The dirty thirties

In Guymon Oklahoma in a week or so there will be a lot going on. It will be the anniversary of when the dust bowl hit that area. There will be speakers, book signings and other fun and educational things. To see what is going on click here :http://thegritinyourteeth.com/

Friday, April 9, 2010, at Northridge 8 Theatres in Guymon
3:00 pm Documentary The Plow That Broke the Plains
Immediately following with The Grapes of Wrath
Our family will attend this showing. The admission fee is suppose to be 35 cents just like it was back then.

What a fun and interesting time.

The Symposium’s Agenda
Saturday, April 10, 20108:30 a.m.—9:00 p.m.
8:30 - Dust Bowl Images and Memories
9:00 - Welcome and Introduction—Jess Nelson
9:10 - “The Days of the Dust Bowl”—Dr. Paul Bonnifield
9:50 - Break
10:00 - Memories and Stories—Open microphone for guests toshare memories of their Dust Bowl experiences
11:00 - “Down and Dirty, But Not Out: Women of the HighPlains During the Dust Bowl”—Dr. Sara Jane Richter
11:45 - Lunch Break—Food vendors will be available on site.Children’s activities will occur during lunch.
1:00 - “Oklahoma’s Climate During the Dust Bowl”—GaryMcManus, Oklahoma Climatological Survey;
Steve Drillette, National Weather Service
1:45 - Break—Open microphone available for memory sharing
2:00 - “Okies’ Lives in the California Migrant Camps”—Dr. V. Pauline Hodges
2:45 - Break—Open microphone available for memory sharing
3:00 - “The History, Benefits, and Future of the ConservationReserve Program”—Rod Wanger, State ProgramsManager, Farm Service Agency
3:45 - If Only It’d Rain—A Readers’ Theatre Production
4:30 - Break
4:45 - Out of the Dust—The History of Conservation inOklahoma in the 20th Century”—Mark Harrison,Oklahoma Conservation Commission
5:30 - Soup Line Supper
6:15 - “Oklahoma Music in the 1930’s”—Dr. Guy Logsdon
7:00 - Gospel Sing-a-Long—Dr. Logsdon
7:45 - Break
8:00 - Dancing

Its getting hot out side.

So far today I have planted 120 jalapeno seeds. I just love the soil blocker or cuber.
Worked on the chicken coop, got the nesting shelf made and installed and part of one end wall.
Watered all indoor seedlings, that took almost 6 gallons of water.
Made 5 gallons of Pink Monkey hand cleaner.
Now we are eating lunch.
After lunch a rest and then back to it.
I am drinking cold cold water and it is so good. I am on my second mug which holds 32oz. It sure tastes good today.
I need to make a few loaves of friendship bread.
Re pot more veggies (bet I have to wait until Friday for that)
Keep working on the chicken coop. I want to get the chickens in there as soon as possible. They are wanting to perch and such and they need the new coop with the perches I will make and install to do that. Right now they are perching on the feeders and water.

Great service and cool news.

Last night the service was at the Methodist church in town. The speaker was a young man from the Oklahoma Panhandle State University in Goodwell, Ok. He apparently preaches occasionally at the Bethel Baptist church in our area. This young man stood up and he was so young. He started talking and he was good. At first I wasn't sure because he said he was going to talk about four groups of people who were at the cross. The first group being the disciples, you know Jesus homies, his friends. When he said that I thought, oh dear. Then he got going and I haven't heard such a good sermon in quite a while.
After the service I talked to him about our Bible college and he was very interested.

Also yesterday, I got a message and an email from a lady who wants to interview me. She wants to do a story about me making goat milk soap and also our stone business. The story will appear in a newsletter type thing that covers three counties I think. That would be the entire panhandle of Oklahoma. Isn't that cool? It would be free publicity. I am pretty excited about that.

I just love how God looks out for us.

Chciken taco's

Tonight's menu says chicken enchilada's. I couldn't find the recipe so I kinda winged it and WOW, its a keeper. I better write it down or next time I wont remember what I put in it and why it was so good.

Chicken tacos
1 can chicken meat (or two chicken breasts cooked and cubed)
1 can rotel
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1/2 can water
In a saucepan combine the soup, water and rotel. Add cubed or shredded chicken. Warm over medium heat. Grate some cheese. Serve on warm tortillas and top with cheese. These were so simple and yet so very good.

Monday's to do list

Some of the things I want to get done on Monday are:
1. plant more veggies and flower seeds. Jalapeno,ferengeek, cabbage,cucumber,sow pea, etc.
2. clean kitchen.
3. pull and make stone. (done)
4. get my laundry done and hang outside (done)
5. make more newspaper pots. (done)
6. repot more seedlings. (done)
7. move seedlings to greenhouse. (done)
8. water plants in greenhouse. (done)
9. begin making the chicken coop if weather permits. (started)
10. go to Perryton to get supplies. (done)
11. cut Spud's hair (done)
12. Attend Holy week services

Easter Servces

Today begins our community Easter services. Each evening a different church in the community hosts the service. They mix up the preachers too. So the preacher from each church preaches at someone else's church. The whole community comes together at this time. I really like going to other churches and hearing other preachers. The host church provides the music, music leader and a special if they want.
The Holy week services culminate on Sunday morning out at Kirby's land where there is a valley with three crosses on a hill. We have our sunrise service there and then everyone goes home to get ready for Easter service at their own church.

Our community gets together church wise a few times a year. We also have community VBS, weekly youth, children's gathering called GULP (God uses little people) and another youth gathering on the weekend.

I like living in a community that can get together like that and I wish we had even more of it. After all, we will all be in heaven together if we are believers so we should be able to gather on earth together in preparation for the big reunion in heaven.

Proposed 28th Amendment to the United States Constitution

Proposed 28th Amendment to the United States Constitution "Congress shall make no law that applies to the citizens of the United States that does not apply equally to the Senators and/or Representatives; and, Congress shall make no law that applies to the Senators and/or Representatives that does not apply equally to the citizens of the United States

Husband of the year.

Which one would you vote for, for husband of the year? I vote for the guy in the tent, in a sleeping bag with his bike while his wife sleeps with no blanket on the rocks. So romantic.

Ahead of schedule

I like it when we are ahead of schedule. The girls are almost done with their school work, the house is tidied up and I am mopping floors right now.

When the girls finish, we are going to visit Chelsea and the twins. Then we will return home to make stone.

I am ahead of schedule on the house and behind on the planting. So I am hoping its nice out tomorrow so I can get caught up on that. For some reason this year I feel its important to get a lot of seeds started to sell and to plant. I will be doing a lot of dehydrating and canning and freezing this summer later. I also am going to be planting more flowers than I normally do. Some are edible some are just pretty.

Well my floor is dry so I can walk on it to get to another floor.

Dave Ramsey's take on the health care bill

http://www.daveramsey.com/article/how-the-new-health-care-reform-affects-you/lifeandmoney_insurance/lm1/

Homemade mustard recipe

1/2 cup dry mustard*
1/2 cup all purpose flour*
1 teaspoon salt*
1 tablespoon sugar*
1/2 cup white vinegar*
1/2 cup water* 2 eggs*
1/2 teaspoon turmeric (for color)*
1 tablespoon softened margarine
Directions

1. Mix all ingredients EXCEPT MARGARINE in medium sauce pan. Mix thoroughly to dissolve flour as best you can.

2. Place on low heat and stir constantly until mixture thickens and begins sticking to bottom of pan. Mix will be lumpy.

3. Remove from heat and stir in margarine

.4. Use a potato masher or electric mixer (set on slow) to beat mustard until you have a smooth consistency. You may want to add additional margarine to get a thinner, creamier mix.

Makes just under 1 pint.

Note 1: You must stir the mix constantly after heat is applied.
It will thicken very fast. Total cooking time is only 2 or 3 minutes.

Note 2: Be very careful with turmeric; it will stain practically everything it contacts (counter tops, utensils) and is very difficult to remove.

Note 3: For a spicy mustard, add a teaspoon of horseradish.

Note 4: This recipe makes a fairly thick mustard. To make a thinner, creamier mustard, add additional margarine, as noted in step 4 above.

Note 5: You can experiment with additional or less vinegar and sugar to alter sweetness or tartness.

source: http://www.olsouthrecipes.com/mustard.html

What's for supper?

I know its not on the menu but we are having pork chops, fried potatoes, gravy and green beans or corn. I got a bunch of pork chops for 79 cents a pound and they sounded so good. Back on schedule tomorrow.

Yolanda, There is an indoor Junk to Jewels show in a couple of weeks, and I will be putting a sign out front so that should take care of the seedlings for sale.

Snow,burrrrr, no wait today its warm, now mud

Ok, yesterday we couldn't make stone because it was too cold. My fingers froze trying to take care of the chicks. Today its warm and now there is mud everywhere. I sure am glad we got the cement shed reinforced with new tarps and an old back drop from my photo days.

Yesterday we ran the heater for the chicks as well as the heat lamps, today I turned the water cooler on for them. Good grief. I am putting more and more plant starts in there because I figure if I am regulating the temperature for the chicks, it will be regulated for my plants.

Today I re potted 42 Romaine lettuce plants and have about that many more to do. Then many others as well. A tray of green peppers, a tray of loofah, a tray of petunias, etc. I sure am glad to have learned to make the newspaper pots, sure saves on peat pots. At 22 pots for $2.00 it adds up fast. I did figure out that I can use a sharpie to mark the newspaper but to do it before I water them of course, so there is a bit more saving, no Popsicle stick markers. Each tray of the pellets starts 72 so if I bought peat pots to re pot them in, which I did several of them, its costs, $6.00 for the original tray with the peat pellets, about $7.00 for 3 inch peat pots and then the seeds. So I would have at least $14.00 invested in 72 plants not counting the original planting tray because I can reuse them, but it is including the potting soil. So that makes the seedlings cost me about 20 cents each. If I use the soil blocker and then newspaper pots that takes the cost down to just the potting soil, so $10.00 off. So $4.00 divided by 72 =about 6 cents each.

So by using the soil blocker and the newspaper pots I can cut the cost of each seedling from 20 cents each to about 6 cents each. That is more like it. If I can sell them at $1.00 each it makes a better profit, and I can have leeway to make deals if I want. Like $1.00 each or 6 for $5.00 or something like that. So even if I messed up my calculations I have some room for error.

I will be using my soil cuber to start more seeds today as well. Sharon has been saving and bringing to me the waxed soy milk cartons that Jace drinks and I cut them in half. In each half I can put two soil block cubes, each having 20 mini soil cubes, so each half a carton holds 40 plant starts. I figured this is a good way to start the flowers I want to grow. So far I have 4 or 5 cartons so that makes 8 or 10 halves so that makes 320 or 400 flowers I can plant in a very small area.

If I can then transplant the flowers and/or veggies to newspaper pots and sell each pot for $1.00, I should be able to pay for my supplies and eventually even make a buck or two. Cool.

More crock pot recipes from Shelley

Zesty Italian Chicken ~
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1/2 cup Italian dressing, divided
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese, divided
1 tsp Italian seasoning, divided
4 potatoes, peeled and quartered
Arrange chicken in a slow cooker; sprinkle with half each of salad dressing,
Parmesan and Italian seasoning.
Add potatoes; top with remaining dressing, Parmesan and seasoning.
Cover and cook on low setting for 8 hours, or on high setting for 4 hours.

Oh-So-Easy Lasagna ~
1 to 2 lbs ground beef, browned and drained
26 oz. jar Spaghetti sauce
8 oz pkg. bowtie pasta, cooked
12 oz container cottage cheese
16 oz pkg shredded mozzarella cheese
Mix together ground beef and pasta sauce. In a slow cooker, layer half each of ground beef mixture, pasta, cottage cheese and shredded cheese.
Repeat with remaining ingredients. Cover and cook on low setting for 6 to 8 hours, or on high setting for 3 to 4 hours.

Stuffed Game Hens ~
2 ~ 20 oz Cornish game hens, thawed
salt and pepper to taste
8 oz. pkg chicken flavored stuffing mix, prepared
Sprinkle hens all over with salt and pepper; stuff loosely with prepared stuffing.
Wrap each hen tightly in a length of aluminum foil; arrange in slow cooker.
Spoon any extra stuffing onto a length of foil and make a sealed packet; place on top of hens.
Cover and cook on low setting for 12 hours, until juices run clear with pierced.

Missy's Easy Pork Roast ~
2 to 3 lb pork roast
1.5 oz pkg. onion soup mix
3/4 to 1 cup milk
2 slices bacon, halved
Place roast in a slow cooker; set aside.
Mix together soup mix and milk and spread over roast.
Lay bacon slices on top of roast. Cover and cook on low setting for 6 to 8 hours.

Creamy Chicken and Noodles ~
3 to 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2 ~ 10 oz cans cream of chicken soup
1/2 cup butter, sliced
4 ~ 10.5 oz cans chicken broth
24 oz pkg. frozen egg noodles

Combine first 4 ingredients in a slow cooker. Cover and cook on low setting for 8 hours.
One hour before serving, remove chicken, shred and return to slow cooker.
Stir in frozen noodles; cover and cook on low setting for one hour. Serve in soup bowls.

Hearty Chick'n Dumplings ~
2 ~ 10 oz cans cream of chicken soup
2 ~ 14.5 oz cans chicken broth
1/2 onion, diced1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2 ~ 16.3 oz tubes refrigerated biscuits, quartered
combine first 3 ingredients in a slow cooker.
Add chicken; cover and cook on high setting for 6 hours.
During the last hour of cooking, remove chicken and shred with 2 forks; return to slow cooker. Add biscuit pieces to chicken mixture; stir to coat.
Cover and cook on high setting for one hour.

I have lots of recipes for the crock pot. I absolutely love this cookbook I have. If you would like more recipes that have more than just 5 ingredients I can post some of those as well. More 5 ingredient recipes to come tomorrow!!!

Spiced up mac n cheese ...
or beefy mac n cheese
or porky mac n cheese if you please :)
1 lb sweet italian turkey sausage (remove from casings and brown)
half of small onion chopped
clove of garlic
can of sweet yellow and white corn
12 oz elbow mac or rotini or whatever you have
velvetta (halfish of a block) cubed
1/4 cup milk
2 tbsp butter
I brown the meat of your choice with the onion and garlic.
I like the sweet italian sausage.
Yesterday I used ground beef. Meanwhile boil water and cook your noodles to al dente. In a sauce pan add your butter, cheese and milk. Melt over low heat until you have a nice cheese sauce. When the meat is browned drain grease add corn to meat and continue to cook over low heat. When the noodles are done drain and add to meat mixture and top with cheese sauce. Mix well and serve. :D
Not the fanciest meal on earth but my kiddos eat it up!!!

You can find Shelly's blog here: http://todayifoundme.blogspot.com/

Thanks for all the recipes Shelley

Tea kettle

I finally found the tea kettle I have been looking for. I saw it on Stephanie's blog and asked her where she got it. She got it from Lehman's non electric catalog. It is 1 1/2 gallon or you can get a one gallon model. I want the bigger model. It is seamless stainless steel so it wont rust. It actually isn't but maybe double what the little ones at Wal Mart cost. It holds so much more and would be wonderful for canning. In the winter sometimes we need lots of hot water for lots of hot tea.
I am hoping my husband sees this and buys it for me. Or kids how about for mothers day?

I want a divorce

DIVORCE AGREEMENT
THIS IS SO INCREDIBLY WELL PUT AND I CAN HARDLY BELIEVE IT'S BY A YOUNG PERSON, A STUDENT!!! WHATEVER HE RUNS FOR, I'LL VOTE FOR HIM.

American liberals, leftists, social progressives, socialists, Marxists and Obama supporters, et al:

We have stuck together since the late 1950's, but the whole of this latest election process has made me realize that I want a divorce....

I know we tolerated each other for many years for the sake of future generations, but sadly, this relationship has run its course.

Our two ideological sides of America cannot and will not ever agree on what is right so let's just end it on friendly terms.

We can smile and chalk it up to irreconcilable differences and go our own way.

Here is a model separation agreement:

Our two groups can equitably divide up the country by landmass each taking a portion.

That will be the difficult part, but I am sure

our two sides can come to a friendly agreement.


After that, it should be relatively easy!
Our respective representatives can effortlessly divide other assets since both sides have such distinct and disparate tastes.

We don't like redistributive taxes so you can keep them. You are welcome to the liberal judges and the ACLU.

Since you hate guns and war, we'll take our firearms, the cops, the NRA and the military.

You can keep Oprah, Michael Moore and Rosie O'Donnell (You are, however, responsible for finding a bio-diesel vehicle big enough to move all three of them).

We'll keep the capitalism, greedy corporations, pharmaceutical companies, Wal-Mart and Wall Street.
You can have your beloved homeless, homeboys, hippies and illegal aliens. We'll keep the hot Alaskan hockey moms, greedy CEO's and rednecks.

We'll keep the Bibles and give you NBC and Hollywood ..

You can make nice with Iran and Palestine and we'll retain the right to invade and hammer places that threaten us..

You can have the peaceniks and war protesters.

When our allies or our way of life are under assault, we'll help provide them security. We'll keep our Judeo-Christian values..

You are welcome to Islam, Scientology, Humanism and Shirley McClain.

You can also have the U.N.. but we will no longer be paying the bill.

We'll keep the SUVs, pickup trucks and oversized luxury cars. You can take every Subaru station wagon you can find..

You can give everyone healthcare if you can find any practicing doctors.

We'll continue to believe healthcare is a luxury and not a right.

We'll keep The Battle Hymn of the Republic and the National Anthem.
I'm sure you'll be happy to substitute Imagine, I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing, Kum Ba Ya or We Are the World.

We'll practice trickle down economics and you can give trickle up poverty your best shot.

Since it often so offends you, we'll keep our history, our name and our flag.

Would you agree to this?

If so, please pass it along to other like minded liberal and conservative patriots and if you do not agree, just hit delete.

In the spirit of friendly parting


I'll bet you Answer which one of us will need whose help in 15 years.

Sincerely,John J. Wall
Law Student and an American

P.S. Also, please take Ted Turner, Sean Penn, Martin Sheen, Barbara Streisand, & Jane Fonda with you..

P. S. S. And we won't have to press 1 for English.

Prayer request

This is a more current picture with the new baby.

Please pray for the young mother in this photo. They now have a 3 month old and the mom has a brain tumor. She is the cousin of one of my dear friends from church. You can keep up with her progress at her husbands blog here:http://theronnes.blogspot.com/

Make newspaper pots

http://www.ehow.com/video_1745_create-seed-starting.html this is a link to show you how to make the seed starting pots. I taped the bottom and the sides of mine but if you don't want to you wouldn't have to.

The perfect husband

Several men are in the locker room of a golf club. A mobile phone on a bench rings and a man engages the hands free speaker function and begins to talk. Everyone else in the room stops to listen.

MAN: 'Hello'

WOMAN: 'Honey, it's me. Are you at the club?'

MAN: 'Yes'

WOMAN: 'I am at the shops now and found this beautiful leather coat It's only $2,000. Is it OK if I buy it?'

MAN: 'Sure, go ahead if you like it that much.'

WOMAN: 'I also stopped by the Lexus dealership and saw the new Models. I saw one I really liked.'

MAN: 'How much?'

WOMAN: '$90,000'

MAN: 'OK, but for that price I want it with all the options.'

WOMAN: 'Great! Oh, and one more thing...the house I wanted last year is back on the market. They're asking $980,000.’

MAN: 'Well, then go ahead and give them an offer of $900,000. They will probably take it. If not, we can go the extra 80 thousand if it's really a pretty good deal.'

WOMAN: 'OK. I'll see you later! I love you so much!'

MAN: 'Bye! I love you, too.'

The man hangs up. The other men in the locker room are staring at him in astonishment, mouths agape.



He turns and asks: 'Anyone know who this phone belongs to?'

Red Skeltons Pledge of Allegiance

Fox News needs our help

Let's help out FOX NEWS
Here is a vote we can all win….Take a minute and go vote for Fox News…
After you go to the site to vote, please pass this on to folks... otherwise our 'news' will only be more monitored and restricted.

Fox News is losing in an NPR Poll, but with the power of the Internet we can turn that around in a few hours. If you haven't heard this, the White House is accusing Fox News of not being a legitimate source of news, calling them biased, etc.

They have tried to block Fox reporters from news conferences, etc., NPR has put a survey online for us to voice our opinion. Currently it is 71% in favor of the White House, because mainly liberals log on to the NPR website. If Fox loses this poll you can bet Obama will mention it as support for his attack on Fox. Let's show them how we feel about honest conservative news reporting.

To vote log onto: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2009/10/in_white_house_vs_fox_news_war.html

Menu plan change

Since I made the decision to quit wasting food I am going to have to change my menu plan. Yesterday I was suppose to make porcupine meatballs, BUT, we still had plenty of oh so easy lasagna. SO, we ate leftover lasagna for supper last night. It was even better than the first night, plus all we had to do was warm it up and add some more sauce and cottage cheese because Mollies thought it needed it. There is still one serving of it left so one of us will eat it for lunch today. We also have several lunch ables and frozen dinners in the freezer so I want to get those used up.

I buy lunch ables when I see them marked half price and put them in the freezer. I also buy my lunch meat when it is marked half price and put it in the freezer for later. I have not had to buy lunch meat at the regular price for quite some time once I figured out what day they mark things down at the United where I shop. For me, its Wednesday evening. I usually go there after I drop the kids off at youth.

Anyway, back to the menu. Since we missed the porcupine meatballs yesterday, I will make them for supper tonight. If there are left overs, we will eat them tomorrow. It is quite apparent that I cook too much food at one time. Learning not to waste food will either help me learn to cook less or get used to eating up the leftovers while they are still good. Which ends up meaning that I only have to cook supper every other day, I could get used to that.

More great crock pot recipes from Shelley

Here are some more recipes...
I hope you are finding some things that you like.

Mom's Chicken Italiano ~
2 to 3 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2 10 oz. cans golden mushroom soup
2 14.5 oz cans diced tomatoes
1 cup onion chopped
1 t. dried basil
Arrange chicken in a slow cooker. Mix together remaining ingredients and pour over chicken. Cover and cook on low setting for 8 hours.
Cut and shred chicken into bite-size pieces before serving.

Italian Sausage & Penne ~
3/4 lb. hot Italian sausage links, cut into bite-size pieces
1 red pepper, chopped
1/2 onion, chopped
26 oz. jar spaghetti sauce
6 oz. pkg. penne pasta, cooked
Stir together all ingredients except pasta in a slow cooker. Cover and cook on low setting for 7 to 8 hours.
At serving time, stir in cooked pasta.

Fix & Go Swiss Steak ~
1 & 1/2 lbs boneless beef round steak, cut into serving size pieces
1 & 1/2 oz. pkg onion soup mix
2 14.5 oz cans diced tomatoes
cooked rice
Arrange steak in a slow cooker; sprinkle with onion soup mix. Pour diced tomatoes over top. Cover and cook on high setting for 4 hours.
Serve over rice

.Chicken & Cornbread ~
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
10 oz can cream of mushroom soup
1/2 cup water
6 oz pkg cornbread stuffing mix
Place chicken in a slow cooker and set aside. Mix remaining ingredients together; pour over chicken.
Cover and cook on low setting for 6 to 8 hours.

Easy Special Pot Roast ~
10 oz. can cheddar cheese soup
10 oz. can golden mushroom soup1
0 oz. can french onion soup
3 lb beef chuck roast
Mix soups in a slow cooker; top with roast. Cover and cook on low setting for 8 to 10 hours, turning roast halfway through cooking time if possible.

Thanks Shelley. You can visit Shelley's blog here:http://todayifoundme.blogspot.com/

Dumpster Diving

The girls and I went dumpster diving today. Actually I went and Hannah was in the back seat and Mollie drove the get away car. I wanted to make some of those plant pots out of newspapers and we don't take any papers. To me the logical thing to do was to dumpster dive behind the newspaper office. The dumpsters were clean because all they put in there are newspapers but they were fairly empty so I had to reach pretty far to grab some newspapers.

This evening I sat down and made 63 pots. I will make some more tomorrow. I am pretty fast at making them now. Hannah came to watch how I did it and she said you are fast mom.

I found the image on the Internet. I like the cute markers. I just use pop sickle sticks I buy in bulk.

I need to make a bunch because each of my starter trays holds 72 little starter discs. I still haven't gotten anything else planted. I hope to remedy that tomorrow.

Also, I like the fact that you can make small pots or a bit larger pot depending on what you use to wrap your newspaper around.

Guest post by Shelley

I asked my friend/cousin Shelley for some crock pot recipes. That girl knows how to cook. She is young but she knows her way around the kitchen. She has a blog and she is starting to post the recipes there and gave me permission to post them here as well.
You can visit her blog here: http://todayifoundme.blogspot.com/

Sometime this spring we want to get together and I am going to teach Shelley to sew and she is going to teach me how to make better bread, I can make acceptable bread now, but I want to learn to make really good bread and she is the one to teach me. I am delighted that someone so young is so good at this. I think she has a good mom who taught her young. Plus she has ability.


Italian Pot Roast ~
2 to 3 lb beef chuck roast
4 oz can sliced mushrooms, drained
1 T. oi
l2 - 14.5 oz cans Italian style stewed tomatoes
optional; cooked egg noodles or mashed potatoes
In a skillet over medium heat, brown roast in oil on both sides.
Place roast in a slow cooker; pour tomatoes over top.
Cover and cook on low setting for 10 to 11 hours. About 15 minutes before serving, stir in mushrooms; cover and heat through.
If desired, serve with cooked egg noodles or mashed potatoes.

Chicken Cordon Bleu ~
4 to 6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
4 to 6 thin slices cooked ham
4 to 6 slices Swiss cheese
10 oz. can cream of mushroom soup
1/4 cup milk
Place each chicken breast in a plastic zipping bag; pound to flatten.
Top each with a slice of ham and a slice of cheese; roll up and secure with a toothpick.
Arrange rolls in a slow cooker in layers.
Mix soup and milk; pour over chicken. cover and cook on low setting for 4 to 6 hours, until chicken is no longer pink inside.
To serve, remove toothpicks and arrange chicken rolls on serving plate; spoon sauce from slow cooker over rolls.

St. Paddy's Corned Beef ~
3 carrots, peeled and thickly sliced
3 lb flat cut corned beef brisket with seasoning packet
1 cup low-sodium beef broth
1/2 to 1 head cabbage, cut into wedges
Arrange carrots in the bottom of a slow cooker; place corned beef on top.
Sprinkle with on quarter of seasoning packet contents; discard rest of seasoning.
Pour broth over all. Cover and cook on low setting for 8 to 10 hours, or on high setting for 5 to 6 hours.
Add cabbage wedges, pushing down to moisten. Cover; cook on high setting for an additional 2 to 3 hours.

Easy Kielbasa Dinner ~
10 to 12 new redskin potatoes
16 oz. pkg. sauerkraut
1 t. caraway seed
1 T. light brown sugar, packed
1 lb Kielbasa, cut into 2 inch pieces
Peel a strip around the middle of each potato; place potatoes in the bottom of a slow cooker. Place sauerkraut on top of potatoes, rinse sauerkraut bag with a little water and pour into slow cooker. Sprinkle caraway and brown sugar over sauerkraut; arrange Kielbasa pieces on top. cover and cook on low setting for 8 to 10 hours.

Nacho Chicken & Rice ~
1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cubed
2 10 oz. cans Cheddar cheese soup
1 & 1/4 cup water
16 oz. jar chunky salsa
1 & 1/4 cup long cooking rice, uncooked

Combine all ingredients in a slow cooker. Cover and cook on low setting for about 5 hours, or until chicken and rice are tender.

4-Ingredient Chicken Chili ~
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
8 oz pkg. Monterey Jack cheese, cubed
16 oz jar salsa
3 15.5 oz cans Great Northern beans, drained and rinsed
Cover chicken breasts with water in a saucepan; simmer until cooked through, about 20 to 3o minutes.
Reserve broth and shred chicken. Add reserved broth and chicken to a slow cooker; stir in cheese. Add salsa and beans to chicken mixture. Cover and cook on low setting for one to 2 hours, or until heated through and cheese is melted.

Fiesta Chicken Pronto ~
8 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
16 oz. can black beans, drained and rinsed1
0 oz can cream of chicken soup
2 T. taco seasoning mix
1/4 cup salsa
Arrange chicken in a slow cooker. Combine remaining ingredients and pour over chicken. Cover and cook on high setting for 3 hours.


Shelley is my friend/cousin. Her blog may be found here:http://todayifoundme.blogspot.com/

The van has 6 cylenders not 3

We have had our van since it was new. At first if was Jeff's company van and then when it got enough miles on it, we bought it. It has run ruff for quite a while now. Come to find out it has 6 spark plugs that needed changed, not just the 3 Jeff could see. LOL. So its a wonder that the thing ran at all.
We took it to a fella over by Adams and he fixed it up. Today we are going to Guymon to get a couple or four new tires. Then we can drive the van again. I am so glad. The little car is just too small for more than four people. So when anyone was here we had to take the pick up and it uses a lot of gas. Now we can take the van. It seats 7. One more than the pick up does.

I have several things to do in Guymon. One thing is to get the lumber so Mollie can build my foot stools. I will take pictures of the process. I will then cover them, upholster them.

Ok that's it. No more wasting food.

This article says that the average American family of 4, wastes 122 pounds of food each month. To read the article go here: http://www.groovygreen.com/groove/?p=3055

I read an article about how much food the average American throws away each month. The amount was staggering. Of course I thought to myself, we are not that wasteful. But are we? The girls and I just finished cleaning out the fridge and as I do every time we do this I was amazed and saddened. We ARE very wasteful. While we do not waste as much food as is pictured above, we waste more than I am happy with.

I am going to try my best to correct this situation. No more making something different for lunch if there are leftovers in the fridge, even if you aren't in the mood for it. No more wasting food. I am not being a good steward of the resources God has given me if I am wasting so much food.

Edited to add: We threw out about a gallon of food, gave it to the dog and cats actually. We clean out the fridge about once a month, so we do in fact waste less than the average, but still more than I would like.

New Dictionary

I received my new 1828 Noah Webster American Dictionary of the English Language today. Its huge. I have been wanting one of these for a long time.

I will be using this dictionary with my Bible study and at church even though its huge. I will also be having the girls use it in their homeschooling.

Thank you Jeff for buying this for me.

Home made real vanilla

Last year some friends and I made real vanilla. We used vodka and vanilla beans, just like real vanilla is made.

Yesterday at church, one of the ladies who had made vanilla with me came to me and said that she was giving me her vanilla because it just still smelled like vodka. She just couldn't bear to use alcohol to cook with.

I chuckled because for someone who cooks professionally, which she does, she didn't seem to know that the alcohol cooks out when you heat it. And I guess she would rather use vanilla made with chemicals than vanilla made with alcohol. Oh well, her loss, my gain.

I just looked up the price of real vanilla and the best price I could find was three times the price we paid to make our own.

Yes, we had to go to a liqueur store. Oh well. There is nothing wrong with using real vanilla as far as I can tell and I will continue to use it until I am convinced otherwise.

Monday-Monday

It's beautiful outside today.

I have washed two loads of laundry and hung them out. Made two loaves of banana bread, they are in the oven now. Made some xylitol mints. They are setting up now.

My husband and I are fasting for a cousin of a friend who has a brain tumor and for an unspoken request of our own.

Today we will be half way done on the current stone order we are working on. Yippie.

I am also going to transfer most of my plant starts to the greenhouse where they and I will have more room. That will give me more room to start more seeds. I want to start a lot more flower seeds to plant and sell.

The chickens are doing great. The one chick we lost right away is still the only one we lost so far. Praise God and thanks giving for that.

Maybe since its so nice we can get started on the chicken house.

I also started some wheat sprouts the other day for a friend and I will be planting them pretty soon today. I am also planting some for the chicks to eat. It will be their first greens. If the grass was green I would pull some of that to feed to them.

I think sprouted wheat is good for chicks and chickens.

More Sunday funnies

http://www.reverendfun.com/index.php?date=20100319

Sunday Funnies

These are from the Sacred sandwich. They crack me up.

http://sacredsandwich.com/

Jesus has an above ground pool for sale

My husband was looking at the local ads and saw a picture of an above ground pool for sale by Jesus. He said Jesus has a pool for sale. I said, I saw that, I didn't know he lived around here.
LOL
I have always found it strange and amusing that Hispanic people name their boys Jesus.

Another story.
When Hannah our youngest started school there was a boy named Jose in her class. She came home and told me that there was a boy named Josie in her class. I explained to her that his name was Jose (Ho say) not Josie. We still laugh about that one.

This is funny

A couple of years ago my sisters two daughters had an argument and the younger one went outside to cool down.

After a while the older girl text ed the younger to see if she was still mad. The younger sister said she was talking to Jesus.

The older daughter thought oh OK, I didn't know she was that mad at me, but OK.
Later the younger sister still hadn't come back inside so the older daughter text ed her again, and she said she was still talking to Jesus.

By this time the older daughter was getting worried, thinking the younger sister was really really mad since she was doing so much praying.

The older sister decided to go outside to check on the younger sister, and there she was sitting in her friend Jesus's car talking to him.

The oldest one thought the younger one was praying the whole time and here she was talking to a boy.
FUNNY

This is unbelivable

Does the trucker not know or is it road rage?

Camping anyone?

I am always amazed at folk's innovation. I love it. I want a tour.

Oh so easy lazagna

Oh-So-Easy Lasagna
1 to 2 lbs ground beef, browned and drained
26 oz jar pasta sauce (spaghetti sauce)
8 oz pkg bowtie pasta cooked
12 oz container cottage cheese
16 oz pkg shredded mozzarella cheese
　Mix together ground beef and pasta sauce.
In a slow cooker, layer half each of ground beef mixture, pasta, cottage cheese and... shredded cheese. Repeat with remaining ingredients.
Cover and cook on low setting for 6 to 8 hours, or on high setting for 3 ot 4 hours.

Recipe from my friend Shelley

Mom said

Mom said not to pick up hitch hickers. I wonder why?

I think I need a bigger car/pickup

A remarkable puzzle

Test your Bible skills!
Can you find the names of 25 books of the Bible in this paragraph? This is a most remarkable
puzzle. Someone found it in the seat pocket on a flight from Los Angeles to Honolulu, keeping himself occupied for hours. One man from Illinois worked on this while fishing from his john boat. Roy Clark studied it while playing his banjo. Elaine Victs mentioned it in her column once.

One woman judges the job to be so involving, she brews a cup of tea to help calm her nerves. There will be some names that are really easy to spot...that's a fact. Some people will soon find themselves in a jam, especially since the book names are not necessarily capitalized.

The truth is, from answers we get, we are forced to admit it usually takes a minister or scholar to see some of them at the worst. Something in our genes is responsible for the difficulty we have. Those able to find all of them will hear great lamentations from those who have to be shown. One revelation may help, books like! Timothy and Samuel may occur without their numbers. And punctuation or spaces in the middle are normal.

A chipper attitude will help you compete. Remember, there are 25 books of the Bible lurking somewhere in this paragraph.

I found this at:http://elizabethplainsimple.blogspot.com/

Book giveaway

Making do with the not so new is giving away this book. If you would like to read this book go to her blog and register. She only wants people who really want to read the book and not just want to resell it.

http://makingdowiththenotsonew.blogspot.com/

Good quote

Just because everyone else is doing it, doesn't mean its right.

Farmville vs real life

I am not a fan of the facebook games and I have banned them from me having to look at them. Today I said I was going to move the chicks to the greenhouse and plant several kinds of flowers and some veggies. I got two replies that said something about farmville. I had to chuckle. These people think farmville is the only way to farm and grow veggies. I told them that they probably think vegetables and eggs come from the store too.

They play the game, I get real life.

Farmville smarmville=time stealer.

If I say I am doing something with chickens they are actual chickens. They eat, drink and will someday give eggs and or meat.

If I say I am planting something it is the real life actual flower or vegetable, not some fantasy flower that sustains no one.

If I am building something on my farmstead, I actually am. I am glad I live in reality and am able to do things in real life.

I know some people like the games and call themselves gamers. It is just an incredible time waster/stealer to me. I cant abide the games.

I am now going to put a real heater in my real greenhouse for my real chicks. Try that on Farmville. lol

Whats for supper?

After lunch I put 4 pork chops into the crock pot. I covered them with a cream soup. I then mixed up a box of stove top stuffing with more water than is called for on the box. I then put the stuffing over the chops. I turned the crock pot on high and it will be done for supper.

Since we are working outside in the afternoon right now I get too tired to fix supper. So if anyone has any crock pot recipes using hamburger, beans, sausage or other frugal ingredient please send me a recipe or link. Thanks.

Oh yeah, I also have lots of canned chicken, so recipes for the crock pot using that would be good too.

Organizing the pantry

Here are the can organizers in my pantry.

I purchased can organizers for my pantry. I bought them from this company:http://www.thecanorganizer.com/

I bought 4 packages of 4 of the cupboard size and 1 package of 4 of the pantry size. I wish I had bought more of the cupboard size. I thought 16 would be enough, but its not. These organizers are priced within my price range. I think I am going to like them. Mollie is making labels for each type of food.

Dang it

Litty left a comment and I accidentally deleted it or something because its not there now. I wanted to go visit her blog. Litty, please try again and we love biscuits and gravy. Yummy.

Whats for supper?

Tonight we are having sweet and sour chicken over rice. I got the recipe from Crystal Miller's blog. Here it is.

Sweet and Sour Chicken
Crystal Miller

2 cups cut up chicken pieces, cooked
1 T olive oil
1 cup celery, chopped
½ cup green pepper, chopped
1 small to medium sweet onion, sliced thinly
1 20 oz. can pineapple, drain and save juice
1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
¼ cup honey
2 T soy sauce
2 T cornstarch

In a large frying pan heat oil and add celery, green pepper and onion. Cook until veggies are tender and onion is transparent. Add chicken meat to this and heat up on low.

Take drained pineapple juice and add water if necessary to make one cup. In a small bowl mix pineapple juice, apple cider vinegar, honey, soy sauce and cornstarch.

Add the pineapple juice mixture to the veggies and chicken and heat and stir on medium high until the sauce is thickened. Add the pineapple.

Serve over rice.

Wind/clothes dryer

Today the wind is blowing pretty hard. It usually does around here. One thing I like about it is that you can hang out the clothes and they are almost dry by the time the next load is done washing. I hung out a full load of clothes on my new clothes line and it looks like it will hold at least 3 loads. I think it would be difficult to hang sheets on it though. Maybe I can rig up just one long line for sheets, because they smell so good after hanging outside.
I like how the clothes are soft from blowing in the wind too.

It turns out that all our help is unable to come to work today. That leaves Mollie and I to make stone. I don't think we can do it by ourselves. I am still trying to figure out what to do about it. It only takes two hours but we need to find someone close who can work for those two hours a day.

***Mollie came up with an idea for her and I to make the stone by ourselves. We will pull yesterdays stone and color the molds. Then take a break and then we can mix and pour today's stone. That might work***

My granddaughters are here until Saturday. We are enjoying them. They helped dust the fireside room yesterday when we got the new furniture.

Next time we go to town I told Mollie that we need to pick up some 1x4's so she can make me a couple of footstools. I would like them to be hinged so they can be used for storage. Jeff wants one for the family room and I want one for the fireside room.

One time a long time ago we decided to make a footstool. We weren't very experienced with wood working back then, so we decided 4 feet by 4 feet was a good size. We had a big living room, but when we got it almost all the way built we realized that was huge. We ended up cutting it in half by size and made a 2feet by 2 feet foot stool that was plenty big. I have more experience now and know to measure things and have more of an idea of the sizes of things.

I will cover the footstool for the family room with a solid color fabric and I may choose a floral fabric for the footstool for the fireside room. I will probably use some old egg crates and cut them up for the padding on the top of the footstools. That is what I did the first time I made one and it worked very well. That footstool held lots of toys and lasted a long time. Kids sat and sprawled out across it. It was well used. I even had fabric to cover it with in my stash.

I know I have some floral fabric I can use for one of the footstools. I will have to look to see if I have fabric for the solid color one.

The history of aprons

I don't think our kids know what an apron is.
The principal use of Grandma's apron was to protect the dress underneath, because she only had a few, it was easier to wash aprons than dresses and they used less material, but along with that, it served as a potholder for removing hot pans from the oven.
It was wonderful for drying children's tears, and on occasion was even used for cleaning out dirty ears.
From the chicken coop, the apron was used for carrying eggs, fussy chicks, and sometimes half-hatched eggs to be finished in the warming oven.
When company came, those aprons were ideal hiding places for shy kids.
And when the weather was cold grandma wrapped it around her arms.

Those big old aprons wiped many a perspiring brow, bent over the hot wood stove.
Chips and kindling wood were brought into the kitchen in that apron.
From the garden, it carried all sorts of vegetables.
After the peas had been shelled, it carried out the hulls.
In the fall, the apron was used to bring in apples that had fallen from the trees.
When unexpected company drove up the road, it was surprising how much furniture that old apron could dust in a matter of seconds.

When dinner was ready, Grandma walked out onto the porch, waved her apron, and the men folk knew it was time to come in from the fields to dinner.

It will be a long time before someone invents something that will replace that 'old-time apron' that served so many purposes.

REMEMBER:

Grandma used to set her hot baked apple pies on the window sill to cool. Her granddaughters set theirs on the window sill to thaw.

They would go crazy now trying to figure out how many germs were on that apron.

I don't think I ever caught anything from an apron.

I received this as an email and here is my input. My kids and myself do know what an apron is and how to use one. We even make our own. I am pretty sure though that this is not necessarily a common thing.

I taught a soap making class the other day and the ladies didn't bring their own aprons so I lent them each one of ours and was embarrassed to see that every apron was dirty. We use our aprons and apparently don't launder them as often as we should. Needless to say they all got washed after the class.

Fireside room in black & white

I didn't like the color in the preceding photo's so I thought I'd see if I could make them black and white. I almost like them better this way

Fireside room

This is the room I call the fireside room. It could also be called the formal parlor or tea room. I just got a new to me couch and love seat in a pretty floral design. They go perfectly this room. We don't use this room much except when we have company. I used to have several tables and chairs in here and would host tea parties and private dinners. The red hat group, the Aurora group, a Sunday school class and several couples have dinned here. After a year or so I quit giving the dinners and only had tea parties. After about a year or two of that I quit giving tea parties and made this into a formal room to receive company.

If you have the room like I do its nice to have a room that you can keep sorta fancy for guests. The family gathers in the school room/library/family room to watch movies or hang out.

I will be putting up tours of my house room by room. I have a big house so I am never able to have it all clean at once so I thought I'd just do room by room tours.

Supper tonight

For supper tonight I am making:
meatloaf with beef and sausage
baked potatoes
fresh homemade rolls (just came out of the oven)
green beans
iced tea

The girls both are spending the night at friends so Jeff and I are going to watch a movie together.

Tomorrow we make stone early and then head to Ashland, Ks. to pick up my grand kids for part of spring break. The oldest one has her birthday party on Saturday so we will take her back then. I am pretty sure we will be having at least one tea party while they are here. Shelby told her mom she is not using the plastic cups she is using grandmas good ones. She is so funny.

We took our van to get new spark plugs so it will run much better. Then we will have to get a new tire and we will be driving the van again instead of the pick up which uses more gas.

Tuesday

The girls and I finished making the makeshift carport thingy to go over the roller conveyor system. We had to really makeshift it yesterday so we could work in the rain. Its similar to the shed we built for the cement only twice as long and is only covered on top. It will keep the rain off and then this summer will be a nice shade cover.



The girls also put my solar clothes dryer up. They attached it to a T-post with outdoor pull ties for easy removal.



We are working on a stone order, so far we have 250 square feet of stone made and 700 square feet to go. We have also been making 10 Commandment stone sets, drip stones and hearth stones. We also have made about a dozen stepping stones. We use the leftovers to make the stepping stones.

Chciken spaghetti

Ingredients:
1 jar of my home canned chicken or 2 chicken breasts (boiled)
1 lb. Angel hair pasta
1 can Cambell's Condensed Cream of Chicken Soup
1 lb. Mexican or regular Velveeta Cheese
1 can Rotel tomatoes (tomatoes with green chile's)
Preparation:
Boil noodles in water with chicken bullion added, drain after done. Pull chicken into small, bite-sized pieces. Cut cheese into small chunks and melt in sauce pan. Combine in 9X13 pan: chicken, noodles, cheese, soups, and Rotel. Mix well. Top with shredded muenster cheese. Bake for 20 min.
Serve with peas, garlic bread and iced tea.

Inpromptu duet

An elderly couple walked into the lobby of the Mayo Clinic for a checkup and spotted a piano . They've been married for 62 years and he'll be 90 this year .

Check out this performance . . . It's all attitude -- and Talent.


Watch their hands when they switch places.

Sunday

This afternoon we went to Perryton, Tx to a Ken Davis show. He is a funny man. I spent the whole show laughing while I cried. He would say something sad and then something funny. I had to get my hanky out of my purse, bawl and blow.

Tomorrow I think I will be moving a bunch of my seedlings to the greenhouse. That will give me more room to start more. I think if I put them in the empty raised beds and cover them with plastic they will be fine.

We also have to get busy getting those raised beds filled and ready to plant. I think it is suppose to rain tomorrow.

While we were in Perryton we stopped at the grocery store and I bought 19 cans of Del Monte spaghetti sauce on sale for .99 and ordered two more cases. Christina called me a while back to ask me to look for the green pepper and mushroom kind because Bill loves it and he cant find it in Alvin, Texas. I will give him a case or more at Bible school graduation. I also picked up 13 bags of Betty Crocker brownie mix on sale for .79 and ordered another case. I should have at least a years supply of both the spaghetti sauce and the brownie mix.

I like to try to get a years supply of something when the price is good. It is always of course something we eat and like. I would be dumb to buy a years supply of something we wont eat.

Rodeo clown

Well Jeff looked at my blog post about making stone and he said "Do you have a rodeo clown mixing the cement for you?" He was referring to my apron. It sorta looks like what the rodeo clowns wear. Thanks honey. I think you should take a copy to work to show your buddies your beautiful wife. They would all be so jealous.

Watch till the end

A peak into making stone

Ok first I gotta say its not a high fashion job. Maybe not even a low fashion job. LOL I have several layers of clothes on.

And Jr. only has on a t-shirt, these young kids. They are so much stronger than us.
That's Jr filling buckets with LWA.

I didn't realize how we look when we work, I made this apron out of an old pair of overalls. It works but isn't pretty. Plus it was cold today.

We ruff up the bottom of the stones so they will ad hear to the mortar better.

Mollie and Jr. pouring the mix into the molds.

Mollie and Jr. filling the wheel barrow with mix.

Hannah dressed and ready to go to the prom. lol

This job is hard work and dirty work. But we can make a lot of stone in a short amount of time because we have a good system worked out. Every body does what ever is needed and it goes smoothly. See the roller conveyor system in the background? That is a huge help to us.