Lovely Weeds

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A great part about weeds is all the lambs quarter!  I don't know how it gets there, but I love it! It is lovely steamed lightly or in any recipe in place of spinach.  It is also a lovely addition raw to a lettuce salad.  Such a nice free vegetable!  Here's a picture of one (sorry it's a little blurry–I'm still learning).  If you have some in your yard that is chemical free, pick it young and tender–Yum!  My mother-in-love makes a fabulous Lamb's quarter quiche.  The recipe follows. 

Lamb's quarter

Ooh, speaking of Lamb's Quarter Quiche, I made one last year and took a picture of it. 

Lamb's quarter quiche 

Here's the recipe:

1-9 inch crust
4 C lamb's quarter (a common yard weed here in Missouri)
1/4 C chopped onions
2 T butter
1 T flour
1/2 t salt
3 eggs
1 3/4 C milk
2 C Swiss Cheese (I made mine with just 1 C cheddar and added a little chopped turkey bacon. I also just used Pam instead of butter for sauteing.  These changes saved about 500 calories in the whole pie.)

Saute Lamb's quarter and onion in butter.  Stir in flour and salt.  Add eggs and milk, mix together.  Sprinkle cheese in crust.  Add Lamb's quarter mixture on top.  Bake at 325 for 40-50 minutes or until eggs are set.  Mine took over an hour, but my oven is not quite right.

Garden in Progress

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Darren loves me.  How do I know?  When I was pregnant he built me a wall.  It took him forever, it hurt his body, and he made it beautiful.  He designed the wall so in our tiny yard I could plant vegetables waist high and weed and pick without ever bending over.  He understood how hard it was on my body when I was pregnant and how I longed for a garden anyway.  The wall also enabled us to level out our yard to give the kids a place to play.

Love wall Backyard

We had first planned to hire the wall built and saved awhile dreaming of what our yard would look like.  We saved and planned and planned and saved.  When we thought we had enough we asked a landscaper for a bid.  Oh the disappointment!  We weren't even close to the amount needed for the wall.  We had enough for the raw materials so we decided to build it ourselves.  We asked the contractor for guidance and payed him a reasonable consulting fee.  It was hard work, but I'm so glad we did it!

I'm a terrible gardener but once I get out there I love it.  I plant and then let the weeds come up, sigh.  Usually I don't even take out the garden for winter.  It's not all bad, because several of my vegetables went to seed and replanted themselves for a lovely surprise.  Last year I got tomatoes, a ton of lettuce and cantalope that way.  This year I got 1 lettuce plant, and a lot of cilantro and parsely.  They are beautiful plants that came with no effort on my part.  I hope to take better care of the garden this year, but that always is my plan–grin.  Maybe–if I blog about it, I will be motivated to keep it beautiful.

Volunteer Parsley and Cilantro

I have a camera!

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I'm so excited!  Many of you know my old camera died.  I didn't have money to replace it, but I was missing so many momets that I decided to go sell some stuff until I could earn one.  I had lots to choose from:  Mary Kay, patterns, ebooks.  I went after all of it!  I emptied my paypal account so the balance was zero and I could easily watch my progress.  I promised myself when I had $100 over what I thought the camera would cost in that account I could buy it.

My "new" camera came in the mail yesterday.  It is a digital SLR that I have been dreaming about for a long time.  It is a Nikon D40–very low end for an SLR, but it does way more than I understand and takes beautiful pictures.  I bought it off ebay after watching cameras for awhile to see the average price they were selling for. Eventually one was listed with a buy it now at my target price! The seller had 100% positive feedback and was selling the camera used but with the original box and all the manuals. I was able to help out someone who was needing money for debts and it helped me out too. 

I love pictures where the main subject is in crisp focus and the background is all blurred.  I tried lots of different ways, but never accomplished it with my point and shoot.  It was super easy to do it with the SLR–even in automatic mode.  Here are some of my practice photos.  I don't have a clue what I'm doing, and I can't wait to learn more.

Honesuckle Clematis 2

Heather age 5

Grind your own hamburger

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Meet my mom in this video.  She demonstrates how easy it is to grind your own meat.  If you have a meat grinder (hand or electric) you can save a bundle by buying inexpensive cuts of meat and grinding your own.  Often you get a leaner, higher quality product than your average grocery store offers. Freeze it in baggies or shape it into patties or link shapes before freezing. By adding your own spices–you can also turn it into lean Italian sausage, breakfast sausage, or cajun blend meat.  Oooh–lemon pepper flavored ground chicken would make a tasty alternative to a standard hamburger.  Mmmm–I can already smell the grill at your Memorial Day picnic!

Homemade Pita breads: Easier than you think!

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Tammys pitaas Tammys filled pitas

Tammy of www.tammysrecipes.com has a fabulous recipe for 100% whole wheat pita pockets that are soft and yummy.  I actually followed the recipe exactly this time (a rare thing for me).  The 500 degree oven scared me, but I later found out it (along with the baking rack) is essential for getting the pocket to form inside. The pocket forms when the outer surfaces of the dough cook faster than the inside trapping air in between the 2 crusts.  The hot air expands creating a puff that deflates when cool, leaving the pocket.  To help the pocket form, roll the dough thin and make sure the surface stays smooth.

If you have a bread machine for dough, this recipe is even easier.  My Kitchen Aid bit the dust a month or so ago.  I received a bread machine for a wedding present 10+ years ago.  It has been mostly gathering dust, because I didn’t like square bread.  I dusted it off this week and found it works great for dough!  (I know… I’m behind) I have visions of bread machine pizza crust and dinner rolls dancing through my head.

These pockets would be the perfect addition to a car picnic.  Grab the pitas and some egg salad, tuna salad or chicken salad in a lidded container.  Throw it in a small cooler with a spoon and some napkins.  Instead of stopping for fast food, spoon the filling in the pitas and pass them around.

Here’s the direct link to the recipe: http://www.tammysrecipes.com/whole_wheat_pita_pockets While you are there, browse around.  There’s lots of great recipes.

Basement Makeover Pictures!

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Our Basement has been in "finished" mode for awhile.  I broke my camera and then made a big mess of the family room when cleaning out my storage room, so was embarrassed to show you pictures!  My mother in law, Bonnie, came over yesterday and helped me organize everything and put it away.  I have been blessed with a fabulous family!  And now I can take picture. For a detailed description of what we did during the makeover, see the blogpost here:  http://groceryshrink.typepad.com/the_grocery_shrink_blog/2009/01/basement-makeover.html

I took a video of the new basement, but watching it made me seasick. I just couldn't put you through that. Then I found out how to take a picture from a frame in my movie!  Voila! 

The new basement's not perfect, but it is so much better than it was before.  Here are the pictures:

Family room before Makeover After Sewingroom before Sewing Room After

This part isn't new, but I wanted to show you our sewing machines!  I got a new one and gave Heidi (who's 9) my old one.  It was my first machine (age 15), a rock solid Janome, and I had it all cleaned and calibrated for her.  Now we can sew side by side, and occasionally little Heather (5) takes her turn too.  She's pretty good at staying on the lines while sewing on notebook paper.

Heidi's and Mom's sewing machines 

Broken Crayons

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My still camera broke and it has taken me a while to figure out how to blog without it.  My company purchased a Vado HD video camera last week and I've discovered Vlogging!  Recently we gathered up all our broken crayons and turned them into fat indestructable crayons for the baby to use.  It turned out so well all the children love them.  Watch the video to see the process.