peanut butter chocolate chip cookies

My friend Rory served these yummy wheat-free, dairy-free cookies at a gathering recently and I could not believe how simple they are to make - you barely even have to cook them!

• 1/4 cup natural chunky peanut butter

• 3/4 cup almond butter
• 1/2 cup sucanat (or brown sugar)
• 1 egg
• 1/2 tsp bake soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup chocolate chips

preheat oven to 350 degrees
mix in first 5 ingredients
add chocolate chips last
drop dough in rounded balls onto greased baking sheet
bake for 5-10 minutes

 
I used chunky natural peanut butter so mine turned out very crumbly, but oh so good!
 

Sunday swap

Sunday was a pretty busy day. I had brunch with Anne at Saving Grace but forgot to bring my camera and after that I went to a clothing swap. I'd never been to one before cause usually I give away the good stuff to whomever I think will enjoy it most and then drop the rest off at the Goodwill. But it was perfect timing as I had recently done a big sweep of all ill-fitting and just-not-wearing-it clothes and shoes and I had three big bags of stuff to get rid of. I told myself I wouldn't even look so that I could come home with nothing. Ha - like that was going to happen!

Parasuco jeans that fit like a glove but are not long enough to wear with heels.

Love this blouse which is more purple in real life and a bit sheer.

Little nightgown or dress for over a bikini - it's so soft.

This is probably a dud and I was kinda talked into it. It needs some repairs and it's a bit poufy for me.

But these were the score of the swap!! I took them in yesterday and had them re-heeled and polished, so technically they cost me 20 bucks - but still a total score at that - whoo hooo!
(ahem, please ingnore the crap under the bed)

hot rockin Sunday

Went to The Dakota Tavern on Sunday for some more of their yummy fish tacos and to listen to some bluegrass by Licken' Good Fried.

My friend Rob was playing the dobro with them this particular week and I do love the way he makes that thing sound.

Robby sang a song too!

Then he had the Flinstonian-sized ribs - yumm!

What I didn't know was that after the bluegrass dinner hour there was a Rolling Stones cover band playing called Hot Rock. Generally, I wouldn't say I like this kind of thing but when Rob says a band is good and fun to dance to I listen up - he was my first dance partner and he knows what I like.

So I stayed, and I danced my ass off until 2 in the morning! I was too busy shakin it to take any pictures but they're playing again on Wednesday so I might just have to go back for more.

bathroom mccoys

Okay, mmm, yeah ... haven't gotten much done in this here bathroom since last week.

but I did turn my Mccoy love birds into a q-tip holder ...

and brought in mr peacock ...

and put a bunch of hair elastics in mr frog.

Wondering if I should paint the cd insert in the Billy bookcase?

There will be progress this weekend! Handy friend Matt is going to come over and put up shelves over the comode and I am gonna fire up the sewing machine and sort out the shower curtain.

my sister is sweet

and has made the most adorable birthday "card" to send out to ones lovely friends ...

from her youtube site Ceciley.

bathroom by ikea

When I moved into my little house I was fairly impressed by the size of the bathroom. However it was notably lacking in a couple of areas: no mirrors and no shelves ... how does that work?

Well in my world it does not, so it was off to Ikea to solve these problems "tout-suite" and wouldn't you know they had a mirror with a shelf that fit in the strange little space above the sink.

And of course they had inexpensive shower curtains and bath mats in colours that work with the pale green/grey on the walls in here - no need to paint thank goodness. I got the little bowls and cups on a trip to NYC at Pearl River. That place is amazing and clearly I'm a sucker for pretty ceramics.

The ceiling in this room is weirdly low since it is a funny little addition to the house but my Billy bookcase, which had previously only seen book & cd action fits in here perfectly and has transformed itself into a very useful bathroom shelf-thingy/organizer for make-up, towels and girly things that prefer to be hidden behind closed doors.

A friend gave me this larger Ikea mirror and I did of course put some Anthropologie knobs on little Billy quite some time ago. Now the rest of this room needs to join the party. The wall above the toilette could use a few shelves too.

I managed to score two of these Anthropologie shower curtains on sale just after x-mas, but the curtain needs some hemming due to the two open sides of the shower so I'm trying to get motivated to do that this weekend.

I also ordered a couple of sweet mccoys on ebay to vintage things up and tie this room into the kitchen since it opens directly onto it. So, toothbrushes?

Tissue roll holder? I never have any real idea of the size of these things until they arrive so who knows? but cute, right?

marcel makes another jewelery gift

This time he's selected some beautiful green stones for Siobhan's birthday since St. Patty's day is her actual birthday.

He was thinking about using citrine as an accent, but then decided sterling silver would make a better contrast.

Right?

Yes Marcel, show me.

Lovely, and so nicely displayed in the box.

He loves using the green ribbon that matches his eyes as the finishing touch.

Another lovely gift!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

chocolate banana bread pudding

I did actually make this with my first batch of boring banana bread, but I guess I didn't really follow the recipe well-enough for it to turn out any better than the banana bread did.

But I did buy some vanilla and made the banana bread again with more bananas. Way better, and I saved some to give the bread pudding another whirl.

This time I followed the recipe much more carefully - smaller pieces, smaller dish, but I did double the chocolate, cause why not?

This looks much better than last time already and smells like heaven in the oven.

And holy crap - this is amazing!

Now I understand why Amy at angry chicken immediately froze two-thirds of it. Me, I'm gonna eat it!

 But I really need to go to bed.

a bluesy weekend

This weekend all things blue made me very happy and certainly made a great backdrop to the driving rain we had.

The Dakota Tavern kicked things off Friday night with some amazing fish tacos and Leon Night and the Neon Lights.

Leon was unexpectedly detained but my friend Rob Fenton and Patrick Brealey played some really fun bluegrass and early rock-n-roll.

Then my friend Jake Chisholm was playing some blues with Paul Reddick blowin some mean harmonica at The Gladstone.

I hadn't seen Jake in a dog's age but then he also turned up in two of the bands on Saturday night at The Sixth. First with Los Caballeros del Son doing some amazing sunny Cuban goodness...

then with Julian Fauth playing bluesy-jazzy my woman done me wrong songs.

Then Robby turned up again playing with Kristine Schmitt and The Powers That Be to end the night with some sweet sad bluegrass.

By the end of the night all sorts of people joined in on stage including my old friend Alex Parker and her hubby Tom from Lickin Good Fried which was really a nice extra treat!

We had such a great time we forgot all about the rain!