Friday, March 21, 2008

Easter Menu

Menu for Easter 2008

Baked Spiral Ham
Quick Biscuits
Baked Beans
Roasted Red Potato Salad
Spinach Salad Supreme
Stuffed Eggs

Nina’s “Cake with Fruit on it”
Easter Candy - homemade and store bought
Iced Tea
We will be going to church in the morning so I planned a menu that I can make the side dishes on Saturday and keep in the fridge. The ham and baked beans will bake on low while we at church. When we got home, I just need to bake the biscuits and assemble the spinach salad.
How are the rest of you celebrating Easter?

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

My entire blog condensed to 100 words


Snapshirts will look over your blog and condense it down to just 100 words.
This part is free, but they will also put it on a t-shirt or tank top or apron if you want to pay them.

Monday, March 17, 2008

March 17

Happy St. Patricks Day to you all!

19 Glen Muir $1 coupons to give away


I read about this deal for the $1 Glen Muir coupons and printed off 19 of them. But I can't use them, I looked at every store in my town and no one here sells Glen Muir.

They expire March 22 , this Saturday.

I will mail them, free, to the first person who responds. I am in Oklahoma and will mail them today.

Saturday, March 15, 2008

A Year of Savings - Cabbage, part 2

I told y'all that cabbage would be on sale cheap around St. Patrick's Day but I was surprised to see it this low, just 10 cents a pound!
I bought 7 heads, about 21 pounds for $2.10! That is a lot of servings of vegetables for 2 bucks.
I will "fry" a lot of it and make cole slaw too.

A Year of Savings - Jane make-up from Walgreens

I think most everyone that reads any of the deals boards or blogs know about the Jane $2 coupons and the B1G1F sale this week at Walgreens. Today I bought this makeup, 2 bags of almonds and 6 cans of Hunts Tomato Sauce. I used 2 Register Rewards from the PG deal and my total today just 43 cents!
I had extras of the $2 Jane coupons so I offered them to my cashier and she was very happy to get them.

National Quilt Day

Today is National Quilt Day.
I thought you all would like to see quilts from my family. My mother made these wall quilts, with Sunbonnet Sue and Sam. Mom prefers to make small quilts but has made a number a full size quilts too.
The blue and white Irish Chain was made by my fraternal great grandmother, The pink and white cross-stitch was made by my maternal grandmother. I made the scrap jewel box quilt on the back, sorry it is hard to see, and was the first bed size hand quilted quilt I made.
My maternal grandmother also made this quilt. It is all double knit scraps, mostly scraps left from the clothes my mom made for herself and me. Some are scraps from other sewing family members. I think most all our clothes in the 70's were double knit!
I like the traditional, hand quilted quilts but I like these scrap versions just as much too.
I think I am fortunate to come from a family with a sewing history.

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Todays frugal find

I went to Wal-mart for just a few things and browsed the clearance aisle since I had made the trip. I found these 3 pair of napkins. The brick red and green ones were 10 cents and the brown ones were 25 cents. I looked for more but just found these 3 packages.
We have used cloth napkins for years and I am very happy to add 6 new ones to our napkin drawer for just 45 cents total.

Sunday, March 9, 2008

Easter Tree 2008

I found the sticks at a construction site in our addition. My mom crocheted the Victorian egg covers and doily and my brother gave us the vase.

The egg pattern is here if anyone wants to make some.

Friday, March 7, 2008

Saturday breakfast




















Cinnamon pecans rolls.
I just took these out of the oven and when they cool, I will frost them and cover them so they will be ready for breakfast in the morning.
My house smells so good right now, all baked goods smell nice but cinnamon and yeast bread are the best!

Thursday night supper - Mushroom Barley Soup






Last week, I bought a box of mushrooms on sale for $1 but never got around to cooking them. They were just starting to look a little not-so-fresh, so I used them up last night with the remains of last weeks baby carrots and celery too. This is good recipe when you need to clean out your crisper drawers. It is high in fiber and low in calories.
So even if you buy your vegetables on sale, you aren't saving if you let them spoil before you use them

Mushroom Barley Soup
2 carrots, cut into sticks 1 1/2 inch long
2 celery stalks, cut into 1 1/2 inch sticks
1 medium onion, chopped
1/2 pound mushrooms, thick sliced
salt and pepper
1 T oil
saute the vegetables in the oil
2 cans chicken broth (I will try beef broth next time)
1/2 C barley
1 can water
add to vegetables, cook covered until done - 15-20 minutes for quick barley, 30-40 minutes for regular barley

Recipe suggests substituting 1 can cream of mushroom soup for 1 can of broth and adding 8 ounces cooked chicken for a heartier soup.

I really enjoyed this soup last night and look forward to having another bowl for my lunch. In case you need barley, I thought it was stocked by the cornmeal on the baking aisle but it was with the boxed rice products. Walmart only had one kind, one brand, one size - Quaker quick cooking.

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

A Year of Savings - finished project

I continue to work my way through the supplies I have on hand and finished this simple blanket this afternoon.
Nina sort of started this blanket several years ago when she needed a blanket to sit on at football games. She found this fabric and matched up the 2 pieces but that is as far as she got. This length of denim and striped corduroy have been folded together ever since.
So, today, I straightened up the edges and made them both the same size, then just sewed around the edge with the fabric wrong sides together. I also sewed along 3 of the stripes lengthwise to keep the 2 layers together. Then I clipped around the edges so it would fringe when washed.
This will be a useful blanket to take to football games or to keep in the car - but I have a hunch that of my kiddos will claim it.

Monday, March 3, 2008

A Year of Savings - covered casserole

Chicken Rice Pilaf is baking in the oven for our supper tonight. It is a very cold day so the oven is cooking our meal and helping heat our house.
Most casseroles are baked with a cover on them. I like to use aluminum foil but it recently dawned on me that using a casserole dish that has a lid is much more economical and greener than using foil that just gets thrown away every time.
I have 3 covered casserole dishes, this big one and 2 small vintage Pyrex ones. Garage sale season will be starting soon and a medium sized covered casserole dish is on my garage sale want list.

Chicken Rice Pilaf is one of my daughter's favorites meals. She posted about it recently on her blog. I used carrots, celery and onions in mine and hen that was leftover from a meal last week.

Sunday, March 2, 2008

A Year of Savings - Cabbage

I learned to how to make "fried cabbage" from Mrs. Edith Connor, who was one of my home economics teachers in high school. I took home economics all 4 years of high school and also took a summer school class of home economics, just for fun.
Fried cabbage is one of my husband's favorites vegetables. Nina and John like it too but Bobby and Jimmy won't touch it.
Cabbage will be very cheap in the next few weeks with St. Patrick's Day specials and I will buy several heads. Stored in a plastic bag or container, cabbage will keep for weeks in the fridge.

Mrs. Connors Fried Cabbage
1 small or 1/2 large cabbage, chopped to bite size pieces
2 T butter
1/2 cup onion, chopped
salt and pepper
1 T sugar
Melt the butter in a large frying pan over medium. Saute the onion just until it starts to turn translucent. Add the cabbage and stir. You might want to turn up the heat to medium high. Cover the pan. Stir after 2 minutes. Cook about 2-3 more minutes and then stir again. The cabbage should just start to brown in spots and be limp. Sprinkle with sugar and put the lid back on and take off the heat.

I promise it won't stink like cabbage cooked for hours does and hopefully your family members that have open-minds toward vegetables will like it as much as we do.


Saturday supper - roast beef with gravy, potatoes, carrots and fried cabbage. This was my plate, I prefer bigger helpings of vegetables but I am pretty sure the men at my table had bigger servings of meat than I did.