meet.make.earl grey cupcakes.

Last week Stephanie had to bring baked goods to work for a bake sale fundraiser, so we decided to get together to whip something up! It has been awhile since we have done any sort of baking. 

meet.make.zucchini pizza sticks.

While working on some wedding crafts over the weekend (less than two weeks until Hayley's wedding!) we needed some sustenance to keep us going. Who knew crafting could be such hard work?

During our first mandatory stretch break (there may also have been a second one that involved going out for frozen yoghurt....) we decided to whip up a veggie-filled snack!  We came across this pin on pinterest, and wanted to give it a try. Think margarita pizza on a zucchini! 

Black Forest Cream Pie

We are so excited to have the lovely Anja stopping by today to share a recipe.... Black Forest cream pie! Anja blogs over at Cocalores, and you must head over and visit her there! (After you finish reading through her post below of course :P)

Hi everyone! My name is Anja and I'm so glad to be guest posting here today. My very own little home on the web is Cocalores, where I blog about my creative endeavors (easy DIYs, crafts, crochet, and all other creative things that tickle my fancy) and sometimes dessert... there's always time for dessert, right?

May I just say I love meet.make.laugh.? Steph, Hayley and Cindy are some of the nicest girls out there, and if they didn't live 5000 miles away, I'd totally have them over for coffee and cake. So why not have a virtual coffee klatsch with Black Forest cream pie?

meet.make.lavender lemon cheesecake bites.

These little cheesecake cups were our Easter dinner treats! Our holiday dinners are anything but light so we wanted to make a dessert that everyone would have room for and weren't too rich to want to eat.

We've never attempted to make cheescake before so we thought we would make little cups to decrease our chances of messing up. We came across the recipe from Rara Bakes  and added our own spin to them. SInce it was Easter we thought something with lavender would be fitting and also decided to zest with lemon and add raspberries to complete the presentation.

Lavender and lemon are definitely a favourite combo of ours.... previously we had attempted a really tasty drink with these flavours and LOVED it! 

Note that in lieu of a mini cheescake pan, we used a muffin pan, decreased the temperature by 25 degrees and increased the baking time to 25 min.

meet.make.hummus cups.

I needed to throw together a quick appetizer before our Easter dinner at Steph's place. So filing through our Pinterest boards, I came across these adorable Hummus Cups!

Some of you may know, I am NOT the Chef of this group. In fact, my fiancé even does most of the cooking at home, and I am very content with this. He just always makes it look so easy!

I on the other hand, have to follow dirrections EXACTLY... and I will STILL manage to mess it up somehow. Though I have found that although the outcome of my cooking may look kind of weird, it tastes good! And that's all that matters right? Well, for me at least.

meet.make.mini caprese skewers.

In need of a last minute snack for your Superbowl get-together or potluck? Look no further.... we went back into the meet.make.laugh. vault and decided to re-share these perfect last minute snacks. All three of us have made them numerous times.... they are that good! And simple!

meet.make.battle of the scones.

We both have more of a savoury/salty-tooth so baking isn't part of our normal regime but for some reason scones caught out interest this week. Stephanie came across a recipe on Joy The Baker that triggered the idea and coincidentally, Cindy's co-worker shared a scone recipe that would appeal to our salty palette.

So then it became... the battle of the scones!

meet.make.turkey buns.

One of my absolute favourite things about Christmas dinner isn't actually the meal itself.... it is the leftovers. Seriously.... the anticipation of a turkey bun almost makes me want to fast forward through the meal! (Almost)

I have spent quite a few years perfecting the formula for the best way to build a turkey bun... and here it is!

STEPHANIE'S PERFECT TURKEY BUN:

Ingredients:

• A white pull-apart tray bun 
• Turkey pulled apart into little pieces
• Stuffing (I know you are thinking.... What? Bread on bread? That's weird. Well it is delicious. The spices in the stuffing add to the final product)
• Gravy
• Cranberry Sauce

Now there are a few tricks to building the bun that make it into the perfect meal. First, make sure you heat up the turkey, stuffing, gravy, and bun separately (don't heat up the cranberry sauce). Everything needs different time in the microwave to get to just the right temperature for consumption of that item. Then assemble in the following order: bottom bun, stuffing, turkey, 2 spoonfuls of gravy, cranberry sauce, top bun.

After you have assembled, grab about 8 napkins, because this bun is MESSY. But it's worth it. It's delicious. 

Enjoy!

How do you use up your leftovers?

meet.make.salted caramel shortbread.

One of our new recipes for our annual baking weekend this year was inspired by this recipe for salted caramel shortbread. We were all really excited to try this out, because who doesn't love the combo of caramel and sea salt? 

meet.make.slow roasted korean pork poker feast.

So this wasn't our typical Ladies Night In... in fact, it wasn't a Ladies Night at all! 

This night was about as testosterone filled as it could get. It included some intense poker playing, beer drinking, UFC watching and meat eating. BUT no one says it couldn't have been a ladies night, there just happened to be a lot of males there as well. Though we love our girly crafty nights, we of course enjoy hanging out with our boys!

meet.make.lemon cookies.

I came across this recipe on Pinterest last week.... and immediately decided I needed to make these right away. I have a weakness for lemon flavoured things, and after a quick glance at the recipe I realized I had all of these things at home, so a trip to the grocery store wasn't even needed. 

My evening just got exciting. Baking lemon cookies, and so excited about it. 

meet.make.szechuan green beans.

A girly get-together was in order, so we took a trip to one of favourites, Moxies. But while skimming over the menu, we found out that they no longer offered one of our favourite sharing dishes.... the szechuan green beans! 

However this disappointment spurred our creative DIY mentality, and we were determined to make our own version to fill this void.

meet.make.fig bites.

Here on Vancouver Island, figs are in abundance this time of year. They aren't a usual suspect on our grocery lists, but we wanted to try to make something that uses these tasty treats. 

This is a great appetizer for your ladies night in, or any potluck gathering you may attend! It is a very quick goodie to make, so if you need to put something together fast and flattering after work this will do the trick. Lastly.... it is seriously delicious. Sometimes the ingredients speak for themselves and you don't need to do anything to them! 

meet.make.clutch.

A ladies night in getting ready for a ladies night out! 

Prepping for our Seattle trip, we decided to save our party and money for the weekend to come. So far we've touched on almost every essential ladies accessory. TIme to complete the perfect outfit with a one of a kind clutch purse made by yours truly.

Even though we’re crafty, not all our creations are original. Big shout outs to the following sites and/or people for inspiring this ladies night in...

• I Spy DIY's Newspaper Clutch Purse

Guest List: Cindy, Hayley, and Steph. Want to know what makes us tick? Visit our Guest List. 

Oh So Healthy Snacks

Healthy snacks made easy... and unintentionally!

Steph and I just like food, any food, so kudos to us for making some healthy options this time around. Our usual go to is anything that involves a lot of butter, oil, and all the things they say you are suppose to keep minimal in your diet. Who are "they" anyways?! We tend to take after our Chef husbands... 

We wanted to see what all the hype was about kale chips, so we followed this Martha Stewart recipe.

Apparently kale is a super food. It's likely the amount of salt we added counteracted it's nutritious value but we had to compromise. They were heavenly! So quick and effortless to make. It may not be the most pretty or presentable dish but the taste makes up for it.

Next we tried out this chickpea recipe from cupcake project.

The chickpeas recipe combo seemed interesting with the cinnamon spice and we are always down for trying new things. One word - yum!!! Very addictive and a great alternative to nuts. Not a main course dish but a great party snack. Possibly an idea for Christmas holiday treats to giveaway... ? 

Have less than an hour to put together some tasters for guests and don't have much in your kitchen to work with? Kale chips and cinnamon chickpeas. Keep these two recipes handy!

Happy healthy-ish eating!

High Tea, Low Budget

Not quite able to justify (aka afford) the cost of high tea at the luxurious Empress Hotel, we decided to create our own high class experience. Head pieces and all, we changed things up for a ladies afternoon in. 

Even though we’re crafty, not all our creations are original. Big shout outs to the following sites and/or people for inspiring this ladies night in...

• Nutella Puffs: non jaded
• Tea: purchased from Silk Road 
• Knit Bracelets: inspired by this pin... no pattern attached that we could find so we came up with our own!

Guest List: Steph, Hayley, Cindy. Want to know what makes us tick? Visit our Guest List.

High Class High School

What does the smell of Malibu remind you of? Maybe fake ID's, school dances, and nights ending in spooning the toilet bowl?

Time to kick it old school! We're bringing you back to the good ol' days... when all that mattered was where everyone was partying on Friday night. We'll bring the Malibu... you bring the pineapple.

More high school trivia - what classic dish takes 5 min to make and was perfectly satisfying for breaky, lunch, and dinner? Grilled cheese sammies!

If you didn't attend your 10 year high school reunion, don't fret. These high school staples will surely take you down memory lane.

P.S. Dibs out on being the DD.

Even though we’re crafty, not all our creations are original. Big shout outs to the following sites and/or people for inspiring this ladies night in...

• Malibu Cupcakes: I'll Eat You blog 

Guest List: Cindy, Hayley, Steph and Chelise. Want to know what makes us tick? Visit our Guest List. 

A Mélange of Table Toppers

7:00pm on a Saturday night...what's there to do? Pub? Nah.  Shop Etsy/Beyond the Rack? Next pay day. Fine, how about a Jillian Michaels workout vid? Ha! Not. A. Chance.

Next time you and your friends have fun-block, try crafting up a table topper storm. We promise these creations will keep the night interesting and then some!

To compliment our coaster craft, we each picked a dish that was simple, delish, and could be eaten around your coffee table. First things first - let's get those drinks made and be sure to keep them coming! Silk Road - we love you! These earl green tea gin and tonics are the ultimate girly cocktail and are dangerously addictive. Quite possibly our new summer drink. As we gulped away, we roasted the curried squash, perfected each caprese skewer and meticulously drizzled each crostini with some honey. A satisfying night if you want to stop there...

But it's 9:00pm and our night is just about to get better (come one, cut us 9-5'ers some slack). 

Spice up your living room decor and show off your originality with some homemade coasters. Any excuse to use mod podge, is reason enough. You'll be pleasantly surprised with the fancy new table toppers. Functional, original and cheapy-cheap. Job well done, ladies! 

Even though we’re crafty, not all our creations are original. Big shout outs to the following sites and/or people for inspiring this ladies night in...

• Caprese skewers: Mels Kitchen Cafe
• Hummus modified from: Food Coma
• Crostini's:  Bon Apetit 
• Coasters: Two Girls Being Crafty
• Cocktail: Inspired by Silk Road Tea's tea cocktail seminar. If you live in Victoria and have a chance to take a class... you can find the schedule here. 

Guest List: Cindy, Hayley, Steph and Ashleigh. Want to know what makes us tick? Visit our Guest List.

Cindy's Mini Snack

Life is like a batch of mini muffins... it’s as good as you make it!

I can never finish a whole muffin to myself... ok I’m lying but you can’t deny the cuteness of the mini size adds to its edible appeal. Yes, you end up eating three, four, five times (who's counting?!) the regular portion but for some reason, your brain tricks you into thinking its guilt free. Well, mine at least! Thank you Google for finding me this tasty treat. For the chocolate lovers out there and to the healthy buffs (there’s some banana in them too), bon ap-petit ;)

P.s. I am not a baker. I just follow directions ok.

1 LAYER, 2 LAYER, 3 LAYER 4 - A poor girl’s Monet

Paintings, pizzas, slurpees – jealous yet? Picture grade school art class remixed with beer. Two words... Blue Shocker! The sunless island winter inspired a summer themed night full of bright everything! From the pizza toppings to the magazine cut-outs and the iceberg bevies, it was the perfect pick-me-up to the winter blues. Ever watch the movie Chicago? Well we tried, but we were having way too much fun as if we were getting paid to create. Take down your art from Winners and have fun doing a painting that requires no actual talent. Need some creative inspiration? 7-11 slurpee mixed beers. It’s a win-win for everyone. 

Even though we’re crafty, not all our creations are original. Big shout outs to the following sites and/or people for inspiring this ladies night in...

• Canvas: http://tatertotsandjello.com/2011/07/summer-social-guest-project-make-mod.html
• Drink: brainchild of meet.make.laugh.
• Pita pizza: who doesn't know how to make a pizza?