Applesauce

Another first for me.  David and I made applesauce last weekend and froze 4 - 32 oz. containers.  It is very yummy and very tasty.  It was super easy - mainly because my MIL has an grinder/peeler/applesauce maker (I am really not sure the technical term).  Apples are not in season just yet but we were given a half a box of red delicious apples that were leftover from a middle school church lock in.

We had about 30-40 apples (I kept forgetting to count) and froze 4 - 32 oz. containers.

First wash and quarter the apples (don't forget to remove any stickers, if you purchased them from the store)

Put about 2 inches of apple juice into your stock pot.

Put in quartered apples (if you have a grinder/peeler/whatnot you don't have to remove seeds or peel)

Cover and turn stove to hight until apples are very soft 20-30 minutes (stir occasionally to get the apples on the top to the bottom)

Once soft pour apples into the grinder and start cranking.

We did add a couple cinnamon sticks to our apple juice.

I am so excited about the yummy things that are filling up our freezer:

1 gallon bag of carrots

5 - 3 cup bags of sweet corn

1 gallon bag of green beans

7 - 2 cup bags of zuchinni

4 - 32 oz. of applesauce

Master Bedroom: Remodel

It really isn't that impressive but I (we) did it!  And I love it.  I still have some touches to do:  a couple pillows, pictures and/or shelving on the walls.  And eventually we will take care of the bigger projects: sconces, and closet.
Check out what it looked like before: Master Bedroom

Walls painted, curtains done, purchased bedskirt (it looks a little wrinkly, ignore that), purchased new bedside table, lamp and lamp shade for myself

Here is the curtain fabric up close, I am by far a top seamstress, but it will do and I am proud of my accomplishments.

My jewelery organizer and the curtains are the only thing on the walls right now.  I did end up repainted the frame of the jewelery organizer to black - the blue was just too much.  Like I said I hope to get pictures on the wall soon, I will probably share some more pictures.

Oh! and I am not a photographer by far and the lighting is pretty bad in these pics, sorry!

The Header

I'm Working On It, YIKES!

Egg Rolls

1 pkg. (16 oz.) shredded coleslaw
1 cup cooked, diced meat (poultry or shrimp)
1 1/2 tsp. minced fresh ginger
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp. pepper
1/2 tsp. salt
1 pkg. egg roll wrappers
Vegetable Oil

Stir together first 6 ingredients: slaw, meat, ginger, garlic, pepper, salt.
* WIDD (what I did differently) tossed the first 6 ingredients into a skillet with some soy sauce, until warmed and covered.*

Brush outer edge of egg roll wrapper with water *WIDD egg/water mixture.* Spoon a 1/3 cup of mixture into the center of the wrapper.  *Make sure filling has cooled before placing in the wrapper, it being hot seemed to tear the wrapper.*  Fold bottom corner over filling and tucking the corner under the filling, fold over left and right corners; gently press to seal.  Pour oil, depth of 3 inches (a lot of oil) into a dutch oven, heat until 375 degrees.  Fry egg rolls in batches of 3-4, until golden brown.  Serve immediantly.

These egg rolls were amazing!  I was so proud of us for trying something we have never made before.  I used chicken for our meat.  Also, if veggies are in season shredd your own slaw mix: cabbage, carrots.  This is also the first time I have ever used fresh ginger - now what to do with the rest....any ideas?  The wrapers is tear some but like I noted before I believe it is because we warmed up the slaw mix before hand, the original recipe did not call for us heating up the mixture or using soy sauce.

Little Chef: Vegetables

A couple great ways to keep little hands busy in the kitchen, when all they want to do is help.

Shuck the sweet corn

and snap the beans!

We have been visiting the farmers market atleast weekly this summer and are loving all the fresh, local farm foods! 

Little Chef: Meatloaf

Easy Meatloaf
1 1/2 lb. ground beef                       salt and pepper
1 egg                                              2 T. brown sugar
1 onion, chopped                            2 T. prepared mustard
1 cup milk                                       1/3 cup ketchup
1 cup breadcrumbs
Preheat oven 350 degrees.
Combine; beef, egg, onion, milk & breadcrumbs.  Season with salt and pepper.  Place in loaf pan.
In seperate bowl, combine brown sugar, mustard, ketchup.  Mix well and pour over meatloaf.
Bake for 1 hour.

Before Noah came to the kitchen I had all the ingredients measured out in the cups.  Noah poured in all the ingredients.  I handled the raw meat and Noah held onto the spoon as we stirred.  He was great help and loves to be cooking with David and me.

Another great thing about Noah helping make dinner is he also ate dinner.  Noah is not a big meat eater but after we complimented him on his meatloaf and talked about everything we put in to make it he had no hesitation, he dug right in!

Kitchen Message Boards

There is not much open wall space in our kitchen but I needed a place to charge my phone, put up a marker board for grocery lists, and I also made this cute menu board.  There is about 3-4 feet of wall space between where the fridge door opens up and the back door open up, prime realestate!  I had all the materials so it was a very inexpensive project.  The decorative shelf was used in our old apartment in the dining room but I am using it in the kitchen here. I had the marker board from college and painted the frame black and the menu board is a picture frame. For the menu board: I measured some scrapbook paper, used my cricut to cut circles, used some sticker letters for the days of the week and header put it all back in the frame and use a dry erase marker on the glass.  David even thought it looked good (and he usually doesn't get into the crafty things).  So here's to being a little more efficient in the kitchen!  Does anyone want Pizza on Friday :-)