Bring back velvet overalls.

Sometimes I just want to ask clothing designers what kind of person they think wears a turtleneck. I guess they're kind of coming back into fashion, but I don't get it. I vividly remember wearing turtlenecks as 90's child, but I think I was fashion forward enough even then to shy more towards the mock-turtleneck. Even still, who wears a mock-turtleneck? Most of mine back then were velvet and had distinctive outfits. Like my velvet floral one that I wore with my purple velvet overalls. I also had a lime green mock-turtleneck velvet dress. My bff had one too, and we wore matching lime green hair claws with them. (What were those claw things even called? Whenever I see someone wearing one I wonder if they know it's not the 90's anymore. Then I feel mean.)

So yeah, I'm fashion savvy. Which explains why I decided it was a good idea to wear patterned maternity leggings to work today. To be fair, last time I was pregnant I wore leggings almost every day to work and this time around I only wear them once a week or so. I'm just pushing the fashion envelope again. It's too bad they aren't velvet. Or colourful.

After today, I have nine days left of work. This is hard to wrap my head around. In 16 days I will be waking up unemployed and rocking out in my sweatpants/leggings when I'm feeling fancy. Because that's what the stay at home me wears.

I've been working full time this week, so we need to get out of the house a good hour earlier than usual. This usually means waking Parker up to change him and throw him in the car, then picking him up 10 hours later. This morning he was not feeling the routine and he cried all through getting dressed and ready to go. I can relate. There's nothing worse than getting woken up to go outside into -36 weather. I almost cried in the car after I dropped him off (he was fine once he was in the car, but I got some good snuggles going into the babysitter's) but that might have had to do with not having time to eat breakfast this morning. I'm so looking forward to a lazy January at home with him.

I used to say that hot showers have healing powers. This is probably still true, but Christmas trees and lights seem to have the same affect on me. I'm looking forward to a weekend of wrapping gifts, seeing Star Wars, and cleaning out the closet in baby's room. Then, when I'm tired of it all, I'll sit in front of the tree and just soak up the goodness of it. In my sweatpants. Probably listening to this playlist.

This year I had grand aspirations of making sugar cookies and then letting chaos reign and decorating them with Parker. My cookie recipe was too crumbly to cut into shapes, though, so I ended up making bars with it instead. There's always next year. I am okay with this. Especially since it takes a fraction of the time to smoosh cookie dough into a pan than it does to use cookie cutters.

Last year Christmas cookies stressed me out, especially when my ginger snaps all turned into bricks and I gave them to the neighbours anyway. This year I pounded out three different recipes and some rum balls in three evenings, while working full time. I'm not sure what my deal was last year, but I dominated it this year. And no, I didn't eat the rum balls, but I wanted to. There's always Easter. And when I delivered the cookies to the neighbours last night I promised they were better than last year's, so please keep shoveling our sidewalk.

And, to finish things off, I thought I would share with you how busy I've been at work this week. I took a nap, watched The Crown (all ten episodes) and The Santa Clause 3 (it was better than I expected), fixed a hole in my pocket, finished a baby blanket, knit newborn booties, and made a cowl, decided I didn't like it, and ripped it all out. The joys of being a phone-answering warm body. If I were wearing my sweatpants and sitting in front of my Christmas tree it would be perfect.

Your new favourite muffin recipe.

There was a time a few years ago, right around when I started this blog, that I thought baking was an ordeal. It just seemed like a big time commitment that always ended in a lot of dishes and overeating. I started baking a little bit when I finished university and felt like I was conquering the world every time. Real women bake, you see. It’s a sign of how feminine you are. God put us on this planet to have children and bake. I’m sure someone famous said that once.

My attitude towards baking has really changed over the years. I love baking now. It makes me happy and I know it makes Karl happy when I make something he likes. With it just being the two of us I really need to watch how much I bake because baked goods are my kryptonite. Baked goods and hot drinks are a match made in heaven. Baked goods and hot drinks and good books are even better. Baked goods and hot drinks and good company are the same. Baked goods and cold drinks too, for that matter. I just think baked goods go with everything, okay?

Since I can’t have dairy it’s a lot harder for me to have a baked good when I go out for coffee. This is probably one of the best things that has ever happened to me. Not only am I a baked good fiend but I love the stuff that is just terrible for you. Doughnuts? A thousand times yes. Scones with icing? Yes please, especially the ones from Starbucks. Cookies? Anytime anywhere. Cinnamon buns? The gooier the better. I just adore baked goods. It’s a good thing that most places don’t have a lot of options for someone like me. It’s also why I bake. Why search the world looking for the dairy-free baked good that may not exist? I’m no pastry chef, but I do okay in my own kitchen.

One thing I find that I always make better than any commercial seller is muffins. You know how grocery store pies never even come close to the homemade kind? That’s how I feel about muffins. If a muffin is made anywhere other than someone’s personal kitchen it just isn’t up to snuff. I think the problem is that everyone focusses so much on oil in their muffin recipes. Oily muffins are always such a letdown. If I wanted something that oily I would have ordered a cheese croissant. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not advocating for dry muffins, I just think there needs to be a happy balance. And that balance is always homemade.

So now that I’ve told you all how superior homemade muffins are I’m going to put my money where my mouth is and share with you my favourite muffin recipe. It’s not my own original recipe, but I’ve tweaked it a little. I got it from a couple friends of mine so I like think of it as the Robertson Banana Chocolate Chip Muffin recipe. It’s everything I look for in a muffin. Not oily, not too sweet, and full of bananas and chocolate chips. I try to avoid muffin recipes that call for more than half a cup of sugar. I like to get my sweetness from chocolate chips, not the rest of the muffin. Plus, bananas are good for you. Didn’t you know that?

Ingredients:

3 large mashed bananas

½ cup coconut sugar

1 egg

1/3 cup applesauce

1 ½ cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

Chocolate chips to taste

Directions:

Mix wet ingredients together.

Add dry ingredients.

Add chocolate chips.

Spoon into greased muffin tins.

Bake at 375° for 16-20 minutes.

Makes 12 big muffins.

So easy. So good. I’m even eating one right now.

The original recipe calls for regular sugar and oil instead of applesauce. Coconut sugar doesn’t translate super well into everything, but I find it’s fine with muffins and loafs. And at this point I think you know how I feel about oil. The only time I don’t swap out oil for applesauce while baking is when I’m making cookies or something I’m not totally familiar with.

I forgot to do it this time, but one of the last times I made this recipe I used ½ whole wheat flour and 1 cup of white and you couldn’t even tell. I’ve also added chia seeds, cocoa powder, coconut, cranberries, and flax seed at various times over the years. If you’re feeling really daring, I think you could even add a little bit of dissolved instant coffee in there to give them a real kick. Or in my case, decaffeinated flutter.

The world is your muffin oyster.

There are carpet samples on my table.

Last weekend I went full out on our office. Coming from an itty bitty basement suite, having a designated office space when we didn't even have enough space for all our dressers in our itty bitty bedroom has been a bit of a dream. Naturally, for the first month of home ownership we completely neglected that dream and focussed on the more important ones. Like guest bedrooms and linens in the bathrooms. Priorities and all that.

Our office was completely neglected. It was the "throw that box in here until we decide what to do with it" space. So I spent the entire day turning it from tripping and dying hazard into functional space. I even put together an IKEA desk all by myself because Karl was working.

The people that lived here before us had a couple kids, and they each had a room. The girl's room was painted a dark grey and had hot pink curtains with daisy ribbons to tie them up. While I really liked the wall colour when we used it in our old bathroom, it didn't really "go" with my dark bookshelf/desk combo. Plus it made the room look kind of depressing.

So I did what any logical forward thinking person would do. I decided to paint the room after I'd quasi set it up. Makes sense right? Well, it was a good excuse to finally take down the curtains at least.

Three coats of Friendly Yellow and two days later our room is looking boss. I may never buy paint from Sherwin-Williams again no matter how well priced it is, though. Holy draaaaama. And by drama, I mean mostly between me, the roller, and the floor getting splattered by poor quality paint. It took an entire can to do that little room and there is nary a drop left for when we decide to spackle the holes in the wall. Because we're really good at doing things in order. There was a lot of whispered prayers as we painted the final coat on the room, trying to squeeze every drop off the rollers that we could.

Anyway, life hasn't just been about painting lately. It's also been about vegetables.

I bought kale on a whim after my mom left, thinking I'd give kale chips another go and if that didn't work out at least my smoothies would have some kick.

Yeah, I'm basically a kale chip making genius. And by that I mean I looked up a recipe online for them and basically ignored everything it said about seasoning and just followed the cooking instructions. I'd link you to the recipe but I can't find it. Basically you toss/massage the kale into 1/2 tbsp of oil and then sprinkle some salt on top. Bake for 10ish minutes at 300, rotate the pan, and do it for another 12 minutes or so. Bing bang boom. And all of a sudden there's lots of little delicious kale crunchies in your teeth.

I made three batches of chips and one slightly bitter taco salad for myself out of a head of kale. It was like the vegetable bargain of the century.

Okay, confession time. I'm eating kale chips as we speak. And drinking tea. Because I just didn't feel legit enough blogging about home improvements and making kale chips without actually giving into how pretentious I am right now.

We're having weekly bbqs at work now and I brought veggies last week. Apparently my healthy co-workers don't actually go for vegetables when given the chance to over indulge on baked goods (who can blame them?) so I ended up with a LOT of broccoli, carrots, and cauliflower. I was going to make a soup but it all sounded like a lot of work so I attempted the whole cauliflower popcorn thing. Let's just say it didn't work out as well as my kale chips.

Someone recommended that I broil the broccoli for ten minutes until all the sweetness in it crystallized. I figured what the heck and threw the leftover broccoli under the broiler tonight while making a stir fry and then promptly forgot about it until the smoke alarm went off. Believe it or not it was still edible, but nothing crystallized or anything like that. It ended up a lot like my cauliflower popcorn but I ate it because it wasn't full of disappointment.

My husband is also hanging our new blinds from Jysk in the room at this exact moment as well. I'm a firm believer in not tackling challenging things that require putting holes in the walls after 9 p.m. but he sounds like he's finally having some success so I'm not going to complain. Also, $12.99 for bamboo blinds? No complaints here.

Anyway, I'm having a friend over on Saturday and family over on August long weekend so once things are tidied up a bit more around here I'm going to take some "as is" photos of our place for you to check out. Work on our basement also starts this week so it'll be good to snap some sexy before pictures. The pictures are sexy because our basement has sexy lighting and wood panelling. In case you were worried about things getting out of control here.

And on that note, I think I should go to bed.

I've got your back.

One of the joys of living in a new city is that there are very few things to distract me from blogging, like friends and social events. Aside from the six days of work I had this week, sleep, trying to find a grocery store that sells Earth Balance squares, and the multiple trips to Costco that are apparently inevitable when you move provinces.

We just wrapped up a big week at work that started on Sunday with a conference we were putting on. Come Wednesday morning everyone in the office was scratching their heads trying to figure out why their brains said it was Friday but the calendar said it was Wednesday and holy cow, did we really have to keep showing up for two more days? It was all good in the end, though, because you never quite appreciate five o'clock as much as you do when you're stuck in a work related time warp and don't even talk to me about how exciting, nay, giddy I was yesterday when it was FINALLY Friday and I had a hot date with my husband, couch, some leftover spaghetti, and Frozen.

Yeah, we went there. I kept hearing about how Frozen was THE movie to see. "So good! So amazing! Life. Changing." Well, it was entertaining, refreshing (and not just because while they have rather Swedish sounding names I'm pretty sure it was based on life in Regina), and funny, it wasn't alllllll that. I mean, the songs didn't change life my. All they did was make me feel inadequate about my relationship with Karl because we never sing about our feelings to each other. Like, not ever. 

My brother in law is going away for work next week (you know, the Alberta family) so I invited my sister in law to come visit for the week. And she is! And she's even bringing my nephew with her, so score! My first set of multiple house guests (not counting my dad because he is not a multiple, unless you're multiplying by one) in our unpacked, set up place. I wasn't going to clean the bathrooms this weekend because I'm lazy to the core and love to make excuses but I will clean all three toilets and even vacuum the stairs for this occasion. And guess what? If you come stay with me on our open-door guest policy I will do the exact same for you, too!

It was while I was restocking the downstairs bathroom with toilet paper this morning that I realized Karl and I might be in trouble. We used to be the people that had more TP and paper towel than we knew what to do with (okay, I knew what to do with it. I was going to use it to barter for protection come the zombie apocalypse because while we do have a lot of peanut butter and canned beans we don't have any guns or crossbows or any skills with them that we know of and don't even think for a second that toilet paper isn't going to be a luxury item. Especially three-ply Charmin like we're currently stocking. Just like the queen.) but now we're only down to a couple rolls (hello, fourth trip to Costco in a month!) thanks to having three bathrooms that constantly need to be stocked. I am NOT that host that leaves you wanting for TP and hoping there's a stray Kleenex around to save the day. But, in case you're wondering, there is always a box of Kleenex (Puffs, actually, because we are JUST LIKE THE QUEEN) right behind you.

Anyway, even if we're running low on TP, but still doing well with paper towel, thanks for asking, I have a new item to barter come the apocalypse: chocolate chips. Non-dairy chocolate chips, at that. Karl and I hit up Bulk Barn before going to Costco on Wednesday night because I know they carry chocolate chips I can eat and I needed cashews. There's something about the grocery stores here that makes them highly inferior to the ones in B.C. It was also Karl's first trip to Bulk Barn and if you've never been there it's basically Disneyland for fat people because EVERYTHING. The thing is, not everything is a good deal so you have to know your prices, but I knew that cashews and chocolate chips were a good deal (especially since they were both on sale). So I spent $20 on them. 

Cue our trip to Costco and all of a sudden Costco has the 2 kg bag of semi-sweets that don't have any dairy? You do not pass up something that valuable and rare because you just might never see it again. So in case you're wondering, we now have about 10 lbs of chocolate chips. I'll be wheeling and dealing in chocolate chip cookies come the zombie apocalypse. It'll be legendary. I'll be the chocolate chip lady up in Regina and people will QUEST to get here. Just like Atlanta, but less zombies and more chocolate at the finish line.

I also got a library card. Look at me go! I got it with my new Saskatchewan driver's licence in which I actually look good. Why didn't we move to this province years ago? B.C.'s license gave me five o'clock shadow! And as much as I love five o'clock these days, I do not enjoy rocking it on my less than chiselled jaw line.

Anna out.


P.S. Frankenpie was not a flaming failure!

I'm a day late and a pie short.

Today was one of those nostalgic for home days. We've been here two weeks (is that really all?) and I think I'm due for some home missing.

I have to work tomorrow afternoon so today is my main weekend. Karl went in to work to take a look at a potential second car for us that didn't end up panning out, so I had a couple hours to kill on my own. I figured heck, if I was at home I'd go to Joe with Mom and we'd have chai lattes, so why not go to Superstore with some Tim Hortons?

I didn't even make it in the door before I was on the phone with Mom. For 25 minutes. I wandered around Superstore and ended up walking out with two different dark chocolate bars, a can of coconut milk, and some pie crust. Because that's what I get for looking at Joe clothes alone and on the phone.

I hit up Old Navy after that and ended up messaging Larissa to help me decide if pulling the trigger on a tunic was the right choice.

I needed to know that I was the only person thinking I looked like a baby on its christening day. Or a cult member. Larissa was supportive and never even mentioned the possibility of me looking like I belonged to some sort of hippie commune.

The price didn't hurt things either, considering I'd thought it was $15 and ended up ringing up as $8.77 all told. And I have 90 days to return it. Boom. It's the little shopping on your own (kind of) things. I live for these kinds of sales. And $20 dresses are my specialty. 

I also ate an entire chocolate bar while driving from Superstore to Old Navy. I needed someone to talk to... So I spoke to it in my mouth.

Those little victories really mean something when I'm facing a big, pie shaped challenge at the moment.

We had some apples in our fridge that were from Victoria so I figured it was time to use them before they startied decomposing in our fridge. That and everyone's Pi Day photos from yesterday. Thus the pie shell. I don't do pie shells. Nobody's got time for that business. /The Dough Boy and I have been through a lot together and he's never really steered me wrong, even though I haven't exactly made it easy for him. If anyone can screw up pre-tubed food it's me. Tenderflake and I have a sordid relationship, but me and the DB have it all figured out. 

Anyway, after dinner I decided it was time to throw the pie in the oven. I figured I'd pad out my four apples with the frozen peaches and strawberries I put in my smoothies. Except when I went to take the apples out of the fridge they were wrinkled and brown and puckered and oddly firm. I stared at them for a good minute before deciding that they were petrifying and no longer fit for human consumption.

Yeah, you can see where this is going.

I went through my bag of frozen fruit, leaving the grapes and pineapple for smoothies (because that would be one whack pie otherwise). Once the filling was good and prepped and in the pie shell it was pretty clear that it wasn't enough. There was a lot of top crust and only about half a filling. Don't get me wrong, I love pastry crust, but I like filling, too.

So I did some thinking and fridge perusing. There was nothing in our fridge that could possibly go into that fruity pie. I mean, I've heard of steak and onion pie, but onion and peach and strawberry pie? I'll pass.

Custard, however, would probably fill out the pie nicely. Except I don't have any custard. I did, however, have a pack of instant vanilla pudding powder.

Oh, what, you didn't see that one coming? Clearly you've never baked with me before.

After a quick consultation with Karl as to whether I should throw my partially completed pie in the freezer for another time, or plow ahead with franken-pie, we decided that the promise of pie was too tempting. So I dumped the pudding powder in a bowl, eyeballed a reasonable amount of almond milk into it, stirred with a wooden spoon, and then poured it over the fruit already in the crust.

Yeah, I'm worried, too, but hey, it's my first solo pie ever. I use pudding powder for my cinnamon buns, so why not in lieu of custard? Right?

The good news is that I'm not going to have to attempt coconut milk whipped cream again because the pudding should do the trick. I have a long, embarrassing history of attempting coconut whipped cream. There have been tears.

Anyway, I'm going to make sure my franken-pie isn't spontaneously combusting. Pray for me.

Dietary Needs.

We had some friends over last night to play games and hang out. I'm sure you can relate with me when I say that I like to have something for my guests to gnaw on while they're over. You know, something to show them how much of a super working woman/housewife I can be, something other than water.

Well, the couple we had over last night have some pretty intense dietary needs. She is allergic to, essentially, everything, and he is on a similar diet to hers and has lost 50 lbs as a result since the fall (I only add that part in because it's freaking inspiring). When I texted him yesterday to get some snack ideas he told me that gluten and sugar were no-noes but that everything else was fine. I knew he was lying so I asked about dairy. Okay, no dairy, either. What about Stevia as a sweetener? You know, since some people hate it. Apparently Stevia is evil poison and the only sweeteners they can handle are pure maple syrup and coconut sugar. Totally simple, right?

I'd been thinking that chocolate covered strawberries would be a nice treat since (thankfully) straight-up, no additive chocolate is permissible. Chocolate covered strawberries are always a nice dessert to make because they look so fancy and they're super easy.

Enter this:

I blew their minds. Six bricks of that goodness, a cup or so of coconut sugar, almond milk to get the consistency where I needed it, and a couple lbs of strawberries later we were happy, happy campers.

I don't want to brag, but they loved them.

The only thing about them is that I didn't have time to stick them in the fridge to cool before we ate them, so they were a little soft. She actually said she appreciated that they were soft instead of hard, so that was nice. While I do like the harder chocolate myself, it is nice when it's not falling everywhere. I'm a messy eater so I usually find leftovers in my scarf later. Like a two year old.

So, my recipe.

You need:

1 cup approx. Almond milk
6 squares Unsweetened Bakers Chocolate
1 cup appprox. Coconut Sugar
2lbs Strawberries
A double boiler

(I actually just got my first double boiler from my in-laws' junk pile at Christmas time. I used to just use a Pyrex bowl over a boiling pot and it works just as well. I guess you could microwave it, too, but I feel like you're more likely to burn the chocolate that way. You should also never microwave a pot.)

Set the burner to around half, and melt the chocolate. Stir it constantly, making sure to scrape the bottom of the pot, to ensure it doesn't burn.

Add the coconut sugar as the chocolate is melting and stir it in.

Add almond milk as needed to smooth out the consistency.

Once chocolate is smooth, dip strawberries and place on wax paper to cool. If there is leftover chocolate, dip the strawberries again.

Eat them all.

I had a bit of leftover chocolate so six squares might be a little excessive, but I figure it's better to have a bit too much than not enough. Since I'm not sure if it solidified eventually, you might even be able to melt it again. I sent it home with our friends because she's pregnant and can get away with eating it with a spoon.

I really like dark chocolate, so this was right up my alley and any potential bitterness was cancelled out by the strawberries.

I had also never tried coconut sugar and didn't know what to expect. It wasn't bad, a bit like brown sugar, but I didn't find it as sweet. I only tried a couple crystals, though.

All in all, I call it a smashing success and I dare you to try it.

Bana-na-na-na.

So I probably shouldn't blog while watching TV. It makes me seem dumber than I am, I expect. Really, I'm a freaking genius. So... I apologize for the quality of two posts ago. I make no apologies for my last post, though. None at all.

Yesterday was Superbowl Sunday. This is only relevant because we ended up at a Superbowl party. I went for the food and brought my knitting. I do not enjoy football.

Well, there was a fair amount of food but after the over half an hour delay because of the lights going out, and the fact that football is an obscenely long sport, I had a hunger that potato chips alone would not satisfy. That's when I remembered a link Larissa sent me earlier in the week: Two-ingredient banana recipes.

I love bananas. Love, love, love bananas. They are my favourite fruit. When I stopped eating them this summer in an effort to get my brain in working order, it was agony. Now that I'm back on them, life is so much sweeter. I'm also incredibly lazy when it comes to the kitchen. Larissa just gets me, you know? Not that she's lazy like I am, but she knows what I need.

I also love cookies. Love, love, love. I had no idea cookies and bananas were compatible. Did you know it? Well, they are! Even better, they're delicious and have no sugar or butter. Why, they're two ingredient cookies!

When we got home from the Superbowl festivities I made these cookies for dinner and Karl and I ate them all.

I posted a photo of this on my Facebook page and people were confused by what the two ingredients could possibly be. For the record, if you haven't clicked on the link yet, the two ingredients are bananas and quick oats. That's it. If you look closely, you will see a couple chocolate chips. Don't worry, you can count and so can I. They're two ingredient cookies because they only need two ingredients to function. The few chocolate chips and bit of cinnamon that I added enhance them, but aren't necessary.

Anyway, these cookies are basically glorified baby food so I figure there's no shame in over-consumption. Also, they're pretty much vegan. The mix was even delicious and I didn't have to worry about salmonella when I licked the bowl. No. Shame.

Now, if you don't make these cookies you are on crackity crack. With dark chocolate chips (or none, but that's less fun) they're even vegan. And how easy would it be to make them gluten free? I wanted to save some for breakfast today, but it wasn't possible.

So yeah. Last night I was really thankful for bananas and Larissa. It was my reward for making it through the Superbowl and only falling asleep once.

I had to use all my self control to not make another batch of these tonight for dinner. Tomorrow I might not be so lucky.

The Best Cookies Ever.

I make good cookies. I also hate making cookies. You know that whenever I bake I call it self loathing. I don't mind the making of the cookies, but I hate the actually cookie placing on cookie sheet part of the process. It takes about a million years.

Well, I like giving things to people. I'm basically Santa Clause but don't wear much red. Since today's my last day at work I thought I would encourage everyone to remember me fondly with my parting gift of cookies. The new me may have been a hot dancer once, but now she's just going to be a hot new me that probably didn't have milk and cookies for breakfast. Wow, I really am Santa.

I'm pretty sure the last time I made these cookies was April 14th. The only reason I remember that date was because it was the day after my good friend Calvin popped out of his momma into the world. It was also the day this happened:

Gratuitous and totally relevant photo of me with a less than 24 hour old child.

Not to brag or anything but my cookies were probably one of the first things he ate. Via breast milk. The cookies weren't actually made as a celebration of life but I was going to a ballroom dancing night and had been coerced through extreme flattery to bring cookies. So a few cookies detoured to the hospital.

My friend Caity had told my that my cookies were the best and begged me to make some for the ballroom dancing event. I really can't say no to flattery like that. Just like the time were in grade 12 and I wanted to go home after my 10 pm shift at the grocery store but her and her eventual husband coerced me into watching The Wedding Singer with them. I guess I just can't say no to flattery or weddings singers.

Since my cookies are obviously the best cookies ever, I couldn't deny my coworkers one last chance to indulge. I'm blogging about it because I have failed fantastically at blogging about my baking eneavours lately.  That's because I haven't actually baked anything aside from muffins for a while. And the last muffins I made involved a box of devil's food cake mix, a can of pumpkin, and whatever else I thought would taste good. They were essentially breakfast cupcakes.

So I'm going to share with you my famous cookie recipe. Just so you know, these are some of the yummiest cookies ever. The only thing is that they're trying to kill you. There's a collective cup and a half of sugar, which is comparable to other recipes, but it's the two cups of chocolate chips/Reese's Pieces that get you sucked it. I've made these without Reese's, by the way, and they just aren't the same. When I first came across the recipe they just called for chocolate chips. By upping the ante I made something delicious and magical happen.

I got the recipe here off the internet when I was in high school. I tweaked it a tiny bit so I'm not going to take credit for it. Since I linked you to the original I'm not even going to feel bad.

That's what I call a well used recipe.

The Best Cookies Ever

1 cup of margarine
3/4 cup white sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups white flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 cup chocolate chips
1 cup Reese's Pieces

1. Preheat the oven to 350°

2. Cream margarine together with white and brown sugar. Add the eggs one at a time. Stir in the vanilla.

3. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and salt.

4. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet, then fold in the chocolate chips and Reese's.

5. Drop by smallish spoonfuls onto the cookie sheet and then bake those bad boys for 8-10 minutes.

The recipe will yield approximately 4 dozen small cookies.

I grew up in a big cookie household. We liked our cookies big and we liked a lot of them. I think that's one of the reasons I love this recipe so much. It's the first recipe I really ever did all by myself and I broke the familial norm and made small cookies. Small cookies make my heart sing. You can eat so many more and not feel as pigtastic, and they're more fun to share in a social setting. 

This is an example of not small cookies. Trust me, smaller is way more fun.

The original recipe says that it makes two dozen cookies. That person was on cookie crack. Last night I was in a rush when I made these so I made them a bit bigger than usual. I could tell they were bigger because they took more like 10 or 11 minutes to cook than the usual 8 or 9. I still ended up with about 45 cookies. Yeah.

Cookies!

I love eating baked goods so there's a reason I don't make these very often. I do not need 4 dozen cookies sitting around my house taunting me. Especially ones with Reese's Pieces in them. 

If you don't make these, you're missing out. Also mad props to me for putting up my first (and possibly only) recipe on the blog. On the last day of watching Douglas street. Yeah, I just gave myself a shout out.

My idea of a good vacation.

A couple weeks ago I was in the middle of losing my mind. I had three migraines in twelve days, my mom had just broken her femur, and I was busier than I could ever dream. I needed a vacation more than I could have anticipated.

Lucky for me, Karl and I had planned a trip to visit his brother Christopher and sister in law Natalie right when we needed it most. I kid you not, God knew we needed that holiday. We weren't even planning on going to see them at all this year, but decided a couple months ago to bite the bullet and risk taking time without pay in order to head out to Alberta for a few days. My mind and sanity are so grateful we did.

Natalie and I are very different people. We get along fabulously, but without an attraction to a couple of red neck brothers our paths would never have crossed. Kansas girls and BC girls just don't normally find their way into each others lives.

Usually when the four of us get together we go bowling, drink beer and margaritas, go to the movies, and play endless board games. We also eat a lot and go for coffee. It's kind of our thing. It's not a Morton sibling and wife hang out without going to Starbucks. Now that I don't work there anymore, those trips have gotten somewhat less economical.

We only hit up the Starbucks once this trip. Since giving up caffeine (5 1/2 months!) I don't do London Fogs anymore so the whole Starbucks experience is less exciting. I just get decaf americanos with a pump of white mocha, in case you're wondering. I don't really buy into the whole pumpkin spice thing, but everyone else does. Karl, Christopher, and Natalie all did, too. This sign might have had something to do with it:

I'm going to be totally honest with you, I have no idea what this is all about.

 I learned something about Natalie that weekend that I hadn't known before. It turns out, she and I have similar cooking/baking strategies. It's called creativity. Don't have any cheddar? Use Gouda  use processed cheese (American cheese, as the American's call it), use Havarti. Use whatever the heck is in the fridge that could pass as cheese. That's my kind of cooking.

Natalie is also pretty easy going with her food measurements. It made me feel empowered. If Natalie can do it, I can do it. And I do do it. Regularly. Except now I feel even better about it because I know I'm not the only Morton woman that is a bit of a free spirit in the kitchen.

That's where the similarities end, though, and Natalie just keeps getting more amazing. Friday was spent pre-making everything for the rest of the weekend. Every. Little. Thing. Within reason. Steaks were not pre-cooked, but everything else was ready to go into the oven whenever we wanted to eat it.

Not only did Natalie exhibit an extraordinary amount of forethought (last time they were here we had pizza), but she also made entirely new recipes. Everything came out of a cooking magazine and was totally new to her.

She even adapted a pinterest idea to make Karl a race car birthday cake.

As you can see, it was quite the hit.

Natalie really brought her A-game in as non-competitive a way as possible. Since she introduced me to the idea of taking charge in the kitchen days in advance (never going to happen, FYI), I thought I'd introduce her to favourite pastime: Spray painting stuff.

Behold! A pair of stools that came with the house:

Cute and country kitchen-ish. But are they living up to their potential?

Natalie having a go. I had to share the spraying, even though I didn't want to.

 I'm not sure if it was the heat or just the kind of paint we got, but the nozzle started to get gunked up shortly after we started painting. It made it hard to keep spraying so we called in reinforcements.

Karl showing us how it's done.

The finished product was something to be proud of. Even though Natalie didn't go for my dark blue of choice, I still think she made a good call on the colour.

Fancy shmancy!

I wasn't planning on wrapping up our whole trip to Swallwell in one post, but since it looks like I pretty much have, I'll share one more favourite moment.

While Karl and Christopher partook in another traditional activity, fixing Samson, Natalie's Jeep, us womenfolk walked their dog Wishbone and met some locals.

Oh, hay.

I'm not as city as I might look. I have been around horses before.

Natalie knows horses, too. She's a country girl.

And, finally, since I'm on such a picture sharing roll, I'll end with a photo. 

Put out your jazz hands for rural Alberta!

I am thankful.

Okay, I figure it's time for me to post a few more things I'm thankful for. Let's be honest, being a rut sitting whiner gets old pretty quick.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Loaf. Yes I made it last night, and I attempted to use xylitol instead of sugar, whole wheat flour instead of white, and apple sauce instead of oil. I didn't actually have enough xylitol so I ended up doing 1 cup xylitol and 1/2 cup of sugar. It made the end result less sweet than last time, which I was going for. I had just enough whole wheat flour to get the job done, although I think half brown and half white is the thing to do next time. It's a little... wheaty. The apple sauce was a no brainer substitution that I did last time I made the recipe. I don't think I put quite enough in though so I was being quite the free spirit with the measuring cups and totally forgot to put in 3/4 cup not 1/2. But I think my liberal tendencies bridged the gap a little.

The end result was not as attractive as last time and one of the loafs had some issues coming out of the pan, but it's still good. It actually tastes healthier than before, and you can rest assured that I will be devouring it all day. Because it's good and I'm thankful for its yummy pumpkin-ness.

Iron Pills. No seriously. Not only are they an excuse to eat yummy vitamin C every day I think they're actually working. I'm not sure how else to explain the reason I have been fully functioning on six and a half hours of sleep a night this week when I didn't sleep at all well the last two nights we were away. Also, you can actually visibly see when your body is absorbing them because they have apparent effects. And by that I mean they turn your poop black. Yeah, I went there.

Silver Lining. When my mom broke her femur a month ago, she couldn't see the silver lining. She knew that God had to have something in mind for doing this to her again, but she really couldn't understand. Well, yesterday, exactly a month to the day of her accident, He showed us.

Mom and I don't go to the same church, and she's been going to hers for five years but never really found a big place for herself there. Earlier this week the pastor emailed her to ask if she would do the announcements for the month of October. Mom told me that generally this something couples do. Well, she emailed him to politely decline and informed him of her situation of not being able to get out there. He hadn't known and asked if he could put it on their prayer chain. Right away calls started coming in from people at the church, showing concern and wanting to come for visits, people that Mom had never really spent much time with before.

Break your hip, make some friends, gain some fellowship. Silver lining.

Mini Holidays. Last week Karl and I went to rural Alberta for some much needed time off, and this weekend Mom and I are going to do a little shopping and concerting in the states over her birthday. I know that she could use the break from being stuck at home most of the time, and I'm looking forward to spending time (and money) with her away from home. Neither of us have ever done this, and I think it's going to be a lot of fun. The nice thing is, we have a concert tomorrow night to check out if the shopping turns out to be a dud. All I can say is, bring on the American sales!

There's more, there's always more, but I'll leave it at that for now. I'll even go so far as to ask a question of you: Anything you're particularly thankful for today?


UPDATE: For the record, I didn't even register that it's Thanksgiving this weekend when I wrote this post. I don't need a specific day to be thankful for things, especially things like Canadian pilgrims making it to the new world a whole month earlier than their American counterparts.

Stuck in a rut.

Well, I've been in a bit of a rut the past couple days. I found myself so utterly drained when I went back to work on Tuesday that I had a really rough day. I went home feeling very low about my job and my role there. I really do take criticism to heart, even when I know it isn't a big deal and should just store it in the "Useful Information" part of my brain and get over it. It's also hard to know when I've done something wrong and there's nothing for me to redeem myself with and demonstrate my competence with. I might be kind of like a puppy.

I pulled out of my rut that evening, though, and we hosted about 25 people for a going away party for our dear friends Tim and Larissa. I love that we have the space and ability to host things like that. It was nice to have people over but not feel obligated to entertain them and just be able to relax and socialize with everyone that came, as well as say our goodbyes. Not that goodbyes are fun, but new chapters in life sure can be.

Yesterday my rut went even deeper. I didn't get much sleep the night before due to having 25 people over (no regrets, though, because these things are more important than sleep) and possessing a deep need to watch Castle. Castle is also higher on the ranking scale than sleep. You can only put off watching it for one day and then it calls to you. Me. Whatever.

 So yesterday was hard. I didn't want to go to work, knowing full well that it would be an agonizing day of doing absolutely nothing and that I was already bummed out. It's hard to be motivated to go to work when you know the outlook is bleak. It doesn't matter about the pay or the friendly people when you're already in a rut, because idleness leads to stir craziness and that combined with lack of sleep leads to longings to wear sweat pants and watch marathon hours of television while sitting under a blanket and drinking milk. In case you were wondering, milk is my new evening drink of choice.

When I got home from work I couldn't get out of the car. I just sat there for about ten minutes, feeling so tired and rutted (read: in a rut) and emotionally confused. I even cried a little, trying to figure out how to proceed and what to do.

You're probably thinking that sleep is probably the number one thing, since getting out of the car is the obvious way to proceed in that situation. Well you're probably right, but that's not what I did. Instead, I went inside and did exactly what I'd wanted to do all day. On went the sweat pants, on went the hoodie, on went the television with New Girl and The Mindy Project, and there I sat, on the living room floor, eating leftover quinoa salad, pop chips, and drinking milk.

It helped. It really, really helped.

Last night was the second night of our going through Financial Peace. If you don't know what that is, it's basically a several week series that helps you figure out your finances by giving you proven steps to follow and encouraging you to save, budget, and other important money related things.

Sounds terrible, right? It's actually really good (and funny, believe it or not) and I'm getting a lot out of the time we're spending with the couple from our church that is doing it with us. I came home from work thinking that all I wanted to do was space out in front of the TV, but I think the alternative was much better.

The funny thing is, we got home just before 11:30 and I didn't get into bed until 12. That means, if you've figured out my dog walking schedule, that I was up six and a half hours later. Totally what Miss Rutty-Mc-Rutterson needed. Except not.

Well, this morning I, naturally, didn't want to get out of bed, but I did and it was okay. I still didn't want to go to work but somehow today is better than the last two days. Somehow, I don't feel like I'm such a big rut. Sure, I'm still feeling a little rutty, but it's not weighing me down so much today that I'm going to go home and cry in my car. Actually, I'm planning on going home and making some pumpkin chocolate chip loaf and altering the recipe. Because, you know, recipes are more guidelines than anything. And if something's sugar free, oil free, and whole wheat it means I can feel less guilty when I eat a whole loaf by myself. Right?

If I'm taking the kitchen by storm I must be feeling better because you know me and baking... We kind of hate each other.

Zucchini loaf and Baldwin brothers. It's recap time.

First, a little update on my adventures with zucchini loaf. I'm officially calling my zucchini loaf a flop. I tried the second loaf today, the one I did the toothpick test on, and it, too, is too moist in the middle. It's not as bad as the other loaf but it's still not very nice. It's also lacking a bit in the flavour field, but that might be due to the weirdness of its texture that's turning me off. I'll still eat it because it isn't bad but I wouldn't bring it to a housewarming, that's for sure. Not that I've ever really brought anything to a house warming before...

Last night I tried  a new yoga class. Instead of doing the usual beginner yoga I went with my dear friend Stephanie to Yin Yoga. It's quite different than what I'm used to because instead of going through lots of movements and sun salutations you simply hold a pose for a few minutes. When the time is up you do a little bit of movement and then hold another pose. As far as relaxation goes, it was pretty much the epitome. While I didn't feel like it was the same workout I would get in other classes, some of which feel like yoga boot camp, I did enjoy it. It was very mellowing. I'm not sure if it was my favourite type of yoga but I'll certainly give it another try. It is definitely the kind of yoga you'd want after a crazy day.

When I got home I made myself an iron enriched smoothie (we're giving blood tonight) and watched a movie. C'est la vie. I have a soft spot for really terrible science fiction movies. I like them even more if they have actors I recognize. Not too long ago I watched Doomsday Prophecy with Jewel Staite in it. Cheese fest. Even though it was made in 2011 it still had really terrible graphics and a pretty weird story line. Fantastic. Made for TV scifi movies are just television gold. Really bad science fiction movies are just really good. I love post apocalyptic themes, too, and Karl and I watched The Road just last week. It's not remotely the same genre but the post apocalyptic theme was there and I really enjoyed it. Man's journey of self discovery is always better when the world is falling apart. Not that The Road was strictly about that. Moving on...

Last night I was torn between a movie about a deadly virus and its survivors or one about the earth being in trouble and an explosives expert being the only one who could save it. I love having a PVR. Naturally, I chose the film that made the least sense. How is a demolition expert going to save earth from some sort of space problem? Enter Earthstorm and Stephen Baldwin with terrible hair.

I always knew there were Baldwin brothers but it blows my mind how much they all look alike, even in a movie from 1996. Stephen Baldwin, the youngest of the Baldwin brothers Wikipedia told me, looks so much like Alec Baldwin, the oldest, in a movie from twelve years ago that it was blowing my mind. Ha. No pun intended. The whole plot was ridiculously entertaining. Spoiler alert! The moon was hit by an asteroid, got a giant crack as a result, and chunks of it were flying towards earth, eventually destroying Mexico. Bye bye, Mexico. It was also wreaking havoc on the planet's weather.

I'll admit that I was looking up restaurants to eat at for my birthday in the yellow pages (I actually found somewhere, too) and wasn't paying too much attention to what was going on in the movie. What I did catch, though, was that Mr Demolition man (Baldwin) ended up going into space and they used nukes to reseal the iron core of the moon. More or less. In case you're wondering, he got the moderately attractive scientist girl with equally unfortunate hair in the end and saved planet earth. Not in that order.

I'd say the only better than a good science fiction movie is a bad science fiction movie, but that's just not fair. Good science fiction movies are great but there will always be a place in my heart for the bad ones, too. You don't need big budget special effects to be entertained, you just need a plot that involves total destruction. Happy endings are optional. Even with zucchini loaf, it turns out.

A little zucchini puree.

Last night I took the bold step into the world of baking with vegetables. Sure, I've tried beans before, but they're legumes so that's different. Last night the magic ingredient was zucchini.

Chocolate zucchini loaf is a pretty common thing, I've found, but I've never made it myself and have only tried it a few times. It's not something my mom made, probably since I always ate my vegetables as a kid, so I never got a lot of exposure to it until I was a grown up. I'm so grown up.

Sometimes the stars just align and you end up with an abundance of zucchini in your fridge. It's a rare occurrence but not completely unheard of. I had a zucchini and my mom had two, on of which was kindly grown in a neighbour's backyard. What the heck do you do with three zucchinis? My mom requested that I make some chocolate zucchini loaf with it and she didn't have to twist my arm too hard. Moist chocolate loaf with vegetables in it? Sign me up!

Yesterday I spent the afternoon searching for the perfect recipe. Healthy Indulgences has a recipe for it but I just couldn't bring myself to care about my carb intake. I read the other day that you can get away with eating fattier foods when you're on a low carb diet because it all starts to balance out in the end. Well, I'm not on a low carb diet, I just enjoy these recipes, so I decided to forget about the sugar free recipe and just roll with something simpler.

After looking at several websites I finally settled on this recipe. It was actually a toss up between that one and one I found on Canadian Living. I liked that the one I used called for yogurt instead of oil. I even stayed true to the recipe and used the almond milk it called for because I had some in the fridge. The only substitution I made was that I used some unrefined cane sugar instead of the dark brown that it called for and, I guess, that I didn't have any cloves.

When the recipe said that I could use my food processor instead of a grater to deal with the zucchini I decided that would be best. Less knuckles or finger tips in the loaf that way. You think I'm joking, don't you? For some reason the food processor had a hard time chopping the whole zucchini up at once. Maybe it was because the zucchinis were getting a little old and soft or because I over estimated the capacity of the food processor, but all I know if that I ended up with zucchini puree instead of finely chopped pieces. Either way, I don't think it had an effect on the end result.

I did, however, make one mistake in the whole process. Two, if you think about it, but I caught one at the last second. I almost forgot to put the cocoa in the mix. It wasn't until I was combining the dry and wet ingredients and asking myself why everything looked so much lighter than the picture that it dawned on me. I caught that one but I didn't remember to grease the loaf pans until they were already in the oven. I need a sign or something.

I think everything went pretty well. Two beautiful loaves came out of the oven after 43 minutes that then proceeded to deflate a little while they cooled. I used a glass pan for one and a metal one for the other since my two metal pans are different dimensions. The glass pan let go of its loaf nice and easily but the metal pan was a little more belligerent. Karl had to bang it a few times to get it out. Only a little bit of the bottom was left in the pan and that scooped out nicely with a flipper.

It tasted nice but was a little gooey in the middle. I'm going to assume that's because the glass pan loaf was not the loaf I toothpick tested. It was also still warm and went well with a glass of milk.

It's funny how my definition of successful baking involves so many mix ups and small errors. As long as it tastes good, I guess. That's probably why I enjoy baking more than, say, painting my bathroom. I'm much more forgiving about the presentation of things that are going in my belly. Delicious. I'm excited for lunch to eat some chocolate zucchini loaf. Just kidding, I'm excited for my breakfast bar to wear off enough to justify it.

Back in the baking saddle.

You may have noticed by now that I seem to go through phases of things that I get excited about. Most recently it was baking and then making my living space better. I haven't given up on baking, although I guess it's been a little while, I've just decided that I'd rather spray paint things. Well, that and the fact that we've been a bit busier lately. I did, after all, paint some nightstands. Yes, I did.

I took a little break from the baking for just a few weeks, intending to get back into it a little sooner than I eventually did, but get back into it I did. And the reason? Breakfast.

Breakfast kills me. I know it's the most important meal of the day and I know that if I miss meals bad things start to happen so I always always always eat breakfast. I try to eat a filling breakfast, too, since the temptation is to snack all day at my desk. Now that I'm back on bananas smoothies are a good filling morning start. They take a little longer to make/consume than I'd like, though, and get a little boring after a couple days in a row. Plus we ran out of fruit that isn't raspberries or bananas. The only other thing that fills me up for a long time is a couple pieces of hearty flax toast with peanut butter. Can you say yawn?

Monday night I made a recipe I've already done once before to deal with the breakfast blues. I have to say, these breakfast bars, as I tend to think of them, are amazing. They really do keep you full for longer than pretty much anything ever in the whole wide world. Seriously. If I decide to have something else for breakfast, like I did yesterday at our Tuesday morning toast meeting, these make great afternoon snacks that tend to dampen the dinner cravings. That worked for me since I was going to go to yoga last night and dinner's always something super simple on Tuesdays. I ended up doing yoga at home but I still didn't have to make dinner. Karl even made eggs for himself. See? Miracle bars! These things will transform your whole life, I'm telling you.

The only issue I have with this recipe is how long it takes. Throwing the ingredients together is about ten to fifteen minutes or so depending on my level of distraction (usually quite high) and  is followed by an hour of waiting before baking. I realized this time that when the recipe calls for letting the combined ingredients sit for an hour to overnight it probably means in the fridge. I get smarter each time I make this. The power of the miracle oatmeal breakfast bars! Once everything's sat for an hour (I am not patient enough to be an overnight person) there's still an hour of cooking followed by an unspecified amount of wait time as everything cools down enough to go in the fridge.

As you can imagine, being a before bed baker, things never cool down fast enough and I always try to find a solution to cover them up over night without getting too much condensation. I am minimally successful. This time Karl swore up and down that wax paper would not accumulate moisture the way saran wrap would. I was skeptical but I did what he suggested with nothing to lose. Sure enough, the wax paper did not look like it had been exposed to very much condensation. When you touched it it felt as though the moisture had seeped into the wax paper and made it kind of soggy, but still, better than saran wrap. Miracle oatmeal bars!

So you see, I do still bake, it's just more sporadic than it used to be. I have spray paint now for goodness' sake! You don't want to let me into the kitchen with spray paint. There's no telling what I'd do.

Next week? Cupcakes. I promise.

Baking teaches life lessons.

Well things are whirl-winding all around here. I think something's set in stone and then BAM it changes.

So I went back on the bananas yesterday. I have one for lunch today. I am in love with bananas even though I'm afraid this relationship is going to turn abusive. But I have to stop. I have to stop the banana love for another week. I'm going to eat today's banana because I can and I imagine it's potential toxins will be out of my system by Wednesday. Wednesday I am going on mini work trip after all. Go figure. I get to take a sea plane and stay in a nice hotel! I'm such a world class traveler.

So last night hit me like a bag of bricks. You'd think, at 23, that I'm still young and can do everything I did when I was in university. You'd be deluding yourself as much as I am if you did, though. When I was in high school I'd work until 10 and then go watch movies with my friends, coming home at one or two in the morning. I used to stay up until four reading in bed when I had nothing to do on my summer vacations. Sometimes I'd stay up until four and then have to get up early. And you know what? I did it. Like a champ I did it.

Even in my first few years of university I could push myself to stay up late and, indeed, found that I wrote essays the most productively between 11 pm and 1 am. Now, however, staying up until midnight isn't unusual but I can't handle much later than that. I get zombified and, if it's really bad, emotional. Kind of like a toddler.

Last night I made magic happen in the kitchen with my bean cake. No sugar of any sort, no gluten, let alone flour, just cocoa, eggs, butter, sweeteners, and beans. Seriously. And I got to use my blender to kill those beans. I even buttered the pan, sprinkled it with cocoa powder as instructed (not something I would normally bother with) and decided that putting parchment paper in the pan and spraying it with oil was over kill. I'm basically a baking master. I followed every other instruction as directed, even using butter instead of margarine for once.

The first step in cake making, even though it looks like it could be a protein shaking.

Yep, everything went really well in the prep stages. Sure it was only nine and I was dragging my feet, but I was optimistic that throwing on a little Audrey Assad, pouring myself a glass of wine, and plowing through it would give me renewed zeal. Well, I plowed through it sure enough and even cleaned the toilet to the tune of The Deathly Hallows while the cake was baking, but it didn't give me much more energy. I even worked on my secret project for ten minutes while the cake cooled. My mystery project that I completely forgot to take a photo of this morning. I guess you'll just have to wait.

When it came time to take my decadent cake out of it's pan I knew something was wrong. It wasn't coming out. I cut around the side of the pan, tipped it over onto a plate, gave it a good upside down wiggle, and, when that didn't work, smacked the bottom of the pan really hard a couple times. I tried everything I could think of and eventually Karl came did the exact same things but more forcefully. And lo! The cake came out, and landed on the plate upside down. Except something went wrong; only the top half of the cake was on the plate and the rest was still in the pan.

Dead cake. I'll be holding a funeral for it later in my belly.

My heart broke. I was officially dragging my feet, wondering how on earth I was going to have the energy to actually shower and get into bed, and all of a sudden thoughts like, "My cake is dead!" and "I should make a nicer one!" are flying through my head. Thankfully my exhaustion didn't give me a jelly brain and I was reasonable about the whole thing. I broke the rules and stuck a dome on it and admitted that I couldn't change the past and would just have to pile the icing on thick enough to hide the fact that underneath was a pile of crumbs. My original top, now the new bottom, had been absolutely perfect and would have made icing, one of my many downfalls, as easy as ever. No such luck. Tonight I'm going to have one heck of an icing related challenge as I try to make it look like nothing's wrong. Looks can be deceiving even though everyone will know once they cut a slice that the beautifully iced exterior (not likely) is actually hiding what looks like earthquake rubble.

Oh well, at least the stale crumbs I picked up off the counter this morning taste amazing. Even the batter was delicious last night. It might even be my first cake from scratch. I'm not sure, though, so don't quote me. I do know one thing, though, and that is that it was definitely my first bean cake. I wish I'd taken a picture of it while it was still in the pan, though. It looked gorgeous.

Apart from last night it's been a busy week for me. Monday night I made these bad boys to help cure my breakfast eating blues. They're pretty good. I think I could have cooked them for maybe five minutes longer, and I also had to sub half the amount of almonds for cashews because it's all I had, but I'm going to call them a success. They caught my eye because they're supposed to be filling enough to get you through until lunch. Sure enough, they do the trick for most of the morning. It's safe to say that I'll be rotating breakfasts between them and smoothies for a while. I get bored easily, though, so maybe I'll give them a try in a couple weeks or so. I'm also out of erythritol and that stuff does not come cheap. I forgot to take a picture of the bars. It's probably the first time in months I haven't photographed my baking endeavours to show off.

In case you haven't noticed, I really like Healthy Indulgences recipes. I like trying to cook with things other than just flour and sugar. As the main eater of what I bake, it's nice to know I'm not putting as much unnecessary junk into my system. I don't want to go up another pant size!

Monday night also saw me working on the super amazing nightstand I found online. We did some measuring and it turns out it's identical to mine. Yeah, I've clearly got a good home decor eye for these things. The only thing that stands out between the two is that the new nightstand has a really nice drawer whereas mine is too shallow and wants to fall out when you pull it out. Since I don't really use it much that's not proving to be a big issue. It's lasted me two years, after all.

This is the photo that I found online.

Why people feel the need to photograph their furniture outside is beyond me. 

After my Monday night priming session.

The finished product.

I need to figure out how to take better pictures with my phone because the last one really doesn't do it justice. It's a dark chocolate brown and even though it doesn't match our IKEA stuff it still looks quite dapper. I plan on doing mine tomorrow so that I can show Karl how superior I am when it comes to home projects and have a matching set. Mostly to have a matching set.

Since I kind of started by going backwards I'll go back to Saturday now. I guess I just got bitten by the bug and was getting stuff done left right and center. That or I was having some sort of psychotic episode.

A place for my book hoarding to call home!

Vile and disgusting home invader outside the window, now behind a wall of books.

I added a little more protection between us and the predator. Out of sight out of mind, right?

Yes, that is wrapping paper. It's cheap but it's working for now.

Who am I? I'm a freaking genius, that's who I am!

Ugly frame be gone! This is only one of three frametastic makeovers I did this weekend.

So there you have it! A little bit of photo evidence that I'm not all talk. I actually enjoyed putting photos up and might do it more often. We shall see.

If you take anything away from this post today, let it be that you may think you know better than the recipe says, and sometimes you do, but when it comes to making sure your cake doesn't stick to the pan, better safe than sorry.