Friday, September 23, 2016

Pork Loin

Checkers had pork loins on sale this for $1.28 a lb! That's a great bargain!  

 


I brought mine home and cut it into three roasts, but you could cut it into pork chops too or a combination of roasts and chops. 

I put the first roast in the freeze for another time and the second roast I put in the crock pot on a bed of onions and then covered it in salsa verde. 

 

 

 

Eight hours later and I had salsa pulled pork. I let it cool and then threw it in the freeze. At sometime in the future I'll thaw it and use it to make enchiladas, tacos or maybe chili. 

 

The next day I threw the rest of onions and the third pork roast in the crock pot, but this time added Campbell's Slow Cooker Apple bourbon sauce. 

 

 

Eight hours later and I had shredded pork! 

 

I strained the liquid, added it to the shredded pork, bagged it up and froze it.  I pulled it out this last week, thawed it and served it with cornbread and peas for several meals. I had enough to have my parents over for dinner once and sent some home with them. 

 

$1.28 is an exceptionally good price, but if you can get a pork loin for $1.69 or less, grab one, slice, throw it in the crock pot, shred and freeze it for a rainy day. 

Tuesday, September 20, 2016

Flat Apple Pie

This is the easiest pie, but that isn't saying much as I haven't made many pies in my lifetime. 

Begin by slicing very thinly 4 cups of apples. This only bakes for 15 min and thick apples won't get done. 

 

Mix with sugar, cinnamon and corn starch (sub flour if you don't have any). 

 

Mound on a room temperature boxed pie crust. 

 

Fold in edges, brush crust with water, sprinkle sugar on edges and bake. 


Enjoy! You can find the complete recipe 
Here

 
 

Sunday, September 18, 2016

Beef Salad

Oh my goodness this was good! 

 

Beef salad made with left over roast beef! 

I chopped the beef myself, but you could use a food processor. 

 

Add in some mustard, sweet pickle relish and mayo (more than shown here). 

 

Stir it up and it's ready to eat! You could add eggs, onions, dill relish, sweet pickles and juice instead of sweet pickle relish, spicy mustard... Serve it as a sandwich or on crackers. The combinations are endless. I think I need to make another roast just so I can make more beef salad! 

 


Thursday, September 15, 2016

Covering Up

My utility room is open to the kitchen and this has been the view. Actually, the shelves have a lot more on them, I removed everything to organize it. 

 

I found the table a few days before closing at the Fairbury NE Fourth of July Flea Market and knew it would be perfect for this space. I hadn't wanted a table cloth to cover the top of the table and so I made a table skirt. I made it using an inexpensive flat bed sheet. I might someday change the fabric, but this was a quick and easy fabric for the job. 

 

I used HeatnBond and two tension rods. 

 

I measured, cut and ironed a hem using the HeatnBond. 



It's always nice to have help. 

 

A Downton Abbey marathon was on and it took a while to finish it, but I'm very happy with the results. The one end is shorter than the other, but it isn't bad for eye balling the cuts. I'll straighten it up when my craft room is set up. 

 


I love the splash of color! Next I'll tackle the shelving unit.  

Sunday, September 11, 2016

Food storage container storage!

Two months. Two months it taken me to address my plastic food storage containers.  During those two months, all my food storage containers have been sitting in a laundry basket on a table in my dining room. 

 

I used to store these containers in a drawer, but I don't have a drawer here that I can store them in. It recently occurred to me to put them on the bottom shelf in one of my cabinets.  
 
These are deep cabinets and they're hard to get anything out of them. They're 19" deep, 37" wide and 11" tall. I knew I wouldn't be storing anything in them that I'd use frequently.  

 

I took measurements, went to Walmart and got containers. I considered getting one long one, but the measurements were never just right. I ended up with three smaller, but taller containers.  

 

I sorted and stashed my containers in the larger containers and slid them in. 


Woo Hoo! No more laundry basket full of food containers sitting in the dining room.  


Crock Pot Pot Roast

I love browsing the meat Woohoo deals at Dillons!  You can find the Woohoo deals yourself at the end of the meat cases at your local Dillons. Often there isn't anything I'm interested in. Steaks, kabobs and brats are the usual items, but occasionally you can find a nice roast. 

 

Most of the Woohoo deals are on items about to expire. So, plan to prepare or freeze right away. 

I prepared it following 
Recipes that Crock
recipe for the perfect crock pot roast. Though it wasn't my mother's roast, it was very good and I'd make it again. 

 

 

Friday, September 9, 2016

Doing Laundry

For the first since moving out of my parent’s house, I have a washer and dryer!  Even better they’re on the main floor, the same floor my bedroom is on.  No more lugging laundry up and down a flight of stairs to/from the laundry mat in all kinds of weather.  No more having to check the machines for disgusting stuff from the previous user, making certain you have enough money and remembered to bring the laundry detergent.  Having your own washer and dryer is a luxury that should be appreciated.  While I’m so very happy to have my own washer and dryer, its taking some time to get used to it.  Some examples;

 

Nearly every load I have to stop the dryer immediately after starting and remove the lint from the previous load.  You don’t deal with the lint traps at the laundry mat and I forget to remove the lint before or after nearly every load I’ve washed!  

 

There is no reason to wash 4-6 loads at once and it takes a lot longer to do multiple loads at home than it did at the laundry mat! One washer, one dryer, not 4 washers and 4 dryers!  A recent Saturday morning I was cleaning, cooking and doing laundry.  It was a lot to do and I realized I hadn’t need to.  I could have done a load or two every couple of days and not had a bunch of laundry to do all at once as I did when washing clothes at the laundry mat.  

 

My washer is a top loader.  I like to start the washer, add detergent, let it fill up some and then add my clothes.  The washers at the laundry mat were front loaders and that wasn’t an option.  The other evening I started a load, added detergent and walked away.  50 min later I returned to move the load to the dryer and there wasn’t a load!  Just a tub full of sudsy water!  Oops!  This has happened several times. Sigh. 

 

Who knew I’d have to learn how to do laundry all over again!  

Wednesday, September 7, 2016

I love my new vacuum!

I love to vacuum. Correction, I loved to vacuum. Used to, but then I moved to a house that had all hardwood floors or tile. Then I added some rugs and life got more difficult. Sweeping around the rugs and then digging out a vacuum. Ugh. No more!

 

I got this gem at Sam's Club recently and love it! With a flip of a switch I can move from hardwoods to area rugs to tile to throw rugs. Easy peasy! 

Disgusting, dirty kitchen rug on top. Nice clean rug below. 

 

Two beautiful clean rugs. 

 

It picks up cat hair, cat litter... It does not just push or blow it around. I love it. 

There are two minor cons. The first, the canister is rather small. The second, the button to get the handle to tilt is a pain in the behind. I'm hoping it'll relax with use. Canister, not bag. Filter is washable. Love! It! 


Tuesday, September 6, 2016

September Garland

My fireplace has three stocking hooks that just beg to have seasonal garland drapped on them. So I've challenged myself to make a new garland for each month. As a bonus, I'd like to use materials I already own. Last year I made a felt toy car town and I used felt left over from that project for my September garland. 

I began by cutting out felt leaves. I googled leaf templates and picked one I liked. 

 

I decided how far I wanted them glued and marked the two distances on a plate. 

 

You can google felt leaf garlands to get several ideas. Most showed the leaves closer together than I placed mine, but that wasn't the look I was after. 

It's always helpful to have someone around to help. 

 

I had wanted to use orange yarn and I found some at Goodwill, but I've hidden it from myself so I opted to use twine I already owned. 

 

And here is the finished project. 

 

And how it looks from my chair without the lights on. 

 

I love it. Josey loves it too, so I doubt I'll leave it hanging all the time. 

Sunday, September 4, 2016

Breakfast Casserole

Apple Market recently offered 18 ct large eggs for $0.69 and they're nearing their expiration date. I had planned to make egg muffins. Have you had them? They're very good, can be healthy, made ahead of time and reheated or frozen. To make you can use whole eggs, egg beaters, egg whites or a combination. They're baked in muffin tins. 

I was tired the morning I planned to make them and decided to make a breakfast casserole instead. The idea came from Simple Green Mom's Hillbilly Breakfast Bake. I had a bag of crispy crowns for several months now. I like tator tots, but not so much that I ever make them and it was good to use them. 


 

I threw them in a greased 9x13 pan frozen and topped them with the candian bacon I had planned to use in the egg muffins. 


Next I added cheese. 

 
 
When I'm making egg muffins, I get veggies off of the Dillons salad bar. This time I had bell peppers, spinach, broccoli and carrots. I diced them and added them to 12 beaten eggs. 

 

I baked it for ??? At 400 degrees. I wish I had kept better notes. It baked longer than I imagined it would need. 

 

 

 

A commenter on Simple Green Moms blog said her husband hated this dish as it had too much potato. I'd agree. I didn't hate it, but it was a lot of potato. Maybe had I used sausage instead or maybe next time 

Bird Feeding Station

I present to you my new front yard bird feeding station! I love it. Here it is the day my father built it. 

 

We used a post a fence post stake/spike that my father hammered into the ground. I believe it was a 24". It looks like the picture below. I purchased the stake and hooks at Menards. 

 

I used two each of two different hooks. 

 

I purchased a cap for it and added my grandmothers bird feeders and a new from Lowes platform feeder. 

 

I'll probably swap out the suet feeder in the spring for hanging flowering plant. 

In addition to this station I have 2 humming bird feeders hanging from the porch, a jelly feeder on the side yard and will add feeders to the backyard this fall.  I've already heard or seen Carolina wrens, cardinals, mourning dove, chickadees, downy woodpeckers, red bellied woodpeckers, yellow shafted flickers, nuthatches and brown thrashers!