bfootnovellista's Profile

We have a full wall of floor-to-ceiling windows that ends with our front door. The windows don't offer much by way of insulation, and the door? Please. So we hung fleece curtains this year all the way across, installing curtain tiebacks in strategic places to hold the curtain open when the door was in use. :) Go for it - Victorian Era FTW.

I'm with Emma on this one...

I do a few things:
- I always wipe down my counter with a clean, wet rag.
- These rags are kept in a closed closet so that no kitties can sleep on them.
- I always wear a clean apron (mine's made out of canvas...it's pretty much shed-resistant)
- Before putting any pot or pan on the oven to heat, I do a cursory wipe of the inside with a new clean rag. Same with baking dishes, etc.
- I ALWAYS use a VERY clean spoon rest... this is important! Have ONE place to put your spoon and make sure it's clean!
- I sweep my kitchen at least once a week, away from the prep areas so that any flying or airborne fuzz does not alight on my clean counters.

Food has always been a love-hate thing for me....

Growing up, my mother was an awful cook - she fed us out of pantry boxes and freezer foods. She admits that she was an awful cook, but states emphatically that she was a great baker (which she is!).

That said, when I moved out of my mother's house, I ate out a lot; we never really were taught to cook like a lot of "normal" people. I went through a really hard recession in my career where I didn't have a lot of money, and so I became a frugal buyer -- I bought a lot of things on fire sales and ended up with a mash of ingredients.

I think, really, that's what prompted me to become a bit of a foodie... I love cooking now, mostly because I was forced by necessity to get creative with what I made in the house ... it was either that, or eat Top Ramen for the rest of my life (bleck). Allowing my creative muscles to stretch was the thing I needed to really start looking at what I was putting in my stomach every day, and it's led to a lot of really awesome things.

Now that I have a family and other people to cook for, I adamantly refuse to take the "easy way" out like my mother did feeding us kids; I won't put anything on the table that I, myself, wouldn't want to eat -- that includes chicken nuggets and mac n' cheese -- so I've learned how to mock a lot of "favorite" meals with better ingredients.

Now, we make a lot of our food at home, from noodles to ice cream, and the Kitchn has, in large part, helped continue to inspire me to try new things and create fantastic concoctions... Maybe someday I'll app for a spot on staff!! :)

I realize the last comment was back in 2007, lol, but I JUST came across this article and tried it this week...Amazing! I actually put the receipt in my planner along with my menu plans, and that way, I have quick access to it when I'm at work trying to decide what to make for dinner.

It's a lifesaver!

I'm an early bird, coming in around 7am usually. Today, I brought poached eggs and made some toast to eat with them. Usually, when I go to the market, I pick up some stuff to put in one of our two huge fridges, to include fruit, yogurt, salad, etc., and use one desk drawer for dry and shelf-safe ingredients. I tend to pick at something every couple of hours, so it's useful to have a variety.

@Am -

We don't have a foyer or an entryway, either; I live in a 400-sqft apartment and the front door opens directly into the living room. It's awful, so I understand your helplessness. Let me offer you some tried and true advice...

1. Make room - Choose either the left or the right side of the door and clear it for your landing strip. Just because you don't have walls around it doesn't mean you can't pretend.

2. Close if off - if you feel like you need separation, try for a screen on the other side of the landing strip. For instance, if you set up a small table to the left of your front door, on the left of the table, put up a folding screen and make your own little hallway.

3. Choose the furniture appropriately - I found a /great/ triangular dropleaf table that I position the hypotenuse (hey, math term!) against the wall. A short, bright stool sits to its right, and underneath the table is our shoe rack (stained to the same darkness). On the back of the door is our coat rack.

4. Edit, edit, edit - You don't NEED a lot of stuff to make an entryway... The stool in our entryway is to sit and put on shoes; it also doubles as seating when we have one too many guests over for dinner. Our table folds out if we need another table, but for now, it offers about two square feet of holding room. A cake plate sits on top of it to collect wallets, keys, and so on. The coat rack does the rest. A recycle bin that I picked up at the flea market catches the spam we get in the snailmail.

All in all, our "landing strip" or "entry way" takes all of three feet, tops, next to our door. Our job this week is to give it a visual separation from the rest of the room by way of a separate color background behind it, to encompass it. We've also hung a new wall light (ikea chic, woo!) and repainted the stool I mentioned to red, to match our dining chairs.

Chin up, dear Am! You can catch me at claire @ futurequeenoftheuniverse . com if you need (more) help.

Yep, in fact, I'm going after a pair of powder-coat red metal "bentwood" chairs today that easily go for $200 apiece at various high-end retail stores... And I'm getting the pair for $40. Here's to hoping they look good under those god-awful cushions the owner has put on them!

Yep! :) It's easy... we do this all the time with bones from various meals.

1. Pick off as much meat as you can (don't be nitpicky about this).
2. Put the corpse into a deep pot and cover with water until level's about 1" above the corpse.
3. Drop in your favorite seasonings (we usually use the same "type" of seasonings that the dish was originally flavored with) and a bay leaf. If you have veggie clippings, add them, too.
4. Cook within an inch of its life (1-2 hours)
5. Strain out the floaty bits and bones, reserving the liquid.
6. Put liquid in the fridge to cool completely. Depending on the type of meat, fat may rise to the type. Once it rises and congeals, skim it off with a slotted spoon.
7. Put pot back on stovetop to heat.
8. Add veggies (potatoes, carrots, etc....whatever you have), noting that the softest ones should be added no earlier than 10 minutes before the soup is done.
9. Add back in the meat that you picked off.
10. If you're doing rice, check the directions for cooking time (it's usually 15 minutesish) and add a cup to the pot when you add the potatoes.
11. If you're doing noodles, cook separately and RINSE with cold water. This will keep them from overcooking.

Serve hot! Preferably with rolls or something else to soak up the broth.

Love living without a dryer... Although, I must admit, I still use the dryer when I launder my bed linens. I simply don't have the space to line dry a comforter or sheets :(

I've learned the vinegar trick when laundering towels; a half-cup of vinegar into the rinse cycle removes most of the detergent that gets left behind, leaving the towels much softer when line dried than one would normally get!

Sweetheart, when you can't live with it, work with it! That railing deserves a coat of shiney green or red enamel paint. Woot!