Wishing you and yours all the best this holiday season!
We make most of our meals at home, but sometimes we go out and buy some really ridiculous food. Take this big bag of Taco Bell we got last week. It was clearly the best deal for tacos, but it was truly an excessive amount of food: 10 tacos (6 hard, 4 soft), 2 fries, and 2 nachos + hot cheese sauce. The thing we didn't realize until we got home (and after I'd already eaten one) was that they accidentally put two burritos in the bag with our tacos. I don't eat at Taco Bell very often (once every five years I'd say), so I didn't realize I was eating a burrito and not a soft taco. So our crazy amount of food was even crazier than we expected.
For some reason I got obsessed with the idea of making homemade Blizzards. I turned that obsessive thought into reality by buying a four liter tub of ice cream and various chocolate bar add-ins. Then I proceeded to eat Blizzards every day for a bunch of days in a row. All the various add-in chocolate bars make a yummy treat, but hands down the best one is Smarties, no question.
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| Giant tub of ice cream, chocolates, and accessories |
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| Smarties Blizzard (the best) |
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| Reese's Pieces getting ready to blend |
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| Reese's Pieces Blizzard |
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| Mint Aero getting ready to blend |
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| Mint Aero Blizzard |
Baseball is over for another season and I miss it terribly. I never realize how much I enjoy relaxing with the game until the season ends and there is no baseball on.
To get me through this winter, Dad got me a history of baseball DVD box set. It is over 25 hours long so it should get me though at least part of the winter. I'm sure I will learn a lot too.
To get me through this winter, Dad got me a history of baseball DVD box set. It is over 25 hours long so it should get me though at least part of the winter. I'm sure I will learn a lot too.
It started snowing a little on Saturday. It looked like the kind of snow that would melt when it hit the ground so I didn't pay too much attention to it. Then it kept snowing. Sunday morning we woke up to winter wonderland. And it kept snowing all day Sunday too. I am not quite ready for snow (even though we've been spoiled with lovely temperatures in November so far). I am never quite ready for snow.
Swiss Chalet has added rotisserie beef to their menu, and the day Mom got the flyer in the mail advertising it, she immediately texted me that we had to go. She knows me so well.
We both tried a beef sandwich and we would definitely get them again. Very tasty. Mom ordered the Hot Rotisserie Beef Sandwich with fries and veggies, and I got the Rotisserie Beef Kaiser with a Greek salad. Next time we'll try the Rotisserie Beef dinner, especially since it is available as a festive special this time of year. Sounds good to me!
We both tried a beef sandwich and we would definitely get them again. Very tasty. Mom ordered the Hot Rotisserie Beef Sandwich with fries and veggies, and I got the Rotisserie Beef Kaiser with a Greek salad. Next time we'll try the Rotisserie Beef dinner, especially since it is available as a festive special this time of year. Sounds good to me!
We have been watching a lot of Eat St. lately, which is a show about amazing food from food trucks. Countless episodes of mouth watering, ridiculous (and awesome) comfort food, inspired me to create a ridiculous hamburger.
I can't take all the credit for this madness, as John suggested I use pancakes as the hamburger bun. It was a super idea, and I put a tablespoon of maple syrup in the pancake batter to give it some more sweetness. It was incredibly good that way. Yum!
So, a ridiculous breakfast burger, in photos:
Bottom Bun: big pancake, buttered
Patty: beef burger with melted cheese
Breakfast layer: over-easy egg
Top Bun: big pancake, buttered
Serve with home fries and savour all the deliciousness.
I can't take all the credit for this madness, as John suggested I use pancakes as the hamburger bun. It was a super idea, and I put a tablespoon of maple syrup in the pancake batter to give it some more sweetness. It was incredibly good that way. Yum!
So, a ridiculous breakfast burger, in photos:
Bottom Bun: big pancake, buttered
Patty: beef burger with melted cheese
Breakfast layer: over-easy egg
Top Bun: big pancake, buttered
Serve with home fries and savour all the deliciousness.
I woke up with butter tarts on my mind, but not the proper ingredients in the house to make them. So I googled butter tart squares and found a recipe on the Robin Hood flour website that seemed easy enough. Not only were they indeed easy enough, they were so easy that I'm adding them to my regularly baked treats rotation.
I modified the recipe based on the ingredients I had on hand and followed the method on the original recipe.
Ingredients:
Base
1/2 cup margarine
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 cup flour
Filling
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup margarine
1/4 cup corn syrup
1/4 cup honey
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbs flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
Method:
1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and line an 8x8 baking dish with parchment paper.
2. For the base, beat margarine and brown sugar together in a bowl with an electric mixer. Add flour and beat until combined (mine had a cookie dough like texture). Spread evenly into prepared baking dish.
3. Bake for 20 minutes.
4. For the filling, beat margarine and brown sugar in a bowl until light and creamy. Beat in corn syrup/honey, eggs, and vanilla. Stir in flour and baking powder.
5. Pour over baked base, and return to oven for 25 minutes or until set.
I modified the recipe based on the ingredients I had on hand and followed the method on the original recipe.
Ingredients:
Base
1/2 cup margarine
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 cup flour
Filling
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup margarine
1/4 cup corn syrup
1/4 cup honey
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbs flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
Method:
1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and line an 8x8 baking dish with parchment paper.
2. For the base, beat margarine and brown sugar together in a bowl with an electric mixer. Add flour and beat until combined (mine had a cookie dough like texture). Spread evenly into prepared baking dish.
3. Bake for 20 minutes.
4. For the filling, beat margarine and brown sugar in a bowl until light and creamy. Beat in corn syrup/honey, eggs, and vanilla. Stir in flour and baking powder.
5. Pour over baked base, and return to oven for 25 minutes or until set.
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| Just out of the oven. |
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| Unwrapped and ready for slicing. |
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| Butter Tart squares. Delicious! |
Dear Canada,
Today is very important! Please make sure you get to your polling station at some point between 9:30am-9:30pm. Make sure you vote! Also, please vote for hope and not fear. Please vote for something we can wake up tomorrow and feel happy about. And no, you cannot vote for the Toronto Blue Jays!
Your polling station should be listed on your Voter Information Card, but if you didn't get one, check out Elections Canada to find out where to vote.
Thank you!
Jen B.
Today is very important! Please make sure you get to your polling station at some point between 9:30am-9:30pm. Make sure you vote! Also, please vote for hope and not fear. Please vote for something we can wake up tomorrow and feel happy about. And no, you cannot vote for the Toronto Blue Jays!
Your polling station should be listed on your Voter Information Card, but if you didn't get one, check out Elections Canada to find out where to vote.
Thank you!
Jen B.
I first got excited about chocolate cupcake toppers while reading Sugar Swings, and seeing her amazing superhero toppers. With the Blue Jays winning the American League East, I was encouraged to try making some of my own, choosing the Jays logo (and their maple leaf logo) as my toppers.
Cookies, Cupcakes, and Cardio has an amazing tutorial on how to pipe chocolate (candy melts) onto a design for cupcake toppers and watching this video gave me the confidence to go for it.
When piping chocolate designs, make sure you have an image that looks the same when reversed, or make sure you reverse your image so the design is backwards. You want the design backwards because the finished topper is flipped over, as the flip side is flat and looks a lot nicer than the piped chocolate side. I previously made numbers for a birthday cake, and you can see that example here. For the Blue Jays logo, I googled an image of it and then flipped it horizontally before printing it out. The maple leaf logo looks the same on the reverse side, so I didn't need to flip it.
To start, I printed out a number of pages of designs and taped them to the table.
Then I covered the pages with parchment paper and taped it to the table too.
Using piping bags filled with the four colours of the logo, I piped one colour at a time, waiting about ten minutes for each colour to dry. First I did the white outline of the logo, then the red maple leaf, then the light blue, and finally the dark blue. I didn't take photos of the process, because I always forget to capture what I'm doing while I'm doing it. #bloggerproblems
Here are all the chocolate colours piped onto the design.
Next, I very gently flipped them to the reverse, flat side.
Finally I piped some buttercream onto cooled cupcakes and placed my toppers on top.
Go Jays Go!
Cookies, Cupcakes, and Cardio has an amazing tutorial on how to pipe chocolate (candy melts) onto a design for cupcake toppers and watching this video gave me the confidence to go for it.
When piping chocolate designs, make sure you have an image that looks the same when reversed, or make sure you reverse your image so the design is backwards. You want the design backwards because the finished topper is flipped over, as the flip side is flat and looks a lot nicer than the piped chocolate side. I previously made numbers for a birthday cake, and you can see that example here. For the Blue Jays logo, I googled an image of it and then flipped it horizontally before printing it out. The maple leaf logo looks the same on the reverse side, so I didn't need to flip it.
To start, I printed out a number of pages of designs and taped them to the table.
Then I covered the pages with parchment paper and taped it to the table too.
Using piping bags filled with the four colours of the logo, I piped one colour at a time, waiting about ten minutes for each colour to dry. First I did the white outline of the logo, then the red maple leaf, then the light blue, and finally the dark blue. I didn't take photos of the process, because I always forget to capture what I'm doing while I'm doing it. #bloggerproblems
Here are all the chocolate colours piped onto the design.
Next, I very gently flipped them to the reverse, flat side.
Finally I piped some buttercream onto cooled cupcakes and placed my toppers on top.
Go Jays Go!
As a Toronto Blue Jays fan, this has been quite the season to watch. They won the American League East title, and are now playing in the postseason for a chance at the American League Championship. It's been stressful, fun, heartbreaking, and exciting to watch. No matter how far they make it in the postseason, I love this team. Go Jays Go!
To celebrate the Jays making it to the playoffs for the first time in 22 years, I decided to make some cupcakes. I have wanted to try making chocolate cupcake toppers using candy melts, and making a Blue Jays logo seemed like a good way to try them out. As is often the case with my baking projects, I started with something really challenging (a design that used four colours and had a maple leaf in it!), instead of perhaps practicing with something a little simpler. It all worked out and the toppers look as good as I hoped, but I'm going to try and remember that baby steps can be a welcome part of the process.
I will do a follow up post showing how I made the cupcake toppers, but for today I am showcasing pretty photos of cupcakes. I also made baseball themed cupcakes, for which there is a great tutorial on the Worth Pinning blog.
To celebrate the Jays making it to the playoffs for the first time in 22 years, I decided to make some cupcakes. I have wanted to try making chocolate cupcake toppers using candy melts, and making a Blue Jays logo seemed like a good way to try them out. As is often the case with my baking projects, I started with something really challenging (a design that used four colours and had a maple leaf in it!), instead of perhaps practicing with something a little simpler. It all worked out and the toppers look as good as I hoped, but I'm going to try and remember that baby steps can be a welcome part of the process.
I will do a follow up post showing how I made the cupcake toppers, but for today I am showcasing pretty photos of cupcakes. I also made baseball themed cupcakes, for which there is a great tutorial on the Worth Pinning blog.
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