Particularly for those with children! If it seems like they are growing out of their jeans way too quick, try this. Wash the jeans in cold water. When they come out of the wash, hold the waist band of the jeans in one hand, the hem in the other, and pull. Yes, literally. You are stretching the pants out. Then let them air dry.
It works wonders! Apparently cotton continues to shrink little by little after repeated wash/dry cycles. I thought my oldest had suffered another growth spurt, but this little trick added so much length to the jeans she ended up stepping on the cuffs! The only tricky part is if you stretch one leg at a time, making sure to stretch them by the same amount.
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Another "I Don't Know What to Cook for Dinner" Website
I previously posted about RecipePuppy and Recipe Key as the antidote for the last-minute trips out for dinner because you don't know any recipes for the ingredients you have on hand.
But the bloggers over at LifeHacker have turned up a new one, that's even better! Why? It suggests other ingredients, based on the recipes being returned by your search results! I present: SuperCook!
It doesn't have a lot of the nice filter options of Recipe Key, but the "Do you have?" feature is priceless. If I have "chicken breast", I won't necessarily think of "worcestershire sauce" as another ingredient. But the two together is all I need for an easy blackened chicken recipe. Yum!
Better than that, it's additive. When I added "honey" and "mustard" to the search, the blackened chicken recipe still showed up, rather than being filtered out just because it didn't need those additional ingredients. Wonderful!
But the bloggers over at LifeHacker have turned up a new one, that's even better! Why? It suggests other ingredients, based on the recipes being returned by your search results! I present: SuperCook!
It doesn't have a lot of the nice filter options of Recipe Key, but the "Do you have?" feature is priceless. If I have "chicken breast", I won't necessarily think of "worcestershire sauce" as another ingredient. But the two together is all I need for an easy blackened chicken recipe. Yum!
Better than that, it's additive. When I added "honey" and "mustard" to the search, the blackened chicken recipe still showed up, rather than being filtered out just because it didn't need those additional ingredients. Wonderful!
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
On the Mend
One of the hardest parts of cutting back has been mending clothes. To be blunt about it, I abhor menial sewing tasks. Replacing buttons? Hemming pants? Bleh. But I have steeled myself to the ennui of mending to serve the greater good.
The best example is my black wool coat. I have worn this coat for three winters now. Around December last year, I nearly broke down and bought a new one, because I had literally worn the edges through at the wrist. My favorite smart-looking and professional coat had officially reached "shabby" status. But I really, really, REALLY did not want to spend $100 or more on a new wool coat.
Enter: scraps of black satin left over from another sewing project. (Remember, it's not sewing I despise, just mending.) I cut two long rectangles, and used machine- and hand-sewing to attach the rectangles to the sleeves to serve as bindings! Shabby solved! In fact, the black-on-black satin-plus-wool texture combination was pretty stylish looking.
This simple repair helped the coat survive the rest of the winter. It since has lost a button, and the satin bindings are starting to look ratty too. Of course, the past two mornings have been cold enough I had to repair the button so I could wear it again. I might even have to new bindings on the sleeves.... maybe with matching binding on the collar to pull the whole look together!
The best example is my black wool coat. I have worn this coat for three winters now. Around December last year, I nearly broke down and bought a new one, because I had literally worn the edges through at the wrist. My favorite smart-looking and professional coat had officially reached "shabby" status. But I really, really, REALLY did not want to spend $100 or more on a new wool coat.
Enter: scraps of black satin left over from another sewing project. (Remember, it's not sewing I despise, just mending.) I cut two long rectangles, and used machine- and hand-sewing to attach the rectangles to the sleeves to serve as bindings! Shabby solved! In fact, the black-on-black satin-plus-wool texture combination was pretty stylish looking.
This simple repair helped the coat survive the rest of the winter. It since has lost a button, and the satin bindings are starting to look ratty too. Of course, the past two mornings have been cold enough I had to repair the button so I could wear it again. I might even have to new bindings on the sleeves.... maybe with matching binding on the collar to pull the whole look together!
Monday, May 11, 2009
Reduce, Reuse... Recycle?
Dinner tonight: balsamic salmon, rice, and wilted micro greens with pecans and dried cranberries.
Which is the gourmet way of saying "I couldn't bear to just throw away all the broccoli, cauliflower, and celery that I started indoors and then didn't have room to plant in the garden, so I cut off the leaves and sauteed them in sesame oil with baby spinach."
And it was good.
Which is the gourmet way of saying "I couldn't bear to just throw away all the broccoli, cauliflower, and celery that I started indoors and then didn't have room to plant in the garden, so I cut off the leaves and sauteed them in sesame oil with baby spinach."
And it was good.
Thursday, May 7, 2009
The Convenience Tax
Last night, our family took three small steps towards freeing ourselves from the convenience tax.
It was hard, but necessary.
Baby step 1: Buy a head of lettuce, rather than the pre-cut, pre-washed, ultra-convenient bagged lettuce available everywhere. I can make the time to wash and chop my own lettuce. Honestly. (Anyway, this is just an interim step until the lettuce in the garden gets big enough to eat.)
Baby step 2: Block cheese instead of pre-shredded. OK, we still aren't convinced of the value here, since we buy our shredded cheese at a discount bulk grocer; but for the regular store, it's definitely cheaper to go block.
Baby step 3 (and the hardest of them all): Buying ground coffee by the pound at the store, instead of the individual K-cups. See, I got a Keurig coffee maker for Christmas, and it is AWESOME! But a 20-pack of the K-cups (pre-filled with grounds) it uses to brew the coffee generally costs $10. Maybe you have a coupon so it doesn't cost as much; but they don't sell them at the regular grocer so you have to make a separate stop for them. I also received a fill-it-yourself contraption, that lets you basically create your own cup. It's a pain because instead of just tossing the used cup in the trash you have to clean it out for the next time. However, a pound of ground coffee on sale costs less than a box of cups with a coupon, AND lasts a lot longer.
Do I think thumbing my nose at the Convenience Tax will make a huge difference to our weekly grocery budget? Not really. But hopefully we get in the mindset where we look for other, less obvious examples where we pay at premium for convenience. Baby steps...
It was hard, but necessary.
Baby step 1: Buy a head of lettuce, rather than the pre-cut, pre-washed, ultra-convenient bagged lettuce available everywhere. I can make the time to wash and chop my own lettuce. Honestly. (Anyway, this is just an interim step until the lettuce in the garden gets big enough to eat.)
Baby step 2: Block cheese instead of pre-shredded. OK, we still aren't convinced of the value here, since we buy our shredded cheese at a discount bulk grocer; but for the regular store, it's definitely cheaper to go block.
Baby step 3 (and the hardest of them all): Buying ground coffee by the pound at the store, instead of the individual K-cups. See, I got a Keurig coffee maker for Christmas, and it is AWESOME! But a 20-pack of the K-cups (pre-filled with grounds) it uses to brew the coffee generally costs $10. Maybe you have a coupon so it doesn't cost as much; but they don't sell them at the regular grocer so you have to make a separate stop for them. I also received a fill-it-yourself contraption, that lets you basically create your own cup. It's a pain because instead of just tossing the used cup in the trash you have to clean it out for the next time. However, a pound of ground coffee on sale costs less than a box of cups with a coupon, AND lasts a lot longer.
Do I think thumbing my nose at the Convenience Tax will make a huge difference to our weekly grocery budget? Not really. But hopefully we get in the mindset where we look for other, less obvious examples where we pay at premium for convenience. Baby steps...
Monday, May 4, 2009
Never Buy Graph Paper Again
I'm constantly buying new pads of graph paper to replace the ones that disappear around my house. I never need a whole pad of paper; usually I just need one sheet. But as long as I have it around, I feel compelled to use it, especially given the expense. However, I just found a website that will let you create your own PDF graph paper, that you can then print out one sheet at a time, as you need it!
(Yes, I am plotting my Square Foot Garden, how could you tell?)
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