Friday Things
1. Joseph turned 15 months old this week, what?! After spending most of his first year under the 10th percentile for height and under the 20th percentile for weight, he has skyrocketed to 52nd for height and 76th for weight! If someone had told me two years ago that I would find a little toddler so incredibly funny and so much fun, I would have never believed them. He’s the best :)
2. I’m still a ways out from this, but a great article on not raising bullies.
3. What’s your favorite store-bought salsa? GO!
4. I don’t think I have enough time to knock all of these off before I turn 40, but definitely saving this list! >> 50 Books Every Woman Should Read Before 40.
5. Talk to me about Swiffers! Our entire first floor is hardwood/tile and we run a Roomba every night when we go to bed, so that helps keep the dog hair and any random dirt/crumbs at bay. I also steam mop, but probably not as often as I need to – it’s takes awhile to keep reloading the water, moving the power cord, etc. and I don’t like doing it while Joseph’s awake because I don’t want him to slip on the wet floors. So I’m wondering if a Swiffer that I could use quickly would help with the dust and little smudges in between steam mop sessions? Thoughts? Regular/wet-jet?
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6. A question for those of you that use metric measurements… I’ve been trying to include metric measurements in my new recipes, but I’m curious how large amounts of liquids are typically reflected? For example, I have 1,183 mL – write it as is, round up/down, use liters, like 1.2 liters? Teach me :)
7. Cinco de Mayo is coming up in a couple of weeks! What’s your favorite Mexican food? I’ve been a sucker for tacos since I was super little, and always nachos, of course.
8. What recipes would you like to see for the summer? Lay ’em on me!
9. Hockey playoffs! Are you watching? The first round is always so much fun, so much hockey to see! I just hope we can get over the first round hurdle this year!
10. TGIF! Duke wishes you a sunshine-filled weekend!
Salsa: I find that any corn and black bean salsa tends to be muy delicioso!
Swiffer: I LOVE my Swiffer. It makes cleaning our apartment so much easier and they are easy to store. I like the Wet Jet myself.
Recipes: I would love to see some no-bake dessert recipes that don’t involve Cool Whip.
I’d love to see a recipe for deep dish pizza in a cast iron skillet! Love your blog!
That was a nice article about bullies. That lady is a smart mom. A lot of times parents don’t want to see and admit their own children are bullies and really I know some parents don’t even care as long as their own kid is doing well.
For the metric system, use litres. I don’t use the metric system for my cooking or baking but if its anything like science labs in college than you would use litres not in the thousands ml.
LOVE Mexican food!
Since you have mentioned that your boy has some food sensitivities, it would be cool if you included recipes for people with dietary restrictions for the summer. Stuff like dairy-free, egg-free, vegan, as well as the more popular now days gluten-free recipes.
Hello – I love your recipes – and thought I would comment on your request for metric help. I live in the netherlands – as an expat.
I use a mixture of measuring cups/spoons and weights when I bake. For dry goods, I prefer cups but If the quantities are larger I find it easier to use the scales than measure out 4,5,6 cups… For liquids, cups/spoons are easy, and somewhat more precise as not many measuring jugs have markings smaller 50ml. for sticky goods like butter, peanut butter, molasses, etc… I HATE cups and spoons (and butter sticks)! it’s a pain. then weighing is the way to go :D
I love SIRI – she is a great help in the kitchen – “how much is one stick of butter in gramms” and she will tell you :D
I don’t have any pets, but I do have a 2 year old and an area rug that sheds like crazy! My favorite mop is the O-Cedar ProMist mop because you can wash the mop pad or buy disposable ones which come in handy sometimes. If you’re not interested in the disposable pads, I like the Bona brand mop. (The Bona mop comes with a washable dusting pad that is meant to be used dry, and has the regular washable mop pad, so that is a nice bonus.)
I use Better Life floor cleaner because it is safe for kids – I love all of their cleaning products! http://www.cleanhappens.com/products/simply-floored-natural-floor-cleaner
I mop my hardwood polished floors with a mix of half hot water and half methylated spirits. Living in Australia, we use metric measurements and weigh dry ingredients. As I came from Canada 30 years ago, I had to get used to converting everything. As someone else said, weighing ingredients is important for baking. I think rounded off liquid measurements would be good because even though I’m a paediatric nurse and used to measuring meds to 0.05 ml, I wouldn’t be measuring to that accuracy for a recipe unless it was a teeny amount of an ingredient. 1.2L is close enough in the example above. We do use 5 ml for a tsp. so for 1/4 tsp it is 1.25 ml.
Bona dry floor duster is amazing, will pick up everything fast and it’s washable. I have the BONA wet mop but it leaves a film so I go over with plain water after. Love your blog and Joseph is a total charmer!
Love that little face!
Wish I could just hug and love him up!
I’ll say the same thing I said about my children. He’s growing up too fast!
Swiffers do a pretty good job, I just don’t like that they are not eco-friendly and it can run into a lot of money.
If you get one, the first month figure out how much you used and then multiply by 12 to see how much you are paying out all year. And if you put that money every year into a college account how much it would be by the time Joseph is ready. Or for savings.
Just a thought.
Hope you and Hubby are doing well!
Joseph is so handsome and takes great pictures. I’m so glad he’s a happy child and can’t wait to see how he handles having a sibling. We use a Swiffer Wet Jet on the tile but I’m actually thinking of changing to something else so I’m looking around myself. As for the hardwood floors – we use the swiffer dry mop there and when it does need cleaning – we switch to a damp cloth they make for the dry mop. It works okay on the hardwood floor and dries super fast.
I use metric measurements a lot. I appreciate it when the recipe creator is familiar with using metric tools. A 1-cupmeasure is about 250 ml but it is not a completely accurate measure. I use a scale so that whatever I am making turns out and all I need to do push button to change to lbs. or metric! I have a list of metric conversion weights that I have kept over the years.
Toddler is fast, furious and fun. I enjoyed it. Go Joseph!
I’m with the reusable pad steam mop, wipe that spot by the sink and 50/50 vinegar and water solution people. In between, I use a dust mop, with a reusable head. In just minutes I can mop the entire house, shake dust into the universe to seed clouds and burn calories, all while not spending money. When my girl was that age I gave her a dust rag and her job was to wipe the furniture legs as I dusted. .
I also appreciate the move toward metric. It doesn’t matter in entrees, but makes such a huge difference in baking.
I can’t believe how big Joseph is – such a handsome boy! We have a cavalier King Charles spaniel and does she shed. I do. swifter first ( I bought Lysol pads for swifter on clearance at lowes and they are great I spay a little water on the pad to catch all the fur) I had terrible luck with shark steamer did not last.then vacuum to catch all her fur. Also I use a mop with washable pads and Method has the best hardwood cleaner it smells great is chemical free and leaves a nice shine on floors. Our hardwood needs to be redone and this stuff does a great job.
Love tacos we use el Plato ( duck sauce) in Mexican food isle they also have a jalapeño version that is deadly it’s inexpensive you can customize it and comes in smaller cans so it doesn’t get wasted. I’m Mexican American and I grew up on the stuff. My mom spices hers up with extra chile and spices. Have a wonderful weekend!
When I was baking more and also professionally and in culinary school all my recipes were metric and I preferred it that way and would even convert recipes I found online to metric. I do it in ML and I leave it the number it is. I weigh all my liquids when baking because it’s fast and accurate so having odd numbers isn’t an issue. Plus the scale stays in ML so it’s not an issue that way.
I use a regular Swiffer all the time, but I don’t buy their cloths. I either attach a microfiber cloth which is reusable. Sometimes I even wet it so more dirt is picked up. Makes it very cheap to use also
A dry swiffer is a must for us. We have stained concrete and hardwood floors, 2 toddlers, and a cat. I swiffer several times a day, esp after meals, and mop when I have time! You won’t believe all the swiffer can pick up.
As another reader from Canada noted, though we have had metric recipes for decades (late1970s), most recipes published now have returned to mainly imperial/standard measures. I did actually work in the early conversion era! I did find this conversion chart for you http://cooking-conversion-chart.blogspot.ca/2008/08/cooking-conversion-chart-cooking.html To note is that you convert to the actual *measure* size, eg metric measures (not measuring *cups* ) are in the mL – it should be mL not ml, or at least that was the original intent – of the measure eg 1, 2, 5, 10, 15, 25 (I note 25 is not shown on this chart but I am sure that is accurate) for dry measures and for wet (eg Pyrex measures) it would be eg my Pyrex measure has 50, 75, 100, 125, 150, 175, 200, 225 and 250 mL markings. (metric on one side, standard on the other) The conversions to metric are not intended to be an exact conversion eg 1 cup becomes 250 mL. For most recipes, the number to use can be what is closest as it will not make a difference, but for some baking, recipes *should* also be tested using metric measures to ensure accuracy. For your 1183 ml, go to the largest (1L) plus probably 175 or 200 mL, rather than the decimal 1.2 as that is not a standard recipe measurement in North America. I have looked up a recipe with a large volume, for bread – and they show the full amount 1375 mL – but the point is to make it an actual measurement ending in 0 or 5. http://www.robinhood.ca/Recipes/Breads-Rolls/White-Breads/Basic-White-Bread This recipe is not in the format standard originally used – more useful format is to have eg 5 1/2 cups flour 1 375 mL (there really should be a space between also if my brain still recalls.)
I forgot to add another part to metric recipes – pre-prepared ingredients.. Packaged items vary in Canada – I checked my cupboard for a couple of examples. Canned items, eg canned beans, are in 19 fl. oz or 14 fl oz cans, with the metric measure beside ie 540 mL and 398 mL, so if you use that in a recipe, you would put 1 can (540 mL) and not round off, as that is the way it is packaged. This is probably due to the packaging equipment and the cost of converting the equipment. But some items have had packaging changed, eg cooking oil is in mL or L, dry pasta is in g (eg 450 g), dry cereal is in g. Some packages could have metric weight, eg 454 g (which would have been a 1 lb. – and still is).
Just to make things easy, and standard!
I have a Swiffer vacuum…I love it…much better than just the Swiffer. It wipes up and picks up stuff with the vacuum that may not be picked up with the Swiffer cloth…..we have 2 pugs and a lab!
Good luck
I’ve heard that the chemicals in the wet jet formula is harmful for dogs. You may want to check it out.
Herdez salsa, medium, is the best store bought, in my opinion.
When our hardwoods were new, Bona was the product suggested by installers. It was not readily available at that time. Now it is everywhere. It is the best. Use 2 mop heads–one dry to dust, the other with the spray product. It dries quickly. After a fire and some work on the floors, Bona was again recommended. I lost a plastic bolt from the mop, contacted the company for another and they graciously sent a whole new mop handle etc. Very good products and great folks!