Going Domestic

I'll have a cold one, please - decision-making is hard!

It was a pleasant surprise for us to buy a house that came with all major appliances, and even nicer that the fridge and stove were only a year or two old. The only thing lacking was a deep freeze for storing things like the half side of beef that Chris covets, and the rather large turkeys that we end up buying at Thanksgiving because we wait until the last moment! So, we've been researching chest-style deep freezes lately, and are stuck between getting a model that has a lock or one that doesn't. The difference in price is about $40 - $50. Part of us thinks that a lock is a nice security feature, but it can also be argued that the entire utility room (where we'll put the deep freeze) needs to be locked anyway, as we also don't want our furnace, washer/dryer, and tools to be mistaken for playthings either. We also can see a time where we lose the key and can no longer access the food trapped inside the deep freeze! I'm not sure what the better alternative is! *sigh*

Disclaimer: I am actually not a fan of beer and thus certainly not drinking any.

This means war!

I was all set to post something yesterday morning, already settled in front of my computer, when I thought I heard a distinct buzzing sound in the computer room/guest bedroom. As soon as a saw the rather large bumblebee or wasp hovering by the light fixture, I shut off the computer and fled, closing the door behind me. I didn't want to bee/wasp to migrate to another room, and pest eradication is part of Chris's job as a homeowner :)

My day was further distressed by critters in the afternoon when I peeked out of our front window at the container of pansies and petunias that I planted mere days ago just in time to see a fat grey squirrel sitting in the container. No wonder my annuals have been looking kind of squashed ...

But they're cute!

I know that I'm a sucker for things in nifty packaging, but I've really been enjoying using Electrasol Tabs in our dishwasher (yes, I realize how lame it sounds to say that). Each of those little individually wrapped tablets kind of reminds me of a piece of candy for my dishwasher, though I am a bit embarrassed at how over-packaged they really are.

Paint by Pixels

I think that Chris and I are a little bit closer to selecting a paint colour for the upstairs bedroom that we've dubbed "The Study". It currently features three beat-up walls painted off-white with patches of spackle, and one forest green wall, also sporting patches of spackle. We have about five different Behr paint chip cards taped to one of the walls, and it seems like we're slowly gravitating to a shade of sage green for the walls. Not necessarily what either of us would say is our first choice, but not a bad compromise, either. One thing that I've found curious ever since we moved into the house and had walls to paint was that Behr has this explore colour feature on their website. I've often wondered if people honestly do pick the colours they paint their homes from how something looks on a computer monitor ... I believe the colour that we're considering is called Pinedale Shores, but it sure looks different on the paint chip than it does on my computer monitor ...

Pick-Me-Up

After two beautiful sunny days of above 20 degree Celcius weather, Calgary is now settling in for four straight days with rain in the forecast! This makes me glad that I've already started a photo album for our feeble gardening efforts - the tulips that I planted on my very own were up and blooming this past weekend:

I'm going to have to try to keep these images in my head as I pull out my umbrella after work today!

The Simple Life

It's kind of funny - we're still settling into our house, selecting paint colours for the rooms that we have left to tackle - and yet reality is that at this time next year I may be looking out of a window at this kind of scene. Ironically, when I was growing up my dad always threatened to buy me one of these when I moved out on my own, but now it looks like Chris and I might take it to a whole other level. It's weird to think that our first house really may only be our home for a little over a year, and that I might actually live in a province with a population smaller than any city that I've lived in yet!

Better than ice cream ...

There's nothing better than improvision in the kitchen - especially when the outcome is a successful dessert! So, I decided that mini peanutbutter tortes were the way to go for Saturday's dessert, so I started up the Kitchen-Aid with creamy peanutbutter and softened cream cheese as instructed by this recipe that I used last summer. I added a bit of melted butter and vanilla, also according to the instructions, but before I added the whipped topping, I added probably a quarter-up of confectioner's sugar - I just sprinkled small increments in until the mixture tasted the way that I wanted it to. I then tried to make the round chocolate wafers I'd bought fit my paper muffin-sleeves, and started to fill the muffin sleeves. The problem that I ran into is that the mixture wasn't the right consistency to pour into the muffin containers neatly - I should have known that from my experience using the peanutbutter torte filling for a pie! It was on the thick side and didn't settle in the cups evenly. I ended up putting globs of filling onto the chocolate wafers in the muffin papers, and then sticking a second wafer on top to make little peanutbutter sandwiches and partially salvage the esthetics of the dessert! They actually turned out really well - nicely frozen four hours later, but not too hard to bite into! If I make them again, I might be inclined to put the filling into a pastry bag and pipe the filling on the bottom chocolate wafer just to keep the process neater.

Secret Garden

Amazing what a person can find in a garden when there's someone who knows something about green things is around! When my parents rolled into town this past weekend, they came prepared to work. My mom and dad helped us identify some of the shrubs in the backyard (the big overgrown one was a potentilla, and the one that blocks off the outside tap and the electricity meter is suspected to be a Rose of Sharon (which isn't a rose but a shrub with really pretty pink flowers). My dad pruned down the potentilla (while providing instructions for future upkeep!) and the dead branches on the big yellow rose bush, and then planted the shoot from my grandmother's hansa rose that they brought from Edmonton. It's meant to be big hardy rose bush like the yellow one in the yard, so hopefully it will establish itself well! Did some weeding and dandelion pulling, which amused my mom because my dandelion extraction technique removes quite a large section of lawn at the same time … she showed me a better technique, but it was little too late for some parts of the backyard lawn :)

The tulips that I planted in the fall are just about ready to bloom now - just need a another day or so of sun! And one of my mini-callas has sprouted - it's nearly and inch high already! - and I think that the other bulb is going to make an appearance anyday - there's a big crack in the soil!

Close encounters of the mini-dessert kind!

Chris teased me the one time that I took my digital camera out to dinner with us, so I've left it at home ever since. It's kind of a shame because I had an amazing dessert on Saturday at the restaurant the we took my parents to. I had ordered the peanutbutter & milk chocolate cheesecake, but instead of being presented with a slice on a plate, I received three little cheesecakes - one regular New York-style with a graham crust, and then a little peanutbutter one and a milk chocolate one on a chocolate wafer crust. They were a little smaller than traditional mini-cheesecakes but larger than Reece's Peanutbutter Cups, and very cute. Wish I hate a picture!

Living off the land (maybe)

It's about time that Chris and I got a move on building some raised garden beds - planting season has almost arrived here in Alberta! I think that that we've toned down our garden aspirations for this summer from every veggie that we like to eat to merely tomatoes, romaine lettuce, and peas. Maybe some carrots, but just maybe. We're just concerned about having the time to get the garden put together and having the time to tend it properly, so maybe it's better that we start small and plan an expansion for the 2005 season.

We don’t plan on buying the frames for the garden beds but instead see the project as a good opportunity to bond with our cordless drill. HGTV has some instructions and illustrations on building the raised gardening frames here and here, including some good raised-gardening design tips.