It's National Toasted Marshmallow Day!

I finally found a few sites online that list those off the wall holidays. Brownielocks and Holiday Insights. Some just make me laugh, like Wonderful Weirdos Day coming up on Sept. 9th!

In observance of toasty marshmallow day I thought it would be nice to share some yummy recipes I found.

Chocolate Marshmallow Cake

 

Toasted Marshmallow Milkshake

 

 

and the always classic S'mores Bar

 

 

 

I'm afraid to say that a lot of my baking resources have ran dangerously low. I live in the Florida panhandle and all this week we were expecting the storm. Wasn't a good time to go car shopping even after waiting all this time for the insurance payment from the accident! Needless to say, I do not like to keep asking people to take me to the store. So, instead of making one of these awesome goodies listed, I improvised.

 

 Microwave Milano S'mores

There are really two ways you could go about making these. I chose the route that contained more cookies and sweetness. Your other option includes zapping the Milano cookies for literally 5 seconds, or enough for you to slide the cookies apart. Then mush a marshmallow on one side (you already got the chocolate!) and microwave for about 15-20 seconds. Just keep an eye on it! Add the top...ta da! Instant s'mores. Or double the goods like I did.

 

 

I used some chocolate baking chips instead of a candy bar.

 

I split the marshmallows in half and placed on a cookie.
 Topped with a few chips.

 

Melty Goodness!

 

I gobbled these up!

 

 

A really quick and easy indulgent snack! It's been a long week everyone! To all my fellow gulf coast residents I'm glad FL missed the worst of it and hope all others are well! We had cancelled this month's HC Pinners meeting because it was scheduled the night the storm was hitting. We will re-schedule. You'll most likely see 2 meetings featured for September!

 

My birthday is also coming up next week. I'm throwing a sushi party at home for close friends. I have some nifty ideas and will gladly show off my kawaii party! Follow me on Pinterest, you can check out my board for it.

 

I'm getting out of my end of summer rut and ready for festivities and fall!

 



 





 

Halloween Mash Up

Here are a few Halloween ideas that I plan on trying. A great mash up of some cute diy projects I found on Pinterest and blogs. Enjoy!

 

Wreaths

 

Black Tulle Wreath from Something To Do

I also really like adding a background to it.

Lil' Luna added a background on their Trick or Treat wreath. I like using a silhouette in the center. Maybe actually cut it out like a jack-o-lantern? Either way, I must make a wreath in the beginning of October to start off the festivities!

Centerpiece

I've scoured the Internet for ideas. Mine is going to be some kind of mad scientist like mix of these great centerpieces.

The House of Smiths does a cute creepy candy display. I really want to incorporate Halloween candy to munch on!

These painted pumpkins from Happy Mundane are awesomely non traditional but festive. Carved pumpkins are a "tradition" Mr. P and I started last year and we'll definitely have some glowing outside. I'd like painted ones to put on the table. I'm afraid the kitties will destroy and/or eat any carved pumpkins in the house.



Wine Bottle Decor

I have a few wine bottles cluttering up my kitchen window. I think these are just adorable. The vampire and ghosts will look cute in the kitchen! This particular one was found on Woman's Day.

I also found another style of ghost bottle that was made with the frost spray paint. I like that idea to use as a base with these cute faces!

Candles

Halloween must include some kind of candle illumination. While searching for Halloween decor in general I have come across a few ideas involving tights and pantyhose being cut and used to wrap around pumpkins and jars alike. Stashed in my diy board on Pinterest is this idea of spray painting over lace to leave the design.

Look how pretty! From Roadkill Rescue

I think combining the pantyhose trick over a candle holder and spray painting it would be awesome. I got the inspiration from these votive holders from Shelterness.

 







I know I will be able to find some interesting patterned tights at the store!

 

Garland

 I love garland. I think it makes anything instantly festive. There's so many kinds you can buy. I always end up getting the cheap-o foil and wire variety for outdoors. I want to make my own for inside. These two scream cute and Halloween.

 

Let's be honest, any garland making is going to be time consuming. Tying or gluing tiny objects onto string doesn't sound as appealing as it ends up looking! Buying a bag of the cheap variety candy and still achieving the same results sounds like a plan to me! iVillage inspired this one. Simply staple them together!

 

 

The pom garland is adorable. This one requires more effort than stapling, but Paper Source gives you a wonderful PDF tutorial that is super easy to follow. I can't wait to try this one out! Also, save the idea for other holidays and events!

 

 

What are you planning for Halloween?

 



 

 

Homemade Monkey Bread

It's been a rough couple of  weeks. I haven't had time to make any sweet treats lately, and every time that happens I start to Jones for my hands to be a bakin'.

 I decided to make something warm and yummy because it's been raining buckets down here. I'm already preparing myself for a "fall mindset"! All the recipes I found were using canned biscuit dough. I really wanted to making something from scratch, so just decided to make my own biscuit dough and then turn it into Monkey Bread.

Homemade Monkey Bread

Ingredients for the dough:

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 Tbs white granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup cold un-salted butter, cut into pieces
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten

Directions:

     1.  In a large mixing bowl, whisk together first three ingredients. (Dry ingredients)

     2.  Cut the butter into the flour mix using a pastry blender. Cut to where flour resembles course crumbs.

     3.  Add the milk and egg to mixture. Stir until just combined. Dough should be sticky and moist, also lumpy.

     4.  Place dough mixture on a lightly floured surface. Knead dough till combined and smooth. Be careful to NOT over knead either!

     5.  I was able to cut out 14 biscuits with my dough. I used a wine glass as my cookie cutter. When done making your 14 biscuits cut them into quarters.

    

Ingredients for Monkey Bread:

• Biscuit portions
• 1/4 cup and 2 Tbs white granulated sugar
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• About a cup of packed brown sugar 
• About 3/4 cup melted butter

Note** I used the Pillsbury recipe for a rough basis of assembly for the monkey bread. With their canned biscuits they had 16, my homemade biscuits made about 14. When I coated the biscuits, I didn't account for the extra sugar/cin topping. This, I believe is the culprit for the outcome. In the recipe written I accounted for the ratio drop. So, when I make this again, it shouldn't fall apart. But, it was still delicious. I don't care what it looks like if I'm not making it for anyone special! Bake fail?!

Directions:

      1.  Pre-heat oven to 350F. Grease a fluted/bundt pan. In plastic Ziploc bag, combine granulated white sugar and cinnamon. Place biscuit quarters into bag and shake! Coat dough pieces.

     2.  Arrange dough pieces into pan. In a separate bowl, combine brown sugar and melted butter. Pour over dough in pan.

When I looked at this picture I knew there was too much sugar coating!

     3.  Bake for 28-30 minutes. Golden brown and no longer doughy. Cool for 10 minutes and invert. You're then supposed to be able to "pull it apart." Mine kind of fell apart. But, it was my first time ever actually eating Monkey Bread I think. I knew what it was, but have no memories of ever actually eating it. Was still a success in my eyes! And, using my altered lowered ratio, I should have a better outcome next time!

It looked so perfect in the pan!

Fell out and the rest I just pulled all apart anyway! Grr....



I know I could have just used the canned biscuits and probably not of had any problem. But, I just love making homemade biscuits! This tasted great with my Macadamia Nut Coffee. Yum yum!

 



Dinner Duo

Mama Bear and I made this together the other night. We haven't got together in a little while and decided to make dinner at my place. We did a quick Pinterest search for something easy and this is what we found!

Chicken Tetrazzini

Ours differs from the original because we didn't prepare our chicken in a crock pot in advance. Also, we omitted the green peppers. We also used colby jack cheese, our selection at the grocery store was slim not sure if that's "Longhorn" cheese. 

Ingredients:

• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 2 TB butter
• 3 cups shredded cooked chicken (we pan cooked very thin natural chicken breasts)
• 1 12 oz pkg thin spaghetti broken in half, cooked according to directions
• 1 can cream of mushroom soup (10.75 oz)
• 1/2 cup butter melted
• 1/4 cup flour
• 2 cups milk
• 8 oz colby cheese jack, grated
• 1-2 TB olive oil

Directions:

1. Cook your chicken breast in skillet with olive oil. We used very thin breast so this shouldn't take more than 15-20 minutes for 3 cups worth.
2. Saute onion on med/high heat in 2Tbs butter in saucepan. Add garlic when onion is beginning to soften. Meanwhile, have water boiling for noodles. We broke our noodles in half. Boil spaghetti based on box instructions.

     3.  Mix noodles, mushroom soup, and chicken together in onion/garlic saucepan. I folded it all together to be evenly coated.

     4.  In a seperate saucepan, combine the melted butter and flour over med. heat. Similar to a roux, creating the thickening agent for the sauce.

     5.  Slowly add milk. Stir with a wire whisk until mixture thickens. Stir constantly, don't want it to clump!

     6.  Stir in grated cheese and pour over noodle mixture.

We had made some awesome spinach dip dinner rolls. It was also super easy and went well with the meal. I'll eat anything loaded with carbs. Bread being my favorite. Then pasta.

Baked Spinach Dip Bread Bowls

For this recipe we used drained canned spinach for the filling and switched up the mini part. We made ours in a regular size muffin pan. Also, I already had some canned biscuits, so we used that instead of french bread dough. And it turned out wonderfully yummy. Our variation is probably the less healthy option.

Ingredients:

• 1 can of biscuits, pastry dough, french bread your choice
• 2 TB olive oil
• 2 cups of drained canned spinach
• 1 clove fresh minced garlic
• 3 oz. softened cream cheese
• 2 TB parm. cheese
• Dash of chile pepper, galic salt, salt and pepper
• 1/3 cup shredded ched/moz mix or just moz!

Directions:

     1.  Pre-heat oven to 350F. We made 8 biscuits for our dip bowls, but I'd follow the original recipe for smaller "party" portions! So, flatten dough into a rounds and press onto bottom and up sides of muffin cups.

 
      2.  Heat oil in skillet. Saute garlic. Add drained canned spinach and stir.
      3.  Mix all ingredients, except the shredded cheese, together in a large mixing bowl. Combine well.

      4.  Scoop into bread bowls. Sprinkle shredded cheese on top. Bake 15-17 minutes until edges are browned. Let cool and enjoy.

I have added these recieps to my official "go to" easy dinner list. It really took no time at all. A really good comfort food.





Craft Fail!

I thought it would be fun to include a crafting fail every now and again. Sometimes things don't work out the way you planned.

 This is the picture that had caught my eye. They look amazing. The blog it took me to is quite awesome. Juicy Bits! I read the tutorial she followed. She did an amazing job on these, after the time I took on mine (which obviously didn't work out) I knew it involved patience and skill.

I got my supplies ready.

I was going to make mine two-toned. I made sure to not blow up the balloon too big.

Made the mixture, here's one of the yarn strips.

Started wrapping them. Realized I think I still had a bigger balloon for the amount of yarn I cut. I didn't mind it being more sparse.

I hung them from skewers off my bookcase. Floor was covered, I was ready to let these dry!

So the next day they were fully dry. I popped the balloon and let it slowly leak. I left the room to do some kind of housework in the meantime. I had come back to Cecil cat playing with parts of the orange one and the yellow laying on the floor crunched. Balloon deflated as well my dreams.

So this is how mine turned out...

I'm going to try these again. No kitties allowed, more yarn, and probably a better glue mixture; will allow for an outcome closer to the inspiration! Better luck next time!

Feel free to send in some of your fails. Post them on Domesticult's FB page!

Handmade Spice/Herb Bottle Gift Idea

J's Birthday was on the 7th. I shall not disclose her age. Since I can remember J has always liked to cook. I remember when we were teenagers she would cook us meals. We would also make each other gifts and cards for just about any occasion or holiday. Diy toe socks were one of my favorites!

I thought it would be nice to do that for her again. I found the bottles and blank cards at A.C Moore. The bottles have, as J said, "An apothecary feel." Everything else I already had in the recent craft stash I have created. Use any scrapbooking paper or any type of paper of your choosing! You may need to buy the spices/herbs you use for your gift. I made a set of two and thought it might be cool to make her more through out the holiday season that's coming up. :p Guess she'll know now?!

Handmade Spice and Herb Bottle Gift Set

Supplies:

For the Vessels/Bottles:

• 2 glass jars/bottles/containers in the size and shape of your choosing! I loved the ones I found!
• Mod Podge
• Elmer's Glue All
• Clear Acrylic Sealer
• Scrap paper (I used paper from a scrapbook packet that shared the same scheme)
• Ribbon
• Scissors
• Ruler/Measuring mat
• Letter stickers or if you have nice handwriting do it yourself! You can always leave a blank box for them to write on if you choose to just give an empty set to store their already owned spices!

Directions:

     1.  Measure and cut your background paper to fit around the circumference of your container. Make it about about a 1/2in. longer so you can glue it together on the overlap. Also cut smaller placards of other patterned paper to place your letters/write on. Really easy, just cut out strips and squares to fit your jar size.

     2.  I made a thin layer of Glue All on the back of the background label and wrapped around, be careful and even when wrapping around. Have your 1/2inch overlap seal over. Let dry.

     3.  At this time I used my letter stickers to label the smaller placards I cut. Once background is dry, another thin layer of Glue All on backs of placards and place on front of bottle. Easy! Let dry.

     4.  Once dried again apply a thin layer of Mod Podge over entire label and slightly off edges. I didn't cover the whole bottle with Mod Podge, I didn't want that texture on all of it. Let this completely dry and have tops sealed and covered when giving labels a light spritz of Sealer.

     5.  Cut some ribbon that will make a bow on the necks of the bottles. Or around if you chose a different shape! Don't tie till dry and filled.

Meanwhile during all that drying time, I made the card too. You can always use card stock or cardboard you have on hand to make your base card. I just glue-all'd and mod podged' measured squares of the matching paper for the card. Be creative! I'm still working on pretty penmanship, until then I use stickers or stamps! I didn't give a tutorial for this, mine isn't anything crazy fancy. I liked matching the layered paper to the bottles and added dimension to the card with a bow!

The hard part is over!

I chose chives and a sugar and spice mix to give her! I have an organic chive plant. So, I just cut some fresh chives and added to the bottle! I used this Sugar and Spice Blend recipe as a base. I did change a few things. I didn't add paprika, I substituted with some pumpkin spice blend and a little more ginger. Mmmmm. She really liked it!



Food and Hearts: Homemade Blueberry Soda



I came across this little gem the other day whilst I was perusing Pinterest a while back. My son loves soda. He can hear a can pop open from the other side of the house. He knows he can’t have any, but every time he asks, “coke?” No, no coke for you buddy! So I thought this might be a tasty alternative to try out. I got the inspiration from here. The only real difference is I used some awesome local honey I scored at our local flea market instead of the sugar. Basically, soda is a simple syrup combined with some carbonated water. So, here we go!

Homemade Blueberry Soda

What you need for the blueberry version (you can get creative and use any kind of fruit you want, I’m going to try strawberries next time!)

Ingredients:

 

• 12oz bag of frozen blueberries (no sugar added) ; thawed
•  ¼ c. honey
•  seltzer water or club soda ( I used seltzer water and got the 6 pack of mini bottles)

And that’s it! Easy peasy.

Directions:

      1. First heat your pot to medium heat and add your thawed blueberries and their juices and stir in the honey. 

      2. Bring contents of pot to a boil, then reduce heat and let it do its thang! And by that, I mean reduce by half. 20-30 minutes. Just keep an eye on it, you do not want burnt blueberries! When it looks about done, get a potato masher and mash those bad boys to release more juices and simmer a few minutes more. 

      3. Next, strain the whole thing into a cup. I used my handy mesh strainer that came with my juicer. 

      4. You should probably wait for it to cool before using, but I couldn’t wait and had to try some J. Get a big ol' glass and put some ice in it. Add the syrup (I used about 2 tbsp, but I really think it needed more) and top with your seltzer! Now this part is all about personal preference. If you like more carbonation, then by all means add more! Just experiment with what tastes good to you!

And another plus, I finally found something to put in those coffee creamer containers I’ve been saving!

 Hope you enjoy this, I will definitely be experimenting more with some different flavors in the future. Cheers!

The little man casually enjoying his soda!

Serving it up DIY style.

I'd like to start straight off and tell everyone that Food and Hearts by J will be featured Sunday night! Tomorrow night is actually J's Birthday celebrations, so we'll be a little busy having fun and all.

Mr. P tempted me away from writing this post last night with homemade burgers and a zombie flick. I just couldn't resist. But without further ado, the revamped serving tray I've talked about for days!

Serving Tray Make-Over

Finished Product!

Supplies:

• Old book/magazines/newspaper
• Variety of paint swatches (free!)  or bits of paper to fill in your cut out.
• Brown paper lunch bag
• Glue stick
• Mod Podge
• Craft spray sealer/acrylic sealant
• Scissors
• Paint (I used acrylic in my color scheme)
• Serving tray (Mine was given to me and had one of those wine bottle paintings that I'm not fond of, on it.)
• A stencil (or I just drew my tree free-handed and cut it out with the exacto knife!)
• x-acto knife
• (Optional) Glass panel/pane to place into tray. I had three 5x7 panels from the picture frames I bought for my canvas quotes. I suppose this would not be good if you have small children, you'd probably want a piece that would fit the exact tray size! Children hands on loose glass sounds like a bad idea to me!

Directions:

     1. Fit book pages and secure to bottom of tray. I used a light coat of mod podge.

I had realized I covered most the tray and didn't take a before picture!

     2. Trace your stencil on a cut at seams paper lunch bag. Cut out shape with x-acto knife to leave a good cut out for background. I then gave the bag a rounded shape and snipped and trimmed it to my size.

     3. Attach paint swatches to use as background of your cut out. Overlap and secure with glue stick.

     4. Place paper bag cut out on top of swatches. The paper bag will pucker very easily, make sure to use a thin layer of mod podge on back of paper to get a good grip to the swatches and book pages.

     5. Using your paints begin to make a coat around bag cut out, on the book pages. I made sure to make thin enough layers for the type to be somewhat seen. I then painted the paper bag in a cafe brown. I probably did that backwards, but paint it however you want!

     6. After seeing above picture, I felt the inside with the black frame was too stark. I decided to only paint the inside of the tray handles/edges the corresponding green to liven it up. I also did rough brush strokes to make it more textured and rough looking. Some of the black can obviously be seen through, giving it a slightly aged effect. Or sandpaper it later if you want it more distressed! After all this, let the paint dry!

     7. Make your first layer of mod podge over entire bottom. I did three coats total, leaving drying time between all!

     8. After last coat of the podge is dried, apply your sealer. And you're pretty much done! I placed my glass panels to cover the center/tree of the tray so things would be a little more protected.

This whole piece was really inspired by the painting I bought by Rafi Perez. I'm actually going to buy another piece by him this weekend to balance out my living room. It's basically the one piece I found that I knew, "Ok, now I know exactly what I want the room to look like!" A muse for my home! Thanks man!

Check out his work on his FB page. Rafi was Here Studio

And his other half, Klee, makes some amazing jewelry, Jewelry by Klee.

You should check them out!

Don't forget Sunday night is the first monthly post of Food&Hearts by J! Blueberry Soda...yum!