Even if you’ve got an ice maker in your fridge, chances are that you have a few old ice cube trays hanging out somewhere around your home or apartment.  Why not re-purpose those dust collectors into something that you can use on a daily basis?

No, Really, they’re good for more than just one or two things, and some of these uses surprised me in a very pleasant way.  I’m sure everyone knows that you can make Kool-Ade Jammers with them, but I think you might be surprised by a few of the other uses you can put them to.

Following are some ideas I came across on the Associated content Network and a few of my own.  I will of course post links to the original authors in the footnote.

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To all my food blogging friends and foodie associates:

C’mon guys, it’s getting lonely over at FrugalFridays! Please come out and play!

All “Da RuleZ” and everything else you need to get going in the fun can be found here.  I’m sure you guys have ideas I’ve never thought up and never would, and I’m sure that there is an adoring public out there somewhere that would love to know how to feed their family for a little instead of a lot.

Just think of it as a party!  You’re all invited and I’ll miss you terribly if you don’t pop in from time to time.

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Some weeks just don’t go like you expected.  All the planning in the world simply can’t make up for the things that didn’t go the way they should have, and I suppose that’s the real reason for this TT.  No matter how hard I tried, something always got in the way of researching what I actually wanted to do this list about.

So instead of that list, which I will endeavor to complete by the Next Thursday Thirteen, I give you

Thirteen reasons I don’t have a better Thirteen:

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The response to the Frugal Fridays event has been wonderful.  Quite a few people have taken interest and hopefully the momentum will increase as this rolls along.  As it stands, I’m still working diligently on getting things set up and ready to go for the very first Frugal Friday, and if you’d like to join in, here are the rules for the FF #1:

1. The cost of food must be right around $10.00 for four servings.  If serving two, you can, of course just make $5.00 worth, or you can just make enough to have a few leftovers, it’s your call.
2. Standard spices and seasonings are not included in the overall price.  If it’s something that most people are going to have hanging out in their spice rack, we’ll just assume for the sake of argument that it was already a part of the home’s inventory. (season-salt, garlic powder, dehydrated onions and other spice-rack basics are freebies, use them well!)
3. Any fresh vegetables, spices or produce must be counted in the overall price, unless you’re growing it yourself. (I’ve got basil and oregano growing just outside my front door…  Why would I pay for this?)
4. If possible, get a picture of the dish in the post.  It’s nice to know that inexpensive food can look good, too!
5. At some point n the post, mention that it’s a part of the Frugal Fridays Event, a once a week event started by Cooking by the seat of my Pants.com and add a link back here and to your blog friend’s that are participating if you’d like.

I’ve already purchased FrugalFridays.net and will be setting up a blogroll there as soon as I can.  This probably won’t be done by this friday, which is why I’m asking for links back here for the moment.  In the end I’d rather have the blogroll seperate from this site, and that’s what I’m working towards.  Blogrolls and events of this nature are designed to bring traffic to everyone who participates, and I don’t mean to hog it all for myself ;)

For anyone who would like to help, I could use the following…

• I’m goning to be putting out a few buttons and banners.  If you ahve an artistic bone in your body and a bit of free time, I could use a cool graphic for this. (This is a time issue, not a lack of talent.  I’ll get to it, but it all takes time, and Friday is approaching rapidly!)
• Anyone who’s run an event like this before…  If you’ve got any hints of tips for us, I’d be glad to hear them, especially as applied to rules, etc…

For now that’s all I can think of, except perhaps for suggestions on the look and feel of the Frugal Fridays site itself.

Have a great week everyone!  I’ll keep this update running as new things happen!

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With the prices of fuel on the rise and the prices of fresh produce, milk and anything else that has to be shipped on vehicles using that fuel rising with it, I thought it was time to take a look at what we, as foodies and food bloggers are capable of.

This is an invitation folks.  A once a week blog event called Frugal Fridays, and will begin next Friday.  The challenge is to create a healthy and delicious meal that could serve a family for $10.00 or under. (Your local currency equivalent will do if you are outside of the United States.  Just stay in the spirit of the thing and everyone will be happy :D ) If anyone can pull this off, a bunch of foodies can!

I’ll be working over the course of the next week to get the details finalized.  Like any good regularly scheduled event, I’ll be putting up a blogroll, and a link back here would be nice.  If anyone wants to jump in early to share with the workload involved in a project like this, just get hold of me and we’ll work something out.

Have a great weekend everyone!

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Techno-babble.  We’ve heard it used when referring to Star Trek and Star Wars, but did you know that every industry has its own form of techno-speak?  Most often these are words that are used among just people in the industry and we understand them just fine.  It’s when they’re used among “civilians” or the “uninitiated” that we either sound like geniuses or complete idiots.

As a professional web developer for over 16 years, I have acquired a large collection of terms and phrases that most people in their right minds have absolutely no desire to understand.  The following list contains some of those terms. (And alterneately, the terms I use to describe the issue to the client when necessary.)

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There are things that each of us does on a daily basis.  Some of them are for our personal amusement, some are for health reasons and some are things we’d really rather not be doing, but end up doing anyway.

For me each day is usually a combination of all three of these things.  As a Work At Home Dad, it sometimes means that the workday either lasts well into the morning hours, or that no work gets done at all because, and let’s face it, a toddler doesn’t really give a rat’s behind what Dad has contracted out today.  He’s interested in his life, not mine.  And then there’s always the other little things…

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As I’ve said before, we’re getting ready to move next week.  The move is to a much nicer home with more features and a fenced yard, whih will make both charlie and Mr. Seat of his Diaper pretty happy, I’m sure!  Part of me will miss the house we live in now.  It’s the first real home we ever shared, and that is something you can never get back.

On the other hand, this house is OLD.  It was build somewhere around 1946, and let’s just say that the maintenance programs here on base have not been kind tho this old girl.  She’s not what she once was, and the decision has been made that she never will be.  Her time has come.

Over the past several days it has occurred to me that there are things I absolutely will not miss about living here.  I thought I’d share those with you.

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I mentioned in an earlier post that I had received the “E” for excellence award from Ben over at What’s Cooking. Part of the honor of winning that award is that I’m supposed to pass it along to a few other bloggers that I feel deserve the honor, so here’s my list of blogs that I feel deserve to be called excellent.

1. Chef Tom Cooks. Tom is a really great guy, and he posts some pretty wonderful recipes. Now, he just needs to go get a camera!
2. If anyone deserves this, it’s Lis at La Mia Cucina. She was not only one of the first visitors here at CbsoP, but she’s never stopped popping in to leave her support. We lover her and I’m proud to shoot this her way.
3. The Homesick Texan really deserves this as well. She’s been an inspiration to me and countless others over the years and I’ll be reading her work and admiring her photography skills for as long as she keeps going with it.
4. Matt Bites has most likely already gotten this award, but I’m going to send it his way anyway. If I’m ever 1/4 the photographer that Matt is, I’ll be very pleased.
5. Last, but never by any means the least of my choices to be considered an excellent blog to read is the venerable and rather charming(in a very strange but pleasant way) Dr. Biggles of Meathenge.  If you still haven’t popped over to check out his blog, you should.  It’s more than worth the time!

I wish I were able to simply state that everyone on my blogroll deserves this award.  As a matter of fact, I am going to say that!  If you’re on that list, you deserve this award!  Feel free to accept it.

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As far as most cooks are concerned, standard distilled vinegar is a rarely used item. We tend to gravitate toward flavored vinegars or those made from ingredients that will lend a certain flavor profile to the foods we cook, and aside from being the perfect tool to help a poached egg from spreading too far into the poaching liquid or coloring Easter eggs, it is almost never used in food preperation.

does that mean we don’t have a big ol’ jug of the stuff hanging out under our kitchen sinks? Of course not! Plain vinegar may not be all that great for cooking, but it has a ton of other uses that I find incredibly useful. Most of you probably know that vinegar and water are great glass cleaners and tah vinegar can help clean your coffee maker, but ther are other tricks to be found in that bottle.

Let’s explore a few of them, shall we?

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