Pasadena Housewife

I found this moth dead in a drawer, lying on a line of not-yet-separated twisties. I set him on a white index card, took him over near a window, and took pictures of him with a macro lens my dad lent to me.

Tags: insects, moths

Check out those blisters on the crust of my last batch of sourdough bread.

I baked it inside a cloche:

Here’s the bread inside:

It was delicious.

My mother-in-law, Andrea, has been baking sourdough bread for years. A few years ago, while out on a visit, she taught me how to make it. She turned me on to Nancy Silverton’s Breads of the La Brea Bakery cookbook, and the cloche is from her and Ed. Thank you both!

On the marble-topped dresser we use as a side table in the dining room.

I’m amazed.

I read about using vinegar and baking soda for cleaning on some of the housekeeping blogs, and I wrote it off as being like coupon clipping — something that probably wouldn’t work all that well (for me, at least) and that would be a hassle and would end with weariness, frustration, disappointment, and a mess. So I didn’t even bother trying them. How could they possibly work?

This week, though, I read one blog post too many about them and I got curious. I decided to give them a try, even if it was only to finally know that they didn’t really work. And guess what. They work. They work almost as well as regular cleaning products. Not quite as well, but surprisingly well. Shockingly well. Maybe eighty-five percent as well. Well enough that I’m going to keep using them. Well enough that knowing I could eat them more than balances out the need to scrub a little harder in a couple of places. Well enough that I didn’t have to scrub all that much harder.

You use the vinegar where you would use a counter-top or window-cleaning spray. I used it on my counters, my mirrors and my floors. I didn’t dilute it.

You use the baking soda where you would use a powder scrub product. I used it in the bathtub and on the kitchen sink.

I’m not giving up my other cleaning products entirely. I’m still using toilet cleaner in the toilet bowl. It’s eco-friendly, but it’s not something I could eat. And I might pull out my eco-friendly but non-edible counter spray and scrubbing powder if the amount of scrubbing needed ever increases dramatically. But I’m not sure. Baking soda and vinegar work well enough that I may switch over entirely.

I’m kind of amazed that using them sounds so weird and that it felt like I was taking such a leap of faith when I tried them. I’m kind of amazed that everybody isn’t using them all the time. I’m kind of amazed that there’s a market for harsh chemical cleaning products for everyday use after trying these.

Tags: green cleaning products

Photos by Gavin

Brownie Points posted a tutorial last week on how to make your own butter. Gavin and I tried it this weekend. It was one of the most fun things I’ve ever done in the kitchen.

You whip heavy pasteurized (but not ultrapasteurized) cream using the wire whisk attachment on a KitchenAid mixture. You whip it until it turns into whipped cream, and then just keep whipping until it breaks down into little yellow bits of butter in buttermilk. Pour it into a cheese-cloth lined bowl, squeeze the buttermilk out, put the butter in one jar and the buttermilk in another.

Two pints of cream makes a pint of butter and a pint of buttermilk.

This is pretty handy, because I make this chicken finger recipe about once a week for the kids, and it uses just about two cups of buttermilk.

* * * * *

Update: This buttermilk doesn’t come out quite as thick and rich as the buttermilk I’ve been buying from the store, so the chicken finger recipe didn’t turn out as well as it usually does this week. I think I’ll stick to store-bought buttermilk for chicken fingers. The butter, on the other hand, is great.

I use this extra extra-large shower cap to cover bread dough while it’s rising in this big bowl. Smaller see-through hair dying caps are good for covering normal-sized bowls of leftovers in the fridge when you want to be able to glance through and see what is inside them.

I found this idea in Nancy Silverton’s Breads of the La Brea Bakery.

My sister on beauty cream commercials.