7 degrees

It's currently 7 degrees. It hasn't risen out of the single digits in at least 24 hours. I'm beginning to feel like Laura Ingalls (Wilder) during "The Long Long Winter". But I am grateful that I do not have to live off of brown bread and potatoes or twist hay for heat. Although that did give a person character and strength when you were pushed to your edge to physically survive. Laura lived to be 90 years old! I would be lying if I said I wish I didn't live back then. I'm convinced that I am part 1880's child and 1950's housewife. I would have loved to live back then at a much simpler time!

    Train Stuck in snow 1881, Wikipedia                                   

So what is one to do on her day off when it's only 7 measly degrees outside? Grocery shopping. Kid you not that is what I did this morning because it was the only time this week I would have to go do it and boy was I glad to be back home! I have beef stew in my crock pot for dinner. This is only the second time I've made beef stew and I really hope it comes out better than my first. There are so many recipes out there for beef stew so I kind of took three of them and just winged it.

I started out with browning my beef before putting in the crock pot. This is something I learned from my mother (and some recipes DO say to do it - others do not) that it starts the cooking process so the beef can get good and tender while the potatoes and carrots cook. I then took the drippings from cooking the beef and made a flour gravy and added it to the crock pot of goodies. I am tempted to add some tomato sauce and paprika since some recipes call for it but others do not. I only want to add it because right now my stew is looking and smelling the same as my first time around - good but not great. Recipes say to let the stew cook and an hour short of it's finishing time to taste it and adjust seasonings etc then so that is what I shall do.

Yesterday the husband and I spent a few hours doing our own separate thing in the same room. He choose to research trucks and watch cartoons. I chose to make some more cards for my Etsy shop. I made 6 cards in 4 1/2/ hours. I never think it's going to take me that long to make cards but especially when my mind gets blocked I have a hard time making a specific card. And I'm not the creative type either. I know my cards show some sort of creativity but I mainly get inspiration from Pinterest and re-create the cards I find on there. But no matter how many I make and how blocked my mind gets I always come back and make more. Even if they aren't being bought like I hoped they would.

Speaking of the olden days I've finally confessed my favorite Judy Garland Movie. No not Wizard of Oz, that movie really scares me to be honest. Flying monkeys? *shudder*
My favorite Judy Garland movie is "Good Ole Summertime".

 

This movie along with "Shop Around the Corner" inspired the 1990s movie "You've Got Mail". I simply love finding out newer movies were inspired off of old ones. Like my other favorite movie "The Women" was a remake of the same movie from the 1930s. How amazing!

Well anyway I'm going to go fix myself something hot to drink so I can get warm again. Cheers!

Tuesday Lessons

I sit here with an aching back and an aching nose. My back is aching because I've been standing on concrete (aka my kitchen floor) for the last 2 hours making and cleaning up after dinner. My nose is aching to smell the brownies that are in the oven. Let me explain...

It all started last week when my husband and I went grocery shopping at Aldi. I am a firm believer in Aldi and love 1. How far my dollar goes there and 2. The large selection in each food group. Well I went with my list of things to buy and on it was pork shoulder so that I could make BBQ pulled pork sandwiches in my crock pot tonight. Well all my local Aldi had in terms of pork was pork chops. Now experience has taught me that when it comes to pulled pork sandwiches pork chops do not shred the same as pork shoulder. So I decided to pick something else and alter the menu for tonight. I landed on the Fit and Active Rotisserie Flavored Turkey Breast Tenderloins. After consulting with my husband and explaining that we were NOT having pulled pork (or pulled turkey) sandwiches and that we would just have this nicely flavored turkey breast with some mashed potatoes etc. He obliged.

So...tonight...the night of the turkey breast tenderloin disappointment. I was so excited to cook it because it was a super easy "put it in the oven and forget it for a whole hour!" type of meal. My kind of meal sometimes. So I cooked it with some baby carrots, made up some homemade mashed potatoes from Yukon gold potatoes (the best kind of potato in my opinion) and by 6 o' clock we were sitting down to eat. An sitting down to disappointment. The turkey was terrible. The flavoring was not rotisserie flavored it was more of a cajun/pepper-y flavor. I truly cannot even describe it accurately because I had about 5 bites before I was done.

I also learned tonight that when making gravy you can make it in the microwave when pressed for time. You dissolve your chicken bullion in hot water, keep nuking it until it dissolves. Then slowly mix in cornstarch and nuke until it thickens. Ok so this isn't a very good recipe but that's because I got really impatient waiting for it to thicken so I thought "hey lets try flour instead and see if it thickens it faster"....four, three, two, one...beep. Ok. Open the microwave. Gravy EVERYWHERE. Did you know that if you microwave flour it basically explodes? I did not. Until tonight. Luckily I let it cool down while we "ate" and by the time I went to clean up the liquid mess it had solidified enough that it did not run all over the place.

So I was seriously considering just having cereal for dinner since it was such a bust but then my mind went to brownies. "why don't I just save those calories for brownies? duh!" So that is why I sit here, smelling the lovely homemade brownies. Drool seeping out of the corners of my mouth...down my chin...you get the picture. I used this amazing recipe I found on Pinterest. I fell in love with it because it tastes identical to the Betty Crocker box brownie mix but it's homemade! Yes I know homemade is always better but I was so in love with the box mix I could never find a homemade brownie recipe that compared...until this one!

Picture courtesy of website as mentioned above. 

Crispy layer on top. Soft, chewy layer underneath...holy crap why am I still typing and not eating my weight in brownies?

So lessons learned
1. Don't buy "rotisserie" flavored anything and expect it to taste good.
2. Don't microwave anything with flour in it
3. When dinner sucks...just make brownies!