I'm just curious...

In your neck of the woods, do you have a particular food that you prepare for New Years' day?

Here in Southwestern Pennsylvania, it's tradition to serve pork and sauerkraut! We've always done that for as long as I can remember. Eating sauerkraut on the New Year is supposed to bring you good luck in the coming year. Since I don't believe in luck, be it good or bad, I make it because I like it!

 I would like you to leave a short comment and tell me what will be on your New years Day menu!

P.S. Don't forget to tell me what state or country you're from!


Here's where I'll be sharing:
Happiness is Homemade What's for Dinner  Cooking and Crafting with J and J   Mosaic Monday Busy Monday  Keep it simple Monday Through my Lens  Tasty Tuesday   Bee Inspired  Your whims Wednesday Talk of the Town  Wonderful Wednesday Creatively Crafty  Full plate Thursday  Fiesta Friday  Create, Bake, Grow and Gather  Home Matters  Dare to share Sat  Saturday Sparks   Natasha Musing  Happy Tuesday  Wordless Wednesday
  Image-in-ing

Street Art

Where I'll be sharing:
Wordless Wednesday
  Image-in-ing 

Why am I just learning about this now???

I'm embarrassed to say in fifty ...yes, fifty years of housekeeping and cooking, I never saw these tabs on the sides of foil and plastic wrap rolls, to hold the roll in place. 😞

Leave it up to Pinterest to get me up to date!

And you know how your straw keeps popping up when you put it in a can of soda? Well, the hole in the tab will hold it in place....genius.

I always thought that the slot in the end of a pot handle was just for hanging, but it sure makes one handy ~ dandy spoon holder!

I always buy natural peanut butter with no sugar added but it's a pain to mix in the oil that rises to the top. Now I turn the jar upside down when I put it in the pantry. When I'm ready to use it, I stir it well and keep it in the fridge, right -side up. And it stays perfectly mixed. Voila!  

I saw this hint in a cooking magazine. Just a rubber band holding a folded paper towel around your oil bottle to catch drips. Doesn't cost anything to do and when the bottle is empty, just pitch it! 

http://www.listotic.com/50-brilliant-storage-ideas/28/

This one I saw a few years ago and I've been using the idea ever since. Tuck your sheet sets inside one of the matching pillowcases to keep the set together! No more searching for that lost pillow case and look how neat the linen closet stays!

What's your favorite hint?

Here's where I'll be sharing:
 Amaze Me Monday * Mix it up Monday * Make it Pretty Monday * Cooking and Crafting with J and J *  Busy Monday * Keep it simple Monday  * Warm Heart *Tasty Tuesday * Delicious Dishes * Inspire me Tuesday * Talk of the Town  * Waste not Wednesday *  Thrifty and Vintage Finds *Moonlight and Mason Jars * Before and After Wednesday * the Alder Collective * You Link it, We Make it * What's Cookin' Wednesday  * Create it Thursday *  Creatively crafty *  Full plate Thursday * Throwback Thursday * The Handmade Hangout * The Pin Junkie * Anything blue Friday * Sweet Inspirations *  Friday Finds * Foodie Friday *  Photo Friday * Foodie Friday and Everything Else * Friday Features * Party Palooza *  What To Do Weekends * Home Matters *  Saturday Sparks *  Best of the Weekend *  Happiness is Homemade  * Sundays at Home  * What's for Dinner * Sunday Crafters-noon  *  Nifty Thrifty Sunday *

Spring Cleaning 101

Do you think that's me in the photo?
Heavens no...when I clean it's quite the opposite. Who's going to get all dolled up like this to clean?

They say every woman's either a cook or a cleaner. ... my family, we're the cleaners. I swear you could have eaten off my mom's floor even when she was in her 80's. I have to admit I'm not as fussy as I used to be when I was first married. I've learned there are more important things in life like blogging and Pinterest spending time with your family. A house is to be lived in. My house isn't dirty, but it does get messy especially when I'm crafting LOL

Here's my routine for spring cleaning:

First, I gather my supplies...a bucket, a good cleaner ( I like Murphy's oil soap) cleaning cloths, dust mop and my upright and canister sweeper. Once I had a neighbor that didn't own a vacuum... that just boggles my mind. How do you clean without a vacuum?

Then I empty the room as much as possible.

Take down the curtains, anything hanging on the walls and put away anything that doesn't need to be out.

Working from top to bottom, I use my dust mop to dust down the ceiling and walls. Next, I clean the blinds and wash the windows... I wash and wipe dry all the furniture and then use my canister sweeper on the baseboards and around the edges of the furniture... wipe down the baseboards if needed.

 Then clean everything that was hanging on the walls or sitting on the desks (photos, knickknacks etc.)
 Hey look... here's a photo of me and my husband that was taken 25 years ago at our son's wedding! My Hubby had hair back then...

Sorry, I sometimes get sidetracked.   On to the bookshelf.

I used to have tons and tons of books but now that I have a Kindle I've been getting rid of most of them. I sorted through the bookcase and now I have a great stack to donate.

Next, hang clean curtains and vacuum the floor.

 Everything starting to look and smell fresh and clean.. don't you just love that!

Here's where I'll be sharing:

Nifty Thrifty Sunday * Sundays at Home * Amaze Me Monday * Mix it up Monday * Make it Pretty Monday * Busy Monday * Keep it simple Monday *Tasty Tuesday * Delicious Dishes * Inspire me Tuesday * Talk of the Town  * Thrifty and Vintage Finds *Moonlight and Mason Jars * Before and After Wednesday *the Alder Collective * You Link it, We Make it *What's Cookin' Wednesday* Wordless Wednesday * Create it Thursday *  Full plate Thursday * Throwback Thursday * The Pin Junkie * Anything blue Friday * Friday Finds * Photo Friday * Foodie Friday * What To Do Weekends

Reusing the discarded

I seem to have this knack of seeing a new purpose in things that would normally just be thrown away...like this huge Whitman's sampler box. We receive several of these every holiday season at the facility where I work from customers.

This box mesures 24" by 15".   
I cut poster board and made section dividers of different sizes to hold my small cutouts for cardmaking.

 In a glance, I can choose what I need to make a quick card in just a few minutes. This holiday season, I'll be on the lookout for a few more of these!

September means....

Hello and goodbye....

Hello to a new school year and the approaching fall season with it's burst of color...it will be a welcome site since the hot summer we had kinda put a damper on the flowers this year. I don't know about where you live, but the heat here caused the blooming to shut down... so there wasn't much of a show.

Goodbye to air conditioners constantly running to find relief and hello to sleeping with the windows open...

Goodbye to "vegetable dinners" that consist of corn on the cob, parsley potatoes, fresh green beans with garlic and olive oil and thick sliced tomatoes and cottage cheese.

My sister gave me these corn holders that you put into the corn BEFORE  boiling!

Goodbye to tomato sandwiches...have you tried them?

Two slices of toast with  thick slices of tomato, fresh from the garden, and a little mayo, salt, pepper...yummy!
A friend like a drizzle of vinegar and oil dressing instead of the mayo.
Haven't tried that yet. Good eatin'

To do list.....

Bring on the blooms.....

    With all the rain we've been having, it's hard to find a Saturday to clean the
 flowerbeds out. Being scheduled to work every other weekend adds to the problem. I could see plants sprouting up everywhere and plenty of  blooms through the dead leaves that laid there all winter. They make a great covering to protect the plants from the cold,  but extra work in the spring...Yuck.

The primroses are lovin' all the rain!

 I was determined to get out there yesterday even if it rained. It turned out to be sunny and about 60*.

Jack and I worked together and accomplished a lot:

1. grass cut
2. Flowerbeds raked and weeded
3. wood edging stained
4. bird feeder cleaned out
5. Hillside cleared of wild bamboo... ggrrr...I hate bamboo.

Then a bubble bath...dinner and a movie at home... A fulfilling day!

See more inspiring snapshots this Mosaic Monday over at "Little Red House".

Cupcake goodness....

Dozen Bake Shop has been recognized as Pittsburgh's best bakery. Check out some of these awesome creations…..

Top row:

Maple Bacon -  Real bacon and maple buttercream on a cake spiked with a hint of espresso.

East End Chocolate Stout - Dark chocolate stout cake  topped with irish cream buttercream and chocolate ganache.

Peppermint Twist - Chocolate devils food cake topped with peppermint buttercream.

2nd row:

Pumpkin Maple - Real maple buttercream on delicious pumpkin cupcake.

Almond Dream -Almond buttercream on a vanilla cake, rolled in sliced almonds and dusted with confectioners sugar.

Caramel Spice - Caramel buttercream atop spice cake, topped with gooey caramel.

Row three:

Rocky Road -Pecans, marshmallows and chocolate ganache topping vanilla buttercream on chocolate devils food cake.

Red Velvet - red velvet cake has a hint of chocolate, and is topped with magagascar vanilla bean butter cream.

Black & Gold - Every Sunday during Steelers season, you can get a Black & Gold cupcake - all dressed up for game day.

And I love these elegant cupcake papers from the internet:

Soooo pretty!

I'm linking up to Mosaic Monday over at

  "Little Red House ".

Groundhog day

Groundhog Day is Feburary 2, 2011!

The Prognosticator of Prognosticators, Punxsutawney Phil, will once again appear at sunrise at Gobbler's Knob in the Pennsylvania Wilds to make his annual prediction.

You can watch Phil's prediction LIVE right here on visitPA.com on 2/2/11.

http://www.visitpa.com/groundhog-day


Please spring come early, enough is enough!!

Free fashionable lunch tote from Lean*Cuisine

Lean Cuisine is offering a free lunch tote when you collect codes listed inside specially marked packages of the convenient frozen entrees.Register and collect 20 codes listed inside the lids, enter them online and you'll get a cute, fashionable little lunch tote for free. They're just the right size to hold your lean cuisine meal. 

Choose from four styles:

The offer expires on March 31.

Check it out here:
http://freelunchbags.leancuisine.com/

Baby, it's cold outside...

We need to try to stay warm and what could be better then some "stick to your ribs" comfort food?

Easy Shepherd's Pie Recipe :

Ingredients:
1 1/2 lbs ground round beef
1 onion chopped
1-2 cups vegetables - chopped carrots, corn, peas
1 1/2 - 2 lbs potatoes (3 big ones)
8 tablespoons butter (1 stick)
1/2 cup beef broth
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
Salt, pepper, other seasonings of choice

Method:
* Peel and quarter potatoes, boil in salted water until tender (about 20 minutes).

While the potatoes are cooking, melt 4 Tab. butter (1/2 a stick) in large frying pan.

* Sauté onions in butter until tender over medium heat (10 mins). If you are adding vegetables, add them according to cooking time. Put any carrots in with the onions. Add corn or peas either at the end of the cooking of the onions, or after the meat has initially cooked.

* Add ground beef and sauté until no longer pink. Add salt and pepper. Add Worcestershire sauce.

* Add half a cup of beef broth and cook, uncovered, over low heat for 10 minutes, adding more beef broth as necessary to keep moist.

* Mash potatoes in bowl with remainder of butter, season to taste.

* Place beef and onions in baking dish. Distribute mashed potatoes on top.
 Rough up with a fork so that there are peaks that will brown nicely. You can use the fork to make some designs in the potatoes as well.

* Cook in 400 degree oven until bubbling and brown (about 30 minutes). Broil for last few minutes if necessary to brown.
Serves four.

Note: I made some browm gravy to add to this and it's a keeper, we enjoyed it!

*********************************************

Use Free care e-cards and you can generate donations for worthwhile charities. Just link below:http://www.care2.com/ecards