Mascarpone and Chocolate Stuffed French Toast with Homemade Strawberry Sauce

Please excuse the Dora plate, this batch was for my kids...I am thinking I need to buy some pretty plates for pics.

This post is three recipes in one.

You'll learn how to make my basic french toast,

stuffed french toast, and homemade strawberry sauce.

The other day when I went to WalMart,

they had packages of strawberries for $1 each.

With all my best intentions of making jam,

I picked up four packages.

Well, as you know strawberries are a fickle fruit.

You must eat them within a day or two or they will go bad.

After the hubby said he didn't have time to help me do the canning,

I set out to use up those strawberries.

We gave a pack to Grandma...

We ate strawberries with breakfast and for snack...

Yet two days later, we still had more berries and they were getting very ripe so I had to make something with the last package.

I started by hulling my strawberries.

(FYI- hulling is just a fancy word for cutting the stem and surrounding white part off)

Then I quartered my berries and put them in a sauce pan with two cups of water, a cup of sugar, half a tsp of salt and a half cup of clear corn syrup. Bring to a simmer and let it boil lightly 

for ten or so minutes. It will look like this:

Then, use a slotted spoon to remove the berries and set them aside, then put the mixture back on the heat and bring to a rolling boil for a few minutes to reduce and thicken the mixture.

Don't let it boil over.

You will have a huge mess.

After your mixture has thickened, add your strawberries back in.

(the reason you take the berries out is so that they keep their shape and not turn to mush)

To store, keep in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.

You can also freeze this sauce:

Once its completely cooled, 

store in freezer containers for up to four months.

ON TO THE FRENCH TOAST-

Here is my basic french toast batter we will be using-

(I find one egg makes 2 pieces of french toast, 

so multiply accordingly to suite your needs)

Yields- 8 pieces of french toast or 4 stuffed

8 pieces of bread

4 eggs

pinch of salt

1 tsp of vanilla

a good shake of cinnamon

whisk together in a flat baking dish (I use a pie plate)

soak bread in mixture long enough to coat

cook over med-high heat just as you would grilled cheese

HOW TO STUFF FRENCH TOAST:

Mix together softened mascarpone cheese with chocolate chips.

(mascarpone is like a lighter, Italian version of cream cheese found in the specialty cheese 

sections of most larger grocery stores, I found mine at WalMart.)

Spread your mascarpone mixture onto one side of two pieces of bread and put them together like a sandwich.

Press lightly around the edges to form a seal 

so the goodies stay inside the french toast.

Dip  and coat your "sandwich" in the egg mixture, 

and cook like a grilled cheese.

Yum... I just made myself hungry for it all over again.

Hmm...I have leftover sauce and cheese filling,

I think I am going to go make it again right now!

Here it is again in all its glory...

Yes, in all its D-D-D-D-Dora glory. LOL

Wedding Guest Book Makeover

I have been helping to plan one of my best friend's weddings.

I am doing all the decor and little details.

I found our guest book at a garage sale in a box of other

wedding stuff for ten bucks. There was also a cake topper,

plastic disposable champagne glasses, and more...

I figured all in all I paid about three dollars for this brand new Martha Stewart guest book still in the original plastic.

Yes, its nice, but that grey ribbon is NOT.

Her colors are pale pink and dark brown, 

so the grey was not going to work.

I figured it wouldn't be too hard to replace the ribbon.

well...

I couldn't find 1" grosgrain ribbon anywhere. Thanks, Martha.

I bet she sells it, but her stuff is overly expensive in my opinion.

So I went home hoping the 3/4" pink satin ribbon 

I already had would somehow work.

I started by cutting the ribbon with my Xacto knife 

where it goes under the protective sheet. 

Then I began to gently pull it off, being careful not to rip the book.

Yeah, right...

I tried not to tear the book.

Martha apparently uses some really good glue.

That poor guest book ripped to shreds...

LOOK!

It was at this point that I crossed my fingers 

and hoped for the best.

Time to try out the never ending roll of ribbon.

*crossing fingers*

This ribbon has also been used here and here.

I laid it out across the giant rip, and....

THANK GOODNESS, it worked.

It just barely covered the rip.

I used fabric glue and a paint brush to smear it onto the rip.

That worked fine until I saw a brown brush bristle under the ribbon.

NOT OK, I switched to Q-tips. Then I smoothed down the ribbon and wrapped it around the edges of the book.

I sure hope that glue dries clear...*more crossing of fingers*

Well, that darn glue DID NOT dry clear.

Well...I will deal with that later.

I need time to figure out what to do.

I attempted to distract myself by making 

something for the picture frame...

I found a perfect piece of brown scrapbook paper

and used pink chalk ink to stencil the monogram.

M is for her name, J is for his,

and the O is for their last name.

Then I cut it out using the piece of paper that had been 

in the frame as a template.

Then, I faced yet another issue...

The photo corners...ugh.

I got out my Xacto knife and used it like a seam ripper.

Then I put my monogrammed paper in...

and got this.

GREAT!

I have ribbon threads showing up on my brown paper!

NOT PRETTY!

Now what?

I tried to use my Xacto knife to get them out,

but that did not work.

Then I had a brilliant idea...

I glued a thin strip of pink ribbon around the inside 

of the frame to hide the threads.

Next, I needed to adress the pink ribbon that 

had the glue showing through...you could still see it.

I thought about making a few ribbon and lace

rosettes  to put along the top third of the ribbon...

but as you will see later, I used rosettes elsewhere 

and didn't want to over-do it.

Then I thought I should add another "floating" ribbon.

Meaning, I would just tack it down on the inside of the book 

and let it "float" on top of the other, wider ribbon.

I found a perfect, sheer pink ribbon and layered it on top.

That worked, but I can still see the glue 

through the ribbon a little bit.

Now I am wondering if I should add a bow like the original one.

Then my husband comes in and says he can't even read the monogram...Seriously? Now?

So, I took his advice and hand painted with pink paint right

over top of the chalk...

Are you ready to see the before and after?

Before:

and....wait for it,

wait for it...

AFTER:

I am pretty pleased with the results too!

Transforming Goodwill Plates

So, I have this silver colored plate rack.

It was one of the first items I ever bought full price for my home.

I have had it since my first apartment, and unfortunately,

it has been sitting in a corner for a few years.

I used to use it for 3 picture frames that are long past gone.

I saw it laying upstairs looking pathetic and thought to myself...

SELF, you need to do something with this or get rid of it.

The hoarder collector in me picked the first option.

Then, I was on a mission...

a mission to find three red plates of the same size...

 I found some lovely plates at WalMart, 

but at 7 bucks a pop, I gently put them back....

I was planning on painting words on them anyway.

I looked...

and looked...

and looked some more.

I was DETERMINED not to pay over a couple bucks each.

That meant I needed to get them used.

Well, red plates are hard to find.

Then I saw someone (wish I could remember who)

out in blog land who spray painted their plates.

Genius Move!

Especially since we weren't going to be eating off of them...

First, I found 3 plain plates at goodwill and paid .59 each.

Next, I got a dollar can of spray paint from WM.

Then, I went to town on those plates.

I could have SWORN I took pictures of this project, but...

EH, guess not. Use your imagination.

I wanted to put the plate rack in my 50's inspired kitchen,

so I thought a food inspired quote or saying was in order.

I came up with "eat, drink, and be merry".

I blew the words up to the size I needed and

printed them out on my home computer printer.

Then I traced around the letters with a pencil on the BACK SIDE

of the paper so that when I turned it over and smoothed it down really well, I had a very faint impression of the words to use as a guide to paint the words. I used a paint pen for precision.

Does that make sense? I hope so, 

I don't know how to explain it any better.

This is why I take pictures...ugh.

Well, I do have a picture of the finished product...

Wanna see?

In hindsight (always) I wish I'd placed the

"be merry" a little more centered.

But those words were very time consuming,

and I didn't want to repaint the whole plate.

I recommend using a stencil, not the way I did it.

It worked, but it was doing things the hard way.

Labeling Fabric Storage Bins

This one was completely free thanks to the WM paint department. I needed to label my son's storage bins so he knew where everything went....trust me that this is crucial in my family. I, of course, wanted to spend as little as possible on this. I came up with the idea of using BH&G paint sample cards from WM. They are a nice thickness and already had a circle cut out so somehow I knew they were destined for something more...

I have a lot of projects in mind for these, amazingly enough one of those is to actually pick colors to paint my interior walls....so I don't feel bad, I'm just freeloading recycling.

I cut off the parts at both ends that were printed with my handy dandy x-acto knife. I cut the first one and then used it as a template for the rest so that they were the same size. I just hand wrote the contents on each label...oh if only I had my Silhouette...I will remake them and laminate them when I get it...but I digress... I dug and found some black wrapping ribbon and knotted them onto the handle of each fabric bin, tying them snugly. I then cut off the excess ribbon pretty close to the knot so that I could turn the knot to the inside and you'd never see any ends. And....Voila! Here it is, and my son loves it...he even thanked me :)

Now if only it could stay looking just like this...FAT CHANCE!

Tin Can Organization

This was what I started with.

We recycle. We feel an obligation to our earth to find ways to reuse things that would otherwise end up in a landfill. SOMETIMES my creative mind allows me to find ways to reuse items before they get sent to the recycling center. This was one of those times.

I wanted something to store my little girl's combs and hairbrush in, but of course didn't want to spend much money.

I had all of the materials on hand:
-2 tin cans

-gluing up my paper and painted cans

-spray paint (Sweet Pea by American Accents)
-scrapbook paper
-mod podge decoupaging glue

I started by picking out a couple of tin cans from the recycling bin. Then I scrubbed them up and let them dry before spray painting them. Once the paint was completely dry, I found some scrapbook paper that would look cute in her room and decoupaged them.

Decoupaging is as easy as gluing but it does take some practice to get professional-ish results. The glue goes on white but dries clear.  I also finish each item by putting on a final layer of mod podge over the entire surface to help 

-gluing the paper on

seal it. If you want a professional wipeable surface, finish 

with a polyurethane sealer. I find on items with texture, 

like this can, it works best to smooth the paper and glue down to the textured surface with your fingers. In hindsight (always), I would have used a darker paper because I somehow got it a little dirty distressed when using my fingers.

Also in hindsight, I probably will check to be sure that I put the paper on IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION. Two people watching me and a whole project later, I realized the paper was on 

sideways. Ugh. Live and learn, I guess. Thank 

goodness my daughter can't read yet anyway.

Here it is in action...now where are those combs?

After it dried, I put it into place and I think it looks 

pretty darn cute...and just in case you are wondering, yes I bought my one year old a jewelry 

holder and she only owns one pair of earrings.  I 

couldn't wait to have a little girl so I may go on 

girly overboard at times, don't hate on me for it.

I made two though...

So then I thought, what else can these be used for? Well, now I need to make a lot more because I am going to store the kids big pieces of chalk to take outside in one, crayons in another and a couple for my paintbrushes. I also have another idea but I am not going to reveal it right now....

So stay tuned for that exciting project...it is a 

really cool idea, so make sure you come back to 

check it out.

Mini-Project: Green Grocery List

This was really easy. I wanted to have a place to jot down grocery items when I use the last of something. I thought that it would be best if I had it near my pantry and fridge as well. I also didnt need one more thing cluttering up the walls....there is already plenty, so I settled on using chalkboard paint because its a pretty green medium, theres no paper to buy or recycle. I painted it on the inside door of a cupboard between my pantry and refrigerator. In hindsight, I wish I would have used painter's tape to mask out my shape instead of free handing it. Not that its too misshapen, I can live with it that way since its inside the cupboard. Another idea is to simply take a photo of the list on your camera phone before you head to the store. 

Painted Knife Block

I don't know why it never occurred to me to spruce up my knife block, it just didn't. I "inherited" this knife block (not this ACTUAL one, but one very similar. I forgot to take a before pic) from my husband's apartment stuff when we got married. I didn't think much of it, in fact I never gave it ANY thought at all. Until one day in blog land I saw that someone had painted their knife block in this pretty solid barn red. Well, I thought, it cant get any uglier, lets give it a go....

First I took the knives out and washed it really well....or so I thought. Then I started to sand the lacquer off and realized that there was a very heavy film of dirty grossness covering it. So I cleaned it with an SOS pad and this time it worked like a charm. After I got it really clean, I sanded it down, revealing a beautiful wood grain not previously able to be seen through the grime.

Then I took it out to my yard and gave it a first coat of cherry red spray paint. As any good spray painter knows, spray paint goes on best in layers. So about ten minutes later, I went out to give it another coat of paint and realized I liked it just the way it was, with that beautiful wood grain peeking through the red. I decided to leave it like that...I could always add paint later...and Im glad I did, I think it looks awesome. What do you think?

Chalkboard Labels-

Here's another one thats just too easy...

I already had my chalkboard paint out, so I thought "What else needs chalkboarded around here?"

Well, here it is...Labeled Canisters, now you can just read whats inside instead of opening it up and breaking the air seal. All I did was put a double layer "swatch" on each one. I would have written on them for the picture but they were still a little bit tacky. I can't wait to label them!

Mini-Project: Tabletop chalkboard

This one was so easy, I hardly have anything to write...

I started out with an old frame with no glass.
It did have the cardboard backing that makes it stand up. I simply painted that cardboard backing with chalkboard paint and spray painted my frame to match Stella's room. Voila, instant tabletop chalkboard!

Avocado Tricks

I have heard it through the grape vine....hehehe that some people are intimidated by avocados. If you fall into that category or just dont know to treat them, then this post is for you.


Halving and Coring an Avocado- 
Stand your avocado on its fat bottom and slice straight down through the core on top until you hit core. Then with your knife blade still against the core, turn your avocado until you have cut all the way around. Remove your knife and take one half of the avocado in each hand and twist in opposite directions. You should now have two halves with the core in one half. Take your large chef's knife and whack the heel (nearest part to the handle) of your blade into the core, wedging it in. Twist knife, which should twist your core right out without disturbing the avocado's flesh.


Slowing your avocado's browning-
For short term (couple of hours) preservation, rinse your halved avocados in very cold water.
For longer term preservation (1-2 days) spritz lemon or lime juice over avocado half. Of course then seal in plastic. If preserving a mashed avocado (guacamole) make sure to put plenty of citrus juice on every surface that hits air and top with a lid. AIR is the browning enemy. 


Dicing your halved avocado- 

Cut straight parallel lines across your avocado with about 1/4-1/2" in between, going slow so that when you hit your peel you stop, not cutting through it....just up to it. You could even use a butter knife for this step. Next turn your avocado 180 degrees and do the same thing going the other way. When you are done your avocado should look like this one. Then simply either turn your avocado peel inside out, releasing the flesh OR peel away the peel. Either way you will have lovely square avocado cuts.

Banana Bread Trick

Don't throw away those old bananas! I have a trick that will end up saving your family a ton of money...as long as you enjoy banana bread...


*As everyone knows, when your bananas get past the ripeness you like, you make banana bread, right? Well...what if you didn't have the time when the bananas were ready? Here's what you do....freeze them right in the peel. Then, take them out one by one as you need them and let them thaw in a bowl until you're ready for them. When ready, just snip banana at stem with kitchen shears and squeeze banana and juices out into a bowl, you wont even need to chop it up, the freezer kinda turns it into a chunky sauce that is perfect for banana bread. NOTE- DO NOT WORRY, your bananas will look like the ones above, the freezer turns the peels black.