Pasta Casserole

We were invited to a party of a close family friend this week, and mom volunteered to bring a casserole. Naturally, mom had me do the cooking. (haha) I wanted to make a classic dish that also had unique twist. I personally had a craving for Italian-- so I decided to make a lasagna/manicotti/casserole creation.  I'm not sure what to call it-- leave a suggestion in the comments section in you have a fun name for it!

What you will need:

For the sauce:
2 pounds of ground sirloin
2 yellow onions
4 cloves of garlic
1 can crushed tomatoes (I used 2, but the final casserole had too much liquid in it-- so try just one)
1/2 cup dry red wine
4 sprigs of rosemary

For the pasta:
4 boxes of manicotti

Cheese:
8 oz of shredded mozzarella
4 oz of shredded parmesan


Directions:

• Preheat your oven to 350 degrees 
• In a stock pot, bring water to a boil and cook your manicotti pasta for 7 minutes

• When the manicotti is cooked, drain the water from your stockpot. Toss manicotti with two tablespoons of olive oil so that the pasta wont stick together. (I didn't do this when I was cooking, and the manicotti all got stuck together and ripped apart--very frusturating.)
• Brown your ground beef in a skillet, along with your onions and garlic

•  Once your ground beef is cooked and onions are soft and slightly translucent, take skillet off of heat and drain fat
• Add your ground sirloin in with your crushed tomatoes, rosemary, and red wine
• Let your sauce simmer for a bit so that the flavors combine

•  Now, take a springform pan (this one was 10 inches) and place each manicotti upright
• Stuff each manicotti with meat sauce 

•  Once you have filled the springform pan with stuffed manicotti, cover the mozzarella on top

•  Place your casserole in the oven, and cook until the top of the casserole is a nice golden brown (about 30 minutes)

•  After you take your casserole out of the oven, sprinkle your parmesan cheese on top of it, and let it cool
• Once your casserole is cool to the touch, unhinge the springform pan sides and gently remove your casserole

• Enjoy!!

As you can tell from some of the pictures-- this casserole was SUPER messy to make. The sauce finds itself everywhere. Also, be patient with yourself when you are stuffing your manicotti-- it can be frustrating if your pasta rips apart, but the taste of the final product is worth it!

DIY Laundry Detergent Part Deux

Okay, so remember that one post where I made: DIY Laundry Detergent? Yeah--that didn't turn out as wonderful as expected. For about a week: it was a smooth, lavender-smelling, laundry detergent worthy of cleaning the gods' robes. However, it soon became a solid mass which proved unable to squeeze itself out of the container. I searched the internet to find an alternate recipe, and I found something that may work really well. Rather than a liquid form, I'm trying out a dry powder--which cannot congeal! (For now, I'm going to put those two gallons of laundry detergent aside and figure out what to do with them later.)

All you need is:

One bar of soap (finely grated)

One cup of Borax

One cup of Arm and Hammer Washing Soda

First, grate your soap

Then, add your Borax and Washing Soda

Next, mix your soap and powdered ingredients well

After everything is well mixed, put it in a container-- and you're done!! (You only need one tablespoon of this stuff per load, but I wrote down two for my mom because of the small size of the spoon).

Now, all you need to do is put one tablespoon of this stuff per laundry load. You should probably use warm or hot water when you're washing your clothes so that the soap can melt-- but I don't know if that is necessary. Anyways, it's front loader/HE friendly because it doesn't "sud" up like other laundry detergents.

UPDATE: replace the bar of finely grated soap with an in-scent booster for half the work!! It's not as cost effective, but when you don't have the time to grate a bar of soap, buy this instead and just throw all of it in the mix! Here are some in-scent boosters I've used and work really well:

"Gain Fireworks Sweet Sizzle In-Wash Booster"

"Downy Unstoppables Lush In-Wash Scent Booster"

Stairway to Heaven

Not really a crafting project, but I wanted to share my performance of: "Stairway to Heaven". Enjoy! 

Ornament Wreath

Sorry for not posting sooner! I'm busy with finals and other drama that has prevented me from having any free time these days! I started this ornament wreath forever ago, but I put it aside to do homework assignments. However, I just finished it, and wanted to share my creation!

What you'll need:

• Foam wreath
• Ribbon
• Enough ornaments to cover your foam wreath (I think I used 5-6 tubes of ornaments from Walmart for $3.50 each)

First, gather your materials

I had to paint the styrofoam wreath with white acrylic paint, because Michael's only had forrest green ones...yuck...(good for floral arraignments but UGLY).

Next, I cut my ribbon about how long I wanted my wreath to hang and then hot glued the ends of the ribbon onto the back of the wreath.

The ornaments from Walmart all had these little silver bits on the end which I didn't want. So I just removed them by popping them off and throwing them away.

Once the silver bits were popped off, I was able to stick the ornaments into the wreath by pressing them into the foam. After I pressed each ornament into the wreath, I pulled them back out and slathered some hot glue on them so they would stay in place. Then I glued each ornament onto the wreath.

Here it is about halfway done. Make sure to have fun with it! The ornaments dont have to be symmetrical at all-- I think all of the fun is having all over the place and a little crazy!

Crunch Time

Sorry I haven't posted in ages! I'm so stressed out with school-- it seems there are never enough hours in the day. I found this idea online and I'm OBSESSED with it. When I have my own home I'm definitely doing this in the bathroom.

There must be some sort of laquer on the floor to keep the surface even...

I love the copper color, and I imagine this is cheaper than getting copper floors being put in your house!

Crazy Crayons!

So for one of Harley's Christmas gifts, I wanted to make her a fun present that also was super inexpensive. I decided I was going to make her: "crazy crayons"... pretty much just like what it sounds... crazy looking crayons. I thought she would enjoy them :) For this project, I went out and bought a new crayon pack (although you can get thrifty and melt all of your little crayon nubs lying around for this project.)

I had this silicone baking mold lying around...but from what I remember it was only $2 on Amazon

Then, I got out my 64 box of crayons...

First, you need to peel off the paper wrappers off of your crayons

Next, you need to break up your crayons into little pieces

Then, I put each of the crayon pieces into the silicone molds

Finally, I baked them in a 200 degree oven for about 15 minutes (or until they all melted into one)

Once I took them out of the oven, I let them cool and then I popped them out of their molds!
There we go! Crazy Crayons! Have fun making your own crazy crayons. They're pretty cute, and I think kids would prefer using these than a tiny, used up crayon!

DIY Laundry Detergent!

Every time I need to buy laundry detergent, I get the same thought in my head as I do when I look at contemporary art: "I could do that for about half the cost." (Sorry to my friends majoring in art history!!) I've never understood why laundry detergent could be so expensive-- it's just liquid soap and perfume right? Luckily for me, I found a recipe for make-your-own laundry detergent, and now I'll never need to buy overpriced detergent again! Plus it's so simple to make, it's worth the money you'll be saving.

You'll need:

Two gallons of water

One bar of soap 

Cheese Grater 

Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda

Borax

Funnel

Large Soup Pot (make sure it can hold 2 gallons of water)

Directions:

1. Start by grating your soap into your pot
2. Once all of the soap is grated, add one gallon of water into the pot. 
3. Turn the stove to medium heat, stirring occasionally, until shreds of soap are dissolved.
4. Stir in 1 cup Washing soda and 1 cup Borax
5. Bring mixture to a boil, it will start thickening
6. Once mixture has boiled, take the pot off of the heat, and add in one gallon of cold/room temperature water. 
7. Funnel the detergent mixture into the two gallon jugs.

You will only need 1/2 cup of detergent per load, so I just attached an old measuring cup along with the detergent!

All together, this project cost me around $9, and these two gallons will clean about 64 loads of laundry. Next time I need more detergent, all I have to do is fill up these two gallon jugs with water, and buy a bar of soap. I have about two pounds of the borax and washing suds left, so I've saved so much money! Take that Tide!

On another note, if you have sensitive skin and you're allergic to fragrances, you could use this recipe and make your own gentle detergent if you just use un-scented soap! I don't know the going rate for fragrance-free/gentle laundry detergents, but I bet that's great savings. 

Brie Wrapped in Puff Pastry

Pepperidge Farm

I saw this baked brie online and I thought it looked too good to not try! If you remember, I had used only one puff pastry sheet on the Pomme Du Tarte, so I had another puff pastry sheet left over in the freezer. This recipe is so easy to make and requires few ingredients...try it out and let me know how it goes! Mine doesn't look as spectacular, but it was pretty yummy!

You'll need:
1 Puff Pastry Sheet (I use the frozen Pepperidge Farms kind)
1 Wheel of Brie
1 Jar of Fig Preserves

For egg wash:
1 Egg
1 Tablespoon of Water
**For those of you who don't know what an egg wash is, it's just eggs and water whisked together. It acts like a glue, and binds two pieces of puff pastry together, and also gives your pastry a nice shine.

First, take your puff pastry out of the freezer, and let it thaw. 

Pre-Heat your oven to 4000 degrees.

Make your egg wash by whisking the eggs and water in a bowl, set aside. 

Once puff pastry has thawed, un-fold it. If you don't think the puff pastry is large enough wrap around your brie, take a rolling pin and roll your puff pastry a little thinner. 

Spread a generous layer of fig preserves all over the thawed puff pastry.

Place your brie in the middle of the puff pastry, you do not need to remove the rind.

(I spread more fig preserves on the brie, although this is not necessary!)

Wrap one corner of puff pastry up onto the top of the brie.

Brush your egg wash onto the puff pastry you just folded.

Take another corner of the puff pastry, and bring it to the corner where the egg wash was applied earlier. 

Repeat these steps of wrapping one corner of puff pastry up to the brie and applying egg wash until all four corners have "cocooned" the brie.

Flip the puff pastry wrapped brie over, so that the folded corners are on the bottom.

Brush egg wash all over your puff pastry.

(Optional: you can use any left over puff pastry trimmings to make a fun design on top-- I tried to make a flat bow, but I was in a rush, and it didn't turn out too hot. Just make sure to attach it on with egg wash.)

Now bake your pastry for about 30 minutes...the oven I used wasn't too amazing, so it was hard to tell how long to keep it in there for... keep it in the oven until the puff pastry takes on a golden brown color. 

I wasn't even able to get a decent picture of mine! It was instantly torn apart and eaten right up! Guess that's a good sign ;)

Jazzing up a Bookshelf

Okay, in this post I'm not actually hands-on doing any crafting, but here is a cute idea I found online where you can spruce up an otherwise boring bookshelf. It looks so easy! Just take the shelves out of your bookcase, and glue on wrapping paper (or staple on fabric) to the back. Now just slide those shelves back on, and your bookshelf has an instant makeover! Try it out, and let me know how it goes:

     

Project: Solar System

For those of you who don't know, I tutor a fabulous fourth grader named Diamonique once a week. Her mom, Erica, is one of my very good friends, and is a police officer at my school. Diamond had to create a project about the solar system, but Erica was working from 4pm to 12am the week the solar system project was due, and Diamond needed someone to help her put her project together. Erica enlisted my help/crafting abilities to help Diamond get an A+. I had Erica pick up some styrofoam balls from the Wall-Mart crafting department, and had her bring a coat hanger. (I don't have any wire hangers lying around ever since seeing: "Mommie Dearest" haha). I had the rest of the supplies we needed-- paint, glitter, fishing line, and brads.

We decided we were going to make a hanging mobile, so I used pliers to re-shape the hanger. First I straightened out all of the: "kinks" and then shaped that into a "circle" shape and twisted it all together.

 I had Diamond start with the sun-- she painted it with gold paint and then rolled it in gold glitter. The gold paint acted like a glue, and covered any spots that the glitter may have missed.

We also painted the other planets with fun colors using acrylic paint.

Diamond's brother Tyreek was patiently waiting for us to finish Diamond's project-- and borrowed one of Lauren's books to pass the time. Pretty impressive reading for a seventh grader! haha. I don't know how much of it he read, but he looked pretty awesome reading Flannery O'Connor.

I covered the wire hanger with black, satin ribbon. I attached the ribbon to the wire using hot glue to get it to stick to the wire. I twisted the ribbon around the wire so that all of the wire was covered, and then when the wire was completely covered with the black ribbon, I cut and glued four ribbons on so that the project could be a mobile. If you pretend the wire circle is a clock, you should place the four ribbons at the 12:00, 3:00, 6:00, and 9:00 areas of the of the "clock." Then I tied them together into a nice bow at the top so that Diamond could hold onto it.

 Next, we pressed one brass brad in each of the Styrofoam planets and then double knotted our fishing line around it. Then we tied the other end of the fishing line onto the wire hanger. We then attached all of the planets and the finished product looked like this:

Hopefully Diamond gets an A+!! If she doesn't, I don't know what an A project looks like!