Cleaning Makeup Brushes

 

Today I did some random DIY cleaning including cleaning my makeup brushes. I always hear that you should clean them regularly and I can only imagine the makeup and bacteria that live on these brushes I use all the time.  After some research I decided to go with a vinegar rinse. I’ve been using vinegar to clean just about everything lately so I figured it was a safe bet. I used 1 cup hot water with about 2tbsp vinegar, washed the brushes for a few minutes – swishing them around – then rinsed them in cool water and let them dry. It left a lot of debris in the glass I was using and left the brushes feeling soft and clean, so I’m assuming it worked! It was so easy, maybe I’ll actually wash my brushes regularly like you’re supposed to…

Soft and Fluffy Fall Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Yesterday after church G was having a friend over to play video games (that’s the new thing with the guys in our small group) so I decided to make cookies. It helps when you have an extra person to eat all of the cookies you make so you don’t eat them all. I found the original recipe for Peanut Butter Cookies on Pintrest and I will admit I was a little skeptical it at first. The recipe didn’t require beaters and a mixer at all and just looked way too easy. However, I was really surprised by just how easy this was and how great the cookies turned out. Clean up was a breeze since there aren’t too many ingredients and you only use two bowls and a spoon. I even added a little spice to make them “fall” cookies. G says they tasted like donut holes.

Ingredients

2 cups Flour

1/2 tsp Baking Soda

1/2 tsp Nutmeg

8 tbsp Salted Butter, melted and cooled

6 tbsp Creamy Peanut Butter, melted and cooled

1 cup Brown Sugar

1/2 cup Sugar

1 egg + 1 egg yolk, at room temperature

2 tsp Vanilla

1 cup Chocolate Chips

Instructions

1. Place butter and peanut butter in microwave safe bowl and heat in microwave in 30 sec increments until melted. Stir until combined and then set it aside to cool.

2. Mix flour, baking soda, and nutmeg in a separate medium bowl and set aside.

3. Once your butter mixture is cooled, add the sugars and stir until combined.

4. To the sugar/butter mixture, add the eggs and vanilla and stir until combined.

5. Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients gradually, mixing with a spoon. It may look a little crumbly but that’s okay, they will turn out great!

6. Finally, fold in the chocolate chips!

7. Preheat the oven to 325. Place golfball sized pieces of dough on a cookie sheet at least an inch apart. Bake for about 12 minutes or until the edges start to turn golden brown.

8. Remove from oven and let cool a little bit, serve and enjoy!

 

 

 

 

Jeremy

 

Meet Jeremy. (And our pink flamingo – Pinky.) Jeremy is our tomato plant. He’s actually almost as tall as I am and he’s been with us all summer; however, I have not had even one tomato. Jeremy has been a constant source of problem solving for us over the past few months. Turns out there are a lot of things that could make a perfectly good tomato plant produce nothing. This includes the weather being too hot or too cold, no bees for pollination, too much sun or too little sun, issues with the soil, issues with watering etc. etc. It’s a long list, but I’m pretty sure the screened in porch is our biggest culprit. The bees can’t get through! Well, just as I thought hope was lost for Jeremy and the tomato issue…we have A tomato!! A little green one, but still, we have a tomato! Now hopefully it will turn red before the frost sets in. Better luck next year in the gardening area. G suggests I need an actual plot of soil instead of small pots in a screened in apartment porch. Probably so considering nothing made it….except one tomato!

Amazing Caramel Apple Banana Bread

I’m still in the fall mood today since it’s only 65! Yay! Today I switched out my summer clothes for my warm winter sweaters and made another fall treat – Caramel Apple Banana Bread! I had some frozen ripe bananas and a few apples that I needed to use and this recipe for Apple Banana Bread looked perfect! As usual, I made some adjustments. It’s in the oven right now, but based on the batter – it’s going to be really really good!

Ingredients

1 stick plus 2 tbsp Butter

2 tbsp Brown Sugar

3 Apples – Peeled, Cored, and Cut into small pieces

1 tsp Cinnamon

1 tsp Nutmeg

2 tsp Vanilla Extract

2 cups Flour

1/2 cup Old Fashioned Oats

1 tsp Baking Soda

3/4 cup Sugar

2 Large Eggs

3 Ripe Bananas (About 1 1/2 cups)

1/4 cup Apple Cranberry Juice (or similar Apple Juice variety)

Instructions

1. In skillet on stovetop melt 2 tbsp butter with the brown sugar over med-high heat.

2. Add apples and cook for about 5 min, stirring frequently. About half way through add 1/2 tsp cinnamon and 1 tsp vanilla.

3. Preheat the oven to 350. Grease and flour a loaf pan.

4. In a medium bowl combine flour, oats, baking soda, nutmeg, and remaining cinnamon.

5. In a large bowl, use a handheld mixer to beat the stick of butter and 3/4 cup sugar until fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time and beat well.

6. Add the mashed bananas, juice, and remaining vanilla and beat until smooth.

7. Add the dry ingredients to the bowl of wet ingredients and beat on low until smooth.

8. Using a spoon, add in the caramelized apples.

9. Pour the batter into the greased and floured loaf pan. At this point you can sprinkle some oats and sugar on top for a crumb-like topping if you like.

10. Bake at 350 for 1 hour 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Enjoy!

Update: Homemade Laundry and Dishwasher Detergent

I thought I should update about the effectiveness of these two homemade products since I’ve been using them for about a month now. The laundry detergent works well! I like how I only need to use a little bit and still feel like my clothes are getting nice and clean. I would advise not using too much or else it leaves a white reside (that easily rubs off)  but still, only use about 1 1/2 tbsp for a large load, 1 tbsp for a smaller load. I’m not really sure if it would work well on tough stains since those a far and few between with just the two of us. I have a feeling it would work okay but not great. As far as the dishwasher detergent, I haven’t been impressed. Since we started using it, even with a vinegar rinse, there is a filmy residue that ends up on pretty much everything. It’s especially bad on our cups and plates. You can feel it and see it and makes everything look dirty even though I know it’s not. The only way I’ve found to combat this is to rinse the items that are really filmy in a vinegar solution (vinegar and a little bit of Dawn) by hand after they come out of the dishwasher. I have a feeling that I’ll be switching back to store bought detergent when this is gone, though that may be a while. I’ll update if I find anything else that seems to clear up this issue. I really want the homemade detergent to work,  but no luck so far…

Pumpkin Butter Oatmeal

Once I made my pumpkin syrup I had almost an entire can of pumpkin left over. It didn’t take me long to find a recipe that looked like a great way to use up the rest! I’ve been experimenting with refrigerator oatmeal the past several weeks. Here’s my basic recipe that I’ve been using:

Ingredients

1/2 cup Old Fashioned Oats

1/2 cup Milk

Directions

1. The night before, put the oats and milk in a small container (I’ve been using a little mason jar) and shake well. You can add ingredients like brown sugar, cinnamon, etc. at this point.

2. Leave the jar in the refrigerator overnight and enjoy the next morning. You can add fruit, nuts, etc. at this point.

As you can see, it’s super flexible and it turns out really well. I found a great recipe for pumpkin butter and the author suggests adding it to a basic refrigerator oats recipe like the one I’ve been using.  I followed this recipe exactly, give or take a little bit of extra spice. It’s soo good and then you can just add a heaping spoonful to your oats the night before for pumpkin oatmeal. This will go great with my pumpkin spice latte! It made a lot, so I think I’ll be spreading it on toast too!

Fall is here and that means Pumpkin!

Although it’s still hot in the middle of September, I’m super excited for the arrival of fall! One of my favorite things to have in the fall is pumpkin, pretty much in any form, but especially in the form of a pumpkin spice latte. Since Starbucks isn’t exactly in our budget right now – and $5 is a lot to spend on a drink anyways – I’ve been having latte envy every time I see someone walk by me with a Starbucks cup. Needless to say, I was thrilled when I found a post on Pintrest for pumpkin spice syrup. Maybe I could make my own pumpkin spice lattes at home! The possibility was worth a trip to the store for some canned pumpkin and spices. Here’s the recipe I followed to make this syrup: Pumpkin Spice Syrup. Although I did change it a little to make it easier and less expensive…

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups water
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
2 tsp ground nutmeg
3 tbsp pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)

Instructions

1. Dissolve sugar in water over medium heat in a large skillet, stirring frequently.

2. Add the rest of the ingredients and use a whisk to blend it all together. (Note: You can use more or less spice depending on your tastes. Also, the original recipe calls for cloves but they were a lot more expensive so I left them out.)

3. Simmer for about 5 min, continuing to stir frequently. Don’t let the mixture come to a bowl.

4. Remove from heat and allow the syrup to cool before putting it into a container (I used an old syrup container).

5. Store in the refrigerator. When you’re ready to make a latte add 1-2 tbsp to your drink. Make sure to stir well – the spices tend to sit at the bottom of the coffee mug.

The results were awesome! It made enough for the next few weeks worth of lattes for less than a few dollars. Plus, it’s really good! (I’ve already had two since I made it yesterday.) The only thing I’m not a huge fan of is the pool of spices that inevitably end up at the bottom of my mug. In the original recipe the author suggests straining the syrup through cheesecloth and I think that it would help my problem. I didn’t have cheesecloth so I eliminated that step. It isn’t terrible though and I would definitely make it this way again! Just watch your last sip or two.

 

Wedding in Milwaukee

I’m learning how hard it is to keep up a blog and work full time! Plus I haven’t really done anything that eventful. However, this is my second day off in a row and I’m sitting down to update – finally! A few weeks ago we flew to Milwaukee for a cousin’s wedding. It was a super quick trip but the wedding was beautiful and we had a lot of fun. Unfortunately, we forgot the camera…However, one of the highlights of the trip was the photobooth they had at the wedding. Such a good idea! And now the only pictures we have of the trip. Kinda funny… Here was the result:

Awesome Breakfast Cookies

Since I’m working long days without time for snacks I’ve realized that I need to eat a filling breakfast in order to make it to lunch. I decided to try these breakfast cookies to have something filling that I could grab on the way out the door in the morning. I really like them and it definitely seemed to help at work today!

Ingredients:

• 3 ripe bananas, mashed
• 1/3 cup peanut butter
• 2/3 cup applesauce (I used the cinnamon flavor)
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 1/2 cups old-fashioned oatmeal
• 1/4 cup chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Preheat heat oven to 350 degrees.

2. In a large bowl, mix banana & peanut butter until completely combined then add in the applesauce and vanilla.

3. Add in the oatmeal and mix until combined.

4. Drop the cookies by spoonful onto a greased pan and flatten into a round shape. Add chocolate chips on top at this point. I just dropped a few on top of each cookie.

5. Bake for about 25 min or until golden brown. Cool and Enjoy!

 

Graduation

I now have pictures! I graduated on August 3rd and we had a small, nice reception with just our department. It’s been two weeks now and it seems weird that I’m not buying school supplies and I’ll never have to register for classes again. Weird but nice. My new job is going well. I’ve been working about part time, which is great considering it’s pretty up in the air when I’ll get to work. It’s still definitely a challenge with the new job even though I know how to do a lot of it from my internship. Hopefully I’ll be able to look back on this post in the future and think about how much I’ve learned!