hipsteaders

June 18, 2013
by ChelsnJo Leave a comment

DIY First Aid Kit

‘Tis the season for hiking, camping and backpacking. This year I decided to fix up our first aid kit,which consisted of a series of plastic bags filled with various ‘safe’ things. You can buy very expensive pre-made first aid kits but it’s unnecessary. Here’s a list of things you’ll need to stock your kit that I compiled from research and my own experience. It’s definitely not comprehensive so start here and add whatever you see fit to your kit.

You’ll need:

Bandages of various shapes and sizes including the butterfly style for closing larger wounds
Liquid bandage like New Skin
Waterproof tape
Gauze pads
ACE bandage
A bandana and some safety pins for making a sling
Moleskin for blisters
Waterproof matches and fire starter
Water purification tablets or drops
Instant ice packs (these are optional but very good for sore knees on backpacking trips)
Antiseptic towelettes (you can buy first aid kit refill packets from REI with the next few items in them)
Topical antibiotic ointment
Cleansing pads with lidocaine
Pain relievers, both aspirin and Ibuprofen
Antihistamines
Imodium and Pepto for all of your tummy troubles

Now you’ll need a waterproof bag for stashing all of your supplies. Check out our tutorial for an oilcloth toiletries bag. It works great for a first aid kit container as well.

Stick all of your supplies into your homemade bag and you’re ready to safely go on all sorts of adventures this Summer!

XOXO
Chels

June 13, 2013
by ChelsnJo Leave a comment

Easy Gooey Butter Cake

We had gooey butter cake for the first time at Park Tavern, and it isn’t an exaggeration to say it was the best dessert I have ever had. Internet research revealed a popular, easy version based on cake mix and a more authentic, yeast dough kind found in St. Louis bakeries.

I would like to say I made the yeast dough version. And I definitely plan to! But with my new job starting, a move looming on the horizon, and David’s birthday right around the corner, I decided to see if the easy version was any good. Result? It’s actually hard for me to imagine anything better, despite my preference for food from scratch, but once we move to the new place I’m going to find out, using this recipe from Smitten Kitchen. But for now, armed with a box of cake mix and Paula Deen’s recipe (if you make something that has ‘butter’ in the title, Paula Deen is probably an expert), I produced this amazing result. I recreated it later for some very satisfied friends at David’s birthday party who asked for the recipe.

It is pretty much indescribable. Sweet, toasty, buttery. Here’s how to make it.

Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees and lightly grease a 9 x 13 pan. In a bowl, combine a box of yellow cake mix, one egg, and a stick (eight tablespoons) of melted butter. Smells amazing already! It’s almost like a sugar cookie dough. Press it into your pan evenly.

Now for the topping, which will have a more custard, cheesecake-like texture. Beat a box (8 oz) of softened cream cheese until smooth.

Add two eggs, one teaspoon of vanilla, and another stick of melted butter and mix well. Then, gradually add one box (16 oz) powdered sugar. You’ll end up with something that looks like cheesecake batter.

Spread this out over the top of your base.

Bake for forty-fifty minutes. It won’t be done and that’s good–you want a very gooey center! Cut yourself a big piece and top it with vanilla ice cream while it’s still hot.

XOXO

Easy Gooey Butter Cake

Ingredients

For the base:
Box of yellow cake mix
Egg
8 Tbs melted unsalted butter
For the topping:
8 oz box softened cream cheese
2 eggs
8 Tbs melted butter
1 tsp vanilla
16 oz box powdered sugar

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and lightly grease a 9 x 13 pan.
Combine cake mix, egg, and 8 Tbs melted butter. Press evenly into the bottom of pan.
Beat cream cheese until fluffy. Add eggs, butter, and vanilla. Beat until well mixed.
Add powdered sugar gradually, mixing well between each addition.
Spread the topping over the base. Bake for 40-50 minutes.

http://www.hipsteaders.com/2013/06/easy-gooey-butter-cake/

June 11, 2013
by ChelsnJo Leave a comment

DIY Chalkboard Labels for Spice Jars

It was time for my yearly spice shelf clean-up. This time around, I found several very old spices that were in very nice jars. So I decided to keep the jars and add reusable chalkboard labels to them. We buy a lot of spices in bulk so without spare jars, our spices started to get out of control.

To wrangle these bad boys back into usable condition, start by soaking and scrubbing the old labels off of the old jars

Dry the jars completely before you start to paint. When you are ready to paint, you’ll need your clean, dry jars, masking or painter’s tape, some news paper and a chalkboard paint. I opted for spray paint.

Put down some newspaper as your painting platform. Using masking tape, create squares for the chalkboard labels. Make sure to cover every part of the jar that you do not want to paint, especially if you went for the spray paint optio

Paint according to the instructions on the back of your paint can. I sprayed two coats of paint within about 5 minutes and let it dry for 24 hours.

When the paint is dry, peel off the tape, fill up your jars and write on your new chalkboard labels!

Now you can hand wash and reuse your jars for bulk spices. Just be careful not to scrub your new labels too well.

XOXO
Chels

June 7, 2013
by ChelsnJo 1 Comment

Embroidered Tea Towel

This year for my birthday, Chelsea sent me an awesome embroidery kit from The Atlanta Institute of Stitches and Crafts. What a great gift! I couldn’t wait to make it, so here it is!

If you want to make something similar, pick up a tea towel or another even-weave fabric, some embroidery floss, and a needle. You’ll also need a design to trace and some drafting paper. Or, just get a best friend who sends you cool stuff like this.

Now, place a piece of drafting paper over your tea towel and center your design on top. Use a ballpoint pen to firmly outline the design.

When you’re done, the design will be transferred to your fabric.

In your choice of color, use three strands of floss to stitch around your design. Ta-da!

XOXO

June 5, 2013
by ChelsnJo 1 Comment

DIY Crystallized Ginger

I get moderate to severe motion sickness which is my excuse to eat as much crystallized ginger as possible! Joking aside, it really does help so I decided to try to make my own. It worked so well that I now have a snack baggie full in each of our vehicles just in case we end up on a curvy mountain road! Let me share this super simple recipe with you.

All you really need is ginger, sugar and water but a little bit of special equipment such as a mandolin, a food scale, a cookie sheet and a cooling rack are very helpful.

Peel and thinly slice your ginger. I used a mandolin to cut mine 1/8 inch.

Add water and sliced ginger to a medium-sized saucepan. I used about 4 cups of water for about 1 pound of ginger. Set over medium-high heat and cook until the ginger is tender about 30 minutes. Meanwhile spray a cooling rack with nonstick spray and set it over a parchment paper-lined cookie sheet

When the ginger is tender, reserve 1/4 cup of the cooking liquid and strain it through a colander. Next weigh the ginger. Add the ginger and an equal amount by weight of sugar back to the saucepan. Stir in the reserved cooking liquid. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Stirring frequently, cook until the liquid evaporates. Then spread the ginger on the cooling rack. The sugar will recrystallize while the ginger cools.

When the ginger is cooled, it’s done!

DIY Crystallized Ginger

Ingredients

1lb ginger
4 cups water
1lb sugar

Instructions

Peel and thinly slice ginger
Combine sliced ginger and water in a medium saucepan
Cook stirring occasionally until ginger is tender about 30 minutes
Reserve 1/4 cup of the cooking liquid
Strain ginger
Weigh ginger on a food scale
Combine equal amounts of ginger and sugar by weight with the reserved cooking liquid back in the saucepan
Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, cooking stirring frequently until liquid evaporates
Spread ginger on a nonstick spray coated cooling rack over a cookie sheet
Cool to allow the sugar to recrystallize

http://www.hipsteaders.com/2013/06/diy-crystallized-ginger/

XOXO
Chels