Fall into the new School Year

The new school year started for us teachers today. Time to get ourselves in order. With every new year, I like to share a little treat with the various support staff who makes our jobs easier. Today, I baked these fall leaves and acorn cookies for the office staff!

I love vibrant colours! I think that is what I like most about the fall. If you were to ask me, Winter is my favorite season, but Fall is a close second. I remember all those years where my dad and I would go hiking through Sleeping Giant Provincial Park in the fall, and we would see all the colours. It was so beautiful! It still is, and it always makes me happy to see the leaves change.

Okay, I realize that it is not yet Fall, and that Summer is still in full swing (it is 32 C here), but I know that with the start of school, we must forget our love of sun and surf, and embrace the smell of death (of leaves and grass). I honestly just wanted to play with my cutters.

When I started the cookies, I had an idea of polka dots, but I wanted it to look a little more like a leaf, so I made two different types. I loved the fall colours of Orange, Yellow and Red, so the colours reflect that look.

Pardon this last blurry picture. I even gave some of the acorn cookies polka dots. OHHHH, Colorful!

So, I hope that all of you have a great first day back (whenever that is), and that you stay safe and kids, watch for traffic!

Spinach and Cheese Ravioli

I've often toyed with the idea of making my own pasta, and truth be told, before now, I've never attempted it. But something inspired me one night to try ravioli: Spinach and cheese ravioli to be exact. It's a tough thing to do. The pasta is a pain to roll out if you don't have a pasta roller (which I don't!) So I spent my evening rolling, cutting and forming little ravioli just so I can say I tried to do it!

Other than a lot of work rolling out the pasta itself, I quite enjoyed the process. It was fun to stuff the shells, then press the sides. Since I made them the night before dinner, I simply froze them overnight on a baking sheet.
(I got to watch Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: Secret of the Ooze while making these! ♥ Maybe the green filling was inspired by the turtles themselves! They do sort of look like turtle shells...)

When they were ready to be eaten, boil them for a few minutes, then, VOILA! Easy, simple supper that is quite fun to make! I would love to try this with kids. I know they would get a kick out of it. Best of all, I cut the ravioli with cookie cutters, I wonder if I could have used fun shapes?


Anyway, served with some bruschetta salad using my bruschetta recipe, this was a fun meal to have with friends.


Filled with love! This needed more cheese! I loved them!

Filled with : Spinach, Ricotta cheese, Mozza Cheese, Basil Pesto, Salt and Pepper.

I wonder what other combos people have used?

We're Homeless? House Cookies.

Hubbie and I have been doing a lot of house searching the last few months. While we've not been successful at finding the right place to call our own, we have met many wonderful people along the way. Honestly, I think of that in itself as a success.


I designed these house cookies to thank a wonderful couple who were quite happy to show us their home. Their dream of traveling across the country is truly inspiring, and we had quite the nice visit. To thank the couple for their hospitality (and a pair of heels as a parting gift -- WHOOT!) I made house-cookies.

The cookies are to symbolize the lovely house they have and want to part with... may they sell it quickly :) It was a fabulous house too!

Cookies: Two different designs for the roof. I don't know which I prefer. I do like the flowers and grass though!

Good luck Bill and Linda! I hope you are able to follow your dreams. And I hope you enjoyed the cookies. I love the shoes!

LINK PARTY!

Strawberry Tarts

I love strawberries. The picking season may be over, but the strawberries seem to abound yet. I figured it would be fun to share my favorite strawberry tart recipe with you...


This is a real simple recipe... everyone has the ingredients (except good strawberries, those you must find). Prep time on this is less than 15 min, and after an hour of chill (for tarts) is ready to go for a nice summer treat. I assure you, don't knock it until you try it! It's simple and sooo good! Quite addictive.

♥ Strawberry Pie or Tarts ♥

Ingredients

1 (9 inch) pie crust, 18 mini-tart shells... pre baked
aprox. 1 quart fresh strawberries (thawed works too)
1 cup white sugar
3 tablespoons cornstarch
3/4 cup water
whipped cream for the top :)


Directions

1. Cut and husk the strawberries. Arrange half of the strawberries in the pastry shell, bottoms up :).
2. Mash the rest of the strawberries, combine sugar and cook in over the stove until it boils lightly and sugar is melted. STIR OFTEN! Reduce heat.
3. Whisk cornstarch and water together in a small bowl. Gradually incorporate it into the strawberry/sugar mix. Simmer until thickened (5-7 min).
4. Pour mix over pie, chill for several hours. .

Serve with whipped topping... and strawberry wine.

(Will last 2 days in the fridge)

I need to search up more strawberry recipes. If you have one to share, please, comment. I would love to try new things. I still have a lot of strawberries left.

Freshly Picked

There is nothing like summer. I love going fruit picking and swimming, fall comes, it is time for pie... AH! The life!

Now that summer is half over, I decided to post my fresh picked goods... Wanna see?


These goodies are not bound to be cooked though. These are for a picnic! Where did I get the fruits?

Pluck! I get them right off the tree! Well, maybe in my mind :)

You see, the colours of summer are so vibrant! I love to think of how the green, blue, yellow, pink and all the other colours of summer come out. Even storms have colours. We had a lovely rainbow right after our storm last night. It was perfect! With the ground still moist, I picked some lovely apples.

I also had a little strawberry bush in my home which was blooming! The ripe strawberries are ready to be picked:

A whole bowl full! He Hee!

For these cookies: Sugar cookie dough with vanilla royal icing. I decorated them using kelly green (Wilton BOO) colour paste and Christmas (BOO) red paste (also from Wilton). I would love to try the Americolour gels. I hear they are much better. I hate having to use a butter knife to scoop out the gel paste from the Wilton containers. It makes a huge mess. Americolour gels have a squeeze top! What a great idea!

Now to enjoy the fuits of my labor! Hope everyone is having a great summer!

Frogs, Flowers, Fishes and... Ladybugs?

I SEE YOU...

Looking at me.... creepy~!

Lady bugs do not fit into the request I got... Flowers, Frogs, Fishes and Lady Bugs. I don't know why, but the request made me smile, especially since it was for a really nice lady I know. I was so happy to be able to decorate the cookies too, since it has been a while since I've made any!

I wanted to use bright colours. So beside the red lady bugs, I made bright yellow/purple fishes, and some bright green frogs. Together, they made quite the splash!

I realize this is more of a spring-type cookie, and given our warm weather, they seemed off, but I liked to look at the colours! I actually didn't get a good picture of the Lady Bugs (as you can tell with the faces), but you know what they look like :) I wonder what cookie I will do next?