Strawberry Cupcakes- celebrating Canada Day with a double dose of Strawberries

I love cupcakes, hey did you know that??? Of course, right? So let me wish you a Happy Canada day with a 'red' inspired cupcake recipe!

Here is my little attempt at a little piece of heaven, spruced up with some fancy cupcake papers.

The Best Strawberry Cupcakes

http://pleaseyourmaninthekitchen.blogspot.ca/2013/04/the-best-strawberry-cupcakes.html

This recipe makes 18 cupcakes,

Preheat the oven to 350.

Prepare your muffin/cupcake tins by filling with paper liners.

In mixing bowl combine:

2 Cup Flour

1.5 Cups Sugar

1/2 Tbsp Baking Powder

1/2 tsp Salt

Mix on low speed for 30 seconds then add:

¾ cup Softened Butter

2/3 Cup Strawberry Puree

Mix to blend then beat to light and fluffy for about 3 minutes.

In another bowl whisk together:

4 Egg Whites

1/4 Cup Milk

In 2 separate additions add to cake batter. Blend after each addition until incorporated and wipe down sides of bowl. Split batter into prepared cupcake tins. Bake for about 30 minutes. Set aside to cool.

Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting

With an electric mixer beat together equal parts:

8 oz Cream Cheese

1/4 cup strawberry puree

1/4 cup Sugar

1 tsp Vanilla

Beat until light and fluffy.

Top with Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting

Here's  how they look coming out of the oven.

And look at them all iced up looking fancy with their red hats. Just like little Canada Day Celebrants. Proud to be celebrating Canada Day with the red Ontario strawberries!

Happy New Year Celebrations with the girls

This year, Brent had to work on New Year's Eve. So we decided to have a girl party! 

Melanie invited one of her BFF's and we got all festive with our masks and crowns.

The girls took it a bit farther with their masks though... I stayed out of that scene.

We kinda missed the Chocolate Fondue scene on Christmas, so I decided to melt dark chocolate and scoop a little individual serving for everyone- then cut some strawberries- everyone's favourites and dip away... It was delicious and decadent!

We celebrated with real French.... sparkling apple juice! But it was French, so it felt real!

Next day, we made our way over to Julie and Barrie and Stephanie's house for our traditional New Year's Day hangout! We had some great musical singing times!

Some laughter with the big green frog ball!

Some happy clapping (Stephanie's trick) with the big green frog ball- look at the concerned mom looking from behind the couch.. just her little head peaking... that's so funny!

Here are the girls with their grayish New Year's shirt. Julie got that great shirt at Anthropologie on sale just a few days before during our downtown Oakville stroll. We love that store!!! But I love spending time with my family on New Year's even more. What a great start to the year!

The Food and the Fun in Sturgeon Falls!

Ok, last installement of the Sturgeon Falls Fun Festival!
This time it's the Food and Fun times... I absolutely love fresh strawberries... and even better if someone has picked them for me. So look at what they did just before we got there. They went and picked two giant baskets like this. Ooooh, I was in heaven.

They taste so fresh and sweet like you are bitting into love, and it's perfect that they are shapped like a heart.  I love to eat them just plain and naked like this.

But Paul, Gaetane's husband decided to make some freezer jam which turned out delicious. Here's a photo of some homemade pancakes that Nicolas made with some fresh strawberries and a bit of jam. Can you say 'Berry Heaven'!

Nicolas has always loved cooking and now he is addicted to this cooking show on CBC- In the kitchen with Stefano- and he decided to make a few recipes for us (with the help of his Mom and Dad of course). Here was an absolute decadent bite of love!!!! Bacon wrapped mini potato filled with provolone cheese. I know... crazy, right?

But this is me showing you how to have 'balance' on your plate when these little decadent nuggets come up. See, my vegetables take up half my plate, I have a small scoop of Paul's homemade mac and cheese and then 2 bacon potato explosions!

Next day.... got to work some of that bacon off... so we head off on a boat cruise excursion. It's the Chief Commanda II. It's a beautiful ride on this boat on Lake Nipissing touring the little islands and learning about the history.

We had fun sitting on the very top deck and catching some rays!

... and catching some wind... oooooh, look at the wind in our hair. I promise it wasn't a fan blowing on us.

Melanie and I wandered around the boat and ended up on the second deck and looked down at the water... which made me a little dizzy, so we stopped, turned around and posed... I absolutely love this picture. It was so awesome to be on this adventure with my little girl.

Here she is on the bottom desk checking out the scenery.

And again on the top deck looking over with Nicolas.

Here are the big waves in the back of the boat. So much power... I wonder what the fish think of this....

Oh, I know...the fish wanted to give their life for our dinner that night! That's right... we got some fish and Nicolas and Gaetane made this most delicious walnut crusted fish -another recipe from Stefano. Thank you, thank you, thank you for the best getaway! Your kindness and hospitality was so appreciated. We can't wait to host you at our home... Nicolas, I will have to try and impress you with my recipes this time!

A fabulous day off- Part 1

Recently I took a Friday off and went on an Amazing Adventure with my little sister and her little baby. We set out to go and enjoy a nice walk by the lake and soak in the sun, wind and surf. My sister is like me, she loves the wind and the waves. So that's why I brought her to one of favourite park by the water. Lakeside Park.

So here we are, Julie bought us some nice hot beverages at our local Tim's and we set out on our tour of the park. Here she is with sleepy Stephanie.

Here's a little photo of me- I had to buy new capris and t-shirts because of my success in my weight loss journey. These capris are 4 sizes smaller than last summer... and my pride about this success.... 4 thousand times bigger than the Earth!

Julie and the fountain... and believe me... we wanted to jump in, it was hot and humid, like up to 35 in May.

I think I've told you, they have a splash pad at this park and in the cement, they have layed out the whole solar system. Well, I had to take this photo... just for my little brother!

Julie loving the view and the big Canada Geese on the water.

Stephanie, well, she was just hanging out, not too much into the scenery... yet. She just loves being outside and walking around, she just slept the whole time.

This was such a random strawberry, just sticking out there on the ground by itself in the middle of all the wood chips. Pretty cool pic.

It was time to change and feed Stephanie, so we sat on a park bench and were all one with nature.

She was so comfy, she didn't want to wake up.

Look at those little lips.

... and look at those eyelashes too.

P.S. This is what you do with your old dirty diapers, you place them in your empty Tim Horton's cup in the cup holder. Fabulous!



Lovely Fruity Pancake Breakfast

I made some lovely pancakes last weekend. I took my Whole Wheat Pancake Recipe and used 1 cup of all purpose flower and 1 cup of whole wheat flower as we had a little guest and I wasn't sure she would enjoy the 'whole wheaty taste'. Well, they turned out delicious!

I might do the half and half flower the next time too. If you use blueberries (which I did) the pancakes don't turn out as sweet, so the all purpose flower makes it taste nice. But if you use raspberries then they turn out sweet because of the sweetness of the berries.

I topped the pancakes with some delicious fresh cut fruits: bananas, strawberries and blueberries, and a little bit of real 100% pure Canadian maple syrup.