Candy Party

This weekend I had the pleasure of helping my cousin celebrate her birthday . I have to be honest, I felt a little out of my comfort zone when I realized I only had 3 days to prepare, but I did what I do best...make lists! By the end of Friday I had 3 different lists and a schedule planned for the next three days. Everything I used for the party was from home , the only money I spent was on candy .

Check out the pics, I hope you like them .

The pink table cloth is actually window curtains from Ikea . I placed a white table cloth underneath it so you couldn't see through to the table.

When I was told the party was candy themed I knew exactly where to go... Bulk Barn. Using mason jars, vases, bowls and muffin cups , I organized the candy by color and amount, making sure that each side of the table had equal amounts.

It only took me about 20 minutes and a few tools to make the Jube Jube tree. Check back for my post on how to make this .

One of the activities at the party was the, decorate your own cupcake station. Using small glass bowls my aunt had in her kitchen, I filled them with sprinkles, chocolate and gummy bears. Once the girls were finished decorating their cupcakes they used the Martha Stewart cupcake tier to display them.

What would a candy themed party be without a Lollipop cake! I baked a chocolate cake using this recipe, vanilla icing from here and made the stick from fondant.

Even though I didn't plan weeks in advance, I am very happy with the outcome of the party. Maybe once in a while I will try not to be such a perfectionist and plan an event with only a few days notice....maybe.

Tuxedo Strawberries

Chocolate covered strawberries are simple to make and always look elegant at any dinner party. With the Oscars come up I decided , why not take it up a notch and dress these strawberries in their best outfits! This recipe is pretty simple, but it is important to take your time and make sure the chocolate has cooled before you start the next step.

What you will need for this project:
Strawberries ( preferably large and long stem)
*1 1/2 cups of White Chocolate*
*2 cups Dark Chocolate*
**Small Pot
**Small Metal Bowl

* the amounts for this project can vary, make sure you melt enough that you can cover every strawberry

**items not shown

Step 1: Melt the white chocolate using the double broiler method. Once all of the chocolate has melted cover the front half. A good tip for this step is to place the strawberry on a flat surface to see which side of the strawberry lays flat . Whichever side that is , use the opposite side for the white chocolate .

Step 2: Place the strawberries on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and let the chocolate harden. If you want to speed up the cooling process you can place the chocolate in the fridge for 2 minutes, but be careful it doesn't crack the chocolate. While the chocolate is cooling, begin to melt your dark chocolate using the same method as the white.

Step 3: Once the chocolate has melted and your white chocolate has hardened on the strawberry, begin step 3. Holding the strawberry by the stem ,take one side and dip it in the chocolate. Make sure that you dip the strawberry on an angle so the front doesn't get covered in dark chocolate. Try to aim for the dark chocolate to make a V shape leaving some white.

Step 4: Place each strawberry on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and let harden.

Step 5: While the strawberries are cooling take your left over chocolate and pour it into a Ziploc bag, cutting a tiny hole at one end of the bag. It is very important that your chocolate isn't runny. To avoid this problem, let it cool for a while so it can get thick. Once it is thick, take your bag and make a crisscross shape for the bow tie and then add three dots under it. It is best to practice this step before you put it on the strawberry.

The Finished Project !

These strawberries can stay out without melting for hours so don't worry about putting them in the fridge. IF ... you have any left over you can put them in the fridge and eat them for breakfast!

I would also suggest using a better quality chocolate for this project.For the white chocolate I used something I had in my house and it didn't really harden well, but I used Lindt 85% dark chocolate and it hardened smooth and looked great!

Tip Tuesday

Tip Tuesday # 9: Don't sweat the small stuff

I'm sure most of you have heard the quote "don't sweat the small stuff", but usually its related to things in your lives or attitudes toward things. I find that this quote can relate to pretty much anything in life, which is why I chose to talk about it for Tip Tuesday. Being a perfectionist, it is very difficult for me to plan a party and not have every little detail go the way I initially planned. But, something I have discovered is that the small things that I'm worrying about, whether it's the color of the tablecloth being different then I wanted or the dessert I made not turning out well, they are not worth "sweating" over. If you put enough time and effort into planning a party the overall look will still be beautiful and if something doesn't go as planned, most of the time your guest wont even know!

Custom Made Candles

If there is one thing I know about dinner parties , its that candles always make the decor look amazing. Over the years I have spent quite a bit of money on candles that will match my theme. Sometimes I find it difficult to find the right candles, so for this post I decided to make my own!

What you will need for this project:
A small mason jar
Candle wax ( paraffin or soy wax if available)
Wick
Candle wax dye
Lavender Sent (optional)

Step 1: Take you wax and place it in a bowl on top of a pot with simmering water.

Step 2: Once the wax is melted add your coloring. When adding your coloring, don't be scared to over do it . The wax might look very dark while its hot , but when it dries it becomes at least5 shades lighter . If you have a sent you want to add put in 3-4 drops after you have finished adding the color.

Step: 3 Place the wick in the center of the candle and pour a small amount of wax into the bottom, so that it covers enough of the wick that it stays in place .

Step 4: Once the thin layer of wax hardens, pour the remainder and leave candle to dry for about 4-5 hours, or until the wax has become cool and solid.

The Finished Project!!

A few tips from this project, cleaning up the wax once you are finished can be a bit tedious. I found the best way to get the wax off of the bowl was by freezing it and then scraping it of with a knife . Once you have scraped as much of the wax off as you can, take rubbing alcohol and try and remove all the excess wax. If you are unable to get it all off, use an S.O.S pad to scrape the remainder.

Tip Tuesday

Tip # 8: Set your table in advance

Happy Valentines Day!!
If you haven't noticed from my past few posts, I really love Valentines Day!! In honor of today I have decided to post a few pictures with my tip!

Now, on to the tip! When having a dinner party I find it really helps if you set the table a day ahead of time. Not only does it give you more time the day of the party, you can also change and add things to make the table look better!


Instead of place cards I decided to put a quote on each plate. Its a great conversation starter!

Notice anything in this picture ?! Yup , it's my lace votive from this post .


I paired each votive with the opposite color candle and used candies to fill up each glass.

A lot of people choose to make flowers the center of the table but I liked the idea of a plate of candles better. It helped keep the romantic theme going.

The table runner was purchased at the dollar store and the rose pedals were purchased at my local flower shop for 1 dollar. They had some extra that had fallen off the roses and weren't going to use them.

Happy Valentines Day!
XOXO

What's On The Menu?

Don' t get me wrong, I love going out for dinner and experiencing the different spices and flavors a restaurant can offer you. But... there is something special about staying in and taking the time to make someone a home cooked meal. It taste much better knowing that you put your blood , sweat and tears into it . I recently made a pre Valentines Day dinner and I would love to share the menu with you ! Enjoy and Bon Appetite.

Menu:
French Onion Soup
Salad with, Goat Cheese and Candied Pecans
Baked Asparagus
Gnocchi Casserole

I started the meal off with a home made French onion soup. It took me about 2 hours to caramelize the onions but it was very worth it !

To top it off I added a toasted baguette with melted Gruyere cheese.

This salad was really simple to make. I used mixed green lettuce, cherry tomatoes, goat cheese, aged balsamic vinaigrette and candied pecans. To candy the pecans, add a cup of brown sugar to a cup of pecans and slowly heat them on the stove. It is important that you continuously stir the pecans or the sugar will burn.

The asparagus was also very simple . I drizzled salt, pepper, extra virgin olive and white balsamic vinaigrette on the asparagus and baked them in the oven at 350 (f) for about 15 min.


If you have never made Gnocchi before , you wouldn't know that the image above is riced potatoes, rolled into balls. The idea for this Gnocchi came from two places, the casserole idea came from here and the Gnocchi recipe came from one of my favorite Canadian chefs , Mark McEwan . His new cook book, Mark McEwan: Great Food at Home , has a large variety of comfort food recipes that you can actually make at home !
Once the potatoes are riced and rolled into balls , cute them in half and gently roll out into a long line.

Cut the gnocchi on an angle and gently drop in to boiling water. A small tip I discovered while making the gnocchi, if you gently dust the gnocchi with flour before putting it into the water it helps keep the shape . Also, if the water becomes murky dump it out and start with fresh water after a few batches, this will also help it keep shape

Once the gnocchi is cooked I layered it with home made tomato sauce and ricotta cheese and put it in the over for 30 min, or until the cheese is slightly browned

I always thought that making gnocchi was difficult but its more time consuming, if anything .
Using simple ingredients to make a great meal is always worth the time !

Treat Table

The way you choose to decorate a dinner party can really help lighten the atmosphere. I spend a lot of time decorating my dinner table and adding little accents around the house. This Valentines Day I decided to add a treat table stocked with cookies, candies and take home " adult" loot bags.

Here are a few ideas that you can use at your next dinner party!

I used two different recipes for the cupcakes, this one for the icing and this one for the red velvet cake. I used the toppers I made while back to add a little more red. Ive used this icing recipe a few times but the red velvet cake was a new experiment! I forgot to add the coco powder so I put it in at the end..oops...but they still tasted great!

The cookie pops from my last post were a big hit !


I took the heart centers from the cookie pops and dipped them into the left over chocolate . I chose not to add any other decorations but if you have kids , getting them to put sparkles on the cookies could be a fun indoor activity ! These are my interpretation of an adult loot bag! I used to love getting loot bags as a child and I don't think it has to stop just because we are over the age of 10!
The instructions on how to make the box is here. After I put my goodies in the box I used some sparkly ribbon and plain red ribbon to close it up.

For the inside of the box I put some home made cookies and chocolates. I bought red paper stuffing from a local packaging store called Creative Bag to fill up the bottom of the box , so it wouldn't look empty.

The Finished Project!

Cookie Pops

I love the idea of food on a stick, so when I saw this recipe for cookie pops I knew I had to make it. I used the cookie recipe exactly how it said in the instructions , but I chose to change the center by using colored chocolate.

After mixing all of the ingredients and chilling the dough for an hour , I took it out and made a ball of dough. I found that if the dough got to warm while I was shaping it, it started to crumble and was difficult to roll out. Try and work as fast as you can to avoid this problem .

It is important to flour your surface so the dough doesn't get stuck as you roll it out! The recipe called for the dough to be a certain thickness, but I just used my lolly pop stick to see how thick it should be.

Once the cookies were baked and cooled I melted the chocolate using the double broiler method. Its important when doing this step that the water in the pot does not start to boil and splash up towards the bowl of melted chocolate , or it will burn.

The Finished Project!

These cookies are such a great idea for a simple and exciting valentines day surprise. Make sure you keep the centers of the cookies so you can decorate them !

Valentines Candy Box

When I was younger I always loved getting Valentines card and candy from my class mates. The older I have gotten, the less important Valentines day has become for everyone around me. This year I am planning on giving a few candy filled boxes away to some of my closest friends to remind them how much I love and appreciate them! I personally don't think Valentines day should only be celebrated with you spouse...share the love !!

***Warning, there are a lot of steps for this project but I PROMISE once you get the hang of it , it will take 2 minutes

What you will need for this project:
Paper ( something thick so the paper holds )
Cutting Device
Glue Stick ( Optional)

Step 1: A few things you need to know before we get started. It is important that you paper is a perfect square. Also , whatever color you want your box to be, make sure it is on the bottom. Now to begin, take your paper and fold it in half

Step 2: Unfold your paper and fold it in half again, this time the opposite way from step 1

Your paper should be divided in to 4 smaller squares

Step 3: Take the corner of your paper and fold it in towards the center. Make sure your are pressing down hard on the paper to make a deep grove

Continue this step on each corner until they are all folded in

Step 4: Without unfolding the previous step, fold the paper in half on each side

Step 5: Making sure that you have even creases repeat previous step on the opposite sides

Step 6: Unfold the top and bottom flaps leaving the sides folded in

Step 7: Fold the sides of the paper so they are upright

Step 8: Take the corners of the box and fold them in. If you are using a paper that is thick, such as card stock, the corners should fold in easily

Step 9: Fold the flap inwards so is creates another side of the box

Continue step 9 on the opposite side

The Finished Project!
If necessary glue down the flaps to the inside of the box

I will be adding a few finishing touches once I deiced what to put inside the box, I'm thinking homemade cookies and some chocolate, what do you think ?



Project tip : To make the bottom of the box cut your paper a few centimeters shorter than the top

Ps: Happy Groundhog day!