Wednesday 21 May 2014

Victoria Day Tea Party


  Since Canada is the only country to have a national holiday to celebrate the late Queen Victoria's birthday, it only seemed right to celebrate with a tea party with my 2 daughters. So that is what we decided to do! I had told them the night before that we were going to have a tea party luncheon for Victoria Day. Do you think my youngest daughter was just a little excited?!?! She woke up a few times in the night and would only say 'is it time for the tea party yet?' 

  So on the day of our tea party, we got up as usual, had our breakfast and then I answered the question 'is it lunch time yet?' many times throughout the morning! They were just a tad excited! The girls have played tea party in their room with their dolls before, but this was going to be the first time they had a 'real' one with mommy. 
  I decided to bake some mini cupcakes for dessert but didn't have a recipe. So I thought I would try my white cake recipe and cut it in half. It worked!

  They turned out great and it worked out to exactly 24 for my mini muffin tin. (Recipe at the end of this post)

  We also had little sandwiches, ham and cheese bites and apples with cinnamon sugar sprinkles. I set their little table up with our fancy tea cups and a cute polka dot 'tablecloth' (which was a piece of fabric leftover from a project) 

  The girls both got dressed up (as Rapunzel and Tinkerbell, of course!) and we had tea (pomegranate green tea, which Kelsie loved!, Shayla not so much)  We had a wonderful time eating and drinking tea with our pinkies up. We tried out our best English accents and had lots of giggles. It's days like those that I will cherish. The girls both had so much fun and told me it was the best tea party ever! 

~Kari


Mini White Cupcake Recipe

Ingredients:

1/4 cup butter
1/2 sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
 3/4 cup flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 cup milk

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 24-mini muffin tin.

2. Cream together butter and sugar. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Add in the flour and baking powder and mix well. Finally stir in milk until batter is smooth.

3. Divide evenly into prepared mini muffin tin. Bake 10-12 mins. Remove from pan and let cool on a rack before you ice them.

*Icing: I just used a little bit of icing sugar and milk with a drop of pink food coloring to make a simple icing. Top with fun sprinkles!



Sunday 11 May 2014

Happy Mother's Day!

  Happy Mother's Day to my mom, my mother-in-law and all of the other awesome moms I know out there! 

Friday 9 May 2014

Tomato Basil Summer Side Salad

Tomato Basil Summer Side Salad

  This is the perfect summer side salad for your outdoor BBQ and easy to whip together for when you have company coming over. I love this salad (and could probably eat the whole thing in one sitting!)




Ingredients:
  • 1 pint grape tomatoes, quartered (I always put them in a strainer as I cut them, so I won't have as much juice in the salad)
  • 3-4 fresh basil leaves, chopped (must be fresh, dried won't taste the same!)
  • 3/4 cup feta cheese, crumbled (or more if you like....can never have enough cheese!)

Dressing:

1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp packed brown sugar
1 tsp balsamic vinegar
1 tsp minced garlic
dash of sea salt and fresh ground pepper

Directions:

1. Mix tomatoes, basil and feta in a bowl and set aside

2. Whisk the remaining of the ingredients for the dressing

3. Pour over tomatoes and mix well. I let mine sit in the fridge for an hour or so to soak up all the flavor

4. Transfer to a pretty bowl and top with a sprinkle of feta before serving

5. Enjoy! (It can keep in a air tight container for a few days, but there usually isn't any leftovers!)

Serves 4