Happy Spring!

                    

HAPPY SPRING FROM ALL OF US AT CELEBRATE!!!

Meal of The Month: May 2014

GINGER, TURMERIC SPICED SPRING CARROT SOUP

Courteousy of gourmandeinthekitchen.com

Ingredients

• 2 Tablespoons coconut oil
• 2 to 3 small green onions, white and light green parts only, cleaned and chopped
• 1 or 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1-inch piece of ginger, peeled and grated
• A pinch of red pepper flakes
• 1 ½ pounds young carrots, sliced 1/2 inch thick
• 1 tsp fine sea salt
• ¼ tsp ground cinnamon
• 1-inch piece of turmeric root, peeled and grated (or use ½ tsp ground)
• Freshly ground pepper to taste
• 4 cups (1 quart) filtered water
• ¼ cup plain yogurt or full fat coconut milk for serving
• Chopped flat leaf parsley or carrot fronds for garnish

Instructions

1. Melt coconut oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Sweat the green onions, garlic, minced ginger, and pepper flakes for 1 to 2 minutes or just until glossy. Do not brown or develop color.
2. Add carrots, salt, cinnamon and turmeric and cook another 1-2 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add water and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer until carrots are very soft, 20-25 minutes.
3. Puree soup in batches in a high speed blender.
4. If serving cold, chill soup for at least 3-4 hours or overnight.
5. Divide soup between 4 to 6 bowls and place a spoonful of yogurt or drizzle of coconut milk in center of each and finish with chopped parsley or carrot fonds and a pinch of additional salt and freshly ground pepper if desired.

Eye Sore No More!

Here are a few ideas to camouflage those ugly, household necessities!

1) The fuse box in your apartment or condo is very important, but not very attractive!  Create a hinged door using a chalkboard, painting, or large framed photo.

2) Your thermostat is essential to daily life but it typically isn't a style object.  Try covering up with a press-board "cigar" box. Cut a hole in the box's lid large enough for the thermostat.  Next screw the lid to the wall around the unit allowing the box to act as a cover that can be flipped up!  You can decorate the outside of the box as you would like to match your decor!  You can also cover your thermostat with a deep stretched canvas.  Using a level, measure and place two nails on either side of  the wall next to the unit.  You could even use push-pins if you're a renter.  Next hang the appropriate sized, decorated deep canvas over the thermostat.

3) We all have speakers these days with surround sound systems for our TVs and other speaker systems for other audio systems.  These speakers are getting more eye pleasing but they often times still do not blend into your decor.  For small wall mounted speakers, you can create a deep box from pine framing.  You can then stretch any light weight fabric over the frame like an artist canvas and staple it into place.  The sound will pass through the fabric easily.  If you have larger, floor speakers from older stereo systems you can also spruce these up.  Create a box from 1/4 inch plywood and add a piece of lattice to the front of the box.  Of course the back of the box would be left open to allow you to slide the cover over the speakers.  Paint the cover to match your home.

4) The wireless router is fundamental in today's home but like speakers they are not always attractive.  You can hide your router in a wooden or press-board "faux" box.  You see these storage boxes disguised as books a lot at home decor stores.  Simply make sure to drill or cut holes for heat ventilation and for cords to pass through.  If you are ambitious, you can hollow out a large book you might find at early spring yard sales.

5) Finally, we can all agree that we can not live a civilized life without toilet paper but it just isn't visually attractive when sitting on the back of your toilet!  Try wrapping spare rolls of toilet paper in decorative tissue.  The tissue can be customized to your decor and can even be switched out during holidays!

What a great idea! Innovative Organization Ideas

This afternoon, we were organizing the Vanna White Fiber Crafts Room at our Colchester headquarters and the ideas just began to flow like sap in the spring time (a little Vermont humor)!

1. We were organizing our extensive thread inventory into drawer units and realized we could only see the tops of each spoil.  How can we tell them all apart?  We raced to our antique jam jar filled with magic markers and began color coding.  We colored all the blues blue, yellows yellow, etc.  Now we can quickly spot color groups and locate the exact color we are looking for quicker!
2. Marking the thread inspired us to take a look at our craft paints which were also stored in drawers.  Similar to the thread, we had to pull out several bottles before finding the right color.  Our solution? We painted the top of each bottle cap with a dab from it's contents.  Now we can easily locate that bottle of Moss green! 
3. After organizing our thread and craft paints, we became tired and needed a caffeine boost.  We went to the staff kitchen to grab a cup of coffee to go and couldn't seem to find the coordinating top for the travel mugs.  How do we solve this dilemma? Nail polish!  Once you have paired each set together, color code each set with a dab of nail polish...red dot bottom, red dot top, pink dot bottom, pink dot top and so on.  
4. We took our coffee back to the craft room to continue our organizing quest.  We found a bunch of embroidery floss.  Most of it was partially used and getting tangled.  Our solution?  A photo album with pages that have multiple pockets.  We separated the colors and slipped them into each pocket.  This now allows us to flip through and locate the perfect floss quickly.
5. We have ALOT of button, don't ask, don't judge.  We had been keeping them in a wholesale pickle jar.  We ever we needed a button, we would task Timmy, our intern to search for it.  He would have to dump out the entire jar and it took a lot of overtime.  Our solution? Small matching buttons are now threaded onto large safety pins.  Others are sorted by color and placed in zip-lock style bags and stored in plastic shoe boxes.  Now Timmy can find the buttons in a flash!
6. We had several full and partial skeins of yarn.  They had all been tossed in a large plastic bag.  Again the whole bag would need to be dumped out and untangled to find that perfect shade of fushia.  Our solution?  Sturdy file boxes which stack nicely and are not heavy when filled with yarn.  We snipped a piece from each skein and taped them to the top of the box.  Each skein was then placed in a zip-lock bag to keep them from tangling or picking up fowl odors from the lab.  Now when we need four yards of chartreuse yarn all we have to do is check the box top to see which holds which color.
7. After all this organizing, we were exhausted but we couldn't figure out what sizes all the different sheets in the lab's dormitory closet were.  Our solution?  Label with a fabric marker and fabric paints.  T for twin, F for full, and so on.  We marked the sheets in an area that would be tucked in and hidden from sight.  
   

Meal of The Month: March

Spaghetti Carbonara Casserole

 Ingredients:

6 oz spaghetti broken into short lengths

2 C diced cooked ham

3 TBS Butter

4-6 oz sliced mushrooms

4-6 thinly sliced green onions

4 TBS flour

1C chicken broth

1 C milk

1/2 tsp seasoned salt 

1/4 tsp garlic pepper, dash of cayenne or other hot pepper as desired 

1C shredded cheese

Preparation:

• Cook spaghetti following package directions. Drain and rinse and mix with ham in large bowl.

• Melt butter over medium low heat and add the mushrooms. Cook until tender.  

• Add the green onions.  Stir in flour until blended thoroughly.

• Gradually stir in chicken broth and milk.  Add seasonings.

• Keep stirring until thickened.  When ready, combine it with the ham and spaghetti.

• Stir in the cheese.

• Bake at 325 for 25-30 minutes, until bubbly and cheese is melted.

Can't Escape The Tape!

Washi Tape

If you haven't discovered the wonder of washi tape, then you must get on your Magellan boots and start sailing to your local craft shop!  Washi tape originated in Japan and is a decorative, paper tape that is available is an endless variety of colors and patterns!  Here four ideas to help you get started:

1. Wine Glass Identifiers.  Never mix up your wine or cocktail glasses at your next soiree; wrap each glasses' stem with a different color or patterned tape!
   
2. Cord Keeper.  Don't toss out those toilet paper tubes when you finish the roll.  Save them, decorate them in washi tape, and use them to wrangle power cords and other cables.
   
3. Jazz up anything, even your office supplies!  Wrap binder clips, staplers, paper clip dispenses, keyboards, file cabinets, etc to make your cubicle survivable! 
   
   
   
   
4. Coordinate cords.  Never unplug the wrong thing or waste time searching for the right charging cable.  Add small "flags" to your cables and wires.  You either label the flags or place a piece of matching tape on the coordinating piece of technology (iPhone, Kindle, etc).
   

We're Going to The Dogs!

At the CELEBRATE home office, we have a large black Labrador retriever named Panini (don't ask). As we got used to Panini's demands and quirks, we realized we could make our lives and the lives of thousands of pet owners lives easier if we wrote down some of the interesting tips and tricks we have used, created, thought of over time!  Here are a sampling of them!

TIPS FOR BETTER CO-SPECIES COHABITATION:

1. Pet's absorb through their paws whatever you wash your floors with.  To save puppy pain, rinse your floors using a mixture of vinegar and water.
2. Beware the following foods and plants are hazardous to your pooch: chocolate, garlic, chicken bones, sugar free gum with xylital, aloe, ivy, and amaryllis.
3. Keep your dry dog food in an airtight container.  It keeps out bugs, prevents spills, and stops pup from raiding the pantry.
4. Panini has a crate but she used to whine watching the busy goings on in the DIY Lab so we draped a light blocking blanket over the crate to create a comfy cave.  Now at nap time, she is happy a grilled sandwich! 
5. Give your dog it's own plump bed, not yours!  You can make it yourself.  Sew or use iron-on bond tape to create a rectangular pocket the appropriate size of your dog and fill with a mix of fiber-fill and cedar chips.  The cedar chips repel fleas!  Make it soft and plump and your dog will think he's on cloud nine.  Here is another thought for small dogs.  Just use an old pillow of yours you were going to throw away.  Your dog will love how it smells like you.  You can even open the seam a bit to add those handy cedar chips.  In that case, a pillow case would be an easy to wash cover.
6. When we first gave Panini a bath, we clogged the labs test tub with her fur.  Our solution, we took a small piece of window screening, placed it over the drain, and held it down with a couple pieces of masking/duct tape.  The screening catches the loose fir and makes it easy to remove.  You could also glue heavy washers or small stones to each corner of your screen to weight it down so that you wouldn't need to use the tape.

EASY DIY TOYS:
Dogs like Panini that like to chew things should have their toys rotated frequently to avoid boredom which can lead to chewing of furniture or important experiments that may being going on it the lab.  Oh yea, we learned the hard the way!

Socks: 

• Take an old sock and add a handful of dog treats to it.  Roll it up, similar to how you would when doing your laundry.  Put the rolled sock inside another.  It will take the dog a while to get through to the treats. 
• Take a soda bottle (remove the cap), slide it inside a sock and tie the end.  The dog will love the crinkly sound the empty bottle.

Tennis Balls:

• Take three strips of old t-shirt or fleece (which is incredibly strong) and braid them together into a rope of sorts.  Next, take a tennis ball and cut a hole just large enough to push the braid through tightly.  Knot the braid on  both ends.  You can toss this around like a fox tail toy.
• Place several tennis balls in a deep muffin tin.  Your pup will spend hours trying to figure out how to free the balls from their enclosures.

Paper Towel Tube/PVC Pipe:

• Put snacks inside a paper towel tube.  Press the ends of the tube flat.  Cover the whole thing with duct tape and give it a toss!  The dog will love trying to get at the snacks.
• Take a PVC pipe, place dried beans inside and cap both ends.  It makes a great rattle!

Plastic:

• A plastic milk jug that is rinsed and has the cap removed makes the cheapest and quickest dog toy.
• A large plastic jar from your local wholesale super store that would normally have held nuts or candy makes an excellent toy!  Remove the lid and give it a toss.  Your pup will take time to realize she can only grab it from the open end and will have fun chasing it around as you toss it and bounce it all over! 

Ice/food:

• Try making "doggie pops"!  Freeze beef or chick broth in plastic containers. You can even suspend treats or meat scrapes in the broth for added treat value.  We recommend using low or no sodium broth if you are buying from the supermarket.  Make them in the size that is appropriate for your breed.  They will LOVE them as a treat on a hot day!
•  Take slices of sweet potato about 1-1.5 inches thick, using a hand held corer put a hole in the center of each slice, and then bake the slices on a lined cookie sheet at 200 degrees for several hours or until the slices have dried and are leathery.  Next, thread the dried potato "rings" onto a length of thick nylon rope.   Knot both end and give it a toss.  Your pooch will love gnawing on this treat. 

 Please note, be responsible and monitor your dog at all times while he or she plays especially with these toys!