Cold, Snow and more Cold...

It seems like it has been an unusually cold winter here in the capital.  It seemed like most days the temperature was -20 (or more) with the wind chill.  For anyone who doesn't know I HATE THE COLD.  No really I hate it with every fibre of my being.  I would actually move to San Francisco or Seattle if I could just for the weather. 

Than a for a couple days this week it was feeling a bit warmer, more like spring.  I put away my parka and opted for a pea style coat (that my rocking lil' sis gave me a couple months ago).  It was a beautiful reprieve from a winter where I am pretty sure I haven't felt my toes.

Than it happened.........the snow storm.  We all knew it was going to happen.  The news had been talking about this storm for days so I was expecting the 5-10cms we were predicted to get. 

That was not 5-10cms

The storm wasn't too bad (but lots of blowing snow, wind, and of course cold), but since I was working in Quebec (right across the boarder here in Ottawa) I just took the bus home at 4:30pm  and made it home in standard time.  The hubs however was not so lucky.  He left his work at 5:00pm and didn't get home until 6:15pm.  The roads were a mess. 

We skipped the gym last night and just stayed in watching TV and drinking tea (not a bad night at all). 

Than the hubs drops me off at the bus station this morning (I'm headed back over the border again for work), I  step out of the car and holly @#*! what is that crazy temperature.  Nowhere in the many, many weather reports that I heard forecasting the storm did I hear anything about the -30 (with the windchill) temperature!!!

Snow and cold, pretty much my environment since November.

I stood outside for 10 mins waiting for the bus and it took good 45mins for my toes to warm up once I got on site for work. 

I checked the weather forecast and it looks like another couple weeks of chilly temps and more snow, so it looks like I won't be putting away my parka just yet.

How are you dealing with the coldness of this winter?   What are you going to do once the weather gets warmer?

Slow Cooker Pulled Pork

So for anyone who doesn't know fiscal year-end (the month of March) is CRAZY at my work.  We work long days to complete contracts and by the time the hubs picks me up from work we don't get home until 6pm.  Which means I am not in the mood to actually cook anything for dinner.  I am much more a reheat and assemble kinda girl.   

Enter tonight's easy almost all ready for us when we get home "healthy" pulled pork.  I got the recipe from one of the blogs I follow (Thank you, "Finding the Silver Linings").  I did however adapt the recipe since I threw it all in the slow cooker right before work and I was trying to get out of my apartment on time.

The reason this recipe is "healthy" is that instead of using pork shoulder or pork butt which are really high in fat it uses pork tenderloin which is a much leaner cut.  I was a little skeptical about the tenderloin drying out from the long slow cooking time, but I am happy to say it wasn't dry at all.

To see the regular recipe please click on the link below (or just go check out Mindy's blog, it has TONS of great food recipes and DIY ideas).  Here is what I did.  I put 2 pork tenderloins into the slow cooker and dumped a whole bottle of BBQ sauce (I used an Apple Butter version that was on sale), filled the empty bottle up about half way with chicken stalk and dumped that in also.  Since I didn't want to chop up any garlic I just used a large teaspoon (cause that's what fits into my little jar) of pre-chopped garlic, and threw in some onion powder for good measure.  Gave everything a stir, set the timer for 8hrs on low and headed off to work.

Doesn't look to shabby

Well when me and the hubs walked in the door it smelled like yummy BBQ with a slight burnt twinge.  Turns out 8hrs might have been a little too long for the sugars in the BBQ, so you might want to adjust that if you make this recipe.  However I was all excited to try this pulled pork so I wasn't going to let a little crispy sugar bits stop me.  After shredding the pork for forever about 3 minutes I employed the hubs to take over so I could microwave the rice and get a veggie ready.

Didn't the hubs do a great job?

I added a splash of cider vinegar to end mix just to perk up the pork a little, and even with the burnt pieces it was pretty tasty dinner.  And there are a TON of leftovers so we have lots of dinner for the rest of the week.

Yum Yum

The end product: Not overly fatty which was nice and lots of leftovers for the rest of the week.
How do you like to eat your pulled pork?

To see the original recipe head on over to Finding the Silver Linings: Skinny Slow Cooker Pulled Pork

DIY - Coconut Hair Mask

My  coconut oil  hair mask experience:
I have been noticing lately that my hair has been less than silky soft. I blame the insanely cold winter that we have had in Ottawa, and the fact that it seems like it's never going to end.
So one night while reading a bunch of my favourite blogs (and messing on pinterest I like to multitask) I came across a post that said to use coconut oil as a mask for your hair.

Seemed easy enough and I just happened to have some coconut oil in my cupboard. The instructions said to put it on your hair and leave it for a couple hours. So i melted some down, dipped my ends in, and tired it up on my head for 1.5hrs.
The good part was my hair smelled FABULOUS. After an 1.5hrs (I had plans Saturday night and couldn't leave it on any longer. Plus 1.5hrs is almost a couple hours right?) into the shower I go to wash off the oil and to be amazed with how beautiful my hair is afterwards.
Well what the article didn't seem to tell me is that coconut oil is VERY hard to wash out. So after a good scrub and a blow-dry I find out my hair is still all coated in oil (but it does still smell great). Since I was running behind and I didn't have time for another shower I just pulled my hair back into a bun and used baby powder on my scalp and bangs to "hide" the greasiness of the oil. Well that worked for about 5 mins than my hair looked like I hadn't washed it for over a week. Thankfully my friends that I was meeting didn't hold it against me.
So the next day I jump into the shower again and use a TON of shampoo to wash out my hair. This time I got all the coconut oil out but after blow-drying my hair it doesn't feel all silky soft, it actually feels a little dryer.
So the point of this very long post is 2 days later, and a handful of soap I have learned that the coconut oil mask for my hair didn't make it silky smooth and was a real pain to get out.

Has anyone out there had better luck with a coconut oil hair mask? Did I miss a step when doing it?