a bit of a food experiment...

We eat a lot of hamburger. When our son was growing up, hamburger was one of two meats he would eat. Hotdogs were the other and we won't discuss what kind of meat those are...

Last week I was watching one the many shows I tape during the week. America's Test Kitchen comes on Tuesdays at 1pm on my tv. I really like this show as it not only gives you recipes, but tells you what, why and how to make everything taste better. None of it is very complicated. ..but it sure makes a difference...

The show was all about hamburger, or more accurately ground sirloin. They talked about making your own .. I guess somewhere in my brain I knew I could do that, but why would I if I can buy it already made...

Oh my...what a difference.

So here you go...try it...it makes a world of difference...

First buy some top sirloin. Now a days, you can't get it with any fat on it. They really trim it down.. I would have liked a little bit of fat ...

Then cut it into 1 inch pieces, lay it on a plate and plop it in the freezer for about 20-30 minutes.

Put about this many pieces into your food processor with your cutting blade and just use the pulse about 6-7 times.. Should I tell you that it took 2 adults about 10 minutes to figure out how the dang processor worked? We had it hooked up every which way...

It will look like this..


Don't play with it. Just spoon some up and put it in your pan...Don't turn it until it starts looking brown on top. Believe me it will fall apart. I put onions in the pan and since there was no fat I had to add a pat of butter to brown them. And yes, that is an electric skillet. I have a perfectly good stove, but prefer to use this instead. I use it for everything.. I would be lost without it..


And this is the result.... They were so good. And not that many more steps. Sure I had to clean the food processor, but hey I had to do dishes anyway...


I still have some sirloin burger left... off to look for recipes for dinner tonight...

Nancy

dag nab it....

When I did THIS and THIS I threw away THIS

and had to cook dinner last night.

looks like I need some more sausage...

Nancy

.38 vs .357

WARNING
THIS IS NOT A QUILT RELATED POST
THIS IS ABOUT GUNS

So you have been warned. Hubby and I are in the process of purchasing a home closer to the oldest two kids (the girls in charge of my grandkids). We have found the perfect area...10.5 acres, a nice small fishing pond, a home big enough for the two of us and a SUPER sewing room...really...SUPER... But more on that after some issues are taken care of with the seller..

Living out in the middle of nowhere (as the kids call it) brings it's own set of issues. The roads are gravel so I will never have a clean car. It is close to 17 miles to town so I will have to make list after list for the grocery store and do more planning as there won't be quick trips for anything. There are quilt shops about 30 miles away, so I might do more online shopping...
Oh...and the house needs an almost total rehab... some of the rooms just have subfloors...
and we won't even begin to discuss the fact that the tub surround is wood...yes, wood, as in OAK... who puts oak inside the bathtub???

Another big issue is that sometimes I will be out there pulling down wallpaper (on every surface) during the week by myself.. in the middle of nowhere... on 10.5 wooded acres...

Last week hubby asked me to sit on the couch and close my eyes. He said "keep them closed, I bought you something for the house". Wow...I'm trying to think of all the things he could have purchased... a wallpaper stripper? my own tool belt? No...he surprised me with this..

So this morning at the butt crack of dawn we took off to the Missouri Department of Conservation shooting range. It's an outside range and when we got there at 6am only one other elderly gentleman was there setting up.. We set up the target (sorry, i forgot the camera) and i started my lessons...

Here's my target..


and a close up


and a head shot.. well 3 shots actually..

and my score. The target is like any other you have rings and your score goes up the closer you get to the center. You get 5 points for for anything in X, 10, 9, and 8 circles. You get 4 points for anything in the 7 circle and 3 points for anything else in the black body area. I shot 10 rounds of 5 bullets each so 50 total bullets.
There's my score on the upper left hand side...

If you start about the middle of the numbers..
I got 6 shots at 3 points each =18
I got 7 shots at 4 points each =28
I got 33 shots at 5 points each = 165
So I scored at 77% ...now I don't think that is too bad for the first time at the range. AND this is important...I purposely aimed at the head and each shoulder which brought my score down. I wasn't aware at the time that we were scoring..

At the end, the hubs brought out 5 more bullets. I had been shooting .38's. He had 5 .357's...Hoboy...was there a difference. More recoil than I would have liked. He said "get used to it cause you need to use the .357's". We talked about it and we agreed... it's my gun and I get to chose the bullets. I choose the .38's... Big enough to hurt someone and not so big it would knock me down.

Want to know something? I think it was kind of fun.. and now I won't feel so vulnerable when I'm stripping all that wallpaper...

Nancy

before and after part

DONE

(...cause I can't spell tres and that automatic spell check isn't helping any...)

I have officially stopped cleaning.. deep freeze is done, fridge freeze is done and now the pantry has been finished...

Let's remind ourselves how bad it was just yesterday...

Holy moly...I found 6 boxes of popcorn, numerous opened packages of stale crackers and some cereal that had seen better days, I also thought I needed tea bags, but apparently not as I found 3 boxes of them..and two canisters of creamer...sheesh...

I also found this ... hubby is working from home today and asked why I was taking a photo... I told him no one would believe me if I didn't have proof..


These must have been brought from the other house cause we only moved here 4 years ago.. yikes! They were sealed, but I still pitched them. The garbage man came at 5am and I have already stuffed one of two trash cans... should have done this yesterday.

And now the reveal!! It looks great and might last a couple of hours until the son gets up and starts looking for something to eat...


Looks like I need to go to the grocery store...lol


Nancy

before and after....part deaux...

Gee, what was I thinking? I might as well get it all done in one day... It IS trash day tomorrow so I can get all this bad frozen food out of the garage...

So here is the fridge freezer. I didn't think I kept a lot in here, but clearly it got out of hand..

And after it looks almost empty... lol and that bacon has to go because I just found out that frozen bacon is only good for one month after the sell by date.. who knew?

(that means the capon will also be history)

And I am hoping this list will help me stay on track...

UGH!! Do I tackle this?

Nancy

before and after...

Remember this horrific photo from yesterday? I just couldn't face it. I blew off all day yesterday. I watched TV, read a whole book, made chicken and noodles and ironed some shirts. No sewing...no cleaning...

So this morning, I decided to redeem myself. Here is the after.. Much better and I won't confess the oldest piece of meat in there, but it is now out front waiting for the trash man tomorrow.
I seem to buy a lot of chicken thighs....

I would tackle this one today...but I already have plans. (thank god!)

At 3pm, I am heading to the airport to pick up my niece. She moved to Florida last week and is returning to get her 6 month old that she left here with Grandma (not me!) so he wouldn't have to travel in the car for 24 hours. Smart? You betcha...
Then we will take him for his 6 month photos and get some dinner..with grandma cupcake and a friend of my nieces...

I need to take my camera, cause we won't see him again until Christmas and that's gonna be really hard on his grandma...


Nancy
ps-i'm trying to remember how old that capon is? any ideas sis?

design wall

My design wall is completely empty this morning. I spent all day yesterday helping hubby set up his computer. He says he is just as computer literate as I am, yet he couldn't get his email set up and couldn't get Quicken working and then instead of waiting until today to call Ancestry.com and get his password, he decided to buy the newest version... whatever...the man has no patience..

So I will show you what was on the design wall last week...not shown is the key fob that matches because I forgot to hang it up.. This is being mailed out today to my swap partner...I sure hope she likes it. I joined this swap and get to open my package as soon as I get back from town today.





My chores today include these...

the most I have mailed in a long time... books for paperbackswap, a package across the pond and Pat's winnings...


and because of THIS, I think this needs a little bit of a clean out... I sure wish I was as organized as Judy..




Nancy

How to kill your husband...

defrost boneless ribs

BBQ

serve



then notice that the expiration date says

use before 12-10-08



I had veggies for dinner and hubby had cottage cheese..

I'm willin to bet we are hungry at breakfast..

Nancy

Last Nights Storm....

That's Oliver our Cocker Spaniel barking at the storm...




Hoping to get something on my design wall today...

Nancy

why...

does it take 2 people TWICE as long to run errands??

I happened to mention (very quietly) that I needed to run errands today...I very seldom do many errands or housework on the weekends but yesterday I spent all day with a friend at a quilt show and so I played catch up today....

ANYWAY!!!

I needed to go to Target, the grocery store, the post office and either Hobby Lobby or Joannes... I really wanted to go to Joannes since they moved into a new building, but I could always do that another day so I didn't care...

Where did I go? Office Max, Best Buy, Lumber Liquidators, Hobby Lobby and Target...and then the grocery store by myself... never did get to the post office so all my packages will have to be mailed on Monday...

Why Office Max, Best Buy and Lumber Liquidators? Cause this morning the hubs computer finally died.. He decided to go with me.. or rather...he decided that I would go with him...either way I spent way too much time wondering around OM and BB while he checked his crib notes against signs..And he bought a new computer... something called a ThinkPad.. The son gave him the crib notes so hopefully it is what he needs.... We ran into Lumber Liquidators at my suggestion so we could pick up a sample of dark oak flooring...we've not heard anything from the seller but we can plan anyway...and I did get what I needed from Hobby Lobby..a yard of canvas.


I've done a little sewing lately. I am in a swap and this is what I have made...and need to mail on Monday... Purse, covered notebook and small zip bag.. The bag has three pockets on each outside and a magnetic snap... I really ran shot of fabric and had to piece the back of the zip bag..
sure hope my swap partner likes it. It's always a challenge to make something for someone that you don't know... the pattern for the bag came from here.. I happened to be reading Terry's blogpost about a purse she made... she included a link to the pattern and I thought it was perfect for this swap..



This has been sitting on my counter for over a week now. It is my package from my swap partner. I didn't think it was fair to open it until I had mailed mine out... You can sure bet I will be tearing into it as soon as I get home from the post office. lol





Nancy

Times Up....

update - Pat has emailed me so the contest is over



bummer for christie

i haven't heard from her and it is past 8pm central

so...

wonder what we should do now?

Laundry?

dishes?

sewing?

reading?

oh..wait ...what is that you say?

We need to draw what?

another wiener?

no?

another whiner?

no?

oh...another winner!!!

Sure...let me ask my own personal random number generator...

ok...

the winner

is


Oh wait... I didn't do it the same way as last time..

This time I picked from all the people that commented on my last post...

See sometimes it pays to comment...

My personal random generator (he's so cute, and really tired of picking numbers now)

picked

7

I'll wait while you all hurry up and click on the blog title and scroll down to the last post

and count to seven

and find out what I already know

That PAT won!!

now same rules apply...

Pat, click here to email me

you've got 24 hours..

now 23 hours, 59 minutes...

time is ticking down...

tick tock tick tock tick tock tick tock

Nancy

hmm....ramblings...and a giveaway...

Because I don't think you will listen to my ramblings unless I have a giveaway...


let's have a giveaway!!

I love back-to-school time... I love all the new school supplies and use the sales to stock up on pens, paper and all those cute things they sell for 8 year olds.. Last week when I was wasting time watching bitty baby...we happened to walk around Target. She wanted to look at shoes...I wanted to head to the back-to-school section. And since I was in charge of the cart I won... Look what I found! Can you read it? It says "create an original notebook"...I couldn't resist. I had to have the one with flowers and then get markers...

BEFORE

AFTER

Doesn't that look like fun?? I love to color.. Do you like to color? Cause I am going to send one of my followers this... with circles to color.. and markers...(you just can't see them in the photo)




So what are the rules for winning? Let's see...

1. become a follower
2. leave a comment
3. run around your neighborhood carrying your sewing machine and I will need photos for proof..
I started to say Naked, but I don't want to sound like a perv..

Oh. so you won't do it huh?

Ok..

Then TOO BAD...

I already picked a winner...

Christie
the one in the bottom row of followers over there...with the drawn cartoon face...

email me


If no answer by Friday at 8pm I will draw another winner....

(so you could all just become followers and hope Christie is out of town or something...)

You never know when there might be another drawing..

Nancy

PS - off to a quilt show tomorrow in Illinois..a whole nother state...

OMG.. I totally forgot to tell you that the random generator was broken so I had hubby pick a number from 1-155 and he picked 137 and I started counting from the beginning...

so..............

no one guessed..

well one person knew...

i'm not surprised...

we signed a contract on a house

and yesterday was the inspection

it's a mess

and we knew that

but the roof leaks

and that's ok

but the septic is BAD

or should I say non-existent

we are working on that

and no news yet

please keep your fingers crossed for us

or your toes

or anything else you have

i will update with photos

when we have some news

they are ugly

Nancy

oh....

guess where I am going tomorrow?

no hints...

Nancy

ah...

home

eyes tired

house a mess

a/c was turned down to 68 by the teenager...{sigh}

blogging to return in a couple of days after I have had some sleep...

nancy

chillin...

as much as you can with a 2 1/2 year old exploring the room.....
and turning on the lights
and turning off the lights
and trying to open the door
and swirling around in the desk chair
and flipping the tv channels
and trying to make coffee
and jumping on the bed
and turning on the radio
(but can't seem to grasp the concept of turning OFF the radio, which means I have to get up and turn if off every time)

When is checkout?

Nancy

how i woke up this morning...

conversations ...

Oh, did I say I would be gone for awhile? so...it's been what...4 hours?? That's a long time in my world.. We have had dinner, cheesecake pudding, Popsicles, baths and one of the two is already in bed..then the other kid and I made fudge.... whew...i'm tired...and in need of a shower...

So I just thought you might like to hear some conversations we have been having around these parts.....


Abbie on the way here this morning..
In a very excited voice she says "Mommy says Yes!!" then there is a long pause and she says in a low voice "Daddy says No"...and frowns...

We aren't sure what she is talking about cause she's only 2 1/2, but she says it over and over..all the way here...

Jackson - we are watching TV and The Son comes home... tells us he will out til 3am...and Jackson wants to know when he will sleep. I say 'well, uncle "the son" stays up while we are sleeping and then he sleeps when we are awake..Like a vampire".. Jackson asks if "he is NOCTURNAL like a bat"... Come on the kid is 7 and knows the word NOCTURNAL?? I know some adults that don't know that word..

Ok...now I am off for a few days... or maybe just a few hours...who knows...we are off to the park tomorrow and I know I'll have my camera...

Nancy

ah summer days...

And the livin is easy....

I'll be taking the week off from blogging

to watch these 2 kiddo's and

maybe, just maybe

have a birthday

Nancy

diary of a wimpy kid...

So we had 2 grandkids over the 4th holiday... um..we realized we had them last year too.. probably will pass next year.

So one evening Owen was very B-O-R-E-D... and no matter what I suggested it was wrong.. of course we had already been to McDonalds for dinner and then to the show to see Shrek, Happily Ever After.. We had played Lego's til my head exploded and he was still bored. OK..what would YOU like to do I asked... He wanted to write a diary. He is an avid reader. He has been reading The Diary of a Wimpy Kid books and we bought him the latest one the day we picked them up, but it had been read from front to back in one day... {sigh}...so he asked me for a notebook and he started writing. I really wasn't paying attention... he had paper, pencil and he was quiet and he and his sister weren't picking on each other. HEAVEN!!

I found the diary when he left. I didn't mean to read it, but it is so cute...


I'm not sure what is up with my hair. I don't wear it in a bee hive...and baby Joseph eyes are HUGE!! lol

I hope he continues to write... he's pretty good at it.

Nancy

I was wrong...

Just don't tell my hubby....ok?

I need to start this story way back when I graduated from high school. I started working and saving my money to buy a car. I decided then that what I needed was a Volkswagen bug. I put half my salary (piddling though it was) in a savings account. Every Sunday I would scour the car ads and pick out my car... That lasted until I met my hubby at the local drugstore. He asked me out...within 6 months we were engaged and a little more than a year after we met we married. Guess where all that saved money went? Yea.. to little things like moving to San Diego, setting up an apartment with hand me downs and him serving in the Navy... well worth it at the time.

A couple of years later we bought a used VW bug which I attempted to drive up a hill (it was a stick) going the wrong way on a one way street with the parking brake on. I don't think I drove it after that. We eventually traded it in...

I always wanted another one and 3 years or so ago I went with my daughter to look at cars. She was looking for a new car and I was just tagging along.. While she found some boring black station wagon looking SUV...(just kidding K) I saw it... two spaces down it sat....a silver VW 5 speed Turbo with leather seats (heated I might add) and a convertible top. I HAD to have it...
I talked hubby into it saying I would never want another car...I would drive this car until I died or couldn't drive anymore...I really whined and fussed...I was terrible and of course he said OK and we bought it.

Guess what I did today...

Yep... I didn't die...but we said goodbye to the nice VW...

It's a nice car, but with 5 grandkids it just doesn't work anymore. I hope it enjoys it's second life with a nice single person who has one very short friend and doesn't shop a lot...

So this is what we replaced it with.... Isn't it pretty? Only $98 THOUSAND dollars... I really thought about buying two and giving one away... wouldn't that be fun?


Ok...grandkids won't fit in there either... and there were signs all over it that said DON'T TOUCH...so of course I asked if I could take a photo..

So this is really what we bought... I love the orange color and it has a nice big backseat and a good size trunk...
Oh wait...see those red velvet cords? Yea... this car is owned by the man who also owns the dealership. He paid full price and it sits in the showroom. There were only 6500
of these made. You could pick from orange, black and silver. He made the right color choice don't you think? He has never driven it. He is hoping that someday it will be worth a bucket full of money...and I guess if he keeps it long enough it will..

So what did we buy? A 7 passenger Jeep.. The girls think I bought a 7 passenger so I can take all 5 grandchildren at the same time... uh...no...that will NEVER HAPPEN...



So really...VW or Jeep? This one is better....but please don't tell hubby he was right. He will never let me forget it...

Nancy

searching....

Well, I have had my first ever search party look for me.... Linda in Illinois emailed me to make sure everything was ok...

Aw...she missed me... I feel loved... and everything is fine here....just busy...I have quilts in the works and we had grandkids over the weekend and we are doing some stuff behind the scenes....

In the meantime...please visit this blog...Margi put up one hilarious video...

See ya soon...
Nancy

chicken wings...

I found a new blog today. Food Wishes is owned by Chef John of San Fransisco California. He not only has great recipes, but shows a video with all of them.

Today I was introduced to Clifton Springs Chicken Wings-Oven Fried with Sticky Ginger Garlic Glaze.

Oh My Goodness.....

I wish I had a photo to show you, but they are all gone. 12 chicken wings eaten so fast I might have burned my tongue licking the sauce. Well, I didn't eat them all...I shared with the hubby.. They were wonderful.

I love chicken wings.. I love them fried from KFC and I love buffalo chicken wings, but every time I would make them, they were...well...slimey.. not crunchy like you get in the good restaurants. I tried everything. Today I learned to oven fry ...

Here is the recipe I used... and there is a photo and a video. Mine looked JUST LIKE the video..


I followed the recipe exactly and they are CRUNCHY..

I am off to copy the recipe for the buffalo chicken wings. We will have those next week...

Everyone have a Happy 4th. We will pick up 2 grandchildren on Sunday tomorrow and take them to see Shrek-Happily Ever After and they will spend the night so our kids can participate in Drunken Sunday weekend at the river... I don't even want to know...

Nancy

PS...if you aren't an official follower of my blog, you might want to think about it.. I'm just sayin...

so I was sick and he was pretending.....

First you need to go over here and read this story.... really...I'll wait...

ok...are you back now? Wasn't that funny? I thought so...and it reminded me of a story..

Let's do some background...

The son was 3 or 4..

I was sick...

We were home together for the day..

We lived in a smallerish house on a little more than 4 acres in the middle of friggin nowhere.. there was a walmart and two grocery stores... hubby loved it. He could target shoot off the deck. And he did. Many times... We had a well and a well house...Yes! a house just for the well. Can you city folks even imagine? And the first time the water froze, that little well house got it's own little heater... We had a tree house and a metal stock tank the kids used as a swimming pool..

Anyway... I was sick and the son was little. I was laying on the couch (half asleep) and the son started up the steps.

"Where are you going?" I asked.

"I need some food" he said.

"what kind of food".

"I want some cheese".

"ok, come right back"

He did. With cheese. Which he promptly took behind the recliner and then he started talking..

"what are doing over there?"

"feeding my mouse"

"What mouse?" I asked

"my friend mouse"

"Does your friend mouse like cheese?".

"yes" he said "he loves him cheese" (don't kids talk cute?)

In my sick fog I said "that's nice stinky butt"... cause we called him stinky butt!!!

Well, he kept talking and talking getting more cheese and finally after about an hour he came over and very quietly said...

"he won't eat the cheese"

"oh honey, he's not going to eat the cheese, he isn't real"...

Well, he argued with me and argued with me and I am sure by now you know exactly where this is headed.

The mouse was real...

The mouse was dead...

My son was playing with a dead mouse while I laid on the couch sick.

I've always been surprised that Social Services didn't bang on the door...

Nancy