Floral Friday – Valentine’s Day Roses

I was having a busy morning cutting fabric and preparing new designs for an upcoming craft fair, when I was startled by the doorbell suddenly ringing.

Holiday Gift List – The Chef/ Foodie

When I have time, I love to cook!  I enjoy reading my cookbooks, researching recipes on-line and generally checking out all the food porn!  I've got quite a few chefs and foodies in my family; this list is in honour of all the family get togethers and celebrations past and those to come:

Eclairs

Éclairs are my dad’s favourite dessert and thus a necessity in my cooking repertoire. 

Here’s one from a batch I made for Father’s Day this year (the rest got eaten before I could snap some shots!).

Holiday Gift List – The Beauty Lover

I've got some more holiday gift ideas for you.  This time focusing on the beauty lover!

Come check it out:

Floral Friday – Tiny White Chrysanthemums

Happy Friday loveys!

I’m so sorry for the lack of posts as of late.  Things have been really busy with s/f Designs, which is great!  But it means I haven’t had a lot of extra time to dedicate to my blog posts.  I’ve got a bunch in the works, so stay tuned; more are on the way!

Broccoli & Pine Nut Soup

I had some broccoli left in the fridge that was on its last legs and it was lunch time.  I was hungry and I was craving something healthy and delish, but not a salad – for once.  

Daily Afternoon Snack

I must be a creature of habit.  Every day around 3 pm, I get really hungry.  Starved, in fact.  And I typically reach for my trusty apple and cheese combo.  

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thank you garden for the lovely bounty of produce you have provided throughout the summer!!

Ella’s Botanicals

Ok.  I'm sorry.  I can’t believe it’s already Wednesday Thursday and I haven’t written anything about the arrival of my first Ella’s Botanicals parcel on Monday.  MONDAY.  Can you believe it?! 

The Bomb Brownies

I was heading out to dinner Friday evening with my bestie and had to whip up a batch of our favourite brownies to celebrate!

Sriracha & Honey Chicken Wings

These wings are seriously finger licking good! 

I recently stumbled upon The Woks of Life’s blog and have already noted several recipes I can’t wait to try out.  But first up are these ridiculously tasty wings.

Chocolate Swiss Roll – Two Filling Options

My better half LOVES Swiss rolls.  You know.  The ones that come in pairs packaged in clear plastic?!  So I decided to try a homemade version.

Italian Walnut-Raisin Whole-Wheat Bread

I'm a toast eater.  Raisin toast with peanut butter eater to be precise.  The bread itself has changed throughout the years, but it has been my go to breakfast for 15+ years.  I literally look forward to it every morning.  How crazy is that?!

I found THE best raisin walnut bread at a small bakery while living in Japan.  I used to toast it up in my toaster oven and either eat it with butter or peanut butter if I was lucky (meaning I had some left over from one of the batches my mum shipped out to me!).  I've been searching for something that comes somewhat close, without any lucky.  Until possibly now.

Floral Friday – Nature Walk

I love walking.  I love being outdoors and hearing the birds chirp.  I love seeing the change in scenery from season to season, even in the bitter cold of winter.  It’s an opportunity to reflect, work through issues and achieve total serenity.  

Carrot Ginger Soup

OMG – this soup is ridiculously good.  So good, I kept grabbing spoonfuls every time I passed the pot while it was cooling down.  Hot or cold, it was scrumptious!

Roasted Beet & Garlic Salad with Fresh Herbs

Beets are one of those vegetables that I can’t seem to get enough of.  The method I use for preparing beets is typically to roast them with some garlic and decide from there how I want to finish them off – soup, salad, side dish, etc.  Today I am sharing one of the many salad variations in my repertoire (mostly based on what I have readily available in the fridge J). 

DIY: Almond Meal

Turns out almond meal is pretty straight forward as a DIY.  Having twice made almond milk in the last couple of weeks (which you can check out here), I had the chance to test out making almond meal with the remnants from that DIY.

DIY: Almond Milk

My blender recently bit the dust, which gave me a valid reason to finally upgrade to the Blendtec Total Blender.  I’ve been eyeing the more powerful blenders for some time now, but was quite hesitant to shell out so much for a blender.  My dilly dallying paid off as (1) I got full use out of my first blender until it finally broke and (2) the cost of the Blendtec blenders has significantly reduced since they first hit the market!

Coleslaw

I've been tinkering in the kitchen today trying out a new rib recipe, which also means whipping up a batch of coleslaw.  In my household coleslaw is the accompaniment of choice and with BBQ season rapidly heading our way, I thought a post on the crunchy side would be apropos. 

Cream of Crimini Mushroom Soup

I know I have come up with something good when, half way through an avid conversation, there’s a pause for appreciation of the yumminess they are eating.  This was the reaction to this seriously intense mushroom flavoured soup.