I have come to the realization that sharing my willingness to toss old socks has made me out to be exactly what I’m not: wasteful.  I’ve darned a slew of sweaters and I’ve frozen enough manager’s special groceries to feed the Army and the Navy.  I’ve never, ever missed an opportunity to haggle and (perhaps needless to say) I always shop the clearance rack when my family needs clothes.  I try not to spend more than $20 on any given article of clothing, which means that my pickings are often slim.  Since I’m pretty handy at sewing, however, I shop with the knowledge that many things can be changed.  Tacky embellishments can be removed, an undershirt can make a top more modest, and anything can be hemmed without looking hemmed.

Yes, even jeans.

I live in the NYC metro area where it seems that every new purchase is sent to a tailor for tweaking.  When I learned that people spend $20 per pair of jeans to have them hemmed without looking hemmed, I giggled; it’s a job so simple that even a novice hand sewer can get it done in less than 30 minutes!  So, stop stepping on the hems of your jeans—or worse, settling for an obviously modified hem—and let’s get stitching.

How to Hem Jeans Using the Original Hem

What You’ll Need:

• pair of jeans that need hemming (no flares, please)
• tape measure
• matching thread (I recommend blue denim thread)
• medium-thick needle
• chalk
• seam gauge (optional, but highly recommended)
• sharp scissors
• pinking shears
• straight pins
• steam iron

Step One: If you don’t know your inseam length, measure a pair of well-fitting trousers from crotch to ankle (as we did in the first hand hemming post).  I don’t recommend measuring your own inseam any other way.  Add half of an inch seam allowance to your measurement; write the number down to avoid forgetting.  For example: If your inseam is 32”, your inseam for hemming jeans using this method is 32” + ½” = 32 ½”

Measure the inseam of the jeans that you are hemming, then subtract your inseam plus seam allowance to figure out how much you need to remove.  For example: If my too long trousers are 34 inches, I would subtract 32 1/2 inches from 34 inches and come up with 1 1/2 inches of length that need to be removed.

Step Two: Use your seam gauge to measure the width of the hem.  Subtract that number from your inseam.  For example: If you need to shorten the jeans by 1 ½ inches and your original hem is ½ inch wide, the amount of fabric you’ll need to remove is 2 inches from the bottom of the hem.  Use chalk to mark this spot on your jeans.

Measure again to check your work, then cut off the excess length using pinking shears.  Save the hem!

Use your seam gauge to measure a ¼” seam allowance above the existing hem.  Use chalk to mark this spot on your jeans.  Measure again for accuracy, then cut off the excess length with your pinking shears.

Step Three: Turn the jeans inside out (remember to turn the removed hem inside out, too).  Making sure that the side seams match up, pin the right side of the jeans to the right side of the hem.

Step Four: Thread your needle and knot the thread.  Insert the needle through the wrong side of the jeans as close to on the original hem stitch as possible without covering the original stitching.

Make a straight stitch, reinserting the needle about 1/8 of an inch away.

Repeat these straight stitches all the way around the hem of the jeans, remembering to stay as close to the original hem as possible.

When you reach the end, reinforce your work as we did in the straight stitch post.

Step Five: Tie off the thread and flatten the new hem with your hands.  It will look a little funny at this point, but it’s nothing a little heat can’t fix.

Step Six: Repeat steps one through five on the second leg.

Step Seven: Preheat your iron and then firmly press the new hems.  Turn the jeans right side out and press the hem a second time.

Should you feel so inclined, you can use your pinking shears to trim the excess seam allowance.  You’re done—and you never have to pay a tailor or dry cleaner to hem your jeans again!

Michele Newell is a housewife turned blogger turned Home Ec 101 contributor.  You can read her near daily ramblings at Dreams Unreal.

Two years ago I stumbled upon the deliciousness that is tomato pie. The framework for this recipe can be credited to Paula Deen, but it has been played with enough, to call it my own.

Before giving this pie a shot, make sure you have fully ripe tomatoes. I know, I know it’s tempting, what with the bacon and basil, but just sit tight and wait. Don’t ruin this with a tomato that has seen the inside of a refrigerator. Fine, you won’t ruin it, but. . . it’ll be worth it.

Some people get very persnickety about the bottom crust. You have three options:

1. Blind bake -pre-bake the bottom crust-  but know that you will absolutely have to protect the edge of your pie during the real baking and I hate putzing around with foil like that
2. Instead of draining the seeded tomato slices in a colander you can do so on a clean flour sack towel -it doesn’t have to be that particular one, you just don’t want to end up with linty tomatoes. Bleh.
3. Suck it up and deal with it because it’s delicious.

Tomato Pie

Double Crust Tomato, Onion, and Bacon Pie Recipe Ingredients

• 1 recipe pie crust (9″ pie) – feel free to cheat and use refrigerated pie crust if you’re in a hurry and sometimes I am
• 4 very ripe tomatoes
• 1/2 medium onion
• 3/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese
• 3/4 cup shredded Monterey jack cheese
• 3 slices bacon crumbled
• 3 TBSP cream cheese or mayonnaise*
• 1 tsp dried basil, divided -If you have fresh, use a small handfull and cut into a chiffonade -fancy word meaning thin raggy strips
• salt/pepper to taste

*It absolutely must be mayonnaise, not low-fat and for the love of all that is holy not miracle whip

Tomato Pie Recipe Instructions

Core each tomato. This is simply a matter of removing the hard area around the stem. Cut each tomato in half through the equator. Use your finger to scoop the seeds out and into the trash or sink. Then slice each tomato. Place the sliced tomatoes in a colander over a large bowl or the sink, sprinkle with salt and pepper. Allow this to sit while preparing the other ingredients.

Preheat the oven to 425F. Slice the onion very thinly. No, thinner. No, thinner still, we want the Calista Flockhart of onions.

In a bowl combine the cheese, bacon, and 3TBSP mayo. Mix thoroughly.

Carefully lay the bottom pie crust in a 9″ pie plate. Arrange a layer of tomatoes, sprinkle with half the sliced onion and 1/2 tsp dried basil.

Repeat the first layer with the remaining tomatoes, onion, and basil.

Top with cheese mixture. Add the second crust, seal the edges, and cut slits in the top.

Use water to glue on any decorative touches.

Bake for 45 minutes, checking after 30. Use the foil trick from the pie crust recipe to protect the edges of the crust.

Allow the pie to cool for 10 minutes (at least) on a wire rack. If you can wait longer to slice the pie, the cheese won’t be as runny.

We look at each other and say, but we LIKE the cheese to be runny.

Enjoy.

***Submitted to: Mouthwatering Mondays***

During my freshman year of college, I was required to live in a dorm.  It was the most miserable experience of my life, not because I had a terrible roommate, but because I couldn’t cook or bake without having to use the communal kitchen (which meant I had to share with whomever walked by and said “mmmm”).  I told myself that I would survive that year with nary a cookie to be had, but less than a month passed before I heard about the wonders of the bakery less than 30 yards from my front door.

Desperate for a muffin, a croissant, anything, I grabbed my husband (then my boyfriend) and ran across the street, hoping that I could hide in his shadow and no one would see me committing the shameful act of purchasing a bakery cookie.  When I walked in, however, I was greeted with a surprising sight: bakers covered in flour, stretching tangy, buttery naan in plain view of the customers.  “This place isn’t so bad,” I thought to myself as I decided what to order.  My husband opted for a cookie or twelve, while my eyes went straight to one of the things I just knew they couldn’t make as well as I: scones.

We paid and took our first bites.  After I swallowed, I promptly inserted my foot into my mouth.  They were the best scones I’d ever had!  I asked if they had a secret and the counter girl winked.  I went home fuming, deeply bothered by the fact that I couldn’t figure out the trick to their melt-in-your-mouth yet perfectly crumbly scones.  I told myself I was able to delay satisfaction and that I would never again return to my local bakery, but my already weak resolve waned after a week or two.  I spent the next couple of years inhaling the various tasty foodstuffs from the bakery I loathed to call my favorite.

Then, one day I woke up hungry for breakfast and broke (as college students are wont to be).  I knew that if  I wanted to keep my bank account in the black, I had to test my skills and try to make my favorite scones myself.  I mixed up the dough, shaped it, and threw it into the oven with my fingers crossed.  And that, Home Eccers, is the day my scone recipe was born—and the day I was finally able to give up my bakery addiction for good.

Even if you’ve never had a scone, give this recipe a shot. Who knows?  You may just realize that your favorite local bakery has been in your kitchen all along!

Basic Scone Recipe

Plain Scone Dough

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons sugar (omit if using savory mix-ins)
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• ½ teaspoon coarse salt
• 1/3 cup vegetable shortening
• 1 tablespoon butter, softened
• 1 egg
• ½ cup milk
• mix-ins (ideas below; optional)
• egg wash (recipe below)

Egg Wash

• 1 egg
• 2 teaspoons milk

Mix-in Ideas

• 1/3 cup cranberries and 1/3 cup chopped toasted walnuts
• ½ cup cooked spinach, squeezed dry, and 1/3 cup shredded cheddar cheese
• ½ cup chocolate chips
• ½ cup dried- or rinsed and drained blueberries
• 1/3 cup shredded parmesan cheese, 1-2 teaspoons herbs (your choice), and freshly ground black pepper

Step One: Combine 2 cups all purpose flour, 2 tablespoons sugar (if making sweet scones), 2 teaspoons baking powder, and 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt in the bowl of a stand mixer.

Step Two: Add 1/3 cup vegetable shortening and 1 tablespoon butter to the mixer bowl.  Mix on medium speed until the flour looks crumbly or pebbly.

Step Three: Whisk 1 egg into 1/2 cup milk.  Add the liquids to the mixer bowl and mix on low speed until a soft dough forms.  Add the mix-ins, if using.

Preheat your oven to 425 F.

Step Four: Pat the dough into a circle, then slice the circle into eighths.  Brush the top and outer edges of the wedges with prepared egg wash.

Place the wedges one inch apart on a greased- or lined baking sheet.

Step Five: Bake at 425 F for 16-18 minutes, or until the scones are golden brown.

Makes 8 large scones.

Michele Newell is a housewife turned blogger turned Home Ec 101 contributor.  You can read her near daily ramblings at Dreams Unreal.

Memorial Day has already come and gone, but spring has been a little reluctant and slow this year. Down here in South Carolina, I’m just putting away the menus that focus on the stove and oven and turning my attention to cooler recipes that will keep the kitchen cool. Do you utilize your grill as much as you’d like? If not what holds you back?

Try to remember grilling is just like any other cooking technique, it takes a little bit of patience and practice to get it down. And for Pete’s sake do not let gender roles define whether or not you’re willing to learn. I swear if I see one more “Girls can grill, too” pitch in in my inbox  I just might lose my. . . stuff.  Seriously people, let’s try a different angle.

If you have questions about grilling, please ask them. I would love to know where you are running into trouble so I can help you out.

Getting Ready to Grill, the basics this includes the hand test – the quick and dirty way to figure out if your grill is actually as hot as the recipe asks.

Speaking of getting ready to grill, have you ever had an argument with a gas grill that just won’t get hot? There’s a reason and here’s how to fix it- Why Won’t My Gas Grill Get Hot

Are you biting the bullet and buying a charcoal grill? Here’s how to use a charcoal grill.

And here we look at flare-ups and keeping thin steaks from drying out.

So now, what about those recipes? And don’t worry, more will be coming, I’m ready to get back to it.

Are you ready to grill? What are you looking forward to making?

My towels all smell funky. Is it my teenage son? He’s usually pretty good about hanging up his towel, but lately they’ve all developed a stink. There is nothing quite like stepping out of the shower to be greeted with a musty, mildewed, smelly towel.

Help!

~Musty in Muncie

Heather says:

Mildewed towels will shortly be the merest whiff of a memory. First of all, go sniff your washer. No, really, especially if you have one of those new-fangled, high efficiency front loading wonder washing machines. They are notorious for harboring mildew. If the machine is the source of your funk, check out this post, you’ll have things smelling sweet in no time.

If your washing machine is not the source of the odor problem, we must dig a little deeper. Make sure your son IS hanging up his towels as you say. If they stay wet for any length of time, it’s like inviting all your mildew friends to party and just like that one obnoxious cousin, they just don’t take a hint.

Now that we know that little Bobby is hanging up his towels and that the washer is not the source of the funk, it’s time to address the towels themselves. This may sound counter-intuitive, but often an underlying cause of odor is too much detergent.

When doing laundry there needs to be enough detergent in your wash water to surround the molecules that make up stains and bring them into solution (that’s your wash water). Remember, effective laundering happens with the right combination of thermal energy, physical energy, and chemical energy.

The thermal energy is provided by the heat of the water, the physical energy is the agitation created by your washing machine, and the chemical energy is provided by the detergent.

If too much detergent is used, it won’t all go into solution and will cling to the towels. And guess what, detergent is sticky, even tiny little bits of detergent. These deposits can build up on the towels and odor molecules just love to cling to these sticky spots.

The following tips apply ONLY to your everyday towels. For your guest and decorative towels always follow the label directions. These methods are for the ones you don’t mind fading. Personally, I’d rather use soft, slightly-faded, odor free towels on a regular basis and have a few set aside for decoration or guests.

If your towels are fairly ripe, it may be time to strip them of the residue. Wash them in very hot water with baking soda, borax, or washing soda, and add vinegar to the rinse cycle. If possible, observe the rinse water for sudsing. If the towels are creating soapy bubbles, you may need to repeat the first step. Otherwise, dry them immediately and thoroughly.

Fabric softeners can build up on towels making them less absorbent. 1/4 to 1/2 cup of white vinegar in the rinse cycle will naturally soften towels and help retard mildew growth. If all you have on hand is vinegar of the balsamic or red wine varieties, temporarily skip the vinegar step.

*Frugal Tip* With items such as laundry and dish detergent it may be worth your time to experiment and find the least amount necessary to achieve desired results. Too much detergent can build up on your clothing while too much dish soap just washes down the drain unused. Rather than blindly scooping to the recommended line with each load, try cutting back. When you first notice that you are not getting the desired results, go back to the last amount that worked well. Don’t forget to mark your new amount on the measuring cup.

Remember the amount of detergent you need depends not only on the amount of soil on your laundry, but the hardness of your water, and the temperature setting you choose.

Send your questions to helpme@home-ec101.com

I’m going to be super-mega-honest for a second here: I really, really dislike sewing by hand.  My great-grandmother taught me to sew when I was 5, so I spent a large portion of my childhood sewing stuffed animals and costumes for fun and mending clothes for the family for function.  Whenever a sewing machine was mentioned, I would scoff.  Hand sewing, though time consuming, was both frugal and enjoyable.  For years, I was content with my slow but effective stitches.  Then everything changed during my teenage years when I became obsessed with ankle length gored skirts.

I didn’t bother looking at stores for a skirt that met my persnickety qualifications (ankle-length, not-too-thick-not-too-thin, not too frumpy, under $20) and set out to the fabric store to get the materials I needed to make one.  By hand.  It could probably go without saying that after one panel my dedication to hand stitchery went out the window.  I must have complained enough because a couple of months later, I got a sewing machine for my 16^th birthday (Yes, I was totally one of the cool kids).  Once I taught myself how to use the darned thing, I avoided hand sewing at all costs.  To this day, you have to bribe me to reattach a button, and I would rather haul the machine out of my closet to mend a small tear than bother with sewing by hand—which is why I winced when a reader asked how to hem trousers by hand.  Oy.

I was tempted to ignore the request (sorry!), but then I remembered that I haven’t shared one of my favorite hand stitches: the blind (or invisible) hem stitch.  You’ve probably seen this stitch on suits—or maybe you haven’t.  With practice, this stitch really lives up to its name and can make your hems look professionally tailored.  There’s just one hitch: though it works wonderfully for dress trousers and skirts, evening/wedding gowns, sport coats, and curtains, it looks downright goofy when you try to use it on jeans or other casual trousers.

Don’t worry, though, I’ll cover the other hem in another post.  For now, though, let’s hem those more formal clothes by hand!

The Blind Hem Stitch

What You’ll Need:

• an iron
• a fine needle
• something that needs hemming
• matching thread

Notes:  My husband and I are long of leg, so I couldn’t find anything that needed hemming.  Instead, I’m going to demonstrate the blind hem stitch on a piece of fabric in steps 1 and 2.  Then, in steps 3, 4, and 5, I’ll explain how to use the stitch to hem whatever needs hemming.  Feel free to let me know if you have any questions or need further explanation!

Step 1: Iron a crease one-half inch away from the edge of your fabric.

Fold the ironed crease over itself so that the selvage/selvedge (raw edge) is completely encased in the fabric.  Iron the second crease into place.

If you did it right, you should have a little tube of fabric, like so:

Step 2: Thread your needle and knot your thread as you learned in steps 4, 5, and 6 of the first sewing post, How to Repair an Unraveled Seam.

Poke your needle through the wrong side of the fabric, about 1/8” away from the ironed crease.

Make a tiny stitch, reinserting the needle as close to the thread as possible.

Your first finished “invisible” stitch will look like this:

When your needle is back on the wrong side of the fabric, make a medium length stitch.

This stitch is just a modified straight stitch with long stitches on wrong side of the fabric…

…and short stitches on the right side of the fabric.

So, continue with your project making tiny stitches on the right side of the fabric, medium stitches on the wrong side.  In the end, it’ll look something like this (except less visible since I’m sure you’ll be using matching thread):

Step 3: If you don’t know your inseam length, use a yard stick or tape measure to measure a pair of well-fitting trousers from crotch to ankle.  I don’t recommend measuring your own inseam any other way.  (Even though I’m showing a pair of jeans, remember that this hem is not recommended for jeans.)

Add an inch seam allowance to your measurement, then write the number down to avoid forgetting.  For example: If your inseam is 32”, your inseam for hemming trousers is 32 inches + 1 inch or 33 inches.

Step 4: Cut the factory hem off of your trousers, then measure the inseam of the trousers from the ankle to the crotch.  Subtract your inseam + 1 from that measurement.  For example: If my too long trousers have a 36 inch inseam that decreases to 35.5 inches after removing the hem, I would subtract 33 inches from 35.5 inches and come up with 2.5 inches of length that need to be removed.

Use a ruler and a piece of chalk to mark the extra length on each trouser leg.  As always, measure a second time before you cut off the excess fabric.

Step 5: Turn your trousers inside out (the ones you’re hemming, mind you).  Follow steps 1 and 2 (above) to roll the hem and blind stitch all the way around both trouser legs.  Do not reinforce this stitch by doubling back at the end or you’ll end up with a not-so-invisible hem!  Once you finish, you’ll have a fray-proof and professional-quality hem that will last a lifetime.

Michele Newell is a housewife turned blogger turned Home Ec 101 contributor.  You can read her near daily ramblings at Dreams Unreal.

I have lived in 3 apartments in the past 5 years and every single one has had smoking stove burners. At my first apartment, I thought maybe the burners just had some cleaner left on them from the last tenants so I took them out and cleaned them thoroughly with water. That didn’t help. Then I tried baking soda. That didn’t help either. I checked under the drip pans and cleaned everything that needed cleaning. Nothing worked. I could only cook with one burner. The rest smoked like crazy and even with the fan on, my tiny apartment got smoky. My 2nd apartment had and my current apartment has this problem as well. I already hate cooking and since I can only use one burner, it turns me off to cooking even more.

Any advice or explanation on why this happens?

Signed,
Smoked Out
Heather says:

You know the phrase your parents used to utter in complete exasperation, “And this is why we can’t have nice things?”

That’s pretty much it. I’d put money on the main, large burner being the only one that doesn’t smoke.

Why?

The other 3 burners have years of accumulated grease spatter.

You’ll notice that if you run your finger along the coil – WHEN IT IS OFF AND COMPLETELY COOL, but I didn’t really need to say that, did I? – that it is not completely smooth. All of the tiny crevices, nooks, and crannies on that surface are the perfect catch all for grease particles.

You know those burner covers that grandma had? The one with the roosters on that you chuckled at? They did more than countrify the kitchen, they kept grease from landing on the other heating elements. I’m betting the last tenants didn’t use them and weren’t particularly careful about cleaning up after cooking. The reason that one burner doesn’t smoke? It was the only one that regularly had a pan on it, protecting it from the grease splatter. Over time that grease builds up and every time the less used burners are turned on, the grease starts to smoke. So, you have a couple of options here.

1. Burn the grease off completely, but know that you’ll probably set off your smoke alarms, possibly annoy your neighbors, and may have to air out and vacate the kitchen for a while.

Don’t just crank those bad boys up to high. Wait for a breezy day, open all of the windows.Remove the coils from the stove and clean them thoroughly, use baking soda – as you mentioned – on any visible spots. DRY the coils thoroughly. Now thoroughly clean the stove, be sure to lift the top of the range and clean up any spills lurking beneath the burners. You absolutely do not want any grease lurking about for the next step, that could be a fire hazard.

Replace the burners.

Now if you have one, bring a fan into the room to help clear the air more quickly and don’t forget to turn on the range’s hood fan, too.

Turn the burners to high and stand back, but do NOT leave the room, yet. Wait until the burners stop smoking and turn them off. Wait a few extra minutes in the room to be 100% sure that a fire doesn’t start. No, it’s not exciting, but you really don’t want to have to see how nice the people who hold your renters’ insurance really are.

Once the stove has cooled to a safe point, go ahead and vacate the kitchen until the air has cleared.

Regular cleaning should prevent the need to do this in the future.

OR

2. Replace the electric burners, generally they are somewhere in the range of 11 -20 bucks each. Just make sure they match your appliance. You can easily search for these on Amazon or just call your local appliance repair store, they would be glad to help you out.

To prevent smoky electric burners, just keep them clean.

Submit your questions to helpme@home-ec101.com.

I don’t know about you, but late spring and early summer are not exactly my favorite times warm up the house by using the oven. Since I’m often too cheap to turn on the air conditioning, I tend to relegate my summer baking time to the necessities. Unfortunately, my stomach doesn’t often get the memo and decides that it wants, say, a soufflé when it’s 90 degrees outside. Even more unfortunately, my tummy is in charge of my mood, so what it wants, it gets. Dutifully, I’ll throw together a half-hearted soufflé and call it a day. In the end, my belly is happy that it got its way, but the rest of me is just too hot to enjoy the darn thing!

I’m sure a logical person would just give up on baking for the summer, but logic is not my strong suit—especially when my Veruca Salt of a stomach is involved.  So, instead of attempting to go months without cookies, I instead opt for recipes that evoke thoughts of summer: icebox pies, mousses, ice creams, and citrus everything. I love to experiment; I’m that person who brings something different to every party. (Sorry!) But not a summer has passed in the last decade when I haven’t made my favorite nameless, powdered-sugar dusted lemon cookies.

That’s right. I said nameless.

Naturally, when I decided to share this recipe with you all, I decided that this cookie finally deserved a name. It seems that deciding was much easier than doing, because after an afternoon of throwing ideas around with my husband, they still don’t have a name. He suggested lemon zeppelins, heavenly lemon cookies, lemondoodles, lemon two timers (“because you always need a second”), and, uh, yellow snow cookies. I opted for the more practical lemonade cookies, lemon slices, lemonade slices, those lemon cookies with powdered sugar, lemon icebox cookies, and “LEmine! They’re LEmy cookies!”

I was getting ready to give myself a big, fat F in Home Eccing when I realized the answer to my problem was right in front of me all along: the super awesome, mega-creative Home Ec 101 community! I want you to help me name these cookies. Don’t worry; you won’t be flexing your creative muscles for nothing. In exchange, I’ll give you a recipe! For powdered sugar dusted lemon cookies! For those of you who don’t feel like doing my work for me, you’ll get a prize, too: a recipe for lemon cookies (dusted with powdered sugar, of course)! What’s there to lose?!

Notes: These cookies contain no leavening agents, so they do not rise or spread during baking. Your pre-baked cookie is about the same size as your baked cookie; keep this in mind as you roll the dough into logs and as you place them on the baking sheet. You can freeze the logs of dough for up to a month before baking, so these are perfect for keeping around just in case the Cookie Monster shows up. As an added bonus for some allergy sufferers, these cookies are egg free! And fortunately for all of us, they keep for up to a week. Pretty sweet, huh?

Let There Be Lemon (Cookies)

• 2 sticks butter, softened
• ½ + 2 cups powdered sugar, divided
• 2 tablespoons lemon zest, from 2 large lemons (no pith, please!)
• ¼ cup lemon juice, from 2 large lemons
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• ¼ cup cornstarch
• ¼ teaspoon kosher salt

Step 1: In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat 2 sticks of butter at a medium-high speed until fluffy, about 2 minutes. Stop the mixer and add ½ cup of powdered sugar.

Restart the mixer and combine the butter and powdered sugar at a medium-high speed. Stop the mixer; scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add 2 tablespoons of lemon zest, ¼ cup of lemon juice, and 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract and beat at a medium-high speed until everything is combined and looks vaguely like buttercream frosting, about 2 minutes.

Step 2: In a separate bowl, whisk together 2 cups of all purpose flour, ¼ cup of cornstarch, and ¼ teaspoon of kosher salt. Add the dry ingredients to the mixer bowl.

Start mixing on low speed to prevent the flour from flying everywhere, then increase the speed to medium and mix until the dough comes together and forms a sticky mass, about 1 minute. Remove the bowl from the mixer, scrape down the sides again to incorporate all of the flour, and refrigerate for about 30 minutes to make the dough easier to work with.

Step 3: Once the dough has chilled, divide into two pieces and roll each piece into a 12” log.  Wrap in plastic wrap or parchment and place in the freezer for 1 to 2 hours (or until ready to bake).

When the dough is completely chilled and firm to the touch, remove it from the freezer and use a sharp knife to slice it into ¼”-thick rounds. Be sure to cut them evenly to prevent over- or underbaking.

Step 4: Preheat the oven to 350 F. Place the sliced cookies about ½ inch apart on a silicone baking mat- or  parchment-lined baking sheet.

Bake for 16-18 minutes, or until the edges of the cookies are just golden.

Remove baking sheet from oven and immediately transfer the cookies to a cooling rack.

Step 5: Fill a gallon sized zip top bag with the 2 remaining cups of powdered sugar. After the cookies have cooled for 10 minutes, place them in the bag with the powdered sugar. Seal the bag and gently shake to coat the cookies in sugar.

Store the cookies in the bag until ready to serve. When you are, gently tap the excess sugar off of the cookies and place them on a tray.

Makes 48 cookies.

Michele Newell is a housewife turned blogger turned Home Ec 101 contributor.  You can read her near daily ramblings at Dreams Unreal.

I have long wished to use washing soda and borax–suggested in all sorts of green home guides for everything from dishwashers to washing
machines–but I cannot find them locally. Internet searches have been to no avail either. Do you know where I can buy them online?

Thank you!
New reader of your blog

Heather says:

Borax can be difficult to find because it’s not as marketing heavy as your other cleaning products. You’ll need to go the laundry aisle of a big box store (Walmart, Target etc) and then look toward the bottom of the shelves or out of reach on the top shelves. Prime shelf-space comes at a cost that the borax manufacturers usually can’t justify. Keep your eyes peeled, it’s there.

If you still can’t find it locally, Amazon has 76OZ 20 Mule Team Borax, Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda and can also try Nellie’s All Natural Laundry Soda.

Washing soda can be harder to find. It is sodium carbonate (Na2CO3) which is a little different from sodium bicarbonate, which we all know as baking soda. Washing soda is also known as soda ash. When you look to buy washing soda for laundry you can get nearly the same thing from a pool supplier, but there CAN be a slight difference. This is where label reading and chemistry come into play.

If you buy washing soda or soda ash from a pool supplier, you are most likely getting an anhydrous form of the compound -meaning it does not have water molecules attached to the Na2CO3. When you buy washing soda / soda ash for the laundry you are often getting the decahydrate or monohydrate (just think of it as how many water molecules are included) form of the compound that may also contain optical brighteners, salts for water softening, and sometimes fragrance.

When making your own soaps, please realize that the substitution is not one to one. Laundry washing soda ash is much heavier, due to all those water molecules than the variety sold in pool supply stores, so experiment carefully and make sure you know which one you are using and what was expected by the original recipe. If it calls for laundry washing soda you’ll use significantly less of the pool variety.

Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda is a good choice and is about 85% pure, if my research is correct. If you use this brand, know that you won’t be using that much more than if you were to use the anhydrous soda ash.

Submit your questions to helpme@home-ec101.com.

*UPDATED 5/28/2013 with the above information, the original response is below*

Ivy’s original response:

I had a hard time finding Borax too, until I knew where to look.  The original plan for this post was, I was going to zip all over town and take pics at WalMart, Target, KMart and a couple of grocery stores of Borax and washing soda for you. The problem with that plan was, my 13 year old failed to mention that 1. the band concert was tonight and 2. he had outgrown all his black dress pants and therefore we needed to buy a new pair. So, we got a picture of Borax at KMart, since that’s the closest place to my house that sold both black dress pants and Borax.

Borax and washing soda both are found in the laundry aisle at most major discount stores and grocery stores. Washing soda is harder to find as is evidenced by my picture:

Look for it by stuff like OxyClean and that sort of stuff. I’ll run around this week and take more pictures of Borax and washing soda. And readers, if you have any Borax or washing soda sightings, post a picture!

I also hear you can buy washing soda at pool supply stores. It’s also called soda ash, so be on the lookout.

Good luck!

So. . . hi.

Did you know that Home Ec 101 has been around for more than 6 years?

I had a plan for this post, but it’s taken off on its own tangent, but I felt it was time to share, and I’m just going to hit publish and see what happens.

I have been  in a weird  limbo like place for a while. Earlier this spring, I was working like a crazy person over at my FeedBlitz day job and continually falling behind there and here. I missed the anniversary and that has been bothering me, so as part of this overly-long, navel-gazey look at Home Ec 101, which is bigger than me, but it’s part of my story. To understand, I need to at least talk a little about the last 8 months or so.

Just last fall I was doing everything here and working as a server in a pub. I loved that job, it gave me adult time, something I desperately needed, but it also was serving as an escape from my life. One in which I found myself working 60 – 70 hour weeks to avoid. (Not all at the pub, here, and other projects)

And then, I fell asleep at the wheel.

This is not a euphemism, I literally fell asleep at the wheel.

Less than three blocks from home, I went into a ditch. I remembered thinking at the previous stoplight, you should really get out of the car and walk around. And I told myself it was just five more minutes, I could do it.

I overestimated my abilities. And I got very, very lucky. I was stiff and sore for a while, but no one was hurt and other than a couple of ruts there was no property damage to anything other than my car, and we have insurance for a reason, because sometimes things happen.

I began to reassess. Some things had to give for a while and Home Ec 101 was put on the back burner. I knew I couldn’t do it all and I love my job at FeedBlitz and I knew, with time and some life changes that I’d be able to come back and HE101 itself  could idle for a  while and when I was ready, many of you would, still be here.

In January I quit my job at the pub when I no longer had a full-time sitter. That was really hard to take, it wasn’t about the money and despite already knowing I couldn’t continue on that trajectory. I guess, I just wanted to do it on my terms. (That’s something I’ve been working on, too) I was truly reluctant to give up my contact with people outside of computers and occasional travel, but I didn’t know why. I do now, I was lonely. Yes, introverts get lonely, too. We just sometimes don’t know what to do about it.

Earlier this month, things were crazy busy at FeedBlitz and I had a long talk with my boss -probably should have had it sooner- but that’s something I’m trying to get myself to accept you can’t change the past. So let’s get it together, assess where we are and move on. We looked at the situation and I was able to hire help at my FeedBlitz job and on Tuesday I have another victim, I mean minion, er assistant? (I’m going to start getting a wee bit cocky if this continues.)

So where are we? Well, I admitted last Sunday that I’ve been in therapy for the anxiety I deal with and despite some setbacks related to last week’s post, I really am doing much better. I sat down this morning to look at the Home Ec 101 numbers and to make a plan for the coming year.

Home Ec 101 officially launched March 1 of 2007, but I didn’t start collecting meaningful data on the site until April 1.

Since April 2007 – 5.4 million people have visited. What does that mean? Well it’s pretty close to, according to Wikipedia anyway, having everyone from: Chicago, Houston, and Philadelphia stop by and take a peek.

Interesting side note, I’ve been in all 3 of those cities’ airports multiple times since starting this site, because of this site.

These 5.4 million people have looked at 7.7 million pages. That’s a lot of bandwidth, folks. I started out hosting this site on a shared server on DreamHost, I want to say in 2009 I moved to what’s called a Virtual Private Server, and back in January, I had to suck it up and move to something more robust over at RackSpace because we were bigger than that VPS could handle. Traffic has fallen since then, but that’s my fault, see above about back burnering. I’m on a mission, starting today, to reverse that trend.

What do people look at most on Home Ec 101? It’s the weekly chore schedule. Hands down.

Next comes a look at what to do with your musty, mildewy, funky towels. See, you aren’t alone. I’m also rather mortified that that many people have seen my goofy bacteria illustration.

Finally we get to the most viewed recipe on the site. Long time readers will know without even having to think about it, yes, no surprise there, it’s the classic Tomato Pie, baby, yeah.

The numbers here at Home Ec 101 are not the kind of viral explosions that get talked about as being overnight successes. These numbers are the kind of slow, steady growth that came from the offshoot of what began as a venting session between Ivy and myself. We wanted a website for the things we needed to know, in voices we liked.  Two weeks later we had a domain name, a concept, and a handful of posts.

Six years, 2073 posts, and one book later. Wow.

I’m just going to sit here for a moment and be proud of that and yes, you should know, there’s still a ton of Home-Ec101.com to come.

Thank you.

The decision to mend vs. replace an item is often surprisingly difficult.  While being wasteful is rarely a good thing, there comes a point in every object’s lifetime where you must do a little cost benefit analysis or CBA.  (I know this is Home Ec 101 and not Business 101, but bear with me here.)  While a consulting firm’s CBA may be complex and tedious, yours need not be.  All you have to do is ask yourself three simple questions before you begin any repair: What is this item worth (either monetarily or sentimentally)?  How long will it take to fix?  And, is this repair worth my time?

Take, for example, a pair of my husband’s socks with a hole in the heel.  What are they worth?  Less than $2 new.  How long will it take me to fix the hole?  About 15 minutes.  Is this repair worth my time?  Nope!  That means that holey socks are always destined for the trash or rag bag in my household.  Due to the fact that these questions are fairly personal, however, your answers probably won’t be the same as mine—as evidenced by the fact that some of you have told me that you want to learn how to darn socks.

I’ll admit that I was initially baffled at your requests, but I reminded myself that your CBA is not my CBA.  Begrudgingly, I’m not telling you to get new socks.  I am, however, encouraging you to live a little and spoil yourself with a nice multi-pack of socks from a big box store.  Even if you heed my advice, though, the threadbare socks you have now are going to have to last at least until you get your tootsies to the store.  So, today we’re going to learn how to fix those aged socks, darn it.  (Pun totally intended.)

Before You Get Started:

Make sure you have read the Home Ec 101 posts “How to Repair an Unraveled Seam” and “Meet Frankenseam AKA The Whip Stitch“.  You also need to be comfortable with the whip- and the straight stitches.

Remember, you’ll be using thread to close the hole in your formerly seamless sock.  The end result may be itchy, lumpy, and/or uncomfortable.  Since you’re working on the right side of the fabric, your repaired sock will probably be unsightly; using a coordinating thread will make the repair much less visible.

What You’ll Need:

• socks with holes in them
• 1 ½-2 inch long needle
• matching thread
• darning egg (or tennis ball)
• sharp sewing scissors

Step One: Insert the darning egg/tennis ball into your sock, making sure that it is positioned under the hole.  Trim any loose threads or scraggly edges from the hole, but don’t over trim!

Step Two: Sew a loose whip stitch along the length of the hole (plus a quarter inch extra at the top and bottom).  This is where having a long needle really comes in handy!

Step Three: Once you reach the bottom of the hole, gently pull both ends of the thread in order to tighten your stitches.  Don’t over-tighten or your repair will be lumpy.

Step Four: Whip stitch your way back up the hole, using the empty spaces between your first set of stitches as a guide of sorts.  Remember that your end result should look like the rungs of a ladder, rather than the X’s of a Frankenseam.

Step Five: Use your hands to flatten out the whip stitch.  Reinforce your work by sewing three columns of straight stitches over the row of whip stitches.  The end result will look kind of like a grid or, if we’re still going with the ladder analogy, the sides of the ladder… if a ladder had three sides.

Step Six: Tie off your thread.  Here’s the not-so-pretty end result, made even less pretty by the contrasting thread.

The inside looks much neater, but that doesn’t mean you should do your repair on the wrong side of the sock.  Remember, you want the inside of your repair to be neat and smooth so that your feet are as happy as possible.

So, there you have it Home Eccers: you know how to darn a sock. As an added bonus, you’ve just made grandmothers everywhere proud. Darn on!

Michele Newell is a housewife turned blogger turned Home Ec 101 contributor.  You can read her near daily ramblings at Dreams Unreal.

I’m currently sitting in a hotel room in Virginia Beach, VA. This trip wasn’t for fun. You see, life changes in seconds, one moment you’re lost in your own thoughts contemplating personal, life changing decisions and the next you’re racing to comfort family.

My stepsister died unexpectedly on Mother’s Day.

I’m here in the hotel room, just sitting quietly, stuck with my own thoughts as I watch people struggle through grief. My heart breaks for my family and there is nothing I can do.

I see three small faces not understanding, coping, or not, in their own way. I can’t hug my niece enough and it tears at my heart to see her bringing boxes of tissues to people. I see a little of myself in her, we share no blood, but she is family. She is staying busy, busy being good, busy being helpful, and busy trying to be strong.

I want to make things okay and I can’t.

This is true for this, the most immediate crisis and other areas of my life.

I’ll let you in on a little secret, okay a big, sort-of not really a secret, secret. I deal with anxiety and I’ve been seeing a therapist. She’d probably fuss at me right now because I know I’ve slipped outside of myself and I am going through the motions rather than being in the moment. It’s a coping mechanism, I didn’t recognize it as such  before, I always thought it had to do with why I chose to be a writer. I observe. I always observe, my mentor calls it third person omniscient mode and that was the name I used.

I want to say thank you. To you, the readers of Home Ec 101, to my friends and supporters. This spring has brought about a season of change, some good, some terrible. I want to thank you for putting up with the inconsistencies here for the last few months. Currently, life is in a bit of limbo, my least favorite state, but I am managing, not always well, but always with the hanging in and keeping on.

There will be a new balance and a new rhythm soon. Please know that I am not leaving Home Ec 101, it is still a priority, but I want to give it the focus it deserves rather than churning out half-hearted work. Thank you for hanging in there with me. I don’t know what the new normal will look like, but I’m so glad that Michelle has stepped up to help. Many of you have made a positive impact on my life and I appreciate that, thank you for your emails and kind words.

Today there is a funeral that shouldn’t be happening. If it is what you do and what you believe, could you say a prayer for my stepsister’s family?

Thank you.

We’ll find our new normal.

Soon.

I’ll never forget the first time my childhood friend showed me how to make one of her favorite treats.    The recipe was simple: one piece of white bread, squished and squeezed into a compact ball.  It was kind of like a bread bonbon, and the thought of it horrified me immensely.  You see, I grew up eating sprouted wheat bread—the kind that can lead a child’s mind to wonder about the possibility of those seeds sprouting further during the digestion process—and it most certainly did not squish.  It crumbled.

When I moved out on my own, I was gleeful to be able to choose a big, squishy loaf of white bread for my sandwiches.  Upon my first bite, I was hit not with satisfaction and delight, but with questions.  Is it supposed to stick to the roof of your mouth like this?  Why does my sandwich stay squished after I take a bite out of it?  And, most importantly, why, oh why am I still hungry after six slices of bread and butter?  The answer to all of those questions was a simple one: air.

Store bought bread is the jet puffed marshmallow of the grain industry.  Its shoddy ingredients and short production time don’t allow for a proper rise, so the dough is “helped out” with the addition of a quick puff of air.  It bakes up airy and light, but the many shortcuts are evident the second you take your first bite and find the bread dissolving on your tongue—and even more evident when you find yourself rummaging through the cupboards for a post-lunch snack an hour after your meal.  So-called whole wheat bread isn’t much better, and yet, despite its lack of quality and nutrition, most of us keep buying it.  It’s a sweet, carby comfort food, and it’s not like we eat sandwiches every day, right?

We may not eat our daily bread, but what about our children?

How often do they eat toast, sandwiches, or plain old slices of bread in hand?  If children today are anything like children twenty-something years ago, the answer is probably pretty darn often.  So, what can we do?

Ban bread?

I suppose that’s an option—but before you petition congress, how about you give homemade sandwich bread a shot?  Sure, it takes more time and costs more money than the store bought loaves, but what would you rather pay for: time and real ingredients, or convenience, air, and possibly an attorney to write your anti-bread petition?

(Hint: the correct answer is A.)

Hearty White Sandwich Bread

Notes: This recipe is skipping many of the step by step pictures that were shown in the post Easy Italian Bread, so pop over there if you’re unsure about something or if you just want some photo reassurance.  If you prefer wheat bread, you can substitute up to 1 ½ cups of the flour with whole- or white-wheat flour.  Just remember that it will be much denser than the loaf made with all white flour!  I cannot stress enough the importance of tightly rolling your bread in step 8.  If you don’t pinch hard enough, you’ll end up with bread that you can unwind like a cinnamon roll.  Don’t worry about hurting the dough by pinching or squeezing too hard!

• 1 cup warm milk
• 2 teaspoons (or 1 packet) yeast
• 2 tablespoons white sugar
• 2 ½-3 ½ cups bread flour (or high quality all purpose flour)
• 4 tablespoons (½ stick) melted butter, plus more for greasing the pan
• 1 large egg
• 2 teaspoons kosher salt

Step 1: In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine 1 cup of warm milk, 2 teaspoons of yeast, and 2 tablespoons of sugar.  Allow the yeast to sit until frothy or “proofed” (as shown).

Step 2: Using the dough hook as a spoon, stir 1 cup of flour into the proofed yeast.  Continue to stir until you can no longer see any dry flour.  Attach the dough hook to the mixer’s head.  (As seen in step 2 of our last bread post.)

Step 3: Add 4 tablespoons of butter, 1 large egg, 2 teaspoons of kosher salt, and 1 cup of flour to the soggy doughy mess.  Lock the mixer head and turn your mixer on to its lowest speed.  Let the dough mix until all of the flour is integrated (you may need to hold your mixer’s head down if it tries to “walk” off the counter).

Step 4: Turn off the mixer and poke the dough.  Chances are it will stick to your finger.  Don’t worry; it’s supposed to do that!  If your dough is very wet, add an additional cup of flour.  If the dough is only slightly sticky, but isn’t wet, add an additional half cup of flour.  If the dough is almost perfect, add a scant quarter cup of flour.

Lock the machine, turn it on to the lowest speed, and let it mix in the additional flour until the dough forms a ball and cleans the sides of the bowl.  (As seen in step 4 of our last bread post.)

Step 5: Turn off the mixer and poke the dough (again).  Does your finger leave an indentation that slowly goes away?  If it doesn’t, allow the dough to mix for an additional 2 minutes to further develop the gluten; repeat the test.  Repeat step 5 until the dough passes the poke test.

Step 6: Grease a large bowl.  Quickly knead your dough into a ball on a very lightly floured counter top.  Place the ball of dough into the bowl and roll it around to coat the surface of the dough with oil.  Top the bowl with a greased lid (if it has one) or plastic wrap.  Allow the dough to rise at room temperature until it has doubled.  It took my dough about 90 minutes at a room temperature of 69 degrees.

Step 7: Uncover the dough.  Punch the dough down with your fist, folding the sides of the dough over as needed to form another ball.  Recover the bowl and allow the dough to double again.  For me, the second rise took a shade under 2 hours at 69 degrees.

Step 8: Uncover the dough and punch it down.  Turn the dough out onto a floured work surface and form it into a 12 x 8 inch rectangle (just eyeball it!  Don’t worry about breaking out the ruler).

Make sure the long side of the dough is facing you, then tightly roll the dough twice as though you were making a jelly roll.  Use your finger tips to pinch along the seam of the dough until it stays pinched and stops trying to roll open.

Repeat until your dough can only be rolled one more time.  Before your final roll, fold the short edges of the dough in (like a burrito) so that the outside edges are smooth and rounded.  Be sure to pinch the edges like we have already been doing for the rolls.

Tightly roll and pinch the dough into its final log shape.  Press the dough seam-down in a buttered metal 9×5 inch loaf pan, making sure to smoosh the dough enough so that it touches all of the sides of the pan.  (It’s okay if the dough shrinks back some after you move your hands.)

Using a paring knife or sharp kitchen shears, cut a quarter inch deep slash down the middle of the dough to give it room to rise.  Brush the dough with melted butter.  Dampen a large lint free towel or napkin and cover the pan and dough.  Let the dough rise until doubled in bulk.  It took my dough an hour at 70 degrees.

Step 9: Preheat the oven to 375.  Remove the towel from the unbaked loaf and, if desired, brush the dough with more melted butter.  Bake your bread on the middle rack of the oven for 35 to 45 minutes (checking through the oven window every two minutes after 35 minutes) or until the bread is golden brown, sounds hollow when you rap it with your knuckles, and smells like bread.  (Skip that second test if you don’t have fireproof hands like me.)

Using a dry lint free towel or napkin, transfer the bread from the pan to a cooling rack.  Allow the bread to cool to room temperature before slicing.  Store in a bread box or bread bag, and keep in mind that the bread keeps longer if you only slice it as you need it.

Makes one 9×5″ loaf or about 16-20 hearty slices.

Michele Newell is a housewife turned blogger turned Home Ec 101 contributor.  You can read her near daily ramblings at Dreams Unreal.

Not too long ago on Facebook, I got a question about acrylic flooring that had become cloudy.

First I want to note that acrylic is a broad chemical term that simply means made of polymers or resins. So acrylic flooring can come in many forms, but in general people either mean linoleum,  laminate, or Pergo style flooring. (Linoleum, laminate, say that five times fast)

The basic care is the same for all of these flooring types since they are made of similar, although not identical, material.

Cloudy or dull finishes on acrylic flooring is caused by tiny nicks and scratches that get filled with dirt, over time. You ask where do the nicks and scratches in my linoleum come from? Outside. (You can also chemically etch -scratch- the surface of your flooring and create that delicious cloudy haze, too)

That’s why using doormats is so important. Relatively people, relatively. I’m not saying  saving your linoleum is the same as saving a life, but you will end up saving some cash in the long run and who doesn’t want to do that?

If doormats are of primary importance, daily sweeping and or vacuuming comes next on the list. Why? Weren’t you paying attention a moment ago? We’re getting rid of the grit that scratches the flooring. I still love my Roomba, but I did spring for an upgrade. We’ve talked about all kinds of vacuums over the years here at Home Ec 101, but I do want to point out that woot.com – that link up there in the header often has refurbished Dysons for an excellent price. Be careful though as checking in at woot can become addictive. I may or may not have quite the t-shirt problem.
Shirt.Woot: One Shirt, No Shoes, No Service

So much to our chagrin we find the solution to our problem -cloudy, dull flooring- comes through preventative maintenance.

Well, crap, you probably wouldn’t be here if your acrylic flooring wasn’t in rough shape.

You can apply an acrylic floor finish to restore shine. I won’t lie, it’s a complete pain in the butt.

You need to thoroughly clean your flooring, vacuum and sweep as though your life depended on it. Then you’ll need to strip the old finish  -and you absolutely must consult the manufacturer’s guidelines before doing this or you could easily cause permanent damage or void a warranty. Yuck.

Then apply an acrylic floor polish -again with going by your manufacturer’s recommendations- carefully following the directions.

And then, once your floor is all shiny and pretty -it’s never going to look brand new again, quit hoping for that- you can start following my original advice and invest in some door mats and regular upkeep. Because really? After all that work, you don’t want to have to do it again in just a few months.

Be sure to use a very mild and dilute cleaning agent when you do damp mop your flooring to prevent that chemical etching I mentioned earlier. Why? Because I said so.

Good luck.

Submit your questions to helpme@home-ec101.com.

How have you been liking Home Ec 101’s recent sewing posts?  Have they inspired you to finally tackle that mending pile?  Are you rocking oh-so stylishly patched jeans?  Or are you the smart kid in class, bored and wondering when we’ll do a project that doesn’t rely on the plain old straight stitch?  If you’re one of our many resident smarties, be prepared to be excited!  Well, as excited as you can be about sewing, which in my case is really excited!  But before we get started on our new project, I’m going to teach you a very handy, super easy stitch.  It’s so easy, in fact, that you probably already know it!  It’s wonderful for making strong, albeit slightly unsightly, seams and—bonus!!—its name always gets me singing: whip stitch.  (Whip stitch good.)

The Whip Stitch:

Step 1: Thread your needle and knot your thread as you learned in steps 4, 5, and 6 the first sewing post, How to Repair an Unraveled Seam.  My pictures show contrasting doubled thread (four strands instead of two), but it’s only to make the stitches easier for you to see.

Step 2: Line up the edges of your two pieces of fabric.  Insert the needle through both layers of fabric from bottom to top.  Bring the thread around the edges of the fabric to help prevent future fraying.

Step 3: Insert the needle into the bottom of the fabric about 1/8” from your last stitch.  Again, stitch from bottom to top, making sure the thread “whips” around the fabric’s edge.  Repeat until you get to the end of your fabric.

Step 4: Turn your work so that the bottom layer is now the top layer.  Reinforce your stitching by repeating step 3, except in the opposite direction.  These new stitches shouldn’t cover the ones made in step 3, and your reinforced stitches should look a bit like X’s/crosses.  Don’t worry if your fabric’s edges start to roll, as it helps keep the seam strong.

Feel free to practice until you’re comfortable with the whip stitch.  Once you’ve got it down, you’re ready to tackle our next repair: the frankenseam.  Have you ever, say, caught the pocket of pajamas on a chair or snagged a shirt on a loose nail?  If so, you know the seemingly irreparable tears that result.  Now that you know the whip stitch, however, those snags and rips are a thing of the past.  Sure, you’re going to have some pretty wonky looking repair jobs, but if enough of us mend our clothes instead of tossing them, maybe we’ll end up making sustainablility the new black!

What You’ll Need:

• Clothes with a tear not on the seam
• Matching thread
• Pinking shears
• Sharp sewing scissors
• Fine tipped all purpose needle

Step One:  Turn your torn article of clothing inside out.  Use your pinking shears to carefully trim around the tear in order to prevent future fraying.

Step Two: Thread your needle and knot the thread just like you did before.

Step Three: Working on the wrong side of the fabric, pinch the opposite sides of the tear together so that you have two layers of fabric.  Start sewing by inserting the needle from bottom to top through both layers of fabric.  To continue, whip stitch down the length of the tear.

Step Four:  Reinforce your stitching as you did in step four of the whip stitch lesson (above).  Remember that it doesn’t have to be pretty!

Step Five: Tie off your thread, turn your project right side out, and admire your work!

Michele Newell is a housewife turned blogger turned Home Ec 101 contributor.  You can read her near daily ramblings at Dreams Unreal.

I absolutely love albondigas soup, it’s a family favorite, but sometimes I just don’t have the energy to mess with rolling the meatballs. Sometimes I just can’t bring myself to care that much.

So on a whim one evening, when I had planned on making the original albondigas, I looked at it and said Fuhgeddaboudit, we’re doing a deconstructed or simplified version of the recipe. Deconstructed is a fancy term for breaking a complicated dish down into its elements or ingredients and changing the presentation.

This has all of the same ingredients, but without the work of the meatballs. Score.

If you were intimidated by the original soup recipe, give this version  a try. I wouldn’t dissuade you from trying it with a margarita, either.

Enjoy!

Ramen. It’s a single word that conjures images of students and young newlyweds alike, united by their grumbling bellies and meager budgets.  Most of us have been there, done that—myself included—and if you’re anything like me, you may have also done a happy dance when you finally said sayonara to your noodle heavy twenty dollar a week food budget.  Despite my longstanding eagerness to eat something (anything!) other than what the Japanese refer to as gakusei ryori, or “student food”, years later I still find myself craving the salty, slurpy soup that got me through the leanest times in my life.

Fortunately for those of us nostalgic for ramen, it’s pretty hip these days!  Made with fresh noodles, the giant bowls come garnished with everything from pork belly to pickled vegetables to quail eggs to kombu (AKA seaweed).  Though delicious, these gourmet bowls can leave one asking, where has all of the cheap ramen gone?  It turns out that the answer is closer than most of us would have ever guessed: it’s hiding in our own home kitchens!

With a few ingredients that you can buy at any well stocked grocery store (check Amazon if you can’t find miso), you can throw together a restaurant-worthy bowl in under an hour.  Best of all, once you’ve made the broth, you can customize the bowls individually to make each one as healthy or as unhealthy as you’d like.  That’s right.  This homemade, veggie filled ramen can actually count as healthy…ish (those pesky fried noodles are the “ish”).  For once, you’ll be able to have your cake ramen and eat it, too!  If only those poor college students should be so lucky.

Pork and Miso Ramen

Pork Marinade:

• ¼ cup low sodium soy sauce
• ¼ cup rice wine (or apple cider) vinegar
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• ½ teaspoon garlic powder
• 2 tablespoons light brown sugar
• freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Everything Else:

• 1 pound boneless pork chops
• 2 teaspoons vegetable oil
• 4 cups fish broth (I used a 32 ounce carton of store-bought)
• 4 cups chicken broth (homemade or a 32 ounce carton of store-bought)
• 2 tablespoons shiro (white) miso paste (you can find it on Amazon if your store doesn’t carry it)
• 1 teaspoon fresh ginger, finely minced
• ¼ cup low sodium soy sauce
• ½ pound (8 ounces) mung bean sprouts
• 1 pound (16 ounces) bok choy
• 1 bunch (approximately 10) scallions
• 3-3 ounce packages dried ramen, seasoning packets discarded
• 4 eggs, hard boiled or poached
• Sriracha for serving (optional)

Step 1: Make the marinade by combining ¼ cup soy sauce, ¼ cup vinegar, 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce, ½ teaspoon garlic powder, 2 tablespoons brown sugar, and black pepper in a gallon sized zip top bag.  Use a fork to poke holes in the pork chops.  Add the holey pork to the bag with the marinade and allow the meat to marinate for 30 minutes.

Step 2: While the pork marinates, mix 4 cups of fish broth with 4 cups of chicken broth in a stock pot, then add 2 tablespoons miso paste, 1 teaspoon ginger, and ¼ cup soy sauce to the broth.  Cover and bring to a simmer for 30 minutes.  If making hard boiled eggs, cook them now and set aside.

Step 3: While the broth simmers, heat 2 teaspoons vegetable oil in a sauté pan over medium-high heat.  Once the pan is warm, remove the pork chops from the marinade and pat dry with paper towels.  Cook in the heated pan for 4-5 minutes, then flip; cook an additional 4-5 minutes, then remove the pork chops to a plate or plastic cutting board.  Tent pork chops with aluminum foil and allow to rest for 10 minutes.

Step 4: While the pork is resting, wash the bean sprouts, bok choy, and scallions.  Discard the roots from the bok choy and scallions.  Slice the bok choy into ribbons; set aside.  Cut the scallions into ¼ inch pieces; set aside.  Thinly slice the pork; set aside.  If you’re a worrywart, throw the pork into the broth to make sure that it’s one hundred percent cooked; there’s no shame in it, but it does change the texture of the pork.  If making poached eggs, cook them now and (you guessed it!) set aside.

Step 5: Five minutes before serving, bring the broth up to the boil.  Add the noodles to the boiling broth, being careful not to break up the ramen; slurping the noodles is half of the fun!  Cook the ramen for 3 minutes or until the noodles are soft.

Step 6: Ladle the broth into soup bowls.  Use chop sticks or a pasta server to add ramen to the bowls with the broth.  Add pork to your bowl of noodles.  Top the noodles with bok choy, bean sprouts, scallions, and egg.  Don’t forget a squirt (or three) of Sriracha!

Serves 4 ramen lovers.

Michele Newell is a housewife turned blogger turned Home Ec 101 contributor.  You can read her near daily ramblings at Dreams Unreal.

I’m going to be honest: I’m not the most creative person.  The first post that I wrote about sewing was inspired by a conveniently timed rip in a pillow.  I gulped when I realized that Home Eccers are interested in learning more mending techniques.  As a childless housewife whose husband spends his days behind a desk, I simply don’t have much mending to do beyond a fallen hem or dropped button.  (Lest you think I don’t have the repair skills to tackle tougher projects, I feel compelled to mention that my husband spent his undergraduate years doing manual labor, while I spent those years mending the constantly torn clothes that resulted.)

All of that to say: I got to the point where I was actively considering buying torn trousers at a thrift store.  Not excited by the idea of spending money on torn clothes, I decided to do one more look through my long forgotten drawer of blue jeans—and it was there that I found the answer to my problem.

While I haven’t worn trousers in the past couple of years, I used to wear jeans every day.  Since I only loved a few of my pairs of jeans, those few pairs got more than a little torn up, and I chose not to do anything about the holes.  (Give me a break.  They were stylish then!)  Given the fact that ratty jeans are most decidedly not stylish, I wouldn’t wear them out of the house if you paid me.  So, I figured now would be the perfect time to teach you how to mend a hole in a pair of jeans.

Before we get started, I have a couple of warnings.  First, the instructions are written based on the assumption that you’ve read the Home Ec 101 post How to Repair an Unraveled Seam, so if you haven’t, read it before you continue.  Second, this technique is best used on smaller holes.  In my experience, it doesn’t work as well on large knee holes and, unfortunately, it is not a miracle cure.  Your jeans are torn and will never look new again.  I’m sorry.    It’s just one of those facts of life.  Don’t worry, though!  Once you see the results, your old favorite jeans may just become your new favorite jeans.

Home Eccers, thread your needles, and let’s get mendin’!

What You’ll Need:

• one pair of holey jeans
• one pair of jeans you don’t mind cutting up (or a half yard of denim)
• pinking shears (not optional)
• sewing scissors
• straight pins
• a fine tipped, large eyed needle
• thread, matching or contrasting

Step 1: Measure the hole that needs to be patched, plus an inch on each side.  Use your pinking shears to cut an appropriately sized patch out of your scrap jeans.  Be sure to save the scrap jeans for future repairs!  Lay the patch over the hole to double check the size.

Step 2: Take the jeans you’re mending, turn them inside out, then lay them flat on a large, flat surface (may I recommend a clean floor?)  Place the patch wrong side up over the hole on the jeans.  Making sure neither the jeans nor patch are wrinkled, carefully place pins around the edges of the patch.  Make sure you don’t poke your pin through both layers of the jeans!  Being careful not to poke your fingers with the pins, turn the jeans right side out.

Step 3: To make your thread strong enough to patch jeans, measure out an arm’s length of thread four times over.  Carefully line up all four ends of the threads and lick them before twisting the end of the threads together to make something like embroidery floss.  Thread and knot your needle as you learned in steps 4, 5, and 6 the last sewing post.  Once you’re done, you should have “thread” that’s eight strands thick.  If you can’t manage to get all four threads into the eye of your needle, you can use three or two strands of thread, but please don’t use just one!

Step 4: As we did in step 7 of our last project, start your stitching from the wrong side of the jeans to hide the knot.  Be sure to keep your stitches about a half an inch away from the tear to allow for future unraveling.  If you’re not a handy freehand sewer, feel free to use a regular ol’ piece of chalk (or a pencil) to draw a guideline around the hole. Don’t worry, it will easily wash out.

Straight stitch around the hole (on top of your guideline, if you’re using one).  If, during your sewing, you find that the fabric between your stitches looks puckered or bunched, gently pull on the fabric to loosen the stitches.  Be sure to check for puckering often; the sooner you fix it, the easier it will be.

When you get to the end do not reinforce your work as we did in step 9 of the seam repair; the dashed stitches look a lot nicer, in my opinion, and the “reinforced” thread makes one pass strong enough.  Turn your jeans inside out and knot your thread.  Remove the pins and put them away before you continue.  (Pins hurt when you step on them.  Ask how I know!)

Step 5: Use your pinking shears to cut the excess off the patch.  Leave about a third of an inch to allow for any future fraying (though there shouldn’t be much, if any, thanks to the awesomeness that is pinking shears).

Turn the jeans right side out and admire your work.  The hole shouldn’t fray beyond the stitching, and the contrasting thread gets a surprising number of compliments (and questions about where you found those unique jeans).  The repair may be obvious, but it will hold up until you decide to replace your jeans—and who knows?  That may not be until your jeans have turned into one big patch!

Michele Newell is a housewife turned blogger turned Home Ec 101 contributor.  You can read her near daily ramblings at Dreams Unreal.

This recipe for balsamic marinated chicken is sort of a repeat. Why? Because sometimes you don’t want to cook a whole chicken and grab the super-value pack of chicken thighs or leg quarters when they go on sale. Like the garlic and soy chicken thighs, this recipe is simple, the only drawback is it’s much better with a longer marinating period. This is a marinate the night before kind of recipe. Sides can be super simple. I went with baked sweet potatoes and oven roasted okra -I tossed the okra in vinegar and rosemary, with a little olive oil, it was okay, but nothing to write home about. I think lentil pilaf may have been a better choice.

Looking for other chicken recipe ideas: here’s a guide to cooking and using chicken

A little over ten years ago today, I enrolled in home economics as a school elective.  To say I was excited would be an understatement, and I showed up for my first day of class eager to learn anything and everything I could about sewing, cooking, cleaning, and—most important to me—baking.  The pace was slow; by the middle of the semester, we had barely made a batch of cookies!  I finally got up the courage to ask the teacher when we’d learn to make, say, a simple loaf of bread.  My courage was rewarded with a “Hah!” worthy of The Simpsons’ Edna Krabapple.  Deflated and embarrassed, I gave up on baking and spent the rest of the course sewing stuffed animals, taking breaks to thread my classmates’ needles.

It wasn’t until my husband and I were poor college students that I even thought about baking my own bread again.  I bought flour in 25 pound sacks and dove in headfirst.  Six months later, I had my own recipes for everything from sandwich bread to challah to naan to the sort of crusty bread that bakeries sell for $5 a loaf.  Today, I’m no longer forced to make all of my own bread, but I still make a majority of it.  But, why?  Isn’t baking bread a tedious, time consuming gamble?

No way!  Don’t believe the evil industrial bread empire’s propaganda!  Not only is it easy, it is also amazingly delicious, more filling than air-puffed store bread, and super frugal; as a bonus, kneading by hand is a great form of stress relief!  (And if you’re not stressed, you can use a stand mixer instead.)  Best of all, you probably already have all five of the ingredients in your cabinets—and you don’t even need a bread machine.

So, what do you say, Home Eccers?  How about we whip up a batch of bread before we continue with our sewing lessons?  (Here’s the part where I assume that you’re all donning your aprons in excitement.)  As long as you give the dough plenty of time to rise, this bread is downright impossible to mess up.  So, even if you’ve had not-so-good luck with bread in the past, just humor me and give this recipe a shot.  Your bellies (and your families) will thank you!

Easy Italian Bread

Notes: this recipe assumes you have a stand mixer.  If you’re baking by hand, do your mixing in a very large bowl using a sturdy wooden spoon until the dough comes together (as seen in step 3 below).  Add flour ½ cup at a time, and when you can no longer stir the dough, turn it out onto a floured counter.  Knead, using the heels of your hands, until it looks and feels like the dough described in step 6, or anywhere from 10 to 15 minutes.  Once the dough is ready to rise (as evidenced by the “poke test” described in step 5) you can continue to follow the recipe below.

• 1 ½ cups warm water
• 1 teaspoon white sugar
• 2 teaspoons (or 1 packet) yeast
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt
• About 3 cups of good all purpose flour

Step 1: In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine 1 ½ cups of water, 2 teaspoons of yeast, and 1 teaspoon of sugar.  Allow the yeast to sit until frothy or “proofed” (as shown).

Step 2: Using the dough hook as a spoon, stir 1 tablespoon of kosher salt and 1 cup of flour into the proofed yeast.  Continue to stir until you can no longer see any dry flour.  Attach the dough hook to the mixer’s head.

Step 3: Add 1 cup of flour to the soggy doughy mess.  Lock the mixer head and turn your mixer on to its lowest speed.  Let the dough mix until all of the flour is integrated (you may need to hold your mixer’s head down if it tries to “walk” off the counter).

Step 4: Turn off the mixer and poke the dough.  Chances are it will stick to your finger.  Don’t worry; it’s supposed to do that!  If your dough is very wet, add an additional cup of flour.  If the dough is only slightly sticky, but isn’t wet, add an additional half cup of flour.  Lock the machine, turn it on to the lowest speed, and let it mix in the additional flour until the dough forms a ball and cleans the sides of the bowl.

Step 5: Turn off the mixer and poke the dough (again).  Does your finger leave an indentation that slowly goes away?  If it doesn’t, allow the dough to mix for an additional 2 minutes to further develop the gluten; repeat the test.  Once your dough is properly springy, give yourself a pat on the back because the hard part is over.  Congratulations!

Step 6: Oil a large bowl.  Quickly knead your dough into a ball on a very lightly floured countertop.  Place the ball of dough into the bowl and roll it around to coat the surface of the dough with oil.  Top the bowl with a greased lid (if it has one) or plastic wrap.  Allow the dough to rise at room temperature until it has doubled.  It took my dough about 90 minutes at a room temperature of 67 degrees

Before the first rise.

After the first rise.

Step 7: Uncover the dough.  Punch the dough down with your fist, folding the sides of the dough over as needed to form another ball.  Recover the bowl and allow the dough to double again.  For me, the second rise took 2 hours at 67 degrees.

Before the second rise.

After the second rise.

Step 8: Uncover the dough and punch it down (last time, I swear).  Turn the dough out onto a floured work surface and form it into an elongated ball (think an American football only less pointy).  Transfer the ball to a large parchment- or silicone mat-lined baking sheet.

Using a paring knife or sharp kitchen shears, cut a quarter inch deep slash down the middle of the dough to give it room to rise.  Dust the dough with flour.  Dampen a large lint free towel or napkin and cover the pan and dough.  Let the dough rest for 30 minutes while you preheat the oven to 450.

Step 9: Once the oven has heated and the dough has rested, remove the towel from the unbaked loaf.  If the flour has magically disappeared, as it tends to do, sprinkle the loaf with a bit more flour.  Bake your bread on the middle rack of the oven for 15 to 20 minutes (checking through the oven window every minute after 15 minutes) or until the bread is golden brown, sounds hollow when you rap it with your knuckles, and smells like bread.  (Skip that second test if you don’t have fireproof hands like me.)

Using a dry lint free towel or napkin, transfer the bread from the pan to a cooling rack.  Allow the bread to cool to room temperature until slicing—or just tear off hunks like a caveperson and enjoy it warm.  If anyone dares give you guff, tell them that Michele says you deserve to eat because… you just baked bread!

I’ve seen a couple of posts where you’ve mentioned that sunlight is a disinfectant… I wondered if you had any idea how effective it actually is, and whether the temperature outside influences its effectiveness? I hang my laundry outside to dry whenever possible (generally when it’s above freezing) but a recent cold/flu epidemic in our household has me wondering if I should be doing more to get rid of germs in my laundry than just hot water washes and sunlight.

Thanks for your thoughts!

Sincerely,
Sunny days taking my cares away

Heather says:

You pose an outstanding question and I wish I had a good answer, backed up with strong data, for you, but the sad truth is I don’t.

There are so many variables involved with hanging clothes outside in the sun to dry that don’t really translate well to laboratory testing.

Think about it, off the top of my head here’s what came to mind:

• What latitude? The equator is significantly different than Norway
• Direct / indirect sunlight
• ambient temperature
• humidity
• relative cleanliness of the clothing hung outside
• thickness of the fabric

So I began researching. Had I really been using an old wives tale as a resource here on Home-Ec 101? (You really don’t want a peek inside my head, it’s quite cluttered in there and filled with second and third guessing)

I highly recommend you check out The Naked Scientists. Don’t worry, you’re not going to get an eyeful, go ahead and visit. Anyhow, they have forums and someone asked a very similar question and some responded with the whole that’s baloney, the sun isn’t good for disinfecting, but The Bored Chemist also weighed in, thank goodness.

The truth is that the UV from the sun does kill bacteria quite effectively.

And from Penn State:

Microbes are uniquely vulnerable to the effects of light at wavelengths at or near 2537 Angstroms due to the resonance of this wavelength with molecular structures.

However, so does heat and generally drier conditions.

So what does this mean?

Sunlight is a disinfectant. Remember though that the term disinfectant only means:

an agent that frees from infection; especially : a chemical that destroys vegetative forms of harmful microorganisms (as bacteria and fungi) especially on inanimate objects but that may be less effective in destroying spores

Sunlight will reduce the overall amount of bacteria living on your fabrics, but it won’t sterilize them. (Remember, we’ve talked about the difference between clean, sanitary, and sterile before). So, yes, if you have a contagious bug making the rounds in your home, go ahead and hang the sheets and towels in the sun, after washing them properly, the fresh air certainly won’t do you any harm, either. (Apply sunscreen, yada yada yada).

Unless you have people still in the chewing on fabric phase -or have a houseful of pinkeye the relative cleanliness of your laundry isn’t a huge deal – do take care with your kitchen laundry, of course.

If however, you have someone in the house with severe allergies, know that the collection of pollen on their pillowcases is probably going to make them absolutely miserable and it’s not worth the extra effort.

I hope everyone is feeling better.

Submit your questions to helpme@home-ec101.com.

I love your website, your tips have been extremely helpful to me. I have a question, though, whose answer I couldn’t find in your archives.Maybe you can help me out?

I don’t have a washer at home so I take most of my laundry to a laundromat. I’ve been washing my dishcloths in a bucket with regular laundry detergent and dish washing liquid for stains. But when it comes to bigger items like aprons and table cloths… I’m embarrassed to say, I’ve been buying new ones because it just feels strange to wash them on a public laundromat, even if I wash them separately from my clothes.

If I don’t have a washer, how should I wash kitchen things?

Thanks a lot,
Clueless Germaphobe

Heather says:

If you had your own washing machine and knew what exactly was being washed and when I’d suggest you take a deep breath and not worry. You can always disinfect your own washing machine after doing something awful like cleaning up after a toilet overflow or dealing with toddlers and potty training accidents. Let’s face it, not everyone out there is considerate and when it comes to food safety, go ahead and let your germaphobe tendencies run free.

The following information is from the New Mexico State University Agricultural Extension:

Use a disinfectant when washing at a laundromat. Illness from another family can be passed on if the washing machine is not disinfected before it is used. Wipe off the surface of the machine with a disinfectant, then add disinfectant to the wash cycle. Follow the directions on the disinfectant’s label.

We’ve talked, in the past about how to use chlorine bleach safely.

First of all, in your situation it makes more sense, both from an economical and food safety sense to use paper towels for any clean up involving the preparation of raw meat and grease.

Next, you most need to remember when laundering your kitchen dishtowels, aprons, and dish cloths in a public laundromat is to not overload the machines. Your wash cloths and towels need enough room to move freely and enough water for the the dirt and germs to be suspended in the wash water so they do not end up re-deposited on the clothing.

Use the dryer on the hottest setting possible. Most bacteria can’t survive the heat of a dryer.

Don’t use the same laundry basket you used to bring the icky dishcloths and towels in -use a laundry bag that also gets washed- to transport the clean laundry home. OR simply give it a good wipe down with a sanitizing solution while you wait for your clothing to dry.

So here’s the short and sweet answer:

• Use chlorine bleach – not the fancy scented kind, the traditional, plain sanitizing sodium hypochlorite version in your wash water -this is why I highly recommend buying cheap bar towel style dish cloths and towels.
• Disinfect the surfaces of the machine and the folding table. Pretty much assume someone has used it as a changing table without cleaning it.
• Use the largest load setting possible and don’t overload the machine. Use an appropriate amount of detergent.
• Use the hottest setting of a dryer.

Send your questions to helpme@home-ec101.com

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When I first found out that I had been given the opportunity to contribute to Home Ec 101, my mind jumped straight to sewing.   You see, being obsessive precise comes fairly naturally to me, and I have always enjoyed working with my hands.  The very first time I saw my great grandmother hand sewing a quilt, I was smitten.  By the time I was 18, I was sewing my own clothes, curtains, slipcovers, and pretty much everything else I happened to need, so I figured I was well versed in the basics—until I sat down to write this post.

What are “the basics”?  Can I assume everyone in the world knows how to thread a needle?  Does every adult know how to repair a button or a fallen hem?  Do any Home Ec 101 readers own—let alone know how to use—sewing machines?  Is it common knowledge to check new clothes for loose threads before the first washing (to avoid having to repair the aforementioned buttons and hems)?  Based on my experience, many people will answer “no” to all of those questions.  This isn’t because they’re particularly challenging tasks, but because sewing has been forgotten as archaic domestic drollery, rather than remembered and taught as an immensely handy (and money saving!) hobby.

So, we’re going to start at the beginning, in this case, fixing a pillow with a hole on the seam.  Assuming you’ve never sewn, this post will teach you a straight stitch, which is the keystone for all of your future sewing endeavors.  If this is a review for you, feel free to put your head on your desk while the rest of the class learns with me.  (And, no, you may not start on your homework.)

• Step 1: Tie off the offending unraveled threads.  There should be four of them in total, two on each end of the hole.

• Step 2: Fold the fabric inward over itself about 1/4 of an inch so that it doesn’t unravel in the wash.  There should be a pretty well set crease if you’re repairing a store bought item.

• Step 3: Choose a matching thread (I only chose red for your eyes’ sake!); for this project, I used synthetic all-purpose thread, which you can find at any craft store and some big box stores.  Be sure to choose a needle suited for your fabric.  If you don’t know which size needle to use, peek at the back of the package for recommended uses—or check out this handy guide.  If all else fails, just use an “all-purpose” needle.

• Step 4: Trim the end of your thread (trust me, it’s frayed), give the fresh tip a little lick to smooth down the fibers, and guide the thread through the eye (AKA hole) of the needle.  If you find that your thread seems to bend or split instead of going through the eye, try snipping off the top inch of the thread and try, try again.  Once you “get” it, it’ll become second nature.

• Step 5: Fold the thread in half.  As you unwind the thread you need for your project (two arms’ length is my standard), slide the needle down to the middle of your thread.  Make sure the ends line up to avoid wasting any.

• Step 6: Double (or triple!) knot the thread about two inches from the ends; use your index finger as a guide while tying the thread to ensure that the second knot is as close to the first one as possible.  Snip the ends off of the thread to keep everything looking tidy.

• Step 7: Since you want the knot to be invisible, start your first stitch inside (or on the “wrong” side) of your project.  I like to use the holes that already exist in many store bought items as a way to see where the needle needs to go.

• Step 8: Start sewing!  You’ll be using what is called a straight stitch; you probably know it already.  It’s the basic over, under, over, under.  If you’re using the holes as guides, go over one hole, then under to the next; if you’re not so lucky as to have free guide holes, make each stitch about an eighth of an inch long.  Repeat until you have stitched the length of the hole plus an inch on either side (don’t want to do this again next week, do you?)  You’ll notice that the stitching looks like a dashed line.

• Step 9: Turn your project over.   You’ll repeat your straight stitch, except you go “over” anywhere you see a blank space, and “under” anywhere you see a thread.  Repeat until you have stitched the end of the dotted line.

• Step 10: Tie off your thread and trim the ends as close to the knot as you can (without cutting the knot, obviously).

Hey, look at that!  You fixed it!  Sew, tell me Home Eccers: what shall we tackle next?

I’d like to thank Bobbie for helping out with the name of this quick beef skillet, I was staring at it last night and drawing a blank. This ground beef cabbage skillet recipe will feed six, more if you serve over cooked rice or noodles. Feel free to play with the ingredients as that would be exactly how I came up with this recipe. I found Cooking Light’s Thai Beef Cups. I used it as a framework to build this recipe for the cooking basics series I’ve been slowly building. If you’re looking for a more traditional beef and cabbage skillet, Bobbie and I both have versions: Bobbie’s Beef and Cabbage Skillet and Heather’s Beef and Cabbage Skillet. All three are great, quick meals, that are handy to have in your kitchen arsenal, cabbage stores for-freaking-ever in the bottom drawer of the fridge and if you’re not vegetarian I ask you why you don’t have at least one emergency pound of ground beef in the freezer. That’s pretty much required to stave off an emergency drive-through run.

As far as the cooking basics series goes, I know so far there are a lot of ground beef recipes, but don’t worry, we’ll start adding chicken, pork, and fish soon enough. I’m still sorting out the whole work life balance thing and not doing so hot at either, if you must know.

So, back to the skillet. Feel free to use red or green cabbage, heck you could use broccoli slaw or any cruciferous greens, as long as they are shredded pretty finely. Just remember the goal isn’t to cook this dish until it’s dead, but rather to keep a little crunch in there for texture. AND if you don’t want to use peanut butter, don’t, just use 1/4 cup of salted peanuts like the original recipe described. Someone swiped my peanuts, that’s the only reason I experimented with -and rather liked- the peanut butter in the first place. Skillets are experiments, give yourself permission to try something different once in a while, who knows you may have a new family favorite. (FYI the minions call any version of beef and cabbage skillet, Kung Fu Skillet as I got tired of them asking what’s for dinner and they were on a Kung Fu Panda kick at the time)

Bobbie says:

Lately, Home Ec 101 has been focusing on cooking basics, and in my opinion, Scalloped Potatoes are about as basic as it gets when it comes to side dishes. They go with practically anything, and with the right recipe, made-from-scratch scalloped potatoes are almost as easy as a boxed mix, so much better for you, and waaaay better tasting! And (lucky you) it just so happens I’ve got the right recipe.

While most scalloped potato recipes call for first making a white sauce, or using a can of condensed soup instead, this recipe is even better. Why? There is no white sauce to make and no canned soup with this Simple Scalloped Potatoes from Scratch Recipe. It makes its own sauce as it bakes! So, the hardest bit is peeling and slicing the potatoes, which you know isn’t really hard at all.

What variety to use? Some say only red. Other say definitely yellow. While I do like both of those varieties, I prefer white potatoes in this recipe. It’s up to you, really. My honest opinion, based completely in practicality, is this: use what you have. Or what’s on sale. Seriously, I’ve tried scalloped potatoes using different varieties, and they all end up delicious. Don’t fret.

You’ll see the recipe calls for onions. I prefer yellow, but use what you like — even scallions would work, and give you a bit different flavor. If you’re tempted to omit onions because some family members are Not Onion People, please don’t. It’s really an essential part of the flavor here. Instead of sliced onions, though, you could use a smaller amount of finely minced onion.

While I served these golden-browned, creamy scalloped potatoes with a pan-fried ham slice and peas, they’ll pair well with chicken (roasted or fried or even boneless breasts browned in butter), steak, roast beef, burgers, pork roast or chops, turkey — pretty much any non-pasta entree. And easy? Oh yeah, this one is a piece of cake. (Only, much easier than cake - for me anyway. I’m really not a baker.) Once they’re assembled and in the oven, little attention is required. They’ll bake while you work on the rest of the meal. Or read a book. Or, you know….write one.

Simple Scalloped Potatoes from Scratch Recipe

2 1/2 cups whole milk
4 Tablespoons cold butter, plus more to grease pan
2 pounds white or yellow potatoes (about 6 medium – enough for 4 cups of sliced potatoes)
1/4 cup thinly sliced onion
3 tablespoons flour (unbleached all-purpose)
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cracked black pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Choose a 2-quart baking dish, preferably no more than 2 to 3 inches deep. If you’re not sure it’ll hold 2 quarts, try filling it with 8 cups of water. Seriously, if it won’t, you’ll be cleaning the oven after baking this dish. If it holds a bit more than 2 quarts, that’s probably even better. Make sure it’s big enough, then rub the inside with butter.

Start heating the milk — you can either microwave it, or do it on the stovetop in a small pan. Do not boil it, just get it very hot. Once it’s hot, set it aside.

Wash the potatoes, scrubbing them if they’re very dirty. Peel them using a potato peeler or a sharp paring knife, and remove the eyes, if any.

Cut potatoes into slices between 1/8 and 1/4 inch. Don’t sweat it. If they’re around that thickness, more or less, you’re good. Make sure you’ve got about a quart, or 4 cups, of potato slices.

Make a layer of one-fourth of the potatoes, about a cup, in the casserole dish. Top that with one-fourth of the onion, 1 tablespoon flour, 1/4 teaspoon of salt, and a dash of pepper.

Now we’re going to “dot with butter.” Here’s how: take 1 tablespoon of the butter and cut it into a dozen or so small bits, then distribute those more or less evenly over the potato/onion/flour layer.

Repeat 2 more times, making a total of three layers of potatoes, onions, flour, salt, pepper and butter.

Now, do one more layer, same as the previous ones, except with no flour.

Pour the hot milk over the potatoes, then cover tightly with foil.

Place in preheated oven, being careful not to spill the liquid.

Bake 30 minutes. Remove foil and bake until potatoes are tender and the top is golden brown, about 45 minutes longer. If you chose a deeper casserole dish, it may take up to another 20 minutes.

Carefully remove from oven – the sauce will be on the thin side right now. Let stand about 10 minutes for sauce to thicken before serving.

Makes 4 to 6 servings

Bobbie Laughman is probably just a figment of her own imagination, but if you like figments, consider following her on Pinterest or check out her blog, Gruntled, Sheveled, Whelmed.

“So, is it cold enough for ya?” I don’t think I’ve made it through a winter in my entire life without hearing this lamest of questions at least once. I just smile and nod at the crazy person as I move along.  ”Cold enough” implies that one looks forward to frigid temperatures. Anyone who’s spent more than five minutes with me during the winter knows I detest cold and snow, and probably thinks I’m less than sane for living north of the Mason-Dixon line my entire life, despite the weather. I couldn’t really argue with that.

We’ve actually had a rather mild winter in the Gettysburg area so far, but it’s still been cold enough to warrant some hearty, comforting soup to warm the bones as well as the soul. This simple Smoked Sausage Potato Cheese Soup is perfect  for busy, chilly days. Peel a few potatoes, chop a carrot and toss everything in the slow cooker in the morning and let it cook all day, then finish the last step just before supper time. Pair with a tossed salad and maybe some crusty rolls for an easy-peasy winter meal. Simple, yet satisfying.

My potato preference for this is Yukon Gold, but any kind will do. Any fully cooked sausage can be used, and you can also use a different cheese. I think bratwurst with swiss cheese sounds really good, but I haven’t tried it yet.  Reheats nicely, if you’ve got any left over – keep in the fridge and use within a couple days. Freezing not recommended – texture will be affected.

Smoked Sausage Potato Cheese Soup Recipe

makes about 4 quarts

1 pound fully cooked smoked sausage
8 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2 to 3/4 inch chunks
1 large onion, peeled and diced
1 1/2 cups frozen sweet corn
1 1/2 cups peeled carrots, sliced 1/4 inch thick
1 large clove garlic, peeled and minced
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
pinch of dried thyme
1 large or 2 small bay leaves
4 cups chicken or pork stock, preferably homemade

1 cup evaporated milk
2 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese

Halve the sausage lengthwise, then slice about 1/4 inch thick.

Combine everything except the evaporated milk and cheese in a 6-quart slow cooker.

Cover and cook on HIGH for 5 to 6 hours, or on LOW for 8 to 9 hours.

Remove the bay leaves.

Stir in evaporated milk.

Sprinkle cheese over top of the soup. Stir gently until the cheese melts into the soup and mixes well throughout.

Serve hot. Refrigerate leftovers promptly.

Bobbie Laughman is a part-time elder caregiver, part-time administrative assistant and part-time dreamer of warm toes. She cooks and writes and bundles up well in the Gettysburg, PA area. Follow Bobbie on Pinterest,  subscribe to her blog or send a message to Bobbie@Home-Ec101.com.  

Heather says:
I’m very grateful that Bobbie sent this over last night. I didn’t want to not post this week, but the kids and I were rear-ended yesterday afternoon. We were all checked out at the ER and other than being extremely sore and cranky, we’re all okay. I want to thank the extremely nice staff at N&D Wireless, a local business, for letting the kids and me wait in their store while everything was sorted out. The ambulances (not for me or the kids and as far as I know, the other people are okay, too) and police took up most of their parking lot for a good hour. They helped entertain my shaken up kids and were just generally kind. They didn’t have to let my wound up kids go nuts in there for as long as they did, but that kindness meant a lot, I was pretty rattled. I’m going to be a complete slacker this weekend and hopefully attack Monday with all of my usual spite and enthusiasm. Have a good weekend and hug -yes, hug- those you love.

I love my car-unlocker button thingy.

Car Remote. Keyless entry. Key fob. That plastic bit with buttons on, that hangs off your key ring and unlocks the car for you miraculously while you’re still walking to it with your arms so full of shopping and children that you can’t possibly manage keys, but you can certainly push a button to open the stupid door. Whatever you call that thingy.

I did some research to find out what everyone calls it, so I could connect with my audience.  And by research, I mean a brief and thoroughly unhelpful survey on Facebook.  It was an attempt at Scientifically Gathering Data, without actually being, you know….scientific*. I wanted to find out what to call this doo-dad so people know what the heck I’m talking about. Because, I call them The Buttons. Not even kidding. And I love The Buttons.

Well, I did love The Buttons, that is, until The Son Who Shall Remain Nameless (TSWSRN) managed to break it off the keyring.

TSWSRN has a crazy key ring with a house key, a key to my husband’s pickup and one for the 1999 Explorer that TSWSRN and I share. Three keys and an irrational number of non-key items.

When TSWSRN drives the Explorer, he takes my sensible key ring, which has the mailbox key (so he can get the mail) and The Buttons, because if you want to  open the hatch, you need them. If you accidentally set off the Very Sensitive Alarm (which is especially easy to do if you use an actual key to open it) you need The Buttons so you can turn the wretched thing off. ** The car remote is absolutely essential to the sane operation of the thing, so I wasn’t about to just stick it in a pocket once the key ring loop broke off. Much too easy for me or The Son Who Shall Still Remain Nameless to lose.

He then attaches my sensible key ring to his crazy one with a carabiner clip, resulting in this twisted monstrosity. And the breaking off of the key fob.

Can’t imagine how that happened. Go figure.

So, I decided to channel my inner MacGyver and see if I could fix it with toothpicks and chewing gum wrappers, or other odds and ends we had lying about. It’s amazing what one can come up with in a pinch.

After nixing rubber bands and paper clips and duct tape, I came up with cable ties.

They’re also called zip ties, wire ties or tie-wraps. They’re mostly used to bundle wires together tightly and permanently, but they’re sometimes used as handcuffs in law enforcement. We happen to have a lot of them around here, because of my husband’s computer/technology business, but you can buy them in smaller quantities in a hardware or electronics department, or at a home improvement store.

I looked at my remote and decided I needed to use two cable ties. A larger one around the upper part, just above the buttons, and a smaller one to make a loop to connect to the key ring. Car remotes vary widely in design, so your placement may be different. Just figure out where you can get a secure hold without covering any of the buttons.

You’ll need pliers and a way to cut the ends off the ties when you’re done. I found needle nose pliers to work best for me. Mine have a built-in side cutter. If you don’t have side cutters, a sturdy pair of scissors can be used, but be very careful.

I made a loop from the larger cable tie, put it around the upper part of the remote, then pulled the cable tie just until it stayed in place.

Slipped the smaller tie under the large one on the back side, fastened it into a loose loop.

Using the pliers, pulled the loose tail on the cable around the remote, and made it as tight as I could. I used the needle nose pliers and grabbed it right next to the slot and twisted, leveraging it to get it tight enough that it won’t slip off.

Adjusted the hanging loop to an appropriate size, then cut the tail off both ties.

Ready to roll. I did this a few months ago, and it’s held up extremely well. I could probably buy a replacement for more money than I want to spend, but seriously – the new remote would probably outlast the vehicle, so why bother?

 
*Survey results: Although a lot of people call them Key Fobs, most people don’t call them anything. All these poor car-button-thingies being ignored and taken for granted. No wonder they break off — they’re trying to run away from home.

**We bought it second- or third- or quite possibly seventeenth-hand. It has its foibles, but it’s at least it’s not possessed by an Electrical Demon like its predecessor. That was like being in a Stephen King movie, but with less dying.

You can stalk Bobbie Laughman on Pinterest, or go see if she’s up to anything at Gruntled, Sheveled, Whelmed.

I’m not the only one getting into this whole back to cooking basics idea. Over on the Home-Ec 101 Facebook Fanpage, Home Eccer Lindsey decided to play around with this week’s Simple Philly Skillet and used what she had on hand -smarty lady!- and shared the results. She shared the a whole album of step-by-step photos and I’ve selected just a couple for this post.

The photo and recipe credit goes to Lindsey Mccollum and I am so very glad she was willing to share with us.  Please say thank you, it’s a little bit intimidating to put yourself out there where anyone can be a critic.

Notes from Heather:
*American or provolone will work well as a substitute
**Lindsey had “Dried basil from my garden” since I doubt she wants us tromping through her yard this summer to stock  our own pantries, dried basil from any garden or the grocery store will do.

Enjoy!

Thank you, Lindsey!

I’m so glad I found you, considering the poor grade I got in school in the class.  I’ve managed along over the years, honing my sewing skills, cleaning skills and, ahem, well the cooking part still would get a well deserved C.

Anyway, I need help or suggestions.  My beloved husband was once a professional cyclist (sprinter).  Needless to say he has huge thighs that used to provide that great bursts of speed around the peloton. Now that he’s older and an IT Guy, he isn’t as fit as he used to be, but his legs didn’t reduce in size.

He wears nice khaki slacks in different weights to work as he never knows if he’ll be working with upper management or in the trenches.  He is wearing little holes that only get larger at the crotch of said pants.

I have taken to ironing on patches in the areas that wear quickest, but it doesn’t really do anything for the outside of the pants.

Are there any suggestions as to how to toughen this area? Are there any tricks or techniques that anyone uses to stay the creation of holes that look good?

Signed,
Crotchety in Crawford

Heather says:

I’m a 6′ tall woman who has a small frame, finding jeans and not spending a ridiculous amount of money is a big challenge, so I can definitely relate.

Off the rack clothing is designed to fit people within a vary narrow range of body types. The trouble is, some of us don’t have off the rack body types.

You have taken the only approach I would recommend with his current pants and obviously it’s not the quality of the fabric or it would only happen with some but not every pair of pants. For future pants,  have him buy pants that fit his thighs with a little bit of room. Take the pants to a tailor and have them take in the waist and taper the legs, if the fit of the rest of the leg is too loose. PANTS! Could I have possibly used the word pants any more excessively in this paragraph?

Here’s a forum where some cyclists are discussing this exact issue, maybe some of these brands would be worth investigating. After a bit of research though I found this is a pretty common problem for men with your husband’s body type and the consensus is to buy the pants larger and have them tailored, they will last much longer.

I’m sorry there wasn’t a quick, magical solution.

Send your questions to helpme@home-ec101.com.

<threatening look> She’s wonderful and I hope she sticks around for a while, so be nice. </threatening look> You can visit her at DreamsUnreal.

Michelle says:

Birthday cake, macaroni and cheese, those little cups of pudding, and nuclear war-proof packets of snack cakes: these are only a few of the foods that never fail to conjure up memories of childhood. No matter your age, no matter how mindfully you eat, I bet that there are days you catch a peek at the snack food aisle and consider, if only for a second, grabbing a box of sandwich cookies and making a run for the nearest express checkout (lest anyone judge your partially hydrogenated cravings). Actually, I take that back—I don’t bet, I know. I know because I have been there, my friends. I have felt the shame of craving not food, but food product.

Unlike the stronger of you out there in Internetland, however, I cannot ignore an urge for a specific treat and expect it to just go away. No, I dwell on it—but refuse to actually go out and buy, say, oatmeal cream pies, because chemicals! Plus, they’re really sweet and I’m not even sure if they actually contain oatmeal, cream, or pie. Plus, there’s that whole awkward grocery store scene I mentioned before… So, I do what any good Home Ecaholic would—nay, should!—do: I made ‘em myself!

P.S. Bring these with you next time you go to a party. You may be surprised how many people share our dirty little snacky secret.

This simple Philly skillet is another in my impromptu, unorganized, and johnny-come-lately decision to really dive into cooking basics here on Home-Ec 101.

I try my best to stay out of the center aisles of the grocery store. Yes, there are some pantry basics on some aisles that I must have, but for the most part, if you want to have a healthy diet, stick to the perimeter, that’s where you’ll find largely, fresh ingredients. Shelf-stable items, in general, are the less healthy choice.

Still, there’s that one aisle and we’ve all walked down it. There used to be that this large, cheerful glove with eyeballs large eyeballs that would stare at customers as they figured out what they’d serve for dinner. Over the years the glove has gotten smaller, but the options have grown. I agree on the premise,  everyone needs a handful of meals that come together as quickly as those options, so I thought it might be fun to do a make-it yourself series based on these skillet meals. You see, trademark is a very big thing, so I’m purposely being vague. These skillets in no way represent an actual skillet living or dead any resemblance to a skillet living or dead is purely -ahem- coincidental?

I am not copying their recipes, first of all because I don’t have access to fun things like stabilizers and I’m helping reduce your sodium intake while I’m at it. Additionally, these items are designed to hit the middle of the palate bell curve. If you make it yourself, you can always increase or reduce the spices and have something much more tailored to your own palate. I look at the title and figure out what *I* think it should taste like and get to work.

Last week’s Taco Skillet was the first and this week we’ve got today’s Philly Skillet and guess what? This version does not have cream of something soup, so it’s super easy to make it gluten free, if that fits your family’s dietary needs. Don’t eat beef? No problem, swap in ground turkey, pork, or chicken. HECK, live on the wild side and use seitan if that’s what you prefer. (When substituting out the beef, you’ll probably want to add the optional Worcestershire sauce, which does have some glutamates in it, but you’re in control of how much goes into your food)

Ready? Oh and for what’s it’s worth, this project does not involve photogenic foods, so yay. (Sigh)

Fried pork chops are a quintessential Sunday Dinner and depending on the number of minions you are cooking for, they are fairly low effort. They are less touchy than fried chicken and completely company worthy, especially if it’s the kind of company that will hang out in the kitchen and talk while you burn the rice. Oh wait, that’s just me getting distracted by a 9yo making simple sweet cornbread. Multiple cooks in the kitchen = yay, unfortunately to get there we still have to go through multiple novices in the kitchen which is a wee bit distracting.

It’ll be worth the effort. Eventually.

If you’re cooking for more than 4 people, I highly suggest setting your oven to 200°F and holding the finished pork chops on a paper-towel lined plate. Unless of course you’re making roasted broccoli or brussels sprouts, which I strongly suggest as an accompaniment, then just cover the plate to keep them warm.

I had been planning on making onion gravy, like I serve with country-fried steak, but I realized the kids hate gravy of all kinds -weirdos- and I’m the only one I had to please, so I just sauteed the onions in the same pan I cooked the pork chops and well, I was quite happy. If you want to make onion gravy, by all means, be my guest.

*Novice Tip* The exact cook-time is going to be highly dependent on your stove and your cookware. If you have a gas stove and thin cookware, this recipe is going to be extremely touchy and I don’t recommend trying it without a thermometer.

If you have sturdy cookware it’s going to be a lot less touchy.

Don’t forget it you want to print this recipe, use the Print Friendly button up there on the right and you’ll easily be able to strip out extra text and photos.

Enjoy! (The 9yo called these “Heaven.”)

Taco Skillet?

Yep. We’re Home-Ec 101 here and one of my goals for 2013 is to go back and share those simple recipes that we assume everyone already knows how to make. This is as close to Hamburger Helper™ as you can get without opening a HH box. Sometimes dinner is just thrown together with what’s on hand. This Taco Skillet uses very basic pantry ingredients (including cheese and milk) and is great for those, oh crap, I don’t want to think and I don’t feel like leaving the house, but these people expect to be fed, kind of nights. Steam some vegetables on the side and you’re good to go.

Use ground turkey or beef, it’s up to you, just be sure to drain off the grease. Increase the cheese if you’d like and once you have the concept down, try variations like adding diced onion or bell pepper. Throw in a few handfuls of fresh spinach, a can of black or pinto beans, diced tomatoes. The choice is yours, just remember if you use a packet of taco seasoning to NOT add the salt.

It’s not a pretty dish, but sometimes pretty isn’t needed.

*Do not add salt if you use a taco seasoning packet
**Do not add salt if you use commercial chicken or beef stock
***Use a total of 4 cups of liquid, feel free to play with the ratios until you find what you like
****I don’t measure the cheese, I just grate about 4oz of cheddar directly into the pan, stir and call it good. Do whatever you’d like

Enjoy.

This no-salt taco seasoning mix recipe is a great way to keep your salt intake under control without sacrificing flavor. It takes all of 3 minutes to put together -5 if you’re the picture taking type- and it makes enough for about 4 recipes calling for a taco mix. Use 2.5 tablespoons of the taco seasoning mix wherever a packet of taco seasoning is suggested.

Keep in mind, when using this as a one-to-one substitution for a packet of taco seasoning that the recipe likely expects there to be quite a lot of salt in the seasoning mix (a little more than 1 tsp for every 2.5 TBSP of mix). You will likely need to add some salt, but you have a much finer control and probably won’t wake up in the middle of the night and stick your head under the faucet trying to guzzle ALL. THE. WATER.  Oh, I’m sure you’re much too fancy and would grab a glass even in the middle of the night, so forget I said anything.

Double, triple, quadruple, whatever you’d like.

Enjoy!