Tuesday 30 April 2013

Honey Mustard Dipping Sauce

 
Hello my friends! Hope this lovely day finds you happy and healthy.

I am so excited to share a recipe with you today! For those of you who know me well, you know my favorite restaurant is White Spot. I freaking love White Spot. They make the best burgers, and have awesome fries. No meal would be complete, however without my favorite White Spot Honey Mustard dip for my fries (and occassionally for my burger!).

Over the years I have bought every type of honey mustard on the market trying to find one that tasted like my favorite dip. It simply does not exist. Rather than give up, I have honed my honey mustard making skills over the years and have come up with a nearly perfect honey mustard. I think if I tried this recipe with full fat mayonnaise, it may well be perfect.

This recipe makes a fairly large batch, but with the amount of chicken nuggets and fries we go through in my house, it doesn't actually last that long!



Honey Mustard Dipping Sauce


Ingredients
1 1/2 cups mayonnaise
1/2 cup honey
1/4 regular mustard
1-2 tbsp curry powder


Instructions
In a medium bowl, whisk together all of the ingredients. Chill in the fridge for 20-30 minutes to allow all of the flavors to come together. Serve with chicken strips, french fries, or anything really!!

Store in the fridge in an airtight container.
 

Thanks for stopping by for a read today! 


Linking to Joyful Homemaking, Not Just a Housewife and A Bowl Full of Lemons.

Monday 29 April 2013

Menu Plan Monday - April 29, 2013


Good morning!! Happy Monday everyone! After a couple of crazy busy weekends and baking a couple of hundred cupcakes, I’m back and ready to menu plan!

For the past couple of weeks we have been menu plan-less. Meaning we had to (GASP!) willy-nilly make meal planning decisions – never a good thing in our house. The first week I was attending wedding events for the beautiful bride in the photo above (doesn’t she look gorgeous!!). Mandy’s wedding events meant that I was eating delicious Indian food all week long! The downside of that is the hubs was working so he had to fend for himself most of the week. Since I usually cook dinner at least five times a week, I felt bad leaving the hubs to fend for himself!

Miss A's dance performance night - sorry for the lighting, but doesn't she look cute??
I am trying out a new recipe this week. We usually have lasagne for dinner at least once a week, on a night when the kids have dance/swimming/some other event. Most weeks we have a Costco lasagne that we cook on those evenings. I saw a recipe (not sure where, but probably on Pinterest) for a lasagne that is made with ravioli noodles instead of regular lasagne noodles. I picked up some yummy filled ravioli last night and will be trying out a complete made up recipe later this week. If it turns out as fantastic as I hope it will, I will be sure to share with you all!
Just SOME of the cupcakes I made for Miss A's performance night:)
Thanks for stopping by, I hope you all have a fantastic week!

On the menu this week:

Monday: Roast Chicken, Rachel Salad & buns
Tuesday: Cashew Chicken in the crockpot, stir fry veggies and rice
Wednesday: Ravioli Lasagne (recipe to come!)
Thursday: Chicken parmesan, spaghetti with red sauce
Friday: Meatloaf, mashed potatoes and veggies in cheese sauce
Saturday: Dinner with our friends Kim & Mark!
Sunday: Salmon, Rice and veggies

I’ll be linking my menu plan up to OrgJunkie’s Menu Plan Monday – check it out!!

Monday 15 April 2013

Menu Plan Monday - April 15, 2013

Good morning!! I hope you are having a fantastic Monday! We had a great weekend here, lots of playing outside, Miss A finally figured out how to ride a pogo stick, and Miss E sunk a few baskets on our neighbourhood kid-sized basketball hoop. We all had a great time.
Yes, I gave my kids knives - they picked out peppers and wanted to learn to cut them!
As many of you know, I have a VERY picky six year old eater on my hands. Miss A only eats about 6 things on a regular basis. It’s absolute torture when planning dinner at a friend’s house, or a big family feast – we know she’s either going to eat a bun with butter, or we have to bring our own food for her. Well, last week we started a new bribery scheme challenge with Miss A. She gets to pick what new items she wants to try and when she tries at least a bite, she gets to fill in a square on her chart. When the chart is full, she can pick a Lego set from the toy store.

Yes, I know that this means I am basically paying my child to eat, but I’m at the point where I will try anything!! I tried the cookbook where you “sneak” veggies into your kids food, but sneaking cauliflower into meatloaf only works if your kid will eat the meatloaf!!

I don’t know how much actual cooking I’m going to get done this week!! My friend is getting married and is having a full on Indian wedding, so this week I will be getting all done up for a Ladies Party, Wedding and Reception! Throw in Miss A’s dance performance night, and there are a whole bunch of nights I don’t need to cook dinner! Oh well, that gives me time to suss out some new recipes for next week’s menu.

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you all have a fantastic week!

On the menu this week:

Monday: Lasagne Monday!
Tuesday: Stuffed chicken, potatoes, veggies & stuffing
Wednesday: Dinner out at the Ladies Party! Pizza for the hubs & kids
Thursday: Meatloaf, spaghetti with homemade marinara sauce
Friday: Perogies, beans and Guinness brats
Saturday: Miss A’s Dance Performance!
Sunday: Wedding Reception! Indian food tonight!

I’ll be linking my menu plan up to OrgJunkie’s Menu Plan Monday – check it out!!

Thursday 11 April 2013

Vanilla Buttercream Icing

Good afternoon everyone! Hope you are having a super fantastic day!! This is a crazy busy week for our family, it seems like I am running all over town playing chauffeur for the kids – even more than usual!

I found the time to make some super delicious, made with love cupcakes for some special ladies over the weekend. I made a batch for my younger sister’s baby shower on the weekend. These delicious little nibbles were chocolate cupcakes from this recipe, topped with chocolate fudge sauce and vanilla buttercream.

I also made these yummy desserts for a friend’s bridal shower at work this week. These are chocolate cupcakes (again from this recipe), filled with Jello Cheesecake Pudding and topped with vanilla buttercream. I have been asked time and again for my icing recipe, and since it certainly isn’t a trade secret, I thought I may as well share it here for all of you!

I have been making this very basic vanilla buttercream recipe for years. I am not sure where it originally came from, because I don’t need the recipe anymore, it’s stored in my head!

No cupcake is complete without a fancy swirl of icing on top, am I right? The swirl which looks so fancy and difficult is actually really really really easy! I use a 16” featherweight Wilton icing bag (though a smaller one would be fine, I just tend to bake in BIG batches, so I need a BIG bag to hold the icing) and a Wilton 1M icing tip. To make the swirl stand nice and tall, pipe a little wee star in the middle of the cupcake, then pipe in a circle around and over the star. That’s it! See? I told you it was easy!!

This icing recipe will cover 24 regular cupcakes, fancy swirl included!

Vanilla Buttercream Icing

Ingredients

1 cup butter, at room temperature (don’t take it out of the fridge and thaw in the microwave, it never turns out right… just leave it on the counter until it’s nice and soft)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract (yes, one tablespoon!)
4 cups icing sugar
2-4 tablespoons of milk, a splash at a time

Instructions

In the bowl of your stand mixer, beat the butter until light and creamy. Add a tablespoon of vanilla extract and mix another 20 seconds until well combined. Add the icing sugar, one cup at a time, beating between each addition.

When all four cups of icing sugar have been added, leave the mixer a-mixing for another minute or so, you’ll find it will come together a bit more. At this point, add milk, one tablespoon at a time until you reach the desired consistency for your icing. I like my piping icing to hold up, and be sort of the consistency of room temperature butter. If I was using the icing to frost a cake, I would add a bit more milk to thin it out.

Assemble your icing bag, with the coupler and the tip, fill the bag, and get piping!! If you are new to piping icing, lay some wax paper on the counter and practice! Anything you pipe you can throw back into the bag and use again. This icing also colors well. My favourite icing colors are made by Duff. You can also freeze this icing if you make a huge batch and have leftovers. Just put the icing into an airtight container and use it the next time you are baking.



Linking to Joyful Homemaking, Not Just a Housewife and A Bowl Full of Lemons.

Monday 8 April 2013

Menu Plan Monday - April 8, 2013

I made these lovelies for my sister's baby shower on the weekend!
Hello my internet friends!! I hope you are having a fantastic Monday! After a crazy weekend filled with birthday parties and baby showers, and a week off of menu planning, today I’m back with a plan – one that I hope I can stick to!!

I have been menu planning for about a year now and I can definitely see how much it has helped my family stay organized and on track. It only takes a few short minutes to create a plan for the week, and when we stick to it, it means less eating out or last minute frozen pizza nights!

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you all have a fantastic week!

On the menu this week:
Recipe
Monday: Lasagne Monday!
Tuesday: Dinner Out for Me!! Grandma’s bringing the kids dinner!
Wednesday: Teriyaki Chicken Stir Fry with Rice and Veggies
Thursday: Dinner on the go
Friday: BBQ Chicken breasts with potatoes and corn
Saturday: Brinner! Breakfast for dinner  
Sunday: Chicken Pot Pie

I’ll be linking my menu plan up to OrgJunkie’s Menu Plan Monday – check it out!!

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