Daily Outfit: Effortless with Little to No Effort

Locker room selfie!

Well, a bit over a year later, I finally have another outfit post.  I know you're all so excited!

This outfit is pretty boring but it works; it's somehow edgy for work because everything out of the absolute ordinary is edgy, and it's a bit classy, laid back, and maybe even normcore.  Yay!

This outfit is one chosen once my closet has downsized.  Which is awesome, because like I said in my last post, it means that getting dressed is not about getting stressed (oh jeez), and that basically everything in my closet goes with everything else.  My other goal is to buy used when I can.  And fair-trade/humanely made, too.  Let's not contribute to the fast fashion industrial complex (I know I've done my share of that already in my life).

I'm wearing a Burberry trench in the office because I'm cold, and it also let's them know I'm "authoritative" or something like that.  I have always wanted one, and miraculously one day a few months ago, I found one at a very good price used, that actually fit me!

Here is my outfit:

• Burberry trench in classic length and fit.  It was $200 at Crossroads Trading, and would be about $2000 new.  Supposedly made in Britain.
• Trovata blue striped oxford button-down.  It was $15 at Crossroads Trading, and would be about $200 new.  Supposedly made in California.
• Old Navy special edition skinny jeans.  They were $5 at Thrift Town and I bought them nearly two years ago now.  Not bad.
• Sabah two-tone leather shoes.  They were $200 but handmade in a fair and humane way.

And there you have it.  Trying to have less stuff and hold onto it longer, and not participate in fast fashion, is a goal of mine.  Let's keep trucking on that.

Decluttering: End of the Closet Purge Project

These represented my final project completed, and one (heirloom) dresser emptied!

A little backstory.  I guess I've talked about my closet purge project for awhile now.  The need for it started back when I was a friendless high school freshman.  My mom would give me $5 for lunch.  It was a fair amount of money to get a balanced, nutritious meal.  However, I would take $4 of that and save it up.  I would spend $1 of that on a cup o' noodles and a can of Hawaiian Punch.  It's amazing I made it out of high school as relatively healthy as I did.  Yikes.

I spent that remaining $4 on something cute at the thrift store.  I'd save it up and go on a Friday, sometimes.  The thrift store was my happy place, where all the clothes were my friends.  I later made friends who either understood my thrifting obsession or even "got it" and showed me tips and tricks!

This all translated into an overloaded closet, bedroom, and eventually boxes in the garage (when I lived at home).  My canopy bed served as an extra closet rack.  My poor closet with the 40 year-old wooden rod crashed down in the middle of the night.  I bought an extra (cute) wardrobe at Ikea to house more clothing.  It was a disease that could not be stopped.

All these clothes bought me joy.  Some weren't even my style, but were what I wanted to "be" like.  Some I bought because they were funny, others because they were cool or rare or vintage.  Most I never wore more than once.  If you think of how much money I spent over the span of twenty years (1996-2016), I could have taken some cool trips!

My poor mom!  How did she put up with this.  Only a mother could!

In 2010, when I started to move out, my mom jumped for joy at the thought of finally getting back a good portion of her garage!  I had to figure out what to do with all the crap clothes.  Storage for awhile.  Going through some for awhile.  Keeping some at my parents' for awhile (until they retired up north and said they weren't going to move my crap) (fair enough).

2011-2013 was going through all this stuff in earnest.  And the more I went through, the more I realized how little I actually wore and enjoyed. 

2014-2015 was my purge in earnest, and the discovery of "capsule wardrobes," less consumerism, and the like.

The last year or so has been my purge project in addition to our goal of downsizing.  We are hoping to move into a smaller house.  We currently have a large tract home (renting) and want to move into a smaller home that is more efficient, with less material possessions.  So, with that earnest goal in mind, the past year has been spent preparing for life in a house that was built before people had disposable fashion.  They made their own clothes and repaired items, and had quality, not quantity.

In addition to this goal and the "capsule wardrobe" movement, Kondo wrote her awesome book about Tidying Up.  I scanned it and loved what I saw.  It made perfect sense.  I'm loving the whole waste not want not, downsizing, mentality.  It frees you up for more important things.

I also found it helped to find someone who needed help moving, but had way too much stuff...  That will inspire you to get rid of your own stuff so you don't have to move it when the time comes.  In addition, what really helped for me was taking pictures of "cute" things I was getting rid of but didn't really jive with my style.  Then you have the picture.  Release the item!

Once I got rid of this, then some more bags, then that, and then another bag....  I figured why stop there?  And I made it my goal to get rid of a dresser.  That was a fun project that culminated with the two drawers you see, above.  I used to have a drawer each for:  stockings/tights, undies/bras, socks, slips, workout gear, woolens...  I combined those so they took up half the space, and this meant that finally I could get rid of my tall dresser.

The dresser is something my grandpa made by hand.  He was a hobbyist carpenter, back from a time when people had lots of talents, and he had many gifts.  I didn't get rid of it.  My mom is "holding" the dresser until either of us can find room for it.  It currently resides in her garage and my dad will probably use it for storage of some sort. 

It feels great being that much lighter, having that much less stuff.  And surprisingly, or not very, getting dressed in the morning is super easy.  I only have stuff I use!

Stupid Easy: Avocado Deviled Eggs

Aren't they pretty?  Green Eggs.

By a bit of good fortune, I have a slight problem on my hands.  I get a CSA delivery that includes a dozen eggs every week.  While my cholesterol levels are still adjusting and I'm trying to eat more oatmeal to counteract that, for the most part this is a very good thing.  Eggs are nature's perfect food!  That, and milk.  Don't think too much about it and don't talk to a vegan about it, either.  Nutrient-wise, it's a good thing.

But then (dun dun DUN), my friend's garden chickens started laying eggs like crazy.  She has more eggs than she knows what to do with.  Like five dozen a week or something (not sure).  So, I got 18 eggs in addition to the eggs from my CSA.  Of course the home ones were better, but all the eggs were yummy.  But, I can't eat like five eggs a day!  Damn genes.

Last week, with all these eggs at critical mass, my MIL invited us to a block party in their neighborhood.  It's one of those cute streets that is old-timey even in our rude and modern city.  They have little potlucks and people say hi to each other when they see them, and the houses are 80-100 years old.  It's just cute overload.

Anyway, what could I bring?  EGGS.  Yes.  Eggs.  Duh.  Do not pass go, do not collect anything, just make eggs.  Whew!  A dozen less eggs in my house.  Whew.

Deviled eggs are always a hit.  I make a pretty good batch.  I always have.  Twenty-five years strong of making a good deviled egg.  People will always say, "You should try my deviled eggs, they're the best, trust me."  I will just smile and nod.  Yes, yes, you keep believing that.  But for 75% of my life, I have been making an epic deviled egg.

It was so good that when we had to do a "how-to" demonstration in fourth grade, I of course did deviled eggs.  Duh!  Twenty-five years, I tell you!

Okay, now that I have my credentials....

I was going to make my typical "not even a recipe" deviled eggs.  But, since my husband doesn't like mayo and I don't see the need to keep it around much (and when I do, I use it once and then the remainder sits sadly in my fridge for six months until I throw it out), I had to figure something else out since I was too lazy/cheap to run to the store for mayo. 

I had an avocado (also from CSA) that had to be used before I got my next delivery.  Healthy fats!  Yayyyyyyyy.  The avocado was nice and ripe and as you can tell by the picture, a gorgeous shade of bright green.

It's not even a recipe.  Here's what I did:

1.  Hard-boil a dozen eggs using your favorite method.  Everyone has theirs.  Google for some methods--there are as many methods as there are people, it seems.  My current favorite is to get the eggs out of the fridge about half an hour before boiling them.  Bring some water to a boil and drop the eggs gently into the already-boiling water.  Ten minutes seems to be about right.  Remove them into cold water and then chill.

2.  Take the chilled eggs and peel them under running water (catch the water if you're going through a drought; the plants will love it).  Gently dry off the peeled eggs on some paper towels.

3.  Slice eggs in half "hot-dog"-wise, and pop or scoop out the yolks into a medium bowl.  Set the egg whites on a platter or other pretty dish.  Here I used a pie plate because it works well and I had to transport it.  You can put cling wrap over the plate and it won't smoosh the egg yolks.

4.  Take the bowl of yolks and put it in a small sandwich-sized Ziploc bag.  Add some salt to taste, you don't need to add pepper but you can, and add some dried herbs to taste (as long as you get a little granulated garlic/onion, you're good).  Put a teaspoon or two (not exact) of mustard of your choice.  I usually put Dijon but in this instance I was feeling sassy and I put some classic yellow with turmeric.  I also scooped in my WHOLE avocado.

5.  The fun part:  Close the bag.  Squeeze out air.  Mush the bag with your fingers and go "doop doop doop doop" as you do this.  Trust me.  Scientific stuff happening here.

6.  Once this is all combined, cut a small hole in a corner of the bag.  About a quarter of an inch will do.

7.  Gently work the mixture down to the hole and begin gently piping into the reserved egg whites.

8.  Add paprika on top of the finished eggs because you're fancy and it looks pretty.

9.  Serve and profit.  These were a hit.  They were gone in a few minutes.  There were no leftovers.  Good cooks, including a PROFESSIONAL BAKER OMG who makes locally-famous pies and happens to live on this street, said they were "to die for."  I don't mean to brag, but I just did.  *drops mic*

10.  Wait, you're still wondering how they'll taste?  Just make them!  It's like deviled eggs and guacamole had a love child.  Everyone knows mutts are best anyway.

Not Even a Recipe: Homemade Yogurt

This isn't my yogurt, but mine looks similar!

Store bought yogurt is not that expensive.  Maybe Fage is...  But, your average generic non-organic plain yogurt is not too bad.  What if I told you that you could have fresher, organic, made-to-your-exacting-specifications, yogurt for a FRACTION of the price of storebought?  Does it sound like some gimmick?

It's not.  It does require a few moments of your time.  Wait!  Where are you going?  Don't close the browser.  It's easy.  I promise.  In fact, it is more of a "method" than a recipe.  And you can customize it until you get yogurt so good and so in step with your preferences that you will walk past that mile-long yogurt aisle at the grocer (that gets bigger by the day because everyone is obsessed with GUT HEALTH OMG).

Which leads me to this little side-thought:  How can a country that gets more obsessed by the day with probiotics be so afraid of making their own yogurt?  My MIL even said "isn't that how you get listeria?"  The answer is:  no.  More on "hygiene" of this later.  Of course, my mom is cool with homemade yogurt but freaked out when I ate cold pizza, so maybe everyone has their own line in the sand.

Here are the simple steps to starting your yogurt making JOURNEY:

1.  Purchase some good, fresh, organic milk.  Preferably whole-fat, but any fat level (or none) will work.  You can even use non-dairy milk, but I've never tried it.  The amount depends on how much yogurt you will make.  If you want to "experiment" first, use just a quart to start.

1a.  Obtain a yogurt starter.  Get a yogurt that you like the taste of (the taste is the bacteria) (OOOO YUMMM).  If you like a bloppy one, get a bloppy yogurt, and if you like a really acidic tangy one, get a really acidic tangy yogurt.  My current starter was given birth by a Fage full fat Greek yogurt.  My prior one was from my friend, but I contaminated it (more on that later).  You don't need to purchase fancy "yogurt starters" online unless you want to be that fancy.  But it's not worth the money in my opinion.  The amount should be about 2 tablespoons to every quart, but it doesn't seem to matter much how exact you are here.

2.  Get a container that you will use as your "yogurt container" and incubator.  Mine is a plastic tub given to me from my friend who gave me some of his homemade yogurt to try, hence starting my foray into this.  You can use glass, too.  I don't see why you can't use ceramic.  Just probably don't use metal.  Make sure it is SPOTLESSLY CLEAN (as Julia Child would say).

3.  Get a nice thick-bottom (no judging!) pot/pan.  This is what you will use to heat your milk.  Your milk will probably scorch to the bottom of a thinner pan.  This happens to me every week.  I'm saving up for a Le Creuset cast iron pan, but we all have our troubles.

4.  Get a reliable, quick-read thermometer.  Preferably the best digital one you can find, preferably with a long probe so you don't slowly cook your poor little fingers as you read the temperature of the milk as you scald it.  I recommend a Thermapen MK4, of course I'm classy like that.  Any good decent one with good reviews online will do.

5.  Get a clean dishtowel and set aside.  This will be important later.

6.  Google "homemade yogurt" and the top searches of the day will come up.  You can see that there are many methods to doing this.  I read a few and did what worked for me.  The two key parts are:  scald milk, incubate at a constant temperature.  The rest is up to you.

7.  To begin, pour your quart of milk into the pan and heat slowly and steadily to 185*F.  I've seen it as high as 200*F and that's fine too.  You probably don't want to go higher than that, and probably don't boil it unless you want to make something closer to cheese, which is fine, but not yogurt.  Read more and dork out about milk proteins or just trust me on this.

8.  It'll take around 20 min.  Monitor the heat.  Every so often, dip your thermometer in to read...  Be patient and it will hit 185*F.  Remove from heat.

9.  Now, cool down to 100*F to 115*F.  It needs to be cool enough to not kill the yogurt you're about to add.  You want the good bacteria to go to town on the now-"clean" milk (the scalding killed any rogue buddies in there).  The best way to get this cool fast is to take the hot pot (with lid on) and submerge it in ice water, and stir it around.  A cold tile/granite countertop works well, too.  So does having it watch a Wes Anderson or Lena Dunham movie (just kidding).

10.  Once your handy dandy thermometer reads in the "lukewarm but not hot" range mentioned in Step 9, mix a little of the warm milk in with your yogurt starter (you can have this in a clean bowl waiting).  Then mix that slurry into the warm milk in the pot.  Mix around.

11.  Get your CLEAN yogurt tub or container (etc.) and quickly pour the warm inoculated yogurt into the container.  Quickly wrap the container in your clean dishtowel and put somewhere that will have a constant temperature of about 110*F so the yogurt bacteria can do their thing and transform your milk into yogurt!

12.  The best thing for a warm place is probably your oven with the light on (but oven off!).  However, sadly, my oven light is out even though we have a new oven.  So, I did something I haven't found online but it really worked:  I put the yogurt in my microwave and rigged a little paper towel into the door so the door remained closed but light remained on (like a really low grade Easy Bake oven!).  This worked splendidly.  I've done it a few times now.  Another option is to google other people's ideas--this includes putting it in a cooler, for a similar effect.

13.  Now, just let it sit undisturbed for anywhere from 4 to 12 hours.  I've done it overnight a few times and it worked to get a good texture.  I sat it last time for only 5 hours and it had a mild, almost "crema" tang to it, which was lovely.  You want a nice custard texture.  You might want it runnier than I do, in which case you can have it slightly cooler (on the 100*F end) or stir it when it's DONE inoculating.

14.  Chill the "cultured" yogurt (by now, it will be talking about kale and bragging about some new art gallery opening in SOMA) for at least 2 hours before eating (not sure why this is a thing but it works for the texture to set more).

15.  Eat and enjoy!  I like mine with some fruit and no sweetener.  You might like it with jam; maybe add some peanut butter too!  Yum.

TROUBLESHOOTING:

Google "homemade yogurt troubleshooting" to find out what could possibly go wrong and how to fix it.  I found making yogurt very easy but I did run into a slightly rare problem:

My first two tries had my yogurt taste and feel like SNOT.

Gross, right?  I never said I was perfect.

I didn't die but I didn't eat more than a serving of each batch.

The whey looked like runny snot, and if you scooped it up, it had a "string", and it was just not a good mouthfeel.

Don't let this discourage you from making yogurt!

Just pick yourself up, dust yourself off, throw out that old yogurt, and start all over again!

You see, this problem was due to me feeding my sourdough starter at the same time I was culturing the yogurt in our kitchen.  Or I had just baked it, or both.  The little yeasties floated in with the yogurt and contaminated the batch.  So sad.  But if you're a DIY person, you probably have this or some beer or kimchi floating around.  Just remember to keep them far away from each other, and keep the yogurt covered, especially in the cooling-off phase when you are tempted to keep it open to speed the cooling.  Keep all your utensils and tools and containers really clean.  Don't use an old sponge to clean them.  Use the dishwasher or scrub with a paper towel or very clean sponge.  That's my warning to you.

Otherwise, it's stupid-easy and a great way to feel like you made something from scratch, you're healthy, and you're super folksy too!

Remember, like sourdough, there are a few methods and things to remember, but people did this who couldn't read and had ten babies clinging to their skirt, with no running water or refrigeration.  If they could do this (as humans have for eons), you can, too!  :-)

Home Canning Project: Plum Jam!

Dan didn't know he was going to be used as manual labor during our vacation.

We had a lovely weekend in the country, in true food blogger fashion.  :-)  My grandparents have a plum tree that is so overloaded with plums that all of my grandma's daughters already went through and picked bags upon bags, there is still a ton left, and my mom and I went through and picked out more bags.  And there is still fruit left--so much that one branch has fallen off, overloaded as it is!  The above picture is my husband picking some of the higher fruit that us short folk can't reach.  He wasn't sure what was ripe or not, but it turned out everything he picked was glorious because the entire tree was just that good.

A kitchen scale is essential in this task.  You can get one fairly cheap, for around $15.

I spent a few days trying to eat all the fruit before I decided that jam was in order.  My grandma had suggested jelly, but since I have never even made jam on my own (always with help from friends), I thought I'd give it a shot.  The above picture is weighing out the chopped up plums.  I had about 4 or 5 pounds of plums total.

I'm not including a recipe here because your mileage may vary, and it's all about ratios anyway.  I ended up going to Ball's website (listed on your handy dandy canning equipment--any canning brand has its own helpful website) and searching for a recipe based on the fruit I had.  You can even search by type, ratio (how much pectin you will need), and many more.  I ended up taking a peach jam recipe from their site and multiplying it by how much fruit I had.  I figured the sugar adjustments would be about right for plums.  I used a scale to figure out ratios of however much fruit I added in, doing some maths, figured out the amount of pectin and sugar.  That's all that is in this jam.  Simple!

The jars and lids get a soak in the hot tub while the jam boils away.

Once you figure out the recipe maths, the other part that might be intimidating is the actual canning process.  Just remember to be sterile and careful.  It's really simple once you get a routine.  I went to my local hardware store and got a container of jars and lids.  The ones shown below are 4 ounce jars, very cute, and are packaged with sticker labels so your jar will look super Martha Stewart-y.  You can reuse the jar and rings, but have to buy lids.  I always forget to save the rings, so I just end up re-buying the entire package.  If you got this down to a better routine, and had free fruit to can, this would be a very cost-effective hobby!

All the jars ready to POP their TOPS

The other item I got besides jars and some fruit pectin was a handy dandy "canning kit."  It was $11 and while not really necessary, it saved my skin, literally, and saved a lot of time, too.  The kit included the tongs pictured above, great for picking up boily-hot jars from boiling water (USEFUL), a funnel to make spooning the jam into the jars VERY easy, and a little magnet on a stick, which sounds silly but is VERY useful for lifting the lids out of the boiling water and plopping them on the filled jars.  It also included this little "bubble popper" thingy which I didn't use and didn't find too useful.  But the rest rocked.

Other than that, I would say to just follow the directions in your canning recipe and on the box of jars (or online).  The canning recipe usually deals with the actual jam--cooking the fruit and getting it to boil and set.  The processing recipe usually deals with how to process the jars in a clean way.

Jam Recipe:

• Cooking fruit - easy!
• Follow the recipe because boiling times may vary.  For this recipe, I boiled the fruit and pectin together until it was at a rolling boil that couldn't be stirred down, then added all the sugar and brought up to another hard boil for five minutes.  Then it was time to process.

Processing Recipe:

• Killing off bacteria, fungus, and other nasties!
• Following directions on the jar container, I hand-washed in hot soapy water and then rinsed the jars, lids, and rings.  The rings are merely a formality, so once they are clean, you can let them air-dry.
• The jars and lids, however, are IMPORTANT.  I put them immediately into the water bath to stay nice and boily hot while simultaneously boiling the jam.  It was at a constant simmer for the 15 minutes or so that I boiled the jam (I wanted them to be all ready at the same time).
• When the jam was ready, my faithful assistant (Dan) and I worked quickly to get the jam in the jars and the jars closed.  This meant pulling one jar at a time out and onto a towel.  In goes the funnel, plop goes the jam, plop goes the lid (also pulled fresh from the simmering water), and gently closed by the ring (CAUTION:  HOT).
• We repeated this with all 12 jars.  Then back into the waterbath they go for five minutes on, and five minutes off.
• The fun part is after.  You can enjoy the "overage" jam that didn't fit in a jar, while hearing the jars cool down and go POP.  A popped seal is a good seal.
• If a jar didn't seal in 12-24 hours, they tell you to re-process.  I would just eat it at that point if I were you.  We lucked out and all 12 jars closed tightly.

The "overage" which we got to eat right away instead of can.

Would I do it again?  Probably.  I consider this alright for a first try.  I was happy it worked out and I didn't waste any time or jam.  The entire process took 1.5 hours, that included some time to calculate ratios and wash the jars, as well as prep the fruit.

Wouldn't this be impressive for a Christmas or housewarming gift?  You would be tops in that person's book.

This is Not Even a Recipe: Office Yogurt Parfait

It's as easy as that.  I keep forgetting to buy granola at the store, and my office stocks crunchy granola bars in the break room, endlessly.  I'm not a fan of eating them as-is, but bash them up with your typical heavy-duty office stapler, and you have some pretty good granola.  Added bonus:  portion control!

The bottom of the container is layered with some compote I made by cooking down a few "meh" peaches and some long-in-the-tooth apples, and adding a bit of sugar and pumpkin pie spice (good for more than pumpkins!).  Put plain yogurt on top and the granola over that, stir together, and profit!

Stupid Easy: Simple Tabbouleh Salad

Oh hi!  I'm back for a little post.  Whatever, I do what I want.

Anyway, I went to a fancy grocery store in a fancy area on Sunday.  It's one of my favorite pastimes.  Sometimes you find very interesting new foods from interesting places.  Other times, you find overpriced stuff you can get for much cheaper elsewhere, or even make for a fraction of the price.

I was thinking of getting a deli salad.  I saw a small 8 ounce tub of tabbouleh.  I hadn't had a good tabbouleh in a long time.  My mom used to make it all the time when I was a kid--I don't know, it was the 80's.  It was a crazy time.

FIVE DOLLARS?!?  Five dollars for eight ounces!!!???

No thanks.

Thanks to us being in "the future," I got out my handy pocket computer (smart phone) and searched for a simple recipe for tabbouleh.  I mean, it can't be that expensive.  It's all parsley, right?  And it's super simple.  And, if you broke down the amount I paid for the ingredients and somehow applied a formula to my hourly wage at work, I'm not sure where the savings would be, but I didn't feel that $5 was a good price for a cup of grain salad.

So, here is what I put together.  You can find all these ingredients for fairly cheap at a regular grocery store.

1 c bulgur wheat (follow package directions to put 1 c of boiling water over 1 c of wheat and let sit)
1 English cucumber, chopped
1 bunch mint, chopped
2 bunches parsley, chopped (I used flat leaf, probably doesn't matter but I feel it's easier to chop)
1 pound tomatoes, chopped (get what looks good; I got some grape tomatoes)
1-2 lemons, juiced (I used Meyer lemons and needed more)
a few glugs olive oil (probably 1/2 cup; I don't measure this, just do what looks good)
salt and pepper to taste

You can also add:

scallions
garlic
granulated garlic
oregano (dried)
feta cheese or other protein

Mix it around and let it set so flavors meld.  Summer salad potluck, here we come!

Useful Knowledge: How to Season Cast Iron

Work in progress

 

I have posted a few things that I made in my beloved large and deep cast iron pan.  I realized that I've now owned it for a little over a year!  And in that time, it has improved, probably more than any fine wine would.  

The cast iron pan was a rusty and forgotten old piece of metal in a cardboard box from the days when my family friend went camping--we are talking 70's, I'm thinking.  The pan hadn't seen bacon or the sun in probably around 30 years.

I did some research online about how to clean it.  I would recommend against using a bunch of chemicals like oven cleaner and the like.  After all, this is something you're going to eat off at some point, right?

What did I use?  Salt.  Just plain old table salt is fine.  Cheaper the better, as you will need a lot of it, probably.  Just lightly wet the pan and then pour a lot of salt onto it.  Take a damp paper towel to it and scrub scrub scrub away.  When everything starts to dissolve and/or turn brown, rinse it out, and get a new paper towel and a new bit of salt.  Repeat the process until the rust is gone and pan looks relatively smooth.

Once the pan is smooth, rinse and then wipe off any water.  Now, the pan is very prone to rust/oxidization.  So, you want it to be away from water.  Put it on the stove to dry it out quick.  Then...  Put a dollop of vegetable oil (or other neutral, high-heat oil) on it and wipe all over with a paper towel so that there is a small layer (still on the stove).  Some people prefer the pan upside down in the oven, but I didn't notice much difference.  Heat for several minutes and cool down.  Repeat the heat and cool whenever you feel like it.  This is the start of your seasoning.

Then, cook in it!  Cook a lot!  Cook often!  But, it needs to slowly build up that many-layered seasoning if you want this pan to be something you treasure and use all the time.  Obviously the best thing to do in it is fry bacon.  That goes without say.  Saute things.  Don't do acid-based items like tomatoes, at least until it is well-seasoned.  Heck, I even did some scones in it (line the pan with melted butter first), and it turned out great.

After each time you cook, wait for it to cool so you can handle it, and gently rinse and wipe and then reheat with another layer of oil.  After several times of the cook-wipe-season process, you will see that this is probably the best item in your entire kitchen. 

Oh, and if you have a stubborn bit of burnt food on it, just apply a little salt to that portion and re-season just as you did at the beginning.

Before you know it, you'll use this for cooking just about everything.

Stupid Easy: Pancakes in Cast Iron

Bubbles away...

It was about here that I realized I needed to turn up the heat.

Breakfast taco!

What's for breakfast this weekend?  I always think at least one of the days should include a lazy breakfast cooked into lunch time.  That's brunch, I guess.  I felt like pancakes, so I made some.  I then always regret it because an hour later and you're still flipping pancakes--tedious.  But, worth it and fun, once in awhile.

The best thing about this was also seasoning my beloved cast iron pan some more.  Constant heat and fat for an hour was a real boon for it, and helped it a lot.  I looked at some old pictures and realized I've had this guy for a year now, exactly.  See my post on seasoning cast iron to find out how I, um, seasoned cast iron.  I'm posting it in conjunction to this.

The recipe I used for the pancakes was Martha Stewart's.  But, since she hates me, I had to add an extra cup of flour, so I would call that a crappy recipe, although others have told me it's great.  I wanted a buttermilk recipe as buttermilk pancakes are the best.  What?  You don't know what to do with that carton of buttermilk after you make pancakes?  Well, instead, might I suggest getting POWDERED buttermilk you can keep on hand in your fridge for all your baking needs?  :-)  King Arthur might have a better recipe.  I will search further and get back to you.

Some things I like to remember when making pancakes:

• Make sure you heat up your pan HOT HOT HOT.  You can always turn it down if you notice the pancakes are cooking too fast.
• When you turn on the stove and heat the pan, also turn on the oven to your "warm" setting for your done cakes.
• Grease the pan with BUTTER.  Butter is best.  That's my motto.
• The batter shouldn't be too thick, but it shouldn't be soup either.  Even crepes have a nice consistency that is NOT soupy.  Pancake batter should look similar to cake batter (after all, they're cakes!).  You should also have to pour it, not glop it...  If it's GLOPPY then add a bit of water/milk.
• Ladle the batter onto the hot greased pan.  I spread out the butter with a silicone brush, too, so it's a nice layer.
• Wait for it to develop bubbles...  Tiny bubbles.......  Before flipping.
• Flip with confidence, and flip with a large metal spatula.  None of this flimsy crap and I prefer metal to plastic.  That's why I love cast iron...  You can use metal and not scrap Teflon into your food!
• Wait till it stops sizzling too much and then flip that done cake into the oven where I assume you have put a dish or pie plate to collect the done cakes.  :-)

Pancakes are good with PURE maple syrup and REAL butter.  It's good for the soul.  We didn't have maple syrup.  They're thankfully also good with jam and butter, jam and whipped cream, or in my case, fresh berries and plain yogurt.  As you can see in the photo above, I made it into a breakfast taco, and it was tasty.

Daily Outfit: Keeping it Simpler

That's me in the corner...

I thought I'd put some outfit posts on this here blog.  Sometimes, I'm wearing something and I think "hey, that turned out pretty well!" but then I get too busy to take a picture, even in my beloved work locker room that you need badge access to.  I hope to have some more Daily Outfits here and there.

Oh, sorry for the hiatus, by the way!  I just have been busy doing other things, and heck, it's my blog and I can do what I want, right?  :-)

The outfit above is a hodgepodge but it matches.  Which is unusual for me but I'm getting there.  Making outfits has been a bit easier since I made the closet purge.  Lots and lots of bags went to Thrift Town...  Some to Crossroads resale.  Then more to Thrift Town.  And, there is a chance I will need to get rid of more--right now, my clothing stretches across two (well, 1.5 due to giving my husband his fair half) closets...  If I have to get down to .5 closets, something has to give, and some other shelving options will probably also be considered.

Oh!  I digress...

With my slightly pared down closet, it's easier to see what I have to work with, and what I like is easier to access (just get rid of the static and get rid of things you don't love!).  Without further ado, this is in the picture:

• Pendleton Merino wool tan-colored cardigan, bought on sale for $40 (marked down by $100)
• Forever 21 cotton red gingham collarless tunic (sale, have had for at least six years)
• Eddie Bauer twill grey trousers (sale, marked down to around $15)
• Red socks (origin forgotten but they match the gingham)
• Atwell leather tan shoes with scallop edges (sale from Gilt, probably around $50)

I don't know if you can necessarily say that my outfit is expensive.  If you want to add my wedding band (plain gold) and two heirloom pieces, all gotten for free but worth some money, maybe it would be more.  But I hope that my outfits can show you that you can look OK (I don't look great, and that's not my goal as a doc control specialist who has to hoist dusty old cardboard boxes some days) for a fairly manageable amount of money.