Glass block Jello

I saw this recipe quite a while ago on my favorite food blog, and I've been eager to try it. Finally, with multiple large dinners on the agenda I decided to give this a whirl. Its not fancy, its all jello, but I wanted to know how tasty it was and see if is worthy of all the big family gathering-type events that our extended family (my side) often has.

It starts with lots and lots of jello. Jiggler style, meaning 1/2 the normal amount of water.
Then cut it all up and put it in a greased glass pan. (I mean, do I really have to say instructions? I know you'll jump right over to the real recipe for the details.)

Take another picture of the jello because you are trying to be artsy and cool on your blog.

Add the last ingredient and refrigerate some more. Hope you had a lot of space in your fridge for flat containers!

MMM!! Tastes like...jello!!!

Empty Kitchen Dilemma!

Last night was a great friday evening. Zach and I walked to the Library, where I was super excited to find some travel books on Ireland for our trip this summer. From there, we dropped off our rent check and got PINKBERRY!!! I have to say, I totally scoffed at them a year or two ago when they only had Original (tart) and Pomegranate flavors...now they also have chocolate and others and the chocolate is soooooo good. And don't even think about skipping the mochi topping. If you think it looks weird, at least give it a chance.

After dinner Zach and I played some video games then he got a text from his BFF about some video games at his house and he went over there. I was desparate for some cookie dough, but we only had one egg in the house. And I really wanted to make Zach some blueberry muffins. Which recipe should I use the egg for? Not to mention, we have around 1/4 cup of milk.

So...I found my trusty recipe site and decided to opt for the muffins and deny my cookie craving. I found this one-egg recipe and had BARELY enough milk to get by. I replaced the nugmeg with lemon rind and juice. I also replaced the white sugar with brown like some readers recommended.

As I was cleaning up, I was regretting my denial of cookie dough. UNTIL I REMEMBERED!! This site, homemademamas, is really fun. And I remembered that they posted a no-egg cookie dough recipe (this is purposely for not baking!) Let me tell you, they are not kidding when they say that this stuff is GOOD!!! It was a bit annoying to pound my softened margarine into the flour and sugar, but once the mindless mixing passed and I added some more water I had perfect dough! Of course I ate a bunch -- my fill really -- before it made it to the freezer, so I had to taste-test the frozen version later.

Moral of this post: You can make your husband his muffins and have your cookie dough too! lol.

Rummage Sale'd

In my jet-lagged state upon return from Scotland, I found myself at a local church rummage sale. I love these things! I didn't have a big budget for the day, but in the outdated electronics section I noticed this HANDSOME leather case.
And inside...a vintage video camera!!!!!!! Ohmygosh this is the coolest thing ever!!! And it still has the original instruction book??? How could someone still have all this and then give it up for a glorified garage sale???

Vintage 8-mm video camera. With new batteries -- this puppy actually WORKS when you hold down the trigger. I think we are going to try and get some film that fits and try it out, even if it is a 30 second video that is filmed in "Wonder Years" style.

Seriously I just think this is so cool. I mean, I bought it for ZACH. FOR ZACH. I thought it would be cool when we have in a bigger house to have in his office/mancave or as part of decor, given his education choice. Heck, if anything, the leather bag alone is easily worth the $7 I paid for it all.

One last look at the inside...that's for the film, baby!

Scotland, the 5 minute version

I did not title this post the "5 minute" version because there are only a few pictures. I chose this title because in my 6 day work trip there was abotu 5 minutes of "sight seeing". In no particular order, because that is how blogger organizes my uploads:

Balbirnie Hotel near Glenrothes, Scotland -- a walk around the grounds (which is also a golf course)
View from my window. I.E. opening my window, standing on the desk, and holding the camera out the window.

Third floor hotel room (thats the top floor folks! Hope your bag isn't too heavy to carry up yourself!) Now you can see why I had to put my camera out the window for a view. Because the rest of my tiny window view was all roof.

Possibly the coolest thing in my hotel room, EVER -- a trouser press. Sadly, I didn't try it out.

Inital view from the airport when I landed. Loved the yellow meadows. So lush over there!

Coasters

I wrote this a long time ago, and know I have more pictures. But, they must be on my camera still which would take oh-so-long to get onto this post.

I’ve been making a bunch of coasters for an upcoming church craft fair. Initially I made a couple 2-pc sets with “Mr. and “Mrs.” on the front to encourage purchases for all the weddings happening at church. But then, without a cricut, I got really tired of cutting out the letters and skipped to 4-pc sets of cropped scrapbooking paper. Then I thought I could use up some of my cool old scrapbooking paper, but it turns out I only have old scrapbooking paper. Cool, notsomuch. Just a few sheets of “cool.”

Regardless, with a few trips to Michael’s and Home Depot I have created nearly 2 dozen coasters. After the first 4, I got a LOT better, and you can benefit from my lessons!

1) Buy the tiles at Home Depot, white bathroom tiles, 4.25x4.25 inches. They are $.16 ea. (I initially paid a quarter each from a haggler at a garage sale because I didn’t know the sale price!)
2) Plan on using more Mod Podge then you’ve ever used in your life.
3) Splurge for acrylic sealing gloss. ($8? For a can. "Acrylic Gloss" use a 40% off coupon)
4) Splurge again ($2.49) for 16 vinyl “bumpers” that will be applied to the bottom of each tile. (I ended up getting a bunch on ebay)

1) Choose an appropriate Mod Podge brush. I am in love with a white one that has since been crowned “ONLY FOR MOD PODGE.” The black spongy brushes left black spongy glue residue, and black paintbrushes left black brush hairs on my shiny colored tiles. So far this brush has been the BESTEST!
2) Trim your paper of choice down to 4x4 squares. If you want to print something onto the paper before trimming (I did this once, with my “Mr./Mrs” and it was cute but I’m not good at spacing it all out perfectly.
3) Apply a light layer of Mod Podge to the top of each 4x4 paper square and also the top of your tiles. (don’t attach yet). Once dry, apply a light layer to the other side of your paper square. You’ve just plasticized your paper, which will make it a lot easier to adhere to the tile if you need to reposition or squeeze out air bubbles.
4) Apply a layer of Mod Podge to the tile and a little to the back of your coaster cover paper. Stick together. Take care to push out air bubbles and make sure your paper is fully adhered on all sides to the tile completely. If you need to apply a bit more Mod Podge to the edges to make sure this happens, do it.
5) Apply 3-4 more layers of mod podge to the coaster, making SURE SURE SURE each time to really seal those edges. If you are Mod Podging 8 or more tiles at a time, the first ones are dry by the time you finish the last. Don’t make the layers TOO thick or messy, though, because your glue WILL dry bumpy and foggy if you are messy. (this rule is hard for me to follow.)
6) Take the tiles to the garage and apply two LIGHT layers of acrylic gloss, leaving lots of time to dry in between applications. This makes your coaster shiny and smooth. You won’t even see the brush texture from your Mod Podging at this point.
7) Apply the vinyl bumpers (or, if you are really cheap, the felt circle pads that are not as pretty…cough [voice of experience])
8) Wrap and sell! Or gift! These would be super cute monogrammed or themed for a family or with key phrases. If I had a cricut cutter I might have tried that a little harder.