Liquid Sidewalk Chalk

I am totally in heaven this summer....and completely exhausted. All of you with more than 2 kids...you have my utmost respect. Watching 4 kids is wonderful...and exhausting. This week, I've been watching my niece, Peyton, and my nephews, Gabriel & James. They are terrific kids and thankfully, with it being summer, we've been able to do a lot of outdoor activities - which I love. Yesterday, we tried our hand at Liquid Sidewalk Chalk. This is so much fun!! My son, my nephews and my niece were all able to enjoy it - despite their wide span in ages. 

Photo from Pinterest

I, thankfully, had all of the items needed on hand - cornstarch, water and food coloring. Easy-peasy. I had Gabe help me mix the food coloring into the cornstarch/water mixture. That was a nice little bonus for him since he's the oldest and could easily get bored more quickly - having him be a part of the  chalk making made playing with it that much more enticing, I believe.

In DomesticCharm's blog, she talks about using gel food coloring as the colors would be brighter, but I did not have any gel food coloring, so I just used about 3 drops of the food coloring I did have, and the colors seemed plenty vivid to me. By the way, some of the colors were neon - hence the not as vivid, but definitely bright.

I made a double-batch of the chalk because I was pretty sure that with two 2-year-olds, there was bound to be a mess of epic proportion with spilling and tears. Thankfully, there was an epic mess - but not much spilling and no tears.

It starts...

Yes, it got messy but it all washes off very easily and there was no harm done. This made for a very fun activity.

Later on, while Cade & James were taking their naps, Peyton and Gabriel went out with the second batch of chalk that we had left and they had a blast, sans-2-year-olds, painting the rocks in our backyard.

This kept two 2-year-olds, a near 5-year-old and an 8-year-old entertained for a solid 30 minutes or more and required very little set up and almost no clean-up (other than sticking the paint brushes and muffin tins in the dishwasher). This is definitely something I will be keeping in my back pocket for future use. Hope you can enjoy it with your kiddos as well.

Cake Batter Rice Crispy Treats

My father-in-law's favorite treat that I make is Rice Crispy Treats. Nothing fancy, but he makes me feel like the best cook/baker in the world with how much he seems to enjoy them. It makes me smile. My husband, on the other hand, isn't a big fan of them. But I've found a compromise: Cake Batter Rice Crispy Treats!

Photo from Pinterest

It's the same rice crispy treats you've come to know and love but a little more fun with sprinkles and a little cake mix! So very quick and easy to make, it takes under 15 minutes and you're done, not counting cool-down time, but really...who cares about that??

All the ingredients you need

I don't use actual butter when I make these as my father-in-law is allergic to dairy, so we stick with margarine, making these treats dairy-free and (if you don't put in the cake mix) gluten-free as well! I generally use all but 1/8 of the bag of marshmallows to melt, but the last of the marshmallows I add when I mix in the rice crispies. I have a guilty pleasure for marshmallows, so finding not completely melted ones makes me happy. It's the little things...

Anyway, super easy, super quick, super yummy. I took these to a birthday party the other day and didn't bring any home...I'd say they were a success.

I personally prefer regular Rice Crispy treats, but I have yet to hear any complaints about these. Most people like them and my husband definitely prefers them. I'd call this a win.

Dishwasher Safe Sharpie Dishes

My nephew, Mickey, is very dear to me. I seldom get to spend time with him, so when I do, I try to find a really fun project to do with him, and I think this was a winner.

But first, a backstory: Many moons ago (or just last year) I tried my hand at decorating a mug with a sharpie - something I, of course, discovered thanks to Pinterest. I later had my nephew, Gabe, decorate a black plate with gold & silver sharpies. He gave them to grandma, but after they were washed the sharpie had rubbed off! Tragedy!! I later found out that the mug I had decorated for a friend had also washed off. I rue the day I used a sharpie on any dishes!! This was, indeed, a Pinterest FAIL! However, I recently discovered something new on Pinterest; there are Dishwasher-Safe Sharpie Dishes you can make! What?! Can it be??? Indeed, my friends, it can. To check out more info on this, go to this blog.

These are the super fantastic, awesome, amazing sharpie pens you'll need to get if you want this project to work.

I let Mickey come up with whatever design he wanted. He decided he wanted to make this plate for his dad. We followed the instructions for getting the sharpies primed and ready for working, which didn't take too long and they still had a rather fine point to them, though not as fine as a normal sharpie pen would.

He decided he wanted to do a pattern. Mickey is really good at patterns, so that's what he worked on.

Getting started

Mickey probably spent a good 15-20 minutes designing and drawing on this plate and he did an excellent job. The squiggly lines were lightning (if I remember correctly) and the little circles were rain drops.

Also, I just have to gloat on my nephew for a moment. He can read and write and just turned 6 in June and hasn't started school yet. He wrote "Dad" and "Mickey" on the plate. I am way impressed with his smarts.

Now, for the test. I followed ScribblesfromEmily's blog as closely as possible and waited the 24 hours before putting the plate in the oven. After taking it out of the oven, I washed it in the dishwasher, just to see how it would hold up.

The colors changed ever so slightly to a lighter color, but otherwise it was as good as gold! Will I use this method again? Most certainly. I'm looking forward to trying it on my own and posting about that sometime. But, I am a sucker for involving my nieces and nephews because they enjoy crafting (or "projects") just about as much as I do. I think the only thing I would do differently is not put the sharpie dishes in the dishwasher. Obviously it works, but to maintain it's quality of color, I'd say it's best to just call these not dishwasher safe. That's my two cents on the matter. You can take it or leave it.

Either way, absolutely a fun project and ScribblesbyEmily's blog has an extensive post about making a far fancier mug than I may ever be able to attempt to do. Ok...I'll probably attempt it, but it's highly probable that it will not look nearly as adorable as the example she has on her blog.

I'm so grateful I had the opportunity to do this with my nephew. He amazes me with his creativity and his smarts. I'd recommend sharpie-ing a cup, a bowl, a plate, a whathaveyou, with your child if you'd like as well. They'll enjoy it and what a special keepsake for them to have or give to someone else.

Elmer's Glue, Salt and Water-Color = Fun For Kids!

First, a rant: I made a plate with my nephew, Mickey, recently and all of those photos seemed to have disappeared. Grrr...anyway, that post will have to wait for another day, unfortunately.

In the meantime, I will post about this project that I did with my niece and my nephew.

I am watching them this week during the day and thought it would be fun to do a little something with them each day. This little something required very little set up and was quiet so while my young son and nephew took naps, this activity was entertaining and quiet. To see how to do this, check out this blog.

I decided not to use plain ol' boring white paper and since I have loads of scrapbook paper, I pulled out some of that and the kids went to town with the glue.

While they applied the glue, I prepared the water with food coloring - using an ice cube tray so they could each have a bunch of colors.

The colors spread really nicely on the salted glue, but weren't near as bright as they were in jugglingwithkid's blog. My kiddos still enjoyed this immensely. Watching the color spread was the best. Gabe kept saying "this is just so cool!!" I think they enjoyed themselves. Obviously, the color spread better when the salted glue was more than just a dot but rather a continuos line. They really didn't seem to mind either way though - they still enjoyed it.

Afterward, we let their masterpieces dry. Once dry, the salt pretty much falls right off leaving not much of the art, but the kids didn't seem to mind. And, this still was at least a half hour's worth of entertainment that was quite enjoyable. I'd recommend this little project...it was fun, easy and very little hassle to set up or clean up.

Homemade Tarnish Remover

Yesterday I did something not-so-smart. Well, I'm fairly certain this is not uncommon for me...I do not smart things all the time. Be that as it may, I did something not-so-smart that I hoped was reversible. I put my shiny silver chip and dip platter in the dishwasher. *GASP* I had no idea that it would come out all black and tarry looking. My lovely, elegant platter that I rarely used because, honestly, how often do I need my chip and dip platter, was...grungy. Straight to Pinterest I went. "Help me, people of Pinterest! Is there someway to remove the tarnish without going out and buying something???" Short answer...."eh, kinda." To see how, check out this blog and this blog.

I wish I could show you the loveliness that was my platter before my laziness of not washing it by hand occurred, but, alas, I don't have one.

But, here it is after the dreaded wash. I wiped it down as best I could so that the black wouldn't smear on my hands anymore, so it's not quite as dark as it had been before that.

The first thing I tried was putting foil in my sink and laying baking soda down and then filling the sink with hot water.

Pre-hot water

This proved to be slightly successful, but I am pretty sure the water needed to be hotter, so I then started the whole process over and boiled the water instead. That seemed to be slightly more successful, but still it doesn't look shiny and new like I had hoped it would. It kinda looks like a fancy, old fashioned platter now.

Anyway, next I tried toothpaste, again to no avail. The difference was so very small that it wasn't even worth taking a picture of.

Consensus: If you are in need of a good tarnish remover and can find some Tarn-X, get it. That stuff works wonderfully; stinks horribly; but it works. My mom has used it for years. If you can't find that, this is an ok alternative...though, it certainly didn't give me back my beautiful platter like I would've liked. My next step is to try out Tarn-X again. Oh how I hope that will work!

Crock Pot Teriyaki Chicken

One of my husband's favorite places to eat when I don't pack him a lunch for work is a local teriyaki place. A lot of those kinds of places are hit and miss for me, but this one is really good. If you haven't ever been to Love Love Teriyaki - you should. It's really tasty. Knowing my husband has a love of asian food, I decided to try my hand at it; in steps Crock Pot Teriyaki Chicken.

Photo from Pinterest

The recipe appeared easy enough, but knowing I didn't want to make a ginormous batch of Teriyaki Chicken, I reduced the recipe to 2 pieces of chicken rather than the 12 it recommended. Drastic, yes, but we still had leftover chicken even after just using 2 pieces. I also halved the rest of the recipe, of course, and all of that seemed to turn out just fine.

Ewww...raw chicken...

I know, a picture of raw chicken; nasty...but, I wanted you to see that the sauce when halved still made plenty but not an overabundance for the chicken.

Anyway, after it cooked the 4-5 hours specified, I put the chicken on a separate plate and dumped the liquid into a pot to make the actual teriyaki sauce.

Once that was completed, my chicken was shredded, rice cooked and I had my vegetables all cut up, dinner was ready. I put some asian cabbage that we had from our produce CSA box on the side after I cut it up, put a little ramen noodles (without the seasoning on there) and called it good.

It looked amazing!! I wish it had tasted as amazing as it looked. It wasn't bad by any means, but it was very bland. Very, very bland. The sauce didn't seem quite sweet and spicy enough to me. It may be better to try a different sauce next time. The chicken was a bit dry as well. I thought that might have been because I didn't make enough chicken, but I've made it with more before and I still remember it being pretty dry. Anyway, this wasn't a complete bust - it looked beautiful. And, really, it didn't taste awful. Would I make this again? Well, apparently after a year or so I tried once more...but it is now going on my "tried and not lied but not going to try again" Pinterest board. It just doesn't satisfy the way I'd like. At least it looked pretty...

Best Chocolate Cake EVER!

Recently I had a few friends pin this recipe for a chocolate cake that I have actually made numerous times. I am in love with this recipe! So, when I discovered it on Pinterest, I had to write a blog post about it so that everybody could experience the great love for this chocolate cake that I have. Oh-so-yummy!

Photo from allrecipes.com

So, honestly, I didn't get this recipe by going through Pinterest - I discovered it long ago on www.allrecipes.com. Which just so happens to have always been my go-to recipe box for new ideas until Pinterest came along. Although the pin that I saw this on is the same recipe as that of allrecipes.com, it came from a different source, but since that's not where I discovered my recipe, I'm going with the allrecipes.com site for you to view this recipe. So there! To check out how to make the best chocolate cake EVER, click here.

After seeing a few friends pin this recipe, I got a serious craving for this cake and thankfully - it's easy and quick to make. Well, it bakes for a long time, but the rest of it is easy and quick and doesn't dirty up too many dishes.

I didn't actually have the right sized devil's food cake mix, so I used a smaller one and that just made the cake that much more fudgey. So, just in case you were wondering - it will still work out nicely if you don't have the correct sized boxed ingredients that they recommend for the pudding or the devil's food cake mix.

I made this for our Independence Day dessert and took it over to some friends' house. It was devoured and only a smidgen was left. Probably just so none of us looked to be too much of an oinker. Unfortunately, I was so ravenous with this cake that the drool running down my face kept me from snapping a picture of it after it had cooled and been turned over.

But, here is a picture of the single piece that was left...split into two so I could graciously share with my husband despite my best efforts to hide the rest of the cake for only myself. hehe.

This cake stands alone. It doesn't need anything. I love homemade whipped cream, so I did have some of that on hand and I did put a dollop on the cake, but not because it needed it. This has become a new favorite for most of my family and myself. And, with my mom's birthday coming up next week - I have another excuse to make it! Yay for yummy chocolate cake! I hope you all enjoy this cake as much as I do. It is so good!!

And for a lighter version of the same cake - check out this recipe. However, I should warn you I haven't tried this - it was on Pinterest and looks incredibly similar and probably also tastes incredibly good.

Oh, and I should add that I made this for our pastor and his wife not that long ago and our pastor told me that his dad (who used to be a baker and loves to visit bakeries) would have been impressed with this cake. So, yeah...I'd highly recommend it - the son of a baker said so!