Spring in the Desert

This is one of the first signs of spring in the desert. I just love cactus flowers.

Please enjoy this 1st sign of spring with me.

Have a great day and enjoy your families

A Day With My Niece and Nephew

Well today we had a full day with my little sisters kids ages 6 and 8, I don’t remember clearly when my kids were that small, but certainly they did not run around like this. I tried to teach the 8 year old how to knit; with time I think she is going to be a good knitter. The 6 year old I tried on the knitting spool, which did not go as well.


After an all too brief rest we headed to Build A Bear workshop and Eric and his cousins all made new friends and got to pick out new clothes for them a good time was had by all. It is almost bed time and I hope for a good night’s sleep tonight.

More adventures with the kids tomorrow. Have a great evening and enjoy your families.

Another Day of Cleaning

Well another day of very vigorous cleaning is done. I am too tired to move. Maybe John will take pity on me and help me make the guest room bed. The guest room door was suppose to remain closed when my sister and mom came for the weekend, but I have cleaned, dusted and vacuumed the guest room for my little sister, my mom will borrow Teri’s room for the weekend, not that she is using her room at the moment. Since we have run out of beds, anyone who is under the age of 10 will be sleeping on the floor.


I am really hoping that John does not mind that I borrowed a little closet space of his just until the company is gone. I had to give my sister some place to hang her clothes.

With a few more hours of cleaning most people who know me well will not recognize the house. With all this cleaning done after company leaves, I plan on working on my quilt; after all there is plenty of empty floor space now. I will have plenty of time for other crafts too. So look out UFO’s and yarn bins you are in my target. I want to fill up my charity knitting bags and my ArtFire shop with new items.

When I find my body (someone replaced my body with blocks of cement) I will do some more cleaning tonight. Since we normally do not have kids in the house I will have to move my meds out of sight and reach. I think I will temporally rearrange John’s closet shelf’s to accommodate this. Well this sounds like more work to me. So off I go.

Have a great evening and enjoy your families.

Another Day of Cleaning

Well the day was spent cleaning again. I can now see the wood on the table; no it’s not finished yet; but it should be tomorrow. The best part of cleaning today was that I found a lot of knitting patterns that I want to make, so after Teri’s blanket is finished I will start with all the patterns.


I have no new recipes for today as we are having filet of left over, yes yesterdays chicken soup recipe serves 4 and since only 2 of us are eating it well I don’t have to cook tonight. I am off to do some knitting so have a great evening and enjoy your families.

Semi Home Made Chicken Soup

After spending half of the night awake with Eric and the morning getting my finial holiday cleaning done, I was just too tired to make dinner. The holiday cleaning today involved cleaning out crevices of the stove with a tooth pick. I also cleaned the drip pans and under the drip pans till they did not look almost 30 years old. I could not do anything with the enamel that had been scoured off over the years. Picking up and tossing, scrubbing and cleaning the rest of the house and the never ending pile of laundry. Somehow I am pretty sure our ancestors did not go through this in the Exodus from Egypt.


So this is where my semi homemade chicken soup comes into play.

I made the recipe for Matzo Balls from the Manischewitz Matzo Meal can. I have not asked permission to include the recipe, so if they decide they want me to take the recipe down I will remove it from my blog. But really this is the absolutely best Matzo Ball recipe; we have been using it for at least 4 generations in my family(my daughter Teri just made this for the first time in her own house yesterday).

Manischewitz Matzo Balls

2 tablespoons of vegetable oil

2 large eggs, slightly beaten

½ cup of Manischewitz Matzo Meal

1 teaspoon of salt if desired (I use salt if I use water instead of broth)

2 tablespoons of water

Blend the vegetable oil, eggs, water and salt together. Add the Manischewitz Matzo Meal and blend well. Here is where I change the directions a little. (They say place in the fridge for 15 minutes)Place in the refrigerator for a minimum of 6 hours, over night is better. They will come out fluffier.

Make as many 1 inch in diameter balls as you can. Place on a wet plate and keep your hands wet so that they do not stick. Bring 2 quarts of water to a boil. Drop the balls in the pot and simmer on a lower temperature for 30 to 40 minutes. When the Matzo Balls are all floating they are done.

For the Semi Homemade Chicken Soup

14.5 ounce package of Trader Joes Mirepoix mix

12 ounces of Trader Joes Just Chicken Strips

32 ounces of Trader Joes Free Range Chicken Broth

In your soup pot place Mirepoix mix and heat at a medium temperature till the onions are translucent.

Cut the chicken in to bite size pieces. Add the chicken and broth. Heat the soup for at least 30 minutes, to blend the flavors. Add the Matzo Balls and serve.

For the holidays serve with matzo and enjoy your evening with your loved ones.

Please note that I have not been paid or given coupons or product for any of the above items. All the items came out of my grocery budget. All the opinions are my own.

Charosis - A Passover Recipe

The holidays are fast approaching and my daughter Teri has requested a family favorite. Charosis is part of the sedar plate for the Passover service we have at home. Since Passover is a difficult holiday if you don’t use eggs, we also use this for breakfast, thus the larger than normal qualities. I also make mine nut free which is different from most recipes you will see.




Charosis

¼ cup honey

1 pound of chopped dates - grated

1 to 2 pounds of apples – grated (use very firm apples)

¼ cup of grape juice

1 teaspoon of cinnamon

Sugar to taste, some people like their Charosis on the very sweet side, but unless the apples are very tart I tend to skip the extra sugar.

Finely grate or chop the apples and the dates. I use the medium grating attachment of my Kitchen Aide Mixer. Place all the ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Please feel free to adjust the seasonings to taste. Place the covered bowl in the fridge overnight.

For breakfast I usually use ½ cup of Charosis on 1 matzo.

This is not a paid advertisement for Kitchen Aide. I have had my Kitchen Aide K-5 Mixer since about 1978 and it still one of my favorite kitchen workhorses. Way back then I invested 2 paychecks to buy it and it has been one of my best and longest lasting kitchen appliances.

Have a great evening and enjoy your families.

I will take any holiday recipe request you my dear reader ask for.

Remaking of a quilt

Well this is the queen size quilt that I started before Teri was born and was going to hand quilt. Once Eric came into our lives this just did not happen. When we needed a new quilt for our bed John in his wisdom suggested that I revamp this quilt. So I went on a fabric hunt and found some fabric that would go with the material I bought 25 years ago. It is not an exact match, but close enough to make a pretty addition to the quilt.


I will start the ripping out of the hand quilting right after I finish spring cleaning, which will be next week sometime. Just in case you are wondering I will not be hand assembling or hand quilting this quilt. This also means that Teri will not have to deal with a half finished quilt some day.

Have a great evening and enjoy your families.