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.  

Cooking, sewing, flowers and a sweet Etsy shop

Hello everyone 😄

I did some cooking to take to my parents this week.  I baked buns with my grandparents recipe, oatmeal cookies done the easy way with a cake mix, baked carrots and my Aunt Evelyn's Tuna Rice Casserole.  

For lunch today, Jackson and I had some of the extras of that meal.  He really liked the Tuna Rice which I fed him with a fork.  It delicious but too messy as a finger food.  

Can you see the bun in his hand? 

Then he finished off his old fashioned meal with a new fangled applesauce squeeze pouch.  

Aunt Evelyn's recipe - I think it's rare to find a casserole recipe that doesn't use a can of cream soup.  This has an easy to make cheese sauce. 

It's a great recipe if you have leftover rice.  Measure the rice after cooked, not before.  

Aunt Evelyn was Catholic and she often served this to her husband and 6 children on Fridays- but I suspect she must of doubled or tripled the recipe to feed that many mouths.  

Like the Dutch Baby recipe, this recipe uses just basic ingredients and is very budget friendly. 

Sewing - my son requested a tissue box cover for his office so I'm making this flying geese pattern in blues and grays to match that office.  

It is a Leisure Arts online pattern that I bought several years ago and stitches up quickly.  

I

Manicure for the first of Autumn- these are press on nails from Impress.  I sometimes wear Dollar Tree nails but the Impress are my favorite.  I bought these at Walmart. There was a big display of new seasonal nails right beside the costume section. 

We have zinnias growing in both our front and backyards and they are thriving in our current cooler, wet weather 

I bought a small art piece for fall from a brand new Etsy shop.  It's a hand painted plaque that says "happy fall y'all" inside a vine wreath.  I hung it over a vintage mirror in our dining room and I am so happy with how it looks - but obviously I don't have photography skills when it comes to mirrors.  

https://www.etsy.com/shop/Letterstoathief

The shop belongs to the daughter of an internet friend of mine that I've known for a dozen or more years.  I think most of you know Terri of Blue House Journal and Penny Ann Poundwise from her blogs. 

If you're needing a gift or a little something for your home, browse Katie's shop.  

Dutch Baby for breakfast- yum!

Want something really good for breakfast, something that tastes fancy but uses very basic ingredients and is no trouble to make?  

Below is the Dutch Baby I made yesterday.  Sometimes they are called puff pancakes and are a lot like English Yorkshire Puddings.  

When my children were teens, this was one of their favorite before school breakfasts.  

For 2 people, use the above amount of ingredients.  Just increase for however many servings you need.  2 egg version  -fits in a pie pan

 3 eggs - used a 7 by 11 (that's what is in my picture) 

 4 eggs - use a 9 by 13 pan 

Start by preheating the oven to 400 degrees C.  

When it is preheated, put the butter in your baking pan and put in the oven until the butter is melted and just starting to bubble.  (This recipe really needs Real Butter - not margarine) 

Wisk the eggs in a bowl until just starting to get frothy. 

Then add the flour, milk and salt until lump free. 

Pour the batter over the melted bubbling butter into the hot baking pan.

Close the oven and bake for 25 minutes.  (While it is baking, it needs no tending to, so you have time to get ready for the day while it bakes) 

The pancake will puff up and get a little crispy on the bottom and just be delicious! 

Serve with a sprinkle of powdered sugar or maple syrup or a squeeze of lemon juice.  And do eat it warm straight from the oven.  It's not as good after its cold.  

Braeden is a 2 handed eater- he had Dutch Baby in one hand and bacon in the other 😂 

Front porch for fall and pie

Hello everyone! A cool front moved in to Oklahoma while we slept and it finally feels like Autumn.  

Below is our front entryway, decorated for fall.  

Below is a Pinterest photo that I used for inspiration.  Mine does not look just like it but I like the black funiture with the fall pillow and yellow mum.  I also like how simple it is.  

I made the pillow from a printed fabric panel that I had in the sewing room.  (If you look back at posts about my craft room, you can see I have a huge amount of supplies, mostly from my dad's yard sale finds and my mom downsizing her stash when they moved) 

Anyway, this panel was for a wall hanging but I used it make the pillow front.  I reused an old living room floor pillow for the pillow.  I used some iron on adhesive, WonderUnder, to attach it to the pillow front and then I zigzagged all the edges.  

I made the rag banner across the window, also inspired by Pinterest.  My strips were about 22 by 1 inch and just rough cut by hand -not precise or straight at all.  

The base was 2 lengths of jute twine,  I tied a loop on each end so they could just hang on a nail.  

The $3 mum is from Walmart, repotted into a spray painted trick or treat pumpkin, $1 at Walmart. 

The black chair and plantstand are from our backyard.  

Grandson don't get porch decorations.  One grandson brought the sunflower pillow into the house and said "found this outside" 😂

For supper last night,  my parents, son and 2 grandsons were here.  

I made soft chicken tacos with refried  beans and salad. 

Dessert was a just baked pumpkin pie.  

My dad ate 1 taco and 2 pieces of pie 😄

Gavin is a pie fan too.  He also had 2 pieces.  

I used a new to me pumpkin pie recipe.  It has 2 tablespoons of molasses and it really adds a deep flavor.  Apparently my dad and Gavin really liked the new recipe. 

http://www.gonnawantseconds.com/2009/11/classic-pumpkin-pie/

Happy Fall Y'all 😄

Getting back to "doing stuff"

If you haven't noticed from my scarce posts,  I don't feel like I have been living up to my motto.  

Not that I am being Idle but the last year has brought lots of changes -my husband retired, my parents moved to our town, we now have 8 young grandchildren with 3 of them being babies.  

So I have been busy but I haven't done much creating or extra stuff that I like to do and get so much satisfaction from.   And when I do have free time, I've relaxed with Social Media and Candy Crush instead of doing things like handwork or recipe book reading,  

So yesterday, I decided it was time to get back to my "do stuff" ways.  

Our front entryway needs spruced up for fall so I looked on Pinterest for inspiration.  I found a simple photo and I am shooting for that look.  Here is a peek - a just sewn up Autumn-looking pillow by me

This morning, I got out the food processor and mixed up 12 pie crusts.  One will be for supper tonight and the rest are going in the freezer.  I used my tried and true recipe and mixed it up 3 times.  

Simple ingredients --- 

All the dough mixed up

Rolled out 

Then stacked alternating with wax paper in a plastic cake keeper.  9 of them went in pie pans and  the others are just discs of dough for top crusts or lattice when needed,  

My son is probably wondering how did I ever get this many pie crusts in our freezer,  Sunday, he helped me dig out a container of pecans when this chest freezer was messy and heavily frosted on the sides.  That was quite a chore.  So........

Monday, I defrosted and organized that neglected freezer so now there is plenty of room, see? 

There is a mess on the counter 

And in the sink but I only have to clean it up once!  

Other tips if you want to bulk-make pie crusts to freeze.....

    All of my pie pans, except one don't have handles.  The plain pans are easier to fit into bags or a        

     plastic pie or cake keeper.  

    Don't bother with fancy crimping before freezing.  When stacked, it will just get squashed. 

     Do the crimping after the crust thaws when you are making pie. 

We are a family that really enjoys pie.  I think these 12 crusts will last for several months and will be so handy to make a great dessert even if I'm busy.  

This sign is over the door of one of our pantries.  

Hopefully tomorrow,  I'll have the front porch area finished and ready to share.  

Flexible cooking and just a little CVS

Hello all.  I haven't blog in so long so I'll just jump in with the most recent things.  

Today, no grands are here and I've been cleaning and scratch cooking.  I'm cooking a 7 pound chicken in my big crockpot and I made a batch of homemade noodles.  This will make lots of food- we can eat, share and maybe freeze some.  

Yesterday was a different kind of day.  Our 15 month old grandson was with us and he was not in a happy mood.  So, for an easy supper, I baked a new product, Freezer To Plate.  It was so easy! Just put the box ingredients, water and chicken pieces in a baking pan, cover and bake.  

It is low calorie, very easy cleanup and comes in 4 flavors.  I bought ours at a military commissary but my daughter said she saw them at Walmart.   There are $1 coupons for this on Coupons.com and in this past Sunday's paper.  

I've only tried this flavor and it's good.  My husband and I both liked it.  

One of the best things about living now is we can be flexible and have choices about so many things.  We can do slow cooking when we choose or we can still serve our family good food with easy products.  

This week is a good week at CVS.  I've made 2 trips and this is most of what I bought but some candy, drinks, deodorants and granola bars have already been consumed or shared and aren't in the photo. 

I think I spent $24 cash with lots of coupons and cvs deals. And I have $31 in ExtraCareBucks for next week.  

It is finally starting to cool off so I may think about doing some fall decorating soon. 

But I shook my head when I saw a home in my neighborhood already decorated for Halloween. 😱 seems a bit early to me..................

I still ❤️ CVS

CVS has made a few changes in their coupon policy.  They previously accepted their own coupons if they were expired and they also now limit the stacking of their coupons.  Before, if I had 2 of their coupons for $5/25 on diapers and I was buying $25 in diapers, I could use both of those.  Now, I would have to have $50 in diapers to use 2 and they could not be expired. 

Lots of CVS shoppers on the Facebook groups are upset about it and make it sound like the worst thing ever.  

Well, I haven't been to CVS in several weeks but there were some good deals this week so I went today and I did just as good as ever.  So much for the "sky is falling" talk on the FB groups......

I had $15 in ExtraCareBucks, all the rest of the coupons were from this past Sunday's paper and CVS red box machine and the CVS app.  

My total started at $88 and dropped to $10.77.  

I got back $13.88 in ExtraCareBucks for my next trip.  

A dust ruffle for the full size bed in our toy room

We have just a full size bed on a metal frame in this room.  I didn't like how when the bed was made the traditional way with a regular dust ruffle and a quilt on top, it got so messed up when the grands played in there.  The dust ruffle was always crooked and the quilt would slide one way or the other and it just  messy.  

So after a lot of thought,  I came up with an idea to sew a dust ruffle in a way that it shouldn't slide and to just use a colored fitted sheet on the bed when no one sleeping.  

I moved the top mattress and covered the bottom box spring with an old fitted sheet and pulled it so it was tight.  

Then with a yard stick and marker, I marked a line 3 inches inside.  It will be my sewing line.  

This way the dust ruffle is completely under the top mattress with no poking out of the base sheet the dust ruffle is sewn to. 

Then I looked through my fabric stash (I have a big fabric stash, most of it was gifted to me). 

My original idea was to reuse some floral curtains but I can't find them (maybe they were too faded and I got rid of them, who knows?). So I decided to use a fabric that the children would like.  

I had long lengths of some mountain wildlife fabric and some deer fabric.  

I went with the wildlife print.  Then I measured the length - I think it was 18 1/2 inches, allowing for hem and turning under top. 

I cut out lengths and I used either 5 or 6.  I sewed them all together in to one very long length and machine hemmed the bottom and turned under the top edge about a 1/2 inch.  

Then, I got down on my knees and pinned the dust ruffle to the fitted sheet base all around 3 sides.   I pinned it on the line I drew.  

At the corners,  I just folded the extra length into pleats until it looked OK.  

I took the whole pinned together sheet and dust ruffle to the sewing machine and sewed it close to the pinned edge.  This was the trickiest part as it was a rather big piece to steer through a sewing machine.  

I put the freshly sewn dust ruffle back on the bed, put the mattress back on with a sage green fitted sheet and added some patchwork pillows I sewed about 6 years ago.  

 Now the grands can roll their cars all over the bed and not mess up the bedding. 

Also, I know the top sheet will need laundered often and it will be much easier to wash than a bedspread or quilt.  

The bed is ready for anyone to sleep in it, We can just add the top sheet and blankets.  

I like that the dust ruffle hides the ugly metal frame and I think the grands will do some pretend playing with the animals and cabins on this dust ruffle.