Cheater Churros

26 Aug

I’m slightly embarrassed. These suckers are so easy I feel almost dumb posting a recipe for them…but they’re SOOO dang delish!

Just do yourself a favor and go buy a package of these Puff Pastry Sheets now…

Your stomach/family/roommates/grandma/boy will love you for it. Trust.
My only warning for these is that they are in no way authentic churros. If you’re wanting the real deal with the chewy center you’re going to have to put a lot more work into it.
For now these will satisfy my sweet tooth…for breakfast? Uh ya. Dessert? Definitely.
First: Cut into 1 inch wide strips and place on a slightly greased baking sheet or baking mat.

Brush egg white on one side of each strip. (Not necessary but gives you a prettier brown crust)

Bake in the oven at 450 degrees for 8-10 minutes. Make your cinnamon/sugar mixture while the little guys are in the oven.

Take them out once they are a nice golden brown.

Brush all sides of the churros with butter then place in a ziploc bag with the cinammon/sugar party.

Shake the bag around a bit to get it evenly coated…then. Well. You know what to do from here.


Dig in! These hit the spot anytime of the day, let me tell you.
Recipe:
1 sheet Puff Pastry
1/2 c sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 c butter, melted
*You’ll have leftover cinnamon/sugar but I saved mine for another treat. It’s also easier to coat the churros when you have more of the sugar in the bag.
Cut pastry into 1 inch wide strips. Bake at 450 degrees for 9-10 minutes. Brush with butter then coat them with the cinnamon and sugar.

Door Table

24 Aug

Today I will post our latest furniture make over project sort of as a mini tutorial…except for that there aren’t very many good details. :) We mostly just “winged it” when building this table but I LOVE the way it turned out. My husband is seriously the man. :) I pretty much did no work on this…I supervised. So my dad flips houses for a living and got this extra old door at one of his houses and was just going to get rid of it. I called dibs on it and my mom gave it to me as a birthday present. I was SO happy!

We started out with this old door that was brown on the bottom (as you can see) and this bright robin’s-egg-blue on the top. I liked the blue but it was a little too strong for my taste. We started out by going to Lowe’s and getting four legs which I think were about $18 a piece. (Sort of expensive) and the hardware to attach them to the table. We made the whole thing so that we could take it all apart if we needed to. (We move a lot). The legs literally screw into the top of the table. After that we realized that the table was still pretty wobbly so we decided to buy some boards to encase the whole thing in. Then we had to buy various brackets to stabilize the whole thing. Some of the brackets hooked to the actual door and the others hooked the boards to the legs. (Although the whole thing can still be taken apart pretty easily, and was way less wobbly).

Next we painted. We scraped off a little paint off the top of the table and took it to Home Depot to have it color matched. We got the paint mixed in a Behr interior flat enamel with a medium base. The blue color we used was called Teal Zeal. We first did the entire table in that and then sanded it down so it looked vintage…y. Next we coated it in crackle paint base and quickly covered it with a Behr interior flat color called Grass Cloth. The crackle started to show immediately! It was so fun to watch it. Then I made my husband (bless his heart) sand it down more because I wanted to see little chunks of the wood. And then he coated (seriously probably five or six times) with a Polyurethane interior water based top coat to make it super smooth. Here is some of the detail up close…

We really want to use it for our kitchen table but we need to still get a glass top for it. Generally if you get a really thick glass top it is pretty much unbreakable and un-scratchable and is easy to clean! We aren’t really using it for much right now because I don’t want to ruin all of my husband’s hard work. :) Here is the final product!

Rosette Pillow Tutorial

23 Aug

An easy way to freshen up a room, is to add a lovely pillow.
Easy enough, right?
Well, I bought this gray and brown pillow from Ross for $3.99. Much cheaper than getting fabric and a pillow from the craft store.
I ripped the stitches out and found a lot of stuffing inside.
 
Then I laid out both pieces of fabric that I wanted to use. I used the fabric that came on the pillow, and just flipped the brown fabric around (that had the writing).
Then I made the rosettes from an old white tee-shirt. All you need to do is sew through strips of fabric, then pull on the thread so it bunches. Form the fabric in a circle to make a little flower-like bunch. Arrange the rosettes on your fabric, and pin them in place. Stitch the rosettes to the pillow. (I hand stitched each one on. It took a while. If I was better with a sewing machine, I would have preferred that.)
Sew the front and back together, inside out (rosettes inside), leaving a little opening, then flip it right side out and stuff your pillow with batting.
If you have ever been to the Build-A-Bear workshop, then you know that when you make a stuffed animal, you can also put in a little treasure (like a little heart) inside of it before it is all sewed up. I wanted to do the same so I wrote a message on a piece of fabric and stuffed it inside.

I am so cheesy. And Jeff has no idea what Build-A-Bear Workshop is, so he thought i was ridiculous.
Anyway, here is the final result!

Looks lovely on my farmhouse bed… And especially nice next to my yellow lamp.

Guest Post: Baby Girl Hair Clip Holder

22 Aug

Hello all my dear Add Some Paint readers! I am Katie Joe, visiting from The Seasons of Katie Joe. I have a wonderful husband of two years and in about a week we will have a beautiful baby girl joining us! Creativity is my cheap thrill and today I am going to share with you how I made hair clip storage into an inexpensive piece of wall art for my baby girl’s nursery. 


Ingredients: 
-Frame
-Ribbon (the amount required depends on your frame size)
-Fabric (the amount required depends on your frame size)
-Paint and Brush
-Needle-nose pliers (I needed them but you might not)
-Staple gun and 1/4” staples (make sure your staples won’t go through your frame)

First I went to Goodwill and found a frame that was the size I wanted. I made sure it had a wire to hang on the wall, but I didn’t need the glass so I had more options. Also, I hit Goodwill on their half off Saturday, double score.



When I went to the cash register with my purchase the employee’s eyes go big and she grabbed my frame and said, “Oh, I love this place! I am always amazed at the treasures people find, and this is beautiful!” It was one of my favorite Goodwill moments and I couldn’t break the news to her that I would be tearing this treasure apart. 
The first thing I did, (after cleaning it off) was take the beautiful embroidered nature scene out of the frame and disposed of it rather quickly. This required the needle-nose pliers to remove. Then I painted the frame white.

Next, I measured out how far apart I wanted my ribbon to be and marked their positions. Then I stapled the ribbon to the back side of the frame making sure it was pulled tight.



After each ribbon was secure I stapled my fabric. It is important to go slow with this step to make sure it is lined up how you want and that it’s tight with no weird gaps or wrinkles. My fabric had dots in straight rows and I had to keep that in mind so it didn’t look off. Also, since my frame had a wire, I had to position my fabric underneath it.

When I finished I felt it was a little boring for any child of mine so I repainted the frame pink and that, I’m sure, is something my baby girl will love!

Curtains in less than an hour!

22 Aug

Alright, it’s time for real talk. I am not crafty. Well that’s what I’ve been telling myself for 21 years. After every project I’ve done, it has turned out to look like a Kindergarten level finger painting that wouldn’t even make it on the fridge. Therefore I have kept a far distance from things like sewing machines, glue, and paint. However, times are changin! I decided to turn a new leaf and make myself a more crafty person…plus the house I just moved into needs some major help.

Exhibit A: Our windows upstairs were desperate for some curtains.
When you live in a college town you never know what kind of crazy creepers are peepin into windows, so I decided something had to be done. I wondered how I could make curtains Maddie style. Fast, cheap, easy and without a sewing machine. Well, I was able to do it in that matter. Just don’t look too close at the picture because in no way are they perfect. They just get the job done and are pretty cute if I don’t say so myself.
I bought this fabric at Joann’s which was also on sale. Score.
The Process:
–I measured the width of each window and cut two sections of fabric for each window. (Each piece of fabric was slightly wider than half the width of the window to allow for bunching).
–I just folded down the top of the fabric about two inches and glued the bottom of the flap, then pressed the glue to the fabric. Before doing this I:
-Ironed the sheets and I also ironed the folded down part to make it look more clean and sharp.
–Once the hot glue was dry I stuck the suspension rods through the loop and then put the suspension rods back in the window!
Expenses:
We already had suspension rods in the window so my only costs for the curtains was the fabric and a little bit of glue for the hot glue gun.
Total Cost= $10
Here’s how it turned out…Martha Stewart may not be proud but it’s better than before.


No more sprinting to the bathroom in my undies. It’s the simple things in life that get me.


Easy Basil Pesto

19 Aug

So I mentioned in the Summer Salsa post that I could eat that stuff every day of my life. Well here’s another thing to add to that list. PESTO. I love pesto and everything about it. It’s a healthier alternative to heavy creamy sauces and if I could marry any herb it would be basil by a long shot. I’ve had a lot of good pesto growing up in Northern California where the cuisine is amazing so I’m a little picky when it comes to this Italian sauce. It doesn’t help that I’ve worked at an Italian restaurant, which was featured on the Food Network show- Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives. Cafe Citti is the name of the place and I have yet to find a place that makes a better pesto sauce. So here is my attempt at duplicating the recipe. It didn’t quite match Cafe Citti but it’s still dang good.
One fun thing about Pesto is that it is very versatile. I added a little bit of swiss chard in this recipe to add some more nutrients. One of the best pesto recipes I’ve made was when I had to use spinach and cashews because I couldn’t justify buying pine nuts and basil from the grocery store $$$$. It turned out amazing I was so surprised. Here’s a little peek at the final product:

I whipped this up in 15 minutes when I was in a rush and needed a quick dinner on a school night. I made the pesto while the pasta was cooking and had an awesome dinner in no time.

Here’s the recipe for original Basil Pesto

Ingredients:
2 cups fresh basil leaves packed
1 c Swiss Chard leaves, removed from vein (can be left out)
1/2 c Olive Oil
1/2 c Pine Nuts (Can substitute cashews, walnuts or almonds)
3 cloves garlic
2/3 c Parmesan
salt and pepper to taste
**Don’t be afraid to still try this recipe even if you don’t have the exact ingredients!
Instructions:
Place all ingredients in a food processor and blend until smooth or to your desired consistency. Taste and check for salt and pepper. If it seems too thick continue adding olive oil.
Add to your favorite pasta, mix with a little mayo and spread on a sandwich, or lather on a pizza crust…you name it and it will deliver amazing results! A great tip I heard is to divide your pasta sauce into an ice cube tray and freeze it. Then take out the amount of cubes necessary for what you’re making and you’ll always have a meal just a few minutes away!
Recipe adapted from here and here.

Easy Magnets

18 Aug

Basically everyone in the crafting world has heard of/already made these darling little magnets but I am going to show you how to make them for all you crafting-virgins out there. You start off with your clear crystal…thingys. You can get them at a crafting store for like 3 dollars for a bag of about thirty or you can get real crystals with healing powers at your local metaphysical crystal store for 50 dollars. (But you will have dual functioning magnets, well worth the extra cost.)

Next find some pictures that you want in the back of your magnets. I wanted to make “bird” themed ones because it seemed like the cool thing to do at the time. Now I have all these dang birds on my fridge and I don’t know what to do with them. But anyway, the easiest way to do this is to not stress over it, Google some images you want, and copy and paste them into a word document. Don’t worry about not getting them the exact right size just eyeball it. One cool thing you can do with these is to put numbers on the backs and use them on your white-board/chalk-board calendars. Like at this site. Or put sayings in them as a thank you or put your own personal photos in.

Hint: I wouldn’t suggest cutting them all out in perfect circles because the stones are not perfect. I actually traced each stone over my picture before cutting it out so that it fit the stone perfectly. Also, they are not all the same width or size.

Next take some Mod podge (glue of the Gods) and paste it to the back of the stone. (Doing a layer over and under the picture). Make sure that you are putting your picture face down (so you can see it through the glass) and also on the flat part of the stone. This magnifies your image and also, its darn hard to glue a flat magnet to a non-flat surface. Possible, but hard.

Lastly, take your handy dandy hot glue gun and glue your magnets to your stones (after they have dried completely. Also, make sure that your magnets can actually hold up the weight of your crystals because well…been there done that and it makes you feel like you just wasted craft material…which you did. So, watch out! Here is what mine turned out like after several trial periods.

Bread Machine Cinnamon Rolls

16 Aug

I love fresh cinnamon rolls right out of the oven. It has been a family tradition every Thanksgiving to eat cinnamon rolls for breakfast. We typically invite a bunch of friends over to play mud football, and my mom would make cinnamon rolls for us to enjoy after the game.
Here we are last Thanksgiving, ready for some Sin Rolls.

 I couldn’t wait another 3ish months for Thanksgiving to roll around, so I made some of my own.

Recipe Source: All Recipes, Cinnamon Rolls II Recipe

Ingredients
Dough:
  • 1/2 cup milk
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 2 tablespoons butter
  • 3/4 teaspoon salt
  • 3 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
  • 1/4 cup white sugar
  • 1 egg

Inside:

  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1/3 cup white sugar / brown sugar mix
  • 1/3 cup raisins (optional)
  • 1/3 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Cream Cheese Frosting: 

  • 1 cup confectioners’ sugar 
  • 1/8 – 1/4 cup cream cheese
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons melted butter
  • 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract 
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons milk
    (These are estimates. I made the cream cheese frosting without a recipe.)

      Directions

      1. In bowl, heat 1/2 cup milk, water, and 2 tablespoons butter until warm (microwave works). Place milk mixture, salt, flour, yeast, sugar, and eggs in the pan of the bread machine in the order suggested by the manufacturer. (My bread machine calls for all the liquid on the bottom, the dry stuff on top, and then yeast sprinkled on last.) Select the Dough cycle. Press Start.
      2. Once dough cycle is complete, remove the dough from the bread machine and punch down. On a floured surface, roll into a large rectangle. Spread with the softened butter. Combine the cinnamon and 1/3 cup sugar. Sprinkle over the rectangle.
      3. Roll the dough up into a log starting at the long side. Cut into 12 slices (using floss works really well). Place the rolls into a 9×13-inch greased baking pan. Cover, and let rise in a warm place until almost doubled, about 30 minutes.
      4. Preheat an oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Combine the confectioners’ sugar, 1.5 tablespoons melted butter, vanilla extract, and 1.5 tablespoons milk into a thick frosting; set aside.
      5. Bake rolls in preheated oven until golden, 18 minutes. Remove and allow to cool 10 minutes. Spread frosting over baked rolls and enjoy.
       

      “To Do” and “To Eat” boards

      16 Aug

      One of our dear sisters, Chelsea, did a fabulous wall transformation and well…let’s just say she has four kids and a life. So I, the one with no life and only 1 and 1/2 kids will post it for her. :) She is one of the craftiest people I know so we will be doing a lot of posting in her behalf.
      Chelsea first started by painting some old frames that she wasn’t using and gathering some other materials. She wanted to make boards that she could write on to keep notes for the family, that still looked cute in her kitchen.
      She used an old pair of pants to cover the background of one of her frames…genius and thrifty. What more could you ask for?
      She also had these cute letters that she glued on the background (behind the glass) to serve as her titles. Then she laid everything out where she wanted it and now her frames (the glass) serve as white boards for her to list all of her many things to do and her many things to eat. :)  
      Here is the glorious before and after of her wall transformation! Didn’t they turn out cute?!

      What do you do with a big box of over ripe strawberries?

      15 Aug

      The last two months I was home working to make some money so I can afford to eat while at college. It’s really my main motivation to work…so I can eat well. I love eating/cooking and I refuse to have the college student diet of top ramen and hamburger helper every night. (Quick confession-Every once in a while I totally crave Top Ramen. It reminds me of happy childhood memories with Jenna haha) Ok ok so back to the strawberries. These are one of my favorite things to get while I’m home because they are the BEST. DANG. STRAWBERRIES on the planet. I’m not kidding you they taste like candy! So I discovered that they will sell you the over ripe ones (“Jam Berries”) for a crazy cheap price considering the fact that most of them are still in really good shape. That huge box only cost me $5! With this entire box I was able to make:

      Strawberry Ice Cream

      Strawberry Jam
      And…Fruit Leather!
      Today I’m posting the recipe for the Strawberry Fruit Leather!
      This stuff is awesome for several reasons:
      1. I’ve never made fruit leather before and have always wanted to try.
      2. It’s a sweet fruit snack that my brother (who has type 1 diabetes) can have without feeling guilty.
      3. They’re so so much cheaper and healthier to make than the store bought versions.

      I made a larger batch and then made them on two baking sheets so you can easily cut this recipe in half and bake it on one sheet.


      Ingredients:
      6 c strawberries roughly chopped
      1 1/2 c Water
      Juice of one whole lemon
      1 c Sugar (I used Stevia, a natural sweetener)
      Cooking Spray
      Instructions:
      Take the stem off and chop all of your strawberries. Throw into a large pot to boil in along with the water. Bring mixture to a boil, then add in your sugar and lemon juice. Simmer for a few more minutes to let the sugar dissolve then take off the heat. Let cool and then pour mixture into a food processor or blender. Blend until smooth. Taste the mixture and add sugar if needed. Prepare baking sheets that are covered with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Spray parchment paper or sheets with cooking spray then pour strawberry mixture on baking sheets. Spread the liquid evenly across the baking sheet and place in your oven for 8-10 hours at 170 degrees. Check on the fruit leather about every 2-3 hours to check for dryness. If the edges are getting dry and crisp then brush them with water and continue to do so until the middle is no longer soggy. Take out of oven when done and cut into strips. Yum!


      *My brother thinks they’re better after a couple of days and I think he was right! He absolutely loved them and begged me to make them again…which I did. I spoil that guy.
      Recipe adapted from:
      http://tastykitchen.com/recipes/desserts/homemade-fruit-leather/
      http://www.cookingwithmykid.com/recipes/homemade-fruit-strips/
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