Expat In Africa: Semi-Creative (DIY)

Ross and I headed up to visit his cousins and their little kiddies for Easter (will post more about the trip later). I made an Easter basket with a little goodie for everyone.

Easter Basket Contents:

For the kiddies: Cookies and Chocolate Eggs

For the Moms: Homemade Salt and Sugar Exfoliating Bath Scrubs

For the Men (Ross's Idea): Grolsch

The Cookies: Just used an easy recipe for M&M cookies. Recipe can be found at the bottom of the post...from the Joy of Baking.

The Salt/Sugar Scrubs:

Ingredients needed:

- Oil (olive, canola, vegetable, almond, coconut, whatever you like)--most people like to go with organic coconut or almond, but that's too expensive for me so I just used extra virgin olive oil in the sugar scrub and canola for the salt scrub)

- Salt or Sugar (you want big granules but keep in mind that bigger salt granules will be rougher on the skin...what I used were about 1mm in diameter)

- Scents and flavors:

Due to limited resources, I used vanilla and lemon essence for baking, which are both safe for the skin (make sure you read on the bottle that you use to make sure you know exactly what is going into it); however, I would recommend using essential oils from the health food store. Choose whatever scent you wish...I went for lemon for the salt scrub and vanilla for the sugar scrub.
- Lemon Zest (for lemon salt scrub)
- Lemon juice (also for lemon salt scrub)
- Pretty recycled jars (I used old olive jars and a salsa jar)

I've read all different reports on the ratio of parts to use but I really just played around with it until it had the consistency I wanted. Here's what I ended up with:

Vanilla Sugar Scrub:

- 1 1/2 cups loose brown sugar

- 1/3 cup olive oil

- 1/2 tsp vanilla essence

Lemon Salt Scrub:

- 1 1/2 cups large crystal sea salt

- 1/3 cup canola oil (nice because it does not have a strong color or scent)

- 2 tsp lemon juice

- 2 tsp lemon zest (I actually don't have a zester so I just thinly sliced the zest from the lemon and then chopped it up--added a nice yellow color)

- 1/4 tsp lemon essence

Then you just stir the ingredients together (stir it really good!) and spoon into a jar. Don't be afraid if the mixture separates a little bit: it is unavoidable.

The Basket and The Wrappings:

To make the basket you will need:

- some pretty Easter wrapping paper

- old cardboard box

- computer paper (for making excelsior) or store-bought excelsior (wasn't available here)
- some old poster board or tea box
- glue
- scissors
- some string/ribbon/raffia/whatever you can find to tie stuff with
- plastic wrap
- plastic spoons (to go with the body scrubs)

--THE BOX--

1. Wrap your box with the paper.

--THE TAGS--

2. Make an egg pattern and cut eggs out of the poster board (I used an old tea box). Cut enough for each gift.

3. Glue the eggs (print side down) to the back of the wrapping paper and cut them out.

4. Write each person's name on the egg for a tag and punch a hole in the top for tying onto the gift.
5. Just like the name tags, make a tag for each of the body scrubs with instructions for use.

--THE FILLER--

6. Pile up your computer paper and fold it like an accordion.

7. Cut the paper into strips.

8. Separate and re-scrunch the paper strips to make them into a nice, fluffy base.

--THE BODY SCRUB JARS--

9. Cut out a round of the wrapping paper and use to cover the top of the jar. Tie it down with the string/ribbon, tying on the tags and spoon.

--THE BREWSKIES--

10. Tie a name tag to each bottle of Grolsch.

--THE KIDDIE PACKS--

11. Place cookies and chocolate eggs on a square of plastic wrap and fold up to form a gift-shape. Tie in place and attach name tag with the ribbon/string.

12. Place all items beautifully into the basket and Presto!

M and M Cookie Recipe:

M&M's^® Cookies:

2 cups (260 grams) all purpose flour

1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup (170 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature

2/3 cup (130 grams) granulated white sugar

2/3 cup (140 grams) firmly packed light brown sugar

1 large egg

1 large egg yolk

1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1 cup (200 grams) M&M's^® or Smarties^®candies

M&M's^® Cookies: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (177 degrees C). Place one oven rack in the top third of the oven, and one oven rack in the bottom third of the oven. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt.

In the bowl of your electric mixer (or with a hand mixer), beat the butter and sugars until light and fluffy (about 2 - 3 minutes). Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the egg and egg yolk, beating until well combined. Beat in the vanilla extract.

Gradually add the flour mixture to the creamed mixture and beat just until incorporated. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed. (If batter is soft, cover and refrigerate for 30 to 60 minutes or until firm.)

Using a 1/4 cup (60 ml), an ice cream scoop, or two spoons, form batter into large balls. Place six balls of dough on each baking sheet. Gently flatten each ball of dough into a 2 1/2 inch (6.5 cm) round. Completely cover the tops of the cookies with the M&M's^® or Smarties^®. Gently press the candies into the dough. Bake the cookies for about 14 - 17 minutes, rotating the baking sheets halfway through the baking time. The cookies are done when they are light golden brown in color and just set around the edges. They will still seem a little soft in the center but they will firm up as they cool. Remove from oven and let the cookies cool a few minutes on the baking sheet before transferring them to a wire rack to cool.

Makes about 15 large cookies.

The only changes I made were that for the sugars, I just used 1 1/3 cup of natural loose brown sugar. It turned out really well.