A Sweet and Simple Season
Sunday, November 3, 2013
"Ceramic" Banana Fruit Bowl
Here is one more inexpensive gift for all those
grandmas and aunts on your list. This gift will require yet another trip to the
dollar store. It’s called the “Ceramic” banana fruit bowl. It looks like a nice
ceramic bowl for fruit but it is really just plastic! You simply hot glue five
or six plastic bananas together and coat them with a few layers of white or cream
spray paint. Allow them to dry and BAM, you have another quick, cute, and easy Christmas
gift. For a more dramatic look, use a metallic silver spray paint instead and
it’ll look just like sterling silver!
Picture Star
Something else I wanted
to show you all is the picture star. Again, this can have a strictly Christmas look
to it, or it can be jazzed up as much as you would like. As you can see in the
picture, all you need is a decorative star (which you can buy at almost any
decoration store) pictures, and scrap book paper. In the picture I found, it
shows pictures along with pretty pink patterned paper. I really like that one,
but if you want it to have a holiday look, I would suggest using more of
wintery blue colors and candy cane printed paper. These are just so cute and
make the perfect gift for any family member. You can also just have these sitting
around the house either on a wall or on top of your mantle. Cheap and
heart-felt gift!
Reindeer Hot Cocoa Cone
Another really cute idea is
the Reindeer Cocoa Cone. You can use these as stocking stuffers, handout at
Christmas parties, or as a small gift. These are very easy to make. All you
need is hot cocoa mix, mini marshmallows, piping bags, red pom poms, brown pipe
cleaners, googly eyes, and chocolate chips. Fill
your Piping bags with the hot cocoa mix (2 cups worth per bag). Top with mini
marshmallows, and then a small amount of chocolate chips. Next, tie them off in
a knot and wrap your pipe cleaner around the knot to make them look like
antlers. Using double-sided tape, tape the googly eyes, and red pom poms to
your bags. Last, enjoy your Reindeer Hot Cocoa Cones!! You now have a cute,
craft and gift idea!
Glitter Glass Ornament
Broccoli Cheddar Soup
It’s soup season! One of my favorite foods to eat in the colder
seasons is soup. I love a nice warm soup on a cold day. Plus, soups aren’t too
complicated to prepare. As much as I love Panera’s broccoli cheddar soup, I think
it is cheaper to make a soup from scratch. I found a really good recipe called Famous
Broccoli Cheddar Soup. It really is a good soup to try. The prep time is thirty
minutes and the cook time is 40 minutes. The recipe I am using says it feeds
4-6 people, so if you plan to use this for a larger crowd or would like
leftovers (like I do), I would go ahead and double the recipe.
For this recipe you
will need the following ingredients: 6 tablespoons of unsalted butter, 1 small
chopped onion, ¼ cup flour, 2 cups half-and-half, 3 cups chicken broth, 2 bay
leaves, ¼ teaspoon nutmeg, salt, pepper, 4 cups of broccoli florets,1 large
diced carrot, and 2 ½ cups grated sharp white and yellow cheddar cheeses. Melt the
butter in a large pot over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until tender
(took me 5 minutes). Whisk in the flour and cook until a light golden color,
then gradually whisk in the half-and-half until smooth. After that you will add
the chicken broth, bay leaves and nutmeg and season with salt and pepper to
your liking and bring to a simmer. Lower the heat to medium-low and cook until
thickened, about 20 minutes. Finally, add the broccoli and carrot pieces to the
broth mixture and simmer about 20 minutes or until they are as tender as you
would like. Puree the soup in batches in a blender until smooth and creamy and
then put it all back in the pot. The last part is to add the cheese. Add your preferred
amount of cheese and stir until melted and then you have your homemade Panera
Bread soup! If you want to make your soup just a little more over the top for
your guests, you can serve it in bread bowls. All you do for the bowls is take round
sourdough bread loaves and cut a hole in the top and add your soup. I like the
bread bowls because it’s just a little nicer than having soup in your traditional
glass bowl. Yum!
Apple Candle Holder
The
first craft that I am showing will end up being an easy little candle holder
made from an apple. If you’re trying to make a fun center
piece for your holiday table, you might want to think about using apples. Fall
and winter are the perfect seasons to find good apples at great prices. Then
with a few quick and easy steps, you can turn these apples into cute candle
holders! I will also post step-by-step pictures to better visually
understand how to make this.
First, find
good quality apples. You will want to look for apples that are firm, free from
cuts and bruises, and sturdy so they can stand on end without rolling over. You
will also need a cutting board to use as your work surface, a small knife, a
spoon. Take your knife and cut a one-inch circle around the stem of the apple. Take
the spoon and remove the insides from where you cut the circle. Continue to
make the circle wider, a little bit at a time. You want the circle to be just
wide enough to fit your tea light. Just be careful, and do this part slowly
because if you make the hole just a little too big, it could end up looking
goofy. Keep checking until you have the right width. Next, once you have the circle
at a good width, you just need to dig the hole a little deeper so it will hold
the tea light pretty snug. Once again, make sure you are slowly digging out the
fruit so you don’t overdo it. When you think you have dug the hole to a good
size, add your tea light and you are done!
I really like this craft because it’s so simple and there really
isn’t much money involved. I usually see a 12 pack of tea light candles at
Dollar Tree for only a dollar and the only other thing to buy is the apples. Depending
on how many you want to make, you really don’t need to even spend that much
money apples either. When I made the tea light holders last season, I used both
red and green apples to change it up a bit. If you're super girly like me, you can also add glitter and rhinestones to jazz it up a bit. Super simple and fun!
Monday, October 28, 2013
Mission Statement
A Sweet and Simple Season was created to help families out in the fall and winter seasons. We are here to help out by giving advice on baking, cooking, and decorating, as well as give advice on how to do this on a budget! We will provide pictures of our fabulous and cheap ideas and give step-by-step directions on how to make these wonderful things. A Sweet and Simple Season will be your go-to guide for all you need if you want to be the biggest hit this season!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)