Nuts & Berries Buttercream Frosting

So once again I was looking for a way to fancy up a box of cake mix... chocolate this time. Since I have a bottle of chambord, I thought raspberry frosting and oh what about the half dozen bottles of various extracts sitting in the spice cupboard? Nuts and berries frosting it is! (OK, I confess. I didn't have hazelnut extra, but almond works too right?)

Ingredients:
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp Frangelico or 1/2 tsp hazelnut extract
1 tsp Chambord or 1/2 tsp raspberry extract

Directions:
Cream butter until smooth and light. While mixing at medium speed, slowly add powdered sugar. When combined, add liquor. Whip at high speed unitl thick and creamy. To adjust consistency, add a tablespoon of milk or powdered sugar while whipping until desired consistency is achieved.

T-shirt Jewelry

So Body + Soul magazine had a great upcycle idea this month - t-shirt necklaces. It was actually quite fortuitous, as the husband had just decided to purge the closet of his worn out t-shirts.
The process is quite simple and needs no special tools (or any notable skill for that matter), although a rotary cutter and cutting mat are preferred to scissors.

1) Cut out several 3/4" wide strips from the bottom of the t-shirt (discarding the hem)
2) Pull the loops taught, causing the raw edges to curl in
3) Use a scrap of material from the t-shirt or otherwise to wrap the loops together at the seams (if any) and tuck loose end of scrap under itself (I wrapped the loops once before binding in order to make a shorter necklace)

I also applied to same method to the sleeves and made a bracelet:

Simple Valentine's Pancakes

So for Valentine's day I wanted to make a special treat for my boys. I have some pancakes molds but they are such a pain to work with. I tried out an experiment that turned out really great... after letting the batter sit on the griddle momentarily, I pushed a cookie cutter through, let it rest on the griddle briefly (about 10 seconds), and then pulled straight out of the batter before it began to set. When I flipped the pancakes over there was a clear outline left... a simple upscale to Sunday morning pancakes.