A good (and frugal) recipe

This is a great pilaf-style recipe I use often when I need to use up leftovers. It comes from a book written in the 1990's titled THE COMPLETE TIGHTWAD GAZETTE by Amy Dacyczyn. It's one of those "Pick one from Column A, one from Column B..." type recipes, and you adapt it to whatever you have in your refrigerator, freezer or cupboards at the time. Great way to use up leftover meats and veggies. GROUPS Grains - 1 cup --Uncooked brown or white rice --Bulgur --Couscous --Other favorite grain Fat - 2 tbsp --Olive oil --Butter, margarine --Vegetable oil --Other favorite oil Base Vegetable - 2-3 cloves garlic, minced AND --one small onion, cut up --three shallots --one small leek Liquid - 2 cups -- Vegetable broth -- Chicken broth -- Cooking water from boiled vegetables --Water Meat or Protein - 1/2 to 2/3 cup --Chicken, cut up --Tuna --Cooked white or red beans --White fish --Hamburger --Cheap steak cut into cubes Additional vegetable - 1/2 cup frozen or fresh --Peas --Carrots, cut up --Corn --Green peppers --Celery --and/or any favorite vegetable except leafy or potatoes Seasoning - Whatever works and to taste

Directions:

Heat fat in large cast-iron or non-stick skillet. When hot, add the base vegetables and cook until golden and translucent. Add the meat and brown (unless you're adding tuna -- don't add yet). Add the grain and fry for a minute or so to coat it with fat. Add the liquid and bring to a boil (add tuna now). Add the other vegetable(s), season, stir, return to a boil, simmer, and cover. Check it often. Whole grains will take about 40 mins to cook, white rice about 15 minutes. When the liquid is completely absorbed, it's done. Stir, season to taste, and serve.

Today's List

Things you will never see on this blog:

• Britney Spears anything.
• Lindsay Lohan anything.
• Paris Hilton anything.
• Political discussions - (my son needs to create a blog for that one)
• Religious discussions
• A post about how quickly and thoroughly I Spring-cleaned my house ...sigh
• Favorite egg recipes (I don't like eggs - except quiche - and I make a great crustless quiche so this one's not set in stone.)
• A tutorial on how my husband inserted my sewing machine into my sewing table (apparently, despite my begging, this isn't going to happen -- he doesn't want to wreck the vintage desk I sew on.)
• A photo of the newest $500 handbag I found on sale for $125. ($25 - maybe)

Beef Barley Soup

We eat a lot of soup at our house during the cold weather months. My favorite soup is Lentil Soup with Ham but Jeff's favorite is Beef Barley. Last week on a day I had Brayden, I threw together the mixings for Beef Barley soup and put it in the slow cooker for the day. It was one of my best yet (although, we say this for almost every pot of soup I make! LOL) so I thought I'd see if I can remember the recipe and post it here. 1.5 lbs of stew beef* 3 tbsp Beef soup base 8 cups water 2 carrots, diced 2 stalks celery, diced 2 med onions, chopped 1 can petite diced tomatoes 1 cup barley 1 tbsp worcesteshire sauce 1 serving spaghetti noodles broken into thirds 1 tbsp oregano Salt, pepper to taste Add beef, beef soup base, water, carrots, celery, onions, worcesteshire sauce, oregano and salt & pepper to the crockpot. Put on HIGH for 4 hours. Add tomatoes and barley, stir, switch crockpot to LOW for at least 2 more hours. Add spaghetti and turn back to HIGH until noodles are cooked (about 30 minutes). That's it! I do like a "thick" soup (thick with beef, noodles and vegetables, less broth), but if you like more broth, increase the water and beef soup base accordingly. I do sometimes buy a chuck steak or other steak that's on sale and cut it up for my own stew beef. This is usually quite a $$$ savings. Stew beef goes for $3.49 a pound and chuck steak often goes on sale for $1.89 lb. If you do this, leave SOME fat on the meat -- that's what gives the stock flavor. I know a lot of people roll their beef chunks in flour and brown it before adding it to soup, but I don't. I just toss everything in the crockpot and go. *Beef soup base can be found in your grocery aisle near the beef bouillion. It has a much more natural taste to it and a lot less salt flavor than bouillion and adds a nice beef flavor to the soup. I use chicken soup base as well.

Picture of the Day

The Inquisitive Two's

Brayden was here for the day yesterday (our standard Friday), and my goodness - I was absolutely worn out by the time he left! I think in Brayden's case the Terrible Two's should be changed to "The Inquisitive Two's". I could not take my eyes off him for a second or off he went -- up the stairs by himself or opening the sliding patio door by himself or deciding he REALLY needed to know exactly what was under the kitchen sink (cleaning products)... He is really flexing his independence muscles, believe me. (And just so everyone who's reading this has some peace of mind -- Jeff is off this week and we'll be installing all those child-guard devices we bought and thought we wouldn't need!)

Of course, besides following him all day, he also made me smile. Since he learned the word "No," he has used it for many improper occassions -- such as me telling me "No!" when I tell him it's time to change his diaper. When he does this, I tell him he's not allowed to tell Umma "No" when I ask him to do something, and I go get him and bring him to whatever it is he's supposed to be doing. So yesterday, I say "Brayden, come lay on the monkey blanket -- I need to change your diaper." Our couch is katty-corner in our family room (leaving a large space where I store Brayden's larger toys but they can't be seen), and Brayden headed behind the couch and crouched down... and I hear "NO, Umma!" "NO, Umma!" "NO, Umma!" about fifty times!!! LOL! I guess he thought if I couldn't see him I certainly could never hear him tell me no!!!

But who could ever be upset with this sweet faced child?

The Terrible Two's Revisted

(Well, Lisa - you were right! The post was on my other blog! Geesh!! LOL Thanks for pointing it out to me!) Well, my darling sweet grandson, who turned two on March 1st, is apparently started his Terrible Two's. The good news? He does it in just the sweetest way imaginable. For example, I'll ask him if he needs dry pants and he lets out a big long sigh...... and says.... "Nooooooooo" in the calmest voice you can imagine -- even if he's standing in front of you practically dripping wet. LOL! A week ago he was driving me crazy -- he would say my name "Umma" (for Gramma) and then he would repeat it and repeat it and repeat it, even though I'd responded to him! ACK! My kids used to do that when they were little and it drove me crazy then! But... Brayden finally learned how to say Joey's (the killer cat) name, and now walks about 6 inches behind Joey at all times, yelling DOUGHIE DOUGHIE DOUGHIE DOUGHIE DOUGHIE DOUGHIE DOUGHIE... Hahahahahaha... too too funny. So I know it's now all about giving Brayden choices, and trying NOT to ask him "yes" or "no" questions unless you're willing to actually go along with the NO answer you're going to get. For example, "Brayden, it's time to put on your jacket..." instead of "Brayden, do you want to get your jacket on?" LOL Ask him if he wants to wear a certain outfit and you might as well pack a lunch, because you're going to be there all day, since he'll say NO to every single one. Show him two outfits and ask him which one he wants to wear.... you're good to go :) Yesterday while he was here I was making a cup of coffee (he shakes the sweet n' low packet for me, puts it in my coffee, helps me add the cream, and stirs), and once it was made, he asked me if it was hot? I said yes. He looked up at me and said, "Umpa - sssssssssslllllllluuuuuurrrrppppp" -- making the same sound Jeff makes when he drinks hot coffee! LOL I laughed, and took a sip of my coffee and he looked at me again and said...."AAAAAHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" LOL! That's what *I* say when I have my first sip of coffee!!!! Observant little kid! Jeff's on vacation next week and I will have Brayden on Friday only. I admit to looking forward to a little bit of a break from babysitting two full days, but I also know I'm going to miss him! It's amazing how quickly you get used to having the little guy around for company! Although Jeff will be home from work, we're not planning on doing anything -- it's just a "get things done" week -- BUYING A NEW CAR (!), cleaning up the yard for Spring, getting the title to the SUV so we can donate it, some bank things to take care of, some house maintenance etc. It will be nice to have him home though -- and nice to sleep late!

Wow - Bloggified or me?

I just finished quite a long blog about Brayden and his terrible two's, plus Jeff being off next week -- and walked away and my post disappeared... POOF! Don't have time to rewrite but just hope that Blogger's scheduled outage tonight has something to do with how badly things are working lately. Tough to upload pictures, speed is very slow -- and now a disappearing post! I've been thinking about moving to wordpress or typepad just because of how long it's taking me to post photos these days... we'll see if this schedule maintenance is an improvement. sigh sigh sigh...

Ikea Ikea Ikea Ikea

Oh my... the new Ikea opened up today, not 2 miles from my house. First, let me say that I am proud of myself - I am NOT there on opening day fighting crowds and television cameras. This is a HUGE event here. People have been camping out in the parking lot for two days in very cold weather. Of course, here I am in the middle of my quilt room reoganization, and IKEA products would come in mighty hand right now -- storage boxes, possibly a new work table... I'd like to look at living room sets as well.. furniture and fun things for Brayden... ways to organize my kitchen better... I could go on and on and on... But I'm here, I'm not there. I haven't applied for an IKEA credit card either. Close eyes... breathe deeply... I love Pier 1 Imports. There's two stores within just a few miles of my house. I haven't set foot in the store for 15 years. There's a wonderful World Imports store about 5 miles from me. I stopped going about 5 years ago. We have an ice cream shop with a drive-thru less than 1/4 mile from me. I've been once in the 20 years it's been opened. A Dunkin' Donuts shop opened right next door to the ice cream place -- again, with a drive-thru. It's been open about six months and I *love* Dunkin' Donuts. I've not been to it yet. Seems weird, right? Well, it's because I know my weak spots. I'm an impulse buyer through and through. Peir 1 and World Imports are just too easy to spend way too much money on items I don't need. It's better not to go. The ice cream and donuts -- well, if I ever let myself go through those drive-thru's ONCE, there'd be no stopping me. Every time I so much as went to the post office, I'd be shoveling a donut or an ice cream cone into my mouth on the way home. But if I don't go that first time? I'm fine just driving by! So strange! But IKEA.... ahhhh, IKEA.... IKEA has USEFUL things at LOW prices. That's my kind of thing! Things to get me organized, which I love. Things to make my house look pretty, which I also love... I think there will be enough items that I do need or can use to counter the buying of things I don't need... Yeah... that's it... I can do this... My list for today. 10 Good Reasons not to go to IKEA:

1. Money
2. Money
3. Money
4. Money
5. Money
6. Money
7. Money
8. Money
9. Money
10. Money

But ONE better reason why I'm planning on going next week:

1. Because I really really WANT to!