The Brown Butter Pumpkin Layer Cake on the cover of the latest issue of Fine Cooking. A delectable pumpkin spice cake with a topping of pecans, brown sugar and crystallized ginger. Doesn’t it look scrumptious? I am having guests for Thanksgiving dinner…and I am so excited to make this cake! I started reading Fine Cooking a few years ago. It is my very favourite cooking magazine. Everything recipe I have tried from this mag has been outstanding.
Outdoor Decor…
Yes. My dirty little secret. While the inside of my house was plumped for Fall, my front door was barren. {And while I am not fond of the white screen door, it came with the house.} I had a bad case of the buy-something-new-itis this week. I really, really, really wanted to buy something new for the front door. I looked around at a few shops and found a wreath that I quite liked, but it was $70. With all the monies that just flew out of our house for school fees and sports fees, I could not justify $70 Read More »
Shrimp Creole Recipe & Menu Planning Tips
I love Menu Plan Monday. I just don’t feel organized for the week unless my menu plan is done. I love when dinner time comes around and I have a plan. I know lots of people who don’t do menu planning but wish they did. The first comment I hear is that they don’t know where to start. Here are my top 3 tips for making a menu plan. 1. Ask family members what some of their favourite meals are. Make a list of meals to pick from for future menu planning.You might think you know what their favourites are, Read More »
A Special Place for Vintage & Sentimental Jewellery…
I have been looking for a way to display some of my vintage & sentimental jewellery for some time. Anyone who visits my house knows how I love to display things that I love. I finally found something which I think works perfectly. While trolling through Home Sense {the Canadian name for Home Goods} one day last spring, I found this ‘shadow box’ type display box. It differs from a shadow because it has a door with an adorable little crystal knob, so you can change things out quickly and easily. The price was only $16.99…which I thought was super reasonable. Read More »
Nesting for Fall….
I had a super day at home today. I puttered. I played and had fun! I tweaked the house for fall by changing some tablescapes. My decorations are very simple. I used items from around the house along with things that I have slowly collected over the years. Nothing is the same from year to year. Canadian Thanksgiving is one month from today!! {October 11} So I am celebrating Fall & Thanksgiving. {It is too early for Halloween for me. I don’t decorate for Halloween until Thanksgiving is over.} The tablescape below for the coffee table is my fav so far. I started Read More »
Big Batch Burritos For the Freezer
Fall is so busy with after school activities.I see crazy times ahead. Both my children are heavily entrenched in winter sports.For my daughter…..it’s synchronized skating and figure skating.For my son….it’s hockey.Both will be out of the house after school a few evenings a week for their sports.This leaves me with the task of feeding them nutritious food that is ready at the quick and can be eaten in minutes. I was doing my daily round of blog reading this morning and enjoying the parade of recipes at Balancing Beauty & Bedlam when I came upon this idea for healthy burritos for Read More »
A Very Simple Harvest Supper…
Despite the threat of clouds and rain, Hunter & I hit the local Farmers Market on Saturday. We found lots of fabulous looking fruits and vegetables. The fruit below looked so scrumptious and yummy, and for $8.00 for this selection, how could I pass it up? Below shows everything we came home with. It all smelled so good. I decided that a very simple harvest supper would be our meal that night. I started with building a simple heirloom tomato salad. It was simple: tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, freshly cracked black pepper & salt, and a drizzle of balsamic vinaigrette. Fresh corn was Read More »
I am not ready….
{A favourite image to get me juiced up for fall.} Everyone around blogland, it seems, is decorating for Fall. Not me. I am not ready yet. My children just went back to school yesterday. And I live in a northern Canadian city. Winter, once it starts, lasts forever. And a day. We just had our last snowstorm on June 1. 3 short months ago. Soon enough, I will be driving my daughter to early morning skating practice in below minus-pray-my-car-starts weather. So I am going to hang on to summer a little longer. Fall decorating for me will start after Read More »
The Secret of Great Entryways…
I have been doing a ‘study’ of these great entryrooms to figure out what makes a great entryway. For me, a great entryway has: Ample & functional storage for the people who live there. It also had a bulletin board to keep things ‘front and centre’, so to speak. It has a place to hang coats and hats. And baskets for storage. It tells a bit about the people who live there. The ‘personality factor’ is so important. It has great lighting and a comfy mat underfoot. And a style all it’s own. {Also, I seem to notice that I love Read More »
Save Your Fork….There’s Pie…
It all started with my friend, Gloria, mentioning that she had raspberries in her backyard. Wild raspberries. And then I mentioned that raspberry pie was one of our absolute favourite pies. A ‘baking date’ was on. A day to go to her place, pick raspberries, and then make pies. We decided to make little hand pies {tarts] since we thought single serving baked goods were the way to go. On the pre-planned day, we arrived at her house and headed to the backyard to pick our raspberries. {And let me tell you…the skeeters in that berry patch were thick.} The berries, unfortunately, Read More »
Today I am a Guest at Sense & Simplicity…
Please go over and visit me there and say ‘hello’!
Happy Birthday Hunter…
In honour of my daughter Hunter’s 14th birthday, I would like to dedicate this post to her and share 14 things about our big “Curly Girl”. 1. She has always been our little fashion diva. Even at a very young age, she liked sunglasses as an accessory. Here she is with Mr. Ducky at our backyard pool in 1999. 2. When Hunter was little, she had ringlets literally dripping from her head. She used to get a lot of attention because of her curls. I called her my “Curly Girl”. {With Daddy on the Scotia Prince Ferry from Yarmouth, N.S. to Read More »
How I Love All the White…..But In Real Life?
I absolutely love these white rooms. I find them all so fresh and fabulous. This white foyer is delightful. This entry is so fresh & fun. Love this cozy room! This bedroom is so calming and serene. I covet this cottage! Rustic yet sophisticated charm. But my reality is this: Black fingerprints from newspaper reading on all the white kitchen cabinets. I wipe them everyday. Little brown pawprints on the leather sofas. I wipe them everyday. Doritos-orange{or other snack food} fingerprints on the door to the family room. I wipe them everyday Food stains on the dining room chairs. I wipe them everyday. Read More »
My New Little Reading Spot…
Since my daughter has claimed my favourite reading & watching TV spot on the sofa lately….and I feel so rude kicking her out of what was my spot, I have now claimed this chair as my new resting place. The only problem was that it needed a lamp for reading. So, I went on a search for a lamp to be a sidekick for this chair. My budget was small….only $100 was what I had in mind. I didn’t want anything fancy…just something to blend into the room. After checking around numerous stores, I settled on this Martha Stewart bamboo-look lamp from Home Read More »
The Back-to-Schooling Begins. Step 1: The Wardrobe Weed Out.
In our house, the back-to-school prep always starts in the childrens’ bedrooms. I go through the clothes. I start with the shirts. I retire the stained, the ripped, the too-small and the just plain ugly. Next I move on to the bottoms. I leave the shorts out until the end of September. And here’s how we save money. We don’t buy any back to school clothes for the boy. And the reason is simple: he doesn’t ask for any. He is a 9 yr. old boy. He doesn’t give two hoots about clothes or fashion. So we buy stuff for Read More »
Visit Me Over At Crazy Domestic Today…
I am absolutely thrilled to be sharing my camping series over at ‘Crazy Domestic’ today. I invite you to visit ‘Crazy Domestic’ and please leave a comment. Please let Stephanie of CD know what you thought of my camping series! And if you are visiting from Crazy Domestic today…..Welcome! To see the camping series, please click on ‘camping’ in the archives index.
Menu Plan Monday & Snacks for Kids….
Ty had a playdate last week with a fairly new friend. They had a great time together, but when I asked what they would like for snacks, our new friends was too shy to tell me. So I made up this tray of assorted snacks, hoping that he would like at least one thing. Ranch dip & carrots. Animal Crackers. Watermelon. Apple slices. Goldfish Crackers and some other little crackers. The tray came back empty. Wouldn’t you love to be a kid a again where someone just makes you little snacks and serves them on a tray? One of the things I love Read More »
Summer Bean Salad
This is the last of my 5-part series on recipes for camping trips. Whew! Are you bored yet, or are you inspired? I like to think that I have inspired some campers to mix it up a little. I hope so. To be clear, we do have hamburgers sometimes….everyone in our family likes them. I just make sure that I make the burgers before we leave home so that my husband just has to put them on the grill. And we take hotdogs for snacks because, afterall, what is a camping trip without roasting weinies on a campfire? On our Read More »
Camping Cuisine Part 4: Blueberry & Cream Cheese Dessert
This is my daughter’s favourite dessert when we are camping. It is SUPER easy to make and you only need 4 ingredients and a fire iron or camp cooker. You need: butter, cream cheese, blueberry jam and bread. You also need a fire iron or camp cooker. I got our camp cookers at Canadian Tire for around $18 each. I got two…one for each child. {This reduces the chances of a child getting clobbered over the head by a camp cooker while impatiently waiting for his/her turn}. Butter the ‘outsides’ of the bread {like you would for grilled cheese}. Then spread cream cheese and Read More »
Camping Cuisine Part 3: ‘For Goodness Steak’
Well, I was in the process of sharing some camping cuisine recipes when I so rudely left in the middle of the sharing to go…..ahem…..camping. So here I am…ready to share some of my ideas for good grub when you are camping in the wild. So, if you missed Camping Cuisine Part 1, where I shared the recipe for our favourite picnic sandwich {shown below}, please click here. For Camping Cuisine Part 2, where I shared the recipe for ‘Chicks on Sticks’ {shown below}and food prep suggestions, please click here. The next recipe I want to share for easy camping Read More »
A Reflection on Birthdays…
I remember when I was a kid and birthdays, for me, were one of the funnest, most-looked-forward-to days of the year. Next to Christmas, it was the one thing that could keep me awake on the eve before, wide-eyed with excited anticipation. Who could forget those birthdays of Holly Hobbie birthday cakes, or ‘Little House on the Prairie’ books, fresh from the local bookstore….just some of the must-have delights of a child of the 1970’s. Many, many years pass and adulthood takes over. Birthdays become nothing more than a quick flash in the pan….over faster than Molly Ringwald’s movie career in the Read More »
Bananagram for you….
I have been absent around blogland lately. No reason. Just savouring summer. We just spent a better part of a week hosting some friends from Nova Scotia who stayed with us. We had so much fun sharing meals, visiting parks and water slides and playing fun games like this one: Bananagrams. My mother gave one of the children this quite awhile ago and we just started playing it. And…. this game is so addictive. Every night, as least 3 of us would spill out the chips to play a game or two. It was so curious to me that my Read More »
a perfect summer lunch for one…
Both the kids were away, so I made this lunch for me and had a nice glass of iced tea and read a magazine. Aaaah.
the last of the peonies…
I managed to snag a few more blooms for around the house before they faded away for another season. {After I took this picture, I noticed that Tyler had 2 suction cup things on the counter. Not sure what he was up to with those, but I haven’t heard any loud smashes so far.}
Organizing A Tea & Coffee Cupboard
This is our newly organized tea & coffee cupboard. I wish I had taken a ‘before’ shot of this disorderly cupboard. But trust me, it really was in an ‘avalanche’ state. And I think some bats flew away when I opened some old boxes of tea that were on the top shelf. {I threw those boxes away.} This is the ‘AFTER’ picture. On the very top shelf are pretty plates and serving bowls, which are used only occasionally. On the second shelf are the electric kettle and tea pots, along with a hand-held milk frother and some medicinal teas. On the Read More »
Bathroom Makeover
I woke up this morning determined to get this project crossed off my list. This is what the bathroom looked like this morning. Although I liked this colour, it was showing lots of wear and water stains. Also, some of the facial cleansers my daughter uses not only bleached out some of our facecloths, but some spots on the dark blue wall as well. Time for a change. BEFORE: AFTER: I chose a lighter colour to make the bathroom feel more bright & airy. I wanted an overall scheme of blue with hits of of white & turquoise Read More »
Camping Cuisine Part 2: Food Prep & Chicks on Sticks
Before I get to the recipe portion of this post, I want to mention how food prep for camping is a girl’s best friend. I start with a menu plan for each meal that will be required for our stay. And I create a grocery list based on my meal plan. Pretty basic planning…but it helps the trip go smoothly. I make sure to wash and prep all the vegetables and store in ziploc bags. On the left are vegetables for dipping for snacks. On the right are vegetables for chicken kebabs. Here are onions and mushrooms prepped for our steak night. Read More »
Menu Plan Monday & Camping Cuisine Part 1: Perfect Picnic Sandwich
Our family has been enjoying some camping trips this month, so I thought I would devote my posts this week to sharing some of our favourite camping food recipes. Let’s start off with one of our all-time yummy-always-a-hit picnic sandwich. This recipes comes from a little fundraising cookbook project done by my daughter’s Grade 1 class in 2003. I love it because not only is it a fabulous sandwich, but it is the ultimate in ‘make ahead’ food. It tastes better the day after it’s made….after the flavours have had time to mingle. This sandwich is the perfect lunch for Read More »
the book of awesome…
Has anyone read this book? It has such a marvelously fun title. It’s a whimsical read that reminds one of all the little things in life that we take for granted. It’s made up of little dittys that are no more than a page or two. A perfect book that you can pick and put down easily without feeling ‘plot lost’. An added bonus~ I love to listen to my daughter laugh as she reads it.
Creating with my Mom….
Whenever my Mom comes to visit, we try to do some type of craft project together. Just for fun. For this visit, one of things we made together were these gift tags. I’ve had this Stampin’ Up “Yummy” stamp set for at least a year or more. But I have never done anything with it. When I showed it to my Mom, we decided to make a bunch of tags together. We both like to give baking gifts to our family & friends and we thought these tags would make a nice touch for packages of homemade goodies. And although Read More »
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