The Heart Remains a Child

Apparently I make a wicked good bean salad! Who knew? I've been trying to eat a little healthier since these stupid meds I'm on have a really awesome side effect of weight gain (which is full of suck) and really.. we could all totally eat better than we do. Right?

Awesomely bright bean salad.

1 can black beans (drained)
1 can corn (drained too)
1 pepper. red/yellow/green, your choice. I used yellow. mmm..
a bunch of grape or cherry tomatoes.
1 whole lemon
salt and pepper

Make sure your beans and corn are well drained, toss 'em in a big ol' bowl.
Dice the pepper. half or quarter your tomatoes. Depending on size. toss them in the bowl too.
cut the lemon in half, and juice that sucker right over the bowl. Both sides. You can add a little zest of the lemon if you were so inclined.
Add salt and pepper. I used lots of pepper. I love pepper.
Make sure your salad is well mixed and put it in the fridge. Let it chill for a couple of hours. Eat. Go OMG! I had no idea bean salad was this good with not a stitch of added fat in it! Marvel that your husband who can be notoriously fussy eats 2 huge bowls of it and is actually excited to eat the leftovers the next day. Feel good about making yourself look like a food rockstar.

I have been doing something really out of character for me. I have been working on more than one knitting project at a time! I KNOW RIGHT!?!

This was a super fun knit. The yarn is a silk bamboo mix I got from (gasp) Michaels ages ago. Beautiful drape and so shiny and pretty! I loves it!

Pickles says HAI GUISE!

Um.. yeah. So I went and got some more ink. It is the companion piece to my sweet cupcake. I was so excited when it was done I was showing all the hardcore dudes in the shop. Hey! Dudes! Look at this sweet fucking ball of yarn! Wow, did they all laugh. And they all loved it :) I really dig going to Strange World Tattoo, and Rick is totally the man. He is funny and really awesome to work with. Clearly I like him, he's done 6 tattoos for me. This is his first yarn ball he's done. I know, I live to provide people with fresh new experiences. It's a gift.

Max doesn't care. 

life goes on BRA!

We had visitors from the west coast this last weekend. It was so good to see Chris' parents.. it's far too long between visits. we didn't do a whole lot, but we did get to Stampede. First time in 10 years for us, 50 for my MIL (please don't kill me)! It was still.. yup.. Stampede! But we did go see SUPERDOGS!! Which was super. The host mentioned he had been doing it for the last 35 (25?) years and I don't think he had purchased any new clothes since then. They were very, um, natty. Like a game show host from the 70's. And happily as gay as a Christmas tablecloth. He was hilarious. They had 3 little pugs (HEATHER!!!) that ran this little flag course.. I about died from the cute. Ate a corn dog, some mini donuts and called it a day.

The rest of the weekend was pretty rainy, and I wasn't feeling super great so we all laid low. Watched the futbol, had some Chinese (spicy hut!) and caught up. Pickles made new BFF's. He was such an attention ho, I think he completely charmed Moms and Pops.

Do you see what a good sport my husband is? I caught him wearing my robe like a slanket and forced him to capitulate to some extremely shameful photos. Yes he is reading my Fangoria magazine and having a tasty treat out of my flirt mug. Gods, he is a keeper!

 I have been knitting, knitting, knitting. One project keeps getting put aside for faster, easier, smaller ones. I never thought I'd break with my knitting monogamy!

Poor little Max got some sort of gross thing on his foot (a wart I think, he is slowly turning into a roaming lump farm) so I put a little bandage on it so he'd leave it alone. It is working. I think.

We had a wicked hail storm last week.. our car is dimpled (not from smiling too much I tell ya!) and it beat the shit out of the trees. It was CRAZY HAIL.

Thems some big balls!



PS That is me up there. I found some photos in the car (!) and scanned them. I reckon this is the last time I wore a 2 piece. I think I was about 3.

this shit is bananas

Seriously the best muffins EVER. The secret? MORE bananas. We usually have quite small bananas in the house as we use them for smoothies mostly. Last time I made these I had 5 slightly rotten ones kicking around so I used them all. AND... BEST. MUFFINS. EVER. OF. THE. HISTORY. OF. MUFFINS.

Also I use my mix master cause I can and that is just how I roll. I also have a preference for unbleached brown muffin cups I get from Planet Organic. They are great!

best. muffins. ever.
oven at 350
yields 18 perfect muffins. 

wet mixture

1/2 cup butter (I usually end up nuking it for 30 sec's cause it's been in the fridge)
5 small bananas (browner is better here)
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
1/2-3/4 cup of sugar. the recipe calls for 3/4 c, but I found them a tad sweet. I cut it back to 1/2.

toss this all your mix master and beat the hell out of it. seriously. get it nice and smooth.

dry mixture

2 cups of flour. don't use whole wheat. trust me. all purpose is better.
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1tsp cinnamon
1 cup (or more.. I won't tell) MILK chocolate chips. I've done fancy dark, semi-sweet, but by FAR milk is the best.

When your wet is nice and smooth, add in your dry ingredients. DON'T OVER MIX. Muffins are best when they're not beaten into submission. Mix it until it's all incorporated. 

Spoon into 18 prepared muffin tins. Bake for about 20 mins or until tops are golden. Don't over bake these.

Cool. Eat. Enjoy.

PS I ate the one at the top of the post as soon I as took that picture. HOLY SHIT GOOD.