Trudy-Versary

A year ago today we adopted our sweet Trudy-cat. It didn't take us long to fall in love with her and it didn't take her long to fall in love with us. She is not as in love with the other cats (nor them with her) but she is one of the family and is happy to be here.

Resting on her favourite blanket

Trudy has decided I'm her BFF (best friend forever) and she follows me around the house when the mood strikes her. She isn't a lap cat, but she likes to be near me. She'll lie at my feet when I'm at the computer, or she'll sit at the other end of the couch if I'm on it.

Her first time sleeping on the couch with me

She is a very social cat (with people). Periodically I'll feel a cat paw poking at me if it's time for pets or playing. She is the first cat I've known that really loves belly rubs. She rolls onto her back and demands them. She is so silly and fun.

Give me all the belly rubs!

We have come up with various nick names for her over the past year. There is Trudy-Bear, Trudy-Doody, Tru-dor, Trudinator, Big Gray, Big Grump, Tank, Pretty Eyes, and a million more that we make up while talking to her. We love her!

Tank sitting on some boots

Pretty Eyes sitting on a pillow

My Favourite Bun Deal

Generally I make my own buns for sandwiches, but if I'm in the grocery store at the right time, I don't mind picking up a bag of deal buns. The local Foodland has an amazing bakery and getting a bag of the 'end of the day buns' is the dream. It is always crammed full and is often incredibly assorted. It used to be $2.00 for the bag, now it's $2.49, but it's still a great deal. Bought individually the buns are anywhere from $0.80 to over a dollar. The buns are still fresh for a few days, so we normally eat as many as we can and put the rest in the freezer for later.

This 'end of the day' assortment had bagels, plain rolls, garlic and plain dinner rolls, a cheese bun, an onion bun, and two soft pretzels (not pictured because we ate them). The pretzels tasted like they had been dipped in all the butter. Yum. A few times we've gotten a chocolate chip danish in the bag. So good! We love the bun bag!

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!