Today's Lunch: Orange + Green

Not by design, completely by fluke, today's lunch turned into an array of oranges and greens. So I had to photograph it! 

We're now skipping off to enjoy the rest of the morning at the river with friends, which will happily end with a little riverside lunch.

Summer Bucket List: Growing Grapes. Making Jam.

So this hits two of our bucket list items: Grow something and Make Freezer Jam. Well it turns out we were growing a LOT of wee grapes in our front yard, to our surprise (as new owners to our house/yard). It's hard to say that "we" grew them unless turning on the watering system periodically (maybe not even often enough) counts as having grown something. But I can safely say we made jam out of the harvest. It was a lot of work; washing, de-stemming, washing again, cooking down, straining out the seeds and skins, cooking down again ... but SO worth it! Full of grape-y flavour and not too sweet. Yum.

We're not finished with summer yet so we are continuing with our summer bucket list for the month of September. Check out our working Summer Bucket list here and all our past Summer Fun entries here.

Summer Fun Passport: Make Banana Splits

Check out this year's Summer Bucket list here and all our past Summer Fun entries here.

Easter Peeps Fruit Skewers

Apple pear, pineapple, grapes, watermelon and Peeps skewers to share with friends on Easter Friday!

Play Date Treats

Chocolate Milk — served in sprinkle-rimmed glass (honey makes the sprinkles stick)

Simple Fruit Salad — served in a glass pedestal bowl.

Sandwich Cookie — stuffed with fresh raspberries and maple cream cheese spread

Activity Advent Day #14: Bake Cookies for Friends

Sunday is the last day of curling for the year so we thought it might be a good day to bring cookies for the coach and Spud's curling buddies. We made shortbread curling houses with crusting butter cream icing.

Check out all our other Activity Advent entries here.

Lunch Today: Mini Quiche

I don't know what came over me but I actually made these this morning! Six eggs, 1 cup of shredded cheese, 3/4 cup of chopped ham, mix, pour in muffin tin, and bake 15 minutes in 350° F oven. That's it! I would have thrown in a veg if I had leftovers too. Also, one should grease the muffin tin for easier removal. Next time.

This made 8 mini crustless quiches; 2 went in the freezer for a future easy lunch and 4 went in the fridge for an upcoming breaky and a snack.

· 2 ham + cheese mini crustless
· mini tomatoes
· red pepper strips
· cucumber slices
· apple sauce

Lunch Today: Mini Strawberry Cheesecakes

I used the leftover cream cheese from yesterday's wafflewich where I sweetened the cream cheese with maple syrup. After dipping these locally grown beauties from the farmers market into the cream cheese mixture, I dipped them in cookie crumbs I made from digestives.

This treat (inspired by momables) is accompanying a thermos of leftover butter chicken and rice.

Happy First Full Day of School Lunch

Happy Grade 4 Spud!

· Wafflewich with maple syrup cream cheese and sliced strawberries (inspired by momables)

· Apple
· Watermelon
· Skewers with tomato, olive, mozza cubes and kolbasa triangles

DIY Freezies!

This has been on my wishlist for some time. I've always been a fan of freezies but thought it would be SO much better if I could decide what went into them. When I found these online you can bet I did a little jig.

Pour juice in each one, using a funnel. Place them upright in the freezer.

Once frozen, enjoy.

Rinse. And repeat.

Zoku Love

Pretty smitten with our new purchase! Here are a few of our first creations ...

Summer Fun Passport: Take a Cooking Class

Two years in a row now, Spud has chosen a cooking-themed summer day camp. In last year's day camp he made lava cake, corn soup, gnocchi, calzone, meringue, sorbet and other delicious things ... all from scratch! The whole affair was very impressive.

This year, just to mix things up a bit, we signed up at a new place, where they take a multi-disciplinary approach to the subject. While he still did a fair amount of cooking from scratch, he also did meal planning, went shopping within a given budget, did a power point presentation on nutrition to some younger day-campers, observed live yeast in action, and went on two field trips. One of which was to a neighbourhood sushi restaurant where he learned how to make a special smoked salmon nigiri requiring the use of a blow torch! Very cool. And a well-rounded week indeed.

Here's our full Summer Fun Passport List for 2013 and our passport we made to keep track of everything we accomplish this summer!

Summer Fun Passport: Making Popsicles!

We really love making popsicles around here. And eating them. Here are 3 recipes from last year. And 5 recipes I posted on Apartment Therapy a few years ago ... which are all yummy ... but the lemon-buttermilk is a must-try! Trust me.


Here's our full Summer Fun Passport List for 2013 and our passport we made to keep track of everything we accomplish this summer!

Birthday Cake: Giant Oreo Cookie

Look what Hubs made for Spud's 9th birthday! With his own two hands. Two layers of Chocolate Decadence (no flour) Cake with a Cheese Cake middle. And chocolate fondant decorations on top!

Tiffin Lunch: Ham Roll-ups

Another lunch in our beloved 2-tiered tiffin.

TOP:
· Two-bite cinnamon roll
· Blueberries
· Raspberries

BOTTOM TIER
· 3 Ham slices rolled around cheddar cheese + cucumber sticks
· Olives
· Grape tomatoes

Valentine Lunch: Shot through the Heart

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

· Wieners cut and skewered with dry pasta into heart shapes plus cheddar arrowheads and feathers
· 2 small cheese hearts
· Grape tomatoes cut and skewered into heart shapes including cheddar arrowheads
· Underneath is a heart shaped cucumber piece and a big cupcake

Pinterest comes through again. I collected a few Valentine themed favourites on my Sweet Valentine board. Check it out.

Bento: Cylindrical Rice Mold

Haven't used this rice mold in forever! I made these little 1" cylinders last night with the leftover brown rice from Spud's dinner. They were a bit loose at first but an overnight in the fridge made them more stable. By packing things around them I'm hoping they won't get jostled too much. I packed a spoon just in case.

BOTTOM TIER
· Brown rice
· Sundried olives
· Ham
· Cucumber

TOP TIER
· Apple
· Mini mandarins
· Blueberries

Party Like it's 12.12.12!

A few shots from a little shindig we had celebrating Spud's Grandee who officially turned 75 on 12.12.12!

Halloween Mummy Lunch

Hagrid's Rock Cakes

Rock-like in appearance but scone-like to eat this easy to make recipe was the sort of fun we were up to this morning.

With a special auntie's birthday party today preceded by a thoughtful email with this Rock Cake recipe in it from Spud's "GrandMary" (the very same that made him this awesome Harry Potter bookmark!) we decided to do some Sunday morning baking. 

When I showed Spud the recipe for Rock Cakes reportedly made by Mrs. Weasley he remembered that he had Hagrid's version in his very own Harry Potter Cookbook. Chef Spud was all over it .... I performed some sous chef duties. 

The only modification we made was subbing out half the raisins with dried peaches. I soaked the dry fruit in hot water before Spud added them to the dough. Finally, to appease his cries (I hate raisins!) we "accidentally" dropped some chocolate chips into the dough as well. Oops.