Kitchen Experiments - The Good, The Grand & The Ugly!!!

Hello all!! Had some fun experimenting in the kitchen lately, and wanted to share my endeavors!! Some turned out fantastic...others, not so much!! I was getting all kinds of creative last weekend, took pictures of the good stuff to share and will fill you in on my experiences with the bad stuff.

First things first, THE GOOD:
I LOVE all my cooking shows...mostly I end up coming by all the episodes I want to see by way of re-run, but I don't mind! I've been totally glued to Restaurant Impossible!! I love watching Robert Irvine and his team completely transform these restaurants that are in serious trouble! So uplifting to see the dramatic changes being made!! On the episode that he revamped Scrimmages, he presented them with a delightful appetizer he called Re-Stuffed Potato Skins. My husband and I thought it sounded and looked SO tasty, that I made them last weekend. OH YUM! Insanely satisfying and a wonderful Sunday Afternoon Football food!! I didn't use the recipe, and the potatos I had were too long to split the way Robert did on the show, but what matters is that they REALLY hit the spot!!!

Here is a link to the actual recipe, but I found it was just as easy to wing it!! http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/robert-irvine/re-stuffed-potato-skins-recipe/index.html

Second, we have THE GRAND:
I saw Prickly Pears on sale at one of our local markets, so I got curious! Looked around online to see what the general concensus was on taste, and decided it was certainly worth a try!! But what was I going to make with them? OOH...I needed to break out my Ice Cream Maker...Prickly Pear Plum Sorbet...sounds delightful!! I haven't used the Ice Cream Maker since we moved; in the words of Rafiki..."It is time" (We just introduced Sissy to The Lion King). I picked up a dozen prickly pears and a few plums, both red and purple. I discovered a few things in my preparation phase.



First, the color of the skin is not indicative of the ripeness of the fruit. Good to know...the only color of prickly pear available to me at the market was green. I love green, so I can live with that!





Second, the fruit inside is VERY seedy. If you thought watermelon was seedy, there is absolutely no comparison!! Although the seeds are edible, they're super crunchy and neither my husband nor I appreciated them. 




Third, if you like kiwi, you'll like prickly pear. As soon as I skinned the first fruit, smelled and tasted it, my mind instantly went to kiwi! Love it!!

Preparation of the Prickly Pears: Disclaimer: please be careful when extracting the fruit. Some of the prickly pears do NOT have all the cactus spines fully removed...they can hurt!! There are various suggestions of using gloves while cutting and peeling, as well as using a kitchen torch to singe off remaining "hairs". Use whichever method you feel most comfortable with, but if you do get poked, stop and make sure you've completely removed the little "hair"...they are small, fine and hard to pick out...not fun!

I cut off the top and bottom of the pears and sliced lengthwise down the fruit, and peeled the skin off from the fruit.


I peeled all my prickly pears this way, and then attempted to figure out how to get rid of the seeds. Trying to squish it through a mesh strainer did not work for me, and I don't have a food mill, so I decided to try putting them in the food processor.


This worked pretty well. Some of the seeds were crushed up too, but for the most part, the seeds separated from the fruit so I could push the fruit through the mesh strainer. The 12 prickly pears gave me about 1-1/2 quarts of fruit.






I then peeled and pitted 4 of the plums and processed them as well, then mixed it all together (totalled about 2 quarts), and added barely 1/4 cup of sugar, just for good measure. I spaced off my camera and don't have pictures of the fruit mixture prior to putting it into the Ice Cream Maker, but I did have to use some food coloring, because this green and the pinkish color of the plums rendered a slightly horrific orangish-brown color that I was positive no one would want to eat!!
After the Ice Cream Maker did it's thing, this was the result.....and it was so good, that my husband felt the need to eat at least a quart of the sorbet on his own!!! (He's mostly an Ice Cream only guy...so I did REALLY GOOD!!!)

Third, we have THE UGLY:
Fried Stuffed Nopalitos...all I have to say about them is hmmmm. I thought they were worth a try when I saw a recipe for them. I don't have any pictures but the finished product (which actually looks pretty decent) but let me describe to you how crazy these little buggers are!! First off, they're cactus paddles...so you have to be sure to clean them up and clean them carefully. Secondly, they're fairly thin, so if you're going to stuff them, you have to almost filet them. Third, and here's the scary part. How many of you remember seeing the movie Gremlins? You know when they're transforming from the Mogwai to Gremlins and they get that filmy, sticky, slimy stuff all over them? That's what the insides of the nopalitos reminded me of...the slimy, sticky stuff. However, I persevered, looking to get past that, to experience them stuffed and fried. I sliced Monterey Jack cheese and placed inside the pockets of the nopalitos, and then egg-washed and floured them and proceeded to fry them on the stove. Here is a picture of the finished product with some salsa verde on it. It doesn't look too bad, but let's just say they're an acquired taste! (Or at least that's my opinion)

So there you have it, The Good, The Grand and The Ugly from my experimenting in the kitchen. It's just one of those things I like to do, and sometimes you get winners and sometimes you get losers...but in the long run, it's the experience you gain that counts!!

Easy No-Pattern Curtains

Well, I had finished Sissy's curtains a couple of weeks ago, and would like to share the process with you. The only part of the project that is not "officially" done is the ruffle border; I purchased about 18" too little of the lacey ruffle that I am using and haven't decided how I want to handle that yet.
It is so bright here in the mornings, I new Sissy and the new baby would need a nice dark curtain to help keep their room dark when it needs to be. So we opted for a double layer dark purple curtain and a matching Tinkerbell valence.


Curtain Panels:
First, you will need to measure your window area and decide how full you want your curtains and how long you will need them. For example, if you only want slightly full curtains, purchase enough material to make the ending width of your curtains one and a half times the width of your window. The more full you want your curtains, the more width you'll need to purchase in fabric. The girls' room window is 35" wide. The fabric I bought was 45" wide and I used two separate 45" panels to make the main curtain. So after seam allowances, the fabric width is about 88" with both panels together. Very full and I love it! In addition to fullness, you'll need to determine the length of fabric you need. Will you have a tall ruffle at the top? How far past your window do you want the curtains to hang? I have a fairly tall ruffle at the top, since the fullness of the panels supports the height, and the panels hang about 6 or 7 inches below the windows.

Second, I always pre-shrink and iron my fabric. The only exception here would be if it was a dry clean only fabric.

Third, prepare your fabric for sewing. Since I was making the panels a double thickness, I just folded each panel in half (inside-out) and pinned the sides to prepare it for sewing. I also marked the curtain rod opening on each side of the curtains.

Due to the fullness, I measured 4" from the top for the top of the rod opening, and measured 1-7/8" from there for the bottom of the rod opening. I marked the openings with a double pins. The width of your rod opening depends on the width of rod you'll be using. Right now we do not have decorative rods for the girls' room, but I look into my crystal ball...I see them in our future ;) But, I'm not sure how wide the rods will be so I wanted to leave ample room.

Forth, begin sewing. I prefer to use smaller seam allowances than what most pattern makers allow. I'm just like that, especially when I use my serger or when I'm sewing at the salvage edge, which I did for these curtains. I feel seam allowances is a personal preference. I sewed the sides together at 3/8" being sure to stop and leave the rod opening unsewn.

The bottom of the curtain, I sewed using 1/2" seams, leaving about a 8" opening for turning the curtain panels right-side-out.

Before I turned the panels, I trimmed the corners to ensure a nice straight corner on the outside.

Fifth, turn panels right-side-out and press all seams and corners. At this point, I pulled my 8" opening up through the rod opening and machine-sewed it closed. I wasn't looking forward to doing that much hand stitching, when it occurred to me that I had the rod opening to use. YAY!!

Sixth, finishing touches.

Mark top and bottom seams for rod opening across the width of the curtain and sew. I also top stitched about a 1/4" seam all the way around to give the edges a bit more definition.


Valence:
First, again here you'll want to determine the width, length and fullness you want for the valence, and from there determine the amount of fabric you'll need. Then cut the number of sections from your fabric to sew together to make the valence. Remember to include seam allowances in your calculations!

Second, sew the panels together and iron the seams flat.

Third, hem top, bottom and sides. I used a rolled hem technique, sewing my hem by 1/4" and then by 1/4" again. However, for the top my second hem was a 1/2" hem.

Forth, sew the rod opening. I saved about 2-1/2" thickness of the purple fabric from my panels to use for the valence rod opening.

I pressed and hemmed the edges of the purple fabric to fit inside the valence. Measure where to place the rod material and pin in place.

Sew the top seam for the rod opening and press fabric down. Measure and fold under the rod opening fabric for the bottom seam.

 

I measured at 2" so I could sew at 1-7/8" on the top just like the panels. Finish sewing the rod opening seam, press and hang!

Finished product (without the lacey trim I wanted).

The color matches the girls' room decor so well, and REALLY keeps the light out when necessary!! LOVE IT!!! Now to finish the master bedroom curtains so we can actually sleep in too!!

Enjoy!

Back at it!!

Well, here I am again...it's been about two weeks since my last post. I'm not going to get all detailed and mushy about why I haven't posted. I'm just going to say that this pregnancy is definitely exhausting me and let's just say I'm getting to that point where I'm glad to know this part of the adventure is winding down, even though I still have the hardest part to get through yet.

Anyway, I just wanted to give a quick update. I've been experimenting with the various dusting techniques I listed in my post about dusting. I've come to the conclusion that regardless of which solution I use (which I haven't been able to try all of the yet) I have definitely converted to the inside-out sport sock as a rag! (I stole a pair of Big Brother's old soccer socks!) It just really seemed to suck up all the dust and since the inside was so fluffy it certainly didn't let any of the dust go. FABULOUS! It was amazing to me to look at my "problem furniture" and have it NOT look like I hadn't just dusted it!

On another note, I'm starting a new experiment. I love vinegar! It's such a helpful household tool! We have extremely hard water in our area and the water spots/hard water deposits drive me bonkers! I'm going to start my experiment in the bathroom showers. I've scrubbed the living day-lights out of them, and as the shower is used, I'm going to take a spray bottle of straight vinegar and spray the shower walls down after every couple of uses. I want to see if this will help cut the hard water deposits down. I've also heard/seen recommendations to soak paper towels in straight vinegar and place on sink fixtures prior to scrubbing them down as well, which will be my next trial if the shower sprays seem to help!

Anyway, I'm working on other sewing projects and a friend and I will be baking goodies and trying out candy recipes soon...very excited!! Will post more as we start our experiments!

Starting School and Playing Catch-up

This week marks the start of another school year. Big Brother started 3^rd grade on Monday, and while that has made running errands a slightly easier task (no one begging to be at home rather than running errands) it has really made for an interesting adjustment to my schedule. I wish I would have known before Thursday last week that I’d be getting up as early as I am!! Sissy’s schedule is equally as messed up, and since I’m not the type to engage in the Cry-it-out method, I have to work a little harder to get her into a new regular schedule. Because of the changes, my schedule was thrown a little out of whack, but I think with a little luck and a super-cooperative Sissy, I should be able to play catch-up with a few items that I should have done already this week.

I am in the process of creating instructions for the curtains that I have made for the girls’ room. So I’ll be adding that shortly. I’ve found all sorts of other craftsy things that I want to try out, but I MUST finish with our bedroom curtains first before I move on to other little projects. One thing I’d like to do is make a sample dress to try to convince hubby that I should make rather than buy a “one-wear-pregnant-ball dress”. I am having a hard time finding the look I want for a price I feel comfortable paying to only wear the dress one time! (Well, we’re assuming I’m only wearing it once!) I have no pattern for what I have in my head, but I think I can manage to combine the elements I’m envisioning from pieces in my current maternity wardrobe into a dress that will give me that super-pregnant-glow (although the whole pregnant thing will be hard to miss since I’ll be a few weeks shy of my due date by the time we get to this point!) YIKES!

Well, I’m off to conserve some energy by running a load of wash in the middle of the night!

Until Later,

Dusting: A Love Hate Relationship

One of the most frustrating domestic tasks for me is dusting! I can remember back to when I was a kid and my “job” on Saturday morning was dusting. In fact, the hutch that we now have in our home is the same hutch that I used to have to dust on Saturday morning. It’s a beautiful hutch and displays our wedding memorabilia, but it, and everything else in our home, harbors dust like there is no tomorrow!

Monday is my weekly dusting and bed-clothes changing day. I feel it sets the tone for the week. We spend longer amounts of time in the house during the weekend. Between my husband’s hectic work-week schedule and my need for serious down-time on the weekends, we tend to “hang out” together, have game and movie nights, and things like that. I’ve come to the conclusion that if I spend time daily on particular weekly tasks, rather than attempt to fully clean various rooms in the house in a day, I’ll not only save time, but I’ll be less likely to decide that any-given room can wait until another week.

Last week I ran myself out of dusting spray. Then while I made a killing on grocery shopping, I couldn’t find the brand of spray that I had a coupon for. So I went on a search this morning to find the best way to dust without a commercial dust spray. I found several options, one of which I could use this week because I couldn’t find my spare spray bottle. I will share my finds, but I would also like to ask for feedback, because I am struggling with what is the best way to reduce the amount of dust that hangs around after the act of dusting. So please, any thoughts??

The first method I was able to locate was The Damp Cloth method. I found this method straight out of my favorite book, Home Comforts: The Art & Science of Keeping House by Cheryl Mendelson. Take a clean rag made of natural fibers, wet it slightly with tap water (distilled water is recommended for valuable antiques) ring it out until the cloth is barely wet and leaves no trace of water when wiped across any surfaces. Proceed to dust top to bottom all dustable surfaces in the usual way, folding the cloth to new clean areas and getting a new cloth when necessary. This was the method I was forced to use since I couldn’t find a spray bottle. I found that it worked just fine, although I still had issues with dust falling back down to the areas I had dusted within about an hour. (Which is still an issue I have with commercial spray as well.)

I also located several home-made cleaner methods. But alas, I cannot say how well any of these recipes worked or didn’t work, although I aim to find out in the coming weeks.

*Oil & Vinegar Recipe (found on eHow.com)

Combine ½ tsp. light olive oil with ¼ cup white vinegar in a 1-quart container, filling the remainder of the container with water. Shake well to combine all ingredients. You may need to shake the container throughout the dusting process to prevent separation.

*Lemon Oil (found on eartheasy.com)

Combine a few drops of lemon oil with ½ cup of warm water in a spray bottle. Shake well to combine ingredients. Use to dust and polish varnished furniture.

*The Dust Sock (found on thedietcokediet.com)

Take an athletic sock, preferably one that no longer has a mate or will not be missed by any family members) turn it inside out and place on your hand. Mist the outside of the sock so it is damp on the outside, but not wet on the inside. Rotate the sock to the clean side as needed during regular dusting.

*Liquid Fabric Softener (found on thrifty fun.com)

Mix 1 part liquid fabric softener to 4 parts water in a spray bottle. Spray directly to dust rag; dust in your usual way.

*Mineral or Plant Oils
Mineral Oil and Plant Oils, such as orange or lemon oil, can also be used to polish wood.

Cheryl Mendelson mentions that you can put a drop or two of lemon or mineral oil on your dust cloth to be used on wood possessions, being careful not to allow it to leave an oily film, as dust is attracted to oily films. (Maybe this was my problem with commercial sprays?)

*Vinegar (found on greenyour.com)

Use a rag dipped in vinegar to clean plastic surfaces, ceiling fan blades, and dust collecting areas such as the tops of fridges and vent hoods.

*Furniture Polish (also found on greenyour.com)

Equal parts white vinegar (or lemon juice) and olive oil shaken together make an excellent wood polish, use similar to Old English by buffing on to the surface with a clean rag until absorbed and wiping off excess with a second clean rag to remove any residue.

While I was able to sufficiently do the job today with just a damp cloth, and I can usually buy my commercial dust spray for little or nothing. I am very interested in trying each of these methods to see which method will help repel dust rather than just let it settle back down again. I am also interested in any feedback you, my readers, have with regards to methods you use and what you find works best for you!

*Methods I have not tried as of Aug 15, 2011 and cannot attest to their usefulness at this point.

What a week!

One week down with my new schedule. Let’s just say it needs a little more tweaking! For the most part, the weekly and monthly schedules fell into place fairly easily. I completely forgot about couponing, so I wound up “stealing” the better share of a whole day doing both couponing and planning our shopping trip. So I’ll need to actually schedule both tasks, rather than leave that up to chance. (On a side note, my couponing this week actually cut my grocery bill by about 46%. Pretty excited to see the cupboards and freezer so full and know that a little research and planning really can go a long way!! Excited to do it all over again next time around!!)

Carpet cleaning was my quarterly task that was difficult to fully complete according to my schedule. I’m not sure if it’s the level of “clean” that we got the house in, my slowing-pregnant body, or my zealous methods (I run the carpet cleaner with just water after I shampoo so it takes 2x as long), but most likely a combination of the three. Regardless, I’ll make adjustments to compensate for these issues going forward.

On a more fun note, I picked up and pre-washed the fabric for the girls’ room curtains. Both panels are ready to sew. The curtains are fairly simple. I’m not using a pattern. But as I finish them up, I’ll post basic instructions and pictures on Sunday.

Until later,

Getting back into a routine

Here it is the end of the weekend and I have accomplished what I set out to accomplish! Hooray! I finished both painting projects I was working on and have placed each project in its rightful home. Here are some pictures of what I’ve been working on. Now to get back on track with the house and start my curtain projects!

One of my favorite books about homemaking is Home Comforts: The Art & Science of Keeping House by Cheryl Mendelson. Now, I have to admit that I’m still reading through the book front-to-back for the first time, but I have revisited different sections on more than one occasion, and have skipped forward and backward to various sections. I really enjoy how Cheryl gives a history of the hows and whys with her recommendations and methods. I would recommend this book to anyone and everyone!

One of the topics she covers early on is easing into a schedule. Now that I have been without one for so long, too long really, her methods and lists have helped me compile a schedule and lists of my own. Since we‘ve moved, there are a few items that necessitate change in my schedule. Our home here is a lot bigger than it was at our last place! Nearly twice as big, it seems. So that means more to clean, and requires better cleaning schedule management. My husband’s daily work uniform has changed, which changes my laundry schedule requirements. And I’ve discovered certain energy conservation tips that I would like to incorporate into my schedule as well. Essentially, I had to completely revamp my schedule.

I’m still working out timing issues and will link to my schedules for anyone interested as I get them finished up. In the mean time, I will link to my overall household cleaning schedule that shows all items to be done and the daily, weekly, monthly, or quarterly/seasonally rotation I keep for those items. Home Cleaning Schedule And I have also uploaded a couple of pictures of my finished painting projects for you to enjoy.

Have a fabulous day!!

Until later,


 I've sponge painted matching dresser, book shelf, 2 wall shelves, and diaper changer for the girls' room. We also have a sizeable entryway now, so I painted our last name in individual letters to hang on the wall, here is a sampling.