Funky Doll Sofa, Almost Free (Tutorial)

Dollygirl's 18-inch dolls have lots of clothes, but they're short on furniture.  To help them out, I made this oversized chair, or sofa--depending on how many dolls (or guinea pigs) are squeezed onto it.  It requires a bit of sewing, but no gluing or nailing.

Start with one rather old hinged-lid chicken wings box, or anything else of that sort.  If you don't have an old hinged-lid chicken box but do have a box with its own lid, about the size of a child's shoebox, you can tape the lid to the back of the box and use that. 
Add one cut-down cereal box, stuffed with newspaper.  The cereal box needs to be the same size as the first box.  Stuff it inside, tightly.  Or you could just stuff the first box and then cover the seat with a piece of cardboard.

Now you have something that resembles a bed with a bookcase headboard.  Stuff the "bookcase" part with more crumpled newspaper.

Now it's time for some cutting and sewing. Take a child-size skirt, or the equivalent in other fabric. (Dollygirl had an old corduroy skirt she'd grown out of a  long time ago.)  Sew it into a tube that will fit nicely around the box.  When you slip it over the box, it should give you almost, but not quite, enough fabric to completely slipcover the sofa.  Sort of like a fabric tissue box cover, or a tea cozy.  It doesn't have to be perfect, because you're going to make a second piece to fit over the top. 

Here is the second piece of fabric (photo below).  I don't know how well you can see this in the photo, but I hemmed around the bottom and also wrapped it around and sewed in two places, making two corners that stand up.  It's not mandatory, but I thought it gave the top piece a better fit.

Now you slip that piece over the back of the sofa, tucking it in behind the seat.

If you have any fabric left, you can make cushions for the sofa. I made two tube-shaped pieces that work as arms for the couch, and two square ones. I machine-sewed them, leaving one side open; stuffed them with quilt batting (you could use any kind of stuffing), and hand-sewed the last side of each.

That's all!

Photos by Mr. Fixit, Dewey's Treehouse, 2012

Linked from Mad Skills Link Party #118 at Mad in Crafts, and from the Festival of Frugality.

What dolls do on a hot day

Lemonade stand made by Dollygirl.  Crissy's bellbottoms and Abby's sweater by Mama Squirrel.

Photographs by Dollygirl, Dewey's Treehouse, 2012

What's for supper? Pizza chicken

Tonight's menu:

Pizza chicken (cut-up chicken breasts cooked with canned pizza sauce, green peppers, and mozzarella cheese)
Whole-wheat spaghettini

Banana-Bread Sundaes (a fancy-dessert-glass concoction of a bit of banana bread, a bit of mostly-thawed banana, a bit of mostly-thawed yogurt, a spoonful of peach jam, and some frozen strawberries warmed in the microwave)

Quote for the Day: "Call forth its riches"

“If your daily life seems poor, do not blame it; blame yourself, tell yourself that you are not poet enough to call forth its riches; for to the creator there is no poverty and no poor indifferent place.”

― Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

What's for supper? on the frugal side

Tonight's menu:

Spicy Lentil Soup with Kielbasa
Pita bread from the bottom of the freezer, cut in triangles, sprayed with olive oil, and crisped in the oven

Fruit crisp made with leftover cereal (run through the food processor), frozen blueberries, leftover cranberry sauce, and the end of a jar of jam

What's for supper? Turkey Fajitas

We've been making the same Chicken Fajitas recipe for years--when we actually do use a recipe.  Sometimes we just cook chicken or turkey with salsa and call it done. 

Tonight we had some leftover white turkey meat, and green peppers, and tortillas...so we had Turkey-Pepper Fajitas with Cheddar cheese, sour cream, and olives for those who like olives (me).  I cooked a pot of rice to go with them.  (I know fajitas aren't supposed to be served with cheese, but too bad.)

Here's the recipe, since I don't think I've ever posted it here.  It was clipped from a newspaper years ago, so I don't know whose it was originally.  It's online here, but I don't think the contributor created the recipe.

Chicken Fajitas (or Leftover Turkey Fajitas)

3 to 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (or leftover chicken or turkey meat)
2 tbsp. lime juice (we use lemon juice because it's what we usually have around)
2 tbsp. salsa
1 clove garlic, minced (or garlic powder)
1 tsp. chili powder
1/2 tsp. ground cumin
Few drops hot pepper sauce (optional)
8 7-inch flour tortillas
1 tbsp. olive or vegetable oil
1 large onion sliced, and/or 1 green or red pepper, sliced in strips (we often use just one or the other)
Black pepper (optional)
Toppings:  salsa, sour cream, etc.

If using raw meat:  cut into thin strips, place in a bowl, and add lime juice, salsa, garlic, chili powder, cumin, and hot pepper sauce.  Stir well and set aside.  (Because we had already-cooked turkey meat, I just sprinkled the mixture on the plate of turkey and let it sit while I got other things ready.)

In large skillet over medium-high heat, heat oil.  Saute onions and peppers until tender-crisp, three or four minutes.  Remove from skillet and set aside. 

Add chicken and any juices in bowl to skillet.  Cook, stirring, until chicken is cooked through.  Return onions and peppers to pan.  The mixture should be quite moist; if necessary, add a little more salsa.  Add black pepper if wanted.  Stir over high heat until very hot, about one minute.  Spoon chicken mixture onto warm tortillas.  Add desired toppings and roll up.

Cooked Turkey Variation:  I stir-fried the green pepper strips for a few minutes, then added the chopped, cooked turkey that had been sprinkled with the salsa mixture.  I just let it all heat through and that was it.  I did add a bit of water so that it wouldn't get too dry.

Linked from Easy Back to School Meals at The Common Room, August 2013.

Yes, it's been a slow week

What's up in the Treehouse?

Mr. Fixit is fixing (and selling) as many things as he can.  Unfortunately, that didn't include our water heater, which suddenly quit after fifteen years, or our mattress, which gave its last bounce after twenty-plus.  Even Mr. Fixit has his limits. But clocks and radios--that, he's very good at.

The Apprentice is still cutting hair and getting ready to go back to classes.

Ponytails is getting geared up for Grade 10.

Dollygirl is trying to ignore the fact that school is around the corner.  Well, actually her school is in the basement, not around the corner, but you know what I mean.

Mama Squirrel is working on a lot of small projects.  Mr. Fixit and Dollygirl have one in progress too (not a radio). When a few of them are done, we'll do a photo post.

Till then...

Quote for the day: "The best year ever."

"I think this is going to be the best year ever all because I reread Towards a Philosophy of Education."--Cindy Rollins, "The First Day of Year 25," at Ordo Amoris.

Go, Cindy!

What's for supper? Chicken and dumplings.

I realized I have a lot of chicken so thawed some this morning without knowing what I was doing with it. I've been stirfrying a lot lately so I wanted to try something a little different. Martha Stewart's Chicken and Dumplings recipe looked promising. I halved the recipe and used mixed peas and carrots with some onion flakes for the vegetables. I would watch the salt as I feel I oversalted a bit, and wasn't a big fan of the broth I used. Make sure you stir more often than the recipe requires...mine wanted to stick to the bottom of my Corningware. I used chicken thighs...the nutty flavour really added to the dish but breast would have been better in terms of texture.

What's for supper? Enchiladas

Tonight's dinner menu (just three of us here): chicken-cheese enchiladas, made with the leftovers from last night's chicken.

A sign of the times: the packages of large flour tortillas, that used to contain eight, have been cut to six. Large humph for that.

What's for supper? Hot chicken on a bun

Tonight's dinner menu:

One chicken from the freezer, cooked in the slow cooker with a little barbecue sauce, served on hamburger buns
Green beans

Brannies (brownies made with chocolate and bran cereal)
Pears

Vanilla Magic Milkshakes

We all might have books inside of us

But not all of us manage to get them out.

Exceptions: 

Melissa Wiley:  Fox and Crow are Not Friends, and two others coming out at the end of this month.

Bryana Johnson:  Having Decided to Stay.  Bryana is the daughter of Lindafay at Higher Up and Further In.

Congratulations to both.

What's for supper? Sausage and Bean Helper.

Today I cooked up a batch of Miss Maggie's Family Favorite Pinto Beans.  I started them in the pressure cooker, because I worry about putting red beans straight into the slow cooker (do pintos count as red beans? Probably not, but I would rather be overcautious than sick).  Then I decided not to do them in the slow cooker anyway, but just cook them for the afternoon on the stove with Miss Maggie's spices.  (Because of time, not worry about toxins.)

That worked.

When they were done, I took about half the beans and liquid, and mixed them in a skillet with the remains of last night's sausage, sliced up, and last night's pasta, two little garden tomatoes, and some chopped celery.  I let that cook about half an hour, and added a bit of cheese on top.

And tomorrow I'll probably puree the rest of the cooked pintos, and freeze them in small amounts.  Instant refried beans, if tortillas ever go on sale again or if I get ambitious enough to make my own.  Multicultural food note:  around here, pita bread is often cheaper than tortillas, and, depending on what style you get, it can work just as well for things like fajitas.

What's for supper? Mrs. S's Curry Casserole

Mrs. S. was the grandmotherly lady who lived beside us for many years (the lady who was entertained by the Geography Songs being belted out on the swingset).  The first week we moved in, she showed up with a curried chicken casserole...which I thought was kind of funny, since she was Irish through and through.  No matter; this kind of chicken dinner always makes me think of her. 

It was too hot to bake tonight, so the chicken casserole became a chicken skillet.

P.S.  Yes, I know this is not an authentic curry.  But it's good anyway.

Tonight's dinner menu (cleaning out the fridge):

Mrs. S's Curry Casserole/Skillet, with optional garnishes of slivered almonds, raisins, chow mein noodles
Brown rice
Sweet potatoes (peeled, cut up and cooked in a pot)
Cottage cheese, applesauce

Chocolate microwave cake with vanilla yogurt and/or rasberry sauce mixed with frozen blueberries

Chicken Curry Casserole/Skillet (this is a very approximate recipe)

Cooked chicken--about two cups, cut up
Any vegetables you want, cut up in the food processor (onions, green peppers, carrot)
Chicken broth, or water plus bouillon powder
1 cup milk
2 tsp. curry powder
2 tbsp. cornstarch
Salt and pepper
Rice and garnishes

If you're making this on the stovetop, combine the chicken, vegetables, and broth or water plus bouillon in a skillet.  Cover and simmer until the vegetables are starting to get tender.  In a measuring cup, whisk together the milk, curry powder, and cornstarch.  Add to the hot mixture and continue cooking until thickened and heated through.  Add salt and pepper as needed.  Serve over hot rice, and pass raisins, nuts, or whatever other garnishes people like.

If I were making this in the oven, I'd probably make a sauce of the broth, milk, curry powder, and cornstarch on top of the stove, pour it over the chicken and vegetables, and then bake it for half an hour.

Book Review: Toss, Keep, Sell!

Toss, Keep, Sell!: The Suddenly Frugal Guide to Cleaning Out the Clutter and Cashing In, by Leah Ingram.  About $US10 on Amazon.com, in either paperback or Kindle format.  (I borrowed a copy from the library.)

Over the last two or three decades, I have read a lotta, lotta, lotta clutter and organizing books.  Some inspired me to get busy and do something; some were interesting, some were boring.  Some had good ideas, and a lot were the same old stuff.  Recently I've downloaded several free Kindle books about organizing, home management, and clutter, and most of them are the same old stuff.  One of them might grab you at the right moment and become your friend, but really there isn't much new to say about "toss what you don't need, organize the rest."

So I know I've found a keeper when a) I enjoy reading it and b) I actually get a couple of new ideas that c) work.  Someone named Books and Chocolate already reviewed Toss, Keep, Sell! on Amazon.com, and that's pretty much what they said, too.  There are a few ideas I couldn't exactly relate to, like making money reselling Tiffany and Prada stuff that you might have gathering dust (??), but overall I liked her ideas, particularly about re-purposing unused items in other rooms.  Of course we've done that lots of times, but reading the book sparked a couple of new ideas I hadn't thought of before.  Yesterday I did some cleaning out in our dining room--not where we eat all our meals, this is more of a space where we have holiday dinners and sew and do homework in between, so it gets messy.  I cleaned out the buffet, got rid of a couple of old tablecloths and a bunch of polyester napkins that we never use, and realized that I could use the built-in cutlery tray in the top drawer for our good cutlery.

Why I never thought of that, after living here for almost fifteen years, I don't know, but I had always kept the "good" set of cutlery (wedding gift) in a wooden box (wedding gift) on top of the china cabinet.  But the knife holder had broken loose inside the box, and half of the good cutlery had migrated into the everyday drawer in the kitchen anyway because we were short on spoons.  So...short end of the story...the good cutlery, what we don't need for every day, now lives in the buffet.  Which gave me a nice empty wooden box...which was twice the size of the small jewelery box I'd been stuffing my beads and earrings into for years.  So now I have a bigger jewelery box, and Dollygirl has my old box since she didn't have one at all.  Everybody wins, and the top of the china cabinet is suddenly clear too.

The format of the book is room-by-room, which is pretty typical.  But I think what it sets it above the norm are the personal examples and the sum-it-up charts, as well as the up-to-date suggestions such as using Craigslist and E-bay.

So...this is a new addition to my short list of favourite clutter/organization books.  (Others are It's Here...Somewhere, by Alice Fulton, and Don Aslett's For Packrats Only.)

What's for supper? Spaghetti-style sloppy Joes

Tonight's dinner menu:

Whole wheat hamburger buns with tomato-meat sauce (leftover sauce I had frozen) and mozzarella cheese
Peas
Leftover salad and raw veggies

The remnants of the Crockpot Applesauce Cake I made last night, with vanilla yogurt and raspberry sauce

Thoughts for Sunday: the 2012 Circe Conference

Something to read and maybe post up somewhere:  "Why Contemplate Creation?", from the 2012 Circe Institute Conference that wound up yesterday.

It starts like this:

--Because education is a fundamentally creative act
--Because we are made in the image of a Creator
--Because creation as object is our stewardship
--Because creation as activity is our joy.

More here.

Also:  Cindy's after-thoughts about the conference.

If you don't understand Cindy's references to the roof blowing off, that was literal.  A tornado made the conference a bit more exciting than planned--we are very thankful to hear about God's protection on all who were there.

An afternoon's vacation: visiting Elora

It was a sunny, hot afternoon, and we decided to make an impromptu trip to the Elora Gorge, to walk through the woods to the lookout, and to check out some of the shops in the town.

Elora has gotten more...I don't know, Euro-cized?...in the last number of years.  Brighter, more upbeat, more hip.  The river wasn't at its best, though--the drought has brought the water level down.  We saw someone fishing, but nobody was tubing or canoeing, at least that we could see.

But it turned out to be a good afternoon for just enjoying.

Photo found on Wikipedia

In the Treehouse: the teacher's desk

We were moving some furniture around in the Treehouse today. This is Mama Squirrel's new corner.

What's for supper? Dangerous chocolate cake in a cereal bowl

Tonight's menu:

Sausage baked with sauerkraut
Black beans-and-salsa (reheated)
Brown rice
Carrot sticks, peppers

Chocolate cake in a mug (we make two and share them) Update: Every time I make these in mugs, it makes a mess. So I had an idea: cereal bowls work just as well and don't run over. And they're easier to share.

Oranges

What's for supper? Keeping it simple

Dinner in half an hour:

Frozen fish sticks
Reheated potatoes
Mixture of frozen broccoli and frozen Oriental vegetables (both end-of-the-bag)

Yogurt sundaes in fancy glasses: crumbled graham crackers, strawberry yogurt, sliced frozen banana

What's for supper? No-bake taco pizzas.

It's too hot to cook much, so we made no-bake taco pizzas for dinner.  I adapted a recipe that I found in the Fix It and Enjoy It Cookbook, but it looked to me like one of those recipes that's been handed around everywhere, at baby showers and kitchenware parties.  The original recipe has a crust made from refrigerated crescent roll dough, baked in a large pan and then cooled before adding toppings and cutting in squares.  Also you're supposed to use typical Tex-Mex garnishes:  shredded lettuce, onions, tomatoes, olives. We just used mixed chopped peppers and cheese.

Instead of making the crust, I layered the toppings on pita bread, in this order:  a mixture of cream cheese and sour cream (mixed in the food processor); ground beef, browned and mixed with homemade taco seasoning; red, green and yellow peppers, chopped together in the food processor; and cheddar and mozzarella cheese, chopped together in the food processor.  (I like my food processor.)  Serve immediately or refrigerate.  A pound of meat covers six big pitas, and that served four of us with leftovers.  If you think you might have made too much and don't want leftover sandwiches, you could just put everything on the table and let everyone fix their own.

Our side dish was canned black beans, heated with a scoop of salsa.

Apprentice, if you're reading this, you should try it.  It would work with tortillas too.

Two Treehouse Classics, Revised

It's always interesting to share your nuts with rodents outside of your tree, because other squirrels may not have tried that particular kind before. You never know if that particular type of walnut is something that only grows in your locale, or if your Mama Squirrel is the only one who seasons pecans just that way.

I've been having some fun making desserts lately, and I turned to our blog archives for some of my childhood favourites. Of course, eating a whole pie yourself, while entirely possible, is not such a good idea. I decided to share with my friends G.P. and Roderick to see what they thought of Treehouse cooking, and save myself the stomachache.

Doreen Perry's Cookies

These have been posted about many, many times here and were really a staple growing up. You can read about all Mama Squirrel's variations here. I had baking powder, not soda, so I omitted the salt and substituted three times the called for amount of soda with powder. I've done this a couple times now with absolutely no problems. I had been eating Special K for breakfast every morning and was getting really sick of it so I used that as the cereal...we usually use Rice Krispies or Corn Flakes, and I like the Rice Krispies version much better. I didn't have any rolled oats so I added some extra Special K. I went with Treehouse tradition and used chocolate chips instead of raisins, but for the first time in my life added the walnuts, something we always omit due to nut allergies (not mine!).

I left a few at G.P.'s house before trying them myself, and got a text message in the middle of my night class..."Your cookies are AWESOME!" How G.P. can text with those furry little paws is beyond me.

Tortoni Pie

 Originally from the Goldbeck's Short-Order Cookbook, tortoni is another food I've never seen outside of the Treehouse. You can read about all our different versions here. Essentially, it is blended, frozen and flavoured ricotta cheese. I made a lasagna but it was a very small lasagna and I had most of a container of ricotta left and was worried about it going bad. When I saw graham cracker crusts on sale (very cheap sale...normally I'd just make one myself) I was inspired. Instead of freezing it in little dishes, I prepared the tortoni and used it as a pie filling, decorating the top with sliced strawberries.

Roderick, being a rat, is rather a big fan of cheesecake, so I introduced tortoni as a distant relative of cheesecake. Roderick was not particularly thrilled with it, but did eat two pieces and deemed the second, which had had more time to warm up, as tastier. Roderick's main complaint was that it really wasn't flavourful enough. I had to agree...I had more ricotta than called for and threw it in anyway without adjusting the flavouring. While it tasted great before I froze it, freezing seems to mellow the taste. Additional almond extract likely would have fixed this problem. I also wasn't a big fan of the graham crust: it was a good pairing with the tortoni but the crust itself was a little off in taste. This would easily be resolved by making one's own crust.

What's for supper? Chicken Spaghetti, this and that

Tonight's dinner menu (cleaning out the fridge, groceries tomorrow):

Spaghetti with tomato sauce and chicken
This and that: carrot and celery sticks, cheese...maybe garlic toast...

Whatever fruit we have left
Pumpkin cake made with leftover sweet potato (baked in the toaster oven, it's too hot for the big oven)
Yogurt

What's for supper? Turkey fajitas and corn

Tonight's dinner menu:

Turkey fajitas, with green peppers, sour cream, and grated cheddar
Corn on the cob, in the pressure cooker

Banana cake, baked in the toaster oven, and made with butterscotch chips instead of chocolate chips (usually we leave the chips out altogether, so this was a  special treat)

Aunt Sarah Scrap Challenge, Part 2

This week's work on the "Aunt Sarah Scrap Challenge" hasn't come totally out of the yard-saled bag; I've also been using up some of our stash of fabric and yarn.

Three Scrubby Rows Dishcloths, made with yellow and black crochet cotton combined with (thrifted) Bernat Handicrafter white cotton yarn. (The disadvantage of these is that since they're fairly heavy cotton, they take a long time to dry.  Lighter-weight cotton or acrylic would probably work better.)

A party dress for Abby, made from some pink broadcloth we'd had forever, plus an overskirt and sash from the scrap bag.  The dress pattern was adapted from one in Sew the Essential Wardrobe for 18-inch Dolls, by Joan Hinds.  If you click on the link and look at the dress pictured on the cover, it's pretty much the same as ours, except that I skipped the collar and didn't make tucks in the overskirt.  The hat is more Bernat Handicrafter cotton yarn.

A back view.  The back does up with snaps.

One of several clothespin dolls, with a skirt covering a bag of potpourri.  One Christmas when the Apprentice was small, we made several of these as gifts, and I still had the pattern.

The baby rickrack trim is from the scrap bag, and the calico came from a fabric grab bag that we bought a couple of years ago. This is the only doll I've finished so far, so she got to be in the photo.  I'm working on the others a bit at a time. 

The whole thing. Abby looks like a giant compared to the little potpourri lady.

Worth reading: Charlotte Mason meets Vacation Bible School

As I've mentioned before, I've been involved with summer Vacation Bible Schools since I was old enough to sing "Fishers of Men."  I've posted about it most summers here.  This year our church won't be hosting one, for various reasons, and I think that's good, in a way; everybody needs a break sometimes, and VBS is a lot of work.  But generally I think we do a pretty good, non-screaming, non-stickering job of it.  When you have fewer fancy resources, you do tend to concentrate more on on relationshipsthan programming.

Veteran CM homeschooler Tammy Glaser posted recently about CM and VBS on the ChildLight USA blog, and I think she hit several nails right on the head.  Even if you have no experience or interest in VBS itself, the post provides a thoughtful look at how one class strengthened its relationships not only within the student group, but also with the teacher, the church body, and the community.  Lots to think about there for families, for homeschooling, and for churches.

Saturday yardsaling: guess who found what today

Mix and match:  what yard sale finds go with Mr. Fixit, Mama Squirrel, Ponytails, and Dollygirl?  (The Apprentice was at her summer job.)


Speaker stands

Big book about collecting Barbies

Lucy and Ethel "Friends" tin sign

Three books: Sarah's Cottage, by D.E. Stevenson; The End of Education, by Neil Postman; Hilda Boswell's Treasury (illustrated stories and nursery rhymes)

Four unfinished wooden magazine holders, to paint or decoupage

Answers will be posted at the end of the weekend.  Which is Monday, because this is a long weekend.  Happy Canada Day!

Answers: Mama Squirrel bought the magazine holders and the three books. Mr. Fixit bought the speaker stands. Ponytails bought the sign. Dolly girl bought the Barbie book. But you already figured all that out, didn't you?

Mama Squirrel's Reading List, first half of 2012

Just the stuff I've finished (besides school books with Dollygirl), so that I can clean out our overstuffed sidebar.

Favourite Five I hadn't read before:

The Mind of the Maker, by Dorothy L. Sayers §
On the Art of Writing, by Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch §
Crossing Unmarked Snow: Further Views on the Writer's Vocation, by William Stafford §
The Big What Now Book of Learning Styles, by Carol Barnier (Recommended!) §
Our Man in Havana, by Graham Greene §

On books and writing:
Howard's End is on the Landing, by Susan Hill §
The Art of Fiction, by John Gardner (R) §
Q's Legacy, by Helene Hanff §
84, Charing Cross Road, by Helene Hanff (R) §
Bookless in Baghdad, by Shashi Tharoor §

Crafts, frugality, and homemaking:
Mothers and Daughters at Home: 35 Projects to Make, by Charlotte Lyons (R) §
Sucking Eggs: What Your Wartime Granny Could Teach You about Diet, Thrift and Going Green, by Patricia Nicol §
1/2 Price Living, by Ellie Kay (R) §
Your Money or Your Life, by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin §
It's All Too Much: An Easy Plan for Living a Richer Life with Less Stuff, by Peter Walsh §
The Tightwad Gazette Volume 3 (R) §

Education:

The Myth of Ability: Nurturing Mathematical Talent in Every Child, by John Mighton (R) §

Mysteries and Romance (yes, I've read too many already this year)

Rumpole and the Age of Miracles, by John Mortimer §
Rumpole and the Golden Thread, by John Mortimer §
Rumpole and the Penge Bungalow Murders, by John Mortimer §
Dumb Witness, by Agatha Christie §
Remembered Death, by Agatha Christie §
The ABC Murders, by Agatha Christie §
The Secret Adversary, by Agatha Christie §
An Expert in Murder, by Nicola Upson (not recommended) §
The House of Silk, by Anthony Horowitz (Sherlock Holmes, but not for weak stomachs) §
The Nine Tailors, by Dorothy L. Sayers §
Strong Poison, by Dorothy L. Sayers §
Busman's Honeymoon, by Dorothy L. Sayers (R) §
The Complete Stories, by Dorothy L. Sayers §
The Enchanted Barn, by Grace Livingston Hill §
The Search, by Grace Livingston Hill §
Cloudy Jewel, by Grace Livingston Hill §
Crimson Mountain, by Grace Livingston Hill §
Where Two Ways Met, by Grace Livingston Hill §

All the rest:

Sesame and Lilies, by John Ruskin (R)
The Ringmaster's Daughter, by Jostein Gaarder § (strong adult content) §
J.B., by Archibald MacLeish §
On the Beach, by Nevil Shute (R) §
Parts of Pilgrim's Progress (RRR)
Lorna Doone (abridged), by R.D. Blackmore §
Imagining Anne: The Island Scrapbooks of L.M. Montgomery §
Emily of New Moon (R) §
In the Company of Others, by Jan Karon §
Things as They Are, by Paul Horgan (adult content) §
Your God is Too Small, by J.B. Phillips §
I Could Do Anything If I Only Knew What it Was, by Barbara Sher §
QuickBooks 2011 for Dummies §

Aunt Sarah Scrap Challenge, Part 1

Here's what I've made so far from last Saturday's yard-saled bag of scraps.

A new hat for Abby, made from a pair of Dollygirl's old jeans and some lace from the yardsale bag

Inside detail of the hat

A tote bag with pockets, made from a large piece of decorator-weight cotton print fabric

One scrunchie, made from sparkly yarn/thread; six pincushions, made from denim, felt, and some fancy purple material with sequins and beads.  The one by itself is stuffed and has pins in it; the others are waiting to be finished.  I found some online help in this pincushion cuff tutorial.

Four butterfly bookmarks.  The yellow crochet cotton was in the yardsale bag; the green is from the end of another ball.  The little pattern is here (although it's called Big Butterfly Bookmark); the big one is here.

The whole thing.

Stay tuned for Part 2--we have big plans for some pink lacy fabric.

Photos:  Mr. Fixit.  Copyright 2012 Dewey's Treehouse.

Cooking Small and Eating Large

As you may have followed through MamaSquirrel's updates, this summer I had an awfully hard time finding a a job. As I happened to have a house lined up for the fall with a twelve month lease, I resorted to moving in there and working in a different city. This of course means that I've been doing all my own cooking and housewifery.

While I no longer have to deal with the Treehouse dietary needs (I made brownies with nuts in them for the first time in my life! I cook with salt!), I do have a few of my own challenges to work around. I tend to work a lot of evening shifts and have night classes the nights I don't work, so I have a rather odd meal and sleep schedule. I also don't have a huge range of kitchen equipment to work with. Additionally, I don't have a ton of freezer space so while I do occasionally cook larger meals and save some, I primarily cook enough for one or two people which means I have to adjust most recipes.

The solution:

One of the first things I bought when setting up my kitchen was a baby slow cooker: only 1.5 quarts which was quite the scale down from the family-size I've been used to using. It's the perfect size for one or two portions and can hold a surprising amount of food. My meal is ready right when I come home from work and it makes incredibly tender meat. I don't think I need to sing the praises of a slow cooker too much, MamaSquirrel does that already.

My second student-friendly cooking tip is that Google is your friend. While I have a decent set of "normal" cooking skills, when you have a limited set of resources to work with you will discover that almost anything is possible...and if it's impossible, someone else will have tried it first and will tell you so. I don't have any pots, but I do have several different sized skillets. Through careful searching I have uncovered the secrets to making pasta in a skillet, mashed potatoes in a skillet, and vegetables in the microwave. After the friendly students at the campus farm stand convinced me that I should buy a bunch of garlic scapes, Google explained what exactly garlic scapes are and what the heck I should do with them.

Technology in general has changed cooking so much for me since I first started as a child. Being able to search and print out a recipe was pretty much mindblowing once the internet gained momentum. But now? I just prop up my tablet on the kitchen counter...blow up the zoom to display the ingredient list so I can see it from across the kitchen, scroll through comments to see who tried what, instantly pull up suggested substitutions, and the list goes on. No more painstakingly copying out recipes from Chatelaine or the back of the cereal box: I just snap a picture with my phone and pull it up in the kitchen.

Last but certainly not least, I have cooking buddies. Several of my friends from school are also taking summer courses, and live in the same blocks-from-campus neighbourhood that I do. Sometimes we take turns cooking or band together on a recipe. It also makes grocery shopping a lot easier since I can still buy more economical family-size packages and then split them up with a friend or two without worrying about eating nothing but that one thing for the next month.

I've actually managed to make some really delightful meals over the past month or so, and hopefully I will remember to post again and share some of them.

Treehouse happenings: catching some up

As opposed to some down...I've been pretty much out of things with a virus (human, not computer) for a few days.  But the worst seems to be over.  I'm back to working on my craft challenge.

Dollygirl is finishing her term three exams--then she's done for the summer.  She has a temporary job every day watering a vacationing neighbour's flowers (a lot of flowers).  And her swimming lessons start up again in July.

Ponytails wrote her grade nine science exam yesterday--so she's done too.  She's getting together with some homeschooled/used to be homeschooled friends for a movie (Brave) and end-of-school celebration later today.

Our zucchini has pretty much lost its fight, and the marigolds are similarly terrible--both those in the regular flowerbed, and those we added to the lasagna garden.  So we can't blame the peat moss.  The two apple trees and the magnolia blossomed too soon because of the mild winter, then got hit by frost (i.e. no apples this year).  It just seems to be an all-round terrible year for gardening (not including the neighbour with the flowers?).  Anybody else?

(One thing that has done almost too well: our hostas by the side pathway are so big you almost can't get by them.  Go figure--I don't think you can eat hostas, though.  --You're kidding.  You can?)

Yard sales are picking up: an "Aunt Sarah" challenge (with photos)

I recently posted about an old book that told about how "Aunt Sarah" took her niece's trunkful of worn clothes and explained how they could all be re-used.

How about something on a smaller scale?

We stopped at a yard sale this morning, and at first it didn't look like there was much of interest. I rummaged through a box of stuff and found a sandwich bag full of vintage packages of rickrack, and a couple of interesting-looking bits of fabric. "I have more!" the lady said. Sure enough, she did. She said that she used to be part of a church group "sewing for bazaars. But now I am too old, and nobody wants to help."

For ten dollars, I got a whole bagful of fabric pieces (mostly spangly and/or shiny, plus some lining material), several rolls of ribbon from stores that closed ten or fifteen years ago, all those packages of rickrack, a package of bias tape, a ball of yellow crochet cotton, a couple balls of something thin and shiny that you could crochet with, and a few other things. I left lots behind too.

So that's what's in our hands. Stay tuned.


Photos: Dollygirl.  Copyright 2012 Dewey's Treehouse.

That's one REALLY thrifty lady (Vintage e-book)

Project Gutenberg has a free book that all wanna-be thrifties should check out: Mary at the Farm and Book of Recipes Compiled during Her Visit Among the "Pennsylvania Germans", by Edith Thomas, published in 1915. It's available in different formats for downloading or reading online; some of the formats don't have images, so you might want to go directly to the HTML version online if you want to see them.

The book isn't a novel, although it's written in story format. It's about a young woman's stay at a Bucks County farm, early in the last century. "Aunt Sarah" gives her niece lots of cooking and homemaking advice, which is interesting; but the part I found more instructive was Chapter VIII, "Uses of an Old-Fashioned Wardrobe," a lesson on recycling clothes, mostly for household uses. Allowing for the fact that Mary's clothes probably had more fabric in them than ours do, and also for the fact that they're all wool, linen and muslin etc., there are still things we can learn from this expert on "what's in your hand." Actually one of the moms in our girls' sewing group was just showing us a crocheted rag-rug-in-progress; some things don't change.

"Aunt Sarah," ecstatically exclaimed Mary, "you are a wizard to plan so many useful things from a trunk of apparently useless rags. What a treasure Uncle has in you. I was fretting about having so little to make my home attractive, but I feel quite elated at the thought of having a carpet and rugs already planned, besides the numerous other things evolved from your fertile brain."

Aunt Sarah loved a joke. She held up an old broadcloth cape. "Here is a fine patch for Ralph Jackson's breeches, should he ever become sedentary and need one."

Mary reddened and looked almost offended and was at a loss for a reply.

(I'm not so sure about the rag rugs with swastikas on them, but maybe that's just me.)

What's for supper? Using up leftovers

Want to play "The Supper Game?"

Tonight's dinner ingredients:

Two slices of Upside-Down Meatloaf
A bit of cooked rice
Leftover Reuben Chicken from last night (chicken cooked with sauerkraut and Thousand Island dressing)
Red peppers (they were on sale last week)
Mushrooms
Half a cucumber, some lettuce
A bit of this and that

Tonight's dinner decision:

Chicken-and-rice-stuffed peppers. I didn't incorporate the meatloaf; we can eat that tomorrow. But I did add some mayonnaise and shredded cheese.
Lettuce and mushroom salad, with cucumber on the side.

Muffin cake, made with leftover spaghetti squash.  I made sure the squash would disappear into the cake by blending it in the food processor along with the liquid ingredients. Spaghetti squash is pretty bland, so if you try this, make sure you add enough spices, or some raisins or something.

Quote for the day: We are all on pilgrimage here

"We are all on pilgrimage here: and though to beguile the road I have sung a song or two, and told perhaps too many stories, there has also been time to make a notebook of a few good thoughts I met on the way and pondered and sometimes took to rest with me.

"Perhaps the best of all, for all weathers and for every business, is the following of Fenelon's, which I have kept for my preface:—

'Do everything without excitement, simply in the spirit
of grace. So soon as you perceive natural activity gliding in, recall yourself quietly into the presence of God...'

"You will find yourself infinitely more quiet, your words will be fewer and more effectual, and, while doing less, what you do will be more profitable. It is not a question of a hopeless mental activity, but a question of acquiring a quietude and peace in which you readily advise with your beloved as to all you have to do."--Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch, Preface to The Pilgrims' Way

Found at a yard sale: vintage books

Yes, after all this time, a yard sale post. I haven't found anything worth mentioning at yard sales for a really long time.

This sale was at a seniors' apartment building, and you wouldn't expect that people who had already downsized into small apartments would have a lot to get rid of, but there were some interesting things for sale. I brought home four small, school-type vintage books: Laurence Sterne's A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy, a 1948 British printing; Aristotle's Politics, a 1908 printing; Select Essays: Addison, published by Allyn and Bacon, 1946 printing (it looks older, but it says 1946 on the first page); and A Shorter Pepys, also 1946. The copy of Pepys has a brown-paper book protector attached to it, compliments of The Royal Bank of Canada: Today is a Good Time to Start Your Savings Account! I think Mr. Pepys might have appreciated that:

March 2nd (Lord's day).--Talking long in bed with my wife, about our frugal life for the time to come, proposing to her what I could and would do, if I were worth £2,000, that is, be a knight, and keep my coach, which pleased her. To church in the morning: none in the pew but myself.--A Shorter Pepys

Year-end status: Crayons' Grade Five

We have one week of classes left to go for this school year--then exams.

The obvious highlight for us has been readalouds. It's one of Crayons/Dollygirl's favourite school activities, we've had good books, and it's probably the way that she has learned the most this year. Crayons knows that she can often get out of a less-desirable school activity by talking me into reading another chapter of something. Some books we read:

Carry On, Mr. Bowditch
Father's Big Improvements
The Trail of the Conestoga
Parts of Story of the World, Volume 4: The Modern Age
Parts of Story of Canada
Part of The Book of Marvels
Part of A Passion for the Impossible (it seemed to get too long for us towards the end of the year)
Part of The Loghouse Nest
Some miscellaneous science and invention books
The second half of Madam How and Lady Why
Tennyson's poems including "Lancelot and Elaine"
Evangeline
The Adventures of Robin Hood--we're almost done this
Stories of Alexander the Great--almost done this
Great Expectations
Silas Marner
Caddie Woodlawn
Prince Caspian
Ballet Shoes
Alvin Fernald books
Underground to Canada, and other books about the Underground Railroad
Meet the Malones and Beany Malone
The Book of Think
Brothers Far from Home: The World War I Diary of Eliza Bates (Dear Canada series)
Orphan at My Door: The Home Child Diary of Victoria Cope (Dear Canada series)
Roller Skates
Makers of the English Bible
Canada: The New Nation, by Edith Deyell
Several sets of American Girl books
The Secret of NIMH

Shakespeare (two plays) and Plutarch (two lives) went well, and so did Great Expectations and Silas Marner. Watching online episodes of Wishbone helped round out literature.

For picture study, we did Fragonard (that seems about a thousand years ago now) and Mary Cassatt. Artistic Pursuits pretty much fizzled.

We did French for part of the year, then it got dropped. I still like the Mission Monde curriculum, but the lesson plans in Level 3 weren't working for us; that is, I was not happy with the small amount of French that Crayons seemed to be able to understand or use, and I think it was the way the course bounced around a lot (both in topics and in grammar points). I have the next level waiting to go for next year, but we will be using it slightly differently.

Crayons got halfway through Pet Store Math, finished Math Mammoth Light Blue Grade Four, and did a set of Grade Five worksheets. She is now writing the Grade Five end-of-year test (it's long and is meant to be done over a few days), and the plan is to use Grade Six for next year. I thought about making up my own program for a change, using books like How Math Works, but the Grade Six book covers most of what I'd want to include anyway, so we'll download that.

Science was not a big subject area this year--none of the books we used seemed to arouse a lot of interest, and some of them we just left aside this term. Next year we get into Archimedes, Einstein, and Rachel Carson, so I think there will be more to work with.

And Crayons' favourite new skill was learning to swim.

A summer wardrobe for Abby (18-inch doll clothes)

Abby is Crayons/Dollygirl's Springfield Doll. Dollygirl is going to do a post on her own blog about Abby's camping adventures; but here's a preview with her new duds. All photos are by Dollygirl.

Pattern notes: The green sun hat, shorts, and top are from Joan Hinds' book Sew the Essential Wardrobe for 18-inch Dolls.  We made them from the leftover fabric from one of Dollygirl's sewing class projects. The blue flowered dress is just the top made longer; the fabric is a toddler dress that Dollygirl outgrew a long time ago. The red striped pajamas (and the sleeping bag) are improvised from an old sweatshirt, and the crocheted slippers were made from a pattern I found online. The swimsuit was made from a Cabbage Patch Kid crochet pattern. We also made an African-print shirt which is very cute, but that didn't make it into the photos.

Raspberrry Cheesecake Tarts, for the Apprentice

This week our Apprentice turns two decades old.

She had to work all weekend, but made it home just in time for Sunday dinner.  In her honour, we had turkey and mashed potatoes.  Dessert, instead of a regular birthday cake, was watermelon and mini cheesecakes, the ones Momma's Corner showed us how to make.  I made them with regular-sized muffin papers rather than mini ones, and used half Momma's filling (one package of cream cheese); that made sixteen small cheesecakes, two apiece and a few over in case of accidents.

Instead of jam on top, I made a thick sauce from frozen raspberries, and spooned that on top after the cakes had cooled a bit.  Raspberry-rhubarb might have been nice too.

Happy Birthday, Apprentice!  (And enjoy your day off.)

What's for supper? (A bit of recycling)

Salmon patties
Fusilli reheated with a mixture of milk, broth, and cheese, plus leftover peas
Sweet potatoes

Brannies (I made a double batch for a potluck this weekend)
Thawed blueberries

What's for supper? (fewer of us home tonight)

Frozen pizza, heated in the toaster oven
Leftover honey garlic chicken, leftover rice, heated in a skillet
Peas, heated in a pot

Homemade chocolate pudding, not heated at all

Homeschooled kids and cooking--not always what you'd think

The expectation that homeschooled girls should be jacks-of-all-housekeeping trades reminds me of a joke I read a long time ago in Reader's Digest:

A young couple decided they needed an au pair, and arranged for a girl to come over from Northern Finland. When she arrived, the wife asked, "Can you cook?"
"No," said the girl, "My mother always did that."
"Can you do housework?" asked the wife.
"No, my oldest sister always did that."
"Well," said the wife, "You'd better just look after the children."
"I don't know how," said the girl. "My youngest sister always did that."
"What can you do, then?" asked the wife, in desperation.
"Well," said the Finnish girl brightly, "I can milk reindeer."

I've always liked to cook, and read cookbooks. My first cookbook was a Dell Home Activity Series workbook called Cooking is Fun, Book One, published in 1970.  Someone gave it to me when I was about seven, and I wrote the names of my favourite foods inside the cover: my grandma's "eldirberry pie" was one of them.

I also had a project, when I was about nine, of cutting out recipes from old copies of Lady's Circle and Woman's Day, and pasting them into a scrapbook.  Some I did end up trying.  Some were a bit too ambitious.

(Yes, that is Annette Funicello on the cover.)

So between kids' cookbooks, ladies' magazines, Brownie badges, and occasional helping in the kitchen, I got at least an idea of how meals got put together. By the time I was in middle school,  I was still better at cookies and cakes than at cooking dinner; but I eventually figured that one out too.

How has it been different for my homeschooled girls?

I don't know that any of them paid a lot of attention to meal-making until they were actually old enough to see some benefit in being able to fix something for themselves.  When they were younger, I think they spent more time helping their dad with outside and fixit chores than they did hanging out in the kitchen.  They did help get groceries, and helped stir things together when I asked them to;  they helped make jam and Christmas cookies and Easter kiffle.  We use food and kitchen tools a lot for school (though not necessarily in "cooking class"): we do math with measuring cups (and, when they were younger, cereal and raisins), we do science experiments with celery or corn syrup or popcorn, or make edible models of the atmosphere. Sometimes we've tried new foods when studying other countries.  Last year we did some spice studies.

Because the recipes I make (or make up) aren't terribly complicated, I've often made a point of saying, "You liked that chicken we had for dinner? You could make that, you know. All you do is..."  Often I just get rolled eyeballs, but I figure some of it has to soak in.  I've also collected up a few extra copies of my favourite cookbooks, so that the girls will have their own, if and when they want them.  (Of course I could just tell them to check the blog...)

Another strategy, for kids who would rather read than cook (or read cookbooks), is to introduce them to "food fiction," especially with a frugal or make-it-work twist. Ginnie and the Cooking Contest. Little Nino's Pizzeria. Bread and Jam for Frances. Stone Soup. Understood Betsy, who learns that there's no right or wrong about making applesauce. The whole Beany Malone series (although we have only a couple of the novels, plus the cookbook). Little House on the Prairie, especially Farmer Boy. Maybe Grace Livingston Hill's novels, when they're old enough not to think romances are icky. I would probably not include the Warton and Morton Toad books, unless you like beetle brittle.

The Apprentice surprised me during her high school years with the dinners she knew how to make, or with interesting snacks she would occasionally produce when younger-sister-sitting.  If asked, she would say something like, "well, of course I know how to do it; I'm just not that interested."  Crayons still says she would rather do something else (she also says she's never moving out).

Ponytails at one point watched a lot of cooking shows and online videos, and liked to try out things like crepes.  This semester she is taking food and nutrition at public high school, and she's had to answer a lot of assigned questions about holiday meals, what's in the refrigerator, and so on.  One day the teacher had a lot of leftovers from another course, so she had the class make up their own casseroles; Ponytails came up with something involving turkey sausage and broccoli soup that sounded amazing. 

The Apprentice has been equipping her own kitchen recently; she has a room in an off-campus house, and she stays there a couple of nights a week because of her summer classes.  (In the fall she'll be there all week.)  Right now she has the kitchen on her floor all to herself.  So she's been putting all her prior learning to practical use.  Last week she even made herself slow-cooker pork chops and mashed potatoes--with real potatoes.

I think they'll do fine.

Elderberry pie photo found here

Linked from Four Moms: Cooking with Children.

What's for supper? Honey-garlic chicken

Tonight's dinner menu:

Honey Garlic Chicken, but in a skillet, not in the slow cooker; I've tried it both ways, and I much prefer the last-minute version. I cut the soy sauce in half (and used low-sodium soy sauce), used chicken breasts instead of thighs (because that's what I had), and also added cornstarch to thicken the sauce. The sauce ingredients may sound kind of non-traditional, but they work.  UPDATE: we also really like this sauce with pork--it's a good way to use up leftovers.

Hot pasta (fusilli)
Mixture of frozen green beans and frozen Asian vegetables (end of the bag)
Crackers, applesauce, sliced cucumber

What's for supper? Meatballs and cornbread

Tonight's dinner menu:

Meatballs in homemade barbecue sauce, like this
Cornbread
One leftover sausage and some leftover perogies from Sunday dinner
Fresh spinach for salad plus cucumber, chick peas, and carrot sticks--mix and match

Canned pineapple and orange pieces, chilled in the freezer
Store cookies.

What's up at the Treehouse?

We Canadians had our long weekend LAST week.  So today is just another school day.

We are going to build a lasagna-style garden for zucchini at the side of the house where we used to grow green beans.  Used to, because the last couple of years the rabbits and other critters haven't left them alone, along with spinach and several other things we like to grow.  Sprinkling various nasty meals, hot pepper, etc. does not seem to work on these iron-stomached varmints. But they don't have much of an appetite for zucchini, so we're going to put some in and hope their tastes don't change.

Mr. Fixit found a special clock last week, and it's now hanging on the Treehouse living room wall. I'm going to ask him nicely to post something about it here.  The clock looks something like this:

The Apprentice thinks she has finally found a job.   (It's pretty much for sure.)  It's not here in town, though; it's closer to her university, so we may not be seeing her much for the rest of the summer.

Ponytails is working on a variety of school projects involving leeks, supermarket shopping, and A Midsummer Night's Dream (not all for the same class).

Crayons/Dollygirl is taking every chance she can get to be outside. Homeschooling at the end of May...sometimes that's harder to get motivated about than in the dead of winter!  Last week we helped out at a church work day (our church is moving itself into a building this year), and she got to fill up a whole planter with pink and white petunias.

(Not that kind of Petunia!)

A grammar quiz for smart homeschoolers

Grandpa Squirrel is a generous donor of large Sunday newspapers and other interesting reading material for the Treehouse.  This week he sent over a magazine for Mr. Fixit with an article about vintage radios.

Mama Squirrel read the article and was grammatically appalled.  There were enough sentence fragments, run-ons, and strange turns of phrase in there to illustrate a whole lesson on sentence structure (which we did).  Out of curiosity, Mama Squirrel perused the rest of the magazine, and uncovered a few other zingers that the editorial staff had missed.  (We hope we are not getting ourselves into trouble by copying these lines, but really, we think that certain magazine editors should take a closer look at what gets printed.)

So here's the challenge:  what's wrong with these sentences, and how would you fix them? (If you can.)

Note:  I don't pretend that my understanding of grammar is perfect either.  If you think some of these examples are correct, feel free to say so.

1.  She, and other craftspeople, has a very nice display space for their wares.

2.  By the mid 1930's over 50% of North American homes had at least one radio.  Over 1 1/2 million in automobiles.

3.  A table model which resembles a church Cathedral usually with four dials on the front.  A small window screen which contains the channels panel and at the top red fabric of the speaker.

4.  The new AC model radios began to sell in large numbers as owners threw out their battery operated radio.

5.  By the 1930's the design of the radio and its case began to change.  It went from a square body box design and outside speakers which sat on top of the radio or close by.

6.  The designs became more compact and speakers in the body of the radio and their appearance became more desirable.

7.  Repaired items should be priced considerably lower than a, similar, perfect head vase.

8.  Ordering from private distributors is possible but not cost affective.

9.  Orson Welles played The Shadow on radio.  Then moved onto Hollywood after his famous Halloween production of War of the Worlds.

10.  Ideas for the designs came from many sources such as: popular fashion magazines or Hollywood movie magazines.

Linked from the Carnival of Homeschooling.

Making it from scratch: Stephanie's spice mixes

We've been following A Year of Slow Cooking since its first year.  It's still among my top ten (maybe top five) favourite food sites.  I've also bought the two Make It Fast, Cook It Slow cookbooks.  Not all the recipes have been winners here, but several have become regulars.

The site has a couple of hidden bonuses.  One is pretty obvious: all the recipes give gluten-free options.  This isn't something that currently applies to our family, but it's good to know anyway, especially if you might be cooking dinner for a gf friend sometime.

The other bonus is that, because of the gluten-free recipes, there are alternatives given for things like taco seasoning mix.  This is a good thing for us in several ways.  First, homemade spice mixes are lower in sodium, which is still something we're trying to watch around here.  Some Squirrels also get sick from eating MSG. 

Second, although seasoning packets aren't terribly expensive, mixing your own is probably a better deal.  I also find them a frugal option since they help to make a tasty meal out of other simple ingredients.  Ground beef plus spices makes taco filling; then you add whatever other bean, cheese and vegetable toppings you have, and wrap in tortillas or serve over rice or corn chips (for taco salad).

Plus you don't have to remember to buy taco seasoning, or sloppy joe spice, if you already have the makings for it on the spice shelf.  And, if you're really organized, you can even mix up extra and store it in sandwich bags to make it all as easy as ripping open a packet.

And the last good reason, for us, is that Steph's spice mixtures pretty much suit our cupboard staples and our tastes (with the exception of rosemary, which two Squirrels can't eat).  When you find something that works for you, you stick with it.

So I'm passing on the links to a couple of Year of Slow Cooking mixes that have worked for us, plus the spaghetti sauce mixture that I worked out from a Hillbilly Housewife recipe.  Thank you, Steph!

Sloppy Joe Seasoning  I used this a few nights ago to make a Hamburger Assistant-type meal in a skillet:  a pound of ground beef, a can of tomato paste plus water and seasonings, leftover cooked pasta, and a bit of cheese.

Taco Seasoning.  This one is in More Make it Fast, Cook it Slow under "Taco Dip," but the spice mix doesn't appear on the Year of Slow Cooking website. It's the same recipe as the one in this blog post, minus the teaspoonful of salt.

Enchilada Sauce

Mama Squirrel's Diner-Style Spaghetti Sauce

Crayons illustrates Princess Padmini

Crayons/Dollygirl used Paint to illustrate a scene from Richard Halliburton's Complete Book of Marvels.  Halliburton tells the legend of Princess Padmini, and then tells how he took a little girl out on a boat in Udaipur and got her soaked in a sudden rainstorm, making a wreck of her cheaply-dyed holiday clothes.

"Weeping and wretched, shivering with cold, she just stood there leaving red puddles and yellow puddles and purple puddles of raindrops on the pavement....

"I wanted to say: 'My dear child, I'm so sorry--I promise never to let this happen again.  Will you ever, ever, forgive me?'

"But I couldn't say it.  All I could say [in her language] was how much, how far, what time, [good-by], and count to ten.  Again this didn't seem to be the right thing.

"And then I had a sudden flash of inspiration.  I knew just what to say:

"'Good-by, PADMINI....'

"The sunshine came back into her eyes.  She pressed my outstretched hand, then turned and darted through the rain into a grove of palms.  There she turned and waved.  I saw one last flash of yellow and purple and red and green, through the trees--and my Princess Padmini had gone...."--"Udaipur, Indian Fairyland" in The Complete Book of Marvels

Have some cake with your icing?

Crayons/Dollygirl's birthday cake this year was a Small Chocolate Cake frosted with "Lorna's Super Chocolate Chip Icing" from Edna Staebler's More Food That Really Schmecks.  The amount given here will frost a layer cake reasonably, or a one-pan cake extravagantly.  We went with extravagantly.  But you could probably cut the recipe in half.

I put some of the icing into a decorating tube and made ruffles along the edges, along with a few powdered-sugar butterflies.  How do you make powdered-sugar butterflies?  Sink a small butterfly-shaped cookie cutter into the icing (that is, the top of the cake that's already been iced), carefully spoon a bit of powdered sugar inside the "walls" of the cutter, smooth it down, then gently lift up the cutter.  Repeat several times in other places on the cake--we had five butterflies.  I used the icing in the tube to give them chocolate bodies and antennae (which also helped show what they were supposed to be!), and a few dots on their wings.

And one warning about that, if you're blowing out candles--don't blow too enthusiastically or you'll have powdered sugar everywhere.

Lorna's Super Chocolate Chip Icing

6 oz. semi-sweet chocolate pieces (chips)
1/2 cup light cream (I used 2% milk)
1 cup margarine or butter (I used butter)
2 1/2 cups icing sugar (powdered sugar)
a bowl full of ice cubes plus some water (this doesn't go into the icing, it's for a quick cooling off)

In a saucepan combine the chocolate, cream/milk and butter; stir till smooth, remove from the heat, and whisk in the sugar--it will be thin. [Microwave version: heat in the microwave, stirring at 30-second intervals.]  Beat it over ice until it holds its shape (put ice cubes and water in a bowl, and rest the saucepan on top.  I put the bowl in the sink.).  Unless you have a very strong whisk, I'd recommend using a wooden spoon for this part--the icing will get thick.

A shortcut:  in the book, Edna says that she didn't have time to stand around beating the icing, so she just put it in the fridge to set.  I have done it that way, but this time I beat it over the ice, and it turned out really well.

What's for supper? Odds, ends, counting and measuring

One thing I think you need to know how to do, to make the most out of what's on hand for cooking, is figure out how to cook or bake things in different proportions, according to what you have and the number of people eating.  Today's example:  I had leftover mashed potatoes and thought of making a Perogy Casserole.  There were about seven lasagna noodles, plus some broken pieces, in the cupboard. But my recipe makes a 9 x 13 inch panful and calls for fifteen noodles.  Since that usually leaves us with leftovers, I figured it would work just as well to cook up what we had and use a smaller pan.  I didn't even bother reducing the rest of the ingredients; I wanted to use up the potatoes and I figured nobody would complain about a bit of extra filling.

So:

Perogy Casserole, made with somewhere between seven and eight lasagna noodles

Meat and Vegetable Reheat: that is, a bit of sliced leftover beef from last night; a package of mushrooms, sliced; some leftover green beans; a cupful of beef broth; and a teaspoonful of smoked paprika, heated through in a covered skillet and thickened at the end with a spoonful of cornstarch. (Wow, does that make an awesome mushroom sauce--I think it's the combination of the mushroom liquid, the broth, and the paprika.)

Lettuce, carrot and celery salad

Dessert: this and that.