And now for something without bacon

29 Thursday Mar 2012

Posted by Jane's Adventures in Dinner in coconut cream pie

Did you know that I’m going to a reunion today?

A newbie blog reunion.

Are you a smaller blog?

If you are you should be visiting

I don’t mean for followers or to promote yourself endlessly. I mean go there just to hang out with folks like you, learn something new and have a good time.

(PLUS you get to know Debbie, which everyone should do.

She’s just that great)

Some of you will grow.

Some of you will grow slowly (like me).

Some will take off like a wildfire.

Just ask yourself…are you having fun?

If you are then blog on C:

At this time last year I had around 30 followers.

Don’t get me wrong, I was still having a total ball but I am loving the feedback that I get now and have met some of the best folks going.

That’s why I blog.

I am very type A and it is so tempting to be super competitive but then this experience wouldn’t be fun.

Debbie (over at Debbiedoo’s) is having a reunion for those of us that have graduated from baby blogdom.

Just for fun here’s a couple of my other banners that you may have seen during my journey C:

But keep going because there is pie as a the real focus of this post.

Don’t get me started with the truly ugly buttons that I’ve made. There have been some pretty grim ones.

Thanks for being patient.

This seems to be dessert week doesn’t it?

Sort of explains my rapidly disappearing sugar bag.

You know, the humungous 40 kg bag from Costco?

Yep, almost gone.

Our neighbour popped by the other day with a treat for small one, a fresh coconut.

She hadn’t tried one before and we had a ball with it.

BUT I had an idea in mind for the majority of it.

Coconut Cream Pie

I wanted the amazing taste of coconut throughout the whole pie and I think that I cracked it (ok, that pun was sort of on purpose).

We opened the coconut and kept the water from the inside. I shaved the flesh with my vegetable peeler and let it dry out a bit.

I wanted the pie filling to be a pudding texture but without the aid of cornstarch to hold it together so…

2 cups of sugar, 5 eggs, 1 can of coconut milk and the 1/3 cup of coconut water I collected from the fruit itself went into a heatproof bowl and beaten over simmering water until thick.

I didn’t want a regular pastry crust and I had shortbread dough in the freezer so I pressed it into two pie plates (you could use; a tube of prepared sugar cookie dough, pastry, phyllo or graham cracker crumbs for the crust).

When my custard was thick I smoothed it out with 2 T. of butter.

Added a layer of shaved coconut to the crusts.

Poured in my custard and let everything cool.

Just before eating, top with a high layer of whipped cream and

Sprinkle with more coconut.

Maybe next week should be all salads?

Meh, not likely but tomorrow I do have a fantastic salad for you C:

Were you Pin’inspired?

28 Wednesday Mar 2012

Posted by Jane's Adventures in Dinner in Uncategorized

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I certainly was. I wish that I actually could just give up that pesky sleep habit and just try all of your amazing ideas out instead.

Hey there, if you are reading this from Artsy Girl’s site it’s Jane from

This week Artsy Girl and I are trying out something different. Not only are we going to just feature three pojects between the two of us (did I mention how incredibly hard this was?) but we’re also wanting to open this party up to more of you and putting the call out for guest hosts. We have a blast each week chatting back and forth between the two of us and want to pass along the fun to you. If you’re interested drop me a line at jane_craske@yahoo.ca

And now the best part…the features.

How about an amazing dinner by

Feeding My Temple

Didn’t you just love?

Mason Jar Easter Baskets by Messy Roost

Can you see how incredibly difficult it was now to decide?

Here’s our last but far from least…

From ‘Taking Time to Create’

What did you create this week?

Can’t wait to see just a couple of things to remember:
1) We’d love to have you back on Saturday to share all of your springy projects.
2) It’s awfully nice to follow your hosts and to visit other folks who are taking aprt in the party.
3) Please remember to link directly and just showcase your; projects, recipes and photography.

Have fun visiting and sharing C:

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WIWW: Back into the deepfreeze

28 Wednesday Mar 2012

Posted by Jane's Adventures in Dinner in Uncategorized

≈ 3 Comments

I mentioned yesterday that it’s cold again here but I am determined NOT to hunker down too much so I’ll beat the cold with some shots of bright colour.

Lots of yellow accents, my new (very big) orange purse but boots to keep me warm during yard duty.

And today?

It’s the details that are fun: Gap boyfriend jeans, RL boots, Vera Wang dress/tunic and jacket. Biker inspired belt and netting flowers at the neck.

So, what are your plans for spring/summer dressing?

Do you have a theme?

Are there pieces you are dying to pick up?

How’s your cholesteral?

28 Wednesday Mar 2012

Posted by Jane's Adventures in Dinner in maple bacon sticky buns

≈ 14 Comments

Yesterday I had a really nice light dessert.

This is not the case today.

In fact, if you are a vegetarian you need to click away now.

I have a lovely pie for you tomorrow but you will not like be today while I celebrate one of my favourite foods-bacon.

I’ll get to the bacon in a minute.

You see I was recently reading the latest in a book series that I really like (Hannah Swenson by Joanna Fluke) and it was called “Cinnamon Roll Murder”.

Guess what I needed right away?

That day we also picked-up our pork from the farmer and had some ridiculously large pieces of bacon to contend with (by ridiculous I mean; fabulous, wonderful and wondrous). A friend had also passed along some early season maple syrup to us.

Well, perfect storm it was so Maple Bacon Sticky Buns were born.

I have 2 cups of lukwarm milk, 2 T. maple syrup and 2 tsp of yeast.

While this proofs (bubbles), I chopped up 4 very thick pieces of bacon.

This got added into my maple and milk mixture.

I made a soft dough with 4 cups of flour and let it sit for 20 minutes.

I’d cooked my bacon on a broiling pan and had all these fantastic drippings that I couldn’t waste.

So I buttered my baking dish with it and added a 1/4 inch of maple syrup.

I rolled out my dough, buttered it with more bacon drippings, gave it a layer of brown sugar and sprinkled with 1/2 tsp. cinnamon.

Rolled it up and sliced into two inch chunks.

Place in my prepared pan, sprinkled with more chunks of bacon (two more thick pieces cut up) and let it sit for 20 minutes. Bake at 330 for 45 minutes.