Problem: A wrinkled sleeve.
Solution: A can of starch? Cost of $4.89. Stinky. And usually leaves a white residue on darker garments.
No, no. No need for starch anymore…
All you need is an iron and a $0.50 spray bottle full of H2O (water). That’s it!
Spray down the garment with some of the water…
and iron.
So easy, so effective and free. What more could you ask for?
Look at how beautifully it makes a crease and gets rid of the wrinkles! Try for yourself…
Do you remember the ‘cliff notes’ (that’s what we called them then) from high school? For those of you who are unfamiliar with the brilliance of these “pamphlets”, CliffsNotes , as they’re so famously named, they skim a book’s contents and fill you in on all you need to know to feel as though you’ve “read it”, without actually reading it. You could easily write a book report using those!
Well, now they have a cheat sheet for the news, local and foreign. It’s fantastic and a brilliant concept.
You know those dark years of news ignorance that you go through after college? Where you don’t have a subscription to a newspaper, delivered or online, you don’t have the ambition or great interest to pursue the world’s happenings by buying a paper or seeking out a news website? And so you end up in this kind of black hole of oblivion where you only know about anything exciting that’s going on and then, only through the garbled point of view of another uniformed colleague.
Now there’s a way to connect to today’s news without any effort, daily, without any effort or money. A girlfriend of mine sent me the link to a website called, cleverly, The Skimm. If you give them your email address, they will send you a daily news briefing. And I mean brief! It’s great! They skim all of the previous day’s newspapers and send you the extremely edited version of the major goings-on, first thing in the morning. They send you an email every morning, Mon-Fri.
It is perfect for those of us who would like to be in the know, but don’t want to make the effort to spend mucho hours researching & reading multiple media outlets for the info. You don’t even have to think about it. It just comes to your inbox every day & you can even skim The Skimm!
I’ve never been more informed, without lifting a finger. Ok, maybe I have to lift my pointer finger and slide it around on my Iphone screen to open the email. But that’s all the heavy lifting needed!
Get your daily dose of national & international news in as brief a format as possible. Check it out!
I’ve watched my fair share of TV shows throughout my life….
As a young ‘un, I grew up alongside Laura Ingalls in Little House on the Prairie. In high school I swooned over Dillon in Beverly Hills 90210. In college I drooled over Jake Hanson in Melrose Place. During my early years of marriage my heart broke when Charlie Salinger was diagnosed with cancer in Party of Five. I found myself delighted by a philandering, sociopathic, murdering Mob boss in the Sopranos. Followed by an intense captivation of Walter White in Breaking Bad. Madness and terror in Game of Thrones.
The level of wholesomeness in the TV shows I’ve watched throughout my life has steadily gone downhill…
Until Downton Abbey.
I will probably never encourage my Beach Rose to watch the beheading of Ned Stark in Game of Thrones, but I will most certainly be trying to persuade her to pick up this classic series.
There are only a few television series that become classics. That are passed along from one generation to another. That are worthy of being passed along.
Little House on the Prairie is one such example. There isn’t a mother out there who would prevent their daughter from watching that innocent and touching show!
And now, Downton Abbey…
Oh, how I will sing the praises of Downton Abbey to my little girl and tell her that she just must enrich her life by watching it.
To be transported to a time when some of an aristocrat woman’s biggest concerns were what dress to wear to dinner. When your every domestic obligation was carried out by the hired help. When you had to decide whether to fill your day with a leisurely stroll among the grounds of your estate or at a royal ball.
I, along with millions of people across the world, looked forward to my Sunday nights with my mug of hot vanilla chai tea, snuggled up to my hubby on the couch to lose myself in Lord Grantham’s world.
Every show, in every season, was lovely. There was some suspense as to what happened to the characters that you had grown to know and love. There might be a struggle, some heartbreak, some family squabbles, but for the most part all episodes ended resolved. And brought you a sense of peace and well-being. And didn’t cause the anxiety or nausea or disgust that dissolving bodies in a vat of acid might bring about when watching Breaking Bad.
And although “everyone lived happily ever after” in the finale, it is exactly what every viewer expected and loved about the wonderful feeling Downton Abbey left you with each time you shut off the TV at 10pm on Sunday nights, when it finished.
There could have been no better nor more appropriate way to bring the show to a close than to have Maggie Smith utter the last line, in reference to wishing that times were not a changing and that we could all stay in the past and revel in it.
For we all wish that this were the case with Downton. We all wish that the show would go on.
What a fantastic book. I realize that I should have been reading this one during junior high or high school, as an English class required reading book. But it was never assigned to me and at that age I just did not have the interest in how should I say, books of ‘quality’.
I’m a romantic at heart and become extremely disappointed when the protagonist and their apparent match do not end up together. I am unashamed to admit that at the end of this book I was not at all pleased with Louisa May Alcott and came away with a bit of a chip on my shoulder that Jo and Laurie did not end up together. I do not pretend to agree with the idea of Laurie being turned away by Jo, his heart in a million pieces, and finding solace and love with her sister. It seems absolutely unbelievable that all would be content with the rearrangement of lovers; that there would be no dissention, no jealousy, no spite or bitterness between the sisters and Laurie.
And what of Mrs. March? Why did she persuade Jo not to love Laurie? It irritates me that she dissuaded her and I wonder if she didn’t selfishly want Jo there, as the one with the strongest constitution in the family, to shoulder the burdens of caring for Beth and tending to her parents after Beth’s death. I also wonder if she didn’t think more of her “baby”, Amy, and wish that Laurie would love her instead of Jo, since Amy’s passion was always to be rich, which Laurie was & would provide her, while Jo couldn’t have cared less about money.
Asides from this letdown, I thoroughly enjoyed every aspect of this lovely book. Reading Little Women made me want to be a better woman and made me want to raise a better little woman.
Maybe I, too, should sacrifice & make my little Beach Rose sacrifice our breakfast one day to give to someone in need, or volunteer at a soup kitchen for a meal, or take a cherished food item of ours and hand-deliver it to the Food Bank…
And I loved the idea that necessity as well as solitude/boredom is the mother of invention. Wouldn’t I just love to take my TV set and throw it out the window….
Create a little boredom…
Force a little creativity…
So many wonderful lessons to learn from this delightful read. I cannot wait for my Beach Rose to get this as her reading assignment in school and to read it again alongside her!
This “lasagna” tastes as if Mac-n-Cheese and American Chop Suey got married and this was its baby.
Hearty, rich in flavor, cheesy, saucy, meaty and yummmmy!
There are a few steps to this recipe, but wow is it worth it.
The Macaroni:
Boil 1 1/2 pounds of macaroni until just under al dente. Drain.
Brown 1 stick of butter. Pour it over the macaroni.
Separate 2 eggs. Reserve egg yolks for Bechamel sauce later. Beat the egg whites.
Pour them over the macaroni.
Sprinkle with 1/4 pound of freshly shredded Parmesan cheese and stir to combine. Set aside.
The Meat:
Brown another stick of butter.
Sauté 2 pounds of ground beef and 1 chopped onion in the browned butter, until fully cooked.
Add 1/2 cup of white wine,
1 1/2 pounds canned crushed tomatoes, 1 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon pepper,
and a very small piece of a cinnamon stick. Simmer until all of the liquid has been absorbed.
Remove the pan from the heat, remove the stick of cinnamon, and add 1/8 pound of freshly shredded Parmesan cheese and 1/2 cups bread crumbs. Mix well.
Bechamel Sauce:
Melt 8 tablespoons butter in a large saucepan.
Add 12 tablespoons flour to it, slowly, blending thoroughly.
Remove the pan from the heat, and slowly add 4 cups of scalded milk (how to scald milk below…), stirring constantly.
(Scalded Milk: Put 4 cups of cold milk in medium saucepan. Set over medium heat. Keep watch. When you start to see tiny bubbles along the edges of the pan, it’s scalded! Scalded milk means that you’ve brought milk up to the temperature just before it starts to boil.)
Return the pan to the heat and stir until the mixture thickens.
It should coat the back of a spoon, as such!
Beat the 2 egg yolks well.
Temper the egg yolks (warm them up slowly, so that they don’t scramble) by adding small spoonfuls of the hot bechamel mixture at a time.
Once the yolks have been “warmed up”, add them to the bechamel mixture on the stove, stirring until well blended. Add salt and pepper to taste.
THE LASAGNA!
Butter a 9 x 13 inch lasagna pan (larger if you’ve got it!). Sprinkle with 1/2 cup of bread crumbs.
Spread 1/2 of the macaroni evenly in the pan.
Cover with the meat mixture.
Add the remaining macaroni. It will be near overflowing in a 9 x 13 inch pan!
Pour the Bechamel sauce over the top. Sprinkle with some additional Parmesan cheese and
some bread crumbs.
Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes, until golden brown.
Serves 6-8.
Bon Appétit, Ma Chérie!
Finally! An easy to follow gratin potatoes recipe!
I cannot tell you how many times I have tried to make this dish, worked on it for hours, only to have the potatoes come out undercooked or to have the custard break.
And yet, I was always in search of perfecting it, because I knew that the flavors were marvelous.
However, it’s been a frustrating (and expensive!) process to get to this point!
Save yourself the aggravation and try out this delicious, and super-simple way…
Let the savory adventure begin!
Start with 4 cups VERY thinly sliced russet potatoes, in a large bowl. (I cut them on a mandolin and they came out looking like they would make great potato chips!)
Toss the potato slices with 1 teaspoon salt,
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper,
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg,
and 1 clove of garlic, finely minced, until they are all coated.
Butter, salt and pepper a shallow baking dish.
Place 1/3 of potatoes in the dish and then add 1/3 of the 1 1/2 cups of Gruyére cheese that you’ve shredded (like how I just assumed that you’d already done that?!).
Cut 4 tablespoons of butter into thirds.
Cut up one of those thirds into small pieces and dot the top of the gruyére. Sprinkle with some freshly ground black pepper and a pinch of kosher salt.
Repeat twice.
In a small bowl, crack 2 large eggs and add 1cup of heavy cream.
Beat together slightly.
Pour over the potatoes, covering them evenly.
Sprinkle the top of the gratin with 3 tablespoons freshly shredded parmesan cheese.
Bake, covered in foil, for 40 minutes at 375 degrees. Then remove foil and bake uncovered until the top is golden, about 10 minutes longer.
**Special note: This dish must be put in the oven fairly soon after it’s assembled. If not, your potatoes will turn gray and your gratin, no matter how tasty it is, will only be eaten by you!
This is such a sexy side dish. It’s silky and decadent and impressive!
Serves 6, easily.
Bon Appétit, Ma Chérie!
Oh yum. Yum. Yum.
I am certain that you will love this recipe for meatloaf. It is so incredible and, as a matter of fact, if I could I would put a guarantee on this delicious concoction!
See for yourself…
Let the savory adventure begin!
For the Sauce:
In a small bowl, mix together 2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon of brown sugar,
1 teaspoon dry mustard,
2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon of white vinegar,
1 teaspoon of classic yellow mustard,
1/2 of an 8-ounce can of tomato sauce,
1 teaspoon of celery salt and about 1/2 teaspoon of kosher salt.
Stir until the sugar is dissolved.
For the Loaf:
In a large bowl combine 1 teaspoon kosher salt with 1 pound of ground beef,
add 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper,
and 1/2 of an onion, diced.
Take one egg and beat it slightly in a small bowl.
Add 1/2 of the beaten egg to the loaf mixture.
Add 1/2 of the sauce to the loaf mix.
Take 3-4 saltine crackers and crumble them between your fingers (no special cooking techniques here!),
and add 2 tablespoons worth to the loaf mixture.
Combine all ingredients together with your fingers, using your fingers to aerate* the meat as you mix.
*Aerate: plunging your fingers down into meat mixture vertically, multiple times, as you’re incorporating all of the ingredients, so as to create pockets of air throughout the meat mix!
Shape into a loaf and place on sheet pan.
Pour rest of sauce over the top of the meatloaf.
Cover with foil.
Bake at 375 degrees for 50 minutes – 1 hour.
Serves 4, but will want to double the recipe as there never seems to be enough!
Bon Appétit, Ma Chérie!
I was born a nail biter.
I have had short nails my whole life.
Most often, bitten to the quick. With unsightly bloody hangnails.
Attractive, right?
For a few years I tried fake nail tips, just so that I could so what it felt like to have long nails. But, I’d inevitably bite those off too, and end up with ragged, bumpy pieces of fake nail left.
So, there’s no way to have nice hands if you’re a nail-biter, is there?
Well, I found the way.
Really!
And it is ridiculously simple.
Buy a $4.00 jar of nail polish, and apply it.
That’s it!
Wearing nail polish is a proven deterrent to nail biting. Your nails look pretty polished, even if they are short and stubby. So you don’t want to mess that up and your refrain from biting.
And if you’re not into the look of brightly colored fingertips, buy yourself a jar of clear polish and it’ll do the trick.
Try it…you’ll see!
This is sew easy to do!
You’ve always wanted to sew a straight line with your sewing machine. However, when you’re through sewing, you find that the line looks a bit wobbly, as if you’d indulged in a 2 martini lunch!
Well, practice definitely makes perfect. And if you practice like this, you’ll be a pro in no time…
You don’t need thread in your needle. (That way you won’t waste any!) I just used it to try to illustrate sewing a very straight line!
That simple. If you don’t get it straight the first 10 times, keep doing it all over the piece of paper. By the time you’ve “sewn” down every line on that 8 1/2 x 11 inches of paper, you will be an expert!
So, I found out a few years ago that I and my 2 sisters were hoodwinked as kids. I’m not sure why I’m surprised, as my hubby and I do a lot of that already as parents…
My parents admitted that they occasionally “stole” some of the toys at the bottom of our toy baskets, put them away where we’d never find them and presented them as new “gifts” for birthdays or Christmas!
Who can blame them?
You know the saying…
“The more one gets, the more one wants.”
I’d heard it growing up, time and time again…
“Mom, can I have a Cabbage Patch doll?”.
“No honey, you have plenty of dolls. The more one gets the more one wants. Be content with the dolls you do have.”
“Mom, can I have another jelly bean?”
“No honey, just be content with the ones you were given.”
It made me crazy to hear this and I rolled my eyes all the time. And I kept thinking that it wasn’t fair that I was deprived of whatever it was I wanted.
But now that I am a Mom, I appreciate the concept of a giving kids a finite amount of “things”. Limiting what they get keeps them from getting spoiled or bored or ungrateful.
As a parent, don’t give your kids too much. Of anything. Toys, treats, tv, etc.
They will inevitably receive a ridiculous amount of gifts for Holidays, birthdays, etc, from friends and relatives. Your job is to filter through it, quickly, and stealthily(!) and set aside most of it for a rainy day, a prize incentive for great behavior or accomplishment, or just to give away to another child more needy.
This goes for the toy basket, too. Every couple of months, dive to the bottom of that thing and sift through it all. Those toys that have been long neglected and forgotten can be given to new homes.
The less they have, the more they’ll appreciate what they do have and whatever they receive!
I think that my parents were brilliant for rotating our toys. We never knew the difference.
You just have to be sure that you know for sure which toys to “steal”…don’t mistakenly get rid of your Baby’s favorite dolly or she’ll be talking about you in her therapy sessions when she’s 20!
Yeah right, Mom 