Nana's Rice Pudding

This picture doesn't begin to show how absolutely delicious this pudding is!  The recipe comes from my Nana and is a little lacking in standard measurements as that's the way she cooked.

1.  Stir a generous spoonful of butter or margarine into warm rice.

2.  Stir in a half cup of sugar.

3.  Add milk to cover and a capful of vanilla extract.

4.  Sprinkle with nutmeg.

5.  Bake at 350 for half an hour.

A little vague, eh?  Here's some more detail.

• 
  
  I've only used white rice for this recipe.
• 
  
  The rice can be rewarmed leftovers or freshly cooked. 
• 
  
  I've tried this recipe with varying amounts of rice and it always turns out.  I'd guess it's about 2ish cups of cooked rice (from 1ish cups of uncooked).
• 
  
  I'd say the butter is 2-3 Tablespoons measured out.  I just take a soup spoon and make a generous scoop!

Serve warm with vanilla ice cream.  Equally delicious reheated the next day.

Yum!

There's been a lot of yummy food coming out of the kitchen this week.  Like this pizza, made with Little Birdie Secrets 15 minute crust.  The toppings (pesto, spinach, asparagus, onions, mushrooms, chicken, mozzarella) are based on a pizza I had at a local restaurant and so delicious!

This pizza crust is great. It really does come together in only 15 minutes so making a pizza from scratch is almost as fast as ordering it from a pizzeria!  It's good for other things too, like cinnamon buns:

I used this recipe from Martha's Everyday Food but only used about half the butter and didn't let the dough chill (too impatient!)  They turned out super delicious anyways, once you flip them out of the pan the tops are covered in gooey sugary goodness.

About once a month I get together with a friend for a cooking date.  This time we made pierogies.  They were good but I'm not sure if they were that much better then store bought (or farmer's market bought) to warrant all the extra work.  If you want to try, this is the recpie I used.

We also tried baked custard with raspberries.  Very awesome and super easy with a blender.  We both liked the burnt-ish bits on top.

Mmmm... my tummy is remembering how happy it was after all that deliciousness.  I'll be back tomorrow to share my Nana's (easy peasy) rice pudding recpie!

Little Notebooks

After spending some time this weekend sifting through a bunch of little scraps of paper where I had recorded various craft ideas I decided I needed something a little more contained - enter the matchbook notepad!  I did one of these several months ago and it came in really handy for recording ideas, websites & such on the go (plus it's just so cute!). 

I used scrap paper, a paint chip and a couple staples.  No tutorial as I'm sure you can figure it out!  Confession:  I love paint chips!  I usually take them purely for crafting purposes - not with the intention of painting walls.  I love the colours lined up from light to dark and I love reading the names (wouldn't that be a fun job?  Naming paint colours!). 

I made one for blog ideas too (inspiration to write more often!?).  The extra staple holes were the result of my experimenting with how much paper my stapler could handle. 

A fun, instant satisfaction, little thought required craft.  Perfect project for in front of the TV.

Spring!

We had been enjoying lovely spring-like weather (double digit temperatures, sunshine, that kind of thing) for the last couple weeks of winter. Then spring officially begins and we're back to grey skies and winter coats.  Go figure! 

Some of the wonderful things about spring which I have already begun to do:

• plant seeds (inside!) and watch them grow
• go for a run!  (there are lots of people who run through snow, ice & cold but I am not one of them)
• listen to the birds, robins are back in full swing, singing away before I get out of bed
• open the windows and let the lovely fresh air sweep through the house (I love that smell!)

What spring things have you been up to?

Fabric dilema

While I was in Vancouver I visited a fabric store and picked up some new fat quarters:

More subdued then my usual choices but I fell in love with the organic/vintage-y look of them.  Now all I have to do is figure out what to make with them!  Suggestions?

Olympic Adventure

I'm back from an incredible, amazing, once-in-a-lifetime trip to the Olympics!  It was such a great experience, definitely worth 7 years of planning and waiting!  I think the crowds exceeded anything the organizers anticpated - downtown was packed just about any time you went and there were hours long lines for most of the attractions.  Being part of a crowd at an event was energizing - we cheered for everyone but cheered super hard for any Canadian athlete, I read some athletes felt that they really fed off the crowd and I can believe that completely!  Huge shout out to all the volunteers - happy, enthusiastic, always available for photo taking - they contributed greatly to the Games' success.

My favourite moment was watching Tessa Virtue & Scott Moir win the gold medal in ice dance.  They are amazingly talented skaters who are always a pleasure to watch.

Other highlights included seeing the bobsleigh event and standing right there as the sleds went by, watching Canadians win a gold medal in every medal event I saw and getting an audience participation package at the Closing Ceremony (kinda geeky but also so cool)!  As well as Olympic events I have lots of family and friends in Vancouver so it was a busy two weeks.  The maple leaf scarf was great - got a few compliments on it and the album did get worked on, but not quite completed.  The mittens, and the rest of the clothes, were a big hit - the mitts went right onto a stuffed mascot.

Now it's back to normal life - suffering a little bit of Olympic Hangover this week as I realize it's all over!

In the Moment - March

This month I am looking forward to:

• SPRING!!!
• Daylight in the evenings
• Getting outside a bit more (for walks and such)
• Thinking about gardening and maybe planting some seeds (inside)