Cooking and thrfiting and a little chitchat

hello everyone.  I'm still working on my kitchen but I don't have any photos to share.  I'll try to take them and do that tomorrow.  I did deliver 7 containers of stuff to a thrift store and I have a shopping bag full of my daughter's things to return to her. All of that freed up so much  lot of space.

I cooked a new recipe this week and it was so good!  It's also quick and on thrifty side and is reasonably healthy.   I looked at several similar recipes online for Korean Beef Rice bowls and changed it up to suit the ingredients I have and like----

Korean Beef Rice Bowls 

1 pound of lean ground beef

1/2 onion- diced

2 carrots grated 

3 T low sodium soy sauce

6 T sweet chili sauce 

Brown the beef and drain.  

Add the veggies and cook till softened. 

Add the 2 sauces and some black pepper and cook on low until heated.  

Serve on top of hot cooked rice 

That's it!  

I bought the sweet chili sauce in the Asian section at Walmart.  It is a little sweet, but not nearly as sweet as  sweet and sour sauce, and it is HOT.  So this dish made with this sauce is probably not for children or people who don't like spicy.  

The sweet chili sauce is supposedly what Panda Express uses for their sweet fire chicken.  

More veggies would be good in this like zucchini or celery or bell peppers or water chestnuts. 

My son and I visited a thrift store today and found a few treasures.  

4 Rubber stamps for me- not a necessity but aren't they cute?  I think total they were $7

2 yards of fabric - it's cute too!  but I bought it because of its sentimentality.

This fabric is from a children's clothing factory that used to be in our town.  They sold their extra fabric twice a year and I always went to the sale as things were priced so cheap and it was all very nice quality.  I made an apron from this fabric way back then and I wore it often. 

One of my children would also put on this apron, and tie a bandana on their head, whenever we were doing chores.  - what drama but a fun memory. 

My son was looking for plaid fabric to make a swag for an archway for his apartment for Christmas. 

He didn't find enough fabric but he did find a plaid dust ruffle for just $1.50 as the linens were 1/2 price.  He cut off the plaid part with my fabric scissors and will try it out in his space for size.  He ended up with many yards of nice plaid but it may be too narrow so I may need to do some simple sewing to adjust it. 

He also ordered some things from Pottery Barn and had it delivered to our house.  That is fine with me because we will now get their catalogs in the mail..
Pottery Barn says plaid is the in thing for Christmas decorating this year. 

I can't imagine I will order anything myself but the PB catalogs do have lots of good ideas and pretty photos.  I'll enjoy looking at them. 

My Texas brother recently came to Oklahoma and stayed with my parents. 
So, I took supper to them one night. 
Chicken and Stovetop stuffing casserole - it was baked in pyrex and transferred to plastic for traveling
Baked carrots
Loaf of bread made in ABM
sugar free orange jello with mandarin oranges
and a rustic but delicious blackberry pie made with some of my freezer pie crusts.  One of the crusts "broke" so I used it for the top crust and just went with it

I'll take kitchen cabinet photos tomorrow- I am really happy with how better my kitchen is working. 
Have a good sleep and a good Sunday everyone

Day 2 of kitchen ship-shape

I spent a lot of my free time yesterday and today working in the kitchen.  I think I've got rid of all th trash as well as 3 sacks and 2 boxes full of stuff to be donated .......

And these currently unused dishes were stored in hard to reach spots so I packed them up and they will go to my husband's backyard work building.  Instead of using tape to label the tubs (tape might fall off after a few years) I wrote the tub contents on sheets of paper and put them inside the  clear tubs.  Those should stay in place 👍

That's about the extent of my progress.  There is cleaning to still be done and a bit more organizing.  

Now, my cabinets are nothing like a game of Jenga.  Everything is easy to see and take out or put back.  

I heard on the radio that for the first time, more homes with 3 car garages are being built than 1 bedroom apartments.  They said it was because more multi-generational families are living together and that's why we have bigger homes. 

Nope, I don't think that's why.  I think people want bigger homes because they have so much stuff! 😂

What do you think?  

a plastic canvas gift. a supper oops and my EEK! kitchen situation

well- I'm still having blogger app problems so I am typing this on our desktop. 

this is my latest craft project- a plastic canvas Headdress for my father in law- to replace the one I made him about 20 years ago.  The top on is the new one and the bottom on is the old one.  The red yarn on the old one faded to off-white. 

He will hang it off the rear view mirror in his pick-up.   

Last night's supper- first we had a big green salad.  Then I planned to serve sloppy joes with some sloppy joe filling that I froze a couple months ago.  But when I heated it up,  it just didn't seem right.  I already had the buns toasted so we just put slices of cheese in them and served it with the spinach and corn that was ready. 
It was OK- and much better than cooking something else or going out. 

my kitchen right now- there is too much stuff on the counters because there is too much stuff in the cabinets and pantrys.  I have some free time over the next 4-5 days so my plan is to clean and organize every kitchen storage area. 
I want my kitchen to be useable and happy again.  This is a perfect time to get organized too with Thanksgiving and Christmas right around the corner. 

so by weekend's end, I hope to have it all done and have after photos to share with you all. 

End of October round up

first,  I usually do my posts with the Blogger App on an IPad.  I was able to load these photos but when I add words, it shuts off.  So, I'll do what I can out of the app but all the words will be at the top.




Anyway- Gavin was baptized this month. It was a very special day.
He invited so many family and friends and our church was full.

Afterward,  many of us went to lunch and bowl at a local restaurant.  The photo is the most recent group shot of all 8 grands together that day.


Sewing- I finished the plastic canvas tissue box for our son's office.

We shopped at the commissary and our groceries were put in all those brown sacks.  So many!  I folded them all up and will either reuse or recycle or pass them on.

A Sprouts grocery store just opened in our town.  It is so nice!  We got coupon books full of free coupons - they are dated to be used 2 every week for 5 weeks.  The first week was free Reds burritos and salsa.

The 3 big pumpkins showed up in our yard- gifted to us by a mystery pumpkin Santa Claus someone.  We don't know who but almost every home on our blog got some.

New dishes - a sweet gift from my husband ❤️

We have been having very mild weather, it feels like late spring, not Autumn.  We have enjoyed several picnic lunches during this stretch of nice days.

Halloween is not my cup of tea but we do live in a family neighborhood with lots of children so we bought a good bit of candy to pass out.
It was a fun evening with mostly families coming by.  It was fun to see so many of the parents dressed up as well as the children,
The dad in the dinosaur suit was the talk of the neighborhood

It's almost November ...................

Grandson Gavin was baptized at our tiny church.

Fall Tree, a rainbow, makeup repair, meal prep and thrift store bargains.

Hello everyone,  here is another a multi topic post.  Do you all prefer these jumbled up ones or would you rather read short, more frequent posts?  

Anyway...........

We bought this 4.5 pre lit tree at Hobby Lobby.  We added some extra colored lights that blink, artifical fruit and am assortment of ribbon we already had.  We just really enjoy the twinkling lights when it's dark outside and the grands all like it too.  

After Thanksgiving, the fall things will come off and this will then be our Christmas tree.  And then it might be the Valantine tree and Easter tree before it gets stored away for next year.  

We have had quite a bit of rain this fall.  This early morning rainbow, that seems to end right in our daughter's home, was photographed by our son in law.  

I'm so glad he got this photo and I know it pleased his family too.  

Almost magical looking, right?

Makeup repair

I saw this hack to repair a broken compact and since I had one, I gave it a shot.  

The tutorial said to use a plastic spoon and alcohol. 

Makeup is messy and stains so I worked on a paper towel.  

Crunch up the makeup more, with the flat end of the spoon, until the makeup is powdery.  

Then stir in alcohol by drops until it goes back together.  

Let it dry and then see how it turns out.

My makeup turned out fine and is very usuable once again. 

I call this one a win.  

We have another busy week ahead and I had mostly basic produce on hand,  so I prepped it all to have a head start on the week. 

Lettuce, tomatoes and onions are in the first 2 containers for taco toppings and for sandwiches.  

There is a container of diced potatoes to make a copycat version of Olive Garden's potato sausage kale soup.  

One dish has diced carrots, celery and potatoes for vegetable beef soup.  

The big dish is a simple salad to add to any lunch or supper. 

 The last dish is the end of the carrots, cabbage, celery, bell peppers and onions to make a vegetable noodle stirfry we really like.  

If the potatoes are covered with water, they will stay white and be good in the fridge for at least a week.

Then everything was labeled and put in the fridge until needed.  

I went to my favorite thrift store twice last week in search of long pants and long sleeve shirts for the grands. 

I found quite a few of both in the sizes needed.  

Below is what I bought the first day and I got almost as much the next trip. 

Besides play clothes,  I also added some dress up clothes from their 75% off Halloween costumes.  

So, it was a good week here and I hope all of you are fine too.  

And here is one funny picture to give you a smile

He is helping Grandpa in the garage while wearing a car buffer attachment on his head 😂

Monarchs, gardening, cooking, medical info and grands

Monarch butterfly season- they are loving our backyard zinnias.  At one time, I counted 8 of them feeding there.  

But I am a lousy photographer so I never got very many of them in one shot.

The front yard rose bed - before ......

My son in law told me about a new rose disease called Rosette and he thinks these bushes have it.  I did some internet research and I think he's right,  

Anyway, I usually trim these bushes way back in the fall so I just did it early this year.  

They may have to be removed but I'll wait till spring and we will see what happens.  

Cooking

I cooked a special meal one day as my husband returned home from his second trip to help his parents.  His dad needed surgery for a broken hip.  I'm happy my husband could go be with them and I'm happy my father in law is healing and my husband could come back home.  

We had some store bell peppers and some homegrown bell peppers.  So I made 2 pans of stuffed peppers.  We had one pan for supper, and also shared them with my parents.  The second pan went in the freezer for a future meal.  And yes, one pan looks different as the homegrown peppers are much smaller than the store bought and I added a little leftover mozzarella cheese to it as well. 

For dessert, I baked a blackberry pie.  These were wild blackberries my dad picked and we froze.  I used some of my freezer pie crusts.  There were some dough scraps so I made 2 tiny cherry pies.  I tried out pie in the silicone muffin cups and it worked great!  They baked nice and brown and released from the cups so easy.  

I used part of a can of Dollar Tree cherry pie filling for the mini cherry pies- down further you'll see what I did the rest of it.......

Our little backyard garden is yielding a bit of Okra.  

To cook okra, slice it thin and then shake it in a bag with just enough cornmeal to coat it.  

Put it in a hot skillet with a thin layer of oil to coat the bottom of the pan.  Add diced onions, salt and pepper.  

Keep cooking and stirring occasionally until it all cooked and browned.  

This is a very Southern dish.  And so good!  

With the rest of that can of cherry pie filling, I baked a half recipe of a family favorite for breakfast the next morning,  

Cherry Swirl Coffee Cake.  

This is a recipe I have used so many times.  Years ago, I wrote on this recipe "Nina's favorite". And then she wrote "yum yum". 😄

I baked that coffee cake in the early morning while we were in a thunderstorm.  Shortly after it was done,  our electricity went off and stayed off for about an hour.  

It was still dark so I got out 2 battery operated lanterns.  

Its nice to be prepared.  

And a medical tip .............

While my husband was away helping his parents, my dad had MOHS surgery on his nose for melanoma.  My brother was with Dad at the hospital.  Dad's nose requires some special care at home while he heals.  When the nurse was giving those instructions, my brother took a video with his phone and shared it with me and our Mom.  

This was so helpful to us to watch and to see exactly what to do.  

This is not the actual video- just a screen shot.  

So, many people have a phone that videos now.  If your getting special medical instructions like this, see if it's ok to video.  

I took my mom to a couple of her doctor appointments during the last few weeks while Dad is recuperating. And I 

was so impressed with her general doctor who made some changes in a prescription for her.  As he visited with her and told he what he wanted her to do, he was also writing it down.  Then he gave her that sheet of his instructions so she could know exactly what he recommended.  

That young doctor has the nicest penmanship too! 

Family Time

Right now, 4 of our grandchildren are having a cousin sleepover on our living room floor.  Before they went to sleep, they watched "Beauty and the Beast" and tomorrow morning, they are excited about riding their bikes. 

It's 3:30 a.m now and they are sound asleep, Grandpa is asleep but I am wide awake.  

I guess I'll be taking a nap tomorrow afternoon.  

Questions about press on nails

This post is just about wearing press on nails -

I've been asked several questions about them 

Below, I'm wearing Dollar Tree glue on nails.  I don't like the glue on nails quite as well as the Impress press on nails with a sticker back but I do sometimes wear them. 

Yes, sometimes these nails pop off or start loosening before it is time for a new set.

It is quick and easy to fix a priblem.  

I keep this small zippered bag in my purse.  Inside is a bottle of nail glue and extras of whatever nails I am currently wearing.  If I lose a nail or need a repair,  I just get this little bag and can fix the problem in a minute.  

Sometimes a loose nail needs a drop of glue.  Sometimes I need to put on a whole new nail.  

So whether I am on the go or at home,  repairs are quick and easy.  And way quicker than waiting for polish to dry or going by a salon for a repair.