How To Make Snickerdoodles

It's Christmas, and therefore it is Snickerdoodle time. If you google them, the first link to pop up is the Wikipedia entry. The picture in the entry is not how finished Snickerdoodles should look. They are too flat. I'm picky about how my Snickerdoodles look and taste, so I thought I would write a quick entry on how to make them.
The Recipe:
-1 Cup Butter or Margarine. One or the other, mixing them leads to improper doodles.
-1 1/2 Cup White Sugar.
-2 Eggs
-2 3/4 Cups Flour
-2 tsp Cream of Tartar
-1 tsp Baking Soda
-1/4 tsp Salt
In a separate small bowl
- 2 tbsp Sugar
- 2 tsp Cinnamon
Instructions:
 -Cream the butter + sugar + eggs in mixing bowl. This is important.
-In a separate bowl, blend the dry stuff all together. Dump and mix gradually into bowl with sugar/eggs/butter.
-Refrigerate for at least 12 hours, or freeze for 2. I don't recommend the freezing. It never really works properly.
-After dough is cold, make a roughly one inch ball, and roll around in your bowl of sugar/cinnamon. It should not be that sticky.
-Bake at 350 for 12 minutes. That's a rough guide. They burn easily. It depends on your environment, stove, etc. In Alberta I bake at 340 and set the timer for 11 minutes. If they flatten out, you've messed something up. This is roughly what they should look like when you're done.

I like to dip mine in milk, and many in my family like them frozen. Oh, and I never make less than a double recipe. Making a single batch is just silly.
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays,
Scott

It's been awhile

It's been awhile since the last posting, since the Folk Fest I believe. We had a very active summer and fall. Niki's sister Lindsay got married. It was a great trip out west, in which we got to see lots of friends and family. We've had a few people come out for visits this fall, which was very enjoyable. Hopefully we can go west again in the new year and return the favour. The family had a big birthday party for my mom. It was the first time all four brothers had been together since Niki and I got married. Chris invented a new drink, Peppermint schnapps and diet coke, which we're calling the Christmas Nuke. Lots of concerts, games, the usual Neufeld activities. I guess usual activities for childless married couples :) I'm gonna just post pics of the last four months, peruse if you like.
Cheers,
Scott

Edmonton Folk Festival

Niki and I volunteered at the 2010 Edmonton Folk Festival. It was our first year volunteering, and it was amazing. We were on the security liaison crew, which basically meant we walked around and made sure everyone was OK. It was a blast. When you volunteer they feed you, and when not doing your work, you get to check out all Folk Fest has to offer. Even while working we could check out folk fest, as it was our job to walk around. My favourite show was Brandi Carlile. I had never heard of her before, but the way she rocked Folsom Prison made me an instant fan. Niki got to hear lots of Basia Bulat, which made her happy. I think we attended every single one of her work shops. Ben Harper put on a good concert, though he skipped a few of his hits.  There were so many great performers. The range of music was such that I think everyone could find an artist they would like. I even got to meet Peter Brown, one of my favourite CBC people. Our friend Shelley was a paying customer, so we were able to hang out with her, which made the festival even better. I could continue to rave, but I'll just say that we are definitely planning on volunteering again next year. Now we're off to Victoria.
Cheers,
Scott
PS I have embedded some of the videos we took of the music. It should work so that you can just click on the highlighted video, the video should just pop out and play. Let me know if it works for people.

Shakespeare, Camping, Weddings and What The Whale Said

Every summer I think the world spins a little faster. Time seems to have sped up.
Niki and I just returned from a wedding in Ft St John, which was also a big family reunion. The most remembered moment, for me, from the last weekend involves my Grandfather. He is 92, and a very blunt man. At one point, while everyone was visiting and walking around, he came up and put his hand on my shoulder. He had something he wanted to say and ask me. These are not his exact words, but he basically said.
"Your cousin Darryl has a business, is married, and has a baby coming. What's wrong with you? Don't you know how to do it? I know how to do it. I had six kids and a chicken farm."
I was a little speechless. What do you say when the patriarch informs you that you should have some kids by now? I did not want to say anything, I was a little scared he might start explaining things in more detail.
One of Grandpa's main joys in life is counting all his offspring. He loves telling people he has six children, thirty grandchildren, twenty four great grandchildren, with one in the hatchery. The hatchery would be Darryl and Laura's baby. It was pretty funny. I've now been told! I had better learn how to get things done.
A little side note, aunt Eileen played for the wedding. I was not able to get any videos of that, so I asked for a quick little concert after the ceremony. Forgive me Auntie, but I must share:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVa3jQnibNo
The weekend before this last one we were camping with some good Edmonton friends. My parents graciously lent us the truck and 5th wheel. I don't know if I would every want to camp in a tent again. Camping like you're an old man is awesome. I just wish we could camp with them again before the summer was out. Waking up to little voices talking to their food outside our window was a pretty great way to wake up. Especially if you don't have any responsibilities concerning said little voices.
A Said The Whale concert was also squeezed in during the last two weeks. Here's a video from that concert: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZkrLYTiNf4g 
Cheers,
Scott

Canoeing and Concerts

It's been really rainy lately, not that I am complaining. Love the smell in the air, and I am not a big fan of heat. It's been sunny when we've needed it. Such as at the Bon Jovi concert last Thursday. Thank you Shelley for getting us $2 tickets, it was awesome!
Saturday we visited Aunt Kay in St. Albert and checked out St Alberts farmers market.  I love farmers markets, and all the free samples. Picked up some pie too. For the rest of the afternoon we boated down the North Sask with Aaron and Shelley. First time on the river for me, and I highly recommend it. A minor warning, if you have to go to shore as a result of liquid intake, make sure not to put ones foot down on an anthill. It's tricky to stop the ants from going up your legs and to take care of the whole reason you stopped on shore.
Sunday we had our first volunteers meeting for Folk Fest, which Niki and I are getting pretty excited for.
Tonight we're going to see Macbeth. We saw Much Ado when Niki's parents were out, so now it's time to see the other play on this summer. I've not been to a lot of live theatre, but I have yet to be disappointed when I have seen it.
Cheers,
Scott

Summer Time Visits and Fun

As of June 30, 2010, Niki and I have been married for three years. It's been pretty awesome, and I can't believe our wedding was only three years ago. It feels like forever! In a good way of course :)
Niki's parents, Laurie and Brian, were out for a visit to help celebrate. They brought the puppies, which was great. I really miss having a little spaniel around now. Such cute dogs. We really enjoyed the visit, and wish Victoria was closer. One of the bonuses of guests is checking out what Edmonton has to offer. We went to Telus World of Science, Canada Day Fireworks, Farmers Market and the Freewill Shakespeare Festival. Brian also dug us a beautiful little flower bed, and Laurie painted the fence. Last time they were here Niki had them working in the basement, but she decided to go easy on them this time.
My dad recently had a birthday, which Alley Kat kindly celebrated by choosing to release their anniversary ginger beer. We also check out a Capitals game, which the good guys won.
Ok Go came to town, it was a good concert. I just wish they did not have to always start so much later than the doors opened. I'm getting too old to wait that long.
I love the window shaking thunder storms we sometimes get. It's been awhile, but one rolled through the end of June. It was also the day Niki chose to bike home from work. So proud of her.
Cheers,
Scott

My favourite month

I love June. Longest day of the year, the full potential of summer, and it's usually not too hot. It feels like the month just started, and already Canada day is fast approaching. The concerts this month have been Xavier Rudd and The New Pornographers. I must admit, The New Pornos concert is the first time I have left a concert not liking the bad more than I went in. We've had celebratory BBQ's. Congratulations to Rob on officially being a PhD, and congratulations to Dave and Jeanette on their baby boy. Our friends Megan and Pam ran a half marathon. Very impressed. Niki tried to kill my mom by taking her on a super long bike ride. My cousin Madeline turned 16, but I refuse to acknowledge it. Oh, and the male cousins and I saw The A-Team. It was awesome. It might have been the fact that anytime something blew up, or amazing happened, Mike and Steve vigorously cheered. The G&T I sneaked in probably helped too. I would recommend the movie, just realize what type of movie it is, and have fun with it.
Cheers,
Scott

Wedding in May

May ended well for us. We had a great little trip out to Victoria for the long weekend. I had the honour of being a co master of ceremony with a friend. Thank you Erin. I think we rocked it, probably much due to your organizational skills. Not many of our pictures turned out, but it was a great wedding, you'll just have to trust me.
We have so many friends and family on the island, that even me getting mildly ill from a headache could not dampen the trip. We're looking forward to the next trip out for Lindsay and Chris' wedding.
Niki's work had a function at Northlands raceway, which I always enjoy seeing the horses, but did not enjoy getting my car broken into. A warning to all Jetta owners: If someone rams a screwdriver into your lock, it will open all your windows. Just get a mechanic to swap it out and have no manual lock. I sure wish someone had told me that.
The month was finished off having a guys day. We played Guitar Hero, had a variety of different beers, watched movies and generally relaxed. Good times.
Scott

17 bands in 10 weeks

I was thinking yesterday that this year has been quite heavy musically for me. I actually went back and counted up the bands and such I've seen so far this year. The grand total was a whopper: 21 bands, 29 including openers that I wouldn't have normally seen. In the grand scheme of the blog, I have decided to start documenting these concerts on an offshoot blog as a review, inspired by a friend's concert blog Life in Progress, Hopefully I can keep it up to date! I think I'll have a slower summer. April was a particularly crazy month for music; with 10 shows, six concerts in only 4 weeks. I am so lucky to have people around me that support this addiction, so I don't have to go to concerts alone (which may push me into the concertaholic category), especially my wonderful husband, with the help of whom I was able to win tickets to 4 concerts this year.
If you are interested in music, particularly live music, you can follow this offshoot blog: Notes from the Bourgeoisie. The first post should be up in the next few days.

Growing Older

     This little boy turned fourteen on Monday. Those are my he's wearing. It really does not seem that long ago I took that picture. I don't know if I like being that guy who can remember when all these kids were so tiny. Though I do enjoy being a member of a family that is constantly growing and is active.We had a paint ball party for the little guy on the weekend. Niki was the only girl on the field, and she definitely held her own. In fact, the only people that ever were able to shoot her were her husband and brother-in-law. It was a fun time.

One of my best friends is currently in Nepal. His lovely wife is helping bring babies into the world, and you can read all about their adventures here and here.
I don't remember when this picture was taken, but it sure made me smile. I have a lot of pictures that make me smile I wish were digital. Anyone have advice on a good picture scanner, that maybe has a multi photo input feed? It would be great to get all those old pictures into a quality digital format.
Scott

PS - It's our friend Pam's birthday today.
Happy Birthday Pam!!

Mothers Day Weekend

     We got a nasty surprise at the beginning of May. Winter decided that it was not done with us and sent in one last snow storm. The moisture was badly needed, it was just a pain to grocery shop when snow is falling sideways. We had also put Niki's summer tires on her car, so I needed to drive her into work. Sneaky sneaky weather systems.
     We had a most excellent Mothers Day weekend. It was a trip out to Vancouver/Abbotsford for my Grandpa's 90th birthday party. We landed Friday, in Vancouver, starting the trip visiting with Amy and Joe. It was a great, albeit short, visit. The Saturday morning walk around Granville Island was very enjoyable, as it usually is. Saturday Amy drove us out to Abbotsford for the celebration. Thank you very much Amy!!
It was great to see my Dad's side of the family, always loads of fun. Niki and I just wish that we had our own private jet, so we could visit a lot more often. There was a new addition to the family, her name is Isabella and she is adorable. If any of the family is reading this, I realized we have a lot of pictures of all the cute wee ones, but not many of the older generation, so we would really appreciate any pictures people want to send our way.
Thank you again Tim and Kari for having us on Saturday night. It was great to see you guys. I wished you lived closer, Niki always needs more people to walk with.
     To sum up, we spent Mothers Day weekend the way it should be spent, with lots of family. I hope everyone else was able to do the same.
Cheers,
Scott

Said The Whale and Plants and Animals

Niki and I ended April with some more concerts, and we picked up some more vinyls. Just need that player. I really liked the Plants and Animals/Said The Whale show. It was in a great venue, we had a great spot to take in the show, and to chat up the band members after the show. The night right after that we saw Hollerado and Besnard Lakes. Hollerado was decent, but we got smoked out during Besnard Lakes. I don't know if it was them, or the venue, but someone really needed to turn off the smoke machine. Not really our cup of tea.
We also got all our tickets via our local radio station, Sonic 102.9, so that was an added bonus. The second nights tickets were courtesy of my brother Denny, free tickets are always awesome.
Once again, go out there and check out your local music scene.
Cheers,
Scott





Plants and Animals - Bye Bye Bye from luc m on Vimeo.

Birthday week and concerts

We just finished Niki's birthday week. I think it was lots of fun and am pretty sure Niki enjoyed marking another year down. We had a nice big party at my parents. Her family and myself got her an iphone. We saw Rose Cousins and Amelia Curran. Subway even decided to give out free breakfasts in honour of Niki. The BNL show with Joel Plaskett was great, thank you Angela for taking us. Mat Andersen can do amazing things with a guitar. If you're a blues fan, go see him! Of course there were also a few meals out with friends, so the need to exercise is feeling more pressing. Especially because we partook of DQ's buy a Blizzard and get a second one for 0.25c multiple times.
Everyone should go check out all the Canadian music artists that are touring right now. The Rose Cousins show was inexpensive and well worth it. There is so much good stuff out there, watch your local music scene. Lots of nice small shows of all genres. Check out the artists pages I linked. They are all a good night out, and you don't have to break the bank.
On the personal side, there is a clinic that opened up near our house, so I've finally found a family doctor. I don't know if anyone else has gone a good decade without a family doctor, but I don't recommend it. Apparently I am healthy, which is good, but I'm getting blood work done. I feel like a car that's been sent to the mechanics for work after sitting for too long.
Cheers,
Scott

Heaven in Alberta

It's been a while since the last update about life in Alberta. The weather has turned and we're in the double digits temperature wise. There's been a lot of Settlers games, Canada won a crap load of gold medals, we learned how to curl, there was some cross country skiing in there, Lindsay came to visit for easter, and then some more games. Anyone wearing a viking hat has been victorious in whatever we were playing. Rather than write out everything thing we did, as usual, I just embedded the photo albums.
Cheers,
Scott

March:



Family Day Fun:



April thus far:

Closing Ceremonies

I've been thinking lately about those closing ceremonies of the 2010 Olympic Games. I thought that all the other events were done very well, but the music at the end of those closing ceremonies was a little anti-climactic for such an epic event. I loved the choices for the opening ceremony, with Ashley MacIsaac (showcasing the different fiddling styles in Canada), Sarah McLaughlin, Joni Mitchell... but not for the closing ceremonies.. I'm all for K-OS and Neil Young... but feel that the depth of the Canadian music scene could be better represented with artist other than Avril Lavigne (why would they pick "So much for my Happy Ending"?), Hedley and Nickelback... Also, I feel as if the even fizzled... aren't the big names supposed to go at the end of a show like this? And with many of these artists already performing for free in Vancouver (big thumbs up for that! but I hear the concerts were packed and had massive lines to get in), I think it would have been easy to do!

I feel that this would be a better fit... up-beat and patriotic.

Said the Whale: Out on the Shield, The Light is You
Basia Bulat: Gold Rush, In the Night
Tokyo Police Club: Your English is Good, Cheer it On
K'naan: ABCs,
Great Big Sea: Helmethead, When I'm Up
Stars: Take Me to the Riot, Set Yourself on Fire
Joel Plaskett Emergency: Fashionable, Rollin', Rollin', Rollin', Nowhere with you, True Patriot Love
The Tragically Hip: The Lonely End of the Rink, Yer Not the Ocean, Fifty-Mission Cap, Fireworks

At least, that's my opinion. Any other suggestions?

Calgary

 Niki and I had a nice little trip to Calgary this last weekend. Steve, Kimasia and Sydney are always fun to visit. Kimasia always makes the best food. I would totally be a vegan, if I could afford to pay Kimasia a full time wage, with benefits, to make all the food. Sydney is growing more adorable every day, hence most of our pictures are of her. It was a nice relaxing weekend. I even traded Steve my surfboard for his paint-ball stuff. Now I just need to get him my board. So far I am doing much better in this trade. Looking forward to paint-balling on the parents acreage this summer. The trip back was a little crazy. Sunday night the roads were super slippery. We saw at least ten cars in the ditch, north of Red Deer. Three of them look pretty bad. I don't think I went above 80k for the last half of the trip home. Anyways, it was a fun, and we're looking forward to seeing them again.
Cheers,
Scott

January so far...

Our new year has been a good one so far. Weather wise we had a benediction of warm weather. There has been the usual winter reading and games. I have won every game of Settlers I have played in 2010. Albeit I have only played one game. We played a game called Puerto Rico with the Stobbe's that I would highly recoomend.
Niki and I were able to partake of a "Sonic Session" with Tegan and Sara. It was really neat, and the ladies signed our vinyl for us. Now we just need to get a record player...
Edmonton has a Ice Festival every year, which takes place right near our library. We have to return items to the library weekly, too many cd's, so of course we had to check it out.
Last weekend was Gilead's annual winter feast. Niki and her co-worker Paul were the MC's. I thought they both did a great job. The buffet was delicious, and I did not overeat. The only seconds I had was the salmon, it had scallops and shrimp in it. The Mennonite in me was whispering how expensive and good it was, so I had to get more.
All in all, a good January so far. There were even some free hour long massages at a spa. Hopefully the rest of the year is as good.
Cheers,
Scott

Xmas and New Years

We are back in Edmonton and settling into semi normality. Niki and I really enjoyed our two week Christmas and New Years holiday on the Island. I am just going to list the highlights, as writing it all out would take too long and probably bore any readers.

• G & T (Gin and Tonic) served by Laurie. My brother Ryan is very jealous after my ranting and raving about how the Fowler household is so comfy, warm and my beautiful mother in law has drinks and food always readily available.
• Christmas with the Fowler's. Different Christmas traditions are neat, and I really enjoy the Fowler routine.
• The movie marathon. Yup, watched roughly thirty-six hours of movies, and it was great. I guess seeing Avatar in 3d would fall into this. Go see it.
  
• Seeing Hovan, good times hanging out and hearing about his and Christine's world travels. His beard was also awesome.
• Spending some time with family in Mill Bay. Meeting baby Kirk, he's cute and looks like his Grandpa Neufeld when he's annoyed. Ciara is a little ball of energy and I think her parents of going to be perpetually tired for years to come. She seems to love her Auntie Niki, especially because Auntie Niki will read and play for hours on end with her.
  
• New Years in Campbell River. Lanyon's are awesome hosts. Ben always brings the awesome, and Kirstin is amazing. Both their kids are adorable and are at the age when they are more entertaining than anything Hollywood can produce. Putting on a suit and going to a wedding on New Years was also a blast.
• The usual relaxing, walkies, warm Victoria weather, napping, eating, giving of gifts, receiving of gifts, teasing of sister-in-law and general good times.
• Breakfast at the Blue Fox with the Andrachuk's, Niki and Hovan. 
• Learning via the winter ale fest that while the Hermannator is a very tasty beer, limiting yourself to one is usually a good idea.
  
  

I probably missed a few things, we had a really great time. Thanks again to Brian and Laurie for such a great Christmas and the Lanyons for hosting us at New Years.
Happy 2010 everyone.
Scott