Candied Lizard Skin

My Lizard Skins are based off of two different recipes. I liked the Martha Stewart recipe because she doesn't peel the zucchini and I think that adds visual interest, but probably not in the way Martha intended.  I didn't think it would look as gross peeled and for this I wanted gross.  

Her recipe calls for just sugar, water and zucchini and I knew I needed something to mask the zucchini flavor which led me to this recipe that uses Kool-Aid.  It also uses a dehydrator, which I don't have.  Martha's just relied on air drying (I think rather unsuccessfully because the recipe warns you to serve it immediately.)  I dried mine using the lowest temperature on my oven, 170 degrees.  You could try speeding things up by going up to 200, but I wouldn't go higher than that.

As I mentioned in my Craft Party post, my zucchini are looking a little different this year.  If you like the yellow peel contrast yellow summer squash would work as well.

 

The baking time listed is more of guess. The reality is I would bake it for about an hour, turn the oven off because I had to leave the house. Come back flip it, bake it some more, have to leave, turn the oven off. I think the second batch I left in the oven, turned off, overnight. It's not rocket science and obviously there is a lot of wiggle room, so don't feel like you have to dedicate a whole day to watching zucchini dry.

The real question is how does it taste. Opinions varied. Some liked it, some thought it was pretty good for zucchini, some went back for seconds or thirds, others didn't care for it or were satisfied to just try it once for the novelty.  I had expected the artificial flavoring to overpower the zucchini and it didn't. In fact then general consensus was that it tasted "sweet".  For flavor I used one packet of unsweetened lemon-lime Kool-Aid. I would have preferred a straight up lime, but couldn't find any. Maybe using a different flavor or two packets or some other form of concentrated flavoring would have made a difference. 

I think this is one of those recipes that are fun to make once, but I can't say I'm dying to make or eat it again.  It's definitely something different to do if you are drowning in zucchini and it has a great Halloween look to it.  

Candied Lizard Skin

2-3 zucchini

1 ½ cups water
1 ½ cups sugar
1 pkg unsweetened Kool-Aid
Additional sugar for coating

Use a mandolin to slice zucchini into thin even strips.
Lay slices between paper towels to wick out excess moisture.
Heat water and sugar together stirring until sugar completely dissolves.
Add kool-aid, stir until combined, bring to boil.
Add zucchini. Reduce heat and simmer 25 minutes. Gently stir occasionally.
Remove from heat and strain. (Liquid can be saved to make another batch)
Pre-heat oven to 170.
Once zucchini is cool enough to handle, lay strips in a single layer on cookie sheets covered with parchment paper.
Bake for 2 hours, flip zucchini bake another 2 hours. If using more than one cookie sheet, switch positions. The zucchini shouldn’t feel sticky. If it does bake it a bit longer.  If it's just a little tacky that's fine.
Let it cool then toss with a tablespoon or so of granulated sugar in an air tight container or ziplock bag. This will keep it from sticking together.  

Here are a few food label ideas, the two I used and two blue varieties in case you're in a blue raspberry kind of mood. Font is You Murderer BB by Blambot.

 

Needle Felting

Frog Selfie in Hell

I couldn't get enough of zombies this Easter, some would argue tis the reason for the season.  But before I post about felted Easter zombies I'd like to share about my needle felting journey.

Way back, when my daughter was all into hamsters, I got it in my head to make her a toy hamster.  A friend suggested needle felting, which is poking roving wool with a barbed needle until it magically turns into something.  She gave me a needle and some felt and I proceeded to make a hideous looking hamster head. Which I then over-felted trying to fix it, until it was rock hard and completely unusable.  On the upside I was inspired to make a Cthulhu, but that was the extent of my felting until recently. 

I was at the library* researching another project when I came across Woolbuddies by Jackie Huang. I've seen his frogs before, but it never dawned on me that I too could make such wonderful creatures. Per the instructions, to make a frog all I had to do was make a ball, or three actually if you include the eyes, so I figured I could handle that. There isn't a lot of detailed instruction, but there are pictures of each completed step.  Since the Wool Buddies are basic shapes put together, with minimal but effective details, I don't think a lot of instruction is needed.

*Although I love the vast sea of knowledge the internet affords, sometimes I like to wade around in a small pond where the water is only knee deep and I can see to the bottom.  Thank you little local library.

Here are the frogs when they are not off touring Hell.

This is a video for the frog. Someone commented that it should be time lapsed but I disagree. I think one of the hardest things about felting, and maybe this is just as a beginner, is finding that sweet spot of where it's felted enough but not over-felted. You want it to be firm but not rock hard like a hideous hamster head we won't speak of.  The video gives you a realistic idea of just how much poking is involved.



The other thing I have a hard time with is gauging how much the wool will be compressed once it's been firmly felted. In the book every project lists the quantity of wool needed in each color, which I think would be helpful if you actually followed it.  Of course I ignored that, because that's what I do.  I made smaller versions because if I screwed up I didn't want to waste a bunch of wool. More wool also equals more poking.  The downside is if you go too small it's hard to fiddle with the smaller pieces and details.



These two buddies are perfect examples.  The dog's snout is about twice as long as it should be, so I had to add big feet to keep him from falling over.  And if I had made the shark the recommended size, I think I would have done a better job with the teeth. 

I finally tackled the elusive hamster.  The book shows how to make a guinea pig.  I made it a lot smaller, without the feet and added a tail, which resulted in the hamster on the far left.  The other two are later versions.  And then there was that one time they decided to vacation in Hell because their frog friends told them how much fun they had on their trip. [Scenic Hell was created at last year's craft party.]

Hamster Selfie in Hell.

Of course hamsters were so two years ago, now it's narwhals.

After the shark, a narwhal was super easy to make. 

And then she said, you should make a turtle...Which again not too difficult, now that I understood breaking it up into shapes.  Circle for the head and eyes.  Oval for the shell.  Cylinder for the legs and neck.  I realize that concept is Art 101, but it wasn't until now that it really clicked for me. 

Another thing I really like about the Wool Buddies are the eyes.  They have that crazy look, that I love, but they are also so easy to make.  I've made a few attempts at other eyes with mixed results. Starting out you can't go wrong with bulgy eyes and pinpoint pupils.  I also appreciated that many of the Wool Buddies had asymmetrical eyes.  I can't make eyes any other way, so it was nice to have an excuse to embraced that. 

.

I realize now my first hamster attempt failed because I went straight to complicated details, when I should've remembered KISS [Keep It Simple Stupid].  It also helps to go with the flow. This started out being a cat, then ended up looking like an owl.  But it didn't look enough like an owl to actually be one, so I had to go rogue and now it's whatever this thing is.  The point being if you don't confine yourself to reality, you can make anything work.