Poms and Tissue Paper Flowers

We've made these very easy poms and tissue paper flowers on several occasions, including decorations for our Mother's Day celebrations. These very cute creations can be made into spherical poms and be hung or you can very easily make these half-poms and turn them into flowers. Also, these poms are very forgiving, so if yo can any mistake, don't worry, no one will know.



Materials:
8 pieces of tissue paper (you can cut the standard size tissue paper to make smaller poms, or use them as is; for this particular pictorial tutorial, I used 2 sheet of tissue pape and cut each sheet into 4 squares)
Scissors
Yarn, ribbon, or floral wire


1. Line your sheets of tissue paper together.
2. Accordian fold (or pleat) your pile of tissue paper.
3. Fold the pleated tissue paper in half vertically.
4. Tie your peiece of yarn (I use sewing thread) at the midsection and secure it with a tight double knot.
5. Starting on one side, separete the sheets of tissue paper. Be very careful, yet firm. If you tear anything, just keep going because these guys are super forgiving.
6. Continue separating the tissue paper. For each side, you want to peel four sheets upward and 4 sheets downward.
7. Once you're all dne separating the tissue paper, look over the entire pom and touch it up so it looks full and spherical.


**To change these poms into flower, when you are separeting the sheet of tissue paper, only peel in one direction (just peel up on both sides).


Good luck!


Price breakdown:
FREE!!! (I always stock up on tissue paper and gift bags)


If you are staring with nothing in stocked because you never give away gifts, here's the price breakdown for you:


Tissue paper: $1.00 (for 10 sheets, so you can make 5 poms)
Scissors: $1.00

Interesting note: Martha Stewart actually sells the materials to make poms. Her products sell for ~$20 and it makes 7 poms. So who's smarter now Martha? Well, you are because you somehow were able to use $2.00 and sell it for $20.00. 1000% profit.

Refreshing Lemon Mousse

A combination of lemon curd and whipped cream, lemon mousse is a light, refreshing dessert that's great for summer. You can enjoy this by itself or use it as a filling or topping for a cake

LEMON CURD RECIPE

2 Whole eggs

2 egg yolks

5 tablespoons chilled unsalted butter 

Pinch of salt

1/2 cup of sugar

5 tablespoons of lemon juice

zest of one lemon

WHIPPED CREAM RECIPE

2 egg whites

1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

pinch of cream of tartar

1/3 cup of sugar

CANDIED LEMON SLICES

1 Lemon

3 cups of water

1.5 cups of sugar

Lady Sugar Cookies

A good friend told me today that a lady is only a woman, with all the drama and complications that come with being a woman, but sugarcoated. So this means that if I were a cookie, I'd be a sugar cookie! Finally good to know where I was getting all this sweetness from. And it was so funny that we had this conversation because I've been wanting to make some soft and chewy sugar cookies and I've been searching really hard for a perfect recipe. I don't like my desserts too sweet, so I always adjust the sugar level to make sure I can actually eat a whole cookie or cupcake when I'm all done baking. My recipes may have less sugar than you're used to, but you are in no way forced to follow this recipe exactly as written. Have fun experimenting!

Ingredients

2 1/4 cups  all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon table salt

1 1/2 cups sugar , plus 1/3 cup for rolling

2 ounces cream cheese , cut into small pieces

6 tablespoons butter , melted and still warm

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1 large egg

1 tablespoon milk

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 large rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. Whisk flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt together in medium bowl. Set aside.
3. Place 1½ cups sugar and cream cheese in large bowl.
4. Place remaining 1/3 cup sugar in shallow baking dish or pie plate and set aside.
5. Pour warm butter over sugar and cream cheese and whisk to combine (some small lumps of cream cheese will remain but will smooth out later).
6. Whisk in oil until incorporated.
7. Add egg, milk, and vanilla; continue to whisk until smooth.
8. Add flour mixture and mix with rubber spatula until soft homogeneous dough forms.
9. Divide dough into 24 equal pieces, about 2 tablespoons each.
10 Using hands, roll dough into balls. Roll balls in reserved sugar to coat and evenly space on prepared baking sheet. (Each tray will have 12 cookies each)
11. Using bottom of drinking glass, flatten dough balls.
12. Sprinkle tops evenly with remaining sugar.
13. Bake, 1 tray at a time, until edges are set and just beginning to brown, 11 to 13 minutes, rotating tray after 7 minutes.
14. Cool cookies on baking sheets 5 minutes. Using wide metal spatula, transfer cookies to wire rack and cool to room temperature.

Price breakdown:
Flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, milk, vanilla extract, oil, eggs: free (already in pantry and refrigeator)

Cream cheese: $0.99
Butter: $0.88

Total: $1.87

I made 12 cookies and had enough batter to make another 24. That comes out to about 5 cents a cookie. Beat that!