Nina's latest cake and other weekend stuff

Nina made this cake for us this weekend. It is white cake with lemon filling and a chocolate Marine Corps emblem on top. I think this might of been her best cake ever, both how professional the decorating was and how good it tasted. Thank you Nina!

Nina and her Daddy

Dilly Buns
1 package yeast
1/4 C warm water
1 pinch sugar
1 cup cottage cheese
1 T butter or margarine
2 T sugar
1 t dried dill weed
1 t dried minced onion flakes
1 t salt
1 egg
1/4 t baking soda
about 2 3/4 - 3 cups flour

Stir the yeast into the warm water with the pinch of sugar in a large mixing bowl. Set aside to proof.

In a small saucepan, melt the butter and stir in the cottage cheese just until the cottage cheese is barely warm. Remove from heat.
To the yeast mixture, add all the ingredients and stir till a dough forms. Knead on floured surface until sort of smooth - you will still see the cottage cheese though.
Place dough in a greased bowl and turn to coat. Let rise until double, about 1 hour.
Punch down the dough. Roll out on a floured surface about 3/4 inch thick. Cut with a 3 inch round cutter. Place on a greased baking sheet.
Let rise again, about 20 minutes
Bake at 350 degrees, about 15-20 minutes.
brush tops with melted butter and sprinkle lightly with coarse salt.
These are great as sandwich buns. We had them with smoked pork loin for Saturday lunch.

This is what my family looks like after a big meal - relaxing on the sofas and watching football.
Does your family look the same?

Weekly Menus - starting Sept. 1

Last week, I cooked exactly what I had on the menu plan from Monday through Thursday. But Friday through Sunday, we ate some different things. Since we did not eat what I first planned, I am going to carry over some of those dishes to this coming week.

Sunday
Chicken Strips with mashed potatoes and gravy

Monday
Pinto Beans with Mexican Cornbread

Tuesday
Chili Dogs with oven fries

Wednesday
Spicy Garlic Lime Chicken with rice and a big salad

Thursday
Salisbury Steak with mushroom gravy and baked potatoes

Friday
homemade Pizza

Saturday
lunch - Asian Chicken Wraps
supper Grilled hamburgers

Today's deals

I got off work early and needed a few things at Wal-mart.
The Easy Mac is 75 cents each, this past Sundays paper had $1/2 coupons so they came to 25 cents each. I don't eat them but Jimmy says he can cook them on campus when he stays there all day.
The sand paper is for refinishing project I plan to do, I am inspired by the great instructions on the Screaming Meme's blog. I'll let you know if works out. Her stuff is great but my history with faux finishes is pretty laughable.

Then to Dollar Tree where I got foil, plastic wrap and markers.
Next stop was Big Lots. Their summer merchandise is 75% off so all this plant food and garden cloth was $7.25 - and I have a head start on next year's garden!
Also at Big Lots, this canned fruit is 90 cents, the same thing is $1.44 at Wal-mart. We eat lots of canned fruit so this is a money saver for me.

The little bears are tiny containers of honey, 25 cents each! Aren't they cute?

It was still cool enough outside so I thought I would try the thrift stores. I went to all 5 in my town but only found 3 things.

A pretty blouse, a roll of very wide ribbon and a tiny, brand new crock pot, I spent $6.25 on all 3.
By now it was getting hot. So my last stop was Ross Dress for Less. I don't really like our local Ross, the staff is less than wonderful and the store is usually so messy. I was looking for some bowls and lamps and thought they might have them. I did not find either but I did find this cute top for just $8.99. I think I will wear it a lot this fall with black pants or a black skirt.

Ross had lots and lots cute clothes, all at good prices. It looked like they had just got a new shipment in.

This pretty much explains how I shop. I try to just buy what I need but I do stock up when a sale is really a sale.

Tonights supper

I learned how to make chicken tacos from another Marine wife years ago and have made them many times since. A whole chicken works great but I have bags of chicken breasts in my freezer so that is what I used today.
Before I left for work this morning, I put a whole bag of frozen chicken breasts with a few stalks of celery, some dried chopped onions and enough water to half way cover the chicken into the crock pot. They cooked on high until I got home 5 hours later. I drained and shredded the chicken and put it in a pan with 1 chopped onion, 2 teaspoons cumin, 1 teaspoon garlic, a little red pepper, salt and pepper to taste, 8 ounce can of tomato sauce and 1 can of water. The cumin is really essential to giving it that Tex-Mex taste.
Stir well, cover the pan and let it simmer for 15 minutes or so. This will fill lots of tortillas or taco shells. It is great on taco salad and nachos too.

I like to make a big batch and freeze the extra in meal size portions.

An award from an old friend

I've talked before about YahooGroups. I joined one list about home living about 10 years ago. The main group is still active and it has several spin-off lists about specific topics. It is just the nicest group of women and that is where I met Heidi.

Heidi was born in the states and has been living in Holland a number of years. She is an amazing needle artist and has the most interesting blogs.

I feel very honored that she wrote about one of my blog posts on her blog and she gave me this award.

If you want to see some some beautiful quilts and cross stitch, wonderful pictures of Holland and darling ideas for holidays, travel over to see Heidi

Like my friend Joanne did, I am giving this award to the Creative Home Life blog and all the blogs of the members of Creative Home Life.