The worst thing about cooking...

Is the cleaning.

I do love to cook. And, I do love a clean house. Generally, I do love to be superwoman. Or, at least give everyone the impression that I am.

At the end of the '06-'07 school year, I felt bogged down. I was working a great number of hours doing "extra" things in the schools. I didn't have the time for the deep cleaning I really wanted. So, I started having my home cleaned once a month. By the end of this last school year, I was able to shed some responsibility, and found more time in my day. Moreover, the quality in the cleans that I had been getting decreased some. It turns out, than one of the women was very pregnant, so that explained some. Still, it was remedy the situation, or do it myself. I opted to do it myself.

Now, I'm a thorough sort of person. I like things done, and done well. The problem is, if I cleaned my house thoroughly every weekend, that's all I would ever be doing. So instead, I opted to create a "system." One where I maintained the more used parts of the home daily and weekly, but I only "deep" cleaned one "zone" every week. I've mentioned this once before, but I was able to break my home into 6 "zones" which effectively keeps things clean enough until I can rotate through and re-clean. It's really a great way to keep the house clean, if you can discipline yourself to do a little bit every weekend.

Zones:
Living/dining room: This is all one area of the house.
Bedrooms: Which includes office.
Family room and hallway: The hallway walls, doorknobs, and pictures all get dirty.
Kitchen
Bathrooms
Floors: so, steam cleaning carpets that are dirty enough to warrant and hands and knees thorough scrubbing of linoleum

Now, when I say "deep cleaning," I mean deep cleaning. Like scrubbing the trim along the floor, taking smudges off walls, all dusting, disinfecting all the toys that live in that room, etc., etc. Ceiling fans, light fixtures, and every other item not regularly cleaned is inspected. I don't always need to dust the items in the hutch when I do the living room, but I do need to make sure it looks okay. Don't forget windows!

I have to say, this organized approach does seem to keep my house very clean without any real extra effort. Before this, I would clean in a more haphazard fashion, cleaning whatever comes to mind without thinking about what is needed. This seems much better because nothing ever gets so dirty that it becomes a huge project.

If you're interested in trying this, take a minute to think how you could "zone" your home. Make sure you don't combine two areas that are big projects. Notice that I deeply clean my kitchen as it's own zone. That area takes enough time, I wouldn't dream of combining it with any other area. Divide it out in 4-8 areas that you could tackle, one at a time, every weekend. Keep in mind there are still "maintenance" cleans. Like, I wipe my bathroom counters down weekly with a vinegar spray. My kitchen needs a light clean weekly. I just don't break out the scrubbers more than once every 6 weeks.


Since eating and cooking are way more fun than cleaning, let me leave you with this:
Here's a picture of the parfaits that I told you about recently. Don't they look wonderful? They were. Here I added a couple of layers of banana to go with the raspberries and granola. They sure did hit the spot this morning.

Kitchen JuJu and Essential Oils Galore.

Have you seen it? My JuJu? The quan? My Domestic Divaness? My kitchen mojo?

I spent most of my day cleaning. I've gotten behind on my 6 week rotation. Like, 3 weeks behind. Darn that end of the school year and kiddie viruses!

Anyhow, yesterday I scoured the kitchen. And when I say scour, I do mean it. Wiped down the cupboards, cleaned the floors...I even wiped down the baseboards! Today was the kids' rooms, and that included all of their toys.

A while back, I noticed that I never cleaned the kids' toys. And there's heaven-only-knows what kind of food and drink residue all over that mess. So, in this 6 week rotation, I added "cleaning toys" to the list. What an ordeal.

Now remember, I clean as organically as possible. I pretty much only break out the bleach when the stomach flu comes to town. So, as I'm looking at these wooden puzzle pieces, that are just downright nasty, I struggled with what to use. I have a can of Lysol outside, no...that wouldn't do. I grabbed my Better Basics book and looked. Ah! An antibacterial spray! And I had all the essential oils to make it!

Mix into spray bottle:
5 cups water
20 drops sweet orange oil
10 drops eucalyptus oil
10 drops lavender oil.

Spray and let sit on whatever needs disinfecting. You can wipe it off after 15 minutes if that is preferable.

I used this for all things that I couldn't stick in the wash machine with some borax, or the dishwasher on antibacterial setting. Basically, that means anything wood, paper, or electronic in nature (dolls with mechanisms that cry). I wiped everything I could down with my vinegar mixture, and then I sprayed this on for antibacterial efforts. This is actually suggested for cutting boards, so feel free to spray it there, food prep areas, and even baby's high chair. Better n' bleach!

I also made myself a new window cleaner. I noticed that the straight vinegar was leaving some streaks, so I decided to try something new. Effective, streak-free, and clean! Guess I can't argue with that:

1/4 cup white distilled vinegar
1/2 tsp liquid soap
2 cups of water
a few drops of oil (I'm into peppermint right now, so I used that.)

Toss into a spray bottle and get to work!

Anyhow I focus on the cleaning because my side has nothing to write about today. Something went wrong in the meal planning this week. I had planned for leftovers today, but the husband ended up taking yesterday's dinner for lunch. The hubby is pretty good about eating what I serve - but he's not thrilled to eat the same thing for lunch and dinner every day. So, I decided on some quickie salads for dinner. I pulled out my bag and realized that the lettuce was starting to go bad. The husband suggested Dijorno, I called blasphemy, and took stock of my kitchen. Tomato, fresh mozzarella, mushrooms, onion, basil, 1/2 loaf of French Bread...ah yes, Panini!

Epic failure, my friends. EPIC failure.

I was way excited to try this because I love paninis and I've read a bit about making them. I made sure to include enough cheese, layered throughout, so that the cheese would act like glue for the two bread pieces. I got a glass bread loaf pan, put three cans of food in it, to make a "weight" that would smoosh the bread together.

And still, when I tried to flip it, I killed it.

So I had a panini skillet type meal, where I at least tried to save the vegetables. Since this was the second meal gone wrong, I gave up and told the husband to find his own food. Clearly, my kitchen juju was used up for the day. Maybe I spent too much time in a vinegar and essential oil haze? Maybe it's the fact that my son was up every hour on the hour last night calling for "moooommmy."

Whatever, the juju magic is gone for the day.

Until tomorrow...I'll see if I have any luck with the fried rice.

Disconnected.

So, I know I promised organic foods today....but I can't seem to find the words. You see, the wonderful petree dishes that I live with brought home their "end of the school year, aren't you going to miss daycare" cold. Yesterday I couldn't breath at all, and today my head feels about twice the size that it normally does. I ordered some eucalyptus and peppermint oils for my cleaning arsenal, but those won't be here until the end of the week (at best). So, today I will suffer in silence.

Yeah, me suffer in silence. Who am I kidding? I will suffer until my husband gets home. Then I will whine and make HIM suffer. (LOVE YOU BUNCHES HONEY!)

In the mean time, I also promised a post every day. Darn it, I'm at least going to deliver on THAT promise.

This last weekend, in an effort to counteract a recent unbelievably large grocery run, I made a couple pots of beans. I made black beans for later in the week, but I also made chickpeas. Chickpeas are also known as garbanzo beans.

Now, garbanzo beans/chick peas are often used in hummus (I believe that they are garbanzo beans when dry, chickpeas when cooked up). I have found them to be a very useful bean otherwise. They are quite flavorful, and have a different sort of consistency. They blend up quite nice in hummus, but they also mash for a chunkier texture, or can be eaten whole.

Here, I described the first steps in making your own hummus as actually making the beans.

"Start by soaking the beans all night or day. Wash and toss the ickies.When ready to cook, place beans in a dutch oven, with around a gallon of water.Bring to a boil, cook for 1.5-2.5 hours. You want a bean that can be mashed with a little effort, blended creamy easily, but isn't falling apart. When done, pour into a colander and drain."

When not making chickpeas for hummus, I highly suggest amending this by adding some olive oil, spices, and salt to the boiling beans. A friend of mine suggests the last hour, but I sometimes do it right from the start of cooking (not soaking, mind you) with success. I've tried thyme, sage, and fresh basil. I really love the way the fresh basil turned out recently. Basil has sort of a buttery flavor that worked with the beans. For me, salt is really important to bring out the flavor - and you need a surprising amount. Testing an underdone bean during the cooking process won't hurt you, and it will allow you to get a feel for what spices need to be adjusted. It's better to go light on a spice early, decide the flavor isn't full enough, and adjust. Better, that is, than adding too much of something. In the mean time, I would start with a tablespoon of whatever spice you want to try to start.

So, the beans are cooked, now what?

Chickpea Sandwiches: Mash them with a fork, and make an egg salad or tuna fish-like sandwich. I add mayo, mustard, and dill relish to mine. With my recent basil find, I tried just some balsamic vinegar and mashed it all together, then on a bun. AMAZING, a bit better than they mayo, and vegan if you lean that way.

Add to any salad for a protein burst

Eat with rice, for simplicity. Stealing an idea from a friend, I added some light sour cream to the beans and it worked. It seemed weird, but it worked. Not a ton, just enough to "dress" the beans a bit.

And, lastly, my new favorite - Chickpea Salad. I haven't given orangette any love lately, so here I go. Uber simple, and tasty. I just had this for lunch.

It is time for me to nurse my head cold, but before I go, I wanted to give all of Miranda's friends and family a quick shout out. Miranda told me that she My Spaced you all - and I wanted to say thanks for stopping by. I hope to see you again real soon!

So, the oven got a break this weekend.

The fam and I have a couple of trips in the works. The first one is coming in January of 2009, when we will be taking the little ones to Disney. Once they turn three you have to pay, so I took our little girl when she was 2 and 11 months. We plan on doing the same with our little guy. Then, the following November, I turn (gasp) 30! I told the husband that I wanted nothing for my birthday - except for a short trip. I plan on sitting back and sipping on something tropical that long weekend in November. You only turn 30 once.

So, in preparation for this little jaunt, we're saving cash. The ball and chain is on this HUGE Dave Ramsey kick, which is good for the pocket book. Now, truthfully, if darling husband was as committed as the book suggests, I would have been told"no," to these little trips. Thankfully, my spouse also buys into the "if mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy..." philosophy.

What on EARTH does this have to do with my kitchen, you ask?

Well, I had employed a couple of lovely young ladies to come clean my home once per month. When they started with me, I was working ridiculous hours and couldn't keep up. It was either clean all weekend or hang with the kids...I chose hang with the kids. I still had to maintain the house - but the big cleaning was left to the professionals. At first, their cleans were impressive and through. As time went on, they turned to "average." I began to wonder why I was paying $85/month for something I could do myself. As I became a more experienced teacher, I found my hours weren't quite as intense. Then the Disney trip came up (5 days, I can HARDLY stand it!) and I just decided I would rather keep the money.

However, there was ONE MORE consideration: the cleaning arsenal. Bleach, Mr. Clean, Tilex...basically one big pool of chemicals. I don't mean to sound elitist; in my day I certainly used disinfectant with the best of them. It's just that, since I had my children, I've been much more observant about what (exactly) I bring into my home.

I was raised by hippies. I mean, really. Picture your vision of a 1960's hippie, and that was pretty much my parent's lives. Consequently, I lived a pretty natural life. My mom canned, made things from scratch, raised her own chickens...yadda yadda. They protested various issues, vehemently avoided anything pesticide related, and believed that living simply was what God intended.

It's no surprise that I'm coloring my own world with a little 1960's flare.

A while ago, I discovered a book that detailed how to clean your home with less crap. A germ-a-phobe, I was hesitant. However, then I decided that the chemicals were actually more frightening than the germs. I highly recommend this book in it's entirety - it is an AMAZING reference for how to live simply. However, in the short term, let me share a few things.

Hollee's NEW cleaning arsenal:

1 spray bottle of straight vinegar with Lavender oil: Vinegar is an amazing cleaning tool. It dissolves dirt, grime, and grease as well as anything out there. It's also gentle enough to use on wood, like my dining room table and anything else susceptible to my children's sticky fingers. Lavender adds a pleasant scent and acts as a natural disinfectant. The vinegar scent neutralizes when it dries.

Borax/washing soda/water/castile soap/Tea Tree Oil/Lavender Oil: I put in a bottle that I can pour onto a surface and scrub with. The spray bottle doesn't fly - the borax clogs it up. I leave out the washing soda when I don't have it on hand, and it works just fine. The bottle I made tonight was around 1/4 cup borax, 1/4 cup castile soap, 12 or so drops of oil (total), and the rest of the 64 oz bottle of HOT water. I will grow the mixture for a bucket when I'm REALLY getting down to some cleaning. Works great on my floor when it needs a good scrub, but I will use a water washcloth to rise off excess.

20 drops of Tea Tree Oil and 32 ounces of water: Good anti-mildew mister for whatever. Works like magic. It doesn't kill the mildew, but it will keep it from growing.

Lemon Juice: Amazing anti-tarnish (restoring a silver jewelry box as we speak) and microwave cleaner. Just submerge metal in lemon juice and let sit over night. Buff clean and dry. For microwave, put 1/2 cup and cook for 3-5 minutes. Wipe down microwave immediately when finished (I just use a dry rag).

Baking soda: Great little scrubber. I use with vinegar to clean tubs, showers, and even the toilet.

Borax: In addition to above, I use in laundry as a booster to whites and lights. Just do load on warm and follow directions on the box.

Product recommendations: "Oils" listed are essential oils - important in getting the antibacterial properties. Where "castile soap" is listed, I use Doctor Bronner's mild baby soap. Incidentally, I use his peppermint soap as my personal soap, in full strength. Store bought products in my home include Seventh Generations: hand washing dish soap, softener, and laundry detergent. I also use my grocer's generic non-chlorine bleach (oxyclean).

I'm not perfect, I still use Cascade dish soap (I've not yet found anything comparable) and a carpet stain cleaner that will probably make me grow a third arm. However, the bulk of my "daily" cleaning supplies are earthling friendly...which makes me feel good about cleaning.

If you want even MORE ideas about the green life, go ahead and check out this Internet forum. Great ideas about all things earth friendly.

Wouldn't you know, with all this cleaning, I got antsy to cook SOMETHING. I found some chocolate chips that were aging, and made some cookies. I thought they were okay, but the husband loved them. That's probably for the best, as I won't feel the need to eat them now!

The worst thing to hit a food blogger...

A stomach bug!

I must apologize, dear readers, for neglecting you an entire week. Alas, life got BUSY and then I got SICK...and well...here we sit. Consequently, I have precious few tidbits to give you. However, I will try to scramble a couple of things together.

#1 - Right before the icky hit, I discovered a wonderful new mushroom dish. While vacationing in Minneapolis, MN, we once hit dinner at a great restaurant called Manny's. It is NOT a vegetarian's delight. In fact, it is quite the opposite. The husband and I suffered through, though. We're vegetarians from the health and political perspective, not moral, so cheating every now and again is allowed. I think ball and chain felt it was a good cheat, indeed. One of the family-style "side" dishes was a stewed mushroom that was phenomenal. I wanted to dive in and bathe in it. And, I was eating LIVE MAINE LOBSTER (well, it was dead when I ate it, clearly). So...for me to be impressed by mushrooms. Well...you get the idea!

Speed forward to this last week, when mushrooms went on sale. I found recipes, all the while actually forgetting about the heavenly mushrooms in Minnesota, until I whipped up these. Oh my goodness, they are SO close. I made them with whole baby portobello mushroom caps. Heaven. I served them over rice, but I really think they needed a good cous-cous, polenta, or maybe even a pasta. White rice just didn't meet the flavor and substance of the shrooms head on like I wanted.

#2 - I am spring cleaning and I simply MUST sing the praises of a grand household cleaner that ALL of you should have in your pantry right now: vinegar. Just plain 'ole white distilled. I keep it in a spray bottle, with a hefty amount of lavender oil (lavender is a natural anti-bacterial substance). I'd say about 15 drops or so. Vinegar dissolves oil and grime well. Trust me, with two little ones - I give it a WORK OUT. It also can double as a wonderful window and mirror cleaner - with no streaks. I used it on my TV, my kid's toys, everywhere! Once it's dry, the vinegar smell goes away, leaving the faint hint of lavender. Plus, I'm cleaning all the areas of the house with a kid-friendly substance that they can DRINK and will never be hurt. Really, it's a household miracle as far as I am concerned.

It's just one of the suggestions from a book I recommended ages ago. Seriously, give it a whirl. I adore that I spent a solid hour cleaning without any damage to my hands. AND, my house is a clean as it would have been with harsh chemicals. Cleaner even - that other junk always leaves some sort of residue somewhere. The vinegar does not!

Tomorrow I am making tomato soup. In double, triple, batches. I will post about that this weekend, tomorrow even. It's a date!

Kitchens have feelings too.

On the subject of yesterday's rant:

I wanted to go ahead and plug this great book, Better Basics for the Home. It's a great resource for anyone wanting to make their home more chemical neutral.

It has instructions for making everything from basic cleaning supplies to creating your own beauty regimen. It sort of makes my head swim in trying to figure out what to make, but I just started with a few basics and make more as I have use for them.

Not for eating, but it IS for the kitchen!