Holiday Crafts

This year, the holidays were a little bit different at our house.  Finals finished, vacation taken, i was ready to do some crafty things with my kids and without them.  First things first, i wanted to put together a holiday card holder.  Some twine, clothespins and glitter-- and of course the cards our lovely friends and family sent us.

We also made cookies.  Lots and lots of cookies.  My favorite were the gingerbread men.  It was my first time making them and perhaps the first time i have eaten any since i was a kid.  They were also more fun to decorate because they were bigger and shaped like people.

Almost cannibalism, but not quite.

i tried to make a couple that looked like skeletons.  They weren't as great as i had envisioned, but not bad for an novice like myself.

i also sent out holiday cards for the first time in my life.  The kids added their own letters for as many of the recipients, and they helped me decorate the very plain envelopes.  We used washable markers on rubber holiday stamps.  The kids enjoyed making red Christmas trees and green snowflakes.  *facepalm*

Aaaaand... a picture of cleaning the ink off the stamps, simply because it looked cool:

Also for the first time, i made latkes for the first day of Hanukkah!  My stepdaughter totally got in the way helped me in the kitchen.  The kids really enjoyed the traditional festive food.  Oh, and by the way, if you haven't seen Eight Crazy Nights-- don't.  Has very little to do with Hanukkah, and that is 76 minutes of my life that i can never get back.  Anyway, latkes!

And lastly, i made some mini pumpkin pies for Christmas at my aunt's.  Remember the last post about how much of a pain pie crust is?  Turns out, 12 mini pie crusts suck EVEN MORE.  But they are tasty.

Oh, so tasty.

That seems to wrap up the holiday season.  Almost time to go back to school.  Where did my vacation go?

Perfect Pumpkin Pie

This weekend was an adventure.  i wanted to make pies to bring to the two [2!] Thanksgiving dinners we will be attending.  So i ended up making seven [7!!!] pies.  And because i am ridiculous, and maybe also a masochist, i decided i wanted to try making my own crust.

i used Martha Stewart's recipe found here.  Thanks, Martha! And i used the pumpkin pie recipe found on the can of Libby's canned pumpkin.  [plus my own additions, because i apparently have problems just doing what i am told].  i used some brown sugar and vanilla.  Oh!  And, as a bonus, if you try some of the mix, and then take a sip of coffee, it totally tastes like a pumpkin spice latte.  yum.  

So, making pie crust is a pain.  Seriously.  But after tasting the creation, i think it is completely worth it, if you have enough time.  So, besides the grating of the frozen butter rather cutting it in with a pastry blender thingy, i learned a new ghetto innovative tip from my sister.  If you don't have a rolling pin, use a wine bottle!

The only reason i still had wine in the house is because it

was red wine.  If it was white wine, it would be gone.

Mmmmm wine... oh, where was i?  Oh, yes.  Pie crust.  So it turned out alright.  It just took a long time and was a lot of work.  But i would totally do it again.  When i don't have two papers to write, clothes to pack, and a house to clean.  

voilà!

i had extra dough left over to make little hearts to put on some of the pies and to make a little mini pumpkin pie so that i could eat some pie right now.

i got the mini pie idea from here, but i used one jumbo muffin cup and filled the rest of the cups with a bit of water.  

A bonus?  It takes less time than a regular pie, so you can eat it sooner!

Pumpkin Pie, have i told you lately how much i love you?

...no, seriously.  i love you.

Rainbow Madness

As you read this blog, just know that i really should be writing a psychology paper instead.

My most recent project has been a rainbow collage.  I took pictures from this summer's adventures, tinted them different colors using picnik.com, printed them out for about 7¢ each using snapfish.com, and put them together in my collage frame that i bought a while back for $8.  Final product:

I also put together Holiday photo cards from Snapfish, complete with envelopes, for about 42¢ apiece.  Always on the lookout for e-coupons!  The envelopes I feel are rather plain, so i have some decorating ideas for those, but that is for another day and another post.

Also, tonight: chicken tortilla soup from here.
One day: rainbow cake from here.

Want a life? Don't have kids

Kids are such a pain.  Seriously.  And that homework and those projects their teachers assign them?  They might as well be assigning homework to the parents.  

i have my own homework to do, thank you very much

This weekend was spent helping my stepdaughter with her school project on family traditions.  She was adamant on her choice of "celebrating birthdays" and on wanting to sew, rather than draw. Overall, it turned out alright, and we sewed/glued together a nice quilt square for her classroom traditions quilt.  

And as if that wasn't enough of an art project for the weekend, my son changed his mind on what he wanted to be for Halloween.  We cut some holes and splattered some blood and threw together a zombie costume.

I also adjusted the injury clock.  I had let it go, and I felt bad for letting it lie to you.  40 days without an injury?  Ha.  Only if I stayed out of the kitchen for 40 days.

Coffee Milkshake

Only a quick post... because I really should be doing homework. I just had to share with you the greatness I made last night.

coffee + ice cream = omg

Super delicious, super easy.  

1. make strong coffee, cool it
2. put cooled coffee, ice cream, and a splash of milk and vanilla creamer in a cup
3. mix
4. best. drink. ever.

In other news, I bought a cute Halloween decoration for my kitchen.

$4.  Thank you, Michaels.

Complicated Coffee

Sometimes it's just not enough to make coffee and add some creamer, milk and/or sugar.  Sometimes you just need something fancy. Something special.  Something...Complicated.

And sometimes you want the complicated coffee without too much work.  And let's face it-- going to Starbucks every day would make us go broke.  Well, it would make me go broke.  [...more broke.] And I really don't know that I should be driving without caffeine in my system.

Typically, my homemade complicated coffee involves too many damn dishes for one cup of coffee, but I found a shortcut today.  Super easy, super tasty:  peppermint white chocolate mocha.


Alright, alright, it's not really a mocha because I don't have an espresso machine, but it is a delicious alternative to regular coffee.

Put some white chocolate chips in a coffee cup.

Mmmm... white chocolate chips.

Pour in some freshly brewed, very hot coffee.  Stir until white chocolate chips are melted.

Splash in some milk and/or add a bit of sugar [if desired].
Add ONE DROP of peppermint extract.  Trust me, one is enough.  And it must be peppermint-- not mint extract.
Stir it all up, and enjoy.  Complicated coffee, simply made.  :]

Yum.

Oh, coffee.  How I love taking pictures of you.

Also!  Had to restart the injury clock.  Twice.  Oil burn while making orange chicken and burned my finger on a hot plate.  Ouch.

Mmmm... Mocha Muffins

I got a bit of a late start on the muffins today.  I volunteered to help in my son's classroom today.  It is times like those that validate my decision not to become a teacher.

You remember when you were a kid and you wanted all those careers and goals that, looking back, were terrible choices?  Yeah, teacher was one of them.  I wanted to be an elementary school teacher, a high school English teacher, a high school band teacher... all of which are horrible ideas for my personality.  I can see it now, me giving 3rd graders Fs and detentions for getting "there" "their" and "they're" mixed up.

  
Another bad idea I had?  Having six children.  Can you even imagine?  SIX.  I can't.  We have three between the two of us, and that is more than enough.

Anyway... MUFFINS.  Last summer break, I went on a muffin kick. Muffins are delicious, go great with coffee, and are super easy to grab and go on your way out the door.  I had never made muffins from scratch, and I decided I wanted to find the perfect muffin.  I must have made a dozen batches of muffins in the space of two weeks.

And I think I came pretty damn close to perfection:

Mocha Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins. 

I used this recipe as a base.  Again, thanks Allrecipes.com and Shelley Ross.    

I like to make these muffins somewhat healthier; it makes me feel less guilty about eating so many.  I substitute the margarine with half butter, half applesauce.  I also use whole wheat flour for half of the all-purpose flour.  [I have also used whole wheat pastry flour for all the flour, with much success.]

I add extra coffee and vanilla, less bananas, and use mini chocolate chips.  After making one million batches of these muffins, this is the version that I like.  And I swear my family lets the bananas go bad so I will make more muffins.

Here is the tried and true altered recipe:

Ingredients

• 1 cup butter
• 1 cup applesauce
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 4 ripe bananas
• 4 tablespoons strong coffee
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 3 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 1/2 cups semisweet mini chocolate chips

     

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Mash bananas using stand mixer.
3. Add butter, applesauce, white sugar, brown sugar, eggs, coffee, and vanilla in mixer.  Mix until combined.
4. Add salt, baking powder, and baking soda, and blend until combined.
5. Turn the mixer to lowest setting, mix in flour until it disappears.  
6. Add chocolate chips and mix in with wooden spoon. Spoon mixture into greased muffin pans.
7. Bake for 25 minutes. Cool on wire racks.

Step 8?  Eat delicious muffin with a cup of coffee.  Mmm...

The recipe makes about 24 regular sized muffins.  Don't forget to share.

In Search of the Perfect Scone

Now that I've had three cups of coffee, maybe I'm awake enough to start my day.

So, this first post will follow my quest for the holy grail perfect vanilla scone.  I was going to make vanilla bean scones, but I just found out that a jar of vanilla beans is $13.99.  And it only comes with two beans.  That's seven dollars per bean.  Being that I am a baller on a budget, I opted for just regular vanilla scones.  And then I spent $14 on these:

Back to the scones.  I used this recipe as a base.  Thank you "Grandma Johnson" and Allrecipes.com.

I didn't exactly have all the kitchen tools I needed for the recipe [like a rolling pin or a ...pastry blender...?] so I needed to think of some ghetto creative alternatives for my scones.   

First creative maneuver was using my stand mixer to fluff the flour.  I don't own a flour sifter.  I let the flour mix by itself before adding the other dry ingredients.  Second, I don't own a pastry blender to "cut" the butter into the dough.  Instead, I stuck the butter in the freezer overnight and grated it using a cheese grater.  That gave me the smallish chunks of butter I was looking for without buying fancy kitchen tools.  

The third creative method was finding a replacement for a rolling pin.  I found this double shot glass worked just as well.

Here's the pan before it goes in the oven.  I could only put six on the tray, because I have the world's smallest oven.  No seriously. 24 inches.  

I put some glaze on them when they were fully cooled. Mmmm....glaze.  

The scones turned out softer than I am used to-- which may or may not have resulted from me over-handling or over-mixing the dough. But I found I liked the softer scone. 

The scones turned out really tasty.  [the dough tasted good, too]  

So tasty, I may just have to make another cup of coffee to go with it.

Here's the altered recipe:

Ingredients

SCONES:

• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup white sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup  frozen butter
• 1 egg
• 1 tablespoon vanilla

GLAZE:

1 cup powdered sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon milk

Directions

1. In a small bowl, blend the sour cream and baking soda, and set aside.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a large baking sheet.
3. In a large bowl, mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, cream of tartar, and salt. 
4. Grate frozen butter.  Stir into flour mixture. 
5. Stir the sour cream mixture, vanilla, and lightly beaten egg into the flour mixture until just moistened. 
6. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface, and knead briefly. Roll or pat dough into a 3/4 inch thick round. Cut into 12 wedges, and place them 2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheet.
7. Bake 12 to 15 minutes in the preheated oven, until golden brown on the bottom.
8. Cool on wire rack.
9. Mix powdered sugar and vanilla in a small cup.  Add milk a few drops at a time until desired consistency.
10. Glaze scones.  Wait for glaze to harden.