A New Pincushion

I had an extremely busy week last week, and it's nice to be able to get back on the internet after over a week away!


I looked through Mary Jane's Stitching Room a couple of weeks ago, and found this fun idea for a pincushion. I love it because not only is it absolutely adorable, but it has an extra storage compartment built in! I made one - and I love it! Check out this link to see another one of these cute pincushions!

Felt Box

I found this fun pattern for making a felt box. I made this one, and it now is holding some serger thread, which doesn't fit in my thread box. It went together quickly and I loved how it turned out - a fun, different look for storage!


I also made some of these using two layers of fabric, instead of using the felt. They turned out cute, and you could use a layer of interfacing in between to make them stiffer.

Pizza Roll-Ups

Here is the recipe for Pizza Roll-Ups!

I apologize for taking so long to get this posted - I unfortunately only have access to the internet a couple of times a week, so that is the reason for the delay. Hope you enjoy!

The original recipe is from Once-a-Month Cooking.

Dough for French Bread (for the recipe, click here )
1 lb. lean ground beef or turkey
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
1 tsp. Italian seasoning
2 cups grated Mozzarella cheese

Make the French Bread dough, up to the point in the French bread recipe where it says to divide the dough into two balls, then let rest for 10 minutes. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Brown ground beef or turkey; stir in remaining ingredients except cheese. Roll each ball of dough into a rectangle about 1/4 inch thick. Spoon ground meat mixture onto rectangles, slightly pressing filling into dough. Sprinkle one cup of mozzarella cheese over each rectangle. Roll dough lengthwise like a jelly roll and cut each into 12 slices. Treat two cookie sheets with nonstick spray; lay slices on sheets about an inch apart. Let roll-ups sit for 10 minutes. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown. Serve with pizza sauce.

Tips:

These are excellent to keep in the freezer. After baking, place meal-sized portions in freezer bags, and freeze. When needed, just pull out of the freezer and heat in the oven.

If you like, you can change the filling ingredients to make different kinds of Pizza Roll-Ups. For example, you could use ham and pineapple, or you could use chicken or bacon bits...use your imagination!

A Washer and a Dryer

I'm so excited! I finally am able to do laundry in my home! =)
Both apartments we've lived in have had shared laundry rooms, which we really aren't fond of. Thankfully, our parents have been gracious enough to allow us to do laundry at their homes, which we have appreciated! But I've now been able to do laundry at my home for about a week - and I am loving it! We purchased a compact washer, and set up a retractable clothesline in the bedroom, and I am in business! Now that I have caught up on the laundry pile, I think I'll be able to keep up with doing 5 (sometimes maybe 6) loads of laundry a week.

This little washer works great - and it wrings clothes out really well, which aids in drying!

My dryer! Yes, it does take a while, but it also saves money! =)

I'm using this little drawstring bag I received to hold my clothespins - I've hung it on the hook that the clothesline connects to.

A New Shelf

This was my grandma's shelf, and my mom had it for a while before she recently gave it to me. We hung it on the dining area wall, and I'm so glad to have my fine china out on display, instead of stuck away in a cupboard. Plus, having them out of the cupboard gives me an extra shelf in the kitchen for other things! But most of all, I love having things with history! I remember this hanging on my grandparents' wall, and I enjoy seeing it now on mine.

Getting back to normal...

I got my car back yesterday - yay! I was glad to not have to walk to work in the rain today! =)

I had a comment asking for the recipe for Pizza Roll-Ups, which I will post as soon as I am able!

Baking

I've done a fair amount of baking recently. I spent last Saturday evening making French bread dough, and some of it turned into French bread, while the rest of it became calzones and Pizza Roll-Ups. The French bread was gone fairly quickly, but I was able to put several meals worth of calzones and Pizza Roll-Ups in the freezer for later dinners. I also used some of the apple slices that I had in the freezer to make some apple crisp.

Recently I've been trying a few new recipes. One I tried was a pasta that had cottage cheese in it. Neither Seth or I like cottage cheese, but I decided to try it anyway. It turned out okay - not anything we'd eat all the time, but every once in a while it would be all right. Anyway, I had over half a container of cottage cheese left, and I didn't want to just throw it away. I looked for more recipes that contained cottage cheese, and in one of my cookbooks, I found one for cottage cheese muffins. I made a batch, and was happy to find them delicious! Seth loved them, too! I used up the rest of the cottage cheese making two more batches, some of which I stuck in the freezer. I love finding good new recipes!

French Bread (as you can see, we'd already started to enjoy this! =)

Calzones

Pizza Roll-Ups

Apple Crisp

Cottage Cheese Muffins

Cottage Cheese Muffins (from Food For My Household)
1/3 cup sugar
3 Tbsp. margarine
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
1/2 tsp. vanilla (the recipe actually didn't state how much vanilla to use, so I tried 1/2 tsp., which seemed to work fine)
1 3/4 cup Bisquick mix (I use homemade)
1/2 cup cottage cheese

Mix sugar and margarine; add egg, milk, and vanilla. Stir in Bisquick and add cottage cheese last. Do not overstir or muffins may have holes in them. Raisins may be added; if so, cut sugar in half. Bake 15 to 20 minutes in 375 degree oven. Makes 12.

Cheap Shoe Storage

For a while our shoe storage consisted of a pile on the closet floor. More than once I'd have to dig for a while to find a shoe lost in the abyss. I tried lining the shoes up on the floor, but they'd eventually find their way back to a pile again. For a lot of things, organization consists of just containing something. I think shoes are one of those things. Many people buy shoe racks. I think these look nice, but most are more than I want to spend. Several times I have considered buying a hanging shoe organizer from Ikea, since they're only about $5, but I'm glad I didn't now, as I hardly have enough room in my closet to hang clothes and coats. Then, one day, my husband brought home an empty wooden wine crate from work. I knew I could use it for something, but it took me several days, if not a couple of weeks to find a good use for it. It is now my frugal shoe organizer. It perfectly holds my shoes - like it was made for them. The wooden slats that held the wine in the box made two nice compartments on each side of the crate that exactly holds all of my flip-flops, while the rest of my shoes fit nicely in the middle compartment. My shoes are in one place, nicely organized. In our old apartment, my husband's shoes still were in a pile, even after mine were organized. In our new home, the closet has three shelves. I decided to use one of them to house his shoes. They are stacked neatly on the shelf. He does have to dig a little bit for the ones that are on the bottom of the stack, but in this situation, containment is key. It works so much better than having them all over the floor!

Walking to work...

I could say I have been walking to work to save money on gas, as the prices just keep going up. Or I could say I have been walking to work to get some exercise. I could even say I've been walking to work to do my part to help save the environment. I wish one of those was my reason. Unfortunately, those are just benefits, since the real reason I've been walking to work is because my car won't start. And it looks like I'll be walking to work for a few more days, since we won't be able to get it fixed until next week. Seth drives me when he can, but since we work such different hours, he can't always. So for now I'll just be grateful that I live close enough that I can walk to work.