please go away

Idle Husband pointed this ad out to me last night, and since then, tiny headed woman has been haunting me everywhere I go.

is it just us or is her head entirely disproportionate to her body? creeps.

it works!

oh, you are a miracle food cutter!

I make a lot of sweet potato fries, and it's not particularly hard to cut them into fry shapes with a knife. I'll admit it. It's not that I needed a fry making gadget, I just thought it would be nice to have one.

I started with the Starfrit fry maker. Basically, it's a device where you pop your potato in, then use all of your brute strength to force it through a grate of tiny blades, thereby producing fries. Mom managed to find this on clearance, and I just have to say, no wonder it was on clearance. First I had to cut the sweet potato down to size to fit into the slot, then not even Idle Husband's manly strength could force the darn thing through. After cutting the spud to a completely small and manageable shape, (so small and manageable, I might as well have just cut it into fry shapes, old school) I still had to use my entire body to force it through, only to get it stuck halfway in, which then ended in me popping two of the blades off. I think I could fix it, but it's been sitting in my pantry (unwashed) and broken since then.

Fast forward to last weekend, when mom presented me with another potential fry chopper. The Dial-O-matic. This one she found in a thrift store and thought for the price, we might as well give it a go. It looked all full of potential and so dandy when I first saw it.

look at everything it can do!

The great thing about it is that the only thing that's removeable is the front blade. All the specialty attachments are built right in and all you have to do is turn a dial to change the setting. Oh fancy! The other thing you can do is raise or lower the blade to change the thickness, and again all it takes is a push of a button and it slides out and back in very easily. So far so good.

labels negate the need for a manual. How considerate of them.

We're having chicken tonight and it's not really a meal I'd typically associate with sweet potato fries, but I just couldn't wait any longer to try this machine! I cut the sweet potato in half (fully expecting there to be problems), positioned the safety handle, and thunk. No go. There was no way that hard as rock potato was going through. Nice. Another useless machine. But then...as a last ditch effort, I decided to put the blade over my sharpening stone a couple times to see if that would help. It must have been duller than wood, because afterwards, I had absolutely no trouble getting my sweet potato through! Finally!

check out those beautiful uniform fries!

I was so excited, I julienned a cucumber for our salad.

I'm pretty sure cucumber doesn't typically get julienned.

Texas brownies

This is what I ended up making as my birthday cake. I'd been waivering back and forth on a cake because I didn't really feel like making the cake I had initially craved about 3 months ago. Apparently, I stop craving silly things like cake if I wait 3 months before making it. There's a good factoid to remember for the future (if in the future I'm able to hold off on doing any craving-related baking for a whole 3 months again). Anyhoo,  I just rediscovered this recipe and since I haven't made it in about 10 years and Idle Husband had never tried it, I figured I might as well. I was doing dishes anyway (never before has that been a good reason to make a cake).

Well, it tasted just as fantastic as I remembered, thankfully. Sometimes when I'm making old recipes I tend to screw them up because they're tried and true so I never seem to follow the instructions as closely as I would with a new recipe. I also had the idea of baking and icing and stacking the brownie to resemble a more traditional cake form (as seen in the picture), but I don't think that idea really worked out the way I thought it would. I think it's best to just let it be a traditional cake-like brownie and be done with it. This cake is anything but fussy so it shouldn't be presented in a fussy manner.

Texas Brownies (from an old Great American Recipes card pack I found in a thrift store in the '90s)

2 cups flour

2 cups sugar

1 cup butter or margarine

1 cup coffee or water (I usually use water, but I had instant coffee this time)

1/4 cup cocoa powder

1/2 cup buttermilk

2 eggs

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 400 F degrees.

Combine flour and sugar in mixing bowl.

In a large saucepan, combine butter/margarine, coffe/water, and cocoa. Whisk to combine and heat to boiling.

Pour boiling mixture over the flour and sugar. Mix a little. Add buttermilk, eggs, baking soda, and vanilla. Mix well and combine completely.

Pour into a well buttered 17 1/2 by 11 inch jelly roll pan (back in the '90s I had no idea what that was, so I always used -- and continue to use -- my large casserole pan for this recipe. It's about 9 by 12 inches).

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until they test done in the centre.

While the brownies are baking, make the frosting.

Frosting

1/2 cup margarine or butter

2 tbsp cocoa powder

1/4 cup milk

3 1/2 cups (or less) powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla

In a saucepan, combine margarine/butter, cocoa, and milk. Whisk occasionally while heating to boiling. Mix in the sugar a little at a time until smooth. Add vanilla.

Pour the warm frosting over the brownies as soon as you take them out of the oven. It'll fill the pan right up, but as the cake cools, the frosting will melt into the cake and settle down so don't be alarmed!

Try to cool it completely and enjoy! (I think it tastes best the next day.)

OH, I also enjoyed these cookies from T. They came presented in the cutest box with a hand-drawn tag. They taste very peanut-buttery, and I like to imagine they're completely healthy because of the oats.

29 things to do in my 29s

It's my birthday today, and I thought that maybe for this last year of my 20s, I'd make a list of some things I'd like to do before I'm 30. I'm still thinking of more, so I'll add them as I come up with them.

1. Eat cereal out of a salad bowl. I realize now I never specified what kind or size of salad bowl!

2. Discover a new clothing style and put an end to the jeans/t-shirt combo I've been rocking since forever.
3. Find a good place to get my hair cut well and make going a part of my tri-monthly routine.
4. Work in a florist shop for at least a month.
5. Make:

• homemade donuts (or anything fried really, cuz frying freaks me out)
• macarons NOT macaroons (I'm so snobby about these already, it drives me absolutely wild when I see it spelled incorrectly. Just imagine how hoity-toity I'll be if I can bake the damn things correctly. I've done a lot of research, though, and I'm determined to win at this no matter the cost to my mental health. Why? Who the hell knows. But I do have grand visions of them becoming my signature cookie and everyone just dying to have them for Christmas and their birthdays. It's a vanity thing, clearly.)(At any rate, I already have a fall back plan. Signature cookie B is totally gonna be whoopie pies. We don't have them here and I've made them already and they were bloody fantastic.) (see attempt 1, attempt 2, attempt 3; attempt 4 I'm not blogging about. Same problem as #2 + oven temperature)
• rolled-out cookies (sugar cookies? whatever you call them. I'm inept at rolling and using cookie cutters) (see attempt 1)
• wontons (surprisingly easy, just time consuming!)
• cinnamon buns (I excell at making bread, but these always turn into tasteless, little stones for me. Go figure) (see sticky lemon rolls -- which aren't actually cinnamon buns, but they're exactly the same thing and the recipe could be modified to cinnamon. In fact, I plan to do that the next time I make them)
• truffles (I've had a chocolate chip cookie dough truffle recipe bookmarked for ages. Mostly I think I just want to attempt tempering chocolate)
• pâte à choux -- cream puffs! I saw it on tv and it didn't look as difficult as it seems.
• risotto

6. Read all the books I purchased years ago and never got around to actually reading. Currently reading:

• The Robber Bride by Margaret Atwood

7. Learn more Greek. In fact, take a class if I have to.
8. Try to live without bread and sugar for at least a month.
9. Spend less time surfing the interwebs and more time out and about.
10. Actually do at least one of the many crafts I've bookmarked.
11. Learn enough HTML to make a difference. I'm still working on this, but I'm getting better!
12. Excercise more or at least not be so slack about it.
13. Get over my fear of plumbing and electrical.
14. Meet new friends.
15. Buy more flowers in the winter.
16. Accept my body for what it is and what it does for me instead of wishing it were something it's not ever going to be.
17. Prepare responsible adult dinners on the weekends.
18. Take a trip across Canada (aka seeing more than B.C. and Saskatchewan)
19. Accept that I'm an adult. I'm really having a hard time believing I'm just about 30!
20. Grow up my decorating style. Sure it's fun and quirky and make-shifty, but there's no reason why it can't be all those things while also being more real wood pieces instead of IKEA pressed wood pieces.
21. Learn how to say no without having to come up with a million excuses or lies for why I don't want to do something. I'm really tired of other people making me feel guilty because I don't want to or don't feel like hanging out with them.
22. Learn how to express my opinion better. Instead of saying, I guess I like it or Ok if you want to, I should say YES! I love it! I want to!
23. Learn calligraphy. I love writing like this now, and I accomplished my original goal. I did have a look for a chisel tipped pen, and guess what? They've now got Sharpies specifically for calligraphy! Swoon! I'm definitely going to add some more styles now that I have the basics down.
24. Learn how to drive stick or, alternatively, learn how to use ETS (Edmonton's public transit).
25. Buy things online (this seriously freaks me out). Does paying bills count?
26. Take a cake decorating and piping class.(check out the results)
27. Stop being so high strung over little things. I need to learn to relax and just let things come as they are. Taking a wrong turn can seriously wreck my whole day. I decided to take a different way home from South Common the other day and then I took a wrong turn which would have seriously set in a panic attack. But, instead, I was calm, turned around and tried another way (which turned out to be the right way). And then I laughed about it later. That's pretty good!
28. I can, not I can't.
29. Get better at photography. Learn my camera, set up a light box (or permanent area in which to photograph i.e. better lighting, backgrounds, settings), and work on interesting compositions.

om nom

See that? That's Blueberry Cheesecake ice cream. Cheesecake in an ice cream. Oy. Just smear it on my thighs already. And, honestly, that's exactly how it tasted. Rich, creamy and smooth, with satisfying chunks of graham cracker crust and little bursts of fresh blueberry. I made this recipe mostly for Idle Husband as his absolute favourite ice cream to buy is something called Tin Lizzy Cheesecake from Safeway, and since I got my new ice cream maker, I've been thinking about trying to recreate that flavour. So when I stumbled on this recipe, I just had to give it a go.

Anyway, it made so much ice cream that I currently have three containers of it plus a popsicle tray full. What? Yeah, a popsicle tray. Mom brought me one of those old fashioned plastic trays, and as I was pondering the ice cream situation, I pondered whether I could make ice cream pops. Sure enough, if you warm the outside a bit and twist while pulling, they come out perfectly formed, and they stay that way the entire time you're eating them (aka not messy at all).

Ice creamsicle

Naturally, it's also good in bowls.

If you have an ice cream maker and a box of Jello instant cheesecake mix, I suggest making this. It's probably one of the best ice cream recipes I've made yet.