We can't stay out of the kitchen...

I decided I wanted some No Bake Oatmeal cookies the other day so I whipped up a batch one evening. I don't know what it is about having cookies in a mini Pyrex bowl and milk in my Hazel Atlas cup, but it seems to make it taste better.

Hubby has created a pasta salad that has become very popular at the showers we have been having at church. The mother of the groom at a recent shower loved it so much, she had him make her a double batch this week for her family to have at home. He made it yesterday so I thought I would document the process for all you pasta salad lovers out there. He uses the Garden Rotini noodles for it. It takes the one pound box size.

He made a double batch this time, so the quantities are doubled. But you can cut it in 1/2 for a smaller amount if you want. In a double batch he uses four carrots, two cucumbers, one jalapeno, two red onions, two containers of cherry tomatoes (tommy toes), two Granny Smith apples and two red apples of your choosing. We used Jonathan's in yesterdays batch but we have made it with red delicious. 

The double batch uses three bottles of the large size Zesty Italian dressing. You can substitute the dressing with your own favorite. This double batch takes 1 1/2 bottles of Bac'n Pieces (Bacos) and a small can of chopped black olives.

Cook and drain your noodles and place them in a big bowl for mixing purposes. 

Peel and chop your veggies. Core your apples and it is your personal preference if you want to peel them or leave the peel on. 

Pour the dressing over the entire mixture. 

Stir it around to thoroughly mix it all together. Be gentle but mix well. 

And you have a nice hearty bowl of pasta salad. 

After he was finished with the pasta salad, he asked me to make this fudge recipe he found on Pinterest. Yes, that's right, my man is a Pinterest man now.  He loves creamy chocolate fudge, but we don't make it a lot because it gets expensive to make and it takes quite a while to make it. But this only had two ingredients. Hershey's milk chocolate chips and Eagle Brand condensed milk.  

All you need is a microwavable mixing bowl, an 8 x 8 baking dish or metal cake pan and a spoon. 

You pour one and 1/2 bags of the chips into the mixing bowl. I use my Pampered Chef pitcher because it is easy to pour out of when I'm done. 

You cover the chocolate chips with the milk. 

Put it in the microwave and heat it until all the chips melt. Take it out a couple of times in the process and stir it to keep it blended well. 

Mine took about 2 minutes, give or take. Remove it and stir really good till all the chips are melted and blended well with the milk. 

It recommended lining your baking dish/cake pan with wax paper. Well, I did. And I didn't like it. Next time I will probably butter the bottom and sides of my pan. That's what I do with all my other fudge recipes. The wax paper kept pulling loose when I was trying to smooth it out in the pan and you couldn't get in the corners as well as you can in a buttered dish. 

Refrigerate for a couple of hours till it sets up and then remove it and cut into pieces. Hubby is a muncher and likes his fudge in bite size pieces so he can just grab a couple when he has the munchies so he cut his up small.  I am more of a cocoa fan for fudge but he loves it with chocolate chips. He said this turned out really good. 

So after all the photographing and all the mixing and baking, I went and took a bath while he fixed supper. We had decided on spaghetti. He makes it home made with all kinds of wonderful seasonings. I am not a garlic bread person, but I love it with just good old fashioned buttered bread. Yum! It was delicious as always. 

He fixed himself a little side salad with tomato, onion, lettuce and Kraft Tangy Bacon Catalina dressing. 

After supper, I did the dishes and cleaned the counters and we were ready to set and relax. We did our normal Friday night three hour marathon of watching American Pickers. We absolutely love that show. I decided when I go to the 10 Mile Yard Sale today, if I see something I want that is too high, I'm going to try to bargain with them instead of walking away from something I want. People do that to me at my yard sale all the time and it never bothers me, but I've never done it myself when I'm the shop, but thanks to Mike and Frank on Friday nights, I feel I have been trained on the powers of bargaining. So I'm going to give it a try.

Time to head out soon and hit the yard sales. Have a great day.

Finally Friday

I've worked really hard this week and I am rewarding myself this weekend. I'm going to have the granddaughters Saturday and they are going to be the first ones to sleep in the new day bed. I know they will love it. 

Tomorrow is a big day for the yard sale lover in Sevier County, TN. It is the annual 10 mile yard sale. 

There are booths set up along the side of the road for the 10 miles. And many stores set up booths in their parking lot. Foothills Furniture had over 20 booths last year and this is how it looked. 

I am so excited. I probably won't sleep good tonight just thinking about all the great finds I might find. We didn't get to go in 2012 because there was something else going on. But in 2011, we found some pretty good bargains. My favorite find of the day was this little teapot for just $3.00. It was in perfect shape. It still holds a place of honor in my living room. It has all the colors in my couch and love seat. 

 

Of course I have a wish list for tomorrow. I'm looking for baskets and linens and vintage items and of course, Pyrex. Would love to stumble on a booth like this. 

Hope I have happy hunting!

Thursday's Things I'm Loving

I am in love with an app on my phone that I didn't even know I had. It is Quickoffice and contain Word and Excel as well as a PDF maker. Why is this such a big deal? I design websites and one I was working on last night was going to involve a lot of typing. I had all the text I needed for the site, but it was on paper not on something I could cut and paste. So I thought and thought and the I remembered seeing this on my phone. I opened it, hit the keyboard function, hit the microphone on the keyboard and I spoke the entire document one page at a time and saved the file. I plugged my phone into my USB port on my computer and opened the document on my computer in Word and cut and pasted to the website. One of more brilliant moments. There were just a few minor changes I had to type because it didn't understand me right, but the whole process took 18 minutes to do two pages of text. Love it!

I saw this cute little bowl on the internet somewhere one day. I can't remember what it is. I don't believe this is Pyrex but I don't know if it is Glasbake, Fire King or something completely different. Does anybody know who made it and what pattern it is called? I adore it.

I am on the prowl for the Pyrex/Corning Ware cup in the Colonial Mist. I love all Pyrex and collect a lot of it, but I consider Colonial Mist 'my pattern'.

I have GOT to find the recipe for this fudge. Doesn't this look like the best fudge in the entire world. I would love to make some to see if it is as good as it looks. I have been eating a lot of bananas and diced peaches for a snack lately and I could sure use a pan of fudge. 

I'm still considering getting a pair of these tennis shoes. I just adore them. 

I need new flip flops. About 2 years ago, I was up to 32 pairs. Now between all the wear and tear and getting rid of ones that just plain hurt my feet, I am down to 11 pairs. OH MY GOSH! Call 911 or Flip Flops Anonymous. I need help! Only 11 pairs left! Whatever will I do! Seriously, I need one whole day shopping trip that involves going to every shoe store in the area to restock my flip flop supply.

Do you ever play games on Facebook? For years, I wouldn't even consider it. But my grandson Garret was over one time and introduced me to Dragon City. I played it so I could provide him with gifts he needed for his city. Well, talk about addictive. I hatch my dragon eggs and gather my gold and food every morning. In the evening I feed and battle my drags and breed new dragons. It is actually fun and I'm able to minimize how much time I spend on it...about 15-20 minutes twice a day so that's not bad. But it is fun seeing the unique dragons I can breed. You don't always no what you are going to get till it hatches. But his is my favorite. The seashell dragon. Hmm, wonder why I like it so much? Could it be my love of anything to do with the beach? 

Have a great Thursday. 

I've been looking at some upcoming estate sales. The problem is I always find great estate sales that are either too far away to make it there or they are on a day I can't go. But that doesn't stop me from checking out the neat finds. Here are some items I saw on Craig's List for some estate sales going on this week.

The first  thing that caught my eye in this were the two children's chairs. The I notice what appears to be a vintage metal trashcan in green with white flowers. Could those be daisies?

Look at all the milk glass. I see a butter dish that catches my eye. I love the pink lamp.  But it is a tad pink isn't it?

Who immediately spotted the vintage picnic basket. Talk about in good shape. Love it. 

I am looking for a Lane cedar chest to put at the foot of my bed. I have wicker chest there now and it is starting to come loose on the top. I guess I would settle for any vintage cedar chest, but Mom had a Lane when we were growing up so it would be nice to find one at a reasonable price. 

Look at all the Corning Ware bowls. If you look closely in the bottom cabinet it looks like some vegetable serving bowls. Can't tell if they are Corning or if they could possibly Pyrex.

I want to find one of these chairs. Mom had one for years and years. Dad painted hers red. I love this blue one. I bet it would clean up nicely. 

I fell i love with the frosted glasses and my oh my is that a vintage tablecloth?

What an adorable table. I love little tables that have fold out expansions. 

Apparently they have two of them. 

Check out the Lady's head vases. This are gorgeous. I'm going to try to find me one this summer. I see them at yard sales all the time but have never bought one. Didn't realize how collectible they are. 

Look at the vibrant colors in this quilt. I love it. 

Did anything catch your eye?

Sis's recent craft projects

My sister Rachel wanted to drop by and share some of her recent craft projects with us today. She made a couple more of the dish clothes that I love. These are already spoken for but she has some more made and I've asked her to send me a couple more. I love these things. 

What a cute little bread basket liner. 

I love these. I guess I need to have her make me one of these for the refrigerator handle. 

A cute rooster dishtowel for decor. 

Her granddaughter made this potholder. I used to make these all the time when I was little. I have the weave and the loops now. My grandson Garret when through a time when he would make them for me. I need to get some more made. I love them. 

This wasn't a craft item. But I wanted to share her cupcake stand with her Fiesta Ware plates in it. 

A couple more dishclothes. 

She made one of those fleece blankets that you buy the kit and cut the fleece and tie it off to make the blanket. I have always want to try one of these. I need to make one now. She made this one for her grandson that plays baseball. 

It looks really easy. 

Then she made herself a quilt to take to the ballfield. They have some cool evenings on the late games. Especially the ones that are in early spring like now.  

She used the old fashioned process of simply tacking the quilt with embroidery thread. 

She made her granddaughter one of the fleece blanket kits as well. 

Don't you just love Hello Kitty?

I love showcasing the craft talent in my family. I just wish I had gotten some of it. Who knows, I may have some of the talent if I could ever sit still long enough to try to do anything. Thanks, Sis, for sharing with us today.