cookies!

Hi bloggers!
Sorry this post is late. Somehow my weekends never quite go as planned :)

Here is the awaited surprise:

PROVERB COOKIES!
Sound familiar? The traditional name for these delicious delights is Fortune Cookies, but I don't like the fortunes that they usually contain. So I have written out a dozen tiny Proverbs onto small strips of paper to fill my cookies with!

I will warn you now that the process of making these cookies is not a quick one (because the cookies are baked and formed 1-2 at a time). Making one batch (12 cookies) took me about an hour or so. But the reward is so great to see the finished product! And they are pretty simple to make.

Here is what you need:
1 egg white
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp almond extract (optional)
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1/4 cup flour
3 tbsp sugar

Preheat oven to 400 F. Lightly grease a small cookie sheet and spatula. Pre-make fortune/Proverb strips (see below). Mix egg and vanilla until frothy, stir in oil. Sift or stir in flour and sugar. Important: the consistancy of the batter at this point should resemble store bought cake mix batter. You may need to add 1-3 tbsp of water to thin it out. This is a key determinant in how your cookies will turn out!

Now drop a tbsp-full of batter onto cookie sheet. Start with one at a time, until you get the hang of the process. Tilt pan in a circle to make the batter spread to a circle with a diameter of 3 inches. Tap cookie sheet on counter to remove air bubbles. Place cookie sheet in oven for 4-5 min, until golden on 1/2 inch ring outside of cookie.

Lift with spatula and flip onto working surface. Place fortune strip onto center of cookie. Fold in half. Use the ridge of a drinking glass to shape folded side of cookie on. Place cookie in a muffin tin to hold its shape. After all cookies are shaped, muffin tin can be placed in oven for 5-10 minutes to crisp them up if needed.

And thats all!! That recipe makes 12 cookies.

Fortune/Proverb Strips:
-white paper
-ball point pan (no fancy inks, cheap is best!)

Use Bible verses, quotes, or fortune ideas to come up with your own unique cookie fillers!

Will post pictures later :)

Let me know if you try them....
Happy baking!

Christmas is coming!

Hi blogworld,
So far we are having a beautiful fall in my part of the world!
Temperatures have been unseasonably high this week, around 14-20 degrees Celsius.
The air is crisp and the leaves cover the lawns.
All I can think about is Christmas!
So for the next few weeks leading up to Christmas, I'm going to feature some traditions and ideas to bring the spirit of giving and love back into the Christmas holidays.

Tonight I just wanted to give you a hint about this weekends post:

It is better to share happiness than keep it to yourself.

Fortune truly helps those who are of good judgement.

Leave a comment if you want to guess what the post will feature!

Happy Friday!

Costume!

Hi fellow bloggers!

As promised, here is the costume reveal!!

I dressed up as Glinda, the good witch of the North, from the Wizard of Oz!

The dress was a second hand find from Value Village, white costume gloves from a discount store, wand and crown DIY- materials from my house and the dollar store!

Here are the before photos and instructions:

CROWN- for the crown all i used was the cardboard from a cereal box. I freehand drew out the peaks of the crown and cut around them. I didn't cut peaks into the back. Then I gave both sides several coats of white acrylic paint. After that dried, I coated the outside with a thin layer of painted on white glue, and sprinkled silver glitter over it. I added 3D paint around the border, and sprinkled it with blue glitter for contrast. After it dried, i used white glue to make it circular and small/large enough for my head. Clips or clothespins helped hold the glued ends together while they dried.

WAND- for the wand I used 2 dried up pens, a christmas tree star topper (or an ornament would do), white duct tape, and a roll of silver curling ribbon. I attached the 2 pens together lengthwise to make a long handle for the wand. I wrapped the duct tape around them until it was even and looked okay. (note: the tape gets wrapped diagonaly and will have bubbles in it, but keep playing with it until you are happy with the way it looks. mine wasn't perfect, but no one noticed!) Then I used an old kitchen knife to cut the outer star ring apart from the inner two. This step isn't neccessary but I wanted a smaller star. The topper was flimsy plastic so it was very simple to do. Attach the topper to the taped pens at the point or other attachment site if there is one (ex: the end of the topper), using more duct tape. Tie curling ribbon on the attached part of the star, and curl ends.

To make my dress more fancy, I used white fabric paint to paint stars on the bottom corner of my dress. Then I used craft glitter (before the paint dried) to make it sparkly. I made swirls and used blue glitter to match the crown. I apologize for the poor quality of this photo, I should have ironed!!This was one of my favorite costumes ever! I was a runner-up at the costume contest too :)

Hope you like it!

Butterflies

I love finding inspiration in odd places, and for todays post, this idea was found in the tv show Gossip Girl.

One of the characters has the most beautiful piece of butterfly wall art above her bed. After a quick Google search, I found the artists name and website. If you've never seen the show, and don't know what butterfly art I'm talking about, you must check out the his page, here (and even if you have seen it, you should still check out the other pieces he's done, they are incredible!).

Whats even more incredible is that they are made out of recycled beer cans! Talk about turning something ugly into something beautiful! :)

And I have a much simpler idea for creating a look like this in your own home.
All you need is:
-scrapbooking paper
-a pair of good detailing scissors, and
-butterfly templates, like the one below, source unknown
Then all you need to do, is choose the butterflies you want to use, enlarge the images, print, and trace onto the scrapbook paper and cut out. Make a crease down the center of the butterfly so their wings will stick out. To mount on the wall, use sticky tack, or attach to a frame (without the glass) and hang on the wall for a piece of completely unique art!


Hope this inspires you as well. God bless!

Breakfast for Dinner

Hello readers!

Thanks for stopping by and reading my posts! Google stats tells me I had 10 page views today, and thats a record! So I just wanted to take a minute to thank you for sticking with me even though my blog has been boring lately and has had no pictures. :) It will get better!

Tonight I want to share a delicious recipe with you: Mini quiche. It goes great for breakfast, lunch, or in my case, dinner!












Easy Mini Quiche

Ingredients

2 Eggs
2 Tbsp milk

Fillings:
-Chopped meat of choice: ham, turkey, etc...
-Fried onion
-*Optional: spinich, peppers, etc...

Grated cheese

Frozen phyllo pastery dough (thaw overnight in fridge, or 3-4 hours on counter)

Mini muffin tin

Directions

Beat eggs and milk in a bowl until frothy.

Add desired fillings to egg mixture and stir. Set aside.

Unwrap frozen phyllo sheets and cut into equal sized squares. Place 2 thin squares in each mini muffin tin and press down to mold shape. Fold down edges of phyllo dough if it is sticking up too far. Pour egg and filling mixture equally into each tin. Sprinkle grated cheese on top.

Bake in 350 degree oven for 12-18 min.

Pastery will be golden brown.


Enjoy!

short update

Another weekend has come and gone... and I have no idea where the time went! Actually, it went straight to homework and studying. Oh well.

On a positive note, I have some recipe posts planned for this week, as well as the halloween costume reveal! So stick around for that!

Thats all for now folks,

Weekend Ramblings...

Good evening bloggers!

So firstly, I decided to forget the whole halloween costume contest thing, but I am still going to add a few DIY things to it, and will post pictures later :)

Secondly, my Grandma got me into this chain letter quilting project. This particular one was called "Purple Charm Quilt". You send 2 purple quilt squares to a bunch of people, with instructions, and some addresses. It's kind of complicated to explain! And it hasn't really worked this far. You only get the right amount of squares if all of your quilt square recipients participate. And mine didn't. (But thanks to the ones who did! You made my day with your mail!)

However,both of my Grandmas gave me extra purple material and squares to make a quilt with anyway! Thanks Grandmas!! Here are my purple squares:

Have you ever participated in a chain/mail quilting project?? If so, please comment and send/post pictures! I'm curious to know how your quilts turned out! I will start mine some weekend when I don't have a giant paper to write and midterms to study for... :)

Have an incredible start to the week,