Fool Proof Roast Beef and Right Living

Today at 11:30am I decided I was going to cook a big family dinner. My two close cousins were coming into town, I had a free afternoon and a roast thawed and ready in the fridge. It was super last minute but everything just worked!

(dinner for 9 please and thank-you)

I spent the morning at the Yarrow Plant Sale with my mom, sister and grandma and then invited them over for coffee and cake and cookies ( ahem yes at 10am) and to come look at my gardens. Also, my mom did my dishes and picked a bunch of pretty blooms from my garden for my kitchen! Lovely.

(These are all from my yard! So fun!)

(garden touring)

(Thank-you Momma!)

Until recently I have not had a green thumb. Not even close! I have actually killed everything I have tried to grow in my house except a Christmas cactus which can go a very long time without water and still come back to life. Early this spring I planted basil and lavender seeds in small containers in my house. To my surprise 99% of the seeds came up and are now living happily in bigger pots! The lavender will take a good year longer till I will ever see flowers. Talk about patience.
I also have spent hourssss weeding and pulling out buttercup ( ahh I HATE buttercup!) from my mostly overgrown rental house gardens. They are now looking pretty good and healthy! I just hope we get to stay here all summer so I can enjoy all my work! I actually am starting to feel knowledgeable in my gardens and really loving being out there on gorgeous, sunny days. I have planted a very small veggie garden of brussle sprouts, cauliflower, broccoli, peas, sugar peas, swiss chard, tomatoes, dill, summer savory and mint. Ok that list doesn't make it seem small..but its like... four or six plants of each and the garden plot is verrry tiny. The herbs and tomatoes are in pots on my porch. Ohh yes and 12 strawberry plants!
Also, I am helping Jill plant her gardens (and to share in the harvest) at my mom and dads house. We expanded the previous garden so we could plant more potatoes and zucchini and cucumbers! Today we worked on weeding a insanely overgrown smaller garden where we hope to plant corn, pumpkins and squash.

Its great gardening with Jill because she knows sooo much and, as a bonus, I get to spend time with my sister. Jill went to UFV and got her horticulture certificate? diploma? I don't know...two year program thing. Anyways, she knows a lot about all sorts of gardening things so she it a great person to be learning from.

(Matching garden boots)

(Jam cat in the row of peas)

(Essie painted nails permanently caked with mud...also this is probably not good for my wedding rings)

After spending many hours in the gardens today, I made a super great dinner for my cousins, sisters and mom and dad! We had roast beef, roasted potatoes, roasted broccoli and zucchini chunks and a fresh salad. (wow so much roasting going on). It was a super easy dinner to feed so many people! (nine in fact). I did have help from everyone though. For dessert we had left over chocolate sheet cake, ice cream and vanilla sugar strawberries.

(easy, delish dessert)

(tossing broccoli and zucchini)

(medium- cooked roast)

  

Fool Proof Roast Beef

      While this does occupy your oven for quite some time, it also lead to a great, hands off dinner!

2-3lb Roast thawed and brought to room temperature

              (today I used a sirloin tip roast, but I have also used a prime rib roast and a rib roast with success!)

2 tsp Herbes de Provence
1 tsp Garlic Powder

1 tsp Salt

1 tsp Pepper

3 tbsp Olive Oil

*any spice combo would do, this is my favourite right now* 

1. Preheat oven to 375 degree F. Mix together herbs in a small bowl.

2. Rub roast with olive oil then, while your hands are still slimy, rub herbs liberally into roast. Use all the herbs and cover the entire roast.

3. Place roast into a roasting pan fat side up ( if possible) and place in heated oven for 1 hour.

4. After an hour, turn heat off but leave roast in the oven for an additional hour this hour should end about 1 hour before dinner to be served.

5. If you do not need your oven, leave roast in oven till 30 min before serving time. Turn heat back on at 375 degrees F and heat till warmed through. Let sit on counter 10 minutes covered with foil, before slicing. With a three pound roast this should be about medium rare. If your roast is closer to two pounds decrease waiting in the oven time to 1- 1 1/2 hours.

6. If you do need your oven, remove roast from oven and immediately cover roasting pan. Wrap in a towel or place somewhere to keep it warm as long as possible. 30 minutes before serving place back in oven till headed through. Let sit on counter ten minutes covered with foil, slice and serve.

*cooking longer during the second heating time will result in a more well done cut of meat. Mine was in for 45 minutes and was medium-well done*

Cereal

Every single day, Gary has cereal. Two bowls when he comes in from the barn and then two bowl right before bed. That is a lot of cereal. I have estimated that one large box, lasts about 1 1/2 weeks. I should clarify, he only eats Bran Flakes. There is no substitution. No Honey Nut Cheerios, no Shredded Wheat, no Honey Bunches Of Oats. Just Bran Flakes. 

 I do not like Bran Flakes. I will eat them if you make me, or if I decide for 5 minutes I want to eat healthy breakfast. Blah. You have to eat them sooo fast or else you have soggy bran-y mush and that is a consistency that I just can not swallow. 

Back 11months ago, when Gary and I got married, I knew this about him. What I didn't know was how this was only a glimpse into the crazy things he does. (crazy in the most loving way of course) 

I think in the past two weeks, I have said to him " you are just insane!" so many times...I can't even count. 

I usually laugh, shake my head, and then wonder what our kids are going to be like. 

When ever I tell Gary he is insane, his most common response is " hahaha honeyyy, its not that bad, your forgetting about how good I am to you hahaha, remember last night we went out for quality time and I bought you ice cream, you should blog about this. You are sooo funny when you are frustrated, your hair just bops around and you say funny things" 

ps. Quality time when he bought me ice cream was going across the boarded to look at cows and we stopped at a dairy store so Gary could go to the bathroom and I bought myself ice cream and then we looked at cows for 2 hours and then came home. Obviously, this was a date night...

Seriously, he says my hair "bops" around. and then he can't stop laughing.  I usually laugh too. It makes it hard being frustrated. 

Anyways. Gary's strict cereal  preferences are a metaphor for his life...unexpected, strange and a little over the top

And if cereal is a metaphor for Gary's life...

Maybe it is for mine too...

I bought Halloween Captain Crunch. Its like candy for breakfast. 

I would be lying, if I said the fact that the ghosts turn the milk green wasn't a selling feature. 

Marketing companies really know how to suck me in. 

My Cereal shelf also contains Mini Wheats

Honey Puffed Kashi ( Basically Sugar Crisp...with a little less sugar) 

Apple Cinnamon Cheerios

 I also have instant chocolate oatmeal and 2 varieties of granola. Unfortunately I do not usually eat cereal or yogurt or anything like that for breakfast. I much prefer pie. 

I am not sure what this says about me other then the fact the I like to eat sweet stuff. Perhaps that I am a bad decision maker? 

I really just wanted to show you my Halloween Captain Crunch. Its tasty. 

When "Bake Zucchini Cake" is on Your To-Do List, Your Bound to Get at Least One Thing Done

I need lists. I am probably the biggest procrastinator you know. I can waste too much time on Facebook, Pinterest , and blogs that I get nothing done for hours!

So I make lists. Every morning while I eat breakfast and check Facebook, I make my list of things that need doing that day. Usually there is at least one house cleaning item, dinner, some yard work and some impossible task that getting written down day after day and never actually gets done. ie. paint the living room, clean the fridge, go to the bottle depot ( I hate going to the bottle depot...is like...wahoo I am going to bring in all these bottles and cans I have been saving all this time and get some money and then I can feel awesome...and then you go and empty out the sticky bags and take all the lids off the bottles and sort all the different sizes and then bring them up to the counter and they ring it through..."and you get $4.67 back today, don't spend it all in one place!" gee...thanks...)  . Anyways, that was a little side note.

So yesterday I started my day by making a list...

 Yeah, its messy...but really who else was supposed to read it? For about 30 seconds I considered making a nice neat one and fakin' it for the picture...but this is real life. 

I like how I felt the need to clarify that I only "sort of" needed groceries. Meaning, of course, that I only needed eggs and cinnamon sticks. 

By the end of the day, I had completed all of the things on my list except cleaning the upstairs bathroom, and reprocessing my unsealed pears. 

I did find it funny that I added "Bake zucchini cake" to the list. Because really...since when did I need to remind myself to bake? It probably would be better if I forgot once in a while. Haha..not likely. 

Anyways, I made the zucchini cake. This was my second time and my oh my..its just so tasty. Just a little chocolatey, and a little zucchini-y and perfectly soft and tender and moist and really really great for breakfast. (But really, what cake isn't?)  Um on the topic of eating cake for breakfast, just the other day, somebody was quite shocked that pie is a regular breakfast item at my (and my parents!) house. I think I have a dessert problem. 

Ugh I keep getting off topic! So I made the cake. And its really really good. And you should totally make it. 

This is what it looks like. Kinda plain, I know. The actual recipe says to top it with chocolate chips, but you know me..always trying to cut down on the sugar, so I left them out. 

Actually I just forgot. And I found it totally tasty this way. 

This recipe I found through Tasty Kitchen  and is actually from another girl/lady's blog, so when that happens I don't generally like to post the recipe on my blog. So here is the LINK . I have not spent too much time on this blog yet, but it looks interesting! She even took step by step pictures! Yay. :) 

Now You Know

Can I share something with you? I mean its not that deep. It wont change your life or anything. 

I hate unloading the dish washer. I don't know why. I just do. So you can imagine, when today I found myself with a small pile of dirty dishes:

And the "clean" light glowing on the dish washer:

I sighed, ate a strawberry dipped in chocolate sauce, checked facebook, checked twitter, then opened the dish washed and did what I had to do. 

I know. Monumental.

Can I share something else with you? 

You may or may not know, Gary (my husband) and I moved about 1 month ago. We live in a super cute and good sized house on a dairy farm we rent. Its great. We had our whole old house all packed up and we were all ready to move. We had rented a farm and a house and we were good to go. About 2 weeks before we were supposed to move, everything fell through. We had to find a new place to live and a new place to milk our cows. We had 2 weeks. ( The reason our deadline was so short was because we had to go to Toronto to film dragons den! It was a crazy time) So 1 week went by. We still had nothing. Not a thing. By the beginning of the second week...we had 6 days to find a place to live and move. I was a big ball of stress. I walked around with my hands in fists constantly. I do that when I am stressed out. 

Case and point, above picture. This is the day ( or 2) before my wedding. There was lots to be done. LOTS. and  my mom made us stop and take a picture. My fists were balled so tight that day. There is about 8 other pictures that my hands look exactly like that. Sheesh I need to calm down. 

Anyways, this is totally beside the point. 

We had no where to move I was stressed out. 

Then we found a farm and it had a house! But the house was going to be rented. Shoot. Then the owner of the house talked to the soon-to-be renter about us moving in instead and the soon-to-be renter said that was ok and we could move there! This happened on Monday. We had to move by Friday. We had NEVER been inside the house. It was a bit scary. 

So on Tuesday we got the keys and I went in the house for the first time. Gary was on Vancouver Island delivering hay and two guys that work for us were loading up trucks to bring all our stuff over. 

The house could have been a disaster. It could have been a mess. It could have been stuck in the 80`s or 70`s or some other era. But it wasn't/ isn't. Its actually amazing. Pretty. Newish. Clean. Big. 

The only room that left me questioning was the office/main-room-off-the-kitchen-thats-weirdly-open-but-not-the-living-room room. 

It looks like and ocean. Sort of. There are waves. And orange trim. 

You thought I was kidding.

I mean, the waves are very nicely done. Perfectly shaped and everything. But really. Waves? The orange trim only goes up half the door. I don't know why. Sooner then later this needs to get painted. Though I am tempted to leave it. People think its funny... sort of. 

Oh and of course there are dogs in the ocean. See: 

Now you know. 

Citrus-Mint Granita

I have a fabulous husband. I do.

This is Gary milking our cows for the very first time! 

I was their too...It was evidently a chilly day. 

 He's great. Sometimes he brings me tea ( large earl grey doubledouble from Tim Hortans) or calls me from the Starbucks line to ask what I want. Sometimes he leaves me little notes telling me he loves me or brings me a card and a new plant to try and keep alive. But lately, the best, nicest, thing he does for me? Lets me sleep in through milking.
     As some of you know, a couple of weeks ago ( ? I have no actual idea how long it has been...it feels like forever!) we started milking cows. Our own cows. So obviously we are responsible for seeing that these lovely cows get milked every single day, twice. We milk at 5:30 am and 5:30 pm. So getting up at 5:30...sucks. Well actually its not that bad. Its usually beautiful in the morning at that time. But sleep is definitely lacking. So last night, he said I could sleep in! yay! and sleep I did. I didn't hear the alarm go off, I didn't hear Gary getting ready to go outside, I didn't hear him come back in the house or crawl back into bed. I just slept slept slept till 9:30 am. It was lovely!
( how many times did I say lovely in that paragraph?)

     So now that I am refreshed and well rested, I can do some blog posts! Today is a dreary day but I am bundled up sitting on a big comfy couch on my back porch. with a blanket and my laptop. I am very blessed to have such a good life.

So basically, I have a recipe today! I made grapefruit/tangerine/lemon and mint sorbet/granita yesterday. Its delish, sweet and refreshing. I am going to call it Citrus-mint Granita. Because you could totally use any kind of tangy citrus that you wished.

This recipe is really simple. really. 

Citrus-Mint Granita

1 1/2 cup water

1 1/2 cup sugar

1 1/2 cup fresh squeezed citrus 

( I used 1 large pink grapefruit, 2 tangerines, 1/2 a lemon, I added some of the grapefruit and tangerine pulp too) 

A small handful of fresh mint. ( I used about 1/3 of a cup whole leaves) 

1) Put water and sugar in a pot over medium heat and stir occasionally until all the sugar is melted.

2) Add mint and fruit juice and stir. Bring to barely a boil then take off heat. Here I had a bit of a problem. One recipe I was reading said to put this all in a blender...so I did. Only hot hot juice in a blender equals hot hot juice all over your kitchen. Don't do that. Your clean floors will not be sticky and thats not fun. 

3) Pour hot mixture through a fine strainer and take out all the chunkies. 

4) Put bowl of juice/fruit/mint mixture in the freezer until solid. I stirred mine once in a while to make it lose and icy. Next time I will pour into my ice cream maker. I think it will be more sorbet-like that way. 

Singing Patty Griffin in the Car Makes my Throat Scratchy

You know when you stop at a red light and look over, and you see the girl/boy in the car next to you belting out some tune and then you laugh?

Don't lie, we ALL laugh at that girl/boy.

That girl? Is totally me. Totally.

My car-driving-alone-time is belting-out-tunes-at-the-top-of-my-lungs-time.

When ever I get out of the car at my destination I always feel refreshed and energized and happy. Like belting out those songs releases all my tension and I just get to be free.

Sometimes I look over at cars passing me on the highway, or I see the person in the car next to me see me singing and I laugh a bit to myself because I know that as soon as they pull away they are going to laugh cause I was singing. But I bet that as soon as they are done laughing they are going to crank up their own radio and belt out a tune of their own. I am sure of it!

I was thinking the other day, there is only one other person I can car-sing with. My sister Jill. We have driven to Langley to go shopping and Seattle to see pioneer woman. Sure we talked a bit, but mostly we just sang and sang and sang. After the Seattle trip I recall having quite the sore and scratchy throat. Probably because we probably sang for 4 hours straight.

It was just fabulous.

My current fav car-belting songs?

Stolen Car or Nobody's Crying by Patty Griffin

and Colder Weather  by Zac Brown Band


Do you sing when you are alone in the car?
What are your fav car singing songs?

A List of Things Just Because :)

1. Easter is over, which means the little fluffy chicks that were my blog background just had to go.

2. I came home from Ontario to a big basket of easter candy hanging on my back door ( thanks mom!)

3. I am currently working on a post chalked full of our Ontario experiences. It was super fun.

4. Today I went grocery shopping at 1:00 and filled up my fridge with veggies and fruit to counter act the chocolate. Said groceries are still on the counter. So I guess I didn't technically "fill my fridge"...at least not yet.

5. I went to the gym for the first time in a really really long time. It felt good. I watched a show about chocolate on the food network while I worked out. mmm

6. I bought 2 pairs of jeans today for 30 bucks!!! Brand new ones and everything!!

7. My BFF started her own blog just a short time ago! Check her out! She is super fun!

All About Bee

8. The Vancouver Canucks are currently winning 1-0 in the 7th game of the series! This is VERY exciting. 

Thats all :) 

<3 Marie 

8. The V

Ontario

Yesterday was our last full day in Ontario. We have been here since Wednesday and are definitely ready to go home. Back to our new house (that we have hardly been in) and back to the busy hectic life that we live. We will start milking cows on our own little dairy operation super soon! and I am sure the hay orders are backed up till next year. You get the drift. We are busy...but we do love it!

So to make the most of our time here we did a lot of great things!
First and foremost, we stayed at The Fairmont Royal York (fancifully oldish) and visited the CBC building down the road to pitch our business to the Dragons Den. It was fantastically fun and I can't wait till I am allowed to tell you all about it (which wont be till it airs on tv sometime next season).

But...just so ya know...this happened. Unloading hay on John Street in downtown Toronto...with a camera crew) 

While we were super down town (CBC and The Fairmont are down town Toronto) we walked the streets and ate at delish restaurants and went shopping in the hugest mall. It was insane. I didn't take any pictures. Oh but I found some that Gary took...on the escalator.

Lovely. My eyelashes look super long :) 

We also went to an Anthropologie! 

Side note...I will never take Gary there again...I on the other hand...plan to return with money to spend :) 

I was KINDA excited...so Gary took pictures:

(I have a thing for crossing my legs in pictures these days...)

( I wore my winter, bulky coat the entire time...it was cold I tell ya)

Umm Gary this is getting a little embarrassing...(there are 6 more pictures!)

Ok totally time to stop taking pictures..."Gary STOP taking pictures!"

Then, becuase we were in a fancy, expensive shopping district ( cus thats where anthro was) we saw a fancy car...Gary took a picture.

Apparently Robert form Dragons Den drives a car like this...hes rich...a millionaire...obviously. 

I have no idea what kind of car it is... an expensive one.

Then, we left Toronto (actually the next day) and went to Barrie to visit my aunt Lianne ( who is actually not my aunt...but basically). We didn't take a single picture. But we ate yummy food and talked about food and Gary made us watch a painful hockey game. Then I stayed up till 1:00am watching the food network. It was worth it.

The next day we went to a church in Barrie, Ontario and then drove to Kingston, Ontario. It was SUCH a beautiful day and the drive was amazing! 

We even got to take a fun little ferry! 

We honestly pulled up to this stop sign as the ferry was pulling away from the dock. But that was ok. We took some nice pictures while we waited. 

This was our sweet rental car. Nice and roomy. It even had a fun little thing in the glove box where you put your water bottle and it keeps it cool! Super fun! 

Fun little ferry over a bay in Lake Ontario 

The pictures pretty much end here. I took one in our hotel room in Kingston, but Gary is wears PJ pants and there are clothes and coats and shoes scattered all around. 

All in all, we had a fantastic trip and we are home now! I am really looking forward to getting comfortable in our new house and cleaning it and planting a garden and getting goats and baby chickens. 

Picky? High Maintenance? Asking for Diabetes? You tell me...

I am not a picky eater. I pretty much like everything or at least I will eat anything.
I have a bit of a problem going out to eat though.Mostly if we are going out to eat breakfast. I always tear apart the menu and try and find something I either do not know how to make or I don`t usually make because it is too much work. I am talking about creative pancake options, unreal omelette's, yeast breakfast breads you know...stuff like that. I mean I like regular cereal and oatmeal and pancakes and French toast and eggs and bacon and waffles and all that stuff but when I am paying for it...I want something special.

Ok this totally sounds so High Maintenance.
Its true, I am becoming and bit of a "foodie" what ever that means. I like to search for original restaurants that make cool/homemade/unique things. But I totally will eat at White Spot or Boston Pizza and be totally happy too. If there is a cool/homemade/unique restaurant next door though...that will always always always be my choice!

Today though, I realized that when I am trying to pick a breakfast place I am looking for a place with baked goods...
in other words I want to be able to order a cinnamon bun for breakfast or a piece of  coffee cake or something else laced with sugar.
Unfortunately my dear husband is a bit on the opposite side of the fence. As long as the place has a)Bacon, b) runny eggs c) toast we can eat there.

So now the Canucks game is on ( well it has been on the whole time) and its overtime and I totally do not remember what the entire point of this post was besides the fact that I want to eat cake and sugar for breakfast.

Thankyou for reading my nonsense...no point post. :)

<3 Marie

Dragons Den

So as many of you know, Gary and I flew to Toronto on Wednesday so we could be part of the filming for the 6th season of dragons den! :)
Well this afternoon we walked down to the CBC building and pitched our Hay Sales business to the dragons.
Today was the day! It was super fantastic. Gary and Dan pitched away and I sat watching on a screen shaking like crazy!
I cant tell you anything about anything else :) You will just have to wait to see the episode (if we get on TV that is)

Shoot... I had sooo much more written about all sorts of things but I totally lost it all when I tried to post it becauseeeee the hotel we are at makes you PAY for internet. PAY! We already paid a fortune to stay there and now we have to pay 15 bucks per 24hours for internet. Sheesh. Oh well.....

Gary says " You have so much to say honey, just say it all again...its twice as good the second time."
I beg to differ.

So I think I said something about places to eat in Toronto. Perhaps Bakeries?  I love bakeries. Love Love Love.   I think we may walk 10 blocks now to get doughnuts. Gary does not yet know this.
Then we are going to find somewhere to watch the Canucks game at around 10pm if we can :)

Oh Oh, if you missed it, Chilliwack Times did a story on TNT Hay Sales on Tuesday :) you should read it... Its ridiculous. Gary says crazy things and people laugh and then they put it in the news paper...
Read it here.

They also taped him backstage saying all kinds of crazy things...oh my.

Time to venture out of our room :)
Maybe Ill take pictures of my food from now on. Yum.

Checkerboard Cake

So I am just going to start this off by letting you know that over the next 6 weeks or so my posting ability is going to be quite limited. Or I should say, I think it might be.

I may have mentioned before that my grandparents own a produce-store-that-actually-sells-everything store. And because they sell everything, of course they have a bit of a home baking operation going on. There is a great lady who has been doing the baking (in my grandmas certified kitchen) for 14 years!
14! FYI that is a long time.
Anyways, she broke something in her hand about a week ago and will be wearing a cast for 6 weeks. Obviously somebody has to step in a bake the pies and the bread and the sweet loafs and the cinnamon buns and the muffins and the cookies. Naturally, I offered. So last week I spent 2 days in the kitchen with the broken hand baker and she taught me the ropes. Basically, she doesn't use recipes...and is super woman and can work harder and faster then anyone I know.

I think the whole time she was probably shaking her head at me as my pie dough ripped or my loafs got stuck in the pan or I spill flour/sugar/raspberries/etc. on the floor.
Anyways, I think I can do it, and I think it could be fun. I look forward to when I can do it by myself and crank up the radio and just get in to my baking world ( my favorite place to be! ).
I do have to mention that when her hand is healed, I will not be sad to give her her job back. I am sure it is going to be very tiring.

Especially becauseeeee ( changing the subject completely) Gary and I have to move. Well we don't have to move, but we are moving. We get to start milking cows in May ( wohoo! this is Gary's life long dream) on our own little dairy farm. Only it wont be our own cause we can only afford to rent a barn with a milking parlour etc. In BC it costs a lot to get started milking cows. Most people are either born into a dairy farm one way o another or start with the help of a program in place by the milk board. The problem with the milk board program is that if we put our name on the list...we could easily not get to start milking cows for 20 years!

So I need to stop rambling...but to summarize everything into point form:

a) In may we get to start milking cows ( ahem....12-15 cows...YES I am going to name them!)
b) On april 15th we are moving to a house much closer to the farm we will be renting then the house we live in now
c) I will get to milk cows too ( Sorry I shouldn't say get...like its a pleasure to get up at 5:30 to go milk the cows...but hey..I will get an early start to my day!)
d) I am baking for the next 6 weeks 3 days a week for the Yellow Barn.
e) I am currently baking 2 9x13 cakes to attempt to make a checkerboard cake. Ok I didn't talk about that before but I am now :)

Has anyone ever made a checkerboard cake? Do you even know what it is? Basically you make a chocolate and a vanilla/white cake. and then you cut it in a special way and put the pieces back together to make a checkerboard look when you cut into it.

With that great description I am sure you are all saying OHHHH I get it. or probably not..

This is what the top of mine looked like:

Next time I would have much more yellow icing and not run out so I could do more decorations :)

I did the words by printing a page off the computer in writing that I liked and then placing wax paper on top and basically copying the writing with my melted white chocolate (with a touch of yellow food colouring) 

and THIS was the inside! Surprisingly enough, this is the only actual picture I have of the inside of the cake..

I know, I know, way to be a good blogger. 

But I was cutting and serving and admiring my cake! 

Ok I am sorry this is taking me forever to post! I have been super busy baking for the yellow barn and starting packing our house! :) 

<3

Ps. can I just say, I am sorry I talk so much!

I think its because my husband talks sooo much too that I don't always get to say the millions of things I want to say and so then I end up saying them all on here and I could just write for ages and ages

I am sorry 

Update...

Ok...so can I just restate the fact the when starbucks starts making a bakery treat its a trend?
( In case you missed it.. I talked about this yesterday...Here!

because you know what happened today?
I went to Starbucks... I haven't been in forever!

They had new mini treats... guess what they were???

Red Velvet Whoppie Pies

Salted Caramel Chocolate Square

Mini Cupcakes

Cake Pops ( SO popular...thank-you Bakerella. )

YES Starbucks now sells cake pops...can you believe it? I couldn't.

They also had a lemon square ( lemon curd was tres popular this winter )
and the mini vanilla bean scones ( scones are sooo up and coming )  ( I know they had these in the USA but not in Canada I don't think...or not in Chilliwack at least! )

I can't even explain to you the feeling I got when I saw those little treats... I almost laughed out loud.

I Love Pillow Talk

Today I noticed that almost all of my posts have been given the Tag Label, `Ramblings`.

Last night my husband said it was good that I had a blog so I could say things I wanted to say on here rather then talk his ear off when he come home from work.

I then procedded to talk his ear off till midnight while he lay in bed trying to fall asleep... I can`t help it. The words flow better when I am laying down.

I <3 Pillow Talk

Thats what Gary calls it.

He doesn't love it.

All the Rage

Cupcakes are all the rage these days.

There is  little cupcake bakeries popping up on every corner. 

Even Starbucks has a selection of "fresh" cupcakes topped with an overly generous amount of sickeningly sweet Butter cream icing. 

And we all know that the trend is official once Starbucks jumps on the bandwagon. 

And of course there are other popular things that it seems "everyone" is making. Like smoothies, and macaroons, and salted chocolate/caramel anything, and anything with nutella, and red velvet everything. Don't get me wrong, I am not bashing the many bloggers who are making these things. I love to make them all too! I am totally just stating an observation that I have recently made. Its kinda fun actually to make these things and experiment along with the rest of the baking blog world. Not that I have actually made any of those things and posted them. Though I did make Nutella Chip Cookies which were delish! Did I post about them? I don't remember. Next time I make them I will :) They were so yummy. But let me tell you, making your own chocolate chips out of nutella...not an quick and easy thing to do. 

Anyways...this whole thing about trends actually has nothing to do with what I am going to post about...except that maybe giant cupcakes are becoming a bit of a trend. 

Wait...you have heard of this right? Making a huge, jumbo cupcake? In the olden days...people used to use a round glass pyrex bowl and a round equally sized cake pan and put them together to make a big cake that, when iced, looks like a huge cupcake. 

Well times have changed and now...Wilton (and I am sure many other companies) have come up with a much simpler way to pull this fun cake off...

Its the Jumbo Cupcake Pan

Now to the point of the post...

A friend of a friend contacted me a weekish ago asking if I could make one for her sons first brithday. Of course I said YES! 

I received a pan for a wedding present and have seriously been waiting for the perfect occasion to whip out a giant cupcake! I baked a trial version tonight (there is nothing worse then saying yes when you are actually not sure if you can pull it off) and it turned out great!!! I am going to experiential with icing the top tomorrow afternoon. I am thinking either a light blue or green tinted buttercream with maybe a darker strip of colour swirled throughout. ( I learnt a fun and easy technique at a cupcake decorating class a while ago!) Anyways. It should be fun! 

Has anyone else ever made a Giant Cupcake Cake? Any tips? 

PS. We are home from mexico. We got home at 3:00 AM. It is def time for bed. We are super super tanned and had an awesome time! Maybe I will post a picture or two later :) Sleep now.

Delay

Ok so we have been greatly delayed for our mexico flight. We were supposed to leave at 10:10 this morning ( aprox 2 hours ago) but we will not leave till 6 pm tonight. Blah! Oh well.
Thank goodness the airport is about 25 minutes max from our house! I almost didnt want to come home because  the house is so tidy! ( well the floors need to be cleaned but i also didnt want to come home because I would feel like I had to do that too.) Well I am home now and I have yet to vacuum or sweep :) . It will be an eventful evening. Gary plans on sleeping. I will read a book.


In all this spare time I think I will share with you a yummy cheese biscuit recipe.

For a wedding shower my sisters and cousins and b)est friend threw for me...they pulled out all the stops including asking each guest to bring their favorite recipe. This was great! I have tones of yummy dinner ideas and I have actually almost all used!
A good friend gave me this recipe for her famous Buttermilk Cheese Biscuits so we will call them:
Carmen's Buttermilk Cheese Biscuits!
I have actually made them a lot of times most recently I have been baking them for my Grandma to sell at her store (The Yellow Barn Country Produce) and they are super yummy especially with soup.

Here is the recipe!

Carmen's Buttermilk Cheese Biscuits

1 3/4 cup Flour
2 tablespoons Sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons Baking Powder
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1/4 teaspoon Baking Soda
1/3 cup Butter (Cold)
1 cup Buttermilk
1 cup Grated Cheddar Cheese

1. Mix together all the dry ingredients.
2. Cut in Butter with a pastry blender or a food processor until pea sized.
3. Stir in Cheese.
4. Stir in Buttermilk until moistened
5. Knead dough on a lightly floured surface about 10 times and pat into a 9" circle. Cut into 8 pieces and separate.
6. Bake on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet  at 450 degrees F. for 12-15 minutes until light brown.

Yum! Make these for dinner with soup! Or just eat them warm with butter! 

Mexico

My dear dear husband and I are off to a sunny destination in T-minus 13 hours.
The house is a disaster. The bags are less then packed. I am writing a blog post. The said husband told me to write something funny on my blog.
He then said to write about him because he is very very funny.

He is sitting at the kitchen table across from me wearing the swim shorts he needs to pack.

We are also watching the rain man while we pack..or while I pack is more like it.

I need to do the dishes.

Seeds

For about 3.5 seconds I thought about posting a deep and thoughtful post about seed and how they are like idea that get planted in your mind and then they grow...

And then I decided not to. Mostly because what I really want to talk about is the fact that I planted seeds!

I planted tomatoes...I know its a terrible idea to try and grow tomatoes from seed...apparently its quite difficult. But me being the gifted and incredibly knowledgeable vegetable grower that I am, I am sure I can handle it. Not. I can barely keep full grown tomato plants alive long enough to provide me with a tasty tomato. Last summer I barely managed! This summer I promise to be different. I will nurture my green thumb and water my plants faithfully and not over water them either! ( my sister, the horticultural expert in this house, says that more people kill plants from over water then under watering... now you know)

I also planted cucumbers, basil (picture below)  My  grandma says basil needs to be warm. Today I put the little mug on the heat register. I think it was happy.

This was a bit ago...now the little seeds have sprouted and are waving their tiny leaves in the air. Maybe I will take a new picture. 

This is the container with the tomatoes and cucumbers in it. T is for the first 4 egg cups. They have an orange heirloom tomato breed in them. I had to obviously pick the un-genetically altered brands because well...I like a challenge apparently. Now I am sure you can practically get drought resistant, blight resistant tomatoes...cheaters. 

C is obviously for the cucumber cups and the B is for beefsteak heirloom tomatoes. By the way...the cucumbers and one of the beefsteak tomato plants have sprouted. I replanted the rest of the seeds...they were MIA. 

Oh yeah and obviously the top picture is a yellow pepper.

Have I mentioned I have no idea what I am doing? 

Anyways, I hope they live. I want to grow veggies. 

I tried to grow pumpkins and zuchinni last year...the kid who mowed the lawn at Gary's cut off the flowers haphazardly and so no flowers = no pumpkins or zuchinni

It was sad. I wanted to fire him. But hes 10...and didn't know better. And then I would have to mow the lawn and we have a push mower. This year I will build a little fence.