Happy Peepster!

Or rather.....Easter! And belated at that!

I knew my oldest would be coming home from school with TONS of Easter candy so I decided not to send any to school.  Instead I made some felt Peeps as seen on "MADE." Ever since I saw laid eyes on them last year I made a mental note to eventually make them. I'm so glad I remembered this year!

And here they are:

Talk about cute to the maximum!

Kailani passed them out to her classmates and to my surprise (I thought the kids would be bummed not getting more candy) the kids were not disappointed. Some of them tied it to their backpacks and a few more took out a permanent marker and drew faces on them. I was mortified for a second but then had to admit it was quite clever!

It was a fun project and will definitely make more again! I'm thinking of making the Peep bunting next. I've already cut out more Peeps......

Question is, do I make it now or next year?

Be sure to check out "MADE" for the free tutorial! And for more homemade gift ideas check out:

Monkey Bread Recipe

Yummy, sticky, sweet, buttery, "cinnamony," sugary, hot MONKEY BREAD!

Ohhhhhh......yeah.

My girls LOVE cinnamon rolls so I asked them if they wanted to make some of their own, monkey bread style. 

Monkey bread? What is monkey bread? And why is it called that? Well, monkey bread is basically little rolled pieces of dough dipped in a cinnamon-sugar mix, piled into a bundt pan, then covered in a buttery-sugary topping (yes, more sugar!) and baked. Can you say "SINFUL?!?" 

And apparently it got it's name because people look like monkeys when they pull off pieces to eat. Ah-ha! Now it makes sense!

Well, my little monkeys didn't need any convincing to make it. Sugar? Cinnamon? Bake? It's like crafting with food! They were SOOOOOO "IN".

I started off by prepping the ingredients and let them roll the dough and dip it into the cinnamon sugar mix. They then tossed (literally) the balls into the pan and baked it. After a few short minutes the kitchen started to smell HEAVENLY. Here's what it looked like when it first came out of the oven:

And here's what it looked like flipped over and out of the pan:

 

And here is what Kailani wanted to do:

  

Easy, girl. Easy.

Verdict? Deeeeeelicious!

We used one of the monkey bread recipes from AllRecipes but I'll also post it here. Tastes great reheated the next day (that is if you HAVE any leftovers!) It's also a great playdate activity if you've got lots of little ones that want to help! 

*Note - the cinnamon/sugar mixture makes a LOT and we had quite a bit left over. Next time I will only make half. 

Monkey Bread via AllRecipes:

Ingredients

• 3 (10 ounce) packages refrigerated biscuit dough
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 3 tablespoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 cup margarine
• 3/4 cup white sugar

Directions

1. Mix together 3/4 cup sugar and cinnamon.
2. Quarter the biscuits with kitchen shears. Dip shears in water after each cut to keep the biscuits from getting too sticky. Dip biscuits into sugar mixture, and place in a greased tube pan. Do this until all biscuits are used.
3. Melt butter or margarine, and mix in 3/4 cup sugar. Pour mixture over biscuits.
4. Bake in a preheated 350 degree F (175 degrees C) oven for 30 to 35 minutes.

Somen Salad

Have you ever had somen? Somen is a Japanese cold noodle dish served with a light dipping sauce or soup, veggies, fishcake, nori and egg, etc. Delicious to eat on a hot day, especially when you ice the noodles! 

Here in Hawaii we are lucky to have Japanese restaurants and Asian grocery stores that sell it already made or made to order. I recently went shopping at Marukai (Japanese membership grocery store) and they had (get ready for this, somen lovers) a SOMEN BAR:

 
 

Marukai - Somen Salad Bar!

Oh my yum. They had udon too.

Then on another day I went to "Aloha Sushi" for just that, sushi. But then I saw somen salad on their menu:

Aloha Sushi's Somen Salad

Did I get some? I plead the 5th. 

There's also another version you can make to feed a large crowd (or a small one with a big appetite!)but instead of dipping the noodles into the sauce the sauce is poured on top of the salad. It's quite popular here in Hawaii and you often see it at potlucks. I made it awhile back and it did not last long:

The salad kind of fell apart when I put it in the bowl but you get the idea!

There are tons of recipes for somen salad floating around on the web but I make mine much like Jessica at Zakka Life does (one of my new, favorite blogs!) She even posted pictures of the ingredients - which is helpful if you are unfamiliar with any of them. The only thing I do differently is add sliced Japanese cucumbers and nori (missing from my picture). So instead of posting my recipe here I will link to hers. Oishi desu! (Delicious!)

Rock Skirt.....or Collector's Skirt!

I recently saw a crazy-cute skirt pattern on Etsy that I wanted to make. The design was simple but the skirt had lots of character. It was called the "Rock Skirt" as the pockets are big enough to stuff rocks, leaves, shells, etc. into. I put it on my "to-do" list but didn't take the initiative to make one until after a recent play date. There I watched my friend's daughter collect leaves and  stuff them into everyone's pockets - including mine. Definitely a sign to make the skirt!

I made the first one for Momo. I bought this batik print forever ago and had planned on making something for myself - like that ever happens!

Then I made two more in this print for some little girlfriends (including the one that was stuffing everyone's pockets!):

Isn't the fabric cute? I love it! Thanks to my BFF Stephanie who lives in Korea for sending it! :)

Now I just have to remember to check these pockets before it goes into the wash!

 

You can find the pattern on Etsy at "luckypennymake" I tweaked it just a little bit (lined the pockets)and am really happy with the end result!