Grilled Cheese in the Waffle Iron

Today is National Grilled Cheese Day (who declares these things, really? I'm curious). To celebrate, I made my daughter a grilled cheese in my Winnie the Pooh Waffle Maker. It couldn't have been easier, quicker, or tastier than this!

I love this waffle maker. It was a Christmas gift a few years ago, and I love using it for everything from waffles, to cinnamon rolls, to sandwiches!

Everything comes out with Tigger on one side, and Pooh on the other, so it makes for a fun treat for my daughter.

Prior to putting it in the waffle maker, I did fold two edges of the cheese so that the cheese wouldn't ooze out onto the hot interior surface.

I then buttered the bread and closed the waffle maker. I waited about 60 seconds, and that's it!

She loved it! And it was fun for me, too!

How to Make Your Own Aromatic Shower Bombs

According to many experts, we may see record-breaking pollen levels this Spring. That is bad news for allergy sufferers, and I'm already feeling the miserable effects of all this pollen. I went in search of something to help clear my stuffy head, and I was lucky enough to come across this post.

I was lucky enough to already have most everything needed, so I decided to give them a try. I changed it up just a little, though, and I was very pleased with the results.

I decided to make shower bombs with three different scents, and I added food coloring to help me tell the difference once they were done. For one group, I used Eucalyptus Oil, Lavender Oil, and green color. For the second, I used a Refreshing blend of Lemon, Geranium, Rosewood, Maychang, and Cedarwood oils, and yellow color. In the third, I used a Stress Relief blend of Lavender, Ylang, Black Pepper, Petitgrain, Pine, Clary Sage, and Vetiver oils, with a few drops of red color, giving me a nice pastel pink.

I mostly followed the original instructions, using 2 cups of baking soda, enough water to make a paste, and 20 drops of oil (total) for each batch. I also added 4 drops of color to each batch.

I then spooned the paste into the paper cups. Since I was in a hurry and wanted to use them quickly, I baked them at 300 degrees for 30 minutes, then turned the oven off, left them in the oven with the door shut, and waited until they'd cooled. They had dried by that point (and boy, did my house smell terrific!), so I took them out.

Time for a nice, long, hot shower!

A few lessons that I learned and will change the next time I make them:

• Don't fill the cups past the half-way point. I filled mine like I would normally fill when making cupcakes, and it was too much. The weight was too much for the paper cups, and they ended up sticking to the cupcake tins. Spraying the cupcake tins with non-stick spray probably would have prevented this, too.
• Instead of paper cups, I plan to use the foil baking cups next time. I think they will hold up better, and they'll be easier to peel off in one piece when I'm using them, rather than fall apart like the paper ones. I think they'll look nice, too.
• The original post said that you could put the bomb anywhere on the floor of the shower, and I agree. However, I get more scent when I put it toward the back of the shower, out of the direct path of falling water. It definitely lasts longer this way! My husband also suggested that it might be beneficial to plug the drain while you're showering, to get even more scent while you shower. I may try that, too!

Dyeing Easter Eggs with Natural Colors: An Experiment

I thought I'd try a little experiment with the Easter eggs to see if we could get some decent color by using all natural things that we had on hand. When I look around, I see so many lovely and vibrant colors in nature, I thought it would be simple to find something that might give us similar colors on our egg shells. I was mostly wrong this time, though.

I used Blueberry juice concentrate, beet juice (the liquid left after I cooked a beet), and crushed spirulina in water. I added vinegar to hopefully help set the colors, then heated them in the microwave (to hot, but not boiling).

I soaked the eggs for around 10 minutes, then pulled them out to dry. The results were readily apparent: only the beet juice is worth trying again. 

What's even more amazing is that the beet juice egg was brown to start with - such a lovely dark pink it is now! The spirulina egg just looked dirty, and the blueberry juice only highlighted the "A" I'd drawn on the egg in clear crayon. 

So much for natural egg dyes...we'll stick with the tablets again this year!

Make Your Own Peeps (Without All the Bad Stuff!)

Growing up, I always found a few Peeps in my Easter basket on Easter morning. I looked forward to it all year long...that crunchy sugar coating with soft marshmallow inside. Now, we can buy Peeps all year long, as they're usually themed for every holiday and not just Easter. While they're cute (and still just as delicious!), I thought it might be fun to make our own for a change, leaving out the artificial colors, corn syrup, and preservatives.

Peeps are pretty simple: shaped marshmallow covered in colored sugar. So, I started by making my own marshmallows. I'd never made marshmallows before, but I'll try most anything at least once. I found this recipe online and thought it sounded fairly straightforward. I didn't want to use corn syrup, though, so I substituted honey in its place. The only problem with using honey is that the marshmallows were honey-flavored. This is fine if you and your family like the taste of honey, but if you don't, you might want to try this recipe instead. I found it after I'd already made the marshmallows, and I'm definitely planning to use it next time I make something that calls for corn syrup.

Making the marshmallows was a lot of fun, and yes, it was messy, but not as messy as I thought it'd be!

Next, I picked out my cutting shapes and got the colored sugar ready. For the shapes, I just used my Spring cookie cutters, but you could also put the soft marshmallow into a decorator bag and use a piping tip to pipe chick shapes.

To make the naturally colored sugar, I used orange juice for yellow, strawberry preserves for pink, and blueberry juice concentrate for purple.

I simply put some sugar into a plastic bag, then added a bit of each juice until I got the desired color. I did like the results, and the juices gave the peeps a subtle flavor that was an unexpected surprise.

My marshmallows turned out a bit thick, and with my large-sized cutters, they made some huge Peeps!

Once I had the shapes, I just sprinkled them with the colored sugar. I then melted a bit of dark chocolate to add some detail, and used a toothpick to create the eyes and lines.

That's it! I used the extra marshmallow and cut it into smaller pieces, and drizzled the leftover melted chocolate on them. Both the Peeps and the marshmallows here a big hit with the family, and with me!

Even More (Yes, I Know!) T-shirt Yarn Crafts

Okay, my obsession with this stuff is never ending. I'm working on some necklaces that will allow the wearer to change out the beads and charms, but in the mean time...I bring you the T-shirt yarn watch!

This was really just so easy, I'm planning to make a few more.

Basically, I just picked up a few of these at my local craft supply store:

I used beading wire and findings to attach the watch to a piece of T-shirt yarn, then I wrapped it around my wrist.

The best part is that if I get tired of the orange, I can always just attach it to a different colored strand for a totally new look. I could also layer this one with another color for a different look. The possibilities are endless!