Take your time!

Last night, I was hurriedly cleaning the bathroom, when I suddenly stopped.  Why was I in such a hurry? 

Well, I was in a hurry, because, naturally, after working an 8 hour day, I wasn't really thrilled about cleaning the bathroom...plus I had laundry in the dryer, and needed to get supper started. 

I decided to stop hurriedly scrubbing and stop and think things through.  When I slowed down, I found I was less frustrated and that cleaning, while not enjoyable, certainly became less bothersome. 

Work your way down.  I started by dusting the cobwebs around the tops of the walls/ceiling area. (I wonder how long it has been since I've cleaned up there???)

Next I dusted the light fixtures, took all the stuff off the stand that sets around and above the commode, dusted all the shelves, dusted and cleaned the window and window sill, then work my way down to the toilet, cleaned the sink, and finally swept and mopped the floor.  I will be tackling the tub tonight. 

I found that once I decided I was going to clean in a certain manner, things went a lot better for me.  I wasn't so hurried and unhappy. 

When you clean your house, you are helping your family.  Yay!  :)

I threw together a stir fry for supper last night, which was both filling and light on fat and calories.  It's a good time of the year to start thinking about setting aside recipe ideas for warmer weather.

Those of you with central air probably don't like having your cooling unit running full-out in the summertime, and turning on the oven certainly can add to the burden of the unit. For others, like me, who don't have air conditioning (well, we have a window unit in the bedroom, but that won't help the downstairs at all), you know how miserable it is to come home to an 85 degree house and then have to turn on the oven.  Phew!

At any rate, stove top cooking seems to keep the kitchen cooler, and still produce an edible meal.  I know a lot of people enjoy grilling.  I like to eat grilled food, but I've never been comfortable operating a grill alone.  Call me a wuss.  Go ahead, I know you want to.  lol  At any rate, when it is 90 degrees outside, standing in front of a flaming BBQ is also not my idea of a fun time.  Hubby does grill occasionally on the weekends, but I'm afraid our gas grill is more a lawn ornament than anything.

Anyway I digress...

The other day, I googled warm weather recipes, hoping to find a few new ones to add to the old file.  What I found were oddities like BBQ Miso Eggplant or Squash Souffle.  Um...that might suit some people just fine, but I prefer more...human style food.
Here are a few of my favorite warm weather meals:
Tacos/Taco Salad
Pulled Pork Sandwiches (Cook meat all day in crockpot, come home, shred, add BBQ sauce, eat!)
BBQ Chicken in crockpot
Chicken Salad sandwiches
Green Salad with cubed chicken, strawberries, and feta. (Throw in a handful of sliced almonds if you have them)
Greek salad (diced tomatoes, green pepper, cucumber chunks, feta, and olives tossed with italian dressing)
Baked potato bar (microwave taters till done, then top with all kinds of fun stuff)

So, anyway, those are just a few ideas.  We like eating most all of them and they don't heat up the kitchen much. 

I wanted to leave you with this lovely sunset over Briar Creek Lake.  Hubby has had off the past couple days for bereavement and we've been going there around 7:30 or so to get some exercise in.  The view was stunning on Tuesday night. 

May God bless you, dear reader.  I pray that you are healthy, happy, and having a great day.  :)

Mandy

A tribute to Grandma

I wanted to blog a little bit today about my husband's grandmother, Beverly.

She passed away last Tuesday, May 28 from cancer.  She was 83 years old. 

We celebrated her life yesterday at a beautiful and moving funeral at Calvary Baptist Church, where she had been a member for 50 years. 

I didn't know Grandma well until I married Scott, which was in 2004.  She has instilled a few lasting impressions- I'd like to share a few of those now.

Sunday Dinner- This is my favorite memory of Grandma.  Every Sunday, she would have the entire family (that includes 8+ family members when I joined the family) over at 12:30 for dinner.  She cooked everything from scratch and the menu varied.  Some personal favorites were: Chicken and Waffles (it's a Pennsylvania Dutch dish- think chicken and biscuits, but fresh, crispy homemade waffles instead of biscuits), Pork and Sauerkraut, Hamburg BBQ (that's East-ylvanian for Sloppy Joes from scratch), Chicken and Rice Casserole, and so many others. 

The meal was prepared with care and served piping hot to anyone who came for dinner.  We had a family blessing before eating and everyone truly enjoyed spending time together at Grandma's house Sunday afternoons.

I always helped wash dishes afterward- after all, if someone is kind enough to cook a huge homemade meal for me, the least I can do it help by cleaning up!!  


Sour Cherries- The first year Scott and I moved to Bloomsburg, I remember going to an orchard to pick sour cherries on July 4th.  We spent the day in the sunshine, filling our pails with the red, tangy cherries.  Afterward, we went home and helped grandma take the stones out.  She rewarded us with a big bag of cherries, which I promptly turned into cherry pudding!  (I will definitely have to share that recipe, because it is delicious.) 

Above all, Beverly was involved and active in her church.  She was a true prayer warrior and prayer daily and constantly.  She was loved by her family and friends.  She will be missed very much. 

Running here, there, and everywhere!

Good morning, everyone!  (Or afternoon or evening, depending when you are visiting!)

First of all, a bread update for everyone.  This week's loaf is he best yet.  It rose wayyy up and filled the whole pan and is delicious!  Huzzah!  Now I need to work on texture.  It's not quite as deliciously chewy as I would like.  Perhaps I'm not doing something quite right, or perhaps this recipe simply does not make chewy bread . I thought the problem might be that I didn't knead it long enough, so I set a timer for 10 minutes.  After about 5 I was thinking "Oh!  This is never going to end!"  lol  I managed to knead the dough for about 8 minutes and figured that my arms falling off would be a worse consequence than having not-quite-as-chewy-as-I'd-like bread.  It makes excellent toast.

Anywhoo...


In addition to bread making, we've had quite a lot going on.

We went camping this past weekend, along with my in-laws.  My husband's twin brother, wife, and daughter came on Saturday afternoon and stayed Saturday night.  The weather was less than perfect, but we managed to have a good time, anyway.


We arrived Friday afternoon around 4:00 and quickly set up camp, as it appeared that it might start raining at any time.  Sure enough, 15 minutes after we had the tent up, along came the rain!  It continued to rain all night.

When we woke up on Saturday, we noticed the rain seemed to have slowed down a bit.  Hubby and I took a relaxing walk around the lake (there is a lovely paved path that encircles the lake) and came back to see if anyone else had woken up.  Nope!  We decided to go back in the tent and rest awhile longer since neither of us had slept very well and it was early. (I think we got back to the site around 6:45 am) We awoke about an hour later, and once again it was raining pretty hard.

 It rained until about 2:30 and then started to get nice.  Hurray! 

       Check out the blue sky view from the tent! 

The rest of Saturday, we went on a short hike, enjoyed spending time with our niece, Abigail, and had a campfire/weenie roast.  

Sunday dawned warm and sunny...


                            Good morning! 

  We started tearing down camp and in between eating meals and taking breaks/chatting with one another, we made it out of the campgrounds right at 3:00.  The nice think about camping in a PA State Park is that they offer such a late checkout.  You can stay and enjoy lunch on your last day and still have plenty of time to tear down and pack up. 

It was a nice weekend, all in all, despite the unfavorable weather conditions Friday and Saturday.

On a sadder note, Scott's grandmother, Beverly, has taken a turn for the worse and has been admitted into Hospice care.  She has cancer in several organs and does not wish to pursue treatment.  Please keep my hubby and his family in your prayers as this is a difficult time.

Give us this day our daily bread

I love homemade bread.  Who doesn't? 

I've been wanting to make my own bread for some time now, but a number of problems arise.  Namely, I don't have a lot of spare time on my hands since I work full time, and also I can tend to be rather lazy. 

My grandma used to make homemade bread every other day.  Then, in the 90's, she bought a bread machine.  My grandma thinks her bread machine is the bees knees.  She's gone through 3 of them since she uses them so much.  The only thing I'm not crazy about in the realm of bread machines is the shape of the loaf.  Who wants a loaf with a big hole in the middle of it?   My mom solves that problem by letting the bread machine work its magic by making the dough, then taking it out and baking it in her own pan in the oven.  Does anyone else do that? 

I happen to own a bread machine, but I really wanted to make bread the old fashioned way.  So, last Monday I found a relatively easy recipe that didn't seem too difficult and I set out to make my own bread.  I was pretty disappointed.  My bread did not rise well and I was left with a thick, heavy, and brick-like loaf. 

Yesterday, I decided I would try again, with one change- I used spring water in the place of tap water.  I read online that most town water nowadays has chlorine in it.  Chlorine kills yeast...which is (I believe) why my bread failed. 

So, I dug out the same recipe and tried over again- and success was my reward!  Woohoo!  I had a nice golden loaf of crusty bread.  Even though it wasn't perfect (my loaf pan appears to be a bit too large for this particular loaf of bread), it tasted wonderful, it puffed up like it should have, and it had a really nice texture.  I made toast out of a couple slices and it was heavenly. 

To add even more goodness, I spread on some pecan pumpkin butter (like apple butter, not the milk/cream kind of butter).  A-maz-ing!   You can buy the butter at a number of different Amish shops in the area.  However, if you are desperate to try a fruit butter but don't have a supplier nearby, you can buy online from this site. 

I would add a photo, but my bread is already about half gone...hubby seems to like it just as much as I did.  lol 

So, are you intimidated by the whole concept of bread making?  You really don't need to be. 

My bread called for minimal ingredients.  I only needed water, yeast, salt, sugar, crisco, milk, and flour.  The only thing that required a real quantity of anything was flour.  Here is the recipe I used.  Honestly, if you have considered making bread, but weren't sure, why not dive in and give it a try.  I think you'll enjoy the results and realize it's not so difficult or scary as you may think. 

If you have a bread machine, dig it out and re-read those instructions.  Fire it up and enjoy a warm, crusty loaf of deliciousness! 

God bless you, dear reader.  I pray that you are happy, healthy, and having an enjoyable day.  :) 

Finally Friday

Well, as I predicted last night, I'm feeling perfectly chipper and happy today.

Please ignore the ramblings of a sad, tired woman from my last post.

We don't really have any big plans for the weekend.  I think we'll head up to Wilkes-Barre because my husband is hankering to eat at Chili's and that is the closest one.  Maybe we'll do a little shopping while we are up there.  Who knows? 


Today is bright and sunny.  It is this morning, at any rate.  I hope it warms up a bit soon.  It's been an unusually chilly spring so far.  It will make it up to the 50's today and maybe 60 by Sunday.  I feel bad for my poor daffodils who have been enduring lots of cold weather, dipping into the 20's at night. 

I'd like to clean off the porches and sweep them down and make them look nice this weekend.  I think that'll be a nice project.  It won't be long till we will be able to use them! 

We have a little trip coming up in three weeks.  We're staying at Prince Gallitzin State Park with my sister and her hubby and son.  I think it will be a fun time- especially if the weather is nice! 

I'm looking for a way to get set in grease spots out of my clothes.  Any suggestions? 

Sadness tonight

I'm sure I'll be feeling like my chipper self by tomorrow, but I need a place to vent and since it appears that absolutely no one reads this blog, I figure I may as well pour it out here.

I hope you don't mind, but I need to vent.  I'm not eloquent.  I don't necessarily have a talent for putting my thoughts down, but I do feel like if I don't express myself somewhat, I'll go to sleep crying, which isn't really how I want the day to end.  So, you know, bear with me.  It's not the end of the world.  It might feel like it, but I'm certain I'll survive.

Tonight I am lonely.  Not the kind of "I live in a lighthouse at the edge of the sea with no one in a 20 miles radius lonely."  It's a 21st Century kind of lonely. 

It's spending a lot of time on facebook, trying to connect with people who are busy with their own lives.  It's spending every weeknight alone because your husband works 2nd shift and you work 1st.  It's living 4 hours away from your family kind of lonely. 

It's also my own fault I don't have many friends.  Now, that's not to say that I'm not friendly with people.  I'm merely hard to be friends with.  I like space.  I like routines and switching things up makes me really uncomfortable.  Hence the not too many friends thing.  Most people want to get together and do stuff whereas most of the time, I'd prefer to be at home.  I've got nothing against them.  What I do have is a serious problem with my routine being messed up.  (Cause I am a toddler like that, I suppose.) 

I get sad because I don't know how to do my hair.  No one really ever taught me and I have this frizzy fine hair that just blows wherever it wants and it's not like I can just let it be.  If I end up doing something with it, it dang well better be absolutely perfect, or it is going to get ripped right back down and I'll just do it the way I always do.  

I'm sad because I wish my husband understood a few things about me.  I wish he knew I need to be supported sometimes.  He always comes off as if I am hassling him when I am sad or upset.  It's like he doesn't have time to listen to me.  Then, he'll end up sad too and I need to comfort him.  I love helping him and comforting him, but I want him to comfort me, too.  Isn't that how it is supposed to work?  I feel mean for saying this, but I feel like I get ripped off in the emotions department.  My feelings don't seem to count.
I know.  Boo-hoo, right?  Everyone's got problems.  

I've been so restless and unhappy this week.  The thought of going and doing things after work both spring with possibility and also seem to make me angry, for some reason.  I have a hard time making peace with myself.  I wonder if anyone else is like that.  Maybe it's just me.  I'm not sure. 

What are you really supposed to do when you're upset or mad?  I usually don't do anything, although I have to admit I'm more like my dad than I want to be.  I don't say anything, because if I did, it wouldn't make much sense... Honestly, when I'm mad at people I want to smack them, usually as hard as I possibly can.  So ladylike and polite.  Ugh.  Why did I have to be born with the natural mannerisms of a boorish oaf?  If it makes you feel any better, I've never actually smacked someone.  I would like to someday, though.  There are a lot of people who need a good smacking, right? 

The other day I was thinking about the whole 3 wishes with a genie in a bottle thing.  I thought maybe there would be a stipulation that you had to wish for unusual things.  I'm not exactly sure what all three wishes would be, but I know I'd like one of them to be that I'll never be tailgated again.  I want some sort of invisible force field around my car that literally makes it impossible to get too close.  That would be divine. 

I'm sad that I'll probably not really ever try anything new.  I know myself and how I work.  I'm too afraid and too stubborn to really get out there and try for something.  I don't like doing something new unless I know I will succeed.  I hate looking like a fool. I am prideful like that.

I have to laugh that I hate looking like a fool and then post a blog like this.  Oy vey.  I'm an idiot.

Anyway, enough ranting for one night. 

Please understand that my frustration level on just about everything is super high right now.  I'm just having a crappy week and I am tired and hurting and sad and feeling very alone and bitter. 

I won't feel like this forever.  I just have to get over it and realize that not everything in the world sucks. 

If you took the time to read this, a pat on the back to you.  Thanks for listening.  It's nice to know that someone took the time to do that.  I apologize if you now hate me. It's okay.  On nights like this, I don't like myself much, either.  lol 

Have a good day/evening, reader.  I hope that you are well and I pray that you are happy. 

Mandy

Double duty cooking

This week I thought I'd post a little about double duty cooking.  You know, you cook once and then eat twice?  If you family can't stand the same thing twice in a row, or you don't do leftovers, then you might not like this idea.  Here's how it is going with my family this week:

Monday, I made a big pan full of meatballs.  We had meatball hoagies last night for supper, along with some chicken corn chowder. 

Tuesday (tonight) I am using the rest of the meatballs with spaghetti and sauce.  I'm rounding out the meal with green beans and a small salad.

Wednesday I am putting some chicken breasts in the crockpot.  When they are finished cooking, I'm taking two out and putting wing sauce on top with a few blue cheese crumbles.  I'll add a baked potato and some steamed broccoli and calling it a meal. 

Thursday I'm taking the two leftover chicken breasts, shredding them, adding BBQ sauce (actually I am doing this Wednesday in the crockpot and then spooning it into a dish to be reheated on Thursday) and making some BBQ chicken sandwiches.  I won't consider them finished until some cheese is added on top!  We'll probably have leftover soup or chips or something with these.

Friday, I'm just making a frozen pizza.  This is a hectic week, so I wanted to make sure I had some easy-peasy meals and I think these fit the bill nicely. 

Typically, I make meals a little more...oh, in depth, I guess, but these still taste great and they are very easy.

Do you ever cook once and eat twice?  Tell me about it! 

Bless you all! 


Mandy