Hacking This Life

So here we are in mid-May and we are quickly shoving thoughts of cold and snow behind us. We are buying and starting plants, cleaning up the yard and getting the Winter crud off the vehicles (inside and out).

This week I have a couple recipes for you and some handy tips, as usual. I hope there is something that sparks your interest and makes you want to give it a whirl.

On Mother’s Day ( by the way, hope you had a great one) my daughter, Sara, and I got together to make a couple of different pizza crusts. One was a cheese crust and one was the latest trending crust, cauliflower.

The cauliflower, although tasty, was too thin and had burnt edges. That warrants a second try. Next time I will make the crust thicker and watch my time more carefully. All oven temps vary slightly and even though I set my timer for less than the recipe called for it still was too done. The recipe and my corrections will be in a future blog post.

Now, to the rousing success of the cheese crust. Sara had made this recipe twice before and was an old hand at it. It turned out absolutely beautiful! The recipe and pictures are next.

Cheesy Crust for Pizza

2 cups of shredded mozzarella

1/4 to 1/2 cup almond flour (this is slightly expensive but goes a long way)

Seasonings – you can add whatever you like. Some ideas might be garlic powder, onion powder, basil, parsley, oregano (or Italian seasoning).

Put the mozzarella cheese in a bowl and add your seasonings. Microwave the mixture until you are able to stir it all together. Each microwave varies so it would be best to start out with a minute and heat more a little at a time. When you are able to mix it all together it will be greasy. Sprinkle in the almond flour until it is not as greasy and the texture that you can use a rolling pin to roll it out.

Before you are roll it out, preheat your oven to 375 degrees with a pizza stone  placed inside. Then put your “dough” ball on a piece of parchment paper or waxed paper and use your rolling pin to roll it first one direction and then the other until it forms your desired shape and size. It should be between a 1/4″ and 1/2″ thick. It should not stick to the rolling pin. Once you reach the desired thickness and shape transfer your crust to the stone inside the oven. Bake for 5 to 6 minutes.

At this point remove it from the oven and “dress” your crust. First, of course, will be your pizza sauce, Then mozzarella cheese and a sprinkling of parmesan cheese. Follow the cheese with whatever other toppings you desire. We used pepperoni but you could put that and any other thing you desire on it. Place the pizza back in the oven and brown until the cheese topping is melting.

       

Have you ever wondered about the stock vs. broth situation? I tend to use both things in the same way. I was wondering what the difference really was and set about checking into it.

The major difference is that, technically, broth is made from cooking a certain kind of meat with veggies and seasoning to create a flavorful liquid that can be consumed as it is. Stock, on the other hand, always is created by using meat bones and has no seasoning. It would not be pleasant consuming as it is.

For broth the bones are cooked for a long time to release the gelatinous substance (collagen) from the bones. This gives stock a thicker texture. I also found out that if you want the stock to be darker you can roast the bones first.

So what about vegetable stock then? It has no bones and no meat. It all boils down to seasoning here. Stock wouldn’t be seasoned and broth would be. Broth could be eaten as is. Clear as broth, right?

Just a few days ago I picked up some Portobello mushroom caps and wanted to try making a mushroom “burger”. All of the information that I could find stressed marinating the mushrooms before trying to cook them. I took a cue from what I do for chicken and decided to use Italian dressing to marinate them in. You really only need a half hour or hour to adequately marinate them. Whoops! I forgot about them being in the refrigerator for 2 days! I am not one to be deterred by minor details so I used them anyway. The result was spectacular!

I drained the mushroom caps (I had two) and put them on a grill to add nice grill marks to them and to warm them through. I’m a cheeseburger kind of gal so I put a slice of sharp cheddar cheese on top of each and covered them to melt a little.

Finally, I dressed my mushroom burger and it was delish!!

Do you ever get a bag or two of onions and then not be not able to use them all in a timely fashion? I quite often do for one reason or another. Then what I do is use my food processor to chop them up and put them in freezer bags,  place them in the freezer  to save them for use in a recipe later. I portion the chopped onion into 1/2 cup and 1 cup sizes. Money saved!

Here’s a little side note on that topic. I often, after holidays go through the clearance sections in dollar stores or Walmart and buy storage and freezer bags for CHEAP prices. I personally don’t care if my onions are in bags with Valentine hearts or in today’s case bags that have Elsa from Frozen on them. Again, money saved!!

CUTENESS ALERT! CUTENESS ALERT! CUTENESS ALERT!

Here are two of my “pack”. They are Missy on the left and Rudy on the right. After you notice their adorableness what is the next thing you notice? If you are thinking, “Man! that’s a whole lot of hair!” then you are correct. I always have a difficult time getting their fur off furniture. It’s like this, I’m comfortable with a certain amount of fur. After all, I am a dog owner but when company comes my furniture should be fit for them to sit on! I have found the answer after much trial an error!!

Yep! Blatant product endorsement! This handheld vac is a BEAST! I can’t, honestly, say enough good about it. It is corded, easy to use and powerful! My life has just been enriched!

Currently, I am trying an experiment with bananas. I have seen, more than once, an idea that circulates online to keep them fresher, longer. You simply use plastic wrap to cover the base of the bananas where they connect. I will update you on this in my next post.

Speaking of updates: my small container garden is still on the table near the best window I have for sun. The temperature is still reaching below 57 degrees at night and so I wait a little longer. They are growing well and I have actually had a salad with some of the lettuce I harvested. I can’t wait until they can go on the deck!

Before I leave you this week I wanted to share a coupon strategy that I have been using a lot lately.  Now, that being said, I want you to know that I never buy anything that I don’t normally use when they are on special or I have a coupon. That’s what the stores and manufacturers want you to do. I try to beat them at their own game. The prime example is when an item is on buy one, get one free promo. Of course the price for the one is higher than normal so how can we beat that little trick of theirs? Here’s how. Recently, the type of cat litter I use was on a buy one, get one promo. I had several $1 off coupons that had been in the coupon flyer in our Sunday paper. The litter was $10.99. It is regularly cheaper than that but because it is BO/GO they upped the price. The grocery store where I shop allowed me to use two $1 coupons since I was in fact purchasing two products. Therefore, I bought two containers of litter for $8.99 which is the normal price for one container. WIN!! I had several coupons so I actually came home with 4 containers of litter.

See you next time!!!

LIVE WELL AND DO IT CHEAPLY!

 

 

Happy Sunday to everyone!

I have planted my container garden. It consists of two beefsteak tomato plants and two romaine lettuce plants. Since I have never had a container garden before I started small.  I got excited when we had some really nice weather and planted. Ugh! Apparently I forgot this is Western New York and way too early. Therefore my mini container garden is flourishing on my dining room table. (The picture below is before they were moved to the table.) Why there? It happens to be situated by the best window for sun. I could actually pick some lettuce right now for a mini-salad.

It seems there is quite a bit to share with this post so let’s get right to it!

I have discovered a new knife that is super! The knife is one of those often seen in ads copper items. It is actually a cheese knife. I know this due to the holes in the blade which keep it from dragging the cheese with it as it cuts. However, I have used it for so many things. The knife cuts tomatoes as if they are made of butter. What a wonderful addition to my kitchen! Do you want to know the best part? I bought it at TJ Maxx for only $3.99.

This item is one of those, you can make decor for you home out of just about anything you have around. Several years ago, I bought some Land’s End, used, children’s, yellow, rubber boots. I spotted them in a little shop in town for not a lot of money and thought that I could find something to do with those cute boots. Over the years they have held tiny garden tools by my front step and other things but always on the porch floor. This year they are hung on my porch wall and I love this change. String was used to link the boots together and to use for hanging them. Then I just stuck some silk daffodils in them and there you go!

 Cute? Right?

Along with the coming of Spring and the cheerier outside decor, came garter snakes who had taken residence under my front porch. They had taken to sunning themselves on the rocks by the front steps. Now, I know they won’t hurt you but I have a thing about snakes (and mice, yuck!) and didn’t care for them being there. Also, my dog, Rudy, seemed to think that they were his new playmates and was always sniffing and doing that doggy “I want to play” pose with them. EWWWW. Anyway, I did some research online but eventually went to Walmart and bought some snake repellent. After all, I just want to keep them away from me and mine and not kill them (although in a fit of fear I won’t be held responsible for my actions). As a retired teacher I am ashamed to say that I didn’t read too well or even examine the product I bought too well visually. Once I got home I discovered that it was not just your regular spray bottle. It was designed to connect to your hose. My hose is behind my house and not accessible for this job. Needless to say, I returned it and then went back online. The one tip I discovered there for any snake was to use ammonia to keep them away. For $1.79 I thought I would give it a whirl. I should have gone straight to the ammonia idea right away. I splattered some on the ground where those cute little things were sunning themselves and “viola”! No more snakes. Now, I’m happy but Rudy is missing his little slithering buddies. He will get over it! My apologies for no pictures for this little tip. I was too freaked out to snap any of Snakey when he was sunning. He was big though! Huge! LOL

Since my last post I tried a new recipe I had seen and it turned out better than I could have hoped for. It is for a cornbread baked in an iron skillet and formed like an upside down onion cake! Confused? Hopefully, the recipe and illustrations will help with that.

UPSIDE DOWN SWEET ONION CORNBREAD

(from 12tomatoes.com)

Ingredients

• 2 (8.5 oz.) boxes of corn muffin mix
• 2 Vidalia onions
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup cottage cheese
• 1 cup corn
• 1 cup sharp cheddar cheese
• 3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
• 1/2 cup bacon, cooked and crumbled
• 1//3 cup green onions, finely chopped
• 4 Tablespoons butter
• Chive cream cheese to garnish

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Carefully slice your onions into rings, making sure to leave them intact. Melt 4 Tablespoons of butter in a large cast iron skillet (I used my 10″) over medium heat. Arrange the onion ring sections in the center and around the edge of your pan. Fill in open spots with smaller pieces of onion. Saute the onions, in place, for 5 to 8 minutes, or until softened (I needed the whole 8 minutes). While onions cook beat eggs into corn muffin mix, then stir in cottage cheese ( I used low-fat because that was what I had on hand) and then add the melted 3/4 cup butter. Once it is all incorporated fold in your cheddar cheese, bacon and green onions. ( I used more bacon than was called for because, well, I love bacon.) Pour your batter, which will be very thick, into the iron skillet. (Do your best to keep sauted onion rings in place for a nice visual presentation when you flip the baked cornbread out onto a plate.) Bake for 30-35 minutes (mine took the whole 35 minutes) or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow to cool for 10-15 minutes. Carefully invert pan over serving platter. Slice into wedges, and serve with cream cheese, if desired.

As you see, I put my notes in parenthesis but I have one more. I am a long time cake baker and I never invert anything onto the serving plate or cake board. I take the plate or cake board and invert it over the thing I am plating and then flip the entire thing over. It is easier, less messy and less risky.

In my last post I mentioned my trip with a friend to Connecticut to visit her sister (now my friend also). Special shout out to Linda and Gina! We had a lot of fun and laughs. With the exception of a stop at a TJ Maxx our shopping was in thrift stores which I love! In a Goodwill store I found a vintage wooden magazine rack. I have been looking for one since I saw on Pinterest that they make a great storage place for pot and pan lids. Eureka! Now, I couldn’t leave it like it was even though it was in decent shape. Everything is a project with me.

After removing 3 price tags (everything I bought had no less than 3 tags each) I used my DeWalt circular sander and took the finish and designs off the rack. I used a fine sand paper since the finish was thin and the designs not very deep.  I wiped the rack off  with a tack cloth to make sure no loose bits were clinging to it. I used Waverly chalk paint in Crimson ($5.99 for a 8 oz. jar at JoAnn Fabric) to paint the rack. It took two coats which hardly made a dent in my jar of paint. Once that had thoroughly dried I used painter’s tape to mark off a rectangle on what I decided would be the front of the rack. I then used Waverly chalk paint in Plaster (an off-white) to paint the rectangle I had marked off. Again, I let that dry thoroughly after 2 coats. Using my oil based Sharpie markers in black and red I wrote a “pithy” little saying in the white rectangle.  Now to dig in my cupboards for all the pot and pan lids!

   

 

See you next time my friends and be sure to turn your friends onto this blog. Oh, and leave your comments! I love comments!

 

I have just nicely rested up from two long drives. First I went to NYC with my son and then to Monroe, Connecticut via Ithaca with a friend. However, now I am back and ready to post. There are a wide range of little tidbits to pass on this week.

A reader shared a story with me (thanks Kim) that I want to let you know about. She accidentally dropped her daughter’s phone in water while cleaning and holding the phone with her shoulder. Kim was trying to multitask. We all do and sometimes more successfully than others. Necessity is truly the “Mother of Invention”. Not wanting to have to go out to a store, Kim searched her cupboards and came up with couscous which she felt was similar to rice. She put the phone and couscous in a food storage bag. Before sealing it Kim remembered she had read somewhere that those little silica packs that you get in new purses and other items would help to dry things out too. For good measure she dropped one she had saved in the bag and sealed it up. The phone remained there for 24 hours. SUCCESS! The phone was working. Thanks again for sharing your story, Kim! I’m going to collect some of the silica packs to have on hand.

What do you use to keep your brown sugar from getting hard? I have used the little terracotta disks that are sold for that purpose but I get better results from a slice of bread.  When I worked in a restaurant many years ago we had huge bins of sugars. The chef/owner always had some bread in the brown sugar to keep it soft and that is when I started doing it. I have read that a slice of apple and even a marshmallow will keep brown sugar soft as well. When I fill my brown sugar canister I just toss in a slice of bread. The bread never gets moldy or rancid. It works like a charm. If you have another method please leave it in the comments section. I would love to know!

There used to be quite a lot of recipes that required buttermilk. There seem to be less these days but still you do occasionally run onto some. I hate to buy a quart of buttermilk when I only need a cup or half cup. A good substitute for butter milk is to add white vinegar or lemon juice to regular milk. Let’s say you need a cup of buttermilk. You put a Tablespoon of white vinegar or lemon juice in a one cup measure and then fill the cup with milk. Viola! Homemade buttermilk.

Appliances with a stainless steel finish have been very popular the last few years. A couple of years ago I bought a refrigerator with the brushed stainless steel. It was a pain to keep clean. Every little fingerprint was very noticeable. I have discovered that they sell moistened wipes specifically to clean these appliances but before I found out about them I had experimented at home with various products that I had on hand. Glass cleaner didn’t work but when I tried my dusting spray it worked beautifully! Since I always have that on hand and it takes very little to clean the outside of the refrigerator it is a much more cost effective method for me than the wipes.

I was also having a hard time keeping my black stove top looking good. Cleaning it with the dishcloth left awful streaks. Even drying it after wiping was still not that much better. For this task I tried the glass cleaner first, as I had with the refrigerator,  and it is awesome. Dries completely streak free!

This past Sunday we celebrated a couple family birthdays and our postponed Easter dinner. For the one birthday guy I made a pudding poke cake. It is just like the jello poke cake but with pudding instead. I used a yellow cake mix, banana pudding and frosted with chocolate frosting. It was kind of like a banana flavored Boston Cream Pie. Our other birthday celebrant had an entirely different cake. I used a white cake mix prepared as per package directions. I separated the batter into four bowls and dyed each one a different color. Using a prepared Bundt pan, I layered the different colors of batter. Then I took a knife and cut through it gently so as not to completely mix the colors. I wanted them vibrant and swirled a little.

The second cake needed a fluffy and light frosting. I ran across a cream cheese frosting that seemed to fit the bill. It worked better than I hoped and was so EASY! The recipe follows:

1- 8oz. pkg. of cream cheese (there’s no need to soften this and you can use     the low fat or regular)

1 cup of powdered sugar

1 teaspoon of vanilla

1 pint of heavy whipping cream

Combine the cream cheese and sugar. Blend with the paddle for the mixer, if you have one, until smooth. Add the vanilla. Lastly, add the whipping cream a little at a time. Once all of the whipping cream is incorporated, whip until stiff peaks form. It’s that simple!

I am learning about blogging more and more as I go. I need more pictures in my blog. Ideally, I should remember to take them as I do things and then share them with you. I am working on making that a habit. I promise more pictures in the future.

Let me know if you try anything on the blog and how it works for you. You can either leave it in the comments section or email me with the link provided. I would love to hear from people.

See you next time!!

 

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!