Sunday, June 27, 2010

Jen at Whole Food Kids, 11th Heaven's Homemaking Haven, 365 Days of TV-Free Toddler Time, Mega-Family Blogs, and life in mexico {and other places} a picture a day, is giving away a Zoku 7-Minute Pop Maker!

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And just in case you don't know any awesome Popsicle recipes, she's throwing in THIS book, too!

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This entire package is worth over $60! To enter, go HERE.

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Easy Ice Tea

I want to share a quick & easy way to make Ice Tea for yourself or the whole family.

Items needed
Glass 2 quart Measure Pitcher Bowl
3 Family Size Tea Bags (I love Luzianne Tea)
2 quarts water (I use from filter pitcher I have)
Microwave
Sugar or Sweetner of choice

1. Fill Glass Measure Pitcher with water to 2 quart fill line.

2. lace in Microwave & cookon High 15 minutes.

3. Remove pitcher bowl from Microwave but use Oven Mitts & be really careful. ***Please do not have small children around~~the water is boiling hot.

4. Place 3 amily size Tea Bags in bowl with Tags hanging over side of bowl. I kinda dunk the tea bags up & down a few times before letting them rest in bowl.

5. Cover bowl with foil & let it sit for at least an hour. I sometimes let mine sit for few hours, until cool~~it will not bother it. Makes it easier to squeeze out tea bags.

6. When Tea is finished steeping~~lift Tea bags by the strings & squeeze gently (be careful not to bust tea bags).

7. To Sweeten Tea: You can use Sweet & Low, Truvia,etc or plain Sugar.
If using Table Sugar~~I always make a simple syrup first & then use this to sweeten (plain Sugar crystal will take longer to dissolve but the hotter the tea~~the better they will disolve)

***Note to make Simple Syrup
1 part Sugar
1 part Water

I use a pint canning jar (Mason Jar) & add my water. Place in Microwave for 2-3 min. Remove jar using oven mitts~~water will be boiling.
Add the sugar (Hint~~have sugar in seperate cup already measured & pour sugar fast~~as the steam will wet your cup)
Stir sugar until dissolved.
Add to tea, according to taste, along with the rest of the water to dilute tea to desired stength.

8. Place in refrigerator to cool or Add Ice & Enjoy!

Since my family is from the deep south~~we love Ice Tea & I always have it ready in the fridge.
Tea Bags are cheap, Sugar is the only real concern for cost but more frugal than Pop (Soda).
I am diabetic~~so make mine Sugar-Free & also I make Decaf, since I cut my Caffeine after 2pm for health & sleep problems.

Sunday, June 6, 2010

Great E-Mealz Giveaway!

Do you often wonder about what you are going to cook to feed your family? Have you been "Sticker Price Shocked" lately when you go do your food shopping? Well go by & check out this great giveaway~~
http://tatertotsandjello.blogspot.com/2010/06/dinner-dilemmas-solution-e-meals-review.html

I strangely (by most I hear?) enjoy planning & shopping (not paying, mind you) for my family's meals. But ok~~I collect cookbooks, do canning & enjoy cooking~~most people I talk to don't however~~so this just may be yoyur answer!

Would love to hear about it~~if you win!

Hugs & Blessings,
Pam

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Delicious Father's day Giveaway

Stop by http://tatertotsandjello.blogspot.com/2010/06/delicious-fathers-day-giveaway.html & register for a great giveaway by a reall cool blog I recently found. "Hint Hint"~~Delicious treats await the winner!!
Good Luck to all who enter!
Hugs & Blessings,
Pam

P.S. I just gotta figure out how to post a link in my blogs~~where just a word shows. Sorry I am not more computer educated! LOL

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Saturday May 29~~John's pickles







First of all, of you are reading this blog~~please know that I am not a "Writer" but I do enjoy cooking, homemaking (a fading thing these days) & sharing (hoping to pass on things I learn) & therefore "Blogging" is the way to do this nowadays. So here I go.

Most of the things you will learn about here, may not be my "origional" ideas. I do not claim them as my own but simply as things I have learned, maybe from my Mom, Grandma, neighbors & friends (either on the web or in my area). I hope I can make friends here & maybe you can learn something from me, that you may not have heard of before, thus passing on the knowledge of Homemaking, cooking & such. Hope you enjoy your time here & if you do, Please drop a comment. I love hearing from everyone.

4 days ago, I started a Refrigerator Pickle that is Spicy & Sweet. I say Refrigerator pickle because these pickles are not "Canned" & processed & can not be stored in your pantry. These Very easy & quick to assemble. No cooking or canning involved. Now I enjoy canning but for some~canning or porserving can be intimidating, so if this is you (for now) this recipe is for you. I hope to encourage some canning as we go along. If you do enjoy canning & have not visited http://tigressinapickle.blogspot.com/ please be sure & stop by~~it is an awesome blog for canning! I love it!

This recipe was passed to my Mom from a great neighbor (that has since passed on) but his memory lives on, as my family enjoys these delicious spicy pickles. My kids inhale these! LOL Seriously, we eat them (at least I do) with almost everything!

Below if the origional recipe that was shared with my Mom. But since my Mom is not a Garlic Lover~~she left out the garlic~~so I have never made these pickles with the garlic. Maybe one day I will have to try~~since I do love garlic! And Variations recipes is the ones I actually do. I also offered a smaller variation~~since you may want to just give it a trial run & sometimes the gallons of pickles can be hard to find but I do know Sam's Clubs do have them at a great price. Enjoy!

John's Pickles

1 gallon Sliced Hamburger Dill Pickles

5 lb Sugar (less 1 cup)
4 oz Tabasco
1 teaspoon minced Garlic


1. Pour out all pickles & juice.
2. Put 1/2 of pickles back into jar & 1/2 of sugar, pickles, then sugar, Tabasco & garlic.

3. Turn Jar every day for 7 days. (Flip top to bottom).


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John's Pickles (Pam's version)

1 gallon sliced Hamburger Dill Pickles
4lbs Sugar (less 1 cup)

4 oz Tabasco Sauce
1. Drain Juice from pickles. Remove pickles from jar & place in large bowl.
2. Layer 1/2 pickles,1/2 of sugar & 1/2 of Tabasco back into Gallon Jar.
3. Make sure jar is sealed tightly. Each day for 7 days~Flip Jar top to bottom. Sugar will dissolve into the Pickle brine, Pickles will become Crispy,Sweet & Spicy! Delicious!
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John's Pickles (Pam's Smaller Batch

1 (46 oz) Jar sliced Hamburger Dill Pickles

1 lb Sugar (I use a inexpensive food scale) but it equals to 2 1/4 Cups

1 oz Tabasco Sauce (which is 1/2 of small 2 oz bottle)

1 tsp dried Red Pepper Flakes

Follow same 3 steps as above.


Hope you will decide to give these pickles a try. If you do, please leave me a comment~~love hearing from everyone. I gota learn how to place my pics in different areas of my page~~I could only get them to load to the top of my blog~~Ughhh!
Hugs & Blessings,
Pam