What's up, Chuck?

How was your weekend?  Ours flew by way too quickly. A college friend came up from Maryland to visit us.  We hung out at home on Friday and Sunday, but on Saturday I put on my non-mommy clothes and explored Manhattan with her.

Ooh la la.  I felt like I was in college again.  It was so nice having her around....
 and I miss her a whole bunch already. 

Here are some photos from our weekend:

Chuck and I attended a friend's birthday party.  As you can see, he kept the party going as we walked home.

My friend's a pretty good storyteller....

and artistic to boot.  (Can you believe that she doodled this shirt freehand with fabric markers? Whoa.)

We tried Xi'an Famous Foods' hand-pulled noodles... Yummy oxtail...

and watched a Broadway show...

 and toured Soho (which, by the way, is really just way too glamorous for me....)

I also found out that Topshop teamed up with Project CANVAS to raise funds for art programs in the city.  If you're interested in supporting art programs (and getting a pair of one-of-a-kind kicks), visit Topshop's Soho store.  Local artists will personally decorate your purchased shoes until 8/8.

Happy Monday!

6 things to do with gummy bears

I thought you might need a giggle, so here's a list of six things you can do with gummy bears (besides eat them).

6 Ways to Play with Gummy Bears

Two-ingredient homemade ice-cream

What can I say?  The title pretty much says it all.

A couple of days ago, I found Kevin and Amanda's recipe for homemade ice-cream. It immediately caught my eye because it didn't require an ice-cream machine or rock salt.  Plus, you only needed two ingredients to make the basic vanilla recipe.

Say what?  You must be kidding.

Nope.  They were serious.... ice-cream serious.

So of course I had to try it out for myself.  The results?  Take a look below:

It was yummy and had a light texture and super creamy taste.

Chuck ab-so-lutely loved it.

We tried their cinnamon bun ice-cream recipe.  I've put the recipe below, but you can find other yummy flavors on their blog like Nutella peanut butter chip, Krispy cream, and hazelnut mocha fudge swirl.  Yum, yum, and double yum.

Cinnamon Bun Ice-cream Recipe (from Kevin and Amanda):

Ingredients:
2 C heavy cream
1 14 oz can of sweetened condensed milk
3 T of melted butter
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:
1.  Whip heavy cream into stiff peaks.
2.  Thoroughly whisk the butter, cinnamon, vanilla, and condensed milk together in a very large bowl.
3.  Fold the whip cream into your butter/cinnamon/vanilla/condensed milk mixture.
4.  Pour everything into a 2-qt tupperware container.  Cover and freeze until firm.  (I waited overnight.)

Then, enjoy (and feel like a cool foodie because you just made ice-cream from scratch).

Have a great weekend.  See you next week!

Gluten free Cocoa Brownie

Last week we celebrated hubby's birthday.  In case you didn't know, hubby is a big, big fan of chocolate.  Me, not so much. But every year I put aside my indifference and try to bake him something chocolatey.

Last year I really struggled to find a good gluten-free chocolate cake recipe.  This year, I tried again to find a yummy recipe that would satisfy hubby's choclatey wishes and satisfy Chuck's dietary restrictions.

After looking around the internet, I found this cocoa brownie recipe and tweaked it.  Instead of normal flour, I used Domata gluten free flour.  (It was so easy.  I just exchanged 1/3 C of normal flour for 1/3 C of my gluten free flour.)

The results?  Woot woot!  Finally some gluten free baking success.  I got a whole batch of dense, fudgy, and extremely chocolatey brownies.

They were delicious.

This recipe's a keeper.  Sometimes it's so tough seeing other kids at birthday parties eating cake and knowing that Chuck can't eat any of it.  Now I know I can bake him something special and chocolatey too.

Hope you have a great weekend.  See you next week!

Make a Corn Husk Doll

Today we're going to be making a corn husk doll!  I love Summer time because it means that two of my favorite  foods (watermelon and corn) are stocked in stores and super cheap.  Yum, yum!  Lately we've been eating a lot of corn.  Too lazy to stand over a boiling pot of water, I just throw them in the oven (husks, and all) and roast them for about an hour.  Deee-licious.

Even though I really enjoy eating corn, I'm always slightly disturbed at the end of the meal.  Have you ever noticed just how much we toss out once we're done with the corn?  Those corn cobs and husks are quite heavy and take up a lot of space  in comparison to the tiny yellow kernels 

So, I thought I'd try making something from the castaway bits.  Here's my little corn husk doll.

Corn Husk Doll

Materials to Make Corn Husk Doll:

- Corn husks (I used corn husks from about 5 ears of corn.  But note-  since I roast my corn, I was only able to get a couple leaves from ear.  You could probably do it with fewer ears if you use up all the leaves.)

- Yarn

- Scissors

- Paper towels

- Baking pan 

- Shallow Pan

- Sharpie marker

- Water

Directions to Make Corn Husk Doll:

1.  Rip off the leaves from your corn.  Set them out to dry.  (We live in an apartment, so I just placed them on a baking dish near a sunny window.  After a couple of days they just shriveled up.)  Note:  If you make the dolls with the green leaves, all your bindings will come loose once the leaves start shriveling up and drying.

2.  Once your leaves dry, re-hydrate them in a  bit of water.  (It took my leaves about half an hour to plump out.)

3.  Now you're going to make the head and the body.  Pick out 4-5 nice large leaves.  Tie them tightly together with a bit of yarn.  

4.  Flip the leaves over your yarn.  

5.  Straighten out the leaves and then tightly tie a piece of yarn to make your head.  (Make sure that the leaves are smoothed out and  cover each other.  Try not to have any gaps where the yarn is visible.  I wasn't too careful and my poor doll's head had a bit of gap once the leaves started drying again.)

6.  Now you're going to make the arms.  Find another nice large leaf.  Cut two slits on one side of the leaf.  Then, cut two slits on the other side of the leaf.  Braid both sides and secure the braids with bits of yarn.   Trim off the ends.

7.  Open up your doll's body and slide the braided arms in.  Tie another piece of yarn to create the waist and hold the arms in.  

8.  Now you're going to make a skirt.  Take a bunch of nice big leaves and wrap them around your doll's waist.  Tie these leaves to the waist with another piece of yarn.  Then, trim off the the ends of the leaves to create the skirt.  (If you wanted to give your doll pants, you could also just split your leaves up into two piles and tie those off to create trousers.)

9.  Now you'll create a shawl for the doll (which will help cover the ugly waist bit.)  Take two nice leaves and criss-cross them over and behind the dolls body.  Tie off your leaves with yarn.  Trim any excess bits.  

10.  Now you've got yourself a doll.  Once the doll dries, use a Sharpie marker to draw a face on it.  Voila.  Now you've got your very own corn husk doll.

Not sure if Chuck was a big fan of the doll, but I enjoyed the experience of taking something destined for the garbage and giving it a second life.

For more information on making corn husk dolls, check out these three great resources: GardenMama blog, Acorn Pies blog or this YouTube video  They really helped me to figure everything out. 

Happy crapting!

Domino's gluten free pizza

One of the toughest things about having a child who's allergic to wheat (among other things), is that hubby and I very rarely eat wheat too.  Sure, we sneak in the random cookies or pasta when we're out on date nights or late at night when Chuck's asleep (oh boy, do I feel naughty then).  I usually don't mind the sacrifice, but there is one wheat-filled goodie that I sorely miss:  pizza.  It's one of my favorite foods.  And as a longtime lover of that holy trinity of cheese, tomato sauce, and crust, it's been really really tough not eating  pizza and not passing on my love to my son.

By now you're probably thinking, "Boo hoo.  Cry me a wheat-filled river.  Leslie, haven't you heard of gluten-free pizzas?"  Well, sure, there are gluten-free options out there... and trust me... we've tried a whole bunch.  But the resulting pie is always the same.  The pizza looks like a re-heated frozen disk and the crust tastes like dirty cardboard.  Sacrilege!  Poor Chuck usually just pulls off the cheese and eats that.

So when we found out that Domino's made a gluten free pizza crust, hubby and I were.... well... skeptical.  

But, we really didn't need to be.  Chuck loved it.  He ate two whole slices- crust, cheese, sauce, mushrooms and all.  Hubby and I even snuck in a couple of bites (while Chuck wasn't looking) and we were quite surprised by how good it was.

Now, Domino's does note that the pizza shouldn't be eaten by people with Celiac's disease.  Although the crust is certified to be gluten free, they just can't guarantee that any cross-contamination didn't occur at the restaurant.  So maybe this wouldn't be a solution for everyone.  But, since Chuck didn't break out in any hives or develop a rash after eating the pizza, hubby and I are deeming it a win..

In case you're curious, here's what the gluten free pizza looked like in the box:  (minus the 2 slices that Chuck devoured)

 And here's what the pizza looked like up-close:

Oh yeah, and here's Chuck.  Now he's a bona fide pizza lover too, just like his mama.

Have a great weekend!  See you next week!

Two days in New York

This past week I got a chance to tour Manhattan for two whole days.  (!!!!)  Hubby took me around town to celebrate my birthday (yay!) and then I showed our aunt around town another day.  It was such a nice treat to wear my "nice" clothes (aka non-mommy-stained-t-shirts) and see the city I love.

Here are some photos from my New York adventures:

Delicious breakfast at Cafe Lalo (famous from the movie "You've got mail.")

Sneakily taking a photo during a wedding photo shoot at Central Park's Bethesda Terrace

One of my travel companions

Fresh flowers at Union Square Farmers Market

Ethiopian food served at Massawa Ethiopian Restaurant

No idea where I shot these flowers, but I love them because they remind me of an old painting

Best. Popsicle. Ever.  (People's Pops on the High Line)  I left feeling inspired to re-try popsicle-making this summer

Beautiful mural seen on the High Line

Three Pie Face meat pies. Yurrrmmy.

Tiny New York City from Pink Stripey Socks on Vimeo.

Homemade watercolor paints

Yesterday it rained a whooole lot.

Luckily, my homemade watercolor paints finally set (after two days of waiting), so Chuck and I spent the morning painting.

Overall, the directions I used were pretty good, but I made two changes:
1.  I only used half of the materials recommended... and I still had plenty of water color paints.
2.  I added drops of food coloring to each of the ice cube trays.  (Looking back, maybe I should have compensated for the extra liquid by adding a bit more cornstarch to shorten my drying time.)





As you can see, Chuck enjoyed painting.  He also enjoyed repeatedly dipping the Q-tips into the water... and sneakily trying to drink the dirty water.  (Ick.)  I probably had more fun painting than he did because I was so delighted that the paints actually worked.

Here are our two joint paintings:

The paints weren't chalky when they dried.  We'll probably cut up the cards to make a birthday card for a niece.  Right now the leftover paints are sitting in the fridge.  We'll keep using them throughout the week because I'm curious how long they'll last.    

UPDATE:  5/24- I pulled the paints out of the fridge yesterday and they were rock hard.  I was worried, but after I didn't need to be.  After adding a couple drops of water into each well, they became paints again.  The colors didn't seem as vibrant as before, so Chuck and I ditched the q-tips and just used our fingers to paint. We got some lovely results.  Now they're back in the fridge again, and I'll pull them out in another couple of weeks to see if they last.

Have you ever tried to make homemade watercolors before?

Tattoo a banana

Got a banana?  Got a safety pin?  Great.  

Now you can tattoo a banana.

 Materials:
- banana
- safety pin
- pencil
- refrigerator

Directions: 
1.  Use a pencil to sketch a design on a banana.  (If you don't feel comfortable sketching straight on the banana, you can sketch your design on a piece of paper first.  Then, tape your design to the banana to guide your poking.)

2.  Use your safety pin to poke holes in the banana.  Watch your tiny dots turn black.

3.  Place the banana in the fridge for a couple of hours.  Pull it out to reveal a new tattooed banana.

4.  Place the banana in your kid's lunch box.... or sneak it back into the pile of bananas at the grocery store to surprise shoppers.

Happy tattooing!

(I first spotted this idea on the excellent How About Orange blog.)

Make an eggshell mosaic pendant

Don't toss out your eggshells!  Today's craft shows a really unique way to turn them into beautiful pieces of art!

I love vintage micro mosaic jewelry, but being a huge cheap-o, I never allow myself to buy it.  So, yesterday, armed with a bunch of eggshells and milk jug caps (thanks Tita Tina for the stash!), I made my own version of micro mosaic jewelry.  Here are my two finished pendants:

Eggshell Mosaic Pendants

What a lovely piece of crapt

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Bridal Shower

I can't believe I've known these girls since college

.

Life is certainly one crazy, wonderful, beautiful, and scary adventure.  

Thank goodness we're not making the journey alone.

Make a Mosaic Bean Pendant

Hi everyone!

How was your weekend?   We had a pretty quiet Sunday, but our Saturday was full of fun activity.  I attended a bridal shower while hubby and Toddler Chuck visited family.  (I'll post up photos from the bridal shower later on this week.) I thought I'd start off the week with this crapty (and slightly crappy?) pendant that I made.

I think mosaics are lovely.  There's something quite special (and dare I say, possibly mathematical?) about laying pieces of varying shapes and/or colors together so that they fit a space and create a desired image or pattern.

Wanting to make a wearable mosaic of my own, I used some household materials to create this mosaic bean pendant:


Yeah.  I know what you're thinking.  Girl, that's a lot of look.  And my reply? Girl, I know.  But really, what does one wear with beans anyway?

Erm.... I'm not sure if I like the result, but I did have fun making it.  And who knows?  If you ever find yourself trapped at home with a couple of bored children, then perhaps you could whip these up for fun.

Materials:
- dried beans
- cereal box cardboard <--crap!
- craft paint
- paint brushes
- Tacky glue (I used Aleene's)
- String
- Felt
- Scissors

Make you own toast stampers (Three ways to write on toast)

One of my favorite things to eat is toast.  I love feeling its rough texture on the roof of my mouth.   I love the satisfying crunch that comes with each bite.  And I love pairing it with sweet jam and melted butter.

Yum. Yum. Yum.

I'd eat toast every day if I could, but since Baby Chuck is allergic to wheat, I haven't eaten real bread in a long time.  Last weekend I had a strong hankering for toast, so while Baby Chuck slept I sneakily made some for myself and hubby.

It was delicious!

But of course, I couldn't just leave it at that.  I had another "I wonder if... " moment.  This time I wondered if I could write messages or draw images on my toast.  Here are three methods that I came up with:

(Note:  I realize that cookie cutters would have worked too.... but I don't own any.... so necessity bred invention)

Method 1:  Use a chopstick

I simply took a chopstick and drew on my toast.  I made sure to press down hard enough to get a clear indentation in the bread, without ripping through it. Then, I placed the bread under the broiler. (We don't own a toaster... but I think using a toaster should work too).  Once my bread browned enough, I quickly pulled the toast out.  Voila!  Most of the bread turned darker brown while my indented image remained white.  Easie-peasie.

Method 2:  Make an aluminum foil shape

I rolled a piece of aluminum foil into a snake-like shape.  Then, I bent the foil into my desired shape (heart).  I pressed my heart down into the bread.  This time, instead of removing the heart shape and broiling the bread, I left the foil on the bread as I placed it under the broiler.  Once my bread toasted, I pulled it out of the oven and removed my foil shape.  Voila!  A much cleaner heart image emerged. The aluminum foil protected that portion of the bread from getting toasted.  (Note:  I don't recommend leaving the aluminum foil shape on your bread if you use a toaster.)

Method 3:  Crapt a cardboard toast stamper

Step 1:  Trace the shape of your bread and your desired stamp shape onto a piece of cardboard. (If the thought of your bread touching recycled cardboard grosses you out, you could always trace your bread onto a piece of paper towel first, cut that bread shape out, and then tracing that shape onto a piece of cardboard.)

Step 2:  Trace and cut out three more cardboard copies of your desired shape.  (So all in all I cut out 4 identical hearts out of cardboard.  My bread was pretty thick, so I needed my stamp to be pretty thick too.)

Step 3:  Cover one side of your bread shape with aluminum foil.   Tape together your four identical shapes and then cover them with aluminum foil too.  (If you don't mind having cardboard touch your food, you could always skip this step.)

Step 4:  Tape your stamp shape onto your bread shape.  Give yourself a pat on the back because you made a toast stamper.

To use the  stamper, match it up to your slice of bread and push down.  Make sure your shape is deeply imprinted on the bread.  Place your bread under the broiler (or in toaster) and toast away!

Let me know if you try making these toast stampers.  I'd love to see what your toast looks like.