Faux Porcelin (DIY!)

While cruising the blogosphere I came across a tutorial on how to make faux porcelain vases. Of course, they were done in the traditional white. Here is my version of this fun tutorial. You can try it yourself with supplies you probably already have in the house.

I started with empty beer bottles (thanks to David's weekly poker night) and empty cans. Thoroughly clean them and then use an adhesive remover to take off the labels.

Using puffy paint, add dimensional designs to your bottles.

Spray paint them with your choice of color.

Ta Da! Instant awesome! How great are these vases? Well, aside from the fact that you can still read "High Life" on mine, they turned out pretty great I thought. At brunch, no one even knew they were previously beer bottles!

Switch it up with different designs, or maybe some monogramming.

Total cost of this project: $2.99 for the cost of the spray paint since I needed to buy a specific color. Cant beat that can you?!

Cupcakes and Bacon

I love bacon. I mean really, who doesn't? I love cupcakes. Again, who could resist one? Combine bacon and cupcakes? I might have just died and gone to heaven. What? You think that's a weird combo? Trust me honey, don't knock it till you've tried it.
So, give it a shot.
First, start by cooking up your bacon.

I used Maple bacon, approximately 6 strips. Reserve the drippings, and put in the fridge to solidify. Mince the bacon, and set aside for later. Yes, its ok to taste test a few pieces.

Gather up your ingredients:
4 1/2 Tbs butter, room temperature
1/2 Tbs bacon drippings (left in fridge to become solid)
1 Egg
5 Tbs brown sugar
4 Tbs Maple Syrup
1 1/4 Cup Self Rising Flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
Pinch of Kosher Salt
1/4 Cup milk
1/4 Cup minced bacon (plus more for topping)

Start by beating your butter and bacon fat, until light and creamy.

Add brown sugar and maple syrup. Combine. Add egg, combine.
Sift flour, baking soda, and baking powder together. Alternate a little flour mixture and a little milk, until combined.

Add in your bacon. Taste test. Add more milk, syrup or flour as needed. Me personally, I added a few more splashes of maple syrup. That stuff is sweet so it sure didn't take much.

Scoop into your muffin pan. Bake at 350 for 18-22 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean. You may need to rotate the pan at about 15 minutes or so to ensure even baking. Me personally, mine were done at 15 minutes.
Whip up a batch of Maple Frosting (Recipe below...sadly I didn't photograph this part).

Pipe the frosting onto the cupcakes and top with remaining crumbled bacon.

Enjoy the amazing-ness. Say it with me now....mmmm.... baaaaccccooonnnnn.

Maple Bacon Cupcakes
Ingredients:
4 1/2 Tbs butter, room temperature
1/2 Tbs bacon drippings (left in fridge to become solid)
1 Egg
5 Tbs brown sugar
4 Tbs Maple Syrup
1 1/4 Cup Self Rising Flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
Pinch of Kosher Salt
1/4 Cup milk
1/4 Cup minced bacon (plus more for topping)

Directions:
1. I used Maple bacon, approximately 6 strips. Reserve the drippings, and put in the fridge to solidify. Mince the bacon, and set aside for later. Yes, its ok to taste test a few pieces.
2. Start by beating your butter and bacon fat, until light and creamy.
3. Add brown sugar and maple syrup. Combine.
4. Add egg, combine.
5. Sift flour, baking soda, and baking powder together.
6. Alternate a little flour mixture and a little milk, until combined.
7. Add in your bacon. Taste test. Add more milk, syrup or flour as needed. Me personally, I added a few more splashes of maple syrup. That stuff is sweet so it sure didn't take much.
8. Scoop into your muffin pan. Bake at 350 for 18-22 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean. You may need to rotate the pan at about 15 minutes or so to ensure even baking. Me personally, mine were done at 15 minutes.

Maple Frosting:
4 Tbs Butter
2 Tbs Maple Syrup
1 Cup Powdered Sugar

1. Beat butter and syrup until combined.
2. Add sugar, a little at a time, until combined.
3. Pipe onto cupcakes.
4. Top with bacon!

Cinnamon Rhubarb Muffins

I am trying to take advantage of my garden. When I was planning Melinda's Birthday Brunch I remembered that Jenna over at Eat Drink Pretty had posted a recipe for Cinnamon Rhubarb Muffins. I just so happen to have rhubarb in my garden! You can check out her post here. I've also shared the recipe below.

Gather your ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2-1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
1 cup sour cream
8 Tbs. unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
2 large eggs
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1-1/2 cups diced rhubarb

For the topping:
3 Tbs. granulated sugar
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon


Heat your oven to 400 degrees. Prepare your muffin pan with liners. Gather your dry ingredients.
Whisk together: flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt.


Whisk together your wet ingredients: sour cream, melted butter, eggs, and vanilla. Stir into dry mixture, mix gently with a spatula.
Fold in your rhubarb.


Spoon into your muffin pan.


Prepare your topping of sugar and cinnamon.

Sprinkle over muffins.
Bake muffins for 18 to 22 minutes.

These babies are best served warm.

Moist and delicious!

Birthday Brunch

This weekend was my good friend Melinda's birthday. I hosted a Birthday Brunch for her (Also, Party #2 in my challenge!). I wanted to do something funky and different for this brunch, so I started with butcher block paper, and look where it lead....

The graphics were hand painted by me onto butcher block paper.

I also made the "faux porcelain" bottles, as well as the hanging chandelier. But I'll get to that in a moment. Check out all the details!

We had a mimosa bar with traditional orange juice and my personal favorite, passion fruit juice. My absolute favorite touch though was the origami butterflies floating from the glasses. I also made mini pancakes (Thanks for the inspiration Kim!), had syrup shooters, and made Maple Bacon Cupcakes! (Oh yes, recipes will follow this week!)

That's not all folks! I also made Cinnamon Rhubarb Muffins (rhubarb straight from my garden of course!), an inexpensive yet charming chandelier, a mini cinnamon roll tower, and tomato basil quiche! Yum yum and more yum!



Here we all are enjoying our food. The birthday girl is the closed on the left. Isn't she just gorgeous?! Love you Melinda! Happy Birthday!

Mini Banana Creams

Yesterday I posted about my WW Banana Cream Pie experience. While delicious, it still left me craving a really creamy pie. I decided to use what I had in the house to satisfy this craving. What I ended up with was some delicious "mini" banana cream pies!

First, I started with pre-made refrigerated pie crusts.

Unroll crust, and using a rolling pin roll out slightly further. Cut circles with a cookie cutter.


Spray a muffin pan with cooking spray and place circles in each well, pushing gently up the sides and down the bottom.
Tip: Make sure to prick the unbaked crust with a fork, or you end up with what I did.....

Bake the crusts according to package directions. However, if you are like me and forgot to prick the crusts, your pies will be pretty puffy and unable to fill. So instead, I popped them into foil cupcake liners!

Slice up your bananas and fill the pies.

I went the easy route and used some instant banana cream pudding. Mix it up according to box directions and pour into your tins. Chill in refrigerator until set.

Top with a banana slice (dip slice in lemon juice to avoid discoloration!) and whipped cream.

Now these tasted like real banana cream pies!

Since they are mini pies, I decided they could count as diet food. What? I can tell myself that.

Banana Cream Pie Adventure

Not too long ago my co-worker Mike was having a banana cream pie craving. He posted pictures on facebook of the amazing pie he made. Its been some time since I've had a really delicious banana cream pie...it got me thinking.
I recently purchased a Weight Watchers Cookbook in an effort to try to lose weight and eat healthier. Low and behold they had a banana cream pie recipe. I thought I'd give it a shot. It turned out pretty delicious, however it was no banana cream. It was fake banana cream. More like a banana tart. However at 146 calories a serving, it hit the spot on a warm summer day. Check it out....

Ingredients:
12 low fat graham crackers
1 Tablespoon butter
1 teaspoon water
4 Bananas
2 Tablespoons lime juice
1 envelope unflavored gelatin
1/2 cup cold water
1/3 cup sugar
1-1/2 cup plain fat free yogurt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract


Start by preparing your crust. In a plastic bag, use your rolling pin to crush the graham crackers. Spray your pie plate with non-stick spray and preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine graham cracker crumbs, butter and water with a fork and press into bottom of pie plate. Bake for 3-5 minutes until firm. Cool crust.

Meanwhile, slice your bananas. Toss with lime juice. Reserve 1 cup of banana mixture.

Arrange the remaining bananas in cooled crust.

In a saucepan sprinkle the gelatin over the cold water. Let it stand for 2 minutes.

Add the sugar. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring constantly. Bring to boil and dissolve the gelatin and sugar mixture.

Remove from heat and whisk in yogurt and vanilla.

Pour into your pie plate. Arrange reserved cup of bananas on the top. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until chilled. This should take approximately 2-3 hours.

Remove from fridge and enjoy! Not quite a cream, but it is very cool, crisp and refreshing on a hot summer day.

Weight Watchers Banana Cream Pie
Ingredients:
12 low fat graham crackers
1 Tablespoon butter
1 teaspoon water
4 Bananas
2 Tablespoons lime juice
1 envelope unflavored gelatin
1/2 cup cold water
1/3 cup sugar
1-1/2 cup plain fat free yogurt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:
1. Start by preparing your crust. In a plastic bag, use your rolling pin to crush the graham crackers. Spray your pie plate with non-stick spray and preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Combine graham cracker crumbs, butter and water with a fork and press into bottom of pie plate. Bake for 3-5 minutes until firm. Cool crust.
3. Meanwhile, slice your bananas. Toss with lime juice. Reserve 1 cup of banana mixture.
4. Arrange the remaining bananas in cooled crust.
5. In a saucepan sprinkle the gelatin over the cold water. Let it stand for 2 minutes.
6. Add the sugar. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring constantly. Bring to boil and dissolve the gelatin and sugar mixture.
7. Remove from heat and whisk in yogurt and vanilla.
8. Pour into your pie plate. Arrange reserved cup of bananas on the top. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until chilled. This should take approximately 2-3 hours.

Serving: 1/8 of pie
146 calories, 2 g fat
3 points

Peanutbutter and Chocolate...makes everything better!

Have you ever had one of those days (weeks...months...years!) that could only be made better with chocolate? How about one of those days that was so bad, only chocolate and peanut butter could fix it? That's the kind of week I recently had. In an effort to make things better, I whipped up a batch of Reese's Peanut butter Cup-Cupcakes. Let me tell you, it made everything all better...well, at least for a few heavenly minutes.
If your day needs saving, here is all you need...

Sometimes I'm in the mood to bake or cook complex foods, this day, was not one of them. So I resorted to what I had in the house. Chocolate cake mix, cocoa, chocolate pudding, and mini Reese's peanut butter cups.
Mix up your cake mix as directed. I like to throw in a packet of pudding, and in this case a tablespoon of some good quality cocoa.

Once everything is blended, chop up your peanut butter cups. Now, you could save time by using the big peanut butter cups, but like I said, these were times of desperation. I had to work with what I had in the house. So I chopped up about 20 mini cups. Toss them in the mix, and fold them in. Scoop into cupcake liners and bake. However, the box directs you to bake for 18-22 minutes. Mine were done at 15. So keep an eye on them. You don't want your day to be worse by burned cupcakes!

Next, whip up a batch of peanut butter frosting. I'm telling you, I'm a peanut butter addict, and when you turn it into frosting, angels start singing! A-MAZ-ING! (Don't worry, the recipe is below!)

Once those babies are cool, pipe on your frosting, top with a peanut butter cup and viola! All is right in the world.

Your mood has already improved just by looking at these hasn't it?

Take two and call me in the morning.

Peanut Butter Frosting:
1 Cup Peanut butter (creamy)
1/2 cup butter (soft)
3-6 tablespoons of milk (I needed about 6. Start with 3 and add as needed)
4-5 cups Powdered Sugar (I used 4.5 cups. Depends on how sweet you like it!)

1. Cream butter and peanut butter until nice and fluffy.
2. Gradually add powdered sugar, alternating with tablespoons of milk.
3. Keep on beating until its fluffy enough to pipe onto your cupcakes (or spread it on thick if you cant be bothered to pipe!)