Watermelon cookies

I was in charge of dessert for our Memorial Day family picnic. Again. I love to bake so this excites me. I was reminded of what I made LAST year for our picnic. I can't talk about this years dessert because I don't have a picture. My mom was getting something out of the cooler and when she went to put the dessert I made back in she accidentally dropped it but managed to catch it. The top still got messed up though and I had yet to get a picture so there isn't one :( But, I have a really great recipe WITH pictures from last year to share! The reipe comes from Amanda's cooking and I seriously saw this the day before I would need to make it and luckily had everything on hand!

Watermelon Cookies (From Amanda's cookin)

Don't be a dunce and forget to dye your dough before rolling out, cutting AND baking your first batch :)

Sugar Cookie Dough3 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2 tablespoon slices
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
6 drops red food coloring

1 cup miniature semi sweet morsels (I didn't have mini ones so I used regular ones...mini would be better!)

Glaze
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
2-3 tablespoons milk
green paste food coloring OR 15-20 drops green food coloring

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

Place butter slices, sugar, eggs, vanilla, and red food coloring in a large bowl. Beat on medium speed until incorporated. Don't be concerned if there are small lumps of butter still visible. Turn mixer down to low and gradually add flour mixture. Mix well until no flour is left. Gather all the dough together using a sturdy rubber spatula.

Remove dough from bowl and separate into two batches. Place one batch between 2 sheets of parchment paper and roll out to about 1/4" thick. Repeat with the other batch. Chill in the refrigerator for two hours.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F and have insulated baking sheets ready.

*Note: Insulated baking sheets are best for baking sugar cookies. If you only have regular cookie sheets, line them with parchment or a silicon baking mat.
Remove one batch of rolled dough from the refrigerator. Cut out circles with a cookie cutter or biscuit cutter.

Use a sharp knife to cut each circle in half. Place the halves on the baking sheet, about 1" apart.

Gently press miniature semi sweet morsels into each semicircle.
Bake for 6-8 minutes, checking after 6 minutes. Cookies will be slightly puffed but not browned. Do not allow cookies to get too brown or you'll have dry crumbly cookies. Remove from oven and allow cookies to cool on baking sheets for 5 minutes. Remove to wire cooling rack and allow to cool completely.

For each batch of cookie dough, after cutting out the circles, gather the scraps together and reroll them, place back in the refrigerator. Repeat until all dough has been used.

For the Glaze 

In a small bowl, mix together all ingredients to form a glaze. You may add drops of milk to thin glaze if it is too thick.

Cover counter with wax paper and place cooling racks over the wax paper to catch drips. To decorate the cookies, roll the round end of the cookie in the glaze, allow excess to drip off into bowl.

Place cookies on cooling racks, excess glaze will drip through onto the wax paper. Wait for glaze to set before moving the cookies

Bumpy Cake!!

While doing some last minute holiday shopping this Memorial Day weekend I saw a bunch of these on display in my local grocery store. If you're from Detroit you know all about Sanders bumpy cake :) Sanders is a local chocolate and ice cream store/parlor that we have here. Their sweets are DELICIOUS! I have grown up with this cake as a part of so many celebrations. When I was a teenager my sister and I discovered that Sanders had concocted a 'bumpy cake' ice cream and we fell in love :) This cake is so great it even has its own Facebook fan page!  I don't know where I got this recipe from since I only have it saved as a word document with no credit given. Bad me. I had no idea back when I got it that I would want to share it. So, I did get it from somewhere online but I don't know where. There are several sites that have the exact same recipe so if you search 'Sanders bumpy cake' you'll come up with this recipe. I can't wait to make one this summer! The recipe gives you the Sanders chocolate cake instructions but I always just make a boxed cake mix. Go ahead and judge-it works for me and tastes fine!

I have two pictures of the cake. The first from the bumpy cake Facebook page of how it 'should' look. The second one is the only picture of one that I made. I of course took it the first time I made it :) I have since learned to be more patient and NOT to pour the frosting until it really is totally cooled. No matter how much I REALLY want a piece right NOW! :)

Sanders Bumpy Cake

For the Cake:
1/2 C hot black coffee or water
1/2 C cocoa
1/2 C oil
1 C buttermilk
1 1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
2 t vanilla extract
2 eggs
2 C sugar
2 C flour

In large bowl, combine coffee and cocoa; beat on medium speed for 30 seconds. Add oil; beat for 30 seconds; add buttermilk; beat for 30 seconds; add baking soda; beat for 30 seconds; add salt; beat for 30 seconds; add vanilla; beat for 30 seconds; add eggs; beat for 30 seconds; add sugar and beat for 30 seconds. Add flour; beat for 5 minutes. Batter will be very bubbly. Pour batter into greased (9x13 inch) pan and bake at 375° for 35-40 minutes.

For the Sanders Buttercream icing:
2 C butter
2 C sifted powdered sugar
2/3 C sweetened condensed milk
2 large egg whites
1/2 cup sifted powdered sugar
1/2 t salt
1/2 t vanilla extract
1/2 cup sifted powdered sugar

Place butter in mixing bowl, add 2 c. powdered sugar; mix at low speed to obtain smooth paste. Whip at medium speed, adding milk slowly and gradually, until light and fluffy. Using a very clean bowl and beater, whip egg whites until stiff while adding the 1/2 c. powdered sugar slowly. Mix this meringue slowly into the above mixture. Add vanilla and remaining 1/2 c. powdered sugar. This last amount of sugar can be doubled if stiffer icing is desired.
For the fuge frosting:
1/2 C buttermilk
1 C sugar
1/3 C dark corn syrup
1/3 cup cocoa
dash of salt
1/2 lb. (2 sticks) butter-divided
2 1/2 C powdered sugar
1 t vanila extract

Over medium-high heat, combine buttermilk, sugar, corn syrup, salt and half the butter. Bring mixture to a boil. When mixture reaches the soft-ball stage, remove from heat. Add remaining butter, powdered sugar and vanilla. This will have a "pouring consistency". TO ASSEMBLE CAKE: prepare cake as directed. When cake is cooled, place cake in freezer for at least 30 minutes. Prepare buttercream icing, then pipe them in stripes on frozen cake, 1 inch apart across the top of the cake. Return to the freezer for at least an additional 15 minutes. Apply cooled fudge frosting to top of cake, covering buttercream rolls completely. Return to freezer for several minutes or more to set

It helps to have a handy husband :)

My husband likes to do everything himself. I don't know how many times I have heard: 'if I can do it why would I pay someone?' or 'I wouldn't have to do it...for a fee' or something similar. I think we really were made for each other :)

Most times this is a wonderful thing. Most times it is NOT. When he says he can do something in ten minutes or he only needs ten minutes I know to expect two hours or more :) I really do love this quality about him though; we've manged to paint 90% of our house ourselves, he's made me box valances, we installed a new kitchen floor together (I do NOT reccommend doing this one yourself-pay someone to do it!), I have all new hardware and fixtures in my bathrooms and kitchen and I have a BEAUTIFUL new wood railing and guardrails around my open staircase to the basement-the list is endless of the things he tries, researches and completes! My family is also greatful to have him...they've saved a bit of money as well because he knows what to do. When a toy stops working or breaks my nieces put it aside because "uncle Brad will look at it. Uncle Brad will know how to fix it". And, he usually does!

Because he likes to do everything himselfn he also owns every single tool known to man. No lie. And, he usually owns more than one of some. I don't know why. Yet, this is the man who asks me why I own so many black shoes.

For his birthday in 2009 I bought him a router and my parents bought him a set of router bits. He used birthday money from his parents to buy an even bigger set of bits. I've since learned my lesson and made some ground rules. If he wants a tool I need a list of at least FIVE things around the house he is going to use if for and if he does get it, no new tools will enter the house until THREE of those five things have been complete.

No new tools have entered our house since Birthday 2009 :)

This weekend, however, he managed to knock one project off the list. After always talking about making me shelves or something else for the house I REALLY stayed on his back for this project. I was FED.UP.

Thats one shelf in my pantry. More than half of it is spices and it is SO unorganized. I wanted a hanging spice rack for the inside of our pantry door. I never wanted a spice rack to sit on my counter nor did I like that you usually had to empty the container you bought them in to put them in the bottles for the spice rack. Ugh. I looked all around online for something that would work but all I found was some flimsy looking wire racks and the good ones I was finding that I liked cost near $100! For less than $30 my husband made me exactly what I wanted :)

This is my pantry shelf now. I actually have more space left over! As you might be able to see there are two jars of salsa and two jars of jelly. We don't do this. Usually we have one in the fridge open and one in the pantry as backup. The same goes for most of my spices. I have two or three OPEN jars of things. The reason for this overstock is probably because we could never find or organize things so we knew what we had. Not anymore!!!

 Because I have this!!!

You can't tell in the picture but there are pieces of plexi-glass over the front of each shelf. I love going into my pantry now ;)

Bathroom Decor

This is another project that I did a few months ago. It took me about six months to pull it all together but it's been done for awhile.

The only room in the house that has a 'theme' going on in it other than the nursery is the downstairs bathroom. I don't know why I ended up putting all of our 'nautical' stuff in there but it's a 'oceany/beachside/boat-y' bathroom now. The crazy thing is that except for two things I put on the walls everything else was scattered throughout the home when it was a bachelor pad so I didn't have to do much.

The space I am showcasing today however is a piecs of HUGE space between the door and the sink. My husband used to have this small three tier shelf that was wire and wicker-ish but it was flimsy and totally NOT my style so it had to be replaced, plus it was much too small for the space.

We bought a cabinet at Garden Ridge. They were moving about a mile away from their location and the entire store was on sale. We scored big time with this one, it fit perfectly in the bathroom.

I made the cloche from a covered cheese dome and chunky candle holder I got at Salvation Army. This one cost me $3 to make. I sprayed it without even knowing where I would put it but when I thought of the bathroom it fit in quite well. I got the pieces inside of it at the Dollar Tree of all places! The little bird came from there as well and I had thought about spraying him too but when I put him in there I think I like him as is. The vase was exactly what I had envisioned in my head so I didn't mind paying $2.99 for it at T.J. Maxx. I had a stem of the flowers left ove from another project and thought they looked perfect so they are staying for now. I did this little bit of decor on the VERY cheap and I love it!

Decor Before and After

When I first saw these going around Blog-world months ago I got so excited! I really wanted to make myself a set and knew I would love them. Little did I know I would not love the process of making them.

I searched every dollar store , thrift store and discout store for WEEKS looking for the perfect pieces. I ended up settling for something a bit less than what I had envisioned. I got it all at Dollar Tree; one tall cylinder vase and two of the same smaller ones with a little 'lip' at the bottom. Since I already had the
E-6000 glue it cost me $6 to make.

Figuring out something to put in them was another story, and one that I don't think is done. These have been in my room for a few weeks now but I am still on the lookout for something better to put in them. I didn't want candles since I would never light them anyway and they would fade eventually as well. Plus, I couldn't find any 'cheap' unscented but colored candles; I wanted them in a shade of red. I had the river rocks from an old project and had found these apples on sale at Marshall's and picked them up for next to nothing and figured I would eventually use them in something. It's ok but I don't know if I 'love' it. Any suggestions??

Well, here are the pictures. Please ignore my bad photo skills and the reflection in the mirror :)

This is the 'before". My husband had fake plants ALL OVER the house...this is one of the last ones I replaced. I couldn't wait to get it out of there. I knew the family pictures and butterfly would stay...my husband used to collect butterflies when he was little and that is the only one he saved as he grew up since it's his favorite. It even makes ME nostalgic :) The dried flowers are my wedding bouquet; they went up there after the wedding and I just never moved them after that.

And here is the new setup:

Here is a really bad up close shot...the apples ARE indeed red but are covered in those clear beads so my falsh kept bouncing off of them...I suck at taking pictures.

 In order to make the hurricanes three different heights (since I got two of the same sized cylinders) I grabbed three romantic books (this is the boudoire after all :) ) and stacked them and put my bouquet and one of the vases on top.  Even though it is not exactly what I had in my head I like this setup MUCH better than the previous decor.

I'm still here!

For anyone reading this, I have not lost interest in my blog! I just don't have anything to update it with. I have so many projects left unfinished and so many more left to even be started. But, I have also started a HUGE project that will consume a lot of energy, most of my body and lots of time...nine months to be exact. So, while I have no energy and am staying away from the smells of paint and glue my blog will unfortunatey be ignored. I'll go through my computer later, maybe there are pictures of past projects that I havne't shown off yet :) Thanks for sticking with me if you have!

Lace Flower Headband

I love finding things out in stores and then saying "I can make that". I also love all the fun headbands that are 'In' right now. I have actually broke down and bought several of my favorite ones from the stores without trying to make them myself. This one I made is SOOOOO simple. I actually found spools of wide lace in those bargain bins at Joann's months ago. For $2.50 each I bought a white one and a antique-y dirty white looking one I think I have made four of these so far and I still have a bunch of lace left.

 I started by cutting two circles of  felt (I used black) to my desired size (they should be the same size) and then used my glue gun to attach the lace. I started on the outer edge and worked my way in. Once the circle was filled in with lace I cut the lace off the spool and folded the end in on itself and glued it down in the middle of the flower. I added a pearl in the center of mine but I did three pearls in the center of another one and I loved the way that looked too. Then I attached it to the headband. Mine is one of those thin stretchy ones that go all the way around your head. I glued the flower to the headband and then glued the other circle of felt to the backside of the flower. I sandwiched the headband between the two cirlces, to make it make more sense. I love how I can wear this with jeans everday or when I get all dressed up.