November 2005 • Deep Fried Kudzu

November 29, 2005August 17, 2017

Perfume Sachets from the new Martha Show

The November 15th Martha Stewart daytime show included how to make perfume sachets. The thing that made these different was that perfume was sprayed onto rice (which she says holds the scent) and then tucked into little squares of fabric that were sewn.

I made these while watching television – it only took about twenty minutes to set everything up and make five sachets.

To make them, you’ll need plain, uncooked rice (1/2 lb=about 5 sachets), fabric, ribbon or twine, scissors, disposable cups, and perfume.

Here are the instructions:

First, fill a disposable cup about 1/5 – 1/4 full of the uncooked rice, and spray inside three or four times with one of your favorite perfumes. You can jiggle the cup while you’re spraying so that more of the rice gets scented.

Next, cut a piece of fabric about the same size as a sheet of paper (8-1/2 x 11). I used a pretty fabric with a lace quality (although there weren’t any holes large enough for the rice to slip through). Overturn the scented cup of rice onto the center of the fabric:

Gather the corners, and tie tightly with twine or ribbon.

Gather the top of the fabric now that it’s been tied and the rice forms a pouch at the bottom. Cut the fabric straight across the top – when you do, you’ll see that the top is even all around and looks really nice.

I made five sachets: Bobbi Brown Beach, Jil Sander #4, Fresh Wisteria, Fracas de Robert Piguet, and Ciara – which was my Nanny’s favorite perfume and is sentimental to me

The little sachets turned out great! BTW, when Martha made them on her show (her instructions are here), she sewed pieces of fabric together to make square sachets – I decided to make my sachets this way so that no sewing was involved and months later from now when they are losing their scent, I can simply untie them, give the rice a spray or two, and tie back up. Nice!

November 29, 2005August 17, 2017

How to Make a Magnolia Garland

I got some magnolia leaves and decided to make a pretty garland. I figure I can get at least three uses out of the garland each year: I can hang it at Chanukah (decorating with a runner of blue and silver ribbons), drape it on a table with other plants at Tu B’Shevat, and also use it to decorate the sukkah each year. If I get really inspired, I might make more garlands just so they’ll make the sukkah look even more pretty.

Magnolia leaves are beautiful when they’re fresh and they dry beautifully too, so you can find other uses for them.

If you want to use a magnolia garland as one of your Christmas decorations, just add red or green ribbon, or hot-glue some holly in so it looks Christmas-y. Garland doesn’t ‘belong’ to any religious tradition, so since it’s a winter thing, I imagine that it would be really neat no matter what you happen to celebrate (or if you don’t celebrate anything, just a nice part of the outdoors to have inside the home) – just add something to it so that it reflects who *you* are.

Anyway, this was my first time to make a magnolia garland, but it turned out to be just so easy.

You’ll need magnolia leaves (my garland used about 250), green floral wire, hot glue gun, snippers to cut the floral wire, and pretty ribbon to decorate and hang the garland once you’re done. This project took me about two hours to complete:

(Above:) I took three magnolia leaves at a time and twisted floral wire around each one. I tried to keep the garland in this pattern – one leaf to the right, one leaf in the middle, one leaf to the left. Every now and then, turn the magnolia leaf over so that the pretty bronze side of the leaf shows. Just add each new leaf at the bottom of the one before it so you keep working ‘down’.

(Above:) Before long, you’ll have a nice length of garland! The leaves that I turned over to show their pretty bronze side make it even nicer.

Once you have a length of garland long enough for where you want to hang it, turn the whole thing over, and just hot-glue some leaves over where the floral wire shows. It’ll only take a minute to do this part.

(Above:) Next, just tie ribbon around each end of the garland, and hang it! I put some pretty blue/silver ribbons around the garland it so it really ties in with my menorahs and candles. If you like, you could put your garland down the center of the dining table with some candles around – that would be pretty, too.

November 29, 2005August 17, 2017

Buckeye Garland

I think buckeyes are really pretty, and I got an idea to make them into a garland for my fireplace mantel. I got 50 jumbo buckeyes from a gentleman selling them on eBay, used mono filament for string (it’s in the jewelry section at the crafts store), and in between each of the buckeyes, I strung on four 4mm silver beads. In the picture below, I also show some tiny blue beads, but they were too small to be threaded on with the needle (regular sewing needle) I used.

This project was so easy! Av took the buckeyes, and with a very small drill bit, just drilled a hole right through each of them. I threaded a line of mono filament onto a regular sewing needle, slipped it through a buckeye, then four silver beads went on, then another buckeye, etc. until they were all on! To make the garland look ‘finished’, I just secured each end of the garland with ribbon, and tied each of those ends into a bow. The whole project was was super-simple and took maybe 45 minutes to complete.

November 27, 2005August 17, 2017

Recovering Bookcase Shelves, Updating Fireplace

I’ve been thinking that it might be nice to place fabric at the backs of the built-in bookcases in our living room….that whole end of the room seems just really white and a little boring. I was originally thinking of using MDF and covering that with fabric, but just last week, the Style Network (which is running the old episodes of Martha Stewart Living) had an episode of MSL dated 2005 and called the ‘special decorating show’….and on this show, Martha was decorating a curio cabinet just like I was thinking, except she used foam board as the base. What a great idea! Seeing the show gave me new inspiration for finally doing this project – and using her idea for foam board rather than MDF….

Just hot-glue fabric around the foam board (at Office Depot), making a hole with an Exacto if you need to make space for an electrical outlet, it’s just that easy:

November 24, 2005August 17, 2017

Chocolate Bourbon Pecan Pie

Here’s the pie I made for Av’s family Thanksgiving – it’s a pecan pie with bourbon and chocolate. Here’s the recipe and pictures:

Chocolate Bourbon Pecan Pie

3 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 c. sugar
2 tbsp. butter, melted and cooled (so it’s not super-hot when you add it to the bowl)
1 c. corn syrup (Karo)
1 tsp. vanilla
1/4 c. bourbon – I used Maker’s Mark
semi-sweet chocolate chips (enough to cover the bottom of the pie crust)
pecans (enough to cover the bottom of the pie crust)
pie crust

Directions:

Put chocolate chips in to cover the bottom of the pie crust (that’s a pre-made piecrust here — when I make so many at Thanksgiving, I go this route):

…then, cover that with pecans. This all floats to the top when the pie cooks, so don’t worry about adding the pecans to the liquid mixture:

Stir together in a bowl the sugar, eggs, butter, corn syrup, vanilla, and bourbon:

…pour that into the pie crust (the pecan pieces float right up to the top):

Bake at 375* for 40-60 minutes until it doesn’t jiggle in the middle (but be careful not to overcook). This one came out perfectly…can’t wait to have it for Thanksgiving supper!

November 24, 2005August 17, 2017

Thanksgiving Pies

Well, I *just* got done making all my pies for this Thanksgiving! Here’s my inventory that I started with:

…and ten hours later here are most of the pies (I always make 25+ pies for a church that serves lunch on T’giving for a big crowd of hungry people in their neighborhood, plus another couple for Av’s family’s Thanksgiving). Below are pumpkin, pecan, apple, hot fudge, and buttermilk coconut pies.

If you like coconut pies, here’s the recipe I use – it’s soooo simple, and the pie always turns out *wonderfully*:

Buttermilk Coconut Pie
1-1/2 c. sugar
2 Tbsp. flour
1 stick butter
3 eggs, beaten
1/2 c. buttermilk
1 tsp. vanilla
grated coconut – use as much or as little as you like – I use about 1/3 the bag per pie
pie crust

Preheat the oven to 350*. Meanwhile, mix everything together. Once the oven gets to 350*, pour the mixture into your pie crust, and bake for 45 -60 minutes. When the top gets golden and doesn’t jiggle in the middle, it’s done!