It’s a Post-Hump Day, Post-Trump Year post: Airing Our Grievances

Yay! Our final post to wrap up a horrible year. You’ve probably already read tons of “2016 in review/memoriam” articles, so let’s get on with business, shall we?

These last few weeks of the year . . .

>  We listened to the explanation of what happens in a household where one spouse loves the Christmas decorations/festivities/general merriment, and the other doesn’t
(Don’t get us wrong: he loves Christmas and all the fixins; he just hates “the decorating and all that stuff.”)
>  Which leads us to our phrase of the week: “There’s nothing better than spiteful decorating.” – The Girl (Think Christmas ornaments hanging from the kitchen cupboard, the knife bar, and coat pockets; ribbons on manly boots; bows on the toilet tank; forcing a t-shirt like this one on a Grinchy husband . . .)
>  What we didn’t buy into: the scourge of capitalism, part 1. (a.k.a “Note the irony in the product description of a $199 copper pole”; a.k.a. “This is how Toronto consumerism is sometimes represented, unfortunately”). They took their web page down, but Google is only too happy to provide you with a cached web page, as am I equally happy to provide you with a screenshot. Yer welcome.
>  Anyway, if you’re going to celebrate Festivus, do it right.:
>  What we’re reading: the scourge of capitalism, part 2 (a.k.a Why people hate Big Pharma. And drug dealers.)
>  What we’re watching, with laughter (and tears): Kim’s Convenience, season finale: part 1 and part 2. Tune in next week to read my response to one short-sighted white man’s review of this multicultural-celebrating comedy series.
>  The Trump presidency is not a natural thing. What we’re watching to take our mind off the ugliness in the world: great moments in nature.
>  What we ate: due to lack of time, our annual Christmas cookie baking spree was smaller this year (three types of cookies instead of five). Still, the gingerbread man (courtesy of The Boy) with tighty-whities and pink nipples more than makes up for it.
>  Finally, ring in 2017 with knowledge. Because knowledge will always beat ignorance in this world: a great general knowledge site for kids (of all ages).

Happy 2017!

Post-Hump Day post: We’re Special, K?

This week, now that we can slowly face the Internet again . . .

> We laughed at “Me-cycle” requests like these two (from the same person) for an office chair and sofa from the Toronto Freecycle group. As the holidays approach (okay, let’s face it, these requests can happen any time of the year), it’s interesting to see these outlandish requests for something pricey but free.
> We ate lahmacuns (alternatively spelled “lahmajoun”, a.k.a. Turkish pizza or “pide”)
> We couldn’t stop watching this mesmerizing show of a great graphic artist drawing logos (courtesy of The Girl).
> Our current word/phrase: “I like the flavour, but not the labour,” says the Girl, about foods that she likes (pomegranate, pommelo) and even about foods she doesn’t like (lobster, artichoke). Think about that during this holiday season of preparing foods.
> Funniest thing we heard on the radio/tv: this line from an imagined RomComCon: “I hope to go to the Canoe Pavilion with you. We can go out in the middle of the lake and get rained on.” (This, from one of the best originators of “fake news”, who unfortunately, now have to stamp almost every story with “SATIRE” in ALL CAPS, in case people can’t distinguish it from truly evil fake news in the world.)
> We learned that millennial moms love cloth diapers (just like non-millennial moms from years ago!). Granted, we never spent $$$ on “collectibles”, but it’s great to see that buying cloth diapers is addictive!
> We found this great web page about the most amazing-looking cakes.
> We found this interesting article that confirmed what we’ve always suspected: buttons that don’t work.

> Finally, post-U.S.-election activity should include:
> understanding why it’s important to not normalize Trump
> protesting with your wallet (here are alternatives to Trump-family-related businesses)
> seeing the ridiculousness and humour of the situation
> And buying Kellogg’s products!

Take time to hold your babies close to you and tell them that world can still be full of good people . . .

despite the U.S. election results.

No more posts this week, while we step back in sadness and contemplate what is happening in America.

Post-Hump Day Post: 108!

This is a short post this week because of Halloween, the World Series, the U.S. election craziness . . .

> Our phrase of the week: Never quit.
> Our DIY project was of course, homemade gummy candy (as described in last week’s Post-Hump Day Post), with our assorted silicone moulds, including LEGO minifigs and robots. So happy to see that the Boy found a project that he was all gung-ho about, from start to finish, all by himself.
> We ate homemade gummies, including vegan ones made with agar agar (a gelatin substitute derived from seaweed).

Agar agar strands are ground into a powder for a vegan alternative to gelatin

> We were thrilled to read of this happy ending to the story of the lost dog, as mentioned last week. But what does this say about humanity? One generous human being makes a personal sacrifice to make a stranger happy, and on the flip side, a family decides to do what most of us would consider to be “the right thing”, but only if they can make some quick bucks off the situation. Then Expedia and kind strangers step in to fund the generous person. My faith in humanity is riding a roller coaster right now.
> We learned what can happen if your child moves out of the booster seat too soon (so if your child is still too short or not heavy enough, don’t give in, no matter how much they beg to grow up and out of the seat!)
> And finally, we found this great web site about a fantastic award for eager, constantly learning, constantly achieving teens like the Girl, who just want to keep doing and going. Not crazy about the Royals connection, but oh well . . .

Post-Hump Day Post: We’re all Naturally Imperfect

It seemed like there was a lot of outrageousness (other than the third U.S. presidential debate) this past week . . .

> Outrage #1: This family that heartlessly moved and left their dog behind with the garbage
> Outrage #2: Another dog, and another cruel family. Seriously, can someone start a Facebook-outrage-protest page, or whatever they call those things, to get the adoptive family to re-gain their common sense and give the dog back to grandpa?
> Outrage #3: these family court judges (and the father) who don’t take into consideration a child’s gender preferences.
> Outrage #4: the second kill on The Walking Dead’s season premiere. We blame Daryl. TWD fans understand.
> We couldn’t stop watching this funny bit about Barack Obama polishing his resumé for his upcoming career change.
> We listened to this take on whether or not parents should swear in front of their children. While we hate the fact that today’s generation seems to swear more gratuitously and less meaningfully than previous generations (just take a look at how frequently Buzzfeed feels the need to add “AF” to their writing), our household operates pretty much like Benjamin Bergen’s, and our kids never swear.
> Funniest thing we heard on t.v.: Stephen Colbert, referring to Donald Trump hugging the American flag (4:52), comments, “It’s really surprising to see Trump go after Old Glory like that. Normally, he goes for much younger glory.”
> We ate Naturally Imperfect mushrooms. Just one in the Naturally Imperfect line of produce. Well done, Loblaw’s!
> We learned that clowns don’t interpret the meaning of “racist” the way the rest of us do. Guess Lulu Pullitzor Palooza and Buttons Blammo have made sure that no one will ever find them funny after this.
> And finally, we (re-)found this great YouTube channel where this “King of Random” is king-maker. What creative girl or boy wouldn’t love this site, with quirky party tricks like this, for example? The Girl assures me that I sent this link to both kids quite a while ago, on how to Make Gummy LEGO. However, I’m getting old, and don’t remember that at all, and it only came up today when the Boy asked, “Please, can we make these?” Guess we have our DIY/eat project lined up for next week . . .

Post-Hump Day post: Detritus

This past week . . .

> We couldn’t stop watching 58 very good impressions by this guy (thanks to the Girl for finding this).
> We listened to this interview which confirmed that we’re not the only ones who are peeved by mispronunciations (really surprised that our favourite, “mischievious” wasn’t mentioned).
> Our current word/phrase: detritus (now properly pronounced, of course). As in, “The detritus that was spewed during the debate was hard to take.”
> Funniest thing we heard on the radio was this even-better-than-usual episode of “Because News”. Practically every joke was spot-on, and we think Ashley Botting was the star of the show who should have won.
> We ate homemade cookies and more cookies!
> We’re loving this product: our fantastic lunchbox system. Packing two lunches every day over the years, we’ve learned after many takes what works and what doesn’t work. This system is great because it’s modular, and the boxes and ice packs can be stacked in different ways for different meals and components.
> Our DIY project was these closet hanger space-savers. Rather than buy plastic ones like these (which are getting harder to find, anyway), we made our own with inexpensive chandelier chain ($1.64/foot) and S-hooks made from thick-gauge wire.
> We learned some great parenting hacks. Even if our kids are past the age when most of these would be useful, and even if we’re finding it hard to read past number 5 on any given Buzzfeed listicle these days, this one had a few gems.
> And finally, we found this great web site for parents who want to sell on consignment all the stuff that their kids have outgrown and outplayed. Very well organised, takes a lot of the work out of your hands, and best of all, it’s parents running it for/with other parents. Look for one in a Canadian city near you!

 

Our cookie staples: The “$250 Neiman Marcus” + The Subway White Chocolate-Macadamia

Left: white-chocolate-macadamia. Right: “$250 Neiman Marcus Cookie”

Since we had lots of grounded oatmeal left over from our oatcakes experiment, we made one of our cookie staples in this house: the $250 Neiman Marcus cookie. Yes, back when the Interwebs was a relatively new thing, and forwarding chain (e-)mail suddenly was quick and simple, everyone was chowing down on this urban legend.

I made the recipe below healthier by reducing the sugar to 3 cups (yes, it seems like a lot, but it makes 180 bite-size cookies!). I also secretly added 1/4 cup of my blend of ground-up chia seeds, flax seeds, and hemp hearts. Omit the nuts, to make this school-safe.

For half of this batter, I added white chocolate chips and macadamia instead of regular chocolates, for our version of the popular Subway cookie. The copycat recipe is available, if you want it more authentic. (There was a time when I loved these cookies so much, that a student would buy one for me every day, just out of the goodness of his heart. I had to tell him to stop it after a couple of days, because I felt it was too generous. And a restaurant cookie a day probably isn’t the best thing.)

“$250 Neiman Marcus” Cookies (yield: approximately 180 x 1″ cookies)
Pre-heat oven to 375° F. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper or silicon sheets.

2 c. butter	1) Cream together.
2 c. brown sugar
2 c. white sugar
4 eggs	2) Add to butter mixture and mix.
2 t. vanilla extract
5 c. oatmeal, ground	3) Sift, then add to butter mixture.
4 c. flour
2 t. baking soda
2 t. baking powder
1 t. salt
24 oz. (680 g.) chocolate chips	4) Add to batter.
(8 oz.) chocolate, grated
2 c. nuts, chopped (optional)

5) Scoop 1” balls and place 1” apart on cookie sheet.
6) Bake for 10 min.

Post-Hump Day Post: Giving Thanks for Never Giving You Up

This week, we gave thanks for . . .

Part of our Thanksgiving spread: macarons with pumpkin-spice butter creme

> eating pumpkin spice macarons! This is the recipe that we used (but reduce the sugar to less than 300 g! It’s too sweet for my liking.) The Girl figured out her own pumpkin-spice-butter-creme icing recipe.
> not being able to stop watching the Pantsuit Power flash mob. Why is it that we can’t possible imagine any Trump supporters being this happy, dance-y, or fun? So of course, this led to . . .
> not being able to stop listening to one of the big hits of this past summer. The Kids have loved this for the past few months, and even though I’m reminded of summer nights in the 80s, I have a love-hate relationship with the aching repetition of it. Speaking of hits of the 80s . . .
> learning that Rick Astley is touring again! Unfortunately, we just missed him when he was in town this weekend on his one and only Canadian stop. Here’s a review (with a great title) of another show on this tour. But don’t worry—he never gave up, and we can now all go out and get his new album to mark his 50th birthday. 50! Time flies . . .
> the funniest thing on the radio/tv, which was this age-old debate on buttons vs. zippers (skip to 14:00 if you’re not interested in Superman). Here, we get one of Steve’s best line: “And they said we would run out of topics by season 10. Wrong! We ran out in season 7.”
> little tricks for making the cracks on our glass surfaces disappear. The Husband had found out somewhere on-line (perhaps here) that this could work on eyeglasses. Though he was skeptical, we found that this really worked! I’m loving my restored watch crystals.
> finding this great web site (thanks to an interview on CBC’s The Current) that contributes to the repair-it-yourself movement. While you’re at it, print this poster to keep in your workshop/home/store/general repair space.
> Also, if you haven’t been to a Repair Café session yet, find one asap at a library or community centre near you and thank them! They really do good, and next week is International Repair Café Week.

Post-Hump Day post: “Without a shadow of a doubt . . .”

This week . . .

> We laughed at Pen-Pineapple-Apple-Pen, which leads to fan videos like this one. I don’t think it’s catchy enough to be the next Gangnam style, but it passes the time.
> We ate what we think is called long squash (I think some stores mistakenly call this “chayote squash”). One set of our next-door neighbours is always kindly offering us extra vegetables from their garden, and this is our new favourite. I braise or slow-cooker this with diced eggplant, tomatoes, chicken, and a mixture of garam masala, curry, cumin, salt, garlic, chili flakes, and fresh coriander. Everyone in the family loves it.
> We couldn’t stop watching this really sweet, tear-jerking Amazon Prime commercial. They’re really pushing the same-day delivery service lately, which I’m all meh about, but I could watch the commercial on a loop all day. Each time, my desire for a Lion-Dog increases. Much better than the first Amazon Prime dog commercial, where the owner walks a few feet ahead and just seems inconvenienced by his slow canine pal.
> Funniest thing I heard this week that wasn’t on the radio/tv: While cleaning out the kids’ old baby clothes, I held up an item and—yet again—jokingly said to the Husband, “You sure you don’t want another one?” To which he replied, while backing out of the room, “You’re looking through old baby clothes? This isn’t going to end well for me.”
> Our current word/phrase: “Without a shadow of a doubt” (or as the Boy has been saying, “Without a shadow of the doubt”). It’s cute because you know your kid is growing up and this is an improvement upon the previously un-sophisticated, “Nope”.
> We learned that in some school boards, teachers (not with permission from the board) are confiscating lunches and snacks due to their own judgements of what’s “healthy” and “suitable”. Come on! Yes, some of us try to provide homemade goodness, but we do have to rely on a store-bought Bear Paw with chocolate chips or Goldfish, from time to time.
> Our DIY project was neoprene hair ties. I just re-purposed this dollar-store tablet sleeve that didn’t really fit, and was sitting around empty. Like these ones, our neoprene hair ties don’t cause that pinched or pulled-back feeling, and are no-ravel. Unlike those ones, there’s no hefty price tag.

> And finally, à propos of nothing in particular, we found this great article about a basket for sale.

Post-Hump Day post: Wrong! Wrong! Wrong!

Things we were doing this week (none of which involved watching anybody/anything royal):

> We played our Movie/TV Title Mash-up Game.
> We laughed at this great response to the Skittles controversy –>. A week too late, or perhaps never a wrong time for it.
> We ate oatcakes, oatcakes, and more oatcakes! We included the five recipes that we found on-line, with our reviews.
> We couldn’t stop listening to and thinking about this report that loneliness among seniors is a health epidemic, more dangerous than obesity.
> Our current word/phrase: Wrong! Wrong! Wrong! (Try saying it petulantly like a 4-year-old, kind of like with your fingers plugged into your ears. Or maybe that’s an insult to 4-year-olds.)
> We learned that students in the U.S. are constitutionally-protected if they choose to not stand for the national anthem. The Girl says there is at least one student in her class who doesn’t stand for the Canadian anthem. No one harasses her. Why is American patriotism so strong that it wants to trample on individual rights?
> We made Hollandaise sauce. Egg yolks leads to egg whites, leads to macarons. Summary of our macaron efforts next week.
> And on the topic of loneliness, we found this great article on the topic of female friendships, by the awesome Ann Friedman, and a review of a friendship app that we’ll be interested to see when it comes to Android. (Apparently, there’s also Tea with Strangers, which is not gender-specific.)

 

Oatcakes, oatcakes, and more oatcakes!

Ate our oatcakes too quickly, before photos could be taken. These nice crisp-looking ones are courtesy of House and Garden UK.

Now that the memories of our Great East Coast Adventure of this summer are fading away, we really miss not having Scottish oatcakes readily available here in central Canada.

In the Maritimes, you can find oatcakes in many places, especially in Nova Scotia, and especially, especially on Cape Breton island, of course. I remember that years ago, VIA train served wonderful complimentary oatcakes on the leg between Montreal and Halifax (don’t know if they still have them). Now, even select Tim Hortons out there have oatcakes on offer alongside the doughnuts, which are overly-sweet by comparison.

Of course, now that we’re no longer there, we had to look for the perfect oatcake recipe to bake for ourselves at home. After a lot of sifting through on-line recipes and discarding ones that seemed like they had too much sugar or an oat-flour ratio that wasn’t quite right, we came up with the following five recipes to try. The sixth one is from the Clucking Hen Café and Bakery near St. Ann’s Bay along the Cabot Trail on Cape Breton. (It should be noted that our preferred oatcakes were from the High Wheeler Café in Baddeck, but unfortunately, they didn’t give away their recipe conveniently on a bookmark like the Clucking Hen.)

Take a look at the recipes below with our review notes, and bake up some simple deliciousness for yourself!

Note 1: We slightly modified the recipes by substituting butter whenever the original recipe called for lard, shortening, or bacon fat.
Note 2: We ground all our oatmeal until it was fine, but not quite as fine as flour.
Note 3: In all recipes, sift/mix dry ingredients first. Then pulse in the butter, then water.
Note 4: Unless otherwise stated, bake at 350° F for 15 minutes, turning over halfway through.

1) http://www.food.com/recipe/cape-breton-oatcakes-334468 ·         2 cups rolled oats ·         2 cups flour ·         2 tsp. baking powder ·         ½ tsp. salt ·         1 cup brown sugar ·         1 cup butter ·         ½ cup cold water Review: We couldn’t taste the oat taste as much as in the other recipes, and with a cup of sugar, this one was the sweetest among all—a tad too sweet for our liking. The dough was also much softer than the others—almost too soft to work with.	2) http://localfoods.about.com/od/Cookies/r/Nova-Scotia-Oatcakes.htm ·         2 cups rolled oats ·         1 cup flour ·         ¼ tsp. baking soda ·         1 ¼ tsp. salt ·         ¾ cup brown sugar ·         ¾ cup butter ·         ¼ cup boiling/very hot water Review: Not as sweet as #1, and it had a nice buttery and oat-y taste. The dough was easy to work with, and because we rolled ours out extra thin (thinner than the photo on the original site), the texture was the nicest and crispiest among all. Really good, and was the first to disappear. WINNER!
3) http://thetravelbite.com/travel_and_food_blog/nova-scotia-oatcakes/·         2 cups rolled oats ·         1 cup flour ·         ¼ tsp. baking soda ·         ½ tsp. salt ·         ½ cup brown sugar ·         ½ cup butter ·         ¼ cup boiling water Review: This was very buttery and oat-y, similar to #2 (note the oat-to-flour ratio). Because it had slightly less sugar than #2, it ultimately lost by a nose.	4) http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/520634/scottish-oat-cakes ·         225 g rolled oats ·         60 g flour ·         ½ tsp. baking soda ·         1 tsp. salt ·         ½ tsp. brown sugar ·         60 g butter ·         60-80  mL hot water Review: This was one of the two savoury oatcakes (note the small amount of sugar).  Because we prefer our oatcakes with a bit of sweetness to them, we didn’t go crazy for these ones. For some reason, these weren’t as good as #5.
https://caperfrasers.wordpress.com/2010/08/14/cape-breton-oat-cakes/ ·         2 cups rolled oats ·         1 cup flour ·         2 tsp. baking soda ·         ¼ tsp. salt ·         2 tsp. white sugar ·         ⅓ cup butter Review: The second of our savoury oatcakes, this one had one disadvantage in that the dough was just too crumbly to roll. We had to bake it in a silicon pan, and that worked out fine, as we dug out crumbled chunks to taste. Strangely addictive, these savoury ones were better than #4.	Clucking Hen Café and Bakery (400° F) ·         3 cups rolled oats ·         3 cups flour ·         1 tsp. baking soda ·         1 tsp. salt ·         1 cup white sugar ·         1 cup butter ·         ¾ cup cold water Review: Finally, we didn’t make these, since we had some directly from the bakery and could make our review notes based on those. These weren’t as crispy and oat-y and yummy as the High Wheeler Café’s. They weren’t even as yummy as our winner, #2, but if we’re ever in the mood to re-live our Cabot Trail memories, we’ll grab this recipe.

 

#821: Stinging witticisms

As already mentioned, we love Jeopardy! in this household. While watching it recently, the Boy nonchalantly made this observation out loud, “Ever notice how there are usually two people who are pretty close in score, and then a third one who’s probably saying to himself right now, ‘Maaaaybe I shouldn’t have applied to Jeopardy!'”

Ouch. A wittier way of saying what we were all thinking.

#822: Playing games; #movietvmashup

Sometimes car rides are long. The Girl says that one of these is her most relaxing times of the week, when she can sit back and “contemplate”. To fill the time, we also like to play games. This is one that the kids and I have played on and off over the years: Movie/TV Title Mash-Up.

Objective: Find two movie or tv titles that have been put together, with one word in common (or one very similar word) linking them, based on the clue of the modified plot line.
Example:
Two teens with cancer try to fight an evil empire
The Fault in Our Star Wars

The following are ones that the whole family contributed to, over the past couple of days. Scroll down past #20 for the answers.

1) Zombies try to comfort a prisoner on death row
2) The saviour of the world boldly goes where no man has gone before
3) On the outside, he’s a monster; on the inside, he’s just another man suffering a mid-life crisis
4) 70s sitcom about a racist blue-collar man and his clan, trying to find the top 10 answers on the board
5) An older man falls in love with a younger woman in a foreign country, while fighting dinosaurs and aliens
6) Young female fowl tries to return money that her boyfriend owes to gangsters
7) Sick people try to escape a theme park full of dinosaurs and zombies
8) Three escaped prisoners solve crimes in a tropical U.S. state
9) A group of clones make an undercover documentary investigating animal cruelty in aquariums
10) Two male models buy an animal sanctuary / Matt Damon stars in this sweet comedy about buying a male model
11) A woman with Alzheimer’s falls down the rabbit hole
12) A hacker enters his robot in a battle arena
13) Two guys and a kid join a top secret government sector to fight aliens
14) A time traveller investigates the murder of an animated bunny
15) A whistleblower tries to save the world from Nazi Zombies
16) A top-secret government sector fights aliens while also fighting each other for the top spot in the ballet company
17) A personal security officer and his band of misfits (including a rodent and a botanical specimen) fight to save the universe

Extra-challenging ones (which don’t follow the rules of the game exactly, but you’ll get it when you see the answers):
18) A dysfunctional animated family joins a biker gang
19) An explorer lost in the woods becomes a small superhero
20) A documentary about a frightening clown rehearsing for his last concert tour

. . .

Answers:
1) The Walking Dead Man Walking
2) Jesus Christ Superstar Trek
3) American Beauty and the Beast
4) All in the Family Feud
5) Land of the Lost in Translation
6) Chicken Run Lola Run
7) Jurassic World War Z
8) Hawaii Five-O Brother Where Art Thou?
9) Orphan Blackfish
10) We Bought a Zoolander
11) Still Alice in Wonderland
12) Mr. Robot Wars
13) Two and a Half Men in Black
14) Dr. Who Killed Roger Rabbit?
15) Dead Snowden
16) Men in Black Swan
17) The BodyGuardians of the Galaxy

18) The SimpSons of Anarchy
19) The RevenAnt Man
20) This is It

 

Post-Hump Day post: KFC (Kentucky Fried Chickpeas)

This past week . . .

> We played on our homemade beanbag toss board. This was originally made for Christmas 2004, and it has been a fun family project this summer, as we re-painted and restored it after damaged in a musty and mouldy basement.
> We listened to Michelle Obama’s impersonation, and her discussion of final days at the White House. (skip to 4:50).
> We ate KFC: Kentucky Fried Chickpeas! A couple of weeks ago, we (successfully) recreated the colonel’s famous fried chicken using his leaked secret spice mix. This week, for something different, we took the same spice mix and applied it to chickpeas, then roasted them in the oven. Minus the flour, and it’s mmm . . . KFChickpeas!
> We couldn’t stop watching (catch-up) of season 1 of Better Call Saul. Some in our household even say it’s better than Breaking Bad. Don’t know why we weren’t into it originally as it was being broadcase, but we’re slowly catching up to season 3 . . .
> Our current word/phrase: “Chinjury”. There was an injury in the household. It involved the chin and surrounding tissue and skin. It was, according to the Girl, “weird . . . and gross”. The Boy portmanteau-ed it into “chinjury”.
> Funniest thing we heard on the radio/tv: paraphrased from a morning radio host’s chatter (but I can’t remember which one): “Since his dad has hair like cotton candy, and tells Whoppers of lies, it’s no wonder Donald Trump Jr. has candy on his mind” re the Skittles Twitter controversy.
> We learned how something like Lacroix sparkling water becomes a trend (not as big yet in Canada).
> We made
> And finally, we found this great web site, Not Far From the Tree, that connects private growers and pickers. Bookmarked it a year ago, but only started picking this year, with invitations to pear, apple, grape, and nut picks so far. Such a fantastic, simple concept. Wish there was a NFFTT in every city!

Post-Hump Day post: “If I stop moving” . . .

This past week . . .

> We ate vegan pulled pork. The texture was great, but the sauce needs tweaking.
> We couldn’t stop watching cats on Roombas. Yes, cat-on-Roombas is not a new thing, but that stuff never gets old!
> We learned how to use Bondo body filler. Fascinating stuff.
> I want to make these wool dryer balls, now that line-drying season is almost over. I wonder if an old, upcycled 100% merino wool sweater would do just as well as an unravelled sweater?
> We found this great web site/article about friends. A toast especially to friendships that last 20+ years.
> Our funny quote of the week, courtesy of The Husband, while at a buffet restaurant: “I’m like a shark: If I stop moving, I die.”

A post-“Hump Day” round-up

Yay! We all made it past Hump Day, and it was an especially remarkable week, with many kids going back to school on Tuesday. Who doesn’t like the feeling of rounding the bend and sliding into the weekend? So after Wednesdays, I’m going to start posting a short round-up of various things. Just something to keep an eye out for, mid-week.

This past week (or couple of weeks). . .

> We played water balloon tennis. (No link required, as it’s pretty self-explanatory: Fill water balloons. Whack with old tennis racquet.)
> We laughed at this cat watching a horror film. The eyes, the eyes! (Thanks to the MIL!)
> We ate from this recipe over about three days. So good, and it really does taste remarkably-KFC-like!
> We couldn’t stop watching episodes of Lip Sync Battle, like this great moment here.
> We couldn’t stop listening/singing to Adele’s great album. (No, not “25”.) Young and old, we were totally carpool-karaoke-ing this one out loud last week.
> Our current word/phrase (thanks to The Boy mysteriously choosing to revive an 80s slang term) is “That’s dope!”
> Funniest thing we heard on the radio (even if it was a re-broadcast): “I also have a large vocabulary, which is both big and good.”
> We learned how to open and do simple repairs on our own watch, especially those seemingly difficult backs. So much money and time saved, and so satisfying!
> Our DIY project was this homemade, natural spray deodorant. Have tried several of the solid recipes, but the spray was the hands-down winner during this hot summer. My only modifications: added 1/4 tsp. of rubbing alcohol, and used a mix of lemon and orange essential oils instead of clary sage.
> I wanted to make these fantastic-looking stress balls (just skip the long moments of stirring).
> And finally, we found this great web site for rocking new moms.

Celebrating Pi Day

This is what we did at our house on March 14, at 9:26:53 a.m.: prepared from scratch a pie crust (for a delicious, truly crispy, gluten-free pie crust, see recipe below), counted down to the time, and then feasted on a breakfast pie. Okay, it was a quiche, which is just a savoury, open-faced pie, right?

We also all worked together to prepare our second pie crust for a coconut cream pie later in the evening—the second celebration at 9:26:53 p.m.

 

This time, down to the second, is a once-a-century event, and we’re so happy to have π-thusiastic kids who look forward all year to March 14.

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Gluten-Free Pie Crust (Yield: 1 x 9″ double-crust, or 2 x 9″ single crusts)

Inspired by this recipe from Serious Eats

• 5 ounces brown (or white) rice flour
• 2 ounces sweet rice (“glutinous rice”) flour
• 1/2 cup tapioca starch
  1) Mix these together in a bowl with a wire whisk.
• 1 c. butter, cold and cut into small pieces
  2) Add butter and the flour mixture to food processor, and pulse until well blended with no large pieces of butter remaining.
  3) Transfer to large bowl.
• 8 tbsp. water
  4) Add one tbsp. at a time to flour mixture, and mix to form into a ball.
  5) Divide dough into two balls, and wrap each ball with plastic wrap. Chill for one hour.
  6) Remove dough from the refrigerator and allow to come to almost room temperature.
  7) Cut two pieces of parchment large enough to roll a dough ball on (each approx. 12″ x 18″).
  8) Lightly flour one piece of parchment paper with white rice flour. Place dough ball on top, and generously flour the top of the dough.
  9) Top with second piece of parchment paper. Roll dough into a large circle, about 11″, then remove top paper.
  10) Invert the pie plate over the dough, then flip dough on to pie plate.
  11) Press dough into the pan and remove second piece of paper off the dough.
  If any of the dough rips apart, press it back together.
  Trim edges, and crimp if desired.
  12) Prick pie crust all over with a fork, and pre-bake pie shell at 350F for approx. 20 min. Fill pie crust, then bake at the time and temperature that the pie recipe directs. For a double-crust pie: repeat process to roll out the dough, fill pie, then place second dough over filling.

#823: Being the Change (or At Least, Helping With It)

I love that Ashton Kutcher is championing getting more diaper change tables into men’s washrooms. Three cheers for dads who willingly share the responsibility with their partners, and look for ways to make it easier for everyone in their shoes. I remember the early parenting days in Montreal and Toronto, where a few stores, malls, or restaurants had change tables in the men’s room. However, these were few and far between, so I can’t say that I remember off the top of my head which ones they were.

((As an aside: Sometimes things only get done when someone notable and/or important wants them. Take, for example, the concept of reserved parking spots for pregnant women. These are conveniently placed near the entry of a place of business, so it makes sense that they’ve been around forever, right? But I was fascinated to find out that it was Sheryl  Sandberg (current Facebook CEO and developer of the concept of “Lean In“) who came up with this idea only a few years ago while she was working at Google, and only because it was she who was pregnant and in discomfort, and really wanted/needed this. Now, some may say that it’s really too bad that no woman (in a position of power) thought of this until she needed it for herself, but that’s another discussion. What’s important is that things get changed or made when someone more important than the average person makes a big fuss about them.))

 

In this case, he didn’t move the potty elsewhere, but did need a friend to share the experience.

Anyway, back to the topic of diaper changes and change tables . . . For most parents, there comes that great moment when the young’uns not only know when they need to go potty (or maybe they’ve just finished), but can help a parent with the task.

Our kids were in their diapers until about 2 1/2 years old (the firstborn) and 9 months (the second child). In The Girl’s case, she was about 1 1/2 years old when she first toddled off to the washroom and figured out how to bring her own diaper to a parent. “I gotta go, and you’re going to help me,” is the thinking here. In the Boy’s case, once he learned how to walk, he would regularly go get his potty and bring it to the living room, where the rest of the family was. Sometimes going on the potty with a book was fine, but sometimes you just needed human (or other) companionship.

 

So although everyone would like to “be the change”, it may not happen right away. Sometimes just “helping with the change” is good enough.

Discoveries on the Interwebs that make my life better: forvo.com

For those of us who love languages, there’s this: Forvo. It’s a great user-submitted site that lets you listen to pronunciations of words and phrases in many languages, and the variations in different geographical locations.

You can even create an account, look up the list of words that need to be pronounced, and record your own pronunciation. Now we can finally hear if “about” differs for a person in Canada and people elsewhere.

I discovered the usefulness of this site on two recent occasions: 1) while answering The Girl’s question about how to pronounce “Budapest” (as in the recent frequent discussions about “The Grand Budapest Hotel”); and 2) discussing with a friend how to properly pronounce a Lunar New Year greeting that her mother had taught her.

When the hunger hits you . . .

Overheard from a couple heading down to the beautiful smells of Little India:
Man: I can’t talk to you right now. I get angry when I’m hungry. I call it “hangry”.
Woman: Umm . . . okay.
(I think she wasn’t expecting that. She sounded nervous. Must be one of the few who have never experienced this.)

 

Who among us hasn’t felt hangry/annoyed/generally in a bad mood when we’re hungry? I used to get shaky (could look down at my hands and see them trembling) when I got a sudden hit of hunger. Turns out I have low blood sugar and low iron. Since I found that out, I’ve been taking care of it and haven’t experienced the hunger-shakes in years.

 

Just in case, I now pack some homemade granola for when we’re planning to be out of the house for a while. The kids love this mix, and my Significant Other even said the other day during dinnertime in anticipation, “I can’t wait to have some of that delicious granola with some Greek yogourt in the morning.” We used to buy Nature’s Path Ancient Grains Heritage granola at Costco, but no more. This one is our custom mix—cheaper, gluten-free, and if you add peanut butter, even more protein-rich.

 

This mix works really well for us, but feel free to substitute any other additions, keeping the proportions equivalent. All measurements are approximate.

 

Homemade Granola (Yield: over 12 cups, but it’ll go fast, trust me)

– 12 cups (approx. 1.4 kg) rolled oats
– 1 cup (250 mL) unsweetened, shredded coconut
– 1 cup (250 mL) almonds*—chopped or ground (leftover from almond milk is great)
1) Mix these ingredients and divide to two cookie sheets. Even out the mixtures so that they’re flat, and bake at 250F for approximately 30 minutes.

2) Once removed from oven, put this into a large stock pot to mix, and add the following:
– 1 cup (250 mL) cherries—dried, unsweetened, chopped if desired
– 1 cup (250 mL) mangoes—dried, unsweetened, chopped (sulphite-free if you can find it; even better if you have a food dehydrator and buy mangoes when they’re on sale in the summer)
– 1/2 cup (125 mL) dark chocolate bits
– 2 tablespoons (30 mL) of mix of chia, flax, and hemp seeds—ground (I make my mix after buying the chia and hemp seeds from Costco, and grinding the flax seeds, which can purchased just about anywhere. Take the time to grind these, especially the flax; you won’t get the full nutritional value if they’re not ground because they’ll pass through and won’t be incorporated into your digestive system fully.)
– 2 tablespoons (30 mL) protein mix (I use a brand that is vegan, without whey; it’s from brown rice and pea protein)
– 1/2 cup (125 mL) honey or maple syrup or agave syrup, warmed with
– 1/2 cup (125 mL) peanut butter* (look for natural p.b., with ingredients of only peanuts and salt)

3) Stir all together, trying not to clump. Serve with almond milk or Greek yogourt.

To make bars: add another 1/4 cup of warmed honey/maple syrup/agave syrup, and press into a glass baking dish to set for a couple of hours, then cut into squares.

* Optional, if you don’t have to bring this into a nut-free environment

 

Edited to add a couple of things:

1) This New Yorker article explaining the concept of hangry, in “The Good, the Bad, and the Hangry”

2) This link to another blogger’s recipe for good-for-you protein bars, which I’m going to have to try soon.