Need a little more Star Wars in your life?  Inspired by this summer’s Clone Cupcakes and the Stuff on a Stick contest on Instructables, I was inspired the other day to create this tasty little Clone Army…

The pops are basically Rolo candies, covered in marshmallow fondant, with fondant details.  No baking required!

Though I do admit that they are a bit time consuming…

But were definitely appreciated by the young Star Wars fans…

Wanna Make them yourself?

I’ve written up the whole thing as an instructable, with tons of photos and instructions for both the clone troopers and the storm trooper versions…  Click the image below, or go here…

One my sweetie’s favorite libations (other than a fancy craft beer!) on a summer evening is Citron & Tonic. So last time we were at the store, eyeing the big $30 bottle of Absolut Citron, we decided to see if we could make something similar (or even better) ourselves, for less money! I’d read previously that you could filter cheap vodka and get it closer to premium vodka using a water filter pitcher–and we already knew how to infuse spirits with citrus (remember Making Limoncello?) –, so we figured why not try?

We bought a less expensive vodka* and went home to experiment!  On the way we stopped for a water filtering picture. We ended up with the $10 Brita 5 cup pitcher which works quite well for this application. The cup size is immaterial, since you’re basically just using the filter part.

How to make Citrus Vodka from Cheap Vodka

The theory is that vodka is vodka, it’s just the filtering of the impurities and the multiple distillations that makes it premium.  You’re certainly not going to be able to get awesome vodka from rotgut, but perhaps we could improve the quality.   Then to infuse it with lovely citrus flavor!  You could, of course, use any citrus, but we chose orange and lemon because that’s what we had on hand. You’ll need:

• Vodka
• 1 Orange and 1 half Lemon
• Filter pitcher
• Coffee filter and large rubber band

Filtering

If you have a new pitcher, follow the instructions for first use enclosed with your pitcher. Attach a coffee filter to the bottom of the pitcher filter, as shown below.

Then, setting up the pitcher as shown below, pour your vodka into filter, and let it flow through to the pitcher.

Repeat 3 times.  We found it easiest to move the filter setup to another pitcher we had on hand, so we could just pour from one pitcher to another. Note:  A pint glass is perfect for holding the filter when it’s not on a pitcher.

Infusing

While your waiting for your vodka to filter, use your microplane (you DO have one, right? They are awesome.) to zest away just the orange part of your orange, leaving the white pith.**   Repeat with lemon.  We only had 1/2 lemon on hand, so that’s what we used–a whole one would probably be fine too.

Use a funnel to deposit your zest in the original vodka bottle.  A chopstick can help you poke it down in there.

Pour your vodka back into the bottle.

Let sit about a week, til the vodka is nicely and fragrant, and a little yellow.  I’m sure a little longer wouldn’t hurt, but we found ours to be nicely flavored after a week.

Strain the vodka through a couple of layers of cheesecloth to remove most of the zest.  (A gravy separator worked fine for this.)

Chill, and enjoy!

Does the Filtering Work?

We had a blind taste test with a couple of friends after the filtering process, and there was a definite difference in taste and smoothness. All participants picked the unfiltered original vodka as the cheap stuff.

I’m sure this is not a Brita approved use of the filter, so of course all this is at your own risk.  I have no idea if it will ruin the filter or anything.  We did notice some of the charcoal dissolved, maybe from the vodka (hence the extra coffee filter to ensure we didn’t have charcoal-y vodka).

*note, you can really decent vodka for around $20 for the big one, but unfortunately this brand–picked randomly because we liked the bottle (bad way to pick)– was not very good. We did a taste test, and I’d recommend the Smirnoff Triple Distilled as a good less expensive option. Luksusowa is also quite good.

** If you don’t have a microplane, you can zest with a zester or a paring knife, just be sure to avoid the pith.  And you may want to increase the amount of orange, since the pieces won’t be as small.

Here’s a fun little way to keep your kid occupied for a bit, and also use up some of the scraps you have in your stash from various projects. The Boy has been obsessed with the game Spore, particularly the fun of character creation.  (Yes, we’re raising a geek child, why do you ask!?)  And while he has a lot of fun playing it on the computer, he does need a break from ’screen time’ sometimes (not if you asked HIM, of course!).   He’s never really been into arts and crafts – short attention span from too many video games, I suppose – but he did have a lot of fun with this crafty activity.

Basically, I had a bunch old fabric scraps that I had lying around the house (leftover cloth from Dragon Wings, the ends of his pants that I had cut off into shorts for summer, pieces of ribbon, that sort of thing).  I cut these into random shapes, both geometric and organic, not really worrying about neatness– there were circles, squares, spikes, and just random triangle like pieces, in a variety of colors and fabrics.

I had picked up a nice mixed pack of googly eyes in the Dollar Spot at Target the other day, so I added some random eyes to the mix.

I made a couple of large squares out of leftover brown fleece (from Perry the Platypus’ tail!) to serve as a base for the designs.

Then just let him go to town making up his own creatures.  We didn’t glue anything together (although you could certainly do so)– I just let him make up his monsters, then took pictures of them to ‘Save’ them (my little video game junkie understands that analogy!)

It was his idea to get some markers to add additional decorations and designs.

Then when he was finished, we just rolled up the cloth, with the pieces inside, and it went into his art box for future use!

We’ll return to our regularly scheduled Dabbled this week, but first some photos of the Cuteness on his first day of school. You’ll note he’s skeptical about this whole school thing, but we did manage to get a smile out of him finally!

Boy starts kindergarten next week and we’re enjoying the end of summer vacation!

I have bunches of stuff coming up, including making your own citron vodka… so stay tuned!  In the mean time, go check out my latest recipe on Foodwhirl! (Vidalia Onion Shrimp Cakes!)

Car Launcher… In Action

Just had a odd experience where someone left a comment on one of my Instructables accusing me of stealing the idea for my Hot Wheels Car Launcher.  At first I was like ‘dude, I’m sure other people have thought of similar things in the vast internets’, then I googled and found what he was talking about.   The car launcher in the video was exactly like mine.   But the video was by Make Magazine, who had published my How To on the Car Launcher last December (the Kids Issue).  So the guy was basically accusing me of ripping off my own design.  So no worries.  But I had totally missed the video — it was really cool to see someone else building my design, and showing it off to the world!  So I figured I’d link to it here:  How to Make (DotatDabbled’s) Hot Wheels Car Launcher video.

The “What to pack in the lunch box” Dilemma

In August over at Foodwhirl we’re going to be talking about what to pack your kids for lunch.  And apparently, according to the feedback I’ve gotten back,  everyone wants ideas! So let’s start an idea exchange… Do you have a go-to lunch idea for sending with the kids that holds up until lunchtime, is liked by the kids, and isn’t a PB&J?   Or just some good tips?  On Facebook one of the commenters was looking for ways to keep a lunch warm (like a quesadilla) without using a thermos.  Leave a comment (or email) and I’ll compile all the ones I get for a post on Foodwhirl.

Also, Foodwhirl is looking for some guest posters to talk about handling the lunch dilemma–or good posts on the subject to link to..- check here for details on participating!

Admire my mad design skills

I finished a new website, by the way (That web design thing that’s been keeping me super busy this summer and cutting into the quality time I can spend with you guys! ).  It’s a super simple one, but I think it looks lovely–and is a good example of simple doesn’t equal boring…. So if you need house cleaning in Atlanta, click on through!