Off-Topic Checking In

May 19, 2013 By Heather Solos 22 Comments

Heather says:

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.

Filed Under: All

Hearty White Sandwich Bread

May 3, 2013 By Michele Newell 4 Comments

Michele says:

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.

Filed Under: Cook It Tagged With: Bread, Cooking Basics, Recipes

How to Care for Acrylic Flooring

April 30, 2013 By Heather Solos 1 Comment

Heather says:

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.

(Oh, and if you do go through that link and find something neat, it’s affiliate which means I get a few pennies, which helps keep this site running. I love y’all, but *gasp* a little financial reward for 6 years of writing isn’t entirely unreasonable. The minions are growing and didn’t I just buy them shoes? Yes, I do buy their shoes before I enable my geeky t-shirt addiction)

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.

Filed Under: All, Clean It, Fix It Tagged With: Flooring, Kitchen

Meet Frankenseam (AKA The Whip Stitch)

April 24, 2013 By Michele Newell 7 Comments

Michele says:

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.

Filed Under: Sew It Tagged With: beginner sewing projects, Mending, sewing

Albondigas Soup, Simplified for Weeknight Ease

April 22, 2013 By Heather Solos 3 Comments

Heather says:

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!
Ground Beef Soup

: Simplified Albondigas

: This is a weeknight version of the classic Albondigas or Mexican Meatball Soup

2lbs lean ground beef
2 small cans diced green chilies
2 14.5 oz cans diced tomatoes or use an equivalent amount of fresh, diced tomatoes about 2.5 cups
1 bunch green onions – chopped, include the bulb, but set aside and chop that separately
3 cloves garlic – minced or pressed -divided use half in the beef half in the broth
1 bunch cilantro – chopped
1/2 cup rice
2 qts beef broth or stock (low sodium if possible, if not, I recommend using Better Than Bouillon
salt, pepper, and Tabasco or Chalula to taste

Directions:

In a large, heavy pot brown the ground beef with the bulb portion of the green onions and about half of the garlic.
Drain any fat.
Add the 2 qts of stock or broth and increase the heat of the burner.
Add the green chilies, diced tomatoes, the rest of the garlic, 1/2 cup of rice, and about half of cilantro and green onions.
Bring to a simmer and cook until the rice is done. Taste the broth and adjust the seasoning as desired.
Add the last of the cilantro and green onions just before serving -this adds a bright, fresh taste.
Serve with warm, flour tortillas

Preparation time: 10 minute(s)

Cooking time: 20 minute(s)

Number of servings (yield): 8

Filed Under: Cook It Tagged With: Ground Beef, Recipe, Soup Recipes, Weeknight

Pork and Miso Ramen

April 18, 2013 By Michele Newell 3 Comments

Michele says:

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.

Filed Under: Cook It Tagged With: Main Dishes, Pasta, Pork, Recipe

Mending a Hole in Blue Jeans

April 11, 2013 By Michele Newell 9 Comments

Michele says:

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.

Filed Under: Sew It Tagged With: beginner sewing projects, Mending, sewing

Balsamic Marinated Chicken Thighs

April 9, 2013 By Heather Solos 10 Comments

Heather says:

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

Balsamic Chicken Thighs

: Chicken Thighs Marinated in Balsamic Vinegar

1/2 cup balsamic vinegar

Juice from 1 lemon
2 TBSP Dijon mustard
2 TBSP olive oil
1 tsp crushed red pepper
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 tsp dried rosemary – or 1 tsp fresh, chopped
1/2 tsp dried thyme
3 – 4 lbs chicken thighs
salt / fresh ground pepper

In a small bowl, whisk together the first 8 ingredients. In a shallow, non-reactive container (ie glass or plastic, or even zippered plastic bag) pour all of the marinade over the chicken thighs.
Cover and place the container in the refrigerator and allow to marinate for several hours or overnight. Turn the pieces once in a while to ensure they all have a reasonably even coating. (This is where the large zippered bag is handy, check the seal and hand it to a minion to shake)
Preheat the oven to 425F and make sure one of the racks is in the middle position.
Remove the chicken from the marinade and shake off any excess. Sprinkle lightly with salt and pepper. Place the chicken skin side up in a as small a baking dish as possible. The point is to ensure the skin is nicely browned, but the chicken isn’t spread out so far that it will dry out before it reaches a safe temperature.
Roast for approximately 35 – 50 minutes -this depends on whether or not you took the chicken out of the fridge as recommended in Cooking for Geeks -the whole don’t skip a temperature stage idea) Use a meat thermometer and remove the chicken from the oven as soon as it hits 165F.

Cooking time: 35 – 50

Number of servings (yield): 6

Filed Under: Cook It Tagged With: Chicken, Cooking Basics, Recipe

Easy Italian Bread

April 4, 2013 By Michele Newell 6 Comments

Michele says:

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.

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!

Filed Under: Cook It Tagged With: Bread, Cooking Basics, Recipe

Sunlight as a Disinfectant for Laundry

April 1, 2013 By Heather Solos 1 Comment

Dear Home-Ec 101,

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.

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