dashiellislittle's Profile

We did it last year & it was big fun! http://dashislittle.blogspot.com/2009/06/campout.html

I made paper "pennants" out of bamboo skewers & fun patterned papers to fill out the flowers at the baby shower I threw my friend last year: http://dashislittle.blogspot.com/2009/10/baby-shower.html & http://www.flickr.com/photos/dashe/4044743866/in/set-72157622662408530/

I never stop preaching about meal planning. It's my thing. Honestly, it is SO easy once you get the hang of it. I just keep a pad in the kitchen & every Friday night I jot down what I think we should eat the following week (I try to keep it simple--chicken, pasta, beans, no more than one or two new recipes a week, etc). As I'm coming up with the plan, I'm going through the fridge & pantry to see what we'll need and adding that stuff to the grocery list. Once I'm done, I post the menu on the fridge so everyone know what's on deck each day. Seriously, it's so easy and such a huge help to not have the 5pm "omg what'll we eat" freak-out every day. OK, I'm off my soap box.

Allison--If you can get the contact paper peeled off, try mayo to get the glue up. If that doesn't work, try lighter fluid (I used to work in a used book store & we'd take old price tags off of books with a paper towel & some lighter fluid. Stinky & not very environmentally friendly, but effective).

I think a quilt hanging on the wall is always lovely in a nursery. If you don't have one, Etsy usually has great, affordable quilts and quilt tops. Here's one: http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=22793099&ref=sr_gallery_12&&ga_search_query=baby quilt&ga_search_type=handmade&ga_page=&includes[]=tags&includes[]=title

Now that the oven is fairly clean, I'd just regularly start using the self-cleaning function. It won't smoke as badly & if you go the full 4 1/2 hours you'll be a-ok. I don't roast that much, but I make dinner every night and I'm good with running the self-cleaning function about once a month. You'll probably want to go every two weeks or so. I really think it'll be your best bet. Just don't let it get too dirty to begin with.

It won't use up but a couple of your lemons, but I just made this lemon shrimp risotto and it was really lovely and lemony and bright.

Sautee 1 cup of arborio in one Tbs. each butter & olive oil until coated. Add 1/2 cup of good white wine wine and stir till absorbed. Then do the standard risotto thing--one cup of reduced sodium chicken broth at a time, stir until absorbed. You'll probably need about 5-6 cups. Keep tasting to make sure you're on track. At the very end, squeeze the juice of two lemons over the risotto and stir in a lb of peeled shrimp. When shrimp is just pink, add about 1 cup good grated Parmesan and the zest of both lemons and give another stir. Yum.

Really? $40 for 4oz of shampoo/body wash? Is that not insane?