Bake: Herbed Wheat Buttermilk Biscuits

One of my favorite food bloggers is Rachel Cooks. If you've never seen any of her recipes, you need to check her out now! You can find the original recipe HERE. She posted this recipe recently and her biscuits looked so good I knew I had to try it! I used whole wheat flour in my recipe to make it a little healthier. They're so yummy! Fortunately I had the willpower to put them into the freezer before my husband and I ate them all fresh from the oven!

Ingredients:

• 4 cups whole wheat flour
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3-5 Tablespoons dried parsley and chives, whatever combo you want
• 12 Tablespoons softened butter
• 1 1/2 cups cold buttermilk
• 2 Tablespoons of melted butter (for brushing biscuits with)

Directions: 

Preheat your oven to 450� F. 

Add all of the dry ingredients together in a medium sized mixing bowl. 

Mix them up.

Add in the wet ingredients. 

Mix well.

Roll it out onto a lightly floured surface. It should be about 1/2"-3/4" thick.

Use your cookie cutter...or in my case, jar lid, and cut out biscuits.

Form extras into dough and roll out again, messing with it as little as possible so you don't warm it up. 

Depending on how thick you make the dough, you can get anywhere from 10-24 biscuits. The original recipe got 8-9 3" biscuits but I made mine thinner and got 24.

Bake in the oven for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown around the tops and edges. If you have two sheets worth, be sure to rotate them halfway through so they both bake evenly. (Sorry for the blurry photos.)

Take them out of the oven and brush butter on the tops of each biscuit. As you can see, they all have character! 

And somehow I managed to get a few monster biscuits in there!

Drool.

These biscuits go well with everything! You could make them into breakfast biscuits, use Italian seasoning for a pasta dinner, add cheddar cheese....oh yum. I think I'll be adding the cheese next time! These biscuits are guaranteed to please either way!

What do you make with buttermilk? Do you have a family recipe passed down for the best biscuits or rolls?

Till next time,
Catherine

Etsy Shop Announcement!

I just love sharing such fun announcements with you all!! 

I announced it on the blog's Facebook page but not here yet and not everyone has Facebook so I thought I'd announce it here as well! 

After talking about doing it for so long now, my husband and I finally opened up our very own Etsy shop!! 

There is not a lot listed at the moment but keep checking back because I'll be adding more items as time goes on! 

We've got lovely little button bracelets and embroidery floss earrings as well as a few other things on there now. If you see a style you like but in the wrong color (or vice versa) then please let me know! I am more than happy to provide custom items! I even crochet the most adorable little plush monster toys for children! My niece absolutely loves them!

Like I said before, keep an eye out because more will be added! I'll be adding listings for crocheted hats, scarves, cosmetic bags and custom pencil art by my husband. And who knows what else! I'm up for anything! I'll probably start making reusable dryer sheets again soon and try to sell those as well. What do you think?

If you have an account on Etsy, be sure to click the little red heart to "favorite" my shop! 

Oh and don't mind the "z" at the end of Happily Ever Crafter. I didn't have a choice, Happily Ever Crafter is taken as a shop name even though the shop has not been active in a very long time! Unfortunate but that's ok. 

What types of things would you like to see being sold in my Etsy shop? 

Till next time,

Catherine

DIY: Dish Detergent!

Are you tired of spending way too much money on dishwasher detergent/tabs/liquid? Fortunately for me, just before I got married and my husband was living the final bachelor days in our townhouse, I found a big box of 85 dishwasher tabs for about $12. We only just now ran out so it lasted us about a year, which is great! I found this great recipe on Being Creative to Keep My Sanity on Pinterest and it was actually one of the first things I had pinned on my DIY pinboard. I wanted to wait till we ran out of our existing tabs before making more dishwasher detergent. 

Today was that day! Well, it was a few days ago but I knew it could wait. Even better, my awesome husband hand washed all the dishes that had piled up last night! Gave me some extra time which was great because I was having a hard time finding the Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda. Note: I couldn't find it at Food Lion, CVS, or even Target but they had it at Kroger. 

All you need is: 

• 1 box of Borax (4lb 12oz - Found in the detergent isle)
• 1 box of Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda (3lb 7oz - Found in the detergent isle) 
• 0.5lb/24 Tbs citric acid (Found in the canning isle but I got mine at a local farm Auburnlea Farm)
• 3 cups Epsom Salt (Found in the health isle near hydrogen peroxide and such)
• LemiShine Rinse Aid or Distilled White Vinegar (Especially important if you get hard water spots)

Directions: 

Are you ready for how easy this is?

Mix everything together in a huge bowl. Or even a big bucket. My bowl was just barely big enough. 

Now pour it into your jar/container. I saved this Oxi-Clean container and the dishwasher tab container from before. Everything fit into these two containers and I counted about 16 cups of detergent. And get this...all you need is 1 Tablespoon per load!! Can you imagine how long this will last? My guess is a VERY long time. For my husband and I, we run a load of dishes at least once a week but sometimes twice so this should last us forever!

If you have a problem with hard water you'll definitely want to use the rinse aid, whether it's vinegar or LemiShine. With either one, just sprinkle a little bit in the bottom of the dishwasher before running it. Don't worry, your dishes won't smell like vinegar! 

Price breakdown:

Borax                 $4.80

Washing Soda    $3.29

Citric Acid         $2.65

Epsom Salt         $3.00 (Estimate)

Vinegar              $2.35

Total:                 $16.09

Now that comes to 256 Tablespoons in 16 cups...that's a lot of dishes!!

If you buy LemiShine instead of Vinegar, it's about $4 for a small container. Not sure how long it lasts.

Verdict: Well, not sure yet! I just made it today so I haven't had a chance to use it yet but I will update as soon as I do! I'll do one load without the vinegar as a rinse aid and one with it so I can let you all know how it does.

Oh and here's a fun story for you all. Last week I used a sample detergent that I had. I just assumed it was dishwashER liquid...until the next morning when we got up. My husband was the first one into the kitchen and he called to me to let me know our kitchen floor was FULL of suds. Uh oh. Ok so it wasn't that bad, just a quick clean up with some towels. But, moral of the story...read the label. I felt like such a dummy but it helped us start the day with a good laugh!

UPDATE: I have since washed dishes several times and have not used LemiShine or vinegar as a rinse aid and I haven't gotten any spots on my glassware. I guess we don't have hard water! Just keep in mind if you do have hard water you'll need a rinse aid. Otherwise, the dishes are coming out sparking clean! 

How much do you spend on dishwasher detergent every month? It adds up quick! Or do you wash all your dishes by hand?

Till next time,
Catherine

DIY: Homemade Bath Salts-Great gift idea!

Need a quick DIY gift? Or are you just craving a lovely soak in the tub? Either way this is a great, quick project. I made them as a late Christmas gift for a couple of my co-workers. I originally found the recipe here but modified it to make it a bit simpler. My glass jar collection is multiplying quicker than I can use them so my husband was happy to see me use a couple of them!

Here's what you'll need:

• Epsom salt
• Baking soda
• Lemon essential oil (Or whichever scents you prefer)
• Lavender essential oil (Or whichever scents you prefer)
• Yellow food coloring (optional)
• Jar(s)
• Label(s)

I used all the baking soda that I had which was almost 3/4 cup. You can use more or less...it doesn't make much difference. I then filled the measuring cup past the 2 cup line with epsom salt. Again, it's not precise. You can use twice as much epsom salt if you prefer or are making a larger batch. 

Mix in your essential oils. The lavender I used is safe to use on your body and the lemon is from Young Living Essential Oils and it is a food-grade oil, meaning it can even be safely ingested. I wouldn't recommend just getting any oil. Many are designed only for aromatherapy purposes and shouldn't be put on or in your body. Do a little research before buying the cheapest oil on the shelf. I personally stick with Young Living brand most of the time because I trust that brand and have seen great results with them. 

I used maybe 40 drops of each oil and I added it at intervals. I moved several large spoon fulls into another measuring cup and then dripped the oils, mixed, then added more of the salt/baking soda and repeated the process until the entire thing was thoroughly mixed and smelled heavenly! If you're making the same size that I did, you may not need as many drops. I got a little overexcited because I just love the smell of lemon and lavender together! 

I decided it needed a little color so it looked the part so I mixed in yellow food coloring in the same way as the oils, at intervals until thoroughly mixed. Yes I know, it looks  orange but I swear it came from the yellow food coloring bottle!

Mix, mix, mix. And there it is...yellow! I told you so!

Gather your jars with their lovely spray painted lids. Most jars have the product label and info on the lid so I spray paint them to make them cute. 

Now fill 'em up! This recipe filled these two jars almost full. They were salsa jars, maybe half the size of a regular mason jar.

Print your labels, cut them to size and adhere them to your jar and you're ready to go! I used hot glue to get them to stick.

 Lovely little gift in no time! Plus the house smells great! I also want to note that in order to make this a nice hand/body scrub instead is just add in olive oil! Basically two gifts in one! Quite nifty if I say so myself!

I think I need to make a batch just for myself! Definitely going to make more of these for family soon too! It's such a nice alternative to those standard bath gift sets that are a dime a dozen at Wal-Mart.

What do you think? Wouldn't it be nice to soak in a lemon lavender bath? Mmm...or how about a foot soak? Ahhh...I'm feeling relaxed just thinking about it! 

Till next time,
Catherine