Recipe: Sweet Cream Crepes

We try to do a special treat breakfast every Saturday and we tried this recipe, and of course I changed it up to make it my own.  My husband doesn’t like the rubbery texture of “Crepes”, so we used our favorite pancake mix and thinned it out with water instead. 
Ingredients:
Crepes:

• Pancake Mix made as instructed on container.
  
• 1/2 to 1 cup of water (to thin pancake batter into crepes.)

Additions:

• 4 Cup sliced strawberries
  
• Sweet Cream Spread
  • 1- 8oz. softened cream cheese
    
  • 1/2 cup half and half
    
  • 1 1/4 cup confectionary sugar
    
  • 1 Tbsp. Lemon Juice
    
  • 1/2 tsp. Vanilla

Instructions:
Crepes:
Take batter for pancake mix and thin out with milk until it reaches a heavy cream consistency.  On a griddle (300 degrees) start cooking your crepes in about 6”-8” oval shapes.  Flip crepes after about 1 1/2 minutes. 
Sweet Cream Spread:
In a bowl, combine cream cheese, half and half, sugar, juice, vanilla with a hand held mixer, until well blended. 
Filling Crepes:
The sweet cream is then placed onto the fully cooked crepes, down the center, along with a few of the sliced strawberries and then the two sides are folded in to complete.  Serve immediately.
Tips:

1. Only apply a thin layer of the cream onto crepes, otherwise it will break the crepe and make a mess.
   
2. If you want more cream mixture add it to the top of the crepe after it is folded.
   
3. Kids love to garnish, let them pretty up their plates with any extra fruit.

Boredom Buster: Become a Puppeteer #2

In this part of making our puppet theater, we are priming and decorating our box, to give it the style that we desire.

Here we have primed our box with spray paint in a grey color, and my daughters are painting on the color they chose by mixing washable paint. 

We used a decoupage technique to apply the lettering.
We made the curtains for the front and back of the box by:
Measuring the cloth that we wanted on the box, and made two pieces the same size.  One of those we cut in half for the front.

I sewed up the rough edges on all sides.

I hot glued the top piece of the back to the top of the backstage.
 
I folded down the corners and hot glued the edges only.

Then I sewed a seem across the top of the curtain pieces for the front.

I ran a string through both front pieces and hot glued the string to the box.

I left the strings hanging to the side so that the curtains could be tied up during ShowTime.  Here it is finished.

Stay tuned for Boredom Buster: Become a Puppeteer #3, where we will be

• Showing different ways to make puppets.
  
• Ideas for what plays to choose for your shows.

Boredom Buster: Water Balloons

When its hot outside, and the kids want to cool off and have fun at the same time, Water Balloons are the answer.  Here are some ideas that our family tried with little preparation and planning.
Water Balloons:
Volley: Throw the water balloons back and forth between 2 people.  When it is caught each time, without the balloon breaking,  that person takes a step back.  The winner is the one who doesn’t break the balloon.
Dodge Ball:  Split into two teams, try to dodge water balloons being thrown at you from the other team, as you throw them at them.
Toss (version of Hot Potato):  A group of people gather in a circle, and toss a water balloon to someone else, keep going as fast as you can until it breaks on someone, then that person is out.  The last one playing wins.
Fill the Bucket:  Form lines of equal amounts of people.  Have a bucket at each end of each line.   One bucket is full of water balloons, the other is empty.  The empty bucket has a line drawn in it to show how much water is needed in that bucket to finish the race.  The first person in line grabs a balloon from the first bucket and passes to the next person in line, and it keeps being passed down the line until the last person breaks it into the bucket.  The first team to have water filled to the finish line in their bucket wins. 
Have a safe and wonderful summer!  Hope you will be able to try this.  If you have any other ideas or suggestions, I would love to hear from you. 

Girls Night In: DIY Manicures and Pedicures

Girls love pampering.  Well I want my girls to be able to treat themselves, even if on a budget.  I personally have an addiction to nail polishes and lipsticks.  LOL!  I should say I have an addiction to buying nail polishes, I get in kicks where I will use them, but not often.  I have collected everything I need for a true manicure treat like a trip to the salon.
What we use for a Pedicure is:

• Nail Clippers
  
• Foot bath
  
• Foot Soak Salts
  
• Foot Scrub
  
• Favorite Lotion
  
• Toe Nail Brush
  
• Foot Grater
  
• Pumice Stone
  
• Cuticle Sticks
  
• Nail Buffer
  
• Toe Separators

Trim, and shape your toe nails.  Use the foot grater on the bottom of your feet.  Soak your feet.  Scrub them with the foot scrub and pumice stone.  Wash them and use the nail brush to make sure all of the scrub is gone.  Push back your cuticles.  Buff nails using a cotton ball remove any dust from nail beds with nail polish remover.  Using toe separators, paint nails, then coat with a top coat.

What we use for a manicure:

• Nail clippers
  
• Nail and Hand Brush
  
• Favorite Hand/Shower Gel
  
• Favorite Lotion
  
• Cuticle softener pen
  
• Cuticle Sticks
  
• For Tough Cuticles, Cuticle Remover
  
• Emery boards
  
• Nail Buffer
  
• Cuticle Trimmers

Trim, and shape your finger nails.  Wash your hands, and allow your nails to soak in the water for a bit.  Push back your cuticles.  Trim any hang nails, or any loose pieces of skin around your nails.  Dry your hands and nails thoroughly.  Buff your nails.  With a cotton ball, remove any dust that may be on your nails with nail polish remover.  Paint nails then apply top coat.  Allow to dry then apply lotion.

Recipe: Vanilla Ice Cream

A wonderful treat for anytime of the year, is homemade ice cream.  We love the simplicity of this recipe, and the great flavor it has.
Ingredients:

• 2 3/4 cup Half and Half
  
• 1 1/4 cup Whole Milk
  
• 1  1/4 cup sugar
  
• 2  1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
  
• 3 tsp. powdered pectin (found in the food supplements aisle)

Instructions:
Follow the instructions according to your ice cream maker on how to set up.  In a medium bowl, mix all ingredients with a stick blender, or stand blender to make sure pectin incorporates.  Pour into ice cream maker and activate.  Wait about 20 minutes until mixed well and a soft ice cream has formed.  Remove immediately and store in a tightly sealed freezer safe container, and place in freezer for at least 2 hours to harden.
Tips:

1. The pectin might sound like a strange ingredient, and can be skipped, but it does improve the texture of the ice cream and help it to not crystalize.
   
2. After using our stick blender, we place ice cream mix into freezer  for about an hour, then blend again.  This pre cooling helps to make sure that when the ice cream maker is used, it will have a chance to set up correctly in the ice cream maker.  Otherwise you might not always get to the soft ice cream stage.
   
3. Mix this up: add different things while ice cream maker is on, crumbled cookies, candies, fruits, or sauces are great.
   
4. Endless Possibilities:  add other extracts or flavoring oils to it to make it any other flavor of ice cream.