I'm Back!!

What has it been? Two years? Such a long time but, HERE I AM NOW! A lot has changed since my last post. I'm no longer a student, I'm currently unemployed and I have a laptop!! his means that I have a lot of free time and the means to blog regularly. I'm working on quite a few things right now, two of which I'm very excited about. The first is that I'm teaching myself Deutsch (so far, so good)  and the second is that I'm going to take part in a short story competition (If I finish in time!)
the details of which I'll post in a later blog.

I still craft and I still cook so I will definitely post updates on things I make.

That's all for now, back to working on my short story I go.  TTYL

DIY Decorated Teacup

SOME OF MY POLISHES

So I may or may not have mentioned before that I am an absolute nail-polishaholic, I have close to one hundred bottles of nail polish in basically every colour that exists. The thing is, since I only have twenty nails and I hate using the same colour more than once, most of my polishes just stay on my dresser collecting dust and drying out. Today (when i was supposed to be studying) I was thinking of a present for my friend whose birthday is coming up and it hit me, I came up with a cool way to use them while making a cute gift idea. This is what I came up with:

What you need:

• A plain white (or cream) porcelain teacup
• A fine-tip permanent marker
• Nail polish (any colour/s you like)

What you do:

• Draw shapes on the glass with the marker (you can do neat uniform shapes or go wild like I did)
• Use the nail-polish to fill in the shapes 

To make sure it doesn't smudge you can either keep it on a table or hold it upside down on your hand.
Try to work slowly and precisely, especially if your lines are not straight.
If you are using lighter colours you may need to put a few coats. If you do, LET THE FIRST COAT DRY FIRST! If it doesn't dry properly it will no come on as smoothly as you would like.
I used glitter polish on the lines for an extra pop.

• For a smooth finish you can use any type of clear sealer (DECORATIVE USE ONLY)

 Pictures of the process and finished product:

Not as smooth as i'd have liked :( but  hey, second time will be better!

3 Ingredient Cheesy Crackers

     Cheesy Crackers






So I stumbled upon this recipe for 3-ingredient cheese crackers on the internet one day while I was home alone with almost bare kitchen cupboards and an even barer stomach. At first I was a bit apprehensive about this recipe because I absolutely LOATHE baking, mainly because of all the accuracy it demands (baking is considered a science, isn't it?) but I decided it was almost impossible to mess this up, I mean come on...only three ingredients. So I took a shot at it and I was impressed. These are really tasty and only need THREE ingredients. They make a great treat to munch on basically anywhere and any time and go great on party platters. The recipe is below...


Ingredients:

• 1 cup flour (whole-wheat is ok too)
• 5 tablespoons of cold butter
• 1 1/2 cups of grated cheese 

Optional: use whatever you have in your kitchen, if you're feeling adventurous, to add flavour. Black pepper, dried thyme (or shadon beni, lol) are great additions

Directions:

1.     Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2.     Combine all three ingredients in a food processor and blend. The mixture will eventually turn into one big ball . Be patient because it can take a few minutes.

3.     Roll the ball into a log about 1 ½” in diameter. At this point you could refrigerate the dough until later.

4.     With a sharp knife slice ¼” thick pieces off the log and place each one flat on an ungreased baking sheet. Make sure to roll when cutting down on the roll because the top of the log will start to flatten a little. 

5.     Bake for 8 – 14 minutes or until golden brown. The thicker the crackers the longer it will take.

TIPS: If you don't have a food processor it's ok, just start with a blender or wand mixer and finish with your hands. :)

Feel free to get creative with your shapes, ideally you'll have to flatten the dough like a pizza crust for this I would imagine...I just cut my circles in half.

After turning off the oven, leave the crackers in the oven for around ten minutes for extra crackerness.

Feel free to top it off with something tasty.








Sorry about not having any pics :/ I need a new camera.

Premier Post

HI EVERYONE!

Ok, i'm a bit psyched because this is my first blog and i'm not sure what to write. I shall therefore dedicate this first post to tell you what you can expect from future posts :) 

 The purpose of this blog is for me to share recipes, around the house DIYs, craft items and much more. Like the name 'Pelau' suggests, there will be a combination of a wide range of ideas, recipes, suggestions, etc.. One of my major themes is frugality! The great thing about this blog is that it's Caribbean focussed- Trinidad to be more specific (that doesn't mean it's exclusive to Trinidadians though :P). One of my main issues when surfing the web and following recipes for things I come across is finding the ingredients (and at a reasonable price) so i would have to experiment with things i thought would be an ok replacement. All posts on this blog will only require things that are readily available in the country. I'll be posting once a week, and i really hope you enjoy!! :D

"The best things in life may be free, but cheap and natural is ok too!"