in tribute

On Friday, mom woke up to find both of her giant goldfish dead and the loss has hit all of us pretty hard. I know most people wouldn't feel that way towards a goldfish, but we've had them in the family for 10 years and the thought of not seeing them swimming around just breaks my heart. They will be forever missed.

friday fixation: mom style

find the details here

Mom's been putting together the most amazing outfits lately, I just want to raid her closet! She's been picking up a lot of ankle-length tiered skirts -- broomstick skirts or hippie skirts? -- and pairing them with a simple t-shirt. The whole outfit looks so effortlessly put together which is perfect for the summer. Now. If only we could BOTH find a great military inspired jacket (this one's okay... but not quite what I wanted!).

DIY: mini notebooks

I've recently noticed that mom's always looking for something to write a list on even though she's got an iPod (which I keep trying to tell her is great for keeping multiple lists). So for mom's day this year, I thought I'd make her a notepad that's small enough to fit into her iPod holder while providing her with an easy place to jot down her little lists (cuz old habits die hard).

Step 1: Decide the size and shape you want your notepad to be and make a template with a stiffer paper. I found this makes cutting the paper a lot easier because you can just paperclip the template onto your individual papers and cut around that instead of trying to measure each piece individually.

Step 2: Cut out a ton of paper! The smaller your notepad, the easier this will be because you'll be able to get a lot of sheets from one piece of paper. The great thing about this is that you can use any paper you can find as long as you're able to write on it. I used a combination of scrap papers I had lying around. Although, full disclosure, I did purchase a small package of graph paper cuz I really wanted to have that type included. Also among my papers is a book page from a children's book, old stationary, kraft paper, some cool space shuttle paper I found in a box I was unpacking once (sometimes, I save the most bizarre things), and an old airmail envelope (I even made sure the envelope pocket was still usable for even littler notes -- if there is such a thing).

Step 3: Organize your papers in the order you'd like them to be (instead of having all the graph paper together, for example, I spaced them apart between other types) and make sure they're all stacked together evenly. Add some stiffer paper as a front and back, then use bull dog clips to hold it all together.

On the top seam of the papers, paint on a layer of white glue (yes; ordinary white glue. I bought some on clearance for a dollar) and let it dry. Continue adding layers of white glue (drying between layers) until you think it's enough. That's really vague, I know, but I think I just kept adding and unclipping to see how the paper was holding up to flipping to determine if I should add another layer of glue. I think between 3-5 layers is probably sufficient.

Step 4: Once dry, your notepad papers should be stuck together at the top allowing you to flip through the book rather easily. I finally added duck tape on the top to cover the seams and to further ensure the papers stay together. I chose it because it's flexible, but you could use any kind of tape you like (but duck tape comes in some fantastic colours and patterns these days!). I left my book fairly plain because I like how it's a party on the inside and all business on the outside, but you can decorate the front and back of the notepad however you like.

You're basically done with the notebook BUT if you want to add a little extra you can:

Cut some slits in the back paper and thread in some elastic.

Pull the elastic tight and stick a pin in to determine whether the elastic is tight enough to hold the book together but loose enough to open the flap. Just play around with it a bit at this point. Once you figure out the size it should be, hold the elastic tight and sew a simple straight stitch across the two ends of the elastic.

Boom! Now you've got an elastic to hold the pages shut.

You could cut the ends off and stop here OR you could:

Use the exact same method to figure out the size for a mini pencil and sew the elastic tails together to make a little pencil holder!

NOW you can go ahead and cut the ends off.

Don't forget to leave a sneaky note inside once you're done!

carrot cake

It was mom's birthday this weekend and for the first time in, I don't know how long, she was actually with us so I decided to make a cake.

The fact that I've been having a terrible craving for carrot cake and cream cheese frosting had absolutely nothing to do with it.

I swear.

I only made a few alterations to this recipe. I cut some of the oil with whatever applesauce I had left which turned out to be a measly quarter of a cup. I wish it would have been more, but I cut the sugar in the frosting a bit to make up the difference and because I like to taste a little more cream cheese tang rather than pure sugar. 

The amount of frosting is perfect for icing between the layers, but I had some leftover white chocolate ganache that I've been desperately wanting to get rid of which I used instead. I kind of wish I hadn't since I ended up with too much cream cheese frosting, so the outside was rather thick and bulky. I stuck some coconut on there to hide it.

Despite all the changes, this cake was so good. Have you ever had the last piece of something and almost wanted to not eat it just so it never ends? That's how I felt when we finally finished this cake. It stays moist for days (and I baked it on one day and iced it the next) and it's carrot-y and cinnamon-y and just perfect. The original called for nuts, but I don't like stuffing a bunch of things into my carrot cake. Some people like raisins and nuts in their carrot cake so that doesn't mean you couldn't add them, I just don't like those additions muddling up the carrots. The coconut, though, was actually quite nice and added a little texture.

recipe adapted from All Recipes

{carrot cake}

4 eggs

1 1/4 cups vegetable oil (part or all applesauce)

2 cups sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla

2 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons cinnamon

3 cups grated carrots

Blend the eggs, oil, sugar and vanilla together.

Sift or whisk the dry ingredients together.

Add the dry to wet in increments until blended.

Stir in carrots.

Grease and flour two 9" round cake pans and divide the mixture evenly between them. Bake in a 350 oven for around 40-50 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Allow to cool about 10 minutes before attempting to remove from pans.

{cream cheese frosting}

1/2 cup of butter, room temperature

8 ounces (one package) cream cheese, room temperature

3-4 cups confectioner's sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

coconut or nuts if desired

Blend the butter and cream cheese together until well mixed. Add the sugar in increments until you reach desired sweetness. Frost the cake once well cooled.

update

Sorry I've been a MIA this week! Things have been a little busy and hectic around here and I haven't really had the chance to work on anything creative.

But I did get the opportunity to help mom clean out her garage, so we finally went through boxes we packed (not kidding) about 10 years ago. It was like discovering treasure! Here're some of the things I came home with:

A couple antique pictures. My favourite is the one with the dogs. I find it so interesting that they used this "new" technology just to take a picture of their dogs.

Personal pics of our cows -- I miss them so much sometimes! They all had their own unique personalities -- and one of my gram on a motorcycle. I need to get that one framed.

Brass hand clip

Chicken salt and pepper shakers

The flying dutchman! Another weird and wonderful lamp

I realized that I had accumulated more chicken bones and stock in my freezer than actual meat, so I've taken to having soup for breakfast every other day (which works out pretty well since it's still snowing and it's almost May), so I was pretty happy to find this cute soup cup. Cups are my preferred soup container.

This is 6 feet of crocheted shelf edging. I was SO excited to find this! I've been lamenting about how we used to have it and wouldn't it be nice to find it again so I could put it here:

See that middle board? It was accidentally nailed in wrong.

But now with crocheted shelf edging, no one knows and it looks extra pretty!

This is a brass wall sculpture... brass art piece?... brass thing you hang on the wall. I think I should spray paint it. Or should I? Maybe gold or silver? I haven't decided yet.

I've also purchased this year's tomato plants. I'm kind of excited about them because Walmart had purple tomatoes available so I can't wait to see how they turn out. And I bought a ton of seeds! As soon as the weather straightens out, we're going to be designing our backyard garden and planting like crazy people.

And I'm babysitting these huge goldfish. They're in my garage and I'm freaking out about how they're doing! I would be so sick if anything happened to them. The water's cold and it's cold out there so they've just been laying on the bottom of the tank since they got here which is pretty typical for the temperature. Still, I worry-check them three times a day.

How's your week been?

two-bite nutella brownies

You know what made me choose this recipe?

• Four ingredients (that I could shorten to three); and
• 88 calories per brownie.

My criteria for baking these days mostly boils down to the latter, but the shortened ingredient list helped a lot, too.

I'm really surprised at how well these turned out for only three ingredients!

Actually, no. What I'm really surprised about is that I own a mini cupcake pan. Seriously, who knew? When did I get that? Wait. Mom probably gave it to me, so where did she get it? Strange. I miss a knife I haven't seen in 10 years, but I have no idea where a whole muffin tin came from. Brains work mysteriously.

I do not own any miniature cupcake liners, though, so I buttered and floured the hell out of that pan. Now that's the Idle Wife I know and love.

Anyway back to the brownies. They're sweet and fudgy with crispy edges and a crinkly top. Everything I look for in a brownie.

But, truthfully, my entire plan from the moment I saw that I owned a mini cupcake pan was this:

Yeah. That's a mini Drumstick (they make them!) squished on top of a mini brownie.

And this is what happened moments later:

It was delicious but you're not surprised at that, are you?

slightly adapted from Desserts 4 Today: Flavorful Desserts with Just Four Ingredients by Abby Dodge via Savory Sweet Life

makes 12 mini brownies

1/2 cup Nutella

1 egg

5 tablespoons flour

Find a mini muffin or cupcake tin. Line it with mini cupcake liners OR do what I did and butter and flour the hell out of each cup.

Mix all of the ingredients together. You don't have to get fancy. I just put them all together and blended with a spatula (you don't even have to get your mixer out for this one!).

Spoon the batter equally into the prepared mini muffin cups.

Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean (or until they look just done).

{note} You can make these with nuts and stuff, but personally, I don't like nuts and stuff in brownies.

{notes} I've since made these again, but we didn't have quite enough Nutella (I'm looking at you, Idle Husband); therefore, I didn't use a full measured 1/2 cup. I think because of that, the brownies turned out puffy and cake-like without as many brownie characteristics. They were still SUPER delish (maybe even more so). Go with it if you find yourself in a similar spot.

{noting} Don't be me and think, "Hey! What if I used peanut butter instead of Nutella and made peanut butter brownies!!" Cuz it won't work and it'll taste bland and even less peanut buttery than you could ever have imagined. You have to add sugar and they'll be more like cookies. I tried it. Trust me. We saved it by smearing -- you guessed it -- Nutella all over them.

{noted} Aren't the little cats cute?! My cousin sent them to me all the way from Australia, so unfortunately, I can't tell you where to get them. But I can tell you that they're super amazing little post-it cats -- post-it long cats! I didn't really know what they were at first, but when I figured it out, I decided they HAD to go on toothpicks. If you find yourself with something cute, don't forget it's SUPER easy to tape just about anything onto a toothpick to use as quick and easy cupcake decoration!

hey, man!

I got a little box of treasures this week.

Someone's grandma's old recipes. I don't know why anyone would ever give this away.

There are a few intriguing recipes. A lot of recipes for zucchini. I liked the idea of zucchini jam -- from Esther; Quite a few healthy granola-ish recipes, like this one for nut milk; And, of course, a lot of cookies and cakes. Golden honey carrot cookies sounded like something I have to try.

I had to laugh at the salad section. It only contains the jello, whipped cream, and fruit kind of salads, all happily named, "salad." It wasn't until I started reading ingredients that I caught on.

But the best part was what was printed on the back of some of the recipes cut from old newspapers.

Let me quote one of my favourites, a portion devoted to finding penpals.

...Age:14; Birthday: June 12; Favourite colour: purple; Favourite song: Too much Tequila; Favourite singer: me; Favourite actor: Kookie; Favourite saying: Hey, man! Favourite animal: wolf; Food: Spearmint and Juicy Fruit; Drink: H2O; Costume: bobby sox and blue jeans (etc.); Pet peeve: conceited boys like Jimmy F.; Secret ambitions: to become a beatnik, be first human on moon, live to be 21. All kidding aside (against my usual policy), I would like to have lots of penpals. Kookie fans, Elvis fans, horse lovers, and anybody interested in teen talk grab a hunk of wood and lead and scrawl me a line.

So I did some research.

blue, white, and pink

About an hour and a half away there're some amazingly tall and bushy delphiniums that are currently packed with flowers. I brought a humongous bunch home with me.

I wanted to show you the rose I planted earlier this summer.

I guess this means it likes its new home. (*smiles)