I know I’m not going to get any sympathy for this but man it’s hard to stay on a productive routine down here. The weather is so lovely and if it isn’t the beach calling my name it’s the pool – or it’s the kids wanting to check out one of the eleventy billion neat things there are to check out here. We also do at least four hours of homeschooling every weekday morning so that takes a serious bite out of the day as well. We have managed to force a routine on ourselves this week though. After my husband leaves for work (at what feels like the crack of dawn), I down water and a pot of coffee, wake the kids, feed them and do school until about noon. If we have an adventure planned, away we go. If we don’t, we’re off to the pool. Then we’re back in time for me to do some cleaning, make dinner, usually with the assistance of my lovely 6 year old sous chef and it’s ready when my husband gets home from work. Tidy, baths, stories, get the two little kids off to bed and theeeeeen I have time to crack open my laptop get a blog post out and then chat with my honey while I knit or bake or whatever. Phew. It’s a full life, but it’s hella good. <3

There is a Whole Foods and a Trader Joes in the same plaza just a few minutes from us! Imagine my glee – go ahead, imagine it! Considering that less than a month ago we were living in the woods and the closest Whole Foods to me was at least two hours away and that we are sorely deprived of Trader Joes in Canada, this is big, big news. I like to go at night after my husband gets home so I can actually hunt down the vegan cream cheese without three kids begging for organic gummy bears (the new fave treat around here). I have been cooking and baking my way through Peas and Thank You still and OMG what a great cookbook! Lots of updates on that next week!

I’m still adding recipes to the site without blog posts so I have a nice record of everything I’ve made! Here is what I’ve added lately!

	I have a pretty serious problem with these candied pecans. I mean, I don’t want to admit this but in the interest of full disclosure, I ate all of them. Not in one sitting mind you, but I ate every single pecan. They really are that good. Of course they are though, right? It’s not like I’m going to post a loser recipe on my blog. One other side note about these little babies is they’re vegan! Hooray! (read).
	They really are so so good. White chocolate and macadamia nuts are a perfect pairing! We included this in last year’s cookie tin and everyone loved them. (read).
	Polymer clay is so fun to make little trinkets and buttons and pendants with. It’s essentially play-doh you bake to set it and keep it forever. Since it sets up really hard you can make buttons and actually use them in garments! Or you can make little beads and string them on thin elastic for bracelets or necklaces. Kids especially love making them and grow ups with a soft spot for that specific child will love receiving (and wearing) them. So cute. (read).
	Just cut the apple into thin slices, carve out the core of each slice (if you have an apple corer, just pop the whole thing out first) and fill the middle with peanut butter, cranberries and chocolate chips. Then sprinkle with cinnamon. You can fill it with whatever you want. The point is to keep it healthy and keep it small (read).
	These cookies are so painfully simple, they’re easy and fun to make with kids and you can roll them in any kind of baking candies to match whatever occasion you like. (read).
	I knitted this blanket for our cousin Jenn and her new husband Adam. They’re mega, super rad. It was a pretty easy knit once I got going on it, the bulk of it was a bit much in warmer months, but totally worth it. (read).
	I made these when I wanted to serve up something cute and simple, but that was a little more ‘adult’ than typical apps I make for the kids after school. (read).
	This snack is especially handy when people show up unexpected for movie night, or when you’re poking around the kitchen in the middle of the night when you should be in bed. (read).

Happy Orthodox Easter!!!

This parade of frosted Easter love is especially dear to me because I used my Granny’s vintage cookie cutters to make them! It’s always a little sweet but sad to bake with her kitchen gear – she’s the only person who spent as much time in her kitchen as I do!

Today will be spent exploring a beach we haven’t checked out yet and general family fun on the wholesome end of the spectrum because today we spent the day in Hollywood and while we met Spiderman and the Green Lantern and Wee One #3 got a hug from Diego, we also saw a whole lotta Hollywood, you know? Yoda totally tried to cop a feel! I mean, hello!

Anyhoo, back to Easter. Usually we spent Orthodox Easter with my extended family (all Greeks have seriously huge extended families) however we will be sending long distance love to them this year and celebrating this one out here.

Moving to California update to come tomorrow!

I know this is a week late for a lot of people, but the Eastern Orthodox Easter Bunny (aka the Greek Easter Bunny in our house) is hopping around this weekend for a lot of us. I’ve mentioned about a zillion times before that I’m from a mixed heritage family, lovingly described as half painfully Canadian and half hardcore Greek. I love this family makeup and as I’ve married into a painfully Canadian family (a painfully Canadian family that I adore) I choose to be the hardcore Greek half, even though I’m hardly Greek enough for the role. It just means I’m a stern mama (most of the time), I insist on celebrating both Easters, both Christmases and the occasional name day – oh and I totally support the desire for two kitchens or at the very least two fridges. If you know any Greeks, that’ll make sense to you. If you don’t, too bad.

So anyhoo, Easter baskets for Eastern Orthodox Easter! Cheesecake isn’t an often requested treat in our house, but these things were way cute. They would be even cuter with Easter cupcake liners which are officially on my list of things to do next year. Maybe I wont be moving across international lines this time next year! Also, these were actually made last year.

Easter Cheesecake Baskets – adapted from Kraft

2 8 ounce pkgs cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
1/2 cups crushed graham crackers
1/3 cup butter, melted
1 1/2 cups flaked coconut, tinted green
36 small jelly beans
12 pieces shoestring licorice, 4″ lengths

Preheat your oven to 350F and beat the cream cheese and the sugar. Add the egg and beat until blended.
Mix the graham cracker crumbs and melted butter, then press into individual muffin cups.
Now pour the actual cheesecake batter over top of the crust.
Bake for about 20 minutes, then cool and pop in the fridge for at least 2 hours. The green coconut is for festive grass but my kids hate coconut so it’s a waste. However, they love mini eggs and jellybeans so I added those to the ‘baskets’ and then the licorice handles! Way cute!

So my exciting news that I was afraid to jinx by sharing with you all?

It finally happened! We have been in Los Angeles since the wee hours of last Wednesday morning and all five of us have loved every second of it. Apartment hunting here is definitely more fun than apartment hunting pretty much anywhere else. We found a place last weekend and moved in on Monday. I’ll get a desk and blog about our crazy amazing road trip this weekend. Theeen, I’ll get back to blogging about stuff I have already made and finally get back to actually cooking and baking again! That will be so nice!

Actually this afternoon I made a cute lunch and treat for myself from scratch while Skyping with my dad and I’ll try to get that up next week too.

So far, we’ve tried out a handful of American chains we are painfully deprived of in Canada like In n Out, Carl’s Jr, and Pinkberry. I’ve also discovered a handful of menu items that are totally different at Starbucks and my fave local place this week has been California Pizza Kitchen. Super good!

I will leave you with some obnoxious photos I took at the Santa Monica Pier recently before I get back to blogging on the regular again next week. Wish me luck!!!!

In my quest to cut out the fake food around here, I embarked on finding just the right recipe to give fruit roll ups a try. This one does not involve any stove top cooking or even any pureeing, it’s just good quality jam and corn starch really. That and a little patience.

The wee ones all love these and maybe I do to. They’re excellent in lunch boxes and diaper bags (and in my Anthropologie purse).

Homemade Fruit Roll Ups via Health for the Whole Self

2/3 cup fruit preserves
2 tsp corn starch

Mix the fruit preserves and the corn starch in a small bowl. Cut a length of parchment paper.
Spread out strips of the fruity goo on the parchment paper and bake at 225F for 45 minutes.
Mine all spread into each other, but that’s nothing a pizza cutter couldn’t fix!!

I wish I could remember which random ‘special interest publication’ this recipe came from. You know at Christmas you see Better Homes and Gardens and Good Housekeeping and even Martha and Pillsbury have a ‘special’ cookie magazine? It doesn’t come as part of a subscription, it has like 300 pages and is more than double the price of a regular magazine? This is from one of those from at least 5 years ago. Last year I went through my Hoarders-esque stack of closet of magazines and ripped out the pages I was holding on to them for. I put them in page protectors in a painfully organized binder. This post is proof that I actually bake some of those recipes too! So anyhoo, while that’s nice and tidy of me, there is no trace of what magazine I pulled it from. Whoops.

The recipe itself is too good for me to make on a regular basis, or at least to make without already deciding who I am gifting them too. They. Are. So. Good. They have a s’more taste to them with the graham crackers + marshmallow + chocolate, but I think the weird oaty base (and splattered on top as well) is what pulls it all together and really won me over. I first made them as part of our cookie tin the year I bought the magazine, and I’ve made them every year since for random Christmas treats but in the last year or two I’ve been making them whenever the mood strikes.

Must try! Make for a crowd!

Ooey, Gooey, Chewy S’more Bars

1/2 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups brown sugar, packed
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup flour
1 1/2 cups quick oats
1 cup graham cracker crumbs
2 1/2 cups mini marshmallows
1 1/4 cups chocolate chips or chunks

Cream the butter, then add the sugar, eggs and vanilla and mix to combine.
Add the flour and mix, then the oats and cracker crumbs.
Line a baking dish (mine was 13 x 9) with parchment paper and press half of the dough into the dish. Bake at 350F for 20 minutes.
Sprinkle the mini marshmallows and the chocolate chips on top, now drop the rest of the dough, in tablespoon sized chunks on top of that and bake again for another 10-15 minutes.

I’m a real sucker for black eyeshadow and pink lips and this video only made it worse. Any combo of blacks and greys on the eyes with any kind of light to almost berry lips is a winner for me. So smitten with how cute this is! This is a look I wear far too often – almost always with bright pink nails.

Eyes are a blend of three shadows. I used Hard Candy’s Baked Meteor Eyeshadow in Black Hole on the lid, Urban Decay’s Eyeshadow in Gunmetal in the crease and Strip up the brow bone. Eyes are lined with Urban Decay’s 24/7 Glide on Eye Pencil in Zero and finished with Hard Candy’s Lash Tinsel Glitter Mascara (under my Quo 808 lashes of course) in Spellbound and brows are filled in with Urban Decay’s 24/7 Glide on Eye Pencil in Underground.

Cheeks have just a little Tarte’s Natural Beauty Cheek Stain in Sheer Berry Rose and lips are Too Faced’s Lip of Luxury in Cupcake.

I had been trying my hand at vegan baking for a few month when we made a friend with a pretty severe milk allergy. 2/5 of us are lactose intolerant so we are no really that big on milk anyway, but I have always left dairy in the recipes I use and it never seems to bother us the way a bowl of ice cream might. But even a cup of milk in a batch of muffins was too much for our new friend and I had made fudge for the kids that he had to miss out on.

Thankfully, I found this kick ass recipe on Averie Cooks and it was super simple to make and even more importantly, it’s delicious and free of chemicals and rando garbage store bought fudge is full of!

Vegan Fudge via Averie Cooks

1 cup vegan semi-sweet chocolate chips
3 1/2 cups icing sugar
1/2 cup cocoa powder
2 tablespoons dairy free margarine
1/2 cup coconut milk not light
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Melt the margarine and coconut milk over medium heat until blended. Remove from heat.
In a medium bowl, combine chocolate chips, sugar, and cocoa, then pour the hot melted butter and coconut milk over top.
Mix! Mix! Mix!
Pour into a brownie pan and pop in the fridge for about an hour or two to set up.

This right here? Is husband food. Both the chicken wings and the potato wedges are far too spicy for 2/3 of the children, and I went ahead and made something different for all three of them anyway so my husband wouldn’t have to share. He has his favorites that the kids and I like too, like stew and chili and lasagna and chicken ceasers and things like that, but this kind of meal, the kind of purposely greasy but still made from scratch food you only really find in old school pubs and family restaurants, is defo his hands down number one love. Not just the combo of wings and wedges, but wings that aren’t off chickens that look like they starved to death and wedges that have been cut to actually resemble a wedge of some kind.

Next time I make these though, I need some cute pub-style baskets to serve them in!

First wash and cut your potatoes into wedges. Then mix all the seasonings in a large plastic bag (sandwich bag style).
Put the wedges in the bag, a handful at a time and shake it up to coat them. Bake them at 400F for about 15-20 minutes.
The sauce for the chicken is ridic simple. Just heat up your favorite hot sauce and add the butter. Cook it down a little, about 10 minutes or so before you toss the chicken in it.
Toss all of the ingredients except the cornstarch and water for the honey garlic sauce in a saucepot and stir till it’s almost boiling. Then reduce the heat, mix the hot water with the cornstarch and then add a little of the sauce to the water/corn starch mixture. Slowly incorporate that back into the sauce so it will thicken up nicely.
I cooked the chicken wings in a little oil in my wok, but you can deep fry or bake them if you want. Coat the chicken in the hot sauce, plate the wedges separately and serve the honey garlic on the side.

With a Greek mother and a painfully Canadian father (my grandparents from his side are from Saskatchewan and Quebec!) who was more than happy to adopt as much Greek cooking as my mother liked, we ate a lot of pilaf growing up. There is still a lot of pilaf going on over there – and now that Wee One #2 has decided it’s one of her most treasured things to eat, there is a lot of it going on around here as well.

When I was a kid I thought it was tricky, but by the time I was around 13 my Dad showed me how to do it and I’ve been making it since. Easy peasy!

6-8lb roast 2 tablespoons parsley flakes 1 tablespoon paprika 1 teaspoon chili powder 1 tablespoon garlic powder 2 teaspoons black pepper 2 cups water 1/4 cup molasses	Pilaf 1 onion 3 + cloves garlic 2 tablespoons butter 1 cup rice 2 cups water

Mix all the spices for the rub in a bowl. Rinse off the meat and massage the rub into the meat.
Mix the water and molasses and pour into the roasting pan with the rubbed pork. Slow cook this baby all day at just under 300F. I went with 270F for about 8 hours or so.
Let it sit for 30 minutes or so and the shred it.
I waited till the pork was sitting before I started the pilaf. Chop the onion and garlic and chase them around a frying pan with the butter, until the onions are clear and the kitchen smells like garlic heaven. Add the water, set the heat to low and don’t touch it for about 30 minutes. Everyone has their favorites, but pulled pork on a bun with a pilaf?! How can you not win friends with that?! Or have like, three helpings. Not that I’d ever have three helpings. Ha!