GF Baking Class.

For my mom's 65th birthday, my two sisters and I decided to surprise our Mom and give her an experiential gift, along with some time spent with us.  We decided to attend a cooking class together at a cooking studio in uptown Waterloo. You can check it out here.  

Before I go any further, I must pause and give all credit to my sisters who came up with the idea.  If it were up to me, I would have chosen something predictable like pedicures.  And here's the thing, our Mom LOVED it.  It was something that she would never (and I mean never) normally do and it was super fun for us to do together.  We laughed lots.  Hopefully we didn't distract the other 4 members of the class.  Who am I kidding?  I'm sure we did.  They probably hated us.

The funny thing was that this particular class was a gluten-free baking class.  To be totally honest, we picked it based on the day that worked best for us, more than on the focus of the class.  However, it completely worked out to my benefit as I am (mostly) gluten free. :)

Our menu consisted of:

Pumpkin Cornmeal Pancakes with Blueberries and Cinnamon Maple Syrup

Gluten-free Strawberry Scones with Lemon Curd

Roasted Heirloom Tomato Tart

Chocolate Souffle Cookies

Everything was delish.  One of my favourtite take-a-ways from the class was learning how to make my own batch of gluten-free all-purpose flour.  I can't wait to make it and substitute it in my favourtie recipes that call for wheat flour.   Not to mention, it's way cheaper than buying gluten-free all-purpose flour already made up and packaged.  I'll be making a trip to Bulk Barn this week :)

Here's the recipe:

1 1/4 cups of brown rice flour

1 1/4 cups of white rice flour

1 cup tapioca flour

1 cup sweet rice flour

1/2 tsp. xantham gum

Turns out the day was a total success.  Even my nephew loved it!

p.s.  the homemade lemon curd was to die for!

- Carrie

Kitchen Chairs upgrade

We inherited some chairs awhile ago, and they were sturdier than our current ones at the time, so we considered it an upgrade.  There was only one problem : the fabric seats were not my ideal choice (not the worst thing in the world) however I hated the fact that they were also covered in plastic. It reminded me of a friend's house growing up - whose living room furniture had plastic on it. It just seemed weird to me. Plus they were the only blue thing in the room.

Anyways, once my daughter started eating at the table, and spilling at the table, I realized that maybe covering your chairs in plastic wasn't as bad as I first thought. Then I saw that ikea sells plastic coated fabric. With less than an hour of time and two small assistants, we had drastically transformed chairs!

Now I am one step closer to a kitchen that I don't hate.

I have been trying to decide what to do with the rest of the wooden table and chairs.
I plan to leave the table top wood, and paint the base. The only thing stopping me (other than two tiny assistants) is what colour, black? charcoal? red? And then do I paint the chairs to match?

Red table with black chairs? Black Table with red chairs? Red table with wooden chairs? Black table with wooden chairs? I really like the idea of red in there somewhere, I know it will be quite a bit of colour compared to what it is right now, but I imagine something will be painted black or charcoal - only because I know I have some paint in the basement.

- Lauren

And then there were two

Customized TeaTowels - Homemade Christmas Gifts

For the past few years our family has tried to do mostly homemade gifts. Its been awesome. This year it was a combination of homemade and 'your favourite things' (ie inexpensive things you love that you want everyone else to have)

Keeping gifts in the $10ish range made things much more creative and thoughtful. Some highlights include  bacon jam, franks red hot, minstrels and roses chocolates, norwex cloths, cookbook, natural soap, cosmetics bag, HP sauce, caramel popcorn, pens, crocheted dish cloths, painted initials for my daughters room door, and I am sure I am forgetting a few others...

I came up with a homemade idea before we decided to do the 'fav things' and so continued along with my idea following a online tutorial on spoonflower.com (a website where you can customize fabric).

Way back in september I asked my mom to handwrite a family recipe for me. She was a little confused since she knew I had a typed version but did so anyways without question. Then after scanning the recipe and creating a file to upload (took a little longer than I would have thought but in the end figured it out). Then I ordered my fabric and waited. I think it took about 6 weeks to arrive - this is the earliest I have ever started christmas projects!

Once the fabric arrived, I cut it up - 4 tea towels per yard of fabric. Folded the edges and sewed some straight seams. I also added a loop on the bag to hang from a hook.

This was super easy and everyone loved it. I think the total cost (with shipping) was around $7 each.

- Lauren

Hallway Photos

One of our projects over the holiday break was to finally finish up our hallway. From the beginning, Craig and I had the same goal of creating a hallway with a bold statement and fond memories. (It just took a few years to FINALLY finish).

We decided on black photo frames, with white matting on our bold rusty orange "L" shaped hallway. All of our frames are symmetrical, with an equal balance on either side.

We mixed in photo frames with a few other interesting pieces.

For example, we have a very neat photo of Craig's grandfather's graduating class at Queen's University from 1939.

We also used the original copy (which was boarded and laminated) of an Auction list from 1917 when Craig’s Great Grandparents immigrated to Canada from England.

Finally, we framed Cheques from the 1860’s, when Craig’s Great, Great, Grandfather ran a hotel in New York.

Definitely some very interesting, and neat family heirlooms, and I am very pleased with the results!

 

-Leah

Home made Spring Rolls

Each week our siblings in Waterloo try to get together and hang out - the item on the agenda is always eating. This week we made spring rolls.

We had deep fried ones, which consisted of a pork/crab/vermicilli noodles/lots of other stuff since I wasn't paying attention and my brother was adding stuff as he goes instead of following a recipe. He then pan fried them in oil and then continued to cook them in the oven until the meat was fully cooked.

We also made a vegetarian fresh roll with spinach, mint, green onion, sprouts, noodles, mango, green pepper and I'm probably forgetting something.

We ate both with a peanut dipping sauce (which my husband added extra hot sauce to his portion)

They were great, I wish I had made more fresh rolls because I think they would have been great the next day. And when I make them again, I think I will try smaller and the fresh ones tighter.

Have you tried to make anything new lately?

DIY Art

 Every Thanksgiving, my In-Laws have an very creative tradition. D-I-Y Art! I love it!
It has been such a great way for the family to share in an activity together, and to have a beautiful, creative, original piece of art!

It's so simple...
- buy a canvas, (already pre-assembled would be easiest, but my family like to make the frame themselves.. if you are looking for a certain size, it will be best to make the frame... but if you are not as picky on size, you can easily buy a pre-assembled piece of canvas)

- buy yourself some acrylic paint (any art store can help you choose the best kind to buy)

- get your family and friends together to help share in the original piece of art you are about to make

- get creative! play around with different brushes, techniques, colours,

- when finished, leave to dry for at least a day, (then make your frame if need be) Hang it up, and wait for the compliments to roll in :)



This is the art made about 4 years ago. It hangs in our dining room, and we constantly get compliments on it.

-Leah

Camping 101

Last week my husband and I went camping with our three daughters.  We were camping for 10 days and it was fantastic.  If you know anything about my husband, you'll know that he LOVES to camp.  He was born for it and he is the best possible version of himself when he is camping.  On the drive home from our camping trip, I took the liberty of interviewing Steve.  He humoured me and what a great sport he was :)

How long have you been camping?  "35 plus years"

What are your favourite things about camping?  "the outdoors, pace of life, campfires"

Any advice for first time  campers?  "go for it.  It's a great and inexpensive way to spend time with family and friends"

Any favourite camping items?  Things you can’t live without?  "pie-irons, beach toys, griddle for making breakfast, axe"

Favourite camping meals/snacks?  "breakfast, apple and mars bar pie irons, pringles, purple fanta"

Best camping investment?  "my broil king portable barbeque"

Favourite campground?  "MacGregor Point Provincial Park"

How do you keep the bugs away when camping?  "don’t shower" jk

How do you cope with rain when camping?  "my tarp - rainy day camping is better than a day elsewhere"

Do you own patio lanterns?  "nope - just Christmas Lights"

On average, how much do you spend a week at the camp store on candy?  "75 dollars"

Camping nick names?  "Sugar", "Luke" (from Gilmore Girls)


Readers, what do you love about camping?  Any questions you would want me to ask my resident, expert camper?

~Carrie