Monday, April 28, 2008

Cookie Bouquet Tutorial and Recipe



Homemade Cookie Bouquet

Add some sweet flavor to your next party with this unique cookie treat that is sure to impress. The bouquets are easy to make and can be customized for any occasion. Kids love cookie bouquets at birthday parties and parents love the “no mess” serving of cookies. If you want to say thanks, a special hello, bon voyage or get well - bake up a bouquet of cookies.


Cookie ingredients:
1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 cups flour

Royal icing ingredients:
3 large pasteurized egg whites
½ teaspoon cream of tartar
1 lb. sifted powdered sugar

Supplies:
Vegetable oil spray
Lollipop cookie pan
Lollipop sticks
Icing bags and tips
Food coloring
Small beach pail
Floral marbles
Styrofoam
Brown sugar



Steps:
1. To make the cookie dough: Preheat oven to 400˚. Cream butter and sugar with an electric mixer. Beat in egg and vanilla. Next, add baking powder and flour, adding flour one cup at a time. Blend in last cup of flour by hand. The dough will be fairly stiff, but if the dough becomes too stiff, add water, one teaspoon at a time.

2. Spray each well in the cookie treat pan with vegetable oil spray. Fill each well with dough, filling almost all the way to the top. Slide a lollipop stick roughly halfway into each cookie. We used 6” sticks and 11 ¾” sticks. (Be aware of how large the inside of your oven is when deciding what size lollipop sticks to use.) Bake for 8 to 10 minutes. Allow the cookies to cool before removing them from the pan. You can use the tip of a spatula or a knife to help ease the cookies out of the pan. Allow the cookies to cool completely before decorating.

3. To make the royal icing: Beat the pasteurized egg whites and cream of tartar with an electric mixer until frothy. Gradually add powdered sugar and beat for 5-7 minutes.

4. Transfer some of the icing into small bowls and add food coloring to each small batch of icing. Any icing you have left over in bowls at this point should be covered with a damp towel to prevent hardening.

5. Prepare a few decorating bags for icing. Insert the decorating tip coupler into a plastic piping bag, add icing, and twist the end of the bag. Cut the tip of the bag and screw on a decorating tip. Transfer each color of icing into a decorating bag and decorate the cookies. Allow the icing to harden.

6. To create a cookie bouquet, start by filling the bottom portion of a small beach pail with floral marbles. (for weight) Place a piece of styrofoam on top. Sprinkle brown sugar on top of the styrofoam to create “sand.” Poke the cookies into the styrofoam, placing the ones with the longer sticks in the back.



Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Get crafty and celebrate Earth Day!

Get crafty and celebrate Earth Day!

On Creative Juice we strive to incorporate re-crafting and re-cycling into our projects! We have designed ideas that are earth and budget friendly, all with crafty flair and style. We even wrote a book filled with all sorts of fun projects for re-crafting.

Check out all our recycled crafts by visiting the Recycle Page on my website. We even have some fun ideas for kids!





View a trailer of the Creative Juice Re-Craft Book!
Wanna buy the book?
Barnes and Noble
Amazon
Target

Bake It: Chocolate Cheesecake Recipe


View a Clip From Creative Juice - we are making Chocolate Cheesecake!

Sunday, April 20, 2008

Magic Castle

The famous Magic Castle in Los Angeles.
(sorry no pics allowed inside)



We had such an amazing night at the Magic Castle thanks to my pal Lincoln. Lincoln was preforming last night and all I can say is WOW! I sill don't understand how in the world he did his magic. I swear he really is a mind reader - or mind tricker. hahaha

Magic Castle Loot!

The castle is totally meant to be explored. Each room has so much history and magic going on. One room "The Hat and the Hare" had a great magician performing coin and card tricks. The room was loaded with vintage tiny ceramic bunnies tucked away into glass cases.

The "WC Fields Bar", where we saw the amazing Lincoln, had puppet memorabilia and a mini diorama of the original design for Disney's Haunted Mansion Ride - It even had little ghosts that would swirl around when you pushed a button. I was blown away by the puppet wall - they were so cool.

The "Invisible Irma's Music Room" had a player piano and tiny glass boxes all along the wall filled with 12" tall skeletons performing mini magic tricks. My grandmother is named Irma so it was especially fun to visit this room.

In the "Close Up Gallery", Eddie and I were chosen to sit at the table and be the close up observers. We saw Patrick Heitkam perform he was stunning. Things were appearing and disappearing right before our eyes. He, like Lincoln, read my mind and made a 7 of diamonds appear on the back wall of the room. My mind is still spinning from that trick.

What a great night!

Saturday, April 19, 2008

Spring has sprung at IKEA.

IKEA

My hubby is working nights on a teen movie and he did not get home until 7:30 am. In an effort for him to get as much sleep as possible (we are going to The Magic Castle tonight!) I decided to venture out to Ikea (one of my favorite places) to see whats new for spring.

First Stop Lunch! Everyone who know me knows that I have 2 favorite lunches in Los Angeles. #1 California Chicken Cafe on Melrose - Chinese Chicken Salad and #2 Swedish Meatballs at Ikea.



Spring has sprung at Ikea!

Tiny Table - Love the Poppy Yellow!


Polka Dotted Floor Rugs - Great for kids - $7.99!


Plastic rug - great for outdoors.


New Art - I love the print.


New Art #2 - Make me think of when I lived in NYC.


Beautiful and sturdy casserole dish.


Craft paints in brights and glitters.


Love this new fabric.


Awesome brights by the yard.


More fabrics!!!! I love the Bolds!


Silk flowers.


3 tired planter.


Floral globe lamps - oh lalala


Tube Lamp.


Love the GREEN!

Planting Spearmint 101 and Mint Juleps

Spearmint is such a wonderful herb and it is so easy to grow. In fact, it is so easy that a small mint plant can take over a garden bed in just one summer, so be sure to plant mint in a container. If you are set on planting the mint in the ground, edge around the plant with plastic edgers or bury a large pot in the ground and plant your mint in the pot. Mint is also easily grown indoors.

Once the mint is planted the work is done and all you will need to do is water and harvest the delicious and aromatic leaves.



Step 1 - Fill the bottom of the container with Styrofoam packing peanuts (not the corn starch variety) this will help with proper drainage and keep the weight of the pot down. You could also use broken terra cotta or rocks. Make sure your container also has a drainage hole.


Step 2. Using a soil-less potting mix! (I like ones with fertilizer built in) Add a few heaping scoops into the pot.


Step 3. Remove your mint plant from the store container. (I really like the new Bonnie biodegradable peatpots and their herbs are spectacular.) Place the plant in the center of the container and add a little bit of water. Add potting mix to the sides of the plant until you reach the top of the pot. Pat the soil with your hands and add more mix if needed. Give the plant a healthy drink of water. Place in sun / partial shade. Will grow to around 24" high.



Harvest leaves in the morning when the oils are the strongest. Keep plants in check by harvesting regularly. Mint’s small flowers bloom from June to September; trim these before the buds open to keep the plant compact.

All this mint what to do?
Cooking: Fresh mint leaves are a nice complement to fish, poultry, lamb, and vegetables such as peas, new potatoes, and carrots. Mint can be used to make marinades and sauces. Mint is the perfect addition to icy sorbets and fruit salads. I love adding fresh chopped mint to rice pilaf or couscous.
Summer Drinks: Add a few fresh sprigs of mint to tea or lemonade. Freeze mint in ice cubes for a real cool down.
Cocktails: Mint is the main ingredient in the famous Mint Julep and Cuban Mojito.


Kentucky Derby Mint Julep
2 c. sugar
2 c. water
fresh mint sprigs
crushed ice
Early Times Kentucky whiskey
silver julep cups

1. Make a simple syrup by boiling sugar and water together for 5 minutes. Cool the syrup, pour it into a glass container with 6-8 sprigs of gently crushed fresh mint and refrigerate overnight.

2. Fill a julep cup with crushed ice, add 2 Tbsp. mint syrup and 2 oz. Kentucky bourbon whisky. Stir rapidly with a spoon to frost the outside of the cup.

3. Garnish with a sprig of fresh mint.

Friday, April 18, 2008

Valentines Day 1962...Oh My! Valentine Props for Mad Men

It is Friday night and I have a huge hot glue gun burn, my cell phone battery died and I have been time warped to Valentines Day - 1962.

Our job was to create candy boxes ala 1960 - They turned out so cute. I stuffed the bows with tissue paper to keep them perky until they film them next week.



We used:
Cardboard
Fusible Webbing
Fabric
Folk Art Fabric Paint
Silk Flowers
Ribbons
Folk Art Gold Paint
Lace
Glue

Take a peek and a step back to the sweet 60's.












Monday, April 14, 2008

Creative Juice Episode: Bloom

No green thumb? No problem!
Tune in or TIVO for The "Bloom" episode of Creative Juice.

DIY Network - Tuesday 15th at 12:30 eastern



Recipe: Coconut Sorbet Recipe


Coconut Sorbet

Shop list:
2 - cans of coconut milk (14.5 oz)
1 cup - sugar
1/2 cup - sliced or shredded coconut
fresh mint - optional
chocolate sauce - optional

Steps:

1. In a saucepan bring all the ingredients to a boil until the sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat and cool. Once cool place in the refrigerator for 3 hours.


2. Add the chilled coconut sorbet to your ice cream maker and blend. Follow the instructions for your brand. Mine takes about 15 minutes for this sorbet.

3. Once the sorbet is blended - enjoy on the spot. Add the remainder to a freezer container and pop in the freezer. If you want a firmer sorbet, freeze before serving. You can microwave frozen sorbet in quick 30 second intervals to soften.

Tuesday, April 08, 2008

Set Your Tivos for the Ellen Show

The safe sparkle rally was a huge hit! Ellen's peeps even came by and filmed a bit of the glitter madness. It was fantastic and fingers crossed, tomorrow we will have much more to report!!!! - so stay tuned and set your tivos for Ellen.

Here are a few pics:


Steve made a drive by GLITTER stop.


Erika from My Imaginary Boyfriend.... so cute.


Jenny Ryan - I heart her glasses.

Lincoln - I am totally hitting him up for a night at the Magic Castle


The LA Craft Mafia's Nichole Moraila


Cathy of California shows off her vintage glitter

Stephanie with her so cute sweatshirt


Kit with her glittered cheeseburger - makes me miss Wendy's



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