Recipe - Puff Oven Pancake

These are also known as German  Pancakes,or Dutch Oven Pancakes.  I often think of them as a lazy quiche - but they are much lighter and fluffier than a typical quiche.

The one shown here is loaded with meat, and is a double recipe. but you can make a plain one and top it with fruit, or put sliced apples and brown sugar in it..  there are many great variations!

Ingredients:

• 3 eggs beaten, 
• 3/4  cups flour, 
• 3/4 cups milk,
• 1/2 tsp salt.

 Melt 3T butter in an 8x8  pan, (or skillet, or pie pan) mix then mix the other ingredients & pour on top

Bake about 20 minutes at 375, until the pancake "puffs up".  (Times will vary based on what you put in it, so keep an eye on it after about 12 minutes.
Variations:

• Add thinly sliced apples and brown sugar 
• make it plain, let it collapse after baking, then top with fresh fruit and whipped cream.
• Add cooked sausage and bacon

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https://fieldsofhether.blogspot.com/p/recipes.html

Tackle It Tuesday - Jewelry Storage

In February I'm working through storage & Organization for all appearance related items.  Last week was make up.  This week was jewelery.  I still have my closet, dressers, and nail care to go.

This is all of my jewelry, gathered up from no less than 4 rooms and 8 locations around the house.  I know, I know.  But when there is no good system for storage, things can get out of hand quickly.  I've tried a few systems over the years. One of the large jewelry cabinets hidden behind a full length mirror, craft boxes to sort earrings, regular jewelry boxes...  so far nothing has worked well for me. 

After sorting it all out, getting rid of about half, and putting the items I'd like to save, but know I will not wear right now (gold hoops will come back in favor eventually - but for now, I really only wear the silver ones..) in that white craft box to pack away, I came up with this solution:

The key to the success here is location, location, location.  :-)  All of my jewelry is now stored beside the mirror I use to get ready each day. I tackled this project last Tuesday  - and although it's only been a week - I am in love with this.  Before I would set jewelry on the cabinet right outside this door, all the time.  I'd take off earrings while sitting on the couch and let them on a stand, etc.. but this is so conveniently located that I haven't set jewelry anywhere but away where it belongs for the past week.  Awesome.

I don't wear the pins frequently - but to keep it easy to access them, the burlap is hung on picture hooks.  (Cup hooks would work too) so I can pull the entire thing down, remove the pin I want, and put the entire thing back up there.

The necklaces hang on a $3 tie hanger (belt hanger?  I don't know for sure what it is!) that I removed the hanger from.  I found it at Dollar General.

My earrings are on an old chain that is broken and tarnished.

Then in the little flip down drawer on our medicine cabinet, I added some scrapbook paper to the back, then inspired by the bottom photo of this post, I found mini cupcake liners in my pantry and used them for holding the earrings that will not hang over a chain well.  While in the pantry, I noticed a thread holder - a very old metal one - on my sewing desk, and I stuck that in here to hold rings.

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Photos that inspired me:

http://www.tophomeideas.com/32-jewelry-storage-ideas/jewelry-storage-ideas-for-necklaces-7/

I love all the old frames re-purposed to frame jewelry.  

http://brillareboutique.com/blog/jewelry-storage-idea-bracelets/

Right now my bracelets are stored in two small baskets hanging on the wall - but I might eventually do this.  

http://www.popsugar.com/home/Creative-Ways-Display-Jewelry-14181214

I think I'm in love with the luxury of this much space just for accessories.  I love all the different containers here.

I doubt this would be too practical - but I've always loved metal graters, so it amused me

If you had the space, this would be a pretty cheap and quick option.  

Another take on the frame idea - She has a silver one on her site too, and she shows you the thrift store dog photo she started with.  :-)  I love that she used a kitchen towel from the Dollar Store for her backing material!  http://www.320sycamoreblog.com/2012/03/shoe-jewelry-organization.html

http://coolmompicks.com/blog/2014/01/05/jewelry-storage-ideas-diy-vintage-more/

Valentines Project - Button Heart on Canvas

Decorating For Valentines Day 2015

 

The inspiration piece came from here:

http://www.southernlovely.com/2012/02/button-burlap-heart.html

I had all the materials on hand, but I did buy some extra red buttons, because I didn't want to use up all the red ones in my button collection.  Which sounds silly, but if you have an awesome button collection, you know exactly what I mean.  :-)

It would probably be best to paint the canvas white first, but I was using an old canvas and the black covered what was already on there.  :-)

To evenly space the lines, I covered the top with painters tape, then removed every other strip.

Because it is painters tape, it peeled right off without hurting the paint underneath at all.  

It really made this super quick and simple

Then I used a cut out of a heart and outlined it in glue, to form the heart

On the original she used a red burlap heart behind the buttons - but I didn't have red burlap on hand, and I was ok with some of the background peeking through.

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An Index of My Crafting Posts

https://fieldsofhether.blogspot.com/p/crafts.html

Tackle It Tuesday - The Medicine (Make Up) Cabinet

I didn't realize until I was done that I never took a before photo.  Just imagine ALL of this stuff, and a whole bunch more, crammed willy nilly in this cabinet.  It took me way too long to find anything, and I ended up throwing out more than half of what was in here.

 

Some scrapbook paper in the back, and a few minutes thinking about what I actually use and how I use it - and this is  much more functional space.  As I type this, it's been over a week, and it's still neat and nice.  

 

Menu Planning

How I Plan Our Menu

1. Set Basic Themes

• Monday - Sunday leftovers re-purposed.  (Roast for Sunday dinner becomes beef pot pie, or beef vegetable soup.  Roast chicken or turkey becomes pot pie, or chicken/turkey gravy over waffles, etc).  If there are not leftovers to work with, this usually becomes my chicken day.  Some sort of chicken breast recipe.
• Tuesday - Taco Night
• Wednesday  - Crock Pot Night (I'm out of the house a lot on Wednesdays with BSF) & salad.  
• Thursday - Pasta night.  (In football season, this is so our son has pasta the night before the games.  It became a habit over the years that has stuck even out of football season).  
• Friday - Pizza Night - which is usually homemade calzones.  I buy provolone, mozzarella, sliced ham & pepperoni all in the same aisle at Sam's club, then bring it home and section it all into "portions" for calzones, and freeze it all.  Because Thursday night is pasta night, I can often set some sauce aside Thursday to dip the calzones in on Friday.
• Saturday - Soup & Sandwiches.  Saturdays are often so chaotic, I like to have a soup on the stove or in the crock pot all day.  
• Sunday - We have big traditional Sunday dinners here.  The rotation is usually Roast, roast chicken or turkey, pork loin,  lasagna.  The lasagna is served with salad & garlic bread, everything else is mashed potatoes & a veggie, often stuffing & applesauce too. 

These are not set in stone, and change as needed - it's just the basic template I work from.

2. Create Pinterest Boards For Each Theme

As part of of my electronics decluttering project in February, I am trying to find the best way to store my recipes electronically.  I still haven't come up with a good solution.  But for recipes to try, pinterest usually works great!  I have a board for each theme above, where I pin recipes I might want to try for Pasta night, or taco night, etc.

Pinterest Boards:

• Pizza Night - https://www.pinterest.com/htruck/pizza-night/
• Soup On Saturday - https://www.pinterest.com/htruck/soup-on-saturdays/
• Taco Night - https://www.pinterest.com/htruck/taco-night-tuesdays/
• Pasta Night - https://www.pinterest.com/htruck/pasta-night/
• Crock Pot Wednesdays - https://www.pinterest.com/htruck/crockpot-wednesdays/

3. Create a Menu Calendar in Google Calendar

I've tried a variety of apps, notebooks, and pretty gadgets for menu planning..  but google calendar just works best for me.  It's helpful to see our schedule when planning our menu.  This is what January looked like - 

I uncheck the box beside menu so it doesn't show up on our calendar most of the time - except on the widget on my phone that shows my agenda for the day.  (I have two seperate calendar widgets on my phone, on different screens  One screen is a month view of our calendar that takes up an entire screen.  The other is my "daily" screen that has my agenda, my daily to do list (it resets every morning) and short cuts for our grocery list, to do list, and my husbands to do list.)

4. Set Taco Night & Pizza Night as repeating events on google calendar.

     This just saves me from entering them over and over.  They automatically repeat every week

5. Go through the pantry, open the freezer, fill in meals that use ingredients we have on hand

There's so much food in our freezers, and we need to rebuild our savings, so using what I have is a priority right now.

6. Fill in the blank days, using Pinterest Boards for extra inspiration as needed

This is rarely a needed step, this time of year. I'm more likely to try new recipes in the spring and summer, when more produce is fresh and local.  Winter is more of a "clean out the freezer and pantry" time of year for me - but an occasional new recipe is nice.

7. For meals that need prep ahead, set reminders in google calendar.  

If we're having turkey for Sunday dinner, set a reminder to pull it from the freezer a week ahead, Thursday I pull the calzone ingredients out of the freezer to thaw, etc.  Reminders set in google calendar pop up on my phone screen when scheduled.

8. Add ingredients needed to Out Of Millk

My favorite shopping list app.  I can add items on my phone, or on my computer.  https://www.outofmilk.com/

9. Keep ingredients on hand for some basic meals that can be made in minutes on nights that don't go as planned.

• Hot sausage & pierogies
• Jars of Ragu sauce, spaghetti, meatballs & frozen ravioli (quick pasta, or meatball subs)
• Toasted Cheese & Tomato Soup
• Sausage or bacon for Breakfast for Dinner

#EmptyShelf 2015

Last year John Acuff started an "empty shelf" at the beginning of the year, then filled it with the books he read throughout the year.  Like many others, I loved the idea, but really only read ebooks... so I tried a digital version, here on my blog.  I didn't keep up with it - but I left the post up thinking sometime this year I might go back and finish it.  

For 2015 I'm starting again -  I'll stick to just text links without pics for those books that were not my favorites, that might make it simpler.  

5 Stars - Books I Recommend to Everyone 

    

  

These are all books I couldn't put down - but The Nightingale, The Good Girl, & Wonder have been my favorites so far in 2015.  They are 3 very different books - The Nightingale is historical fiction, about two sisters during WWII in France, and how they survived the war.  Wonder is a young adults novel that is simply a GOOD read.  The Good Girl is a thriller - it's everything The Girl On The Train is hyped up to be, but was not.
4 Stars - Good reads, solid favorites
The Magicians Lie - by Greer McAllister  (Described as Water For Elephants meets the Night Magician - it was very good.)
The Julian Chapter - RJ Palacio(Almost good enough to be a stand alone book without the Wonder book - this was VERY good.)
In The Blood  - Lisa Unger ( A good thriller.  one of those that I didn't love, it even annoyed me at times, but I could not put down)
A Memory Of Violets -Hazel Gaynor  ( More historical fiction, this one about the flower girls of London. VERY good)
Private Vegas - James Patterson (one of the Patterson Series that I enjoy)
Confessions Of A Prayer Slacker - Diane Moody 
Queen Of Hearts - Rhys Bowen (Royal Spyness #8) (One of my favorite series - a cozy mystery)
No Biz Like Showbiz (Lexi Carmichael Mystery #4)
No Test for the Wicked (Lexi Carmichael Mystery #5)by Julie Moffett
A Wedding On Ladybug Farm by Donna Ball  (Charming Series - one of my favorites)
Before Amen - Max Lucado (A great quick read on prayer)


3 Stars - A Good Read, I liked it but not enough to really recommend it
Kissing In Action (Lexi Graves Mysteries #7) by Camilla Chafer
Gator Bait (Miss Fortune Mystery, #5) by Jana Deleon
Landline by Rainbow Rowell
Detoxing from Church (Some great sound bites, but not really a good book)

2 Stars - I didn't necessarily hate it, but I was severely disappointed.  (These usually end up being series books that I keep reading, even though they really aren't good anymore)

Throw in the Trowel (A Flower Shop Mystery #15) by Kate Collins
Double Fudge Brownie Murder by Joanne Fluke 
The Best Yes by Lysa Teukherst
Dress Shop Of Dreams - Menna Van Prag (not a horrible book - just not something I enjoyed. )
Angelas Ashes by Frank McCourt

1 Star - Ugh.  Yuck.  
Mercy Snow by Tiffany Baker
The Girl On The Train  by Paula Hawkins (I hated Gone Girl too.  For this type of book done WELL, try The Good Girl by Mary Kubica)

Haluska

We first had this at a street festival, when the kids were little - and since then I have seen it served a football game concession stands.  It's so simple to make, and it's really a cheap meal - I usually serve it with hot sausage sandwiches. I do not usually make it look purple, but last night I used purple cabbage and a purple onion, and voila - it's purple.  :-)  Purple is not my favorite color for anything but food.  Purple potatoes, purple string beans, purple tomatoes, purple carrots..  there is something about growing purple food that makes me happy.

This is a typical Haluska Recipe:

1 stick of butter (some websites even say "margarine".  Run from those sites.  )

1 16 oz bag of egg noodles

1/2 an onion, sliced thin

1 small head of cabbage, sliced thin

Salt & pepper to taste

Cook the egg pasta, drain and set aside

Melt the butter in a large skillet or pan, large enough to hold the chopped cabbage.

Saute the cabbage and the onion in the butter until glossy and tender.

 Add salt and pepper.

 Cover and let the cabbage mixture simmer over low heat for about 15 minutes.

Mix the pasta and the cabbage & onion together

Serve - optional, serve with sour cream

How I Make Haluska

1 16 ounce bag egg noodles

1 sweet onion sliced thin

cabbage sliced thin

1 to 1 1/2 cups of butter

chicken broth (maybe a cup?  I just mix a little Tones Chicken base with some water.  Tones is $4.28 a tub at Sam's club, and I use both the beef & chicken a LOT around here)

Salt & Pepper

Put water for the pasta on to boil, slice the onion thin

Put a stick of butter in a skillet to melt on low heat

Start slicing the cabbage

Add the pasta to the water once it is boiling, cook it

Add the onion to the skillet with the butter

Keep slicing cabbage.  I used about 3/4 of a small head of cabbage this time.  Fill the skillet to heaping - it will cook down.

once the onion is cooked, add the cabbage on top of the onion, then add more butter.

Saute for a bit

Add some chicken broth - 1/ a cup or so to start, then put the lid on the skillet and let it cook on a low heat

Drain the noodles

Once the cabbage mixture has cooked down to "clear and translucent", toss with the noodles.

Note - purple cabbage doesn't become quite clear and translucent.  Just cook the cabbage until it is obviously cooked and not crunchy.

Then sometimes I add more melted butter.