So does this picture bring back memories?

This picture has to bring back some memories to each of you. In my head 

I see a line of children with small bowls and a spoon ready to have some freshly

made applesauce! I canned 20 jars this year. Should be enough for Dad and I! I sure

wish each of you were here!

I Can't Believe the Price of Food!!!!

I don't know how much food is around the country but I thought I'd share a few of our outrageous food prices. We're still picking raspberries off of Birch's bushes but at Albertsons their sale price for 6 oz. of raspberries is $2.99! At Yoke's their 1 lb. of bacon is $4.99! And at Rosauers you'll pay $4.39 for only 89 oz. of orange juice! Holy Cannoli!!! 

Today I picked up the 40 lbs of boneless, skinless chicken breasts I ordered from Zaycon for $1.69 a lb. Tomorrow I'll begin to can most of it and freeze the rest. I canned chicken a while ago and it's so convenient to have for a quick meal.

About a week ago I made a crock pot chicken dish for dinner but we we were not eating it fast enough. So I shredded it by hand and threw it in a pan, added some water and homemade taco seasoning and we had chicken fajitas.

I'm trying very hard not to buy food now but use what we have stored. The only thing I need to purchase is orange juice from Fred Meyer who have their 1/2 gallon for $1.25. That's a great price and your dad loves orange juice in the morning.

This past Saturday dad and I went to Green bluff. We were looking for applesauce apples at Yaryans but they didn't have a lot. But we should get a couple batches made. I can still see you children lined up in the kitchen to get your warm, freshly made applesauce. Your all welcome to come get some! We also have carrots to can and the tomatoes are ripening in the basement. We had a good harvest this year for which I'm grateful.

We have a busy week of schoolwork, baby showers for sisters in the ward, a singles fireside that your dad is going to because he works with the older singles in his high council calling and lots of canning! 

I hope each of you have a great week and everyone wish our Auburn a very happy 1st BIRTHDAY!

I love you all

Mom

 

As most of you know Dad has been planning the remodel of the bathroom.It was really time for it.  I'm pretty sure that the flooring and countertops were the original they put in when the house was built in the 60's! So here's how it went from start to finish. Unfortunately I never got a picture of the bathroom before Dad started on the countertops but  you all remember what it looked like.

This is how it looks in the beginning!

Making sure the new countertops stay glued down! Oh, by the way, we put those weights

out on the driveway with a free sign. Gone within the hour!

What a beautiful sight. New countertops!

The sinks are in! Are'nt they gorgeous? Remember, I paid $15.00 for both of them at a

yard sale?!!! Now it's on to the floor!

And the floor is in! Isn't it beautiful?

Dad even put some leftover flooring under the sinks!

And now a few pictures of the great results.

 

Your dad is a genius!!!

 

 

 

 

 



 

Just a reminder of blessings in my life!

 

Many years ago when we had five children and lived in the house on Madison I had a dream! Our kitchen was big but woe is me, above the kitchen sink there was only a wall! I remember reading 'A Window Over the Sink' by Peg Bracken and thinking how wonderful it would be to have a beautiful view to look out of as I worked at the sink! I even remember taping pictures from magazines on that wall over the sink to try and jazz it up. But it was still only a blank wall over my sink! And I remember wondering if there would ever come a time when I would have that window over my sink that overlooked a lovely view!

 

 

How very, very, blessed I am to have this view over my kitchen sink!

Beauty, memories and absolute perfection to me!!!

 

 

 



The quilt rack I've always wanted!

Not my color! But using leftover paint from our bathroom it

will become what I want. And all for $5.00!!!

Almost done!

Perfect! Not bad for a garage sale find!!!



'And the corn is as high as an elephants eye!!!!'

Some sweet members in our ward took a trip yesterday to Wapato, near Yakima and picked up tomatoes and corn. Since we have plenty of tomatoes coming on in the garden I only ordered one bag of corn. There are 60 ears of corn in each bag and we kept out 20 ears to eat fresh and I froze the other 40 ears. It only took me about 2 hours to husk, blanch, cool, drain and package the corn. It's individually wrapped in celephane and then I put 5 ears per ziplok bag. And having frozen corn before I know that this corn will be great to eat in the winter months!

I love harvest season!!!!



Yes these are Amish Sticky Buns!

From start to finish it took me just about 3 hours. Most of the time is spent waiting for the dough to rise. The dough is very moist and delicious. The only change I would make is to double the ingredients for the syrup. It just isn't sweet enough or maybe it makes a difference to bake it in 2 different pans. But I would a least maybe make the syrup 1 1/2 more than the recipe calls for to make it super delicious. But they are really easy to make and hopefully will freeze well because there is no way we will eat 2 dozen sticky buns! Dad should enjoy them for lunch however!!

Here I Am! I'm Back!!!!!!

So seminary is over, classes are over, and work is over. I am on vacation! Whoo-Hoo!!!

Wanted to share a chicken recipe that has been a big hit. I served it to the family and Jordan said, 'You have got to post this recipe!' And when I made it the Sunday we had the missionaries over, the casserole dish was scraped clean! I found the recipe in a book that was created by a ward in the valley and a fellow teacher was making them available at a seminary conference a few years back.I like this recipe because it uses up the chicken I bought from Zaycon and canned.

Country Chicken Casserole



1 can cream of soup, your choice, I used chicken                 1/2 tsp salt

1/2 c. sour cream                                                                    1/2 tsp pepper

3/4 c.  milk                                                                             1/2 c. mayonnaise

3 c. cooked noodles (wide or whatever you have)                 1 T. lemon juice

2-3 c. cooked, cubed chicken                                                 1 c. grated cheese

cracker crumbs, bread crumbs or french fried onions (I used my flavored bread crumbs leftover after my croutons are all eaten)

Combine all ingredients. Pour into a 1 1/2 quart shallow baking dish. Top with crumbs or what have you. Bake 45 minutes in 350 degree oven. Top with extra cheese the last 10 minutes of baking if you choose.









Don't mess with my chub, Bub!

I went to Cash & Carry to pick up some fruit and check out their ham prices. (Not great ham prices) But they had their 10 lb chubs of 73% hamburger for, get this, $12.99 each! Can you believe it? Hamburger for $1.29 a lb! I haven't paid less than $1.79 for hamburger in over a year! So now I'll bag it up in to 1 lb portions and freeze it. If I had had more cash I would have bought more. Hopefully I can get more at payday! I just had to share this extraordinary deal!

Love, Mom

Delicious casserole!

After googling 'easy broccoli casseroles' I found this recipe. I made some modifications to it. It called for 1 cup cream and 1 1/2 cups milk and I used low fat milk only. I also reduced the cheese and bacon amount as well. It's like a quiche with eggs, milk, cheese poured over the blanched broccoli and then a bit more cheese sprinkled over it and about 4-5 slices of cooked bacon. Even your dad who is a meat lover enjoyed this. I liked it because I had all the ingredients and it was super cheap! If you want the recipe let me know!

That's a lot of broccoli!

Every week I get leftover broccoli from a friend. I usually make a great soup with it but this past Mondasy (our usual soup night) I felt like potato soup. So what to do with this broccoli? A great casserole I found online. !

WHAT!

So are you wondering why I have a picture of leftover spaghetti next to my chore cards? So glad you asked. I have been using my chore cards for over 20 years now. They tell me what chores are due to be done each day and help me stay caught up on housework which we all know is never ending. But these cards really have helped. Anyway, on Mondays one of my chores is to clean out the fridge. When I clean the fridge on Mondays I am able to see what leftovers I have for Dad's lunches and what I need to use up during the week in my dinner menus. So on Monday I noticed I had leftover spaghetti sauce from Sunday's lasagna meal. Last night we had spaghetti so I could use the sauce up. I only had 1/2 a quart jar left but I added a pint of canned tomatoes to it and some leftover hamburger from Saturday nights tacos. It's a great way to use food up and not waste it. So now you know why I took this picture! I hate throwing food away!

Cheap meals!

At Yoke's Fresh Friday I bought 2 (10 lb) bags of potatoes for 98 cents each. These will do for baked potatoes, fried potatoes with leftover meat, soups and stews! The crazy thing is that there was also in the produce area golden potatoes that sold for $3.98 for 5 lbs! Is that insane or what? And yet there are people who will pay outrageous amounts for 'special' potatoes.

Fluffy Dinner Rolls

I got this great recipe from Jamiecooksitup.blogspot. And enjoy the pictures! I'm slowing learning how this whole blog thing works! Okay, now the recipe:

3/4 cup milk

4 Tbls margarine

3/4 cup water

4 Tbls sugar

1 tsp salt

4 1/2 cups flour

1 heaping Tbls yeast

Put the milk and margarine in a microwave safe measuring cup and cook in microwave for 1 1/2 minutes. Pour into bottom of standing mixer. Add 3/4 WARM water. Add sugar, salt and 2 cups flour and mix for 1 minute.Turn oven to 170 degrees. Add yeast and rest of flour one cup at a time and mix until dough begins to leave sides of bowl. Mix for 5 minutes and then cover bowl with saran wrap and let it sit for 5 minutes. (Rising time) Now divide dough into 12 equal parts and shape into rolls. Put in greased dish. (Check my picture). Now put in oven and let rise for 20 minutes. When the 20 minutes are up turn oven to 350 degrees and cook for 15 minutes! It's that easy! I am starting to add more and more wheat flour to the mix also. And the dough enhancer I bought at Wal-Mart. It's to help dough rise better when you're working with wheat flour. Let me know what you think!

A bit of help!

The uprising!

Ready for the oven!

Delicious!

Six simple ingredients lead to the best rolls!

The Beginning of Dinner

You know I hate to spend money unnecessarily! Here's the recipe I use to make my own taco seasoning.

6 tsp chili powder 4 1/2 tsp cumin

5 tsp paprika 3 tsp onion powder

2 1/2 tsp garlic powder 1/4 tsp cayenne powder

Mix all together and store in an airtight container. I recommend adding 2 Tbls of the seasoning and 2/3 cup water to each pound of hamburger. I buy my spices at Cash and Carry in bulk so they are pretty cheap. Good Luck!

Final result

Let me just say that the flavored crouton crumbs made this dish!

Ingredients for Moms Mac and Cheese

Here are the ingredients for Mom's Mac & Cheese

1-1/2 cups uncooked elbow macaroni (or whatever you have on hand)

4 Tbls margarine

3 Tbls flour

1-1/2 cups milk

1 cup (4 oz) cheese

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

2 Tbls bread crumbs (use leftover crumbs from croutons)

Cook macaroni as package directs; drain. Place in a greased baking dish; set aside. In saucepan melt margarine over medium heat. Stir in flour until smooth. Gradually add milk; bring to boil. Cook and stir for 2 minutes; reduce heat. Stir in cheese, salt and pepper until cheese is melted. Pour over macaroni; mix well. Spread bread crumbs over casserole. Bake, uncovered, at 375 degrees for 30 minutes. Yield: 6 servings

From crumbs to croutons! This goes along with my recipe to make these great croutons. They're so easy and so cheap. Yay! My favorite word, right up there with FREE! Try these croutons. You'll be hooked.