Friday, June 7, 2013

#13 Baking!

Wow! It's been 3 years already since my hubby and I got married and to celebrate each year, we head out for a fancy pants dinner.  This year, considering that I'm not working and S just started a new job, we decided to use our Christmas present from my sister-in-law to good use!  She and her other half gave us a experience certificate for a dinner for two at various restaurants around.  Offered through Samba Days, we had a couple nice places to choose from and decided to head to The Wine Bar downtown.  Ooooh man! It was fantastic! Never mind about the free steak plate we got because the food runner brought it to the wrong table, the rest was amazing too.  Being a tapas style restaurant, we shared 4 plates but ordered separate desserts. (Who are they kidding? How does one share a peanut butter crème brûlée?)  S ordered a warm chocolate chip caramel bacon cookie! HOLY MOLY it was amazing.  That brings me to today's entry:

I LOVE BAKING!  Never seem to get around to it enough, but I LOVE IT.

Today I decided to create some chocolate chip bacon cookies. With a little help from Anna Olsen, who I happened to catch on the Food Network earlier in the week, I had to try a couple things:  
1) adding bacon to my cookies 
2) adding corn starch.  She explained in her show that she adds the corn starch to create a crunchy outer and soft inner to the cookie.

So, with my goals for my baking session in place, and the butter softened, I embarked on an afternoon of baking and cooking that would see me create:
1) Frozen Greek Yogurt buttons (Thank you Pintrest)
2) Roasted Red Pepper alfredo
3) French Vanilla cupcakes for tomorrow
4) the most amazing Chocolate Chip Bacon cookies EVER!

After posting a pic on my FB timeline, I've had some people already ask for the recipe.  Here we go:


Ingredients
Chocolate Chip Cookies
6-8 stripes of bacon, more if you like to snack. I used maple bacon, but any kind would do.
3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar, lightly packed
1/4 cup granulated white sugar
1 room temperature egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract (or experiment with a different kind for more adventure!)
2 cups all purpose flour, sifted
2 teaspoons cornstarch (thanks to Anna Olsen for the idea!)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
8 oz or as many as you'd like,  bittersweet chocolate chips

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 F.
2. Dice bacon into bits and fry up on medium until cooked, but still chewy. Cool on paper towel to reduce grease.
3. Cream together butter and sugars until smooth. Scrape side of bowl occasionally.
4. Add egg and vanilla and blend in. Mix for about 3-4 mins or until its all blended.
5. Sift and stir in flour, cornstarch, baking soda and salt.
6. Add in any bacon that you haven't eaten and as many chocolate chips as you'd like. If you want, you can also add chopped nuts, flax, cranberries, or anything that you want.
7. Roll up batter into 1 inch balls. Place on a tray lined with parchment paper and freeze for 15 minutes.

8. Once they've cooled take them out and arrange on another parchment lined cookie sheet about 2 inches apart. Gently press balls to flatten a bit.
9. Bake for 10-12 minutes, until golden brown all around.

Let cool (slightly) on a wire rack and enjoy!


Now to pack some into my snack bag so that my mom can have some too. Have you seen my wetbags? If not, check them out here.

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

#12 Creating Things....



I've had a bit of extra time on my hands, so I've begun making more wetbags for E's cloth diapers.  (Thanks to LM for motivating me with a bag of material for her own bags.) I couldn't justify spending over $35 for an extra large bag, so I started making my own.  Then, through talking with friends and family, I find that more people use these neat bags than I originally thought! Swimsuit bags, snack bags, diaper bags, bags for medications, toiletries, beach bags, and wet/dirty clothes are just some of the many uses of these bags.



Wetbags are versatile sacks that can be used to keep wet things in. Picture yourself at the swimming pool. Where do you put your swimsuit and towels afterwards? Or what about clothes that gets messy on a daytrip?  Just pop them into a wetbag and you won’t have to worry about getting other thing wet or dirty. Also good for: cloth diapers, day at the beach and every other situation that you need to keep wet things away from dry and dirty things away from clean.

Available in a variety of sizes, you can have bags for snacks, diapers, wet clothes and towels!

Small/Snack size
18cm/7” wide Typically around the size of a medium Ziploc bag.
$6
Medium
23cm/9” wide.  Great for 2-3 cloth diapers or day bag for wet/dirty clothes for one.
$15
Large
35cm/14” wide. Fits between 6-8 cloth diapers or day bag for two.

$20
Swimmer’s Large
35cm/14” wide. Longer than the Large. Designed to fit a towel and swimsuit.
$25
Xtra Large
55cm/22” wide.  Perfect for a few days of diapers or a family of towels and swimsuits.
$30
Due to the nature of how each bag is created, not all are the exact same size. The width will be the same, but the length can vary by +/- 1”.

* Need a certain size, design or colour? Email me at: stuffmommyloves@gmail.com

Each bag comes with a guarantee on my work. If you have any problems with them, please contact me so that I can either repair or replace. Sorry, due to the nature that some of these bags will be used, I cannot guarantee wear and tear.

Care Instructions: Machine wash warm or cold. Hang to dry or put in dryer on air setting. Heat can ruin the laminate that keeps the bag reverse waterproof.







To place an order or if you have questions, please email: stuffmommyloves@gmail.com.


Thanks for looking!

Sunday, April 21, 2013

#11 Friends & Family


So, it's been a while since I last wrote a post, and quite a few things have changed. I just wanted to take a moment to sit down and tell you how much I love my friends and family.  In the past 6 months I've:
- gone back to work from maternity leave
- been on jury duty for a murder trial
- had a death in the family
- discovered a thyroid issue (which isn't uncommon, but still irritating)
- and even lost my job

Through all this, my friends and family have been there to help and support us.  

It wouldn't be fair to start naming names, because I'd probably forget someone and feel like crap, so, if you've been a part of any of these, you should know by now how much we love you.  If you don't, then I'm sorry that I haven't told you.  Without you in our life, we wouldn't be who we are today. We wouldn't be the coolest people you know and would probably have healthier livers! :) LOL j/k.  But seriously, our lives would be a lot less boring and stressful. So THANK YOU.

Some of the ways that you've supported us, in no particular order, have been:
- Drunken hot tub nights
- Board game days/nights (because we're total geeks!)
- Lazy mornings that turned to afternoons
- Babysitting so we can have a date
- Adventures in pregnancy and mat leaves
- Sleepovers with our crazy baby
- Last minute babysitting while we're in out of town for a funeral
- And of course, just being there when needed

I know this isn't a normal post for me, but just in the past month, you've all made us feel so amazing, so much that it's really hard to figure out how to what to say to show you how much we love you! Have an ideas?

We've been blessed to have met such amazing people throughout our lives and love that though the good times and the bad, we know that we are never alone.  We try to do the same for you, so if there's ever anything that you need, please just let us know. Things can get really messy quickly, and it's even worse when you're alone, so give us a call!