Happy Happy New Year, Baby!

Last year was full of blessings and challenges, and it went really fast. I’m at that age where I don’t wish away time, but frankly, I’m not so sorry to see it gone. Now is the time to think about New Year’s resolutions, and I have a few things in mind, but my main goal is to keep up.

Keep up with housework and laundry. You know what bothers me most about housework and laundry? That no matter how good a job I do, it’ll have to be done again tomorrow. Argh. Some major decluttering will make this easier to keep up with. When there is less stuff to get messy, there’s less work to keep the space clean. I should confess that laundry is really not a big problem. Last summer we got our first new washer/dryer set after using some pretty reliable, but mismatched appliances for about 30 years. It’s such a pleasure to do laundry these days when it doesn’t take three hours to dry a load. The washer had a learning curve, but I think I’ve got it figured out now. I was pretty thrilled with the light inside the dryer drum. Yep, that was a novelty for me.

Keep up with meals, making them varied and nutritious and frugal. I cook most of our meals from scratch, keeping recipe ingredients in the freezer so it’s easy to throw together a casserole or pot of something delicious. I start feeling like we eat the same things over and over again, though. Sometimes I’m just weary, mentally and physically, and it seems a Herculean task to put a meal on the table at the end of the day. It’s much too easy to call Greg and have him bring home takeout. He enjoys and appreciates my cooking, but is just as happy to buy our supper and bring it home… January is pantry/freezer challenge month, where we eat from what we already have and buy no new groceries except fresh produce and dairy. This will be the third year we’ve done this challenge, and we have fun trying new recipes to use up what we have.

Keep up with the garden, weeding and harvesting in a timely fashion and preserving as much as possible. Oh, my little garden that I just love. A few years ago Greg built some small raised beds for the new vegetable garden I wanted to start. It’s turned into mostly an herb garden, and every year I learn new ways to use and preserve those herbs. We plant tomatoes and bell peppers, but that’s about it for vegetables. There is talk around here today of adding more raised beds and more vegetables – Greg found the seed catalog that came in the mail this week. He really enjoys the planning part of the garden, notsomuch the planting, weeding, watering, harvesting, processing and preserving parts. I won’t say he never helps, but the garden is pretty much my responsibility.

Keep up with the busy preschool boys and the new tiny girl who will arrive any time now. Yep. That’s where the “Happy New Year BABY” comes in. Our new little granddaughter, Layla, is due to be born next week. Jess and the boys moved in with us last June, so our household is hopping already. Hopefully Layla will enjoy the chaos. You might wonder, if Jess is living here, why I’m the one who has to do all the keeping up? I’m not. Everyone helps around here. I just feel like I should drive the train that keeps us all on track. Some days that goes smoother than others.

We have a couple of big house projects coming in the Spring, and I’ve joined in a challenge to make Christmas presents all year long so the next holiday season will be a tiny bit more relaxed. Jess and I have a small business venture happening in the near future which will require some elbow grease and creativity. In between these things, I’ll be here in my little corner of the prairie, keeping up.

 

 

New Years thoughts and 14 in '14

No big party here on New Year's Eve. Greg is sick with a cold, so we stayed home and watched Eric Clapton's Crossroads concerts on TV. He has the TV connected to the stereo, so it sounded great and we enjoyed music we love. Once again I was snuggled into bed and asleep before the magic hour and awoke to a new year and some spitting snow outside.

I'm not making any resolutions. Last year on January 1, I posted a list of "13 in '13" things I wanted to work on over the year. Yeah. I did part of one of those things, and that was finishing an afghan and learning to crochet hats. Hmmm... do you think my goals were a bit lofty? I still want to work on many of the challenges I listed, but for this year will pare it down and make a concerted effort to work on it. So here goes:

1. Playroom -  the quilt binding is pinned on, so I just need to sew it. When I do that, I'll sew the bedskirt and reattach that. I do still want to frame the chalkboard. The boys have really loved having that in the playroom.

2. Paint - the entire house really needs a fresh coat of paint, but I'll start with the partially painted kitchen and go from there.

3. Finish the blue afghan. Holy cow - I'm about at the end of the 10-year plan with that one.

4. Scrapbook/craft at least once a week, and use my stash and Cricut. No purchasing anything besides adhesives.

5. Make homemade marshmallows. Okay, not just marshmallows. I'm going to make lots more things from scratch and try to get rid of the processed stuff in my kitchen.

6. Pinterest provides hours of entertainment as I browse and pin. I have over 2,800 pins myself, and I do make recipes and use ideas from what I pin, but there are many great ideas still waiting for me. Once a week I will choose something from Pinterest to make/do.

7. Use up as much fabric from my small stash as possible. I love fabric almost as much as I love paper, but I am not a stellar sewer like my sister. I can do an okay job on easy projects, so will get a sewing area set up that I can leave up, and work my way through those totes of fabric. I'd like to make things for the grandboys and nieces/nephews, but also for donation to some charitable groups.

8. Read more. I already have some titles on reserve at the library.

9. Blog more. I don't keep a handwritten journal or daily log of what we do, so my blog is a good way to keep track of happenings around here.

10. I am going to participate in this (click on box to see what it's about):

11. Move more. I have a new Yoga dvd that I look forward to trying.

12. During January at least, but possibly another month or two during the year, we're participating in this:

12. Jess and I have talked about opening an Etsy store. I'm not going to say it will be done, just that I'll do some more research then we can decide.

13. I want to do this:

It's all over the internet, so I don't even know who to credit for it. One tip I read was to mix and match amounts put away, so if you need to do a small amount, do that, if you can do a larger amount, do that. Even if you only do half amounts, you'll have a tidy sum for Christmas shopping.

14. Christmas project - I won't say just yet what it is, but will be working on something my siblings will enjoy. 

Well, if you're still here, thank you! This turned into quite a novel, but I feel like my thoughts are a bit more organized and I can focus on being productive and creative. Many blessings to you all for a magnificent new year!

Tammy

Banana Bread in a Zipper Bag

On Monday morning, just out of the blue, Bradley asked if we could make banana bread. I’d been sick all weekend and still wasn’t feeling well, so, much to his disappointment, I declined, but did promise to have everything ready to go on Wednesday (today) when he got here. When I made that promise, he and I got three old bananas out of the freezer and put them in a dish in the frig to thaw (freezer/pantry challenge!). By this morning, there were three more on the counter that were “banana bread worthy”, so I figured while I was making the effort, it was just as easy to bake up two loaves instead of one.

Usually I would just get out all the ingredients and measuring tools and let Brad help measure and combine it all. That’s great math practice. This time, though, since I’m still dragging from the influenza, I decided to have him mix the bread in a plastic zipper bag – less mess with fewer dishes, and he works those hands and finger muscles (think pre-handwriting), and gets to feel the textures of the ingredients while keeping his hands clean. That last one is pretty important to him. He will get his hands messy, but if he doesn’t have to, he’s happier. Anyway, I went ahead and measured the dry ingredients into the zipper bag, and measured the milk into a canning jar for him to use later. As I measured the ingredients for Brad’s bread, I did the same for that second loaf, only in a bowl. I got my loaf in the oven and baked and my bowl washed before the boys arrived. This worked out great, because we snacked on that loaf all day and Brad got to take his loaf home.

Anyway, as soon as 17 month-old Silas saw the step stool come out, he ran to the kitchen like his hair was on fire. He wanted to HELP. I was able to talk Brad into letting Silas have a quick turn to squish up the bananas in a separate small bag. He grabbed the tablespoon measure and beat that bag of bananas to a pulp. LOL. (This boy is tough to get a good photo of – he never stops moving!)

Silas tired of helping after he made sure the bananas were sufficiently battered, plus we gave him a big bowl and some spoons to play with in the other room while we worked.

First off I showed Brad the recipe in the cookbook. I asked him if he knew what a recipe is, and he answered, “It tells you what to do.” Yea! (Maybe I need a recipe book for cleaning up the playroom…)

Brad squished up the bag of dry ingredients, and when they were pretty well mixed, we moved on to the wet stuff in the canning jar. He helped crack the egg and held the spoon to measure the oil, then used a fork to mix those up. We talked about “dry”, and “wet” or “liquid” before combining the two. A little more squishing around with the bag and it was time to add the bananas. After it was all mixed together, I cut one bottom corner off the bag and we squeezed the batter into the baking dish.

An hour later he was very happy with his final product! (And see the clean counter?)

The recipe is linked above if you’re interested. This is the one I’ve used for almost 32 years. The only change I made today was to use half white all-purpose and half white whole wheat flour. I used 3 bananas for each loaf, and did put chopped walnuts in the one I made myself.

There are lots of recipes that can be mixed by squishing things up in a zipper bag. When I was teaching preschool at Head Start, we made chocolate chip cookie dough in the bag, then cut the corner off the bottom and squeezed out pieces of dough for cookies. You can also make yeast bread in a bag – I just found that recipe online, and will post some links after we give it a try. I’d love to hear if you have a favorite “zipper bag” recipe!

A further note about the freezer/pantry challenge – I finally cooked from the frig/pantry last night for supper, making a toasted chicken, bacon, and cheese sub sandwich. Tonight we had chicken fried steaks from the freezer, along with the last bags of mashed potatoes and gravy leftover from the wedding. I also had some spaghetti squash I’d cooked and frozen into portions. Slowly but surely I’m getting back into the groove…

 

Soup

We’ve all been sick with colds and flu, so I’ve given myself a pass on the freezer/pantry challenge for a few days, and had Greg bring home some take-out a couple of nights. Hot and sour soup from the local Chinese place was just what I needed for the congestion and cough. Soup has been appealing to me this entire week when not much else was, and even though I’m feeling somewhat better, it still sounded good for supper.

Tonight I used up some bits and pieces from the freezer and frig and we had a version of Taste of Home’s Meatball Minestrone. Instead of meatballs, I just used a package of browned ground beef from the freezer. It was pretty tasty, but really is better with meatballs. There was a partial bag of cooked black beans in the freezer, and from the frig I pulled out part of a can of crushed tomatoes and about a cup of beef broth that I used in place of some of the water in the recipe. The other day when I dug through the pantry cupboards I found a partial box of macaroni that I truly didn’t know was in there. Perfect for this soup.

As it turns out, January is National Soup Month. A few years ago I wrote a few posts on my recipe blog and shared some of my favorites. Besides being a great vehicle for using up other leftovers, soup freezes wonderfully, and lots of times tastes better the second day after it’s made.

Do you have a favorite recipe or soup tip?

 

Pantry Challenge

Just a couple of days into the challenge and I’m already making a mental grocery list. LOL. Actually, I still need to do an inventory of the freezers and pantry, but won’t get to do that until the weekend since the grandboys are here a few days this week. Even though I don’t have the written inventory with which to write out some plans, I’ve still been pulling out the odd things to use up.

We really started this challenge on New Year’s Eve when Greg used some of the leftover Christmas prime rib to make us open-faced prime rib sandwiches for supper. He also took the last few crab legs, picked out all the meat, and made some delicious crab cakes to go along with the sandwiches. He doesn’t have a recipe for me to give you – it was a combination of a few recipes he found online. I like crab, but eating crab legs is a very labor-intensive process for a little meat, and it’s usually cold before you get much of it eaten. These crab cakes were a much more satisfying vehicle for me to enjoy that treat.

Yesterday I pulled this and that from the freezer and frig for lunch for the grandboys, then while Silas napped, Bradley and I made muffins for snack. We used up the last of a bag of frozen blueberries, and there were a few more than the recipe called for, so we got very fruity muffins! The recipe is a basic one from my old Better Homes and Gardens cookbook I got when we were first married (31+ years ago), and is a great way to use up tiny bits of fruit.

Blueberry Muffins

1 egg

½ cup milk

¼ cup oil

2 cups flour (we used half white whole wheat, half all-purpose)

1/3 cup sugar

3 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup blueberries (or fruit of your choice)

Preheat oven 375°F. Beat the egg, add oil and milk. Stir in dry ingredients all at once, then add blueberries. Bake 20-24 minutes, til golden brown. Makes about a dozen muffins.

Each boy ate two whole muffins for snack and Silas ended up with a purple leg after smearing a blueberry all around.

I guess that’s one way to use them up…

 

 

2013 – Challenging Year

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I was sound asleep in my bed when midnight rolled around last night, but my honey and I did have a nice supper of prime rib sandwiches, and then we went to a movie. We enjoyed “Jack Reacher”, did a quick trip to the store, then home to peruse Pinterest for a bit before snuggling in for the night. As far as I’m concerned, that’s an okay way to finish out the old year and usher in the new!

No resolutions for me to fail at, but let’s talk about some challenges I want to work on this year. I belong to a couple of Yahoo email lists, and one of those groups is having a 13 in ‘13 challenge. Each participant chose 13 “things” to work on this next year. Some of the “things” are projects to complete, some are skills to learn, some include budgeting goals or family time. Each list is different. One lady made her list from her “someday” projects – things she always said she’d get to “someday”.

My list is kind of a combination of finishing some things I started but let languish, learning a few new things, and making things for frugal, but meaningful, gift-giving. I’ve been working on this list for several weeks, and actually have more than 13 things I’d like to accomplish this year, but these are the first ones I’ll work on.

Here they are:

1. finish redecorating the playroom - this includes painting the doors and a bookshelf, fixing the bed skirt, binding the quilt on the daybed, and framing the chalkboard                                                                                                                                            2. finish painting/redecorating kitchen and sunroom - this includes painting walls, putting new trim around kitchen window, curtains of some sort, adding some live plants
3. scrapbooks - make corrections/additions to niece's scrapbook from high school graduation; update Bradley's; start Silas's
4. crochet projects - finish the two afghans I have started; learn to crochet hats
5. expand vegetable garden by adding a few more raised beds; involve grandsons in gardening this year
6. re-do all four closets in the house - empty, paint, add new shelving, reorganize (I know – there are only 4 closets in this house…)
7. remove cupboards in laundry room; replace with open shelving for added storage
8. sew blankets/quilts for grandsons
9. make all birthday gifts 
10. make new Christmas stockings for everyone in our immediate family (seven total)
11. make gifts for Christmas 2013 over the summer
12. try some new recipes/cooking skills by following my Joy of Cooking cookbook section by section (kind of a Julie/Julia thing...)
13. learn to use woodworking tools and finish my own projects without needing help from DH

I will report on my progress periodically.

The other challenge is one I give myself and Greg a few times through the year. Click on the button to go to the original post with the challenge.

I know I’ll have to get fresh dairy and produce through the month, but there’s plenty of meat and sides in the freezer to use up. Who knows – I may even dig out the pasta machine this time. That’d be fun with the grandboys, wouldn’t it?

There are more things I want to work on, but I think this is enough to list here for now. Time to go scrounge that frig and pantry for some lunch…

How are you welcoming this new year?