Facebook to the Rescue

After taking nearly a year long hiatus from social networking, I reopened my Facebook account a few months ago.   I rejoined the masses for the sole purpose of connecting to my family back home, but have found myself enjoying several other benefits of the site.  Lately, it seems like Facebook belongs less and less to the young party people and more and more to the more settled homemaker.  Every day I find great posts about cooking, cleaning, and surviving parenthood. 

A few days ago one of my friends posted an article about using dryer sheets for cleaning. For years, I have been using dryer sheets to clean roasting pans with baked on yuck, but it never occurred to me to take that any further. The list ways to use dryer sheets to clean house started with:

 Use in your bathroom. Cut your cleaning time in half. Makes bathroom mirrors and fixtures sparkle. Cuts right through bathtub scum.

I had to try this one.  We live in an old rental who's previous tenants apparently had an allergy to cleaning and I have spent the past 8 months trying to cut through years of soap scum on the glass doors in the shower.  Nothing I tried seemed to make any difference at all, even when I scrubbed until my arms ached.  So this afternoon, I grabbed a handful of dryer sheets and headed into the bathroom.  In less than 10 minutes I found myself speechless as I realized that for the first time I could actually see through the glass shower door.  

With the doors sparking clean, they really looked like they belonged in a Mr. Clean commercial, I started in on the rest of the shower.  The dryer sheets worked equally well on the walls and trays of the shower and was able to get into the little nooks and crannies I usually scrub with an old tooth brush.  Since our tub drains very slowly, the foot goo down there gets pretty nasty and in this area the dryer sheet did prove to be less than ideal.  After a few moments of pushing the scum around with the dryer sheet, I resorted to Comet gel and wiped that mess up in no time. 

No, dryer sheets are not going to replace all other cleaning products in the bathroom, but they will definitely become part of the scrubbing routine.  Now that the baby is asleep, I am almost excited to go back and see what they do on the sink and toilet.  Yes, nice easy cleaning solutions can make me that happy! 

Wonderful White Sauce

White sauce is deliciously simple and should be a staple in any cooks bag of tricks.  Using a little imagination and 20 minutes, one can create restaurant quality meals at home.  It is a great accompaniment to pasta and chicken of course, but also can be used as the base for cheesy dipping sauce or homemade mac and cheese.  Thickened and heavily peppered it is also what many folks call Country Gravy and will transform last night's biscuits from fossilizing hockey pucks into breakfast (wrap the biscuits in a damp paper towel and microwave 30 seconds to soften). 

Besides it's versatility in flavor and use, white sauce is very easy to create in any quantity desired. Really it is more of a formula than a recipe.

1 Tbs Butter -to- 1 Tbs White Flour -to 1 cup milk 

Easy peasy!  That said, I am going to present my first tutorial along with my recipe for Easy Peasy Pasta.   It is a great summer weight pasta that is quick, easy and incredibly tasty. Uncharacteristically, this recipe has no onion or garlic, but derives the majority of it's flavor from the bacon.  As a one dish dinner, this meal feeds 4. 

 

Easy Peasy Pasta

 

2 Tbs butter

2 Tbs white flour

2 cups milk

4 strips turkey bacon

1 cup chopped fresh spinach

1 cup fresh or frozen sweet peas/ English peas

salt and pepper to taste

pasta prepared to package dirrections

 

Melt butter in a large, non-stick pan.

 

Add flour and work into butter using the bottom of the spoon to create a smooth paste.

 

Slowly pour in a small amount of milk and work the same way as the flour. Once a smooth paste is obtained the remaining milk can be stirred in with out worry. 

 

Stir sauce frequently while it thickens.  For this recipe the sauce will need to thicken to nearly a gravy consistency to make up for the water that the vegetables will release when they are added.  Salt and pepper to taste.

 

Cook bacon until firm and chop.

 

Add chopped spinach and peas to sauce and heat through.

 

Stir in diced bacon and remove from heat.  Serve immediately over hot pasta.

 

 

 

There it is, easy peasy just like I promised.  This dish is inspired by a fancy $12 dish I ate at a Miami Beach bistro a few years ago.  It lacks nothing in taste compared to the original, but feeds 4 people for right at $3.  For that kind of savings, I will gladly do the dishes myself.  

 

 

 

Go To Goulash

As much as I love slow food and cooking from scratch, with a new baby in the house I find myself relying on quick meals a few nights a week.  This goulash is similar in concept to Hamburger Helper, but is almost homemade and costs merely $1 more for three times the yield.  Not to mention it tastes a whole lot better and has a recognizable ingredient list. 

This happens to be one of Superman's favorite meals and it dresses up enough to serve to last minute dinner guests as well: just add a salad and garlic toast.  Serves 4-6. 

Go To Goulash

1 lb ground chuck
28 oz diced tomatoes with juice
28 oz cut green beans, drained
1/2 cup onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsp olive oil
salt and pepper, to taste

1 lb pasta noodles, prepared to package directions

In a large pan, heat olive oil over medium heat.  Add onions and garlic, cook until just tender.  Crumble in ground chuck and cook until no pink remains.  Drain off any excess fat remaining in pan.

Stir in tomatoes and green beans, then cook over low heat to warm through.  Add hot pasta and stir well to incorporate.  Salt and pepper to taste.  Serve hot.