Getting Started

Spring in the Northwest has been one of the coldest and wettest in half a century and I am still waiting for Spring Fever to take effect. I'll be honest, I'm tired of doing my dishes and folding my laundry and cleaning up after my two busy children. Even I, The Surrogate Homemaker can at times be uninspired by my home and the demands of keeping up with it. Lack of inspiration does not however change anything. We must still muster the energy to do the housekeeping and put food on the table.
Just like any other creative art being a domestic artist demands that I consistently stoke my creative fire with outside inspiration. The following are a few things I do to get inspired and motivated.


Buy a new home/lifestyle magazine- I am a visual person and I find that a new home/lifestyle magazine can be just the thing to get me pumped up to rearrange my home and purge the detritus that has built up over the winter. Some of my favorites are Real Simple, Architectural Digest, Martha Stewart Living and Sunset.

Cook something seasonal- Cooking seasonally is a good idea on many levels. The most practical of these are that eating seasonally ensures the highest quality and flavor and chances are you haven't had a particular seasonal delicacy since last year. This time of year I can make a trip to Pike Place Market and wander the stalls finding delicious spring onions, ramps, peas, spring greens and radishes. To put these ingredients to good use I search the Saveur Magazine web-page to find seasonal recipes.

Trade cleaning jobs with a friend- We become accustom to our own dirt and disorganization and it can become invisible to us. I find I am more motivated to do a thorough cleaning at a friends house than I am my own. Plus, I've been cleaning my house for months and I could use a change of scenery. You may discover that your friend finds a new place to put something or rearranges a bit, bringing a fresh look to a familiar space. Trading with a friend can work two ways. You can arrange to clean each others homes independently or you can work together. The second is the "wing-man" approach and it works really well for larger organizing projects.

I hope one of these ideas helps to kick-start your spring cleaning. Now to put my own advise into action and get started!

Everything Old is New Again

It couldn't be more clear to me that we are in the midst of a homemaking skills revival! It seems everywhere I turn there is some discussion of canning, home gardening, dehydrating, home butchering, bee keeping or home poultry rearing...the list goes on.
As with any culture, the heart lay in its culinary traditions and as we all know there is a food revolution occuring. This revolution has lead us to look back into our past and see how food was once produced and stored. In doing so people are rediscovering a plenitude of traditional skills nearly lost to our consumer culture.

Simultaneously the economy has hit many working families hard and we are having to rethink our standard of living and the meaning of wealth. For me this has meant focusing more of my attention on the home. I am empowering myself and my family through traditional homemaking; food made from scratch, thrift and cleanliness are our top priorities and I know I'm not alone.

In the coming year I look forward to sharing inspiring and useful resources and "how-to's" from my family to yours. I have amassing a library of books on the topic over the past year. My favorite and one that has restored my sanity is, Radical Homemakers: Reclaiming Domesticity from a Consumer Culture, by Shannon Hayes. I can't say enough about this book. In short the book is a post-feminist study of homemaking and the economic realities of the dual income family. As a woman raised by a feminist mother, I needed this book in order to understand the indispensable role I play as a homemaker in todays world. I hope you enjoy it as much as I have!
Happy New Year

My thought for 2011 is this, the domestic arts are just that- Art.

Perhaps the World Ends Here

by Joy Harjo

The world begins at a kitchen table. No matter what,
we must eat to live.
The gifts of the earth are brought and prepared, set on the
table so it has been since creation and it will go on.
We chase chickens or dogs away from it. Babies teethe
at the corners. They scrape their knees under it.
It is here that children are given instructions on what
it means to be human. We make men at it,
we make women.
At this table we gossip, recall enemies and the ghosts
of lovers.
Our dreams drink coffee with us as they put their arms
around our children. They laugh with us at our poor
falling-down selves and as we put ourselves back
together once again at the table.
This table has been a house in the rain, an umbrella
in the sun.
Wars have begun and ended at this table. It is a place
to hide in the shadow of terror. A place to celebrate
the terrible victory.
We have given birth on this table, and have prepared
our parents for the burial here.
At this table we sing with joy, with sorrow.
We pray of suffering and remorse.
We give thanks.
Perhaps the world will end at the kitchen table,
while we are laughing and crying,
eating of the last sweet bite.

"Perhaps the World Ends Here" by Joy Harjo, from Reinventing the Enemy's Language. W.W. Norton and Co. 1998

My grandmother had cast irons that were so well seasoned that an egg could easily slide around the pan as it fried. I use mine to brown chicken and to caramelize veggies like peppers and onion for fajitas. I've had my cast iron since I first moved out on my own and have diligently cared for it in the pursuit of the perfect season. Needless to say, this can be difficult to achieve. Especially if you live in a home where others may not appreciate the fact that cast iron needs certain care.
My husband knows his way around a kitchen and still I found he had been scrubbing my cast iron thoroughly with soap after every use. This explained the matte finish. In order to restore the pans luster I used an old trick using salt and oil.This method is also a great way to remove rust from a cast iron.
Take a dry pan and add a handful of salt and about a quarter cup of oil. You want to make a paste. Next, take a paper towel and use it to scrub the paste around the pan. As you scrub the salt will turn a dingy color and pick up the rust and other nasty bits. Repeat if you think necessary. Once you feel the pan is clean, simple rinse under hot water and wipe it dry. The pan should remain well oiled and shiny. At this point you can bake it upside down in the oven at 400 degrees for an hour to restart the seasoning process.

The New Dinner From A Box

As a House Manager, one of the first things I do to help busy families simplify is to recommend a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) subscription. For those who aren't familiar, a CSA or "Farm Box" is filled with organic vegetables chosen from what is in season by a farmer in your area. You can sign up for a weekly or biweekly subscription to be delivered to your home or a local drop spot. Here in the Northwest we are lucky to have an abundance of CSA subscriptions to choose from.
This Spring I decided to take my own advice and signed up for a CSA box. Our baby, Colette was getting ready to eat solids and I knew I didn't have the time or the patience to ensure that all her vegetables would be organic.
After researching my options I decided on Full Circle Farm. I liked that I could sign on for a weekly subscription and put a hold on delivery if needed, say in August when our garden is actually producing enough veggies. One can also shop from their online grocer. Lately we've been adding the Grace Harbor Yogurt. I think the baby ends up wearing half of it but I guess that just means good business for our local dairy.
Part of my weekly "to do list" is to plan meals for my clients. Recently I found that I had 3 homes to cook for and all three held a subscription to Full Circle Farm. I wonder how that happened?
I've been meal planning for years now so I find its easy to throw one together but I realize that this is not the case for most people. For the most part I plan to cook four full meals each week assuming that there will be left overs and the family will be eating out or eating light the other nights. First I look at my veggies and ask, "What can I make? Salad? Roasted root vegetables? Stir fry?" Then I choose a protein, fish, chicken, tofu, beef etc. Once my vegetables and proteins are matched I decide if I want to add a starch such as biscuits, noodles or rice.
Once my meal plan is sketched out I do an online search for recipes so that I can be sure I have all the ingredients on hand. If not I add those ingredients to the list for the week. If I've done my job I will make only one grocery run a week. Believe me it is possible!
I went ahead and made a meal plan for this weeks CSA box. Here is the list of contents and a brief sketch of this weeks meals.

This weeks vegetables:

	Green Kale FCF	Sugar Snap Peas
	Spring Onions *	Bunched Carrots FCF
	Cauliflower	Red Leaf Lettuce FCF
	Roma Tomatoes	Cucumbers
	Flavorosa Pluots	Yellow Peaches
	Cantaloupe	Valencia Oranges

Menu Suggestions:

Teriyaki Marinated Chicken with a Massaged Kale Salad

BBQ Skirt Steak Tacos with grilled Peaches and Spring Onions

Tofu Buckwheat Soba Noodle Salad with Snap Peas, Carrot and Cucumber

Roasted Pork Loin with Cauliflower Gratin and Red Leaf Salad

Snack:

Hummus with Carrots, Peas and Cucumber

Bon Appetit!

A Made Bed is a Simple Luxury

I gather that most people do not make their bed in the morning. Many of us simply roll out of bed and stumble toward a cup of coffee with no intention of spreading up the sheets. I never made my bed as a child, I don't think I was even encouraged to do so by my parents. So how is it that as an adult the first thing I do in the morning is to make my bed?
Years ago, a woman shared with me that her mother told her that she would have a bad day if her bed wasn't made before leaving for school. That seems a little like a threat and I've never been motivated by threats. I do however remember this every time I make my bed!
A more sensible means of motivating to make a bed goes like this. Your bed takes up the largest area in a room. So, making up a messy bed will make a room look tidy. This is true. And it makes a good case.
Although I may ponder these two pieces of "motherly advice" as I make my bed, neither is the reason I do it. The truth is that people pay good money to have their beds made. I recognized after so many years of making beds that I too deserved to be met at the end of my day by a beautifully made bed.
I make my bed in the morning for these reasons. I want to create an environment of care and order in my bedroom. But more importantly I make my bed because I deserve it. For me making my bed is an act of self love.