Body scrub

Body Scrub.... It's one of those things that you get in bath gifts from people. Usually they smell good and maybe even leave your skin feeling nice and soft afterwards...
Well I made some the other day, only it didn't smell anything but oil, maybe of I would have had essential oils or something to put in it, then maybe it would've been different. It did still leave my skin feeling oily. Maybe if I added more sugar to absorb the oil a little more than maybe, it wouldn't have been soo bad... but I'm going to keep looking for a different recipe that might work better.

This recipe didn't have too many steps, making it fairly easy... This is my 2 cups of olive oil and coconut oil.  I melted it in the microwave, took maybe a minute and a half.

and then stuck it in the freezer....
And whipped er up...

It really does look like whipped cream.

I just looked up the recipe again to find the link for you guys.... This is where I muffed up..
I added my sugar, but not realizing I doubled the oils, i only added half of the sugar I needed same with the corn starch. Which is probably why it's soo oily for me. I added blue food colouring to it to make it pretty, Not too much  because I didn't want to come out looking like a smurf!

I Think  I'll go add some more sugar and cornstarch to it and see what happens. I'll edit this post with my findings.

whipped body scrub

** Edit**
So I added an extra cup of sugar and It was a hell of a lot better! Still too oily for my skin; but if you have like maybe super dry skin or something it might be perfect for you!

Cheese Tortellini Bake

baked tortellini casserole

 I've been working on a website to sell stuff . So I've been pretty taking pictures of stuff I make to sell and getting everything done.

There's just one thing holding me back, but as soon as it's done. I'll post a link. 

I had to get a bigger pan at this point. Next time for 2 people maybe cut the recipe in half. 

 It's subscription boxes you can buy 1 month, 6 month or 1 year. like a bunch of different kinds of boxes. It's just for Canada tho.

My dogs lovedddddd the left overs. They are my biggest supporters <3!

The tortellini casserole tasted amazing, my Andrew even went back for seconds... That within itself should tell you how awesome this tasted, He never goes back for seconds, like ever.

Crock Pot Roast

I feel like it's been forever since I last wrote a post! Since my house has been freezing lately I haven't wanted to get out of my room with the heater and my blankets and my dogs lying on my toes, But Andrew went and got diesel so it's time to get back to life....

I'm trying to eat healthier and exercise a bit more... I have a wii with Zumba and just dance, and maybe one day I'll get the wii fit or something I dunno, so far zumba has me pretty worked up lol.

So I finally did a huge grocery shop with like 50,000 items.... okay maybe not that many but it was huge. Eating healthy is expensive! I tried to buy like a bunch of fruits and vegetables and OMG the prices were ridiculous... but anyways I shopped and then I made a roast in the crock pot the next day.

Click here for the recipe

I picked this recipe over the others because It says in the title "clean eating and Gluten free", Now I don't really care about the gluten part... but clean eating... isn't that what I'm trying to do?

I threw everything into my mini crockpot. You can't see any carrots but they are there just hiding under the roast. I also didn't have any beef broth to add because I forgot, oops. I filled it with water to cover and just hoped that the juices from the meat would add enough beefy flavour.

When it was done, I used the juice, which did taste a little watery... okay so maybe next  time I won't forget the broth. So I used the juice and added some powdered gravy to it and it was good, not great, but good.

Infinity scarf

Have you ever saw those tutorials on arm knitting infinity scarves? Well I finally got some chunky yarn (thanks mom <3) and thought I'd give it a try. I started with one video tutorial and ended up doing this one instead.

Now before you start just a couple of side notes....
A) If you have a small bladder, go NOW....
B) If your dogs have small bladders, let them out NOW....
C) If you have someone coming home for lunch and expects lunch, either make it NOW or wait to do the scarf until after....

It is not an easy thing to take off your arm and put back on several times...

This first video I started watching told me to start with 2 strings that were the length of 24 arm lengths, my arms must be short....

 Because that's not a lot of string...

 

Then I did the first loop. I didn't want to say anything, but I've never knitted before :) 

After my first row, I'm thinking this isn't that hard after all....

 

But then..... what happened? there's like a random loop at the end..... Maybe I didn't pull to tight? or maybe I muffed up when I had to remove it to go to the bathroom and then put it back on .....

Oh well onto attempt number 2...

 First row...

 Second Row.... Looking good....

 

Third row... Kind of loose....

That's when I tried the other video tutorial... This one clearly wasn't working for me...

Not bad.... looks good actually, but then I ran out of rope...

Man oh man... Just not my day or what... Good thing my mom gave me more than one yarn and I did another one yellow and white and It turned out pretty good.... Then again, I did have a lot of practice....

Maybe with even more practice I'll be able to make them tighter and a little bigger.

Salted Caramel Cupcakes

Here's the link to the BEST cupcakes ever....

Salted caramel Cupcakes... My mom who never eats treats, devours these... My grandmother who would make sure everyone has something before herself, hides these....

I make these maybe once every two months (butter and whipping cream is kind of expensive here). My grandmother hasn't been feeling very well, So here it goes....

That's he filling... the best part.... Just be careful, when adding the butter and pouring the heavy cream in, as it's really hot and bubbles and steams up. Can definetly burn yourself.

The caramel for the icing looks the same, made a little different tho. and tastes a bit more saltier.

While they are cooling, that's when I start making the brown sugar cupcakes.

First you make the self-rising flour. I also like to make my own buttermilk and let it sit. Just 1 tablespoon of vinegar to 1 cup of milk.

Mix the brown suagr and butter until creamy...

There's Trigger picking up anything flying out of the Mixer....

Mix until nice and smooth and they add to your cupcake pan. I doubled the batch so I ended up with 3 dozen smaller cupcakes.

While the cupcakes are cooling I made the icing. make sure your butter is soft and room temperature.

Poke holes in the cupcakes and add the caramel filling. I wouldn't worry about if it turns out messy looking because the icing is just going to go over top anyways.

 Hey ma, I see some scraps there....

I had extra filling and extra icing So I iced, then drizzled filling, then iced again.

Sprinkled with a little sugar to balance out the saltiness.
Memere is going to LOVEEEEE these.

Coffe Cake Muffin's

I don't like coffee... Andrew loves coffee, well actually he's a half coffee half hot chocolate kind of guy.  Doesn't matter anyways, because haven't you noticed, coffee cake muffins never have coffee in the ingredient list. Or so I've noticed...

These are amazing, a little dry, but maybe that's just because I skipped the glaze...

Here's the recipe site

I LOVEEEEEEEEE crumb toppings on ANYTHING, can I just repeat the words CRUMB TOPPING and ANYTHING!!

And this one has cinnamon in it OMG....

There is even cinnamon in the dry mix for the muffins.

 

Once you finish the wet mix, add it to the dry...

It makes about dozen muffins

Than THE best part....

I think that picture makes my hand look like a foot....

Then we sit in suspense...

Here they are in all gloriness.... 

Not only did I eat 2 of them immediately after this picture.... but my dogs enjoyed them as well, in fact ate them too fast I didn't have time to locate my camera... 

Andrews Birthday

Today is my Andrews Birthday!!!

 He had to work today still, which I'm glad for, because I was able to make a cake and his favourite dinner rolls and put up a few balloons, without him getting in the way.

The dinner rolls recipe I have came from my mom's recipes, where she got it I have no idea. So no pinterest for me today. All tried and true recipes.

I started with the yeast and sugar and warm water in the bowl of my stand mixer.

While that was doing what yeast does best, I put 1 cup of milk in the microwave for a minute to warm it up.

Then I added the milk, egg, oil and salt and gave it a little mix.

Then I added 4 of the 6 cups the recipe called for and started the mixer on low. mixed for a few minutes, scraped the edge then let it mix a little while I started on the cake.

Now I am all for making a homemade cake and i have plenty of recipes, but Andy for some reason still prefers box cake so that's what I did. It is HIS birthday after all.

Since it's just the two of us, I used the top tier of a wedding cake pan.
 

Make sure you drop the cake pan on the counter a few times to rid it of air bubbles.
And then you bake it.

Now back to the bread dough.

Once it look soft and holds together, add another 1-2 cups of flour. I only added one more at this point and then when I knead it with my hands I add more flour until it feels right to me.

knead it for a few minutes. then place it back in the bowl and rub lightly with oil and place a towel over it and let rise. I actually put mine on top of the dryer and close the laundry room door with the dryer going to help it rise bigger and faster.

When its done rising. Oh by the way this is one of those "DO NOT PUNCH DOWN" recipes.
Shape it into balls, sticks, loaves or whatever your little heart desires. You can now stick it in the oven and bake or as I did put it back in the laundry room while you decorate your cake, to let it rise and get more fluffier.

 

 Mmmm lots of sprinkles, lots of whipped cream. Andrew is going to loveeeee this!

Now that the buns are done rising and might I add fairly huge...

 This is a muffin pan that I used. Stick them in a 400 degree oven and bake until they start to brown on top.

When they are done, don't forget to rub butter on the tops to make them shiny.

Try not eat them all before dinner time.

Here's the recipe:

Now time to blow up more balloons.