in the kitchen

I’ve always had this problem that I’ll see an idea/recipe/craft/etc in a magazine but never quite get to trying it. I guess the visualization of Pinterest really works because I am actually trying things. Here are a few of the ones I’ve tried recently and how it actually worked out.

Lovely Salted Caramel Sauce – Fail. Twice. First time I don’t think I cooked it long enough. The second time turned out slightly better but definitely not sauce. It was more like a jar of solid caramel. I scraped it with a spoon and put it in a coffee a few times but overall it was a failure. I’m sure it was my fault not the recipe though!

Chai Snickerdoodles – Delicious though I think next time I will do a bit more spices.

Toffee Apple Dip – Oh.my.goodness. Go make this right now. No seriously, right now. Pretty sure it negates the nutritional value of the apple but it’s totally worth it.

Chill Out Jar – The first time I tried this with water, glitter glue and glitter. The glitter sunk to the bottom almost instantly so it wasn’t mesmerizing at all. I read over the original post I found and saw this person used fine glitter. There was my problem. The second time I used three cups of water, a small bottle of Alene’s Clear Tacky Glue and fine glitter. So far Josh and I are way more into it than Jasper.

Here’s how mine turned out:

Glitter Nails – I’m not sure what came over me Saturday night but I suddenly had to try this. I had the glitter from the Chill Out Jar so I thought why not. My nails were already painted with Essie’s Chinchilly so I just used a clear polish on the tips and sprinkled them with bronze glitter. It turned out quite cute though the glitter spread out a little more than I would have liked. I think I didn’t let it dry long enough before I put on the top coat. I think I can do better next time.

Here’s how mine turned out:

And some upcoming projects that I’m already planning:
Bird cage with candles
Sucker pumpkin for Halloween

Dude, I love Pinterest.

On Wednesday I made a four layer cake for my mother-in-law’s birthday. It was my first try at this type of cake so I was a little nervous about the stacking and decorating.

There were many, many imperfections and it was just slightly lopsided but it tasted wonderful. I’m kind of excited to try another layered cake again.

I haven’t had my camera out much lately. I can always tell when I’m depressed because I don’t feel motivated to shoot for fun. Staying up late last night, I happened to look into my kitchen. The dark window, small light on…I thought, “That looks like a picture. Something I don’t want to forget”. And so I snapped a couple shots.

Nothing ground breaking but that’s okay. It’s really just about capturing a moment.

I love having different flavors of coffee on hand. We usually have some Folgers but also one or two specialty coffees. A few months ago I had the idea to get a couple glass canisters and use chalkboard paint to create a label. I finally got that accomplished over the weekend. Now as the flavors change (which they regularly do), I can just write the new kind in chalk on the canister. (For the label I taped off a rectangle with painter’s tape and used the chalkboard paint in a spray can.)

On Sunday I made the Vanilla Chai cupcakes and they were yummy! The recipe only made a dozen but it was a good test run. I have a problem where I just always want to tweak recipes. I try to follow recipes exactly the first time through and then tweak the following time. So I restrained myself from adding more vanilla and cinnamon. The only thing I did different from the recipe is use my mom’s buttercream frosting recipe. (Sidenote: I really hate my countertops. I think they’re ugly especially in pictures.)

I almost never can eat my own baking. Something about spending the time making them makes it unappetizing to me. I tried a cupcake right when they were done and felt a little underwhelmed. I thought maybe the spice mixture could be a little stronger. My family really enjoyed them so I tried another bite. I enjoyed it more the second time around. They definitely taste like chai tea.

Josh built Jasper a huge fort downstairs. I got some clothesline rope and clips from the Dollar Tree so we tried them out. Jasper loved it. If I went back upstairs he’d come get me saying “Mommy, come here”. He’d hold his hand out and drag me back down to the tent.

We spent the afternoon at my parents house. My little guy sure loves Uncle Tony and Aunt Emily.

We all got a little bummed about the Bears loss. But my mom’s baking and cooking cheered us up. All in all it was a pretty good day.

As we did last year, we’re planning a little Christmas get together with our neighbors. I love having people over and baking for it. Last year I made gingerbread houses for our mugs. This year I think besides the other cookies I’m planning I’m going to make Bakerella’s snowmen cake pops.

I’m also considering the dotty winter trees by Bake at 350, chocolate peppermint crinkle cookies, and I love the chocolate marshmallows from Good Housekeeping.

I always have a really hard time narrowing down what to make. Last year I think I made five or six different kinds of cookies. I’ll probably end up doing that again. I love Christmas and baking so the two combined is a perfect storm for me.

Hosting my first Thanksgiving was a success! I’ll be honest, I was a little nervous. Cooking/baking has always come pretty naturally to me. (I thank my mom for that.) But planning and executing a big meal is a lot!

The timing of everything is the tricky part. I needed the turkey to be done early enough that I could use the oven again but not so early that it sits for a long time. Luckily everything came out right at the perfect time. For the turkey I used Real Simple’s plan to cook one. Thank you, Real Simple!

I also made a tofurkey for my brother who is a vegetarian. I really wanted him to have something special too. I found this recipe and decided it sounded doable. I’ve never cooked with tofu before so that was something new. The night before you crumble the tofu into a colander and form a bowl. Another bowl sits in it to keep the shape. The day of you make stuffing, fill the bowl and then flip the whole thing over onto a baking pan. I seriously was sweating when I had to flip it over! The tofu stayed together and there was much rejoicing. Tony gave it a stamp of approval.

I used Pioneer Woman’s mashed potato recipe from her Throwdown with Bobby Flay. Oh goodness, they were awesome. I made my mom’s stuffing which turned out great even though her recipe was kind of lacking. My mom is an amazing cook. She is one of those people who just throw things together, never measures or times anything. This is totally fine unless you are trying to replicate it! She had semi-typed out her stuffing recipe and we laughed about how she didn’t have the measurements for sage or how long to bake it. It must just be ingrained in me because the stuffing was delicious. There was sweet corn from this summer that I had frozen, dinner rolls, green bean casserole and of course pumpkin pie. We also had some yummy appetizers (salmon/dill crostini, veggies and pumpkin peanut butter dip).

I’m so glad that I offered to host and everything turned out. It was a lot of fun to have my family here and cook for them. I am looking forward to Christmas though when my parents take over the cooking again.

My friend Ranee called me last week to see if I wanted a box of blueberries. Her brother-in-law makes a trip to Michigan for blueberries every year. The boxes they bring back are 10 pounds each. At first I didn’t know about it since 10 pounds of blueberries seems like an awful lot. I just couldn’t pass up the excellent price so I agreed to buy a box.

Saturday was deemed blueberry day and I went to town on the box. Two batches of jam, a double batch of blueberry syrup, three dozen blueberry muffins, one pie, some measured for blueberry french toast to be made later this week, and six cups leftover for the freezer. We were given a small deep freezer so it was perfect timing to fill it up. It’s ridiculous just how happy this makes me.

Last summer I was reading this blog about a girl who makes green smoothies every day. I of course, had to try it. I was very ambitious about what to put in my smoothie and tried many greens I don’t normally eat. As I should have expected the result was not pleasing to my taste buds. So I gave up the green smoothie…

A few days ago I happened back on the same blog from last summer and watched her video about how she makes green smoothies. I wrote down exactly what she puts in them and got everything on the list. The big difference is that I would use mostly fruit and the only green would be baby spinach.

Saturday morning I cut up my fruit and threw everything in the blender. I used a couple packets of stevia to sweeten in and tried a drink. Delicious! On a whim I gave Jasper a drink and he LOVED it. Like, he wanted more right away, finished the entire glass and cried when it was gone…

I’m pretty darn excited about my new smoothies I will be making us. Jasper is not eating the best right now so this will be a great way for him to get a ton of fruit and veggies. I plan on trying some different combinations but I think Jasper is really going to like it. He had his second one yesterday morning and chugged a bunch right down.

Won’t eat your veggies?? Haha…if you only knew what was in that smoothie. Momma for the win!