1/2 – 1lb of pasta
1/2 medium onion
5 cloves of Garlic
couple tbl of oil
1 stick of butter
dash of salt

prepare pasta according to instructions

While pasta is cooking, mince the onion and garlic. Heat up olive oil in the pan and once hot sauté minced onion and garlic until fragrant and onions are caramelizing. Put stick of butter in hot pan and melt and cook until slightly browned. Salt to taste
Toss over cooked and strained pasta. Delicious side to any meal.

Preheat oven to 375F and prep 2 12-cup muffin tins

1/2 C (1 stick) butter, softened
1 C Sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp Baking Powder
2 cups flour
1 cup Milk or Orange juice (orange juice gives it a nice light citrus flavor but makes for a more crumbly muffin)
1 tsp Vanilla Extract (or lemon, it goes very nicely with the Blueberry version)
1-2 cups of Blueberries

Cream butter and sugar until nice and light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the baking powder and then alternate the flour and liquid (starting and ending with flour) until it’s a thick batter. Fold in extract and blueberries and then spoon into tins and bake for about 25-30 minutes.

Sift flour, baking soda and baking powder together. Put zest and extract into buttermilk. Add half the flour to the butter/sugar/eggs mixture beat then add half the milk mixture, beat. Add rest of flour, beat then rest of milk. Beat until well incorporated.
Pour into prepared pan and bake for 45 to 60 minutes. Cool on rack. Pour on glaze while still warm

Glaze
2 tbl lemon juice
2/3 cup confectioner sugar

beat sugar and lemon juice until smooth.

I have made croissants a few times and I used a recipe found online and tweaked it slightly, recipe found here. This is fairly labor intensive, tho few ingredients are needed. I always let the dough rise over night before making the croissants (since then we can have them fresh for breakfast, altho you do need to wake up early, like 4am to have them ready around 6:30-7am).
You will need about 8 hours free to make the dough and then about 3-4 hours in the morning to make the rolls. Honestly for best results, use King Arthur Flour (it’s seriously worth the extra money if you can afford it)

Croissants:
3/4 lb of butter (1.5 cups or 3 sticks), softened
1/4 flour
2 tbl/packets yeast
1/4 warm water
4-5 cups unbleached, all purpose or bread flour
2 tbl sugar
1-2 tsp salt
2 cups warm milk
semi-sweet chocolate (I chop up Baker’s Semi-sweet blocks, there are also chocolate stick available to make life easier)
egg wash (1 egg, 1 tbl water)

Take butter and 1/4 cup flour and work them together so they are one big block of butter (I wrap in plastic wrap and beat with my rolling pin folding it over and over to fully incorporate the flour). Shape into a 6″ square, wrap in aluminium foil and chill in the fridge for 2-3 hours.
Then, dissolve yeast into water.
Take 2 cups flour, salt, sugar toss together and then add the yeast and milk beating together until well mixed. slowly add flour (about 1/4 cup at a time) until a soft dough forms. Knead with either a dough hook or by hand, do not over knead, but is elastic but still soft (not too sticky)
Let rise in a greased bowl for an hour
Take the dough and butter out. This is where the croissants get its light fluffy and butter nature. From folding and rolling out the dough and butter in layers. The butter should be firm but still pliable but not too soft nor oily.

Roll the dough out to a 10″ square, place the butter on the dough diagonally and wrap the dough around the butter like an envelope (over lapping the dough slightly).

*Roll out the butter-dough package to about 10″x18″ then fold in thirds, like a letter, then turn it and roll it out to 10″x18″, fold in thirds and roll out again. Now take the dough and fold the two ends to the middle then fold that (like a book). Soak a cotton towel in cold water and wring dry (it needs to be moist) now wrap the towel around the dough and wrap that in plastic, and place it in the fridge for about 1-2 hours. If the butter breaks apart while rolling it out, let it warm up and soften before continuing to work, or if it starts to squeeze out of the dough, chill it.

You will repeat this step two more times, at least. So you have done 3 sessions of rolling out the dough. Then let it rest in the fridge for at least 6 hours to overnight.

So now you take the dough out and you can let it warm up a bit(makes it easier to roll out) or just start working it. Roll it out to about 18″x32″ and 1/4″ thick. If you are making Pain au Chocolate, cut out rectangles, or if Traditional croissants, triangles, or both.

Pain au chocolate, take the cut up chocolate or chocolate sticks and place them 1/3 of the way across, then fold over, place more chocolate along that seam and fold the remainder over and place, seam down on the baking sheet.

Traditional croissants, roll up from the long edge and shape into a crescent on the baking sheet

Let rise 1-2 hours, it will double in bulk. Preheat oven to 425F and I would put a sheet or two of foil on the rack below to catch any butter that might melt out and over the edges (do not put in a lipped pan as the butter will then burn and scorch the rolls)

Brush the tops with the egg wash and bake for 20-25 minutes or until nicely golden brown. Cool slightly and serve with coffee, hot chocolate or mocha (recipes below)

For a delicious mocha I just mix coffee and hot cocoa:

Hot Cocoa

1cup milk
2tbl sugar (I love using vanilla sugar)
2tbl cocoa (I love hershey’s Special Dark Cocoa for this)
1/4-1/2 tsp <i>real</a> vanilla extract (don’t bother even buying the fake stuff, there is no comparison, it is well worth the price) Omit if using vanilla sugar

Put all the ingredients in a small saucepan on the stove, heat and whisk the milk until your preferred temperature, don’t boil (since that will make a skin form on the top when it starts to cool)

Mocha

Take 1/4 to 1/2 cup hot cocoa and mix with 3/4-1/2 cup fresh made coffee. Top with sweetened whipped cream

Sweetened Whipped Cream:

Whip together, 1-2tbl sugar (vanilla sugar is again awesome for this), 1 cup cream and 1/4-1/2 tsp vanilla extract (omit if using vanilla sugar and use only the real stuff, seriously, that fake stuff is garbage). whip until soft peaks form, do not overbeat otherwise you will get sweet butter.

Season the chicken breasts with a bit of salt, oregano and onion flakes/powder and grill until done

Set water to boil for pasta with the fresh basil leaves, boil pasta with leaves. Strain pasta (you can leave leaves in there or not up to you)
Finely mince up the garlic and melt the butter in a large skillet. Let the butter get really hot and then toss the garlic in there. Then toss sweet bell peppers in there cooking until warmed through. Toss onto drained pasta.
Serve on a plate.

She is incredibly fast shipper (and based in Northern Virginia, so I usually get the items the day after she ships them, one of the main reasons I order from her as opposed to many of the other soap makers I know). She also sends samples with your order. When I ordered the samples, she sent me a sample size of her shea butter moisturizer; with the soap, she sent two other soap samples: Dead Sea Mud Soap and Cucumber Melon Cold Process Soap.

Both scrubs were wonderful. My skin tends to be a bit oily and soft so I found the coffee scrub to leave my face soft but not oily feeling like the honey scrub did. Both did a great job of exfoliating the skin without leaving it raw. I would recommend the honey scrub for people with dry skin and the coffee scrub for those with oily skin.
My skin, on top of being oily, is also acne prone (even in my late 20′s I still break out something fierce), the mud mask cleared it up really well, leaving my skin soft and clean.  I also noticed I had fewer breakouts with just using one of these items once per day with no toner or moisturizer or spot treatment than I do when using an over the counter acne wash and treatment.

I’ve been looking for a inexpensive, effective option for a face wash and with the way the mud mask worked, I was looking at her Dead Sea mud soap (since the mask is not meant to be used daily and is a bit too expensive for me to use it daily),  but have also read about the benefits of charcoal for acne prone skin. So I purchased a full bar of the charcoal soap and luckily she sent a sampler of the Dead Sea Mud soap.

I have long heard/read about the virtues of handmade soap, and the caustic chemicals used in commercial soaps. Also many of my friends have said how handmade bar soaps leave their skins feeling cleaner and softer than even mass produced body washes. I am loving the charcoal soap and the dead sea mud soap. It’s actually a bit of a draw which one I like better. I’ve had this dry skin issue (it’s just one spot and soaps seem to irritate it) but since using her soaps it’s actually gotten better! My face is going into healing mode (which isn’t pretty but always happens when you start using a product that works)

Monarch Queen WIP: completed as of this morning

In April, a bunch of my online friends (many, if not all, are crafters) got together and did a stash swap. It involved sending your person items from your stash and then they use those items to create something. The only requirements were they you use the stuff sent to you and that you purchase nothing to finish the project. You could use stuff from your own stash of course but since this was in the idea of stash busting, buying supplies would be self-defeating.
My friend, Haff (of Haffina Creations, et al) send me some fantastic fabric and beads and embroidery thread. It sat for about a week or two while I contemplated what to do. Then Urban Threads made this design and put up a contest for color variations. Needless to say for $50 to UT I wanted to enter (and so putting off working on xmas gifts).
So then I realized I could use the stuff from Haff (since they were all in the blue/pink/purple theme) and create an awesome piece.
So that’s 2 birds with one stone. What’s the third you ask? Well I’ve been thinking about what to make my mom for a birthday gift and I think she would love this.