Sprung on Spring

I feel like a little kid again, amazed with nature. I have been so excited watching my garden grow! I go out on the porch multiple times a day to check on my plants, to see how much they've grown or to put them in a better sunny spot. I had a mini-photo shoot with my green babies today.

My bell pepper seeds have sprouted! That is one veggie I use a lot, so I'm looking forward to picking some right off the plant.

My summer squash and zucchini have also sprouted. I am going to plant them this weekend after my finals.

My first little strawberry is starting to turn red. I hope it gets bigger too, otherwise that will be one tiny strawberry!

Look! Another strawberry is about to get started on the same plant. My other strawberry plant hasn't had any blossoms pop up yet, but it is getting bigger and fuller.

My tomato plants are getting little clusters of blossoms now. I can't wait to let Fletch pick fresh tomatoes! My tomato plants have some leaves that have tan spots. I'm going to have to look into this!

My mint plant is doing well too. Does anyone have tips for cutting mint off the plant? Is there a technique or do I just cut off some stems? I want to make some mint iced tea, but I don't want to ruin my mint plant!

Great Resource for Pet Owners

I was introduced to a really helpful site for dog and cat owners by the creator of Dog and Cat Experts. Kristen has started a website with all kinds of helpful information for pet owners, and it's all in one easy to read and organized place. I thought I would pass it along since I know so many pet owners. She is a pet owner too, so she knows how important our little fur-babies can be. Thanks Kristen for letting me know about your site!

ATK Challenge: Sichuan Orange Chicken (p. 306)

This is the last dish of the first 12 recipes! Grocery run is tomorrow, so I have to go through the book to pick some new yumminess. The hubby saw a sauteed pork chop with pears recipe and demanded to know why this was not included with the first rotation, so I know that one must not be left out this time.

I have never ordered orange chicken when eating Chinese food, but I love orange and figured we'd give it a try. It uses fresh squeezed orange juice, orange zest, some hoisin sauce for the flavor. It also includes ginger, garlic and some red pepper flakes for a little heat. The flavor combination was tasty!

I picked up some stir-fry techniques from the stir-fry how-to page. I cooked the chicken in two batches. I only cooked them until they were no longer pink, about 3 minutes. Then it is all put on a plate and added to the sauce later. The chicken came out great. It wasn't dry or flavorless.

The sauce was not thick, but it still covered all the chicken and was packed with flavor. I served it over rice.

Stay tuned for more new recipe reviews! And if anyone would like the recipe for any of these, let me know. I'm happy to share.

RATINGS:

Flavor:            5 out of 5 stars
Easiness:         5 out of 5 stars
Time Spent:    40 minutes
Repeat Dish?   Yep!

Husband's Comments:  No verbal comment, but numerous helpings were consumed.

ATK Challenge: Grilled Honey-Mustard Chicken

Sorry guys, no pictures for this one.

I have made other honey-mustard chicken recipes before, but this one topped them all. It was super fast and easy too! I decided to grill the chicken on the Foreman grill instead of on the charcoal grill. Mainly because tonight is poker night for daddy-O and he didn't have time to clean and start the grill. No matter, they still turned out delicious. They were seasoned with salt and pepper and then the sauce was added when they were done.

Now that I use a thermometer, my chicken comes out much juicier instead of cooked to a tough and dry mess. Once that baby reaches 165 Fº it comes off the grill! The sauce that went directly on the chicken was a simple mix of dijon mustard (Grey Poupon of course), honey and a little cayenne pepper. Then you mix some of that sauce with sour cream and tarragon for a dipping sauce. Yum! I served this with some of the left-over spicy cauliflower from the other night.

RATINGS:

Flavor:         5 out of 5 (that little bit of cayenne gave it a nice kick!)
Easiness:      5 ouf of 5
Time Spent: 20 minutes!
Repeat Dish? Yes (good for a quick dinner and when there are chicken breasts in the freezer)

Husband's Comments: "Chicken dinners are like polished turds to me, but this turd had a great sauce to polish it off." (Thanks babe)

ATK Challenge: Foil-Baked Fish with Black Beans and Corn (p. 171)

We seem to have bad luck with recipes that contain chipotle peppers. The recipes tend to turn out too hot. With this one, I think it was because I didn't cut the amount of chipotle in half like I should have since I only made two filets. I will have to give this recipe a try again, but use less of the peppers.

The butter/garlic/pepper/orange zest mixture went on top of the filet and the filet went on top of a mixture of black beans/corn/orange juice/cilantro. That was all wrapped into a foil pouch and baked in the oven for 20 minutes. Talk about an easy meal!

When it was done baking, I just opened the pouch and put it on a plate. Viola!

RATINGS:

Flavor:             3 out of 5 (will re-evaluate next time)
Easiness:          4 out of 5 (I can never seem to chop cilantro as fine as I would like)
Time Spent:     35-40 Minutes
Repeat Dish?   Yes, just with some modifications.

Husband's Comments: "It's too spicy to taste all the flavors. I do like the consistency of the fish though."

ATK Challenge: Pasta with Spicy Cauliflower Sauce (p. 251)

 Here's a peek at all the ingredients:

Yes, more bacon! However, not enough to satisfy the husband's dinner meat requirement. According to him, this dish is tinkering on the edge of vegetarian. I thought it was pretty tasty.

The meal was easy to prepare. This was the first time I cut up a fresh head of cauliflower, but it wasn't rocket science. Cauliflower is so much tastier to me than broccoli, and isn't as obvious when it gets stuck in your teeth :)  The cauliflower was browned in bacon grease and olive oil which gave it a really nice flavor. The red pepper flakes gave it just the right amount of heat.

RATINGS:

Flavor:            4 out of 5 stars (could have used a little more bacon)
Easiness:         4.5 out of 5
Time Spent:    40 minutes
Repeat Dish?   Up for debate (the hubbster said I can put it on a 2 month rotation)

Husband's Comments: "Is the bacon the only meat in this?" Later caught eating one of Fletch's chicken tenders.

Future Tomato

See that little yellow flower? That baby is gonna be a tomato! My first one :)

ATK Challenge: Mediterranean Tuna Melt

Hey, it's a dish for you anti-meat people! That is if you still eat fish :) We love tuna salad around here and when I saw the picture in the cookbook, this looked pretty tasty. It has an unusual ingredient for tuna salad, artichoke hearts.

When the hubbster came in the kitchen and saw the artichokes, I thought he was going to start crying. He let out a moan and whined about not liking artichokes. I asked him where his adventurous spirit had disappeared to, so he gave in and said he would still try it. That was a good thing, because this is no diner or drive-through, you get what you get!

This recipe was super fast! It took less than 30 minutes to get it on the table. I loved the melted provolone on top.

The baguette I bought at the last grocery run ended up harder than a rock in a few days time. So we took a walk to Wegman's as our nightly walk. We always take Fletch on his tricycle, so we just went right in the store with him still on his push bike. He got a lot of smiles and probably had his most enjoyable grocery shopping experience. Heck, if I could ride through the store on my bike, I'm sure it would be pretty fun too!

RATINGS:

Flavor:            3 1/2 stars out of 5
Easiness:           5 stars out of 5
Time spent:       less than 30 minutes
Repeat Dish?     probably

Husband's Comments: "Hmmm...this is interesting. Let me take another bite. Yeah...it's actually pretty good."

ATK Challenge: Stir-Fried Beef with Snow Peas and Cashews (p. 308)

One of my favorite Chinese take-out dishes is beef with snow peas. The husband loves stir-fries, in almost an inappropriate way. So a dish that combines the two? Perfecto!

This was the easiest and most flavorful attempt at anything close to Chinese food. The hardest part was grating the ginger. Apparently there are $15 ceramic ginger graters, which I do not have. I doubt I will ever obtain one, so I just had to make do with my fine grater. It was a little stringy and fibrous, but it cooked down and I didn't even see it after it was all finished cooking.

The hub's adventurous spirit came to an abrupt end when I mentioned putting cashews in the stir fry. Instead of omitting them, I just added them to my plate. I have no problems with nuts in my food :)

Xie xie America's Test Kitchen!

RATINGS:

Flavor:             5 out of 5 stars
Easiness:          4 out of 5 stars
Time Spent:     about 40 minutes
Repeat Dish?   Yep

Husband's Comments: "Hell yes!" when I told him what we were having. Then "this was delicious, whey don't we eat stir fry more often?"

ATK Challenge: Chopped Salad with Apples, Bacon and Turkey

I figured I would get our other salad out of the way before my lettuce started going bad. The hubby asked what kind of salad it was, and I told him a chopped salad. He asked what was in a chopped salad and I told him "chopped stuff."  He was not amused. I was reluctant to tell him because he can be weird about mixing certain ingredients. So when I told him it had apples in it, I got the "I don't like fruit in my salad" apprehension. That did not stop him from trying it, and what do you know...HE LIKED IT! Look at us breaking boundaries at the dinner table!

So the basic ingredients are lettuce, apples, bacon, turkey and blue cheese. It had a blue cheese vinaigrette to go along with it. I'm really digging these vinaigrettes that you mix all the ingredients into.  Especially since my son now has a fondness for Ranch dressing and ends up using it all on his nuggets! Branch out kid!

The sweetness of the apples really balanced the strength of the blue cheese. Yum!

The hubby reminded me to take a picture this time.

Not very pretty, but very tasty :)

RATINGS:

Flavor:           5 out of 5 stars
Easiness:        5 out of 5 stars
Time spent:    20 minutes
Repeat dish?   You know it!

Husband's Comments: "I really didn't think I'd like the apple in the salad, but it was great!"

ATK Challenge: Grilled Steaks and Potatoes with Garlic Butter (p. 212)

Yes, another carnivore's delight! We typically grill a steak at least every two weeks. When I saw the photo that went along with this recipe, it went straight on to the list of recipes to try.

We have a precious little Weber grill that is low enough to the ground that we can grill on our balcony. We technically are not supposed to, but there is a sprinkler out there for pete's sake! What could go wrong? ;)

The dear husband is still learning the ins and outs of grilling, so I am always looking for tips and techniques to pass his way. This cookbook had a great page on starting the charcoal. So now that is not a hassle for him anymore.

I found some tiny red potatoes at Wegman's, so I used those instead of the larger red ones they called for. In typical Fletch style, he kept calling them apples. He calls cherry tomatoes apples and just about any round fruit or veggie. I did get him to finally call them taters :)

The recipe called for strip steaks. We typically get tenderloin filets to grill, but I figured we'd try something new. Of course they have more fat, but it sure does add taste! It's really the garlic, parsley and butter mix that goes on top of the steak and potatoes that gave this the wow factor. They were right too, flat leafed parsley has so much more flavor than wavy leaf. I would have taken a picture, but we ate them before I could grab the camera! Hopefully this does not make my cholesterol spike for my physical this week.

RATINGS:

Flavor:              5 out of 5 stars
Easiness:           5 out of 5 stars
Time Spent:      about 30 minutes
Repeat Dish?     heck yeah!

Husband's comments: Undecipherable growling and gnawing sounds...I am pretty sure he liked it :)

Matching Camera Strap

The hubster went to play poker last night, so I had the house to myself. Instead of working on school work like I probably should have, I got an itch to sew. This is a horrible and stressful habit of mine. I tend to shut down and do something completely different than what I need to be doing. I don't really want to do this last video project for school. I have more hours of observation I need to complete, and a fashion development notebook to complete. Yet I decide at 10pm last night I want to sew a new camera strap that  matches my new camera bag and a business card holder that I just found a tutorial for. Wacky...I know. As I was reading the Sunday Secrets on Post Secret today, one of the post cards made me laugh.

  

I think I know how she feels sometimes. However, I am definitely looking forward to doing something that contributes to the world, not just my family. I think it's just a scary thought that I will be going out and teaching very soon. I don't think I'll ever feel prepared and I'm sure confidence will come with experience. Enough rambling about my paranoia. On to the camera strap!

I had just enough fabric and tons of orange vinyl left over from the camera bag. When I was getting Solace some dog foot at Petco one day, I saw some dog collars/harnesses on sale for a buck! They had just the right parts I needed for the part of the strap that attaches to the camera, so I grabbed a black and a purple one. I've had them for over a year, causing the hubby to wonder what on earth I was ever going to do with those things.  I didn't use a pattern or a tutorial, I just went for it. I only had one requirement, a little pocket for my lens cap. I'm tired of shoving that baby in my bra when we're out taking pictures, and I'm already short on lens caps as it is. Here she is:

This is how I did it:

I cut two pieces of the fabric that were 22" long and 3" wide. I also cut two pieces of fusible interfacing in the same size.  The little pocket was 3" wide and about 4 or 5" long. I cut a little piece of interfacing for that too. For the vinyl, I just looked at the pieces that were on my original camera strap for a guide. They aren't perfect, but they work. I cut 4 of those pieces. I pulled apart the harness and had two perfect length pieces to go on the ends. 

After I had all the pieces cut and fused, I sewed the "Chronic Crafter" tag on the pocket first. Then I pinned it on to one side of the strap. Then I placed the other long piece of fabric on top, right sides facing. I sewed up both sides then turned it. I did some top stitching down the edge, except on the pockets because it would have made my pocket too small to put the lens cap in. I also did a couple lines down the center for good measure. 

Once I had the main fabric piece done, I went on to the end pieces. I sewed the canvas strap into the end piece first, then I slipped the fabric piece between the two vinyl pieces and sewed them to together by sewing around the edges.  Viola! A new camera strap. The fabric part is wider than a regular camera strap to make room for the lens cap, but after trying it on across my shoulder it felt comfortable and actually more breathable.

If there weren't already a million people selling hand made camera straps and camera strap covers, I'd put some in my shop. Instead I'm just going to enjoy mine :)

ATK Challenge: Super-Spicy Chili Mac (p. 239)

We have our first so/so recipe! Woo! Can you feel the excitement? We both love chili and we both love mac n' cheese, but this dish is no magical combination of the two. It was not horrible, it just was not that extraordinary. I guess it was hard to follow the shrimp and grits from last night. Poor chili mac never had a chance.

First off, it was definitely super spicy! It had spicy rotel as well as some chipotle peppers. Then on top of that, it was topped with shredded pepper jack cheese. I think what threw us off was the consistency. We were expecting it to be more saucy like a chili. This is what it looked like (the left overs anyway):

This recipe will probably not be a repeat performer. I could see a gang of famished teenage boys scarfing this down, but until I have that problem this will be put under archive.

I actually timed this meal. I started at 4:30 and it was on the table by 5:15. There was not too much prep, since I have my magical onion chopper.

RATINGS:

Flavor:            3 of 5 stars
Easiness:         5 of 5 stars
Time spent:     45 minutes
Repeat dish?:  probably not

Husband's comments: It's too spicy, and I can't taste any flavor. This is not chili!

ATK Challenge: Shrimp with Ham and Cheddar Grits (p.188)

Sorry for the triple recipe shake-down today. I started 3 days ago and just decided today to do all this blogging about the cookbook. After this post, I'm all caught up and promise to post only one a day!

I was surprised that the hubby picked this one. He's not really a fan of grits, but he was feeling adventurous. I have heard wonderful things about shrimp and grits, but I have never tried the dish. It made a big comeback a few years ago and was really popular at a lot of restaurants, but I never thought to try it. When I saw this cookbook had a recipe for it, I figured it was time to finally try it.

Wowsa! This was a yummy dish. It was pretty filling as well. The grits were made in the microwave within 15 minutes. The prep-work was the most time consuming, although it didn't take all that much time at all. I was cracking up at how the little pieces of ham steak were popping out of the skillet like popcorn, so I had to play defense with my wooden spoon.

I decided not to include the actual time spent category of my ratings. I have a toddler, so I tend to get distracted or called away from the kitchen. If I tried to accurately time the cooking, I'd have to set a stop watch and stop and start it every time I got sidetracked. So I'm going to change the category to: Easy as They Say or Harder Than it Looks.

RATINGS:

Flavor: 5 stars (I'd give more if I could)
Easiness: 4 stars (peeling shrimp is a pain, thankfully the hubby helped)
Easy As They Say or Harder Than it Looks? Easy as they say!
Repeat Dish?: Fer sure!

Husband's comments: I don't even like grits, but this was amazing!

ATK Challenge: BLT Salad (p.37)

Let me start this off by saying, if you don't like bacon, this recipe is not for you. And you also need to go get your head checked out!

We love salads around here, but our salad repertoire was getting a little old. I was happy to see a good variety of tasty looking salads in this cookbook. First salad to try was this one, a BLT salad. Ooooh baby!

There are not a lot of ingredients, but the flavors mesh so well. Anyone who loves BLTs will love this salad. Lettuce, tomatoes and bacon...lots of bacon! Like, A POUND, of bacon! I used thick cut as the recipe stated. The recipe called for home-made croutons with mayo spread on the bread before baking. This sounded yummy, but I already had some delish croutons on hand. (I have got to stop being a rogue recipe breaker!) The dressing was just a whisked combo of mayo and red wine vinegar, but dayum it was tasty! Due to a falling out with Mayo while I was pregnant with Fletch, we are now a Miracle Whip household.

I think the salad could have used a tad more lettuce. I used one romaine heart, but could have used maybe half of another. I think my romaine hearts were on the small side though.

RATINGS:

Flavor: 5 stars!
Easiness: 5 stars!
Actual time spent: less than 30 minutes
Repeat dish?  Abso-friggin-lutely!

Husband's comments: "NOM, NOM, NOM"

Question: Anyone have any helpful hints on how to make your house stop smelling like bacon? Candles? Open windows?

ATK Challenge: Barbecue Chicken Pizza (p.280)

I was not surprised when the hubby requested I make this recipe first. The man loves him some barbecue pizza. It's not really my favorite, but I picked it for him since he's going to be my guinea pig throughout this experiment. The recipe calls for cilantro, of which I am not a huge fan, but I proceeded anyway.

The recipe called for a 1 pound ball of ready-made pizza dough. I already had a can of Pillsbury thin crust dough in the fridge, so I didn't look for this while I was shopping. I had no idea it would lead to a debacle.

For the chicken, they called for a rotisserie chicken, which Wegman's has plenty of. That cut down on cooking time since all I had to do was pull the meat off the bones. And who doesn't love the flavor of rotisserie chicken? Weirdos, that's who!

So on to the pizza dough debacle...Oye vey! Instead of just rolling out the dough in the rectangle shape it came in, I thought I could squish it all together and roll it out on a round pan. Well, those preformed pizza doughs really want to retain their shape! The dough would not go back to a dough ball and turned into a massacred piece of I don't know what. So I went online to find a quick pizza dough recipe and found one that didn't require it to rise. Awesome! However I had no yeast. DOH! Luckily my sweet little old lady neighbor had a package of instant yeast. It was packaged completely in Chinese, but it did say Instant Yeast in english. I just used the whole pack and hoped for the best. Hoping doesn't get you far in the kitchen, because the dough ended up tasting more like a biscuit, a dense, lumpy, and thick biscuit. It was too late to turn back, so I just added the toppings and went for it. We figured that as long as it tasted like bread, we could manage to eat it.

This was a simple recipe (until I made it incredibly difficult) with not a whole lot of ingredients, but the flavor was amazing. The little mix of cilantro in with the barbecue sauce and chicken was not too overpowering for me. The recipe included a lime-cilantro sour cream dipping sauce that was quite yummy as well. Had the dough situation not occurred, this would have been just as tasty as the barbecue chicken pizza from California Pizza Kitchen. I will definitely be making this again, and I promise to buy the right dough next time!

Here are my ratings:

Flavor: 4 out of 5 stars (due to dough debacle)
Easiness: 4 out of 5 stars (see above)
Actual time spent: didn't keep track
Repeat Dish?: Yes!

Husband's comments: "Delicious, tastes just like CPK!" "Next time use the right dough"
(for the record, he ate every single piece of left over pizza)

ATK Challenge

The hubby picked up a Groupon to Barnes & Noble for me a few months ago, and we finally went to go spend it last weekend. I went in assuming I was going to buy the last Stieg Larsson book to complete my set, but it was still only available in hardback. My other two are paperback, so I decided to wait.

I casually strolled over to the cookbook section. I had an America's Test Kitchen cookbook on my amazon wish list, but I figured if it was there I would just grab it. Of course I couldn't remember which one was on my list, but I stumbled upon this one:

There are a million 30-minute recipe books on the market, but what drew me to this one was the paragraph on the back, especially these two sentences: "Most quick-recipe collections promise a lot but deliver very little. Bland, uninspired dishes may be fast, but will you make them again?" It brought to mind all those quick easy recipes that Kraft is always sending me, but always come up short on flavor.  I started flipping through the cookbook and was delighted to see that almost every recipe sounded like something we would like.  They also include a paragraph at the beginning explaining why the recipe works and most pages include tips and techniques on a variety of subjects. I walked out of the book store ready to cook!

Instead of easing into this book and trying one recipe, I went all out and picked 12 recipes and hit the grocery store. It was time for the 2 week grocery shopping anyway, so I built my grocery list around the recipes. I told the hubby that I want to try and make every recipe in the book, except the ones that have ingredients that we just don't like. There are some that I know I would like, but not him, so I'll save those for a rainy day.

So I am going to blog about my America's Test Kitchen cookbook adventures! There will be a slew of reviews this month, because of my eagerness. I promise to ease back next shopping trip! Well, unless the next two weeks are a smashing success.

Hoping for a Yummy Summer

I've been telling the hubby that I want to grow a garden when we move into a house with a backyard. Well, I just couldn't wait any longer! I decided to try my hand at container gardening this year. We have a patio/balcony that gets pretty good sun, so I decided to go for it.

I have 3 long rectangle containers hanging off of our railing. The middle one already has strawberries planted. The other two will contain yellow squash and zucchini. I planted two types of strawberries, so we'll see which does better. One of the plants already has some growing!

I also bought two types of tomatoes. One with small sweet tomatoes and the other is a larger tomato. We are always using them in salads, BLTs, hamburgers and snacking, so I figured we should definitely grow some.

On a whim, I got a sweet mint plant too. I love using fresh mint to make ice tea and I may try my hand at some home made mojitos :)

I still need to plant the squash, zucchini and bell peppers. I also have to hunt down some smaller tomato cages. The ones I saw at the Depot were way too big.  Does anyone know of any gardening-hacks for home-made tomato cages? I was thinking of getting some of those long stakes and tying them into a mini-trellis. I'd love to hear any clever ideas from other container gardeners!

A Little Gift

I tried my hand at freezer paper stenciling again. Some friends of ours had a baby around Christmas, and it has taken me 3 months to get around to making something! Disgraceful I tell ya! Before you ask why I made a onesie with a T-Bone steak on it, my husband's best friend's nickname back in the day was T-Bone. Actually, Atom still calls him T-Bone most of the time.

So for my non-crafty friends, I'm going to show you how I made this onesie! I am sure all you crafty people out there have seen this tutorial a million times. Newbs...this is for you :)

What you need:

the picture or image you want on the shirt
the shirt/onesie/fabric
fabric paint (This time I used Tulip brand and it worked great)

sponge brushes, small/thin paintbrushes
freezer paper (the white butcher paper that is paper on one side and laminated on the other)
an iron and ironing board
an exacto knife
a piece of cardboard that fits inside the shirt/onesie (to keep paint from bleeding through to the other side)

Depending on how complex your image is, and by this I mean the number of different colors you're going to use, you may need to do a little thinking ahead. It is also a good idea to write the color and description on the freezer paper when you're done to keep track of which stencil goes with which color.

I used 3 colors for the T-Bone, so I had to cut a stencil for each color I used. When I did the black outline, I left little divots in the line to keep it attached to the freezer paper. I just went over the blank spots with a thin paintbrush.

To transfer your image on to the freezer paper, you can use a light-box if you have one. I do not, but I have something better! I use my sliding glass doors. You could also use a window as well. I just tape the image to the glass door, put a piece of freezer paper on top, and then trace the image onto the freezer paper. I like to tape the freezer paper down too, just so it will always be in the same spot while you work. DUH-ALERT: This only works during the day when you have light coming through your glass door or window!

Once you have all your tracing done, use an Exacto knife to cut out the parts that you want the paint to transfer onto the shirt. DUH-ALERT: Make sure you put something under the paper when you are cutting, otherwise you will leave nice little cut marks all over your work surface! I have a self-healing mat that keeps everything protected. You can snag one at a craft store, fabric store or art supply store.

(here you can see how I left small pieces un-cut to keep it attached)

Once you have your stencil cut out, decide where you want the image and then iron the freezer paper, plastic side down. It is better to use a lower heat setting without steam, otherwise you are going to make the paper wavy and this can cause paint to slip under the areas that didn't attach.

(this was the first color, see how I labeled my freezer paper)

Once you have the freezer paper stuck on to the shirt, sponge on your first paint color. It is best to follow the directions and let it dry before moving on. Trust me....I'm Mrs. Impatient and it can make more work for you in the end if you don't take your time. DUH-ALERT: You want to do the lightest colors first. I started with the white, then red, then black. Otherwise, the paint may show through.

Just keep repeating the steps until you have all the layers you need. Once you are done, let it dry for the recommended time. My directions said to let it dry for at least 4 hours and you can wash after 72 hours. I'm going to let mommy wash it in case she uses sensitive detergent for baby.

I finally shipped it off yesterday. Hopefully it will get a giggle from the proud parents. :)