Mississippi Mud S'Mores Fudge Pie, Tomato Pizza Fondue...A Sweet Gift

Hi Everyone! I hope you're having a nice Sunday. I am because the weather is mild, the snow is melting and that means the loud neighbours can't rev their snowmobiles back and forth all day long, yippee! :) I wanted to share our Valentine's Day meal with you! Firstly, do you do stuff like this? I look up napkin folding for every celebration, isn't this cute? :)

We had a nice romantic meal! I tried out a new fondue, I think it's a winner!

Tomato Pizza Fondue.  When you dip your bread into this lovely fondue, it really does taste like a luscious pizza! :) LOVED this one! 

Okay, are you ready??? Drumroll please....

TADAAA!!! One of the finer cakes I've made in a LONG time!!! This beauty is a Mississippi Mud S'Mores Fudge Pie!! (say that 5 times fast!!) This is basically a chewy brownie in a graham cracker crust with browned marshmallows and chocolate syrup...all we could manage was to share one piece together after the fondue! 

Look at that crust!

We had Shepherd's Pie during the week too. I make mine meatless and just add cheese on top for the broiler, so I guess it's just a corn and potato pie! I always make more for Alex and freeze the rest for quick microwave lunches for him. We finished off the leftover Homemade Ketchup with it and it was really delicious!

Linguine Carbonara. Since winter is all about comfort, this reflects in most of my meals...who am I kidding? My entire LIFE is about comfort! We have more celebrating this week because it's my 50th birthday on Tuesday. It's hard to believe, feels like a dream or something. I don't feel my age, but my life seems to have flown by too quickly! :) Speaking of that today is my one-year anniversary of starting this blog! I've been blogging off and on since 2007, but this one is really where my heart is. :)

A sweet gift from a Sweet Heart. :) Most of you know Mama Pea over at A Home Grown Journal. She and I have become very good friends over the last year! I went to check the mail on Valentine's Day because I was expecting an order. Lo and behold, look what Mama Pea had sent me! A handmade Valentine!!! Isn't she the sweetest? And it arrived on the perfect day! Isn't her address label cute? Her daughter, Chicken Mama, made them for her. Thank you again Mama Pea!!! I'll treasure this on my memory board always! :) xxx

I've been wanting to try pastels for a while and when they went on sale, I couldn't resist!

I was kind of flying blind the first day I used them! I came up with a stormy night...it's not my favourite, but it gave me an idea of how the pastels work and what I can do with them.

Then yesterday I really had some fun! I took my time and played with colours and blending and I'm so proud of my little red squirrel!! :) I think I will have permanently smudged fingertips from all the blending! 

💘 All About Love Today! 💘

Hi Everyone and Happy Valentine's Day! Sending love out to all of my friends! :)

Michael's Scribble Picnic theme today is "Mushy" (follow the link for more mushy scribbles!). At first, this word brought back not-so-pleasant childhood memories of being served mushy peas with nearly every meal. I do NOT like peas (gag gag)...but mushy also can be described as corny, romantic and lovey-dovey...I'm all about lovey-dovey! :) Here is my watercolour I call "Flowing Love". And to add some more mushy to my life...

...I drew this as my daily drawing. Remember those old cards from grade school? Well, I was in grade school in the 70's so that's when they were around. They'd come in a large pack and you'd just pop them out of the carton? Some that are inspiring are these:

I love these cards!!! You can't find stuff like this anymore.

This is the card I made for Alex, talk about mushy! :)

This morning's sunrise. I was up at 5am today. I get so excited on these special days that I couldn't sleep much later! (I'm like a kid on Christmas morning) I wanted to plan the surprises and the dinner and get my day going early.

As the morning flew by, we started to get some clouds. "Mares tails and mackerel scales make tall ships take in their sails." We have mackerel scale skies currently, which means a storm is on the way. There is actually rain in the forecast tomorrow, yeesh! It's going to be a SLUSHY-MUSHY mess! :)

More fridge fun. :)

Sigh...doggie updates...Pavlov is out of his cone as of this morning. We had to keep it on longer than expected because he found a way to push the cone onto the bed to reach his toe. So he was licking in secret. He was banned from the bed after that, but he's on the mend! Stella...her poor paws got all cut up the morning after we had the ice storm. That ice is damn sharp for sensitive paws! She's better this morning too. 

The bread is baked and cooling on the counter for tonight's Tomato Pizza Fondue! I'm also making a Mississippi Mud S'mores-Fudge Pie for dessert..I'll blog about that luscious goodness this weekend!! :)

I hope everyone has a love-filled day and is feeling very grateful for the people and critters in their lives today. :) I am! I'll leave you with a few of the love-themed drawings I did this week! 

"Monster Love"

"Love Never Forgotten"

"Forever Love"

Fudge-A-Licious!

It's Sunday and there is freezing rain happening as I type this. I just hope we don't lose power! The weather is so wonky these days. Thank goodness I shoveled the driveway this morning or that foot and a half of snow would have ended up a block of ice by tomorrow! I have to say though, I was ready for a quiet Sunday in my pj's. I always say I live by the seasons and I ain't kiddin'. When Mother Nature decides to lay down weather, we must reschedule sometimes!!!

So in keeping with my weekly challenge to try out a new recipe...I made my very first fudge and it worked! Fudge can be tricky because if you don't heat it to the right temperature (235 F), it doesn't set later on. Here is the recipe I followed: Brown Sugar Fudge. The instructions are pretty general, but I followed them. After you let it cool, you are supposed to whisk the fudge until it lightens in colour and loses its gloss. I think  my arm would have fallen off, so I cheated and used my electric egg beater! :) 

I made pizza last Friday for National Pizza Day! :) We had fries too and I brought out those baskets and the checkered liners I'd bought last year for the fish and chips. It makes it fun! :)

And before the freezing rain, we had snow. It was really nice, big flakes! 

This is a busy week. Shopping week so that means menu planning and sifting through flyers...I have to say I'm not in the mood for that. I'm back on a bi-weekly shopping trip, sigh...I need to organize myself and get back to my monthly plan soon. I hate driving in the winter! 

Tuesday is Pancake Day and Wednesday is Valentine's Day. Do you have anything special planned? I do! :)

Good News From The Window Garden!!! 🌱🌱🌱

SEVEN days after I planted my seeds (8 plants in total) THREE of them are already sprouting! How exciting! I will make an UNeducated guess that my knitted plant cozies are working lol...I have so much success with my seedlings in that window but when I plant into the ground, nada. Maybe I need to figure out the soil requirements a little more.

The garlic patch. Ha. Those lattice boards are 6 feet tall btw, that'll give you an idea of the snow that's been dumped on us THUS FAR. Now that I have some success in my window garden, I'm ready to update you on the winter garden. It AIN'T happenin'. My cold frames are buried despite my efforts to keep them snow-free. So I have no clue what's going on under the snow and ice...I guess spring will reveal all! I'm not going to give up on winter gardening, but I will for now until we settle down and have the proper equipment and tools to make it work. Greenhouse and grow lights are what I'm thinking about in the future!

Do you have anything going garden-wise?

As many people are aware (at least you SHOULD be aware) today is National Pizza Day so I'm off to knead some pizza dough! :) To my Instagram friends, thank you, today is a much better day. :)

"Let's Dance" - Scribble Picnic

Hello friends :)

Today the theme for Michael's Scribble Picnic is "Let's Dance".

Evil yet misunderstood black-hat wearing cowboy outlaw: "Let's dance..."
Translation: Let's try to kill each other.

I saw a photo of the poster ad for the movie "High Noon" and thought of this phrase! If you have a chance to see it, it's a wonderful Gary Cooper movie!

I had some fun with this one. Do you remember Escape, the Pina Colada song? :) Tweety can't help himself! Nor can I lol :)

Here's a little minute and a half clip for you Tweety fans. This is the first time Tweety and Sylvester were ever paired (in 1947) according to Warner Brothers. :)

Well, Michael, you've gone and done it. I am so into the drawing challenge that I beefed up my drawing supplies! I have some soft pastels on the way too!

My first love will always be my paints though. :) Still on the same theme of "Let's Dance", this is the dance of the snowflakes in the woods. :) It's been very snowy lately and despite the shoulder aching shoveling duties, I'm really enjoying my winter this year. I think it's because I've realized that all I want to do all winter is create art, make yummy food and take care of my furry kids and Alex. Really, I'd be happy to do that for the rest of my life! Speaking of food...

Roasted Chicken with Root Veggies. This is fall off the bone if you brine the chicken for 4-6 hours!

Papas Fritas: Leftover chicken with potatoes, Homemade Salsa and Monteray Jack cheese. Comfort!

Chicken Parm Paninis. You prepare breaded chicken and layer the panini with some Marinara sauce, Parm and Mozzarella (or Provolone if you have it) and it is really delicious! I have one of those fake George Foreman grills and it works really well for grilled cheese and paninis. :)

Poor little Pavlov! Wearing the cone...on a side note, when did they fancy up these collars??? I don't remember them ever having designs on them! Anyway...he has some kind of irritation on his chin and between his toes. We are trying to heal him at home before taking him to the vet on Friday. We do have a good vet team who suggests home solutions first so I'm very thankful for that. He kept licking his paws to the point where he developed sores. :(  We are disinfecting the areas twice a day and applying some polysporin. So far the redness is going away but I feel just awful making him wear this!

I'll leave you today with my last week's drawings. Do you have a favourite hobby? Are you open to discovering new ones? I never thought I'd enjoy drawing as much as I do! :) The goal of the challenge is to draw something every day and I haven't missed one day yet since I started on January 20th! Too much fun! :)

Cozy Sunday

Hello everyone :)

Look at my Carrot Cake! :) I hope you're all having a nice weekend. It's snowing today and the snowmobiling neighbours left early to go back to the city, so everything is nice and quiet! :) I have a chicken brining and we're going to have a roasted chicken dinner tonight. What's on your plate these days?  

I didn't realize how much of that cream cheese frosting I'd loaded on top until we cut it! I'm challenging myself to try a new recipe each week and I'll post about that on Sundays. The new recipe I tried was Cheddar and Cauliflower Soup.

It was really good though it needs a sharper Cheddar next time. For fun I made these bread bowls too. February 2nd is not just Groundhog Day. :) It's also a celebration called Imbolc. My ancestors celebrated this day to welcome the coming of spring and the beginning of the agricultural cycle and the lambing season. At this time of year, my ancestors would eat whatever was lingering in the root cellars and the pantry so I wanted to make a dinner with veggies and grains to honour them. :)

It's been cold and sunny here in the Laurentians! Do you believe weather lore? See the clouds in the left photo? Here is some weather lore to go along with that photo:

“Trace in the sky the painter’s brush, the winds around you soon will rush." The “painter’s brush” are those thin and wispy cirrus clouds. These clouds usually appear before the approach of a storm system. I took that photo on Friday, we had a huge windstorm on Saturday and today we have a snow storm. Kind of cool! :)

I decided to start my own tradition to welcome spring. I wanted to plant some seeds. Our winters are so long that I thought it would be nice to have some flowers and herbs growing by the window. I finally organized my seeds too!

I have four types of flowers and 4 herbs planted! See the burgundy on the pots? Plant cozies! :) I'm trying to give the plants a little help with some extra warmth...who knows if it'll work or not? I have three more to knit! The window is very sunny during the day so that's not a problem, it's the cold nights where I worry that the plants might not be too happy. Wouldn't it be lovely to have flowers growing in about a month or so?

When Stella first arrived here in September, her and Charlie were severe enemies...always fighting. But look at them now, sharing the cage at bedtime. :) 

Oscar and me. :) Lately Oscar has been sitting on my lap and watching "bird television" on You Tube with me. He loves it! When I turn it off though, he walks behind the laptop trying to find out where they went!

Uh Oh...

I saw my shadow!!! Six more weeks of winter right? 😕