Make-Your-Own Pancake Mix. Delicious and Thrifty.

I've been making my own pancake mix for years now, and my family loves these pancakes on most Sundays.  I originally got the recipe from the book "Six Ingredients or Less" by Carlean Johnson (and the title annoys me significantly because it should be Six Ingredients or Fewer).  You might wonder why you would make your own pancake mix when you can buy a box off the shelf.  Here are three good reasons:

• These pancakes taste good.  They're fluffy.  You can easily add other ingredients like blueberries, chopped fruit, cinnamon, vanilla extract, etc. The kids love it when I throw in a few chocolate chips
• These pancakes are nutritionally sound.  You can use some or all whole wheat flour.  You can control how much sugar and/or salt you add.  You get some protein from the milk and egg
• This homemade mix costs less than 1/3 the price of boxed mix.  If you're a real nerd, see below for the fun unit costs

 Pancake Mix
7 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (I use whole wheat flour for half of this amount)
1/4 cup baking powder
1 Tbsp plus 1 tsp salt (can decrease if you're concerned about sodium intake)
2/3 cup sugar



 I mix up a double batch every couple of months or so and store it in a canister ready to go. 

Pancakes from "Pancake Mix"
1 1/4 cups Pancake Mix
1 cup milk
2 Tbsp butter, melted (I always use 2 Tbsp canola oil since it's easier than melting butter)
1 egg, slightly beaten

Combine egg and milk, and butter (or oil).  Add pancake mix and stir just until combined, it should still be a little lumpy.  Use 1/4 to 1/3 cup batter per cake on a hot lightly oiled griddle or skillet. Makes 6-7 pancakes.

Tip: jot down the instructions on what to add to the pancake mix and tape it on your canister of mix, then you'll be ready to put them together quickly.

Happy flipping!

Some (incomplete) math:
Hungry Jack and Cub store brand mix were each $2.49 for 32 oz, or 7.8 cents per oz.  This is a pretty decent margin on what are really very inexpensive ingredients.

I buy flour in bulk, 25 lbs for $8.98, or 2.2 cents per oz
Sugar is 4.2 cents per oz

Sewing Prom Dresses

I made two prom dresses for myself back in the day, so I was feeling a bit sentimental about the possibility of sewing one for my daughter, Maggie.  I wasn't sure what she wanted to do, so I broached the offer carefully, making sure she knew she wouldn't hurt my feelings if she wanted to shop for one instead.  After consulting with her friends, Maggie told me she thought it was a great idea, and we started to look at patterns.  My mom is a professional dressmaker, and not only did she want to be a part of this fun event, but she would bring her tremendous talent to the project.  We scheduled a sewing weekend on the calendar, and got busy picking out the pattern and fabric.

We found a pattern Maggie liked and that had a classic look.

Vogue 9053

Next, it was time to find fabric.  I wasn't sure what the local shops had- sometimes you have to look around a lot, including online, to find something that you want.  I went to Hancock Fabrics, and they had a pretty decent selection of formal fabrics, some with coordinating linings.  Maggie and her friend Sally debated on the available colors, holding them up to see how they went with Maggie's coloring, and eventually settled on a deep purple matte satin.

Picking fabric

We picked out thread and a zipper.

Just the right thread

The big sewing weekend arrived.  My mom altered the bodice pattern to fit Maggie perfectly, and even underlined it. 

Grandma works on the bodice

I started working on the skirt of the dress, which was so full all four pieces had to be laid flat and cut out individually for both the fashion fabric and the lining.  The circumference of the dress at the hem is 6 1/2 feet, so it was a lot of fabric.

The dog is only minimally excited about this dress

We watched a bunch of movies while we worked, including The Big Lebowski, Fantastic Mr. Fox, and The Grand Budapest Hotel.  We were laughing and having a great time.  We had to schedule periodic fittings around a weekend volleyball tournament Maggie was in.  We played around with different trim options for the dress.  Eventually, my mom had a great idea to do a channel stitched belt with covered buttons at the back.  Here we're doing a fitting- you can see the start of the belt on the table.

Grandma fits the belt

Maggie was so happy with the dress, and it looked beautiful on her- she got to wear it to both the Bloomington 2015 and Eden Prarie 2016 proms.

2015 Bloomington prom

The dress was such a hit, it was a no-brainer to sew another dress for the 2016 (her senior) Bloomington prom. This time, Maggie picked McCalls 6894 view C in a red satin with coordinating red lace material in the back bodice.

The woman ahead of us at at Joann Fabrics was buying a crazy amount- we had to wait forever

Again, my mom was instrumental in assembling the dress. We were on a deadline, completing it the weekend prior to the prom, which happened to be the same weekend as the Eden Prairie prom.

2016 Eden Prairie prom

Recreating Pants from the Movie Pitch Perfect

I fell in love with the pants the main character played by Anna Kendrick was wearing in the final scene of the movie Pitch Perfect.  I LOVED the buttons on both sides.

I searched and searched online, but I couldn't find good pants like this, so I decided to try to make a pair myself.  I started with an old pattern I've had for a long time as a base, and then created my own pattern with a number of modifications.

I had to cut the front waistband out twice to get it right, but I eventually achieved an approximation I'm happy with.

Cleaning Mold Stains Off a Composite Deck

We had a new deck put on the back of our house in 2012.  Our old deck was wood, and was rotting in spots.  My husband had spent many hours every summer trying to stain the old deck and keep it up, which was an entirely unpleasant job, so when it was time to get a new one, we opted for Trex composite.  Composite decks are marketed as “no maintenance” which sounds nice, but in practice we (and everyone else that publishes rants on the Internet) have found that they do require some maintenance.  Our backyard is very shady and filled with mature trees that produce a lot of tree pollen and other detritus.  It turns out these are optimal conditions for growing mold on your deck.  In particular, what seems to be called leopard spotting mold (see the picture, which is a bit deceiving with the shady and sunny patches, but you can see the spots).

We’ve scrubbed the deck each year trying various basic cleaners, without any impact on the mold spotting.  This year we decided to get serious and look for a product that was more likely to help us. 

I did some Internet research and found 3 candidates for us to consider:

·         Olympic Deck Cleaner

·         Corte-Clean Composite Deck Cleaner

·         Expert Chemical Composite Deck Cleaner

The Olympic Deck Cleaner was not formulated for composite, and didn’t really excite us- middling reviews on various websites for mold.  We eliminated it right away.  The other two were formulated for composite decks, but the Corte-Clean had much fussier application instructions and sounded more likely to kill plants, so we opted for the Expert Chemical.  I stopped by a few local stores, but nobody carried it, so I ended up ordering 3 gallons off the Home Depot website and had it delivered to the store.  Our total bill was $61.08.

It took about a week and a half before it was delivered, and when we picked it up, it had a 4 week shelf life, so we understood that it is more-or-less made to order.  It came with a DVD demonstrating how to apply it.  We cleared all of the furniture off the deck, and my husband put on his grubbiest work pants and got busy spraying and scrubbing with a long brush. 

The whole job took about 3 hours.  He had enough cleaner for the deck, but not enough to do the rails.  We think the next time we do this that we’re still going to order 3 gallons, though, and he won’t apply quite as heavily.  It worked great, restoring the deck to what it looked like when it was new.  No more spots!

Now we’re ready to sit on the deck and sip a gin and tonic.

2020 update:
We're finding that we can do this big application every other year, and scrub the deck with a good soaping on the off years. This spring, there was some buildup of green mildew in a shady spot on the South side. Andy made a basic bleach solution (1 c bleach to 1 gallon water) and scrubbed this section- it helped a good bit.

Before cleaning

After cleaning with a bleach solution