My oh my. I had no idea I've let my blog go for so long! It was certainly visions of grandeur that led me to believe I could manage being a home-maker, mom of two, affectionate wife, caregiver to an ailing parent AND manage a blog regularly. There are those who are able to juggle all of those roles, and then some, with grace, finesse and an acutely neurotic effectiveness. I am not one of them. Add to that a chronic illness that leaves me, at times, barely able to rise from bed and you see how mine is a life of periodic effectiveness.
Much has happened in my household: my littlest is on the verge of turning 2; my eldest is now a second-grader; my Mom has managed to move out on her own! Meanwhile, as I've posted on my Facebook page, I've had numerous friends ask me if I'd consider writing a blog. Hee Hee... Little did they know, right? I sheepishly confessed to each one ownership of a blog that's at least a couple years old.
I suppose my under-lying lack of commitment this far has been the conviction that I really ought not think of myself more highly than I ought. I mean, really: writing about MY mundane ins an outs of life with the presumption that others care to read about it?
But then there's an aspect of wanting to lend a helping hand. I know thousands of people have their blogs that trip the light fantastic about thriftiness and creativity. I'm not so sure what will set myself apart from all those other creative, thrifty (and witty) bloggers. But I'll do my best. I'll start touching on more than my craft endeavors: food, cleaning, health. And, maybe by doing so, I'll hearten and/or inspire others in similar scenarios.
So, all this to say, I am going to attempt an exercise in self-discipline to post more regularly here at Blogger. Let's see if I can say true to my word!
Post Easter Observations About Egg Boiling...
Okay, so out the gate I'm going to extend the disclaimer that I am NOT a professional chef, cook, baker, etc. (Although I do still dream of someday being found worthy to take the torch from Martha Stewart... me and 50 million other creative ladies, right?).
Anyway, I'm inclined to share observations I've made about egg boiling. Many of you will read this post and snigger that I'd be so ignorant. Glad I could prove entertaining to you. For others who are oblivious, this just may prove to be the handiest thing you've ever read about boiling eggs... or the only thing you've ever read about boiling eggs.
Over the course of my cooking years I've tended to avoid making boiled eggs because, well, they stink. So, I tend to really only find myself preparing them once or twice a year. Once, for sure, at Easter. Maybe a second time when the call of egg salad or deviled eggs is just too much to bear. Also over the course of this time, I've had two schools of thought shared with me about how to prepare an egg. I'll share them as follows, with the pro and con for each.
As a nanny, the man of the house delightedly told me that there's a trick to boiling eggs without them cracking. "You see, you fill a pan with warm to hot water, place the cold eggs in the pan and then let them equalize for about five minutes. THEN turn on the heat to bring the water to a boil. The shells won't expand as much as quickly, hence no cracks." Don't know if that's verbatim how he shared that little tidbit, but boy howdy if he wasn't totally spot on! I think I can count on one hand the number of times an egg cracked since learning this method of prepping.
So, the Pro to this 'equalization' concept is that you'll have less/no cracked eggs. But the Con I've discovered: when the egg cooks, the inner membrane doesn't detach readily from the white, making the eggs sometimes ridiculously hard to peel. Misery.
The other method for boiling eggs is a distant memory from childhood, reconfirmed with (ahem) "diligent" internet surfing. hee hee. Anyway, in this approach, you bring a pan of water to a rolling boil and then use a slotted spoon to gently set eggs fresh from the fridge into the pan. The Pro of this approach is that you will have eggs with shells that peel off incredibly easy (at least, compared to those cooked with the other method). Not sure of the chemistry behind the whole thing, but what is obvious to me is that the inner membrane is separate from the egg white and more strongly attached to the shell, allowing you to pull it off in much larger pieces.
So, the Pro to the 'flash boil' concept is that you'll have easy to peel eggs. But the Con: more cracked eggs. In the past week of Easter egg cooking, I had at least three cracked eggs out of eighteen eggs total.
So, there you have it. Hope this little tidbit helps out at least one frazzled cook in the kitchen where the homely hard-boiled egg is concerned. Happy boiling!
Anyway, I'm inclined to share observations I've made about egg boiling. Many of you will read this post and snigger that I'd be so ignorant. Glad I could prove entertaining to you. For others who are oblivious, this just may prove to be the handiest thing you've ever read about boiling eggs... or the only thing you've ever read about boiling eggs.
Over the course of my cooking years I've tended to avoid making boiled eggs because, well, they stink. So, I tend to really only find myself preparing them once or twice a year. Once, for sure, at Easter. Maybe a second time when the call of egg salad or deviled eggs is just too much to bear. Also over the course of this time, I've had two schools of thought shared with me about how to prepare an egg. I'll share them as follows, with the pro and con for each.
As a nanny, the man of the house delightedly told me that there's a trick to boiling eggs without them cracking. "You see, you fill a pan with warm to hot water, place the cold eggs in the pan and then let them equalize for about five minutes. THEN turn on the heat to bring the water to a boil. The shells won't expand as much as quickly, hence no cracks." Don't know if that's verbatim how he shared that little tidbit, but boy howdy if he wasn't totally spot on! I think I can count on one hand the number of times an egg cracked since learning this method of prepping.
So, the Pro to this 'equalization' concept is that you'll have less/no cracked eggs. But the Con I've discovered: when the egg cooks, the inner membrane doesn't detach readily from the white, making the eggs sometimes ridiculously hard to peel. Misery.
The other method for boiling eggs is a distant memory from childhood, reconfirmed with (ahem) "diligent" internet surfing. hee hee. Anyway, in this approach, you bring a pan of water to a rolling boil and then use a slotted spoon to gently set eggs fresh from the fridge into the pan. The Pro of this approach is that you will have eggs with shells that peel off incredibly easy (at least, compared to those cooked with the other method). Not sure of the chemistry behind the whole thing, but what is obvious to me is that the inner membrane is separate from the egg white and more strongly attached to the shell, allowing you to pull it off in much larger pieces.
So, the Pro to the 'flash boil' concept is that you'll have easy to peel eggs. But the Con: more cracked eggs. In the past week of Easter egg cooking, I had at least three cracked eggs out of eighteen eggs total.
So, there you have it. Hope this little tidbit helps out at least one frazzled cook in the kitchen where the homely hard-boiled egg is concerned. Happy boiling!
Bold Easter Eggs-Step By Step
My family was so delighted to color eggs earlier this week, we willingly shared some and gobbled some with the aim of doing it one more time.
Keeping blog opportunities in mind, I had the presence of mind to document the process. Some of the pics are from my cell. Some are from my digital camera. Hopefully the photos will do the task justice!
One tip in storing these eggs: I used a carton for the first batch and noted that condensation had a watercolor-type effect on the bottoms of the eggs. So, make two KEY MENTAL NOTES! First, with this second batch, I put a couple napkins in the foam egg carton to prevent condensation. Second, it's safe to assume that some discernment is in order as to whether or not you'd want to be hiding these eggs around the house on fabric-covered items. Just sayin'. Consider yourself WARNED. :D
One tip in storing these eggs: I used a carton for the first batch and noted that condensation had a watercolor-type effect on the bottoms of the eggs. So, make two KEY MENTAL NOTES! First, with this second batch, I put a couple napkins in the foam egg carton to prevent condensation. Second, it's safe to assume that some discernment is in order as to whether or not you'd want to be hiding these eggs around the house on fabric-covered items. Just sayin'. Consider yourself WARNED. :D
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| Gel dye from Sweet Art Country Kitchen. Visit them here |
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| Here I have a small coffee cup with 1 T white vinegar |
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| I use the blunt end of a wood skewer to add a dollop of dye |
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| I use the skewer to dilute the gel as much as possible |
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| Here I have done all five colors of dye, plus my own mix for orange |
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| I add enough boiling water to make sure the eggs will be covered |
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| Finishing adding the boiling water |
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| Our work area: the dining table with an old shower curtain topped with an old scrap towel. You can see the remains of our previous egg-dying extravaganza... |
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| This egg was just dipped in and then immediately removed. See the potential? |
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| The same egg after two minutes in the dye bath. So cheery! |
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| Red, after 2 minutes |
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| Orange, after 2 minutes |
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| Yellow, after 2 minutes |
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| Teal Green, after 2 minutes |
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| Blue, after 2 minutes |
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| BLACK, after 2 minutes |
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| A wonderful rainbow... |
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| .....filled with cheer! |
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| The beautiful back of that egg dyed in the BLACK dye bath. Again, happy dyeing! |
Easter, Bright and BOLD!
So, I don't know about the rest of you, by in my neck of the woods, Spring decided to explode forth way ahead of schedule. Gardening issues that I thought would hold off until well into April have been clamoring for my attention since the beginning of March. I find this first week of April, and the Easter celebrations, a welcome break from all the garden hustle and bustle. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE working in the garden. It gives me a level of release and satisfaction I can't even begin to describe. Just the same, there's something about decorating Easter eggs that fills the creative need in me like nothing else can.
Here are some photos of Easter eggs dyed last night:
I wanna note that the yellow and orange eggs we made were so vibrant, I couldn't get my camera's macro setting to focus on the egg in the foreground, hence the predominantly blue/green/dark colored eggs. The eggs are brilliant and we had about six kids/adults involved in the egg coloring fun.
Last year it had crossed my mind that, if gel dyes are marketed for effectively tinting large quantities of white icing it would stand to reason that these dyes would be incredibly effective in making vibrant eggs. To test my theory to its most extreme extent, I decided to invest in one small tub of black dye gel. The resulting eggs took my breath away: black being a conglomerate of intense hues, I ended up with each individually dipped egg coming out an extravaganza of blues, purples, magentas and blacks.
So, this year I promised myself I would not surrender to PAAS tablets (sorry, no offense to the childhood memories) nor to the squirt bottles of liquid dye we all find in our local baking section of our grocery store. This year I was gonna foot the bill (a whopping $8) to buy gel dyes for the purpose of egg dyeing. The above eggs are the fruits of our labor and experimentation.
If you'd like to dabble with your own vibrant custom color palette, here's what I did:
*Placed my eggs in rolling boiling water to cook for 15 minutes.
*Drained the eggs and ran cold water over them for a little bit to make them easy to handle.
*For each color I wanted, in one heat-safe cup, I placed 1 generous Tablespoon of white vinegar, a dollop of gel dye the size of a garbanzo bean and enough boiling hot water that an egg would be fully submerged once placed inside (for me, that was roughly 3/4 c). I stirred until it seemed the gel had sufficiently incorporated into the solution.
*Dye away! Even the quickest dip in the dye bath will produce a color brighter than any other dye process I've used before now. Note that the darker deeper colors were made by dipping eggs in multiple often complementary colors and letting them sit for three minutes or more.
Happy dyeing and, much more importantly, a happy and glorious Easter to you! What a truly wonderful day of celebration...
Here are some photos of Easter eggs dyed last night:
I wanna note that the yellow and orange eggs we made were so vibrant, I couldn't get my camera's macro setting to focus on the egg in the foreground, hence the predominantly blue/green/dark colored eggs. The eggs are brilliant and we had about six kids/adults involved in the egg coloring fun.
Last year it had crossed my mind that, if gel dyes are marketed for effectively tinting large quantities of white icing it would stand to reason that these dyes would be incredibly effective in making vibrant eggs. To test my theory to its most extreme extent, I decided to invest in one small tub of black dye gel. The resulting eggs took my breath away: black being a conglomerate of intense hues, I ended up with each individually dipped egg coming out an extravaganza of blues, purples, magentas and blacks.
So, this year I promised myself I would not surrender to PAAS tablets (sorry, no offense to the childhood memories) nor to the squirt bottles of liquid dye we all find in our local baking section of our grocery store. This year I was gonna foot the bill (a whopping $8) to buy gel dyes for the purpose of egg dyeing. The above eggs are the fruits of our labor and experimentation.
If you'd like to dabble with your own vibrant custom color palette, here's what I did:
*Placed my eggs in rolling boiling water to cook for 15 minutes.
*Drained the eggs and ran cold water over them for a little bit to make them easy to handle.
*For each color I wanted, in one heat-safe cup, I placed 1 generous Tablespoon of white vinegar, a dollop of gel dye the size of a garbanzo bean and enough boiling hot water that an egg would be fully submerged once placed inside (for me, that was roughly 3/4 c). I stirred until it seemed the gel had sufficiently incorporated into the solution.
*Dye away! Even the quickest dip in the dye bath will produce a color brighter than any other dye process I've used before now. Note that the darker deeper colors were made by dipping eggs in multiple often complementary colors and letting them sit for three minutes or more.
Happy dyeing and, much more importantly, a happy and glorious Easter to you! What a truly wonderful day of celebration...
VivaTerra Inspired Rug
So, yesterday I posted a picture of a lovely rug I found via Pinterest. Much to my dismay, while the link redirected me to VivaTerra's web-site (with all of their gorgeous home decor), the rug was nowhere to found. I love the crochet motif of the rug pattern, so it seemed only natural to make an attempt at coming up with a rough imitation. Ever since I saw the rug, visions of it on my craft room floor danced in my head. I set to work in creating an easy-to-remember/easy-to-work pattern for the motif.
It took me most of my Wednesday to come up with something that wasn't complex, laid flat on the bottom, joined easily to each other, was dense enough to withstand foot traffic and 3-dimensional enough to show off its floral traits. Whew!
So today I have the first of my motifs, in my own colorway, connected together in the beginnings of my own 'Mum Rug' (as I'm calling it). They aren't precisely the same as the original, bur I'm excited with the early results and am eager to see how this is going to work up!
I think I stated it in my last post that, if this attempt works out okay, I just might be motivated to create another one for my girls' room... It certainly is seeming to be a fairly quick and easy piece.
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| The yarns I had in my stash. |
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| The very beginnings of my attempt at my "Mum Rug", inspired by a rug originally offered on the VivaTerra web-site. |
Cooking and Crocheting
Ahhh, February has pretty much been and gone and I feel I've barely batted an eyelash. {sigh} It's not as though I haven't been busy. Late January and the first half of February found me refining and testing a six course menu I was going to be cooking for a Valentine's event.
What an exciting gala it turned out to be. It certainly had its challenges... of the eight people originally slated to help me, only four initially showed up. A couple more helping hands did appear later on in the evening and we cranked it out.
Guests started their evening with homemade rustic crackers served with a Kalamata and black olive tapenade. We followed that with meatballs that had been stuffed with gruyere, saged turkey sausage and apricots in a plate of a cherry sangria sauce. Then we had butternut squash bisque garnished with creme fraische. The fourth course was a spinach chiffonade topped with crumbled blue cheese, pecans and a homemade orange honey dijon dressing. The fifth course consisted of pork noisettes in a raspberry reduction sauce and a side of garlic potato salpicon. And before dessert, we all enjoyed a Champagne, lime and cucumber sorbet.
Everyone seemed to really enjoy themselves... and I have made promises to share recipes!
In the meantime, now that I find myself with a hint of free time, I have had a photo on one of my Pinterest boards that has been screaming my name:
The motifs remind me of mums. And, while I adore the color way of the carpet in the image, I'm going to profess my cheapness yet one more time. I already have such an abundance of yarn at my disposal I can't justify spending money on more. And, although I don't have these delicate earthy tones in my stash, I DO have some heavy duty carpet yarn in my possession that is screaming to be used for just such a purpose.
The yarn came to me via my mother-in-law who, in her earlier years, had the same tastes in colors as I do now. I have a yellow that is about the same tint as the one in the photo above. My brown is a warmer color that is closer to tan. And instead of varying shades of grey, I will be working with aquas and dashes of citron green and a royal blue. It will definitely have more of a seaside palette, and will be a nice bright addition to my work area.
The biggest challenge I had was figuring out a stitch pattern that would mimic the design above. I spent a day making notes, crocheting, tearing apart and then ripping things again before I finally came to a solution that leaves me happy. Most importantly, the stitch work is relatively easy and quick to work up. I'll snap a pic tomorrow of the progress I've made so far. My first endeavor is most definitely going to be small. But if it turns out cute enough, I just might be aiming at a larger scale design for my girls' room in some of the other multitudinous hues still in my yarn basket!...
What an exciting gala it turned out to be. It certainly had its challenges... of the eight people originally slated to help me, only four initially showed up. A couple more helping hands did appear later on in the evening and we cranked it out.
Guests started their evening with homemade rustic crackers served with a Kalamata and black olive tapenade. We followed that with meatballs that had been stuffed with gruyere, saged turkey sausage and apricots in a plate of a cherry sangria sauce. Then we had butternut squash bisque garnished with creme fraische. The fourth course was a spinach chiffonade topped with crumbled blue cheese, pecans and a homemade orange honey dijon dressing. The fifth course consisted of pork noisettes in a raspberry reduction sauce and a side of garlic potato salpicon. And before dessert, we all enjoyed a Champagne, lime and cucumber sorbet.
Everyone seemed to really enjoy themselves... and I have made promises to share recipes!
In the meantime, now that I find myself with a hint of free time, I have had a photo on one of my Pinterest boards that has been screaming my name:
 |
| This image originally linked to the site for VivaTerra, but the rug is no longer available for purchase. |
The motifs remind me of mums. And, while I adore the color way of the carpet in the image, I'm going to profess my cheapness yet one more time. I already have such an abundance of yarn at my disposal I can't justify spending money on more. And, although I don't have these delicate earthy tones in my stash, I DO have some heavy duty carpet yarn in my possession that is screaming to be used for just such a purpose.
The yarn came to me via my mother-in-law who, in her earlier years, had the same tastes in colors as I do now. I have a yellow that is about the same tint as the one in the photo above. My brown is a warmer color that is closer to tan. And instead of varying shades of grey, I will be working with aquas and dashes of citron green and a royal blue. It will definitely have more of a seaside palette, and will be a nice bright addition to my work area.
The biggest challenge I had was figuring out a stitch pattern that would mimic the design above. I spent a day making notes, crocheting, tearing apart and then ripping things again before I finally came to a solution that leaves me happy. Most importantly, the stitch work is relatively easy and quick to work up. I'll snap a pic tomorrow of the progress I've made so far. My first endeavor is most definitely going to be small. But if it turns out cute enough, I just might be aiming at a larger scale design for my girls' room in some of the other multitudinous hues still in my yarn basket!...
Finished At Last!
The life of a mom is never dull. Most of you know that (or should I say ALL of you?) I finally had to hunker down and schedule time just to focus on finishing the seat cushion.
It's funny how the odds and ends of life elbow in and vie for first place in the attention queue. And, I'm not sure about you, I tend to feel pangs of guilt when choosing between things equally important to my heart...
This month is an active one. Amongst all my crafty tasks is an endeavor (for the second time) to prepare a six course meal for a Valentine's event. The first shindig was such a success, I simply couldn't resist taking another go at it. But that has meant interspersing baking with sewing; sautéing with crocheting; reducing with drawing. I have to keep reminding myself that my absence from my blog is justified, but I mildly worry I'll let this all fall by the wayside as 'life' scrambles for my attention...
Whew, that felt good to get off my chest! Yesterday was all about getting the seat cushion done, and finish it I did! I streamed Pandora and rocked out as I drew up my pattern and sewed feet and feet of red orange cording. I was even tickled to see my little Tater Tot throw down her toy and start dancing when Duran Duran came on.... there's a kid who's definitely her mother's child. :)
Things went fairly smoothly, though the true success will be hearing whether or not the recipient thinks it works in her over-all design scheme. I'll keep you posted...
It's funny how the odds and ends of life elbow in and vie for first place in the attention queue. And, I'm not sure about you, I tend to feel pangs of guilt when choosing between things equally important to my heart...
This month is an active one. Amongst all my crafty tasks is an endeavor (for the second time) to prepare a six course meal for a Valentine's event. The first shindig was such a success, I simply couldn't resist taking another go at it. But that has meant interspersing baking with sewing; sautéing with crocheting; reducing with drawing. I have to keep reminding myself that my absence from my blog is justified, but I mildly worry I'll let this all fall by the wayside as 'life' scrambles for my attention...
Whew, that felt good to get off my chest! Yesterday was all about getting the seat cushion done, and finish it I did! I streamed Pandora and rocked out as I drew up my pattern and sewed feet and feet of red orange cording. I was even tickled to see my little Tater Tot throw down her toy and start dancing when Duran Duran came on.... there's a kid who's definitely her mother's child. :)
Things went fairly smoothly, though the true success will be hearing whether or not the recipient thinks it works in her over-all design scheme. I'll keep you posted...
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