I had a little lemon tree...

Well, miracle of all miracles, my poor little lemon tree produced a lemon.  This tree started out with an abundance of gorgeous fragrant blossom, but seemed to go downhill from there.  It got spiders and some sort of mould, which I battled in the summer. It is losing leaves daily, it looks withered and sad, and we were all convinced it was dying a slow and laborious death.  However, in spite of all this, the two tiny fruit it had sprouted continued to grow and turn yellow and last week one fell off into my hands.  My own little Meyer lemon!

I figured I had to do something special with it! Someone in my photo course suggested lemon curd, and that sounded like just the ticket - a nice treat that will last for a little while. I found this recipe and am happy to say that it is delicious (although decidedly UN-healthy).  It is like having lemon merengue pie whenever you want!  I made some scones to eat it with on the weekend, but they disappeared in an instant. I decided to use a crumpet for my impromptu photo shoot instead.  Deeelish!

I can't wait to see what becomes of little lemon number 2 - he doesn't seem to be faring well, but this tree seems intent on surprising me...

Delicious Bread

I received this book for Christmas and have been religiously perfecting my bread with this recipe.  I am still on the basic boule, but have discovered that my super-fancy (& overpriced) oven is 25 degrees under temperature, that parchment paper works better than cornmeal for me, and that muffin tins make great water trays.  I also re-discovered how amazing bread in the oven makes the house smell!

It is a good thing I am running, because I have been eating a LOT of bread.  Damn good bread, if I do say so myself!  I look forward into branching out into some of their adaptations, like olive bread.  Yummmm.

Party Animal Candles

I found these candles on The Sweetest Occasion too late for Will's birthday, but they are destined to be made in the future FOR SURE.  I love the dinos, but the possibilities are endless!  Perhaps a farm-themed birthday? Bunnies for Easter?  Safari animals for... Tuesday afternoon?  I want to make these immediately!  (Also, how fun are photos of power tools and dollar store toys?)

The squirrel kills me.

Found via.

Happy Birthday Will!

Today was Will's 4th birthday (I am still in shock that he is that old) and we hosted a drop-in party to celebrate.  It was a day full of good friends and cute kids and SUGAR.  The kids and I made some simple construction paper decorations yesterday and last night I was up until after midnight making this damn cake and cupcakes.  The photos are terrible - I blame the tiredness and hectic pace of the day, but they are awful!  I am kind of disappointed I didn't take more time to capture the day, but I guess it is a testament to how much fun we were having.

William requested a rainbow cake with purple icing, so I thought I would go with the (cheap and easy) rainbow theme for the day!  The crown was his idea - I think someone in his class had a birthday this week, and got a crown and cupcakes.  His wish was my command - how can I deny this face?

The new furniture layout seemed to work out well... ;p

The cake recipe I got here, and I kind of wish I had gone with a simpler recipe, especially as I was starting the boiled outer icing at midnight last night.  It was three coloured layers with three different-coloured layers of icing in between.

Maybe these colours broke my camera?

The finished layers looks disturbingly like a Big Mac...

Yeah - quite the knife, eh?  I wasn't messing around...

In the end the icing layers didn't show up very much, but people seemed to enjoy it none-the-less, especially the little guys!

It was a really wonderful time with some fabulous friends.  The boys were wonderful despite what must have been a pretty overwhelming day.  It's no wonder Will went to bed asking to have another birthday tomorrow!  I think I need the year to recuperate...  :)

The Falling Leaves...

"The falling leaves, drift by my window, the autumn leaves, of red and gold...."  I have had that song stuck in my head all day long!  We have been doing all sorts of autumn leaves-related projects around here, and when I found this cookie cutter at Michael's I knew I wanted to make "Falling Leaves" sugar cookies.  I don't normally do anything too strenuous around Thanksgiving food- or decor-wise.  Until about 4 years ago, we really had no family to celebrate with and honestly just enjoyed it as a long weekend, maybe visiting with some friends from home.  We also didn't eat turkey until recently!  But now that we are our own little family, it seems appropriate to make a little more effort.  (That, and I am Suzy Homemaker now, professionally-speaking.) :)

The boys love helping out in the kitchen anyway, so it wasn't difficult to talk them into it.  Just look at those eager beavers...  The little guy was of course covered in flour before we were two minutes in...

I made a glaze icing (using corn syrup instead of butter) since they seem to yield brighter colours.  I went with green, red, yellow, orange and brown.  With the differently-coloured bowls, icing, and spoons it made for a LOT of colour... I will put the recipe at the end of the post.

Then we had fun painting.  We mixed colours with spoons and tooth picks and I must say the boys made some really beautiful cookies!

The cookie recipe I used came with the cookie cutter:
Roll-Out Cookies
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract
2 3/4 cups all-pupose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
Preheat over to 400F.  In mixer bowl (or if you are old-school like me, with a hand mixer) cream butter with sugar until light and fluffy.  Beat in egg and extracts.  Mix flour, baking powder and salt; add to butter mixture 1 cup at a time, mixing after each addition.  Divide dough into 2 balls.  On a floured surface, roll each ball into a circle approx. 1/8 inch thick.  Dip cookie cutter in flour before each use.  Bake cookies on ungreased cookie sheet 6-7 minutes or until cookies are lightly browned.

The icing recipe I adapted from one online:
Sugar Cookie Glaze Icing
1 cup confectioners sugar  (adding more to desired consistency)
1 tbsp light corn syrup
2 tbsp water
food colouring
Because some colours needed more drops of food colouring than others, I added more sugar to keep them on the thick side - if they were too runny they would run off the cookie and on to the tray.

So what are your Thanksgiving traditions and recipes?  I definitely need to add to my repertoire.  Style at Home has a ridiculous array of ideas for food and decor - this recipe looks especially yummy.  House and Home also has come great decorating ideas that I may attempt, but I am going to try to stick with projects the boys can help out with.  Here are some awesome ideas my friend Blake wrote about for Canadian Parent, including gratitude rolls - genius and delicious.  Most of the American design sites aren't as crammed with suggestions yet, I guess don't have the same deadline looming this weekend!

I leave you with this, so you can hum along with me  - for the next few days at least: