Citrustrip–Arcade Machine

Hubster recently purchased a very rough, very used arcade machine.  You know, the kind that is in a big cabinet that stands in the corner of the laundromat and usually stars one of the Pac Man family members.  It’s been a dream of his for the last few years to create what is called a MAME Machine (Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator).  He found this beat up machine on Craigslist for only $75 and brought it home.  I was a little chagrined at the idea because that’s a lot of money.  Evidently there were ‘boards’ in it that he was able to sell and make back quite a bit of the money spent so he was forgiven.  A man needs a hobby right?

The previous owner had, sadly, painted over the entire cabinet thus covering any of the original and therefore ‘vintage’ decals.  Very sad indeed.  He’s a big nerd and of course did much research about how best to remove this offensive paint.  He came across a product called Citrustrip.  It doesn’t have the scary toxic fumes you think of when it comes to removing paint effectively.  It actually made the workshop/ garage smell a bit nicer than usual.

Here are few photos of the process. 

Just spread the product on.  Let sit and then scrape it off.  Really easy!  Turns out there was an old school “Centipede” game underneath!  The decal was a bit too torn up to salvage so it was scraped off also.  The whole cabinet is now down to the naked wood layer. Hubster is in the works creating a decal of his own.  This will be an ongoing project so keep checking back every Tuesday for updates!

What is YOUR favorite household product?

~Lisa

Entertainment Organized

Hubster and I recently purchased a new TV.  Its huge and flat and just really looks futuristic.  We originally bought the 'wall mount' kit from Best Buy for way to much money.  Hubster found the same thing on Amazon so we immediately returned it and waited patiently for our package to arrive from Amazon.  

In order to keep the wires hidden from sight you simply drill a hole in the wall, run the wires down behind the wall and pull them out at the bottom close to the outlet.  We have a Wii, a Roku, a laptop and a stereo receiver all attached to the TV so we just ran those same wires up behind the wall and attached them to the TV.  Pretty neat huh?

Like something from "Back To The Future"

All of these things require power.  So for only about $20 we purchased a long 'power strip' that attaches to the wall.  We can plug in everything and it all stays very neat and tidy.  Eventually there will be labels so we know what is what.

Power strip attached to wall behind TV stand. 

What's YOUR favorite way to keep organized?

Scentsy Trick

Hubster used to spend a lot of money on scented candles.  I think part of it was because he grew up with 5 sisters and new that ladies like a pretty smelling house when the come over. (I DID marry him so he was doing something right!)

My mother in law gave me a Scentsy burner and a brick of delicious smelling vanilla.  I would use it for special occasions and never really thought much about it.  That is until my sister started selling Scentsy.  I did the research...and it turns out that having the small outlet plug in Scentsy burners in different rooms in the house was actually cheaper and SAFER than having scented candles, especially since Hubster liked the pretty spendy ones.  IF you've ever left a scented candle burning for a while you realize you just spent $8 to perfume one room for one day.  Not cool in my checkbook, not cool at all.

I figured that if I bought 5 bricks of different scents from my sister I could have different smells for different rooms and different occasions.  Hubster likes them so much that he'll actually call the command to "Scentsy this place up!" before we have guests.  It's also just a nice way for a stay at home mom to feel like her home is as pretty as it can be.  Don't get me wrong.  I am certainly no Martha Stewart (did you SEE my muffin debacle?) but there is just something about yummy spring smells during the spring or delicious baking smells during the winter to really boost your spirits.

I'm not trying to sell you Scentsy at all.  I actually only buy the bricks from my sister but the burners from Wally world (yuck..) but this is for all the Scentsy users out there who may not have heard of this trick.

So let's say that you have a lovely floral scent in your living room but you're looking for a change and the wax hasn't quite run out of smell.  OR it may have run out of smell and you just want it gone.  There are a ton of ways you get the still warm wax out that require possibly burning yourself or spilling wax on your precious new laptop.  *Perish the thought!*

I'm a woman who likes change.  I thrive on it.  I use a different spot for my 'writing' all the time because I feel like it's inspiring.  No....my 'mom office' is still a work in progress and is NOT inspiring, but more on that later right?  I like to change my scents pretty often and don't want to throw out a perfectly good wax blob of goodness.

Get to the point already right?!  Here is the simple answer.  Put your burner with the cool/solid wax still in it, in the freezer.  Leave it there for at least 10 minutes or so.  When you open your freezer this is what you will most likely see.  Pretty awesome huh?

Scentsy wax removed.  Easy!

I have a small glass jar under the sink that I put all of my almost used waxlets.  Yes, waxlets, I just made that up but it seems fitting right?  I'm on a roll today, must be the "Enliven" scent I had in my writing nook for a bit.  The Kidster's room is usually "White Tea and Cactus" and Little Man's room is usually "Serene Green".  Something about the green smells that really help with the... "brown" smells.

What is YOUR favorite room scent?

Baby Friendly Muffins

The mini muffin tin.  It makes stay at home moms do weird things.  The mini omelets were a complete success and I've made them a few more times since.  They've actually become a staple on Monday's for the kids breakfasts for the week.  

I figured I would try my hand at actual muffins.  Did you know that muffins are actually NOTHING like cookies?  I feel like I've mastered the cookie skill and it is now a joy to bake them.  But muffins, oh muffins, they are my nemesis.  I will win this battle and and be VICTORIOUS! [Cue Queen "We Are The Champions"]

I started with the easiest recipe I could find: Basic Muffin Recipe 

I'm sure they would have turned out just fine but I made a few adjustments...ok, I made a LOT of adjustments.

These were the Basic Muffin Recipe ingredients and my not so little 'adjustments':

• 2 cups all-purpose flour, or 2¼ cups pastry flour, sifted
• 1 cup baby rice cereal, 1/2 cup baby oatmeal, 1/2 cup flour
• ½ cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup pureed banana
• 1 Tbsp baking powder
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 cup whole milk
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1 large egg (or 2 medium)
• 4 Tbsp butter (½ stick) or shortening
• 2 Tbsp full fat yogurt, 2 Tbsp unsweetened applesauce 

I followed the instructions and there were a few things that I noticed were 'off' right away.  The batter didn't really 'pour' it was more like cookie batter.  So I just spooned it into the pan and hoped. 

The mini 'baby' muffins turned out ok.  They didn't taste that great to grown up but the kids seemed to really enjoy them.  I brought them to a play date and the kids ate them up!  

"Wet" ingredients

"Dry" ingredients

Sprayed the pan with Pam and then sprinkled with flour

Shook the pan around to disperse the flour

Muffin 'batter'... spooned into the pan

And cute little muffins baked up just right!

I had some extra batter leftover so I pureed some yogurt and strawberries and added them to the batter. I figured these might be more tasty for the adults..

NOT a good idea..

They kind of NEVER really got cooked all the way through. 

The strawberry option was a bad idea.  They never really cooked all the way through and they tasted terrible.  One of the few times I've made something that Hubster even agreed was terrible.

In conclusion this 'experiment' was a little too far of a jump ahead of my skill level.  Next time I'll actually stick to the 'basic' muffin recipe.  Of course I'll be using Emily Bennett's idea to make a crumble topping with granola.  Mmmmmm granola!

What is YOUR favorite muffin?

Surprising Hubster

I love love love to wrap his gifts so that he has no idea what he's getting.  He's been wanting a new video game for his Nintendo DS.  He was talking about it all the time like a little kid.  It was really cute. So I bought it for him.  But those games come in boxes that are super obvious. I didn't want him to know he was getting this fancy pants game, not right away at least.

Ferrero Roche was my ticket to sneaky land!  It was so much fun doing this I gave him the gift early so I could see his face!

Mmmmmmm Variety pack chocolates!

I printed the photo of the chocolates. Here is the game, and the now empty box. 

Cut the photo to the size of the box.  MS Word helped a bit with the sizing.
I wrapped the game in black tissue paper. 

You can't tell from first glance that those are NOT the chocolates you are looking for!

Muwahahahah! Empty box of Chocolates!  Take that Forrest!

Slide the game in.  I had to smoosh a toilet paper roll to make it more secure. 

He was pretty sad that all he got for Valentine's Day was a box of chocolates.  Delicious as they are.  Then he turned it on it's side and saw that there were NO chocolates to be had!  He was really happy about the game and even though he didn't really say it, I know he was impressed with my sneaky wrapping tactic!  I was pretty proud of myself, that's for sure!

What's YOUR favorite to 'present' a present?

Granola Cookies

I had a play date recently that requested the mom's bring a 'snack'.  I, naturally, brought cookies.  I had a bag of Open Nature Chocolate Hazelnut granola in the pantry that really didn't mesh well with 'dieting'.  So I figured I'd make it into cookies and give them away!

Somehow I forgot to take pictures during the process but they are pretty simple.  Make cookie batter, add granola.  Done. The original recipe is here: Granola Cookies  It's from About.com which is an underrated website in my opinion, much like Instructables.

These are actually the batch of slightly overcooked cookies that I sent to work with Hubster.  They are really tasty but a 'heaping teaspoonful' of batter make a cookie that is close to 56 calories.  Not exactly a 'keep on hand for snacking' item.  Lots of good stuff in granola though!  Kidster loved them of course and they were a hit at the play group!

A little overbaked but delicious!

What is YOUR favorite use for granola?

Homemade "Goldfish" Crackers

The convenience of buying a bag of Pepperidge Farm Goldfish crackers for the little ones to snack is a wonderful thing. But when you look at the label they have nonfat milk and vegetable oil. They are also really high in sodium. I'm not going on a rant here about why all of that is bad.  I just know that my Kidster is skinny and needs good fat! 

So rather than buy something that has doesn't have good fats and also has some other stuff that I'm not clear about I figured I would try to make my own!  Another mom friend of mine posted this recipe after she had tried it so I figured it would be pretty easy.  I was right!  (Aren't I always?)

Here is the recipe for "Homemade Goldfish Crackers"

You will need a food processor for this.  If you don't have one I would borrow one from a friend who probably hasn't used theirs since the 90's.

Just shredded cheese (FULL fat!), butter, flour and a little salt!

Pulse until a 'sandy texture'. 

Add 1T, pulse.  Then 1T pulse. 

I totally forgot to take a picture of the lovely little doughball wrapped in plastic.  I did however hold it in front of Hubsters face and say, "It's a goldfish bowl!" ...  He was not amused. Be sure to chill the ball for 20 minutes.  It makes it a lot easier to work with.  Don't forget about it though or it will be too hard! (I did that with cookies on Christmas Eve and it was a mess!)

My local Randall's/Safeway had a cute kids baking set with a mini cookie sheet, mini rolling pin and about 8 different types of mini cookie cutters.  Kind of weird that they had the symbols from a deck of cards, but I'm not going to be picky, especially when there are hearts!  It was originally $13 but I've been keeping my eye on it and the night I was going to make these they were on sale for $7!  Woohoo! If you don't have any mini cookie cutters I'm sure you could use a pizza cutter and just make squares. 

I noticed that the thinner the dough the crispier the cracker.  Of course at the end I have a small bit that I just rolled into a rope and smooshed.  That was the mommy and daddy cracker. It was bit more biscuit-y in the middle but delicious!

Fun shapes!

These were a bit over cooked but still delicious!

So much fun to make!  And soooo good!

I was lucky to keep enough aside to mail out!  Hubster ate more than his fair share and the whole batch of about 130 crackers was gone in less than two days.  Next time I'll have to make them when he isn't home so the Kidster can have more!  I might make them with half flour and half baby rice cereal to add in more vitamins and minerals.  These will be a fun baking project with her when she gets older, who doesn't like to roll out dough and cut it into pretty shapes?  I might even add some paprika or other seasonings next time. 

What is you favorite flavor Goldfish cracker?