Classy Event Organizer

Cookie Monday - Monster Cookies

2023-04-17T12:00:00.002-04:00

Welcome back to Cookie Monday! This week we are making an oldie but a goodie! – Monster cookies! The “new age” everything cookie is called “kitchen sink” cookies, but Monster cookies will always be my favorite. I loved these cookies as a child and when I made them for Christmas last year, I decided I need to add them to the regular rotation! Why only enjoy your favorites one time of year?!

Bill of Materials:

½ C Butter

1 ¼ C Brown Sugar

1 C Sugar

3 Eggs

¼ t Vanilla

2 t Baking soda

2 C Peanut Butter

4 ½ C Oatmeal

½ C Chocolate Chips

½ C M&Ms

Since I am in the process of cleaning out my pantry (check out my other pantry clean out cookies), I decided to use up some leftover M&Ms from Christmas (Tip: sort the colors and use red for valentines and the green for St Patricks’ day). Since these cookies are just for myself, I don’t care if they are green. I’m keeping the red ones for the Fourth of July! Comment below – I want to know if and how you use out of season items?

First, cream the sugars, butter, and vanilla. I used to not cream my sugar and butter and throw everything into the bowl at once, but I have learned that it really does make a difference. Please cream your sugar and butter!

Then add the eggs and baking soda. Then add the peanut butter and oats. Once this is mixed, add the M&Ms and Chocolate Chips.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 12 minutes – don’t over bake these cookies, otherwise they will dry out!

Enjoy!

Welcome Mat Upcycle

2023-04-06T12:00:00.003-04:00

I have welcome mats (doormats) at each of the exterior doors of my house and I usually switch them out based on the holiday or season. Sooner or later, they start to fade and show wear and tear from use.

One of my favorite doormats was rubber mat decorated with flower pots. After several seasons it was faded, but otherwise still in good condition.

I wanted to upcycle the mat and give it a bit more life by painting the mat. Before I could add paint, I needed to clean it. I went to work by spraying with some multi-purpose cleaner and scrubbing. This step took some elbow grease, but I was able to get a lot of the dirt and grim off the top of the mat.

From there, I took basic acrylic paint and mixed a few colors of green for my “succulents” and then a simple white background, and light brown pots. After several layers of paint and letting it dry over night, I sprayed the top of the mat with a clear spray paint so it wouldn’t run when walking on it.

After several months, I can say it is still in great condition. I might try this on a few other mats that are still in good condition but the design is fading a bit.

Let me know what you think!

Cookie Monday - Dr. Pepper Cookies

2023-04-03T12:00:00.003-04:00

Welcome Back to Cookie Monday!

This week I was working on clearing our some old items in my pantry and fridge. I had a couple packs of Diet Dr Pepper left over from when I stopped drink soda several months ago. Instead of wasting soda, I went online to see if there were any recipes or idea to use soda for baking. I have used use soda/beer for beer bread and saw that people have used soda and cake mix to make baked goods, so I decided to try this out since I also have an abundance of cake mixes in my pantry.

I didn’t find an exact recipe for cookies, so I decided to just try it on my own. I took one cake mix and one can of soda and mixed them together.

Bill of Materials:

One Cake mix

One Can of Soda

The mix was extremely thin, more of a batter for cake than cookies, but I decided to try cookies anyway! Why not, right?

I baked my first article of six cookies without spraying my non-stick pan. The cookies came out soft and moist like a top of a cupcake! I was hoping they would firm up a bit after cooling, but they did not.

These cookies were so soft causing an issue when trying to scoop them off the pan. Several of them broke into crumbs.

I decided to see if spraying the pan would crisp up the bottoms and firm up the cookies. After spraying the pan, the cookies were easier to remove from the pan, but still extremely soft. You can see the difference between the cookies that had the pan sprayed vs the one that didn't. The cookie on the top did not have cooking spray and the cookie on the bottom did.

Although these “cakies” were delicious (cakies instead of cookies - get it?), I will probably make a few changes to this recipe in the future - like less Dr. Pepper.

Stay tuned to what I plan to do with the rest of my pantry leftovers.

I want to try Dr. Pepper cupcakes and beer bread next!

DIY - Foaming Hand Soap (EASY!)

2023-03-30T12:00:00.001-04:00

I love the pretty labels on foaming hand soap -for some reason, they are cuter than just regular ol’ soap that have the pictures of the fishies. But, they can be really expensive! However, I learned a cool trick to refill your foaming soap bottles with cheap liquid hand soap.

Take your empty foaming soap container and fill it about 25% full of your liquid hand soap.

Fill up with water!

Done! Now you can enjoy your cute foaming soap containers without the price!

I wouldn’t do this with soap that states it is antimicrobial or antibacterial – these have special ingredients and diluting them would change the mix.

Cookie Monday - Flour Sifter Chocolate Chip Cookies

2023-03-27T12:00:00.001-04:00

Welcome to Cookie Monday!

I bake a batch of cookies each Monday to have throughout the week for lunches, as well as a sweet treat after work. This week, while in the process of making my weekly bread loaf, I remembered that my new flour sifter came with a cookie recipe on the bake of the label! I decided I wanted to try this new cookie recipe and thought I would share how I approach baking any new recipe!

Recipe on the back of the label:

First, make sure you have all the ingredients (or a good substitute) before you get started. You wouldn’t want to get half way through the recipe and realize you don’t have baking soda, etc.

Second, follow the recipe as close as possible/record what you changed – why?

1. Because if you like it, you’ll want to be able to reproduce it,

2. If you don’t like it, you’ll want to be able to change what you didn't like about it in the future.

But you can’t do either of these things if you don’t know what you did to begin with.

For example – I usually don’t measure vanilla (because more is better, right?) in my regular go to chocolate chip recipe, however I measured for this new cookie recipe so the amount of vanilla isn't a factor in how the recipe turns out.

For my first time baking these chocolate chip cookies, I used butter instead of margarine because I don’t use margarine.

Also, I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to use sifted flour or packed flour. Since the recipe came on the back of the sifter label, I sifted it and measured how I do for my bread. On average, sifting flour causes the measurement to be less than when it is packed.

I made a note of both of these "changes", so I had notes for next time.

Third, when ready to bake, run a First Article of your cookie dough through the oven. Never heard of a First Article before? It is a term used in manufacturing when you change a process or mix and you want to see how it turns out before running the entire batch. I do this with new recipes so I have the opportunity to make a quick change if possible.

To do this, you just put a few scoops of dough on one pan to bake first, so if there is any issue (burning, spreading, etc) you don’t ruin the whole batch.

I thought the cookies spread out too much while baking my first article, so I put the dough in the fridge to firm up a bit.

After another round using the firmed dough, I thought the cookies were still a bit large, so I decided to use a smaller scoop.

Fourth, write down any changes or notes from baking the batches and any changes you would want to make in the future.

I thought these cookies are extremely thin which makes for a good cookie when warm, but after they cooled they were extremely crunchy. Still good, but not my target cookie consistency.

I prefer a bit of a softer cookie, so next time I make this recipe, I am going to try packed flour instead of sifted and see if that makes a difference!

How to: Remove Wine Bottle Labels / Halloween Decor

2020-10-30T20:35:00.004-04:00

You probably know by now that I love to turn trash into treasure. I've shown you how to create your own "milk bottles" and how to reuse plastic containers in your kitchen. This how-to is to explain how I take labels off of wine bottles and turn them into decor!

First, you have to drink some wine, which isn't too bad of a step one if you ask me! I've been collecting these wine bottles and finally have an idea of how to decorate them. Before we make some decor, we must take off the labels!

Here is how I get the labels off of wine bottles:

1. Fill your sink with some warn soapy water.

2. Toss in the wine bottles and let them soak. You should be able to see the labels start to get soggy as they darken in color.

3. Start to peel the labels off by any corner. If the label is fully "wet" it should come off fairly easily. If the label rips as you peel it, toss the bottle back into the warm bottle bath to continue to soak.

4. If you have any "goo" left on the bottle after peeling the label off, use a magic eraser or goo-b-gone.

5. Wash and dry the bottles!

Once the bottles are dry, they are ready to paint! I decided to make three sets: Frankenstein, Jack-o-lantern, and Ghost!

I used acrylic paint and a foam brush to paint the bottles. It took a few coats, but once the first layer of color was dry, it was ready to turn them into characters!

There you go, easy peasy Halloween decor, from some "trash" you were going to recycle!

DIY: Halloween Brittle

2020-10-27T21:10:00.002-04:00

I love using melted chocolate to make desserts because it is so easy to use and you don't have to pre-heat the oven! Usually I stick to chocolate covered pretzels or oreos, but today I have a brittle recipe that is perfect for Halloween!

Just a few simple steps and you'll have a perfect snack while you watch your favorite Halloween movie!

What you'll need:

Chocolate Chips

Candy Corn M&Ms

Candy Corn

Wax Paper

First, place the wax paper on a tray for your brittle making surface. Then melt the chocolate chips. Spread the melted chocolate on the wax paper to make a "chocolate patty".

Next, sprinkle the M&M's and candy corn on the chocolate patty. Press the candies into the chocolate so they stick better when the chocolate hardens.

Now all you have to do it wait! Wait an hour or so while the chocolate hardens really well. You could even put the chocolate into the fridge to speed up the process. Once hard, break the patty into small pieces - this makes it a "brittle"!

I can imagine putting a few pieces in a plastic bag with an orange ribbon for a gift, or just munching on a few pieces while watching Hocus Pocus!

Enjoy and Happy Halloween!

The Steps to a More Perfect Container Garden

2019-03-14T21:40:00.001-04:00

Last year I showed you how I started my seedlings indoors. My process worked, but as I have been upgrading my container garden, I decided a needed I a little bit more preparation this year in order to have a smoother spring/summer. Usually I plant seedlings and put those seedlings into pots when they are big enough to go outside, however I never really thought through the space or number of pots that I had on hand. So, I ended up putting a plant in either too small or too big of a pot, not having enough tomato cages, or not having the space to put them altogether. This year, I decided to decide what my garden is going to look like BEFORE I start my seedlings so that I don’t waste time or effort later when it comes time to put them outside.

Last spring, the Mr. Fix-it husband upgraded my watering system from hoses and 360 degree sprayers that mostly just got the ground wet, to a fantastic built in piping system that allows me to have rows of container plants on my deck! This is perfect because from where our kitchen is, I get to look out at my garden each day, as well as have easy access to the veggies for a fresh salsa or salad. Below is a picture of what my “garden” ended up being organized last year:

I really enjoyed this set up last year, so I decided I wanted to do the same thing this year. But first, I had to decide what I want to grow. I had a few plants last year that I still have in the freezer that I don’t need anymore of (lookin’ at you jalapeno pepper plant) and some new ones I wanted to try.

I started this process by writing down a list of the plants I knew I wanted to grow (tomatoes, bell peppers, eggplant, and herbs), then looked through my seedbox to find the seeds I already had on hand, and then looked through several seed catalogs to find new plants that I hadn’t grown before. This process took most of January. I took my time with this process because, everything was frozen and I really enjoyed looking at all the plant catalogs! This process shouldn’t be rushed, and I wanted to take to think about what I wanted to harvest in the future.

Part of the process of looking at my own seeds included building my own seed storage box. While searching for my seeds, I realized I had them stashed in all sorts of places and I wanted one container to call my seed box. I shopped in catalogs as well as online for a box that I liked, but I couldn’t find anything in the shape or price range I wanted, so I decided to use my new wood working hobby to make my own. (Let me know in the comments if you’d like to see the process in a post!)

After I had settled on a list of plants and purchased seeds for the items I didn’t already own, I decided to stay organized and write this information down. (I know, sounds simple, right?) I have not been very good at keeping a garden journal so I don’t have a good sense of what time of year we normally have our last real frost. There are several websites with rules of thumb, so I decided to use that date until I had a better understanding from my “future” garden journals. My area’s average last frost date is April 15th. This date is important because most seed packets reference a “start you seeds” date based on the last frost for the year. I made a list of each item, how many weeks before or after the frost date they should be planted and made an excel formula to tell me when I need to start the seeds (yes, I’m an excel nerd). Now I know exactly when to start the seeds for each item instead of looking at each of the seed packets each weekend and doing to math to decide if I need to start some or not.

Once I had the seedling start date, I needed to decide how many seedlings to start! In order to do that, I need to know how many mature plants I want. I started to list in my same spreadsheet the quantity of mature plants. This would be another helpful piece of information to keep in a garden journal, for example, do four tomato plants produce the quantity of tomatoes I need, or should I plant five to keep up? Or were eight eggplants too much for one year and I should cut back to six the next, etc. I had to guess this year based on what I remember from last year and picked out how many I wanted of each. I then categorized each item by what type of pot they would go into, and used a count formula to add up the quantity of each type of pot. This way, I already know many of each kind of pot I need. Lucky for me, I have twenty of my five gallon vegetable pots and I want exactly twenty vegetable plants (don’t you just love it when a plan comes together)?

Here is an idea of the pots that I use:

Vegetable Pots: mix of different five gallon pots are the perfect size for one plant (tomatoes, bell peppers, eggplants, etc).
Small Pots: mix of one to two gallon pots for smaller herb or lettuce plants
Rectangular Pots: foot long rectangular plants for onions (see post here).
Trough: very large 150 gallon trough on sale that I am going to try and use for large crops, and perhaps potatoes in the future
Grill: an old grill that I converted into a planter which is the perfect standing height for a planter and works well for small herb plants like basil, rosemary, and cilantro.
Decorative: pretty pots I have collected over the years that I use for flowers

Once I had my full list of plants, quantities, and pots, I decided to map out how the container garden would look, much like my 2018 view. This is really helpful because, now I don’t have to think about where I’m going to put each plant when it comes time to place them outside in a couple of months! I already did all the work!

Now to get started on those seedlings!

How do you decide what to plant? Do you keep a garden journal? I want to know!

Spring Cleaning Plan: Declutter with Classy Event Organizer - Free Printable

2019-02-28T21:29:00.000-05:00

Happy Last day of February everyone! Tomorrow starts a new month, and we only have two and a half more weeks until Spring! I don’t know about you, but I feel like Spring-time is a clean slate, sometimes more than the New Year, because the days are longer, all the bright colors are motivating, and everything is starting to grow, making a fresh start!

Something that I usually do in spring is clean, everything from washing windows to wiping down all the baseboards in the house. I’m sure you’ve heard of “Spring cleaning” before! Along with the regular “cleaning” part of Spring Cleaning, I usually do my annual decluttering during this time as well. This year however, I decided to take a different approach. I’ve done the whole “15 minutes a day” cleaning, room by room cleaning, three boxes: keep, toss and trash approach, but still nothing really “sticks”. I always end up with the same items being dusted off and put right back to where they were hiding. I’ve bought organizing baskets, made my own containers, etc to store all the stuff I’m keeping, however my house has always felt cluttered, even after I’ve decluttered!

Now I’m not a huge fan of the minimalist look, I like to see my stuff, and I like the memories they bring when I pass by a tray that holds my jewelry that my sister gave to me for my birthday, or the pink bowl holding bottle caps that my grandmother passed down to me. These items bring me joy, but sometimes that joy is over shadowed by the not so joyful feeling of clutter.

I did listen to two audiobooks (thank you hoopla) in the last two months that I feel have significantly helped me deal with my clutter. (Side note, if you have never tried to listen to an audiobook, I suggest you try! While driving, while doing laundry, or washing the dishes. It like multi tasking to the max!) The first book I listened to was “The Life Changing Magic of Tidying up” by Marie Kondo (which I listened to before I even knew she had a show on Netflix). The second book was “Grace, Not Perfection” by Emily Ley, the owner of the Simplified Planner. Although these books are completely differently, one of the points that both of these books had regarding “decluttering” was to not feel guilty about getting rid of something. Thank it, and just LET IT GO!

The Theory:

Now, for those of you who know Marie Kondo’s method (Konmari), in my opinion, the theory of picking each item up and asking yourself if it brings you joy seems a little corny. My friend and I joke about this anytime we pick anything up now. Even the handy dandy Husband will pick up my cat and ask if we can get rid of her because she doesn’t bring him joy (yes, so funny). But this theory of sparking joy is something that I think a lot of us are missing as we live amount our mountains of possessions. Emily Ley’s theory was to simplify life, only keep the best, the favorite and the necessary. Seems rather similar in theory and very simple. I decided to try a mix of the two “decluttering” methods from these books and see how I did.

Both of these books were also similar in the fact that they both gave “permission” to let things go. Don’t feel guilty that you don’t use an item anymore. For example, I’ve had half of my closet full of beautiful dresses, skirts, suits, clothes, etc. that don’t fit because they are too small. Some of them I’ve had for 10 years or so. Each year I did my spring cleaning, I kept these items because “one day” I’ll fit back into them, or I felt guilty because they were rather expensive when I bought them. (Please tell me I’m not the only one with this problem!) These items no longer sparked joy. They sparked guilt and sadness that I was no longer that smaller size. When I gave myself permission to get rid of anything that didn’t spark “joy” or make my happy I was able to open up my closet and find clothes I had forgotten about. I kept two of my very favorite dresses that were still a bit small, but I just enjoy looking at them, the rest of them were I the “get rid of pile”. It is so freeing to be able to let go of these items and not feel guilt.

The De-Cluttering Plan:

The KonMari method is about going through your possession in category, not by room and I understand this theory as she explains it in her book, however I already know that I’m not going to store my novels with my cookbooks or vice versa. I like my cook books in the kitchen. And I like my novels stored in my library shelves. So, I decided to use the Emily Ley theory of going room by room and mix it up with the KonMari method of sorting category by category. This way will also keep my messes of pulling everything out blocked off to one room and not the whole house as this process can take several months.

So here’s was my plan, and how I decided to organize myself.

By using each “room” in my house as a first category, I made a list of what sub categories I store in that room. I decide to start this de-cluttering in a room that we call my “closet” room. It is a guest room that houses my clothes, shoes, hand bags, make up, etc. I thought this would be the best room to start as it wouldn’t disrupt normal everyday life and it was clothing was the first and seemed like easiest category in Mari Kondo’s book.

I made a checklist (see below for printable) and started to go through all of my clothes. I first started with tops, so I pulled out all of my tops (folded/hanging, tshirts/sweaters, old/new, etc.) and placed them on my bed. I went through each item, picked it up and decided if it “sparked joy”. Some items were easy! However, some items were hard. I through those items into a pile to go through last. By the time I got to those last few items, I was prepared to make a final decision.

I then continued through my list and parred down my clothes to about half (okay, maybe like 60%). I ended up with so much space left in my closet which I thought would make it feel barren and sad, but it actually felt freeing. After the first day of my decluttering, I tackled two “sub categories” and I could actually see what was in my closet the next morning. Trying to find an outfit was “easy”! WHAT?! And even more exciting, I found a pair of new sweatpants with the tags still on them that I totally forgot that I purchased months ago. I’m wearing them as I type this, and they are so soft and warm. The ease of getting ready in the morning was such a great feeling that I couldn’t wait to get back to my decluttering that evening. Also, I have now ingrained in my brain that I never want so many items in this space that I won’t over-buy, or keep items due to guilt again.

After going through several “sub categories” I found myself with a very large pile, (about 4 trash bags) of clothes. I found an app called “Poshmark” where you can sell (and buy) almost anything, but the sales are usually geared towards brand name clothes and accessories. I decided to take a few pictures and see if I could sell these items. I had no idea what I was doing, but I posted a few items that were brand named and actually made some sales! I turned those clothes that were sparking negative joy into some moola! Poshmark is like having a garage sale 24/7, and you don’t have to try and make change for anyone or deal with those pesky neighbors who just want to see what you have to sell (please tell me you know what I’m talking about here). Never heard of Poshmark, but want to try it out? Just use my code “JSandlin10” to sign up and get $5 just for joining! For full disclosure, I’ll get $5 if you make a first purchase!

I’m almost done with decluttering my closet room, and it feels fantastic! My next task will be the room I am usually in the most during the week which is my kitchen. I will tackle each category as I did before one at a time and viciously keep or get rid of each item. I am actually rather excited to see what comes out of that category!

You might be wondering how you keep from creating this same decluttering issue in the future, well I have a solution, my friend. For example, each time I fold and put away my clothes, I take an extra second (it only takes one or two) to check over my clothes and ask myself if the item still “sparks joy”. This mental process each and every time I go through my laundry will keep me from having to spend days and weeks going through my closet and having to do an annual decluttering each year.

The Checklist:

To help me stay organized and on track I made my own checklist to put in my planner so I can cross off each item when it is complete. Oh the sweet, sweet, feeling of crossing something off a to do list. I wanted to share this checklist as a printable freebie to give you some inspiration to join me in this decluttering journey once and for all!

Check out my printable (full page of A5 planner size) and print it as is or as inspiration to create your own and share it on my Facebook page! I would love to see what you are using to declutter and spring clean this season!

How To: DIY Plastic Containers Around the Kitchen

2019-02-21T21:39:00.000-05:00

A few years ago I shared how I turned Starbucks Coffee Bottles into the popular faux milk bottles for parties, it was the perfect combination of making something similar to a product that I couldn’t afford, as well as recycling my trash! I also shared how I turned beer holders into a cute utensil container instead of buying a new one. I love using containers that I would otherwise throw out as something useful because I feel like I’m getting a bigger bang for my buck!

I ran into two different issues in my kitchen that needed a solution and I decided to use my “trash” that was sitting in my recycling bin to fix!

Dish Brush Storage

The first issue I had was with the way I was storing my dish washing brushes, and I shared some of this project on my instagram (follow me here!). I love using the dish washing brushes from Aldi because they seem to get my dishes cleaner and are easier to use compared to sponges. They also last longer, but are harder to store. I also just purchased two straw brushes from Amazon to clean my plastic straws that I wanted to make sure didn’t get beat up in storage as they are a little bit flimsier than the Aldi brushes.

My current storage container was a plastic cup, yes, a plastic cup. This worked for one or two brushes, but each time I went to grab one of them from under the sink, the whole thing fell over. Also, the times I could get it to balance and stay standing, I had to store the brushes handle down which made them hard to get out and put away after use. Since I store my brushes under the sink, I didn’t want to spend money on a caddy, the solution to my problem didn’t need to look “pretty”, it just needed to work.

My goal was to get a container that was large enough to hold all the brushes handle side up and be able to drain, much like a plant pot. When I found an empty pretzel container in my pantry cabinet (yes, empty, but that’s another story), I thought to myself “Self, could I turn this into a bin for my dish washing brushes?” And then I thought, “Why not try it and if it doesn’t work out, I can just toss it in the recycling bin?” I decided to try it out by throwing my brushes in the container to see if they would fit, and they did!

To turn this pretzel container into a brush holder, I first took off the label. I did this by using hot water, soap, and a magic eraser. By the time I was done scrubbing, you couldn’t even tell it ever had a label on it. It was just a clean clear bucket.

Next, to make drain holes, I drilled some holes into the base. I used a ¾ inch bit and drilled holes in the base about an inch and a half apart.

For a tray for water to collect under the container, I decided to try out the lid. It was either use the lid or a plastic plate, so I opted for the lid to see how it worked.

Then, to keep my two new straw brushes safe, I added two command strip hooks to the inside of the bin to lock in the straw brushes. The brushes just happened to fit in the command strip hooks, so they stay put when in storage but are easy to pull out when needing to be used.

And there you go, an easy answer to my lack of dish washing brush storage!

Dish Soap Container

The second issue was with my dish soap container. I had a very cute dish soap dispenser that I bought from the Container Store several years ago, but it rusted through most of it’s parts and no longer worked. (it was a very sad day when I said good buy to this dispenser.) In the interim, I tried to use a spare olive oil bottle for a cute replacement, however it was glass (breakable) and was very slow to dispense any soap onto my dishes in the sink because I had to turn it upside down and wait for the soap to slooowly come out of the top of the bottle. It became more of a chore to use, and even though it was “pretty” on my counter, function wins over form what it comes to dish washing! So I was on the hunt for a new container for my dish soap. Could I just stuck with the Dawn or Palmolive soap container? Sure, but I wanted something cute because it sits out all the time!

The solution to this issue started with washing my hair, yes, washing my hair. I started buying Pantene Charcoal Shampoo and Conditioner a month or so ago, which by the way is AMAZING and totally worth the price if you ask me!

The bottles have a nice large pump that doesn’t clog and the plastic is sturdy, not too flexible. When my shampoo and conditioner ran out for the first time, I noticed that the labels were on the outside of the bottles, meaning it is a removable wrap label, not melted or glued onto the bottle. I cut the label off to see what the bottles looked like without it and thought “these types of bottle sell for about $15 bucks at the store, what can I use this for?” My answer to myself was “DISH SOAP!”

What is nice about reusing this type of container is that the bottle isn’t flimsy, but if I need to replace it, it won’t be as sad as tossing out a soap dispenser I purchased from the Container Store. I can just recycle the old one and use a newly finished bottle of shampoo. Easy Peasy!

Now doesn’t that look so much better than a regular ol’ bottle of soap sitting on the counter?!

How do you re-use containers around your house? Do you think about how to reuse a nice container before throwing it in the recycling container?

African Violets: Re-potting and Propagation

2019-02-14T21:57:00.002-05:00

About this time last year, I wrote a post with a few tips on how to care for an African Violet and how to encourage it to bloom. Since then, my plant has bloomed two more times! It has also grown significantly and has nearly outgrown its pot. As the plant grows taller, more and more of the stem becomes exposed making the plant top heavy.

Not sure what to do, I visited my local garden center. While perusing the store, looking for good deals on house plants, I asked one of the kind employees what to do about my African Violet! She told me that in order to help an overgrown African Violet, all I needed to do was to repot it and the exposed stem would grow it’s own roots. I decided to document this process to share how to repot an overgrown African Violet, but also to try my hand at African Violet propagation. Let’s see what happens!

To start, I cleared space to repot my plant. Due to the crazy low temperatures and rain, I had to do this project inside instead of outside! To contain any spilled dirt or water, I use a boot tray. I get mine really cheap from Aldi and they work perfect to keep my space clean while indoor “gardening”.

I then took a look at my plant. Yes, I just LOOKED at it. One of the coolest things about an African Violet is that it grows uniformly in a circle, so I wanted to make sure that I kept that shape. Much of the stem was already exposed due to leaves falling off throughout the year, so I took note of which leaves I could take off and the plant would still look balanced. I didn’t want the plant to be lopsided!

Next, I popped several of the leaves off. First, I removed the leaves that were yellowing. Then I popped off the green leaves that would balance out the plant since I just removed the yellowing ones. Then I popped a few off to make the plant the size I wanted it to be. In all, I popped off about 15 leaves. These will be used for propagation, so I took off a few more than I might have done otherwise.

By “popping” off, I mean that I carefully wiggled the leaf at the base until it “popped” off from the step. If you try this method and the leave rips off, that’s okay. You can use it for propagation, and pop the rest of the stem off at the base.

Next, I planted the main plant back into it’s pot with fresh soil. I made sure to clean the pot out completely to give it a fresh start. I have used the Espoma African Violet soil in the past, but I purchased the Miracle-Gro African Violet soil from my local garden center because it is what they had in inventory. My review of these soils is below.

I first put some soil in the pot, placed my plant, and then filled in the rest of the pot with soil, fairly easy.

I purchased a second African Violet on clearance while at the garden center this weekend, so I potted it up the exact same way. I have no idea what color the flowers will be, so I’m excited for this one to bloom.

Propagation:

You can propagate African Violets from cuttings. This means, you can grow a second plant from a piece of the original plant, much like succulents. You don’t have to gather seeds and re-grow a plant like a pepper, for example.

To propagate, take healthy looking leaves from an African Violet plant and take off the stems to about an inch from the leaf.

Next, fill pots full of moist African Violet soil.

Make sure the soil is moist and not completely dry! I used my watering can from Gardner's Supply to water my soil first.

Then, place the leave stem into the soil at a 25 – 30 degree angle. The little hairs on the stem will turn into roots and a new plant will grow from that leaf.

I put a tooth pick in one pot to mark that pot as having the “new” African Violet leaf, and not the my already known purple flowered plant. Any time I do an “experiment” I try to label and record as much as possible so I can learn what worked and what didn’t.

Espoma Vs Miracle-Gro Soil

I didn’t think that the two soils would be very different because they are both made for African Violets, but boy was I wrong. The Miracle Grow soil was more mulchy, while the Espoma soil is more loamy. I personally like working with the Espoma soil better. I also like that the Espoma has a zipper to close the bag, vs having to just fold it over – it is much more tidy!

Currently, I’m noticing that the Miracle-Gro soil holds onto moisture a bit differently and my plants are reacting as if there is too much water in the pot. I re-potted and propagated using the Miracle Grow soil, but after a week I might report them again with the Espoma soil. I’ll give them all a week to settle into their new pots and see what happens. Most plants are fairly resilient, so they should bounce back in either case.

Make sure to follow Classy Event Organizer on Instagram and Facebook for updates on these African Violets. Leave a comment if you have any African Violets and how you’ve repotted them or propagated them. I’d love to hear about your experiences!!

DIY: Chocolate Covered Pretzels

2019-02-07T21:10:00.000-05:00

I LOVE the mix of salty with sweet, specifically pretzels and chocolate.

Chocolate covered pretzels are an easy fix for a salty/sweet craving! I have one issue with making chocolate covered pretzels, however, and it is that when I try to cover the ENTIRE pretzel, I get chocolate all over the place! (my hands, the counter, the floor, etc.) I have a new method that still gives me a bit of salt and sweet, while not creating a mess – only covering half the pretzel!

For this quick and easy DIY - you will need semi-sweet chocolate chips and pretzels. I use about 1 cup semi sweet chocolate for 40 pretzels – this doesn’t have to be exact.

First, melt your chocolate chips. I always use my Crofton soup bowl from Aldi to melt my chocolate in the microwave. The bowl is microwave safe and has a nice handle so I don’t have to touch anything hot! It also has a wide opening that I can fit my hand in without getting covered in chocolate!

To melt chocolate chips in the microwave, put the bowl with chocolate chips in the microwave for intervals of 30 seconds. Between each interval stir the chocolate chips, making sure to move the ones on the bottom to the top so nothing burns. When you don’t have anymore lumps, your chocolate chips are melted!

While the chocolate is melting in the microwave, cover your work space with wax paper for a place to lay your pretzels. This step makes clean up much easier!

When the chocolate is melted, cover your pretzels by holding one side of the pretzel and dip the other side into the chocolate half way. Wipe any excess off the back of the pretzel on the side of the container. Lay the pretzel on the wax paper to set. Continue until you have used up all of your pretzels or all of your chocolate! Tada! Easy peasy – you made chocolate covered pretzels and didn’t make a mess!

If you want, you can add sprinkles to your tasty treat to make them more festive! While the chocolate is still “soft” sprinkle your choice of sprinkles onto the chocolate for a bit of extra fun! I made three different “kinds” of pretzels, some with white sprinkles, some with multi-colored sprinkles and some that were just plain chocolate covered pretzels.

Now let your pretzels set until the chocolate is solid!

You can store these in a plastic container, or make a small gift bag with plastic wrap and some baking twine or ribbon! These could be such a cute gift! I store mine in a plastic container in the fridge so the chocolate doesn’t become soft.

There you go, chocolate covered pretzels, in about 10 minutes and without any mess! For other quick and easy snacks, try out these chocolate covered Oreos or no-bake cookies!

Leave a comment below of your favorite salty and sweet snack!

Garden Update: Garlic

2019-01-31T19:41:00.000-05:00

I have never planted garlic in the ground before, I have only tinkered around with planting scraps for the garlic greens (see how-to post here). I don’t currently have a lot of vegetable garden space, as my landscape is more formal with flowers, bushes, and trees. This is one of the reasons why I prefer to garden in containers. Garlic needs about 10 months (that’s right 10 MONTHS!) in soil in order to grow, and this would just not do in containers. After much debate, I decided that I would try to find a small place in my landscape that I could plant some garlic!

I found a small space in my backyard between some Sedum and a Peony that wouldn’t be completely upset by filling it with some garlic and got started!

The process started in September. I bought garlic cloves from two grocery stores, one clove was a hard neck variety and one was from a soft neck variety. I separated the cloves, each of these will be planted like a seed, in total I had about 30. At this point, I amended my soil with some fresh compost and made three channels/rows to set the clove. After each clove was placed a few inches from each other, I covered them with soil and watered them in really well and made sure the soil was kept moist every couple of weeks.

The garlic had sprouted significantly by November due to the warm weather. I was a bit worried about the 6 to 8 inches of green that had already grown, so I decided to cover the area with some extra straw I had on hand just to cover them a bit during the first frosts.

As you can see in this picture that I took just a few weeks ago (almost halfway for the garlic’s growing season), they are doing just fine above ground. I can’t wait to see how they are doing below ground.

I’m interested to see how they look in my landscape through-out the spring/ early summer months (harvest should be sometime in late June!) As a trial, if these garlic plants don’t look “weird” in my landscape, I might add more vegetables in and around my formal landscape to test out the soil vs container gardening later in the year.

I’ll keep you all updated on the progress! Have you ever sacrificed part of your landscape for vegetable plants? Have you ever grown garlic before? Please answer in the comments, I’d love to know!

Chocolate Covered Snowflake Oreos

2019-01-25T22:56:00.001-05:00

I feel like there is usually a “lull” in creative and fancy treats between Christmas and Valentine’s day. Since most creative treats surround a holiday, I decided that in order to fill this gap, I'll make something truly unique “just because”!

I really enjoy chocolate covered Oreos, especially my Christmas Tree Oreos because these chocolate covered cookies are super easy to make. They aren’t completely covered in chocolate, which means that I don’t have to get my entire hand covered in chocolate because a cookie dropped in to the melted chocolate by accident (please say you know what I mean!)

I thought to myself, why can’t I make a similar treat, just with a different “picture”. Why not snowflakes?

And thus the idea for Chocolate Covered Snowflake Oreos was created!

In order to make these easy winter treats I used the below items:

- Semi-sweet Chocolate Chips

- White Sprinkles

- White Candy Melts

- Oreo/Off Brand Cookies

I had the white sprinkles on hand, but you can totally do this with just the white candy melts!

First, let’s get prepared. Melt your semi sweet chocolate in the microwave. Start with 30 seconds at a time until melted. Make sure to stir in between each 30 second interval.

While the chocolate is melting, lay out some wax paper to place your cookies until they set.

When your chocolate is melted, cover one side of the cookie by holding onto one side of the cookie sandwich, and lighting dipping in the other. You will need to “wipe” off any excess onto the side of the container you used to melt the chocolate.

Then, while the chocolate is still soft, sprinkle a few white sprinkles for “flurries”.

While these cookies set-up, melt the white candy melts. Tip: I usually put candy melts straight into a non-reusable piping bag and put that into the microwave to melt the candies so I don’t have to dirty any extra dishes to clean up.

Once the candy melts are melted, start drawing your snowflakes! I cut my tip a bit fatter than I originally wanted, but the treats were just for myself so it was okay that they weren’t perfect. No two snowflakes look alike, so it’s okay if they aren’t all the same! Try out different designs!

Once the cookies set-up, I always store them in the fridge so that the chocolate doesn’t get soft. But who am I kidding, these treats were gone so fast they wouldn’t have had time to get soft!

Enjoy these with a nice cup of hot cocoa or homemade latte as you sit down to enjoy some family time!

Planting Onion Sets in Containers

2018-04-04T21:41:00.000-04:00

While perusing my local garden and pet store I found some onion sets and decided that I needed to give them a try! I haven’t tried to grow onions before so I had to do a little research first. Since I grow most (all) of my veggies in pots, I had to find out the correct size container for onions.

In order to grow onions in containers, they need enough space to root and grow. The container should be around 6 inches deep and about 4 inches between onions to give them enough space to grow large enough to make a decent size onion. I pulled out a few pots and found some rectangle containers that are just a bit under 6 inches deep, as well as long and wide enough to fit about 6 onion sets in one pot.

During my research, I found that onion sets can be planted once the soil is able to be worked and when the temperature won’t go below 20 degrees F. The rule of thumb for containers is that they can take temperatures about 10 degrees warmer than the average low end of a temperature. So my onion sets in containers can take cooler temperatures to about 30 degrees. If the forecast says the temp will go below that temp, I’ll pull them into the house for an evening.

Onion sets should be planted about 1 inch below the surface of the soil. I filled each container with potting mix and then placed my onion sets so I could make sure they had enough room.

To plant onion sets, put the root end down and the pointy end up. This will let the roots grow down and the greens to grow up through the soil.

Then cover the onion set with soil and water them in! Onions need a lot of water, so make sure to keep soil moist, especially if keeping them in containers.

Below is a picture of my current set-up! Have you ever planted onion sets? Do you garden in containers? Share in the comments!

Pull - Apart Pesto Bread

2018-03-28T18:05:00.000-04:00

I want to share a fun new recipe that is made from scratch, but super easy! I made pull-apart bread with pesto as a side dish to our Italian Night dinner, and it was so easy, I'm going to add it as a regular side dish! If you aren't a huge fan of pesto, try this recipe with marinara!

If you don't know, pull-apart bread is a type of bread that is made in a way that bakes together in a “loaf”, but able to be pulled apart to eat in serving size portions.

In order to make this recipe you will need:

Bread Dough

Pesto (try my basic recipe)

Mozzarella Cheese

Parmesan Cheese

To start, make bread according to the recipe. I use Betty Crocker’s pizza dough because it is quick and easy, as well as tasty!

Once the dough has risen, take the dough and make 1 in to 1.5 in dough balls. The separate dough balls is what causes the bread to be able to "pull" apart, so the size determines the "serving" size of one pulled apart piece.

Once the balls are made, roll them in pesto and place them in pan, I used an 8 inch cake pan, but you can use a loaf pan or even a casserole dish!

Once all the balls are made, spread some pesto on top of the balls to make sure each crease is covered. Next, cover the top with enough mozzarella cheese to completely cover the bread and then sprinkle the parmesan cheese for taste.

Last, bake the dough according to the bread dough recipe.

Now all you have to do is pull it apart!

Have you ever made pull apart bread before?

Let me know if you try this recipe in the comments!

Spring Time Round-Up

2018-03-22T20:34:00.000-04:00

It is finally Spring! Spring is a wonderful time of year, birds are chirping, flowers are starting to loom, and days are getting longer and warmer. It's almost like a new beginning. In fact, in some cultures, the Spring Equinox is considered the New Year! This post is a round up of all the spring related posts to offer them in all one place!

The first holiday we celebrate in Springtime is Easter! Use one of these unique treats to make your Easter dessert extra special!

Flowers are starting to bloom, indoor and outdoor. Take a peek at these posts for tips on how to help African Violets to re-bloom and start your seeds indoors before summer arrives.

Want to create a fun cupcake for any spring related activity? Garden Party anyone? Check out these Flower Pot Cupcakes!

April showers bring May flowers, but they also cancel outdoor events. Check out my thoughts on rain dates!

Do you have any Springtime topics you’d like me to review? Would you like more Springtime treats to make? What’s your favorite thing about Spring?

How to Re-Grow Garlic Scraps

2018-03-18T21:23:00.000-04:00

Re-growing kitchen scraps is an easy money saving cheat because you re-use food that you already purchased. And unlike growing food from seed, it takes less time to reap the benefits!

I regularly use garlic in my cooking. I make a lot of Italian themed foods (pesto spaghetti, eggplant parmesan, etc) and garlic is a wonderful addition! By planting a clove of garlic, the greens will regrow several times over and over, much like green onions. These greens can be used in cooking, much like your garlic cloves, they just aren’t as potent. I prefer to use garlic greens because they are less potent, no one will accidently get a large chunk of garlic in their spaghetti sauce!

The first time I tried to re-grow garlic, I had too many cloves and decided to put them in water. After a couple days, they started growing! The issue with using the entire clove was that now I couldn’t use the close. I have since been able to re-grow garlic from the base of the clove, so I get even more out of one clove of garlic.

To start re-growing garlic scrap, you need a clove of garlic! You can use a whole clove like I started out, or just the bottle part of a clove (see how I cut mine below) and use the other part in your cooking! Either way, it the same process.

To get the roots to start growing, you need to put the base in some water. I use a small glass dish with just enough water to cover the base and lean my clove bases along the sides. Sometimes they land entirely in the water, and that’s okay too, you just want to check on them to make sure they are not rotting.

In a day you will see roots forming, and in about two days you will see the garlic greens starting to form. After about a week, you will have solid roots, and a significant amount of garlic greens!

When the garlic has significant roots, it can be planted. I found this cute little cup and saucer pot at my local garden center (on sale) and thought it would be perfect for my kitchen garlic! I filled my pot with potting mix and watered it to make it moist. Trying to plant small items in completely dry soil is not easy, so soak your soil and let it drain first.

Next, I cut off the current garlic greens to use in a recipe, then made five small holes in the soil and planted my garlic cloves. These garlic cloves will regrow greens several times and use in any recipe that calls for small amounts of garlic or scallions.

Once the greens no longer keep growing, it is time to toss the soil and garlic root. You cannot reuse the garlic root at this point, but you can compost it in your compost pile or bin.

I hope this “how to” has inspired you to regrow your own kitchen scraps! Have you ever tried to regrow kitchen scraps before? I’d love to hear about it in the comments!

How to Wash and Dry Makeup Brushes

2018-03-15T21:21:00.000-04:00

This type of “How To” isn’t the usual thing I post about, but when I learned a neat trick on how to care for my makeup brushes, I just had to share! I’m in the middle of some spring cleaning and took a few minutes to clean my makeup brushes and thought this might inspire you to do the same!

Makeup brushes can be rather dirty, even if you don’t use them on a regular basis! Think about it, they get loaded up with makeup, oils from your skin, and since we usually store them upright, dust can land on the tops of the brush and get into the bristles. If not washed and dried properly they can become a host to bacteria! YUCK!

To actually clean your makeup brushes, you need to use soap to clean the bristles. I use Bare Minerals “Well-Cared For” Brush Conditioning Shampoo, but you can use any brand or even dawn dish soap will work. For real hair bristles you will want to find a conditioning soap or add a bit of olive oil to your dish soap to condition the bristles or else they will dry out. If you aren’t sure if you have real hair bristles or not, err on the side of caution and condition your brushes, it won’t hurt faux bristles.

Put a drop or too of soap in a bowl or glass of water. I use the glass that I store my brushes in for this task. Next, put the bristle part of your brushes into the water and wash them like you would a small paint brush. Use your fingers to make sure the interior bristles are cleaned. Once the brush is “clean’, put the brush end under running water until it runs clean. When no evidence of makeup or soap is present, it is time to dry!

The trick I wanted to share is part of the drying process. I used to just place my clean brushes flat on a towel and waited a day or so until they were completely dry. The trick is to roll another towel up and place it under the drying towel to elevate the handles of the brush so that any excess water will run down the brush rather than stay in it. Wait until the brushes are completely dry before putting them away upright.

I hope you found this trick as interesting as I did! How often do you clean your make up brushes? Do you have a favorite soap you use?

Basic Pesto Recipe

2018-03-12T00:00:00.000-04:00

I’m going to start off by saying I love pesto, it is so fresh tasting! I also enjoy making my own pesto, but sometimes, finding the right recipe can be hard. They can include ingredients like basil, arugula, chickpeas, walnuts, and countless different cheeses to just name a few. I'm never one to just stick to a rigid recipe, I like a bit of fluidity to use what I have on hand. Sometimes I have arugula from my spring garden, other times I just have basil from my aerogarden. Sometimes I have parmesan cheese, but if I run I usually have mozzarella on hand.

I like to be able to keep my recipes open to variation to let me be creative with flavors, but also keep me from going to the grocery store because I just used the last bit of parmesan for something else.

In order to let myself have this creativity with a pesto recipe, I decided to lump some of the same categories together and find a theme. Basil, herbs, and arugula are leafy greens. Walnuts, chick peas, and pecans are nuts. Parmesan and mozzarella are cheeses. Olive oil is just, well olive oil. Flavor enhancers like garlic and pepper are "optional".

Basic Pesto Recipe:

2 cups leafy greens

1/2 cup cheese

1/2 cup olive oil

1/4 cup nuts

1 tbl “optional”

Put all the items in your food processor and process until everything is fully mixed and smooth. Taste test to make sure you have a pesto you are happy with before putting in a food safe container in the fridge.

For an easy party appetizer, sprinkle cheese on pesto and serve with pita chips or crackers! Or add some to a chicken for quick Italian Night dinner.

Do you experiment with recipes? Or do you stick with the exact ingredients? How do you enjoy pesto? Comment below, I would love to know!

How To: Mini Flower Pot Cakes

2018-03-08T22:14:00.001-05:00

My most recent dessert art masterpiece was inspired by one of my favorite youtubers - -Yolanda Gamp at "How to Cake It." She is brilliant when it comes to cake decorating, especially with fondant. Her explanations of how she creates designer cakes will give you the confidence to go straight to your kitchen and do the exact same thing yourself. Although it takes a bit more patience than most cake decorating methods, I wanted to try my own hand at using fondant and making a cake that looked like something other than cake. I decided to try my hand at making mini flower pot cakes!

Before I started, I wrote out my idea of what I wanted my finished product to look like, as well as made list of materials needed. Now, I did not use Yolanda’s cake or buttercream recipe, because I wanted to see if I could make a fancy cake with the everyday cake supplies – boxed cake mix and store bought icing - showing that anyone can make this crafty dessert.

Without further ado, this is how I made mini flower pot cakes:

I baked my store-bought cake mix into cupcakes ad left them cool before I started building my flower pot cakes.

Next, I leveled the cakes and staked them with chocolate frosting in between them.

Then, I frosted the outside of the cakes and put them in the fridge to set for about 20 minutes.

While the cakes were in the fridge, I started to knead my fondant. I used Wilton’s White Fondant with some brown food coloring kneaded until I got the color I wanted for “ceramic flower pot” color.

Next, I took my cakes out of the fridge and measured their height and circumference to use to cut out my fondant.

I rolled out my fondant to about a 1/4^th of an inch thick and cut a long rectangle that measured with a width that was a half inch wider than the height of the cakes, and a length the same as the circumference of the cakes. I then wrapped the fondant around the cake and cut the edge to create a clean seam.

Then I cut a thinner rectangle for the lip of the flower pot the same length, but only about an inch in width. I attached this piece to be level with the first and cut a clean seam. Now I have a flower pot that needs to be “planted”!

Next, I made a hole in the cake with the back end of a beater from my hand mixer, you could use a straw for this step too! This hole is to place the “flower” in the flower pot. I decided to plant up some mint cuttings from my AeroGarden, they are pretty, smell great, and edible!

Now, I needed to make some “Oreo dirt”. I took the cream out of twelve Oreo cookies and crunched up the cookies in a plastic baggie.

Once the cookies were in tiny pieces, I planted up my flower pots! I put the mint cuttings into the hole and filled in the top of the cake with the Oreo dirt. These are perfect to brighten up a rainy weekend or any garden related party!

Have you ever made an “object” out of cake? What would you like for me to try next? Have you ever used fondant?

How to Dry Herbs

2018-03-04T22:20:00.002-05:00

Growing herbs is a great way to add a fresh touch to recipes, however sometimes when you grow fresh herbs, you grow too much, or want to keep some of your harvest for use in the fall and winter months. One way to keep herbs is to dry them for long term storage. They don’t have the same freshness, but store for much longer than other storage options.

There are two main ways to dry herbs, by letting them hang to dry naturally or using the oven. Drying herbs naturally involves weeks to months of hanging herbs just letting them “dry”, therefore I use the oven to speed up the process.

To use your oven to dry herbs, start by turning your oven to 180 degrees F, or the lowest setting your oven will allow.

Next, wash your herbs to get any dirt or other plant debris off them. Then once they are clean, dry off the leaves to get as much water off them as possible. Next, spread them out on a cookie sheet to use in the oven and continue to let them dry.

Once the evidence of water is gone, put the herbs into the oven for intervals of 30 minutes until the leaves of your herbs are “crunchy”. This process can take 2 to 4 hours based on the herb. Small leaf herbs like thyme will take less time compared to larger and thicker leaf herbs like oregano.

Once the leaves are fully dried, use your fingers to pull the leaves off the stems and crunch them up into little bits. Put them in an air tight container for safe keeping.

Now you can keep using your herbs throughout the year!

Galaxy Sugar Cookies: How To

2018-03-01T21:27:00.000-05:00

Stargazing season is upon us! It is just warm enough to stay out at dark without freezing! We enjoy gazing at stars, planets and galaxies like Andromeda! I decided to task myself with a unique idea – making galaxy cookies without icing, just sugar cookie dough. I thought of this idea after looking at one of my husband’s astro-images of Andromeda. How pretty!

I decided to start with the pin wheel sugar cookie idea to create the “spin” of the galaxy with cookie dough. These cookies are perfect for stargazing parties, astronaut themed birthdays, and even just because!

Here’s what you need:

1. Sugar Cookie Dough – any kind will do, even prepackaged cookie dough should work fine.

2. Food Coloring – I used red, pink, purple, and blue

Let’s get started!

First, divide your sugar cookie dough into fourths, and then divide one of the parts into half again. You will have five parts in total.

Kneed food coloring into each section – blue, purple, and pink for the larger sections, red for one of the smaller sections, and neutral for the last section.

After reviewing my galaxy image, I decided that I needed to have several layers to make several layers in the “spin”. To make three layers, split all the colored balls into thirds.

Now, make three rainbow layers, white, then red, then pink, and purple and blue. Roll them together so they are smooth stripes, but one layer of dough. Repeat this with the other two sections, layer the rolled out dough using wax paper and pop them in the fridge for about 20 minutes to firm the dough.

Pin wheel cookies are made by rolling the two or three different color layers starting at the same end, however to get the galaxy “spin” effect, you need to start the layers when the next color starts. To do this, lay the sugar cookie dough layers with the second layer’s neutral starting at the first layer’s red layer like below.

Start rolling! Once completely rolled, put the roll in the fridge again for 20 minutes to firm up the dough.

Now the fun part! Start cutting the dough into cookie sized slices. The first few might not look like a galaxy depending on how smooth your layers where, keep cutting.

Once cut, put in the oven according to the sugar cookie recipe.

Enjoy! Check out my Galaxy Cupcakes too! And happy stargazing!

Italian Night

2018-02-25T21:12:00.000-05:00

We try to keep a “regular” dinner schedule, however it isn’t as formal as several meal planning methods you have seen on Pinterest, I am sure. We use “theme nights” to give me a little more fluidity throughout the week rather than having to stick to a schedule. I previously shared our Taco Tuesday routine, but I wanted to share a favorite “theme” which is Italian Night.

For me, the theme changes with the seasons, ie, what is in my garden that I need to eat before the squirrels get it! When I have fresh tomatoes, we have homemade spaghetti. In the late summer we have eggplant parmesan fresh from the garden. When the weather is cooler, I turn to pesto made from basil from my aero garden and marinara for a bruschetta chicken spin.

Italian night is a fun theme because it can be as simple as spaghetti and homemade meat sauce (my basic recipe is below), or as fancy as stuffed shells with a caesar salad and breadsticks.

I enjoy the fluidity of these theme nights because it takes the guess work out of meal planning much like formal meal planning, but due to our ever-changing schedules, I don’t feel like I’m tied to spending two hours in the kitchen after a 12 hour work day!

Basic Homemade Meat Sauce

1 lb Ground Turkey

1 large can (about 2.5 cups) tomato paste

1 can (about 1.5 cups) diced tomatoes

Cook the ground turkey in a large sauce pan. Once completely cooked pour in the tomato paste and diced tomatoes and let simmer for 10 to 20 minutes. Add herbs to taste, try oregano and basil! This recipe does not have to be exact and can be changed up to include fresh tomatoes or different types of herbs to taste.

For other “Italian Night” related recipes, click here.

How do you get out of your dinner rut? Have you ever tried theme nights instead of a formal meal plan?

Product Review: AeroGarden Harvest Wifi

2018-02-22T20:40:00.000-05:00

This past Christmas, I asked Santa for an AeroGarden and he answered! I was introduced to the AeroGarden while shopping at Sur la Table and automatically thought it would be a great addition to my kitchen! I have grow lamps and shelves set up in my basement for the winter months, but having fresh herbs at my fingertips is fantastic!

If you haven’t heard of an AeroGarden before, it is an all-in-one aqua system for your kitchen.

The first thing I did when I opened up my AeroGarden was read the directions. There are certain height requirements to make sure you can raise the light source properly, but it fights under most kitchen cabinets.

Next, I set up the AeroGarden with water, the pods that came with the kit, the plant food, and then I waited! Here is a picture after 4 days. As you can see, my seedlings are growing!!

As a busy business professional, it is nice that the AeroGarden blinks when it needs food or water, you don’t have to worry about the levels!

I had a few issues connecting the AeroGarden to the wifi in order to use my tablet as a remote, but I was able to figure it out. I ended up not using the remote feature as often as I assumed I would. The AeroGarden is more of a “set it and forget it” appliance.

As far as the plants that come with the herb kit, the dill is growing at a much faster rate (as expected), therefore I have been harvesting it and using it in recipes or drying for longer term storage. I have harvested the basil once already and made a batch of pesto!

AeroGarden has kit combos including a tomato kit, herb kit, and a blank kit for your own seeds.

After almost two months of use, here is my review:

Pro:

1. Fresh herbs at your fingertips, what is not to love about that?

2. Self monitoring and blinking reminders means I don't need to remember the water and feeding schedule.

3. Option to grow any type of seeds using the different types of kids.

Con:

1. Wifi App was a bit confusing and took several tries to connect, but the app is not necessary to use the AeroGarden.

2. The LED lights are bright, and I mean BRIGHT! The AeroGarden is the brightest light in my house - not a deal breaker, but should be noted.

If you are on the fence about getting an AeroGarden, I highly suggest it! I love mine and use it everyday!