Sunday 7 December 2014

Cookie bouquets


Aubrey and I were craving something sweet so we decided to whip up some of our favourite chocolate chip cookies. Once they were cooling we used lollipop sticks to make them into cookie lollipops to make my sister jan a cookie bouquet. She was in the Christmas church play and Aubrey and I were going on a date to see it.

She volunteered to be my taste tester!

What a fun afternoon with my kids. We love playing in the living room with the aroma of cookies coming from the kitchen.
We made some stickers and packaged them up for auntie janny.
She did a great job. It was quite an amazing thing to witness my sister being bold and stepping outside of her comfortable box. All I can say is jerry would of been so very proud of her.


Such a fun date with my Aubrey! These are the memories I will forever remember and cherish.


Friday 5 December 2014

Homemade pizza!

With it nearing 4 o'clock on a Friday I asked Aubrey what she'd like for dinner? Pizza was her reply; more specifically bacon and sausage pizza. Hmmm; not having either sausage or bacon I suggested cheese pizza. Now for the pizza...I knew I had cheese along with everything to make dough so I quickly got to work!

I used whole wheat flour instead.
Using my dough hook I let my kitchen aid do the real work.
I let this proof in the lit oven covered with a tea towel. Meanwhile I shredded cheese for Aubrey's pizza and thought of the delicious possibilities of my own. Quickly I thought of a buddy burger from a&w....classy I know! So I brown ground beef and carmalized onions with a few seasonings.
I rolled out the pizza dough cutting a rectangle for my very large pizza. I used the scraps of dough for Aubrey's cheesy breadsticks!
Aubrey loved her plain cheese pizza sticks. She ate a huge portion! 

I used BBQ sauce as the base for my pizza and the beef onion mix and then topped with heaps of mozerella cheese.
I baked this on 425 F for 20 minutes using the convection setting.
This turned out surprisingly well given I only let the pizza dough rise for 25 minutes.  I think the key was rolling the dough out as thin as I could get it. Not sure who I thought was joining me for dinner but there are plenty of leftovers for when Jeff gets home!
Dinner was a success!!!

Combined party!

With Aubrey's fourth birthday around the corner we decided to combine Liam's baby dedication and Aubrey's party into one BIG party. With basically the same crowd on the invite list I thought it made the most sense. 
This is Liam and Aubrey with their cousin Hurley.

We decided on pulled pork, buns and coleslaw. Simple but tasty menu and everything can be done ahead of time. This menu was perfect was great big crowd. 
For dessert I made my famous chocolate cupcakes with creamcheese icing.  

I baked these for 20 minutes on 350F.
I let these completely cool and then I froze them until the day before the party!
I let these partially thaw before I iced them.

Without playing favouritism to one child I decided to pipe a pink and blue swirl icing.
My pipeable icing is 2 bricks of creamcheese, 1/2cup butter, vanilla and 2 cups icing sugar whipped until smooth.

There is no rhyme or reason but I put half of the icing on one side of the piping bag and then I just do the same to the other side. It's a little messy but looks great once piped. 

For a little sparkle I added edible pearls to the tops of the cupcakes.
Ready to go!
I think she liked it!