homemade sprinkles

'Sometimes you just want to say, I made this 100% from scratch!'
via bravetart

I know how this looks. I know having a recipe for homemade sprinkles essentially brands me as some kinda baking weirdo, culinary elitist, or just someone with too much time on her hands.

But it’s not like that. I’m not crazy. Really. I like grocery store sprinkles just fine. Yet, sometimes you just want to say, “I made this 100% from scratch!” Sometimes, you need to make your own sprinkles.

UPDATE :

CHECK OUT THIS STEP-BY-STEP TUTORIAL via thekitchn (w/ lots of great picts!)

8 ounces powdered sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg white
1 tsp vanilla, or other extract

assorted food colorings
as many piping bags as you have colors, fitted with a small, plain tip

Mix the first four ingredients until a semi-thick paste forms.

Divide the paste into as many portions as you have colors, tinting each batch with the color of your choice.

Put the colored paste into a piping bag and, on a sheet pan lined with parchment or wax paper, pipe out as many long, thin lines as you can. Take care the lines do not touch each other.

Repeat the process with the remaining colors and allow the piped lines to dry for 24 hours. Really. You will have an unworkable mess if you say, “Oh, it’s been 8 hours. I can go ahead and do the next step.” 24 hours. They need to be dried out to the core for this to work.

After the time has elapsed, use a bench scraper or knife to scrape off the dried sprinkle lines and then to break.chop the lines into fairly long pieces for "jimmies" or quite short for "hundreds and thousands".

Store in an airtight container, indefinitely.

heart

luv this heart collage via designer tara sloggett

party games pt. 1

Having a few peeps over this evening & if we head down the game route, thinking this might be a good one: the name game, via inchmark. (Ha! A break from Cathphrase, which I basically have memorized & Progressive, which Brad cheats at!)

It's great for groups of about 6 to 12 adults, and requires nothing more than paper and pens. Cut some paper up into little strips (you'll need a decent amount). Each person grabs a handful of paper strips and a pen and writes one name on each. Names can include celebrities, historical figures, people you all happen to know, fictional characters, etc. It's best to try and think of names that are well known but a little obscure. Remember that both teams will be using the names, so if you make it TOO obscure you'll be hurting when you pull that name yourself.

All the names are folded in half once and put in a large bowl (the folding is important since you don't want people to see other names). Divide your people into two teams, alternating turns between the teams. Each person takes a turn. Reach into the bowl and pull out a name, then try and get your team to guess who it is. There aren't a lot of rules about what you can and can't do. Obviously you can't say the person's name, and you can't do any "rhymes with" tricks.. but you can list movies they've been in, or sing the theme song for their show, or name the books they wrote.

For example, if you pulled out Wes Anderson, you'd say "He's the director who's really skinny and he did Royal Tenenbaums and Rushmore.. and they always star Bill Murray and the Wilson brothers!" Your team tries to guess as quickly as they can. The turns are timed (1 to 2 minutes) and you win by scoring the most points for your team. If you get stuck on a name, you can throw it back in the bowl and choose another, but you lose a point. The team with the most points at the end of the bowl wins.

happy friday!

taken in Jerusalem on a trip my cousin is on right now, via

boot luv

Got these for $24.99 at Old Navy last week!


Also luv these Justin Boots that my bro got Lib for Christmas!

And I've wanted these these Frye Boots, literally for 10 years.

salty & sweet

This made for some fab & relatively easy Christmas presents. I made a couple batches & then filled up mason jars w/ the mix, tied 'em up w/ a few ribbons, & done!

White Chocolate Snack Mix
• 2 cups white chocolate chips, melted
• 1 cup mini twist pretzels
• 3 1/2 cups cereal: Cheerios, Chex, or similar
• 1 cup almonds
• 1 cup salted peanuts
• 1 1/2 cups M&M's
• 1 cup raisins

DIRECTIONS: Melt white chocolate chips in large bowl. (I do so in the microwave in 30 sec. increments, stirring in between each 30 interval. Note that it's easy to scorch chocolate in the microwave, if you put it in for too long &/or forget to stir!) Add all other ingredients, stirring to coat. Once all of pieces are coated, lay them out on sheets of wax paper. Once dry, break up & store in an air tight container

NOTE: Don't be afraid of adding &/or subtracting other cereals, candy, or nuts. This is one recipe you can't really mess up!

mint cookies via megasimple.blogspot

I tried making these fab Andes Mint Cookies from my friend Megan's awesome blog - if you haven't checked out megasimple.blogspot.com do so now!

You can find the recipe on her blog, here!