Do you like waffles????

Yes I like waffles!!!!!!!

It felt like a waffly, brunchy kinda morning today so while daddy was sleeping in my gals and I made waffles with blueberry compote.

Don't you just want to lick the screen?

I made the mistake of buying waffle mix when we first got the waffle maker, I'll only make that mistake once. The recipe I love, love, love to use is the one that came with the waffle iron in the instruction book.

It does dirty a lot of dishes but it is well worth the mess (I believe three bowls, a whisk and my electric hand mixer) and the effort!

Bella Cucina waffles

1 3/4 cups all purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

3 eggs, separated

2 Tbsp sugar

1 1/2 cups milk

1/2 cup vegetable oil

Sift flour, baking powder and salt together in bowl. (Bowl 1)

Use an electric mixer to beat the egg whites until soft peaks form. Sprinkle in the sugar and continue to beat until stiff. (Bowl 2)

Use the mixer to blend egg yolks, milk and vegetable oil together (Bowl 3)

Pour the milk mixture into the dry ingredients and whisk together until just mixed.

Gently fold the egg white mixture into the batter.

My waffle iron uses approx. 1 cup of this mixture per waffle and made 5 very large waffles for our family of four.

Blueberry compote.

Recipe from skinnytaste.com

2 cups blueberries ( I used frozen)

1/4 cup sugar

3 Tbsp water

Add above ingredients to saucepan, cook over med - low heat for 10 - 12 minutes or until liquid has thickened enough to stick to a spoon.

I spy with my little eye........

............some thing that is brown!

I spy with my little eye.........
............something that is furry!

I spy with my little eye.........
............something that shouldn't be in my yard!

I spy with my little eye.........
.............something that could rip me apart, limb by limb and gobble me up like a friggin' turkey dinner!!!!!!!!

Did you figure it out?
Let me give you one last hint..........

yeah, not funny!

Country living at it's best today, as I looked out my window to see what the dog was barking at.....wouldn't you know it...a bear and no batteries left in my camera.
Bears in the yard, not a huge deal but our 14 year old border collie barking 10 meters away from him, a HUGE deal as his legs don't work so well these days.

So good old mummy, who really isn't that much of a dog person anyway, had to run outside to rescue good old buddy dog and get him into the house quick smart.

Eh....it's all in a days work!!!!

Fun and easy Diy bag

I recently stumbled across the website very purple person and made this cute little reversible bag from Novita's tutorials. Wow, this lady is a sewing Diva, only in my wildest dreams could I imagine being that much of a rock star on my sewing machine.

My initial thought was that it would be a great starter project for Miss Zoe to use to get her comfortable on my sewing machine, but after making the bag, although it was super easy, there is a lot of sewing around curves which could be beyond her skill level right now.

I'm glad I made it first to save her the frustration, I love the way the bag turned out and will be saving this pattern for Xmas presents for sure.

If you are like me and have a habit of NOT finishing sewing projects, then I recommend this pattern. It is a wonderful, easy to follow design and can be done on a lazy rainy afternoon...to completion.....it's so super cute, how can you resist.

Back to school....

Check out all the great back to school printables over at my delicious ambiguity, I don't know about you guys but I always start off the school year with good intentions of being on top of everything, keep the kids organised and their lunch kits full of fun and creative goodies. Then something happens and it fizzles out to sandwiches and granola bars.

Does anyone have any creative ideas out there for lunch kits yummies or ideas on how to stay on top of crazy schedules??

Country road

It's been a long time since I've set foot in a Country Road store, one of my facebook friends just mentioned having a shopping spree there recently so I couldn't resist checking out the website.
Even though Country Road is in Oz, I'm sure I can find or put together some of these outfits on myself with local buys and about 30 less pounds!!!!

Hello everyone, did you miss me?
I've been feeling pretty sorry for myself lately due to back problems, but I'm back in the ball game now. I have another man in my life..........my chiropractor, we get together three times a week for a quick chat and a little bit of back realignment. All very innocent I assure you!!!!!
The kids are back in school soon, that includes Miss Marley, full time 5 days a week, so much to do in so little time.
I wanted to share a website with you all today.
I received my subscription in the mail yesterday for my Good Taste magazine and couldn't wait to peruse the glossy pages full of delicious recipes, what a great issue this one was.

My grocery list is a mile long now with all the ingredients I need, and as soon as my pal Stacy returns the latest issue, (we share the guilty pleasure of drooling over anything foodie) I'm planning on a cooking frenzy.

The  problem I have encountered is the fact that Good Taste is an Australian mag and they feature seasonal recipes, now as you all now, Canada is a long way from Australia and we are in opposite seasons. So, seeing as I like to make use of seasonal produce ( in my part of the world), I thought I'd see if they have a recipe database on their website......AND THEY DO.

So go take a peek. The recipes are simple and easy to follow.

The only problems that may be encountered are the occasional ingredient that may be harder to find here and the measurements may need to be converted. But seeing as you are all Internet savvy, I'm sure you can google your way out of that problem!!

I'm going to tackle the ricotta and spinach gnocchi with roasted tomato sauce featured on this months cover.

I'll let you know how it turned out!!!

How To Be Alone

Saw this on facebook....Love it!!

Granola pics

On the way to Gramma's house I decided to pull over by a canola field ( or Granola, as Marley calls it) for an impromptu photo shoot.
Here's what I got......I love the colors, these are totally unedited.

       

Big sky country.

Usually a trip to Gramma Le's house goes a little something like this.

• wake up, get in car.
• gas up in Vernon.
• Drive for 3 1/2  hours to Golden, pee, gas up again, eat at Subway, get back in the car.
• Drive for 3 1/2 hours to Calgary, pee, gas up again, eat at Wendy's, get back in the car.
• Drive for 3 1/2 hours to Jenner, say hi to Gramma and Popsie, pee, unload car and collapse on couch.

But, for a change, we did it a little something like this.........

• Leave home in the afternoon.
• Drive at a more leisurely pace, then join some fantastic friends and camp for the night.

• 
  
  Spend the morning nursing a wee sore head whilst the kids learn to drive farm equipment.

• 
  
  Jump in the car at noon and head to Calgary to hang out with more great company.

• 
  
  Spend the night in the city, shopping, visiting and generally catching up.
• 
  
  Get up, eat yummy breakfast, watch a movie, pack up the car and drive 3 hours to the ranch, stopping along the way for an impromptu photo shoot with the kids.

• 
  
  Get to Gramma's, say hi, cook yummy dinner, feed a baby calf, watch the sunset and go to bed.

• 
  
  Much better.

Fun summer tunes

I'm totally crushing on Ingrid Michaelson.

You and I by ingrid michaelson

take a peek

Summer.......

No, I have not fallen off the face of the earth, just vacationing and getting ready for another road trip.

It's been a hard summer, I don't know how we do it, all the sunbathing, boating, swimming, ice cream eating, bbqing and blender drinking.

I might need a holiday from my holiday soon.

Lucky for me I still have laundry, dishes and packing to bring me back to reality.

I hope you are all having a great summer.

I will update you on my Alberta adventures when I get back.