Month: March 2017

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Spring Has Sprung

It looks like “Spring has sprung”, to quote my Mom. Western NY has lost almost all of its snow and we have some rain today. This morning at 6 am it was 50 degrees outside. If it hasn’t sprung, we are getting there at least. My thoughts are turning to bike riding, container gardening on my deck, yard clean up (YUCK), and SUNSHINE!

Thinking about container gardening at this point is a little premature but I am getting excited to try it! I imagine mid May might be the right time for that and I intend to take you along on my first ever experience with it! Stay tuned.

I want to share a recipe with you that I have tried several times. It is for bread made in a cast iron skillet. Thank you Wendy for giving me your recipe and the handy hints you had due to your experience with it. First of all, I am all about the iron skillet cooking. When I was growing up my Mom used her trusty skillets all the time. We had a little one that was just big enough to do an egg and then what was probably a 10″ one that was used all the time. (Fried potatoes are great in an iron skillet.) For many years I got out of using mine but when my brother-in-law gave me a super, well-seasoned one that had been his mother’s, I was back into it again.

IRON SKILLET BREAD

1 pkg. dry yeast

2 cups lukewarm water

1/2 teaspoon salt

4 1/3 cups flour

olive oil

Combine yeast and water in a bowl. Using a wooden spoon add in 1 cup of the flour and the salt. Mix until combined. Continue adding the rest of the flour one cup at a time until completely incorporated. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise for 1 hour. Do not punch down the dough. Lightly oil the bottom of a 10″ skillet (or 12″ inch but I like the bread higher so I stuck with the smaller skillet). Sprinkle flour on top of the dough and then flour your hands. Take all of the dough and form it into a disk. It will be sticky. Place the disk in the skillet. Cover it with a towel and allow to rise for 1/2 hour.    Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees. Drizzle olive oil on top of the bread and using a knife score the top of the bread in an X shape. Sprinkle with coarse salt and rosemary.

The adjustments I made were not to add the salt and the rosemary on top. If you want to freeze half of the loaf, as I did, the salt will cause the bread to “weep” and make it soggy. I am not a huge rosemary fan and left that off as well.

Doesn’t this look yummo!!!

If anyone happens to try this recipe let me know how you like it!

One of my favorite things to do is to decorate my home for the seasons and holidays. You can decorate with the most simple things. Sometimes it is just a matter of picking the right colors or displaying a collection in a seasonally appropriate way.  You don’t need to spend money on expensive decorations or items create a decoration. It is possible to use items that you already have around the house.

One of the things I collect are old sewing items. I have many old wooden thread spools. I pulled out all the Spring/Easter type colors and made this little item to sit on a shelf. I also used a little green grass from a gift basket I had received. I glued burlap on the lid of a glass jar that was in my recycle bin and got into my ribbon box for a small piece of pink ribbon. Ta-da! Easter decoration! The bonus is I get to look at some of my collection in a new way.

I would like to introduce to a product that I have been using for several months now. I first discovered it in a hardware/lumber store where my nephew, Brad, works. The product is a powder called, “Anti Monkey Butt” powder. The first thing I did was laugh at the name. I mean, who wouldn’t? Then Brad told me that my niece uses it and that they had used the baby product for their son and he had never had a diaper rash. That recommendation, the cute name and the fact that I use powder every day when I get dressed had me buy one of the lady Anti Monkey Butt powders. I LOVE it. I think the secret is that it has calamine in the powder and it is so silky soft. The powder just happens to be pink too!

 

They have a full line of powders for men, women and babies. There is even a diaper rash cream for babies and a hand lotion. You can order from their site, http://www.antimonkeybutt.com/ and online retailers like Amazon have it too. I read the background info and it was developed by two dirt bike riders to combat “monkey butt”.  Hey, I like to know the history of things! It is the Social Studies major in me.

Be sure to let me know if you try the bread recipe and any crafty decorating ideas that you may have. See you next week!

 

 

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Hello world!

I’m glad you stopped by! I’m  going to post a new blog entry once a week with the eventual goal of posting twice each week.

The vision I have for the blog is to share little life hacks that I have found and incorporated into my life that save time, save money, make life easier, more organized and add JOY. A part of my joy is cooking and crafting so that will be included too. Hopefully, there will be something of interest to you in each entry.

I would like to share a little bit about myself so that when you stop here it will be like a conversation you’re having with me over a cup of coffee at the kitchen table. I have 5 adult children who live in the area, 3 dogs (yes, I said, 3!), and 1 cat. We, my “pack” and I, live in a small village in Western New York. For all of you who hear New York and think New York City, I am all the way across the state and live on the shores of Lake Erie. It is a beautiful place to live. We usually have hard winters and more than our share of snow (think near Buffalo here) but the Spring, Summer and Fall are amazing! I am even that kind of person that doesn’t mind the Winter! There are a few of us you know.

Having a large family, a home and a career has led me to look for ideas, strategies, and the like to keep my life manageable and with as little stress as possible. This blog is about that search and the things I have found along the way.

There are those of us who thrive on organization and others who strive to be organized. In either case, organization tips are usually of interest no matter where you fall on the spectrum. I have found that if you want more organization in your kitchen and don’t want to spend a lot of time getting there, the simple answer is to cut back on your stuff. That’s right! Eliminate stuff = less to take care of (think less to put away, less to wash, etc.). If you never use more than one frying pan at a time, cut back to one small and one larger one. If you live by yourself and only have company occasionally, limit yourself to four of everything – four plates, four bowls, four glasses, four coffee mugs, four forks…. Well, you get the idea. Less is better in this case. An extremist might just have two of each item. I was being conservative. This approach encourages you to wash your dishes more often. I mean, if you need a knife and you have used 4, better get the dish soap out! It also allows you to have more space for what you do have and immediately things look less cluttered! WIN!!

 

This idea can be carried throughout your home. Just last year I decided I didn’t need four sets of sheets and pillowcases for my bed and various odds and ends of linens. I could get by with two complete sets! It was an epiphany since linen closet space is at a premium in my home. Now, technically, you could get by with one set. You would just have to wash it and put it back on but that is a little too austere for me. With two sets I can remake my bed and not wait for the weekly wash to be done. As an aside,  I purchased two new sheet sets and made them ones that feel good with designs that make me happy!

Let’s stray from the organizing topic to a new cake technique that is on trend. It is called the “naked cake”.  As a long time baker of cakes for weddings, birthdays, and all that jazz, I was taken in by the thought of a cake with less icing. A cake where you actually could see the cake through the layer of icing. Who would have thought! Anyway, I was asked to make a small cake for a wedding reception and I asked if I could do a “naked cake”. The bride agreed and off I went. The cake was a three layer white cake with vanilla butter cream frosting. Admittedly, I used less of the frosting on the exterior of the cake but I did make sure there was plenty in between the layers for the frosting lovers. I used burlap ribbon and silk flowers to decorate the cake and everyone thought it was beautiful. I will share a picture below. Due to the use of the burlap ribbon you don’t see much of the cake showing through the icing but I think you will still get the idea. It was also so much easier and less stressful when I didn’t have to worry about the cake showing through the frosting!

 

Today I leave you with a little “warm fuzzy” in the form of the leader of the pack, Duffy. If this doesn’t make you smile I will be surprised.

 

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