Apple Pie Recipe

Hello everyone! To get in the holiday spirit, I thought I'd share a Apple pie recipe I tried. I'm not a chef by any means but this pie turned out really delicious! I hope you try it and enjoy eating it as much as I did, and don't forget the ice cream! :)

Materials and Ingredients: (makes 2 pies)
- 2, nine inch pie tins
- 10 apples
- Pie crust mix, 2 boxes (sorry, didn't want to be too ambitious!)
- Measuring cup
- 3/4 cup of sugar
- 1/2 tsp of nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp of cinnamon
- Rolling pin
- Mixing bowl
- Knife
- Vanilla ice cream


Steps:

1. Wash and cut your apples! If you're feeling extra enthusiastic, you can peel your apples too. The skin adds a little crunchy texture and it's also good for you though, which is why I kept it. Cut your apples into slices, and keep them on the side in a mixing bowl as you prepare the crust.

2. Now make the crust. Assuming you bought the crust like me... follow the box instructions! Hehe ^.^

3.  Roll out your dough (I don't have a rolling pin so I used a bottle!), so that it covers the pie tin. For the top half of the pie, I tried making strips of dough for a fancier looking pie. Since you can make 2 pies, try something different! At this point, you should preheat the oven to 425 degrees!

4. Now get back to your apples. Mix in the cinnamon, sugar and nutmeg! Once it's thoroughly mixed, put them in your covered pie tins.

5. Poke a few holes in the top of your pie crust (I got a little crazy with one of my pies... whoops!). Bake your pies in the oven at 425 degrees (your oven should be preheated!) for about 45 minutes or until your pie crust a little golden brown.

Check out my pies! Okay, so they don't look that great but the tasted good! Check out the giant tub of vanilla ice cream! YUM!

What I've learned:

- Pie making is super fun but time consuming!
- Make sure you preheat the oven.
- Buy vanilla ice cream beforehand.


I hope you guys enjoy you're pie! I want to start making more food and blogging about more recipes but we'll see how that goes. Thanks for reading, and stay tuned for more!


Alison

Duct Tape Flower

Hi everyone! I was trying to think up small ways to dress up my office cubicle and while I'm still coming up with more ideas (I have a new space to decorate! ^.^), I wanted to share this Duct Tape Flower I made that's now sitting in my pencil holder at work. A lot of my co-workers liked it so I hope you do too!

Materials:
- Duct Tape (I chose a white duct tape but there are so many colors/patterns you can find!)

- Pen or pencil
- Scissors (optional)


Steps:

1. Take your duct tape a rip/cut a small piece about an inch and a half long.

2. Fold down 2 corners of your tape so they make a triangle, while leaving some of the "sticky-side" of the tape exposed. Take you're pen and place stick it to one side of this strip of "stickiness". (I hope I'm making some kind of sense!)

3. With your pen on one side, roll the piece of tape so that it wraps all the way around your pen. This is your first petal! When you do this step, try to wrap it as tight and close to the pen as possible.

4. Great job! Now keep making petals and wrapping them around your pen. I tried to make sure the petals were not directly behind another petal, but to stagger them so there a petal between every two.

5. Once you get the hang of it, just keep on going! I tried to cover rough edges with new petals! You can make as many as you want and have them in different sizes if you want!

Here's how my Duct Tape Flower turned out!

What I've learned:

- The tops of your petals should be around the same height. To make it more "natural" I made some petals a little smaller or not as high up, and vise versa! 

- It's amazing how something like duct tape can be so pretty!

- Doing a good job on the first few petals can set you up for a great looking flower. ;)

I had a lot of fun making this flower (was watching some of my favorite tv shows at the same time!) and I hope you do too! I'm considering making a whole bouquet of Duct Tape flowers but we'll see how that goes! If you try it, let me know! 

Alison :)

Paper Crane Decor

Hey guys! Today I'm going to share with you a new decoration I added to my room! It's colorful and fun and it adds a little something to a blank wall when you're renting an apartment like me (aka no holes in walls). Hope you like this idea!

Materials:
- Pre-made Paper cranes (I will be doing another post on how to fold paper cranes so don't worry if you don't know how to yet!)
- Needle
- Thread
- Tape

Steps:

1.  Start off by choosing the right color thread! I decided to go with a light color that would kind of blend into the walls. But if you want it to really pop, choose a bright color! Thread your needle and tie a knot on the end. Make sure your thread is pretty long, especially if you have high ceilings!

2. Once you have your first knot, add a paper crane by threading your needle through the middle of the crane. Leave an inch or so (depending on how you want to space out your cranes - I did 2 inches... otherwise they'd just fall on top of each other) and tie another knot before threading yet another crane.  

3. Keep repeating this concept over and over again until you have a nice string of paper cranes. See how the knots separate them a little?

Tape your string of cranes to the ceiling and... you're done!

What I've learned:

- Count the number of cranes you have a divide them up evenly into groups before you start. Having a plan helps!
- Try your best to space them as evenly as possible. It's not a big deal if you're off though!
- In one of the pictures above I taped my string of cranes to a desk, the longer it gets the easier it is to get them tangled up. Anchoring them will help!


I ended up making 5 strings of paper cranes with 17 cranes on each! Some of them ended up longer than the others (since I didn't do a great job of spacing) but I kind of found a way to make them work. This was fun way to liven up this wall and I hope some of you try it out!

You can do it too!

Alison :)

Dinner Paper Napkin Folding

Hi everybody! My friend showed me this cool paper napkin folding technique that restaurants use. I thought it was pretty cool so I figured I would share it with you. This is a cute was to dress up paper napkins when you have friends over for dinner. Hope you like it!

Materials:
- Paper Napkin (one of the fancier kinds, I guess?)

Steps:

1. Let's get started! Take your napkin and open in up like a book. Fold one layer from the bottom corner up to make a diagonal line.

2. Based on my picture above, turn the napkin clockwise once and flip it over. The bottom right corner on should be the start of the diagonal line when you turn the corner over. If so, fold the entire "back" of the napkin into three equal parts.

3. With the diagonal part now folded on the right bottom corner again, tuck the flap on the opposite side into the diagonal.

Flip it over and tuck your utensils in! My friend happened to work a Sushi place and they use chopsticks!

What I've learned:

- Napkin folding is so easy!
- Sharp creases will make it easier to fold.


How cute and easy is this napkin folding trick? I hope you guys liked this and try it out at your next dinner party. I don't have cloth napkins so this is simple alternative!


Alison :)