Posts Tagged ‘quick and easy’

• Spicing up the pantry

  Date: 2010.08.08 | Category: Organizing | Response: 33

  I picked a cabinet for all my spices and cooking stuff…

  

  It sat like this for exactly 5 days before I couldn’t even take it anymore! (And I hadn’t even baked anything yet!)

  

  YIKES!

  What a disaster! I am OCD when it comes to being organized, so obviously this train wreck was not going to work for me.

  I headed over to the Home Depot and bought this awesome organizer.

  

  I cringed and looked away as they rang it up (almost $40!) but I know it is so worth the investment.

  

  You can see the mess in the cabinet where I previously had all my spices. Obviously I didn’t pick a big enough cabinet. I decided to hang the shelf organizer on the inside of my pantry door.

  

  It took me about 10 minutes to hang it. These are so super easy to install. I just screwed it right onto the door.

  Now I can let out a sigh of relief!

  

  An organized spice rack! Niiiiice.

  

  I still have to organize the actual pantry, but at least my spices and cooking stuff are taken care of.

  Being organized isn’t hard. You just have to have the right supplies. For under $40 I went from this disaster:

  

  To this neat and tidy pantry:

  

  I can’t wait to do all sorts of fun home decor crafts, but for now I’m just trying to get the bones of the house taken care of. I hope you like organizing tips because I have a feeling I’ve got a few more posts in the future.

  

  Do you have any great tips for organizing? Share them with me!

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• mini green flower pot

  Date: 2010.07.07 | Category: Decorating | Response: 20

  When you see something like this:

  

  Don’t pass it up!

  I got this cute little worn out flower pot at G-Will for ninety-nine cents.

  One coat of Apple Green spray paint and a dollar store flower later…

  

  So easy. Instant cuteness. And it only took me like 3 minutes to paint it.

  

  I didn’t even prime it first. I just washed it and then spray painted it.

  

  For those of you who don’t live in California, don’t be jealous that it says “Trader Joe’s” on the bottom.

  

  For Mother’s Day my children brought me home this purple flower from the 99 Cent Store.

  

  I love these colors together.

  

  The best thing about this is that I didn’t even hassle with planting my flower in the new pot.

  

  I just stuck it in there. It fits perfectly. So, two bucks later, I’ve got a cute little potted flower. And now I can reuse my planter over and over again.

  *~*~*~*

  We are CLOSING ON OUR HOUSE at the end of July! Thank you for being patient with me while I’ve been slacking on my blog. It’s been hard to find time to blog while I crash at friends houses.

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• Five Minute Frame

  Date: 2010.06.18 | Category: Decorating | Response: 34

  ~**~**~ Dollar Store Frame ~**~**~

  (Can I get any more unoriginal than that?!)

  Call me Captain Obvious, but just in case you still aren’t sure, this frame came from the Dollar Store.

  

  It’s plastic. Srsly. I know! I was as shocked as you.

  It’s cheap alright – 2 frames for 99 cents? But don’t try to tell me it looks like thin flimsy plastic. ‘Cause I ain’t listenin’.

  

  I like the detail on it, but the color? Do you think it could scream “I’m from the Dollar Store” any more than it already does?

  Yes, it’s getting a make-over. But honestly, I don’t think there are many things in my house that are safe from me and my spray paint.

  

  
  What is my boy doing in this picture?! But I look good not horrible so it’s stayin’!

  Five – minutes – later… (spoken in the “Bueller?… Bueller?… Bueller?…” voice.)

  Green! And you know what, plz don’t hate on me, but I’ve already packed my spray paint so I have no clue what this color is called.

  BUT, I do know it is NOT spray paint for plastic. AND… I forgot to prime it first with spray paint for plastic… Whoops. My bad.

  But like anyone’s even going to be touching it, so if I am really careful with it I think it will be a-okay.

  

  And now I’m sending subliminal messages to read my blog. Do you like my very subliminal HoH plug here?

  Kinda trippy. You are reading House of Hepworths right.now while reading House of Hepworths. Like, Whoa.

  And just to reiterate, my HoH Rules to Live By:
  1. Buy crap
  2. Spray paint it
  3. DONE

  

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• Another use for Wheatgrass…

  Date: 2010.06.13 | Category: Crafting | Response: 9

  What do you get when you combine a goofy picture of your kid with a bunch of Wheatgrass seeds?

  

  Best.Homemade.Gift.Eveh.

  

  My daughter’s class made these for the school Open House last week. Just picture 18 of these crazy-haired kids making faces at you as you walk into the classroom.

  

  I sure love this crazy kid.

  Just had to share.

  Carry on.

  

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• My I-thought-I-had-an-original-idea ice cream cone cupcake pan

  Date: 2010.06.03 | Category: Baking | Response: 90

  Remember my Cupcakes in Cones?

  

  Cute, right?

  I decided to make a pan prototype to bake my cones in.

  Yup, I made a prototype. And I was going to mass-produce it and sell it on HSN and become a billionaire, er, or at least a thousand-aire.

  But my dreams were crushed when I realized someone else already designed one. And it was better than mine. And they already mass-produce them.

  So much for my big break.

  BUT considering I wasted so much time making my pan, I’m going to show you it anyway. And you can make one and save yourself $15.95 (plus shipping).

  

  I bought this cheap tin pan from the 99 cent store. It’s going to be the frame for my awesome one-of-a-kind cupcake cone baker.

  

  I took a sharpie and measured out a 3 x 4 square grid. Then I traced around the base of an ice cream cone in the center of each square. After that I cut each square out with a utility knife on a cutting board. The tin is so craptastic from the 99 cent store that it was really easy to cut.

  

  Once my circles were cut out I just flipped it over and put it on a cookie sheet. Now it’s ready to load with ice cream cones!

  

  Brilliant, right? I guess that’s why the pan was already invented – like YEARS ago.

  

  And just for fun I took a picture of what it looks like from the underside. Clever.

  So there you have it. My I-thought-I-had-an-original-idea ice cream cone cupcake pan.

  *~*~*~*~*

  And now for a 2nd tutorial on how to make Cupcake cones. Because I love them so much. And these turned out cuter than my original ones. And because I bake so infrequently that when I do I feel the need to show everyone that I can actually bake and be domestic in the kitchen.

  

  Fill the cones with batter. The easiest way is to put all your batter in a large gallon-size ziploc bag, snip the corner, and squeeze the batter into the cones.

  

  Rearing and ready to go. And in case you are wondering, I did not use gross batter with dirt in it. I used Funfetti batter. If you’re going to make cupcakes in cones, at least make them F-U-N, right?! I bet those ca-ute rainbow cakes would look adorable in the cones too.

  

  Bake them the same way you’d bake cupcakes. Follow the directions on the box. Yes, the BOX. Do you actually think I bake from scratch?! Hahahahaha!

  

  I took the awesome ice cream cone pan off the cookie sheet and set it on the cooling rack to dry. My I-thought-I-had-an-original-idea ice cream cone cupcake pan works great to hold the cones up while they cool.

  *~*~*~*~*

  Now for the icing. This part is really REALLY FUN!

  Like I did for the batter, I LOVE icing cupcakes the same way. It’s cheaper than buying a decorator set, easier to clean up, and looks super duper ca-ute!

  

  Fill your zip-lock bag with icing. USE A REAL ZIP-LOCK BRAND BAG. I used a generic one and when I squeezed the icing out the bag exploded on me. And that was really a treat to clean up.

  The easiest way to fill the bag is to put the bag inside a cup and wrap the edges of the bag over the cup (like putting in a trashcan liner). Then just take a butter knife or an icing spatula thingy and scoop the icing into the bag.

  

  When the bag is full, just take it out of the cup and zip it up. And when I say that I bake sometimes, what I really mean to say is that I buy all the pre-made boxed stuff and then I pretend to bake. Why make from scratch what Pillsbury has already made for me and frankly tastes better?

  

  Okay, so Pampered Chef sells these little clippie things that I am in love with. But they are pricey. So I’ve found a cheap solution. Did you know you can get a ha-uge bag of clippies that are identical to the Pampered Chef ones at IKEA for like $1.99 a bag? Yup. And there are 3 different sizes. And I use them every.single.day. For everything.

  So anyway, after I zip-locked the bag, I added a little clippie to hold the icing even tighter in the bag. And also to make sure my zip-lock didn’t pop open.

  

  Once you’ve got the icing in the bag just snip off a tiny corner. Now it’s time to PIPE.

  Honestly, I LOVE the look of this piping way more than any other tip you can buy. And it’s way too easy.

  Just start on the outside edge of the cupcake and start squeezing the icing in a spiral motion towards the center. It should take about 3 full rotations.

  

  Aren’t they cute? Okay, some of them look like crap, but I was still getting the hang of it. But ideally, they are really super cute.

  

  And then if you add sprinkles and stuff they instantly become about 100x cuter. No?

  

  It’s taunting me. Just looking at it is making me salivate. Too bad we ate this batch about 2 weeks ago.

  

  Ah-freaking-dorable. You can’t get much cuter than this.

  

  Are these fun or what?!?! My kids beg for them. They would rather me make these for their birthday parties than buy a cute cake.

  

  And if this post wasn’t fun enough already, I cut a cone open to see the middle of it.

  

  I want to say how fun this is, but I think I’ve way over-used the word “fun” in this post. And “adorable”. I think the inside of the cupcakes look so cool.

  So there you have it. How to make an ice cream cone pan, bake cupcakes in cones, AND how to ice cupcakes all in one post. Lucky you.

  

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• Popcorn

  Date: 2010.06.01 | Category: Baking | Response: 44

  Today (June 1) was my birthday. 30th birthday to be exact.

  After a FUN day at the Santa Monica Pier, I’m now about to enjoy a movie with my hubby and my sister. What is the best thing to eat with a movie?

  POPCORN!

  I don’t know about you, but I LOVE popcorn.

  LOVE IT.

  I’ve tried all sorts of types of popcorn and after lots of trial and error, here is my FAVORITE way to make a yummy bowl of popcorn.

  

  First off, you need a popcorn air popper.

  Trust me, buy an air popper if you don’t have one. I got mine at Wal-Mart for like ten bucks. In the long run, you will also save bookoos of money popping your own instead of buying microwave popcorn.

  

  Next, and this is important so listen closely… buy a bag each of yellow and white popcorn. In a large ziploc or container mix both bags together.

  (I buy the generic popcorn and it’s about 20x cheaper than the name brand and IMO tastes the exact same.)

  These two bags will last you foreveh!

  The trick to amazing popcorn is using both yellow AND white popcorn mixed together.

  

  You’ll also need some butter and white cheddar popcorn seasoning. Oh, and a little tiny microwave safe bowl.

  (In case you care, my little glass bowl is Pampered Chef – came in a set of 6 I think – and holds a cup. LOVE IT.)

  

  Here’s a close-up of the seasoning in case you want to see exactly what it looks like.

  

  Take about 2 TBSP butter and melt it in the microwave in the little glass bowl.

  Now take about 1-2 tsp cheddar popcorn seasoning and mix it INTO the butter.

  

  The seasoning and butter should now look like this. I don’t usually use a measuring spoon. I’ll just shake a bunch into the melted butter.

  

  Now the fun part!

  See that cup on the top of the popper? That is not for melting butter! It is for measuring the popcorn kernels.

  Add one scoop of popcorn kernels to the popper and plug it in. It will take a few minutes for the popcorn to start popping.

  

  Once the popcorn starts to barely fill the bowl, sprinkle a small spoonful of the butter mixture over the popcorn.

  

  Continue sprinkling spoonfuls of the butter mixture over the popcorn as is fills the bowl.

  

  The idea is to get as much of the popcorn coated as possible while it’s popping.

  

  Once your popcorn is popped, if you have any butter mixture left at this point you can drizzle the rest of it over the popcorn.

  

  Now just toss/stir your popcorn mixture a little more to make sure it’s all coated pretty well.

  

  Yummy!

  

  This is my all-time favorite way to eat popcorn. I’ve tried making popcorn several different ways over the years and this is my perfected recipe!

  Mixing the yellow and white popcorn gives it added flavor.

  After several attempts at using cheddar popcorn seasoning on my popcorn, it finally dawned on me that the seasoning might actually stick to the popcorn better if it’s wet – hence the butter (which I always add anyway). Might as well mix the two!

  I make this at least 2-3 times a month. My kids BEG me to make it for them.

  It might look like a pain based on the sheer number of pictures I just posted for you, but trust me, it’s so easy! I usually get the butter melted and mixed after I plug in the popper because it takes a few minutes for the popcorn to pop anyway. Once you have the supplies on hand, you can have this fresh bowl of popcorn made in about the same time it would take to pop a bag in the microwave.

  Happy popping!

  Time for me to enjoy my birthday movie and delicious fresh air popped popcorn!

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