Rolls, Biscuits, and Bread...Yum

One of my favorites sections of a cookbook is Breads. Bread was one of the first things I ever made. I was 7 years old and learning to make Potato Bread in school. I loved it. It was delicious and fun and I still have the recipe. So I was excited to get to this section of Amanda's recipe book.

I started her off with a bang on the first page. Rolls, biscuits, and yeast bread. All recipes from grandma. The biscuits were a big, feel good, happy memory for me. Every Sunday morning grandma would make biscuits and gravy, eggs, hash browns, sausage, applesauce, and fried green tomatoes if they were in season. Everyone would show up for her breakfasts. It was wonderful and I miss her.

              

As you can see they are getting quite faded.

And here it is transcribed into Amanda's cookbook. You can see to the right the sections I made using manila folders to partition off the different categories. The left you can just see the back side. I will go through everything I did once the book is finished. I am concentrating on getting the recipes in!

Do you have family favorite recipes? How do you save them?





My only intent is to show who used these recipes, not ownership.

I Want... Collection

Are you asked what do you want for your birthday? Or Christmas, or for whatever; and go totally brain dead? I do. I swear I have a gazillion things I want but as soon as I am asked, poof, you can hear crickets chirping. So I started writing things down as they occurred to me.

This is my "Movies I Want" page (but really its any DVD).

I think I have an 80's thing going on here

I have quite a lot of DVD's and if I can't remember half of what I've got, or how many season's I have of what, I certainly don't expect others to remember. Hence my "Movies I Want" list.

How do you store your DVD's? Do you keep them in their original case or do you use one of those DVD binders? If you use a binder how do you keep the description? Is there another way that saves space? Mine are in two four foot DVD bookcases and am running out of room! I can't afford another bookcase nor do I have the space, so any tips would be great!

Scary Movie Day

This is a day I look forward to each month. In January when I saw the 13th fell on Friday it was like having an extra Halloween. My favorite holiday. I decided I was gonna have a scary movie marathon and I enjoyed it so much I chose to have a Scary Movie Day on the 13th of every month. So tonight it's Shaun of the Dead, pizza, popcorn, lights off, battery operated candles lit (I have cats), and a blanket. 

Starting Another Journal

We had some good storms come through yesterday. Poor Jager stayed hidden in the corner all day. She does not like storms.

Been fairly busy the last few days. The highlights have been finishing up Easter gifts, having to start a new journal, and going through my closet and clearing things out a bit. All exciting stuff right?

I can't show the Easter gifts yet because of course that would be when my family decides to look at my blog, so that will have to wait till after Easter!

Like I mentioned I am having to set up a new journal. And while setting it up I realized I am getting about 4-6 months in each composition book, and redoing all my "collections" each time. So I thought what if I put all my collections in a separate journal? If I don't like it, it's not like I can't do it over again. So I thought I would try it out.

Here is the start of the new journal, all I've gotten so far is the yearly calendar in - and not finished with that either!

This is one of my collections. I am musically challenged, as in I can't remember the names of songs or bands. It is some kind of mental block or something because I just can not remember them. So I write down the songs that I really like while listening to Pandora. This would be one (of many) of the pages I transfer to the new separate Collections Journal for 2017.

I also mentioned going through my closet. First I blame Instagram (I'm on Instagram now! Here is my account) All those gorgeous organized closets. Sigh. Serious case of closet envy. I could care less about the clothes, it's those nice simple arrangements that have me drooling. No using full body weight to squish clothes aside so you can see what your trying to pick out. Or reaching in and grabbing one hanger that somehow hooks five others on the way off the rack/ Drives me nuts.

This is what I am getting rid of, so far. This was just the first pass and grabbing those items I knew for a fact wasn't gonna get worn. I mean seriously, I refuse to wear white. White anything NEVER stays white for long, and yet I had so many white shirts and pants! That was easy, then it was those items that were too small or didn't fit right but kept anyway in case of an emergency. This coming from a woman who happily wears pj's all day? Gone.

43 articles of clothing! Not bad for a first pass. I am not done by any stretch of the imagination. I have a large closet and I guess I felt I needed to have it full. Even with getting rid of all this I still can't slide things aside to see what I am grabbing, but the hangers are almost lined up instead of all tangled and on top of each other. I should have gotten a before pic, but to be honest at the time it was "do this NOW, or you wont do this at all."

Now to figure out what to keep from the things I know I like and wear. I don't go anywhere that often but I don't have too many opportunities to just run to town to get what I need should something pop up. (95% of my clothes came from the thrift store.)

How do you balance the "I like this and it looks good on me, but I don't wear it that often?" situation?

Meal Planning

I am trying out this layout for my meal planning.

I did an inventory of my freezer (a good thing too - found some scary stuff! I have cooked for 6 to 8 people for so many years that I have a hard time cooking for just one. So I cook maybe 2x a week and put several meals into the freezer. Homemade TV dinners. It works very well for me, the freezing meals part; the planning, not so much. 

So the system I'm trying out: 

1. inventory freezer so I don't plan something I don't have. 
   
2. Figure out 6-8 meals to cook for the month. 
3. I wanted the plan to be flexible without a lot of scribbles and cross offs, which using post it notes is a beautiful idea (probably got it from Pinterest). I wrote the meal down on the post it notes and placed them into the corresponding week I thought would feel like cooking it. 
   
4. When I do my weekly layout I pull those appropriate post it's and place them in  the box "In The Kitchen" part of my weekly. I have changed my mind on what to cook 3x!
   
   
   
   
5. Once I have cooked the meal I place the post it note back in the meal plan spread in the box marked "Cooked"
6. Add the meals to the freezer inventory and how many is available. 

So far it's working.  As I have changed my mind so many times on weeklies on whether I felt like cooking and what I felt like eating, the use of the post it notes have really helped. No more scratching off, migrating, or ignoring it. 

What do you do for meal planning? How do you keep track? Please let me know! Any ideas or tips would be GREAT!

Keeping Up With My Critters

My memory is awful. Seriously. I will try to remember that I have done something and think I have not realizing that what I remember was DAYS ago. Now for some things that can fly under the radar, not so much with taking care of my animals. Sure, they let me know if the food bowl is empty, some fairly vocal about it! But they need consistency, reliability, and deliberate care.

So I keep track. Of everything. If they have been fed, when I cleaned their bedding or cage, disinfecting their bowls, flea meds, allergy meds, when we have gone for a walk and how far (Jager has a weight problem, plus she loves it).

Here is how I keep track in my Bullet Journal:

I also keep track of Birthdays or Home Days. All of my critters were from a shelter, except Sweety, my bird. Actual birthdays are not known but their ages are estimated and I KNOW when they came to live with me. So we celebrate Home Day. This month Sweety has been with me for 15 years! Mr. Chubbs, cat, for 5. My other cats, Boo and Maui have their own days too, and last month my dog Jager and I celebrated our first year together, she is now 9 years old.

So fun.

Yep, I'm Back

I'm back. I am not going to promise anything, but my goal is to be more consistent with my blog. Thinking on it, I just lost interest. But it was, and still is, my only link to the outside world. So to keep posting I need to make it interesting for ME. If it's interesting for YOU too, FANTASTIC!

To catch up on what has been happening for the last year(?) would be way too long. And boring. But the upshot is I moved. Again. I am back in the original house I had moved to when I first came here to mom's property. Thankfully, everyone has agreed they are now in the home they wish to stay in, so no more moving! Maybe.

Now on to content. I have been journaling for years. Mostly boring, all written, nothing to grab your interest (or mine). Then I came across "Bullet Journaling". Wow. You can make it fun, who'd a' thought that? What caught my interest were:

• The INDEX! OMG such a simple thing but so needed for me! What an amazing concept.
• Can make it however you want, "minimalistic" or scream in your face rainbow.
• Collections. I would write lists upon lists and inventories and ideas all the time. Then I would lose them. Sigh.

The "Bullet Journal" concept incorporates all this and it was things I did already, just in a more organized way.

I am not going to go into how to start a Bullet Journal or any of that. What I am going to show you today is one of my "Collections".

 I was having to go through multiple storage containers to find what I wanted... which always seemed to be on the bottom. So I labeled the containers "A, B, C..." etc. and wrote down what is in them. I labeled them ABC so when I have multiple containers emptied (Christmas) when I put things back up or get rid of stuff, I don't have to relabel, just update the inventory.  Now I can just look in my journal when I need to find something and know exactly which container I need to get to, and my containers don't look so messy with different labels, which may or may not apply!

The numbered boxes is from when I moved and just haven't found a home for it yet or it's my daughter's. Yes, when I moved every single box was numbered and a short inventory listed as to what was in it. THAT was a huge help! I could then unpack what I needed (or asked my daughter to find box #? to finish up what we were doing)

It's all in my journal. I am so happy with it. Now I know which container I need.

As you can see, my journal is a simple $0.50 composition book. You can go all out and spend $10 -$50 on a journal, I don't have the money for that. Same for special pens and so on, I use pens from the Family Dollar and regular Crayola markers and colored pencils.

Week 4 of the 52 Week Crochet Challenge

Week 4's Challenge is "How did you learn to crochet or who taught you?"

I learned to crochet from my great grandmother.

She taught me all kinds of things, but when I sit down and crochet I always remember her and have to smile. The first stitch she taught me was the chain stitch when I was 4. and I learned that quick! I had a chain stitch going from one end of the house to the other!

Once I showed her how well I knew how to do it (I am sure it was more along the lines of once she was tired of constantly tripping over the chain.) She showed me how to make a granny square, which to this day is my favorite motif.

From that point on I was always crocheting something!

How did you learn to crochet? Do you have any fond memories of learning a craft? crochet, knitting, sewing, music, cooking?

EW

Scared of Art Journal's?

Remember this week's Challenge is to make a Crochet Journal. Which I have started, but there are many kinds of Journals.

Recipe Journals (I touched on in this post)
Craft Journals (like my Crochet Journal)
Art Journals
Daily Journals
Bible Journals
Garden Journals
Nature Journals
Bird Journals
Health Journals
Science Journals (Leonardo Da Vinci)

Do you get the idea? I know I will probably hear about this; but, to me, Scrapbooks, Journals, Smash Books, etc are all Journals of some sort :)

Well, Art Journals SCARE me. I love them, but was always saying "no, I can't draw a straight line" Stick figures aren't exactly considered "art"! And then I came across this free e-course

Kristal Norton

I am only half way through the course and I am enjoying it immensely! Each lesson is short and to the point and doesn't take more than 10 minutes to read or watch.  And the e-course is FREE!

Check it out and give it a shot! Especially if you are wanting to make a Journal but feel you don't have the time or talent to make one!

If you take the e-course please let me know what you think too! I have placed the Badge to the right in my blog or click the image above for the information and sign-up page.

EW


P.S. I am not receiving any kind of compensation for this post, these are my opinions only and want to share what I find and enjoy.

Just Because

Just because it was inspirational to me...

unDeniably Domestic

Recipe Journals

What got me interested in making my journals interesting and fun (which I kept putting off till the Challenge kick started me) was from when I made recipe binders for my children once they hit about 14ish. I took note of what dinners they liked and wrote down the recipe for them and family recipes/traditions and any story that went with them. I kept adding to the binder throughout the years till they moved out. But no pics whatsoever.

They loved the recipe binders that I gave them when they moved out on their own, but when I got hold of my daughters binder a couple of months ago (because she asked if I could redo it as it had been damaged in "storage" mentioned here) I realized it was BORING. I go through my cookbooks and look at the pictures for inspiration. They could not do this with what I gave them AND I would get phone calls on techniques:

"Mom what do you mean "fold"?"
"Are biscuits supposed to be so runny?"
"What is 'Cream shortening, sugar and egg?'"

So I got the idea of taking pictures of some of the meals and processes to help them.

Kind of like this:

Stamp4Joy/

I like the idea of "Digital Scrapbooking" as it isn't bulky and can put each page into a plastic sleeve and they can still add to their book as they find recipes on their own.

So I have been taking pictures as I cook (which unfortunately is NOT often - DIL is a wonderful cook!)
and finding free interesting digital pictures.

From Scrapbookscrapbook.com

They have a BUNCH more on this site!

What other kind of journal can you think of?
EW