pizza // spicy thai

More pizza!  This time with a Thai twist.

It's no secret around here that Jordyn and I love Thai food.  We're in love with peanut sauce, honey, garlic, curries, and the spiciness that often comes along with classic Thai dishes.  This pizza was born after Clara took me (Kelsey) to Famoso Neopolitan Pizza for my birthday this winter, and I tried their Spicy Thai pizza.  It was divine.  I came home and told Jordyn that we needed to try and replicate it.

So we did!

There's so much goodness going on in this pizza.  We started with a peanut sauce base, added in some chicken, a ton of veggies, some cheese, and topped it with chopped peanuts, cilantro and lime wedges!

Oh yum.

And don't be scared of the peanut sauce!  Take a step out of your comfort zone, and your taste buds will be super happy.

---

Thai Pizza

Directions:

1)  For the pizza crust you can make your own (you can find our recipe here!), or just use a pre-made one!  Bake it, and then set aside as you get your sauce and toppings ready.

2)  In a small frying pan, gently sautee your garlic in the olive oil.  Stir and cook for several minutes, and then set aside.

3)  In a small saucepan, stir together peanut butter, honey, and soy sauce until everything is melted and combined.  

4)  Stir in your garlic, chili pepper flakes, ginger, sesame oil and water.

5)  Gently simmer, stirring constantly, until sauce has thickened slightly.

6)  Spread sauce over pizza crust.  Add toppings to your heart's desire, and cover with cheese.  

7)  Pop your pizza back into the oven on broil, and wait until the cheese is nice and melty.   **We left off the carrots and bean sprouts until after the cheese was melted!
*For the toppings, we found that adding (way) more than you think is the way to go.  It'll be a bit messy, but oh so good!

8)  Now cut your pizza, serve, and enjoy!

Ingredients:

1 cooked pizza crust (recipe here!)

Thai Peanut Sauce:

1 tsp olive oil

1 clove of garlic, minced

6 tablespoons peanut butter 

3 tablespoons honey 

3 tablespoons soy sauce (low sodium) 

1/2 teaspoons chili pepper flakes (or more) 

½ tsp ginger 

2 tsp sesame oil 

1/4 cup water

Toppings:

1 green onion, chopped

1-2 cups of cooked chicken, chopped

1/4 cup peanuts, chopped

1/4 cup cilantro, chopped

1-2 cups shredded mozzarella

1 cup bean sprouts

1 large carrot, sliced finely

---

Please go make this asap!  Your stomach/family/friends will thank you!

-kelsey & jordyn

p.p.s. here's our classic pizza recipe in case you want something a bit more tame.

funky monkey bars

Mmmmhh...Funky Monkey Bars.

Now these are definitely one of our classic family recipes.  My mom cut the original recipe out of a magazine over 20 years ago....and it has stood the test of time!  You start with fudgey brownies (that have to be made from a box....otherwise they just will

not

work!), and then top it with peanuts, more chocolate, and a drizzle of honey and peanut butter.

These make a mess when you eat them...and they're totally worth it.

And a hilarious story about these....they were originally called Chunky Monkey Bars.  Somewhere along the line, someone started calling them "Funky" Monkey Bars, and the name just stuck!  Seriously though, I have no idea what monkeys have to do with any of it!

Funky Monkey Bars

Ingredients:

1 Brownie mix

1/4 cup of vegetable oil

1/4 cup of water

1 egg

1/2 cup honey

1/4 cup peanut butter

1 cup chocolate chips

1 cup peanuts

Directions: 

1)

 Don't follow the directions on the box!

  Instead, place the mix in a large bowl and add the oil, water, and egg.  Mix just until moist.  

2)  Spread in a greased 9x13 pan, and bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.

3)  While the bottom layer is baking, heat up your honey and peanut butter and stir together.  

4)  Immediately after removing brownies from the oven, sprinkle them with chocolate chips and peanuts.  

5)  Drizzle honey and peanut butter mixture over everything.

Cool before cutting.  Keep refrigerated!

**These take a

long

 time to cool (as in, more than an hour), so you'll want to make them well in advance of serving them!

If you don't like super sweet desserts, then these probably aren't for you!  They really are pretty decadent...so be warned!  Or feel free to leave out the chocolate chips on top, and let the saltiness of the peanuts help balance out the flavors.  Sweet and salty.  Is there anything better?

p.s. 

♥

 kelsey & jordyn

outfit post: the hampton dress

It feels like Summer here, and I couldn't be happier.  Bright, sunny days and long, warm, relaxing evenings.   It's perfection!

Moving on....we are so so excited to have collaborated with Bootlegger for this post!  We love their new Free Spirited Summer collection, which is full of charm, whimsy, and a wonderfully effortless boho feel.

I'm totally in love with their hampton dress.  It's simple and sweet, and yet full of delicate details.  The tiny buttons running up the back of the dress are my favorite!  And I so appreciate the high-low skirt, and the fact that it has a longer length overall.  I feel completely comfortable to run, jump, and frolic around fields without any fear of my dressing flying up.  It's the best.

I never want to overthink my outfits in Summer, and have a weakness for no fuss dresses.  

I kept things simple here by adding a lace vest, a skinny brown belt, and my favorite brown booties.  Nice and easy!

dress:hampton-bootlegger

// vest: garage // belt: my closet // boots: hand-me-downs // bracelet: hand-made by me // arrow necklace: forever21

The only unfortunate thing about the constant sunshine is the state of my tan lines.  Let's just say that my farmer tan game is strong.  As in, disgustingly strong.  Not to mention the wicked neck tan I got last weekend in Kamloops (where Clara and I shot a wedding together!  More on that soon!).  Seriously, it is horrid.  And I will admit I totally smoothed it out in photoshop.  No shame.  

It honestly looked like I had painted my neck ten shades darker than the rest of my body.  

Gross.  Sorry for the visual.  

#sorrynotsorry

- kelsey

p.p.s. This is the sequel to "Kelsey takes her own photos"!  Ten points to whoever can spot the remote.  Ha!

outfit post: a floral skirt among the flowers

I love shopping.  I mean I reeeeeally love shopping.  However, my this can be a bit tough on my wallet.  A couple months ago, one of my best friends

Ashley

, was moving to a smaller place, and decided to get rid of lots of her clothes.  She invited some friends over to go through what she wanted give away, and we ended up having a big clothing swap!  It was so awesome, I ended up with some really cute clothes, and didn't have to pay a penny! I also had a chance to declutter my own closet as well, and get rid of some clothes that no longer fit my style.

This vintage skirt was my favourite find of the night.  It is flowy and comfortable, and I love the length. Here I paired it with a $5 top I found at Garage, and a simple pair of black flats, for the most affordable outfit ever!

p.s. 

♥

 jordyn

pizza // the classic

This simple and tasty pizza was inspired by a very good friend of our family, Thabang.  Thabang lives in Lesotho, (a small country surrounded by South Africa) and we had the pleasure of working with him for a year while he was in Canada learning about farming through a volunteer exchange program.  Thabang became part of our family, and would often come over for family dinners.  Whenever we would ask what he wanted to eat, he would almost always request "Homemade Chicken and Mushroom Pizza".

As we continued making pizzas, we started experimenting with more ingredients, adding more veggies, and some feta cheese for an extra kick!  This pizza has something for everyone in our family, caramelized onion and peppers, sauteed chicken and mushrooms, and my personal favourite, spinach!! 

Every time I make homemade pizza I think of Thabang.  I sincerely wish that he could come over to share this pizza with us, and have another family pizza night. 

Feel free to add more or less of any ingredients, leave out the mushrooms, add olives, pile on the spinach.  Make it your own!  And try not to eat the entire thing by yourself, you have to make sure you have leftovers so you can have cold pizza for breakfast the next day!

Classic Pizza

Ingredients:

1 cooked pizza crust (

recipe here!

)

2 tbsp olive oil

1/2 cup sweet onion

1 red pepper

5 large mushrooms

2 cloves of garlic

1-2 cups of chopped cooked chicken

1-2 cups of spinach

Cheddar Cheese (approx 4 cups grated)

Feta Cheese (half a cup crumbled)

Pizza sauce

Directions:

1)  Preheat oven to 350 F (or just leave it on if you are making a homemade pizza!)

2)  Heat olive oil on medium/high heat in a large frying pan.

3)  Once hot, add sliced onions, peppers and mushrooms.

4)  After the veggies have been cooking for 5-6 minutes add minced garlic and turn the heat down to medium.  Continue cooking veggies until the onions start to caramelize, this may take about 5-7 more minutes.  

5)  Add chicken to this mixture and stir until chicken is hot.

6)  Turn the burner off, and stir in roughly chopped spinach (this will wilt the spinach, but hopefully not cook it too much.  You don't want to obliterate your spinach, just warm it up).

7)  Spread pizza sauce on your cooked pizza crust, follow with your delicious veggie and chicken mixture, and top it all off with grated cheddar cheese and a bit of crumbled feta.

8)  *Bake in 350 F oven for 8 minutes, or until the cheese has melted and starts bubbling (we like to broil our pizza so the cheese starts browns a bit/gets crunchy!)

*This is our method for baking pizza, it assumes that you just took the hot homemade crust out of the oven, and that your top ingredients (ex. chicken, sauteed veggies) are already hot for the most part.  If you are using a crust that has not just been baked, you may have to adjust the baking time.

This pizza always hits the spot!  Loaded with veggies, chicken, and tons of cheese, there is never a complaint in our house about this pizza.  It is perfect on our homemade pizza crust, but also is really tasty on pita bread if you are in a hurry, or with cauliflower pizza crust for a gluten free alternative!

p.s. 

♥

 jordyn & kelsey

back to basics: pizza dough

Who doesn't love pizza?  With a crunchy crust, gooey cheese, and all the toppings you want, who could resist?  

It's like the Leonardo DiCaprio of food.  And like Leo, it will likely never win an Oscar, but it still gets invited to the party.

One of the best things about pizza is that it is so incredibly versatile! You can make practically any kind of pizza you can dream of.  Our go-to pizza is topped with caramelized onions, sauteed red peppers, mushrooms, garlic, spinach and chicken, finished off with feta, mozzarella, and cheddar cheese.  But we also love greek, pepperoni, and we just tried making thai for the first time.  It was the bomb!

This is our tasty recipe for homemade pizza crust.  It takes a bit of time and work, but it is definitely worth it!  The extra spices in the crust add a nice punch of flavour.

Homemade Pizza Dough

Ingredients:

1/2 cup

 hot

 water (not boiling, hot tap water is fine)

2 (.25 ounce) packages

active dry yeast

1/2 tablespoon sugar

6 cups

all-purpose flour

1 tbsp

salt

1 1/2 tablespoons

white sugar

1 tsp garlic powder

2 tsp oregano

1/2 tsp thyme

1/4 cup

vegetable oil

1 1/2 cups warm water

Directions:

1) In a medium size bowl dissolve sugar in the hot water, and then mix in yeast.  Let this rise for 15 minutes.

2) In a large bowl, mix together all the dry ingredients.

3) Stir in the risen yeast, the warm water and the oil into the dry ingredients.

4) Mix well.

5) Turn out mixture onto a floured surface and knead until dough has a smooth texture.  About 10 minutes.

6) Place in a greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let sit in a warm area for 1 hour.

7) Split dough in half, each will make a large pizza.

8) With a rolling pin, roll out pizza a bit larger than the pan you are using.  I use

d a large round pizza pan (ours is 14 inches across), and a 10 x 15 square pan.

9) Once the dough has been rolled out, place over well greased pan (I used olive oil) and tuck in the edges to make a crust, poke holes in the crust with a knife or fork (this prevents crust bubbles).

10) Bake pizza at 350 for 20 minutes.

11) Add pizza sauce and desired ingredients.

12) Bake for another 8 minutes, or until the cheese has melted (sometimes we like to broil it).

This is a little sneak peek of what our thai pizza looks like!

Once your crust is cooked smother that baby with pizza sauce (or thai sauce!) and load up with yummy toppings.  By cooking the crust ahead of time, you can keep an eye on how it is doing.  You don't have to worry about a soggy crust under all your ingredients.

Then just pop it back in to heat up the toppings and melt your cheese.  We like to broil it so it gets all bubbly and delicious!

p.s. 

♥

 jordyn & kelsey

s'mores cupcakes

Three things that you must know:

1)  I have never actually been camping before.

(Shame on me right?  That's what you get when you live on a berry farm in Summer)

2)  I have made s'mores in Winter by placing a marshmallow on a toothpick, and holding it over a candle.

3)  I definitely borrowed my Dad's blowtorch for these cupcakes since I don't have a proper kitchen one yet....and it just sounded way more exciting.

It's always fun when I get to experiment with something new in the kitchen....and using a blowtorch for these cupcakes was a hoot!  Haha.  Let's say there was quite a bit of squealing and giggling coming from the kitchen as Jordyn and I tested our torching skills!

These cupcakes were inspired by

call me cupcake

's

version

, although I used my own chocolate cake recipe!  You should definitely go check her website out!  Some of it is in Swedish, but she always has her recipes in English as well.  It's just so darling!

I'm in love with all of the textures these cupcakes have going on.  The crunchy/crumbly graham cracker crust (that will inevitably end up all over your lap), the fluffy chocolate cake, and finally the little dollop of toasted heaven on top!  So good.

S'mores Cupcakes

inspired by:

Linda Lomelino

Ingredients:

1/2 cup graham cracker crumbs

2 tbsp butter (melted)

1/2 cups Flour

1 cups Sugar

1 tsp Baking Soda

1/2 tsp Salt

1/3 cup Cocoa

1/2 TBSP Vanilla

1 TBSP Vinegar

1/3 cup Margarine (melted)

1 cups Warm Water

3 large egg whites

2/3 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla

*thermometer (for measuring marshmallow frosting temperature)

Instructions:

1) Mix together graham cracker crumbs and melted butter.  (If crumbs seem too gooey or too dry, you can just add either a bit more crumbs or butter).

2)  Prepare a cupcake tin with paper liners.  Firmly press a couple teaspoons of crumb mixture into the bottom of 12 liners.

3)  Bake at 350 for 10 minutes.  Set aside.

4)  In a large bowl, mix together all dry ingredients together.

5)  Pour wet ingredients over dry, and mix until combined.

6)  Pour cake batter into the 12 liners.

7)  Bake cupcakes for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.  Allow to cool completely.

8)  Mix together egg whites and sugar in a bowl set over a saucepan with gently boiling water.  Whisk constantly to ensure your eggs don't curdle.  Whisk like crazy!  Keep cooking until the mixture reaches 65 degrees celsius. 

9)  Remove from heat and whip on your highest speed until stiff peaks form.  Add in vanilla.

10)  Frost your cupcakes however you like!  I used my largest star tip and a frosting bag, but a large ziplock with the end simply cut out would also work great.

11)  If you have a kitchen torch, then go to town toasting your marshmallow frosting.  

If not, you can place your cupcakes on a cookie sheet and broil them in the oven.  These do not take long at all, so please do not take your eyes off of them!

Or, you can always borrow a blowtorch and toast them that way...

Oh yeah....and big news of the week?  I learned how to make a gif!!!

It was a bit of an impromptu thing....as I had taken a million shots while Jordyn torched this cupcake, so next time I'll definitely use a tripod!  But, I was pretty stoked with how it turned out, and it's always fun to learn something new.  Even if it did take me an hour and a half to figure it out....

Also....try not to set your cupcake liners on fire.  Ooops!  Our bad.

p.s. 

♥

 kelsey

outfit post: mint and cherry

So, what happens when you're having a good hair day, you're wearing your Easter dress (with purple tights), and there's nobody around to take photos?

Well, you dig out the tripod and just do it yourself!

It was quite the adventure figuring out how to position myself in the frame, how the heck I was supposed to get the focus right, and pretend like the neighbours weren't silently judging me.  I mostly figured it out (although there were 

a lot of 

hilarious outtakes), and these are the results! 

dress: uo // tights: h&m // shoes: charlotte russe

p.s. 

♥

 kelsey