A New Blog

 

Hello everyone! My sister-in-law, who has been sharing this blog with me,

has kindly agreed to take over the blog, (she has done a great job helping me with 

keeping up with the posts on here!) while I move over to here. 

 I hope you'll come on over and pay me a visit! :)

Getting Ready For Baby!

We have one week and four days left until the due date for our baby. Of course, the baby may wait until a few weeks after the "due date" to make an appearance. We are getting ready to meet him or her. :) We are really excited about meeting our baby soon!

Here are some pictures of some of the things I have been working on to be prepared for our little one.

I sewed a nursing cover. My sister suggested that I make it out of a light weight material and larger dimensions than the pattern called for.

My Dear Husband put the crib together this past week.

I installed the car seat yesterday.

I am planning to cloth diaper our baby. I have been working on modifying inferior quality gerber pre-folds by taking out the polyester middles and adding birds-eye cotton to the center so that they will be more absorbent, making some flats out of flannel, collecting old receiving blankets, and prepping the new cotton by boiling it. To break in un-used cotton it is good to boil it for thirty minutes. This step will make the cotton more absorbent.  This is what my new born cloth diaper stash looks like:

I am going to use the Econobum new born size water proof cover with pre-folds and flats on the inside.

I have 11 of these gauze rectangle flats,

34 assorted pre-folds,

8 flannel rectangle flats,

 and 10 old receiving blankets to use as flats.

I hope to stick with cloth diapering. Maybe I will write a review of what I liked and what worked best for me after a few months.

These disposable diapers were a gift from my grandma. I am going to be grateful to have them in the first week especially! :)

 I have also been cooking some freezer meals to make things easier when the baby comes. Sorry, I don't have any pictures of those to share.


That is what I have been up to. I hope every one out there is doing well!



 

Psalms 127:3

Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward.

 

Recipe For English Muffins Upon Request

English Muffins

Heat in a saucepan until very warm(130* F.):
1 1/2 cups milk
1/4 cup butter
In large mixer bowl, combine:
2 Tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. salt
2 1/4 tsp. dry yeast
1 1/2 cups flour
With mixer at low speed, gradually beat liquid into dry ingrdients. Increase speed and beat 2 minutes, or beat vigorously by hand. Beat in:
1 egg
1 cup flour
With spoon, add:
2 cups flour, or enough to make stiff dough
Turn dough onto lightly floured surface and knead just until well mixed, about 2 minutes. Shape dough into a ball and place in greased large bowl, turning once. Cover; let rise in warm place until doubled, about 1 1/2 hours. Punch down.

Turn onto lightly floured surface; cover with bowl 15 minutes, and let dough rest. Meanwhile, place cornmeal in a pie plate. Roll dough about 3/8" thick. Cut dough into 3" circles; reroll scraps to make 18 circles in all.

Dip both sides of each circle in cornmeal; place circles on cookie sheets. Cover and let rise in warm place until doubled, about 45 minutes. Brush large skillet or griddle with salad oil and heat. When medium hot, put in 6 muffins, cook 8 minutes on each side or until brown. Repeat until all are cooked. To serve, split muffins horizontally with tines of fork and toast.

Recipe For Breakfast Sausage Upon Request

I found this recipe for breakfast sausage at Queen of the Red Double Wide via a Google search. (She also has a delicious Italian Sausage recipe.) I was looking for a homemade seasoning blend for sausage because MSG is in so many of the store brands. We try to avoid MSG, not only because is it really bad for our bodies, but also because my husband is allergic to the substance. I increased the amount of red pepper flakes in my version of breakfast sausage seasoning. I would still consider this blend to be mild, but if you are sensitive to spices you may want to try 1/4 tsp. of red pepper flakes, (as the original recipe calls for), to begin with.

Breakfast Sausage Seasoning

1 1/2 tsp. rubbed sage
1/2 tsp. thyme
1 tsp. black pepper
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tsp. parsley flakes
3/4 tsp. red pepper flakes
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg

Mix the spices together. Add the spices to 2 pounds of ground meat, preferably pork, (ground turkey or beef will work), mix thoroughly. Chill for a couple hours to allow flavours to blend.

Making Breakfast Sandwiches

 Yesterday, I spent a few hours making sausage, egg, and cheese breakfast sandwiches to freeze and send with my husband when he goes to work in the mornings.
 Here are some pictures I took while making these sandwiches. Sorry that some of the pictures are not that great. I was getting tired towards the end of the project and my kitchen was becoming more and more messy. :)

Mixing the sausage seasoning into the ground meat for the sausage patties.

Cutting the English Muffin dough into circles, dipping the circles in cornmeal, and setting them aside to rise.

Cooking the English Muffins and the sausage patties in batches on the griddle.

Assembling the sausage, egg, and cheese sandwiches.

I allowed all of the components of the sandwiches to cool completely before putting the sandwiches  together and packaging them.

I was able to make 20 breakfast sandwiches to freeze.

I wrapped the sandwiches up in wax paper before putting them in plastic bags and taking them to the freezer.

I am so glad that these are all done and ready to go! They will make my mornings a lot easier. I will not have to worry so much about my husband's breakfast, (I still am going to cook him some hot cereal, but I won't need to fry eggs or anything else.), while I am packing his lunch every morning.

Happy Spring! :)

Today is the first day of spring, and I'm so happy to see some of the trees beginning

to bud and send out leaves, lilies and other flowers sending up their leaves, and hearing the 

birds singing around the yard here. 

Happy Spring! :)

The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, 

and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land; 

Song of Solomon 2:12

None Other Name

 

   Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under 

heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. ~Acts 4:12  

 

 And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, 

and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. ~Acts 16:31  

 

Before and After

 Recently, my brothers found a way to clean our Revere Ware pans, which are made with

 copper on the underside of each pan. Once they were done, it made our pans look almost like new!!

 Before,

 And after!

All they needed was a little bit of white vinegar, and some ordinary household

 sea salt. A simple way that I did it was to pour some white vinegar into a dinner plate,

and sprinkle plenty of salt over it. Then, you can just set the pan on the plate to soak 

for a minute or two. (It should almost immediately begin changing color to a bright pink.)

Then, scrub carefully in a circular motion with a scratch pad, and the rest of the tarnish 

and burnt marks should come off easily! If the pan is very discolored from years of use,

it might need more than one application of vinegar and salt, with some extra scrubbing.