Blue Cheese, and Tomato Mac & Cheese

This is something I've been doing for years.  I've loved boxed mac & cheese since I can remember.  I probably loved it in utero.  As I've gotten older I've had to adjust the way I make it, to grow with my grown up tastes.  This is my most recent adaptation, I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

WHAT YOU'LL NEED:

-one box of mac & cheese (any brand but velveeta) 

-1/3 cup milk

-1/3 cup of crumbled blue cheese (use less if you don't want it to be extra blue cheesey)

-2/3 cup of shredded mild cheddar cheese

-1/4 cup tomato (diced)

Directions:

- Boil water in a medium saucepan.  Once boiling add two tablespoons of salt, then add the macaroni noodles.  The salt will help keep the noodles from sticking together.  Cooking according to the directions on the box.  When you drain the noodles run cold water over them, this will also keep them from sticking together.  Let the noodles sit in the strainer while you make the sauce.

- While the noodles are cooking cut up your blue cheese, and shred your mild cheddar.

- In the same pan you used to cook the noodles add the sauce pack, the milk, and both cheeses, and cook over a low heat.  Make sure the pan doesn't get too hot, or the cheese will overcook and stick to the pan.  While that's melting together dice up 1/4 cup of tomato, and set aside in a small bowl.  Make sure to stir the cheese sauce repeatedly, so that it doesn't stick to the pan.

- Once the cheeses are all melted together, add the noodles, and mix thoroughly.  

- Serve the mac & cheese, and then add the tomatoes to each serving.  I like to add a little of Lawry's Seasoned Salt too, but definitely not necessary.  

If you love blue cheese you have to try this!  Sooooo tasty.   Happy DIYing!

Finishing touches on the Calendar!

Finishing off my monthly calendar!  I should go ahead and mark all the birthdays and holiday's now, but I would rather do it each month at the beginning.  So, first I matched up all the months that will pair together for binding.   I glued an extra scrapbook sheet onto the day's for December and the January art.  This helps add strength for binding.  Next, cut up a bunch of 1.5 inch strips off of basic printer paper.  Add a line of glue on one side of a strip.  I used Elmer's No-Wrinkle Dual Tip Glue Pen (the fat end).  

Then, place the strip half way on the days for June at the top.  

Now place August's sheet which matches up with June's days on top of each other.  Line them up perfectly first, then apply glue to the other half of the strip.  Fold it over apply pressure all over making sure to smooth the pieces together.  

Continue to do that for all the corresponding sheets.  Once you have all of the sheets matched up together stand them up, and line the middles up perfectly.  Stick a needle and embroidery thread through an inch up from the end of the binding sheets.  

Stitch a straight run up the middle.  I went back over the front stitches so it was one continuos line, hopefully that will add strength.  

I made sure to space the stitches so the last one went out the back, and then I knotted it on the backside and cut it off.  

I have a tiny nail in the wall for my calendar already, so I used a binder clip to hold the first month up.  

Then I stamped cupcakes for the birthday's during January, and we have a graduation party to go to on the 28th so I stamped a party hat & wrote the time down.  

I also colored the cupcakes in with colored pencil, and wrote the birthday person's name in sharpie next to it.  

                                        

Oh, and today is our one month anniversary, Happy DIYing!

December

For the last month of the year, December, I decided to freehand a Christmas tree with glitter glue. Then I wrote out 'December' at the bottom.  Tomorrow I'll put the finishing touches on whole calendar.  

Hope you've enjoyed!  Happy DIYing!

November

Today I worked on November.  For this month I wanted to revisit a classic children's craft - the paper turkey.  I'm sure anyone who attended public elementary school in the US made one of these at least once.   To start I cut out all my turkey pieces, 17 feathers, one rainbow shape, one circle with a flat bottom.  one turkey head & neck, one beak, and one wing.  

Second, I glued all the feathers down to the scrapbook paper.  Starting on the bottom and working my way toward the center.  Glue one feather down on the left, than one the right to keep things symmetrical. 

Then, I wrapped maroon yarn, one brown, and one black embroidery thread around the rainbow shape.  I taped down the ends on the back.  When that was done I hot glued that overtop of the feathers.  

Next, I glued the neck to the circle, then the beak to the head, and the wing to the body.  Then I hot glued the front part of the turkey to the yarn.  

Finally, I wrote 'November' out in gold glitter glue.  

Happy DIYing!

October

Since October is my favorite month I wanted to try using a printmaking technique.  I'm a little rusty, because I haven't attempted any printmaking in almost six years.  For some reason I was waiting until I got all the 'appropriate' equipment and space for such a project, but alas I could wait no longer.  The stuff I used isn't the best, because I used what was lying around my house.  Nonetheless I'm happy with the results.  

First I sketched out my stencils on foam, and then I cut them out.  Then I glued them down on a (terrible) piece of plastic I had from my printmaking days.  For better results I would suggest a nicer piece of plastic, and foam that has adhesive on the back.  

(this is after printing with the stencil)

Then I used a piece of glass and rolled out some black printmaking ink with a brayer.  My brayer was 8 inches wide, and I found that was too big for this job.  It was hard to create even pressure over the brayer, thus making it hard to get an even coat of ink on the foam.  After I felt my brayer was properly charged, or evenly coated in ink I rolled it over my foam stencil.  This should coat the foam in a nice even layer of black ink, if not you can go back over any spots that may need more ink.  if there are any spots of ink on the plastic, be sure to wipe them off with a paper towel before proceeding on to the next step.  

Next, carefully place your stencil face down (or ink down) on the paper you wish to print to, and add pressure over the surface area.  If this is your first time trying this I suggest testing it out on scrap paper first.  You can use your stencil to make multiple prints, just apply more ink.  After evenly applying pressure all over the back of your stencil, you can carefully lift it off of your paper.   

After that I placed a paper towel over the print so I didn't smudge it, and above it I wrote out 'October' in pastels.  I used two different oranges, a yellow, and a brown to add depth to the coloring of the letters.  When I was done with the lettering, I covered the moon with orange, and filled in the windows of the haunted house, and traced the outline of the tree.  Once that was complete I sprayed it with a clear glossy finish so the pastels didn't smudge.  

Happy DIYing!

Mug Cakes Are Here!

Today I took a break from the calendar, because it's my mom's birthday!  Of course with birthdays comes birthday cake, right?  Since we've been over eating with the holidays I didn't want a WHOLE cake sitting around the house for the four of us to devour.  I've been seeing a lot of  'mug cakes' lately, and I thought I'd give it a go.  I tried two different recipes, very similar results.  

The first mug cake is a Gooey Chocolate Mug Cake.  You only need THREE ingredients to make this awesomeness.  One large egg, 1/4 cup of powdered sugar, and 2 TBSP of cocoa powder (more or less depending on how chocolatey you want it to be).  

First crack the egg in a standard sized mug, and whisk together the egg and powdered sugar.   If you don't have a whisk small enough you can use a fork.  

Then, mix in the cocoa powder.  The mixture should be the same consistency as cake batter, make sure there are no lumps.  

Microwave on high for 45 - 60 seconds.  This was my first try, and I would say the 60 seconds left the cake more on the dry side than I like.  My microwave is pretty efficient though, so adjust depending on how well your microwave works.   

The cake will be VERY WARM when it's finished, let cool and eat with caution!  

The second cake we tried was a Chocolate Peanut Butter Mug Cake.  This one takes a few more ingredients, but I'm sure you have most of them around the kitchen.  1 large egg, 1 TBSP of brown sugar, 2 TBSP of creamy peanut butter, 1 TBSP flour, 1 TBSP of cocoa powder (we ran out on the last mug cake, opps!  I substituted with this sipping chocolate from trader joe's, and it didn't seem to make a difference), and 1/4 TSP baking powder.  

I mixed it all together in the mug, adding and mixing the ingredients in the same order they are listed above.  This mixture gets really thick!  I stuck with the 60 seconds with this one because of the extra thickness, and that seemed to work.  I can't wait to try out more of these!  

Yay, HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM, and Happy DIYing!

September

For the change of seasons in September I wanted to try a different technique.  First, I started with a piece of white fabric, about 12 inches by 22 inches in size.  I ironed the fabric flat.  Then, I placed two 4 x 5 inch blocks on top of them centering each block.  I then used black ink to trace around both blocks.  I let the outside edge be messy, but made sure there would be a crisp edge on the inside.  Then, I removed the blocks leaving two clean white apertures.  

After the black ink dried I used brown, red, and green pens to doodle an image for September.  I used the bottom square to test how the pens looked on the white fabric before starting in the top square.  When I felt comfortable, I started with the brown pen working in the corners.  

I wrote out 'September' in green ink.

Then, I filled in the borders so that there wasn't any white space left around the letters.  Once the drawing was complete I cut out the top square with an inch border.   Then I glued the piece of fabric down on the scrapbook paper for September.  

Happy DIYing!