Hot Pepperettes #FoodPicFriday

On July 4th weekend, we had a nice time walking around the Sales Barn (aka Elmvale Flea and Farmers Market). The weather was beautiful (if a little hot), there were lots of people out, and lots of stuff to look at. There are some crazy book deals this year, with one vendor offering six books for $5. I got a pretty good haul of books last year, and I'm rather particular about what I own (even if it's less than a $1 per book), so I didn't add any books to my collection this time around.

I did pick up some hot pepperettes, which weren't lying about their name. Sometimes food listed as "hot" is actually more of a "medium" spiciness, but these didn't disappoint. They were Hot Hot Hot and super fun and easy to eat. The pepperettes were 12/$5.

Dragonfly Buddy

There are many insects that fly around in the backyard, some more pleasant than others. I could live without mosquitoes or black flies, but bees and dragonflies are nice to see. I caught this dragonfly hanging out by the flowers.

Strawberry Buttercream Chocolate Cupcakes

I experimented with two new recipes to create some amazing cupcakes.

The first recipe was for strawberry buttercream that I saw on yoyomax12's youtube channel. No food colouring was added to the buttercream, that colour is all strawberries. I had some fresh Ontario strawberries, so it was the perfect time to make it.

I piped the icing onto six cupcakes, and this recipe made the perfect amount.

     Ingredients

     1/8 cup finely chopped strawberries (about 2 medium strawberries)

     3 tbs butter or margarine

     1 1/4 cup icing sugar

     Method

     Beat butter, strawberries, and 1/2 cup of icing sugar until blended. Add remaining

     icing sugar and mix. Add more icing sugar (if needed) to get to desired thickness. 

     Beat an additional 3-4 minutes.

The buttercream I made was a little on the soft side (it didn't run, but it was kinda runny), so if I made it again I would add less strawberries or more icing sugar to try to thicken it up.

The other new recipe I tried was for a small batch of chocolate cupcakes from Celebrating Sweets blog. These cupcakes were so easy to make and tasted really great! Check out the recipe here if you want to make just a few cupcakes. The only change I made to her recipe was to the baking time; my cupcakes baked for 20 minutes instead of 15.  Definitely making these again!

Food Truck Fish and Chips #FoodPicFriday

One of the food-loving perks of living around here in the summer is the food trucks. We are a touristy area, so there are quite a few that are open in the summertime, hoping to entice people on their way to the beach. Or on their way home from the beach. Or just the regular inhabitants who love french fries. It isn't officially summer until I eat something deep fried off a truck, so I'm happy to report that when Mom and Dad visited last weekend we hit up Perky's Fish and Fries in Perkinsfield for some fabulous fish and chips. Just wonderful!

Convenient Cat Storage

We have a small foot stool that doubles as a small storage container. It doesn't hold that much, but we usually find odds and ends to put in there.

Last week I decided to clean it out of any junk and organize what belonged in there. As my back was turned, Gary decided to make this storage space her bed, and stayed there for a few hours.