It's Consistently Above Zero

I haven't been online too much over the past few days. The snow has been melting, the sun came out, and the temperatures have not only been endurable but enjoyable too. Monday we got up to 23°C (73°F) and I didn't wear a coat or a sweater outside. Yesterday was cloudy and only 9°C (48°F), but it was still a treat to be out of doors.

I spend most of my outside time walking around or reading, but recently I found some old baseball equipment and have been having solo batting practice and some games of catch with John. If I'm playing ball in the backyard, it has to be spring now, right? Even if I sometimes have to rescue the ball from the (slowly melting) snow pile.

Bacon and Egg Sandwich + Home Fries #FoodPicFriday

My Mom has recently been going through her stuff and getting rid of things she no longer uses. On my list visit I was sent home with all the awesome kitchen stuff that has been gathering dust at her place. A tea set, old tea cups from my Nanny, small french press, a potato ricer, and various wine/spirit glasses. I also came home with an electric griddle that she previously used once a year (Christmas breakfast), but didn't even use this past Christmas because not everyone was able to make it. We'll lend it back to her if she needs it for any Christmas morning in the future, but until then we are using the shit out of it! I forgot to take a photo, but it looks similar to this.

The first day we had it, we made bacon, eggs, and home fries all on the griddle. I love that you only need to wash one pan. We've also made a round of "no waiting" grilled cheeses, as it can cook four at a time. Nice.

This sandwich has an over easy egg, old fashioned bacon, spinach, mayo, all on a homemade bun. Home fries were spiced with garlic, chives, and chili powder and fried up nicely in the bacon drippings. 

DIY Cadbury Creme Eggs

Cadbury Creme Eggs are the best. I love the week following Easter because you can get them for $0.20 a piece or less. They are the perfect mix of sweet and chocolate and I love that they are also really gooey. This year I thought I would try making them at home.

One of favourite YouTube channels, Cooking with Karma, has a great video tutorial on how to make them and I used her recipe (slightly modified). I also made a smaller batch, as I didn't want to have too many of these kicking around.

Bulk Barn had Easter candy molds on sale for $1.50, so I got one for my egg making adventure.

For this recipe I used:
1.5 cups milk chocolate chips, melted
3/4 cups of icing sugar
1 tbs butter
2 tbs corn syrup
1/2 tsp vanilla
Yellow food colouring


For the Cream Centers:
Mix butter, corn syrup, and vanilla in a bowl. Add icing sugar and mix until completely incorporated. 

Place a third of the icing sugar mixture in a separate bowl and dye yellow for the yolks.

Add a little bit of water, a 1/4 tsp at a time to the white and yellow sugar mixtures until they are the gooey consistency of a creme egg.

For the Chocolate:
I made the eggs in two different ways.
Way one: Big Eggs.

Fill the candy egg mold completely, chill until slightly hardened (about 8 min), and scoop out the middles of the molds.

Way two: Half Eggs.
Paint egg mold with melted chocolate (I used a silicone brush). Let harden.

 For both methods, fill the eggs with white and yellow cream.

For the Big Eggs, glue eggs together with melted chocolate. For the Half Eggs, cover cream with melted chocolate.

Big Eggs:

Half Eggs:

They tasted pretty close to Cadbury Creme Eggs, but not enough to keep me from buying the real thing. I'm excited to see what else I can make with the egg molds, as chocolates are pretty tasty and they go pretty quickly in this house.

Still in Winter Wonderland

Joanne over at Rhythm of the Needles posted this video on her blog and I just had to share it too.

We had a snowstorm yesterday that cancelled the school buses. It also covered up any green that was starting to show itself and made me have to wear my boots again (which I swore I wouldn't do). It also went down to -13°C (8°F) overnight, which is just rude for mid April. However it does make this funny video from Rick Mercer (which he posted a month ago) very much on the nose.

Everything is a Photo Opportunity #28

A similar photo to this one has appeared on the blog before, as my little Gary knows a good thing when she sees it. I'm not sure what is so comfortable about sitting on puzzle pieces, but she always seems really happy when she does it. Maybe she thinks she is helping.