The Wonderful World of Nikki

It's Been A While

2011-04-06T13:37:00.000-07:00

So if anyone is out there and actually reading this, HELLO. What a busy year it has been so far. I haven't blogged since before Christmas, mostly because I was busy with a newborn! We welcomed a second daughter into our family on December 19, 2010- Sara Marleen, weighing in at 6 lb 15 oz and 20.5 inches long. She is absolutely perfect. She is now 6.5 months and although she's a great baby, having two kids hasn't made for much blogging time!

I recently got a new sewing machine, which means that I don't have to steal my mom's anymore when I want to do a project! This has meant that most of my free time has been spent making new things for my girls. One thing I have been making a ton of is soft soled, Mary-Jane style baby shoes. I have decided to start selling them under the name "Hello Fabulous" on Etsy as well as on Facebook. Please check out my shop and become a fan of my Facebook page! Here is a little peek at what I have to offer:

There are more to view on Facebook and Etsy and I am always working on more, so check back often! I would also like to offer my awesome readers a 10% off coupon code to use at my Etsy store. Type in WONDERFULWORLD10 at the check out and enjoy 10% off any pair of shoes. Please note that shoes are made to order, so you will need to indicate the size of shoes you need (available in newborn- size 13. More information is available on my page or in my shop).

Pumpkin Scone Recipe

2010-11-15T18:16:00.000-08:00

Up until a few weeks ago, I had never eaten a scone. I was at a ladies group at my Church, and somebody had brought pumpkin scones to munch on. I couldn't get enough! The lady who made them was kind enough to give out a copy of the recipe to everybody, so I decided that today was the day I would give it a try. I was a little intimidated because I had never made them before and I tend to dislike working with dough, but I think they turned out great!

Pumpkin Scones

Ingredients

1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
6 tablespoons cold butter
1/2 cup canned pumpkin
3 tablespoons half-and-half
1 large egg

Directions

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Lightly oil a baking sheet or line with parchment paper.
Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and spices in a large bowl. Using a pastry knife, fork, or food processor, cut butter into the dry ingredients until mixture is crumbly and no chunks of butter are obvious. Set aside.
In a separate bowl, whisk together pumpkin, half and half, and egg. Fold wet ingredients into dry ingredients. Form the dough into a ball.
Pat out dough onto a lightly floured surface and form it into a 1-inch thick rectangle (about 9 inches long and 3 inches wide). Use a large knife or a pizza cutter to slice the dough twice through the width, making three equal portions. Cut those three slices diagonally so that you have 6 triangular slices of dough. Place on prepared baking sheet.
Bake for 14-16 minutes. Scones should begin to turn light brown. Place on wire rack to cool.

There are also two glazes to go on top of the scones. I found that the scones weren't all that sweet, so the glaze really captured my sweet tooth. Plus the glaze and drizzle make the scones look pretty!

Plain Glaze

Ingredients

1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 tablespoon half-and-half

Directions

Whisk together until smooth.
Using a pastry brush, brush cooled scones with glaze and let dry.

Spiced Glaze
Ingredients

Remainder of plain glaze
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
pinch of cloves
pinch of ginger

Directions

Add spices to the remainder of the plain glaze and stir until smooth.
Drizzle the spiced glaze over top of each scone.

Notes:

-I decided to use my blender to mix all the dry ingredients and cut through the butter. From there, I poured the dry ingredients into my stand mixer and let it do the work! I also used heart shaped cookie cutters instead of cutting the dough into triangles.

-I didn't have any half-and-half, so I used International Delights French Vanilla creamer in place.

These scones are delicious with a nice Pumpkin Spice Latte!

Pumpkin Spice Syrup

2010-10-25T21:28:00.000-07:00

It might just be due to being pregnant, but for some reason, I can't get enough PUMPKIN this year. I've also been really into warm drinks, such as lattes and steamed milk. I'm really loving the Pumpkin Spice Latte from Starbucks, but I can't justify spending that amount of money each time the craving strikes- which is often. I did some searching online and I've found a recipe for Pumpkin Spice syrup. I can't get enough of it and it is too yummy not to share.

Pumpkin Spice Syrup
Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups water
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 Tbsp pumpkin puree
2 Tbsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp grated ginger

Directions:

Combine water and sugar in saucepan. Bring to a gentle boil.
Add remaining ingredients and let simmer 10 minutes, stirring often.
Strain through a towel or cloth into a jar or container.

That's it. Seriously. Store in the fridge and add 2-3 Tbsp (more or less, depending on your preferance) to steamed milk or make into a latte by adding a shot of espresso to 2 cups of steamed milk.

Cake!

2010-09-07T20:42:00.000-07:00

In my last post, I had asked for ideas for freezer meals because I want to do a big cooking day for the freezer. I have gotten quite a few ideas, however, I haven't had the chance to go ahead with the cooking. There just aren't enough hours in the day. Though the opportunity to cook to freeze hasn't been there, that doesn't mean I haven't been spending time in the kitchen, because I definitely have. What have I been doing? More cake decorating.

I made use of my fabulous new Cricut Cake machine with all of these cakes! I have been having a blast with decorating and have a few cake orders coming up within the next couple of weeks. I have very recently started a Facebook fan page so that you can view my creations, please check out Cakes By Nikki and "Like" the page. If you are in the Saskatoon area and wish to have a cake made for your special ocassion, please contact me!

Freezer Meals

2010-08-03T19:15:00.000-07:00

I was hoping to get some reader feedback and inspiration with this post. I suddenly have the urge to fill my freezer with prepared meals and am planning a cooking for the freezer day this weekend. I do have a few recipes in mind already (which I will share with you after my cooking day is complete), but I would love to know, what are your favourite meals for the freezer? Feel free to post full recipes in the comment section or just a link to your favourite freezer recipe.

Thanks!

Life Will Be Twice As Much Fun

2010-07-08T10:07:00.000-07:00

My last excuse for not blogging more regularly was because I was busy having fun and baking cakes. My latest excuse?

Being pregnant is just making me too darn tired to want to go on the computer! Baby number 2 is due December 26th, which makes me 15 weeks. Well, now you know my little secret! I have plenty of crafts planned in preparation for the new baby that I will certainly be sharing with all of you! Thanks for reading- see you around.

Bra Makeover

2010-05-18T14:37:00.000-07:00

Did you know that 7 out of 10 women are wearing the wrong bra size? That is 70%. The right bra can mean the difference between being comfortable and uncomfortable and it can make or break an outfit. When I heard about the contest that Playtex is hosting, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to tell you guys about it too. Here's the deal:

You go to www.PlaytexBraMakeover.com and nominate either yourself or someone you know for a bra makeover.
The winners will be flown to New York where they will meet with a style expert and will receive their bra makeover.
The 10 selected winners will also star in their own webisode which will air on www.PlaytexBraMakeover.com.

So, head over there right now and get yourself entered! You only have until Friday, May 21st.

Good luck!

By posting this information, I am entered into a contest to win a free bra from Playtex. I did not receive any compensation for this post and thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

Busy, Busy

2010-05-03T19:44:00.000-07:00

I've been too busy to blog lately. Here is what has been keeping me busy- having fun decorating (and eating) cakes!

Eco Baby Steps

2010-04-05T13:02:00.000-07:00

Weirdest feeling in the world? Visiting a blog you frequent and seeing your own picture on the site! I popped into www.ecobabysteps.com and noticed they had featured the post I had submitted months ago to their Blog To Inspire contest. The post is both here on my blog or at Eco Baby Steps if you want to read about it.

I hope everybody had a great Easter! I'm hoping to have more time coming up in the next couple weeks to blog more often.

Car Seat Cover

2010-03-16T15:36:00.000-07:00

I found this car seat cover tutorial and decided to give it a whirl. I have been wanting to blog this for a while, but I sent this cover as a gift to my cousin. She has finally had the baby and I sent the gift off in the mail last week so I can tell you all about it now!

Here is the one I made:

I found the tutorial at Make It Do! Check out her blog, it's great!

Homemade Almond Milk Recipe

2010-02-27T20:01:00.000-08:00

Today I'm going to teach you how to make almond milk. When my daughter was first born, I had to cut out dairy, as I was nursing and she was sensitive to dairy. In place of milk, I drank either organic soy milk or homemade almond milk. Here are the simple step by step instructions for making your own almond milk.

Ingredients

1 cup almonds
4 cups water
4 pitted medjool dates

Directions

Soak the almonds in a bowl overnight

Put soaked almonds in a blender with 4 cups of water. Blend until almonds are ground up
Place a clean kitchen towel over a pitcher and secure with a rubber band. Slowly pour blender contents through the towel. This will filter out the almond pulp
Once all the blender liquid has been strained through the towel, ring out the towel and let the milk fall into the pitcher

Pour the almond milk back into the blender and add 4 pitted medjool dates. Pour through the towel again to strain any date chunks
Chill in the fridge and enjoy

*Note: the almond pulp (stuff that gets left in the towel once the milk has been strained through) can be saved for baking. I tend to stick it in a bag and toss it in the freezer

Excalibur

2010-02-22T19:22:00.000-08:00

If you've read many of my blog posts, it is quite apparent that I love spending time in the kitchen. After mulling it over for a while, I decided to splurge and buy an Excalibur dehydrator. I'm very impatiently waiting for it to arrive in the mail and have already started planning what I will make first once it arrives.

Any other dehydrator owners out there? What is your favourite thing to make?

Good Guide

2010-02-11T20:30:00.000-08:00

My last post was all about creating a healthy and safe environment for your family. Further to that, I wanted to share a website that I just came across. It is called Good Guide. It is a website which rates how green and healthy your everyday products are- your cleaning products, personal use products and even your food. Go ahead and see how your favourite products measure up.

www.goodguide.com

Knowledge Is Power

2010-02-03T21:05:00.000-08:00

I know there are a lot of parents out there reading. I think I speak for everyone when I say that we all want what's best for our children. We want them to grow up in a healthy, safe environment. In order to give them this, we need to be educated and aware of what sorts of things are in their environment. Please watch this video:

If you wish to learn more about creating a healthy living environment for your child, please visit http://healthychild.org/.

Avocado Update

2010-02-02T16:00:00.000-08:00

Do you remember when I made the post about growing an Avocado tree? It was quite a while ago, I know, but I finally have some progress to share!

Check out that little tail it has sprouted! It's starting to bud something from the top as well. It still has a way before being potted.

Ice Cream Cookie Bowls

2010-01-30T19:08:00.000-08:00

I want to share a recipe from www.familyfun.go.com. It's such a fun and easy treat.
Ingredients:

1/4 cup shortening
1/4 cup butter, softened
2/3 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 cups flour
1/4 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips

Directions:

To make the cookie cups, beat together the shortening, butter, and sugar in a large bowl. Add the egg and vanilla extract, beating until combined.
In a separate bowl, sift together the salt, baking powder, and flour, then gradually stir them into the batter. Stir in the chocolate chips.
Divide the dough in half, shape each half into a flat disk, and wrap it in plastic. Chill the dough in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours.
Heat the oven to 375º. Turn two 12-cup muffin tins bottom side up and cover 10 of the cup bottoms with squares of aluminum foil (use every other cup so there's some space between them). Grease the foil with shortening and set it aside.

Unwrap 1 disk of dough, place it between 2 sheets of waxed paper, and roll it out to a 1/8-inch thickness. Cut out 4-inch circles of dough and place each one over a cup bottom, smoothing out any cracks. Repeat with the other disk, rerolling and reusing any scraps.
Bake the cookie cups for 10 to 12 minutes or until light brown. Let them cool for 10 minutes, then remove the foil and cookies together from the muffin pan. Peel off the foil and let the cups cool completely on a rack. Just before serving, fill each cookie cup with a scoop of ice cream. Makes 10.

Meal Plan

2010-01-23T11:38:00.000-08:00

Hope you're all having a wonderful weekend! The baby is napping so I figured this would be the perfect time to take a break and do up my meal plan for the week. Here we go:

Monday- Frittata
Tuesday- Homemade burgers with fries
Wednesday- Beef stew
Thursday- Bruschetta chicken with mashed potatoes and cooked carrots
Friday- Shrimp scampi

Crisp Apple Strudels

2010-01-21T18:36:00.000-08:00

These are a few of my favourite things!

On occasion, I buy apple strudels from the grocery store bakery. I did this last week and when I got home I started wondering how hard it would be to actually make them myself, so I gave it a try. While they certainly didn't look as nice as the storebought strudels, the ones I made were sure yummy. Here is the recipe.

Ingredients

Puff pastry
1 egg, beaten
3 apples, peeled, cored and diced
2 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon flour
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

Directions

Place last three ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Add diced apple and toss to coat
Roll out puff pastry dough. You can either make one large strudel and just cut it up, or you can make smaller sized strudels. If making smaller sized, cut puff pastry into desired size
Place a spoonful of the apple mixture at the end of the puff pastry. Fold in sides and roll. Place seam side down on baking sheet
Brush pastries with egg. Cut air vent holes in pastries
Bake for 30 minutes in a 350 degree oven

Enjoy!

Meal Plan

2010-01-17T15:43:00.000-08:00

Another week, another plan. Here we go:

Monday- Vegetable stir fry
Tuesday- Spaghetti
Wednesday- Homemade chicken tenders with oven baked fries
Thursday- Lasagna
Friday- Shrimp scampi with twice baked potatoes

That's it for now.

Giveaway Alert

2010-01-16T10:34:00.000-08:00

My friend Jacylyn is a lot like me. She loves crafting and baking. She has also recently gotten into blogging! To kick off the year, she decided to host a really awesome giveaway and I think you should go enter! Click HERE to enter! Good luck.

Chocolate Cookie Bark Recipe

2010-01-12T10:31:00.000-08:00

Need a chocolate fix? Allow me to help. I made this recipe a number of times over the holidays and it always turned out great. It is because of recipes like this that people gain weight during the holidays!

Chocolate Cookie Bark

Ingredients:

White chocolate wafers
Dark chocolate wafers
2 Tbsp peanut butter
5 Oreo cookies

Directions:

Put white chocolate wafers and dark chocolate wafers in two separate, microwave safe bowls. Microwave each for 30 seconds at a time, stirring in between, until chocolate it melted
Finely chop the Oreos and add half of the cookies to each bowl
Mix the peanut butter into the white chocolate and Oreo mixture

Lay a sheet of wax paper on a cookie sheet. Drop spoonfuls of chocolate onto the wax paper. Try to alternate between the white chocolate and the dark chocolate
Use a knife to "cut" through the chocolate, creating a swirl effect

Refrigerate chocolate for an least an hour, then break into pieces and enjoy!

Meal Plan

2010-01-10T15:29:00.000-08:00

Forgive the lack of blogging. Our household seems to have been hit with a cold. I hope to be feeling better in the next day or two so I can resume blogging as usual. For now, I will leave you with the meal plan of the week:

Monday- Saskatoon berry and ricotta paninis
Tuesday- Greek pork loin chops with rice
Wednesday- BBQ chicken wings with sweet potato fries
Thursday- Slow cooked beef stew
Friday- Homemade pizza

Cosmetic Database

2010-01-07T10:30:00.000-08:00

I wanted to share with you the link to a site I came across a while ago (I also shared this on my other blog today). This site is basically a safety guide for beauty products. You can search for your favourite cosmetic product and it will list the ingredients, the dangers of these ingredients and a score out of 10 as to how hazardous your every day products are. It really is quite shocking to see the risks involved with products we use on a daily basis without thinking twice.

The skin is the largest organ and it absorbs a lot of what you put onto it. Search the products you use in your beauty regime and ask yourself if you want to be putting this stuff into your body.

http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com

Meal Plan

2010-01-03T17:51:00.000-08:00

I really haven't been keeping up very well with my meal planning. In my other blog, I have re-committed myself to meal planning for the sake of not wasting food. It's a new year, a new start, so let's get it right! Here is this week's meal plan:

Monday- Turkey orzo soup
Tuesday- Leftovers (my husband will be away for the evening, so I won't be cooking anything)
Wednesday- Cheddar chicken and rice skillet
Thursday- Fettucine alfredo with shrimp
Friday- Chicken caesar salad with garlic toast

Wild Cloudberry

2009-12-30T17:34:00.000-08:00

I never win anything. I am just unlucky I guess, so imagine my surprise when I received an email from Wild Cloudberry telling me that I won the blog giveaway she was having! The week before Christmas, I went down the the post office to collect my mail, and there was a parcel for me! The lovely knit hat that I won had arrived! I really don't have a hat head, therefore I had no hats, but this one actually doesn't look ridiculous on me!

The hat is beautifully made. I would definitely encourage you to check out her Etsy shop. Thanks again, Eveliina! I love it.