The power of the Internet

I've mentioned before that I belong to a message board. We're a group of women who met online (on The Knot, to be exact) while planning our weddings. We have since left and created our own board where we chat pretty much daily. Many of us have "known" each other for 5 years or more. Every now and again, someone travels and a get together is planned for the traveler and those living there, where we can meet face to face.

Recently, Jet Blue had an All You Can Jet promotional pass. One of the women, whom loves to travel, decided to take advantage and planned a 23 day trip zig-zagging across the United States.

You can read about all of her travels on her blog.

She ended her trip here in Maine. You can read about her visit here.

There are only 2 of us from Maine on the message board, and we happen to live within 30 minutes of each other (so we've met multiple times already). M's schedule is a little more flexible than mine (meaning, she's not towing around 2 young kids!), so she picked Feisty up at the airport and brought her around to see the sights. Unfortunately, weather on Wednesday was horrid. It rained all day, so they didn't get to see much. They did, however, come to dinner at my place.

It wasn't like meeting someone new - it was like welcoming an old friend into my home.

It's an amazing thing, this Internet. You can research topics, find new recipes, keep in touch with family.

You can even meet new friends... or old ones.

Children's Creative Corner

We've had more than one crafting session this week, all inspired by this Martha Stewart project.

First we needed to make some glitter. Every recipe I found online was pretty much the same.

You'll need:

Mix together 1/2 cup salt with food coloring to get the color of your choice.

Spread evenly on a baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes at 350 (yes, I need to clean my oven. It could be - has been - worse).

Store in an airtight container (I'm using small jelly jars).

We ran out of time that afternoon to do much else because we had company coming (I'll explain later with "The Power of the Internet").

The next day, we pulled our glitter and plastic skulls and bones out only to discover a lack of glue in our house. Somehow, I didn't think using my hot glue gun would be safe with a 2 year old. I'm sure Monkey's fingers thank me for that. Off to an Internet search and I came up with this website, with different homemade glues and pastes. I opted for the No-Cook Paste but made it a little too soupy.

The soupy paste worked well enough. I do need to touch up a few spots, but I need to let it dry completely first (and the homemade stuff takes longer to dry).

Being as impatient as I am, I had to put them on display immediately (it also helped keep it out of Monkey's reach until they're dry, though!). Notice the $3 cake platter from our yard sale fun last spring. It got a paint job and now works great for displays.

Have a great day. And most importantly - have fun!

Recipes of the week

I have quite a few new ones to share this week. It almost seems like I cook a lot, doesn't it?

Double Mushroom and Marsala Cream Fettuccine is one I wanted to share last week. It has finally made an appearance online at Everyday. It was a very easy meal to make and I had everything on hand already, so it gets bonus points even. I didn't use the dried mushrooms (I'm sure some of you may remember the $6 mushroom fiasco last spring with T? Yeah - I decided to not go there again.). I substituted with white mushrooms (along with the cremini it calls for). I also used penne pasta because I was out of fettuccine. It got very good reviews. I believe this will be a go to meal for when we're just getting home from a weekend out of town because it consists 100% of items I have on hand all the time!

This week we tried Jasmine Rice-Stuffed Pork Chops, also from Everyday. T and I liked it but Monkey wasn't a fan. It may be because she hasn't been loving pork chops lately, though. I know sometimes you hear "stuffed" and think "I'm not trying to make it. Stuffing is too much work." Don't let it even cross your mind here. They were really easy because you aren't making a pocket in the meat but actually cutting it open like a book.

We also tried Apple-Cider Glazed Baby Back Ribs, once again from Everyday. I used country style ribs because it's what I had in the freezer. It has potential, but it didn't floor me - which very well could have been because of the meat I used. I am going to try this again. Next time, I think I'll mix it all into the slower cooker instead so it can really get into the meat (I have a lot of country style ribs now that our pork has arrived!).

I paired the ribs with Barley-and-Kielbasa Pilaf (Everyday). It was very easy to make and it wasn't too bad in the taste department, but I won't be making it again. It gave T heartburn and he requested to not see it again. Since it didn't blow me away, I'm fine with making it disappear.

I made baked beans for the first time ever. I used Alton Brown's recipe for The Once and Future Beans (I have no clue what the name is all about). I have always been intimidated by beans. I've now found I've been intimidated for absolutely no reason. While beans are time consuming, they are not labor intensive. We enjoyed them and I can see myself making them again.

Last but not least is a Chicken Wild Rice Chowder. Unfortunately, I don't know where I got this recipe but it is so good, I'm sharing it here.

You'll need:

• 2 cups sliced fresh carrots
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 1/2 cup chopped celery
• 2 tbs butter
• 3 tbs AP flour
• 2 cans chicken broth
• 2 2/3 cups cubed cooked chicken
• 1 8.8 oz package ready-to-serve long grain & wild rice
• 1/4 cup half and half
• 1/8 tsp pepper

Saute carrots, onion and celery in butter until tender. Stir in flour until blended. Gradually add broth. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes, until thickened. Stir in chicken, rice, cream and pepper and heat through.

I used 2 4.5 oz packages of Carolina Long Grain & Wild Rice mix. This takes 25 minutes to cook, so I added it after the broth was boiling and let it do it's thing. I also ended up adding 4 cups of water (the rice needed the liquid to cook and there would have been no broth left). I added the chicken, cream and pepper with 5 minutes left to go on the rice. It got rave reviews.

That's it for this week.

Enjoy your kitchens!

Children's Creative Corner

I mentioned Monday I wanted to start having a weekly craft afternoon with Monkey (and Little Man when he's old enough, obviously!).

We started yesterday with an old recipe for play dough. I copied this from my mom's recipe box. She's had it since I was a kid, so I have no idea where it originated from.

I'd like to mention, I think she had more fun actually making it than playing with it afterwards.

You will need:

2 cups flour

1 cup salt

2 cups water

4 tsp cream of tarter

2 tbs oil

1 tbs alum

Mix together.

Stir until no lumps.

Cook 3 minutes (I had it on medium heat), always stirring.

Pour onto wax paper.

Monkey deleted the picture I had. I was certain I had messed it up because it was still pretty juicy. It ended up sitting for about 15 minutes because Little Man needed to eat.

I sprinkled a bit of flour on it before kneading and this is what I got.

Then I added food coloring. This is what happens when you aren't careful about mixing it in well and touching the coloring with your bare hands. Oops!

This is what we ended up with.

She enjoyed making blue pizza (even tossing the dough like me!). And loved the Mickey Mouse heads. I currently have another sitting on my kitchen table!

Wrap your dough tightly in plastic wrap and it will last a while (I'll try to remember to tell you how long when I'm forced to toss it. haha).

Most importantly - HAVE FUN!

Wine mishaps

We had a terrible wine tragedy in our house this weekend.

You see these 2 beauties?


This picture was taken last fall, when T first tried his hand at making wine. The air lock on the right met Monkey's hand and needed to be replaced after these batches were bottled. That's not too big a deal, right? It's small and easy to replace.

T has made and bottled 2 batches so far this summer (with hopes of at least 1 more before the snow flies and it's too cold in the basement for the set up).

This past weekend, he was going to transfer a new batch from the fermentation bucket into the empty carboy. So he started hauling his gear to the bathtub to clean and sanitize everything. Alas, the poor man lost his grip on his carboy and it met the cement floor at the bottom of the basement stairs.

At least it was empty. It was only slightly as tragic as the day his wine rack got wobbly and we lost 10 bottles to the cement last spring...

A somber service was held over a cardboard box to be delivered to the recycle center with the rest of our glass, newspaper and cardboard next week.

Now I'm searching online for a cheap carboy for the man, as well as the floor corker I was hoping to get him before he needs to bottle again.

I'm back to my online search, hoping to deliver Christmas early in the LTRLT household.