key lime pie

In celebration of my mother's birthday I made her this Key Lime Pie for her dessert. 

While in Florida I always indulge in Key Lime Pie, but I wanted to try and make it when I returned back to Canada. I returned home from Florida with a bag of key limes (native to where we vacationed). These limes are quite a bit smaller than the limes we find here in Canada. They are the size of ping pong balls, full of seeds and quite unyielding. 

Only because of my Hello Kitty electric citrus juicer was I able to deal with these limes. I used Bobby Flay's recipe from the Key Lime Pie episode of Throwdown. I'd say this is a very easy recipe once you manage the juice from the limes. It was so incredible, I honestly can't taste a difference between the delicious pies from Florida vs. this one.

::: 

We made it out to the HandMade Market's Christmas Craft Show. On Shop Small Business Saturday this worked perfectly into our weekend plan.

This was held again in the Good Earth Winery and Cooking School. 

I expected an outdoor market like previous shows, but given the time of year, it was good to see they kept everyone covered inside a tent. There were a great number of artisans and I had amazing Christmas shopping success here.

And Owen loved being here as long as he was outside of the tent. Being here really got us into the holiday spirit.

come see what's new in my kitchen

I love to shop for new kitchen items! I'm pretty much a stickler for keeping kitchen gadgets to a minimum and be efficient about what we own. But I like having really nice kitchen necessities.

Last Sunday, on Mother's Day, my mom and I made it out to the Handmade Market. The vendors are high quality artisans featuring handmade jewelry, cosmetics, fine art, pottery, bags, apparel, baked goods & confections (etc) which was all set on The Good Earth Food & Wine's vineyard & orchard property. I really regret not documenting this event, so you really must follow the link above to get an idea of what a quality craft show this is. I work with one of the vendors who was selling there and she told me they are holding another in September at 13th Street Winery (yay! even closer). And then another one at the very end of the year in time for Christmas. Holiday shopping!!

I couldn't resist buying myself this hand-crafted wooden chopping block. It was made by a gentlemen who is in the kitchen refinishing business. I'm really pleased with the quality of this board.

Since having to retire many of my Hello Kitty kitchen items, I'm still attempting to keep the room fun, but in a bit of a more male-friendly way.

Here's Owen's first salt & pepper shaker! I make every effort to keep Owen's food very low in sodium, but what are eggs without a touch of salt & pepper? Since we use a bulky pepper grinder, I felt like this robot s&p shaker is perfect for Owen when he's old enough to need a little more seasoning. 

The head (pepper) is magnetized to the body (salt) and it's made of sturdy steel. Cute!