Paper Craft - Tea Box Roses

  Okay... So, here's my confession: This die-hard coffee lover is a tea lover, too. Unlike coffee, tea can be made from countless varieties of herbs and spices; leaving you with almost endless flavor possibilities. I like going through the trouble of brewing up a pot using a tea ball and loose leaves, but I also keep a stock of blended herbal teabags.



  Those blends often come in beautifully printed cardboard boxes. Some are just colorful, and some have amazing artwork on them. I hate throwing any of them away. After finishing off a box of lemon-ginger blend, the idea struck me that the colors are perfect for fall. And since I recently learned how to make quilled paper roses, I thought I'd give it a try with cardboard. This works just a bit differently than quilling, but I think it's even less work without the tools. Follow along and I'll show you how I did it!

• I use a rotary cutter and mat, but scissors will work if you're good at cutting a straight line. So... I'll use that rotary cutter. And hey - Just so you know, you don't have to recycle a tea box for this craft! Just use any cardboard box (like from cereal or crackers) printed with pretty colors. The bigger the box, the more roses you can make!

 

• I wanted to get the longest length of material possible, so I opened the ends of the box to flatten it out. I really wanted to cut across the lettering, but that will leave me with short pieces. Using larger boxes will give you more options for cutting.

• I cut the tops, bottoms, and sides from the box, which left the center section as a loop of material.

• I cut the center section into 3/8" (0.95 cm) wide strips. (See later why thinner might be better!) The plan was to cut one side of the "loops" open, but then I realized that they aren't one continuous strip.

• So, the loops got cut into twice as many strips. I lost a bit of length by cutting the glue lines away, but was still left with strips that were 8" (20 cm) long. 

• When using quilling strips, you would use a quilling tool. But when using cardboard, I just use my fingers. At first, I started by rolling the strip over itself a few times before making a fold. But... Keep reading, and we'll skip ahead to where I went wrong.

• What will work: Gluing the end of the strip once the rose is complete. With the smaller roses you'll see later, I didn't need the glue. I did glue some of them, and others I let open up a little. Play around and see what works best for you!

• What won't work: This rose didn't turn out the best. With the thicker roll at the beginning, a lot of the cardboard shows in the middle. And the wider strips I cut were more difficult to fold and roll. I tried to make them a little more pliable by dipping the finished roses in a mixture of glue and water. (I thought by mixing the water with glue, they would harden and stay put after I worked the petals into shape.) The cardboard didn't look as pretty afterwards, and they didn't stay put anyways. 

• After some practice, I think I got it right! Although the thicker strips do work, I think the smaller roses made from the thinner strips (cut from the lid) are prettier and stay formed with less glue. Here's how I did it:

• With the thinner strips of cardboard, I began with a small fold instead of a thick roll. After pinching the material into shape, I made the first fold. Fold the material at a right angle to the beginning fold.

• Roll over the fold until the rose is perpendicular to the edge of the strip. Usually when quilling a rose, you would continue to fold in the same direction. Because the cardboard is only printed on one side, the ugly brown side will show if you do this. Fold the material under so that the printed side will show after the roll.

• Continue rolling and folding to the end of the strip, alternating the direction of each fold. The closer you make the fold to the roll, the less cardboard will be visible. Because I want autumn colors of yellow and brown, I don't mind if a little shows. I kinda like the rustic look of it. 

  So now the question is: What to do with these tiny cardboard flowers? Decorate a gift? Make an ornament? I think the choice is up to you! I was only inspired by the colors of the box; I don't actually have a plan for my flowers yet. Although I thought they'd be pretty as part of a candle holder, I'm a little wary of combining paper and fire. What would you do with them?

Happy Crafting!

 

Baking with Cuplettes

 I recently had the awesome opportunity to work with new Cuplettes baking trays. I'll admit that I was skeptical at first, until I started cooking. It seems like every kitchen tool out there promises to easily cook, chop, or slice your food, but none of them ever work as “easily” as they advertise. Here is a product that claims to help you make fillable confections. The last time I tried to fill a baked item, I made exploding jelly doughnuts. This could be dangerous… Or at least, really messy.

 But, the design of Cuplettes actually does create perfect cups of almost whatever you want to bake! Cakes, breads and pastries can all be turned into amazing little cups waiting to be filled with frosting, filling, or whatever you can think of. The flexible silicone material makes it super-easy to pop your cakes and confections out of the trays. And they're amazingly easy to clean in case of sticking, as I did experience.

 I could have tested this product the easy way, but I wanted to push Cuplettes to their full potential. Although I didn’t use paper liners for my cakes and pastries, all of them came out of the trays with minimal sticking. A few of my non-cake experiments didn’t work so well, and left me with a horrible mess. Even though it looked like a disaster, just a few minutes of cleaning returned Cuplettes to their original condition!

 I had a really great recipe idea requiring cups of meringue, which is already difficult enough to make in humid Florida heat. I was worried that the meringue would deflate when installing the Cuplettes inserts into the trays. With a chilled bowl for mixing, and gentle movements while assembling the trays, I succeeded in creating the meringue, filling the trays, and snapping in the inserts without disaster.

 But… I failed to think about the science behind meringue. It dehydrates while cooking at a low temperature, more than it actually bakes. After leaving the trays in the oven for the usual cooking time, I tried to remove an insert. The top of the cup came out with it, exposing what looked like raw meringue inside. I returned them to the oven at a higher temperature, assuming that they would need a longer cooking time in the silicone trays. When the house smelled like toasted marshmallows and the edges of the cups were a beautiful golden-brown, I set them on a rack to cool.

 I removed another insert, only to see sticky meringue after the top came off again. Knowing I couldn’t bake them much longer without burning them, I sacrificed the top layer of all of them. Once returned to the oven without the inserts, the meringue hardened in twenty minutes. But what were beautiful cups before, now looked like deflated disks. Much of the meringue was left stuck to the trays, and I threw them in a sink of soapy hot water in disgust. Defeated, I took the dog for a walk to think about what I would do next.

 I feared the mess I had to face when I returned. How surprised I was to come back to beautifully clean Cuplettes! Every bit of the meringue was released from the trays and was left floating in the water. In just a few minutes, I had my Cuplettes clean and dry; ready for another experiment. I attempted a few more batches of meringue at different cooking times and temperatures, but never succeeded in making anything other than a mess. The neighbors enjoyed my deflated meringue “cookies”, and I abandoned the recipe.

 Cuplettes gave me another surprise when I tested them with angel food cake. Forget all the work of making the batter - I skipped that and used a boxed mix. But, angel food can still be tricky because you have to turn the pan upside-down, without touching a surface. Many choose to turn a Bundt pan over a bottle, or prop square pans on their sides. At first, I was disappointed because the three trays of Cuplettes would take up more room while cooling. Then I realized: The inserts keep the trays elevated from the surface, so you can turn them upside down on a cooling rack with no trouble! This was the easiest angel food cake I’ve ever made.

 I can admit that I made a few mistakes along the way, and made a couple of messes. But in the end, I’m still excited to try more recipes in Cuplettes. Now that I know the silicone trays and inserts are so easy to clean, I won’t fear a disaster. What can we make fillable next? Meatloaf cups? Stuffable dinner rolls? Ooo, what about fudge? From sweet to savory, the possibilities are almost endless. Almost. Those meringue cups still need improvement.

https://www.guidecentr.al/make-southwestern-egg-and-cheese-cups

 There are too many reasons to list why Cuplettes are so great! You can make fancy appetizer bites for entertaining. Get kids to eat more fruits and veggies by making “surprise” cups. Impress the family with your amazing creations. Bake red and green Christmas cupcakes, or spooky creations for Halloween! And best of all, you can get 10% off of your order of Cuplettes by using the coupon code GUIDECENTRAL at checkout (US residents). Just go to www.cuplettes.com to order yours, and you’ll be making awesome sweet and savory filled cups in no time!

https://www.guidecentr.al/make-strawberry-custard-filled-cupcakes

Happy Cooking!

   

Head on over to Guidecentral to check out the recipes I've created with Cuplettes! Keep your eye out for more coming soon!

Bake Peanut Butter Cheesecake Stuffed Brownie Cups (Brownie cups filled with easy no-bake cheesecake filling; topped with a peanut butter glaze)

Make Strawberry Custard Filled Cupcakes (Angel food cupcakes filled with strawberry preserves and stirred custard; topped with an optional chocolate glaze)

Make Southwestern Egg and Cheese Cups (Phyllo dough cups filled with re-fried beans, picante sauce, egg and cheese)

 

Recipe: Fried Banana Bites

  Let's call this an "upcycle recipe". Nothing gets wasted around here - not even brown, mushy bananas! If they're not bad enough to be compost-worthy, they usually become banana bread or muffins. But, c'mon... We have leftover bananas almost every week. How much banana bread can you eat? Although this recipe isn't terribly different from banana bread and it's certainly not health food, at least it's a change.


  The result is a chewy, doughnut-like bite that is mildly sweet - Which makes it perfect for a dipping sauce of your choice. Caramel? Chocolate? Maple syrup! Or, just dust them with powdered sugar. Personally, I like them plain, with a cup of coffee on the side. The choice is yours! :)

  The inspiration for these bites came from a simple drop biscuit recipe. I replaced the fat with the fruit, so I suppose that makes them a bit healthier... But then they're fried in oil, so you can probably throw that out the door. I tried to bake them for a low-fat option, but the dough has to be thickened first, which makes them drier. Without the fat in the recipe, they come out like sawdust. Without thickening the dough, the baked ones come out like cookie-crackers. Perhaps I'll perfect it in time, but for now, at least they're fried in "healthy" oil.




  This recipe might come out a little different depending on the ripeness and amount of bananas you use. Plus - Depending on if you use nuts or not, your yield may vary. I'll give you tips for getting it right no matter what, and show you where I went wrong... Actually, the Other Half did that... Oh well - Just follow along!




Ingredients:
2 cups flour (You can use whole wheat, but you will need to increase the amount of liquid.)
4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp brown sugar
Milk (Amount will vary - I generally use less than 1/2 cup, and sometimes none at all, as you will see later.)
Bananas - At least two. Four is better. (Six was too many, lol.)
1 tsp vanilla extract
Nuts, chocolate chips, dried fruit, etc. (*Optional - See explanation after recipe)




Directions:

• Since parts of this recipe may vary for you, let's start with the one thing that will remain the same: The dry ingredients. Sift together the flour, baking powder, sugar and salt.

• The Other Half helped me by mashing the bananas for this batch. That's where I had to improvise. The bananas should be slightly mashed, with bits of whole fruit remaining. He got heavy-handed with the potato masher, and completely liquefied all six of these bananas - When I only needed four. Whoops! I could have removed some of the fruit, but I decided to see what would happen if we used it all for this batch. 

• I usually mix the vanilla extract in with the milk, but since there was no adding milk this time, I added it to the banana puree.

• If your fruit is still partly whole, then you should mix it in as you would cut in shortening for biscuits. Since mine was pureed, it made the batter the perfect consistency without adding milk. If your batter is more like a stiff dough, then start stirring in some milk. The final result should drop easily from a spoon, but hold its shape for a few seconds.

• I suppose you could deep fry these like doughnuts, but I do them in a pan on the stove with less oil, and flip them halfway through. I use a blend of canola and grape seed oil for frying. I find that the cooking temperature varies with the batter. When I add milk to the recipe, I heat the oil on medium-high, and they take about a minute per side to cook - Just enough time to fill the pan before flipping the batch. When I fried this batch with no milk in the batter, they cooked in under 30 seconds a side and started to burn! I had to reduce the temperature to medium. Test a spoonful of yours before cooking up a whole pan.

  So, besides the bananas, how is this an "upcyle recipe"? I go on a cupboard-cleaning mission whenever I make a batch of these bites. Sometimes, I dice up an apple to add to the batter, or toss in that handful of chocolate chips that have been forgotten in the back of the refrigerator. This time, I added the remainder of this bag of walnuts:

  We went a little nuts (no pun intended, but ha!) over these honey-roasted walnuts. Once we tried one bag, we started buying one or two a week. At first, they were snacked on alone. Then we started making trail mix. And finally, we were burned out on eating them. What's left in this bag has been sitting in the cabinet for over a month. This recipe was perfect for using them up! Next time, maybe I'll add the rest of those cranberries from the trail mix. :)



  Changing what's added to the batter keeps this recipe from getting old when I make two batches back-to-back. I just made some a few days before I made these, but the week's bananas gave me a surprise. They didn't look that bad, but when I picked up the bunch, the tops split:

  Oops! They were still green under those brown spots, and the fruit inside was firm. Since I already have a few bananas in the freezer from the last time this happened, I didn't want to put more in there. And it seemed a waste to throw them in the compost.



  Do you have trouble keeping bananas fresh? What do you do with the mushy ones? If I make any more banana bread with them, I'm going to go bananas. I already have those bananas in the freezer waiting to be... Oh no! I froze those for banana bread! Help!

Happy Cooking!