Category: food storage

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Neighborhood Spooks

Let’s just say…

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that you made a fabulous treat…

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and you actually had enough to share…

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…with the sweet neighbor who fed your cat while you were in Yellowstone last month. Here, my friends–is a lovely way to do it and spread the joy all over the neighborhood.

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We showed this last year, but it bears repeating. It’s always fun to get spooked around Halloween time—especially when it’s with something sweet! The idea of this easy neighborhood game is to leave a treat on the porch of a friend–along with sign–like this– for their door. Try to be sneaky about it–don’t get caught. It used to be fun to keep your identity a secret, but these days you just can’t feed your family anything unless you know where it came from. So be sure to sign the ghost picture–tape it lightly to their door and run. Then, they  take a treat to another friend or neighbor–if they’d like to and so on. This can keep the fun going until Halloween night.

Note: I always send along 5 or 6 copies of the Ghost door sign– to save them the trouble of having to copy more for their neighbors. Be sure to click on the word “spooked” to print the ghost sign.

Happy Haunting!

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Simple. Fancy. Frames.

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Simple? Fancy?

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Simple? Fancy? Sounds like somebody needs to pick a lane here.

But wait.

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You start with some pretty simple stuff…like basic, blank, boring wooden frames.

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Choose some scrapbook paper that you really like.

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Find scissors and dig out the Mod Podge.

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You can trace around the frame if that floats your boat…

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or you can just cut out enough to fit the frame, generally. Either way.

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Paint on the Mod Podge. Have you noticed that it’s actually so much more fun to say, “Modge Podge?” I try very hard to say it just like that whenever the Bald Kid is around. It makes his eye twitch. That’s the goal.

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Even out the gluey stuff. Press the paper onto the sticky surface–right side up…of course. Smooth it out so that there are no bubbles under the paper. We used the end of the paintbrush and a baking scrapper… but you could use a bone folder if you’re really prepared. Now this is important—be sure to let the glue dry.

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Poke a hole in the middle and cut out the excess paper.

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Cut just a bit closer to the frame than silly Lyndi…keep cutting you nut!

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Now, take a file or emery board and sand the edges. It will cut the excess paper off in the process. If your paper and glue isn’t dry you run the risk of tearing the paper with the file. So again–be sure it’s all dry before you sand it.

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Keep going.

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Make sure to get all the edges…

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inside and out.

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Top coat it with another dose of “Modge Podge”… ha ha. There are eyes twitching behind me. Heh.

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Let them dry. Let them dry. Let them dry.

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Now—add the sparkly little doo-dads that make it fancy. Oh, I think this generation calls them “embellishments.” La-tee-da.

Whatever.

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Now then–is this the cutest thing you’ve ever seen?

Simple? Check. Fancy? Check. Fabulous? Check.

Bingo.

Or–if you just want someone to do it all for you–check out Somebody’s Stuff. You’ll love it!

 

Lyndi26th birthday (6)

Happy Birthday my sweet Lyndi!

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Week # 25 Food Storage Prompt is: 100 lbs. of wheat.

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Blink~The Graduate

I suppose I’ve been driving this route for some time now.

Ooooh-whoo. Seven fifteen a.m. every morning for the past one hundred years.

Perhaps I exaggerate just a tad–but you get the point.

I’ve taken this road in the pouring rain…

thick and spooky fog……

and slippery, blinding, icy snow.

Driven it before daylight savings time when it was so dark outside the streetlights were still on.

With all the windows down in the summer when the cooler wouldn’t work.

In the winter with blankets wrapped around our shoulders and heads and feet because the heater wouldn’t kick in.

Attended every football game, track event, and choir concert humanly possible.

Grumbled now and then about the caffeine-induced erratic drivers or teenage pedestrians with a “you-know-you-won’t-hit-me” death wish, and the ridiculous youngsters that really shouldn’t have a license in the first place—as we all converged here in this very parking lot—before any decent human being should even be out of bed.

Sat, crocheting in this holding space for hours at a time, doing that mama thing we call waiting, sometimes alone and sometimes while my beloved cargo spent some needed time…with their mom.

Sat, idling along with the car, staring at this tinted glass door–that far away one between the cars–looking for any sign of Daney boy, or the bald kid.

Oh, the laughing and talking and listening and teasing and  heartbreaks and secrets and real earth life we’ve had at this place.

All to end up here. One. Very. Last. Time.

The bald kid thinks that I’ll be so glad to sleep in. He thinks that I’ll be relieved to save so much gas in the car. He’s sure I’m happy to see it all be finally–after 24 years and 5 kids—over.

I’m afraid he’s very…

very….

wrong.

And when that alarm clock doesn’t go off at 6:30 am any more, it won’t matter…

because I’ll already be awake…

wishing that it would…

just one more time.

Off to school—1996

 

 

Week 11 Food storage prompt:

10 lbs. sugar, 1 lb salt

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Something Wicked This Way Comes…

So there we were at the grocery store, minding our own business…

when from out of nowhere, a whole busload of Easter candy jumped into our cart. Now, if it had been full priced Easter candy we would have said, “Back, foul vermin! Be gone!”

But upon closer inspection, we found it to be 50-75% off. Oh, and the Cadbury Eggs–8/$1. Yeah…8.

So instead, we said, “You poor little unwanted, homeless Easter candy. Come with us and live happily ever after.”

So they did.

Of course, we don’t intend to eat it all…you know…by ourselves, or anything.

No, no.

That would be silly.

We could easily share with anyone…if the mood strikes us.  :]

Here’s a bonus too. As we were at the checkout–the cashier guy says, “Hey…ahhh…you can have one of those Easter Jello molds too. Take a couple, because you bought so much stuff. It’s free.”

I say, “Free? Why?”

The wise guy leans in closer like he’s sharing his locker combination, and says, “Cause…

Easter’s…

OV-ER.”

Joke’s on him.

I just smiled and said,

“Not at our place, Skippy.”

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Week 5 Food Storage Prompt:

4 cans tomato soup, 1 10 lb powdered milk

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Egg Toast Cups

In case you’re feeling a bit of a sugar buzz–here is some nice, soothing, protein to balance things out a bit.

Egg Toast Cups

Ingredients:

Bread

Eggs

Cheese

Ham or sausage or bacon or NOT

Whatever else you put in scrambled eggs

Butter

Lightly butter each slice of bread and cut off the crusts.

Hold the bread–as shown–over a muffing tin.

Pinch slightly and press the bread down into the muffing cup.

Toast in the oven at 350 for about 15 minutes–until browned.

Fill with a scoop of scrambled eggs mixed with diced ham and a bit of cheese. The cheese is important because it holds the eggs together so that they don’t spill whenever you take a bite.

Have a good weekend and I promise—no more food for a while. We’re about to burst over here!

Week 4  Food Storage Prompt

100 count Multiple Vitamins

Egg Toast Cups
 
Print
:
Ingredients
  • Bread
  • Eggs
  • Cheese
  • Ham or sausage or bacon or NOT
  • Whatever else you put in scrambled eggs
  • Butter
Instructions
  1. Lightly butter each slice of bread and cut off the crusts.
  2. Hold the bread--as shown--over a muffing tin.
  3. Pinch slightly and press the bread down into the muffing cup.
  4. Toast in the oven at 350 for about 15 minutes--until browned.
  5. Fill with a scoop of scrambled eggs mixed with diced ham and a bit of cheese. The cheese is important because it holds the eggs together so that they don't spill whenever you take a bite.