With All My Heart

This is my all time favourite die for the Big Shot - the Lattice Bigz Die. I love that it is so simply elegant and easy to make into a stunning card. I also love the colour combination of Baja Breeze and Early Espresso. There is just something so classic, yet modern, about those colours together.

Stamp Set: With All My Heart

Card Base: Whisper White, 4"x4"
Layer #2: Early Espresso, 3.75"x3.75"
Layer #3: DSP Pocketful of Posies, 3.5"x3.5"
Lattice: Whisper White, 3.5"x3.5"
Lattice Fill: DSP Pocketful of Posies, 3.5"x3.5"
Ribbon: Early Espresso 1/4" Grosgrain
Ink: Early Espresso
Punch: Modern Label

Mini Potato Salad

Ok, I am on a salad recipe roll these days, but honestly, it is HOT outside, and there is nothing I prefer more than a refreshingly COLD salad straight from the fridge on a day as hot as we have been having. Honestly, today it feels about 40C. I almost passed out pushing the stroller on the way home from the park this morning, and that was 10am. Crazy times, but I love it! I would take heat and humidity any day over snow and ice - hands down! No complaints about the weather from me.

So potato salad. This is one of those family of salads I tend to suck at making. I over cook the potatoes, I tend to always  under-season it, I add too much dressing, you name it, I have done it to the humble potato salad.

Walking through Loblaws the other day I saw these mini multi-coloured potatoes (no comments on buying local..it's too hot to venture out...sorry farmers) and couldn't resist them. I used to buy them, but the supply was so erratic you never knew if they would be in stock so you couldn't plan for them. Now I see them piled high next to mini red skin and mini white potatoes, all in the same convenient 1.5lb package. Yay for convenience! When fingerlings are in season, they are side by side these potatoes too.

I wasn't sure if the brilliant purple hued variety would bleed into my white potatoes and I would end up with a grey mess, but luckily they stayed their own fabulous colour. Perhaps a creamy dressing isn't the best to showcase the gorgeous colours, but what a nice surprise biting into a piece of potato and finding out it's purple on the inside. Love it!

Like the pickles? That's my husband. I asked him to make dinner one night, he made potato salad with all kinds of stuff in it - even the pickles, which I have grown to love.

And again, I am rumaging through the bottom of the fridge for ingredients, but they all work together majestically in this recipe.

Mini Potato Salad

Makes 6-8 serves

1.5lbs potatoes, cut into 1 inch pieces

5 slices of bacon, roasted then chopped

3 green onions, chopped

1 piece celery, diced

1/2 red pepper, diced

3-4 sour pickles, diced (not the sweet ones, I used cornichons)

1/3 cup mayonnaise

1/4 cup sour cream

2 teaspoons dijon mustard

1 tablespoon cider vinegar

salt & pepper, to taste

Boil potatoes in salted water until tender, drain and set aside to cool. Place in the refrigerator until cold.

Meanwhile, prepare all the other ingredients and combine in a large bowl. Mix well.

When potatoes are cold, combine with dressing and other ingredients. Season well - be careful of adding too much salt, as the bacon, pickles and mayonnaise all are quite salty.

This salad tastes amazing the next day too, so if you needed to, it could be prepared a day ahead.

Enjoy!

Baby Thank You's

Back to card making, which I absolutely love. These are the cards I made for my twin thank you's. I adore Fox and Friends for all things kid or baby related, and seeing as we had one boy and one girl, we have Pretty in Pink, Bashful Blue and Certainly Celery.

Stamp Set: Fox & Friends, Curly Cute

Card Base: Bashful Blue, 5"x5" square - fits nicely into a medium Whisper White square envelope

Layer #1: Certainly Celery, 4.75"x4.75", and run through the Big Shot with the Backgrounds #1Texturz Plates

Layer #2: Whisper White, 4" x 3.75", unfortunately not a Stampin Up border punch

Layer #3: Pear Pizzaz In-Colour Designer Paper, 3.75"x 2 & 7/8"

Punches: 1 & 3/4" Scallop Punch, Modern Label Punch, 1 & 1/2" Circle Punch

Ink: Certainly Celery

Ribbon: Certainly Celery Satin

Cardstock" Bashful Blue, Pretty in Pink, Certainly Celery and Whisper White

Carrot Apple Slaw

Well, the heat has been incredible lately. This is summer, and this is what we wait for all year. I love it, I love it, I love it. I also love my air conditioner, my barbecue and the splash pad for my kids. And, on a day like today there is no reason whatsoever to heat the inside of my kitchen more than it already is.

I wasn't exactly sure what to make today. It was too hot to get to the store so I had to figure out what to do with everything that was left in the bottom of my fridge. It's not bad by any means, it's just that it's leftover from the weekend - bits of this, ends of that, half eaten pieces here, wrapped up ends there...you get the picture.

Part of my kitchen philosophy is to never waste food, and I seem to be doing quite a lot of that lately. I am too tired (twins are almost 6 months old, which means that it's 6 months I haven't slept a whole night through - but that's another story), I forget what I have, I am too lazy to look, but basically when I cook these days, it needs to be quick. I don't have much of the luxury of time these days, so the quicker I can prepare and cook a meal, the better. Hence, not much thought goes into the lunch or dinner process these days.

Well, I want to change that. I want to enjoy cooking again. It has been way too long to have to do something, rather than want to do something, if you know what I mean.

So, in my fridge, leftover from the last expedition to the grocery store (if you see someone struggling with infant twins and a very independent 2 year old, that's  me!) I had apples and carrots, and a couple of green onions. There was some broccoli and cauliflower too, mushrooms that should have been cooked at least 4 days ago and a couple of lemons. Carrot slaw was entering my mind, carrots and apples, maybe some dried cranberries for sweetness. I was thinking of a carrot and raisin salad, but I detest raisins, so something similar would work, why not cranberries?

The end result is a tart, tangy and suprisingly refreshing shredded slaw. Yum, and yum. It was so good, you know exactly what I am having for lunch tomorrow.

Carrot Apple Slaw
Makes enough for 6 servings.

6 carrots, peeled (or 2 bags matchstick carrots from grocery stores)

2 gala apples, or any sweet eating apple, not peeled

3 green onions, green and white parts, chopped

juice from 1 lemon

1/2 cup dried cranberries

3 tablespoons canola oil

2 tablespoons cider vinegar

1 tablespoon honey

salt & pepper

Julienne the carrots and apples. I used my mandolin with the 2mm cutting blade, but you could cut by hand, or cheat and purchase the matchstick carrots at the grocery store.

Add green onions and quickly add the lemon juice. Mix well, but gently, to ensure the lemon juice is stirred through. This will help to prevent the browning of the apple.

Add remaining ingredients and mix well. Add salt and pepper to taste. You might want to add a little more honey if you find the dressing too tart. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve - the longer you let everything meld together,the better it will taste.

Enjoy!