Learnin' to Clean: Stove Tops Can Sparkle Again

My mom always told me that no matter how messy my room is, if I'd at least make my bed every day it would make everything look a million times better.  I never really believed her growing up but looking back she was dead on.  I feel like the stove top in a kitchen is very similar to a bed in a bedroom.  A clean stove top just makes the whole kitchen look a little better regardless of messes and clutter elsewhere.

I have a smooth top stove and it was not all that clean when we first moved in to our little rented town home.  I spent a lot of time with a commercial stovetop cleaner that didn't really get it as clean as I'd like.  It was covered with brown burned up grime and no matter how hard I scrubbed it just wouldn't come off.

I finally stumbled upon a solution on Pintrest and when I found it I did a forehead slap and wondered while in the world I had spent so much time and money if the solution was really as easy as water and one household ingredient...baking soda.

My whole stove looked like this or worse:

So I decided to try the following method:

1.  Wipe your stove top off with a rag wetted with hot water.  You can also put warm water in a spray bottle and mist your stove top.

2.  Sprinkle your stove top generously with baking soda and let it sit for a few minutes.

3.  Use a washcloth wetted (but not soaking) with hot water to scrub the stove top all over with the baking soda, lifting the burn marks as you scrub.

4.  Use the washcloth to remove and wipe away as much baking soda as possible.

5.  Once the baking soda has been removed, use a clean damp paper towel to remove any residue left by the baking soda that wasn't picked up by the wash cloth.

6.  Buff the stove top with a clean dry cotton dish towel.

It takes a bit of scrubbing but this method made my stove top look brand new again.  I was so impressed with the cleaning power of baking soda that I turned right around and cleaned my sink with it as well.  I'd never seen the sink that white!

So no matter what else is going on in my kitchen, I always try to have a clean stove top.  Thanks for the multi-purpose advice mom!

Lovin' My Crafts: Mother's Day Upcycled Tin Cans

For Mother's Day this year, I decided to take the "a gift from the heart is best" approach.  While I would love to buy all the mother's in my life a fancy present to celebrate their day, my budget just doesn't allow that.  So this year I turned to some upcycling ideas.  I wouldn't say that I'm a pack rat but I definitely have a hard time throwing something away if I feel like it has another use.  Right now I've been trying to figure out what I could do with tin cans.

This is what I came up with.

I first washed the cans in warm water with vinegar and dish soap.  I dried them with a clean towel and then let them air dry.

Once completely dry, I painted them with Krylon Acrylic Latex Enamel which is supposed to work on metal, plastic, glass and just about anything else.  In order to eliminate as many paintbrush streaks as possible, I used a sponge brush which worked really well.

I have small hands so I was able to put the can over my hand and then twist my wrist as I painted.  That also worked great because I could paint the whole can without getting fingerprints everywhere.  I did two coats of paint which covered nicely without making it too thick.  The paint requires that you wait six hours between coats and really needs about 24 hours to dry without feeling tacky so plan ahead and make sure to give yourself enough time.

While the painted cans ended up being pretty neat all by themselves, I decided to put a band of ribbon and a button on them to make it look a little nicer than just a painted tin can.  I hot glued both on but before gluing the button I wound threat through the holes so that it would look like it was sewn on to the ribbon.

To complete my mother's day gift I planted flowers in the cans.  I didn't add much extra dirt so that the recipients could either keep them in the can or pull them out and add the flowers to their own gardens.  These ones went to my mom, my husband's mom and my sister-in-law.  All in all, I think they turned out pretty cute for my first upcycling project.

Lovin' to Cook: Steak & Green Pepper Stromboli

I found a recipe on the Kraft website that inspired the following creation.  I love bread and anything wrapped in bread is definitely a must try.  The recipe looked good but I'm not much of a turkey and cheese girl so I decided to change the filling to steak, green pepper, onions and Swiss cheese.  I figured it would make a large enough meal that we'd have plenty of left overs for lunch but it was so good that we ate the whole thing.  I've made it twice now so the recipe below reflects not only a change in filling but some tweaks that I made.  Maybe someday I'll try the Kraft version but I thought my creation was pretty darn tasty.

R ecipe	Steak & Green Pepper Stromboli
Ingredients:
1 green pepper, cut in strips then cut strips in half 1 onion, sliced 2 cans refrigerated pizza dough 1 package thin round steaks, sliced into strips		Swiss cheese slices Salt and pepper to taste 1 egg
Directions:
Heat oven to 400 degrees. In a warmed medium sized pan sprayed lightly with cooking spray, cook the steak strips until about halfway done.  Salt and pepper while still pink to allow the seasoning to cook into the meat.  Add the green pepper and onion pieces.  Continue to cook until meat is done and peppers and onions are a bit soft but still crispy. Open one roll of the pizza dough and place it on a cookie sheet.  Carefully press the dough out evenly (it doesn't need to fill the whole cookie sheet, just press it into a long, skinny strip that isn't too thick).  Cover the pizza dough with thin slices of Swiss cheese – leave about an inch around each edge of plain dough without cheese. Spoon the meat and veggie filling onto the dough and spread it evenly.  You can top with additional Swiss cheese if you like. Open the second roll of pizza dough and place it on top of everything.  Stretch it so that it’s roughly the same size and shape as your bottom dough.  Pinch both layers of dough together all around the edges so the meat, veggies and cheese are sealed inside. Crack the egg into a small bowl and add about half a teaspoon of water.  Beat well and then brush the egg on to the top of the dough.  You may have egg left over depending on the size of your dough roll. Bake for 25 minutes or until dough is nicely golden brown.  Let cool for five minutes and then cut the roll in slices the size of your choosing and enjoy!

Lovin' to Organize: Plastic Bag Touchdown

We save our plastic grocery bags to use in our trashcans.  Most of our community seems to hate those poor plastic bags but we love them.  Not only do they fit great in the smaller trashcans that we have throughout our house but they also save us from having to buy additional plastic garbage bags.  Usually after our trips to the grocery store, the bags get wadded up and thrown under the kitchen sink.  But no longer is that the case after I opened the cupboards and had them practically explode on me.  I figured there had to be a better way to store them that would make them easily accessible but not allow them to take over.

So as usual, I turned to my various sources on the Internet and found someone who mentioned that you could fold plastic bags into triangles like you would a paper football.  I decided that I'd try it and so I grabbed a handful of my overflowing stash of bags.

To my surprise, it worked!  And now every time I have an empty plastic bag I just fold it up into a football and throw it in the Ziploc bag that now stores all my extras.  They stay folded and are easy to grab.  I've actually started keeping one in my purse just in case I need an extra bag for something.

I thought it was fairly easy to figure out how to fold these (I showed my mom and I think she thought I was crazy!).  However, not everyone grew up with paper football folding brothers so comment below if you want step-by-step instructions added to this post.

Lovin' My Crafts: Pompom Wreaths

Living in a rental townhouse gives me limited abilities to decorate.  Normally this isn't a problem since I don’t really have time in this stage of life to explore my decorative side but this past year, as the holiday’s began to approach, I felt a little sad at the thought of not being able to deck the halls of our little home.  As a newly married couple, our decorating budget was (and still is) less than zero so our options were fairly limited.

Our Christmas spirit was shown through a little 18-inch fake Christmas tree that I decorated with crocheted bell ornaments that I’d made and my husband's little Christmas village that he collected throughout his childhood.  All in all, our festive “deck the halls” decorations could fit on our coffee table.

In order to liven things up on the outside of our house, I decided we needed a Christmas wreath.  I was disappointed at how much they cost already made so I decided to be a bit creative and make a pompom wreath.  I stole the idea from a friend who had seen an example on Pintrest.  It may not be the most exquisite and tasteful decoration, but it put a smile on my face to come home every evening to my happy little Christmas wreath with its bright red and green sparkly pompoms.

Since the winter dragged on and I needed something to welcome me home from the cold and snow, I also made a January wreath out of blue and silver pompoms.

They are super easy to make.  Just get a Styrofoam wreath form and hot glue your pompoms of choice on to it.  I also hot glued the ribbon hangers on to the Styrofoam which seemed to hold just fine even through the windy, cold and wet winter we had.  I didn't put any pompoms on the backside of the wreath since they wouldn't be seen and it helped the wreath lay flatter against the door.

I've learned since making these that you can buy the Styrofoam pipe insulation and duct tape it into a circle for a cheaper circular wreath frame to work on.  The ones that I got from the craft store were a bit pricey so I’d be interested to see if I could make the alternative, cheaper option work.  I’ll let you know if I do try it and what I think.

Lovin' to Cook: Eggstra Easy to Peel Hard-Boiled Eggs

I’m sure we've all experienced the frustration of peeling a hard-boiled egg when most of the egg ends up going with the shell.  It seems like a huge waste to me so I did a little research before I made my latest batch of hard-boiled eggs.  I found that there are about a hundred methods to making the perfect eggs including baking them.  I wasn't feel that adventurous last night so I stuck with a boiling method that worked out really well.

R ecipe	Hard-Boiled Eggs
Ingredients:
6 eggs		1 teaspoon baking soda
Directions:
Fill a medium pot with water and bring it to a roaring boil. Once the water is boiling, add a teaspoon of baking soda. Cook the eggs for 10 minutes in the boiling water. Once the 10 minutes is up, remove the eggs from the pot using a slotted spoon.  Carefully drop them in a bowl of cold water. Once all eggs are removed from the pot and have been dropped in the bowl of cold water, carefully poor the cold water out of the bowl and rinse the eggs in fresh cold water.  After the water is no longer cold, fill the bowl back up with cold water and let the eggs sit for just a few minutes. Then let the cracking and peeling begin!  Tap the egg on the edge of the counter or sink and then squish the shell until it is cracked all over.  You should be able to peel the shell of easily without taking the egg with it.  Rinse each egg in cold water.

I like to make a batch of eggs and peel all of them at the same time.  After you rinse the eggs, if you store them in an airtight container, they’ll be fine for a couple of days.  These make for a quick and healthy grab and go snack.  I like them for breakfast on the go and simply put one in a Ziploc bag to eat once I get settled at work (before everybody else gets there of course).

Lovin' Life: Bananas For My Husband

One of the reasons why I love spending time with my husband is because he always makes me laugh.  He doesn't even really have to try.  He's just so cute and funny.  I was reminded of how much I love this aspect of him just the other day.

He came home from work and was emptying his backpack of all the odds and ends that had collected in the bottom of the bag.  All of the sudden he pulls out the most black and shriveled banana that I have ever seen.

With the most serious and inquisitive expression, he looks at the banana.  Then he looks at me and says totally serious: "So I take it this banana isn't good anymore."  You probably had to be there and actually hear him say it to find the humor but I busted out laughing so hard and the stress of the day seemed to melt away.  I hadn't purchased bananas at the grocery store for over a month and I wasn't sure how he'd gone so long with this rotting piece of fruit in his bag.

I realized later that these goofy moments are so precious.  Laughing together just makes life so much more enjoyable.  We both seem to go a million miles an hour most weeks and the fact that we can take a few minutes to laugh over a banana brings so much happiness to my soul.

So as you go on today, find and treasure those simple moments that bond you together with the one you've chosen to be your forever friend.  Take time to laugh and love.  Even if it's over a rotten banana.