Darth Birthday

Hello Sweets,

Today was the big day, the big unveiling of my first paying job :)  Since I didn't have a very long post yesterday I was hoping to get a decent one out tonight, but we will see how my pain tolerance goes.  I had to whip up a dessert for our Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow (yes, us Canadians do it in October), and now my feet are killing me :/  But I'm going to do my best to push through to bring you some fun decorations!

So I've been building up to this post all week, cupcakes were baked for little Jacob's birthday all that was left to do was to decorate them.  Nathan is my go to guy for anything Star Wars so I had him help with the brainstorming process, and he was indeed helpful :)  Since the cupcakes for the kids were going to be decadent chocolate I decided to make the icing with a dark cocoa to get it as close to black as possible.  If you have ever had cake with black icing you'd know why I wasn't making it black to begin with, it turns your whole mouth black and that just doesn't look good on anyone lol.  That of course was the easy part, that hard part was the decor and I of course put lots of pressure on myself lol.  I chose to use the marshmallow fondant in three colors and silver balls for accents.  I looked at all sorts of different pictures from the Star Wars series for inspiration and continued with the Darth theme, specifically Vader and Maul :)  Of course there had to be light sabers, but the rest was left up to mine and Nathans imagination.  Take a look at the fun cupcakes made for the special birthday boy, and a fun pictures of my nephew Miguel :p

 

started with a delicious deep chocolate icing

 

I used a smooth, slanted icing tip

 

First cupcake design was the imperial logo

 

 Light sabers, dark vs. light

 

 Vader's respirator box

 

 another Imperial logo, not as pretty as the first one

 

 A dark side light saber for Jacob

 

 outline of Darth Vader

 

 Darth surrounded by stars

 

 Darth Maul's "tattoos"

 

 Star Wars, 8th addition for Jacob

 

 big birthday boy turns 8!!

 

 Star Wars :)

 

 dark vs. light

 

 New sticker labels!!

 

 2 dozen delicious treats!

 

Miguel and his "top hat"

 

 party time!!

 

 

 

 

you know cupcakes are good when they're all over his face!

I am also happy to report that Christina (Jacob's mother) just emailed me to let me know that everyone enjoyed them, and there wasn't a single one left lol.  That is the best thing I could hear from one of my customers, and I look forward to many more!

Tomorrow is going to be a day full of family and food so it will be a post of deliciousness, also known as "I will be so full there won't be much energy left to think" lol.  Until next time....


Stay sweet,




Jennifer xoxoxoxo

Canuckette's Exhausted

Hello Sweets,

I know I promised y'all a decorating post tonight, but I literally just finished the cupcakes.  Needless to say I'm tired and sore :(  So it will have to be tomorrow, good side of that is I'll have pictures from the party and of the birthday boy :)  What I will say is I'm not completely happy with how they turned out, but that's only because I'm my most critique lol.  Nathan likes them a lot and considering his passion for all things Star Wars I'll trust him ;)

Until next time....

Stay sweet,

Jennifer xoxoxoxo

My Geeky Side

Hello Sweets,

I feel awful that I haven't had a recipe posted in a long time, but to be perfectly honest, I am not feeling well at all.  I've been laid up all day today with a horrible migraine, and if it wasn't for that I would be in the kitchen right now (I actually started my recipe post last night, see I meant to).  So I thought I would take this time off from the kitchen and give you an insight to another aspect that makes me, me :).

It is no secret that Nathan is extremely smart, he can build a computer from scratch, has an extensive knowledge of history, and he knows pretty much everything you can about Star Wars, StarTrek, or any other scifi show.  When he first met me, he did not know about my scifi side, but when he did find out he was ecstatic lol.  We watch movies and shows together all the time, ones that most girlfriends would probably rather be doing something else, but I love trying new things, so when he suggests something new I usually jump at the chance.  When I was younger I played a lot of text based games, my favorites being Hugo's House of Horrors and Jane of the Jungle lol, but I never really got into role playing games as I got older.  Well when Star Wars The Old Republic came out last year, I knew that Nathan would be "unreachable" at times.  He asked me if I wanted to play, but kept resisting (can you see where this is going).  Well a few days ago when Nathan got me my new laptop, we made sure it could run the game so I could join him in some quality gaming, and surprisingly I've enjoyed it :)

 This is my character, Safran :)

Now don't get me wrong and Nathan will verify this, I've had my moments of extreme frustration but I haven't gamed in so long and it has changed immensely.  However, I find myself loosing track of time and really enjoying how interactive it is, I have to make all my own decisions to determine my story and try to stay on the "light" side.  It definitely isn't the easiest thing to get the hang of if you haven't gamed before, but I guarantee your boyfriend will think you are even more hot behind the blue glow of a computer gaming screen ;) lol.

I know I am always bragging about how great Nathan really is but he always does small sweet gestures that have big meanings behind them.  When I started this post I told you I have been under the weather, well let me tell you how great he really is.  Nathan and I are huge Big Bang Theory fans, and while I'm laying in bed resting he turns around and hands me a soft kitty plush that actually sings the soft kitty song.

Isn't it the cutest!

For those of you not familiar with the soft kitty song and meaning, let me explain it to you; the character Sheldon, when he was younger and sick, his mother would sing him the soft kitty song to help him feel better.  Here is the song;  soft kitty, warm kitty, little ball of fur.  happy kitty, sleepy kitty pur pur pur.  Lol I know it is silly but the gesture made me smile and just cements it even more that I have the best boyfriend ever!  Until next time.......

Stay sweet,

Jennifer xoxoxo

Stormtroopers and Pumpkin Seeds

Hello Sweets,


Happy Monday! I know what you're thinking "happy Monday? not quite!" lol  Well I had a good day today (not health wise but I made the best of it), and I did some activities today that made me reminisce back to when I was little.

Now I know I always seem to be talking about what a great man Nathan is, but he really is different from any guy I've ever met, and I hope all the ladies out there find a man that treats you exactly like you should be treated....like a queen!  But really, he does anything to make me smile, especially if I am having a bad health day like today.  Of course he knows I love Halloween, and I had been telling him all about how I love carving pumpkins, and how white ones are my absolute favorite!  So today he surprised me with a trip out to Hall's Pumpkin Farm in Grapevine, where we picked up the VERY LAST carvable white pumpkin!!!

 

Isn't she beautiful? :p 

Needless to say, I was one very happy girl, smiling from ear to ear just like I have every year since I can remember. :D  Now I was in complete and utter shock when Nathan told me had NEVER carved a pumpkin.  I honestly thought that was a right of passage as a child.  So of course I decided to carve a pumpkin that he could be as excited about as I always am lol, and Nathan being the Star Wars fan that he is, I decided on an Imperial Stormtrooper.

Not an easy stencil

Since my shoulders always hurt as it is, and Nathan has never carved a pumpkin before, he helped me with all the difficult carving (le sigh :( ).  So I got him to cut the top open, then I cleaned out all the pumpkin gunk (he had absolutely NO desire to touch the stuff), stenciled it for him, and started the operation!

Be careful when cutting as the pumpkins are thick, and kids always use parental help :)

Now the more detailed the stencil, the more careful you have to be with your cuts as to not leave any weak spots in the structure, or you'll end up with a sad droopy pumpkin, and no one wants that!  After a couple of hours of strategic cuts, and a few more shaves to allow light, our master piece was complete, and might I say "out of this world" lol!

Isn't it great!!

Now as I am sure you are all aware, I do not like to waste anything when baking/cooking, and pumpkin carving is no different!  You can make a deliciously healthy snack from the pumpkin seeds themselves, and it is all very simple and easy.  Actually the hardest part is digging through the squishy innards of the pumpkin.

Healthy Flavorful Pumpkin Seeds

Ingredients

 Fresh pumpkin seeds, from your freshly carved pumpkin

Seasonings of your choice, I opted for;

Sea salt

Garlic and pepper seasoning

Seasoning salt

Crushed red peppers

Directions:

1)  Preheat your oven to 275F.  Wash the pumpkin seeds free of all pumpkin goop, and towel dry as best you can, and place in a single layer on a baking sheet.

2)  Add your seasonings on top before placing into the oven, so the flavors absorb during the baking process (I had an after thought when they were baking in the oven that you could season them in a bowl to ensure they are completely covered).

Yum!

3)  Bake in the oven for at least 20 minutes.  Periodically shuffle them around with a spatula to ensure all the liquid is evaporating ,and they will all be crunchy.  Enjoy this tasty health snack on the go, or instead of popcorn, munch on these!

So we were a little late in getting up this morning.  Well, just me, since I had a really bad sleep :(, and I had promised Nathan I would make him pumpkin pancakes.  What do you do when you miss the best meal of the day?  Have breakfast for dinner!  I always love making him breakfast, and since discovering pumpkin pancakes, which he happens to now love, that's what we were going to have.  Now I had leftover batter from the last breakfast I had made(Pumpkin Pancakes), which keeps very well in the fridge.  All it took was a couple of stirs, and it was ready to go!  Now the original plan was to serve maple bacon with the pancakes, but Nathan had some maple breakfast sausage so our side dish changed.  This was my first time cooking the round breakfast sausage, so I had Nathan take the reigns on this venture.

Maple Breakfast Sausage 

Ingredients

1 package of round breakfast sausage

5Tbs of maple syrup

Directions:

1)  Cut up the sausage into 1/2" slices, place onto a cold skillet, top with a dollop of maple syrup and cook over medium heat.

Nathan was surprised when he turned around and saw my addition, but liked the final product ;)

2)  Flip continually to brown evenly on each side, cook for about 20 minutes or until there is no pink in the center and the center is 160F.

Yum!

Serve in addition to some of your delicious pumpkin pancakes with butter and syrup, and you've just made yourself the best breakfast supper around lol :)

I crowded the frying pan just a little lol.  Still turned out great!

Needless to say I think Nathan and I had a wonderful Monday, low key, but full of smiles and laughs.  Do you like carving pumpkins?  What is your favorite/hardest stencil you've created?  Better yet, have any of you NOT carved a pumpkin before?  Do you eat the seeds?  If so what seasonings did you use?  Until next time.......

Stay sweet,

Jennifer xoxoxo