Weekly Wonders: August 22nd, 2012

Summer is almost over, my how the time flies! My summer has been filled with fun trips from New Orleans to Daytona to Shrimp Festivals. But last night, I did a very American thing. I went to a baseball game. Well almost all-American, my mother says it does not count because its inside. Silly Tropicana Field! In their defense, they would have to cancel every other game if not because it rains all the time! Last night, it rained on the way there, while in the game and a few hours later on the way home! Mimi (my grandmother) went with a  traditional hotdog, I had a slice of pizza. I did partake in some peanuts and cotton candy. In my book, everything is good with cotton candy! What have you been up to this week?

Jar Candles

While in Europe, I bought a jam jar to eat with our baguettes. We used it a ton in Paris, but after that, baguettes just weren’t as common.  I smuggled our half eaten jam back to the U.S. and then promptly forgot about it. I have to admit, I tend to forget about things quiet often, I also forgot about a candle I bought and left it in the garage. The lovely Florida summer heat kind of mushed the candle so I couldn’t light it the way it was, who want’s a parallelogram candle.

So what to do when you have a dilapidated candle and a cute jar? Remelt the candle into the jar! To preserve the memory (ha, get the jam of it?).  It was actually quite easy, and didn’t take that much time. I watched a youtube video about doing it, but it involved fancy tools and my hairdryer took forever to melt the littlest bit of wax. So I came up with my own method!

 

My candle was wider than the mouth of the jar, so I used a knife to cut off parts of wax. (The height was taller, but I just decided to let that melt down) After cutting off two sides (and saving the wax), I smashed the candle into the jar ( I tried to keep the wick in the middle, much easier than having to melt it and having to repour).

Then I placed the jar in a pot of water and turned the heat to medium. I melt the wax down while keeping the wick up by using a clip. I dropped in the chopped off wax to completely fill the jar.  Once completely filled, I removed it from heat and let it cool. TA-DA.

P.S.  Plus its now able to travel! I have my own travel candle!

Handy House Tip: Paint Spills

No matter how hard I try, I always manage to spill a bit of paint. I take pains to be careful about it but it always happens. Enter my new favorite friend: All-purpose Cleaner. Simply spray on paper towel, and wipe away paint spill! Works great on woodwork.

Weekly Wonders: August 15th, 2012

A friend of mine had a marvelous idea the other day, we should have a picnic! Not just any picnic, but a grand picnic! We could not just pick French themed for our picnic, we had to take it  a step further and select French Provençale themed. So Saturday evening, we went to a park on the water and had our grand picnic. It was a rousing success, we spent three hours relaxing by the water slowly savoring the delicious food.  We had vegetable tian, cheese and then dessert (and yes, we ate it in the proper French order). Plus to drink, I muddled 12 basil leaves with one navel orange. Then mixed the muddle with 18 ounces of Dubonnet Rouge (or other sweet fortified red wine that is chilled) and let it sit for 20 minutes. Then top each glass with 2 oz. of seltzer water. It was AMAZING. Seriously, Martha Stewart did not let me down on this one. Don’t forget crepes for dessert!

P.S. Check out my adorable plastic ware, it made everything seem classier. Next week we are trying for British themed, anyone have any recipe suggestions?

Toasted Green Beans

So I found the most amazing thing in Publix the other week: Toasted Green Beans. They were amazing! Like WOW, we ate the whole thing in one sitting. Then we became sad, because we did not have anymore. Well, off we went to Publix again but this time, we bought the ingredients to make our own. We baked them instead and they were just as amazing!

Ingredients:

Green Beans (Whole)

1/2 cup Flour

1 Egg

1/3 cup Milk

1 cup Bread Crumbs

1 tablespoon garlic powder

1 tablespoon onion powder

Salt and Pepper

Directions:

1) Preheat oven for 400 Degrees. Then Blanch the green beans. (Place them in boiling water for a few minutes (till bright green) then quickly place them in ice water).

2) Take three bowls and place the flour in one, the egg (mixed with milk) in the second and the breadcrumbs (with garlic and onion powder plus some salt and pepper ) in the third. Then roll a green bean in the flour, then dip it in the egg and finally roll in the bread crumbs.

3) Place coated green beans on a cookie sheet and bake for 15-20 minutes or until crispy.

4) Enjoy!

Weekly Wonders: August 8th, 2012

 

So it’s my birthday next week, and currently I keep thinking about what birthday cake to have. Perhaps I may be a bit strange but I prefer to make my own cake. It’s not that I don’t trust other people, I just love to bake and ice cakes! Currently, I am constantly pursuing pinterest to add to my birthday cake board. These are my current contenders: (P.S. I am not crazy, I would only make a one layer cake!)

Handy House Tip: Spot Remover

 

While repainting a room, we noticed that the door had some tape that would not come off. It had been there for years and decided to try to stay there permanently. So out came the magic “goo be gone” stuff. The only problem was one swipe was not enough to get the tape to budge. Not even two swipes or three. So I got tired of swiping (I wonder if Swiper feels the same way with Dora? I swipe a door, he swipes a Dora, pretty similar if you ask me and mine got boring.) I had other things to do than sit there and hold the goo stuff to the door. So I used painters tape (since it won’t hurt paint) and taped those paper towels to the door.  Then I spent about 5 minutes doing other things, and came back to check. Some only needed five minutes, some took about 10 or 15 minutes, but that was better than me sitting there the entire time.