Welcome Back, Cody

A big, heartfelt thanks to all of you who have been faithfully praying for my son-in-law, daughter, and grandbabies while Cody was deployed in Iraq this past year!!  He arrived back home on Tuesday, safe and sound.   

In honor of his return, I’m reposting this short video of him playing with the cutest Iraqi kids ever.  It’s amazing how kids are alike the world over, despite language and culture differences!

The 50 pound potato plan

Recently, when I was in our local supermarket, I stumbled on a potato sale.  It was totally an accident.  There I was.  And there they were.  10 pounds of beautiful potatoes for 99 cents.  For the whole 10 pound bag. 

You can imagine my delight.

I bought 5.  As in 50 pounds.  Yup. Five-zero glorious pounds of potatoes.  For my little family of 3.

I would have gotten more, but 5 was the limit.  Silly supermarket.

Before you lump me in with the rest of the criminally insane, let me say 3 little words: batch freezer cooking.  

It’s my secret fast and frugal weapon and one of my favorite sessions to do is a potato session.  I never buy potatoes unless they’re on sale and I never have to deal with them slowly decaying because I can’t deal with them fast enough. 

Please don’t assume you can’t freeze potatoes.  While you can’t successfully freeze them raw, they will freeze beautifully partially cooked and you’ll quickly find them the easiest and most versatile item in your freezer cooking repertoire. 

You don’t have to follow my plan exactly.  This is just a basic sketch of what can be done.  Go ahead and use your own personal and family favorites using these guidelines, multiplying your recipes to use 5-10-20-or more pounds of potatoes :)

First, I made 20 pounds into JW potatoes.  I’ve posted this recipe before and you can find it here.  This time, I made some with just cheese and bacon and some with just cheese and broccoli, to use more as a side dish than a main dish.  

Next, 20 pounds became Make Ahead Mashed Potatoes (Recipe below).

I freeze them in zipper bags, flat on a cookie sheet.  When they are frozen solid, they stack like pretty little potato books in the freezer.  Use ginormous or small zipper bags, according to the servings your family normally uses.

The last 10 pounds became steak fries.  Scrub potatoes and cut each into lengthwise wedges. Toss with melted butter or olive oil.  Not a lot. Just enough to coat, about 2 tablespoons per 3-4 pounds of potatoes. Add seasonings until coated.  I use salt, pepper and paprika.  Ranch dressing mix is good too. Use your favorites.   Spray a cookie tray with non-stick spray and arrange wedges in a single layer.  Bake 20 minutes at 400 degrees.  Cool and then flash freeze on a cookie sheet.  Remove when frozen and keep in zipper bags in the freezer.  When ready for some fries, remove desired amount from the freezer and bake again at 400 degrees, 20-30 minutes or until desired crispness.

So that’s about all. Lots of ways to vary and add to it, but this is the basic potato plan.

Make Ahead Mashed Potatoes
3 lbs potatoes
2 tablespoons butter or margarine 
3 ounces cream cheese, softened
2/3 cup sour cream
1/4 cup milk
3/4 teaspoon salt

1.  Peel and chunk potatoes and place in a saucepan; add water to cover. Bring to a boil and simmer for 25 minutes or until potatoes are tender.
2.  Drain well.
3.  Place in a large mixing bowl and use mixer or potato masher to mash them 
4.  Add  butter, cream cheese, sour cream, milk and 3/4 teaspoon salt.
5.  Mix until all ingredients are blended.
6.  If using now:  Spoon mixture into a lightly greased baking dish.  Bake @ 350 for 30 minutes, until hot.
7.  If freezing:  Cool.  Spoon into zipper bags.  Seal and use your hands to smoosh the potatoes and make the bags flat.  Freeze.  Remove from tray when frozen and stack. 
8.  To cook from freezer:  Remove bag(s) from freezer and thaw overnight in refrigerator.  Place in lightly greased baking dish and bake as above.    

Please visit Tasty Tuesday and Tempt My Tummy Tuesday for lots more great recipes!

Soap at your doorstep. Every month for a year. And you could win it!!

Soap maker DeShawn Marie is giving away a year’s worth of free soap! It’s a great deal and for only $6.75 per month, you can subscribe to DeShawn’s monthly Soap Club. and have a fabulous bar of soap delivered to you every month.  For a whole year!

But, here’s the best part: you can also enter to win a subscription to the Soap Club. Check out all the details on DeShawn’s blog.  Here’s just 1 of the gazillion she has available: 

Don’t you just have to have it?

Candy Corn Cookies

We tried something new this fall with Grammy Snelling’s sugar cookie dough.  Candy Corn Cookies.  No real candy corn is involved :)  They were easy and turned out so cute!

Use your favorite sugar cookie dough.  Then divide it into 3 portions, the orange and yellow portions are a little larger than the white one.  Then use gel food coloring to make the orange and yellow sections, leaving the smaller portion plain. 

They look suspiciously like play dough at this point!

 
Fold a piece of wax paper or parchment paper so that it fits in a loaf pan.  Smoosh the dough into the loaf pan… orange first, then yellow and finally the plain sugar dough.  It doesn’t have to be perfect, just get your layers in there: 

Refrigerate for 1 hour or until dough is thoroughly chilled and firm.  Remove and use the wax paper to help coax the dough loaf out of the pan. 

Start slicing the dough into thin slices: 

Then cut each slice into little triangles.  Now you can see the little “candy corn.”  Dust with sprinkles or sugar and bake per your recipe’s instructions. 

Aww.  They’s so cute! 

Linking to: 

The Season to Prepare

Pictured above are hand crocheted Christmas stockings from my Etsy shop.  Of course, the baby Jesus stocking is my favorite.  I made stockings like these for each of my babies on their first Christmas.  They have lasted for 25 years and counting and always bring me lots of compliments. 

Every year at this time I am busy, busy, busy preparing for the hectic Christmas season. So busy I barely have time to prepare for our own Christmas. This is the time of year when I am making, listing and packaging day and night.  Sleep? Not much, thank you.  I have creations that need to be in someone's stocking or under their Christmas tree this year.

This week, in addition to the stockings, I’ve been making more scarves and neck warmers for Prairiecottagerose.  Cold weather is already well established at the prairie cottage and will soon be make its way to where you are:

In an effort to use up all of my yarn before buying more, I’ve also been making reusable coffee sleeves.  An easy way to go green or slip one on a cup and include a little gift card for a fast and easy gift for neighbors and teachers:  

Look at the latest adorable baby shoes I made for puddintoes: 

Of late, there has been a movement to support handmade and the little people like me. When selecting your holiday gifts this season remember all of us who prepared and worked the whole  year long to bring our creations to you. We don't crank these out in huge factories with the latest machines and technology.  They come from our hearts and our genuine love of creating.  Always with a smile, knowing someone is truly going to appreciate receiving our handmade gift this year.

The process of designing a new creation and making it with my own 2 hands is such a joy to me.  It is difficult to even put it into words. A big thank you to all of you that support handmade artists and crafters this Christmas season.

Please visit the Weekend Boutique at Pretty Organized Palace for more handmade gift ideas!

so I can see

Give me your eyes for just one second

Give me your eyes so I can see

Everything that I keep missing

Give me your love for humanity

Give me your arms for the broken hearted

The ones that are far beyond my reach

Give me your heart for the once forgotten

Give me your eyes so I can see

Lord, give my your eyes

So I can see

Brandon Heath

Pumpkin Spice Latte

There it is. Isn’t it gorgeous? Sigh. Oh, how I love thee Pumpkin Spice Latte. Warm and yummy. Definitely pumpkin-y, But not too pumpkin-ish. Cinnamon. Whipped cream. What’s not to love? Even my kids do (and they despise coffee).

One teensy problem- I only go to Starbucks when I happen to have a gift card to “spend.” Which is seldom in the fall. And that happens to be the only time Starbucks offers the delicacy known as pumpkin spice latte.

It soon became apparent that the only way some pumpkin spice would cross my palate would be if I made it myself. After searching for a recipe that closely resembles it and combining several, this is what I came up with.

Just Like Starbucks Pumpkin Spice LatteMakes 1-2 servings

Ingredients:
2 cups milk
2 tablespoons canned pumpkin
2 tablespoons sugar or sugar substitute – adjust to taste
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1/2 cup strong brewed coffee (or 1/4 cup of espresso if you have an espresso machine)

Directions:In a saucepan stir together milk, pumpkin and sugar. Cook and stir over medium heat until steaming. Remove from heat, stir in vanilla and pumpkin pie spice, transfer to a blender and process for 15 seconds or until foamy. I don’t usually bother with the blender and just whip the mixture really well with a wire whisk.

Pour into a large mug or two mugs if you decide to share. Add the coffee or espresso on top.

Optional: (But don’t even think about skipping this step. I mean it). Top with whipped cream and sprinkle pumpkin pie spice, nutmeg, or cinnamon on top.

mmmmm. Can you smell that? Because I can and I need another one.
Please visit Tasty Tuesday and Tempt My Tummy Tuesday for lots more fabulous recipes.