Chai tea from scratch

A few days ago, I was lamenting that I couldn't find a good chai tea to buy. Just able to find it in bags. Not at all like the time I was introduced to chai on a cold, rainy May night at the Westwood Sailing Club. It was soooo sweet and delicious. 

I was starting to source where to buy the ingredients around here.

Then Pow... my husband found me this!

From Pete's Frootique in Wolfville! I somehow missed this delight on my quick walk thru town last month.

Look at this!!

 Red peppercorns. Cinnamon bark. Whole Cardamom.

 Boiling on the stove. Someone dropped by and commented on how good it smelled.

 See them all

Here are the directions:

 I prepared it as suggested. I was going to show you the picture in a rustic cup with the milk and such, but more company came and we just had to have it without pictures. 

(Another snow day here today. There was one on Friday. Cool. With my 20 years in Toronto, I think there were only 1 or 2 snow days where school was closed. As a teacher at the time, it was a drag, as sometimes, the drive to work was quite dangerous and stressful. We've had 2 in less than a week. Cool)

Now I have to prepare another batch. Oh chore! NOT. 

My chai craving has been satiated.

Cheers,

Amanda

Snow, snow, everywhere is snow

Continuing on with the weather report in Shelburne...

 Due to snowy and icy conditions..

 School is canceled today.

 Stay home and enjoy the snow.

I don't mind that. But I wish I had more of this...

My socks are done. And I've learned a lesson... check the dye lot, even if you buy the yarn at the same time from the same shelf.

But I love them anyway.

Ciao,

Amanda

Mud. Mud. Everywhere is mud!

Last month, we had a huge drop of snow. I even blogged about it. It was wonderful. It has melted.

Now that snow is replaced with mud.

 Everywhere! 

 Hey, I've been on this earth a time and am not new to mud. We used to play in it as a kid.

 So I've been wondering why I'm so intune to it these days.

 The ground is spongy. Soft. Squishy.  Why does this intrigue me so?

 Then it struck me. In the middle of a step.

 I'm walking on the ground. The earth. The dirt.

 Not the sidewalk. Not the road. Not some man made ground cover. But the earth.

Just like this creature. (what is this creature print by our front door? It's huge!)

Having just moved from living in the middle of a large city for 20 years, I was walking on the earth. 

There's lots of it here in our little piece of nature and town. Often times, there are only sidewalks on one side of the street. You walk on the dirt. 

And after a melted dump of snow or a rain, the earth is soft. And muddy.

But it's all a moot point today. Because today....

 We're having some of this!

What's happening where you are?
Ciao,

Amanda

A Minecraft Birthday Party

My boy turned 9 yesterday! NINE!!!

 

 A Minecraft Party was requested. The easiest way to create one of those is to look for other people's ideas! So I went here and made this board.

The Sunny By Design had some great things.

Here's my ode to Minecraft Party..

Creeper juice. Those little Chubby drinks. Paper torn off and faces put on.

 Torches= twisted pretzel sticks. I could have dipped the ends in red melted chocolate, but time got away from me. The slime balls were to be green jello squares, but that was left home in my fridge.

The zombie boogies were wasabi peas!

Sorry for blurry photo below. I started making little TNT bundles, then decided not to, putting them in a glass instead.
My favourite part of the party was when I exclaimed," there are still lots of fruits and veggies left. If you don't eat them now, I'm putting them in your loot bags!" There was a big woosh to the table and things were being eaten. :}

THe cake was a brownie instead of cake. I wanted to leave the edges un-iced and figured the brownie would be less crumby. The icing was Fluffy Boiled Frosting. It wasn't sweet at all. We made way too much for this cake, so I made meringue puffs and put them in the oven. Left those home too. 

 Here's a new thing I learned, to make meringue, you beat your egg whites, heat the oven to 350, put them in, turn the oven off and leave until the oven cools down. Easy peasy.

 The signs and grass leaves were from a Sizzix dies. The old ones, the big, honkin', thick ones. You can do it in the cuttlebug using a B plate on the bottom and top of the die. Don't use the A plate a t all.

We rented the local arena to let off some party energy.

 We go to the general skate at least once a week. this boy has come a long way in the past few weeks. He even looks like a skater now!

Dad and his boy.

 Everybody sing...... Happy Birthday to you!

 Loot bag time!

And the loot inside. I don't like giving loot bags with a bunch of little things. So I gave hand made creeper cookies that took 2 days and a trip to the local bakery to ice (Thanks Flying Fox), a CD of Minecraft Parodies. I googled that title on You Tube and gave it to my husband to do his magic. And then some other snacky things.

Birthday party's all over! 

(paper characters)

It was a fun one!

Edited May 8: WOW y'all are probably on a reading frenzy for minecraft party ideas.What we wouldn't do for our kids. At this time, I've had close to 10,000 hits on this post. In my world, that's a lot. People have been pinning my creeper juice bottles like crazy. Awesome. But look at my sidebar. Only 13 followers. Makes me feel kinda lonely. Wanna join the party on my blog? Bookmark or follow me to see what else I've been up to. I've made ninja peggies too! You can use those for the next party.

Cheers,

Amanda

Sandwich Wrap

I was given Betz White's book Sewing Green when I turned 40. I remember it well. Not because it was my 40th, but because we were camping on the May 24th weekend. It was actually a nice one. Sitting outside in the sunny spot, I sat in a lawn chair and read every. single. word. and poured over every. single. picture. in that book. Uninterrupted!

I had wanted to make the sandwich wrap, but didn't want to use just cotton. I wanted a laminated cotton. Laminate on the INSIDE of the fabric! Not the outside.

Let's just cut the story short, my quest brought me to Ikea's acrylic coated fabric from a few years ago, but it was on the outside, not inside. NOPE.

Then this past fall, someone told me of an iron on vinyl at the amazing fabric store Avonport Discount Fabrics in the Annapolis Valley. I made sure my next road trip included another reason to "pass by".

 I bought some. Made a little doggie treat pouch for my friend. meh. Decided to try it again on the sandwich wrap. But not on the inside where I wanted it to be. I could not find any information that said it was food grade. Since the sandwich would be directly on the vinyl if it was on the inside, I did it on the outside. 

It's much bigger than I though it would be. It was a bit more labour intensive than I wanted it to be because of the extra step of ironing on the vinyl. I did however, cut out the hemming step by serging the ends. 

We've used it to hold a beef patty and a sandwich. Easy peasy. I may make another one, with that pre laminated fabric from Ikea for my daughter, but there are more things on the list to do.

 I didn't make any new ornaments to sell this year, but at the last minute, made a pile of Sweater hearts for my friends. I think I'll make these to sell next year. I like them. (stamps from Stampin' Up!)

One more Show and Tell....

A Craft FAIL! The picture below is supposed to be a bird in a nest!!! FAIL.

Stop laughing. The kids guessed beaver, weasel, and some other non-sensical things.

This one stayed home.

Rafael's 9th birthday is this Saturday. He has requested a Minecraft Birthday. Music has been chosen, style of cake (to be made on Friday), creeper cookies are cooling as I type, waiting to be decorated, and other elements of minecraft are creeping around here. 

You know I'll show you!

Cheers,

Amanda

most awesomest dessert ever!

K, I'm not going to show you this dessert until the end. Although, you may sneak a peak if you wish.... Did you?

It starts with Homemade ice cream (or a good vanilla-y store bought one)

1 cup of milk

3/4 cup sugar dissolved in above milk

1-2 tablespoons of vanilla. (We made our own-vanilla beans in vodka for 2-3 months.)

2 cups of whipping cream

Put in the ice cream maker for 25 minutes or whatever your maker instructions say. Delish.

 Sliced strawberries. We've been waiting for the January strawberry season in Florida for this to happen. Otherwise, they were very expensive here. 

 Put in a layer of berries and cover with sugar. Add another layer of berries and another coating of sugar. Dont' be shy! It makes a great syrup.

Please excuse future photos. My point and shoot in a new location and in the dark.

Below is balsamic vinegar-the good stuff- freshly ground pepper, the strawberries in the syrup and the ice cream. The ice cream was frozen in a bowl like the one the strawberries were in.

 Here's how it goes together....

Place the ice cream in the middle of the plate, scoop out a well and fill with balsamic vinegar.

Spoon the strawberries and juice around the base of the ice cream mound.

What about the pepper you ask?

The best part. Generously sprinkle the pepper on the ice cream and strawberries. There was not enough pepper on this dish. You could hardly taste it. Seriously, add more pepper. I added more at the table.

 Depending on who you're sharing this with and the amount of sickness the room, you may all dig into the one dish or spoon some out in separate dishes. 

The taste of this is incredible.

The sweetness of the strawberries and syrup is balanced with the pepper. You don't really taste the pepper, just a little bit of heat to counteract the sweetness at the back of your throat.

The balsamic vinegar is like caramel (if you have a good one that you didn't buy at the grocery store for $5.99) More sweetness. 

Oh. So. Good!

A treat to impress and a great conversational party piece.

Ciao,

Amanda

A sock and a book

Joining Ginny at Small Things for Yarn Along

Loving that the knitting bug has hit me for the season. I've started the second sock for the sock I started last March and finished some time in the late summer.

The book I'm reading... I love this author, Robert Rotenberg. He's a lawyer in Toronto. The stories, (there are 3, this is the third, one more coming out soon) are set in Toronto and I can picture all the places he mentions. Like a little trip back there. The crime novels are very captivating and an easy read. I highly recommend them.

 Now back to my sock.... I started the first sock from the inside of the yarn ball. The second sock was started from the outside of a new yarn ball. Yep, the stripes are in the opposite direction. This may not be a problem. But it may be a problem for me. Looking down. 

Instead of looking down at both socks, I'll have to start at one and continue up the next one from the toe! LOL

Yes, I do plan on wearing these inside of slippers and boots, so what's the big deal! I'm just so excited that I've done this sock rather quickly compared to the first one. 

The yarn is Loops and Threads Luxury Sock with cashmere blend. To. Die. For. I bought it at Michael's last year. Made my mom come so I could get both balls with a coupon! Thanks mom. No, you can't have my socks.

Cheers,

Amanda