Homemade cheezits and Baked "hard-boiled" eggs

So since we eat a ton of crackers I thought making our own would be a great idea. So here is the link: http://missanthropistskitchen.wordpress.com/2011/06/22/homemade-goldfish-crackers-with-a-homemade-goldfish-cookie-cutter/

I can't get the pictures to come up on my computer so I can't show you what they looked like when they made them but here are my results:

Not very appetizing huh?  So I had LOTS of problems with this recipe.  First of all the recipe says to mix the ingredients in a food processor which I do not have so I just decided to use the pulse feature on my blender. It did not go well... The ingredients did not mix well despite much poking and prodding.  Finally I added some water and started to get some movement, unfortunately then my blender started to smoke ( I think its toast, I'm not sure though because I'm afraid to try it for confirmation that I'll need a new blender).  So since I thought it was pretty well mixed I let it chill for about an hour and then rolled it out to cut and bake it.  Now I'll admit it had gotten late and I was a little tired so I may have rushed this a little.  The "dough" didn't get rolled even enough and obviously didn't get the squares are square or even as I could have.  But even after they baked they didn't taste very good.  They aren't very cheesy or salty.  They just have a weird floury, kinda cheesy taste.  Even bean (who eats just about anything made a really nasty face when I gave her one)

All in all not something worth doing for me.  I'd rather just buy a box of goldfish or cheezits.  It may save a little money but they aren't good at all and really not a lot cheaper and I have better things to do with my time.  

That night I also attempted baking hard boiled eggs.  When I give bean snacks I try to give her protein to stay healthy.  Eggs are a great source of protein but I hate having to scramble eggs every day and I really hate hard boiling eggs.  So when I heard of this idea I thought it would be great.  So I tried this.  I put 6 eggs in a muffin tin and then preheated the oven to 325 (the suggested temp) I baked the eggs for 30 minutes and then took them out and gave them time to cool.  When I peeled them...Voila! Hard boiled eggs! Exciting!!!

Just a few issues that I think are fixable.  A couple of the eggs were just a little uncooked in the middle and most of the eggs had a weird grey ring around the yolks.  I think these issue can be solved by cooking the eggs a little hotter and a little longer and then dunking them in cold water.  

I'll try again soon and update.

Good night!   

2 Ribbon Projects

Alright to this post it 2 for one- mostly because I have both of the pictures on my SD card but its also good because they both use ribbon.  They are also similar because I don't even know if I actually pinned either one but do remember seeing them on pinterest. So all that to say I don't have the pictures but its ok because they pretty much turned out the right way.

So here is project number 1:  Ribbon in a wipe box :-)  (Lame title but that's the best way to describe it )

(sorry my picture is sideways I'm not sure why they upload that way or how to fix them so if anyone can help that would be great)

So this project is pretty straight forward and simple.  All you do is save a wipe box and buy a roll of ribbon.  Then you hot glue one end of the ribbon to the bottom of the inside of the box.  Then unroll the ribbon and poke it through the hole that you would pull wipes out of.  

I haven't decorated the box yet  but I would love to I just haven't found something that I feel safe decorating with for Lizzie.  I don't want to use anything she can pick off like foam pieces or paint.  I'm thinking coloring it with Sharpies. I'll post another picture when it is finished.  The only other suggestion I can make is that if you cut the ribbon at all you'll want to seal the end of the ribbon by using a lighter.  All you do is turn on the flame and run the ribbon NEAR the flame- you don't want to actually put it in the flame because it might set on fire (and that's bad... lol). You will see the edge of the ribbon melt a little.  

So this project is super simple but currently baby bean is not really interested in playing with the ribbon, she just wants to play with the lid.  Hopefully she doesn't break it before she can figure out how fun it is to pull the ribbon out. We'll see.

Next I used a clever idea to store cards : 

So these are the Christmas cards we received this Christmas.  I simply punched a hole in the upper left hand corner of each card.  Then I cut a ribbon about a foot or so. Honestly I didn't measure I just ran the ribbon through the holes and made sure I had enough ribbon on one end to right the holiday and date and then cut the other side to match.  Again I used a lighter to melt the ends of the ribbon just a little to seal the ends. After tying the knot, again with room to write the holiday.  Then I used puffy paint to write the holiday and date on the ribbon, then let it dry.  

Again a simple easy project that it a cute way to store cards and organize them by holidays.  One helpful hint make sure to stack the cards in the direction that you want them to be organized before you start punching.  Other wise its super confusing where to hole punch as you're going along :-) 

Enjoy!  

Crispy Cheddar Chicken

Alright so here's a post on a recipe.  So here is the picture of what the final product is supposed to look like :


And here's the website: http://quick-dish.tablespoon.com/2013/01/15/crispy-cheddar-chicken/

Now I didn't get a picture of mine but needless to say, it didn't look like this.

Taste wise also not so great but I have a few theories as to why.  But let me go over the recipe first.  So its basically cut the chicken breasts into strips, dip it in milk, then shredded cheese, and then breadcrumbs. Then as they bake you simmer the progresso cheese soup starter and then drizzle over the strips when they are finished.

So shredded cheese on chicken strip and drizzled in cheese soup should be delicious right? Ummm not so great. Now I admit part of the problem is that we didn't drizzle it with the cheese soup because by the time we made dinner and it baked we (and baby bean) were starving and thought it would be fine. Also  part of the directions say that they added a splash of garlic salt to the bread crumbs but I didn't because I didn't have time and didn't think it would be that important.   But in addition I couldn't get a lot of the cheese shreds to stick to the chicken strips so it didn't come out very cheesy.

So the jury is still out on this recipe.  We're going to try it again- with the garlic salt in the breadcrumbs and make sure to get the soup on the strips.  I'll repost on this recipe when we retry it.  

Melted Crayons On Canvas Picture

So here is the original pin and picture:

http://pinterest.com/pin/25543922859484989/

And here is how mine turned out:

All in all not too bad.  I do wish that the crayon would have run evenly down the canvas better but much better than those pictures of failed attempts at this where the crayons are duct taped to the top and there is just a mass of melted crayon everywhere.  So here are some tips for making this work:

• COVER THE AREA WHERE YOU ARE GOING TO WORK!! I cannot stress this enough! The table I made this on is covered in blue drops. (luckily it my craft table so all's good- Just glad I didn't try this anywhere else.)
• You'll need about 45-50 crayons of the shade you want to make your picture. My canvas was 16in and I needed 45 crayons so you can figure from there.
• I hot glue all the crayons across the top and then propped it up so I could melt the crayons using my blow dryer. 
• When you start melting the crayons you want to aim the blow dryer in the middle of the crayons.  Too high or too low makes the crayons splatter.  You can run the hot air over the tips of the crayons a few times to help melt them but once they start dripping aim the air up.
• I would recommend melting the crayons in small sections.  The wax dries really fast and think that is why I got a big lump in the middle.  Aim your blow dryer at the crayons and let the wax melt and run until the section runs down the canvas to your desired length and the move to a different section.  That is what I did towards the end (aka the side without the silhouette) and I think the results are much better.
• Also I know that with the fact that you are running a blow dryer for an unknown amount of time it can get very hot where you are working but resist the urge to turn on a fan or open a window- IT WILL BLOW THE WAX in crazy ways! 
• Last I simply found a silhouette I like on the internet, printed and cut it out.  Then I colored over it with black marker to make sure the coloring was the same.  Then I used spray glue to cover the area where I want it and pressed it into the glue.

Ta-da!!! Question? Comments? Let me know! 

Ok, so here I am going to start recording my results of my Pinterest projects, the good, the bad and the ugly.  Hopefully I can share some insight into how I made (or failed completely) the Pinterest projects that I've attempted.  I'll share tips that aren't on the pin and anything else useful that I find.  Enjoy!