Monday, March 25, 2013

Sunday, perfect Sunday


The recipe for a perfect Sunday has to involve a little productivity, a medium amount of laziness, and a lot of fun.  I started out by waking up on the early side, and making homemade chocolate croissants (I cheated a little and used frozen pastry dough). Later I cooked a delicious (if I do say so myself) brunch of bruchetta scramble, fruit salad, and croissants for my best friend and her boyfriend.  Then we dyed Easter eggs while watching Forgetting Sarah Marshall (I had forgotten how funny it is).  After they left I made an Easter egg tree with hollowed out eggs that we dyed.  And the perfect end to the perfect Sunday was when my wonderful boyfriend brought my Chipotle for dinner.  Below I have included how to make each of the things from brunch as well as how to make an Easter egg tree. 


Chocolate Crossiants:
Ingredients:
Pepperidge farm puff pastry dough
Dark chocolate chips or baking bar
1 Egg
1 Spoonful sugar

Instructions:
1) Thaw out dough at room temperature for 40 mins.
2) Pre-heat oven to 350
3) Unfold the dough, and make two cuts in one direction and one cut in the other, so that you have 6 rectangles.
4) Chop the chocolate (even if you have chips) into smaller pieces (I didn't do this, and you can see that the chocolate didn't melt all the way).
5) Take a rectangle and cut across it to make two triangles.
6) Spread chocolate onto the triangle and fold starting with the shortest side.
7) Do the same until all of the dough is used.
8) Beat an egg in a bowl with a spoonful of sugar.
9) Use a basting brush or a cooking brush to brush the egg all over the croissants.
10) Bake for 15-18 mins./until the tops are golden brown.

Bruchetta eggs:
Ingredients:
5 eggs (served 3 people)
2 tomatoes (I got two different kinds)
1 onion
3 cloves garlic
Basil
Salt
Pepper
Olive oil

Instructions:
1) Chop tomatoes, onion, garlic, basil and put them in a bowl with olive oil.
2) Mix so that olive oil coats the mixture.
3) Add salt and pepper to taste.
4) Saute in a pan until onions and garlic start to brown a little.
5) In a bowl beat the eggs.
6) Melt butter or oil in another pan and add the eggs.
7) Stir in the bruchetta mixture.
8) Cook until done.

Egg tree:
What you will need:
Eggs
Nail
Needle/safety pin/thumb tack
Vinegar
Water
Cups
Egg Dye/food coloring
Paper clips
Ribbon
Branch

Instructions:
1) Use a needle/safety pin/thumb tack and poke a hole in the smaller end of the egg.
2) Turn the egg over to the larger end, and use the nail to poke a hole in that end.  The hole will be bigger than the first one.
3) Blow into the smaller hole forcing the egg insides out the bigger hole. 
4) Keep doing it to as many eggs as you want.
5) Set up the dye, and dye each egg whatever colors you want.  I suggest either doing many different colors, it makes the tree look more fun.
6) When the eggs are dry take paper clips and bend them until they resemble a ribbon (think breast cancer awareness ribbon).
7) Pinch the paperclip to fit it into the larger egg hole. 
8) Slowly let it go so that the paperclip expands inside the egg making a loop out the top.
9) Tie brightly colored ribbon to the loop.
10) Arrange the branches, and hang the eggs on the "tree".



Aero-garden

Ok, so this post is LONG overdue, but I want to HIGHLY recommend the Aero-garden.  Chris got me one for Valentines day, and it is AMAZING.  I've wanted to grow my own herbs for a long time, but we have never found a solution because of space and the cat.  This is the perfect one.  It's small and low maintenance.  Here is the website: www.aerogarden.com
The first planting: Oregano, Thyme, and Basil
After 10 days
Right before the first harvest
Making pizza with fresh basil
Homemade margarita pizza with fresh basil, and the first thing we made with the first harvest
Tomato sauce from scratch using the basil and thyme from the second harvest
Yummmmm
Second planting: Parseley, Cilantro, and Chives

Bubbles bubbles bubbles!

So this post isn't really about bubbles, but snow globes like this remind me of the scene in Finding Nemo with the bubbles fish.

Anywho, I saw this craft on Spoonful.  It's a good blog for crafts, but very kid oriented.  I couldn't find the exact project on Spoonful, so I will write my own instructions for now:

What you will need:
Jar, bottle anything with an airtight seal
Vegetable oil
Rubbing alcohol
Glitter, little charm or objects, sand
Glue

Instructions:
1) Pour the rubbing alcohol into the bottle until it is a quarter of the way full.
2) Add vegetable oil until the bottle is almost full.
3) Let the liquids separate.
4) Add glitter, charms, objects, or sand to the bottle.
5) Add more oil until the bottle is completely full.
6) Put Glue on the inside of the lid and screw on tight.




It's a fun little project to do at a babysitting job, or while you are watching something on TV.