Snowed In

I’m BACK! I hope you missed me.

It has been a busy few weeks. Of course, we had the holidays with all the decorating, wrapping, baking and undecorating, and then I had a family birthday (with two more yet to come this month). However, the biggy was I had knew floors installed in my living room and dining room. The whole operation took a week plus a day. The dogs and I were relegated to the upstairs (luckily where the bathroom is). Also, luckily, my stairway goes into the kitchen and into the foyer so I was able to cook (kind of) and get out to walk the dogs and escape the noise and smell (frequently).

My house is sort of back together. I still have pictures and assorted odds and ends to put up on the walls. While putting it back together I did a little redecorating and moving of things. That part is fun and it is nice to look at things in a different way.

As my title would suggest we are having some snow and it is a perfect opportunity to stay in my nightgown (I never miss a chance at that) and putz around the house and blab some to you! The last few weeks have given me some material to share with you.

Tips and Tricks

• I read that you can freeze eggs if you have an overabundance and use them later in recipes and for scrambling. Quite often the grocery stores will run specials on eggs and I stock up. My usual way to make sure they don’t go bad before I can use them is to make egg salad with some. I just had to test this to see if it worked and I really does! As you can see in the pictures below, I cracked them into an ice cube tray. When they were completely frozen I popped them out of the tray and put them in a freezer bag. A handy tip is to spray the ice cube tray with cooking spray prior to putting the eggs in. This way they will pop out of the tray easily.

The magazines are always filled with organizing tips and ways to weed out things from your home in the month of January. One of the easiest things I have seen stated simply to get rid of 5 things a month. By get rid of they meant to throw away, donate, give away, any which way to have 5 things exit your home. I think any of us can amass things in our home and once in awhile it is good to assess what we have and decide if we really want or need it. It can get tricky because sometimes they are just things that by their very existence give us joy but we really don’t use them per say. That being said, I think all of us could find 5 things, either big or small, that we no longer need around the house. As a matter of fact, I decided I could get rid of 5 things a week and have even joked that I probably could relieve myself of 5 things a day if I needed to. There is some joy in clearing out. There is no need to get rid of things that do give you pleasure though.

A couple of years ago I dedicated one of the drawers in my kitchen as a spice drawer. I did this because my spices had not been in a place where I could easily see what I had. At the time I ordered metal containers with see through lids for the spices and then labelled them. Over time some of the spices corroded the metal. I figured this couldn’t be good for the spices and started searching for some other type of container. I found plastic screw top containers that were a good size and ordered them. Below you will see the difference. The spices are much more easily gotten into now and will stay fresher (yes, spices do have a shelf life).

• Out of baking powder? Make some if you have what it takes. For one tablespoon of baking powder you need 1 teaspoon of baking soda and 2 teaspoons of cream of tartar. Mix well. You need more; just increase the recipe.
• Before the holidays I was in Joann Fabrics to purchase some items for a project. There was a sign at the counter that if you downloaded the Joann app on your smartphone you could save 25% on your purchase. There was one lady checking out ahead of me so I decided to try and see if I could complete the download by the time it was my turn. I did and saved over $7 on my purchase which included merchandise that was on sale. So, the moral of the story is, always notice these deals and check them out to see if it will help you!
• I had heard of an app for your phone called Instacart and had decided to finally check it out. You can order through the app at store is near you that participate. For a fee they will shop for you and deliver your merchandise to your home. Tops and Aldi which are local to me are listed on the app when I put in my zipcode. I have checked prices and most items are a tad more expensive through the app. For instance at Aldi’s their spaghetti sauce is 85 cents at the store. On the app it is 95 cents. Delivery is $7.99 unless you belong to Instacart Express which costs $149 yearly and then orders of $35 or more are free. You can try Express free for 14 days. There is also a place to add a driver tip of $2. My ultimate decision was not to order. Aldi’s is only 8 miles from me and there is no reason not to go there myself. That being said, if you were stuck at home and really needed certain items you might be able to justify it. It just wasn’t for me.

I recently made a small wedding cake for a wedding celebration. I tried a new spatula decorating technique that turned out very nice. I thought I would share it with you. As with all cakes I started with a crumb coat which is just a very thin but still spreadable version of your cake icing. This dries and seals in the crumbs so that your final coat of icing is primo! To do any spatula icing technique you put on a little bit thicker coating of your icing and then use the icing spatula to put your design in. The first picture shows the crumb coat and the second picture is the finished cake.

Recipes

Yellow Split Pea Soup

*Feral Kitchen

• 2 cups dried yellow split peas
• 2 quarts vegetable stock
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 1 cup chopped celery
• 2 tsp ground coriander
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp ground turmeric
• 1 tsp garlic paste
• 1/4 tsp white pepper
• 1 bay leaf
• salt to taste
• fresh snipped chives and pinches of paprika for garnish (optional)

Add all ingredients (except salt and garnishes) to large pot with lid.  Cook on medium low, stirring occasionally for about an hour or until the split peas are tender.  Remove bay leaf from soup and blend soup with a hand-blender until smooth.  Taste and correct your salt level.  Ladle up and garnish with fresh snipped chives and paprika.  Makes about 6-8 servings.

This soup turned out so good I would have liked to drink a gallon of it! If you haven’t tried yellow split peas you simply must!!!! The spices are so good for you too. Tumeric is a nice anti-inflammatory.

Dried Beef Gravy

This is my oldest daughter’s favorite meal and she always requests it for her birthday dinner. She likes to eat it on toast which is great but if you prefer you can eat it on mashed potatoes. For an interesting read on the history of this dish click on this link, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chipped_beef

1 jar of dried beef

1/2 gallon milk

1/4 cup margarine or butter cut into chunks

salt and pepper to taste

roux for gravy

Pour milk in saucepan and add cut or torn pieces of dried beef along with margarine or butter. Season with your salt and pepper. Heat over medium heat until just boiling. After mixing your roux of flour and water whisk it into the milk mixture. Reduce heat and simmer until flour is cooked and gravy is thickened. Stir frequently to prevent burning.

Hopefully, you found something of interest in this post. Enjoy your days and be sure to share any tricks, tips, recipes or anything else you would like. I will see you next month!