Monday, June 27, 2011

Library : work in progress

About a month ago I saw the bookshelf below on Pinterest and fell in love.


We needed to buy new bookshelves for our basement library anyway so I decided that four Billy shelves from Ikea would do the trick and that I would paint the backs yellow. We stopped by our brand new, friendly neighbourhood Lowe's and purchased a test pot of Olympic No VOC paint in their Bumblebee colour. I sanded all of the backs (the two smaller ones were a chip board type material but the two larger ones where paper so they took more paint) and crouched on my hands and knees this past Sunday and got painting. They turned out really well and only took one $5 test pot of paint!

We finished putting together the bookshelves tonight and lined them all up and I am so happy with how they turned out. I can't wait to FINALLY unpack all of our books and knick knacks! It's going to be such a bright, happy space.

Sunday, June 26, 2011

Sunday pancakes

Growing up, pancakes on Sunday mornings were something of a tradition. Every Sunday morning I would get up with my dad and help make pancakes. Plain, banana, berry or cheese - we liked them all! When my Dad moved to Yellowknife ahead of us to find a house and start his job I took over the pancake making role at the ripe old age of ten. There was a period of time in my teens when I went off pancakes. I'd simply had too many of them and was sick of pancakes. Now that I have my own family, pancakes are making a comeback as a Sunday tradition. And, without fail, my husband requests cheese pancakes. Cheese pancakes may sound weird, but I promise you, they are the perfect blend of sweet and savoury.

The recipe that I have been faithfully following for the past 20+ years comes from my Mom's old Five Roses cookbook. It produces a flavourful and, most importantly, fluffy pancake.

Click to see the larger image.

Some pancake cooking tips:
  • make sure your baking powder is fresh. You should hear a fizzing sound when you mix the wet ingredients into the dry. If you don't, your baking powder is too old and the pancakes won't be light and fluffy.
  • I reduce the sugar by 1 tablespoon. I don't like overly sweet pancakes. Plus, if you add fruit that will make up for the missing sugar.
  • Flip the pancakes when bubbles stop forming on the surface and when the edges are starting to solidify and look cooked. After 20 years I can also tell they are ready to flip by smell. They smell like cooked pancakes. :)
  • Without a doubt, I have had best results using my electric frying pan. I get consistent heat and know what the product will end up like every. single. time. I set mine to 350 F and always get perfect pancakes.
  • To make cheese pancakes I add a good handful of grated old cheddar - about 1 cup.

Bubbles have stopped forming and the edges are looking cooked. Ready to flip!

 
Deeeelicious!

My favourite part of being designated pancake cook? Chef's choice! I always reserve the last bit of batter to make a pancake of my choosing. Today I made several mini pancakes.

Enjoy!!

Does your family have a Sunday breakfast tradition?

Thursday, June 16, 2011

Rawr! I'm a turtle!

I have been woefully inactive here in recent months. I said at the new year that I wasn't going to try so hard to "be a blogger" and then just kind of gave up. I have thought about what to post and have certainly been inspired by people on t'internet but it always seemed like a lot of effort to come over here and write something. I certainly haven't been totally absent from the social media world. I've been Tweeting and Pinning to my heart's content. In lieu of a long post, here are some of my favourite things I've come across on Pinterest recently.


I really want to make something similar for M's birthday but I'm having trouble finding a suitable night stand.

I can't find this on Old Navy Canada sadly.



Hopefully summer will arrive in the Canadian prairies soon and we can go do some camping close to home. :)

Have you come across anything wonderful lately?
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