Author: spaleksic

Camping Take 2

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For anyone that read my blog about our first camping experience, you might be questioning my judgement right about now.  But rest assured I am a fast learner.  For starters we camped 25 minutes from home at Goldstream Provincial Park which is very kid friendly, more so than Gordon Bay Provincial Park on Lake Cowichan.  Stanko and Sasha headed up to set up camp while Logan napped and I finished work on Friday.  Logan and I arrived once everything was setup, and Stanko was cooking dinner.  After dinner we played in the playground.

Then Logan and I packed up and went home to our warm clean beds, hot showers, electricity and flush toilets.  Told you I was a fast learner.  If it wasn’t for the smoke detector going off at 12:30 (no fire) and my little toddler padding around the house at 2:00am, it would have been perfect.

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The next day Logan and I headed up to the campsite to see how our campers made out, and to bring the many items that they had forgotten.  We had a little bike ride, and then I left for a massage appointment.  Now this is the type of camping I like.

After a trip to the mall for a little shopping I headed back to the camp ground in time for dinner.  We ate and went for a little hike.

After our hike we roasted marshmallows over the BBQ because there was a fire ban on but what’s camping without the traditional smores.  What a great camping trip!  Maybe once Logan is old enough to enjoy sleeping in a tent I will be forced to once again, but until then I am loving this style of camping.

 

Basil & Chive Pesto

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deck 4I love basil.  Caprese salads are my favourite with tomato, bocconcini and fresh basil.  For this reason I am growing basil and tomato’s.  Recently the basil plants were a bit out of control, and the chive plant needed a hair cut badly.  So I made Basil & Chive pesto.

 

 

 

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups of packed fresh basil

1/2 cup of chives

3 cloves of garlic

1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons pine nuts

Directions

Combine all ingredients in a food processor or blender, and blend to a smooth paste.  You can use ice-cube trays to freeze what you aren’t going to eat any time soon.

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It doesn’t look like much but it’s very tasty.

Keep chopping, growing and creating.

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Be-nana Bread

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IMG_20140712_212942When I was younger we would spend part of each summer at the cottage, and Saturday mornings were reserved for the “market”.  For a couple of years my aunt & nana had a table and sold crafts, and we tagged along with our crafts.  We got to know the other vendors and local cottagers.  I believe it was at the market where we met the Hilborn family.  We also met Dick Marshall from Valley Haven Farm he sold eggs, chicken’s, baked goods and my favourite jam.  This recipe for Banana Bread belongs to him (which I have altered slightly) it is from the one cookbook I own called the “Carling Market Cookbook”.  Banana Bread or Be-nana bread as the kids call it is a house favourite.

Ingredients:

1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour

2 1/4 tspns baking powder

1/2 tspn salt

1/3 cup butter or coconut oil (I use coconut oil because we have a dairy allergy in the house)

2/3 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

2-3 crushed ripe bananas

Optional Ingredients:

Often I add a 1/2 cup of two of the following to the mixture, chocolate chips, walnuts, sun flower seeds, raisins, or dried cranberries.  Sometimes I top with dried banana chips, it just depends on what is in the pantry.

Instructions:

Blend until creamy the butter (or coconut oil) and sugar.  Beat into the butter mixture 2 eggs and the ripe bananas.  Mix flour, salt & baking powder in a separate bowl and add to the wet mixture in three parts mixing throughly.  Add in the optional ingredients.  Grease a 8 1/2″ x 4 1/2″ loaf pan.  Pour batter into prepared loaf pan.  Bake one hour at 350 degrees or until done.  Cool before slicing.

 

Keep baking, crafting and creating.

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Celebrating Canada and Nana

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I might get a little sappy on you with this one, just a warning. Canada Day is a special holiday for me, and believe it or not it doesn’t have anything to do with celebrating Canada.  While I was in my twenties before kids & marriage every year just before Canada Day I would make a call to the cottage to see if it was ok to come for the Canada day long weekend.  My Nana would always answer, your room is waiting and we would love to have you.  We would always have a chat about the weather, the weekend, and whatever.  I miss those chats.  I could still call the cottage and see if I could come for the weekend but someone else would answer and it wouldn’t be quite the same.  The last time I saw Nana was on a Canada Day long weekend just weeks after we found out that she had cancer.  We had a great visit but it was the last Canada Day that we got to spend together.

canada day cake

Every Canada Day she made this simple and delicious cake, or tricked my aunt or I into making it.  I think that she used to make the base out of angel food cake but I make mine vanilla, with vanilla icing and topped with cut up strawberries in the shape of the Canadian flag.  I have been making it for years to celebrate Canada but more importantly to keep traditions alive and to celebrate Nana.

 

 

We played tourist in Victoria today by taking the Hippo Bus it’s an amphibian bus so we got a land and water tour.  Here are some of my favourite pics.

After that we went to a Canada Day event in Esquimalt complete with a bouncy castle, Hayley Wickenheiser, and the Mounties playing hockey.  It doesn’t get much more Canadian than that, EH.  I will let you guess what was the most exciting part for a 2 & 5-year-old.  As you can see Logan was not quite so sure about the RCMP, but all in all a fun day.

Canada Day Dessert

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We are celebrating Canada Day this weekend.  S and I made this quick no bake Canada day flag dessert.  It’s really just a pan of iced rice crispy treats.  The only alteration to the instructions on the rice crispy box, is that we substituted in coconut oil instead of butter, for our non-dairy eater.  If I was to do this again I would buy red icing (or red food colouring paste) instead of attempting to make it with those liquid drops.

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Happy CANADA Day!

Canada Day

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We are getting ready for the big event on July 1st.  My very patriotic 5-year-old has inspired the making of Canada day t-shirts.  This craft is probably the easiest that I have ever blogged about, so no excuses.  It was a very good thing that it was fast because one child was riding a scooter over my feet, while the other was climbing on the dining table.  Crafting with kids what more do I need to say.

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Materials:

  • Red craft paint
  • Textile medium – optional
  • HANDS – come on I know you have those, feet, or paws would also suffice
  • White T-shirt
  • Paint brush

Instructions:

1. In reality you should always wash clothing before you print on it, but who has time for that – so lets say optional

2. Put paper towels inside the shirt (3 layers) to make sure that the paint doesn’t bleed through to the back of the shirt

3. Lay the t-shirt stuffed with paper towels all smoothed out on a flat surface

4. Mix the paint with textile medium per the textile medium bottle instructions.  Textile medium helps the paint stick and not fade when washed.  It also waters down the paint making it easier to work with and faster to dry but if you are planning to wear this only for one day you are safe to skip the textile medium.

5. Make the kids wash their hands, unless you want cookie, pasta, juice and who knows what else as part of the maple leaf

6. Have the kids practice stamping the shirt with unpainted, clean and dry hands (I know that’s a lot to ask)

7. Paint one kids hand red – TIP paint one kids hand at a time if you have more than one kiddo

8. Help them place their hand on the shirt, and press it down (gently)

9. Get those hands washed before you have red hand prints on the couch and dog

10. Using a paint brush paint the solid sides of the Canadian flag, if you are not brave enough to free hand it, then use painters tape to make rectangles, but only after the hand prints are dry.  My rectangles not perfect but I think are in keeping with aesthetic of the hand print.

11. Let the shirts dry completely, I would leave them over night to be safe.

12. Iron to heat set the flag and if you are feeling like super mom iron out the wrinkles.

We live in a great country so get out and celebrate on July 1st.  Happy Canada Day!

Making Memories

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Last weekend we went camping.  Camping means different things to different people, so to clarify, we drove to a campsite at a provincial park and pitched a tent.  Sasha has been pretend camping for about a year, so it was time for the real thing.  We were booked for 3 nights, and lasted 2.  All in all quite an accomplishment.  Logan at 21 months isn’t much of a camper.  We brought him a playpen because he still sleeps in a crib, and it worked for naps and for bedtime but somewhere around 11pm each night he woke up screaming.  He ended up in the middle of our air mattress both nights, and night two he would only sleep while being held.  I should mention that he is 3′ tall and 30lbs, and without a wall to lean against holding/sleeping our “baby” didn’t work out well for any of us.  On the second night it was clear that he had a cold.  We had a choking incident earlier in the week that required I administer the Heimlich and call 911.  So our littlest camper might have been afraid because he was having trouble breathing, or he was freaked out by sleeping in the tent, or he was cold (doubtful because he was keeping me warm) because it was freezing.  Maybe not freezing but in the single digits overnight.

So this is what I learned from our camping adventure:

  • A portable high chair that clamped on the picnic table was a brilliant idea to keep Logan away from the BBQ, and contained while we put up/down the tent
  • Playpen was a good idea, Logan just had other sleeping plans.
  • Keep a bottle in the tent so that no one is out in the middle of the night trying to find one with a flashlight, same goes for a snack
  • Bring a second flashlight for when the kids break the first one
  • We had “running” water using a milk jug with holes in the lid that I made before we left, it worked well.
  • You can never have enough tarps, we used one under the high chair to catch-all of the food Logan dropped while eating and then fed it back to him i.e. an entire plate of food.  It’s not like you can just make another burger when you don’t have one.
  • Extra blankets are not a bad idea, I am still trying to get warm 4 days later or alternatively go camping when it’s warm out
  • Camping in a tent is loud, so night 2 I used the Iphone white noise app to drown out the partying neighbours or alternatively camp during the week
  • As you can see from one of the pics below, wearing Christmas jammies in June while camping is totally acceptable
  • My husband is a very good cook at home and still is while camping 🙂
  • Forget camping and buy a cottage

I was very thankful to be back home with everyone nestled in their beds, and me with a hot mug of tea that I only needed to press a button to make.  Camping did make me thankful for all of the things that I take for granted everyday and a reminder that while camping is a back to the basics type of living, it’s a lot more work.  I am a fan of running water, electricity and heat.

 

 

All Decked Out

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I love before and after makeovers especially when they are interior design based. When we moved into our house almost three years ago there was a rotting plywood deck hanging off the front of the house. The picture doesn’t do the rotting part justice. The deck was constructed of sub par materials; added to and fixed up on multiple occasions with a little TLC, rusty nails and duct tape. We lived with the deck as it was for the first year, but come spring the demo started.  The demo took about 30 minutes.

The before pictures:

There is an apple tree that dictated the size of the deck.  We love the apple tree and wanted to save it.  Here is a picture during construction; the apple tree is the little tree espalied along the front of the deck.

During Construction:

The footprint of the deck didn’t change because of the apple tree, but it was constructed with materials designed to be on the exterior of a house.  We lived with the deck as it was for the next year and the following year we built the garden beds.  Finally this year we got around to “decorating” it into an outdoor living space.  This project was three years in the making, and it’s finally done, at least for this season.

Here is the current state:

We are using the steps as a herb garden, and the best part is that we don’t need to put on shoes to grab a handful of herbs.  Sasha is very into gardening, and is helping to take care of the plants.  Logan on the other hand walks over to the garden every afternoon looking for bites.  I am using the garden as an opportunity to teach him colours, fruits and veggies.  If only I can stop him from eating green strawberries we might get some fruit.

This is where I will be planted this summer, but I might just have a little competition.

Keep crafting, creating and gardening.

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House Numbers

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We live in one of those houses that are hard to find.  If you live in one too you know what I am talking about.  When someone is coming over for the first time you need to provide a map, written directions, and all of your numbers just in case.  Pizza delivery people do not like us.  The mail route is constantly changing, and we seem to be at the break point.  Often I watch the mail person deliver mail to my neighbours but then turn and go back, and another carrier delivers to our house later in the day.  We just live in one of those houses.

So if you finally find us, I wanted you to be assured that you are in the right spot.  In case you missed the 4 sets of house numbers, yes that’s right 4 sets of house numbers on your way to the front door, here is the 5th.

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These were super easy to make.  I bought the pillows already made because seriously who can make pillows for $9.00.  Technology is my friend, I started with a font I liked in Word and then enlarged in on the printer until it was the right size.  Then using a sheet of felt (not the little ones but a 36″x36″ sheet) purchased at Walmart for $5.00, I cut out the numbers.  I pinned the felt numbers to the pillows and sewed then on with embroidery floss.

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Worms, Dirt & Sprouts

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When I ask Sasha what he wants to eat for dinner, the standard responses are worms & dirt, or bugs & worms.  He is a five-year old boy, so no surprises there.  Now if he was served worms, dirt or bugs I am sure that his response would change.  Sasha graduated from pre-school this week, and I thought that these little sprout cupcakes complete with worms & dirt would be perfect for the occasion.

What you need to make these:

  • Chocolate mini cupcakes
  • Chocolate icing
  • Chocolate cookie crumbs
  • gummy worms
  • mint
  • mini clear plastic shot glasses

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Directions:

  1. bake & ice cupcakes with chocolate frosting
  2. dip the tops of the cupcakes in the cookie crumbs
  3. to get the little ones involved, give them a cold mini cupcake pan and the little glasses, have them put one in each circle
  4. Put a worm in each little cups – again a very kid friendly task
  5. fill the cups 3/4 full with cookie crumbs – Sasha did this task also using a spoon to scoop in the crumbs
  6. put in a mini cupcake (wrapper removed)
  7. top with a sprig of mint before serving (if you put the mint in the cupcakes and refrigerate the mint wilts)

The kids and some of the parent’s at pre-school loved them.  The kids loved pulling the worm out of the dirt.  I like them because they represent my little guy sprouting, plus they are fun.

graduation

Keep celebrating, baking and creating.

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