Some distractions

No, nothing has happened to me. Just a few things kind of came together the last half of the week that thoroughly distracted me. It's all come out well and I'll be able to talk about it soon. I once thought that time had been invented so everything wouldn't all happen at once, but not so.

The back patio is back in action! I did the manly pressure washing thing, got two of the rain barrels set up, the BBQ moved back to the regular spot, and the table with umbrella all set up. Even yesterday that was a mound of ice. There's still a little tiny bit of ice where the other rain barrel goes.

We've used the BBQ any number of times over the winter, but this is the first time we've actually eaten outside this year. Bison burgers, if you're wondering.

I don't know how Curtis takes it, being so adorable and photogenic. I think the shutter click woke him up, semi-grumpy.

Green!

As some of you know I'm a volunteer photographer for my community association. I'd seen an ad for a live music night at one of the local restaurants, but didn't think anything of it. Then a similar ad turned up on one of my buddies facebook page. Turns out I know the singer's mom, so made time to drop in and take some photos.

In between photos of her, I had to take some photos of food. Patisserie del Soleil is awesome!

Drool alert! You may need a napkin

Such a tasty day. I don't often blog about food, which is sort of amazing given how good a cook Linda is, but today you have to suffer through me burbling about food.

After the brutal crushing disappointment of finding the Repsol hot tub out of action we settled in for a nice swim. Yes, my swim mojo is coming back. Yes, BRBE is swimming faster. There were several water polo games going on in the other pool, so it wasn't exactly a peaceful tranquil swim like Sunday so often is.

On the way home I was invited to have an espresso poured over foamed chocolate milk. That's a new one for me, so how could I refuse? No fancy machine, only a nice model of the moka pot we used in Venice. It was lovely to sip the coffee and chat. No rush. I think I have to get one of those, and see if our grinder will grind coffee that fine.

Home and things are smelling wonderful. We had lamb shank prepared several different ways over Christmas, and it was melt in your mouth each time. We got to wondering if there was such a thing as bison shank, since we love bison. I hadn't considered that such a shank might be the size of our stove, and thus difficult to cook.

Our bison supplier showed us some bison butchered as osso buco, and I was willing to try that. Once a while back in Halifax I had a wonderful meal of venison on a bed of risotto, and mentioned we hadn't had that for a while. As it turns out Linda has never cooked risotto the proper way and was happy to try.

So that amazing smell was the bison simmering away in a sauce of tomatoes, carrots, celery, shallots, and some herbs and spices to taste, with some red wine and chicken stock splashed in. I had to zoom back out for some parmesan cheese, and it was smelling even better than before. I don't think Linda quite appreciated how good it smelled, not having come in from outside. My tummy was beginning to rumble in appreciation.

Risotto has to be stirred constantly, and when it was done the bison was done. The bison and risotto went together perfectly! The bison was fall off the bone tender, and the risotto was firm but creamy. Some red wine with the meal, and I was in heaven. Saskatoon berry pie from Yum bakery for dessert.

You can't see the risotto in that photo, and believe me it was hard to pause even long enough for an iPhone shot, and I wasn't about to rearrange it. It's not really a kilo of meat, though it looks it. There's a big chunk of bone that went back into the sauce to be simmered some more, in preparation for the next meal.

We don't eat out all that much because we (and by we I mostly mean Linda) can produce a meal the equal of all but the fanciest places, at a fraction of the cost. I will stack my BBQ rack of lamb against any restaurant in the city. Once you've had one of our bison burgers, you'll never go back to a fast food place again. Plus we're home, so we can have two glasses of wine if we want, and not worry about the drive. And no, I don't mind doing dishes.

I just zoomed out to the library to pick up an item on hold, and when I got home it still smelled like dinner. I'm almost hungry again.

Here's the two recipes Linda started with, then modified a little along the way.
Osso Buco
https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/veal-osso-buco-358371

Risotto
https://www.thespruce.com/risotto-recipe-for-beginners-996008

Sweet as

Theres a great line in Snatch, where Alan Ford playing Brick Top, has been waiting for Turkish to come back and open his safe. A cup of tea is somehow requested, and Turkish asks. "You take sugar?" and Brick Top (an absolutely horrible man that delights in being horrible says "No thank you, Turkish; I'm sweet enough." I nearly peed myself and the entire scene. The whole movie is pretty funny too, in an off beat way.

Linda was out shopping the other day and came across honey. I love honey. Some would say that's good because I'm not sweet enough.

The normal supply is solid honey from Greidanus honey mill by the 3 Kg pail. Some of you might know that absolute honey perfection is crystallized honey, with a bit of liquid still in it. Clover by preference, since that reminds me of the honey my Grandpa made from his bees. I was terrified of bees back then, as fall out from an incident with a wasp's nest, but I loved the honey.

Liquid honey is fine too, and it comes in these lovely colours.

The black lines you see? That's not a defect. That's the upside down reflection of the trees across the road. Plus for a bonus, it's acting as a polarizing filter, showing some detail in the clouds that I couldn't see unless I looked really carefully.

Such rich colour. I didn't tweak the colour at all in Lightroom.

The unexpected treat that I should have realized is that as the honey gets darker, the chance of a selfie goes up.

Plus the house too! Such a bonus for you guys. My learning is that I should have taken the tag off the jar. This is good practice for when I want to photograph my glass paperweights. I've never been happy with any of the photos of them.

This time of year

It's best for things like this.

That was my post run snack the other day. Pheasant, dressing, cheese, special mustard relish. So yummy! It might have been after the run I came back like this.

Of course I napped after. There was a nice run today, 6K, 41:30 or so, though it wasn't anywhere near so cold.

Just for fun, a few cat pictures snapped on the fly, some of them in between naps.

So that's all caught up on iPhone pictures. More wildlife though, this little guy was caught during the photo ramble. I've no idea what kind of bird it is.

Today and yesterday I've been a bit of a slacker pants, which is what this time of the year is all about. Browsing TV shows to replay favourite bits. Re-reading bits of own writing for characterization hints. Developing photos. Blogging is the big activity of the day. I'm so good to you guys.

First outdoor bike 2016

During the ride at one point I had that POSH song from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang going through my mind, and I was trying filk it into windy out, uphill home, but it wasn't working very well.

Yes, you remember the song, don't lie to me. It's the traveling life for me, Port Out, Starboard Home, POSH with a capital P O S H. Now that I've got that going around in your brain we will get onto the ride.

It's so nice here today! I've had rides at the height of "summer" that were not as nice as this. But we didn't just ride. I'm to star in a movie Michelle directed, filmed, and produced, and will edit. The subject matter is torrid and riveting for a certain audience. It's about taking the trainer tire off, and putting a road tire on.

Once I showed her how it worked, I made her do part of it for herself. That way, when (not if) she gets a flat out in the boonies, while it's raining or snowing, with a bear padding along to see if she would be good eating, she will have the confidence to get it done and be on her way. Which might explain why she wants to ride with me. Unless we're going downhill or she wants to draft, she can go faster than me. The cats knew she had arrived before I did!

This time I didn't have one, I didn't have 2, I had 3, count'em THREE means of keeping track of time distance stuff. Of course they all disagreed. That will be later for the many numbers fiends that make up my devoted readership.

The short and simple result is 55.5 K, 2:40, not trying to work too hard.We stopped for a few minutes in the middle to figure out where we were, and had to go south some more.

The first half, from home to 22x, and out to 22 was into a moderate wind. Going south wasn't bad, and along the diagonal was pretty good, if uphill the whole way. Then north on 37 St, or whatever it's called south of 22x, and all the rest of the way home was a cross or head wind. Not that I'm complaining. It makes for a better training ride.  Lovely warm, shorts and bike shirt for me, and most of the people we saw.

We saw a ton of other people out on bikes, and got a chuckle out of a cop speed trap on 22x just before city limits. They had one car pulled over as we got there, and pulled over 2 more as we went past. Not too many motorbikes, which is good.

After the ride was some yard work. It's April 2, so it seems just a little perverted to be working on the lawn.

After the yard work came why we do the yard work. That's BBQ duck breast. First outdoor meal this year! I don't even have the sunshade up yet, or pressure washed anything back there. Maybe tomorrow.

And the numbers and graphs I know you've all been waiting for.

		Bike	Garmin	iPhone (Ismoothrun)
	Distance Km	55.76	55.49	55.52
	Time	2:39:29	2:38:00	2:39:13
	Avg Speed	21	21.1	20.92
	Max Speed	76.2	74.8	76.1
	Elevation Gain		642	619
	Elevation Loss		641	601
	Avg Heartrate		114
	Max Heartrate		145

And the elevation pace stuff, can't forget that! This is from iSmoothrun. From that peak elevation you get an awesome view of the city, and if you ride it the other way the mountains are spectacular.

From the Garmin. I believe the heart rate. The blue line is pace. I was all over the place.

I don't have any idea what the cadence is measuring. The Garmin is on my wrist. It isn't hooked up to anything but the heart rate monitor.

All in all an excellent weekend so far!

The mighty veggie dish

There were veggies at Christmas dinner with friends. Oh, I know, most people serve veggies. Corn, spuds, carrots, squash, sweet potato, and (gack) brussels sprouts are common. This was more. Much more.

Here's Linda's instructions and commentary.

This recipe will fill a standard roasting pan (the kind you cook a turkey in) to the top. Quantities can be reduced to make a smaller dish. For this dish all the vegetables were certified organic with the exception of the shallots & the hot house peppers. All of the cut vegetables were cut into pieces no larger than ½ inch in size.

2 large shallots, peeled & chopped into medium size chunks
2 heads garlic, all cloves peeled & tossed whole into the vegetable mix
1 bunch celery hearts, sliced thin
1 each red, yellow & orange bell peppers, seeded/chopped
1 8 oz package cherry tomatoes
1  small head broccoli, chopped
1 small head cauliflower, chopped
4 medium sized sweet potatoes/yams, sliced/chopped (approximately 2 ½ pounds)
1 two lb package baby potatoes, cut into quarters
8 oz package baby carrots, sliced small
Mixed squash – I used 4 different varieties, seeded & cut into small chunks. I was able to purchase cut pieces of acorn, butternut, kabocha & sweet dumpling squash. I seeded the pieces where seeds were present & cut the flesh into smaller ½ inch chunks. I did not peel the squash as the colorful rinds were part of the display. Approximate quantity was about 4 cups chopped squash.
Fresh rosemary, sage & thyme, chopped (try to have at least ¼ cup of fresh chopped herbs)
Fig balsamic vinegar
Olive oil
Maple syrup
½ teaspoon salt (only add salt if making a full roasting pan – do NOT add any salt if making reduced quantities)
Fresh ground pepper
Ground nutmeg or fresh ground nutmeg

Peel the shallots & garlic, wash & chop all the vegetables except the cherry tomatoes & the garlic cloves which can be tossed in whole. Strip fresh rosemary/sage off the stem & chop the rosemary & sage leaves, strip the thyme leaves off the stems & add the fresh herbs to the vegetable mix. Once the roasting pan is full but not overflowing add approximately 1/2 cup of fig balsamic vinegar, 1/2 cup olive oil & ¼ cup maple syrup. Grind a small amount of salt – try not to exceed 1/2 tsp for the entire roasting pan & preferably less than that - grind at least 1 tsp fresh pepper. Add ½ tsp ground nutmeg or grind ½ tsp fresh nutmeg over the vegetable mix. Mix or toss the vegetables until they are evenly coated with the balsamic vinegar/olive oil/maple syrup mix. Cover the pan with tin foil & roast in a 350 degree oven for one full hour.

For all the salt lovers out there, do not add more than the recommended amount of salt. Root vegetables contain salt & the cooking process releases that salt into the dish. If you cut down the quantities to make a smaller dish, do not add ANY salt at all. Once the dish is cooked & served, if you find it too bland then add salt to the serving on your plate.

For a reduced quantity dish, peel & chop one large shallot, peel & toss in one head of garlic, two peppers seeded & chopped, still add the full 8 ounce package cherry tomatoes, 2 to 4 stalks celery sliced thin, ½ to 1 cup each broccoli & cauliflower florets, 1 medium sized sweet potato/yam, ½ of a small squash, 6 to 8 baby potatoes & 4 ounces baby carrots. Cut the quantity of fresh herbs in half & add 2 tablespoons each of fig balsamic vinegar, olive oil & maple syrup. DO NOT ADD ANY SALT. Grind ½ tsp fresh pepper & add 1/8 tsp ground nutmeg. Still roast at 350 degrees but reduce the cooking time – it will likely take no more than 25 – 30 minutes to cook, especially if the vegetables are spread out in one thin layer on the bottom of the baking dish. If you want a ‘drier’ dish, you can leave the tin foil off but pay attention or you could end up with dried out, burnt vegetables, as the sugars from the maple syrup/fig balsamic could caramelize faster than anticipated.

This dish is excellent over plain rice or cooked quinoa. The liquid that comes out of the vegetables during the cooking process (when covered with tin foil or a lid) will be absorbed by the rice/quinoa & is highly flavored. If you choose to cook the dish w/o a lid of any kind so it is drier, there should still be some liquid at the bottom of the dish at the end of the cooking process. Make sure the dish does not dry out completely, you want some moisture left on the bottom. The residue can be used to make a gravy or soup stock. If you’ve made a ‘dry’ dish the residue can be mopped up with fresh chunks of bread. Yum!

Even me, not especially known for liking veggies, chowed down on this dish. 7 adults ate most of it.

I'm still recovering. That massive load of veggies had the expected impact on me, but it didn't impact the lovely run on Saturday.

The swim on Sunday was a bit of a downer. My arms were back in the Pastafarian church, and I was being careful of my hamstrings. They were feeling sort of pre-crampy. The major let down was missing out on the hot tub. It was out of action for maintenance, I had really been looking forward to it. REALLY LOOKING FORWARD!

Today was an easy day. Lots of writing. Some stretching and core to work on the hamstrings. So far I haven't been on the bike. Maybe later. Yeah.

And just for fun, a pic of Curtis using Celina as a pillow.

Keith and the cube ride again

Winter training season just began for me. Even though it's not quite winter yet. The water freezing a little overnight in the garden water barrels just means it's still fall. Winter means it freezes solid.

Even after the bike fit I wasn't out on my bike much this year. Somehow it didn't work out what with all the swimming, and trying to be regular on the run. But I've promised myself to get on the trainer so that next year can be a good bike year. At last.

Starting with cats and coffee. I was watching a lovely sunrise, held down by cats, so this was the best photo I could get. I suspect if you lived a bit further east it was pretty spectacular.

This is where Estela lives between rides. It's time to get her on the trainer.

The semi-famous heat gun trick. Trainer tires are notoriously hard to get on the rim. I had one bad episode a few years ago that involved much swearing. Now I take the time to warm it up thoroughly before trying to mount it. When it's warm I can roll it onto the rim with my hands without working too hard. Do you notice the supervisory cat?

The old cube computer has been off since the last trainer ride. I'm not even sure when that was, but it fired up like a champ. I've got some music going for the ride. Anyone remember the visualizer? I'm wondering what I want to watch during the many rides I've got planned. Maybe the last season of Leverage that I missed.

Here she is, all ready to go.

Curtis likes to snooze on the red blanket. Here he is concerned about the slight humming sound the cube makes. I think that was when the cd was spinning up.

Celina loves to cheer me on and lick my sweaty skin.

I wasn't sure what to expect for the ride, and decided to go with the flow. It took a few minutes to get the trainer calibrated. 15 minutes warm up, gradually spinning faster, in an easy gear at about 125 watts. Heart rate still under 100, breathing very easy, gradually starting to sweat. Then 10 minutes at about 160 watts. Last time I was serious about training this was about the top of my endurance range. My heart rate was about 120, and I could easily breathe through my nose without getting behind. Legs are feeling good.

Then a couple minutes at about 200 watts, still not breathing hard, and my heart rate about the same. Then a couple minutes at 225, starting to notice the work, but still feeling good, heart rate up to about 130. Then a couple minutes at 250, and I can really start to feel it here. My lungs are fine, heart rate just over 140, and my legs are wanting to dial it back. Another 10 minutes of easy spin to cool down for about 45 minutes after calibration. My butt was beginning to talk to me about being on the bike.

Lots of stretching and rolling with the gear roller. Minor clunks and clicks from my back and hips.

I'm pleased and surprised by this. I was working off my old training effort list and I don't think it's too far off for now. I'll carry on with this for a few more rides, getting into the groove again, then I'll do another test to see where my current training zones really are.

My thinking over the winter is going to try to swim 3x a week, working on stroke and speed. Run a couple times a week at least, depending on weather, with one long run in there. Try to get on the bike 3x a week, working on intensity and strength for most of the rides, and one long ride at the top of endurance pace, whatever that is. All this is depending on my work situation of course. I might have  much more time for workouts.

I'm still scoping out races for next year, but I'm at least thinking about doing some. I haven't forgotten my goal of running a marathon. There are several to choose from, and at the moment Banff is calling my name. There are lots of Oly distance triathlons out there, and I might pick a couple of them. There don't seem to be many half-iron distance races here with a 2016 date. Just GWN and YYC70.3 and I've done both of them. I was hoping Sylvan was going to run again, but I can't find any info about it. Lets see how this goes.

There's a lamb roast lurking in the bottom of the pot, ready for a wonderful meal.

As I sit with some wine, post-meal, trying to work on my blog, and capture some novel thoughts, this is my view.

Or this.

I'm coming up on a blog milestone soon. I'm also starting to draft a primer about electoral system reforms. Stay tuned.

Drunk blogging

A close relative of drunk texting. This is done without any editing whatsoever. The major difference is that I'm not annoying one person. Anybody that clicks on this can go somewhere else on a second's notice. Look! Shiny! Gotta go. Except you are consumed with curiousity about whatI might say. As my book character Ronnie says, "let the cow chips land where the splatter takes them"

But, you are captured for reader stats. Yay me! As Celina says whenever she darts into the bedroom or outside past our feet, points for me!

So there was these series of meetings at work I don't want to talk about, involving this semi-cryptic diagram. BUT WHO CARES! (Channeling Rhuby Rhod.)

Here's the view while I was drinking. Kind of darker than it appears, but I'm too lazy to brighten it up.

And here's what I was drinking.

After escaping work, I picked up Michelle and we headed over to Gray Eagles Hotel to pick up our race package, attend the athlete briefing, and scope out the expo. We saw our buddy Leana and chatted.

This was all good. Well, except where it wasn't. This is not intended as a slight against the many volunteers. Not at all. I've volunteered myself many times at races, and in fact, Linda just found the Chinook race crew shirt from last year, which has been buried in the heap on our chaise lounge in the bedroom. But enough of that. We discussed it at length during our drinking.

Part of my problem is that I'm inexorably process driven. I follow where the data takes me. If I know I have 1500 people signed up for a race, to me it's dumb to book a room that holds about 120 people for the athlete briefing. But that's just me. Other than that, the actual package pickup process was great. Unlike during my Ironman race. Read process rant here, which includes a generalized rant. In general. Just go read, it's one of my better ones.

I'm of several minds about this whole darned Calgary 70.3 thing. Firstly, I'm on a team with Michelle, and what's important is to be a good team member. Being signed up for this has been good, as there have been several swims I'd have probably bailed on if she hadn't been expecting me to pick her up. This is good. (Best run buddy ever! and best relay team member ever!)

But I'm a bit pissed at the WTC in general. The whole 50 women to Kona thing annoys me. Pros are pros. If it's a world championship, build a set of rules, and apply them equally. I don't really care if it's the top 10 pros, or the top 100 per gender. Sure there is limited spot on the pier. Give them away to lottery winners, or to the pros that are the a big part of the lifeblood that supports the sport. Hmmm, let me think about that.

Then there is the local race organization. I once told a boss of mine, the one that in fact owned the company, that if he was going to do swag, don't do the cheap shit. When you do it, do quality. The finisher shirt I got out of finishing the first Calgary 70.3 was a travesty. It looked like, and might have been, a 70's iron on transfer on a cheap cotton T shirt. I wouldn't wear it in public. Even today, most of the T shirts didn't feel like good quality cotton. But that's just me and my picky fingers. Let's not even go into design. That's a personal choice.

More importantly, is the lack of consistent messaging. For a while we were told there was a team briefing at Talisman at 4pm. We didn't think it was real, but we're a team, and we planned our work schedules around that. A couple hours beforehand we learned it was cancelled. FAIL! Get your shit together. All messaging should be coordinated, regardless of channel. All materials should agree with each other. I've seen several different swim maps, all subtly different. Bah!

Something we noticed today, and were appalled by, is the sale of finisher shirts and medals from last year. Somebody must have goofed big time. There were lots. Why would anyone buy finisher merchandise for a a race they have not finished? If for some reason a box of stuff didn't make it to the finish line, and finishers did without, then mail it to them. There might be a limited market for finisher shirts after the fact, but the medals? I don't get it. They know exactly how many people have entered the race. A few left over I understand. Oh well. But there were many. Boxes worth. Something isn't right there.

I digress. We had a nice time at the expo, other than standing in a room too small by half, listening to a guy mostly talking about stuff in the published documents, answering questions from people that have not read the published documents. Grr. Just like there is a swim nazi in me, I want a huge crook to come out of nowhere, grabbing people by the neck, asking a question that is answered in the published documentation. Automatic disqualification. I don't blame the guy. He's probably running on much less sleep than he needs the last few days. There are enormous challenges to putting on one of these events. Don't get me started on question and answer sessions.

As a side note, during our swim today there was someone that just didn't understand. She wandered into our lane, oblivious. I mentioned we were swimming circles clockwise (up that half of the lane, back this half) and she was welcome to join us. She said she didn't swim well, and wandered off to what she thought was an empty lane. The swim club promptly kicked her out of it. Then she came back and swam the wrong way. I came within one stroke of running over her. I told her the dive tank was open and might be better for her because the water was warmer. That did it, she left.

In the end, it (race prep, keep up) all worked out. We know what we have to do. We know where we have to be at various times. We have scoped out the all important chip transfer. We have trained. There will be fun had, whether it wants to be had or not.

Once home, after stupid traffic on 14th St, there was BBQ. But first the traffic. There was one massive demonstration of driver incompetence on northbound 14 St just south of Glenmore that required several cop cars. One the other side of the road  just south of that was another massive demonstration of driver incompetence almost certainly caused by rubber-necking at the first one. I don't know which was first. It doesn't matter. All the people involved ought not to be allowed to drive anymore, for the safety of the rest of us. A giant hook should appear out of nowhere the next time they get into the driver's seat, yanking them off to somewhere unpleasant.

The BBQ. We found a jar of Ancho Molasses Chipolte sauce in the cupboard. We nibbled a bit of it as dip on chips the other day and found it wonderful. Today Linda marinaded some chicken in it, and I BBQ it. Amazing! We munched the chicken burgers, and drank wine, and drank more wine. Enjoyed the garden. Scroll back up and look at that one photo again.

We talked of many things, and drank more wine. Life is good. Retirement is sort of soon, depending on options.

I'm looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow, waking up in a slow way, and getting coffee and breakfast on my schedule. This is becoming more important to me, and I'm getting less willing to rush out to get to 'work'. We will deliver Michelle's bike to T1 and stroll around some more getting ourselves totally in the mind to race. Our wave start is right after the pros. I can't catch them. The wave of middle aged guys (30 to 44) starts a few minutes after me. I'd like to stay ahead of them. My thought is that since I don't have to bike, I'm going to swim my brains out. The sequence of events will be to finish swim, run to Michelle and bike, hand over the chip, puke and collapse in a heap for a while, then travel to T2 and cheer on people till Michelle arrives, whereupon I go crazy.  It should be good.

peanut butter chocolate cups

I keep meaning to try this, but haven't yet. It looks like a perfect post workout snack. No, this isn't a Linda recipe. I got it somewhere along the way, and I've forgotten where now.

Although I don't think I'd store them in the freezer. That would make them too hard. The fridge is probably perfect.

I'd be a rebel and use crunchy peanut butter. And dark chocolate.

What's with the cupcake papers? If I'm making this I'm going to see if I can get those papers that Costco muffins come in.

Ingredients:
16 oz semi-sweet or milk chocolate, chopped (or use chips)
2 Tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
1/3 cup confectioners sugar
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
Directions:
In a small glass bowl, heat half of the chocolate in the microwave for 30-60 seconds. Remove from the microwave once the chips begin to slightly melt. Use a fork to stir until smooth, using the heat of the chocolate to melt the remaining chips entirely. If needed, re-heat in 10 second intervals until smooth. DO NOT over heat the chocolate, as it will burn and seize. Line a muffin tin with cupcake papers. Spoon a small amount (about 2 teaspoons) of chocolate into the bottom of each paper. Tap the pan on your counter top to help smooth and spread the chocolate. Place the pan in the freezer for 15 minutes to harden the chocolate. Meanwhile, prepare the peanut butter. In a small bowl, beat together peanut butter, butter and confectioners sugar until smooth and fluffy. Remove the pan from the freezer, and spoon a small amount of peanut butter on to the chocolate layer. Again, tap on counter top to level and spread the peanut butter. Return the pan to the freezer and allow to harden for about 15 minutes. Repeat the first step and melt the remaining chocolate in the same manner. Spoon the top chocolate layer over the peanut butter and return to freezer.