28 February 2012

Fortnightly Baking Fun Challenge #15 is:


Hi everyone, can you believe two weeks has gone by already?! It felt like I posted the Valentines challenge yesterday! Time flies, when you have fun (or in my case was very busy, lol!).
Have you voted for your favourite Valentines recipe yet? If not, just look to your right and there is the voting poll, or you can go here for more detail.

Now the theme for the next fortnight is........
Pies and Tarts!!!!

Thats easy, right?! You can make any kind of pie or tart you like. 
Sweet, savory, big, small what ever you can come up with!
OPEN FOR ANOTHER WEEK!! YOU CAN STILL ENTER!


The Prize, is a Quick ‘n’ Easy recipe book called: Pies, Pastries and Finger Foods! Filled with Savory Pies and Tarts, Savory Pastries, Sweet Pies, Sweet Treats, Finger Food and SO much more!
I ship anywhere in the World!


My example is Mini Chicken Pies:
To make them you will need:
For the pastry: 
1 cup cake flour 
1 cup all-purpose flour 
1/2 teaspoon salt 
3/4 cup cold butter, cut into 1cm cubes.
7 tablespoons heavy cream OR 2 eggs lightly beaten.
Chicken filling
melted butter
1 egg yolk 
1 whole egg 
1 Mix the flour and salt and empty out on a work surface. Sprinkle the butter cubes on top.
2 Take a pizza cutter and start cutting the butter into the flour, till the butter is about the side of peas.
3 Make a hole in the center of the dough and pour the egg inside.
4 Mix until it forms a dough.

5 Brush the tartlets pans on the inside with the melted butter.
6 Roll out the dough (about 2-3 mm thick) and put them in your tartlets pans.
7 Put your chicken filling inside, make sure your chicken don’t have to much sauce or it will make the dough soggy.
8 Put another piece of dough on top and seal the sides with a fork.

9 Brush with the beaten egg yolk and whole egg.
11 Bake at 200 degrees C/ 390 degrees F for 17 minutes or until golden brown.
Hope you like it, Bon-Appetite!
For those of you who haven’t entered before, here is how it works:
-You can link-up using your blog or if you don’t have a blog, e-mail your entry to me.
-Create a post on your blog with the recipe and at least one picture of the finished product.
or
e-mail the recipe, with at least one picture of the finished product and I will enter your recipe in the challenge (remember to come back and check out your entry).
-One recipe per person/blog please.
- All entries must be appropriate
-You are allowed to have help with your baking.
-Please use the blue frog below to enter. Be sure to add the link to your direct blog posting/recipe and not your whole blog as this makes it much easier to find your recipe. 
-Please comment on at least 3 other entries.
-Each recipe needs to be linked back to Heidi’s Crafts or has to have the button in the post.
-This is a fortnightly challenge, you have two weeks to enter.
-Entries need to be linked up by Monday the 12 of March for this Pies and Tarts challenge.
-After the challenge has closed, I will announce the entries in a separate posting and you will be able to vote for your favourite recipe.
-You are all allowed to advertise anywhere you like for people to vote for you, on your blog, Facebook, Twitter, etc.
-I will have a personalized blinkie, specially for the Winner. As well as the PRIZE!! I ship anywhere in the World!
-Age doesn’t matter, from little girls to grandmas are welcome to enter!
-The aim of the challenge is to encourage mothers and grandmas with their girls to enjoy making food in the kitchen, to share recipes, find new ones and have lots of fun together!
This post is linked with:

Baking Greetings

27 February 2012

Voting For The Winner of Fortnightly Baking Fun Challenge #14:


Hello everyone! Well as you know, its Monday and that means it’s time for you to start voting for your favorite Valentines recipe!!
I had 5 entries for this fortnight challenge.
Firstly we have 11 year old Robyn
Who Baked such a sweet Choc Chip Cookies Message.
Who baked the most beautiful Strawberry Shortbread.

10 year old Tane:
Who baked such a creative Heart Cake.
8 year old Grace:
Who made delicious Valentines Day Cupcakes.

And my little 8 year old sister Danika:
Who made a lovely Forest Berry Tea.
Thank you for entering everyone!! And a special thank you to Robyn who entered for the first time.
 Now go and advertise everywhere you like, so people can vote for you.
Now my readers, you can go to their blogs and read the recipe to see which ones you like best and vote for it.
How To Vote:
1 Go to the top of my blog,
2 Just under my blog header, on the right, is a voting poll with all the entries.
3 Next to each name is a little white circle
4 Click on the one next to the name of the entry you like best.
5 Then click on the button that says “vote”.
You have voted.
Voting will close Sunday the 4th of March 2012.
 Good luck everyone.....
Baking Greetings!

25 February 2012

E-mail Entry For Fortnightly Baking Fun Challenge #14.


Hello everyone, I received an e-mail entry for my Fortnightly Baking Fun Challenge #14.

The theme is Valentines - Anything Red, White, Pink, Hearts or Roses.
The sweet little girl, Robyn, is 11 years old.

She made a Choc Chip Cookies Message for Valentines Day!

Note from Heidi-Mari: For a healthier alternative, you could substitute the margarine with butter and crease the pan with butter and not spray it with spray and cook.
 Recipe for cookies:
Ingredients: 
2 ¼ cups flour
200 grams margarine
¾  cups white sugar
¾  cups brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla essence  
1 tsp. baking powder
1 ½  cups choc chips
can add raisins or chopped nuts (optional but I didn't)
Method:
Preheat oven to 160 - 170 degrees.
Cream together margarine, brown sugar and white sugar.
Add the eggs and vanilla. Mix well.
Now add sifted flour and baking powder. Mix.
Add choc chips. (Nuts and raisins optional.)
Spray a tray with spray 'n cook.
Roll dough into letters (you may have to add more flour to make dough thick enough to roll.)
Put into oven and bake for 10 - 12 min.
Icing and Decorating:
A packet of sweets of your choice
Icing sugar
A few drops of water
Pink food colouring 
Method:
Put 3 tsp. of icing sugar in a bowl.
Add a tsp. of food colouring. 
Add a drop of water.
Stir together and add more icing sugar until thick enough.
Stir until all lumps are gone.
Ice and have fun decorating!
Optional: I cut the sweets up before putting them on the biscuits.
That sure looks like a great cookie Robyn, and lots of fun!
Thank you so much for taking part in my challenge.
Fortnightly Baking Fun Challenge #14 is still open till Monday the 27th of February, so you still have time to enter everyone!
Baking Greetings

24 February 2012

Birthday Card For My Mother And DT Card For Stampin for the Weekend


Hello everyone, I hope you’re all well and had a good week. I had a very busy, but good week.
Today is time for a new Stampin for the Weekend Challenge. It was my turn to pick the theme and I decided on bingo!
Now for those of you who don’t know how this works, it’s a lot like the game bingo. You choose three blocks, Horizontally, Vertically or Diagonally.
Example: Ribbons/Bows - Pearls - Pink,
OR
Pearls - Lace - Polkadots,
OR
Flowers - Lace - Pink.
As long as you use three in a straight line, you can use it and don’t forget to tell us in your post which combination you decided on!

Our sponsor for this fortnight is In2Stamp who is offering the winner a 10 euro give voucher.
It was my mother’s Birthday on the 22nd (Wednesday) so I decided to used the theme to make her a beautiful birthday card.
I have used this paper for a few cards before, but it never gets old, I just love it. Fitted with some lace and a doily work wonders!
This is a Whiff Of Joy stamp called: Shy Willow that I used for the first time and I coloured her with the following Copics:
E37, E35 and E33 - For her hair 
R20, R21 and E00 - For her skin
V06 and V04 - For the dark purple on her dress.
V04 and V01 - For the light purple on her dress.
RV13, RV11 and RV10 - For the pink on her dress.
G14 and G12 - For the green on her dress.
R29 and R27 - for the red on her dress.
W3 - For a shadow around the stamp.
I also added a few hearts that came out when I punched the heart pattern for the back paper.
I used some flowers I brought from Wild Orchid Crafts.
In the top right corner I stuck a piece of lace with a glittery ribbon.
I also cut out a few cupcakes from the paper and glued them on top of the others, to give it more depth.
For the inside I also made a heart scolloped border.
And a few hearts!
Please hop over to Stampin for the Weekend and see if you can take part in our challenge!

I would like to take part in the following challenges with this card:
Card Makin' Mamas - Happy Birthday
Guylou's Inimitability -  Girlie, Girlie
Poodles Parlour - Mothers' Day / Female Card
Scrapbookaholic by Abby –  Birthday
Craft Us Crazy - Favourite colour or embellishment (Mine is Purple and Pink)
Crop Stop -  Include at least 3 flowers
Do You Stack Up? - Distress
Paper Play - For a Mother or other female relative
Southern Girls -  Distressing
Penny's Paper-Crafty - anything goes

This is the cake my brothers and I baked her! Chocolate Cheese Cake!


Doesn’t my mother look amazing for her age and the amount of children she had?!
Crafty Greetings

20 February 2012

Winner of Fortnightly Baking Fun Challenge #13 Is:


Hello everyone, I hope you all had a good weekend. We had a very, very hot 
weekend, the little ones couldn’t even play out doors!
Today is time to announce the winner of Fortnightly Baking Fun Challenge #13. The theme was salads and I had a total of 4 entries.
The winner is..........
4 year old Gabrielle!!!!
Congratulations Gabrielle! I will sent your prize to you soon, (I have your postal address) while you’re waiting here is a special blinkie I made you:
All you have to do is right click, then click “save image as”.
You can either print it out and stick it in your room, or one of your sisters can display it on their blog for you!
Now everyone, the theme running for this fortnight’s challenge is Valentines - anything red, white, pink, hearts or roses!

And the prize is an amazing Women’s Weekly Little Party Books Fairytale.
This is the cutest little party book that every little girl wants.
You have until Monday the 27th of February to enter. I would love you to enter!
Baking Greetings

17 February 2012

Being Thankful


Being thankful can sometimes be hard. It’s very easy to be thankful when everything is running smooth when life is good. But what about when it’s tough? It’s nature to start complaining when you’re having a bad time. 

When times are tough, try to think of all the things to be thankful for, it helps.
The past few week I personally went through it. 
My mother had an ultra sound on our little sibling Wednesday 4 weeks ago to find no heartbeat and the baby only measures 8 weeks, where my mother was 11 weeks pregnant. Baby was still there and was perfectly formed, so they where able to take a few pictures.
The next Monday my mother miscarried. It was a tough time and it was natural to go sit and cry and complain.
When I read my mother’s blog post on the miscarriages and talked to her I realized I should be thankful for everything I have. 
I started writing it down:
Thankful for the most beautiful family of 10 the Lord gave me.
Thankful to know that there are 5 siblings waiting in heaven for me, that I will meet some day.
Thankful that I had the honour of taking a picture of my mother with her tummy.
Thankful that we have an ultra sound picture of the baby.
Thankful to know that the Lord knows exactly what he is doing in my life.

Thankful for the most amazing mother.
Thankful for knowing that I can go to my mother any time I want and ask her about anything, she will never send me away. Knowing she will make time for me.
Thankful that she knows when I have a bad attitude and what’s wrong. Not just sending me off, telling me to work on it! She asks me and we talk.
Thankful for a mother that drives me to ballet three times a week and tennis four times.
Thankful for a mother that reads ALL my blog posts for me.
Thankful for a mother that sponsor my baking challenge every two weeks.
Thankful for a mother who makes a big deal out of meal times every day.
Thankful for a mother who gave up her life for us, to educate us herself. 
Thankful for a mother for whom ME TIME isn’t what life is all about.
Thankful and so happy that my mother does tennis with us.
Thankful for the most amazing dad.
Thankful that my dad loves us and cares more about us than any other dad I know.
Thankful for a dad that spend so much money on getting me the right braces.
Thankful for a dad that flew me to Durban for months for my braces.
Thankful for a dad that works SO hard to take care of us.
Thankful for a dad that takes us for fun things.
Thankful for a dad that is the leader of our home.
Thankful for a dad that reads my blog posts every time I sent one. (My mom and dad checks every signal one of my blog posts, for spelling and grammar)
Thankful for each of my siblings of all ages.
Thankful for a “big brother” that I love so much and can talk to about just about anything.
Thankful that the Lord gave me a little sister and that I’m not the only girl.
Thankful for all the little ones, that look up to me as their big sister.
Thankful to know that there is still a baby in our home, even though little Michael is already 2 years old, he will always be the baby.
Thankfully looking forward to have my own babies and growing family one day.
Thankful to know there are lots of things in life to look forward to.
This list can go on forever!
So I just wanted to say, think on the bright side, every storm has an end, every cloud has a silver lining.
Have a blessed day everyone and start working on your own thankful list.
Heidi-Mari
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