Those Natural Easter Egg Thingies

Remember this pin?

Remember how when you clicked on it to get the awesome instructions to make these beautiful eggs to grace your own house and found that the site was in Chinese? Remember how disappointed you were? 

Well, I'm here to rescue your Easter. 

Yep, I did it :) I'm pretty proud. 

I was a little nervous to try these, since no one in my house likes hard-boiled eggs. So, essentially, any that I did would just be decoration; not very frugal, but oh well. I had a few different attempts and the photos in this post are from 2 different tries, so that's why they look a little different. Ok, here we go:

First thing is to collect the plants/leaves/flowers that you want to dye onto your eggs. Northern Nevada isn't exactly blooming with plant life, so for my first attempt I used... sagebrush. Fail. Lol. Whatever. For subsequent attempts I went to Walmart and bought a bouquet of flowers and used the plant matter from that.

Second step (this one's a bit tricky): Getting your plant matter to stay on the egg. I used an 11"x11" square of netting to keep the stuff in place while boiling; the hard part is getting it to stay while you put the netting on. The most effective way I found was to wet both your egg, and whatever you're putting on the egg; that way the water kinda bonds things together.

Ok, so put the plants on and wrap in netting

Then tie with string. This needed an extra pair of hands. A trusty roommate, husband, or neighbor can do the trick. The thing to remember here is that the netting needs to stay tight on your egg and the knot in the thread needs to stay. I would recommend using quilting thread because it's stronger. I broke several threads while trying to get a tight knot. If you don't have any around, regular thread will work, too. 

Trim everything so it's a nice little poof on top. 

This is what my last attempt looked like right before they went into the pot. 

Ok, so I did some research on natural dyes because I wasn't entirely sure what to use. I found out that pine tree bark gives you about the same color (sorry, no pictures of it). BUT it has this waxy substance that comes out while boiling and gets all over your nice new pots :(. It gave a cleaner picture of the plant, but the color would rub off after coming out of the pot. Anyway, the best thing is onion skins. I just happened to have about 4 onions that had started sprouting so I used the skins from those. You probably don't have onions just laying around, so over the next couple of weeks, collect the skins as you use them around the house. 

The onions sins give a really nice, rich dark red color in about the same amount of time that it takes eggs to boil. 

This is what they look like when they come out. 

 I used an old toothbrush to get the plants off. They get pretty stuck.

And here is the finished product! 

So the onion skins don't quite give you a white picture of the plant when you're done; it's more of a light yellow, but I still like the way it looks. 

You'll probably have a wider selection of spring plants to choose from. Just go out in your backyard and see what's blooming. 

They're pretty :)

Dried Strawberries

Remember this pin?

Remember how you thought "oh those look so good! I want to try that!"

Remember how sometimes, on Pinterest, people will pin things that look great but don't have really great instructions?

Well, folks, this is one of these times. 

And I'm here to tell you, no, warn you, that this is one of those pins that you should not attempt. Wait, let me rephrase that: This is one of those things that you should not attempt when strawberries are upwards of $6/box. Just saying, it's not as easy as it would seem. 

I tried drying strawberries multiple times with (almost) the same results every time. Which, let me tell you, was rather disappointing.  

Ok, step one: Cut up strawberries. Sounds easy enough. Check!

 

Step two: sprinkle with salt and pepper. Hmm, interesting, but ok, i'll try it.

Step 3: bake in oven at about 200 degrees F for 3 hours. Easy enough.

Product: 

 

Wait, I thought mine were going to look exactly like the picture! They're all soggy still, and I can't even get them off the paper! Hmmm try again I guess. Maybe I'll try baking them longer this time. And no salt! I'll sprinkle them with sugar this time!

Product:

 

Ok, maybe this needs some more thought.

So I haven't given up completely; but I can't afford to try again while strawberries aren't in season. I'll let you know if I ever do get it to work.

Puff Pancakes a la Cupcake Style

My mom used to make puff pancakes a lot when I was growing up; only we called them german pancakes (El's family calls them stuff and puffs, pronounced "stoof and poofs"). I was never a huge fan because the only thing my family put on them was powdered sugar. You will soon learn that I dislike almost everything (feel, taste, texture) about powdered sugar, except for the way it looks. I saw on Pinterest the other day that someone put pure maple syrup on their puff pancakes and I though to myself "Well I really like syrup! Maybe I'll give them a try." And this is what I eventually came up with: 

They were actually quite delicious! I followed the recipe from this site: http://smittenkitchen.com/2006/12/loopy-breakfast-goodness/

 Well, I followed the recipe the first time. I changed it for the second try; and the third; and maybe the fourth. And ended up with something quite close to the original but much better (in my opinion) but that's how cooking goes! Try this and that and then go back to the basics. Anyway, here is my modified recipe; it's more suited for the small, cupcake tin puff pancakes and tastes sooo delicious. (Side note: the great thing about cooking these in the cupcake tins as opposed to one big cake pan is that they cook SO fast. They're done before you even have time to start wishing they were.)

Puff Pancakes a la Cupcake Style

2 eggs

2 tsp. sugar

pinch of salt (or more, depending on your taste. El loves salt so we 

put more in just for him)

1/3 c. flour

1/3 c. milk

2 tbs. butter

(You might notice that I used the exact same amount of butter but for a smaller recipe. Don't worry, it's not a typo. More butter is just always better :))

Place the egg in a blender and mix until a light yellow color (as seen below):

You could probably use a hand mixer for this if you don't have a blender, but I would highly recommend the blender. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix in the blender. Spray 12 muffin tins with pam (or, if you're really into butter, butter them). Right before you pour the pancake mixture in, give it one last whirl in the blender. This will make them really puff up. Pour about 1/2 inch of batter into each tin. It doesn't look like much, but they need a lot of room to expand. I've had them hit the roof of the oven before; no bueno. 

Bake at 400 degrees F for 5 minutes, then reduce the heat to 350 degrees F and bake for another 3 to 5 minutes depending on how dark you want them. 

Disclaimer: I have an old (we're talking 1980's) gas oven which I have found runs a little hot. So I actually bake mine at 375 and then reduce the heat to 325. You probably know your oven better than I do so judge accordingly. 

They'll look about like this when they're done. Perfect little cups just waiting to be filled with whatever strikes your fancy and then consumed in the blink of an eye. 

Don't even wait for them to cool. We pull ours out of the pan almost as soon as they come out of the oven and eat them right then. Since they're so small, they'll cool really quickly so if you want to melt some butter in them (like we do; I'm telling you, we love butter) eat them RIGHT NOW!

I really like adding some fresh fruit on top of the butter and syrup but you can dress them up however you please. 

Pinterest Made Easy?

So we can all agree that Pinterest is possibly one of the greatest things since, well, the invention of the internet, right? Need an idea for dinner? Pinterest. Need a recipe for homemade body butter? Pinterest. Planning a wedding? Pinterest!

So many ideas, so little time to try them. And try again. And a third time before it's even close to perfect.

Oh and don't even get me started about supposed "DIY" pins with absolutely no instructions.

Well I've started trying those things I see on Pinterest; ideas that may or may not have a full tutorial, pictures included. And I thought to myself "Self, why not put these on a blog so that others can benefit from my trial and error?" (Read: first few tries are usually disasters) I have a loving husband, El, that is willing to let me try, make disasters, try again, and pretend that he is interested the whole time; what else do I need, really?