Some things I have done this week.

Was talking to daughter-in-law about how my drawer organizers move around, she suggested putting feet on the bottom of them to stop them moving.

Went to Dollarama and found these.  Ended up not using the instant Tac, just the bumper pads.

They worked perfectly for the job.

Now when I open the drawer the organizers haven't moved.

I love these mini cucumbers.  The local store had two packs of 6 on for $4.  I managed to snag packs with seven in them!

They keep really well in my Fridgesmart Tupperware containers.  I also pre-peeled some baby oranges ready for eating.

I made a really yummy couscous salad.  I added to one cup of cooked couscous, some veggies and feta cheese and the dressing on it was Kraft Greek Dressing..

Picked up a book from the library that I had ordered.  This is the selection for the book club in the UK my mother goes to.  They meet at the end of February.

I have been cleaning out cupboards etc and putting things we don't need into boxes to donate to the charity store.  Made a trip to drop off the boxes, while doing some errands.

I remembered to check the library website and managed to snag a space in the February craft club, so looking forward to that!!

 

Gill's Special.......

When my mother is using up odds and ends in the pantry and fridge, she always calls it a "Chris's Special."  On Thursday I wanted to use up some odds and ends, so put together a Gill's Special.

This is what I used:

I had bought the hot dogs for 99 cents before Christmas.  Hot dogs are a treat for us as we rarely eat them.  I couldn't live off hot dogs, but one every now and then makes a nice change.  The potatoes were from before Christmas and were sprouting and going soft.  Hubby got some British baked beans as a gift at Christmas.  He thoroughly enjoys beans on toast.  I chopped up the veggies.  Chopped up the hot dogs and popped everything into the slow cooker for the day.

Doesn't it look good?  I did add a cup or so of frozen corn later in the afternoon.

The steam was rising from the slow cooker when taking this photo.

We will get multiple meals and I may even pop some in the freezer for a later date.

Do you do (insert your name here) specials?

And so it begins........

 This photo was taken at 2pm on Tuesday:

Those flipping streamers just kept coming in from the lake.  I shoveled the driveway twice.  I am guessing it will be here to stay now, welcome Winter!

I decided it was a read a book day, and I still had one more book to review for the month.

I posted my review, here in my book review blog.  It was a good book, well worth reading.

So as it's snowing outside, I of course had to make a sweet pepper quiche with salad for supper.  Why is it when its cold outside you fancy a salad, and when it's red hot outside in the middle of summer you fancy a bowl of soup?

Ingredients used for the quiche.  I love the PC brand of Smoke Flavoured Cheddar cheese.

Supper was so good.  The grain salad was from Costco.

Good Friday was a good day.........

Did some cleaning, did the laundry, changed the sheets and have now gone from the winter flannel sheets to the lighter cotton weight sheets, hubby is not going to be happy, but I will be 😉

Dd is hosting Easter this year on Easter Saturday, so my contribution to the meal are some baked goods, which I prepared on Friday.  Will share photos with you at a later date.

We had snow flakes on Good Friday morning.  Now even though the sun was shining and the skies were blue, it was nippy cold out there.  We went for a quick walk around the block later in the afternoon with our hoods up and wooly hats on.  That wind was biting.

I managed to finish all the background's in the numbered squares on my cross stitch and am now doing all the back stitch before I start on the borders.  I want all the numbered squares finished off first.

Looking forward to Easter Saturday, hope to have lots of photos.

All out of sorts

Prior to me getting sick I had quite a routine going.  I knew what I was doing and when I was doing it.  These past couple of weeks my routine has been blown to bits.  Only now am I starting to get back to normal.

I am writing this on Thursday night for publication on Friday morning.  Today was the first time I have "made" a proper evening meal; cabbage roll casserole. I am making that as I had cabbage that needed using up.  For the past couple of weeks we have been eating, sandwiches, soup, bagels, things that are super simple, as hubby cannot cook. I have got lots of veggies to use up from this month's produce box. 

I need to get caught up with grocery shopping, as I have only been doing the very basics.  

In fact for the last two weeks, everything has been the bare basics.

I have started a new cross stitch project and will give you a little peek into it over the weekend.

I now need to get back into the routine of cleaning as well....BOO!!!!

Do you have a routine you like sticking too?

Fish Pie

I am in the process of cleaning out my freezer.  Had this fish, there were five fillets in the bag.

I placed them in a pan and covered them in milk, added salt and pepper, and some grated nutmeg.  Simmered them for around 10 to 15 minutes.  I removed the milk and made a white sauce with the milk.  I added a couple tablespoons of dried parsley and some frozen peas in the sauce.  Then flaked the fish and added that to it.

I had enough mixture for a casserole for our supper, and two small portions for hubby's lunch.

Covered each dish with mashed potatoes.  Popped it into the oven at 350oF for 45 minutes.

I have a mini crockpot that hubby uses for work.  We have had it a few years and is worth it's weight in gold!!  Hubby plugs it in when he gets into work and his lunch is all ready at lunch time.

I forgot to take a photo of the cooked fish pie, but it was really good.

Easy Peasy......

Sometimes it's the simple things when cooking that taste the best.

Made a quiche the other night.  Super simple.  Just took a frozen pastry case from the freezer.  Grated some cheddar cheese on the bottom.  Fried some bacon pieces for a few minutes and drained the fat off them.  Placed in the pastry case on top of the cheese.  Grated some more cheddar cheese on top.  Put four eggs and some half and half; or you could use cream or just plain old milk until you have around a cup and a half of liquid.  Whisk it all together and add some seasoning.  Pour on top of the cheese and bacon.  Pop it in the oven at 375 oC for 45 minutes.  To test if it's ready, put the blade of a sharp knife in the middle of the quiche and see if it comes out clean.  I never blind bake a frozen pastry crust.

I made a bell/sweet pepper quiche the other week using sliced bell peppers and one onion sliced.  Added cheese and the egg/milk liquid.  I softened the bell pepper and onion in a little butter/marg before putting them in the pastry case.

We had ours with a mixed salad and potato salad.   As there is only two of us, one quiche will last two meals.

For a pudding/dessert we generally have sugar free jello/jelly.  I also like to make wibbly wobbly pudding now and then.  Again super simple.  Mix your jello/jelly with one cup of boiling water until dissolved.  Whisk in a can of evaporated milk; I use the low fat one.  I pour the mixture into four pudding dishes and refrigerate for at least 2 - 3 hours.

This one was made with raspberry jello.

Prior to the pandemic you could get a variety of flavours of the sugar free jello.  Now we are down to just the two flavours, raspberry and strawberry.  I wish they would bring back the other flavours.

Mother's Day 2019

I was a lucky girl and my children and "R" gave me this for Mother's Day:

Not sure what I am going to make with this yet. 

I did Facetime with the two girls, and I popped round to son's house a couple of times, once to bring coffee in the morning (son and dh opening pool) and then later in the afternoon to see daughter-in-law (her first mother's day) and to see grandson.

When I went home I prepared supper and it was one of my favourite suppers.  Broccoli quiche, garden salad, quinoa salad and hard boiled eggs.  With strawberry and rhubarb crumble pie and cream.

The good thing about making all that food, is that I don't have to cook tonight.  I am out all day on Monday doing a Jelly Roll Rug class.  Here is a video on what I will be making, or something similar.

Just gorgeous colours for Yarn Along

I was at The Knitting Basket yesterday and took this photo for this week's blog post:

The colours are just gorgeous aren't they?  The Knitting Basket's blog post will be posted on Thursday, but pop by to see what other posts there are.

Meanwhile I haven't done too much knitting this week.  Made a start on this little hat for a newborn due in October. Knitting with Baby Rico, 100% cotton. I did though read this book, which is three books in one.  Suffice to say I have been "home vacation-sick" for Charleston, South Carolina all week.  I am sure if we hadn't booked to go to Lancaster, PA; we would have booked to go to Charleston, I love that part of the world........well minus the no-see-ums!

Finally it doesn't get any better than this. Cauliflower with cheese sauce and fresh baked bread straight out of the bread maker.

For more of this week's Yarn Along posts with Ginny, please click on this link.

BY THE WAY THIS IS MY 2,500TH POST TODAY!!

Haven't done a grocery shopping post in ages...

so took photos etc., of this week's for you.

First up Zehrs:

4 litres 1% milk: $3.97
3 x 2 litres icecream @ 99 cents each, a one day special
2 x Astro yogurt @ $1.99 each
Huge bag of frozen peas (can't remember size) $4.49

Total: $15.41

Then onto Giant Tiger:

2 x Parchment Paper @ $1.98 each
3 x 72 bags PG Tips Tea @ $2.00 each (SUPER PRICE!!)

Total after taxes etc: $10.45

Sobey's next:

Cereal: $3.00
Just over 2 pounds ground/minced beef:  $8.18
2 cauliflowers and 1 bunch broccoli 3 for $5.00 (actually charged $5.01) ANOTHER GREAT DEAL

Total: $16.19

Finally Wal-Mart

Highliner Salmon: $7.97 (price matched with No Frills)

1 lb Strawberries: $1.47 (price matched with No Frills)

Package coleslaw mix: $1.47

Bunch green/salad onions: 67 cents

1 x potato chips (crisps): 97 cents

1 x loaf bread: $2.28

1 x wholewheat baguette: $1.17

Total including 13 cents tax on potato chips: $16.13

Total spent: $58.20

As Canada does not have pennies in their currency we round up or down, so that's why when you add the four totals up it comes to $58.18, but I ended up paying $58.20.

So far this month I have spent $186.60, with only $3.25 in coupons used.  I don't count price matching as then it gets too complicated and too much work for me!!

As you can see there are no cleaning, paper or personal hygiene items in this week's shop.  I will probably pick up a couple of other items through the week, for example eggs, but otherwise that should be it.

I did discover a couple of things while out.  As the price of beef is high I see they have brought out a ground beef/pork mixture now.  Still pricey if you ask me.  Some bags of milk come in 3 litre bags instead of the 4 litre; very sneaky!!  I see big bars of cheese that used to be 500 grams is now down to 450 grams.

I was out an hour and a half in total.  I did a round trip visiting all those stores.  I could have tried price matching everything at Wal-Mart but I find they pull items off the shelves that are on sale at other stores at much cheaper prices.

I had a bunch of broccoli left over from last week, so I baked a broccoli and cheese quiche in the toaster oven.  We had half of it with garden salad and french bread for supper:

I was talking to a friend and she told me about a yummy sounding broccoli and cauliflower salad that I may have to try.

Any good deals this week where you live?

Oh and I finally got around to cleaning out my coupon wallet, I really need to knuckle down using coupons.

Bacon Weaving anyone?

Everything tastes better with bacon!


not bad for such a small home:

 this is different:


total opposite of the bacon, looks so good though:

Have a great Saturday.....

Message to my dear husband:

(image credit)

I may have mentioned this once or twice before but my dear husband does not cook.  He does lots and lots of other things, but does not go into the kitchen.  So unless I make a huge recovery soon, it will be basic easy to cook fast food this week.  So no menu plan this week, as it will depend on how I am feeling as to what we have type of week.

I finished off the quilt top on Sunday as I thought that wasn't too strenuous a job:

 I have to say this quilt does not photograph well.  It's much nicer in real life.

The border and any other plain cream is Free Spirit Designer Solid in Natural.
The orange is Architextures by Robert Kaufman in Tangerine.
The rest of the material is Dear Stella Piper line.  

I am hoping I have enough orange left for the binding and I still have to pick up the backing fabric.  It's around 55 inches wide and 74 inches long.  It's for dd for her family room.

I have been watching this Youtube video:




I got this far before I managed to get totally confused.  It's the way I am holding the yarn which is confusing me.  It doesn't feel natural to me.  So I need some one on one time with one of the ladies I knit with to show me what I am doing wrong.

I am on with ball four of five with the blanket.  My tension sucks and is very "holey" in places...oh well onwards and upwards as they say.

I haven't made these in years.......

Thursday afternoon I pulled out a dozen cupcakes/sponge buns out of the freezer.  They were the plain vanilla ones.  I had some homemade lemon curd leftover in the fridge so cut out a chunk of the cupcake and put some lemon curd in there, replaced the cake.  Melted some chocolate and put that on top along with some snow flake sprinkles I found.

So when you bite into them you will get the lemony surprise.

I had some leftover chocolate, so I added some rice krispie cereal to it and make chocolate rice krispie buns.  I haven't made them in years.

I had a lemon jello/jelly and a fat free vanilla pudding mix in the pantry, so I decided to make wibbly wobbly pudding with raspberries and a vanilla pudding mix topping.

I used the one small bag of raspberries I picked from the garden and there is enough for us for four days.

I am trying to clean out our pantry of things that have been laying around for a while.

I'll pass again on this week's "Home of the Week."  I don't know that area but $2.4 million seems awful pricey for a semi.  Maybe that's the going price for that location?  I would love to see what the attached house looks like from the outside and what this house looks like amongst the rest of the street.  From what little I saw from the photos the other houses look like more older houses.  So no doubt this one sticks out like a sore thumb?

I WOULD NOT be lighting that fire as if it blows back on those while walls what a mess it would be.  In fact I wouldn't dare do anything in that house in case I spilt something.  Having everything white doesn't make it a home to live in, but maybe I am messy so and so?

Is anyone willing to pay $7,200 a month to rent this week's "Condo of the Week?"  The condo is nice but is it $7,200 a month nice?  Nope.  However there must be a market out there for this sort of thing, otherwise they wouldn't advertise it.

One store I love to go to when in England is Lakeland Plastics  If it wasn't for the ridiculously high fees they charge for shipping I would order from them regularly.  They do however have a great selection of recipes on there for you to try out and here is the link.

$100 doesn't go far in the quilting world....

I had $100 to spend in Christmas money so I decided to stock up on some Sulky thread that was on sale.  Unfortunately only certain colours were on sale, they are normally $8.99 a reel, when did thread become so expensive?  I use grey though to piece things together and I need the beige for a couple of projects I am going to be doing.

With the other $50+ I bought five metres of fabric.  I got everything on sale for $10 a metre as it's normally up to $17 a metre.  The store is closing down.  This fabric is for a certain project but I can't tell you what at the moment, but they are fun prints aren't they?

Even after buying everything on sale I still went over the budget by spending $101.68 :o(

On Wednesday afternoon I ventured into the attic to mend a pair of dh's pants and then decided to get my quilt block sewn for the mnth of December , as the club meets on the 10th.  I really like this block it's called Clay's Choice and I love the oranges.  The key to this block is how you press your seams, follow the instructions carefully.  I have never sewn with orange before have you?

Spent part of Wednesday afternoon preparing a couple of meals.  I bought another bag of reduced mix veggie, same as these mentioned here  made broccoli and cauliflower with cheese sauce, that we'll have with Pillsbury Country Biscuits and the carrots we're having with homemade pasties, mashed potatoes and gravy.  The liquid in the jug is the water from the dish I steamed the veggies in.  I like to water my plants with it when its cold.  Heard it was good for them?

Oh, and my laptop has died.............I hope this isn't what's going to happen all through 2013, things dying?