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!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



I woke up late today so I had time to either practice the piano for my piano group tonight or write a Pinstrosity. I chose the piano. So...you get another dry day. But I hope you have a great day and I'll be back for Saturday. 

Happy Thursday!

Wrath of the Wreaths

I LOVE summer. I am so excited to get it started. All our school friends are in their last week of school (good luck on finals!) and then it's play time! Swimming. Hiking. Picnics. Making collapsible kayaks (the husband is quite excited about the possibility of this one). Family reunions. The 4th of July. What a wonderful time of year! 

So I know some of you still have snow (ew...sorry), but I'm going to jump into a summer post anyway. It's always fun to decorate your house for the season. We live out of town a ways and I used to think that meant that there was no reason to decorate the outside of our house because no one would see it. And then after a while I realized that was a silly way of thinking. That shouldn't be the point of decorating, to show others how awesome you are. The point of decorating is to beautify and personalize, to make a place your own. So now I try to add small touches that will make this our place, and not just that one spot we lived in once upon a time. Some times I better at it than others. Today's submission though has me thinking about what I could do to add a small touch of us for summer "decor".

The Original Pin

http://thecreativeimperative.blogspot.com/2011/06/american-flag-wreath-sort-of.html

Cute, no? I already know I'd lose patience wrapping the yarn over and over and over again. But I'm supportive of all y'all who stick with it! Betsy saw this and wanted to make one to summer-ize her front door, only those foam wreath forms are expensive! So she found another pin that suggested to use foam tubing and decided to give that a try. 

The Pinstrosity

http://everwys.blogspot.com/2012/09/pinterest-fail.html

Betsy said, "I'm sorry USA, it's not you, it's me.  Can you forgive me?

And yes...it hung sorta proudly on my door for the summer.  Too cheap not to."

Hey...this reminds me of a wreath we were sent in around Halloween:

The same thing happened. 

So how do we make this work? There has to be a way, right? There probably is, but it probably will take more time and supplies. That's how it usually goes. Cheaper doesn't always mean easier or quicker. 

Idea #1: 

Run a piece of wire through the inside of the wreath. Not jewelry wire. A coat hanger that's been opened up and shaped into a circle. If you have a general contractor in your family see if they have some leftover wiring from a building project (growing up with a general contractor Dad was/is awesome for doing projects). Get some good thick wire at the store. 

Idea #2:

The instructions I've seen to do these DIY wreath forms has you tape the two ends of the foam tube together to form the wreath. I'd use duct tape. Lots of it. And I wouldn't just tape the two ends together. I would wrap the entire tube in tape to help stabilize the shape. Layers of tape. 

Idea #3:

Cut out a cardboard "wreath" to glue the foam wreath to. This will help make hanging easier and if the glue is strong enough it can help hold the shape of the foam. You just have to make sure the cardboard is smaller in width than the wreath or your wreath may turn out looking more like a bundt cake. 

You know...one of these:

http://pixelatedcrumb.com/2011/10/16/pumpkin-buttermilk-cake/

Idea #4:

Paint a wreath on your front door and then you can just use stickers to change out the decorative items for the seasons. Okay, not really. Unless you're an awesome painter. Mine would look like an ogre sneezed on the front door. 

So there you have my ideas. If you try #4, send me a picture. 

Mix It Up Monday: May Day Pockets

 Happy Monday everyone. I know...most people don't like Mondays, but I love them. Mondays are the only day that the hubs and I have off together (well...and Sunday, but there's church and we both teach classes at church so it doesn't feel like a "day off" oddly enough). We spent all evening yesterday making guacamole, salsa, freshly squeezed strawberry lemonade, and black bean lime chicken to take on a picnic with us today (everything but the chicken and black beans in that list of food came from my Bountiful Baskets food...I love it). As soon as I finish this post we're packing up and heading off on an adventure and picnic. So I'm excited that today is Monday? Why else do I like Mondays? Because that means it's Mix It Up Monday! The day where we share some Pin Wins, tutorials, random funny pictures, etc. 

So today I have a Pin Win/Pin Spin and a tutorial for you. This past Wednesday was May Day. Last year in June I saw this pin:

http://beehiveartsalon.blogspot.com/2012/04/may-day-pockets.html

What is it? It's a May Day Pocket! I thought that was so cute and I loved the idea of leaving fun May Day bags on people's doors. I read up a little on the tradition and I couldn't wait for May Day to roll around so that I could do this. So the end of April hit and my 11 month wait was finally over! I was so excited to make these. I even have a big bag of burlap I could use. I went to go pull it out and realized that it is at the bottom of a pile in this room:

Okay...so that room is only half that full now. We had our carpets cleaned and that is our only room with linoleum (minus the kitchen, but we wanted access to the fridge), so our entire house (minus the bed, table, and couch) got stuffed into that room. We have all the essentials put away, but there are still 4 or 5 book shelves, all the crafting supplies, photography supplies, costumes, and our TV still piled in there. 

So anyway...the burlap was not accessible and I didn't want to buy more burlap...so I decided I'd buy me some new fat quarters (because my fabric stash is also buried and for some reason buying more fabric is better than buying more burlap). So I got looking for cute little bags I could make out of fabric and I found this one:

http://patternpile.com/sewing-patterns/zest-tote-bag-pattern/

I loved the look of those...but they were way bigger than I wanted. So I got looking for mini tote bag patterns and found this little gem:

http://www.diaryofaquilter.com/2012/07/easy-fat-quarter-bag-tutorial.html

This still was bigger than I wanted and it didn't have the fun little cuff at the top that I liked, so I decided to be adventurous and see if I could Pin Spin the project, shrinking the design and changing it to get the cuff I wanted. I based my design off the diary of a quilter bag, using the same method to assemble, I just had to make some tweaks to get the size and cuff I wanted. 

First...here's what I ended up with:

Once I got the method figured out and streamlined, these came together super fast and easy. I could get 3 5.5" x 6.5" mini totes from 2 fat quarters in about 30-45 minutes (I made 9 bags total). 

Alright, now for the tutorial. 

Supplies you'll need for 1 bag:

2 coordinating fabrics, one for the cuff and lining (Fabric A), and one for the outside and straps (Fabric B)

Scissors

A cutting mat and rotary cutter come in super handy

Iron and ironing board

All your basic sewing supplies

A pencil or fabric marking pen

Cutting Instructions:

From Fabric A, cut one 18" by 6" rectangle. This will be your cuff and lining. 

From Fabric B, cut one 10" by 6" rectangle. This will be the outside body of your bag. 

From Fabric B, cut two 11" by 2" rectangles (I goofed on one and ended up having to sew two 6" by 2" pieces together and trimming to size and it worked just fine). These will be your two straps. 

Sewing Instructions:

I'll just say it here really quick before we start...all seams are 1/4". 

1. Take one strap strip and iron it in half.

2. Open the strip back up and make sure the wrong side of the fabric (the side without the print) is facing up. 

3. Fold the top and bottom edges to meet the crease line in the middle that you made in step 1. Press in place. 

4. Fold the strap in half so all the raw edges are in the middle. Press in place. 

5. Sew a seam down both ends of the strap.

Fold and sew the other strap the same way. 

6. Grab the fabric you cut for the outside body of the bag. On the two short ends, make a mark 1 1/2" from the edges. These lines mark where you will place your straps. 

7. Line up your straps on the inside of each line and pin in place... 

...like so:

8. Take your cuff/lining piece and your body piece and stack them right sides together, matching the two short ends. Pin in place and sew just the short ends. The cuff/lining piece will be bigger than the body piece, don't freak out, this is good.  

When the two ends are sewn together, this is what it will look like (the pink is my cuff/lining, the turquoise is my outside fabric). 

9. Fold your bag in half, so that the two seams you just sewed match up and your fabrics are "separated" on either side. Like this:

See how the two seams are matched up with the pink on the left and the turquoise on the right? That's what you want. 

10. Sew down both long sides, making sure not to catch the straps in either seam. Leave a 3" opening on one side to turn your bag right-side-out. 

11. Turn the bag right-side-out through the opening you just left (just reach in and flip it right side out like you would a sock). Sew the 3" opening closed. This is going to be inside your bag and no one will ever see it, so it doesn't have to be beautiful. Press the bag, especially the edges, to get it nice and crisp.

12. Pull the two layers apart from each other...

 

...and tuck the lining down inside the bag (think of folding socks). Press your edges really well.  

13. From here you can either leave the cuff as it is, or fold it down once to make it smaller. I did both and can't decide which I like better. 

If you want a smaller cuff, fold the top edge of the cuff down towards the seam where the cuff and the body of the bag meet. If you want to add prairie points or any other embellishment under the cuff, pin those in at this point. 

14. If you folded down the cuff, sew the bottom edge down, like you see here:

Make sure to flip your straps up so that the seam runs over them as well. 

Sew another seam along the top of the cuff to fasten down the straps and to give the top a more finished look. 

Bag with Prairie Points and folded cuff

Bag with folded cuff

Bat with full size cuff.  This one I goofed on and had to sew the edges...just ignore that unless you like the look..then sew a seam down the edges. 

Like a dummy, I didn't get pictures of the other bags I made, but I did 3 different color combos (black/white/yellow bags, red/lime green/white bags, and these coral/turquoise bags). It was fun to stuff them, find coordinating flowers, and sneak up to people's doors to leave them. 

I think I'll make a bunch more of these in various sizes to have on hand as gift bags. They're so cute, easy, and can be reused over and over as a gift bag. 

Anyone else have any great May Day bags they put together? We'd love to see them. 

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

Mac n' Cheese Mean Muggin'

I must be on a microwave food kick, (finals much?) I finished my lectures for the semester and now all that is left are the actual finals! So send all your good mojo and happy positive thoughts my way please!

So we read about microwave popcorn fails here on Wednesday, and today you get to read about my all time favorite food EVER.

Macaroni and Cheese!

I love Mac and Cheese so much my husband incorporated it with his proposal but that is a story for another time ;)

 

So without further ado, here is Kim's story!

 

The Original

http://www.babble.com/best-recipes/instant-mug-o-mac-cheese-in-the-microwave/

 

Doesn't this look delish! If I only had milk on hand this would be going on in my belly RIGHT NOW!

 

This recipe is a easy homemade mac and cheese in a mug...microwaved! Say what?!

 

For those times when your little one (or you for that matter) HAS to have mac and you just don't have that heavenly blue box on hand.

Here is how Kim's turned out:

 

The Pinstrosity

 

No bueno.

 

So what happened? Here is what Kim had to say about it:

"We all know that neon orange cheese is less than healthy, and filled with processed junk, which makes this pin so appealing. My 3 year old eats mac and cheese ALL the time, and finding myself out of blue boxes, I turned to Pinterest! I pinned this a while ago, and finally got around to trying it with less than desirable results. I should have stopped myself when I realized the website it came from no longer exists, but how hard can microwave mac and cheese be? I threw everything into a mug, and guesstimated at 5 minutes since the pin didn't include a time. When the microwave beeped, this is what I came back to... 

Giant mess and completely inedible macaroni. Every last bit of the cheese was either stuck to the mug or in the microwave. (Well at least this made me realize how nasty my microwave was...and now I have to clean it anyway!!)

 

Since it was the cheese that was bubbled over, I tried it a second time without the cheese, figuring I would add it after it nuked. I just put the water and a dab of olive oil to keep it from bubbling over. After 7 minutes, all the water had evaporated, but the pasta was still slightly undercooked, so I added the milk and 2 more minutes to the timer. Came back, and it looked just like my bubbled over cheese mess, but milk instead of cheese! I added the cheese anyway, and it was pretty good, looked remotely like the picture, but I still wasn't satisfied! If it could work like this in the microwave, why can't I just use the same ingredients on the stovetop with much less to clean afterwards? 

 

So, I boiled the pasta (used more water), drained it al dente, added the milk and brought it back to a boil. Then I turned off the heat, let it cool for a minute (as to not get grainy cheese), then the cheese. It was reaalllllyy soupy. As it cooled it thickened up, but wasn't cohesive. I added some American cheese to creamify it, and that made it edible. But, for all that work, I should have just made a small bechamel and made it the real way..."

 

So there you have it. This is why it is SO important to use directions!

Kim emailed us later and added that she eventually found the recipe she was looking for (the original) and was now out of milk to give a test run. Isn't that just how life goes?! haha!

 

Anyone have any awesome Microwave instant Mac and Cheese recipes to share?!

 I LOVE me some mac :)

 

Happy Friday Pinstrosipeeps!!

 

 

 

 



Snap, Crackle, Pop, Burn, NO!!!

If there is ever an opportunity to make sure our readers are safe when using pins I make sure to make it known. This is one of those times! Angie sent us this pin, where the first time it worked perfect, she loved it and it was delicious! Win!

 However the second time she did this it could have ended in disaster! Check it out!

 

The Original

http://thefrugalgirls.com/2009/11/homemade-microwave-popcorn-recipe.html

 

This pin is about making your own homemade microwave popcorn! Fun and cheap! All you do is put 1/3 C popcorn kernels in a new brown paper bag, and tape it shut, you then microwave it until you hear 5 seconds between pops.

All went well with Angie's first attempt at this, however the second time she did exactly as the first time but saw her microwave light flickering, she went to check it out and saw what we have below.

 

Now the Frugal Girls had no issues with this, and I am not saying this is a bad pin, I am merely warning ya'll to make sure and watch your popcorn so that what you see below doesn't happen to you! For all we know this could have been a microwave problem, but if she had let it keep going who knows what could have happened! Let's avoid kitchen fires yes?!

 

The Pinstrosity

 

I'm glad nothing bad happened here, but the cleanup was probably nightmarish, and the smell! Burnt popcorn smell is the worst.

 

Anyone have any good pins for smell removal from a  microwave?!

 

So there is your warning folks, watch it pop!!!!

 

Happy Wednesday Pinstrosipeeps!

 I am off to clean my house and run errands, ( so much for a day off huh?).