Sugar Pine Cones.... :)

Oh hello gorgeous mammoth sized pine cones!!!  I've never in all my life seen the likes of these. And neither had my mom, so I'm not crazy. They're called Sugar Pine Cones, and they are HUGE! Some friends of ours (thank you Rigneys!) just happen to live in Lake Arrowhead, CA where these crazy pine cones live:) One weekend when my son was going for a visit, I begged him to bring me just a few. He filled his whole trunk. He loves his mama:)

So this Sunday, I decided to finally clean em up. I gave them a good hosing down first. Then I needed to deal with the sap:(

My friend Roseann told me to bake em. It melts off the sap and makes them all pretty and shiny:)

 

Cover a large baking sheet with foil. (and let's all have a gander at the complete lack of color in this pic! LB makes up for it in handsomeness though)

 

 

Bake the beauties at 220 degrees for about 20 minutes per side. Yeah, I could only fit 3 per sheet, they're THAT big!!

And boy oh boy! the house smelled AMAZING!!

 

 

Just look at them!

 

 

Soooo cool huh!?

 

 

 

What wasn't so cool? The stinkin sap that dripped onto the bottom of the oven.

Unbeknownst to me.

Until I turned on the oven the next day to roast a chicken.

And holy SMOKE! Literally:(

 

 

 

Sooo, the ole gal went back into the fridge and I went to the store to buy oven cleaner:(

The hubby ate leftover pizza and I ate popcorn.

Buy hey, my mantle sure looks lovely!!