My Amerisleep AS3 Unboxing Video (Surprise, my voice is ridiculous!) If I can (just barely) do it, you can totally tackle a bed-in-a-box by yourself. Updated 10/15/22 Amerisleep's AS5 was recently featured as the 'Best Soft Mattress in a Box' by Good Housekeeping , with the panel of reviewers noting: Pressure relief for side sleepers Taller than other boxed mattresses Good customer service Amerisleep Mattress Reviews We've been happy Amerisleep customers since purchasing our first AS3 mattress more than 9 years ago. Now we also have an AS2 and an AS4 (the AS3 is still our favorite). Born with chronic insomnia (even as a baby - my family insists I was a nightmare), the struggle to improve my sleep is my life. My husband, the overly-analytical mechanical engineer, was initially skeptical of a mail-order mattress, but he was quickly won over. 2012: Wine glass test, sans wine. I was fairly confident our brand-new mattress would pass with f
Annual repost because these Melting Snowman Cookies always make an appearance and you need to learn from our mistakes, LOL.
"I'm Melting! Melting..."
Melting Snowman Cookies
You know those adorable melting snowman cookies that have been popping up all across the blogosphere lately? The ones with the charming little scarves and glossy icing? These are not quite those cookies.
I wanted to make something that would knock the socks off of the girls at work for our cookie exchange. Knock their socks off but also not take too long or cost too much or require too much effort, you know?
Problem #1? No eggs. Unfazed, I found a great shortbread recipe that used powdered sugar, flour, and butter to make an egg-free cookie. I mixed up the dough and started a load of dishes, mixer parts included, while it chilled.
Problem #1? No eggs. Unfazed, I found a great shortbread recipe that used powdered sugar, flour, and butter to make an egg-free cookie. I mixed up the dough and started a load of dishes, mixer parts included, while it chilled.
Problem #2? Fearing they would burn, my first 2 pans of cookies were severely under-cooked. Why is it that you can't just put doughy cookies back into the oven and have them bake like they'd been undisturbed all along? Fearing that I'd invest the rest of my day decorating cookies that were inedible, I waited for the dishwasher to finish, then mixed up a brand new batch, complete with an additional hour of chilling time.
Problem #3? (Nothing is easy, right?) I'd saved a trip to the store by finding an egg-free, powdered sugar-filled recipe. Ready to decorate, I realized I'd used so much powdered sugar in the cookies that I didn't have enough left to make icing. Sexy Nerd found an old tub of frosting, one neither of us remembers buying, in the back of our pantry. It was incredibly thick, but he thought he could make it work.
The Strategy:
Mix with water.
(Remember my Dogs Wearing Earmuffs post? We keep our house a little chilly.)
Microwave.
Spread onto cookie.
Yeah...not quite what I was going for!
Luckily, I was able to improve on Sexy Nerd's frosting technique with my stand mixer. A melty marshmallow, a sprinkle nose, and some black gel icing later, and I was in business.
Ta da!
Gel icing, by the way, is a pain. And I won't go into details about the joy that is pressing minuscule sprinkles into tough Dollar Store marshmallows.
Repeat 35 times.
He's abominable.
The fella on the lower right is E.T.
Behind him is Mr. Hat Head
Señor Marshallito
I ran out of black gel icing toward the end. Sacrifices had to be made.
Santa Mallow
Can you spot Pedophile Mallow?
(Christmasy, right?)
"Adios!"