Make Buttermilk

found at http://frugalliving.about.com/od/condimentsandspices/r/Buttermilk_Sub.htm

Put 1 T lemon juice or white vinegar into a liquid measuring cup and add enough milk to make 1 cup.  Let set 5 minutes.  Presto, buttermilk!

Magic Milk Shakes

Here is a great recipe for milk shakes if you don’t have any ice cream in the house and let me tell you, they are great. The site is fantastic so I’m just going to supply the link to the milk shake recipe and let you browse from there. Enjoy! http://www.hillbillyhousewife.com/magicmilkshakes.htm

In case you are keeping track…

For those of you who read a while back about my boycott with the dishwasher, I found out that I really can live without it.  And I still am.  That’s right folks, you heard it here, I have a perfectly good dishwasher and I wash all my dishes by hand.  I always know where my dishes are (besides the ones that are authorized to be carried about the house by little people), they are in the cupboard and drawers where they belong. 

1 day without the dishwasher

Not bad! It was nice to get up this morning and I didn’t have to clean out the dishwasher and immediately put in our cups and spoons from last nights ice cream! I generally dry the dishes and put them away but if I have to dry before they are all done I let the last little batch air dry. I find that I am keeping my sink cleaner too! And if you love Flylady then you know how she feels about a clean sink!

The Love-Hate Relationship with my dishwasher

I am tired of washing dishes.  I prepare 2-3 meals per day for my husband and 3 kids and seriously, I feel like all I do is load and unload the dishwasher.  Is it really saving me time and effort?  Lets see, do I take the dishes directly from the table and put them in the machine?  No.  I rinse them first because there is nothing like pulling something out of the dishwasher and having food that was previously stuck on, now baked on.  Do I fill it full of pots and pans?  No.  I wash most of my pots and pans by hand because they are decent brands that I don’t want ruined.  Knives?  No, same reason.  So, why do I use the thing?  Well, I am about to find out.

I am going on a 7-day trial of banning the dishwasher.

I did this once before we had children and I didn’t mind it at all.  After meals my husband and I stood beside the sink while one washed and one dried and put away.  It was a great bonding time and a great sense of teamwork.  And, when the next meal came around, everything was just where it should be.  Now, I am not crazy, it won’t be as romantic as that this time around but my girls are nearly 3 and I am sure they would love helping make a mess, oops, I mean wash dishes.

I’ll post as to how the week goes.  I will start with dinner dishes tonight!

P.S. An empty dishwasher will be a great stash for dirty dishes should we have unexpected company!

I’m Back!

I have been on a hiatus from my little “Adventures in Cooking” blog but I am back and ready to share some wonderful recipes I’ve learned over the last year. Last November I signed up with http://www.savingdinner.com. It is a website that provides weekly menus, shopping lists and recipes for 6 meals per week. It really promotes wholesome foods and provides the nutritional information for its recipes and suggestions for what to serve with each meal. It was a wonderful experience and Chris was such a good sport to be open to so many different meals. I think he was relieved when he’d see tacos or meatloaf coming out of the oven, LOL. Anyway, I am going to post meals as I cook them with a bit of a review on what my family thought of it. I hope you enjoy our adventures in the kitchen!

My Kitchen Blog

I have been trying to figure out a way to document my travels and trials in the kitchen. Since becoming a stay-at-home-mom I’ve decided to use some new recipes and really learn to cook. The problem is that I make something, I decide that it is good, and never go back to it. I am going to post the recipes here that I like and hopefully they will benefit others as well. I am a no-frills cook! My main goal is to feed my family with good well-balanced meals and save a buck or two if possible. I would appreciate any comments as well as your recipes and tips!