BUFFALO NARROWS

This past Saturday we took a day trip and had a picnic up in Buffalo Narrows, about an hour North of Beauval. We went with our next door neighbours Andrew, Nicole, their kids Laura and Sam, and Nicole’s parents. We hiked the sand dunes, picked some shells and chased the birds. 

Here are some pictures!

RECIPE: NY TIMES BEST CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

You better believe these are good.

Nothing is more relaxing than baking cookies. The smell, the warmth, the chocolate… you know how it is. Well I’ve been meaning to make some cookies to eat and to share, and also to freeze and keep on hand for unexpected company. So I of course did some Pinterest research, and found way way down on my treats board a recipe for NY Times Best chocolate chip cookies. With such a prestigious title, I was sold and not disappointed. They are everything you would want in a chocolate chip cookie. Very chewy, but yet still just a subtle crunch as you take that first bite. Sometimes I can’t believe these recipes are given out for free! And, I didn’t even have to double the recipe in order to have tons of leftovers to freeze. Perfect.

See recipe below.

 NY Times Best Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 C minus 2 Tbsp cake flour*

1 2/3 C bread flour*

1 1/4 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 tsp coarse salt

1 1/4 C unsalted butter

1 1/4 C light brown sugar

1 C plus 2 Tbsp granulated sugar

2 large eggs

2 tsp natural vanilla extract

1 bag semi-sweet chocolate chips

Sea salt.

*I just used all-purpose flour

 

1. Sift flours, baking soda, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Set aside.

2. Cream butter and sugars together until very light. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Stir in the vanilla. Add dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Fold in chocolate. Press plastic wrap against dough and refrigerate for 24 to 36 hours. Dough may be used in batches, and can be refrigerated for up to 72 hours.

3. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a nonstick baking mat. Set aside.

4. Scoop dough onto baking sheet, sprinkle lightly with sea salt and bake until golden brown but still soft, 10-12 minutes. Cool, and enjoy!

{ original recipe }

RECIPE: STUFFED SWEET POTATOES

This is another one of those recipes that you could pretty much make any which way you would like. Simply stuff, bake, and then stuff your face (as elegantly or not as you please).

Stuffed Sweet Potatoes

1. Wrap sweet potatoes in tin foil (shiny side in) and bake at 350 degrees F. for 60 minutes, or until tender.

2. Chop up your favourite veggies, and marinade (marinade recipe below).  I used whatever veggies I had on hand: Green pepper, onion, celery, cucumber, & garlic. I also washed up a can of mixed beans to add to the stuffing.

3. About 10 minutes before potatoes are ready, remove your vegetables from the marinade and grill them (I used a George Forman and this works wonderfully!).

4. When potatoes are tender, scoop the sweet potato out of the peel, leaving a thin layer inside the peel so that it can stand up on it’s own. Mash the sweet potato and add some butter and orange juice to taste. Then combine the sweet potato with the grilled veggies and mixed beans.

5. Fill each skin with the sweet potato mixture and top with shredded mozzarella cheese. Bake again for 10 minutes, or until cheese is melted and filling is heated through. Enjoy!

Grilled Vegetable Marinade

2 Tbsp olive oil

1 Tbsp orange juice

1 Tbsp dried oregano

1 tsp  red pepper flakes

1. Place all ingredients in a large Ziploc bag. Add your vegetables and shake shake shake! Let sit in the fridge for 45 mins – 1 hour.

2. Remove veggies and grill!

RECIPE: PEANUT BUTTER & BANANA OATMEAL MUFFINS WITH PB FROSTING

Well that’s a mouthful. And a delicious one at that! I made these muffins on Friday night to bring over to our neighbours house. They were all gobbled up pretty fast! They are actually really healthy muffins, with really unhealthy frosting. So I made some without any frosting so we could eat them with breakfast and not feel guilty. Try ‘em and let me know what you think!

Peanut Butter Banana Oatmeal Muffins with PB Frosting

(muffin recipe modified from here)

1^1/2 C all-purpose flour

1 C old fashioned oats

1 tsp baking powder

^1/2 tsp baking soda

^1/2 tsp salt

2 Tbsp applesauce

^1/2 C honey

2 large eggs

3 mashed bananas

6 Tbsp creamy peanut butter

1 C skim milk

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. and grease 18 muffin cups.

2. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, oats, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

3. In a large bowl, mix together the applesauce, honey, eggs, bananas, peanut butter, and milk until smooth.

4. Slowly pour the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and mix until just incorporated.

5. Divide the batter evenly among 18 greased muffin cups. ( I like to use a ^1/3 C measuring cup to help )

6. Bake 18-20 minutes, until edges of the muffin tops are golden brown.

7. Let cool for 5 minutes before removing muffins onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Peanut Butter Frosting

^1/4 C butter (room temperature)

^1/2 C peanut butter

1 ^1/2 Tbsp milk

1 C icing sugar

^1/4 tsp vanilla

1. Whisk all ingredients until smooth.

2. Wait until muffins are completely cooled, and start frosting!

RECIPE: BAKED PARMESAN TOMATOES

As you now know, Mark gets to come home for lunch every day. And, I am unemployed (and loving it). So I have been dabbling in some new recipes for lunches, dinners, and snacks! And of course, I have every intention of sharing them with you on the blog. So today, we have baked parmesan tomatoes! We ate these delicious little fruits (I am still convinced they are vegetables though) with some toasted pita and hummus. Wonderful combination. I’d love to try these on a garlic baguette though!I saw a few recipes for them on Pinterest, but decided to go with this one. The only difference is that I didn’t measure anything, I omitted the salt and pepper, and I used dried parsley rather than fresh (and only because I didn’t have any fresh on hand). I also sprinkled some finely grated mozzarella on top for added deliciousness! I highly recommend you do so too! Mark loved them as much as I did, so this little lunch meal will be added on to our go-to meals. They are so easy and quick to make, and just incredibly tasty. Let me know if you make them and tell me what you think! Enjoy!

TO BEAUVAL

Our last few days at the Westman residence were very busy. We found out that our lovely car was completely rusted out where you would normally put a trailer hitch, so we had to figure out a different way to ship all of our stuff. We fit as much as we could in our car, and then decided to ship the rest on the Greyhound bus. We bought five 6 cubic ft. boxes, and stuffed all we could into every box. 3 of them were over 90lbs! I packed 3 all by myself while everyone else was at work (but I had a little bucky’s to give me that extra little kick hehe!), and then Mark and his parents helped pack the last two and drag them all into the garage.That same day, I made dinner! I have always wanted to try making stuffed peppers, so I finally did. They are so easy to make, and so so so delicious! The best thing about them is that you can make them countless different ways. You can pretty much stuff em with whatever you want! A great way to use up leftovers.Well now it’s been 5 days since we’ve arrived here in Beauval, and we are loving it! Our drive up was long, but a lot of fun. It felt as though we were on yet another leg of our road trip to the West coast. We bought the Adventures of Sherlock Holmes audiobook set and they were very entertaining. I highly recommend them! We also brought along some homemade chocolate chunk cookies made by our lovely almost sister-in-law, and they were delicious (as is all of her baking)! Thanks LS!! And of course we stopped for multiple coffees and teas to keep us awake. Unlike our road trip where we camped and stayed with friends and family, this time we got to stay in 3 hotels! Much more comfortable than sleeping mats. When we arrived, we drove around a bit and then did a home inspection. Everything was pretty good, except for the infestation of sand flies!! Luckily the maintenance guys came by and used a little Raid to help the problem. It’s been a lot better now. Mark also patched a hole we found in our front door where we think they may have been coming in, and that’s made a huge difference. Other than that, the place is pretty nice! We just got our boxes on Saturday, so I’m starting to decorate a bit and make it feel homey. Although to be honest, it already feels like home! Here are a few little pics so far:
That’s right – a REAL FRIDGE and a REAL OVEN! We are quite thrilled. No more mini-fridges and hot pot stands! We seriously feel so blessed. We have an awesome situation here, and that goes far beyond just our house. We have amazing next door neighbours. We went to their house for dinner on Wednesday when we arrived, and we had such a great time. We went over again on Friday night to play games, and ended up just talking until 1:00AM! We have really just clicked with them, and their kids are already calling us Auntie Rebecca and Uncle Mark.
Mark’s first few days at school have been great. All the teachers are so welcoming and helpful. He’s taught some grade 9 math and worked in the grade 2 class so far. Who knows what he’s doing this morning! He finds out what he’ll be teaching every day when he arrives at school. He comes home every day for lunch, as the school is just beyond our backyard.
We went to our first church service on Sunday which is held at the school, and there we met a lot of the other teachers. Again, we just seemed to click with everyone! I’m going to join the guy who does worship next week, so I’m excited about that. Luckily we were able to fit my guitar in our car (in my brand new mint condition case that was given to me!), so I can practice.  Anyway, there is still quite a lot to do, so I will update again soon. XO!

BEAUVAL, SK

Mark and I are about to embark on a new adventure. We had only just arrived home after a month long road trip to Vancouver and back, when we got a phone call from a family friend. That friend gave us the number of their friends, who gave us the number of their son-in-law. You follow? It’s a little confusing. This son-in-law, let’s call him “A”, is a teacher in Northern Saskatchewan and was in Ontario for the summer with his wife and kids. During a visit, “A” had mentioned to our mutual family friend that the school he worked at was looking to fill some full-time positions. Our family friend immediately thought of Mark. She looked up M. Westman in the phonebook, and left a message. However, that wasn’t us because we don’t even have a landline. When she didn’t hear back, she instead called my mother-in-law and left another message. Unfortunately, my in-laws were in BC visiting Mark’s Grandma. So when she didn’t hear back again, I guess God decided to speed things up. The very first day that my in-laws arrived home from BC, they went to Costco and ran into our family friends whom they hadn’t seen in months. When my in-laws heard the story, they knew God was at work.

So last Wednesday when we came over to our in-laws (the very day of the Costco event), we heard the whole story. Mark called our family friend right away, got the number of their friends, who gave us the number of their son-in-law, “A”. Mark and “A” seemed to hit it off right away. “A” told Mark about the job opportunities in Beauval, SK, and after some prayers, we decided to apply. You see, as I’ve said before, Beauval is in northern SK (about 4 hours North of Saskatoon), and is a small town of 800 people. That deserves some goooood prayer time.

(click the map for more info on Beauval).

The position Mark applied for is the full-time itinerant supply teacher. Because Beauval is so far North, they need a supply teacher who lives in town, and will cover any class that needs it. The school, Valley View, is a K-12 school. So the position covers all the grades and all the subjects. If there is no classroom that needs covering, the itinerant supply will work with kids one on one, in the resource centre, or wherever the principal needs them to be. The position is full-time and takes home the regular teacher salary.

So Mark applied position on Thursday morning, and everything started happening really fast. He received a call back from the principal late that evening, and had a phone interview on Friday morning.  We had a wedding on Saturday, and Mark was reading some scripture, an of course during the ceremony we see that his phone is ringing! The superintendent of the Northern Lights School District left a message, but unfortunately left the wrong phone number! We tried calling back all day with no luck of reaching her. At about 1:30am when we got home from the wedding, Mark sent her an email. She emailed back the next morning with the correct phone number, and Mark called her right away. And yes, she offered him the job!

The next few days consisted of a lot of phone calls, a lot of paper work, a lot of excitement, a few tears, and a lot of packing. We had to be out of our place by the end of the month, so that meant packing up our place in 4 days. It was pretty exhausting, but felt amazing to be done.  It’s amazing though how much stuff we have collected over the past 2 years, and even more amazing that it all fit into our small basement suite. But we purged and boxed and stored and tossed and boxed some more, and we were out by Friday. We had some amazing helpers along the way, and we couldn’t have done it without them. We will always have those memories of moving out of our first home, and all the friends and family who were there to help us. So now we are living with my in-laws for the week, and all the stuff we are taking with us is sitting in their dining room.

So now some more details about our move. Well you already know we’re moving for the full-time itinerant supply position at a K-12 school, but is it really worth moving o far up North? Well we sure think so! First an foremost, Mark will be getting full-time (salary!) teaching experience with every grade and subject. On top of that, they provide us a moving allowance, so it won’t cost us anything to move up there. We are getting a hitch put on our car, and towing a small U-Haul trailer. It’ll be a 3 day drive, and we’ll stay in hotels on the way (a little more luxurious than all the camping we just did on our trip out West!). The school also supplies us with subsidised housing, and we are in a two-bedroom duplex with a basement and all appliances. Our next door neighbours are, guess who! “A” and his wife and family, who by the way, are also Christians. Have I mentioned how good our God is?! Rent is incredibly low, and we also get a Northern allowance that almost cancels out our rent. We do pay our own utilities and internet, however. We make the big move early in the morning on Sunday, September 9th.

I feel like there is so much more to say, but I think I will stop here. If you missed it, you can click the map for more info on Beauval. I just want to conclude by saying how thankful we are for this opportunity, and how excited we are. We are stepping out in faith here, as we believe that this is where God wants us to be. And we find peace in that. (2Corinthians 5:7) We would appreciate all your prayers as we embark together on this new chapter of our lives. Keep checking back for lots of updates and regular blog stuff!