Category Archives: Homemaking

Lasagna Soup – Slow Cooker

This soup starts in the slow cooker. If you’d like, you can serve it up in oven proof bowls adding cheese on top and putting it under the broiler until the cheese melts. If you don’t want to do that you can add cheese on top without putting it under the broiler. I saw this idea on The Kitchen on Food Network.

Ingredients:

  • 1-1/2 pounds ground beef
  • 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
  • 1/2 large onion, chopped
  • 1 can 28 ounces diced tomatoes
  • 1 can 8 ounces tomato sauce
  • 3-4 cloves garlic, minced
  • 2 teaspoons dried oregano
  • 2 teaspoons parsley flakes (or 1/4 cup fresh chopped parsley)
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 1/2 cup chopped fresh basil
  • 4 cups chicken broth
  • 1 cup water
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 8-12 ounces pasta of your choice
  • grated Mozzarella Cheese
  • sliced Provolone cheese

Method:

  1. Heat oil in frying pan.
  2. Add ground beef and cook thoroughly, seasoning with salt and pepper.
  3. Drain the ground beef and set aside on a plate with paper towel to soak up excess oil.
  4. Add onion to the crock pot.
  5. Add the meat on top of the onion.
  6. Add the remaining ingredients except for the pasta and cheeses and stir together.
  7. Cook on high for 6 hours.
  8. Add the pasta and cook for 30 more minutes.
  9. Remove bay leaf and serve in bowls adding grated Mozzarella cheese on top.
  10. Or, fill broiler-proof bowls with soup adding grated Mozzarella cheese on top and one or two slices of Provolone cheese on top of the Mozzarella.
  11. Place under broiler on a baking sheet watching carefully until the cheese melts and starts to brown.
  12. Serve with salad and bread, if desired.

This recipe can serve 8 people generously.

Applesauce Raspberry Jello

This Applesauce Raspberry Jello recipe has been around a long time. I added a few options in presentation this time around including the parfait version above. You can use a parfait presentation or a simple square pan presentation to enjoy this easy dessert or side salad dish.
Applesauce-Raspberry Jello

Ingredients:

  • 1 – 3oz. pkg. raspberry jello
    1 – Cup hot water
    1 – 10-oz. pkg. frozen raspberries
    1 – Cup applesauce
    1 – Cup sour cream
    1 – Cup miniature marshmallows
Method:
  1. Dissolve Jello in hot water.
  2. Add frozen raspberries and blend carefully.
  3. Add applesauce and blend gently.
  4. Pour into 9-inch square pan.
  5. Chill until set.
  6. Combine sour cream and marshmallows and spread over top of set Jello.
  7. Cover and Chill.
  8. Serves 6-8.

If you want to present this dish in an individual parfait glass do not spread the sour cream mixture on top of the set jello. Keep it separate and layer the ingredients.

I have doubled this recipe and put it in a 9 x 13 pan. It’s a refreshingly cool salad!
If you aren’t fond of marshmallows omit them and add a tablespoon or two of sugar to your sour cream.

You can also just put a dollop of the sour cream mixture on top of the jello squares instead of spreading the topping completely over the jello.

It’s fun to transform a simple recipe with an eye catching presentation.

Thanksgiving decorations are put away and today I’ll ask our sons to get down all the Christmas bins which require a ladder. Not promising the bins will get emptied but at least they will be where I can get to them easily in the next several days to empty. Time for me to pull out our Christmas CD’s. I’m aging myself and not apologizing. CD’s are very much appreciated at our country bungalow.

Katie and Andrew decided to make the drive for home today with Willow their cat (there will be a Willow post, soon) since there are some snow forecasts that show significant snowfall in the mountain passes later on Saturday and into Sunday. The rest of us will carry on with activities after they hit the road. The girls are going to paint signs and the guys might be pushing around some snow, after they get those bins down for me.

Mocha Toffee Dessert

I got this recipe from my mother over 45 years ago and have no idea where she got it from.

serves 4

Ingredients:
  • 1- 3 or 3 1/4 ounce package regular vanilla pudding mix
  • 1 Tablespoon instant coffee powder
  • 1 3/4 cups milk
  • 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate pieces
  • 2/3 cup of evaporated milk
  • 2 chocolate covered English toffee bars (5/8 ounces each) coarsely crushed
  • whipped cream
Method:

1. In medium saucepan, combine pudding mix and coffee powder.
Gradually stir in 1 3/4 cups milk till mixture is blended.
2. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until mixture comes to a boil.
3. Remove from heat and cover surface of pudding with waxed paper or plastic wrap, cool and chill.
4. In small saucepan combine chocolate pieces and evaporated milk. Cook and stir over low heat until mixture boils and chocolate is melted. Cool and chill.
4. Remove paper from pudding mixture.
5. Spoon the pudding mixture equally into 4 parfait glasses.
6. Sprinkle crushed candy onto top of layer.
7. Top with a good portion of chocolate sauce and top with more crushed candy.
8. Finish off with whipped cream and a sprinkle of crushed candy.

If you use taller and narrower glasses you can make more layers before you top it off with whipped cream.

I found the smaller containers to work better as this is a very rich dessert.
Instead of crushing two candy bars I found these packaged toffee bits that worked real well.

Honey Raisin Bran Muffins

This is a recipe from the Kellogg’s page and the reason I chose to do this recipe is because it’s easy and I don’t keep bran in my cupboard. We enjoy this cereal and usually have a box of it in the cupboard. All the rest of the ingredients are always in my pantry.

Ingredients:

  • 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 tablespoon baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 2 tablespoons sugar
  • 2 1/2 cups Kellogg’s Raisin Bran® cereal
  • 1 1/4 cups fat-free milk, I used 2%.
  • 1/3 cup honey
  • 1/4 cup vegetable oil
  • 1 egg

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Stir together flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Set aside.
3. In large mixing bowl, combine Kellog’s Raisin Bran cereal, milk and honey. Let stand 3 minutes or until cereal softens.
4. Add egg and oil. Beat well.
5. Add flour mixture, stirring only until combined.
6. Portion batter evenly into twelve 2 1/2-inch muffin-pan cups coated with cooking spray, or use muffin paper liners.
7. Bake at 400° F for 20 minutes or until lightly browned. Serve warm.

Serves 6-12

Oatmeal Muffins

These muffins are easy to make and they aren’t overly sweet. Enjoy them any time of the day.

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup quick cooking oats
  • 1 cup milk
  • 1 cup flour
  • 1/3 cup sugar
  • 3 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 well beaten egg
  • 1/4 cup vegetable oil

Method:

  1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
  2. Combine the oats with the milk and let stand for 15 minutes.
  3. Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt and set aside.
  4. Combine the beaten egg, oil, sugar and oatmeal mixture.
  5. Add all at once to the sifted dry ingredients stirring just to moisten.
  6. Fill greased muffin pans 2/3 full. I used muffin cup liners.
  7. Bake at 425 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes.

Yield: 12 muffins.

Hello March Hodgepodge

If it’s Wednesday it must be Hodgepodge. Jo From This Side of the Pond is coming in like a lion with these questions for the first Wednesday in March.

1. Is March coming in like a lion where you live?

So far March is not coming in like a lion here in the northeastern corner of Washington state.

Aslan, Simba, Elsa, The Cowardly Lion…your favorite ‘famous’ lion? 

Aslan is my favorite lion introduced in the Narnia series of books by C.S. Lewis.

When a young girl from America wrote C.S. Lewis a letter asking what name Aslan used in our world, he replied:

“As to Aslan’s other name, well, I want you to guess. Has there been anyone in this world who

  1. Arrived at the same time as Father Christmas?
  2. Said he was the Son of the Great Emperor?
  3. Gave himself for someone else’s fault to be jeered at and killed by wicked people?
  4. Came to life again?
  5. Is someone spoken of as a lamb?

Don’t you really know His name in this world? Think it over and let me know your answer.” 

2. In what way do you ‘march to the beat of your own drum’? 

I don’t wait around for my dear husband to plan special events for us. I’m more of a planner and schemer and he is perfectly happy to enjoy and pay for my schemes. This has worked well in our relationship. He’s happy for most of the roads we’ve traveled because I plow ahead.

3. What item that you don’t have already, would you most like to own? Any chance of that happening soon? 

The only thing that I can come up with that seems a little alluring in times like these is a very small self contained camping vehicle. Maybe something like this…

Something that is easier to drive than a huge motorhome. There is no chance of this happening soon or ever.

4. March is National Flour Month…are you a baker? Cookies-cakes-or pies…your favorite sweet treat to bake?

I like to bake cookies and cakes…not pies.

What’s the last non-sweet thing you made that called for flour? 

Potato pancakes.

5. There are 31 days in the month of March…where were you and what were you doing when you were 31? If you haven’t hit that milestone yet, then tell us where you were and what you were doing 31 months ago? (if math is not your thing, that would be August 3, 2018)

I’ve hit that milestone 2 times over. When I was 31 our two sons were 3 and 1. I was busy being a full time mother/homemaker. We were living in our second home in Huntington Beach, California. We lived around the corner from my sister Vera and her husband Nick. They also had two children who were 6 and 4. Lots of fun cousin times happened in Huntington Beach. We all attended the same church, Huntington Beach E.V. Free. Before I was a full-time mother/homemaker I was an elementary school teacher in the Montebello Unified School District east of Los Angeles.

This photo was taken at Forest Home Christian Camp in California. We signed up for a work weekend at the camp over Mother’s Day in 1982. We worked on various projects to get the camp ready for summer camping season. Dear’s folks came up and shared a Mother’s Day lunch that the camp provided on Sunday of the weekend. I am 31 in this photo.

6. Insert your own random thought here.

Here’s a real lion. I took this photo at the zoo in Dallas, I think.

Check for Cobwebs Hodgepodge

Since Jo From This Side of the Pond brought up the subject of cleaning in this weeks Wednesday Hodgepodge I had to dig up this photo of me ready to clean the house sometime in the past. Thank you Jo for asking the questions!

When serious cleaning needs to be done including washing the floors on my hands and knees this would be a picture of readiness. LOL. Knee pads. Three pocket apron where I like to keep glass cleaning rags in one side and on the opposite side non glass cleaning rags. Never mix chlorine and ammonia as in bleach cleaners and window cleaners! Middle pocket I use for trash and other things I pick up along the way.

People have a wide range when defining clean.  When we rent a place to stay and someone says it’s clean and I can see dust bunnies and all other kinds of things that are not clean, I get miffed, especially when they add in a $200 cleaning deposit!

That said, I enjoy a cozy home, it does not have to be perfectly cleaned, unless I’m paying for it to be clean.

On to this weeks questions!

1. Your favorite cleaning product?
*
Amway used to have a product called Zoom and it was a great all purpose cleaner. I have different favorites for different tasks today. Dawn for dishes, Comet for toilets, Tide for laundry, Windex for glass or Vinegar and water. Kitchens are a little more complicated now with the added granite surfaces that you need a special cleaner for, stainless surfaces with their own special cleaner, glass top ranges with special cleaner. OYE! 
*
Do you clean your own house or hire out?
*
I clean my own home.  We do hire out window cleaning since we moved to the country…twice a year. 
I used to have a housecleaning business, Fresh Start, back in the late 80’s and early 90’s.
*
Most disliked household chore?
*
Dusting has always been a bit tedious for me but at this country bungalow with hard well water our shower that has 10 years of deposits on the glass doors etc. is very frustrating to clean. I’m looking forward to replacing the whole thing. 
*
What one chore do you not mind so much? 
*
Believe it or not, I don’t mind toilets. They are small and straight forward. 
*
 2. It’s Canned Food Month…do you use a lot of canned goods?
*
We use a fair share of canned goods.
*
What are the three canned items you purchase most often?
*
Many varieties of beans, many varieties of tomatoes, and chilies.
*
Last thing you made using a canned ingredient? 
*
A pot of chicken chili with black beans and pinto beans and chilies. 
*
 3. Can of worms, anything can happen, can you imagine?, as best I can, kick the can down the road, more than one can take, no can do, not if I can help it…choose an idiom and tell us how you currently relate.
*
I’m going with ‘can you imagine’. Lately more and more I’ve been wondering about the Rapture and find myself saying, come Lord Jesus come;
*
“For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of the archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words.” 1 Thessalonians 4:16-18 (ESV)
*
4.The last Tuesday in February is National Spa Day. Are you someone who enjoys a day at the spa?
*
I’m really not a spa kind of gal but I do like a good massage. I’m not comfortable being naked anywhere but home! 
*
Last time you visited a spa? Do you have a favorite spa?
*
May of 2014 in Orlando Florida was the last time I visited a Spa. Dear was at a conference and I tagged along. His company booked him at the Hyatt Regency and I scheduled myself a massage at the hotel spa which had a sauna, etc. I relaxed by the pool all by my lonesome after the massage. I do not have a favorite spa.
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Are salons open for business in your area?
*
Yes, salons are open.
*
Have you made changes to your hair and nail routine since Corona hit? In what way? 
*
I probably could count on one hand the number of times I’ve had a manicure or pedicure. That happened generally in relation to the weddings of our children. I’m the kind of person who messes up the polish before it dries without even trying. 
*
Since Corona hit I have gone back to single length of hair instead of layered. 
*
 5. Believe it or not this is the last Hodgepodge of the month. In one sentence sum up your February. 
*
February: A month of freezing and thawing, then in mid span some love thrown in with restaurants finally re-opening and ending with a sigh of relief. 
*
 6. Insert your own random thought here.
*
Here’s our latest ‘Corona’ puzzle and let me tell you it’s a dousy!
Thank you to everyone who came by here and took the time to read and an extra thank you to anyone who commented!

Organizing

We have a room off of our Master Bedroom that we have used for storage. On Thursday Dear assembled two storage shelves that we added to this space and then we re-organized the space. It is going to work so much better for us. This room stores all our holiday bins, suitcases, tablecloths, cloth napkins, etc.

At this time the only place we have good reception to talk on our cell phones is our laundry room. Our cell phones are our primary and only phone service we have at this time.

We did a little re-organization and added this comfy chair into our laundry room and it makes me happy even if it overcrowds the room. Now I can sit comfortably and talk away. Enjoy the luxury you might have of talking in any room of your home!

Family Room Before and After

A while back we decided that our family room would work better if we moved out the wood stove which we have never used and don’t intend to use and move things around to flow better.

Before we moved the wood stove out the TV sat on a corner cabinet close to the slider which was the only available spot.

 

The new arrangement. Blame it on COVID. It’s something good that has come from it for our comfort.

The recliner by the slider patio door will be leaving once we find a good home for it.

More of a straight shot to the kitchen from my end of the sofa! We are really enjoying the openness of this arrangement and the fact that the TV is tucked in nicely to a larger corner.

Signs of Fall Hodgepodge

1. The Hodgepodge lands on the second day of a brand new month. Tell us one thing you’re looking forward to in September.

Looking forward to the beginning of Fall and all the events we will enjoy with family near and far.

2. Do you enjoy browsing second-hand shops? Last thing you bought or ‘inherited’ second hand?

Yes, please. This is our latest purchase from the Red Barn in Colville back in April.

 

3. Something you had second thoughts about after committing to, purchasing, or posting/commenting online?

I’ve gotten pretty good at not committing to things. I might be having second thoughts about purchasing an instant pot since I’m such a creature of habit in the cooking world. What we’ve made in it has turned out real good but I haven’t used it in about 3 weeks now. 

4. What’s a product or service you use that you’d rate as second to none?

Amway scrub buds and their Pre-Wash spray. 

5. Something you do so often or that comes so naturally to you it’s second nature ?

Creating a post for my blog. Coming up with a meal even if I haven’t defrosted something. Not saying the results are always stellar…

6. Insert your own random thought here.

Mornings in our neck of the woods have already felt very fallish. 

Thank you to Joyce From This Side of the Pond coming up with the questions. Click over to to join in the fun.