Recently my girls have been getting interested in hand-crafts.  Lindsay and Hannah have been crocheting up a storm.  At this moment Lindsay is working on a shawl for me. Since her asthma has been acting up she isn't up to doing a lot of physical work, so she has been using that time to crochet.  When she finishes the shawl, I'll post a picture.

In the last few weeks we have found some very good yarn on sale and we purchased quite a few skeins.  With 6 people buying yarn, needles and hooks things can tend to get quite confusing.  Trying to remember who borrowed who's hook is a chore within itself.  Determined to get on top of this, I bought a couple of  plastic boxes  from Wal-Mart  in which to store my skeins.  I also purchased a pencil zipper bag to store my crochet hooks and other smaller craft hooks. I can place the bag inside my skein box without taking up a great deal of space.  I marked the non-hook end of all of my crochet hooks with a permanent marker so I knew which were mine.  I think we'll put an initial on the end of each of the girls, to keep theirs separated.

Today while working in the gilrs' room Hannah came up with a great idea for a place to store their skeins of yarn.  They each have a pocketed bag on a hanger, similar to those to store shoes, which will hold about 12 skeins of yarn.  I wll get pictures of the girls yarn in the bags and add them to this post a little later today. 

The next big craft organization project will be my other craft supplies and all of our material.  We have tons of material here, but it's really nice when you need to make something and already have some on hand.  This is a very time consuming task that I have put off long enough.

We will be sewing a good deal over the next few weeks.  As we finish projects, I'll post them here.

 

Yesterday things were sorta hectic around here and I was pushed at dinner time, not knowing what I was going to cook.  I made this super easy soup that everyone loved.  I'll guess at the spices as I didn't measure when I put them in (once again).

1 lb ground turkey, browned
2 T onion flakes
4 sm bullion cubes
water
1/2 lb of ww spaghetti
1 can of Red Kidney Beans, drained and rinsed
1 can of Black Beans, drained and rinsed
2 cans of diced potatoes, drained
2T chili powder
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp of salt
1 tsp of Tony's

I browned and drained my meat.  While it was browning put two cups of water with the bullion cubes in the microwave and heated it until it was pretty warm.  At this point I used my stick blender to make sure the cubes dissolved all the way.  Then add all the ingredients to the pot adding any additional water to make sure all the ingredients are covered by about an inch of water.  Bring to a boil and cook at a medium high temperature until spaghetti is cooked. 

It went quickly and tasted good.  It was also pretty inexspensive to make.  If I would have had more time I would have made cornbread to go along with it.  That would have made it perfect.

Tomorrow I'm making a mexican casserole I made a couple of weeks ago.  I hadn't made it in years and everyone loved it.  I'll post it here either tomorrow or Sunday.

Today was a busy day, as they all have been lately.  The house seems to be in shambles, but in reality it's the disaster before things get better type of shambles.  If you've ever done any major re-organizing, you'll understand what I mean.  I wanted to share our menu from tonight.

Meatloaf
Cheese Mashed Potatoes
Honey Glazed Carrots
Black-eyed Peas with Bacon

I can't give you an exact recipe of how to make any of the above items because I don't really use recipes, though I need to write down how I do things so the girls can replicate what I do.  The meatloaf is something everyone loves.  My favorite way to eat it is on white bread with mayonnaise (I know, not one ounce of healthful food there!).  Here's how I make it with a rough, very rough estimate of the ingredients.

Meatloaf
2 lbs ground turkey
1/2 cup oatmeal
1 small onion, finely chopped
3/4 cup ketchup
1 T Worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground pepper
a couple of dashes of Tony Cachere's Cajun seasoning

Mix this all together and top with about 1 cup of Ketchup with 2 T Worcestershire sauce blended in.  If I'm pressed for time I often bake this in muffin tins at 425 for about 30 minutes.

Honey Glazed Carrots
3 cans of sliced carrots (we prefer fresh, but I only had canned on hand)
1 stick of margarine
1/2 cup honey
1/3 cup sugar

Drain carrots and place in sauce pan.  Add in margarine, sugar and honey.  Stirring gently and only occasionally, until sugar, honey and margarine are melted and carrots are heated through.

Many years ago I received this cookie recipe from a dear friend, Gale.  We have made them hundreds of times and just love them.  They are quite nutritious, too, as they have no refined sugar and use lots of good ingredients.  I hope you love them as much as we have!  Maybe I need to make some more, so that I can post a picture of them.  I have also adapted the recipe, making bar cookies out of them, which works equally as well.



Colossal Molasses Cookies

11/2 cups white flour
1 ¼ cups whole wheat flour
¾ cup oil
½ cup honey
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup raisins
1 cup oats
1 tsp baking soda
½ cup dark molasses
2 eggs
1 cup walnut halves (optional)

Preheat oven to 350.  Combine dry ingredients except nuts and raisins.  Combine liquid ingredients in a separate bowl.  Add liquid ingredients to dry ingredients, then add nuts and raisins.  Drop 1/4cup of batter onto a buttered baking sheet.  Flatten slightly.  Bake 12-15 minutes til lightly browned. 

Tonight we made our first WWII era meal, more on that later, and it left one of my pans with baked on goo.  I remembered back to a book I had read on baking soda uses and decided to try one of the tips.  I dampened the pan and sprinkled baking soda all over it and let it sit for about 20 minutes.  I went back to it thinking it was going to take a while to scrub, and low and behold, the mess just rinsed off!  I couldn't believe how easily it came clean.  So, save your elbow grease, and use your baking soda!

For those who have a Sam's Club nearby, they sell baking soda in a huge bucket for a great price.

Lindsay has been working on an apron for me and it's nearly finished.  She only needs to add the neck & waist straps.  She re-cycled some old overalls to make it.  I think it's a really cute idea, and can't wait for it to be finished.





For other cute aprons go to Tammy's Apron Show and Tell.

Last  Thursday I used a rain check I had at Fiesta grocery store for brisket at .69 lb and chicken leg quarters at .15 lb.  I could only buy one bag of leg quarters, but was able to get 2 whole briskets at that price. I was trying to decide what to do with the brisket and decided to smoke it.

 I have this strange relationship with my grill, and I feel that I have to use every coal to it's fullest potential.  Therefore I decided to grill several things, beginning with items that could be cooked faster when the coals were at their hottest.  Here is a list of all that I cooked:
24 hot dogs
24 hamburgers
10 lbs of leg quarters
2 whole briskets

On the leg quarters we rubbed a bar-b-que rub, and on the brisket we put a Canadian Steak rub.  I didn't cook the leg quarters or the brisket completely on the grill; I cooked them about halfway,  then finished them in the oven.  They still have a really great mesquite flavor, but didn't dry out from too much time on the grill.  I put them in a pan with about 1/2" of water in it when finishing them in the oven. 

You may wonder what could I possibly do with all of this meat.  Well, the hot dogs and hamburgers I divided between the refridgerator and freezer.  I kept enough out for the weekend and then put the rest in the freezer.  The chicken will go into the freezer for a meal another night and the brisket will be frozen for meals bar-b-que sandwiches (which we all love!). 

Today I am making bar-b-que for sandwiches with some of the brisket.  I will post the recipe and pics later today, if I get the time.  If you don't read my other blog,  Texas Wildflowers , check it out for the story of what happened last night which will explain why I may be too tied up to post again today. 

Last night we had one of our favorite easy dishes for dinner, Texas Style Quesadillas.  I would like to share with you the way that we make them.  I hope that you will try them sometime and let me know of any different things that you add.  It's always fun to come up with a new twist on something.


This time I began with pre-seasoned fajita chicken that I purchased at Sam's.  I sliced the breasts in strips and then cut the strips in half so that they are about 3 inches long.





After all of the chicken is cooked I begin assembling the quesadillas.  I cook them on my griddle so that I am able to cook more than one at a time.  I layered homemade re-fried beans, cheddar cheese, chicken, queso cheese and cheddar again.  This time I used big tortillas so I am folding them in half instead of using two tortillas for each quesadilla. Sometimes I will carmelize onions to put into the quesadillas, but only Rachel and I like them, so often as not, I don't.



Once I put them on the griddle I put a heavy plate on top of it to help it flatten out as it cooks.




Here's what they look like when they are finished.



I also made a great dip using cream cheese and peach mango salsa.  It's great with chips!  Here's a blurry picture of it. I'm still working on getting good close-ups with a digital camera.  I ended by topping the quesadillas with guacamole and sour cream.
I'd love to hear any additional ideas you have.

I recently spent a few days re-organizing my kitchen.  We took everything out of every cabinet and moved it around.  It was very disorganized for a few days, but I am really pleased with the results.  Having 7 people living in a single wide mobile home can be challenging at times, but the Lord has provided creativity to arrive at storage solutions. One of my biggest hurdles was food storage.  Previously I had many things on top of the refrigerators and freezer (I have two refrigerators and an upright deep-freeze in my kitchen). I always hated the way it looked, because it seemed to never look neat and organized.  I realized I needed to be able to store things on the top, but wanted to do it attractively.  We came up with a solution that I think works well.  I hope that you enjoy my pictures of my ideas.  I am working on new curtains for the windows and then I'll be done for a while.  I hope to paint eventually, but I don't know how soon it will be.

To handle all of the things I needed to have extra storage for, I used glass jars and cannisters on top of the appliances.  It gave me the storage I needed, but didn't look cluttered.  Here are pictures from the tops of my fridges and freezer:







For storing beans, Lindsay came up with the idea of using the orange juice pitchers.  I think they turned out pretty well; good idea Lins!



Here's a picture of the two fridges and the freezer:



At a later date, I will post pictures of the rest of the kitchen, maybe after I get the curtains up.

I have observed as I have been a keeper of my home for the last 21 years that many women, though at home, don't seem to see the importance of the homemaking side of their role. When discussing my home with some women, I have had comments such as,"I have more important things to do than just talk about housework."  I have a lot of important tasks in my life as a homemaker, and one of them is housework.  My job as a keeper at home has many varying tasks, some rather mundane, others that are rather challenging.  I truly believe that a mom holds the heartbeat of her home.  We all know that saying, "If Momma ain't happy, ain't nobody happy."  That's true, and we should take it more to heart than we do.  My role is to create a place of peace and comfort for my family which includes finding ways to make my home cleaner and more beautiful and having deep theological discussions with my 21 year old. This blog will address the homemaking side of my role; I have another blog that will deal with meatier matters.  The Lord has been showing me many new things regarding my home, and I hope you enjoy what I share with you.