After months of speculation, last week it was finally announced who the first Canadian Bachelor would be, Brad Smith. At first I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn’t a known name. I quickly learned Brad Smith was a CFL player. Score! As the morning went on the dream of a quasi-athlete as the Canadian Bachelor quickly diminished. Within a few hours of the announcement I learned the following about Brad Smith:

1. He has played for 3 CFL teams and been released by 3 CFL teams.

2. His dad was once the CFL commissioner and is the GM of the Montreal Allouettes.

3. Brad is currently a CFL free agent (ie. not employed) and lives on a friend’s couch in Toronto.

4. Brad moonlights as a bartender at the Earl’s on King street in Toronto.

Hmmmm. Call me crazy but in real life would 25 women fight for this man’s attention? He has a laundry list of loser qualities including the fact that it looks as though his father’s influence assisted him in his lackluster CFL career. Nothing like minimum wage plus tips.

I’m not saying that the American version of the show is a shining beacon of available bachelors but they have all been mildly successful. One was even a prince! Must I bring up Jesse Palmer again? At least he’s Canadian and played in the NFL and now works as a broadcaster. A much better rap sheet.

I think this is a travesty to Canada. There must be literally thousands of better bachelors in Canada. Trust fund babies, entrepreneurs, actual working athletes…the list goes one. Who the hell casted this guy? I would be surprised if this Canadian spin-off lasted more than 1 season.

Anyway here’s this weeks cover of HELLO magazine. Check out the spin in this headline:

Have you ever met someone and thought, ‘wow, I don’t know how that person functions in a modern society?’ There is a girl that I work with, we’ll call her V, that I seriously cannot believe can hold down a job. There’s something wrong with her and I can’t figure out what it is. I guess she’s slow and maybe has an extra chromosome. At our Christmas party she was dancing while people took pictures and laughed and honestly I felt bad because they weren’t laughing with her but at her. She’s super monotone and SUPER French. An odd combination.

Let me preface this story by telling you once a month we have a work birthday celebration in to say Happy Bday to those who fall into that month. Typically it’s embarrassing. You have to stand in a room with a bunch of people and it’s awkward. However there is cake at the end which makes it worth while.

The other day, I’m walking out of the bathroom minding my own business, V stops me to ask me if she can use my cake decorating supplies because she wants to make cupcakes for this months birthday celebration. Hmmm. Talk about putting me on the stop. I said sorry but no I don’t lend my things out (since it would be like lending my things to a stranger!) and went on about my day, knowing that this would definitely put me into office mean girl status. Anyone who knows me well knows that I’m not really into sharing. ESPECIALLY with people I don’t know very well. I figured that was the end of that and I wouldn’t get any more questions.

A few days later I get an e-mail from V with a picture of a cupcake, asking me if I know how to make it (aaaah no I don’t know how to make a cupcake from a f***ing picture idiot) but also if she can use my cupcake pans. Call me crazy but if I’m not going to lend you cupcake supplies then I’m also not going to lend you my pans. WOW. People can not take a hint.

I just feel like this puts me in a very awkward position. I didn’t reply to the e-mail, but what if she corners me, what if I get another e-mail?

Wish me luck because I think this is going to be a tricky situation to wiggle myself out of.

It seems like the band Fun kind of came out of no where with this new anthem for youth. Fun has been around for a while but are basically a pop band as far as my standards go. We are Young (you can listen to it here) is a departure into something a little more indie. Love the addition of Janelle Monàe.

What I hate about this is that Chevy has picked it up for their Aveo commercial. Sucky. So I’m sure I will be sick of this song in the next 72 hours.

I seriously cannot stop laughing at this. I don’t even watch The Bachelor but whatever is going on here is phenomenal TV. This girl, Kacie B, made it to the hometown date with bachelor Ben. So she’s one of 4 still in the running. I believe this episode is a few weeks old now.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a melt down like this! Skip to the 5 minute mark. The shrill crying and barely audible words have had me in stiches for days now.

Fave part - ‘What the F happened?’ Aaaaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.

Now that I’ve got my baking up I need to start focusing some more on cooking. I’m not a very good cook. I don’t mind what I make but I probably wouldn’t serve it to others. Mostly I can’t stand making a mess while I’m hungry. I just want to eat and get on with things!

It was really snowy and cold over the weekend and I decided that I was going to try and make some good old fashioned comfort food. I was looking through Pinterest to find an idea and I came up with spicy mac and cheese. I took a recipe from this site Annie’s Eats which is awesome but modified it a bit. I used an 8” square pan to bake it since I didn’t have anything bigger so I kind of winged it with the recipe. Here’s some rough notes on what I used:

- About 3 cups of pasta

- 1/2 a package of reduced fat PC Blue Menu tex mex shredded cheese, 1 cup shredded old cheddar, about 1/3 block of reduced fat cream cheese

- about 1 1/2 cups of milk

- 1 medium sized jalapeno, chopped into very small pieces

- 1/2 an onion, chopped

- 1/2 of bread crumbs

- margarine

- 2 tablespoons of flour

- whatever spices you have laying around. I used cayenne pepper, garlic pepper, onion powder, crushed chili flakes and Tabasco.

1. Cook and drain your pasta. Add a little margarine while it’s in the strainer and toss it so it doesn’t stick.

2. In a frying pan put a little margarine and cook the chopped onion and jalapeno until tender and fragrant. Set aside.

3. In a saucepan over medium heat melt 2 tablespoons of margarine and about 2 tablespoons of flour. This makes a roue which will make your cheese sauce nice and thick. Once that it combined add your milk. Now start adding your cheese but make sure you stir constantly or it will stick and burn. Once everything is melted add in the onion, jalapenos and your spices.

4. Now toss your pasta in the sauce and place it in your baking dish.

5. Melt a tablespoon of margarine in the microwave (30 seconds). Add your bread crumbs and mix until combined. Spoon the bread crumbs over the top of your pasta.

6. Bake at 375 for about 25 minutes or until the top starts to brown. When you take it out of the over let it stand for about 10 minutes so you don’t burn your mouth off (lesson learned).

It’s so good. Like crazy good.

But seriously…I love Chris Brown, but I hate that I love him! I think he’s a terrible person. Just vile. Not only did he beat up Rihanna but he is generally unpleasant in the media. Often calling out the ‘haters’ in a very aggressive manner.

But you can’t deny that he’s made a huge comeback since the Riri punch. His album F.A.M.E. has sooooooo many good songs it’s cray. But don’t get me wrong, I hate him for what he did, I just love his voice and sweet sweet dance moves.

So this week I’m officially obsessed with I Can Only Imagine which is David Guetta’s album Nothing But the Beat (also an amazing album, great for the gym).

Also he just released another song Turn Up the Music and there is a remix that was released the other day with Rihanna on the track. They are SO back together. Which I can only imagine will likely ruin both of their careers.

I was struggling to find something to bake on Saturday. I didn’t want to get too fancy. Then I remembered a recipe that I had made several times last summer that was a hit! They’re called hermit cookies but I like to call them everything but the kitchen sink because there’s all kinds of cray stuff in there.

Here’s the recipe:

1 1/2 cups of all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 cup of butter, softened

3/4 cup of granulated sugar

3/4 cup of brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla (I always add more)

1 large egg

1 cup of rolled oats

Then basically you can add whatever goodies you have in the pantry. Here’s what I used:

1 bag of Skor chips

1 bag of PC decedent chocolate chunks, roughly chopped

1 cup of pecans, roughly chopped

1 cup dried cranberries

1. Preheat the oven to 400c. Cream butter and the 2 sugars together until fluffy. Add vanilla and egg.

2. Sift flour and baking soda together and gradually add to the butter mixture until well combined.

3. Add all other ingredients to the mixture.

4. Form dough into balls and press down slightly so it looks like a thick pancake about 2” in diameter.

5. Bake for 8 minutes and then rotate the pan and bake for 8 more minutes. When you take the cookies out let them rest on the pan for a few minutes before moving to a wire rack.

The great thing about this recipe is that you can adapt it so many ways, try milk chocolate or butterscotch chips, dried cherries or raisins, peanuts, macadamia nuts or whatever! Anything will work, I’ve even made them with pretzel pieces before. Enjoy :)

Have you heard of Carly Rae Jepsen? Probably not. She’s Canadian. Tried out for Canadian Idol, wait remember Canadian Idol? Too bad that show got the axe. I guess CTV needs more room for awesome shows like Whitney (holy s*** I hate that show) and the 23rd spin off of CSI.

Carly has a song called ‘Call Me Maybe.’ I’m obsessed with it. I don’t know why either because the song is kind of terrible but it’s poppy and catchy and totally stuck in my head. It was #1 on iTunes last week. Not bad for a girl from BC. You can listen to it here.

There was also a funny spoof of the song by one of the chicks from Pretty Little Liars and this guy Ryan Good. Ryan is Justin Bieber’s swagger coach. Yeah…the Biebs has a swagger coach. I think the day you hire a swagger coach is the day you can officially say ‘I made it.’ I hope to have one of these someday.

You can watch Ryan and Ashley’s video here. They’re actually pretty cute.

Also ‘The song I can’t get out of my head’ is going to be a new at least weekly article :)

I’ve already posted about how awesome and gripping the game was and now I would like to discuss half time. Half time is the worlds greatest 8 minute show. Legends have graced the stage and are always entertaining. One of my personal faves was The Rolling Stones in 2006 - Mic was ‘pointin his finger’ and doin ‘the rooster’ all up in there. This year there was a lot of controversy when they announced that Madonna would be doing the show. I did and didn’t understand all at the same time. Madonna is a legend. So many awesome hits but I haven’t enjoyed anything in the last 10 years or so from her. Basically cut her off when Ray of Light came out. Not my cup of tea.

So I understood why people were upset but was hoping that she would pull out her greatest hits for the show. On Friday she released her new single off her upcoming album MDNA called ‘Give Me All Your Luvin.’ I cannot believe how bad this song is. It’s truly awful and embarrassing. For all parties involved. I guess when you get to a point when you’re super famous people are too afraid to tell you the truth. They just want to ride that bandwagon into the sunset (like Gwyneth, with the singing, she’s terrible but people let her sing, because she’s famous).

I was really hoping that Madge would leave this song out of the half time show but alas…there is it was in all it’s pom-pom shaking glory. I’ve never had such a violent reaction to a song. It sends a shiver up my spine - it’s that bad!

Anyway I don’t know what was worse, the song, or Nicki Minaj and M.I.A. being involved. So weak. I didn’t see it but apparently M.I.A. flipped the bird during the performance. A small piece of redemption. When you watch this, put in on mute.

What a game! I have to admit, I was indifferent about the teams until I started working on the cupcakes and then I realised I was all about the Giants because I feel like their cupcakes looked better? Was also reppin’ for my boys out in NYC who I am VERY jealous of since they will be partaking in the parade on Tuesday.

I tried another new recipe for this, double chocolate cupcakes with madagascar vanilla icing. Cupcake recipe here. It’s actually a cake recipe but it worked really well for cupcakes, I used regular cocoa power since I didn’t have the extra dark but I included a bag of PC Decedent Chocolate Chunk pieces which gave this recipe some kick. I used this icing recipe but instead of regular vanilla I used this crazy bourbon madagascar vanilla that I bought the other day at Whole Foods.

I was racking my brain all week prior to the game trying to figure out how I could make the logos, then finally it hit me - chocolate! Icing is too flimsy and I haven’t ventured into the world of fondant just yet so I got white, red and blue chocolate. I printed the logos off in colour and covered them with a piece of wax paper. So essentially I was tracing the logos. I did them in layers. So for instance with the Pats logo, I first did the white outline. Put in the fridge to set up. Then when in for the red and the blue. It was a process, let me tell ya!

Anyway I’m happy with it. I think they are fun and all in all they were the centre piece of a wicked game! My greatest hope is that next year the teams don’t have the exact same colours.