Modge Podge Book Page Canvas Cover

I had a large canvas piece of art that I had bought from Homesense for $15 a few months back (At this size, it would have cost more to buy a blank canvas). My husband thought I lost my mind as the "art" was honestly kind of UGLY. Never fear.... Modge Podge is here!

I decided to cover the canvas with pages from an old book that I tried (and failed) to read... It was just too boring, but the font and page colour was perfect for this project.

I started by ripping up the pages so there were no straight edges then I applied a liberal layer of Modge Podge on the canvas with a foam brush. After applying the paper I brushed more of the Modge Podge until the piece were evenly covered and smooth.

 This was a messy but SERIOUSLY FUN project.

 

Here's the finished product. I'm still deciding what to paint on it.... Maybe a quote?

Doughnut Muffins

Doughnut Muffins

I was looking for something sweet and easy to make and came across this recipe for doughnut muffins and I must say - they are bang on for texture and flavour.

Ingredients:

For the muffins:

• 1 3/4 cup flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/3 cup oil
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 3/4 cup milk

For the coating:

• 1/4 -1/2 cup butter, melted
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line muffin tin.
2. Combine flour, baking powder, salt, nutmeg and cinnamon in a medium bowl.
3. Combine oil, sugar, egg and milk in a large bowl. Add dry ingredients and stir only to combine.
4. Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes. While muffins are baking, melt butter in a small bowl. In another small bowl, combine the sugar and cinnamon.
5. Take muffins out of the muffin tin while the muffins are still hot.
6. Dip muffins in the melted butter and then into the sugar and cinnamon mixture. Place on a wire rack and allow to cool.

These are SOOOO Good! Everyone in my house LOVED them - A definite make again recipe.

No Bake Eclaires

You may have guessed from my previous posts that I love dessert. My love affair with sweets started young and has just blossomed into something of a love hate relationship. I love to eat it and hate when I run out of it.

I came across this recipe on my friends Pinterest and it had all the makings of a go to recipe : simple ingredients that I have on hand, simple directions and a spectacular result.

Enjoy!

please excuse the poor quality picture, IPhones can only do so much

Ingredients

 Filling:

2 (3.5 oz.) boxes vanilla instant pudding
3 cup milk
1 (12 oz.) container Cool Whip
Graham crackers (I used 45)

Topping:

1/3 cup cocoa
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup + 1 tbsp milk
1/2 cup butter (or margarine)
1 tsp. vanilla

Directions

For the filling:

1. Mix pudding and milk; beat. Stir in Cool Whip.
2. Place a layer of graham crackers in the bottom of a 9x13" dish.

3. Spread 1/2 of the pudding mixture over the graham crackers. Repeat with another layer of graham crackers and pudding; then top with a final layer of graham crackers.

For the topping:

1. Bring cocoa, milk, and sugar to a boil; boil about 1 minute, stirring very frequently.
2. Remove from heat and cool one minute. Add butter and vanilla; stir until butter is melted.

3. Pour over the top layer of graham crackers. Refrigerate over night.

Bourbon Chicken Stirfry - Without the Bourbon

Mmm... sweet and sour. I love how the flavors compliment each other and when I came across this Bourbon Chicken Recipe I had to try it out. (FYI There is no Bourbon in Bourbon chicken)

Bourbon Chicken over Rice – without the Bourbon!
Yield: 5 servings

Ingredients

5 boneless, skinless chicken breasts or chicken tenders (12 to 15)
2 Tablespoon oil
1 teaspoon garlic
1/4 Cup apple or pineapple juice (I used Apple)
1/3 Cup brown sugar
2 Tablespoons ketchup
1 Tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1/2 Cup water
1/3 Cup soy sauce
pinch red pepper flakes
1 Tablespoon cornstarch

Directions:

1.Cut your chicken into small 1-2 inch pieces . TIP: Dry the chicken really well before you cut it up so it will brown up beautifully and you don't get a pan full of chicken juice.
2. Heat up a large skillet over medium high heat. Once it is hot, pour 2 Tbsp Olive Oil into it.
3. Add your chicken pieces to the pan and let them cook for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
4. In a medium sized mixing bowl combine 1 tsp garlic, 1/4 C apple or pineapple juice, 1/3 C brown sugar, 2 Tbsp ketchup, 1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar, 1/2 C water, 1/3 C soy sauce, a pinch of red pepper flakes and 1 T cornstarch. Whisk it all together until the cornstarch is dissolved and all ingredients are well combined.
6. When your chicken has a nice brown sear on some of the piece pour the sauce into the pan. Stir it around to cover all the chicken pieces.
7. Reduce the heat to a low simmer and cover the pan with the lid at an angle to allow some of the steam to escape. Let this baby simmer away for about 20 minutes, stirring a couple of times during the cooking period. If the sauce gets a bit too thick, simply add a tablespoon or two of Chicken broth to thin it.
8. Serve over white or brown rice.

Enjoy!

Grilled Ham, Cheese and Apple Sandwich

Last week my hubby was out of town so I took the opportunity to make a simple dinner for me and my boys.
We love, love, love grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup. I thought I would kick it up a notch with a little something extra - Black forest ham and Gala Apples.

Enjoy!!

Ingredients

(make 3 Sandwiches)
1 Tbsp Butter
1 Gala apple, peeled and sliced.
6 slice of bread (I used grainy bread)
Enough cheddar cheese to cover each Sandwich
9 slices of black forest ham

Directions

 1. Melt butter in pan and add apples, cook until starting to brown and soften. Remove and set aside.

 

2. Place ham in pan and fry until it gets a little color. Remove and set aside.

3. Construct sandwich, slice of bread, Ham, Cheese, apple then top with second piece of bread.

4. Place back in frying pan and cook until cheese has melted and bread gets some color.

ENJOY!!

EASY Cookie Icing (No meringue powder or egg whites)

Here's a ridiculously easy cookie icing that I used to decorate these fun scary Halloween - No Fridge Needed Sugar Cookies.

It gives you that nice and shiny icing that hardens perfectly so that you can stack your cookies or for treat bags!  And unlike Royal Icing it doesn't have egg whites or egg white (meringue) powder (which saves you time and money) and it doesn't make your cookies rock hard.

Ingredients

1 cup powdered sugar
2 teaspoons milk
2 tsp corn syrup
1/2 teaspoon extract (vanilla or almond!)

Directions

1. Add your powdered sugar to a medium sized bowl and to that bowl add your milk and your corn syrup.  Mix well.  Then add your extract and slowly add more milk and corn syrup until you get the consistency you prefer.  More runny for flooding or more thick for well, a more thick icing! (I usually end up using 3 tsp of milk and 3 tsp of corn syrup.)

*NOTE: If you want really white icing you need to use clear vanilla extract.

2. Add the color's you want and mix.

No Fridge needed Sugar Cookies

This Halloween as I was putting together the treat bags for my boys schools when I realized I didn't have enough treats so I thought I would make some sugar cookies to bulk up the bags.

Now those that know me know that I  have a short attention span and not  alot of patience - so when I found all of the recipe's needed to be put in the fridge for and hour or two I was disappointed,  then I came across this one that didn't need the extra time. Done!!

They bake up great, just watch them like a hawk so they don't burn. They're fun, easy to roll out and decorate. You can find the recipe for the icing I used here.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 large egg yolk
3 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 1/2 cups flour
3/8 teaspoon salt

Directions

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Line cookie sheet with tin foil.

2. In large bowl beat butter with an electric mixer on medium until smooth. Add sugar. Beat until combined, scraping side of bowl occasionally. Beat in egg yolk until combined. Add vanilla. Beat until combined.

3. Add flour and salt. Beat until combined, scraping down side of bowl occasionally.

4. Between two sheets of plastic wrap. (TIP: tape the bottom to the counter)  with a rolling pin roll the dough to ¼-inch thickness. Cut out shapes. Reroll and use scraps until all dough is used.

5. Bake 10 to 15  minutes,depending on the size of the cookies, or until lightly browned.

6.Remove from oven and cool on cookie sheet 5 minutes. Remove to cooling rack to cool completely. Decorate as desired.