Recipe Review

A few weeks ago I went searching into my recipe boards on Pinterest in search of a quick and easy supper I could make that wouldn't have much prep involved and I came across a recipe for French Dip Sandwich's.

The recipe consisted of the roast, beef broth, and buns.  You place the roast and broth in crock-pot for 5-7 hours on high or 8-11 hours on slow.  Gregg and I both felt it was too bland and so I would suggest adding 1-2 packages of Lipton Onion Soup Mix and any other flavouring you like with your roast.  The roast was nice and tender and with the addition of the Onion Soup and a thickening agent ( I used cornstarch), to give the 'au jus' a bit more consistency.

I would love to hear other versions of your favourite Beef Au Jus recipes.  We love having this type of comfort food in our house and we would love to try out any you suggest, so please leave a comment below with your recipe.

What I have been busy doing..

Well, it's been a "few" days since my last blog post, so let me fill you all in.

A few months ago our landlord gave us 2 days notice that she was putting our home up for sale.  We were very shocked but our home was not in shape for a showing due to me being pretty much bed bound for the last few years.  It wasn't dirty, but cluttered.

I started working on the house right away but could only do an hour or two at most a day.  Well then my landlord accused us of trying to sabotage the sale of her house.  Geez.

Unfriendly words were spoken by both of us and I was emotionally drained after a full day of this so I finally told her to evict us and she said she would and I hung up.

I wasn't very worried about the eviction because I knew she had no grounds.  We were not and have never been in arrears and we had not damaged the home.  I also had an ace up my sleeve.  That was my five year lease of which I still had 2 years to go.  Seems she forgot about that and realized she was going to have a hard time selling this house that the tenants still had 2 years left on the lease.

Thank god she asked us for a 5 year lease, LOL, that kind of back fired on her.  Now she had to disclose this to each potential buyer.  So she called and asked if we could get together to talk.

She said that we could buy the place ourselves (there is no way I would ever buy this house), or move out and she would pay our first and last at the new house and our moving truck and the use of 2 guys to do the lifting as neither Gregg nor I should be lifting things.

Gregg and I talked about it and realized this might be our opportunity to find a home more suitable for me. A ranch or bungalow so I wouldn't need to go up and down stairs any more.

We immediately set out looking for a new home.  We looked at 3 houses within days of having this conversation with our landlord.

One was really small, one was older but the basement smelt damp and mildewy.  And a fully redone century home.

The last one, the redone century home, was really beautifully renovated.  It had the original hardwood floors, sanded and re-finished in a dark chocolate stain.  All brand new windows, new tile in kitchen, landing and bathroom.  

It had a 1 1/2 -2 car insulated garage, which of course Gregg loved.  He can't wait to get his tools all set up so he can do things he used to enjoy.

A huge backyard that was mostly fenced in.  Directly behind our property is a park so we didn't have to worry about neighbours behind us. The house was basically perfect except one very huge issue that made us actually turn down the house.

This house was a 3 bedroom (we only needed a 2 bedroom), but the third bedroom was only suitable for a nursery or office really.  And the kitchen was so tiny you couldn't even put a dining room table of any sort in there.

It was an extremely hard decision to turn it down and we took all weekend to finalize that decision.

Monday morning I got an email from the owner's asking us if we had made a decision and Gregg emailed him back with an explanation as  to why we were turning it down.

Not 30 minutes later we received a reply back that made me scream and clap my hands.  The owner's had been trying to decide whether or not to open up the one wall in the kitchen into that small useless bedroom.

We called them and agreed to take it with the new plans.

The only drawback now was we had 15 days to pack and move.

So, we have moved to what will now be referred to as "884".  We have the other place till Oct. 31 and have gotten all our belongings out with the amazing help of my oldest son and his room-mate.  They have done all the lifting and if it wasn't for those two I don't know what we would have done.   Gregg's son even came down to help us one day.  Now I just have to clean it and say goodbye.

And just because I have to vent, my ex-landlord reneged on the deal and hasn't given us a cent.  We definitely didn't have the money right now to move but we couldn't risk losing this bungalow as they are rarely available to rent in my town.

I am slowly unpacking and getting things done in the new place but I will have some progressive photos as we continue to settle in.