Re-Purpose Glass Jars for your Pantry, DIY

I love the mason jar craze, however I want to save my jars for canning peaches. We have a peach tree and Dear Hubby loved it when I learned how to can them (future post). I still wanted to use jars in my pantry and I have come up with an alternative that I really like.

On occasion I purchase jars of fruit from our local discount grocery store. Because of the measurement on the sides I liked them and decided to use these instead of my mason jars. However they come with tin lids that are just ordinary to look at. But while looking for something else I spotted these and wondered? I got an idea...a wonderfully nifty idea... I purchased them to see if they would fit.

They do! These are white plastic lids from Ball. You can purchase them just about anywhere canning supplies are sold. They come in a pack of 8 for a reasonable price and you can get them in regular or wide mouth size. Once I chose what pantry items I wanted in each jar I labeled them with letter stickers from my scrapbook stash.

I just love them! What do you think?

Camo Cupcakes-homemade goodness!

These were so fun to create and they topped off my nephews' Camo Birthday Party. I will share with you here today how I made these. I was needing 2 cakes- one white and one chocolate. The chocolate one I found in my book: Taste of Home's Complete guide to Baking. It is a Chocolate Buttermilk Cake. I don't buy buttermilk, I just make my own. I needed to do that first. I poured 2 TBS of lemon juice into a 1 cup measuring cup. Then filled the rest of the way up with milk (I used 1% milk). You could also use white vinegar if you do not have lemon juice. Let is set for about 5 minutes and it will curdle. While that is going on I go ahead and get the rest of the ingredients ready.

Chocolate Buttermilk Cake
Ingredients:
1 cup shortening
2 cups sugar
1 cup buttermilk
2 eggs
2 and 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup baking cocoa
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 cup water

In a large bowl, cream shortening and sugar until fluffy. Beat in buttermilk and eggs. Combine the flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt; add to creamed mixture alternately with water, beating well after each addition. Set aside and star the next cake mix!

I was looking for a white cake mix, however most white cake mixes call for lots of egg whites. I finally settled on a yellow cake mix on Pinterest called The Best One-Bowl Yellow Cake. I was willing to try this recipe because it has charm. It came from a 100 year old cook book. Hey, with that much experience behind it, it is bound to be good. And besides it only called for 2 eggs! I followed the recipe just as it says.

Once the yellow cake mix was ready I divided it in half and colored 1 olive green and the other I added just enough brown to make it tan. Then I was ready to fill the cupcake pan. I used small scoops and alternated the chocolate, green, and tan cake mixes. (Sorry forgot to take a picture of this step). I baked at 350 degrees for around 20 minutes or so. This is how lovely I mean how manly they looked coming out of the oven!

While the cupcakes cooled I got to work on the frosting. In my same book: Taste of Home's Complete guide to Baking, they have this one to go with the Buttermilk Chocolate. I ended up doubling because I had almost 40 cupcakes. But for the regular recipe it calls for:
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup shortening
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 cups confectioners sugar
4 to 5 tsp milk

Cream butter, shortening and vanilla in a large bowl. Gradually beat in confectioners sugar and enough milk to achieve a spreading consistency. Once I had the frosting complete, I separated it into 3 bowls and colored one olive green, one tan, and the last brown. I used a large star tip and coupler set to get the swirl effect I was looking for.

 They were yummy and just about gone before the days end!

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