S'more Pinstrosities Headed Your Way!

We just had a s'mores activity with the girls at church and it got me curious to see what submissions we have that had anything to do with s'mores. There are quite a few! Enough actually that if I put them all in one post, it would take forever to load and look through. So, I decided that I'd do a post with some of the submissions, and then in subsequent weeks I can do s'more. Bahahaha...bet you didn't see that line coming. Just kidding, I'm sure you saw it coming and that you're completely prepared for s'more of my hilariousness. 

Well, I'll leave off the late night humor (I really shouldn't write posts late at night...or maybe I should do s'more of them at night, but then they may be a little loopy) and get to the part of the post that you actually came here to see. 

Original Pin #1:

http://www.sheknows.com/food-and-recipes/articles/976181/smore-dessert-pizza

S'mores Dessert Pizza, with a graham cracker crust. That looks so fun and yummy! 

Brooke tried this pin out and this is what she had to say:

"My roommate and I tried making this delicious looking s'mores pizza. Unfortunately we only had colored marshmallows, no marshmallow fluff (so we tried making our own) and not enough time to let the dough rise. Also, all of the chocolate chips burnt instead of melting. We were super excited to see and eat our bound-to-be-beautiful creation."

Pinstrosity #1:

"No words can describe the horror we felt when we took it out of the oven. We stood in silence just staring numbly at the pan. After like 5 whole minutes of silence we both dropped to the floor laughing like hyenas on nitrous oxide gas. Then we ate it. We ate it all. It was delicious. "

Original Pin #2

http://www.theaprongal.com/2011/11/baked-smores.html

Brenna had this to say about her experience: "Looks fantastic doesn't it? I had really high hopes because Christmas is coming around the corner with bonfires and cute nights with the family this would be a great idea right? Well i followed the directions to the dot made sure everything was right even used normal flour, everything to the dot. When it got down to it, the dough became really sticky and not anything like her pictures portrayed. It didn't spread very well and the amount wasn't enough to divide it in half and use for a top layer. My mom and I added more gram crackers to the dough after we had attempted the bottom layer in hopes that it would spread easy. Well it didn't. It barely covered the fluff. The one thing she did write was to microwave the fluff to help it spread and that made it really easy. But the dough was just terrible. We attempted to put some oil on the dough to spread it some which helped with the bottom layer but it just didn't work."

Pinstrosity #2

"Though in the end the tasted wonderful and we will be making them again with some slight improvements. "

Original Pin #3

http://springraine.blogspot.ca/2012/02/marshmallow-brownie-cupcakes.html

S'mores cupcakes! Sydnie tells this story:

"So I found this recipe on pinterest.... You know how it goes. Saturday we were having a church pot luck and I wanted to bring something fantastic, so I tried these brownie cupcakes. Let's just say it didn't quite work. I followed the directions, and baked them at 325 for 25 minutes. and this is what I got:"

Pinstrosity #3

"The marshmallow not only bubbled out of the brownie onto the pan, but then completely dissolved into the brownie, leaving me with really hard/chewy brownie muffins. I found someone else's pin and they said that they only baked theirs for 20 minutes. I also think that I maybe should have splurged for a better brownie mix. I was in a hurry and just opted for the super cheap store brand one. In conclusion, I would like to give these a 4 on the GCT fail scale. My husband tried them and said that they tasted good, if you could ignore the hard chewy texture."

And of course, no s'more post would be complete without a s'mores cookie. 

Original Pin #4

http://www.chef-in-training.com/2011/08/peanut-butter-smore-cookies/

Tonight I just had my first peanut butter s'more. It's a regular s'more, only you smear PB on one of the grahams before assembling. It's amazing! Never going back to plain s'mores again. So this cookie sounds absolutely heavenly. Andrea thought so too and gave it a try. 

Pinstrosity #4

"The cookies would have been good had the marshmallows not exploded into a sticky mess, making them impossible to eat! "

Even though these pin tests didn't turn out quite like our submitters hoped, they sure make me want to go and make me s'more marshmallow/graham/chocolate/PB goodness to eat. Maybe I should just get me a glass of milk and then go to bed. But, if you give a pregnant lady of glass of milk, she's liable to just want s'more. Or s'mores. Or watermelon with ranch dressing. 

(just kidding on that last part...thankfully I haven't had any bizarre cravings)

Pop Pops

Schools are starting back up and the summer weather is not as intense, but I'm still holding on to each bit of summer that I can. I love fall...but after fall comes winter and that's not my favorite season. It seems like I get to this point each summer and I realize all the summer foods and treats I haven't done yet and suddenly my menus and plans get a kick of summer. Summer salads, ears of corn, fruit pies, popsicles, etc. The big summer treat around would be the ever favorite popsicles. Otter pops, homemade pops, karate pops, you name it, we love it. Popsicles are referred to as cracksicles around here...once you have one you just can't stop and before you know it the whole box of otter pops is gone and sadness fills your soul. 

As a kid I always loved it when Mom would pull out the popsicle molds and we'd get to help her mix up the Koolaid and pour it in. It seemed like it took days for them to freeze and be ready to devour! I remember making Koolaid pops and juice pops, but it never occurred to me as a kid that you could make soda popsicles. Or can you? 

Melissa sent us in the following pin and her results when she tried to make them:

The Original Pin:

I have been looking for the original site for this photo for a while now and I just keep going in circles. Many link to http://www.diy-queen.com/2013/02/gummy-bear-popsicles/ as the source, but she even put up a link to a tumblr account she got the photo from. I followed the sources for a while and never found the original. Google Search failed me on this one too. So I have no idea where this photo originated from.  *update*: The original source was sent to us in a comment. Read to the end to find out what these really are and who made them.

The recipe on the diy-queen site has these as gummy bear and sprite popsicles, so that is what Melissa tried, and she wasn't too impressed with her results:

The Pinstrosity:

Definitely not the pretty and clear pops from the original photo. Melissa said "I don't think Sprite can be clear like in the picture while freezing.  I know distilled water freezes clear, but not Sprite. I think the picture is not Sprite!" And I think I agree. 

I've only tried to freeze soda once. For our last Halloween party that Em and I threw together we were going to make the frozen hand floating in punch treat. 

http://simplystated.realsimple.com/2009/10/06/creepy-treats-for-halloween/

We were serving clear soda (for our color changing cups) and didn't want the soda to get watered down with just regular ice, so we thought we'd freeze the soda into an ice hand. We filled the gloves and put them in the freezer...and forgot about them for the party. The day after the party I found them in the fridge and was said that we forgot the awesome ice hand. I opened up the gloves and out fell crumbly sprite ice. It didn't form a solid hand and it was more like separate ice crystals than a solid ice block. So even had we remembered to pull the hands out of the fridge, they wouldn't have worked anyway. So from that experience I learned that pop doesn't freeze solid...at least not really fizzy pop. 

So I'm thinking that Melissa is completely correct in saying that the original popsicles were not made with Sprite...or at least not fizzy Sprite. Maybe flat Sprite. Looking around online I did find a blog post with the same original picture but the caption said, "These ice lollies are perfect for your little ones, and look incredibly pretty too- simply place lemonade in an ice lolly mould and sprinkle in a few gummy bears for a unique treat." Now, that blog is based out of the UK, and UK and USA versions of lemonade are different. My cousin's fiance explained to me that the American lemon-lime soft drink and the UK lemonade are similar to each other. The American lemonade is called "traditional lemonade" or "homemade lemonade" in the UK. So I assume the writer was talking about UK lemonade/American lemon pop, but this did make me think that you could use U.S. lemonade (if you make it yourself with lemon juice-fresh or bottled-lemonade isn't as yellow as commercially produced and dyed lemonade)  and have this turn out a little more successfully than with Sprite. 

I did find pictures of a lady who made the Sprite version and her pops are slightly less cloudy and crystallized than Melissa's, but still not the pretty clear version of the original picture:

http://zoomyummy.com/2013/07/15/gummy-bear-and-sprite-popsicles/

So I think this pin is popped. What do you think?

Update:
You readers are awesome! If you see in the comments below the mystery was explained, but I'll tell you what they pointed out. These didn't turn out like the original picture because the original picture isn't even edible! Welll...it's not edible unless you like to eat soap. This is another case of a mis-captioned and mis-blogged photo. Check out the original soap item here: http://www.etsy.com/listing/99146372/gummi-bear-popsicle-soap-gummy-bear. This lady makes the coolest soaps, and they all look so yummy and edible. Bacon soap?! Chocolate Eclair soaps?! That's just awesome.

P.S. Does anyone else get a shudder of chills go through them when they think of the gummy bears in the pops? I know kids would love them, but it seems like they'd be really hard at first and then be slimy...hmm. 

I'll Just Check my Twitter Really Quick...

Insert Facebook, email, Pinterest, or any social media for Twitter in the title and I'm sure you know where this is going. Is there really a "real quick". Not so much. This works out okay sometimes...but when you login to pass the time while your food is cooking, it rarely works out well. Speaking of which...I better go check my No-Flip-Oven-Pancake. Be right back. 

Om nom nom. Good stuff. Aren't you glad you can just read that pause really fast and you didn't have to wait and watch me run off in my ever so attractive yoga capris (I've never been one to look cute in yoga pants...especially now at 6 months pregnant) and wait for me to come back with my plate? I know you're grateful. 10 points to blogland! 

Anyway...

Today's Pinstrosity is brought to you by the line, "I'll just check [insert social media of choice here] really quick." This is something I've totally done before and I know there are others out there who have done this same thing. For those of you who have never experienced this, I'll go over the steps of how Twitter/Facebook/Pinterest/Email/Etc. can "cause" a Pinstrosity. 

Step 1

Find awesome pin on Pinterest:

http://myhoneysplace.com/edible-glitter-printabe-recipe/

Step 2:

Spend 2 hours on Pinterest looking for things to put your edible glitter on so that you have an "excuse" to make edible glitter. 

Step 3:

Decide that edible glitter is awesome enough by itself and it doesn't need anything to go with it's fabulousness.

Step 4:

Gather supplies (praying you have what you need so you don't have to go to the store or try to improvise). 

Step 5: 

Whip up the recipe, pop it in the oven. 

Step 6:

"I'll just check Facebook while I'm waiting." 

Step 7:

Smell burning sugar and realize you've been on Facebook too long. 

Step 8:

Fight your way through the fog of smoke coming from your oven while listening to your smoke detector singing the song of dinnertime. 

Step 9:

Pull out some substance from your oven that your sure you can build a nuclear shelter with. 

Step 10: 

Go back to Facebook and update your status to "Just burned the edible glitter. On the bright side...I can now survive a nuclear bomb with the substance I just created." 

If this doesn't sounds remotely familiar to any of you, then you can't join our club. Okay, you can still join. We always need minions. (just kidding)  But really...haven't many of us done something similar to this? 

Poor Reilly did, but she was brave and awesome and sent us in her story to share with you all. Here's how her experience went: "Well, I don't really even know why I tried this one. Quite frankly, I should've been suspicious of the recipe from the beginning; but what 16-year-old like myself doesn't want EDIBLE FREAKIN GLITTER?! So one day I was experimenting with a few Pinterest recipes and I decided to try this one. I mixed up the sugar, food coloring, and popped it in the oven. About 6 minutes later, as I was studiously checking my Twitter, I began to smell this overwhelming, sweet, burning smell. I glanced up only to find my entire kitchen engulfed in flames. I removed the previously sugar substance from the oven, which had by this point turned into a goopy, black tar-like substance."

 "After it cooled I tried to throw it away and it had hardened into what was now like a giant piece of burnt sugar bark. It was the most foul smelling and looking creation ever to come out of my oven, and it was a complete Pinstrosity." 

Poor Reilly and her edible glitter/bomb shelter. With the help of social media or not, we haven't actually seen a successful story of this edible glitter pin. We did a previous post on it a while back with two pinners attempts. They ended up with colored sugar, but it definitely didn't look glittery. Has anyone successfully made edible glitter at home? If I were feeling super productive today (hey, I actually cooked me breakfast...that's a first in weeks) I'd start testing it all out. But...I'm not feeling that productive (maybe I need to reread my productivity post from last week), and we used up most of the sugar yesterday to make hummingbird food (these guys are going through a ton!!). So today you just get my wit and lack of wisdom on the matter. But seriously, if you know how to make this work let us know. Maybe we'll do a "Here's How Not To Have an Edible Glitter Pinstrosity" and feature you and your awesomeness. Let us know. 

Happy Friday everyone! The end of the week is near!!

Mupcake

Better late than never eh?

I worked today, then came home and worked some more, went to the gym, made and ate dinner and now here I am, finally able to sit down and blog!!

 

This will continue Mug Week!!

 

 

Today we are touching on the Mug Cupcake trend, I like this because well it's practical if you live by yourself, want a small treat, or there are only two of you and a dozen or more treats really doesn't suit you.

 

Kellie sent us her attempt at a Mug Cupcake.

 

The Original

http://www.justanordinarygirllife.blogspot.com/2012/05/cupcake.html?m=1

 

Looks delish,cute, and small but still decadent.

 

The Pinstrosity

 

 

 

Not quite the same huh?

 

Here is what she had to say about it:

 

"Tomorrow is my daughters first birthday so I baked cupcakes tonight for her party. Well I had a little batter left so I put it in a cup and tossed it in the microwave for three minutes...
I was happily icing cupcakes when I smelled smoke. I turned around and it was pouring out of the microwave! My kid was crying, cat was hissing at me, and smoke detectors throughout my entire apartment complex were buzzing!
I only filled the mug up about a fourth of the way... In hindsight I realize I should have only cooked it about one minute instead of three. And I definitely should have kept an eye on it.
I'm trying to get the smoke smell out of my house before my husband comes home from work haha! That'd be just a bit too embarrassing to tell!"

 

No worries Kellie, we have all been there :)

 

So what happened? Well first off I would suggest following the portions listed in the recipe of the original blog, I know we always think we can "I will just wing it.", or "What difference will it make?", but it DOES make a difference. If it didn't this site would not be needed/wanted haha

 

Another thing, Kellie should have done two minutes, maybe two and half and checked on it. The original says to do 2.5-3 minutes, but as a WARNING *All microwaves are different*. Keep this in mind, and keep an eye on this, I feel this is one of those foods that turns on you FAST!

 

As long as you are following the recipe directions, and keep an eye on it while it cooks I think there is a good chance this would work out well. I know some may find it inconvenient to watch it in the microwave while it cooks but seeing as most of us waste time on Pinterest, and throwing imaginary birds as pigs with hard hats on a daily basis I think we can manage haha.

 

Hope everyone had an awesome Wednesday Pinstrosipeeps!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Ombre' Cake Take Two!

Here we are in the throws of summer, and of course many of us are working our butts off to have that hot summer bod, but at the same time, many of us have some new found free time and will be baking our butts off this summer! Today we are talking about the later!

Jessica sent us her Pin Tale about her experience with Ombre' Cake, and her tips on how to make this a Pin Win!!

The Original

http://www.krissys-creations.com/2012/04/celebrating-my-1-year-blogiversary-with.html

The original pin is a fun Strawberry Cake that will surely be the life of any event!

Those colors just scream "I'm fancy!!!!" !

The Pin Win/Pin Tale

Her is Jessica's tale about her lovely Ombre' Cake!

"So I saw this pin and loved how simple and pretty the pink layers looked. It seemed simple enough and with enough wow factor to make it seem like I did a lot more work than actually done. Decided to recreate it myself as a present for Mother's Day to the ladies in my family.

Bought two boxes of basic white cake mix but discovered that the "white" cake mix when made into batter was more of a off yellow color. Wasn't fazed, thought that at worse I would have a very pretty Peach ombre cake.
Mixed up the entire two boxes with a few extra tablespoons of water (makes the cake moister, almost uncooked in the middle) and divided up into three bowls. Used red food coloring, 12 drops in the first bowl, 7 in the second and just 3 drops in the third.

I used cheap aluminum tins, round 8 inch cake pans from the local supermarket. To get the cakes out easier, I sprayed sheets of tinfoil with Pam and laid it around the edge of the cake tin so I could lift it out when it was ready.

When my first and darkest pink cake came out I was a little worried because it wasn't as dark as I had hoped for. The two lighter layers of the cake were very close in color and I was worried it wouldnt show as well. My first layer was more of a hot pink, the second a rose and the third barely pink. Next time I would definitely use a little more food coloring for the layers.

The cakes themselves came out bloated and with a weird brown baked layer on both sides, probably from my super old oven. Luckily, they were thick enough that I could shave off layers from both sides of the cake to make somewhat round cakes that were fairly even in thickness. Once I had trimmed them down I layered them without icing and used a bread knife to make the round shape even.

Used a whipped frosting made from cool whip, instant vanilla pudding and vanilla extract. Once I got the frosting on the first layer of cake it was easy as the thick frosting covered any holes and messes in the cakes. When I got the last layer on top, it looked surprisingly good! A few chunks of cake got torn but the frosting covered it up nicely.

Later at my mom's house, we cut into the cake and I was pleased to find that the inside looked amazing! I didn't think it would turn out that nice. Everyone enjoyed the taste and I would absolutely make this cake again! It was much easier than I thought. Next time I want to make the frosting on the outside a little more fancy to complement the ombre layers."

So there you have it, the key with these ombre' cakes is LOTS of food coloring. I will add that the single drop liqiud coloring can make things have a a strange taste if there is too much coloring in something. If you are going for strong vibrant colors I would suggest using a gel coloring. You can find these at a bake shop, Micheals or Hobby Lobby in the cake decorating section (perhaps even Wal-Mart? Don't quote me on that, but in the cake sections by the crafts? Walton brand I would guess).

Did anyone see the post we had a few months ago on this? The results were similar, and the fix is similar, you cna find that post here!

I LOVE ombre', I don't know how I got sucked into this trend but I can't get enough!

Anyone have any tips to make this an even greater success? Or have any tips on icing that will blow our minds?!

Share them below!!

Happy baking Pinstrosipeeps!!

Sprinkles...Too Much of Good Thing

I'm finished!!! I made it through the semester! Hallelluja! We made it out alive! I'm just as surprised as you are haha

 

Well here today we are talking about cake batter...and fudge...and sprinkles.

All in one.

I'll let you have a minute to pick your tongue up off the floor...

 

 

Ok are we all back together now? Good good, yes you heard me right, a Funfetti-Cakebatter-Fudge.

Boom.

Did I mention this recipe doesn't require a candy thermometer or even a stove.

I know, it literally can't get better than this...enough with the chit chat!

 Show me the goods woman!!

 

The Original

http://bakedfromabox.blogspot.ca/2012/07/cake-batter-fudge-10-minute-recipe.html

 

There you have it, Cake Batter Fudge!!

The original is from a ingenious site found here, that bakes with boxed cake mix. Now THAT is my kind of baking...check it out!

 

Now Vanessa sent us this Pinstrosity and let's see what happened!

 

The Pinstrosity

 

I think it looks like raw meat.

And that's exactly what Vanessa thought too...let's  hear it from her!

"When I first came across the blog post with the recipe, I thought I could easily bake this since there was no oven involved and there are really only four required ingredients (not including the optional extra sprinkles).  In my defense, I followed the recipe directions to a tee with the exception of just adding a 1/4 cup spoonful of butter instead of a broken up 1/2 stick of butter,  I should add that I used Funfetti cake mix instead of white cake mix as well but in reading the blog post comments, it worked out great for those who also used Funfetti mix.

 

Where I started to go wrong was when I read that she added extra sprinkles but did not give an exact amount used.  Since that was not disclosed, I thought I could kill two birds with one stone and throw in an entire container of Christmas sprinkles I had left over from our winter cookie decorating.  As soon as I started mixing the batter and the sprinkles I slowly saw my white batter turn into what I have coined "raw beef red".

 

The picture above is the finished product after sitting idle in my refrigerator after two hours.  It seems to taste great, the only exception is the texture is far from regular fudge considering the extra crisp the sprinkles have added.  My husband's first comment was "This is good but really crunchy".

 

Even though it lacked in the messy department, my friends will not let me forget about my spaghetti sauce, raw beef looking fudge, nor will they let me add sprinkles to anything anymore."

 

There you have it!! Do not be liberal with sprinkles, they are like glitter, and we all know what we said about that...

 

 

Happy Friday Pinstrosipeeps!!! I am off to a day of hair appointments and one of my best friends Graduations! It's a good day!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



A Crunch and a Pop

I'm pretty dang excited this morning. Well...it's actually Friday night while I'm writing this, but I'm sure I'll be excited still in the morning. We get our Bountiful Baskets basket tomorrow morning and I'm eager to see what goodness we get this time. Anyone else get the guacamole pack? That's going to be scrumptious! It's always fun to see what is in the basket. Sometimes it's all normal produce and sometimes you get oddities that you've never eaten before. Thank goodness for Google and Pinterest with new recipes!

Okay, enough about my excitement over food. Let me show you more food. 

Today's post is brought to you by the letter P. For The Pinning Pirate and for Pop. No, not soda. Check it out. 

The Original Pin

http://nestleusa.wordpress.com/2012/07/29/nestle-crunch-bowls-with-haagen-dazs-sorbet-sugared-mint-leaves/

That's what Jamie, aka The Pinning Pirate, wanted to make. Want her story? Here it is. Enjoy. 

The Pinstrosity Story:

Want some foreshadowing for this experiment?

“The quietest poetry can be an explosion of joy” – James Broughton

I have no idea who that guy is. His quote just had the word explosion in it. Let me get started.

I LOVE crunch bars. I went through a phase earlier in this school year where I stashed them in my secret compartment in my desk and went to town during my conference. I was then able to focus and get stuff done. Let me clarify that they were MINI crunch bars.

I saved this onto my “Fun looking FOOD!” Pinterest board and thought I would never actually do it because it was too tedious. So instead of attempting it at my house, I opted to do it at my mother in laws house and use all of her utensils.

When I went to the grocery store, I realized I hadn't thoroughly read the directions before buying. I knew I needed crunch bars and balloons. I only bought 4 crunch bars, because I assumed that would be enough. I also bought raspberry sherbert (mmmmmmmmmmmm) and off to mother in laws we go.

Lucky for me, she had a candy thermometer (temperature will be important here) and a double boiler. Her double boiler had holes in the top part so I just put foil over it and solved that problem.

Here we go. I got the water in the boiler hot, but not boiling. I break up my 4 bars and dump them in, then clip the candy thermometer on the side. I completely misread or forgot what I read. Here is what I was supposed to do…

“Do not let the chocolate exceed 110° F. Use a spatula to stir chocolate thoroughly and regularly for about 1 minute or until melted and smooth. Remove the bowl of chocolate and stir in the remaining 1/3 of chopped candy bars. This will lower the temperature of the chocolate. When the chocolate is about 84° F, place back on double boiler or saucepan to raise the temperature of the chocolate back to 86-87° F. Do NOT let the chocolate reach 88° F.”

Here is what I did…

Dumped it all in, melted it, stirred it, kept it on the stove, and let it get to 175 degrees.

Well gee whiz, the chocolate is melted! Time for balloons! My husband’s 80 year old grandma was in the kitchen during this part of the process. She was hanging out with her walker, enjoying a strawberry, just talking away while I start dipping the balloons.

When I dipped the first balloon, it was hard to cover it with chocolate because the chocolate wasn't deep enough. I had to scoop it and try to slather it. It actually didn't work that well. The chocolate kept sliding off. After trying very hard, I was satisfied with the coverage and put it on my cutting board.

I guess you can call that "satisfied"

On to balloon #2. I dipped it in the chocolate and BOOM! There is this loud explosion, the word S--- came from somewhere (I think me) and chocolate went EVERYWHERE. My jaw dropped, I turned around to Granny and she just gave me the biggest WTF look I've ever seen. She said “Well, Jamie, do you know what you’re doing?” and I promptly answered “No.”

I dug the balloon out of the chocolate and dipped balloon #3. I started to slather it when BOOM!! I screamed this time and was blinded by chocolate. Once again, I dared to look back at Granny and she was calling me an idiot with her eyes. When I turned back around, I saw the mess that I had made in my mother in laws kitchen. Chocolate on my shirt, on the microwave above the stove, on the counter, on the stove, on the wall behind the stove on the wall BEHIND me, everywhere. I gave up at this point. I would make do with my one bowl.

I let it freeze for a couple of hours. I was able to let the air out of the balloon without it exploding but as much as I tried to get it out of the chocolate, the bottom just wouldn’t budge and it was stuck. My last attempt at getting the balloon out ended in part of the bowl breaking off. And to add insult to injury, the bowl was stuck on the cutting board.

I tried. I tried really hard. I really need to learn to read directions thoroughly.

-http://thepinningpirate.blogspot.com/2013/04/nestle-crunch-bowls.html

Orange Brownie Bombs

Camping season is nearly upon us! Okay, okay...all year long is camping season to some I know. We tried camping for Christmas one year. Little did we know that the temperatures decided to take an abnormal plummet that one night that week and we gave up around 1:30 am, kicked our "campfire" (we never could get a fire to sustain itself...it was just too wet and cold, even with the dry wood we brought), wadded up the tent and threw it in the car, dug the car out (we got it stuck earlier), and went home. When we got home and looked up the temperature it wasn't the 30 degrees as predicted...it was 10. But, it made for a fun story and memory. We want to try winter camping again sometime, but it may be a ways down the road before we forget how cold that was. So...you can camp during the winter, but the easier camping season is nearly upon us! Hooray! We love camping. Luckily we live in a great spot for loving camping; we're surrounded by National Forest around here and it's great! We're always trying to find some easy but yummy thing to cook while camping. Brats are easy, but they get a little old. Our dessert menu has been pretty limited to s'mores. Some camping food is good...others just don't turn out. Like today's Pinstrosity. 

The Original Pin

http://campingwithgus.com/2012/09/08/easy-camping-treat-recipes-ideas-for-kids/

Linsey sent in this story: "Everyone loves a nice campfire right? Well I decided that we needed a campfire treat that would be delicious as well as 'easy!' A couple of months back one of my friends had pinned 'Campfire Brownie Oranges' sounds good right? Well I read about it and decided it did not sound hard at all. I went to the store and bought oranges and brownie mix, made the brownie mix (exactly how it said) cut the oranges and scooped them out. Again they didn't mention that if you cut the orange tops to small it wouldn't work. And if you happened to buy really juicy oranges you would be a sticky mess. Scooping the brownie mix into the oranges seemed to cause more havoc. And by this time I smelt like an orange and looked like a sticky gooey mess! So finally I wrapped the poor little oranges in tin foil, making sure to twist the top of the tin foil just as they suggested. I put them in the fire for 25 mins and decided it was time to take them out. I got the tongs and pulled them out laying them on a rock to cool." 

The Pinstrosity

"Little did they mention that when I opened them even if it seemed cool, that the hot molten brownie mix that if not properly cooked would scald my hands. Which proceeded in me throwing the scalding hot orange peel on the ground and throwing my sticky, orange-brownie covered hands in the dirt, while screaming like a hyena, while spectators laughed at my stupidity. The out come was a soupy brownie, burnt hands, and a mess! And the brownies that did cook were unevenly cooked, and burnt to a char! I'm thinking now that these so called 'Campfire brownies' were cooked in an oven to perfection."

I think I'll stick with my s'mores. The worst that can go wrong there is that you shake your stick to try to put out your flaming marshmallow, only to launch it flying across the campsite where it lands on your tent, sending your tent, sleeping bags, and kindle up into instant flames, so you run and throw all your water on it and start kicking dirt only to end up covered in mud standing over the charred remains of your sleeping abode. No big deal.

Lessons Learned Through Pinstrosities

Most of us have learned valuable lessons through Pinterest and our Pinstrosities. 

Kelli learned that these 2-ingredient lemon bars need a pan bigger than a 9x13:

Shannon learned that this "17 Ways to Never Have a Bad Hair Day Again" list needs a different name:

Amy learned not to walk down the street on a hot day to deliver banana split bites to a neighbor:

I think the bananas needed to be a little shorter too...

Abigail learned that the tip she saw on Pinterest about substituting mayo for eggs doesn't work in every recipe:

And Rachael learned that not all "DIY Cleaners" pins on Pinterest are safe:

"My name is Rachael and I am a military wife living in Georgia. My husband is currently deployed and I am a stay at home mom for the time being so I am a huge pinterest lover. Well, most of my projects come out great! However, last night I rescued a chihuahua from a really bad situation and after bathing it and putting it in the kitchen with my other dog I realized it had worms (icky) so I decided even though it was 2 am, I needed to disinfect my kitchen floor and separate the dogs. I had pinned a post for super disinfectant mop solution some time ago so I decided to pull it up. The recipe called for a gallon of water 1 cup of vinegar, 1 cup of bleach, and 2 tbsp of dawn dish soap. Excited to try this new thing I got out my mop bucket, products and mixing cups. I poured it all in the bucket and as soon as I added the bleach, a white cloud of chemicals started rising out of my mop bucket. I freaked and went to move my dogs out of the way and she knocked over the bucket. So I sopped it all up and proceeded to call poison control because my eyes were burning and some got on my feet and it was burning and my whole house had an awful smell. I was told to open all the windows in my home, run fans and get myself and the two dogs and my toddler out of the house immediately. By this time is was three am. I woke up my two year old and me and the two dogs and her sat outside from 3-4 am in the freezing cold waiting for the fumes to dissipate. I tried to find the pin to attach it, but it has been deleted due to my actions of reporting it! My family got a good laugh and I'm trying to find the humor in the awful night, lol. I love your site and blog. Thanks for bringing lots of smiles to my face during the hard third deployment."

And then sometimes we have lessons that we learn completely free and clear of Pinterest. They end up being more of Lifestrosities. We had a recent one in our house. I had a huge chunk of work to do one week and was barely staying afloat, so my sweet husband worked on cleaning the house for me. I was in the zone and not paying much attention as he was straightening the kitchen and loading the dishwasher. It wasn't until I saw something white moving across the floor than I looked over and chuckled. 

Cameron learned that when you're out of dishwasher detergent...you can't pour in regular dish soap. 

Teehee...he hadn't noticed yet. I grabbed the camera and snapped a photo just before he turned and discovered the adventure pouring out of the dishwasher. Poor guy had no idea this would happen. Here he was thinking he was the most awesome husband in the world as he cleaned the kitchen and rocked out to The Pogues, only to look up and discover the never ending spew of bubbles. So what do you do at this point? You mop. And Mop. And Mop. And Mop. Our floor is cleaner than it's been in a long time! 

It took 3 full runs of the dishwasher before it quit looking like this inside:

We laughed about this all day. And that brings me to my final "lesson learned" of the day. Don't let these "life lessons" (be they Pinstrosities or Lifestrosities) get you mad or down. Life is too full of stress and dumb things to be mad all the time. I'm glad we have the bubble mess as a funny memory to look back on rather than one where we got mad and made a huge deal over nothing. Life happens. There will be ups and downs. Just breathe (well...unless you're Rachael...then breathe once you're out of the fuming house), smile, take a picture, and try to find something funny or good about the situation. As Eleanor Hodgman Porter wrote in her book Polyanna, "You see, when you're hunting for the glad things, you sort of forget the other kind." Find the glad in life. It'll make thing much more bearable.