A busy summer and a new sister!

Hi Everyone,


Sorry for not posting in a while and I have had a few people remind me of this in the last few weeks so I thought I would post a few things I have been doing and a quick update.


The summer in our House was busy, busy, and Busy.  We had my little sister and little brother at our house for a month and then my other sister and her boyfriend came out for a week as well.  Ty's brother Cory also got married at the end of August which brought us another house guest for a week.  Tyler's sister Amber who lives in Manila Philippians.  We were not expecting her to come, so we were all thrilled when she surprised us! 


Cory's wedding was in a little town outside of Lethbridge called Leavitt at this little lodge.  It was one the the best weddings we have ever been too as it was so relaxed and fun.  I describe the theme as Hippy Chic.


The best part...the kids were having so much fun flying kites, hitting pinatas and playing on the playground equipment they didn't bother anyone all day. 

I made cupcakes and cake pops at home here then transported them the 3 1/2 hours to the wedding location.  I made Tutti Frutti (Strawberry cake with Strawberry icing with Candy topping), Maple Bacon (Butter cake with maple frosting and bacon topping), First Kiss (Chocolate cake with a Hershey kiss baked inside topped with cherry icing and a chocolate dipped cherry) and Lemon Ginger (Lemon cake with lemon icing topped with candied lemon peels and ginger which my brother helped me candy).  I also made a variety of cake pops.  They wanted it to be colorful and the end product was definitely colorful and yummy.

All in all our summer was fun, busy and we got a new wonderful sister out of the deal.  Welcome Brandy.  We love you!

A specail gift goes along way

I really wanted to do something special as a gift for Cory and Brandy for their wedding.  So I had the idea to make them a family cookbook and get it professionally printed.  I signed up for an American site called Shutterfly, enlisted my family for their most loved recipes and got started.  The site was super easy to use and I loved all of the choices I had.  Usually free sites only give you a few choices or make you purchase additional layouts or embellishments but not Shutterfly! They give you tons of choices.  I painstakingly spent a good few weeks putting together my final creation then placed my order.  I was a bit worried that the cookbook would not arrive on time as I knew that it would need to clear customs and past experience told me that could take a while......and it was down to the wire.  The book arrived 30 minutes prior to my scheduled departure to the wedding.  I was so happy it arrived and I was very satisfied with the final product.  It looked great, the printing was awesome and what better for a gift than something made from the heart!


Check out my photobook at Shutterfly http://shortcakesbymichelle.shutterfly.com/

I Love Fall and I Love my Slowcooker

I've been making all sorts of wonderful things in my slow cooker recently.  I even borrowed my dad's 1 day and had 2 different meals cooking.  What I love about the slow cooker is if you do a bit of prep you can turn it on and forget about it. 


Recently I have made Ratatouille and Black Bean Chili.  I then portion them out into individual containers and freeze them.  In the morning when I am running late I can just grab 1 for my lunch and be ready.  By lunch they have defrosted enough to dump them into a bowl to be reheated and enjoyed.  Here is the Ratatouille recipe I used which is from Company's Coming Most Loved Slow Cooker Creations.   Now all of you that fear eggplant...don't it was good and this was super satisfying and yummy.  I added more veggies to mine as I had a few zucchinis to get rid of and bought a huge eggplant.  I also cooked it for 1/2 hr longer on high.

Ratatouille

From Company’s Coming Most Loved Slow Cooker Creations

Combine all 14 ingredients in 3 ½ to 4 quart (3.5 to 4 l) slow cooker.  Cook, covered, on low for 8 to 9 hours or on high for 4 -4 1/2 hours.  Makes about 6 1/.2 cups. 

1 cup: 72 calories

Sliced Zucchini (with peel), ¼ inch thick (6mm) thick	Combine all 14 ingredients in 3 ½ to 4 quart (3.5 to 4 l) slow cooker.  Cook, covered, on low for 8 to 9 hours or on high for 4 -4 1/2 hours.  Makes about 6 1/.2 cups.  1 cup: 72 calories 3 cups
Small eggplant (with peel), cut into ½ inch (12 mm) cubes	1
Can of diced tomatoes (with juice)	14 oz
Chopped Celery	1 cup
Finely Chopped onion	1 cup
Medium Green (or red) pepper, chopped	1
Ketchup	¼ cup
Sugar	2 tsp
Parsley flakes	1 tsp
Dried basil	½ tsp
Dried Oregano	½ tsp
Garlic powder	½ tsp
Salt	½ tsp
Pepper	1/8 tsp