Macaroni Necklaces (B)

The macaroni necklace- a childhood cliché if one ever did exist. I know why now- they are fun to make and freaking adorable! I did this last summer with HJ and again over the winter; it was a hit both times.

I used Rigatoni because of the wide opening. They also come in regular and short lengths; so it makes for a more exciting string of "beads" than if they were all uniform. You can color the pasta using alcohol, but I went with white wine vinegar. The big difference is using vinegar means they're safe for digestion; so if my sister's little Pickle joins us there's no worries. I was especially glad about my choice after the dog ate an entire necklace... 

I've read that dying the pasta in jars or Tupperware works well , but I did it in Ziploc freezer bags and everything went great. I put in just enough vinegar to cover the pasta and then added quite a few drops of liquid coloring. I have gels that I use when coloring icing (and they might have worked better), but they are not cheap, and I feel good old fashioned liquid worked fine. I smooshed the bags around to evenly distribute the coloring and then left them to stew.

You can see the noodles soaking up the color right away. I let mine sit for two hours, but that might have been too long- they started disintegrating! I used my regular pasta strainer to separate the pastas out from the liquid, then dumped it onto a baking sheet lined with paper towels. Once dry, sort and enjoy. The smelly vinegar fragrance stays with them for awhile, but it didn't transfer to us. Or was my nose too numb to notice at that point??



We strung them, while Optimus Prime supervised, onto some inexpensive yarn that I had from when I decided to learn how to crotchet (work in progress, don't ask). HJ was completely engaged and did not notice at all that this is a fine motor skill developing activity! You can see in the picture on the left above that I tied a knot around one of the small pieces at the end; this acted as an anchor to keep the pieces from sliding off the far end once strung (trial and error taught me this lesson...).

Once a necklace was done, I looped the remaining yarn through the anchor piece and tied it off.  I think I'll love that necklace forever. The first time we did this, we sent one of the extra necklaces with HJ to give to his mom, and he put the rest in his treasure chest (that's how the crazy dog got ahold of one!). The second time we saved the necklaces so he can give them to his grandmothers and his GG on Mother's Day.  



Parade Day Brunch (B)

Parade Day was a complete success this year! The weather could have been warmer, but it was still great.

I could not be happier with how well our pre-parade brunch turned out. I baked my favorite cinnamon-sugar muffins (sooo delicious, I ate one before I even put the topping on). They are from the Williams-Sonoma cookbook "Muffins." I always made them for Parade Day because of the buttermilk. Now that I bake so much it isn't uncommon for buttermilk to be in the house (I love to use it when baking my cakes), but before it wasn't that way at all. You would never find buttermilk in my fridge, except for March when I would buy it to bake soda bread. By now these muffins have firmly established themselves as a part of my tradition, and they are always a HUGE hit. I had some extra for the post-parade party and Hubby's cousin's little daughter liked them so much she asked for one for the road! If that's not a compliment, I don't know what is.

Here is the recipe:

• For muffins
• 7Tbs butter, room temp
• 2/3C sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 1/2C flour
• 1 1/2tsp baking powder
• 1/2tsp baking soda
• 1/2tsp salt
• 1/2tsp nutmeg
• 1/2C buttermilk
• 1 1/2tsp vanilla
• For topping
• 2/3C sugar
• 1Tbs cinnamon
• 6Tbs butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350.
Cream butter and sugar on medium until light and fluffy.
Add egg. Beat well until pale and smooth.
In a separate bowl stir flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and nutmeg.
Add half of the dry mixture.
Mix in buttermilk and vanilla.
Add remaining dry mixture.
Stir until everything is just moistened- batter will be slightly lumpy.

Fill greased muffin tin 3/4 of the way full.
Bake until golden, dry, and springy to the touch- 20-25 minutes. A toothpick will come out clean.

To make topping, melt butter in a small bowl. Stir sugar and cinnamon in another small bowl. Dip the top of each muffin in butter and then in the cinnamon-sugar.

These muffins are just so good. They paired perfectly with our other main brunch offering: make-your-own "egg muffins." You prep the eggs just like you would if you were going to scramble them- with a bit of milk; I would recommend at least two eggs per adult. Then you pour the egg-milk mixture into a greased muffin pan and everyone gets to add in the "fixin's" they like best! Some of our favs are chopped bacon, Taylor Ham (AKA pork roll), red/green/yellow/orange peppers, onions (not me, but every other adult in my family), grated cheddar cheese, ham... you get the idea. Oh, if you are a ham steak fan, you can have it for dinner earlier in the week and the leftovers are perfect for this- a little bit goes a long way. But you can really get creative, and (best of all) each person gets their eggs just the way they like them!

 

Once everyone has added their toppings you just pop the muffin tin in a 350 degree oven for about 20 minutes. They will puff up really big while they cook, but as the eggs cool they come down to as pictured above. I would recommend putting a toothpick in one or a chalk mark on one corner of the pan- you don't want to mix up everyone's eggs. I would be very unhappy biting into one of Hubby's onion filled eggs! 

Speaking of Hubby, he likes his with ketchup. He was just about to eat when I made him pause so I could take a picture for you all:

Sometimes I wonder why he puts up with my nonsense! Enjoy!