Weekend adventure!

There were two projects this weekend of very different tastes... er, at least... hobbies we'll say.

On Saturday, curiosity (how come that looks spelled wrong?) brought me up to my mom's where my dad had told me via text that she was going to be making "edible grass." How could one not come running at this? A couple of clarifications and I found out that she was going to attempt to make Easter grass (like that in an Easter basket) out of sugar based on something she had seen a pastry chef do on the community college TV channel. Naturally, this was a project that appealed to me rather greatly and I came right on up the hill.

So our method was to heat up the sugar to just about hard crack (300 degrees Fahrenheit) and then! we would take the sugar and using a fork, FLING it over a round object. The idea was that the sugar was supposed to drip off the round object (the TV show had used wooden dowels) creating strands that would appear grassy.

Attempt 1. Heated the sugar up too fast, burned the crap out of it. As we starting dripping it ( we weren't flinging at this point... still concerned about not making a mess?), it did the strand thing but was, in the words of legally blonde, an "icky brown color." As I was the one quite curious what sugar grass would taste like, I found out that this attempt tasted like... burned sugar: Unenjoyable!

Attempt 2: Heated the sugar up much more slowly, started dripping sugar over rolling pin. It kind worked but most of the sugar stuck to the rolling pin rather than dripping off. Started thinking that perhaps we needed something with a smaller diameter...

Attempt 3: Towards the end of attempt 2, dad came in to give his two cents. He felt we needed to use more force and a smaller diameter object. So, he taped two pieces of wire hanger hanging off the edge of the counter.

Then, that is where the flinging came about. He took a fork, dipped it in the melted sugar and pretty much splatter painted the kitchen. It was successful, but quite a mess!!! At one point, I looked around at the dots of green hard candy all over (fridge, floor, cabinets) and said to my mom, "Now I'm not suggesting that we weren't allowed to make messes as kids, but this is definitely one of the bigger ones we've made." She just laughed. Isn't it fun when your parents start to go senile (just kidding mom and dad)?
So, this was our final product, about 3 cups of sugar, a lot of green gel cake coloring, and a big cleanup later:

Its pretty cool but I do have two suggestions for next time: a) cotton candy machine. b)just use alfalfa sprouts. Though the resulting product was both tastier than alfalfa sprouts (which I like but really, who wants a vegetable in their Easter basket???) and even tastier than standard issue cotton candy. So maybe it was worth all the trouble.

As compared to these activities, Sunday was quite tame. We just went over to Amy's and finished up the costumes for her upcoming recital on May 7. While it was fun, I am happy to be done with that project. I'm considering a few options for my next sewing project:

1. a sun hat. I had this all cut out to do for my trip to phoenix but didn't get around to it. As a result, my scalp is now peeling.
2. place mats. We have a dining table for the first time in years and should soon have a stove so it seems like some place mats would be a good thing.
3. grocery totes. I just don't know how much use they would get. We already have four that we've gotten from various handouts and we NEVER remember to bring them into the store!

Anyway, thats my little weekend craft update. We come up with some crazy ideas, but it sure is fun!