Tag Archives: homemade

Six Dress Halloween Costume

November 1, 2012DIY, I Made This6, battlestar galatica, Caprica, Costume, DIY, dress, halloween, homemade, Sixheidi

For Halloween this year, I went as a character from my all-time favorite TV show, Battlestar Galatica. I’m serious, guys. This is the most fan-person thing I’ve ever done. I’m not kidding, I’m getting excited just writing this post. The character is Caprica Six, or the six model of cylon. I find her fascinating and one of the most intriguing fictional characters ever developed. So, to show off the dress, Ryan, Watson and I did a little photo shoot. You think I’m kidding?

Watson was being his usual grumpy self. And ryan was showing me how it’s really done.

So, he’s gonna kill me for posting that photo. Ok. On to the dress, which is why you’re really here.

Dress Before:

Dress After:

I cut up an old dress my friend let me have. I created a shape for the bodice, extended the back (I couldn’t get it to zip over my breasts), cut out the waist and back, and shortened it.

Here’s the back of the dress.

I bought a wig, but it looked cheap and horrible. I might be this character again and again for every Halloween. I saw a really someone create hand make the character’s jewelry, and I’d like to attempt that next time.

Here’s me doing the iconic pose.

What do you think?

So now you know, I’m a huge nerd.

pumpkin-shaped sandwich cookies

October 16, 2012Recipeschocolate sandwich cookies, cookie cutter, cookies, halloween, homemade, oreo, pumpkin, sandwich cookieheidi

I couldn’t pass up a $1 pumpkin-shaped cookie cutter from the craft store. Normally, when I buy cheap cookie cutters, well, you get what you pay for – sloppy edges and rounded corners that resemble some type of cookie shape. You’re just not sure what. At least it’s still a cookie. That’s the great thing about baking.

I had a really great feeling about this cookie cutter. And while I know I’ll only use it once this year, it was worth it, because these cookies were fantastic.

See below for ingredients and printable instructions.

In a small bowl, whisk together the cocoa powder, flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk the melted butter and sugar together until you get a custardy look.

Add the egg and the vanilla extract. Continue whisking.

Once blended, begin mixing in the melted chocolate chips, until they’re fully combined and you get a nice, smooth chocolate texture.

Slowly fold in the flour mixture until well combined and you get a thick dough ball.

I switched to a wooden spoon here. You want your dough to look something like this.

On a piece of wax paper, roll the dough flat. You want it to be about 1/4 inch thick. Then let it firm up in the firm up in the fridge for about fifteen minutes. If you’re having a hard time rolling the dough flat, stick it in the freezer for a few minutes.

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

After the dough has set, pull it out of the fridge and get to work with that cookie cutter.

You can ball up the extra dough and roll it out flat. If it gets too gooey, just stick it back in the fridge or freezer for a few minutes.

Place them about an inch apart on a parchment-lined cookie sheet. These cookies spread a little. Bake for 20 minutes.

Let them cool before you add the frosting.

I added about a tablespoon in the middle and Smush!

For the Filling
Beat all of the ingredients until they are soft and creamy. Add food dye until it looks like this (or desired color).

These cookies are great for Halloween. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a good picture of the baked pumpkin shapes. I was too busy eating them.

pumpkin-shaped sandwich cookies

Author: heidi

Yields: 12 3-inch sandwiches or 24 cookies

Ingredients

½ cup cocoa powder
2 cups flour
½ tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 cup butter, melted
¾ cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1½ cups semisweet chocolate chips, melted
1 egg

Frosting

½ cup butter, softened
1½ cup confectioners sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. milk (I used almond milk)
red and yellow food coloring

Other Things

Whisk
Wax Paper
Parchment Paper
Cookie Cutter

Instructions

For the Cookies

In a small bowl, whisk together the cocoa powder, flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
In a large bowl, whisk the melted butter and sugar together until you get a custardy look.
Add the egg and the vanilla extract. Continue whisking.
Once blended, begin mixing in the melted chocolate chips, until they're fully combined and you get a nice, smooth chocolate texture.
Slowly fold in the flour mixture until well combined and you get a thick dough ball.
On a piece of wax paper, roll the dough flat. You want it to be about ¼ inch thick. Then let it firm up in the firm up in the fridge for about fifteen minutes. If you're having a hard time rolling the dough flat, stick it in the freezer for a few minutes.
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.
After the dough has set, pull it out of the fridge and get to work with that cookie cutter.
Place the cookies about an inch apart on a parchment-lined cookie sheet. These cookies spread a little. Bake for 20 minutes.
Let them cool before you add the frosting.

For the Filling

With an electric mixer, beat all of the ingredients until they are soft and creamy.
Add food dye until it reaches the desired color

This post is linked here, here, and here.

chocolate banana gelato ice cream sandwiches

June 18, 2012DIY, food, Recipes"banana", "Ice cream Sandwiches", desserts, gelato, homemadeheidi

I decided I was going to make an ice cream sandwich you couldn’t buy at the store. Ryan wanted a chocolate banana combo. So I went to the store to buy the banana ice cream.

It turns out, plain banana ice cream isn’t exactly a popular flavor. I could only find banana ice creams with mixed-in candies. The only plain-ish banana ice cream was a chocolate banana gelato. This is where I become jealous of everyone who owns an ice cream maker.

Here’s the deal. If you make ice cream sandwiches with gelato, your job will be much harder. It melts instantly and it isn’t as dense are regular ice cream. But it can be done. I think my sandwiches would have much more shape if I used regular ice cream.

I also bought a pint of chocolate peanut butter gelato. But that pint made a beeline straight to my belly, so no sandwiches there.

Yields: 9 sandwiches (appx. 2 x 3 inches each)
Prep: 30 minutes (+ time it takes for your ice cream to harden)
Baking: 15 minutes

ingredients:
-1 pint of ice cream, softened
-1 1/3 cup flour
-1/2 cup cocoa powder
-1/2 cup + 2 Tbsp Butter
-1/2 cup sugar
-2 egg yolks
-1 tbsp. vanilla extract

other things:
-parchment paper
-cookie cutters
-lots of space in your freezer
-rolling pin

1. Line a 9×13 in cake pan with parchment paper.

2. Take your softened ice cream (or gelato) and spread it evenly throughout pan, so it’s about an inch thick. Don’t worry about trying to spread it the length of the pan, you just want it nice and even and an inch thick. Using gelato didn’t work too well. It was too mushy. It also melted too fast. If your ice cream is starting to melt, be patient and put it back in the freezer for a bit.

3. Place this in the freezer to re-harden.

4. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

5. In a small bowl, sift the flour and cocoa powder together. I don’t have a sifter (I know!), so I always use a wisk.

6. In a large bowl, beat the sugar and butter together until soft and fluffy. I used an electric hand mixer for the next couple of steps.

7. Then beat in the two egg yolks.

8. Add in the cocoa and flour mixture and continue to mix. It’s going to look very crumbly.

9. Don’t forget to add the vanilla.

10. At some point, I had to switch to a wooden spoon to combine all of the ingredients. Once everything is combined, pat it down into a ball (or a blob, in my case) and transfer it to your rolling area.

11. Prep your rolling pin with flour and roll out the cookie mixture until it is about 1/4 inch thick.

12. Use your cookie cutters to cut the dough into a square shape.

13. Place on a parchment paper lined baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes.

14. Let those cookies cool. Now go grab your ice cream. At this point, the gelato was as firm as it was going to get. It might take a little longer if you’re using ice cream. Use the same cookie cutter to cut out your ice cream. Then place the square ice cream on top of the cookie. Since the gelato was lacked shape, we just did something like this:

15. Cut the shape of the gelato with a knife, which didn’t really work, so we just sort of scooped it up instead.

15. Place a blob of gelato on top of a cooled cookie.

16. Squish it with another cookie and use your fingers to lick up the stuff that falls out on the side.

17. Put it back in the freezer for a bit, to let it firm up. Then eat!

After a few hours in the freezer, the gelato firmed up. These were absolutely tasty. The cookie tastes like a mix between an Oreo and a shortbread.

loving this

June 16, 2011food, weekenderbento, DIY, heart shaped egg, homemadeheidi

It’s the small things.

A heart shaped egg tutorial by Anna the Red.

Can you be any more awesome than a bento designer?

make your own sugar body scrub

December 20, 2010crafts, DIY, I Made Thisbrown sugar scrub, DIY, homemade, make your own sugar scrub, oatmeal scrub, oatmeal sugar scrub, spa scrub, sugar scrubheidi

Still thinking of what to get your best friend, sister, or mom for Christmas?

Make Your Own Body Scrub

You will need:
White Cane Sugar
Raw Sugar, Turbinado Sugar, or Brown Sugar
Cinnamon
Oatmeal
Sea Salt
Baking Soda
Olive Oil
Jars or Plastic Bags

First, I decided on how much I wanted to make. The easiest way to do this, is place all of the ingredients into the container you plan on using.

I wanted to make two jars full.

Here are your proportions. I added half white sugar and half brown sugar in each jar. Then I added about two table spoons of cinnamon to each jar. Then I topped each jar off with about 1/4 cup of oatmeal.

Sugar and oatmeal are great for your skin, they both exfoliate and nourish. The cinnamon adds a lovely smell, you can substitute the cinnamon with an essential oil, if you’d like. You could also throw in some vanilla extract, but I was out.

Then I poured both jars into a mixing bowl. Once in the mixing bowl, I added about two tablespoons of baking soda and a 1/4 cup of sea salt. Baking soda clears up acne and sea salt is also a great exfoliant and provides your skin with minerals.

Now mix it together.

Once you’ve thoroughly mixed this, it’s time to add the olive oil. Olive oil ads moisture to the scrub. Just be aware that I used a lot of olive oil for this mix, and that stuff isn’t cheap. I used about a cup. However, I was making a large batch of this. Start adding in the olive oil a few tablespoons at a time.

It’s really important that this mixes thoroughly into every ingredient.

Eventually your mixture will start looking more like a moist scrub.

You want it to have a gooey texture, like cookie dough.

This is the look mine had once it was completely saturated.

Next, scoop it into your jar.

And you’re done. All you have to do is add a nice label (unlike my boring labels). You can find tons of free cute label templates online.

The cursive is the only thing I have going for me.

Treat a friend to a nice pampering session. The best part about this is that it’s chemical free! There isn’t a need for any warning about getting it in your eye/call poison control/swallow and die. It’s all natural and edible (although not recommended, uh sugar high.) It also leaves your body smelling like oatmeal cookies. I couldn’t believe how awesome the cinnamon and oatmeal made this smell. Feel free to fool around with ingredients and scents, substitute sugars, oils, and flavors. Experimentation is the best part about homemade.

a week from thursday

a little crafty and mostly delicious