Monday, March 31, 2014

April Fools Day Friendly Fire!

I like pranking. I don't like being pranked but I like pulling them. This year I will be pulling some friendly pranks of my family. Why? I'm glad you asked....


It all started on a snowy day in December. I am not a fan of snow. I don't think it's cute. I don't make snowmen and I just made my first "good" snowball at the age of 29. Seriously, don't like the stuff. Well, my dear loving family and neighbors lured me outside one day by using my sweet little girl. I remember it like it was yesterday. She came in the house and said "Mommy, can you come play with me" then used the puppy eyes I taught her to use on Daddy. Traitor! As soon as I come outside I was snowed from 3 different angles. OOOOOH but that wasn't the worst part...They put a snowball down my back on the inside of my coat! What the what?!


Fast forward back to present day. I have let bygones be bygone so I will not retaliate with anything bad but I will have a little fun. ;  )

This year no foods are what they seem. The moral of the story, don't bite the hand that feeds ya!



April Fools Day Menu

Breakfast: 
Eggs over easy
Toast
Fresh fruit

Lunch:
Grilled Cheese
Peas and Carrots

Beverage:
Gatorade

There are other nutritious things that they will eat in the day but these are the things I have cooked up just for them.






Breakfast:

What they see: eggs over easy, toast and some fresh fruit. 
What they get: vanilla yogurt, apricot half, toast and gummy berries (just a few)

What you will need for this prank:
Vanilla Yogurt
Apricot or peach halves
Harboro Gummy Berries
Toast
Spoon


To make the eggs spread a dollop of Vanilla Yogurt on a plate to represent an egg yoke. It is very important not to use any fruit yogurt so that there are no fruit chunks on the plate. Next you will place one apricot half on top. Don't make it perfect. Eggs aren't imperfect. Side this with real toast and just a few berries. We don't want to overload 'em on sugar, do we? The best part about this is, other than the fake berries, this can be a pretty good breakfast.


April Fools Day~ vanilla yogut with an apricot half.  I am thinking this would also be cute as "green eggs and ham" for a Dr. Seuss party.  You'd jus have to add a little green jello mix to the yogut.
These are not my pictures. I will not make this until the morning but this is what it will look like


This will be the hardest meal to pull off because my husband doesn't eat eggs. I may have to let him in on the joke before hand. 





Lunch:

What they see: Grilled Cheese, Peas and Carrots
What they get: Pound cake, orange icing, starbursts and skittles




What you will need for this prank:
Massive bags of Skittles and Starbursts
a knife and cutting board/ culinary shears
sandwich bags



For the peas, simply sort the green candy out of the large bag of skittles

Next, open each starburst and cut it into quarters.



When you are finished, combine the starbursts with the skittles and voila! Peas and Carrots. 




Preparing the grilled cheese was a bit more involved. I took a shortcut buy purchasing a pound cake. I honestly suggest having your cake in a loaf shape if you attempt this. I was working with a short deadline so I took what I could get. 


For this prank you will need:
1 pound cake
grill/griddle/pan
whipped icing (spreads and mixes easily)
food coloring (see package directions for orange)
something to stir the color into the frosting


While your grill/pan heats up you can mix the color into your frosting. Make sure to follow the directions on the package. I used 5 drops of yellow and one drop of red.




as a last step, I compared the color to the cheese we had in the fridge. The color looks good.


Next slice your cake. try to make it as straight and consistent as possible and lay directly on your hot surface. Other sites have suggested adding butter but I found that the cake had enough oil in it already so I did not add any more.



If you use a grill like I did, you will get these realistic looking lines. Cool effect! 





 Next spread your colored icing to the non grilled side. Make sure ice completely to the ends to give the "cheese spilling over the side" effect. TIP: don't get too excited and ice before the slices cool down. I got a slippy slidey mess because I was overzealous!



Lastly, every grilled cheese needs to be cut into triangles- so do it. 



Beverage service:
What they see: Gatorade
What they get: Jello


This last one is just as simple as the others. If you can make Jello you can do this. Follow the directions on your package BUT pour your liquid into sports bottles.

For this prank you will need:
1 large bowl
Boiling water
cold water
sports bottles
one large container for the sports drink if you do not want to waste it.
Jello mix
1 funnel





Open your new bottles of sports drink and empty into your large container if you want to keep it.







Mix your Jello by the package directions. I chose orange to match the label...but then I mixed too much hot water and had to use my reserve strawberry mix.

Here are the directions in case you threw out your Jello package in haste.



After mixing your Jello use your funnel to get the liquid into the bottle. 



Refrigerate overnight. I will be taking this to my family Jiu Jitsu class tomorrow night as well as bottles of water for everyone. Okay so my revenge isn't so mean but it sure will be entertaining for me. I will post reactions tomorrow!








Thursday, March 20, 2014

Monster Mouth Britches

My daughter runs holes in her jeans like it's her job. She has this strange idea in her head that she does not need to change pants when taking her martial arts classes and instead just puts her gi pants on top. as a result I get these jeans worn completely through the knees. I decided to find a few ways to fix these holes rather than tossing them. This is fix number 1: Monster Mouth Britches.




To start this fix you will need:
Jeans worn in both knees (you can do one but I think two look better)
two sewing needles
1 spool transparent thread 
1 spool of upholstery thread
1 strip of colorful fleece the width of your hole. I used 1 inch strips and they do stretch a little.
1 strip of white stiff wool fabric for teeth
buttons for eyes
scissors
pin cushion




First, cut out any loose strands that are in the hole.



Measure your fabric length for the hole. Tip: Fabric stores may give you a sample of fabric for free. Joann's sample size is 1 inch wide. More than enough for this task.



 Turn the jeans inside out and prepare to stitch with transparent thread. I prefer the transparent thread in this project because it is very forgiving to sloppy lines and stitching since holes in jeans can be inconsistent in shape and size.



 after you are finished stitching the fleece to the jeans with your transparent thread turn the jeans right side in and this will be what you see.




 The next part takes a bit of imagination. now you need to form your monster. Use your white firm wool to cut out teeth. They do not have to be perfect.




 Place the teeth inide of the monster's mouth to choose the placement and when you are satisfied sew it in.




 I also chose to secure the long teeth to the bottom of the mouth as well just in case. I have a feeling that the teeth could curl after washing. I'll be sure to update after the first wash.



 I guess he wanted to help. He just knocked all of my buttons off of the table. Shoot!


 Secure your buttons over the mouth. I used the upholstery thread for this. I originally intended to make some Frankenstein like stitches but decided against it.

 Tip: It helps to cuff the jeans to make it easier to secure the buttons.



 This monster is a girl so I made her a bow. Using thread with a knot in the end, pinch a round inch of fabric together and sew through middle to sinch. After it's through the bow, take your needle through the opening before the knot and pull tight. Do it twice for a secure hold. Do not cut the thread. Now, take the needle and sew onto monster's head.  



Sew the ends down so they stay flat.


 And here is your monster!



 Follow the same directions for the other knee if necessary. My second monster only has two teeth and no bow. 




And there you have it, Monster Mouth Britches, Fix #1 for holes in jeans.