Photo and recipe by Elana’s Pantry

Ahh, Nutella. Once people try this chocolate hazelnut spread for the first time, they just can’t stop singing its praises. What used to be a fancy European treat is now on the shelves of almost all supermarkets, and we’ve found endless ways to eat it! While nothing will replace the perfect, smooth version from a jar, there are many home cooks who have tried to replicate this spread, with delicious results! Personally, I’d try these recipes while keeping the original stuff on hand as well – you can never have too much!

Ingredients

• 1 cup hazelnuts
• ¼ cup cocoa powder
• 5 tbsp agave nectar
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract
• 1 tbsp hazelnut oil (I couldn’t find hazelnut oil, so I used a mild vegetable oil instead)
• pinch celtic sea salt (I used regular salt)

Directions

1. Roast the hazelnuts at 350 degrees F for 8-10 minutes until they darken a bit and smell fragrant. Transfer the hazelnuts to a towel and rub off the skins if you can.
2. In a food processor, grind the hazelnuts to a smooth butter, about 5 minutes, scraping the sides as needed. Add the cocoa, agave, vanilla, oil and salt and process until well blended, about a minute.
3. Store in a glass mason jar in the refrigerator. Bring to room temperature prior to serving.

Photo courtesy of Food Mayhem

Fresh herbs like basil never fail to get us in the mood for Spring! Next time you’re cooking, use one of these craft punches (find that at most art supply stores) to create festive bits of flavor to garnish your dish! The large, flat surface of basil is perfect for this task, and these four-leaf clovers are totally appropriate for the month of March!

Who says you need to keep the party indoors? With Spring blowing its way in, it’s time to pack up your lunches and blankets and head outside for a picnic in the park! This cute and vintage-looking picnic pack can easily carry everything you need for a picnic for two, and can be made entirely from a purse and belts from a thrift shop! This project is probably not best for the beginner crafter, but if you’re not intimidated by leatherworking and are looking for that perfect craft challenge, you’ll be highly rewarded!

Materials

• three leather belts (at least two should be thick and long and about the same length – about 36″. the third can be shorter and thinner)
• old leather purse (could be any material, should have a strap and be fairly small)
• drill with 1/8″ and 3/16″ drill bits
• throw blanket
• thermos
• two mugs
• needle and thread (heavy duty thread and strong needle for leather or heavy weight fabric)
• super glue or e-6000
• scissors
• two standard pencils, un-sharpened (or a dowel the same length)
• twine
• big eyed needle (to fit the twine)
• sew on snaps (available at craft or fabric stores)
• pen

Instructions

check out the website for more pictures!

1. roll up your blanket and get your thermos. wrap the two long belts around the blanket so it is held snugly. you will probably need to add belt holes to the strap because it is much smaller than a waist would be. mark on the inside of each belt where the hole should be to snugly fit the blanket.

2. drill through the belts to create holes at the spots you marked. re-belt your blanket to check your new holes and adjust if necessary. your belts should be spaced about 8″ apart from each other on the blanket.

3. with the belts closed around the blanket take the end of the straps that extends past the buckle and wrap around the thermos. then slide the belt strap back through the leather belt loop that sits near the buckle (the loop uses to hold the belt strap against the body if there’s extra). pulling this snugly should create a firm grip on your thermos, and you should still have a good amount of belt strap left on each side. if your belts are the same length, this is ideal and you will have the same amount remaining on both sides.

4. take a sew-on snap and place it near the end of one belt strap on the inner side of the strap. using a pen, mark the holes in the snap on the belt (these are the spaces where you would sew through to connect the snap to fabric). drill holes through each of these marks with the 1/8″ drill bit. this is going to make sewing much easier. if you have a needle and thread (and muscle!) that can handle thick leather, then you can just sew the snap on. but i used the drill holes to pass the thread through, and sewed the top half of the snap on that way.

5. when the top of the snap is secure, connect it to the bottom of the snap. slide the handle of a mug onto the belt strap and pull the belt strap tight, marking where the snap lands on the belt when it is pulled taught. this is where the bottom of the snap should go. mark it with a pen and drill holes like you did in step 4 (you will need to take the belt off the blanket to drill through this part, because it lays against the blanket.)

6. sew the bottom half of the snap onto the strap of the belt. when you are done, put the belt back on the blanket and the thermos, slide the mug handle on again and make sure the snap reaches its bottom half and snaps securely.

7. repeat steps 4 – 6 with the second belt.

8. take the purse and push the strap through behind the two main belts on the opposite side from the mugs. cut the strap so that the two sides will meet in the middle and that the total length is just the width of the distance between the two main belts.

9. sew the now shorter purse straps together in the middle to create a closed strap. disassemble your pack and loop the belt straps over the purse strap so that the purse is hanging on the opposite side of the blanket from the mugs.

9. with the blanket, thermos, purse, and mugs secured by the belts, take the third belt and slide it underneath the two belts at the top of the blanket roll. this will be your handle buckle the belt to create a closed circle, and hang the pack on your shoulder to gauge where the weight distributes.

10. when you have determined where the handle needs to be for the pack to hang correctly, hold it in place and mark the third belt on either side of where the two main belts hit it. mark on the two main belts where the third belt hits it as well

11. disassemble the pack and hold the third belt underneath the two main belts where you marked. at the intersection of the straps and the handle, drill four holes through both the main belt and the third belt with the 3/16″ bit.

12. thread your bug eye needle with twine and sew a criss-cross pattern through the four holes, securing the two belts tightly together. repeat this with the second strap.

13. now the handle is secured to the two main belts. you should reassemble here and check that everything is in the right place.

14. disassemble again and flip the belts upside down so you are looking at the underside of the handle and where ti meets both main belts. tie the two pencils (or dowel) onto the underside with twine right along the center of the underside of the strap. this will give the strap more strength and keep the belts from pulling towards each other with the weight of the pack.

15. take the leftover purse strap (or twine, or handlebar tape if you prefer – any of that will work but i like the consistency of using the purse material) and glue the one end to the pencils right at the edge of where the handle meets the left main belt strap. continue to wrap it around the handle and the pencils, securing with glue on the pencil side, until you reach the other edge of the handle, where it meets the right main belt strap. glue to the pencils to secure and cut any extra purse strap. now you have a nice, wrapped, reinforced handle.

16. reassemble everything and fill your pack!

Photos and recipe courtesy of Peas Love Carrots

Make board game night funner with pieces you can actually eat! We’re so glad to see that someone who shares our love for Scrabble and cookies had the brilliance to come up with these tasty treats! You can choose to make the cookies larger for easy snacking, or  actual size, and play a truly tempting game of Scrabble. Winner eats all!

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups AP flour
• 1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter cut into 14 pieces, at room temperature
• 1 cup superfine sugar (you can also pulse granulated sugar in a food processor for 1 minute)
• 1/2 teaspoon table salt
• 1 large egg yolk
• 1 large egg
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 4 ounces melted semisweet baking chocolate
• The zest of 1 orange
• 1 cup chocolate ganache or edible black marker

Directions

1. On medium speed, mix butter, sugar and salt unti fluffy
2. Add egg yolk, whole egg, zest and vanilla and mix until well blended
3. Reduce speed to low and add flour slowly until well combined
4. Divide dough half, wrap and refigerate unti firm – at least 1 hour and up to 2 days
5. Preheat oven to 375 degree F and prepare 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper or Silpat
6. On a well-floured surface, roll out your first round to a 14 inch thick then drizzle over half your melted chocolate
7. Knead the dough loosely to incorporate the chocolate just so you see streaks in the dough
8. Re-flour your surface and roll dough out to 1/8 inch thick
9. Cut cookies to desired size using a ruler and a sharp knife: 2 inches by 1 1/4 inches for large cookies, 2.5 cm by 2 cm for “actual size” cookies”
10. Repeat process with second dough half
11. Place cookies on baking sheets, and place sheets into oven (one on lower rack, one on upper)
12. Bake for 5 – 7 minutes, rotating sheets half way thru baking (watch closely for browning)
13. Cook and decorate either with melted ganache or edible marker (recommended for smaller cookies)

Makes approx 2 dozen large Scrabble cookies, or a whole boards’ worth of the “actual size”!

The wine duo includes a bottle each of Andretti 2006 Montona Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon and Andretti 2003 Montona Reserve Zinfandel Port (375ml), marked down over 50% when purchased as a pair! They hail from the legendary Napa Valley, on Mario Andretti and Joe Antonini’s Old World Italian vineyard. The Sauvignon marries notes of blackberry, cassis, rhubarb and cranberry, while the limited edition Zinfandel Port captures dark chocolate, blackberry and caramel.

Photo courtesy of Andretti Winery

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Pop open a bottle and sit back with these custom hand-painted wine glasses! Providing an alternative to generic wine glasses, HuePhoria offers hand-blown, hand-painted, dishwasher safe stemware with a unique painted ball design. Your guests will never lose track of which glass is theirs from now on! They offer a grand selection of wine and martini glasses, salt and pepper shakers, and decorative ornaments as well!

Photo courtesy of HuePhoria

Note: This post includes products provided to us by the brands and/or their representatives.

photo and instructions courtesy of Design*Sponge

Want to impress your date with a twist of the wrist? Save the tops of your champagne bottles for this party-trick that turns them into a mini bistro chair! Little crafts like this that both recycle your garbage and are easy enough to drink even after a bottle of champagne are the best!

Materials

• wire cage from a bottle of champagne
• wire cutters or heavy duty scissors

Instructions

check out the website for step-by-step pictures!

1. Cut the center back of the lower loop on you cage.
2. Remove bottom wire fully and straight as much as possible. This is pretty heavy gauge wire, but you’re tough, you can handle it.
3. Twist your straight piece of wire to form a back. Remove the seat.
4. Twist the back of the chair onto the legs and trim excess.
5. Replace seat and bow the legs slightly so the seat remains in place.

Photo and recipe courtesy of Our Best Bites

With both Valentine’s Day and Chinese New Year coming up this weekend, we’re in major celebration mode! Both holidays are about spending time with loved ones so who says you have to choose just one? These chocolate-dipped fortune cookies bring you the best of both worlds. The homemade fortune cookies are nothing like the tooth-chippers you have at the end of a Chinese buffet either – more like a thin sugar cookie! Four simple ingredients allow the sweet, vanilla fragrance to come through. Slipt in a personalized fortune, and you’re

Ingredients

• 1/2 C flour- If you have bread flour, use it.
• 1/2 C sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla- or sometimes I use 1/2 almond 1/2 vanilla
• 2 egg whites

Directions

1. Place all ingredients in a food processor and blend to combine. Place in a container and chill 1 hour.
2. Preheat oven to 400°. Cover a baking sheet with parchment paper. 
3. Draw 3-4 (3-inch) circles on paper. Turn paper over.
4. Spoon 1 teaspoon batter into center of each of the drawn circles; spread evenly to fill circle.
5. Bake at 400° for 5-6 minutes or until the cookies are brown just around the edges and a little toward the centers.
6. Remove from the oven. Let sit for a few seconds before removing from pan. Working quickly, loosen edges of cookies with a spatula, and turn over. (Note the 3 baking methods described in the post above. You might find that one of those works better for you)
7. Place fortune along the center of 1 cookie. Fold cookie over so the edges meet ; press edges together. Gently pull the ends of the cookie down over the rim of a small bowl (or jar); hold for a few seconds or until set.
8. Repeat procedure with remaining cookies.

Makes about 24 cookies.

Photo courtesy of Pig Pig’s Corner

Nothing says Superbowl season better than a big pile of warm BBQ ribs! These morsels make great finger food, while still being tender enough to fall off the bone when you dig in. Instead of using a traditional barbecue sauce, this recipe calls for Asian flavors that are sweet, spicy, and amazingly fragrant to stand up to the smoky, charred meat. The best part about it is that you don’t need to clean off the grill, or smoke your neighbors out of their backyard, because it’s all done in the oven! There’s no excuse not to make this any day of the year!

Ingredients

• 1.2 kg pork ribs
• 1/2 bulb garlic – peeled and minced

For marinade:

• 2 tbs maltose
• 2 tbs agave nectar (or honey)
• 2 tbs char siu sauce
• 2 tbs soy sauce
• 2 tbs Shaoxing wine
• 1/2 tsp white pepper powder
• 1 tsp five-spice powder
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 1 tsp red chili flakes

For glaze:

• 1 tbs water
• 1 tbs char siu sauce
• 1 tbs honey

Directions

1. Put all marinade ingredients in a microwave-safe bowl, microwave for about 30 secs then whisk to combine.
2. Mix together pork, garlic and marinade ingredients, marinate for at least 1 hr or even better overnight.
3. Preheat oven to 160°C.
4. Line a baking tray with aluminium foil.
5. Arrange ribs on foil, pour all the marinade liquid on ribs, cover tightly with more foil.
6. Braise the ribs in the oven for 2 hrs.
7. Remove ribs from oven, uncover carefully as a lot of steam will escape.
8. Switch oven to broil mode.
9. Brush the glaze onto the ribs.
10. Place under the broiler and broil until the glaze caramelises slightly. Keep a close look as they burn easily!
11. Brush another layer of glaze onto ribs, continue to broil until slightly charred.
12. Flip the ribs over and repeat the glazing and broiling steps.

Photo courtesy of Giver’s Log

The folks at Giver’s Log have found possibly the best use for wafer paper ever – as wrapping for a Valentine’s cake! Break out your brushes and some food coloring and write someone a letter about how you really feel, for any occasion! All that’s left to do is wrap it over your favorite cake, and voila – a sweet new way to communicate!