I absolutely hate the word “blog”

Another good DIY trick! I sometimes use Courvoisier to spike sangria, mulled wine and whipping cream, and I almost always buy the mini-bottles since they’re so cheap and I don’t use much. These are one of the few mini-bottled alcohols that still come in glass instead of cheap crappy plastic, and I’ve been compulsively hanging onto my empties for a few months without really knowing why.

But I got a great idea — they’re perfect for small batches of fresh salad dressing. (I love making my own dressing at home, but it doesn’t have much of a shelf life so I prefer to make tiny quantities.) I don’t love sticking it in an unslightly Tupperware, because it doesn’t pour smoothly. And I don’t like having my Pyrex measuring cups occupied by dressing, in case I need them for cooking.

Voilà la solution! Mini Courvoisier bottles are tiny and pourable and cute on the table, and I get to re-use something that would otherwise be junk. And now I finally have a reason for having hoarded all the little bottles like some kind of glass-loving treasure freak.

This would be kind of a cheap post without a recipe, though, wouldn’t it? Normally I’m terrible about writing such things down, and this is no exception, so all quantities are completely and totally invented on the spot, but I’m pretty sure they’re not far off. Enjoy!

Honey Mustard Dressing

1 Tbsp dijon mustard
1 Tbsp dry white wine
2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
3 Tbsp milk, kefir or yogurt (depending on how thick you want your dressing to be)
2 tsp honey
splash soy sauce — about 1/2 tsp — optional
1 tsp nutritional/brewer’s yeast — optional
salt, pepper and garlic to taste — optional

Combine, shake vigorously, and enjoy!

Ah, I love a great cheap solution. Grant and I live in domestic bliss, for the most part, but we both have annoying habits that the other one doesn’t love.

One of the things that annoys me is that Grant tends to discard his clothing from the day in a pile on the bedroom floor, in a very specific spot. For a while after we first moved in together, I mindlessly picked it up and stuck it in the laundry hamper in the closet. But eventually, I realized that that was kind of annoying to have to do. So the nagging began.

We both tend to be pretty good about nagging — gentle, loving, and as non-annoying as possible. But it doesn’t always get the job done. (And there’s plenty we both nag each other about.) So I started trying to come up with creative non-nagging solutions. I was going to buy a nice-looking laundry hamper and put it in the exact spot where he always sheds his clothes.

But that wasn’t cheap, and we don’t really need more *stuff* junking up our lives. Half the reason we’re always nagging each other is to clear up all the damn clutter we seem to inevitably wind up in anyway. So I was delighted when I came up with this easy, temporary, environmentally friendly/friendlier, and cheap solution.

I’m hoping this can serve as a visual reminder to stick stuff where it goes, although the problem usually arises because I’ve gone to bed before him, and he doesn’t want to disturb me by turning on the light or opening the closet door. Alas, perhaps it’ll just be another gentle and humorous nag to add to the bundle. But at least it’s shiny!

Aaaah. I’ve been whining about how I hate plastic for ages, but finally, some hard evidence in agreement that hasn’t been inaccurately discredited by Snopes.com!*

A webcomic I read recently linked to this article, which I think all you Imaginary Readers plus everyone else in the world should read. Why? Well, mostly because even knee-jerk anti-plastic folks such as myself will actually learned things that we probably didn’t already know. And even though it fails to mention some other drawbacks of plastics - like, when you do burn it, it vastly escalates the air pollution and greenhouse gases we environmentalists are so concerned about, and that many plastics used for food-related purposes actually do leech scary toxins into the things we eat, no matter what shoddy journalism to the contrary claims.

Anyway. Read the article if you feel like it, feel enlightened, la la la. :) I’ve always been freaked out by plastic and the way its taste leeched into certain foods since I was a little kid, and that feeling hasn’t gone anywhere. Even if it turns out to be perfectly stafe, it’s still kind of gross in my opinion!

*Pet peeve of mine with Snopes.com - when they discredited the “microwaving in plastics” article here, they quoted less than half of what the interviewed professor had actually said - and neglected to mention that he in fact described the exact dangers of plastics with hot foods, recommended avoiding the very uses of these plastics with foods that Snopes was condoning, and stated specifically that for cooking, “Inert containers are best, for example heat-resistant glass, ceramics and good old stainless steel”. While bashing Snopes, I’d also like to point out that the good doctor did also say that there are some plastic-based toxins that are worrisome but are actually different than the ones mentioned in the admittedly stupid hoax email. I understand not wanting to perpetrate stupid hype-based hoaxes, but you make just as big a mistake by only reading the first two sentences of a scientists’s explanation.