Disappearing 4-Patch

I have been working on my latest quilt project for a friend of mine.  Her daughter is turning a year old and so I wanted to make her a quilt like I did her sister.  In fact, her sister was the first baby quilt that I had ever done, second quilt ever as well.  Below is that quilt:

 All of my quilts have been unique patterns and this one was no exception.  I was trying to find a way to use a fat quarter bundle with 5 coordinating fabrics and stuff I had on hand.  I have so much fabric, I should try to use some of it before buying more.  It took a long time to come up with a pattern that was interesting and not just straight blocks and which also used all the fabric without requiring loads more.  This sounds easy, but it really wasn't.

Pinterest is really a great visual place to get inspiration for quilts.  I can search block types and see what people have done for colors and fabric choices.  Some are really creative.  I settled on a block called "Disappearing 4-Patch".  It required 12 - 5" blocks of each of the 5 fabrics and 60 - 5" blocks of my solid, gray in this case.  The tutorial I used can be found here on how to make this block pattern.

Lots and lots of cutting.  Thankfully a fat quarter will give you 12 of these and have just a tiny bit left over.  Scrap pile!

Now all these squares need to be friends.  Sew them together.  Can I just say I love the chain piecing technique?  Quilting would be much more tedious if it wasn't for this!

After some cutting and swapping pieces around, you get a finished block that looks something like this:

Then you take a bunch of those and make a pattern and add a couple of borders.  I wanted to bring out the purple in this (one of my favorite colors and this is for a little girl so it's only appropriate) so I found hues that went with the patterns in the fat quarters.  As an aside - purples can be very tricky to match!

A close up view of the work in progress.  I was impressed with myself on how well all my points matched on this quilt.  Being an anal engineer definitely has its perks.

Then we toss in some batting, put a back on it, stitch it together and throw some binding on and ba-da bing, ba-da boom, voila!

I am hoping the little munchkin likes it.  :)  The next one in the hopper is for my daughter, so there's more to come off the sewing presses.  Not sure who else I am going to make these for now that everyone is done having babies.  Ha!  

Sausage and Pumpkin Pasta

Continuing the pumpkin theme with fall cooking, I stumbled upon this Sausage and Pumpkin Pasta by Rachel Ray.  When I saw it pass the Pinterest feed, I said, hmmm, that sounds good.  Turns out I am getting a lot better at picking out winning recipes.  The bonus to this recipe is that it was from one of her 30 minute meal episodes.

I do want to comment on the set of instructions that were provided.  I consider myself a pretty decent cook.  Not much intimidates me from a recipe with the exception of how long it will take, but that's a recent development thanks to kids.  I do remember spending 3 hours in the kitchen one Saturday many many moons ago making the most delicious stew, but that's something I just can't do these days.  That aside, I still have things to learn.  I am gradually working my way to not necessarily always needing to measure things exactly.  If you have ever watched Rachel Ray cook, you know she's not big on using measuring devices most of the time.  In this recipe, I liked the side note for how much cream to use - 1/2 cup (about 3 turns around the pan).  So, instead of measuring, I just did 3 turns around the pan and I'll be darned if that didn't seem to be about half the container which I know is a cup.  Level up on cooking skills!

I think the only real edit I made to this recipe might have been the amount of sage they called for and what I used.  The recommended 2 tablespoons fresh and I had dried.  The bottle said 1 teaspoon dried = about 2 teaspoons fresh which would have meant using 3 teaspoons worth.  I used two rounded teaspoons worth and thought that was plenty.  Also, I couldn't find "sweet" Italian sausage, so I just went with a pound of turkey sausage.  In my head I was telling myself it was healthier.  Didn't adversely affect the taste at all (well what would we know? It was delicious the way we had it).  We have a great turkey burger recipe that calls for sage as the main spice, so the flavor combination was already a proven success.  If you wanted it to be even healthier, you could use whole wheat pasta and use half and half instead of heavy cream.  While we are health conscience, we let our taste buds have a little fun, so we did not make those substitutes.

I also made the salad that went with this and it was delicious!  I didn't have a golden delicious apple, but the Macintosh I had was scrumptious all the same.  I edited the prep/serving of this because I don't like pre-dressed salads and it was meant for 4 people which would have translated to soggy leftover salad with browning apples.  Yuck.  Instead I just made the salad again the next night.  The pasta was awesome on leftover night too.  Definitely going to be a staple rolling forward for our fall recipe rotation.

Rainbow Whirls

In my free time (ha!), what little there is, I enjoy sitting at the sewing machine and creating quilts.  Mostly I am doing baby quilts due to the rash of friends having little ones, but I someday envision a time where I actually make a bigger one for people to use when they are curled up on the sofa or one for our bed.  In the meantime I get a lot of practice on technique and picking fabrics.  My latest finished quilt took a lot time to get together.  Not because it was hard, but just because it was one that didn't have priority to be done for a baby shower. :)

Of course I have an inspiration board on Pinterest for quilts and one of those pins spurred the thought behind this quilt.  When I set out to do this, the person having the baby didn't know if was a boy or a girl.  I was looking for something to do in rainbows.

Thankfully, the Missouri Star Quilt Company put together this fabulous tutorial on making pinwheels.  I have such a hard time with triangles, so this video gave me the boost of confidence in finding a "cheat" to making pinwheels so I just went for it.  I think it is the best way to make them, especially if your whole quilt is pinwheels.  You can basically make whatever size you want and just roll.  As a side note, the lady that does these tutorials is great.  I have watched a good number of them and they are excellent.

I am pretty pleased with how this one turned out.  It's colorful and pops.  Not to mention it was fun to make.  I had a small learning curve to learn that it mattered how I assembled the pinwheels together.  My seam ripper and I bonded just like always.  I swear, one of these days I'll get through a project where I won't need it.

It was shown off to the whole family and everyone ooohed and aaahed over it.  I just hope the little man who ended up with it loves it just as much. :)

Online Yard Sales

Let's face it, Craigslist is a menagerie of sketchy miscreants, flaky individuals, and the occasional honest and normal person just trying to sell or buy something.  Not only that, but the posting for an area like Northern DC can be a dice roll.  Oh hey, great deal on a dresser, but it's on the other side of the city.  Forget it.  I know you can search, but the amount of filters you need to apply just to find what you are looking for can be annoying.  Not to mention you have to continually check back and apply all those filters each time.

Facebook has it's ups and downs, but the most recent useful thing I have found it can do is bring local people together to buy and sell things in an online yard sale group.  There are a bunch of these all over the place for people to buy and sell in a town.  The rules are usually that you need to be willing to meet in that location or be in an adjacent location.  This kind of eliminates the searching of things for sale in my area.  Not only that, it pops into my news feed AND 95% of the posts have pictures.  To boot, you can often tell if an item is for sale or has interest from other people thanks to the handy comment feature.  Sure there's a lot of crap I don't want, but given all the other junk in my news feed, I really don't mind.  And if I wanted to, I could set it to not show in my feed and just browse it when I wanted to.

We are on a new kind of budget system and so catching deals from people that are selling what we are looking for is ideal.  Some of the things I have been able to snag at really good prices (or free):

Two Target bags of sleepers for 2T girls - Free
Little Tykes Car (Flinstone Car - Older Model)  - $10
Melissa and Doug Fire Truck Floor Puzzle (like new) - $5
Snap and Go Stroller for Graco car sear - Free
Garbage Ball full of assorted girl clothes - Free
Two lamp shades - $7 - This completes a ridiculously long project, not that it was hard, just took forever to do.
Pair of shoes (Franco Sarto wedges, actually in my size) - $5
Dress - $4

I fully intend to pay it forward with passing on these items I have gotten for free to other people in need.  The Snap and Go Stroller has been the most useful win since our other stroller is a Bob (bought from Craigslist), and is way large to shove in a car if you want to cart anything else with you.  All in all though I have made out pretty well.  One lady was having a moving sale for a while and I swear almost everything in her house was for sale and for cheap!  I ended up acquiring 4 fabric bins (couldn't find purple in the stores and wanted them for my daughters room), a purple rug, a kaleidoscope, a pair of Mary Jane clogs, and a paper cutter for $21.  I was ecstatic.

I have only had one bust and that was from a lady selling step stools.  When I got to her house she couldn't find them.  How that is possible I am not quite sure, but whatever.  I guess we will have to buy those from a store.  They are needed for potty training and those would have been ideal.

For all the other grief and eye rolling Facebook can something cause, I think the online yard sale is a pretty awesome feature.  If you don't have one for your area, you should put a group together and see how it goes!

Sunday Morning Pancakes

Our Sunday morning tradition is to spend most of the morning in PJs and eat pancakes.  We have a homemade recipe for pancakes I make in bulk and then just make batches every weekend until it's empty and refill.  Being that it is fall and I am on a pumpkin/chocolate chip kick, it was totally a sign when I saw a recipe for Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Pancakes on Pinterest.

It took a bit more effort pre-coffee to make which is kind of a big deal when you have a toddler "helping" you.  It used all of my measuring cups and spoons and dirtied far more dishes than our typical Sunday morning treat, BUT I think it was worth it.  I am not one for saying pancakes don't really need syrup, but these really are good on their own.  To me, pancakes are the vehicle to eat syrup because taking shots from the bottle is kind of frowned upon by health experts.

Anywho, these turned out fluffy and delicious.  They took a bit longer to cook because the batter is so thick, so by the time I got around the eating my pancakes, the rest of the family had finished theirs.  (I eat mine from the last batch).  The recipe actually made about 16 pancakes by my 1/4 cup portions, so we have plenty in the freezer for any other fall weekend we want these but don't want to put the time in to achieve the desired results.

Thank you fall for inspiring wonderful flavors into regular meals.  We will be trying a Pumpkin and Sausage Penne Pasta later this week too.  :)  Could be delicious!

Grilled BBQ Chicken and Pineapple Quesadillas

We are always looking for something new to try at dinner. Bonus points if it's easy and possibly could be tailored to get a toddler to eat it. I saw this recipe on Pinterest and thought, huh, that does sound delicious!

The recipe!

I have never grilled pineapple before but thought it had potential. I started with a misfire getting to grill properly lit (I still have no idea what happened exactly), but once I got going, there was no stopping me!

This recipe come together fairly easily and is customizable to your taste preferences. We had Sweet Baby Rays BBQ sauce on hand (who doesn't?) so we used that for the chicken and as some added flavor in the quesadillas. We opted to skip the jalapeños but I am sure they would have been delicious too. I did devour at least half a "stalk" of the pineapple we grilled. We should have had more cheese on hand, but I was impressed we at least had the monetary jack the recipe suggested. Just not as much as we could have done.

Verdict: We absolutely need to do this one again. The toddler even looked the pieces of it (just not all together).

Quotes for Service

We are in the process of getting quotes for replacing our really really antiquated HVAC system.  When the sight of your unit inspires a "Whoa" from everyone giving you a quote, that must indicate a level of age. The way we figure it, the system is 22 years old.  When we bought the house 3 years ago, during the home inspection we were told it was old.  We did get the 1-year home warranty with the home sale and we were hoping the HVAC would up a die within a year and then be replaced for free.  It is so old that repairs to major components would not be possible.  That would have been great, but alas, that did not happen.

So fast forward to the future with two kids and many other home improvements under our belt, we have called four people to get quotes.  We decided on 3 big companies and 1 smaller independent contractor.  All of them have been to the house and have provided their quotes and first impressions.  This isn't so much about what their prices came back at, but more about the perception and sales pitch each of them provided.  It's really astounding how different their approaches were.

Contractor 1 - I got a call to confirm the appointment the day before.  The guy called about 30 minutes prior to arrival.  Once here, he put on boot covers and introduced himself in a professional manner.  He was dressed in business casual with a button down monogrammed shirt.  Question from him was, "Is your unit broken now?" since all of our windows and doors were open.  "Nope, just nice out."  Inspected the unit with the appropriate "whoa" reaction.  Took measurements and pictures.  Pulled out his phone for a nifty app to calculate what we needed for a HVAC size.  Comes to the conclusion that we have the wrong size and need to get a bigger unit.  Interesting.  Talks about his company and keeps saying, "What else can I tell you?" As if to go through a memorized fact list in his head.  Provides some quotes, but nothing in writing on what we are getting, just a bottom line price.  I got a follow up call and emails from him.

Contractor 2 (Independent) - I received a call the day he was going to come by.  I was on another call, so I didn't catch the first call.  The second call came through and he wanted to come by during the only 30 minutes I was going to be out of the house.  He said he would call when he was going to pop over.  About 15 minutes after I got back from my appointment, I heard my doorbell go off, but no call.  Ok....  He is dressed pretty casually, t-shirt, kahki shorts, and work shoes.  Comes in and introduces himself, goes to look at the unit.  "Whoa" Then realizes he doesn't have a measuring tape, asks to borrow one that's in sight.  Takes some measurements, sketches some things and is kind of all over the place with what kind of unit they have, what they would recommend, etc.  Takes a look at some electrical issue we would also like quoted.  Says, I'll get back to you with a quote by the weekend.  Ok thanks!  I got an email with the quote which asked me to respond that I got it.  I did and received, "Thank u for replying" as a response.

Contractor 3 - Calls the night before to confirm appointment.  Calls about 30 minutes out to confirm arrival.  I was a bit skeptical of this one because they wanted 2 hours of my time.  From what I had seen with the first two contractors, neither spent more than 40 minutes in my house.  Couldn't imagine what 2 hours was going to get this guy.  He showed up in business casual with a briefcase and boot covers.  Went downstairs, "whoa", took pictures and measurements.  He starts to explain all the things his company will do and what's important about the systems and why you don't see units that sit on the floor anymore.  He takes pictures of the outside unit and then we go upstairs.  He asks a lot of questions and what's important to me and what I want in my HVAC system.  I told him I basically wanted something new and anything would be an improvement over my existing system in all ways.  He explained how the two parts of the system work, what variable speed air handlers do, differences in SEER, EER, and HSPF, and did all of this with a genuine desire to make sure I was comfortable with what I being told.  He also explained which units would be eligible for rebates with the power company and which wouldn't and why.  I now understand why this should take two hours.  Comes up with quotes, and prints a contract from his car.  Very impressive.  I also got 2 follow up phone calls from the salesman and who I would presume is his boss.

Contract 4 - To be fair, this one came hot on the heals to Contractor 3 so I had a bit more in mind for my expectations than what I got.  He called 20 minutes prior to coming.  Upon arrival I notice this is the first person not traveling in a company vehicle.  He is wearing jeans and a polo.  Introduces himself and then says, "Well, let's take a look at the unit and I can give you some quotes and get out of your hair."  Ok... Takes some measurements, pictures, and looks at the electrical box twice.  Comes upstairs, sits down with me, plops open a book and says we should replace what I have with the same stuff and *flips pages*, "I can do that for you for x dollars."  I ask about a wi-fi programmable thermostat which all the other contractors had no issue with.  "Ummm, yeah, I think we could do that.  The guys are used to installing X brand, but we could probably do that for you."  I asked about air filters, he kind of ruffled through his book and handed me a one page brochure from his stack of stuff and says, "You can have that" which really told me nothing.  He quoted a few more options from his book and then said, "Not sure what else I can tell you..."  Really?  Nothing to sell yourself or your company?  Your warranty, how long you have been in business, what makes you special and worthy of my business for a major home improvement purchase?  And you have nothing?  Ok, see ya later!  I think he had a happy hour to get to as it was Friday afternoon.  Follow up email, nothing else.

Needless to say, Contractor 2 and 4 were immediately crossed off the list.  Contractor 2 aside from being a bit all over the place also had the highest price.  I am not fond of statements such as "Will do what is required to install the system." written in a contract.  It's totally ambiguous and can be interpreted too many ways.  These guys also were not able to offer duct cleanings, so that would have been another contractor to hunt down and then pay more $$ on top of their already high prices. They also skirted from warranty questions and didn't really want to push that.  Glad you want to stand behind your work.

Contractor 1 had a good priced system, but Contractor 3 really won out.  They were including a free humidifier in the system and their install process seemed more thorough and "proper" if you will.  Also, they had a cooler wi-fi thermostat and offered to clean the dryer vent as well as the ducts.  It's small perks, but I really feel like we are getting a good system with them and a good install process. They also recycle our old unit in its entirety.  They have two guys they pay minimum wage to disassemble units for recycling and resale (copper components). The warranties with each company is a bit weird.  Both of these want a kind of service contract agreement renewable by year.  The first year with both are free, but the routine maintenance/warranty beyond that time is a bit different.  Hard to say which will be a better value over time.

Ultimately, the lesson learned is you really really REALLY need to get multiple quotes from people. I was initially not too thrilled with Contractor 3 when they told me they wanted two hours of my time when I set up the appointment.  I was tempted to cancel, but I am glad I didn't.  You just never know what is going to make the deal.  And if you are in sales, take notes.  First impressions matter and being respectful of peoples homes is a selling point and one I think more contractors could benefit from.  Know your business and how to sell yourself/your company.  Price is only one factor of the deal.  I am willing to pay another $100-300 to have someone who wore boot covers and who has background checked their employees.

Now to see those electric bills go down!!

Allegiant

I finished the third and final book in the Divergent series this past week.  I read the first two probably a year ago?  They were available on the Kindle through the library which made it super easy to get.  The third book is available only hard copy.  I tried to wait it out and see if they would get a digital copy, but after at least 6 months, I gave up and put a hold on a hard copy.

I really enjoyed the first two books.  I had asked people what they thought of the third book and they didn't have enthusiastic reviews for it, but kind of held back their two cents until I had read it.  You have fair warning - SPOILER ALERTS!  I was a bit disappointed with the great reveal of what was outside the fence.  The story still read fine, but knowing they were in the US and Chicago no less, I was kind of like, really?  That's all?  I don't know why either.  I guess with as different as the city and their functions had been set up I was hoping for something really unique to continue.  I also felt like this book shifted to talk about factions as genetically damaged versus the divergent being genetically healed.  That needed to be explained and the whole Purity war summarized.  I feel like the reader got the cliff notes version of the history that caused all of this including a few passages about the people that live in the Fringe which I don't think adds to the story a whole lot.  It provides some context, but those sections felt like that's all they were there for.  I was just as bewildered as the characters in discovering all of this information.  Maybe that's what you are supposed to feel like?  I have no idea.  Also, I'll say the love story between Tris and Four went through full teenage angst which I found a bit annoying.  Given this is a young adult novel, I would expect something like that, but I can usually overlook it.  It was just so painfully obvious.  The ultimate ending I was ok with, although surprised they would actually kill off a main character.  I almost give it points for doing the unexpected there, but I can't tell if that helped or hindered my view of this book.

Overall, I still like the story line, just not as impressed with the final book.  It didn't help that there were a random 5 pages missing from the book. They weren't ripped out, it's possible they fell out due to poor binding.  Just another random factor.  I don't think those would "make" the book though. :)

Also, I saw the movie version of Divergent not to long ago.  I would say, and I should preface this with - I NEVER say this, I liked the movie better than the book.  I think this is because they kind of gloss over that internal dialogue from Tris about her and Four.  They focus more on the discovery of the Divergent and drive the movie that way.  I would say that was a good call from Hollywood's perspective.  I don't think this will ever be as popular as the Hunger Games, but it's still an enjoyable story.  Definitely better than The Maze Runner and what I had read of the Atlantis Gene trilogies anyway.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

I have a birthday coming up this week and my office mate just celebrated hers Monday, so it seemed fitting to celebrate the two mid-week.  Plus it's an excuse to bake something.  In my world, birthdays are best celebrated over at least a week and more if you can milk it.  I embrace my aging self and try to find the happiness in any age.  Hating it won't change what's happening, so might as well make the most of it.

I hemmed an hawed over what I wanted to make.  Something that could easily be shared, didn't take 5 hours to make, and something I know I would like, after all, it's partly my birthday thing too. :)  I realized while trying to decide what to make I only had 1 egg left in the house (that's what you call poor planning), but to my surprise the recipes I was narrowing my choices down to required just 1 egg.  It was a sign.  It was a toss up between Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies and Pumpkin Oat Chocolate Chip Cookies.  I decided to just go with plain pumpkin.  To be honest, the ingredients list was smaller and that won some points.  It's September, pumpkin is officially the flavor of the next 3 or more months.  Might as well get in on it early!

From my Cuckoo for Cookies board:
http://www.twotwentyone.net/2013/10/pumpkin-chocolate-chip-cookies/

Folks, let me tell you, these smelled like a little slice of fall in my kitchen this evening.  It was a fabulous aroma to enjoy while multi-tasking making lunches and prepping things to go to work tomorrow.

I did let the batter sit for the 15 minutes (ok, I lost track of time, but it was more than 5 minutes) as directed on the recipe, but I was a bit skeptical about how they were going to turn out since the batter was a bit gooier (ok, that's apparently a word), than other recipes I use.  They turned out fine and in fact a bit poofy (not a word).

As is tradition, I snagged a cookie hot off the cookie sheet.  It was amazing!  Sometimes simpler is better!  These were light and flavorful without being too much.  Perfect for a pumpkin sweet fix.  If you like pumpkin flavored things for the fall, put this on your to-bake list.  I am not sure how long they are going to last at work tomorrow!

More Book Reviews

I think I might do this on more of a continuous basis now that my summer of Pinterest recreations is over.  I have to have something to blog about right?  Why not offer my opinion on the books I read?  Maybe someone out there can use my two cents on taking a chance on a new book.  

Into the Still Blue (Library - hard copy)

As mentioned previously, I had high hopes for this book and it did not disappoint.  I was very happy with the ending and thought it rounded out the series very well.  I still recommend this and can now confidently say it doesn't have a crappy ending.  So hey, that's got to be worth something. :)

Wool (Omnibus Saga 1-5) by Hugh Howley (Amazon Prime - Lending Library)

This was recommended to me by another friend who is a Amazon Prime member and had picked it for her monthly lending.  This is another kind of dystopian futuristic kind of book.  I guess I am on a kick for those lately.  This book is about living life in a silo which is underground by about 134 floors.  They talk about taking days to journey from the "down deep" to the "up top" and I thought that was weird.  I mean it's only 134 floors, how can it take days?  So we did some research on how many floors were in really tall buildings.  So the Sears Tower is 104 floors, so that sort of put it into perspective.  In any case, it's a completely fascinating story.  Who knew how much drama could be in one silo?  They talk about being sent to cleaning and the IT department with their severs and the sheriff and mayor.  All kinds of good stories.  Apparently it was written as mini books (1-5), but later it was put together into an Omnibus series.  I would recommend reading them all together under that heading.  All together they are about the equivalent of one book.  He does have plans to write more Silo books which I will be on the lookout for.  :)

Strawberry Mimosas

I needed another reason to use my champagne flutes, so I decided to make a cocktail from my Cocktails! board now that I can actually have them again.

http://lauriearons.blogspot.com/2011/07/weekly-inspiration-seasonal-cocktails.html

It was totally tasty and pretty simple.  I think I would strain the strawberry puree since you get a lot of seeds, and in fact it might be easier to just add strawberry syrup instead.  Either way, I got a fruit serving and a bit of bubbly in for the morning. ;)

Salisbury Steak Meatballs

Talk about comfort food.  I saw this recipe while browsing Pinterest and I literally could feel my mouth watering.  I love meatballs in pretty much all forms (ooo, new post idea - Meatball Menagerie) so didn't take much to convince me to look through this recipe.  After reading it through, it sounded simple enough, so I figured this could be one of the last experiments before going back to work.

From my Real Food Board:
http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2014/04/salisbury-steak-meatballs/

I did make the raw meatballs up earlier in the day because I was worried I wouldn't have enough time around dinner time with all that was going on that day.  Honestly, they came together fairly quickly compared to some other meatballs I make. I cooked them and finished the rest of the meal at dinner time so everything was nice and hot. Warning - this meal really does make close to 12 servings.  There was enough to feed 3 adults and 1 toddler for 3 meals really big meals.

I did use their suggested method of cooking the meatballs in two batches. Yum Yum Yum!

Making the sauce to go with these was pretty simple.

Also, it was really "pretty" at the end. And yes, fresh parsley from the garden to top it off!

It was super tasty and filling and a hit with the whole crowd.  I also love that this meal provides leftovers.  However, in the future, if it was just my husband and I with our kids, I would probably half this recipe rather than having so many leftovers.  BUT!  If you have company coming over or a larger family (grown kids), this is an amazing dish.  Add a vegetable for a side and some rolls and BAM.  Everyone will think you slaved and in reality, this maybe took 40 minutes start to finish (the time on the recipe is right on).  Easy peasy and totally delicious!

Summer Reading

I took advantage of my laid back summer to try out some new books.  I consider myself a pretty avid reader.  I read every day and enjoy finding new authors.  A fairly new development in my love of reading has occurred in where I am starting to not waste time on "junk" books.  There are so many good books out there and with all my reading over the years, I guess I have developed a knack for determining when a book isn't going to go anywhere.  It's a pretty handy skill to hone when you want to make the most of your time with leisure reading.

I have a Kindle Fire which I was fairly reluctant to use for reading for a while.  I have owned it for about a year and a half now and I LOVE it.  It's fantastic.  I can borrow books from the library with it and as an Amazon Prime member, I get a free book a month from them under Amazon First, and another book a month to "borrow" under the Prime Lending library.  The Amazon First books have opened a lot of different authors and styles of writing.  Some have been pretty big duds, however there have been a few hits too.  Kind of the point if you ask me.  The Prime Lending Library also opens up new options for reading, but typically if you find an author you like, you can read all of their stuff.  Meaning you can get locked in a comfort zone.  I read all of Deborah Geary's books that way.  I really enjoyed them and it was completely new to me, but I spent a year (one book a month) reading them and not anything else.

So what have I been reading this summer?  A lot of dystopian trilogies apparently.  I guess I am just attracted to that genre right now.  So here's a shake down of what I have read or attempted to read:

The Maze Runner Series by James Dashner (digital library):
I had heard nothing but good things about this series, so I thought, what the heck, maybe this will be another Hunger Games kind of set of books.  For me, this was so wrong.  The first book, The Maze Runner, annoyed me.  The way it was written it was like you and the main character are not supposed to know anything that's going on despite the apparent need to be clued in.  I understand there's usually a reason for writing this way, but this book didn't have it right.  You don't really learn much until the end of the book and at that point I was like, well, maybe The Scorch Trials will be more revealing and I was right!  That was a really enjoyable book.  Then I read the final one thinking, it's got to be as good as the second now that they are rolling.  The Death Cure was meh.  I didn't like the ending and felt the author had tried to make it go one way and kind of gave up/realized there was no logical way to make it happen to they abandoned ship and kind of abruptly changed course and ended the book.  Overall, only the second book I would honestly recommend anyone read, but it's kind of pointless if you don't read the other two kind of crappy books too.  Not exactly what I would call worth it.

The Atlantis Series by A. G. Riddle (Prime Lending Library):
The description of this book caught my attention and I thought, hey, why not?  This followed the same kind of writing style of The Maze Runner for the first book.  However in this book you could tell there was going to be a big story plot working behind this "mysterious" plague that's spreading. I would call this book a bit more sci-fi dystopian because there is talk of spaceships, aliens, and the method by which they administer a "cure" I find kind of ridiculous.  I finished reading the first book and there was not a lot of resolution so I did read the second book and like The Scorch Trials, I found a lot more answers in that book, but I found myself speed reading to just get the part that explained anything that was going on.  If I am doing that, I really don't care about what's actually happening.  I just want to have it wrapped up so I can read something else.  I haven't read the third book and I don't plan to.

Moving Day: A Thriller by Jonathan Stone (Amazon First):
I read the first chapter of this book and I stopped.  The set up to this is that an elderly couple is moving to their retirement home and taking a life time worth of possessions with them.  They are scammed by fake movers that show up a day early and pack their house and take everything.  They realize this when the real movers show up the next day.  This was clearly described in the synopsis for the book, but the writing style describing these possessions and some desperate longing for all the memories wrapped up in them had me mentally checked out.  If it's a thriller as it's so titled, don't waste words on making it more dramatic than is really necessary.  I didn't want to waste any more time on it, so I stopped reading after two nights.  I own it, but doubt I will go back to it.

Inamorata by Megan Chance (Amazon First):
This book confused me.  It's about twins who flee to Venice and a poet that's looking for revenge on someone called Oldie.  I have read about 25% of this book and not sure I really care if I finish the rest of it or not.  It's not bad, but there's nothing making me want to know what happens.  I was confused by the characters for the first 4 chapters at least.  This could very well be due to my lack of attention to detail when I read.  The chapter titles are the character names, but it took a while for me realize Sophie (one of the twins) and Oldie are two different people.  Clearly Oldie has some issues to work through, that much I know.  But unless I get really bored, I am probably not going to come back to this book.

Legend by Marie Lu (hard copy library - first in series):
This book was recommended to me by a middle school English teacher friend of mine.  I loved this book.  I read it in two days which is saying something considering I have an infant and a toddler at home.  It's again a kind of dystopian future, but the writing is wonderful.  You are submersed in the character's life styles almost immediately.  There is a lot of mystery and intrigue, but the book is fast paced enough not to dawdle on mute points.  It cuts to the heart of the chase and there are enough revelations to keep you saying, "And then what happens?"  I love Day and June and their relationship and the course it takes throughout the book.  I am excited to read the rest in the series although I have been warned the other books don't carry the momentum the first does.

Into the Still Blue by Veronica Rossi (hard copy library - third in series):
I was able to read the first two of the series on my Kindle as e-books through the library, but I guess the third is too new to have the e-book available?  In any case I was able to reserve it and get a hard copy from the library.  It must have been about 6 months since I finished the last book, but there are hints to what happened to help people remember, but not so blatant you are rehashing all the details.  It's more like, oh yeah that's right, he can do that.  I haven't' finished this yet, but I am really curious what happens and if they make it to their garden of Eden, the "Still Blue".  I would recommend this trilogy for anyone interested in the dystopian genre.

Stardust by Neil Gaiman (hard copy - own):
I love this book.  In my first ever blog post, I talk about how this book kind of inspired the name of my blog. I try to read this book once a year just because it's hands down my favorite fairy tale.  It's fairly quick and whimsical, and well written.  I have not and never plan to watch the movie they made based on the book.  I have the characters and scenes in my head and I like them just the way they are.  So, this one wins just for being my favorite.

That's been most of what I have read over the last two months.  I have another Prime Lending Library book in my queue for August called Wool Omnibus (1-5) by Hugh Howey and I have read about 3 chapters into that and I think it's going to be a really good book too.  Maybe I'll have to do actual reviews when I finish these for people who may want something new to read.  I usually find myself in an author rut where I'll find an author I like and then read their entire collection of whatever they have written and thrive on it until it's done.  Then I just feel sad they didn't write more and drag my feet while looking for the next author.  I guess I'll just add that to my to-do list. ;)

S'mores Dip!

I don't know who decided that chocolate and marshmallows should be melted together and sandwiched between graham crackers, but I would love to shake their hand.  It's truly a beautiful combination.  Usually the opportunity to enjoy this is limited to over a camp fire, which in my opinion is the best way to have them.  However, we have no camp fires in our future or nearby.  So what's the next best thing?  S'mores Dip!

From Food Love:
http://www.southernplate.com/2014/06/oven-baked-smores-how-to-get-an-autographed-copy-of-southern-casseroles.html

I made this for our last mother's day play date with the babies and I didn't think to grab a photo of this, but I can tell you it was well loved by the mommies and children alike.  The best part?  It's so stupid simple!  I basically just took a bag of chocolate chips and tossed them in the bottom of a 2 QT casserole dish and covered with marshmallows (was about half a bag, but I could have, and probably will in the future, added more).  I plopped it in the oven for 5 minutes at 450* and it was just toasty enough on the top.  We went through 2 sleeves of graham crackers, but that will vary depending on your desired ratio of delicious per cracker.

Great for a last minute dessert and great for groups of people to enjoy.  Although I wouldn't judge if you made this for just your family.  :)  It's scalable too, so if you need to just cover the bottom of a smaller pan and top with marshmallows.  Winning tasty treats!!

Strawberry Balsamic Vinaigrette Dressing

Sometime last year I found a recipe for making Strawberry Balsamic Vinaigrette Dressing through the canning process.  I thought it sounded amazing, but I was past the strawberry season.  This year I planned on picking enough to make sure I could make this.  So at 8 month pregnant I went to the strawberry field around here and picked enough to make the smaller batch which is called out on the site I went to.

From my Canning Board:
http://canninggranny.blogspot.com/2011/05/canning-strawberry-vinaigrette-salad.html

It was fairly straight forward with soaking the strawberries overnight and then boiling the juices with sugar.  Kind of similar to making jam if you have ever done that.  I altered the recipe so instead of all white vinegar, I used half white distilled vinegar and half balsamic vinegar.  On my first batch, I think I got 4 small jars of dressing.  Once sampled I knew what I wanted to make more of!

My parents came to visit over the 4th of July and brought a boatload of strawberries from the family farm in NY.  I froze a lot of them for smoothies which I am quite fond of and the rest were prepped for shortcake, dressing, and eating.

So I stood at the sink cleaning and hulling strawberries into the night time hours (in my very best clothes to boot!).  I of course sampled as I went.  Can't beat fresh berries from the patch!  

The process was a bit more labor intensive with the full recipe in use:

http://www.freshpreserving.com/recipes/strawberry-vinaigrette-dressing

Just more berries to squeeze juices from was really the major impact.  The rest was pretty simple.  I still love this as a dressing and I am so glad I made more than the 4 jars from the first batch.  Scrumptious!  

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

People are always telling me I need to add chocolate chips to my grandmother's banana bread and I consider that an act against nature.  I love her banana bread recipe just the way it is.  Besides, I can make chocolate chip anything else I like, so why mess with a classic?  While strolling around on Pinterest recently I found a recipe for Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins and I thought, ok, those I could make.

From Food Love:
http://www.runningwithspoons.com/2014/06/24/banana-oat-greek-yogurt-muffins/
Also, I am going to stop here and mention how much I like her blog title. :)

These were incredibly easy to put together.  Most because I only had to measure the oats (I used half old fashion to finish the container I had and half quick cooking) and brown sugar.  I eyeballed a 7oz container of Faye Yogurt against my 1 cup measuring cup and decided that was really close.  If a recipe calls for 2 bananas, it's kind of gray anyway.  Bananas can be all sizes, so I figured the small amount that my yogurt might be off, I wasn't worried.  Also, muffins are a one pan deal so nothing like cookies which usually take a few rounds in the oven.

I only baked mine for 15 minutes and they were plenty done.  Mine don't look like theirs they showcased for the recipe, but they tasted pretty darn good.

I even let it cool slightly before diving in.  These are made with generally healthy-ish ingredients (minus the chocolate of course), so if you needed a sweet fix, these would be more acceptable for the waistline than say scones (ie - breakfast cookies).

Teriyaki Salmon

We really enjoy salmon and I have found a few recipes that we just really love.  This is one of them.  This comes from my Real Food board:

http://damndelicious.net/2012/05/30/teriyaki-salmon-with-sriracha-cream-sauce/

I also started to realize in the last week or so, that I have a lot of pins from the Damn Delicious website and all the ones I have tried, I really enjoy.  They are simple and tasty!  My favorite combinations!  They also have published a handful of One Pot recipes which I consider to be the ultimate trifecta; simple, tasty, and one pot mess!  I have edited the side of my blog to include a link to the Damn Delicious blog so people can hop over and check them out.

The recipe for this salmon is pretty straight forward.  I think it makes almost too much marinade for two servings, so I could easily see doing up to 4 with the same marinade.  The only thing I don't like it waiting for the marinade to cool back down.  I usually have forgotten to make this until mid-afternoon and thus, my allotted marinade time is winding down.  To aid in cooling the sauce more quickly, I have frozen cold packs I just drop into the sauce and then wash them later.  I have made this recipe twice and both times I have gotten only about 30 minutes of marinating in.  Still tastes awesome though.  Hopefully, next time I can make the marinade the night before and not worry about it as much.

We made some oven roasted asparagus to go with this and used brown rice instead of white (trying to be healthy).  I didn't make the Sriracha cream sauce the same way because I can't for the life of me figure out what to do with the rest of a canned of sweetened condensed milk.  The good news?  The mayo and Sriracha make it delicious anyway.  It's that sweet with something spicy combination that's just amazing.

If you are looking for a new way to do salmon, I would definitely recommend giving this a shot.  It's now in our current recipe rotation.  Some of the comments on their blog have inquired about possibly doing this with chicken which seems to be a viable alternate if you aren't a big fan of seafood, although you may want to marinate it longer.

Homemade Bruschetta

With the bounty of our garden being pretty decent this year and having gotten a cheese making kit from my brother in law as a Christmas gift, I thought it would be fun to make completely homemade bruschetta.  

I have never made cheese before, but I thought, how hard could it be?  There were instructions, the kit ingredients I needed, got some milk, and I thought I was good to go.  Well, it turns out there's something to picking the right milk, which I am not very good at.  Yet.  I did pretty good until I added the rennet tablet and then it kind of went south.

 My cheese never really "set up" to a curd state, so I kind of got this ricotta looking stuff instead.

On the upside, it still tastes pretty decent, so I decided we still had a green light for bruschetta.

I picked some basil from our deck.  The scent of fresh basil is unmistakable! 

Then I harvested some really red tomatoes.

During the day I made some homemade baguettes thanks to our nifty bread maker.  It has the option to do those which has been handy more than once.  Finally, I put it all together. (You can see my "helper" in the background)

For me personally, I thought this was pretty tasty.  This is saying something since I don't really like tomatoes.  I have gotten a lot braver over the years to try them in different ways, but I think bruschetta is about as close as I will come to having that much tomato with little else around it.  My husband thought it was extremely good and he is much more a connoisseur of these things than I am.

I think it's pretty awesome that all of this was either grown or made by our own hands.  I'll be looking for more ways to take advantage of our garden in the coming years, but this was definitely fun!

Garden Goodies

This is our second year with our container garden and I have to say, we are quite pleased with it.  Last year was really what I call our learning year.  We grew a variety of things from radishes to peppers.  Our biggest failure last year was tomatoes which I tried to grow from seed.  Everyone told me that was hard and I said, "Oh but I want to try anyway!"  And so I did and I was rewarded with no tomatoes.  The biggest success last year was jalapeno peppers.  I used those to make pepper jelly which was pretty tasty!

So this year we are growing:
Bell peppers

Jalapeno peppers

Tomatoes

Green Beans
Romaine Lettuce
Butter Crunch Lettuce
Summer Squash

Cucumbers

Green Onions
Radishes
Basil
Parsley
Spinach
Garlic

So far we have had a good harvest from the green bean, cucumber, and tomato plants and our lettuces with the exception of the spinach.  The peppers are finally starting to take shape and who only knows what's going on with the summer squash.  It's big and flowering, but no fruit yet.  Things I will not be growing again - Spinach, radishes, and Green onions.  Next year I would like to try to grow broccoli.  I am hoping to get a bigger garlic harvest next year, but we will see.

Today I harvested some of the basil today to hang it up and dry for future use in the winter months.  I am hoping the basil plant continues to grow.  I have been told cutting it back promotes growth, so we will see. Later this week I am going to make homemade bruschetta with our tomatoes and basil and then I am going to make baugettes and mozzarella cheese.  I can't wait and I don't even really like bruschetta!  I'll be sure to share some pictures.

Brownie Pudding

How could this even begin to be a bad thing?  I like brownies and pudding, so I would only hope the two combined would be heavenly.  I was not wrong.

From my Food Love board:
http://www.annies-eats.com/2010/02/16/brownie-pudding/

First melt butter:

Then beat together eggs and sugar and add some vanilla:

Flour and cocoa powder:

I sifted these two together because I have learned over all my baking expeditions that cocoa powder can be notoriously clumpy.  Sifted them together is an extra step and one I found quite annoying when I first did it, but now I understand it's purpose and add it in even when I am not told to do so!

Mix these all together and bake:

I would have a picture of the finished product here, but it was consumed extremely quickly and without presentation.  This is the best chocolate fix I have had in a while.  Super easy recipe and super delicious.  What are you waiting for?  Go make this now!

More Meatless Monday

Huh, I could abbreviate this post as MMM which would be kind of ironic since it's about food and good food that makes you say MMMMMM!!!!  Ok, enough about that.  I realized that I skipped over my use of a Pin from last week's Meatless Monday experience.  Truth be told, I used this recipe more as a guideline because I have used a similar approach to pasta toss meals, so this wasn't what I would call a "new" recipe.  Just a new variation of it.

From Meatless Mondays:
http://www.skinnymom.com/2013/04/23/skinny-mediterranean-pasta-toss/

Since I have made a version similar to this, I played around with the ingredients a little more than I normally would on a first go for a recipe.  First, I didn't have zucchini, so that didn't make the cut.  I did not have 10 small sweet bell peppers, but I did have one big one, so I compromised.  I also didn't have grape tomatoes, but had a fresh one from our garden, so I figured it was equivalent in other ways.  I substituted egg noodles for penne because I like it better for a pasta toss.  Turns out I was out of balsamic vinegar (*gasp*) because I had used the last of it to make Strawberry Balsamic Vinaigrette dressing and hadn't remembered to get any at the store in a while (this has since been fixed).  I should do a post on that too - it was the best!  ANYWHO, back to the actual topic, given all those changes, the meal still turned out great.  I even added capers to the mix because, why not?

I think a pasta toss is a great way to blend a lot of fun flavors together.  Mine always include artichoke hearts and sun dried tomatoes with egg noodles.  The rest is whatever is on hand.  But that's my personal preference.  This is probably one of the few meals I really go off recipe for.  So far it has yielded some pretty tasty results.  I would encourage you to try it too!

Meatless Monday Inspiration

As part of our New Year's Resolution we have adopted the Meatless Monday here in our house.  We have been mostly successful at acknowledging it on Monday, but other days are ok too.  At least in my book.  The idea is to focus on not needing to eat meat at every meal.  They are usually healthier meals and they cost less too.  Pinterest has been really good to find meal ideas for this.  Generally I think of pasta, but they have plenty of beans, vegetable, tofu, and grain options.  It's been fun trying new foods.  Some were better than others, but at least we are trying.

Tonight's meal comes from my Meatless Monday board (duh):
http://www.howsweeteats.com/2012/06/grilled-corn-cheddar-quinoa/

Quinoa has become a staple grain in our house and a nice alternative to just plain rice.  According to what the internet tells me, it's also healthier for us.  Bonus.  Like most recipes I was drawn to this one for the ingredients list - I liked them all, and the ease factor of the recipe.  I will say I already pre-grilled the corn and it's been hanging out in the refrigerator waiting.  The meal itself came together really easy (when you have the corn all ready and waiting).

The taste factor/family taste bud test was a hit for both my husband and myself.  My toddler had other opinions, but it could just be the day of the week since he usually loves this kind of stuff.  It's a little weird having this as the main dish because it feels like it could easily be a side to salmon, chicken, or pork.  It was still pretty substantial to stand on it's own though, so either way, it was good and we will do it again.

Adventures in Cooking

Probably the most useful function of Pinterest for me has been recipes.  New ways to try food, find fast one pot friendly recipes, bake amazing tasty treats, and find healthy ways to incorporate the "good for you" food into all of this.  Tonight was not unlike most nights around here.  Hmm, what to make for dinner.  I have chicken thawing, what can I do with that?  Amazingly enough, you can search "chicken recipes" and get answers.  I love the internet.

Recently pinned to my Real Food board:
http://pinchofyum.com/creamy-chicken-quinoa-broccoli-casserole

I had actually been searching the internet for quinoa recipes for my Meatless Monday campaign, so this kind of worked out nice, although definitely not meatless.  I liked how this meal came together, although I am not sure the science behind heating half your liquid then adding half a cup of cold liquid and flour to make the "cream" sauce.  It seemed to work out, but I did need to sift the flour as I put it in so it wouldn't clump too much on me.

My rule of thumb for cooking a new recipe is to follow the instructions as they are written and the ingredients as measured out by the author the first time through.  If I like it as it stands, beautiful, if not, I make notes on what to change should I make this next time.  In this case, I might make the sauce differently than they said to.  I might learn that there is a reason why they explain to do it the way they have it, but that's the wonderful thing about cooking, all the learning as you go. :)

This cooked in the initial 30 minutes they said to cook it for.  Well, maybe it was 35 minutes by the time I actually got to the oven.  At first it didn't look like it was done, but I mixed it all together as they said to and as I did so, it looked like the right consistency.  I added the broccoli and topped with cheese.  I didn't have Gruyere, but they said any kind would work, so I added Jarlsberg instead.  Next time I am sure I'll use cheddar or mozzarella since that's usually what's on hand.  I also used Old World Seasoning for both my poultry seasoning (apparently I don't have this spice?) and the substitute for "seasoning".  That just seems a little random to me, clearly you have a taste in mind, could you be more specific?  I think those two things can definitely influence the flavor of the dish, so who knows if this tasted anything like what the blog author intended.  Bottom line though: I liked my version.  This will be done again.

Things to play with in future makings of this dish:
Change up the vegetables.  I could see doing carrots, mushrooms, peppers, zucchini, peas, corn, etc.  Pretty much anything would go.  Since you add the vegetables at the end, you can cook them to your level of doneness and just add at the end.
Change up the seasoning.  I am not sure what other generally seasonings are out there, but you could always build your meal around whatever one you pick.  For example, if you used Italian seasoning, maybe use mozzarella cheese and maybe Italian sausage for the meat instead of the chicken and maybe peppers and onions instead of broccoli.  If you did that, you probably need to cook the meat ahead of time.
Change up the cheese.  I would say just use whatever you have so long as you like it. :)  My general cooking sense - if you like the flavors individually, why not try them together? If it's terrible, make a note and don't do it again.

Definitely worth having in rotation and hey, it uses quinoa so it's got to be healthier than most things out there. Mark that as a plus!

Oven Cleaner

After yesterdays spectacular debut into homemade cleaners that promise miracles, I decided to try another.  I mean, at the very least I have to be cleaning stuff at least somewhat even if it doesn't get it sparkling spotless like the instructions said it would.  Today's goal - clean the oven.

I am using another pin from my Cleaning Tips board:
http://craptastical.com/oven-needed-cleaning/

I have abused my oven quite a bit.  Sometimes things will bubble over and I'll think, man I should clean that up.  What really happens is I forget about it because you have to wait until an oven is cool before you can go playing in it.  And by then, I have moved on to some other sparkly thing in the house or a screaming toddler or have gone to bed.  Possibly all three.  I get a nice reminder the next time I turn on my oven and there's a pretty obnoxious smell/smoke coming from the oven.  "Oh yeah.... I was supposed to do something about that."  The process repeats until I have effectively burned off whatever I boiled over.  So sad for the oven.

BUT!  Today is the day the oven gets a face lift!  I am sure it's as excited as I am.  I mean, how excited can one get for a clean oven?  I am not even really sure.  Anywho, here's the very fancy recipe:
3-4 drops of Dawn
4 Tbsp. Baking Soda
5 Tbsp. Distilled Vinegar **do not use this much, start with 1 tablespoon and add until you get a good paste.
Juice of 1 lemon = 1 Tbsp. lemon juice

As the website I am using said: Go slow when added the vinegar.  Otherwise you are going to get a mini volcano on your kitchen counter.  Smear the goop all over your oven however you see fit.  Let it set for a few hours and then come back and wipe it down/clean it out with a dish towel.

Before picture:

I told you it was gross.

After pictures:

Notes:
1. I think the mixture is wrong.  Mine was much more liquid than paste, so I would dial back the vinegar a bit.  I ended up sprinkling some more baking soda directly into the oven to get the scour power.  They may have meant 5 teaspoons and not 5 tablespoons.  The picture also showed way more dawn than 3-4 drops.  I think if you can find the mixture balance to get it to a paste, then you are much better off.
2. There is NO way this is just a "wipe" down and bingo-bango, it's miraculously clean.  This still took a fair amount of arm muscle and a sponge with the scrub side to clean the sides of the oven and get the junk off.  And even then, some places did not come clean.

Overall, my oven is cleaner, although not the pristine clean I was looking for.  The oven door is still gross (in my opinion, although less gross than it was).  I think the lesson here is: Cleaning ovens suck no matter how you do it.  This just happens to be the non-toxic version which can be cheaper and better for the environment.  So, take that for what you will.  I have a clean oven and that's really an accomplishment in and of itself.

Does This Really Work?

I am sure you have seen pins that claim they have the newest, most simplest, fancy way of cleaning ever!  I am always skeptical about these claims.  Most are using ingredients that sound plausible, but just not main stream enough for it to be, "oh, of course that would work".  I have a handful of pins on my Cleaning Tips board which boast a lot of these kinds of things.  Today I am going to try this one:
http://www.onegoodthingbyjillee.com/2011/11/goodbye-to-yellow-armpit-stains.html

This blog entry actually did what I am doing.  She explains that she was told about this miracle cure fix it for stains and she was skeptical but she posted before and after results and it seems to work for her.  Since I am able to follow a recipe (the ingredients ratio) and scrub clothes with the best of them, I am pretty confident this will work.

I sweat like there's no tomorrow.  I think I might sweat more than my husband, so needless to say, the shirts I am going to try this on are from my drawers.  I have a lot of free shirts I wear around the house (especially on maternity leave) and I used to wear them out in public.  I wear them a lot less now because they have the funky arm pits.  So, let's see how this stacks up on the cleaning scale.

Mixture 1 part Dawn to 2 parts hydrogen peroxide.  Mix together, apply to stain.  Scrub.

Before:

After:

Overall opinion:
This worked, but there is still some stain on the shirt.  I imagine this is partly because I picked one of my worst shirts to try it on and I have really high expectations.  Also, the pin text called for adding baking soda whereas the actual article did not specify that until later as a "bonus" ingredient.  They also let it sit for an hour then laundered as normal.  I rinsed it after scrubbing and let it dry.  SO!  There are a few things I can try in the future which may help remove the stains further.  I think this could be a valuable thing to keep on hand especially with small kids who manage to wear most of their daily activities from arts and crafts to food to poop.  I have seen it all.  Ha!  It'd be nice to know it can really actually come out though.  :)