Posts

Showing posts from January, 2013

Cookbooks of Choice

Image
One of my favorite things to do on a cold winter night is sit in the corner chair with the lamp on, wearing my fuzzy pajamas and drinking a cup of coffee with French Vanilla Creamer looking at cookbooks. I adore cookbooks. Even though I adore them, I can't say I collect them. I look at several, but only keep a few. I'm funny that way, I don't like more of anything than I'm going to use and I like to use what I like. These are two of my new favorites. The Pioneer Woman. Almost everything we've made from these books we'll be making again.  Lots of meat meals and that's what works around here.   Next is this Better Homes and Gardens book. This is a very plain book. You would almost think it was old. The pictures are dull, not glossy and the recipes are simple, simply good I would say. This offers a lot of good yeast bread, quick bread and biscuit recipes. This one has a special place and as you can tell has been used until it has f

Eat More Chicken.......Soups On

My brother used to tease me by saying I could make one hundred meals with one chicken. I did it back then because I had to stretch a dollar, I do it now because we raise chickens and I've got to support our product or I will have no dollar to stretch. I found this recipe for chicken soup in an old crock pot cookbook years ago.  I don't even have the book anymore but I still make my chicken soup the same way. Most everyone who tries it says it's the best they've had. They're calling for rain this weekend and since rainy days make good soup days I thought I would share it with you now, so you would have time to get the ingredients  gathered in before the rain gets here. Here goes, Country Chicken Noodle Soup 1 whole chicken 1 cup chopped onion 2 carrots, chopped 1 tsp. salt 1/4 tsp. thyme 1/2 tsp. basil 1 tsp. fresh ground pepper 1 qt. water 1 cup uncooked noodles 2 celery stalks, chopped Put the onion, carrots, celery, salt, thyme, basil a

Happy Reading

I've always loved to read. When our kids were little I read to them all the time. I would buy books at the used book store, yard sales and I even ordered them from the weekly reader. We went to the library and the book mobile when it used to visit the townships. Mark built long shelves in the garage for all our books. We had thousands of them most all  were lost when the house burned. I kept a list in a notebook of every book I ever read the kids. I'd like to be able to see that list again, but it was lost in the fire too. We read the usual picture books but  from the time they were very little I read them books without pictures. I can remember Heidi and Lucas sitting beside me as we read Little House on the Prairie and I'd tell them to imagine the things I read in their minds. We read biographies of the presidents, scientist, slaves, explorers. and on and on. In my own time I liked to  read books on homemaking and organizing, books on being a good mother

Wallpaper Boarder and Rough Talk

My mother loves wallpaper and boarder. She loves it so much she bordered the inside of her refrigerator, that isn't a joke, she did and she likes it that way. The wallpaper loving gene by- passed me and since it by-passed me, I've been working on removing wallpaper over at Lost River. I used the fabric softener, water trick. I scored the paper, I sprayed the paper, I pulled the paper, I scraped the paper. If I was a woman given to rough talk, I would have been driven to talk rough today, but since I'm not I didn't. I'm home now.  The wallpaper boarder is off and in the trash. I'm still mad at it though. I wish I would have said something rough to it.

My Mind Was Wandering and I Got Tickled

Since I broke my glasses and can't read I've just been lying here letting my mind wander back over things. I started thinking about the blizzard we had  when I was a girl. Then I got so tickled and started laughing so much I had to get up and tell you about it. You all remember we were out of school for two months and we couldn't go anywhere for a long time. One day dad and the neighbor decided to walk the four miles to town to get groceries. We waited at home for them and when they came back after walking four miles in the bitter cold through snowbanks over their heads, buying the groceries and carrying them the four miles back home, back over the snow banks the first thing the neighbors wife yells out to her husband when she sees him coming is, "Are you smashing the bread Danny?"  "Don't smash the bread Danny!" This cracks me up.  I was just a girl but I knew she shouldn't have said that, I knew it wasn't the time to ask a man i

Face the Storm and Rise Above It

I was watching a show about the buffalo on PBS. It was called, "Facing the Storm."   They said a buffalo is the only animal that will walk into a storm. If they face it, and walk into it they will eventually walk out of it but if they turn from it, the storm will follow them and they'll be in it longer. We all know the eagle is the only bird that flies into and above a storm. It rises above and waits out the storm. This speaks volumes to me. Nothing says America like the buffalo or the eagle. They represent our country, they're a symbol of who we are. When I think of the past I know that's how we were. When a hard time came Americans faced it head on.  They didn't look for anyone to help them but themselves and God. They faced the hardship and then they rose above it. After the storm passed they found themselves in a better place. No wonder these two animals were chosen to represent us. What a great lesson for our kids to learn. A true

New Contest $20.00 Off Cut, Style or Color at Angells Salon

Image
Mark brushing hair off Liv's cheek after cutting her hair.   With the coming of a new year comes  a new contest. Tell us who gave you your very first hair cut for the chance to win $20.00 off the price of a cut, style or color from Angell's Salon when you book an appointment with Jess. You can tell us who cut your hair first by commenting here on the blog or you can comment on the blog facebook page, Then I Thought Of Home - Kelly Gray We'll draw on Saturday morning, Jan 5 at ten o'clock. Let the contest begin! By the way, Charlene Keltner cut Lucas and Jess's hair for the first time.

Bridal Shower Advice and Homemaking Sanity

When I got married in 1983 I was given a bridal shower. The guest were all asked to bring a recipe. Now it's been almost 30 years and things have certainly changed. One of the recipes I received was for Smothered Baked Chicken it came complete with instructions on picking the best hen from the flock, killing and dressing method and of course the baking instructions. I was told not to throw away money on throw aways. For example after I had a good supply of paper grocery sacks stored up I should cut the extra up and use for grease blotters in my platter of fried chicken instead of wasting paper towels for it. Of course now we don't get paper sacks at the grocery and frying is taboo. But I still fry chicken (but I don't dress them myself) and I will still cut up paper bags when I have them. Another word of advice on being a frugal housewife was when the bath towels become worn I should cut them up for use as washcloths.  I still do this too. Of course there was