Her Royal Highness

When I asked Blockette at the beginning of October what she wanted to be for Halloween, she replied without hesitation, "Cleopatra."

Mrblocko thought this might be a tall order, but I did a search on google and pinterest and got some really great ideas.  I knew that this was a costume that I could make with no problem.

I set a challenge out for myself to use what I had, spending as little money as possible.  I did end up buying the turquoise fabric and the turquoise fabric paint, although, I used a gift card from JoAnn Fabrics that I got for my birthday.  I'll use the fabric paint for something else, and I'm sure the shawl will get used in some other project as well. I'm labeling those things as a gray area.

Everything else I found in my craft room! 

Blockette's dress is made from an old sheet that had a hole in it.  The gold fabric I got from my best friend a few years ago when she was cleaning out her fabric stash.  The gold fabric was stretchy and thin, so I fused it to some denim fabric.  The denim came from torn jeans also given to me by my best friend.  I had the red and black fabric paint from a previous project.  I also used Velcro and yarn to attach the cuffs, collar, belt and crown.  They were also leftover from long ago projects.

I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.  I did have a moment at the School's family Halloween party last Friday when I saw another girl wearing a store bought "Queen of the Nile" costume.  I got kind of freaked out that Blockette's costume was so obviously homemade.  However, Blockette LOVES her outfit, and in the end, that is the most important thing.

Happy Trick or Treating!

BOO!

Roast Pumpkin Seeds

What?  I never posted about Roasted Pumpkin Seeds?  How can that be?

Here is our gracious donor.  Let's call him Jack.

Why yes, I did rent a purple fog machine, and set fire to my living room for this picture. Why do you ask?

Jack yielded a generous cup of seeds for roasting.

Here is what some of them look like after my family attacked the pan:

Pumpkin seeds are super easy to roast.  All you need is a bit of time and patience.

Step 1: Scoop out all the goo and guts from your pumpkin. 
Step 2: Separate the goo from the seeds.
Step 3: Rinse the seeds off.
Step 4: Pat the seeds dry with a clean dish towel. 

Do NOT use paper towels for this step.  The seeds will still be slimy and stick something awful to the paper towel.  It will make you gnash your teeth and cry for your mommy.

Step 5: Set the seeds out, in a single layer, on a rimmed baking sheet to dry. 

This will take a few hours depending on the humidity of your house.  Feel free to let them sit overnight.

Step 6: When the seeds are dry and no longer slimy, preheat your oven to 250F.
Step 7: Toss seeds with 2 tsp olive oil.  Use your fingers to coat the seeds.
Step 8: Generously sprinkle salt on the seeds.

Don't get fancy and use Kosher salt here.  You want the smaller crystals from ordinary table salt.  Kosher is too chunky and doesn't adhere as well.

Step 9: Bake for 1 hour, turning once.  When the seeds are done, they will be a light golden brown.

The seeds always taste best right from the oven, but if you have leftovers, store them in an airtight container.

Phylo Apple Triangles

A few weeks ago I was rooting around in the freezer, and I found this weird package.  I opened it up and discovered it was filo dough!  I had no idea how it got in there, or how old it was, as it was no longer in its original packaging.

I opened up the zip bag and it looked and smelled to be in useable condition.  Not being one to want to waste good food, I set out on an internet quest to find a good recipe for those thin pastry sheets.

I thought these apple bourekas from Steamy Kitchen were going to be the winner until I found the recipe for Apple Triangles from Cannella Vita.  They were essentially the same recipe, except the one fromm Cannella Vita uses applesauce instead of sliced apples.

This seemed like the way to go as I didn't want to spend all that time chopping and peeling if the Phyllo turned out to be freezer burnt or something like that.

I did have to throw some of the pastry out.  It was just too flaky to work with. 

Because the dough was more fragile than normal, I took two sheets at a time, brushed the top sheet with butter and sugar, folded them into thirds, then placed a spoonful of applesauce on the edge, and folded them up like a flag.  Grabbing the sheets two at a time seemed to make them a bit more sturdy when I brushed on the butter.  I folded the dough because I was afraid it would tear if I attempted to cut it.  Finally, I brushed the triangle pouches with butter to help seal the edges before dusting them with sugar and cinnamon.

The philo leftovers from my freezer yielded 10 apple-y pouches.

Surprisingly, they tasted great!  I could tell that the pastry was the tiniest bit stale, but neither Blockette nor Mrblocko could. 

They were a tasty quick unexpected treat.  I'd totally make them again!

Filo Apple Triangles from Canella Vita
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup apple sauce (I used a single serving container of cinnamon applesauce)
3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted  (I used salted butter, but unsalted would be better here)
1/3 cup granulated sugar

Preheat the oven 375°F.  Stir the cinnamon into the apple sauce. Cut phyllo sheets in half horizontally and cover with a damp towel. Lay 1 sheet on your work service and using a pastry brush, brush with butter then sprinkle with sugar and follow with 2 more sheets {cover the remaining with a damp cloth}. Slice lengthwise into 3 strips. Place a heaping teaspoon of apple sauce at one end and fold into a triangle as you would a flag. Arrange on a parchment lined baking sheet. Brush with melted butter and sprinkle with sugar.Bake at 375 for 10-15 minutes or until golden brown and crispy.

Hardwater Stains . . . Revisited

Since the vinegar and paper towel trick worked so well on my kitchen faucet, I thought I'd test it out on my dishwasher.

Here is the before:

And the after:

 

What a disappointment. I was hoping for the same results I had with the sink. The vinegar did take off some of the hard water, but not nearly enough to make me happy.

I left the vinegar on for the same time that I did with the sink too.

Oh well. Off to find a new solution for the dishwasher I guess.

Thankful Thurs #43

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1.  Getting the leaves up in the backyard before it rained.

2. Blockette scoring two goals in her soccer game on Sat.

3. A lovely Anniversary hangin' out at home.

4. My mom seems to be doing better from her injury.

5. Raking up all the leaves from our neighbor's tree in the front yard.

6. Staying under budget at the grocery store when I was positive I was going to go over.

source

7. Easy clean up at Wednesday Night church dinner. 

8. Not being afraid to speak up about the store's coupon policy when the cashier doesn't want to honor it.

9. The banana fairy (who writes notes on bananas) is back!

10. A few days of gorgeous warm weather.

11. Seeing more bald eagles flying overhead at work.

12. My best friend got a job, and had her first day!  (woot woot!)

Super moist Cinnamon Cake

I had originally planned to make this 5 min cinnamon cake from Budget Savvy Diva for Church.

Don't they look tasty?

Hmmm....

I made them the night before and they were super moist.  So moist that you needed a plate and fork to eat them without making a complete mess.  Well, that wouldn't work because this was for a meet and greet with our new associate pastor.  The bars needed to be something you could eat in hand.

Great.

So I whipped up a batch of Lazy Bars, this time with chocolate cake mix.  It was all I had time to make.  They at least, turned out OK.  (Let's just not talk about how I was so tired when I made the chocolate lazy bars that I opened an egg on the counter instead of in the bowl.  And how I had to yell for Mrblocko to get some paper towels because the egg was running everywhere as our counter top is NOT level.  No.  Let's not talk about that part.)

Let's keep talking about the Cinnamon cake instead.

Anyhow...I put some of the sliced gooey bars on a plate in the fridge, and some on layers of wax paper in the freezer.  Keeping the bars uncovered in the fridge dried them out enough so they held their shape better.  I thought they tasted weird, so I decided to play it safe and NOT bring them to church.

Strangely enough, the ones in the freezer tasted much better.  I'm not sure what that was all about.

I can't say I'd recommend making these bars.  They weren't my favorite, but Blockette and Mrblocko seemed to enjoy them.  Make them at your own risk!

5 Minute Cinnamon Cake from Budget Savvy Diva
1 + 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1 cup milk
2 teaspoon vanilla
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
pinch salt
large egg

TOPPING
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 cup melted butter
1/4-1/2c chopped walnuts

Preheat Oven at 350. Grease a 13×9 pan. In a bowl mix all cake ingredients and place in pan. Sprinkle brown sugar,cinnamon; walnuts on top of cake. Drizzle melted butter over top. Bake for 30 minutes.

I also made a glaze of:
2c powdered sugar
4T milk
1 t vanilla

Combine ingredients.  Add more milk as needed to reach desired consistency.  Drizzle over slightly warm bars.