Pirate Party Food Labels

The task was to make food labels for the dishes that would be served at a pirate-themed birthday party for a two-year old. The boy’s mother gave me a list of 11 food names that she already made up. The list included Dead Man’s Fingers (hotdogs), Cannonballs (meatballs), Salty Bones (pretzels), Parrot Wings (chicken wings), and Treasure (colored pasta salad).

Of course, the first thing I did was Google pirate party food labels to get an idea of what others have created. And because the boy had been a huge fan of Jake and the Neverland Pirates, I tried looking for images I could use. Thank you, Internet, for the pictures! (Actually, Disney encourages pirate parties. Check out their "Planning a Pirate Party" page.)

So, here are the steps in making the pirate food labels that graced our birthday boy’s pirate party.

1. Gather all the images. Google and right click to “save image”. Jake and the Neverland Pirate images are available online in high resolution versions. Choose the skull-and-bones image to use for the flags. Pick a scroll image to use as the background of the text. Search for free fonts and pick a pirate type, then download so that you can use it on your image manipulation application (like Photoshop).

2. Arrange, size, and print your images. Print a sample and complete one prototype food label before making an entire batch.

3. Prepare the tools and materials: Barbecue sticks, olive skewers (snip off the sharp ends), black colored paper, adhesive tape, fancy scissors (wavy is good for the pirate theme), regular scissors, double-sided tape (or glue), hole puncher.

4. Print your images on regular bond paper.

5. Cut the labels and colored paper then tape (or glue together) to make the banners.

6. Punch the holes at the ends of the printed scrolls.

7. Cut the skull-and-bones images into little flags and tape them onto the barbecue sticks.

8. Tape a barbecue stick onto the back of a banner.

9. Slide an olive skewer through the holes in the banner (this adds dimension to the banners), and secure the skewers with a small piece of tape to prevent them from slipping off.

And there you have it! 

Be creative in making up pirate names for the foodstuff you will serve at the party. Enjoy!

10/10/15 Update: I see that a lot of people come to my blog to check out these pirate party food labels. If you want me to make a set for you, please email me: rubybayan@gmail.com so that we can discuss. Please note that I am currently based in Manila. :)

Turbo Corn on the Cob

I used to cook corn unhusked in boiling water. Then we acquired a turbo broiler. I thought, if I can grill meat in the broiler, it makes sense that I can grill corn there too. Since then, I have never cooked corn any other way. Now our corn on the cob treats are juicy, tasty, and so addictive.

Here are the steps to cooking the best corn on the cob: 

1. Purchase raw corn ears that look fresh. Avoid those that have dried husks. Peek into the husks to check that the kernels are plump and not drying out.
   
2. Cut off the tips to remove the hair and the back ends. You might want to use a cleaver to chop off the back end – I twist the scissors around the base of the corn until the stalk is severed enough to allow me to break it off.
   
   
   
3. Place them in the turbo broiler and set the temperature to 450 degrees F. 
   
   
   
4. Cook for 20 minutes.
   
   
   
5. Enjoy!
   
   

Remember: Corn is healthy food. It's what you add to the corn (salt, butter, cheese, mayonnaise, catsup, maple syrup, bacon, pot roast, full rack of ribs, etc.) that makes it unhealthy. Truth.

The Hobbit Costume Projects: Fili Vest

I volunteered to build the Fili vest for Nina, a friend who's costuming this Hobbit dwarf, mainly because I wanted to make the scales trim using polymer clay. Much like what I did for the Thorin scalemail shirt for Oneal.

Looking at the official Fili image, I figured I’d have to make roughly 150 scales. I estimated I would need 7-10 pieces of 2-oz brown/copper/beige polymer clay bricks. I also figured I’d require about a yard of 54-inch wide material, preferably faux leather or costume suede. I found everything I needed at a crafts and fabric store and bought them with discount coupons.

I worked on the scales first. I had made a positive and a negative mold of the four different forms, so it was just a matter of pulling 150 positives. Bake, then paint, and done!




It was my first time to sew a vest, and my first time to work with suede (definitely more manageable than marine vinyl). So, I was learning as I went along. More like winging it.

Guided by the measurements Nina sent me, I cut a paper pattern. I thought I had it right but after I had cut the fabric, I realized I could’ve done a Dolman sleeve instead of a regular sleeve. That would have been easier to sew, and would’ve looked closer to the Fili original. But, with no extra material to revise my design, I went ahead with what I had already cut.




It was nice working with the costume suede because it doesn’t fray (didn't have to do any serging). And the fabric surface, while feeling a bit plastic-y, does not get tacky under the sewing machine’s pressure foot. I just had to guide the material so that it wouldn’t swerve too much.

 

As soon as I finished sewing, I laid out the scales to check if I had enough. It turned out that I had made too many because I had counted the scales on the real Fili, without thinking that Nina’s measurements are certainly much smaller.




Using super glue, I attached all the scales very carefully. No major mishaps aside from the three times that I tore off a piece of finger skin that had bonded with a clay scale.

Fili Vest with natural light.

Fili Vest with camera flash.

Overall, it was an easy project – a couple hours for measuring and cutting the pattern and material, maybe three to four hours sewing the vest, and an hour gluing the scales. Preparing the 150 clay scales -- conditioning, shaping, baking, and painting -- probably took the longest in terms of manhours. But you really don’t bother counting the hours when you’re having fun!

The best part of all: bragging rights!

Photo taken at the premier of Desolation of Smaug in Manila, December 2013 with Nina (Fili), Dante (Lord Elrond) and Oneal (Thorin Oakenshield).

How to Eat a Giant Muffin at Your Workstation

I love those giant muffins! Don’t you? They’re close to 800 calories, so I really don’t eat a whole one in one sitting. Most of the time, I carry the muffin to my workstation and hack away at it little by little all day. Sometimes I’m a good girl and just take a bite or two and then put it away for another day.

  

This giant muffin eating habit gave me dilemma, though. When I put the muffin on a plate, take it to my workstation, and chip away at it gradually, the cake breaks apart and then it becomes difficult to eat without dropping crumbs on the floor, the desk, and, of course, my keyboard.

Whether I eat with my fingers, chopsticks (I tried), a fork, or a spoon, or even when I just lift the entire muffin up to my mouth, morsels always end up where they shouldn’t. I’ve had to scrape stepped-on goodness from the floor, invert-tap my keyboard to dislodge wayward nuts and sugar crystals, and lift crumbs off the eyeglasses hanging from my neck. Very cumbersome.

The solution: a reusable, re-sealable food container. I discovered that the Rubber Maid one-cup food container is just the right size for a giant muffin. I remove the paper under the muffin and plop the enormous treat in the container. 

The bonus, I can close the container shut anytime I feel guilty for indulging.

A muffin-in-a-container also takes up much less space at my workstation than a muffin-on-a-plate. 

Using a teaspoon, I scoop a mouthful as I hold the container up close to my chin. All the loose particles stay in the cup and I get to eat each and every one of them without having to tip my keyboard. 

Giant muffin eating dilemma solved!

Snack Chopsticks

My son grew up in front of the computer. The mouse and keyboard are extensions of his arms. So if he needs to eat while interfacing with his tech, which he does all the time, he needs to be able to put food in his mouth without dirtying his typing/gaming fingers. While a spoon and fork work with most food stuff, they’re not really efficient for snacks like potato chips and cheese curls.

I wouldn’t doubt that my son thought of this first, but yes, he uses chopsticks to eat snacks when multi-tasking with tech.

Pretty soon, I was using chopsticks too while working on my articles and blogs (I actually have a snack set beside me right now). This blog is not about using chopsticks – I bet everyone already knows that. This is about how to reuse the chopsticks.

You’ll notice that only the tips of the chopsticks get dirtied by the cheese curls. And when you don’t care to finish the whole bag of snacks, you close the bag (or plastic container) and throw the wooden sticks away (no, you don't want to reuse some old and nasty cruddy infected stick tips!). So you’ll have to get a new set of sticks for the next time you feel the urge for salty cheesy snacks. Ergo, you’ll need a lot of chopsticks on standby.

Of course, you can get a pair of metal chopsticks (which my son gave me some time ago -- he had a spare), and you can wash them after every use. But if you don't want to have to bother about washing the sticks, or you only have those sticks they give out at the Chinese restaurant, then here’s how to make the most of the wooden sticks -- without having to leave your workstation.

Cut off the dirty tips with a pair of cutting pliers, pruning shears, or a cleaver (you should have one of these implements in your workstation drawer so you won’t have to stand up to get it). 

Feed the newly-cut tips into your pencil sharpener (also a mandatory implement in your work area).

And there you have it – a clean pair of wooden chopsticks for your next cheesy snack.

Tip: It’s okay to pull out a new set of whole chopsticks when the reused ones are already less than three inches long.