Month: March 2018

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Ham For Easter?

Ten days ago was St. Patrick’s Day (more on that in a bit) and in 5 days it will be Easter. What are your plans for the holiday? Do you have any family traditions that you participate in? Please leave your comments. I would love to know what your family does!

In this family we usually gather for dinner. One year I held a brunch and it was a lot of fun. It just seems hard to get people together in the morning when you have grown children who have commitments with other families now too. This year we are gathering at 4 pm and it has been at my house for many years now. It started out that way because I had small children and it was just easier for everyone to come here and it has stayed that way. My house is just a rallying point for many holidays. Actually, all holidays but two are spent here. My oldest son hosts Thanksgiving (don’t worry, I still am assigned cooking duties) and my brother, Doug, always makes the corned beef and cabbage dinner for St. Patrick’s Day.

We usually have ham for Easter and all that would usually accompany that. This year I am adding a turkey breast to the mix as one of my children is not wild about ham. I won’t mention any names but her initials are MMG. Anyway, we are having a half ham, a turkey breast, mashed potatoes, peas, carrots, gravy, deviled eggs, and cupcakes for dessert. Whoops, almost forgot that I have an almond coffee cake from the Broadway Market to serve as well.

We go to the Broadway Market every year and I love it! There is something old world about it and I love the independent businesses that are represented there. There is music, dancing, food, and fun! Oh, and butter lambs! What is not to like?!

  

Since St. Patrick’s Day and Easter are so close together this year I am kind of going back a few days to bring you a recipe I made for the annual dinner at Doug and Hank’s house. They made the main dinner of corned beef, potatoes, carrots, onions, cabbage and also had a lemon cheesecake for dessert. I brought the Irish Soda Bread. Everything was DELICIOUS! It always is.

Easy Irish Soda Bread

(adapted from www.sunset.com)

  • 3 cups flour, plus about 1 tbsp. for kneading and shaping
  • 3 tablespoons sugar
  • 4 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 3/4 teaspoon table salt or fine sea salt
  • 9 tablespoons cold salted butter, cut into chunks
  • 1 tablespoon caraway seeds (optional)
  • 1/2 cup golden raisins
  • 1/3 cup dried currants
  • About 1 1/8 cup buttermilk

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a large bowl combine the dry ingredients. Then put the butter chunks in and use a pastry blender to cut them into the dry ingredients until pieces are pea sized. I didn’t use the caraway seeds or either fruit but if you want to now is the time to incorporate them. I didn’t use buttermilk. Instead I added a dash of apple cider vinegar to regular milk to sour it. Fully incorporate the milk and then transfer to a floured board. Knead the dough for 60 seconds until smooth. Form into a round loaf. Place into a greased round baking pan. Score the top of the loaf and bake for approximately 30 to 35 minutes until golden brown. Check center of bread for doneness with a toothpick.

* I baked mine a little too long for my taste. It was still delicious and by no means burned but I would cut back 3 to 5 minutes the next time I bake it.

Info and Tips

*CHECK YOUR CREDIT CARD REWARD POINTS!  I had a major score since my last post. I’m not sure why but I never checked this one AARP Rewards credit card I have for rewards. It says right in the name that it has rewards but I had never even thought of it. For some reason when I received my statement this time I noticed a large rewards balance. I went to the website and sure enough I had over 29,000 points. Of course you can use the points for travel and gift cards, etc. I traded in my points for $200 worth of gift cards. I still didn’t use all of them!

*It seems that I have always wrestled with cupcake liners. The thin plastic containers they come in are always cracking or the lids are popping off and some liners inevitably get ruined. This past week I had an epiphany when I looked at my vintage canning jar that I use for birthday candles! I call it one small step for me and a huge step for kitchens everywhere! See the picture below.

*I have told you about the Honey web browser extension that checks coupon codes for you when shopping online. I always use it and have saved quite a little bit over the 2 or so years I have had it. Even when you don’t get coupon codes to save money while shopping you can still get Honey Points that accumulate. I turned mine it this past week and scored two $10 Walmart gift cards which I used when I placed my order for 40 pounds of bird seed and 40 pounds of sunflower seed. I actually had to make a physical run to our local Walmart to purchase some bird food because I hadn’t ordered any online soon enough. Keeping that in mind I ordered 80 pounds of seed yesterday using the gift cards. Those little birds in my backyard don’t like it when I run out! If you have forgotten to sign up for Honey just follow the link below.

https://www.joinhoney.com/

*TAKE YOUR OWN PEN WITH YOU! We all try to stay healthy during the flu season and really any time. I have just adopted a new habit that I would like to share with you. You know how we’re always being offered a pen in stores, doctors’ offices, post offices, etc. to sign something. Just think how many people have handled those pens? Yucky, right? Like, where have those hands been? It is extremely bothersome to me because I have developed allergies which bother my eyes. I catch myself unconsciously rubbing them. What a way to transfer those germs! Now, when I am offered a pen I tell them “no thank you” and have my own pen at the ready.

Project

This week I decided to redo my kitchen curtains. Who knows why I get these bugs to do things?! However, I like the end result so I don’t need an answer to that question.

Previously I had Mexican themed curtains and valances that I had made out of vintage material in the form of napkins and dish towels. I had sewed rod pockets into them and they worked great for a long time.

This time I went for the cafe curtain look. I purchased tension rods and clip curtain rings at Walmart. The tensions were slightly less than $4 each and the ring clips were $2.84 a bag. I used 4 tension rods and 3 bags of clips (14 clips in each bag). For the curtains themselves I used vintage dish towels that I already had in my collection. So, for less than $25 I have a totally new no-sew look in my kitchen. Super cool, right?!

  

Hope you found some interesting and usable ideas in this post!

Have a wonderful Easter no matter where you spend it or who you spend it with. Please share some of your traditions with us in the comments. Any comments are much appreciated.

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Comfort Food

It’s still snowy outside and I have been in a comfort food mood. I am going to share two things that I made in this post. I enjoyed them both.

I have been trying to get used to just cooking dinner for one person but it is difficult. I have gone through all the typical phases you might imagine on my journey. First and easiest, there’s the drive thru phase. It’s quick, you don’t have to make a mess just for yourself but you tire of it. Then there’s always the ever popular bowl of cereal for dinner. It’s nice once in a while but I tired of that even quicker than the drive thru food. Lastly, there’s the sandwich for dinner thing. Again, it’s ok once in a while but as a constant habit, not so much!

All of those things lead me to the current topic of comfort food. My idea of comfort food is something homemade, warm, and by definition, comforting. You must have some things like that in your mind right now. Maybe Mom made something when you lived at home or for some other reason a food evokes warm and pleasant memories. For my brother, Doug, and I one of our comfort foods is goulash. It always reminds us of Mom and home.

This week I made a (semi) homemade chicken pot pie. I say “semi” because some of the ingredients, of which there were only 4, were pre-made. I just assembled them. None the less, it was delicious and I didn’t have to admit it wasn’t all my own doing should I have shared the pot pie with anyone. How are they to know? Ha ha!

Beckie’s Chicken Pot Pie

3 baked, skinless, boneless chicken thighs

2 small cans of chicken gravy

1 can of mixed vegetables (drained)

2 pre-made pie crusts

I pre-heated my oven to 425 degrees. I lined a pie pan with one of the crusts. Then I diced my chicken up into pieces approximately the size of the vegetables. I put the chicken, the drained mixed vegetables (they included potatoes), and both cans of gravy in the pie pan. I gently mixed the ingredients up, taking care not to puncture the crust. Then I topped the pie with the other crust. I crimped the edges to seal and trimmed the excess dough from the lip of the pie pan. Lastly, I poked holes in the top crust for venting. I placed it in the oven to bake for 30 minutes.

*The whole process took 15 minutes for assembling and 30 for baking. As you will see from the pictures below the edges of my pie crust became too dark. This wouldn’t have happened if I had put one of the pie edge guards on. I will do that next time and advise you to do it as well. It was delicious and I don’t mind dark crust. It just might not be visually appealing in the picture.                                                                                                                         

Aren’t I brave for posting my goofs? LOL

On to the next new culinary adventure for this week. Don’t turn your nose up or scrunch your face until you read it all!! Grilled Cheese and Pickle Sandwich was on my menu for lunch today.

I had never heard of this different combination until I was watching a show on the Food Network one evening and Rocco di Spirito, a famous chef, mentioned that it was his favorite sandwich which he had been exposed to in England. I set about to do some investigation. I found out that the original sandwich uses cheese and a kind of relish made with several ingredients. The ingredients are carrots, rutabaga (swede to the British), red apples, dates, raisins, onions, malt vinegar, brown sugar, mustard powder, allspice and Worcestershire sauce. This relish can be bought through Amazon already prepared and it is called Branston Pickle. Of course, even in Britain things differ from place to place. There are some recipes with slices of tomatoes and regular pickles. The type of bread used differs also but is usually a brown bread. The pickle, when it is used rather than the relish, is usually a bread and butter pickle. I like dill and sweet so I tried both. I used rye bread and stuck with the cheddar cheese that appears to be the traditional choice “across the pond”.

Grilled Cheese and Pickle Sandwich

2 slices bread

thick slices of cheddar cheese

pickles

mayo and mustard

I spread a small amount of mayo on one side of one slice and a small amount of mustard on the other slice bread. I put cheese on each slice which is my preference since I like the melted cheese to be on both top and bottom of the sandwich. I spread pickles out to cover the cheese. I did this because when you made a sandwich you want some of each ingredient in each bite you take.  I made one sandwich with dill slices and one sandwich with bread and butter pickles. Lastly, I grilled them with butter spread on the outer sides of both slices of bread. They were both delicious! I have to say that I slightly preferred the sweet pickle sandwich over the dill. The sweet pickle appears to be the one used in England and there might be a reason for that!

Just A Little Info

I have tried many ways of booking hotel rooms when I travel. I’ve used the individual hotel’s website, motel.com, hotel.com,  Priceline,  Hotwire, etc. I have found that the site I have the best luck with is booking.com. I seem to always get the best price (I have compared the different sites) and they have free cancellation up to 24 hours. For most bookings you give your credit card to hold the reservation but don’t pay until your stay which I love! I have used booking.com at least a dozen times if not more. Check it out!

www.booking.com

Scam Alert

This is not a pleasant topic and I try to be lighthearted but I think this is important enough to share.

Recently I read an article where I was informed that scam artists use obituaries to gather information. They use that info for identity theft, deceptive debt collection, fictitious life insurance, and burglary.

The burglary I was aware of. When we had a parent pass away we always had someone stay at our house during the calling hours and funeral. Your name is listed in the obituary as well as the particulars for the calling hours and the funeral. It isn’t hard for criminals to find you and know that you will not be at home during the hours that those important events are occurring.

However, I really had not thought about the other things that were mentioned. The article recommends that when the death notice is written leave out the deceased’s age, birth date, middle name, home address, birthplace and mother’s maiden name. They further recommend not listing survivors. This is tough, I know. However, I believe this is serious and there must be some creative ways to omit these details and yet have a nice acknowledgement of a loved one’s life and passing.

Collector Extraordinaire

Now onto the lighter side. I wanted to share my latest purchase with you. I love vintage stuff and antiques and have been on the lookout for a treadle sewing machine or at least the base to one. A Singer was the brand I was hoping to get. There’s a sort of collection of sewing machines in my house. I have one in a stand from the 30’s, one in a stand from the 40’s and a Featherweight from 1952. Whoops, I almost forgot the Sew Handy for children that I have. Anyway, back to the treadle machine.

I didn’t find the machine itself but I did find a beautiful base. I brought it home and have placed it in my dining-room. Currently I am displaying some of my other sewing collectibles on it. I imagine that will change from time to time as I like to switch things up occasionally.

Isn’t she a beauty?! On the upper left is the Sew Handy and on the right is the Singer Featherweight from 1952. There are also vintage needle books and sewing thimbles on display just for fun. The little red sewing machine is an KAYanEE child’s sewing machine.

I will leave you with one thought. I love my collections and they give me joy! Do you have any? Let me know in the comments. Also, let me know if you try the sandwich. I know that I will definitely make it again.

 

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Here a Banana, There a Banana…………

Do you ever buy bananas and fail to eat them all before they start to get just a little too ripe for you? I think we all do. I imagine banana bread was invented just for that reason.

My problem is that I have a very narrow “banana window” to deal with. In the store I always pick out the banana bunch with the most green peels. I have to wait a day or two for them to be ripe enough that they suit me. Then I barely get 2 to 3 eaten and they are too ripe for me. I like just the certain sweet spot where they are sweet, firm and ready to eat. Since, as you might guess, I hate to waste money I will eat at least 1 banana when it is a hair too ripe. However, I often end up with 2 or 3 left over, no matter how few I purchase.

Of course, it happened again and although I love banana bread I felt like trying something else. I found a recipe for banana coffee cake and I love coffee cake!

Banana Coffee Cake

(Recipe from the blog, A Latte Food)

  • 3-4 medium or large bananas
  • 2 Tbsp brown sugar
  • 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 cup butter, softened
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 2 Tbsp sour cream (or Greek yogurt)
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 cup flour
  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • 6 Tbsp butter, cold.
  • Preheat the oven to 350. Grease two 8×4 pans.
  1.  In a small bowl, mash bananas, brown sugar, vanilla extract, and ground cinnamon.
  2. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
  3. Add in eggs and beat until mixed.
  4. To the wet ingredients, sift in flour, baking soda, and salt.
  5. Stir until just combined. Add in sour cream and stir.
  6. Pour in mashed bananas, and mix until combined.
Crumb Topping
  1. Combine cinnamon, flour, and brown sugar. Cut in butter with a pastry cutter, and mix until the topping looks like coarse crumbs. Sprinkle coating evenly over the batter in both pans.
  2. Bake for about 35-40 minutes or until cake tester comes out clean with just a few moist crumbs stuck to it.
  3. Allow to cool for 10 minutes. Move to a wire cooling rack.

  • Note;This came out beautifully. I had 3 large bananas that I used. The baking time was right on the money for me. If you would like to try it but don’t have the time when your bananas are begging for some baking, just pop them in the freezer to keep until you’re ready. That works really well.

Quick without looking guess, in your head, how many times I said  the word “banana”.

Ok, got it in your head? Look below for the answer.

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13! That’s a whole lot of banana talking right there.

Warning: Handy Tips Coming Ahead!

Did you notice as you read through the recipe that you are to use a pastry cutter to do the crumb topping? Of course, I use a pastry cutter for that and all other pastry such as pie crusts. This is so the butter doesn’t get too warm if you used your hands. You also get more uniformity using the pastry cutter.

I have another use for the pastry cutter and I learned it from my Mom. She always used a pastry cutter to chop up eggs for egg salad. It works like a dream! You should try it some time.

Above you see the unassuming lint roller. I have pets so I keep one in my bedroom, one in the dining-room and one in the car (for those last-minute occasions).

For 3 days I went on a cleaning frenzy here at my house! The lint roller is part of my cleaning tool box. My most favorite use for it is to clean the cloth lampshades in my living-room. The lampshades get, as you might imagine, a lot of dust on them and, in my case and probably other homes, some pet hair too. The lint roller is just the tool to clean them! I used to take them off the lamps and put them in the shower for a wash. That is more time-consuming and you have to wait for them to dry before putting them back where they belong. The lint roller allows you to work in place, is quick and I believe gets them cleaner.

Project Time

I was reading one of my magazines and saw how someone had made a lazy Susan for their table with a vintage dart board. Of course, I had to make one. The only thing is I didn’t have a dart board any more. You know how you get rid of things and then see a neat idea where you could have used it! Geesh, I hate that!

I made up my mind that I would look on eBay or wait until yard sale and flea market season and look for one then. Just about then I went into my 3 day cleaning frenzy. I was dusting and sweeping in my craft room when I happened to pick up  one of my vintage toys I have displayed there. It was a Chinese checker game. Remember those? Yep, that light bulb when on over my head just like you see in the cartoons and here is the result.

 The game that lit the light bulb.

 I had lazy susan bearings that were already on a wooden disk for cake decorating but you can purchase them also. I used Gorilla Glue to attach the metal plate that contains the bearings to the game.

 Bearings

  VIOLA!

It is my hope you found some inspiration here. Have a wonderful upcoming weekend! See you next week.

 

 

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80 Degrees and Sunny

I recently had an opportunity to go to Jacksonville, Florida for a few days. It was wonderful! I was able to visit with great people, shop, eat out, put my toes in the ocean, and just enjoy some relaxation. I wanted to share a couple of things that I learned during this trip that might be helpful.

The big thing was that I flew on an airline that I have never been on before. It is Allegiant Air.  This airline has been around since 1997 but I hadn’t heard about it until the last couple of years. It had been a west coast thing before that and even had a different name to begin with. They are billed as a budget airline and are the 9th largest airline in the United States. The headquarters are in Nevada.

I live near Buffalo, New York and normally fly from the Buffalo Niagara airport. Allegiant, unfortunately doesn’t come to Buffalo. They do go the Cleveland and that is a two and a half hour drive for me all on Interstate 90. I decided to book the flight last October.

I had flown out of Cleveland before but had never driven there myself so I really hadn’t noticed anything about the drive. I asked a couple of people and looked at the directions online and it seemed doable.

Having flown out of Buffalo, I have gotten in the habit of parking in The Parking Spot near the airport and then being shuttled over. There are always coupons in the booklets you see in the airplane or online which makes it cheaper. I end up paying about $44 or so for a week. It isn’t a bad deal since if I give someone gas money to drop me off and pick me up that is half of the parking cost, at least. Also, it is pretty nice to be dropped off by the shuttle at the front door of the airport near your chosen airline desk.

Of course, right away I checked to see if the same parking chain was near the Cleveland airport and it wasn’t. I checked online for parking lots and there were a few. However, getting a head’s up from someone who flies out of the airport is much better (insider tip, totally legal and totally unlike insider trading, LOL). A friend of mine is from Cleveland and her sister travels a lot for work. She clued me into Fast Park. I went online and made a reservation. The cost was estimated to be slightly under $50 and the same type of shuttle to the airport. I made a mental note to look for promo codes, coupons, etc. online and/or coupons in the airport or airline.

All right, so back to Allegiant. It is a budget airline so you pay for your checked bag and for any carry on which is in addition to your purse. I did this early and got a deal. I was charged $20 for my carry on. The checked bag limit is 40 pounds which is less than most airlines. They explain this difference by saying less weight on the plane, less gas usage and they pass the savings on to you. Okay, I can live with 40 pounds. I also could have reconfigured things so that I didn’t have a carry on to pay for too but I will do that next time.

Now, here’s where it gets really good! The flight was non-stop! I paid less than $200 round trip (plus the bags) It was 1 hour and 45 minutes. So, it might not be the cushiest airline but…………….let’s face it. I am a mother of five and I can pretty much do anything for 105 minutes! In reality, it wasn’t that bad at all. The flight attendants were wonderful! The flight was quick. I had a nice friendly person sitting next to me on the flight down and on the flight back. What’s not to like?

When I returned to Cleveland I looked for a promo code online for the parking and promptly found one for a percentage off. I paid $43 and some change so it was on par with The Parking Spot in Buffalo.

All in all I was very pleased with the whole experience and would recommend flying on Allegiant to anyone!

Just before writing this I checked the Allegiant website. Some of the deals they have listed are fantastic! Fort Lauderdale and Myrtle Beach for $29 one way and New Orleans for $40. I am definitely doing this again! If you would like to check out some of the deals and steals at Allegiant use the following link.

https://www.allegiantair.com/

*Just an added little note……………..you know how you can’t take a water bottle through TSA screening? Well, you just can’t take a full one through. I took an empty water bottle in the side pocket of my backpack and just filled it at a water fountain once I got through security. I bet I saved $8 on water if you look at the round trip. I love that kind of stuff! I am just slightly embarrassed that I didn’t do it sooner. Oh well. I will from now on.

Happy trails people. Get out there and travel!

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