Book Review: Domino

Domino: The Book of Decorating: A Room-by-Room Guide to Creating a Home That Makes You Happy
By Deborah Needleman, Sara Ruffin Costello, Dara Caponigro

I had only picked up the magazine a few times when it was out (they are no longer publishing it), but always enjoyed it.

The book is beautifully put together. The format is interesting going room by room, examining what is important in each individual space. It is packed with great photos along with some basic design ideas, tips and suggestions that are helpful no matter what your taste. They illustrate many of the ideas using Domino staffer's homes so not all of the sources are listed which can get frustrating at times if you really want to do a room closely to the example. But it does force you to look through your own home and about to find a look that will not copy but fit your own style. And because of that this book is all about the photos to help you get the creative juices flowing when wanting to redecorate so it is a great place to start gathering your thoughts.

The cons of this book are that not all the resources are listed. The room styles are trendy so probably won't be of use later, but at the same time they are eclectic and some of that style can carry over and the tips won't ever go out of style so will be useful not matter what.

I want this book. I checked it out from the library and renewed it 3 times (the limit). And then several months later checked it out again and renewed it 3 times again. It is eye candy and I never tired of flipping through it.

Deviled Egg Ramped Up

Over Memorial Day weekend I made these and they were so good. With 4th of July coming up here in the USA, I am sure these would be a hit at any get together. I halved the recipe but the full recipe is on the website.

Bacon & Cheddar Deviled Eggs
Adapted from Incredible Egg

7 Hard Cooked/Hard Boiled Eggs
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup sour cream (used low-fat sour cream)
1/2 tsp. Dijon mustard
1 tsp. fresh lemon juice (didn't use it as I didn't have any around)
1/8 tsp. pepper
1/4 cup crumbled cooked bacon
1/8 cup finely shredded sharp Cheddar cheese (1 oz.)
1 tbsp. chopped fresh chives OR green onion tops

Directions:
* Cut eggs lengthwise in half. Remove yolks to medium bowl. Reserve 2 white halves. * Finely chop remaining 2 white halves.
* Mash yolks with fork. Add mayonnaise, sour cream, mustard, lemon juice and pepper; mix well.
* Add chopped egg whites, bacon, cheese and chives/green onions; mix well.
* Spoon 1 heaping Tbsp. yolk mixture into each reserved egg white half.
* Refrigerate, covered, to blend flavors.

Sloppy Joe

I am going to admit it...I have a guilty pleasure and his name is Sloppy Joe. I think it is because they bring me back to my childhood. I was craving them and caved into ultimate childhood feats of sloppy joes and tater tots. Very high class food. :)

1 Tbsp olive oil (or vegetable oil)
1/2 cup chopped mixed bell peppers - use whatever is your favorite. I used a combo of green and red
1/2 cup finely chopped onion (about 1/2 medium onion)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/4 lb ground beef or ground turkey if you want to make it a bit leaner
1/2 cup ketchup
1 can tomato paste
1 can diced tomatoes (I like the petite cut tomatoes)
two good shakes of Worcestershire sauce
black pepper to taste

1. Heat olive oil in a large sauté pan on medium high heat. Add the bell pepper and onion. Cook, stirring occasionally until onions are translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the minced garlic and cook for 30 more seconds. Remove from heat. Remove vegetables from the pan to a medium sized bowl, set aside.

2. Using the same pan - heat the pan on high. Crumble the ground beef into the pan. brown and drain off fat.

3. Return the cooked ground beef and vegetables to the pan. Add the ketchup, diced tomatoes, tomato paste, and Worcestershire sauce to the pan. Stir to mix well. If it is very thick add 1/4 to 1/2 cup water. You want enough water in it so that it is saucy and can simmer with bubbling from the heat. If it is too thick it will just burn to the bottom and sit like a lump. Lower the heat to medium low and let simmer for 10 minutes. Adjust seasonings to taste.

Serve on hamburger buns. Serves 4.

This serves 4 using either bigger kaiser type rolls or using a very generous helping on regular hamburger buns. Or can serve 6 using smaller helping on a regular bun.

Friday Favorites

Dover Projects - articles on many household projects - everything from creating a pet door, chalking a bathtub, how to insulate an attic door and many more. I haven't had time to go through a lot of the projects but the ones I did skim made me think it might be a good resource

Simple Organic: Natural Deodorant Challenge - With efforts to go more green and find ways to cut costs this I think is my push to try natural deodorant. In the comment section there is several links to recipes.

My Tomatoes - So this would be good for someone who works on the computer a lot or someone who has a computer that is in a living area with speakers. You start your task via My Tomatoes and then it will start a timer and you are to work for 25 minutes. When the timer goes off you, record exactly what you got done in that time. And then do a 5 minutes break before starting over. I think you get a longer break after 4 "tomatoes" done. It is based on this technique that has a downloadable book on the site.

Grilled Corn - it looks so yummy. I love the idea of putting it in the ziplock after. You will have to read it to see what I mean.

How to build a simple deck - from HGTV

Back to the Basics: Cleaning the Toaster

I have been really busy the last several months. And so my usual cleaning lagged behind which created bigger cleaning issues. And the toaster was one of those issues. Also - I let it go a while because I knew I wanted to take a really bad before picture as every other time I tried it didn't show the crumbs that well.

If possible, consult your owner’s manual for tips to clean your specific toaster make and model.

1) Make sure toaster is cool. Unplug it.

2) Open up or pull out crumb tray, empty over trash can, giving it gentle taps or shakes to get all the crumbs out.

 Not all units will have a tray so you will move down to the next step.



3) There always seem to be some crumbs that just stick in the toaster or you might not have a crumb tray. Tip toaster upside down over trash can - give a gentle but firm shake. If there are still some crumbs, use a blow dryer set on low or use some canned air to spray into the spots and hopefully one of those 2 methods will dislodge any crumbs in tight spots. .

4) Wipe the outside of the toaster and the crumb tray. Spray cloth with soap and water or vinegar and water solution and wipe clean.  If there are crumbs that are burnt on or really stuck and are not loosening, use a toothbrush on them. After wiping down, dry and buff to shine with a microfiber cloth.


The crumb tray photo above is obviously clean I forgot to take a picture of it when it was dirty.

Friday Favorites on Saturday

It has been a busy week so a little late on Friday Favorites....but thought I would at least share things I found of interest this week.

Recycle Old Magazines into Coasters

For the Love of Cooking - quite a lot of vegetarian recipes

Dry Erase Board - how to make your own dry erase board

Want to Throw a Party? - Someone breaking it down how to throw party without breaking the bank and enjoying your time with friends

The Household Planner - I have only looked at some of the printables but looks like it could be an interesting site for that at least if not more

Friday Favorites

Less Trash to Take Out by Vocal Point - A short little article on reducing paper waste. But also if you just go to Vocal Point, through your free sign up they offer samples. I have gotten a lot of samples, plus then I get $1 to $2 off the product and then coupons to share too.

10 Tips on Finding Decorating Style - I think these are all good tips for finding your own or someone else's decorating style.

You Grow Girl - is a good resource for gardening in a modern world

Real Simple's Top 20 Reference Books - Many I haven't heard of and want to check out but there might be some good books to have in a personal library

Reusable Swiffer Duster - A Tipnut.com find that I think could be interesting to try out. I got one of those Swiffer Dusters free in the mail a few years ago. I just have it sitting in a basket never used it before

Homemade Pancake Mix - to have on hand for whenever

Tuesday Morning Deal

We are on Tuesday Morning snail mail list so we get an ad from them every few weeks. We both go nuts in Tuesday Morning so it is usually good if we don't go in there too much. Really Master loves it just as much as I do. My sister is having a baby and I have already been eying so many things in there!

And our house really has many things from Tuesday Morning in it as they just have incredible deals. Several years ago we bought these hand blown glasses. And we are down to one as they were just too delicate. But I loved them while we had them and they were so inexpensive that losing them this quickly didn't feel like too much of a break in our budget.

***colors and coolness factor not really showing up great in this photo! trust me they were cool!

Anyway...the real point of this post about a book. I reviewed the book Martha Stewart's Cooking School almost a year ago. It is a book that I would love to have - and I think for those wanting to learn to cook or step up their basic cooking skills it is a must-have.

We received Tuesday Morning's ad yesterday and it has that book. The book normally retails for $45 and it is reduced on Amazon but still you would save if you bought it at Tuesday Morning as it is $19.99. I think that is a great deal. So if you had it on your wish list or were thinking of picking it up - now at Tuesday Morning you can get it for $19.99. And it is a big book packed with quality info. Please read my review for more info on it.

Flying the Flag on Memorial Day

From eHow.com

Fly the Flag on Memorial Day

Step 1. Raise the flag to the top of the pole, and then lower to half-staff position, which is halfway between the top and bottom of the pole. This is the proper way to fly a flag at half-staff.

Step 2. At noon, raise the flag once again to the top of the pole, full staff position.

Step 3. At sunset, ceremonially (slowly) lower the flag and store for the night. The American flag should never be flown at night unless it is properly illuminated by a spotlight trained on it.

Mounting a Flag on the Side of a House

Step 1. Choose a place to mount your flag. Usually the front of the home, on either side of the front door is best, but there are no regulations to this affect. Choose a place where the flag will be visible and has room to move in the wind without being tangled in trees or other obstructions.

Step 2. Mount the flagpole bracket to the wall with screws, usually provided with the purchase of the bracket.

Step 3. Adjust the bracket to the angle you want the flag to fly. Traditionally this is an angle higher than would make the flag fly horizontally. Make sure that the angle is high enough that the flag will not drag on the ground.

Step 4. Place the pole into the bracket and tighten to hold in place.

Step 5. Visit the USFlag.org, which has information about the history of the flag, flag regulations and many other interesting facts.

Tips & Warnings

Although many Americans fly their flags year round, yours should especially be displayed on days such as Memorial Day, Flag Day, Labor Day, Veterans Day and the fourth of July, along with other national holidays.

The US flag should never touch the ground.

Unless you have purchased an all-weather flag, do not fly in bad weather. In high winds it is always best to take the flag down.

Friday Favorites

I totally spaced out that today was Friday. I've been on Thursday time all day!

With Memorial weekend upon us, I'd compiled a few links that I plan on using over the weekend. Because my dad is an ex-Marine and a veteran, this holiday has always been a time when the family would gather, we'd have a cookout, sit around and visit, and at some point in time, give thanks to those who served.

Here are my Memorial Day Friday Favorites!


1. Here are a couple of links with tell you where you can find the best Memorial Weekend sales around. Shopping Guru and Dealio.

2. These links, though geared toward women being behind the grill, are great for men, too. They just offer terrific "beginners" hints, along with recipes. There's Girls at the Grill, Girl on Grill Action, and Girls on a Grill.

3. Fabulous Living gives you a short but neat article on how to have a successful picnic. And for the vegetarians among us, some vegetarian barbecue recipes.

4. Some links to Memorial Day activities: Activities for the whole family and Memorial Day Weekend Party

5. Two desserts to make that are Memorial Day themed: Brownie Flag and cute Flag Fudge

Friday Favorites

I've been making drastic changes to my cooking habits in an effort to be healthier. These are some of the websites I've turned to.

Cooking Light: An invaluable source for light and healthy cooking tips.

Eating Well: A magazine that you can subscribe to, though the website is great and the newsletters are quite informative.

Healthy Baking: A small listing of healthy baking recipes.

Mother Earth News: This is another website that also has a printed magazine and I do have a subscription to this one. There are all sorts of tips, not just for healthy eating, but gardening, green living, DIY money savers. I love this one.

Whole Living: Just another site that contains all sorts of information for a healthier lifestyle.

Friday Favorites

Nine Green Home Projects You Can Do Today - Don't know where to start in making your home green? I think these are a good start.

Sweet Paul Digital Magazine - the first issue and free right now and I hope it will be for a while as I really enjoyed reading it. Several recipes I want to try and then had some good crafts and entertaining ideas too.

Making Foaming Handsoap - the title of the entry is kind of desiving as says to make "homemade" foaming soap but really they are just creating a cheaper version by using a repurpose/cheat. Either way I know that my sisters love the foaming soap so I am going to share this cheat with them so they can save money!

102 Light Salad Dressing Recipes - by Cheap and Healthy. With it getting into a big salad season now using fresh veggies from the Farmer's Market, I thought trying out new dressings to keep from getting burnt out on salads by the end of the summer.

Mexican Potato Omelet by Martha Stewart - maybe a good weekend recipe for brunch

Clothing Fix-it Kit

I get Martha Stewart's Daily Organizing Tips and todays I really thought was one I could use and maybe others could too.

"Here's a mending must-have: A simple business-card organizer (from an office-supply store) that keeps all the fixings for your clothes in one place. Label and tuck your spare buttons, thread samples, cloth tags, and even those scratchy fabric-care labels you snip off garments (or pillows and blankets) into the compartments. It will be a snap to find them later."

The part that I would need to remember is the labeling. I am horrible at labeling those spare buttons and threads. I have them in various places, loose and very unorganized. So I really do need an organizing solution and this would be a good solution for me. I am sure I could find the business card organizer at the dollar store too so a cheap organizing solution.


* photo is from Martha Stewart's website

Friday Favorites

66 All Natural Cleaning Solutions by Real Simple

Gorgeously Green's 5 Yard Sale Items to Look For - I agree with her. Photo and picture frames are always good too - even if you don't like how they look paint them or another technique on them to make them work. Also think about how things can be transformed into storage solutions. Maybe you don't need a new dresser but would the drawers work on casters as under the bed storage? I once bought a really heavy duty wok that was rusty. I was hopeful I could get the rust off but I couldn't so instead I painted over it. And it is a basket holding yarns in my art studio. In the past I had it on a table to hold incoming mail.

Brown Sugar Glazed Bacon by Martha Stewart - yums!

Make Your Greens Last Longer - This link was sent to me by Jouet. It is a good quick overview of how to make greens last longer.

And also going to add this Gorgeously Green video....I haven't had time to go to the grocery store and check out the numbers yet - but I do find it interesting.

Gorgeously Green - How to Read Labels from Gorgeously Green on Vimeo.

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.