Better For Ya Fried Chicken

Just a quick tip for all the fried chicken lovin' American mama's out there ('cause I heard it was more popular down there than up here in Canada....is that true?)

Nate Berkus featured chef Rocco DiSpirito this morning who shared this wonderful "healthy" fried chicken tip:

The amount of fat absorbed by deep-frying is a function of time (...and also temperature of the oil....but we'll focus on time)

SOOOOO

In a deep frying pan or dutch oven, POACH your chicken first.  Put an inch or so of water, chicken broth (I usually add some white wine) to the bottom of your pan and bring the liquid up to a simmer.  Add your chicken and cover.  Let cook for 10-15 minutes. Always use a meat thermometer to make sure your chicken reaches 180F. That way you know it's cooked through.

Now that your chicken is cooked, you can use your favorite ingredients for breading and then pop into the deep fryer for 10-15 seconds. Just enough time to crisp up the outside!

Check out Rocco's Flash Fried Chicken Carnitas using this method.

Source



Keep Your Christmas Tree Watered While You're Away

Ok folks, one last post before we head to the in-laws for a week. 

We almost always go away for Christmas but I just can't stand the thought of not having a Christmas tree to enjoy.  This year we're gone for a little bit longer than usual AND my family will be coming for New Years so I want my tree to last extra long.  Wanna keep that yummy pine scent around as long as possible!

I did some searching and I came across this great instructable on making a watering system for your Christmas tree. Since ya'll can head to the site and read for yourself I thought I'd just touch on the important points.


I didn't bother disguising it as a Christmas present since we aren't going to be around, but what a clever idea!  I found some old hose downstairs with two regular female hose-ends and used an old 5 gallon pail we had kickin around.





FIRST KEY POINT:  Measure how deep the resevoir of your tree stand is (if you have one). I just grabbed an old measuring tape.  DO NOT FILL YOUR PAIL DEEPER THAN THIS HEIGHT. You will end up with a soggy mess when you get home.  There is physics involved....but that's not a strong subject for me. Make sure you have water already in the tree stand resevoir.

SECOND: Submerge your hose COMPLETELY in your pail of water. Jimmy it around a bit until air bubbles stop coming up. There can't be any air left in the hose for the siphon to work.

THIRD: Jam your fingers into either end of the hose creating a tight seal while it's still under water. Keep one end in the pail and move the other end to the resevoir of the tree stand. DO NOT REMOVE YOUR FINGER UNTIL THE END IS COMPLETELY SUBMERGED.  This was pretty tricky since there wasn't much room to manoever.

To test your siphon, grab a big glass of water and add it to your bucket.  You should be able to see the water level rise in the stand resevoir.  If nothing changes, take the hose out and try again. Try, try again.  It took me four tries, but the big ends on my hose made it really difficult to create a tight seal with my finger.

I thought this was pretty snazzy! Three cheers for a nice green Christmas tree when we come home!

Frugal Coffee Tip

First off I just wanna say I was featured on Making Monday's Marvelous Day at C.R.A.F.T!!!  Woo wooooooo Check out the awesome buttony bling I got on my side bar now! My Rustic Christmas String Art project was cheap enough to catch Jamie's eye! Can't go wrong with some partical board, mismatched nails and some leftover twine. Thanks so much Jamie!!!

On to my tip of the day.

For all you serious coffee junkies like me - I'm talking to the junkies not the connoisseurs here.  If you're REALLY REALLY picky about how your coffee tastes...go ahead and move on 'cause this is probably not for you. 

This is for all you ultra cheap, Mennonite-(or Dutch) - esque lady's out there.  You know, the one's who reuse tin foil and zip loc baggies? That's me!

Next time you make coffee, leave your old filter and grounds in (GASP) and add half the amount of new coffee.  For example I make six cups of coffee usually, so yesterday I added another three scoops to the six that were in there from the day before!  And it works! If anything it was a little stronger than I usually like it.  This morning I added another two scoops two the....nine old ones...hehe.  This time it was verging on weak BUT I betcha it would've been good had I added THREE instead of two! Gah I'm so cheap I can't help but think of how my can of coffee will go so much further now..woooo hoooo!

Mirrors and Spray Paint and Mess, OH MY!

I'm sure all you diehard DIY'ers already know about this little trick but I thought I'd share it anyway.

TIP OF THE DAY:  Use nail polish remover to take spray paint off a mirror.  Just wet a soft rag with the remover and, with some gentle rubbing, it comes right off!

I'm a little ...lazy...impatient....whatev.  But it always comes around to bite me when I'm working on projects.  So I didn't tape down the newspaper EVERYWHERE .... sue me. 

This works so well I might not even bother taping all the way around next time either! Lesson NOT learned!

No matches? Use a condom!

For serious, people. When you're out in the boondocks and you find that you were so overwhelmed by hormones that you remembered to pack condoms but NOT a lighter...you're not SOL after all. Apparently you just fill it with water, resist the urge to break it over your partners head, then sqeeze the middle of it until you have a circular bulge ..tee hee...on one end that focuses light like a magnifying glass.  I found this life saving information at The Art of Manliness and I also found PICTURES to prove it works!

So there you are folks, another wonderful reason to carry condoms wherever you go.  'Cause you just never know when you need one!

Save some Cash!

When I started this blog, I wanted it to be a place where I could share all the tips/hints/treasures/ideas ...you get it, right?....that I come up with in my day to day life.  Things that are especially interesting to me are things like finance tips, marriage tips....and fun craft and cooking ideas!

I know some of you just hissed and booed (boo'd? bood?...erm) at the first two, 'cause seriously, who wants to read that kind of stuff......besides me eek!  But I really think that there is a wealth of information out there that could potentially help a lot of people move toward the life they've always wanted. I said "move toward" not "create" because no amount of budgeting and counselling will give you a perfect, stressfree, money-tree in the back yard lifestyle......

Ok, for serious now.

Budgets. I'm sure a few people just ran away screaming ....

They're not so bad. For real

Ok, I take that back.  The first time hubby and I sat down and made a budget....we were so far in the red it was sick.  I cried. That's pretty bad.  But since then we've been working together, making some changes in our spending habits and things are starting to look up!  I'd like to share with you a few easy ideas to start working toward making a budget. More like tips on how to live within your means...so your budget doesn't make you cry.


1. Baby steps, baby steps.  You can't cut EVERY extra expense out of your life and expect it to work for more than...a week.  If you eat out a lot, try cutting it down by one or two meals. Even just one "nice'ish" dinner for two costs about $50....you could save TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS A MONTH....just by staying at home for one night.

2. Now if you have trouble with the idea of eating at home. Let me share with you a little secret.  It's a site called Saving Dinner. Check it. Seriously.  Leanne has created this lovely thing called the Menu Mailer! Every week you get a menu mailed to you with recipes for each day and a grocery list.  You can get them in Vegetarian, Low Carb, Gluten Free, you name it!  You never have to wonder what's for dinner AGAIN!
She also has a lot of other really cool menu solutions on the site too...I highly recommend.

3.  On the same line, if your cooking for one or two, the Menu Mailers might not be the right solution.  BUT, it is SO easy to make a meal plan for the week.  Even if it consists of KD, hot dogs and freezer dinners, jot a meal down for each day of the week and then transfer the ingredients you need for each onto your grocery list. NEVER SHOP WITHOUT A GROCERY LIST.  I always seem to come home with food I don't need when I don't have my list with me. 

4. Check your phone/internet bills.  Just the other day hubby called our phone company on account of our reeeeediculously high phone/internet bill.  He told them he could get the same service with another company for half the price of what we were paying (yes he did his homework...boo...but it seriously took like two minutes).  They knocked $30 off our bill! Sawweeeeeet!  A simple phone call saved us $360 over the year.

5.  Gas is painfully expensive these days....so drive less.  Instead of making fourteen million trips around town in a week, take a moment to check your schedule and try to bundle things together.  This works for the grocery store too. If you make a list and a menu you won't find yourself going to the grocery store every other day.  Saves on gas, saves the environment and saves your sanity! Win win situation!


These are just a few things to get started and I'm going to get down and dirty with doing a real budget in a later post. Give these ideas a try!