Happier

At the start of 2013, a few friends posted about happiness jars. Happy moments are collected throughout the year in a jar and at the end of the year, it is opened up and you remember all the nice things that happened.

I thought it was a pretty good idea so I put a jar by my desk and started filling it with happy little notes.

I was pretty good about adding to the jar until May, when my friend Jen let me know about an even better idea for collecting happy moments: an App called Happier (now available on the web too). Happier is a similar concept to the happy jar, except it also involves a social network. Not only are you thinking about and collecting your own happy moments, but you get to look through other people's happy moments too. This is one of the best features of Happier, as it often makes me happier to read about the day to day things that make others smile. Things like "I got 8 hours of sleep!" or "The sun was out all day" are just really nice to read about.

The app has expanded a lot since I joined in May, and each new version is better than the last. In the current version when you post three happy moments in a day, you're rewarded with an image that says "You're Awesome". There is also confetti that rains down on the screen after you post a happy moment, which is both fun and encouraging. They even celebrate user milestones, as I recently reached my 200th moment and was rewarded with this appearing on my screen:

On the social side, you can "smile" at moments, comment on moments, share them, follow other people's moments, and search for happy moments by category. For example: "eating awesome food" and "animals" are both categories to browse. Scrolling through these categories, you'll find hundreds of posts of people just loving on their pets or being overjoyed by the food they've just eaten. It's really a lot of fun.

If you want to check out the happy moments I've posted, you can find them by clicking here.

Thinking about the little things and being part of the Happier community has been a very positive addition to my year. If I'm having a bad day, Happier is a great place to go to be reminded of all the little things that make life fun. And refreshingly, for a social network, it is a very positive space to be. Most of the comments I get on my moments are variations of "Me too!" or "I love that!" or "I should do that too!" Obviously not everyone is made happy by the same things, but if you see something that doesn't appeal to you, you can just scroll past it and find twenty other moments that will make you smile.

Hundreds of little things made me happier in 2013, and I'm looking forward to going over my Happier posts and reading through my happiness jar so I can remember all the moments that made me smile.

400th Post!!!!

I'm adding another item to my list of 2013 Blog Milestones. Today is the 400th post on the blog!

It's been a really active year on the blog and I'm very happy to celebrate all the times I've hit 'publish'. Over the entire year I have averaged 15 blog posts per month, but since I upped my game in June, I've been averaging 22 posts per month. So awesome and very proud of myself.

Thanks for being on this ride with me. It really is a lot of fun! :)

Quick No Bake Treats

We had a last minute family dinner on the weekend and while John was in charge of making the 6lb roast beef, I made a tray of squares for dessert with supplies I had on hand.

I looked for these squares online to double check the ingredients and this treat has many names, including: Mile High squares, Chocolate, Peanut Butter, and Marshmallow squares, and Pudge.

Ingredients:
2.5 cups milk chocolate chips
1/4 cup margarine
3/4 cup creamy peanut butter
4 cups mini colourful marshmallows

Method:
Put chocolate chips, margarine, and peanut butter in microwave safe bowl. Microwave for 30 seconds and stir to combine. Microwave another 30 seconds and stir until all is melted together.

Combine melted chocolate mixture with marshmallows and stir until marshmallows are sufficiently coated. Pour into a greased square pan and cool for a few hours in the fridge.

Makes 20 giant squares (the way I first cut them).

Or 40 more reasonably sized squares.

Cake Pops: Keeping Them Fun

Cake pops are delicious, fun to eat, and a hit at parties (who doesn't love eating food on a stick?). I've made them five or six times over the past few years, and each time I've been rewarded with around 50 cake pops. They are best for sharing, as that is a lot of cake on a stick!

The idea of cake pops is simple: mix baked cake with icing and form into balls. Add a lollipop stick. Dip balls into chocolate or candy melts, set, and enjoy. The pros can make them look like any shape, but as a cake pop amateur, I tend to sick to a plain old ball on a stick.

The first few batches I made were balls on a stick + melted chocolate chips + sprinkles.

Next batch, I played with the colour of the cake/icing to make them more festive inside.

Earlier this year, I tried making heart shaped cake pops, and they (mostly) turned out, but it was a lot more challenging.

Recently I made them again for my friend Jen's birthday. It was a team effort. I made plain ones (no sprinkles) and then she decorated them.

Dipped cake pops

Cake pops with my friend Jen's spooky decorating

In my most recent adventure in cake pop making I realized a few things:

(1) I hate making 50 cake pops at a time. Rolling the balls is fun, but dipping 50 balls on a stick into chocolate is tedious. From now on I am only making half batches (I want baking to be fun - and 25 cake pops is still a lot of cake pops!).

(2) I haven't figured out candy melts and find them really difficult to work with. Every cake pop I coat with the candy melts cracks, and I find they aren't as fluid as melted chocolate chips. Now, obviously they work for other people, so there is just some part of the technique I am missing. Currently I'm not patient enough to learn how to make them work, so I'm giving up on using them for now. Chocolate chips do the job, so I am going to stick with them.

From here on out, my goal is to keep cake pops fun. They really do taste fantastic and I don't want some minor frustrations to keep them off my baking list.

Coconut Curry Chicken with Curried Potatoes and Peas #FoodPicFriday

Since the moment I met him, John has been a master of spice. I remember when we first got together, he would bring over delicious home made dishes for me to share with my room mate. Good food is definitely a quick route to my heart, and we have shared many amazing meals over the years.

One of our favourite meals is a good curry, but we have gotten out of the habit of making them. Last week we re-discovered our love for them and had a fantastic meal of coconut curry chicken and curried potatoes with peas served over basmati rice. This meal was so tasty and filling - I'm so glad we remembered how much we love them.