Coconut Cream Filled Cupcakes

We had a joint birthday dinner for Dave and Ray and they both like different kinds of cake - so I had the thought to split one batch of cupcakes in half and do something different for each guy. I used a boxed white cake mix but replaced the water and oil with milk and melted butter, and added an additional egg - then I filled 12 lined cupcake tins with the batter for Ray's half and baked as directed. To the remaining batter I added a big handful of shredded coconut and a 1/2 teaspoon of coconut extract (I would have used more but that's all that was left in the bottle! After they baked I ran to the store for more so I could add to the frosting) then filled 12 lined cupcake tins and baked those as directed. Note: I usually bake them for less time than the box suggests, I pulled these out at 15 minutes and they were perfect.

After they cooled I frosted Ray's with fluffy chocolate buttercream frosting and sprinkles. Dave's were a little more complicated but not difficult. I removed a little cake from the cupcakes creating a hole, then squeezed in the filling (see below). Smooth the tops, spread with frosting, then pat coconut all over the tops covering completely. I actually got a "best ever" thumbs up from Dave and everyone else at the table (except the ones that don't like coconut, they don't count haha).

The waitress looked at both containers of cupcakes and asked where I bought them - awwwww, that was nice - I was holding the chocolate ones and asked if she'd like one, she said "are the other ones coconut? Because coconut is my favorite" hahaha, so we gave her one of each :). Cute.

Coconut Cream Filled Cupcakes Directions:

-Add shredded coconut and extract to the batter before baking.
-Make filling: mix together 1 box of coconut cream pudding and 3/4 cup whole milk, whisk for a couple minutes and refrigerate until set.
-Whip a small container of whipping cream until stiff peaks form. Add half to the pudding.
-Put the filling in a quart sized baggie and snip one corner.
-Remove some cake from the top of each cupcake, squeeze filling into each hole. Smooth the top.
-Frost with buttercream frosting and then cover the tops with shredded coconut. Refrigerate.

Coconut Buttercream Frosting:
-1 stick soft unsalted butter
-4 cups confectioners sugar
-1 teaspoon coconut extract
-pinch of coarse salt
-milk (a couple tablespoons, add a little at
a time until you get the right consistency)

cream the butter until smooth, add the
remaining ingredients and beat until smooth
and fluffy. For this cake I added a big scoop
of cool whip, gently folding to combine
with the frosting. 

note: to make chocolate buttercream frosting replace the coconut extract with vanilla and add 2/3 cup cocoa powder

A Tip For Repotting Plants

I have a gerbera daisy that a friend gave me a couple years ago, and it's still been in it's little 4 inch pot this whole time - how sad and it really wants to live so I finally got around to repotting it! Poor thing. Watch it'll now die cuz I messed with it haha...

When repotting plants because they need more space, don't use a much bigger pot. I can't remember why but you are "supposed" to just go up a little bit in size, and as they grow out of that one then go up another size. It's better for them and besides, if you put a little plant in a giant pot the proportions will be wrong and it'll look stupid.

A little tip for repotting plants - I put a coffee filter in the bottom of the pot (if it has a hole in the bottom) before adding soil, it keeps the dirt from running out when you water it. You can put a stone or pebble over the opening instead, that works pretty good too but I'm too lazy to go hunt for a stone when I have a stack of filters in the garage for this very reason!

if the plants roots are all bound together like this one,
gently separate if you can so the roots will
now be able to grow down into the fresh soil. 

DIY: Bling Your Shoes

I decided to bling out some very basic black ballet flats, 'cuz why not? This is a super easy and quick project once you decide where to glue the gems. I bought these inexpensive shoes at Kohls - maybe don't do this for the first time on nicer shoes just in case, I'll feel terrible if you ruin the shoes and blame me! They had a bow sewn on the toes but I got it off with my seam ripper and a little muscle - they had it on there good (but I was not to be stopped haha, it had to come off!). Play around with where you want the bling/decorations to go and then glue down using a strong clear glue - I used "jewel it" but I bet something like e-6000 would work, just read the packaging and see if it'll work on fabric or leather and dry clear.

Look how cute they turned out - different and fun!

start with plain shoes or make sure you can
remove any bows or whatever

play around with how you want the design
to look, this was the longest step for me

then glue down the gems or whatever
bling you choose. easy peasy george
and wheezy :)

Steakhouse Wedge Salad with Warm Tomato Vinaigrette

Waiting at the doc's office I picked up a Martha Stewart Living (did you know she still has the magazine? I did not...) and the first thing I flipped to is this recipe - needed to stop at the grocery store on my way home anyway so decided to make it. And it's really really good!

             

Not the traditional wedge salad - you cook steak and top it with bleu cheese, serve on the side of an iceberg wedge, onions (unless you hate them), and tomatoes. Then drizzle the whole thing with an easy vinaigrette. I didn't look at the recipe close enough and bought bleu cheese crumbles, it calls for sliced but the crumbles worked just fine. Our store doesn't have hanger steak so we substituted flat iron and Dave grilled it outside instead of doing it in a pan like the recipe says.

I snapped the recipe with my phone straight out of the Martha Stewart Living Magazine (don't know what issue) - I'm probably breaking some law doing that and then posting it but at least I'm crediting her!! Don't tell Martha I did this hahaha ;)

Classic Moscow Mule

Mmmmmm...ever tried a Moscow Mule? This is a super simple cocktail to make, it's light and refreshing so perfect for a summer drink - and ginger beer is so good that even if you don't want alcohol just try it mixed with lime juice and leave out the vodka! Ginger beer is non-alcoholic and tastes like a cross between root beer and strong ginger ale to me. I love it.

Looking up recipes online most of them are pretty much the same - 1 part vodka to 2 parts ginger beer with some lime juice and wedges, over ice.


Ingredients:
-2 oz. vodka
-4 oz. ginger beer
-1 oz. lime juice (or squeeze half of a lime)
-wedge of lime for garnish
-ice
-moscow mule copper mug (or small glass tumbler)


Directions:
add ice to your mug or glass, followed by the vodka and lime juice. top with ginger beer and stir, then garnish with a lime wedge.

Matching Game

Got the idea for this simple easy game here, I saw it and thought of my niece who wants fidgets and things for her new job (click here for the fidget stress balls project) - all you need is a sheet of foam and some self adhesive foam shapes. 

Cut the foam sheet into 3"x2" squares (or whatever size you want), I made 16 squares but you can make this as big or small as you want. Stick matching pairs of foam shapes to the squares (so you have a pair of every shape, same color) making sure you can't see the shapes sticking out from underneath when you turn them over. 

That's it. Now you have a memory/matching game - turn all the squares over with the shapes turned down, and take turns turning over 2 squares, if you get a match then you get to go again. If not a match turn the 2 squares back over and the next person goes - hopefully remembering where they saw a match if they draw the other one. Keep playing until all the pairs are matched, person with the most pairs found wins. Brooke and I also played go fish with the squares - play around with them and see what else you can come up with! 

We put the squares into a manila envelope that Brooke decorated with a couple shapes and wrote "matching game" on it. So cute. Then mailed it off to her sister - another good thing is this is a super lightweight game, only cost me 2 stamps to mail it!

Brooke showing how to play, she staged turning
 over a matching pair first thing :)

everyone likes to play haha, it's not just for kids!

SaveSave

Notebook Paper Frame

I love back to school time of year - I think that's one of those either love it or hate it things. Dave hates it, how many years later he is still traumatized about going to school hahaha, but it makes me excited! I was shopping with Brooke the other day looking at school supplies (see here for her jazzing up her composition notebooks) and I couldn't resist getting myself notebooks, folders and new markers! Pitiful I know...but I love this stuff. So when I saw this idea I immediately knew I'd be making it.

I saw this frame idea on the Michaels website, I didn't follow their instructions exactly but that's what an inspiration idea is for! See an idea, change it if you want to, and make it your own...

This is super simple - paint a plain wood frame white; after it dries make lines using a blue fine point sharpie every 3/8" inch horizontally on the frame. Then make 2 vertical red lines on the left side - looks like notebook paper! So cute, what a great teacher gift (or a gift for someone like me who is slightly obsessed with notebook paper)!

I wasn't patient enough to paint one side and
let it dry before painting the flip side!

To make the picture to put in the frame, I played around with some free circle flower templates I found online (click here for the site I used) and added the 'make my day camp' text.

Banana Muffins

Normally I make this batter into muffins but Brooke wanted to just make it into a loaf so we went with that - it's all the same really. Not my normal banana bread recipe but it turned out good...especially since the kid added a bunch of chocolate chips to the batter! It doesn't make a lot which is kind of nice sometimes, just enough to make one loaf or about 12 muffins.

BANANA MUFFINS

          cream together:   1/2 cup shortening
                                      1/2 cup white sugar
                            add:    2 eggs
after mixing well add:   3/4 cup mashed ripe bananas
                    then add:    1 1/4 cup flour
                                      1 teaspoon salt
                                      1 Tablespoon baking powder

Put batter into a greased loaf pan, or spoon equally into greased muffin tin. Bake at 350' for 20 minutes (for muffins, for the bread I can't remember how long it baked so watch it - maybe 45 mins?).

Note: Brooke added about a cup of chocolate chips to the batter before putting it into the pan...

mushing up the bananas in her hands - she was grossed out and liked it at the same time!

Basted Eggs

I love poached eggs but they always seem too wet and are hard to get just right - I have found that basting eggs is really close to a poached egg, but much easier and quicker. They are sort of a cross between poaching and over easy - without having to flip them. We eat these a few times every week!

Super simple: I spray a fry pan with non stick cooking spray and heat over medium/medium low. When the pan is hot, break the egg carefully into the pan and let it cook for a few seconds (maybe 30) until the bottom is setting up (you don't want the bottom to turn brown, just set up a bit) and then add a tablespoon or 2 of water to the pan, quickly cover it to capture the steam and cook for a minute or two. Lift the lid to check for when it's done the way you like - I prefer the white to be completely cooked but the yolk soft and runny.

when the bottom is just turning white...

add a little bit of water...

then quickly cover to capture the steam. 

Directional Sign

This is one of my favorite projects ever - I made a directional sign for my sister and it turned out super cute. She mentioned wanting one of these but couldn't really figure out how to make one and they are expensive to buy custom made, now that the family is starting to spread out across the country I thought it'd be the perfect gift to make for her birthday last week.

After talking to my handy friends Mark and LeDonna (they gave me lots of tips), I went to the home improvement store and searched for the wood scraps bin - I never would have known there even is such a thing but there is. You pay for wood by the foot, so if someone doesn't need an entire piece of siding or trim or whatever they cut it off at the store and put the scraps in a large bin - exactly what I was looking for. I picked out a few pieces that were roughly the sizes I wanted and also bought a 8' 2x2 treated post that they cut the bottom into an angle at the store (so it'll be easier to pound into the ground if she decides to do that) but they wouldn't make the angled cuts for each arrow. The pieces didn't cost very much, I got the post and all the wood for under $20 - if you find wood to repurpose from around the house this would be a very inexpensive project. I did buy one board that is shaped like an arrow at the craft store, the rest are the scrap wood.

I had a friend cut the wood into basic arrow shapes but then of course wanted to change them a little - so I found a jigsaw in the garage (didn't know we had it - I've never used it before and I gotta say, now I'm addicted and on the lookout for things I can cut!) and re-cut the wood pieces to what I wanted. Dave was worried that I was going to make a big mess and I discovered a good way to make my cuts to control the mess (and not have to get out sawhorses) - I put the wood down on the deck and cut it over top of the gaps in the decking, obviously being careful to not go crazy and cut into the deck! Anyway, the sawdust fell thru the cracks in the deck and I didn't have anything to sweep up.

I kept the color scheme simple by just using white paint for the writing but wanted to make each arrow a little different so I found a few shades of stain in the basement and wiped them on each wood piece - Mark and LeDonna would be appalled at my technique I'm sure (I wiped it on and off with paper towels, and didn't do an even coat because I was going for a sort of "rustic" look).

The hardest part was stenciling and painting the towns and mileage - took much longer than I thought it would. I traced the letters and numbers onto the arrows and then painted them in. When they were done I sprayed them with 2 coats of outdoor urethane sealer and let them dry overnight.

On Mark's recommendation I decided to attach the arrows to the post with wood screws, I forgot he told me to make sure to buy stainless ones so they wouldn't rust - fortunately I remembered before I drove away from the hardware store and they exchanged them for me. The stainless ones are like twice the price of the regular ones but it was still under $4 for 16 of them.

After laying the whole thing out so I knew where I wanted each one to go, Dave helped me drill holes for the screws to go into - I could have done this myself but since the sign is from both of us I assigned him this job so he could take some credit for helping hahah! We put 2 screws in each board to keep them from twisting.

Jenny seems happy with her cute sign - right now she has it in a pot on her patio. I made it flat so she can hang it on the wall, put it in the garden, keep it in a pot - whatever. Not angling the signs in the actual directions they would go made it so she can put it in more places then just the garden.  I like this so much I'm seriously thinking I'll make myself one! Love it.

Stuffed Cabbage Rolls

I don't think I have any Polish in me (but who knows - I descend from Cortrights, Hodgsons, Guenthers, and Suggates...that sounds like I have a little bit of a whole lot going on so maybe there is some Polish!) but I woke up the other day thinking about cabbage rolls. I know, it's weird. So I asked Dave if we could go north and hit Leggs Inn outside Petosky because that's the last place I had them and they were SO good, but a road trip can't happen this week - so I did the next best thing even though I've never made them before and gave it a go.

carefully pull the leaves off

Did an internet search till I found a recipe I wanted to try, click here to see the full recipe on Food Network. The reviews almost scared me off because so many people had a hard time separating the cabbage leaves, but I wasn't to be put off by temperamental cabbage and conquered it without any problems whatsoever. I followed the directions and they came apart easily - cut the bottom of the cabbage off so it sits flat and cut out some of the core, then carefully peel the leaves apart. If you look closely you can see the order they are layered, I put my fingers under the next leaf on top and wiggled around a bit to loosen and they came right off. Put into a large pot of boiling water for 3 minutes or so to soften them up. Then immediately put them in a large bowl of ice water to stop the cooking process.

after boiling for a couple minutes put the leaves
in a bowl of ice water

I followed the rest of the recipe exactly and they were quite easy to make. There were lots of dirty pans and dishes when all said and done, but none of the steps was difficult - even rolling up the little cabbage roll burritos was easy. I only made one head of cabbage because it's just Dave and I eating them, so there weren't enough outside "bad" leaves to line the baking dish with, but I covered the whole pan with foil and they cooked just fine. I had leftover filling and looked around for whatever else I could find to stuff - the 2 small sweet peppers from my garden and a leftover zucchini fit the bill. The recipe says to bake for an hour but quite a few reviews said it took longer, so I did 2 hours at 350'.

the filling is ground beef and pork, cooked rice,
an egg,  and the doctored up sauce

back pan is the sweet and sour tomato sauce,
front pan is a little sauce mixed with
sautéed onions, parsley, tomato paste...

cut out the thick rib of the cabbage leaf. I cut out
too much actually,  don't do this much. 

my v cut is a little big so rolling wasn't quite as nice as it
could have been - now I know! It still worked fine.

Might not be Leggs Inn cabbage rolls but they turned out really good and I will definitely be making these again in the future. I wonder what I'll wake up wanting to eat next?

one head of cabbage made 8 rolls, I also stuffed 2 small
sweet peppers and a zucchini. top with tomato sauce before baking. 

Chopped Baking Edition - Niece vs Aunt

Brooke and I had our own version of a "chopped" bake-off yesterday - have you ever seen the show where 4 chefs get a "mystery basket" of 4 random ingredients that they have to turn into an amazing dish that they are judged on (and chopped if theirs isn't the best)? For our competition we wrote a bunch of individual ingredients on pieces of folded up paper and put them in a bowl, then we both drew out 3 ingredients that we had to make a dessert with. Some of our potential choices were oreos, strawberries, bananas, caramel, cinnamon - things I already had on hand. She drew rice crispies, m&ms, and strawberries; I got graham crackers, honey,  and chocolate chips. The rule was to come up with the idea of what we wanted to bake, no searching online for ideas, and then we could go online for a basic recipe only after we declared what we were making - no changing your idea once it was stated. The judges were my sister, niece Macey, and Dave.

I made a 9" scone using all of my ingredients and it was nasty...didn't help that I put it in the oven and forgot to set a timer - and it was plenty overdone, ugh. Macey said "Aunt Jill you're a great cook and baker but this is the worst thing you've ever made" HA. Oh well.

Brooke however made mini cheesecakes and a chocolate bark that was actually, surprisingly, good! I have no idea how she pulled that off! The bark was really good, so good that I'm going to share her "recipe" with you - I absolutely won't tell you how I made the disastrous scone though LOL! On a piece of parchment paper she spread melted chocolate chips (microwave 30 seconds at a time until melted), topped with everything under the sun - rice crispies, m&ms, andes mint bits, etc... - then spread more melted chocolate on the top. Put in freezer until firm and then break into pieces. Everyone loved it!


We had a great time playing Chopped, and the kid totally beat me fair and square! Brat ;)