30 Days of Pinterest – Day 27

The Pin!

There’s always something about my cakes, cookies or cupcakes that never turn out quite right. I can whip up a mean dinner without any recipe to follow, but if you ask me to bake a cake, you should probably expect the worst. Although, if there’s one thing that I actually can bake, it’s banana bread. For some reason, I’ve been blessed with the ability to make this treat without goofing it up, and that makes my fiance a happy man.

Because of my previous success with banana bread, I thought I would try my luck at making this banana cake. Probably not as good for you, but everything in moderation, right?

The Project Process:

You will need the following ingredients:

• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1 egg
• 2 tablespoons of softened butter
• 2 mashed super ripe bananas (the more brown spots, the better. Really!)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup of flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Let me just say that having everything for a recipe already at home makes me the happiest lady ever.

Preheat your oven to 375F, and make sure you oven rack is positioned in middle of your oven. To make sure that the cake bakes properly, you’ll want to have it baking in the right spot. Add the sugar, sour cream, egg and 2 tbsp of softened butter into your bowl and cream together. I used my kitchen-aid mixer, but this could easily have been mixed/creamed by hand.

Once your mixture is combined and creamy, it’s time to add the mashed bananas and the vanilla. If you haven’t mashed the bananas yet, now is the time to do it. I just throw them in a bowl, and mash by hand with a fork. You don’t want to try to mash the bananas while mixed with the other ingredients, it’ll cause your cake to be too dense.

Doesn’t that look delicious? Once your bananas are mashed and mixed into your mixing bowl, add the flour, salt and baking soda. Mix well, and pour into an 8×8 pan. I only had a 9×9 pan, and it turned out just fine. However, if all you have is a 9×13 pan, you will want to double the recipe. Also as an added note, you’ll want to make sure you grease your pan prior to pouring the batter in. I am constantly using Pam baking spray, which has a slight butter taste for baked treats. It’s amazing!

Bake at 375F for 20 – 25 minutes, or until you can insert a toothpick into the cake and it comes out clean. My 9×9 cake took about 23 minutes. The original poster did mention that if you are baking your cake in a glass pan, lower your temperature to 350F to avoid over-baking.

I let the cake cool a bit in the pan, and it separated nicely from the sides after a few minutes. I used a cooling rack to help flip it out of the pan, and then an additional cooling rack to flip it right side up again.

I used the recipe provided for the vanilla bean icing, but I have to admit I was less than thrilled. If you are interested in giving it a try, you can follow the directions here. I found it to have too strong of a ‘icing sugar taste’ and ended up adding more liquid to turn it into more of a glaze than a frosting.

The cake itself turned out much better than I could have imagined, and it has been a huge hit in our household! In fact, much of it has already been devoured and I have a feeling I’ll be making it again sometime in the very near future.

Do you have a favorite banana bread, cake or cupcake recipe?

30 Days of Pinterest – Day 26

The Pin!

Since we don’t have an actual linen closet, we have to make the best use any closet space we do have. Unfortunately (or I suppose fortunately for me), my clothes take up most of the space in our bedroom closet, leaving little room for anything else. We can’t afford to have our sheets balled up in a corner of the closet – it takes up too much space!

I’ve heard of the ‘how to fold a fitted sheet’ pins for a while now, and thought it was about time that I give it a try. The most popular one was the picture featured below. Since this one was originally from Martha Stewart, it (of course) appears to have been ironed prior to folding it. I had a feeling this particular folding method wouldn’t work for me for two reasons; one being that I have king sized sheets and it would be difficult to do it by hand in the air, and the other being I knew it wouldn’t look nearly as good because my sheets were wrinkly from the dryer.

I went back to the Pinterest board, and found another post that looked more like what I needed (and with written instructions as well). Here’s the picture for this one: (you can click here for the original post

The Project Process:

The photo above is pretty self explanatory, but I thought I would provide my additional notes and pictures for you as well!

Step 1: Throw on floor (that was easy)

Step 2: Take your pointer finger and find the corner of one side, and lay back on the floor

Step 3: Do the same to the other corner on the same side.

Step 4: Straighten the ‘line’ from the one corner to the other.

Step 5: Using the same pointer finger trick, find the remaining two corners, but inside out (it will make sense on the next step)

Step 6: Take the inside-out corners and then tuck them up into the regular corners. This should create a square with four square corners!

Step 7: Fold in half long-ways so the top two corners meet.

Step 8: Fold in half again, bringing the bottom up to the top.

Step 9: Fold in half again from the left side to the right (or mix it up and fold from the right side to the left!)

Step 10: You’re done! If you need too, you can fold in half an extra time to make the sheet more compact. You should be able to stack the fitted sheet on top of your flat sheet in a nicely fashion!

Although all of our extra pillow cases are currently being used, I love the idea of keeping everything together in a neat little package like this! I will most definitely be doing this when we move into a home that has an actual linen closet

30 Days of Pinterest – Day 22

The Pin!

Even though I absolutely adore hummus, I have to admit I’ve never actually made it! My love for this good-for-you dip started when I took a Chef Dez cooking class at Lepp Farm Market, and was actually surprised that I liked the taste of pureed chic peas. Who knew they could taste so good?! After the class, we were given the recipe  – but since I didn’t own a food processor, I never got around to making it.

Fast forward a few years and I finally have a food processor (and it has literally changed my life)! I’m not quite sure why it took me so long to get around to making my own hummus with it, but I figured this would be the best time to give it a try. Since Chef Dez’s Greek hummus recipe is unfortunately long gone, I headed onto Pinterest to find a suitable replacement.

The Project Process:

For this super simple hummus recipe, you will need the following ingredients:

• 1 cup canned chick peas (if you do any shopping in the states, they call these garbanzo beans!)
• 1/3 cup tahini (this is sesame seed paste – I didn’t have any, so I omitted it and it still tasted great)
• 1/4 cup water
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin
• 1/4 extra virgin olive oil
• 1/3 cup lemon juice
• dash of salt & pepper
• dash of paprika

If you have tahini, the original recipe indicates for you to combine the water and the tahini ahead of time, so it’s already mixed together for when you need it. Like I mentioned above, I didn’t have any tahini, but was willing to give it a try without it anyways. I have seen hummus recipes in the past that did not include it, so I knew it probably wouldn’t cause any major problems.

Start by pouring the canned peas, garlic and cumin into the food processor. After the mixture begins to look like coarse meal, start adding small amounts of water to make it easier to blend. I would recommend using just under 1/4 cup (if that), as 1/4 cup seemed to be too much without the thickening power of the tahini. Of course, if you did have the tahini, this is where you would add it, along with the full 1/4 of water.

Once everything is well blended, you can start adding the lemon juice and olive oil in small quantities, alternating between the two. This is where I started to feel like a fancy chef! I just love the feeling of making something from scratch, and having the yummy smells take over your kitchen.

After you have all of the ingredients combined, continue to process for another 5 or so minutes. Scoop out of the food processor into a dish, and garnish with paprika. If you’re feeling extra fancy, you can add an olive or two and a dash of olive oil on top as well!

A note about garlic: I love, love, love garlic and actually put 3 cloves in, instead of the recommended 2. I highly discourage this! As you might have guessed, it ended up being way too much garlic, and greatly reduced the chances of a goodnight kiss without prior teeth-brushing!

A note about chick peas: After making this recipe, I learned that while chick peas don’t have to be peeled, it’s worth the effort if you have the time. Apparently, peeled chick peas will make a much smoother hummus, and a less grainy texture. I’ll be giving it a try on round 2 of my hummus – I’ll keep you posted!

30 Days of Pinterest – Day 21

The Pin!

Okay, so, these didn’t exactly turn out as planned but I still love the idea and will be giving them another go.

I’m forever losing my popsicle stick markers in our veggie garden each year. Either they get lost in amongst all the greenery or the rain washes away the ink or some critter decides they would make a good addition to their nest.

So I found this project! I think these are great. They are inexpensive to make, relatively easy to make (says me who didn’t do a good job), customizable and add colour to your garden, which is always a lovely thing.

What you need:

wooden spoons
letter stickers
spray paint
clear coat
tape

The process is fairly straightforward. First, use the alphabet stickers to spell out the names of the items in your garden. I’d recommend using the back of the spoons as they are a flatter surface.

I liked the tip about putting tape around a couple of inches at the bottom so paint isn’t sitting in your vegetable garden. Because, really, the whole reason I’m growing my own food is so its healthier than what I can buy at the store! I think this would be a great way to get kids involved in veggie gardening – have them decide what they would like to plant and make these great markers together. Perhaps instead of spray paint you could use a brush to paint on any variety of children’s paints that you have on hand – finger paints, watercolours, you name it – it would all work, as you will be sealing with a clear coat.

So after you paint, let them sit until dry. I put mine upright in one of my planters so the paint could dry evenly. When the paint is dry, carefully peel off your letter stickers and apply a coat of clear coat so they become water/weather proof. Again let them sit to dry.

Here’s the finished product. Not best, I’m so unhappy with all the paint bleeds. I still love this idea, though, and will give them another try before I plant my garden next month.

What went wrong? I believe two things were against me. First, the stickers I got were cheap and not very sticky. They didn’t stick properly so the paint got under the sticker bit. I’d use stickier letters, maybe better quality ones meant for scrapbooking. Or you could use wooden spoons that are already clear coated. Some of the letters on my project are blurry because the paint ran/seeped on the raw wood. Or better yet, you could still buy the cheap spoons and give them a quick clear coat of your own before the paint. I’ll experiment and update this post in the coming weeks.

30 Days of Pinterest – Day 19

The Pin!

I’m a huge garden fan, but living in a one bedroom apartment can sometimes be a little limiting in this area. I have little pots of mint and basil sitting on various window sills, but I love the idea of trying something new. Before reading this pin, I wasn’t even aware that you could plant lemon seeds! Well, I figured you could plant them, I just didn’t realize they would grow into aesthetically pleasing sprouts.

The Project Process:

This was one of the cheapest pins I have completed this month. Since I already had all of the required items, all I had to do was gather them up from around my house and display them nicely for a picture!

Here’s What You’ll Need:

• Seeds from one lemon
• Mug (for planting)
• Few handfuls of soil
• Saran wrap

Like the original poster mentioned, doing too much research on certain projects can just end up being extremely confusing. So for this one, I decided to keep it as simple as possible.

Here are the steps I took:

• Using a knife, pop the seeds out of the lemon and collect them in a bowl (this got the seeds out, without totally destroying the lemon). Note: use fresh seeds only. Don’t collect seeds for weeks and then try to plant them. It probably won’t work.
• Rinse the lemon seeds with water. I allowed mine to soak for a little bit in the water as well.

• Fill a mug (or other suitable container) 3/4 full with soil.
• Arrange lemon seeds in dirt

• Cover with a bit more dirt – just enough to cover the seeds.
• Add a little bit of water.
• Cover with saran wrap, to help create a cozy greenhouse for your seedlings. This will keep the moisture in, and allow the seeds to germinate within the soil.
• Set the container on something that is relatively warm. While the original poster effectively used her Apple Time Machine, I opted to use my wireless router. Although I don’t think it generates quite as much warmth, I figured it would work better than flat on a table or a ledge.

It’s been there for about 3 days now, and I’ve probably been checking it much more often than I need to be. However, it’s my first time growing something right from seed form and I’m anxious to see how they turn out!

I’ve also heard that leafy lemon plants can also add a slight fragrance to the air, so I’m looking forward to making a few more of these little pots if everything goes as planned! Stay tuned for an update in a week or so!

Have you ever planted anything from seed form? Did you realize you could plant lemon seeds for household plants? Oh the things you can learn on Pinterest!

30 Days of Pinterest – Day 18

The Pin!

If this Pinterest challenge is any indication of how much I use my kitchen, I’m sure you can imagine how many dishes I’ve managed to dirty in the process! I’ve been really intrigued by the homemade dishwasher cube pin for a while, and I’m excited to be finally giving it a try.

The Project Process:

Prior to tackling 30 Days of Pinterest, I was quite hesitant towards attempting many of the ‘do-it-yourself’ projects I came across.  While I am a self-proclaimed crafty gal who loves any d.i.y. project that involves paint, paper or glue, I’ve always steered clear of make-it-yourself home or body products. Something about them intimidated me. That, and I’ve always felt like I would totally bomb them and would regret wasting the time and money spent to try and make them myself.

Since the whole point of this challenge was for me to expand my horizons and finally try those Pinterest ideas I secretly love, I knew it was only a matter of time before I dove into something like dish cubes. I do have to admit though, after constructing bath bombs, concocting shower pucks, and even doing a little vinegar and baking soda scrubbing; I did feel slightly more confident in the dish cube department than I would have 20 days ago.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 Cup Vinegar
• 2 Cups Baking Soda
• 2 Cups Borax
• 1/2 Cup Salt
• Lemon Essential Oil (few drops)

Since I’ve done a few different things with vinegar and baking soda this month, I already had plenty in my cupboards. The only thing I had to purchase for this task was Borax, but man that stuff was hard to find! I’m not sure if it is generally a hard item to locate, or if everyone else was just making loads of dishwasher cubes too, but I finally did locate it at our local Wal-Mart. If your Wal-Mart is anything like ours, it can be found in the laundry aisle, near the middle, at the very bottom of the shelves, laying down. The whole laying down part of the product placement probably added to the difficulty of locating it, and now I’m wondering if the other stores I checked did have it, I just missed it.

Anyways, back to the constructing of dishwasher cubes! Mix everything together in a medium or large bowl, making sure everything is mixed thoroughly. The vinegar may cause the mixture to fizz slightly, but this is normal. Once mixture is completely mixed together, scoop out of the bowl and press into 2 ice cube trays.

You want to make sure you pack the cubes as tightly as you can, as this will create more solid, and more effective, dishwasher cubes. If you know your dishwasher has a smaller cube compartment, feel free to fill the trays only half full, and fit in 3 trays instead of the original 2. Wait approximately 24 hours to let the cubes dry thoroughly, and then place in a glass container or ziploc bag for storage.

When you have a full load of dishes that you are wanting to clean, place a cube in the regular dish cube spot of your dishwasher.

The original poster recommends using 2-3 drops of dawn dish soap on top of the dish cube (for added grease cutting action), but make sure not to use any more than this! Dish soap can cause your dishwasher to overflow, so be very mindful of how much product you use in this step!

Do you use natural products such as these in  your dishwasher? How do they work for you – and do you find it to be cheaper than purchasing them from the store?