Flower Recipe: Chocolate Dipped Fruit on a Stick, KID FRIENDLY!

Posted on April 30, 2012 by The Flowerblog Team

4/30/12

Flower Recipe: Chocolate Dipped Fruit on a Stick, KID FRIENDLY!

Homemade chocolate covered strawberries, blueberries and raspberries

Ok, admittedly this recipe doesn’t involve flowers directly, but the way you arrange this kid-friendly recipe from Family Fresh Cooking makes it look like an edible arrangement (and it is!). Dads: have the kids help make these for a great (and personal) Mother’s Day snack:

Dark chocolate dipped fruit on a stick lollipops

Ingredients:

  • Mom’s favourite Chocolate (about 1 ounce per person)
  • Mom’s favourite fruits: dried, fresh etc. A mix of fruit is fun. think beyond strawberries.
  • Mom’s favourite toppings: Sprinkles, Toasted Nuts, Coarse Sugar, Stevia Granules, Brown Sugar, Maple Sugar, Cacao Nibs, etc.
  • Mom’s favourite spices: Cardamom, Cinnamon, Ginger, Cayenne, Nutmeg, Pumpkin Pie Spice, All Spice

Dark chocolate covered berries and mandarins for holiday dessert

Tip: If you use larger fruits such as bananas or apples, simply cut to bite sized pieces before you dip. Not rocket science and that makes it all the more fun.

White bowl with berries for Chocolate Dipped Fruit Recipe

Steps:

  1. Wash and dry all fruit. If you are using any large fruit (apples, bananas), be sure to cut them into bite sized pieces. Have toppings handy in small bowls.
  2. In a medium sauce pan bring 1 inch of water to a rolling boil.
  3. Put desired amount of chocolate in a heat safe metal bowl. This bowl is going to nest inside the saucepan, be sure the bottom of the bowl does not touch the water inside.
  4. Reduce heat to a simmer and put chocolate nesting bowl on top of the saucepan. Chocolate will gradually melt. Stir with a spatula and add Stevia or any spices. TIP: Leave chocolate over simmering water bath while you dip fruit so it does not harden.
  5. Pierce berries and other fruits onto skewers, dip in chocolate. If the pieces of fruit are large enough you can gently dip holding with your fingers. Roll in toppings.

Dark Chocolate Covered clementine slices with dried orange rind

    Helpful Tips:
  • Use your favorite chocolate to melt. Some melt better than others. You need to experiment. I love unsweetened dark 99% cacao and I sweeten it to taste with stevia powder or drops.
  • Spice or don’t spice, up to you and your taste preference.
  • I like the bain marie (water bath) method to melt chocolate. This is the most gentle way to melt it. If you prefer the microwave you can do that too.

Homemade chocolate covered berries for Valentine's Day

Note: some fruits (like mandarin slices) may not stay on the skewers, but that’s okay! Just arrange them on a plate or in a bowl for Mom to enjoy :)

Dark Chocolate Dipped Clementines and blueberry

Enjoy!

Love,

Your friends at Flowerblog

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Posted in Dessert, Food, Kid-friendly, Mother's Day, Recipe | Leave a comment

Flower DIY: Mother’s Day Bouquet, Kid-Friendly!

Posted on April 30, 2012 by The Flowerblog Team

4/30/12

Flower DIY: Mother’s Day Bouquet, A Kid-Friendly Craft

Mother’s Day is right around the corner, yay for moms! I remember being a little kid and not knowing what in the world to get mom for Mother’s Day–usually we let dad handle it. Had we the internet and amazing tutorials like this one at our fingertips, mom would’ve gotten an awesome gift like this DIY flower bouquet:

Supplies for Pipe Cleaner Bouquet:

  • colored pipe cleaner – 6 of each color
  • decorative flower pot
  • ribbon
  • glue dots

For the flower pot:

  1. Cut a pink ribbon to length.
  2. Attach it to the rim of the pot using glue dots. I love glue dots, so functional!
  3. Tie it off in a bow. I also attached the bow in place with a glue dot.
  4. I then added green colored rice we made during Easter to fill the pot, giving it a fun finished look.

For the flowers:

  1. Wrap a long green pipe cleaner around the 6 bundled pipe cleaners.
  2. Bend and twist it to make the stem.
  3. Spread out your now 12 strands, and curl them up into each other to make the flower.
  4. For a sturdier stem, fold the green pipe cleaner in half again.

5. Group them all together and tie it with another pipe cleaner.

Fun tip: spritz a little perfume or flower-scented spray on the arrangement so mom loves how they look and smell!

Love,

Your friends at Flowerblog

 

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Flower of the Month: May means Lily of the Valley

Posted on April 30, 2012 by The Flowerblog Team

4/30/12

Flower of the Month: May is means Lily of the Valley

From elanordh-stock.deviantart.com

Check out a few fun facts about this delicate flower via Wikipedia:

Via Kim Romaine Gray

Lily of the Valley was first cultivated in 1420. Lily of the Valley symbolizes: humility, chastity, sweetness, purity and is said to bring luck in love–hence why Lily of the Valley is popular in wedding arrangements.

Pink Lily of the Valley is very rare.

The flower is also known as Our Lady’s tears or Mary’s tears from Christian legends that it sprang from the weeping of the virgin Mary during the crucifixion of Jesus. Other etiologies its coming into being from Eve’s tears after she was driven with Adam from the Garden of Eden or from the blood shed by Saint Leonard of Noblac during his battles with a dragon.

Lily of the valley represents, "return to happiness" and is popular in wedding bouquets.

At the end of the 20th century it became tradition in France to sell lily of the valley on international labour day, May 1, by labour organisations and private persons without paying sales tax (on that day only) as a symbol of spring.

The red berries contain the seeds for reproduction; the Lily of the Valley flower itself does not provide the means of reproduction.

Note: All parts of the Lily of the Valley are highly poisonous, including the red berries which may be attractive to children. If ingested—even in small amounts—the plant can cause abdominal pain, vomiting, and a reduced heart rate. So parents: be careful planting these in your garden with pets or small animals in the family.

Love,

Your friends at Flowerblog

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Flower Facts: 32,000 Year-Old Flower Has Rebloomed

Posted on April 23, 2012 by The Flowerblog Team

23/4/12

Flower Facts: 32,000 Year-Old Flower Has Rebloomed

Looks like global warming has some benefits, who knew? This great story from Treehugger tells all:

A team at the Institute of Physicochemical and Biological Problems in Soil Science, Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow, Russia discovered – in a fossilized squirrel burrow in Siberia – remnants of the ice-age flowering plant Silene stenophylla. The plant had been buried at a depth of 38 meters in sediments with a temperature of −7°.

Radiocarbon dating of the plants seemed to show that an ancient squirrel stashed them around 31,800 years ago, just before ice rolled into the area near the Kolya river.

Poor Mr. Squirrel. All he wanted was a tasty treat, not sealed in ice for 30k years.

Scientists used growth hormone to coax silene stenophylla back to life and eventually, back to bloom. They are now, according to the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences report ” the most ancient, viable, multicellular, living organisms.”

Thanks to global warming and steroids, we’ve breathed life into ancient history. Next on the “to do” list: dinosaurs.

"Oh s#*t."

Love,

Your friends at Flowerblog

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Flowers A to Z: W is for Wolfsbane

Posted on April 23, 2012 by The Flowerblog Team

23/4/12

Flowers A to Z: W is for Wolfsbane

Need to get rid of an angsty teenage werewolf?

From nesstalker.blogspot.com

Don’t we all. But you might be better off throwing him a T-bone steak, because this flower’s anti-werewolf capacities are about as fictitious as glittery vampires. Here’s some real facts about Wolfsbane from Wikipedia:

From dipity.com

Wolfsbane (genus Aconitum) goes by many different names, such as: aconite, monkshood, wolf’s bane, leopard’s bane, women’s bane, Devil’s helmet or blue rocket.

From hermionesgarden.blogspot.com

Wolfsbane is actually a member of the buttercup family. The name comes from ἀκόνιτον meaning without struggle. The Wolfsbane flowers symbolize chivalry, and say, “Beware, a deadly foe is near.”

Aconitum ferox up close

Werewolves (and everyone else) have reason to fear Wolfsbane: it’s extremely poisonous. The roots of Aconitum ferox supply the Nepalese poison called bikh, bish, or nabee. It contains large quantities of the alkaloid pseudaconitine, which is deadly.

The droop of the flower gives it the nickname, "Monkshood"

Wolfsbane’s noxious properties are notorious in historical literature: Shakespeare mentioned it in Henry IV, John Keats in his Ode on Melancholy, and in Greek mythology, Medea attempted to poison Theseus with a cup of wine poisoned with wolfsbane. Wolfsbane is even mentioned in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and in the TV series The Vampire Diaries.

Love,

Your friends at Flowerblog

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Flower Recipe: Dandelion Chips

Posted on April 23, 2012 by The Flowerblog Team

23/4/12

Flower Recipe: Dandelion Chips

A great alternative to potato chips, your kids will love this light and healthy snack any time of day! Recipe from Show Food Chef:

*A note from the author: As you might expect, Dandelion Chips are more delicate than the hardy and curly Kale, and the taste can be more bitter (a nice break from the too sweet and processed bagged chips.)

Ingredients:

  • Dandelion Greens
  • Sea Salt
  • Olive Oil

1) Wash, dry and break dandelion greens into large pieces. Discard any thick ribs.
2) Drizzle a bit of Olive oil on the greens and toss with your hands to lightly coat all the leaves.
3) Place in a single layer onto a baking sheet. Bake at 350F for about 8-12 minutes. Keep an eye on them so not to burn.
4) Remove pan from the oven, sprinkle the leaves with seasonings (I used Sea Salt) and allow to cool.


There you go, a super easy recipe you can have your kids help you with that doubles as a healthy snack!

Love,

Your friends at Flowerblog

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Posted in Dandelion, Food, Recipe, Season, Snack, Spring | Leave a comment

Flower DIY: Upcycled Vases

Posted on April 23, 2012 by The Flowerblog Team

23/4/12

Flower DIY: Upcycled Vases

Earth Day may be one day out of the year, but that doesn’t mean you should only celebrate it once every 365 days. Simple, easy, and inexpensive, this DIY from House of Earnest helps you celebrate a belated Earth Day in style! All you need is water bottles, spray paint and painters tape and viola! You have a fabulous centerpiece for your dining room table!

*Helpful tip from the author: for cleaning the label glue off the bottles, use Goo Gone or an other citrus oil cleaner and then run through the dishwasher on the top rack.  And, If you use cold water instead of warm like I did, your vases shouldn’t steam.

Love,

Your friends at Flowerblog

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Admin Professionals Week is Right Around the Corner!

Posted on April 19, 2012 by The Flowerblog Team

19/4/12

Admin Professionals Week is Right Around the Corner!

From happyworker.com

Administrative Professionals Day will mark its 60th anniversary on April 25, 2012. Say “Thank you” with a gorgeous bouquet,

Breathtaking Beauty Bouquet

gift basket,

Snack Attack

or planter basket from Flowers Canada.

Blooming Gift Planter

Love,

Your friends at Flowerblog

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Flower Facts: New Flower is a Bit Excited to Meet You

Posted on April 17, 2012 by The Flowerblog Team

16/4/12

Flower Facts: New Flower is a Bit Excited to Meet You

Known for it’s relation to the stinkiest flower in the world, this phallic-shaped species recently discovered by botanist Greg Wahlert has been making heads turn and people gag since its discovery:

A new species of corpse flower.

The newly discovered plant species Amorphophallus perrieri grows to about five feet tall.

University of Utah botanist Greg Wahlert stands next to a new plant species he discovered – Amorphophallus perrieri — as it was starting to bloom on Feb. 2. A day later, the 4.5-foot-tall plant, began stinking like roadkill, just like its bigger and more famous, 20-foot-tall relative, Amorphophallus titanum, also known as the “corpse flower.”

Gross, but kind of cool, the Amorphophallus perrieri is probably not a plant you’ll see cropping up in any of your neighbours flower beds anytime soon, but it’s still quite an interesting bloom!

Love,

Your friends at Flowerblog

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Flowers A to Z: V is for Violet

Posted on April 17, 2012 by The Flowerblog Team

16/4/12

Flowers A to Z: V is for Violet

Australian native violet, or Viola banksii

We’ve already featured violets once before, but did you know that Pansies are a type of Violet and Violets aren’t just violet-coloured? Wikipedia says so! Read on to learn more about this versatile (and underrated) flower:

True Violets have been in cultivation by ancient Greeks sicne 500 BC or even earlier. Greeks and the Romans valued Violets for its herbal properties, made wine from them and sweetened food.

The common dog violet, or Viola riviniana

Violet blooms can be consumed; in medicines they serve as a laxative, and the flowers are glazed for decoration in jellies and other food items. However it is strictly prohibited to take the plants internally in large quantities.

S.Kenney 2011 Lemon Squares with Candied Violets

The violet’s flower colours vary in the genus, ranging from violet, as their common name suggests, through various shades of blue, yellow, white, and cream, whilst some types are bicolored, often blue and yellow.

Wild field pansy, or Viola arvensis

One quirk of some viola is the elusive scent of their flowers is a ketone compound called ionone, which temporarily desensitises the nasal receptors, thus preventing any further scent being detected from the flower until the nerves recover.

Common African violet

Using the flowers in love potions, the Ancient Greeks believed the Violets symbolized fertility and love. By the way people wearing a garland of violets above the heads credited they ensured warding off headaches and woozy spells.

And now you know a ton about this common household plant!

Love,

Your friends at Flowerblog

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