Printable recipe cards from Design Eat Repeat

I have half a dozen handwritten recipe cards I've collected over the years. They're all from dear friends, and I love seeing their handwriting every time I make their tasty dish. I think of them affectionately. It's so much better than a page printed off the internet or a recipe displayed on a screen. If you want someone to think of you fondly years from now, write out that recipe by hand! These cute, free printable recipe cards from Design Eat Repeat will help you out.

My favorite cocktail recipes

I've tried making lots of cocktails at home and realized that my very favorites have a couple things in common: fresh-squeezed citrus juice and maraschino liqueur. (Don't use the red juice from a jar of cherries, even if you think it's tasty or want to save money. This is different.)

Here are my top three drinks:

Aviation Cocktail (pictured above)
1 1/2 oz. Gin
1 tsp. Crème de Violette
1/2 oz. Maraschino Liqueur
1/4 oz. Simple Syrup
3/4 oz. Fresh Lemon Juice
Add ingredients to a cocktail shaker filled with ice. Shake vigorously and strain into a chilled glass.

Hemingway Daiquiri
1 1/2 oz. White Rum
1/4 oz. Maraschino Liqueur
1/2 oz. Fresh Grapefruit Juice
3/4 oz. Fresh Lime Juice
1/2 oz. Simple Syrup
Add ingredients to a shaker filled with ice. Shake and strain into a glass.

Blue Grass Cocktail
2 oz. Bourbon Whiskey
1 oz. Pineapple Juice
1 oz. Lemon Juice
1 tsp. Maraschino Liqueur
Shake and strain. You know the drill.

Give one a try this holiday weekend!

P.S. My orange starburst cocktail shaker and ice bucket were a gift from Wild Eye Designs. I'm sure you can appreciate why I love them. The shaker even comes with a spare gasket.

Recipe book: Small Gatherings

Another cookbook I'm looking forward to testing is Small Gatherings: Seasonal Menus for Cozy Dinners by Jessica Strand. It offers complete menus divided by season, with suggestions for what to make the day before, hours before guests arrive, and at the last minute. That way you'll have maximum time to spend with your company instead of being tied to the kitchen. I love that the timing is planned out— then I don't have to think so hard. The food is fancier than I normally make, but still pretty easy to prepare. Lots of fresh ingredients are put together into simple, elegant dishes that will trick friends into thinking I'm sophisticated.


There are seasonal drink recipes, like Spicy Ginger Mint Cocktails.


I'm definitely making this Crostini with Goat Cheese, Garlic, and Grapes. I might forget the name of it and accidentally serve it as "Yummy Stuff on Toast," but it will taste great.


The photos are inspiring.


Photo by Sheri Giblin.

The publisher has provided a sample spring menu for us to try. Download and print out these recipes:
Spring Pea Soup with Mint and Toasted Pistachios
Fingerling Potatoes With Herbed Whole Yogurt
Salmon en Papillote With Dill
Perfectly Rosie Peaches with Crème Fraîche

Small Gatherings is available here at Amazon. Enjoy!

Double-Chocolate Raspberry Muffin recipe

I'm pretending I'm a food blogger this week. I got some fun review copies of cookbooks in the mail, so Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday heading into the holiday weekend I'll post some recipes to try out.

Baked carbs are my favorite food group and comprise the bottom tier of my personal food pyramid. (What, the Food Pyramid is now obsolete and the USDA recommends something called a Food Plate? Okay, then please load up my plate with muffins and bread.) I can't wait to test recipes from Good Morning Baking!, a new cookbook by Mani Niall. Here's a sample recipe for Double-Chocolate Raspberry Muffins from the book. They happen to be vegan, too, if you use non-dairy chocolate chips!

Download the printable recipe here.

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Double-Chocolate Raspberry Muffins
From Good Morning Baking by Mani Niall. Photo by Erin Kunkel. Provided by Egg and Dart Press.

"These are so cute that my guests called them cupcakes! I adapted an old World War II recipe that called for neither eggs nor butter, because both were in short supply at that time. My vegan friends were thrilled and no one else suspected that this rich, delectable combination of chocolate and tart raspberries contained no dairy or eggs. Feel free to use frozen raspberries if fresh are unavailable, adding them to the batter frozen.
Makes 12 muffins

2 1/3 cups unbleached all purpose flour
1½ cups sugar
½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1½ teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
¾ cup canola or other neutral flavored vegetable oil
½ teaspoon distilled white vinegar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
¾ cup semisweet or milk chocolate chips
1½ cups fresh or frozen raspberries

1. Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 350˚F. Line a 12-cup standard muffin tin with paper liners.

2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. If the mixture is at all lumpy, pass it through a sieve or sifter. In a medium bowl, whisk together the oil, vinegar, vanilla, and 1¼ cups water. Make a well in the flour mixture and gradually pour in the oil mixture, whisking as you go. The mixture will become quite thick and pasty, but you need to whisk firmly so that the dry ingredients absorb all the wet ingredients. Stir in the chocolate chips and about two-thirds of the raspberries. Divide 90 percent of the batter evenly among the prepared muffin cups (see note). Garnish with the remaining raspberries.

3. Bake until the muffins spring back when pressed lightly in the center with a fingertip, 20 to 22 minutes. Let cool in the pan on a wire rack for a few minutes, then turn the muffins out onto the rack and serve warm. These muffins are best when eaten the day they are baked.

Note: Sorry, but this recipe makes just a little too much batter for a standard muffin tin! I bake the extra batter in an ovenproof ramekin and enjoy it as a special treat for the baker."

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The book is full of delicious-looking breakfast items— some traditional, and some gluten free and vegan. Chocolate Blackberry Scones, Mexican Capirotada (bread pudding), or Apricot Cherry Buckle, anyone?

Get Good Morning Baking right here at Amazon.

Tattoo a banana for breakfast

Designer and illustrator Honey emailed to suggest that serving tattooed bananas might be a good idea for a brunch party. Might be? Heck yes; I love this kind of craziness. Put them in lunch bags! Hide them in the produce section at the grocery store and giggle at perplexed shoppers!

I had to try it immediately.


Simply make lots of tiny punctures in the banana peel with a pin, and the holes will turn brown. (I drew a quick outline on the banana with a sharp pencil first, then filled it in.) The banana will start to turn brown immediately. The longer you wait, the darker the black becomes, and it starts to look a bit debossed.

The heart is the result of 60 seconds of poking, then waiting overnight. The "hi" photo was taken half an hour after puncturing.

But I'm just an amateur banana tattoo artist. Look at Honey's Blues Brothers version:


See more of her work here. Wowzers. Except for the lettered versions, those are freehanded. You could also poke holes through a template printed on paper.

Have fun, kids. You know you wanna do it.

A Valentine latte with pink froth

We were goofing around in the kitchen this weekend and decided it would be fun to make colored milk froth for our lattes. Here's a pink heart that I glopped on with a spoon and shaped with a toothpick.

I think I need a little more practice. But we amused ourselves. Alex often tries to make me a stiff foam 3D cat with pointy ears that looks as if it's half submerged in the cup. I always get a kick out of that one.

He's the foam master. We make stovetop espresso in our Bialetti pot and add hot milk, and then he uses a $2.99 frother from IKEA to make foam. I've tried and can't get it nearly as nice as his. So asked, and here's his method, with direct quotes. Keep in mind this man is an engineer.

Heat about 1/4 cup of milk in the microwave on high until it's just about to boil. At the first hint of bubbles, stop. (About 45 seconds.)

Don't scorch the milk. "It denatures the proteins and changes the flavor profile." Oh, okay. "You have to keep an eye on it, so put your face right up to the microwave door. You'll risk microwave exposure, but it's necessary." Sure, no problem. A good latte is worth it. Heat your milk on the stove if this idea bothers you.

Update! From FKMN's husband in the comments: "The milk must never get above 65 degrees Celcius [149 F] — that will start the milk sugar (lactose) caramelizing and completely change the flavour of the milk and resulting latte." Whoa, good to know. So don't microwave it so long.

Then put the frothing wand in the hot milk and run it for 30 seconds or less. "The key to getting the right foaming consistency that you like is a combination of cup tilting and moving the frother in and around. I like to move the frother in a circular pattern so that new areas of the milk get hit with the shearing motion."

Shearing motion. Got it.

Then let the foam sit about 30 seconds, and it will stiffen up. "You can wait a little longer, but at some point the foam cells start to break down."

Spoon the foam onto your latte.

To make colored foam, add one or two drops of food coloring to the hot milk before you froth it.

Apple sweet potato juice

I'm off the rest of the week for Thanksgiving, but first I wanted to show you my new favorite orange thing: apple sweet potato juice. It's been affectionately dubbed "Jess Juice" by Alex, who has been experimenting with his juicer (this model). The fact that this fall drink happens to be my favorite color is just a bonus. The apple is tart and refreshing, and the sweet potato gives it creaminess and mellows it out to something nearly dessert-like. A sprinkle of cinnamon on top makes it perfect. The recipe is just two big apples and two raw sweet potatoes. Adjust the proportions to your liking, of course.

Have a happy Thanksgiving, all!

Glue jam and beer labels to glass with milk

I learned something new: milk doubles as glue. Use it for jam; use it for beer! It's easy and cheap, and dries nearly clear! (Sorry; after I typed the first sentence I couldn't stop myself.)

A few days ago, a commenter asked about a good method for affixing DIY printed labels to jelly jars. Andy Biggs, mastermind behind the Beer and Jam Labelizers, mentioned he uses milk to glue labels to his bottles of homebrewed beer. What?!? After a bit of internet research, I learned this is a common method in the homebrew beer community. Labels need to stick on securely, but be removed easily so the bottles can be reused.

Must. Test. This.

A preliminary note: don't try this with inkjet-printed labels. The ink will bleed and run if it gets wet. Stick to (har har) laser-printed labels, either color or black and white.

Use whole milk or 2% to wet the back of the label. Then just stick it to clean glass.

(I've read that skim milk doesn't work well, but haven't tried it. It's probably similar to using just water: the label clings while wet but falls off when dry.)

When the milk has dried, the label is stuck on firmly. See? It tears when you try to pull it off. But when you run it under water and get the paper wet, it peels off easily with no residue left behind.

If you need glue that's even stronger, try a recipe using gelatin.

I read about similar concoctions in several online forums, then tested and modified a recipe.

Homemade glue ingredients:
2 tablespoons water
1 packet unflavored gelatin
3 tablespoons milk

Put the water in a small bowl and sprinkle the gelatin over it. Wait about 5 minutes. Then microwave the milk to nearly boiling and add it to the gelatin. Stir until the gelatin is completely dissolved. This recipe yields 1/4 cup of glue.

The glue will look like this. Brush it onto the backs of labels while it's still warm and liquid. When it cools to room temperature, it becomes a solid gel. You can heat it for 15 seconds or so to liquify it again. Or you can eat it if you're hungry.

As you might imagine, the milk will spoil eventually, so the wet glue mixture should only be stored a couple days.

The milk-gelatin glue bonds paper to glass even more strongly than milk alone. It requires longer soaking in water and a little more rubbing to get the label off, but again, it comes off cleanly. No need for solvents to remove any sticky, gummy residue.

These tricks would work well for sticking posters to windows or mirrors, too.

An avocado pie for St. Patrick's Day

Here's the afternoon snack I'm eating as I type this. One day last summer I got to wondering if anybody made pie out of avocados. I googled and found this recipe from the California Avocado Commission. It was very tasty, and I vowed to make it again around St. Patrick's Day. If you're into grinch-green pie, this is your recipe! It's smooth and creamy and tastes predominantly of lemon, so you could probably fool people who are weirded out by the idea of an avocado dessert.

Ingredients
2 peeled avocados
½ cup fresh lemon juice
14 oz. can sweetened condensed milk
9" graham cracker crust
whipped cream

Instructions
In a blender put the peeled avocado and ½ cup lemon juice. Pulse a couple of times. Add condensed milk and blend till creamy. Pour into the pie shell and refrigerate for 1 hour. Add whipped cream when serving.

Printable recipe cards

Free, printable recipe cards and patterned dividers are available from Love Vs. Design. These might be useful for sharing recipes with friends or whipping up a nifty wedding shower gift in a recipe box.

Adventures in canning + printable jar labels

The folks at SweetPreservation.com are aiming to make canning cool for a new generation. They invited me to be a "canbassador" again this year, sending over a generous box of Washington state stone fruits. After my first low-budget but highly-successful canning effort last year, I was happy to try again. Though I still refuse to buy a giant pot and special tongs. And I couldn't find any pectin at the grocery store, so I went for recipes that use just fruit and sugar.

This year I made plum jam using this easy recipe, altered to a 1:1 ratio of plums and sugar as suggested in the comments. I chopped the plums up with a kitchen knife. The resulting jam is a little runnier than I'd have liked, but very yummy. The only mishap occurred when my back was turned and the pot of plums boiled over, creating a delicious lake of plum syrup on my stovetop. Oh well. I needed to clean it anyway.

I made peach butter, too, with this crock pot method. The house smelled like a country gift shop all day. I halved the recipe to fit in my pot and omitted the cloves, but the peach butter is still a little too spiced for my taste. Next time I'm ditching the allspice, too. The consistency turned out perfectly, and the method for skinning the peaches worked like a charm.

I also whipped up a printable freebie for some jar labels. The circles are 2" in diameter when printed at 100%, sized to fit on the lids of small jam jars. You can also punch a hole in the top and tie them to a jar with baker's twine. Download a PDF right here, then print out the page and write on the labels.

Check out SweetPreservation.com for more free printables and recipes!

Make your own sugar cubes

Next up in this week's "Wish I'd Thought of That" series: DIY sugar cubes from Nifty Thrifty Things. They're completely adorable, are they not? Learn how to make them right here. It looks fun to try at least once.

Canning for beginners

Yup, that's me. A canning novice. I embarked on my first canning project using this easy and tasty apricot butter recipe from SweetPreservation.com. (A fun site, by the way, which includes instructions for hosting a "preservation party" with a recommended music playlist that made me laugh. Check out their printable jar labels, too.)

When I set out to make jam, I assumed you simply boil a little fruit and a ton of sugar in a pan and dump it into jars—the end. Not so! You have to boil those jars of jam in something called a "water bath canner." What the?! I was not in the mood to spend $30+ on a giant pot that won't fit in my cupboard, so I did some research. What I learned*:

•This article is very helpful and details the canning process.
• A box of twelve 8 oz. jelly jars and lids is about $10. I got mine at Ace Hardware.
• I didn't buy a special jar lifter; I used my regular kitchen tongs.
• I didn't buy a canning funnel; I used a ladle.
• I didn't buy a water bath canner; I used my stock pot with a washcloth on the bottom to keep the jars off the direct heat from the burner and to keep them from jostling around. You could also put a wire cooling rack in the bottom if your pot is big enough. Just make sure you're able to cover the tops of your jars with boiling water.
• After boiling your jars for the correct time (see your jam recipe) and removing them from the water bath, the lids will still be in the popped-up position. As the jars cool over the next several hours, the lids will indent, often with a pinging sound which is very exciting.

*I'm no canning expert; I'm just telling you what I did to make small jars of jam. If you plan to can something else, do read the article above because different rules may apply.

Oh, and I forgot the most important part. Make your jars look cute! I used fabric scraps, baker's twine, and made my own jar labels for gift giving. Printable PDFs you can download are available in this post.

Free printable recipe cards

Four recipe cards with various fancy flourishes are available right here at Tie That Binds. Either print one out and fill it in by hand, or type your recipe right into the PDF and print out copies for your friends. You could tuck them into a wedding or shower gift. Or hand one to a friend with a pleading look on your face when you would like someone to bake you a plate of cookies.

Shortbread button cookies

I'm a little late to the party on this one since the original post is from January, but I'm compelled to ooh and aah publicly. These are little shortbread button cookies. They're adorable, as is the printable recipe with lovely calligraphy and illustrations. Get it here from Forty-sixth at Grace.

(Image by Nikole Herriott)

How to make your own deodorant

My weekend of celebrating with the folks was excellent. And sure enough, my mom (known to many of you as Grandma G) embarked on a DIY deodorant project. She came across someone selling homemade deodorant nearly a year ago, tried it out, and found that it actually kept stinkiness away better than store brands. Plus most popular brands of deodorant contain aluminum, so if you can avoid stuffing metal into your pores, that seems like a good idea. After using a few types of natural deodorants and figuring out which ingredients she prefers, Mum decided to make her own. Here's the recipe we arrived at this weekend.

Ingredients:
1/4 cup baking soda ($1.19 for a box)
1/4 cup arrowroot powder ($5.99 for 20 oz.)
4 tablespoons unrefined coconut oil ($6.00 for 15 oz.)
10 drops/shakes grapefruit essential oil ($9.99 for 0.5 oz.)
A tin or jar with lid

In a bowl, stir together dry ingredients, then add oils gradually until you like the consistency, mixing with a fork. Store in a closed container at room temp. (If the mixture seems too soft, try refrigerating it for a bit to firm it up.)

To apply, scoop up a bit with your finger, hold it against your skin for a couple seconds so it melts a little, then rub around.

The recipe above should last 4 or 5 months. We bought all the ingredients at Whole Foods. A jar of coconut oil is shelf stable for two years, who knew? So this stuff ought to provide a couple years' worth of deodorant. Try using any essential oil scent you like, but pick something that smells good mixed with coconut—the coconut oil contributes scent, too.

Update: Mum sent some notes to address questions in the comments.

Continue reading »

Packaging your gift for the neighbors

Allow me to introduce you to this free printable from Amanda Joy: a label you can stick on a box of goodies for your neighbors. Love it. I've given baked things to new neighbors before, but my paper plates covered with foil probably explain why we never became best friends. Packaging some treats this way should seal the deal.

(Image from Joy Ever After)

Orange watermelons and how to carve them

Some inspiring watermelon carving went on at the Craft Social. And then I find out that my mum is growing New Queen watermelons, which have orange flesh. Get out! Where can I buy one of these orange guys in Chicago? And then, what can I do to him? Here's a list of carving ideas with instructions for anybody who wants to do some surgery.

(Images from Veseys.com and Watermelon.org)

Mini jello watermelon slices

Happy Independence Day weekend, people of the United States. I leave you with this idea for petite watermelons made from jello and limes, by Chocolate on My Cranium. You can make some for your picnic tomorrow. Have a good weekend!

(Image from Chocolate on My Cranium)

Orange birthday yumminess

Thank you for all your warm birthday wishes last week! And to those who wondered if I'd be eating orange cake: YES. I stole this photo collage right off my friend Megan's blog so I could show you. Megan made graham cracker cookies with orange icing, Jamie made a chocolate orange marble cake, Michelle brought some amazing Ciao Bella blood orange sorbet, and Emery gave me the cutest orange card. I felt very celebrated by these dear friends. If you're interested in the recipes, clicking the names of the ladies will take you to their own posts with links. Thank you, everyone!