Gingerbread House and Playing with Piknik

Really late in posting this, but Taylor and my friend Sarah and I spent an afternoon on Thanksgiving weekend making gingerbread houses. This is the first time I've ever actually made a gingerbread house and it will definitely be a new holiday tradition in our family!

I started playing around with Piknik today and it's pretty cool...considering upgrading to the premium membership for $24.95/yr. If you use it I'd love to know what you think of it!

Pantry Organization

An organized pantry is essential during the holidays when the kitchen is in full gear! All the holiday baking and entertaining will go much more smoothly if you know what's in your pantry and where to find it. A few weeks before Thanksgiving, my pantry was in total chaos. I decided to spend a little chunk of time getting this chaos under control. We have limited cabinet space in our kitchen, but a very large corner pantry. So the pantry doubles as storage for pots and pans.

I started the organization by pulling everything out of the pantry. Yep, everything! I pitched food that was expired and consolidated food that we had more than one container of. I moved some infrequently used pots to the cabinet in our garage that I use for kitchen overflow. This freed up a lot of space.

Then, I grouped like items together and began stocking my pantry back up, grocery store style.

And here's the finished product! Can you tell I love pasta? A whole shelf dedicated pasta and a second shelf dedicated to pasta sauce makings! Bottom shelf holds baking items. I like the basket for bags of chocolate chips and nuts and such.

The pic below shows the snack basket on the bottom shelf so when Taylor wants a snack she can just grab her own.

I didn't snap a shot of the floor of the pantry but it's home to all of our cases of soda and juice boxes.

My plan is to label the shelves so that everything goes back where it belongs and everything is put in the right place when unpacking groceries. BUT...I can't find my label maker! I know it's somewhere in my craft room! That's my next organization project.

Banana French Toast

I LOVE French Toast. I could probably eat it everyday! The other morning, I found myself standing in my kitchen, craving a yummy, filling breakfast and I noticed a bunch of bananas in the fruit bowl. And Voila! Within just a few minutes I sat down at my kitchen table and devoured a generous helping of Sweet Banana French Toast.

Here's my recipe:

(for a single serving)

Ingredients:

approx 2 Tbspns of butter or margarine (I use nucoa because it's dairy free margarine but behaves just like butter in cooking and baking)

1 Tbspn of sugar cane syrup such as Lyle's Golden Syrup

Approx 2 Tbspns of brown sugar

2 bananas

3 slices of bread (I like multi-grain bread for French Toast)

1 egg

1/4 cup - 1/2 cup of milk (I used rice milk because we rarely have Cow's milk in the fridge but we always have rice milk)

Cinnamon (to taste) -- may 1/2 tspn? I don't know, I just sprinkled it in without measuring ;)

In a small saucepan (that's a pot for those of you who may be cooking challenged ;) - Seriously, my husband was following a recipe once and he asked me what a saucepan is. So, now you don't need to ask, I've told you...) melt butter or margarine over low to medium heat. You want it to melt slowly, not simmer (bubble) or it will burn. While it starts to melt, add the sugar cane syrup, and brown sugar. Stir to combine. Cut one banana in half. Mash one half of that banana and add it to the saucepan.

Slice and coarsely chop the remaining half of the banana and set aside.

Meanwhile, in a bowl wide enough to lay your bread in, combine 1 egg (crack it open first, of course), milk and cinnamon. Use a fork or a whisk to mix them well.

In a skillet (a.k.a, frying pan) melt 1 Tbspn of butter. Place one slice of bread into your egg/milk mixture and dip it so that it is fully coated in your egg/milk mixture (you may have to flip your bread to coat both sides) then lay the bread in the skillet and cook for a minute or 2 until the egg is cooked, then flip and cook the other side. Remove the cooked piece of French toast from the skillet and set aside. Repeat with your other slices of bread.

Once all slices are cooked, stack them on a plate and pour the banana syrup over the bread, top w/ sliced banana and enjoy!

Super Simple Greek Salad

This is the easiest, yummiest summer salad!

1 red onion

2 green bell peppers

2 roma tomatoes

1 cucumber

1 can of medium pitted black olives

Feta cheese

Greek dressing (I use Girard's)

Chop veggies, and add to bowl. Toss with Greek dressing. Sprinkle with feta cheese. Enjoy!

I make this in fairly big batches, chopping all the veggies and storing in the fridge (undressed, don't worry, it's dark in there, no one else will see the naked veggies!). Then I dish out in smaller servings as needed and toss with dressing and feta.

This recipe can be served alone as a meal in and of itself; as a side dish for steak or chicken; added to a bed of romaine; or added to pasta for an instant pasta salad.

I love the ease, simplicity and versatility of this recipe so I just had to share it!

Altered Hat Box

I've been searching thrift stores and craft stores for a box like this. OK, I admit not a box that looks like this, but a box of this size and shape is what I've been looking for. At first I was thinking a large cookie tin or canister would have worked for what I had in mind. But I'm not a big fan of metal storage. I don't know, I'm just irritated by the sound of clanging metal, and if the lid gets bent on a cookie tin it never seems to fit the same way again. So, when I stumbled across this box at a thrift store for only $1 I knew I had found the perfect box! The perfect box to turn into this...

It's going to hold all my cupcake decorating supplies! The paper is part of the adorable "Nana's Kitchen" stack from DCWV and, of course, I got it on sale at Jo Ann's for $9.99 (several months ago when the new line was launched).

Once I had adhered the paper to the box using spray adhesive --- I'm loving spray adhesive, right now! I used it for the first time last week on another project, and...yeah...Looooove IT! ---- anyhoo, once I adhered the paper, I thought the lid needed a little something...Hubby was out at the dollar store grabbing some other things, so I asked him to pick up some wooden spoons. When he brought them home, they were typical wooden spoons so, of course, I had to spice them up! I painted them turquoise, of course! and did a light dry brush of white acrylic paint over top, added the ribbons, and some cupcakes cut out of the patterned paper and hot glued them to the lid.

Then I filled it with my supplies and there's still room for more!

Once I filled it, I realized I hadn't covered the inside where the original green is, but ah well...

Isn't that paper just adorable!?!?!

I'm wondering if there's a product I can use to coat the outside to make it water-resistant and wipe-able so I can wipe off any spills or messes it might endure while I'm baking. I'm definitely a very messy baker! So, anyone have any suggestions? I'm not sure if mod podge would work?

Birthday Party Fun!

The big day finally arrived!!!

I've found a new love. Baking and crafting go very well together! I had so much fun decorating the cookies and frosting the cupcakes! This was only my third time using a piping bag (ever!) and I've never decorated cookies before. I love how they turned out!

The cookies are chocolate sugar cookies (recipe is here) and I dipped them in red royal icing. I used a mock royal icing recipe from Kids With Food Allergies which is free of Taylor's allergens.

Hubby did the grilled chicken with barbeque sauce and I made the amazing I Love Tomatoes Pasta Salad (this recipe is also from Kids With Food Allergies)

Taylor got some fabulous gifts, and we gave her friends plastic flower pots filled with handmade goodies! In an upcoming post I'll offer the details of how I made all the party favors.

I even painted Taylor's toenails for her special day. She's never had her nails painted before and she thought it was pretty fun!

She had soooo much fun and as you can see, she was beaming when everyone sang "Happy Birthday!" to her.

Thank you to everyone who celebrated Taylor's special day with us. And, I have to give a HUGE shout out to the fab folks at Kids With Food Allergies (KFA). When we first discovered Taylor's food allergies about 2 years ago, I didn't bake at. all. I was a decent cook, but baking? No. Definitely not. The baking support I've received from the people at KFA in the Food & Cooking Forums and the Celebrations Forum, is what gave me the confidence to pull this party together. Thank you SO much! I love you guys!!!

30 Meals Project!

So, I just discovered the girls over at Nanny Goat. They are Awwwwesooommmme. Love them already and I've only known them for like, 20 minutes :). They've come up with an ingenius (and crafty and pretty, to boot!) system for meal planning. Be sure to CHECK IT OUT! It's sooo simple! I'm definitely going to be joining in the fun of creating the system and the fun of eating yummy stress free meals!