Stocking Update

Coby's stocking is finished, and has been for a few weeks! Yahoo!! I like this pattern, although in my excitement to start I went to Michaels, as my LYS was closed, and ended up buying some acrylic. Now I'm wishing I had held off until I could have gotten in to pick out the good stuff. Oh well, he loves it, and is so excited that Mommy made him a Christmas stocking, that it doesn't really matter. I really like the monochromatic look though. Overall, I'm pleased with how this turned out! Pattern is Christmas Sampler from Knit Christmas Stockings! by Gwen Steege.

Isaiah's stocking is about half finished, but it shouldn't take too much work to get that one finished up before the big day! I haven't taken any pics of it yet, but will get them up here as soon as I do!

Busy, busy, busy.....

Well, it's been awhile. I've been around but busy, busy, busy. I've been running between the ski hill, skating rink and swimming pool for the past month and I'm exhausted.

I was a lifeguard and swimming instructor for 6 years before having kids and I always swore that my children would be swimmers, I would never have one of those kids who wouldn't put their face in the water...right? WRONG. My oldest is (at 4) just starting to put his face in the water, but won't jump in, won't float, won't blow bubbles, etc. My 2 year old is, well, a 2 year old! What he will and won't do varies depending on the day. We're going to continue with swimming lessons as long as it takes, it doesn't matter to me if my kids are the best swimmers, or if it takes them 10 tries to pass the first level. They need to know how to swim, I want them to be able to swim well enough that they can be comfortable in the water. Hopefully that happens, someday!

One of the other places that I'm splitting my time is the skating rink, which is great because it's right behind my house. A two minute walk tops (with 3 kids and equipment) so at least I'm not wasting any time driving! It's my four year old's second year skating, and he loves it. He wants to play hockey (like most small town Alberta boys!), but so far he's just in learn to skate, and actually doing surprisingly well. I'm wondering how long it will be before I'm a full fledged hockey mom!?!

Lastly it's been skiing. He loves skiing, I love watching him ski. He seems so little, but my husband started when he was 4 and went quite regularly with his family, and then me until we got pregnant and decided snowboarding might not be very good for our baby. So or the past 5 years or so we haven't been skiing or snowboarding much, but would like to get back into it with our kids.

After just 2 lessons he's pretty much mastered the bunny hill. He can do the snowplow, turn and stop fairly consistently, but his favorite part is the magic carpet, because that's what takes him to the top of the hill so he can do it again!

Although I've been busy with kids activities I have been knitting, and baking quite a bit. I'll get posting more regularly now... I hope!

Peach, Blueberry, & Thyme

I made these for the wedding. Interesting combination, but tastes wonderful. My husband who's not all that fond of cupcakes even enjoyed them!

Peach, Blueberry & Thyme Cupcakes

1/2 c butter

1 c sugar

1 egg
1 egg yolk

1 1/3 c flour

1 t baking powder

1/8 t salt

1/2 c whole milk

1 peach mashed

1/4 c blueberries

2 t fresh thyme, chopped

Beat butter and sugar 2 minutes until light and fluffy. Add egg and yolk, beating until combined.

Whisk together dry ingredients. Add 1/3 of dry ingredients to butter mixture, beat well, add half of milk, beat well. Continue adding dry ingredients & milk, beating well after each addition, ending with dry ingredients.

Fold in mashed peaches, blueberries and thyme.

Fill cupcake liners 2/3 full. Bake for 22-25 minutes at 350.

Cream Cheese Icing

1/2 c (4 oz) cream cheese

1/8 c butter

1 t vanilla

2 c icing sugar

Cream together cream cheese and butter. Add vanilla and icing sugar, mixing until desired consistency is reached.

Fall

I love fall, the crispness in the air that hints at the coming winter, the color of the leaves falling down, and the crunch they make as you walk through them. I also love the smell of all the delicious apple treats baking in the oven. Here's the recipe for some great apple cupcakes!

Apple Cinnamon Cupcakes

1 c butter, softened

1 1/4 c sugar

4 eggs, room temperature

2 c flour

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 1/2 c applesauce

1 apple, peeled, cored, and finely chopped

Cream together butter and sugar. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.

Whisk together flour and cinnamon, add to butter mixture. Fold in apples and applesauce.

Fill cupcake liners 2/3 full and bake for 25 minutes at 350, or until tests done.

Mead Frosting

1/4 c butter

3 T milk

2 T mead

3 + c icing sugar

Cream butter. Add milk and mead. Stir in icing sugar until desired consistency is reached.

Monkey

Well, I finally finished my Monkey socks by Cookie A. I started these socks in the April, and just recently finished them. It wasn't that the pattern was difficult, or I didn't enjoy it, I did, I just kept breaking needles. Every time I'd be at my LYS I'd either forget to check for them, or they'd be out. Finally I remembered, and after a couple of hours they were finished!

I used the Brown Sheep Company's Wildfoote in Sonatina. I used just over 1 skein, so now I'm tyring to think of what to do with the rest.... maybe some baby socks or leggings for my little girl?

I've also been working on some spinning lately, I changed my mind about the project I had originally started spinning for, so I've been tossing around numerous ideas, and we'll see what it turns into! Ideas?

Triple the Vanilla

Wedding cupcakes on the serving platters before going to the reception. I'll have some reception pictures later after I get my other camera hooked up. Meanwhile, here is another of the recipes I used for the cupcakes.

I love vanilla, the smell, the taste, but occasionally you taste something someone has made with far too much of a good thing, vanilla. These cupcakes are perfect for me a nice vanilla flavor without being too overpowering. These were also made for the wedding, and I received a lot of compliments on them.

Triple Vanilla Cupcakes

3/4 c butter, room temperature

1 2/3 c vanilla sugar

2 eggs, room temperature

2 2/3 c flour

1 1/2 t baking powder

1/4 t salt

3/4 c + 2 T whole milk

1 t vanilla extract
1 vanilla bean, seeds scraped

Beat butter and sugar together until light and fluffy (about 3 minutes). Add eggs one at a time beating well after each addition.

Whisk together dry ingredients. Combine milk and vanillas.

Add 1/3 of dry ingredients to butter/sugar mixture, beat well. Add half of milk mixture, beat well. Continue adding dry/wet ingredients, beating well after each addition, ending with dry ingredients.

Fill cupcake liners 2/3 full. Bake for 22-25 minutes at 350.

To make vanilla sugar combine sugar with vanilla bean (it's a great way to use up vanilla beans that have already had the seeds scraped). Let sit in an airtight container for at least 5 days, stirring occasionally.

Vanilla Buttercream

1 c butter

1 c (8oz) cream cheese

2 t vanilla extract

1/4 vanilla bean, seeds scraped

4-5 c icing sugar

Beat butter on medium until creamy. Add cream cheese, and beat until combined. Add vanillas and 3 c of icing sugar. Beat on low speed, stopping to scrape bottom and sides of bowl, until light and fluffy. Add icing sugar until desired consistency is reached.

Busy, busy, busy...

Wow! It's been busy around here. Here's a quick peek at what I've been doing for the past couple of weeks.

That's right, cupcakes, cupcakes and more cupcakes! Trying recipes over and over and trying to decide which ones would be perfect for my cousin's wedding. Then I moved on to gum paste daisies, then even more cupcakes. I finally settled on 4 cupcake recipes, and they were an absolute hit! I made over 200 for the wedding, and by the end of the night there were less than 12 left! This recipe makes 32 cupcakes, but it is easy to cut in half, or even quarter if you're wanting a smaller batch.

Chocolate Covered Strawberry Cupcakes

1 c butter, softened

2 1/2 c sugar

4 eggs, room temperature

1 1/2 c flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 c cocoa powder

1 c milk

2 tsp vanilla

Beat together butter and sugar until light and fluffy (about 2 minutes). Add eggs one at a time and beat until well combined.

Whisk together dry ingredients. Ina a separate bowl combine milk and vanilla.

Add 1/3 of dry ingredients to butter mixture, mix until incorporated. Add 1/2 of milk to butter mixture, mixing until incorporated. Continue adding dry then wet ingredients, ending with dry. Beat well after each addition.

Fill cupcake liners 2/3 full. Bake 22-25 minutes at 350.

Makes 32 cupcakes.

Chocolate/Strawberry Ganache

9 oz. semisweet chocolate, chopped

1 1/2 c heavy cream

1 tsp vanilla

pinch of salt

2/3 c diced strawberries

Put chocolate in heat proof bowl. Heat cream in saucepan until bubbles form around the edges. Pour cream over chocolate and let sit 1 minute; stir to combine. Add vanilla and salt.

Divide ganache in half. In one portion add diced strawberries. Transfer this portion to the refrigerator to cool. Leave remaining ganache sitting on the counter. (Yes, the ganache in the fridge will thicken faster, this is what you want!)

Strawberry Buttercream

1 cup butter

2 T pureed, strained strawberry juice (I used my juicer)

1 t vanilla

4-6 c icing sugar

Cream butter until soft. Add strawberry puree and vanilla. Mix in 4 cups of icing sugar, adding more until desired consistency is reached.

Now to put it all together....

Using the cone method fill the cooled cupcakes with the strawberry portion of the ganache. Next glaze the top of the cupcakes with the remaining ganache. After this has set ice with the strawberry buttercream.