The Wisdom of Pastor Mark

At Church (BayLife) we're doing a series called "One Hit Wonders - 1 Chapter Books of the Bible". Today it was 2 John.
Pastor Mark spoke about moving forward in your walk with Christ, and with your life.

Pastor Mark could be Yoda. Except with more hair. And not green.

Anywho, one of the things he said stuck. Like I want it as a tattoo stuck.

On an almost-related note; Travis got me a whole whack of fonts installed for me to play with. I asked for a printed list so I could see what we have.

There are over 5,500 fonts. It was supposed to print about 120 pages front and back, but I ran out of ink. Twice. So, I have it in a .pdf - yay for slick husbands. :)

It's almost related because that up there ^^ was my first attempt at a cool saying in funky fonts. I like it.

Easy Peasy Crock Pot Boston Butt

I had a Boston Butt in my freezer taking up a lot if space and making my mouth water, so I made it for supper last night. I wanted to do crock pot since I had school and working and studying, so I searched Pinterest.
I didn't really find one that jumped out at me, so I made my own.

When all else fails... Fake it!!

Ingredients:
1 Boston Butt (4 lbs-ish)
1 T House Seasoning (Paula Deens recipe) + 1 t pepper
1 T Italian Seasoning
1 t sage

1/2 cup Beef broth

Directions:
Put the roast in a sprayed crock pot, fat side down.
Sprinkle with seasoning.
Pour broth around the edge.
Cook on low 8ish hrs.

It was So good... Didn't completely fall apart, but was very tender. Also - SO simple!

Tonight it'll be pulled pork Sammie's! :)

Pressure Cooker Chicken Corn Chowda

One of our favorite meals is Chicken Corn Chowda. I got the recipe from the chef at Hyatt Coconut Point in Bonita Springs, Fl. It is SO stinkin good! But, it's time intensive and very rich and thick (read: fattening). Now don't get me wrong, this isn't exactly diet food... But it is better and faster.

First, some notes.
In the photo I've used leftover chicken, and 2 gigantic potatoes. I also tend to use any leftover veg in here. While the bacon is cooking, I cut up the veg. I also heat the cream separately so I'm not waiting forever for it to warm up when the pressure is done (never put milk in a pressure cooker!!) I love this the next day, and it gets so thick. I add some milk to thin it a bit after its out of the micro).

Ingredients
6 boneless skinless chicken thighs (roast at 350 for 35 minutes)
2 strips bacon
1T oil
3 Garlic cloves, minced
1/2 diced onion
3 diced carrots
2 diced celery
1C chicken stock
1t rosemary
1t thyme
1 T parsley
1t oregano
1t tarragon
1T Italian seasoning
1Q heavy cream
1Q half & half
1/2 bag frozen corn (or 2 ears)
Salt & pepper (more than you think)

Directions
In pressure cooker, over med heat, sauté bacon til crisp, remove.
Add oil if needed, sauté onion and garlic 2 minutes til fragrant.
Add other vegetables (except corn), stir, cook 2 minutes.
Add herbs and stock. Stir and cover, put heat to high.
In saucepan on med heat, add creams, bacon, corn, and chicken (cold or hot).
Once the pressure is up, turn heat to med-low (or lowest to keep top rocking). Let cook 6 minutes. Remove from heat and let pressure release naturally.
Once released, open top and pour in chicken/cream mixture. Add milk if you want a soupier soup (also good if its too hot instead of ice!)
Check the seasoning, add more salt.

That's it. I hope you enjoy as much as we do! (Pics show the cream pot, stove with both pots, pressure cooker contents after cooking, and yummy soup!)

Home management binder

Through the power of Pinterest, I was able to find cutie patootie section covers, a pretty binder cover, and a whole whack of awesome free printables to go inside.

Deep Cleaning Printables

Weekly Cleaning Schedule by Day (Another great cover at that site here).

Binder Cover - there are a bunch of other things here, but I only swiped the cover.

From Organizing Home Life I got a whole bunch of really helpful printables. She has a whole lot more, hopefully you'll dig them:

Section Dividers

Bill Pay Schedule

Daily/Weekly Chore Schedule

Insurance Company Contacts - Who knew you needed this? Show of hands... not me!

Utility Contact Info - another awesome resource I SHOULD have thought of!


I stopped at Target yesterday and Walmart today and picked up Sheet protectors and Dividers with pockets that are wide enough to show the tabs with sheet protectors. Now I'm going to fill out all of my printables and see if it helps kick me into gear!!

Quick notebook tip

I am diligently working on my Home Management notebook and I stumbled on an idea. I'm sure I can't be the first to do this, but I think it's clever.

I 3-hole punched a paper bag for each section of my binder and put it last in each section. This one is for recipes I've written or clipped that I want to try! I also have one for receipts and project ideas so far.

I plan to use some coupons to get the Martha Stewart pretty sticker things to make cute labels.

I'll show it off and link to some sources when I'm done.

NuWave roast chicken

So I borrowed my grandfathers NuWave and went straight for a hard one - Sunday Chicken.
I modified a recipe from the book and it came out mostly good. Mostly good because it was only mostly done. The thighs and a few bits of breast were still blood tinged, so I'm modifying the recipe here by adding time to the thigh side down.

NuWave Sunday Chicken
1 whole, defrosted chicken - giblets removed
3 tsp/cloves minced garlic
1 Tbsp Italian seasoning
1 tsp oregano
4 Tbsp Olive Oil
1 Tbsp House Seasoning (from Paula Deens recipe).

Rinse and pay dry the chicken.
In a bowl, mix oil, Italian seasoning, oregano, garlic and half house seasoning.
Sprinkle chicken with remaining house seasoning - inside and out.
With a chopstick or skewer, loosen skin.
Scoop in and massage oil mixture under skin in all 4 quadrants of the bird.
Cook breast side down HI for 25 minutes.
Flip and baste then cook thigh side down HI for 25 minutes.
Let sit then carve and serve.

There was about 1/2 cup of drippings I added to gravy, it was very flavorful.

The pics show bird starting to cook, what it looked at the 20 minute mark (that's where it should go a little longer), and how it looked done. Check with a thermometer for doneness... In the thigh. I checked in the breast and it tricked me!

Enjoy.

Bigger and Better?

It's the 13th day of 2013, and I've been on a cleaning/organizing/cooking freakout. I ran out of anxiety meds yesterday, no insurance to get more for a couple more weeks, and apparently this is the result.

Well, to be fair, I think it started with a wee little Pinterest excursion and ended in the creation of a Household notebook, chore lists, month long menu, To Do and Done paper thingies (it's cute, I'll show you later), and a whole whack of recipes written down.

I did not make any Resolutions 14 days ago, but now that I've had a couple weeks to stew about it I think that I will now.

1. Clean the house, and keep it that way
    A. Use the Chore Lists
    B. Stop being lazy
2. Study (and study and study)
3. Cook more, go out less
    A. Use your menu planning skills
    B. Explore more recipes
4. Instill a better work ethic in the whole family
    A. Chore lists... lazy.... everybody participates
    B. Figure out a system of work/reward/punishment and use it!
5. Lose 50 pounds
6. Win the lottery, or the HGTV Dream House, or both
7. Work on ice cream and Coke addictions (not food groups!)

That's it. Also, those last few are just fluffy filler. The big 4 are my goal.

I've created this blog to share some of the tips, lessons, recipes, and successes that I have along the way.

me...
I'm a Christian, Wife, Mom, Daughter, Nursing Student, crafter, homeowner, part time employee, Crochet and Knit designer. I have way too many things on my plate, I have no sense of limits, and I don't often know how to say no. That is the path to crazy, my friends.

More later...