Ice Cream Card

A friend of mine asked me if I had an ice cream themed card and while I didn't at the time, I could quickly whip one up using one of my favourite MFT Blueprints..

Blueprints 31 takes the guesswork out of making a card in a hurry.
Just recently the ice cream/sweet set from Sunny Stamp Studios had come into my possession and I was all set. This week the challenge at Little Red Wagon is ice cream. How timely!

I put some Wink of Stella on the ice cream just to give it a bit of a sheen. And challenge complete!

Not your Average Zucchini Bread

As they say in Newfoundland..."make sure your car doors are locked at night" - its zucchini season. It's always nice to have a zucchini or two to give away or to cook with. For those of you that don't know, I have a little community garden at my local elementary school since I have so much shade at my house. It's really fun to walk by everyday and check the progress. Finally we are getting some much needed rain and I'm happy to report that the zucchini count is at 12!

So I went searching for some recipes to use them up and this one is a keeper... You'll have to pardon the poor photo. I was lucky to have one slice left to photograph. I made one large loaf and 3 mini loaves from this recipe or you could make 2 large loaves.

Carrot Apple Zucchini Bread
1 cup butter (melted)
2 cups white sugar
3 eggs
1/4 cup fresh orange juice
1 Tbsp vanilla
3 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
pinch of ground cloves
pinch of ground nutmeg
2 cups shredded carrots
1 cup shredded zucchini
1 cup diced apple (I shredded these also)
1/2 cup pecans, chopped

Preheat oven to 350F
Grease and flour 2 large loaf pans.

Place zucchini in kitchen towel and squeeze out moisture.
Whisk together dry ingredients in a large bowl. Set aside.
Mix together butter and sugar.
Add eggs, orange juice and vanilla
Fold dry ingredients into wet ingredients and add shredded carrots, zucchini, apples and pecans.
Pour into prepared pans.
Bake until golden brown, about 55 to 60 minutes.

NOTE- I used one small zucchini to make this recipe. Next time, I might try doubling the zucchini and halving the carrot.

Butter Ridge Cookies

Ignore the Christmas holly on the plate, I really DID just make these cookies, for the first time.
This looked like an old Cafeteria ladies recipe and we all know those are the best recipes so I thought I would try it as an accompaniment for fresh strawberries. They are really buttery and not too sweet and the ridges are kind of fun.

Butter Ridge Cookies
1 1/2 cups of butter, room temperature (yep, you read that right, that's a lot of butter)
3/4 cup sugar
2 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp salt
3 cups all purpose flour

Cream butter and sugar, add vanilla, salt and flour.
Roll into balls then use your 3 middle fingers to gently press ridges into the cookie.
Bake at 350F for 9-11 minutes or just until the edges are golden brown.
Very rich and satisfying.

Celebrate Canada!

Since we just recently celebrated Canada Day, when I spotted the challenge at Paper Players, I knew I had to play along. Especially since they are offering such great prizes. The Challenge is to "celebrate".  I had some maple leaf paper in my stash in the tradional red and white so it made it really easy to come up with an idea.

I used a sketch from My Favourite Things (MFTWSC 183)

Thanks to The Best Things in Life are Pink for the inspiration.

I put a smaller maple leaf on the inside of the card and I computer generated the word Canada since I didn't own any stamps of that sort. I'm excited to be linking up with a challenge. It's been awhile, I hope I remember how to do it.

Happy Engagement

My beautiful cousin Erin got engaged just recently and I wanted to make a card of Congratulations.
I picked up this cute set from Your Next Stamp at Scrapfest and I lifted my idea from a similar card.

I put Wink of Stella on the ring bands and Stickles on the diamond part. I even stamped a few things on the inside of the card....

I'm really looking forward to another wedding in the family. Congratulations Erin and Chris! Sorry I forgot to take a photo of the happy couple.

Canada Day and an Ice Cream Dessert

It was fun getting the family together and celebrating a special birthday. I did some decorating to show off some Canadian patriotism. I enjoy walking around the neighbourhood to see who puts a flag out so I hope other people enjoyed seeing mine.

My flowers this year happened to be red and white...

 I stuck a few toothpick flags in my wreath...

I thought it was pretty clever that I covered a flag with a transparent table cloth..

Here we all are minus the photographer...

It was a large group(18) and everyone braved the heat and humidity to sit outside for a visit.

I knew it was going to be a scorcher so I did all my prep that involved an oven/stove early in the week. And I knew I was going to make this super easy, delicious and cold ice cream bar dessert that could be dressed up with Oh Canada M and M's to fit the day.

Ice cream Sandwich dessert
Ice cream sandwiches (about 18)
Chocolate syrup
3/4 cup smooth peanut butter
1 cup peanuts
M and M's
I tub of Cool Whip

Microwave chocolate syrup until warm enough to stir in peanut butter.
Layer ice cream sandwiches in a 9x13 pan.
Top with 1/2 of syrup mixture then a layer of Cool whip.
Repeat.
Top with peanuts and M and M's.
Chill

It doesn't get easier then that and my is it tasty.

June Card Swap Challenge

It usually takes me to the middle of the month to post our Swap cards but I'm right on the ball this month. Maybe it's because we are in the middle of a heat wave and it's almost unbearable to go outside.
Keri used a set from Stampin Up. The gold on the card is washi tape to coordinate with the gold edged envelope. I love that the envelope is special. She stamped the flower several times and used pencil crayons to colour. I really want to use this multiple stamping style one day soon.

I used a set that I purchased recently at my local SS. As a baker, I just knew I had to have it. The little cross hatches for the peanut butter cookie were just too much. The stamp set had matching dies and I used a couple different techniques...

I inked the edges of the cookies to give them a freshly baked appearance and I heat embossed the Milk in white. I wanted to use Nuvo drops to make the red sprinkles look more authentic but I didn't have the exact shade of red that I needed. I will definitely try that technique another time.

So I'm off to a roaring start for the month. Happy July 1st.