Hello December

Hello everyone and welcome to December.  

It’s cooler here and it seemed like a good time to batch cook some pinto beans for the freezer.  

I think home cooked beans taste better and are thriftier than canned beans.  

And why do canned beans foam up when I rinse them? It’s almost like they have soap in them.  They don’t taste soapy but it sure makes me wonder.  

I soaked 5 cups of pinto beans overnight and seasoned them with cumin, onion and jalapeños while they cooked.  Then when they were done, I added salt and pepper to taste.  

We ate pinto beans with cornbread for supper tonight and I put 5 containers of cooked pintos in the freezer for future meals.  


Amazon has been running a deal on some Prime Pantry items,  save $6 when you buy 5 and free shipping on orders of $10 or more.  You must be a member of Prime Pantry which is $5.99 a month but I signed up for a free month and will cancel it before the 30 days expire.  

Some of the items also have coupons on them and the free shipping after $10 is for the total before coupons are deducted.  

I saw hundreds of comments about other shoppers doing this deal on a Facebook shopping list so I jumped on the wagon too.  

I ended up doing 9 orders and spent $52 for all the products below.  

All the pastas on the left are a gluten free variety.  

It was a good deal and everything I bought are things we use.  It seemed like an unbelievably great deal when I was doing it,  but now I think it was just a good deal.  

I think the deal is still going on and they change the items occasionally.  Go to Prime Pantry and click on the Buy5 save $6 icon and it will take you to the list,  if you’re interested.  


Below - Two books I’m reading and so far, I like them both.  


December came in like a lion last night with lots of wind and rain.  We’ve had this play house for about 7 years and this is the first time it’s ever  turned over.  

I’m hoping December will go out like a lamb.   It who knows? 

Hope you all are having a good weekend ❤️

Peppers and tacos and cookies

Hello, on my to do list was to deal with a bunch of jalapeños my husband grew.  

For some of them, I used my friend Dawn’s recipe.  

Dawn’s freezer jalapeño poppers

I think these will be so nice to pull out and bake some whenever we like.  

With the rest of the jalapeños, I found a very simple candied jalapeño recipe and did that to the rest of them. 

Candied jalapeños are really good on a cracker with a smear of cream cheese.  

Supper was lentil tacos in crunchy shells with naked okra.  


My grandsons that live on a farm gobbled up the lentil tacos.  In fact the oldest grandson ate 4. 

He is not a picky eater but he never mentioned anything about the lentil tacos being different from the beef tacos he has always had before.  

I really think the lentil tacos would appeal to anyone that likes tacos.  They are seasoned up just like beef taco meat.  

Gavin and Braeden really do live on a small farm.  Their daddy has beef cows and their momma has dairy cows. The boys help with both.   

This is one of their guernsey calves right after they showed her at our county fair.  

Yesterday, I baked 2 batches of cookies.  Most of them are for this weekend’s cookout.  

I used this recipe for the chocolate chip ones except I used semisweet chocolate chips and I made mine just regular cookie size 

Cookie Madness

Cookie Madness is a great blog, written by a regular mom who won the Pillsbury Bake Off maybe 10 years ago.  She bakes lots of cookies and other desserts and you can trust her recipes and advice.  

The other is a recipe I’ve used for lots of years but I added homemade pumpkin spice blend.  They have no real pumpkin in them.  

That’s what’s been cookin’ here. 

❤️

Let’s start with food..........

Good morning everyone

I just looked at the possible blog photos I’ve taken recently and they seem to be all related to food, bargain shopping and home sprucing up. 

So I’ll post the food highlights today and move on to the others later this week.  

OK? 

That way each post won’t be as long a book 😃

We really like okra and in the south, it’s usually battered or coated with cornmeal and fried in lots of oil.  It’s delicious that way but not healthy. 

I recently read to just cook okra plain and we like it so much this way. 

I’ve been buying frozen sliced okra at Walmart. 

To cook, I heat up a nonstick skillet with just a teaspoon of olive oil.  Then I add a single layer of frozen okra and cook it on medium high, flipping it as need to get both cut sides nice and brown.  Add salt and pepper as desired and some diced onions toward the end of the cooking so they don’t burn.  

It’s isn’t slimy and is just so good! 

If you try this,  remember the single layer is important.  If you try to cook a big batch for a group, in 1 pan, like I did 😱 You Will End Up With Okra Mush.  

Naked Fried Okra is my new favorite side dish and I’ve been cooking it at least twice a week this summer.  

I usually buy our weekly produce at Aldi.  I’m thankful Aldi is close by and ours is very nice with a quick turnover on everything.

This week’s produce is not a rainbow but seems to be all red and green.

The tiny tomatoes are not from Aldi but from our little backyard garden.



I offered to help my daughter out by making freezer sandwiches for her 2 children that are starting school soon and like to take homemade lunches.  

Below are all the ingredients set out before I started assembling.


I shopped at Walmart for these ingredients and found French bread for .32 a loaf. 

When we have big dinners,  everyone likes bread.  So I got 4 loaves. 

 

I sliced them all lengthwise and spread them with softened butter.  

I used 2 sticks for the 4 loaves.

Then I sliced each loaf about every inch or so.

Then I wrapped each loaf in foil and put them in the freezer.  

When we need bread for a meal, these will either get heated in the oven or outside on the grill depending on what meal we have.

I’m not picky about many brands but I do prefer the Reynolds foil in the Heavy Duty for wrapping food.  

For sandwiches,  I made ham and cheese on both tortillas and soft white bread.  

No condiments were used as the online advice says the condiments make the sandwiches soggy and these 2 grands aren’t crazy about condiments anyway.


I also made peanut butter and jelly on seed bread, the Walmart variety that is so much like Killer Dave bread, but half the price. 

I made 2 PBJ on tortillas but I don’t recommend them as I think they will be very messy as the fillings seem to just  squeeze out when I rolled them up.  

And everything was put in zipper bags and into the freezer, ready for lunchboxes when school starts for them this Thursday.  

I hope you all are having a great August 

I plan to post tomorrow some shopping deals.  

❤️

Sewing, meals and a big yard sale haul- really long post

One of my April goals was to sew these 15 pairs of sleeping shorts.  I did finish them and they came in very handy. 

Our son in law had to go to Washington D.C. for work, it was a 5 day trip over a weekend and our daughter was able to go too. 

Their 3 children didn’t go.  They have 2 other sets of grandparents who helped with them and we had them for 3 overnight stays.  

They children loved picking out their shirts and shorts at bedtime and I didn’t have to fiddle with matching them all up.  

These 3 love fruit so we made 2 fruit trays before they got here.  These made meal time so easy- I just needed to add a main course and vegetable.  





For one meal when their great grandparents also joined us,  I baked a simple layer cake.  It was a big hit.  

Cake makes a meal more like a party.  




More Kitchen doings——-

A sandwich box and as soon as I make it,  my husband made himself a sandwich.   



This supper started out as a head of cabbage, some leftover baked potatoes and smoked pork from the freezer. 

It’s not a pretty meal but it was delicious- stir fried cabbage, hash browns and pork. 


This meal was Salmon patties, sautéed fresh spinach and baked sweet potato cubes. 

Pigs in a blanket, Caesar salad and fruit - 

We’ve ate one watermelon this spring and it was so good - it was a seedless one from Aldi.  I’ve since bought a second one and I hope it’s the same. 




My son and I went to 3 rummage sales early this morning.  We bought most of this at a church sale, it was so organized and priced low.  


He got the stool for $5 and the cow painting for .25

At a different sale, I got the 3 big things- $3 scooter, $5 shopping buggy, $5 riding toy and  the .25 tool box was at the church sale.  

Look how much the tiger riding toy sells for on Amazon 😳


These metal kitchen things are mostly for sandbox toys.  Our sweet puppy has been chewing on the plastic sandbox toys but I don’t think he can chew up these. Most of them were .05 each except the 2 bigger pans were .50


The square is a Pampered Chef stoneware baking dish .50

I think the Oneida pottery clover canister will look for St. Patrick’s Day. 

More miscellaneous 

And more- the box of beads has so many beads in it. 

I’ve looked at the Operation game but it may be a dud- the parts are so so tiny.  


The basket and 2 big planters were .75 each

The big bowl was .50 and I think the whisk broom was .10.  

 2 pair of like new shorts for a grandson .50 each 

And 8 crocheted dish cloths- never used- for .10 each 

Ducky got a .25 Olaf toy 

I hope all of you are fine  and that you liked seeing what I’ve been sewing, cooking and buying.

❤️🏡❤️

Retro - and quite delicious-strawberry pie

My mom found this recipe in a Betty Crocker cookbook - I don't know what year but I am guessing a 1960s edition or so.  She made it often, especially for Sunday lunch.

I copied down her recipe years ago and cooked it yesterday for our lunch today.

Below is a photo of my recipe card- I had to make one change. Sliced and sweetened frozen strawberries, they used to come in a rectangle can- are not sold anywhere around here. So I used a pound box of fresh strawberries, chopped them in about 1/2 inch size pieces and added just 2 T of sugar. Then I stirred them into sugar free strawberry jello, as the recipe said to.

I used a 9 inch baked crust, instead of the called for 8 inch baked crust. 

Today, it was topped with cool whip but it would of been even more delicious with real whipped cream. 

Hope you all had a happy pleasant Mothers Day.  Some of our children were here today for lunch. I made this pie and quiche. My husband grilled chicken and my daughter cooked homemade Mac and cheese and 7 layer dip with chips. 

Strawberries are plentiful and low cost right now.

 If you need a quick dessert, I recommend this retro Strawberry Minute Pie.

Weekend cooking

Our weather is so changing.  We had snow at the first of this week, then some warm sunshiny days and today has been cold and rainy. 
Today was a good day to do some baking.
I tried a new to me cookie recipe,  for those famous New York City Black and Whites. I've never been to NYC and have no plans to go so I figured I should just bake some myself.
I baked them exactly as the recipe was written,  I used my large Pampered Chef scoop and ended up with 10 big cookies.  

They are really good,  the cookie is soft like cake but is still sturdy enough to eat with your hand like a regular cookie.  We liked them a lot and I will make them again but will probably make them smaller.  They really do taste like something from a fancy bakery but they are easy to make with basic kitchen ingredients.
Have any of you had a real Black and White cookie in New York City? I am wondering how much they sell for there. I estimate the ingredients in my recipe cost about $1.50 for all 10 big cookies. 

I used the bread machine to mix up the dough for our everyday sandwich buns. 
one of my goals for 2014 is to make all our bread and so far, I have.  It tastes better and cost so much less. 

Then I mixed up a second batch of dough but increased the sugar to 1/2 cup and added chopped raisins and pecans.  When the dough had risen, I rolled it out like cinnamon rolls and spread it with soft butter and cinnamon sugar. It was enough dough to make a standard size loaf and a small loaf of cinnamon raisin bread. 

 

my husband is shelling more pecans, on the thirds.  From this current batch,  he has cleaned 8 gallons.

 

I guess I should be looking for more pecan recipes  :) 

 

what are you baking?