Bacon Wrapped Heaven

Before you read any further - if you have not read yesterday's post, you must read it now. The backstory of the mistake I made with the pretzel bites, is imperative for you to know before you read on. 

If you have already read it thank you for being a loyal reader. You are the cheese to my macaroni. 

Now that we're all caught up, the other fun snack I made for GB's UFC fight party is what I'd like to call Bacon Wrapped Heaven. A long while back I saw this photo somewhere on the world wide web. 

Your eyes do not deceive you. That is a tater tot wrapped in bacon. I knew I would save it for a party for boys. When the UFC fight party came about I knew I had to do these. Unfortunately I no longer have a link to where I orginally found it. So I had to figure it out on my own. 

So I chopped up the bacon in small sizes. Sorry the bacon picture is lame, I was in a hurry. 

Then I wrapped the bacon around a frozen tater tot.

I popped them in the oven at 450° for around 30 minutes. Oh no. There's that darn wax paper again. The wax paper that is not supposed to go in the oven.

I just quickly moved them to another sheet and kept on baking. They turned out amazing! Don't drool too much.

We dipped these bad boys in ranch. I only had a few because they probably have 3,456 calories a bite. But those few special bacon nuggets blew my mind. If you make any of the recipes you find on this blog, please make these.

Pretzel Bites

This weekend GB and I had some friends over to watch a UFC fight on tv. I wasn't thrilled with a whole night being focused on UFC (not my favorite sport) but GB told me if we could do the UFC party, that we could go to IKEA the day before. I thought it was a great compromise. So with new dishes ready to be used from my favorite store, we invited some of our favorite people over. I did some searching for some great party food and found a couple of great snacks! 

Today I'm showing 'homemade' pretzel bites. I found the recipe here at a great blog called 'Just Get Off your Butt and Bake.'

Using thawed Rhodes Texas sized rolls (from the freezer section), I cut them into quarters. 

As I was once again reading over the recipe, I realized at this point I was supposed to let the bites rise for 35-45 minutes, to double in size. I swear that part was not there the first time I read the recipe!

Our friends would be arriving in 30 minutes, the bites looked big enough to me so I continued on.

Next I plopped a handful of bites in boiling water. (On a side note, our new stove is amazing. So happy to have a working stove again and we could put the slow cooker away for awhile.)

These little guys looked so wrinkled and shriveled. The blogger assures they will plump back up. Thank goodness.

Next I put them in the oven at 350° for 15 minutes. After about 7 minutes, Gary came into the kitchen and said, "What smells like wax?"

I told him the pretzels were cooking.

He asked what paper I put under the pans.

 I told him whatever was in the cupboard. I was looking for easy cleanup.

Turns out it was wax paper, not parchment paper.

Something I learned this night is that is a big difference. Parchment paper you can bake on. Wax paper you can not. It will melt.

So we had to peel the half-baked pretzels off the wax. We lost a good portion of the bottom of the pretzels.

When they were finally finished baking, we covered the pretzels with melted butter and kosher salt. Thanks to my sister, Sly, for helping me out.

How did they taste, you ask?

GREAT!!! Such an easy recipe and they tasted exactly like hot fresh pretzels. Perfect for any party. Next time I'm going to try parmesean cheese, or cinnamon and sugar.

If you decide to make these, make sure your read the recipe the whole way through, and allow enough time to let the bites rise. Oh yeah, and don't bake them on wax paper.

I Get By with a Little Help from my Friends

I want to dedicate a post today to where I've been inspired lately. Not by individual crafts or recipes - but by blogs that I LOVE to read. It's important to spread the love.

Recently I made a great friend who turns out to be an incredible photographer as well as blogger. Please head over to her blog Shines Photography Blog. While you're there please make sure you follow her link to Shines Photography Website . There you will find some awe inspiring photos.

Next, you should head on over to Retail Minutes. If you enjoy a good laugh and have ever worked in retail you will fall in love with this website. The creator chronicles true encounters he has experienced while working in used book store. If you have a good sense of humor - you'll find yourself at home.

Finally, I'd like to send you lovely folks over to, you guessed it, Young House Love. This is an incredible blog with a ridiculous amount of detail. I hope to one day, have the following they do. This blog follows a young married couple in their daily lives with a complete home makeover as well as adventures with their adorable daughter. This is one fo the thousand blogs I love to read at my leisure. Check it out.


If you like what you've been reading here at Kiss My Smash and are on Facebook - I'd love to see you there too! If you want to show your love click like on the Kiss My Smash Facebook page. Don't worry - I'm going to change the picture there soon with something a bit more respectable.

Thanks for reading. See you tomorrow.

Mug Cake

All over Pinterest there are recipes for mini-cakes cooked in a mug in the microwave. I decided to give a chocolate-peanut butter mug cake a try. I found the recipe here.  Follow me along this mug cake journey, will you?

First - mix the ingredients in a bowl. Second - put mixture in mug. Third - microwave. Fourth - eat. 

The first ingredient is one egg. 

Next I was supposed to add 1 tablespoon of brown sugar. We are fresh our of brown sugar. Nothing could stop me! I googled 'brown sugar substitute' and somehow came upon using powdered sugar, but double the amount you were to use with brown sugar. I gave it a whirl. (These are the sort of decisions are what typically get me into trouble.)

Next I added 2 tablespoons of peanut butter.

Then 1 tablespoon of flour.

Next I added 1 tablespoon of cocoa.

Just an itty bit of baking powder - 1/4 teaspoon.

For fun I added a few mini chocolate chips and peanut butter chips.

Mix, mix, mix.

It filled my mug 1/3 of the way.

Reader: "Oh, Smash, is that a mug with a picture of you and Jessica Simpson?"

Smash: "Why, yes it is. Thank you for noticing."

Reader: "Where on Earth did you find such a gem?!"

Smash: "Oh, my wonderful BFFGF gave it to me for Christmas." (BFFGF = Best Friend Forever Girlfriend)

I popped that beautiful mug in the microwave for one minute. While it was 'cooking' it grew and grew. It was probably 3 inches above the top of the mug. As soon as I turned the microwave off it shrank back down. I wish you could have seen it - but alas my microwave was too dirty to photograph.

I put the cake in a bowl because I wanted to see if the cake would keep form or collapse. Oh hey Jess!

This looks weird, no?

So how did it taste? It definitely satisfied my sweet tooth. Does that mean it was good? Not really. It's good if you have nothing else sweet in your home. Will I make it again? Probably not. The consistency was weird and the flavor was eh. I didn't come close to finishing it. I'd much rather waste my calories on cheese.
Let me know if you decide to make a mug cake. I'd love to hear from you!

The World's Ugliest Craft

I came across a wonderful quote/poem/inspiring words on Pinterest. 

Be soft. 

Do not let the world 

make you hard. 

Do not let the pain

make you hate. 

Do not let the bitterness

steal your sweetness. 

Take pride that

even though

the rest of the world may disagree,

you still believe it to be

a beautiful place. 

I fell in love and I knew I wanted that in my home, somewhere. 

So I bought some stencils, canvas, and mixed up some paint and set to work. 

I chose to keep the stencils in a sheet, rather than cut them out. This required me to either wait until the letter fully dried so I can move on to the next, do something about it. My patience isn't as great as it could be, so I whipped out the old (very old) hairdryer.

So I'm not thrilled with the progress. The paint is still seeping through the back and leaving marks all over the canvas. Which I could have lived with. It could have been a messy, graffiti look. 

BUT - I made the classic Smash mistake. I stenciled the word 'hare' rather than hate. AAHHHH! Can you believe it?

You may remember the pallet sign incident with screwing up the words. This brought me back. 

Then, like a genius, I did not measure the length of my lettering, and did not leave enough room for 'bitterness'. Now I'm bitter.

So, I scratched it - spray painted over it in white for use at another time. You may remember a time when I posted about having a temper tantrum. This was why.

 I then grabbed another canvas (thanks Hobby Lobby for the two-pack) and free-handed it.

And it looked like a fifth grader did it.

So - my sister inspired me to try a great new idea. The idea is simple. Using glue, write out or draw your design. Paint over the dried glue. Then peel up the glue when all the pain has dried. Voila!

So I thought I'd give it a whirl.

Quickly I realized glue spreads. It spreads fast. Letters become globs.

I wrote it all out anyway and let it dry overnight.

Next I painted over the entire canvas.

When the paint finished drying, I peeled up all the glue.

It looked terrible. So I give up for now. I may revisit this another time. But now I must rest. Otherwise I might scream.

Insert Clever Title Here...

As a preface, I'd like to explain why I don't have a title that somewhat explains my project. I made small string balls. I couldn't think of anything with the word 'balls' that didn't make me giggle. I think I might just be immature. 

Now that hopefully I made you giggle thinking about 'balls', I'd like to give you a little backstory. While GB and I visited our amazing friends in North Carolina we spent an afternoon antiquing. It has quickly become one of our favorite things to do.

While searching through an antique store we came across a beautiful boat. The woman who ran the shop told us it was hand carved. Even better. We thought it would look great on our coffee table. 

I knew I'd have to fill it with something, and then I remembered the string balls. 

I made a larger version than what I made this time, for my sister when she graduated grad school. This second time around was just as messy. 

All you need is glue, some cornstarch, water, ballons, and string. 

I tied a string between two chairs in my kitchen and put down an old sheet to catch the drippy mess.

Next I almost passed out blowing up the world's worst balloons. I think they have been sitting too long, or just a crummy brand, but these were the hardest balloons to blow up.

Next I mixed flour, cornstarch and a little bit of water, until it was a thick, yet runny consistency.

Next I dippped string (I just used cheap yarn) in the mixture.

When it was completely soaked in the glue, I began wrapping it around the balloons.

I let it dry overnight.

In the morning the string balls had hardened.

I think I used too much glue, because when I popped the ballons, the balloons were still stuck all around the ball. I just pushed and pulled the balloon away and eventually the balls were free.

The most annoying part was the dried glue in between the string. I had to scrape it all away. Next time I do this, I'll definitely make sure there is less glue on the balloons.

These crappy balloons stained the balls!!! So I spray painted them white. Normally, I would just use clear coat spray paint, but these balls needed the paint. I also could have spray painted them any other color I wanted. Maybe pink or blue for a baby shower? Or wedding party colors for a bridal shower?

After they had dried, I popped them in the boat. I love it! I love how the white pops out.

Let me know what you think of this little project. I'd love to hear from you!