Tag Archives: marmite et ponpon

DIY vintage charcuterie board

Posted on September 15, 2014 | 4 comments

Small adds up revive your charcuterie board and create a style of its own. Not necessary for just charcuterie, could be for bread and cheese or even a serving tray!

By adding drawer pulls, any simple cutting board turns to a wonderful piece in your kitchen.

Choose a cutting board of your choice. I wanted it to look antique but i didn’t find one where i live, so i had to do the effect by myself (with acrylic). In a previous post for cheese board DIY i explained how to choose your non toxic paint.

Very easy and simple DIY. If you are handy with drilling, it takes more time to describe how to make this cutting board than it takes to actually make it. Just mark where you want to fix the pulls and drill holes.

I love everything rustic and vintage, hence i chose these pulls.

And here is my vintage charcuterie board.

With those handles it’s easy to use it as a serving tray as well! It’s an open ended craft, you can create endless colors or shapes to embellish your kitchen and wow your guests. It’s even a beautiful personalized gift for friends and family.

If you like this post and you want to see more of interesting things, follow this blog and like marmite et ponpon facebook page.

I am thrilled to see your suggestions and comments!

4 Comments

Posted in DIY

Tagged blog, charcuterie, crafts, cutting board, DIY, how to do, jaymmy, marmite et ponpon, personalized, serving tray

clothespin airplanes – kids crafts

Posted on September 11, 2014 | 2 comments

We travel a lot, therefor airplanes became familiar to my son who is very enthusiastic for. Today we decided to travel somewhere in our imagination using clothespin, popsicles sticks and pompoms.

Simple and easy activity (doesn’t need too much preparation) to strengthen his motor skills, enrich his vocabulary and widen his imagination.

We were bored at home, and i wanted to create a last minute simple activity to make him busy. But i didn’t want the fun to end fast. So we started by sorting the colors by naming them and the objects we are using before we create the planes. Very simple way to teach your kid the colors and adding new words to his vocab.

Putting a popsicle stick inside the clothespin might seem easy, but for small hands and tiny muscles it needs fine motricity to pinch the clothespin. With a little help from mommy, here are the wings!

To make it more realistic, stick pompoms on each side of the pretending wings. Sticking is an interesting activity to nady. We kept on sticking and removing the pompoms for a while.

Here are our lovely colorful planes!

Actually Nady enjoyed crafting the planes, but he didn’t want to pretend traveling in them. He was pointing at the sky for real planes. Well i don’t blame him 🙂

2 Comments

Posted in DIY, way to play

Tagged activity, blog, clothespin, craft, DIY, fine motor skills, jaymmy, kids, marmite et ponpon, pompom, popsicle sticks, way to play

batata soufflé

Posted on September 9, 2014 | 4 comments

Batata soufflé is the lebanese variation of the french dish “hachis parmentier” and the british dish “shepherd pie”.

Batata soufflé is a meat pie with mashed potato crust. It’s done like a sandwich; the ground beef and pine nuts are pressed between two layers of mashed potatoes.

For 10×10″ baking dish you will need: (yields 4-6 portions)

Mashed potatoes:

1kg potato
1 cup milk
1 tbsp butter
salt to taste
bread crumbs

Meat stuffing:

400g ground beef
2 medium onions diced finely
80g pine seeds
2 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Heat olive oil, add the onion and fry until tender and fragrant.

Add the ground beef and cook until brown then toss in the pine seeds, salt and pepper and keep cooking until well done. Turn off the heat and keep it aside to prepare the mashed potatoes.

Cook the potatoes in a saucepan of salted boiling water until tender. Drain well. Return to the pan with the butter. Use a potato masher or fork to mash until smooth. Add milk and stir until combined. Taste and season with salt.

Divide the mashed potatoes in half. In the baking dish, make the first layer of potato with one part. Spread evenly the ground beef over it and top it with another layer of the remaining mashed potatoes.

Sprinkle bread crumbs, enough to cover it with a thin layer, and bake it until top is golden brown (180°C) about 15 minutes.

Let it rest for 10-15 minutes before serving, the cutting will be easier. It’s one of the classic lebanese dishes and one of my favorite. I like to eat it with a side salad of lettuce and moutarde a l’ancienne. This how mum used to serve it when we were kids.

4 Comments

Posted in main dish

Tagged batata, batata bil sanyeh, batata souffle, blog, cooking, ground beef, hachis parmentier, how to do, jaymmy, kibbet batata, marmite et ponpon, pine nuts, potato, recipe, shepherd pie

DIY cheese board – Spruce up your kitchen

Posted on September 7, 2014 | 6 comments

Being in a crafty mood nowadays, i am going through my kitchen, trying to ~~throw~~ recycle, create and posh it up. With a simple touch you can add some excitement to your items. You know by now, i am fond of personalized items, i love to give identity to everything in my house, and even to the gifts i offer.

After the sharpie plates DIY , today’s craft is very simple and could be done in couple of hours. it’s often the simplest ideas that are the most striking. Adding some colors and typography to my cheese board, made all the difference!

With non toxic red acrylic , I painted the edge of the cutting board after i wrapped it with a thread to create lines effect. Diluting the acrylic with more water creates a “wash” of paint, and shows the wood grain beneath.

After a lot of reading to see which paint to use for food safe purpose, Acrylic paint was the best. It is a water soluble paint but become water-resistant when dry. It is a fast drying and durable paint, containing pigments suspended in an acrylic (or plastic) binder. They come in a wide range of vibrant colors, easy to apply and clean up and have no fumes. BUT Not all acrylic paints are non-toxic or food safe. Please read paint labels and look for the “AP Non-toxic” seal. Do NOT use paints without this seal. Some have mercury, arsenic and cadmium in them for pigments and you absolutely do not want these ingredients.

After a couple of hours, the paint is dry. I traced the word “cheese” and filled it with dark brown acrylic color.

And here is my new adorable cheese board!

With a little creativity and a couple of hours, you can personalize your things at home and be unique. I am planning to use it for the first time in a romantic cheese and wine with my hubby! Time flies, enjoy every second of it.

6 Comments

Posted in DIY

Tagged acrylic, blog, cheese board, craft, cutting board, DIY, dye, food safe paint, jaymmy, marmite et ponpon, safe coloring

ginger scented rice pilaf with whole roast fish

Posted on September 5, 2014 | 5 comments

A small introduction for wonderers…

Pilaf is the way of cooking the rice. Also known as pilav or palaw in which rice is cooked in seasoned broth. The yellow to brown color is attained by stirring in onion or spices. Depending on the cuisine it might have also meat, chicken, fish, vegetables or dried fruits.

Initially i was making a whole roast fish but didn’t want to present it solo. I thought of roast potatoes and vegetables then i said why not rice?!

To not go classic, i thought of rice pilaf with a twist! Ginger and cilantro, two of my favorite deep flavors that blends together perfectly. The outcome was heavenly tasty.

Ginger scented rice pilaf:

1 1/4 cup rice
1/2 cup carrots diced finely
1/2 cup onion diced finely
1 tbsp minced ginger
1 tbsp olive oil
1 cube vegetable bouillon (almost 5g)/ broth
2 1/2 cups water
2 tbsp fresh cilantro (coriander) chopped

Heat olive oil in sauce pan. Add ginger, onion, carrots and stir until fragrant for 3-4 minutes.

Add rice, bouillon and water and bring to boil. Cover with a lid, reduce heat to low and let it simmer for 20 minutes.

Remove from heat, cover the pan with a towel and let it sit for 15 minutes. Remove the lid and fluff the rice with a fork. Toss in the cilantro and taste to check if you need to add salt (optional) and serve immediately.

The house was full of aroma! Couldn’t wait until the fish was completely roast to start eating. If you are not fan of fish i am sure this rice will pair nicely with chicken, beef or prawns. I can even eat it alone!

To roast the fish there are many ways. My favorite is “en papillote”, the same principle as wrapping in foil with enough liquid to create steam, but using greaseproof paper to create individual portions when you are baking medium or small size fish.

I put chopped cilantro, lemon slices, lemon juice, salt, pepper (quantity as per your taste) and drizzled some garlic olive oil before wrapping the fish. Baked in the oven (for 240°C) for 20 minutes.

Fish is easily overcooked therefore care must be taken when using the oven. When roasting a whole fish always ensure the skin is on.