Loving the Weekend

I hope everyone had as great a weekend as I did!!

Saturday started with a walk to a local bakery where I always want to buy everything in sight!  We left with a couple of cinnamon buns, that sadly weren't as great as we had hoped.  However, I'm now happy to check another thing off of my summer list (walk to Christie's for breakfast!)

A friend dropped by later with his 2 dogs - both chocolate labs! One's still a puppy (Gracie) and the other is considerably older, but sometimes acts like a puppy now that she has a puppy friend around.  It was hilarious watching the tiny tornado they created as they explored every corner of the house at warp speed.  It wasn't too surprising later when they were both napping on the floor!!!

We ran out and picked up some stuff for supper.  We went to a fish store that I'd never been to before, and again, I wanted to buy everything in sight.  They had the most amazing selection of sushi.  We picked up a couple of salmon steaks.

For supper we made a delicious potato salad and used baby potatoes (supermarket) and fresh parsley from our herb garden.  It was delicious!!  We bbqed the fish with just some butter and dill (also fresh from our herb garden!)  In addition to the fish and salad, we did corn on the cob!!  YUM!

In the evening, we went to visit friends.  It was a lovely evening to sit on their deck and drink wine!  We don't get to see these friends much outside of large bbq gatherings, so it was nice to spend time with just them.  

Today I got to cross another thing off my summer list.  Make Brunch For Friends!

I had my best friend, her husband, and my boyfriend over and tried out a new recipe.  It was super successful too!!  (Always a bonus - I feel that you should always try out new recipes on friends.  That way if it's delicious, you've made a great discovery, and if it flops, you can blame it on the fact that it's a new recipe AND you're not left with a bunch of food that you don't want to eat, but don't want to throw out either!)

I made this egg and bacon bread.  It was pretty good.  I did all the prep the night before (cooking eggs, bacon, I even shredded the cheese) so that in the morning it was all ready to go.  I'd strongly recommend doing the same.  Made the morning much less stressful.  

I also made a fruit salad with kiwi, strawberries, blue berries, green grapes and cantaloupe.  I put a bit of a "dressing" on it of lime juice, lime zest, and honey.  

Lastly I had cinnamon buns as well.  Well, they were cheater cinnamon buns because they're not a yeast dough cinnamon bun.  The funny thing is that the recipe comes from my grade 8 home ec class (which my friend Amy also took)

Here's the recipe:

2 cups           flour

4 tsp              baking powder

1/2 tsp           salt

1/2 cup          shortening

3/4 cup          milk

3/4 cup          brown sugar

1 tsp              cinnamon

~1/4 cup    raisins(optional..I usually opt out)

~1/4 cup       margarine (I don't ever measure this)

Mix all dry ingredients in large bowl.  

Cut in shortening with pastry blender until it resembles small crumbs.

Add milk all at once, and stir with a fork until it starts to form a ball.

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured board and knead gently 8-10 times.

Roll out to about 10x12 inches (rectangular).  Spread dough generously with margarine.  **Sometimes I'll also spread a layer of honey on top of this to add to the ooey gooey ness, but I didn't this time**  

Combine brown sugar, cinnamon and raisins in a small bowl and then sprinkle onto buttered dough.

Roll up dough from wide end jelly roll style and pinch edge to seal,  

Cut into strips about 2.5cm (~1inch) thick.  Place pieces into greased muffin cups.

Bake at 430F for 12-15 minutes.  Cool, remove from tin and allow to cool completely on rack.  Or eat them slightly warm.  That's delicious too.  

So that's my adaptation of the recipe.  The measurements are funky because I'm Canadian and they try to make us cook in metric in school, but really, it's just not convenient.  The recipe also says to put them on a cookie sheet, but I like the muffin tin better because they stay curled up better.  

Additionally Amy made delicious creamsicle smoothies which were made up of orange juice, vanilla yogurt, vanilla, and ice.  They were super tastey!

I had a good weekend and I hope you all did to!!