Entertaining: Christmas Place Cards

Nothing dresses up a table like individual place cards.  This is an easy, festive one to use throughout the holiday season.

I just used some wrapping ribbon, taped together to form a circle, then added another round ornament hook/loop, and slid the name card between the two ornament loops.  Easy, festive and fun.

Cleaning: Using Your Microwave to Mop

I have a wonderful friend who has a floor steamer.  And although I know she'd loan it to me in a heartbeat, I'm hardly going to borrow it for my weekly cleaning.  My solution is to use one of my favorite kitchen appliances - the microwave!  I use my microwave once or twice a day to sanitize my kitchen dishrag.  Just get it nice and damp, then nuke it for 2 minutes to completely sanitize it.  That way I'm not spreading nasty colonies of bacteria any time I need to wipe off the counter.  It's easy and cheaper than using paper towels every time. 

I've decided to use the same concept in my mopping.  Although I toss my microfiber mop pad in the washing machine when I'm done, I do like to use the microwave to heat up my mop to help simulate a steam-cleaning of the floor.  It also saves water since I don't have to wait for hot water from my tap.

Just get your mop pad damp as you normally would with cold water.

Microwave on high for a minute or so.

Mop away.  Obviously the steaming heat dissipates fairly soon, so I do toss it back in the microwave part-way through the mopping job.  I especially like doing this when mopping bathroom areas since I don't like to use lots of chemicals (I hate the residue).  This way I get a much more intense clean with the steaming hot mop than with merely hot water.  Let me know if you have any other ways you use your microwave to clean.

Dipping Chocolates

I honestly don't know how my mother managed annually to teach 4 daughters how to dip chocolates an not end up in an insane assylum.  This year, I had my kids help me dip.  The night before, they both helped me shape the centers.  On dipping day, after giving it a go, they mostly said it was too hard so they ended up being my "gophers".  They stirred the chocolate, brought me centers, empty trays, and helped with the nuts on the melbas.  They learned that it takes more dexterity than they anticipated.  I learned that I need to get over some of my hatred-of-mess during the process and let them dip a few more chocolates next year.  But they truly were helpful with all the behind-the-scenes help. 

Nate enjoyed chunking up the bittersweet chocolate with a hammer and screwdriver the night before.

Emma wanted to try dipping with the bitter sweet.

Nate dipped a golf-ball sized melba he had shaped just for his own gluttonous enjoyment.  :)

Not bad for 4 hours of dipping. 

Raising Daughters vs. Divas

Recently I watched a clip on KSL's Studio 5 that caught my attention as a mother and a proponent of raising capable, not callow kids.
http://studio5.ksl.com/index.php?nid=71&sid=22858022
It made me take a step back and evaluate how I am combating the pervasive, diva-culture in my own home.  The points they highlighted included:

• Make your children earn what they recieve
• Teach them to be critical of media messages
• Be consistent with family rules

Here are a few I'd add to the list:

• Parental example: Evaluate your own wardrobe and personal appearance - a diva mother will raise diva children.  If your priorities center around yourself rather than others (your clothes, your diet, your gym time etc) that selfishness will be reflected in your children.
• Make them work just to work.  Beyond earning something, they need to be exposed to work for work's sake.  Serving others in your neighborhood or community fills this need well.
• Dialogue.  Talk to them about what diva-behavior you notice and are concerned about, and teach them how to evaluate their own priorities.
• Don't be afraid to be the "Mean-Mom".  When my kids gripe about what others get from their parents, I say, "well I guess you were born in the wrong family, and aren't we glad."
• Use a portion of free time to teach skills like cooking, sewing, cleaning, mending (see blog header for a list).
• Raise them in an environment of faith.  Religion and a belief in God helps to ground us as families and individuals and reminds us that we really are children of God and should act that way.

Any ideas that you've tried in order to raise daughters, not divas?

Entertaining: Paring Down the Planning

Every year we get together as a family and plan out our December calendar.  We try to get all the "must-do" traditions of the season.  In past years, when the kids were younger with less going on in their personal schedules, we filled every day with a Christmas activity.  But as the family gets busier, I'm learning that less is more.  Here are my planning guidelines:

Entertaining: My Miniature Party Planner Assistants

I try to throw parties for the kiddos for two basic reasons:

1. I want them to have photographic proof of fun childhood memories.
2. I want them to throw fun parties for my grandkids in 20 years.

So in addition to having them help set-up and clean-up, I always try to get them to help me plan out the food, activities and invites.  Sometimes they have very creative ideas.  I also have them give feedback on parties and we discuss what went well and what we should change for next year.  Time will only tell if these strategies will do any good decades from now when they are throwing their own parties, but in the meantime, we'll just enjoy the parties we put on together.

Our latest Halloween Shin-dig

Cooking: Basil Past Its Prime? Make Pesto!

Fresh pesto atop a tomato & avocado salad

Ok, so in my denial of oncoming winter, I didn't harvest all of my basil before it froze.  But I'll be darned if I'll let fresh basil go to waste.  So what is the best thing to do with sad-looking basil?  Make pesto of course!  This works not only with frozen basil from your patio, but also the fresh basil you bought at the store and then a few days later started looking a bit dark and wilted in the fridge.  All of it's flavor is still there and it's plenty safe to eat - it just has lost it's plant-like pep. 
Here's a visual story of my waste-not, want-not basil story:

So, I brought in all my sad, frozen basil and washed it.

I stripped all the leaves, put them in a small food processor, and drizzled a bit of olive oil, added a handful of pinenuts that I keep in my freezer for just such 'special' occasions, added a dash of salt, a dash of pepper, and a spoonful of minced garlic.  Red pepper flakes can be added as well for a nice kick.

Process well in the food processor - and this is what it looked like.

I used a spoonful right away to top a tomato & avocado salad that comprised the majority of my lunch that day.  Yum!!!

The remainder of the pesto I put in a small plastic container and put it in my freezer.  What will it become in the next few weeks?  Well, add some olive oil and balsamic vinegar and it is a divine dressing for salad.  Add a couple dollops to hot pasta, toss and you've got a great pasta sauce.  Or, toss it in with the next panzanella salad you make.  It would be great as a sauce for pizza, or a flavor booster to spaghetti sauce or minestrone soup.  Yes - I'm in love with pesto.  If you are a recipe-bound cook, you can find plenty of pesto recipes, but it truly doesn't require any exact measuring.  Just add this and that until the right consistency and texture meet with your approval.  Yes, pesto is that easy and that versatile.  So the next time you aim to chuck that wilted basil - take 5 minutes and process it into pesto!

Halloween Craftiness: Glitter Spiderwebs

I saw this on Pinterest and thought I'd give it a try.  Here's a few tricks I learned making mine.
I found the best place to do this craft was outside so my house didn't end up looking like Tinkerbell threw up fairy-dust all over.  I used some old school-lunch trays, but cookie sheets work well also.

All you need is waxed paper, tape, white craft/school glue, extra-fine glitter and tray or cookie sheet.  Tape to layers of waxed paper on the tray (front of back side - either way works fine).

Start making a giant asterisk with the glue.  Make sure that you make the lines of glue a generous thickness, because as it dries, those little glue lines get awfully fragile.  I ended up with 12 spokes as the "frame" for my web.

Then, in a circular motion, spiral the glue around the spokes, filling in the web.

Remember not to let the glue lines get too small or fine.  You can go back and add another strip of glue on the thin lines to beef them up a bit.

Then, shake the extra-fine glitter all over the spiderweb.  Extra-fine works better than regular glitter, since the coarser the glitter, the more brittle the end product ends up.

If your glitter coverage isn't very even, don't fret.  I learned a little trick that saved the day!  This is where doing it outside really comes in handy.  Holding the tray, glittered web up, over the grass or garbage can, lightly tap on the underside of the tray and tilt slightly.  As you do, the glitter will bounce around and land on the glue web.

This is what it looks like once you've glittered and tapped.  Let dry overnight (outside is fine if no rain is in the forecast).

Un-tape the waxed paper and then carefully peel the web off.

The spokes of the web are the sturdiest, so focus on peeling them first and the rest of the web will come.

Then this part is optional.  Since I wanted to keep them from leaving sparkly trails all over my house, I gave them a light spray with some clear polyurethane.

They work great as a Halloween doily.

But at my house, they'll be used as Halloween place-mats.

My daughter had lots of fun playing with the glue and glitter, and since we were outside, I didn't care how sparkly she made the deck!

Gardening: Happy Harvest

Harvest time was always a two-edged sword for me as a kid.  On the one hand, it was exciting to see just what Mother Nature was going to pay us for all our summer's toil, but the harvest also meant more work in the garden.  Now I realize that participating in the harvest is probably what ignited the spark of gardening passion that keeps me repeating the gardening cycle with my own family.

Snipping grapes with kitchen shears is a task perfect for smaller hands.

Picking up the potatoes while I man the shovel is like watching a weird, time-warp movie of my childhood.

The dog loves harvest time - canine salad bar!

There is something so satisfyingly beautiful about carrots with their tops still on.

Wrenching the tops off of the carrots is one of the more appealing tasks for my boy.

Halloween Craftiness: Fabric Paint Masks

Another Pinterest experiment - here are my tips and tweaks.

So I printed out a mask outline, and set it on the counter.  Then I covered it with plastic wrap (which stuck nicely to the counter, but you can tape it down if need be).  I cut a 12x6 inch piece of fabric netting or tuile, and taped that over the plastic.  Then using a small squeeze bottle of puff, fabric paint, I started drawing over the lines of the pattern. 

When I finished, I removed the pattern from underneath to get a glimpse of what it would look like, then decided to add some little sparkly jewels.  I used a pair of tweezers and pushed them lightly into the puff paint. 

After drying overnight, I cut away the fabric and plastic wrap.  The plastic wrap sticks to the paint, so it is a permanent part of the mask.  Cut around the outside and the eye holes.  Then taking a sheer ribbon and needle and thread, I tacked the ribbon to the edges of the mask as ties.  You can easily push a needle and thread through the dried fabric paint, so it is quite easy to sew on the ties. 

I was pleasantly surprised with the finished product. 

Sort of a cross between a masquerade ball and dressing up as Zorro's sister.  :)  Guess my Halloween costume is done!

Gardening: Raising Midnight Reapers

Saturday night my kids were staying up late and we caught the weather on the 10 o'clock news.  When they gave the hard frost warning for our area, I informed the kids they could stay up a bit later, but they'd have to change their attire.  We bundled up in coats and hats, and each grabbed a bag and a flashlight.  Out to the garden we traipsed to harvest any tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers we could find.  Here is a bit of our tomato haul. 

Did the kids learn any swell gardening techniques?  Nah, but they made a fun memory of sneaking out late at night to reap any delicious bits of color to be found in our late autumn garden.  If nothing else, they'll remember that their mother valued fresh produce.  And who knows but that they'll get a lesson in cooking fried green tomatoes this week!

Baking: Anatomy of a Birthday Cake

I had my daughter help design this cake for her great-grandma's 90th birthday.  Although I did most of the baking and mixing of frosting while she was at school, both of my kids were around watching as I decorated it.  Hopefully this will at least teach them that even the craziest ideas can be brought about with some work and creativity (and online tutorials). 

After the crumb coat of frosting, comes the next layer of colored frosting (plain old butter cream - recipes abound online).

Love the Viva paper towel trick of smoothing butter cream to look like fondant - yes another trick from online.

Started making the star tip roses on the bottom layer.  Super easy way to cover a cake, but takes a lot of frosting.

Rose layer done.

Basket weave for top layer - check out Wilton's online tutorials if you don't know how to do this.  If you can weave a placemat in kindergarten, you can weave frosting.

Once I added a little border to my basket with a large round tip, I started to construct my chicken out of 2 cupcakes.

It took a few tries at arranging cut up pieces of cupcake, but with some frosting as glue (and a few toothpicks) the hen started to take shape.

Once crumb coating was done on my hen, I placed it on the cake and used a leaf tip to cover with feathers.

After the white covered the hen I added some grey feathers, yellow frosted beak and red comb, plus a couple hard candy eyes (purchased from a craft store).  I then used tweezers to place the yellow coconut (tossed in a plastic bag with food coloring) around my hen as straw.

There's the finished product.  Hopefully this captures my husband's grandma's personality.  She's a gardener who loves & collects chickens.