Hard "Baked" Eggs

Ditch the pot of boiling water and try baking your eggs.

 We baked 2 dozen eggs for Easter Egg Dying and I will say, I didn't miss the pot, the boiling water, the straining.....

Place eggs in mini-muffin tin.  Bake, without pre-heating, at 325 deg. for 30 min. Let cool for a few minutes, place in large bowl, then add cold water and ice.

How easy is that?

The eggs come out just liked boiled eggs--same texture, peel the same.  

As the eggs bake, moisture from inside seaps out on to the shell.  I dabbed the eggs a few times during baking to limit the number of dropplets.  These wet spots turn brown as the egg cooks, but dissolve off the shells while they sit in the bowl of water.

Beef and Barley Soup

Here is a yummy soup recipe that we had for dinner last night.  We ate it with bread sticks  last time we had it with homemade bread.

1/2-1 lb hamburger, cooked

1 medium onion, chopped

3 carrots, sliced

2 stalks celery, sliced

1 14 oz. can diced tomatoes

1/2 c. barley

4 c. water

2 tsp. beef buillon

1 tsp. oregano (dry), crushed

1/4 tsp. black pepper

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 bay leaf

Put everything in a large saucepan (or soup pot) and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat, cover and simmer 45 minutes until barley is cooked and vegetables are tender.  

I haven't done it, but I bet you could do this in a crock pot too.

Sugar Cookie Sandwiches

A fun twist on a classic cookie.

Sugar Cookie Sandwiches

Cream:

 3/4 Margarine

1 C Sugar

Add and stir:

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

Add and stir:

2 C flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp nutmeg

Chill 1 hour.  Roll out to 1/4 thickness.  Use a small--1 inch diameter-ish--cookie cutter.

Bake at 400 deg. for 6-8 min. until light brown around bottom edges.

To make sandwiches frost 1 cookie and place a 2nd one on top.

Bathtub Toy Storage

My cheap, easy solution for bathtub toy storage is a $0.97 laundry bag from walmart by the laundry baskets, etc. (or probably just about any other store too).  It is nice because it lets the toys dry out.  I had a hook with a suction cup laying around so I hang it from that over the tub, no worries about things dripping on the floor.

Ink Stain Removal

Ink stains are quite stubborn and annoying.  Here's what I've found works best: 

Nail Polish Remover, some scrubbing, and a little Fels-Naptha.

Reapply and scrub until clean. Wash.

#1: Stain
#2: Dab of nail polish remover
#3: Clean clothes

Philly Cheese Steak Sandwiches from Scratch

So a few weeks ago Aunty made Philly Cheese Steak here, which in turn made me want to make it. FYI this is a plan ahead, takes some time recipe, especially if you want to eat it on Homemade French Bread.

Here we go...

Philly Cheese Steak

Marinate 1lb thinly sliced steak, 30-60 min, in:

2 T Steak Sauce

1 T Soy Sauce

1tsp garlic powder

1tsp paprika

Pepper

In a heated and lightly oiled frying pan:

Saute sliced Green Pepper 5min.

Add sliced onion, salt and pepper, and saute until veggies are soft.

Fry steak in a 2nd pan while veggies are cooking.

Serve with a slice of provolone on rolls, hoagies,

or Homemade French Bread.

"Soil" Amendment

We have a few "square foot gardens" at our house .  Our "soil" was starting to get a little low, not sure where it disappeared to.  Our original "soil", per square foot gardening recommendation, was equal parts vermiculite, peat moss and compost.  The vermiculite is kinda pricey, so I didn't want to buy more of that to add to the garden.  I decided that I would add some more peat moss and compost though.  Our "soil" is nice and loose so I just put the peat moss and compost on top and worked it in with the rake.  

All ready to plant!

Homemade French Bread

Our family loves eating French Bread, especially with dinner.  Sometimes it is part of the main dish, like Meatball Sandwiches or Philly Cheese Steak Sandwhiches (recipe here).

 Here's a question: what's the difference between bread and French Bread?

 Bread is made with milk, French Bread uses water.

I found this recipe from Land O Lakes a few years ago.  It is easy and yummy.

French Bread

Prep time: 45 min  Raise time: 2 hrs

Bake time: 25 min

1 pg active dry yeast

2 1/4 C warm water (~110 deg.)

1 T sugar

5-5 1/2 C flour

1 T salt

To brush on tops: 1 egg slightly beaten, 1 T milk

In large bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water; stir in sugar.  Let stand 45 min (Top pic).  Stir in 3 cups of flour and salt, beat until smooth (middle pic).  Stir in enough remaining flour to make dough easy to handle.

Turn dough onto lightly floured surfce; knead until smooth and elastic--about 5 min. Place dough in lightly greased bowl and turn over once to coat dough with grease (left pic). Cover and let rise in warm place until double in size--about 1.5 hours--dough is ready when indentation remains when touched (right pic).

Punch dough down.  Dived into thirds to make 15" long baguettes or 5" rounds.  Or divide into 7-8 small loafs for sandwhiches. Hint: when forming loaves, create smooth tops by placing seems and overlaps on the underside (top pic). Place on greased cookie sheet. Cover and let rise until double in size--about 30 min.

Heat oven to 400 deg. Brush tops with egg and milk mixture. Make diagonal slashes across baguette or rounds.  Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until golden brown.  Remove from baking sheets and cool on wire rack.

DIY soap scum cleaner

We like to use this DIY soap scum cleaner, especially for our showers, especially the glass doors.

Here's what you need:

1 cup white vinegar
1 Tbs. cornstarch
2 Tbs. dish soap

a spray bottle (mine is an old cleaner bottle that I am reusing)

Put 1 cup vinegar in a microwave proof container (I used my glass liquid measuring cup) and add 1 Tbs. cornstarch.  Mix it well (I used a fork).  Microwave the vinegar-cornstarch mixture for 2 minutes.  It will be thicker, more like a gel.  Mix it again.

Add 2 tablespoons of dish soap to your spray bottle (I just eyeballed it).  Then add your vinegar-cornstarch mixture to the bottle.  Shake it a little, and you are done!

The nice thing about this cleaner is that it is a little gel-like so it won't just run off of the surface that you spray it on.  It lets the vinegar and soap sit there and soak.  The down side though, is that if you let the cleaner sit for too long, it drys out and then you have a residue left behind.  I find that letting the cleaner sit for about 15 minutes is just about right.  It gets to soak, but not so long that it drys out.  After it sits, wipe it down with a damp rag or sponge, rinse, and you are done!

Here is the shower door that I used it on this morning (even though this may look like a picture of a toilet).  Kind of hard to see glass in a picture, but I think you can tell that it is much better, and without much elbow grease involved.

Dinner in a Hurry

Sometimes it's just one of those, "no time to cook dinner" nights.  

One of my solutions: Chili and Grilled Cheese

My Miracle Stain Remover Laundry Soap

I looked down at my shirt the other day to find a big splotch of black speckless.

Of course my shirt was white, and even though I didn't know what was on my shirt I knew it had to come out.  

Running it under water didn't do anything.  Bleach didn't touch it.  

Now what?

My favorite stain remover: Fels-Naptha.

Directions: Apply soap by scrubbing. Then continue scrubbing the clothes until sudsy and the stain  begins to come out.  Rinse.  Repeat if needed.  Wash normally.

I started using Fels-Naptha when our first baby began having newborn diaper blowouts.  You know, the ones that leave yellow stains on the onesies.

The Fels-Naptha got it out.

I've gotten out lots of poop stains, years old spit-up stains, chocolate stains, strawberry stains, spaghetti sauce stains, mud stains.....

I buy the bars of Fels-Naptha at Walmart--for a DOLLAR--$1!

(It's usually with the Magic Erasers and other small bathroom cleaners.)

And it lasts a long time.

My Grammy will even use a cheese shredder and shred some into a particularly dirty load of laundry.  We have brought shreds with us on vacation to use for handwashing something in the hotel sink.

And I know its an ingredient in homemade laundry detergent.

Go try it!

DIY Baby Bow Tie

This morning I decided to make a cute bow tie for Freddy (he's not so great at holding still for pictures yet, but still pretty darn cute!).  Here is what I came up with.

For the Bow Tie:

All seams are 1/4"

#1 Cut two pieces of fabric, one 4 1/2" by 8" and one 1 1/2" by 3"

#2 Fold the fabric in half (hot dog style, right sides together) and sew down the long side.  Do this for the big and little fabric rectangles.  I also serged the edges before sewing to keep things nice.  You could zig-zag the edge if you don't have a serger.

#3 Turn your fabric right side out, with the seam in the middle and press. Do this same thing for the little rectangle.

#4 Fold the rectangle in half (hamburger style, with seam on the outside) and sew the open edges together.  Do this same thing for the little rectangle.

#5 Turn the seam to the inside, center it and press.  Do this same thing for the little rectangle.

#6 With the big rectangle, fold it in an "M" shape.

#7 Tack it in place by hand with a needle and thread.

#8 Slide the small piece onto the bow.

For the Neck Strap:

#9 Cut a rectangle 14 1/2" by 2 1/4"

#10 Fold it in half (hot dog style) and sew a seam along the long edge and along one of the short edges (I serged the edges before).

#11 Turn it right side out (you can use your scissors, a dowel, a skewer, etc. to help).

#12 On the open edge, turn the fabric to the inside, about 1/4" and sew it closed.

#13 sew 2" pieces of velcro to the ends (opposite ends on opposite sides).

#14 Thread the strap through the loop (small rectangle) of the bow tie.  I tacked the bow tie in place with a little hot glue.

Ta Da! A cute bow tie for you little man!

Chicken on Demand

When chicken is on sale, I like to buy a bunch, cook it up all at once and freeze it.  It makes fixing dinner lots faster, not to mention you only have to do the chicken dishes once!

I salt and pepper the chicken and put it in baking dishes and cook it for about 45 minutes at 350 deg, or until it is cooked through.  Once it is cooked I cube it up and put about 2 cups in a sandwich sized ziploc bag and write the date on the bag.  Then I put several of the small bags into a gallon size freezer bag (the theory being that regular sandwich bags are cheaper than freezer bags and the gallon freezer bag can be reused.)

Today I tried something new.  I shredded some of the chicken with the Kitchen Aid (cookie beater).  Just throw a few of the cooked chicken breasts in and run it for a minute or so on the second or third speed.  If you want shredded chicken, it is quite a bit faster than doing it by hand.

Pillowcase Dress How To

Just finished the girls Easter Dresses!

And its still a week away.  I'm doing good.

Last year I made them very simple pillowcase dresses.  This year I got a little fancier (to keep the ribbon from slipping off their shoulders), but same simple idea.  Either project only takes a couple hours, and is easy. These dresses are great for Summer Time too.

 I will list instructions for both types of pillowcase dress below.  They are very similar but I only have a pic-toral "How To" for this years "Fancier" Pillowcase Dress.

Standard Pillowcase Dress

1. Measure to find desired length and the child's width.
2. Draw a small dress diagram and write down the measurements (pic below), and then adjust measurements allowing for hems and seem allowances: 7" longer and 1.75 times the width, (allowing for 4" hem at bottom, 2" hem/pocket at the top to run ribbon thru, 1" of seam allowance.)
3. Cut out 2 rectangles of fabric based on your measurements. 
4. With right side together, measure 5"-6" down from top, mark with a pin,  and sew side seems from that point down.
5. Going around the bottom of dress, fold under and iron 1/2" of fabric.  Then using a hem gauge set at 4", fold under and iron from the folded bottom of dress to create hem.  (The 1/2" fold makes it so the cut fabric ends up tucked in once the hem is sewn and that way it can't fray.) Sew hem in place at the top of the hem.
6. At the top, unsewn, part of the dress, fold fabric in (toward wrong side of dress) and iron a 1/2" then roll and iron again.  This once again tucks the cut edges under.  Sew these rolled edges creating the arm holes.
7. To create the hem/pocket for the ribbon at the top of the dress, follow step #5 but set your hem gauge to 2". Sew hem in place leaving ends opens, and creating a pocket to put ribbon thru.
8. Run ribbon thru pockets, then tie over child's shoulders.The dress will gather as you tighten the ribbon to the right width. (Look at the pics above.)

Fancier Pillowcase Dress 

1.  Measure to find desired length and the child's width. Also measure the distance from the center of one shoulder blade to the center of the other shoulder blade.
2. Draw a small dress diagram and write down the measurements (see pic), and then adjust measurements allowing for hems and seem allowances: 7" longer (allowing for 4" hem at bottom, 2" hem/pocket at the top to run ribbon thru, 1" of seam allowance), and 1.75 times the width at the top and then the bottom being 6" wider than the top to create fullness.
3. Using pins to mark the cutting lines and a long ruler, lay the fabric out--doubled/folded in half so you cut out both halves at the same time--and measure/mark where to cut out the dress based on your diagram.  (Hint: measure the bottom width, mark, then the height, then find where to cut the top by coming in 3" from the bottom width on each side, mark.  Lay long ruler between top and bottom and then pin along the ruler to find the diagonal line you want to cut on.) Cut out fabric.  (In bottom right pic I have circled the pins so you can see them better, I have measured and am about to cut.)

 

4.  Cut 2 rectangles that are 3 1/2" high and as wide as the measurement between the child's shoulder blades plus 1".  This will be used to create the pocket for the ribbon.

5.  Place right sides of dress togther.  Measure and mark with a pin 5"-6" from the top of the dress.  

6.  Sew from this mark down to the bottom of the dress, on each side.

7.  Iron seams out flat.

8.  To create a finished arm hole: fold unsewn fabric at top of dress over 1/2", iron down, and fold over again a 1/2", iron again.  Repeat on all 4 unsewn sides.  

9.  The bottom Hem.  Going around the bottom of dress, fold under and iron 1/2" of fabric.  Then using a hem gauge set at 4", fold under and iron from the folded bottom of dress to create hem. You will have some angled, horizontal fold in the hem too, because the fabric wider at the bottom than top. (The 1/2" fold makes it so the cut fabric ends up tucked in once the hem is sewn and that way it can't fray.) 

10.  Sew rolled edge of arm holes.

11.  Sew a reinforcement stitch at the bottom of arm holes.

12.  Sew bottom hem, near the top the hem, from the inside.

13.  To create gathers at the top of the dress, start by sewing a basting stitch with a 5/8" seam allowance, across the top of each side. Then gather the fabric by holding 1 thread on an end and pushing/working the fabric down the thread--gathering toward the middle--do the same thing on the other side, holding 1 thread and gathering toward the center.  The width of the gathered fabric will equal that of the shoulder blade measurement.

14.  Prep the ribbon pockets by folding and ironing over 1/2 of fabric on the short ends of  your rectangle fabric piece.

15.  Sew down this fold.

16.  Fold and iron over 1/2 of fabric on the long ends of rectangle.

17.  To finish dress, fold rectangle in half around gathered dress top, matching and then pinning the fabrics together on 1 end.  The rectangle will just barely cover the basting stitch, creating a pocket for the ribbon.

18.  With the 1 end pinned you can now adjust the gathers to the exact width of the rectangle.

19.  Pin every inch or so across this pocket/gather sandwich.

20.  Sew parallel seems, 1/2" and 1/8" from bottom of rectangular fabric.

 

#21  Thread very long length of ribbon thru pockets.  Tie over 1 shoulder.

 

Quick, Easy Hair Bow

Once in a while I can't find a hairbow to match one of the girls outfits, at the last second. And I don't want to fuss with getting out thread and the glue gun.  That's when I pull out a color matching spool or piece of ribbon and whip up a new bow.

Supplies:

Ribbon

Scissors

Bobby-pin

Fray-Check

Directions:

Take the ribbon and tie it in a bow, just like the second step of shoe tying, but don't do the first step of shoe tying--skip that and go straight to the bow.  Tighten the middle.  Even the loops. Cut the tails, even lengths, at an angle.  Fray-check the cut ends, if desired. Push bobby-pin through back side of the bows 'knot'.  

Happy wearing.

DIY Newspaper seed starting pots

I decided to try and plant my garden from seeds this year instead of buying plants from the nursery.  The first step is to plant the seeds. Instead of buying a planting tray from the store, I made little newspaper pots for free!  (Or at least we already paid for the newspaper.)  Here's how:

You need black and white newspaper pages (the colored ones might have metal in the ink) and
a straight sided jar or glass that is 2-3" in diameter (I had a baby food jar handy).

Fold the newspaper in half the long way (hot dog style) two times.

Then take your jar/glass and wrap the newspaper tightly around it.  You want the open end of the jar about in the middle of your newspaper strip.

Here it is all wrapped.

Next, fold down the edges of the newspaper to the inside of the jar.

  

It will look like this:

Take the newspaper off of the jar,

and press down your folded up edge to make the bottom of your "pot"

If you need to, you can use the flat (bottom) side of the jar to press the bottom down to make it a little more solid.

And there you have your little DIY newspaper pot ready for some soil and a seed!