DIY Easter Centerpiece

I have been on somewhat of a strict budget recently with not a lot of cash for the extras, so I knew when it came to to make an Easter centerpiece for my dining room table I would have to be thrifty. And thrifty I was. This entire project cost me a whopping $0.00!
I had a coupon for free eggs (awesome), I already had food coloring and the flowers came right out of my backyard! Now if you have the time and money you could go more elaborate on this little project but for my budget and the little gathering that will be taking place at my home tomorrow this will work just fine :)

DIY Sidewalk Paint...

How super exciting is this colorful, easy to make, sidewalk paint!? It's almost more fun to make than it actually is to paint. The kids loved watching the mixture turn into their favorite colors!

What you need:
-Cornstarch
-Water
-Gel food coloring
-Muffin Pan or several plastic bowls














I started by scooping a heaping tablespoon of cornstarch into my muffin pan, adding the food coloring then the water. I didn't like the texture so I just kept adding cornstarch and water until it was more of a thick paste.


Send me pictures of the creations your kids make!

DIY Wreath

I am one of those people. I had my Christmas wreath up until just yesterday. I know, super tacky. It's not like I left it up there on purpose I just never thought about it until I was walking out the door. I had a whole evening to myself yesterday so I finally decided to do something about that wreath. I don't have a lot of experience making them so I decided to browse Pinterest for a bit of inspiration. I ended up blending things from several different ones that I liked and now I want to pass along that inspiration.

I got everything from Michaels craft store.

-A simple brown picture frame - $4.00













- Roll of hemp - $3.00
- 2 pieces of felt (To make flowers out of. Link to tutorial) - $.20 each
- Big monogram letter - $4.00
- Choice of paint color to paint your Monogram letter - $.60
- Needle and thread and hot glue gun from home



I just simply started by hot gluing an end piece of hemp to the back side of my frame and then wrapped it all the way around. I cut and glued once I got to each corner.

Arrange your felt flowers (I found a great tutorial here) however you like with a hot glue gun and then hot glue your monogram letter on! Simple as that!

{Almost} Vegan Applesauce Cupcakes with Vegan Vanilla Frosting

I am not vegan but I do love vegan baked goods, so this morning when I wanted to make cupcakes but didn't have any eggs I decided it was a vegan kind of day. For these cupcakes to truely be vegan you need Organic Unbleached Sugar. I only had white sugar on hand so that is why I named this post {Almost} vegan cupcakes. If you use the unbleached sugar, you are good to go.

These vegan applesauce cupcakes are SO YUMMY! There is a perfect mix of spices and apples. I was afraid I would really be able to taste the applesauce and it would be an odd flavor but they turned out perfect! The icing is REALLY sweet but since the cupcakes are not very sweet it is a good pairing. I was not thrilled with the texture of the icing so I'm still on the hunt for the perfect vegan icing, but until then this one will work.

Cupcake Ingredients:

1/2 c margarine (80% fat is best)
1/4 c Organic Unbleached Sugar (** I used white sugar but technically white sugar is not vegan but that was all I had on hand.)
1 1/2 c. Flour
1 t Baking soda
1/4 t Salt
1 t Cinnamon
1 1/2 t Nutmeg
1 1/4 c Unsweetened applesauce
1 t Vanilla

** The original recipe called for 1/4 cup of walnuts, I did not have any but I'm sure that would taste AMAZING in this recipe.

Step 1: Preheat oven to 375 F.
Step 2: Cream margarine until fluffy.
Step 3: Add sugar
Step 4: Sift together dry ingredients.
Step 5: Add to margarine mixture alternately with applesauce, mixing well after each addition.
Step 6: Stir in vanilla and nuts.
Step 7: Spoon into 12 cupcake pans sprayed with vegetable pan spray or use paper baking cups.
Bake 15-20 min.

Frosting:
3/4 cup powdered sugar (**Must be vegan powdered sugar to truly be vegan)
3/4 cup margarine
1/8 cup vanilla soy milk
1 teaspoon vanilla

This is pretty much a one step frosting. Just go ahead and put all your ingrediants in a bowl and mix with an electric mixer or your stand mixture. Play around with it until you get the results you want.

Like I said I was not thrilled with this texture and was really sweet. I doubled the recipe and then ended up tripling the amount of sugar (VERY IMPORTANT) and that helped some with the texture.




Let me know if you know any really great vegan icing recipes!

Homemade Cashew Butter...

I am the queen of junk food. My weakness is salty food. Put a bag of chips in front of me and its gone in 30 minutes; but recently I have been realizing the harm of over processed food. I bought a cook book called the Eat-Clean Diet for Family and Kids. A lot of this book talks about the harm of over processed foods and encourages you with substitutions you can make in your home and diet.

My friend Courtney recently got me on a kick of toast with peanut butter honey and some sort of fruit on top. It sounds relatively healthy until I started reading this book. Have you ever read the ingredients on the back of a peanut butter jar!? There is a lot more than peanuts on that label. The author of the Eat-Clean Diet says if you can't pronounce the words or there is a long list of ingredients, stay away! She suggested substituting a nut butter for peanut butter and that is where I got the idea to try and make it myself. There are two ingredients in my nut butter vs. the long list of who knows what on the peanut butter label at your local grocery mart.

I chose to use cashews but you can use whatever you have around your house, or whatever kind of nut you prefer.

Since this was somewhat of an experiment I only used 1/3 of a cup of cashews but feel free to make a larger quantity if you wish.

Step 1: Roast your nuts for about 5 minutes at 350 degrees to bring out the natural oils. Then place into your food processor and blend for about 15 minutes.



Step 2: Stop every so often to scrape of the sides with a rubber spatula. Be patient. It does take awhile to get to the right consistency.



Step 3: My cashew butter eventually formed into a ball and that is when I added a small drop of olive oil and blended for another few seconds until it was a creamy consistency. If you are making a larger amount of nut butter use more olive oil. I would just put in a small amount at a time until you have a consistency you are happy with.





Step 4: ENJOY!



I can't wait to try other variations of this. I would love to do something with cinnamon and vanilla next time. Share what kinds of creations you came up with!

Portabella Cap Pizza

The first thing I want to say is YUM! I love everything mushroom and I love pizza so lets just put the two together?! This is another Pinterest recipe and you can find the original here.

If you love pizza but you want to cut out some of the carbs this recipe is perfect for you.

Ingredients :
-Portabella Mushroom Caps (I bought six but between my husband and I we only ate 4)
- Marinara Sauce. I did not measure out how much I used, I just eyeballed it.
- Mozzarella cheese
- Dried or fresh basil
- Red pepper flakes
- Toppings of choice (I used spinach and olives)

Step 1:

Scrape out the inside of the mushroom along with as much of the stem as can get and bake on a baking sheet for around 5 to 7 minutes at 400 degrees.





Step 2:

Spoon your Marinara sauce and top with red pepper flakes and basil. I used dried basil because that is all I had on hand but I would love to use fresh basil leaves next time. Next, add your toppings of choice. I used mozzarella cheese, spinach and black olives.




Step 3:

Turn your oven onto broil and bake until cheese is melted! It should only take a few minutes so make sure to keep a check on them.




**Let me know what toppings and spices you used on your pizzas!

Breakfast is Served!

It's no secret that I'm obsessed with Pinterest. Every meal I plan on cooking this week came off of Pinterest. Here is a super easy and yummy breakfast that can be prepared ahead of time, then just popped into the microwave to warm when you are ready to eat!

Egg Muffins

Step 1:

Crack open your eggs, whisk them and pour them into a greased muffin pan. Fill them about halfway.



**Depending on how many "muffins" you want to make will be the amount of eggs you choose to use. I used 7 eggs and it made 9 muffins

Step 2:

Chop up all the ingredients you like in your eggs. I used onion, mushroom, spinach and cheese. YUM! Put a small amount of your choice ingredients in each egg muffin, bake at 350 degrees for about 25 min. Once they have completely cooled you can put them in baggies and store them in your fridge for tomorrow's breakfast!



Get creative and let me know what ingredients you chose to put in your muffins!

DIY frenzy. Post #1.

I have been in a DIY sort of frenzy since I recently discovered and became obsessed with Pinterest. This first little project I am going to share with you I did not get off of Pinterest but my super creative husband came up with! It is perfect wall art for a kid's bedroom or if you are just a couple of big kids like us you will probably enjoy it as well!

Step #1: We bought a box of 96 crayola crayons and set them up in the order we wanted them to go. Then you just hot glue them to a piece of canvas!


Step #2. This is the fun part! We used a hairdryer to melt the crayons which was kind of messy so make sure you have a towel under the canvas. If we were to do this again I think we would use a heat gun to avoid splattering wax everywhere.


Step 3: FIND THE PERFECT PLACE FOR YOUR NEW CREATION!

whimsical, lovely and FREE dress!

Who doesn't love an amazing, jaw dropping dress? Who doesn't love an amazing, jaw dropping FREE dress!? Head on over to The Drifter and the Gypsy to win this amazingly whimsical dress by Shabby Apple.

Tip of the Day...

Lets be honest. We are going to have to change this to tip of the week because clearly I am not yet an experienced enough homemaker to be posting tips for every day of the week. Baby steps right?

Let me start out by introducing you to yet another one of my obsession. CANDLES! I love, love, love candles. And I love for my house to smell like yummy baked goods all the time without actually having to bake. The problem with wanting my house to smell yummy all the time is I have a piggy for a pet. While the rumors of pigs being... well pigs if false (they are actually rather clean animals) he does have a bladder that allows him to go pee pee for a solid three minutes at a time which fills his potty cage up rather quickly. So if you don't change his cage EVERY day it can start to smell a little funky in here. So I pretty much burn my candles every moment that I am at home.

Much to my dismay this morning I realized that I had just about burned every last candle in my house to the point of no return. So for someone like me who is obsessed with yummy smelling things this was quite a crisis in my life. So I had to get a little creative and this is where the tip of the day week comes in.

There is no real name for it just a few home remedies that everyone has in their cabinets. Cinnamon, sugar and water. Yes that's all there is too it. Those three common things boiled on the lowest temperature on your stove top and your home slowly starts to smell even better my yummiest smelling candles.




The only problem with this is ... you will be craving cinnamon buns ALL day.

And best hubby award goes to...

It never fails. It doesn't matter how grumpy, or out of sorts I get my husband wins best hubby award every time. Yesterday I was being a complete meany pants and what does he do? Comes home with these ...



See, isn't he the cutest!? ;)

Tip of the Day...

We all know I love to cook. I love to eat. I love to cook and eat things that have a lot of cheese in them. One of my favorite things to make and eat is broccoli cheddar soup but I always make a HUGE mess whenever I make it and cleaning is not one of my favorite task. Along with that mess comes more dishes than I really want to wash. Especially the pot I cooked the soup in. The soup always leaves a layer of flower and cheese that gets stuck to the bottom of the pot. I felt like I could soak and wash that pot over and over and there is still that weird white residue leftover until I discovered Bar Keepers Friend sitting in the back of my cleaning cabinet. Hello my life has suddenly become easier! This stuff is incredible. It makes your pots and pans spotless and so stinkin shiny. It gets off everything from cheese, burned eggs to rust! Its so easy. Just sprinkle the white magic powder, let it sit for two or three minutes, take a wet rag and just wash it all away!
Seriously ladies, go do yourself a favor, save the elbow grease for the bathroom and go buy a can of this stuff!

Another Food Post...

Day two of back in blogger action and I must say that I am loving it!

Recently I have been on the hunt for fresh, new vegetarian recipes to spice up our dinner nights. This is the perfect, yummy, light kind of meal that I love!

Spinach and Artichoke Quiche with fresh corn on the cob.

I found the recipe for the quiche here but I tweaked it quite a bit.

I used:

• 2 garlic cloves, grated
• 6 ounces fresh spinach (although I wish I have doubled it)
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 8 ounces canned artichoke hearts, drained (Wish I had used 6 and bought jarred, not canned...really does make a difference)
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 3 eggs
  
• 1 1/2 cups half and half
• 1/2 cup mozzarella cheese
• 1/2 cup FRESH, grated yourself Parmesan cheese (I know its more expensive but trust me the difference is HUGE! Buy a block, grate it yourself and freeze it so it won't go bad and it will last quite some time.)
• 1 deep dish pie shell

Step 1:
Sautee your tablespoon of butter and fresh grated garlic for several minutes. Then add in your fresh spinach a handful at a time, sautee it down then add more



Step 2:
Dice up your artichoke hearts and stir them into the spinach with your spices then pour into a separate bowl.




Step 3:
Add your eggs, half and half and two cheese and stir it all together



Step 4:
Pour into your pie crust and bake at 375 for 45 minuets to an hour



Step 5: Don't forget desert!

I just used a chocolate chip cookie mix, baked them and as soon as they came out of the oven i had pre-chopped Reese cups (My Favorite cookie and favorite candy!) and placed on in the center of each cookie. YUM!

Back in Action...

Wow, has it really been 6 months since my last post?? After a very long summer hiatus I guess you could say I am back and it feels so good! Never let me leave the blogger world for that long again! I have rekindled my love for the world of social media and I am ready to take this head on.
Since my last post in March not too many exciting things have happened so it won't take long to update you all.

#1 exciting thing ... I GRADUATED!!! After four long years I received my degree in Advertising and Public Relations. And as you can see in the picture below I am more than ex tactic about that.

#2 exciting thing ... I QUIT MY JOB! Yes the long days of "Thank you for calling J.Crew how can I help you?" are over. I never want to answer another phone again.


#3 exciting thing... I work full time as my own boss for the amazing photography business my hubs and I created. It's fantastic. I also babysit a precious little girl during the day.

(You can follow our work here http://www.facebook.com/AdamMullinsPhotography and here http://twitter.com/#!/AMullinsPhotos... that would make me very happy).

Lovin that Summer Breeze...

Right now I am sitting on my front porch. My husband and my pig are running around the front yard. The charcoal is burning on the grill waiting for Talapia and peppers and onions to sizzle on top while the potatoes are cooking in the oven (which is taking ridiculously long if you ask me). The night will consist of eating good food, playing outside in this amazing weather, watching Bones and learning how to work our new Nikon D7000 that the UPS truck just delivered. In my opinion there is nothing better.





On another note, From a Cottage in the Woods will be having
a guest blogger later in the week ... drum roll please!!!!!! It will be non other than my love Adam Mullins! It will be a tutorial on how to shoot silhouette pictures like the one below. So whether you are a aspiring photographer, beginner or expert tune in and then share what you learned by posting the pictures you took!

Lovin that spring time breeze ...

A little R&R...

Going to the beach with my BFFFFFFFFFFFs for the last few days of spring break. Be back in a few days!


xoxo,
Your beach bum

The ultimate comfort food...

When you think comfort food what comes to your mind? Probably not broccoli. Well friends I'm about to change your life and the way you view the world of broccoli. Prepare yourself for a heavenly experience.


Homemade broccoli cheddar soup.



I know this beautiful head of broccoli does not look like comfort food... but just wait.
Cut off the head of the broccoli and discard the stems.


The recipe didn't call for but I also took a handful of crimini mushrooms, chopped them up to add to the pot. I think mushrooms should be added to everything. Mushroom icecream anyone?

I usually add a bag of thinly sliced carrots but I did not have any of those so I just chopped up a couple handfuls of baby carrots. Add a chopped up onion along with your broccoli and mushrooms and sautee in 2 table spoons of butter until the veggies are really tender. This is the part the recipe does not tell you to do. If you skip this step it takes at least an hour for the veggies to get tender and there will be a distinct broccoli carrot taste that will overtake the other spices and cheese.




Wisk together 1/4 cup of flower with 2 tablespoons of butter and then add 2 cups of half and half. The recipe calls for 2 cups of chicken stock but I use vegetable stock so that its vegetarian. Taste just as good. continue whisking through all of that then let it simmer for 20 min. Add in your tender veggies and let it simmer for a few more min to make sure the strong veggie taste has been cooked out. Pour batches of this into a blender and mix. I usually do not mix all of it so that there are couple of big pieces of broccoli in the soup. Once it has been mixed put back in the pot and add your cheese!



The recipe calls for two cups of graded sharp cheddar cheese but I usually add more because I like it to be really cheesy. Add 1/4 tsp. nutmeg and salt and pepper to taste.


Cut a french baguette into slices, not slicing all the way through and add the most amazing spread from Joy the Baker in between the slices, wrap in ten foil and place in your oven until it smells amazing! It is 3 tablespoons of butter, 3 tablespoons chopped parsley, 1 clove of garlic, 1 tablespoon of olive oil (I use garlic olive oil. AMAZING!) and 3 tablespoons FRESH (very important if the caps didn't give the hint well enough) grated Parmesan cheese. Salt and pepper to taste. Mash all of this together with a fork and spread in your bread. It is heavenly. One of the best things I have ever put in my mouth.


Here comes the fun part!




I promise you, this will be one of the most amazing things you will ever place in your mouth. Even if you don't like broccoli...


*If I am making this for more than two people I usually double the recipe. I even tripled it one time and that fed five people.
View the entire recipe here.

Weekend Cooking...

Are you surprised that I could not go two whole post without bringing it back to food? Well here we are. A post full of yummy food that will have you in your kitchen before you can even finish reading this.

Saturday was spent with a good friend who appreciates food and good quality ingredients like I do. So we spent the day cooking and eating and cooking a eating and brewing pots of coffee, gabbing like old ladies and watching movies. Sunday I felt a few pounds heavier but it was worth it.


Good ol' Mac&Cheese with a twist from Pioneer Women.



As much as this unfamiliar mac&cheese ingredient scares you do not leave it out! This is what makes this recipe FABULOUS!



The recipe called for cheddar cheese but I also grated up fresh Munster cheese and fresh Parmesan cheese and oh my, I recommend you do the same.



Pioneer Women calls this "tempering". An egg was to be added to the hot cheese mixture but to keep the egg from cooking I added a small amount of the mixture into the egg and whisked until it was cool. I was then able to add the egg mixture into the the hot cheese and milk mixture.



mmm look at all that cheese... you know you want some ; )


**The recipe did not call for it but I also added bread crumbs under one of the layers of cheese on the the top and I highly recommend it.



Now after all of those carbs lets add a little more along with a cup of coffee

Take your favorite coffee creamer, heat it in your microwave for 30 seconds or so then whip it up and pour it onto of your coffee for a lil something special... and it will make you feel like an awesome barista.
**Take your favorite muffin mix, add in a little (or alot) shaved chocolate and sliced almonds, bake and enjoy with an amazing cup of coffee.