Clean Responsibly

About a week ago I realized that as an "adult" it would be in my interests to make my house presentable to guests and wanderers-in. I never really had any kind of cleaning schedule, figuring that we would just clean as we go. Which is silly really. When did I ever do that growing up? Never.
...Well, I would do it once my room got past being livable. When I couldn't walk on my actual floor, I cleaned.
Sometimes.

But I started to feel like the house was always dirty, even if it looked clean, presumably because I didn't regularly dust, vacuum, mop, or clean the trim/baseboards/cupboards/counters. And we have dogs. So that's gross, right? You're telling yourself that's really gross, aren't you. In your head. I know it is. I KNOW.

Which is why Joe and I had a little family council in which we decided once and for all that we needed to make ourselves a chore chart. Ya know, like parents make for their kids. Because we are children. We conveniently have five rooms in our house -- one for each day of the week -- and Saturday is the special day that gets everything else. Laundry, dog "present" pick up, yard work, gardening....and so on. Sundays I just water the house plants. Gotta have time for Downton Abbey, guys.

I also decided to try some make-at-home, DIY, whatever you want to label it cleaners. And for some reason, just the presence of something new to clean with made me REALLY excited to clean. I ordered microfiber rags and spray bottles online and was frowny-faced every day that I checked the porch to find they hadn't come yet. But come they did, and I made a few starter cleaners to stretch out my DIY cleaner muscles.

One was a wood polishing cleaner, like a Pledge/Endust equivalent, which is made with castile soap, water, vinegar and lemon essential oils. Should I share the recipe? I'll share.

It's the "Wood Cleaner" Recipe on this handy little picture here, which I got from IHeart Organizing. Her blog is great for little (and some big) ideas about how to make your house tidy AND pretty. And she obviously has several great cleaner recipes, as you can see. According to her blog, she has tried a lot of different recipes over the years and these are her ultimate favorites.

So wood cleaner = 1/2 cup lemon juice, 1 tsp castile soap, 4 drops essential oil.

I also made the "Cleaner with Purpose" which is just a delightfully Tara-approved way of saying all-purpose cleaner. (1/2 tsp dish soap, 1 tsp baking soda, 2 tbsp white vinegar, 2 cups water, 3 drops essential oil)

With these handy recipes spray-bottled up as my weapons, I attacked the house, kindly, with cleanliness. And so far I really like the cleaners. They smell nice and they clean, so I'm pretty content. For a few days it was super clean, and we followed our chore chart religiously. It's slipped over the last few days but we still tidy the room of the day and try to leave any rooms looking presentable when we go out of them.

This isn't really an exciting post, but it's something I've been doing lately and would like to maintain. Thus, if I put it on the internet I will probably do better, right? ....Right?

We've been working on lots of fun projects lately but I'll write about those another time. Aaaalways keep 'em wanting. And oh how you want to read about my baseboards and pillows.
You do.

Tara's Favorite Quick & Easy Meal

A recipe? From me? Shocking, it's true. I'm definitely not a cook/chef/baker (although I do make a mean chocolate chip cookie). And to be fair, this isn't even my recipe, it's just one that I found and loved and change from time to time depending on whether I have all the ingredients or not. So here's my favorite quick and super easy pasta (made quicker and easier!). You may have seen similar things like it on Pinterest; I know I have. And I drooled heartily at them all. This girl likes her pasta.
Since I don't remember what it's called, it shall be named....

Fresh Herb Pasta!

Ingredients needed:
(Keep in mind I made this for just me and measured nothing, so I didn't include any kind of useful amounts. Fortunately most of it is preference-based anyway)
--An amount of spaghetti (for one person I just took a small handful)
--water? (to boil the spaghetti...yeah. Just being thorough, here.)
--oil of choice (canola for moi)
--Parmesan cheese (freshly grated would probably be delicious, but I just use the ol' powdery stuff)
--red pepper flakes
--garlic (again, original recipe calls for a clove or two, but I was out and so used garlic salt. It works)
--herbs of choice! (my preferred combo is oregano, basil, and chives. mmm.)
--salt and pepper, if ya want.
--tomato (optional)

How is it Done?!?
First, bring water to a boil. Then, cook spaghetti!

My handful of spaghetti!

Boil, boil! Mwahah.

Meanwhile, as you patiently wait for your pasta to cook, cut up your fresh, delicious herbs. Or if your herbs are dried, I guess you could spend the time measuring our the amounts that you want, which would be significantly faster. I'm sorry, dried herb users, I don't have much else to occupy your spaghetti-boiling-time. I guess you'll just have to play this video and dance around your kitchen. Do it! I promise your day will be happier.

Actually, you should do that even if you had to chop herbs.

I got my fresh herbs from my recently made herb garden (yay!) which is simply blooming and oh-so-happy! I can't believe I've kept them all alive.

Basil

Chives

Oregano. Did you know that oregano is fuzzy? I didn't until I took this close-up
and now I'm vaguely creeped out. Don't worry, it's still scrumptious.

Now would also be a good time to cut up those fresh tomatoes. These are optional, so if tomatoes aren't really your thing, just leave em out.

I should also point out that if you're going to use actual garlic cloves--the more delicious way to do it, admittedly--then while your spaghetti cooks you would put the cut up clove(s), a bit of oil, and some red pepper flakes (to taste) in a little pan and heat it up until the garlic starts a-sizzlin'. You'll take this off the heat and then dump it over your drained, cooked spaghetti, add the rest of the ingredients and it is sooo good. So good.

Or if you're just using pantry stuff like me, you'll want to drain your spaghetti, douse it with some oil, and then dump in all these things, to taste: garlic salt, parmesan, herbs, red pepper flakes (leave this out if you prefer milder tastes, it gives the pasta a bit of a kick), herbs, salt & pepper if you want, and tomatoes. I like to wait until the last moment to add the tomatoes so they're still cool when I eat the dish. Delish!

The ingredients of choice.

In the end, you have this pretty pasta that you feel good about eating and, bonus, is also extra delectable!

It's seriously my favorite, I eat it for lunch at least twice a week. Yum. Let me know if you try it!

Little Baker Woman

Here and there I try to be crafty, homemakery, and generally fill the mold of a good ol' lady housewife. Who also owns a dog. So a few months ago, I snapped these photos of the delicious and (obviously) adorable dog treats I made for Magnus. He practically inhaled them, so I am clearly an expert treat maker. Just pretend with me that he doesn't also eat plastic and other animals' waste. Thanks. 

The recipe for this is super easy. In case you're wondering, here it is!

1 cup peanut butter

1 cup milk

2 cups flour*

1 tablespoon baking powder*

Mix wet ingredients in a bowl, and mix dry ingredients in another, separate bowl. Then put it all together, knead, roll it out to about 1/4 inch and cut shapes! Put on a baking sheet. Bake 20ish minutes in a preheated, 375 degree oven, until they are brown and ready for canine consumption! Voila!

(*I have become aware from comments on the site where I originally found this recipe [found here] that many dog owners object to using flour and baking powder in their dog's treats, because they aren't good for them/are poisonous. After some research, I have found that indeed, baking powder is poisonous to dogs in large amounts, but won't affect your pup in the small amount that is spread throughout these treats. Likewise, flour is not the best for dogs but wouldn't have any bad effects once baked/cooked. BUT, if you are among these hesitant treat bakers, just omit the baking powder and use gluten free flour. The result is more or less the same, although the dough is a bit stickier. My dog ate both versions quite happily.)

So easy! I dutifully spread out the dough, rolling it with a bowl due to lack of a rolling pin (a situation which has now been remedied. Thanks mom!) Then, I used my handy dandy dog bone-shaped cookie cutters to make cute treat shapes! I got three for 6 bucks on amazon. 

Rolled out dough, in bone shapes! Yay!

Here are my cut out treats and the cookie cutters I used. Totes adorbs, amirite?

Yum. Did I mention these make your house smell like
peanut butter cookies? Bonus!

Joe wanted to help show off the finished product.

A natural-born model if ever there was one.

All my creations!

Magnus was at my feet the en-ti-re time I was making these. He even sat patiently while I took this torturous picture of him waiting! Aww, good little guy.

I should mention that these treats went fast. We used them for everything, because Magnus would immediately obey if he knew his peanut butter bones were involved. So the next time I made them, I did much smaller pieces so they would last longer. Like, ya know, normal treat size. It makes sense, really. 

Anyway, now you know how to make peanut butter dog treats. Yum! I wouldn't recommend eating them yourself though. They are definitely not Joe-approved for human use.