May Day Art Faire

I am excited to be a new member of this great art fair. It's the weekend before Mother's Day and the perfect place to buy something for your mom or other special woman in your life. Maybe there are birthdays or graduations coming up or you just want to treat yourself.

I will have a nice selection of my usual jams and jellies. I am trying out a new product: infused sugars. They are great for baking, morning tea or evening cocktails. I will be offering mandarin, lemon and cardamon, each will come with a recipe.

Bath salts, soaps and dryer sachets with be in abundance. I will not have lippies and only a limited amount of body butter and scrubs. If those items are on your shopping list, be sure to let me know ahead of time.

I will have lots of great new photos to share on my cards, they make the prefect gift for anyone on your list.

Come join me and seventeen other artisans, May 2 and 3 from 10 AM to 5 PM.
Hope to see you there.

Holiday gift ideas...

Homemade gifts are the best in so many ways. While they may take a little extra time, they are certainly less stressful than spending time in a shopping mall !! And if you don't have the time or inspiration to make your own gifts you can support local businesses during the holiday season. I mentioned to a friend that I was buying some charcuterie from our local butcher for some of the folks on my list. She thought that was a great idea :-)

This year I decided to experiment with different spice mixes: curry powder, chili spice, jerk spice, ranch dressing, moroccan spice and pie spices.

They are all blends of a number of herbs and spices. I would recommend going to a natural food grocery store, food coop or herb store to get the raw ingredients.

The one in the photo above is chili powder before mixing.

Here's what I put in it.

Laurie's Chili Powder

6 tablespoons paprika

2 tablespoons dried oregano

4 teaspoons cumin powder

4 teaspoons garlic granules

3 teaspoons powdered chipotle peppers ( or cayenne peppers)

3 teaspoons onion powder

2 teaspoons smoked paprika

1) Put all the ingredients into a bowl and mix.

2) Find all the little bottles you have been saving for years...

3) Using a funnel ( I made one out of paper), pour the mixture into a jar. 

4) Make a cute label.

5) You could pair it with some interesting dried or canned beans  and my chili recipe.

      Easy homemade gift !!

Here's my pie spice combination, great in apple dessert, pumpkin pie, sweet loaves, cupcakes, cookies...

Ingredients

1/2 cup ground cinnamon

2 tablespoons ground ginger

2 tablespoons mace or nutmeg

4 teaspoons ground allspice

2 teaspoons ground cloves or cardamom

1) Same as above mix together, bottle, label and give !!

Pair the spice with a pie pumpkin or apples from your local farmer's market or some homemade brown sugar and a favorite cookie or cake recipe.

Or

You can add 4 tablespoons of sugar to 2 teaspoons of this mixture for a gourmet version of cinnamon toast topping. It's also great to sprinkle on top of pies, cookies, hot cereal, or stir into coffee or hot chocolate.

Next up my curries, jerk spice and ranch dressing !!

Laurie's Little Store

I have finally found a way to share Laurie's Little Store in a simple and easy way !!
I have made a page on this blog for you to look at.
It shows you what I make and a little bit about each item, along with prices.
When you go to my blog look for "pages" on the right hand side, just click on Laurie's Little Store. Voila !!