randomly yummy

When we had dinner guests yesterday, I knew I wanted to try some new appetizers. So I embarked on a little internet searching and happened upon the McCormick Seasonings Website. With little more than Brie and a loaf of sourdough bread, our guests were raving about the Bloomin Brie Bowl from the website. The only change we made was adding chopped sun dried tomatoes to the mix, but it worked. Loved this and have to make it again! Definitely a website worth checking out!

sweet tooth

Continuing with my 'if we can make it, we do' spree. I've been seeing recipes for home made mints all over the net recently and it was time to try my hand at making them. This is an easy no-bake cream cheese recipe which can be frozen for up to 3 months. That's my kind of cooking!
Recipe can be found here.

hello hello

Well, hello.
Here's a little of what we've been up to lately. We've gone 'home-made'. If we can make it, we are. So here we have a new home made spaghetti sauce.

This Pizza Sauce is from AllRecipes.Com

Rolling pasta thru the Kitchen-aid pasta maker.

More home-mades to come. Happy Wednesday!

cookie love

I made these yesterday and there isn't even one left to take a picture of. If you don't know what to do when faced with a house full of preschoolers these will make you a superstar! Not only were they good, they look great and are easy peasy! Check out the fabulous V and Co. for the how to:)

sunday morning

This is my breakfast this morning. Bacon and egg cooked in phyllo pastry with a little whole grain mustard and cheddar cheese. So yummy. We will be making these again.
We also used our phyllo pastry to whip up some mini quiche with sauteed onions, hot peppers and bacon, topped with cheddar cheese. Also voted yummy by our panel of judges. Happy Sunday everyone( :

spice cupcakes with cream cheese frosting

These cupcakes are decidedly the best cupcakes that have come out of my kitchen thus far. The cream cheese frosting was, (yes was, they are all long gone) not too sweet and very light so it complemented the spice cake cupcakes perfectly.

The recipe is so simple too!

1/4 cup cream cheese
1/4 cup softened butter
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cup icing sugar

Use mixer on medium till smooth. Yum!

rainbow crayons

What's this you ask? Remember the recycled crayon craft I mentioned back in February? Well, we finally tried it here at home. It's a great way to make use of all those little crayon nubs at the bottom of the Rubbermaid container that my kids use for their crayons.
After a little time in the oven.. you have brand new super cool rainbow crayons! Instructions below.

1# Remove any paper left on old crayon nubs

2# Using an oven safe mini muffin tin add crayon bits until about 3/4 full.

3# Preheat oven to 275 degrees.

4# Place tin in center of oven for approximately 10 minutes, watching constantly. You do not want melted crayon mixture to bubble.

5# Once completely melted, remove VERY carefully from oven and let sit for several minutes until set.

I put the now warmish tin into the freezer and the crayons just fell out of the tin a few hours later. Then you have awesome rainbow coloured crayons just like these. Happy crayon making!

chocolate popsicles

Wow. I love finding recipes that list ingredients I already have in the house! A recipe that will be a sure hit this summer in our house comes from the wonderful 'Adventures in Crafting' blog. Click the link to get the tutorial!

fondant

As you may recall. I used fondant for the first time this year when doing my husbands 'cat' birthday cake. I love the flexibility of fondant and the taste was okay. I have since wanted to try marshmallow fondant as I hear its far better. Well looks like my opportunity is here! The Crafty Crow which is always posting the best stuff has just posted a marshmallow fondant tutorial! Yay! Click here to follow the link.

mothers day gift

I wanted to get the kids involved in homemade gifts this year so I toured the web looking for good ideas that were kid friendly. We found this great recipe on 'Under The Table And Dreaming' for this Lemon Sugar Scrub and since the only ingredients were sugar, olive oil and lemon we made enough for everyone we knew.

getting somewhere

I thought a little progress report was in order. I am slowly getting some of my former self back. The craftiness is starting to flow! So far I've done all these dishcloths and I'm most of the way through a wine bottle bag. (I'll post when I finish) and I have high hopes for another project or two before winter is here again.

These dishcloths are quite simple and my favourite one is the wine coloured one. Cast on 42 sts, knit 3, purl one, knit 3 and repeat until you have a square.

home made chocolate bars

Put whatever you are doing down.. and run to the nearest grocery store!! (okay, perhaps your car is faster) I found recipes for Chocolate bars!! Ahhhh!

Snickers Bars

Snickers Bar recipe can be found here.

Kit Kat Bars

Get the Kit Kat tutorial from Grandma's Desserts here. If your thing is Twix check out this site. Oh, you're a 3 Musketeers junky? I guess this is more your speed. Now I gotta go. Got some shopping to do if I want to win Mommy of the Year tomorrow.

easter cupcakes

Yay bunnies! Hippity hop to Bakerella for the how to!

the happy baker

After drooling all over the laptop looking at Erin's creations I just have to try making these cookies myself. Made from Cadbury's mini eggs these Easter cookies are what I want in my basket.

Please visit Toronto's The Happy Baker Blog for more drooling.

make your own shower spray

Acrylic tubs suck. I am tired of plastic everywhere. Plastic bags, plastic sippy cups, plastic tubs! We recently moved and have found ourselves with acrylic tubs in our new home. They look wonderful while new, but soap scum seems to be very difficult to wash off and anything abrasive seems to ruin the finish.. so I started looking for alternatives. What I've ended up with is a daily shower spray that cuts down on the soap scum and keeps that shiny finish from getting scratched up so quickly. The best part for me is that its also an eco solution that I don't need to go out and buy. Here's all you need:

a dollar store spray bottle and..

1 part vinegar

4 parts water

cap full of jet dry

OR

1 part vinegar

4 parts water

tbsp of baking soda/Borax

waffles...mmmmmmmmmm...

I found this recipe on Waffle-recipe.com and have been wanting to post about amazing waffles for some time. I decided though to keep them to myself until we'd tested the recipe out a couple times. Well.. we've been having waffles most Sunday mornings now for a month.. and I can tell you this recipe will work and will be great. Yum!

a little muffin obsession

When you use the word cupcake it sounds decadent, a desert or fancy treat for birthday parties etc. But when you use the word muffin.. it seems to make anything you add to it ok. Like Chocolate Muffins or Coffee Cake Muffins.. yes.. Coffee Cake.. are you salivating too? I made these babies after dinner tonight and hope some will survive to see the sun come up.

the details are these:

1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup butter or margarine
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup milk

Mix flour, salt & baking powder together then set aside. Mix butter, egg, granulated sugar then add milk and vanilla. Once combined add wet mixture to dry mixture. Blend until smooth.

Spice mixture:

Combine 1/2 cup packed brown sugar, 2 tbsps of flour and 1 tsp of cinnamon in a small bowl. Once well mixed drop a spoonful over the 1/2 full muffin tins. Pour remaining batter to muffin tins and cover with remaining spice mix.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes at 400 degrees. Makes 12 muffins.

fall fun

When I was little we spent some lovely autumn afternoons at a local apple orchard and I was taught the difference between MacIntosh, Spartan, Lobo, Cortland etc... years later I have no idea what the difference is between most of those.. but I remember I loved to pick them, loved the wagon rides and the apple cider doughnut machine.. I could watch it roll little doughnuts for hours.

Once the doughnuts are ready they are put in a paper bag with a mix of cinnamon and sugar and you get to shake up your own hot doughnuts. Sometimes I was even given the special job of Doughnut shaker! Yum!

Now that E & J are old enough I'm hoping to share this orchard with them this year. If you live in Eastern Ontario and want to see some beautiful countryside and fall foliage take a trip out to Mountain Orchards and get some apples or doughnuts.. or both:)

I found this Cider Pound Cake Recipe on there website and I'm itching to try it.