Charisa Darling

Archive for June 2015

Monday, June 29, 2015

Julia Child Printable Quote

I've been cooking more lately and while the kids don't always eat it, it's so nice to have Justin look up from his plate and say things like, "this sauce is really good!" I've failed so many times. (So many times.) It's a great confidence boost to have a couple "wins" under my belt.

Ever try heating oil up slowly in a sauté pan with a clove of garlic sliced into bigger pieces? When the oil (whichever you're using - avocado, grapeseed, evoo, etc.) starts to get hot and the garlic starts to brown, take it out and continue with whatever you're making. It's a great way to add flavor to the oil.

Anyways, I came across this quote from Julia Child yesterday and designed a printable of it while hunkered down in the basement during tornado warnings last night. Click HERE for it and print at your desired size.

Bon Appétit!

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Thursday, June 25, 2015

2-Ingredient Banana Ice Cream Failure...Again!

I noticed the "2 ingredient Banana Ice Cream" BuzzFeed video going around and it reminded me of when I tried it back in 2011. I didn't think it was bad, but the kids thought differently and their reactions were hilarious. If you're wanting to try it, I think the way to go is to add other fruit and make it sorbet-ish. (I can't seem to get the video working. Oops.)

2-Ingredient Banana Ice Cream
Posted by BuzzFeed Food on Wednesday, June 24, 2015

My original post from September 2011

A long time ago (June) I tried to dupe the kids. They called me out. Big time.

Basically you cut up a bunch of bananas, freeze them, then use a food processor to chop them up, add whatever flavoring you'd like and it creates a pseudo-ice cream. I added peanut butter and cocoa powder and I thought it wasn't bad at all. I was actually surprised how good it tasted.

I told the kids to "come try this". I never said it was ice cream. These pictures were not staged. I pushed the bowls in front of them, waited, and snapped away at their first impressions.

(Look how excited Vaughn is here.)

I like how she gives it another try.

Poor Vaughnie. She loves, loves, loves ice cream. I think she had her hopes up because it looked so much like ice cream. Clearly, she was crushed.

(I wonder if it would have been better if I added frozen berries to it - like a pseudo sorbet? Hmmm...)

*...*...*...*...*...*

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Monday, June 22, 2015

Make This: Quick Copper Garden Markers

Every time we make a trip to Home Depot, the kids beg to pick up one more veggie to plant and I usually give them the go ahead because we're gardening, man! Getting our (gloved) hands dirty! Growing food! Making magic! And really, just feeding the deer, rabbits, and chipmunks, but more about that later. It's starting to look bushy out back, which means it's time to add garden markers so we can tell what's what in our batch of crops.

I picked up these metal tags from Target's $1 Spot and hot glued them to oversized craft sticks. I'm going to be honest - I wanted to write the names on the signs. However, I royally fought the urge, and let Vaughn do them all herself because I know how badly she wanted to do them.

Let them dry and then stick them in! That's all it takes! It'll be fun to see how the copper changes with the weather.

{If time allows, trim the fairy garden...

and rearrange their furniture. Gotta keep those fairies happy!}

Happy Monday, everyone!

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Wednesday, June 17, 2015

Robert Rauschenberg's Key Lime Pie

One of my favorite artists, Robert Rauschenberg, loved making key lime pie and apparently was good at it because guests of his Captiva Island home always asked for his recipe so he kept photocopies of it on hand. I like knowing details like this about people and enjoyed reading about him in the recent story about him in the NY Times.

The kids have never tried key lime pie, so we added the ingredients to our grocery list and whipped one up in no time. Everyone liked it, Justin loved it, but the next go round, I'll add more lime juice. Turns out Bob liked his pie on the sweeter side.

Read the article here. The recipe is included in one of the photo slide shows, but here's a link.

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Monday, June 15, 2015

Make This: Quick Candle Holders for Kids

Vaughn and I had an impromptu girl's night, so I came up with a quick craft for us to do. Bonus! They dry really fast and we used them for added ambiance while watching a movie later that night. Another great thing about this project is that it can be be tailored to fit kids of all ages. Let's do this!

What you'll need:

Tissue Paper

Glass Jar

Modge Podge (or watered down white glue)

Paint brush

Start by getting your tissue paper ready. Vaughn wanted to use paper cutters to punch out shapes for hers, but tearing and cutting also works. (Pre-cut tissue paper for little ones and it will make it easier for them. For older kids, patterns, overlapping, and more intricate designs can be used to add more interest and difficulty.)

I used matte finish Modge Podge, but I think watered down white glue would work fine too. (I added just a bit of water to my Modge Podge to loosen it up a bit for this project.) Pour a little onto a paper plate and work in sections around the jar. Paint a little Modge Podge onto the jar, use the brush to pick a piece of tissue paper and stick it onto the jar. Brush over the tissue paper to make sure it's covered with the Modge Podge and continue until you're done. Use really thin layers of Modge Podge and make sure the kiddos aren't globbing it on.

In a sunny spot, ours dried in a couple of hours and we used battery votives to light ours.

Keep this in mind if you need a quick project! The kids will love it!

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Friday, June 12, 2015

Jump Camp

I've been busy this week stressing out about the whereabouts of my kids, pick-up and drop-off parking flow charts, getting good parking spots, not hitting other cars, and not running over curbs and parking cones.

It was the first time the kids have attended a popular mega-church camp that has scared the bejesus out of me since I heard about it. Driving by, it looks like a carnival and a water park mixed together with thousands of kids running around. That's not an exaggeration - this year they broke their attendance record with approximately 6,200 kids divided into two weeks of camp.

The first morning of camp, the kids are bouncing with energy and by pick-up time on the last day they're shells of what used to be your kids. (And with all the face painting going on, you're not really sure who you'll be taking home or if you're picking up the right kids.) They're tired, crabby, but boy, do they sleep well at night.

It's really a shame that they take everything so seriously. Clearly, these kids don't know how to have fun.

The kids had fun, I'm amazed at how organized the camp was, but I'm glad it's over and am ready to have a week off from any camps next week. Here's to a great weekend! Cheers!

Thursday, June 04, 2015

Baseball Wreath

This is the Texas-sized wreath that barely fits on my Missouri-sized front door.

Oh, how this project tested my patience! Plan A didn't work, neither did Plan B or Plan C, and I lost count when Plan D rolled around. BUT! As much as I wanted to trash the whole thing, I was too involved and decided it was a Tim Gunn "Make It Work Moment" and just finished the sucker. I know it's not too horrible, I mean, I've seen much worse homemade wreaths out there, and I've received compliments on it, but it just wasn't what I had intended. That's my biggest beef about this wreath. I'm not going to draw this out and take you through what I initially wanted or all the failed steps but here's a quick summary.

I started with Smoothfoam balls and spray painted them white, just to give them a coating and fill in the cracks a bit.

When they were dry, I drew baseballs lines onto them. Pencil first, then Sharpie.

Then I went back over the red lines with black and added dots at the end of the stitch marks to make everything look more dimensional.

This is the only failed step I will share: do not attempt to spray a clear coat of poly onto them! It makes the Sharpie Run and fortunately I found out before I ruined all of them. The ones that did run, I was able to hide them in the ruffled deco mesh. (But how cute do they look like this?!)

To attach them onto the wreath, I squirted a small amount of hot glue into the hole on the bottom of the ball and stuck in a piece of thin wire. (Fold the top before sticking it into the glue. It will add stability.)

This is the point in the project that my language really got colorful!! I had little patience with making the Deco Mesh ruffles and attaching them onto the wreath form. The whole thing is just too tedious and I didn't enjoy it. I staggered the baseballs and used the wire to attach them to the wreath form. It was looking a bit boring so I used some ribbon that I had on hand to add a bit of flair. (Purple for Vaughn's softball team and black for Vance's team.) Still it needed something, so I hung a white M from fishing line from the wreath hanger, so it would hang in the middle of the wreath.