lettuce wraps

This week I took a stab at making some simple lettuce wraps to replace bread. They are really easy to make.



I simply washed the lettuce and carefully washed each leaf. You should have tiny little bowls like above. I am thinking about using these lettuce bowl to make some taco salads and other fun lunches in the future. What else could I make with these?

I layed the lettuce leaf flat and dried it with paper towl.



I was a mayo on my sandwich type of gal, but I have switched over to using hummus as a spread. Hummus is so good, I personally love hummus with garlic, and I never looked back.

I dressed it up with some slices of turkey and jalapeno cheese. Some slices of avocado would be delightful on top of this. And simply fold the lettuce leaf over.

It was easy and delicious. It was also very light weight. It is amazing how much bread fills you. I am definitely going to be making more of these.

weekend recap

This weekend was beautiful in Connecticut. I was able to snap some photos with my phone and post them on instagram. Are you on Instagram? I have two accounts: @kampal  for my personal adventures and @blackfeathershop for all black feather shop related adventures. And I will be sure to follow along with you too!

On Thursday, I took part in an Earth Day Fair and set up my Black Feather table, so last week I spent most of my free time working on new pieces. We had so much fun meeting sweet customers. I love when people ask me questions about what certain pieces mean. I had lots of people ask me about skulls and why I use them in making jewelry. As you might know, I appreciate and enjoy creating Dia de Los Muertos art (Day of the Dead), the holiday has a special place in my heart, so when I am not painting or drawing I incorporate it in my jewelry. Also, my jewelry is bohemian and rock'n roll inspired, so the skulls give it a little edge. I love wearing skulls, and aren't we all? We are all one big skeleton and skull underneath.

And this weekend we went to the annual Daffodil festival we have around here and walked around the huge pond at the park. I went there last year, remember this? There are thousands of daffodils blooming and it was beautiful. We also went to a huge flea market where I found lovely vintage jewelry that I am going to incorporate in a few one of a kind piece. 

My favorite find was a blue marble incan carving. I fell in love with this piece as soon as I saw it. Yanni snatched it up and bought it for me. I am either going to take in to the office or I am going to have it in my closet/office to hold bracelets. Or could I use it in the bathroom as a soap holder? Decisions..decisions. It's not everyday you run into a big and beautiful incan head.

We had some yummy food and fun times! Our little tradition has been to go to the Daffodil festival and then grab japanese food right after and I just had to stop by and get some ice cream for dessert.

I am so grateful for all the wonderful things around me. The wonderful people and the wonderful opportunities of meeting new people and finding new things in life.

It was a great weekend. I hope you have a great week too!

homemade twix pie

I have been having a huge craving for sweet treats lately. Is it wrong to indulge in a sweet treat every night? Though, I have made some serious progress in my workout and healthy eating routines, I think I will always have a sweet tooth, a sweet tooth that will have a mind of its own, and that I will never be able to control.

One night I was innocently reading one of my favorite blogs, when I saw this twix bar idea on Fanciful Twist, and my sweet tooth just had to make it. I am so glad I listened to it, because it came out tasting exactly like a twix bar, but better because it is homemade, and when you make something yourself, with your very own hands its an accomplishment, especially, when it tastes good.

I used Yammie Noshery's Twix recipe and started by making the crust, which is a simple, but yummy shortbread cookie. I am going to be using this exact recipe in the very near future for some cookie cutters I recently bought. I can't wait to share with you what I am working on next.

All you need is: 1/2 cup (1 stick) of butter (I used slightly less),  1/4 cup of sugar and 1 cup of flour. Then I combined them to and pressed it into a pie dish, you can press into a square dish, but I only had a round pie dish. Bake for about 20-30 minutes, or until golden brown at 300 degrees.

While the shortbread was baking, I made the homemade caramel, which is very easy to do. Sorry for the blurry photo, this was a quick shot, as I ran to get my camera while the caramel was rising. All you need is: 1 cup butter, 2 cups brown sugar, 1/2 cup corn syrup (light), 1 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon baking soda. I used the Fanciful Twist caramel recipe, but you can also melt caramels. I didn't use all the caramel, but I wanted a nice thick caramel layer.

Next, once the shortbread is out, I poured the caramel over the shortbread in a nice even layer to cover the entire shortbread crust, and then I put the dish in the fridge for about 15-20 minutes. And the caramel should be hardened a bit when you take it out, like below.

Next, the final part, melting the chocolate. I melted about 2.5 cups of chocolate chips in the microwave, about 4 intervals of 15 seconds, I would stir in between each interval. Depending on how chocolate you need and want and how large you pie dish is, mine is about 9 inches wide, you may need more chocolate to melt.

Pour the melted chocolate on the caramel layer.

Make a nice even layer of the chocolate over the hardened caramel layer.

Next put it in the fridge, until the chocolate layer hardens.

This tasted just like a real twix bar, but even better because it was homemade. It did taste a bit too sweet for me, so I am going to decrease the sugar a bit in the caramel going forward.

Enjoy this sweet treat!