Tyler's Blog

Site moving

Tyler Barras — Sun, 24 Oct 2010 20:18:40 +0000

Hello to anyone who may still be following this blog. I know I have been MIA lately but I am back on it and have actually moved this to a new URL so please go to

http:\\www.goals.twjsb.com

Lots of new posts to come shortly, I have been busy completing my goals but have lacked on posting.

Blood Donation 2 of 13

Tyler Barras — Mon, 31 May 2010 21:26:51 +0000

So I went to give blood on May 6th (a long time ago I know). I am now up to 2 out of the total 13 needed to complete the goal. Next anticipated date is July 8th but its looking like that might have to change.

4 of Cook 5 new different cakes for Golder BDays (#6)

Tyler Barras — Fri, 21 May 2010 21:14:21 +0000

Well this goal is getting closer and closer to being done (1 left to do). It was Carmen’s BDay at Golder on May 9th and she wanted a Black Forest Cake for her BDay Cake (yes, I actually let her pick).

So I took a shot at doing a Black Forest Cake, I got the recipe from HERE. Turns out to be a nice 4 layer cake with lots of good stuff between the layers.

Well my cake didn’t end up looking like the picture on the site, they had chocolate frosting on theirs but the recipe caledl for and had instructions for whip cream on top. Next time if I make this, I am going to go with a chocolate frosting instead of the whip cream topping. Other than that the cake turned out really well (at least thats what people told me).

Here are some pics from this cake building experiment.

1 of Cook/Make 25 new meals (#1)

Tyler Barras — Fri, 21 May 2010 02:38:30 +0000

I guess its time to officially kick this goal off, although I have been cooking new things since I have started I have never gotten around to counting it towards my goals. So here I go, my first new meal.

My title for this meal is “Stuff Chicken Breasts Wrapped in Sage and Prosciutto with Asparagus and Sweet Potato”, I think it turned out really good. I got the stuffed chicken recipe from a new Gordon Ramsey cookbook I have and then just added the sides I thought it would be good with. The chicken breasts were cut so they would open up and I stuffed them with ricotta and sage. They were then wrapped with prosciutto, fried for a few minutes with thyme and then put into the oven. While that was going on I drizzled the asparagus and sweat potato in some olive oil and put them in the oven.

An our or so and a glass of wine later, I ended up with a great meal. Here are some pics from the cooking process and the final results. Enjoy!

3 of Cook 5 new different cakes for Golder BDays (#6)

Tyler Barras — Thu, 20 May 2010 04:27:38 +0000

Baked another cake for some Golder Birthdays, there was three back-to-back-to-back so I decided to cook one cake for all three of them. Since my last cheesecake turned out fairly well I decided to try my hand at cooking another one, this time Strawberry and White Chocolate Cheesecake.

It was actually fairly easy to make and I even tried a new way of cooking it where you wrap the spring pan in foil and place it in a tray of water in the oven, it’s suppose to cook the cake more evenly. It actually worked (for the most part) and I think it cooked the cake more uniformly.

The cake was a success, here are some pics so you can judge that for yourself (at least on the looks )

Take a Yoga Class – Complete

Tyler Barras — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 20:51:16 +0000

Easter weekend Adam and I went down to visit Ami and Stu in Fernie. I had a great weekend just hanging out, snowboarding and catching up with Ami and Stu. Another bonus to this trip was I got to complete another goal, Taking a Yoga Class.

After I initially posted by list Stu immediately said he would be my wing man for taking a class, so we decided to get it done this weekend and at the same time we managed to convince Adam to join us (Ami just couldn’t be convinced to join in the fun).

So off we went to a beginners class at Essentials Yoga Studio, turns out there aren’t a lot of beginners in Fernie as we were the only three people who showed up. Better for us, private lesson and no one to laugh at us (besides Stu). The class ended up being quite enjoyable (at least for me, others can post their own comments), and I would consider taking other classes in Calgary at some point.

Here are some pics from the class, including my two wingmen.

Scuba Diving in Cabo (#39) (38/100)

Tyler Barras — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 21:59:46 +0000

Did some diving while in Cabo. Got in only 2 dives on this trip as the diving was not fantastic and we were just not feeling it this time around. We dove 2 different spots so I am now at 38 out of 100, both were boat dives with a guide (“Shaggy”) from Dive Baja.

The first dive was at a site called Pelican Rock and we did a 50 minute dive at a max depth of 77ft. There are suppose to be some really spectacular sand falls here with the right conditions but we didn’t really get to experience it and our guide started a small one to give use the idea of what it would really be like. It was also probably the busiest dive site I have ever been to.

The second dive site was called Land’s End, it was a 47min dive with a max depth of 68ft. This site was special since it is where the Sea of Cortez meets the Pacific (MAP). This dive was also busy but much less than the first. We also got to see a huge school of barracuda and lots of rays and eels.

I will hopefully post pics soon.

2 of Cook 5 new different cakes for Golder BDays (#6)

Tyler Barras — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 01:57:49 +0000

Well today was another Golder Birthday (Happy Birthday Heather) and you know what that means….. A new cake. Last night I tried my hand at a Coconut Layer Cake. The recipe I used was from the internet and can be found here (Thanks Martha ).

It was a pretty simple cake to make and the actual cake part of it seems like it could be used in many different types of cakes. It almost reminded me of wedding cake, it was that good quality white cake. After making the two layers for the cake, I threw them into the freezer to cool them faster (due to the amount of time I had). After they were cooled, I made the 7 minute frosting (which took more than 7 minutes by the way), again I was impressed with how this turned out, it was great frosting. Assembly was probably the messiest part of the process, there has got to be an easier way to ice the sides of a cake, I will have to Google it and find out. Anyhow, the cake seemed to be a hit at work so #2 of 5 done.

I am thinking the next cake I do for a Golder Birthday is going to be a different cheesecake but after that I think I might try my hand at making a fancy cake. I am thinking I could build a decent cake with the white cake base that I used for this and then potentially come up with the rest on my own. We shall see.

The building process and results:

List update

Tyler Barras — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 21:38:52 +0000

So after much thought I have decided to forgo 2 or my non-existent work goals and change them to two new ones. I have updated my main list page and you can see it here. So:

Goal #99 is now – Take a first aid course

Goal #100 is now – Donate blood 13 times (1/13) – On this note, last week I finally got back to the blood donor clinic and gave blood again. I was not able to donate for a while because of some past traveling but I finally got off my ass and got out. This was the reason for the update of the goal.

After some quick math, I will have to donate once ever 77 days. The minimum amount of time between donation is 56 days so this gives me a little bit of flexibility but not a lot. Should be interesting if I can reach that number or not.

Visit 1 of 5 new places within Canada (#31) (1/5)

Tyler Barras — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 22:32:25 +0000

REVELSTOKE!!! BC

A group of us from Golder (12 people) went to Revy for a weekend of skiing/snowboarding. Check out my other post for more details.