Tuesday, September 30, 2008

My Display at the Library

This past month I had the display at the local library. I filled the display case with the bells that I have been collecting most of my life. My first one was at a Bible Study Christmas party with my mom when I was very young. I wanted to share it with you today. Here's what they said on the website about them, and pictures of them in the display.

Dawn has been collecting bells since she was five years old. She enjoys searching for bells when traveling and family & friends bring Dawn bells that they find on travels also. Check out the bells in various sizes and from states & countries.








Sunday, September 28, 2008

Life is a little better... 3 days off coming!

Well, the Father-in-law has come and gone. And it really wasn't as bad as expected. He took me grocery shopping! We got all caught up on buying laundry soap making stuff, and toiletries and some of the groceries I couldn't get close to my house for good prices. I even went with him by myself.... I was very intimidated, but it went well. We talked about alot of things, and he has shown that he really isn't as scary as he and everyone else tries to make him out to be. He took us out to eat a couple of times (a great treat, as we haven't been to a restaurant for quite a while). We got to go to the church that we are members of, but haven't been to in a while, as it's 4 miles away and we don't want to walk that far and then walk to work, and walk around work and walk home from work (I WOULD DIE!). Very good to go home again. Oh, and I have 3 days off this week, in a row! I'm hoping to get my craft area organized so I can make some curtains for the house, and get some baking done!

Well, we think the money problems aren't going to be as dramatic as we thought. They still may be somewhat. And, Katie, we are planning a rummage sale, but it's getting to late in the year for it now, and I'm really not ready, and I can't get off work, so we're going to have one, with my landlord in the spring. I'm wanting to start making some craft items to sell online, but I'm really nervous, as I've never done this before. My mom has been buying some of my plastic canvas baby blocks from me though, that's been some good extra money.

Dollar General Update:

We have an ad starting today, lots of good stuff on sale. I'll try to post it tomorrow, but I'm not sure, I don't have one with me. I do know that we have this going on:

*Clover Valley Soda - Buy 2 get one free (3 for $1.50)
*Green Dot (Summer Stuff) Still 70% off
*Red Dot (Back to School) is 50%
*Seeds are 90% off!!!!
*Yellow Dot (Summer Clothes) are 50% off

Most stores should have at least some of their Christmas stuff out, and we've got some really good stuff this year. Halloween and Fall Home stuff is also out already!

Friday, September 26, 2008

Money Stinks...

Well, my Father-in-law is in town to visit for the weekend. Ok, so he's not here yet, but he's coming in this evening, and leaving Sunday afternoon. The house is not finished getting unpacked, both DH & I are working all weekend, my friend that just got married is coming in tomorrow to see me for a bit, and take me to a rummage sale, and we some how have to make money appear from nowhere. I have rent, old landlord, and storage unit rent all due in the next 2 weeks. I'll get paid 2 times, DH gets paid once. And our bank account is already over-drafted (long story short, I hate banks...) So please pray for us as we go through this. It should be interesting. I did end up with two days off this past week, so that was good, I got a chance to rest and work on the house. We did, however walk the mile to Wal-Mart to find out that they don't cash personal checks (I should have known that), and walked home empty handed. It has been an emotional week, and I'm sure its bound to get worse before it gets better...

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Help Fund Free Mammograms

One of the blogs that I follow regularly, Thrifty Mommy, had a link to this site on her site today, and I thought I would pass it along to everyone here. All you have to do is go to the site and click on the button, and sponsors pay for free mammograms for women who can't afford one!

The Breast Cancer Site



Here's a recipe from the 1970 Pillsbury Bake-Off!

Pie Crust Peanut Crispies

1 package (9 1/2 oz) Pillsbury Pie Crust Mix or 2 Sticks Pillsbury Flaky Pie Crust Sticks, crumbled
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup peanut butter
3 tablespoons water

Oven 375* Makes about 48 cookies

Combine all ingredients. Stir until mixture forms a dough. Shape into 1-inch balls, using about 1 teaspoon dough for each. Place 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets. Flatten with a fork which has been dipped in sugar. Bake at 375* for 8 to 10 minutes until light golden brown and slightly puffy. Cool cookies slightly before removing from cookie sheets.

Sunday, September 21, 2008

More good deals!

Well... On the way to work yesterday we went back by the rummage sale, and I got some more stuff... This time I got a stack of cookbooks for $.25 each, a book from the 60's on manners (it's a school textbook), a willow tree angel for $1.00!!! and I got one of those old plastic tupperware (I think) measuring/mixing bowls for $.10!!!! I'm very much looking forward to the idea of having internet at home someday, as this whole walking a mile to get on to check my email is not such a hot idea somedays.

The Cookbooks I got are:

Pillsbury's Bake-Off Cook Book (1970)
250 Ways to Prepare Meat (1940)
Money Saving Main Dishes (1970)
Joys of Jell-o (1963)
A Book of Famous Old New Orleans Recipes (ca. around 1978)
Recipe Magic with 57 Heinz Soups (1947)
All States Bicentennial Cook Book (1976)
250 Ways to Serve Fresh Vegetables (1940)

No recipe today, I have to be at work in a bit and still have alot of emails to sort through... Sorry :(

Friday, September 19, 2008

Plain Living and the World...

My husband and I have been walking alot lately. Our car is back to being broke down, and since we live in town and want to get in better shape anyway, we've been walking everywhere. Today alone, by the end of the day we will both have walked at least 4-5 miles. (We went grocery shopping today). Anyway.... I've been observing people as we walk, the way people treat us and look at us in our semi-plain clothing.
For the last 8-9 months of my senior year I attended a Bible Holiness High School. In doing this, I had to adhere to their dress code of long skirts, shirts with elbows and collars covered, hair up. I have been trying to follow this more often now, out of convenience and comfort, as well as feeling more led to dress more modestly. I still wear shorts and pants around the house and doing outdoor work, but if I'm leaving the house I throw on a skirt. And with it being warm, and when the sun is out, I've been wearing a hat to cover my head and face from the sun. My husband has been wearing short sleeve or long sleeve button up shirts and long pants, accompanied by a felt hat most of the time while outdoors.
During our walks, we've noticed that alot of people are nicer to us, opening doors for us, letting us cross the street before they pull out, and such. The funny part is alot of people drive past with their mouths open, staring at us. I laugh as this happens, but it also makes me think. Makes me think about our brothers and sisters in the Amish and Mennonite communities, our Quaker brothers and sisters, our other plain brothers and sisters, and what they go through everyday, humbling themselves before God and others with their dress.



Well, I was going to continue on with the University of Oklahoma notebook, but with us walking, and it's fragile state, I'm going to take a break from it, until I can figure out a way to transport it without compromising its fragile state. However, on our way to the library today, we walked past a rummage sale that looked of interest. We walked up and I thought I was in heaven. It looked like an older lady was cleaning out years of party ware and cook ware as well as her sewing and craft stuff. There were other things as well, but I didn't look at that as much. I bought a good size bag full of recipes and recipe books for $1!!!!! I also got some mini cake tins for $0.75, a fry basket in really good shape for $0.25 and some copper colored metal salt and pepper shakers for $0.25!!!! There was also a rubbermaid tub (the smaller of the larger tubs) full of plastic canvas, embroidery, and cross stitch, some projects started, alot of untouched patterns, but it didn't have a price on it. The little old man wouldn't let me buy it without talking to his wife, so my husband is going back after I go to work to try and get it. I'm hoping for $5! There was alot of fabric and patterns, that I might go back tomorrow and look at. Well, here's a recipe from my pile!


Gingerbread

1/2 cup molasses
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup melted fat
1/2 cup sour milk
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon soda
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon ginger
2 teaspoons cinnamon
nutmeg

Mix ingredients in order given, sifting soda with flour before adding.
Bake in slow oven in greased shallow pan.

(After note: 300*F for 35 minutes)

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Clothesline Poem

I recieved this in a group I'm in and just had to share it.

A clothes line was a news forecast
To neighbors passing by.
There were no secrets you could keep
when clothes were hung to dry.
It also was a friendly link
For neighbors always knew
If company had stopped on by
To spend a night or two.
For then you'd see the'fancy sheets'
And towels upon the line;
You'd see the'company table cloths'
With intricate design.
The line announced a baby's birth
To folks who lived inside
As brand new infant clothes were hung.
So carefully with pride.
The ages of the children could
So readily be known
By watching how the sizes changed
You'd know how much they'd grown.
It also told when illness struck,
As extra sheets were hung;
Then nightclothes, and a bathrobe, too,
Haphazardly were strung.
It said, 'Gone on vacation now'
When lines hung limp and bare.
It told,'We're back!' when full lines sagged
With not an inch to spare.
New folks in town were scorned upon
If wash was dingy gray,
As neighbors carefully raised their brows,
And looked the other way..
But clotheslines now are of the past
For dryers make work less.
Now what goes on inside a home
Is anybody's guess.
I really miss that way of life.
It was a friendly sign
When neighbors knew each other best
By what hung on the line!



Well, I have tomorrow off work, so I might be able to come up and post a receipe or two. The old landlord finally had us sign a promissory note, saying we would pay $300 a month for several months to have him paid off. Hopefully we'll be able to come up with all the other bills paying $300 a month to him, $275 a month to the new landlord, $180 to a credit card, and other various bills. Ah, life... I can't wait for our debt free days on the farm. Someday....

Saturday, September 13, 2008

Less Common Ways to Prepare Fruit

Ok... I think I've just decided to stick with the 1936 University of Oklahoma Home Ec. Notebook for a while. There's alot of good stuff in here. I was totally born in the wrong era. I so wish I could have gone to college during the era of the housewife!!!


Less Common Ways to Prepare:
1. Apples: polished and sliced crosswise;
peeled, scored with form from stem to blossom end and sliced;
balls, cut with a vegetable scoop.
2. Avocado: cocktail - 1/3 avocado, 2/3 pineapple cut in dice, lemon juice salt and paprika;
another cocktail: cut avocado and fresh tomato into balls, add french dressing;
salad: add mashed avocado to French dressing and pour over lettuce or other vegetable; combine with grapefruit or asparagus;
a sandwich filling: crush and mix with mayonnaise.
3. Bananas: peas in a pod
peel opened petal wise and served on paper doilie on plate with a fork;
bake in peel, slit open, add a bit of butter, serve hot.
4. Fresh pineapple: separate buds; serve 5 or 6 on a plate with a mound of sugar; use pineapple quills for garnishes
5. Grapes: cut in small clusters, serve on leaves of grape or hybiscus;
separate the grapes from the bunch leaving the short stems, dip in melted fondant.
6. Grapefruit: In basket or half grapefruit
In halves -- edges garnished with chopped parsley
7. Lemons for garnishing:
see illustrations on cards and in New Book of Cookery p. 395
prepare at least 6 ways
8. Oranges: on ribbon;
in blanket of whole orange;
sections in peel;
lunch basket oranges;
orange roses made of peel are nice candied and as a garnish.
9. Strawberries: Serve clean and cold, unstemmed on a leaf.
Fold back blossom and dip in malted malted fondant
10. Tangerines: Prepare as oranges on ribbon
or as sections in peel
11. Cranberries: Candied- (prick berries to prevent bursting)
1 cup sugar plus 1/2 cup water; boil to a thread (242*F)
Add 1 quart large red cranberries and simmer 5 minutes.
Remove from fire. Cover pan and let stand overnight.
Next day heat slowly and let simmer until berries are transparent.
Strain out the berries and drop into a platter of granulated sugar.
Place in a slow oven to dry a little.
Party Iced Tea
(Prepare 1/4)
1 quart hot water
Few sprigs mint or 1/2 teaspoon mint extract (spearmint)
2 cups sugar syrup
2 lemons
4 Tablespoons tea
ice
Steep the tea with the mint leaves 5 minutes. Add the syrup and lemon juice and strain. If the extract is used add it after straining.
And since I won't be on tomorrow, since it's Sunday, here's a bonus recipe!!!
Orange or Grape Albumin
(Prepare 1)
1 orange, juice or 4 Tablespoons grape juice
1 egg white
sugar
chopped ice
Add the white unbeaten to the fruit juice which has been sweetened to taste. Cut in the white with scissors. Chill or add chipped ice and serve. The egg should not be evident at all.

Friday, September 12, 2008

Meat to Fruit Combinations... and then a recipe

This is out of the 1936 University of Oklahoma Home Ec Notebook as well...

Appropriate Combinations follow:
Chicken -- Cranberry Sauce
Jellied Gooseberries
Pickled Peaches or Pears
Pineapple
Apricots
Cold Meat -- Lemon
Duck -- Orange Slices
Current Jelly
Fish -- Gooseberry Sauce
Pickled Pears
Pickled Peaches
Apple sauce
Ham -- Fried Pineapple
Fried Apples
Lamb -- Baked Bananas
Current Jelly
Mint Jelly
Mutton -- Current Jelly
Mint Jelly or Sauce
Pork -- Apricots, glazed
Apples, sauce or fried
Quince
Plums
Roast Beef -- Raisins in stuffing or as a sauce
Cherries
Bananas, sauted
Peaches, roll in cream and brown with meat
Pears
Tomatoes
Squab -- Current Jelly
Turkey -- Cranberries, sauce, jelly or ice
Veal -- Apples, glazed, tart
Venison -- Current Jelly
Gooseberry sauce
Plum sauce or jelly
Spiced Tea
(Prepare 1/4)
1 quart tea beverage (Orange Pekoe and Oolong are good types to use)
2 lemons, juice
2 cups sugar syrup
1 Tablespoon whole cinnamon, cloves, ginger
1/4 teaspoon mint extract or mint leaves
Make a syrup of sugar and water using about 1 cup sugar to 2 cups water. Add the spices and boil for 5 to 10 minutes. Add the lemon juice, extract and tea. Serve hot.
I thought with the weather turning cooler in some places (it's getting warmer again here) this might be a nice warm drink to cuddle up with a good book with.

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

The Cookbooks have arrived!

So... now that I'm officially moved (YAY!!! Now for the yucky part of unpacking and organizing while working...) I can get back to what this blog was created for. I'm really excited because my cookbooks that I posted about before arrived yesterday! So I'm going to start posting recipes and such from them and a couple others that I have lying around. Just to give you an idea of what I'm using I'll give you a bibliography (big word for a list of the books I'm going to use).

Hows and Whys of Cooking
By Evelyn G. Halliday and Isabel T. Noble (both Home Economics professors from the
University of Chicago)
Printed by The University of Chicago Press in Chicago, Illinois in 1929
(This one is it's 3rd printing, the first was in 1928)


Ladies' Home Journal Cookbook
Edited by Carol Truax
Printed by Doubleday & Company in Garden City, New York in 1960
(This one is a first edition!!!)


University of Oklahoma School of Home Economics Advanced Foods Course Notebook
Most of which is written by Laura A. Miller
Printed in 1936
(You can find pictures of this one in an earlier post, it's the coolest!!!)

Ok, so here's today's sampling of what is to come.


From the University of Oklahoma Home Ec Notebook

Iced-Tea Cubes

1 orange, juice
3 lemons, juice
2 cups water
3 inches whole cinnamon
1 teaspoon whole cloves
1/4 teaspoon mint extract

Pour 2 cups hot water over the spices and let stand until cold. Add the fruit juices and extract. Maraschino cherries may be added for garnish. Freeze in the electric trays. Serve in iced tea.


I think that's all I will post for now. I can't wait to try this though. DH's grandma was a home-ec teacher who went to college at K-State (Kansas State University) in the 40's. He said she used to make this as a special treat, just for the Grandkids.



********Dollar General Savings!!!***********

The lawn and garden stuff has gone to 70% off!!!! That includes the decor/kitchen/and other stuff that's with that. (Anything with a green dot)

The summer toys/swim stuff is 50% off!!!!

The summer clothes are now 50% off!!!! (anything with a yellow dot)

The back to school stuff is now 25% off!!!! (anything with a red dot)

Saturday, September 6, 2008

Moving 101...

Ok, so I hate moving. I have always thought I liked moving, but I think that was because I was in denial as I have moved too many times to count in my life (literally, it definitely is over 15 times in 22 years.) I would so much rather just pack everything up, have a mover come, and move thousands of miles, than move across town.

We are still not completely moved. Our old landlord is being hateful about it. We are late on rent for him, one of the many reasons we are moving. He is trying to bully us into moving out before our 30 days is over. We emailed him about a week ago telling him that we would be moving. He has been emailing us for that week telling us he wants us out immediately. I told him that we would move as quickly as I could and that his bullying would do no good, as we had already talked to the police, and they told us that as long as we are out by our 30 day mark, we are good. Praying that he doesn't do something stupid.

Our new house has prooved its challenges, but we are loving it. I have pictures, but until we can get them developed onto a cd I have no way to get them onto here (the same with the wedding I was in). The cats are enjoying it, there are a few holes in the drywall that they climb in and out of. We mapped out our garden, and started the compost pile last night. I think he said the garden will be like 60 ft x 30 ft. It's pretty big. I can't wait for all the canning and freezing next year! I'm really looking forward to making soups and stews this winter. I need to go to the storage building and get the heaters out, it's getting cold. It's been rainy and cold the last few days. One reason we haven't got much moving done. DH got a bit sick from moving in it the other day. He seems to be feeling better.

I'm really excited because I got my membership packet from Mary Jane's Farm yesterday. I'm an official Farmgirl!!!

Well I think thats all for now. I'm going to try to keep updating every few days, but right now with moving and I'm going to be picking up extra shifts at work next week, I'll do what I can!