Headband Fix: No more Geordi La Forge!

Maybe I've reinvented the wheel here, but I feel pretty creative that I thought of this.

Blockette has very fine blonde hair.  Most headbands slide down her face after less than a minute.  This causes her to look like Geordi LaForge from Star Trek: The Next Generation.

LaVar Burton as Geordi La Forge

While LaVar Burton totally rocks this look, Blockette can't quite pull it off. 

It's really rather disruptive in school, church, watching TV, eating, breathing, etc 

when she has to keep adjusting her hair do every thirty seconds.

We pretty much gave up on headbands.

Then one Sunday morning I could not get my hands to cooperate.  I told Blockette to "just put on a headband"  so we could be done with it.  You would have thought we lived in Napa Valley for all the whine.  Ugh. I decided that we should eat breakfast, and I'd give her hair another attempt before we left for church.

While we were eating, I got to thinking about how some baby hair clips are just velcro with a bow on it.  If velcro works on fine hair, maybe the hook part will give the needed grip to Blockette's headbands.

This was the velcro I had.  It's hook only and 3/4" wide.  It even has a super strong sticky back.

I know the sticky back is super strong because it is leftover from covering up the opening to our 

crawl space.

I attached the velcro to the molding around the opening, and covered it with cream fleece.  

(Not only did it cover up the ugly door, but blocked out the draft as well.)

The Velcro has been up for over 5 years now with no sign of losing it's adhesion.

Here's what I did with the headbands:

I debated whether or not to put the Velcro all the way down the headband.  As I was a bit pressed for time, and the ends were tapered, I opted to just put Velcro at the top of the band.  I figured if it didn't work as well as we wanted it too, we could always add more.

It worked wonderfully!  

I only saw Blockette adjust her hair once the entire time we were at Church.

I'd call that success!

Raspberry Lemonade Bars

I made pink raspberry lemonade freezer pie from Averie Cooks the other day when some friends came over for dinner.

I was a space cadet and forgot to take a picture.

Take my word for it that they looked similar to the ones over at Averie Cooks.

The original recipe calls for pink lemonade, but I used raspberry lemonade instead. We prefer raspberry lemonade to regular lemonade in our house. I'm not sure that was the best substitution though. I think the raspberry cut into some of the tartness that was needed to offset the sweetness.

As I was preparing this dish I was really afraid it would be too sweet. I gave the batter a test taste as I was preparing it and wow. Was it ever sweet. Freezing things tends to lessen the intensity of thinks like sweetness, so I was holding out for that. That did help, but I think this dish was still a bit over the top.

Of course the sweetness didn't stop us from eating the leftovers. We muddled through, making that sacrifice. Ok. In all honesty the bars were actually pretty good, it's just that they could have been better. I liked the saltiness of the crust. I cut the sugar in the crust by half, and next time I'd omit it. The desert is sweet enough, the crust is fine without it. If I were to make this dessert again, I think using concentrated limeade would be fun to try out.


Pink Raspberry Lemonade Bars adapted from Averie Cooks
2 1/2 sleeves of Ritz Crackers (about 3 cups of crumbs)
3/4 c butter, melted (1 1/2 sticks)
1 12-ounce can raspberry lemonade concentrate, thawed to liquid
1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk
1 8-ounce container COOL WHIP Whipped Topping, thawed to room temperature
red or pink food coloring, optional (I used about one dozen drops of neon pink food coloring)

Line a 8x8 or 9x9" pan with foil and spray with cooking spray. (I used 8x8.) Place crackers in food processor/blender and pulverize.  Place crumbs in bowl, add melted butter, and stir . Press a little less than 3/4 of mixture into bottom of prepared pan, set pan aside, and reserve remaining 1/4 crumbs.

In a lg bowl, combine lemonade concentrate, condensed milk. Add COOL WHIP. If desired, add food coloring drops to desired shade and stir until color is uniform. Pour mixture over crust, noting that you may have extra  mixture depending on the height of the pan; do not overfill the pan. Use extra mixture for a mini-tartlette, fruit dip, or just eat it. Top mixture with the remaining cracker crumbs by sprinkling them over the top. Place pan into the freezer to set up for at least 4 hours before slicing and serving. Store extra dessert in the freezer.

PB 'Nana Chocolate Chip "Ice Cream"

This September has been so hot and humid. Hey! Mother Nature! Don't you know school is on and that means it's like Fall now? I mean the tree in the front yard knows it's fall. It's already lost it's leaves. Ok. So it has Emerald Ash Borer and the tree is half dead anyhow, but that is beside the point.

What is the point? It's hot out. And I come home from standing outside for an hour and I'm dripping wet with sweat and grossities.  I wanted me something cold to eat for dessert. My tummy had been a bit on the wonky side so the milk based popsicles that were already in the freezer were not appealing in the least.

Then I remembered reading about "ice cream" made from bananas.  I had bananas...loads of them in the freezer.  Seemed like a match made in heaven.

I thought this recipe for Peanut Butter Banana Chocolate Chip Ice Cream from Got Chocolate sounded particularly yummy.

Because I was all hot and sweaty I got all scientific with precise measurements.

I hacked up 2 frozen bananas into coins and tossed them in the food processor.

(In my opinion, the food processor is the key to the success of this recipe.  I've made banana smoothies before and the bananas always get caught in the blade, and don't blend very well unless you add a LOT of milk.  The Food processor really mashes them up nicely before they melt too much.)

Then I took a big cereal spoon and scooped out 3 blobs of peanut butter.  Then I added 3 regular spoonfuls of honey.  I pulsed it all together until it looked like creamy smooth mashed potatoes.  Next, I poured the mixture into a shallow container, and folded in a large handful of chocolate chips.

At this point the ice cream was soft serve consistency.  I could have eaten it right then and there, but it was only 4pm.  So I stuck it in the freezer for after dinner.

By the time homework was done, dinner was prepared and eaten, 2 hours later, the ice cream had hardened enough to be just barely scoop-able. 

This was what was leftover after Blockette and I got a hold of the ice cream.

How did the dessert taste?

Surprisingly, this did not have an over powering banana taste.  I think this had something to do with the bananas being frozen.  Maybe it masks some of that gross banana flavor. Anyhow, the "ice cream" was super delicious!

After  Blockette went to bed, I devoured the leftovers.  Because you know, I had not had enough fruit that day.  I wasn't a pig, just trying to be healthy!

Thankful Thurs #36

1. I did not get hit by any drivers stupid enough to run through my intersection.  (The stop sign I hold up isn't just one of my many glamorous fashion accessories people!)

2. I have not gotten sick at work. (My medicine was changed and the new stuff is making me very nauseous.)

3. The children's Tylenol expired. (This is the first time we haven't used it up before it expired.  Whoohoo!)

4. While it's been hot, there hasn't been a torrential downpour while I've had to stand outside.

5. Basil just had a run in with some cobwebs he didn't like, and wasn't foaming at the mouth because he was rabid or anything like that. (He was just trying to spit the yucky stuff out.)

6. Boo actually likes eating cobwebs. (If I could only figure out how to get him to eat the ones near the ceiling!)

7. Blockette hasn't worn out her welcome yet at the neighbor's.

8. No one came into our house while I was helping out at church and the garage door was open for over an hour. (or if they did they realized we have nothing worth taking!)

9. I think I figured out what was making the garage door act up. (cobwebs, leaves and grass clippings stuck to the bottom of the garage door interfering with the safety sensor.)

10. My thermos didn't break when I dropped it.  (My big toe cushioned the fall.)

11. I'm pretty sure I did NOT break my big toe when I dropped my giant water thermos on it.  (The thing flipping upside down as it fell was probably a good thing. I think the raised lip on the mug took some of the impact away from my foot.)

August Cross Stitches

I only stitched three things during the month of August.  I was really distracted by the Olympics, and more recently, Mad Men!

The three designs I did stitch were of London landmarks.  I thought that was a fitting crafty multi-task for the 2012 London Olympics!

These designs were from a British cross stitch magazine.  I think Cross Stitch Card Shop.

These were all stitched on a pale grayish blue 18 ct aida. 

Ugh.  What a nightmare that was.  They really should have been stitched on 14/28 count, or even 16/32 count fabric.  As it was, the back stitching sometimes got lost.  This was particularly the case with the Trafalgar Square design.  There is an insane amount of backstitching detail in the bottom third of the design.  All of this detail got all muddled together and there is absolutely no definition. 

Oh well.

It's not like I have any plans for the designs.  I just stitched them for fun.  Although, I do think they'd look nice if they were framed together in a horizontal triptych.

August Reads

This was not a big reading month for me. We were really into watching the Olympics earlier this month. Then my Uncle passed on 4 seasons of Mad Men, so no reading for me!

I did manage to sneak in this odd little juvenile fiction called Star Shard by Frederic S Durbin.

 It takes place on this traveling market place that is actually a wagon as big as a small city.  I thought that concept was fascinating.

The main character, Cimbril, is a slave who works on the wagon as a singer.  Then a fae boy named Loric, is taken on as a slave, but he can't use his magic to escape because of the magic attached to the wagon.  Through the Loric, Cimbril discovers her true ancestory.  

I particularly liked Cimbril's cat Miwa and the race of creatures known as Strongarms.

 It's a great work of fantasy fiction for middle grade schoolers.

Happy Labor Day

Labor Day differs in every essential from other holidays of the year in any country. All other holidays are in a more or less degree connected with conflict and battles of man’s prowess over man, of strife and discord for greed and power, of glories achieved by one nation over another. Labor Day is devoted to no man, living or dead, to no sect, race or nation.
                                                                                                     - Samuel Gompers