Mummy Wreath

My mom was one of those people who decorated for holidays. I often hated helping to decorate, but I loved once it was out. Living in an apartment, I never really decorated for any holiday. Maybe a small thing here or there, but I am getting better at it. Right now I have THREE pumpkins, and a few other Halloween items around the apartment to get us in the festive mood for the upcoming holiday.One of these things is my new wreath that Keith loves. It's a mummy wreath!

It was so easy to make and really fun! It's made out of a foam wreath base. I wrapped bandages around it, gluing in several pieces to hold tight. After I made it all the way around, then wrapped it across both sides to create the "face" space. I then attached big goggly eyes and let it dry.

It is a silly and adorable wreath that is bring some Halloween spirit (although goofy) into our living room. More fall (and Halloween!) items coming soon! I promise.

Craft Night: Nutella Toast Recipe

So last night I hosted my first ever craft night. I just put it out there on social media and several ladies said they were interested, so the wheels were in motion. I found a silly craft for those who did not bring a craft of their own (more on that craft in a later post) I then spent Sunday doing one of my new favorite things: playing hostess! We finally have a big enough apartment to have people over without being cramped or too hot, etc. So, I started on the menu. One thing I made was Nutella Toast. I'm gonna let that one sink in, NUTELLA TOAST. And it was pretty stellar.

Basically, you get a baguette and slice it up. Then in a pan melt some butter and pan fry these bad boys until they start to brown and crisp up. Then put a liberal amount of nutella on the bread. Top with berries and mint and if you are feeling daring- some sea salt. It was very tasty.

That's not all I made though. However, I am going to space those recipes out throughout the next few blog posts. I really enjoyed this low key craft night. Happy crafting folks!

Recipe: Corn Chowder

The weather is changing here in Illinois and I am kinda diggin' the fall air. I love fall, the leaves changing, the chill in the air, wearing sweatshirts and its finally okay to drink the super hot tea I drink every morning, even during 100 degree days in the summer. So, along with the pumpkin white russian, I decided to indulge in another fall favorite. I used to make this recipe over a fire, in a cast iron pot because I am pretty awesome. It's one of my favorites, so I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. (be warned: I never said it was healthy, but man, it's tasty!)

What you need:

• 4 slices of bacon (chopped up) I think I added more like 5 or 6...we like bacon
• 1/2 medium onion, we don't like onion that much, so you can always add more
• 4 medium potatoes
• 4 cups of corn, we used frozen 
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1/4 cup of butter
• 2 and 1/2 salt
• 1/4 tsp of pepper
• 2 cups of milk 

 What to do:
Saute the bacon. Once cooked all the way through, cut up into bite sized pieces.Drain most of the fat. Add onions, potatoes and 1 cup water to pot (or a bit more to cover the potatoes). Bring to a boil, then simmer ten minutes. In a second pan, combine corn, cream, sugar and butter. Simmer for ten minutes. Combine the two pots and mix together with other ingredients. Keep coking until the potatoes are tender. I added more salt and pepper for taste on mine. It yields a lot, like 6-8 servings.

Stay warm out there kids.

Fall drink

Hello blogging world. I have disappeared for a bit but I am hoping to reappear now for awhile. I feel like my blog needed a break, I needed to step back and see what was working and what wasn't working. I noticed I wasn't writing for fun, but because I felt I needed to. So, I wanted to make sure this was for me- not just because. So, I am starting fresh- a clean slate- to try again. I am hoping this refresh will get my butt in gear and start creating again, which it already has. I have a recipe at the bottom of this post. However, I felt it was time to reintroduce myself.

I am Jenn. Sometimes it's Jenny. Othertimes it's Bean. Or even J. It depends on who asks. I live in Chicago, but am from Michigan. I miss Michigan and the woods, the prairie doesn't suit me. I like a cup of flavorful tea (Caprihana is my favorite right now), cute boys (mainly my dashing & adorable husband, Keith), puppies (my dog is a peach, her name is Loki), history (I am pretty much an amateur scholar of US presidents) and anything sparkly. I have three nieces, a sister, amazing parents,  a handful of in-laws, a loving husband and a bunch of friends (including MEG who co-owns this blog, but is a very busy lady!). I am often daydreaming of Scotland, Mackinac Island, what I am buying/making people for Christmas, new recipes and how I wish I lived in a cool Victorian house. I love music, laughing and reading. But most of all I love creating.

Okay, so that's me. Boring stuff done. NOW, let's get on to a fall drink that I stumbled on and decided to try out. A pumpkin white russian.

So, what I did was get a tumbler, place some ice in the tumbler. Pour in an ounce of pumpkin flavored vodka, followed by an ounce of Kahlua. I then finished it up with milk and gave it a stir. To really set off the pumpkin flavor I added some pumpkin pie spice on top. Deeelicous.  Of course, with any milk based drink, I can only really stomach one- however that one was really tasty. Remember: drink responsibly.

Recipe: Butterscotch Cookie Butter Fudge

Oh my gosh, I re-found cookie butter (from Trader Joes). I found a jar in my cabinet, next to a bag of butterscotch chips, that I haven't used in forever and was fast approaching the expiration date. Today was a rough day and Keith went back to school so I was trying to pass time until he could come home so I decide to make one of the best things ever---fudge.

What you need:

• 1 14 oz can of sweetened condense milk
• 12 oz of butterscotch chips
• 1/2 cup of cookie butter
• 1 tsp of vanilla extract

Get out a 8 x 8 pan and spray it with cooking spray. Mix sweetened condense milk, butterscotch chips and cookie butter in a pan and heat over medium to low heat. Stir regularly until all (okay, or most) of the chips have melted. Turn heat to low and add vanilla. Stir just 5 more second and remove from heat. Pour mixture into pan and put in the fridge for a few hours.

This recipe yields a lot. BUT, it yields a lot of deliciousness!!! Enjoy!

Recipe: Vanilla Lemonade

Today was a gloomy day. You know those days when it DOWNPOURS all day and then turns into 80 plus temps with humidity. Plus it just wasn't a great day. So, I decided to make myself perk up in a delicious way.

I found some delicious, huge lemons. So, of course I need to make myself lemonade, no question.

Here's what you need:
-Juice of 4 lemons
-1/2 cup of sugar
-6 cups of cold water
-1/2 tbsp of vanilla
-Ice

I juiced 4 lemons and then strained it to get out the pulp (yuck!). I added the sugar and vanilla. Then I poured in the water and stirred until dissolved. Add ice to your cup and pour. It's delicious!!! This lemonade is a bit tart, because I wanted to cut back on sugar. The vanilla adds something really extra.

Enjoy guys! 

Recipe: Jazzin' up Freezer Rolls

This week has just felt off. Keith is sick and I have been feeling a bit restless. I miss crafting, but am waiting until my craft room is full set up to start making creative messes again. The last few nights have been spent with a quick walk, watching old shows on netflix, lounging on the couch and making food we have had in our freezer for too long. 

So tonight was no different, however I wanted to liven up some frozen rolls I had to go with our ravioli and meatballs.

So I present to you: easy jazzed up rolls

These are boring old freezer rolls. Remove the plastic cover. Preheat the oven to the directions that come with the rolls- ours was 325 degrees. While it preheats, spray on olive oil (we have this handy thing), sprinkle with sea salt, black pepper and seasoning (I used a mix of Italian Seasoning from a local spice shop).

Lookin' Good

Bake the bread to the packaging instructions.

Once baked, eat it up! It's a really good and easy way to make freezer rolls even better! Enjoy!

Three Easy Camping Recipes

We went camping! It was so fun, and new to us. We both have camped throughout our childhood, but this was our first time, only us. So, we went for it. We stayed in Northern Michigan (lower peninsula) at two different campgrounds. One was on Higgins Lake, a beautiful state campground that I used to go to as a child, with my partner of this blog, Megan and our families.

The second camping site was off the coast of Lake Michigan in Mackinaw City. It was one of the most beautiful places I have been.We walked along the beach, went to the city, and even traveled up to the Soo Locks. It was a great trip. Keith and I learned a lot about camping, including how to chop wood, start a great fire and cook some delicious food.

Breakfast Recipe: Breakfast Sandwiches
I don't do eggs, you can add eggs but I found them really gross (I know, I am a wimp when it comes to food textures)

What you need:

• Two slices of bread
• Spreadable butter
• Two turkey sausage patties
• Cheese
• A pie maker
• a fire pit

Make sure you spread an good amount of butter onto the bread so it does not stick to the pie maker. We always heat up our pie maker first in the fire. Then make your sandwich, close the pie maker and put it in the fire. After a few moments check the pie maker, flip or take out. It took about 5 minutes on each side to melt the cheese. Easy and great sandwich.


Lunch Recipe: Hobo Hash

 What you need:

• Aluminum foil
• cooking spray
• hashbrowns (we got the kind in the refrigerated section and kept cool in the cooler)
• shredded cheddar cheese
• pre-cooked chicken sausage
• salt and pepper to taste
• Fire
  

Make sure the fire is nice and hot and has some good amount of coals at the bottom. We actually let the fire die down so that it was only coals. Next I laid down two foil sheets and sprayed the top sheet with cooking spray. Put down hashbrowns, then cheese. I cut up the sausage and put them in too. I rolled up the aluminum foil and we put it right on the coals. Make sure to flip the aluminum foil package halfway through cooking. Ours took about 15 minutes to cook. But it did burn the bottom because we did not rotate it enough.

Dessert Recipe: Peanut Butter Cup S'more

Okay, this isn't really a recipe since everyone knows how to make s'mores. But, try this! Instead of putting a chocolate bar between the graham crackers and marshmallow, replace it with a peanut cup. IT IS A GAME CHANGER! Seriously- you won't regret it.

Okay- well, I hope you enjoy these recipes and now go camping.
 

Recipe: Strawberry Pretzel Dessert

Keith had a birthday last week. So, to celebrate- I threw him a party. We had our great friends come over and eat delicious food and drink and have fun. I made Keith a taco bar, which was awesome! But I also made two special desserts- pretzel gelatin and dirt cake. This post is going to focus on the pretzel jello.

My aunt usually makes this for all our holidays- but in a large batch since we come from a large family. So- I tried to make individual servings. it turned out pretty good.

Ingredients
-1 and a 1/2 cups of crushed pretzels
-4 tablespoons plus 1 cup of sugar
-10 tablespoon of butter
-2 (8 oz) packages of cream cheese
-1 tsp of vanilla
-1 (8 ounce) container of frozen whipped topping (thawed)
-1 (6 ounce) package of strawberry gelatin
-2 cups of boiling water
- 1 (16 ounce) package of slices strawberries

The how to:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees

 I lined up small ramekins on a cookie sheet.Then I ground up the pretzels using a rolling pin.  Combine 4 tablespoons of sugar, melted butter and pretzels in a bowl. I then put the pretzel mixture in the bottom of the ramekins and baked for 6 minutes. Then let it cool completely- I actually left them in the fridge overnight.

Next, I put the cup of sugar, cream cheese and vanilla in my stand up mixer. I mixed those up. I folded the whipped topping into the mixture and blended. Keith help me pipe the cream mixture using a freezer bag with the corner cut off, on top of the pretzel mixture. Then we let it sit for an hour.

I then mixed the boiling water with the gelatin and stir it until it dissolved. While still hot, I mixed in the frozen strawberries. The gelatin was too runny, so I threw it in the fridge for about 5 to 10 minutes, not too long though! I scooped a large amount of the gelatin into each one.

Once all set, let them chill in the fridge for a full hour before serving. I left two without strawberries because I don't like strawberries and some people don't like gelatin. There was extra strawberry gelatin when we made them, but I think that's why.

Enjoy everyone!! 

For the Home: a smple bathroom storage solution

It's been over a week since my last post! What? I have been very busy though, I promise. Since my last post:
-Keith had a birthday!
-I had a half birthday (not as exciting)
-I read two books and started a 3rd. So- that's like 12/13 more until I finish my challenge that I made in an earlier post.
-I reopened my etsy shop lokibean
-I have a new plan for my etsy store, and started working on it. The new stuff/updated store will be coming soon
-Keith built me a desk
-I am planning a party

And I have a full time job. So, busy. We are still finishing up odds and ends at the apartment too, which I just want done. This is a post about a simple storage solution that I wanted to share.

I love my apartment. I love it. But a huge downfall is the lack of closets, or storage. This is really true in the bathroom. We don't even have a medicine cabinet. First we bought a tall storage self from Ikea and got large boxes that fit the shelves and have lids. We store those thing we don't want people to see in those (toilet paper, medicine, razors, etc). However we ran out of room.

So, I went to the dollar bin at Target and bought skinny baskets with large holes and some 3m plastic hook.

Attach the plastic hooks to the inside of the bathroom counter and make sure they are properly placed. I make the locations using the basket as a guide and a pencil. They are pretty sturdy too. I store vitamins, hairbrushes, etc in them and they hold out.

This post seems like a goofy one, but I thought it was important to share this in case any of you are city livers like us and just don't have space.

Cocktail recipe: Blueberry infused vodka and lemonade

Chicago is almost at summer temps. Today was 90 degrees! Tomorrow will be 70, which is more my style. However, one good thing about hot, hot temperatures now- we have a grill!! That's right, instead of heating up our whole apartment with cooking we can take it outside. So, we invited a friend over for some turkey burgers and I made a special cocktail for the occasion- blueberry infused vodka and lemonade.

Keith got me this nifty gift that will allow you to infuse any liquid with any fruit/herb. We have made some pretty delicious combos- my favorite was blood orange blueberry and tangerine lavender. This time I went for simple, just good old blueberries.

First rinse the blueberries, then take a small handful and put it into the bottom of the infuser.

After that put the lid on, by put on the lid you actually grind up the fruit and make it into a juice.

Attached the bottom to the top of the infuser, and pour in your choice of beverage. This time we picked vodka. You can use anything though- lemonade, wine, water, etc.

Next step is Keith's favorite- SHAKE IT

After making sure it's good and mixed (about three minutes) Put it in the fridge for an hour minimum. We mixed it with some freshly squeezed lemonade I happened to pick up at the grocery store and there you have it, a fresh cocktail for a hot summer day.

It comes out a bit more pink that you would think, but that's just the blueberry juices mixed with the yellow lemonade. Go figure. Anyway, stay cool out there, drink responsibly and happy summer!!!

recipe: delicious waffles recipe for two

Guys, I really like waffles. Every weekend when we lived out in the burbs, Keith made me waffles. You see, we went from not having a single day off together to having Sundays together. It was like a special treat! So, to spoil me, he made me waffles for our Sunday breakfast. And then he went above and beyond by buying me a mickey shaped waffle iron. 

WHAT? I know, great husband, right? So, anyway- yesterday I was a bit down so he whipped me up a batch of waffles to cheer me up. It worked. Here is his easy (but tasty!) recipe for two people!

What you need:

 

Dry Ingredients:

• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp Cinnamon
• (Optional) Dash of Nutmeg
• 2 tsp Baking Powder
• 1 Tbsp Sugar
• 1 Cup Flour

Wet Ingredients

• 2 Tbsp melted Butter
• Vanilla (to Taste)
• 3/4 Cup of milk
• 1 Egg

Equipment: Waffle iron

Sift together all the dry ingredients, then add in the wet ingredients.  Scoop into the waffle iron and cook until finish.

I am not the biggest syrup fan, so I put on powdered sugar. Delicious!

Hope everyone has a GREAT week!

a small ikea hack

So, Keith and I are adjusting to our new home. It's a lot bigger then we thought, which is a great problem to have. But we have less closets, so we are trying to make due. We went furniture shopping and came up with a great solution... an Ikea hack.

So we bought a few of these

We got black and gray tables, and Keith set to work to create a fun new shelf by stacking two lack tables together. He first took the dremel with the sanding attachment to the corners where the legs would hit the top of the first table. He ground it down and then put wood glue down to create a two tiered shelving unit. It took overnight to dry, but we kind of love how it turned out!

Yup, that little guy is Bertie- our fat butterfly from New Orleans. 

This project is really easy and it's easy to do. We hope you enjoy our creative solution to our lack of shelving.

D.I.Y. Permanent Marker Dyed Scarves

I have had several silk scarves for two moves now and when I started to unpack in my new apartment, I finally found them and decided to do something with them. So I invited my friend Erin over and we decided to craft- so we dyed silk scarves with permanent markers.

This is an easy craft but a beautiful craft. All you need is a silk scarf, I got mine here, permanent markers, isopropyl alcohol and a dropper. I also used garbage bags/table clothes to protect the table. 

First things first, iron the wrinkles out of your scarf, then fold scarf into a triangle.

Then start creating whatever pattern you would like with colors. Make sure the ink goes all the way through to the back of the triangle.

I unfolded the triangle and added more color where I felt it was lacking. I also rubbed the ink into the silk. It dyes your fingers, but I thought it really worked.

Once I liked the designed, I refolded it into a triangle and went outside. This next part is a bit strong smelling- so do it outside or in a well ventilated area.

Once outside (and on some protective tablecloth/garbage bag) use a dropper to get out some isopropyl alcohol and slowly drop the alcohol on the ink.

The ink will spread out, so continue until its well spread and looks the way you want it to.

 I flipped it over and did both sides. You might even need to open it and continue to drop the alcohol to spread more of the ink.

Erin made a scarf too. How beautiful!

Let your scarves dry. The alcohol will dry quickly. Once it's dry, iron the scarf. I put a sheet between the iron and the scarf so it did not melt, but it really worked.

This is the final project. Turned out great! This is a hand wash only project. I just washed mine this morning and it bleed just a small amount but the pattern stayed intact. This project was really fun. I can't wait to do it again.

Happy crafting!

D.I.Y. Word Wall Art

I don't read as much as I used to. I should, and I will try to work on that. Maybe I will set a goal- 15 books for the rest of the year. Is that a lot? I feel like I don't know because some books take me a day to finish and others seems to hang on with me for weeks. So, 15 minimum. Deal? I will keep you posted on my progress. 

I have declared my love on this blog for a certain Mr. Hemingway. I still love him, don't worry. However, I was putting away some books and a few Vonnegut books appeared. I forgot how much I love Slaughterhouse-Five. I have kept this worn copy since high school. So, when I was thinking of wall art and thought of doing a simple word wall art- a light bulb went off in my head. So, I ran to the craft store (okay- I took the train to the craft store) bought small wooden letters, 2 different kinds of paint, a thin paint brush and all purpose glue. I had canvases at home. I headed back on the bus (don't ask!) and got to work once home. 

I pulled out the good "S-O-I-T-G-E"s and assembled my saying. So it goes. Simple, elegant, reminder, motto. I painted the letters two coats of this bright aqua.

I wanted a lighter background- so that the letters were a little more dramatic. I also didn't want you normal straight paint job. So I got creative. I did one coat of the gray paint on the canvas.

Once it dried, I laid out my pattern- then glue them on individually. I let that dry, and there you have it a new wall art!

It's a bit dark-a bit weird, but I like it. It's a good reminder.

Okay, well this is my easy wall art. I really enjoyed making it.

Happy crafting!!!