Cookie baking

I baked 3 batches of cookies this week.
Chocolate chip- no recipe, you all know how to make them, right?
Fork cookies- a new recipe with just 3 ingredients, from Mary Berry, the recipe is below.  (I added a little Princess flavoring)
And golden raisin biscuit cookies that have rave reviews on the King Arthur baking site.

The little dish in the top left is to eat at our house. The assorted container is for our daughter in law's birthday and the 3 other containers are for my parents and brother.

 http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/golden-raisin-biscuit-cookies-recipe
They are the rectangle ones in the lower center and they might be my new favorite cookie recipe.  
They are a little fiddly as the dough is rolled very thin but the recipe worked just right and tastes special.  I followed the recipe except I did not have the fancy sugar for sprinkling on top and just used a smaller amount of table sugar instead.

linking to

A Cultivated Nest

<a href="http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/5085073/?claim=q7c9vjtdes9">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>

This weeks sewing- several projects

My daughter will be going with her family and in laws to the beach for a week soon.  

She prefers to dress my grand daughter in modest swim wear. 

 I am not sure how she ended up with this size 5 swimwear when grand daughter needs a 3 or 4, maybe it was the closest size she could find in the style she was looking for.

 She asked me to make it fit and after much thinking and snipping, I did. 

I like that this suit is not only appropriate but it also has SPF protection to help prevent sunburns.

I shortened the top and that part was easy- I just took a 1 inch tuck all the way around just above the top stitching, then I stitched it down too.

The shorts were a little trickier.  I didn't want to mess with the side details on these track shorts, so after much thought,  I made pie shape cuts in the waist band then overlapped the cuts until I removed the necessary 4 inches.  I stitched them down as smooth as possible so they won't be rough or bulky on her skin.

 Daughter was pleased with the alterations but I am not sure my high school home ec teacher would of approved of the hacking I did on the waist band.



Youngest son made this drawing and put it with this corduroy he found in my sewing room.
He requested an organizer for traveling.  

Here is what I came up with -  a tri fold many pocketed tie shut pouch.

I don't think it is for personal care items but things like chargers, a flash light, etc.  

I lined all the patch pockets with a dinosaur print - also from my sewing stash.
This son was a dinosaur nut when he was a little boy and  said he was going to be a paleontologist when he grew up.
 That did not end up being his line of work,
and even though he is all grown up,  In my heart, he is still that cute little boy who thought dinosaurs were the best thing ever.


I also made 2 pacifier clip straps for the youngest grandson and am working on 2 peasant tops for me. The tops are almost finished but I don't like how the sleeves are so big and want to add some narrow elastic to the bottom of them. 

Did you do any sewing this week?  

FitBit- my favorite fitness gadget ever

First, the reason I am showing you my toes is because Betsy had a manicure party on her blog, I was too late for the Linky  deadline but I still wanted to join in.

And if my feet look kind of tired, there is a really good reason.  I have been walking, lots of walking, more than ever I think.

  

My husband has health coverage for both us through his employer.  Through that company, all employes and covered spouses were offered FitBits if we participated in a physical assessment and did some online questionnaires.  I had never heard of a FitBit so I looked them up online. 

They are a fancy pedometer that sync automatically with whatever computer or smart device you set your account up on. 

FitBits count your steps, tell you the distance you've walked and how many calories you've burned.  They also tell time, just a little bonus.  They can be clipped to your clothes or just kept in your pocket. 

I wore mine for a few days, just to see how much walking I did in an average day and it was about 2 miles, just doing housework, errands, childcare. 

Then I joined in with the leader board with other employees and spouses and started walking as much as I could. Competition helps with motivation and I have stayed at the top by walking at least 5 miles a day.  

I've been doing it about a month and got my 250 mile badge from FitBit.  Sometimes I walk a few miles in our neighborhood or at a walking trail in our town. Much of my walking is done in my house, going from one end to the other or making a loop through the kitchen, living room and dining room. It takes me about an hour to get 3 miles. 

I have lost a few pounds but nothing dramatic.  I do feel better though. 

My husband is wearing his FitBit and also walking as much as he can.  He has really good days and then has not so good days as his knees just don't cooperate like he wants them too. 

FitBits are small, see the paper clip beside mine?  I think our models sell for about $60 and are sold at places like BestBuy, Amazon and the FitBit site.  

In case you can't tell, I think FitBits are great! 

Big cooking session

I had some free time last week and found a sale on lean ground beef so it was the perfect time to do some bulk cooking for the freezer. 

With the 10 pounds of ground beef, I cooked up taco filling and chili.
I also soaked 8 cups of pinto beans, then cooked  6 cups for refried beans and  cooked the other 2 cups to add to the chili.

the dishes ready for the freezer look really neat, don't they?  

FlatLander chili recipe

I base my chili on this recipe except I use home cooked pinto beans instead of canned red beans and I use a couple cans of finely diced tomatoes instead of the tomato juice. 

Taco seasoning

This is our favorite taco seasoning.  I multiplly it by 20 (and the AllRecipes.com site will do that for you) except I use only about 1/3 of the black pepper the recipe calls for.
How I make Refried-beans 

while I had the spices out,  I mixed up extra taco seasoning as well as a jar of spice mixture that my husbands uses for rub when he smokes meat.
Frugal tip- I buy many of my spices at Big Lots.  The containers that hold about 1 cup of spice sell for $1 at the Big Lots in my town.  I use lots of chili powder, paprika, cumin, onion and garlic powders in these 2 recipes and am really glad I can get them at a good price.

Keeping it Real

all that cooking makes for lots of dishes to wash afterward.  I really don't mind washing dishes and am thankful I have plenty of heated safe water that comes right in my kitchen.  My mother says her home did not get inside running water or electricity until she was in high school.  My great grandmother came to Oklahoma in a covered wagon and lived for years in a sod house.  She did not have the luxury of running water.  

Below is a photo of my great grandparents, around 1900, on their little homestead near Cordell Oklahoma.  Real Pioneers!

All that cooking and cleaning was work, but now when we need a fast meal,  I can just heat up some taco meat with refried beans or chili, serve with some salad and chips or crackers and we will have an easy and delicious meal with very little effort.  

CVS deals this week

Stocking up at CVS.
12 rolls of paper towels
16 rolls of toilet paper
3 jumbo packs of diapers
1 box of baby wipes and 1 box of tissues

I used manufacturer coupons and 2 coupons from the CVS scanner machine.
Spent $37 and got back $17 ECBs to spend on future deals at CVS.

My trick to keeping up with the ECBs is to fasten them to my CVS card with a paper clip.

Hi-I'm back

Hello!

I've been blogging over at Make, Do & Mend

But my heart is here, with the blog that really is my motto. 

So, I am back to if you do stuff, stuff gets done.

And I hope to stay here and to do lots of fun and useful stuff.

Come by and visit whenever pleases you.  I love to hear what other homemakers are doing.