So, I have been meaning to post my "how to dry lavender" post, and it is half written, but someone asked for my Multi-Grain Bread recipe.
Here we go...
Typically with bread, it is yeast, flour, salt, oil, water...maybe some eggs... but this is a Multi-Grain bread recipe. So we are adding some grains here! Also, a liquid grain: Beer! This takes a little prep. Add about 45 minutes to your average time before bread is ready...
This recipe makes a great sandwich bread, however the loaves do get kind of tall. I would suggest 1 slice makes 2 regular slices of bread for a sandwich when cut in half.
Ingredients:
12 oz beer, (1 bottle or 1.5 C)
1/2 Cup of dry 7 or 10 multi-grain cereal (like Bobs Red mill)
3 TBS of olive oil
1 TSP salt
1/3 Cup sugar
600g of Bread Flour (about 4 Cups)
2 1/2 TSP Instant Yeast
Prep:
Microwave beer in a large bowl to a simmer (about 3.5 minutes)
Add multi-grain cereal (CAREFUL, this will boil furiously )
Cover with plastic wrap and let cool until is is just warm, around 120 degrees F (45 minutes, give or take)
Assemble in Pan:
Pour beer/multi-grain mix into bottom of bread pan.
Add the rest of ingredients in the order listed above
Set your bread maker for French Bread Cycle, Medium Crus, 2 lb loaf
Monday, July 21, 2014
Friday, June 06, 2014
Irish Soda Bread
Ok. Soooo.. I look Irish. My old high school principal used to say I had "the map of Ireland" in my looks. It got me out of many a detention back in high school I can tell you...
As you might of guessed, he was of Irish decent as well. :)
It causes some confusion on the Aer Lingus as often I am not given customs forms. My husband will get one, but they skip over me entirely!
For a few years back in my twenties, as I have the "Celtic Look," I figured I would make the most of it and I got a job at a Irish pub called "Olde Irish Alehouse." I spent an hour before each shift, curling my hair and tucking it into a bouncing pony tail and then served Irish Soda bread and Shepard's Pie to all that came. Strange side note, that bar, locally referred to as "The Alehouse", looked more like the "Cheers" pub than the original "Bull and Finch" pub (the inspiration for the TV show) did on the inside. Dark paneling, brass accents, a bar that stood in the center of the floor with glasses above. Today, it has been remodeled and rebranded as "Waterford's." But I do digress, you came here for a recipe.
I found this recipe as I wanted to make the bread that I served back in the day. Around St. Patrick's Day here in the extended Boston metro area, most local grocery stores and bakeries just sell you stale bread that has little or no taste. Past that day, you have a very hard time trying to find it. So as ever, I figured... it couldn't be THAT hard to make, and it certainly has to be cheaper than paying $4+ per loaf.
And it is...
So this is the next "recipe" for my friend (and embroidery student) Kitty Brady. She asked me to list a bunch of my recipes for bread making and you can find those recipes up on the "bread" board (ha!) on my Pinterest page (http://www.pinterest.com/rourri/) as she is looking to take back the bread making and save money too!
Here you go:
Irish Soda Bread
Yield: 2 loavesAdapted from Margaret M. Johnson's "Irish Heritage Cookbook"
(yes, adjustments have been made...read on below)
Set your oven to 350 degrees
Mix the following dry ingredients in a bowl:
4 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3 teaspoons (+/- to taste) caraway seeds
2 cups raisins (light or dark is fine)
Mix the liquids together, first making "quick buttermilk"
1 1/4 cup quick buttermilk* (1 1/4 cup whole milk with 1 teaspoon of vinegar)
1/4 cup olive oil (evoo if you wish, I just use whatever is in the pantry)
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
Combine both together, until a soft dough has formed. Split the dough into two balls. Dust with extra flour to stop the dough from sticking to your hands.
Place on opposite ends of a cookie sheet and make a "Cut" with a knife across the top of each ball of dough. Classically, people make a X cut at the top, but a single cut will do. This just helps with releasing the steam as it cooks. Set your timer for 30-35 minutes at the 350 degree oven temp.
* What is "Quick Buttermilk"? Well, I rarely have regular buttermilk or buttermilk powder in my fridge. Often after using just a cup or 2 TBS of it in whatever recipe, the rest just expires as I don't have the time to do more than the recipe that I had intended to do. This saves me money and cuts down on waste. If you *do* happen to have buttermilk in your fridge, by all means use it. But the vinegar and the milk trick works wonders. Just let it sit for a few minutes after you add the vinegar, then add to the rest of the liquids bowl.
Ok, just to clarify a few points about what I did in the recipe and why...
Most recipes for bread have a flour, water, oil and levining plus leaving control component.
In this case: Flour, Milk, Olive Oil, Bicarbonate of Sodas, Salt
The flour has some protein, and the milk has some sugar...and it all just works. Well, the original recipe called for Canola Oil or Veg oil. Not that I am a "clean" eating nut, as that word "clean foods" means lots of different things to many people, but I just don't like the health rating of Canola Oil as there is no such plant called a Canola plant. In my book that oil is no where close to any kind of "base component" source of food. It is highly processed. One could argue the point of the all purpose flour being a high processed food, but I find that is a livable choice as I use King Arthur flour, and the processing does not include bleaching or other higher processes that other white flours have. You could swap whole wheat flour in there, but then you would have to monkey with the ratios of liquid as whole wheat flour does not behave the same as all purpose... it was beyond the scope of this recipe.
Oil for oil works. Unless you substitute butter (oh yum) for the oil. Do understand though, the butter has MORE than oil in there... it has milk solids, proteins...and unless you buy "unsalted" butter on a regular basis and have it to use here, it has salt as well. The olive oil swaps out fairly reliably here. Again, make your own "Clean Eating" choices... This is what works for me.
The flavor needed to be amped up from the original recipe as I wanted to match the taste from what I remembered at the "Alehouse". I ended up by doubling the amount of raisins and adding more caraway. This is as close to what I could come to for what they used to serve back in the day. A copycat recipe from the Olde Irish Alehouse days.
From what I understand in Ireland, everyone has their own
take on soda bread. This is just my take on it or "recipe" if you will. There are other variations out there, and I encourage you to look for one that will be yours if this isn't your kind of "authentic".
So try it, tinker with it...and enjoy!
Thursday, May 01, 2014
Bio-Degradable Egg Seed Starters!
Well, it has been a LONG time since my last posting since the waffle bowl101 blog. I just got back from talking to the Girl Scout "Daisy" troop here in Wachusett about
Bio-Degradable Seed Starting in Egg Shells!
So I am writing this blog for them and the attending parents so that they can see how easy it is to do this, and do this as a "usable" option for seed starting. Bio-degradable options for seed starting are great, as not only are they good for the environment but they are also easy on the tender plants roots. You can plant these directly in the ground, and the roots just grow thru the shell. Less disturbed roots on a new plant means that the plant can focus on growing rather than having to recover from a teased out rootball. You can also put it into a larger bio-degradable container (more about that at the end of the blog post tho)
When I first saw this notion of seed starting, it was on Pinterest. Pintrest is great for inspiring you, but not great on giving you the down and dirty of making things "feasible". This method was shown online in a perfectly charming cracked egg, using both sides of the shell. Some people in food service can crack eggs perfectly...I am NOT one of them! I tried to do this the way it was illustrated in Pinterest, and once I tried to wash the eggshells the item crumbled in my hands and there was not much left to plant in.
Fast forward to a year later and I am watching one of my favorite shows "America's Test Kitchen" (sense a theme here? Yeah, this is my ONLY kind of reality show...well that and anything Mike Rowe is in, but that is a blog for a different day), and they start doing their gadget segment on how to take a shell off of a hard boiled egg. I have to admit, I was anticipating a useless gadget and a waste of 5 minutes of my life. What I got was EGG SHATTERING! (get it? LOL...Ok you can stop rolling your eyes now). The showed how to take the top off a soft boiled egg using a Rosle Egg Topper. This is what I was looking for to grow seeds out of eggshells! It make a perfect rim around the top of the egg. The shell was structurally sound enough to not only wash, but also poke a drain hole in the bottom too!
Bless their hearts, they humored me, ran the transaction, and I went home to play! They are wonderful folks there, even if I seem like a raving lunatic.
So after some experimenting, this is what I came up with. I rarely eat soft boiled eggs of the shell, and this tool is expressly made for that. I use more raw eggs for baking and for cooking, so to use it on raw eggs it was!
The trick here is to cradle the egg (pointy side up, large bottom side down) in the egg carton. Place a oven mitt under the carton to cushion the "topping" of the egg. Place the egg topper on the egg like a hat, pull back the spring and let the lever "whack" the top, full force.
Pull the top off the egg and pour the liquid into a container (I use a small coffee mug) for use in whatever recipe and put the egg into a washing container for when I do my clean up.
It is really that simple. Then when dry, take a sharp knife tip and place it in the bottom of the eggshell with a touch of pressure. This will create the drain at the bottom to let the excess water out of the eggshell when you water your seedling. Spin the eggshell around to create the hole. Too much pressure here will crack the shell and make it unusable.
If you don't have a knife that will work, use a thumbtack, but be careful with using too much pressure all at once!
I save my shells next to the dishrack as they are cleaned and need to dry out. Once I collect enough of them, I then put them back on into the egg carton for storage until I am ready to plant! When I am ready to start the seedlings, I use the clear egg carton as a tray. Place in a warm spot and soon you will have seedlings!
Once the seedling gets to be around 1-2 inches high, you want to start thinking about putting it in the garden or using a larger container (some plants require more root development before you place them outside in a garden bed where they have to compete for water).
I found this video on Pinterest too
It is a Youtube video that is an excellent larger container. Made out of newspaper, the roots grow right out of this and into the garden when planted directly into your garden bed, giving you blooms earlier and no plastic pot to recycle!
Now the downside here( ...and yes, there is a downside) is that the Rosle Egg Topper has caught the attention of some media outlets, and now it is hard to find in most kitchen stores. Some may still have one or two on the shelf, but do be prepared to wait for a month or so until they catch up to demand.
Now the downside here( ...and yes, there is a downside) is that the Rosle Egg Topper has caught the attention of some media outlets, and now it is hard to find in most kitchen stores. Some may still have one or two on the shelf, but do be prepared to wait for a month or so until they catch up to demand.
Saturday, June 08, 2013
How to Make Waffle Bowls
My husband's family is steeped in a tradition of good food, but one of the primary values that we have brought back to "Beck Farm East" is the obsession with homemade ice cream. Out in the midwest, his family has a 5 GALLON icecream maker (known to those who make ice cream as an ice cream *freezer*... rarely is it called a maker). This freezer is a HAND CRANK model. No power, no tractor hit and miss engine hook up, it is pure corn fed elbow grease power. Everyone goes outside and we all take turns churning. It is a family event and lots of fun, with aching arms to show for it the next day! Eventually, one of them has to either stand or sit on the freezer so someone can crank and the torque required doesn't tip it over. The Becks are serious about ice cream! When we got married, one of the first things we put on our registry was a one gallon "White Mountain" ice cream freezer, that had both a hand crank and also a electric motor. Starting our married life with out an ice cream freezer would have been possible grounds for annulment! :)
I have to be honest, out east here, the electric motor gets more use out here more than the hand crank. For that I am exceedingly thankful!
Friends and family now know that our "thing" in the summer is to come to BBQ's or family cookouts and bring the ice cream makings and show everyone how it is made. It is a part of summer I have come to treasure seeing kids licking the dripping dasher (the part of the ice cream maker that goes round and round on the inside), covering their faces, when we take theice cream out. We serve it up in waffle bowls, which is the "fad" thing now in the millennium "tween" years here in the north east.
Flash back to 1988....Way, way before I was married, I was part of my high school's foreign exchange program with our sister school in Bonn, Germany. We walked through the streets of Bonn with our German friends, trolling around the downtown area. One of the frequent things to do was stopping at the multiple ice cream shops that made their own waffle cones. They had the broken pieces out in a basket on the counter as free samples and the American kids hadn't had anything like it, EVER. The 'sugar cones' we have in the states didn't begin to resemble those fresh, crisp, addicting bites.
Back then, waffle cones were just starting to take off in the states. They were a novelty to behold. D'Angelo sandwich shop chain "Steves' Ice Cream" had them in the Fanueil Hall food court, but they were NOTHING like what we had on the streets of Bonn. I was highly dissapointed in what I got from any ice cream retailer peddling waffle cone treats.
So fast forward to the new millennium, and I marry into a premier Dayton Ohio food catering family with an obsession for fresh ice cream. It was only a matter of time before I figured out how to make waffle cones or the newly trendy "waffle bowls". So with my Christmas gift money this year, I went to Kitchen Outfitters in Acton (kitchen-outfitters.com) and bought myself a waffle cone maker, figuring I could mold the waffle into a bowl shape with little effort. I had a little bit of a learning curve, but I figured it out. And they are every bit as tasty and crazy addicting as what I had in Bonn.
So with out further adieu, here is how I sorted out how to make waffle bowls!
Gear:
Waffle Iron, Mold/Form, Mixer, Hand Whisk, 2-3 TBS Disher, Rubber Spatula
Waffle Iron
You are going to need a waffle maker...or a pizelle maker that makes large pizelles, regardless of what the other folks on the internet tell you. I would highly advocate getting the waffle maker, you will be able to make a realistic size bowl vs a small cup size bowl.
Mold/Form
This is where my learning curve started. Many postings on the internet have you believe that you stick the hot off the iron waffle into a over sized muffin tin (to form via cavity mold). Clearly these people have never touched the waffle when it comes out of the iron, or they have fingers that are heat proof. Also, they need to be stackable and usable. I didn't have a over sized muffin tin, but I had bowls that were approximately the right size. I pushed the hot waffle in to the cavity of the bowl and pulled out my first bowl. It was able to hold ice cream, but the sides were far to ruffly to be stackable. It really looked more like a taco salad tortilla shape. Not really what I was looking for. I realized the difference between what I had in my hand and what the "Joy" cone company did, was they put theirs in a "press" so that each bowl was just like the last. The task was then to "press" mine, rather than just put it into a mold and try to make a form. So, how does one do that? The easiest way I cam up with was to not put it "IN" to a mold, but to drape it outside of the cavity or form. As these things are gawd awfully hot to the touch when they come out of the iron, I needed to protect my hands somehow. I have two "Ove Gloves" which are great for protecting my hands when I pop bread out of pans, but it would not create a consistent product. These waffles cool fast, and if you don't press it evenly all around fast enough, the bowl will not work. I needed a positive and negative mold. What I realized is, just like Dorothy in the Wizard of OZ, I had the power all along! My Pyrex 2 cup liquid measuring cup was the perfect size for this. But what to fit over it? What would provide even pressure all around? I looked upon the shelf behind my oven, and there was a recently washed Chinese soup bowl my mother had sent home with me, previously used as a butter compote filled with lobster and butter from her birthday party weeks before. I placed the bowl upside down on top of my measuring cup, and voila! I had my positive and negative molds! This was my solution... not all Chinese soup bowls are the same size. My recommendation is to rummage through your cupboards to find a bowl or soup mug that might work. It is a little trial and error. My solution came to me fairly quickly. I hope yours does too.
The recipe that I am listing here came from my waffle maker's book. It makes 6-8 cones. Now, I AM my Mothers' daughter, and when cooking is involved, I do NOTHING small. This weekend I am feeding 60+ people ice cream and waffle bowls. So I scaled it. Scaling a recipe generally involves a painful recollection of 3d grade fraction lessons from elementary school. I don't really like to do it by hand, as when I am cooking for a large number of people, any mistake will cost LOTS of money in food. Instead, I use a cooking programs to scale for large numbers of people. Now, I can tell you that not all recipes "scale". Sometimes you need to make things in small batches. But this recipe scales just fine. Oh and the software you might want to look into is either "MacGourmet" or "Cooking Light". I have used both in the past and I like them equally well.
The one thing I will say about the recipe here, is that you have to follow the ORDER in which the ingredients are added. There is a certain chemistry to baking with sugar and eggs... it is best not to mess with it.
Gourmet Waffle Cone recipe from Chefs Choice
(Mind you the image above is from a scaled recipe for 60 cones)
Bowl 1:
1 whole egg
1 egg white
Bowl 2:
1/2 cup granulated sugar
Bowl 3:
1/4 teaspoon of salt
1/3 cup of sifted all-purpose flour
Bowl 4: (well I used a tea cup and the microwave, but you get the point)
2 tablespoons of melted butter, cooled slightly
Step 1:
Put the eggs into your mixing bowl, mix together as you would for scrambled eggs. Gradually add the granulated sugar, while you have the mixer on medium. Watch for the batter to turn a "light yellow" color.
Step 2: Mix the salt and the flour together using a hand wisk, then slowly start to add this to the egg mixture in your mixer.
Step 3: Once the flour has been blended in, slowly add the butter into the mixture. Mix until it is absorbed.
Heat up your waffle iron to the #2.5 or #3 setting, (mine worked well on 3), and follow the directions for prepping the iron for its first use. Spray the iron with vegetable oil.
I put two dishers of batter in for each waffle. Depending on the size of your disher, you might have to put more or less.
I set my timer for 2 minutes.
Remove warm waffle cookie with caution as it is hot. Place on mold form and press.
How to Form:
I placed my two cup pyrex upside down on a plate, and then centered the cookie wafer evenly over the bottom of the glass. Taking the bowl, I then quickly slid the interior of the bowl over the bottom of the measuring cup. As I slid this down, I aided the mold by lightly touching the edges of the waffle and pressing in to the measuring cup glass. Use caution as this is hot. You might want to consider using food service gloves or something if you are sensitive to heat, or cannot feel heat.
Hold for about 30 seconds or so, and then remove bowl. Pop new waffle bowl off of glass and then place on a cooling rack. I put mine in the oven as I had to keep them away from the humidity of a rainy day. I set the oven to 150 just to encourage the humidity to go out of the oven.
Anywho... That is waffle bowl making in a nutshell! Happy waffle making!
Monday, August 13, 2012
Saving Money, Part 5
The topic for today is education...
I Myth'ed, or Open Sourced "TiVo'd" a 60 Minutes one sunday not long ago... A segment that I saw really got to me....it was a bit from Peter Thiel on education, and the need for it vs. the expense of it.
How does this fit in with saving money? Well, one could argue that you save money by NOT going to college. No parent wants their kid to have to go through paying dues like they did. The dues students pay now, their college loans, are choking the financial stability right from underneath their feet. These dues are far steeper than the previous generation, and are unsustainable.
The reason for the instability is our fascination with a modern faerie tale... fabled place of milk and honey called "College."
For decades now we have demanded our kids go to "college." Over and over we have told them by telling them to study for the SATs, get a good score, get into college. As a society we have repeatedly stressed that skills are not important, only the fabled land of college is important.
The skills vs. education pendulum as swung so hard to the "get an education" side that many parents see no value in education of skill sets. We have drained all of the high schools of any and all skills. Industrial arts, home economics, and art teachers have had their budgets or departments gutted and cleaned out. The side effect is that when things need to be "Made in America" (like the olympic outfits), the skill sets just are not there. Forget the funding, the job creators and the other BS. But the skilled labor that knows how to sew and set a sleeve, or do a welding job is sadly lacking.
Peter Thiel swings the pendulum to the polar opposite position. He advocates being trained in a craft or skill, and to skip out on the big pricey college path.
Some might find financial value in this advice. Choosing an educational career path requires thought. His thoughts of skipping traditional college altogether is tempting. In the short term it will save you money...or will it?
This concept needs more flushing out for it to be workable.
Fact: It is damn near impossible to get a white collar above the poverty line job with out SOME college.
Vocational schools have taken up the slack when it has come to filling this educational area. To make things really interesting, regional trade schools have experienced a overflow of applications that rivals the college application process.
These schools are where the biggest bang for your local tax dollars lie. These schools have a rich academic program mixed in with life and trade skill that is demanded today in the work force.
Sending a student here not only gives them the trade skills, but it also gives them a firm foundation for college. That's right. COLLEGE.
The cost savings here is to graduate with a skill set to earn a real paycheck, while attending college. Not only does this take the sting out of college loans, it gives the student a leg up when it comes to post-grad employment. It also provides a "skilled job" safety net for the student to leverage when the pink slips fly in the white collar job world in the years to come.
Dynamic education is where the money is. Education is not limited to AP classes and the classics. Education is the foundation of knowledge tools that we grow and prosper from in the years after graduation.
Educating students just so that they can graduate from college is educating our students into financial ruin. Subsequently, this "college or bust" educational track is stripping our manufacturing sector of qualified job applicants, leaving many jobs unfilled in what is a high unemployment era for white collar work.
Imagine being able to get a job because of a dynamic skill set that was part of the educational curricula in your teens. Imagine being able to pay back your school loans if college didn't work out for you, with a real paycheck from a real job due to your vocational skills. This is not to say that some college tracks are highly profitable directly out of college. But "Plan A" doesn't always work out for people. I am now on "Plan C." Reinventing myself has proven to be a tough process and very risky when a mortgage has to be paid when looking at adult vocational education fees.
In order to not only save money but make money in the future, the way we define education needs to be changed.
I Myth'ed, or Open Sourced "TiVo'd" a 60 Minutes one sunday not long ago... A segment that I saw really got to me....it was a bit from Peter Thiel on education, and the need for it vs. the expense of it.
How does this fit in with saving money? Well, one could argue that you save money by NOT going to college. No parent wants their kid to have to go through paying dues like they did. The dues students pay now, their college loans, are choking the financial stability right from underneath their feet. These dues are far steeper than the previous generation, and are unsustainable.
The reason for the instability is our fascination with a modern faerie tale... fabled place of milk and honey called "College."
For decades now we have demanded our kids go to "college." Over and over we have told them by telling them to study for the SATs, get a good score, get into college. As a society we have repeatedly stressed that skills are not important, only the fabled land of college is important.
The skills vs. education pendulum as swung so hard to the "get an education" side that many parents see no value in education of skill sets. We have drained all of the high schools of any and all skills. Industrial arts, home economics, and art teachers have had their budgets or departments gutted and cleaned out. The side effect is that when things need to be "Made in America" (like the olympic outfits), the skill sets just are not there. Forget the funding, the job creators and the other BS. But the skilled labor that knows how to sew and set a sleeve, or do a welding job is sadly lacking.
Peter Thiel swings the pendulum to the polar opposite position. He advocates being trained in a craft or skill, and to skip out on the big pricey college path.
Some might find financial value in this advice. Choosing an educational career path requires thought. His thoughts of skipping traditional college altogether is tempting. In the short term it will save you money...or will it?
This concept needs more flushing out for it to be workable.
Fact: It is damn near impossible to get a white collar above the poverty line job with out SOME college.
Vocational schools have taken up the slack when it has come to filling this educational area. To make things really interesting, regional trade schools have experienced a overflow of applications that rivals the college application process.
These schools are where the biggest bang for your local tax dollars lie. These schools have a rich academic program mixed in with life and trade skill that is demanded today in the work force.
Sending a student here not only gives them the trade skills, but it also gives them a firm foundation for college. That's right. COLLEGE.
The cost savings here is to graduate with a skill set to earn a real paycheck, while attending college. Not only does this take the sting out of college loans, it gives the student a leg up when it comes to post-grad employment. It also provides a "skilled job" safety net for the student to leverage when the pink slips fly in the white collar job world in the years to come.
Dynamic education is where the money is. Education is not limited to AP classes and the classics. Education is the foundation of knowledge tools that we grow and prosper from in the years after graduation.
Educating students just so that they can graduate from college is educating our students into financial ruin. Subsequently, this "college or bust" educational track is stripping our manufacturing sector of qualified job applicants, leaving many jobs unfilled in what is a high unemployment era for white collar work.
Imagine being able to get a job because of a dynamic skill set that was part of the educational curricula in your teens. Imagine being able to pay back your school loans if college didn't work out for you, with a real paycheck from a real job due to your vocational skills. This is not to say that some college tracks are highly profitable directly out of college. But "Plan A" doesn't always work out for people. I am now on "Plan C." Reinventing myself has proven to be a tough process and very risky when a mortgage has to be paid when looking at adult vocational education fees.
In order to not only save money but make money in the future, the way we define education needs to be changed.
Friday, July 20, 2012
Saving Money... Part 4
Ok, I am a bit out of sequence here. I promised a blog on "Laundry: The Biggest Money Leach of All"...
You don't have to pay a ton of money on doing laundry...well, if you don't have a washer and dryer at home, you will have to shell out quite a few quarters to make something happen...but the soap component, that you can trim down to pennies a load by making your own laundry detergent.
Yeah, I know how it sounds. But for how expensive this stuff is... people are stealing it, just to have the luxury of clean clothes.
Check out this article from the NY Times
I am not kidding...
So what does it take for you to make your own? You can follow this simple soap recipe:
1 cup washing soda (this is NOT BAKING SODA) you can find it in the stainremoval area of your market)
1 cup borax (The stuff your grandmother can tell you about... she might call it "20 mule team")
1. Mix store in an airtight plastic container.
2. Use 2 tablespoons per full load.
That is all...
Don't like the powdered stuff?
Make liquid detergent instead. I bought a cheap large spaghetti pot to make this in ( I did not spend more than $8 for it). It may be just soap, but I don't want to have soapy tasting spaghetti if I don't wash it the pot out well enough.
Also do Save a few of your detergent bottles before you make this, or forage in the local laundromat in the waste bin for bottles to store it in.
1/2 cup Washing Soda
1/2 cup Borax
1/3 bar Soap (grated)
Large Pot to mix
Large Bucket to cut soap in
Containers to store in
Bring the three pints of water to a boil, turn off the heat. Add the grated soap, mix until soap is melted. Turn on heat back on to low, and then add borax and soda. Mix until you notice the liquid thicken some, then turn off the heat. Now you need to cut this with water... Here comes a choice for you... I used to fill a 5 gallon bucket and mix then try to fill it up and try to pour into bottles...this only spells disaster.
I now fill about 5 bottles up with 1 gallon of water each, then divide the remaining mix evenly into those 5 bottles... it is far easier to pour a small amount of liquid then a heavy bucket.
Once the mix hits the water it will congeal slightly. You will have to shake the bottle to pour it out. I use the cap to measure how much for each load. This does not "suds up" much, and is ideal for both HE washers and regular ones too.
You don't have to pay a ton of money on doing laundry...well, if you don't have a washer and dryer at home, you will have to shell out quite a few quarters to make something happen...but the soap component, that you can trim down to pennies a load by making your own laundry detergent.
Yeah, I know how it sounds. But for how expensive this stuff is... people are stealing it, just to have the luxury of clean clothes.
Check out this article from the NY Times
I am not kidding...
So what does it take for you to make your own? You can follow this simple soap recipe:
Powdered Detergent
2 cups grated laundry soap (look for Sunlight soap in Canada, or Fels Naptha in the States, you can also use hand washing soap like Dove if you like)1 cup washing soda (this is NOT BAKING SODA) you can find it in the stainremoval area of your market)
1 cup borax (The stuff your grandmother can tell you about... she might call it "20 mule team")
1. Mix store in an airtight plastic container.
2. Use 2 tablespoons per full load.
That is all...
Don't like the powdered stuff?
Make liquid detergent instead. I bought a cheap large spaghetti pot to make this in ( I did not spend more than $8 for it). It may be just soap, but I don't want to have soapy tasting spaghetti if I don't wash it the pot out well enough.
Also do Save a few of your detergent bottles before you make this, or forage in the local laundromat in the waste bin for bottles to store it in.
Liquid Detergent
3 pints of water1/2 cup Washing Soda
1/2 cup Borax
1/3 bar Soap (grated)
Large Pot to mix
Large Bucket to cut soap in
Containers to store in
Bring the three pints of water to a boil, turn off the heat. Add the grated soap, mix until soap is melted. Turn on heat back on to low, and then add borax and soda. Mix until you notice the liquid thicken some, then turn off the heat. Now you need to cut this with water... Here comes a choice for you... I used to fill a 5 gallon bucket and mix then try to fill it up and try to pour into bottles...this only spells disaster.
I now fill about 5 bottles up with 1 gallon of water each, then divide the remaining mix evenly into those 5 bottles... it is far easier to pour a small amount of liquid then a heavy bucket.
Once the mix hits the water it will congeal slightly. You will have to shake the bottle to pour it out. I use the cap to measure how much for each load. This does not "suds up" much, and is ideal for both HE washers and regular ones too.
Thursday, July 19, 2012
Wedding Kittehs!
I know I have been promising (and promising and promising) my facebook friends the photos of the Kitteh Favors I made for my sister in law, Anna's wedding this Summer!
Here is the finished product:
And here is how I got there:
I have an art degree, but I am always on the look out for new ideas and new sculpture concepts. I surf the internet, attend classes and even watch TV to get new ideas about things. I am not a "paper" art kinda person...more of a sculpture, living art sort really.
So a few years back that I saw a TV segment on "Crafter's Coast To Coast", or what is now called "That's Clever."
In the middle of fast forwarding through what I thougth was a "paper junk" segment (am not the biggest fan of scrapbooking), I stopped cold. The paper segment was about how to make a paper mache butterfly seed ornament, with art teacher Steve Hess.
This was not the "elementary school" strip up the newspaper, flour and water, paper mache project. This was how to make "paper" from making pulp, but not to make flat sheets of paper... it was to make paper in sculpted form with seeds imbedded. To put more clearly, it was an elegant sculptured art form. One that was decidedly rustic but uniquely elegant.
Watch the HGTVnetwork video here:
seed ornament video
When my sister in law (the ultimate kitty mom) got engaged, I told her of the seed ornament concept ( I was just dying to try this as it was something new), and instead of a butterfly it could be a kitty! Why not? Right?
As she is a environmental chem person from Caltech, I knew we had a shared hatred of eco-waste and wedding favors that get left behind after the reception are the epitome of waste for me. Any kittehs left over, could be crumbled into her Mom's garden and the paper could compost on its own as the flowers grew from the seeds. Low footprint friendly favors and flowers to boot! What is not to love!
So with her go ahead with the favor concept, the kitteh production began. The HGTV video had a very flat ornament as its featured project, and it kinda looked like a cookie cutter punch out. That would be the easy way for this project to run, but oh no... I had to go and get fancy! I wanted some detail, and honestly it would be a whole heck of alot easier to paint 200 smiling kitteh favors if I had some detail on the face in the mold so I could just follow the lines. And of course detail led to it having to have depth, and the scope of the project shifted.
There was a bit of a trial and error process and as this is turning into a long blog I will give you the highlights of what I learned:
1)Make MORE than 1 positive from clay. An errant cat walking on your design table on the kitteh being designed is a bit disasterous.
2) Make your mold out of something FLEXIBLE. Do NOT use plaster of paris to make the mache end product IT WILL NOT DRY in the 24 hour window in which the video states.
3)DO NOT USE YOUR BLENDER as he says to in the video. You WILL be either sharpening your blender blades (even if it is a dedicated craft blender) or buying a whole new one...ask me how I know. :)
4) Boil your paper for a few hours after soaking it over night. This will loosen the fibers and your blender with love you for it!
5) Remember to calibrate color... as color when wet is ALWAYS darker, and do test out how much paper to paint to ensure a consistent color as my kitteh's were a bright red raspberry after adding too much to the sealant... I ended up giving up on sealing them altogether as I ran out of time. I fixed it by doing a "white wash" over the existing color.
6) Although kitteh's may not be sealed, don't think you will go as fast as you did when painting faces with the sealed ones. It takes way longer as the paint gets more absorbed into the paper.
I had a LOT of fun making these. And when the wedding was all done, we only had 2 kittehs left behind on tables.
Awesome!
I have more photos to post with these, but I did want to finally get these up on the web for folks to see!
Here is the finished product:
And here is how I got there:
I have an art degree, but I am always on the look out for new ideas and new sculpture concepts. I surf the internet, attend classes and even watch TV to get new ideas about things. I am not a "paper" art kinda person...more of a sculpture, living art sort really.
So a few years back that I saw a TV segment on "Crafter's Coast To Coast", or what is now called "That's Clever."
In the middle of fast forwarding through what I thougth was a "paper junk" segment (am not the biggest fan of scrapbooking), I stopped cold. The paper segment was about how to make a paper mache butterfly seed ornament, with art teacher Steve Hess.
This was not the "elementary school" strip up the newspaper, flour and water, paper mache project. This was how to make "paper" from making pulp, but not to make flat sheets of paper... it was to make paper in sculpted form with seeds imbedded. To put more clearly, it was an elegant sculptured art form. One that was decidedly rustic but uniquely elegant.
Watch the HGTVnetwork video here:
seed ornament video
As she is a environmental chem person from Caltech, I knew we had a shared hatred of eco-waste and wedding favors that get left behind after the reception are the epitome of waste for me. Any kittehs left over, could be crumbled into her Mom's garden and the paper could compost on its own as the flowers grew from the seeds. Low footprint friendly favors and flowers to boot! What is not to love!
So with her go ahead with the favor concept, the kitteh production began. The HGTV video had a very flat ornament as its featured project, and it kinda looked like a cookie cutter punch out. That would be the easy way for this project to run, but oh no... I had to go and get fancy! I wanted some detail, and honestly it would be a whole heck of alot easier to paint 200 smiling kitteh favors if I had some detail on the face in the mold so I could just follow the lines. And of course detail led to it having to have depth, and the scope of the project shifted.
1)Make MORE than 1 positive from clay. An errant cat walking on your design table on the kitteh being designed is a bit disasterous.
2) Make your mold out of something FLEXIBLE. Do NOT use plaster of paris to make the mache end product IT WILL NOT DRY in the 24 hour window in which the video states.
3)DO NOT USE YOUR BLENDER as he says to in the video. You WILL be either sharpening your blender blades (even if it is a dedicated craft blender) or buying a whole new one...ask me how I know. :)
4) Boil your paper for a few hours after soaking it over night. This will loosen the fibers and your blender with love you for it!5) Remember to calibrate color... as color when wet is ALWAYS darker, and do test out how much paper to paint to ensure a consistent color as my kitteh's were a bright red raspberry after adding too much to the sealant... I ended up giving up on sealing them altogether as I ran out of time. I fixed it by doing a "white wash" over the existing color.
6) Although kitteh's may not be sealed, don't think you will go as fast as you did when painting faces with the sealed ones. It takes way longer as the paint gets more absorbed into the paper.
I had a LOT of fun making these. And when the wedding was all done, we only had 2 kittehs left behind on tables.
Awesome!
I have more photos to post with these, but I did want to finally get these up on the web for folks to see!
Monday, May 21, 2012
Saving Money, Part 3
So we covered small appliances...and I promised you the killer meatball recipe...so here it is...I wrote it up on facebook a while back and now am copying and pasting it here!
Killer Meatballs...
Ok, well they don't "kill" anyone, but this is what I did to make probably the BEST meatballs I have ever had the other night... and I grew up in a neighborhood where my neighbors from Naples made some of the best food anywhere...and this was just like being back in the 'hood shall we say!
1 lb, steak (that's right..steak... rib eye to be exact, got it on sale and it was on special deal..no ground meat purchased)
.5 lb pork in pork chop form (no ground meat here either)
2 TBS +/- of fresh chopped parsley
3 large shallots
2-3 cloves garlic
1 cup Parmesan breadcrumbs ...these were purchased in a box ( you can make your own breadcrumbs and add oregano and a TBS of Parmesan cheese to the mix...)
2 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper
Using my Kitchen Aid grinder attachment, I ground my own meat using the larger die. After all the recalls of the tainted meat, you couldn't pay me enough money to buy ground beef in patty or regular shrink wrap form. We almost NEVER make meatloaf because of it. Go ahead, laugh...the local market (my favorite one..and they are generally very good) had a recall last month...again.
If you do not have a grinder, you can chop the meat really finely. I did this once before for meatballs and it does work.
If you have gone with a grinder option, peel the garlic and shallots and then put them thru the grinder at the end, to clean it out. Push through with an extra shallot if you are having problems.
Take the ground items and mix it up with the chopped parsley, breadcrumbs, two eggs and the salt and pepper.
Using a small disher (what looks like a small icecream scoop) scoop out the mixture and make a ball in your hands that is 1.5 inches in size... give or take.
In a hot pan with 3 tbs of olive oil, cook the meatballs 5-8 at a time. Do not over load the pan as this will cool the pan down. Reduce the heat and then cook on med low, turning the balls until nicely browned on all sides.
This recipe does not have any additional fats added to it... my friend Diana pointed out you could use 90% lean beef that is preground to have the same fat ratio, but honestly the texture would be much different.
Add to a pan with spaghetti sauce, and simmer for a while, do not over stir as the balls are more delicate as they don't have as much fat in them to be a binder.
Enjoy!
Friday, March 30, 2012
Saving Money... addendum...
Wow, I guess I beat America's Test Kitchen to the punch here! They had an episode the day after my post called "Here's the Beef" http://www.americastestkitchen.com/recipes/detail.php?docid=27836
There are a few differences between my method and theirs... but its all good!
Unlike what I do, they put the beef into the food processor. Earlier in the episode they went over what tools were good for doing the grinding and the food processor was used in the segment as they felt it would be a tool that everyone would have in their kitchen.
Another difference was: Instead of putting suet in.....they put in butter! Oh YUM! I don't know if this is a "saving money" option, but it does certainly add taste! The beef they chose is "flat meat." I actually get the sale beef items, and actually if the angus beef is on special it goes RIGHT into my cart!
Do watch the video if you are concerned about how to grind meat in your food processor.
If you are curious about the recipe that they have, you must be a "member" of the webpage.
This does carry a fee...it may be worth it to you to subscribe, it may be more worth it to you to set your TiVo or MythTV to record it! (I do!).
I hope you try it! The burgers are awesome!
There are a few differences between my method and theirs... but its all good!
Unlike what I do, they put the beef into the food processor. Earlier in the episode they went over what tools were good for doing the grinding and the food processor was used in the segment as they felt it would be a tool that everyone would have in their kitchen.
Another difference was: Instead of putting suet in.....they put in butter! Oh YUM! I don't know if this is a "saving money" option, but it does certainly add taste! The beef they chose is "flat meat." I actually get the sale beef items, and actually if the angus beef is on special it goes RIGHT into my cart!
Do watch the video if you are concerned about how to grind meat in your food processor.
If you are curious about the recipe that they have, you must be a "member" of the webpage.
This does carry a fee...it may be worth it to you to subscribe, it may be more worth it to you to set your TiVo or MythTV to record it! (I do!).
I hope you try it! The burgers are awesome!
Friday, March 23, 2012
Saving Money....part 2
Did I scare you with making your own cheese? I hope not. What I am trying to get at here is for people to take a chance. I want people to try something new and realize that they can do things with out having to buy them. Once you start this, then you raise your family's standard of living PLUS start to save money in the process.
Is there an investment? Yes! And that investment is in YOU. It is in knowledge and in household tools that can be found cheaply and easily. The knowledge you will gain from reading my blog posts, but as my father says: you need the right tool for the right job.
So you guessed it, today's blog topic is going to be on TOOLS!
What tools do you need in order to save money? Well, first of all put down those silly books that have you cough up $35 for their "system". This is not about a system, its about saving you money in the long run by giving you the structure and the tools to work with in your own life and increasing your standard of living.
The kitchen is the largest area of money savings. The tools you have in the kitchen will empower you to go beyond what is largely available for retail sale for the food industry. Food preparation tools, small appliances, and hand tools are easily found in stores like Williams and Sonoma, Bed Bath and Beyond, and many other retail establishments. Buying tools here can and will create a huge debt mountain in your credit card fairly quickly. This is the problem that we are facing today. "Keeping up with the Jones'" is burying us in debt. Contrary to popular belief, you can indeed wait for that new kitchen set, the deluxe food blender, and the commercial grade range.
Lots of people feel that they have to have the perfect xyz item, have the biggest kitchen with lush counters, and picture perfect decor. To have a good showing in the cul-de-sac society, the competition is with the McMansion next door, giving people the compulsive need to have that dazzlingly shiny Kitchen Aid, Brevilles, or Cusinarts are on display at the neighbors house. But does anyone really use them?
Do they even know how? The more important question is: Did they have to buy them new? The answer to to most of those questions above is: NO. You can have the same functionality of a tool with out shelling out huge money, and save money by actually using rather than having it as an object d' art on your counter.
One place people don't look, but really should, for kitchen tools is in antique shops, thrift stores, used furniture stores, yard sales, and "junk" stores. These places are famous for having odd ball kitchen tools for pennies on the dollar of original cost. Do check in with them regularly, as many places will get incoming stock on a daily or weekly basis. But as with any "hit or miss" shopping experience, you have to make up rules to keep your pocket book under control. My Mom makes it a point to shop once a week at the Salvation Army store near her on half price day. That is the ONLY day she will allow herself to go over there. If she did not do this, she freely admits that any savings that she did gain would be spent on things that were more want vs. need and at a price that is double what she would pay on Wednesday to begin with. Don't think it works? Mom got a breadmaker for $10. I looked up the price on amazon and found it selling USED for $100. That model sold new for $250. That is just ONE of the items she has found at rock bottom prices.
Before we jump on the power tool bandwagon, or er..the small appliance soap box....
Before there was this great thing called electricity, many people did far more with HAND TOOLS. Gasp! Shock! Horror! Say it isn't true! It is folks.
Hand tools are a GREAT way to save money. They may cost you time upfront, but they will save the money for you in the long run.
Did you know that every attachment the stand mixers have, you can get as a hand tool!
-Meat Grinder? Yep
-Pasta Maker? Yep
-Ice Cream Maker? Yep
-Wisk? Yep
-Food Processor? Yep (you have heard of a grater or a knife, right?)
-Dough Hook?.... Well, if you have arms, you can use what God gave you. If you don't this may be the one place you slide the small appliance into the "need" category.
So what small appliance tools do I suggest having in your kitchen?
-Stand Mixer with dough hook
-Hand Mixer (if Stand Mixer is out of your budget)
-Food Processor
-Blender
-Electric Skillet
-Food Scale
All of these can be found, if you shop consistently in the thrift store circuit.
Since the "Pink Slime" scare is currently front and formost in the media headlines, let us look at how we can provide hamburger, meatballs, and other ground meat products with out buying them pre packaged.
When you make something, control is taken away from the middle guy and is placed in your lap. You control the product. You control what goes into it, and what doesn't. You control the salt and fat content. You know if you make it, there is no gluten in there, because you didn't add any bread products.
How to Make Awesome but Cheap Hamburger
Take a stroll through your supermarket meat section. Find the "Manager's Special" (the stuff that is still good, but its at the end of the shelf life to sell), buying it will get you a nice cut of meat for a fraction of the cost, and you will make your own hamburger if you add suet to the mix.
Yes, I said suet. It is fat, and is available from your grocery store in a far corner of the refrigerated meat area. If not on display, ask the folks behind the counter. Please don't make that face. Yes, that one... It is already there in all hamburger products. No pink slime, honest.
Your meat supplier adds suet to all ground meat. This is evident in the % lean statement that is on each label. Add the percentage that you find you like (if it is 90% lean, then just add 10% fat). Still confused? Break the pounds down to ounces. We have 16 oz in 1lb, right? 10% of 16 is?... 1.6oz. So for every pound, you are putting in 1.5 (give or take) ounces into your beef for fat.
To grind the beef, cut into strips that will fit into your grinder and then interchange putting the beef and the fat through the grinder. Mix together evenly in bowl once ground. Patty and grill as normal!
Do note that some grinders have different size "die". The "die" is the disk that extrudes the size of the grind you are looking for. Some people like a fine grind, and some like one that is akin to that of a chop steak. Add some salt and pepper an you have made your own hamburger!
Just be sure to grind, cook (and/or) freeze that day if using "manager's special" products. There is no refrigerator time left on those meat products. Mind the dates on all meat labels and you will be just fine!
In my next post, I will be listing my "Killer Meatball" recipe... Later everyone, I gotta get outside and start working in the garden if I expect to have anything to can (as in canning...as in "canned tomatoes... c'mon folks, work with me here!) in the months to come.
Is there an investment? Yes! And that investment is in YOU. It is in knowledge and in household tools that can be found cheaply and easily. The knowledge you will gain from reading my blog posts, but as my father says: you need the right tool for the right job.
So you guessed it, today's blog topic is going to be on TOOLS!
What tools do you need in order to save money? Well, first of all put down those silly books that have you cough up $35 for their "system". This is not about a system, its about saving you money in the long run by giving you the structure and the tools to work with in your own life and increasing your standard of living.
The kitchen is the largest area of money savings. The tools you have in the kitchen will empower you to go beyond what is largely available for retail sale for the food industry. Food preparation tools, small appliances, and hand tools are easily found in stores like Williams and Sonoma, Bed Bath and Beyond, and many other retail establishments. Buying tools here can and will create a huge debt mountain in your credit card fairly quickly. This is the problem that we are facing today. "Keeping up with the Jones'" is burying us in debt. Contrary to popular belief, you can indeed wait for that new kitchen set, the deluxe food blender, and the commercial grade range.
Lots of people feel that they have to have the perfect xyz item, have the biggest kitchen with lush counters, and picture perfect decor. To have a good showing in the cul-de-sac society, the competition is with the McMansion next door, giving people the compulsive need to have that dazzlingly shiny Kitchen Aid, Brevilles, or Cusinarts are on display at the neighbors house. But does anyone really use them?
Do they even know how? The more important question is: Did they have to buy them new? The answer to to most of those questions above is: NO. You can have the same functionality of a tool with out shelling out huge money, and save money by actually using rather than having it as an object d' art on your counter.
One place people don't look, but really should, for kitchen tools is in antique shops, thrift stores, used furniture stores, yard sales, and "junk" stores. These places are famous for having odd ball kitchen tools for pennies on the dollar of original cost. Do check in with them regularly, as many places will get incoming stock on a daily or weekly basis. But as with any "hit or miss" shopping experience, you have to make up rules to keep your pocket book under control. My Mom makes it a point to shop once a week at the Salvation Army store near her on half price day. That is the ONLY day she will allow herself to go over there. If she did not do this, she freely admits that any savings that she did gain would be spent on things that were more want vs. need and at a price that is double what she would pay on Wednesday to begin with. Don't think it works? Mom got a breadmaker for $10. I looked up the price on amazon and found it selling USED for $100. That model sold new for $250. That is just ONE of the items she has found at rock bottom prices.
Before we jump on the power tool bandwagon, or er..the small appliance soap box....
Before there was this great thing called electricity, many people did far more with HAND TOOLS. Gasp! Shock! Horror! Say it isn't true! It is folks.
Hand tools are a GREAT way to save money. They may cost you time upfront, but they will save the money for you in the long run.
Did you know that every attachment the stand mixers have, you can get as a hand tool!
-Meat Grinder? Yep
-Pasta Maker? Yep
-Ice Cream Maker? Yep
-Wisk? Yep
-Food Processor? Yep (you have heard of a grater or a knife, right?)
-Dough Hook?.... Well, if you have arms, you can use what God gave you. If you don't this may be the one place you slide the small appliance into the "need" category.
So what small appliance tools do I suggest having in your kitchen?
-Stand Mixer with dough hook
-Hand Mixer (if Stand Mixer is out of your budget)
-Food Processor
-Blender
-Electric Skillet
-Food Scale
All of these can be found, if you shop consistently in the thrift store circuit.
Since the "Pink Slime" scare is currently front and formost in the media headlines, let us look at how we can provide hamburger, meatballs, and other ground meat products with out buying them pre packaged.
When you make something, control is taken away from the middle guy and is placed in your lap. You control the product. You control what goes into it, and what doesn't. You control the salt and fat content. You know if you make it, there is no gluten in there, because you didn't add any bread products.
How to Make Awesome but Cheap Hamburger
Take a stroll through your supermarket meat section. Find the "Manager's Special" (the stuff that is still good, but its at the end of the shelf life to sell), buying it will get you a nice cut of meat for a fraction of the cost, and you will make your own hamburger if you add suet to the mix.
Yes, I said suet. It is fat, and is available from your grocery store in a far corner of the refrigerated meat area. If not on display, ask the folks behind the counter. Please don't make that face. Yes, that one... It is already there in all hamburger products. No pink slime, honest.
Your meat supplier adds suet to all ground meat. This is evident in the % lean statement that is on each label. Add the percentage that you find you like (if it is 90% lean, then just add 10% fat). Still confused? Break the pounds down to ounces. We have 16 oz in 1lb, right? 10% of 16 is?... 1.6oz. So for every pound, you are putting in 1.5 (give or take) ounces into your beef for fat.
To grind the beef, cut into strips that will fit into your grinder and then interchange putting the beef and the fat through the grinder. Mix together evenly in bowl once ground. Patty and grill as normal!
Do note that some grinders have different size "die". The "die" is the disk that extrudes the size of the grind you are looking for. Some people like a fine grind, and some like one that is akin to that of a chop steak. Add some salt and pepper an you have made your own hamburger!
Just be sure to grind, cook (and/or) freeze that day if using "manager's special" products. There is no refrigerator time left on those meat products. Mind the dates on all meat labels and you will be just fine!
In my next post, I will be listing my "Killer Meatball" recipe... Later everyone, I gotta get outside and start working in the garden if I expect to have anything to can (as in canning...as in "canned tomatoes... c'mon folks, work with me here!) in the months to come.
Monday, March 19, 2012
Saving Money...part 1
Signs and ads scream almost every second around the world about how much money you will save with XYZ product. 20%! 30% and more!
The truth is, "save more" is often a marketing ropeadope for the consumer public. This predatory maneuver is heavily cloaked as a "feel good" sales mechanic to invoke an action. Its goal is getting you to take do something. It is actually getting you to… (drum roll please)
you guessed it:
Spend - more - money.
The truth is: Just because they are selling it, does not mean that you have to buy it.
Now, that does not mean that you see a choice between two brands and you choose the one that costs less… yes, choosing the less expensive one is the obvious choice when buying something. But what about taking the sales guys out, taking the middle man out, and taking back the power of not only what you spend but also what they heck goes into what you are buying?
Back in my late 20's the Atkins diet was all the rage. Niche low-carb businesses sprouted up to service this new diet market, supplying myself and the other rabid weight loss consumers with "no-carb" products.
Many people who got on the diet, did not get Mr. Atkins' actual message. Yes, he was all for taking out the sugar and carbs that people were addicted to, but his bigger point was actually advocating getting away from "processed" products and closer to the actual component foods than what people were used to. Taking out the middle men was where the value, the true value of the food was.
The real irony was that new niche businesses ignored this completely and supplied the public with carb free toaster pizza, low-carb energy bars and no-carb bagels one could use as hockey pucks. All of these products were far more processed food than any person in their rational mind would buy. But we wern't rational at the time. We were part of a revolution! (Why do I feel like I just looked at my highschool yearbook photo?)
The same problem has happened with saving money. Lots of people have jumped in to fill the void of the financial diet that we are now all forcibly put on. And on this financial diet there are tons of new products brought to the market that are designed to " save you money"…when in all actuality its goal is to get you to spend more, by feeling like you saved money. You guessed it, these products too are chock full of "processing".
So how do we take back that power? Simple. We don't buy what they are selling. You need a product, or XY and Z thing. Do it yourself. Grow it yourself. Make it yourself.
I am not telling you to go out and buy a farm… but if you do my hat is off to you! You are a better person than I!
What I am telling you is to reexamine what you have and what you could do for yourself. Let's start with one thing at a time here. Let's look at something that is by all accounts something that you would buy and wouldn't' think to make: Cheese!
Making your own cheese…
Ok, I know I promised you something here…1 new blog each week on saving money (and with some "how to" and it seems like I am taking you from the frying pan and tossing you into the fire here.
You are thinking "me? make cheese?" Yes, you! And you know what it will be better tasting and far more nutritious than what has been sitting on the shelf for the past month. And I promise you, it will happen in 30 minutes (give or take)!
This is NOT my recipe. I am simply going to point you towards where you need to go for that recipe and all the resources since it is not mine. Not that I don't believe in sharing out here in the digital frontier, but I do believe in copyrights and in respecting other peoples work.
Take a look at Ricki's work here http://www.cheesemaking.com/howtomakemozzarellacheese.html
This is an AWESOME recipe and is fun for the whole family!
I will also divulge why I cringed upon seeing what was portrayed in that Good Housekeeping article and why it failed miserably.
The mother in that article sat there proud as punch with her store brand ultra-pasteurized "organic" milk. I sat there and banged my head on my desk as I saw her preening. She didn't know that what she had bought was actually as over processed and as tasteless as the other "non-organic" milk.
The more processed something is, the more it has lost, and the further is is away from the source.
You need to get closer to the source to get more for your dollar.
The better value for taste and getting closer to the "source" would have been regular pasteurized milk (example: Garelick Farms here in New England). Ultra pasteurization is actually a process of "cooking" the milk rather than doing a simple pasteurization. Making cheese requires milk, and ideally that kind that has had a simple pasteurization rather than the ultra pasteurization. They also believe (Garelick Farms) in no hormones, to read more on this, follow this link http://www.garelickfarms.com/newprod/
The closest to the source you can get, taking one more level of processing out is that of raw milk. Many people swear by it. However the FDA frowns on it. Here in Massachusetts you can only buy raw milk "on the farm". Yes, it is one step closer to the source and it does take the "processing" out; and then ultimately puts the money back in to your pocket with more for your dollar, but at a risk. The raw milk has not been heated to get rid of the potentially harmful bacteria that your body may not like. So I stick with pasteurized milk, and avoid the ultra- pasteurized stuff completely.
But I encourage you to make cheese tonight! It is so simple and so fun! And as long as you have milk in your fridge, you won't ever run out of mozzarella again!
Next week: Laundry, the biggest money leach of it all...
The truth is, "save more" is often a marketing ropeadope for the consumer public. This predatory maneuver is heavily cloaked as a "feel good" sales mechanic to invoke an action. Its goal is getting you to take do something. It is actually getting you to… (drum roll please)
you guessed it:
Spend - more - money.
The truth is: Just because they are selling it, does not mean that you have to buy it.
Now, that does not mean that you see a choice between two brands and you choose the one that costs less… yes, choosing the less expensive one is the obvious choice when buying something. But what about taking the sales guys out, taking the middle man out, and taking back the power of not only what you spend but also what they heck goes into what you are buying?
Back in my late 20's the Atkins diet was all the rage. Niche low-carb businesses sprouted up to service this new diet market, supplying myself and the other rabid weight loss consumers with "no-carb" products.
Many people who got on the diet, did not get Mr. Atkins' actual message. Yes, he was all for taking out the sugar and carbs that people were addicted to, but his bigger point was actually advocating getting away from "processed" products and closer to the actual component foods than what people were used to. Taking out the middle men was where the value, the true value of the food was.
The real irony was that new niche businesses ignored this completely and supplied the public with carb free toaster pizza, low-carb energy bars and no-carb bagels one could use as hockey pucks. All of these products were far more processed food than any person in their rational mind would buy. But we wern't rational at the time. We were part of a revolution! (Why do I feel like I just looked at my highschool yearbook photo?)
The same problem has happened with saving money. Lots of people have jumped in to fill the void of the financial diet that we are now all forcibly put on. And on this financial diet there are tons of new products brought to the market that are designed to " save you money"…when in all actuality its goal is to get you to spend more, by feeling like you saved money. You guessed it, these products too are chock full of "processing".
So how do we take back that power? Simple. We don't buy what they are selling. You need a product, or XY and Z thing. Do it yourself. Grow it yourself. Make it yourself.
I am not telling you to go out and buy a farm… but if you do my hat is off to you! You are a better person than I!
What I am telling you is to reexamine what you have and what you could do for yourself. Let's start with one thing at a time here. Let's look at something that is by all accounts something that you would buy and wouldn't' think to make: Cheese!
Making your own cheese…
Ok, I know I promised you something here…1 new blog each week on saving money (and with some "how to" and it seems like I am taking you from the frying pan and tossing you into the fire here.
You are thinking "me? make cheese?" Yes, you! And you know what it will be better tasting and far more nutritious than what has been sitting on the shelf for the past month. And I promise you, it will happen in 30 minutes (give or take)!
This is NOT my recipe. I am simply going to point you towards where you need to go for that recipe and all the resources since it is not mine. Not that I don't believe in sharing out here in the digital frontier, but I do believe in copyrights and in respecting other peoples work.
Take a look at Ricki's work here http://www.cheesemaking.com/howtomakemozzarellacheese.html
This is an AWESOME recipe and is fun for the whole family!
I will also divulge why I cringed upon seeing what was portrayed in that Good Housekeeping article and why it failed miserably.
The mother in that article sat there proud as punch with her store brand ultra-pasteurized "organic" milk. I sat there and banged my head on my desk as I saw her preening. She didn't know that what she had bought was actually as over processed and as tasteless as the other "non-organic" milk.
The more processed something is, the more it has lost, and the further is is away from the source.
You need to get closer to the source to get more for your dollar.
The better value for taste and getting closer to the "source" would have been regular pasteurized milk (example: Garelick Farms here in New England). Ultra pasteurization is actually a process of "cooking" the milk rather than doing a simple pasteurization. Making cheese requires milk, and ideally that kind that has had a simple pasteurization rather than the ultra pasteurization. They also believe (Garelick Farms) in no hormones, to read more on this, follow this link http://www.garelickfarms.com/newprod/
The closest to the source you can get, taking one more level of processing out is that of raw milk. Many people swear by it. However the FDA frowns on it. Here in Massachusetts you can only buy raw milk "on the farm". Yes, it is one step closer to the source and it does take the "processing" out; and then ultimately puts the money back in to your pocket with more for your dollar, but at a risk. The raw milk has not been heated to get rid of the potentially harmful bacteria that your body may not like. So I stick with pasteurized milk, and avoid the ultra- pasteurized stuff completely.
But I encourage you to make cheese tonight! It is so simple and so fun! And as long as you have milk in your fridge, you won't ever run out of mozzarella again!
Next week: Laundry, the biggest money leach of it all...
Thursday, March 15, 2012
Best Audo Book Narrator List
Ok, I did promise this earlier, and sorry for making this after my last blog post. But anyway here we go:
My Personal Favorites:
Johanna Parker
Gabra Zachman
Cassandra Cambell
Luke Daniels
Elenna Stauffer
Favorites From People at Large:
(have not listened to these folks as of yet)
John Lee
Jim Dale
Simon Prebble
George Guidall
Frank Muller
Barbara Rosenblat
David Case AKA Frederick Davidson
Jonathan Cecil
CJ Critt
Please notice that I have not included any of the infamous Hollywood set. Not that they are good or bad, its just that these guys are the best of the best and are often overlooked. I would like to mention that Stephen Fry is always a good bet for audio or acting on screen.
This list will evolve over time I would expect, so do check back often!
My Personal Favorites:
Johanna Parker
Gabra Zachman
Cassandra Cambell
Luke Daniels
Elenna Stauffer
Favorites From People at Large:
(have not listened to these folks as of yet)
John Lee
Jim Dale
Simon Prebble
George Guidall
Frank Muller
Barbara Rosenblat
David Case AKA Frederick Davidson
Jonathan Cecil
CJ Critt
Please notice that I have not included any of the infamous Hollywood set. Not that they are good or bad, its just that these guys are the best of the best and are often overlooked. I would like to mention that Stephen Fry is always a good bet for audio or acting on screen.
This list will evolve over time I would expect, so do check back often!
Saving Money...
I know I promised months ago that I would put an audiobook "best of" narrator list up in my next post. This is not it.
That will come in the next few, but I have something a bit more important for people to know here: Saving money. Every one has something to say on the subject: clip coupons, forgo the lattes, and cut back to eating out 1x a week. The media seems to recycle the same damn advice over and over and over.
At the dentist yesterday, I picked up a copy of Good Housekeeping, intrigued by a Dr. Oz article on the cover. After reading it, and thinking maybe I should buy a copy before it goes off the stand I noticed what looked like an interesting article on saving money, titled "How We Saved $10,000 in Just One Year." Money wins out over calorie counts every time! Wow. 10k! They must have been doing something really REALLY different! I was grinning ear to ear thinking I was going to learn something new. Oh boy! I was in for a treat!
Skimming it, I first saw the photo of this picture perfect American family, proud as punch of their achievement and holding items from their "saving sojourn." In the photo, the mother was holding in her lap, a half gallon carton of 360 milk from my favorite "fleecing your money via fear" supermarket who I fondly refer to as "Whole Paycheck." Insert *Facepalm* here.
I did skim the article, and to be fair to my first impression before I posted here, I reread it on line (http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/family/budget/we-saved-10-grand-wealth-watchers)
Honestly, I couldn't stomach most of it. The life this person lived, seemed to be one step below the partial sharing jetset folks. This magazine (Good Housekeeping) is supposed to appeal to the American women with a household to manage and run. Who exactly was this supposed to appeal to?
I sat there and wondered if the editors at Good Housekeeping are suffering from Romney-itis, and are incapable of relating to the majority of the country who earns far less than 500K a year. Reading on, she enlisted friends of hers that had already lost their jobs, had some money in the bank, but were cutting back to make their nest egg last as long as it had to. These folks were a diet buddy of sorts. And although they had some common sense ideas that people in the below that income bracket already do, it was almost sad.
Saving 10K is not as important to the wealthy of our country as it is to the folks who are trying to scrape by and are at their wits end. For these folks who are barely getting by, coupon clipping is not even coming close to making things easier. Instead the insults kept coming...the author panics in the article about having to "pay" for college, never even had a brain cell thought about having her kids get a job to help defer the cost.
The one common sense thing that the author did do was to keep track of what she was spending ala Weight Watchers. The "discretionary" daily spending amount was another facepalm moment. $90 a day? Seriously? But I do give her kudos for keeping track of what she spent in a semi-structured manner.
I am very saddened by this article and honestly, I am not going to buy April's edition of that magazine. In the next few postings I will be illustrating some of what I do to save money and also provide me with a better standard of living than what is currently sold to the American public's current philosophy of today.
As my posting history here is spotty, I am committing to having one new blog post here up each week. Intermingled with the "saving money" bit, will be odds and ends that come across my path and be of interest to folks who wander on by. I hope you will pick up some info and insight as I share what I have learned to make my life richer with you all.
That will come in the next few, but I have something a bit more important for people to know here: Saving money. Every one has something to say on the subject: clip coupons, forgo the lattes, and cut back to eating out 1x a week. The media seems to recycle the same damn advice over and over and over.
At the dentist yesterday, I picked up a copy of Good Housekeeping, intrigued by a Dr. Oz article on the cover. After reading it, and thinking maybe I should buy a copy before it goes off the stand I noticed what looked like an interesting article on saving money, titled "How We Saved $10,000 in Just One Year." Money wins out over calorie counts every time! Wow. 10k! They must have been doing something really REALLY different! I was grinning ear to ear thinking I was going to learn something new. Oh boy! I was in for a treat!
Skimming it, I first saw the photo of this picture perfect American family, proud as punch of their achievement and holding items from their "saving sojourn." In the photo, the mother was holding in her lap, a half gallon carton of 360 milk from my favorite "fleecing your money via fear" supermarket who I fondly refer to as "Whole Paycheck." Insert *Facepalm* here.
I did skim the article, and to be fair to my first impression before I posted here, I reread it on line (http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/family/budget/we-saved-10-grand-wealth-watchers)
Honestly, I couldn't stomach most of it. The life this person lived, seemed to be one step below the partial sharing jetset folks. This magazine (Good Housekeeping) is supposed to appeal to the American women with a household to manage and run. Who exactly was this supposed to appeal to?
I sat there and wondered if the editors at Good Housekeeping are suffering from Romney-itis, and are incapable of relating to the majority of the country who earns far less than 500K a year. Reading on, she enlisted friends of hers that had already lost their jobs, had some money in the bank, but were cutting back to make their nest egg last as long as it had to. These folks were a diet buddy of sorts. And although they had some common sense ideas that people in the below that income bracket already do, it was almost sad.
Saving 10K is not as important to the wealthy of our country as it is to the folks who are trying to scrape by and are at their wits end. For these folks who are barely getting by, coupon clipping is not even coming close to making things easier. Instead the insults kept coming...the author panics in the article about having to "pay" for college, never even had a brain cell thought about having her kids get a job to help defer the cost.
The one common sense thing that the author did do was to keep track of what she was spending ala Weight Watchers. The "discretionary" daily spending amount was another facepalm moment. $90 a day? Seriously? But I do give her kudos for keeping track of what she spent in a semi-structured manner.
I am very saddened by this article and honestly, I am not going to buy April's edition of that magazine. In the next few postings I will be illustrating some of what I do to save money and also provide me with a better standard of living than what is currently sold to the American public's current philosophy of today.
As my posting history here is spotty, I am committing to having one new blog post here up each week. Intermingled with the "saving money" bit, will be odds and ends that come across my path and be of interest to folks who wander on by. I hope you will pick up some info and insight as I share what I have learned to make my life richer with you all.
Friday, September 30, 2011
non-vampire paranormal books...
First of all, just to let you know, I am a HUGE insomniac. Audiobooks have been a lifesaver for me. If I listen to a story, my brain stops racing and I slowly drift off to sleep. If I don't drift, these books keep me company and keep me from driving my husband crazy as I stop tossing and turning and focus and instead on the story.
Audiobooks are a funny thing. The author only has so much control over the true art of the audiobook. Once the book is written and then editors come in, they package things up and finally a narrator is hired. That narrator can have just as much to add to the book as the artist themselves. The way they speak, the inflection in their voice, interpreting the characters and making them come to life. It can make the difference for me of my staying awake all night cringing or being entertained while I try to drift to sleep. Often, if an author writes a series then the same narrator is hired to do all of the books. These are the kind of books I aim for. Paranormal for me, is a nice distraction from the murder, angst ridden romance novels, and the gum shoe junk that is out there.
Ok... what kind of books to I listen to? Well to tell you the truth I am a HUGE fan of the Charlaine Harris' Sookie Stackhouse series. Yes it is vampire based. But it is very funny and fast paced. What I am NOT a fan of is the multitude of silly vampire books that have hit the market on the back of the Sookie or Twilight saga. There is so much blood and gore, plus "forbidden love" and "blood bonds/pacts/lust" that I really can't stand most of what is out there. What I do love is the humor in Harris' books. Also let it be known that one of the best TV writers out there in my opinion is Joss Whedon. Both Harris and Whedon provide a benchmark for this genre that is very hard for most other authors to reach.
What I have noticed about the vamp genre is that many authors get so wrapped up in creating a world, that we have to learn a whole new "world" as they abandon the original lore and go to create "something different". This I can't escape into as I have to do some serious mental work in learning the author's lingo and places.
Enter in my quest to find a non-vampire, entertaining, paranormal series. Why paranormal? Its a departure from reality...where my brain loves to whir and churn in. It takes me out of the everyday and puts me into fairy tale land.
So here is what I love for books when I cannot sleep and can't stomach the vamp stuff:
Kevin Hearns' adventures of his characterAtticus OSullivan in the series of "Hounded", "Hexed" and 'Hammered:
Hilariously funny, fast moving, great narration. Worlds of all legend and lore meet from many countries and time periods.
Victoria Laurie's "Abby Cooper" series:
A intuitive turned investigator, which is amusing, and fairly predictable... but well narrated.
Karen Marie Moning's "Fever" Series:
Very dark. Moning does a great job of weaving today into the other worldly beings that we all associated with the boogie man in the fairy realm. Not funny, but certainly not vampire centric. There are a few adjunct vampire characters, but the story is more about the worlds of the fey and the humans colliding. This is as I said before, very dark. There is no humor (or very little of it) and it is a underdog story of epic proportions. Also, adult topics are in this that are not graphic in description but are from a victim's perspective. Not one of my favorite stories to drift off to because of the topics, but a good story if I am listening while designing or doing other things.
Going towards the romance, but not too mushy in the realm of science fiction/light macabre ... you could call it chick lit, but I think that does it an injustice:
Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer's "Wild Ride":
A hilarious story about a group of people trying to keep the evil gods locked in their prisons that are actual carnival rides.
Stephanie Bond's "Body Movers" series:
An abandoned brother and sister left to fend for themselves as "Body Movers" after being raised in the uber wealthy overdeveloped neighborhoods of Buckhead, GA. Very funny, and entertaining.
As I find more, I will post them here. For my next blog, I am hoping to list the best unsung heroes of audiobooks: the narrators.
Thanks for reading!
Audiobooks are a funny thing. The author only has so much control over the true art of the audiobook. Once the book is written and then editors come in, they package things up and finally a narrator is hired. That narrator can have just as much to add to the book as the artist themselves. The way they speak, the inflection in their voice, interpreting the characters and making them come to life. It can make the difference for me of my staying awake all night cringing or being entertained while I try to drift to sleep. Often, if an author writes a series then the same narrator is hired to do all of the books. These are the kind of books I aim for. Paranormal for me, is a nice distraction from the murder, angst ridden romance novels, and the gum shoe junk that is out there.
Ok... what kind of books to I listen to? Well to tell you the truth I am a HUGE fan of the Charlaine Harris' Sookie Stackhouse series. Yes it is vampire based. But it is very funny and fast paced. What I am NOT a fan of is the multitude of silly vampire books that have hit the market on the back of the Sookie or Twilight saga. There is so much blood and gore, plus "forbidden love" and "blood bonds/pacts/lust" that I really can't stand most of what is out there. What I do love is the humor in Harris' books. Also let it be known that one of the best TV writers out there in my opinion is Joss Whedon. Both Harris and Whedon provide a benchmark for this genre that is very hard for most other authors to reach.
What I have noticed about the vamp genre is that many authors get so wrapped up in creating a world, that we have to learn a whole new "world" as they abandon the original lore and go to create "something different". This I can't escape into as I have to do some serious mental work in learning the author's lingo and places.
Enter in my quest to find a non-vampire, entertaining, paranormal series. Why paranormal? Its a departure from reality...where my brain loves to whir and churn in. It takes me out of the everyday and puts me into fairy tale land.
So here is what I love for books when I cannot sleep and can't stomach the vamp stuff:
Kevin Hearns' adventures of his characterAtticus OSullivan in the series of "Hounded", "Hexed" and 'Hammered:
Hilariously funny, fast moving, great narration. Worlds of all legend and lore meet from many countries and time periods.
Victoria Laurie's "Abby Cooper" series:
A intuitive turned investigator, which is amusing, and fairly predictable... but well narrated.
Karen Marie Moning's "Fever" Series:
Very dark. Moning does a great job of weaving today into the other worldly beings that we all associated with the boogie man in the fairy realm. Not funny, but certainly not vampire centric. There are a few adjunct vampire characters, but the story is more about the worlds of the fey and the humans colliding. This is as I said before, very dark. There is no humor (or very little of it) and it is a underdog story of epic proportions. Also, adult topics are in this that are not graphic in description but are from a victim's perspective. Not one of my favorite stories to drift off to because of the topics, but a good story if I am listening while designing or doing other things.
Going towards the romance, but not too mushy in the realm of science fiction/light macabre ... you could call it chick lit, but I think that does it an injustice:
Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer's "Wild Ride":
A hilarious story about a group of people trying to keep the evil gods locked in their prisons that are actual carnival rides.
Stephanie Bond's "Body Movers" series:
An abandoned brother and sister left to fend for themselves as "Body Movers" after being raised in the uber wealthy overdeveloped neighborhoods of Buckhead, GA. Very funny, and entertaining.
As I find more, I will post them here. For my next blog, I am hoping to list the best unsung heroes of audiobooks: the narrators.
Thanks for reading!
Saturday, March 19, 2011
2006-2011...5 years?
And its taken me THAT long to work on this? My gawd! OK... Well, I have another blog I work on in regard to my teaching for machine embroidery and creative textile tech... And honestly, since I left myspace, I haven't really focused on posting my random thoughts on cooking, crafting, and gardening... I still have a "blog" over there, but I don't log in and certainly don't post to it anymore!
But I guess I will do one "final" posting to point to this blog for those folks looking for more of my musings about stuff in general!
Thanks for stopping by! And I promise it won't take me 5 more years to write another post!
But I guess I will do one "final" posting to point to this blog for those folks looking for more of my musings about stuff in general!
Thanks for stopping by! And I promise it won't take me 5 more years to write another post!
Tuesday, May 09, 2006
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