President's Choice Pasta Dinner

I guess it's not a secret that I'm a bit of a President's Choice product fan. Although we enjoy making our own fresh pasta from time to time, we also use many pre-made pasta and sauce combos for those days (or weeks!) when I have commissions due and little time to play in the kitchen. President's Choice is featuring their PC Fresh Pasta and jar PC Pasta Sauces right now and I wanted to see what all the hype was about.

Turk-ish Delight

I used this recipe from Betterrecipes.com to make a first attempt at my favorite candy. I LOVE Turkish delight and have always wanted to make some. This is my first attempt. (I write first attempt because I will make these again very soon) I was very silly and instead of using the pomegranate extract that the recipe called for, I used pom juice. It wasn't nearly flavorful enough or colourful enough, so I added some cherry extract and pink food colouring. They were tasty, but next time I'll keep it traditional and add a floral water.

The sugar, water, and cornstarch, cream of tarter mixtures took a fair bit of work to blend together. Next time I'll add smaller batches of the cornstarch mix to the sugar and blend thoroughly before adding a wee bit more. It thickened right up and was pretty clear too.

This is after adding the flavoring and colour. I used parchment and loads of coconut oil to make sure the sticky delight would pop out of the tray after it set.

I didn't have to grease the knife as the recipe suggested.I used a very thin boning knife to slice these yummy blocks.

Here are some all coated in their milk chocolate layer. It was a messy and very labor intensive recipe, but I sure will make these again! Next time, I'm using orange blossom water as the flavoring.

Orange Blossom Water

Breakfast this beautiful sun drenched  Saturday morning.

We experimented with orange blossom water, adding it to our whipped cream for our pancakes. It was lovely and floral and fresh. Looking forward to some puddings with a bit of this added. Love trying new to us things.

Work Pants from Wearing History's Overall Pattern

I've made myself work overalls using this fantastic pattern from Wearing History.

I used a stretchy heavy weight denim that washes up great. I elongated the pockets an inch to fit my pens and phone.

I sectioned off one pocket to hold my work knife.

I also added some fancy lining to the waist band and pockets. I love this pattern. Both the overalls and the pants are roomy where I need them to be but still maintain that retro feel I love so much. Someone recently asked me why I make my work pants instead of just buying them like every one else at work. The only answer I could come up with was, "Because I can." What would you have answered?

Hot Chocolate Rolls

We got everything ready to make cinnamon rolls the other evening. We didn't notice until it was too late that we were out of cinnamon. We used Hot Chocolate mix and a variety of chocolate chips instead. I think this accident will be an on purpose recipe pretty often around here in the future.

Do you have a favorite family recipe accident?

Workin' It

Hello!

Hope you've all had a cozy Valentines Day.We're in the midst of a spectacularly frigid winter storm front. Twice in the past two weeks the snow on the roads was deeper than the snow in our driveways. (Yup.. that's right! Bought a house with TWO driveways to shovel) 

We've got our heads down and we're cuddled in and ready for Family Day tomorrow. I've been working away on projects and eating some delicious noodle bowls to keep myself toasty. 

How do you folks get through the wicked winter weekends?

Mini Skeins.

I got these beauties from Xrayann's shop and can NOT wait until I get the ribbing done on the bottom of my squirrel fair aisle vest! Knitting with fine wool gives such a pretty end product, 

but 

OH MY GOOD GODDESS! 

It takes forever to see any progress. I'm so excited to get to the actual pattern work in this piece. These mini skeins are so soft and deliciously dyed, they're all I can think about!

Send me patience.

WAY Too Much Cute!

The cute is ridiculous!

Can't wait to see what's next on the Lily Happy Baby Growth Calender.

(That's a real thing,right?)

Also. This little guy tried to kill me.I don't know his formal name. He was marked Red Thai Chili. Looks teensie and innocent? Contains the fires of HELL!!!! 

All of the fires!!! 

Soooooo hot!

What do you folks do with unbelievably hot peppers?

Trimming Grandpa Jimmy

This is one of the silliest things we've done in a long time.I had to share.

Love this guy heaps! He's the only one who gets my jokes every time.

Keeping Cozy

We Canadians are really good at cuddling in for the winter. That's exactly what we've been doing around our end of the woods.

Mom's been keeping us in flowers to keep us all cheerful.

I've been learning new knitting skills.

Potato mash, cod and cheddar spread is being had.

Even more socks are being knit.These are for our Mercy.

I've been making scratch Bennie for lunch.

It's been a great winter!