Blue Ostrich Winery

Matthew and I will be celebrating our second anniversary next week. We have developed a tradition of having a bottle of wine on our anniversary we picked out on our previous anniversary. So for our first anniversary we had a bottle of wine from our wedding night, this year we'll have a bottle that we picked out last year on our first anniversary trip and next year we'll drink the bottle we picked out last weekend from Blue Ostrich Winery in Saint Jo, Texas.

We started the trip we a stop in Munster to pick up some stuff for a picnic lunch.

It's a super cute little town.

We passed some wind farms on the way there.

Saw some eagles flying the wind currents.

And finally arrived at the winery about two hours after leaving home.

We did a quick tasting to see what we wanted to drink with our lunch and also picked out our bottle for next year.

Great view.

Yummy lunch.

And of course a visit to the ostriches.

There was a calf that got out of the fence and couldn't get back in, it's mom did not sound happy. But we told the people who worked at the winery before we left. Apparently they own that land and the cows too and called someone to help the calf get back.

When we got home we saw that they wrote us a note on our bottle for next year!

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Peanut Butter & Jelly Cupcakes

I have been thinking about making these cupcakes for probably a year. I finally decided to quit dreaming about them and make them a reality.

• 1 box yellow cake mix and ingredients to prepare
• 3/4 cup creamy peanut butter
• 1/2 cup (one stick) butter, softened
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/4 cup milk
• 2 cup of jelly of your choice

Mix cake mix according to the directions on the back of the box. Pour batter into prepared muffin cups, filling two-thirds full. Bake 19-23 minutes until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool cupcakes on wire racks until completely cool.

Fill a pastry bag fitted with a small decorator tip with your favorite jelly, I used apricot. Insert tip into the top of the cupcake and squeeze the pastry bag gently to fill the center of the cupcake. Stop squeezing when your feel resistance or jelly comes out of the top of the cupcake. Repeat with each cupcake, refilling the pastry bag as needed.

For the frosting, beat peanut butter and butter in a medium bowl with an electric mixer as medium speed until smooth. Add sugar and vanilla, beat at low speed until crumbly. Slowly add the milk, beating at a low speed until creamy. Pipe or spread peanut butter frosting over cupcakes.

Talk about yum! I recommend enjoying one of these bad boys with a tall glass of milk. 

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Toronto and Niagara Falls

Last week Matthew went to a steel convention in Toronto for work. We got me a miles ticket so I could go too.

While Matthew was busy conventioning (yup, I made that word up) I got to explore a bit. There's a harbor right next to our hotel.

The view from our room in Toronto.

This is St. Andrew's Church, this building was built in 1876 though the congregation was founded in 1830.

  

The Art Gallery of Ontario. I was worried about getting lost in Toronto, I should have been more concerned about getting lost in the art gallery, it was huge!

Bernini's bust of Pope Gregory XV. 

Authenticated painting by Rembrandt.

At one point in time it was thought that Rembrandt painted this, but it has been attributed to one of his students.

Peter Paul Rubens' Massacre of the Innocents.

Many of the rooms were laid out like this since they have so many pieces of art and they want to display it.

Monet.

Picasso.

I'm still amazed at how much stuff this museum had. Works from Rodin, Andy Warhol, Georgia O'Keeffe, Van Gogh, Degas, Matisse and a million others. One room was filled with only busts, and this is just one wall of the room.

Matthew brought me back a chocolate bolt from the steel convention, it was delicious.

We made reservations to eat at the CN Tower. That's our hotel (Radisson) and the CN Tower behind it.

The food was exceptional and we shared an apple crumble for dessert.

View from the glass floor, 1,122 feet above ground.

Boat made from lights.

On Friday, Matthew got a visitors pass for me to see the convention.

There was lots of booths that had machinery doing demonstrations.

Matthew even got to attempt one himself.

Friday night we drove to St. Catherines. This was the view from our hotel room there, right on the river.

We stopped at a couple of wineries Saturday while making our way to Niagara Falls.

After our first wine tasting we grabbed lunch from the bakery across from the tasting room. Mmm hot potato soup on a cold day.

Niagara Falls! We splurged on a room that had a great views of the Falls.

The smaller, less exciting, American Falls.

And then the great Horseshoe Falls.

I was feeling pretty crummy Saturday night so I wasn't able to get very many good pictures of the Falls lit up.

Last picture of the Falls before we headed to the airport on Sunday. It snowed Saturday evening.

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