Pumpkin Pancakes

My in-laws are in town for Easter. They drive all the way down from Winnipeg, and I like to think it’s just for my pumpkin pancakes.

I’m allowing myself to call them “mine” because I make a couple tweaks to the original recipe. It’s actually a recipe from Diane Sanfilippo, from the book entitled Practical Paleo.

Since everyone was still sleeping, I had the entire first floor to myself. Step one: turn on some tunes.

Now that you’re bopping around to some good tunes, you should realize that you’re starving.  Eat a can of pears while getting your ingredients together!

As you’re getting your ingredients together, question the freshness of your eggs since you can’t remember when you bought them.  The Float Test works really well!  If you’re questioning your eggs, give it a try.

Ruh roh… One of them is bad. Two are alright, and one is fresh.  Toss the baddie and swap in another fresh egg!

All set? You should have 4 eggs, 1/2 cup pumpkin puree, 2* TBLS vanilla extract, 2 TBLS maple syrup, 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp baking soda, and 2 TBLS coconut floor*.

*quantities or ingredients vary from original recipe.

All set?? K, let’s mix the wet ingredients first.

Whip that up–I use an electric beater, but a whisk would work too.  Next, get together the dry ingredients. Make sure to get your cook book all messy… This is required. 😛

K, mix the dry ingredients together so that we can sift them into the wet ingredients next.

Mix these together, then set it aside for a moment. Now is going to be a great time to clean up your dishes and get the skillet or griddle pre-heated.

That’s one of the things that I learned from my grandma.  If you clean as you go, the end clean up won’t be so bad.

Now, if you’re using a nonstick skillet, you shouldn’t need the coconut oil that’s called for in the original recipe. I normally prefer to leave it out, but I used a little this time just to stick a little closer to the original recipe.

These cook up a little differently than normal pancakes. Depending on how hot your griddle is, these might cook up in a couple minutes, but it could take longer.  Our griddle is starting to lose heat in some areas, so I had a couple false starts.  You can watch for the bubbles to burst, but it could be a little while before you see that.

Flip! These are a bit wet, even with the added coconut flour, so I like to press them after they’re flipped to get them to cook through. I also flip them again to make sure both sides of the batter that ooozes out (yummy!) is cooked.

Slice up some fruit to have with your meal, and you’re all set. These pancakes are so flavorful that you won’t need butter or syrup to go with them.  By all means, feel free to dress them up!

Enjoy!

Sketching, not sketchy; hotels

I guess one good thing to come out of the last week is that my muse is back. I’ve been sketching and drawing…and realising just how out of practice I really am. I’ve been enjoying myself, though, and happily sharing my works with others.  Specifically one of my guildies who keeps me supplied with ample music to draw to…

I even brought my sketch book with me to South Dakota, where Jeff and I will be helping my sister’s family move into their new house.  I’d be drawing right now except for the fact that it’s the 5 o’clock hour and Jeff is asleep. The whole room is dark, and I’m writing this from my phone.

It’s actually a shame that I’m up, but it couldn’t be helped. It’s the 3rd or 4th time I’ve been up over the course of the night. This time my back and hips made it too insufferable to go back to sleep, so here I am.

The alarm is set for 6:30am… Then I’ll be able to be productive. Even then I won’t be breaking out the pencils and paper… Oh no.. then I’ll be breaking out the fit deck and getting some stretching in.  I’ll get plenty of exercise today, but I’m hoping I won’t be in pain for most of it.

After that, breakfast is in the 7 o’clock hour, then we’ll head over to my sister’s apartment to drink coffee and wake up with the rest of the crew.  See, we could’ve stayed at my sister’s house–it was an open invitation and they’d make room.. but see, with me in my condition and getting up all night long, I opted for the comfort factor of a hotel.

I had searched on kayak and booking, as well as other discount sites, but it turned out to be cheaper to just call the hotel and ask for cheapest rates.  The hotel we originally wanted to stay at cost about $200/night…they had raised the prices for some reason compared to online.  Plus, they didn’t have anything smaller than a king suite and we really just wanted a place to rest our heads.  The reservation clerk actually referred me to a sister hotel. They had an efficiency suite, including breakfast, for less than $100/night.  I didn’t expect there to even be a refrigerator, let alone a stove!

We likely won’t have a chance to use it on this trip, but it’s nice to have the option.

It’d be nice to have the option for a nap later, too, but I don’t see that happening… T^T at least if I get too zonked, we can retreat to the hotel instead of waiting for everyone else to wind down. There’s that, at least.

K. Time to wrap up before diving into the day. Be well!

Sh-Boom! Life Could Be a Dream

 

The title is inspired by the track that is playing in the background as I write this post.  I am such a lucky person.  Gainfully employed, completing my degree, happily in love and married, and about to buy my own home…. what’s not to love?  Life really could be a dream.

This morning when I came to work, my mom was approaching my desk with a gift for me:  It’s a binder with copies of execises that she’s collected from her experience at the gym.  There are BOSU workouts, bootcamp style interval workouts, etc.  And on the cover: a Post-it note that says “Because you are loved!!”

I told Mom how I’m getting back into fitness and ready to really hit it hard, and this is her way to encourage me.  🙂 I definitely have the warm fuzzies at this point.

Yesterday, I signed up for The Academy with Nerd Fitness:

 

The premise seems to be that it will guide me back into the fitness lifestyle by enticing me with the opportunity to level up my real life person instead of a digital character.  It plays like an RPG, except you get experience by doing things in real life.  The quest lines that you see there (General, Academy, Warrior, etc.) correlate to the type of training that you want to be doing.  I want to get started with the basics, so I’ll pursue the general quests first, then progress to The Academy and eventually start tackling some of the Ranger class quests.

I got 25 exp points for taking my ‘before’ photos, and I’ll get 25 more for taking my measurements.  The general quests start with small, easily accomplished goals and then work up to more challenging ones.  It’s just the inspiration that I need to get going without diving into the deep end and getting injured again.

We move in 2 weeks (if I’m lucky) and I have been dreaming about setting up a basement gym.  I’ve got images of rubberized flooring, inspirational posters, and blaring music dancing in my head.  Jeff wants to burst my bubble by reminding me that we have low ceilings, but then I remember that I’m short and go back to dreaming 😉

Can I have it? Pretty please?

So that’s what we’re up to 🙂 I’ll be sure to keep you posted.  Stay classy!

We’re Moving!

 

We found this lovely home within our budget… We had gone back and forth a couple times about actually buying it because there’s quite a bit of work that needs to be done in the house.  We had actually rescinded our offer to purchase the home, except the sellers altered the terms of the purchase and we came around.  This gives us so much to actually be excited about…  I know where we’re going to put our Christmas tree, and how I’d like to arrange the dining room.  I can picture what our guest bedroom is going to look like, and I’m pinning up so many ideas for what to do with the unfinished basement.

 

The real deciding factor was when we got our parents to do a walk-through of the house to get a feel for whether the problems that it has are insurmountable or not.  After seeing everything in person–including the pug room, and the spray-painted spare bedroom…

They said that they didn’t see anything that tells them to actually walk away from the house.  I think that the males in the family were impressed with the 30′ x 30′ garage, and I think that no one could really pass up the half-acre yard that’s already fenced in for pupper-duppers:

Even though we went back and forth a few times, we’re still trying to keep the same closing-date as before… so here’s hoping that we’ll be able to move the weekend of 9/27.  It’s going to be a flurry of packing and cleaning until then, and sadly, I have to revert the kitchen back to the brown/yellow/red mess that it was when we first moved in.  There was a term in the contract that said no contact paper, but apparently the office staff didn’t read it any closer than I did.  Thankfully, they’ll let me just remove it instead of keeping my security deposit..

“Tell me you love me!”

I am pretty much on cloud nine at the moment.  When I went to process the vehicle registration renewal for one of our vehicles, the DMV website gave me an error saying that registrations that are overdue cannot be processed online.  Given that we had never even received a renewal notice nor had we received any information about the registration being past due, I decided that the website was full of it.  Our vehicle had a ’14 sticker on it, and I was a week away from the due date when I tried to apply.

I got on the phone right away with the DMV… This is what I do for a living–I resolve weird issues related to the administration of vehicles, so I was in my zone.  The woman at the DMV insisted that the vehicle hadn’t been registered since 2012 and that the tags were expired by almost a year.  She requested that we pay $363.00 for last year’s renewal and an additional $309.00 for this year’s renewal.  Now–we’ve been saving up for this year’s renewal, but there’s no way in the world I’m prepared to pay an EXTRA $363.00!  I may or may not have deadpanned and declared to the agent “I’m not paying that. There’s no way in the world!”

I asked how to dispute it, and she asked that I verify the sticker number, so that they could work through it.  Well–I had Jeff send me the photo, and lo and behold, the wrong sticker was on the vehicle.  After the 6 digit sticker number is the vehicle license plate number and this one did not match our plate number.  But I meant it when I told the DMV I’m not paying it… I called the dealer next and asked to speak with a title clerk.  The thing is, we bought our vehicle last July and these tags expire this July–it should’ve been noted in the inspection or during the title and licensing of this vehicle that the registration was due.  The great thing is, they were as wonderful to work with on this issue as they were when we were buying our vehicle.  I’ll definitely recommend them for your car buying needs.  I’m even going to write them a nice review on Yelp!

After researching it, the dealer determined that the previous owner of the vehicle put the wrong sticker on the vehicle and offered to send us to a check to cover the cost of last year’s renewal.  Hallelujah!

It’s times like these when I am able to take a snarl of a mess and resolve it satisfactorily that I turn to Jeff and tell him “Now, tell me you love me,” with a smug grin on my face 😉

Cityscape at The Paint Pub

I finally celebrated my birthday with friends.  🙂 My birthday was back on July 6th and I knew I wanted to go to the Paint Pub.  The shop sets up canvasses and paint, then leads a class in painting one specific thing.  The one I was really interested in was a cityscape of Minneapolis by way of The Stone Arch Bridge. 

When I got there, I was greeted by a lovely and chipper host who got me all set up at my work station.  The canvas and the easel were already set up, and the paint provided.  While I waited for the class to fill, I browsed a cute little boutique and considered other paintings I could do in the future.

Towards the back, they had snacks and entrees available, along with wine, beer, and soft drinks.  For myself, I ordered a cheese tray and some ginger ale. There was a woman across from me, though, that ordered a panini that smelled delicious.  She was drinking white wine.

Our instructor began the class with a warm welcome and assured us that we’d hate our paintings at first, but to trust the process.  She said that we’re staring at it up close, so all we’d see is what we thought was wrong, but if we’d take a moment to step back and appreciate it as a whole, that we’d love pour paintings by the end.

It sounded, actually, like sage advice: if you’re looking at something so close that all you can see are the flaws, step back, and look at it from a distance to appreciate it as a whole.  I could definitely see this applying to a few people I know…

As the class carried on, we were walked through exactly what to do. Everyone had their own perspectives and I heard a lot of people worry over how poorly they were doing.  I made it a point to be amiable, because I love art, and if someone else can discover a passion for it, they should. Far be it for me or anyone else to say someone isn’t good enough. There was a poor girl there, though, who was raising her arm with concerns and questions after every instruction.  She seemed really uncomfortable with the whole process.  Perhaps more wine would’ve helped. 😉

Even though this one was pretty basic and rudimentary, it was just the kick start that I needed to get me painting again.  I’m thinking about whether I want to do a figure painting, a landscape, or a still life.  I took some photos of sunflowers, though, and I really enjoy depicting them.

The class wrapped up around 9 and we all had our photos taken with our paintings. They all had different feelings, just like the personalities of the artists. I was glad to have shared the experience with friends 😀

Out with the old and in with the new

I mentioned, of course, that I wanted to make some changes around here, and so I have.  This fresh theme is brought to you by the fantastic designers and programmers at WordPress.  If you like it, head on over to their visualizer and customize the Superhero Theme for yourself.  

There have been a lot of other changes going on in my personal life, too.  For example, I recently took an extended leave of absence from my gaming guild.  Some of it was guild drama and guild members clashing with my personality, and a lot of it was just realizing that I can’t have it all–I can’t be a full time gamer, and a full time employee, nurturing wife, accomplished artist, consistent blogger, and still manage to cook, clean and get a full 8+ hours of sleep every night.  It’s just not happening.  So, I nixed gaming. 

I joined a new guild, called NerdFitness.  I am on the verge of completing my first 6-week challenge over there, and I’ve been exploring the possibilities of going paleo.  I am not 100% there yet, but I’ve noticed that on days that I avoid bread and other refined carbs, I feel a lot better than when I eat traditional American meals.  I’m more alert, more energized… I’ve got fewer cravings and I’m better able to stay focused on my goals. 

As if that weren’t enough change for one blog post, I also got a new job that has been keeping me busy (but you already knew about that).  Tonight, I also finished up a large project that has been taking up a ton of my time… I finally finished “remodeling” our kitchen. 

It started last year, just with the counter tops.  The yellow was so dated and ugly that I needed to do something about it right away.  The rest of the make-over took longer to formulate and execute.  I was just dealing with the drab brown cupboards until we could renew our lease–the management staff had dangled a juicy carrot in front of our noses with the implication that we might be able to get new cupboards at our renewal.  Well, the upgrade was declined, and my request to *paint* the cabinets was shot down.  

We are not planning on moving any time within the next year, and this bathroom-themed (red, brown, and yellow–seriously?) kitchen was getting me down.  Not to be deterred, I collected points at work and turned them in for a Lowe’s Gift Card.  I spent $50 on brushed nickel pulls, then bought a 18″x75′ roll of Contact Paper from Amazon.  My total out of pocket expense was just over $14.

Covering old outdated surfaces with Contact Paper to refresh them.

work in progress..

Unexpected hurdles

The payoff

I love my new kitchen

Love love love

I have spent weeks measuring and cutting contact paper to be just-so.  I had to wash each surface and then apply the contact paper carefully to avoid air bubbles.  I disassembled cupboards (with the help of my own Super Hero, Jeffrah), and made sure that this wasn’t a job that would look tacky on completion. 

Now that it’s done… my kitchen is beautiful.  It’s bright and clean and inviting–the red walls pop and no one could be reminded of a bathroom or of McDonalds or whatever red + yellow + brown brings to mind.