Monday Menu

Posted by Melissa in Uncategorized June 4, 2012

Summer vacation has begun, with its visions of long, lazy days. The reality is that too many lazy days make us all cranky (I’ve already intervened in three arguments just while writing this post). If anything, I need to be more diligent about meal planning and scheduling our time so that we can enjoy our days without scrambling for dinner or wasting precious hours running to the grocery every day–never a good idea with three hungry kids. I also need to lay in a supply of snacks and park a cooler on the porch with ice water and cups. This week is going to be all about preparation and trying out some new routines (scheduled computer time, library time, daily school review time, play outside time, swimming lessons). We might need to bust out some poster board and make a chart! That should eat up about 30 minutes today…

Monday: Grilled artichokes and spaghetti with cheese and black pepper

Tuesday: Turkey burgers, sesame noodles

Wednesday: Grilled chicken, tzatziki potato salad (for the children who hate cucumbers but love tzatziki!)

Thursday: Pork fried rice, stir-fried green beans

Friday: Nachos and mango sorbet (with frozen mango chunks)–It’s Family Movie Night!

Breakfast and snacks: Blueberry muffins, granola bars, whole wheat cheese crackers

What are your favorite easy summer meals?

PVC bike rack

Raise your hand if you have a two-car garage and can’t fit your cars into that garage because there are too many bikes, scooters, tricycles, hula hoops and Cozy Coupes littering the floor? That’s what I thought. Please note that I am NOT raising my hand, because both of our cars fit into the garage and the bikes are parked in this nifty bike rack! (Feel free to applaud.) Do I feel smug? Why, yes—yes, I do.

In the winter, we hang the bikes from hooks in the garage ceiling, but in the summer months, the kids need to be able to reach their bikes. Finally, it occurred to me that we needed somewhere besides the garage to park and lock the bikes; you know, like in the bike racks at school. Why couldn’t we have a bike rack?

Normally, I would search Google and Pinterest for “DIY bike rack.” But before I got around to that step, fate stepped in. I was reading the great craft blog I Am Momma Hear Me Roar, and Cheri posted a link to a bike rack project! Thanks to Kristen from Hostess with the Motzes, I could stop thinking and just follow the directions.

Miss Six and Mr. Nine accompanied me to Home Depot to buy the pipe. While I balanced the 10-foot lengths of PVC pipe on my shopping cart, they carefully counted out all the elbows and T-connectors we needed. At home, Mr. Nine measured all the pieces and even took turns cutting them with the hacksaw. Finally, with the help of a rubber mallet, we assembled the rack (the fun part!). I should note that this is a perfect project to do with a kid. The measuring and cutting does not need to be perfectly precise or straight, and it doesn’t take too much strength to cut the pipe with a hacksaw.

But what would a DIY project be without some kind of glitch? I knew exactly where I wanted to put the rack alongside the front porch, but I neglected to measure the space and compare it to the measurements of the rack before we started. Soooo…the beautiful 5-slot bike rack didn’t fit in our space. The fix was easy, though, since we skipped the PVC cement when we assembled the pieces (being able to disassemble the rack for storage sounded like a good feature). I just popped one end off and removed one slot, turning five slots into four. Still enough room for three bikes and three scooters, and a perfect fit.

Stone fruit pie, chocolate cream pie and a crust discovery

Posted by Melissa in Baking, Food, Recipe and tagged with baking powder, chocolate, crust, fruit, pie May 30, 2012

My husband is on a pie baking kick. He’s decided he needs to develop his pastry skills (everybody needs a goal), and who am I to discourage him? For Memorial Day he made this beauty:

Mmmmm…Stone Fruit Pie with Almond Streusel from Food & Wine. This one has peaches, apricots, plums and cherries. While he was at it, I asked him to double the crust recipe so I could make a Chocolate Cream Pie. Why have one pie when you can have two? WELL. The crust was a revelation! A REVELATION, I tell you! Flaky, tender, but also crisp and not a bit soggy under all that fruit and pudding. What was different?

Baking powder.

I did a little research. Rose Levy Berenbaum, trusted author of The Cake Bible and The Pie and Pastry Bible, writes in her own Basic Flaky Pie Crust Recipe that “baking powder lifts and aerates the dough slightly without weakening it, but it makes it seem more tender.” Whatever–it worked. That, and baking the pie in the lower third of the oven.

The crust I blind-baked for the chocolate pie turned out well, too. I’ve had problems with the last couple crusts I’ve blind-baked–all sorts of shrinking and tough pastry horror stories. This time we remembered to refrigerate the dough overnight before rolling it out, and then froze the unbaked crust in the pan for 30 minutes before baking (with foil and pie weights). Cue the singing angels!

Monday Menu on Tuesday…plus recipes and projects you may have missed!

Posted by Melissa in Food, Monday Menu and tagged with memorial day May 29, 2012

I hope all of you who celebrated Memorial Day had a wonderful weekend. Between cleaning out the garage, lounging on the patio with a book, visiting with family and friends, and participating in the Memorial Day ceremonies at our local cemetery, I had the perfect combination of productivity, relaxation, celebration and remembrance. This week I’ll have some fun projects and recipes to share with you to kickstart your summer!

Before I get to our delayed installment of Monday Menu, I want to address a little blog housekeeping. If you’re a mysuburbanlife.com reader, there have been some technical issues with the blog feed and you may have missed some posts in the past few weeks. So here’s a round up of projects and recipes that you might want to check out!

Recipes: Coconut Banana Popsicles, Best Yellow Layer Cake with Fresh Fruit and Pastry Cream

Home projects (The William Morris Project): Recipe Binder, Painting Lampshades, Repairing a Bamboo Roman Shade, The Garden Project

Monday Menus: May 21st, May 14th, May 7th, April 30th

After any holiday weekend, we usually have a fridge full of goodies just waiting to be transformed into meals for the week. I packed cold chicken and watermelon in everyone’s lunch today, and there is a bounty of cheeses and delicious dips that my husband made for our cocktail party on the porch last night. This artichoke dip, thinned with some pasta cooking water, is going to make a lovely pasta sauce. The roasted cherry tomatoes will be a perfect pizza topping, and we have plenty of watermelon left for ice pops. Alas, we polished off all the pie, but I’ll be sharing the recipes with you tomorrow!

Tuesday: Pasta with artichoke olive pesto, Fennel and Parmesan Salad with Lemon Vinaigrette, Nutella Pizza

Wednesday: Pizza and Strawberry-Watermelon Ice Pops

Thursday: Potage Saint-Germain (French Pea Soup),

Friday: I’m leaving the planning to the rest of my family, as it’s my early birthday dinner!

Saturday: Steaks and hotdogs on the grill…sides to be determined…

Sunday: Dinner out with friends!

As always, thanks for stopping by Home Baked! Feel free to share your menu plans/thoughts/suggestions in the comments! I read every single one!

Copycat recipe binder

Posted by Melissa in Organizing, Recipe and tagged with binder, recipe May 24, 2012

Thanks, Jules, for the impetus to get this project done. In fact, after rereading your old post, I realize that my project is so similar that I don’t have much to add. A good idea is a good idea. Suffice it to say, I had an old, overstuffed accordion file for recipes, plus a stack that hadn’t been filed at all. It was a mess. I also had multiple printouts of favorite recipes, and a flurry of slips of paper with a cryptic list of ingredients but no title. I was able to decipher a few of these, but others remain a puzzle. I tossed them.

I tossed a lot–all the multiples, anything we haven’t made in the past ten years, and anything I remembered as unsuccessful. 20 minutes. Then I sorted and put them into sheet protectors in an old three-inch binder that I found in a bin in the basement. 45 minutes. There’s not a lot of room for the inevitable expansion; I’m going to have to add a second binder. Good thing I have plenty of sheet protectors left.

Somewhat jokingly, my husband asked me if I had included an index. So I sat down and typed out a spreadsheet. 15 minutes. I got mired in formatting problems in Google Docs (another 15 minutes completely wasted) and didn’t print the list, but it’s easy enough to consult when I want to. In any case, I’m looking forward to easily pulling out a plastic-encased recipe and not worrying about the spills and splatters. The time I spent on the project was minor compared to the time I’ve spent fruitlessly hunting for misplaced recipes, then Googling and printing another copy.

An unintended benefit: my husband has taken the binder upstairs as bedtime reading material. I guess he already finished the latest issue of Food & Wine.

Coconut banana popsicles

Posted by Melissa in Food, Health, Kids, Recipe and tagged with banana, coconut, dairy free, gluten free, popsicle May 23, 2012

What do you feed a kid with the stomach flu so she doesn’t get dehydrated? Did you know the BRAT diet isn’t recommended for children anymore? I didn’t. Miss Six was home from school yesterday, and it was real challenge finding something she was interested in eating. Her total intake yesterday was a piece toast with Nutella, one tube of yogurt, a bowl of popcorn, and 1/3 of a banana. And a popsicle.

I didn’t want to give her a bunch of sugar or juice, fearing it would make her symptoms worse. Banana was an obvious choice, and that carton of coconut milk sounded like a tasty pairing. (This is a good option for my gluten- and dairy-free friends, too.)

She’s feeling good and back at school today, but I’ll be making these popsicles again. Her brothers gave them the thumbs up, too (and then requested chocolate popsicles–maybe next time, boys). If you have extra liquid in the blender, call it a smoothie and drink it up!

Coconut Banana Popsicles

2 ripe bananas (frozen ones work fine, too), cut into chunks

1 1/2 cups coconut milk, well-shaken

2 Tbsp. honey

Purée everything in blender until smooth. Pour into a popsicle mold (I like this one from World Market; the kids like how the handle collects the drips and has a spout for drinking them up) and freeze until solid. To unmold, let them sit out for 10 minutes, or run the mold under warm water until the popsicles come loose.

Monday Menu

Posted by Melissa in Food, Monday Menu, Recipe May 21, 2012

After a scorcher of a weekend (90 degrees! in May!), some late-night partying–keeping the kids up far past their bedtime, with mixed results–and our first trip of the year to the farmer’s market, it’s a cool and quiet Monday. In between games of Hi-Ho! Cherry O with Little Four, I’m going to finish sorting and reorganizing my recipe file and clear the piles of paper off my desk. Lofty goals! As usual, we have plenty of things in the freezer and pantry, so my grocery list is mercifully short. More time to dream up something yummy for Memorial Day weekend! I’m thinking brunch…

Monday: Red lentil dal and rice, roasted patty pan squash (I’m out of chickpeas, but maybe we’ll add something else)

Tuesday: Potato salad & sausages, green salad

Wednesday: Chicken cutlets with a pan sauce (maybe like this one, since we have plenty of lemons), Ricotta Gnocchi (I’m on a quest to make good gnocchi), asparagus

Thursday: Chili and cornbread

Friday: Who knows? We’ll see how the week goes…we can always have pizza!

Do you have Memorial Day plans?

Painting lampshades

Posted by Melissa in DIY and tagged with chandelier, lampshade, paint May 16, 2012

We have this brass chandelier in our dining room that came with the house. I don’t love it, but anything I really like is not exactly in the budget. A few years ago I bought some cheap Ikea lampshades for it, but there wasn’t any color selection, and they have yellowed and just look dingy.

I looked around for new shades, but for six plain black chandelier shades, that could be nearly $100. If I’m going to spend that much, I’ll put it toward a new fixture. Then I saw this tutorial for painting a lampshade. It’s taken me a couple months, but I finally gave it a try. What did I have to lose?

I used the same exterior semi-gloss paint & primer that I used on the front door. I started out with a little artist’s brush, but it took forever to paint a single shade, and it seemed a little streaky. I looked at the row of five more shades lined up on the table, and I switched to my trusty two-inch paintbrush. MUCH faster. It took two coats of paint, and I did use the small brush to paint the rolled hem.

My kids accuse me of painting everything black. They exaggerate, but black seems to give everything a little more weight, a little more style. The new black shades will give the brass chandelier a reprieve until we find a fixture we love at a price we’re willing to pay. It could be years…

Monday Menu

Posted by Melissa in Food, Monday Menu May 14, 2012

The end of the school year is barreling down on us. It’s already here for my preschooler; today is his end-of-year picnic. The weather is perfect–warm enough, but not yet too hot. Miss Six got the hang of her bike without training wheels in about 30 minutes yesterday afternoon (best Mother’s Day gift ever), so I expect we’ll prefer to be out practicing on the sidewalk instead of inside making dinner this week. We cooked a bunch over the weekend, so there are lots of ingredients to pull together for some quick weeknight meals.

Monday: Chicken salad sandwiches, green salad, apple pie (made by dad for Mother’s Day)

Tuesday: Pulled pork enchiladas, rice, refried beans, corn salad (mostly leftovers from the weekend’s pulled pork tacos)

Wednesday: Falafel, yogurt sauce, hummus, cucumber salad

Thursday: Baked gnocchi (cooked packaged gnocchi, baked with jarred sauce and cheese), zucchini with garlic and parmesan

Friday: Small Plate Bonanza! (AKA Use Up All the Bits in the Fridge or Snacky Supper)

Smoked trout dip
Hummus and veggies
Rosemary focaccia
Cheese and crackers
Prosciutto and melon

What are you eating this week?

Repairing a bamboo roman shade

Posted by Melissa in DIY and tagged with roman shade May 10, 2012

There’s nothing like someone coming to shoot some photographs in my house to motivate me finish a lingering project. Yesterday, it was the bamboo roman shade in the kitchen bay window.

I started having trouble raising the shade completely a couple of weeks ago, but just assumed that the problem was the ever-growing tangled knot of cords impeding its smooth operation. The shade starting drooping on one side, its rakish angle catching my eye each time I passed. Piles of clutter, attracted to the aura of neglect, accumulated on the window sill and slid off onto the floor. I finally looked at the back of the shade, and discovered that three of the four cords had escaped their rings and were just hanging there, not pulling their weight. I also noticed that several plastic rings seemed broken, and assumed I’d need a trip to the fabric store to find some new ones. Another errand to put off to another day.

It looked worse in person.

Which brings us to yesterday morning, when I ran out of time to procrastinate. The photographer was coming in the afternoon, and I couldn’t bear the thought of that sad, lopsided window shade marring photos of my kitchen. I unscrewed the three wing nuts holding it in place, and laid the shade face down on the floor. My first revelation was that the plastic rings were not, in fact, broken, but manufactured with a small opening, presumably to make it easier to string the cords. Then I realized that the real problem was that three cords had become disconnected from the bottom rail. All I had to do was thread the cords back through the rings and snap the plastic connectors together at the bottom. Ridiculously simple.

Those white plastic thingies had disconnected, but they snap right back together.

I reattached the blind to the window, and cautiously raised it. Success! I gathered the stacks of two-week-old newspapers, the bits of yarn, the stray toys. I scraped all the sticky tape off the glass (left from a flurry of paper snowflakes decorating our windows last winter) and washed the windows. Photo ready!

But now I’m noticing how all the drapes in the house are covered in a considerable layer of dust…