Stuff I like by Benita
I'm awesome.
-
(via {nifty thrifty things}: {DIY sugar cubes})
Impress your friends! Have a tea party with homemade sugar cubes in adorable shapes! (And they seem super easy to make.)
-
Just whipped up a stack of homemade tortillas (I like mine with half wheat/half white flours) at 1 a.m. I swear I do my best cooking and baking overnight.
-
Guess which store-bought cookie I’m attempting to recreate.
(the broken pieces are test cookies. I promise the whole ones will be prettier.)
-
Homemade creamy tomato soup, grilled cheese with jalapeños and a homemade pickle. Awesome lunch.
(I was cleaning out my freezer and found all these tomatoes I had frozen who knows when so I used all of them in this soup.)
-
Store-bought salsa has nothing on the super simple homemade version: a few fresh tomatoes, a large can of diced tomatoes in juice, an onion, a few serrano peppers, a large handful of cilantro (freshly cut from my garden), a freshly squeezed lime or two, a little vinegar, garlic and some salt, cumin, and cayenne pepper all lightly (I like my salsa a bit chunky) pulsed in the food processor.
-
No restaurant can compete with homemade pizza (this one has mozzarella and feta cheese, olives and chili peppers from my garden). I like to make a big batch of pizza dough and freeze personal-pizza size balls (my recipe makes five generous balls) in ziplock bags so I always have some on hand.
-
Homemade pop tarts. For fillings, I used pumpkin butter, Nutella and cookie butter. Surprisingly, the pumpkin butter ones were my favorite. The cookie butter got crumbly when baked and those tarts ended up dry. And the Nutella was good but better when toasted to get melty inside. I think I’ll make another batch with just the pumpkin butter and maybe lemon curd or jam.
-
My first attempt at homemade pumpkin spice “latte” turned out pretty good. It would likely be better if I didn’t use skim milk and let it simmer longer so the spices meld better or if I double up on the spice. I used one cup of strong coffee plus one cup milk and let that simmer with a couple heaping spoonfuls of puréed pumpkin, a tsp of vanilla, half a tsp pumpkin spice and a couple tsp of sugar.
-
Why am I making caramels at 2 a.m? I don’t even fucking know, but they turned out amazing, especially for my first attempt. Cutting these suckers into pieces was a pain in the ass, though.
-
My obviously homemade cards went out late again this year. No Frankie the cat in a Santa hat this time around, but plenty of glitter.
I like a lot of stuff, including but not limited to words, sarcasm, news, pop culture, bright colors, music, design, baking, books, Detroit, DIY.
