Birthday and BBQ

So this week I celebrated my 27th birthday and I have never felt so blessed. It started off with overnights at work for the new spring concept flip. I work with such awesome people who got me cupcakes and sang me happy birthday late at night! And Germaine's mom made me her spring rolls that I am addicted too! You guys can't grasp how epic her Vietnamese spring rolls are!

The next day me and Nate slept in and enjoyed a nice relaxing day to ourselves cause we don't get to do either of those often these days! It was much needed. I made homemade salsa which is one of my weeknesses!

Here's a picture and my recipe!

-3 large tomatoes chopped
-1/2 a white onion chopped
-1/2 a head of fresh cilantro chopped
-1 lime juiced
-salt to taste

Thats it let it sit for about half a day and it is the most delish fresh salsa! I love it!

Today we had a fun and busy day. We went on a little Bulk Barn spree, which to me is like heaven! We got a redic amount of candy and snacks along with some awesome new baking goodies for me! Including dog bone cookie cutters so I can start making my pups homemade treats! A cross cake pan which pretty much made my day, a great new anchor 2 cup liquid measuring cup and some really cute cupcake covers!

We got home and had fun with my new camera taking pictures of the cutest dogs you know miss Dolly and little Lem!

Then we headed off to my FAVORITE restaurant for dinner The SmoQue Shack . We are legit addicted to this place which just opened up in town this fall if you haven't been yet it is a must! Nate got steak, and I had brisket, we both had their AMAAZING mac & cheese and I had their creamy coleslaw ( I am a coleslaw addict and this is one of my favorites!). They have a BBQ ceaser which is to die for too! We haven't had anything there we didn't like

After we went to EQ3 and scored an amazing new couch on spring clearence! We got this model but in a light grey.

And lastly as if our day couldn't get any better we  decided on an awesome new apartment that we are moving into May 1st! Lots of packing painting and decorating in my near future and I love EVERY second of it! I already have two design inspirations for our new place. The first is for our new living room and the second is just the colour scheme insipration for our new kitchen dining space (for which I am on the hunt for a table and chairs cause we don't have any)

CANNOT WAIT!

So on an end note, this has actually been the best birthday I can even remember. Me and Nate have a great year ahead of us and I couldn't be more excited! Great way to kick off our 27th year! I am so blessed to have such great friends, an amazing husband and the best parents on earth!

Birthday Treats

Tomorrow is my dads birthday and we are having a few friends over tonight to celebrate since the rest of our week is jam packed! I made strawberry cupcakes and chocolate dipped strawberries

Since the chocolate dipped strawberries are pretty self explanatory and I don't think anyone needs a recipe for those here is a picture of them:

Here are the cupcakes all done I will post the recipe after (I added some extra chocolate on top that I had left from the strawberries)

Strawberry Puree

(this goes in the batter and the icing)

 Ingredients

• 5 cups fresh strawberries
  
• 2 teasppons lemon juice
  
• 1/4 cup sugar

1. Cut off stems and clean strawberries.
2. Place in blender or food processor.
3. Add lemon juice, and puree.
4. Add in sugar gradually for desired sweetness.

Strawberry Cupcakes

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup butter
  
• 1 cup sugar
  
• 3 egg whites
  
• 2 teaspoons strawberry extract
  
• 2 cups fresh strawberrt pureed
  
• 1/4 cup plain or strawberry yogurt
  
• 1 1/2 cups flour
  
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
  
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
  
  Directions
  
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line cupcake tins with foil or paper liners.
  2. In a large bowl beat sugar and butter until fluffy. Add egg whites one at a time, and continue beating  until fluffy.
  3. Add strawberry puree and yogurt.
  4. In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
  5. Gradually add batter to flour mixture. and beat until well blended.
  6. Pour batter into cupcake tins until 2/3rds fulls.
  7. Bake for 15 to 18 minutes until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.
  8. Cool completely.
    
  Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting
  (you will not be able to pipe this icing it will not get thick enough)
  
  Ingredients
  
• 1/4 cup butter softened to room temperature
• 1 8 ounce package of cream cheese softened to room temperature
• 1/2 cup strawberry puree
• 6 cups confectioners sugar
• pink or red food tint or food coloring ( I didn't use any the puree made it a pretty color on its own

Directions

1. Using a large bowl, beat butter and cream cheese until well blended.

2. Add food coloring to make the tint pink or red.
3. Gradually add confectioners sugar, beating until smooth, and obtaining desired frosting consistency.

They taste AMAZING and if you have any extra of the puree it tastes delish over ice cream. The cake part is a litrle more on the muffin side then cupcake side so if you would prefer more of a cupcake flavour use a plain store bought cupcake mix and substitute the water in it with the strawberry puree. Lemme know if anyone of you make them what you think!

Here is a picture of them all set up and pretty for the table (don't mins the other random shit lol)

Alright time to go clean the kitchen and get the rest of dinner ready hope you guys have a great week ahead of you and to all my Canadian followers happy early Canada day!

The Big 2-5

Soooo This old bird just celebrated a birthday this month! I turned 25, and possibly had a mid life crisis lol.

But I was lucky enough to have some amazing friends around to help me celebrate! Mary and Tayte came down from LA for the weekend. Plus Drew, Nikki and Swindle were heading over to celebrate! I of course made some cupcakes for the party. We all had a few drinks at our place then headed off to Beauty Bar where Drew had an awesome lil suprise for me set up! VIP section and bottles of champagne on ice!!!!



















































































































































Drew is so wonderful she also tattooed me for me birthday the week prior. SOOOOO in love with both of them, here is what I got...


































Annnnd once every one was gone and the weekend had died down, me and Nathan headed to the movies to see Alice in Wonderland in 3D. It was all I asked for for my birthday and it was perfect!


















Alright so for tomorrow I'm planning some updates with modeling pictures I haven't posted yet on here and some stories behind them. With the usual links to all the magical people behind em!