Egg-cellent Baked Eggs!

Happy weekend everyone! So, I am NOT and I repeat NOT a cooking genius, I usually leave those pins for Marquette, who has much more experience and adventurism (is that a word?) in the kitchen than I do, however that being said, she is out of town still, sad day, I know you probably miss her fun posts (and so do I), but alas, she comes home tonight! (Holy run on sentence batman...sorry). Anyways, Natalie sent me this awesome post about baked "hard boiled" eggs! Never in my life have I heard of this, I mean I JUST discovered baked bacon, like I said not a magician in the kitchen (sorry mom) , but hey The Mr. Chips doesn't complain. So here is Natatlie's Pinstrosity.

The Original Pin

http://www.theburlapbag.com/2012/03/make-hard-boiled-eggs-in-the-oven/

The Pinstrosity

Here's the catch. The eggs have to be cooked in the oven at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Rather than stick them in the mini muffin pan, which I thought was totally smart I probably would have done the same thing, place the eggs length wise straight on the oven rack like so:

This keeps them from rolling around, and this minimizes browning due to the fact that there is hardly any egg surface area touching the oven rack. when the eggs are done, pull them out of the oven with tongs or an oven mitt, and place them in iced water wait till they are cool enough to peel and then proceed to peel. IF there are any brown spots, it is NORMAL, and they will soon disappear in the cold water. There may be a small brown spot on the actual egg white itself, this is also NORMAL and the egg will still taste the same. As soon as they are peeled put them back in the cold water for another ten minutes or so and voila! Hard Boiled Eggs minus the Boil!

P.S. I know what you are thinking, "Didn't she just say how awful she is with recipes and such?" Yes I did, and yes that is true. I am no Picasso with Poultry, but I did some research for this one, and all the info was the same, and Alton Brown (Food Channel, funny guy), these are HIS recommendations, and well he is on the freaking food network, so I trust him. Now worries chaps, I did my homework :) Another freaking long sentence, I will need to work on that. Sorry!

                                                -Emilee



Sunshine In AND Out of a Jar

Hello All!

Happy Friday! Michelle sent us this awesome pin, which turned out to be a little TOO awesome!

The Original Pin

http://www.babble.com/best-recipes/rainbow-cake-in-a-jar/

The Pinstrosity

The name of this oh so delicious creation is "Sunshine In a Jar", Michelle said she followed the directions, but since she was making this for a baby shower, she decided to put them in a baby food jar. This didn't turn out quite like she had hoped. I would suggest, if you are putting this in baby food jars, which is a super cute idea by the way, that you put 1/3 the amount of cake mix in the jar than you would normally. This should help to minimize spillage, and makes for great presentation, and well, no cleanup, which is always a plus at my house :)

Before doing this for an event, I would suggest taking several different jars of the same size and putting different amounts of batter in each, baking and deciding which one suits your purpose.

These super fun single serving cakes would be great for a kids party, or just a fun dessert with easy cleanup! Bon Appetit!

                                            -Emilee

Shark Weak

Emilee here, feeling very punny this morning, as seen in the above title (get it "Shark Weak" "Shark Week" bahaha I know it's early can I at least get a little chuckle for that one?) Anyways back to business, Sarah a lovely and adventurous lady sent us this Pinstrosity, although in my opinion it turned out adorable! Just a few small revisions and she is ready to hit the big time, here it is!

The Original Pin

http://www.theentertainingelf.com/everyday-fun/shark-fruit-salad/

The Pinstrosity(kind of...)

Sarah said she wanted to try this out for a Memorial Day weekend festivity and it went...ok. She said her family liked it and she thought it went alright, but that she wished it had turned out a little better. In my opinion a lot of the original pin is presentation. Here are a few tips though:

Make sure you have an awesome knife (something Sarah said she wished she had). When doing a little research I found that for these kinds of projects it is helpful to have a "fruit carving knife" you can find a decent one on Amazon that isn't too expensive.

Another point is that this was her first try at watermelon carving, so grab two melons before going all Da Vinci  on "The Melon" and practice a bit, and if all else fails you have an awesome bit sized snack!

Third, and I already said this, is all ornamentation, jazz it up a bit, by the cute shark candies and maybe stick a Swedish Fish to his tooth, make it fun!

All in all not too shabby for a first time melon experience, just a few minor changes. Happy Summer Melon-ing!

                                          -Emilee

Mancave Mishap

   Em here, I survived the tests and am back and ready for some Pinstrosity action!

Katie wrote in with a project for her husband's man cave that didn't go as she had hoped, check it out.

The Original Pin

http://366daysofpinterest.com/2012/04/03/day-63-diy-corona-glasses/

The Pinstrosity

http://366daysofpinterest.com/2012/04/03/day-63-diy-corona-glasses/

The project consists of taking bottles, any sort of glass bottle, and cutting it using yarn soaked in acetone nail polish remover lighting it on fire (the yarn) and as soon as the flame has traveled all the way around the bottle, dip in ice cold water and the bottle splits right where the yarn was, this will supposedly yield a drinking glass, vase, candle holder etc,. Katie said she followed the instructions to a "T" and as soon as she pulled the glass out from the water all she had was a wet bottle, a cold wet hand and no drinking glass. Thoroughly disappointed, she decided it was a dud and so far, so do we.

There are a few things that could have gone wrong here:

Make sure the polish remover is pure acetone, and not the non-acetone, the website didn't specify but I believe this may be where the problem was.

When letting the flame move around the bottle, perhaps let it go two times around the bottle to ensure it went all the way around.

In the directions it calls for 5 or 6 strands of yarn wrapped around the bottle, but then the original pinner used three strands braided instead, I might go with the 5 or 6 just because it gives you a wider area to work with and it might get that added heat needed to cut all the way through the glass.

I have to admit this one intrigues me, the directions are very simple yet it didn't work, I will have to try this one out for myself on my next pin testing day and see how it goes, although it wouldn't be a bad idea to have a fire extinguisher close, Katie says she opted out of increased fire safety , she lives on the edge that one . I will report back when the project is complete and hopefully we will have a pin win on our hands.

                                         -Emilee

The Cake of Freedom

We're back from Camp! We survived! I'm still not unpacked...but I'm home. Em takes her tests this weekend, and then we'll be able to be back in full swing! Hooray! 

In the meantime though...

The 4th of July is coming up! YEA! I really love the 4th of July. Fireworks, family, good food, America! We had a Pinstrosity submitted to us today just in time for a jump into Independence Day. Check out this awesome cake!

The Original Pin

http://cakecentral.com/gallery/1703278/hidden-flag-cake

I'm not supposed to be eating sugar right now, but that picture's making it a little difficult. MMmm. Pinner Taylor saw this cake and knew she had to make it. "When I saw this cake I instantly thought of my brother. He loves being American. I know, I know... we all do. But he REALLY is proud. When he went to study abroad this summer I wanted to make it for him as a welcome home surprise. The night before his return my mom and i decided to make the cake. We started at about 8 p.m. (that was the first mistake of many) By the time all of the cakes were made and cooled it was about 1 am. I then made the icing. (only to be interrupted by my drunk friend who needed a ride home from the bars) At about 3 oclock the icing and layering began. the cake kept shifting and the layers began to break. by 430 a.m. i decided it was the thought that counted and called in a night. i threw it in the fridge in hopes of solidifying the icing before it fell over. not so simple i guess."

The Pinstrosity

Taylor continues her story, "Anyhow, when he got home I gave him the cake and he loved the thought behind it. :) He also said I'll have to practice before I make it for his celebration when he becomes President of the United States. I don't think I'll be making this pinstrosity ever again..."

It may not look exactly like Ol' Glory, but it still looks tasty to me! Now, I'm not a cake guru...making a good cake is on my list of thing to learn, so I don't know any specific tips to give here other than what I know I would try if I were to attempt this right now and what I am finding on Google. Here's what I've got: 

1. First off, the thin red layers. I didn't have any clue about how to even start cutting layers, so I googled "Cutting Thin Cake Layers" and came across this genius idea: Toothpicks and dental floss. Check it out!

http://www.wikihow.com/Cut-a-Cake-Layer-in-Half

2. Then, how to frost it so it's smooth. Again...I haven't had great luck with this, so I just now googled "How to Frost a Cake" and this great article popped up (which also sports the toothpick and dental floss method for slicing):

http://recipes.howstuffworks.com/tools-and-techniques/how-to-bake-a-cake5.htm

But most of all I'd have to agree with Taylor...maybe the late night was what did it in. I know that'd do it for me! 

I know we have some bakers who follow along, do any of you have some little pearls of wisdom you'd like to share here?

                          

SOS

**This post will remain at the top until June 17th. Please scroll down for the new Pinstrosity posts.**

Miss Em is in the last few big weeks of Cosmetology school (she's amazing people) getting ready to come rock the world of hair. On top of normal life, I am helping a family in our church with their store as the Dad is dying of cancer. And then Em and I are preparing for a big week long Girls Camp here in a few weeks NEXT WEEK (eek! That soon! I still have so much to do)!

Why do I tell you these things? So you don't leave this blog and never come back because postings are sporadic. We honestly do not have time to test new pins, or re-test old Pinstrosities to try and get them to work. We apologize whole heartedly. We love writing this blog and can't wait until we can jump back into it with both feet. So for the next few weeks we could really really use your help. If you have a Pinstrosity, send it our way (and remember, it doesn't have to be a disaster...it can be something that you had to tweak to make work, or something that didn't work like it was supposed to but you were able to salvage it for something else, etc)! Don't have a Pinstrosity on hand? Test one out for us that looks like it might be sketchy. I know that doesn't sound very exciting, but it's actually quite fun. You'll feel like a Pinterest MythBuster!

Redundo Rolls

If you're anything like me, you probably have a love hate relationship with recipes and Pinterest food. They all just look soooo good, and every pin says "Super easy and super yummy!" and it sucks us in. I can mess up a fool-proof recipe, but I haven't died yet so I'll keep trying these "super easy" recipes. We had a submission of one of these "super easy" recipes by Lidia. 2 main ingredients...2 minor ingredients, no mixing. Just roll and bake. See how yummy and pretty these look? 

The Original Pin

http://eatatallies.com/2011/04/resurrection-rolls/

Lidia says, "I've seen this pin floating around, and I honestly thought that it looked too good to be true. The lesson here is an Easter one, that Jesus the marshmallow goes into his tomb, and then the marshmallow disappears--but where does it go? The answer is, unfortunately, out."

The Pinstrosity

Not quite like it was supposed to turn out. Lidia tells us, "I followed exactly what the recipe said--large marshmallows, regular crescent rolls, and pinching the dough securely shut. Unfortunately the marshmallows still found whatever way they could out of the rolls. Despite all this, they were definitely delicious and gone within minutes."

To be honest...I have no idea what happened here. A difference in crescent roll dough sizes or makeup perhaps? Perhaps try mini mashmallows, but those will be kinda hard to handle in the butter and sugar...but it could work. 

Despite the Pinstrosity, Lidia said these turned out yummy. "Thankfully I was just making these to be tasty...but if I was making these for Easter I would definitely have been disappointed."

(Redundo Rolls, hehehe. Anyone know their latin?)