I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas! I’ve obviously been slacking a little bit this week on getting a blog posted, but better late than never I suppose. The Engineer and I travelled all around and had several different Christmas dinners and festivities with our families. I’m thankful that we had good weather all weekend, but I’m also glad that we finally got a nice snow right before Christmas. It wasn’t feeling very festive looking out the window at mostly dead grass….
It was my intention last week to write a last update about my holiday prepping, but I didn’t quite get it done. I did quick whip up something fun and tasty last Friday morning though….MARSHMALLOWS! I didn’t even get a picture taken of my project, and I intended to get one when I got home from our Christmas’s travels, but the marshmallows didn’t manage to make the trip back home from Nebraska! I’ve never made a candy for Christmas, but this was actually easy to accomplish. The worst part is that it’s a bit of a sugary mess, but yea know…..that’s what makes them delicious! Thanks Alton Brown for the recipe inspiration! Good science will never fail you in the kitchen!! I just made plain, vanilla flavored shmallows, but based on your projected used feel free to jazz them up with other flavors. I really don’t think you can go wrong with these at all….I’ll link the recipe below!
(Side note—-I just used my meat thermometer to cook the sugar and it worked fine, but PLEASE make sure your meat thermometer is capable of going to 240 Fahrenheit!!)
Alton Brown’s Homemade Marshmallows
While I was busy working on Christmas craft projects for gifts it occurred to me that I haven’t crafted anything fun for myself in quite awhile. That’s this week’s plan of attack. The Engineer and I both took the whole week between the holidays off so we’ve been lounging, running errands, and doing some odds and ends that we just never seem to have time to get done….including my crafts!
First up on the crafts to do list this week is a snuggle mat for my Scout-a-Roo girl! If you don’t know what a snuffle mat is, it’s basically a strategic tangle of fleece that is excellent for hiding treats. To assemble a snuffle mat for the treat hunter in your life you need 4 supplies.
- Rubber sink mat with grid holes
- About 2 yards of fleece…..doesn’t need to be exact or pretty….get the cheap stuff
- Scissors
- TIME
You’ll cut the fleece into strips and then loop them through the grid…..that’s really all there is to it! Based on the current progress I’ve made, I project using about half of the sink mat. I left my fleece folded, just like it comes off the fabric bolt, and cut approximately 1 inch strips from the fold end through both layers. I then cut each folded strip into 4 equal-ish length pieces. Precision isn’t a required trait for this. Fill the grid horizontally and then go back through and fill in the grid vertically. This will create a nice little puff mat for your pup-a-roo to dig and snort around in after crunches or other small snackies. The Engineer and I are curled up on the couch watching hunting videos….and I’m slowly working my way through my massive pile of fleece strips!!
My “Just for Me” craft this week is going to be a new scarf! I found a pattern on Knit Collage, ordered myself some expensive, fun yarns, and I’m getting ready to whip myself up something cozy to start the New Year! I’ll update you on that next week once I get it done, but I’m pretty excited about it honestly. With the recent temperature dip into the negatives around here, you simply can not go wrong with a new fluffy scarf!
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