Thursday, June 27, 2013

S’mores Krispy Treat

I have been absolutely terrible with keeping up with my blogging. I just haven’t had the motivation to turn on my computer. But hopefully I can get back in the swing of things. I have a ton of ideas for blog posts, I just haven’t gotten around to them.

Anyways, one thing I love about summer is s’mores. I haven’t made them this year because we just haven’t had a fire at our house, not that that has stopped me from making one on the grill, in the microwave, or even on a candle. I go to great lengths for my s’mores. The other day I made a s’mores krispy treat (like a rice krispy treat, but s’morey).

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What you will need:

  • 1 (10 oz) bag marshmallows
  • 1 box (12 oz) Golden Graham cereal
  • 3/4 cup semi-sweet mini chocolate chips
  • 6 Tbsp butter
  • non-stick cooking spray

Directions:

  1. Melt butter in a large non-stick pot on medium heat.
  2. While butter is melting spray a 9x9 or 11x7 pan with non-stick cooking spray.
  3. Once butter is melted, add marshmallows to butter and stir together until marshmallows are melted completely and look creamy. HINT: Spray your spoon with non-stick cooking spray to keep your marshmallow mixture from sticking to the spoon.
  4. Turn off heat and stir in cereal.
  5. Stir in chocolate chips. They will have a tendency of melting, especially if you make it on a hot day like I did.
  6. Spread mixture into your into your pre-greased pan.
  7. Put in the refrigerator for about 10 minutes to cool.
  8. Cut into bars and enjoy!

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Unfortunately, the next day my dad broke the glass pan and ended up throwing it away so my enjoyment was short lived. Probably a good thing for my waste line.

Monday, June 10, 2013

Matcha Green Tea Donuts

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Don’t let the name scare you. I never make donuts because they seem like too much work. And matcha? I’m better off just drinking tea with some Hostess donuts. This was such a simple recipe.

Donuts
What you need:
  • Vegetable Oil
  • Pop ‘n Bake Buttermilk Biscuits (Yes, the one in the tube. I used Pillsbury)
Directions:
  1. Pour enough vegetable oil into a deep frying pan that will allow the donuts to float and keep them off the bottom. Heat oil to 375 F, or as long as the oil bubbles when the dough is put in than you’re good!
  2. Take the biscuits out of the tube. Take a bottle cap and place it in the center of the donut. Push down and twist enough so that the center comes out. Save the center of the donut to use as donut holes!
  3. Make sure the oil isn’t on high or else you’ll burn your donuts (I may or may not have burned my donuts). I turned the burner to Medium. Place the donuts in the oil. Cook on one side for about 30 seconds.
  4. Using a slotted spoon or tongs turn over the donuts and fry for an additional 30 seconds, or at least until you think they are baked all the way through.
  5. Place them on a paper towel covered plate.
Glaze
What you need:
  • 1 1/2-2  teaspoon Matcha Green Tea Powder*
  • 2 cups Powdered Sugar
  • 1/4 cup boiling water
Directions:
  1. Place Matcha Green Tea Powder and powdered sugar in a bowl.
  2. Pour in boiling water and whisk ingredients together until smooth.
  3. Dip donuts into glaze. Make sure to keep them on a plate or newspaper. The glaze will slide off and get messy, so you want something that will be easy to clean.
  4. Done!
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I don’t even want to admit how many I ate. They were so good. The next day the Matcha green tea taste really came out.

*The Matcha green tea is really hard to find if you don’t want to order online. SOME Starbucks MAY sell it, but I wouldn’t take your chances. You may be able to find it if you have a local Asian Supermarket, Whole Foods, or World Foods market (like Jungle Jim’s in Cincinnati). My hometown has none of those, so I was really at a lost. I ended up finding it at Heinen’s, a local fine foods grocery store, but it was not easy!

Saturday, May 11, 2013

Last Minute Wrapping Paper DIY

I bought my mom a Mother’s Day gift that came in the mail. I was just going to give her the package without wrapping it because I ran out of my spring-ish wrapping paper that I used for Haley’s baby shower, and I really didn’t want to go out and buy more. Plus, I hate wrapping paper because you end up throwing it away anyways. I thought about just using wrapping paper, but then I decided I would spice it up a bit. I ran several ideas through my head, but realized that this project would be the most simple.

What you need:

  • Spray paint
  • Newspaper – I chose paper with more writing than pictures
  • Leaves, Flowers, any kind of silhouetted object

I chose the orange spray paint because I had it lying around. I used it for one project, but, let’s be real, when am I actually going to use bright orange spray paint again? It ended up looking more autumny , it’s all I had because we didn’t have too many flowers around our house and the daffodils died already. :(

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Instead of spray painting on my porch I actually took the time to put down cardboard and I sprayed on the grass because at least if it gets on the grass it will eventually be cut. Then I put the leaves face down (makes them heavier so they won’t fly up while spraying. Then I lightly covered the paper with a coat of spray paint. I took the leaves off right away so they wouldn’t dry to the paper and let the paper dry for about 20 minutes.

Hint: You don’t need to tape the leaves down, but I would spray them before putting them down so that  they are heavier and won’t fly up. Make sure you don’t do this outside on very windy days or you’ll have a heck of a time trying to spray paint.

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Then you’re done and you can wrap your gift! The best part? It was COMPLETELY FREE!

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Sunday, May 5, 2013

Milk Glass Vase DIY

This is a super simple DIY. I am obsessed with neutral colors and pops of color, so I love milk glass. Plus, finding milk glass vases when thrifting makes me so happy because they are very easy vintage pieces.

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What you need:
  • White GLOSSY spray paint
  • Various jars and vases
  • Newspaper or a drop cloth.
Make sure before you start that all labels are removed from the jars. I usually soak mine and scrub the labels. You can you rubbing alcohol to remove any left over glue. Make sure you wash your jars and let them dry completely!

Next, I laid down the newspaper and put the bottles on it to keep from spraying the porch (which happened anyways. Oops!). Between every coat I waited at least a half hour, but I would wait at least an hour. Make sure you coat the vases evenly. Follow your spray paint instructions for temperature and distance which spraying should be done.

Once your jars are completely dry they are ready to be used! I can’t wait to put flowers in them to add pops of color to my cocktail cart!

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When You Meet an Online Blogger in the Real World

Things are getting better since last week. I miss Macy a ton, but my crying has shortened. This past weekend I made it up to several stores to buy more succulents and cacti to pot. I put it off until the weather was nice because I didn’t want to deal with the dirt and stuff in the cold weather. On a whim I also picked up a cilantro plant since I love cilantro, but I never really eat it fast enough when I buy it at the grocery store (Any tips on how to trim and use the cilantro would be appreciated!).007
New additions and old plants!
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I went to Lowes on my third stop of the day. I was looking for the succulents and they had some, but nothing I really wanted. Then I looked over at the area I had seen them in months before and realized they had more of what I wanted. I walked over and looked at them but there were two people already standing there. I looked at them and realized that the girl was Kaylah from The Dainty Squid. She is one of my favorite bloggers, and I was kind of in shock when I saw her.

Now, being me, I was too nervous to say anything. I kept dueling it out in my head on whether or not I should say anything. But alas, I didn’t. They left and I was stuck kicking myself. I’m one of those people who believe “celebrities” should be left alone, but it was still cool to see a real life blogger. As I waited in line to check out I hoped she would get in line behind me, but they didn’t.

I headed over to Target afterwards and as I was walking into the store I saw them pull in. It was like a sign that I should have said something, but again, I was too scared. Eventually, I did e-mail her telling her I saw her at Lowes. She responded telling me she thinks she saw me walking into Target! This world is so small. Part of me feels like I came in contact with a celebrity.
Blogging friends, have you ever met or seen a popular blogger out and about in the real world? Who was it? How did you react?
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