Author: Tanie

These donuts were an idea I’d had for a while, but as far as experimental foods go, they weren’t my best.

To make the cookie dough into a thinner batter that I could pipe into the donut machine I adjusted the recipe to use less flour and more milk. I also used mini chocolate chips instead of full-sized ones, but I still ran into some problems.

Even with the mini-chips and the thinned batter, I was unable to use my regular piping bag and decorating tip, instead I had to put the batter in a ziploc bag and snip the corner, which made piping the batter into the machine a bit tricky (thin plastic + hot metal = bad idea). Also, the batter thickened up quite a bit between batches and was hard to pipe properly, which led to some pretty epic overfilling in the early batches.

Left donut: first batch; right donut, third batch. I used kitchen scissors to trim the overflow off and was able to salvage all the donuts.

The biggest problem with these was the texture; you know how when you bake cookies they tend to get darkest and crispest on the bottom? Well, these are darkest and crispest all around. This is because the donut machine has heated plates on the top and the bottom, and I don’t know why I didn’t realize this before hand.

In spite of these problems they were still a big hit with my key demographic.

Sym loved them! And last night Taylor was having coffee (can I just say that I HATE how he has coffee when he wakes up in the evening? It smells so good that I want some but can’t have any!) and realized these donuts’ true potential.

A perfect pairing!

These are NOT the nails I meant to do! Initially I was planning on blue & yellow polka dots on white, but after I pained my toenails red (Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in Right Said Red), for some reason I started doing red dots on my fingernails! I didn’t want to take all the polish off and start over, so instead I did red and pinks. It’s like Valentine’s Day in July!

Essie in Blanc; Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in Right Said Red; Essie in Mod Square; Sally Hansen Maximum Growth in Delightful Dawn; OPI in Sparrow Me the Drama; Sinful Colours in Pinky Glitter; OPI in Do You Think I’m Tex-y; OPI in Confucius Says “Coral”; Nicole by OPI in Shell Me the Truth

You might be thinking, didn’t she already make lime popsicles? Well, that’s true, I did make some last summer, but for those I used store-bought limeade and only juiced a couple of limes. NOT THIS TIME.

Some of these limes I bought to use in gin & tonics and some of them I was planning on juicing and adding to the raspberry juice I made the other week, but I never got around to it. All in all I had eight limes.

Juicing eight limes is a lot of work, but the end I had a serious hand cramp.

Once I was done I mixed the juice with some simple syrup (2 cups of water + 1 cup of sugar).

I ended up with 3½ cups of limeade, more that I needed for the popsicles. Symphony suggested I use the rest with booze (her words, lol). She thoughtfully wrote up this cocktail recipe for me.

I ended up keeping it simple and just mixed the juice with gin. No muss, no fuss. Lots of acidity though, I could have DEFINITELY used some more water or club soda in these. The ginless popsicle version is pretty good though.

Last Friday I was too lazy to cook/we were playing Dance Central so I just cut up some veggies and put them out with cheese and crackers.

My general breakfast: an americano with chocolate sprinkles (in my excellent Fringe Division mug, of course!) and cocoa mini Mini Wheats, now with Almond Breeze instead of milk! I’ve been buying organic milk for drinking and almond milk for cereal and coffee, so far it’s been okay, although I’ve noticed my creal gets mushy faster.

Wednesday night was my favorite dinner this week, mini veggie shepherd’s pies! Inside they have carrots, celery, red pepper, baby corn, broccoli and tofu, topped with mashed potatoes and parmesan cheese. I was going to make a salad to go with them but someone ate all the cucumbers so we just had tomato slices.

Some meals not pictured: pancakes at Joe’s Grill on Sunday, perogies on Tuesday night and a million pounds of cherries for every snack.

So. Still no meat! I was actually tempted to use a bouillon cube when I was making the shepherd’s pies so they wouldn’t be bland, but they have beef fat in them so I stuck to my guns and instead used soy sauce, paprika, chili powder, pink salt and white pepper instead, and they were delicious.

I realized I haven’t updated on the Claire situation since May, when I learned she was sick as hell again. I switched her to hypoallergenic cat food and got her insulin dosage back up to normal (1/100th of a cc twice a day) and after a month, I took her in for blood tests. The result: HIGHER BLOOD SUGAR THAN EVER. seriously cat, what is up with you??!! The vet recommended upping her insulin dosage slightly, so now she’s on 1½ /100th of a cc twice a day, and I have to take her in again at the end of this month for more tests.

Now, this is all very annoying and costly, but the most annoying thing I’ve been dealing with re: my diabetic cat is the people. I don’t mean the staff at the veterinary clinic, I mean the people who say stuff like “Have you considered euthanasia?” OH SURE, WHY DON’T I JUST KILL MY PERFECTLY HAPPY CAT FOR THE SAKE OF MY OWN CONVENIENCE??? Sure she has diabetes, but she’s not bothered about it, so why does she deserve to die? I just don’t get people sometimes.

Friday night
Dance Central night, of course! We hadn’t played in a couple of weeks so it was really fun.

The “heavy bounce” from Bust a Move, a song Sym always kills me at in dance battles.

After Sym when to bed Taylor and I stayed up watching Magnum, P.I. and one of us got very, very drunk.

When Sym was a baby I used to watch this show every morning, it was on right after Murder, She Wrote. Man, that was the life… btw, we only have the first couple seasons so if anyone wants to buy me four through eight that’d be pretty sweet.

Saturday
Those of us who WEREN’T hungover we out and ran errands, stuff like banking, book-shopping, and buying four bags of chocolate chips.

They were on sale! I had to stock up!

Taylor eventually dragged his sorry self out of bed and we spent some time hanging out in the back yard with Sym, our neighbor Dallas, all the dogs and some bubble wands.

Sym bought a book of cootie catchers/fortune tellers and spent a lot of time telling us all our fortunes.

Harley is Dallas’s dog & Georgie’s boyfriend.

After Sym and Dougal were picked up Taylor and I went out for a much-needed late lunch of greasy food at Hamburger Mary’s and then took Georgie and Kichou to the dog park.

Later we watched part one of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows so we’ll be ready to watch part two next week!

Sunday
I actually slept in! Amazing, right? I don’t think I got up until around ten. Taylor and I went for brunch at Joe’s Grill and then spent the entire afternoon taking the dogs for an epic journey around the Coal Harbour/Stanley Park part of the seawall we never walk.

There was a concert series in the park for Vancouver’s 125th birthday this weekend, so for parts of our walk we got to experience a swing band, and at one point, a ten minute glockenspiel solo.

Up until today, this was the furthest we’d walked on the Coal Harbour part of the Seawall.

Downtown from a totally different angle.

The Nine O’Clock Gun: I hear this every day but I’d never seen it (and yes, you can hear it all over downtown. CANNONS ARE LOUD).

Looking west across Burrard Inlet toward the Lion’s Gate Bridge.

She looks like she’s rejecting my love here, but .1 seconds earlier she was licking my nose. Fickle pup!

Since we are poor and can’t afford to go away for a real vacation this summer, one thing I really wanted to do was check out some parts of the city & surrounding areas that I haven’t seen, so this walk was a good start! I should have taken more care with sunscreen though, as a ended up with my first (and hopefully last!) burn of the year, right on my purse-carrying shoulder.

In the evening after Sym was dropped off the two of us went out for a little mommy+ Symmie time. We got passion tea lemonades and went to the park and discussed really important stuff, like which Harry Potter characters you like the best and why being rich isn’t an excuse for being a bad person.

Afterwards we came home and painted our nails with shatter polish (pictures coming later!) while watching Parks & Rec. I know that on the internet it’s much cooler to have a cute little baby you carry around, but I’m pretty happy with the fully functioning human being I’ve raised.

Sym got me this OPI Silver Shatter polish while she was out shopping with her grandma on the long weekend. I’ve never been a huge fan of crackle/shatter polishes but I figured I had to try it out at least once!

On me: OPI in Silver Shatter over Essie in Beach Bum Blu. I put the shatter over this shimmery blue because I thought it’d be more subtle than if I put it over a dark or non-metallic bright. I actually don’t hate this, although I don’t think I’d like it if the shatter was black or another solid colour.

… and on my toes, OPI in Confucius Says “Coral”, aka my all-time favorite summer pedicure colour.

On Sym: OPI in Silver Shatter over Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Ivy League. For some reason it barely shattered at all! I know you have to put it over completely dry polish, and I waited almost a half hour before putting it on so idk why it didn’t work.

… and on her toes, Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Mint Sorbet. I love this colour but the formula is TERRIBLE 🙁 It’s also pretty tricky to paint these tiny toenails so I only did two quick coats before giving up.

A note about topcoats: I have a job where I have to wash my hands about 30,000 times a day, so I’m pretty resigned to having my nail polish chip off after only a couple days. WELL. I finally got around to buying some Seche Vite (I know, I know, OLD NEWS) a couple weeks ago and WOW. Wow wow wow. I put it over my polka dot manicure and it lasted all week long, finally getting a couple small chips on Saturday. I’m officially impressed!

I had this bag of frozen raspberries, and I need to make room in my freezer because I ordered five pounds of cherries so I figured I should use the raspberries for something. I originally only intended to make juice with them; the popsicles were Symmie’s idea. This juice actually tastes better frozen so I guess it was a good one!

Ingredients for Juice/Popsicles
4½ cups frozen raspberries
8 cups water
½ cup sugar (you could use more, I was concerned about over sweetening so I only used a little)

Combine all ingredients in a large pot and bring to a boil, stirring to dissolve all the sugar. Reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes, then remove from heat and allow to cool completely. Once cooled, strain out the berries and discard.

For popsicles, pour into popsicle molds and freeze, durr.

Makes 2 liters/8 cups/half a gallon of juice, or as many popsicles as you like.

I should really set a day for these posts instead of having a bunch of them all week long. Maybe Friday? idk.

Wednesday dinner: fried panko tofu, rice and weird, stringy salad. I bought a TRI-PEELER that does Julienne slices so I went to town on some vegetables. Oh and I’m pretty sure this is the first time in my life I’ve ever cooked tofu. AMAZING. It was just okay though- I put paprika and chili powder in the coating but I was worried it would be TOO spicy and Sym wouldn’t eat it. Instead, it wasn’t spicy enough ie it was very bland. Crunchy as hale though.

Wednesday’s lunch: ICE CREAM. Chocolate and vanilla with chocolate sauce and sprinkles. Yum.

Thursday’s lunch: fresh-baked catloaf.

I’ve also had tons and tons of milk. I bought expensive organic milk but I STUPIDLY grabbed a jug that was expiring in just two days. I didn’t want all that money to go to waste so it’s been a desperate race against time to finish it before it goes bad. On the plus side, it’s given me an excuse to stuff my face with chocolate chip cookies!