Everyone should have mailed their boxes by now. I hope you had great fun. Don’t forget to post to flickr. We can’t wait to see what everyone has done.
♥
Home for the Holidays Swap Update
Category: MISC
~ 1000th Post Giveaway ~ & Christmas Tree Decorating Contest
I did some quick calculating this morning and it looks like my 1000th post will be right about Christmas! So in keeping with the Christmas Spirit I’m having a giveaway for hand painted Christmas bulbs. When my cousin Jenn first convinced me to start a blog, I thought I didn’t have anything to say and it would be short lived ~ I guess I was wrong LOL, I seem to have found my voice!
So in keeping with the Christmas spirit I am going to give away sets of hand painted Christmas bulbs. In fact, I’m going to give away 2 sets, 1 for each 500 posts! No two bulbs are alike and every one of them were hand painted by me. When I first started making these it was as gifts. Hubby loved them so much he had me make enough to replace all our old bulbs and it’s always a sweet reminder to put up the tree and remember how much he loved something I did. He decorated the tree almost by himself yesterday and did a fantastic job. We put on the lights and garland together and then I unwrapped the bulbs and put them on hangers while he did all the ladder work.
So to enter and win your own set of bulbs, just leave me a comment telling me what Christmas means to you or a favorite Christmas memory by December 11th.
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
♥Thursday 13
Tuesdays with Dorie ~ Grandma's Sugar Cookies
Ulrike of Küchenlatein is hosting this week and she chose Grandma’s All-Occasion Sugar Cookies on pages 146-147. This was a great choice for this week and I decided to use traditional cookie cutters. The recipe is EXTREMELY close to my own grandma’s recipe that I modified years ago to include 1/2 teaspoon orange peel,1/2 teaspoon blackberry extract and only 1/2 teaspoon vanilla. Hubby tried to eat them as fast as they came out of the oven, but he helped decorate them first.
♥$5 Dinner Challenge, Tempt My Tummy Tuesday and Slow Cooking Thursday ~ Lazy Day Beef Stew
$5 Dinners Tuesday is hosted by Erin at $5 Dinner Challenge
Tempt my Tummy Tuesday hosted by Lisa at Blessed with Grace
Slow Cooking Thursday is hosted by Sandra at Diary of a Stay at Home Mom
LAZY DAY BEEF STEW
4 cups diced red potatoes* (1.29)
1 medium onion, chopped (.65)
1 small bag baby carrots, chopped (.47)
1/2 cup flour (.10)
1 1/2 pounds stew meat (2.79)
1 can diced tomatoes with basil, oregano and garlic (.39)
8 oz. can tomato sauce (.59)
1 teaspoon minced garlic, jar (.15)
1 teaspoon salt (.02)
1/2 teaspoon sugar (.02)
1/2 teaspoon white pepper (.05)
1 tablespoon Italian seasoning (.15)
1 medium onion, chopped (.65)
1 small bag baby carrots, chopped (.47)
1/2 cup flour (.10)
1 1/2 pounds stew meat (2.79)
1 can diced tomatoes with basil, oregano and garlic (.39)
8 oz. can tomato sauce (.59)
1 teaspoon minced garlic, jar (.15)
1 teaspoon salt (.02)
1/2 teaspoon sugar (.02)
1/2 teaspoon white pepper (.05)
1 tablespoon Italian seasoning (.15)
- In a large bowl toss the veggies with 1/4 cup of the flour until well coated.
- Place in slow cooker.
- In the same bowl toss the meat with the remaining flour.
- Layer over the veggies.
- Combine the tomatoes (juice and all) with the seasonings and then pour over top of it all.
- Cook on low until tender, 8-10 hours.
*If I’m home while this is cooking, I will stir it all together after a few hours and also wait and add the potatoes just a few hours before serving so they aren’t too mushy! I was able to get everything on sale this past week and this makes enough for 2 meals for us.
picture missing here LOL – it was so good we ate it all before I remembered to take a picture!
I participate in the memes: Menu Plan Monday hosted by Laura at I’m an Organizing Junkie
, Favorite Ingredient Friday hosted by Kathryn at Overwhelmed with Joy, Freezer Food Friday hosted by MJ at mjpuzzlemom, Scrumptious Sunday hosted by Meredith at Mercedes Rocks, Homemaker Mondays hosted by Robyn at 11th Heaven’s Homemaking Haven, Making a Happy Home Monday hosted by LL at As for me and my house…, Tempt My Tummy Tuesday hosted by Lisa at Blessed with Grace, Slow Cooking Thursday & Tips on Tuesday hosted by Sandra at Diary of a Stay at Home Mom and Tempt my Tummy Tuesday hosted by Lisa at Blessed with Grace. Doing them all make great additions to help keeping me on track and finding so new recipes!
, Favorite Ingredient Friday hosted by Kathryn at Overwhelmed with Joy, Freezer Food Friday hosted by MJ at mjpuzzlemom, Scrumptious Sunday hosted by Meredith at Mercedes Rocks, Homemaker Mondays hosted by Robyn at 11th Heaven’s Homemaking Haven, Making a Happy Home Monday hosted by LL at As for me and my house…, Tempt My Tummy Tuesday hosted by Lisa at Blessed with Grace, Slow Cooking Thursday & Tips on Tuesday hosted by Sandra at Diary of a Stay at Home Mom and Tempt my Tummy Tuesday hosted by Lisa at Blessed with Grace. Doing them all make great additions to help keeping me on track and finding so new recipes! ♥Menu Plan Monday
Weekday breakfasts are always either toast, scrambled eggs or cereal so I don’t post those. Working from home, lunch is “whatever” so it isn’t definitive either, but weekends are usually a brunch and I will start posting those along with the dinners.
MONDAY ~ Tuna Melts
TUESDAY ~ Lazy Day Beef Stew
WEDNESDAY ~ Creamy Tomato Soup
THURSDAY ~ Meatloaf Muffins
FRIDAY ~ French Onion Soup
SATURDAY ~ Farm Style Chicken & Noodles
SUNDAY ~ Twisted Pepper Steak
I participate in the memes: Menu Plan Monday hosted by Laura at I’m an Organizing Junkie, Favorite Ingredient Friday hosted by Kathryn at Overwhelmed with Joy, Freezer Food Friday hosted by MJ at mjpuzzlemom, Scrumptious Sunday hosted by Meredith at Mercedes Rocks, Homemaker Mondays hosted by Robyn at 11th Heaven’s Homemaking Haven, Making a Happy Home Monday hosted by LL at As for me and my house…, Tempt My Tummy Tuesday hosted by Lisa at Blessed with Grace, Slow Cooking Thursday & Tips on Tuesday hosted by Sandra at Diary of a Stay at Home Mom and Tempt my Tummy Tuesday hosted by Lisa at Blessed with Grace. Doing them all make great additions to help keeping me on track and finding so new recipes!
, Favorite Ingredient Friday hosted by Kathryn at Overwhelmed with Joy, Freezer Food Friday hosted by MJ at mjpuzzlemom, Scrumptious Sunday hosted by Meredith at Mercedes Rocks, Homemaker Mondays hosted by Robyn at 11th Heaven’s Homemaking Haven, Making a Happy Home Monday hosted by LL at As for me and my house…, Tempt My Tummy Tuesday hosted by Lisa at Blessed with Grace, Slow Cooking Thursday & Tips on Tuesday hosted by Sandra at Diary of a Stay at Home Mom and Tempt my Tummy Tuesday hosted by Lisa at Blessed with Grace. Doing them all make great additions to help keeping me on track and finding so new recipes!
Monday Musings
“The difference between where you are today and where you’ll be five years from now will be found in the quality of books you’ve read.”
~ Jim Rohn
~ Jim Rohn
♥Homemaker Mondays and Making a Happy Home Monday ~ Holiday Bread
Homemaker Mondays is hosted by Robyn at 11th Heaven’s Homemaking Haven
Making a Happy Home Monday is hosted by LL at As for me and my house…
HOLIDAY BREAD
3 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons sea salt
1/2 teaspoon orange peel
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon instant yeast
1 3/4 cups cool water
3/4 cups golden raisins
1/4 cup orange juice
1/8 cup salted sunflower seeds
1/2 cup minced walnuts
2 teaspoons sea salt
1/2 teaspoon orange peel
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon instant yeast
1 3/4 cups cool water
3/4 cups golden raisins
1/4 cup orange juice
1/8 cup salted sunflower seeds
1/2 cup minced walnuts
- In a small bowl pour orange juice over the raisins. Let set 1/2 hour. Pour off remaining juice before using fruit.
- In a LARGE mix together the flours, salt, yeast and water in a large bowl. Stir until you need to use your hands to form a sticky dough.
- When the dough is smooth and uniform work in the fruit and nuts.
- Cover the bowl with press-n-seal and let rest at room temperature for at least 8 hours or better yet over night. Dough will bubble and rise quite a bit.
- Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and form into desired shapes to fit lightly greased covered stoneware bakers. I make 2 loaf pan sizes. Place in pan smooth side up.
- Let rise another 2 hours or until your thumb print remains when you poke the dough.
- Just before placing in oven slice across the tops several times to allow the steam to escape.
- Place bread in cold oven and set temperature to 450 degrees.
- Bake 45 minutes, uncover and bake another 5-10 minutes until golden brown and 205 degrees internal temperature.
- Cool on rack before slicing.
♥
Tuesdays with Dorie ~ Linzer Sables ~ OOPS ~ Swearing In instead
I was supposed to post Linzer cookies for TWD last Tuesday and I completely forgot! We received a call from my youngest stepson and he asked that we be present along with his mother and girlfriend for his swearing in as a full time fire fighter/paramedic at 830AM and we live over 4 hours away so we got up really early!! We were so proud and excited for him! I completely forgot about the cookies though!! I’ll have to make 2 different recipes next week.
♥
Camera Critters
hosted by Misty @ Camera Critters
Go see all the other great entries.
This is a really old picture of my cat, Smokey and my dog, Idgy. Idgy loved to sit on top of the trash can just outside this window and it ALWAYS spooked Smokey out.
♥Snowflakes and Sparkles Swap
My partner was Elizabeth over at Thoughts from an Evil Overlord
Elizabeth loves snowmen and I found this great AVON light-up snowman, (his beaded legs light up and flash) a hand painted snowman box, a fun snowman cookie tin, a snowman candle and some snowmen ornament twirlers.
Then today I received this great box from Elizabeth.
Elizabeth also likes vintage ornaments and I found these 3 vintage ornaments: a red silk beaded cameo, a nativity and an angel that my grandma had made. And a vintage quilted one as well as 2 beaded icicle ornaments. I also had these great vintage snowflakes for making her own ornaments.
A while back she admired some lids I had on my blue ball jars full of buttons so I made some of those for her too. I found this adorable silver Christmas tree candle and then some chocolate caramel bars and hot cocoas for those cold winter nights.
Then today I received this great box from Elizabeth.
Inside was so much fun! She picked out some great Christmas fat quarters for me since I’m a quilter and then she wrapped my packages in fabric too – how neat! I’ve been thinking of making a small Christmas quilt as I’ve been reading the Christmas Quilt by Jennifer Chiaverini. There is also some gold wire ribbon that is just begging to be used this year.
Elizabeth sent me some ‘green tags’ which I love and have been making for 30 years. Great minds think alike? LOL Essentially you recycle this year’s Christmas cards into next year’s gift tags. It’s creative, fun and pretty too.
I never told her what they were, but she managed to send 2 of my very favorite candies too, Junior mints and my all time favorite – ribbon candy! As a little girl I would wait all year long for my dad to buy that seasonal ribbon candy and was always sorry when it was gone! Better yet it’s made right near her home.
She sent a this beautiful frame which is awesome as I am in the midst of finishing a family photo case in the stairwell that I hope to use in show and tell soon – perfect timing Elizabeth. The fingertip towels will be awesome with all our holiday guests.
There are also Christmas candles, a CD collection of Christmas songs I can’t wait to hear, a bead craft, a patchwork quilted ornament and a Santa pin. Thank you so much for a fun box!
♥Menu Plan Monday
MONDAY ~ Chicken Noodle Bake
TUESDAY ~ Chicken Pie
WEDNESDAY ~ Garlic Shrimp Pasta
THURSDAY ~ Crockpot Lasagna
FRIDAY ~ Creamy Tomato Soup
SATURDAY ~ Buttermilk Pancakes and Bacon & Carnitas ~ Traditional Style
SUNDAY ~ Buttermilk Waffles & Tuna Melts
I do the memes: Menu Plan Monday hosted by Laura at I’m an Organizing Junkie, Favorite Ingredient Friday hosted by Kathryn at Overwhelmed with Joy, Freezer Food Friday hosted by MJ at mjpuzzlemom, Scrumptious Sunday hosted by Meredith at Mercedes Rocks, Tasty Thursday hosted by Pumpkin Patch, Watchin’ What We Eat hosted by Lorie at Honey I Shrank Myself and Slow Cooking Thursday hosted by Sandra at Diary of a Stay at Home Mom. Doing them all make great additions to help keeping me on track and finding so new recipes!♥