Removing Water Marks from a Fabric Lamp Shade

Recipe

¼ cup dish liquid

¼ tsp. household ammonia

½ tsp. white vinegar

2 cups warm water

Blend together until it foams (I just used my whisk).  Dab with sponge on stains and rub lightly.  Wipe with sponge until stain disappears. Lightly moisten entire area of fabric so you don't create more water stains. Dry on cool setting of hair dryer.

I had a few stubborn stains that were much lightened but still visible so I just sprayed Spray 'n Wash on them and rubbed a bit with the damp sponge.  Then there was a titch of yellow still left in some stubborn areas so I sprayed again with Simple Solution Stain and Odor Remover that I keep to clean up dog potty accidents.  As you're drying with the hair dryer, if you see any remains of a water spot, just wipe with damp sponge and dry again.  The silky type fabric was temperamental.

Voila!  A lamp shade like new.

Pomegranate Frozen Yogurt

After tasting the pomegranate frozen yogurt at Red Mango, I instantly fell in love. After going to the restaurant a few times I decided to try making my own at home. I briefly looked for a recipe on the internet but I couldn't find anything so I decided to make up my own. So here it is, a Pomegranate Frozen Yogurt recipe that tastes pretty close to the stuff you can get at Red Mango.

First you have to make sure to get 100% pomegranate juice, with no sugar added. They have pomegranate juice cocktails that have sugar and other fruit juices added, but you do not want to use those. Red Mango uses POM brand pomegranate juice, but I have actually found that Langers All Pomegranate juice has a little bit of a stronger flavor and makes tastier frozen yogurt.

Pomegranate Frozen Yogurt

• 2 Cups Plain Yogurt
• 1 Cup Pomegranate Juice
• 1/4 Cup Sugar

Pour pomegranate juice and sugar into a sauce pan and heat on stove until sugar is just dissolved. Transfer mixture to a Tupperware container and put it in the refrigerator (1-2 hours). When the juice and sugar mixture is cold, remove and add the yogurt. Mix until well blended. Pour into ice cream machine and freeze like normal ice cream.

You can eat the frozen yogurt right away or let it set up in the freezer for an hour or so before eating. Enjoy!

Tank Top to Skirt

I never wear this tank top anymore, but I've had a hard time getting rid of it, because I love the color and pattern of the stripes (I am a little bit infatuated with stripey things).

Since I'm on a repurposing-roll after the dresses yesterday, I thought I should turn the tank into something. It was too small to make a dress for either girl, but what a great skirt it would make for Ava, eh?

First I placed a skirt of Ava's over the tank, then I cut out the shape of the skirt, leaving some wiggle room on the sides for hemming, and an extra inch or two on top for the elastic casing.

Once the pieces were cut out, I pinned them together, right sides facing. Then I took a ruler and made straight lines with a fabric marker down the side hems, to ensure I stitched it into a nice and straight A-line shape.

After stitching up the sides, all that was left was to create a casing for the elastic waistband. I turned over the top raw edge about an inch, pinned it down, then sewed all the way around, leaving a 2-inch open gap where I could sew the elastic closed. I used a 3/4 inch elastic, guided it through the casing with a safety pin, then sewed the elastic ends together with nice, tight, overlapping zigzag stitches.

Then I just sewed up the gap I had left open in the casing, and it was done.

It's a perfect fit!


Ava insisted that the skirt looked best with striped pants underneath it. And who am I to deny a girl her stripes??

This was a super easy job. I really want to make one for myself now. I just need to find a big-n-tall t-shirt to cut up. Oh, what's that you say? You can BUY knit fabric at the fabric store? Oh, I suppose I could do that, too. :)

Breathing Girly Life Into a Boring Tee

I felt like sewing something today, and since PJ is refusing to wear anything but dresses, a dress seemed like the right way to go.

Frugal momma that I am, I started with a 30 cent t-shirt (Halloween clearance at JoAnn) that I had attempted at one time to make into a fitted women's tee. It was..well, ugly, so I decided to try to give it new life as a toddler dress. I've had my eye on this cute, cute tutorial for a while and used it to get me going on the project.

Using a dress of PJ's to get the approximate shape and length, I cut up the shirt into a dress-ish shape.

I sewed up the sides with a straight stitch and finished the bottom hem with a rather uneven simple hem. The sleeves are unfinished (it's a rustic look. or punk. or lazy. or how about casual?).

{Somewhere around this time, Ava waltzed in and decided SHE wanted a dress, too. Fortunately I had another bargain JoAnn tee in a lovely purpley shade. More on that below.}

Now, I already had these little slits cut into the orange shirt from its failed existence as a woman's fitted tee, so I had to use them somehow. I decided to take strips of fabric from another tee and tie little bows through the slits.

I think it turned out pretty cute (but I think Ava's turned out even cuter).

For hers, I assembled it the same way, but I went with the ruffles, following the directions on the Oh So Happy Together tutorial. The ruffles were a little tricky to sew, but it's okay if they get messy. They still look cute. I nixed the green strips below, but I may have to do a white dress with a rainbow of strips some time...

Ava's dress was nice, because the length of the t-shirt made for a perfect length of dress, so I didn't have to mess with the bottom hem. Most playdresses are around knee-length, but I'm really liking the midcalf length for her.

For the sleeves, I decided to tuck under the fabric at the top of the shoulder and make a little 1/2 inch reinforced stitch perpendicular to the collar. That brought the fabric in a little at the shoulder for a more feminine line, and it also caused the fabric around the sleeve to curl under a bit, so that you don't notice that it's unhemmed. I like the look, for a casual play dress.

Ava wanted a matching headband, like the little girl on the tutorial, so I gathered up a long strip of the t-shirt fabric with a basting stitch and sewed it to a strip of elastic. The stitch ended up pretty uneven on the elastic, but no one will see that.


The girls had fun with the photo shoot, especially the elder child.



I think I may be raiding Derek's drawer for long-forgotten tees. It's very satisfying to make a dress in under an hour.

Whole Wheat Sweet Potato Pancakes!

In celebration of National Pancake Day (February 23, of course!), I experimented with a new pancake recipe. Our family is really into pancakes. It's one of those meals that never fails to fill every little or big tummy at the table. And we are all perfectly happy downing pancakes any time of the day.

Being a mom, I'm always trying to pull a fast one on my children. In the kitchen, this means sneaking nutritious stuff into normal everyday foods. Fortunately I don't have to be too sneaky. For example, Ava will not touch raw or cooked spinach with a 10-foot fork, but she insists that I put it in her smoothies. Strange, huh? Same with these pancakes. It really wasn't necessary to hide what went into them, and we all agreed that the "not-so-secret ingredients" make them even yummier than the original recipe. Pancakes are such a great food for squirreling away nutritious tidbits--bananas, ground oats, flaxseed meal, applesauce, etc. Once the syrup is slathered on, most little tasters don't notice the variations.

And now for the recipe. They're moist and tender and delicious. Easy, too.

Whole Wheat Sweet Potato Pancakes

2 eggs
2 C buttermilk
4 T butter, melted
1 C white flour
1 C whole wheat flour
2 T sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
A few dashes pumpkin pie spice (depending on your preference)
2/3 C pureed sweet potato

Beat the eggs in a large bowl. Add remainder of ingredients and mix. You know how to make pancakes.

Makes about 17 medium sized pancakes.

The batter.

Getting cooked up.


Note on puree:
For the sweet potato puree, I roasted a few sweet potatoes (washed but not peeled) in a baking pan in the oven at 400 degrees for about 80 minutes or so. Then I pulled off the peel and pureed the potatoes in a food processor, adding a little water to get the right consistency. Here's a lovely little dollop of sweet potato puree. That is some fine baby food, and also terrific for mixing into other things.

Homemade Baby Food

I decided to try out making my own baby food, and it was actually really easy and fun. I used the website wholesomebabyfood.com as a reference for different food ideas, recipes, and instructions on how to prepare the foods. If you want to try making your own food, I would recommend checking it out.

To make your own baby food you're going to need a food processor, or some sort of thing to mash up the food. I used one of these.

And one of these.
Seriously, a fork works really well on some foods and it's a lot easier and cleaner. And when your babies are older they can handle more chunks so a fork works well for that too.

The first recipe I tried was mixed veggies. With all recipes you want to make sure that the fruits and vegetables that you use are as fresh as you can get. They will taste better and have more vitamins and minerals. The website above talks about different ways to prepare each food. I baked the sweet potatoes...

Steamed, chopped up carrots...

And I actually just used frozen corn and warmed it up. And I used canned tomato sauce. Here's the recipe. I just kinda made it up as I went along and ended up liking it. You could add any other veggies and different amounts depending on what your baby likes.

Mixed Veggies

• 2 Carrots
• 1 Sweet Potato
• 1/2 - 1 Cup Corn
• 4 Tablespoon Tomato Sauce
• Water

Prepare and mush all vegetables separately. Mix all together in one bowl. Add water till you reach desired consistency.

Once you have the baby food the way you want it, you can put it in a container in the refrigerator to use within the next few days, or you can freeze for longer storage. To freeze, the easiest thing is to divide up the food into ice cube trays, cover with plastic wrap, and freeze. Each of the individual ice cube pockets holds about 1 oz of food, so once the food is frozen, you'll have conveniently divided 1 oz portions of food. Once the cubes are frozen, move to a freezer plastic bag for more permanent storage. When you're ready to use the food, just get a few cubes from the freezer and thaw.

Sweet Potato Pie

• 1 Sweet Potato
• 1/4 - 1/2 teaspoon of Cinnamon or Pumpkin Pie Spice
• Apple Juice

Prepare and mush sweet potatoes, add spices to taste, and apple juice till you reach desired consistency. You can refrigerate or freeze.

The next recipe I made used lentils. Lentils are one of my new favorite foods; they are so good for you and so cheap. Lentils are high in protein, fiber, and iron. They are on best foods lists for both babies and adults. I based this baby food recipe on a sausage and lentil soup recipe I made once. You should definitely give it a try. I know it looks disgusting, but it is delicious. It has some spices in it, like the sweet potato pie recipe. Spices are okay for older babies (8 months and up) and are a good idea for helping your child to like different flavors.

Lentil Stew

• 1/4 Cup Lentils (Brown)
  
• 2 Cups Water
• 1 teaspoon Chicken Bullion
  
• 1/8 teaspoon Cumin
• 1 Tablespoon Tomato Sauce

Rinse lentils and remove loose shells, drain. Mix water, and remaining ingredients. Add lentils and boil for 20 - 25 minutes or until the lentils are tender. Most if not all of the water will be evaporated so be careful to watch it. Cooking times and water amounts may vary according to type of lentils. Check the package instructions, that's where I got the water amount and cooking time. Once the lentils are cooked and tender, mush them up and add water till you reach desired consistency.

All of these recipes have been child tested. My son loves them.

Beef Broccoli Stir Fry

Ingredients:

1/2 cup oyster sauce
1/4 cup low-sodium chicken broth
2 Tbs sherry (Yes, I went to the liquor store)
2 Tbs light brown sugar
2 tsp toasted sesame oil (toasted is typically for Asian dishes)
2 tsp cornstarch
1 lb flank steak
2 Tbs oil (veg or peanut)
1 bunch broccoli (about 1.5 pounds)
1 red bell pepper
1/3 cup water
6 garlic cloves (minced)
3 scallions (for garnish)
1 Tbs grated ginger

1. Whisk oyster sauce, broth, sherry, brown sugar, sesame oil, and cornstarch together. Pat the beef dry with paper towels, then season with salt and pepper. *(I marinated my beef for 1 hour in soy sauce. It tenderizes the meat.)

2. Heat 1 Tbs oil. Brown the beef lightly. Transfer to clean bowl. *(It's okay if meat is still a little pink for now.)

3. Add broccoli, bell pepper, and water to skillet and return to medium heat. Cover and cook until the broccoli is emerald green, about 2 minutes. *( I cooked the broccoli and bell pepper separately. I cooked the ginger and garlic with the bell pepper.)

4. Add the remaining oil, garlic, scallions, and ginger and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Re-whisk the oyster sauce mixture to recombine, then add to the skillet with the beef. Toss until all ingredients are well coated with sauce. *(I used the scallions as a garnish on top instead of cooking it with the rest of the dish.)

5. Serve with a side of white rice. *(I used a box of Trader Joe's plain whole wheat rice with slivered almonds)
courtesy of: The America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook: Best Weeknight Recipes
*(I am a fan of America's Test Kitchen. Has anyone else watched it on PBS? I love it and love the cookbook.)

*** Some of you might know that I have a very picky husband that is hard to please. He loved this dish and has been craving it ever since I made it. Flavorful but not overpowering. It's also not goopy like that crap you get from those Asian style fast food restaurants. (Should I name a few?) I will definitely be making this one again.