September 30th Giveaways

Becky, from Primitives n Stitchin 
is having a wonderful giveaway which will end on the same day as mine..Sept. 30th....please check out her nice blog and sign up....you may win this cute prim crow holding a pumpkin, a pumpkin Penny Rug and other goodies.......

This second giveaway is this colorful handmade Happy Autumn Pumpkin Door Hanger...from Denise of Prim Patterns'n Handmades..
I guarantee both Becky and Denise are wonderful creative ladies and its fun to read their blogs..be sure to check out their past posts.....

I've been working with Alan the last two days and am pooped! We are both taking it easy this evening and having a light supper of  avocado and cheese omelets...with perhaps his favorite tater tots....he loves loves  tater tots.....

Easy Chicken Divan

I received the two GooseBerry cookbooks I had ordered last week after winning the contest....Slow Cookers, Casseroles and Skillets +Christmas with Family and Friends.......what great recipes!

Tonight I leafed through the Casserole book and found a recipe that I happened to have all the ingredients for....so thought I'd share it...tonight it was just the two of us, so halved the recipe....

Easy Chicken Divan

3 Boneless skinless chicken breasts, cooked and diced (I used some leftover chicken)
10 oz. package of frozen chopped broccoli, cooked and drained
2 cans cream of chicken soup
3/4 c. mayonnaise
1 t. lemon juice
1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
1/2 c. Italian seasoned breadcrumbs (I used Panko crumbs)
1/4 c. butter, melted

Heat oven to 350. Toss cooked chicken and broccoli together. Mix soup, mayonnaise, and lemon juice well, mix into the chicken mixture. Pour into a greased 13" by 9" baking pan...top with cheese. Toss bread crumbs with melted butter, and sprinkle over the cheese..bake in a 350 oven for 25 to 30 minutes....

This was really good and very easy to make..I served it with green beans and an avocado salad...apple pie for dessert. It was fine, halved..and we had left overs for  tomorrow.....

Our weather is getting fall like more and more....the nights are getting cooler, down into the low 50s...which is chilly for us after all the hot weather.....the days are in the high 70s and 80s...tomorrow morning I am going to  help Alan re key a property in Poway..which is east of San Diego......he may have another job also..... I'll take the camera!

Just a short post today,,,,we have a lock out in Riverside a little later this morning....no photos today....at least this morning..its cool and overcast ..wonderfully cool after how hot its been.....

we started treating Alan's infected finger an old fashioned way and its healing wonderfully....if you ever get a cut or burn, one thing that really  helps the skin heal is Vitamin E...they do sell a liquid form or you can buy the gel tablets and prick the individual pills, squirting the liquid on the wound....within a few days, you will see a big difference.... Alan's finger was sore and angry looking, now its healing wonderfully with new skin and he has little pain now.....soon he won't need to  wrap it  up as he has.....was it the Vitamin E ? probably a combination and the other treatments he received, particularity getting his blood sugar down....

Diabetics have to be so careful to keep their sugar level normal and even a small infection can be hard  to heal if the sugar is off....that's how they can lose limbs, eye sight, kidney failure, lots of serious problems....this was a wake up call for him...

Road Trip - Fallbrook and the Gas Lamp District of San Diego

Today we got up early for two re keying jobs...the first was in Fallbrook Ca..a lovely small town with avocado groves and lots of hills. We drove up a very windy narrow steep road to the top of one of the hills...the home was very nice..not too large...with wonderful views of the valley below...

I especially liked the cute medicine cabinet in one of the bathrooms..so snapped a photo....

 below the house, was a large pool and a patio area with a great fire pit..below that was a place to keep horses.....all in all a very nice place..although we both agreed it was too isolated for us....you'd have to drive miles to just get a gallon of milk...

across from this house and acreage was another far grander house..we immediately named it "The Castle"

It stands out on the edge of a cliff, and you can see it from any point in the valley below....

The second re keying was in the Gas Lamp District in Downtown San Diego...quite a contrast, busy city streets.

The loft was on the 4th floor, had a view of nightlife, coffee houses (we stopped downstairs at the Starbucks...I got a iced pumpkin spice latte, yum!) the loft was very spacious, just one upstairs bedroom area, a large living room/kitchen and a bath with stacked washer and dryer...its close to the harbor, the zoo, the stadium, and of course, lots of shopping......

Here is the NBC building and the AT&T building on the left....

both of these homes, one in the country and one in the city were both in escrow and will close sometime this week....if you had your choice, where would you prefer to live?

oh, before I forget....if you're reading this and haven't signed up for my giveaway...there is still time...I will pick a name with the random number generator on the 30th....

Tim Hawkins....GPS

this is so  true..we have a Tom Tom GPS and occasionally it goes a little crazy or perhaps mischievous ..the other day, our youngest took his car to the DMV in a neighboring town with his dad to get it registered in his name...I got a call, he'd locked the keys in the car...so I hustled down there with Dad's tools so they could open it......put the address to the DMV into  the Tom Tom.....(.Alan has the voice sound like a Cylon from Battle Star Galatica...I expect any minute to hear it say  "By Your Command" in that metallic voice but curiously, we don't get tired of that voice)....I dutifully followed the directions and found myself going in circles."Turn left here, then left, take the next left..""Turn left"...found myself passing the same sign twirler 4 times..started waving as I went by...fortunately, I had printed out directions which I grabbed after the 5th time, and found I was only a block away from  the DMV !

The parking lot was very crowded and I drove through it, looking for my sons' car which I parked behind while the two guys quickly opened the door...got a crowd of curious onlookers too.... Alan has the coolest tool for opening cars..takes all of 10 seconds to open the door but as they had a audience, made it look a little harder...where I parked, the logo on the side of the car was for all to see so we got some totally free advertising...can't hurt.!...

Hoosier Cabinets

In an earlier post, I mentioned we were looking at Hoosier Cabinets as a solution to our kitchen space problem...haven't got one yet but thought I'd do a little research as to them and share it with you.....the above photo is one that is for sale on Craigslist.....this one is rather large...here is a photo of it open

They first appeared around 1898 and were made by the Hoosier Manufacturing Company in Indiana..later by different manufacturers...they were a transition from the old Welsh cupboards and later kitchen cabinets....the upper section has bins for flour sugar and other dry ingredients..sometimes they had a pull out service to use as a cutting board, drawers for utensils, pots and pans where the bottom section...the flour bins were very sturdy and held 50 lbs of flour! with a built in sifter to boot! there were accessories you could add like a coffee grinder.
to sweeten the deal, manufacturers made canisters to match ..these canisters go for a great deal of money now and are highly collected..
the Hoosier Cabinet 
website has loads of photos of such accessories and canisters...its interesting eye candy...this type of collection is not only great to look at, but still very useful today.....I like to collect things when I can that I really use and enjoy....I also like to collect vintage cooky cutters for the same reason....
In our area of Southern California, hoosier cabinets are  midrange on prices....from about $350 to over $1,000....the above one is listed at $750..its a larger version and is unusual as its painted...its actually too large for our space so its off the our list of prospects.....it would be interesting to see how prices vary across the country...
that is what I've learned from my research..if you have anything to add..please do...

We had a quiet day today, this is after 10 pm when I post this.....Alan took a 3 day weekend to rest..his finger is healing slowly and although its rather gruesome to look at...it is healing and no sign of the infection....its still painful, but not as intense as previously..thank you for the prayers....

Applesauce and Food Mills

 
Yesterday, I canned some applesauce from the last of the apples from Oak Glen...homemade applesauce is so easy to make and so good, amazing really....some I seasoned with cinnamon and others I left plain.....I think I have about 6 qts and 8 pints..enough for us until next fall, not!... applesauce is  popular around here!...I don't think I need to write out a recipe..but if you haven't made it before, its so easy...I use a food mill, so just half the apples, cutting out any buggy spots (I only found two or three in these apples), you don't need to peel or core these...cook them down in a big pot with a little apple cider to keep it from burning, cook until soft and then run the apples through the food mill which removes all the peels, cores, seeds, etc. and leaves you with nice applesauce. Then I just cook it down a little, stirring occasionally..you can add sweetener if you like, cinnamon, some people like to add those little cinnamon candies if you're not on a sugar free diet..they not only give the sauce a nice cinnamon taste but a pretty color.....then I can it in hot jars, and process for about 10 minutes or so....

A food mill is an essential...and very useful in several ways...its also good when making mashed potatoes, getting the seeds and skin out of tomato puree..we don't like alot of kitchen gadgets but this is so useful, we used it for our fig and plum preserves too....makes jam making so much easier.....we found ours at Bed Bath and Beyond. its one of those things that you buy once and use forever.....sadly we lost ours in the fire....so its been fun replacing things...our old one didn't have but one disc....improvement!

they run the gamete on prices..so check around...I've seen them as low as $35 and as high as $80 +....they are stainless steel, dishwasher safe, and usually come with two or three different sized discs..easy to use and comes all apart for cleaning.....Every kitchen should have one....

On Facebook, I found a awesome page and then a website that anyone with young daughters or granddaughters might enjoy....Its called Raising Homemakers....many schools do not have home economics any more...and so many mothers have to work now, girls  don't have the skills that young women used to have.....mothers too!

Thanks for all the giveaway sign ups....I have a few more surprises to add to the box so whoever wins will be getting a treasure trove of goodies.....

Fall Giveaway

Here is my fall giveaway, at least what I've gotten together so far..I will be adding a few more things tomorrow....
4 little cookbooks...two Gooseberry Patch books, and two Taste of Home books, Christmas Cookies and Candies (yum) and Party Foods

PLUS

these 3 Peace, Hope and Believe tags...as I said, I'll throw in a few other goodies tomorrow......
I don't want to make it too hard to enter....just leave a comment for one entry...if you don't have a blog, leave something where I can reach you if you win......if you mention this giveaway on your blog, make a note of  that and you'll get a second entry...I will draw a name on the 30th......

Here is the additional item that will be given away.......
two Christmas ornament tags (which will be a surprise....hint, think snow) and this candle mat....

Crab Apples

Sherri asked me about Crab Apples....there is alot you can do with them. Crab apple butter, pie, conserve, jelly, pickles..where should I start?
How about pie? Its about my favorite thing to bake...remember Men in Black? "You look like you need pie" one of my favorite Will Smith lines....

Rosy Crab Apple Pie

1 c. sugar (you can use Splenda)
1 T. flour
1/4 t. salt
6 cups finely chopped unpeeled crab apples (use the reddest ones you can find)
pastry for a 2 crust pie
1. t. vanilla
1 1/2 T. lemon juice
1/3 c. water
1 T. butter
Combine sugar, flour and salt. toss together with the apples. Pour apple mixture into pastry lined pan. Sprinkle with mixture of vanilla, lemon juice, and water..dot with butter. Bake in a hot oven (450) 10 minutes, reduce heat to 375 and bake an additional 45 minutes......

I also have a recipe for Plum-Crab Apple Conserve...a conserve is like a jam with a mixture of fruits, plus nuts...I like it better than jam myself....

Plum-Crab Apple Conserve

2 c. diced crab apples
2/3 c. crushed pineapple
1 qt. pitted red plums (they're in season right now)
5 1/2 c. sugar
1/2 c. shredded almonds

Dice unpeeled cored firm crab apples into about 1/4" cubes. Add them and the crushed pineapple (drained) to the plums.Heat the mixture to a boil.
Add sugar, stirring. Cook to the desired consistency, be sure to stir constantly or it might burn (its happened to me) Remove from heat, skim off any foam and add the almonds. Pour into hot jars, seal. Makes 7 half pints. I always water bath can jam or conserve...figure if we go to all the trouble of making it..want to make extra sure it stays good....we process this for about 10 minutes to be safe.

These recipes come from the vintage "Freezing and Canning Cookbook" put out by the Farm Journal circa 1963

We still have apples so I am going to make another pie this morning, plus a apple cake..lots to do..Alan is feeling a bit better, although his finger is still painful....getting back on his meds makes a difference...he rested and slept much of yesterday and is taking today off too....he and our oldest son will be going to Calexico tomorrow for a lock out..its the furthest we ever gone for work....the bank has agreed to pay us additional funds as its so far....Calexico is right on the border with Mexico....and about a 3 hour drive from here one way..I don't know how to re key or I'd go....Alan's finger makes it difficult for him to drive and then re key so our son Don will be pitching in....

The ladies at GooseBerry Patch sent me a $50.00 gift certificate so I ordered two cookbooks off their site plus will be getting whatever one they publish my recipe in...I ordered a Christmas one and also a slow cooker one..there are just too many to choose from, it was a difficult choice! If you've never checked out their web site..please do...

Tomorrow I will start a giveaway so please check back. I plan on giving away some stitchery and other assorted goodies.....

Pie and Hospitals

Yesterday morning, I got busy and dealt with all the apples we had gotten from Oak Glen..made a big pot of applesauce and this French Crumb Pie..oh and it was good, believe me!

As I was cleaning up the kitchen, Alan came home from one job and told me had had gone to the 24 Urgent care center again as his infected finger wasn't doing well..they suggested he go to the emergency room as it needed to be xrayed....they suggested we go to the county hospital...which we did..

not a good experience...only one person was there to do everything, triage..check people in, etc. and there were over 50 people in the small waiting room...we couldn't even find a place to park..after being in one line for about 15 minutes and then discovering it was the wrong line....we decided to go elsewhere.....

We went to a hospital much closer to us..the Inland Medical Center...and had a much different and better experience....the waiting room wasn't crowded..no lines, there were plenty of people to check us in and out and it was alot more pleasant..(if being in a emergency room can be pleasant) The atmosphere was relaxed and comforting....
He was seen in about an hour and then he had some minor surgery done on the infected finger...they drained it, found/ removed some dead tissue..did a aggressive job with a IV of antibiotics and pain medication....they did blood tests and found out his sugar was high..which was why the infection wasn't going away...
he now has a prescription for his diabetes, which is wonderful...as well as two different antibiotics and pain medications....The nurse was wonderful, kept us laughing and it actually wasn't a bad experience.....he also had an xray and we were relieved as the infection hadn't gotten into the bone...said it was good he came in when he did..another day or two it might have been a different outcome...

What is really awesome is that we had gotten a large check just a few days before that will cover the expenses...isn't the Lord wonderful? He provided and means this injury for good...Alan can get his diabetic meds now which he hasn't been on in about a year.....something we've both being praying about..


..
We came home later last night, praising the Lord and ate pie..what a life!