Simple Coleslaw dressing

Hubs and I are feeling the funk of the crazy winter like weather that has been going on lately. We were so looking forward to the beautiful warmer springtime atmosphere and all that comes with it: working/playing outside, opening the windows in the little farmhouse, and the lighter menu items that almost all call for something grilled.

Well, albeit a bitter 40 degrees out (that’s cold for us southerners!) Hubs bundled up and fired up the grill to satisfy our craving for some grilled tilapia to go in our fish tacos. While Hubs was enjoying being master of the grill, I was in the kitchen whipping up some homemade sauces:  Coleslaw dressing for our broccoli slaw and tartar sauce for the fish tacos.

I absolutely love coleslaw. It smells so heavenly and sounds beautifully crunchy when eating it. Sad thing though….I cannot consume it. I have a weird aversion to cabbage that makes me deathly ill when I eat even the tiniest bit. Well, broccoli slaw is my saving grace. I can have the wonderful tastes and crunch of regular slaw without the awful belly ache. Since Hubs and I are still doing wonders with our homemade foods I opted for the made from scratch coleslaw dressing rather than the $3.00 store bought kind. I did however purchase a pre-packaged, pre-cut mix of broccoli and carrot slaw that did not have any cabbage in it. (12 oz).

 

I did a quick search and found a base recipe here:

http://www.food.com/recipe/easy-coleslaw-dressing-186437

With that, I added a few spins to it based on mother and mother-in-law input.

 

Here is my version of Coleslaw Dressing:

1/2 cup mayonnaise

1 tablespoon white sugar

1 1/2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

1 tablespoon white vinegar

1 tablespoon milk

1/2 teaspoon celery salt (you could break this up into regular salt and celery seed)

1/8 teaspoon ground (dry) mustard

Pepper to taste

 

Combine all ingredients well. Pour over 12-16 oz of slaw mix.

 

And if you are looking for a quick and yummy Tartar Sauce recipe here is my recipe

1/2 cup mayonnaise

2 teaspoons relish (I use sweet)

1 tablespoon finely chopped Green onion

1-2 tablespoons of freshly squeezed lemon juice

Pinch of salt and fresh ground pepper

 

Hope you all enjoy these recipes as much as we did! Now it’s back to wishing for warmer weather so we can enjoy these meals out on the patio.

Happy “Spring” Y’all!

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Crackle finish using school glue

Recently I posted about my own personal cleaning challenge and crafts or tips found on Pinterest that helped me execute the tasks. One task I challenged myself to do was organize my neglected shelves in the laundry room. Above my washer and dryer is a single shelf. Hubs and I have had on our ever growing task list “put up cabinets in laundry room.” Well, it has been on that list for what seems like a decade and still has not been done. And there are several justifiable reasons…money to purchase the wood or prefab cabinets being the biggest reason. We have since used our saved money for this task on fixing a broken water heater, purchasing a chest freezer, and putting it toward other unexpected repairs for our little farm house. So I do my best to keep these open shelves cleaned and organized. And sometimes it just gets piled up with stuff.

I have some little wooden crates that came from Clementine oranges that I use to hold a few things on my laundry room shelf. For a long time now, they have been sitting up on the shelf in their original state. I decided that my “reward” for getting the shelf cleaned up and organized was painting these crates. And I have wanted to try a paint crackling technique using school glue that I happened across on Pinterest.

Here is the great tutorial I found:

(http://makethebestofthings.blogspot.com/2010/05/crackle-finish-with-elmers-glue.html)

The technique was simple and easy to do. I chose a dark color for the base then I mixed up a lighter version of the base color for the top coat. I did not use a primer coat since I chose such a dark color for the first layer of paint. I was even surprised that this technique worked on a cardboard version of the Clementine Crates. I did use a white primer coat for that crate since it had a very colorful print on it and I was using lighter colors. Here are a few of my pictures of the process:

applying dark base coat

applying glue mixture

the paint immediately started to crackle

after a few minutes passed I got a little worried it wasn't going to work

Once it began to dry I wasn't worried anymore

Looking even better the longer it dried

a full 24 hours later the box looked awesome!
Not to shabby for my first stab at crackling with school glue

Happy crafting y’all!

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Kitchen Humor

I have a theory that every parent is pre-programmed with specific responses to certain questions that kids ask.

Kid: But why??

Parent: Because I said so, that’s why

Kid: Can I do this?

Parent: Go ask your mother (father)

Kid: but that’s not fair!

Parent: no one said life is fair

Kid: do I have to??

Parent: you will thank me when you are older

And one that I heard so many times…..

Kid: but I don’t want to eat this!

Parent: you will eat it or you will just have to starve

 

Well, because I love this parenting humor now that I am a parent myself, I decided to turn one of the sayings into a bit of art to spruce up our little farm house kitchen and generate a few laughs.

 

 

 

Do you have any sayings you heard from your parents that you could turn into a fun art project? 

 

 

 

Happy laughing y'all!

 

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Cleaning Challenge with a fun twist

Ok folks! I am finally back! So, let’s see….where to begin? Well, seeing that cleaning out an over flowing spare room was a big kicker for me getting back to the blog I will start with a cleaning challenge I “followed” recently.

Cleaning challenges….GROAN!! I have a rhythm to cleaning the little farm house. And it works for me. But what happens is I neglect the same handful of spaces that need more than just a dusting or a mopping. So I came across several cleaning challenges on Pinterest: 21 day cleaning challenge, 30 day challenge, and clean house in a week (ha! That’s so laughable).  My biggest issue with the challenges was they didn’t fit me and my house’s needs. Nor did they work around the idea of having a very energetic two year old that can undo a clean space in the blink of an eye. So, I had to make a list of areas to clean to fit my house’s needs, and fit my ability to clean said spaces all the while taking care of the kiddo and the everyday chores I had to do. I started out on January 2nd. Well, by January 5th I had already missed a few tasks.

Call it lazy, call it life, call it what you may….I lacked the motivation. I had more fun planning the areas to clean. But then once I finalized my list, there it was glaring at me to get with the program and get things crossed off. And sometimes….being told what needs to be done makes doing them a hard thing to do, even if you are the one saying to do it. I was giving into my own laziness. Making excuses. And since I was my own “boss” I totally understood that I had other things to do and my excuses were very convincing to myself….

Then I had a great idea. On my New Year’s Resolution list was my most favorite resolution: do more crafts and use ideas off my Pinterest boards. So I started paring up the tasks I had listed for the cleaning challenge with crafts, tips, and tricks I had pinned. Next thing I know, I actually got them all done!



So here are my “tips” for setting out on a cleaning challenge.

1. Don’t follow someone else’s list completely. Just use it as a guide. There were places on the lists I found that I hadn’t even thought of organizing. Jewelry box, for example. Then there were places to clean that didn’t exist in my home..garage for example.  Then there were tasks that I nearly fell on the floor laughing at: clean windows on outside…. Sure! Its only 12 degrees and snowing, no bother!

2. Don’t designate areas to a specific day. Just write them on a list and give yourself a set number of days to complete them. I have certain days I must do regular household chores, and those chores take up the whole day. So there wasn’t a way for me to tackle “cleaning the computer room” on the day I am swamped with laundry. Also, for those who work 40 (or more) hours a week…you might not have the time to do them. And why should you not be afforded the joy of completing a cleaning challenge?

3. Include small tasks that go along with every day cleaning. Using the above example…with my big laundry day in mind I put on my task list to clean the washing machine. (A tip I found on Pinterest) I was already there, washing a million loads of laundry, so why not clean the washing machine.

4. Think of the time frame it takes to complete a task you want to include. On one list I saw “Clean Attic” Well, for starters I don’t have an attic. And secondly…in my opinion that would take more than one day and with a two year old running around…. Yeah let’s not go there… So, pick time friendly tasks. Like clean the microwave. Only takes a few minutes.



Lemons and Rosemary:
My simmer pot reward for the task of deep cleaning the stove.
Made the house smell fantastic!

5. Pick a reward for EACH task. Yes, yes the biggest reward is a clean and organized space, but if you are like me…I need a bit more than just that to get me going especially if its stuff I have been neglecting for a long time. If completing the task itself was a reward option for me, then I wouldn’t need a cleaning challenge to get it done. My reward for organizing the shelves in my laundry room was to paint a sign inspired by a pin on Pinterest. Your reward doesn’t have to match the task. You could reward yourself with a movie night because you dusted all the cobwebs throughout the house. I chose crafts and Pinterest inspired tips because that kind of stuff suits my fancy.

 

Ok, so there…a fun and executable way to tackle a cleaning challenge.

 

So, now that you might have fun doing a cleaning challenge, and actually get through an entire list of areas to clean…what do you think? Do you have any tips or pointers?

 

Happy cleaning and God Bless Y’all!

 

 

 

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