Ice Cream Parlour Party

I have been going through withdrawls because I have not thrown a good party for months. I came across this lovely little number from Eat, Drink, Chic. I am in Heaven! She came up with some fabulous ideas and goes over the top with tons of free printables to embellish your party! I get giddy just thinking about throwing something like this! 

{Pictures courtesy of Eat, Drink, Chic}

Love, love, love the look.

Coconut Ice Sauce?!!!... I might have to attempt to create something as divine as this! What an amazing idea for a sundae bar. 

I love how creative she was in using a wooden office organizer for the toppings! Genius!

Those printables are to die for!

She even has printables for the cups too! 

 Well, at least I know what party I will be throwing next! 

Stuffed Pizza Crust

Tonight I had planned to make pizza. It was just going to be a basic pizza, marinara, cheese, olives, pepperoni, onion... nothing special. I tried a new pizza dough recipe and since I don't have my pizza stone here in Dominica, I was left to use my cookie sheet. The recipe said it made two medium sized pizzas. It wasn't enough to half it in the pan, but when I rolled the whole thing of dough into the pan it ended up being a little too much. Since it was already in the pan, I had an idea to use the excess dough into a stuffed crust. That transformed this basic pizza into something fun and out of the norm! The garlic butter Parmesan glaze topped it off perfectly! (Thanks to the hubs for thinking of adding that goodness to it!) It was delicious and filling. I think I am going to initiate Fridays as PIZZA night. It goes so perfectly with my Friday night movie dates with Crew! 

Homemade Stuffed Crust Tutorial

Make your pizza dough according to the recipe. I used this one from Annie's Eats and substituted 2 cups of whole wheat flour. It made the perfect amount to make the stuffed crust in a cookie sheet sized pan. 

Roll out your dough and place in pan. Stretch with hands to make sure the dough is evenly distributed.  There should be an excess of about an inch of dough hanging off of the edge. 

Place a good amount of cheese around the very edge of the pan. 

 Fold over excess dough and press it down.

Make sure it is pressed down completely all the way around.

At this point you can add your sauce and toppings.

Then melt about 3 tablespoons of butter. Mix with about 1-2 teaspoons of minced garlic. Brush it onto the crust and top with a good amount of Parmesan cheese.

Ready to be baked.

Enjoy!

My New Favorite Frosting!

I have always thought powdered sugar and frosting go hand in hand. That was until I tried this new recipe. It looked kind of wierd calling for only flour, milk, vanilla, butter and sugar - regular white sugar NOT powdered sugar. I thought it seemed interesting. And so I tried it.  

Let me tell you I have a new favorite frosting! This is hands down the best frosting I have ever had! Well I have a few favorites but this is definitely in my pool of favorite frostings! I love it! It is perfectly sweet with a silky smooth texture! It doesn't have that overly sweet taste that many frostings have that use powdered sugar. You know when trying to get your frosting to that perfect consistency and you add more and more powdered sugar only to find that by the time you add enough powdered sugar, it completely ruins the flavor because it is just too sweet? Well, problem solved! And it's whipped to perfection! This is the perfect recipe. Consistency, flavor and texture... A+! It would be a lovely accent on any cake! 

I love the site that I found it on. She goes through a complete step by step guide with pictures of how to make this magical frosting. Check it out here.

The Best Whipped Frosting

makes enough to frost a 9″ layer cake or one dozen cupcakes generously

1 cup milk

5 tablespoons flour

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup butter, at room temperature

1 1/4 cups granulated sugar (not powdered sugar)

In a medium saucepan, whisk one cup of milk with 5 tablespoons of flour. Heat over medium until the mixture begins to sputter, whisking constantly. Continue to stir as the mixture thickens. You will know it’s done when it reaches the consistency of thick cake batter, after about 7 minutes of heating and whisking. Stir in 2 teaspoons vanilla extract and set aside to cool COMPLETELY.

Now, in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, or using a hand held mixer, beat 2 sticks of softened butter (1 cup) with 1 cup of granulated sugar until light, fluffy, and white in color, about 3 solid minutes of beating on medium-high speed. You want the sugar to be totally incorporated into the butter.

Be sure that the milk/flour mixture has completely cooled, and add it to the butter/sugar mixture. Beat all ingredients for about 1 minute on high speed, scraping down the bowl halfway, until they are smooth and well blended. The frosting should be as light and fluffy as whipped cream.

Homemade Kitchen Cleaner

Here in Dominica, cleaners are super expensive (at least double what they are in the states), especially the American name brand ones. And living on a student budget doesn't give you the means to purchase a lot of extras. I ran out of my Lysol Kitchen Cleaner, that I had spent somewhere between $7- $10 USD (I think they are around $3 in the states). I went to the store to get some more and they were out of it. I was making something with chicken that night, so I knew I had to disinfect my countertops one way or another. Getting desperate, I decided to make my own. I looked in my cupboards to see what concoction I could come up with. I always have bleach on hand. And it hit me... why not make a homemade version of Clorox Cleanup? So I did. I kept my old kitchen cleaner spray bottle and mixed about 1 TBSP of bleach and 1 tsp. of dishsoap, then filled the bottle with water. Shake it up, and you have a very inexpensive/ antibacterial kitchen cleaner! Nothing kills germs better than BLEACH! I don't know why it took me so long to think of making my own. It's worked like a charm and saved us some serious cash at the same time!

Tips:

• Be careful not to spray on your clothes, it has bleach in it.
• After you spray, let it sit for about 30 seconds before you wipe it clean.