 In-FLU-enza…H1N1…Tamiflu…all words that none of us actually care about or even think about – that is – until we stumble into the doctor’s office, eyes glazed, throat that could only feel worse for a fire eater and muscles that scream four letter words at us, as we try to use them. THEN, the flu becomes a reality and a reason to think seriously about finding a sky scraper from which to jump. Such was the past week for Mr. Fix-It and me. He succumbed first. I knew he was sick when he willingly grabbed his keys and left the house early last Sunday morning to hit up the AM-PM clinic for drugs. ‘Mr. Fix-It’ and ‘getting medical help’ are not usually in the same sentence. Since he only had a fever of 99.9, after a nose swab, Mr. Fix-It was rather taken aback when the doctor forced a mask over his face and admonished him not to go anywhere, including work, for 5 days. The doctor was stern in his warning and typed up a letter to give to the boss. He told Mr. Fix-It that he was highly contagious and so he came home, not entirely convinced that he was really THAT sick. But then, Sunday afternoon hit. My hubby was a mess. His fever was quickly inching to 104º and I was frantically making preparations to get him to the hospital. I had tried everything…tylenol, ibuprophen, tepid bath, alcohol rub and then I remembered an elderly doctor’s method quite a number of years ago when our son’s fever had gone to 105. I filled plastic bags with ice, wrapped them in towels and put them under Mr. Fix-It’s arms, on his stomach and on his forehead. Magically, the fever dropped to 102º. All evening I battled the fever and Mr. Fix-It’s irrational statements that let me know he was NOT all with me. By midnight his fever broke and he actually slept while I transferred myself to the couch, hoping to avoid the disease. About 3 am I woke up shaking from head to toe, teeth chattering so hard that I could not keep my mouth shut and throat literally shooting flames. Oh no. Somehow, I made it to the bedroom and crawled into bed next to my ailing husband. I figured that I might as well be comfortable now that I had caught the germs. Of course, I woke him up with my shaking and he crawled out of bed to get me some tylenol and water. I thought I was going to die. We figure that Mr. Fix-It brought the germs home from the VA Hospital where he had done a computer installation the week before. Ten days is the incubation period and it had been ten days since his visit. I am sure that I picked the germs up from his clothes or from him. Who knows? All I know is that neither one of us has had the flu in years and years and years and years and so the ferocity of the disease was rather disturbing. It has taken both of us over a week to get back to normal. But, as always, I could see that there was a humorous side to our plight. I made it to the doctor as well…just our family doctor…and I found out that just the word ‘flu’ nearly tatoos an ‘F’ on your forehead and hangs a sign around your neck that announces, “Unclean! Unclean!” I was told to wear a mask throughout my visit and the nurse who swabbed my nose (might I add that this is one of THE most unpleasant tests on the planet – because your sinuses are already swollen and raw without a q-tip being twirled around the membranes like a chimney sweep’s broom!) barely stuck her head back in the door and said through clenched teeth, “It’s flu!” And it wasn’t just the flu-flu. It was the BAD flu. As I left the room with prescription in hand, the cleanup crew was already disinfecting everything I had touched. Even the woman who checked me out, handed my Visa card back to me, washed her hands, grabbed the pen I had been using, disinfected it and wiped the counter right in front of me. As I stepped back, I felt like I had smallpox. I slunk past ogling patients, bemasked and humiliated. Two days later, still diseased and miserable, I needed to somehow get an order to a friend, who had come in from out of town. We discussed the logistics of this feat without germs and it was agreed that Mr. Fix-It, who was well on the road to recovery, would drive me to a designated meeting place. He did so and when we arrived, dear friend stepped around her vehicle and waved, at a safe distance of 50 or so feet away. Mr. Fix-It got out of our vehicle, placed the box of goodies onto the pavement of the parking lot between our car and Friend’s and proceeded to soak the box with spray Lysol: Bottom, sides and top. The contents had already been lysol’d. I was looking around for Homeland Security to come swooping in with a bomb squad and handcuffs for each of us.  We got back into our car and Friend picked up the box to place in the back of hers. Hopefully, all germs were murdered by Lysol drowning. Now, I have to tell you that being sick is a boring state of being, but thanks to this same Friend, I was given a fun craft project that served to pass my time in bed and produce lots of little bows. She sent me an email with directions for making tiny bows that are so handy for a multitude of projects. And, heh, when you are running a fever and eating popsicles a new craft is a welcome distraction!! All you need is some 1/4″ ribbon, preferably a light weight or organza type, scissors and a four tined fork.  First, begin by running the ribbon under the first tine, over the second, under the third and over the forth.  Pull the ribbon under the fourth tine and pull it all the way to the first tine.  Now, go over the first tine, under the second, over the third and under the fourth.  Push the ribbon up to the end of the tines to keep it tight.  Continue the process until there are either two or three (depending on the size of bow you want) wraps around the outside tines  Clip the end of the ribbon that is attached to the spool and now run a fresh ribbon end up through the tines between the second and third one and in front of the first row of weaving  Pull up other end of this ribbon and clip off, leaving enough that will make it easy to tie  Pull the two ends up, gathering the center of the woven ribbon together, and tie at the center in a knot  Slip the bow off of the fork and clip off extra ribbon. The bottom bow was done with two rows and the top one was done with three rows  Use to decorate cards, hairclips, clothes and anything else you can think of!  |
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Archive for the ‘Quick Tips’ Category
A Sick Bed Craft
Wednesday, February 20th, 2013
How To Freezer Wrap Meat Like the Professionals
Friday, October 12th, 2012
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Today, we cooks have all kinds of new products to process the various meats that we love to store in the freezer. Electronic sealers, zippered freezer bags and machines that vacuum pack into plastic bags can be costly and, though they promise no freezer burn, often times, the frost and freezer burn still appear. I love my FoodSaver Vacuum sealing system, but I have to say, the tried and true wrapping in freezer paper, like I did at my job in the meat department many years ago, still seems to be the best way to preserve food in the freezer. In fact, if you really want to preserve your meats, you can vacuum pack them and THEN wrap them in freezer paper. I continue to wrap most of my meats in the wax coated freezer paper that can be found at any store. It comes in a large roll that is found in the same grocery section with the plastic wrap and aluminum foil and wax paper. The most common brand is Reynolds. I thought that I would show you how I have wrapped my meats for the past 35 years, having cut and packaged meat professionally after graduating college. (An art degree just didn’t put food on the table – let alone wrap it!!! ) What you need: Roll of freezer Paper Freezer tape or Masking tape Sharpie for labeling  Cut paper to at least 6″ wider than the object that is going to be wrapped. If you are doing large steaks, use two thicknesses of wax paper to place between the steaks. If you are wrapping small steaks or pork chops, chicken breasts, etc, lay the meat side-by-side with large end of the first piece of meat next to the small end of the second piece of meat. The freezer paper should be at least 6″ wider than the width of the two together.  Place the meat in the center of the paper. Here, I am wrapping one pound balls of ground beef.  Pull uncut ends of the paper up between fingers and match the edges so that they are equal and even.  Fold over and slide fingers across the crease to make flat and crisp  Continue folding and creasing over and over until your fingers are stopped by the meat inside the package  Press the flattened roll to the top of the package to make a flat seam  Turn package over to seam side down  Press finger tips into the end of the package to force down the top paper into the bottom, as done when wrapping a present  As in wrapping a present, fold the edges over to a point  Pull pointed end over to the back of the package and tape. Repeat process for the other end of the package  Turn the package over to the seam end and write the date and what type of meat has been wrapped.  Stack packaged meat and then carry to the freezer. Lay meats into the freezer in layers of one to two packages deep on several shelves until they are completely frozen. Stacking too much unfrozen meat into one area of the freezer keeps flash freezing from occuring and can make the packages freeze unevenly. Once frozen, you can move and stack them however deep you wish. |
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Suet For The Birds!
Tuesday, September 25th, 2012
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Three posts ago, I showed you how to render tallow from beef fat for soap making and for old-fashioned candle making as well. The tallow can be used for incredible biscuits and pie crust too and the same process is used for rendering lard from pig fat for the same purchase. On Friday and Saturday, I cooked down 30 lbs of beef kidney fat to render about 15 lbs of beautiful, white tallow that went into the freezer. And it was when I finished the second run that I had a “well, duh” moment. As you saw from the photos, there is a lot of fat globules left over from the process and dumb me had thrown that away. As I was staring at my most recent by-product mess, it dawned on me that our bird feeders have cages for suet and we spend money every year on the stuff. Here, I had tons of the makings for suet cakes right in front of me.  Sooooo, I grabbed a bunch of my square and rectangular cake pans and poured the fat leftovers into the pans and evened out the surface. Then, I sprinkled bird seed on top and patted it down into the fat. The pans went into our big, anique Dr. Pepper cooler to cool down overnight.  The fat hardened nicely  When the suet was hard, I ran hot water over the backs of the pans and the suet popped right out onto a cutting surface.  A long blade knife worked perfectly to slice the block into squares that fit our bird feeders.  Those squares went into freezer bags and are now stored in the freezer until winter. So I got the tallow and some suet too!! I’m thinkin’ we are gonna have some pretty happy birdies!! |
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Vinegar Tips
Tuesday, April 26th, 2011
   I love buttermilk for use in pancakes, waffles, biscuits and many other breads and cakes. However, because I use so much buttermilk, I frequently run out. Not to worry. I just put 1-2 tbsp of vinegar into the bottom of a glass measuring cup, add the equivalent of sweet milk for buttermilk, pop in the microwave for 30 seconds and ‘voila’, I have curdled milk with the same properties as buttermilk.  Mr. Fix-It has a lot of trouble with indigestion from meals and so we have found that 1/4 cup (with each meal) of the refrigerated mixture of 24 oz concord grape juice, 32 oz of apple cider with the “mother”, 1/4 cup of local honey and 1/4 cup of apple cider vinegar with the “mother” keeps him from having tummy trouble. And it tastes good too!  Want to rid yourself of an odiferous garbage disposal? Just freeze vinegar in ice cube trays and throw the ice cubes into the disposal to grind up.  How about that glass you found on your corner table in the living room, left there two weeks ago by the child who was told, “No drinks in the living room!”? Yep, there’s that telltale ring of a water stain. Just take equal amounts of olive oil and vinegar and rub into the stain to remove it.  According to the Vinegar Institute, (they have a place where you can graduate with a degree in pickling agents?) vinegar has many uses, not the least of which is as an ant repellent. Just wipe your counters with distilled white vinegar and no ant will come within a mile of your home (because of the smell, I’m sure). I daresay that might work on the busybody relative variety of aunt as well. And add 2 Tbsp of the apple cider version of vinegar to ½ quart water, 2 Tbsp. sugar and a couple of drops of dish soap and you can lure fruit flies to a certain “death by a really disgusting substance.”  Figure this one out: You can pour straight vinegar on the weeds that line your sidewalk, repeating until they die (pickled dandelions anyone?) but add a cup of vinegar to a gallon of water for a perfect solution to soak your azaleas and will have them thanking you for the acid – well not literally.  Cut flowers stay fresher longer if you add 2 Tbsp of vinegar and 2 Tbsp of sugar to a quart of water to fill the vase. If you change the water every 5 days, the flowers will stay perky.  I got a chuckle out of this vinegar application according to the Institute – tackling smelly dogs: “Wet the dog down with fresh water. Use a mixture of 1 cup white distilled vinegar and 2 gallons water. Saturate the dog’s coat with this solution. Dry the dog off without rinsing the solution. The smell will be gone!” Right. And now they will smell like vinegar. Good trade.  Vinegar will remove that bumper sticker for the candidate for whom you voted and who wound up having an affinity for bribes and women. It will soften paint brushes, clean radiator vents and leather shoes and even fix DVDs that occassionally stick on one frame. Most amazing of all is that according to the winner of the 2007 Online Vinegar Use Competition (what is amazing is that there is such a contest and that people actually entered), you can immerse your gold jewelry in one cup of apple cider vinegar for 15 minutes and it comes out sparkling like it is real!! No need for expensive jewelry cleaning!!  Vinegar has many more uses that you can find at the website of the Vinegar Institute. Yes, it is a weird and smelly liquid, but evidently, it is nature’s miracle substance! Go out and buy a couple of gallons! I’m buying stock! |
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Dried Orange Zest
Monday, April 18th, 2011
 I don’t know about you, but one of the worst things I know of in cooking, is zesting lemons, limes and oranges. I have, in the past, posted the tip to freeze your rinds in freezer bags to whip out in your time of need and zest with much greater ease. However, no matter fresh or frozen fruit hulls, the zester makes no distinction between the rind and your knuckles. More than once, I have let go a yelp because I got too close to those nasty little teeth that rip the skin. Now, I’m a great fan of oranges and it seems that the ones recently have been extra good. Oranges are like candy to me and so Mr. Fix-It says nothing when he finds me typing away at the computer with sticky fingers and juice dripping from my chin. Yes, yes. My momma taught me better. I just grin and hand him a quarter and say, “Wanna slice?” He always takes it.  So I’m munching on an extra sweet citrus and I’m staring at the pile of peels on the cutting board. My mind clicks and I think, “So, why couldn’t I dry the peels and chop them up for zest?” And so my experiment began.  Now, the whole point of zest is to basically just take the outer rind of the fruit. No fibrous, white, inner rind. I know that when I’m zesting, though, I get some of that white lining and so I figured a little wouldn’t hurt. Therefore, I used a sharp knife and slid it under the inner skin and carefully cut between it and the outer orange rind.  I laid the cut rinds out in the air to dry. I decided not to use a dehydrator because I was concerned that the heat would change the flavor of the orange rind zest.  After a week, the skins were so dry they were leathery/brittle. I popped them into the blender and pulverized them!  The result was wonderful! I figured out that I could put the “zest” into a jar and then just keep adding as I dried more oranges. I did the same with lemons. Actually, I found lemons for 33¢ each and so I bought a boatload. I brought those home and juiced them, froze the juice in ice trays as 1 oz cubes and then quartered the rinds to easily slice the white inner skin from the outer rind. I dried those too. In the picture, the lemon zest is to the left and the orange is on the right.  I used the zest in my basic scones recipe and wow. They were wonderful. That’ll be my next post – the recipe! All I know is that now I have a new “zest for life!”  |
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Healthy Butter
Sunday, February 13th, 2011
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Butter…Because It Is! Just a quick tip for those of you who love butter, but would like to add more of the “good fat” to your diet. There are things that I have done to make my eating habits more healthy and more fat-free. But I WON’T do without my butter!! While I know, in my last post, I admitted that I like Velveeta cheese, which it could be argued is not really cheese, I can’t stand margarine. And talk about bad fats…ewwww. All I know is that God made cows which make milk that is churned into butter without any additives. There is no animal that has produced a stick of margarine. It’s pretend butter. Anybody remember that “it’s not nice to fool with Mother Nature!” routine? Nowadays, one can spend a pretty penny on butter that has been mixed with olive oil or canola oil to increase the good fats and to make it spreadable. I’ll show you here how you can do the same thing for a whole lot less.  For about 3/4 cup of soft butter, use one stick of real butter, at room temp, either salted or unsalted depending on which you prefer, and place into a blender or food processor.  Add 1/3 cup light olive oil or canola oil.  Process until the butter and oil are completely mixed.  The consistency will be that of whipped cream and some of the oil may still be separated out, but you can just stir that in.  Pour the mixture into a container and refrigerate for several hours  You will have spreadable butter that is part butter and part olive or canola oil, both of which are higher in mono and polyunsaturated fats – the good fats. And it tastes good too!!! |
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Gift Ideas
Friday, February 4th, 2011
Makin’ Smoothies
Friday, October 15th, 2010
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As a homemaker, there is nothing more fun than getting inventive, inspired by some tidbit of food leftover and useless for anything major. When a great concoction is created and the family smacks their lips in appreciation, the homemaker feels that all is right with the world. Such was the case tonight as I noticed a fruit fly winging its way around and around a lone banana left ripening on the counter top. It was pretty ripe and would have been useful for banana bread had it been one of three bananas, but alas, it was alone. What does one do with one banana in a short time? What else? Make a smoothie. Smoothies are so easy and quick. And they are great at any time of the year. They are also healthy, especially when made with yogurt. Any fruit combination can be used and any yogurt flavor can be used. I use frozen fruit as much as possible to make it colder and thicker. My favorite is as follows and used that lone banana: 1 banana 1 thick slice of fresh pineapple, frozen 1 cup frozen, sliced strawberries 1 tbsp frozen orange juice concentrate 1/2 cup vanilla yogurt    |
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Quick Tips Corner
Wednesday, October 6th, 2010
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Those of you who follow the Oklahoma Pastry Cloth™ way of doing things, either coupon, buy in bulk or grow in bulk. That always presents the problem of “where do I put it??” Big freezers are a must and we tend to stick everything we can into them. There is a great article on Yahoo that gives specifics on safely freezing food and how long to keep it. Just a tidbit follows: “Here is a guide to how long you can freeze foods before you sacrifice quality. Keep in mind that quality does deteriorate the longer food sits in your freezer, so aim to defrost sooner rather than later.
Just remember that freezers do go down – that happened to us just a few weeks ago to a brand new freezer!! – and so it is a REALLY good idea to know how to can your food. Canned foods last much longer and if disaster happens, like a dead freezer, though it may take a monumental effort, you can save just about everything by canning it, meats included. |
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Quick Kitchen Tip
Sunday, April 25th, 2010
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Did you know that if you are out of buttermilk, you can make a quick substitute by adding 1 cup of milk, whole, 2/% or skim, to 1 tablespoon of white vinegar in the bottom of a glass bowl and let it rest for 30 minutes to clabber? If you are in a hurry, you can even put the mixture in the microwave for 20 seconds and get the same result. Adjust the amounts according to how much buttermilk you need and add to any recipe requiring buttermilk or soured milk. Works like a charm! |
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