And if you like them, I’d be much obliged if you’d go vote for my pops to win the Stuff on a Stick contest on instructables!

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…

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.

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!

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!)