Gift from a special friend.

We had dinner guests last night.  K, A, and fluffy little C.  And with their arrival came birthday presents (since all three kids have birthdays in November).  There was even a present for me.  It was a Professional Series Kitchen Aid stand mixer.  I am in heaven!!!!! 

Not sure where I will put it yet but I had it out of the box and used it last night after everything was settled down.  It weighs a ton and works like a dream so, like there was any doubt, I'll be using it to make everything I can think of and everyone in our house (and maybe even neighbors) are going to gain a ton of weight.

Fresh corn tortillas

Z helped me make some fresh corn tortillas yesterday.  What a huge hit!!!!!  and so easy to make (once I found the right ingredient to start with).  I finally found a product called Maseca which is basically a masa mix.  All we had to do was add water and mix for a bit, press, fry, and ENJOY!

This is what the bag looks like, and it will do tons and tons of recipes.  2C of mix makes about 16 6' tortillas.

  Their web site has lots of recipes on there as well so I'll be checking out a few of them over the next week or so.  Maybe Grandma and Grandpa's anniversary dinner will be Mexican instead of steak.

It had the consistency of playdough so it was super fun for Z to kneed and of course rolling any kind of dough into balls and smooshing it is a kids dream.

We had the tortillas with some sausage and peppers, which was super easy, and supper was scrumptious.

Now I have to research tortilla presses to figure out which one I want, and I'll be looking for a cast iron tortilla pan as well.  Good thing my birthday and Christmas are soon.  I  might just have to wait until Mothers Day for some new bread pans.

Halloween and Birthdays

Halloween is coming faster than I want it to so it's time for me to get in gear and finish costumes and figure out what we're doing for treats.

The girls wanted treat bags to bring into school for their classes so here's what I came up with as a treat bag topper.  (I know, I got the colors in the wrong order to resemble candy corn but still very cute).  I'll attach them to a baggie filled with some goodies.

Frankenstein's monster for boys and witches for girls.

H's costume was very easy this year.  We were at Winners (love that place) and he said he wanted to be a monster.  Well there just happened to be a dragon costume right next to me and he loved it.  Super cute!!!!!

Z wants to be Cinderella so we're going shopping for a blue ballgown this week.  She has her tiara from the wedding this summer and some fancy shoes already.

M wants to be a vampire and will need a cape and white blouse so that's easy enough.

Right after Halloween, the day after in fact, our birthday marathon starts.  I waddled around the  neighborhood Halloween night three years ago wondering when this little miracle was going to make his debut.  He decided the next day would be the perfect time.  Then comes M on the 10th, me on the 12th, and Z rounds it all out on the 24th.

*****In the event that I forget, happy birthday L, J, and poppy O in NL, M, B, J, N in NS; happy anniversary A and M in Lab, and K and A in NS.*****

Aside from the usual cake on the actual birthday and family gifts, we're going to have one big party for the three kids on the same day.  Lots of kids in the house, all the festivities out of the way, and I only have to worry about the house for one day.  It'll be fun!

I'm thinking about doing some cakepops as treats and got my inspiration from Bakerella.  I love all the cute ideas.  I might do some icecream cakepops but we'll see.  It will be great for the kids to help me. 

That's it for now.  I'm off to bed after a super busy day.  Some pics of our fall welcome display later on in the week.

Thanksgiving, apple picking, family, friends, and great times.

Thanksgiving is this weekend in Canada and I can't wait.  I've got family visiting for the weekend and it's going to be nice to catch up and spend some quality time together. 

Last weekend I spent the weekend with an old friend and we took the kids to pick some apples (in the rain) so we'll be using those to make some yummy deserts with Aunt L over the next few days.

My 15 lb turkey is in the fridge thawing, my ham is ready to be cooked, and I've got enough sweet potatoes to choke a horse.  I just need to pick up a few odds and ends and we're all set for a weekend of pigging out. 

The weather is supposed to clear up and get warmer again for a few days.  I'm ready for the rain/hail to stop for a little while so we can spend some time outside playing and cleaning up.  The sun is trying really hard to shine this afternoon and I feel like a lazy animal drawn to the warm floor by the living room window.

So a very Happy Thanksgiving to everyone celebrating this weekend.  I hope you are surrounded by family, friends, good food, and lots of love!


***any apple recipes would be appreciated so we can try out something new***

Cool stuff

Today's Daily Bzz is Sodastrream Fountain Jet!  How cool is that.  THe first time I saw one was on the weekend when we were out shopping with Grandma and here it is the Daily Bzz just a few days later.  They were a bit pricy for my liking but it would be a great thing to get from BzzAgent to try out.  And would be so much easier to limit the amount of sugar in the kids pop, without having to give them aspartame.

Cauliflower and Cuisinart

I found a beautiful cauliflower at the supermarket this morning and decided I was going to use this recipe that I found online (with a few of my own modifications of course. I see recipes as a guideline most of the time)  What a conicedence that BzzAgent's Daily Bzz is the Cuisinart Smart Stick Hand Blender!  Might be a handy appliance to have for creamed soups. 

Time for me to bake some bread and scones.  I'm thinking of different things to give the girls in the mornings, instead of just a bowl of cold cereal, so I'm thinking some apple cinnamon scones, or maybe some ham and cheese scones might be a nice treat. I use the tea biscuit recipe from the old Cream of the West cookbook.  Thanks Mom!

50 Mile Yard Sale - And not much to do with baking today...SORRY

On the weekend we all went to an annual 50 Mile Yard Sale!  It's so much fun and you can find tons of different stuff there.  It's set up along a country route and there are tons of different sellers.  Some people set up on the town square or in a church parking lot, some people set up tables in their yard along the route, and some people even set up a table on the side of the road.   No matter where the tables are set up, there are tons of people who go to buy and it's a fun weekend.  We spent about four hours at it and we didn't even see everything.

My first awesome purchase was new dishes..and what a deal.  All white plates, bowls, mugs, adn even french onion soup bowls...10 of each, and I got them for next to nothing.  Now I'm all set for Thanksgiving (if we're having anyone over).  I didn't check to see if the bowls were oven safe, but if they are, I'll be baking some lava cakes in them for sure.  What a yummy way to finish dinner. 

After that it was just a bunch of picky things we bought, some toys for the kids, some clothes.  Oh I did buy a spring form pan with some decorator bottoms (clown and teddy bear).  Maybe I'll do a circus cake for Hunter this year since I have a clown now and some old circus decorations from Nanny C.

Today I'm working on another BzzAgent campaign for Bodum glasses.  I didn't even know they did glasses!  I've known about their coffee presses for years and love them but I had no idea that they had such a big line of products.  When I saw the Pavina glass that Bzz was offering I knew that I wanted it.  It's so funky and I love it already. 

I got this picture right from BzzAgent

Then I read a description on the Bodum web site for another one of their double walled glasses and I knew that it would be awesome. 

"The insulating quality of the double wall glasses doesn’t just keep hot drinks hot for a longer period of time, it also keeps cold drinks cold longer. Another nice thing about them – there is no condensation water when you serve cold drinks, therefore no messy rings on your table. And by the way, they’re great for ice cream as well. Double wall glasses are truly multifunctional. They are made from borosilicate glass and are dishwasher safe."

There's no outlet near me so I'm really really really really hoping that I can get in on this campaign try them out before having to order online.  It would make our Thanksgiving that much funkier (along with the new dishes I got on the weekend).  Fingers crossed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!