Ask a Groovy Gal (Lifestyle & Home)

ASK A GROOVY GAL
TFG DEPUTY EDITOR AND BEAUTY DIRECTOR CHELSEA KAPLAN GIVES YOU THE GOODS ON
HOW TO LIVE LARGE

I hate cooking, but don’t want to serve my family all sorts of prepackaged foods or frozen dinners. Are there any other options?
—Jessie, Raleigh, NC

Jessie, you must get thee to a meal-making assistance outpost like Let’s Dish and Dream Dinners—fast! Made for people just like you, these one-stop meal-making Mecca offer the opportunity to make (or pick up) family-friendly dishes designed to be frozen and cooked when you need them. Unlike frozen food from the grocery aisle, these dishes taste fresh and homemade—because they are. Additionally, they are wallet-friendly (most cost less per serving than it costs to buy take-out or fast food), require no trips to the grocery store, no time-consuming preparations, and no messy clean-up.

Here’s how it works: each month, the stores’ online sites feature new menus (think items like Moroccan Chicken Tagine with Cous Cous, Sautéed Shrimp With Feta and Orzo and Savory Apricot-Crusted Salmon) and schedules for meal-making sessions. Choose a time that works for you to visit the store, select online the dishes you’d like to make, and then show up at your scheduled time. Once you arrive at the comfy stores (they all offer coffee and freshly-baked snacks in a coffeeshop-esque setting), you’re given an apron and recipe cards to help assemble your meals, each of which is set up at a different station in the store. The ingredients for each meal are laid out for you—all you have to do is scoop them together into freezer-safe bags—but because you’re controlling their assembly, you can as add little or as much of what you’d like (ginger, hot sauce) or don’t like (sugar and salt). During my first trimester (read: a time when I had no energy whatsoever), I took a break from cooking and served my family meals from Let’s Dish and Dream Dinners exclusively. My husband raved about their taste, and it couldn’t have been easier. In fact, I think a gift certificate – or a few prepared meals – would be a great gift for a newly-pregnant friend or one who’s recently given birth (hint, hint). To view locations, menus and meal-making times at a Let’s Dish or Dream Dinners near you, check out www.letsdish.com and www.dreamdinners.com.

I am pregnant and my husband and I have decided to not find out the sex of our baby. I’m having a hard time finding gender-neutral bedding that isn’t predictable pastel green or yellow. Could you recommend anything that would fit this bill?—Lisette, Stamford, CT
Luckily for you, there are plenty of cool (read: green frog and yellow duck-deficient), gender-neutral bedding options for babies. If you’re feeling retro, check out the orange-and-brown Magic Garden Crib Bedding Set from Litto Kids or the dark green-and-white Sweet Violet Crib Set from Nurseryworks ($270 and $355, respectively, www.nurseryworks.net). For something more traditional, you might like the aqua-and-chocolate Tic Tac Toe Crib Bedding Set by New Arrivals Inc. or the primary-colored Avery Crib Bedding Set by Caden Lane ($372 and $450, respectively, www.kookoobearkids.com). Sure, they’re pricey, but cute linens for your nursery are worth splurging on—especially when inexpensive, high-quality nursery furniture and accessories are available at places like Target and Ikea.

Magic Garden Crib Bedding Set	Sweet Violet Crib Set	Tic Tac Toe Crib Bedding Set	Avery Crib Bedding Set

What is the best way to clean fine jewelry? Do those ultrasonic jewelry cleaners you can buy at places like Brookstone really work?—Alyssa, Randolph, NJ

According to the Jewelry Information Center, the best way to clean gold, silver, platinum and gemstones is to soak jewelry for 10 minutes in warm water with a non-detergent soap, such as Woolite or Dr. Bronner’s. Diamonds, however, deserve special treatment: before putting them in the soap soak, dip them briefly in rubbing alcohol or vodka (really!) to dissolve any greasy buildup. To clean porous stones like pearls and opals, wipe them with a dry, lint-free cloth. Do so with pearls often, as the calcium carbonate in pearls dissolves in human sweat or oil from the skin, and this will diminish the pearls' luster. If your pearls or opals are in need of a good cleaning, do so with warm soapy water (never use an ultrasonic cleaner), while being extra careful not to get water into the drill hole as the pearl or opal may discolor. If you are concerned about how to clean pearls properly, ask your local jeweler to do it for you. To dry jewelry, lay everything flat on an absorbent, soft (and preferably lint-free) towel.

If this sounds like too much work for you, many department stores and mail-order catalogue sell small vibrating sonic jewelry cleaners for home use. These are gentler than the powerful ultrasonic cleaners used by jewelers, and can be safely used to clean metals, diamonds and all faceted colored stones, with the possible exception of emeralds, which are fragile. A good, inexpensive one to try: Brookstone’s Ultrasonic Jewelry Cleaner ($39, www.brookstone.com).

Click here to read all about Deputy Editor/Beauty Director Chelsea Kaplan's life with child in her blog,“I'm Somebody's Mother?”