The Empty Cabinets of my Mind

Wow I finally Drew Something

Not much, because I've been gadding about, but here goes:

A Kitten

I published it on +Bubblews first.  Now that is a switch.  My BANK shows $19.50 already and I only joined April 22.  Lunch Money!

If you want to join it is here:

Join Bubblews. Its free!

See what my friend did!

 

 

This earned another 3 cents while I was uploading the picture for you.

 

 

 

Check Out this Addictive New Site:

Wow, is all I can say about this addictive new site:

Bubblews

The name sounds sort of dumb to me or I would have joined even sooner.

 I just signed up last night  and here are any stats already:

 WHEEE! I love this. Join me there, won't you?

Lots of Lemons

Many bloggers have written interesting things about making youw own household cleaners using citrus peels. Time allowing, I want to add links to some of them.

What a joy it is to live where lemons, oranges, and grapefruit can be had for free.  There are hundreds of lemons on our tree and our kind neighbor shared a whole crateful of delicious thick-skinned grapefruit.

I started these jars of grapefruit vinegar today.

More on this soon...especially after I make some of the sink scrubbing stuff with borax, baking soda, and dried citrus peels.

More Ninja Pulse Blender

Until March 30, 2013 New Egg has the  Ninja BL207 on sale for $109.99. That is the lowest price I have seen on this item anywhere.

This is the model that comes with a slicing and shredding blade.  This Ninja makes snow, minces, grates, shreds, purees, kneads breas, mixes cookie dough and much more.

More Stuff to Make Less Work

I didn't like the e-cloth with the blue scrubby stripes as well as the others, so I cut it into quarters and sewed a softer more absorbent microfiber cloth to the side of each. They look a little ratty, but are kind to my hands yet effective for scrubbing dishes and pans and wiping up spills.

 

 

 Here is a product I reviewed as follows on Amazon after buying 3 gallons at Sam's Club and then noticing that people seem to love it or hate it.

I bought the concentrate and tried it before reading any of these reviews. It sure got rid of every kind of dried-on crud I could find to test it on, so I expected to see high ratings from everyone. I cannot imagine the mixing ratio causing such diverse results for so many people. I put 3 ounces of Whip-It concentrate in a 2-cup spray bottle, sprayed it on and after a few seconds wiped it off with a microfiber cloth.  Ancient carpet stains that my neighbor had for years and couldn't get out required a little rubbing, but he was amazed to see them gone in just seconds.  The Whip-It did not leave any streaks or oily stuff on anything I tried to clean with it. It got burned on ick off the outside of a skillet that I had thought I would have to throw away.

Things I like best about this product include that it doesn't have much odor, it is safe for just about every surface, including my hands, that it gets the dirt out so fast with such little effort, that it is all biodegradable. It is very affordable too, since so little goes such a long way.  It also saves a lot of space, as this one product replaces so many different ones. Another big plus is that neither the cloth nor the surface has to be very wet for it to work, so spots in main traffic areas of the carpet for example dry quickly after cleaning.

I highly recommend Whip-it, but would suggest using it with warm water on cool surfaces and using thick microfiber cloths to wipe.

This not a paid review...just another product I love.

 

 

Room with a View

I took  this photo from the 55th floor of Trump Towers in Las Vegas.

 It was a pay first and then learn the name special on Hotwire.

 

 This is a smoke-free property.

Rethinking Coffee

 

I  have totally abstained from coffee most of my life  because I eschew stimulants in general.   However, the saying "anything in moderation" fits well with my thinking.

 

So I keep a little on hand for flavoring (who doesn't love mocha frosting on a chocolate cake?) and an occasional uced coffee.

 

 The screen grab was-taken with the Windows 8 "snipping  tool" from a Sketchbook Pro 6 file on my Samsung ATlV tablet.   I am impressed with this software, especially  now that it includes French Curve & smudge brush features. The main reason I bought this tablet was the Wacom digitizer, so to keep to the mocha theme, this is icing on the cake.

 

Shrimp and Broccoli

Thanks to inspiratiion from a blog by Adam Roberts I have come up with another great NuWave oven recipe. 

In fact, this was so good that even the second time I made it, I forgot to take a photo until it was almost gone. 

I used frozen broccoli and frozen shrimp because we are on vacation which is also the reason I left out the coriander.

Does the mac'n'cheese look a little charred?  I like it that way and put that on the top rack of the NuWave and on the bottom rack the broccoli, shrimp, and finely chopped onions with olive oil and a little butter, seasoned with paprika (because I didn't have cayenne), black pepper, powdered cumin, and shredded Romano cheese.  Just before the mac'n'cheese was ready to burn, I took it out and stirred the broccoli shrimp then let it roast some more until the broccoli turned bright green. 

I have to admit that the first time I made this I was not so sure about using cumin in this dish, but it works. 

 

I Took a Chance on This

Another Reason I Love Big!Lots Stores.  

They have things I probably would never buy at retail on sale so cheap that feel OK taking a risk.  The screenshot is from my smart phone.  I took a picture of the cup cake (not cupcake!) kit complete with price tag.  The hard to find low baking cups with handles that come in this kit are perfect for other kinds of baked goods, and also for soup or stew, so after trying one box, I went back and bought several more. 

 

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This posterized image shows the cup.