So, I tried to make pumpkin cake pops for a Halloween Party last weekend.

They’re not quite as pretty as anything Bakerella would do, but considering it was my first time, I think they turned out fairly well. And my friend’s loved them, so who am I to complain?

Cake Pops ala Bean

What you’ll need:

1 white cake mix (I used celimix’s white cake and added 1/2 c. pumpkin, 1/4 c. less water and 1/4 – 1/2 tsp. each of cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and cloves)
1 can of icing (I used Betty Crocker’s whipped vanilla icing.)
Lollipop sticks
1-2 packages of vanilla candy melts (or chocolate)
Food colouring
Green Jelly Bellies

1. Bake cake according to directions with pumpkin, etc. Let it cool completely.
   
2. Once the cake is cooled, use a fork our your fingers to crumble the entire cake.
3. Add most of a container of icing. (Be careful as I added too much! I think you want it so that they will stick together well.
   
4. Taking bits of cake, roll into balls and place on a wax paper lined cookie sheet. (I recommend making them about 1″ in diameter.)
5. Put pops in the fridge and leave them there until quite cool. (The dipping process seemed easier when the pops were cooler.)
   
6. Meanwhile, melt the candy melts in a double boiler. Add food colouring as desired.
7. Poke lollipop sticks into the pops, making sure that you don’t go all the way through.
8. Dip pops into candy melts, using a spoon to help cover evenly. (Don’t let the melts get too hot as they lose their consistency and it is not pleasant.)
9. Place a jelly belly into the top for a stem and poke sticks into styrofoam to let pops cool.
10. Once cool, enjoy!

Some didn’t want to stay on their sticks, but that’s okay as they’re still quite tasty!

Have you ever tried to make cake pops before?

I feel like I want to cry because I don’t know what to do.

We’re having issues with one member of my design group. He hasn’t been pulling his weight, has missed many meetings and seems to want to ride out on our good work while doing as little as possible. The proverbial “icing on the cake” was this past week – I better add some fondant as well because that’s how good it is. So what happened?

We were supposed to have a really important strategy meeting last Thursday to decide how we’re going to proceed after our midterm report and presentation that he didn’t show up to. We had one of our midterms the night before, so we thought “maybe couldn’t deal with it or something” despite how our meeting was at 3pm. He didn’t show up to our regular team meeting on Friday or to our lab. I had phoned, texted and emailed him to no reply. So here we were thinking he had H1N1 or was dying as he’s always attached to his phone.

Last night I texted him to ask him if was alright and if he was planning to be at school today so that we could finally decide how to move ahead in our project. He answered that he had a very hectic weekend and that he was stuck in Edmonton on Thursday and Friday. We later found out that the car he had with him in Edmonton blew its radiator, which is really unfortunate, but that was on Thursday evening. In addition, he said that his phone died right after he received the phone message I sent him on Friday. This really bothers me because his car died in Edmonton after we were supposed to have our meeting and his phoned died the day after the important meeting. The snarky part of me wants to ask “what on earth were you doing in Edmonton, a three hour drive away, the day after an evening midterm when you had a meeting at three!?”

Reading between the lines, I do understand that he was probably having some personal angst, which is perfectly excusable. Heck, one of our group members has a kid and I have frequent bouts of emotional upheaval, so we understand that life can get in the way and the need to take a break from school. However, generally when something comes up it is expected that you give someone warning that you won’t be there. If you didn’t show up to work for two days without telling anyone, chances are you might not have a job when you finally get back. Right now, our job is school and one of our main tasks is to work on this design project.

So, when we had our meeting this morning, we confronted him about the whole situation and how we expect better behaviour in the future – to at least tell us when you’re not going to show up. I really hate confronting people as I would love to give them chance after chance to let them show their personal integrity but this situation warranted it. He did apologize for his behaviour and we got on with our meeting.

Late this afternoon, two of us went to talk to our supervisor about what power we have to deal with the situation if it gets worse. He said that once all three of us feel that we have exhausted peace talks amongst us, it would be time to start a paper trail by writing a letter to him outlining our concerns. He explained that depending on the severity of concerns, he and the course coordinator would discuss what to do with the worst penalty being kicked out of the course.

We started writing our letter highlighting our main concerns: missing meetings, not giving us warning for missing meetings and not putting in enough effort. I’m quite proud of this letter as it is very objective, professional and states the facts without making any accusations. We would really like to be able to work out our issues with him, however he hasn’t really stepped up to the plate yet. You’d think that by fourth year of engineering one would be used to working really hard and giving your best but I guess not in this case. Maybe he has been having issues, but we would be so much more understanding if he told us and asked for help!

Now it’s time we get to the fondant on our”cake of joy:” plagiarism. I know, that is a very scary word that is very, very accusational and has many bad connotations including being expelled from university. We unfortunately have too many good reasons to use this word.

It first started with our lab proposal for a different course – he had just put the lab procedure from bullets into sentences without changing much. We gave him the benefit of the doubt, edited it out and let it slide. Then for our design midterm progress report, a lot of what he had written sounded very much like a promotional piece companies publish about their various processes. We edited it out and confronted him about rephrasing instead of copying in future reports, which he apologized for and promised to be better in the future. However, while writing the complaint letter, one of our points was that he wasn’t putting in enough effort: aka. “his prepared sections of the report followed very closely to the documents they were taken from.”

We wanted to give some examples as evidence and I really almost wish that we didn’t. Looking at what he had originally written for two processes – not the summarized version that was submitted in the midterm report – we found 14 sentences out of the two pages that were directly copied word-for-word from documents without reference. Not just a couple like we originally expected – Fourteen. That is not acceptable!

Now comes the part where I feel really terrible because I know that when we submit the letter with the examples, we are good as pointing our fingers and crying “plagiarism!” at our design group member. For you who are not quite up to speed with the whole plagiarism thing, the worst outcome in expulsion from university. I would feel terrible for having him kicked out of the course let alone having him expelled. I guess I’m conflicted because I don’t think it is fair to the three of us who have put in a ton of time and effort to get the marks that we have and will get in this project to have to share those grades with someone who isn’t pulling their weight. On the other hand, if he is kicked out of the course, it means that he will have no chance of graduating this year. But it also comes down to the ethical issue at hand: if we are going to be professional engineers, we have to act with integrity and honesty and using someone else’s work, even if it is just a sentence, without being properly referenced goes against all that.

So I haven’t been able to do any studying this evening because all I can think about is how this situation might play out. I want to work it out with him and prevent the worst case scenarios of either being kicked out of the class or university entirely. But at the same time, I don’t want him to be getting credit for work he hasn’t done as it’s not fair to us. I really don’t know what to do, but at the same time, I do. We’re going to hand in our letter and see how things pan out from there. I hope I can handle the emotional stress either way.

Have you ever been in a similar situation? What did you do? How do you deal with confrontation?

 

Today at my parent’s church was a big celebration because a Bishop from Nigeria was visiting. It definitely wasn’t your average church service – there was lots of singing, praying and of course, dancing.

My brother busted out some moves with the pastor:

The women of the church did their own dance:

I love what they’re wearing – their hats? Amazing. I seriously want a similar outfit.

Even Mama Bean danced along:

The men drummed for a while and then they all got up to dance:

Even Mr. Bean went and joined them!

Doesn’t brother Bean look spiffy?

With all the dancing and singing, I can understand how church in Nigeria can easily be 5 hours long!

What’s the most interesting church service you’ve been to?

Last Monday, Mr. Bean’s last grandpa passed away at the ripe old age of 92. He was a very gentle soul who was happy to just be – of the three times I met him, he was content to watch Mr. Bean and I play crib, to paint, to watch the happy afro painting guy on TV and to just be around the excitement on our wedding day.  He will  be missed.

Mr. Bean went up to Saskatchewan with his family yesterday for the funeral – I am sad that I couldn’t go. Any and all prayers for Mr. Bean and his family would be appreciated. Thank you.

Last Monday Mr. Bean and I shared a Thanksgiving dinner with my family. I wanted to make pumpkin pie – given that it is a traditional thanksgiving food – but it had to be my family friendly. So what does that mean?

• No Gluten
• No Eggs
• No Dairy
• No Soy
• No Cinnamon

But that’s basically what traditional pumpkin pie is made of right? Well, I guess my pie was a bit unconventional and I have to say that I couldn’t love vegans more for their my family friendly food.

Gluten, Egg, Dairy, Soy and Cinnamon Free Pumpkin Pie

Pie Crust inspired by this recipe from Whole Foods

Filling inspired by this recipe from About.com

For Crust:

1/3 cup potato starch, plus extra for dusting
1/3 cup tapioca flour
1/3 cup millet flour
1/3 cup almond meal
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup cold lard, cut into small pieces (Note: To make this vegan, use coconut oil)
1 egg replacer
1 tsp. xathan gum

1. Put potato starch, tapioca flour, millet flour, almond meal, salt and xathan gum into a food processor and pulse a few times to combine.
2. Add lard and pulse again until mixture resembles a coarse meal. I used my magic bullet and it turned it into a batter because it’s too small. So use an actual food processor or a pastry blender.
3. Add egg replacer and pulse until completely combined to make a slightly sticky dough.
4. Turn dough out onto a large sheet of waxed paper dusted with potato starch.
5. Sprinkle potato starch over dough and knead gently, working in enough potato starch until dough holds together without being sticky but is still pliable. (Since my dough was so sticky, I probably used at least 1/4 c.)
6. Using your fingertips, press dough into a 10-inch circle.
7. Invert a 9-inch pie pan on top of the dough then quickly flip over both the pan and the dough so that the dough now rests in the pan.
8. Gently peel away and discard wax paper and press dough into pie plate, patching it together, if needed.
9. Set aside. The recipe recommends that you cook it for 15 minutes, but I didn’t.
   

Pumpkin Filling

1-15 ounce can pumpkin
1 c. coconut milk - don’t shake can and use the thicker milk at the top
1/2 c. sugar
1/4 c. potato starch
1/4 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/4 tsp. ground cloves - I added too many cloves, so this amount should be good
3/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
3/4 tsp. ginger

1. Preheat oven to 425F.
2. Add all ingredients together and mix at medium speed for 3 – 4 minutes.
3. Pour into previously prepared pie crust and bake for 15 minutes.
4. Turn over down to 350F and bake for another 45 – 50 minutes.
5. Let pie cool.
6. Once pie is cool, refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before eating.

Who makes your favourite pumpkin pie?

I’ve been doing a pretty good job of being absent here – kind of a reoccurring theme unfortunately – but now that I my brain is ready for bed, I thought that I would share a few random things I’ve been thinking about lately:

• I really have no idea what I want to do once I graduate. I do know that I don’t want a repeat of my internship – God willing – but I shouldn’t because hopefully I won’t be so preoccupied with personal issues. But still, there are lots of choices: try to get a job at an engineering firm or as a process engineer, go into architecture, become a pastry chef or have babies are my top 5 choices.
• I’m really glad that Mr. Bean and I decided not to renovate our kitchen. I’m having difficulty keeping our house clean let alone a renovation. We might still replace the floor though as the cheap lino should be replaced.
• I’d really like to lose a bit of weight. Because I’m no longer biking (read: less exercise) and I’m fairly anxious (read: more food is consumed) I’ve been filling out a bit. It’s too bad that one of my relaxing activities is baking, which only augments my waist. What are your best weight losing tips?
• Isn’t this a ridiculously cute picture?

• I feel that I had a mature moment: I really didn’t want to do our midterm presentation for our design project but I realized that since I am the self proclaimed project manager, I better step up to the plate and do it. I’m not really looking forward to it, but it can’t be worse than my terrible internship final presentation. *knock on wood*
• Anyone want to know about propylene production from a propane feedstock? If you do, I can babble about it for a really long time. That being said, I hope that I am able to finish my initial simulation of one of our plants tomorrow. I’m not a huge fan of the whole guessing/making up specs thing.
• The last few minutes of Young Frankenstein are hilarious – bah-dum-ba-dum-RAWR was a classic move at my bridal shower last summer. Haha.
• If you get a chance to read a book called “The Good and Beautiful God” of the apprentice series, I would highly recommend it. Mr. Bean and I are reading it through a book study at church and it is a practical guideline on how to build up your relationship with God.
• I was reminded of the electron liberation front the other day. I’ll have to tell that story someday, complete with pictures. Anyone interested?
• My brother would be really proud of me for putting not one, but two monkey photos in this post.

What’s been on your mind lately?

I hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving, or at least a good Monday. My lab proposal is in, my latest quiz is done (Anyone remember non-homogenous ODEs – even though I think that I did that part wrong – whoops!) and I’m learning how to simulate petrochemical processes for our propylene plant, so life’s okay.

Anyways, Mr. Bean was out in Saskatchewan visiting his ailing grandpa over the weekend, so I thought that I would visit my parent’s church after watching this guy get baptized* on Sunday. It just so happened that they were having a potluck lunch to celebrate thanksgiving, so I thought that I would take the opportunity to pawn off a bit of baking – I’m really quite keen to give my baking to other people as 24 cupcakes/muffins/etc. isn’t very attractive on my waistline. I’m sure you’ll agree.

I wanted to try something a bit different from the usual cupcake but would be slightly classier than a muffin. I chose to make Pumpkin Streusel Muffins based on this recipe. Apparently, they didn’t disappoint because they disappeared pretty quickly.

Gluten Free Pumpkin Streusel Muffins

3/4 c. margarine, melted and slightly cooled
1 1/8 c.  canned solid-pack pumpkin
3/4 c. sour cream
4 large eggs
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
2 c. brown rice flours
1/2 c. each potato and tapioca starch
1 1/2 tsp. xathan gum
3 tsp. baking powder
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon

3/4 tsp. ground ginger
heaping 1/4 tsp. cloves
1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
3/4 tsp. salt
1/2 c. brown sugar
1/2 c. white sugar

Streusel Topping (Note: This made WAY too much streusel – 1/2 or 1/3 of this would work just as well.)
1/4 c. margarine, softened
1/2 c. sugar
1/4 c. flour
pinch salt
1 tsp. cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 400F and line 18+ muffins cups with liners.
2. Combine all streusel ingredients in medium bowl and rub the margarine in until the mixture is somewhat crumbly. Set aside.
3. In larger bowl, combine melted margarine, pumpkin, sour cream, eggs and vanilla and whisk until smooth.
4. Sift together flours, xathan gum, baking powder, spices and salt into a large bowl.
5. Stir sugars into flour mixture.
6. Add pumpkin mixture to flour mixture and stir until just combined.
7. Spoon into muffin tins and sprinkle streusel on top.
8. Bake muffins for about 16 minutes or until a tester inserted into the centre of the muffins comes out clean.
9. Let muffins cool in pan for 5 minutes to set topping, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool.
10. Enjoy!

What is your favourite pumpkin delight?

*Holy man am I smitten by Malachi. I’ve been on somewhat of a baby obsess lately as there are so many cute babies everywhere! Rest assured that I am not pregnant, despite how much old ladies at church say how good babies look on me.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving in Canada. (Given, you know, that our harvest comes a month earlier than most of the States.) It seems almost fitting that this week’s homework from the book study Mr. Bean and I are doing at our church is to really think about the things that we are thankful for and to try to come up with a list.

It’s so easy to overlook most blessings in our lives, especially the biggest things like the ability to read, mobility and cognitive function. I feel like I take so much for granted, so I’ve spent some time coming up with my “Thanksgiving List.”

Things that I am thankful for, in no particular order:

1. The blessing that Mr. Bean is to my life
2. Sunday dinners with my family
3. That I don’t have to worry about basic needs
4. The smell of baking in the oven
5. The knitted things my mother-in-law makes me
6. Being warm
7. People to share my baking with
8. My parent’s dog
9. Going to uni, despite how  much grief it sometimes gives me
10. That I am not currently in a psych ward somewhere
11. Smiling babies
12. Not threatened with death for being a Christian
13. Riding my bike
14. Sleep
15. Being able to walk
16. Being able to enjoy God’s beauty
17. Someone (Mr. Bean) to stick my feet on when they’re cold and to hold me as I cry
18. Clean water
19. The ability to allergy-proof food and baking
20. Time spent with friends
21. My counsellor
22. Second (Third, Fourth,…) chances
23. That I can choose to be joyful
24. My slippers
25. The painting Mr Bean’s Grandpa made for us
26. The blessings that God has given me
27. Hugs
28. Late night conversations
29. That I don’t have to see those people at the hospital anymore
30. My bible study group
31. Being able to feel the soft fur of baby animals
32. That I can leave the house without an escort
33. Rulers and calculators
34. Being Silly
35. Light

What are you thankful for? What would be the top five things on your “Thanksgiving List?”

I’m supposed to be studying right now (ssshhh!) but my friend posted this on facebook and I thought that I would like to share it with all of you:

“But at the beginning of creation God made them male and female. For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate.”

-Mark 10: 6-9

Kind of neat, isn’t it?

I am not as good as I want to be at time management. There, I said it. What about you? Lately, it seems that time management is taking over my life and I’m not sure if I like it or not. Between 5 courses and the associated workload (= lots. All fourth engineering students nod their heads), trying to make time for God, Mr. Bean and my family, ballroom dancing lessons, two different bible/book studies, church duties, exercise, preventing my house from becoming like a bomb blast, counselling, trying to keep my sanity and stress levels low(ish) while preventing any kind of depressive or anxious episode, and writing in my blog let alone commenting, I’m pretty busy. Oh yeah, I have to remember to be a social being somewhere in there as well. (Can you tell which one falls to the wayside first? haha.)

Last time I saw my counsellor, he challenged me to come up with a system to manage my time so that I don’t stress out as much and fall down the slippery slope of negative mood swings. (like two weeks ago, which I really don’t want to repeat.) I haven’t really, so I need your help. Especially since I see him tomorrow – procrastination anyone?

I realize that I could spend lots of time scouring the interwebs on tips for time management, but I thought that it might be fun to ask all of you: What are your best tips for time management? How do(n’t) you effectively manage your time?

Please, do help a student out! I guess it’s time to stuff in some separation questions before bed.

Please note that I do have a day timer, which is quite helpful for keeping track of when things are – Meeting with design project supervisor tomorrow – check, midterm and quiz on Thursday – check! But I have difficulty keeping track of all the tasks that I need to do. I usually end up writing them on a random piece of paper that gets lost in all the mess that equals my desk or kitchen table. Help?