Everything is a Photo Opportunity #8

Everything is a Photo Opportunity is a showcase of awesome photos. Anything that has caught my eye, either with my camera in hand, or that I found surfing the web.

A few summers ago a hot air balloon landed near my brother's farm. I've always loved hot air balloons. I remember going to a hot air balloon festival when I was a kid and seeing so many different colours and shapes in the sky. Very beautiful.

4th of July Cupcakes

Happy Independence Day!! These are some festive cupcakes I made a few years ago.
Wishing all my American friends and followers an amazing long weekend! :)

Friendly Motorists

Like I've mentioned before, I like to walk or ride on the rail trail near my place. It has all the joys of being 'in the woods' but is also right beside a major roadway, so I don't have to worry about bears. Periodically the trail crosses roads or driveways, but there is good signage that lets you know well ahead of time. 

I recently encountered some friendly motorists at one of the trail crossings. On both my way through and on my way back, two different drivers stopped at the trail crossing (which is not a required stop) and waved for me to cross ahead of them. The distance between the trail crossing and the actual stop sign is not that far (see photo), so I wouldn't have had to wait very long if they went first, but their random act of kindness made my day.

I don't know if they stopped because I'm in the country, or if the drivers were just feeling super friendly, or what. Whatever the reason, it was a nice thing to do! :)

Homemade Stuffed Crust Pizza

Paula over at Call Me PMc recently posted her recipe for stuffed crust pizza. I love pizza in all of its forms, and this looked too amazing not to try. We have pizza about once a week around here and sometimes like add some variety to it (see panzerottos).

Click over to Call Me PMc to see her original recipe for stuffed crust pizza.

Here is how I made mine:

I started with my regular pizza dough (via our breadmaker).

Next, I cut up pieces of mozzarella and lined the inside edge of the pizza dough with it, and folded over the edge to cover the cheese.

Yay! A stuffed pizza dough!

Then topped and baked the pizza as I normally do.

Then I basked in the glory of having made a homemade stuffed crust pizza!

It was a really tasty variety of pizza, although John says next time we should double the cheese. I think we should put some pepperoni in there too. Lots of fun to be explored with this type of pizza. Thanks to Call Me PMc for the amazing idea!

More Pizza Posts:

Rectangle Pizza
Pizza Friday
Panzerottos
Taco Meat Pizza

Happy Canada Day!!

Happy 146th Birthday Canada! 

So obviously I made cupcakes to celebrate. I got some really festive maple leaf sprinkles at Bulk Barn and made some white chocolate maple leaves for cupcake toppers. It was my first time making a chocolate cake topper, and I have to say I just love them. I've been super inspired by all the amazing chocolate decorating over at Sugar Swings! Serve Some, and I followed her method for how to make these maple leaves. I printed out the image I wanted, taped it to the table, and put a piece of parchment paper over top. Then I just traced the image underneath using melted chocolate. Once hardened, I flipped the chocolate piece over and showcased the flat side. I love the way they look and I can't wait to try it again.

If you are on a long weekend, I hope you are having a great one! Cheers!