GRILLED SWEET POTATO WITH GARLIC BUTTER & THYME

 So I have made this snack 3 times since I discovered it... 3 days ago. Only a few ingredients, so tasty and soooomewhat healthy! This was one of the dishes Amy and I were considering for our Thanksgiving Dinner but it ended up not making the cut so I had six sweet potatoes on my hands! I didn't have rosemary so I just used some Thyme and it was delicious. The first time it was for my boyfriend and I as an appetizer, but I ended up eating the whole first batch myself. Whoooops.

 

INGREDIENTS

• 1 large (2 small) sweet potatoes, washed and sliced into 1/2-inch rounds
• 2 tbsp butter, melted
• 1 tsp finely diced fresh rosemary
• 1/4 tsp. garlic powder
• sea salt, sprinkled on top

DIRECTIONS

1. Wash and slice the sweet potatoes into 1/2-inch rounds and place on foil sheet.
2. Melt the butter in a bowl and add the chopped rosemary and garlic.
3. Stir and spoon/drizzle on each round.
4. Lightly salt the tops.
5. Place on grill and cook on low, about 5 minutes each side.

Recipe found here

-Jerica-

DIY CHRISTMAS CARD

 

I recall doing this back in days in one of my art classes- probably in middle school. Its a pretty fun project but a lot harder than I remember. I managed to cut myself 3 times on 3 different fingers. It takes some patience and time. Its cool to have your own custom stamp though! You can do hand drawn typography or print something out and use it as a template! For this project I printed out what I wanted in Helvetica- I love hand drawing type but since this is my first go at this since middle school I decided to just start with something easy. With a hand drawn type I would need draw it out large enough, scan it, print it, etc. Which I plan on doing now that I got the hang of it. I already have some ideas brewwwwwing in my head and tons of doodles in my sketch book.  

Materials:

Linoleum sheet- ( get this from a craft store)

Linoleum Cutter Assortment ( I got mine from amazon!)

Laser Printer

Paper

Iron 

Exacto Knife

Ink

Kraft Card 

1. Design what you want on paper or computer ( if on paper scan it to you computer) 

2. Using your Exacto knife cut out a piece of the Linoleum sheet to fit your design

3. Print out your design on a Laser Printer in Black Ink 

4.Immediately iron it onto your linoleum and push firmly down until the ink transfer over onto the linoleum. If you are doing typography it will transfer on backward- that is why you dont have to worry about mirroring your image before you print.

5. Use your cutter and the appropriate head and start carving around the template printed onto your linoleum. Try to cut it as low as possible without thinning out your linoleum to much.  

6. Ink up your stamp and stamp away! If you have time you can trim a piece of wood to the same size of your linoleum cut out and paste it to the back to give it a better handle. 

haha igonore the fact that my n looks backwards in greetings. I apparently messed up somewhere in the processs ;) but whatever it adds character!What better way to show that its homemade than typos and mistakes. I am sticking with that story! 

-Amy-

DIY: ANIMAL JEWELRY HOLDER

How awesome is this?! This is an inexpensive DIY alternative to the $65 version found here.

That one is still super cute but there's no way I could pay that much! All together this project cost me probably $12 in new material. Not too baaad. I had been watching at the thrift store for a bag of plastic toys but finally gave up and went to Hobby Lobby for some. This was probably the most expensive part at 8 dollars. The wood plaque was half price at 4 dollars.

MATERIALS

Plastic Animals

Wire cutters

Gold Spray Paint

Mod Podge

Gloss spray paint

Hot Glue

DIRECTIONS

1. You may paint the plaque if you want, but I chose to leave mine plain. If you do paint it, let it dry thoroughly then paint mod podge over the entire thing and let that dry. Finish off with gloss spray paint. If you choose not to paint it, simply use mod podge then the gloss spray.

2. Cut the animals. This is the hardest part. I found some very sturdy wire cutters in my house that ended up working great, but use whatever you can use to get these guys cut!

3. Use gold metallic spray paint (got mine from wal-mart) to spray the animals and let dry. You can use any color here, or omit this step entirely. Originally I had left them unpainted but thought it looked kind of kiddy.The gold paint looks soooo adult and sophisticated :)

4. Place a dab of hot glue on the back and press hard until glue cools. I wasn't sure how well this would hold up initially, but it has done just fine. Just don't hang super heavy jewelry on and you should be good!

-Jerica-

ALMOND PESTO & SPAGHETTI SQUASH

Almond Pesto with Spaghetti Squash

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 Cup Raw Almonds

1/4  Cup Olive Oil

1/8 Cup Truffle Oil 

3 cups Basil chopped leaves
3 Cloves Garlic
1/4 Cup  Parmesan Cheese
 1/2 Teaspoon Salt

1/2 Teaspoon pepper

1/2 Teaspoon Lemon juice

1/2 Teaspoon Truffle

1 Spaghetti Squash

2 Zucchini- shredded into thin strips  

2 links Italian Sausage

1/2 Teaspoon dried Basil

1/2 Teaspoon Garlic Salt

1/2 Teaspoon Italian Season

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F

2. Cut and take out the seeds from your spaghetti squash. Drizzle squash and shredded zucchini with a tablespoon of Truffle oil. Sprinkle with Garlic Salt, Dried Basil, and Italian Seasoning Roast, then place spaghetti squash in the oven for about one hour or until tender. Bake the zucchini for 30 mins.

3. Bake Sausage according to instructions as well! I do it all at once to save me some time.

4. Using a food processor blend together almond, basil, cheese, garlic, olive & truffle oil, lemon juice, salt/pepper, truffle until it forms a relatively smooth paste.

5. Shred your squash and mix with pesto and sausage!

6. Enjoy!

-Amy-

ALTERNATIVE CHRISTMAS TREES

Finallyyy it's after Thanksgiving, and socially acceptable for me to start decorating for Christmas! I'm one of those obnoxious people that loves that they have started playing Christmas music a few days after Halloween. If I start listening to it and decorating only after Thanksgiving, Christmas seems to come to quick and I don't feel like I have sufficient time to enjoy it! It's the build up to Christmas that I love, not necessarily the day itself.  Its just such a nostalgic and fun time, I'm able to relax for a month from school and have Christmas lights all over the house without appearing like a poor college student. ANYWAYS here are some awesome ideas for alternative Christmas trees if you don't have room or the money for a real (or fake) one! Click pictures for links and more information.

 

This tree is simply made using fabric and chalkboard paint!

 Put all those Christmas cards to WORK. I wish I got cards that cute!

 from Almost Makes Perfect, use blueprint printouts from Kinkos to print large photos. 

Gorgeous idea from Free People

This is such an interesting tree! Among the ornaments it's adorned with doileys, buttons, and cute figurines. The key to this one is sticking to a color scheme, as long as you have that you can add pretty much anything!

 I looove this minimalist tree

-Jerica-

DIY MAP WALL ART

MATERIALS:

Canvas

Spray Paint

Maps

Alphabet Stickers or letter cut out

Super simple project! That requires a little patienence. First, mod podge your maps onto the canvas and let it dry for 24 hours. Stick on your letters or self-made letter cut outs, place onto the maps and spray paint. Let the paint dry and then just peel the letters off! For some more DIY map art, check out these shelves!

-Amy-

RECIPES TO GIVE THANKS FOR

Jerica and myself threw a fancy dinner party last night.. okay not really fancy at all. It was more of a pre-Thanksgiving with tons of food, friends, and alcohol. We gathered together all of our dearest friends for a night of thanks and tons of food. Since Jerica and I love to cook,  a Thanksgiving dinner sounded like the perfect project for us to do together. We spent all Saturday cooking for our friends and made up with some really great dishes.  

Appetizers: Butternut squash hummus, baked brie with caramelized onions, baked brie with sun-dried tomato and thyme. 

 Dinner: Orange and onion stuffed turkey, green bean casserole, bacon & apple roasted yams, bacon & cheese cornbread ( I am obsessed with bacon!), herb stuffing, roasted vegetables in a sun-dried tomato and thyme infused olive oil, white cheddar mashed potatoes, Gravy

Dessert: Homemade Pumpkin Pie with a Macadamia Nut Streusel  & made from scratch Ameretto Tiramisu

Here are some of the recipes we did that were more of cook as we go kind of deal:

Baked Brie with Caramelized Onions

1/4 Sweet Onion

1 Tablespoon of Sugar

1 Teaspoon of Olive Oil

Brie

Caramelize your onion with sugar and oil on the stove ( or for better results use a sweet balsamic vinegar- we didn't have any so we improvised) until the onions are soft and brown. Top over your brie and bake in the oven for 15 minutes at 325 degress. Enjoy! Trust me this is amazingggggggggggg- you will not be able to get enough of it.

Roasted Vegetables in a Sun-Dried Tomato and Thyme infused Olive Oil

Infuse some olive oil with strips of sun dried tomato and sprigs of thyme. Pour over your veggies of choice. We chose zucchini spears and red bell peppers, toss with salt and black pepper and grill till tender

Stay tuned for the Amaretto Tiramisu recipe in our next entry.