All Things Supercinski

I read the book, The Five Love Languages a long time ago, (have not read the children’s version) but I think that Josiah is a huge “words of affirmation” kid, as most kids are. At the park, he tells me to sit on the bench and watch him slide. After sliding, if I don’t say it, he says, “Great job!” and comes and give me high fives. He loves being praised for things and will do so much if you just give him lots of affirmation afterward. He also reacts very strongly to harsh words spoken in anger and impatience. One harsh word and he’s crying for ten minutes, which is good because I get disciplined when I speak harshly!

Long story, but we were at this new, indoor, moon-bounce place last week, and I was grumbling in my head about how my child is the only one who needs me to watch him constantly while he plays in those things–not because he acts out (sometimes he does), but because he wants me to cheer for him, to watch him go down all the slides and tell him what a great job he did when he gets done. All the other moms were sitting on benches and talking together. (Insert pouting face.)

Then I got to talking with one of the 18-year-olds that “supervise” the kids on the bounce things. We were chatting about how sometimes day cares bring classes of kids there and how crazy it is for her (and anyone else who comes) on those days. She was saying that the most annoying thing about it is that all these kids will come up to her and ask her to pretend to be their mom, stand at the entrance/windows to the bounces and say, “Great job so-and-so.” She said it happens constantly when those groups are there, and it’s not just a kid here and there. Hearing that really broke my heart and snapped be back to reality. My role, as unglamorous as it seems sometimes, is a mom to a two-year-old who needs verbal affirmation, and I get the privilege of being my son’s cheerleader, and that’s the perfect place for me!

I love reading Rachel’s recipes of the week, and with all people who tried the make-ahead burritos, I figured I’d post a few more. Here goes my first! Forgive my lack of measurements–I tried.

I found this chicken calzone recipe online and made a few minor modifications. This is enough to make two, large calzones–enough for a snack for me, dinner for 2, and lunch again the next day.

Chicken Calzones
double batch of pizza dough from your bread machine, enough for 2 pizzas (or 2 packages of refrigerated dough)
1/4 cup or more basil pesto (I make tons of this in the summer from our basil plants and freeze it for use all year)
4-6 sun-dried tomato halves, chopped (get the tomatoes that are packed in oil, just dab the oil off with a towel, this is less than 1/4 of a small jar)
about 3/4 cup ricotta cheese
about 2 cups mozzarella cheese
1.5-2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts cut up into bite size pieces
olive oil

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cook chicken on stove in olive oil with some italian seasoning and a little minced garlic. Roll out pizza dough into two large circles or rectangles (one for each batch of dough), thin like you would a pizza. Layer pesto, chopped sun-dried tomatoes, and cooked chicken on one half of the dough. Drop ricotta cheese by tablespoons all around, evenly distributing. I put about 6-8 spoonfuls on each calzone. Sprinkle with mozzarella.

Lift one ege of dough and stretch over the filing to form a half moon (or smaller rectangle). Press edges to seal. Prick the tops with a fork to allow steam to escape. Brush tops with a little olive oil. Bake in oven for about 12-15 minutes or until the top is golden brown. Be sure to take it out and lift up the calzone with a spatula to make sure the bottom isn’t doughy. If it is, bake for about four more minutes and check again. Cut in half. Serve with marinara sauce if you desire, but I don’t think it needs it.

I came across this video today, and I think it is excellent! If you have ever talked with us about food, you’ve probably heard our rants about the Farm Bill and subsidized corn and soy leading to the cheapest food with the worst health benefits. This short (10 minute) video sums it all up nicely and is an great introduction into re-thinking what you eat.

I must confess, I have been a bit of a diaper snob the past several months. I would hear of some of my real life and online friends sewing their own cloth diapers and I would think they were crazy. Why sew your own when you can buy really excellent ones? What is funniest about my line of thought is that I rarely ever have those thoughts about anything!

I was on a message board a couple weeks ago and someone linked to a diaper pattern she was using. Out of curiosity, and to prove to myself how hard it was, I looked at it, and was amazed at how easy it was! Then, I couldn’t stop thinking about how I would sew a diaper, and I realized that I had tons of material sitting around the house that would be perfect for diapers!

A friend had some ladies over for a cloth diaper sewing party/tutorial and I made my first, and now I can’t stop. I have made two more since then, and I’m almost out of my “free” (scrap) waterproof outer material. They are so awesome and insanely cheap–I can’t believe I waited so long to try this.

The diaper I made is a one-size (meaning adjustable from newborn to toddler) pocket (stuff it with an absorbent layer) and I added a few bells and whistles (elastic on the back, velcro tabs, etc). The pattern is available online for free. I made the first one with flannel on the inside and anti-pill fleece on the outside. Josiah wore it all morning and it didn’t leak a bit. He loved his “new, soft” diaper and even showed his Pa and Gigi. Here it is on the biggest (Josiah-sized) setting:

Here it is on the smallest setting, though the leg openings would be much smaller without the big insert I had in there:

Now I’m looking for a good newborn diaper cover pattern and I’ll get busy sewing some for New Baby. If New Baby happens to be a girl, she’ll have some really cute baby blue diapers. Sadly, the suedecloth I found yesterday (for the inner part) and the fleece I have are all baby blue!

My unwilling model:

We planted a small fall garden for the first time this year. We had an excellent showing from our broccoli plants and lettuce. The carrot seeds we used were a few years old and didn’t produce much, and we’re still waiting on the few that grew.

We’ve had so much broccoli the past few weeks that we’ve been enjoying dishes like beef and broccoli stir fry, chicken with broccoli cheese and rice, and of course, broccoli as a side dish.

Our lettuce and spinach really came along well. I let some of them go too long without harvesting, and some of the early frosts “burned” the edges of some before we covered them, but they still taste great!

I see so many cute aprons online that I just had to try to make one this year. Since my sister-in-law is soon to be wedded, I thought she would enjoy having one (and she seems like the kind of gal who would actually wear one while cooking). I made this apron using this tutorial. It turned out really well and I was inspired to do more. This picture is of me wearing it, sans waist (baby) so it doesn’t quite do it justice.

For weeks, I have been pondering how to make the perfect pregnancy apron. One that still cute, but not gigantic. Pregnancy necessitates the use of an apron like no other season in life–your belly is bigger than your arms can comfortably reach, so it bumps into counter tops, absorbs water from the sink, gets grease splattered on it, and catches dribbles of taste testing gone awry. I decided to try an empire-waist apron and just winged it. I probably could have found a pattern or some instructions, but I used the skills I gained making the other apron. It turned out pretty well, and I am very pleased.

The gathers at the waist give it a lot of room to grow, especially in the middle. This kind of detailing is hard to capture in a photograph. Anyway, if you are wanting to make one for yourself, I can share the measurements I used, just let me know. One of my other favorite things about this apron is how cute it looks hanging on my refrigerator; it matches my kitchen perfectly!

It has been ages since I wrote a “Getting Greener” post, and I apologize. Perhaps you have a New Year’s resolution or goal to make less of an impact on our environment? Have you tried making your own household cleaners?

The heating element in our oven went out in the middle of baking a birthday cake for Jesus on Christmas day. I resolved to clean our oven before it was replaced, and I did it without harsh chemicals or hours of scrubbing. I’m horrible about oven cleaning, and commercial oven cleaners are one of the most toxic cleaners you can buy. Have you ever read the warning label on those things? Frightening! I used this recipe from the book, Clean House, Clean Planet by Karen Logan.

Sleep-It-Off Oven Cleaner
Ingredients: salt, baking soda, water, a shaker (I used an old Parmesan cheese shaker), and a spray bottle with water and a couple tablespoons of Dr. Bronner’s or dishwashing soap (like Dawn).

Mix ¼ cup salt with ¾ cup baking soda. Fill the shaker.

Spray the oven with soap and water spray. Shake the salt-soda mixture on. Spray again with water until the mixture is slightly damp and pasty. For the side walls, make a thick paste and sponge it on.

Leave it overnight. In the morning, get a putty knife/scraper, and scrape off the goop and pile it onto an old newspaper. Use a scotch-brite sponge to work off any tough spots. Wipe down with a soap and water spray. Rinse.

That’s it! It worked amazingly well, even on my oven that I haven’t cleaned in over two years.

Over a month ago, I made and began using homemade laundry detergent. It works very well, but I haven’t used it on diapers, I’m too scared of buildup. I made a powder detergent since I didn’t have a bucket large enough for liquid. It was so easy and cheap, cheap, cheap.

Powder Laundry Detergent
1 bar Zote soap, or Fels Naptha or Ivory (in laundry aisle of your supermarket)
2 cups washing soda (not baking soda, this is also in the laundry aisle of your supermarket, made by Arm & Hammer)
2 cups Borax (also in your laundry aisle)

Cut soap bar into large chunks and feed through your food processor grater. Combine grated soap, borax and washing soda in food processor with the processing blade. You may need to do this in two batches depending on the size of your food processor. This will mix it all up and make it into a fine powder.

Store it in an old plastic tub or some other sealing container. You only need 1-2 tablespoons per load. It won’t make as many suds, but it really cleans amazingly well, and it does not leave your clothes smelling like perfume. I was able to wash my food processor easily with lots of hot water, but next time, I’m just going to make a quadruple batch since the hardest part is cleaning the food processor.

If you want a simple and easy cleaner to start out with, you’ll be hooked with this easy to make tub cleaner. I think it’s in the other recipe list, but it’s so easy, you don’t even need to measure!

Tub Paste
Squirt some peppermint (my favorite for cleaning) Dr. Bronner’s soap, about 1/4 cup or more, into a sealing container. I use a cleaned, 32-ounce, plastic yogurt container.

Add about half as much water as you did soap.

Mix in baking soda, adding a little at a time until it forms a nice thick paste, about the consistency of store-bought cake frosting. If you add too much baking soda, thin it with a little water.

To use, scoop some cleaner out onto a dampened sponge and scrub your bath tub. It works amazingly well and smells so good, you’ll want to eat it.

Reading Annie’s post about quilting several weeks ago gave me a quilting bug; seeing her finished projects only made it stronger. Not that I have ever been successful at such projects, but I am determined. My big goal is to quilt a blanket for Josiah’s big boy bed, but we’ll see if the spring holds time for such ventures.

I found a tutorial for a doll blanket and used it to make a baby boy play blanket. I love the chenille backing, and that I used up fabrics I already had. I bought these ages ago to make a gift for a dear friend I suspected was having a boy last summer. She did, but she didn’t receive anything cute like this from me, just plain cloth wipes. Anyway, the tutorial is so helpful–all my squares lined up beautifully with her tips.

Then I stumbled across another tutorial online for a pillow. I have so many fabric scraps that I made one for our living room couch. I love it, and I’m so proud that it only took me a day to make it.

Later, I’ll show some of our homemade Christmas gifts, but not everyone has received them yet.

I love little surprises like these that make me laugh. In case you are clueless as to what the dragon-thing is, it’s a throw-back to our pre-Josiah days when we had lots of time to sit around watching silly things online. Even further proof of how dorky we really are!

Oh, and Josiah loves the pictures Daddy draws him with bath markers, too!

In case you don’t see me around much, my pregnant belly is growing amazingly fast. I’ve already outgrown all my regular pants, unless they are unbuttoned. I really wanted to get one of these, but couldn’t imagine spending that much on a piece of knit fabric, so I made my own. I really like it and it was so easy! Here’s what it looked like last week with my unbuttoned jeans and a non-maternity shirt:

These are some really basic instructions, and you would probably be able to figure this out yourself if you thought about it long enough. First, get half a yard of stretchy knit fabric (this will probably make you two bands). The more stretch, the better, and you also want it to be thick so it can hide your unbuttoned buttons. Measure yourself around your hips and cut your fabric to that length, plus half an inch or so. Be sure to measure your hips and not your waist since it will be sitting there. Sew both ends together to make a tube. Sew that seam down flat on the tube, not sewing the tube closed, but just to keep it from rubbing against your back. Hem the top and bottom of the tube by folding it under twice. Voila. Nothing to it. I even made one with some lace on the bottom for fun. I prefer to wear it folded in half on the lower half of my belly to cover the top of my pants and any area a slightly-too-short-shirt might reveal.