The ol’ herb garden is in full swing, which means I am giving away giant wads of cut herbs to vaguely-puzzled neighbors* and looking for things to do with the rest. I’m thus somewhat startled to discover that I’ve been running this blog for over five years and haven’t ever mentioned dream pillows. Apparently I never pay attention.

Dream pillows are simply largish sachets, filled with herbs that are reputed to have calming properties and/or a sweet scent. They are super-easy to make, and if you don’t have a garden you can easily purchase the herbs online.

The pillows are intended to lay on top of a regular pillow inside the pillowcase so the sleeper can inhale their scent. They should thus be reasonably flat and can be fairly small; a 6-8″ square is more than sufficient. Since they aren’t really meant to be seen you can get away with making them out of plain muslin, although if you’re making one as a gift you might want to use pretty fabric–a vintage handkerchief would be a good choice–or decorate it with embroidery or fabric paint. A natural fabric such as cotton which doesn’t have an overly tight weave is the best choice for releasing the maximum scent.

The easiest version of these pillows is just a square bag: Fold a piece of fabric in half, stitch two sides, turn right-side-out, fill with herbs, then slipstitch the other side closed. If you want to make the pillow washable and/or refillable, finish the open end with Velcro or add a ribbon drawstring (to keep bits of herbs from spilling out, you might want to enclose them in a smaller mesh or muslin bag and insert that into the prettier drawstring cover). If you want to get fancier, Tipnut has a nice roundup of sachet tutorials. And if you don’t want to bother with sewing at all–or if you have a large number of pillows to make–you can find drawstring muslin bags inexpensively at craft stores or online.

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I peddle a few Accoutrements products (their retail arm is Archie McPhee) in the shop, so I receive alerts when they make new products available. Their new Jinx Removing Spray (“magically formulated to allegedly remove jinxes, nullify hexes, and dispel curses”) is a cute idea, but: 1) All of the interesting design work is on the package rather than the atomizer, and 2) Shelling out eight bucks for what amounts to air freshener seems a bit silly.

Sounds like a DIY project to me!

The type of atomizer they use is called a “shell atomizer,” and they’re widely available online in a variety of sizes and colors. Nemat and Best Bottles sell them individually, and also offer wholesale pricing if you want to make a lot as gifts or wedding favors.

For the spray itself, you can choose your favorite perfume, design your own fragrance (just google “how to make perfume” for a hojillion tutorials, such as this one), or make a simple air freshener by mixing 1 C distilled water, 2 tsp of rubbing alcohol, and 8-10 drops of your favorite essential oil; shake thoroughly to combine.

A label can be as simple as a printed sticker, or you can go nuts with hand-painting or even silk-screening. If you’re artistically-inclined you can design your own label, look for traditional patterns like Voodoo Veves, or mine the artwork of places like Lucky Mojo for inspiration.

If intended as a gift, add a tag with instructions to spray at the first hint of jinxiness and tie with a bit of ribbon or twine. Since the atomizers are reusable you can also offer free refills for the heavily jinxed. Easy, unusual, and cheap. What could be better?

I mentioned the Inn at the Crossroads blog a while back but hadn’t really been keeping up with it, so I’m delighted that the fabulous JoAsakura clued me in to the fact that they’re expanding beyond Westeros-specific dishes and into other fantasy venues.

One such excursion is their lovely Snow White-esque enchanted apples, eerily darkened with food coloring and given a nicely rustic touch by using twigs as handles.* I love how sinister-looking the glossy black coating looks.

If you use twigs instead of skewers you would definitely want to make sure you know what kind of wood they are–using something like oleander would be a spectacularly bad idea–and make sure they haven’t been sprayed with any pesticide (or, if you get them from a craft store, that they haven’t been treated with a preservative). Cutting them from the tree would probably make them easier to rinse off vs. collecting them from the ground, although obviously you’d need permission first; wandering into a national park and hacking at the trees is generally frowned upon.

You would want to ensure that the apples are thoroughly scrubbed (some apples are waxed, which will prevent the coating from sticking properly) and thoroughly dried before dipping. I might also suggest either suspending them over a basin until they begin to harden or holding them upside-down for about a minute after dipping rather than placing them directly on a Silpat or waxed paper. That would let a lot more of the excess coating drip off instead of creating a hard puddle of candy around the base, leaving you with a more naturally apple-shaped finished product.

And, of course, you can change up the recipe to use whatever candy (rather than caramel, which wouldn’t be as glossy) coating suits you; this cider-based recipe looks tempting.

However you do it, these are a splendid and super-easy addition to a party table. Who knew nothing but a little food coloring could be so effective?

(Thanks, JoAsakura!)

*As I was writing this, I became more and more convinced that I’d seen something like this before, possibly from Martha Stewart (which came up negative, although she does have these neat-looking “poison” apples), and finally a thorough scouring of my archives turned them up here. I’m assuming this was the Inn’s inspiration, although it’s possibly just convergent evolution.

I ran into these cute “pumpkin rump” pettipants at Gloomth several months ago, but they’re a seasonal item so are unavailable until next October. If you simply can’t wait until then, something similar–albeit not quite as fancy–can be knocked together in a couple of hours.

Loose elastic-waist pants are a snap to sew, pretty much consisting of three seams: Sew each leg and then sew the legs together. You can find suitable patterns in pajamas or sportswear, or you can skip the pattern entirely and just look for tutorials on how to make your own tap pants, bloomers, or pettipants. I used the pants from a pirate costume because I happened to have the pattern lying around. (I suppose you could also get fancy and use a historically accurate pattern, but that seems entirely too much like work.)

I used an inexpensive cotton fabric for a rather lightweight, airy result. You can use silk, satin, or whatever other fabric appeals to you (I wouldn’t use anything too heavy, such as denim, but you could probably get away with velvet or brocade if you really wanted to). I also decided to make the bloomers a bit longer than knee length and add elastic to the legs so they could be hiked up to whatever length was desired.

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I stuck this in my Drafts folder back in December and promptly forgot all about it (my mind is like a steel trap…that’s been pried open and left to rust). Since we’ve just hit spring around these parts, this one is for all you Southern Hemisphere folks. Everybody else can, um, keep it in mind for next winter. Or something.

It’s hot chocolate on a stick that turns blood-red when it melts. I’m really rather pleased with it.

The basic idea is cribbed from 30 Pounds of Apples, who has lots of lovely photos of each step in the process. My changes to the recipe and method are as follows:

Ingredients

• 1 lb milk chocolate (not chips, which contain stabilizers to keep them from melting as easily), chopped
• 1/2 C loosely-packed Dutch-process cocoa powder
• 1 C loosely-packed powdered sugar
• Pinch salt
• 4 T red powdered food coloring
• Candy bones, bats, or similar sprinkles for decorating (optional)

Equipment

• 5″ long (or longer) popsicle sticks, skewers, or swizzle sticks (see below)
• Plastic ice cube tray or candy mold with cavities which hold about 1 ounce each (see below)
• Double boiler or microwave-safe bowl

Instructions

Make sure that everything that will come in contact with the mixture is completely dry: Bowls, spatulas, ice cube trays, etc.

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Once again Pinterest fails in the attribution department, so I’m not sure who’s responsible for these screaming pigs-in-blankets. They are, however, undeniably awesome and would be an easy hors de’oeuvre for a cocktail party.

Since the sausages don’t appear to be baked into the dough, I’m betting that the cones were made using the same general method as for these crescent-roll “carrots:” Strips of dough are wrapped around a cream horn mold and then baked before filling. In this case, you’d want to add two bumps of dough for eyeballs (just stick them on with a little egg wash) and two small rolls of dough split at the end to make arms or fins or whatever those things are.

Once baked, make your favorite recipe for cocktail franks (the ones in barbecue sauce are tasty) and insert one into each cone. Decorate the eyes with a little dab of powdered sugar thinned with milk, then add a pupil using either food coloring or a dot of melted chocolate (be careful not to use too much if you plan to re-warm before serving, lest it melt and run).

Super-easy, and hilariously dramatic.

Jake von Slatt at the Steampunk Workshop wrote an article for MAKE Magazine describing how to build a Wimshurst Influence Machine (an electrostatic generator) out of easily-obtainable materials. He’s re-posted the article at his site, so we can all pretend to be mad scientists.*

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5

*Or is it just me who does that?

Oooh…pretty.

Crafter Diana Evans posted a super-easy method for making paper roses, which she then made into a heart-shaped wreath. Hers are the traditional red and pink, but there’s no reason they couldn’t be made out of black, purple, blood-red, or other gloomy colors of paper instead.

In addition to being a prettily gothic Valentine decoration, these would be a great embellishment for all kinds of things. Small ones could be glued around the edges of a picture frame. A cluster in different colors would be a pretty gift topper. They could be glued to barrettes, brooches, or shoe clips as interesting accessories. One or two tiny ones might also perk up a greeting card or paper book cover. And they’re so easy to make that they might even be useful as decorations at a wedding reception.

I also wonder what these would look like if they were made out of photographs instead of plain paper. Old photos are ubiquitous in thrift shops, and some nameless stranger’s random family pictures might find an interesting second life as a flower arrangement.

And, of course, you could also make these out of fabric scraps (stitch instead of glue) and use them to accessorize clothing, hats, tote bags, or similar items.

Oooh, I love this idea.

House on the Hill sells molds for springerle and speculaas cookies, most of them copied from centuries-old historic molds. Bakerella had the bright idea of using them to mold fondant into fantastically-detailed toppers for cookies and cupcakes.

Her examples are a soft pink, but you can tint fondant (either purchased or homemade) any color you like, and some of these mold designs are just begging to be turned into memento mori-style cameos or other spooky things. Their collection of angels, for example, include many designs that would look perfect as gravestones.

Sticking a piece of molded fondant to the top of a cookie or cupcake is much less labor-intensive than trying detailed decorating with frosting, and the three-dimensional results are amazing. A tray full of these would be a fantastic addition to a party, and the smaller designs would look great cut out individually and placed on the sides of a cake as well. (If you want to use the molds for their traditional purpose, the site has plenty of recipes.)

I expect you could also use the molds to shape polymer clay for decorative accents, although they’d probably not be fit to use for food again afterwards. The clay designs could be gently molded to the contours of, say, a vase, allowed to fully dry, and then glued in place. Very small designs might make interesting pendants or earrings as well.

Pretty!

Hey, kids! I don’t post recipes too often, but I think I might have inadvertently created the Holy Grail of pumpkin pies and I wanted to share.

I’m going to be honest right up front and say that achieving the very best results is going to take a little bit of work, because it involves making your own pumpkin puree instead of using the canned stuff. However, that’s really quite easy–just a bit time-consuming–and holy moses is it worth it.

And if that sounds entirely like too much effort, you can cheat and use canned pumpkin and still get a pretty amazing pie. I won’t tell.

To make your own puree, for pie or other purposes,* you’ll need a pumpkin in the 6-10 lb range–preferably of a variety that’s meant for cooking. Pumpkins called “sugar” or “pie” are fairly widely available at grocery stores and farmer’s markets in the fall, but also look for heirloom varieties like Jarrahdale (above), Queensland Blue, or Cinderella’s Coach.

Cut the pumpkin in half and scoop out all of the seeds–save for toasting–and stringy stuff. Place face-down on a foil-lined baking sheet and bake at 350F for about an hour, or until easily pierced with a fork. Cool, then scoop out the flesh with a big spoon or an ice cream scoop or whatever sort of utensil makes you happy.

Now for the boring part: Run all of the scooped-out flesh through a food mill. You can puree it with a food processor or blender if you have to, but running it through the mill makes a much finer puree, and the resulting pie is almost mousse-like. After it’s smoother than a stripper’s legs, line a strainer with a couple of layers of cheesecloth or a few disposable coffee filters (which is what I use), put it over a bowl, and drain the puree in the refrigerator overnight. You will be astonished at how much liquid comes out, so make sure whatever bowl you use will handle at least 3-4 cups without overflowing. Throw this out or use it to water houseplants or put it in a smoothie or whatever.

At this point, you can optionally concentrate it even more by putting it in a saucepan over very low heat and stirring it occasionally to prevent scorching for half an hour or so, to drive off more moisture. Cool, and refrigerate for up to a week or freeze for up to six months.

And now for the pie.

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