Praised In The Gates

Hello All!

2009-11-18T14:21:00.002-06:00

Just popping in for another long update :).

Things are going okay here. The fall season has been a busy one. We have been busy with pears and apples and venison and various other things that come up this time of year. We are so very very blessed. This year we were given several bushels of pears, a couple bushels of apples, and recently about 70 lbs. of ground venison (its really good! no gamey taste at all). God is so good to us and always provides above what we ask!! This last week we had revival at our church and it was a blessing but was also quite exausting. We had church every night from Wed. thru Sun. and the services were near two hours long and then each night a different family served a meal to the entire church after the service. We were out late every night and then we were up early and doing our regular daily routine. By Sunday night everyone was exausted LOL. It was well worth it. The evangelist was fantastic and his messages really hit home for us. My husband made some decisions that I can already see are affecting his life and I am praising God for it.
Thanksgiving is coming up and we were invited to spend it with a family from our church and we are really looking forward to it! I will still make a small Thanksgiving meal for us to have on Friday but it will be so much simpler than the usual meal that I spend days working on. We can start decorating for Christmas on Friday so I am excited!! Whooooohooooo!!! I also have to start sewing again since there are only 37 days til Christmas! I am thinking about making the ladies those dishtowels with the potholders sewn on the corners...I saw something like that on Rachel Ray and thought that all the ladies I sew for would actually like them since we all seem to use our dish towels to get stuff out of the oven anyways lol. I have no idea what else I will be sewing yet though. I have so much I want to do and not enough time to do it all. I am going to have to seriously schedule my time from now until Christmas!
I found a wonderful recipe for spice glazed pumpkin scones at another blo!g and I am going to make that this monday for our ladies stamping party at church. It seems lately that all my "social" time has been spent with folks from church (and thats a good thing!)
Well, I have alot to do and need to get going. You all have a blessed day

update

2009-10-21T10:22:00.002-05:00

just have a quick few minutes to update on what I have been doing. Things have been crazy busy here with the fall canning, baking, schoolwork, etc. We have had several of our "upkeep" appointments this month as well....all the kids had to see the eye doctor and yes, all of them needed glasses (not unexpected), then we had the dentist appointments, and next week we have spanky's diabetes appt. so we have been running alot. We also have been living on a weird time schedule that I have finally decided to change.....our days have been running from 9 or 10 in the morning to about midnight and I want to get back to the 7 am to 9 pm schedule if I can but it seems our life just runs at the odd hours more. I am not even sure I should change it although I feel like I "ought" to because so many folks act shocked when they find out how our day goes. We, unfortunately, have a person in our church that is a public school teacher and she thinks that everyone should go by the 8 to 3 school schedule. I don't know why I let that get to me. Our schedule is fine the way it is but I still feel like maybe I should go back to the more traditional times....maybe not thought. It does work for our family.
We have had some issues at our church lately, too. One big one is that someone in the church keeps insisting on dusting the pews with Liquid Gold furniture polish. My son is allergic to nuts and the almond oil in the LG really trigger a reaction from him. Thankfully we haven't had to use the epi but still....we have asked repeatedly that they not dust with it, it was removed from the cleaning cabinet and yet, someone keeps using it. That someone is well aware of the nut allergy and the LG issue. It makes me wonder exactly what she is trying to do? So anyhow, until the issue is permanently resolved he will be going to church with my inlaws whose church is Peanut/treenut free due to a child with nut allergies. Atleast I know he will be safe there. I hate to do it, but until this issue is resolved I have to keep my son safe.
We don't ask that our church be a nut free zone, that simply wouldn't be feasible for everyone in the church to go to the extremes that we adhere to. I would never expect anyone to do that, but I don't think I am asking to much by asking them to use one of the other dozen dusting products in the churches cleaning cabinet to dust with. Really, is that being unreasonable? Its not like I am saying that anyone can not bring things with nuts into the church. Heck, on Monday night we had a ladies thing and one of the ladies brought cookies with walnuts in them and I was in heaven because i can not have them at home or around my son. I don't get upset about that stuff because he doesn't come into contact with it....but the pews? C'mon, we sit in them 3 times a week.
Well, now that I ranted instead of sharing, I guess I will get off my soap box and get back to work.
Y'all have a nice day!!!

A wonderful day!

2009-09-23T14:34:00.004-05:00

Last night we went to a revival meeting with some friends from our church. They used to go the church that was hosting the revival and invited us to go with them. It was an hours drive from our home but well worth it! It was absolutely amazing!! I have never been to a revival where the folks were so revved up before and we loved it! The preaching was by a Brother Fugate and he really knows how to "bring it"!! The church was so small that the pews weren't much longer than a loveseat and we were literally piled on top of each other with each adult holding one or two children on their laps just so everyone could fit in the sanctuary and the singing was so loud and not just because the room was small but because everyone was really giving their all. The preaching really hit home and the alter was full during the prayer, so full that folks were just kneeling where they stood or sat. Never seen anything like it before in my life!!! Its wonderful to see God's people like that!

Afterwards we went to DQ and enjoyed icecream and fellowship and didn't get home until after midnight. We have been very blessed to meet a family that is similar to ours at the church we attend. They have been such a blessing to us! Missygail is the only girl besides me in our home and she gets so lonely for female companionship of girls her age sometimes. This family has 9 girls (yes! 9!) and they are all such wonderful girls. Their oldest is teaching Missygail to play the piano which is such a blessing! She has been praying for piano lessons for years and finally God has answered in such a wonderful way!!

Tonight we have church as usual and I am looking forward to it. I love to go to church. I always have, even as a little girl. My family didn't go to church so whenever someone would invite me I would beg my parents to let me go. Sometimes churches have problems and we get hurt there but I am learning that no one is perfect and that you just have to let things roll off of you and not let them make you bitter. All too often people get hurt in church (emotioally, not physically) and they get bitter and never come back...sometimes its the lost who get hurt and turn away from any chance at salvation because of it, and sometimes the saved get hurt and give up on church and get bitter. I have been there, my husband has been there but we are learning that if we extend grace to those who hurt us its much easier to keep serving the Lord and enjoying ourselves while we are at it.

My younguns

2009-09-23T14:07:00.003-05:00

Tang Pie & Veggie Pizza

2009-09-20T15:56:00.003-05:00

This is one of my favorite summer desserts. Its very citrus-y and refreshing (though not so frugal to make)

Tang Pie
1/4 cup of Tang drink mix*
1 tub (8oz.) sour cream
1 can of sweetened condensed milk
1 tub (8oz.) of coolwhip

Thaw the coolwhip. Beat together the sweetened condensed milk, Tang, and the sour cream. Fold in the coolwhip. Pour into a graham cracker crust and refridgerate for atleast 2 hours.
*you can use any sweetened drink mix in this with great results. We like it with the Countrytime lemonade and pink lemonade powdered mixes.

Veggie Pizza
1 cup each of diced broccoli, cauliflower, and shredded carrots
1 block (8oz) of cream cheese
1 cup of sour cream (8oz)
1 bottle of ranch dressing
1 bag (8oz) mozzerella cheese, shredded
2 tubes of cresent rolls
Unroll each cresent roll tube into its own 9x13 pan. Bake until done and cool. Soften the cream cheese and beat it together with the sourcream and the ranch dressing. Spread on the cresent rolls (we spread it on thick...for thinner layer of the spread use only half of the mixture). Mix the veggies together in a ziplock baggie and then sprinkle evenly on the dressing mix. Sprinkle the tops with the shredded cheese. Serve cold.

I took both of these to a ladies stamping thing at church and had several requests for the recipes. Its so easy that a child can make either recipe. In fact, for this particular church thing MissyGail made both recipes by herself. All I did was chop the veggies for her!

Daily chat

2009-08-24T13:32:00.003-05:00

Hi all. I thought I would stop in and visit for a few minutes. Last Saturday (not this past one but th, e one before that) Hubby and I went out on a double date with another married couple from church. We had an absolutely awesomely fun time!!! We played putt-putt golf and we ate Coldstone icecream (oh my word!! its beyond divine!) and then had a nice dinner. Afterwards we went to Starbucks. I had never been to any of the 4 places we went that night.....and I have to say that I was not overly thrilled with Starbucks. I just am not a coffee person. Ick. But we had a wonderful time of fellowship with them and a nice date. However, we came home to sick children. Little Miss, Spanky, and Taterbean were sick. I wound up taking them to the doctor and they all three had ear infections and Little Miss also ended up with bronchial pneumonia and Spanky had a bad cold. Happily they are much better now.

We had done 2 days of school before they got sick and all last week they were too sick to sit up for very long, mostly they laid around and slept so Hubby and I agreed that we would "officially" start school on September 1st. That gives them plenty of time to heal.

Well, I need to run. I still don't have my computer hooked up right at home yet and my time is up LOL.
Have a great day and God bless!!

General Daily Talk

2009-08-11T14:37:00.002-05:00

I am at my inlaws house sitting with my husband's elderly aunt. She is a wonderful sweet lady and I adore her. She recently moved in with my inlaws and can't be by herself for very long so I came to sit with her today so her grandson and my son could swim and go fishing. They went fishing and it started pouring down rain but they perservered by taking an old seat from a van down and a huge picnic umbrella and setting up their own little area safe from the rain. They even caught some big fish LOL.

Its finally hot here. We have been blessed with a very mild summer so far but Saturday the temperature started climbing and it has gotten HOT. I am so thankful that the duplex we live in has central air conditioning. We haven't had air conditioning in almost 3 years and it is so nice. The utility bill was high but not nearly as high as I expected it to be. I try to keep it at 76 but these last few days it has run non-stop. I am almost looking forward to fall.

I got the Christmas music out yesterday and had it playing. It drives the kids nuts but I just love it. I wasn't planning on getting it out this early this year (I made it all the way thru July without playing any of it LOL) but my MIL gave me a candle warmer and some candle tarts to go in it and one was scented "apple clove butter" and I swear it smelled so much like Christmas that I just couldn't resist getting out the Christmas music! Now I am also planning gifts. I was going to start early with gift buying and making but with the move and all I just have not had the time or the money to do it. I need to get on it now though. I have no idea what I am going to make this year. I know my MIL needs a new pair of fleece mittens (she got gasoline on the pair I made her last year). I just don't know.

Hello again & alot of changes

2009-08-10T18:23:00.002-05:00

Hi everyone! I am back from a very long hiatus. My last post was way back in March and here it is already August. There have been some big changes in our lives since I last posted! One big one was that we moved. We moved from a really big house (over 2000 sq. feet) to a small duplex that is probably between 700 & 800 sq. feet. It was hard to move from something so big to something so small but I am really happy that we did it. There is so much less stress in our lives since we moved.

Also there were some unexpected blessings in moving into this tiny duplex! One big one is that we are all yelling at each other alot less (have to keep the noise down in deference to our neighbors), I have had to be alot more organized, there is much less clutter, and I have managed, finally (after years and years) to tame the laundry monster!!! I have been praying for years to get it under control and not being able to but in this little duplex the washer and dryer are only about 10 feet from the dining room table (and there is no wall or door or anything seperating anything...its one long rectangular area) and so its easy to get to (no stairs, no flooding basement, no spiders or other creepy crawlies) and there is a small table that was left in the duplex that sits next to the dryer and I use it to fold clothes directly out of the dryer. I also take a day and iron all the clothes that need to be ironed. I can't tell you how good it feels to have tamed that laundry monster. Oh, I still get behind and have to work to keep up, don't get me wrong, but usually it only takes 3 or 4 loads to catch up at any given time (thats not bad for a family of 7).

Another change in our family is how we view the Lord and His importance in our lives. We began going to church more and more and now we are there almost every service. We do miss a few sometimes but for the most part we go to church and we don't plan or allow the teens to plan anything on church days. We have things like illness and whatnot that do keep us from going but for the most part we are faithful in our attendance. My husband has made some huge changes in his life! He quit cussing, he quit using chewing tobacco, he is really editing the movies we watch and the music we listen to. He has been helping a little bit with the teens at church and is hoping to be able to help the youth leader with the teens on a regular basis. He is really working to serve the Lord and to live a godly life. I am amazed at the changes in him! Ladies don't ever stop praying for your husbands. You never know when your prayers will be answered. I can't even tell you how long I have been praying for mine..it feels like forever and I am seeing the answers to my prayers in ways that absolutely amaze me!!!

We are getting ready to start school this week. My oldest child starts back at the public school on Thursday and we will start school the same day. I am working on getting the house totally unpacked (still have about a dozen boxes to get put away). I need to get school supplies, also. I am perterbed with our local Stuffmart. I noticed that the school supplies are 10 to 15 cents higher than they are at the Super Stuffmart that is 40 miles away (both Super Stuffmarts, one north of us and the other south of us). I won't be supporting our local Stuffmart for much longer at this rate. They not only quit carrying quite a few products that I use all the time (my favorite toothpaste, dishliquid, soap pads, borax, etc.) and the prices have gone up. It might be only a few cents per product but they add up and since I have to go out of town for doctors appts. anyways I am going to do my shopping there. Spiral notebooks are 15cents each at the Super Stuffmart and a quarter at the local one. Yuck.

Other than that there isn't alot else going on. My computer will be up and online this week (we need it for school) and I am hoping to blog regularly. You all will notice alot of old posts missing from my blog. I was tempted to erase it and start over but I kept the recipes and a few other posts up because I wanted to keep them. Enjoy!!!

The handsomest young men!!

2009-01-25T11:37:00.005-06:00

This is my second oldest child. Its hard to get pictures of him since he really doesn't like getting them taken...I had to beg for this one so that we could do a picture frame up for his grandparents. He had just come in from the cold and his cheeks were nice and rosy LOL. Isn't he just the most adorable young man you ever did see?

And this is my oldest son. Isn't he just the most adorable young man you ever saw? This was the night he and his girlfriend went to a school dance (notice the hot pink tie that matched her dress perfectly?) And all that darkness around his head was his afro. When picked out properly I believe it got to be about 7 inches tall.

A really cool blog!!/Cool Submission

2009-02-03T13:25:00.004-06:00

I was over reading at Domestic Felicity (I love her blog and have read it forever, just been too lazy to mess with my sidebar and link it LOL, really I will get that squared away soon)...and she shared a bit about a blog she has been reading and so I googled and found the blog and I have to say I love it!! Its called To Love, Honor, and Vaccuum and its well worth reading. She has some really great posts on marriage and there is one I ABSOLUTELY thing is GREAT. If you are like me and have ever struggled with the standard "how to submit to your husband" advice that you get on some of the titus 2 style message boards I highly recommend you read this post by her How to Support Him without Being a Doormat . I hope her blog post will bless you as it has blessed me. I highly recommend it if you are struggling with submission and being a doormat when your husband is acting like a jerk...and I wish I had known this all when I first starting trying to submit to my husband, so if you are tired of being told (by well meaning titus2 women) to shut your mouth and just take his "jerk" attitude all the time this blog post will help you to see the godly way to respond with grace without being a doormat.

IMO Doormat-itis is the bane of submission...its the thing that makes women fear being submissive to their husbands, especially if their /husbands do not behave as godly men should behave. As a Christian woman, you don't have to just shut up and take it, you have the right to say (with grace and kindness, mind you) that you don't like being talked to like a dog (and not in those words either LOL), or you don't like being treated that way. I have struggled for a long time to put this into words for other women whose husbands are like mine used to be. Blind, silent submission is not always the best submission. To submit to someone is to defer to them..not to become a silent and sullen slave (and I have found that most men lose any respect for their wives when they become blind submissive doormats). Too bad I was not taught that part of submission until it was nearly too late!!

I learned almost too late that I can submit and still have an opinion...and that when my husband would come home and be hateful or ugly to me that I could say to him (again, with grace) that I do not appreciate being talked to that way and that I would love to talk to him when he was calm and pleasant and then I would quietly go in another room and go on about my business. What I could not do was be rude, disrespectful, nagging, etc...but I didn't have to lay down and be walked all over either. There is a proper way to submit and to obey and all too often women teach other women to "submit because that is what the bible commands us to do" and yes, it does command us to do that but it does not command us to be mistreated in the name of submisison.

You know, its easy to submit to your husband when he is behaving as a godly man should and he is doing what he is supposed to be doing...people who don't live with a man who is rude or mean or a jerk (or even physically abusive) should be very careful about telling a woman how to submit.

JMHO

Breakfast cookies

2008-06-28T15:31:00.004-05:00

Breakfast Cookies? I know...it should be oreos and milk, right? Nope, these are good for you and actually do taste pretty good! I got them from a lady who teaches nutrition classes thru the local extension office so they actually are fairly healthy and don't really have anymore sugar in them than most of those fancy breakfast cereals. When I think of bacon in a cookie it sounds kind of gross, but honestly these are really really good! Even my pickiest eaters love these.

Breakfast Cookies

Cream together:

1/2 c. butter or margarine

3/4 c. sugar

Beat in:

1 egg (any size)

Add:

1 c. all purpose flour

1/4 tsp. baking soda

Mix well.

Stir in:

10 strips of cooked bacon, cooled and crumbled

2 c. corn flakes

1/2 c. raisins

Drop by rounded teaspoonful 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets.

Bake at 350 deg. F. for 15-18 min. or until lightly browned. Cool for 2 min. before removing from cookie sheet to wire racks. Store in refridgerator. Makes 2 dozen.

Now, I admit that I don't like raisins so I make a few without raisins for me and then add the raisins to the batter and make the rest of it for the kids. Go on, give it a try...don't be scared, you might be pleasantly surprised!!!!

Cat Head Biscuits

2008-05-08T16:07:00.004-05:00

I made an awesome biscuit recipe last night for dinner and I am going to make it again tonight! It is the best biscuit recipe I have ever made (and I have made MANY). I will share the recipe at the end of this post.

Cat Head Biscuits
2 c. flour (all purpose)
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. baking powder
5 Tbsp. lard (or veg. shortening)
1 c. buttermilk (i used regular milk)

Mix dry ingredients and cut in lard. Stir in the milk until it makes a soft batter. Lightly dust your hands with flour and pinch off a lemon size portion of the batter and pat into shape. Place on lightly greased baking sheet. Bake at 450 deg. farenheit for 12-15 min (or until golden on top). Remove from oven and brush tops with butter.
These are the lightest, flakiest biscuits I have ever made or eaten!!

Ham & Cheese Stromboli & an Unexpected Blessing

2009-02-19T10:54:00.007-06:00

Its cold today...the temperature dropped and there is snow and ice outside. I got up this morning and turned the oven on to heat the kitchen up a bit and we had warm homemade bread with breakfast this morning along with leftover ham and cheese stromboli. I made four large strombolis last night and so we have 2 more for leftovers. The three younger kids really liked this particular recipe for ham stromboli but the older two aren't real big fan's of this one...they prefer plain ham and cheese with nothing added. So does hubby, come to find out. Ah well, I am still learning what the man likes and doesn't like LOL.

Here is the recipe I used for the stromboli:

Dough:
1 & 1/8 c. warm water
1 Tbsp. yeast
2 Tbsp. sugar
2 Tbsp. oil
1 tsp. salt
1/3 c. powdered milk
1 c. whole wheat flour
2 c. white bread flour
extra flour incase needed to make a smooth non-sticky dough

Mix together and knead until smooth and elastic. Coat with oil and let rise in a warm place until double in bulk. Punch down and divide in half. Roll each half into a good sized rectangle (mine are generally about 14 x 11 I think)

Cheese sauce:
1 cup of shredded cheese (I use a colbyjack blend since we like that here but cheddar is great too)
1/4 to 1/2 cup of mayonaise
1 tsp. of mustard
1 tsp. paprika
Mix together until it becomes a nice spreadable mixture.

Lay sliced ham longways on the dough and spread with cheese sauce. I used sliced ham from the deli (it was on sale) and used 6 pieces of ham per stromboli.
Roll up down longside to long side. You want the seam to end up on bottom. Seal ends and turn under. Bake at 375 for approx. 15-20 min. until dough is starting to turn a light golden color. Remove from oven, brush with melted butter and sprinkle with parmesan cheese and return to oven for 5 more minutes. Remove from oven, let cool slightly, slice into pieces and serve. YUM.
This recipe makes 2 good sized stromboli's and will feed our family with no leftovers.

Yesterday I doubled the recipe because I thought we were having an extra teen over for dinner and I was also going to send one with hubby to his friends house since they are moving and we all know how it is when you are moving and have to worry about cooking meals, kwim?

I also use the dough recipe to make homemade bread loaves. The recipe is for only one bread loaf. You can also use this recipe in your bread machine, just change the order of the ingredients per your bread machine instructions. I like to double the recipe and make 2 loaves at a time though.

OH!!! I figured out a neat trick to get my bread dough to rise when my kitchen is really cold!! I take one of my pots that is all metal and fill it with water and bring it to a boil. Then I set it on the bottom rack of my oven and put my bowl of bread down on the top rack of the oven and I shut the door. It only takes a very short time for the dough to rise in double this way!! What a wonderful blessing that is! Naturally you do not turn your oven on at all. I am thinking I will do that next time I make yogurt as well and see if that works! My dough rose so fast yesterday that I was not ready for it when it was ready to be worked LOL.

I can't tell you how blessed we have been this last week in so many ways. It is kind of strange! But we know that God shall supply all our needs according to his riches in glory and He is so wonderful!! So many of our needs are being met in ways that I would never have expected. We received some really nice new to us furniture this week and a new refridgerater which we really needed and I am so thankful!!

Waffles Waffles everywhere

2009-03-14T18:08:00.002-05:00

My children love waffles. I like waffles. We eat them with syrup, powdered sugar, honey, or jam. They are really versatile but I hate to actually take the time every morning to stand at the counter at the wafflemaker and make them so we found a solution. We make about 100 waffles at a time and freeze them. My waffle iron makes a large waffle that is divided into four 4" squares that fit perfectly in the toaster so we make a ton of waffles, break them apart into the 4 sections and flash freeze on cookie sheets. We then put them in zipper baggies and in the freezer for quick, easy, and delicious breakfasts.

Here is the recipe I use. We just keep making batches until we get enough to freeze.

2 eggs
2 1/2 cups of buttermilk
1 c. WW flour
1 1/2 c. of self-rising flour
2 tsp. sugar
4 tsp. melted butter or cooking oil

Beat together until smooth and spoon onto greased waffle iron.
Enjoy!!!

Beef Stew

2009-03-10T12:35:00.002-05:00

A delicious easy meal for a hungry family:

1 lb. of beef stew meat, cut into small bite size chunks
1 cup of flour (I used self-rising)
2 tbsp. oil
1/2 tsp. black pepper

4 beef broth cubes
1 can of tomato soup
4 cans of water (use tomato soup can)
4 lg. potatoes, peeled and cubed
3 lg. carrots, coined
garlic powder, to taste
Mrs. Dash seasoning, to taste

Mix the flour & black pepper in a zipper baggie. Add beef cubes and shake to coat. Heat oil in skillet. Brown the beef cubes in the skillet. While the beef cubes are browning, put the tomato soup and cans of water in your soup pot. Stir to blend. Toss in the beef broth cubes and bring to a simmer. When the broth cubes are dissolved drop in the potatoes and carrots. Add garlic powder to taste (I would say we use about a TBSP. of garlic powder). Then add the Mrs. Dash seasoning to taste (we probably use about 2 tsp. of mrs. dash seasoning). Add the browned meat and let simmer for about an hour (or until potatoes and carrots and meat are tender). The stew will thicken up nicely from the flour that is on your browned meat. Serve with warm bread, biscuits, or crackers.

We really love the flavor of this soup. You could easily add corn, peas, greenbeans or whatever other veggies your family likes. I don't use mixed veggies because my son has a peanut allergy that crosses over to peas (peanuts are legumes), and I also have a bunch of picky eaters. Using only potatoes and carrots is not only good to appease picky eaters ~smile~ but is also more frugal while still being healthy.

Cabbage Rolls

2009-02-21T12:39:00.005-06:00

Here is my cabbage roll recipe (actually I stole it from my friend Miss Laura who is an awesome cook I think because every recipe I get from her is awesome!! Too bad she doesn't have a blog yet LOL).

Cabbage Rolls

2 heads of cabbage, steamed and cooled (we do this in the microwave)

4 lbs. ground venison (beef works fine, so does pork)

3 cups cooked rice, cooled to room temp

3 eggs

3 beef bouillon cubes

1 Tbsp. dried onion flakes (or more if you like onion)

2 Tbsp. minced garlic

1-2 tsp. italian seasoning

2 Tbsp. parmesan cheese

1/3-1/2 cup milk

1-2 jars of your favorite spaghettie sauce

I wisk the milk and eggs together with the seasonings (I crumble the beef cubes into powder first). I mix it all together with my hands good. Grease your baking dish with no-stick spray and preheat your oven to 350. Take a leaf of cabbage put a scoop of meat mixture on it and roll it up. Place it seam side down in baking dish. Do this until you have used all the meat & cabbage. Pour the spaghetti sauce over the cabbage rolls and bake for 45 min. to 1 hour (until the meat is done). I sprinkle a little parmesan cheese on top of the sauce before I bake it but you don't have to do that.

I also only make enough cabbage rolls for hubby and 2 others in the family. The rest don't like the cabbage so I just use the rest of the meat to make meat balls or mini meatloaves and pour sauce over those and cook them at the same time as the cabbage rolls. They are really good.

A date tonight--maybe

2009-02-14T14:06:00.002-06:00

Andrew and I planned to go with our church for an adult Valentine's dinner at a local restaurant. I am so looking forward to it. But we got up this morning and taterbean was throwing up. He woke me up at 4a.m. and was so sick. We have been praying and trying to keep his sugar up so that he doesn't have to go in for an IV (if you are new to my blog, he has a metabolic disorder and his body isn't able to maintain a healthy bloodsugar level without eating every 2 hours, so vomiting is dangerous for him). So far his ketones have been negative and his sugar is doing okay. We have been giving him tubes of gel cake icing (easy on the tummy and loaded with sugar) and ginger ale and he hasn't thrown up in a couple of hours...if he can keep some food down and the ketones stay negative then we will be able to go out after all. He didn't have a good experience with the nursing staff when he had his tonsils out in November (we had a nurse who had her wires crossed and came in screaming at us and it scared him to death) and he doesnt want to have to go back to the hospital. If its necessary then we will naturally take him but we are praying that it won't be necessary.
I will be getting ready just incase we get to go out. We live less than a mile from the restaurant and will have a cellphone with us so if he gets worse then we can come home and take him. His oldest brother will be babysitting should we be able to go.
If not then I will be content to stay home or go to the hospital if necessary.

Wresting Mom?

2009-02-01T15:03:00.002-06:00

I am not a sports nut.

That said:

I went to my son's wrestling meet yesterday for the very first time. Its not that I never wanted to see him wrestle...its that its difficult with 4 other children, some of them with special needs....that and the cost factor as well. It gets expensive when you have a large family. Before, it was just easier to take care of the kids at home because I didn't get to enjoy the event anyways since I was busy with the kids and why spend money for something you can't enjoy.............and I am ashamed to admit that I never ever knew how important to my son for me to be there. And I can't believe how much I have missed. I wish I had been at every one of his games and meets. And you know what? I think he was pretty proud to have me there!! And after his matches (before we left) he came over and I hugged him and he actually hugged me back and left his arm around me for a bit, which was a shocker!! (he isn't the huggy type).

I had no idea. I just didn't understand. Because I don't really care about sports I hurt my son's feelings and didn't even know it. He was so proud to have me there (even if he didn't say it) and I was so proud of him.....he lost his first match and I was less than a block away and missed it (got some idiot driving 40 mph until I would go to pass him then he would hit 70mph!! I was ticked and he was laughing when I finally got around him--talk about foolish, but thats another post). I missed that match and that was the championship match...I was so upset...I was at the stoplight when he started and had just pulled in the parking lot when he got pinned.

You know, I may wind up being one of those goofy (in a good way) sports mom's. And you know what? It might not be that bad after all!!!!

Black Beans and Rice

2008-06-01T16:28:00.003-05:00

This is my recipe for quick and easy black beans and rice.

Black Beans & Rice
1 can black beans, drained & rinsed
3 tsp. butter
2 tsp. minced garlic (I buy this in a jar at the grocery)
2 tsp. minced onion (I just mince a small chunk of onion)
a shake of salt and a shake of ground black pepper
Melt butter in a small skillet. Add onion and garlic and let cook until soft. Add beans, salt & pepper and stir. Cover with lid and let simmer for about 10 min., stirring occassionally.
Serve over white rice and top with some shredded cheese (I prefer a mexican blend of shredded cheese).

How to make easy white rice:
I don't know about y'all but I struggled for years with making decent white rice. I never could get it right. It was either too hard or just mush. I finally found the right way to make basic white rice with the generic bags of rice that I buy.
Using 2 parts water to 1 part rice, bring water to boil. Add rice, give it a quick stir and bring back to boil. When it returns to a boil, cover the pan and remove it from the heat and WALK AWAY for about 10-15 min. Then come back and lift the lid and you should have fluffy wonderful rice.
I learned that STEAM is the way to make the rice light and fluffy and thats why you cover it and walk away without peeking, so that the steam will cook and soften the rice.

Simple Chicken Salad

2008-06-27T18:18:00.005-05:00

We are simple folk here and sometimes we like really simple things to eat. In the summer heat we have been eating alot of sandwiches and since my mom brought me those chickens one of the things I have been looking forward to having was some Simple Chicken Salad. I really really like this served on whole wheat bread. Its simple and quick and easy.

Simple Chicken Salad

shredded chicken

equal parts of mayonaise and salad dressing (generic miracle whip), enough for the chicken salad to be moist

salt and pepper, to taste

Mix all together and serve on bread, toast, crackers, biscuits, or whatever you prefer. This is simple and doesn't have alot of seasonings in it. This brings out the chicken flavor the best for my family. I know that most folks like to include things like boiled egg, relish, celery, etc...but like I said, its "simple".

I did it!!!! Mulberry Jelly

2008-07-03T18:23:00.004-05:00

I did it!! I made Mulberry Jelly!!!! I am so proud of myself. From just a small amount of berries I made 8 small jelly jars full of jelly!! It tastes like grape jelly a bit to me, though, but I have never had mulberry jam before. Here is the recipe I used:

Mulberry Jelly

3 1/2 c. mulberry juice (made from crushing, simmering and straining berries)*

1 box of pectin (regular, NOT low sugar)

5 cups of sugar

*use 1/4 c. of lemon juice if the berries are ripe

Mix juice and pectin** together, bring to a rolling boil, dump sugar in all at once and bring to a full rolling boil for 1 min. Stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Skim foam. Pour into jars. Add lids and rings and put in a water bath for 5-10 min. depending on the instructions that come with the pectin box.

**if using lemon juice add it with the juice and pectin

I am tickled with the results. I can't wait til next week to go and pick more berries!!

Hashbrown Casserole

2008-07-07T18:58:00.003-05:00

This is not quick to cook and its not cheap to cook, either, but boy does it taste good!

Hashbrown casserole

1 bag of frozen hashbrowns

1 can of cream of whatever soup (we prefer chicken)

1 (8 oz.) container of sour cream

1 bag of shredded cheese (cheddar or colby)

1/2 of small onion, diced fine

2 T. butter or margarine

1 tsp. garlic powder

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. pepper

Put the hashbrowns, cream of whatever soup, sour cream, seasonings, and cheese in a large bowl. Put diced onion and butter in a small bowl and microwave until the onion is soft. Add to bowl. Stir well. Pour over into your crockpot and cook on high for about 3-4 hours. You can cook this in a dutch oven or regular baking dish if you prefer (just be sure to spray your baking dish with non-stick spray).

Venison

2009-01-23T16:23:00.003-06:00

We eat venison here pretty much all year and what I hear most from folks when they find out that we eat deer meat is this: "How do you get rid of the gamey taste?"

When we first started eating deer I tried all the usual methods--soaking it in vinegar, soaking it in milk, soaking it in various marinades and no matter what it still tasted just a fair bit gamey....and using milk or marinades was expensive. I finally ran across what really works for us. Its so simple that its almost unbelievable! I thaw all of our venison in cold water. Yup. Thats it. Thats all there is too it. See, the reason game meat has a gamey taste is generally due to the blood in the meat. I soak the blood out of the meat and cook it and voila' no gamey taste. Easy to do with roasts and steakds but how do you do that with ground venison you ask? Well, ours is always wrapped in clear plastic and then in freezer paper so I just pop the ends of the freezer paper loose and put it in a bowl, fill the bowl with cold water and let it sit overnight or all day. The blood leaks out of the meat into the water. Very simple, very easy , and very inexpensive. Now, there are a few more tricks and tips we use to make the burger taste more like beef. When we grind the deer meat (or when we have it done at the packing plant) we cut tallow into it. We get tallow (beef fat) from a local butcher and we grind it right in with the deer. We then package it into 2lb. chubs for convenience.

I can hear some of you more "health concious" folks out there saying "FAT!!! YOU ADD FAT??? Don't you know that fat carries all the hormones and antibiotics and other yucky stuff you find in beef that is non-organically grown?" Yes, thankyou dear, I do know that. But if we didn't have the deer then I would be buying that very same beef from the grocery to feed my family anyways so rest easy.

The roasts, after being thawed in cold water and most of the blood draining out of it are cooked in the crockpot with various seasonings depending on what kind of roast I want. Steaks are marinated in whatever kind of marinade we decide on and then grilled in my hamilton beach electric grill. They are deliciuos and not gamey tasting at all. Many a person who joins us for a meal are surprised to find that they are eating venison and not beef. I use venison in every single dish that we would use beef in and have not had any problems interchanging it at all. We don't use any special seasonings at all on it...just the regular everyday spices in your spice cabinet would work fine.

I will share a cute short story with you though. My children are so used to eating deer meat that when my husbands boss gave us a quarter of a beef a few years back that the kids thought it tasted funny when they ate it. One of the younger boys said "mom, this meat tastes sweet". They were so used to the taste of venison that beef had a funny taste to them.

Honey

2009-01-24T21:30:00.001-06:00

We like to eat honey but it is often cost prohibitive and we wind up using sugar (no one cares for the flavor of molasses here). I would love to keep bees but since we live right in town and are surrounded by neighbors I am pretty sure that it is against city ordinances and even if it isn't it is still a liability if the bees were to sting a neighbor or passer-by.

This fall my menfolk were out cutting wood (we burn wood in the winter) and while splitting a downed tree they came across a hive. Most of the bees were gone and the honeycombs were just sitting there going to waste. They called a friend of ours who keeps bees and he came out and got some of the newer honeycombs and took them to make honey for their family, our family, and another family. He estimated that he would get approximately 3 quarts of honey from what he took. My son asked about the remaining combs and he said he preferred the lighter honey but there was nothing wrong with the darker honey other than it has a stronger flavor. My son(absolutely fascinated at this point) got a bucket and brought home the remaining combs for me to deal with.

We got out a book with information on doing honey and we called our friend with a few questions and then we were off and running with it. It took me literally hours to clean that honey to my satisfaction and it was a lot of work, a lot of mess, some serious gross factor, and tons of fun. AND we ended up with a delicious batch of honey! I think we actually got 7 pint jars of honey from the combs but we gave a few to our neighbor. It does have a very strong flavor but it makes wonderful Mother Earth Bread (a wonderful bread recipe I got from a lovely lady named Lee at PH). I will share the recipe in a later post (maybe tomorrow or Monday).

Here are the honeycombs in the huge pot I use for waterbath canning:

Here it is as it is slowly melting on the stove. (this took forever it seemed):

Here we are straining it thru several layers of cheesecloth (see all the yucky stuff that was from the combs? EW!)

After several times thru the cheese cloth we again heated it up just above 150deg. per the instructions in our book and then strained it again thru more cheese cloth (I used literally 2 1/2 yards of cheesecloth to do this LOL).
Here it is after I strained it several times. It was starting to cool and you can see the wax starting to form around the edges:

Here it is fully cooled. It had a heavy layer of wax on top of it. I popped that off with a spatula and had a nice bit of honey under there:

Because I was exhausted (it was almost midnight by this time) I poured the honey into seven pint jars and put caps on it. I gave 3 to my neighbor with instructions to strain it a few more times after it cooled completely and I went to bed. I strained it probably 3 more times just because I am kinda finicky about stuff and wanted to be sure it was good and clear. I just forgot to take pics of the clear honey and now most of it is gone LOL.

Stromboli

2009-01-26T15:34:00.004-06:00

I have been trying to make different kinds of stromboli on Wednesday nights since its not something messy for them to eat (my kitchen generally looks like a flour bomb went off in it but hey, the kids like it and my kitchen is very small LOL). Spanky has been on my case since he found out we were having stromboli (we go thru this every week with him LOL) he wants it today. Unfortunately today we are having Taco Casserole. I thought I would share this recipe with you, though. I hope you enjoy it!

Bacon Cheeseburger Stromboli

1-2 lbs. ground venison (or beef)

1 can of cream of mushroom soup

garlic, salt, pepper to taste

1 small onion diced fine (or onion powder to taste)

2 cups of shredded cheese**

10 slices of bacon

In large skillet cook onion and ground venison (or beef) til done. While you are cooking the ground meat, cook the bacon (I do this in the microwave). Rinse the ground meat and the skillet to remove the grease and return ground meat to skillet. Stir in the cream of mushroom soup and seasonins and let simmer for a little while (you can add some water, maybe 1/4 c. if it seems too thick).

Mix up your favorite pizza crust recipe or your favorite bread dough recipe (I use my basic bread recipe for 1loaf of bread). Divide the dough in half and roll out each piece into a large rectangle. You want the dough to be just over 1/8 inch thick. Spread half of the meat mixture over each piece of dough to about 1 inch from the edges. Sprinkle half of the cheese over the meat on each one. Crumble up your bacon and sprinkle it over both pieces*. At this point you can add other things that you might like on a bacon cheeseburger to your stromboli (tomatoes, mushrooms, etc..). Roll the stromboli up starting with a long side. Once rolled you will pinch the edges to seal them. Fold the ends just under the roll and pinch.

Bake at 375 deg. F until the dough is a light golden brown. Brush top with butter and slice into pieces and serve.

*you can leave the bacon in strips and just lay it on the cheese but its harder to cut thru the stromboli that way.

**We use colby jack cheese but this is excellent with pepperjack cheese or swiss cheese as well.