Why I LOVE Coconut Oil

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It is fast becoming the new super food.  It always has been but everyone is noticing it now.

And that includes me!

I've been using it for a few months now and I keep reading and discovering new ways to use it.

I cook and bake with it instead of vegetable oil.
(Or I use part olive oil and part coconut oil)
I replaced margarine a long time ago with good ol' butter but now I'm sort of replacing butter with coconut oil.
I love the taste.
I love cinnamon bread so I toast it and spread coconut oil on top instead of butter.
Coconut oil melts at 76 degrees so that's faster than butter!
Love the taste.
One of my most favorite things is putting a teaspoon of coconut oil in my coffee.
Here's how I make a cup of coffee now.
I put a teaspoon of coconut oil in my cup with a little sweet butter. (Yes, butter)
Then I run my coffee from my Keurig into the cup.
I add a drop of vanilla and some cream plus a little stevia.
I whip it up with a whisk (but I have a milk frother coming!)
like this one:

Try this for your morning coffee.  It's heavenly!
If you feel any oil on your lips just rub it in because it's great for your lips and skin.
I always wipe a little on the back of my hands every time I open the jar!!
Now for the health benefits of coconut oil!!!
There's many, many, many!!

Here's some sites that talk more about the heath benefits.

https://www.organicfacts.net/health-benefits/oils/health-benefits-of-coconut-oil.html

http://authoritynutrition.com/top-10-evidence-based-health-benefits-of-coconut-oil/

http://coconutoil.com/

And many ways to use it!!
http://wellnessmama.com/5734/101-uses-for-coconut-oil/

So try it and keep and open mind.
(It helps your mind too by the way!!)

Shirley

Hours on the Computer

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My daughter feels that she "wastes so much time" on the computer on social media.  She gets mad at herself.
For me, every morning, I check my email, then check FaceBook to see whats going on.  

I've never become a Twitter person.

I think it moves too fast for me and is confusing.

I'm sure it's my age!!
And then there's Pinterest.  I love it but it sure is a time user-upper!
Pinterest is the reason I have so many recipes!!

My favorite computer time is the time I spend blogging or looking at other people's blogs.

I try to get to at least a few of my favorites even though I don't always leave a comment.

I know I should.  After all I love getting comments on mine.

Blog hopping is the perfect thing to do in the mornings, in the winter 

when it's really cold and snowy outside.  (Like today!)
I have my cup of tea or coffee and am toasty warm
(and thankfully listening to my boiler pumping away).
I started blogging in 2009 after reading BNOTP, faithfully for a couple months.
http://betweennapsontheporch.net/
I loved her photos and her house.
She had one picture of an old white painted chair with a pot of red geraniums sitting on it.
I copied it and I was hooked.
It was in one of my very first blogs.
http://shirleys-world.blogspot.com/2009/05/white-chairs-and-geraniums.html

Right now I'm reading Susan Branch's blog everyday.
It is so homey and wonderful and includes all her beautiful drawings.
http://www.susanbranch.com/

There's so many of my favorites that I follow.  They are down in my right hand sidebar.
As you can see, there's a lot of them!
The blog that got me started with my chicken keeping is here:
http://www.fresheggsdaily.com/

For wonderful recipes and a beautiful farm this is a great one.
http://designsbygollum.blogspot.com/
This is where to find the great link party called "Foodie Friday".

Well, it's already after noon.  See how that goes!!!
Till tomorrow.

Shirley

Pioneer Days!

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Or,

How did they do that!

I was without heat for one afternoon and night.

It's winter and the temps. in the low 20's.

My boiler stopped working.

Of course it was a Sunday and without hope of getting it taken care of till the next day.

However, I have a wood burning fireplace, a nice supply of wood and an electric blanket!!

Being without power would be MUCH worse.

I spent the night in most of my clothes under my electric blanket and was quite comfortable. 

Oh, I did have to put a hat on.

Now I understand the reason for "night-caps"!

I watch "Little House On The Prairie" a lot of times and wondered how they stood the wintertime.

Their only source of heat was the fireplace.

By morning the house must have been very cold as the fire burned down during the night.

I thought of that as I went out to get wood and start to build a fire first thing this morning.

The women had to be so tough.  They all did.  I don't think I would've survived!

How about you?

Shirley

Bath Day For Dogs

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It was a good day to stay inside and a good day for the dog's baths!

(Not their idea of fun!!)

This was my first time bathing Spirit and I was hoping maybe she'd be one of the few pointers that actually like water!

Nope!

The biggest problem is getting them into the tub.

Lifting them is hard on my back so I use a lifter that I had gotten for Monk and I can get them in.

You can see by the look on her face she isn't really enjoying the process!

She said' "I think I smelled just fine before this bath!!"

After she was all dried off I got Dexter and lifted him into the tub.  

Not without him objecting of course.

But we got through it and here is Spirit checking on just what was going on in there!!

Are you the same dog??

All dry, clean, soft and smelling so good.

Spirit fast asleep with mommy.

I can't imagine life without dogs!

Shirley

Easy Stuffed Cabbage Caserole

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Here is how I made the Stuffed Cabbage Casserole last night.

I'm doing "Meals from the Pantry" so

I had to use what I had, thus the added notes.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Brown ground meat with chopped onion and garlic.

(I used ground turkey)

When browned, transfer to a baking dish.

Top with cut up cabbage.

Now, I had to use the packaged coleslaw that I had but bigger pieces of cabbage would be better.

Top with a can of tomato sauce.

(Of all things I didn't have was tomato sauce!!  So I mixed some diced tomatoes and tomato paste!)

Add 1/2 C of uncooked long grain rice.

Salt, pepper and some paprika.

Mix it together with a spoon.

Pour a can of beef broth over the top.

Cover with tin foil and bake for an hour.

Uncover and bake another 30-40 minutes till the rice is tender. 

That's it.

Freezes well and is actually better the second day.

Just use the real chopped cabbage instead of the coleslaw which sort of cooked up too soft and mushy.

Still very tasty though!

Shirley

So Many Recipes!

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I have enough recipes and cookbooks to have something different to eat every day for years!!

I think I'm just a collector though!

I know I like cookbooks and before the internet and Pinterest I liked buying a new cookbook now and then.

Even if it was just to look though!!

Now, it's so easy to get tons of wonderful sounding recipes that I've got at least a million!!

These are just printed from Pinterest or food sites or people's blogs!

At first I tried to put them in a notebook but I didn't buy a big enough notebook!

These are just some of my cookbooks.

I'm trying not to print things out now unless I'm really going to make it that day!  I'll just save on Pinterest like everyone else.  That way they are easy to catagorize and find.

At the moment I'm trying to just live from my pantry and freezer.
So no new recipes unless I already have the ingredients!
I've already eaten some left over soup tonight but I may make an easy stuffed cabbage casserole from ingredients I have.  I've already thawed out some ground turkey and I have a bag of cabbage coleslaw that will work.  All the other ingredients are in the pantry.
Might as well make it tonight.  There's nothing much on TV!
Variations of this recipes are easy to find.
I'll show you mine when it's all done.  : ))

Shirley

Pantry Soup

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I am trying my best to stay out of the grocery stores except for perishables.

I was very tempted to go today as I had a list of things I thought I needed.

But last week I read a blog of a very frugal woman with a family that talked about making "Pantry Soup".  

The rule being that everything has to come from your pantry, fridge or freezer.

Being that it is 11 degrees outside today and I was so tired because I watched the late Ohio State football championship game, I thought this was a great idea.

Potato soup sounded wonderful to me.

I had potatoes, I also had celery and an onion.

I only had one lone can of chicken broth but found some dry chicken soup base that had never even been opened!

So I used 8 small to medium Russet potatoes, cut into chunks, about 1/2 cup of chopped celery, 1/2 cup of chopped onion put into some water with the soup base and the can of chicken broth.  Boiled this until the potatoes were soft, added a can of cream of corn that I had, and about half a small package of grated cheddar cheese I had in the fridge.  Salt, pepper and some garlic powder.

I used my stick blender to mix it a little.  I left some hunks of potato.

It was really delicious.

Plus I have plenty for leftovers.

The perfect soup for this cold day.

I'm going to try and see how many pantry meals I can make!!

Shirley

  

The Girls

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It's been freezing here.  I mean zero temps.

When there's snow in the chicken run, the girls won't even venture out!

They must not like to get snow on their little feet!

I open their pop door every morning about 8am.

This morning it was a balmy 24 degrees.

I put meal worms out in their little ground dish.

They peeked out.

Now Lily is having a look.

Eggo, the brown girl, decided to take a look but changed her mind and is heading back in!

Dottie is the only one to the meal worms!!!

Molly is taking another look.

I'm sure she's wondering why I don't sweep all that white snow away!!!

Martha hasn't even looked out yet!
Maybe she's on the nest giving me an egg!!!!
I've been having to give them their treats INSIDE their coop!
(Who has who trained!)

I got this plastic dish thing after Christmas on sale.  I think it's for chips and dip but works perfectly here for the chickens treats.

 Because heaven forbid they should have to go out there!!!!!

Today they're having greens, grated cheese and scrambled eggs.

And there is Miss Pepsi looking on from under her heat lamp.  Mamma cat only comes for meals and at night.  She is the huntress I guess.

Shirley

Christmas to Winter Tables

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Yes, it was time to re-do my tables from Christmas to a L-o-n-g Winter Table-scape!

Nothing too fancy but I can live with blue, my favorite dish colors, for a few months!

I changed the places on my kitchen island.

My curtains are yellow so this goes and looks a little bit French Country.

Then I re-did the dining room table to this:

Must have tea!

Shared on "Tablescape Thursday" where you can find here:

http://betweennapsontheporch.net/a-winter-tablescape-with-snowman-spice-cake-centerpiece/

and also "Blue Monday" here"

http://smilingsally.blogspot.com/

Have a good day and stay warm!!

Shirley

First De-cluttering and I Found A Bag Of Money!!!

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No kidding, I really did!!!

I spent longer than the 15 minutes, probably an hour but I cleared out

and straighten up my gift wrapping closet.

It's amazing how much gift wrap I have.  I won't have to buy any for a long time!!

Here's before:

AND

Under that mess, I found this!

A heavy canvas bag from the U.S. Mint!!

More about that in a minute.

Here's all the wrapping paper that was useful.

I threw away a lot that was wrinkled and loads of tissue and old cards.

So this is how neat my closet looks now.

OK, back to the MONEY!!

I sort of remember my husband finding it in his parents house in FL when we were clearing it out years ago, after they passed.  They had hidden a lot of money in strange places.

My husband must have put this bag in this little closet and it got covered up with all this stuff!!

He probably meant to go through the coins as there are a lot of old ones.

This note was in the bag.  I wonder what the X5 meant!!!!

Well, I can only hope my de-cluttering is this fruitful in the future!

Certainly helps to spur me on!!

Shirley