"nobody better pinch me, bitch i swear i go crazy"

my grandma and grandpa on my grandpa's bday. he got a lottery ticket (not a winner) but was excited!

things have definitely been busy around here. and i don't even feel like i'm doing very much! oi! i've been knitting up a storm for friends and helvetica...and am going to cast on matching booty shorts for stewart's birthday hat! very excited! a few things have come up in the past week that i'm getting psyched about and working on (aside from my need for a gazillion hours of sleep every night).

first is definitely the weather! my little widget says it's 7C out! wowza! and it's clear and sunny! we can see the mountains and a sea of blue sky. i love it. the rain over the past few weeks has also caused everything to start growing. we have this neon-green moss growing all over the yard and crocuses and small little purple flowers are growing EVERYWHERE. i've just repotted my house plants too (stew got me an aloe and a jade plant for vagina day)! yay for spring! i'm also getting further into this gardening thing. i need to find some dirt (for free!), shovel out our garden boxes and get newspaper seedlings started inside pretty quick.

the other is that i met a handful of amazing people on the weekend at a party and i've gotten my hands on some volunteer opportunities at a local family treatment centre *hopefully* writing youth programming policy!! yay! i also have a NDP hookup that i have yet to call and will probably do next week when i'm on my new schedule (nights th-monday but tues and wed off!!!) and a bit more sane.

lastly, this weekend we're going to victoria albeit just for the night to see my beloved YACHT. i can't wait to party down dance whatever and enjoy one of my last shows and latenight slurpee foibles before being a parent (and then having to worry about sitters and travel with a kid and blah blah blah). speaking of: i only have about 6.5 weeks of work left. OMZG!! i leave you with a live yacht video. xo

mmm muffin!

This morning I got up to give Stewart a ride to work and came home to decidedly make muffins rather than go back to bed. I poured myself a big glass of the lady grey ice tea, preheated the oven, and got to work putting together this recipe with things we have lying around the house. When I put things together without really following a recipe (esp. baking) I'm always wary of it turning out like crap (like the time I forgot oil and the papers wouldn't come off the muffins). These muffins, though, aren't vegan (but you could easily sub with rice milk and faux egg), but they are delicious! OMG. I'm so happy I made more than a dozen of them. Enjoy!

Maple Apple Walnut Muffins
Preheat oven to 400F. When you put the muffins in the oven lower the temp to 375F.

Combine in a big bowl:
1 cup oats (I used oatmeal, but you could use oatmeal with rye flakes/barley flakes, whatevs!)
1/4 cup flax seeds
1 cup walnuts
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup all purpose flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
1 1/2 tsp nutmeg

In a smaller bowl combine:
1/2 cup oil (I used veg, but you could use olive or almond or something)
1 egg
2 cups liquid (I used 1/2 cup cream and 1 1/2 cups water because that's what we had. If we had soy I probably would have used that)
drizzle of maple syrup (or 1/4 cup, whichever you have in the fridge)
1 apple grated (I always use gala)

Pour liquids into bowl of dry ingredients and mix well (with a fork). Using a 1/4 cup measuring spoon pour into paper-lined muffin tins. I was able to make 17 muffins.

Bake for 20-25 minutes depending on your oven. Eat them hot out of the oven with peanut butter. But cool at least 7 of them for your week ahead and freeze them! xo

"holy moly, mi oh my, you're the apple of my eye"

Today I finally got to make Calzones! It was my plan last Saturday but the yeast was bad. Bah! I used this recipe for the dough, doubled it (5 cups white flour, 2 cups whole wheat), and let it rise for 40 minutes and as you can see it just exploded out of the bowl! So, that's what dough looks like when the yeast works?! YES! I'm definitely a yeasty-convert now. For the filling I managed to get my hands on some LOCAL pork hot pepperoni from Hilliers Sausage on my way back on Hwy 4. I sliced it up with crimini mushrooms and shallots. We had some marble cheese that I put small bits of inside. I used canned spaghetti sauce I scored at Safeway (it's so delicious, my new favourite canned anything) and ended up making only 7 calzones and a pizza roll. I think next time (there will be a next time!!) I'll make them 1/2 the size and do pineapple (I love pineapple in pizza) or spinach and ricotta.

On top of all this I also made a bizarre bean/lentil filling with spinach and chipotle for burritos (paired with brown rice). They're currently freezing and will probably get wrapped up in the morning and get ready to be eaten for lunch. I also made two quarts of iced lady grey tea and bought the stuff to make tzatziki tomorrow. YUM. My week is definitely going to be filled with yummy lunches and not at all with instant noodles (which now make me so sick, bleck).

Aside from today's insane cooking projects this week has also been busy. We finally got on the floor and I spent most of my week troubleshooting network issues and picture messaging problems for mobile users in the US. oi! The fun part was talking about the snowstorm that hit the east coast and wishing for snow. Here = cherry blossoms and green grass. It's weird. This is my first winter ever where I've experienced growth so early in the year. I don't know how to comprehend it, really. I've also been knitting socks, working on wrist warmers for Loki, and am almost done Stewart's vday giftie. LOVE the knitting. Love it.

Oh! And check out Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros. They rock my everything right now.