Friday, October 28, 2011

Well it's a Sunny Day....

Peep and The Big Wide World!


If you've never seen an episode of Peep and the Big Wide World, than you don't know what you're missing!  You don't have to have kids to appreciate this show...to LOVE this show!  Here's one of my favourite episodes!  

Peep of a Different Colour

Party Time!







 

Peep lives in a tin can and loves to explore the big wide world so I gave each child a tin can filled with a list of things to create a scavenger hunt as well as the items themselves.  I also crocheted a small peep for each can!

The scavenger hunt idea came from the Peep and the Big Wide World website: http://www.peepandthebigwideworld.com/printables/pdf/Peep_safari_childactivity.pdf


...and a cookie for the road





Sunday, October 16, 2011

The Very Hungry Caterpillar Birthday!




The Very Hungry Caterpillar Menu

 A fruit tray including of course...



A Meat Platter including




Main Dish


As well as a few extras


The Cake



Every Single food item in the book has been accounted for!!










Gifts



Thursday, October 6, 2011

La Pasta Bella


My parents spent a few weeks in Northern Italy in September and they brought me back a true taste of Italy.  Pasta from Venice!  I have to say, not only was it beautiful but it was like no pasta I have ever tasted!  Delizioso!!




Isn't it Gorgeous!! 


Spaghetti alla Bolognese
One with butter for Sophia


Thanks Mom and Dad, it was delizioso!!

Monday, October 3, 2011


This is a video of Sophia when she was 3 years old, trying on her Halloween costume for the first time.  Notice the Chipmunk that she's talking to in the bird feeder!  So cute, she makes my heart ache!

Thursday, September 29, 2011

Angry Cakes

Here they are....but why are they so angry?  I apologize  in advance for any spelling errors...this was a rush job and it's kind of late :0)

As always, I used my favourite Simple Buttercream recipe for these...for 24 cupcakes, you can half that recipe.






 







 


Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Nanny's Pumpkin Muffins


4 Eggs
2 cups Sugar
1 1/2 cups Vegetable Oil
1 3/4 cups Canned Pumpkin Puree (not pumpkin pie filling)
3 cups All-Purpose Flour
1 Tbsp Cinammon
2 tsp Baking Soda
2 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Salt
2 cups raisins (optional)
Brown Sugar (small amount)


1.  Whisk Eggs together until just combined, add Sugar, Oil and Pumpkin and mix thoroughly.

2.  Sift dry ingredients together in a separate bowl and add to wet ingredients.  Mix until just combined.

3.  Add raisins (optional)  Also could also add nuts, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds or nothing at all.

4.  Fill muffin cups 3/4 full and sprinkle tops with Brown Sugar.  I also sprinkle with a bit of ground Flax seeds or Wheat Germ as well.  I also use a mini muffin tin...great for school lunches.

5. Bake at preheated 375 degree oven for 15-20 minutes.



This recipe yields about 3 dozen muffins...which is a lot.  So, you can bake them all off at once and freeze them but what I prefer to do is freeze the muffin batter itself because, who doesn't prefer fresh baked muffins??

Here's how I do it and it works every time!


Lay plastic wrap over top of an empty muffin tin and portion muffin mix into tray as you would if you were baking them.




Cover entire tray with plastic Wrap and pop it in the freezer.




Freeze for at least 12 hours...they will not freeze completely but it will be enough to remove from the plastic wrap.




Place frozen muffin "pucks" into a freezer bag.  




When you're ready, pop the frozen muffin puck into paper lined muffin pans and bake as directed.  They might take an extra 5+ minutes so keep an eye on them.  



This is a great way to have fresh baked muffin anytime you need them.  They should keep for a few months this way but I've never had them in the freezer that long.

This also works for cookie dough.  I make a double batch of cookie dough and bake a dozen or so cookies then I portion the rest on a baking sheet and pop the whole baking sheet into the freezer until the dough is frozen.  That way, you can just bake off a few or a few dozen cookies without all the dirty dishes!!