Unicorn Poop Cookies!

I'd spotted these cookies on the Instructables website and loved the idea, but it took me forever to get around to making them. One of my favorite haunts at lunchtime is the Broadway Panhandler store which has everything from overpriced pans and knives to sparkle gel for cookies. I bought the latter, along with flower sprinkles and gel food coloring. I wasn't so sure about using the recipe from the original instructions after reading the posts, so I went with a recipe which other people recommended because it doesn't spread during baking: No Fail Sugar Cookies

It took me a while to get a method of rolling the dough and mixing the colors. I tried to follow the instructions, but in the end, I took globs of different colors, rolled them together like playdoh and hoped it would create cool stripes of colors, which it usually did. Just make sure not to overmix the colors or you'll lose the striping. Baking was 8-10 min per batch. I cooled them, painted them with white sparkle gel and sprinkled them with flowers, just like a unicorn would.

Brooklyn Night Bazaar

Last night was the Brooklyn Night Bazaar, where I had a booth selling my crocheted food ornaments. They did a great job advertising the bazaar and there were crowds of people coming in and out of the 6 hour event. The best part was that it wasn't just a craft fair, which tends to attract a limited crowd, there were food and beer vendors and live music, which kept people hanging around longer. It'll be continuing through Dec 22nd, Fri-Sat 6pm-midnight, so if you get a chance to visit, it's definitely worthwhile. There's a nice variety of indie vendors, ranging from screenprinted T-shirts, prints, jewelry, soaps, clocks, home-brewed beers, candies etc.

I shared a booth with my friends the Smithereenes and we lucked out and got assigned prime real estate in the center of everything. My mini burgers proved the most popular and sold out. I actually had someone run across the room after catching her eye to immediately buy one. The sushi and donuts were the next most-purchased items. Apparently fuzzy foods make people smile.

Gluten Free Products

There are a lot of gluten-free products out there now. After trying quite a few, I thought it might be helpful to those just starting out on a gluten-free diet to list brands which I think are worth eating or avoiding.

PASTAS

Favorites: 

Schar and Archer Farms

Consistency and texture are usually my biggest issues with gluten-free pastas. I honestly think that if you swapped these out with real pasta, most people couldn't tell the difference. Tastes great and has the same bite as pasta does. Made with rice and corn flour.

Edible:  
DeBoles: This is also made with rice and corn flour, but the texture is very gritty/grainy, similar to whole wheat pasta. It's not intolerable but doesn't feel like pasta.

Least Favorite:  

Tofu Shirataki: The smell alone is enough to turn you off. It's made from the "root of the Konnyaku - a member of the yam family and tofu." This is usually found in the fridge section of the supermarket, because much like tofu, it has water packaged with it. It smells horrible and has a really rubbery texture. I could only handle a few bites before throwing it out.

Quinoa Pasta: Very chewy, rubbery texture. I threw most of this out as well.
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CHIPS/CRACKERS:

Obviously,  you can stick with potato/corn based chips. But if you love pita chips and saltines as much as I do, you need alternatives.

Favorites:
FoodShouldTasteGood. I loved this brand even before I started gluten free, so it's a nice perk that I can still eat it. Their chips have great flavors, my favorite of which are Multigrain and Olive.

Riceworks: These are dense chips made from whole grain rice. Great taste, great cruchiness

Veggie Chips: There are a lot of brands of these so it's hard to narrow it down. They're easily identifiable by their tri-colored chips (off-white, orange and green). The flavors are fairly subtle, mostly just salty, which is what I tend to look for in a chip.

Least Favorites:
Glutino crackers: Texture reminds me of a stale cracker

Natural Nectar Cracklebread: It's like eating salty, flaky, airy crust.

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BAKING PRODUCTS: It's tricky rating gluten-free flours because it really depends on what you use it for. For example, coconut or almond flour may be great in a cookie recipe, but not so good in a crumble or cake recipe. I've heard that Cup 4 Cup flour, created by Thomas Keller, is the best one out there right now, but haven't had a chance to try it because it's quite pricey ($20 for 3lbs) and is only available at a few places, like Williams-Sonoma.

Gluten Free Bisquick: I made drop biscuits with these, not pancakes, so my rating is only based on that test. The results were more cake-like than biscuit, both in texture and taste. Perfectly edible as long as you're not expecting a traditional biscuit.

Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free Pizza Crust: (I made pizza and foccacia with this) This comes with its own yeast packet. Rise time is very short. I wasn't a huge fan of the consistency or the flavor, but it's definitely edible.

I'd love to hear opinions of other products which I may not have had a chance to try yet, so feel free to post other brands you'd recommend!

Craft Fair Prep!

Hurricane Sandy happened this week. Work has been cancelled since Monday due to the inability to commute plus our office is downtown and without power. We were extremely lucky enough to have electricity throughout this whole mess. Now, although we have a car, the shortage of gas is keeping us at home, so what better time to be productive?

My friend asked me last night if I'd want to share a booth at the Brooklyn Night Bazaar on Nov 24th (the entire bazaar runs from Nov 23rd - Dec 22nd on Fri and Saturdays, 6pm -  midnight). I haven't done a craft fair in a couple of years, so I jumped at the chance. The only problem is I've been procrastinating all year as to what to sell, so I finally settled on what I know best: Crocheted food. Out of all 6 of my Etsy stores that I've had over the years, YarnYums was my favorite and did fairly well. I'll be going under the name Tinkerbot, since that's my current online store and I've already printed business cards for it.

I'll be selling mini crocheted food as ornaments. So far the menu consists of mini donuts (chocolate and strawberry icing), mini sliders with lettuce and cheese and toast with butter. I may also sell regular sized crocheted pie slices and bacon and eggs. Also debating making xmas light and/or bell garlands. Only 24 days to do this all!!! Back to crafting!

October Baking

Now that the weather's cooled off I've been doing a LOT of baking. All month I've tried to bring something sweet to work once a week. There are around 50 of us to feed, so I usually have to scale down the size of my cookies or double the batch. So far I've made:

Heath Bar Chocolate Chip Cookies
ButterFinger cookies (The recipe tasted good, but the cookies spread way too much and were as flat as can be)
Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Balls (never fails to please)
Caramel Apple Bars (It got a bit soggy after taking it out of the fridge and leaving it out for an hour. There's a good chance it was my fault because I didn't follow the instructions exactly, so I'd be willing to give this recipe another shot)
Sugar Cookies (Good ol' America's Test Kitchen. Works perfectly every time)

And last night I made butter cookies because I wanted to try out my new GingerDeadman cutter. Maybe it was the fact that my dough wasn't chilled enough, or I didn't make thick enough cookies, but I couldn't get the skeleton part to show up well at all without completely mashing my cookie. It was faint and barely visible, which made me believe that during the baking process it would vanish altogether. So I used a good old fashioned metal leaf cutter instead.

SpoonFlower: Print Custom Fabric

In this month's issue of Mollie Makes magazine they mention a website called Spoonflower which allows you to upload your own designs to print on fabric, wallpaper and wall decals. I haven't tried it yet, but I'm pretty excited about the option to sew something with fabric I designed. I'm particularly interested in making prints for fabric dolls, like this one, where you create a template directly in the print: http://www.spoonflower.com/fabric/1452867

Prices look fairly affordable, (although my general self-imposed limit when buying fabric is usually $10 or less a yard). They start at $15.75/yd and $5 for swatches, eco-friendly textile printing and a range of 10 fabrics. Their help section explains pattern repeats, color guides for beginner designers. You also have the option to sell your fabric through them once you've uploaded it. 

Hopefully I'll be trying this sometime in the near future, but if anyone reading this has already used it and has any tips to offer, I'd love to hear them.

Lined Drawstring bag

Bags are my favorite thing to sew. I've tried totes and zippered pouches in the past, so I went with a drawstring bag this time. I found this excellent pattern by Jeni on her blog In Color Order. There is both a free version and a paid version (which contains various sizes and options to help you create a custom bag). I chose the paid version, partly because I'm lazy when it comes to readjusting measurements and also to support my fellow crafters. She also allows the sale of the bag as long as credit is given in online sales and it's not used for commercial purposes. The version shown here is the "snack" size. 

Since I have a tendency to mess up frequently, especially on my first attempts, I chose my least appealing fabrics, which is why it's a bizarre mishmash of patterns and color. The instructions had lots of photos and was very easy to follow. Adding a lining is usually the trickiest part for me, but the technique used in this pattern made it easy. I also love that she shows you how to create the ties, instead of assuming you will use ribbon. So now that my confidence has been boosted by this first attempt, I hope to make plenty more, with better fabrics. 

UPDATE: (3 hours later) Here's my 2nd bag! This one is the next size up, slightly more practical. I'd been saving the exterior apple fabric forever and finally found a good use for it.