Resurrecting Marshmallows

About twice a year, I buy a bag of marshmallows. Once in summer, prior to our annual camping trip to Mount Baker, in which I convince myself this is the year T and I are going to gorge ourselves on s'mores (spoiler alert: we haven't yet). And once in November, when I buy a bag of minis, so I can put a cup full into the Thanksgiving ambrosia. 

And then the opened bag promptly goes into the back of the pantry, where it goes to die, until a couple months later when I think to myself "perhaps I should make some rice krispie treats". And then I get discouraged because I see the marshmallows are already sad, stale, and wrinkly. 

Like this. Have you ever bitten into one of these and realized what a snow cone made out of styrofoam must taste like, and regretted all your choices?

Sure, a large bag of marshmallows only costs $4, but I feel pretty "meh" about using only a couple and then throwing the rest of the bag out. So I was pretty excited when a few years back, I learned the coolest trick.

My guess is that many of you also don't use the ends of your sandwich bread loaves? Let's put them to work. Those slices can resurrect your marshmallows!  Simply place the slice in a storage container with your bag of mallows, and let it work its magic overnight. That's it. Less than 24 hours later you will now have soft, fluffy, restored pillows of sugar. 

How does it work? The marshmallows draw the moisture out the bread, re-plumping the marshmallow and dehydrating the slice of bread. And you can set it and forget it. Because the bread loses all its moisture, it just becomes crusty and doesn't mold.

This week, I decided I wanted to put together some quick and easy treats while cleaning out my pantry. Out came the stale large marshmallows, a few leftover semi-sweet baking chocolate squares, and 1/4 cup of graham crumbs leftover from previous recipes (and definitely not enough for a cheesecake crust). 

I melted the chocolate in the microwave (30 seconds at a time), and once the chocolate melted, dipped each marshmallow first in chocolate and then in graham crumbs. Then, leave the treats for a couple hours for the chocolate to solidify, and now you have single-bite poppable s'more treats!

Note: you can do the bread trick before or after dipping the marshmallows, or even leave a slice in with the treats to keep them fresh and fluffy for the week.

Verdict: I've now swapped some stale scraps from the back of my pantry for some decadent snacks!

DIY Doormat Restoration

We're all familiar with Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle, but I like focusing on some additional "R"s, in particular, Repair, Restore, Refresh, and Rejuvenate. By far the easiest way to save money and reduce waste is to extend the life of the things you have. And with these additional R's, making the most of your belongings doesn't mean you have to live with shabby items or never update a look.

This week, I took on refreshing the look of my doormat. What used to be a vibrant Mediterranean or terra cotta color palette, started to fade after a year:

and was shabby (not chic) after two.

I had seen some other folks update their doormats by painting them, so decided to give it a go. 

The first step was to dry it out (hello, Seattle winters!), and knock off any loose pine needles, dog hair, etc. 

Next, I prepared the surface by taking a good scrub brush to it, just for a minute. You could also use some sandpaper. The goal here was to remove as much dirt as possible as well as any loose paint from the prior design. I didn't take it fully down to the black surface, because I'm going to paint right over it.

Check out all that loose paint... It's more than I expected, so don't skip this step.

Next, I painted the raised surfaces of the doormat. I liked the original color scheme, so I tried to stay close with my colors, but you could use this opportunity to create a whole new look. Next time, I'm going for ocean colors! 

I used a semi-firm flat edged brush for creating clean lines. Now the material of these mats is fairly absorbant. It took more paint than I expected. Take your time, and push the paint into the surface with your brush. Don't try to achieve coverage with a thick coat, or you'll risk filling in the texture of the mat and creating a slippery surface. Instead, opt for a second coat.

After your paint is dry, you can add a thin coat of outdoor sealant. I used this spray urethane. The spray enables an easy thin application, but it also comes in a brush-on format. The purpose of this product is to add some water- and UV-proofing to extend the life of the paint. The important thing with sealants is to use a well-ventilated area, such as a garage with open doors and windows. You also want to make sure you are not using a gloss finish, and that you do a thin application, again so you don’t create a slippery surface.

Let me say it again: use a satin or matte, not gloss! 

Allow to dry for 24 hours, and you're good to put it back outside and enjoy your newly welcoming front door.

This project ended up being completely free. The paints I received from Buy Nothing, and the sealant was leftover from a previous project. If you aren't able to get free supplies, they still don't need to be top of the line - this was created with cheap craft acrylics, which average $1-2 per bottle retail. 

Overall savings: $20.