I skipped church this morning to sleep in and clean house. It’d be awesome if this was the ONLY thing I have to confess, but wait! There’s more! Apparently while I was asleep, my youngest kid decided to tear up a bunch of those popsicle things that start out looking like colored water and then you freeze them. My uncle gave them to us. Can I admit here how much that irritates me? I hate those things. :/ I mean, it was nice of him to think of us, but ugh.

So, I have this giant popsicle water mess on my couch. And my kitchen floor. So I was planning on how to clean this best when I realized my uncle (the same one that gave us the popsicle things) has my carpet and upholstery cleaner. Can I get it back from him to clean this mess? No, he’s using it, he says. So I go into my laundry room to see if I have enough rags to at least stem the mess until I can get my carpet and upholstery cleaner back. OMG. Cat boxes. Nasty. What in the world happened? Did the cats have a pooing party last night? Or have I just been neglecting them?

I go to find clothes to put on because, whatever, I’ll just rent a rug doctor. No clean underwear. My problem lately? Failure to plan. Finally, I find in the depths of my closet a pair of OLD granny panties from when I was pregnant. I throw them and some clothes on, and I’m heading out to rent a rug doctor and buy some new underwear. Yes, yes, I’ll do the laundry later too, but a girl needs some new drawers from time to time anyway.

Now, you’d think all that was my confession, but it’s not. My confession? Instead of being horrified by the state my household is in right now, I am extremely amused. And, I’m looking forward to the challenge of cleaning the horrid mess plus getting my regular cleaning done. I know, I’m crazy.

Alright, Home Eccers, it’s your turn to confess. What horrible messes have your house been in lately? Alternatively, what have you been amused about that you should have been horrified about?

Random Goodness from Heather and Ivy

• Vacationing With Kids: Packing
• Herb Crusted Steaks
• Inkity Ink, a Bottle of Ink
• End of DST
• Cookie-a-day: Pepparkakor (Swedish Cookies)

Ivy and I are spending the day with our families, but we’d like to take a moment to wish all of our American Home Eccers a Happy Independence Day. Have fun, but use a little common sense whether serving food to friends and family or lighting fireworks.

Fearless Friday will return next week. I decided to cut myself some slack for the the holiday weekend. Also, everyone thank Ivy who has been so generously picking up my slack while I dealt with allergy testing. The tests itself weren’t bad, it was the five days prior to each where I could not take any antihistamines. It’s been fun around here, let me tell you.

Oh, I said there’d be a funny story. Did you know there can be more to allergies than just the headaches, itching, and sneezing? Apparently irritability and anxiety can be part of the whole deal. I tend to try to first reach for a mild, natural therapy before going the pharmaceutical route. Many friends had raved about the calming effects of chamomile tea. I have three small children and there are many days where I feel pushed to the limits of my patience and tolerance.

I figured what the heck, I’ll try the tea. I drank cup after cup, day after day,  for several weeks never feeling even a smidgin of relief. If anything, I felt more and more high-strung and irritable. My nerves were frayed, almost crackling with the cranky.

Guess who is allergic to ragweed.

Guess who cross-reacts to chamomile.

That’s right, Home Eccers, learn from my mistakes.

Now a quick #backontrack update, there are quite a few Twitter users who are encouraging each other through this hashtag. Speaking for myself, I find it encouraging to know there are others out there struggling to establish healthy routines. It’s always nice to have a few cheerleaders. I enjoy watching as each of us strive to meet our goals, one lady is breaking her cola habit, another is working to stick to Weight Watchers, and one of our guys reached his goal of a 50 mile bike ride. Congratulations to all of them. And for the rest of you, feel free to jump in, no introductions needed.

Random Goodness from Heather and Ivy

• Top 3 Measures You Should Never Resort To In This Down Market
• Declutter the closets while getting dressed
• Menu Monday 9/10
• Dusted With Flour
• Dream House Giveaway: Want!

I was hoping you might be able to explain how a water bath thaws out a chicken faster than sitting on the counter when the water is colder. Also, why is it safer ? It seems to me the water would just be a good place for germs to grow.

Signed,

Perplexed in Perkaise, PA

Heather says:
Yay! We have a science question, we haven’t had one of these in ages. What you are asking about is called heat transference, which is the way heat gets from one thing to another.  Heat always moves from warmer things to cooler things, this is phenomenon is described by the Second Law of Thermodynamics. In any system, in this case chicken and the surrounding air or water, the energy involved is trying to reach a state of equilibrium.

When a cold tray of chicken is sitting at room temperature on the counter, room temperature molecules, like carbon dioxide, bounce off the package and transfer a little of their heat to the chicken. Remember, atoms and molecules as gases are very far apart (relatively people, relatively) so they can only interact so much.

When the tray of chicken is immersed in cool water lots of molecules interact with the package of chicken transferring their heat. Even if your ground water is pretty chilly, the sheer number of interactions speeds up the process.

Now, why doesn’t the water turn into a giant bacteria farm? The short answer is, it does. However, the proper way to thaw chicken in a water bath is to either change the water every twenty minutes or to trickle water into the water bath allowing the excess water to spill out. In the first scenario bacteria doesn’t have time to grow to dangerous levels and in the second the water is continuously being replaced, flushing away bacteria.

Make sense?

*Edit* The chicken should be in leak proof packaging. Waterlogged chicken is nasty.

Send your household questions to helpme@home-ec101.com.

Random Goodness from Heather and Ivy

• Quick Tip: Cupcakes and muffins
• Beef Shoulder Roast
• Pie Crust 101: Fearless Friday 6/5
• Freezer Guidelines
• Mygrocerydeals.com

Well, it’s been a week since I started the great Kraft and Sam’s Club dinner planner, so it’s time to give you guys an update. First, let’s talk about the shopping. As you all know, I’m a fan of warehouse store shopping- there’s nothing that thrills me more than a giant thingy of toilet paper. I’ve never used warehouse shopping before as a way to replace my grocery shopping, however. I instead use it to supplement my grocery shopping. Even though I have a large family, I cannot use one of those giant thingies of BBQ sauce fast enough to use it all before it goes bad. And I hate waste, so most of the time I pass up those bargains and just get that kind of stuff from the regular grocery store.

This time was not much different- I bought most of the stuff at Sam’s Club, but I just couldn’t bring myself to buy a few items there- the aforementioned BBQ sauce being one of them, and the produce that was on the list. The produce was not just for spoilage reasons but also because the produce at the Sam’s Club in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, was not up to my usual produce standards. This is, I think, a problem of that individual store and not a chain-wide problem. So take a look at your Sam’s produce and if it’s OK and you think you can use it up in time, feel free to use it.

On the “one stop shopping”, I suppose that you could do it that way, but if I were doing this my own way, I’d probably get the vast majority of the recipe ingredients at a regular grocery store. By shopping at Sam’s, you end up with way more ingredients than you really need but not quite enough ingredients to do the entire menu twice. Some of these are fine to get extras on- things that would be in your pantry anyway and don’t spoil over a long period of time. But some of them that I don’t normally use a lot of, I would definitely buy somewhere else for more savings.

Now, let’s talk about the recipes. So far, I have made the creamy chicken pot pie, the south of the border chicken pasta skillet, the cheesy southwest chicken sandwiches, the berry lemonade coolers, the cheesy fiesta pasta bake and the Velveeta tuna noodle casserole. Let’s look at each one individually. I only have pictures of the sandwiches and the berry lemon cooler since 1. Food photography is not my forte and 2. Cooking things and making them look pretty is REALLY not my forte. I will do my best with the other stuff to try and make it look nice, but I’m not promising anything, haha.

All the recipes are available in the Kraft Dinner Planner right here.

Creamy Chicken Pot Pie

I started with this one, as I was concerned about how it would turn out, and Mr. Ivy (the normal chef in my household) was home to either fix things or whip up something else if I had totally messed things up. As it turned out, I didn’t mess things up horribly. All the recipes I’ve tried so far are fairly foolproof.

While it didn’t look as beautiful as the pictures from Kraft (OK, it looked pretty ugly, the one I cooked), it tasted very good. The cream cheese in it gave it a creamy, yummy texture. I really liked it. Mr. Ivy also liked it. It got mixed reviews from the kids- the teenager hated it, the middle child thought it was “just okay” and the youngest loved it and ate seconds.

South Of The Border Chicken Pasta Skillet

Again, this is one that didn’t turn out looking nice enough for pictures. This is pretty much everything I cook- looks like a horrible mess, tastes pretty good. The opinion on flavor on this one was pretty much the same across the board- it was just OK. Nobody loved it, nobody (but the teenager, who, you’ll see this is a definite pattern) hated it. It was just okay. I don’t know that I’d go out of my way to make it again, but it’s a perfectly acceptable dinner item.

Cheesy Southwest Chicken Sandwiches

Finally! Something that looked good enough to take a picture of:

This was quite tasty. I love a good chicken sandwich, and this one was definitely good. Mr. Ivy and my middle child thought the salsa was odd tasting on the sandwiches. My teenager (surprise, surprise!!) actually liked this one. It was a pleasant change from the usual. My youngest loved it, though he thought it needed more tomatoes, haha.

Berry Lemonade Coolers

Another one I took a picture of!

Everyone (except the teenager, who unsurprisingly hates lemonade) really liked this one. My youngest was especially happy with this since he can very rarely drink red beverages since he is allergic to red dye. The frozen strawberries added the color to this drink, no red dye needed. Additionally, this was easy enough for my middle child (8 years old) to make herself.

Cheesy Fiesta Pasta Bake

This one didn’t go over very well with anyone. I feel bad hating on someone’s recipe, but nobody in my house liked it. The general consensus was that it was underseasoned, the texture was kinda mushy and odd, and the whole thing was just kinda blah. :/

Velveeta Tuna Noodle Casserole

This is what we had for dinner last night. I was concerned, after the previous disaster, what this would taste like, but it turned out that it was very good. This was only the second or third time in my life that I’ve had tuna noodle casserole, and I keep forgetting that I really like this kinda stuff. Everyone INCLUDING the teenager liked it as well. Yay! We have something new to add to our recipe repertoire. Thanks, Kraft!

So, let’s sum: Personally, I didn’t find the shopping to be totally “one stop.” But this may be a fault of my own dislike of BBQ sauce and the fault of my local Sam’s and their not-so-fabulous-produce. The recipes were mostly pretty good, everyone that has a normal palate in my house thought most were at least okay. My teenager hates nearly everything, but that’s partly due to his age and partly due to him always being a pretty cranky eater. Everyone at least ate some of everything, so that’s good news.

This weekend, July 3rd and 4th, there will be special in-store dinner planner demonstrations. Go to your local Sam’s Club (click here to find your local Sam’s Club by zip code) to check it out!

Transparency Statement:

I was one of five bloggers selected by Kraft Foods to work on the Kraft Foods and Sam’s Club Two Week Dinner Planner program.  I have been compensated for my time commitment to the program which includes my trip to Sam’s Club, my interactions/experience with the two week dinner planner and my posts about my experience.  I have also been compensated for the food purchased for the two week dinner planner.  However, my opinions are entirely my own and I have not been paid to publish positive comments.

Random Goodness from Heather and Ivy

• Update On Build A Bear Giveaway
• Use it or lose it
• Home-Ec 101 Reviews: Skin MD Natural Shielding Lotion
• Quick Tip: Frugal Menu Find
• Beauty By Ivy: Get your exercise where you can

You’re welcome.

Random Goodness from Heather and Ivy

• Happy Mothers Day
• Refried Beans: Back to Basics
• Cats in the Carpet
• All grown up and nowhere to hide
• Chicken Pot Pie: Fearless Friday

About 80% of the people I know would describe their house as “comfortably lived in.” That title is not always accurate. I remember some people Mr. Ivy knew that described their house that way and a couple of years later, Child Protective Services came in (this woman also described herself as a great mom, heh) and what they found was a house so filthy that it made the news. Complete fabrications notwithstanding, I think most people who call their house “comfortably lived in” are really describing the level of clean that they are comfortable with.

Take my grandma on my mom’s side. Before her hoarding (child of the Depression) got ahold of her, she described her house as comfortably lived in. Now, my cousin and I put a quarter on top of one of her shelves to see how long it would be before she dusted them and it stayed there 2 years before he and I came up a quarter short at the candy store and I raced back to grandma’s to get it. 10 years later I helped her pack to move to Tennessee and that shelf was still not dusted.

But grandma’s not dusting didn’t mean she ran a dirty household, really. You could always count on her bathrooms being spotlessly clean and smelling nice and she never left a dish dirty her entire life. See, her comfort level included having a clean bathroom and kitchen, but not having her shelves dusted.

My other grandma, on the other hand, not only wasn’t a fan of dusting, but she wasn’t a huge fan of dishes either. You could come into her house at any time and pretty much guarantee that there’d be at least one or two dishes in her sink. Not that she’d let them pile up and her kitchen would get call-the-health-department dirty, but unlike my other grandmother, she didn’t get things right away.

I am not a natural housekeeper, but I grew up in a spotlessly clean house and I strive every day to be more like my mother, who is an excellent housekeeper. My problem is, I’m random. You could come into my house at any time and never know what you’ll find. It might be spotlessly clean (less likely, unless I know you’re coming, haha), it might be comfortably lived in (most likely) or it might be call-the-health-department dirty. (only likely if I’m depressed or sick)

So, Home Eccers, this begs the question: how would you classify your house? What’s important to you that it’s clean and what can you leave for awhile and not get too worried about? What could you try to be better at? One thing I’m working on is being like my one grandma and not letting dirty dishes sit.

Random Goodness from Heather and Ivy

• Another Way to Get Your Daily Dose of Home Ec 101
• Triple Chocolate Cookies
• Where to Start
• Steamed Broccoli
• Quick Tip: Cleaning Supplies

First, disclosure- I was not asked for or paid for this review. This comes purely out of the goodness of my own heart, though if the fine folks at Holiday World happen to see this review and want to send me some tickets, I’d be glad to take them and come back again, haha.

I am a big fan of traveling. I’m also a big fan of theme parks and roller coasters and all of those sorts of fun things. What I am not a fan of, however, is spending money. Whenever we go on vacation whether it’s a trip out to the beach or a trip to a theme park or even if we stay in town and go to something like the Renaissance Festival, on top of everything I’m having a great time. Underneath, in the dark recesses of my brain, my inner accountant is toting up every dime we spend. And every time I spend any money, my inner accountant tells me “Ivy, this is money we could have been saving. I am very disappointed in you.”

Last summer-ish, I started following @holidayworld on Twitter. Between the Tweets saying the water temp in Splashin’ Safari was 89 degrees (I like to swim in bathtub-like conditions) and my kids bugging me to death thanks to the approximately 8,971 commercials running daily in the Nashville area, I considered taking the fam. But oy! Ticket prices were 40 bucks for people over 52 inches tall, and since we come from a tall family, that meant 3 of us paying that price. And I had been to Holiday World when I was 13. I knew it had surely gotte better in recent times, but when I went, it sucked. No, I told everyone last summer. We are NOT going to Holiday World.

Then this summer came. More tempting Tweets and more begging from the kids. Then I happened to hear a ad for Holiday World on the radio. “Free unlimited soft drinks! Free unlimited sunscreen!” a cheery voice shouted at me from the speaker. “Hmm,” I thought. “Now, this might be worth it.”

As anyone who’s been to a theme park or two (and has been the one paying the bils) knows, they get you coming and going. Ticket prices. Parking. $5 for a soda that you either have to have someone stand around holding while you ride rides or set it down and hope people haven’t spit in it when you come back. Then 8.2 million dollars to eat lunch. By the time my inner accountant has totaled a day at a theme park, he is very disappointed in me, indeed.

So I spent some time looking at prices of hotel rooms in the area, and finally, I just said “whatever, dudes, I want to go somewhere this summer” and booked a room. “Kids,” I announced, “we’re going to Holiday World.” Commence massive joy and cheering.

Now, I used to live in Huntingburg Indiana, and I recall vividly the nightmare it was to drive anywhere. Highway 231 is a hilly, curvy road apparently designed by drunken monkeys. And there are no major interstates particularly close by, I thought, other than 64, which is fine if you’re coming from Louisville, but forget it otherwise. I was wrong on this score, however. The drive from Nashville to Holiday World is a pleasant, 3-ish hour trip made largely on 65 and the William H. Natcher Parkway. I don’t know who ol’ William H. Natcher is, but he must have been awesome to have such a fabulous parkway named after him. There was next to no traffic and it’s a real interstate with no stoplights, and it’s nice and flat and straight. You only have to spend about  half hour on 231, and that part was designed by sober monkeys, so it’s not too bad.

Now, about Holiday World. My impression when it was 13 was that it sucked, but it has occurred to me that everything sucked when I was 13. Or, it might have really sucked back then, but it’s improved massively since. I don’t know. But what I can say as a mature, worldly 33 year old is that it definitely doesn’t suck. Nay, it actually rocks. It is the cleanest theme park I have ever seen. The employees were very friendly. And then there’s that frugal part. My inner accountant was actually happy with me.

That free unlimited drinks thing isn’t just clever marketing. Soft drinks are, indeed free. And there are free drink stations all over the place. Same with the sunscreen. But not only that, the food at the park is pretty tasty and VERY reasonably priced. There are 5 people in my family. 3 of us eat like adults. We spent…get this… $27.48 on lunch for all 5 of us. I regularly spend more on (SHHH!!! Don’t tell the food police!) fast food for all of us. Then we spent another $3.48 for a plethora of ice cream, making the total amount spent at the park on food and drinks just over $30. Spending only $30 for 5 people to eat and drink in a theme park for one day is unheard of. I was amazed. And happy.

Now, how are the rides and stuff? Pretty good, I must say. I’m an Opryland kid, so I’m always a little disappointed when there aren’t big, loopy roller coasters all over the place, but the wooden roller coasters that are there are pretty fabulous. The Raven was actually my favorite, but the men in my family were fans of The Voyage. But with Splashin’ Safari right there, I quickly forgot my dismay at the no-big-loopy-upside-down-rollercoaster-thing and discovered the 2 “rivers” that are in Splashin’ Safari. Yeah, yeah, waterslides. Fabulous. No, there are these rides called the “Bahari River” and the “Congo River.” THOSE are the rides I’m all about. You sit your bottom down in an innertube and float around them. That’s all. There are some waterfalls in them which you can choose to go under or avoid. I’m slightly embarrassed to say the little kids and I spent a good 2 hours floating around and around the Bahari River. We decided we needed one of these for the house.

I’m over a thousand words already in this post, and I could go another couple thousand, so let me just sum up for the tl; dr crowd: Holiday World is a theme park you will definitely enjoy. It satisfies your inner cheapskate AND your inner adventurer. If you’re in Nashville, St. Louis, Indianapolis, Louisville, etc, etc, etc.- drop everything and GO NOW. Heck, if you’re further away, come on and visit anyway. It is an excellent experience.

Random Goodness from Heather and Ivy

• Quick tip: Controlling the sugar rush
• Sausage, Peppers, and Onions
• Using Bar Keepers Friend
• The Sisterhood Of The Traveling Cookies: Which Cookies Ship The Best
• Ask the Audience: Peanut Butter

Part of kitchen bravery is revisiting an unsuccessful attempt and trying again. So this week I researched spring rolls and invited my friend Heidi over to offer guidance. I am happy to note that this week’s attempt was full of both awesome and win. We even experimented with a dessert spring roll I will share tomorrow.  What did you do for Fearless Friday?

If you don’t have a website, please tell us in the comments.

Spring Rolls

Before starting, I want to note that this recipe is doable alone, but is enjoyable with a group. Place one person in charge of frying, another in charge of the filling, and everyone else is on rolling duty. If you double or triple the filling, be sure to perform the stir frying in batches to avoid a wilted, limp mess.

The spring rolls can be frozen immediately after rolling. They can be fried from the frozen state.

Ingredients:

Stir-fry Sauce:

• 1 TBSP Soy sauce
• 1 TBSP Fish sauce (If this is hard to find in your area increase the soy sauce)
• 1 TBSP Lime juice
• pinch of white sugar

Filling:

• 1.5 TBSP olive oil
• 0.5 TBSP sesame oil (if you can find this, just use 2 TBSP olive oil)
• 3 cloves of garlic – minced
• 1/2 a sweet yellow onion (like Vidalia), sliced very thinly
• 1 thumb size piece of ginger, peeled and grated
• 2 green onions sliced thinly
• 4 shiitake mushrooms, sliced into matchstick pieces (portabella or baby portabella would work fine)
• 1/2 cup cooked shrimp*, roughly chopped
• 1/2 cup green or purple cabbage shredded or sliced thinly
• 1/4 cup basil

The next two ingredients are chopped finely and placed on top of the filling before rolling.

• 1/4 cup cilantro (also called fresh coriander for our British Home Eccers)
• 2 cups broccoli slaw or other thinly sliced vegetables that retain some crispness when cooked

The wrapper:

• 1 pkg small spring roll wrappers – these are the dough squares, not rice paper
  There is a big difference, as we learned for last week’s Fearless Friday

Frying oil:

• peanut or vegetable oil 1″ deep in a deep, heavy skillet

Items to ensure successful rolling:

• damp cloth to cover the wrappers
• a bowl filled with water to help seal the spring rolls
• patience

Before you get started have everything chopped and ready to go. Once the stir-frying starts, it moves quickly and if you don’t want burnt garlic (who does, right?), it is important to be ready for the next step. To make additions easier, I grouped the ingredients by order of addition. On plates or in bowls group:

• garlic, ginger, sweet onion
• broccoli slaw
• green onion, mushrooms, cabbage, cooked shrimp

While preparing the filling, begin heating the frying oil.

Ready to stir fry? Here we go:

Heat the oil (both sesame and olive oil) over medium-high heat.

Add the garlic, ginger, and sweet onion, stir briskly for maybe 30 seconds, add the broccoli slaw.

When the carrot and broccoli are crisp tender (their colors will brighten) add the mushrooms, cabbage, and cooked shrimp. While stirring add the stir-fry sauce. and remove from heat. Toss in the hot pan until heated through.

Your filling is now ready. I placed mine in a bowl so it could be near my work area.

Open the packet of spring rolls and cover with a clean, damp towel.

On your cutting board, place one spring roll wrapper so one corner is pointed toward you.

Wet your index finger in the bowl of water and run it along all four edges. Think of the water as your glue.

Place your filling as shown in the illustration. Add a small pinch of the basil and cilantro.

Quickly fold the left and right corners to the center.

Dip your finger back into the water and dampen the bottom corner. Then fold it up over the filling, forming an envelope.

For best results dampen all of the top flap. Then roll tightly from the bottom to the top. Check your ends, if there are any opening, dampen them and pinch closed.

This is how we roll at Home-Ec101.com

If your spring roll is not sealed, it will burst open and then it’s oh so fun to have to scoop out all of the floating mess.

Continue rolling spring rolls while waiting for the oil to heat. You will know it’s close when wavy lines appear on the bottom of the pan.  The oil must be hot before frying or you end up with greasy, soggy spring rolls. To check the heat of the oil, add a small corner of one wrapper. If it bubbles immediately your oil is hot enough. If the oil smokes, turn it down.

Fry the spring rolls a few at a time. Do not use too many or the temperature of your oil will drop, causing greasy rolls. Bleh.

Fry until golden, then remove and place on papertowels to drain.

Enjoy with a sweet or hot chili sauce.

Random Goodness from Heather and Ivy:

• Tomato Soup: Saving Summer’s Bounty
• Slow Roasted Tomatoes: Saving Summer’s Bounty
• Lemon Lime Meringue Pie: Fearless Friday
• Pie Crust 101: Fearless Friday 6/5
• Squidlies: Fearless Friday