HELPFUL HINTS – Page 18 – Chasing MY Life WHEREVER it Leads ME

HUGE Helpful HINT

The next time you’re painting or staining and the directions call for turpentine or paint thinner as a cleaner – STOP & DON’T use it!

With all the home remodeling and rebuilding we’ve been doing around here, my skin has taken a huge beating and in an effort to take the sting out of clean-up, I finally tried this idea that I had read somewhere, but always forgot to try, BUT IT WORKS!!!

Instead of the turpentine or paint thinner, use vegetable oil. Yes, you read that right, plain old vegetable oil. It easily removes the paint or stain from your skin and leaves the skin soft and supple instead of dried out and flaking. Not to mention the cost is much better.

♥♥ ♥♥

Friday Round-Up & Kitchen Aid ~ Designer Color DIY Makeover

I am in awe at how well this blog and all of its components have fallen into place in such a short period of time. I must thank my co-author Martha for a great attitude and her unending creativity. We have truly emailed back and forth a trillion times working out all the small details. We are both Virgos which makes us detail oriented and worry warts to boot! LOL We were blessed with an awesome response to our concept and 3 co-contributors who host their own memes and who have already greatly expanded our food horizons. Thank you Martha Too, Cheryl and Pacey!

I had a busy week here and at 3 sides of crazy inventing many new recipes. I only post the ones that work out so you can be sure these are all tried and hubby approved.

That said, let’s move on to something fun. Do you have an appliance that needs an update? You know the one that works fine, but doesn’t look so great. With a little masking tape and some of today’s wonderful spray paints, you can DO-IT-YOURSELF and easily.

This post was originally written for Barbara. We were chatting and talking about the wonders of Kitchen Aid mixers and realized we had the same one. I purchased mine after the 1994 Northridge earthquake as a replacement for my old one that had been literally destroyed along with the rest of my kitchen. That was 15 years ago. 3 years ago when we moved to this old house, the original white (the only color available back then) just stood out like a sore thumb, now that I had room to keep it on my counter top but it was in perfectly good shape. I couldn’t justify spending the money in this economy for a new designer color. So I purchased a $5 can of Copper Hammer paint and did it myself!

The copper color goes with my new “old” country style kitchen. I had just finished a cake so it may be a bit dusty.

OVERALL KITCHEN ORGANIZATION

What do you get when you cross 2 Virgos with organization, OCD and a love of cooking? A new blog of course! Martha and I are both pleased at how well tHe KrAzY KiTcHeN has taken off. This is still a new blog and we are ‘under construction’ and growing wildly. Thank you everyone for your support, encouragement, participation and as always we welcome all suggestions!

So now to continue with my kitchen organization posts. The last couple of days we have already touched on parts of this with the pantry and what needs to go in it. Kitchens are the heart of our homes, but no one wants to spend ALL their time in them, so the object is to make our jobs fun and easy. This is actually one of the easiest tasks to accomplish. Do you like having your counters completely clear or do you prefer everything to be within hands reach. Your choice! This is a purely subjective organization. WHAT DO YOU WANT?? Have fun and be creative. There is no right or wrong, it’s all up to you.

Arranging your appliances, tools, spices and cookware in the most efficient manner helps you enjoy your kitchen time more. For example, I store my Pyrex and Tupperware in the cabinet next to my dishwasher and sink so that when I clear the table, my storage containers are where the plates and bowls are making it easier to clean up. I keep that section of counter virtually clear of everything since that is where I make the biggest mess. I also keep my coffee maker near the sink since that’s where the water is. Spices near the stove make seasoning easier. My pots and pans are next to the stove as are baking pans, cookie sheets and all baking paraphernalia (sifters, measuring cups, choppers, etc…) with mixing bowls next to all of that.

If at all possible you want your stove, refrigerator and sink in a triangle with a work island or butcher block in the center. The fewer steps you take, the less mess you make is the theory. Have fun organizing. I can’t wait to see your kitchens. Here’s mine if you’re curious.

This post originally ran as a guest post series for Barbara over at Candy Hearts and Paper Flowers who is hosting the Homemaking September Shape-up. It was an all around comprehensive house to home style of posts to help us get our homes and lives whipped into shape.

Santa Claus Melons & GREAT sales

Despite growing up in southern California and having all the produce of the world available to me, I had never really seen these ‘Santa Claus‘ melons before so took a chance that it would be something I’d be interested in. Here is what I was able to find out about them: They are used raw in fruit salads or in fruit platters and served at room temperature. A good-quality Santa Claus melon will be fairly large and firm with a small amount of softness at the stem end. The coloring will be a mottled yellow and green. The skin will have a slightly waxy feel when the melon is ripe. Avoid a melon that is too firm, too soft, has dark blemishes on the skin or is extremely green-colored. Keep uncut Santa Claus melons at room temperature for two to four days or until fully ripe, then refrigerate for up to 5 days. Refrigerate cut up melon in a covered container up to 3 days. Keep in mind that once cut, melon odor will penetrate other foods. Santa Claus melons are available from California and Arizona from June until October, with the peak in July. Melons from South America are available during the winter months. For this reason they’re also known as Christmas melon. The flavor can be good on the winter melons, but they won’t be as sweet as those available in the summer months. This one evidently still needs a few days to ripen so the jury is still out, but they seem interesting.

All that aside, Tuesday is the day to shop at my local market. To start with rotisserie chickens are on sale for 2 for 1 at $8.99 instead of their normal $9.99 each which works out to $4.50 each with my buying power card. Then I found blackberries that are normally $3.99 each for $1 each and strawberries for $2 each instead of $3.99. The 38 ounces of FRESH (key factor for me) boneless, skinless chicken breast were $7.99 for the packet which breaks down into 4 separate meals for us.

I pull the meat from the bones and I put 1/2 of each herb rotisserie chickens into 4 separate Tupperware containers for future meals like quesadillas, salads or casseroles. Then I boil the carcasses, skin and juice and create 4 containers of broth for future soups or meals.

Almost everything here was on sale with the exception of the dessert cups (hubby loves these preservative full things) and the pillsbury bread sticks that I splurged on to make Martha’s pretzels with. My biggest splurges were the Santa Claus Melon and the Pineapple.

All in all I only spent $58.11 for 2 weeks worth of meals after saving $26.25 on the sale items.

♥ ♥

MARTHA’S MENU PLANNING HINTS, TIPS & SHORT CUTS

I read Tamy’s post about the how and whys of her menu planning and had to laugh because I had this similar post saved and ready to post. It was our conversation about menu planning that brought this blog to into existence to begin with.

Menu planning became a necessity for me due not only a very tight budget, but also the lack of time I have during the week. I work full time and have to be ready to get dinner started as soon as I walk in the door. It saves a lot of time, frustration, the urge to run out and pick up something I know is unhealthy for my family, or running into the grocery store last minute grabbing full priced, expensive items to put together a meal.

When it comes to menu planning I generally do a list of meals for the month. I keep a running list of new recipe ideas, family favorites, and new meals that were a hit. Every Sunday I like to do my more detailed meal plan for the week. It’s obviously more than just jotting down what I want to make. I first do a quick inventory of what I have in the freezer and pantry, then there’s the grocery list. There’s the actual shopping to do, there’s repackaging and there is pre-preparation to do that will make the week easier for me.

Unfortunately I really don’t have time to run from store to store to shop the sales, and I very rarely take the time for coupons either – I know I should, but I just don’t. What I do is shop in bulk, especially for meats. Meats are one of the things that tend to be much, much cheaper in bulk than buying at the local grocery store. You do have to be careful shopping in bulk, some items are a real deal, others work out more expensive. My local store also has a big buy one get one free sale that changes each week. I try to limit the remainder of my shopping to those buy one get one free sales, and stock up on all the basic items I use on a regular basis.

When I bring things home in bulk I think about the upcoming meals, cut and package accordingly. Some shortcuts I sometimes use are putting marinades in the bags with the meats prior to freezing. That way when it’s taken out to defrost it marinates at the same time and is ready to cook. Other things I may go ahead and cook before freezing, such as ground beef. I like to have a few packages precooked in the freezer to throw together quick meals without having to be bothered with cooking the ground beef. Meatloaf and meatballs can be mixed and shaped to put in the freezer. Meatballs need to be slightly frozen on cookie sheets first to keep them from getting all stuck together in one giant meatball. Even easier is to cook the meatballs and then freeze for really quick meals.

Another shortcut in cooking I use is to buy several rotisserie chickens at a time. My bulk store, Sam’s Club has them for $4.97 each. We’ll have one for dinner the first night, I freeze one whole to just defrost and reheat with some stuffing and veggies, and the third I take the meat off the bones and freeze in baggies for quick meals that call for shredded chicken.

And finally, the last shortcut in menu planning I use is to cook an extra large amount of almost any main dish I make. I plan a different meal for the next night (or sometimes the next two nights!), and freeze some as well for a future meal or two. A good example of this is in the first menu plan I posted here last week. Even very small amounts of leftovers can be stashed in the freezer and then turned into a homemade soup for a soup and sandwich night – never any waste!

I’m very interested to hear your hints, tips, and shortcuts – please share! 🙂

MENU PLANNING

There is more to menu planning than just deciding what to make for dinner, at least for the average family. We’re a military family used to getting paid once a month and trying to make it last. So for me, menu planning also encompasses recipe scouring, coupon clipping (we love to read the Sunday papers and have coffee. One of the things I always go for first is the coupons to see what I can save for us – hubby always laughs when I get excited at a large coupon for something already on the list – LOL), sale ad reading and logical common sense planning. I do participate in Menu Plan Monday, but I actually prepare my menu for the entire month all at once and then just break it up for posting.

I start the last week of the previous month with checking out what I already have in the freezer inventory and then the ads for my local markets for the upcoming week. I see what meats will be going on sale and then scour my recipe file for recipes to match. One of the biggest things I do to help not only with cost of ingredients, but also waste is to make sure to back up recipes to each other that use similar ingredients that I can buy in bulk. For example if a recipe calls for 1/2 an onion for Monday night’s recipe, I make sure Tuesday night’s recipe uses the other 1/2. I also know which meals we’ll probably have leftovers for so I plan to either freeze part of it for a future meal or plan a CORN (clean out refrigerator night) within my plan if there is only going to be a little of this and that leftover. I write my list and then I match up the coupons for whatever staples (flour, sugar, eggs, butter, etc…) I need and then the luxuries if there is room within the budget. If there is a really good sale I buy in super bulk for the following month also. Now I know this sounds like a lot of work, but the whole process takes less than an hour and then it’s done for the month.

I have every scrap of a recipe I ever saved as well as many of my grandma’s too. It’s like an obsession with me. If a recipe sounds good in a magazine, I figure I can make it better based on my family’s likes and dislikes and tuck it away to try and manipulate at a later date. I recently decided it was time to clean-up this mess.

I found an old metal LP file box at a garage sale for 50 cents and dressed it up a bit so it didn’t look like a trash bin on my kitchen counter. (it was a beat up lime green with stickers everywhere). I have written 2 family reunion cook books in the past which helped some with eliminating the scraps of paper and I’m also in the midst of writing a Tastebook to use as family Christmas gifts that is helping to clean up this mess on a permanent basis.

I have a perpetual list on the counter and every time we use something or run out of something, everyone is trained (finally) to list whatever they used or ran out of on an ongoing basis.

We keep a pretty concise calendar with everyone’s activities, appointments, meetings and such on it. I also write what we will be eating on each day so they’ll know what to expect. For the planning purposes here I’ll show you the rest of the month so you can see the pattern(s). If for some reason we have to cancel a night I will rearrange the week so that the meal actually canceled is one using something from the freezer, not the fresh ingredients I’ve already purchased. When I do the shopping I buy in bulk to cut the cost and since I have my menu plan ahead of time, I break down the bulk package into meal appropriate sizes before freezing when I get home.

This post originally ran as a guest post series for Barbara over at Candy Hearts and Paper Flowers who is hosting the Homemaking September Shape-up. It was an all around comprehensive house to home style of posts to help us get our homes and lives whipped into shape.

ESSENTIAL KITCHEN INGREDIENTS ~ Tools, Condiments and Seasonings ~

I thought about this category for several days and no matter how you look at it, ‘essential kitchen ingredients’ for your kitchen are subjective. I mean if I cooked a lot of oriental food I’m sure I’d find a WOK an essential tool, but I don’t so we’ll approach this the same as we did the pantry, we’ll try to apply logic and I’ll list ‘my‘ essentials and then you can interpret any way necessary for your household and the meals you prepare.

As for essential tools I have many that I consider truly essential! But, in reality we can truly get by with very few. I consider a good set of cutting boards, a set of great sharp knives, my cast iron skillet, quality stainless steel pans, spoons, spatulas and tongs a necessity. I try to stay away from most plastics as they do wear quicker and tend to harbor bacteria. I’m still using the same stainless steel tools and cookie sheets I spent a small fortune on 20 years ago, so that expenditure has paid off. The cast iron skillet has been passed down through my hubby’s parents and grandparents and it too is still going strong. I did purchase new heavy gauge stainless steel pots and pans about 10 years ago and they look brand new as stainless cleans so well. I also stay away from all non-stick surfaces as they do wear eventually and I just don’t want that in our food. I do change my cutting boards and rubber spatulas every couple of years just to be on the safe side despite always running them through the dishwasher at a high heat.

As much as I like all my pampered chef toys, they could all be eliminated by using just what I have listed above. Personally I cannot live without my essential Kitchen Aid stand mixer & hand mixer and my Cuisinart mini food chopper. I have a blender, but only use it to make my home made Creamy Tomato Basil soup and the occasional margarita. I don’t even own an electric can opener. I do love my slow cooker and my Magnalite stock pots and roaster, but they too could be substituted with other pots and pans if absolutely necessary.

Now for seasonings, this too is subjective based on the foods you prepare, but honestly if that recipe you cut out of a magazine calls for Herbs de Provence don’t run out and buy it for a one time recipe. It is a combination of herbs you probably already have on hand. It usually contains rosemary, marjoram, basil, bay leaf and thyme. So you can adjust what you have with your own likes. What I consider essential in the spice cabinet around here is kosher salt, sea salt, white & black pepper, celery salt, garlic salt/powder, basil, thyme, oregano, marjoram, parsley, paprika, cinnamon, apple pie spice, pumpkin pie spice, PURE vanilla, maple sugar, orange rind, bourbon extract, rum extract and vanilla powder.

In the pantry I have flour, bread and cake flour, self rising flour, sugar, brown sugar, powdered sugar, coconut, raisins, cornstarch, baking soda and baking powder, barley, split peas, tapioca, white rice, brown rice and various pastas.

In the way of liquid essentials I have worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, honey, apple cider vinegar, red wine vinegar, olive oil, canola oil, balsamic vinegar and several flavored rice wine vinegars.

In the refrigerator I have mayonnaise, ketchup (both homemade when I have the time), mustard (despite my severe allergy everyone else LOVES it), sun dried tomato pesto, Better than Bouillon chicken and beef bases, fresh lemons & limes, minced garlic and chili sauce.

The real key here is to have what YOU need on hand at all times without a lot of effort.

Dietary Missing Links

http://www.thursday-13.com/

Thank you Janet and Megan for resurrecting it!

These are the foods we have been craving most since coming here.

In-N-Out Animal Style burger
A Dunkin’ donut (any donut, there are none here, I mean absolutely NO donut shops)
Chuy’s Mesquite Broiler home of the Killer chicken & beef
Round Table Italian Garlic Lover’s Supreme
Sea Chest Oyster Bar
Prime Rib and Garlic Bread from the Smoke House
Rock Inn Burger and Fries
Crazy Otto’s breakfast
Sierra’s Mexican Food
Buca di Beppo and Capo’s the original Las Vegas SpeakeasyItalian Food
Carrot Cake (and the rest of their menu too) from Stonefire Grill
Elephant Bar Restaurant

♥

ORGANIZING YOUR PANTRY

Most of you already know that I feel most at home in the kitchen and despite my VIRGO guided perfectionist ways, I too have a tendency to have a messy pantry. We all have those moments when it’s just easier to put it anywhere other than where it really goes.

I’ll show this set of before pictures with the disclaimer that we’ve been super busy around here and it really was easier to just shove it back in.

I don’t use a ton of prepared foods due to health concerns, but we all have a pantry full of this and thats. I was fortunate in that the forced remodel of this kitchen allowed me to set things up my way when it went back together. I like to group like things together and that helps to make meal preparation simpler. In the Lazy Susan next to the stove I keep the small appliances together and then on the shelf above those I keep the canned meats, canned vegetables and soups. In the opposite Lazy Susan I group together canned fruits, Jell-Os, box mixes like cake mixes, rice mixes and stuffing as well as jams and jellies. In yet another cabinet I have grouped together all the” seasoning” bottles like soy sauces, vinegars, oils, Worcestershire, etc…. In the 2 shelves below that I keep all the back stock like extra ketchup, mayonnaise, BBQ sauce, hot sauce, etc… Spices and such use on a daily basis are all labeled and alphabetized in their handy box close to the stove while additional infrequently used spices, bread crumbs, flavorings, baking soda & powder and such are kept in a separate cabinet. Baking staples are also all grouped together.

I have all of my seasonings and ingredients placed in such a way that the butcher block becomes my central point for creating. I try to keep all the necessary tools also within an arm’s reach. All of my reaching into cabinets is also at a minimum and I don’t have to dig for what I’m looking for. Every person and every family is different in their likes and tastes, so there is no right or wrong to pantry organization, just what works for you. That said, I have found that logic, organization and common sense play an integral part in kitchen success.

No matter what the size or shape of you ‘pantry’, the whole idea is to make your job easier and cooking more fun. So take that willy nilly approach and toss it out the window. It’s time to organize and see what you have in your pantry. Knowing will help you to keep things rotated and up to date. When I was growing up, my dad always wiped the lids of cans and then dated them when we got home from the store. I don’t go that far, but I do make sure to rotate the older forward paying attention to expiration dates and replace the restock to the rear.

Now for the after pictures.

I try to group like items together. For example the parts for a Mexican Meal are all together. The green chiles are right night to the enchilada sauce which is next to the refried beans, etc…

I store the back up stock on the lowest shelves since I don’t get in there very often. I also pull forward the most frequently used condiments and ingredients so I don’t have to dig for them. The refrigerator is the hardest ‘pantry’ part to keep organized since everyone is in and out all day some days, but I try to keep like items together here too. The jams are all on the same shelf, the pickles are grouped together, my garlic, pestos, bases etc… are all together on one of the top shelves to keep everyone from moving them!

Coca Cola Vegetable Storage Bin

I ran this last year this time at 3 Sides of Crazy, but it worked so well I thought I’d share it over here.

I needed a vegetable bin, but just don’t have a place to put a free standing one. I was going through closets today and trying to gather more items for the VFW rummage sale that’s coming up in a few weeks when I ran across this old Coca~Cola bottle crate and had this AHA moment. For the moment this will work for small potatoes and onions.

It’s now mounted in a out of the way corner and is sooooooooooooooo handy!

Conversions

I know many people are finding delicious recipes from all over the internet these days. Some of the most unusual and tasty ones I have come across are from Australia and Europe. These are also the recipes that give me the most pause. Mainly because I now have to think. I have to do the dreaded math and convert from metric to standard. So I’m offering this handy conversion chart for those of you having the same qualms. I have found many different charts, but these particular measurements seem the most consistent and commonly used weights and volumes for the cooking we most commonly do for our families.

U.S.

METRIC

VOLUME

½ teaspoon

2 milliliters

1 teaspoon

5 milliliters

1 tablespoon

15 milliliters

¼ cup

50 milliliters

1/3 cup

75 milliliters

½ cup

125 milliliters

¾ cup

175 milliliters

1 cup

¼ liter

WEIGHT

1 ounce

28 grams

1 pound

454 grams

TEMPERATURE

Fahrenheit

Centigrade

325 degrees

165 degrees

350 degrees

175 degrees

375 degrees

190 degrees

PAN SIZE

9X13 inches

23×32.5 centimeters

9×9 inches

22.8×22.8 centimeters

8×8 inches

20.3×20.3 centimeters

15.5×10.5 inches

Jelly roll pan

39.3×26.6 centimeters

TECHNIQUES TO MAKE WEEK DAY MEALS EASIER

There are many ways to make your life easier in order to still have made from scratch recipes every day of the week and not resort to hamburger helpers or take out.

By having a menu plan ahead of time you can get organized whenever you have the time. When I do the shopping, I buy in bulk to cut the cost and since I have my menu plan ahead of time, I break down the bulk package into meal appropriate sizes before freezing when I get home. During the winter, I like to spend Sunday afternoons preparing for the week’s meals. If I know we’re heading into a particularly busy time I always make double batches and freeze half for another meal. There are times we literally eat out of the freezer for the whole week, but they are all homemade meals.

Remembering to defrost your meat is key to easy meal preparation on weekdays. The most time consuming part of cooking with fresh ingredients every night of the week is the chopping and preparation of vegetables. If you are sticking to your meal plan you can do these all at once. For example if you are going to need a 1/2 cup chopped onion for each of 3 meals, then choose a large onion and chop the entire onion, storing it in Tupperware and taking out what you need for each meal as you need it. I also gather together the seasonings for each meal and have them ready to go.

The key here is to be able to start cooking immediately and just add ingredients without having to do chopping and prepping.

To recap:

Menu Plan
Defrost Meat
pre-chop vegetables
pre-measure seasonings
pre-set table when/where possible
prepare double batches when appropriate

The original post ran here.

Category: HELPFUL HINTS