Cheap Mario Block Decorations Explained!

I live on a budget and when doing things, if I can make it, I try to.  If I can make it cheaply, that encourages me further!

A picture from last week's blog showing the blocks in action.

These guys were really easy to make and cost about 2.00 for three!  Now, I do warn that this post is going to be picture heavy and text light!  :)

My first step was to pick up these take out container style boxes from dollar tree.  As you can see you get three for a dollar.  I also picked up a black Sharpe marker!  Then I took the stickers off and folded the tops down so that they resembled boxes.

The next step was to draw horizontal lines across the box and on the bottom (since it would be seen by people as well).  Then you make your bricks (I have a video better showing this!)  Many people suggested that I cut the tops off instead of folding them down and fill them with some kind of "filling" (I was thinking foam or something sturdy) and then put chocolate coins inside so that when they are hit from the bottom you can get a reward.  I did not try this with them this time, but I think it's a cool idea!

Once again pardon the poor filming quality!  I don't have a video camera specifically for filming these sorts of things so I use my camera or my phone!

Halloooweeen Fun (I know...super late!)

Well, October was insane because of Halloween and now November is going crazy due to getting gifts made (I really love making people Christmas gifts since that way they have a more personal touch).  This year our annual Halloween party was themed video games.

Mike and I at the party.  He was shy guy from Mario and I was Cooking Mama!

We put a fair amount of time into the party this year (last year we did as well, but a busted toilet and a landlord not wanting to replace it immediately put the kabosh on it) and got some really cool decorations and           snacks going.  We wanted everything to have a video game theme!

The Mario Tree Kitchen

So for each room we decorated, we made a little card that we taped to the wall with the level number and name!  We also tried to make each of our snacks we provided have little tie ins to different video games as well!

Gluten Free Heart cookies based on Legend of Neil based on Zelda

The party was a riot!  We had several "celebrities" and very awesome people show up!  Even Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask (who was a magician!) came and partied with us!

A long view of the "spider cave" dining room the day after!

Our guests list varied from zombie survivor  ninja, geisha  viking, lemmings, the fine folks of castlevania, a ninja turtle, some League of Legends folks, the game master, Link and Navi, and so many more!  I really loved getting to see everyone's creativity and the costumes they put together!

A full view of the snack table about half way through the night!  We had some wonderful snacks brought by our guests as well!

I think my favorite thing about the party was getting to dress up in a costume and hang out with a group of people I really like and love!  Sure, I loved decorating the house up and putting together the goodie bags, but the people are always what makes it worth it!

Pac Man power ball cookies.

It was also really neat that Mike got to participate in the planning of this too.  To be honest, this was more in his field of specialty.  I didn't grow up around video games, but he did.  He helped me tie in a bunch of old school video game references!  (He also helped me really want to make a costume to be Celes from FF6, but I ran out of time :( )  It really was fun to get to have him teach me about this part of his childhood and to hear memories from playing all these games!

First half of baskets with the bottle we were trying to fill!

Now, the best part of the party was being able to raise money for a good cause: a local pregnancy center!  We put together some nifty baskets (some video game themed and some not) and raffled them off for $1.00 tickets.  That little bottle was full by the end of the night and I think a new tradition was born at our parties!  Not only were the baskets fun to plan and put together, but we were able to make a difference and help a good organization while having a night of fun with friends!

The Second half of the gift baskets...these ones were video game themed!

Everyone seemed to love the baskets and the one on the top left of this picture was highly desired for the hand made 8 bit video game magnets!  All in all, we had an awesome party, with awesome people, and were able to do some awesome things!  (Like my use of awesome?)  On actual Halloween night, the weather was kind of icky, so we went to a friends apartment complex and handed out candy with them!  Mike dressed up as a creepy crow creature and I dressed up as an old woman.  I didn't really take a good picture of myself in my full costume but you can see the make up I did to make myself look older :) and my acting was good enough to make a speeding car feel guilty and slow down!  (That was amazing. I even took the opportunity to shake my walking stick at them since there were kids around and they were going way too fast!)

A picture from my phone of old lady me.

We had a fun night of handing out candy, drinking cider, and making sukiyaki (sukiyaki somewhere along the way became our traditional halloween dish :P)!  And that was our Halloween party!  In the next week or so, there will be a tutorial up for making those mario blocks!

Gluten Free Part 2: Fried Chicken

Writing Recipes in my busy busy busy cooking space!

Yes, we all love terrible pictures of me, don't we?  This is what I look like as I'm writing down different notes on what I'm doing to the food.  My kitchen counter sure does look crazy, but this picture was taken in the middle of a cooking/canning non stop marathon (or so it felt like).  I grew up in Texas, so fried chicken is an art form to me.  Each family has their own unique recipe (or so it seems) and each person makes that their own with slight tweaks.  When I moved up to Michigan, I discovered that the art of chicken frying isn't as common place around here.  There's even a really funny story of me serving fried chicken the first time Mike brought home some work friends, but this isn't the post to talk about that!

Ms. Ashley's Gluten Free Frying Batter!  Y'all come 'n get yerselfs a bite, ya hear?

This time the experiment stemmed from menu planning.  That same wonderful friend and her boyfriend were coming over for dinner and I really wanted to wow them.  Fried chicken (since moving to Michigan) has quickly become my "WOW!" dish I serve to guest when I really want to impress them.  Well, that and what else do you serve with fried green tomatoes (something my friend had previously confessed she hadn't eaten since her gluten free life style began)?  Thus, my challenge began!  This time, however, I did some research first.  I knew what fried chicken should taste like and I knew that I didn't like the all purpose flour I used last time, so I turned to my handle friend Google and a website that talked about the different tastes and consistencies of the flours popped up (I tried to find the exact resource but at the moment, it's been slipping through my surfing skills).  I read through all of them and made a short list of ones I was interested in using.

Frying batter....check!

I decided to use the brown rice flour since it has the heavier consistency (I thought this would stick as a nicer breading and fry up a little crispier) as well as since it was described as having a faint nut flavor (something I could cook and compensate for).  The next part was the tricky part to be honest.  I had to figure out the right mixture of flour and seasonings to get it to taste (the only way I was taught to make my family's fried chicken recipe) the way it should.

Green tomatoes soaking....check!

After about an hour, I was successful   Now, in case you've never fried in this manner (something I've come across before since moving up north) I'll share some tips.  I do one of two things with my frying batter.  I either put it in a gallon size zip lock baggie or a Tupperware container that is big enough to hold what ever I am frying in it.  The reason behind this is so that I can just put the article being fried in, close the lid or top, and just shake to evenly coat it.  I've only ever tried the roll to coat method once.  I hated it.  It got everywhere.  My meat didn't have an even coating on it.  It was not a pretty meal!  Now, I guess I should talk about the oil.  I never turn my oil above medium/slightly warmer than medium because it's really easy to accidentally cook the outside of the chicken but not the inside.

Frying away...check!

It is also easy to hurt yourself with popping oil.  So, you are going to want to pre-warm your oil in the pan.  How much oil you say?  Well, I normally try to pour about a half inch of oil into the pan (this is why my chicken fryer isn't huge) so that I don't have to add more oil as I go.  The trick I've always heard to help tell when the oil is ready to be cooked in is to dip your fingers in some water and let one drop fall into the warming oil.  If it bubbles or reacts, you're good to go.  Mike always describes oil that is at the right temperature as having a "dancing" appearance.  I'll be honest.  My first pieces of what ever I'm frying tend to go in before the oil is pre-heated correctly and thus take longer to cook (but no other differences that I've noticed).

Gently putting in some breaded green tomato slices.

My trick to making fried green tomatoes is to slice them up (after washing them of course) and to let them soak in some cold water while I get my batter mixed.  This helps the tomatoes to hold on to the batter when they are coated.  Also, when you put your green tomatoes into the batter, hang them over the bowl of water for just a few seconds so that any excess water will fall back into the bowl and not into the batter to leave you with little batter balls (unless you like extra fried "crunch" as I've heard it called).  When your oil is the correct temperature (so if you're like me, you won't have to worry about this until your second batch), you'll want to be gentle when putting them into the oil.  If you aren't careful, you will learn all about the reaction of water and oil in an unpleasant (not a fire, just a few small oil "spits") way.

What the tomatoes will look like when first put in.

Now, if you have the edge piece (I always end up with sections of tomatoes to fry that are rounded from the end of the tomato), I recommend putting it rounded side down first so that the batter sticks on better.  I've never timed how long it takes to fry, but I always do it by the color.  You want a dark golden brown color before you flip or pull out.  I always line a plate or a bowl (depending on what I'm serving) with a couple of paper towels so that we don't eat "grease soup".  I've also always flipped and removed with a fork.  I'm not sure why, but that's the way I was taught to do it, so that's how I've always done it (Mike prefers longer utensils when frying.  I think my preference is derived slightly from the fact that I feel more agile and less likely to make a mess if I quickly turn/remove with a fork.).

Almost golden enough to eat!

When it truely comes to the color, with the tomatoes, it won't really matter as much.  Nothing in there is going to make you sick.  So, if you are too excited to let it get a dark golden, pull it off and chow down.  (Also, with the gluten free flour, the cooked goods do tend to take longer to brown up.)  The instructions I've given you so far, apply the same to the chicken.  The only real difference is that you really want to either cut open some of the chicken (we tend to fry tenderloins, legs, or cut up breasts in our house since they are easier to tell when they are done) or check it with a meat thermometer.  As you can tell by this Food Network Guide 165 is the normally agreed upon temperature for chicken.  You want to take your reading from the fattiest part of the meat to ensure it's cooked thoroughly.

Mike cutting up some potatoes for a dinner side dish.

It's time for the fun part!  The recipe!

Adventure in True Love's Own Gluten Free Frying Batter Recipe!

(isn't that a long obnoxious title?)

Ingredients:
1 c. brown rice flour
5 Tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp pepper
2 tsp garlic powder

Instructions:

Add all ingredients into a gallon size zip lock bag or container large enough to hold your meat/produce to be fried.  Shake the mix well.  Fry as described above (or as your own preferred method calls for).


And tada!  Another fun (and I know this one was tasty because I tried it) gluten free eating option!  Enjoy!

Leftover Gluten Free Fried Chicken!  

Soap Experiments!

Let's start by seeing my handsome kitty!

Well, I've finally had the time to play with soap making!  (I've been dying to try starting it, but have been insanely busy again)  I haven't played with anything soap in....a little over three years?  Even back then, I really only played with the melt and pour kinds.  At least I was good at fragrance mixing!  Well, do I ever start anything the easy way?

A pretty green for the turtle and frog molds I have.

To start with, and to get back in the basic understanding, I got some melt and pour kits to experiment with.  Of course it was a BLAST!  Who doesn't love mixing smell goods and pretty colors together?  I did a couple of small hand soap batches with this and I was ready to start the "fun game.

Pouring melt and pour soap into molds.

After "playing" I decided it was time to get on to the real game.  Mike had picked up a book a while back  (I will choose not to name the book just yet.  I would like to give it another shot first!) and we already had been collecting the ingredients.  I have a friend who has some pretty bad skin allergies.  It really touched my heart that she hadn't really been able to have the experience of funky colored/scented soaps because of it!  So, I made it my mission to keep my soap artificial dye and color free for her sake (so she can use some fun soap)!  I did a fair deal of research and decided to add cocoa powder to the recipe as both my dye and coloration.  To use this as a dye, it is recomended (as far as I my research told me online) that you heat your liquid oil up slightly with the cocoa in it to help the color take more evenly.  Most places also recommended that you filter the cocoa powder out to prevent a grainy scrubby feeling soap.  I knew that I didn't really want a dark brown soap for my first try, so I wasn't worried about filtering (plus, a little "scrub" in soap isn't normally a bad thing in my opinion).

The beginning stages of fixing the soap.

To make a long story short:  soap making is harder than I (or my silly book) gave it credit for.  I ended up with a giant mess that was completely separated after a few hours of sitting in it's mold.  Not only were we bummed, but we also had a giant mess on our hands at midnight.  Now, I guess I should mention here that we did this the night before the repeat house inspection for our rental.  It worked out so that we had a bit of time while straightening up that we hadn't planned for and we really needed a break/distraction from our inner mind workings.  As this project began to flounder, we started feeling the time pressure of fixing it quickly so we could get on with the things that had to be done before morning.  A word of advise folks:  unless you've done the project thousands of times (and even then something could always go wrong) I'd recommend making sure that you will have plenty of stress free time for it in case you make a mistake.  I have a couple of ideas personally of what went wrong, but I can't say anything for sure since it was my first ever batch from scratch.  (Another word for the wise here.  Wear a mask, a bandanna, something across your nose and mouth.  I can't stress this enough.  After spending an hour worrying I was going to die, I realized that I hadn't inhaled enough of the lye vapors by accident to really be dangerous.  No mater how careful you normally are, you're going to forget or get in a rush or just do something silly at some point.  My book did not stress this enough.  It actually barely mentioned it!)

Ready to pour repaired soap!

Now, back to the story!  I sat down at my computer to try and quickly figure out what had gone wrong!  Thank goodness I found Soap Queen's Amazing Soap Saving Tutorial!  With her help, I was able to take the "wounded" first batch and repair it into something usable.  I won't go into all the details (because I really want to encourage you to look at her site because it's awesome!), but her explanations were easy to follow and left me feeling more secure (and less bummed) about my first try.  Now, the original soap mess didn't really pull any of the scent of the cocoa powder like I had hoped.  Going through her tutorial, however, really brought out a lot of the fragrance and color!  While heating my soap up to reprocess it, my house smelt of baking brownies!  To be honest, I think this cheered me up more than anything at this point!  Once my soap had a cake batter ish look to it (well it smelt and looked like brownies so how would you describe it?) we began the (late) process of planning what to put it into.  Since the original recipe we were using didn't need to be poured at a high temperature, we had just planned on using some old Tupperware we have (and I mean five years old stuff) and just using it until it died to make a mold for cutting bar soap.  After our experiences thus far, we took Soap Queen serious when she said the mixture would be hot (even if it is deceivingly fluffy looking).

Cooling soap.  I was really tempted to put a CAUTION: Not Brownies sign on it.

We ended up using a glass casserole dish of mine that Mike ran under hot water before hand to try and reduce any risk of it cracking on us.  I knew that the shape of these first bars wouldn't be as pretty as I had originally wanted, but I was just excited that I would still have soap at the end of it all.  (For the record, from what I've read, as long as you wash your pans really well, (and multiple times) using them for cooking and soap making isn't harmful.  Just be careful and make sure you get things really clean!)  After 24 hours, the soap was hard enough to cut.  What was the first thing I tried?  I tried melting a small piece in the microwave to see if I could then pour it into a mold to get the "pretty shape".  It didn't work.  It keeps that fluffy texture and heats up quickly.  After that one attempt, I accepted that this was the shape my soap was going to be and cut it into bars.  After cutting the first few bars I realized how beautiful the soap actually was!  The chocolate smell isn't really strong in the finished product, but it gave it a natural swirl look.  I think I will purposely "ruin" this soap each time I make it (and by this soap I mean when I use cocoa like this if my friend likes it) to get this result.  Now, I will be getting a casserole dish I can dedicate to soap making only use as well!  (I really want a square one, but you make do with what you make do with.)  I've got it air drying out on a cookie sheet so I'm sure it will be mentioned in a future post again with the final results.  For now, look at how pretty it is now!

An over sized picture to show the pretty look of this soap!

UNREAL ly Good!

Well, Bzzagent has done it again!  I really love getting to try new things and share them :).  Well, these are the unreal candy line.  If you look above you can see all five different "flavors" offered.  I'm going to quote their website with how they came about deciding to create these awesome candies!


IT TOOK A QUESTION FROM A 13 YEAR OLD

A few years ago, Michael and his 13 year old son Nicky got into an argument over Halloween candy.  Nicky came home with his bag of loot, went to bed, and woke up the next morning to find that his dad had confiscated most of it.  It played out the way these fights normally do, with the candy gone and Nicky going to his room.

Later, Nicky did some research online (to prove to his dad that candy isn’t so bad).  He discovered that his dad was right (for once).

It’s not that Nicky thought candy was healthy.  It’s that he didn’t know how bad it really was. What Nicky learned was that the worst parts of candy (like hydrogenated oils, corn syrup, artificial colors, flavors, and preservatives) aren’t there to make it taste good.  They’re there to make it cheaper to produce. Nicky had a hunch that without the junk, candy could taste better. With the help of his older brother Kris, and his dad, they set out to prove it.

Luclin trying to steal a taste of the candy.

So, how awesome is this for a way to start a candy company?  What a kid, right?  This is what started this new line of candy that boast of containing No artificial ingredients, No hydrogenated oils, No corn syrups, No preservatives, No GMO's, and to have a low glycemic index.  Both Mike and I struggle with insulin resistance.  Eating candy and sweets (without protein to balance it) can really make a good day into a bad day for us, so I was super excited to try these! 

 BzzAgent sent me my coupons to share and my coupons for a free product for myself.  According to the website, Kroger is a carrier of the product, so I began stalking my Kroger.  After a couple of weeks went by of them saying "Oh, it may be coming in our next shipment" we started expanding our search.  Sadly, these guys were hard for me to find :(, but we did find them in the end!  It was at the Michael's on the other side of town (the most difficult part was getting there before they closed since we only ever seem to make it out for shopping late these days).  When I got to the store and saw them all arranged on the shelf, I realized I had another problem....I couldn't pick one!  What's the easiest and best solution to this type of problem?  I bought one of each!  So, here are my feelings on what you'll notice the most when converting over to this new brand of candy compared to their name brand "junked" alternatives!

UN 77-peanut butter chocolate cup

We'll start off with my least favorite one (although, to be fair, I just don't normally like peanut butter cups.).  The biggest thing I noticed was that the peanut butter filling tasted slightly salty to me.  Mike (who loves peanut butter cups) said that the chocolate to peanut butter ratio (I'm sure you other folks who love these guys will understand this comparison) was leaning more towards the chocolate.  He agreed with me that they were slightly salty, but said that he would gladly eat them again.

UN 41- candy coated chocolates

These were most likely Mike's least favorite.  We noticed a slightly bitter taste to them that we weren't used to.  It wasn't a lack of sweetness bitter, but a dark chocolate bitter (which I loved, but Mike did not).  So, if you like dark chocolate go for these!  If you're like Mike and hate dark chocolate, don't get excited because you love this type of candy and pour a whole handful in your mouth.  (This most likely did happen in our testing ;) )

UN 5- chocolate caramel nougat bar

After giving Mike this candy (and since I've never had the name brand alternative before) under the wrong comparison, I discovered that this name brand is another of those types of candies he hates.  The good news is that he actually really liked this one!  He was surprised and I was surprised.  To me, the taste was really similar to the chocolate protein bars I eat.  This isn't bad (because I actually really like some of the chocolate protein bars) it just caught me off guard!

UN 8- chocolate caramel peanut nougat

This was Luclin's favorite....Just kidding.  To be fair though, this is the only candy he tried to steal a bite of (he's very selective in what people food he ever wants to beg for, so you gotta know this was good!).  The name brand alternate "junked" version of the candy is Mike's absolute favorite candy.  (Growing up it was my mom's favorite candy...so these were always stolen out of my trick-or-treat pails!)  Sadly, he devoured it upon tasting it and I only really got a tiny bite out of his guilt for eating it all.  He described it as having an overall more balanced flavor where he could actually recognize the nut flavor.  He also said that it tasted more sugar sweet and less fake sweet.  (I'm not sure how he tasted anything the way he engulfed it though, but I trust him!  :) )

UN 54- candy coated chocolates with peanuts

These were (without a doubt) my favorite of all the current flavors!  I've always enjoyed the "junked" alternative, but these really hit the spot for me.  (I'm afraid to say that the way Mike ate the UN 8, I ate these.)  Compared to the alternative, these are slightly sweeter (once again in a good way) and you can really taste the peanut instead of it being a solid lump of tasteless peanut in the center.  If peanuts could be light and fluffy, I'd call these guys light and fluffy!  Mike really liked them as well, but I didn't share many so he's already planning a trip out for a couple of more packages!

I hope my descriptions help you know a little bit about which ones to choose (because I HIGHLY recommend you trying them out!) to try in your home!  I tried to take a "realistic" approach in my description so that there were no surprises for any of you!  Now, the cool thing about this candy company is that the more they see people liking them, the more different brands they'll start to "unjunk" so join the UNREAL NATION so we can see what other marvelous candies they develop!

Experimenting with Gluten Free Cooking!

My finished product.  Gluten Free Home Made Hot Pockets...err...snack pacs!

Well, I love to cook (big surprise there, huh?).  Recently, I've gotten closer to some amazing people who have gluten free diets.  I really wanted to do something special for them, so I made them some snack packs (my version of hot pockets that I've been experimenting with lately).  I never realized all that would go into cooking gluten free!  So, in a way, this has become it's own little adventure.

My lovely supplies...although I ended up not using the egg.

My first thoughts were that I would only have to worry about the actual flour being gluten free.  I was wrong.  Gluten goes into so many different ingredients that I never would have guessed!  For this I focused on things that would go in a pizza hot pocket.  (I'll include my recipe for these a bit later in this post don't worry :) ) I do want to state now that I may have made some slight mistakes through this process and I apologize.  I dived in (like I always do) and took the challenge.  Thankfully I have been told that these friends (or at least one of them) are willing to be "test subjects" for these cooking experiments!  My first step was to go and look for the gluten free flour.  I went to my local grocery store and had a selection of three "flours".  There was all purpose, bread, and baked goods.  I did have a tough time trying to decide which flour would be best.  I ended up deciding on the all purpose flour since I thought if I had any left I could use it for other baking projects.  Just so everyone is prepared, I spent about $5.00 for a pound of gluten free flour.  It is more expensive than traditional flour,  but if it's what you need to enjoy baked goods, it's what you need!  Next I grabbed extra butter and some cheese.  I decided to go with the Italian blend instead of the pizza blend purely because they were constructed almost identical (the Italian blend had a few cheese types the pizza blend didn't) and the Italian blend was almost half the price.

Dry ingredients pre-mixing.

Yes...I do weigh price into my decisions.  The pepperoni was easy.  Just plain pepperoni.  The sauce was tricky.  I've never actually purchased pizza sauce I realized.  I didn't even know where to find it!  We almost picked up spaghetti sauce instead then Mike finally found a clerk and asked.  Now, while we were looking for the pizza sauce (and while we were looking over the spaghetti sauces to possibly get one of those instead) I noticed that some of them were marked gluten free.  When I found the pizza sauce, I looked but none of them were marked gluten free.  I ended up looking through the ingredients of each of them (thankfully it was a small section) and found one that had very basic ingredients (water, tomato paste, seasonings, ect).  It was the only one they had that didn't mention wheat or any gluten warning at all, so it was the one we got.  In the long run, I was just really surprised.  It never occurred to me that gluten is in so many products.  One of the other things that really surprised me was that gluten is in some baking powders, so make sure you check yours out!

The dry ingredients mixed with some cheese added in!

When we got home, I got myself started!  I added all my dry ingredients while taking small pinches to taste to try and tweak it.  Let me say it here.  In my opinion, the all purpose gluten free flour has a gross after taste.  I've been doing a little research at The Gluten Free Goddess's site and it sounds like I may have disliked the taste of the white rice flour.  Going forward, I plan on skipping out on that as much as possible (meaning I'm going to be experimenting with different types of gluten free flours to figure out my recipes).  I'd made a non-gluten free version of this dough using a recipe before.  I only changed the seasonings I mixed in as well as the type of cheese.  The flour said I could add it to all recipes cup for cup so I figured this would be easy!

My dough mound.

It didn't work like that.  I had to add extra butter (remember this was me experimenting) as well just play with the dough to get it to a somewhat dough consistency.  The all purpose mix I bought had a really gritty texture to it.  In the end (because the gluten in wheat is what makes dough flexible and I haven't had the experience with cooking this way to know how to compensate for it) I ended up with a mashed potato texture that I flattened for my dough.  Once I know more, I hope I can go back and make this a better recipe but I'll share what I have for now!  Oh, and be forewarned...baked goods using this type of flower don't seem to brown as much, so pay extra attention to the edges!

Before baking. 

Gluten Free Pizza Snack Packs

Ingredients:

For the Crust:
2 C. All Purpose Gluten Free flour
2 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. salt
2 Tbs. pizza seasoning
1 C. Italian cheese mix (or cheese mix of your choice)
1 C. butter (room temperature)
8 Tbs water

For the Filling:
Pizza Sauce
Cheese mix
Pepperonis

Instructions:
1. Mix together the flour, baking powder, salt, and pizza seasoning.  I used a whisk to ensure it was evenly mixed together.
2. Add the cheese to your crust mixture and once again mix together.  I used my whisk, but used a folding action more than a stirring action to try and get it all spread out.
3. Add in the butter.  Use your hands to make a "crumb" mixture with the butter and the dried ingredients.  (The best way of describing this motion for me is to say that you squeeze the butter into the dried ingredients the say way you fold dough over into itself.)
4. Continue in the a fore mentioned mixing technique and add in your water.
5. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.  (I hate having the oven going the entire time you're working on a difficult task only to waste electricity.  Feel free to preheat before if you would prefer.  My kitchen just gets hot fast.)
6.  Stick your dough in the freezer while you get your filling ingredients together.  (The goal here is to get the dough cool.  If you'd rather stick it in the fridge and watch a movie, go for it.  I just like to do the entire project in one swoop!)
7.  Take about a three inch ball of dough and flatten into a pancake shape.  You want the flattened product to be as even as you can make it, but as thin as you can make it too.  This will take some practice.  (And it feels like playing with mashed potatoes!)  Lay your finished "pancake" on your baking pan.
8.  Using about 1 TBS of pizza sauce, spread it over the "pancake" sparring a 1/2 inch edge around the circle.  Lightly sprinkle some cheese (just remember, that cheese is going to melt!) and then place your pepperonis.  I followed this by once again sprinkling cheese and adding about a 1 tsp. dollop of pizza sauce on top.
9.  Make another pancake the same way you made the first one.  Gently drape this dough over the top of your pizza filling and lightly press the edges for an informal seal.  Take a fork and press down the dough all around the edges (see above picture) to make a tight seal.  This is also the point where I would check for any breaks in the top crust and smooth small pieces of dough over them so that my filling wouldn't bake out.
10.  Repeat steps 7-9 until your cookie sheet is full of snack packs!
11.  Bake at 400 until the edges are lightly browned.  Move to a cooling rack to let cool.
12.  To store these in the freezer (and make them more like hot pockets) let them cool on the cooling rack then wrap them in freezer paper.  My wrapping method is to set the snack pack half way down my freezer paper piece and fold the bottom over it.  I then fold my sides in like a triangle to seal the sides of the pack.  Then gently flip and fold over until you only have a small piece.  I tape that down with plain desk tape and write what they are with a magic marker.  I suggest keeping them stored like this inside a gallon zip lock bag.  To reheat:  Cook in a microwave on high for 45 seconds.

Fresh out of the oven on the cooling rack.

I hope you all enjoy them!  I'm sure my next experiments will be even better!

Glade Expressions Collection Review Time!

As I've mentioned several times, I am a BzzAgent.  This means I get to try all these new and nifty products and tell everyone about how much I love them or how much I don't.  Glade was awesome and sent me a HUGE (well I felt it was huge) coupon book full of coupons to share as well as some coupons for me to get free product with too.  We picked up our set at Meijer.

The two we decided to try!

I did have to hand out some coupons while at the store (even though I hadn't tried it) because I could already tell they smelt good (at least initially) and the store was having a sell on them.  I figured, the less money people have to spend initially, the easier to get them hooked!  I brought my lovely little friends home.  We chose the fuji apple and cardamon spice spray because Mike fell in love with the little "lift here" sample sniff on the oil diffusers.  We chose the Pineapple and mangosteen diffuser because we really appreciated the look of the wood holder (well and we wanted to try two different fragrances).

The back of the spray bottle with it's instructions.

What the spray bottle looks like with the label removed.

I'll start with the spray bottle (because it is a bit more simple).  The idea behind the design of this spray is that the it is simple looking and will match any decor without screaming "I need smells goods in my house!".  I really do appreciate the fact that the label with the fragrance name/brand/details comes off.  It really made me feel a bit fancier and willing to leave the spray out and about in rooms that aren't the bathroom (because what happens/is seen/ is smelled in the bathroom stays in the bathroom).  There was a downside to this too though.  It's plain white.  Just white.  All of them are white.  Not only do I feel like this is going to need constant cleaning (because you're hands don't have to be amazingly dirty for dirt to cling to white and this is something that will be going in people's hands frequently) but I really wish that there had been some bottles with prints on them.  I love cutesy patterned things and really like for the things I use on a regular basis to reflect that about me.  (Plus cute things make me feel happy and I find myself using them more because of that.)  I'm sure that white matches most normal people's homes just fine, but it would be nice to see at least one or two patterned bottles in my opinion!

The wheel you twist to refill the spray bottle.

Gotta love Box openings!

I find this especially true since the holders are refillable.  As you can see in the picture above, the bottom of the bottle twists off and you just pop out the old can and pop in the new.  It was amazingly simple!  (I tested how easy it was to replace purely to test it.  I have not run out of my fragrance yet :D).  The last thing spray specific (I will talk about the apple scent in a moment) is that the bottle can be slightly hard to squeeze.  Instead of having a lever that can break on you, Glade made it so that we just squeeze the neck of the bottle to release the fragrance.  If you look at the above pictures, you need to squeeze right where that red is peeking through.  It's not a huge hindrance (and I could just be a weakling), but occasionally I need both hands to squeeze it.  Mike, however, has no problems with this.  Maybe my hands are just small!

The back of the box.  30 days of fragrance and a no-spill design!  Score!

This next bit is going to be slightly more picture heavy.  The concept behind the diffuser is a bit more complex and I really want to get across how cool I think it is.  First off, the diffuser seemed to be packaged really nicely.  It was easy (as you can see from the photo above) to figure out how to construct it.

The oil in the bottom of the base. 

The look of the wood/bamboo style diffuser.

 So, first off, I do feel like there is a really good chance this is spill proof.  All of the weight is at the bottom (the weight of the oil and the base feels pretty solid too).  To lightly test this, I even put the diffuser down where the animals could check it out.

The diffuser card!

 






None of them managed to spill it, but I can't say for sure (since I haven't experienced this yet) how much of the weight is going to be lost when the oil starts running low.  









Once again, I found myself disappointed by the lack of patterns available.  As far as the decoration of the diffuser went, it was white (ick) or bamboo/wood look.  Now, we absolutely adore the bamboo/wood look!  As you can see above it has a very nice grain pattern and as you will see below in a bit, it accents the diffuser card nicely.  To put this thing together out of the box, you take the diffuser card and push it into the oil holder.  I just pretended it was one of those funky milk bags we had in school, got a firm grip on the bottom, and pushed it down.  It makes a slight clicky noise and you're ready to decorate with freshness!

My diffuser in it's new home on top of the tv!

As you can see, it doesn't take up much space and it really does look nice put on display.  Our living room isn't very big and our tv tends to take up alot of the space.  Having the diffuser on top of it also brings the fragrance to head level.  I have begun to receive the compliments of "Your home always smells so nice when I come over" (of course my renewed infatuation with cooking and canning could help that too!).  Since I'm here and talking about the diffuser, I'll talk about it's fragrance first.  The Pineapple & Mangosteen smells like a tropical pina cola smoothie tastes!  It's a very delicate blend of pineapple and tropical scents.  I'm not normally a tropical smell goods kind of gal (to be honest, if selecting for myself alone and not for the look of the diffuser as well I would have picked the lavender).  I normally love vanilla, honeydew, and overall delicate scents for home smell goods.  Tropical sometimes very easily crosses that line of "too sweet" smelling.  That being said, I LOVE this scent.  I feel like it is the perfect balance of fruitiness and it really has an overall calming smell.  I want to say I plan on trying the other scents, but I don't know if I'll be able to bring myself to.  This smells that good!

The spray in it's new home in my dining room.

The best way to describe the Fuji apple & cardamon spice scent is to say that it smells like apple cider.  Pure and simple apple cider.  The scent to me is very reminescent of (now this is an experience I didn't have before moving to Michigan) going to a cider mill and breathing deep as you (and several others) sip the fresh cider.  Each time I smell it, my mouth starts to water for a cake doughnut and I'm ready to count the days down until our first orchard visit.  It's a very "fresh" smelling scent.  You can smell the slight sourness (think Granny Smith apples) and then it's followed up by a light mulling spice smell.  Now, Mike (lover of all things apple cider) loves this scent as much as I love the pineapple (to be fair, I really like it too!) so I think we're going to have to work out a balance between them!

My overall summary of my opinion is this:

Bland bottles and diffusers = bad
Amazing scents = good
Ease of use and setup = good
Construction = good
Lasting of scents = good so far

I really suggest trying these out.  You can visit their Facebook page here for more information, reviews, and just to familiarize yourself with them more than I have for you!