Recipe: Peabutter Mousse with Chococado Coconut Whipped Cream

Last week, my boss pitched an idea to our temporary admin and me: a pulse-themed lunch. One person would bring a starter; another, a main; and the last, a dessert. Our temp - who is apparently French-Canadian - offered to bring a home-made split pea soup. My boss had some salad ideas. That left the dessert to me. At first, I thought I might try something with pea flour in it. Cookies, perhaps. But then I remembered that one of our very own Alberta pulse processors, Mountain Meadows Food Processing, sells a product that is made of peas but tastes quite a bit like peanut butter.

That's right. Peabutter.

My first experiment with it, however, did not turn out well.

A Young(ish) Communicator's Manifesto

I can be an insufferable know-it-all.

That’s not really that hard for me to admit; some of the know-it-all things I know are my own shortcomings. I like to think I come by this trait honestly: my dad collects useless facts and my mom likes to make confident-sounding statements. Combined, these traits have created someone who knows a lot of useless information and has no problem sharing it with anyone who will listen.

Yes, an insufferable know-it-all.

Recipe: Roasted Chickpeas

My dad loves chickpeas. When I told him I got a job working with pulses (and then explained that pulses include beans, peas, lentils, and chickpeas,) he was thrilled. It seems he eats them plain and raw; I fully support anyone who likes pulses that much.

So I gave him one of APG's handy little recipe books, which includes a recipe for roasted chickpeas. I myself enjoy roasted chickpeas and thought he would too, so I pointed out the recipe when I handed the book to him.

The recipe just wasn't very good.

Speak Out With Your Geek Out: A Post Mortem

Last week, my husband turned to me as he was sorting through his WoW cards and said, "Can you imagine if I were the provincial WoW card game champion? That would be AWESOME!" I raised one eyebrow and simply stared at him.

"Hey!" he chided. "You're looking at me the way that girl looked at that Magic champion!"

He was absolutely right: despite the fact that I myself play the WoW card game - despite the fact that I blogged three times last week about my geeky interests - I thought his desire to be the provincial WoW card game champ was about the geekiest thing I had ever heard.

Turns out he took the provincial championship on Saturday.

And I was proud.

Speak Out with Your Geek Out: Word Nerdy

I am a total grammar geek, a complete word nerd. Back in high-school English class, kids around me would groan when our teacher began her annual grammar lesson – but I secretly gave my grammar geek flag a hearty wave. I was good at grammar the way some people are good at math, and probably for the same reasons. Grammar, like math, follows a clearly defined set of rules, and if you simply apply those rules, you’ll always get the right answer.

Grammar is just that black-and-white for me. For the most part.

Speak Out with Your Geek Out: Oh, WoW

I revealed in yesterday’s post that I’ve essentially been living a secret life – a life of pure, unadulterated geekiness that I don’t talk about around non-geeks. Well, that’s not entirely true. You see, I’ve actually been living two secret lives: one as a closet geek; the other as a level 85 Night Elf hunter named Ephemere.

Yes, I play WoW.

Speak Out With Your Geek Out: Book Lust

I read a #speakgeek blog post on www.jesshartley.com yesterday that considered a question many of my fellow geeks have likely been thinking about this week: "I wave my geek flag proudly every day; what's special about this?"

Well, I don't.

Recipe: Beef Chickpea Curry

All the driving I'm doing to and from work has made finding quick, easy, and healthy recipes almost a necessity: I don't get home until 6 every night, and the last thing I want to do is spend most of my evening cooking.

(Never mind the fact that I get cranky when I'm hungry...)

Recipe: Chococado Pudding with a Twist

"Maybe someone who eats dirt for a living would like these."

Ryan didn't enjoy the black bean and avocado brownies I made over the weekend; apparently, to him, they tasted like dirt -- and he does not, in fact, eat dirt for a living. So after that less-than stellar review, which I shared on Twitter, a girl I know said she was curious about the recipe. When I shared it with her -- misery loves company, after all -- she said, "Oh, kind of reminds me of this pudding, which is in fact the best pudding ever."

And, after trying it tonight, I would have to agree.

Recipe: Bean Stuffed Portobellos

Ever since I started my new job at Alberta Pulse Growers, I've been eating a lot of pulses. (That is to say, I've been eating a lot of beans, chickpeas, lentils, and peas. You know, pulses.) And even though this blog is in no way affiliated with my work at APG and all opinions are my own, it's inevitable that I would write about something I eat a lot of.

And tonight, I ate a lot of bean stuffed portobello mushrooms.