A Kitchen Craft (The room in my house that never gets attention!)

When I begin decorating my house, it seems the same rooms always get attention and the same rooms go without.  I know that my bedroom, bathroom and living room are alway the first ones that will get a makeover and my kitchen always seems to be left out.  So as I LOVE labels and think that they are amazing little things I came up with a awesome craft for my Kitchen!


WHAT YOU WILL NEED:
-6 Black picture frames ALL MATCHING 8 X 10
-1 Roll 1/2 Inch Ribbon (Whatever colors you are using in your kitchen.)
-Tape
-Labels
-Laminating sheets
-Iron
-Hole punch
(6 Pictures 8 X 10)
First things first:
I went online and googled the 6 different items I needed.
Brown Rice
Brown Sugar
Brown Cocoa
White Rice
White Sugar
White Flour


-I saved the pictures to my Macbook (MAKE SURE THE PICTURES YOU CHOOSE ARE ALL HORIZONTAL)
-I made them all black & white
-I printed all 6 of them at 8 X 10


-I put all 6 of them into the picture frames. 
-I then took my labels cut them out.
-You can use the self stick laminating sheets. (I used the kind that are not self laminating and I put them in the pockets placed wax paper folded in half and used an iron to seal it.
FIND THE LABELS HERE!
http://www.box.com/s/fcacd208202c365f15fb


I then hole punched holes on either side and ran the ribbon through it and tape down the ribbon onto the back of the frame. AND VOILA Your frames will look like this!

Here is the finished Product:

Cookie Recipes and HOW TO(S)

I have been insanely busy for the last few days, we have had 3 Tball games this week for my nephew, I also was up at 5:50 on Thursday and Friday to go to my sisters house so I could get my nephew up and ready for school and take him as well as watching my niece all day both days.  We also had my nephews field trip that we went on with his class, so it has been very very busy for me.  In the mix of all of that I have made cookies and I did post pictures but now I am going to actually post for you all the how to, with a few tips and tricks!

As for the recipes, I have the one I use for the Royal Icing.  I have tried two differnt recipes for the dough, the hard thing with the tough is that you cant just use the cut and bake dough from the store, because it will swell and become very flat and not hold shape when baking.  The other thing is the two recipes I have used neither of them were ones that I LOVED based on taste.  Texture and ease of dough is definitely something I loved from the second recipe.  The people who tasted it said the second batch was good so it has been my go to dough recipe (but I am on the hunt for a sweeter sugar cookie recipe.)

Not to go against anyone who isnt really artistically inclined or patient BUT using royal icing and the time it takes to make these cookies is actually very hard!

THE RECIPES:

Royal Icing

2 2lbs bags of confectioner’s sugar (4 lbs total)

3/4 c.of  meringue powder

1 1/2 c. of warm water

2 tsp. of extract (I have used almond and vanilla)

-You will start out with mixing your meringue power and the 4 lbs of the confectioners sugar together.

-You will add your extract to your warm water.

-You will slowly add the warm water to the dry ingredients while mixing at the same time. 

-Start out mixing on low and as the icing starts to thicken you will turn the mixer up on high. 

-Continue to mix the icing for 5-7 minutes until the icing is extremely thick it will be very fluffy.

Notes:

-Once you mix this icing and it is good to use, you can store it (Please store it in a refridgerater) I usually dont feel comfortable storing and reusing it more than 3 weeks out. (Some will store it longer but I prefer to be safe)

-Keep away from OIL this icing WILL not turn out if there is any oil involved (that is including the extract make sure that it is oil-free)

-I store my icing in a large mixing bowl covered in the fridge. 

-Once I am ready to use I pull that out scoup some out into a bowl to color and I will add my Wilton Gel food color and mix it in throughly. 

-You can not flood pipe a cookie with you icing this thick so essentially you will work backwards using warm water to thin down your colored icing.

-YOU NEED YOUR ICING THICK ENOUGH TO HOLD ITS SHAPE ONCE YOU PIPE THE COOKIE!!

-WHEN FLOODING YOU WILL ADD A LITTLE MORE WATER TO THE ICING TO THIN IT EVEN MORE.

A few of my favorite products for making cookies:

Wilton Meringue Powder

Wilton Gel Icing color The pack of 8 is my most recent purchase

The Wilton couplers for using the icing bags

Wilton decorating bags

COOKIE RECIPE:

1 1/2 cups butter, softened

2 1/4 cups white sugar

4 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

5 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Cover, and chill dough for at least one hour.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Roll out dough on floured surface 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Cut into shapes with any cookie cutter. Place cookies 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets.

Bake 6 to 8 minutes in preheated oven. Cool completely.

PROCESS:
-CHOOSE YOUR DECORATION AND COLOR ICINZG YOU ARE GOING TO USE.
-After the cookie is dry you will pipe the thicker icing around the edges (after drying it works like a wall to keep the icing from going over.
-Let the piping dry (15-20 Minutes)
-Then with the icing that is a little thinner than what you used for the piping you will flood the cookie, fill in all of the top of the cookie, the icing should be thin enough that it will spread and even out some on its own (but thick enough to fluff up some.)  YOU DONT WANT IT REALLY RUNNY!

After you get your first layer on LET IT DRY!  I usually let mine dry with a fan on for at leats 30 minutes but PREFERABLY an hour if not longer.  (If it isnt all the way dry then your decorating on top will not work out!)

EX.This cookie took about 1.5 hours with drying and decorating.

It has 6 steps.

1. The piping

2. The flooding

3. Add the green detail (I used a paintbrush)

4. Add the Blue detail (I used a paintbrush)

5. Flood the green center add the sprinkles

6. Add the Yellow center.

OTHER COOKIES:

Cookies in Pictures.. (Recipes and How to coming soon)

 

 

Hobo Stew, Campfire Food.

Last night for dinner I decided I wanted one of my absolute all time favorite EASY foil dinners!

What you will need:

2 patties of Hamburger meat
1 can of Green beans
1 Can of Corn
2 large potatos
2 12 inch sections of foil
2 teaspoons of chopped onions
1 tablespoon of garlic salt
4 teaspoons of butter

-preheat the oven to 350 degrees
-peel your potatos and dice them
-Take your hamburger patty place it on the foil
-add some of your chopped onions to the hamburger patty as well as some of the garlic salt
-add hlf of your can of corn on top of the hamburger patty
-add half of your can of green beans on top of the corn
-add half of your diced potatos on top of the rest of your vegetables
-top of all of your vegetables and hamburger with 2 teaspoons of butter and more of your garlic salt and chopped onions
-fold your foil and make sure allSides are sealed
-repeat the same process for your other foil and hamburger patty.
-place both of your folded up packs of food on a baking sheet (if you are cooking it at home) or on a campfire or grill.
-in this case we are cooking it in the oven, you will place it into the oven for 40 minutes to an hour.

Pull it out and dig in!!

M&M Sugar Cookies

I was sitting at home today bored and I decided to kill the time by baking.  I decided to bake some M&M Cookies!

What you will need:

3/4 Cups of Softened Butter
1 Cup of Granulated Sugar
1 Large Egg
1 teaspoon of Vanilla extract
2 Cups of Flour
1 Teaspoon of baking soda
3/4 cup of M&M's

-Start of with preheating your oven to 350 degrees

- Mix your Butter and sugar together

-Then you will need to add your egg and vanilla to the mixture

-Mix together you baking soda and flour and add it to your mixture

-After everything is mixed throughly add in your M&M's and mix

-Get you baking sheet and spray with baking spray

-Spoon on spoon full amounts of the dough onto the cookie sheet

-Pop them into the oven for about 10-12 minutes until your edges start to brown and pull out.

Handmade shirts!

I love to make little shirts for my 3 year old niece and this is two of them!

Zebra Ghost for Halloween

I made this shirt with zebra print fabric, I found a cute ghost pattern that I liked I cut it out and attached it with fabric glue. I then made a bow for the ghost and glued it on!

Ribbon Turkey for Thanksgiving


This shirt was a little more time consuming I had the place all of my ribbons and stitch them on into place. Then I used my fabric for the body to cover it up and I attached it with fabric glue!

Comfort food

Okay so for the past 2 days it has been dreary and rainy and while I'm not cooking this recipe as I am cooking a different one (soon to be posted on here) but this is one of those meals you can throw into the crock in the morning while your heading out to work and then you can come home and dinner is ready! Really what is better than that!?

What you will need


•4 cans of green beans (I prefer French style, but you can use cut as well)
•5 large potatoes
•1 package of Polska sausage (you can also use turkey sausage BUT it will not taste the same!)
•1 tablespoon of salt
•1 onion slice in large pieces


•You can use a crockpot as this will be absolutely yummy after cooking all day!
•Add all of your green beans into the Crock Pot add your onions
•You will cut up your Polska sausage into 1/2 pieces and add them in the crockpot
•Now you will need to peel your potatoes and cut them into chunks and add them into the crock pot
•And lastly add your salt and mix everything together!

This is beyond yummy and excellent recipe for a rainy day!! Such a great comfort food!

One of my most prized possessions

In the summer of 2009 I worked at a camp it was beyond an amazing experience! I had a lot of ups and downs that summer as I was surrounded by A LOT of northerners and not to offend anyone but there is a very true thing as southern hospitality and it was a different world. Where I'm from everyone goes out of their way to say hello and nod and are always pleasant, I hate to say that they were rude, that wasn't the case they are very blunt!! In saying that, I was there for two months among tons of millionaire kids (did I mention this camp is 10,000 plus per child and lasts 7 weeks) so this wasn't your typical camp this was a camp for CEO's children or large company owners like the Boeing Jet and Philadelphia cream cheese.

While I was there I had a great time and met people from all over the world I feel so lucky to have friends from most countries! But I kept a journal while I was there and it is 3 years old now and I pulled it out tonight to look through it. Looking back at some
Of my pictures from NYC and It really is one of my most proved possessions I just keep thinking how awesome it will be for my children to look back on one day.. But I'm putting a few of my favorite things from it on display on some pictures!