Urban Suburban Mommy

Category Archives: Domestic Goodness

Quick & Cheerful Holiday Centerpieces

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I can’t wait to share my simple yet elegant holiday centerpieces that will add color to your table in less than 5 minutes! Here goes:

The holidays can be such a busy time for everyone, especially if you’re hosting – I love how simple this centerpiece DIY is, and how instantly it will add a pop of color and freshness to your table.

Items You Need:

  • Small vases (I picked up mine from the Dollar store)
  • Bags of frozen cranberries (you can use non-frozen ones as well, I just find the frozen ones last longer)
  • Cedar/boxwood boughs
  • Burlap Ribbon
  • Jute Rope
  • Scissors
  • Decorative stems (optional, I used cream holly’s for some of the centerpieces)

Steps:

  • Fill up your vase with your frozen cranberries and add cold water
  • Cut your boughs down to size
  • Fill the vase with the boughs and enjoy!
  • You can also wrap the vase with burlap ribbon and tie it into place using a decorative ribbon or jute string
  • Add any leftover boughs to your presents (weaving it in-between your ribbon) or your table setting (placing some in a grouping with your flatware)
  • Its all about the little touches that make everything a bit more special 😉

UrbanSuburban Mommy – Xmas DIY Vase

Design & Decor Expert, Kasia Waloszczyk

Kasia Waloszczyk, an accredited Interior Stylist/Decorator, also runs her own design company, Kasia Waloszczyk DESIGNS, a savvy and trendy décor service that caters to clients in the Greater Toronto Area. As a colour expert, Waloszczyk has held independent seminars on colour and pattern trends.  She has also worked with design firms overseas, developing textile colours, designs, and patterns applicable for the North American market.

Gifted with a keen eye for colours and shades, Kasia Waloszczyk has been applying her colour and design techniques for more than 15 years in the industry. A design expert on CTV’s The Marilyn Denis Show, Waloszczyk’s work has always kept her ahead of design trends and has also given her an in-depth expertise on fabrics for creative custom window treatments and unique upholstery, for both residential and commercial spaces.

KasiaWDesigns.com

twitter@kasiaw_designs

instagram@kasiaw_designs

That old fashioned fave – The Meringue

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If you know from good, home-made meringue, just the mention of the word meringue is bringing that extra-sweet melt-in-your-mouth crunch and crumble sensation – and your mouth is probably watering.

Meringue can be so simple, or you can dress it up in fancy layers and flavours.

My boys love it plain.

This is actually one of the top choices they ask for whenever there’s a bake sale, school concert sweet table or a pot luck. Because it’s easy, sometimes I whip up a small batch as a treat. And what’s great is that it’s really not terribly hard to make, you can make a dozen or you can just as easily make 50 or more at a time.

single-meringue

What you need:

– 8 egg whites
– 2 cups sugar
– 1 tsp vinegar (white or apple cider)
– 1 tsp of vanilla

You can adjust the size of your batch by keeping the ratio of 1/4 cup of sugar per egg white, so make a small batch or a very large one.

What you do:

Preheat the oven to 250°.

Get your stand mixer out and be prepared to let it go. I couldn’t do this by hand and have no idea how they made these before modern appliances – but they did.

Whip the egg whites on high until they’re fluffy, and form stiff peaks. Don’t stop the mixer, just add the vinegar. The vinegar stabilizes the egg white foam. Add the vanilla too, and then start spooning in tablespoons of sugar, adding it in slowly, blending thoroughly.

Once the sugar has been completely mixed in, keep blending for another few minutes. It will look glossy and gooey, kind of like you might imagine how liquid marshmallow would look.

unbaked-meringues

When it’s thick and stiff, it’s time to bake. You can scoop spoonfuls of it into mounds or you can use a piping bag to pipe out cookies. You can use an ungreased cookie sheet for smaller batches. When making large batches, I line an oven rack with tinfoil and cover the entire surface with meringues. I like to pipe little swirls.

If you want to get just a bit fancy, sprinkle crushed candy cane or shave a bit of chocolate onto them. The flavours should be subtle, just like the light and foamy soft crunch of the meringue. you can even add a few drops of food colouring before you stop blending and make them colourful.

Bake meringues for one hour at 250°, then turn the oven off and leave the cookies in the oven to dry out for another hour or so. They will caramelize and go slightly brown. If you don’t dry them for the extra hour, they’ll have chewy centres, they’re pretty good this way too. But the long drying gives them that signature melt in your mouth crunch.

These are a classic. I’m not sure who can turn one down, but this past week at the bake sale they were gone before my boys could come back and buy seconds. Yes, my boys ate a dozen before I handed them over to the bake sale table and then proceeded to buy two more, and I love them for using their money to buy the treats I make. It’s satisfying.

The kabob

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Kind of exotic, so easy and the boys always fight over the leftovers in my house. Doesn’t that sound like the perfect thing to make?

I love making kabobs. I usually use pork, but sometimes chicken and sometimes beef. Lamb would be good too.

Kabobs are great because of the versatility. You can make them in the oven or on the grill. You can prep them a day ahead, or do them up right when you’re going to cook them. You can use whatever type of meat you have on hand, and use up whatever veggies you’ve got in the fridge that are coming to their end.

skewers

What you need:

– 1 nice sized pork tenderloin OR 3 chicken breasts OR a small sirloin tip roast, cut into irregular hunks, about an 1 to 1.5 inches
– 1/3 cup olive oil
– 2 garlic cloves, diced or crushed
– 1 red onion (white, yellow or Spanish will also do) chunked
– 2-3 peppers, chunked (red or green – or a mix)
– splash of lemon juice
– salt & pepper to taste
– 1 1/2 tbsp oregano (fresh or dried)

Optional veggies: zucchini, mushrooms, eggplant, yam

What you do:

Use 6 to 8 metal skewers or bamboo skewers. If you’re using bamboo, make sure to soak them for 30 minutes so they don’t char.

Cube the meat andcut the veggies so that they’re bite sized but not too narrow – all the chunks of meat and veggies have to be able to be skewered.

Put all ingredients into a bowl. Toss well. You can refrigerate and let the meat marinate or you can skewer them up and get grilling. I like to alternate meat and different veggies on a skewer.

Get the grill heated to medium or heat oven to 350° and place skewers on a roasting rack. In either grill or oven, cook on each of the four sides for 4 to 6 minutes – it will cook faster on the grill, slower in the oven. You want to make sure meat is cooked through and veggies are softened and start to caramelize but don’t burn.

Serve with roasted potatoes or this rice. Tzatziki is also a great side to serve with these, it’s the perfect dip!

The leftovers – make sure you have leftovers! Put it all together in a container and the flavours just meld so beautifully. It’s a whole other amazing dish the next day.

 

Pancakes are happiness

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I loved when my mom would make us pancakes. It was a rare weekend treat, especially if she’d add some chocolate chips! The boys love them and it’s become a favourite around here when my niece has a sleepover. It’s so cute how she will, at some point in the afternoon or evening, somehow work it into the conversation and make sure I’ll be flipping flapjacks for her in the morning. Sometimes she asks me if we remembered to buy syrup, sometimes she asks if I’d like her help in the morning – once she even promised to do the dishes.

feature-pancakes

I make them with love, hoping that my sweeties enjoy them as much as I did when they were made for me.

Pancakes, in my opinion, should be thick and fluffy. Over the years I’ve maxed out my mom’s recipe and found a way to get them to rise to over an inch thick without altering the flavour.

What you need:

– 1 1/2 cups flour
– 3 1/2 tsps baking powder
– 1 tsp salt
– 2 tbsps sugar
– 1 1/4 cup milk
– 1/2 tbsp vinegar or lemon juice
– 1 egg
– 1/4 cup butter, melted

What you do:

Start by souring the milk – you add the vinegar or lemon juice to the milk and set aside. It takes about 5 minutes for the milk to sour. You can use buttermilk or even plain yoghurt in a pinch instead of sour milk.

Put all of the dry ingredients in a bowl and whisk together to mix well.

Add the egg to the soured milk and whisk together.

Melt the butter in the frying pan you’ll be using to cook the pancakes. Make sure the frying pan is well greased on bottom and sides. Get it to the ‘barely melted’ point – over medium heat, not too high. Using a rubber scraper, scrape the butter into the egg/milk mixture and whisk together leaving just enough on the pan so that it’s lightly greased.

Pour liquid into the dry mix. With a spoon mix it all together, but don’t beat it. You want it lumpy. Seriously, lumpy is the secret to great pancake batter. Let the batter sit for a few minutes to let the baking powder do it’s thing. That’s the secret to the fluffy factor.

You can make one big pancake at a time or three to four smaller ones – or 6 to seven “Silver Dollar” pancakes if you like. These are great when you’re feeding a crowd.

Fry pancakes on medium heat. When bubbles start to come through and dry out it’s time to flip them. Don’t burn them but make sure they’re cooked through.

Serve with butter and maple syrup.

This recipe works well when you double it.

Variations, just mix into the batter:

A cup of blueberries – fresh or frozen

A cup of chocolate chips

A banana, sliced thin

A cup of butterscotch chips

An apple, sliced plus 1-2 tsps cinnamon

Enjoy!

pancakes-2

Egg’s Benny with a twist!

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2017 will be the 40th edition of the Milk Calendar. 40 years of great tips and recipes for meals to make, they’re celebrating by having professional food stylist and recipe developer Heather Trim create a few recipes for our dining pleasure.

eggs-benedict-copyThis old fave is going to be a hit when you dish it up – it’s a great way to take brunch to the next level. Indulge yourself or show off for company, this Eggs Benedict with a Twist (featured in the calendar for December 2017) is surprisingly easy, and if you’re going to try to tell me you don’t like hollandaise I’m going to have to assume someone’s pants are on fire.

What you need:

2 tsp (10 mL) butter
4 tsp (20 mL) all-purpose flour
1 cup (250 mL) milk
½ cup (125 mL) finely grated Canadian Parmesan
½ tsp (2 mL) mustard powder
¼ tsp (1 mL) each, hot sauce and salt
4 small slices olive, cheese or crusty Italian bread
4 eggs
4 thin slices Black Forest ham
4 slices tomato
1 avocado, peeled and thinly sliced
Chives for garnish (optional)

What you do:

Melt butter in a small saucepan. Whisk in flour. Gradually whisk in milk. Stirring continuously, bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer gently 1 minute. Whisk in Parmesan, mustard powder, hot sauce and salt. Remove from heat; sauce will thicken slightly while preparing remaining ingredients.

Toast bread. Poach eggs in simmering water – about 3 minutes. Fold ham to fit on each slice of bread, followed by a slice of tomato, avocado slices then egg. Drizzle with sauce, then sprinkle with chives (if using).

TIP:

Add about 1 tbsp (15 mL) white vinegar to eggs’ poaching water; this helps eggs to hold their shape. Gently pat eggs dry with paper towel after cooking to prevent bread from becoming soggy.

Variation:

Try fried eggs instead of poached and prosciutto instead of ham

Eggs Benedict with a Twist is a take on eggs Benedict includes the fresh and creamy taste of avocado. Simply serve with a salad.

What to do with all that pumpkin (spoiler alert – vegan pumpkin balls)

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On Halloween night the pumpkins were ablaze – from traditional Jack-O-Lanterns to creative stencils and magical patterns – oh, and the big pumpkin throwing up all the pumpkin guts – that seemed to be a popular one this year in my hood.

But the day after Halloween, they’re just hollowed out squash destined for the garbage, the decorative pumpkins sitting around go unused, and leftover pumpkins at the market are on deep discount.

So what to do with all that pumpkin? If you’ve still got some good ones around, there are loads of pumpkin treats. I make pumpkin cheesecake, pumpkin soup and pumpkin cookies. But fellow mom, photographer and creative cook extraordinaire, Nicole had these amazing pumpkin treats posted on Facebook, and as my mouth watered, I knew I needed to share that recipe with you all!

Nicole says: With the holidays coming up – that means holiday parties, potlucks and general excuses for food and merriment. I don’t know about you – but I always seem to have at least one person in a crowd who is worried about food considerations, and try as I might, accommodating them doesn’t always happen. However after a recent

Pinterest scroll, I lucked out! London Brazil over at Gluten Free with LB saved my balls (pun intended) so to speak. And as per my usual I added my own twist to her recipe.

pumpkin-balls

I needed sweets for two different events, one of which was going to include a vegan, with a known sweet tooth and a love of things pumpkin. So I did what all fellow sweet tooths who also love chocolate do – I found some GF vegan dark chocolate made by Good Life, melted it and covered those pumpkin balls! After the chocolate set just a bit I sprinkled some coconut sugar on top to give myself a way of setting them aside for said Vegan. I didn’t buy enough to do the entire batch, so I used regular chocolate almond bark to cover the rest.

pumpkin-balls-in-boxes

Both were met with rave reviews.

Also included in the pictures are margarita balls, that I scored from Katie over at Butterlust. (for the non-adult drinking age types I did make a non-alcoholic version that I did not put a tiny piece of lime zest on so as to not confuse the two 😉 )

These easy Halloween party treats will make you look like a star!

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Do you want to make something special for the class party or the Halloween bake sale? Is your child having friends over and you’re not up to a long night of baking and decorating?

#Solution: Why not do some super-easy toxic waste or some Frankensteins or pumpkins!

No, I’m not going to go all Pinteresty on you – well, maybe just a little, but I’m going to call this “Pinterest for the time deprived” because I’ve dug up some very very simple Halloween treats that will make you look like a star – with very little time spent.

It all starts with a rice crispy treat. How easy is that? We’ve all wowed our kids with cooking this one up – it’s the classic three-ingredient treat that takes all of 10 minutes to prepare. And then a few more minutes to decorate. But EASY decorate. Not up-all-night-trying-to-create-intricate-details decorate.

Rice Crispy Treats:

What you need:

– 1/4 cup butter
– 4 cups marshmallows
– 5 cups Rice Krispie Cereal (name brand or generic)

What you do:

In a large pot on medium heat melt the butter. Add the marshmallows and start stirring until they all melt. When they’re gooey and melted add the cereal, remove from heat and keep stirring.

This stuff will be pretty hot at the start but cools fairly quickly and is easy to form into balls or pour into a large greased baking pan to cool.

They’re a great base for a whole lot of treat ideas – it’s all in the decoration with these:

1. Ghosts: icing, chocolate chips

Take the cooling crispy concoction and form it into lumps. Tall lumps, fat lumps – this one isn’t fussy. Using an icing tube, pipe on two big blob dots for eyeballs and then pipe in little black pupils or use mini chocolate chips for the pupils, it works too. (You can do the easy thing and buy one black and one white tube of icing or you can mix up a quick batch of one cup icing: 2 cups powdered sugar plus 1/4 cup butter, 1 tbsp milk beaten till firm, add food colouring to achieve colour.)

The mini chocolate chip makes this even easier. All about the easy!

2. Frankenstein: food colouring, icing, chocolate chips

You’re going to add some green food colouring at the melting marshmallow/adding rice cereal phase. When the gooey mess is all blended and the colour is of your liking, pour into a greased baking pan to let cool. Cut into rectangles – these can be large or small to accommodate the number you’d like to serve.

With icing, pipe on Frankie’s hair at the top, the eyeballs – same as the ghosts – and a stitched mouth: one horizontal line and then 4 or 5 randomly spaced short vertical lines. The less tidy, the better the effect.

3. Pumpkins: food colouring, chocolate nubs or pretzel pieces, icing

Add orange food colouring at the marshmallow/adding rice cereal phase. When the gooey mess is all blended and the colour of your liking, form them into balls. Chunky balls, not perfectly round – flatten them a bit. You can press the vertical ridges in with your fingers or with a toothpick pressed long-ways against your ball, vertically – though it’s not necessary. Leave them a little lumpy, it will look fine. Finish these by creating the stem on top. A chunky piece of broken pretzel works well, or if you prefer, you can break pieces off of a chocolate bar to create little nub-sized chunks and press them into place.

For those who want to take this a bit further (you over-achievers, you!), you can pipe on some black icing triangle eyes and mouth for a Jack-o-lantern effect.

4. Confetti: sprinkles, melted chocolate, food colouring, Halloween sprinkles, ghoulishly cute straws

This one’s the simplest and ends up looking super cute. You can colour the crispies – or not. You can form them into fun shapes or balls or just cool them in a pan and cut into rectangles – the shapes get popped on the end of a stick/straw. You can partially or fully dip the treats into the melted chocolate – white chocolate shows the colours better but regular chocolate is fine too. Gently shake off the excess chocolate and lay treats on a cookie sheet lined with foil, parchment or cling wrap, covered in sprinkles. Add another layer of sprinkles and turn, coating all sides. You can also dip into a container of sprinkles, though this can get messier. You can do a light coating of sprinkles or go for full saturation. This one is fun to play with and nothing has to be uniform.

Go with the orange, white and black sprinkle mix, or go fancy with bone sprinkles or skull sprinkles or even spider sprinkles if you dare. There are a lot of options out there – some are easier to find than others.

4. Coloured treats: food colouring

I’m saving the easiest for last. Simple coloured treats. Make mock candy corn triangles with yellow and orange. Colour them green and call them Toxic Waste. Colour them orange and call them Pumpkin Bombs. Colour them black and call them Coffin Crispies. I always title the creations I send to school, it’s become half the fun of baking for those sales and parties!

Happy Halloween! Don’t eat too much of the kids’ candy.

LOL – who am I kidding? Go to town on that candy, you’ve more than earned it in the last 365 days!

Fondue Chinoise

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You may think you know fondue, but if you haven’t tried Fondue Chinoise, you haven’t seen anything yet.

Fondue Chinoise is two meals in one. First, you create a broth in the pot. Then you take a piece of cheese, and wrap the cheese a piece of thinly shaved slice of meat. You submerge it in the broth and let it cook. Give it three or four minutes, then take it out of the broth, let it cool for a minute, and then pop the cheesy filled piece of meat in your mouth and go “mmmmmmmm!!!”

photo: Kae Yen Wong

photo: Kae Yen Wong

AND THEN, when you’re done dinner, you throw the leftover meat into the broth. Let it simmer and save it for the next day. It’s the most decadent, best beefy onion soup you’ll ever have. Toss in some cheese topped toast and you’ve got French Onion Soup.

What you need:

Broth
– 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
– 2 big bay leaves
– salt & pepper to taste
– 1 cup heavy red wine (or half cup win,e half cup brandy)
– one beef bouillon
– 6 cups water
– 2 large onions – halved and then sliced into long narrow strips, sauteed until deeply caramelized

Meat & Cheese
– 1 pound of cheese, cut to half-inch cubes: Jarlsberg, Swiss or Havarti are best
– 1/3 pound of meet, thinly sliced, per person – usually found in the meat or freezer section

What you do:

Put all contents of the broth into the fondue pot and get it simmering for an hour or two. You may need to top the pot off with water if you let it simmer long. You want to make sure that the onions are very caramelized as this will make the flavour really come out. You’ll get the best results by sauteeing the onions slowly, on medium-low heat in vegetable oil.

The fun of fondue (or “fun”due as my brother likes to say) is that everyone cooks and eats at their own pace. The fondue pot is placed in the middle of the table with a burner beneath on medium to keep the broth simmering. You wrap a piece of meat around the cheese and secure it on the fork (you can pre-roll them or have guests wrap up their own). Then put the fork into the pot for about 3 to 5 minutes, until the meat is cooked through and the cheese has melted. Serve with some crust bread. And wine, this goes great with deep, rich red wine. You can also serve with a garlic aioli dip. It’s great for a dinner party or a family meal – or even an intimate dinner for two!

It’s hands-on and social. Depending on your family and friends, a little stealing may go on, but that’s only because it’s so delicious, and it’s hard to be patient waiting for those little morsels to cook up.

After cooking all that meat and cheese, the broth will be rich and flavourful. Dump the rest of the remaining meat into the broth and let it simmer. Serve the next day as soup, or you can add toasts with melted cheese and it makes the best French Onion Soup!

Thanks for the recipe AP. I’ve made it many, many times, it’s always a hit, and it always reminds me of you!

 

 

 

Easy peanut sauce

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I love peanut sauce. When I go for Thai food I usually end up ordering an extra two or three sides of peanut sauce. It’s one of those flavours that I just can’t get enough of. Some people are like this with Swiss Chalet sauce, some people are like this with plum sauce, I’m like this with peanut sauce. I think part of it was that I so rarely got to have Thai food that it was a real treat. Continue reading →

Cinnamon bun-a-licious

I love making school lunches! (Said no mother, ever.)

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About a week ago I started noticing all of the social media posts about school lunches. There were the “What’s the best container on the market?” discussions. There were parents asking if the school hot lunch programs were worth the money. (Yes! The answer is YES!) Continue reading →