jessica billinghurst

with my own two hands

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Jessica's Blue Jays Inspired Nails

My first Blue Jays game of the season was back in April (during opening weekend) and I thought not only should I dress in my Jays gear for the game, I should also dress up my nails for the week! 

My fingers are blue and red to match the Blue Jays colours, and my thumb is the baseball - I painted it white, with red "stitches" dotted across. If you change the colours of your nails, you can easily replicate this with ANY other team :)

Go Jays Go!

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Jessica's Favourite European View I traveled to Europe last fall (Germany, Czech Republic & Austria), and this was one of my absolutely favourite views during the trip.

This was taken above the village of St. Gilgen, in Salzburg, Austria. If you have never been, I hope this will inspire you to go!

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Jessica's Chocolate Toffee Crackers a.k.a. Christmas Crack

Although Christmas was over a month ago, I realized I hadn't posted a photo & recipe of one of the most popular treats from over my holidays. Better late than never!  I made these addictive treats for a work pot luck, as well as Christmas presents for my girlfriends (photo)

What you need: - Saltine crackers (I used salted Premium Plus crackers) - 2 cup brown sugar - 1 cup of butter  - 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips - Almonds & Walnuts (or other nuts) - 1 Cookie sheet - Parchment paper

How you do it: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line the cookie sheet with parchment paper & one layer of crackers. (Try to avoid space between the crackers. I cut some so they would fit perfectly to the edges) Melt the brown sugar & butter in a pan over medium heat until bubbling. Once boiling, pour the toffee evenly over the crackers. Bake for 4-6 minutes. Remove from the oven and sprinkle on the chocolate chips. Once they begin to melt, spread the chocolate evenly over the toffee with a spatula. Crush almonds and walnuts (or whichever other nuts or goodies you like) in zip lock bag, and quickly sprinkle over the chocolate. Cover the cookie sheet with saran wrap and place into the fridge or freezer. Once completely cooled, cut the pieces and start munching :) Be warned: These are highly addictive and very delicious.

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Jessica's Strawberry and Chocolate Tarts with Meringue

I had never made any type of pie or tart, until I recently made these delicious treats. Like most of my baking, I made these for a friend's birthday, whose favourite food happens to be pie. I didn't want to make one large pie for a party, so I thought mini tarts would be ideal!

These are very simple to make (especially when you buy the tarts pre-made!) I made 24 tarts. Follow the instructions on the tarts package, and once your tarts have cooled down after being warmed in the oven, add a thin layer of melted chocolate to the bottom of the tart. I microwaved 1/2 a cup of dark chocolate chips, so the chocolate would become hard again once cooled. The chocolate will be a wonderful surprise :)

Next, cut up a bunch of strawberries into small slices (I used roughly 4 cups full), mix and warm them in a pot with 1/2 cup sugar and 1 tablespoon cornstarch. Strain the strawberries, and spoon them into the tarts. 

Lastly, top the tarts with meringue, and quickly broil them in the oven to get that beautiful golden brown look. 

Now it's time to eat! Yum yum. So sweet and tasty.

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Jessica's Chocolate & Coconut Muffins

I was recently in the States and discovered that coconut M&M's existed. This discovery inspired me to make muffins that were chocolate and coconut flavour. I took a classic chocolate chip muffin recipe, and added in the flavoured M&M's in addition to regular chocolate chips, and roughly a cup of shredded and sweetened coconut.

After I scooped them into the greased muffin pans, I sprinkled extra coconut layer on top so they would crisp up. (For the photos, I sprinkled even more coconut on top once the muffins were cooled.)

I thought they turned out really well :) Light and full of coconut flavour! 

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Jessica's Backyard Adventure

I recently went on a mini road trip, and on the way, I visited my Mom's cousin. While there, I took my camera into her large and stunning backyard. It was full of beautiful flowers, a pear tree, a wonderful vegetable garden, and some little creatures. I was lucky enough to get a shot of a bumblebee hunting for some pollen, and a butterfly posing on the pear tree.

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Jessica's Lemony Potato Salad

One of the most popular summer dishes is potato salad. It's classic. And my recipe is not much different than the rest.

My recipe uses 6-8 unpeeled medium/large red potatoes, cut into 1 - 1 1/2 inch cubes (boiled for roughly 10 minutes), 3/4 cups of finely cut red onions and crisp celery and 1/3 cups of parsley.

The dressing has 3 simple ingredients: mayonnaise, mustard and lemon (juice and zest.) I intentionally try and change the consistency and flavours each time I make this salad. If you want it to be more creamy, or more lemony, you can adjust the quantities. There are also many different flavours of mustards, and each will change the taste. This particular salad had 1/3 cups of mayonnaise, 1 tablespoon of dijon mustard, and the juice and zest of a full lemon.

Once you create the dressing to your own tastes, stir in the vegetables and parsley and fold it in to the now cooled potatoes.

Cool the salad in the fridge for as long as you'd like. Some like the salad warmer than others. And then it's time to eat and enjoy!

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Jessica's Bird's Eye View The crabapple tree on my front lawn blooms for a very short time every spring. It is June now and the tree has already lost its beautifully bright pink and white flowering blooms.

During this time when the tree was in full blossom, and on a gorgeous and bright day, I took out my SLR camera and my "new" 55-200mm lens to capture whatever was lurking in and around the tree. I was lucky enough to capture this bird taking a short break after catching a little snack :)

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Jessica's St. Patrick's Day Green Desserts

Today is St. Patrick's Day! :) The day people overindulge in beer and everything green! I was no exception. I made bark and blondies and used lots and lots of food colouring. (The blondies were the same recipe as my previous post- except the added in green)

Jessica's Chocolate on Chocolate Skor Bark

Bark is one of the easiest and most creative desserts you can make. It is so quick to create and there are so many different combinations you can concoct. You can add in fruits, nuts, chocolate bars etc. (Pretty much anything that goes well with chocolate) Here is my recipe -- What you need:  - Milk Chocolate (6oz) - White Chocolate (6 oz) - Skor Bits - Mini Chocolate Chips - Green Food Colouring - Aluminum Foil - Square Cake Pan (8 or 9 inches)

How you do it: Line the pan with aluminum foil. Try and make the foil as flat and smooth as possible. Melt the milk chocolate (I used the microwave because I was getting frustrated about how slow it was taking from the double broiler..) I melted it at 30 second intervals, stirring the chocolate each time. Do not overcook it or it might burn. Once fully melted, pour the chocolate into your pan, and even it out. Place in refrigerator for approximately 30 minutes. Once the milk chocolate is cool, take it out of the fridge and repeat the steps with the white chocolate, although this time once the white chocolate is melted, you will add in the green food colouring to give it that bright green colour. Pour the now green chocolate on top of the cooled chocolate and even it out again. Once you've done that, sprinkle on your mini chocolate chips. Place the pan back in the fridge for another 30 minutes. Once fully cooled, take the foil out of the pan, place on a cutting board and cut your bark into pieces. And voila! Easy and delicious.

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Jessica's Blondies

This post will be short and sweet. Pun intended :) For those who don't know, Blondies are very much like brownies, but are made with brown sugar instead of cocoa. And just like brownies, Blondie recipes are all very similar.

In my recipe, I decided to use 1 cup of coconut and another cup of chips. I wanted a few flavours, so I created a mixture of milk and dark chocolate chips and butterscotch chips. Not bad for my first try!

These will definitely be made again.

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Jessica's BEE-utiful Nails

These are super easy and fun nails I did last summer. The most important tool you need is a nail pen. Nail pens allow you do draw and doodle intricate designs onto your nails. The one I personally own is Sally Hensen's Nail Art Pen.

So, I painted my nails in yellow and waited until they were completely dry. Once they were dry, I drew a flight path starting from my pinky and finishing on my thumb. I tried to keep the path consistent from one nail to the next. And then I drew a little bee on my thumb, and finished it off by adding a dot of white nail polish to each wing.

Once the nail polish is dry again, you must put on a clear top coat. If not, the black polish from the pen will fade and chip away.

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Jessica's Lemon Layered Dessert

One of my favourite flavours is lemon, and my favourite type of dessert is anything that incorporates lemon curd! In restaurants, it's usually a lemon tart or pie.

I had never made lemon curd before, and thought I should make my own dessert with it! I got the recipe for the lemon curd here: http://www.finecooking.com/recipes/lemon_curd.aspx

My Ingredients: -Lemon Curd -Raspberry Coulis (raspberries and melted sugar blended together- and use a sieve to get rid of the seeds) -Cool Whip -Graham Cracker crumble -Berries (strawberries, raspberries and blueberries)

And then all you have to do is layer them all in a bowl or a glass, like I had used. I only put the lemon curd in once in the middle of the glass because it's quite tart, but the rest were layered twice in order. 

Enjoy! 

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Jessica's Signature Doodles

One of my favourite things to do is draw. Doodle.  I find it extremely calming. It not only allows me to focus, but it also allows time to go by quickly. I find myself drawing and doodling while on the phone, listening to music and especially while watching television or a movie.

Often when work (retail) was slow, I drew a bunch of designs, like the black and white photo above and gave it to my coworkers to colour in, like the bottom colourful collage of photos. Trust me, it's an easy and peaceful activity even for teens, 20 or 30 somethings :)

Each of these designs (and there are MANY more) were done with a white piece of paper and a black sharpie (and of course markers with the coloured ones.) No stencils or rulers! That just wouldn't be fun.

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Jessica's Skor Chocolate Cake

It was my Dad's birthday yesterday, and he, like many of us, LOVES chocolate. So I knew his birthday cake would be chocolate on chocolate. I searched online for a while to find a recipe for a well liked cake, and finally came to this one:

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/extreme-chocolate-cake/detail.aspx

This was my very first attempt at a layered cake, where you have to cut the cake, so although I was nervous I would ruin it, I was pleased with the result. So, of course this was not my recipe, but like I do with most recipes, I changed it up slightly. This time, I added an additional ingredient: Skor bits :) You really cannot go wrong with Skor bits. I add them to everything! For the cake, I added a layer of them on top of the icing in the middle icing layer (you can't really see them in the photograph) and then of course I decorated the sides.

If you decide to make this, be warned how rich and decadent it is! You'll need some milk, ice cream or water to accompany it. 

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Jessica's Tuxedo Nails

I did these nails last summer after getting a request from a couple of friends. I had also just bought my dotting tool from Sephora, and wanted to test it out.

These were surprisingly easy to do. Start with a fully white nail and just add the black on top once the white is dry. I find the best trick for a straight line is to use a nail polish brush that's long and quite thin :)

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Jessica's Photo Shoot with Laura

JUST over a year ago, I had a mini photo shoot with one of my best friends, Laura. And because she's gorgeous, it was an easy and fun shoot :)

I took the photographs in my backyard with my Nikon D90 and edited them on Adobe Lightroom. I wanted to create that cool feeling of winter with the bold colours.

The first photograph (channeling Picasso's Blue Period, perhaps?) was my favourite shot of the bunch.

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Jessica's Jack-o-Lanterns

Yesterday was HALLOWEEN! Everyone carves pumpkins, and I'm certainly no exception! This year I invested in two pumpkins so I can be a bit more creative. If I could, I would have done about 10 of those suckers. I love carving pumpkins! Too bad it's only a once a year tradition.

Anyways, here are my creations in action on our front steps :)