A Beaver and a Moose

Over the past two months, we’ve traveled up from Georgia to southern Ontario where we stayed for four weeks to celebrate Christmas and New Year’s Eve with our children.   Shortly after the New Year, we set out east on the TransCanada Highway to Nova Scotia, back to Ontario for another week and then took the TransCanada West across the northern edge of the Great Lakes, through Manitoba to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan where we switched to the Yellowhead Highway which brought us to my parent’s home in Alberta.

We took the camera with us everywhere we went.

Do we have pictures of the ice flowing from the sheer rock faces where the path for the TransCanada has been carved out of the Great Canadian Shield?  No.

Do we have pictures of the spectacular views of Lake Superior that would appear suddenly as we rounded a bend in the highway or topped the crest of a hill?  No.

Neither are there pictures of the vast expanse of open, snow dusted land as we crossed the prairies.

We traveled over 5100 miles and we have only one picture to show for it.

On the way to Nova Scotia to visit my husband’s family, we stayed overnight at a small motel just outside Oromocto, New Brunswick.  Before getting on the road the next day, we stopped for gas across the road and despite the -14 C temperature we had to take this picture.

It simply shouts… Canadian!

How to Make Homemade Breakfast Muffins

Just as it’s handy to have freezer meals ready for busy nights when you need supper on the table in a hurry or for those nights when you simply don’t feel like cooking supper, it’s equally as handy to have breakfasts ready to pop into the microwave or toaster oven on mornings when you’re running late or for weekend brunches.

Breakfast muffins are super easy to make.   They are cheaper and taste so much better than their fast food cousins or the ones you can buy in boxes in the frozen food section of the grocery store.

When we make them we do them in batches of 12, but you can make up more or less depending on your needs.

First, split the English muffins and butter each half.

Next fry one dozen eggs.  We use English muffin rings that we purchased here.    In the future, we plan to start making our own English muffins but for now the rings work well for cooking eggs the right size and shape to fill the breakfast muffins.

To make bacon, egg and cheese breakfast muffins, fry one pound of bacon.  Each muffin takes 1 and ½ slices of bacon.

(If you prefer sausage, egg and cheese breakfast muffins, you would fry one dozen sausage rounds instead.)

Allow the fried eggs and bacon to cool.

Meanwhile, thinly slice your favourite cheese.   We use extra sharp cheddar.

Now it’s time for assembly.

Add cheese to top half of muffins.

Layer eggs and bacon on bottom half of muffins.

Flip top with cheese over bottoms.

Place inside zippered sandwich bags and squeeze out as much air as possible.

Place the bags of breakfast muffins inside 1 gallon zippered freezer bags.

Reheat in the microwave for approximately 3 minutes at half power.   To reheat in a toaster oven… set temperature to 350 and bake for about 20 minutes.

Last spring when a tornado came through northwest Georgia we lost power for three days and it was then that we discovered that these breakfast muffins also taste great when reheated on the bbq by wrapping them in aluminum foil.    Even with no power, we were able to have a hot, nutritious breakfast.

For those who might be worried that we were eating unsafe food, within hours of losing power, we transferred everything from the fridge freezer to the deep freeze and were lucky to have lots of ice to pack around the food and all the food stayed frozen.

Note:  I had the photos for this how-to taken before we packed everything up to put in storage but then I got so busy that they didn’t get organized into a post until yesterday when we were stuck in a hotel room waiting for the roads to be safe to continue with our travels.

 

This post has been added to Sew Darn Crafty Party Week #48 over at Sew Many Ways.

Handmade Christmas – Gifts for Youngest Son

Last year, one of the items on our son’s Christmas wish list was a set of throw pillows to match the striped comforter we bought for him to use at college.  We chose other things from his list to give him but I kept the pillows in mind for a future gift.

Earlier this fall, I was lucky enough to find a cool print with all the colours of his comforter.   So for Christmas, I made him these two pillows.  The covers have a concealed zipper in the back to make it easier to remove them for laundering.

Our son is a great cook and so for his second gift, I made him the apron that Dave is modeling in the picture below.

I also copied out several of our favourite family recipes and put them in a cool recipe box along with extra cards for him to add his own favourites.

His third gift was, of course, a set of Christmas Elves.

Then to add some extra goodies to his stocking, I made him a set of luggage tags and an Ipod case with matching earbud case.

Also to fill his stocking, he received one of the fleece patchwork scarves pictured below.

Handmade Christmas – Gifts for Middle Daughter

Way back in the spring when I was looking for a cabinet to house the Singer 15-91 that I purchased on e-bay, we came across this cabinet.

At first, we thought it was another 15-91 but upon checking the serial number, we discovered it was instead, a 201-2.   The cabinet wasn’t exactly what I was looking for, but we decided to buy it and refurbish the sewing machine and refinish the cabinet to give to our middle daughter.

Dave cleaned, oiled, lubricated and completely rewired the sewing machine.

And then he refinished the cabinet, replacing the veneer on the top and underside of both fold out panels.

After the first coat of polyeurathane.

He knew it would be almost impossible to exactly match the stain on the original, so he chose to use a walnut veneer and stain that to match the darker swirls on the front fold out drawer of the cabinet.

As this was such a large gift and her birthday is in the beginning of December, it became a combination birthday/Christmas gift.

I can’t find the photos we took of the refurbished sewing machine in it’s refinished cabinet with matching reupholstered stool… but please take my word for it that it turned out beautifully.   I’ll see if middle daughter will take some pictures so that I can post them at a future date.

Our middle daughter travels quite often as part of her job, so for her second gift, I made her a travel set too.

Her third gift was a set of two Christmas elves.

Her stocking was filled with oil paint brushes, an inflatable bath pillow and other goodies.

Handmade Christmas – Gifts for Oldest Daughter

This year, each of our children received three handmade gifts.

Our oldest daughter lives and teaches in Shanghai, China.   Even before we knew that we’d be in Southern Ontario over the Christmas season, we knew that she would be flying here with her partner to spend Christmas with her partner’s family.  That meant that her gifts needed to be ones that could easily fit into her suitcase for her return flight to Shanghai.

For her first gift, I decided to make her a travel set.

The set included: A boxy zipper bag for toiletries, a make-up bag, a pantie bag, 3 shoe bags, a laundry bag and 3 luggage tags.

Our daughter loves to do cross-stitch so for her second gift, I designed a stitchery keeper.

The flap opens so that she can store her cross-stitch flat when she's not working on it.

Down the center is a pincushion. On the right side are a needle keeper and pockets for embroidery scissors and hoop.

The third gift that each of our children received was a set of two Christmas elves.

You can see pictures of the elves and the story behind them here.

I also made a couple of little things for her partner, so that he would feel included.

A while back, I posted photos on my blog showing this little coin frame purse.  When he saw the photos, he mentioned that he could use something like that to hold all his coins, so I designed this smaller, flatter version for him.

This little coin purse is also the perfect size for business cards.

He also received one of the fleece patchwork scarves pictured below.

I made the scarf following my tutorial for How to Sew a Patchwork Scarf except I cut the patchwork squares 2.5″X6.5″ and the fleece 11.5″X60″.

His third gift wasn’t handmade but was something he mentioned really wanting.  He has a favourite tea that he can’t get in China, so we bought him four boxes to take back with him.

Happy New Year

Today and throughout the coming year:

May you know kindness and joy.

May hope and warmth fill your heart.

Remember to always embrace the love that surrounds you.

May 2012 be your best year yet

And may you prosper in everything you do.