Back to Basics: Cleaning the Microwave

Awhile back, it was mentioned that we should feature some basic how-to's on the blog for beginner domestics. I don't know if that is still an interest for anyone but I purposely let my microwave get disgusting just so I could do this. (That's my story and I'm sticking to it! I did it for the blog!)

Dirty microwaves are a pet peeve of mine. I'm constantly harping on the family to cover their food when they're heating something up. But even with diligent microwave-monitoring, splatters and explosions and leaks happen. And, microwaves tend to hold on to odors for a ridiculously long time. So cleaning and deodorizing is necessary from time to time.


Start with one food-splattered microwave.



Gross, huh? Blech.

Take out the plate and the little spinner thingie. Those are easily hand-washed or tossed in the dishwasher if you have one.

Take a microwave-safe glass bowl or cup and fill it about halfway with water. Add in a couple of tablespoons of vinegar and/or lemon juice, or, if you have neither, a little squirt of dishsoap. Place it in the center of your microwave, like so:



Microwave on high for 2 or 3 minutes. Then I let it sit for another minute or two so it gets good and steamy in there.

Try not to get distracted by the various going-ons of the internet while you are waiting so that you forget you were cleaning the microwave and let all the hot, steamy vapors dry up so when you open the microwave to heat up the veggies for dinner, you're confronted with a dried-up, empty dish and the slightly unpleasant odor of cooked vinegar. Cuz then you have to start over.

Take out the dish and notice how all that splattered-on food is now wet and mushy and ready to just wipe right out.

Which is what you do next. Wipe it all out. It should all just wipe away, easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy. If not, make another bowl and microwave it another couple of minutes. Then it'll look like this:



Oooh. Shiny. Clean and odor-free.

This concludes today's lesson of Microwave Cleaning 101.

Friday Favorites

Top 10 Weird Uses for Vodka - Some interesting suggestions. Some that I would like to try.


Cooking Light's Menus for Entertaining - a great variety of menus plus with recipes that are more healthy

Freezing Strawberries from Tipnut.com - with so many wonderful looking strawberries at the grocery store right now - freezing them so that I can make some desserts all through the summer without having to run to the store sounds like a good plan to me

Emergency Preparedness Kit - a pdf put out by the Canadian government giving instructions on how to pull together an Emergency Preparedness kit. I think it has some great ideas no matter what country you live in

How to Build a Fire Pit - I have a relative that has one and loves serving dinner out there to friends and family all through the summer and even into fall

Book Review: Knife Skills Illustrated

Knife Skills Illustrated: A User's Manual
by Peter Hertzmann

I really enjoyed this book and one of the main reasons is that they have left-handed instructions as well as right-handed. It is very rare to see a book that gives us lefties instructions. Usually we are just left to struggle and figure it out on our own. So I really appreciated the left-handed instructions. In addition, it has amazing illustrations (by Alan Witschonke). The author, Peter Hertzmann goes through basic skills and applies them to many different vegetables, fruits, fish and meats to shows how they are executed on each of those foods. As someone who doesn't have a large knife set this book was very good also as it tells you that you don't need a large set of knives instead 2-3 are plenty for everyday kitchen use.

I really wish it had been a book that I had when I first started cooking, but even now as someone who knows my way around a kitchen fairly well, I learned new things and feel it could give me instruction to learn new knife skills.

Edit 4/28 to add:
Project Foodie - This website has an excerpt complete with illustrations.

And then the website to the book - I believe it has some downloadable chapters

Friday Favorites

Top 12 Fruits and Vegetables You Should Buy Organic

Vegetable Garden Glossary, Vegetable Seed Guide and Easy to Grow Vegetables

Domestic Boot Camp 101 from Subservient-husband - He is putting together a domestic 101 and I look forward to seeing how it grows. He had asked for more basics for the Domestic Servitude blog and that will happen. I know I have several things almost ready to go. And I think a couple others are going to do some also. So hopefully together we all will have some good basics.

Chocolate Orange Cardamom Muffins with Honey Citrus Glaze - Looks like a yummy weekend breakfast

Spring Cleaning

Unfortunately I am getting this out late. I apologize for that but it couldn't be helped.

These lists are very similar to the fall cleaning lists but with just a few changes for spring.

When doing spring cleaning, open the windows up to air out the house but also just let the sun in after winter. Think of placing vases of flowers throughout the house just be mindful of household member's allergies.

Spring Cleaning Lists
Living Areas
Dining Room
Kitchen
Bedroom
Bathroom
Closets and Laundry Room
Basement, Attic and Garage
Outside

I also found this link helpful for just getting motivated to start.

Friday Favorites

This time of year is one of my favorites because in the northeast where I live the winter dulldrums are quickly leaving and everything smells of spring. So with Spring in the air, I always start to make the plans for my gardens come to life. Of course I also always wind up with more plans than ever get implemented from year to year, but it is a ton of fun to plan things out and then start to make them a reality.

Here are some links that I have found useful when planning out my flower and vegetable gardens, as well as landscaping in general around the yard.

Gardening.about.com About.com's gardening site is amazing because it breaks things down by type and simplifies even the most daunting of tasks. So if you are a novice gardener, or even a expert, you can find something of use and of interest on this site when it comes to how to do something new and different with your garden.

Gardenguides.com I have found this site to be full of great ideas when I am looking for something new to plant. In addition I have found that there is a lot of good information on here for those who wish to have an organic garden.

The National Gardening Association The National Gardening Association has some wonderful "how to" videos. There is a wealth of information on this site, but admittedly so far have only used them for their how to videos and I have found those to be fantastic.

Better Homes and Gardens Again another site with a ton of information. The feature that I seemed to use the most on this site this year was for the gardner's notebook. It allowed me to do a lot of planning during the cold snowy months. It is a feature that will come in handy all year long. I know I plan to go back and use this site for other bits of information as well once I have more time to explore.

Backyard Gardener I came across this site last year when I was searching for ways to make a raised vegetable garden bed in the hopes of keeping out the variety of animals that like to use my yard like a salad bar. While it did help prevent some of the salad bar action, we still have a ways to go. It seems in our yard, the deer are the biggest culprits, followed up by the ground hogs, and the occasional bear. Last year nothing kept the bears away for good.

I hope that even if you only plant a few flowers in a windowsill box that you find yourself wanting to try and garden if you never have, or if you are an experienced gardener I hope you find some new and useful information among the above.

Happy Planting.

Easy Spanish Rice

This is something I do when I am very short of time and need a side dish for tacos, enchiladas, fajitas, burritos or some other Mexican meal.

(pictures are really bad because of course I decided to take pictures at the last moment when I was short on time)



Ingredients - salsa, cheese and cooked instant rice

And it just depends on how many you need to serve on how much. We have 2 people so I just cook 1 cup of instant rice in the microwave. Follow directions on box.



























Mix in salsa just to coat it well. Usually 1/2 cup to 3/4 of cup for 1 cup of rice.



























Add some cheese on top. The rice is usually still warm so will melt the cheese but if not just microwave for 30 seconds to 1 minute. And serve.


Variation:
* Many times I also add a heaping tablespoon of taco seasoning to rice before I cook it to give it just a little more flavor.

Review of: Wine Intro with Lisa Shea

I am not at all a wine guru. I like what I like, and that's about it. It doesn't have to be pricey, it doesn't have to be a specific type or color, and it doesn't really matter much to me if it is the "appropriate" wine for a specific food. That said, I do very much believe that when you find a good wine and are able to pair it with some great food, you then have a fantastic meal. So in the interest of creating, serving, and completing many a fantastic meal, I have spent time researching the subject of wine.

In doing this I came across a great website that I have found to be an extremely useful tool in learning about wines, in selecting just the appropriate wine for the approriate meal etc. I hope that you all come to enjoy this site as much as I do.

Lisa Shea manages to make you feel at home with her site and doesn't make you feel stupid or uneducated when it comes to wine. She doesn't give you the feel that she is putting down your choices and gives you so much valuable information that you can't help but learn alot even when you set out to only learn a little.

Her site has so much knowledge and information on it that I find I am still learning and exploring her site even after many months of using it as a valuable resource. It's broken down into various bits and you don't feel that you need to spend hours researching to find your answers. You can spend as little as 5 minutes or as long as you desire learning about wines.

I would love to hear back from any of you who start to use her site on what you think of it as well. May you have many a wonderful wine with a great meal!

Wine Intro with Lisa Shea

Friday Favorites

Homemade Sugar Scrub for Gardeners - A homemade, all natural scrub, perfect for getting those hands grime free after a day spent digging in the dirt.

Homemade Frozen Calzones - I'm always looking for ways to keep things on hand for those unplanned, hectic nights when you just want something quick to eat. These sound just about perfect.

Kind & Free Printables - Free printable labels, cards, art, and much more. Lots of great ideas, too, including one for water bottle lablels - imagine sticking that in someone's lunch box!

Transforming an Old Lamp - I'm not sure that I would have thought of silver-leafing an old lamp, but the results look great. It looks like a relatively easy process and frugal too.

Hot Cross Buns - The kind you eat - it is Easter after all. Although does anyone really need an excuse to make or eat homemade rolls?

Friday Favorites

5 Ways to Get Yourself Motivated to Clean - I will say that I have used a few of these before.

How I cut my Grocery Bill by 75% - I think it has some really good ideas. And good ideas that don't do everything at once. The planning your menu backwards - I have done many times. It is a good one when trying to save money because buying a deal and then cooking from it instead of planning a menu that doesn't use anything that is one sale.

Gardening Guides - now that spring is upon us - I know many are starting to garden. I thought this site had a lot of good info.

65 Cheap Healthy One Dish Meals - She has a list of links to some a variety of one dish meals.

Low-Cost Kitchen Crafts Ebook for FREE - I haven't had a chance to look at it but a FREE ebook is always worth a look to me


I am going out of town and won't be back until after Easter. I hope to have the spring cleaning lists ready to go and post while I am gone. (Crossing my fingers I have time to get those ready.) If not, then I will get to them as soon as I get home. If you have any questions, please leave a comment on a post and one of the other wonderful ladies will be happy to help you.

MQM: What makes it service?

What do you feel is the difference between just having to clean house and serving domestically? I have to clean house no matter if I am owned or not so what makes it serving if I had to do it anyway? I had to buy a gift for his Mom even if I wasn't owned by him because he is a man and gift buying usually falls to women. I do crafts for me because I am enjoy them so what makes it a service to him? It is hard for me to wrap my mind around that I am serving him by doing those things.

For me, it's not specifically what I do, but the why I do it.

You know... I gave a local talk about service, and someone grumbled about halfway through "this sounds like housework to me". And I was actually taken aback because for me, it's not. It's about being useful to someone in a way they specifically value or permit.

When in service, I don't clean because 'it has to be done'. I care for the boss' home in the manner which pleases him. His tastes dictate what I do. I base decisions on either his directly stated preference, or to make something more convenience/pleasant/comfortable/less stressful for him. If he doesn't like something, I don't do it again-- even if I liked it. If he doesn't care how something is done, I may default to my general taste on how to get a task done, but I do so knowing that could be vetoed at any time.

If I am buying a gift on someone's behalf, I am well aware that my selection reflects on them. I would not presume to purchase anything as a gift for someone else simply because he's a man and I am a woman.

I provide that service because:
A) it's desired
B) I have more experience comparison shopping than someone else might
C) they are too busy or... can't be bothered
D) it's a way to free up some time for them
E) I wrap better than they do
F) we both enjoy the display of my usefulness

I do crafts for me, unless he specifically tells me to serve him in that way. It's not a service unless he makes it so. But it does afford me some relaxation and entertainment, and generally I've found the people I serve encourage that interest provided it does not interfere with my service to them.

In her answer, kaya wrote: "Having to do it is not the service. Having to do it in a manner that pleases him is the service." I could not express this better.

March Question Month: Tasks

"What is your favorite domestic task and what is your least favorite and why."

My favorite domestic task is organizing. It really doesn't matter what I am organizing either - a draw, a cabinet, just a little space in a room or the whole room. I like going through things - throwing things away, finding ways to repurpose, donating and at times just finding better solutions to where they are and how they fit in a space. I like finding just the perfect basket, jar or other storage solution to make things neat.

My other favorites include vacuuming and making the bed especially with clean sheets. I like the lines in the carpet when I vacuum. And I like making the bed because I like the feeling beneath my hands as tuck the corners in and fold back the sheet and blanket at the top, fluffing the pillow. It makes the room look neat and smell good.


My least favorite task - just one? Okay I am trying to decide between washing the floors and putting away clothes. I like folding clothes just as kaya described in her post. But putting them away - the closet and drawers can only fit things just one way to make it all fit neatly so I put it off as long as possible. It is the one place no matter how much I organize it - there is never enough room.

I also don't like washing the floors. Main reason is me. I am not a neat cook at times. And so it is inevitable that moments after I wash the kitchen floor, I spill tomato sauce on it or flour and sugar. And next reason is we have pets and it doesn't matter how often I sweep and wash the floors, there is cat hair or paw prints.

Book Review: Wine, Food and Friends

Wine, Food and Friends by Karen MacNeil

When I picked up this book, I didn't realize that this author was a host of a PBS show of the same name as the book. I did do a search for the show to see if they carried it on our PBS but it looks like it is a canceled show. I now wish I had read the book earlier as I really enjoyed the book and feel I would have enjoyed the show.

I would give Wine, Food and Friends 4 out of 5 stars. I was looking for a book that had specific recipes and suggesting a wine to go with it. And MacNeil did exactly like that.

The layout of the book is great. It is divided into seasons and then has 6 to 8 themed menus for each season. Such as for Autumn it has these menus: Autumn Light, Homestyle Supper, Asian-style supper, Casual Harvest Dinner, Flavors of Fall, Moroccan Nights and Classic Thanksgiving. At the beginning of each menu she tells you which wines to pair with all or some of the courses and why. The food and recipes she picks are perfect for the season. And all the recipes are from Cooking Light.

She picks very specific wines and even includes images of the label. She has little side bars of tips and little tidbits about the wine. And at the beginning of the book she has general charts about pairing wine with certain foods plus a quick guide where you can look at the chart and see Pinot Noir and see which recipes in the book go with a Pinot Noir.

My main problem with the book is that some of the wines she picks are very pricy and she doesn't offer alternatives. I wish she would have done more wide range. She does do menus with low-cost wines but one of her menus has wines that are $75 and up. And no alternative for other wines in other price ranges. I know I could probably pick a wine that is similar - such as if she recommends a chardonnay out of my price range I could pick another chardonnay but often she has specific reasons why she chose that chardonnay so that might not always work well with the meal just pairing it with another chardonnay. And then another problem is that I not sure I could always find a substitute at all as they are just one of a kind type of wines. But overall the recipes and the pairings are great. And it is a book I would enjoy having on my bookshelf.

March Question Month: Service

Patty said...

What do you feel is the difference between just having to clean house and serving domestically? I have to clean house no matter if I am owned or not so what makes it serving if I had to do it anyway? I had to buy a gift for his Mom even if I wasn't owned by him because he is a man and gift buying usually falls to women. I do crafts for me because I am enjoy them so what makes it a service to him? It is hard for me to wrap my mind around that I am serving him by doing those things.


For me, it became a service to him when I stopped being in control of the how, when and where of it all.

Before him, I was a single mom and you're right, I had to cook and clean and shop for myself and the kids. But I was in control of it.

I could clean one room and then quit for the day. Or I could spend 4 hours tackling one messy closet. I could do nothing and order pizza for dinner if I wanted to. We could eat at 5pm or 10pm. I could leave the dinner dishes until I felt like doing them three days later.

I could rearrange furniture, change decorations, not mow the lawn, cook whatever I wanted however I wanted. I could not make my bed, do laundry once a week, put the clothes away if I felt like it.

It is all about control for me because I can't do any of that stuff anymore.

He expects a clean house, the entire thing, every day. He expects the bed made every day. His laundry washed, dried, folded and put away in a very particular manner. Dinner is cooked every night and on the table at a certain time unless HE decides to eat out.

Having to do it is not the service. Having to do it in a manner that pleases him is the service.

I don't do a lot of crafts, and when I do, I'd say it's more for myself than a service for him. The only time it feels like a service for him is when he tells me to make something as a gift or specifies how he wants something made because he has a certain person in mind to give it to. At least if I'm crafting things as gifts, I'm (probably) saving him money and that is certainly a service to his wallet. ;)

Friday Favorites

How to cut up a Chicken - it includes a video as well as written instructions.

1 Chicken 17 Healthy Meals - A chicken always stretches out into so many good meals. And Cheap Healthy Good give you 17 Healthy meals with 1 chicken.

Reuse a Cardboard Toilet Paper Roll - I remember my Mom always doing this with toilet paper rolls (minus the fabric.) It is the fabric though that caught my eye but I think contact paper would be really good as if you had it on the counter and food splattered on it you could wipe it off.

Polaroid Place Cards - I just love this idea. I wish I had a Polaroid camera now!

Design Sponge Before and After - this a before and after is of a home and I love the changes they made. Wow such a transformation. But really what caught my eye was the great headboard and the wall behind it - wow! I want! Please!

Turkey Burgers with Cran-Apple Chutney

I like to try new recipes atleast once per week, but lately haven't been cooking anything all that new and exciting. So today I was looking to change things up a bit, but didn't have very many exciting ingredients in the kitchen. Since I was looking for something to do with ground turkey, I found this Rachel Ray recipe that I would definitely make again. It was so simple, and yet super tastey.

Ingredients:
•3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (EVOO), divided
•1 small red onion, chopped
•1 tablespoon ginger (about 1/2-inch piece), peeled and grated
•3 McIntosh or Gala apples, cored and chopped
•1/2 cup dried cranberries
•3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
•3 tablespoons honey
•Salt and freshly ground black pepper
•2 pounds ground turkey breast
•1/2 cup parsley (about a handful), chopped
•3 tablespoons chives, chopped
•1/2 tablespoon thyme, chopped
•2 tablespoons grainy mustard
•8 slices extra-sharp yellow cheddar cheese
•4 sandwich-size whole grain English muffins, split

Directions:
Pre-heat the broiler.

Place a medium size skillet over medium-high heat with one turn of the pan of EVOO, about 1 tablespoon. Add the onion and ginger to the pan and cook until the onion has softened, about 5 minutes. Add the apples, cranberries, cider vinegar and honey to the pan with some salt and pepper. Cook the chutney, stirring occasionally, until the apples have broken down and thickened, about 10 minutes.

While the chutney is cooking, place a large skillet over medium-high heat with two turns of the pan of EVOO, about 2 tablespoons. While that's heating up, in a bowl, combine the turkey, herbs, grainy mustard and some salt and pepper. Combine everything with your hands and form it into four patties. Drop the patties into the hot pan and cook through, about 6 minutes per side. Wash your hands after handling the raw poultry.

In the last minute of cooking the burgers, lay two slices of cheese over each burger and cover the pan loosely with foil to melt the cheese.

While the burgers cook, place the English muffins split side up onto a baking sheet and toast under the broiler until golden brown (keep an eye on them so they don't burn!).

Serve up the burgers by placing one patty onto each of the four muffin halves. Divide the chutney between each burger and cap them off with the remaining muffin tops

Folding a Fitted Sheet

After I fold my sheets, I put the flat and fitted sheet plus the pillowcases inside one of the matching pillow cases. I then stack those bundles in my linen closet. I used to have a problem when had all the stacks of different sheets they would sometime fall over. And the same happened with the pillowcases pulling the ones I wanted out of a stack. They would become a tangled mess. And I don't have that problem now. I just pull one bundle out and know it will have everything together.

Naan

One of our favorite items around here is fresh naan.

The base recipe is the master bread (no knead) recipe adapted from “Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day,” by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoë François (Thomas Dunne Books, 2007).

Base Recipe:

• 1 1/2 tablespoons yeast
• 1 1/2 tablespoons kosher salt
• 6 1/2 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour, more for dusting dough

1. In a large bowl or plastic container, mix yeast and salt into 3 cups lukewarm water (about 100 degrees). Stir in flour, mixing until there are no dry patches. Dough will be quite loose. Cover, but not with an airtight lid. Let dough rise at room temperature 2 hours (or up to 5 hours).

2. Bake at this point or refrigerate, covered, for as long as two weeks.

For Naan:

1. Because the dough is damp, so sprinkle a bit of flour onto the dough before using scissors to snip off a ball about the size of lemon. If you want larger Naan, cut a ball of dough about the size of peach.
   

2. Sprinkle your board and your rolling pin with flour, and roll the dough to about 1/8” thickness. Make sure your cast iron pan is super hot. Add about a teaspoon of butter and swirl across the pan to coat. Drop in the dough.
   

3. Cover the pan. My skillet doesn’t have a lid, so I use a cookie sheet. Take a peek after about a minute. If you see dough bulging up, it’s ready to turn. Cook the other side for a similar amount of time.
   

4. You can use a portion of the dough, or if you’re feeding a crowd, all of it. Whatever you don’t use, just recover your bowl with plastic wrap (leaving just a smidge of an opening to allow gas to escape) and stick it back in your refrigerator.

March Question Month: Tasks

"What is your favorite domestic task and what is your least favorite and why."

My favorite is doing laundry. And with 6 people in the house, that's probably a very good thing. I do a lot of it.

I'm not sure why I enjoy it so much. It's just that putting it in dirty and stinky and taking it out clean and smelling fresh makes me happy.

I'm not a terribly precise sorter, I tend to sort more by person's clothes than by fabric. I really like being able to have one person's clothes in a load at a time, though I will combine if I need to fill a load. Other than that kind of sorting, I wash whites in bleach and hot water and everything else in cold.

I'm all about saving money on laundry. I make my own detergent and cut dryer sheets in half. I don't use a fabric softener, unless I pour some vinegar in a load of towels, because I don't like for the clothes to be scented at all. I just like them to smell clean.

My least favorite chore is putting dishes away. That chore just seems to be such an immense time waster. It's probably the easiest and fastest chore to do in the whole house and I hate it anyway.

I don't mind washing dishes or drying them but unloading the dishwasher or emptying the drainer is one of those things I drag my feet to do. Lots of times, I delegate that chore to the kids as they'd rather unload than load and I'd rather load than unload. The only bad thing about that is that I'm particular about how the dishes are placed in the cupboards so I tend to go behind them and rearrange anyway.

Great question! Thank you. :)

March Question Month: Tasks

"What is your favorite domestic task and what is your least favorite, and why."

I would have to say that my favorite domestic task is polishing silver. I love the way my silver service all looks when it is polished and put away. It shines like nothing else in the house. I also love that it is something that only needs to be done 4 times a year, with touch ups when we are planning to use it (in between the times when I take all the pieces out and polish them). I think part of my love of this also is because the silver that I own is from my grandmothers on both sides of the family and it is an heirloom that I treasure. So taking the pieces out and caring for them is as much an act of love as it is a household task.

I would have to say my least favorite domestic task is cleaning floors. And well we have a LOT of floors in our home. We have mostly hardwood floors, and they are dark in color and no matter how often I clean them they show every speck of dust, dirt, etc. Add to that all of the mess a 2 year old can make, and no matter how quickly you clean the floor, there are spots that need to be redone before you can ever get them all clean.

That being said, I dry mop (usually with a swiffer) the floors daily and heavy clean them once a week. I used to do them twice a week before having a small child, now the effort simply isn't worth the outcome, so I use that time to do other tasks instead. Once a week for heavy cleaning is plenty to keep our floors looking nice. Of course if company is coming, then there is always that last minute floor doing as well.