Happy Birthday Mom!

To my mom -

 who taught me to be strong and passionate, kind and accepting of everyone.

who gave up a lot so her family could have a bit more.

who would wake up early on weekends to take her daughters to gymnastics practices and competitions.

who once walked through a snowstorm to bring my sister Tylenol. 

Who I love very much.

Happy Birthday!

On Saturday, with the invaluable help of my aunt Wendy, my dad, sister and I successfully threw her a surprise party!

I can't thank everyone enough for braving the bad weather and making it out (and completely understand those who chose not to risk the drive - I don't think I would have risked it either) .

She was completely shocked and (hopefully) happy to see so many familiar faces there to celebrate with her.

Although I forgot to take more, here are a few pictures from the party!

The theme of the party was Paris so we colour coordinated things white, black & pink.

On the carrot cake I stencilled happy birthday with icing sugar. Unfortunately the sugar dissolved and didn't show up as well so I tried to re-do it with sprinkles, which also didn't really work.

Using an image I found online, I traced over the eiffel tower on parchment paper with melting chocolate and let them harden before using them to decorate the edges of the cake (to hide the less-than-stellar icing job).

Our spread was pretty full with lots of kind party goers bringing snacks to add.

And everyone left with a party favour - delicious looking macaron soaps courtesy of Baked Soap.

A few people thanked me for alerting them it was soap as they would have eaten them on the way home.

I ordered these soaps here (more info available on the website here) and they make amazing party favours for any occasion.

Happy Birthday Mom!

I love you.

Long Weekend Tid Bits

What a great way to spend a long weekend.

Good times with good eats and most importantly with good people.

The weather was beautiful and we had lots of time for sunning, skiing, swimming and humming ...or la-la-la-ing :)

I'll post pictures (and follow-up recipes for some items) of the dinners that we had and made but before the Bachelorette ends and I head over to the pub, I want to show you all how well my favours turned out!

I was pretty excited.

I started by printing out 20 trivia questions that I found through various google searches.

Then I stained the paper with a tea bag to make it look older and more like a message in a bottle.

I cut up each trivia question and rolled it up (question side out to maximize the beautiful tea-stain colour slash I forgot to stain the back of the paper). Then, with help from several family members, we tied each roll of paper up with raffia and put them into the spice jars.

Voila!

Message-in-a-bottle trivia!

Everything needed was purchased from dollarama (best. store. ever.) just to prove that nice things do not need to be expensive.

Tomorrow I'll put up pictures of the mango salsa which also turned out delicious.

Back to work tomorrow.......and to get my drivers licence renewed. I have like 3 days before my driving priveleges get nixed. Oops :s

Blueberry Lemon Trifle

Trying to stay true to my word, I'm going to try and write a few posts and post-date them so that I am technically blogging while away at the cottage for the weekend.

Bridal shower recaps first.

These are the favours that we put together for the shower.
Very easy and very affordable.
The flower pots I got at the Dollar Store - 3 for $1. Then they were filled with a ring pop and hersheys kisses. Once the pots were wrapped in ribbon and cellophane, we inserted a garden butterfly and a flower lollipop. Very cute. I know you can't see them so well in the photo above but it's such a beautiful picture, taken by the bride's very talented younger sister.

Now for the promised recipe.

Blueberry Lemon Trifle

To make this variation on Martha's Lemon Cherry Trifle:

1. Make an Angel Food cake - then cut it into cubes.
2. Make a lemon curd - in a small saucepan, combine 3 egg yolks, zest of 1/2 a lemon, 1/4 cup lemon juice, and 6 tbsp sugar. Whisk to combine and set over medium heat. Be sure to stir constantly with a wooden spoon. You'll know it is ready when the mixture thickens and sticks to the back of the spoon, usually about 5-7 minutes. Remove the suacepan from the heat and add in 4 tsbp butter, one tbsp at a time, stirring until melted in. Put mixture in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap, ensuring that the plastic wrap lies right against the top of the lemon curd to prevent a film from forming. Chill for at least 1 hour.
3. In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat 2 cups of heavy cream until soft peaks form.
4. In a trifle bowl, start by placing the angel food cake cubes so that the bottom is covered. Next, spread the lemon curd over the angel food cake. Sprinkle on top 4 cups of blueberries then top with the whipped cream. To finish the desert, sprinkle a frew blueberries on top with a few curls of lemon zest.

Well friends, that is all for today, unfortunately.

John's playing the neglected boyfriend card so I have to go and shower him with love and affection :)

Have a great weekend!