Mexican Street Corn

A delicious summer recipe that is a must try this season!  

Coat corn with oil and salt.  Grill on BBQ for 15 minutes (turning every 2-3 minutes). 

Sauce 

3 Tbsp Mayo

2 Tbsp Sour Cream

1 tsp Lime juice

1/4 tsp Garlic powder

1/8 tsp Chii powder 

Once the corn has been grilled coat the corn in the sauce and sprinkle the corn with parmesan cheese and chili powder.  Top with chopped cilantro and enjoy :) 

photo from my sweet friend who gave me the recipe

Coconut Cream Pie

This quick and easy pie makes a prefect addition to any summer feast!  With only 5 ingredients this pie can be whipped up in no time.  

Ingredients

2 packages (4-servings each) of jell-o vanilla Instant pudding

2 cups cold milk

1 cup whipped cream 

1 cup flaked coconut, toasted and divided

1 ready to use pie crust (graham or regular)

MORE WHIP CREAM FOR THE TOPPING

Steps

1. Beat pudding mixes and milk in a large bowl with whisk for 2 minutes. 

2. Stir in 1 cup of the whip cream and 1 cup toasted coconut; pour into crust. 

3. Refrigerate 4 hours or until firm.  

4. Top the pie with lots of delicious whip cream and toasted coconut just before serving! 

5.  Enjoy the deliciousness. 

Entry Way for a Big Family

Welcome to our new entry way!   We just built an addition onto our house and we couldn't be MORE in love with this open closet my husband and father-in-law designed and built.  

It may look like a lot of hooks all empty but we are a family of 8, so we have our fair share of jackets, sweaters, book bags, diaper bag, purses, and snow pants (in the winter).  We also love to host so most of the time we don't see to many unused hooks. 

The bench part is wide enough to sit on to get our shoes on, the double layer for the shoes works awesome for putting sneakers and flats and leaving the bottom for our boots.  We purchased three of these IKEA boot trays to try to keep the dirt and snow off the floor as much as possible.   The cubbies along the end are personalized for each of us.  So in the winter everybody was to keep 1 hat and 1 pair of mittens in there.  Now in the summer they have a summer hat and sunglasses.  Giving everyone a cubby saved so much time (and fighting) this winter that we didn't have to go digging in a giant mess of hats and mittens to find a pair for someone.   Across the top we keep ball caps for my hubby and oldest son. 

This new entry way has been a life saver for us and I am so thankful my husband bought what seemed like a million hooks ;) 

Strawberries for breakfast

Saturday mornings around here are usually our mornings for delicious extravagant breakfast treats!  This is the only time in our week that we can enjoy a bigger breakfast all together as a family so we take full advantage and treat ourselves.   When it is strawberry season in NB we tend to put strawberries on and in everything we eat, at least for the 2-3 weeks they are in season.

Here are two of our favourite treats!

Waffle shortcake towers!  Start by whipping up a batch (or two) of your favourite waffle recipe.  Hey if you don't have a homemade recipe there is no shame in bringing out that box of Eggos.   If you are looking for a waffle recipe, our family LOVES this recipe!  I mix all the drys up in a large ziploc baggie and store it in the pantry.  That way when we want waffles we just take out the mix and and the wets and we are good to go! 

Our waffle iron makes round waffles that easily break into 4 triangles so for our waffle tower we layer waffle, fresh whipped cream, and sliced berries 4 times to create a leaning tower ;) 

Next up is our croissants breakfast.  This can be done 2 ways.  The first is to make french toast with your croissants.  Cut them in half, dip in beaten egg and fry until golden brown.  Or you can just have them regular.  When we do regular I try to make sure they are fresh ones or sometimes I will splurge and buy a box of the frozen ones from Costco (and bake them fresh) for a treat. 

Take your croissants (frenched or plain) and spread strawberry cream cheese* over the bottom piece.  Next add slices strawberries.  Top with the other half of your croissant and add whip cream, fresh berries and a drizzle of melted Nutella to look extra fancy. 

* you can either buy strawberry cream cheese or I just use pureed berries mixed into plain cream cheese. 

Strawberry S'more

Strawberries made a delicious addition to the traditional s'more.   Start by placing your marshmallow onto the roasting stick then add a strawberry to the end of your stick.  Toast your marshmallow to perfection (or the way you like it).  Then put your marshmallow/strawberry goodness between 2 celebration cookies.  Celebration has so many different flavours you can enjoy.  My preference for s'mores is dark chocolate.

Spinach and Strawberry Salad

Strawberries make an excellent addition to salad!   This is one of our favourite summer salads.

Top your spinach (or you can use any time of salad greens) with sliced strawberries, avocado, crumbled feta and candied nuts.  Another delicious addition to this salad was some fresh basil mixed in with the spinach.   

Balsamic Vinaigrette 

In a mason jar combine

2 Tbsp Balsamic Vinager

1/2 tsp dijon mustard

1/4 cup olive oil

2 tbsp maple syrup

Whisk or shake well until all the ingredients are combined and store in the fridge until you are ready to enjoy. 

To candy nuts

Turn our pan to medium heat.  When the pan is hot add chopped pecans and any other nuts you want in your mixture.  Once they are heated and warm add 1-2 tbsp of maple syrup to your pan and remove from heat.  Pour your nut mixture onto parchment paper and allow to cool.  This mixture can be made in large batches and stored in an air tight container. 

Strawberry Lemonade

This recipe comes from one of my good friends!  I am so thankful she shared it with me because it is so so so delicious.  Unfortunately I did not have any real lemons in our house this weekend so I decided to use Realemon that I had in the fridge. 

Strawberry Lemonade 

Juice of 6 lemons

1 cup simple syrup

2 cups pureed strawberries

6-8 cups of water

1. Juice lemons (or measure out 1 cup and 2 Tbsp ReaLemon). 

2. Make simple syrup by putting one cup of sugar and one cup of water into a small sauce pan on the stove and heat until clear.  Allow to cool. 

3. Mix together lemon juice, simply syrup, and 2 cups of pureed strawberries.  Pour the mixture into 6-8 cups of water.

4.  Pour mixture over ice in a glass and garnish with sliced strawberries and lemons for a fancy look!   For me I poured it into our cute glass drinking cups (purchased at the dollarstore).