This week's menu... 10/28/13-11/3/13...

...this week's menu...

Monday:  Asian marinated salmon with broccoli

Tuesday:  Buffalo chicken pasta with peas

Wednesday:  Outback's potato soup copycat

Thursday:  MUMMY pizza night!

Friday:  Spaghetti night

Saturday:  Leftovers

Sunday:  Musaka

What's on your menu this week?

Natural rust removal...

I recently discovered a new-to-me YouTuber, Melissa Maker and her channel "Clean My Space"  thanks to one of my "old favorites" ("Organized Clutterbug") mentioning her in a video about natural cleaning.  Of course, I've spent most of my time over the past two days watching TONS of her videos!

This morning, I came across this one: "Clean My Space" - "Shine Your Flatware & Glassware | Day 5 of The 12 Days Of Clean!"  In this video, she goes over basic shining, but what really caught my attention was when she started talking about removing rust from flatware.

I have a couple of vintage cheese graters that are horribly rusted, but they look so neat that I can't bear to part with them (I only show the circular one here, as that was the rustier of the two)...

Note: none of these photos have been edited more than cropping (and text on one), I didn't want a filter to mess with how the rust looked.

This is how I cleaned them:

I started with my rusty grater...

Then I gathered my tools:

my (kitchen) cleaning toothbrush, 

a clean rag, a bowl with equal parts salt and lemon juice

and a towel or paper towel to work on.

I got some of the salt/lemon juice mixture on the toothbrush...

...and scrubbed it all over.

Then I buffed it out with the rag,

using the salt/lemon juice mixture as needed.

After washing and *thoroughly* towel drying.

NOT BAD!

Now, I will say that I probably still won't be using them for cooking,

but they look a lot prettier hanging on my wall without significantly less rust.

Check out my post about preventing rust from coming back once you've removed it!

Do you have any tricks up your sleeve to get rid of/prevent rust?

Comment and share your knowledge if you do!

This week's menu... 10/21/13-10/27/13...

I realized as I was typing up this week's menu just how lazy I'm feeling toward cooking this week...  and you know what?  I'm gonna go ahead and allow it.  Time needs to go toward more important things this week...  like Halloween costumes and winter knitting.  Especially with the possibility of snow in tomorrow's forecast.  

REALLY, Illinois???  Snow in October?!?!  

Lamesauce.

So tired, but so worth it...

I'm exhausted.  I spent *hours* (literally) running around and cooking in preparation for the blog posts that are coming up on Create! Don't Consume!

Nikki and I got a lot done today...

...and dinner was amazing because of it.

Check out what we're up to at Create! Don't Consume!

This week's menu... 10/14/13-10/20/13...

...how many days have I missed now?  ::sad face::

It's okay 'cause I've still posted a heckuva lot more than usual this month.  Keep on the sunny side, right?

The past few days have been crazy busy...  The kids had a four-day weekend, so we filled it with a pumpkin farm, some housework and our city's Scarecrow Fest.  Lots of fun!

"American Horror Story", Witches brew and pumpkin flavored *everything*, oh my!

Oh man, am I enjoying this month!

I've recently started watching "American Horror Story" from the beginning on Netflix, and I'm hooked.  I love everything about this show.  Especially when paired with my pumpkin spice coffee.

Last night, my friend Nikki and I got together, shared a bottle of Witches Brew (my favorite $5 wine) and did some planning/blogging, and stayed up way too late...  We came up with a neat idea to talk about a food item (or a few) each month.  This month, we chose pumpkins and winter squash --which we posted about today.

Hmm, what else?  ...I'm going to start my Halloween costume tonight...  I'm going as a fox (I made a tail a few years ago), so I'll be making this hat.

Oh, and we're going to the pumpkin farm tomorrow!  Yay!

I think I might have to make a fall bucket list.  There are some great ideas here.

...Now for a scary movie with the husband...

Can you tell I'm tired?
Do you get spacey and jump from one topic to the next when you're over-tired?

"The Scream"

Sorry about my bad mood while I was writing my last post...  apparently the issue is with my web browser (the last update has some issues, it seems).

...and I realized this morning that I spaced out posting yesterday.  Again, I apologize.  I guess daily posts are an unrealistic thing for me, but there's no reason that I can't post more than my usual menu planning post.

Life has been busy.  Last week, then again today, I went to my kids' schools to do a presentation for "AVIC" (Art Volunteers In the Classroom) for each of their classes (kindergarten, 2nd grade and 4th grade).  LOTS of fun!  The schools have paintings that the volunteers can choose from, or we can pick a different one (as long as it's kid-friendly, of course  ...Tim Burton is *not*...  ::sad face::).

I did "The Scream" by Edvard Munch...  did you know that he did *four* different versions?

Plus a bunch of lithographs!

(this is my favorite version)

We talked about other artists taking inspiration from this painting, like Andy Warhol's pop art version, this version featuring Homer Simpson and even The Silence from "Doctor Who" being inspired by the painting.

Seriously, guys.  It was awesome.  ...and Edvard Munch was pretty neat.  It was fun researching an artist that I've never researched before.

If you look for kids' projects based on this painting on Google, you'll find lots of the same basic idea.  I'll have to share their projects when they come home from school.  Every one of the kids in each of their classes did a great job.

...Here's a preview of what's to come...

What excites/inspires you?

What makes you want to scream?