Honey Cinnamon Beer Bread

I'm hungry. I'm always hungry. I'm also usually VERY hungry when it's late at night and I don't want to cook/get fast food/starve/eat what's in my pantry. This dilemma has most recently lead to a little twist on a staple at my house-BEEEEEER BREEEEEAAAAAAD!

Start with the following ingredients:

3c all-purpose flour
3T sugar (I used turbinado but granulated is fine.)
1T baking powder
1t salt
3T honey
1 (12oz) bottle of beer (I recommend a darker beer but use what you have.)
1 stick of butter
extra sugar
1T cinnamon
2t vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350. I usually place the stick of butter in the loaf pan and let it melt while the oven is getting hot. Whisk all of your dry ingredients save the cinnamon. Add the entire bottle of beer and honey and stir until dry ingredients are wet. Take the loaf pan from the oven and add sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla, mixing well. Pour half of that mixture into a bowl. Now spoon the bread batter into the loaf pan. Once you have it all in there and sort of evened out, pour the remaining cinnamon, butter, sugar mixture on the top paying special attention to corner and sides. Bake that shit for about 50-60mins. Take it out and eat it hot.

Yes, I ate a corner of it before taking this picture. It was delicious.

Bows..made of felt...we call them...Felt Bows!

We're back!  Hold your applause until the end...

Today we're making felt bows!  I mean, why not?

Any questions?  Enjoy!

Fall Food!

 The temps are dropping at night in these parts and it's getting me all worked up for some comfort food. I'm going to give you guys a recipe for some of the yummiest, best for you, super easy, fall comfort food. Let's start with the following ingredients:

*Butternut Squash (peeled and cubed)
*Fresh bunch of Kale (rinsed and chopped)
*Couscous (I use the box kind that is ready in 5mins.)
*Olive Oil
*Salt and Pepper (to taste)
*Squeeze of Lemon juice (optional)

Depending on how much squash and kale you are using, pour olive oil into pan (or stockpot-whatever's handy) on medium heat. I recommend doing the prep work as the oil is getting hot. Once you have everything washed, peeled, and chopped, add the squash and salt and pepper to the hot oil. Let it cook a few minutes (longer for bigger cubes). As it's cooking, boil your water and butter (or olive oil) for the couscous. (*Note: I use chicken broth in place of the water.) After you've added the coucous to the water and taken it off of the heat, add your chopped kale to the squash and mix it up, making sure to coat the kale in the remaining olive oil. (If you don't have enough olive oil, just add a bit of water.) Squeeze a little lemon juice at this point, if you so desire. Cook for a few more minutes, until the kale is wilted and a shiny dark green. I think the best advice on this dish (and life in general!) is to just eyeball it. Try a spoonful. If it tastes good to you, it's done!

 

I think you could probably do a lot of variations on this and it would be incredible (cranberries, walnuts, Quinoa instead of Couscous, and on and on.) Let us know if you've tried it or if you have any ideas on how to improve it!

Annie

 



That Pom-Pa-Pom-Pom-Pom

Dudes, Christmas is coming up in like, three months! I'm stoked. I'm also determined to be prepared and Martha Stewart-y. I intend on blowing this little bloggy boo up with Christmas related shit in the coming weeks! I found a really delightful tutorial a while back that showed how to make mini poms with a fork. Now, y'all, mini poms can be used for many, MANY things. You can string them to make garland, attach them to gifts in place of the traditional bow, add them to an old sweater for a holiday party, glue them to candle holders, add them to Christmas wreaths, etc. You get the drift, yes? They're pretty much the cutest, cheapest, easiest Christmas DIY decor item ever! My plan is to make a ton of these to have on hand for gift wrapping and decorating. Let's get started, my pretties!




Start with your yarn, fork, and scissors.



Wrap an assload of yarn around the fork.

 

Take an extra piece of yarn and tie very tightly around the middle of your bunch, going up through the middle of the prongs. Then, gently slide the yarn off of the fork and cut the loops.

Here you have it!





 



 A few times when I was making these, they would fall apart. Don't get discouraged. If you're planning on making quite a few of these, my best advice would be to use cheap yarn and be slightly drunk-too drunk and they won't turn out nice. Har-har!

Annie

Button Bracelet

I was digging through my button tin last night and decided to try this. I think it'd be super cute to make an armload of 'em and give as a gift. This should be fairly easy to follow. Email us pictures of yours!



 

 

 

 

Pull Apart Garlic Cheese Bread

Hi, there! Wanted to share this "recipe" for pull apart garlic and cheese bread with you doodz. It was really good and really easy. I think the best part of it is the room for change! It would be super good with almost any combination of things your little bread lovin' mind could think up! I am going to try it with cinnamon, sugar, and walnuts or pecans next time. The time after that, I might go with Ranch dressing powder, bacon bits, and cheddar cheese. Ooo, num nums. Ready to get started? You will need the following items:

1 can of refrigerated biscuits
1/2 stick butter (melted)
1 teaspoon garlic powder (you can substitute minced garlic)
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1 cup of Parmesan (I used shredded but I suppose grated would work just fine.)
*Note: I used 1/2 cup of Parmesan and a 1/2 cup of shredded cheddar because it was all I had in the fridge.

Preheat oven to 350, put the butter in a glass bowl in the oven while it is preheating to melt, cut each biscuit into quarters, mix the cheese and dry ingredients with the butter after it has melted, then add the biscuits. Make sure to cover all of the biscuits and then pat down in the bottom of a bundt pan. Add the remaining mixture (if there is any) and bake around 20mins.

Looks pretty yummy, huh? We ate it with spaghetti. Mmm.



There you have it, friends. Super easy and super good. Play around with the dry ingredients. Let us know if you have any good ideas. Later, sweet taters.
Annie

Repurposing an Old Canvas

Hello, boofaces! I hope you are doing well, eating cake on a regular basis, laughing, getting sweet lovin', etc. I wanted to share this with you all because I was impressed at how incredibly easy it was. I'm talking no effort. Surely you have seen the photo tutorial on Pinterest where you paint a canvas, lay a little branchy thing with leaves on it over the canvas, and then spray paint gold. I saw it a while back and thought, "Wow, that looks really great! AAAAAAND it's basically free and super easy. I could totally do that." Let me tell you, I could not do it. As the old adage goes, if it seems too good to be true, it is. You can see what came of my efforts below. It was a total bummer but fortunately I ran across another wonderful thing to do with canvas! The TJ Maxx in Little Rock has a tiny little stationery section and I found those silver cardboard letters there for just $1.49. Lucky for me, they had adhesive backing! I just stuck my little phrase down at the bottom, painted over the whole thing with a few coats of white acrylic paint (spray paint would be fine as well), and sprayed a few coats of clear coat over it. Please share any ideas or experiences you have with canvas projects in the comments!

Annie

This beauty now hangs above my terlet! What a nice little reminder for my husband as he's urinating.