Blueberry sour cream scones

I visited with a bunch of great ladies this morning at my pal Alison's house for a mug of coffee and baileys lovely tea.
It was so nice to come out of my cave and get out and visit over some yummy morning nibbles and great conversation. I tried out a new scone recipe as I was, as usual, not very organised and had not planned ahead my treat to share with the ladies.
This one came together very quickly and I timed it just right so that I could deliver a steaming plate full of yummy blueberry scones to the gathering. Mind you, they did make me half an hour late as I don't normally do the wedge style scone and I had to pull them out of the oven, separate them and give them a quick flash in the oven to be sure they were fully cooked through.
I had a few requests for the recipe, so here 'tis ladies, with a few alterations.

I got this recipe from a website called Chef in you, I'll be heading back there after I finish this post to go check out some more recipes.
Click on the pic to be directed to the recipe, I had to nab the pic from their website as  I didn't take one of my own this morning.....as I was running late remember!!!!
Then scroll down to see what I did differently.

So instead of 2/3 cup of sour cream, I used 100ml of strawberry yogurt and then made up the rest with sour cream to get the correct amount.

I also used full fat sour cream. Did I tell you this is not diet friendly already?
I also upped the amount of sugar from 3 tablespoons to 6 tablespoons!!

THEN, I made a vanilla bean drizzle to go on top of the warmed scones..........drool!

Vanilla Bean Drizzle.

5 tablespoons of icing sugar

1 teaspoon of Madagascar Vanilla

a pinch of vanilla bean seeds. ( I have something like these in my pantry)

add a tiny bit of milk until you get the "drizzle" consistency you like.

If you don't have the vanilla bean seeds don't worry, the recipe is just as yummy without it. They just had an extra hit of vanilla flavor and the seeds looks so great in the drizzle.

Easy!!

December

I don't know what I did with the entire month of November, other than watch way too many old episodes of Lost on Netflix and make jam. I know I was busy.......productive, no...but busy....yes.
I did a couple of Christmas markets, sold lots of my jams and jellies and had tonnes of fun doing it.
No excuses though, just letting you all know I'm still alive and well. I don't have cabin fever just yet!

So lets just pretend like November didn't exist and just jump head first into December shall we?
Firstly, a quick update and some pics from the last month.

We are finally seeing some snow on our side of the mountain which in turn is bringing out the Christmas spirit in the Simpson household ( I must admit we've been a little Grinchy in these parts, with the hubby being away so long).

The kids are getting excited, thanks to our nightly visits from Kevin the elf. He has been a naughty little elf lately, getting into all kinds of mischief, stealing my lipstick, eating and drinking from the pantry and making little elf messes all over the house. What a fine example of what NOT to do for the children.

I finally caved in and dragged the Christmas tree out of storage yesterday. The girls and I had a great time deciding on our color scheme and making a start on our decorating. We still have a long way to go but it's nice to get started.

Get a load of the size of the Narcissus bulb we planted. I potted it up mid November and it looks as though it will flower in the next week or so. I've always wanted to plant one but never got around to it.

I'm hoping to feature it in a lovely table centerpiece for the holidays. 

I've been working quite a bit at Simply baskets with Brenda in her new location and now that she has expanded her business and added the florist, I've been lucky enough to get some floral training and some much needed hands on experience. So stay posted for some more pics.

Next up...holiday baking. I'm thinking butter tarts, as always, but have been scouring pinterest for some new family favorites to add to the ever expanding cookbook.

If anyone was some favorite recipes they are willing to share I'd love some new inspiration.

I also have some great recipes I want to share soon. Like this one.... Magic crust custard pie. 

The girls and I made this lovely, simple dessert tonight which reminded me of the delicious custard tarts you get in the bakeries in Australia. Although, we couldn't wait for it to cool down so we ate it warm with fresh blackberries and a dusting of icing sugar. The only thing it was missing was a dollop of whipped cream.

The girls devoured it and we've already planned future alterations to the recipe using some passion fruit pulp. Yum.

Anyhow, it's after midnight and I had better get myself off to sleep. Just wanted to say hi. I hope you are all well and feeling festive, can you believe there's only two weeks until Christmas? Eeeeeeeeeeeek!!

Halloween hangover

Farewell October...with your birthdays, thanksgiving and Halloween and Hello nice quiet November. 

The kids are all settling back into their post candy school routine and I'm looking forward to a month of mellowness and quiet Christmas planning. 

Halloween has come and gone (can I get a hell yeah from the audience!!!), not that I don't like to celebrate the scary season, but it does make my kiddos a little crazy.

I'm one of "those" parents that lets my kids gobble up all their candy straight after Halloween. The sooner that stuff is out of my house the quicker the sugar induced mood swings are over.

I worked this Halloween, in full costume, at the store handing out candy to all the wee little downtown trick or treaters. Within 2 hours we had around 1100 trick or treaters... that's a lot of "Happy Halloweens" and "ooooh look at YOUR costume" and " What are you's?????" 

Shortly after my shift I ripped home, took off my bat lady costume, made myself a thermos full of hot toddy, grabbed the kids and headed out for some trick or treating. The weather was nice and mild, no snow which meant the kids could show off their costumes without having to cover them up with winter jackets.

I managed to snap a few pics of the kids before they left for school, so fun that they get to dress up and wear their costumes all day. Zoe put so much work into hers, the hot glue gun, scissors and makeup were out for days as she put her outfit together. I think I might have a future Tim Burton on my hands!!

Marley put her own outfit together also and when I asked her what she was her response was " I'm a little kid who goes to pubs and kills people in the washroom". 

She looked semi sweet in her outfit until she declared her evil plot...........what do you think??

Zoe, was a mixture of the mad hatter and the evil side of the Cheshire cat. 

I'm happier that the girls are embracing the creepy side of Halloween and have grown out of the princess dresses, tiara's and cutesy costumes. 

I hope everyone had a spooktacular Halloween. 

Tootles,

Kj*

My happy little vegemite.

It's official...Miss Marley is now officially an Australian citizen. Only took me 7 years to get my butt organised and get the paperwork done. 

She received her certificate in the mail yesterday and now I can get her an Aussie passport to complete the process....woohoo.

I will now teach her the happy little Vegemite jingle (Zoe's favorite), the slip slop slap song and other random Aussie trivia that she will be needing in the future if she wants to "blend in"!!!!

Next big thing on my humongous list of things to do is to get my Canadian citizenship, and from what I have been reading is quite a bit more complicated that Marley's simple application process. Oh the joys of marrying someone from another country. 

I am, at this point, an expert form filler outer lady, I think I should get myself a government job after all of this is over. 

I'm thinking the passport office could use my expertise!!!

Public transport......who wants to go on a bus trip????

Living in the country means that, aside from the morning school bus, there's not a lot of times come by where I've had the need or opportunity to catch a bus, train, tram or otherwise. 

I've got my every loyal red jeep to get me from A to B but this mornings little video clip has me yearning to jump on a bus.

This fantastic bus as from Denmark gave me a giggle and I wanted to share it....just because.

Does anyone else out there feel like going on a road trip after watching this.....or is it just me?

Kiddo's

Its been a while since I've blogged so I thought since the kids are back in school it might be time to add blogging back on my "to do" list. 

I'll keep it short and sweet today though and just post some pics of the girls. 

Summer has flown by and now that fall is creeping up on me I thought I'd flick back through some of the pics on the camera from summer and share some of my faves with you all.

I can't believe how much my kids have grown this summer. I probably feel this way every year but this year in particular, especially where Zoe is concerned, I'm struck with the realization that my little babies are turning into little ladies.

This year Zoe was lucky enough to earn the title of May Queen. I've seen a lot of growth and change in her since then and her confidence is slowly starting to show.
As part of her commitment to her role of May Queen she has had to make appearances and speeches at community events and participate in parades.

Here's some pics from the Armstrong IPE parade.

Now for the fun stuff......

First day back at school : Zoe (grade 7) and Marley (grade 2).

Miss Zoe striking a pose during a visit to Surrey to see Dad last weekend. Sporting a new haircut. 
She had been begging to cut her hair off for 6 months so, as you can see, her persistence paid off.
I'm kinda glad the blue streaks she wanted with the haircut didn't take!!!!

OK, you're all caught up now. 

Tooth fairy

Another milestone reached yesterday, Marley lost her second tooth. Now the second tooth is usually not as big of a deal as the first but in this instance it was a pretty big deal as Marley did not want to part with her first tooth.
She wrote the tooth fairy a nice little letter asking her to kindly leave her first tooth with her as she was not ready to give it up to the tooth goddess quite yet.
Who knows where that tooth is now, probably sucked into the vacuum cleaner or buried deep into the carpet in her bedroom.

But last night daddy helped the natural course of things along by wiggling Marley's tooth out. He has come to be known as the neighbourhood "assistant" to the tooth fairy, helping not only our kids but one or two others along the way. He has it down to a fine art now with a combination of distraction, gentle pressure and trickery!!!!

Now I don't know if it's just my upbringing, but the tradition in my childhood home was to put your tooth on the kitchen window sill in a glass of water and overnight the tooth fairy would visit,  inspect the tooth and reward accordingly.
No tooth under the pillowcase stuff at my house, I'm sure the tooth fairy remembers me from all those years ago and just knows that that's the way we roll!!!!

So before going to bed last night I checked to make sure the correct protocol had been followed and was surprised to see that the kids had implemented a new tradition of their own with the tooth fairy...........begging!!!!!

I think she may have had a little assistance from big sis on this one.

Marley awoke to $6 in the jar this morning, she sounded a little perturbed...I think she was hoping for a substantial amount more.

Better luck next time kiddo!!!!!