eat, geek and be savvy
Ever wondered what to do with leftover printer cartridges? Probably not, like most people, you probably just disposed of them and went about your day. Well, I bet you never thought of turning them into a chandelier! But, apparently one crafty Etsy seller has!
Check out Boxlightbox’s Etsy store to see all their fun cartridge lamps and chandeliers ranging from $35 to $100.
<3 seanalyn
After over 2 years of dating, two of my good friends are taking the next step and moving in together. Of course I couldnt be more happy for them, but immediately my mind began buzzing with solutions for their new cohabitation. You see, the space they are moving into is a studio and albeit a nice size, (in fact its about the same size as the 1 bedroom I share with my boyfriend) it will still require some creative solutions for maximizing their space. Here are some design solutions and neat products that could help anyone trying to make the most of limited space…while still looking chic of course.
Picture Table
Nice normal table which in a very sleek way attaches to the way. Cool huh? Oh it gets better.
Bam! Didnt see that one coming did you? The table/picture frame is designed by IvyDesign and is meant to function as a kitchen table but can easily be folded up to create extra space when needed.
While the concept isnt new, I do applaud the beautiful design of IvyDesign’s Picture Table. If someone wanted they could even make their own by securely hinging a table to the wall and having hinges on the legs.
Craft Pod/Instant Workstation
From the wonderful site, Ikea Hacker comes this great idea for creating a expanding and collapsing craft pod or workstation.
When it comes to living with your partner, you need to make sure both people have a space to call their own. With my friends that are moving in together, he already lives in the apartment and has a desk set up, but his girlfriend will need a space of her own. I love this idea because it can easily fold up and sit against a wall but when she needs to work on her computer or craft, she can pull it out and roll up a chair and shes good to go!
Bookcase Room Divider
Its a common solution but hey, its common for a reason, it works! Studios especially often need to be divided so that if one person is staying up later than the other, they dont have to worry about disturbing them. While you can do some beautiful dividers with curtains, they dont provide much function. When living in a tight space, creating storage is always key, so using a slim bookcase as a room divider is the perfect fix!
Wonder Hangers
Ok I know youve all seen the latenight infomericals for these hangers, but let me tell you these actually work! I use a bunch of these in my closet and its given me twice the space (which I promptly filled up with twice the clothes). Sharing a closet can always be tricky and girls often have a lot of items that need to be hung up, so these can be a real life saver.
My only tip would be to organize your clothes into categories to make it easier to sort. For example, I’ll use one set all for dresses, another for sweaters and another for dress shirts.
You can pick these up online or at Bed Bath and Beyond.
So those are just a few solutions I came up with today. Im going to keep brainstorming ideas for small spaces and posting cool products as I see them. If you have any small space solutions please send them my way!
<3
seanalyn
i LOOOVED this blog post from thekitchn.com! i am always finding ways to pinch pennies and frugal my cooking. with this economy, recession proofing your kitchen and habits is the only way to survive. check this out:
thekitchn.com’s Money-Saving tips:
Frugality has been on everyone’s minds these days, and cooking at home is one of the best ways to save money and nourish yourself and your home at the same time. From good yet inexpensive cuts of meat to good ideas for using up the last bits of your ingredients, here’s a look back at some of our discussions and tips on saving money in the kitchen.
If youre like me, you got sent home with a metric shit-ton of ham after the holidays and are now wondering what to do with it. Honestly you can only eat so much ham by itself, ham and eggs gets old pretty quickly and a few ham sandwiches later most anyone will consider vegetarianism. So what to do with that half pound of ham chilling in your fridge? Well, one idea is to use it to add some flavor to some veggies!
Brussel Sprouts with Ham
Ingredients
1/4 cup finely diced ham
1/2 finely diced onion
15 brussel sprouts
olive oil
salt and pepper
Heat oil in a large saute pan. Add onions and ham and lightly stir fry until the onions are translucent. Cut the brussel sprouts in half and add them to the pan. Saute until the brussel sprouts are tender and the ham starts to crisp. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Easy huh? I like this recipe because the ham takes on an almost baconey taste and adds a little smokiness to the brussel sprouts. Plus its a healthy way to use up some of those ham leftovers! Ive still got at least half a shit-ton of ham left in my fridge so Im sure I’ll be posting up some more recipes over the next few days. bon appetite!
<3 seanalyn
Some of you may have noticed a significant lack of posting round these parts. Well sorry for not posting up anything sooner but between holidays, illness, travel and computer malfunctions both Katie and myself have been MIA for almost 2 whole weeks! But have no fear we’re getting back into the swing of things and we’ll have a whole slew of leftover recipes to use up those extra holiday goodies, fun new gadgets and some tips for living and eating better in the new year!
<3 seanalyn
Every year around this time the Etsy users really kick their work into high gear hoping to lure holiday buyers with unique gift ideas. While sadly many of them are something that no one would want to unwrap (you can see some of these tragedies at Regretsy) there are some wonderful gems like the one below.
This sterling silver and black onyx set of 4 rings is a classy way to show off your love of the pixely little pellet muncher. Unfortunately the seller is all sold out of this set, but maybe if we all write letters to Santa she’ll make some more in time for Christmas.
<3 Seanalyn
Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Today is the day all domestic geeks look forward to (or dread for some)…a day focused on food, family and more food. I started my preparations at about 3 pm yesterday by making an Apple-Cranberry Sauce, Curry Sweet Potato Mash, baking bread (gluten free) for the stuffing, making the butternut squash for the stuffing and setting the turkey to brine (brining is a surefire way to create a moist and juicy turkey). I cheated a bit and just got a pre-made brine from Whole Foods…it smelled delicious and was almost identical to the one I was going to make so why not save some time? All I have left today is roast the turkey…which I forgot to mention will be bacon wrapped. I bacon wrapped the turkey last year and it was amazing! I waited until the turkey was almost done and applied the bacon for the last half hour and the bacony taste permeated the turkey to the core. Well this year I decided to start wrapping the turkey from the beginning and just remove and reapply the bacon throughout (to keep it from burning. By my calculations, this will either cause the turkey to have a bacony flavor the likes of which the world has never seen….or I will blow up my kitchen. Either way it should be good times!
So you might be wondering why Im here now and why Im live blogging. Well why not? People live blog stupid stuff all the time (ie: Live Blogging Martha Stewart) and dammit Im going to liveblog cooking my turkey. So keep checking back for more turkey updates and let me know what youre cooking and how its going. ;)
8:33- Ok Ive hit snooze long enough, time to get up and get this bird going! I removed it from the brine and patted it dry. Next I heated up an apple quartered, a half onion, some cinnamin, some sage, a cup of water and a splash of maple syrup and filled the bird with the mixture (leaving out most of the liquid).
9:06- The Turkey has entered the oven! Its a scorching 500 degrees and Ive opened up all the windows in my apartment to avoid setting off any smoke alarms. It kind of sucks because it lets all the delicious turkey scent out.
9:36- Alright 30 minutes of broiling (and only one burn to my hand) and the heat has been reduced to 350 and the turkey wrapped in its FIRST layer of bacon! Look at this beauty!
Bacon application #1
10:15- OMG my apartment smells like bacon and all kinds of deliciousness. I wish I could transmit scent over the internet because this is what love smells like. Im trying to gauge how long to leave each bacon application on. I want it to cook trough but not burn…but I also need to make sure I dont open the oven too much because that will just add more cook time to the bird and lead to drying it out. Oh and have no fear the bacon from the turkey will not go to waste…what I manage to avoid eating will be diced and added to the stuffing to make a Bacon Butternut Squash Stuffing.
11:01- Alrighty, so the bacon has cooked and is ready to be removed…although some of the bacon decided to graft itself to the turkey and it took some finagling to remove it. But the first layer was shed and the second applied and the turkey is popped back into the oven for the final hour to 2 hours. Sadly I just realized I forgot to get a turkey thermometer so I have to run out and procure that. Lets hope the store isnt too crazy!
12:09- Back from the store and shockingly enough, there were hardly any lines! I was able to walk right up to a register and was out in less than 10 minutes! So now the thermometer is in the turkey and its just under 140 degrees and looking lovely. Check out the all that turkey n bacon juice accumulating at the bottom of the pan…that will make for some tasty gravy! Time to dice up the bacon I removed earlier and make the stuffing! Going to make the executive decision to drop the temperature of the oven a bit so that I dont overdo the bird (chow time is scheduled for around 2pm).
12:47- Success! The turkey has reached peak deliciousness (and something about proper temperature)! Final result was 2 bacon applications (about an hour and 15 minutes for each application). I cooked up some extra bacon and along with the bacon from before, diced it for the stuffing. Ive got to say, I might actually be more excited for the stuffing! Look at it! Homemade bread…butternut squash sauteed with onions, celery and herbs…and now bacon. Just popped that into the oven while the turkey sits wrapped in foil awaiting its transportation.
fun fact- between the turkey and the stuffing there is a total of 3 lbs of bacon!
1:33- Stuffing is almost done and the Curry Sweet Potato Mash is warming up. Just finished the gravy which involved not only the bacon/turkey drippings but a secret ingredient (hint- Aunt Jemima would be proud).
1:46- Huzzah its all done! Now to back it up and pray it survives the 2 mile trek to my friend’s house. Wish me luck!
2:21- Food arrived safely! Got a celebratory glass of wine and am waiting for everyone’s delicious contribution to the feast. Will post final pics later. Thanks for following and happy Thanksgiving everyone!
<3 seanalyn
not sure if you are, but i am traveling for the holidays. this means that i need to clear out anything that may spoil during my trip. so for the next couple nights, including last night, it’s leftover time!
also, check out my previous post: 5 things to do in your kitchen before your trip.
a hefty southwestern salad
my planned meal consisted of a southwestern salad and baked tortilla encrusted tilapia. i made the salad while the tilapia was baking. when i pulled the tilapia out, i realized that i might have too much food!
the salad alone was filling with all of it’s ingredients: spicy tomatillo salsa, a little ranch dressing, spinach, lettuce, grape tomatoes, red onions, shredded mozzarella, corn, pinto beans, and some crunched tortilla chips.
frozen & preseason-ed from the grocery store, tortilla encrusted tilapia!
i ended up not eating even half of my tilapia, which was actually a good thing because my boyfriend took it for lunch today! overall, it was super easy and stress free. the frozen preseason-ed fish from the grocery store was delicious. i would definitely get it again. especially since it makes weeknight meals easier!
<3 kt
