DIY Simple Hostess Gift

Last week I had the pleasure of traveling to Maryland to visit my girlfriend.  When visiting out-of-town guests, I like to take a little piece of Kentucky to my hosts.  Since I had already rendered the ever classy Gettin' Lucky in Kentucky t-shirts on my previous visit, this time I chose something a little more, well, refined.

Naturally, I chose to take along a little taste of our beloved Sunergos coffee.  Since Kristen is a follower of our blogs and crafty ventures, I thought she’d enjoy finally seeing what all the fuss with Sunergos was about.

I stitched together a lined burlap bucket from an upcycled Sunergos coffee sack and placed inside of it a bag of Sunergos house blend coffee and two Sunergos travel mugs that say Louisville, Kentucky along with their logo. 

This was a simple gift to put together, and was an easy way to accommodate both Kristen and her husband.  And, shh don’t tell, but it was also a way to ensure that I got a morning cup of Sunergos while out of town. 

Happy making!

~julee~

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Homemade Soft Whole Wheat Pretzels

The other day I just had a craving for pretzels.  It was Pinterest's fault, really.  Every time I go there I end up hungry.  So I looked around and found a recipe that was pretty good on Weight Watchers (4 pts).  I ended up using an Alton Brown recipe which I modified to make a little healthier.  They turned out so yummy and just what I wanted.  The kids gobbled them up.  They are best right out of the oven, but they were still really good on day two.  Whatever you do, don't skip the baking soda in the water, that is  the secret to the brown outside and the nice texture.

Recipe (adapted form Alton Brown)

• 1 1/2 cups warm (110 to 115 degrees F) water
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 2 teaspoons coarse salt
• 2 1/4 tsp yeast
• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 1 1/2 c. whole wheat flour
• 2 ounces unsalted butter, melted
• 10 cups water
• 2/3 cup baking soda
• 1 large egg yolk beaten with 1 tablespoon water
• Coarse sea salt

Combine the water, sugar and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer and sprinkle the yeast on top. Allow to sit for 5 minutes or until the mixture begins to foam. Add the flour and butter and, using the dough hook attachment, mix on low speed until well combined. Change to medium speed and knead until the dough is smooth and pulls away from the side of the bowl, approximately 4 to 5 minutes. Remove the dough from the bowl, clean the bowl and then oil it well with vegetable oil or Pam. Return the dough to the bowl, cover with plastic wrap and sit in a warm place for approximately 50 to 55 minutes or until the dough has doubled in size.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Line 2 half-sheet pans with parchment paper.

Bring the 10 cups of water and the baking soda to a boil in a large pot.

Turn out dough onto floured surface and cut into 16 equal pieces.  Roll each piece into an 18 inch rope and then make a pretzel shape.

Place the pretzels into the boiling water, 2 at a time for 30 seconds. Remove them from the water using a large flat spatula. Return to the half sheet pan, brush the top of each pretzel with the beaten egg yolk and water mixture and sprinkle with the salt. Bake until dark golden brown in color, approximately 12 to 14 minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack.

  

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Kentucky State Fair Entries

Well, I did it.  I actually somehow managed to find the time to get my fair entries baked.  It was touch and go there for a while and  I definitely thought about throwing in the towel, but I stayed with it.  The weekend that entries were due we had a diner party at our house and adopted 3 guinea pigs, plus the kids were suppose to start back at school that Monday.  See my dilemma?  Plus in a fit of insanity I somehow entered into four categories in the culinary department.  I only ended up with three entries, though, as I ran out of time.  So all in all I took a White Mocha Cake, iced sugar cookies and a blackberry pie.  I won't divulge too many details about them since there is always that small chance that I'll win a ribbon, which will then of course turn into a contract with The Food Network, you see how my mind works, awesome right?  I won't know until Friday when we go if I placed, but I'm really not getting my hopes up, there were so many people dropping off baked goods. So here are some pictures.

Kim

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Donut Sleepover Party

 

The simple dessert table:  Donuts, including homemade mini donuts, salvaged cupcakes, gummy rings and candy dots.

 

Make your own donut station with handmade mini donuts and powdered sugar, chocolate sauce, sprinkles, and cinnamon & sugar for dipping.  The powdered sugar was the overall favorite topping.

 

Before I let the kids hype up on donuts, we started with a sit-down lunch.  The circle-themed lunch included a variety of bagel sandwiches, fruit kabobs, round pretzels & Crunchitos, and pasta salad.

 

We whipped up a couple of batches of delicious Orange Julius’, using this recipe.  Also, I was kind of in love with the personalized straw flags.

 

Outside, the girls swam, and I set up a table with a giant bucket of water balloons, water squirters, party poppers, glow sticks, sunglasses and towels.

 

Once it got dark, the girls roasted marshmallows.  I also set up a table for midnight snacks, which included more donuts, fruit, and popcorn.  I made sleep masks for each girl to wear to bed.  Instead of doing individual goody bags, I put several little trinkets in a candy canister and let the girls pick out what they wanted.  This was also part of my rain back-up activity plan – there were bracelet kits, tattoos, mini-notebooks & pens, pencils & donut erasers, toe rings and ring pops in the canister.

 

After the girls put on their pajamas, they designed and decorated their own pillowcases.  They loved making these and spent quite a lot of time on them.  I purchased the simple iron-on transfers at Michaels and they made perfect pictures for coloring with fabric markers.

 

The girls finally went to sleep at about 2:30 (am!!), but were up bright and early for breakfast.  I set out more donuts (naturally), but I think they were sick of them at this point.  For something a bit more nutritious, they made yogurt parfaits, and hubby scrambled up some eggs.  I purchased individual chocolate milks and orange juice.  I knew we would be tired, so I planned for ease and simplicity.

I loved this party.  I think all the girls had a great time, and the day flowed nicely.  All of the girls got along and kept busy, which is just about all you can ask for when hosting a sleepover.  My daughter is already planning for next year (I’m raising a little party planner, apparently), but I’m still recouping from this one!

~julee~

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Donut Sleepover Party–Sneak Peek

Donut Sleepover Party - Part I

About six months ago, my daughter said, “I want to have a birthday party with treats that you never let me have.  Sprite!  No, DONUTS!”  She had no idea that donuts are the new cupcake, and I do occasionally let her have both Sprite and donuts, I’mnotthatmeanthankyouverymuchchild.  She picked blue and orange based on the color of nail polish she was wearing that day, and I ran with it. 

Maybe we’ll do a Sprite party next year.

The party came together from her original plans:

Having a party for an eight year old is very different than having a party for, say, a seven year old, in that in the past year my daughter has become very opinionated and has wanted to exert control over more things.  Party planning, for example.  Which is a fine part of getting older, I suppose, except that her ideas aren’t as cohesive as mine, and I am might be a little bit of a control freak, too. 

See that flower sticker up there in the Party! banner picture?  The flower that doesn’t belong anywhere near a blue and orange themed no-other-flowers-here donut party?  Yeah, she insisted, and I picked my battles, and seeing it there in the picture now drives me a little crazy.  Which really, was probably her intention, but I digress and will just get on with the rest of party details - both the perfect and not-nearly-quite-as-perfect-but-I’m-still-training-her details.

I didn’t want a full-blown dessert table.  I was keeping seven girls all night and thought I should perhaps ration the sugar.  Do-it-yourself donuts, cupcakes, and a few candies - simple.

So I must tell you, I’m surprised I got a picture of this table at all, frazzled as I was.  Because I had a slight catastrophe.  Because my tiered platter (that you don’t see) holding the cupcakes broke as I was carrying it out and I dropped them all.  All.  In the grass.  With the dog at my heels.  With the dog that loved scarfing blue and orange cupcakes with the wrapper still attached as fast as she could get them down her tiny little gullet.  And the kids were screaming, “She’s eating the paper!!!!!!!!!”  And I’m standing holding the top piece of the platter wondering what the hell just happened, and how can one little dog eat cupcakes so fast, as my best buddy scooped down and removed the dog from the wreckage and salvaged as many cupcakes as she could.

Pshew. 

So if you care enough to have read all of this nonsense, I’ll tell you that what you see up in the picture there is the best remains of a picture perfect desert table gone to the dog.  Just imagine a really cute 3-tiered dessert platter there on the left side of the table holding blue and orange cupcakes with donut toppers, if you will.  If I had dropped the mini donuts instead, all you would see would be me sitting on the dessert table crying.  I know we’re all glad that didn’t happen.

I loved this party and I can’t wait to share more pictures and details tomorrow!

~julee~

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