Flaky, Light, Buttermilk Biscuit Recipe

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We had some friends over the other night, and as usual, it was totally last minute.  We all decided to just bring what our families wanted to eat and eat it together, so we would have more time to spend with each other.  Besides, kids are quietest when they're eating, right?  It's our best conversation time, by far.

We got some tasty soup and bread from Kneaders, and our friends brought KFC.  My husband has been asking for crispy fried chicken for like a week, so he was totally jealous of their deep fried goodness.  I on the other hand was drooling over the biscuits.  It's hard to beat a good biscuit, in my book.

So Sunday afternoon when I suddenly had to make dinner (we usually are lucky enough to eat with the in-laws), I decided it was time for some crispy chicken and biscuits.

I usually just make the Betty Crocker recipe, but KFC they are not, and I REALLY wanted buttery, flaky, goodness.  So I improvised.  And WOW! They turned out perfect!  Melt-in-your-mouth, buttery, flaky layers and all.  They totally filled my craving for KFC biscuits and then some.  The chicken turned out tasty, too, so I'll have to share that recipe soon.  I didn't measure really for that recipe, though, so I'll have to wait until I make it again to share.

This is an altered version of the Betty Crocker recipe for baking powder biscuits.

Light, Flaky, Buttermilk Biscuits
yield: 20 biscuits

Ingredients
1/2 cup unsalted butter
2 cups flour
1 Tbsp sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
3/4 cups buttermilk or soured whole milk

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl.  Using a pastry cutter, cut butter into the flour mixture until the butter is in dime-sized chunks.  You don't want it to be tiny--the larger chunks help the biscuit turn out light and flaky.  (It will be easier if you cut the butter into smaller pieces first.) Pour the buttermilk into the dry ingredients and stir until dough forms.

Turn the dough onto a floured surface and knead it (it's more like squishing) until a ball forms.  Knead it 10 times, then roll it out to 1/2 inch thick.  Using a 1 1/2 inch round cutter or a glass, cut biscuits out and place them on a greased cookie sheet so they are touching each other.

Let the biscuits sit for at least 10 minutes covered by a clean kitchen towel. (I don't know why this helps, but it is very important for making the biscuits light.)

Bake in the oven for 15 minutes or until golden.

Fashion Fun -- My Little Ponies in Real Life: Rarity

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Have you seen all the Disney Princess fashion collages on Pinterest? You can see a couple here and here if you haven't. Personally, I find them totally facinating! I have always loved those games where you have to think about something in a new and different way. Like the word puzzles where they make you come up with a phrase from how the words are written.  Like this one:

I LOVED doing those as a kid. And they still intrigue me today. So when I saw the Disney Princess fashion collages, I had this itching to make my own--to see if I would come up with something different than the other person. (Of course I would, or I wouldn't want to do it, right?) But--it's been done already and I rarely do things that have already been done. It's against my nature. I want everything I do to be unique and different. (This is the reason why all of my sewing and crocheting projects are experiments, even when I have a pattern to follow.)

Then, the other day, my daughter was talking about her favorite TV show--My Little Ponies: Friendhship is Magic--because the season 3 episodes finally found their way to Netflix and she has watched all of them at least three times now. And it struck me: I could do a fashion collage representing the ponies! The minute I thought of it, I was done for...I had to do it. So tonight, I finally had some time to sit down and start. It was harder than I thought! There were so many good options. But I worked through my indecisive issues and came up with the wonderment you see below. :) What do you think? Does it do Rarity justice? Does it embody her like I wanted it to? I would love to be able to pull this outfit off, wouldn't you?

I would love to be able to pull this outfit off, wouldn't you? I also would love to be able to afford it, but that's not happening anytime soon, so I'll just sit back and dream. :) Below are the links to all the products you see in the collage, in case you happen to be richer than I am. Check back soon for more of you favorite MLPonies in real life fashion.

XO
Sabrina

Quba
$310 - frockaholics.com

Giambattista Valli one sleeve top
$1,025 - farfetch.com

Coat
morpheusboutique.com

Giorgio Armani suit pants
farfetch.com

Casadei heels
stylebop.com

River Island strappy heels
$76 - riverisland.com

Aspinal of london
$345 - aspinaloflondon.com

Nine west clutch
ninewest.com

Indian gold bangle
etsy.com

KENNETH JAY LANE gold pearl jewelry
maxandchloe.com

Baccarat sparkle bracelet
baccarat.com

Delfina Delettrez silver pearl bracelet
stylebop.com

Kendra Scott turquoise bib necklace
kendrascott.com

Silver blue jewelry
target.com

Ted baker sunglasses
$160 - psyche.co.uk

How potty training attempt #1 ended -- or -- Why you should never go to a play place while potty training

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To make a long story shorter, I'm going to just say, I convinced my husband this last weekend that it would be a good idea to try and potty train our 2-year-old.  We tried it for the weekend and I worked on it again Monday.  For three days, we didn't leave the house and she ran around naked from the waist down. 

We had moderate success.

Miss M had numerous accidents, but she also was able to stop herself most of the time and finish going on the potty.  She even told me before she started and got both #1 and #2 in the potty with no accidents at all a couple times.  But...she was far from "trained" to tell me beforehand and seemed to be getting resistant to the idea by Monday.

Also by Monday, I was going stir crazy.  I had a play date planned with a friend of mine I haven't seen in a long time (That's you, Megan!), and there was no way I was canceling because of mildly unsuccessful potty training.  I thought going out in public would be the ultimate test--and let me tell you--it was.

I debated what method would be best: just panties under her pants, panties plus a plastic cover, or panties with a large diaper over the top.  I was going to try the diaper over the top, but she protested loudly once it was installed and so we ended up with just panties under the pants.  The panties were training panties, and I knew if there was an accident, the panties would keep most of it away from public surfaces.  I did bring three extra pairs of panties and pants, just in case.

My friend and I LOVE thrift shopping so we met at the local thrift store and shopped for about 45 minutes.  I reminded Miss M a number of times that she needed to tell me if she needed to go potty and asked if she wanted to sit on the potty as well.  She stayed dry the whole time we were at the store.

Then we decided to take the girls to a play place and get them some deep fried yummy-ness for lunch (a.k.a. chicken nuggets and french fries).  We arrive and get our food and everyone eats before running off to play.  Poor Miss M is too short to get herself up more than one step on the big portion of the play place, and the small kids portion is rather lame, only having a slide--but she's a good sport and just runs around after the big kids as much as she can.

At one point, Miss M comes back over to me and I remind her that she needs to tell me if she needs to go potty and ask if she will come sit on the potty for a minute.  Her response is to yell "No! NO! No!" at me at the top of her lungs.  So, I let her go and turn back to my conversation.

Suddenly, Megan looks over at me and says something along the lines of, "Uh, oh.  Sabrina, look."

I turn around to see Miss M on the step of the big portion she can get to, removing her pants and underwear and saying, "Wet, Mommy!  Wet!"

I rush over to try to get her to stop denuding in public, but of course my verbal attempts are completely ineffectual and I can't get to her physically.  The step she is on is gotten to through a crawl space that then connects to a small square hole in a mesh floor.  Even if I could crawl through the crawl space with an enormous belly, there is no way in H-E-double-hockey sticks I would be able to fit through that hole.

So I lay down on my back and scoot as far as I can toward the hole, telling Mira to come down and let Momma help her the whole time.  She doesn't listen until she's gotten everything off at which point she crawls through the hole with her naked bum for all to see, leaving her wet pants and underwear on the step.  I grab her and haul her and her nakedness over to our table and as quickly as possible, get some clean panties and pants on her, glancing warily around to see who besides me is horrified by this incident.  I check the mesh floor to see if she got any pee on it, but it looks like it got through unscathed.  The pee must have been all soaked up by her panties, pants and socks which are disgustingly wet.

Luckily Miss E was in a good enough mood to crawl through the crawl space and get her soiled clothes for me and luckily, Megan had a plastic bag to put the wet clothes in.

I let Miss M go with a warning that she needs to tell me before she needs to go potty or I'm going to put her back in diapers.  She doesn't wet herself the rest of the time we are there--which is not long--but as we're leaving, I realize she has pooped in her panties.  This time, not even giving the slightest hint that anything was wrong.

Thus, the end of our potty training session.  She obviously was not in the mood to get it down right now.  And as long as I don't have to endure this particular type of humiliation again, I am okay with being un-economical for a good long while.

Amazing Reuben Sandwich Recipe

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I don't even like Reubens and I like these! My husband (who LOVES Reubens) says they're pretty smashing--his favorite, in fact.  And they are quick, cheap, and won't heat up the kitchen during the hot summer months!

P.S.  They go great with homemade sweet potato fries. :D

Best Ever Rueben Sandwich
Yield: 6 sandwiches
 
INGREDIENTS

Sandwich
12 slices Russian rye bread
2 cups grated mozzerella cheese
2 - 2 oz pkgs Buddig corned beef (or deli meat if you can afford it)
2 - 2 oz pkgs Buddig pastrami (or deli meat if you can afford it)
1 -15 oz can sauerkraut (again, you can get higher quality if you want)
1/2 cup Russian Dressing (recipe below)
butter or margarine

Dressing
Combine the following ingredients. Makes one half cup.
1/3 cup mayonnaise
1 1/2 Tbsp ketchup
1 1/2 teaspoons spicey brown mustard
1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
Salt, to taste
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

DIRECTIONS

Use wax paper to line your preparation space.  Place six pieces of  bread on the paper.  Butter the facing up side of each piece of the bread, then flip it over. Spread Russian dressing on the unbuttered side. Evenly distribute the beef and the pastrami on the bread. Sprinkle mozzerella cheese on top of the meat. Use the top of the can to squeeze out as much of the saurkraut juice as possible; spread the kraut on the cheese. Top with a second piece of rye and butter the top. Fry in a frying pan on medium heat until browned and mozzerella starts to melt.

Nursery

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This is the room that my poor Miss M has been sleeping in.  It was sort of a catch-all for things that didn't fit anywhere else, including the pack-n-play that has been Miss M's bed since she was born.

Finally, around her birthday, we moved her into the same room as Miss E, because I finally finished their bunk beds.  This transition went much better than I feared. Thank goodness!

The transition was feared, but necessary, as I needed the room for baby #3 that's on it's way.

I'm not sure what the previous owners were thinking with this room.  The top 2/3 of the room is a dark/navy blue.  Then you have a white chair rail, and then a medium tan color on the bottom.  The room is the smallest room in the house and because of the paint job, it felt even smaller.  Putting a chair rail in (at the wrong height) and then painting the top half of the room a really dark color is great way to make a room feel small and cramped.

Needless to say, I knew the room needed a paint job. But I never make projects as easy as putting paint on the walls.  Oh no.  Not me.  I have to complicate things.  I have to have ideas.

My first idea was to put bead board up under the chair rail.  Why bead board you ask? That's a very good question.  Let me answer it for you.

It's because our bedroom--the master bedroom--had bead board up around the room and I despised it in there.  It just doesn't feel master bedroom-y to me. Bead board in a nursery?  Cute.  Bead board in a master bedroom?  Classic country.  (Which is totally cool if you love the classic country feel.  My husband and I? Not so much.)

So I thought...I can take the bead board off the walls of our bedroom and cut it to fit in the (much smaller) nursery.  Then I don't have to feel bad about wasting the bead board and it adds to the nursery.  It's a perfect solution!

And that logic is totally sound, right? Removing, cutting, re-installing, and refinishing bead board is totally do-able for a 7-months-pregnant lady. Isn't it?

Although my husband tried to convince me otherwise, I wouldn't be deterred. The bead board was going to be recycled come hell or high water. So off I went.

Here is a quick picture of the master bedroom before:

After two days (of working during naptime), I had it all removed.  Unfortunately, whoever installed it either had a fascination with their nail gun, or were paranoid that the bead board monkeys would come and try to rip the bead board off the walls. (Does that make me a bead board monkey?) Because they used like 85 nails to apply each piece. Are you kidding me?

So then I had to go through with a pliers and pull out all 87 nails from every piece of bead board. Not fun. (Also on a side note, the master bedroom is going to need WAY more work than I thought before I can paint it.  Ergh.)

Once the nail removal was complete, I could install the bead board in the nursery.  Or so I thought.

I had the foresight to set the pieces in where I wanted them to go before nailing them to the wall, and I found that the chair rail in the smaller room wasn't level.  It was installed crooked! There was no way I was going to try to jury rig the finish pieces to cover odd gaps, and there was also no way I was going to removed the chair rail just so I could attempt to re-install it and the bead board properly.

Therefore, the recycling-the-bead-board idea has been scrapped.  Back to the drawing board for me. Hopefully the drawing board has a better idea in mind.  Stop back in to see!

Healthy (and Tasty!) Banana Bread Recipe

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I have to admit--I'm not a huge fan of banana bread. It's not because of the banana flavor; it's the texture. Growing up, all the banana bread I got from my mom and grandma was dense and really moist. Some people love it that way, I'm sure. But not me. Dense, moist bread reminds me of the times I've accidentally left a piece of bread on a plate and let it soak in water: mushy, soggy slime. But I love zucchini bread and pumpkin bread because the versions I've had are dry enough to not bring up this association. So I decided to try to make banana bread that is less moist than what I grew up with. After searching for some recipes online, I happened upon this one: Deliciously Light Banana Oat Bread . But in the end, it had very little flavor--a flaw many healthy recipes have, I think. But I had OODLES of brown bananas cluttering up my freezer a few weeks ago, and I was feeling lazy. I didn't want to track down a recipe that was supposed to be both healthy and not too moist.  I took out this old recipe and made a few changes.  The result?  A very tasty, not too moist, bread that was gone in less than a day.  My daughter LOVED it, my husband was complimentary, and I enjoyed eating it. Hooray!


Healthy Banana Bread
(It made 2 large loaves and one small loaf for me)

Ingredients

1 cup whole wheat flour
2 cups white all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups rolled oats
3 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 Tbsp cinnamon
1 cup chocolate chips

5 mashed bananas
1/2 c buttermilk or sour milk
1/2 c vegetable oil
2 eggs

Directions
Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.
Combine the first 8 ingredients in a large bowl (all the dry ingredients).  Combine the rest of the ingredients in a small bowl (all the wet ingredients).  Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix just enough to moisten the dry ingredients.
Spray your bread pans with cooking spray and fill them about 2/3 full with batter.  Bake for 55 minutes or until tops are browned and toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Not-Your-Average Crayon Wall Art

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I've seen a lot of crayon wall art going around Pinterest lately and it has appealed to the kid in me--and the mom who wants to get rid of bags and boxes of old, broken crayons.  I even saw a crayon art rendition around Halloween that involved melting them on a pumpkin that I thought the kids would love.  Then when I tried it, I realized that kids can't use glue guns (you have to attach the crayons first or the blow dryer will just blow them around), and holding a hair dryer over a crayon for five minutes to melt it completely was WAY above my 4-year-old's attention span limit.  FAIL.

So it has been on the back burner for a while.  Then I saw this picture on Pinterest, realized I had beadboard in my bedroom that I wasn't going to keep on the wall, and thought, "Wow! Free, large, wall-hanging."

As I was pondering what to do with my newly-removed bead-board, I struck on the idea to combine the two projects. I wasn't sure if it would work to melt crayons on bead-board, since there are grooves and such, but I decided to try it anyway.

I was going to do a tree shape because I like this print I found on Pinterest so much. I got out my crayons, my glue gun, some paint, and a hair dryer and went to work.

Look how great it turned out! I love it in the space; it does such a good job of pulling in the colors and filling up the wall--and it was free!  What could be better than that?

If you would like to see the process that I used to make it, keep reading.  If not--thanks for looking!

First, I cut the bead-board as square as I could, sanded down the holes where the nails had gone through it, and then gave it a quick coat of white spray paint to even it out.  Then decided I didn't want it white.  At the time, the dresser it was going to hang above was a dark brown color, so white would have looked great, but then I remembered that I wanted to paint the dresser white, so a large white dresser with a large white wall-hanging above it would have been a bit much.

A sky-blue background seemed appropriate, so I found all my acrylic craft paint and mixed up what I thought would be a good color.  Drizzling some on, I took out my brush and covered the whole thing with it.

When it dried, I realized that the color was WAY too dark, so first, I tried sanding some of the paint off.  This is what I got:

 It was lighter, and it had an interesting texture to it, so I decided to forge ahead.  It couldn't be that bad, right?  Using a knife and a cutting board, I cut my crayons into small round pieces, which I hot glued to the board.  Then I got out my hair dryer and held it about 1/2 an inch above my crayon pieces.  Each piece took a couple minutes to melt and spread, so just getting this far took me about an hour.  Then, for the trunks, I took a dark brown crayon, held it over a candle flame until it was melty and then dragged it on the bead-board.  I really like how this turned out.  It looked like tree bark because of the texture.  Then I went to bed.  In the morning, this is what it looked like:

And I didn't like it at all! The trunks looked great, but the leaves didn't stand out from the background enough, and the blue still looked darker than I wanted it.  I thought about scraping it all off and starting over, but even if that would work, it was more work than I wanted to do.  So I did the only thing a good DIYer could--I spray painted right over the top.

That's right! I took out my white spray paint, held it about a foot and a half from the board and sprayed the whole thing down.  I knew I was taking a risk.  It could ruin my creation even further, but I was desperate.  Thank goodness, when the paint dried, I liked it MUCH better!

I do suggest skipping this step and just painting it the right color the first time--before you add your crayon.  After the background was right, the rest was pretty easy.  I followed the first couple steps until I liked it.

I did make one minor adjustment to my workthrough after a while.  The hot glue worked like a charm, but it didn't melt when the crayon did, so it left a lump under the color.  That was fine for a little bit of texture, but I didn't want them all over.  So I started using the tip of my glue gun to melt the bottom of my crayon pieces and then stuck them to the board.  It was enough to keep them from being blow away (for the most part) and it didn't leave a glue lump at the end.

And there it is hanging on the wall in the girls' room.  A pretty quick project when you do it right the first time--and it was free!  I'm in love. :)