Slow Cooker Liners

For starters, I don't know if it's a geographical thing or what, but I call my slow cookers "crockpots". No one around here calls them slow cookers...even though they are the same thing.

I thought I had mentioned these before, but since I have had lots of people (3) ask me about them recently, I thought I'd post about them again.

Pay close attention - these are life changing. Seriously. This is how great they are.

I LOVE my crockpots, and use them several times a week. I have 3 - one oblong, one round, and one small. The one thing I don't like about them, is the clean-up. Something always seem to get cooked on around the edges and it's like concrete. I have to let the inner crock soak for a while, and even then you still have to scrub to get it clean.

Not anymore!

Slow Cooker liners are amazing and make my life so much easier. You can find them in the same area you find baggies. They fit both round and oblong crockpots and I have even knotted it up to make the bag smaller to fit my small crockpot. No more scrubbing baked on cheese! Woot!

The best part is, when you are done cooking, and have removed any leftover food, all you do it lift out the bag and throw it away. Then all you have to do is a quick wipe of the crockpot to clean it, and voila...you're done.

I never use my crockpots without them now. They are truly one of my favorite kitchen items.

Springtime Bathroom

I changed out our guest bathroom yesterday (which is also my bathroom). Out with the Winter snowman decorations, and in with Spring flowers and bright colors. I've been bargain hunting for a while, and here's what I came up with as inexpensively as possible...

This shower curtain is something I picked up at Target. I wanted one with colorful flowers on it, but wasn't having any luck finding one like that (at least not in the price range I was willing to spend).

So instead, I bought some mixed color bouquets at Wal-Mart. I pulled them apart and used the hot glue gun to attach some to the curtain. I placed the remaining flowers in different spots in the room. For the rugs, hand towels, etc I just did a mix and match of different colors.

This shot below shows the close up of the flowers I attached. Just a word of warning. The thin vinyl is not a good buffer for the hot glue when you push on the back to help attach the flower. This is a lesson you will only need once and then you will grab a washcloth to protect your fingers.

In the little wall boxes I put some small bouquets that I had found, as well as other "Spring" related items (including the sign by the lights).

This picture actually shows the inspiration for the room. See the colorful garden gloves? They are actually little childrens gloves and I bought three different colors. They reminded me of when my kids were little. Each Spring we'd go to the garden center at Wal-Mart and I'd let the kids get a new pair of 50 cent gloves and they'd always be so excited. They would use them when we'd be cleaning up any mess outside left behind by Winter. For us, getting their new gloves meant Winter was finally over!

I took down our wooden ring-style towel holders and put up these instead. I found these at Hobby Lobby and thought they were fun and colorful as well.

Not including the shower curtain, I got by decorating the entire room for less than $30 and I was super excited by that! Of course, it's also given me a terrible case of Spring fever, so the nice weather better get here...and stay!

Thanks Mom

My mother is the Martha Stewart of rural America. Seriously, she makes wonderful foods and desserts all from scratch, her plants are all thriving, and her home is always immaculate. Let me just say right up front...those genetics have obviously skipped a generation, at least where I'm concerned.

She sent me a bunch of tips recently that she had received. They really are great and I wanted to share them here. I have no doubt my mother not only has done these most of things, but probably came up with a few of them on her own. Gooooo mom!

Here's the great tips:

*Peel a banana from the bottom and you won't have to pick the little 'stringy things' off of it. That's how the primates do it. (I love this, because I can't stand those stringy things)

*Take your bananas apart when you get home from the store. If you leave them connected at the stem, they ripen faster.

*Store your opened chunks of cheese in aluminum foil. It will stay fresh much longer and not mold!

*Peppers with 3 bumps on the bottom are sweeter and better for eating. Peppers with 4 bumps on the bottom are firmer and better for cooking. (I will now be looking at pepper bootys before buying them)

*Add a teaspoon of water when frying ground beef. It will help pull the grease away from the meat while cooking.

*To really make scrambled eggs or omelettes rich add a couple of spoonfuls of sour cream,
cream cheese, or heavy cream in and then beat them up. (diet, schmiet...dump in that heavy cream and enjoy!!)

*For a cool brownie treat, make brownies as directed. Melt chocolate mint patties
in double broiler and pour over warm brownies. Let set for a wonderful minty frosting. (This is one I am thinking she came up with. Martha's got nothin' on her).

*Add garlic immediately to a recipe if you want a light taste of garlic and at the end of the recipe
if your want a stronger taste of garlic.

*Leftover snickers bars from Halloween make a delicious dessert. Simply chop them up with the food chopper. Peel, core and slice a few apples. Place them in a baking dish and sprinkle the chopped candy bars over the apples. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes!!! Serve alone or with vanilla ice cream. Yummm! (This one HAS to be hers...she has made something like this before)

*Heat up leftover pizza in a nonstick skillet on top of the stove, set heat to med-low and heat till warm. This keeps the crust crispy. No soggy micro pizza. I saw this on the cooking channel and it really works. (My son is very excited to try this one. As a matter of fact, guess what he asked if we could have for supper?)

*Easy Deviled Eggs: Put cooked egg yolks in a zip lock bag. Seal, mash till they are all broken up. Add remainder of ingredients, reseal, keep mashing it up mixing thoroughly, cut the tip of the baggy, squeeze mixture into egg. Just throw bag away when done easy clean up.

*When you buy a container of cake frosting from the store, whip it with your mixer for a few minutes. You can double it in size. You get to frost more cake/cupcakes with the same amount. You also eat less sugar and calories per serving. (Allows you to have more heavy cream in your eggs that way...Bonus!)

*To warm biscuits, pancakes, or muffins that were refrigerated, place them in a microwave with a cup of water. The increased moisture will keep the food moist and help it reheat faster.

*To keep weeds away: Start putting in your plants, work the nutrients in your soil. Wet newspapers, put layers around the plants overlapping as you go cover with mulch and forget about weeds. Weeds will get through some gardening plastic they will not get through wet newspapers. (I giggle when I think of her sending me this one. Green thumbs is something I also didn't inherit from her)

*Use a wet cotton ball or Q-tip to pick up the small shards of glass you can't see easily.

*Place a dryer sheet in your pocket. It will keep the mosquitoes away.

*To keep squirrels from eating your plants, sprinkle your plants with cayenne pepper. The cayenne pepper doesn't hurt the plant and the squirrels won't come near it.

*To get something out of a heat register or under the fridge add an empty paper towel roll or empty gift wrap roll to your vacuum. It can be bent or flattened to get in narrow openings. (This one has me saying "Well duh! Why didn't I think of this before?")

*Pin a small safety pin to the seam of your slip and you will not have a clingy skirt or dress. Same thing works with slacks that cling when wearing pantyhose. Place pin in seam of slacks and... ta da!... static is gone. (I'm trying to figure out how this one works, but since I don't wear panty hose, I'll just have to trust that it does)

Before you pour sticky substances into a measuring cup, fill with hot water. Dump out the hot water, but don't dry cup. Next, add your ingredient, such as peanut butter, and watch how easily it comes right out. (that sounds so slick! get it? slick..slippery..slides right out. I crack myself up)

*Hate foggy windshields? Buy a chalkboard eraser and keep it in the glove box ofyour car. When the window fogs, rub with the eraser! Works better than a cloth! (I'm totally going to try this!)

If you seal an envelope and then realize you forgot to include something inside, just place your sealed envelope in the freezer for an hour or two. Viola! It unseals easily.

*Use your hair conditioner to shave your legs. It's cheaper than shaving cream and leaves your legs really smooth. It's also a great way to use up the conditioner you bought but didn't like when you tried it in your hair. (Unless you're into that whole French 'au natural' kind of look)

*To get rid of pesky fruit flies, take a small glass, fill it 1/2" with Apple Cider Vinegar and 2 drops of dish washing liquid; mix well. You will find those flies drawn to the cup and gone forever! (I'll be trying this one also. Here on the farm we deal with those nasty little bugs constantly)

*Put small piles of cornmeal where you see ants. They eat it, take it home, can't digest it so it kills them. It may take a week or so, especially if it rains, but it works and you don't have the worry about pets or small children being harmed.

My dad sold and repaired appliances for years and he can definitely vouch for this next tip:

*The heating unit went out on my dryer! The gentleman that fixes things around thehouse for us told us that he wanted to show us something and he went over to the dryer and pulled out the lint filter. It was clean as I always clean the lint from the filter after every load clothes. He told us that he wanted to show us something; hetook the filter over to the sink and ran hot water over it. The lint filter is made of a mesh material. I'm sure you know what your dryer's lint filter looks like. Well, the hot water just sat on top of the mesh! It didn't go through it at all! He told us that dryer sheets cause a film over that mesh that's what burns out the heating unit. You can't SEE the film, but it's there. It's what is in the dryer sheets to make yourclothes soft and static free along with that nice fragrance too. You know how they can feel waxy when you take them out of the box, well this stuff builds up on your clothes and on your lint screen. This is also what causes dryer units to potentially burn your house down! He said the best way to keep your dryer working for a very long time (and to keep your electric bill lower) is to take that filter out and wash it with hot soapy water and an old toothbrush (or other brush) at least every six months. He said that extends the life of the dryer at least twice as long!

Thanks for these mom!! Love ya!

Friday Fill-Ins #110

1. Please don't tell me I can't watch Mamma Mia ever again...I'll cry.
2. Can you really hit the snooze too many times in the morning?
3. The color gray makes me want to take an anti-depressant!
4. I have a craving for warm weather, blessed wonderful warm weather.
5. If my life had a pause button, I'd pause it when hubby and all 3 kids were here with me.
6. Eyes are the first thing I notice about someone.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to going to my sons basketball game, tomorrow my plans include giving each of the dogs a bath and Sunday, I want to relax all day!

From Chaos To Clean

We have been spending a lot of time staying indoors as much as possible due to the cold temperatures outside. It has been as good a time as any to tackle the post Christmas chaos that had erupted in our master bedroom closet. I am totally serious when I say it was bad people. It was way bad....worse than it has ever been. Bad enough that I won't even show a picture of it...THAT'S how bad it was.

It took about an hour and a half to get it all done, including sorting through clothes and shoes.

Here is the end result:

The top shelf is random small gift items for when we need a last minute gift. The other shelves are for my purses and wallets. The bottom is for giftbags, tissue paper and wrapping paper.

Look below...there's a floor! Please don't mind the stain. I'm not sure what it was, but rest assured, it is totally gone now. All my shoes are up off the floor and onto the rack on the back of the door that leads to our bathroom. Note the shelf dividers up top so our jeans, sweaters, and sweatshirts don't topple over onto each other. And our hampers are underneath the clothes so they are neatly out of the way.

I got rid of so much stuff. Clothes that we hadn't worn in over 2 years, that we obviously weren't in love with or we would have worn them...they are now gone. There is more I could have gotten rid of, but no need to shock my system too much. Purses or shoes I hadn't used in a long time - gone. I also moved my jewelry armoire out and a couple of other things that didn't need to be in there to give us more room.

My favorite thing in the closet is Jay's hat holders. They are those little thingys you get in a package at any Target, Wal-Mart, etc., and they come in all different sizes. You can pull on the tab behind them to remove them cleanly from your wall...know what I'm talking about? Anyhow, I bought a bunch of those with the small metal hook and put them in 4 rows on the closet wall and hung all his hats there.

*Mental note - have a discussion with him about getting rid of some of those hats. If I can part with purses and shoes, it's the least he can do. Am I right?

I can now stand back and say "aaahhhh...good job to have done."