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Indigo Sponged Nails

I finally got around to painting my nails something other than just a solid colour.  I also don't get to paint my nails too often, unless i have a few days off because I work in a deli. So I'll have to take this off in a couple days but oh well.

I started with a base of Joe - Iris, then sponged on some Joe - Ink, and finished it off with a bit of sponging on the very tip in Creative - Silver Anniversary. I quite liked how this turned out. And I for once managed not to chip any of them right after doing them. =)

Till next time, Thanks for reading =)

Teaser Tuesday #3

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

* Grab your current read

* Open to a random page

* Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page

* BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

* Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

I am currently reading Pandora's Key by Nancy Richardson Fischer.

 Pandora's Key on Goodreads

Here's my teaser:

"No one ever defined "removed" for Malledy. But given the secrecy surrounding the Archivists, he's come to understand that it meant not leaving a young boy to alive to talk about a hidden castle high in the Dolomite mountains containing discoveries powerful enough to topple governments, religions and the very definition of Gods."

Till Next Time, thanks for reading! =)

Teaser Tuesday #2

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

* Grab your current read

* Open to a random page

* Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page

* BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

* Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

I am currently reading: Second Time Around by Beth Kendrick

My Teaser:

"Listen, I'd lake to take you to dinner sometime. We can grab a bottle of wine, talk teaching, writing, hockey injuries. What do you say?"

Till Next  Time, thanks for reading =)

Teaser Tuesday #1

This looked fun so I thought I'd give it a go. And this is the first post I've made since google took over Blogger and made it all different. Still getting used to it.

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

* Grab your current read
* Open to a random page
* Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
* BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
* Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

I'm currently reading Every New Day, by Lauren Brooke. Number 9 in the Heartland series. I read these books back when I was probably ten, and am re-reading them since I never finished the whole series.

Here is my 'Teaser"

"Lightly, Amy swung herself back into the saddle. She smiled reassuringly at Soraya, who still looked worried." (Page 36)

Till next time, Thanks for reading =)

Fail Muffins

A friend of mine had suggested I made peanut butter muffins. Which I had never heard of before, so I went in search of a recipe and found one for Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Muffins. There was a typo in the recipe which caused me to have 3 times as much peanut butter than was necessary. The resulting muffins, were not very muffin like, and the batter was very fluffy.

One of the first hints that the recipe was wrong, was that I had way more batter than was needed for 12 muffins, which is what the recipe was supposed to make. They also didn't rise at all. After making the first dozen I popped the batter in the fridge, and commented on the post where I found the recipe. Once I heard back, I found out that there was indeed a typo. After asking my mom for some advice to improve the batter that I already had I made some changes. I added another egg, a little bit of water, and about half tsp of baking soda, which resulted in a much improved muffin.

Fail muffin VS. Improved muffin

Till next time, thanks for reading =)

*this post has been back-dated(posted on May 3rd)

Some Favourite Photos from Fort Edmonton Park

Just a few of my favourite photos that I took at Fort Edmonton Park on August 21, 2011. All edited with Picassa.

Till next time, thanks for looking.

*Gingersnap Cookies 3.0*

I have been on a long search for a soft and chewy gingersnap cookie. I think I finally found it! (happy dance). I found it on Fortheloveofcooking.net via a google search. The recipe has white chocolate chips in it, but they could easy be left out. The recipe made 2 dozen cookies (ice cream scoop size), so next time I'm gonna try doubling it without the white chocolate chips.

Soft Gingersnap Cookies with White Chocolate Chips

• 1/2 cup of unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2 cup of white sugar (plus some to roll the dough in)
• 1/4 cup of molasses
• 1 tbsp canola oil (I used olive oil)
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 3/4 tsp cinnamon
• 3/4 tsp ground cloves
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 1/4 tsp fresh nutmeg, grated (I used 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg)
• 1 large egg
• 1 3/4 cup of flour
• 1 1/8 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup white chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Beat the butter and sugar together until creamy. Add the molasses, canola oil, vanilla, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, and nutmeg. Beat until mixed. Add the egg and continue to beat until well combined.

Add the baking soda and salt to the flour and mix really well. Slowly add the flour mixture into the molasses mixture until well combined. Add the white chocolate chips and mix into the dough. Scoop the dough into balls and roll into some white sugar. Place on parchment lined baking sheet about 2 inches apart.

Place into the oven and bake for 10-12 minutes. Remove the cookies from the oven and let cool for a few minutes before transferring them to a rack to cool. Enjoy.

Misty Mints Treasures

Misty mints are on my my all time favourite Christmas chocolate/candy.  I bought 2 boxes this past year and kept one in the fridge. Hence why i made cookies with Christmas candy in September. Wow that's almost 10 months later I just realized, but oh well. They come with a recipe inside the box that I wanted to try. They were very good, only problem is I ate them too fast, especially since they are so small. *this has been post dated.

Slightly blurry, but a look inside the finished cookie.

Till next time, thanks for reading.

Chicken & Cheese Pizza with white Sauce

I am not a pizza person, anything tomato sauce or with tomatoes I just won't eat. So I decided to make my own pizza, with a white cheese sauce and chicken (not a fan of ham or pepperoni either). I found a really easy recipe for a crust, that you only need to let sit for 5 minutes. No waiting for it to rise. And then I added a white cheese sauce that's actually for pasta but very good on pizza. Finally, I added pieces of cooked chicken, green onions, shredded cheese(mozzarella or cheddar, or both), and parmesan.

Recipe for pizza crust: (modified from allrecipes.com)

INGREDIENTS:
1 package dry active yeast (1 1/4 tsp)
1 tsp white sugar
1 cup warm water (110 F/45C)
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 tsbp olive oil
2 tsp italian seasoning

DIRECTIONS:
1-Preheat oven to 450 F. In a medium bowl dissolve yeast and sugar in warm water. Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes.
2-Stir in flour, oil, and italian seasoning. Let rest for 5 minutes.
3-Turn dough onto lightly floured surface and pat or roll into a round. Transfer crust to lightly greased pizza Pan.
4- Add sauce and desired toppings. Bake for 15-20 minutes.

Recipe for White Cheese Sauce:  (don't remember where I got this from)

INGREDIENTS:
8 ounce package of cream cheese, cubed
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
3/4 cup milk
1 dash ground nutmeg
1 dash pepper
2 tsp italian seasoning
3 cloves of garlic, minced

DIRECTIONS:
On Medium heat, mix cream cheese, milk and permesan. Stirring occasionally, until sauce is smooth.
Stir in nutmeg, pepper, italian seasoning, and garlic. Remove from heat, and let sit for a couple minutes. Spread on pizza crust. This will cover 2 pizzas.

Till next time, thanks for reading!

Fudge Rounds

I found this recipe on Confession's of a Cookbook Queen's blog, and just knew I had to make these. I'm so glad I did 'cause they are awesome. So awesome that I've made them 3 times now. (as of Jan '12)

 Right when you take the cookies out of the oven they look slightly poofy but they settle down once they start to cool. I found making them slightly small and flattening them before baking made it easier when putting the cookies together.

 I found the frosting recipe made a lot of frosting. I used the whole recipe and used it for 2 x the cookie recipe. If you were to put twice as much frosting on each cookies to use it up, the frosting would just squish out the sides.

And here is the recipe. From Confessions of a Cookbook Queen

INGREDIENTS

1 1/4 cup salted butter, softened
2 cups sugar
2 eggs 
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups flour
3/4 cup cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda 

Heat oven to 350.

In the bowl of a mixer, cream butter and sugar on medium until fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time mixing after each addition. Mix in vanilla.

In a medium bowl, combine flour and baking soda. Add slowly to the butter/sugar mixture in the mixing bowl. Beat until combined.

Drop spoonfuls on ungreased cookie sheets and bake for 7-9 minutes. Remove baking sheets to cooling racks and remove cookies after a few minutes to continue cooling.


While cookies cool, make your filling.

FILLING


1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup salted butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup cocoa powder
3 cups powdered sugar
4 tablespoons warm water


In the bowl of a mixer, beat the shortening and butter on medium speed until smooth and combined. Beat in vanilla. Add cocoa powder and powdered sugar and beat on low until just combined. Add water and beat on medium high for about 2 minutes or until light and fluffy.


Once cookies have cooled, pipe or spread filling on the flat side of half of them. Gently press another cookie on top of the filling.


For the stripes, microwave 1/2 cup milk chocolate chips and 1 teaspoon vegetable oil in a microwave safe bowl, stirring every 15 seconds until smooth. Drizzle or pipe on top of Fudge Rounds. Refrigerate until chocolate is set.

Pink Water Marble & Morning Glories

First off some pictures of the white and blue morning glories.

This is the third water marble I've done. This time I did it on my 8 year old sister.

I used Joe in White as a base colour. For the marble I used Joe in White, Joe in Jet, and Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear in Fuchsia Power. (at least I think that's the pink I used)

Every nail turned out quite differently, but it was difficult getting her to dip her finger in the right way.

Till Next Time, Thanks for Reading! =)

Rocky Road Brownies

I dont have much to say in this post except that these brownies are super delicious, sweet, and very fudgy.

Recipe: Rocky Road Brownies

(from Better Home & Gardens ultimate cookies & bars-"Chunky Path Brownies")

Ingredients:

2 cups all purpose flour

2 cups sugar

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup butter

1 cup water

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

2 eggs

1/2 cup buttermilk

3 cups mini marshmallows

1 1/2 tsp vanilla 

Instructions:

1-Preheat oven to 350˚. Line a 15x10x1 inch (i used a 9x13x2 pan and it worked just fine) pan with foil, extending the foil over the edges of the pan. Grease foil;set aside. 

2-In a large mixing bowl stir together flour sugar, baking soda, and salt; set aside.

3-In a medium saucepan combine butter, water, and cocoa powder. Bring Mixture just to boiling, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. 

4-Add the chocolate mixture to the flour mixture. Beat together until combined. Add eggs, buttermilk, and vanilla. Beat for 1 minute more (batter will be thin). Pour Batter into prepared pan. Bake about 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean.

My helper who accidentally added WAY more vanilla than was necessary. 

5-While brownies bake make chocolate topper.

Chocolate Topper:

In a medium saucepan heat and stir 2 cups semisweet chocolate pieces, 1/2 cup whipping cream, and 1/4 cup butter over medium-low heat until smooth.

6- Sprinkle marshmallows over hot brownies. Top with chocolate topper. Cool in pan on a wire rack. Use the foil to lift the brownies from the pan. Cut into bars.

One suggestion I have is to make sure you grease the foil all the way up the side, because the marshmallow sticks a lot.

Till next time, Thanks for reading! =)

Purple Water Marble

This is the 2nd water marble I've done, and considering I did it on someone else's nails other than my own, I think it turned out quite well. I also quite like the combination of purples, considering purple is my favourite colour.

First hand done, and still taped.

All the tape...'cause I thought it looked neat.

Both hands before cleanup and after tape removal.

One hand, the pic of the other hand was too blurry.

Slightly blurry, but I like how the thumbs turned out the best.

I used Nicole by OPI Base Coast and Nicole by OPI Top Coat. i used a white polish as a base for the water marble. And for the purples: 'Faded Violet' - joe, 'Jet' - joe, 'Di-Vine is Divine' - Nicole by OPI.

Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Ice Cream

I found an awesome ice cream recipe over at Bake at 350, for Dark Chocolate Peanut butter ice cream, and just had to make it myself. First ice-cream I've made containing eggs, which was interesting.

Ingredients:

2 oz. unsweetened chocolate 

1/3 cup dutch-process cocoa powder ( i just used regular cocoa)

1 & 1/2 cups milk

2 eggs

1 cup sugar

1 cup heavy cream

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup smooth peanut butter

 Melt the unsweetened chocolate, in a saucepan over medium-low heat. Gradually add the cocoa; the mixture may clump up in the whisk...that's ok.  Slowly pour in the milk, whisking with the chocolate mixture until combined and smooth.  Remove from heat and let cool several minutes.

Whisk the eggs in a large bowl until light and fluffy, 1-2 minutes.  Add the sugar, a little at a time, whisking constantly.  Once all the sugar has been added, whisk 1 minute more.

Add the cream and vanilla; whisk to combine.

Pour the chocolate mixture into the cream mixture and stir.  Cover and refrigerate a few hours or overnight. 

Before transferring to an ice cream maker, remove 1 cup of the mixture into a separate bowl and whisk in the peanut butter until smooth.

Add this back into the main mixture and stir. Process in an ice cream maker.  Once the freezing cycle finishes, transfer to a freezer-safe container and freeze a few hours to firm up.

The finished product. Super rich and super tasty =)

Till Next Time, Thanks for Reading