Pumpkin Bread

The office had its annual Christmas party yesterday. In typical fashion, my boss paid me to bring something on his behalf. I brought a vegetable tray. But on my behalf I wanted to bring something sweet since not many people signed up for desserts. While unpacking in our new place I noticed a bread pan which made me think of this pin: pumpkin bread with browned butter glaze.

Delicious- amiright?!

The recipe was pretty straight forward, but I still enlisted Justin since I have bad luck when I try to bake on my own. It turns out I needed him by my side the entire time...

The first problem (and I think main problem) arose when, after scrubbing the bread pan) I noticed a good amount of rust. I felt uncomfortable baking in it and since it was pretty cheap, I threw it away. So what to do next? Well, since the recipe was enough for two loaves, I simply decided to put it all in one 9X13" Pyrex. I heated the oven while I made the batter and then set the timer to 5 minutes less than the recommended time in the recipe. Next mistake.

As I was in the kitchen cleaning up dishes and trying to get everything else situated in the new place I began smelling the delicious scent of pumpkin bread. I love pumpkin. I honestly can't think of a pumpkin flavored food I don't love. I mean, have you tried Jamba Juice's Pumpkin Smash? You need to! Anyway.... Back to cleaning dishes...

The smell was delicious and in my mind I kept thinking, "I should check it" but thought, "It's only been baking half an hour and it's supposed to bake a full hour." about 15 minutes later the smell changed to one I am all too familiar with- burning. Sure enough, I opened the oven and it distinctly smelled like burning. I took out the pan and tested it. While the very tip of my testing knife had parts stuck to it, I could see that the sides and bottom of the pan were black. So I turned the oven off and let the bread/cake creation cool. My heart was sad.

The browned butter glaze made up for my disappointment though. THIS. STUFF. ROCKED. In all honesty, I think this will be my permanent recipe for pretty much anything needing a frosting that isn't super sweet already.

I browned the butter for about 10 minutes- wait until the butter is foamy on top but there are little brown bits at the bottom- this stuff is like gold. Next I mixed it with the 2 c of powdered sugar and eventually 4 T of powdered sugar to get the stuff dreams are made of. I am not kidding. And I don't normally think much of frosting. I mean yes, I'll eat it out of the can directly from the store like any other normal person, but I don't think a frosting has ever changed my life like this. It tasted kind of like toffee and was sweet but not overpoweringly sweet. It... Yeah, I can't describe, you just need to try it.

The verdict: try it, but with a bread pan and in an oven you're already familiar with (this was my first time baking in this oven). The bread itself had a very good flavor and I'm sure it would be good on its own. But boy did that frosting make up for it being burnt.

Here's the lone picture. The lighting wasn't great and I had to use my phone because my regular camera is still packed up in a box somewhere upstairs.

My sadder version.

I *heart* (fill in the blank)

Justin and I have had something of an a-typical relationship. We met as missionaries. Yes, we made out during district meetings and yes we got engaged before we got home. Okay, that last sentance was a lie, BUT we did meet as missionaries in what was the best mission in the world- the Belgium Brussels/Netherlands mission. The French side where we served has since been absorbed into the Paris, France mission and the Flemish part of Belgium and the Netherlands are their own mission. It works. We were essentially two missions under one mission president. But it makes me sad that the mission office and mission home in Brussels have been sold. Ugh.... Pain in the heart.... Anyway! We've also been able to travel to a few different places so after seeing this pin,

I decided to make something to reflect it. I know it will be added to, but I like it right now.

I cut out the map, glued it to cardstock I had on hand to make it stiffer, and the cut that out as well.

I added a grid so that my OCD tendencies wouldn't tingle too much when I saw it and things weren't perfectly centered. In each cross section, I put a black dot using a permanent marker so it would seep through to the other side.

Glue to the hearts onto the dots and frame.

What I did was get a cheap US Atlas from the thrift store ($2.50) and a cheap map of Belgium online ($3). I had this frame already lying around the house but I think I got it for $1 from another thrift store. I had a large heart hole punch and used it to cut out the specific areas we loved (our honeymoon in Cancun being conspicuously omitted becase it was a hellish nightmare for both of us, even if it was beautiful scenery.)

If you enjoy travel and maps, I recommend it. I love this little makeshift piece.

Tie Display

This was actually one of Justin's Christmas gifts. To say the man has a lot of ties is, to put it politely, a gross understatement. I honestly think he has around 100. I wish I had kept the pin, but I deleted it in The Great Purge and have now decided to write about it. But here is the link to the inspiration.

When I saw it, I knew it was a great idea and way to get rid of Justin's ugly ties that he never wears. While he was out one week for a conference I decided to clean out our closet. And yes I specifically targeted his side. I mean, there were items I had never seen him wear in the 4 years since we'd been home from our missions!

I went through the pile of ties, keeping the ones that I liked and that I could remember seeing him wear. The ones I decided not to keep were arranged to fit in the shadow boxes I had found on sale at Michael's for $5/each. I had three graphic ones in one and the rest were rolled up and hot glued to a poster board, to match the other shadow box. How did they all fit, you may ask? Well, this is the secret I've kept to myself until now. I cut them. I cut them to be about 8" and then rolled them up. It made them thinner so that I could close the shadow box. Here is the end result:

Do I think it's a good idea? HECK YES?! Although Justin's sad that he can't wear those ties, he likes seeing them. This way, everyone wins. And considering it only cost me $10, I think it's a great gift. 

Baked Ranch Chicken

Although I haven't posted anything recently, I've been working a lot on pins I have; whittling my amount down to a more realistic size. Okay, it's hardly realistic. But I feel better having less pins. It doesn't make me look like quite the pin-obsessed person I've been this past year. That being said, I now how pictures to go with several pins I've done, so here it goes with pins #1, Baked Ranch Chicken.

I told Justin to take out some chicken to thaw since it was my night to cook dinner. Because our microwave is currently dead with no hopes of resuccitation or a resurrection, and we didn't have fresh parmesan cheese, we had to improvise. Here's the recipe and pin:

Looks are incredibly deceiving

6-8 Chicken breasts
1 cup Corn Flakes
1 cup Shredded Parmesan
1 cube butter (melted)
1 packet of Ranch Dressing Mix

Preheat oven to 350. Mix together Corn Flakes, Parmesan and Ranch packet. Cut the chicken in half, dip the chicken in the melted butter then in the corn flake mixture and place into baking dish. Pour the remaining butter on top and bake for 45-50 minutes uncovered. Enjoy!!!

So here's what we did and how it turned out

3 large chicken breasts. Ours didn't thaw in time and since we didn't have a functioning microwave I simply ran them under lukewarm water and cut them into smaller pieces.
1 c Corn Flakes. I used two and I'm glad I did because there wasn't enough coating mix for the chicken we had.
1 c shredded Parmesan. We used the stuff from the green can. We wanted to go classy.
1 cube butter (melted). How much is one cube of butter?! We melted a stick in the oven and towards the end (because that wasn't enough) we added some olive oil.
1 packet of ranch dressing mix. We don't use the packet but we have it in a Sam's issued box. I used the equivalent amount.

Here is what it turned out like:

There's the reality

It was incredibly salty and greasy. I would have used less butter or omitted it completely and just not dried off the chicken breasts before I dredged them in the coating mixture. Because we cut the pieces smaller it only took 30 minutes to bake, but... Yeah... I'm not sure I want to make this again. If I do, I'd definitely switch a few things.

My recommendation? Skip it. Or if you want crispy baked chicken, use the corn flakes and dredge your chicken in a milk/egg mixture.

Cinnamon Breakfast Bites

I agreed to bring treats to celebrate a co-worker's birthday. Normally I wouldn't think twice and bring the standard sopapilla cheesecake, but since I'm on the Wellness Committee and we had a health screening coming up, I couldn't justify the copious amounts of butter and sugar. (Well there's that and the fact that I didn't have crescent rolls in the fridge...but we're going with the "I actually wanted to be healthy" for the purposes of this post.)

So, I went searching on Pinterest for a pin that I could modify to include beans instead of butter/shortening. I remembered this gem:

http://pinterest.com/pin/203365739393831118/

...and got going. The recipe is below for your betterment. Yeah, I was thinking of you when I did this. :)

Ingredients
1-1/4 cups flour (I used a mixture of whole wheat and bean flour)
1 cup crisp rice cereal, coarsely crushed
2 tablespoons plus 1/2 cup sugar, divided
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon Butter Buds (this is the “secret” ingredient that makes them so delicious)
1/4 cup mashed great northern beans

I used a food processor to get them completely smooth.

1/2 cup skim milk
1-1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2-3 tablespoons of butter, melted

Directions

1. Mix flour, crushed cereal, 2 tablespoons sugar, baking powder, salt and Butter Buds in large bowl.

2. Cut in beans with pastry blender or fork until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

3. Add milk and stir just until moistened. (More mixing making them gummy and dense. Less mixing is light and fluffy!)

4. Roll dough into approximately 2-1/2 dozen 1 inch balls.

5. Mix cinnamon and remaining sugar in a small bowl. Drop balls into melted butter and roll in cinnamon sugar mixture.

6. Place balls into a greased or nonstick mini muffin pan.

7. Bake at 425 degrees for 15-18 minutes or until inserted toothpick comes out clean. Cool for a few minutes in pan on wire rack before removing.

Makes approx. 2-1/2 dozen bites and gives you protein and whole grains in a tasty breakfast snack!

May the odds be ever in your favor

Yesterday when I came home from work I found my brothers in their new favorite location - family room in front of the TV watching "Heroes". I told them that they should go away and read some books or play a game or something. Gav said he wanted to make a shirt for The Hunger Games premier and since I had this pin, I knew we could do it!

The pinsipration:

http://kojo-designs.com/2010/11/gifts-for-guys-guest-craftiness-is-not-optional/

PINNOVATION

(Prepare for mind blowing awesomeness...)

We found images online to create our own designs. Gav wanted to stick with a theme - mockingjay and Peeta.

Burke decided to be a little clever...

(He wasn't confused...but I bet you are!)

I had to adjust the pictures so they didn't use too much ink when we printed since we were running low. I changed it to a grayscale print and used draft mode. (For our designs, click on the links below.)

Mockingjay design                      Team Jacob design

Then we got to tracing on wax paper. Yes I said wax paper. My tired brain didn't think to actually read the post before starting. I got to thinking while tracing and realized that I was doing something wrong. I went back to the post and realized I should have been using FREEZER PAPER. We got ready to head to Wally World, but Mom came in with a delicious dinner - stuffed peppers (she used quinoa!). So we ate our tasty dinner and then made the excursion to the store to get the magical freezer paper, paint, shirt, ink cartridges (they still ran out) and an extra X-Acto knife. On a side note - who knew that having a 14-year-old boy pick gold paint could be such a time-consuming process?

So we returned home triumphant and began again with the tracing the images, but this time on the magical freezer paper (paper side, not the shiny side).

We cut out the stencils using x-acto knives or scissors. (You have to cut out the part that you want to be on the shirt and leave the outline.)

Then we ironed the freezer paper stencil to the shirt (paper side up or you'll make a mess with the iron).

We painted on the shirts with small sponge brushes using a mixture of 2 parts normal acrylic paint mixed with 1 part fabric medium (available at a craft store - Michael's or JoAnn).

We figured out that the best way to avoid the paint getting under the edges of the stencil was to paint away from the edge.

We let the shirts dry (the boys may have pulled out my hair dryer to speed the process along) and then applied a second coat of paint mixture.

When the second coat was dried, then the fun began! We peeled away the magical freezer paper to find that the paint didn't seep through the edges except in one place!!! Like I said - that stuff is magical!

Gavin was excited while we peeled away the stencil...

Then we repeated all of these steps with the other part of the design to create these wonderful specimens.

Yeah, I know you're jealous! (My brothers are adorable, right?)

And "may the odds be ever in your favor"!

No-no Nails

I should have known it would turn out like this... I didn't even start wearing makeup until college... So why did I do it?! What am I talking about? Decorative fingernail painting. Such. A. Fail. We've seen them all over Pinterest. Nails that look like watermelons. Stripey nails. Nails with printed images/patterns transfered with alcohol. But the fact of the matter is, you have to be freaking Picasso to carry this off. Let me explain myself and where *I think* I went wrong.. Besides in my choice to do this.
I saw a really cute design using tape and multiple layers of colors on fingernails. You paint one layer, dry, tape it, paint over that layer, remove the tape ASAP, dry, and repeat. Simple enough, right? WRONG! Here is my failure in its epic glory.

Mardi Gras was coming up and I wanted to be festive. So I used my purple, green and gold polishes.

I prepped myself by cutting some scotch tape into really thin strips using my X-acto knife.

I painted the base color green. Let it dry, and then put the tape on.

Next I put the gold/glittery paint on and took the tape off.

After letting that dry I put tape when I originally had it, and then in a few more spots. Then I painted my fingernail purple and took the tape off.

This was the end result. A mighty failure.

Because I didn't want to be defeated I grabbed one of my tiny paint brushes and tried my technique again.

Not so bad.

In the end, I don't think I would recommend this. Unless, as I said before, you're Picasso or a genius. I am neither. I deleted the pin in frustration so I don't have a pin to go with it. But in consolation, here's a clip of the 610 Stompers when they were in Orpheus.

Sorry the film isn't too great. Several people told Justin that he needs to join the 610 Stompers. I whole heartedly agree. I think he would fit right in.. Except for the facial hair thing. The poor man couldn't grow a mustache or beard if his life depended on it. Which is fine with me.

For a Girl's BFF

I'm not an especially girly girl. While I like doing crafty things and cooking, and I try to look nice, the fact of the matter is that I didn't start wearing makeup until I was almost 24. And doing hair? hahahaha, I'm lucky if I can use a curling iron wihtout burning myself. It's only fitting then, that my BFF (not my husband) is also not a girly girl. In fact, she's even less-so than I am. She's very athletic and quite the tomboy. I saw that out od admiration, not to make her look weird or anything. She knows it and embraces it. Which is part of the reason why I love her so much. We were "next door neighbors" in the dorms so when I discovered my 1st semester roommate NEVER showered, I would often go next door and hang out with her. It was a haven for me. Through the college years we never got to live together, but we would hang out regularly and I always admired her. She was smart, awesome, quirky (in a good way) and knew she was her own woman. Yeah, I'm gushing. I can't help it.

Fast forward a few years and it's her birthday and I now have Pinterest in my life. When I saw this pin I got uber excited. KitKat (as I call her) is quite the baseball/softball fan. So I knew I wanted to make this for her birthday gift.

 

Because I am clumsy and not very familiar with baseballs (as Kaycee will attest from our little league days) I just bought the cheapest one I could find (since I would be taking it apart essentially). Bad idea. The ball ended up being a weird plasticy/foamy material. Other than that, I think this craft is pretty good. Here's what I did:

I was stuck at church while J had a meeting so I got out my ball and X-acto knife. It worked like a charm.

Within about 3 minutes I had the ball cut apart appropriately.

I cut the form apart and measured it around my wrist and then cut it to size. I think I cut it too large because it's loose on my wrist and KitKat's thinner than I am. But essentially I loosened the knots and cut off some of the white so that it would be tied.

And yeah, it's a bit too loose. I think I may either cut it smaller and/or go get a better, LEATHER baseball so that it looks nicer.

So is this pin worth it? Heck yeah! I think it's awesome! And for the cost of a baseball? Why not do it for the baseball/softball lover in your life? Oh, and even though she probably doesn't read this: Happy Birthday KitKat!

Happy Valentine's Day

I've recently picked up a new favorite hobby. While I love crocheting, it has now been paired with embroidery. I'm not talking cross-stitch. That's boring. I'm talking "Make it look like whatever you want" embroidery. My favorite website for all-things embroidery is Shiny Happy World with Wendi Gratz. That woman knows her stuff and is an EXCELLENT teacher. I've been learning stitches and how to do all kinds of things and decided I wanted to make something for my husband. But what do you make a guy? More importantly, what can you make him that is embroidered and not lame?

Well, one of the things I love about Wendi is that she creates the templates of what she embroiders and transfers them to fabric in a variety of ways. Most commonly I use the heat transfer pencil method. I draw what I want, flip the plain white paper over and follow the outline on the back. Next you iron the paper onto whatever fabric you want to use. Lastly, you go to town with your needle and thread. Here's what I did.

You can kind of see the marks left from the heat transfer pencil- it's pink.

The almost finished product. I used several different stitches which I love. The one I used on the clouds and sun is my favorite.

Framed. For the record, what it says (in French) is "I love your butt, Valentine". Yes, we're classy. But luckily we both speak French fluently so we can mask it from most people.

Here's a sneak peek of my St. Patrick's day creation...

This was inspired by a video pin that I have. If you want to pick up a fun new hobby, I recommend embroidery. And if you're brand new, I recommend watching all of Wendi's tutorials. She makes it easy peasy to pick up.