Fabulous Fudge in Five Minutes

Well, something is definitely wrong with me because the other day I craved a salad. I'm pretty sure that's never happened in my entire life. The good news is, right after I started craving chocolate, so it looks like I'm back to normal.

The only chocolate we really had in the house was Girl Scout Cookies, but not any of my favorites. We have a few boxes left in our pantry, but they're those kind of cookies that you order because you like them, not because they're your favorite. That means, we don't have any Thin Mints or Samoas left, so Girl Scout Cookies were out. 

My next idea was to make fudge, but not just any normal fudge. In seventh grade FACS, we learned how to make fudge in the microwave. I know, it sounds gross, right? WRONG. It is a chocolate lover's perfect fast snack. Plus, it's just about the easiest recipe ever.

Here's how to make it.

Microwave Fudge

You will need:
3 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/4 cup evaporated milk
1/2 cup butter
2 teaspoons vanilla

a large, microwave-safe bowl (make sure it fits in your microwave)

We didn't have enough powdered sugar, so I had to cut the recipe in half. There will usually be more fudge, don't worry.  :)

Combine the powdered sugar and cocoa powder in the large bowl and mix well.

Add the stick of butter and evaporated milk, but DO NOT MIX! To open the evaporated milk can, use a can opener to poke a large hole and a small hole directly across from it. Pour out of the large hole. The small hole prevents bubbling. Also, don't get a big can of milk unless you plan on using it for other things because you do't need that much.

Put the bowl in microwave for 2 1/2 minutes or until the butter is completely melted. Be careful, though, it is easy to burn it if you cook it too long.

Stir all of the ingredients together.

Add the vanilla and stir again. Make sure you get all of the lumps out of it. It will taste better later on. If it seems dry, you can add a little bit more milk.

Technically, you could eat the fudge now, but it is probably really warm. Place the fudge on a cookie sheet and spread it out with either a spatula or your hands. I recommended using wax paper for easier clean up! I also used the wax paper to shape it better.

Place the entire pan in the refrigerator for ten minutes or more until it is firm.

Cut the fudge into squares and enjoy!




This fudge was literally gone in less than two days in my house. I'm not kidding when I say it's delicious!

"Watercolor"

Hey y'all! I am in such an great mood right now. This warm weather is amazing! Today is such a nice day. The sun is out, it's nice and warm and spring is in the air. Really, the best word to describe it is just "awwwwwwwww...."

However, one word to describe earlier today would be "STRESSFUL." Yes, in all caps. A Biology test and math test to start off the day wasn't the greatest, especially because they were harder than usual. I'm glad it's over with, though. Whew! I do have a Geography test tomorrow too, but that should be a piece of cake. Let's hope.

The good news about having tests is no homework! This means that I had time to do a fun craft for this blog! As soon as I got home, I went right out to my deck and just sat there. It felt SO good! That was when I decided to do this craft outside. It needs very little supplies and a flat workspace, so why not?

I found this craft on Brit+Co, just like everything these days, it seems like. This is because I found so many things when I was browsing the blog one day. While I was browsing, this project looked easy and very fun, so I thought I would try it! I decided to make a pillow case because it was similar to what they did, but I'm sure you could try whatever you want. It's supposed to look like you decorated with watercolors, but it's really just Sharpies and rubbing alcohol. Neat huh?


Here is how to make it:

"Watercolor" Pillow Case

You will need:

something to decorate (i.e. pillowcase, throw pillow, shirt, etc.)

Sharpies

rubbing alcohol

cotton swabs

The first step is to prewash your item of choice. My pillowcase was just an extra that we rarely use, so I didn't have to wash it because it already had been before. You probably don't need to wash a pillow if you are drawing directly on that, but if you are using something like a shirt or a NEW pillowcase, wash it so the dye will sink it better. 

Next, plan out your design and draw it on the pillowcase with the Sharpies in the color(s) of your choice. I went with rainbow dots on the edge of the pillowcase. I like to keep things simple because if I really want to, I can always go back and add more, but can't take anything away. 

Once you are completely done drawing, take a cotton swab soaked in rubbing alcohol and dab, then rub, it on the Sharpie designs. This will blend the colors together and give it sort of a glow or aura. It doesn't completely blend everything, so keep that in mind when drawing. By the way, the bigger your design is, the more rubbing alcohol you will need to use and that will probably smell bad. Too much rubbing alcohol can make me feel sick. Bleh!

After you have blended everything, pop your creation in the dryer for a little while. This will let the dye sink in more, and of course, dry it! Mine took the awful smell out too, but that could have just been because I didn't use a lot of alcohol. 

And you're done! Easy right?

I really like how it turned out!

When I was looking at Brit+Co's tutorial, I clicked on the link to another blog, which showed how to make an ombre pillow using this technique. I really wanted to try this, until I read what happened. All she did was scribble a color in different intensities on a piece of fabric and put it in a bathtub with rubbing alcohol. First, that had to give her a headache. Second, she said it dyed her entire bathtub purple! I don't know why she needed to use a bathtub, though. I bet you could just dip it in a bucket and it would work. If you decide to try this, let me know how it goes!

Now go be creative!

Do You Know the Muffin Pan? - Cakes

I promised there would be a dessert muffin pan recipe, so here it is! This was on the same Brit+Co post as the tacos.

I think I was looking forward to making (and EATING) this more than the tacos. Don't get me wrong, they were both delicious, but let's get real, who doesn't love a warm, chocolate cake? This recipe pretty much had my name written all over it.

It's time to wash those jumbo muffin pans after making your tacos, because trust me, you'll want to use them again! Here is the recipe for the muffin pan molten chocolate cakes.

Molten Chocolate Cakes

(Muffin Pan Edition)

You will need:

1 cup chocolate chips (maybe a little bit more) ;)

1 cup butter

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups powdered sugar

4 eggs

3/4 cup flour

1/2 teaspoon paprika

We only had one stick of butter, so I had to cut the recipe in half. It still made four cakes, though, which was plenty.

First, melt the butter and chocolate chips together. I did this by using a homemade double broiler. I showed how to do this in one of my previous posts. However, the chocolate melted much faster than the butter. I ended up melting the butter in the microwave, then mixing it with the chocolate while it was still on the broiler. It was sort of lumpy at first, but after adding more chocolate and stirring, the mixture turned out smooth like it was supposed to. 

Add the vanilla, eggs and powdered sugar and stir until everything is combined. Don't let it sit for too long or it will get hard. Just a heads up! Mix in the flour and paprika and stir well again. 

Fill the muffin pan with the batter. Each cup should be about 3/4 full. The cakes will rise while they are in the oven.

Evelyn, Georgia, and I had some fun licking the extra batter from the bowl. 

Georgia

Evelyn

Georgia doing the "turkey" to Evelyn and I.
Sorry about my weird, mouse-looking face.
Pictures aren't really my thing unless I try to look weird.

Bake the cakes at 425ºF for ten to thirteen minutes. The sides will be firm, but the center will be all melty and "jiggly," according to Brit+Co. When I think of "jiggly," I think of Jell-O, not chocolate. But hey, whatever floats your boat. 

It's better if you serve these right out of the oven, but make sure you let the cakes sit for about two minutes before removing them from the pan. I skipped this step without realizing and got a melty, chocolatey mess. It still tasted AMAZING, but it wasn't very attractive. We let some of the other ones sit and they turned out better. I didn't get a picture of it, though, because we took it out, but decided we should wait for my sister to get home from soccer. Bad idea. It sort of collapsed. Oh well. It still tasted good and that's all that matters to me!

Enjoy your mini, Mexican-inspired, muffin pan, molten chocolate cakes! (What a mouthful!) I know I did!

Do You Know the Muffin Pan? - Tacos

In my last post I mentioned that I found some new recipes on Brit+Co. This was one of the recipes that I found interesting and definitely wanted to try! The post was on five new ways to use a muffin pan. Cool, huh? By the way, the title they had was too cute and I just had to steal it! Full credit goes to them for the title idea.

On another note, I got a concussion last Saturday in my soccer game. In case you were wondering (probably because you play soccer), it was in the last ten minutes and I was marking a girl from behind because that's just what defenders do. I'm not totally sure how it all went down, but other people said she hit me with her elbow. No matter what, it was a total foul and two of the three refs were within fifteen feet, meaning they should have called it, but they didn't. Even if they wouldn't call a foul, they should have at least stopped the play. After all, head injuries are not to mess with. The other team's coach helped me more than the refs. Not cool. I went to the doctor and sure enough, I had a concussion. I have only been able to go to school  for half of my classes each day.

Anyway, I told this story to get the point across that I have a lot of time on my hands. If I'm not sleeping or doing homework, I need things that don't involve screens to give my eyes and brain a break., so I thought I would make a recipe that took a little bit more time and effort to make. As it turns out, it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be or take as much time. It was a win-win!

Because of my head 'issues', my mom decided that she would help me out. My sister even helped out a little bit, too. It was a nice mother-daughter bonding time that had an AWESOME reward.

Our friends from Oregon are in town, too. The adults went out to dinner with some friends, so we were watching seven-year-old Georgia and nine-year-old Evelyn for the night and we thought this would be the perfect dinner to make for them!

Here's how to make these out-of-the-ordinary, yet scrumptious, tacos!

Chipotle Chicken Tacos

(Muffin Pan Edition)

You will need:

a whole roasted chicken

corn tortillas

1-3 canned chipotle peppers in abodo sauce

1/4 cup tomatillo salsa
1/4 cup lime juice

avocado, sour cream, cilantro, tomato, etc. for garnish

jumbo muffin pan

The first step is super simple. Turn your muffin pan(s) upside-down. The original recipe said to do this with a regular-sized muffin pan, but I found that the jumbo ones worked better for this step, so ignore the regular-sized muffin pan in the picture. Brush olive oil on your tortillas and drape them over the cups of the muffin pan. Bake them in the oven at 400ºF for around five minutes. remove them from the oven and pinch them so they fit inside the jumbo muffin cups and set them all aside.

Separate your roasted chicken. My mom did this for me. She does it all the time and offered to do it, so I thought "why not?" I'm actually really glad she did. While she was working with the chicken, I got the other ingredients together. 

Chop up how ever many chipotle peppers you want to use. They are pretty spicy, so be cautious. We used one and a half so it wouldn't be too spicy for the little girls (and me!). It's kind of hard to even mix the peppers in, so some tacos ended up being spicier than the others. Keep this in mind when choosing how many to use. Mix the peppers, along with the tomatillo salsa and lime juice, into the chicken.

Once everything looks evenly spread throughout, take a large spoonful of chicken and put it in each taco cup. We had a little bit extra after filling twelve tacos. Put those back in the oven for two to three minutes to warm it up. 

As soon as you take the tacos out of the oven, if you want, sprinkle some cheese on each taco. The cheese will melt on top. Yum! I would recommend serving the tacos while they're hot. Warm tacos are yummier! Add anything else you want to add before eating your tacos. I added chopped lettuce, sour cream, avocado cubes, and mini tomatoes. 

There were a hit with my parents, my sister, and the girls! Oh, and I loved them too!

If you didn't already notice, this is the first non-dessert recipe I have posted on this blog. However, if you are feeling sweet deprived, stay tuned for another muffin pan recipe!

Making More Out of Magazines

This week has been another stressful week, let me tell you. There are tests after tests after tests, and they are big ones! On top of that, we have friends coming in town this week, so we have to get everything ready for them. I also have longer soccer practices this week, so I don't have much time to do anything. Because of this limited amount of time, I wanted to find a quick, easy craft to make, and I did! I was browsing the crafts on Brit+Co. and found Magazine Wall Art, which had a cute picture and sounded interesting. I also found lots of food ideas, so look forward to those!

It turns out that this craft was super easy, but it took a little bit longer than I expected. This could have been because I was bad at it, though. :)

Here's how to make it if you want to try it out!

Magazine Wall Art

You will need:

Board/Canvas

Old Magazines

Pattern

Hot Glue Gun

Tape

Scissors

The first step is to find or make a pattern of the shape you want to do. I went online and found a image of a cat and made a "C" on Powerpoint for my patterns. I wanted to make a bear for the bigger board I had, but our printer wasn't working. Darn! So I decided to make one for myself and one for the girls who are coming for the weekend, Evelyn and Georgia. Cut out the pattern so it is in the shape you want.

This next step is optional, but I did it. Mod podge your board to give it a crafty, yet finished, look! I did a few coats. 

While you are waiting for that to dry (if you did it), go find some old magazines and rip pages out of them. I chose magazines with colorful pages, so the end result would be bright and fun! We had a lot of Better Homes and Gardens magazines, which had a lot of bright colors and flowers, which worked perfectly! Cut the pages you tore out into small rectangles. Make sure your rectangles are as tall, or taller, than your pattern.

Take those rectangles and roll them into little tubes and tape them so they stay. I would recommend getting clear tape so you can't see it. I didn't have completely clear tape,  so I had to use several tiny (and I mean TINY) pieces of tape to hold them all together. Make sure you make enough to cover your pattern and maybe a few extras, so you can pick your favorite colors!

Once you've organized everything so it's just the way you want it, heat up that glue gun and glue all of your rolls in place on your pattern. Make sure everything will stay, then cut around your pattern so the magazine rolls fit the shape exactly. Sometimes the rolls will unroll when you cut them, but don't worry! Just take a little bit more glue to hold it where you want it. 

Once everything is trimmed, glued, and perfected, glue the shape, pattern and all, to the board. 

All done! Happy crafting!

Sweet and Salty = HEAVEN

In my last post, I promised that I would find a super yummy recipe for this week's post and I did! I was browsing my pins on Pinterest and found a recipe for Chocolate Chip Salted Caramel Cookie Bars. Does that sound scrumptious or what? Also, I just got my braces off after having them for two years and wasn't supposed to eat caramel while I had them (I did anyways), so it was perfect! They turned out to be WAY better than I thought they would, which is saying a lot. Seriously, they are like heaven in bar form. If I could marry them, I would.

Here's is how to make them so you can have some heaven of your own!

Chocolate Chip Salted Caramel Cookie Bars

You will need:

2 1/8 cup flour

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

12 Tbsp butter

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 egg

1 egg yolk

2 tsp vanilla

2 cups chocolate chips (1 bag)

10 oz caramel candy squares

3 Tbsp heavy cream

sea salt

This first step seems a little bit out of order, but trust me, it's the smart way to go. Measure your butter and put it in the microwave until it is completely melted. Take it out and let it cool to room temperature. While doing this, I had a Claire moment and forgot to cover the butter in the microwave. Let's just say a stick and a half of butter went to waste and the mess took me at least ten minutes to clean up. Good job Claire. To avoid this, MAKE SURE you don't forget to cover up the butter or it will pop all over the microwave. It's not fun. Trust me.

In a medium bowl (if using an electric mixer, don't use that bowl), combine the flour, salt and baking soda and set aside.

In a large bowl (this can be the mixer's bowl), combine the melted butter and both sugars and mix well. Add the egg, egg yolk, and vanilla. You should have one egg white and two yolks. Make sense? To separate the egg, crack it and over a bowl, switch the yolk in between the two halves of the egg shell until you no longer have any egg white.

Next, slowly add the dry ingredients and the chocolate chips to the mixture.

In a microwave-save bowl, combine the caramels (UNWRAPPED!) and heavy cream. Heat it in the microwave until it is melted. If you stir it every twenty seconds or so it works well and takes only around two minutes. 

Either before or while melting the caramel, take around half of the cookie dough and press it into the bottom of a greased 13x9 inch pan, just like you do with the sugar cookie bars. 

Once the caramel is smooth and melted, pour it over the cookie dough while it is hot and sprinkle it with sea salt. Press the remaining cookie dough on the top and sprinkle with sea salt again. I made little balls of dough and squished them for the top layer so I didn't get caramel everywhere. This ended up working well. 

Bake for about twenty-five minutes at 325ºF. Let them cool before cutting and then EAT THEM ALL UP!

Enjoy!

Personalizing a Present

I know this week's post is supposed to be a recipe, but honestly, I've been really busy, stressed out, tired and just a mess this week, so I decided to continue my last post, in a way. There is always SOMETHING that needs to be done for school and I have soccer and volleyball that I need to go to, too. My schedule is not any different form any other week, but it feels worse. I have a feeling next week will be too, but I will make myself find a yummy recipe for next week!

My last post was on wrapping presents and I mentioned that two of my friends, Bailey and Cali, had birthdays that week. When it comes to giving birthday presents, I almost always give them late. I guess it doesn't really register in my mind that I need to get a present until about two days before. However, I actually got the presents about a week earlier this time, but I ordered them off of Amazon, so I had to wait for it to get here before I could get it ready to give to Cali and Bailey. They ended up reaching my house the day of Bailey's birthday, so a little bit late. Oops! Of course, I had stuff to get done over the weekend... okay not that much. We had a volleyball tournament on Saturday and Evie and I slept and watched T.V. and movies like ALL of Sunday. I still ended up forgetting about the presents, though. I decided that I wanted to wear my "Jesus" sandals this week along with Evie and Dani, which finally pushed me to give Bailey and Cali their gifts so they could wear the sandals I got them with us!

I wrapped this present in a pretty boring way, but made a card that I spent a lot of time on, which turned out super cute.

It's always nice to get a homemade card because it really feels like the person put some thought into your gift. Sometimes, if I know my gift is pretty amazing without a card or I just don't have time, I won't include one, but if I can, I will make my own card. I like to see what I can come up with and see the person's reaction to something that's more personal. This is what I came up with.

I have a lot of scrapbook paper just sitting in my cabinet, waiting to be used. I picked out two that I thought "fit" Cali and Bailey and went to work. When you put a lot of work into something, you don't just want the person to throw it away or crinkle it up, so I wanted to make mine out of something that is stronger than paper. I settled for cardboard.

First, I cut a piece of cardboard off of a box we had in the office. I hope we weren't planning on using it!

I still didn't have much of an idea, but I knew that I wanted to cut their names out of the scrapbook paper, so I practiced the letters I was going to do. Sometimes I have bad bubble letter days where I just can't get them right, so I wanted to make sure I didn't waste good scrapbook paper by erasing a lot. I would recommend this if you are not the best at bubble letters. It was nice that their names had some of the same letters so I only had to practice once!

Once I felt like I was drawing good letters, I drew them on the pieces of scrapbook paper. If you make two or more cards like I did, draw any similar letters on one piece and leave the other one behind it. That way, you only have to cut and draw once! Draw the rest of the letters and cut them all out. I didn't cut the holes out of the middle of letters because I wanted to get creative with it. Also, I pretty bad at cutting them. :)

Make sure you erase pencil marks, so your letters are nice and pretty!

After the letters were all figured out, I mod podged the pieces of cardboard. This makes it look finished. Of course, I had to let that dry, which didn't take long, but long enough for me to get some ideas. I tried to mod podge regular white paper over the cardboard because I was too lazy to paint it white, but that didn't work at all, so I just left the cardboard the color that it normally is.

Once that dried, I glued the letters on. Mod podge in the spot you want your letter to be. Spread it out so the letters don't wrinkle. It'll look kind of messy at first, but it dries clear. Then mod podge another thin layer over the top of the letters to hold them in place and finish them off. Let it all dry before decorating.

Again, I had to think of more ideas. I ended up using the white paper to mod podge for some shape decorations and hot glueing on buttons for the letter holes. It was simple, but cute, which is always the best way to go!

I wanted to work my wrapping around the card. Since it was around the same size as the gift, I just wrapped it like you would wrap a box, but I used "tissue paper." That was in quotations because it wasn't really tissue paper, but it came in a tissue paper package and it definitely wasn't wrapping paper. I don't really know what it it, but I like it! And I didn't have to cut anything, just tape! It turned out kind of ugly because of the tape, but it was all okay because the card covered it up. I tied some ribbon in a cross around the gift to hold everything together, and then curled it. For the cross, get a long piece of ribbon and find the middle. Lay that across the top, flip the entire gift over, cross the ribbons and twist them once so they run sideways. Pull these ends up to the top again and tie it off in a knot. It helps to have someone's finger hold it in place while you tie the knot. It will be tighter and hold everything together better. If your ribbon ends are too long, cut them in half and tie them around the center on your knot. Now, instead of two pieces to curl, you have eight.

If you ask me, they were pretty good gifts and the cards made them even better. If you really want to know, though, you can ask Cali or Bailey.

Thanks for putting up with another birthday craft post! This will be the last... I hope.