Ribbit...I made a frog with fondant

Yesterday I got to hangout with little Louis and his mom Helene. I brought over a book on  fondant cakes-mosty for children- because I wanted to have her opinion on the procedures and recipes shown in the book, since she happens to know a thing or two, just check out her website, its on my blogs list. She liked the book! She invited me to try making a figurine from the book. We chose to make a frog. This is the first time I make a figurine with fondant. I took pictures of it when I got home, so I don't have a picture of her cute froggy. I also got to watch a movie with  Louis. We watched a movie I watched a few times with my nieces and Zach and Josh, Happy Feet.

They are looking at each other :)

Your Way

I have an idea! I would like to know what is a food/meal/dish that you like to prepare. One that you have always made especially "your way" or it can be a new one. Maybe a special way of making a sandwich or quesadilla, a pasta dish, a special treat, oatmeal,a drink, whatever you want. Okay, so this is the idea:  I want you to write your recipe  of making it "your way." If you have given it a name, include that too,  write it in the comments section or email it to me. I will then try "your way" recipe myself...I will try because I am sure it wont be the same... after all, its YOUR way. Then I will blog about them here on this little blog. This way I will have(eat!) something to remind me of my lovely friends that are oh so far away from me.  Remember, sharing is caring...
Have a great day amigos!

ten oh five

I am testing out the different settings on my cannon powershot. Macro and manually adjusting the white balance. I want my food pictures to look nicer.  They are not the best since I took these at night and I have always read and heard that natural light works the best. It really does! So I had to lower the shutter speed to get better light. I went a little camera happy.

These are pictures taken at our place. The only picture that had any post editing was the one of our front door; I made it black and white. I don't have a tripod so I dad to really have a steady hand or rest the camera on a flat surface close(very close)to my subject, to reduce blur.

Our front door.

Pan! We love Bread

Sandra likes black beans.

                              This is a picture of oatmeal in a mason jar. We love to use mason jars.

We got rid of our old pots and pans. 

Etsy find!

What I am on right now.

Its on the Olympics

Bed's reflection

I love this painting!!!

Red necklace

They keep my feet dry. Especially now with all the puddles the melting snow is creating

My Pentax SLR Camera Case

by this time, hand was tired of being steady as you can see

Special thanks to my husband for providing me with  excellent tools I need to learn the ropes!

Bodas

This is an idea I had for my wedding, my cousin Adriana even offered to make them for me but I thought of the idea too late and did not want her to bother with it. I wanted small personalized embroidered napkins still inside the wooden circle things(don't know thier names).  A friend of my will be getting married in few months so I thought I would blog about this maybe it could help in her wedding planning. 

I wanted two birds carrying a banner with this, S + A  

MiniatureRhino

Treat for my Toots- Magic Cookie Bars!

photo by MSMEANIE

I first discovered these yummies when I was a nanny for the Smays, Barb would make them. I made them once at my parents home for my brother and his friends, and they were a hit. My brother had asked me for the recipe and thought I would just post it here so that you can all have it. :)

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup butter or margarine, melted
• 1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
• 1 (14 ounce) can EAGLE BRAND® Sweetened Condensed Milk
• 2 cups semisweet chocolate morsels
• 1 1/3 cups flaked coconut
• 1 cup chopped nuts

Directions

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees F (325 degrees for glass dish). Coat 13x9-inch baking pan with no-stick cooking spray.
2. Combine graham cracker crumbs and butter. Press into bottom of prepared pan. Pour sweetened condensed milk evenly over crumb mixture. Layer evenly with chocolate chips, coconut and nuts. Press down firmly with a fork.
3. Bake 25 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool. Cut into bars or diamonds. Store covered at room temperature.   Recipe Yield 36 bars

• 
  Nutrition facts Amount Per Serving  Calories: 167 | Total Fat: 9.8g | Cholesterol: 11mg

DIY- Garland

I am always on the lookout for creative party decorating ideas. I have yet to organize and host my very own shindig since I got hitched. But I hope to one day soon! MyDIYWedding is where I found this idea. I think that this is an easy and inexpensive way to add a little something to a cake table, or I might hang a few rows in my entry hallway...possibilities are endless. Add a pretty ribbon to each end and you could also  incorporate mini cupcake liners, add hanging paper numbers for a special date,letters or pictures by photocopying on the paper color of your choice! And party supply stores change their cupcake liners after the seasons or holidays, so you can find deals. Baby showers, weddings, anniversaries,e.t.c.  click here for how to

DIY Inivites

Friday night, Karinne and I went over to Annie's home to make some invitations for a baby shower that will be held in April. There will be a new baby in our congregation... another boy! Its the congregation of little boys and no little girls...yet.  Annie is very crafty! She likes to scrapbook and makes her own greeting cards. She is a natural is all I can say as she whipped up very cute cards in what seemed like seconds. Karinne and I took a little longer. We didn't have a set pattern, so we each just did our thing. Although that made the process a little longer,(we started at around 7p.m. and ended close to midnight) each invitation will be unique. And we had so much fun spending that "girl time" together while the boys played Settlers of Catan.  Here are some pictures of the fun night with card stock, scissors, stickers, gel pens, stamps,  and  a little creativity. When we were done, we could see each others own unique style.  :)

Fluff & Fold Saves My Life Every Week

Laundry. Our buildings Laundromat. I really dislike these. Earlier today I told one of my friends that I would be attending to some of my domestic duties of the day very shortly. This was her response: "haha domestic duties? as in cook,clean,laundry all that fun stuff?"  When I saw "laundry" I was like, yikes! I really do not like  it! I don't like sorting it, loading it, transferring it to the dryer, and then...ugh, folding, but thats not all then comes sorting again and putting away. And to top it off we have to go out to do our laundry, as we don't have a washer and dryer in our apartment. So then comes lugging all the clothes(how does it accumulate so fast?!) to the first floor- we are on the tenth floor- and we have to remember to take our laundry soap and softener with us and we have arrived at the laundromat on the first floor and realized we forgot the soap...ugh.  After loading our laundry card with money we  are ready to wash. The washers wash well but the dryers don't work well, they never dry our clothes thoroughly and that is annoying. We have even tried  breaking up the load to more dryers so that each dryer isn't too full. But that doesn't work either so more money has to be spent for an extra cycle. 
One day Abner was on a website that had posts on solutions for laundry by New Yorkers who often don't have their own machines at home. Many of these people were sharing that they use a service called Fluff&Fold. They pick-up your clothes(no sorting required). They drop it off, folded! Abner did some searching for a  Fluff&Fold service in our area and found one! The best part is that it is just about the same cost as doing it here ourselves and that allows us to have more time for other things, like sit here and write about it.  Thank you so much Fluff & Fold!

 Now off to attend to those domestic duties of the day...oh joy :)

Stay in the lines

So if you are missing coloring books and you are a girl; Then this may interest you? I found this because I was looking at bathroom decorating ideas and this perticular website I searched has a post on a bathroom remodeling and many other things, quirky things. After giving the bathroom remodeling post a  quick look at, I decided to browse other posts the website has. I found this Color me Dress.  Im not sure what I think of it. I know that it seems like something fun, because I always enjoyed coloring but I don't know. I could never wear it. Imagine, you hop in the bus, subway, car and start coloring away. Than,when you arrive, you'll be wearing a different outfit then when you left your home.

I heart BLUE

Calm the beast with the color blue. Thats right! Earlier today I was watching the show Unwrapped and there was a segment on Hola Fruta ice cream bars...they were blue and of course it was explained just how they get them to get their electric blue hue. And when closing the program they added that the color blue makes you feel full quicker (music to this food- loving- sometimes- bottomless-pit girl's ears). Blue acts to calm the brain's appetite  center. And just yesterday I changed the color of my blogs backround to blue! "Diet experts" actually suggest blue plates. Some have even come up with this Although I have to say,didn't Johnny Depp have it first ;)

Blue plates, here I come! Or I can always rock the Johnny Depp look, no?

Riding on a metro-oo-ooo

The Berlin song in my head.

JOLIETTE Station is only 3 minutes away from where we live. 

You will find it on the Greenline close to HONORE- BEAUGRAND

Click on the image to enlarge

For your listening pleasure,a bit of 80's

This is Winter...

These are not very recent, in fact the picture of us walking in the middle of the street, was one of the first snow falls...I just stumbled upon these pictures that were in MY camera that I hadn't used much anymore since discovering Abners camera has funner options. ;)  {I'll just have to get him a new SD card}

Los Charles strolling on fresh,fresh powder

It was hard getting a picture of montreal De Noche; this was the best I could do...

Update...

The cookies turned out MUCH better after adding the remainder of the flour(I had accidentally left out). They looked less like little suns this time.  I also rolled them in cinnamon and sugar... extra yummy. You may try crushed nuts. I took pictures, only, I somehow broke my memory card :(  It tells me, "card error" and tells me to "format" but it wont budge. I am pretty bummed because it was not actually my camera, it was Abners, his camera, his memory card : / . Sorry honey- in case you find out here first... :(

Cinnamon Butter Cookies

This recipe has few ingredients, so I thought, perfect! I have all the ingredients. I decided to cut the recipe in half...I accidentally left out some flour. And I wish I hadn't because my first batch came out so very buttery... so for my second batch I added some more flour, rolled it into a log and is now chilling in the fridge (a tip I learned from Alton Brown from Good Eats and several other sources such as the blog, meals at home). I am pretty sure the next batch will be better. They turned out looking like little suns..they are crispy and chewy. I think I will use less vanilla next time. Here is the recipe I used..

CINNAMON BUTTER COOKIES

1 Cup Butter, Softened
1 Cup Powdered Sugar
1- 1/2 tsp Ground Cinnamon
1 tsp Vanilla
2- 1/4 Cups Flour


Directions
Cream butter, sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla until light and fluffy
Gradually add flour until well combined
Roll into 1-inch balls
Bake @ 400 for about 9 - 11 minutes

COMPLETELY cool on a cooling rack!

(This is the original recipe,not the modified one I made)

C'est une belle journée

It is so pretty outside today! I wouldn't mind going out today. Our grocery shopping day is on Thursday but since it is nice today, we will probably just do our shopping a day early. It isn't much fun carrying bags when its cold and windy or snowing. One Thursday, we had no choice but take a cab back home with our groceries. Its a 10-15 min. walk and it was snowing and there were strong winds; the winds are always very chilly. Maybe I will go out for a walk today before Abner gets home from work...I better charge my camera's battery so that I can take some pictures to share.

(: At the window trying not to squint...its so bright outside :)

How has the weather been where you live these days?

Its been a while...

I guess you can say I am now getting pretty used to living here. Its beginning to feel like I really live here and I'm not just on some loooong vacation.

To my dear friend that reminded my to write in here... Thank you.

Get your imaginations ready because this post has no pictures attached...

I like listening to Abner speak French. He is talking on the phone right now with his friend Marco (the dancer). When they speak together they speak the French... he is standing at the window looking out and chatting away...probably about sports...I am not paying attention so I'm not sure. And its cute because he throws some English in there from time to time...I'll call it Frenglish. Like the all too familiar, Spanglish! Often times after he is done chatting it up with his friends on the phone I will ask what certain words are that I heard him say? I can pretty much guess the ones he repeats the most by the way he says them, the tone, his facial expression, gestures, mostly the tone. Like when he says "Mais La!" [meh-lah]. It sounds just like when he says "C'mon!" in English. And yep that is how he uses it in French. It actually translates to: But. I need to learn French so that I can speak french with my husband :). And sure, it will be helpful in this French speaking province. ;)

Jusqu'à la prochaine fois, mes amis :)

I will try to make it sooner than later for now on, amigos (this is not the translation of what i wrote in french) ;)