Easter Hot Cross Buns

Hot Cross Buns are a delicious spring treat! They represent good weather ahead and of course chocolate for breakfast on Easter morning.

My favorite part of this recipe is the fact that I have the excuse to buy rum! Soaking the raisins in rum before baking is a delicious and fun activity

Hot Cross Buns
375° F
Bake time: 20-25 minutes or until golden brown on the top.

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups warm water
1/2 cup sugar
1 tbsp active dry yeast
4-5 cups all- purpose flour (depending on how well you drain your raisins)
a pinch of salt (I usually just dance the salt shaker over the bowl)
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 eggs
1/4 (or half a cube) of margarine
1 cup of raisins soaked in rum*

Instructions
- To soak the raisins, immerse them in rum (*or water) just until covered for 5-10 minutes and then drain.
- Mix a small amount of the water and sugar with the yeast to activate it. Let sit until it's fermented.
- Combine the water, sugar, yeast mixture, flour, salt, cinnamon, eggs, margarine and raisins together to form a nice big ball of dough! 
- Set dough in a bowl and let rest for 10 minutes.
- Punch it down if need be after 10 minutes and divide into 80g balls and place in a greased pan.

- Let dough rest again for 10 minutes then make for 20-25 minutes.

- Once they are out of the oven, and still a little warm; brush them with a sugar syrup which is equal parts water and sugar (For this batch 1/4 cup water and sugar is more than enough)

- Let fully cool

- Once cooled icing can be added on! I don't really have a recipe for my danish icing, I just keep combining water and icing sugar until I like the thickness.

- And there we are! Delicious and festive. (And I hope you were drinking the extra rum the entire time as well.

Happy Baking!

Breaking the bad habit of bad Makeup

I am notoriously frugal when it comes to certain things and in the past have given up quality for an attractive price. However that's gotten me nowhere in life except back to the bathroom to reapply...
Finally breaking the cycle one piece at a time! .. Still can't waste the cheap stuff I have plus it's easier on the wallet this way!

My first investment was in a new dark lipstick, I'm so grateful for websites like Influenster that makes researching so easy! Top reviews were with MAC lipstick so I trotted into my local mall and gave it a try.

... First time walking into a real makeup store... Terrifying!

My impression so far has been fairly positive! The shade was exactly what I was looking for, and it seems to be long lasting.

Dark Side

Taxes in it came to around $24CAD which seemed very reasonable (still double what I usually pay- but reasonable)

Smile for the selfie

The Real "F" Word

The instructions were... Something elegant, with nice colors... And THIS written on it!

Celebrating a 50th Birthday the right way

Checker board cake inside I was able to sneak into the establishment to take a look at the inside to make sure it worked out as it should... Nailed it!

Here's more pictures of this elegant 50th Birthday cake

 

Halifax Burger Week 2017!

So Halifax does a wonderful thing every year. Many local restaurants will put on a featured burger where proceeds will go to Feed Nova Scotia! For 2017 there was an incredible amount of amazing burgers.

This year's was March 23rd to the 29th and I managed to grab 5 awesome burgers.

Here are the 5 in order of enjoyment.

#5 The Armview: The Hot Mess

A good start to burger week, beef patty, mac and cheese and onions with a special ketchup... It was missing something I still don't know what but it was missing something.



#4 Clay West: The Smash Burger

This one would have done better but the service at Clay West was less to be desired... They are definitely not used to that sort of traffic.. Double beef patty smothered in cheese sauce and topped with onion rings and pickles... and extra pickles.


#3 Big Leagues (No name)

I good classic burger! Beef patty seasoned with taco spice topped with Monterey Jack cheese, fried onions and a deep fried pickle along with some traditional burger toppings. Very tasty.


#2 Bubba Rays: The Pepperoni Burger

This one looked like garbage on the website HOWEVER the actual burger itself blew my mind! Beef patty topped with lots of pepperoni and cheese with a chipolte dipping sauce for it. The sauce put this one in the rankings for me!

#1 Tempo: The Pizza Corner Burger

TOP NOTCH and the best burger I had all week. It was the second stop all week so all other burgers had heavy competition. This was a donair burger (spiced perfectly) topped with donair sauce on a pizza pun with fried pepperoni on top. Everything about this burger was amazing. They win burger week!



Next year I want to maximize by burger consumption and may even consider taking the week off!

Happy Burger Week everyone!

The Sick Kit

Working in an office and not getting sick can feel like an uphill battle! But I tried to make it a little easier this year by bringing a little comfort to the office.

Thanks to Wal-mart it was a pretty affordable box to put together.

It included..
- Lysol stray for your desk
- Cough drops of multiple varieties
- Lemon soothing tea
- Tylenol cold and flu DAYTIME: no one is falling asleep on my watch!
- Pain killers
- hand sanitizer
- Cough syrup
- Facial tissue 
- And of course a stuffed bacon for comfort

There were a couple of rules along with the kit
- Anyone was welcome to use anything in the box
- But to only take what was needed
- Contribute if you could.
- And the most important: Get Better!

Small Business Deduction Sheet

So after scrambling through my first set of taxes for my small business I decided to make it easier on myself going forward by looking for an expense sheet that specifically lists the deductions I need to record.

Naturally I went to good ole Pinterest to try to find something that may already be in circulation, however the sad reality was that no one had seem to do one exactly how I was hoping to find.
There was a few options with a few expenses but I knew I wanted something that looked like it came straight from my Nova Scotia tax form! So I took the liberty of making my own, using expense list right off my 2016 finished tax return.

Now full disclosure with this is I'm not so good when it comes to making tables, so it's fairly basic with a kitty to give it some personality! I now have 12 printed out and I'm ready for the next year! I have 2 columns for numbers on the chart to get an idea of each month's expenses and how much of it I can claim. I am home based and I use 2 rooms in the house to fill the needs of the business. So naturally I know I can't exactly deduct my cable bill! But my internet bill can definitely be shares with the business!

Dynamite Fashion Insider

I've had the honor of becoming a Dynamite Fashion insider, this is a great way to be in the know of all the new upcoming fashion trends and taking advantage of all promotions!

With becoming an insider I've gotten the opportunity to be a tester of Dynamite's new app. The app itself still has some glitches to get through- a lot of time the pictures don't match up with the titles… But that's what these tests are for right!

Being part of this team I've gotten the opportunity to take advantage of some amazing deals! The biggest one so far has been $50 off any one purchase!! With that I grabbed myself a new dress and blazer for an event that evening!

Some of the other deal's that I have full plans to take advantage of are 10% off just for making a profile... Sweet!

I've also gotten $10 off which I just ordered some work clothes with!

Ransacked the sale rack on the site and grabbed new mesh leggings (which make my legs look AWESOME) and a lace accented sweater.

I'm really enjoying being part of this site, they continuously do forums, surveys and focus panels to keep you involved! Apparently the next activity is going to be a monthly subscription run, where you get the choice of clothes every month. Details are vague right now but I'm hoping there will be free shipping and VIP discounts!

Here are a few other shots of the new app!