Nymphadora Tonks cosplay - Harry Potter

 This year for ACen I did two new costumes for myself as well one for my buddy Jake.  The first of my new cosplays was Nymphadora Tonks from the Harry Potter series.   I picked her because she's fun, clumsy, and a little bit of a rebel.

If you like my cosplay please like my facebook page and follow me on twitter @forstericosplay 

For the hair I went with a slightly more vibrant pink than the traditional bubble gum pink for Tonks.  I ordered the want from Etsy, and make the choker with buttons and leather cord. 

Pecan Pie Bars

I had every intention to post this 2 months ago when I made them....

Pecan Pie Bars

Ingredients:

For crust

• 2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
• 2/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

For topping

• 1 stick (½ cup) unsalted butter
• 1 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1/3 cup honey
• 2 tablespoons heavy cream
• 2 cups chopped pecans

Directions:

1) Preheat the oven to 350ºF and line a 9x13-inch pan with foil.

2) Cream together the butter and brown sugar until fluffy in a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. 

3) Add in the flour and salt and mix until crumbly.

4) Press the crust into the foil-lined pan and bake for 20 minutes until golden brown.

5) Combine the butter, brown sugar, honey and heavy cream in a saucepan and stirring it over medium heat. Simmer the mixture for 1 minute, then stir in the chopped pecans.

6) Remove the crust from the oven and immediately pour the pecan filling over the hot crust spreading it to cover the entire surface.

7) Return the pan to the oven and bake an additional 20 minutes.

8) Remove the pan and allow the bars to fully cool in the pan.

9) Slice into bars and serve.

Caprese Bites

Every year for Christmas eve my family hosts a party at our house.  We have food and drinks and play games with the family.   Its always a really good time.  For the food we primarily do lots of different finger foods that people can munch on throughout the night.  Each year my mom and I like to try out one or two different things in addition to the old standbys we always have.  This year we decided to put together some caprese bites, and I must say they were delicious. 

Caprese Bites

Ingredients:

• 1 large package of cherry tomatoes
• 5-7 sticks of mozzarella string cheese 
• 1 bunch of fresh basil
• Salt and pepper
• Extra virgin olive oil
• Balsamic vinegar

Directions:

1) Rinse and pat dry the cherry tomatoes.

2) Cut a thin slice off the bottom.

3) Scoop out the seeds. I found it easiest to use my fingers to do this but you can also use a small melon baller or a knife.

4) Place the tomato cut side down on a paper towel to drain liquid.

5) After they have drained place them upright on a plate and lightly salt and pepper them.

6) Rinse and gently pat dry the basil. Tear the basil into pieces in stick on piece into each hollowed out tomato.

7) Cut the mozzarella sticks into bite size pieces and place them inside the tomatoes.

8) Drizzle with olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

Pretzel Turtle Bites

These pretzel bites have been popping up all over the internet recently.   The day before christmas Eve my mother decides that she wants to get in on the action and make them as well.  The original recipe calls for Rolos, but due to the popularity of these things every store we went to was sold out of bags of Rolos.  They did have bags of the mini Rolos but we were afraid the chocolate to other stuff ratio would be off.   We browsed the candy aisle and finally decided to go with Dove caramel filled milk chocolates.  Then we got home, got some wine, and set to work making these little treats.

Pretzel Turtle Bites

Ingredients:

• Pretzels (I chose the mini twists but any roundish shape should work)
• Pecan halves
• Dove caramel filled milk chocolate

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. Arrange the pretzels in a single layer on a parchment lined cookie sheet. 
2. Place one chocolate covered caramel candy on each pretzel.    
3. Bake for 4 minutes. 
4. While the candy is warm, press a pecan half onto each candy covered pretzel. 
5. Cool completely before storing in an airtight container.

Celsius Cosplay - Tales of Symphonia

Last weekend I traveled to my 2nd ever Anime convention.  This time it was Youmacon in Detroit, Michigan.  For this convention I decided I wanted to cosplay a character by the name of Celsius.  She is the summon spirit of ice in the game Tales of Symphonia.   The outfit itself is relatively easy but her skin is gray, so I had to paint myself from head to toe which was a bit complicated.

If you like my cosplay please like my facebook page and follow me on twitter @forstericosplay 

This a picture of Celsius from the game

This was the start of the cuffs.  I made them with old padded bras covered in gold fabric.  Yeah...I'm pretty resourceful. 

Here was my body paint test  the top right section is Kryolan aqua color.  The other two are different shades of pax body paint.

I have a lot so say about the body paint.  It was a very interesting process.  The paint I used is called pax and it is made by combining equal parts of prosaid adhesive and acrylic paint.  When it dries its like a weird 2nd skin and does some weird wrinkly stuff, but over all its very good for all day wear and it won't rub off on your clothes or anything you touch.  After going through this process I have some tips for anyone trying to apply this type of body paint.

Pax Tips

• paint your hands last
• make sure you have someone help you
• do one body part at a time and make sure to powder it as soon as it dries, if not you will stick to yourself
• only use pax on your face if you don't plan on making many facial expressions
• allow at least 2 hours to paint head to toe
• removing this stuff sucks, I'm not sure there's any avoiding that. 

The tape grid I made for coloring the ribbon.

Finished ribbon.

The finished product.  

I'm so proud of how my Celsius cosplay turned out! I can't wait to wear it again at Acen.  Be sure to keep an eye out for me if you attend.

Spiced Pumpkin Applesauce

Last week I bought a bunch of apples at the farmers market.  I opted to try to make applesauce with them which was a new adventure for me.  The combination of pumpkin and apples is great for fall so I used up more of my canned pumpkin and tossed it in with the apples.   I wanted my apple sauce to be healthy so there is no sugar added, but you can certainly add sugar or honey to sweeten it up a bit.

Spiced Pumpkin Applesauce

Ingredients:

• 5 medium apples
• 1 cup canned pumpkin
• juice from 1/2 a lemon
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups water

Directions:

1) Core and slice apples

2) Combine all ingredients in a crockpot and cook on high for 4 hours.

3) Remove cinnamon stick and blend to desired consistency.  I used an electric mixer, but you can use a food processor, blender, or a potato masher depending on how chunky or smooth you want it.

Pumpkin Hummus

Up until last summer I had never tried hummus before.  Man was I missing out.  Now its one of my favorite snacks, and its great on everything.  I had never tried making my own hummus before, but when I saw a recipe for pumpkin hummus I knew I had to try it.  It was much easier than expected to make.  Only issue I ran into was when the cup got stuck in the base of the blender and I thought I was going to have to destroy the entire thing to free my hummus.  Luckily it didn't come to that and after about 5 minutes of panicking I got the cup off the base and enjoyed my snack.

Pumpkin Hummus

Ingredients:

• 1 15oz. can of chickpeas (drained)
• 1 clove of garlic
• the juice from 1 lemon
• 6 tbsp canned pumpkin
• 5 tbsp tahini
• 5 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 2 tbsp water
• salt to taste

Instructions:

1) Place everything in a food processor and blend until smooth.  That's it!