Playing with food and other such randomness

Linoleum Scuffs

My son uses his little chair from his art/breakfast table as a step stool around the house.  I don’t mind this practice at all, it means he’s more self-sufficient, however, the chair was painted by an 8^th grader who decided it was important that the bottom of the chair legs also be red and yellow.  This means major paint scuffs on the linoleum which does not come off with regular mopping.  I read on Yahoo a tip to rub toothpaste into the scuff to remove it.  It worked alright, but it required a lot of scrubbing.  Anyone have a better solution?

Before..

...and after.  It's not perfect, but it's a big improvement!

Edible Play dough… Known in my house as Peanut Butter Balls

Confession- I used to love to watch Jon and Kate Plus 8.  You don’t have to tell me how ridiculous this is, I’m aware.  Anyway, on one episode Kate makes the kids edible play dough out of equal parts peanut butter, honey, and powdered milk.  I called my sister afterwards to tell her of this wonderful idea, and she laughed and laughed.  Apparently that is EXACTLY my mother’s peanut butter ball recipe.  Either way, Spencer loves it.  He and my mom make peanut butter balls on a regular basis in small batches, rolling them in a little powdered sugar and storing them in the fridge or freezer.  They're delicious, too.

Spreadable Cream Cheese

We go through a fair amount of cream cheese in our house- Spencer loves bagels and frozen waffles with the stuff, and my husband and I love Triscuits with cream cheese and jalapeno pepper jelly.  We generally buy cream cheese in brick form, but I miss the texture of the spreadable kind.  I had an epiphany the other day when I remembered a trick from working in my college cafeterias.  There were two, and they both used the same bricks of cheese, but one threw theirs in the standing mixer for a few minutes to whip it up, and the other did not.  The whipped was MUCH better.  To duplicate this, throw your brick of cream cheese in the mixer with the whisk attachment for a few minutes.  That’s it.  So much better.

I know this is the paddle attachment, but the whisk worked so much better!

Delicious!!

NEXT WEEK: Soft Pretzels!