Baking with my Family

A few weeks ago I had my sister, two cousins and nephew over to do some Christmas baking. It was lots of fun and we baked for hours. I'm blessed to be able to celebrate the holiday season with my family.

More updates from last week

First I must bid "Au Revoir" to my trust Brother sewing machine. She has been great over the past 8 years. I've made Halloween costumes on her, baby gift and attempted other tasks that weren't so successful and won't be mentioned. She has been a wonderful craft companion and she will be missed.

I will however still be able to visit her. I will be giving her to my niece for her birthday this year along with a bunch of fabric and notions. She has started sewing, well hand stitching. She makes clothing and accessories for her American Girl doll. She even makes gifts for her cousins AG doll. Rebecca was the first one to receive a sewn gift from me. You could say she inspired me to take my trusty sewing machine from of the shelf and use her to hand make a gift. We bought her AG doll a bed from Ikea last Christmas and I decided to make a quilt for the bed. This also introduced me to the world of blogging.

I can't say yet what the new sewing project is, but I will say that it prompted me to look into getting a more powerful machine. I did some online research and determined what I needed out of a machine. With that said, say good bye to Brother and hello to my new Janome 415. I bought her from a lady off of Kijiji. the machine retails for a couple hundred dollars. I was able to bargain and get it for $150. She is much more powerful and sewing is smoother with her. She even has some neat new tricks like auto needle threading and a lot more stitches. I am able to drop her "feed dogs" [technical term for the "teeth" that help the fabric move past the needle] and look forward to learning how to free hand quilt on her. Wish me luck!

Thanks Meg for your delicious recipe for baked french toast. I showed it to Kenrick on Thursday and he requested it for breakfast on Friday. I have to say not only was it easy and only used 2 dishes {a bowl to beat the egg} It was delicious! K wants me to try it again this weekend with bananas on top!






Here's a quick peak at the centerpiece I made for Easter dinner at our house. I took the flowers from the monthly bouquet K buys me and taped the ribbon to the existing vase. I used the butterflies from my wedding bouquet to cover up where the ribbon ends.

Close up of one butterfly in the flowers

Homely things

With the new year upon us, I have been moving furniture and cleaning out closets and cupboards. The above sidetable used to be in the kitchen. We noticed that when the phone rang and we were in the family room it was a bit of a jog to grab the phone before it stopped ringing. Not to mention this table has become the station for keys and cell phones, so we thought to move it to a central part of the house. This accent wall is directly across from the stairs and is in the main hall. So moving it made sense. Now if I could only make up my mind about hanging the accent shelves where it used to be, K would be so happy. I can't decide if I want it in the kitchen or as a focal point in the living / dinng room.

One of the new items I got for Christmas was a lable maker. I have been dying for one of these for a while. I grabbed some great glass jars with screw tops at the Real Canadian Superstore and organized the baking cupboard. I had all sorts of half bags from Bulk Barn with baking supplies. I was tired of tasting the "fruit sugar" to see if it was actually "rice flour" not a pleasent mistake.

The baking cupboard moved to above the microwave. I don't use them often so having them out of the way, and not using "prime real estate" in other cupboards is working great. If I could only get dad to finish the tiles on the backsplash, and add an outlet behind the microwave so that the ugly white coard is no longer staring at you when you use the toaster oven, this little space would be complete.

Since the baking supplies were down, and we noticed the jumbo muffin pan, K asked for blueberry muffins. Thank you Martha for the recipe. They turned out fantastic. As I took the picture, I turned to K and said - "Yummy muffins, it's a good thing". Boy did he ever laugh. At least I didn't tell him I was domestic. He would have probably rolled on the floor.

Chopping, Baking and Decorating - cont'd

I got the mantle done this Sunday, The glass on the right has all of the old ornaments from my MIL. The blue tree is mercury glass (my favorite). The "Ho Ho Ho" sign is wooden and the red stripes are glitter. Get this I found it at the dollar store! The star is wooden and the came pre-lite. I can't say where it came from cause it was given to me by my mom. The tall tree on the left was a great find at HomeSense and the little snowman globe K got and loves. The belly is glitter filled and the light inside changes color. Every few minutes there is a fan the stirs the glitter. It's really cute.



Here are the items I baked this weekend. Yummy almond biscotti. K was a little upset that I didn't cut them on the diagonal so that they were larger, but they definitely taste good.

There were about 50 shortbread cookies made and set to cool on the kitchen table. I rolled, cut and lay them on the cook sheet and K decorated them. He's such a great helper. The funny thing is he's the chef, but I can bake better. We balance each other.

This year I tried a new recipe. These little guys were called snowballs in the cook book. I've also heard them called almond crescents, but in my family my aunt used to call them Mice. So that's what I call them. They are pretty much butter, and icing sugar and a few other ingredients. Once they come out of the oven let them completely cool and roll them in icing sugar. Rest them on parchment paper and ta-da, ready to eat or pack in a pretty package to give someone for the holidays.

Finally the bread. Thank goodness MIL came over and helped me this year. We found out the problem was that the yeast didn't rise enough before we used it. I have mixed equal parts whole wheat with regular white flour. It's a bit better for you and tastes great still.

Holiday cheer

K bought me pretty flowers last week that came in a mercury glass vase. Last night I pulled all the wilted flowers and left the greenery. I grabbed a few white Christmas decorations and jazzed it up.

This weekend is operation "Christmas". That means we are baking, cutting and trimming the tree, and decorating the house. I can't wait to see what it will look like to have the Christmas tree in the living room this year. The space below has been vacuumed and we moved the chairs to prepare the space to hold the tree.

(yikes! I just noticed our new drapes are not lined and you can see the window through them. This will have to be fixed. Oh, one more thing, the snow - it's gone. It washed away the next day with rain and all we've gotten is rain or wet snow that doesn't last. Grrrr, it doesn't feel like Christmas all all.)

I just need to find an old, yes vintage, tree topper. I've seen them at HomeSense so maybe I'll stop there on Sunday
(found on Flicker)

Supplies ready for bread, cookies, biscotti, truffles and snowballs - Oh my!

The first snow flake

Finally snow! Yes I have been waiting for the snow and cold for a while. Most people are glad to have the mild weather. Putting off snow tires till now. Enjoying the days where you can still leave the house without a jacket, but not me.

See for me I don't see snow in the middle of November and it means something is wrong. Yes something is terribly wrong. This is Mother Earth's way of saying Ouch. We have polluted her lakes, rivers and oceans. We have made an unfixable hole in her Ozone. We are the cause of global warming and have begun to melt her ice caps. Animals are losing their homes, people in some situations are having trouble breathing. You question the condition of the lake you once swam in because of the filth lying on top of it. So no I am not happy to have a mild winter, no I'm not glad to leave the house without a coat. For me the snow means that there is still hope for her, she's still fighting to stay alive and well.

Evidence of her struggle

My knight in shining winter jacket, cleaning my car this morning for me, Swoon.

On a lighter note ~ I did it again! I came home last night and made homemade mac & cheese. See Hunny, I'm domestic. Yes I told him that again ~smile

He just laughed at me. When I gave him some of mine to taste, I smiled and said

"See I can cook, I don't need a recipe"

*note the cookbook on the counter that I followed

Just out of the oven

I just had to....

Sorry I've been away a few days, work has been really busy. Here are a few things that have happened in the past couple days that I just had to blog about.

I just had to say...

A big thank you to Pink Chalk Stuido for the lovely parcel I recieved in the mail. I hope to use one of these beautiful fabrics on the back side of a pillow for my eldest nieces Christmas gift...I can't say much more on this topic, but stay tuned for sneak peaks and updates.

The past few days I've been working the early shift (8-4) instead of 11-7. Which means there has been a lot more time after work to get things done. Like baking muffins and preparing dinner. On Tuesday I made stuffed pasta shells, I snapped this photo just before I covered the entire thing with cheese. As I turned to put it in the oven Kenrick was standing there....

I just had to say....

"Look Hunny I'm domestic"

He laughed and rolled his eyes, "Oh brother"

I stopped in the pet store last night to get Milo a new collar, as I walked past the bird cages....

I just had to take...

a picture of this beautiful little guy. I love birds, however not the mess or noise they make. Especially the ones that don't sing, just chirp. I love the pretty blue feathers. Would you pay $1400 for him? I don't think I would. Well maybe if he sung really pretty, wore a hat and played the guitar.

I know Halloween is over, but as I stood in line to buy Milo's new collar my eye caught sight of the Halloween costumes. Well actually the sign that read 75% off caught my eye, then I saw the costumes. Now I'm not one for dressing animals up and toturing them with family photos that get mailed as the Christmas card, but

For $2, I just had to buy it....

You can tell he wasn't very impressed by it. I only kept it on him for an hour until Kenrick came home and asked me why the heck I spent money on it. To be fair it is really meant for my dad. Not the shirt, I think it's a little small for him, but Milo dressed up. A few days before Halloween dad was watching a talk show where they had cats and dogs dressed up for Halloween. Dad turned to mom and said, "I wonder what Milo will be this year"

Mom couldn't contain the laughter and told dad to call me and ask. So when they come to visit this Saturday guess what Milo will be wearing to greet them at the door. They better have treats for him.

Vegetable trick!

Kenrick was on a cooking roll on Sunday. He made French onion soup, roasted red potatoes, steak and this yummy pasta. The pasta is called Orzo, it's shaped just like rice. He pan fried some scallops to add some meat to the dish and a package (opps sorry hunny) made from scratch- alfredo sauce. A few herbs an spices along with his secret ingredient. The sauce is so creamy and cheesy one would think that the orange shavings is cheedar cheese right? Well I found out last night it's not cheese. He grated some sweet potatoes and tossed it all together. Now I don't have any problems eating my veggies but if you have kids that find it a bit hard to swallow, try this little trick. You really can't taste them at all.

Wishing on a scale

My husband has this really good trick, he goes to the grocery store and buys 3-5 more bananas then we actually need. Then he let's them sit on our kitchen counter until Sunday. He know's if I'm home on Sunday I will take one look at the 'poor brown bananas' and make this tasty recipe for him. He hovers around the kitchen until I'm done and as soon as I take it out of the pan he is cutting himself a warm slice.

I think I'm going to hold out on him until he buy's me this precious pink cooking scale.

Yummy Banana Bread (courtisy of Martha Stewart with a few changes of my own)

Prep: 15 minutesTotal: 1 hour 30 minutes, Serves 10

Ingredients
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for pan
2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon nutmeg
2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/4 cups sugar
3 large eggs
3 cups mashed medium very ripe bananas (about 6)

1 tablespoon vanilla

1 to 1 1/2 cup chocolate chips

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9-by-5-by-3-inch (2-quart) loaf pan; set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, nutmeg, baking powder, salt, and baking soda; set aside.

2. In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add vanilla and eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. With mixer on low speed, add flour mixture in three additions, alternating with two additions of banana; mix until just combined. Stir in chocolate chips, if desired, by hand.

3. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake until a toothpick inserted in center comes out with only a few moist crumbs attached, 60 to 70 minutes. Let cool 10 minutes in pan, then turn out of pan and let cool completely on a wire rack.

Taste the Christmas

Here are a few shots of my Christmas baking this year. I tried 2 new recipes, my mother-in-laws sweet bread and chocolate shortbread cookies. They both worked great! As for the first picture....I truely believe the messier the kitchen is while you are cooking the better everything tastes!