Jeannette Tomanka's Tips

Household Ideas, Discounts, Coupons & Life

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Mom, housewife & life hacker! Corporate drudge escapee writing recipes, tips & discount alerts. Still bring home the bacon & cook it up in 101 healthy way. You’re also going to find out that I’m a total Disney geek. I don’t know if it started with the Read-Along records (“When Tinker Bell waves her wand – bbblllliiiinnnggg – turn the page!”) or the Disneyland book my grandfather gave me around age 3, but however the innoculation happened, it was very effective. I’m happy that my kids share my passion, and I’m even happier that Portland has one of the fancy-shmancy new Imagination Park Disney Stores!

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Apr 01,

2014

April Food Celebrations

by Jeannette

I will admit that I enjoy any day that celebrates food, because I haven’t met (ingested) many foods I haven’t liked. But April is, I think, my favorite month of food. I think you’ll see why before we even get through the first week!

April Food Celebration Days:

National Sourdough Bread Day. Sourdough is actually a fascinating culinary science project –
National Peanut Butter and Jelly Day. ‘Nuff said.
PB & J
National Chocolate Mousse Day. Oh.yes. And don’t panic: here’s a yummy swap.
National Caramel Day. The possibilities are ENDLESS!
National Caramel Popcorn Day. Try Dirt Candy’s delicious Popcorn Pudding recipe, serviced with caramel popcorn on the side!
Coffee Cake Day. I haven’t actually tried any of these yet, but I’m leaning toward the Blueberry.
National Empanada Day. You can make empanadas with everything from beef to fruit to s’mores! Be creative!
National Cinnamon Crescent Day. These are really so easy to make, but I have a cheat for the sugar/spice mixture: a friend gave me Spiced Vanilla Bean Sugar from the Savory Spice Shop, and it’s really hard to beat. I do add extra cinnamon. Read More →

Apr 01,

2014

Ten Awesome (and Harmless) April Fool’s Pranks

by Jeannette

I’m not a consistent April Fools’ prankster, but I do always enjoy reading or seeing good pranks – as long as I’m not the victim! Here are some of my favorites.

Freeze your kids’ morning cereal. [ http://www.buzzfeed.com/mikespohr/awesome-april-fools-day-pranks-your-kids-will-totally-fal #4]
Replace the cream filling in Oreos with something nasty like toothpaste. [http://www.viralnova.com/awful-april-fools-pranks/ #15]
Cut a bunch of brown construction paper into the shape of the letter E and put in the container you usually use for baked goodies, then tell your family you made “brown Es.” No, they won’t appreciate that these “special” brownies have extra fiber!
Put googly eyes on everything in the refrigerator. Read More →

Mar 29,

2014

Chess Pie Recipe Video

by Jeannette

I just created a video how-to for my Chess Pie Recipe that I recently wrote about. Check it out and let me know what you think!

The final, finished product — chess pie with one slice removed already!

Here’s the video:

Mar 27,

2014

Are Coupons Worth It?

by Jeannette

I like to think of myself as a frugal shopper. I look at the sale circulars, subscribe to “deal” websites, and clip coupons. Going to the store is not a simple task for me, because I will actually read the “unit price” labels on the shelves and evaluate my options. I have felt the thrill of saving almost $100 in one trip to the grocery store by adding coupons to store specials. I’ve even watched a couple of episodes of “Extreme Couponing.” It’s obvious some people can really make coupons work for them.

I’m not one of them.

Compared to these people, I’m a very lazy shopper. My epic trip to the store was exhilarating- but exhausting, especially when I got home and had to figure out where to put all the extra stuff I’d had to buy to get the deals (you know, “save $2 on 3 boxes of blah-blah”). On my next trip to the store, I actually looked at shelf labels for products that I’d essentially ignored, thinking them inferior: store brands. In my mind, store brands equaled the white generic boxes from my childhood. The few of those my family tried did indeed turn out to be inferior; the toilet paper was thin and almost sandpaper, the crackers were pretty much the same, and the mac & cheese….well, I prefer to keep that memory blocked. Read More →

Mar 21,

2014

Tillamook Cheese Factory | Fun Things to Do In and Around Portland

by Jeannette

I’ve lived in a few places in my life, and always tried to find interesting things to do and cool places to take visitors. Being the foodie that I am, one of my favorite places around here is the Tillamook Cheese Factory, about an hour and a half west of here. The drive itself is a treat, taking you through the Tillamook State Forest on Highway 6. Read More →

Mar 14,

2014

Chess Pie for Pi Day

by Jeannette

One of my favorite recipes for pie is quite simple — it’s a traditional Chess Pie. It’s not a “healthy” pie, per se, but Pi Day only comes once a year, so I say it’s find to splurge on calories once in a while, and this day is a perfect excuse!

I got this recipe from my grandmother, and it is a sort of vintage recipe, I believe. Simple is often the best, and this pie is pretty straightforward, with a confabulation of sugar, eggs, and a touch of vinegar that come together in a symphony of custardy goodness! Read More →

Mar 10,

2014

Food To Celebrate In March!

by Jeannette

Milk Chocolate and Salted Caramel Gâteau Saint-Honoré is a great way to celebrate Chocolate Caramel Day on March 19th! Photo by Kimberly Vardeman (CC by 2.0)

There are many things you’ll learn about me, one being that I am a Foodie. I love food. It doesn’t have to be fancy food, either – I get immense joy out of a spoon of peanut butter. So, any celebrations of food are right up my alley. If you didn’t know these national celebration days existed, you can thank me later for giving you little reasons to put something special in your kids’ lunches or have a dinner that’s a little out of the ordinary. By the way, this is not an inclusive list – I just picked ones that sounded particularly fun to observe. (Some days, like National Turkey Neck Soup Day, just sound icky.) And don’t worry, I’ll find you some healthy ways to celebrate the scary-calorie-count days!

Peanut Butter Lover’s Day
Banana Cream Pie Day
Cold Cuts Day (doesn’t excite me, but hey, I won’t judge)
Pound Cake Day (pass the strawberries and whipped cream!)
Cheese Doodle Day (what could be more fun than Cheese Doodles?!?!?)
White Chocolate Cheesecake Day (Mmmm, cheesecake!)
Crown Roast of Pork Day (I’m not sure what this is, but I want to try it)
Peanut Cluster Day Read More →

Feb 28,

2014

Happy Platypus Day!

by Jeannette

You’re also going to find out that I’m a total Disney geek. I don’t know if it started with the Read-Along records (“When Tinker Bell waves her wand – bbblllliiiinnnggg – turn the page!”) or the Disneyland book my grandfather gave me around age 3, but however the innoculation happened, it was very effective. I’m happy that my kids share my passion, and I’m even happier that Portland has one of the fancy-shmancy new Imagination Park Disney Stores!

And speaking of the Store, this weekend they are helping us celebrate Platypus Day, in honor of Perry the Platypus, a character on the very popular Disney Channel show, “Phineas and Ferb.” For those of you who are new to P&F, they are very smart, very creative brothers who have a pet platypus; at least he’s a pet by day, but at night he’s a secret agent. Read More →

Feb 28,

2014

Why Didn’t I Think of That? Wallet I.D. Tabs!

by Jeannette

Ok, I will admit it: I am a Bag Lady. I have a weakness for all kinds of bags, from reusable shopping bags to purses to wallets. You’ll be hearing more about this subject, have no fear of that! Today I’m focusing on an aspect of almost every wallet I own: they don’t want to give up my driver’s license. Maybe you’ve experienced this, too – a clerk asks to see your ID, and needs it out of the little window for whatever reason (usually because the name is obscured). Even if it has a little hole that supposedly helps you slide it out, you still end up doing a little dance to remove it. Well, no more. I want to share a little “fix” that someone showed me this week that just made me ridiculously excited. Read More →

Jan 15,

2014

Jeannete Tomanka blogs about creativity, life tips, and work.

I’m Jeannette Tomanka

by Jeannette Tomanka

I thought I’d just write a bit about me, my philosophy on home-making, and my writing here on my new blog.

I’ve done corporate marketing and communications writing for a long while on the northwest coast, including Seattle, and now my home, Portland. Like all mothers, I try to strike a good work-life balance in juggling work demands, work and family. At some point, I began to recognize that the whole modern workaday schedule tends to leave insufficient personal time to reflect and express creative ideas.

I recognize now that one must live with intentionality, and set up habits for personal time, reflection and meditation, and for creative expression. I’ve begun chiselling-out time in my schedule now to have an hour or two of personal time per day, and this blog is a portion of that — it’s a reflection of my creative outlet. It’s not that I think the life and ideas of Jeannette Tomanka and her projects are necessarily all that better than others’, or more deserving of attention — it’s that I wanted a bit of a public journal of some of the things that I do and find inspiration in. The things I post here are partly very personal life landmarks — a resource where I can look back and revisit things that I’ve done before and written before. So, partly it will be some of my train-of-thought personal musings, and also tips and how-tos for those that would like to do some of the fun things that I discover. Read More →