I KNOW IT'S BEEN AWHILE....
I'm trying really hard to focus on my knitting lately and get a stock pile because I'm really hoping to open an "Etsy" shop.  So that's why I haven't posted anything for a good week now.  Knitting takes awhile to accomplish anything, however I have managed to finished two hats and a scarf this week.  I'm also finding as the baby gets older she is much more demanding :)  She is my main priority, obviously.  Thank god it's Friday...daddy is home for two days!!!  Well i'll try to keep up with this a little more in the next couple of days.  Happy Friday!!!

HOO HOO......OWL STUFFIE!

I made little Ruthie a stuffed owl for her birthday.  I really love owls, especially stuffed owls...they are super cute.  I pulled out my bin of fabric and decided to make a denim owl.  I was also kind of going for an Asian kind of look with the colors and the choice of ribbon.  Anyways, I really love this owl and I hope that Ruth does too.  

HAPPY 1ST BIRTHDAY RUTH!
My good friends little girl turns 1 on Sunday.  So as part of her birthday gift I did a pencil sketch of her.  It's officially finished and framed.  I can't believe it's already been a year since she was born.  In no time my little Willow will be one.  It's pretty crazy how fast time really flies when you are having fun.  Here's a photo of the finished product.

SWEET N SALTY
We are nearing the end of our two week salad challenge, but really hasn't really been a challenge at all.  However some seem to think poor Marty is starving to death.  I just happened to mention that some were mentioning having a week of steak on the drive home from work last night.   Low and behold what does he decides he wants for dinner....STEAK...yuk!!!  I'm not a red meat eater so that idea was not so appealing to me.  I figured I had tortured him enough with salads, so I allowed him to break the streak and have steak and cheese sandwiches (with a side of salad of course).  I myself went ahead and ate my really delicious fig salad.  I would have to say this one was my favorite of all of them.  So many combinations of flavors that all worked really well together.  
I was also told that It was mandatory that I post photos of his steak...so here are the pics.

CAKE POPS!!!
I recently discovered these cute little creations all over the internet and was surprised I had never heard of them before.  For whatever reason they got me really excited and I couldn't stop talking about wanting to make them. My friends little girls 1st birthday is this weekend and we were asked to bring a little something to eat.  What better opportunity then a birthday party to make cake pops!!  It was a really fun project and they taste really good too.  A little bit time consuming, but hey...I'm on maternity leave!  
Very very easy to make too.  I just used a chocolate cake mix and some chocolate icing.  You simply bake the cake and then crumble the entire thing in a bowl.  Mix in a tub of icing and form balls.  I froze the balls for about 4 hours (sucker sticks in before freezing).  Then I melted some pink chocolate pieces (bought at Michaels) and dipped them in.  Sprinkled a few little sprinkles on them and voila!  I'm geek so I went all out and wrapped them in individual sucker bags and added some ribbon.  Hey, I have a lot of decorations left over from the candy bar that I had at my wedding last year.  Here's some pics of the process.

WATERMELON...HMMMMMmmmm MY FAVORITE!!!

Every since I was pregnant watermelon became one of my all time favorite foods.  It's just so refreshing and juicy!  I don't even want to begin to think about how much of it I actually ate when I was pregnant.  I guess it's better then being hooked on ice cream.  I'd have a hell of a lot more weight to loose right now if that was the case.  

A while back I was watching one of the many shows that I enjoy on the food network.  They had an episode dedicated purely to watermelon and things that you can make with watermelon.  Who knew it would be delicious in a salad!?  Every since I've been making different variations of watermelon salad.  This one was super delicious and here is the recipe for you.  

Ingredients

Watermelon (of course)

Lettuce of your choice, I used baby spinach

Grilled chicken breast (I marinated mine in a bit of olive oil, lime juice and honey)

Crumbled goat cheese

Toasted sunflower seeds

Fresh mint

Balsamic Vinegar (simmered on medium heat until it forms a syrup)

Sea Salt 

Black Pepper

Olive oil

Fresh lime juice

WEEK TWO, SALAD ONE....COBB!
We are now officially into week two of eating salad every night for dinner.  I'm actually not sick of eating salad at all and I'm kind of looking forward to the rest of the week.  My thoughts today were that I might potentially try out a two week period of eating only vegetarian meals for dinner.  Does anyone actually know if statistically speaking vegetarians end up having better health???  
I found some really great vegetarian entrees in the LCBO magazine that I might try out.  Speaking of LCBO and it's magazine, has that some how been taken off the press???  I haven't seen one in a very long time and it is quite disappointing.  I love the recipes out of it and always look forward to the new one coming out.  
Anyways, back to salad....tonight's salad was probably one of my favorites out of all of them so far.  It was a light cobb salad with a really great dressing.  Here is the recipe...I did substitute a few of the ingredients.  I am NOT  a fan of blue cheese, I find it quite repulsing.  So I used an applewood smoked cheddar, my favorite cheese.  I also stupidly forgot that the avocado that I had bought was for that salad and used it making guac this weekend.  So simply there was no avocado.

Ingredients:

- 1/2 head of romaine, coarsely chopped
- 1 cucumber, chopped or sliced into small pieces
- 1/2 head of Boston lettuce (or Iceberg), coarsely chopped
- 2 hard-boiled large eggs, separated, whites and yolks finely chopped
- 5 slices of extra lean turkey bacon, cooked and crumbled
- 1 ripe avocado, cut into small pieces
- 6 oz chicken breast, cooked and diced
- 2 tomatoes, finely chopped
- 1/2 cup blue cheese

Dressing
- 1/3 cup red-wine vinegar
- 2/3 cup olive oil
- 1 tbsp Dijon mustard
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- 1 small clove garlic, crushed
- Salt and pepper

Directions:
Combine chopped lettuce in a large salad bowl.
Arrange the chicken, bacon, tomato, egg and avocado over the greens.
Whisk vinegar, mustard, lemon juice, garlic, salt and pepper. Add the oil in a slow stream, whisking until it is emulsified. Serve separately.