Hello on the last day of summer

Hello everyone 

Sorry about my break- days are busy and not always very interesting so I haven’t really thought to share anything. 

Today was fairly routine but some of you might like seeing what I did.

First,  my to do list for this week was not pretty but I’m thankful so much of it is done,

 

Today was mostly a kitchen day.

I had some ripe bananas so I baked a batch of muffins- half went in the freezer and the other half are for whenever anyone feels like eating some. ‘

Granddaughter Elizabeth ate 2 when she got home from school 😋

My husband’s favorite quick breakfast is a sausage biscuit. 

I cooked these with one roll of sausage and 1 can of biscuits,  the leftovers freeze perfectly and reheat in the microwave

I’ve blogged about sausage biscuits many times.  The new thing in the photo is I’ve been using cast iron.  I’ve mostly used nonstick but I’m tired of replacing them when the nonstick starts sticking. 

My husband had a few pieces of cast iron that he got from a friend way back when our sons were in a church youth group and my husband cooked for the camp outs. 

He showed me the skillets and I did a little research.  One is a Waggoner brand and really old I think.  It was quite an effort but I cleaned them and re-seasoned them and this skillet in the photo cooks so nice,  

I made a batch of taco seasoning, which I have also blogged about many times.  We all still like it! 

I did a grocery pickup from Walmart - want to see what I bought?  

Inflation has me shopping very basically 

Block cheese, milk, In the bags are biscuits.

Onions, apples, oranges, lettuce, tomatoes, grapes

Lots of cheese, Turkey pepperoni, black pepper, bread, tortillas and hot dog buns.  

  —- I ordered Walmart brand bread and tortillas because of their lower price  but they subbed the name brand ones for the store brand price. 

Non food items were pill boxes and hairbrushes  for me,  vitamins for me and husband  and allergy med for one of the grands. 

I repacked the cheese to freeze in smaller portions 

I prefer to use reusable containers but didn’t have enough today.  

Last week I made big batches of lentil taco filling and pasta sauce.  

They are in the freezer  in the rest of my containers so I had to use a few zipper bags for this cheese when I ran out of empty containers.  

Dessert tonight was an apple crisp made with 3 apples that were starting to wrinkle.

It’s a Betty Crocker recipe and it was delicious. 

I had a very happy memory when I was making it.  About 20 years when one of our sons was in college, he came for supper and brought 2 sweet girls.  I don’t remember what I cooked for the meal but dessert that night was also Betty Crocker’ s apple crisp.  Those girls especially enjoyed that dessert.  

I used my cookbook for the recipe but I found the exact recipe here https://lovintheoven.com/betty-crockers-apple-crisp/

Except I used 1/2 cup of brown sugar instead of 3/4 cups and no nutmeg. Just cinnamon 

And here is the room I spent so much time in today.  My kitchen is open at both ends so I took a photo from both angles. 

Good night everyone 

❤️ Rhonda 

BEDA #16 all about Perler beads

Hello everyone 

My grandchildren really enjoy Perler bead crafting.  I think we first started doing them back when Elizabeth and Gavin were 1st and 2nd graders- they are now 7th and 8th graders and still like Perler beads as do all the 7 younger grandchildren. 

Perler beads are plastic and we’ve like the regular size as well as Biggie Perler beads.  

Perlers also come in a micro size, about like seed beads but we haven’t used that kind.  

When you buy new beads, they come in color sorted trays and in bulk mixed buckets.  Either work fine but we all prefer the sorted trays.  

You need a base plate to work the Perlers on.  Plates come in shapes as well as plain square ones.  

Tweezers are not necessary but I prefer to use them and I think all the grandchildren do too. 

After the pattern with beads is complete,  you just cover it with the Perler paper and iron with any regular iron. The iron melts the beads and they whole thing holds together.  

The ironed side will look smooth and the other side will look like the beads. M

After ironing,  we put a heavy book on top and let the designs cool as they sometimes get a little wavy if they cool uncovered.  

These are a few of the grands recent makes - patterns come with the bead sets or can be found online or you can just make up your own art work. 

Below is a 3 dimensional bookshelf complete with books made by Elizabeth.  There is also a Biggie beads project that I will use as a trivet. 

JJ made the pattern himself.  Afterward I told him it looked like a Trip Around The World quilt and he didn’t believe me until I showed him the quilts on Pinterest.  He thought he was first person to ever make this pattern.  

Adults like doing Perler projects.  

In our experience, 3 years up to 6 are best with the Biggie beads. 

Some 6’s can do regular Perlers and by 7, all the kids have mastered the regular ones. 

If your needing a project that multiple ages can all enjoy, or maybe you’re starting Christmas shopping- we all think Perlers are great! 

They are sold at craft stores and big places like Amazon and Walmart. 

You might even find some at a yard sale. 

Our very first Perlers were given to us by a family who’s daughters had stopped using them.  

❤️Rhonda 

BEDA #12-15

Oops!  I thought I missed 2 days of BEDA but it was 3.  

First,  I’m starting Monday with a new to do list for the week.  

Our weekend was both busy and slow.  

My husband smoked a ham and 2 chickens so meals were easy.  

Saturday morning, I tried to do some in store shopping but it was very frustrating.

First I went to Dollar General- I wanted to use their $5/25 Saturday coupon.  It was so busy in there and all the shopping carts were being used by other customers.  It was so crowded,  I just left. 

Then I went to a Walmart.  This store is being remodeled -again!  

Their AC was not working right.  

I live in a college town and the students are retuning so many of them were shopping at Walmart with their parents so many of the aisles there were full with clumps of shoppers.  

After I bought a few things,  I got back in my vehicle.  

Walmart is normally less than a 10 minute drive from home but it took me 30 minutes because so many major streets in my town are closed and/or being redone and because of the all the college traffic.  

I finally got home and told my husband I may never shop in a store again.  Of course at some point, I will.  But Saturday morning was just no fun at all.

And I will NOT be shopping on Saturdays. 

I hadn’t made energy balls in a good while but some the grands asked for them.  

Mix the honey and peanut butter and vanilla.  Then stir in the oats, then the chocolate.

Roll into small balls.  2 of mine probably equal 1 golf ball.  But you can make them any size.  

I have several containers of honey in my pantry but honey has really gone up in price. 

  I think to make these less expensive,  any kind of  maple, pancake syrup would be a perfect substitute for the honey.  I know honey is from a different source than pancake syrup, but they are the same sweetness and consistency so I’m confident it would work. 

 The maple and peanut butter would be a good flavor combination too.  

These energy balls are delicious and much more filling than a store bought granola bar.

They do take a while to roll into balls.  I sat down at the kitchen table and watched a YouTube video while I did them.  

I keep them in the fridge but they would be fine in lunchboxes for a few hours.  

Anyway,  sorry about my absence and for my shopping rant.

I’ve got a list to work on now.

Hope you all have a productive day and no shopping drama 

❤️ Rhonda 

BEDA #11 all kitchen stuff and a movie

Hello everyone 

I stayed home all - did our laundry and a few kitchen things.  

I used the crusts that were cut off for the school lunch sandwiches.  I tossed the crusts with melted butter and just a little garlic salt.  Then I toasted them in this kind of new convection oven. 

We’ve had it a little more than a month and I’m really happy with it.  

It was especially nice for oven cooking things during that bad heat wave.  The oven gets hot but it doesn’t seem to heat up the kitchen like my regular oven.  

I’ve baked cookies, bread, muffins, biscuits, cake, tater tots in this oven all successfully. 

The downside is it’s large - the box of jello is for size reference.  

I do like using it - things are cooking at eye level and so it’s very convenient to keep watch of things while they bake.  

We bought it on Amazon and the brand is Elite Gourmet.  I think it was about $130 but it may be different now.  

Years ago there was another blogger named Lyn who didn’t have an oven.  I’ve thought about her, and so far, it seems this could be a substitute for a traditional oven for most baked things. 

But I’m not trying to convince anyone to buy this.  “influencers” are rather annoying these days.  

I’m just writing about what we are doing. 

But so far, this convection oven-giant air fryer works for us.  

Back to the croutons,  my husband and I had big salads at lunch with croutons and the croutons really made a nice addition to our salads 

Supper tonight was pizza. Leftovers are in the fridge as our son in law is still working and the grandsons have ball practice. 

I expect the late comers will reheat their slices in the new oven.  

I used up some of the leftovers from last night’s Mexican meal and made more burritos for the freezer.  

One of my husband’s friends told him how much he liked a movie called Father Stu.  We rented it from Amazon and watched it this morning. 

Warning -the language is terrible- but it has such a good message about God’s grace and forgiveness.  

It’s main stars are Mark Wahlberg and Mel Gibson.  

We both liked it and would recommend it to adults

❤️ Rhonda 

BEDA #10 kitchen stuff and laundry

Hello - 

There was some smoked pork left from the weekend so I mixed it with cheese and a drained can of Ranch Beans,  

Then I filled tortillas with it

Rolled them up and put in individual bags to freeze for lunches for whoever wants them. 

Ranch beans are pinto beans cooked in Mexican spices and are not to be confused with Ranch dressing - as happened with a grandchild 

I also made 16 sausage biscuit breakfast sandwiches to freeze.  

For the taco filling,  I cubed some beef round steak, added taco seasoning and a little barbecue sauce.  Then it cooked in a crockpot most of the day.  It was tender and delicious! 

Salad topping for the Mexican food

That was supper tonight- served with tortillas and chips.  It was a lot of food and we will have the leftovers for another supper or for lunches 

I don’t normally do the grandkids laundry but I did today 

And that’s all for BEDA #10 

❤️Rhonda