THERES NOTHING LIKE THE SCENT OF PINE SCROLLING THROUGHOUT YOUR HOME AT CHRISTMAS

Sweet memories of Christmas just flow through my mind when I smell pine throughout my home. I can visualize my grandmas cooking there specialties while the laughter of family filled the room with unconditional love. For some who can not have a real pine tree or if you opt for artificial to eliminate the mess of the falling needles you too can have the scent of fresh pine and I don't mean candles either. Lowes Home Improvement Has fresh Christmas trees so when they cut the bottoms off they are left with piles of fresh greenery and it's FREE for the taking. I went in to buy some paint and asked the clerk and she said to help myself......Hmmm great. So I had my significant other pull up to the mounds of greenery and I filled up the trunk. It's very easy all you need is a a special container that can hold water, I used a big copper tub fill with water about half way and with a little of your potion to keep greenery alive ...some say sugar some say aspirin .what ever the case start clipping the branches about one and 1/2 feet and randomly put in container. Be sure to fill it thick then you can add bows, snowflakes, Artificial birds or what ever you like you can even add a strip of lights. Even an old jar stuck in the arrangement with a candle what ever you choose will be great. So haul out the holly and have a holly jolly Christmas.

SNOWBALLS FOR BREAKFAST?

It's time to create a Lil magic in the kitchen for your Lil elves. Today we had snowballs for breakfast, how about you? With my no fail pancake recipe you too can create a fun Christmas breakfast.

11/4 cups flour
21/2 tsp. baking powder
3 tablespoons sugar
3/4 teas. salt
1 egg
1/2 cup of half and half and 1/2 cup of milk
mix all together but batter should be slightly lumpy then add about 2 tablespoons of melted butter or margarine. mix a Little. Pancake batter is best mixed with a whisk available at dollar tree a great item for 1dollar.

All you do is drop the batter on the hot griddle about the size of 4 inches in diameter. Then splat with a little butter then give a generous sprinkle of confectioners sugar and serve up your snowball pancakes and watch how quick your little elves eat them up.

A good set of cookie cutters is a great investment, you can also use then to make shaped pancakes, be sure they are metal and not plastic, spray with a butter spray to prevent the batter from sticking. A peanut butter and jelly cut out of a Christmas tree accompanied with a mug of milk would be a welcome fun lunch. Even grilled cheese can be cut out and cooked up. With a little Christmas magic you can make every meal special. You can make pancake reindeer using bacon for the antlers and a maraschino cherry for the nose. Go ahead and let your food imagination go wild. Oh and don't be surprised if the dad in the house requests snowball pancakes too!





















67

A TRIBUTE TO ALL CANCER SURVIVORS AND TO THOSE WHOM HAD CANCER HIT HOME

Not just this month but every month, cancer awareness is routed in my mind and memories. I have watched my dad die a painful death. Have you been touched by the body warfare in one way or another? Life is precious, I really try never to take it for granted. I thought that in honor of the survivors that have ventured a tremendous journey and support for everyone touched by Cancer we could lite  a candle on Oct. 13 at 5:00. and pray for everyone. Our loved ones will look down and our survivors will feel the love and support. I'll be looking for the candle lite that is painting our earth on that special day.

                              

NEXT TIME YOUR HUBBY ASKS YOU ,WHAT THE HEKE HAVE YOU BEEN DOING ALL DAY......

     

Tell him this: I'm a good housekeeper and I keep my house clean with my carpet sweeper and my washing machine, I'm a fast moving self improving housekeeping whiz and I know every trick in the housekeeping biz!!

SO YOU THINK THAT PAINTING YOUR HOME IS NOT IN THE BUDGET? OPPPPS!

Have you been toying with the idea of painting your living room with a stunning new punch of color? Or maybe your tired kitchen needs some real pizazz? I know good quality gallons of paintfrom Lowe's, Ace hardware,  Home Depot can run high in price. But if you could just do Little compromising and use your imagination you could buy the Opps Paints. All the Opps means is thatthe customer was not happy with the color. So what I'm saying is that one mans color could be another mans treasure. You can pick up gallons for around 3-5.00 and quarts .Instead of 30-50.00. So painting just might be in the budget anyway.

Where I live all of these stores are pretty much near each other, so I kinda scan them until I find just the right color. Don't be afraid to mix colors and experiment that's how I created my living room color. I see that the Dollar stores now have roller covers and many paint supplies such as tapes etc. So go ahead and give your home a punch of new color for about the price of a gallon of milk. You may have to ask the clerk to view the opps paints ,they sometime have them hidden. So make a date with your house this week end and have some fun!

I WOULD LOVE TO INTRODUCE MY STORYBOOK FAMILY....MEET THE BLACKSTONES

Happy Tuesday! How many of you have children that seem to always want something that you may not be able to provide. Times have gotten a little tough for allot of families so my story book parents pull together some resources that they already have on hand and do some wonderful things with their children. The family lives in Vermont and are a typical family full of love and honor. Besides Mr. and Mrs. Blackstone their is Thumby a young boy and Gretta Thumby's teenage sister. The books provide good reading for a third grader. I have some grown-ups tell me that they enjoyed the stories as well. Their is a lot of display of family love incorporated in the stories. They can be purchased on line at all the major book retailers as well as Amazon. Story book no. 3 of the series will be out soon. I hope you enjoy the stories and I'd love to hear some feed back from my readers.

IT'S TIME TO MAKE THE DOUGHNUTS !



Happy FAll! it is officially fall, that means an array of colors, cool crisp weather,(even here in the South, soon I hope) and Delicious smells coming from the kitchen. To kick off this amazing season we made some fall yeast doughnuts. I don't know why people are afraid to make homemade doe, I can assure you that it is very simple. The recipe we use every year is from a very old cook book and it's the best recipe I have found. It's actually 73 years old ,the book once belonged to my grandma bless her sole.



                                                                                                                                                                                                     There is one super important trick to making a good yeast doe and that's the kneading, once your doe ingredients mixed well you will begin to do the kneading process which means you will plop the doe on a floured surface with some floured hands you will begin to "turn" the doe by plopping it down and turning again and again until you feel the doe become smooth . It takes a little while but once you get the hang of it it becomes a breeze. I work with doe at least once a week  it's rather relaxing. If you need to add flour to prevent a too sticky doe do it in little bits. Too much flour makes a tough doe.The recipe is as follows:
 2/3 cup milk or 1/2 and 1/2  and 1/4 cup of butter or margarine melted together, then set aside to cool 
In the meantime put 2/3 cup of very warm water in a large bowl with 2 packets of yeast, dissolve well.
In the meantime take 2 eggs crack in a bowl and whisk lightly. Now it's time to start the magic. Add eggs and cooled off mixture to the yeast bowl. Mix lightly, now add 3/4 cups of sugar, 1 teaspoon of salt, 1 teaspoon of Cardamon, 1 teaspoon of salt, 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon. Mix lightly, slowly add 5 or so cups of flour mix until all ingredients are sticking together now flour your hands well ,it's a good idea to have some flour near by so you can add as needed. Now you will knead as I spoke about in the beginning. Once you get the doe to the desired consistency it is now time to let it rise. leave it in the large bowl ,cover with a large cloth and the doe will rise about 2x's  the original size. It usually takes about an hour and a half.OK got ya through that part! It wasn't so bad was it? lol It would be good to get your frying pan ready, This is when  the man in the house comes in. Oh and he is more than willing to help out considering what the end result will be. You can use a deep fryer or an electric frying pan or even a regular fry pan any will be OK. A deep fryer of some kind would be best because when the doughnut is done it will rise to the top, so there will be no guessing if they are done. So you will begin to roll the doe out on a floured surface. You can use a round cookie cutter and a smaller round cookie cutter for the middle. You may have to get creative and use some other things around the kitchen or just shape the doughnuts free hand if you like .So you cut the doughnuts while someone else is doing the frying. The very best coating for these fall doughnuts is a good roll in some sugar and cinnamon. You must do this while they are hot out of the fryer just gently toss in the mixture. Now you will see everyone rushing into the kitchen like you were passing out gold. I'm something like a security guard at that time. The autumn scent of the cinnamon coated delicacies is a treasured moment. So when will you make your doughnuts? If I can answer any questions about this recipe or any doe issues please leave me a comment and I will reply. If cinnamon and sugar isn't your preference you can use a light confectioners frosting : a couple tablespoons of melted butter with about 3/4 cup of confectioners sugar and a splash of vanilla and whisk together until smooth if you want that chocolate bliss add some unsweetened cocoa powder to the icing. Hope you enjoy !







This is fancy smancy doughnut cutter!