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Blissfully Domestic: How to Make Homemade Soy Milk

Ever wondered how to make homemade soy milk?  I've got you covered with my latest article on Blissfully Domestic: How to Make Homemade Soy Milk.

Blissfully Domestic: Summer Menu Planning for Kids

Is school out for the summer where you live?   We have 2 more weeks left.  Not that I'm counting ... much.   I'm making lunchtime fun over the long summer vacation and have lots of tips and ideas for feeding our kids during the day over at Blissfully Domestic.

Recipe: Lamingtons

We celebrated Heritage Day at the twins school this week.   Of course I had to bring an Aussie dish to share.  It's a little difficult to re-heat meat pies and sausage rolls at school so I decided to go with one of my favorite cake treats, Lamingtons.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups all-purpose whole wheat white flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 2 tsp vanilla essence
• 1/2 cup butter
• pinch of salt

Icing:

• 4 cups confectioner's sugar
• 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 tbs butter (melted)
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 pkg flaked coconut
• raspberry jam

Turn the oven onto 375F.  Grease and flour a 13x9 cake pan. 

Sift the flour, salt, and baking powder in a bowl and set aside.   In a large bowl cream the sugar and butter.  Add in the vanilla, then add the eggs one at a time, beating after each addition.  Next alternate between adding a little of the flour mixture and a little of the milk, blending constantly until combined. 

Pour the cake mixture into the pan and baked for 27 minutes (time may vary a little depending on your oven). 

Once baked and cooled, pop your cake into the freezer while you prepare the icing. 

Tip: Cutting and icing cakes works so much better if the cake is at least partially frozen because you don't get as many crumbs everywhere.

Icing: Pour the package of coconut into a large bowl and set aside.  In a second large microwavable bowl combine the confectioners sugar, milk, and melted butter.  Microwave on high for 30 second intervals, stirring in-between, until combined.  You don't want really thick icing that you would normally use to decorate a cake, it needs to be a little runny, but thick enough that it will stick to the cake.

Prepare: Remove your cake from the freezer and turn out onto a cutting board.  Cut off the edges of the cake and then slice off the top so that the top of the cake is flat.  Spread a thin layer of jam across the top.  Cut the cake into equal-sized squares, they will be between 1 1/2-2 inches wide.  Stick 2 pieces of cake together with the jam in the center.  Using a couple of forks dunk the cake into the chocolate letting all of the excess drip off, then cover with coconut.  Place your lamington onto a cookie tray with parchment paper, repeat until you have made all of your lamingtons, then refrigerate to set the chocolate.

Note:  This recipe made 9 lamingtons.  I doubled the ingredients to supply enough for the school event.

Rusty and Rosy: 20 Summer Activities For Kids

I'm all about getting the kids away from the television and video games, especially over the long summer vacation, so if you are looking for a few ideas, read my post 20 Fun and Educational Summer Activities for Kids on Rusty and Rosy.

Multiples and More: Memorial Day Craft

I'm over at Multiples and More today with a fun Memorial Day craft for kids that can be re-used for 4th of July too.

Thin to Win Organizing Challenge

If you have been reading here for a while you may remember the Tackle It Tuesday post I put together for 5 Minutes For Mom where I began organizing the kids play room, specifically setting up an art and homework station for them.  Yes I am one of those 'everything has it's place' kind of people and I just love to organize, re-arrange, and upcycle until everything is as close to perfect as I can get.

Well, my project kind of ended there and I moved on to organizing a little more in my office.  I never did go back and finish the play room, and there are still boxes of the kids art and craft supplies in the garage that haven't been unpacked.  So when I was asked to participate in a 'Thin to Win' challenge by Sargento Cheese it gave me the kick up the backside that I needed to actually pick up where I left off.  The specific challenge handed to me was: "Get organized by removing the clutter from a room in your house, and tell us what you did to simplify your living space."

This was the space before (or should I say, how I left it):

So my challenge for this space was to finally unpack another box or two of supplies in the garage (which is still overrun with boxes), and fill up those black shelves. I also wanted to add some more items such as a lamp, and computer to the space for not only over the summer vacation, but also once school starts back again.  The kids will be home for a long time over the summer, and although we have a lot of fun activities planned outside the home and I'm sure quite a lot of the summer will be spent in our pool, there will certainly be downtime indoors, and let's face it I work from home so there are times when I need a little peace and quiet to get some work done, and I need a space where the kids can play quietly on their own.

Although there is still more I would like to do in this room (I can't wait for the giant world map I've ordered for the wall to get here), this is where we are at today.   The garage is a little lighter, and the kids are a little more organized for the summer.

The kids grandmother kindly donated her old desktop computer, which the kids love watching the occasional video on, and playing their Rusty and Rosy activities.  They also know how to turn it off and on by themselves which is a big plus, and there are blocks in place so they cannot access anything untoward.

I found a floor lamp and shade that I just loved and is perfect for the kids to use as it gets dark out, especially seeing as there is no ceiling light in that space.  Although I do have big plans for that lampshade and there will be crafting involved.

Next up was to figure out a way to store some of the kids smaller items and hopefully be able to fit them into those little shelves without them ending up in a big mess at the end of each day.

I found small tubs that are the perfect size to fit in each compartment.  I also found some round labels in the large stash of labels in my office and painted them with four coats of chalkboard paint to write on the contents of each box (which also encourages the kids reading).  I filled each box with items such as stickers, perler beads, wooden and handmade stamps, mini notepads, felt pieces for their felt creations boards, and assorted stationery items.  Combine that with the coloring books already in the blue bin, the hand-painted chalkboard table, as well as mini chalkboards, and handmade books, this stash is sure to keep the kids entertained. 

You might also notice small brown tubs on top of the black shelving units.  These contain little gifts for the kids.   When they show exceptional behavior at school or sports and I receive an extra good report from their teacher they get to choose a small wrapped gift from their box.  These are little things such as matchbox cars, mini craft projects, and other assorted items that cost no more than about $3 each. 

I encourage you to head on over to the Sargento Cheese Facebook page and submit an entry in the 'Thin to Win' challenge and share how you are thinning out your life, because we all have things we want to thin out and organize.  There are different challenges over 45 days so be sure to check back daily for new challenges and for a chance to win a variety of prizes.  You will have 24 hours to submit an entry for this particular challenge. 

Disclosure: I received products and compensation from Sargento Foods Inc. and The Motherhood as part of my participation in this campaign.

Crescendoh Photography 101 Workshop

Last weekend my friend Natalie (of Crafting Crazy) and I attended a full day photography workshop at Studio Crescendoh in Santa Ana by the extremely talented photographer Cynthia Shaffer.

I have attended a few photography workshops in the past as I continually strive to improve my photography skills.  Most of these workshops have given fantastic tips as far as props, lighting, camera angles, every day items you can use to help with lighting and backgrounds, and the best places to take photographs.  Most have talked about ISO, aperture, and shutter speed.  Not a single class was hands on enough that I actually learned or understood what these things actually did.  I nodded my head a lot, left with paperwork to read through later, then immediately switched my camera back into auto mode and went along my merry (yet slightly unfulfilled) way.

There were only 4 students in the class this past weekend (although Cynthia has had as many as 10 previously).  It was hands on.  We immediately picked up our cameras, learned what each button did, worked our way through the menu, then put what we were learning into practice.  First in the studio, then outdoors.  We learned what ISO our camera should be set to depending on the situation, we learned how to read the shutter speed and change it, and we learned how to focus on one object, whether it be in the distance, or up close and blur the rest of the photograph.  I will never put my camera in auto mode again.  I left the class finally understanding how to work my camera.  I still have a lot more to learn, but I feel like I have the basics.  I hope to see my photography improve greatly now.   We took away with us great tips on photographing at night, in harsh sunlight, portraits, objects, outdoors, and craft projects.  We even played with bokeh which was a lot of fun. Cynthia was more than happy to share her tips for photographing books, and how to photograph trickier objects such as jewelry, and items that don't stand well on their own.  She also offered lots of suggestions on setting up space in our homes for photography.

I was recently sent a copy of Lightroom 4 to play around with from Adobe.  I had no idea what I was doing, but thankfully Cynthia uses Lightroom and she was more than happy to show me around Lightroom during our final session of the day which was tips on editing photographs.  All of the photographs below I edited using Lightroom.  I was thrilled. 

Here are some of my favorite shots of the day.

The above photographs are of Jenn and Beth, the other two ladies who attended the workshop.

May 20: Instagram Phone Dump

I think this accurately sums up our past couple of weeks.

We went on a school field trip to Sea World.  The kids have been studying sea life at school.  We celebrated Mother's Day at home, the kids made me lovely artwork, and wrote poems.  I went out with the girls for San Diego Mom's Night Out to Bliss 101.  I drank all of the Echelon Vineyard wine that was sent to me.   I got a new computer.  The little man finished up this session of golf lessons.  The little girl took up ballet classes, there will be no tap or jazz for her, no thank you ma'am.  I read another book.  We spent a lot of time swimming, gardening, and playing in our backyard.  I took a photography workshop with Cynthia Shaffer at Studio Crescendoh.

Photographs were taken and edited using a combination of Camera+, Snapseed, Frametastic, and Instagram iPhone apps.

Follow me on Instagram @tonyastaab.

Blissfully Domestic: How to Freeze Pancakes

Do you have busy mornings like we do?  I tell you, trying to get 3 kids to school on time, all with homemade lunches, homework, jackets, and anything else they may need is quite a sight in our house, especially with a 7:20 drop-off for our first child.

I've got simple tips for breakfast on-the-go, including how to freeze pancakes, and my simple pancake recipe over at Blissfully Domestic.

Blissfully Domestic: Olive Garden-Style Salad

May is National Salad Month and I'm sharing my version of the delicious Olive Garden Grilled Chicken Caesar Salad over at Blissfully Domestic.