Welcome to my Nest!
Merry Christmas to all of you, from our crazy family. May your holidays be filled with love, laughter and your family surrounding you. Cherish the twinkle in your children’s eyes as they experience the wonder of giving and of course, the magic of too much chocolate combined with the glee of new toys and over [...]
I have never been a cobbler kinda gal. I like my fruits in crisps, the cakey topping that I usually associate with crumbles can’t hold a candle to the crunchy oatmeal topping that crisps are known for. The story that lead me to this recipe is a common one around this house. It started with [...]
Oh, yes I did! These lovelies were inspired by my first trip to the Bulk Barn, prompted by everyone on Twitter telling me how much I was missing in life by not frequenting said store. And I mean everyone. I think even Jessica Alba chimed in at one point and said “Are you crazy??” Ok, [...]
The devil made me do it. That’s the only thing that came to mind when I realized that on a day when it was about plus 28 Celsius, I was finally making the cookies that have been niggling in the back of my mind for a long, long time. I recently posted the base recipe [...]
Why Magpie? Why? Ah, I love ya guys. Like a bunch of cute seagulls circling ol' Magpie here, cackling "Why? What? How come?" "Why are you venturing into gluten/dairy free territory? What happened? Who can't have gluten? Who was diagnosed with what? Are the kids ok?" said the endless Facebooking, Tweets and emails. No worries, my groupies. ( <----I still think that's hilarious) My daughter … [Read more...]
I revisit this post every Christmas! I am making the biggest. most beauteos prime rib roast I have ever bought on Boxing Day, using the method below. I don't mess with the meat: no rubs, no flavoring nuttin'. Plain old butter to sear the meat and then a gravy made out of it's own juices. I am drooling just thinking of it! Prime is the "grade" given to the meat, most roasts are actually just rib … [Read more...]
Come along and cheat with me. Cheating is good for the soul. Let go of those crazy Christmas baking expectations and make something so delicious, so easy and so fast that you will weep with relief. I make no secret of the fact that I totally cheat with my butter tarts. I don't even pretend that I attempt to make my own shells. I buy pre-made, unsweetened no-name brand from Superstore. Which, by … [Read more...]
This is a new, last minute concoction, born out of the desire to use up some of the candy canes that my children were gifted by Valerie when we went over to her place to bake cookies. I love the easy fudge recipe that I keep tweaking with different flavors; it involves no candy thermometer, always turns out and tastes amazing. Ingredients Needed: one can of sweetened condensed milk … [Read more...]
I am hosting Christmas for the first time in....errr...come to think of it, have I ever hosted Christmas at my place? The year I was due to give birth any moment with my daughter doesn't count, I don't remember anything other than I am pretty sure it was at my old house, my mother did everything, I didn't have enough energy to lift my eyelids open and I had heartburn and was sleeping sitting up in … [Read more...]
Ok. We're all in a time crunch this week. Time is ticking away, our to-do lists are out and we are desperately trying to check off something. Anything. Just one thing off that list before the next day rolls around. If you're not, then I don't like you very much and you can stop reading this right now. Ouch, that's not very Christmas spirity of me. Let's try again. If you're not trying … [Read more...]
Apparently the look on my daughter's face sums up what she thinks of our Christmas pudding quite succinctly. For reason's that escape me, my sweets-loving daughter has the weirdest dislikes. These odd dislikes include jelly beans, gumdrops and candied cherries. Come to think of it, they all have the same consistency, so perhaps not so odd at all. The look of disgust above is from trying the … [Read more...]
These are what started the whole mincemeat baking bender I went on. This was my original idea, take my monkey bread and fill it with mincemeat. I'm not sure what goes through my mind when I start things like this. It always seems like a great idea at the time and usually I'm about 80/20 in favor of the idea working out great in the end. Not bad odds at all. This one had me wondering if it was … [Read more...]
Ah. It came, went and was conquered. What a lot of fun my son's 8th birthday party was. We had, of course, a Harry Potter themed party. I was more than happy to oblige my son because I am admittedly a huge Harry Potter fan. Rabid. I think it's the best series of books written in a long, long time. We had a large amount of rowdy, rambunctious children attend, ranging in age from 5-9, and a great … [Read more...]
I went a little crazy last Sunday, the ideas that had been swirling around my head for a couple of weeks finally came to fruition and a' baking I went. I wanted to try mincemeat as filling for more than tarts, since we are a mincemeat loving family. Paired with yeasty, warm breads, what could be better? Cinnamon buns are the perfect way to get a smidge of mincemeat taste into your baking, tarts … [Read more...]
My son's Harry Potter Birthday party went off beautifully, lots of Harry Potter themed food and children running around in sugar-induced glee. The morning of the actual party I was up at 6 AM, fussing and fretting as I am wont to do the day of an event and decided that since I couldn't sleep, cookies were in order. I already had the treacle tarts made, the Hogwarts cake built and ready … [Read more...]
Everybody knows my love, nay, my addiction we might call it, to sweet and salty combinations in food. Chocolate covered pretzels are only topped on my favorites list by buttered popcorn with M&M's on top at the movie theater. Yes, I totally just said that. You take a bag of movie popcorn - make sure it's buttered!- and dump on M&M's, the peanut ones being my favorite. I highly suggest … [Read more...]
Popcorn balls bring back memories of trick or treating out in the country when I was a kid. Because you knew all of your neighbors, homemade treats were common on Halloween night. No one was afraid of razors in candy or poison or whatever urban legends were circulating at the time because you knew exactly who put what in your child's Halloween bag, or pillowcase for that matter. There was one lady … [Read more...]
For some reason, I got the idea of making caramel corn all Halloweeny and gross stuck in my head. Where these thoughts come from I have no idea. It just started with the vague idea of black chocolate drizzled on it, moved on to green as well in my inner thoughts, then clinched it when I found candy bugs. This caramel corn is my mom's recipe, one that we have used for years and it's perfect. No … [Read more...]
These were a spur of the moment creation brought on by several things. I had this urge to make cute pops for my Halloween open house yesterday and had thought of doing eyeball ones, the round shape of cakepops naturally lends itself to eyeballs like white belongs to rice. But when faced with the reality of the short amount of time I had left, I realized cake pops were not going to be in my … [Read more...]
Lordy, I love candy corn. What is it about those little morsels of bliss? Is it the colors that draw you in with promises of toothache inducing sweetness? The colors that immediately remind us of Halloween? To be honest, what IS the flavor of candy corn anyway? When I sat down to think about it for a moment, I realized that I really couldn't place exactly what the flavor is. What I do know is … [Read more...]
There is not a single possible way you can be looking at the picture of my latest cake and be grumpy, so Happy Monday to all of you! I do apologize that you can't reach through the screen and take a bite, or sneak a candy though, because this is one fun, happy cake! It's neon and it's here to stay, baby! This latest creation came about when I found out that Mike's friend at work, … [Read more...]
Seems that last year I did the same type of post as this one. Easter weekend is so relaxed for us, not the big to-do that Christmas is, yet still a weekend full of food ,family ,chocolate, fun, chocolate and some alcohol thrown in for good measure. Did I mention chocolate? Just checkin'. Today is our Easter meal as I work this weekend, I didn't bother to take the time off as the important … [Read more...]
Mmm. Babka. 'Tis the time of year to eat this for a week, then put away the coffee tins until 2012 in anticipation of the next time we eat ourselves silly on Easter Bread. This year I didn't have any coffee tins, whether they were accidently recycled or Hurricane Mike chucked them during the great house cleanup of 2011, I don't know. I do know I turned this house upside down … [Read more...]
This is a product review, recipe, what-is and how-to all rolled into one post. It sort of just took off in a completely different direction that usual, and that's ok. Mainly because I really didn't like this recipe. It's so very meh. Weird, I know, to post a recipe I didn't like, but this is so much more than a recipe. I decided to delve into the world of Whoopie Pies. What are … [Read more...]
I love my kids, my husband and chocolate.
The order depends on when you ask.
Welcome to my nest!
