DIY To Do

In Greece people love to drink Fanta from a pretty glass bottles, sitting at a table looking out on the street. I was describing this do it yourself vase project from The Colorful Living Project to my mom as we sat at a table just like this and we realized the Fanta bottles we had been looking at all through Greece and Turkey would be perfect for this project. The problem was getting 10 glass Fanta bottles into my carry-on and through three airports and three plane rides. My dad said I was out of my mind but I was determined to bring them home. In the end I may have over packed, pulled a few stitches out of the handle of the bag Sarah lent me, and cried in airport security but I now have 10 Fanta bottles sitting on the table in my apartment, waiting to be painted!

Foolproof Creme Brulee

The one thing on my to do list this last weekend was learn how to make creme brulee. My dad makes this amazing dessert for special occasions (random Tuesday nights are special occasions, right?) and it is by far my favorite dessert. ever. So Saturday morning I took a class from my dad on how to make easy, no fail creme brulee.
 
The good thing about creme brulee is that it is mostly eggs, perfect for a girl who doesn't really like to eat eggs but has three pet chickens.

This recipe is easy because it only requires four ingredients:

6 egg yokes
1 1/2 cups chilled whipping creme
6 Tbsp white sugar
4 Tbsp dark brown sugar.

First, separate the yolks from the eggs whites. Note from my dad: always use a separate bowl, nothing ruins creme brulee like egg shells

Whisk the yolks together and add sugar and whipping cream.



Lightly butter your ramekins and pour the batter evenly into each

Carefully put each into a oven safe dish (I didn't have anything to fit all four so I used two) and set them in the oven preheated to 375 degrees. Using a pitcher of warm water, fill the dish to half-way up the sides of your creme brulee dishes. This will ensure your it cooks evenly.

Bake for 45 minutes or until you can see the custard part of your creme brulee is set. (It starts to change from looking like water to pudding)

Once these come out of the oven let them cook completely (this will take something like 20 minutes). Cover them with plastic wrap and  put them in the fridge for a few hours. (or longer, we left them overnight) When the custard part of your dessert is cool it is time to add the topping. This recipe uses brown sugar instead of fancy, creme brulee sugar, one of the reasons I like it.

To make to brown sugar bake better for topping put it in the over for 20 minutes or so on a low temperature to dry the moisture out. Once it is dry put the sugar in a plastic bag and roll it with a rolling pin a few times to crush up any lumps and give it an even topping mixture. Lastly, sprinkle it evenly over the creme brulee.

Finally you are ready to broil your final product. I always thought of creme brulee as being cooked with a blow torch but I found out this recipe tells you to put your dessert in the oven, under the broiler to get a more even top.

When you are broiling your creme brulee make sure you don't leave the oven and keep turning the ramekins to get an even crust. it will only take 2 or 3 minutes, don't leave it unattended! (A quick tip, don't do this step more than an hour before you are ready to eat, the sugar will start to get soggy)

Once it fully cooked (the sugar will melt as you watch), take it out and put it back in the fridge to cool back down. Once it is chilled you can eat it!

The only thing you need to keep in mind before you make this is, start a few hours before you want to eat, leave enough time for the custard to bake then chill, then chill again. But overall, these recipe is so easy you can not mess it up, I promise! And oh, so delicious, I may have eaten this one before letting it cool off from the broiler. maybe.

Easy Homemade Nutella

I made homemade Nutella a while back, took a bunch of pictures, and realized I never got around to posting them! So here is my first attempt at chocolate butter spread. I took a cue from Robin over at Our Semi Organic Life and used almonds instead of hazelnuts because I don't know where to buy hazelnuts and mostly, I think they are weird looking.

I started by toasting the almonds. This gave the finished product a more almondy taste so I would skip this step if you want your chocolate butter more chocolaty then almondy.

I put 2 cups of my toasting almonds in the food processor and let it run for a very long time. First they turned to a find ground powder, keep processing.

Eventually, the almonds turn to a peanut butter looking ball.

The next step is adding the chocolate. I used coco powder and powdered sugar. The recipes I googled said to use just a few table spoons of coco and something like a half a cup of powedered sugar but I ended up just pouring in tons of both until I liked the taste. Keep mixing and you end up with this texture.

Using two cups of almonds and a lot of powdered sugar and chocolate I ended up getting almost two jars full of homemade chocolate butter.

Overall it was really easy to make and using almonds it ended up being much cheaper (and possibly healthier? maybe?) than the Nutella you buy at the store and just as delicious! Try it!

Homemade Butter

I was totally inspired by this post with instructions on how to make easy homemade butter. I couldn't wait to try so, this weekend I gathered my supplies, did some research, and set out to see if it was as easy as it sounded.

I started with a container of heavy whipping cream, 2 teaspoons of salt, a teaspoon of vanilla, honey (for honey butter), and a stand mixer.

First I put the entire carton of cream and the salt into the mixer and turned it on until it started to look a little whipped. My mom kept me company during the mixing.

 
At this point I added the vanilla and kept on mixing until the cream started to form stiff peaks like whipped cream. (I tasted it at this point because it looked so much like real whipped cream but it was really gross and salty)

At this point, I kept on mixing and mixing and mixing until the whipped cream started looking like bad, over whipped, whipped cream and little pockets of liquid start splashing around (that liquid is buttermilk!). 

Once the butter is all separated I poured out as much of the buttermilk as I could and squeezed the rest out through a strainer.

Once it was all separated, I wrapped the portions in waxed paper and put them in the fridge for half an hour. After I put part of the butter back into the mixer and added some honey for honey butter. Here is my finished product! 

Update: A few people asked how my butter tasted and I have a confession to make, I don't really like butter... Is it sort of weird that I made it anyway? But don't worry, my family LOVED it and said it was much much better than store bought butter. And it really was totally easy to make!

Terrarium Update

I had a lovely, productive, fun-filled weekend. I made pizza with Mitchell, planted a little herb garden, went to the library, made a cake (that Piper ruined by eating the most of the frosting off as soon as she was left alone for 10 minutes) and started watching season one of Dexter. And I finished my terrarium!

I took pictures of each of my steps in case anyone wanted to try making one on their own, it was surprisingly easy!

Here are my supplies. I got a bought all types of different plants, ( I only ended up using one but I had a very hard time choosing my favorite), dried moss, rocks, and soil.

I put a layer of rocks on the bottom to keep the plants root's out of the water ( I bought these at a craft store but thinking back I could have found them around my street and saved 3 dollars)

 Next I put a layer of soil over the rocks

then planted my favorite plant off to the side

I finished off with a layer of moss and some extra rocks for decoration!

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My helper for the afternoon

I really like the way it came out, now I just need to find a home for it and try to keep it alive (even as I sit here writing this I am thinking about the fact I haven't watered it for 3 days...)


Did any one else do anything the last few days? I want to hear about your weekend fun!

Terrariums

For graduation a few years ago my friend Sarah gave me a great greenhouse shaped terrarium sort of thing. I have used to to start some seeds but mostly forgot about it until I found it in my closet last night. After seeing some gorgeous pictures of terrariums floating around the blogging world (and of course Pintrest), I am now totally inspired to make my own terrarium for a shelf in my living room.

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Design Sponge has a, make your own terrarium tutorial, I have had bookmarked forever. I love how you can make them from all sorts of different glass containers; maybe I will start a collection!

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Has anyone made their own terrariums before? Any tips or tricks I should know before I start?



P.S. Has everyone seen this great deal from living social? Two movie tickets for 9 dollars!