Weekends are fun...

When you have a 3 year-old to play with!!

Smiley faced pancakes....

Far to large glasses....Binoculars...or 'aukulors'...What a kid!

One of the perks of being up very, very early in the morning...

Zach & Stacey

Recognize these two?
It's Zach and Stacey!

Let's see, I have known Zach my entire life. Yup, almost twenty years! And Stacey, well, not as long, but that still makes her and my brother two of my favorite people on the planet. Lately I have seen them blossom (that's right, 'blossom'!) into great cooks. I remember teaching Zach how to make bread when he visited me in Charlottetown last year...He was hooked and then a little while later so was Stacey. It makes me so happy to hear about their adventures in the kitchen.

Lately I've been receiving emails with pictures of what they've been up to, from pizza making:
To bundt cakes and beautiful loaves of bread:
And even carrot garnishes from takeout meals:I love these guys!

My current favorite

I make a batch of granola every 2 weeks, that may seem like a lot since there is just two of us, but we LOVE granola. I usually experiment with a new recipe every time, although I have come back to the heavenly chocolate granola a couple times, until I found a recipe for peanut butter granola. It's not too sweet, it's just the perfect texture, and the subtle hint of peanut butter makes it rich and extra yummy. Convinced yet? You should make it. Eat it on your yogurt, or with some milk, or on your oatmeal, or just by the handful. I've done all these. You won't be disappointed!

Peanut butter Granola

Make approximately 7 cups

1/2 cup apple juice

1/3 cup smooth peanut butter

1/3 cup honey

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon salt

4 cups large flake oats

1/3 cup sliced almonds

3/4 cup dried fruit, anything you fancy, if you choose things like apricots chop them up a bit

Preheat the oven to 350F.

Combine the apple juice, peanut butter, honey, vanilla, cinnamon, and salt in a saucepan. Heat until the peanut butter melts.

Combine the oats and almonds in a bowl. Pour peanut butter mixture over and mix till thoroughly combined. Spread the mixture out on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper. Bake for 15 minutes and then give it a good mix around. Bake for another 15 minutes and give it another stir. Then bake it for another 10-15 minutes till it gets a little drier. Keep in mind it will crunch up a bit more as it cools. Remove it from the oven and let it cool completely. Mix in the dried fruit.

Store in a container in the freezer.

Easter Sunday

Happy Easter to you all! I hope you all had family to sit around the table with and share delicious food...while I didn't have my family with me I had some pretty good stand ins! And of course, yummy food!

Saturday Drive

The forecast for today was sunny and plus 15...the perfect day to get out in the country for a drive. So, Tracy and I packed up some snacks and headed out of town. It was positively gorgeous out....we started off in the direction of the water. Until we saw this sign and I had to stop for a picture:It made me laugh!
Then I had to run around for a bit and giggle manically because I was SO happy to be in the country.We ate a little picnic lunch and then stopped for a walk near the water...Isn't that beauty?
It made my heart so happy to smell spring in the air, you know that dirt smell? And feel the sun on my legs as we drove...and when I got home I opened up my suitcase of summer clothes a picked an outfit out that I hadn't worn in months...these are the good days.

Good Friday

It's been awhile! Yup, I'm alive! And it's Easter...

A couple weeks ago I was at Bulk Barn and saw the cutest little chick cookie cutter. It was 79 cents so I picked it up and decided I would bake some Easter cookies up the class. They turned out better than I imagined:

So frigin' cute!

There was also an Easter egg hunt on Thursday at school. That was exciting! It reminded me of being a kid and running all over the yard looking for eggs!

We probably found the bulk of them...hey, the early bird gets the worm, right?I didn't eat all my candy...instead I repacked some of the eggs and left them in random places....like the pepper package container. Hee! When I checked back later it was gone...I hope finding it made someone smile!