French Toast

Sunday Morning French Toast! 

Using up leftover bakery bread for a quick delicious breakfast. 

So Long Sweet Summer

My last post was in June, and I was supposed to write about the cupcake flowerpots I made for my friends baby shower- better late than never.

The summer flew by, mostly because we moved to a new state-we have been in our new home for about a month now & are settling in.  I'm ready to get back to blogging business.

Cupcake Flowerpots!

Items you will need foam ball (cut in half) to hold the cupcakes, toothpicks, flower pots (I picked up plain pots & painted them myself) & a glue gun. Also, any kind of ribbon or bows you want to decorate the pots with. As for the cupcakes- use your favorite recipe, or take a little help from the store with the pre-made cupcake mixes. For this project I made a 1 batch of vanilla, chocolate & strawberry flavors.

Once you glue the foam in place. Attach the ribbons. I added a dab of glue to the ribbon as well. 

Once the cupcakes are decorated they are ready to assemble!

 I did a trial run to see how many cupcakes would fit per pot. BUT, I recommend waiting to assemble until you are at your location to avoid the risk of accidents. Bring some extra frosting- just in case there are any decorating emergencies.  

I hope you find this helpful!

Cupcake Flower Pots

Soon I'll be writing about the process of making these cupcakes for a baby shower! 

Easter Treat This Year!

Here is the final product of the cake eggs! They weren't as pretty as I had hoped but we enjoyed them. 

Hope you all had a great day! 

Easter Adventures

Getting ready for Easter Day means flower shopping, baking sweets & visiting family. Ever year I still decorate colored egg. Last year I made nest cookies-homemade sugar cookies, topped with frosting, topped with colored coconut, topped with a mix of jelly beans &/or chocolate bird eggs! 

This year I'm going to be trying to create a basket of eggs. Little chocolate cake bites, dipped in colored chocolate (white & pastel colors), rolled in festive sprinkles. Wish me luck! I'll post a photo of the finished project later this weekend. 

Another adventure this year was to color our eggs with homemade dyes. We tested the water with beets, blueberries & carrots. I think the carrots needed longer to boil in order to get the color out but the other eggs came our beautiful. The instructions were simple- boil your coloring liquid for about 15 minutes, add a few teaspoons of vinegar & start dipping.

Carrot, blueberries, beets 

My adorable little niece was on hand for egg tasting & supervision.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend & that the sun keeps shining!

March Means Maple

We are finally experiencing some signs of spring around us-daylight savings, warmer sun & even a few birds have been chirping. One sure sign of spring in New England is when the farmers start talking about tapping trees to make maple syrup. Warm spring days and cold nights make for good maple sap weather. 

My husband is from Vermont & loves maple everything. He even has been known to pour syrup over his vanilla ice cream. This morning I decided to celebrate maple season by making pancakes & serving it with syrup from a local farm (pictured below).

Pancakes are one of the foods I follow a recipe for. I've tried a number of recipes but came across this one on-line a couple of years ago & stopped experimenting. These are by far the best tasting pancakes I've ever made. 

Pancakes

Ingredients 
1 1/2 cups flour
3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon white sugar
1 1/4 cups milk
1 egg
3 tablespoons butter, melted

Directions
1. Mix together flour, baking powder, salt & sugar in a large bowl
2. Make a well in the center & pour in the milk, egg & melted butter
3. Mix until smooth
4. Cook!

 (Source allrecipes.com)

 Enjoy!

St. Patrick's Day & Recipes

Today is actually the day before St. Patrick's Day, but since I'm working tomorrow I'll be cooking my boiled dinner today. I like to cook things I remember eating growing up. I often times ask Mum for recipes & often times the responses are "add about this much flour", "a little bit of butter", then check it- if it needs more of something, then add it. A corned beef dinner for St. Patrick's Day recipe was probably something like "boil it until it's done". Sounds confusing, but once I'm in the kitchen I see, smell & understand exactly what she means. If someone asks me for one of my recipes, I find myself explaining it the same way.

Sometimes my mom & I get together & try to replicate the recipes she learned this way while growing up. I'm sure there will be future entries about our raised biscuit adventures- we haven't gotten that one quite right yet, but I have no doubt we eventually will.

I recently asked Mum how she learned to make her corned beef & her response was that she watched her mother. She also added that she didn't like boiled potatoes when she was young, so she would skip those & make a sandwich with the rest of the ingredients (sounds delish!).

So here is my corned beef, boiling until it's done.

Screw It, I'm Gardening!

Okay, so the photo below isn't really me, but it very well could be, and might be if we don't get some warm spring days to melt the snow away soon. 

I take no credit for this photo-found it online

I love planting seeds & checking back every day to see who is going to pop out of the dirt first. I used to always start seedlings inside next to a sunny window. Now there is a killer of plants in my house and her name is Moose. We have 2 cats, Moose who is just about to turn 5 and Casper, who is almost 4. Moose gets into EVERYTHING, but that's another blog entry- the point right now is that she destroys plants. 

On a typical summer morning I jump out of bed, grab some coffee & run to the garden to check what is happening out there. One of my favorite things to do is pick green beans, eating as I collect.  I'll usually start inside my fenced garden gathering veggies- then convince my husband to walk around our property picking miscellaneous thimbleberries, blueberries & blackberries. 

 This weekend consists of Spring Cleaning projects inside the house, so I better get started. But be sure to check back tomorrow as I talk about celebrating St. Patrick's Day & how I learned from my Mom (known as Mum, to me & my sister) how to cook a boiled corned beef dinner. 

Welcome

I'm new to blogging and I'm not sure what I'm doing. What I do know, is that I live in an amazing location where we get to enjoy the changing weather of the four seasons here in New England-and this excites me. 

I'm an amateur gardener & baker who enjoys harvesting what each season has to offer. I have a small garden at my home where I grow cucumbers to pickle & tomatoes to freeze for winter sauces. The fall brings some of my favorite activities- apple & pumpkin picking. My family has spent many cool afternoons circling the pumpkin patch waiting while I try to find the perfect pumpkin, every year. I spend a lot of time baking in the winter- my Christmas presents usually involve cookies, homemade fall applesauce or fudge. Spring is when I look forward go planting, pruning & gathering flower ideas. 

So I guess that is what this blog will be about-oh, and my cats, because I love them as though they are my children. 

I hope you check back often & enjoy this work in progress!