Two Clever Moms

May 21, 2013
by jenny
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Taco Seasoning

I used to mix up my own taco seasoning mix when MSG and other weird stuff was added to the taco seasoning packages. But a lot of that stuff has been eliminated, and I started buying the packages with the shells and seasoning because it’s often cheaper on sale than shells alone.

A few months ago I started mixing up my own taco seasoning mix again to make beef quesadillas with some tortillas we had, and again when I realized that I’d bought a box of taco shells, the seasoning wasn’t included, and I didn’t have any packets on hand.

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May 16, 2013
by sarah
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Baking Soda and Vinegar

Baking soda and vinegar are awesome when it comes to DIY volcanoes. I have also been using both as cleaners. I have replaced most of the cleaning I used to do with Ajax with baking soda and Windex with diluted vinegar.

Recently I have been taking the cleaning to another level and also cleaning my self with baking soda and vinegar. I have been using a little baking soda to exfoliate my face for a little while. So I am now trying an experiment: embracing the “No Poo” (google it – it is not as hippy as it sounds) approach to cleaning my hair. Since the long weekend when the blizzard hit New England in February I have not used conventional shampoo. We were home bound (and any trip outdoors required a big winter hat) so I didn’t wash my hair for three days. The theory is to restore all the natural oils that the shampoo strips away. The following week I started washing my hair by wetting it, massaging in about a table spoon baking soda, rinsing well, pouring over my head a tablespoon apple cider vinegar diluted in a cup of warm water, and finally rinsing. I have found it to work just as well as conventional shampoos. And I feel like I now can go longer between washings.

May 15, 2013
by jenny
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Love to try… homemade black bean burgers

My kids love burgers and they love black beans. We’ve tried all sorts of veggie burgers through the past few years, but most don’t pass. Even the ones they’ll eat, they don’t love. For the past year, I keep meaning to try making our own black bean burgers. It would be nice to not only know what’s in there, but to season them how we like.

Does anyone have any good black bean burger recipes or tips on making them? Ideally they’d be grillable, freezable, not too spicy, and have a texture that is at least sort of like hamburger.

May 14, 2013
by sarah
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Stick Book

A couple weeks ago we stumbled upon a book making workshop at our local library. It reminded me about how much I love making books. I fell in love in college. Being a photography major I had to present all my final projects in perfectly square white mats. As you can imagine I am not so good at making anything perfectly square. I took a book making class and from then on my projects were presented in books.

Here are the instructions to the stick books that are in the picture. An easy, quick journal for nature hikes. The instructions are for 4 pages, but you can add as many as you would like.

May 14, 2013
by sarah
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Roast Chicken

Jenny and I are both big fans of the roast whole chicken. It is comfort food that everyone in my house will eat. If I am lucky it will last far past the initial meal. There will be enough for sandwiches and burritos or a curry. And then the bones make the chicken stocks that are the base for all the soups we love. About every other week I roast a chicken (except in the heat of the summer when there is no way I am turning on the oven). For years I have been doing it the traditionally way roasting it in the oven like a turkey. It is super easy, but it just takes time in the oven – close to 2 hours sometimes. Not easy for working parents or t-ball night. UNTIL NOW!! I just fond a recipe where it only takes 25 minutes to roast a chicken. No lie!!

Here is where my new (to me) cast iron skillet comes in handy. You actually need two of them. You basically preheat the oven and 2 cast iron skillets for a half and hour at 450 degrees. While you wait for the oven and skillets. Cut the whole chicken in half and season. When everything is thoroughly heated place the chicken skin side down into one skillet and place the other skillet on top – right side up so the skillets are nesting. Place in the oven for about 25 minutes. TA-DA roasted chicken!

The chicken I used was too big, so I roasted one half at a time. We ate the first half while the other half cooked for leftovers. It still took much shorter than the traditional way. Here is where I found this idea. It suggests brining it for 24 hours. I did, but I don’t think it is necessary.

May 8, 2013
by jenny
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Bakin’ Bacon

Do you bake your bacon?

Some people have never heard of this, some people it’s the only way they know. I was one of the former until about 6 months ago. Since then I’ve spent a lot of time trying to perfect this. It never worked. I tried making it on two kinds of racks, on a lined baking sheet, on a not lined baking sheet, high temperature, low temperature, broiler, starting with the oven high and turning it low and not turning the oven on until after the bacon is in. All sorts. It’s not rocket science, more than making this post informative for people wanting to bake their bacon, I’m hoping someone will give me additional tips.

Here’s what I hope to achieve by baking the bacon instead of pan frying:
1. Does not require attention more than making sure the house doesn’t burn down while cooking allowing me to do other things (or nothing).
2. Gets the whole pack done in one batch.
3. Does not pop scalding grease into my eye or onto my forearms, or splatter onto the one shirt I may own that isn’t already permanently stained.
4. Easy cleanup. Doesn’t leave the oven a mess or ruin my cookie sheets.
5. Crisp bacon.
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May 8, 2013
by jenny
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Cannellini Bean Soup

I think Sarah and I seem to post a lot of soup recipes. In my house I make soup to get rid of stuff in the fridge and/or avoid the grocery store since you can pretty much throw in anything. Soup can also coax my kids into eating vegetables, and I can make it ahead of time. Plus, I’ve just always really loved soup. My grandmother’s Navy Bean soup started my love affair with white bean soups. They get soft with soft skins so you don’t have to really chew them, you can puree them if you want to make a creamy soup, they don’t hurt my gut, and they have a mild flavor so I can taste the soup’s vegetables. I like that.

Cannellini Bean Soup

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May 6, 2013
by jenny
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Recipe Re-Organization

About 5 years ago a great friend gave me a recipe journal as a gift. She had recently inherited her grandmother’s recipe journal. She knew that I record and cherish my favorite recipes and thought that I could also create an adored heirloom.

I liked that idea. I wrote all of my favorite recipes in and have maintained it when new favorites developed. However, with the frequency that I use those favorite recipes, that book has started to fall apart. The cookie section divider page hasn’t been attached for years.

And recipe collection has changed, most recipes can be easily found, re-found, collected, and shared online or in some digital format. I also have a lot of recipes cut out of magazines or printed out that haven’t quite made it to heirloom status, but that I want to save, tweak and perfect until they are ready to pass on to future generations. I’m good about keeping all of my recipes in the same location – which has meant everything got folded up and held together with a rubber band.

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May 3, 2013
by sarah
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Tie Dye

Those who know me well have probably been wondering when I will post about tie dye. I found a tie dying kit a bunch of years ago and thought it would be fun to do with my nieces when we were all together one summer. We had a great time dying t-shirts for the whole family, including my rather conservative father in law. My big boy was not yet two. Since then he has been a huge fan of tie dye. For about two years he refused to wear much else. So I became quite a pro at tie dying stuff. Tie dying is one of those wonderful processes I love. There are stages and a system, but it is very unclear what the final result will look like. As a result the untying of the shirt is so exciting.

The kit I bought years ago is still the one I recommend. It is by Jacquard – you can find it here. It uses bottles to distribute the dye. I remember tie dying at camp, dunking the shirts in big buckets. And the shirts always came out in pastel colors. As you can see below these colors are very vibrant. The bottles make it easy for little ones to tie dye and allow you to use more colors on one shirt. The directions in the box are very strait forward. There is even a DVD that describes how to make different designs.

May 2, 2013
by sarah
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Mosquitoes

I am thinking ahead a bit. We have lots of various water sources around us. Most of it moving, but we also have several vernal ponds. Soon there will be lots of mosquitoes ready to nibble on us. I am planning a three way attach this spring and summer.

1. The last couple years we have sprayed around the edge of our yard a very concentrated garlic solution. You can find it here. We spray it at the same time we mow the lawn. This keeps the strong smell of garlic diluted a bit with fresh cut grass smell. We have found the garlic solution to work well. It does get washed away by rain.

2. We just built bat houses. You can find kits here. We are hoping bats will move in and devour the mosquitoes.

3. I am planning on making a homemade mosquito trap. I found instructions here.

I will let you know how it goes.