Next project: chocolate stout (Guiness) brownies with glaze for Matt's birthday next week! Any other requests for the near future? I do still have a ton of purple buttercream in my freezer...
This past Sunday my mom held a shower for my younger cousin Chris and his fiancee Meaghan. She asked us to make some desserts and a drink in our great dispenser. I cracked open the KitchenAid Mixer, and Martha Stewart Cupcakes book, and went to town. I chose some chocolate brownie cupcakes and tried two different icings - the first being a sweet icing-sugar base, and a buttercream base - the buttercream definitely won - the other icing was just too sweet in the large amounts. For mini-cupcakes it would have been better. Here's how they turned out: Mixer love, kitchen disaster, and a high-cholesterol omelette left after 5 egg whites were removed... Buttercream takes a while to go down the sink...everything was so slippery! Almost finished piped product... ...now the shimmer is added! Lavender setup for the shower at my parents' house Finished product - I was quite proud for a first try at pretty cupcakes! Old-fashioned pink lemonade - 22 fresh squeezed lemons later, some cranberry juice, a bit of lemon and raspberry garnish, and a lot of sugar makes a sweet summer drink! Next project: chocolate stout (Guiness) brownies with glaze for Matt's birthday next week! Any other requests for the near future? I do still have a ton of purple buttercream in my freezer...
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So I bought my beautiful cobalt blue KitchenAid mixer in December, when Killer so kindly forwarded to me a great sale that Amazon.ca was having on them. It has been sitting in my basement since we moved, unused. My mom is throwing my cousin a wedding shower this weekend, and I offered to make cupcakes in lieu of buying a cake, which would force it crack it open and use it, which I did last night.
I browsed through my Martha Stewart Cupcakes book, given to me by Jessica a few Christmases ago, and found a great recipe for chocolate brownie cupcakes with lavender icing. I wanted to make these because those are the brides' wedding colours. The brownies turned out great - decadent, moist - although I could eat a million of them, but the icing was quite sweet. It's not like cupcake icing, its more just a sugary glaze on top, that hardens, and since the brownies don't rise like cake, they look quite elegant, especially when purple food colouring is added. Unfortunately I filled the cups too full with mix, so the glaze dripped down the sides. Trial 2 will be tomorrow, but I'm wondering whether I should make regular chocolate cake instead and go with a buttercream, or do the brownies with buttercream, or just leave the recipe...so many options! I think I need to call my mom for this one, but thanks for letting me ramble. Long story short, the mixer is in use, and I'm loving it - it's so quick and fun and best of all, its bright blue (although a darker blue than the picture above). I wish I had taken pictures of my first creation (which are already half eaten), but I will for sure tomorrow and Sunday when they are on display! This is the perfect image of cottage weekends On Thursday night, Matt and I left for the cottage in Muskoka. It's one of my favourite places to be, especially on such an incredibly beautiful weekend! It's not often that the weather cooperates every single day, but it really did this weekend. Traffic was pretty bad on Thursday, but it was no surprise since it was the long-weekend, and the true kick-off to cottage season. We got there around 8, and started the relaxation right away - a nice glass of wine and catching up with the family. It was Matt's parents and his brother only this weekend. Friday Matt and I went for a run in the morning along the Lake Joe road. I did 2 laps, which is 6 km (I probably ran 4 of them, walked the rest), and Matt did 3, and ran them all (that marathon-training boy is dedicated). Came back to lounge in the sun and do some reading. That evening some family friends came over for a Canada-Day themed party, which really just meant red and white, but people really got into it. Red and white appetizers galore, along with some great dinner and, of course, red and white wine! We took the boat over to Red Leaves for the fireworks, and it was nice and warm outside still, so it was a great show. Our contribution - cedar plank grilled brie with raspberry vineagrette reduction Saturday we had some work to do. We cleared out the upstairs two bedrooms because they were to be sanded and oiled. The boys did all the sanding, and it looked great. After that work we did some more lounging outside, and actually got to have a quiet evening in. So often we are out and about seeing everyone, which is so nice, but it was also great to relax. We had a nice dinner together and watched "Despicable Me" which made me giggle endlessly...also I drank a lot of wine... Sunday was our last day, and the boys went golfing. My project was to sand and paint some chairs and a table for our front porch (more details on that later), which I did out in the incredible weather, again! We went for a late lunch at Red Leaves (started at Lake Joe but the bad service made us leave, which isn't typical of Joe, so it was disappointing to see it), and then packed up to head home. That last afternoon in the sun and some poor-choice sunscreen (Coppertone Spray - ugh, please don't buy it - I usually use Ombrelle but I had it and wanted to use it up), I ended up with a bit of a sunburn on my arms and back of my shoulders. The spray went on patchy and so I am all spotty. Oh well, it will even out. I was very careful in the sun this weekend so I'm annoyed at myself, but still have so many tan lines from various tops and swimsuits. Here are some Canada Day inspiration photos I found last week and forgot to post. Hope everyone had a great Canada Day weekend! ...and one for those neighbours to our South - Happy 4th of July!!!
Sunday was our first time hosting a party at our new place. We had both sides of the family there, but only grandparents and immediate family. Even still, that was 16 people, and enough for our small house to start! We wanted to have a nice backyard BBQ, get everyone to see the work we did on the house, and reconnect with family since we don't always see each member very often. We set the date over a month ago, which gave us some time at that point to finish up our current project (the basement and bedroom), and perhaps do some outside work. We had planned to do the outdoor seating but the saw was broken, which is why we took on the living room and dining room last weekend. It turned out great, but with the BBQ being only the week after, it was a hectic week for sure! We were out shopping for things on Friday night until very late (gotta love Ikea midnight madness), I was cleaning all day Saturday (well, Matt was golfing, but he did a lot when he got back), and we went grocery shopping at 9pm on Saturday night. We were up early on Sunday to finish cleaning, putting things together, cooking, organizing, etc. We were still running around a bit when family arrived, but luckily they all were nice enough to help out with a few things hear and there so we could play host and hostess too. We would have had more done if it hadn't been for finishing up those rooms, but it all worked out in the end anyway! We had everyone over at noon, so they could travel home before the dinner hour and have Sunday night to themselves. I know that all I can think about is work the next day if I am out for dinner on Sunday or travelling around. I like the regroup and relax before the night is over so I'm ready for the work week ahead. Everyone got the tour of the new house, with lots of "oooohs" and "ahhhhs" and general congratulations which was nice. We worked really hard and were definitely showing off our work! We served some appetizers and drinks (I even made real iced tea!), and everyone sat outside in the backyard. We have two bistro tables (one from my parents' house that matches our own), plus we brought out the 4 dining room chairs, and Matt's parents brought some folding chairs as well. I bought some decorative pillows for outside, and left the food mainly inside because of all the bugs and nature that generally exists outside in our neighbourhood. One thing I'm glad we did was have disposable plates and utensils. I know - not great for the environment, but it really saved us a lot of work. I probably still spent half the time washing dishes, because we don't have a lot of counter space! If we had a giant kitchen, we could just leave everything until the end, but we don't, so I had to wash and dry and put everything away as it was used. I used a lot of serving trays - thank goodness for wedding gifts is all I can say. I NEVER thought I would use them all! Again, all the family helped out so we still got to see everyone and catch up. Matt made homemade burgers from a Men's Health recipe which were raved over, so I'll post a link to it when I find it. We also had some salads, grilled veggies, sausages, and desserts. Jessica made a cake called "Triple Ripple" which was incredible - definitely Google the recipe - so good. We got presents too - it feels like we're getting married all over again! We got a grilling rack for veggies for the BBQ, a juicer, some incredible fresh pasta and sauce, and other wonderful house things - not expected, not necessary, but greatly appreciated! All in all a great afternoon, and we still had the evening to recover, tidy up, and relax! Perhaps it will be an annual tradition? Matt's parents and my brother and Jessica The crowd listens intently to Matt's wise BBQ knowledge Grandmas! Grandpas! The look confused... Nanny and Meg Playing hostess! BTW - this picture made me think "wow, I really need to hit the gym" Presents!!! PS - look at Meg's expression - LOL - priceless This was after the cleanup - table back together and my iced tea behind! Matt relaxing after all was done!
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