Hard Boiled Eggs - in the OVEN?

First there was bacon, now it is EGGS.  There has been many a pinterest post talking about baking eggs to cook them instead of boiling them in water.  I was extremely hesitant at first, but thought OK, if Alton Brown, cooking science mastermind approves of them then I shall try it for myself.  Not to mention, I really needed to cook a large number of eggs and doing them all in the oven might save me some time!

So throwing caution to the wind and with great abandon (ok, with gentle abandon) I put the eggs directly on the oven rack...

It felt very wrong to put these eggs right on the oven rack

This was sort of a leap of faith, since this was every single egg I was going to dye with the kids later, so if it didn't work out, I was going to have to run to the store for more eggs (talk about putting all your eggs "in one basket" so to speak).  

Next you set the oven to 325º for 30 minutes (place a cookie sheet underneath them in case one of them cracks or explodes) - then walk away!  That's right. No watching if it boils over, nothing. Nada.  Do your nails, do a load of laundry, play a couple songs on guitar hero and voila, thirty minutes later you have hard "boiled" eggs.  Shortly after you get them out of the oven, you are to put them in a large bowl filled with ice water.  I thought for SURE the drastic temperature drop would crack or destroy them but alas, I was incorrect.  They were fine.  Not one of them cracked actually.  Also they had little brown specks on them coming out of the oven, but they all washed off in the ice water bath.  After they cooled I put them in the fridge over night but was dying to know if they worked or not.  So in the morning, I cracked into one.  My method is tapping it all over with a spoon and running it under cold water, the shell came right off, so that was a good sign!

Here is my perfectly peeled hard "boiled" aka oven cooked egg.  The "believers" in this method claim four things:  

1.  It eliminates the dark ring around the yolk that is caused by boiling
2.  It makes a creamier tastier egg
3.  It cuts down on the sulfur flavor and smell
4.  It allow for many eggs to be cooked at once

So I was nervous to cut it open... but here goes nothin'.

Well as you can see there is a tiny bit of darker color around the edge, not too bad.  I guess I can attest for #4 on the list (saving time) but the jury is still out on me for numbers one through three.  Still had a slight dark ring (and I used fresh eggs), as far as extra creamy, I really could tell no difference.  It was good of course, just not oozing creaminess.  Also the eliminating the sulfur smell, these were just as stinky as regular eggs.  When the fridge door is opened, you can get a whiff of them, and when I cut one open to make an egg salad sandwich my 4 year old said, mommy, something is rotten (ha).  So all in all I'd say this was a great experiment.  Does it live up to all the hype?  Not sure.  Does it save time and allow you do cook tons of eggs at once with an almost "set it and forget it" mentality?  YES.

Handprint Lilies

We are still on spring break around these parts and still on the lookout for fun crafts we can do with the kids.  Then I remembered a cute flower craft we did a couple of years ago from family fun magazine where you use hand prints to make beautiful spring lilies. 

I realized that my two youngest had never really got to do this craft, so this might be a good year to try these pretty little flowers again.  Here is a list of things you need:
  

white card stock

green construction paper

green straws

yellow pipe cleaners

scotch tape

hole punch

scissors & pencil



First, gather some small people and their hands.  Trace around their hands on white card stock and cut out 

Next you want to take a pencil and curl the fingers around it to make the "petals"

Next you want to make the leaves.  First make a template out of left over card stock.  I made it the same length as the straw.  Once I had a template I traced it multiple times on the paper.  Here's a tip if you are doing multiple kids and flowers: Put a few pieces of green construction paper together (I did 3 at a time) and cut multiple leaves out at once.  It's a real time saver!

Next use a hole punch and make a hole in the center of the leaf shape. (Make sure to make the leaf wide enough so there is room for a hole).  Take your pencil and curl the edges of the leaves like you did with the finger petals.

Now for assembly: Fold the hand flower around the straw stem.  You want to make sure the curly fingers are pointed out.  Tape both the flower ends together and to the straw at the same time.  You can use more than one piece of tape.

Attach two leaves with the curl going down and make an "X" shape with them.  Take some more scotch tape and wrap around the straw underneath the leaves so they can not slide back down the straw and to hold them in place.  Take a yellow pipe cleaner and fold it in half.  Cut it.  Now take each half piece and fold in half again to make a "V".  Curl the edges around a pencil to give it a stamen look.  Insert the yellow  "V" shaped pipe cleaner down into the straw to complete the flower.

Make a bunch and place them in a tall pretty glass or small vase and display them on your Easter table.  Also would make a lovely gift for moms, grandparents or teachers.  I was also thinking you could make these in multiple colors and give them on May day and Mother's day too!

Baby Chick Ear Flap Hat

Speaking of baby chicks, I just had to show you one of my latest ear flap hats.  It's so stinkin' adorable I want to run out into a crowd of strangers and find a tiny baby head to put it on so I can see what it looks like with chubby baby cheeks underneath it.  

Once I learned to make ear flap hats six months ago, there was no stopping me.  I made a ton of cute ones in the winter (snowmen, Ruby the red-nosed reindeer, Hello Kitties in many shades, baby bears in pink and blue - then I made some custom ones for some kids I know, including Domo, and even a bacon cheeseburger ear flap hat, which, let me tell you were a big hit from the tweens who received them as gifts), but when spring kicked in high gear around here I knew I wanted to make a little baby chick.  The size here is for a 0-3 month old baby and would make and adorable photo prop as well.

Every day I keep thinking of new animals/ideas to try to make into an ear flap hat. I was thinking of light green frog, a baby blue bird, a blue puppy with floppy ears, maybe a floppy eared rabbit too! So if you think of another clever idea let me know and I'll try to see what I come up with.  I love the challenge.  My sister-in-law even wondered if I could pull off an R2D2 for my nephew.  Now THAT would be a challenge.  If any of you are interested, I can post some of my other ear flap creations in a future post. Thanks so much for letting me share.

Easter Chicks Craft

So Easter is just around the corner, not to mention spring break is here, and I've been on the lookout for some cute crafts to do with the girls.  I found an adorable idea from Jeromina over at her blog that we really wanted to try.  These little chicks just melted my heart, how sweet!

So the first thing is to gather all the supplies you will need, as seen below:  Old egg cartons, acrylic paint in the shades you want, plastic paint tray, scissors, comics (to cover the table with), construction paper in yellow and orange for beaks and feathers, googly eyes and craft feathers are optional.  Not shown also was duct tape, scotch tape, and a sharpie

Next, you want to cut up the egg carton so you get a pile of little cups you will use to make your chicks.  I was saddened to find out our egg cartons were not as symmetrical or smooth as they were in the sample picture.  They were lumpy and bumpy in places. 

It's also good to note that it was too hard for the little ones to cut, so I'd save this part for an adult or older child.  Oh and also, I would do this WAY before you call people to craft, as it takes a few minutes and they start to impatiently swarm you as you cut frantically.  So, do some adult prep-time here and save some whine time.


Next you want to take two egg cup halves and use a strip of duct tape to secure them together.This will make a nice hinge for the chick to open it's mouth.  Also when you paint in a few, you will paint over this and it will all turn into the same color.

Next comes the fun part: PAINTING   Start with painting the inside of the cups first  Then open up gently from the hinge and paint the outside.  There really was no way around it, you really had to touch the paint at times to hold these down, they are very fragile.

My youngest got pretty good at holding it down gently while she was painting, and she's only four.

Also, you might notice, but we originally intended to make only baby yellow chicks, but after we got going, we wanted to make baby birds of many colors.  Soon, a variety of paint colors were opened

I don't know exactly why it is, but I absolutely LOVE a paint pallet full of wonderful colors.  

Then we let them dry over night (you could probably let them dry for a few hours if you have less time), I was working on a toddler attention span, so we only craft when the moment is right.

These totally reminded me of coloring Easter eggs, they were all so bright and cheery looking.  While these are drying, you will have time to cut out the beaks, wings, (there were feet too, but we opted out of those).  The picture from Jeromina shows the shapes to cut out best, and how to place them using tape.  Also looking back after the fact, if you have glue dots, they would work a LOT better at attaching the extras, the tape after a while started to pull off.

After that we finished up our little chicks.  I had some craft feathers lying around so we added them to the tops of their heads. They looked pretty cute all sitting together with their rainbow hues.

We had fun doing these, they were tiny, fragile, time consuming, but the girls got some time to do some art together and make something pretty. I'd say their favorite part was actually the painting. Also I think older kids with a bit more manual dexterity (like 8+) would have a blast customizing these.

Have a great rest of the week and a wonderful Easter ahead.

Cutest Bunny Cupcakes

With Easter only a little over a week away, I thought I'd focus on some fun spring and Easter foods and crafts for kids of all ages.  A few years back my middle child wanted a hippity hoppity bunny party at a bouncy house.  Her birthday is in May and thank goodness she told me early because I was able to stock up on tons of Easter clearance, and it turned out just fabulous.  I will post the entire party with details soon, but in the mean time, I thought I'd show you these cute little bunny cupcakes!

Well aren't these the most adorable things you ever done laid eyes on?  So sweet.  My inspiration came from a cross between a family fun bunny cupcake and a Wilton bunny cupcake.  Here I will give you a close up so you can see them in detail, for upon closer inspection you will discover an irresistible urge to pinch their fluffy little bunny cheeks:

Here is what you will need to make the cupcakes:  (click here for printable directions)

Ingredients:

24 cupcakes baked
2 cans of store bought white/vanilla frosting (not whipped, regular)
Mini M&M's for eyes
1 bag regular sized marshmallows 
1 bag wedding mints (pastel)
Pink sugar sprinkles
Pink jelly belly beans (can get small bag of 1 color in bulk sections
1 round tip to make puffy cheeks (Wilton tip 6)

Directions:

• Make all the ears first, by cutting marshmallows in half and dipping the sticky side in pink sugar sprinkles.  You can kind of shape them into more of an ear shape here, and set aside.
• Frost cupcakes normally with white frosting
• Put some frosting in a Wilton bag with round tip and pipe two balls a little lower than center
• Place the pink jelly bean nose and two white wedding mints for the teeth
• Place two brown mini M&M's close to each end of the jelly belly bean
• Put two smaller balls (Wilton tip again) where the ears will go near the top of the head.  Place the marshmallow ears at the base of this dot. Make sure you leave enough room that the ears will sit on the face and not tip off the back off the cupcake.  The frosting dot will hold the ears in place.

And BAM!  You've got your finished little bunny cupcakes gazing up at you and ready for some hippity hoppity fun.  Mine all hopped in line here and were ready to bounce off to the birthday party.  (The kids by the way went ga-ga over these)!

This by the way would make a great Easter craft with the kids or grand kids, fun for a class party, or a bunny party any other time of the year.

Oh Easter Tree, Oh Easter Tree...

Last Christmas, we bought two mini Christmas trees for the girls to use as night lights in their rooms.  They got to pick out the color, mini ornaments, and got to decorate it all by themselves.  They have made very pretty night lights for months and we were about to take them down.  See them here sadly removing all the Christmas ornaments and putting them lovingly in a bag.  :(  Poor things.  But our rooms will be so DARK says one of them.

Then, momma gets a bright idea (ha, pun intended).  I remember seeing some cute, pastel, mini foam/sparkle Easter eggs at the dollar tree, and I thought wait a second, we can KEEP your nightlights girls!  What?  Hooray, so we ran to the store to pick up a few packs, three for each tree.

 
In no time at all we were gussying up the trees with adorable little mini eggs.

Our finished handy work!  Not bad.  I'm going to have to come up with a cute bunny topper or something

 
Executive decisions were made that the pink tree would get solid colored eggs, while the purple tree would get all the stripped ones.  They proudly and carefully placed them back in their rooms and waited for night time to come.
In the meantime, mom was getting artsy doing rack-focus shots with the macro setting. (FUN) 

So after what seemed like an "eternity", night time was finally upon us.  Here is a shot of our Christmas/Easter night lights which we can now keep up for at least another month or so, much to the glee of the wee ones.

It leaves me to wonder if they will want to put spring flowers or 4th of July flags on them in the coming months... Hmmm I guess only time will tell.  I keep you posted.  :)

Excellent Painting Tips

So a few posts back I talked about taking one entire weekend recently to reorganized a spare room, thanks to the "exercise machine chain reaction of 2012", and part of gussying up the new room was to paint it.  When we first moved into this house, we had come from a townhouse with all white walls we couldn't touch.  I vowed that when we were homeowners, we would get some color up on the walls and make this place our own.  Flash forward to present day, and we have completed nine rooms that are fully painted, and I for one, have found some handy tips and tricks along the way I'd like to pass along.

Before you start painting any room, there comes the all important (and sometimes tedious) prepping the room for paint.  Start by taking off all the light switch and power outlet covers.  Then get yourself some brown or blue thick masking tape, and tape off all door frames, window frames, and closet areas.  Make sure the seal is tight so no paint can leak through.  Don't do the floorboards though, I have a GREAT tip for that.  See this little beauty below?  Well you will find it next to all the painting/tape supplies.  It is a great little invention that will save you time, AND many stains on your carpet.  The best thing about this is that it's TWO steps in one!!

Turns out this little baby is both tape (for the taping off the floor boards) AND a plastic drop cloth. Once you get it in place, the plastic then unfurls to reveal 24 inches of roomy plastic that acts as a drop cloth.  It's akin to a Christmas miracle in my book!

Tape and drop cloth in one!  GENIUS

This is so great because the tape and plastic are one unit, there are no gaps between the wall and the floor, thus NO drips can find your carpet.

Next, let me introduce you to my "little friends".  I am in LOVE with these two little gizmos.  Matter of fact, I could easily paint an entire room with them (and I have).

The 4 inch roller pad and the 1" trimmer pad - purchased these at Fred Meyer, but I'm sure you can get them anywhere.

Are they not adorable?  The 4 inch pad is possibly the best invention for painting a room I have come across.  See those little wheels along one side?  Well you use that to make perfectly straight lines.  It works awesome in places like the ceiling line, and between wall colors in the corners (if you are doing two color shades in one room).

Check out this bad boy in action.  Look how straight that edge is!  You just dip the pad into the paint tray, lightly wipe of excess, start a bit below where you want to be and move your way up to the ceiling line, and let the little wheels do the work for you as you roll merrily along.  (Another great tip is: If you are painting over another color, find some of the original ceiling color and with a medium brush, paint the ceiling color down 1-2 inches into the old color and let it dry as we have done here.  That way you are sure to get a perfect edge with the new color)

Here is a close up of the completed line:  Super straight and perfect.  I can hear all the OCD peeps out there clapping with glee.

Now onto the 1 inch pad.  These are stellar for edging around windowsills, floor boards, and sometimes small places like door frames or around outlets.  As long as you have the tape securely fastened to the wall, you can press this pad (sort of has a spongy quality to it) into the wall and really get into all the nooks and crannies for complete paint coverage.  I usually do a 3-5 inches off the base boards and then finish off the wall with a paint roller.

Here is a major TRICK I have learned with base boards, tape, and plastic.  Finish the wall of course with the roller but remove the tape and drop cloth soon after you finish.  Do not wait until the paint is completely dry.  If you do, there might be dry chunks that pull off with your tape and leave chips/holes near the base board.  Pulling it off while the wall is still drying is the BEST way to make sure you will get a clean, straight line.

By the way, speaking of rollers.  They have even done some improvements on these too in recent years! We've have been using a "paint stick" that seems like a roller paint brush at first, but the awesomeness here stems from the fact that the handle holds tons of paint that you suck up directly from the paint can!  This is fabulous because you can do entire walls without stopping for a refill.  They claim you can paint your walls in 1/3 of the time of regular rollers, and we can attest that it really is another great time saver.  

I have found them in the $25-$40 range at a few different stores and they have lasted through multiple projects as long as you clean them well.  These are also so great for painting ceilings or above your head.  Our bedroom has a very high, vaulted ceiling and we used this technique the whole time with little to no dripping (They do come with a "splatter shield" that fits around the roller that you can adjust at will to minimize splatters and leaks).  LOVE IT!

Now if you have never painted a room, or have not painted a room in a long time, I challenge you to go and try out some these new handy gadgets that really can help cut down on time.  

A quick new coat of paint can brighten up/change the outlook in any room, and that can help you get to your happy place just a wee bit faster.  Kids rooms, play rooms, even bathrooms are another great place to pick a fun color and experiment. Add some new bedspreads, or throw pillows, hang some new decorations on the walls or a new shower curtain, and it's like you have a whole new room.  So go get creative!

Recycled Costco Planters

Speaking of green things... I have a great tip that I got from my sister-in-law Sara.  Both she and my brother work for Costco and a few months back she posted on FB there was a great way to reuse your old apple containers. So, being from the Northwest where the spring weather can be a bit delayed, I thought we'd try it.

Her idea was to plant seeds in them, and then use them for starters in your garden!  Now I must say this will be the 4th year of us attempting to garden.  The first year we only grew flowers and pumpkins with our then toddlers.  Each year we have added to it bit by bit.  The second year hubby made me a raised rock garden in the back yard where we tried a number of new veggies.  Last year, he went ahead and made me a second raised rock garden and we did some of the same veggies, but added some new things as well, so by the end of the summer we had: tomatoes, carrots, cucumber, corn, zucchini, a few different kinds of peppers, artichoke, mint, rosemary, basil, lettuce, blueberries, strawberries, AND we have wild blackberries coming over our back fence, so it was quite the powerhouse of a mini garden back there.  This will be the first year we are attempting to grow plants from seeds, and thought these Costco apple cases would make the perfect place to start.

First we filled all of them with gardening soil.  We thought we'd try corn and watermelon seeds to start with.

Next grab a near by four year old and have her help you plant the seeds.

.

Also, be sure to have two out of your three cats come out into the backyard to "help" you organized everything.  They make great seed supervisors.

Hemi looking quite regal                                                            Henry is our acrobat/stunt kitty

Once you get all the seeds planted correctly, have your seven year old help moisten each pod with a little bit of water.  Also it really seems to help if they don't have all their teeth for that maximum joy factor...

After that, place them in a sunny window. It was a tight squeeze, as our window ledge was already full of pepper plants we saved from last year, but we made it work.  We rotated them for a few days to maximize sun exposure.

A few days later, we started to see leafy green things.  Almost every corn seed we planted started to come up!  The watermelon though, was another story.  Absolutely NOTHING came up.  We found out later that even IF something had come up, that watermelon do not take kindly to transplanting.  Plus, I'm not even sure watermelon would even like it here, as I assume they prefer it to be hot and sweaty like in the deep south.

So here they are, our little green sprouts!  We will keep you posted if they survive the transplant into the garden and how they are growing a little later in the season.

So if you do happen to have a few of these lying around, see if you can make them some recyclable seed starters.  I bet they would work great for flower starters too!

Extra Lucky Four Leaf Clover Waffles

I thought I would pop in here and show you our St. Patrick's day breakfast we had this weekend.  I took my heart shaped waffle iron and dyed the batter green, then formed them in to four leaf clovers with a tasty sausage stem.  Turned out pretty cute and nummy.

lucky four leaf clover with sausage stem for St. Patrick's day

The girls seemed to like it, not to mention we served it with the "required" the green milk.

Also we had quite a lot of fun making those shamrock sun catchers I posted about in my last blog, an idea from the blog Serving Pink Lemonade. Shaving the crayons, finding different colors of green, daddy helping us with the iron part, tracing and cutting out the shamrocks.  It was a fun craft for the whole family.

We decided to tape them to our front window instead of hang them, but as luck would have it, we made 20 shamrocks only to find out our front window had spaces for 20 shamrocks. It was perfect.  Or should I say "purfect" because our kitty Haley sat on the window ledge and admired them for some of the day.  Then we got an extra beautiful surprise, as we were treated to a rainbow, (actually a double rainbow) which we thought was extra lucky on St. Patrick's day.  Does that mean there are two pots of gold?  Hooray!