Joyful Abode

What says, “Happy Father’s Day” better than homemade biscotti?

Not much.
The recipe is from allrecipes, and I didn’t change a thing. I think I made mine bigger than theirs though, because the recipe says it yields 4 dozen, and I only got 2 dozen out of it.

I took the suggestion of many people in the reviews and drizzled the finished biscotti with white chocolate.

Basically, you make two long cookie-type things and bake them.

Then, you let them cool and slice them diagonally.

Lay them out on a baking sheet and toast each side for a few more minutes.

And then you can eat them as they are, or drizzle them with something good. I drizzled mine with white chocolate (mixed with a tiny bit of shortening for smoothness).

So delicious!

Is this too many pictures? Should I cut back?
And, more importantly, are you going to make some biscotti?

I love the idea of salt scrubs, but the fact that my legs often have scratches on them makes me wary of trying them anytime soon. So I decided to make my own sugar scrub to use in the shower.

The directions I used were based on a bunch of different “recipes” I found online.

1. Get a jar that seals well.

2. Put about a cup of sugar in it. I mixed white and brown just for fun.

3. Pour in some oil… I wanted to use avocado oil, but it’s super-expensive, so I settled for EVOO. Do not use mineral oil or baby oil, because those can clog your pores. Yeechk.

4. Mix it all up.

5. Add something to make it smell good. I added a little bit of lemon juice, but if I like the way the scrub works, I will buy some essential oils… probably some yummy warm smells like orange and sandalwood.

6. Put it in your bathroom so you remember to use it in the shower!

Now, I just got out of the shower and used my scrub for the first time. My skin feels fabulously smooth and incredibly moisturized, however, I will definitely make some changes next time!

First of all, I was confused about what room I was showering in… I know it was the bathroom, but between the olive oil and lemon juice, it really smelled like I was dressing a salad in the kitchen.
Next time? I’ll use avocado oil, grapeseed oil, or jojoba oil (which is the closest to our natural oils).

Also, while the lemon juice made for a refreshing scent, it wasn’t exactly invigorating, which is what I want in my morning shower. I think next time will call for that orange/sandalwood mix, or maybe sandalwood/vanilla.

I’ve got to use up this salad dressing …I mean scrub…first though!

I currently live in an apartment. It’s a very nice apartment, with an open floor plan and a large kitchen, BUT it did not come with a washer and dryer in-unit. It has connections, but a year ago, I thought, “Hey, I’ll only be here for a year and I don’t want to move a big heavy washer-dryer when I leave.”

Oh, how I wish I had just sucked it up and bought those majestic cleaning machines of love.

I have been using the complex’s laundry room all year. Before I went over there for the first time, I went to the bank and got $30 in quarters. I was prepared!

Well, when I walked into the laundry room, I noticed something odd. Only one of the four washers takes quarters. The other three require a laundry card. Two of the four dryers take quarters, and two use the card. So I went to the leasing office to inquire about this phenomenon, and was informed that I must purchase a laundry card from them. The laundry card cost $5, but it has NO VALUE when you purchase it. You must then add value to the card at the machine in the laundry room.

No problem, right? Well, the machine doesn’t take quarters, only bills. And I never have cash on me. So I had to go to the bank again to withdraw $10 to add value to my card. Back in the laundry room… the machine doesn’t recognize the new bills. So, desperate to wash my clothes, I went into the street where I hustled strangers for an old $10 bill.

I ended up trading with an older Korean man… he gave me a 5 and four 1s for my 10. Win for him! And I got to do my laundry.

Now, that is only the first problem I came across. The second is that, except for the top-right one, the dryers usually don’t dry your clothes. They just make them warm. Warm and wet.

So it is often the case that I either have to run the cycle twice (2 hours!!) to dry my clothes to the point where I can touch them. And it is not uncommon for me to lay my damp clothing all over the carpeted floors of my bedroom and dining room overnight to dry. Ridiculous!

Then there’s the fact that I have to cart my laundry to the laundry room. This isn’t that big of a feat, but it does cause me to avoid beginning the process. Of course, I don’t only have to carry my laundry. I also have to bring the detergent, any pre-treating products, quarters, my laundry card, a couple dollar bills in case my laundry card is empty, and the access card to get into the room to begin with.

I also cannot start the laundry and then go run errands, because the one time I tried that, someone took my clothes out of the washer and placed them (wet) on the (not-so-clean) folding table, even though there were three other empty washing machines to choose from!

All of this combined leads to me putting off the chore of Laundry until I am wearing either fancy clothes or ridiculously out-of-season clothes (think sweaters in South Carolina in June).

As soon as I get to Florida, I am buying a washer and dryer if there is not one in my house already. It would be bliss to have a day of the week for towels, one for sheets, and a couple for clothes, to not have to worry about people taking my wet clothes out of the washer or the dryer just barely warming my clothes…

What washer/dryer do you have in your home, if you have one? Would you recommend it? How many days a week do you do laundry?

Last night, I had a couple of work friends over for dinner. They finished some professional development near here, and then headed over, armed with their appetites and two jars of salsa.

The first thing I brought out was a bowl of homemade corn tortila chips. So delicious!

Cut corn tortillas into wedges and arrange them on cookie sheets. Then brush with a 2:1 ration of lime juice to olive oil. Sprinkle on cumin and a little chili powder.

Then bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes. So good!

They have a fabulous crunch and great flavor, and they’re strong enough to hold a lot of salsa (or guacamole or artichoke dip or whatever you like).

Then I mixed up a batch of margaritas. We sipped and munched and chatted and sort-of played Taboo (but not keeping score, just taking turns).

When it started to get around dinner-time, I popped some taco-shell bowls into the oven and started browning the ground beef for taco salads. I had already cut and washed the lettuce and tomatoes, so they went together pretty quickly. The meat was done at the exact same time as the shell-bowls. Go me!

After we finished the taco salad, we sat around for an hour digesting and chatting more.

Last night, I had prepared flan, so it had been chilling in the fridge all night. It was ready to go! I used this flan recipe from Allrecipes , but added cinnamon, ground cloves, and nutmeg to the mix. I also found out that you really need to bake it at 350 rather than 325, or you will be baking it forever!

You start out with some brown sugar in the bottom of the ramekins. This carmelizes when it cooks, and becomes a delicious topping for the flan.

Fill ‘em up with the flan stuff (I halved the recipe) and put them in a baking dish with some water. Pop them in the oven!

And in about 40 minutes (if you bake it at 350) you’ll get this:

Pop them in the fridge overnight, and plating them is a breeze.

I drizzled some caramel on the dishes, then ran a knife around each flan so that I could drop them upside-down in the center. I added a plop of whipped cream and a ripe strawberry. Voila!

Everything went smoothly and tasted delicious. Of course, the company was fantastic, and we had a great time, too.

Much like tuna salad from a can, chicken salad (from a can as well) can be a quick and delicious meal, if your taste buds are OK with canned meat. Now, I can’t eat canned tuna… I bought some because it’s cheap and convenient, but it’s been sitting in my pantry almost a year after I opened and tasted the first can. Blah!

My alternative is canned chicken. White meat only, beacuse hey, a girl’s got to have standards, right?

The directions are pretty much identical to my egg salad “recipe-ish.”

Step 1: Get some chicken. Real, delicious, home-cooked is best. But if you’re in a hurry and don’t have any delicious stuff, dump out a can and smoosh it up.

Step 2: Add some wet ingredients. I used mayonnaise, sun-dried tomato spread, and balsamic vinegar. Yum!

Step 3: Mix, then add seasonings. This time, I used garlic salt and oregano.

Step 4: Serve, and eat. The guy and I enjoyed ours stuffed into pitas with cucumber slices and lots of sprouts.

I was struggling to cut a piece of canteloupe from its rind.

“Man, my knives are really horrible.” - me

“I have nice knives. Why don’t you marry me, so you can use my knives?” - T

That’s as good a reason as any, right?

My wedding is coming up, and I wanted to have a thank-you gift for each of the special children in our ceremony. My fiance and I have 3 nieces and 1 nephew, and they will be the “flower children.” (We’re not doing the ring-bearer thing.)

I wanted to give the kids something they could play with during the rehearsal dinner, which is when we are giving our gifts. And I didn’t want to go the bride-and-groom barbie route.

So I went to Michael’s and got each of them a stuffed bear. I also picked up a roll of tulle and a spool or periwinkle ribbon (one of our wedding colors).

Then I went home and “edited” the bears into perfect gifts for our flower children!

Our “flower boy” gets a handsome bear with a periwinkle bowtie.

And our flower girls each get a lovely bear with a veil. I cut 2 lengths of tulle, folded each in half, gathered them and sewed them to the bears’ heads. Then, I hot-glued a periwinkle bow over the stitches.

I hope they like them!

I love eggs! I like them scrambled, fried, hard-boiled, in egg salad, egg salad sandwiches, green… I like them, Sam I am!

So in honor of the egg salad sandwich, I give you a simple photo how-to. Yum!

Step 1: Smash some hard-boiled eggs with the back of your fork. Some people like to cut them, but I like to use a fork because it makes some nice variations in chunk size.

Step 2: Add some wet ingredients. I used mayonnaise, mustard, and relish this time. Sometimes I like to do mayonnaise and some ranch dressing, other times, mayonnaise and lemon juice. It’s up to you and your palette.

Step 3: Mix, then add seasonings. This time I just used salt and pepper, but you can use anything that strikes your fancy. Just make sure the seasonings match your wet ingredients in taste. I don’t think chili powder would be a very good match for ranch dressing, but maybe that’s just me.

Step 4: Serve, and eat. Egg salad is great on those tiny pieces of bread (so cute), on top of a green salad, in a pita, or on a sandwich. Any way you do it, enjoy the summery treat!

When my apartment is OUT OF CONTROL messy, I like to do a 15 minute marathon. Let me explain.

Flylady has a whole list  of things to do to save your house, 15 minutes at a time. I choose to do mine differently.

Basically, I set the timer for 15 minutes and go to town cleaning in one room. Then, when the timer goes off, I finish up the small task I was working on and move to another room, set the timer again, and start over. Does each room get the deep cleaning I ultimately want to give it? No. But it ends up WAY better than it started.

Today I’m doing my 15-minute marathon.  And to inspire you, I’m tracking what I did in each 15 minutes.

Kitchen:

• cleaned out the fridge (threw out food I’m never going to eat)
• emptied the dish dryer
• washed all of the dishes beside the sink, filled the dishwasher
• started the dishwasher
• wiped down all of the counters with 409

Is it perfectly clean? No. Did I get to swiffer the floor? No. But is it better? Much!

Bathroom:

• put everything away… including medicine from when I was sick about a month ago.
• Wipe down counters and edges of the tub with a wet washcloth just to get the dust off.
• Cleaned the mirrors
• Refilled the soap dispenser
• Threw away old razors
• Decluttered hair things
• Swished the toilet
• Lysol-wiped the toilet seat and counters

Hmm… I didn’t get to swiffer this room either. Maybe after I do 15 minutes in each room, I’ll do another 15 to take out trash and swiffer.

 Bedroom/Office area:

• Put dirty laundry in hamper
• Went through a stack of mail, threw out trash
• Filed bills and paystubs
• Decluttered purse contents
• Made bed nicely
• Put books away (they pile up on the nightstands… do yours?)

Whew, MUCH better! Maybe T (the man) will vacuum for me when he gets here.

Living room (Currently the craft area):

•  When through another stack of mail (how does it sneak in??), threw out trash
• Decluttered some more items, including fabric scraps and some things from teaching this year
• Put away a bunch of shoes
• Made a stack of papers to go through later… not usually a good plan, but it’s Kosher during a 15-minute marathon!
• Some other general tidying-up

It’s no where near “done”… but it’s a vast improvement.

It’s 2:30 and my stomach is growling, so I’m taking a lunch break!  The dining room is an extension of the craft area right now, so it can stay how it is…

After lunch, I’ll do a quick trash-can round-up and take out the trash, swiffer the kitchen and bathroom, and empty the dishwasher. The apartment feels SO much better.

Several years ago, I became addicted to crocheting and I started Hook Me Up! Crochet. Well, for the last couple of years, I’ve been overcome with school and work and haven’t really updated it. Now my interest is more in ALL things domestic, rather than just in crochet, so I’m going to let the URL expire.

The site will die. *melodramatic sniffle*

BUT I still get close to 500 hits a day there, so until it expires, I will forward everything to Joyful Abode. I hope people who come here from there will choose to bookmark this page, update their links, and tell their friends.

If you follwed the link to Hook Me Up! Crochet from another site, please email the webmaster of that website to let them know the URL has changed. Thanks.

If you were looking for the crochet gallery, it is now at my flickr.

My patterns are now here:

• Water’s Edge Cover-Up
• Solomon’s Knot Shawl
• Beaded Choker
• A Rose for Mother - Bath Pouf
• Professional Hat
• Shelly Scarf
• Blue Star Cloche
• Valentine Brooches 
• Star-Crossed Capelet
• Crazy Belt — or is it a Skinny Scarf?
• Shavasana Bag
• Vertical Stripe Scarf

Contact me if you’re interested in using my patterns to create items to sell to raise money for charities. You may not sell items made from these patterns (even if you change them slightly) without my permission or for personal profit. Please refrain from republishing my patterns to other websites (including blogs), but feel free to link to this website!

If you came here from Hook Me Up! Crochet and you were looking for something specific, but didn’t find it in this entry, please comment to let me know. I’ll do my best to add it to this post.

Thanks, everyone!