I got a new Samsung galaxy s2x! It’s a very nice phone but impossible to find a good cover for it!
So I decided to knit myself a cute bunny cover for my phone!
And I love it!!! 
It turned out very cute!!
Made my apple pie recipe today for Thanksgivings dinner! Yes, I live in Canada, but this year we are also celebrating the American Thanksgivings with family who’s coming into town from the States!
Seriously, this is the best apple pie recipe ever! It took me many many apples to perfect the recipe! But it was all worth it!
If you want to taste my apple pie in GTA area! Give me a shout!
I can’t give away my secret apple pie recipe, but I will let you know how to make my awesome pie crust! It’s really flakey and yummy! It’s the best pie crust recipe ever!
Flakey Pie Crust Recipe::
- 1/2 cup butter (room temperature, cubed)
- 1 cup flour
- 1/3 cup cold water
- 2 tsp sugar
- pinch of salt
Fork the butter and flour, sugar, salt; until flakey and add cold water until the dough is just right! You can chill it before you roll it or bake it for ultimate flakey, yummy in your tummy pie crust!
Happy Thanksgivings!!! *gobble gobble*
I have many many people ask me how to bake a perfect cheesecake! A lot of them say top of their cheesecake crack during baking, or the centre of the cheesecake sinks when cooling.
I will reveal the secret to making a beautiful, picture perfect cheesecake (like the ones you see on magazines).
If your top cracks while baking… There are couple of reasons,
- It could be because your ingredients weren’t mixed completely! Your batter has to be SMOOTH, and absolutely no lumps! and make sure there isn’t thicker batter on the bottom of the bowl either. (Over mixing or beating in high speed will make your cheesecake sink in the middle when cooling)
- If using water bath, water bath was too hot and evaporated during the bake time. Leaving the oven very dry. Solution? Watching the water bath and making sure it doesn’t evaporate completely, if it boils add some ice cubes to stop the boiling, or add extra warm water to the pan. (DO NOT add cold water to an empty pan! It will ruin your pan!)
- Just simply, Overbaked! Even though you followed the right temperature and time on the recipe you followed, you probably have a different oven! And your oven gets probably too hot! Make sure you use the middle shelf if don’t have a convection oven, and even with convection you might wanna leave a good oven thermometer inside the middle wrack of the oven to make sure the temperature stays the same throughout baking.
If your cheesecake sinks in the middle when cooling…
- Under baked! Just simply bake your cake for extra 5 – 10 minutes! Temperature inside your oven could be lower than it actually is. Keep in mind for future baking, Cheesecakes are more “high maintenance than Cookies though!
- Over mixed batter, or the batter was beaten at too high a speed! You should only use low-medium speed for Cheesecake fillings, and you should never over mix the batter after adding the cream, only mix by hand!
- Don’t move the cake til it’s completely room temperature! Place it on top of a cooling wrack right out of the oven. And let it cool COMPLETELY to room temperature before you move it to a cake stand or plate, or placing it in a refrigerator to cool it. Cold air will make them sink when they are still warm!
Your Cheesecake came out perfectly, but CRACKED while cooling? And you did EVERYTHING right listed on top for “cracked while baking” criteria? It’s most likely you baked the cheesecake too fast or too long! It will make the cheesecake to shrink when it’s cooling and leave a deep ugly crack down the middle.
Here are some secrets to baking the perfect cheesecake! Hope this helps!
I don’t mean to brag, but this is the Best Apple Muffin Ever!
I was craving my apple muffin recipe, so I baked myself and the baby some apple muffins today!
It has crispy, brown sugar, cinnamon topping with buttery but light batter with fresh apples! YUMM!
I do a lot of baking, and inventing recipes, and I can say I am very happy with my apple muffin recipe. It’s one of my favorite muffin recipes! Bakes in 20 minutes! TA-DA!
I started couponing after watching the TLC’s “Extreme Couponing” on TV last year. I must say, the deals in the States are a lot better than it is in Canada.
There are many online sites where you can order your coupons from, and it will be mailed to you. It’s nice to have a look out for special offers certain companies have. And now a days, it’s seems very popular to have deals, contests and coupons through facebook pages.
I also get my coupons by writing emails to companies with my favorite products. And they will send me some coupons back. Usually these are the best coupons, or even free items!
When I first started last year, the coupons were better and all the stores around Toronto seem to take all the coupons (including print-out coupons). But recently I found, places like No frills, Walmart, Fresh Co. came up with new regulatioin against printed out coupons, and they don’t accept them.
I have given up with print-outs, it seems like someone in the GTA area scammed all these stores I frequently visit. And these particular locations don’t accept print-out coupons. It’s sad what people do.
But if you are smart about coupon usage, and where you can price match and use the coupons, and perhaps get points for certain stores. I think it’s a win! Even though it’s not “free” or extreme, I think some cents saved is good in a long run.
For example, buying items at Shoppers Drug Mart (they don’t price match), but they often have weekend deals that are pretty good with coupons you get in the mail. And with the optimum points you earn, you can use them on the “Spend your points day”! Or price matching items at Canadian Tire, which gives you 10% back in Canadian Tire money, and using coupons on top! You will have extra Canadian Tire money for next shopping trip there!
I did stock up on a lot of toilet papers when I was able to get them for $1 for 24 double rolls, and a lot of cleaning products. I do have extra coupons all the time, since I get mail out coupons mailed out to many different addresses (Only one coupon allowed per address). So give me a shout if you are looking for certain coupon! Maybe I can help you out!
PS. Organizing your coupons in a binder with clear plastic card holder pages are the EASIEST way to keep track of all your coupons! Just like on TV! I tried other methods, but I am loving my Dollarama binder right now!
I absolutely LOVE baking, and creating my own dessert recipes! This time, I tried baking a strawberry cream cake!
My hubby loves his strawberry cream cake, and I wanted to make him a good one. It tasted good, but texture was a little off! I know what I need to change in my recipe. I will try again soon!
It was really good with fresh strawberries and creaaaam! YUM!
First snow today, I say it’s pretty late for being in Canada. I need some blizzard and at least a foot of snow to feel really like winter!
I remember gonig to the Ice Hotel in Quebec few years back. It’s so beautiful, yes freezing, but it’s an experience I suggest everyone should do once in their life time if they live in Canada!
I believe they are open from January to April, and have other activities like dog sledding!
We were at the ice bar in the ice hotel, with ice fireplace with real fire! And drinks were served in ice cups!
We had to go in the hot tub before bed to warm ourselves up before getting in the sleeping bag, but our bare feet were sticking to the ICE when existing the tub!
My husband made a mistake of not zipping up the sleeping bag all the way, he said he was too hot from the hot tub! He was freezing middle of the night! It was truly the first time when my eye balls felt like they were freezing when I was sleeping.
About a 5-10 minutes out of the way, there was the BEST poutine place ever! I’ve been craving it everytime it gets so cold.
I wouldn’t trade this experience with anything else! I suggest everyone in Canada to visit HOTEL DE GLACE in QUEBEC!!
First blog post ever!
I am currently 31 weeks pregnant with a little one! Unfortunately we don’t know the gender yet!! But hopefully I will find out soon, before the birth, so I can go shopping!
Last ultrasound I did, the baby had the index finger up! It’s my first baby, and I am so excited!!!!
Pregnancy has been very interesting. Luckily I didn’t have much trouble getting pregnant, even though I was on bc for over 8 years since my teens! I had a terrible terrible morning sickness that lasted well into second trimester (around 20 weeks). I lost almost 10 lbs, and couldn’t even keep water down! And I can smell everything, even people from miles away! Just made me so nauseous all day long! But it passed, I was so scared that it might last the whole pregnancy!
I travelled 19 weeks pregnant to Europe for 3 weeks! It was my BABY MOON with my wonderful hubby. I suggest everyone to go on a baby moon before the little one comes. I figure I wouldn’t have much time to travel afterwards. It was super hard flying long distance pregnant though, I never ever felt so tired flying before. Pregnancy is really hard on your body!
My husband says I don’t look very pregnant from the back, and he claims that I am having a boy! How cute a little boy would be, watching football with his papa, throwing his arms up in the air screaming “TOUCHDOWN!”
I am so far lucky enough not to get any stretch marks! *fingers crossed* Hopefully I won’t be getting them. On top of my skin ever so elastic, my secret is baby oil. Yup! Baby oil! I haven’t tried all the expensive stretch mark creams, but I put baby oil on after every shower! ever since the second trimester started! So far it’s working! I like how it’s not sticky or thick!
My little one loves to kick me and roll around all day! I can’t wait to meet him/her in January!