Monthly Archives: February 2014

Personalized Valentine Bookmarks

We have never been in the habit of giving our kids gifts on Valentine’s Day, but a few years ago, I made Eden and Shay personalized bookmarks in lieu of a card and they were a big hit!

Personalized Valentine Bookmark:

I set my document on “columns” in order to create a narrow document. This allowed me to make both Eden and Shay’s on the same sheet of card stock. Mine are a bit wider than a standard bookmark at approximately 2 1/2″ in width. You could easily adjust your column width if you prefer a narrow bookmark.

I used a large font to print their name across the top and just below, I inserted the meaning of their name. I was surprised to learn how important this was to them. I must confess that the meaning behind their names did not weigh heavily in our selection of names when we had our kids. We certainly looked at the meanings, but it was not a deciding factor.  Despite this, the kids really like knowing what their name means.

Below this, I created an acrostic poem with their name. I printed the first letter in their name vertically down the bookmark and beside each letter, I wrote a brief description of their character using the letter from their name as a starting point. You will notice in Shay’s that I used a little “play on words” with “sonshine” because that was one of our bedtime ritual songs for many years.

I left space to add a little embellishment and sign the card/bookmark and then at the very bottom, added a scripture. Shay is a bit of a worrier, so this scripture was chosen for him.

I followed the exact same process for Eden and then printed out the document with both bookmarks on it.

Finishing Touches:

I then used my scrapbooking materials and tools to dress-up the reverse side of the bookmark.  I made a simple border on my Cricut and added double layered lettering for his name. These were not difficult to make, but I wanted them to last so I laminated them. They have been very durable and the kids continue to use them on a regular basis. Here are some photos of Shay’s, but Eden is still in bed and I don’t know where hers is. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find the original document from when I made them, so photos will have to do.

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Homemade Valentines

Here are a few samples of some of the homemade Valentine Cards we have made in the past.

I made a template using clip art and printed them out on card stock. I then mounted the printed portion of the card on navy card stock and then added red tape and a chocolate heart.
The kids gave their teachers an apple and some chocolates with this tag.
Eden made simple friendship bracelets for all of her classmates to go along with these homemade cards.

When creating a class set, you really need to look at feasibility. You want to plan a card that can be somewhat mass-produced without too much detail work. The friendship bracelet and card was found on dandee. I used her idea and made my own version of it. This was a really cute idea, but without Eden’s commitment to making the bracelets, it would have been a bit much. Eden made all 24 bracelets for her classmates and I made the cards. There are so many cute ideas on the internet and I love giving something handmade. In many cases, you don’t even need to have scrapbooking tools, just create the card/tag on the computer, print them off and cut them into individual cards. I can often get 6 to 8 cards on one page, so you are only printing about 3 pages for an entire class set. I am a sucker for little treats with a tag that has a “play on words” ~ I love those cheesy little sayings! Borrow someone else’s idea or get creative and make your own.

Here are the Valentines I made for Eden and Shay last year ~ very quirky, but oh how fun!

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My Mom’s Homemade Borscht

Borscht

My mom was not Ukrainian, but when she married my dad, she learned how to make many of the traditional Ukrainian dishes. Over the years, she perfected her borscht and her borscht recipe is not only delicious, but brings back great memories of when she was still with us.

My Mom’s Borscht Recipe:

Ingredients:

ham soup bone (pork or beef bone will work as well)
1/2 head of cabbage (You can use drained sauerkraut in lieu of cabbage, but I never do)
2-3 cups chopped onion
2 large grated carrots
1 diced potato
1  28 oz. can of diced tomatoes (largest size)
1 can of white beans (or soaked dry beans)
3-5 cups of diced beets (I probably use close to 5 cups in mine)
2-3 bay leaves
fresh parsley (dry is fine)
2 cloves minced garlic
fresh dill (I don’t measure, but I am guessing a few tablespoons at least)
pepper and salt
1 cup of sour cream (plus extra for serving)
1/4 teaspoon baking soda

Method:

Make a very simple homemade stock by filling a large pot with water and the soup bones. You can add bay leaves and salt and pepper to the stock if you wish, but I generally just boil the bones and add the extra flavours to the borscht. Bring to a boil and continue to simmer or cook on low so that the stock is just at the boiling point. I usually leave mine on the stove for several hours and usually do this the day before. Remove the bones and reserve the broth for the soup.

Sauté onion, grated carrot, cabbage and garlic in a large pot with a bit of butter or olive oil. Add potato and bay leaves. Fill the pot to about 2/3 with your homemade stock.  Add 1/4 teaspoon of salt (or more, to taste). Simmer 1 hour.

Meanwhile, place whole beets in a large pot and cover with water.  Bring to a boil.  Boil for approximately 45 minutes or until a fork can be stuck into the beet easily (like testing a potato).  Remove the beets from heat and transfer the pot to the sink. Run cold water over the beets and as soon as they are cool enough to handle, rub the skin off of the outside. The outer layer will remove very easily and there is no need to peel them, but it can get a bit messy. I don’t usually wear latex gloves, but you could. Just be careful because the beet juice can stain your clothes and hands. Once you’ve “peeled” the beets with your hands, you will need to dice them. I used to do this by hand, but now I use a little manual food processor/chopper. Whatever works for you.

Add the tomatoes, parsley, beans and dill to the soup.

Mix one cup of sour cream and 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda together in a measuring cup – stir the ingredients together. Now this is the hard part, add the prepared beets and sour cream mixture to the soup 10 MINUTES BEFORE SERVING. This means, that you don’t get much opportunity to taste test the finished soup, as the last ingredients are added right at the end. Resist the temptation to throw everything in at the same time, you really want to wait until the end before adding the beets.

Serve the borscht with a dollop of sour cream on top.

Warning: Once the soup has been made, you don’t ever want to bring it to a crazy hot boil again as it will totally take the colour out of your soup and look disgusting. When re-heating, do so carefully.

This seems like a lot of work, but not if you have a food processor to do the chopping for you. I always use to do everything by hand and found it to be quite a bit of work, but now it is pretty simple to make as it is the cutting that seems to take so long. This recipe makes a large batch of soup and freezes well, so I often freeze half the borscht and we enjoy it twice! I hope you love this borscht as much as we have. I am so glad that I not only got my mom’s recipe, but that she “walked” me through the steps of making it before she passed away. What a special gift ~ enjoy!

You Can Do It! – Cake Pops Made Easy

I need to make a confession. While others rave about Starbucks and the quality coffee they serve, you won’t find me going through the Starbuck’s drive-thru unless I have a craving for one of their Cake Pops. As previously mentioned, I am somewhat of an icing “connoisseur”. I love icing and the more the better. I actually can’t believe it took so long for someone to come up with the idea of combining the icing and cake. A cake pop is literally win-win, everyone gets the equivalent of a “corner piece”. If made correctly, the cake pop is super moist and absolutely delicious, without an offensive amount of icing.  I have wanted to try making cake pops for a long time, but two things held me back:

  1. Failure: I heard so many horror stories about how hard they were to make and how long it took to make a batch. I didn’t want to go to all the trouble only to have them fall apart and be a major fail. (Especially if I was making them for a special occasion).
  2. Success: What if I make them and they turn out so well that I want to make them all the time? It is easy to resist what doesn’t exist. I rarely eat cake pops simply because they aren’t all that accessible. If I can make them successfully, I may be doomed!

I decided to give them a whirl for my daughter’s birthday party. My thinking was this. She was only having 4 girls over, so I only needed to make about one dozen cupcakes for the party. The recipe I made was large enough for 24 cupcakes. I basically made the entire batch into cupcakes and then made frosted only enough cupcakes for each of the 5 girls plus Tim, Shay and myself and few extras. I knew that 8 cake pops would be manageable and if they failed, it wouldn’t matter as they were just going to be added to the loot bags. I basically used the additional cupcakes to make the cake pops needed, so it wasn’t an overwhelming number for my first attempt.

How to Make Cake Pops:

I found a really great tutorial that was very helpful. Check out Divas Can Cook for the full tutorial.

My Experience:

  • I used 7 cupcakes to make 8 cake pops, I would never have guessed that the amount of cake in a pop was close to equivalent to that of a cupcake.
  • Crumble the cake with your hands, so that all of the larger lumps are out. You want fine crumbs.
  • Use only a small amount of icing. I didn’t actually measure, but I am guessing I used no more than 2 to 3 Tablespoons of icing for all 8 cake pops.
  • Form balls that are uniform in size.
  • Dip the “stick” in melted chocolate and stick about half way in. Set the pop upside down on a plate with the stick in the air. Freeze for about 20 minutes (or longer).
  • Dip the entire ball in melted chocolate. (I melted mine in my microwave.) You want to make sure that the container is deep and narrow so that the chocolate is deep enough to submerge the pop in.
  • Remove the pop and gently turn the ball to avoid it from dripping all over. Basically, try to “catch” the dripping chocolate at the base of the ball.
  • You can add sprinkles to the top or actually roll the ball in them.
  • Stick into a styrofoam base that you have prepared ahead of time.

Summary:

I was literally able to make all 8 in about 20 minutes (plus the freezing time). They were super easy to make and I didn’t have any “do-overs”. They all worked fine on the first try. The chocolate outer shell held up well and they didn’t crack at all. The flavour was great and I’m certain I’ll be making these again!

Red Velvet cake broken into fine crumbs.
Rolled cake pop balls.
Dip the sticks in chocolate and then push them half way into the ball. Freeze.
Finished cake pops. I used white chocolate and white sprinkles.

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Life Hacks I Love #4: How to Eat a Cupcake

This is one of my favourite hacks ever. This idea was shared with me about a year ago and it is absolutely brilliant! I always find it hard to take a big enough bite of a cupcake to get the “full height” of the little cake in one mouthful. You know, frosting on your nose and a big sticky mess. So classy! I am an icing lover and unlike some, I could for-go the cake altogether and just have a small bowl of icing! That being said, I want every single mouthful of cake to have icing with it, that is why this idea is so perfect for me. I originally heard about this at a wedding in which cupcakes were being served. Of course, the timing was perfect as I was able to enjoy my cupcake without the usual anxiety of wondering how much of it I was wearing on my face.

Sure enough, when I went to post the concept, I was able to find a video that demonstrates this fantastic idea. It really does work beautifully with the exception of super moist cupcakes that don’t hold their shape well. It is an absolute must try the next time you eat a cupcake. Check out the video!

How to Eat A Cupcake:

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Winter/Snowflake Birthday

Happy 12th Birthday!

Well, my little girl is now 12 and has officially reached babysitting age….I can hardly believe it! The birthday celebrations are behind us, but I thought I would share some photos to show you how the theme all came together for the party. Click on the links below to visit the original post for each of the theme elements:

Here is the finished invitation.
and pulling until all the layers are pulled apart and you have a nice full pom pom.
These oversized paper flowers were made out of white tissue to create a snowflake…ish look.
We added a few white balloons to our fig tree to look like snowballs.
Completed 3D snowflake.
3D snowflakes
I picked up this twig snowflake garland in the after Christmas clearance. I got it for $6 regular $60 and it became the inspiration for the whole theme.
The snowflakes on the banner were printed with old paper towel tubes.
Finished snowflakes with a few clear sugar sprinkles and a silver candy ball in the center of each.
Snowflake Cupcakes
Finished cake pops. I used white chocolate and white sprinkles.
I tried to wrap her gifts in paper that tied into our colour theme.
Decide on your focal point. In this case, I wanted the message to be the highlight of the card.
Homemade loot bags.
Hot chocolate, mini marshmallows, Lindor chocolates and little cellophane bags. These were included in the loot bags.

I did end up making cake pops and I have to say I was quite surprised how easy they were to make. I have heard lots of people say how much work they are. To be honest, I found them much easier than many of the cakes, cupcakes and cookies I have decorated. Watch for the upcoming post on how to make Cake Pops.

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Birthday Cake Pancakes

Eden had a sleepover birthday party last night and the girls will soon be up and ready for breakfast. Traditionally, I always make homemade waffles for her parties, as waffles are one of her favourites. This year, I thought I would try something different. There are several versions of these on-line, none of which I have ever made. I opted for this recipe and hope they are a hit with the girls ~ especially the birthday girl!

Birthday Cake Pancakes:

This recipe was borrowed from Seeded at the Table, but I do believe Nikki adapted this recipe from My Life As a Mrs. For the complete recipes and suggestions, please follow the  links.

I have never made these before, so I decided to stick to the recipe. My last attempt at trying a new pancake recipe didn’t go that well. I make pancakes for the kids regularly and seldom have issues flipping them or having them stay together, but those Cinnamon Swirl pancakes weren’t my best work. They tasted great, but were a horrible mess to serve. Hopefully, these will go off without a hitch.

Here’s Nikki’s Birthday Cake Pancake Recipe:

Ingredients:

    • 1 1/2 cups  flour
    • 1 cup yellow cake mix
    • 1 Tablespoon sugar
    • 1 teaspoon baking powder
    • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
    • 1/4 teaspoon salt
    • 2 eggs
    • 1 1/2 cups buttermilk
    • 1/2 cup milk
    • 2 Tablespoons melted butter
    • 1 teaspoon vanilla
    • 1/3 cup sprinkles
For the icing (optional):
  • Whipping cream
  • Powdered sugar

Heat a griddle or non-stick skillet over medium heat.  Combine the dry ingredients and set aside.

In a separate medium bowl, lightly beat the eggs with a whisk. Add the milks, butter and vanilla and whisk to combine. Pour the wet ingredients into the bowl with the dry ingredients and stir until fully mixed. Fold in the sprinkles.

Scoop just shy of 1/3 cup batter onto the griddle for each pancake, leaving room for the batter to spread into larger rounds. When the pancakes begin to bubble, flip and cook for another 1-2 minutes. Transfer to a plate and cover with a kitchen towel to keep warm until serving. Serve with syrup or optional icing.

Optional Icing:

Mix together powdered sugar and whipping cream to reach desired consistency and taste. Pour over top individual stack of pancakes.

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White Chocolate Snowflake Cupcakes

Eden requested red velvet cupcakes for her “friends” party this evening. I wanted to get this up and posted early as I thought I might be busy doing last-minute things for the birthday party. I plan to make cream cheese frosting for the cupcakes and put a simple white swirl on top. To tie them into the “snow” theme, I decided to make some snowflakes for the top of each cupcake. She is only having four friends over, so I made one snowflake for each of the girls.

White Chocolate Snowflakes:

Photocopy of simple snowflake images.
Piping tool.
White chocolate chops
Finished snowflakes with a few clear sugar sprinkles and a silver candy ball in the center of each.

I found images for snowflakes on the web and printed them off. I then melted the chocolate in the microwave and put it into my new Wal-Mart piping tool and began to trace-out the snowflakes. In theory this all seemed like a great idea and basically it turned out fine, but with many grunts, groans and the odd curse under my breath. The melted chocolate was too thin and eventually worked its way under the little handle thingy that was supposed to push the chocolate down to the tip. It worked fine for the first three and then absolutely would not work for the last two. I ended up putting the last of the chocolate in a tiny Ziplock snack bag and snipped off the slightest bit of the corner. This actually worked better than the tool, next time I’ll go straight to the bag. They were a bit difficult to make as the chocolate is so much thinner than icing. The tendency was for it to run all over the place. It took a few tries to figure out how to make it work the best. I ended up doing a thin line and then going back over to make the little arms of the snowflakes thicker and thus sturdier. I also ended up aborting the printed snowflakes on the paper and ended up just doing my own thing. It was hard to make them too intricate with the chocolate having a mind of its own and being somewhat less than cooperative. As soon as I piped a snowflake, I quickly added a silver candy ball to the center and a few clear sugar sprinkles to it before the chocolate set. I had set the paper with the printed snowflakes inside the bottom of a cookie sheet with a layer of wax paper on top. This allowed me to see the snowflakes through the wax paper and also ensured that I wouldn’t break them when I tried to move them. I just set the whole tray with the completed snowflakes in the fridge to set and will add them to the cupcakes on Saturday.

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