Malta Development Blog

We all wish we had more hours in the day. There just isn't enough time to pay the bills, exercise, put the kids to sleep, catch up on reading, and sit down to think. That's why finding and implementing life hacks in our day-to-day is so important. The following kitchen hacks will streamline your morning routine and set the tone for the rest of your day.
 
1. Dinner Prep: With a family's hectic and often erratic schedules, it's better to create a division of labor in the kitchen. For example, have one person do the dinner meal prep at night and include cooking instructions. Another person can cook the meal when he or she gets home from work. Dinner meal prepping streamlines this often time-consuming activity so that your day runs smoothly.
 
2. Defrost: Imagine coming home tired after work. All you want to do is cook your favorite meal, chicken fajitas, but you forgot to take the chicken out of the freezer. You don't want to wait for hours for the chicken to defrost so you resort to a microwavable dinner or takeout. To avoid this issue, set an alarm, reminder, or post it to move tomorrow's protein to the refrigerator the night before. It'll avoid this common frustration and save you time.
 
3. Overnight Breakfast: Cooking can be fun but also time consuming, especially when you're scrambling to leave your house in the morning. Want a solution to your hectic mornings? Prepare your breakfast the night before. Overnight oats with some peanut butter, cinnamon, chia seeds, and a few drops of honey is an easy and nutritious breakfast that you can leave prepared overnight.
 
4. Mix Dry Ingredients: Some breakfast meals, however, aren't as easy to prepare. For example, pancakes require a mix of wet and dry ingredients. In order to streamline your prepping, premix the dry ingredients the night before and store them in a ziplock bag. In the morning, just mix in the all components. It'll taste much better than a boxed pancake mix.
 
5. Dish Duty: The invention of the dishwasher saved people a lot of time. While we wait for technology to create a robot to organize our dishes, make it habit to dry and put away dishes after dinner. That way, you can easily find all your utensils and bowls in the morning.
 
6. Set the Table: Mornings are better when we sit down with the family and enjoy a meal together. To keep this tradition alive, set the table for breakfast before you go to bed. Put out all the cups, plates, vitamins, etc. In the morning, all you have to do is pour the orange juice and serve the meal, saving you precious time.
 
7. Collect School Supplies: If you're the proud parent of elementary-school children, you know how busy mornings can get. To curb the hustle and bustle, assemble your child's school supplies, homework and backpack for the following day. Having a dedicated backpack spot makes them easy to find.
 
8. Dedicated Lunch Shelf: While not everything can be ready to go before you leave to work, you can place your lunch items in a dedicated shelf in your refrigerator. All you have to do is grab them and put them in your lunch bag when you're ready to leave.
 
9. Help From the Kids: Teach your kids to help out around the house by letting them help you out with your meal prepping. It not only instills a sense of preparation at a young age, but also makes your job of being a parent that much easier.
 
10. Water Prep: Make a pitcher of purified water with your choice of sliced cucumber, mint, or fruit so you have a tasty and hydrating beverage as soon as you wake up.
 
Implement these kitchen hacks into your daily routine for a more effective morning. You'll wonder how you went so long without them.

Although spring is just beginning, we are very aware of the coming summer season and its warming temperatures. We all love the warmer temperatures and sunshine; however, no one is a fan of rising utility costs just to keep our homes comfortable.

Hot summers and grilling are synonymous with backyard entertaining. Longer periods of sunlight and warmer temperatures make a summer backyard BBQ as American as apple pie. Tradition dictates that BBQs are all about grilling meat.  Who doesn’t love a good piece of grilled chicken or a juicy hamburger?  However, it is truly the quality of the side dishes that separates a decent BBQ from a memorable one.

Looking for a way to change up your space? Accent walls have a huge dramatic impact on your space without a lot of effort.

It seems that every year a new set of wall coverings or paint colors comes out that homeowners just have to have in their homes. While many of these decorating schemes can be fun, who has the time to redecorate their whole home that often?

During the summer season, the warming temperatures, the bright blue skies, and sun shiny days are drawing people outside and into their backyards. However, why should enjoying the great outdoors, be considered roughing it? Shouldn’t the space be as comfortable and ideally primed for entertaining as the indoor living areas?

Saratoga County is enriched with historical locations and artifacts. Nothing fits this bill more than Congress Park in Saratoga Springs. Originally the location of Congress Springs Bottling Plant and the large-scale resort hotel, Congress Hall, the area helped developed Saratoga Springs’ renowned reputation as a health spa and gambling mecca of the late 19th century. First declared a National Landmark in 1987, the park now contains Canfield Casino, the only standing building left from the “the Resort Period,” and a beautiful green space that houses several historically important art pieces.

Located on a 400-acre estate not far from the city of Saratoga Springs is the renowned Yaddo Artists’ Community. Founded in 1926 by the estate of Spencer and Katrina Trask, visiting artists that have spent time at the community have gone on to win 69 Pulitzer Prizes, 29 MacArthur Fellowships, 68 National Book Awards, 41 National Book Critics Circle Awards, 108 Rome Prizes, 52 Whiting Writers’ Awards, and one Nobel Prize. Notable artists who have completed residencies at Yaddo include, Sylvia Plath, James Baldwin, Truman Capote, and John Cheever, among others.

The naturally carbonated springs in the Saratoga Springs area have been a source of attraction for the community since as long as anyone can remember. It is almost common knowledge to any Saratoga Springs dweller that the waters are charged with carbon dioxide gas and mixed with important minerals.

Many variables come into play when choosing where to relocate a family, but none is more important than the quality of the local school system. A committed, passionate, and well funded school district with a variety of programs and AP courses is crucial to a student's future, and plays a large role in the decision making process of all parents.  To that end,  the Ballston Spa Central School District can compete with any in the world, and can prepare your child for a long and fruitful collegiate and professional career.

The Malta Drive-In Theatre on Route 9 was built in 1949 and has been in continuous operation since. It is one of only 450 drive-ins left in the United States.