Etsy is Up!

Well, it is taking longer than I anticipated. Then again, my hubby tells me that I tend to underestimate time... But at least it is up!

I have over 100 items to list, so hopefully by September they will all be up! Ha! For now, here are a few...

Introducing Little Pretties Luxe on Etsy!

Etsy littleprettiesluxe

Find me on Facebook and become a fan! Thanks! :)

Fast & Easy DIY: Blinged Napkins

Supplies:
Napkins (or serviettes as my mother says)
Mini sticky gems

Directions:
1. Determine number of gems per napkin. I did three on mine.

2. Stick gems on napkin.

3. Repeat.

So cute!

DIY: Glam Card Box

Supplies: 1 large card box (available at party/craft stores)
mini sticky gems (available at dollar stores or craft stores)
ribbon
lighter or lit candle
glue gun

Instructions:

1. Assemble card box according to instructions. Alternately, use your own box (just cover in wrapping paper and cut a large slit in the top).

2. Determine ribbon location. I wrapped my ribbon around the box and cut with an extra inch in length. I then heat-sealed the edges (with a lighter) and began on a side edge, adding a tiny bit on glue on each box corner. Repeat for each length of ribbon. I added bows to each ribbon stripe by making a loop and gluing together. (Sorry, forgot pics of this!) You should be left with a ribbon that looks like the number 8 when looking at it sideways. Then cut a short piece to wrap around the centre of the "8", and glue to ribbon stripes.


3. For the top, lay your ribbon out and cut exact length needed. Seal your ribbon edges, and glue ribbon around box opening. I added bows here too.


4. Affix the sticky gems to box. I used up one colour of sticky gems before I moved onto the next colour to ensure each side of the box got an equal amount. I also added some to the centres of the bows.

5. Admire and sighhhh at your chic box!

Blueberry & Cream Cheese Stuffed French Toast

Sounds complicated, but so easy! Sound tasty? You have no idea; I am practically drooling right now thinking about it!!

INGREDIENTS
4 slices bread
2 eggs
1 tsp cinnamon
cream cheese
handful blueberries

DIRECTIONS
1. Put eggs in shallow pan or bowl and beat with fork. Mix in cinnamon.


2. Arrange cream cheese slices on bread and place blueberries on top of cream cheese. Top with bread slice.



3. Dip outer sides of bread in egg mixture.


4. Place in hot frying pan (sprayed or greased) and cook on both sides (about 3-4 minutes per side).
5. Remove from heat; cut in half and arrange on plate.
6. Drizzle with blueberry compote and maple syrup. Top with fresh blueberries.

with blueberry compote only

with maple syrup added

Wow!! So goooood!! Enjoy!

Blueberry Compote

Compote is basically smashed up fruit plus water plus sugar. With all the blueberries we had, this was a tasty and easy way to use up a bunch of them!

INGREDIENTS
3 cups blueberries
2/3 cup water
2/3 cup white sugar
1-2 tbsp cornstarch
2 tsp lemon juice

DIRECTIONS
1. Mix together berries, water, and sugar. Simmer on stove until berries burst (about 8-10 minutes).
2. Mix together cornstarch with 1 tbsp cold water. When fully mixed, add to berry mixture. Cook until compote thickens and coats a spoon (about 6-8 minutes).
3. Remove from heat and stir in lemon juice.


Makes approximately 2 cups. Enjoy with yogurt, on ice cream, over pancakes, etc.!


Notes:
1. Add more cornstarch if you want a thicker result. I like to add, cook, and test. Then I add more cornstarch until I get it as thick as I want it.
2. I kept my stove on medium heat and was able to avoid any scorching.

Coming Soon!

(drumroll please...)

I am finally getting my Etsy store up and running! I have had people asking me about this for far too long... Your wish is granted; it is on its way! Hope to reveal tomorrow! (That is, if my fingers can still type and aren't too burned from all my glue gunning. Is that a word?)

PS Have a happy Friday! It's my second fave day of the week! :D

Williams-Sonoma "The Great Cupcake Pan"

My parents gave me this cute giant cupcake pan for my birthday. My kids wanted to go home immediately and bake! Typical. (Mommy was pushing for that, too!) I usually don't make cakes from scratch since they are generally heavy or dense. My hubby really likes the cake mix cakes because they are light and fluffy, so very few from-scratch cakes happen at our house. The cupcake pan comes with a recipe that is super. Fabulous. Awesome. Amazingness. Not heavy. But not airy light. Just somewhere in the middle of perfection! I'm not going to type it out - way toooo long!! I'd be typing til next Tuesday...



I followed the recipe exactly (hey, there's a first time for everything, right?!) and it turned out wonderfully. The giant cupcake dropped out of the pan perfectly. No pieces to mend, no missing spots, just gorgeousness in a cake. Can you tell it was a wonderful experience? Ha ha!

The only thing I would try differently next time is in the assembly of the cupcake. The directions tell you to place the top of the cupcake back into the pan, level it by cutting with a serrated knife, and cover the cut side of the cupcake with buttercream. Then you are supposed to flip the base over and lay the cut side down onto the buttercream. This means buttercream is sandwiched by both leveled sides of the cupcakes. This worked alright, but after chilling, it did not drop out of the pan until it warmed up a little bit. So next time, I may just assemble it on a cake plate, right side up of course.


We are now waiting impatiently for hubby to get home so we can demolish sample it.

Blueberry Picking!

I am sitting here typing with one hand as I scarf down blueberries with the other. Wow, I love those little things!

Took the kids out blueberry picking today for the first time (them, not me), and they thought it was great! We were the only ones there for the first half of our picking time... guess it was too hot for everyone else! Oh well. More for us!

Now I am searching for out-of-the-ordinary blueberry recipes to use up my 20 cups or so of blueberries! (Did I mention they are super ripe and need to be used or frozen pretty much immediately? Yeah. Lol!)

See that full pail on the ground? There's another in the stroller seat and it is even more full than the first!

The entire field is covered in netting to keep the birds away.

We saw this interesting-looking bird on the way home, just walking along the road. Aren't those polka dots crazy? We were thinking this might be a grouse...

Garden Update

Long time, no update and since a picture is worth a thousand words, here we go!

Please ignore the grass. It is the bane of my existence. In our city, we are prohibited from using any form of chemical weed control. Ask me how I feel about that! Ergggghhh. Anyway, the planter box on the left is the herb garden and the herbs are ginormous! I have got purple basil, regular basil, rosemary, mint, parsley, chives, and cilantro. Loving it!!


The planter box on the right is full of mostly cherry tomatoes.

How come no one ever told me that tomatoes from your own garden (or planter box!) are way better than any other tomatoes?? Well, they are!! These plants are definitely wild growers. Next time, I will have to use the wire teepee-looking things. You know what I mean, plus I have no idea what they're called...

Music Note Cake Pops

My son's school had a music night a while back and I volunteered to bring something for the food portion of the evening. Of course, I can't do something that someone else may bring. I have to be unique - maybe this is the Type A in me?

Anyway, so I made cake pops (thanks to Bakerella for inspiration!) but not in the conventional way. I baked a vanilla cake mix that I tinted Tiffany blue (I was testing the colour for another cake - more on that one later...) and then smashed it all up. Add in some cream cheese frosting and we're ready to go.

I rolled the mix into small balls and inserted a stick into each one. After dipping each one in melted chocolate, I set them upside down on parchment paper with the stick up in the air. Some sprinkles and such were added, and then I piped some royal icing around each stick for extra stability.

The next morning, I flipped the cake pops over and stuck them in my styrofoam board. I piped a dark chocolate ganache circle onto the base (now the top) of each cake pop. While the ganache was still setting, I gently laid the music notes on top. (It is possible that I broke almost as many music notes as I used. No telling though. Those are super duper fragile little things!!)

Needless to say, they ended up being used at the fundraiser table instead of the food table, and not one was left. I didn't even get one. :( Oh well, maybe next time.