Cake Jell-O Shots and Chaos & Crocodiles “Underwater Treasure”

Woohoo another week almost over!  I’ve got a cake vodka Jell-O shot recipe and an awesome indie polish to show y’all.

Now, I didn’t actually make these Jell-O shots, because, like most people, I have had prior terrible experiences with them.  **Flashback to Peanut Island on the boat taking about six Jell-O shots then drinking anything I could get my hands on in the span of about 30 minutes.  Those things hit like a ton of bricks…it was a very long day and night, we’ll just leave it at that.**  Anywho, my IG friend Brianna texts me during the Alabama college football games and tells me to take shots with her every time Alabama gets a TD (since I usually can’t get the game on my TV).  Well, the first time, plain shots didn’t get her hammerfied enough, so she asked me to post a Jell-O shot recipe made with cake vodka.  I went to Pinterest and this is the simplest recipe I came across.  The link to the blog where I got the recipe can be found here, or I just copied and pasted for you below.

You’ll Need:

2/3 cup cream soda

2/3 cup cranberry juice cocktail

1 tbsp heavy cream

2 envelopes plain gelatin*

2/3 cup cake-flavored vodka

Few drops food coloring, if desired

Whipped cream - fresh or store-bought

Sprinkles for garnish

Make It!

Lightly spray the mold with non-stick spray and wipe excess off with a paper towel.  Don't overdo it or the residue will affect the taste of the Jell-O.**  Pour the soda, juice, and cream into a medium saucepan and sprinkle the gelatin on top. Allow the gelatin to soak for 2-3 minutes, then begin to heat on low, stirring constantly until gelatin is fully dissolved (about 5 minutes).  Remove saucepan from heat and add vodka and food coloring.  Pour into molds and chill for several hours, or until set.  Remove from mold, top with whipped cream, and enjoy responsibly!

*The original recipe suggests 2-3 envelopes, depending on how long your Jell-O shots will be left out (more gelatin for more time).

**Her instructions call for those silicone molds that look like cupcakes.  You can use whatever you normally do for Jell-O shots, they just won’t be as cute as her pictures.

Lovely Miss B used only vodka as her liquid and some food coloring.  We strongly advise against this.  In her words:“Very important note to self: use another liquid besides JUST vodka next time.  Jell-O shots should NOT require a chaser”. 

Brianna's Cake Vodka Jell-O Shots

It's so cute!

Chaos & Crocodlies Underwater Treasure over Revlon Royal

AHH!  This!!  There is so much to look at in this polish!  Little dark and light blue, green, teal, orange and red hex glitter, smaller light blue square, and of course the big round gold meant to look like treasure!  You see something different every time you look at it.  I thought Revlon Royal was a good base color ("undies").  I used two coats of undies and two coats of Underwater Treasure, then two coats of clear - so.much.dry.timeeeee!!  Even with my drying drops.  But I'm the dummy that didn't let each coat dry in between.  I could have gotten away with one coat of the glitter, but as we all know, more glitter = better!! So I slapped a second coat on.  I had no application issues.  It was a little gritty feeling, so that's why I put two coats of clear on, but after that it was nearly perfect.  

This polish was $10.50 a bottle - YIKESSS!  But again, totally worth the money.  Other full size bottles go for $9.75 and minis $4.75.

Awesomesauceballz!  Love love love!  I also ordered Haunted Attraction from Chaos & Crocodiles.  I can't wait til it's October so I can wear it out! :)

Go on over and visit Chaos & Crocodiles' Etsy Shop and like their Facebook Page for updates! 

Let me & Brianna know if you try these Jell-O shots (and actually FOLLOW the recipe)!! We want to know if they're good with the cranberry juice!  Seems like a weird combo - cranberry and cake...??

Have a good weekend lovelies! :) 

Homemade Pickle Vodka and Revlon “Royal”

Happy Weekend!! FINALLY!  I woke up on Tuesday thinking it was Thursday and was all excited that it was the almost-weekend…worst feeling ever!  I’ve actually been doing that a lot lately.  But nobody cares!  On to the good stuff!

Yes, that says “Homemade PICKLE Vodka”.  I know a lot of you (if anyone actually reads this thing) are gonna be all ew gross pickle?! but too bad!  I love pickles, I love vodka.  It’s a natural combination.  There’s this brand of vodka called Naked Jay that sells pickle flavored vodka.  I looked and looked at every liquor store I could find and NO ONE has it (not even Total Wine).  I went as far as to tweet to their account on Twitter and they informed me, sadly, that they do not sell in Florida…YET!  SO, in the meantime I had to get myself a recipe to make that shit!  I really wish I still had the website/blog whatever where I got it so I could give them a shout out, but I don’t.  So, disclaimer: this isn’t my recipe and I didn’t make it up!

You’ll Need:

• 750 mL Vodka (they recommended a higher end brand because cheap vodka may affect the end taste – I bought Smirnoff)
• 2 Cucumbers
• 6 Cloves of Garlic
• Dill (they didn't say how much so I bought a bunch in a package from Wal-Mart and used the whole bunch)
• 1 Jalapeno
• Some sort of container with a seal to keep it in (I got like a lemonade/tea pitcher with the spout thing on the bottom..?  Yeah, I don’t know what it’s called – there’s a picture so you know what I’m talking about)

Make It!

Cut up the cucumbers into ½ inch slices, peel the garlic cloves but leave them whole*, take the stems off the dill, slice the jalapeno into quarters**.  Put all ingredients in the container then pour in the vodka.  Let it sit for 3-4 days and then make yourself a damn Bloody Mary for having such patience!!

*I smashed a few of the garlic cloves a little with the back of a knife to make it more garlic-y tasting.

**If you don’t like really spicy stuff, take the seeds and junk out of the middle of the pepper – that’s where the spice comes from.  I left everything in and it’s not THAT spicy.  Don’t forget to wash your hands and not touch your eyes/face after cutting it!

Like I said, make a Bloody Mary with this (recipe on my “The Classics” post).  I don’t know what you could possibly drink pickle vodka with and I’m not about to try mixing it with anything else!  I kinda tweaked the Bloody Mary recipe because I thought the vodka would have turned spicier than it actually was. 

Here’s how I made my Pickle Bloody Mary:

Start with the Pickle Vodka, 3 dashes What’s-This-Here Sauce, Lemon Pepper Seasoning (only a little because the jalapeno adds some peppery taste).  Then fill the cup with ice, add V8 & Clamato juice, top it off with more lemon than usual.  Drank it up!

This stuff really does taste a lot like pickles guys!  I added more lemon than normal because you don’t get the vinegary bite since, duh, there’s no vinegar added in it.  Otherwise, it’s a fuckin’ liquid pickle!  Amazeballs!  I guess you can just leave it out on the counter.  That’s what I’ve been doing.  I’m pretty sure the vodka will kill any bacteria.  But, if I turn up dead in a few weeks we can blame it on me ingesting some weird pickle-vodka-mold-fungus-grossness.  I will probably move it to the fridge soon – just in case.

Looks so good!

This is that container I was talking about.

Revlon Royal

Holy blue! I’m on a blue/turquoise kick lately and WOW!  I saw this in the store and couldn’t believe that was the color in the bottle.  I thought it was wrapped in a different color plastic or something.  If you find it or have it, I think you know what I mean.  Naturally, I had to add it to my collection. 

The picture really doesn't do it justice.  You HAVE to see it in person!

I guess you could classify this as a “jelly” polish.  Forgive me, I have a nail polish blog but am totally not up on the lingo.  Holos, hex, bar, jelly, whatever guys!  It’s all nail polish!  I DO know a jelly is that kinda see-through pretty stuff that you need like, five coats to fully cover your nails – good for the jelly sammiches that I wanted to try…andeventually will. 

It’s a speed-dry polish too and it really dries super fast!  The only thing I don’t like about it is it dries matte so I HAD to put a topcoat on in.  I don’t know about y’all, but any time I put a topcoat on is always when I end up smudging, so I try to stay away from it.  Nothing wrong with mattes, but I just thought it would be shiny – and I think it looks prettier like this. 

Two Coats Revlon Royal with a Topcoat.

Wow, I'm really pale.

I used two coats of Royal and a topcoat.  By Wednesday I had a lot of chips.  I will, however, blame that on Tequila Tuesdays when my friend and I split two pitchers of margaritas and a shot of tequila each.  Got a little outta control there for a couple hours.  You know tequila, no explanations are necessary ;)

Have a great weekend y’all and tell your daddies Happy Father’s Day on Sunday!