in the rain.  It was a bit chilly this morning but we soon warmed up after jogging for a few minutes.  Only two injuries.  One is ongoing, but hopefully Julie’s shin’s will get better even though she is still running on them.

Just wanted to give a shout out to God for giving us good weather to run in, keeping us safe and giving us the encouragement and strength to run, especially today when we were tired and jogged the long one. Thanks God, for keeping us going when we didn’t want to!

Week 6 begins Monday!

That was easier than I thought

20 Wednesday Oct 2010

Posted by in exercise

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Week 5 of Couch to 5K has been interesting.  I thought it was going to be harder than what it really has been.  I would say than what it was but we have one jog left.  What has been happening with C25K…

We decided we would run all 3 days at 6 am.  We talked about on our Monday night run (6 pm) as we were feeling sluggish and heavy after a day of work and eating.  In the morning I feel light and not so sluggish.  It is more of a tired, I just had to wake up kind of feel then the I’ve been working all day and now have to run kind of feel.  I think this is a good decision.  I made change my mind next Monday at 5:45 am.

Monday’s run I felt tired and was beat after our first run.  It felt like a long 3 min jog.  Then after our short walk we ran our 5 min which was not that hard.  Then another 3.  Oh I could recuperate.    “Four minutes!” Yells Julie.  “What?” I yelled back.  “I thought this was a 3 min run?”  Turns out we were doing a different set.  I don’t know why I got confused because we always have a different on Monday.  My initial 3 minutes was actually 5 minutes.  Actually all the runs were 5 minutes on Monday.  Well no wonder I thought it was a hard run the first time around when I was thinking it was 3 minutes!  Glad I got it all straightened out at the end of the run when it didn’t really matter anymore.  It did make us laugh, which is always a good thing when you aren’t a morning person and you are up and jogging at 6 am.

I left for my jog this morning feeling very tired and thinking, “I’m so going back to bed when I get home!”  I think this every morning that we run at 6 am.  But by the time we come back and I eat some breakfast, because I am very hungry by that point, I don’t feel the need to go back to bed.  It’s now 7:26 am and the verdict to go back to bed is still out.  I haven’t yet gone back to bed after a run.  Although, today I might break that trend.

Today we accomplished greatness!  Well, it was great for us!  Are you ready for it?  We jogged 8 minutes straight – twice!  It was not too bad either.  I thought it would be harder but it was easier than I thought.  We didn’t run as fast as normal as Julie is running on shin splint in one of her shins (not fun).  But still, we made it through 8 minutes!  Oh the possibilities are endless!  What about 10 min or 15 or 20 minutes at one time?

Oh wait, we get the possibility of jogging for 20 minutes on Friday!  How exciting.  (Italics added for sarcasm) It’s the halfway point.  That’s all I can figure for the program to make us jog for the full 20 minutes!  What is it thinking, that we are supper runners!  So the plan is to jog for as long as we can, to push ourselves (well that is my plan).  Who knows, maybe we will surprise ourselves and make it the whole way!  Here is hoping.

I will let you know how it turns out on Friday at about 7 am.  I need to leave room for breakfast after that run!

Surprised Jogger,
Jackman

Easy Shake and Bake Chicken

15 Friday Oct 2010

Posted by in Cooking, recipe

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Food…mmmm.

On my way home from going to a great book sale in New Hamburg, I thought about what to cook for supper.  Chicken.  Cooking chicken the same old way can get pretty boring.  I was also hungry so wanted something that would take too long but also be cooked!

I ventured onto my favourite online recipe site:  www.allrecipes.com and typed in “shake and bake chicken”.  That’s what I wanted to make but I didn’t have any shake ‘n bake at home.  I was sure there would be a recipe that didn’t require the store bought shake ‘n bake.

After a few minutes of looking I found the following recipe:

Ingredients

  • 3 pounds chicken, cut into pieces
  • 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon paprika
  • 1/4 teaspoon sage
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
  • 1/2 cup butter

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C).
  2. Mix flour, salt, paprika, sage and pepper together in a bag. Add chicken parts in a bag and shake until well coated.
  3. Melt butter/margarine in a 9×13 inch baking dish in the preheated oven. Place chicken in the baking dish skin side down and bake for 20 minutes. Turn pieces and bake another 20 minutes until tender and juices run clear.
 
I modified the recipe a bit.  Sometimes I like to take recipes and make them my own.  Or maybe it is because I didn’t have everything for this recipe.
 
I used two boned pieces of chicken.  I used whole wheat flour instead of all purpose flour and I used Montreal Steak Spice instead of paprika and sage. Next time I will try it with olive oil instead of butter hoping for a more healthier alternative.   I followed the rest of the directions – cooking it at 350.  My oven is a bit hotter then it should be.  I also think I cooked it for about 10 more min longer then suggested.  
 
The result:  mmm mmm goodness!  Crispy.  Delightful.  I ate it all before anything else on my plate, well with a few bites of whipped potato in between.  Definitely something that I will cook again.  I like good easy recipes.  Oh, and I went to take the drumstick off the breast and it came off without the meat.  I love it when chicken falls of the meat!  So good!
 
If you try, let me know how you like!
 
Yum Yum food!
What is your favourite chicken recipe?

Couch to 5K – week 4

14 Thursday Oct 2010

Posted by in exercise

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Running….I’ve never really been a big fan.  It’s hard on the legs and knee joints.  I’m tired at the end and after doing it a few times something comes up and I don’t get back to it.  I don’t mind the running on a treadmill because it is a lot easier than running on the road; the treadmill helps you along – the road doesn’t.  Until….

One day I was visiting with friends.  We just finished an exciting game of…well that is not important!  But it was a fun game 🙂  My friend Julie told us about a new app she got for her iPhone.  Couch to 5k.  Hmmm…sounds interesting.  Sure I’ll do that with you!  Another friend, Sue, decided to join us.  I wasn’t sure what I was getting myself into, but I was soon to find out.

Basically you have a warm up and cool down of 5 min.  We walk during this time.  Then each week the running (well I would call it jogging) increasing each week.  Week 1 we jogged for 60 seconds and then walked for 90 minutes.  Week 2 we jogged for 90 seconds and walked for 2 minutes.  It was great!  We were on a role and so proud of ourselves!  But….

One of the girls injured her foot.  No more running for a bit…
I got sick.  Still no running for a bit…
Two weeks had gone by with no running.

People would probably say that this is the breaking point for if we would continue or if we would give up.  Let’s say we are determined to finish! 

We finished Week 3 on Friday!  Jogging 3 minutes and walking 3 minutes.  At first I thought it was hard, but it really helps to have the walking break in between the jogs. 

One thing I love about the app, it tells you when to run and when to walk.  You hear, “Run now!”  then, “Walk Now”.  And of course Julie lets us know how long is left in the jog.  “One minute left!”   “Only thirty seconds!”  Believe me when I say that sometimes those last thirty seconds feel a lot longer then they should!

Now we are on Week 4.  Jog 5 minutes and walk 3 min (I think).  I actually thought it was going to be a lot harder then I thought.  I thought I would be totally out of breath and not able to make it the full 5 minutes, but I made it through.  We all made it through.  We are not running, we are jogging.  We are not jogging hard, but we are jogging and we are proud to be on the journey.

We wonder what it will do to us, besides build up our confidence and get us in shape.  I wonder sometimes why after two weeks of running in the evening we chose to wake up at 6am two days of the three that we run.  I’m not a morning person and I actually have the morning off on those two days.  What was I thinking.  Although, it does get me up early in the morning.  The first day we ran at 6am I ran (of course), had breakfast, cleaned, and showered all before 7:30am.  Wow.  I didn’t realize how much you can get done so early in the morning before everyone else woke up!

Tomorrow morning we will be at it again.  At the end of the day that we run at 6am I have forgotten that we ran and think that I should do it again but then I remember that I ran and I feel good.  They say that women accomplish exercise best if they do it in the morning.  I definately agree with that, even if I’m not a morning person.  It’s done and out of the way. 

If you want to run and it’s not your favourite thing in the world then find someone to run with you.  There are days I would have chosen to stay in bed or sat in front of the TV if I didn’t have Julie and Sue to run with!  Thanks ladies!

Want a challenge…try Couch to 5k.  Check out http://felttip.com/c25k/

Starting to like running,
Jackman <

Encouragement from My Sister

14 Monday Jun 2010

Posted by in Self Improvement

≈ 2 Comments

My sister responded to my post through e-mail and this is some helpful tips that she gave me to learn Albanian.  Maybe you can use it to help you learn a language you’re interested in!  Just plug in the name of your language where it says “Albanian”.

From My Sis:
That’s great! I have a couple recommendations that helped me learn Acadian.

1) Why don’t you try to only speak Albanian with Bes and his sister [For you this would be someone who speaks the language you are learning] on certain days? You have to figure out what the message with out any English.

2)  Except  you can ask  “How do I say XXXXX in Albanian, and how do I spell XXXX in Albanian? but ask those questions in  Albanian. Have Mon Wed Fri as Albanian days- no english! That’s part of your immersion.

3)If you can, listen to Albanian radio/news 15 minutes a day, even if you don’t understand the language, that way you get the “rhythm” of the language, and tune your hearing to the flavors/accents of the language.

4) Carry a little book with you at all times to write down the sayings/expressions/ and words that you would use in your daily speaking. 10 words a day sounds great, but as you see, it is hard to follow through, and they may not be relevant to your daily living. Review the book any time you have a minute, or a few minutes before you go to sleep. That way it is kind of in your brain while you sleep.

Hmmm…sounds like a plan.  Three days with only Albanian? Boy that’s a tough one.  What about starting with 1 day first and then working my way up to 3 days!  😉  We are strying to get his Sister to learn English too.  But we could do the same with her and make the Albanian day a break for her that she doesn’t have to speak any English….hmmmm…..

Well, there is some tips from my Sis for learning another language.  Why not try it out yourself.  I’ll let you know how it goes!

Shihemi me vone – See you later