Sloppy Janes - Pressed Sandwich Recipe

Well after that Artisan Bread post last night, I wanted to see how the bread would grill up, so when The Hero requested Sloppy Janes, a sandwich favorite around here, I thought it was a brilliant idea and got right to work. We first had a Sloppy Jane at the Tilted Kilt, but TK is very far from where we live in the city, and if I'm going to drive 30 minutes for a dinner joint, I'm going to choose one that's a. not a chain, b. a bit classier. (sorry, TK, but you're not serving much class. Fun place, though, I'll give you that! And good pub chips.) So anyway, we've taken to making them at home. I've toyed with our version of the recipe a bit, but always was just a touch unhappy with the result, until last night! They were absolutely perfect. I think part of the reason was that I didn't make a traditional coleslaw to put on them, I grilled the carrots and cabbage into the sandwich fresh, and let the dressing do a little impromptu pickling while it was grilling up. The taste, texture, and flavor combo was divine. So anyway, if you're looking to spice up your grilled sandwich go tos, this is your post:

Sloppy Janes

• Smoked Turkey Breast (preferably the whole breast, to be shaved or sliced by you at home, it's more flavorful and moist that way, and way healthier, we like Koch's Brand Smoked Turkey.) 
• Cabbage, sliced very thin
• Carrots, grated
• Swiss Cheese (though I've used Jack and Cheddar and been happy with either of those too!)
• Thousand Island Dressing
• A good crusty bread that caramelizes well when grilled up. The Artisan Bread recipe worked fantastically for us! 
• A press grill, pannini press, George Foreman, waffle iron, or skillet and weight, like a bacon weight

Shave up your turkey, the thinner, the better, and slice your cheese thickly. Layer your sandwich like this:

(top)

Bread

Cheese

Turkey

Carrots

Cabbage

a modest smear of Thousand Island

Bread

(bottom)

Pop it just like this into the hot press (or skillet on medium/medium low) and really press it down to compress the ingredients. You want the cheese to melt slowly so the veggies cook just a bit and the bread has time to caramelize without any oil or butter!! That's not a health request, that's to make sure your sandwich stays together, so follow it! Flip your sandwich halfway through, and give it a half rotation to make sure it cooks evenly. This way the dressing is on top for the last part of the cook time, and it isn't making your bottom bread soggy. When it's grilled to perfection and the cheese is super melty, remove to a cutting board and let it rest before slicing in half to serve. We like it with sweet potato fries or a hearty soup, last night we had pan fried sweet potatoes with a maple and allspice glaze. :) Goes great with a summery beer as well, now that I'm thinking about it, I'm a bit sad we didn't have any Marzen last night, that would have been a good compliment.

Enjoy! :)

PinterTested - Artisan Bread

 

This is the first in what will hopefully be a series of  "PinterTests", where I will actually attempt things from pinterest and report back my findings. Can a real person do these things? How easy was it? Was it any good, or did it just photograph well? Should it be done again? (Also, let's all ooooh and ahhhh over my fun new template above for sharing the original pin and my own test run.....oooooooohhhh! Ahhhhhhh!)

So this week I tested a pin I've seen floating around a lot: Artisan Bread, a no-knead, long rise, traditional style wheat flour bread. It's key is a long overnight rise with very little yeast. I wasn't hopeful, because while I've been baking bread for years and my loaves are usually what one might describe as "edible" and sometimes even "tasty", I'm enough of a bread snob to tell you that the cell structure was horrid, and I was always overkneading, or underkneading, or letting rise too long, or not rising long enough, and even if a beautiful puffy loaf went in the oven, a floppy and deflated loaf came out. I wanted the pretty, lofty, strudy bread, one I could smear with toppings and grill and it would stay together, not one that crumbled upon slicing. This recipe totally came through for me!

The original pin led to this recipe on the Frugal Living NW page, where she describes an adaptation of another recipe. I followed her instructions to a tee, and even did this first batch with all bread flour, though we're whole wheat people in this house, so next week I'll try that. I don't have a cast iron dutch oven, (I know, it's pretty shocking. You can be ashamed of me, go ahead, I won't mind) but being a good New Mexico girl I do have a large pyrex tamale pot, so I used it and got a wonderful result. So easy, no fuss. My dough even stuck to my well-floured (aparently not well enough) towel, and I had to wrestle it to get in the hot pot, so I thought for sure this loaf was a goner after the abuse I put it through. To my surprise, it puffed up beatifully anyway and formed those great cracks that a loaf of this nature has. In the image, the OP is on the bottom left and my loaf, sliced, is on the top right.

Cost Effectiveness: 10/10 - you can't beat the cost of making your own bread, pennies on the dollar

Easy Factor: 8/10 - Yeast breads can and are intimidating, this is as easy as a good one's going to get!

Taste: 7/10 - I think I need to bump up the salt next time, it came out blah-ish, but I'm also used to a hearty whole grain and went with white this time, so maybe that's contributing? Otherwise, outstanding, and the texture's divine.

Time Consuming: 8/10 - Yes and no, you really don't have to spend much time doing anything to the loaf, but you must have the time to wait for the 12-18 hour rise and the 3 hour process for the second rise and bake. If you have other house things to do, or sleep to be had, it's not really time consuming at all, but it's not fast!

Overall Rating: 9/10 - This is a fantastic bread, I may never make another again. (well, except for Challah, can't really beat that stuff!) Way to come through in a big way on this one, Pinterest!

If you'd like to follow me on Pinterest, you can find me here: http://pinterest.com/nytepyre/

If you'd like to suggest a Pin to be PinterTested by yours truly, please email, comment, or leave a message on the facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/ThePiecesToMyPuzzle

Diaper Conversion - DIY

You may remember from previous posts that we use cloth diapers. I've absolutely loved them, but as time wears on and parts wear out, some age better than others, namely, our snap fastened dipes hold together much much better than our aplix (a generic term for "velcro") fastened ones. Some of our velcro fasteners are aging and not sticking to each other as well, and this seems to pair really poorly with our genital-fascinated toddler, who found the aging velcro pretty easy to remove for some good old fashioned nudity. Now this is all fine and good sometimes, but other times, I want that diaper to stay ON! Not wanting the money we spent on the diapers to go to waste, I set out to find an inexpensive and easy way to make them stick better. I settled on our favorite: snaps! I looked at all the snap diapers we own, what I like best about them and how they're put together, and got a good idea for how I wanted to proceed. Observations will build a foundation for success, so spend a lot of time looking! Next, I got some coupons, bought my snap press and some size 20 snaps, and got to work. Here's the step by step:

DIY: Convert Aplix Diapers/Covers to Snaps

Materials:

•  Diaper or cover to be converted
•  Size 20 Plastic Snaps 
•  Snap Press
•  Sharp Awl
•  Seam Ripper
•  Marker or Dressmaker's Pen(cil)
•  Ruler

1. Use the seam ripper to gently remove the old aplix and the leftover threads from it's application, it should not affect the structure of the diaper. Be careful not to rip into the waterproofing layer (PUL) below the aplix, you don't want a new leak because of a mistake!

2. Measure your diaper tabs and the front where you want them to adhere. Figure out a good ratio of space apart for your snaps. I picked 2cm apart, based on the size of my tabs, the narrowest part I'd be working with. Decide how many sizes you want, and space them appropriately, familiarity with multi-size snap diapers will come in handy here. I wanted this diaper to work for newborn sizes too, so I added some female snaps to one tab as well, you'll see in the finished photos.

3.Mark carefully and measure each time you mark. remember that your snaps are bigger than the dots marking them, so space accordingly. Take your time on this part, it'll pay off in the end.

4.Use the sharp awl to poke a hole at each mark. Go all the way to the end of the awl and back through, creating a spot for the snap backing (the tack-looking part) to rest securely in the fabric.

5. Press a snap backing all the way through from the "wrong" side of the fabric, relative to the business end of the snap. For female snaps, the backing goes on the inside of the diaper, for male snaps, it goes on the outside. Double check before pressing!

6. Place the proper male or female snap plate onto the backing post, like the back of an earring.

7. Carefully place the "snap sandwich" with the fabric in the middle into the cup of the press machine, with the post sticking up and the whole thing centered well. Press down firmly, but you don't need to powerhouse it, it's made to do this! You can see in the photos to the left what a male snap looks like before and after pressing side by side on the diaper tap.

8. Continue to press the snaps. You may want to start with the male snaps first and leave all the female snaps for the end, as you'll probably be using less male snaps. You don't want to get them confused! Just be sure to work slowly and check your work as you go.

That's it! That's the whole thing! There are variations, of course, depending on the type of diaper you're converting and how much you want to do with it. You could use the seam ripper to open the layers of a cover if it has layers, and "hide" the snap backs inside, stitching it up when you're done. If the place you want to put snaps is only one layer of fabric thick, I recommend adding a second layer of fabric to reinforce the snaps as they pull, you don't want a stress hole in the diaper! As you can see in the final three pictures, I chose 8 size points, for a total of 16 female snaps and 4 male snaps. The next to last photo is the finished product sized for a toddler and the final photo is sized for a newborn. I hope the post is of some use to you! I plan to get a lot more life out of these diapers!

Homemade Marshmallow Fluff

Now I know, usually I'm posting how to make something unhealthy healthier. Well, I'm going to come right out with it on this one: this still isn't healthy by any measure, but it doesn't have a ton of chemicals and other icky stuff in it, so it technically is healthier, just not healthy. You know, there are days you just need a little marshmallow fluff, I won't hold it against you if you don't hold it against me! When I was pregnant with DB, I ate a whole jar of it in the course of 5 days. Ewww. Just remembering that makes me a little nauseous. That stuff is so sweet and sticky! But just think of all the things you can make with it! Fluffernutter sandwiches, tasty icebox pies, sundae toppings, cake icings, the list is endless, and if you've sworn off the shelved stuff, that knocks a lot of those recipes off your list. Well, pout no more, here is a simple and cheap recipe for homemade marshmallow fluff, and just compare these ingredient lists:

Famous Fluff Brand, Rhymes with Taft:

Corn syrup
Sugar
Water
Egg whites
Cream of Tartar
Xanthan Gum
Artificial Flavors
Natural Flavors
Blue 1

Homemade Marshmallow Fluff:

3 Egg Whites
1 C. Sugar
1 t. Vanilla Extract

In a double boiler or a bowl set over boiling water, melt the sugar and egg whites together until they are hot and the sugar is totally melted, about 5 minutes on the nose. Stir it with a fork gently while waiting for it to melt down. It will be a thick syrup. Pour the syrup into a very clean and dry mixing bowl, a stand mixer is preferred, because it will be a lot of work if you're using a hand mixer, but either will do. The cleanliness of the bowl is important, foreign particles, especially grease, will prevent the mixture from fluffing, and you'll just have sweet egg white syrup, which is not particularly useful. Whip on high speed for a minute or so, when the mixture looks opaque all the way through, slowly drizzle in your vanilla extract. Allow to whip for another 10 minutes (seriously, it's a long time. don't just sit and watch or you'll think it isn't setting up. walk away for a bit.) or until the bowl is cool to the touch and your fluff stands in a soft peak when you lift the mixers out of it. It's ready to use immediately! Store it in the fridge, if you have any left over! *note: you may wish to add cream of tartar for stability, I never do.


I used mine to frost my experimental batch of oatmeal flour S'mores Cupcakes....but that's a post for another day! Enjoy! Let me know how your fluff turned out! What did you do with it?

Baby Sized Chores

DB's been super into "helping" recently. While it can be very tempting to try and distract him so I can do housework faster, I want to help him grow into a person who does chores easily and without separation from everyday life. I want to foster his desire to keep helping others all the time. For reference, DB's 19 months old, every child is different, but it's a pretty great age to start some consistent helping chores around the house, according to your child's interest and ability. You don't want to make them miserable! DB is highly motivated by my frequent "thank you's" , time with me, and the learning and play aspect of doing these chores together. I'm going to compile mini lists of the chores DB seems to really enjoy/excel at, and I'm starting with this list of 10, some for every type of chore, every area of the home.

Laundry:
1. Sorting colors. Now that DB has his colors down really well, this is a great one. We also use it as an opportunity to remember types of clothes.

2. Moving wet clothes to the dryer. We have a top loading washer and a front loading dryer, I hand him a few pieces at a time and he tosses them in for me.

3. Handing me Hangers. before putting clothes away, I put a pile of empty hangers out in the floor, and get the laundry basket a good 8 to 10 feet away so he has to go a little way to get them. He enjoys bringing me one at a time, and it keeps him busy enough that he's not unfolding all the folded items. (which was his hobby before I invented this one)

Floors:
4. Using the vacuum attachment to get under sofas, in the cushions, and around window sills if they are reachable. My son loves the vacuum, so this is a big treat for him, but not for all kids, some may not like the noise.

5. For hard floors, wiping down the baseboards. When in doubt, hand them a damp washcloth. I show him where I like help cleaning and he cleans it, mostly, but if it doesn't get done or he gets distracted and starts wiping down everything else, I don't mind. I got time to get the floor swept/mopped and a few things got semi wiped down. Win win!

Bathroom:
6. Damp washcloth again, I ask him to wipe down his training potty (since I've already cleaned it each time it's used, he doesn't need to be thorough), walls, and cabinets. just enough time for me to do a quick commode scrub, vinegar on the faucets, and a mirror shine. Then he can help me when I start on the tub, me with a magic eraser, him with his damp cloth.

Kitchen:
7. Putting away dishes. Nonbreakables, of course. I make sure there's nothing in the lower level of the dishwasher that's breakable, and I unlatch all the necessary cabinets and direct him where to place things like pot lids, tupperware, dish lids, measuring cups, measuring bowls, silicon baking pans, utensils (I lower the crock for him to put them into). Usually I can get most of the other things put away while he's asking questions and organizing bowls.

8. Wiping up spills. DB's learning to drink without a lid on his cup, so he spills often. I definitely clean them up when I need to, but usually, I hand him a cloth and ask him to wipe up. It's not a punishment, it's just what we all have to do when we spill something. He enjoys it, for now, and not enough to spill on purpose.

9. Simple Food Prep. DB's favorites include: mashing fruit like bananas and mangoes, snapping fresh green beans for me, I just check for stems as he hands me the pieces, throwing my chopped ingredients into a pot/bowl, using a plastic butter knife, "cutting" soft things or scraps I don't intend to use. Measuring things like rice, flour, grains, etc, using a spoon to fill a larger measuring cup. Using coconut oil to oil a cake pan or cookie sheet, coconut oil is perfect because we just rub it into our hands when we're done, not washing it off like shortening, which is yucky anyway and a pain to clean up.

Playroom/Play Area:
10. CLEAN UP! Ok, this one has to be turned into a game. When I present an empty canvas bin, and name a particular toy or colored item, DB gets really excited to find all of them and place them away. It works nicely. Just focus on one thing at a time, for example, I say, "Help me stack all the books right here, please!" and place a book on the sofa. When all the books are put away, we highfive and start a new project, like putting all the cars into this box or all the blocks in that bin. If the toys are not as easily categorized, I put a box out for green toys, and after he finds them all, I sort them more finely. It's the principal that matters, learning to clean up our messes.

Remember, plenty of Thank You's, and keep it fun, specific, and simple. As long as it's a game, it's building positive responses to doing small housework. It's laying a foundation for the future. They're still babies, don't sweat it too much. :) Have fun with your new cleaning buddies!

Trusting Women Again

Have you heard a woman say something like "I'm just not good at making friends with women" or anything even remotely like it? I have. I've also said it. More times than I care to reflect on. It wasn't until I read this blog post by Jaime at I Am Not The Babysitter this morning, that I realized I should think on WHY I feel this way and WHY I feel I need to say things like that.

I'm studying and working to become a doula and lactation consultant, someone who supports and empowers women, so shouldn't I be examining my own relationships with women and why they are weak or I perceive them as weak? I started thinking that if I am actually going to be a good support person, asking other mothers and women to put their trust in me, I should be able to put trust in them as well, I can't ask for something I'm not willing to give. I'm constantly asking women to trust their own bodies and support systems, a support system that I want to be a part of. I'm constantly saying "why don't doctors and medical professionals TRUST women (and their instincts, intuitions, abilities, etc.)?" But I myself don't trust women nearly enough. How can I make a true difference if I don't find the root of the issue and put my mind to setting things right?

I've been hurt by a lot of women in my life, and I'm sure I have blame to share in hurting other women. I don't like how ugly things can get, and how long those scars can last. Once I read that article this morning, I started examining my relationships with other women more closely. I've been making and maintaining stronger relationships with women, realizing the value of their friendship, and working hard (as one should in any relationship) to keep the relationship alive and fruitful. It's something I'll have to work hard to correct, the tendency to reject female companionship and femininity in an effort to protect and prove myself, but it's worth doing.

Grilling Out and Local Food

I think local food is highly under appreciated in many parts of the country. It usually requires a bit more work than the one trip to the grocers, and many of us don't have the time! I'm very fortunate that I shop at a grocer who carries local milk, eggs, meat, and produce, and labels it boldly to make my shopping for local food easy. Local food has so many advantages, both to health and to the local economy, buying from farmers and supporting small local business is a great way to spend your dollarvotes. I just recently visited the farmer's market in my city (Baltimore, Maryland), and it was fantastic! DB got to pick out some food he wanted, and settled on blueberries, strawberries, and currants. There was lots left over, so I made a berry icebox poke cake out of the rest of them at the end of the week and topped it with local cream I whipped up with a touch of sugar. The rest of the veggies left at the end of the week, and there were a lot as we went a bit overboard at the temptation produce carnival known as the farmer's market, went into a salad. Salad and cake went with us to a barbecue and complimented summer perfectly, with seasonal local food!

McCormick spices have always had some of my favorite grilling flavors and they recently sent me a box of spices to try out this summer. I have to say that it made me try a new flavor I wouldn't usually pick. I liked that the ingredients listing is simple on the seasonings I tried, and I could pronounce EVERYTHING on it, which is a big deal in our house! I enjoyed testing out some of their new marinades and rubs. We had a great cook-out. Food, cold beer, and summer backyard grilling conversation, it doesn't get much better than that!