For my recent dinner party, I decided to try this new recipe, and wow were these Homemade Onion Rings good! I was inspired by the food network’s Riccardo, and his Beer-Battered Onion Rings. If you want a little wow factor in your dinner, give these a try. They did take awhile to make, but I think they are worth it as a special treat.

Riccardo’s Beer-Battered Onion Rings

Ingredients:

• 1 large Spanish onion, sliced into 1-cm (1/2-inch) rounds and separated into rings
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 1 cup pastry flour
• 2 tbsp cornstarch
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 cup pale ale
• Oil for frying

Directions:

1. Preheat the deep fryer to 190°C (375°F). Place a cooling rack on a baking sheet or line a baking sheet with paper towels.
2. Toss the onion rings in the cornstarch to coat well. Set aside.
3. To prepare the batter, combine the flour, cornstarch, baking powder and salt. Whisk in the beer.
4. Dip the cornstarch coated rings in the batter, 4 or 5 at a time. Shake off excess batter and deep-fry for about 3 minutes, turning half way through cooking. Drain on the baking sheet. Season lightly with salt. Repeat with the remaining ingredients.

With Homemade Onion Rings, life really is a party!

This post is linked up at Tatertots and Jello, Blue Cricket Design, and Whipperberry.

I’ve been doing a little summer entertaining, and thought you might like my modern, pink, summery table.

I started with a light pink table runner on the dark wood, and then used my everyday white plates. I love these square side plates, and layered them with a simple pink cotton napkin. I love the pink glasses.

The centre piece is three frosted glass square vases, repeating the square from the side plate, filled with simple green hydrangea from my garden. On either side are hurricane vases with pink pillar candles.

I love the simplicity and clean lines, mixed with a fun colour like pink. This table made a great backdrop for a relaxed summer feast.

The menu celebrated the fresh food of late summer; pictures and recipes coming soon!

This post is linked up at Between Naps on the Porch, and Tatertots and Jello.

Last week I was having company and wanted a nice summery dessert. I was inspired by a Peach Cobbler Recipe that I found at the blog Two Twenty One. It looked easier than pie and it was!

I had never, ever had cobbler before…maybe it’s not so much a northern dessert? But it was so good, and easy, that I want to recommend it to all of you.

You know this time of year when summer fruit is at it’s peek, and it’s easy to go a little crazy when you’re at the farmers market, and then get it home and think “what am I going to do with all this fresh fruit?” Well, your going to make peach cobbler!

Chelsea at Two Twenty One has created a sweet recipe card with her Peach Cobbler Recipe on it, to download click here to get it.

It’s simple if you’ve got peaches, or nectarines (I used some of each) and a little whip cream, all the other ingredients are things you probably have on hand. And it really is a whole-lot easier than making a pie.

I wasn’t too sure about trying a new recipe when I was having company, so I bought a little back-up strudel at the farmers market, just in case. The cobbler was such a hit that the strudel was left over, and the company had seconds of the Peach Cobbler and took a piece home for latter! Now that’s what I call a successful new recipe!

Life is a party, with fresh cobbler around!

I recently got my hands on some Bento egg molds! And let me tell you -they are so cool!

They are pretty hard to find in Toronto, but you could order them on-line. Here’s a picture of them in their package, along with a few other goodies I picked up.

The molds are so cute, and really easy to use. You just hard boil an egg, and while it’s still warm you peel the shell off and pop it into the egg mold. Then you put it in the fridge over night. It’s that easy.

Here they are after, there is a fish, a car, a teddy bear, and a rabbit.

My kids had never had hardboiled eggs before this, and I didn’t know if they would eat them.

The proof is in the pudding…or fun shaped hardboiled eggs in this case. They ate them up! With these eggs…life really is a party!

This post is linked up at Blue Cricket Designs.

I was asked to speak to some moms of young children at the Salvation Army Moms and Tots Camp, this year. I’ve been going to the camp the past couple years and my kids and I love it. So, I wanted to share some ideas that are really helpful and fun, that are inexpensive and also do-able. Here’s my top 5 list of things I’ve done with my kids, and I think your kids would love too, and they won’t break the bank!

#5 -Cardboard Box Houses

We built a great life-size gingerbread house out of old boxes. My kids loved it, I found the boxes on kijiji for free, and we folded it up and stored it flat to play with the next Christmas. It was awesome. See how we did it here. I can think of lots of other ideas you could do with this… build a house, a take-out ice-cream shop, a doctors office…the possibilities are endless!

#4 -Fairy Gardens

This is one of my favourite projects -ever! We bought dollar store bird houses and turned them into the sweetest fairy houses with paint and glitter. We made gardens in pots and added some fun accessories. See how we did it all here.

#3 -Ice-cube Games

We had so much fun doing our Valentine’s Day hunt with red, heart shaped ice-cubes.

We hid them all over the backyard and the kids had a ball finding them.

So this summer, I thought we’d try some ice-cube fun again!

We had a great time with this summer treasure hunt. I froze layers of coloured water, with shells. The kids had a great time using warm water to melt their treasures free! See all the details here.

We did water “painting” and stamping and playing with coloured ice-cubes too. This activity is lots of fun, and costs nothing but the time involved in making ice. And I promise, your kids will love it!

#2 -Felt Food

I am in love with felt food. I think I love it more than my kids do! I’ve even started making it for friends birthdays. It’s time consuming but easy and inexpensive. We started out with cookies and cupcakes, see all the details and instructions here.

See our cookie counting game and tea bags here.

And at Christmas, we made Christmas cookies here.

#1 -Muffin Tin Meals

My number one, favourite thing to do with my kids lately is muffin tin meals. I’ve been inspired by Michelle at Muffin Tin Mom Here’s her explanation of muffin tin meals: “What is the purpose for Muffin Tin Meals? Serving a meal in a muffin tin to kids has many benefits including: breaking up the lunchtime routine, serving foods in smaller more manageable portions for little mouths and introducing them to new foods in a fun and interesting way! It’s a win for you: They eat. It’s a win for them: It’s fun.”

Check out some the Muffin Tin Meals I’ve done with my kids here.

The greatest thing about MTM’s is that it works! My kids are always excited to have a MTM, and it has helped a lot in getting them to eat a wider variety of foods at one meal, and trying new foods. It’s amazing how putting things on a cute toothpick really gets their interest. I’ve also been inspired by Cute Food for Kids, and Bento Lunch. The muffin tin meals have been great for my preschooler, but I’m definitely feeling inspired to try some of the bento box ideas for my second grader.

Here’s our latest muffin tin meal, which I’ve linked up to the Muffin Tin Monday link party, head over and be inspired by lots of other Muffin Tin Meals. Our theme was orange.

We had butterscotch pudding, little orange segments, water in an orange cup, carrot sticks, and mac and cheese with a mini orange fork.

At the workshop, I was also able to share a few storage ideas for all those picks, cupcake liners, and cookie cutters. As well as a couple themed Muffin Tin Meals as examples.

Here’s a fish theme, with shell pasta, carrot and dip “fishing rods”, vanilla yogurt turned into “water” with a drop of blue food colouring, apple boats in blueberry water, and fish crackers.

I also made a teddy bear themed MTM, to inspire.

There was teddy bear bread and jam with candy eyes, a bear paw cookie, strawberry apple sauce with sprinkles, the other two of the three bears; Swiss cheese with food writer details, a bear shaped hard boiled egg, and banana and blueberries on teddy bear picks.

After showing all the moms some of these fun ideas, I wanted them to be able to go home and try it, so I made some great take-home MTM kits. Everyone was given a 6-muffin tin, and a goodie bag with sprinkles, cupcake wrappers, assorted toothpicks, a crazy straw, mini fork, and a sandwich cutter!

I had a great time sharing a few simple, fun, and inexpensive ideas with moms from camp, and I hope maybe I’ve given you a new idea or two too, because especially when you have little kids, life should be a party…at least some days!

This post is linked up at Blue Cricket Design.