Revamping the Thick Shake with Alex 😏: Bananas B' Slippin'

For our final installment here, we went back to our roots, or should I say tree because bananas grow on trees and roots have trees-I mean trees have roots so it can work there right hehe cool. Anyhow, back on our second blog, we did that Banana-Orange Thick Shake so I'm coming back to it and doing the Banana Thick Shake! The author says, "You don't need ice cream to make a thick, cold shake" (Pinkwater 49). I kind of went out of sequence so I already know that this thick cold shake can roll out well. The book calls for:

1 banana, peeled and sliced

1 cup milk

1 tsp. honey

1/4 tsp. nutmeg

1/2 cup cracked ice cubes

We also need a blender like the last thick shake called for:

I'm gonna miss making these cute setup photos

As you'd think, you have to throw it all in the blender, minus the nutmeg and it looks scrumptious:

Nutmeg is expensive and can be lethal in large doses

So you blend that for 30 seconds and hey look at that you have the Banana Thick Shake as advertised! I forgot to show the final product and me sprinkling the nutmeg in like the steak guy meme with the salt but if it truly puzzles you, go to my second post and imagine the drink a little less orange. But yeah, the thick shake was very banana-y and a bit more crisp in my opinion which I think is due to the crushed ice cubes. Anyhow, that's it. We went through the cyclic mind of big hopes, losing those hopes, and compromising with what we can. How beautiful. Along the way, I also learned how to mix well, what kinds of bowls to use, adding a little more of the variable ingredients, and how some things are gross by nature. Thank you guys up an hour before the due date who understand the struggle of procrastination. See ya fellers around and remember, stay chill 😎.

Question: Why can we buy things that can kill us in slightly large amounts i.e. nutmeg?

Pinkwater, Jill. The Natural Snack Cookbook: 151 Good Things to Eat. New York: Four Winds,   
    1975. Print.

The Delectable Orange Milk Drink Extravaganza with Alex 😃: Orange You Glad It's Not Lemon?

Welcome back to Alex giving up on other things and just making drinks. Today we're going to make the orange milk drink, one I've been looking forward to mainly because the author says, "If you like the way milk sherbet tastes, you'll like this and the following drink" (Pinkwater 46). She had me at sherbet. Anyhow we're going to need:

1/2 cup orange juice

3/4 cup ice cold milk

That and our favorite equipment of a bowl, mixer, and measuring utensils:

I also had Donald Duck orange juice

So first, the book calls for us to throw it all into the mixing bowl surprisingly and I feel you guys can just picture an orangey milk so I didn't capture the moment. Next we need to mix that good-good until it's nice and fluffy. Milk and OJ can only get so fluffy by themselves so the process went over pretty quick. Then bam!That's all. This is why I love these drinks from the book because while I'm not the most successful with making an amazing one, they're made quite quick. Some things this has taught me is man, I can get down on a mixer and mix some stuff up which I feel is a great skill. That and I was innovative and took off the foam from the top of the drink and it was a lot better. This drink was really just a milk that tasted a little more orangey for fun but it was pretty bomb. I'm glad this one fulfilled what little I believed in it. Anyhow, my last drink is going to be another thick shake and I hope we can finish this off strong. See ya next time fellers!

Dad approved this one

Question: Do you like sherbet, especially the green, pink, and orange stuff you buy by the quart.

Pinkwater, Jill. The Natural Snack Cookbook: 151 Good Things to Eat. New York: Four Winds,   
    1975. Print.

The Super Fun Lemon Milk Drink with Alex 😔: Sour Power

I'm not sure entirely why I decided to put lemon and milk together but if this book hasn't brought me fantastically delicious natural snacks as advertised, I would've never. After my 1 am trip to the grocery store for the ingredients I'll need for the next three rapid-fire posts, I was ready to get lemony fresh and also milky fresh I guess. Jill Pinkwater didn't give a little detail or fun caption to this recipe so in the passage for the "Beverages" section, she says, "Unfortunately, with the exception of dietetic drinks, that are loaded with chemicals, all flavored sodas and most fruit drinks available are full of sugar" (Pinkwater 41). The sentence still holds true today and nothing really gets more straightforward and healthy with said ingredients:

1 tbs. of lemon juice

1 tbs. of honey

1 cup of ice cold milk

Surprising I got all those things and set them up super nice:

Wow I got it all!

We also need the basics of a bowl, a mixer, and some measuring utensils of course. To get started, I threw (and dripped for the honey) into the bowl as delicately shown here:

I hate how slow honey drips

Next I mixed the ingredients until it's fluffy as the book calls for. My whipping skills are obsolete these days to it was a matter of no time until my beautiful milky lemony drink was ready:

I can't wait...

Mmm tasty mmm mmm. I poured it into a measuring cup and then a cup (because bowls are hard to pour into a cup) and took a sip. Can you guess how amazing this foam tasted!?!?!? It scars my taste buds to this day. I had my father (the only one brave enough to say yes) try it and he promptly said drank a Powerade afterwards. Shows just how exhilarating and pumped you can get off such a refreshing drink. One thing I took away from this experience is how if a product doesn't sound good, it probably isn't good. Another things is that the drink is more concentrated than the foam it also has so in my next drink I made, I took that into consideration and it was a lot better. Luckily, my next blog will tell you all about that drink! See you next time fellers and don't forget to bring mouthwash.

The final product

Question: How much honey does it take for you before things actually start tasting better/sweeter than before? 

Pinkwater, Jill. The Natural Snack Cookbook: 151 Good Things to Eat. New York: Four Winds,   
    1975. Print.

Mixing paints should really work better

More painting that is difficult. This time I focused more on mixing paints and the effects that had on the colors. “It is pretty hard to mix the acrylic paints and the reason behind this phenomenon is that they usually get dried very quickly especially when compared to oil paints” (208 Montgomery). Challenge accepted Montgomery. I quickly learned that this very true and quite the issue. As well as the fact that certain different types of acrylic paints don't completely mix and will leave undertones of a certain color while the other color is still seen.

Though I also learned that if I used this technique correctly it would look pretty cool. One of the hints given by the book was also to mix early. Then just add a little water if the color gets to hard. "Think of the colors you want so when the paint dries it doesn't become streaky as your busy mixing your paints" (279 Montgomery). The colors I used did leave a undertone of the different colors but that was what I was hoping for.

Do you think this streaky undertone look could be a painting technique you would use or not?

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Montgomery, Aurora. Acrylic Painting: Acrylic Painting For Beginners - The Complete Crash Course To Learning The Basics Of Acrylic Painting In No Time! (Acrylic Painting For Beginners, Oil Painting, Acrylic Painting) UNKNOWN. Kindle Edition