Happy Olympics!

I went to watch the opening ceremony at a friends since Mike and I don't have cable. I thought it was a little strange at times but overall beautiful and moving. It was fun to watch Voldemort get defeated by Mary Poppins clones! The Olympics are such a special event that really shows was people are willing to work for.

I wish all the athletes competing from all countries luck in pursuing their dream!

"May the odds be ever in your favour!" ~ Effie Trinket, The Hunger Games

Bake Sale for Bella

On Saturday, my mom, KM, and I volunteered at a garage sale being held to raise money for an amazing little girl! Her name is Bella and she is the daughter of my high school assistant band directer and she is fighting brain cancer. She has a wonderful spirit, beautiful smile, and never ever gives up!

Our crew was in charge of the bake sale and Friday was a crazy baking day at all three houses. Mom made muffins, chocolate covered pretzels, rice crispy treats, and brought donuts and fruit to sell. KM and her mom made M&M and chocolate chip cookies (I got to lick the bowl while watching the Olympic opening ceremony!). We had a lot of other friends volunteer to bring treats to sell and ended up with a full table!

I made devil's food cupcakes with strawberry frosting, red velvet crinkle cookies, and chocolate alien cupcakes.

I put the cupcakes in plastic cups (like the ones you get on airplanes but nicer) then wrapped them in plastic treat bags with a ribbon. This helped keep the frosting pretty! The alien eyeballs are premade candies that you can find at Target or Michael's. They were a big hit with the kids! There was even a lady that came to make balloon animals and gave her proceeds to help!

It was a fun and successful garage sale with a lot of helping hands all there to support Bella! Bella's family has a blog that can be found here. They do most of their updates on Facebook but are getting back into the blog!

"What you do today is important because you are exchanging a day of your life for it." ~ Unknown 

Masquerade Birthday Party

This year my birthday fell within a month of my wedding. I was pretty 'celebrated out' but since it was my 25th, I didn't want to completely ignore it. Everyone in my life had spent a lot of time preparing and celebrating the wedding so I just decided to host a little party at our place. It was supposed to be a joint party with KM since her birthday is only a week from mine, but she ended up getting appendicitis the day of! She's ended up recovering well but unfortunately had to miss our party.

While in Florence for our honeymoon, I had picked up a lace mask which is where the inspiration came from. Guests brought appetizers and I baked pink champagne cupcakes with little toppers I had made. Due to time reasons on the day of, I picked this recipe off of the Betty Crocker website. I like champagne and pink so when the recipe popped up in a search, I knew they'd be perfect! I put up a few decorations, lots of flowers, and we played Celebrity!

Pink Champagne Cupcakes

1 box Betty Crocker® SuperMoist® white cake mix

1 1/4 cups champagne

1/3 cup vegetable oil

3 egg whites

4 to 5 drops red food color

Champagne Frosting

1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened

4 cups powdered sugar

1/4 cup champagne

1 teaspoon vanilla

4 to 5 drops red food color

Heat oven to 350°F (325°F for dark or nonstick pan). Place paper baking cup in each of 24 regular-size muffin cups. In large bowl, mix dry cake mix and champagne. Add oil, egg whites and food color. Beat with electric mixer on medium speed 2 minutes. Divide batter evenly among muffin cups. Bake 17 to 22 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pan to cooling rack. Cool completely, about 30 minutes. In medium bowl, beat frosting ingredients with electric mixer on medium speed until smooth. Frost cupcakes. Sprinkle with garnishes. Store loosely covered.

They were cute and you could even tell they had champagne in them by how light they were!  

Since people are always getting their cups mixed up, I put tags on the glasses we used. Guests wrote their own names on and they looked classier than red solo cups! 

It was a fun gathering and I enjoyed spending a low key birthday with my friends!

"Three be the things I shall never attain: Envy, content, and sufficient champagne." ~ Dorothy Parker

Our Honeymoon Photo Book

Shutterfly photo books offer a wide range of artful designs and embellishments to choose from.

If there is one thing I've learned over the years about scrapbooking and photo memories is that if you don't do it right away, it won't happen. That is why I wasted little time getting together our honeymoon photos and making a photo book. We received a gift card as a wedding present and am so lucky we did! The book ended up being 64 pages but I'm so happy it is done and ordered!

When I travel, I keep a journal. Instead of captioning each photo I instead copied my journal pages into the album. I'm really happy with how it turned out and it's going to great to have these memories put together to share. 

Above is the electronic version of the book from shutterfly.com and if you have the patience or interest to look through the whole thing, enjoy! If not, just know that it was worth it and shutterfly makes photo books easy and customizable. 

"Every man's memory is his private literature."  ~Aldous Huxley

P.S. I hope you like the new layout! I was in the mood for a new look :)
 

Guest Bathrooms

We all have a bathroom designated for guests to use when they visit our homes. For some (especially in college) it's the only bathroom and for others, it's a downstairs powder room. Whatever the case, you want your guests to feel comfortable using it. We've all been there: no toilet paper, no tissues, or in the worst case scenario, no plunger. I was recently in the home of a family I work with and discovered no toilet paper. While it isn't an uncommon or embarrassing situation, it does make your guest uncomfortable to ask or inform you about it. Mike and I host a lot of parties and gatherings for our friends and the last thing I want is for them to feel uncomfortable in any way, especially using our restroom. Below are my tips for stocking the bathroom that your guests will be using!

~ Extra toilet paper. Seems like a no brainer but we've all been in a situation where it has run out and there are no extra rolls easily found. 

~ A box of tissues. Usually used on noses but can be used for emergency toilet tissue. Either way, if a guest needs one, they will usually look in the bathroom first.

~ Soap. Again, seems like a no brainer but refill before an event.

~ Towels. I mostly came across this in college but there would magically be no towels in the bathroom so my clothes would become drying apparatuses. 

~ Plunger. Quite possibly the most embarrassing thing for a guest to ask for. Save both of you the trouble and just keep one in there. It will help you, the host, out a lot because by the time they ask for one, it may be too late!

~ Extra feminine products. Sometimes we forget to bring our purse to the bathroom. Sometimes we run out. Sometimes we didn't plan well. Do us a favour and keep a few under the sink and easy to find. Mine are in a little basket next to the extra toilet paper.

One last tip: Please do not have photos of your family members in the bathroom. No one wants to look at their hosts while using the toilet. Keep the artwork simple like landscapes or quotes. If you must have a member of your family featured in the bathroom, make it the dog or cat.

“Comfort is no test of truth. Truth is often far from being comfortable.” ~ Swami Vivekananda  

A Little Bit of Christmas in July

It's been hot this week here in Southern California so naturally, I've begun dreaming of Christmas. It is, no doubt, my favourite time of year but more on that later! I just wanted to share how we hung our Christmas cards this past holiday season. 

Mike and I had just moved in together the weekend before Thanksgiving so the holiday season was in full swing and we immediately began receiving mail. I had a few walls 'reserved' for wedding photos I knew would come so I pick one in between the living room and kitchen to display all the lovely cards sent by family, friends, and students. I stuck up the first few with blue tape because that what my mom uses. It turns out, the blue tape did not hold up well to my walls. Mike suggested using push pins for each card and all I could picture was a wall full of tiny holes that would drive me crazy for the entire time we lived here. I was almost ready to give up when I pulled out some wrapping supplies and came across some gorgeous silver and glittery winter ribbon and knew it was the answer to my problems. 

I cut 3 long pieces (floor to ceiling - we had a lot of cards!) and used push pins to pin them to the wall way up high out of sight, and they were lovely. I then began stapling each card to the ribbon. It was the perfect solution to my little holiday problem and was a beautiful way to display our loved ones!

That wall now has a large canvas wedding photo on it as planned so I'll have to get creative when Christmastime arrives! To top off our mini holiday break, here is our Christmas tree from last year!

"If I missed my chance, I didn't even try, I'm not one to regret Christmas in July" - Sufjan Stevens

Pinwheels

I've been looking for a fun summer craft to do with kids when I looked out into my own backyard and saw my ladybug pinwheel! Pinwheels are so fun and add life and colour to dull spaces so I knew I had a mission. My pinwheels, however, do not spin. I'm sure there are ways to make ones that do (or even make mine spin!) but the way I learned make pretty decorations for parties, cupcakes, or playhouses. 

Here's how to make pinwheels in 9 easy steps!

1. Start with a square

2. Fold in half diagonally

3. Fold diagonally again

4. snip off the very tip - just a tiny bit to create a hole in the center of the square

5. Unfold

6. Cut just over half way up each fold

7. Punch a hole on right side of each cut

 

8.Gather the four holes together and place a brad through all four

9.Fasten bad on reverse side

Voilà! You have a pinwheel!

Use two sheets of paper, back to back for double printed pinwheels and attach a skewer or dowel to back of pinwheel with wire or glue gun. Below are the ones I made with the child I was babysitting. So sweet!

Enjoy your pinwheels!

"As long as the world is turning and spinning, we're gonna be dizzy and we're gonna make mistakes." ~ Mel Brooks

Babysitting & Nannying

 Last night I babysat a sweet little girl. We did crafts, watched Lilo & Stitch, read, and had dinner. All the usual fun babysitting activities! What was different was that I had not babysat her before and this was my first 'new family' in a while and because that was the case, I had to dig through my documents and find my babysitting forms. 

Taking care of other peoples children, while fun and for the most part easy to do, is a huge responsibility! I've been a babysitter since age 9 and have always taken it seriously. It's a fantastic job and I have so much fun with the kids but it is important to remember that YOU are in charge and YOU are responsible should anything happen. This could be as small as a scrape to as big as a food allergy reaction. Since one of my many motto's is "Better safe than sorry and better paranoid than dead", I make sure I get all the information I need to be an effective care taker for the time I'm with the children.

There are certain kids (like my cousin and the two boys I nanny) that I have all these things memorized or already in my phone because I am with them frequently. When I only see a family for date night sitting, I make sure I get what I need from the parents before I go. 

One of the things people forget to ask for and parents forget to leave clearly marked is the home address. In an emergency, the first thing 911 asks you is where you are. (I unfortunately know this for a fact - not from babysitting though!) If there is a child not breathing or seriously hurt, you do not want to be running outside the house looking at the number and trying to remember the street name. I've been lucky enough that the only time I've needed an address urgently while babysitting was because the pizza place was asking for it. But sitters, make sure you know where you are and parents, leave it clearly marked by the phone. 

The other bits of information I get are allergies and medications. You'd think that would be common sense but unfortunately it isn't. As the sitter, you need to ask. Sometimes parents are so flustered getting out the door that they will forget to tell you. They aren't thinking about telling you because it is a part of their daily lives that is like breathing to them. If I give a child medication, I always write down the time and how much. You don't want to have given a kid a dose of Tylenol and then the parents come home a half hour later and give them another dose. That would not end well... So my point is clear communication!

The last thing I leave is my information. If something were to happen to me, I want the parents and older children to know who to call. I will admit that when I was going through some health issues, I made sure to ask the older child if he knew what to do if I wasn't breathing (I just wanted him to call 911, not attempt CPR) It sounds odd but you can't help the kids if you can't help yourself.

I have, below, the link to my Family Information form. It has spots for all the information I find useful to gather when I am taking care of someone elses children. Feel free to use this form or make your own based off of it!

Family Information Form

The last important detail that is especially important when nannying or any time you take the children out and about is a medical release form. For my nannying job, I have a hand written one their mom made when I began with them almost 4 years ago. I keep it in my wallet because if we are going to the hospital, my purse will be with me. With other families, I leave it under the Family Information form so it's easy to grab. This document basically says that in an emergency situation, you as the nanny/babysitter can act on behalf of the parents until they arrive. Again, one of those forms you never want to use but if you need it, you want to have it. Below is a link to the one I like to use. Have the parents fill it out and leave it somewhere easy to grab!

Nanny Medical Release Form

So those were my words of wisdom on nannying and babysitting! Last bit of advice, make sure you get CPR and First Aid trained (if you aren't already) and that you renew your training every 2 years!

"A good film is when the price of the dinner, the theatre admission, and the babysitter were worth it." ~ Alfred Hitchcock

Culinary School: Basics Day I

For my birthday this year, my incredible family members gifted me with donations toward taking cooking classes! I've wanted to take classes for a while but it was so expensive - this was the perfect gift! I chose a culinary school that meets nearby and picked the basics class in their gourmet series. A few friends have asked me why I signed up for the basics class since I already cook so much. I told them that since I've never had formal training, I wanted to see if there were any habits I could change with my cooking techniques and you always learn new things from classes like these! My coworker, LM, signed up to take the class with me, too!

Our first class was Thursday. We walked in and we were in a professional student kitchen. There were three other students, the chef, and a dishwasher. During the introductions, it was interesting to hear why people were taking the class - anything from being a fresh out of college student to a sweet woman who claimed she couldn't make anything other than spaghetti. Our chef explained to us that she had once worked in the corporate world and decided she needed a life change. She says she is much happier now!

We learned a lot of basic skills in class including how to hold, use, and sharpen knives but the big focus was cutting different vegetables. Each class has a menu of recipes designed to teach us different techniques. We received a page with notes of kitchen skills. Here are some of my favourites:

Prep your ingredients. Having everything ready to roll before you actually start cooking will make you more efficient and your cooking more enjoyable.

Cook onions more and garlic less. Give onions time to take on some colour and develop a sweet, round flavour. Bot don't add chopped garlic, which burns easily, until you've given other ingredients a head start.

Clean as you go. A neat workspace is safer and more efficient. Plus, you get to enjoy your meals without the dread of washing all those dirty dishes. *I already do this one, I learned it from my mommy, but it is something everyone should do!*

Let all meat rest before carving. Without a rest to let the meats juices redistribute, your meat will be dry.

*All of the above tips are written in my notebook and belong to LCA

Our next discussion was about pantry basics. Things you should always try to have on hand to cook most recipes. The list includes food items, cookware, and tools. I'm excited to say that I'm only missing 11 out of the list of 67 items and most of those are things like olives and a stove top smoker.

We began chopping and cooking vegetables for our recipes and I more excited than I should have when I realized I had already been prepping green beans and asparagus correctly (Thanks mom!) and cutting onions the right way (Thanks Aunt C!). There are so many other great tips I learned that were new to me:

• Prepare all citrus and salt but only add half to the recipe. Then taste and add as needed. You can always add more but you can not take away.
• Use white pepper for light sauces and fish
• 'Seasoning' just means salt and pepper
• Asparagus is fresh if the tips are tight. It is old if the tips are frayed
• You should wait for water to boil before you add salt, except with potatoes

The recipes we made were so fresh and delicious! I enjoyed eating vegetables I hadn't been a fan of before (like peppers). Our chef explains each recipe then we all get to do different parts to work together to create the beautiful plates below. I made sure to get tasks that I hadn't done before in order to practice (like this really amazing way of cutting peppers!) Once all done, we plate the food and get to enjoy it together as a class. Here are our dishes:

Sauteed Green Beans with Almonds and Blue Cheese

Gazpacho (we added creme fraiche after I took the photo)

Grilled Vegetables with Smoked Tomato Aioli and Ponzu Dipping Sauce

Crostini with Roasted Peppers

We got to take leftovers home which Mike enjoyed that evening. Everything was incredible - the food, the people, and the experience. I can't wait to return next week!

"Cooking is not a particularly difficult art, and the more you cook and learn about cooking, the more sense it makes." ~ Julia Child

Book Club: Before Ever After

I have always loved book clubs. As a student I loved weekly discussions and as a teacher it was my favourite part of working with 6th grade last year. I've tried to join others a few times but the dates never worked out. My friend, NE, and I tried to have a little book club between us, too. She lives in Arizona and we were successful for one book (The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett - loved it!) by meeting on Skype but didn't pursue it after completing that epic novel.

I finally decided to start my own book club. Many of my friends read similar books as me so why not? I used the book club my mom is a part of (filled with other moms of my childhood and high school friends) as a model. We meet once a month, share about the book we all chose to read, eat delicious food, and choose the next book. The idea to do this came to me while with two of my awesome coworkers, LM and VY, so the 3 of us just picked a book we thought would be good. I made a Facebook group and invited other girlfriends I thought would be interested.

Due to the quick notice of our first meeting, only the 3 of us were able to attend, only 2 of us read the book, and only 1 of us liked the book! But we still had a lot of fun! (Just so you know, next month is looking a lot more successful!)

July 2012 Book Club: Before Ever After by Samantha Sotto

Here is the Amazon description: "Three years after her husband Max's death, Shelley feels no more adjusted to being a widow than she did that first terrible day. That is, until the doorbell rings. Standing on her front step is a young man who looks so much like Max–same smile, same eyes, same age, same adorable bump in his nose–he could be Max's long-lost relation. He introduces himself as Paolo, an Italian editor of American coffee table books, and shows Shelley some childhood photos. Paolo tells her that the man in the photos, the bearded man who Paolo says is his grandfather though he never seems to age, is Max. Her Max. And he is alive and well.

As outrageous as Paolo's claims seem–how could her husband be alive? And if he is, why hasn't he looked her up? – Shelley desperately wants to know the truth. She and Paolo jet across the globe to track Max down–if it is really Max– and along the way, Shelley recounts the European package tour where they had met. As she relives Max's stories of bloody Parisian barricades, medieval Austrian kitchens, and buried Roman boathouses, Shelley begins to piece together the story of who her husband was and what these new revelations mean for her "happily ever after." And as she and Paolo get closer to the truth, Shelley discovers that not all stories end where they are supposed to."

 In case you didn't guess it, I was the one who liked the book. I enjoy a good sappy romance. It was easy to tell that this was Sotto's first book and it was quite difficult to get through. What kept me going was the story. I loved the idea she had even if the writing itself did not flow well together. It jumps all over between different time periods and characters but I eventually got the hang of it. I loved trying to figure out who Max was in each reflection of the past. Overall, I thought it was an interesting story but not high on my recommendation list.

What this book really made me want was baked eggs. The character, Max, makes egg dishes all throughout the story so when figuring out what I would make, the answer was obvious. I actually found a recipe from the author for baked eggs and fortunately, Mike opted to be my test dummy. I have to say, they were delectable. Especially when you took a bite with the flavours of cream and truffle oil! I found the recipes here and below is the one I fell in love with.

Four Cheese Baked Eggs

- 1 tablespoon heavy cream
- 2 eggs
- A few drops of white truffle oil
- ½ tablespoon sharp Cheddar cheese, grated
- ½ tablespoon mozzarella cheese, grated
- 1 teaspoon Parmesan cheese, grated
- 1 teaspoon feta, crumbled
- Chopped basil for garnish (optional)

Directions:
Pre-heat oven to 450F. Pour cream into small ramekin. Crack eggs over cream. Drizzle eggs with truffle oil. Sprinkle Cheddar, mozzarella, Parmesan, and feta over eggs. Bake for 7 to 12 minutes, depending on how runny you like your eggs. Garnish with basil

The other item frequently mentioned in the book is jasmine tea. VY is a fantastic baker and made incredible cakes using jasmine tea for dessert though you can make it with any tea you like! She found the recipe here and says 3 tablespoons of tea leaves was around 9 tea bags for her.

Chamomile Cupcakes with Honey Glaze

recipe from Joy the Baker Cookbook

For the Cupcakes:

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, softened

1 cup all-purpose flour

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

pinch of salt

3 tablespoons dried chamomile (I got mine from tea bags)

1/2 cup milk (I used two percent)

1 large egg

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

For the Glaze:

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1 tablespoon honey

about 5 tablespoons heavy cream

pinch of salt

Place a rack in the upper third of the oven and preheat oven to 325 degrees F.  Line a cupcake pan with paper or foil liners and set aside.

To make the cakes:  in the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream together butter, flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, pinch of salt, and chamomile leaves.  Mix on medium speed until the mixture is slightly coarse and sandy.  This takes about 5 minutes.

While the mixture beats, in a small bowl, whisk together milk, egg, and vanilla extract.

Pour half of the milk mixture into the flour mixture.  Beat until just incorporated.  Pour in the remaining milk mixture, turn the mixer up to medium-high speed and beat for 1 minutes, until well blended.

Divide the batter between the prepared cups.  There isn’t a lot of batter so you’ll only fill the cups up half way.  You’ll also need to scrape the bowl for remaining batter.  This recipe doesn’t waste a drop.

Bake the cupcakes for 17 to 20 minutes, or until a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean.  Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the pan for 10 minutes.  Remove the cupcakes from the pan to cool completely before frosting.

To make the glaze: in a medium bowl, whisk together powdered sugar, honey, cream, and salt.  Whisk until smooth.  Use a butter knife to generously spread the frosting atop the cooled cupcakes.  Sprinkle with just a bit of chamomile tea leaves and arrange on a pretty plate.  Cakes will last, well wrapped, at room temperature for up to three days.

Overall successful first book club meeting and I'm already looking forward to August!

"Shelley had fallen in love with Max’s baked eggs and cheese almost as soon as she had fallen in love with Max himself.  They were in Paris when he first made the dish for her and the tour group she had hastily joined.  Since then each forkful tasted like that morning—warm, buttery, and bursting with full-fat promise." ~ Before Ever After

Couch to 5K

Mike and I have decided to begin the Couch to 5K running program! Yay! We've never been very good runners (I dreaded the 10 minute run in middle school PE) so we thought this looked like a good plan to get us in the habit of doing so.

Basically, it is a 9 week program designed to ease you into becoming a regular runner. You run 3 days a week (though you can do more!) and each week you do different amounts of brisk walking and jogging. For example, this evening was our first night so we had a 5 minute warm up walk then alternated between 1 minute jogging and 1 1/2 minutes walking then ended with a 5 minute cool down walk. We will do the same thing both of our other nights this week and if we choose to do more than the required 3 in a week, we just repeat the same pattern until the new week begins.

My favourite part about this is the app for Iphone! You pick which work out you are on (Week 1, Day 1) then it keeps track of the times for you! You can even listen to your music and it will interrupt to tell you when to jog and walk. It also tracks how far you went.

 

The best part about this is that Mike and I are doing it together! The biggest reason exercise has failed me in the past is that I enjoy it best when I have someone to do it with. Before we left for our first run this evening, we each wrote down reasons why we want to run. My list included wanting to be healthy, look good in my wedding dress when I wear it again in October for more photos, and make my body future baby ready. We taped them up so if one of us is not up to running, we can remind each other why we need and want to do it. It's nice knowing I'm more accountable because someone is expecting me to join them and that we can give each other encouragement along the way.

I'm proud of us!

I'm also hoping to get back into yoga (something I did for a few years at the end of and after college) and also taking advantage of my Wii Zumba! All I have to do is remember how good I feel afterwards and that it will be worth it! Who knows? Maybe I can join KM in the Disney Half Marathon this year!

"Just go. Getting out the door is always the hardest part!" ~ Found on Pinterest :)

Watermelon Pops

One of my favourite summer treats growing up was the frozen watermelon my mom would slice up and give to us after running around outside all day. Now that I am making this treat on my own, I decided to add my own special flair to it! 

I purchased a baby watermelon at Vons (too cute!) and I have to say that it took everything in my power not to eat the whole thing by myself! I picked two cookie cutters and cut the watermelon into slices about the width of the cutters. The photo below shows the end pieces which only fit one cut but the others fit two or three!

They ended up being small treats, just the right amount for someone with sensitive teeth! They can be made bigger though and even just large triangle slices. I didn't have popsicle sticks so I stuck a toothpick in each one since holding a frozen piece of watermelon can be hard on the fingers. 

I gave one to Mike after dinner and he kept asking me what was in them. He didn't believe it was truly, only watermelon! Such a sweet treat to share with family and kids on warm summer afternoons!

"When one has tasted watermelon, he knows what the angels eat." ~ Mark Twain

4th of July

Happy belated 4th of July!

My family and I had an amazing time shooting off fireworks, playing with balloon swords, and eating yummy treats! This holiday is almost as big as Christmas to my family. We had almost 40 people celebrating and enjoying each others company. I used this opportunity to try a few new recipes!

Patriotic Chocolate Covered Strawberries

This is an idea I've seen all over the internet and since one of my favourite treats is chocolate covered strawberries, I had to give these a try! I purchased white melting chocolate and blue sprinkles from Michael's and got strawberries from Sprouts. It was really easy to follow the directions on the package for the the white chocolate (just be careful not to overheat!) I made an assembly line, used a toothpick to easily swirl the strawberries in chocolate, placed the finished strawberries on parchment paper, and refrigerated them. They were quite delicious!

Citrus Curry Quinoa

Quinoa is one of my new favourite grains to cook with. There are so many things you can do with it! I thought that citrus and curry would be good summer flavours to share with everyone. I found the recipe on allrecipes and tripled it for the number of people attending.When I took the pictures, I hadn't added the almonds yet. Also, I thought golden raisins would be a sweeter touch than normal ones.

1 cup quinoa
1 cup low-sodium vegetable broth
1 cup water
1/4 cup fresh orange juice
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
2 teaspoons honey
1 tablespoon curry powder
2 tablespoons minced red onion
1/2 cup raisins
sea salt to taste
1/2 cup toasted sliced almonds

1. Bring the quinoa, vegetable broth, and water to a boil in a saucepan over high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer until the quinoa is tender, and the water has been absorbed, about 15 to 20 minutes.
2. While the quinoa is cooking, prepare the dressing by whisking together the orange juice, lemon juice, olive oil, mustard, honey, and curry powder in a mixing bowl. Stir in the cooked quinoa, red onion, and raisins; season to taste with sea salt. Cover, and chill in the refrigerator several hours until cold.
3. Stir in half of the toasted almonds immediately before serving. Sprinkle the remaining almonds over top to serve.  

I also attempted cute 4th of July nails! I'm not very good at painting my own nails but I thought these turned out pretty decent. 

I hope you and your families had a wonderful 4th of July!

"Love is not always fireworks and shooting stars; sometimes it's a simple understanding and trust between two people." ~ Unknown