Getting Dirty

You know, I love my shower cleaner and my Swiffer Wet Jet, and neat stuff that makes the cleaning jobs faster and easier.  But when it comes time to pinch the pennies until they squeak, convenience cleaning gadgets aren't in the budget.  I recently stumbled on a free copy of Shameless Shortcuts, which reminded me that you don't need fancy toys to keep your place clean. There are good, inexpensive, tried-and-true cleaning methods that homemakers have relied on for decades.  What you'll lose is time:  it takes longer to scrub a tub than to push the Scrubbing Bubbles button.  What you gain is cash.


Make your own all-purpose cleaners:  For a light-duty cleaner, fill a 32 ounce spray bottle (save one when you use up what's in it) with water and add 3 teaspoons of dishwashing liquid.  For stronger stuff, combine equal parts white vinegar and water in a spray bottle.   For windows, it's 2 tablespoons of vinegar to a gallon of water.

DIY Furniture polish:  Mix 3 parts olive oil with 1 part white vinegar.  Although at today's prices a bottle of Pledge might be cheaper.

Vinegar is a great all-purpose cleaner and is cheap!  Use it to decalcify your coffee pot, disinfect your washing machine, remove lime deposits (apply vinegar-soaked paper towels to the deposits and come back in an hour).  Pour some in the toilet bowl and let it sit while you tidy up to disinfect.

Steam your microwave:  You don't need fancy exploding sponge thingies to clean the zapper.   Fill a microwave safe dish halfway with water and zap it a few minutes until it boils.  Some folks like to add a little lemon juice.  The steam softens the tried-on crud. You can neutralize stinky sponges by getting them wet and microwaving them for a minute.  The temperature of the steam kills the microbes making the stink (let it cool before you take it out).

Wax your tub:  Yes, grab some car wax and wax it (not the floor, though, it'd be too slippery).  Wax makes water bead up and roll away, taking with it dirt and water spots.  This works on sinks, appliances, basically any surface the wax says it's safe on. 

Baking soda:  Make a thick paste of baking soda and water for scouring.  This works great on anything stainless steel, on dishes or china that need a scrub, and while it's abrasive it won't scratch.  Sprinkle dry baking soda on a damp cloth to wash your fridge and freezer (remember to rinse afterward) to clean and deodorize.  Sprinkle baking soda on your carpet before you vacuum to pull out smells.  Put a half cup in your laundry to fight stains. 

One thing I'm not quite ready to give up:  My Swiffer Duster.  I adore my Swiffer duster, and so do the boys:  they will actually fight over who gets to dust with it.  Junior asked if he could spring clean this morning and dusted half the house, including a ceiling fan that was embarrassingly dusty.

Fleece Hats and Gaiters

You don't have to be crafty or a sewing expert to save money making your own hats and scarves or neck gaitors! I see fleece on sale at JoAnn's all the time, and I thought "How hard could a hat be?"

Well, never having made a hat and not being the type to reverse engineer one, I went to the internet. It was interestingly hard to find instructions, but Martha Stewart came through for me. (I like Martha Stewart's crafts, but I find they often aren't appropriate for the budgetarily challenged.)

First, acquire some fleece. Note that fleece comes in different weights and qualities; I prefer the "no pill" variety. With a good sale or your 50% off JoAnn's coupon (you signed up for that mailer, right?), you can get it as low as $3 a yard. I can get six hats out of a yard, or three hats with matching gaiters. If you have fleece scraps you could also piece some together to make a patchwork or motley hat.

You're going to need thread (contrasting thread can look nice, so check your sewing box before you buy), scissors, and a measuring tape. A sewing machine makes these go REALLY fast but they are simple enough to hand sew.

Hats:
1. You'll need one panel of fabric to make this hat. To determine the width of the panel, measure the circumference of your head (around your ears), or use the size chart below; add 1/4 inch on each side for seam allowance. The length for an adult hat should be about 13 inches; for a child's hat, about 10 inches. Note that fleece has a stretch to it one way - be sure to make the longest edge in the direction of the stretch. Cut out the panel.

2. Sew the short ends, right sides together, to form a tube. Martha says to trim seam allowance closely. I just finger-press it open (don't iron fleece, it's plastic). Keep it inside-out for now.

3. To make the hat's cuff, fold fabric up about 3 inches (the hat is still inside-out); fold in again 1/4 inch. Sew hem close to the turned edge.

4. Sew along the top of the hat, leaving a 1/4-inch seam allowance. Trim seam. Turn hat right side out.

6. Join the two corners of the top of the hat together with a single stitch. Using strong thread, bring the needle through the inside of one corner and through the other point. Pull thread tight so the corners meet at the center. Tie off the thread. On one hat I did not join the corners; I put a pom-pom on each point instead, to make them easy to tell apart. Kiddo says it needs bells!

Poms-Poms:
1. For a large pom-pom, cut a strip of fleece 24 inches in length (9 to 12 inches for a smaller pom-pom) and as wide as you would like the pom-pom to be. Fold the strip in half the long way.

2. Lightly draw a line down the center of the fabric lengthwise. Cut fringes to the left and right of the line, leaving about 1/4 inch uncut in the center. The fringes can be as narrow or as wide as you like. Roll up the strip of fabric.

4. Using strong thread such as upholstery thread, bring the needle through the core of the pom-pom (you may need a thimble), and wrap the thread tightly around the center a few times. Bring needle through the core again, and tie a knot as close to the pom-pom as possible. Use the excess thread to sew the pom-pom to the top of the hat.

Gaitor:
A neck gaitor is just a tube of fabric worn like a scarf. They're much harder to lose than scarves, and there's no ends always coming untucked. This is also really easy.

Single-layer Gaiter:
1. Cut a panel identical to the hat panel described above.

2. Right sides together, sew the short ends together to form a tube. Leave it inside out.

3. Turn under each raw edge about a half inch and sew all around.

4. Turn right side out.

Double-layer Gaiter:
1. Use the measurements for a hat, but double the shorter measurement (the crown measurement in the list below).

2. Sew the crown measurement sides together to make a tube. When sewn the stretch should be perpendicular to the seam, so the stretch goes around your head.

3. Fold the tube so it's doubled on itself, seam side IN.

4. Pin up the unsewn edges about a half inch each as for hemming. You may like to baste them, I don't. Sew these two edges together, on the RIGHT side (the seams should all be inside, including the ones you just pinned up).

5. If you like, go back to the folded edge and sew a matching decorative seam all around.

Scarves:
Scarves are really really easy.
1. Decide how long and how wide you'd like your scarf.

2. Cut a piece of fleece that big. Stretch should go the long way.

2a. For extra warmth, cut it double-wide, sew one seam the long way and turn it right side out. Finish with a matching seam along the folded side.

3. You can get fancy by fringing your fleece. Sew a single line 4-6 inches from the end of the scarf. Cut even lines in the fleece to about 1/4" of the line.

Martha's Average Head Sizes Chart:
Newborn (6 months and younger)
Circumference: 14 to 17 inches
Crown: 8 to 10 inches

Infant (6 to 12 months)
Circumference: 16 to 19 inches
Crown: 11 to 12 inches

Child (12 months to 3 years)
Circumference: 18 to 20 inches
Crown: 11 to 12 inches

Child (3 years and older)
Circumference: 20 to 22 inches
Crown: 13 to 14 inches

Adult Woman
Circumference: 21 to 23 1/2 inches
Crown: 13 to 15 inches

Adult Man
Circumference: 22 to 24 1/2 inches
Crown: 14 to 16 inches

Happy Easter!

Whether you believe in the Resurrection of Christ, pagan spring fertility rites, or just dig chocolate bunnies, I wish you a Happy Easter!

I managed to do pretty good cheap Easter baskets for the kids. I started about six weeks ago, combing the dollar bins at Michael's and prowling the Wal-Mart aisles. They ended up with cute little notebooks, sticky notes in the shape of their initials, little wind-up toys, candy corn with no artificial dyes, and pastel colored "chocolate" rabbits. I spent maybe 20 dollars on the whole thing, including egg dyes, baskets and grass. I would have loved to get more elaborate, but since they sat there playing with the stuff for over an hour, it's a success.

Easter has foiled my plans for blogging deboning chicken for later use (again), as Sam's Club is closed today. Safeway's less popular chicken parts are $2.39 a pound. No way. I did get a whole chicken at Wal-Mart, though, to roast and do the stock thing with again. See, we keep finding inexpensive chopped ham (five pounds for $4.99 today at Safeway), but we've been eating it almost exclusively for about six weeks. Now, to quote someone who's name I've forgotten, "Oatmeal every day is better than no oatmeal at all," but dang, I'm heartily tired of chopped ham. Chicken and rice was a nice change, even if I ate it five days in a row.

I found a new cheap recipe to put into the casserole recipe rotation. We haven't tried it yet; I'm making it tonight. This is courtesy of Baby Center: a Savory Bread Pudding. I hear bread pudding and think dessert (yum!), but we forget that a pudding is also a baked custard-y thing of almost any variety. Ask the British! This also bears a strong resemblance to the Stove Top Brunch Bake. In cooking, very generally speaking, you can think of "savory" as the opposite of a sweet, often rich and usually spicy. Webster's says "pungently flavorful without sweetness".

Savory Bread Pudding

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons butter or olive oil
4 slices bread, cut in half
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 cup broccoli, cut into small pieces
1 zucchini, cut into cubes
1 cup cooked chicken, turkey, beef or ham, cut into cubes
Salt and pepper
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1 cup grated hard cheese

Preparations:
Use 1 tablespoon butter or oil to grease the bottom of a large ovenproof skillet or baking dish. Place the bread slices so that they cover the entire bottom of the skillet or dish. Heat the remaining tablespoon of butter or oil in a skillet over moderate heat. Add the onion and cook 4 minutes. Add the broccoli and zucchini and cook 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Add the meat and cook 2 minutes. Remove from the heat and season with salt and pepper. Spread the cooked vegetables and meat on top of the bread slices. In a bowl, beat the eggs with the milk and half the cheese. Season with salt and pepper. Pour the egg mixture on top of the bread and sprinkle with the remaining cheese. Cover with foil and bake 20 minutes. Remove the foil and bake another 5 to 10 minutes, or until the cheese is bubbling and the eggs are cooked. Serve hot or at room temperature. (Makes 4 servings)

Variations:
This is a great way to use up leftover, somewhat "stale" bread. You can omit the meat and make this a vegetarian dish.

Bread never gets stale here, but I bought some day-old rolls at Wal-Mart ($1.50 for a dozen good-sized rolls), and used 2 1/2 of them to line a 9 x 13 baking dish (I sliced them like bruschetta). Zucchini is not a fav here, but I bought one broccoli head and a yellow onion. The meat, I have (shudder) cubed chopped ham. 4 servings won't be enough, so I'm going to increase the eggs to three and add an extra 1/2 cup of milk. The result should be somewhere between a bread pudding and a quiche. And most importantly, won't involve rice, pasta, or Cream of Celery soup. Just chopped ham....