Archive for November, 2009

Sometimes the smallest details can make the biggest difference.  That was definitely the case with these Salted Brown Butter Crispy Treats from Smitten Kitchen.  Deb increased the butter content, browning it before adding the marshmallows, and added course sea salt, turning this childhood favorite into a classy grown-up dessert.

You have to taste to believe how incredible these are.

This amazing taste adventure led me to a week-long quest to determine if everything tastes better with the addition of course sea salt.

The verdict?  Yes.  Yes, it does.

Last, but not least, the pictures.

(Link found via Emily at Candleblog.)

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving, everyone!

Pumpkin Whoopie Pies

The other day, I was sorting through some craft stuff and one of my ribbon spools had some beads stuck in it.  I shook it and it sounded like a toy maraca.  I thought, this would make a fun and simple kids’ project.

Gather your materials: Empty ribbon spool, paper, beads or beans, glue stick.

1. Use a piece of ribbon to trace a strip of paper the width of the ribbon and long enough to go once around the spool.  Cut out and glue the strip around the spool.  Alternately, you can use a piece of the ribbon itself for this step.

2. Trace two circles onto the paper using the spool as a template.  Cut out and glue one circle to the side of the spool.

3. Turn over the spool and put the beads into the hole in the spool.  I used two different sizes to create a more interesting sound.

4. Glue the other circle to the open side of the spool.  Now, shake, shake, shake!

You can also embellish the maraca with glitter, markers, stickers, or anything else to make it unique!

I remember, as a young girl, watching my great grandmother make homemade donuts.  Those are very special memories.  But with today’s focus on making food healthier, deep-fat frying is not a regular occurrence in my kitchen.  In fact, it’s not an ever occurrence.

This fall, I decided to set aside my low fat frying rules and make my own Apple Cider Donuts, using cider we bought at the orchard during our annual apple picking expedition.

A Google search led me to this charming Washington Post article from 2004, Rich Rounds Of Cider, No Less, which also contains a recipe – a very good recipe – to make your own Cider Donuts.

Making and eating these delightful fall treats, and sharing them with my children, brought back memories of those days at my grandma’s house.  Great food, great memories.  What more could a girl want?

Pictures!

Did you know that Christmas is only 5 weeks away!  Yikes, I had better get posting and crafting!

Above is the cold process soap I made for Christmas this year.

First, I made the trees in a tree-shaped silicone muffin pan.  When I was making soap, I made a bigger batch of soap than I needed and colored the extra with green chrome oxide and scented it with Holly Berry fragrance, both from Brambleberry, and poured it into the tree mold.

After the trees were hardened and unmolded, I embedded them in a loaf, again scented with Holly Berry, and colored with gold mica and a burgandy oxide swirl.

Here is the loaf before I cut it.

I can’t wait to box these up in white boxes decorated with punched craft paper.  I’ll be sure to post a picture of the packaged bars.

After all my work, I ended up changing the theme – again!  The last one was taking too long to load.  I used an out-of-the-box theme and made no changes to it, this time, because I spent too much time making the last one.

I am not 100% happy with it, but I never am.  I decided to leave it and spend the time blogging!  What is the point of having a nice looking blog, if you never post?

My little sister is getting married next year and, as a gift to her, I am making her soap wedding favors free of charge.  Last night, we scoured the internet for ideas.

We both had in mind some kind of shaped soap, probably packaged in organza bags.  There are lots of tutorials out there, like this one from Soap Queen.

I did a Google image search on “soap wedding favors” and we did find lots of shaped soaps, none of which we were too crazy about.

Then we saw it.  The ones.  We both loved them.  They were simple, small bars of cold process soap with a label that had the names of the couple and the date, like this.  So sweet.  So simple.

We were both stunned because we were expecting something else entirely, yet these were perfect.  Isn’t it funny how that happens sometimes?

A few weeks ago, I tried the Pumpkin Spice Latte at Starbucks and was instantly in love.  The very next day, A Year of Slowcooking posted a link to a Pumpkin Spice Latte slowcooker recipe.  I had to try.

It was yum!  I thought it was a wee bit heavy on the pumpkin, so I halved it the next time.  I also added a bit more spices.  But overall, I recommend trying it.

Since I had so much left over canned pumpkin, I decided to make mini pumpkin pies.

I used my favorite pie crust recipe – Martha’s Pate Brisee.  I cut large circles and pressed them into a standard muffin tin.  Then I made the Libby’s Pumpkin Pie filling and filled the crusts.  I baked as directed, until the pies were set.

Since I was on a Pumpkin Pie kick, I decided to make the Triple-Layer Pumpkin Spice Pie, using JELL-O’s seasonal Pumpkin Spice Flavored Instant Pudding.

The recipe calls for Cool Whip, but I substituted 8 oz. of cream, whipped.  I often do this with recipes and they come out fine.  I like to use powdered sugar instead of regular to give it a little more stability.

I also used a Keebler Shortbread crust instead of graham cracker crust.

It came out delicious!

My final adventure in pumpkin spice was a loaf of cold process soap using Pumpkin Spice fragrance oil from Bramble Berry.

Those are actually apples on top that I made using a silicone ice tray, but they get the job done.

The soap smells amazing – and I already had someone ask me about buying a bar!

All of the wonderful pumpkin spice delights make this time of year my favorite.  And I am not done yet!  I am making Pumpkin Whoopie Pies for Thanksgiving.  I will be sure to post pictures when I am done.

Here I announce that I am making changes to the blog and then I go and get the flu.  Well, I am mostly better now, so today I am making changes to the blog.

Things might look a little funny around here, but I promise it will all be over soon.

Then, I can concentrate on holiday craft blogging.  Yea!!

Do you know about Cubeecraft?  It’s a really cool paper craft site with all sorts of popular characters and people that you can make out of paper.  The design is cube-based and very simple, as far as papercraft goes.

My kids LOVE that site.  We have armies of papercraft ninja turtles and other characters lying around the house.

The D got creative with the Super Mario Bros. characters and Super NES paddles.

And here is Little E’s copycat version, featuring the infamous piranha plant.