Project #1: Testing silicone bakewareI've seen silicone bakeware for quite some time but never bothered to purchase any of it. I'm kind of an old school kitchen girl and just the word "silicone" drove me away. Maybe it's because I associate silicone with breast implants gone horribly wrong. But on Friday when I was shopping with my mother, we saw a brownie bite pan made out of silicone. I make brownies quite often for the kids and I liked the price of the pan at $4.99. My mother bought it for me as a little gift. So off I went to the grocery store for a box of brownie mix.
I mixed up brownies as usual this morning. I then followed the directions on the packaging for the brownie bite pan and washed it well before using. With silicone, you still put it on a baking sheet when baking. I filled up each little brownie compartment, set the oven at 350 and baked them for about 28 minutes. Success.
Once the pan was COMPLETELY cool, the little brownies popped out pretty easily.
To be honest, I'm still on the fence about silicone bakeware. Usually when my brownies are baking, the kitchen is filled with the scent of warm chocolate. With the silicone, the usual smell was mixed in with a faint smell of burning rubber. Maybe by the time I'm 90 and my hair is falling out, I'll find out that silicone was not meant to cook with. But for now, I'll take my chances and finish the batch of brownies.
Project #2: decorating ornaments
I'm pretty sentimental when it comes to Christmas tree ornaments. I continue to hang every ornament that my kids ever made. Very few are store bought and most were gifts or handmade at some point or another. When I was standing at the check out line at Joanne Fabrics on Friday, I spotted a shelf with clear glass ball ornaments on clearance for $1.99. Six large globes for $1.99; how could I refuse?
So this morning I took out my paint pens and some colored tissue paper and went to town. I pulled the little tops off of each one and filled them with some shredded tissue paper. The painting part was easy.
Remember those Adirondack Inks that I used on white tiles many projects ago? I decided to apply drops of ink to the glass. I like the effect.
Reminds me of stained glass.
Next weekend we will pick out a tree and I can hang these ornaments.
What did you do this week?
