Steam Boiled Eggs!

I love hard boiled eggs. They are the perfect portable breakfast and protein punch. I'm trying to eat one within 30 minutes of waking up (there's a story about that for another post). My mom taught be how to hard-boil them when I was a kid, but part of that lesson was waiting until they cool completely to peel them, and then always peeling them under a stream of cold water to deal with all the bits of shell that get stuck to the egg. There goes your portability. I needed something easier.

Apparently, I wasn't the only one on the internet who had the same issues. There are a lot of people with a lot of complicated, multi-step procedures for boiling the perfect egg. They all looked like too much work-- Until I stumbled upon this entry from Cooking with Kids. I was psyched: This method promised beautiful hardboiled eggs that peeled like a dream. Couldn't wait!

The first time I made them I happily cracked into my first egg expecting a perfect opaque oval. Not so much. I got a half-cooked egg. I figured I didn't steam them long enough. Tried it again and doubled my "cook" time. Again, half-cooked egg and full-cooked disappointment. I read carefully through the directions to figure out what I did wrong and finally realized I just interpreted "simmer" differently than the author did. That or we're in totally different altitudes. Or something. Anyway, I realized that she was talking about how you need a lot of water so that you don't simmer it all away while the eggs were cooking. I was getting no where close to that. I think my eggs were just getting a tepid little sauna session on my stove's simmer setting, when I actually need to keep things to at least a low boil. Tried it again and got my awesome eggs :)

 So, here's how it goes:

• Fill a pot with water just to just below the point where your steamer insert will come to rest*
• Add the eggs to your steamer insert, put the insert into the water/pot, cover and bring to a boil over high heat
• Once you notice the water is boiling, drop the heat to medium (you want to keep the water at a low-to-medium boil, but not a "rolling" boil) and set the timer for 20 minutes,
• When the timer goes off, your eggs are done perfectly.**

* You don't want to cover the eggs with any water. If you just have a steamer inserts that sits in an inch or so of water, you will probably run out before the 20 minutes are over. The easiest way to handle that is probably to raise up your steamer. (I used a big sheet of foil and a couple of binder clips to wrap a deck of sorts around the legs of the steamer).

** Be smarter than I was. The first time you do this, sacrifice one egg to the cause at the 20 minute mark and make sure it's cooked the way you like it. Don't wait until the next day to find out that it's still raw when you were looking forward to chopping it into your spinach and bacon salad...and to then realize that the other 11 eggs are raw (and ruined) too. If you check at the 20 minute mark and they're still raw, you can raise the heat and salvage the bunch.

Pancake Strips

Over the last few months we've been trying really hard to eliminate a lot of processed foods from our diet. Part of putting the pantry together was making sure that it was as easy as possible to make foods from scratch...but that still doesn't mean "homemade" is easy. For example, the box of frozen mini pancakes that Kid #1 loves is a lot easier to buy at the store than it is to make on my own. But, for the sake of better health and better budgets (well...more the better health issue...those frozen mini pancakes are  pretty cheap), I have been trying to make and freeze homemade pancakes and waffles.

I have to admit, I already gave up on the waffles. I did it once, but waffles are kind of finicky, and it's hard to know how they're doing once the iron doors are shut. Too many of the waffles came out extra-crisp, and the waffle maker is hard to clean. Now we save it for special occasions.

But this past weekend I decided to make chocolate chip pancakes with Kid #1, and she was really excited about it. We used this recipe from Annies Eats, and the pancakes were awesome. I made a huge batch so that I could freeze the extras for school mornings. But the pancakes were a little thinner than I expected, and this happened:

So, two of my pancakes morphed together, and came dangerously close to consuming a third. For a moment, I was sad, and then I thought "Why am I fighting the pancake love?" Making pancakes isn't all that hard, but making just one big pancake would be even easier:

So, for the next round I filled up the whole pan, and that beautiful pancake flipped like a dream:

And after it was all cooked and colled, I used my pizza slicer to make it into strips. The only thing Kid #1 loves more than "nuggets" is "strips", so I had no doubt that pancake strips would be a huge hit with her.

Once cooled, these pancakes strips can go straight into a zip lock bag for freezing. I was worried that they would have to be frozen individually or they would stick together but that wasn't a problem. I think they just have to be cool first. Tip: the Annies Eats recipe seemed on track to make about 4 giant pancakes, which would be a good month's worth of pancake strips. Unless, of course, your dogs like chocolate chip pancakes and are expert counter surfers. Then it will make significantly less. Just saying.

Jewelry - Unjumbled

So, Pinterest is changing my life in small but such happy ways - mostly by organzing one tiny piece of my house at a time. When I saw the posts about using picture frames for hanging earrings, I knew I had an answer to the tempting jumble of jewelery Kid #1 is always after. And, fortunately, I had everything I needed at home (we are picture frame junkies around here) and it was just a matter of finding a spare 20 minutes to put it all together. 

I used a wooden picture frame, a staple gun and craft wire to make the three rows for the wire. I added a piece of scrapbook paper to the back because it just didn't look quite right against the bare wall. My own little addition (at least, I didn't see this on Pinterest) was to hammer little nails along the bottom of the frame for my necklaces.

To make these a little prettier, I added little sparkle gems on the head of each nail. I had them left over in my craft bucket, but they are easy to find at craft stores.

I am really happy with how this turned out -- especially since my jewelry is out of Kid #1's reach. I also figured out a little trick while I was working on this project. If you notice that the nails are a little crooked, that was not for lack of effort but my goal is finished and functional. Not perfection. If that makes you a little crazy, you might want to stop reading now :)

Of course, the 20 minutes I grabbed to make this happen were while both Kids were sleeping. I was hammering in the nails and getting nervous the noise would wake the Kids up. For some reason, I remembered that we had these little felt coverings to keep furniture from scratching the floor:

A perfect fit! And a much quieter hammering experience.

A Pinterest Pantry

Five years ago, while unpacking dozens of boxes into my first, most beloved home, I went to stock the pantry only to realize...we didn't have one. How could I possibly miss that? Who goes through the whole process of buying a house, including two home inspections, and misses the fact that they have no pantry? Apparently, I do.

While I don't have a pantry, I do have a breakfast nook. A breakfast nook that we never, ever breakfast in. A breakfast nook that was all of ten feet from my dining room table. Who needs a breakfast nook like that? So after five years of living without a pantry, and six months of drooling over pantry porn on Pinterest, I took the plunge (along with two vacation days) and made the switch from this:

to this...

I already cannot believe the change. It went from a cramped, never used corner (except as a home for endless clutter) to a bright, open spot. Something of an oasis...a role model for the rest of my house, maybe?

Thanks to my Pinterest research, I knew I had to start with the larger version of the Billy bookcase. Before I assembled them, I painted the back panels a teal/turquoise color. How did I pick that color? Well, I thought a blue accent would go well with my kitchen, and then I saw a can of spray paint this color. And spray paint seemed even easier than regular paint--no clean up required. (Don't worry about my deck. I didn't. It's due to be demolished a week from now).

It took about two cans to cover both of the back panels. It was a little shinier than I expected, and there are a few spots that still look "wet", but once the pantry was stocked, you really couldn't see any of those, and the simplicity of it all was worth it.

So, what's in this thing?

1) Dollar store buckets (I lurve the dollar store) to hold onto seasonal items: swim stuff (like sunscreen and goggles), scarves, hats, gloves...and one bucket for the random cake/cookie baking/decorating stuff that my kids seem to find so tempting.

2) I bought four L-brackets from Ikea to make sure the bookcases were well-attached to the wall ($0.50 each)

3) Dollar store canisters for the kinds of snacks that used to be thrown in a cabinet with a chip clip and forgotten about

4) A snack basket for the kids' stuff. Things like granola bars and apple sauce pouches. I label them before I put them in there, because 90% of the time this stuff winds up going off to day care.

5) We always have bananas. Now they don't have to cook under the under-cabinet lights

6) Bins for the "Stuff that Builds Up." After five years of living in our house, I realized I always had piles of certain things stacking up on the counters and on the old breakfast nook table: documents to be shredded, recyclables (because the big container is in the garage) and kitchen laundry. This may be my favorite part of the pantry -- these things finally have a home, and I only have to go empty them every few days.

7) A basket for my root vegetables: potatoes and onions

8) A dedicated spot for the giant diaper bag. Finally. It's not here at the moment, but this is where it goes :)

9) Kid #1 must always be front-and-center when we're cooking. This Ikea stool now has a home so we're not tripping over it when she's not on it.

10) These are Ikea canisters (there are shorter versions of them a few shelves down)

11) We've finally figured out that we should separate the kids' snacks from the grown-up ones. These are primarily Clif bars and Lara bars that we grab on our way out the door.

12) Another favorite piece of my pantry--dedicated bins for staples. See more below.

13) The pups food in a carefully secured bin!

More about #12

Before I filled up these bins, I headed to the dollar store and bought 8 sets of measuring cups/spoons. Each bin has its own, and I just leave them in there (tip: take the ring off the set and just nest them). No need to clean them every time or worry about cross-flavor contamination. I made some bread (breadmaker) earlier today and, thanks to this set up, it took about five minutes from the time I found the recipe until I hit the start button on the machine.

Next we've got the bench, which I ordered from Overstock. I was looking for something that would fit against my refrigerator. The goal here was to have a staging area for more of our constant kitchen clutter - namely the kids' lunchbags and shoes.

The pillow and these little pots are from Ikea. The pots have been discontinued. I don't really recommend them, anyway, because they are glass and I had to go by special hooks to drill into the bench with a "safe close" to make sure they can't roll off.

The big pots are for the parents and the little ones are for the kids. My wallet and iPhone finally have a home, along with any other little flotsam and jetsam (like a check for daycare tuition) that might need a place to stay. Briefly.

Shoe basket by Ikea. Kid #1 already loves to hop on the bench first thing when she gets home and pop her shoes off. She also likes to put my shoes in there for me (she's better trained than I am).

So, my secret weapons in all of this are contact paper (got it at Target--Office Depot, Michael's and Hobby Lobby did not carry it!?!), colorful sharpies, little flower wood cut-outs (dollar store!) and dental floss. I sat down with a Netflix movie and made a whole bunch of extra contact paper templates, so I can just write in "Veggie Straws" or whatever when we get a new snack and it's easy to keep things coordinated. I bought two extra packets of the flowers so I know I'll never run out and use a set of dental floss (one of those awful unwaxed kinds I shouldn't have purchased in the first place) to tie them on to everything. Quick tip: Go ahead and decorate/label both sides of the flower, because it's likely to spin and it will probably make you crazy.

So, that's all I got...hope some of this helps you make things even easier!