Fabulous Give-Away!!

I'm so excited!! Screamin' Mama is hosting a contest.

FabulousSavings.ca is a fantastic online Canadian coupon and discount site. They have been so generous and have offered up a $50 Walmart Giftcard to one of my loyal followers!

What a perfect gift just before Christmas! So if you are a Canadian and would love to win the $50 giftcard then hurry on over and enter. The contest will last for two weeks and will end on Tuesday, December 21st at noon.

Good luck and happy happy holidays!!

Who Who's Birthday? - Owl Cupcakes

It's another birthday for my daughter and son born one week apart. They always get ripped off because they have to share their birthday parties. I'm lucky because I only have to prepare once. It's getting hard to think of new ideas for their birthday cakes since Dora and Power Rangers are too baby for them now.

Luckily my sister gave me "Hello, Cupcake!" by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson as a thank you gift one time after making her daughter's cake. I browsed quickly through it to get some ideas and picked one of the easier ones this time

Owl Cupcakes

These cupcakes were quite simple to make.

Ingredients:

Chocolate Cake Mix
Chocolate Canned Icing
Oreo cookies
Yellow Smarties
Heart shaped sprinkles

Microwave the Oreo cookies for 15 second to soften the creme to make it easier to separate. Cut the Oreo cookie side without creme with a serrated knife into thirds. Using the rounded edges for the ears.

Frost the cupcakes thinly with icing. Place the Oreo cookies with creme for the eyes and the Oreo cookie thirds for the ears on the cupcakes. Ice feathers for the ears and around the eyes. Place Smartie sideways for the beak. The book uses brown Smarties for the eyes but since I didn't have enough I just iced eyes with the brown icing and found some heart shaped sprinkle to place in the middle. Voila!

I made a one layer cake and placed the cupcakes around. Here is the final product.

Hot Chicken Sandwich

When I was a little girl my dad used to make us a hot chicken sandwich for lunch. What a great and tasty variation of the leftover chicken sandwich. I haven't had one of these sandwiches in about twenty-five years. I don't know why I suddenly had a craving for this but as my family ate their chicken with rice, I decided to re-visit an old childhood favourite. It was delicious!

I roasted my chicken with the usual seasonings of Montreal Steak Spice and Garlic Plus. I made my homemade gravy with the drippings and roux and used Wonder Bread as my base. I think this will become one of my family's favourites too since the kids kept begging for bites off of my plate. Next time we'll all be having the traditional hot chicken sandwich.

Another Birthday Celebration!

Another birthday celebration and this time I offered my place and my cooking skills. I slaved over the stove for over six hours and here are the fruits of my labour.

Chocolate Cupcakes - love Duncan Hines Mix and Icing Sweet Cornbread

Butternut Squash Soup Roasted VeggiesPrime Rib RoastMy friend Mark made his special Vancouver Crab DishBanana Nutella Waffles with fresh Whipped Cream

Strawberry Waffles with fresh whipped cream and chocolate sauce

My friend Jerry's Banana Bread

Halloween Cupcakes

I just spent three hours making cupcakes for my three kids' Halloween parties tomorrow. I didn't think it was going to take so long. I like to use Betty Crocker cake mix and Betty Crocker canned icing. I didn't plan appropriately and discovered at the last minute that I didn't have black colouring for my icing. Darn!

Here are my "masterpieces"...

Mini Jack-o-lanterns

Spider webs

Spooky faces - I decided to do these as exhaustion set in...I couldn't bear to spin another web...

I really hope they remember the labours of my hardwork as they devour these in less than ten seconds flat...

What happens when you don't read instructions...

I was in such a rush on the weekend and in my haste I didn't read the instructions on my Pillsbury Pizza Crust properly. It was a last minute attempt to prepare some sort of lunch for the family before heading downtown to my sister-in-law's for a belated Thanksgiving Dinner. I grabbed the Pillsbury Pizza Crust and cracked it open just like their crescent rolls. I've never used this pizza dough before so wasn't too careful and ripped the dough in half. This is when I tried to read the instructions off of the ripped wrapper...trying to piece it all back together. I was completely confused. I decided that I would just squish it down, add the tomato sauce and a cheddar/mozzerella mix of cheese and hope for the best. It's not too pretty but still edible. I'll know better next time....

Waffles, Waffles and more Waffles!!

I've been loving my waffle maker. I've been dreaming waffles all week. Waffles for breakfast, dinner and dessert. I'm still using Aunt Jemima Buttermilk Pancake Mix following their directions for waffles. It's so easy to whip up a couple extra batches of waffles, throw them in the fridge and then toast them up nice and crisp. I've been sending waffles home with my best friend, making extra for my parents and even brought my waffle maker to my friend's house for dessert. Here are some of this week's waffle masterpieces.

Simply Sweet - Peanut Butter and Sweetened Condensed Milk

Bacon and Eggs with Peanut Butter, Condensed Milk Waffles

Chocolate Fudge Ice cream and bananas

Canned Apple Pie Filling with French Vanilla Ice cream

This is this week's stash of waffles for breakfast.