A slice of summer: Strawberry Pie

The weather has been amazing here in Toronto and I've been in the mood for berries.  All sorts, blueberries, blackberries, strawberries, raspberries, you get the idea.  I love them and the warm weather has really been pushing me into summer mode.

I saw a great post on Pinterest ages ago for Strawberry pie: it looked amazing! But when I went to get the recipe today, the site was asking for money to view the site...meep! So I went on a hunt for a new recipe.

I found this recipe called Makeover Grandma's Strawberry Pie on TasteofHome and it looked great! It just so happened that I was talking with my dear friend Cassie and she is a fantastic baker (and cook!).  She made this ahhhhmazing pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving and I ate more than I wish to admit. Anyway, Cassie has made a strawberry pie before and I mentioned to her that I was going to make one. She gave me some great advice: COOK EVERYTHING SLOW AND LOW! It's true. Make sure when you are cooking to have patience, the end result will be well worth it.

So, the recipe doesn't have any photos and I am a visual person, so, here we go!

It's a pretty simple recipe and doesn't call for too much! The only thing missing from this photo is the pie shell.  I cheated and had a frozen one! You need to pre-cook the pies shell so it can cool before putting in the lovely strawberry mixture.

So first off, mix the sugar and the corn starch in the pan.  Make sure you mix it all together before adding the water.  The water needs to be cold (so the corn starch doesn't clump).  Add the water in slowly and and keep on whisking.  It will look a bit like watered down milk, but keep on whisking with your heat on low!

Eventually the mixture will start to thicken up and clear up.  Let it boil (while stirring your little heart out: it's a great workout for your arm muscles!!!).  Remember Cassie's advice and keep the heat low!  It'll be a thick consistency.

After it has boiled for about two minutes, take it off the heat and add the gel.  This is where I got a little crazy and added about 1tbs of homemade strawberry jam (from my cousin Heidi, so tasty!) for a little extra strawberry taste.  Just mix it all in until of the gelatin is dissolved and it will turn a lovely red colour.

So while you are waiting for the gelatin mixture to cool (15 minutes), slice up your berries. I used two containers (including the few I ate.  They were just too tempting not to eat!)  Once you've let your gelatin cool, pour it over the berries and make sure everything is nicely coated. 

After it's all coated, add it your lovely little pie shell. And then the waiting game begins.  You have to wait for FOUR HOURS for everything to set.

But me oh my is it worth the wait....It is amazing and tastes just like summer should.  Add a little homemade whipped cream on top and be prepared to fall in love.

Pizza Pie!

The Mister's favourite food is pizza.  He could eat it everyday if I let him, truly.  I'm sure he's like most other men who would much rather order pizza  and build forts from the left over boxes.  So, being the loving Lady I am, I give into his pizza addiction and we make it home!

We've tried a couple of different recipes for pizza dough and it's been quite the evolution.  The first pizza we ever made was a hot mess...HOT mess.  So, it's been a process of love and health! It's been important for us to try to find healthier versions of take away.

So, a recipe that we usually use is from All Recipes.  It is truly An Amazing Whole Wheat Pizza! I add in an extra cup of whole wheat flour (2 1/2 cups)  instead of white flour (1 cup).  I also use our bread machine to make the dough.  When we first started out, I used to make it from scratch (such a process!).  But having a bread machine makes life SO much easier. Start with the ingredients, add the oil (butter), then salt/sugar, flour and yeast.  Then you set it dough on the machine.  It is pretty easy-peasy!

The most recent dough recipe we've found is from Robbie's Recipe.  The Mister was after an incredibly thin and crispy pizza. This recipe is just that!  I doubled the recipe so we could have left overs.  It doubles wonderfully!  Once again, we made the dough in the bread machine.  After the machine does the hard work, I turn the oven on (full whack!), and split the dough in two even balls, put some olive oil (less than 1tbs) in each bowl and flipped the dough around (covering it in the oil so it doesn't stick to the bowl) and let it rest on top of the hot oven while I fix all of the toppings.

Anyway! This pizza turned out beautifully!!!! Check it out!

 The Mister had to get a picture cutting it!

A sign of a good pizza is that it can hold up under the great weight of the toppings you put on it... this one passed the test with flying colours!

What's your favourite topping to have on pizza? 

Ali-The Bike

I like to bike.  Growing up in the country (more cows than people!), we used to bike a lot. I remember one time one of my very best friends and I (check out her blog: Beautifully Contained, it's great!) road our bikes around the 50 mile garage sale! Our thrifty habits started early. :) 

As I've moved around a lot, I haven't always had a bike, but every time I see someone riding, I fall in love again.  It doesn't help that the Mister used to be (and is starting to be again) an avid city bike rider.  He zipped and ducked on the mean streets of London! The thought of sharing a bike lane with those Double-Decker buses scares the crap out of me...! Eep!

Anyway...so when we were in Vancouver, BC, I bought a sweet Apollo bike from craigslist for $25! It had one owner and was clean! It road like a dream.  Here she is in Vancouver:

Le sigh, I loved her so.  She was a great beating around bike, but super heavy.  So when we left Van, I gave her to a friend.

Since moving to Toronto, I've been itching for a bike.  It's so much easier to get around a city!! Plus transit is incredibly expensive ($3 each way!!!) So I had been keeping my eye open.  I'm all about recycling and finding gems that just need a little bit of TLC.

That's when I found this sweet ride on Craigslist. He's an Executive 3 speed and was made in Austria.  The guy selling it originally wanted $115 for it!! So I took it for a spin and it was a little too tall, so I asked the guy to lower the seat post.  He spent almost an hour trying to get it lowered, but the seat-post wouldn't budge.  After a bit of haggling and explaining to him that I couldn't even ride the bike in the current state (not comfortably anyway ha!) I got him down to $50!! Woop! He gave me a seat too!

So, I started the the search for a seat-post.  Seat-posts are measured in mm...this guy needed a 20mm, which is super small because he is so old.  I searched and called all over the bike stores in Toronto and then ended up finding one at The Bike Joint! They were so helpful and super funny, not to mention the new seat-post (installed and adjusted) was only $5! The fellow also adjusted my handle bars so they were safe!  I've added my bright yellow bell (from the Mister).  I know he'll need some work over the years, but you can never beat a good solid frame and clean gears.

Anyway...I love him and think I might call him Ali (because he's green  and tough like a gator! hehe!)

Do you have any great craiglist finds? Let me know!

Crock Pot Carrot Cake

So for Easter, I decided to try out one of my most re-pinned links on Pinterest: Crock Pot/Slow Cooker Desserts from Under the Table and Dreaming.  Check out the link here: Under The Table and Dreaming.  She has 40 different desserts listed and each looks more amazing than the next!

I know, I know, it sounds a little bit odd to make a dessert in a slow cooker, but it was so easy, especially considering everything else was in the oven.  It takes a little longer (2-3hrs) than in the oven, but frees up space when you're making a ham, rolls and au gratin (phewww)! 

I decided to try out the carrot cake for Easter.  Rabbits like carrots and carrots are a vegetable...so win-win all around, right? :)

Here is the direct link to the carrot cake: Cooking Cakes With Mr. Cake


I tweeked the recipe a little bit:

• Added more cinnamon (about 2tsp) because the Mister and I like the spice!
• Put about 1 1/2 cups of shredded carrots (about three decent sized carrots)
• After putting the paper towels, as Mr. Cake said to do, I put the slow cooker lid on for 2 of the 3h 

So, even though I have a KitchenAid stand mixer (Christmas 2009), I also have a hand mixer (Christmas 2011)...uh...so many gadgets. But, I must admit, there are times when you don't want to pull out the KitchenAid and it is just so much easier to have a hand mixer...I love Kitchen Gadgets. LOVE THEM. You should see my kitchen...Anyway...

Mixing the wet ingredients and sugar (eggs, water, oil, sugar, vanilla)

Added in the dry ingredients (flour, baking soda/powder, salt and cinnamon) which I forgot to take a picture of, oops!!!

Then folded in the carrots.

Grease your crock pot with butter and poor in the mix. I know it doesn't look great now...but it does taste amazing once it's done!! You just have to wait for 2-3hrs. 

Ta-daaaaa! All finished with homemade whipped cream on top..so good.

Let me know if you try any crock pot desserts!!! 

Healthy General Tso's Chicken

We love North American-ised Chinese food.  You know the kind you get at the mall that has enough grease in it to shine your floors? Yea...that kind, we love it and it loves our behinds.

The Mister and I are trying to become healthier (you are what you eat, and no one wants to be deep fried chicken nuggets), so I found a recipe that let's us eat General Tso's Chicken for significantly less calories!

Check it out here from Fave Healthy Diets, posted by Anne Colagioia.  It is truly amazing...I've made it twice since I've been home!  The Mister cannot get enough of it!

A couple little helpful hints:

The recipe calls for Duck Sauce, this is just a different name for Plum Sauce. :)
I've doubled the sauce, because we like it saucy  and it wasn't an issue at all. It doubles beautifully.
When dredging the chicken in the eggs and then Bisquick, keep one hand for the wet and one hand for the dry.
It says it takes 10 minutes prep and it might if I was a robot, but it takes me a little bit longer.
I throw in the broccoli (which I always add more than the recipe calls for because we love it so) in the sauce right before serving instead of serving it on top.


Let me know if you try it and how you like it!!

Dresser Re-do Project Part 1

I've always been a fan of salvaging old furniture for a couple of different reasons:

1. It is less expensive than buying new furniture
2. You can tailor the piece to your specific taste
3. They just don't make furniture like they used to!!!

So, when one of the Mister's friends was moving out of his apartment and getting rid of two dressers, we were on them like white on rice! We rented a car, a Chevy Orlando, which fit the two perfectly (after some Tetris like manoeuvring).  These little gems have dove-tailed joints and are made out of solid wood, which makes them rather heavy (try carrying THOSE  suckers up three flights of stairs!) and totally worth saving!

There is a taller-thinner dresser (4 drawers) and a shorter-wider dresser (3 drawers). However, they were a colour that was not to our liking.  So we went to Home Depot and bought all of the necessary tools:

Stripper (to remove the paint/stain/finish)
Sand paper
Scrapper (to scrape off the finish once the stripper had worked it's magic)
Stain: Wood Finish (after much deliberation we went with Minwax's Dark Walnut)
Polyurethane (which is used to protect the furniture once the stain is on there)
Lint-free clothes
Rubber gloves
Drop cloth (or garbage bags)
Sponge Brushes (for the stain)

So, after we bought everything we needed (which was around $50-$60) and I did ample research (check out Frugal Flourish and Pregnant Power), I got to work!

This is the colour of the dressers before.  As you can see, it needs a little love!

I took the drawers out and removed all the hardware (knobs and legs) with our handy dandy multi-purpose screwdriver (gift from the Mister's Pop's) and poured on the remover.  Make sure you read the directions, all the way through, and WEAR GLOVES! I cannot stress this enough...if you get it on you, it will burn! If you do get it on you, make sure you flush the area with water IMMEDIATELY.  Okay-enough of my safety talk :-p

So then you let the remover sit on there until the finish softens (it depends on the type of remover you have...this took about 15-20 minutes). Make sure you apply a generous amount of the remover, or else you'll have to do it twice.

After I had removed as much of the previous stain as possible, I set to giving everything a nice sand.  This took much ages because I was doing to all by hand, but hey, at least it was sunny yesterday!!

So here she is, stripped and sanded, it is already so much better than the original.  I'm still in the process of staining it and will post the rest of this little re-finishing project once it's done!