Cappuccino Coolers

Memorial Day weekend marks the unofficial start of summer, but our 80 degree weather made it feel like summer was already here in full force! Since the Girls Team had Monday off, we made Cappuccino popsicles which, while time consuming, were relatively simple to make by following a few steps. After seeing the recipe for the popsicles on one of my favorite blogs, we found the Rachael Ray Magazine with the recipe at the local library. 

For these popsicles, you will need 3/4 cup heavy cream, 1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk, 1 and 1/2 cups plus 2 Tbsp. of espresso (cooled to room temperature) and 2 teaspoons of dark, unsweetened cocoa powder. 

First combine the heavy cream with 1/4 cup of the sweetened condensed milk, and then filled the popsicle molds about 1/3 of the way up. The molds then get placed in the freezer to harden for one hour.

While the cream layer hardens in the freezer, mix room temperature espresso with the cocoa powder and remaining sweetened condensed milk.

After one hour, add the coffee mixture to the cream layer, and replace in the freezer for four hours.

We waited about five hours to take the popsicles out because we were enjoying the backyard sunshine :) After taking the popsicles out of the freezer, we soaked them briefly in water to loosen them up. 

Mini cappuccino pops, with mini popsicle sticks.

Full-sized popsicle, ready to eat! 

These cappuccino popsicles tasted just like a frozen Starbucks frappuccino. The Girls Team and our helpful taste testers LOVED them! The mini popsicles were made using ice cube trays, and they were actually the perfect size. Not too filling or sweet. 

Cappuccino popsicles were the perfect way to start our summer with a cool caffeinated treats :) Happy Memorial Day! 

Pizza Night!

This Monday night was fun and delicious. It was pizza night and we had some extra help! Corey was around to help us this week. He rolled out some dough, heated up the barbecue, and most importantly, inspired us with this cookbook he gave me for Mother's Day:

This is a really fun book with lots of ideas. There are veggie pizzas, seafood pizzas, spicy pizzas, traditional pizzas and dessert pizzas in here! The first thing it has is a recipe for basic pizza dough. Maybe we will try that one night, but since Trader Joe's sells fresh pizza dough that is really good, this week we just went with that.

We each chose one recipe from this book and gathered our ingredients together. Casey and Corey decided they would grill their pizzas. We learned this trick from their Aunt and have done it before. We also know it's best to do this when Chuck is at work. ; )  It's a little messy for him. : )

Corey chose the hot dog pizza! Chopped hot dogs, pizza sauce, grilled onions, cheddar cheese and a drizzling of mustard at the end. Besides his love of hot dogs he said he chose this recipe for its small number of ingredients. 

If you are going to grill your pizza, brush one side of the dough with olive oil and put it on the heated grill. It actually is like fling it on the grill! It's fun to see what shape it is when it makes it to the grill. Was this crust a heart? Or Louisiana? While that side cooks brush the olive on top of the dough. That way when you flip your crust it won't stick to the grill. Then you can put your toppings on.

Casey decided on a Chorizo Sausage and Manchego Cheese pizza. It had pizza sauce, sliced chorizo, Spanish olives, and manchego cheese. She is still thinking of all the good food she had in Spain!

 The hot dog pizza on the grill! 

Butterfly? or South Dakota?

The finished pizzas. They were both delicious. The Chorizo pizza was just the right amount of spicy. The hot dog pizza was surprisingly good. I would have never thought to put traditional pizza sauce with these other flavors. They sure worked though!

I decided to go with one of the dessert pizzas. This pizza had a regular pizza crust, chocolate sauce, sliced bananas, and mini marshmallows. I put it in the oven for 10 minutes.

When it came out of the oven I topped it with fresh sliced strawberries, and blueberries. We ate it while it was still warm. It was so good.
We are thinking of trying one pizza a week from this book while Corey is home for the summer. There are 100 to choose from so that will keep us busy!


Also, just an update on our other projects! 

The tomatoes are growing!

We are still stripping and scraping the table. But we found the sander and plan on trying that next!

Thanks Guys for another fun and successful Make It Happen Monday!

A "New" Nightstand

When I was a junior in high school, I decoupaged this nightstand for a class project. I spent about three days covering this table with images of the ocean and surfing. This nightstand served me well through my college years, and even made an out-of-state appearance in my Seattle apartment. But since moving back to California over a year and a half ago, its been hanging out in a closet. 


We decided to give this table a makeover to put it to good use. My brother recently moved into a house at school and needs a nightstand. Girls Team to the rescue! 


Here's the nightstand that I made about 8 years ago: 

Before we can turn this nightstand from a girlie, surf shrine to a San Francisco Giants table for my brother, we need to remove all of the decoupage using wall paper remover. 

And so we began the tedious process! We sprayed and scraped repeatedly for about an hour. Some pieces were easier to get up than others. For the most part, scraping and peeling did the trick.

After an hour, we removed all of the material from the top of the table. The wall paper remover had a very strong citrus scent, and even working with the garage door open, the Girls Team was getting a bit lightheaded. With the top clear (aside from some printing stains from the magazine pieces), we decided this would be a good stopping point for the evening.

Clearing the nightstand of decoupage is more physically taxing than these pictures make it seem! To create a quality piece for my brother's new room, we won't rush this and try to complete it in one or two Make It Happen Monday nights. It will be a work in progress, so make sure to check back in a few weeks for a project update! The Girls Team will tackle the legs next, and then once the nightstand is clear, sand it down to prep for a paint job and new decoupage design. 

We're excited to recycle this old art project into a new piece of furniture for my sports fanatic brother! 

Sweet Strawberries

Last night we made what instantly became our new favorite summer sweet! At the suggestion from a loyal Make It Happen Monday reader, we whipped up these stuffed strawberries for dessert. Read on for the simple directions! 

Ingredients: 
-2 baskets of Strawberries (we used about 25)
-1 (8 ounce) package of softened cream cheese
-1/2 cup confectioners powdered sugar
-2 table spoons orange-flavored liqueur (we used Grand Marnier)

Cut off the stems of the strawberries and place them pointing up. Make a cut 3/4 of the way down, starting from the tip of the strawberry. 

Next, beat cream cheese, sugar and liqueur together until smooth. 

Pipe the mixture into the strawberries. We used an electric cookie dough press with a special tip for frosting. This made the piping process so quick and easy, and meant we could avoid a piping bags, which due to an unsteady hand and sticky mess, are the bain of my baking existence! 

If you have an orange on hand, using orange zest as a garnish is both pretty and yummy!

In about 30 minutes, our stuffed strawberries were ready to eat. The strawberries themselves were sweet and juicy, and the filling was light and soft like creamy frosting with a kick of orange liqueur. We were SO impressed! After taste testing more than a few stuffed strawberries each, the Girls Team decided these treats will need to be a staple around the house this summer! 

These strawberries will compliment our other favorite fresh fruit dessert very well...chocolate covered blueberries! We made these last night too because they are the definition of deliciously easy! Melt chocolate on the stove in a double boiler, group blueberries together on a tray covered with wax paper, coat blueberries in chocolate, refrigerate overnight and then enjoy the next day :)

What's better than sweet fruit and chocolate on a warm summer-like night in May? Nothing that the Girls Team can think of :)

Chalkboard Paint Plaques

This week's project took a little longer than expected, so please excuse the delayed post! It seems that chalkboard paint is everywhere right now - on mugs, walls, jars, you name it! The Girls Team wanted to see what all the hype was about and try a project with chalkboard paint. We decided to make simple plaques. After trips to Michaels, Home Depot and Lowe's, my fellow team member acquired all of the necessary supplies: chalkboard paint, primer, brushes, a wooden plaque at my request, and a metal sheet for herself.

We set up our work station in the garage. As usual, Lola tried to help. 

First we had to paint one layer of primer onto our plaques. My mom wanted some of the metal sheet to show as a border, so she taped one inch off around each side before she began to paint.

The instructions say to wait 2 hours before painting the chalkboard paint onto the plaque, but it was a warm night so our primer dried in about one hour.

We tried to use a roller brush, as recommended by the instructions, but the chalkboard paint started to bubble on the wood. So, we switched to normal paint brushes for more even and smooth paint application.

After painting two layers of chalkboard paint, we had to wait three days for the paint to dry before we were able to write with chalk. We covered our plaques with one layer of chalk, and then wiped it off with a dry cloth. The instructions say this step allows for the chalk to write more smoothly on the painted surface. 

By Friday, our chalkboard plaques were finally complete! We now need to wait 7 days before we can erase our boards using a wet rag. After that, we will be free to write whatever we want, whenever we want on our plaques! My mom made her plaque for my brother, affectionately known as "Pook" and I will use a plate stand to display my chalkboard as decor.

Aside from taking about 5 days to complete, this project was really simple. Both Girls Team members were very happy with how our chalkboards turned out, and we didn't run into any problems or surprises in the process, which always makes for a successful craft project :)