Awesome Secret Sister . . .

Bad receiving sister etiquette.  That would be me. 

Yes, I joined another one of Carla's Secret Sister Swaps. I adore doing them and I got s much joy from putting together my "sisters" package and I really do hope she likes it. Not sure how long it will take to get to her as she's stationed out in Afghanistan right now but it will get there eventually.

I received my secret sister's package from the lovely Sam of http://www.anostrichnamedsam.blogspot.ca/ two weeks ago now and I have failed at posting about it.   I did at least email her and let her know I got it safe and sound and loved it.   Now I am finally going to share it with all of you.

Behold! A lovely array of thing that I love!  I really need to make a trip to Chapters now. I know just the book I've been wanting to get for myself for a while now.  Though, knowing me I'll get distracted there and get something else or another few things that I didn't mean to get but fell in love with anyways *lol* I'm so not allowed to go there more than a couple times a year.  We love books.

Above the gift card, my most favoritest chocolates in the WORLD. (Even tops the Seroogies Melt Away bars I grew up on back in Green Bay Wisconsin that USED to be my favorite. )  Some great little travel sized lotions for my super dry hands. I really like the Jasmine one but they all have great scents.  And one of them even sparkles! 

Add to that 4 packets of seed for our crazy garden which I'm so excited to get back into now that the weather is warming up. 

A cute little Easter puppy for Little Badger.

A darling pair of amethyst purple earrings. 

And then this little gem.  A cookbook, which she hit the nail right on the head when she said in her note she thought it might be something I'd like, that has a lot of rustic and classic recipes.  Including some great edible wild plant recipes (goose foot, purslane, cat tail!)  It's an older book that was passed through to her from a friend and now she's passed it to me.  I love it!  

I'm especially excited about the bread section.  Reading though it was so much easier for me than my "Bread Bible" book and a lot more things make a lot more sense now. Also it has a good solid wheat loaf which my book didn't have and I can't wait to try it out!  Though I do have to hold off till I finish this second dietbet as I am just far too weak when it comes to bread and I don't know if I could resist eating a whole loaf. 

Yes. . .  I said it.  *hangs head in shame* I'm THAT bad.  My biggest weakness, buttered toast and fresh squish warm buttered bread.

So thank you Sam. You did an amazing job and I loved it all!

Badger's Birthday

So, another link in the where I disappeared to.

August had me busy gearing up for both my son's birthday and the Toronto Fan Expo convention. (Yes, I'm a big geek.)  So while one day I'd be working on the mobiles to decorate the kitchen. . .

and the next day had me scrambling to get this done. . .

More on this later....

Again, missing all my photos I don't have my step by steps for the birthday decor but above were the paper  mobiles I made.  It made it easier that I already had a pile of pre-cut 1" wide strips of paper sitting around in my scrapbooking supplies. So all I had to do was sit down, sort them into the colors I wanted and cut them in half.

Then, after cleaning up the piles multiple times thanks to some grabby fingers, I marked the middle on them all and then fed them through my sewing machine. Easy peasy.

I got the idea from this tutorial at  Project Wedding. Though I just used regular construction paper instead of the pretty vellum paper.  Less see through but still like how they turned out.

And then there was the bunting.

The morning after photo...

My first time making a bunting. Made from an up-cycled old bed sheet (the green stripes) and an old pillow case (the blue/lavender stripe).  I always thought bunting looked pretty easy. The cutting out the fabric went ok.  And the iron on letters.  but I found I got a bit frustrated with the putting them all on the ribbon.  Maybe if I had used proper bias tape it would have been easier.  But it still worked up decent.  I made 4 separate sections.

HAPPY   -   1st   -   BIRTHDAY  -  (his name) 

His name is now hanging over his crib, the 1st is set aside as a keep sake,  and the happy birthday is packed up for future use.




Then there were the cakes...

Since my little boy had a thing for trying to eat the grass or dirt every time we brought him outside to play.....

I made him a little mound of dirt and grass for a smashing cake!  Though as you can see, I could have used more practice with the grass tip.  Ah well.  Crushed oreo on the side and good to go.   The vivid green made for gorgeous photos of the smashing.


And for everyone else. . .

Rainbow Mason Jar Cakes!  Ever since I saw a picture of these on Pinterest (lost the link)  I decided I just HAD to make them. I followed a vanilla cake recipe off of www.joyofbaking.com and an ermine butter-cream frosting from Culinary Alchemist.   They are a bit labour intesive with the splitting of the batter into so many different colors and spooning them in by layer. But they turned out so pretty!

The party itself was outside on a gorgeous summer day with a baby pool and a camping tent filled with all sizes of balls and a bunch of balloons!  Sitting under the shade of the apple tree with our friends and their little ones.  Little badger had a blast.  Not too shabby I hope for planning my first kidlet birthday.  ^_^

With that done, then next day I was off to Toronto. . .


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http://whipperberry.com/

Sweet Treats from a Sweet Lady!

I came down yesterday from putting Little Badger down for and early bedtime (he was really tired) to find out we had had a visitor while I was in his room!

 

Sweets from the sweet!  Susan of Food Allergy Chronicles had mentioned plans of strawberry picking when I ran into Friday morning. Little did I know I'd be receiving some of the spoils! 

What you see in the picture above is a jar of regular strawberry jam, a jar of Splenda sweetened jam, and a small strawberry cake! *Update, it's a tea loaf! Either way it was delicious!* And my god is it good. O_o But that's no surprise when it comes from Susan's kitchen!!!

Though I received my lovely gifts on Friday, I didn't get a chance to try them (or at least the cake) until today as I did my own little bit of baking on Friday. 

Behold! My very first French Silk Pie!

 

I had been craving one of these for the last 3 years. French Silk Pie was my all around favorite any time pie back in my home town.   But seeing as there is no Perkins near buy I couldn't indulge.   So I finally caved and made my own.

I have to admit I'm quite pleased with how it turned out.   The recipe was fairly easy.  One I got off of CafeMom.com

Here it is from the site:

• 1 cup whipping cream
• 6 ounces semisweet chocolate pieces
• 1/3 cup butter
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 2 egg yolks, beaten
• 3 tablespoons whipping cream
• 1 baked 9 inch pie shell
• whipped cream (for serving)
• chocolate curls (for garnish)

In a heavy 2-quart saucepan, combine the 1 cup whipping cream, chocolate pieces, butter and sugar.

Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, till chocolate is melted.

Remove pan from heat.

Gradually stir about half of the hot mixture into the beaten egg yolks.

Return egg mixture to saucepan.

Cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, till mixture is slightly thickened and almost bubbly-- 3 to 5 minutes.

Remove saucepan from heat.

Stir in whipping cream.

Place saucepan in a bowl of ice water, stir occasionally till mixture stiffens and becomes hard to stir (20 minutes).

Transfer chocolate mixture to a medium mixing bowl.

Beat the cooled chocolate mixture with an electric mixer on Medium to High speed until light and fluffy 2 or 3 minutes.

Spread filling in a baked pastry shell.

Cover and chill pie 4-5 hours.

Serve with whipped cream and a garnish with chocolate curls.


 I look forward to the next one!

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