The Craziest Pie in the US of A

So a while back, I started on a PieQuest to try the most unusual pies I could find. The quest fell by the wayside for several months, but when my mom was visiting recently and we were planning our adventure, we found something that we all knew we had to try: a place along our route that sells pickle pie.

Yes, pickle pie.

And pinto bean pie. And oatmeal pie. And buttermilk pie (which I actually made on my quest).

From left to right: pinto bean pie, pickle pie, oatmeal pie and buttermilk lemon pie

I think the quest for the most unusual pie ends in tiny Bicknell, Utah, with the Pie Queen of Wayne County:

So what does pickle pie taste like? Yes, the pickles are a big part of the taste experience: according to the recipe, each pie features 12 ounces of crushed sweet pickles. Honestly, if you like sweet pickles, I think you'll like the pie.

The secret recipe (well, one of them) is hanging on the wall

Other than that, though, they were actually pretty tasty. The oatmeal pie was sort of a chewier pecan pie, the buttermilk pie had a nice, light lemon flavor, and I saw an article displayed in the restaurant likening the pinto bean pie to pumpkin.

Jasmine doesn't care for lemon, so her favorites were the pinto bean and oatmeal pies. Mom and I liked the buttermilk and oatmeal pies the best. None of us actually like pickles, but we did at least try the pie.

If you're looking for a pie adventure and your other adventures take you near Capitol Reef National Park, take a detour to the Sunglow Cafe and Motel in Bicknell. At the very least, you can get a badge of honor for sampling!

What's the most unusual pie you've ever eaten (or heard of)?

Where is Wayward Weekend?

Hello everyone! I want to thank all of you who have linked up, followed us and commented on links from Wayward Weekend. We had a lot of fun getting to know you and visiting your blogs.

Wayward Weekend is going on hiatus for now. That's not to say it will never come back, but I need a break. At this point, I want to focus on crafting, rather than the number of followers we have or comments we get. Oh, I still LOVE go get comments and my heart jumps when I see we got 800 + visits on Wednesday of last week., but I've decided that I'm going to put more hours into reading, crafting and spending time with my husband rather than trying to push our numbers higher. I want to share crafts that I made because I like them, rather than because I thought they'd do well on the blog (yes I have a number of those). I decided to have more fun crafting last week and it's amazing what one little decision can do: I feel free and I haven't been obsessively checking to see if we have gotten a new comment at least once an hour. I check 3-4 times a day and I'm fine with that. Jordan, Brooke, Jasmine and my mom are supportive of this decision right now as well. I thank them for their support and for their efforts.

I hope everyone understands. It's the neverending dilemma: I want my blog to be successful, but at what cost? Thank you again, for supporting us. We love our readers!

Paper Bead Lanyards

How many times do you look at a craft and say, "Oh, I could do that?" Sometimes you are right and sometimes you are wrong. I think I was right this time. A couple women at work have name badge lanyards made from paper beads. I remembered making those kinds of beads a long time ago, so I decided to give it a try.

You will need old magazines or slick paper advertisements, glue or Modpodge, tooth picks, small beads (not seed beads), bread thread, and a lanyard clip.

First, cut lots of isosceles triangles from the magazines or ads. Look for colors that you like. I made triangles with a 1 inch base and a height of 6 inches. If I did it again, I would make the base 3/4 inches

There are two ways to do the next steps. The first way makes a sturdier bead, but it is much messier. Method  1: coat the triangle with the glue (I watered mine down a bit) or Modpodge.

Then start to roll the triangle on the toothpick. Keep the center tip centered.
Method 2: Don't apply the glue or modpodge until the bead is completely rolled on the toothpick. Give it a good coating.

Now the beads need to dry. I poked holes in a box and then put the toothpicks in the holes. Eventually you will need to remove the beads from the toothpicks. I found it helpful to carefully push the bead up to the end of the toothpick to dry. If you don't, you may need to twist and turn the bead a bit to get it off the toothpick.
The beads will take several hours or overnight to dry. 

Now you can sort you beads by color and decide the pattern you want to use for your lanyard. Cut your bead thread long enough for a lanyard. (I made mine around 32") First put on the lanyard clip and slide it to the middle of the thread. There are two ways to keep it in place. The first one I threaded both threads through one bead.

In the second one, I made a little circle of black glass beads and then threaded both threads through one bead. (In order for the thread to go through the beads easier, coat each tip with clear nail polish and allow to dry.)

Then-- just decide on your pattern with the paper beads and the glass beads. When the lanyard is long enough, secure it with a knot. Apply a couple dots of glue to the knot. When dry, clip the threads close to the knot.

Here are some close ups of the beads.

Silhouette Shirt

This isn't done by me but I thought it was so stinkin' cute I had to share it (plus I've been traveling all day and didn't prepare a post.) Jordan's sister in law made Jordan's oldest daughter this cute shirt. She bought a striped shirt. Easy beezy right? Then using her Silhouette, she cut out an even cuter owl on suede (made for the Silhouette) and applied it to the shirt. And just like that, Jordan's daughter now had a one of a kind, stinkin' cute shirt!

How NOT to Paint Your Front Door Black

This was so wayward that I wished that I could just throw it away but I couldn't because it was my front door. It took me three long days to finish and I was so grateful to be done! Here is what not to do:

Day1: I painted two coats of  regular latex paint on the door. It is black paint. It got hot in the sun. We live in the humid south. It never cured.

Day 2: I could scrap the paint off with my finger. So I got my husband to take it back off the hinges and I tried to strip the paint off. I ran out of paint stripper and motivation but I had no front door on my house. My husband had left for work. I called my sister-in-law who comes to my rescue with left over primer. She can't stay long because it's her ANNIVERSARY which I had totally spaced. We open the primer and it is dried up with no saving it. I go to the store to buy spray paint. She took her kids and PB and went to her house while I spray painted my door with this but had not scraped all the latex off.

Day 3: Unhappy with unevenness of the gloss and you could see the old latex. Scraped all the latex off, sanded with steel wool and painted it with this and FINALLY I was happy.  I did about 7 coats and did it in the shade. My wrist ached for days because of all the scraping, sanding, and painting.

The before can be seen in this post. It was just plain white from the factory. Now I can't believe I let it go naked for so long!

Wreath tutorial to come next week!

Jaime's Tips for Thrifting

This year my entire Easter outfit came from the thrift store.

Top and hair flowers: '80s classic, Skirt: Banana Republic, Shoes: Guess(see below), Necklace: ME

I have found some real treasures at my local thrift stores. I've talked about a few of them before. Here are my tips for successful thrifting:

1. Shop with something in mind. Sorting through racks and racks of clothing just trying to find something "cute" may be overwhelming, at least it would be for me. Before I go, I have a game plan of different things I'm looking for. There are some things I'm always looking for, like skirts, but other times I have something specific in mind, like white, cotton pants to dye:

2. Keep your options and eyes open. If you are handy with a needle or dye, think outside the box: sizes that are too big or even menswear! Make sure to check in different areas. My local thrift store divides clothes into knits, sweaters, tees and blouses. If I'm looking for something in a particular color, I check all of the sections. The blouse from my Easter outfit was totally '80s--I removed the shoulder pads and took it in a touch on the sides. Bonus: I used the fabric from the shoulder pads to make the flowers on my hair accessory.

 

3. Give yourself enough time. I'm pretty bad about this one, I like to go thrifting during lunch. If you are focused, you can do this. I usually am looking for just one item and can be in and out quickly. But as to not feel pressures give yourself enough time to look through the racks. I did find my chair during my lunch hour though!

4. Shop out of season. I got my Easter skirt in the fall. I snagged the shoes right after Christmas. Another bonus: Savers runs sales at the end of the winter season on long sleeved items, coats, etc.

 

So this is love? do do do do 

5. Know your store. Savers is my store. I know about the Super Savers card, and about the color system and I get emails about the sales they are having. Other stores in my area get overstock-like merchandise from Target on Tuesdays. Goodwill has a discount store in my area where everything is priced by the pound.  I know Salvation Army has sale days. Try asking the employees at your local store. Another great thing about Savers: they give you coupons or card punches for every bag you donate! Love it!

6. Shop for craft, decorating and organizational items. Goodwill has TONS of baskets, I would never buy one full price after having seen all the different kinds they have. I've gotten an awesome shoe organizer and hanging closet organizer as well as tons of decor items like these:

Picture frame, glitter vase, fake apothecary jar and tray all came from the thrift store

My biggest tip: Have fun! I love thrifting! Oh, and be sure to bring your hand sanitizer! 

Cookie Dough Dip (it's good for you!)

I pinned this recipe a long time ago, but it leapt to mind again when I was having a friend over who'd just recently started a diet. (Unfortunately, her diet precluded this, so I had to eat it myself. Darn.)

It's like a bowl of cookie dough—only instead of being full of butter, sugar and raw eggs, this uses yummy alternatives that happen to be better for you. (Okay, except for the chocolate chips. Those are still the same, if you want them to be.)

Photo by Chocolate-Covered Katie

Chocolate-Covered Katie, creator of the recipe, freely admits she has no sweet tooth. Meanwhile, I'm the opposite. So I can tell you: go for the full 1/4 cup sweetener. (I used agave nectar since I had it on hand [because I bought it to use on my hair. I'm weird, huh.]) I also found that both chilling it and storing it seemed to make the chickpea/hummus flavor more pronounced, so every time I pulled it out (yes, somehow our family made this last three days), I added a little more peanut butter and agave nectar to counteract that.

As per Katie's request, I'm not reposting the recipe here—just telling you that if you pinned this and haven't tried it yet (okay, even if you haven't pinned it!), give it a try!

One suggestion: do not mention that there are chickpeas/garbanzos in this when you serve it. Do like Katie did and let people try it on their own before they know it's healthy.