You see, I made caramelized onions on Wednesday night for this green bean dish.  I might have had the heat a bit too high, because the onions did blacken a bit more than caramelize.  The smoke detectors might have gone off.  (But the onions still tasted good, I swear!)

I was regretting my menu choice when I got to work the next morning and all I could smell was onions.  Somehow the onions seemed to permeate every fiber of my clothing, every strand of my hair and every skin cell on my hand (despite the fact that I was freshly showered and wearing clean clothes from my closet).

I emailed Chris about my issue; here’s how the conversation went:

Me: I smell like onions today.

Chris: Me too!!!  Yuck! [you know it is serious when he uses exclamation points]

Me: Do you???  Do you think our whole house smells? [you know I'm worried when I use lots of question marks]

Chris: Totally.  My co-workers even said so.  I can smell it.  No more onions.  Caramelized or otherwise.

Me: That is so bizarre.

Chris: Not really when you think about the fact that we had an onion inferno in our kitchen…

Onion inferno?  Really?  Maybe he was right because I returned home from work and class 12 hours later to a house that still smelled a lot like caramelized/blackened onions.

A little Google research resulted in an all-natural home-freshening method that goes something like this:

Add a tablespoon of cinnamon and a teaspoon of nutmeg to a pot of water

Add oranges, lemons, or any citrus you have on hand.

Boil until your house smells good.

And your house will smell good.  In fact, it will smell amazing…kind of like orange spice tea.  I might try this on a regular basis, even when I don’t burn onions.

Do you have any home freshening solutions?  Do share, as we all know this won’t be the last time I burn something smelly.

(onion photo source)

Not sure what you’re looking at in that picture?  Those are our credit cards…on ice.

In our house, credit cards are for emergencies or well-planned-out strategies to purchase something, not for everyday swiping.  Although I’ve always thought that credit cards are for emergencies, my definition of an emergency has changed over the years.  Six years ago when I was fresh out of college in my entry-level-paying job, living in my first apartment two blocks away from the shopping district in Burlington, Vermont, I often confused cute shoes that were on sale with an emergency. It’s funny how that happens…

My shoe collection was starting to grow when I found an ingenious tip in a magazine (I think it was Real Simple) that said to put your cards on ice.  Why ice?  Taking your cards out of your wallet and leaving them at home certainly helps reduce the urge to swipe, but freezing them adds an extra layer of protection while still keeping them accessible.  In order to use the cards, you actually have to go through the process of thawing them out, which really gives you time to ponder whether or not the purchase is worth it.

Although I’ve become much wiser about what qualifies as an emergency, I’ve carried this freezing habit with me into our marriage.  Chris thinks I’m a little crazy, but he added his cards to the frozen concoction along with mine.  Trust me, there is no better way to make sure you buy only things that you can afford than by pulling plastic from the mix.  Frozen cards beat will power any day of the week!

So, there is my second money-saving tip for the week.  Have you done anything creative to curb credit card use?  Please share!

I really hate being wrong.  I pout when I’m wrong.

You see, I came up with this grand plan at the end of 2009 so that we could save some cash in 2010. Here are the details of the plan:

• Plan meals in advance and buy only the food and supplies that make the list (compared to our previous on-the-fly style)
• Make one shopping trip per week for all food and supplies (compared to the 3+ stops were were making before!)
• If we run out of something during the week, make do with what we have (compared to our frequent stops for necessities, like ice cream)
• Bring our lunch (or eat at home) every day (compared to buying coffee and lunch in the cafe at work)

Considering Chris and I are usually a bad influence on each other, we’ve followed our own rules exceptionally and unusually well. But our seemingly outrageous once-a-week shopping bills had me second guessing the approach.  I knew we’d be spending more money in one trip, but it seemed like a lot!

So, now that we have a month of disciplined shopping under our belts, I could finally do a comparison. The suspense was killing me. (Did I mention that I hate being wrong?)

Thanks to the wonders of online banking, I swiftly downloaded a spreadsheet from our bank account of our spending in the last month. I also randomly picked an average month from 2009 (July) and downloaded those transactions for comparison purposes.

I deleted all of the rows that were not food and supply related and tallied the results. Here is the breakdown of what I found.

July 2009

• 3 = Average weekly food/shopping stops (excluding buying lunch at work)
• $876.24 = Monthly food/supply spending

(Yikes!  Apparently all of those little side trips were adding up.)

January 2010

• 1 = Average weekly food/shopping stops
• $675.86 = Monthly food/supply spending

(Relief!)

So, even though our one shopping trip per week seemed pricey, we are actually saving about $200 per month by planning ahead, limiting our shopping trips and bringing our lunches from home. That’s $2,400 per year, people. And you know I could do a lot of other things with $2,400.

Although it’s been mildly annoying to plan a grocery list and give myself 10 extra minutes in the morning to make my lunch, it’s a small price to pay for BEING RIGHT!

Don’t you just love saving money and time and making the most of what you have?  Have you implemented any savings plans for the new year?  Tell all!

Renee can tie a mean bow.  Like scary mean.  I was nervous about keeping up, especially since I had just faked the bow I put on my holiday door swag.

Not only does Renee have mad bow-making skills, but she actually has a ribbon tin.  Full of ribbon (pictured above).  I brought along the one roll of wired ribbon that I had and Renee was kind enough not to laugh in my face (she is sweet like that).

For about an hour, I watched, mimicked, nodded and clenched my teeth in concentration as the ribbon went up, down, crossed and around.  And I had success!

Of course, my hands were far too busy to take pictures along the way, so I had great intentions of coming home and recreating the step-by-step instructions in photos.  But then the next day (literally), up popped the perfect how-to-make-a-bow tutorial by Katie over at Bower Power.  Not only did Katie provide her how-to by video, but she was boasting an adorable baby bump.  There was no way my lame photo how-to could compete.

Now that Valentine’s Day is coming up, I thought it would be the perfect time to share my bow tying tale.  Bows aren’t just for Christmas, after all!

And so, if you’re up for learning how to how to create your own bow, I highly recommend trying one of two things.  Either come on up to Downeast Maine and hang out with me and Renee, or watch Katie in action on her blog.  Your choice.  (But we’d cook for you.  And bake for you. No pressure, though.)

I’ve only tried to use yeast four times in my adult life.  First a whole wheat loaf, then a baguette, next pizza dough, and most recently a rustic Italian loaf.  All were edible (the Italian loaf even made it to a Christmas Eve dinner), but they were flat and not right or, in the case of the pizza dough, sticky and weird.

It seems that yeast has something against me.  Kind of like that girl at work who says “hi” to everyone in the hallway but me (I swear, it is the weirdest thing).  In both cases, I have no idea why.  I’m nice, really, and I want to be friends, or at least acquaintances!  (That goes for the yeast and the girl.)

I’m not sure exactly why I am bread and yeast challenged.  I’ve been able to master other tricky items like gravy and pastry dough.  My mom and sisters can whip out loaves of bread like it’s their job.  Did I somehow miss the yeast-handling gene?

The truth is, I get confused by all the different names for yeast: dry, active, rapid rise and instant.  And what the heck is this about “proofing” the yeast?  The only proofing that I do is with a red pen. And what can I do to make sure the yeast actually helps my bread rise?

Clearly it is time for a tutorial.

First, let me get a few things straight and simplified.  All of those different names for bread yeast are just out to get me.  Really, most of the names are code for something else.  For example:

• Active dry yeast = dry yeast
• Instant yeast = quick yeast = rapid rise active dry yeast = fast rising yeast

The key difference between active dry and instant yeast is that the instant version does not need to be proofed.  And proofed just means that the yeast needs to be livened up a bit in some warm water before mixing with the other ingredients.  In fact, the two can be used interchangeably, so long as you know whether or not proofing is necessary.  Amazing!

And what is so special about yeast anyway?  Yeast converts sugar and starch into tiny air bubbles that help make the bread light and fluffy when you bake it.  And who doesn’t like light and fluffy?

If you’re like me and still need more information about using yeast to bake bread, head on over to  My Kitchen Cafe. Melanie has kindly outlined her tips and tricks about working with yeast and bread dough, including how she stores it and makes it work in her kitchen.  As an added bonus, she makes it seem simple enough that even I get it.

So, stay tuned to see the results of my bread making adventures this year.  In the meantime, won’t you share any of your stories about failed or successful bread baking?  If you have any special tips and tricks, please share them here.  Clearly I need all of the help that I can get!

Want to see how my bread yeast battle progressed from here?  Check out my pizza dough and oatmeal molasses bread!

Information sources: Bon Apetit, Cook’s Thesaurus and My Kitchen Cafe.  Photo source, and source.

Sometimes we even get duplicate catalogs–one with Chris’ name and one with mine.  It’s like double the temptation, double the torture. Kind of like the old Doublemint Gum commercials, but instead of cute twins with fresh breath it’s evil catalogs that want to drain my bank account.

Anyway, my point is that I was recently feeling overwhelmed by the abundance of catalogs that were coming in the door.  And while I really do like the glossy pages and clever layouts, I know I can find the exact same tempting things at my fingertips online any time I’d like. So, I decided to clean catalog house.

A few years ago, I signed up at www.CatalogChoice.org to reduce our catalog intake, so I logged back in to adjust our preferences.  The site is quite easy to use.  Once you are signed up, search for the companies who are sending you too much mail.  You can eliminate catalogs completely, or reduce the frequency of their visits.  You can even add multiple names to your profile so that you can remove mailings sent to you and other household members (or to your maiden name), all with just one account.

The process is most effective if you have the catalogs with you, so that you can enter in the customer and source numbers on the back.

When you’re done, you can check back in to see how your catalog declines are doing.  CatalogChoice.org uses this handy, color-coded system so you can see which companies are playing nice and which ones are taking their sweet time.

Another site that I’ve used to reduce junk mail is www.DMAchoice.org, a tool developed by the Direct Marketing Association to help you manage your mail.  I used this service to cut down on the number of pesky credit card offers that we receive and promptly tear up.  The site claims to be most effective in reducing credit card offers if you provide your social security number, but it is not required.  The site is legit, but to be safe, I excluded that private info.

I even went one step further and scrolled through my e-mail inbox and unsubscribed from the gazillion Ann Taylor, Amazon, Anthropologie, ZGallerie, Crate & Barrel and Pottery Barn emails that I get each week.

While reducing junk mail and catalogs is certainly environmentally-friendly, my main motivation is reducing clutter around our house (and on my screen) and removing the temptation of spending money.  The more junk paper that comes in, the harder it is to separate the good stuff and keep it all organized, and the harder it is to keep money in our savings account.

So, are you with me?  Do you get too many catalogs?  Have you used any kind of service to reduce your mailings, or have you called all of the companies directly to remove yourself from the list.  Or, do you love the catalogs and keep them all? Do tell.

(photo credit)

Don’t worry, I won’t go on and on about how warm, beautiful and relaxing it was.  After all, vacations require a whole lot of planning and organizing and you know how I like to write about those topics.

While we were busy planning our escape from everyday home/work life, I realized how much preparation was needed for our little abode to stay home alone for a week.

And so, I’ve compiled this handy-dandy list of things that I recommend doing around the house before you leave for vacation:

• Clean out the fridge. That’s right, time to eat up those leftovers.  Check dates on milk and other items.  Will it expire before you get back?  Try to use it up or get rid of it now!
• Empty the trash. We did this at 4 a.m. right before we left for the airport.  That meant we got every last bit of trash out the door, ensuring a non-smelly return.
• Do the laundry. Don’t be like us and return home to find two full hampers, never mind those two suitcases full of vacation clothes.  Just think how nice it will be to see your clean, folded work wardrobe when you get back.
• Hide a key. Make sure you have a spare key hidden somewhere outside your house, or with a friend/neighbor.  After all, you might need someone to get in while you are gone!
• Pay the bills. Schedule your electronic bill pays or send out those checks before you leave.  Unfortunately the real world keeps on moving when your time stands still on the beach.
• Enlist your friends/neighbors/service providers. If you don’t have a house sitter, make sure someone will plow your driveway, retrieve your mail, water your garden or plants–whatever might need to be done.  Make sure a trustworthy friend or neighbor can cruise by the house once or twice to make sure all looks well.
• Set your thermostat. If you have a programmable thermostat, make sure you adjust the schedule so that the heat doesn’t turn on at normal times.  Keep the temperature low, but not so low that your pipes will freeze.  (If it summer and you actually live in a place that requires AC, then reverse my advice accordingly!)
• Pack your list of contacts. If you’ll be away for a substantial period of time, or out of the country, make sure you bring along a list of important contacts.  That way you can call your doctor, dog sitter or plumber, depending on your emergency.
• Set your DVR. Okay, this isn’t for real…unless you have the kind of relationship with your DVR that we do.  Then you can rest easy on your vacation knowing that you aren’t missing an episode of 24 or Brothers & Sisters.

Thanks to a lot of preparation, we were able to truly relax on our vacation knowing that everything was taken care of.  Well, except for all of that laundry, but who loses sleep over a few dirty socks?  Okay, maybe it was more than a few dirty socks…

But you’re not judging, right??

So, there is our list.  Did I miss any important items?  Do you have a routine before you leave for vacation?  Please share your tips!