Cajun Turkey & Brie Panini

I found one of the best kept secrets at my grocery store. I found me some cajun turkey, friends. Did I just sound southern there, or was that just in my head?
Pretty sure I could eat my whole body weight in this sweet blessed turkey. #holyamazingnessbatman
Have you guys tried this stuff before? It’s like crack….but waaaay better for you. When I went to the store the other day, it was hiding in the deli behind the salami with no tag. It was seriously incognito. ANYWAYS, I was pushy, got me a sample and then bought 2 pounds. No joke. So, once I got home, the only logical thing to do was make a panini.
Basically, throw everything in between two slices of bread, slather in butter and press! Easy peasy.
I took a few extra photos for guidance if you attempt to make this, but really, it’s crazy simple.
First start out with some panini-worthy materials:
 Oh and plug in your panini press to get it piping hot.
 Build up your sandwich and coat the outside with buttuh. Lots of buttuh. I love buttuh.
 Now, press that bad boy in one of these wonderful inventions! Loves it.
 2 minutes later, you’ve got yourself a purdy lookin’ lunch!
 See? My husband could make this that’s how easy it is! {No offense, honey! }

Hope you all have a great weekend! See you back here Monday for the start of my 12 days of Giveaways! BE EXCITED…

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Cajun Turkey & Brie Panini

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 2 minutes

Yield: 1 sandwich

1 sandwich

Holy hannah is this a good sandwich.

Ingredients

• 2 slices french bread
• 4 slices cajun turkey
• 4 slices brie cheese
• 1 handful baby spinach {about 1/4 cup}
• 2 tablespoons butter

Instructions

1. Preheat panini press.
2. Build sandwich with spinach in between turkey and cheese. Butter the outsides of the bread, 1 tablespoon each per side and place on panini press for 1-2 minutes or until cheese is melted and the bread is crispy.
3. Remove, slice in two and serve warm.

Snickerdoodle cupcakes

Snickerdoodle cupcakes

Surprisingly, I have had this recipe bookmarked for two years to make.  Snickerdoodles are something I typically reserve for the holiday season, so a lot of the recipes I find for them are easily forgotten.  Luckily, I stumbled upon this recipe in my black dessert binder earlier last week and thought it would be perfect for a friend's birthday party.  

Honestly, I'm a little sad that it took me two years to try these.

They are so good.  And easy. And perfect for the holidays... or birthdays.

I think I need to get over my whole snickerdoodle thing being only for the holidays.  They are too good to not enjoy them throughout the entire year.

I used a simple buttercream frosting with cinnamon and red sprinkles. and a little turbinado sugar mixed in for crunch. Perfect combo.

Turbinado sugar is another one of those things I all too often forget about.  I've never swirled it into icing before, but I must say I loved it.

Snickerdoodle Cupcakes


From Martha Stewart
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1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups cake flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
1 cup unsalted butter
1 3/4 cups sugar
4 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/4 cup milk

Buttercream Icing
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup crisco
5 tbsp half & half
3 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp cinnamon
2 tbsp turbinado sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Prepare muffin tins with liners.

Sift together, flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon.

In your mixer, cream butter and sugar until fluffy.  Add eggs, one at a time.  Once combined, add vanilla. Alternating with the milk, add in flour mixture.  Mix until combined.

Pour batter into prepared cupcake liners.  Bake for about 20 minutes, or until golden brown on top.  Remove from oven and let cool on wire racks.

Prepare icing by creaming crisco and butter. Add in powdered sugar and half & half. Once combined, add vanilla, cinnamon, and turbinado sugar.  Pipe onto cupcakes.

I know the piping is not perfect, but I blame that on the buttercream. Luckily, my friend Lindsay and I stumbled upon two chef size containers of grocery store icing. You can only imagine my excitement. There will be a whole lot of green and white grocery store icing in my future.

Book Art

Book of Art

Check out this book art! Must take lots of patience and time...but totally worth it! :)

(Please note: I do not make these, but by Isaac Salazar

of Book of Art - more pics can be found

Book of Art

Check out this book art! Must take lots of patience and time...but totally worth it! :)

(Please note: I do not make these, but by Isaac Salazar

of Book of Art - more pics can be found here)

here)

Wood Headboard

Wine Rack Wood Plank

Transformed :: Wood Plank Wine Rack

November 17th, 2011

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by clairezinnecker

Happy Thursday, everyone! Claire here, and you might recall two weeks ago when I asked for your opinions on which wine rack design I should create. Well it certainly wasn’t an easy decision, but after much deliberation I set out to replicate wine rack #3 (and used a patterned, natural piece of wood for added interest). I couldn’t be more excited to share with you the fruits of my labor… and better yet, show you all how to create your own. Keep reading for the full instructional, and I’d love to know what you think! 

• wooden plank (I used cedar, inexpensive and beautiful)
• drill press that drills at an angle, with a 1.25″ forstner bit (If you don’t have access to a forstner bit or drill press, go to a local hardware store and use their standard drill saw. This will make your bottles vertical rather than angled.)
• sandpaper
• tape measure
• pencil

1. Cut plank to 36″ x 3.5″ x 1″ (this can vary slightly depending on wood, amount of wine to hold, etc.)
2. Mark where the holes will be drilled. If you are drilling at a 30 degree angle, leave about 4″ of space between holes
3. Drill bottle holes
4. Sand off pencil marks and rough edges to smooth
5. Paint, stain and/or shellac if desired
6. There are numerous ways to hang your shelf. For a heavy shelf, I recommend L brackets or pelican brackets.

Paper Flowers

Paper flower tutorial

I thought some of you would enjoy a quick tutorial on how to make those little paper flowers I used as part of my table setting a couple weeks ago. The credit for these go to Martha Stewart (I saw this idea nearly 10 years ago in her magazine, but haven't been able to find it on her website). So here I go..

Step 1: Draw a spiral on a 4x4" square sheet of paper


Step 2: Cut out spiral along lines you have drawn


Step 3: Begin rolling up the spiral from the outside


Step 4: Keep on rolling until there's no more left to roll


Step 5: You're done!


I used a slightly heavier weight paper for this one, but you can use normal paper as well. You can use squares of various sizes to have different sized flowers. Besides sticking them on branches, they would be great scattered on the table as well. Heck, you can even make a little bouquet of them. Have fun!



Note: You may use a bit of glue or double-stick tape to keep the flower from unrolling and loosening up with time. I didn't glue the ends for these specific flowers and they held up alright.

Scrabble Coasters

Love words? Love handmade? Looking for unique DIY wedding ideas? You will be smitten with these DIY Scrabble Coasters!
Not only are they a cinch to make, they are inexpensive and tres chic!
If you are having a small wedding, why not use these as name cards that double as favors? They would also make fabulous bridesmaid and groomsmen gifts.

For each coaster you will need:

• 25 Scrabble tiles(resale shops and yard sales are good places to find used Scrabble games.. you can also find them online)
• cork board
• carpenter’s glue
• Xacto knife
• varnish (I used marine varnish)
• paint brush
• Special Effects Aging Glaze or wood stain

DIY Scrabble Coasters Tutorial
Pick out your tiles.

Pick out letters for desired name.

Paint name letters with aging glaze or stain and let dry.

Place tiles on cork board and trace around them with a pencil. (If you are in a hurry, skip this step and simply add carpenter’s glue to cork board.)

Remove tiles and add carpenter’s glue to cork board inside the traced square.
Add Scrabble tiles to the cork board, beginning in the corner. Pay attention to the letters – you might inadvertently create some swear words.

Using an Xacto knife, cut around the tiles. Try to get as close to the edge as possible.

Varnish.

Let dry. (You can give it another coat if you want.)

Use as name cards at your wedding, or give as bridesmaid or groomsmen gifts!