Projects #34-36: Pinteresting Hanukkah Food

Whoa, am I late with this one! Hanukkah was ages ago, and I'm only posting about yummy Hanukkah foods now? There's really no excuse for that, huh?

I suppose it's lucky that Hanukkah food is delicious all year round, right? Would you turn down a latke in August? No. No, you would not. Nobody would, because latkes are delicious. Actually, fried foods in general are delicious. The excuse to shamelessly stuff my face with fried tastiness is the reason Hanukkah is my second favorite holiday (behind Purim, because Purim is awesome).

This year we made two kinds of latkes and a delicious dessert fritter. Let's start with the classic potato latkes, shall we?

If you've never made latkes, it's really very simple. First you shred a buttload of potatoes (I got myself a fancy new food processor in a Black Friday sale just for this!) and squeeze them in a cloth to get them as dry as you possibly can. Then you mince an onion and mix it into the potatoes, along with an egg, some flour, and salt & pepper. Form the potato mixture into thin cakes and fry in oil. Enjoy!

Not a photogenic food, but I'll stab you with a fork if you try to take them away from me!

Supply List:

-Potatoes $3.99 Peapod

-Onion $1.50 Peapod

-Egg (already had)

-Flour (already had)

-Oil (already had)

-Salt & Pepper (already had)

Total: $5.49

Next up: Carrot-Apple Latkes!

These are a little more complicated than the potatoes latkes. After grating the apple and carrots, you thinly slice the onion and mix them all together with a little lemon juice. Then you mix in garlic, two beaten eggs, some cinnamon and ginger, salt & pepper, and flour. Then you are supposed to fry them in the oil into latke-like cakes. Ours... didn't turn out so great. It was more like a hash, really. Still delicious, though! The kids absolutely loved it.

This was the only one that came out remotely latkesque. 

Supply List:

-Carrots $1.29 Peapod

-Apple $.79 Peapod

-Onion $1.50 Peapod

-Lemon juice (already had)

-Eggs (already had)

-Flour (already had)

-Cinnamon (already had)

-Ginger (already had)

-Salt & Pepper (already had)

-Oil (already had)

Total: $3.58

And finally: Fritters!

These are a cinch to whip up. Just mix flour, eggs, milk, baking powder, and a little salt. Dollop them by the spoonful into hot oil, and top with something sweet. The original pin called for chocolate sauce, but since I was making these as a pre-bedtime dessert for two small children I decided confectioner's sugar would be enough of a mess and skipped the sauce. They were fantastic even without being drenched in chocolate.

They look like tiny battered octopi.

Supply List:

-Flour (already had)

-Eggs (already had)

-Milk (already had)

-Baking Powder (already had)

-Salt (already had)

-Oil (already had)

-Confectioner's Sugar (already had)

Total: $0

Project #33: Drunken Gummy Bears

Lawgirl's husband is a pretty great guy. He's mostly a stay-at-home dad (a job he rocks at, btw), but he's also a part-time bartender. He rocks at that job, too. The man knows his booze.

Actually, The Engineer's family as a whole drinks a lot more than I was used to before I became one of them. My family doesn't seem to drink much when they get together, except at the big Christmas Eve party. The Engineer's parents' house is always well-stocked with beer and wine and in the summer there's usually something tasty happening in my mother-in-law's blender. Maybe it has something to do with living on a lake. Maybe it's a New Hampshire thing. I couldn't begin to guess, but it tends to make for a good time.

Anyway, long story short, Lawgirl marrying a bartender was a brilliant idea. He is often enlisted as the official drink-mixer, a task he takes on cheerfully. To repay him for his years of service, I decided to make these Drunken Gummy Bears to go along with his adult sleep sack.

Making these is as simple as pouring vodka over gummy bears. Actually, that's pretty much it. Pour some gummy bears into a dish, drench them with as much vodka as you like, cover tightly, and stick them in the fridge for a couple of days. The bears soak up all the vodka and swell into sticky, boozey piles of awesome. Scoop them into an airtight container and give them to alcohol lover in your life. 

He loved them!

Supply List

-Vodka (already had)

-Gummy bears $7.59 Target

Total: $7.59

Projects #28-32: Bathtime Pampering Baskets

There are two women in my life who I can confidently say are way too overworked. One is my sister-in-law. Not Ski Bunny. This one's a lawyer. Yeah, that's right. My sisters-in-law are a doctor and a lawyer. And I'm a housewife. What inferiority complex?

Anyway, Lawgirl (like Batgirl, or Supergirl, get it?) is the main income-earner for her family. She has a baby girl who turns 1 in a couple of weeks and she's due in April with baby #2. They've just bought a house and are in the process of moving in. Oh, and she's  leaving her job in an established office and striking out on her own. That's not stressful at all, right?

The second totally overworked woman is my amazing step-mom, who works full-time, takes care of her home and her two sullen teenaged sons, and deals with my father (which qualifies her for sainthood, I'm pretty sure). She's also the best grandma my girls could ask for, and I am eternally grateful to her for that.

When it was time to come up with Generic Winter Holiday gifts for these ladies, all I could think of was something to help them relax for a brief moment in time. So I put together these Bathtime Pampering Baskets and I think they turned out pretty great.

I knew I wanted to make a scented candle, and I wanted it to be cute. So I combined two pins to make something awesome. First I made some candles in tiny mason jars:

It turns out, candle-making is surprisingly easy! All you have to do is stick a wick into the jar, melt together some wax flakes and a bit of scent, let it cool a little, then pour it into the jars and let it harden. It was actually really fun and I'm totally taking up candle-making as a proper hobby.

Supply List:

-Wax flakes $9.99 Amazon

-Scent cubes $2.99 Michael's

-Wicks $5.42 Amazon

-Mason jars $9.99 Amazon

Total: $28.39

After the candles were done, I followed a tutorial to make them look like cupcakes!

All you have to do is hot glue a mason jar lid to the ring so it's all one piece, then squirt some caulk onto the top in a swirl to make it look like cupcake frosting. I added some sequins for fabulousness. 

Supply List:

-Hot glue and gun (already had)

-Caulk $1.67 Home Depot

-Caulk gun $5.97 Home depot

-Sequins $.79 Jo-Ann Fabrics

Total: $8.43

Next I whipped up a quick sugar scrub:

You just mix together sugar and olive oil until you get a wet, scrubby consistency. Then you add a few drops of essential oil (I used lavender, to promote relaxation), and a drop or two of food coloring to mask the fairly gross color of the scrub itself. Then you pour it into a jar and slap a label on it. Easy!

Supply List:

-Olive Oil (already had)

-Sugar (already had)

-Food coloring (already had)

-Lavender essential oil $13.99 Whole Foods

Total: $13.99

Next I made some bath melts so they could have a little soak and come out with silky soft skin:

This was actually pretty tedious! You have to grate cocoa butter and shea butter into little flakes, then melt them together. It's harder than it sounds, really! After you've melted them, you pour them into pretty molds (or an icecube tray if you don't have such things {I don't. Icecube tray all the way!}) and drip a drop of essential oil (I used lavender again) into each one. The recipe called for actual herbs as well, but that just seemed like a messy tub in the making so I skipped them. Next you pop them in the fridge to harden. When they've solodified, pop them out (carefully!!) and put them in a pretty bag or jar or whatever container you have on hand. 

Supply List:

-Shea butter $15.99 Whole Foods

-Cocoa butter $7.49 Whole Foods

-Lavender essential oil (already had)

Total: $23.48

And finally, something to keep them warm after their nice relaxing bath. These rice bag heating pads are extremely easy and quick to make, and work fabulously well.

There's not much to say about these. Just make a little pillow out of pretty fabric and fill it about halfway with rice. When you want to use it, pop it in the microwave for about a minute and enjoy!

Supply List:

-Fabric $2.80 Jo-Ann Fabric

-Rice (already had)

-Thread (already had)

Total: $2.80

I packed all the goodies up in a couple of cute baskets and added a small box of chocolates and a magazine to each. I sincerely hope Lawgirl and my step-mom each took a little time to relax and enjoy them.

The heating pads are tucked into the bottom.

Project #27: Adult Sleepsack

I'm back! Did you miss me? I missed you, and I've been dying to show you this particularly cool project The Engineer and I did last month.

If you have a baby or have been around a baby, you might have noticed that they get all the best stuff. Seriously, walk through a Babirs R Us sometime and try not to get jealous. Can't be done. Baby stuff is fantastic. Some company needs to start making baby stuff sized for adult use. They'd make billions the first week alone.

One of the more ingenious baby items out there is the sleepsack. You see, tiny humans are really bad at staying alive. Something as innocuous as a blanket can do them in. A really young baby can't pull a blanket off of it's face if it's suffocating, and can even manage to strangle themselves if they twist themselves up in one badly enough. The sleepsack was created to remedy this fairly serious evolutionary flaw and allow parents to keep their babies warm without the fear of blankety doom.

The sleepsack is, basically, exactly what it sounds like. It's a blanket, formed into a sack. No matter how much baby twists and turns, the blanket can't be thrown off, pulled up to cover baby's face, or twisted around their neck. It is the ultimate blanket, and it's wasted on squishy little creatures who can't fully appreciate it.

The Engineer's sister and her husband had their first baby a couple of months before Morbo was born. The new daddy immediately realized the brilliance of the sleepsack and mentioned on his blog that he wished they came in adult sizes. Thus, a scheme was hatched and a certain new daddy got possibly the coolest Generic Winter Holiday gift ever.

Six.Yards.Of.Fabric.

There's not much to say about technique here. Basically, just follow a tutorial for making an infant sleepsack, but scale it up, a lot, to fit an adult. We used velcro for the closure instead of a zipper, mostly just because the velcro was cheaper.

And does our brother-in-law like his gift? Oh yes.

Yes, he does indeed.

Supply List:

-Fleece (6 yards) $32.94 Jo-Ann Fabrics

-Velcro $3.99 Jo-Ann Fabrics

-Thread (already had)

Total: $36.93

Technical Difficulties!

Where have I been?!

Visiting family out of town, nursing myself and the kids back from some sort of plague, and now suffering from some technical issues. Forgive me! I'll be back soon. Probably tomorrow. I have lots of great stuff to show you!

Project #23-26: Pinteresting Thanksgiving

Well, it's partway into Hanukkah and I still haven't told you about Thanksgiving. Clearly, that will not do. So I'm going to throw it all at you at once. Like a food fight. Only cleaner.

First up, Portabello Wellingtons! Thanksgiving is tricky in a Kosher home, because we can't have any dairy in the meal if we have a turkey. Any dairy. No butter. No cream. No cheese. I can't imagine a turkey so delicious it is worth forgoing butter and cheese in a holiday meal. So, I was on the search for an exciting vegetarian alternative. These mushroom and cheese filled puff pastry pockets certainly fit the bill.

To make these wellingtons, a lightly seasoned and sauteed mixture of chopped mushrooms, shallots, spinach, and garlic is mixed with shredded cheese and stuffed into a roasted portobello cap. Then the stuffed mushroom is wrapped in puff pastry and baked. 

These were pretty good. The puff pastry was the least good part. I really think these would have been better without the pastry at all. The filling was savory and delicious, but not strongly-flavored enough to stand up to all that pastry. Next time, I'll just make stuffed portabello caps. 

Supply List:

-Portabello Mushrooms $3.49 Whole Foods

-White mushrooms $1.99 Whole Foods

-Spinach $3.99 Whole Foods

-Gruyere $15.32 Whole Foods

-Shallots $2.99 Stop & Shop

-Puff Pastry $6.59 Stop & Shop

-Garlic (already had)

-Olive oil (already had)

-Red pepper flakes (already had)

Total: $34.37

Next up: Chipotle mashed sweet potatoes!

This was the simplest dish I made all day, which of course means I screwed it up. All you have to do is cook some sweet potatoes (I microwaved mine), mash with a little butter and salt, then add a tablespoon of adobo sauce. See? Simple.

Well, when I tasted them I didn't taste any adobo at all and threw in another spoonful before I'd so much as swallowed. Did you know adobo really creeps up on you? By the time I felt the burn I'd already mixed the second spoonful in. These were so spicy we could barely eat them. Oops. 

Supply List:

-Sweet potatoes $1.98 Stop & Shop

-Chipotles in adobo sauce $1.99 Stop & Shop

-Butter (already had)

-Salt (already had)

Total: $3.97

Are you ready for this? Potato & leek gratin!

I love leeks. I love potatoes. I love cheese. This was destined to be a winner right from the start. It was easy, too. First you chop some leeks and sautee them in butter until they get all translucent and irresistible. Then you layer thinly sliced potatoes in a casserole dish, cover them with the leeks, then some grated cheese, then more potatoes, more leeks, etc. When all the layers are in, you pour a mixture of cream and vegetable broth over the top and bake it until the potatoes are cooked and it's all bubbly and amazing. 

It's not pretty, it goes straight to your hips, and it was a little runny, but boy oh boy was this delicious. Bean absolutely loved this and ate, easily, half of the casserole all on her own. For a tiny girl she can hold a shocking amount of potato and cheese. 

Supply List:

-Potatoes $3.38 Whole Foods

-Leeks $0.96 Whole Foods

-Cream $4.19 Whole Foods

-Gruyere (already had)

-Butter (already had)

-Vegetable broth (already had)

Total: $8.53

Okay, hold onto your hats. I saved the best for last. French onion soup casserole! Yeah, you heard me.

Nobody likes slicing onions, and for this dish you have to slice a lot of them. But, it is absolutely worth it. Slicing the onions is the only real effort required. Once they are sliced, you just throw them in a pan with some butter and let them cook until your house smells amazing, then throw them in a dish with a sauce made of cream of mushroom soup, milk, and a little soy sauce (Yes, soy sauce. I thought it was weird, too, but go with it.) Then you mix in oodles of grated cheese, top with slices of French bread, sprinkle on more cheese, and bake. 

Oh my goodness... just look at it...

I don't have the words to adequately describe this dish. It's amazing. Fantastic. Delicious. Fucking brilliant. Who knew?

Supply List:

-Onions $3.99 Whole Foods

-Cream of Mushroom $2.00 Whole Foods

-French bread $1.99 Stop & Shop

-Butter (already had)

-Milk (already had)

-Soy Sauce (already had)

-Gruyere (already had)

Total: $7.98

Project #22: Button Letter

The Engineer and I are trend-setters of sorts. We got married. A few months later, his sister got married. A year later? His brother got married.

We had Bean. A year and half later his sister had a baby, a precious little girl. Then we had Morbo, and a few months later his brother had a baby boy! Well, his brother's wife did, anyway. And now? His sister's pregnant, and the baby boy is due shortly after Morbo's first birthday.

So, to recap, my in-laws went from having three single kids and no grandchildren, to all three kids married and 5 (4 already born, 1 pending) grandkids in about 3 years.

It's been a whirlwind, let me tell you.

My last entry was about Ski Bunny and the gift I made her. Today's is about her son, my favorite nephew (until the next one's born in April, that is!), Ski Baby! People, I adore this kid. Seriously. The first time I met him, I wouldn't put him down. I carried him around in my arms and picked a booger from his little nose with my bare fingers. Do you understand the level of love I'm talking about? I picked the kid's nose. That is a LOT of love.

He is still itty bitty, so I was at a bit of a loss over what to give him for a holiday gift. Especially because it had to be small enough to cram into a suitcase for the Ski Bums to take back home with them. In the end, The Engineer and I each made something. The Engineer spent some quality time with my sewing machine and made a simple little teddy bear with a wooden teething ring attached to his abdomen, and I sacrificed a frightening amount of finger skin to make this button letter for his bedroom wall.

Look! A hasty shot of an already-started project and a floor that needs vacuuming!

This is one of those projects that is really too simple to even need instructions. Unless you are me, in which case you need extremely detailed instructions and a step-by-step video tutorial. *sigh*

Ski Bunny's real name starts with a D, so all I had to do was glue some buttons to a wooden D and call it a day, right? Wrong! Is it ever really that simple?

I tried:

-Spray adhesive

-Hot glue

-Elmer's glue stick

 to no avail. The damn buttons would.not.stick. Eventually I dug out the Superglue and that did the trick. The only problem was that the buttons had to be held firmly to the wood while the glue dried, and the glue seeped up through the holes in the buttons and stuck to my skin. So, every button required gluing my fingers to it, then ripping them off once the glue had dried. 

Happy Holidays, Ski Bunny. Enjoy your button-and-finger-skin letter. Aunt Kristina loves you!

The Engineer was a reluctant hand model.

Supply List:

-Wooden Letter $3.99 Michael's

-Superglue (already had)

-Buttons (3 bags, assorted) $17.97 Jo-Ann's

Total: $21.96

Project #21: Washer Necklace

The Engineer's brother abandoned the East coast shortly after college in order to move to Colorado and become a professional Ski Bum. It was there that he met Ski Bunny. They married and produced an adorable Ski Baby in short order, making me one deliriously happy sister-in-law and aunt!

Ski Bunny has the kind of personality that is impossible to resist. I was completely smitten within minutes of meeting her for the first time, and every time I've seen her since has only placed me more firmly in the Ski Bunny Totally Rocks zone. Not only is she incredibly friendly and just generally cool, she's freaking gorgeous and a doctor to boot. We're lucky she uses her powers for good, not evil.

So all that's super fantastic, right? Well, there is one Big Sad Thing. See, The Ski Bums still live in Colorado. And we live in New York. And... I am petrified of flying. So I only get to hang out with Ski Bunny once or twice a year, when they come to visit all the East coast family. Sad, sad, sad. :-(

So why am I going on about how cool Ski Bunny is? Because otherwise you will not understand the sheer determination infused in today's project.

The Ski Bums came to visit the weekend after Thanksgiving, which meant I had to have their Generic Winter Holiday gifts ready by then. I, of course, did not realize this until the weekend before Thanksgiving. I had to run around like a manic squirrel to gather supplies, then add "make presents" to my already extensive list of Thanksgiving preparations. Ski Bum's and Ski Baby's gifts were relatively easy, but Ski Bunny's...

Not pictured: Superglue. Oops.

When I pinned this cute Washer Necklace, I didn't realize it linked to an Etsy shop rather than a tutorial. Still, I liked it and I thought it was a good idea for Ski Bunny. So I guessed at what I would need to do and resolved to try my best. 

My first snag came with cutting out a disk of scrapbook paper to cover the washer. Cutting out a circle was easy. I just traced around the washer and cut it out. But that left the hole in the middle, and my scissors weren't exactly nimble enough to easily do that part. A scalpel or something would have been better. But, the scissors were all I had, so I did my best. 

Next I had to affix the paper to the washer. I tried some spray adhesive and it seemed to work well. Hurray! I then applied a few thick coats of Mod Podge, followed by Mod Podge sealing spray. Then I noticed the edges were sort of rough. I took some very fine sandpaper and gave a gentle rub to one edge. That's when the Mod Podge-covered scrapbook paper flew off the washer and I immediately broke down into tears. I was thisclose to saying some colorful words, throwing everything away, and forgetting about it all entirely, but this was for Ski Bunny! How could I quit?

I should note that this was the first time I had ever used Mod Podge and I found it extremely difficult to work with. This first try had taken me three days, a lot of cursing, and one full-blown temper tantrum. Oh, and it was the day before Thanksgiving so I had precious little time to spend on a second attempt. 

Round Two went much better. My scissors failed me and the center circle was rough and uneven, but I counted on the face that nobody was going to inspect it too closely and let it slide. I used superglue this time and it worked much better than the spray adhesive. Since I'd already figured out the Mod Podge deal, I was able to get the necessary number of coats done and the sealant sprayed on over the course of a couple of hours. And this time when I sanded the edges, it all stayed intact. 

Then it was simply a matter of playing Goldilocks with suede cord trying to find just the right length. The first one seemed perfect, but after it was tied it wouldn't fit over my head. The second one was far too long. The third was somehow too short again. In the end I went with too long and figured she could adjust it herself. 

Cute? I think so.

Even taking into account some of the more horrific failures I've had since starting my challenge, this was the most frustrating project I've done. I know it sounds simple, but I ran into it blind with no idea of the proper technique and completely unfamiliar with the materials. I'm not a crafty person. I was totally unprepared for this. But! I did it! And Ski Bunny seemed to like it and in the end that's all that matters. 

Supply List:

Flat Washers $0.94 Home Depot

Superglue $1.00 Walgreens

Scrapbook Paper (already had)

Mod Podge $4.99 Jo-Ann Fabrics

Clear Acrylic Sealant $5.99 Michaeil's

Suede Cord $6.99 Michael's

Total: $19.91

Project #20: Black Magic Cake

At 8:08pm on December 4th, 2010, I smooshed a whole person out of my body. Today she is two years old. Happy birthday, Bean!

We had a very fun day. We went to get her picture taken this morning, which started out disastrous (think screams of terror) and ended up wonderful (giggles!). Then we went to Build-A-Bear where she picked out a monkey. She insisted on stuffing two hearts into his chest, so we declared him a Time Lord and named him The Doctor. She dressed him in jeans and a comic book t-shirt (The Engineer is bursting with pride) and has been lovingly carrying him around all day. Score one for Build-A-Bear!

We had a quick lunch, then off to a big indoor play place so she could run around and be crazy for a while. She met another little two year old girl and they had a great time together. She picked out a toy with her birthday money from a relative, then home to eat pizza for dinner and field phone and Skype calls from adoring relatives. All in all, a pretty great birthday for a two year old, don't you think?

Except for the absence of cake. Yeah. No cake. We did that over the weekend while my parents were visiting instead. It was a joint cake for Bean's and my dad's birthdays and they are both of the mind that it's just not dessert unless it's chocolate. So when I saw this cake I knew it would be perfect.

Not pictured: Coffee, planning ahead

The recipe is pretty simple. Just measure, mix, and pour into a cake pan. Does that mean it went off without a hitch? Nope! This is me we're talking about, remember? I baked this cake at 2am and didn't realize until I'd already started that, oops, I need to add 1 cup of strong black coffee. So just make some coffee, right? Nope! We don't have any coffee in the house because we don't drink it. Yeah, that's right, I have two small children and I am dangerously under-caffeinated. Luckily we have a 24 hour Dunkin' Donuts about a block from the house, so The Engineer was forced under extreme duress kindly consented to make the short walk and saved the cake from my ineptitude. Yaay for The Engineer!

I don't actually have round cake pans, so I went ahead and did the lazy single-layer sheet cake thing. I topped it with a quick ganache and 4 packs of trick candles, which filled the entire house with smoke. The cakes was good. Quick, easy, tasty, not too sweet. Definitely a keeper. If you need a quick birthday cake and are clever enough to have coffee in the house, this is a good choice. 

Supply List:

-Flour (already had)

-Sugar (already had)

-Baking Soda (already had)

-Baking Powder (already had)

-Eggs (already had)

-Vanilla (already had)

-Salt (already had)

-Vegetable Oil (already had)

-Cocoa Powder (already had)

-Buttermilk $2.59 Peapod

-Coffee $1.89 Dunkin' Donuts

Total: $4.48

Project #19: Strawberry Angel Food Cake

Where the hell have I been?

It's been ages. I'm so ashamed. I didn't forget you, I swear. I've just been really busy. Doing what? Cooking. Thanksgiving, you know. And crafting. I made a few Generic Winter Holiday gifts. There have also been lots of birthdays; both my in-laws, my dad, and my absolutely delicious, brand-spankin'-new cousin. We've done some traveling, to see family. And I've been sick (still am...) because my adorable little niece is just too snugly and I couldn't restrain myself from cuddling right up to her sweet, snot-covered face.

I know, I know. None of that excuses my absolute negligence. I have no hope at all of catching up if I keep abandoning my quest like this. The good news is, I have oodles to write about. Really! I have 20 projects to write up for you. I just have to, you know, hide from my family long enough to do it.

Let's get started, shall we?

Now, you might remember The Engineer's insatiable lust for lemon desserts. You might also recall that my last attempt to satisfy that lust failed. Miserable. Well, ever the optimist, I didn't let that deter me. I sought out another lemon bar recipe, certain that this time I would see success. I mean, it has two ingredients. How can anyone screw that up?

Turns out, easily. First of all, lemon pie filling does.not.exist. I mean, I swear I've seen it before. And other people have made these lemon bars so it must be out there somewhere, but I could not find it. I checked four grocery stores, two grocery delivery services, and the Internet. The only place I could find it was Amazon, and only if I wanted to buy a crate of the stuff. No thank you.

So I gave up on the lemon and decided to try it with strawberry. Big mistake. The instructions said to mix a box of angel food cake mix with a can of pie filling. It was supposed to get "frothy" as it was stirred. Mine didn't froth. It sort of... swelled. It became this horrifying sticky, pink blob that threatened to overflow my giant mixing bowl and devour me. I had to practically beat it into a pan.

Ew.

Yeah, yeah, but how did it taste? Horrible, that's how. I don't know if I under-cooked it or if the strawberry is too chemically different from the lemon or if I just offended the kitchen gnomes and they wanted to punish me. All I know is, this was the most revolting mess I've ever pulled from my oven. It was sticky, gooey and gritty, cloyingly sweet, and the most unappetizing color I've ever seen. It also kept... moving. I guess it was just slowly collapsing on itself, but it sure looked like it was breathing. I was tempted to burn it, just to cover all my bases, but throwing it in the trash seems to have done the trick. In any case, it hasn't come creeping back to exact it's revenge. Yet.

Supply List:
-Angel Food Cake Mix $1.78 Stop N Shop
-Lemon Strawberry Pie Filling $1.00 Stop N Shop

Total: $2.78