Monday, July 19, 2010

Name Change

Hey Followers!

Just letting everyone know, I've decided to change the name of this blog from The Vanilla Bean to Vanilla in Beantown. I just thought it was a little bit more original and accurate, since I'm Vanilla and I'm in Beantown (Boston). That's it for today, but don't worry, more blogs coming soon!

Monday, June 21, 2010

It's Been Almost a Year....

Hey everyone!

I have seriously let this blog down in the past year and that upsets me. So in the coming months I'm going to be working harder on it. There are a few entries that are backlogged and need to be posted, as well as a few I'd love to write. I'm also thinking a custom background design is in order, to give it some personality.

I'm aching to write a tutorial on starting a freshwater community, but I want to wait until I set up my next one so I can take pictures and whatnot. So that probably won't be anytime soon. When I eventually start working on my saltwater pico, I'm going to make that into a series of posts since there's not too much out there about smaller saltwater set-ups.

One thing that's also been seriously neglected is horror reviews. I promise I will make up for that as soon as possible! The first one will probably be The Poughkeepsie Tapes, so look forward to it!

I'm also going to be going through past posts and fixing any mistakes as well as adding pictures where appropriate. If anyone has any tips on where to get/how to make a custom background scheme for blogs, please let me know in the comments!


Cheers,
Nilla

Yummy Gummies (and easy too!)

And I've been slacking, as always. Well, here is a quick recipe entry for something sweet to snack on this summer!

Ingredients:
1 6 oz box of Jell-O (or knock off) mix
1 cup of water
Powdered Sugar or Corn Starch

Tools:
Measuring cup
1 small pot
Mold of some sort
A spoon


Directions:

In your small pot, boil 1 cup of water (does not need to be exact). When it's boiling, slowing mix in your jello. Keep stirring and boiling until it gets rather thick. The thicker it is, the more chewy your gummies will be. When it gets to the right consistency, turn off the heat. Slowly pour the mixture into your molds, and put it in the fridge or freezer. I used a silicone mold and forgot to grease it up first, but they came out fine. Had to use my fingers to dig them out in one piece though.

Storage:

There are probably lots of ways to store them, and my favorite would be a ziplock. Since I'm out of those, I used an old cream cheese container. If you don't want them to stick together, dust with powdered sugar or corn starch. I'm keeping mine in the refrigerator, but depending on how thick yours are, you may be able to get away with storage in a cool room.

Alternative:

To make them more gummy like, use 1 1/2 cups of water, as well as 2 teaspoons of knox gelatin. If you're vegan, use pectin instead.