Archive for December, 2008

• Sports fans can we chat?

  Date: 2008.12.29 | Category: Things I Don't Understand | Response: 1

  I must confess I don’t often attend sporting events. I’m just not a big sports girl. It probably has something to do with me having the coordination of a rock. I do like attending a good hockey game now and then and last night we went out to see the USA vs. Czech Republic. We scored good seats in the World Juniors Ticket Marketplace. As in 100 level row C kind of good seats. Pretty darned cheap too. (Between this and the big ass tv we bought in a boxing day sale I am scoring some major girlfriend brownie points this holiday, yes indeed.) One of the awesome things about these seats was seeing the little kids near us being really excited about being so close to the boards. We were behind the net, near the corner and let me tell you those boards *shake* when guys get plowed into them. And the kids loved it.

  Which brings me to this, I realize that hockey games are fun events for grown up boys too. I do! Really! And that you like your grown up boy beverages. I was enjoying one myself. But keeping in mind that there are kids around do you really need to be douchebags? I mean, really?

  So I get that you don’t like Team USA and that you wanted the Czech’s to win. Well, you didn’t really want the Czech’s to win as much as you wanted the USA to lose. But when two little boys are chanting “USA! USA!” three rows in front of you do you really need to scream out “SUCKS!”? Because when you did I saw the grins and excitement fall right off their innocent faces. You sir, are nothing but a bully. A mean schoolyard bully. And you should be ashamed of yourself. (Just as you really shouldn’t be getting behind the wheel of your vehicle after consuming that many beers.)

  And then there was your friend who was sitting two seats over from you. He made some lovely “your momma” jokes about how she “liked it in it, out of it, and on it”. There was a kid sitting in front of him that was no more than nine years old. That’s classy. Yessirree. Looking at his Team Canada jersey I can’t tell how much national pride I was filled with. Not.

  I’m not saying you need to sit there with a cup of tea and your pinky turned out while you mind your p’s and q’s. I’m just saying that perhaps you should take a look around you and realize where you are. Trash talk the goalie all you want. Boo if you feel the need (even though I personally find it tacky). Drink your beers, but may I suggest you bring a DD with you? But maybe lay off the bullying and the crudeness when surrounded by kids?

  Just a thought.

• Sassymonkey’s Chocolate Covered Peanut Butter Balls

  Date: 2008.12.21 | Category: What's for Dinner?, recipe | Response: 6

  Chocolate covered peanut butter balls remind me of my grandparent’s house. My oldest brother G lived with my grandparents for as long as I can remember (he was 18 by the the time I was born). Chocolate covered peanut butter balls were his favourite and they were around almost all the time. My grandmother would make a great big batch and keep them in the freezer. I believe the original theory that a few could be taken out at a time but in reality we started just gnawing on them frozen. As a positive (I supppose) it meant that we ate less of them.

  This is the first year I’ve really celebrated Christmas in years – by years I mean close to a decade. It’s also my and Lee’s first Christmas together. We decided that we wanted to stay home for Christmas and invited his family over for dinner Christmas day. Christmas suddenly is looming before me and I’ve actually created a checklist/schedule that is posted on the fridge. Some of it is necessary for Christmas dinner and others are necessary just because I said so, like the nuts that I purchased for cracking and snacking because we always hate them at Christmas when I was a kid. I kicked off  today by making Elise’s cranberry sauce before I had even had my morning coffee, and as I’ve said before, it totally kicks canned ass. A bonus this year is that I got to use the cranberries that we won in our Farmer’s Market basket. Then I broke out the hand mixer and started making peppermint patties. These aren’t a traditional Sassymonkey Family recipe (although my best friend’s mother always made them) but they are something I started making a few years ago and I’ve promised some to friends.

  Right now I’m taking a break before I start in on the chocolate covered peanut butter balls. I had to call my mother to get the recipe. Making them transports me back to my grandmother’s kitchen, “helping” her make them when I was just a wee monkey. It’s a great recipe to make with kids, assuming you don’t mind turning your kitchen into a disaster area.

  Sassymonkey’s Chocolate-Covered Peanut Butter Balls

  2 cups peanut butter
  1/2 cup room temperature unsalted butter or margarine
  2 cups icing sugar
  3 cups Rice Krispies
  300 grams semi-sweet chocolate chips
  1 tsp shortening

  Mix together the peanut butter, butter and icing sugar. Mix in Rice Krispies. Roll into 1-inch balls and let chill. Melt chocolate chips with shortening in a double boiler. Dip peanut butter balls into chocolate and chill. Try not to eat all at once.

  Monkey Note 1: You can use smooth or crunchy peanut butter. My mom likes crunchy.

  Monkey Note 2: My mother likes to chill the peanut butter mixture before rolling to balls. It’s a messy process and you’ll be washing your hands a lot.

  Monkey Note 3: Stick the balls into the freezer before dipping in chocolate. They’ll be a bit more stable that way. And use a slotted spoon for dipping if you have one.

  Monkey Note 4: The original recipe is old school and actually uses paraffin wax rather than shortening. I’ve done it both ways and I usually use shortening just because it means I don’t have to try to find the wax.

• The Santa Moment

  Date: 2008.12.06 | Category: Uncategorized | Response: 8

  I was flipping through my BlogHer feeds when I found this post – Yes, my niece is THAT kid. That kid being the one that told everyone else that Santa isn’t real and parents actually brought all the presents.

  I wonder how many remember the moment when they found that out? And how many figured it out on their own?

  I remember the moment I found out. I was about four or five. My parents hadn’t split up yet so Christmas was in the big house. Christmas back in those days was a large affair. My whole family (all seven of us kids and my mother and father), my grandparents, my aunt and uncle and their two kids. Yes, that would be fifteen people.

  We had two family rooms in that house. There was the “main” one that housed the television and then there was the “back room” with it’s ugly green carpet and wood paneled walls. Between the two of them was the staircase (which we never, ever surfed down…I swear). The back room normally housed the large 70s style stereo (you know the type, the longggggg one with the record player in it), the extra couches and the chest of legos. It was also where we put up the Christmas tree every year.

  I was standing in front of those stairs with my back to the Christmas tree, showing off my Santa gift to my older cousin when she told me that Santa was not real. I remember having two thoughts. The first was that she was mean. The second was that it kind of made sense. After all, the only chimney we had in our house was the one attached to the wood stove that heated the place and well, I never did figure out how Santa was supposed to get through that and not burn to a crisp. She also told me that it was the same thing with the Easter Bunny.

  But then she went on to tell me that I wasn’t allowed to let my parents know that I knew because then I wouldn’t get Santa gifts. Personally I think that she told me that so that I wouldn’t get upset and she wouldn’t get into trouble. I’m pretty sure that I told my parents anyway.

  The thing that surprises me most about this whole memory is that it was my cousin that told me and not my older sister. I stole the baby status from her and she punished me for it for most of childhood. It totally would have been her style to tell me. The only explanation I can think of is that she was obviously bribed not to tell me.

  Do you remember when you found/figure out about Santa?

• Random Friday Thoughts

  Date: 2008.12.05 | Category: Uncategorized | Response: 1

  1. While I wholeheartedly approve of bluetooth headsets for drivers who want to talk and drive at the same time, I do not approve of people using them on public transit. It makes it too hard to pick out the crazies. You know, like the lady who once turned to me on a streetcar and told me that she was only talking to me because I wasn’t actually there. These days I’d assume she’s on the phone when she really was legitimately nutty.

  2. I did not get that transported back to being a little girl while watching the Royal Winnipeg Ballet’s version of The Nutcracker. I was too busy being boggled by the fact that the role of Clara appeared to change during the production. It’s Short Clara! It’s Tall Clara! It’s Short Clara again! Wait Short Clara is one of the Snowflakes? Huh? Even worse, Tall Clara also did the dance the Sugar Plum Fairy. I don’t think I need to point out exactly how wrong that is in its wrongness. (If I do, it’s very, very wrong – so wrong I had to break out the italics.)

  3. I recognized at least one of the dancers on stage from being in Ballet Girls documentary that aired a few years ago. There were a few others who might of been in the documentary but I’m not sure and I can’t really check since we didn’t get programs. They were apparently “stuck in traffic.”

  4. The NAC gets a fail whale for running out of the wine I wanted to order before intermission was even half over.

  5. Next year we are going to Montreal to see Les Grands Ballet Canadiens’ performance of The Nutcracker so that boy can see it performed properly. By that I mean with a Sugar Plum Fairy who is not also Clara and whose performance leaves you breathless. Our seats will probably not be as good because last night? Third row. The boy totally scored brownie points with that.

  6. We put up a Christmas tree and did not even come close to killing each other. Additionally the cat has not (yet) climbed it. Christmas miracles abound.

• Canadian politicians can #suckit

  Date: 2008.12.02 | Category: Uncategorized | Response: 0

  All of them. Every last single one of them. I don’t care what party they are part of or not part of. I don’t care if they are right or left or upside down. Each and every one of them can #suckit.

  I’m about ready to vote for Don Cherry for Prime Minister.