Nana's Noodle Kugel

 

Once upon a time I had my mom's pancake recipe up on this blog for like SIX WHOLE YEARS with a typo in it. And the Chief Travel Correspondent tried the recipe multiple times and couldn't figure out why they didn't come out delectable. And the reason was: typo. And so now I have to tell anyone who reads this blog because it's really embarrassing. And what better to do with embarrassing stories than to announce them on the internets?

But did I let that stop me from posting more recipes? No. I did not. Because one of these days someone might be thankful that my grandmother's noodle kugel recipe resides on the internets. 

I've just basically decided that once I post a recipe, I will use this blog when I cook instead of my trusty hand written recipe book. That way if after I have proofread four hundred twenty seven times, at least if there's a typo I will find it before six years are up. And then the Chief Travel Correspondent will still have easy access to her great grandmother's recipes. 

Besides this one is pretty simple. I mean not that anyone really eats this many carbs anymore. Maybe for special occasions,

Nana's Noodle Kugel

10 Ounces broad egg noodles

2 Eggs, beaten

4 Tablespoons butter, melted

3/4 Cup Half and Half

Scant Cup Sugar

Salt, Pepper, Cinnamon to taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cook egg noodles for two minutes less than package directions. Drain. Mix together all ingredients. Place in a buttered casserole dish and bake for one hour or until lightly browned on top.

Some Fun Yom Ha'Atzmaut and Passover or Pesach Stuff Even Though Pesach is Well Over

 I was partially right when I said on my last post that next up would be a Passover and/or Pesach scrapbooking kit. Ok, never mind. I wasn't even partially right. The next thing I made was actually an activity pack for Yom Ha'Atzmaut which is available by clicking this preview:

I had to make the Yom Ha'Atzmaut pack first before the Passover and/or Pesach kit because obviously Yom Ha'Atzmaut is still timely (up until tomorrow) and Passover is already old news. 

However, if you are like me and still don't have your Passover and / or Pesach pictures scrapped two weeks after the holiday has ended, maybe you will be interested in this kit which I finally got finished up today:

That's pretty much it around here except for my kid going to the eye doctor who told us that spending an hour outdoors each day was proven to slow the progression of nearsightedness.

So now whenever the Head of Demolition complains about going for a walk or eating dinner on the patio, I get to say things like, "It's good for your eyes!" and "Do you WANT to get nearsighted?

So that's my public service announcement and parenting advice for the day. 

Nothing Surprises Me More Than the Fact That I've Written Another Post

Hello Blogsilvania! Apparently I am back with another post because...why not?

In what would have been a fit of recklessness earlier in the pandemic, we went to Big Bend (both the National Park and the Texas State Park) last month:

A good time was had by all! 

Except that kid in the pictures up there. She cried during any and all time hiking. 

Point being, I had to make a Big Bend scrapbooking kit to go with our photos and once I was doing that it just naturally turned into a Big Bend, Rodeo, Western, Texas type kit. 

Download it here or by pressing the preview:

Next up will be another Passover Kit because we got home just in time for Passover and I need to scrap those pictures next. 

Thanks for stopping by!

A picture of my late cat playing guitar with his teeth

Hello and welcome to Do Try This at Home!

If you came here looking for teacher resources or digital scrapbooking supplies, please visit my TPT store here.

If you are looking for reprints try here.

If you are looking for the Bayou Brew on 90.1 KPFT Houston, look on Facebook here.  

If you came for the beer bottle cap table it's right here. 

If you're just here to browse and don't care about any of that stuff, here's a blurry picture of my late cat playing the guitar. Yes, he played with his teeth just like Jimmy Hendrix.

In Which I Proclaim My Love for Pixel Scrapper

The Do Try This at Home corner of the internet has been through many iterations since its debut in 2006 but as many different directions as I've taken it, people have stuck around clicking and reading. 

For some reason. 

I don't know why.

It's definitely not for the silly signs anymore. Although for old time's sake, here's a silly sign:

That dumpster door is NEVER shut!

These days I am less inclined to post about silly signs and more likely to post about scrapbooking stuff or teaching supplies or whatever. 

In any case when Thani from Pixel Scrapper asked if I'd be interested in partnering, I figured why not? Why gain focus NOW of all times?!? 

JUST KIDDING! But not really. Because if you've been reading this blog for the past FIFTEEN YEARS you know that I have maintained a degree of professionalism that...oh no wait. That must have been someone else's blog. 

So now that we've established that this blog is neither professional NOR focused, we can get back to Thani from Pixel Scrapper. 

When he asked me about partnering with Pixel Scrapper, I made up an acceptance speech in my head and then walked on stage and...no that's not right either. What I actually thought was, "I post about Pixel Scrapper all the time! Why would this be any different?!?!" And then I went on to think up all the reasons I love Pixel Scrapper, which are numerous:

First off, without even paying a cent, just from having an account, you can get five free digital downloads a day. And Pixel Scrapper has really generous commercial use terms.

See the little doodle border on this worksheet I made for Passover? It came from Pixel Scrapper:

And then today when I needed to make a thank you card, Pixel Scrapper is where I went for graphics.

Of course I use it for the intended digital scrapbooking too. Here are a couple of scrapbook pages I've made using Pixel Scrapper graphics:

I had to go back to 2018 because so many of my personal digital scrapbooking pages include other people's kids. 

But these two layouts only have MY kid who started life as a photo prop and isn't about to stop now. Although these days I generally have to bribe her with chocolate to get her to pose in front of the camera.

Back to Pixel Scrapper. They have SO many kits for digital scrapbooking, cards, basically any paper craft you participate in. Check out the kits here: https://www.digitalscrapbook.com/browse/kits.

The forums have helped me learn so much about digital scrapbooking and using Adobe Illustrator and even taught me some new tricks in Photoshop. Some absolutely amazing designers hang out in the forums and willing to help pass along their expertise.

There are forums for challenging yourself such as the layout challenges or the designer challenges. I frequently take a look at the layout challenges when I am starting a scrapbook page just to get ideas.

So anyway, that's a lot of the stuff I love about Pixel Scrapper. 

Now I'm unclear if I have to give a disclaimer about being offered downloads in exchange for posting this piece. 

And so my disclaimer is, if you are allergic to penicillin, amoxicillin, or bee stings, please do not take medical advice from me. I know nothing about those things. 

No wait...that isn't my disclaimer. 

My disclaimer is that I was offered downloads in exchange for posting about Pixel Scrapper. But I do visit that website at least a few times a week and everything I just said I would have posted anyway.

Snowmaggedon and Some Free Stuff

 Hello Blogsilvania!  

We had horribleness here in Houston, otherwise known as no electricity or water for three days in freezing cold temperatures - in the teens even.

We bundled up good though and enjoyed it as best we could while trying to survive in below freezing temperatures without running water.

I have a free shabbat coloring sheet up in my store. I first made it with an extremely ugly challah, but I have since made the challah over again and although it is not the best challah ever drawn, it is looking much less clunky now. Download it for free by clicking the preview image:

I also have a couple of new free stuff up on pixelscrapper if you want a hedgehog or bird:

And last but not least, just because way back when this blog started out it used to be for silly signs, here's Jesus's opinion on masks. Apparently:

 

Bernie and the worksheets

 Hello all three people who actually check this blog!

I know you're out there so I might as well update.

Here's a picture of me in the KPFT 90.1 Houston studio with Bernie, because apparently I STILL am not tired of the Bernie memes:

For real though, Seth Walker joined me on Bayou Brew on Friday, February 5th so if you're interested, that archive will be available for two weeks.  You can click on the picture to reach the archives. Because. I couldn't figure out how to get the picture to be un-clickable unless I dive into the code and stuff, so why not take it easy?

I've got a bunch of new stuff in my TPT store, including this free Purim cut and paste activity. Click here or on the preview to download it.

Plus a bunch of other Purim stuff here. 

My valentine article is up on Western New York Family and San Diego Family. You can see the Western New York one here.

In between all that we are trying to get our home back in order from the massive flood back in June and I am making a go at homeschooling this kid. Her room is coming along:

Of course Bernie had to come visit. Because isn't that the way these days?

The bedrooms and one bathroom are coming along very nicely. The kitchen still has little odds and ends to finish up. But the main bathroom still needs a bit of work.

Thanks for coming by!

Beer Bottle Cap Table: A How Not to Guide

This is by far my most popular post, despite the fact that everyone who gets here via Google apparently searches for kids in handcuffs. I don't handcuff my kids, ok? Nor do I own any handcuffs. So look somewhere else for that kind of thing!

Meanwhile, here is my "how not to guide" for making a fantabulous beer bottle cap table. Also, please come like my Facebook Page Bayou Brew on KPFT. I have approximately 700 friends on  Facebook and maybe six of them like my page. That's not one in six. I mean six.

And now on to the instructions:

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Since every middle age suburban mother is in dire need of a piece of furniture inspired by a college dorm room, I decided to try my hand at a beer bottle cap table.  When I had a newborn baby.  And three other kids.  And then I wrote this post.

But because "baby brain" is in fact a very real and acute condition, I totally and completely forgot to take the pictures, much less publish the post.  Until a mere two years later.

How do I get one of these wonderful contraptions for my OWN home or dorm room, you ask?  It's not even as hard as it looks:

1) Choose an optimum time to begin. In this case, I decided that when my baby was a couple weeks old would be wonderful because obviously...who doesn't start projects involving resin when they have a newborn?  Particularly when they've never once used resin...ever.

2) Have friends bring you bottle caps from near and far, including but not limited to Canada, Germany, and Israel.  Or buy them from Etsy.  Or collect them at gas station parking lots.  Or some combination of the three.

3) Or drink all the beer and save the caps.  That would work too.  Although you might need to adjust the size of the table, so you can make sure and finish the table before your liver gives out.

4) Arrange bottle caps at your leisure.  UNTIL baby begins to crawl, at which time baby notices the irresistible lure of these fine choking hazards and constantly throws the carefully laid pattern into total disarray.

5) Frantically glue down bottle caps the moment baby has begun her nap. Start with superglue, as per Pinterest instructions, but realize that the task will take decades at minimum. Switch to hot glue after gluing fingers to several surfaces and reading about a two year old who super glued her eyes shut.

6) Tape edges of table. Realize that unlike the table in the pinterest instructions, top of table is not sealed to the bottom. Seal using duct tape.

7) Scan comment section of instructions for advice. Read that original instructions were stolen. Ask around for more instructions.

8) Mix and pour resin. Quickly realize that duct tape is a completely inadequate adhesive for the table underside. Take stepdaughter up on her offer to buy more resin while watching resin pour out the bottom.

9) Attempt to remove tape and extra resin with pliers, scissors, and knives.  Fail miserably.  Put table in living room anyway.  Because do you really need to be as delicate as all that if you're going to end up with the college dorm room look?

My apologies to the original post where I saw this two years ago.  Sort of.  The fact of it is, the entire post was stolen from another website and would never have worked anyway, even if I had followed the instructions.  Wood and metal can barely contain resin.  Duct tape did NOT contain it.  So I doubt very much that painter's tape and tin foil in the post I saw would have held it in.

I do have a couple of very real instructions if you do choose to try this at home:

1) Buy extra resin, in case yours runs all over the place like mine did.

2) Don't worry about what adhesive you use for putting the bottle caps on.  I can NOT tell which were done with super glue and which were done with hot glue.  All the super glue did was cause me tons of anxiety due to my newfound irrational fear of getting that stuff in my eye.

Happy decorating!

A Scrapbooking Kit and a Picture of How Our House is Coming Along

 Here's a new digital scrapbooking kit for the new year - 2021!

The free download has expired but you can purchase it here.

See the other Pixelscrapper contributions to the February 2021 blog train here! 

Also here is a photo of us dancing on New Years Eve during our party over Zoom because I know you came here to see that too:

What with Covid-19 and all, that was as close to a party as we could get. 

I'm not sure if I ever posted on this blog about our house getting destroyed by a massive flood, but you can sort of see our new floors and new walls and new bookcases in this photo in any case. Our home is still under construction but you can see the progress here at least!

Thanks for stopping by!