Rainbow Cookies

This rainbow cookies post became very popular so I created a recipe tutorial with pictures of how to make these cookies if you would like to check it out and try making them yourself!

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In honour of St. Patrick's Day one year, we made some fabulous rainbow cookies! :)

Rainbow Cookies

Tutorial Tuesday: Gyozas!

You want to try these!!



Sharing the recipe for Gyozas over at HowDoesShe today!

How To Make An Easy Holiday Appetizer! (Bacon Wrapped Water Chestnuts)

Last night we took a trip to the Superstore to get some ingredients for a holiday appetizer recipe I wanted to try.



I first found the recipe on the Schneider’s website, but sort of merged it with another recipe that used different sauce ingredients. Here’s the recipe I came up with:

Bacon Wrapped Water Chestnuts

Ingredients

1 8oz/227 mL can whole water chestnuts, drained
1 65g Package Maple Leaf Fully Cooked Bacon
½ cup ketchup
½ cup brown sugar
½ tsp. Worcestershire sauce


Directions

1. Wrap chestnuts with bacon, use toothpick to hold in place
2. Arrange in shallow microwaveable dish

3. In saucepan, combine ketchup, sugar, sauce, heat just to boiling, pour over bacon & water chestnuts

4. Let sit for 15 min.
5. Cover w/paper towel & microwave 20-30 seconds or until hot



These were really easy to make (I had never bought fully cooked bacon before, so that was a fun experience ;) and the girls liked them! I liked them too, but found the sauce very flavourful to the point that I probably wouldn't eat more than two (which is probably good since they're just an appetizer ;) haha

This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias. All opinions are my own.

DIY Apple Sauce Tutorial

Ever wondered how to make your own apple sauce??



When I was little we had an apple tree on our property. One time my aunt Janice came to visit from the United States and while at our house, she suggested we make apple sauce. I can still remember how good it tasted! So, when Ken suggested we buy a bunch of apples because they were way on sale this fall, I went with it!

You guys- it is EASY!


Step 1: Boil
Put clean, whole apples in a pot of water & boil like crazy until they start coming apart & stuff.


Step 2: Mush
We used a hand cranked mill to squish the apples (I hear you can mush or mash or squish them in several other creative ways, but my mother in law had a hand mill, so we lucked out ;)


Step 3: Flavour
All we added to ours was some cinnamon (which I love!), but if you wanted, you could sweeten with sugar or whatever other spice you like.

We canned ours, with my mother in law's instructions. I didn't take pictures of that process though, because I was too busy with other things!

So yummy & the apple sauce totally brought back memories!

Now, what are you waiting for? Go, get yourself some apples, call your kids in to learn about the process, have some fun, make some mess, then have a treat! :)

Easy Homemade Cheese

My husband served a mission in Mexico, so he loves Mexican food, but finds it difficult to find real Mexican food. Recently, he bought the Better Homes & Gardens Special Interest issue on Mexican recipes and has been whipping up all kinds of special Mexican meals! Recently, we decided to make "Queso Fresco" (this means fresh cheese) with the girls. It was so easy! Here's what you need: 8 cups (1/2 gallon) whole milk 1 tablespoon salt 1/4 cup white vinegar And here's what you do (I took pictures just for you, so you could see how easy it is & what the steps look like) 1. combine milk & salt in large pot over medium-high heat until 190 degrees F, stirring frequently. Remove from heat. 2. Gradually add vinegar, stirring gently. Let stand for 5 minutes. Stir gently (some curds should form). 3. Place a double thickness of 100% cotton cheesecloth in a colander set in a sink. Carefully pour hot mixture into the colander, discarding the liquid whey. Allow cheese to drain for 15-20 min. to remove all excess whey. 4. Gather cheese & transfer to a small bowl. Cover bowl with plastic wrap & refrigerate for 30 min. before serving. Can store in fridge for up to 3 days. Makes about 2 cups of cheese. 

Valentine Breakfast - Heart Shaped Pancakes!

Here's what Ken & the girls made for breakfast on Valentine's Day :)


Pink, heart-shaped pancakes!

We didn't have a fancy pancake shaper, so they just made regular pancakes & cut them with cookie cutters- good enough for us! :)

Cinnamon Swirl Pancakes

Thanks to this post at the Idea Room, we had Cinnamon Swirl Pancakes recently for breakfast, and they were delicious!!!



To make the cinnamon swirl part,
all you need to do is mix the following ingredients:
2 tbsp melted butter
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tbsp flour
I put the mixture in an icing bag and piped it onto the freshly poured pancake.

So easy, and oh so delcious ;)

Check out the original post though, for the rest of this fabulous recipe (if you don't want to go the easy way out like I did, and use pancake mix ;)

Secret to Soft & Chewy Rice Krispie Squares

We learned two secrets to soft & chewy Rice Krispie Squares & we wanted to share them with you incase you didn't know!

1. don't overcook marshmallows (stop cooking when they look like this picture)

This photo taken from eHow.

2. don't pack them into the pan

You'll be giving the final product a thumbs up :)

Homemade Tortillas

Ken served a mission for 2 years for our church, in Mexico, when he was 19. While there he acquired a tortilla press. He & Talia got the chance to put it to use a few days ago and made tortillas for the family.


Talia had fun for sure and Ken enjoyed making a Mexican breakfast for us & giving us tips on how the Mexicans use their tortillas :)

Spaghetti Squash

The other day I spotted some Spaghetti Squash at the grocery store and thought it would be a great opportunity to get my preschooler involved with cooking dinner. It's pretty cool- when it comes out of the oven (and after you scoop the 'guts' out) it looks like this:

Then you take a fork to it and gently scrape against it like this:

And then you have spaghetti-ish squash! It's pretty cool! You can even eat it with spaghetti sauce, like regular spaghetti :)

Unfortunately the day that I tried this, Talia was sick & less interested in participating than I thought she would be. I'll have to try it again another day when she's more in the mood!