i d l e w i f e

Monday, January 10, 2011

chocolate peanut butter bites

We've been really keen on dessert lately. I think it's because we didn't get to indulge in a humongous load of Christmas sweets this year. Maybe our bodies feel cheated out of fruitcake and shortbread which would also explain the ice cream and ice cream sandwiches we just bought. During a snowstorm.

So in an effort to counteract the crazy sugar cravings we seem to be enduring, I made something relatively healthy yet still sweet. Oats, coconut, crispy rice cereal, peanut butter, and honey. That's got to be a little better than ice cream, right?

Instead of plain ol' peanut butter, I used this amazing blended peanut butter called Dark Chocolate Dreams from Peanut Butter & Company. I've heard of flavoured peanut butter before, but I haven't found it here until now. You can find two flavours (the dark chocolate and the cinnamon raisin swirl) at Save-On Foods. I think the cinnamon raisin peanut butter would be delicious in this recipe, too!

The dark chocolate peanut butter by itself is tasty, though I think it's more suited for baking. It just didn't excite me when I tried it on toast. I wish it were a little sweeter, but then that's probably just that weird sugar fixation kicking in again.

chocolate peanut butter bites
adapted from here
makes around 20-25 pieces

1/3 cup honey
1/4 cup Dark Chocolate Dreams peanut butter (or just regular peanut butter)
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 cup crispy rice cereal
1 cup old fashioned rolled oats
1/4 cup sweetened shredded coconut

In a small pot add the honey, peanut butter, and butter and heat until the butters are just melting together. Stir until everything is completely melted and mixed together. In a large to medium mixing bowl, mix together the cereal, oats, and coconut. Add the melted butters to the bowl and mix to thoroughly coat all the dry ingredients. Allow the mixture to cool until it's almost room temperature.

With a spoon or a small cookie scoop, scoop out a small amount of the mixture and with wet hands (if you don't wet your hands, all the bits will pull apart and stick to you), forcefully squeeze the mixture together until it forms a ball. Squeezing them really hard helps a lot. They don't stay together very easily at this point. I found I could get away with rolling out one or two before I had to wet my hands again, so as soon as you notice a little bit of the ingredients starting to stick on your hands, wet them again. Keep in the fridge until completely hardened then enjoy!

Saturday, January 8, 2011

it's a great day to shovel your car out of the snow

I took this picture out my window for you! The heavy snowfall warning was kind of an understatement, don't you think?

Just kidding! That's a white square I drew in paint.

Actually, this is the view out my window:

Now we're laughing hilariously at this poor miserable fool, but at 9 a.m. this morning (and about four more times since then), we were in the exact same position. Luckily, Idle Husband has developed a sort of knack for getting out of snow drifts as he's gotten stuck in the alley three times this week (like, before the heavy snowfall even started).

I also feel like we've shovelled about a truckload of snow each today and it's still. snowing. At one point, I was just standing there, like, totally defeated, and I thought, I really don't know where to put all of this snow. I can't throw it up on top of that pile anymore, it's too high. And then I just leaned on my shovel and stared at it.

Let's see how long we can survive only on groceries I can carry through the snow because at least I can walk to a grocery store now. It's not an easy walk, mind you. The snow's up to my thighs, but at least I won't get stuck (I don't think I will anyway. I did fall over this morning and I was rolling around like a turtle on its back trying to get up). So definitely don't expect me to attempt driving anywhere on my own. That is not going to happen.

Friday, January 7, 2011

resolutions

I'm not really in the habit of making resolutions for each January. Honestly, I feel like the start of the year should fall in September. Everything gets cleaned off and the month starts with a blank slate full of new beginnings. I feel far more ambitious and excited at that time, and it's always when I like to start projects and get stuff done. I find January so boring and predictable and uninspiring. Everything's covered in snow, grey and bleak after the sparkling holiday season. So I don't really have much get-up-and-go, and my top resolutions are usually just to get my chores back on schedule and stop eating cookies.

But with everything that's happened to us between December and now, I've realized that there are some issues I really need to work on this year. So here are the top five resolutions that have been on my mind since moving (that I probably won't address until September, let's be honest).

the filing cabinet of doom

1. Learn how to file. I always feel completely bombarded with cards and receipts and documents and manuals, and I just have no idea what to do with them. I end up stuffing everything in a somewhat appropriately titled folder in an already too stuffed, over-flowing, too small, inaccessible filing cabinet. It's the one thing that angers and frustrates me so much that when I go to work on sorting through all of it, I get too overwhelmed and give up. When we moved, we were presented with an attaché case filled to the brim with papers about this home (the same papers we've received about four times since the whole process began). And as I've used the dishwasher or the washing machine or opened a drawer, more and more manuals and warranties and even inspection papers have popped up. I've just been shuffling them around from room to room, and it's really starting to get on my nerves. I definitely need to get a proper filing cabinet (I'm going to check out this great Edmonton resource) so I can actually start filing and figuring out what should stay and what should go. I did a quick search on the subject and thought these two references were kinda handy: mastering your filing and filing for people who hate filing. Hello paper shredder, new best friend of 2011!

poor cats. they never saw it coming.

2. Finally purge myself of all of the things I don't love anymore. As I've been figuring out where to put stuff, I'm realizing there's a lot still hanging around that I only have because I feel obligated to keep it. I remember who gave it to me or it's just been in my life for so long I don't feel like I CAN get rid of it. My brain keeps telling me that maybe I'll want it later. Maybe I'll find a place for it later, and then I'll be sad it's gone. But how many years constitute later? The stuff I don't absolutely love is starting to feel more like a burden, and I'd rather have a whole empty shelf than fill it with stuff I think is just okay.

this frame's glass broke and I didn't want to 'waste' it by throwing it away.

3. Frame my own photography, frame the art I have now correctly, buy art from somewhere other than a thrift store, hang all of it properly. I'll admit it. I still have quite a few ratty, high schooly, improperly framed or not even framed at all pictures and posters. And some of it is just not fitting into my adult self anymore. There's such a large array of amazing resources available for finding and buying art now that there's really no excuse not to have interesting pieces I truly adore hanging on the walls. I also have groups of items (like plates, mirrors, and smaller art) I'd like to hang in better arrangements instead of poking a ton of holes in the walls until I get it right. I saw a great tutorial on Design*Sponge that can be applied to just about anything.

4. Learn how to do stuff better. By 'stuff' I mean big projects, like wall papering (first attempt: partial disaster), making curtains (I cannot measure worth a darn), or installing crown moulding (I love the look but I'm too scared to do it myself). I'm blessed with being able to figure out how to build it (conceptually) or I can find all the how-tos and information on it, but I get nervous about screwing it up since it's something I've never done before or something I've done horribly wrong before. I really just want to learn how to do it the right way the first time. I think I'll be dropping into Home Depot classes as much as I can this year (if the topic is in my favour) and I know of a little sewing shop where I can brush up on my sewing techniques.

check out my photography room

5. Take the time to read information and techniques on how to take a good picture and how to compose a good photo and actually take the time to fiddle with it and practice. Also, set up a spot to take all my pictures. As much as I've been enjoying shuffling all that junk around from table to table, it's (obviously) really starting to demotivate and uninspire. I need a damn shelf!

Are you making resolutions this year?

Monday, January 3, 2011

botanical 2011 calendar

Every year, for four years now, I make my own calendar. I think it all started when I just couldn't find a calendar I wanted to look at all year. And I know what you're thinking, there are tons of calendars out there to choose from. How on earth could you not find a single one?! Well, I think I found some nice ones, but they were too nice. Like, too nice to write all over during the year. Whenever I see a fancy calendar, I usually envision it with my scribbles all over it and it makes me feel like I'm doodling on fine art.

The other problem I have with a lot of ready-made calendars is the amount of space given for writing. I need a little more space. I don't mind crowding into another day, but some of the calendars out there barely give enough room to write a birthday down. And I really like to write everything on my calendar. I mean everything. What we did, where we went, what happened to us. I use my calendar like I used my agenda in high school and college. Except I don't record amusing quotes people say anymore. I kinda miss doing that.

I also need to be able to see the calendar part. You know those fancy calendars that are all picture and the actual dates are down in the bottom corner, in very thin fine print? Yeah, those are gorgeous to look at but not very functional.

Oh, and there have been a few years where people have bought me a calendar for Christmas and I've felt obligated to use it. Cuz it's there, I guess, and probably because I thought there might be a chance they'd come over in the next 12 months and wonder where the hell their calendar was. One time in high school (high school!) I received a calendar of babies. Dressed as animals. Babies dressed as animals for 12 whole months. I thought, does this person even know who I AM?! I'm still wondering about it.

That's when I decided to start making them myself, so I'd have nothing at all to complain about since I'd be the one in charge of it. And making your own calendar is definitely not hard. If you can use a ruler (or are good at eyeballing things), you can totally make your own. I started off doing them by hand, measuring them out with pencil and going back over with ink, and over the years, I've started to get a little more artsy with my designs. A little more creative with the papers or coming up with a theme or even (gasp!) putting the dates in unconventional patterns.

Last year, I was trying to print some artwork from this website for a card and it accidentally printed the entire page. I was pretty pissed at such a waste of ink and cardstock, so I decided to use it as part of my calendar. I liked how that looked so much, I decided to print a few more for the year. This year, I only used artwork (for my own personal calendar) from that website and from a few other websites I had gathered pictures from over the year (I change my desktop weekly and the preloaded desktop pictures just don't do it for me). This was also the first time I've made the whole thing completely on the computer (mostly because I couldn't find pens, pencils, or rulers). It was... different. A little more fiddly and a little harder to get the calendar portion right, but in the end, I was really pleased with how it came out. So pleased, I decided to make another! Just for you!

It's a little rough, I'll admit. I kept my slacker ways by only adjusting the days of the week instead of the numbers which I've been doing for a few years now just so I don't have to rearrange the numbers each time (I have to figure out a better system). It also took me forever to get the dates right. I'm such a worried double-checker that when I noticed I was accidentally looking at the 2010 calendar for a couple of them, I still didn't think I got them right -- even after going back and checking and double-checking and fixing. I did have the holidays printed on, but I felt like most of them were a little too Albertan/Canadian/North American specific, so I decided to leave them off. People celebrate and don't celebrate so many different things, I didn't want to alienate or lump everyone together. So, sure, it's not perfect, but that's the point. You can write all over it. Scribble things at the top, bottom, and sides. I didn't want to make it too pretty, because I feel like your own personal writings and doings are as much a part of a calendar as the calendar itself (personally, I love how it looks when I write over images).

I had picked out quite a few different and random favourite photos from last year to use, but I decided to go with a botanical theme to keep it cohesive. ~~For a limited time, you can click on each photo to enlarge it, then right click to save and print it yourself!~~ Happy new year!