Marble Painted Glass Ornaments

As promised a while ago, I'm finally posting this tutorial on marble painted glass ornaments. I can't say that I fully perfected it, so I may on occasion add new tips as I learn them.  This is a simple, elegant, and inexpensive ornament that can be given as a gift or used to add special decorative touches to your Christmas tree.  I received one of these as a gift a few years ago, and have always wondered how to make them.  Well, with a bit of googling, I found what I needed.  Here's how to do them.

Materials:
 - plain glass ornaments (I like buying them on the after-christmas sales because I've seen them for as much as 70% off).
 - paints of different colors. (these cheap acrylic paints seem to work just fine and are available in many different colors.
 - small cup to hold/catch  excess paint.
 - straw (optional)
 - ribbon for finishing touches

How to:

1. Remove the metal cap of the glass ornament.

2. Add a few drops of each paint within the ornament, that you want to include.  Try dropping the paint in random locations within the glass ornament.  I used 3 - 4 drops of each of the 6 paints in the picture.

2a. This is an optional step.  As an added way of spreading the paint around, you can use a straw to blow the paint around the inside of the ornament.


3. Slowly rotate the ornament to cover the inside surface of the ornament.  You may choose to occasionally let the ornament sit for a few hours before continuing to rotate and cover the inside surface.  While you rotate the ornament, you'll begin to get more of a marbling effect on the paint.  By letting the ornament sit for a few hours here and there, you get less vertical lines when you begin to drain.

4. Once the inside surface of the ornament is completely covered in paint, you are ready to drain.  Place the ornament upside down (with the opening faced down) on a small plastic cup.  The paint will slowly drain out of the ornament and into the cup.  Allow it to dry for several days, a week to be safe.  (Seriously, it takes this long for it to fully dry).

5.  Once it's fully dry, put the metal cap back onto the ornament. Tie a ribbon on with a bow, and as a hanger for the ornament.

And that's it.  Ready for your decorating or gift giving pleasure.  Sorry it took so long to post this up. At least it's ready for next year. :-)

Jalapeno Poppers

It's been a while since I've done a food entry. :-)  These jalapeno poppers are just in time for the big game.  They're easy to make, quite versatile, freezable, and very tasty.  The greatest lesson to learn when doing these poppers is to use gloves.  Seriously, use them.  Especially when making them in bulk. I made that mistake once, then rubbed my eye... man, that stung.  So, use them.

Okay, here's the recipe... give or take some of the cheese (as I didn't measure that one).

- 2 dozen jalapeno peppers, halved and cleaned.
- 1 pkg of cream cheese
- 1 - 1.5 cups of cheddar cheese (mozzarella, or a mix of such should work fine here as well).
- 4-5 slices of bacon diced and cooked
- 1/4 cup of diced parsley
- salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder by taste.
Breading:
- bread crumbs
- milk
- flour

1. Mix together the cheeses, bacon, parsley and spices.

2. Fill each jalapeno half with the cheese mixture.  Pack in the cheese mixture and make the top smooth. 

3. Bread the jalapeno poppers by first dredging them into flour, then milk, then flour, then milk, then breadcrumbs, then milk, then breadcrumbs.  Can you tell we were worried the breadcrumbs wouldn't stick to the jalapenos?  It sounds like a lot, but it works out well, with a nice layer of breadcrumbs. 

4. Once breaded, place on a cooling rack or cookie sheet, and put in the freezer. Keep them in the freezer for at least 30 minutes.

Cooking:
5.  Set the fryer to 350 degrees F.
6.  Cook a few poppers at a time for around 4 minutes.  What I learned is that you want to remove them from the oil, just when it starts sputtering like crazy -- that means the cheese is hitting the oil.  The sputtering will only get worse as more cheese hits the oil.

That's it.  Just wait a minute or so to cool off the poppers.  Hot cheese really burns your tongue.  Enjoy.

Easy Crocheted Charity Blanket

Late last year, I heard of a charity, called Project Night Night, thru a twitter post from a fellow crafter.  This charity put together totes of security blankets, books, and stuffed animals to be given to kids that had the misfortune of living in shelters or orphanages.  I loved the idea of giving kids a little something to hang on to.  So, I decided to make a blanket to donate it to such a worthy cause.  This blanket is a very simple design of double crochets. 10 rows of dc for each colored section.  I think it could have used another colored section, but I ran out of yarn. :(  I finished it up with a simgle crochet all the way around. I didn't get to make a tutorial on this, but I thought I'd share the blanket anyway as well as spread the word about the charity. 

If you want to help out, but do not crochet, you can sponsor a package, or even donate giftcards that have only a few bucks left.