Pixelated Images

 Start saving up those bottle caps. This is a great project, but it can take a while to complete. Here's a video that explains how to pixelate your image on a mac using Image Tricks Lite which is a free download.


Make sure your volume is turned all the way up, the volume in the video is on the low side.

Collect how many bottle caps you will need, paint them the matching color to the picture and place them in the appropriate place to form your picture. You can use foam core or wood as a surface. When you are done the bottle caps should have formed a picture.

You could also do this with cupcakes:

If you can draw, I bet you can make more cartoon/game characters using just graph paper to plot out the colors or using this graph paper. 

Hope you enjoyed this post.

If you've tried anything from this blog, please leave me a link and I may just feature your project.

Puppet/Marionette Cookies

Packaged Marionette Cookies

Have you ever wondered how to make marionette cookies, there's no cookie cutter. I searched for one. I thought of cutting out pieces and connecting it. That would be too much work.
But I figured it out. It's still a lot of work, so don't plan on making too many. The easy way would be too just make one hole in the head and the middle of the x and leave the rest alone.

You need:
cookie dough
gingerbread or boy/girl cookie cutter
candies for decorating

drinking straw 

kitchen twine
Cardboard X template



1. Roll out your dough, you want to make your cookies on the thicker side to prevent breakage.
2. Cut out your people cookies
3. Take your straw and make holes in the head, arms, and feet. Make them a little on the large side, because the cookies may puff up an shrink the hole.
4. Use your x template and cut out cookies by tracing around the template with a knife
5. Use your straw to make a hole in the middle of the x and on each corner. Again make them a little on the large side.
Decorate your cookie by attaching any candy, I used candy chips and pull and peel licorice, although the smiles didn't stay smiles
6. Bake

template

Assembly
1. Cut a piece of twine and thread it through the middle of the x is hole to the hole in the cookie's head. Tie a knot larger then the holes to secure it in place.
2. Thread the 2 back corners to the cookies feet. Tie a knot larger then the holes to secure it in place.
3. Thread the two front corners to the cookie's hands. Tie a knot larger then the holes to secure it in place.

assembled template

thread the middle of the x to the head and knot
you can just do this part if you want simple marionette cookies
they're quite fun

if the strings aren't quite the right size it will cause your marionette to go lopsided

in this one all I needed to do, was pull up the head string and knot to make it shorter

here are the knots on top of my x cookie

cookie in progress, this one has the hands done first,
it doesn't really matter which you attach first
whatever's easiest for you

Notice the x's are resting on top of the puppet theater

Linking up at

http://www.thegirlcreative.com/

http://www.heatherlyloves.com/

Scrambled Eggs Potato Boats

source: Google Images

Mine look way more appetizing, and don't last long enough to get a picture

Bake your potatoes, put in the oven @350 for 1 hour.
In the meantime saute or caramelize onions. If you want you can put in other vegetables, I added red pepper, and mushrooms to the mix.

Beat eggs, you can add milk, and spices of your choosing. You can add the vegetables into the eggs, or you can mix it with the potatoes you're going to scoop out, or do both.

When the potatoes are ready, slice them lengthwise, so you end up with 2 long halves. This is also the point at which you raise the temperature of the oven to 400. Scoop out the potato from the middles creating a bowl in each half.

Pour the egg mixture into the potatoes. If it doesn't all fit into the potatoes, you can butter & bake it in a square pan or muffin pans without liners. You can also just use more potatoes.

Shortcut: Bake your potatoes using sensor cook in the microwave, just make sure you don't make an x make a slit on the side you're going to be cutting it on.

Giveaway Scoop

Hey!
Do you like winning things? There's an awesome site I just found out about, that seems to be solely for giving away awesome prizes. I don't even want to tell you about it, it's so awesome, I want to keep it secret for myself and so I have a better chance of winning. Anyways the prizes are awesome-check it out http://www.giveawayscoop.com/.

The Best Peanut Butter Cookies Ever...Really?!

Today I decided to try out the 3 ingredient peanut butter cookies that have been touted as being the best peanut butter cookies ever on many blogs and recipe sites. The recipe is also quite simple and easy to memorize. Sounds good, thousands of people claiming they are the best peanut butter cookies, has many 5 star reviews, easy recipe, and quick to make.

Here's the recipe (the key is 1):
1 C. Sugar
1 C. Peanut Butter
1 Egg

Mix everything together, roll into balls, make criss-cross indentations with a fork and bake in a preheated 350º oven for 8-10 minutes. Let cool on wire rack for 5-7 minutes.

Yep, just wrote that whole thing by heart, I've got this useless recipe memorized.

So I'm reading that ingredient list and saying no way can that make good cookies, but thousands of people love them. I figured I'll try them.

Making the batter was easy. I like tasting my batter to make sure it's mixed well and to give me a preview of what's to come. This tasted grainy, even thoroughly mixed.

Rolling into balls was easy. Making criss-cross indentations a little tricker. For the 1st batch I pressed on the balls with the fork-it didn't matter if it was plastic or metal. The cookies would then crack around the edges. I would either leave it like that or pinch back together. The second batch I tried flattening them out with my hand before creating indentations-bad idea. I did find that less and slower pressure with the fork made prettier cookies.

Oven Time

1st batch-10 minutes

-they looked cooked, once cooled I tasted them, there was a weird texture and lousy taste, very crispy. -There was also a bit of a bad smell which I assume was from burnt sugar.

2nd batch 8 minutes

I thought that maybe I had overcooked my first batch so decided to leave these in for 8 minutes. The ones that I had flattened by hand, seemed to be a bit burnt, probably also the sugar. These tasted just as bad as the first batch.

Yield: It was interesting to me that people seemed to get so few cookies out of this recipe. One reviewer said she got 6-8 cookies. How big were your cookies lady? I got 2 dozen regular size cookies. I tasted 2, that leaves 22 cookies that I'm pretty sure no one wants.

Verdict: I don't actually understand what's good about these. Have people never actually tasted good food in their lives. I seriously don't recommend this recipe. It was a waste of ingredients. That's my verdict, if anyone else in my family has a different take, I'll update this and let you what they think.

UPDATE: Some people in my family actually liked these and thought they were good. In the end the cookies that I thought I was going to have to throw out, all got eaten. So I guess this is just a recipe that some people like and some people hate. You're just going to have to try it for yourself.

Boozy Fudgy Brownies

These brownies are pretty quick to whip up. We liked them better as they aged, the boozy taste was way too strong right out of the oven. Make sure you use a good whiskey and good chocolate. I would also try melting the chocolate chips with the other chocolate or leaving it out completely, instead of mixing it at the end. I don't like cakes with choc. chips in them. Don't have pics for this one.

Boozy Fudgy Brownies

by Unique Heart

Prep Time: 20 min

Cook Time: 60 min

Keywords: brownie, chocolate whiskey, stout

6018754

Ingredients

• Butter for coating pan
• cocoa powder for dusting pan
• 1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter
• 4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 egg yolks
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup stout
• 2 tablespoons whiskey
• 3/4 cup sifted all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup chocolate chips

Instructions

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Prepare a 9-inch square baking pan by buttering and dusting the inside with cocoa powder. Set aside.

In a large saucepan, melt butter over low heat until completely melted. Add chopped chocolate, stirring often, until melted and smooth. Remove saucepan from heat and let cool to luke-warm. Stir the sugars into the chocolate and mix well.

In a large mixing bowl, beat together eggs, yolks, vanilla, stout and whiskey until smooth. Sift flour and salt in to the mixture and stir to combine.

Add cooled chocolate mixture to the egg/stout/flour mixture a little at a time, folding to combine, until all the chocolate has been added. Fold in chocolate chips, being careful not to over-mix.

Pour batter into the prepared pan and bake for about an hour. Let cool before cutting.

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