mint and butter yellow

My mom passed away a few years ago and this mother's day I can't help but miss her. 

She made a few heart breaking mistakes, but all I remember now was what she did right. She was a true lady with such a sense of style.

Well I believe she would have loved this season - tell me how is that we have been wearing nothing but blue jeans for so long.

All those candy colored hues are so refreshing don't you think. My favourite is the mint colored jeans. Mixing that with buttery yellow and we got a color combination keeping me up at night ;) I know- it's strange but I truly want to wear it, paint with it and even cook with it.

The other thing I miss about my mom is her cooking. Oh my could she cook! This "sago" recipe always waited for us on cold Sunday afternoons, South African's twist on tapioca. With sweet apricot jam, custard and meringue.


I hope you all have a wonderful mother's day, and mom... this piece of pudding is for you.
Miss you 

The painting is titled "miss you" 

              and is painted in watercolors and acrylic.
                It's part of painting party Friday and 
                will be available in my Etsy store soon 

pavlova- skuimpies - meringue nests = perfect summer dessert

Light, fluffy and scrumptious are the only words for this dessert

Growing up in South Africa I knew this as skuimpies, and have fond memories of staring at the bowl of egg whites, magically turning into heaps of white mountains. My job was adding sugar, my mom's job was to keep me from eating all the sugar - pretty much the exact same scene happening at our house when I make these with my little girl.

I decided to add fruit salad, chopped up mint, a squeeze of lime and custard, but it is also delicious with strawberry pudding and a layer of melted chocolate on the bottom of the meringue nest 

Recipe : 

3 egg whites (let stand room temp for 30 min)

add 1 teaspoon vanilla

    1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar 

beat on medium till soft peaks form

add 1/2 c sugar tablespoon at a time

beat on high till stiff white peaks form

(we added a dash of blue food coloring for fun)

Prepare cookie sheet with parchment paper

 

With pastry bag draw and fill circles, then build up sides

(with left overs pipe letters, or our family favourite - wrist - watches on the kids arms to lick off while mom finishes piping)

Bake in 300 F oven for roughly 20-25 min. You want to catch them before they turn brown, baked, but still moist on the inside

Fill with puddings, whip cream, fruit or whatever you can imagine 

Enjoy

Easy cherry parfait

Today the laundry stopped, the dishes were left unwashed and dessert was served before supper.

Because it was one of those days where everyone woke up in the wrong mood, and we took our turns taking a time out.

A day when gentleness was in order, when breaking rules and routine was a must. 

We needed a break but mostly we needed something sweet to turn the day around

Easy "time out" dessert 

                 (lil' ones can make this too)

Crumble a cookie on the bottom of your most special tea cup, layer a bit of instant vanilla pudding and whipping cream till the cup is almost full. 

Give the rest to the kids to lick out of the bowl - they'll be much happier if you do!

Top with cherry pie filling and put in fridge till you can't wait any longer.

Now take a time out, watch the birds and listen to the bees

You deserve it :)

how to bake a bread that doesn't stick

My husband - also known as our family chef- has fond memories of his mom baking fresh homemade bread. 

So when it comes to his time hanging out with the kids, he often resorts to baking bread with them. They have the official role as "dough tasters" 

Yesterday he discoverd two new tricks and made the best fluffiest bread to date - and for the first time -It didn't Stick!

Trick 1 : Punch down the bread and let it rize

          twice

Trick 2 : Use parchment paper to line the pans

Trick 3 : Butter the parchment paper

The pans are left squeeky clean

Spiced peaches canning

Everyone do the can-can because we can CAN

We've been wanting to CAN something for a long time, but the task seemed daunting. Finally we took the plunge and bought a huge box of peaches...and tiny cans (don't ask me why, they looked cute lol) and then the box sat there, staring us in the face. We waited for the right time, when nap meets quiet preschooler, but it never came. Finally an hour before we had to be somewhere, and with only 12 peaches left in the box we started canning -

- and was it ever fun. Not difficult at all! Our cans were way too small, held approximately 1 peach each but the taste was amazing. I never understood why people can, since the canned peaches we buy in the store is disgusting. Now I get it! We used this recipe and it is a winner. So much so that we are buying a few more boxes of peaches to fill our cupboards for the winter to come.

If you have any special canning recipes, I'd love to hear them since we are official 'canners' now

Goodbye Summer, Hello Fall :: Taste

One of our favourite recipes this summer was "Mexican Corn"

Corn on the cob, spread with mayo, sprinkled with coconut and paprika...so delicious!

A soon to be favourite for fall are these pumpkin waffles my husband made the other day (he's the cook in the household) I'm the cereal for supper kinda girl ;)

All he did was add some pumpkin puree from a can to his usual fluffy waffles, cooked it for much longer and served with butter - perfect for Fall