Easter weekend; "He is risen" rolls

What a great weekend! I love Easter! As I get older I appreciate more and more this holiday we  are given solely to celebrate the sacrifice and victory of Jesus Christ (and I enjoy the chocolate too!)

We had a wonderful family time; full of family, food, fun and even crafts!

Here's my brother with his son cooper and Liam; the boys are one year apart!

Yesterday was a special day in which Aubrey and I had planned a special tea party with our neighbour friend. We decided to make tea sandwiches for the tea party. Along with that we made these "He is risen" rolls as Aubrey calls them. 

Jeff actually graciously took over preparing of the tea party refreshments. Curried orange tuna wraps, dill cream cheese and cucumber rounds and the assembling of the "he is risen" rolls.

They tag-teamed the assembly and had a great time.

These looked promising however when they came out of the oven we had a "nailed-it" moment.

I just peeled them off of the sheet pan and while they were still hot I tucked the opening under itself making them look some-what like rolls. These tasted great by the way; like iced cinnamon buns but way less work. I'm sure these will be an ongoing tradition!

Jeff made all these wraps and rolled them in Saran Wrap; after an hour in the fridge I unwrapped them and carefully cut them (kind of like sushi!).

And voila! Aubrey and I had decorated cross cookies made by her grandma and that rounded out our Easter themed tea party. 

Our neighbour brought over supplies to make Easter cards; what a fun time we had. Aubreys card is in the middle; I think she did an amazing job!

This morning these two had some snuggle time on the couch and we ended the day with a family walk; like seriously I am so grateful!

Chili

We have had a very eventful couple of months . Jeff got asked to be incharge of a dinner for the chaine des rotisseures. What an honour but what a task!

The day finally arrived...

I am pleased and proud to say that he did an amazing job. I was invited to attend. I was so thankful to be there and see all of the hours of planning and preparing had paid off; it was a delicious success.

Course by course....done!

Now back to my world of cooking...

I've been making my fair share of weekly soups; so this past week I opted for a chili.

I sautéed some ground pork with onions celery, garlic, chili powder and deglazed the Dutch oven with some red wine.

I added in red pepper, tomato sauce and diced tomato. I then added in rinsed white and black beans. 

I topped up the pot with more generic all purpose tomato sauce, adds in some corn and simmered it for a few hours.

Someone has not been themselves lately; but he sure is angelic when he's sleeping!

With Liam napping I whipped up some biscuits and cookies to round out the meal!

Perfect lunch!

I love chili; well truth be told I love sour cream, cheese and tortilla chips!

The snow was gone for a week and now it's back but atleast we know biking will be in our future; liam had so much fun!

As I was writing this blog the news broke about Chase Martens; the two year old who wandered off from his front yard and tragically died. My mother's heart is broken for this family. Being a parent isn't  easy; providing for your children while at the same time trying to remember to cherish  every moment can be a balancing act. It's moments like this that make you stop and stare blankly into thin air... Oh Jesus; I pray that you sent your angels to sweep this little one up and kept him from being cold or scared.  

I will continue to pray for this family; that they would feel Gods peace which can surpass all understanding. My deepest heartfelt sympathies go out to them. 

Farmers sausage, cabbage and kale soup

So life with a 23 month old has its challenges but I choose to find the fun! You want to be held? Ok I'll "hold" you...mamas got to get stuff done. It only took about 20 minutes of being confined to the snuggly and he was "fine" not being held.  But in all seriousness I find it a joy to be able to hold him and try everyday to see the positive.

We baked up a batch of oatmeal chocolate chip cookies and enjoyed giving just about every single cookie away; well right after Liam ate a few bites  of half a dozen or so.

I wanted to make a huge pot of soup so I emptied my fridge onto the counter and got to work.

I sautéed three onions, 8 ribs of diced celery with a whole head of chopped green cabbage. I added in a generous amount of grapeseed oil and seasalt.

Once this had cooked down and was translucent in colour I added in chopped kale; I removed the stem before doing so.

In a separate pan I browned 2 chopped links of farmers sausage.

I added 3 litres of homemade chicken stock and added in the sausage once it was browned. I deglazed the sausage pan with some stock to get all the delicious flavour bits from the bottom of the pan and added that in too.

Chinese pork

There's never a dull moment around here; both of our kids have wild imaginations; here they're being lions.

Just give them some measuring  spoons and a plastic container  and they're set!

For all of you in Manitoba, Costco has their gigantic pork loins on sale $5 off this week. This being said I bought two! I come by it honestly my dad is a "buy meat for the whole neighbourhood when it's on sale" type of guy. Now that I have a large amount of pork I was curious to know if my favourite Chinese chicken recipe would translate with the pork. 

I cut the pork in small pieces and coated it lightly with seasoned corn starch and olive oil. I baked this for 10 minutes on 425F.  When it came out looking par-cooked I added the sauce (VH and soya sauce) and put back in the oven for 10-15 minutes(stirring every 5 minutes or so).

I served this along with roasted asparagus and white rice. 

What a tasty meal; my "go-to" for sure.  Anything the kids ask for seconds for is my kind of meal.