Home made sweetened condensed milk

I love to bake, to try new things - I call them experiments...  I often start reading the recipe then decide to make it before reading the entire ingredients list.  And sometimes, I read the title only and start.  


The other day while I started making a snack for the kids it happened, I started the recipe without fully reading the whole ingredient list.   It started off not to bad, I measured out the oats, sugar, butter then I got to condensed milk.   Arghh, I had no condensed milk.   I have to admit, it's an ingredient I usually stay away from.   But this was started, what to do?


Make some of course!

Who knew how simple it was to make - sugar, milk, vanilla and about an hour of stirring it on the pot!

There you have it - homemade sweetened condensed milk!


3 cups milk (I used skim milk - it's what I had)
2 1/4 cups sugar
2 tsp vanilla


Put it all into a pot, heat to medium until the sugar dissolves and it starts to bubble.  Turn heat to medium low and stir often (all the time) for about an hour.


It reduces to about 2 cups of condensed milk.

Monster Art

I love looking at other people's blogs - they give me ideas off all sorts, mostly recipes and craft ideas.   

A few weeks ago I saw this post - a regular guest blogger on The Pioneer Woman who made Monster Art.  I loved it.   How simple, how fun.      

As Matt and I were in the art store we thought, why not?   So we got everything we needed to make our own Monster Art.

Looks like a three eyed pac-man monster, but its not...  Just a regular three eyed red monster.

This one is a Michael Jackson Monster.

It's funny, when we started this project I was not in the blogging frame of mind.  I don't have any pictures of the process, only the final product.  I can tell you we did this over a week.   They found it hard to let the paint dry between colours, but loved every minute of it.
I see more painting of this kind in the future.  My walls are going to be full!

Blueberry Oat Flaxseed Muffins

Sometimes after the kids get home from school we make muffins...   Either I make my tried and true recipes or I look up a recipe online and try it out.
Today, I looked one up -- Blueberry Oat Flaxseed Muffins -- and tried it...

I added flour and flaxseed

My helper added cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda and salt

Then he added oats (large flake oats, not fast oats)

This is where we started straying from the recipe - we were supposed to add 2 tbsp of flour to the blueberries. 

We mixed our wet ingredients - added it to the dry and then added the frozen blueberries

The batter did turn a bit blue...  Over all, the muffins were a success!

Kids ate a muffin after dinner, they LOVED them!  So looks like this recipe will make it into my "tried and true" book.

Recipe 

1 cup Large Flake Oats

1 cup Greek Style Yogurt

2/3 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup oil

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup all purpose flour

3 tbsp ground flax seed

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 cup frozen blueberries

• Preheat oven to 375
• In a large bowl, combine oats, yogourt, sugar, oil, egg and vanilla.
• In a separate bowl, stir flour with flaxseed, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Stir all but 2 tbsp into oat mixture.
• Toss blueberries with reserved 2 tbsp flour mixture. 
• Fold blueberry flour mixture into batter until just mixed.
• Place in 12 muffin cups. 
• Bake 23 - 25 minutes or until golden.

Recipe adapted from Robin Hood

Thank you cards

Sometimes I think we take "Thank-Yous" for granted... We say it in passing or quickly in an e-mail.  To me, there is no better way to say Thank-you than a card (hand made of course!)


This "thank you" is a more than a little late - but I figure like the saying goes, better late than never, right?

Stamps: Seeing Spots

Paper:  Old Olive, Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla & Merry Moments DSP

Ink: Old Olive

Other:  Chocolate Chip Ribbon

This design was inspired from a class I took at Sue's last year.  She has such fabulous cards -  her's usually have more sparkle and glitter than mine...  

Beef Stroganoff a la Calvin

We usually make Beef Stroganoff after a yummy Sunday Night Dinner at Grandma and Grandpa's house.   Using left overs from a yummy roast beef dinner - for those of you who know my parents, you know how yummy those dinners are.
Since they are "snow birding" it, we are on our own for Sunday dinners.   For this Beef Stroganoff, we used leftovers from our Big Steak dinner.


As the title suggests - this dinner is all Calvin - creating without a recipe.

First he boiled the water to cook whole wheat egg noodles.

He sliced 2 onions.

Added the onions to pan heated with olive oil.

Don't look...  he then added butter (he says it's all about the butter)

And of course, he seasoned it with salt and freshly ground black pepper

Here is the left over steak from the other night.   He chopped it in to bite size pieces.

He floured the beef lightly then threw it in the pan of beautifully browned onions.

Next he added about a cup of beef stock.

Then dijon mustard.

And cheese.   Cheese?  Why did he add cheese?  Because he wanted to....  and why not!

Then about a cup of Greek style yogurt (because that's what we had in the fridge)

He put the egg noodles in the bowl then added the beef mixture on top.  Can you smell it???

How about now?   Can you smell it?   Can you say YUMMY?

Served with a simple green salad.  

What an amazingly yummy dinner!   I think this was the best beef stroganoff I have ever had!   We usually use sour cream, but I think we will only use greek yogurt from now on. And when I say "we" I really mean Calvin.  I have never made beef stroganoff before, and why would I when he does it so well!
The bestest (is that even a word?) part, is he cleans the kitchen after himself.   And the bestest bestest part, is he cleans the kitchen after me too!   


Stay tuned for some Blueberry Oat Flaxseed Muffins.

1st Annual Beaver Pond Hockey

What a weekend!!!   The highlight was the 1st Annual Beaver Pond Hockey at Valhalla.   It was a blast....  Smiles on everyone there.

Calvin played and his team came in second -- you can read more here

Here are some highlights of the day

 Aaron and Lars -- they organized it.  (Figure Skates VS Vintage Hockey Skates)

 Team Pokeroos -- the poker boys...  Came in 5th

Team Valhalla Express -- Came in 4th

 Team Ocelots - Came in 2nd -- Silver Medal

What was left of the Pokeroos -- Received the "Loser Cup"

Lars and Aaron (with some help) prepared the rinks...  6 teams playing on 2 rinks, a day long event.   What a wonderfully Canadian game!

Big Steak...

Tonight's dinner -- BIG STEAK on the kamado, marinaded in lots of garlic and other good stuff.  We bought a big roast and decided to butcher it ourselves... after all, how hard can that be?  (We will find out soon enough...)

We took some time to trim off the fat, there was not much there.

We got 2 giant steaks (one is tonight's dinner) 2 smaller steaks, 1 roast and 1 tip that we will use for a stir fry.  Not bad for a $29.00 roast (Top sirloin roast) - cheaper per pound than chicken!

Tonight's dinner - One GIANT steak - we will need help eating this.

Need to start with a marinade - this one will be with olive oil, lemon juice, balsamic vinegar, dijon mustard, salt, pepper and lots of garlic.

Did I mention lots of garlic?

My helper adding the dijon mustard.

There was a bit of red wine left, so we added it too.

Into the fridge to marinate...

Need to shovel the deck before BBQing or do we call it Kamadoing?   I guess we can just call it grilling?!

Oops, how did that get in there?

Grill starting - needs to warm.

While the grill warmed we prepared onions and potatoes.

With olive oil, salt and pepper -- for the grill.

Mmmmm, grill is ready for the steak...

And there it is!

Salad - topped with feta, capers, red onions and tomatoes.

Cooked perfectly.

The final dinner plate.

Yes, these pictures were over kill, but the meal was amazing!!!   We worked together for this one and it was better than the pictures tell.