DIY Pillows

Last week, we finally got around to sewing pillows for the couch in my new apartment. After finding DIY pillow case instructions on Pinterest, I headed to Joann's for pillow forms and decorator fabric. I was looking for fun fabric that wasn't too loud or girlie. After washing the fabric, my mom and I were ready to sew! 

The directions I found online for the pillow case were SO confusing, even to my mom who is the expert. Turns out, the amount of fabric that the blog told me to buy wasn't enough for two pillows. It told me to buy 1/2 yard of fabric for every pillow form at 18 inches or smaller, so I bought 1 yard of fabric for two 18 inch pillow forms, and for some reason, didn't have enough fabric. After trying to make it work multiple ways, and almost quitting for the night, our horoscope encouraged us to take charge and wing it: "Today there will be no problem that your quick reasoning won't be able to solve!"

Referring back to our place mats, we quickly created a pillow case for 18 x 18 pillow forms by sewing three sides of two pieces of fabric together, inside out. 

After flipping fabric inside out, I stuffed the pillow form into the pillow case.

Then my mom pinned the 4th side, and hand sewed it closed. 

We couldn't make both pillows on Monday night since I didn't have enough fabric. But later in the week I went back to Joann's for more fabric, and finished the second pillow. 

Back at the apartment, the pillows settled comfortably on the couch next to my existing pillows from Target. I love how they turned out. The fun but subtle fabric is perfect for our apartment, which is still finding a balance between sports fanatic memorabilia and more girlie decor. The pillows don't look homemade, and add a little pop of color to our black and white living room!

Chinese Chicken Lettuce Wraps

When you live in what sometimes feels like the hottest place on earth, you have to have a few cool-to-create dinner options. This Monday it was 95 degrees out and the LAST thing either Girls Team member felt like doing was turning the oven on or working over a hot stove. We both enjoy lettuce wraps, but have never made them ourselves so we thought this hot night was the perfect time to try to make them. We found this recipe for lettuce wraps from Rachael Ray, and we LOVED it. It was so flavorful and filling. After it was all said and done, we couldn't figure out why they are called "Barbecued" Lettuce Wraps since we didn't actually BBQ anything, but aside from that, they were great!

We decided to double the recipe as we were feeding five people, and wanted to have leftovers. Here's some of our ingredients:

Whoops. We quickly realized we forgot to buy mushrooms at the store, and they are a big part of the recipe! I went back out to Raley's and bought 4 cups of shiitake mushrooms.

Combining all of the ingredients in the wok was easy. Just throw the chicken in, let it cook for a bit, and add the rest according to the recipe. What we didn't realize how hot standing by the wok stirring for 10 minutes would be. So much for our cool dinner idea! But, here's a Make It Happen Monday fun fact: This electric wok is 28 years old! This vintage kitchen appliance was given to my parents as a wedding gift in 1984 :)



My mom added the Hoisin Sauce, which had a bit of a kick to it!

The final spread. The oranges were a sweet addition :)

Plated and ready to eat!

By the time we plated, the chicken and mushroom filling had cooled down considerably, making these lettuce wraps delicious and refreshing. The Hoisin sauce gave the wraps a little kick, and the lettuce was crisp and fresh. Everyone really loved these, and since we never eat lettuce wraps, it was fun to mix up our usual dinner routine. My dad suggested serving it with white rice next time (that guy and his rice!) but it wouldn't have made the dish a comfortable meal in the heat.  

For some reason Asian recipes often intimidate me. I think they just seem so much more intricate at first glance and often include ingredients that I'm unfamiliar with. But the recipe for these Chinese Chicken Lettuce Wraps was pretty straightforward. It took about 30 minutes from start to finish, and both Girls Team members were eager to make these again...soon!  

Summer Oatmeal

Lately, the Girls Team can't get enough of our new favorite breakfast: summer oatmeal. Summer oatmeal calls for four ingredients - plain old fashioned oats, yogurt, milk and frozen fruit.

Mix 1/2 cup oats, 1/2 cup yogurt and 1/4 cup milk together. Add between 1/2 and 1 cup of frozen fruit (optional). This will make about two mornings worth of summer oatmeal for one person.

Refrigerate the oatmeal mixture overnight in a tupperware. After spending 6-8 hours in the refrigerator, the milk and yogurt will soften the oats so cooking them ahead of time is not needed. 

In the morning, grab the summer oatmeal and go! 

Seriously, it's THAT easy. The Girls Team loves summer oatmeal because it's the perfect mix of healthy, sweet and filling, and a really easy breakfast option when racing out the door to work. We've been eating this almost daily, so we are excited to spread the word and hope our lovely readers enjoy summer oatmeal as much as we do :)


P.S. Like the chalkboard in the first photo? Let us teach you how to make one here in our garage! 

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 :)