Leap Day

It's Leap Day, something that only comes around once every four years. It seems like there is a lot of trivia online today about leap years, like this little bit  i found on the news blog of my favourite local radio station. I decided today I wanted to finally post some of the things that I have made in the last little while but not had time to post. I don't really have the recipes, and I can't remember where I got them. I just went through my Blog folders and found one in each of the last three months that were not dated and grabbed the pictures. 

First up, from December: Homemade Vanilla Extract: 

This turned out really well. It was not a cheap venture, either. I figured it out to about the same price of store bought, at least around here. You basically put one split vanilla bean in with 2/3 cup of vodka, put it in a cool dark place for 3 months, shaking daily. I used four beans, and it made three of these bottles (i cut each bean in half before bottling it). I sent one to Newfoundland to my cousin, one I gave to my secret Santa at Christmas, and I kept the third to use myself. I plan on making more for gifts this year, so this reminded me i best get my butt in gear, as the first one I want to give away is for a June birthday. 

Next in line, from early February: Pancake Shapes: 

I got these little bottles for decorating cookies, and i had seen online that some people use them for making pancake designs as well. Using a store bought mix, i decided to try it one morning.

The first one i tried was a heart, super easy. But while i was refilling the bottle, I forgot about it for a minute.

Oops. 

Second, i decided to try a smiley face. I drew it out and then covered it with more batter. It turned out for the most part, but a bit difficult to make out.

Number three was just swirls, it turned out great! And cooked to perfection.

I decided to try another heart, this time it turned out much better. You can see where i drew the outline first and then went back to do the inside. I don't think this is an everyday thing, but it would be a neat breakfast surprise if you have children. 

Finally, from Valentine's Day, my Cookie Conversation Hearts:

I used two recipes for this, because I made half of them Chocolate and the other half White Sugar cookies. I had bought a set of heart cutters that decreased in size, this was the smallest. Because i have 30-some teammates, i cut out  about 75 of each type. I used a bag to decorate the white ones and a squeeze bottle for the chocolate ones.

I got a set of edible markers at Wal-Mart for five dollars, and Googled sayings to write on them. Finally, I bagged them up, 5 per bag with 5 real conversation hearts, and delivered them to my teammates. The Kiss is there for size comparison.  I had some pink ones because i had leftover icing from another project the day before. 

This is the finished product, everyone was quite impressed. This bag was made special for my little man K, i took one to him as a Valentine, to. His has no red marker or icing in it, because he can't have red dye. It makes him go psycho! 

So, there we go, all caught up. For now anyway :-) Hope everyone is having a great leap day! It is Wednesday, so all I am doing is heading to work soon. 

Have a good week, everyone!