Sugar & Cloth

Hands down one of my favorite food bloggers is Melissa, the magician and all around sweetheart behind The Faux Martha. Not only does she have pictures pretty enough to take a bite out of, but if there is a tip or trick to be had, she’s got that too.

For a little last minute Easter weekend prep, I picked out a few recipes to try over your (hopefully) long weekend…

pictured bird’s nest macaroons

Always a favorite, mascarpone french toast.

A sure way to anyone’s heart, salted dark chocolate nutella cookies.

And a fun last minute addition to Easter eggs, homemade marshmallows.

For those of you that couldn’t be at the Ikea DIY event a few weeks ago, you can catch the flavored drink recipe portion on the Ikea Houston blog! Trust me, you’ll really like this one. Plus it’s crazy simple and you could make jugs of it in about the same time frame that it takes to eat a cupcake. It’s been proven, take my word for it.

Most of the time I claim that green is my favorite color, when clearly I’m just in denial of being a pink kind of girl. Regardless, I love St. Patrick’s Day mostly for being given good reason to make everything green.

To make sure you’re the one pinching and not being pinched, I’ve put together a simple DIY paper backdrop and sweet recipe to incorporate into your holiday (or if you just like the green, I don’t blame you).

Materials:

• Martha Stewart decorative circle punch
• card stock
• tape

First, insert your circle punch of choice onto the track. Select how many inches you’d like the circle to be (6-12 inches), both on the slider on the side, and the bottom plate.

Place the cardstock center over the magnetic circles, and let the magnetic knob and main punch into place over top of their specific magnets.

Press the punch down, then rotate the knob one time, and press the punch again.  Repeat until the circle is fully cut-out.Once you have as many circles as you’d like, use a piece of looped tape to tape them into place for your backdrop.

Ingredients for the Irish peppermint shake (1 serving)

• 6 ice cubes
• 2 scoops of vanilla ice cream
• 1 drop or 1 of peppermint extract
• green food coloring
• whipped cream for topping
• spalsh of Irish cream or liquor

Blend all of the ingredients together, and then top with whipped cream. Add a striped straw, and they’re ready to serve!

To be honest with you, I don’t always make things from scratch. Not that I don’t think things are better that way, it’s just that I don’t always have the time or it ends up taking so long that I don’t even care by the time I get the finished product. When you add all of that on top of packing up our house to move in a week, the last thing I have time to do is bake from scratch.

To keep the pretty and the practical in check for Valentine’s Day this year, I cheated by making these ten minute ombre chocolates. They’re so easy that I almost feel bad for telling you how I made these, but not sharing would be depriving the world of lots of pink this Thursday, so I’ll soldier on.

Ingredients:

• Lindt white chocolate truffles
• Royal icing or cookie icing packets

Separate each of your icing colors into dishes. If you’re mixing colors for the ombre effect, be sure to stir them really well.

Microwave each color for 7 seconds and then drizzle your truffles with icing using a fork, simple as that!

Can I confide in you a little secret? I actually go to sleep excited for breakfast the next morning, particularly coffee. My beloved morning coffee is hands down my addiction of choice, but sometimes I get tired of hot coffee (especially living in Houston). On the flip-side, I’m not a exactly a morning person either, sooo to make a long story short(er) I’ve fallen in love with this simple iced-coffee recipe… fair warning, though, this post may not be for the coffee-snobs out there.

Ingredients:

• 3 tsp. instant coffee
• 1 cup of milk (or use cream, your choice)
• 2 tsp. flavored syrup (I used sugar-free vanilla)
• 3 tsbp. warm water
• Ice

Combine the warm water and instant coffee in your cup, and stir really well. I like my coffee strong so I use 3 teaspoons of the coffee grounds, but two will work. Add in your flavored syrup, milk, and ice and stir once more, than you’re good to go!