Must get Recipes!!!

Hi those who read my blog.  I need YOUR help!  {picture smokey bear pointing finger at you and saying "only you can prevent forest fires}

Basically, this AMAZING place I live in does not seem to have crisco...

What that means...

I am MISSING a very major ingredient for my very special most amazing PIE CRUST that my wonderful aunt had taught me how to make...

Reader, here is where you come in....

Any delicious pie crust recipes?  Post them to my blog so I can experiment and hopefully find a good one!

Mind you, my aunt's in my all time FAVOURITE!  And I know it's going to be different, but, without pie crust, that means NO PIE!  And that is a serious tragedy!  Especially if you know how much my hubby LOVES...

APPLE PIE!!!!

One other recipe that I am looking for....

PIZZA DOUGH!!!  {YUM}

Seriously looking forward to what you post!

I LOVE PINK!

In case you haven't figured it out by now, my favourite colour in the whole entire world is the colour pink! I hated it when I was younger, but I have now grown to LOVE it!  It is the most beautiful colour!!!  And because I like it soooooooooo much, I buy things that are pink.  If I had my way, I am sure our whole bedroom would be pink, but because I love my hubby and know that he probably wouldn't like that very much, it's not pink...  It's blue.  But, because I can't have an entire room full of pink, I get super excited when I get a pink accessory.  So, the other day, I was at Marks & Spencer (a grocery store just by our house) I poked my head over at their clearance.  And guess what I found!?!  PINK SHOES!!!  I have been looking for flats that I can wear out and about when I don't want to wear flip flops but have NO desire to wear trainers.  These are the perfect in-between shoe!  And the best part!?!?  They were CHEAP!!!!  Living on a missionary budget doesn't allow to buy things very much at all and forget paying full price!  That's why I charity shop!  But, occasionally you can find GREAT deals in store, just like these shoes...  So, before I continue on about how much I seriously am EXCITED for these shoes, I'll just show you a picture:)

Or two...

I seriously LOVE pink shoes!!!

Yummy in my Tummy!

Today was.... BAKING DAY!!  YAY!!  About a month ago, one my dearest friends from the states sent me a care package with some of my favourite things!  Among those things that I have been missing were two bags of the Trader Joes gluten free brownie mix!  YUM!!!  I just have to say, I totally made a mistake!  The back of the bag says to bake for 30 mins or until a toothpick can be stuck in the centre without gooeyness coming out with it.  Well, I did that little test, and SERIOUSLY!  It did not come out clean after 30 mins of baking time.  So, I kept it going and going....  till I burned the brownies... OOPS!!!  No good!  It was sooooo silly of me!  Normally, I know my limits, but I was just having a very hard time telling if it was done or not.  The brownies were making this bubbling effect which really made it seem like they were not finished.  Also, with this oven, I think it tends to bake on the hotter side of things and it just seems to go a lot quicker.  So, they were probably done right on time, but I didn't listen and baked them longer.  And, for the first time EVER, I used a silicone baking pan which seemed to change things a bit anyway.  The good news is?  I still ate some!  And, I have another bag to play with.  I will probably wait a few weeks till I have recovered from burntness of this batch.  

On the upside!  I made Sweet Potato Bread!!!  It is the best thing I have EVER had!  Well, at least today anyway!  The funny thing is, we have been looking for some sort of pumpkin bread thing which is one of my most favourite things EVER and can't find a mix and the pumpkin in a can is actually quite expensive!  Since it's not autumn, there aren't any pumpkins to puree even if I wanted to!!!  NOPE!  NONE!!  So, I am now decided that this sweet potato bread is the next best thing.  It has almost all the yumminess pumpkin bread would have... I subbed a few things out for healthier options... and you could add whatever spices it doesn't have that pumpkin bread would have as well!  SUPER EASY!!!!  I have heard some very funny things about sweet potatoes... know anything?  I am thoroughly convinced they are one of my favourite things!!!  By the time I baked this bread, I knew I needed to watch it and take it out on the earlier side... so I did.  It only took 20 minutes!  A lot shorter than the recipe said, but I knew that probably would be the case as I didn't not use the size loaf pan they said to use cause I don't have one and I probably won't get one until absolutely necessary!  I can't wait to have some yumminess in the morning!  I think I will go to bed now dreaming of sweet potato bread..  It makes me want to watch ELF!! SERIOUSLY!  It smells like CHRISTMAS!!!  Oooooo!!! Christmas in London!!!! It's gonna be AMAZING!!!  And, the weather today is really dreary.... that makes it seem like autumn and winter are right around the corner....

Seriously? Seriously YUMMY!!!!

Fun projects!

I love it when I get to do fun little projects that don't take up too much time!  Back when I was in York, I found the cutest art shop EVER!!! It was SERIOUSLY, super CUTE!  I had a little bit of money with me and I found a good deal on a couple of textile paints and some felt like material.  I have been trying to figure out ways to spruce up some basic clothes that I have that have become boring to me and some fun to them!  Since I have misplaced my paintbrushes during the move, I can't use the paints yet (hopefully soon) but I can use the fabric!  I decided to take one of my plain white jumpers and add some cuteness!  I love how bright our room is when you open all the curtains.  I can imagine how much fun it would be to hang a wedding dress from these windows and shoot away!  It's great for getting fun, soft lighting on this dreary day for detail shots!  So, here on the right is a picture of my boring jumper.

Here is my finished flower!  It was soooo simple!  I just made a template of a petal, used the template to cut out the pieces of fabric and then hot glued it all together!  In the back, I added a safety pin so that I can pin it to my clothes so that it's not permanent.  I wasn't ready to take that serious step!  Not yet anyway...

I went to the library yesterday and found some fun fashion books that I am hoping to get some fun tips out of...  More projects to come!!!!!

Seriously!  It's fun!!!

My Lost Recipes

My wonderful aunt is has such a gift for baking has given me a few really great recipes over the past few years.  Some recipes that I uses ALL the time!  I put those recipes in a very special zip lock bag before we moved to London.  I made sure I packed them in a very safe place since I would be seriously sad if I ever lost them.  Well, guess what?????  They are lost!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Now, seriously!  If you know me, you will understand what this means!  My perfectly yummy pie crust recipe?  Gone!  My delicious apple pie recipe that David LOVES so much?  GONE!  The only banana bread recipe that I actually like?  GONE!  My favourite cranberry muffin recipe?  GONE!!!!!  And my most favourite most delicious CHOCOLATE SILK PIE RECIPE?????  Yep, you guessed it... GONE!!!  No where to be found!  I have searched high and low!  Gone through every piece of luggage we brought over!  Even went through every box that was on the crate, just in case I remembered incorrectly and possibly put it in one of those boxes.  Torn every board game apart, searched through every book!  NO recipes to be found.  What on earth am I to do????

Here's the problem... My wonderful Aunt is serving the Lord in Peru with her family on a short-term mission trip.  I can't exactly get the recipes from her until she gets back which is sometime at the end of the week.  I am CRAVING pie.  ESPECIALLY the chocolate silk pie.  Ok, wait, maybe I am also craving the baking part of it!  But, by waiting another week, I will have time to let my mouth water even more for it!  And then, when I actually can get ahold of the recipes, they will taste SO YUMMY!  It obviously is worth the wait!

The good news is, I learned something about the flour here.  IT'S NOT THE SAME! So, basically, they don't have something called all-purpuse flour.  Instead, there is plain flour or strong white flour.  I have made a few batches of cookies with none of them turning out as they should.  Wanna know why?  It's because I have been using plain flour this whole time, when I really should have been using strong white flour!  Had I would've had my recipes, the pie crust would have turned out absolutely WRONG!  So, by waiting, I found out the info I needed to know and found the correct flour today while I was at Whole Foods.  The only other thing I really need to get is a rolling.  Which, I couldn't get anyway this week.  So, someday I will have everything I need for a pie, including the recipe.  I can't wait for that day, seriously! I can't!  Until then...

Seriously???  Seriously!

P.S.  I find it funny this blog entry immediately follows the whole yummy dessert blog... go figure:)