Happy Homemaker Monday ~~ 4/6/14

Happy Homemaker Monday. My first attempt at vlogging. The book I mentioned and the link to the HHM link up are below.  Enjoy!



Twelve Years a Slave....The book I am currently reading:

  This post linked to Happy Homemaker Monday over at Diary of a Stay at Home Mom

Reheating Spaghetti

Since moving back to our house, we no longer have a microwave to cook or reheat food. Learning to reheat foods is a new thing for me.  Thought I'd share my success (and any not so successful) attempts.  Probably won't be many as we don't eat a lot at home, or I simply state that it will be cold.

So I fixed a big pot of spaghetti, and we had leftovers.  When it was time to reheat it I had a major dilemma.  How to reheat it.  The microwave we had was furnished with the apartment, and the one we had before moving to the apartment has been dubbed a craft microwave and is all icky.  Besides there really isn't room in the kitchen I have now  for a microwave, so we decided not to replace it.  I asked my friend how to heat it and she suggested water and reboiling the noodles, and heating the sauce in a sauce pan, since it wasn't mixed.  Then I had a bright idea....and was thinking about when we used to make Pasta Pizza.  I put a little Crisco in my biggest skillet and greased the bottom and sides.  I put the cooked pasta in, and added the sauce on top.  I added a little cheese so I could tell when it was heated.  I cooked it at 400* for.....I don't know how long I didn't time it.....but thankfully I remembered to check on it  LOL!  I'm going to say probably 10 minutes or so.  The cheese was melted and the pasta steaming hot.  It tasted amazing too.  Way better than leftovers warmed in the microwave.

Cheap Window Covering

One of our bedroom widows has that frosty contact paper stuff on the bottom window, the other didn't (it's actually on the top),  This bothers me since the window could be a place for peepers.  Yes, it happens.  I don't have any extra money right now to get that contact paper or anything to cover the window with so I used the next best solution.

We ate pizza one night, and the boxes were the right size to cover most of the window.

I needed just a little more so I used the front and back sections of the cracker box.

Add some masking tape and the window is covered.  The peepers can't see in, but they can read the nutrition info and ingredients on the pizza boxes.  :-)

 I hope to have a better solution soon, because it's about time to open windows and enjoy fresh spring air in the evenings.

This post has been linked  to the 

Creativity Unleashed Link Party – No. 14

Food Pictures

We got creative with our pancakes one night.  

My base for spaghetti sauce......italian sausage, red, yellow and green bell pepper, onion and mushrooms sauteed in butter.

MMMMmmmmmm A delicious chicago dog

My first ever attempt at snicker doodles.  They were amazing! 

The other cookies I made....chocolate chip, snicker doodles and sugar cookies.

Flowers in my Yard

You don't realize how much you miss having a yard until you don't have one.  No yard = no flowers.  I missed my yard and flowers.  There will be more, but these are the first ones to come up and bloom.

Enjoy!

Tuesday April 1, 2014

11:50 pm

Today's weather:  Mother Nature played a cruel April fools joke today.  We went from nice warm weather to cold weather over night.  These cold temps are supposed to be followed by some storms over the rest of the week.  Some may be severe.

Right now I am: Sitting on the bed posting this from my laptop/

Currently Reading:  12 Years a Slave (haven't had time to read lately, *sigh*)

On my menu today:  Today I ate peaches and cream oatmeal with mocha to drink.  Caramel rice cakes and another cup of mocha. an all beef hot dog with ketchup, mustard, relish and onions.  A plate of homemade chicken noodles over mashed potatoes with green beans and a roll, which I wasn't able to finish.  I had water, pepsi and tea to drink today

Something that happened today:  Had a couple of different service providers call wanting us to do jobs.  Both jobs we could do, not problem, but because I told them we required credit card number up front before doing the jobs, both said they would have to call me back.  There is a very good chance neither will call us.  One job was for one we got called for a while back.  Same story different day, they both want to bill us, but we don't operate that way.

On the Radio: listening to the local police scanner.

TV on my Computer: Today I didn't have time to watch anything.

What I found while surfing the net: oh my a ton of tasty recipes that I want to try!

On my to do list tonight:  feed and water the cats, wash the dishes wash 2 loads of laundry and dry 1.  The other one will be put in the dryer tomorrow night.  Schedule some blog posts for the rest of the week.

Looking around the house: The dishes are all washed.  That's the good part.  Still have those boxes and bags that need stored or gone through, and the floors need swept.

From the camera:  My first ever batch of snicker doodles

Small Space = Less Waste

Living in the apartment I had a HUGE kitchen compared to my dinky kitchen I have now.  I do but I don't miss the apartment kitchen

Apartment Kitchen.  I LOVED it!

My Kitchen now

This is ALL my counter space.  I have about that much room on the other side.  The other side has a book case that holds spices and baking things. A bakers rack and a wooden table that both serve as additional counter space.

Other side of my kitchen

With a smaller space to work in I have discovered I waste less and make less of a mess.  I still make noodles once a week.  I used to make them on the center island counter in the apartment kitchen. The bakers rack is all I have that my noodle maker will attach to.  The wooden table to the right also serves as counter space.

At first I didn't think I would be able to work in the smaller kitchen again, but it's kind of nice.  Less space to keep clean.  Less space for dirty dishes to pile up.  Less waste.