I just discovered a great website. Since Grace Bonney began her blog in 2004, Design Sponge has squeezed out much more than just design advice. Along with several contributors, Bonney supplies readers with everything from recipes to gift ideas to diy projects to current trends and even a brilliant guest blog. It's really everything a blogger could hope to aspire to and is an awesome inspiration for so many parts of life.
Check out Design Sponge now at:
www.designspongeonline.com
12/1/10
Good Idea #8: Happy Blankie
Not only is this a GREAT idea, but it is an idea that started from a 7 year old boy's wish to satisfy his little sister's love of both stuffed animals and blankets with one great product. Out of David's wish came Happy Blankies: adorable blankets shaped like the faces of happy animals. There is Giggle the Happy Pig, Stomp the Happy Frog, Tumble the Happy Bear and Chase the Happy Dog.
But 7 year old David's good idea didn't stop there. For every Happy Blankie purchased, David and his mom donate a Happy Blankie to a child in need. David and his mom have already given way thousands of Happy Blankies.
So if there are children on your gift list this Christmas or in the future, Happy Blankie is a good idea.
Learn more about Happy Blankie and their "One to Love, One to Give" mission at www.happyblankie.com and check them out on facebook!
But 7 year old David's good idea didn't stop there. For every Happy Blankie purchased, David and his mom donate a Happy Blankie to a child in need. David and his mom have already given way thousands of Happy Blankies.
So if there are children on your gift list this Christmas or in the future, Happy Blankie is a good idea.
Learn more about Happy Blankie and their "One to Love, One to Give" mission at www.happyblankie.com and check them out on facebook!
11/30/10
Good Idea #7: Use What You Have
Just a little decorating idea. A few weeks back, with fall in full swing and Thanksgiving approaching I wanted to spruce my place up appropriately. Unfortunately my income is currently allocated to other uses (namely Christmas travel and gifting) so I couldn't go out and buy a bunch of stuff. So I looked at what was available to me. I put a few gourds we had purchased along with all the fruit and vegetables I happened to have around in a basket and created a very decorative fall "bounty." I went out and picked some dried grasses that were growing outside my apartment and put them in vases that I already had. I added twigs and more grasses to fill out my bounty. I put dried berries that had fallen off a bunch that I bought at the farmers market in a glass bowl. I barely spent any money, and I'm pretty happy with the results.
I think the main good idea here, besides taking the trek outside and getting stuff for free, is this: Items have a greater impact when they are grouped together. A few stray gourds, some grass and some berries might not seem like a whole lot of holiday decoration, but when you put them all in basket, or put a vase and a bowl of berries together with another natural element (like a bowl of collected wine corks) they are more noticeable and therefore make a bigger statement.
I think the main good idea here, besides taking the trek outside and getting stuff for free, is this: Items have a greater impact when they are grouped together. A few stray gourds, some grass and some berries might not seem like a whole lot of holiday decoration, but when you put them all in basket, or put a vase and a bowl of berries together with another natural element (like a bowl of collected wine corks) they are more noticeable and therefore make a bigger statement.
11/29/10
Good Idea #6: Real Simple Side Dish
Real Simple Magazine definitely got this one right (not that they don't usually). I added this dish to my Thanksgiving feast, but it is easy and delicious for any holiday or any other day:
Honeyed Carrots and Oranges:
(serves 8)
2 lbs very small carrots or sliced large carrots
1 orange cut into chunks (with skin on)
2 tbsp honey
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp (kosher) salt
1/4 tsp pepper
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Toss carrots and oranges in honey, olive oil, salt and pepper on a baking sheet. Roast 30-35 minutes, turning once.
How easy is that?
Check out www.realsimple.com for more good (awesome) ideas.
Honeyed Carrots and Oranges:
(serves 8)
2 lbs very small carrots or sliced large carrots
1 orange cut into chunks (with skin on)
2 tbsp honey
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp (kosher) salt
1/4 tsp pepper
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Toss carrots and oranges in honey, olive oil, salt and pepper on a baking sheet. Roast 30-35 minutes, turning once.
How easy is that?
Check out www.realsimple.com for more good (awesome) ideas.
Good Idea #5: Brining the Turkey
This was only my second year cooking a full thanksgiving dinner but I decided this year I was ready to step outside my Thanksgiving box. Brining is something that neither my nor my husband's family has done so I had to rely on tv and internet advice along with my instincts. But I gave it a try and I couldn't be happier that I did. Brining makes the turkey moist, juicy and flavorful. It also makes it cook a bit faster and my bird came out so beautifully browned that I can't help but think the brining made it prettier, too. So here are my brining tips:
1. Get a big bucket. I thought of using a stock pot, but mine wasn't quite big enough. It also would have been a hassle to have to clean before making mashed potatoes. My brilliant husband took a trip to the grocery store and asked around and ended up with a large food-safe bucket from the bakery that they get their frosting in. It had a cover and a handle and was just the right size. And it was free. I couldn't ask for more.
2. The whole point of brining is the salt. 2 cups of salt sounds really disgusting, but the salt helps the turkey retain water, keeping it moist and juicy. The recipe I used was 1/2 cup of salt per 6 cups of water. My large bucket with the turkey in it held about 24 ounces of water, so I used 2 cups of salt. One recipe I read suggested using kosher salt. I didn't want to deplete my kosher salt supply, so I used 1 cup of kosher and one cup of regular table salt. I'm sure it would have worked out fine either way.
3. Flavor the brine. While it seems that the salt is the only real necessity here, the brining time is obviously an opportunity to add some additional flavoring. I added 1 cup of sugar to balance the saltiness, generous amounts of the spices that I put in stuffing: Rosemary, Oregano, Sage, Ginger, Thyme and Pepper plus Celery salt and 3 bay leaves. I'm sure any spices you normally use on Thanksgiving would do the trick.
4. Brine away. The salt, sugar and whatever spices you are using in water on the stove. I found I needed a good sized pot to get this all to dissolve fully. Remove the neck and giblets from your thawed turkey, put him in the bucket and fill most of the way with cold water. Pour the salt mixture over the top and refrigerate at least overnight, up to 24 hours. Before you cook the turkey, rinse it thoroughly and dry it as you usually would.
5. Watch your turkey, it might cook a little faster than normal.
6. Don't stuff the turkey (with stuffing). For one, the stuffing would be reeeally salty. Even if you're into that, because the turkey cooks fast, you run the risk of not cooking the stuffing thoroughly. Gross. Instead, I stuffed my turkey with pieces of onion, apple, celery, spices and bay leaves which I kept and used later with the turkey carcass to make the broth for turkey soup. Yum.
7. If you use the drippings from the turkey to make your gravy, be careful. While the turkey doesn't come out salty, the drippings are very salty. Definitely don't add any salt to your gravy, use unsalted butter if you are making a roux, and if you want it even less salty, use primarily another source of flavor, such as water from boiling the neck and giblets, which have not been brined, so that you can add only the amount of drippings that you want for the saltiness that you desire. Side note - if you do end up making that turkey soup, you won't need to add any salt to that either. And it will be gooood.
8. Eat your delicious, juicy turkey dinner!
1. Get a big bucket. I thought of using a stock pot, but mine wasn't quite big enough. It also would have been a hassle to have to clean before making mashed potatoes. My brilliant husband took a trip to the grocery store and asked around and ended up with a large food-safe bucket from the bakery that they get their frosting in. It had a cover and a handle and was just the right size. And it was free. I couldn't ask for more.
2. The whole point of brining is the salt. 2 cups of salt sounds really disgusting, but the salt helps the turkey retain water, keeping it moist and juicy. The recipe I used was 1/2 cup of salt per 6 cups of water. My large bucket with the turkey in it held about 24 ounces of water, so I used 2 cups of salt. One recipe I read suggested using kosher salt. I didn't want to deplete my kosher salt supply, so I used 1 cup of kosher and one cup of regular table salt. I'm sure it would have worked out fine either way.
3. Flavor the brine. While it seems that the salt is the only real necessity here, the brining time is obviously an opportunity to add some additional flavoring. I added 1 cup of sugar to balance the saltiness, generous amounts of the spices that I put in stuffing: Rosemary, Oregano, Sage, Ginger, Thyme and Pepper plus Celery salt and 3 bay leaves. I'm sure any spices you normally use on Thanksgiving would do the trick.
4. Brine away. The salt, sugar and whatever spices you are using in water on the stove. I found I needed a good sized pot to get this all to dissolve fully. Remove the neck and giblets from your thawed turkey, put him in the bucket and fill most of the way with cold water. Pour the salt mixture over the top and refrigerate at least overnight, up to 24 hours. Before you cook the turkey, rinse it thoroughly and dry it as you usually would.
5. Watch your turkey, it might cook a little faster than normal.
6. Don't stuff the turkey (with stuffing). For one, the stuffing would be reeeally salty. Even if you're into that, because the turkey cooks fast, you run the risk of not cooking the stuffing thoroughly. Gross. Instead, I stuffed my turkey with pieces of onion, apple, celery, spices and bay leaves which I kept and used later with the turkey carcass to make the broth for turkey soup. Yum.
7. If you use the drippings from the turkey to make your gravy, be careful. While the turkey doesn't come out salty, the drippings are very salty. Definitely don't add any salt to your gravy, use unsalted butter if you are making a roux, and if you want it even less salty, use primarily another source of flavor, such as water from boiling the neck and giblets, which have not been brined, so that you can add only the amount of drippings that you want for the saltiness that you desire. Side note - if you do end up making that turkey soup, you won't need to add any salt to that either. And it will be gooood.
8. Eat your delicious, juicy turkey dinner!
Good Idea #4: A Thanksgiving Recipe
11/16/10
Good Idea #3: Save Five Dollars
This is actually the good idea that inspired me to start this blog. It's that good. I read a short article in a magazine about a woman who had saved upwards of $1,200 in just a few months just by saving $5 bills. She just spent cash as usual, but every time she receive a $5 bill in change, she set it aside. When her jar of $5's got full, she deposited them in a high-yield savings account and watched them grow. It's that easy. Of course you could do this with $1 bills for lighter saving or $10 bills for more aggressive saving. I've been saving pocket change for years and am always surprised by how much a jar of change adds up to. But $5 seems like just the perfect amount to save; you won't really miss it and it will add up fast. Happy saving!
11/12/10
Good Idea #2: Take Advantage of Holidays
I've always thought that making a big deal about being thankful at Thanksgiving was kind of cheesy. Maybe it's just that passing quarter-life makes you a little bit more open to cheesiness, but this year I'm doing it. Each day until Thanksgiving, I'm naming something that I am thankful for. I'm using facebook to share my list, so maybe that helps minimize the cheesiness, or maybe it just lets all my friends know how cheesy I am.
Cheesy or not, using Thanksgiving as an excuse to think about all the things you are thankful for is a good idea. And in the coming weeks, using Christmas as an excuse to give an unexpected gift to a friend or charity is a good idea and using New Years as an excuse to make a change that really needs to be made is a good idea.
Cheesy or not, using Thanksgiving as an excuse to think about all the things you are thankful for is a good idea. And in the coming weeks, using Christmas as an excuse to give an unexpected gift to a friend or charity is a good idea and using New Years as an excuse to make a change that really needs to be made is a good idea.
11/10/10
Good Idea #1: Start a List of Good Ideas
You watch morning talk shows. You read magazines, self help books. You listen to public radio and have dinner with friends. You have random strokes of genius throughout your day. You think "that is a good idea!" And then... you forget it. You wonder how many ideas have come and gone, never to be thought of again.
Of course I am describing myself here... but maybe I am describing you, too. If I am, here's an idea. Keep a notebook or just a piece of paper, handy where ever ideas tend to strike you most. In your magazine rack (or in my case in the stack of magazines piled haphazardly on the coffee table/bookshelf/floor), next to the bed, in your purse, in your wallet, on the table nearest to where you usually watch TV, in the car (for use at stop lights only). Whenever a good idea comes to you, write it down.
If you keep several of these lists, it might be helpful to compile them all in one place for easy review... a master notebook, a manuscript for you future Book of Genius, or say, a blog where you can share all your awesome ideas with friends, family and other loyal readers (ahem). But at the very least, even if you never do anything with your lists and they eventually become unreadable due to wear inside your wallet, are lost at the bottom of your purse, or are destroyed by a curious house cat, the very act of writing your good ideas down will help you to remember them and just maybe put them to good use.
Of course I am describing myself here... but maybe I am describing you, too. If I am, here's an idea. Keep a notebook or just a piece of paper, handy where ever ideas tend to strike you most. In your magazine rack (or in my case in the stack of magazines piled haphazardly on the coffee table/bookshelf/floor), next to the bed, in your purse, in your wallet, on the table nearest to where you usually watch TV, in the car (for use at stop lights only). Whenever a good idea comes to you, write it down.
If you keep several of these lists, it might be helpful to compile them all in one place for easy review... a master notebook, a manuscript for you future Book of Genius, or say, a blog where you can share all your awesome ideas with friends, family and other loyal readers (ahem). But at the very least, even if you never do anything with your lists and they eventually become unreadable due to wear inside your wallet, are lost at the bottom of your purse, or are destroyed by a curious house cat, the very act of writing your good ideas down will help you to remember them and just maybe put them to good use.
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