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I wish you a wonderful Easter spent with loving family and friends! 

The crux of the Christian faith is the death and ressurection of the Lord Jesus and and we have so much to be thankful for in all that was accomplished!  Forgiveness of sins, victory over sin, walking with a Lord who is a perfect and loving Father.    In this world we can only catch glimpse of what a perfect Father is, but

Ive been making my own hand soap and, wowser, every time I make it I am impressed! The scent is great and the texture is just like a namebrand softsoap.
It's so much more economical than buying in the stores.  


 


Best of all it's easy!

1 bar of your favorite hand soap
Boiling water
1 Tbsp Glycerin (purchase at health food stores or online)
1 Tbsp Honey

Grate your bar of soap or throw it

Here are the ingredients~ 

1 cup of long grain rice 

2-3 Tbsp Tomato Sauce ( You can see how I store mine here) 

onion~  about 1/3 of an onion (or however much you like) 





Season Salt 

Cajun Seasoning 

Goya (comes in small envelopes inside of box.  You can find it in the Hispanic section of the supermarket

(all of these are totally optional and you can use whatever you

After one of our batches of yogurt failed we've updated our recipe for no failure.  Please click on over to our post on Homemade Yogurt to get the updates!
    




















Ingredients 



4 cups of Milk~  for thicker yogurt use whole milk 



1/2 cup dry (powdered milk but I used 3/4 cup) 



1/4 cup plain yogurt with live yogurt cultures as a starter.  I used Greek Yogurt







Step

Smoothies are so yummy and I love trying different variations!  

I did these today for the hubs and I and they are pretty basic.  



Frozen fruit~  your choice of rasberries, strawberries, peaches...etc (1/2 cup or so)

Bananas 2 or 3 ( chop and freeze them in a baggy for an even better smoothie)

Yogurt~  This is the American counterpart to the Korean version of yogurt.  I prefer using a

I rustled up some Fried Bread this afternoon for an early dinner/late lunch and then then, using what I have in the kitchen, made up some Indian Fried Tacos.   Not bad and pretty easy to boot!  



It isn't as greasy as it seems since the dough is pretty thick and doesn't absorb too much oil.  

Mix together: 

4 cups flour 

1/2 tsp salt 

1 Tbsp baking powder

1 1/2 cup milk 

Oil for frying 

My husband and I had the opportunity to visit with a sweet lady who so kindly invited us into her living room to sit and talk.


She has macular degeneration and her vision is quickly growing very dim.  She has been housebound and is unable to work.  She is quickly losing her ability to do things independantly and has basically shut herself off from the outside world.  Her husband was a pastor

I love cloches and have been scouting for them as I shop.  Last Monday at the thrift store I ran into this~  2.50 marked down half price to 1.25.  So I brought it home and started trying how it fit on different things~  



I already had the mini cake stand so here's how it looks~ 



This red salad plate was .35 cents...



...and the large yellow dinner plate was .35 cents also.   



I know

On Tuesday Night, hubby and I returned home and there was a box that was delivered at our back door.  We hadn't ordered anything.  On the outside it said "Kitchen Aid".  Of course I had always wanted a Kitchen Aid so I asked the hubs if he ordered it.  He said, no.  So I sat it on the dining room table while I scratched my head wondering who in the world could have sent

If I make soups, stews, I never use the entire can of tomato sauce/paste and I hate to throw away the leftovers.  In the past I would just pour it in a sandwich bag and freeze it but when I would try to use it and have to peel the bag out from the crevices of the frozen sauce and  it was just kind of annoying really.  Trying to break a chunk of didn't work very well either.   I read over on

Thank you to all new followers! I really appreciate each and every one coming  to visit and especially hearing from you when you comment!  It really makes my day and I try and respond to each and every one!  I also love to visit your blogs!



Here's a little (or should I say a lot) of what I've been up to lately.

We're still enjoying our Salad in a Jar! I make them on Sunday Evening and they

 

I've been wanting Mexican food and today was the day that I satisfied my craving. I made the enchilada sauce last night and I posted the recipe here.  Next time I plan on doubling the recipe and storing the sauce in the freezer for a quick meal~ enchiladas or chili colorado.
To be honest, I can't wait till dinner tomorrow when we get to munch on these again!  Yum!

Here are the ingredients

I might as well turn up the music since I'm going back to my roots of growing up in my native Los Angeles where the Mexican food is absolutely delish!


I rustled up some Guajillo chilis and made homemade enchilada sauce last night. I'll be putting them together for tonight's dinner~recipe coming soon!  I was going to resort to canned enchilada sauce but the taste isn't as good as homemade and

I've been looking for a set of Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls for years now with no success.  My heart has been set on finding the same set as when I was a kid and they are ridonkulously expensive!  This morning I took a trip to the thrift store and found these.  







A close up of both~



A close up of Mrs Ann~





And Mr Andy~





These aren't the ones I had as a kid.  They are hand made (

I threw this together yesterday, put it in mason jars, and am letting it sit in the refrigerator for flavor!  Oh how I love Garbanzo Beans and pickled vegetables! 



Very easy ingredients with no measurements to your liking~ 

1/2 package of garbanzo beans cooked till tender 

one can of sliced olives, drained 

Cilantro leaves chopped up

Cherry tomatoes (they are in there~ they must be shy!

I keep my oil in the cupboard next to the stove and got so tired of the occasional drip down the bottle getting the bottom of my cabinet greasy.  I know there are special bottles for oil to eliminate dripping but this will have to do for now!  ;)  My friend shared a genius tip with me over ten years ago and it's so silly and obvious and makes me wonder why I didn't think of this!  





Cost

I'll bet you're wondering what this blog post is about!  ;)  It sure was difficult to give this post a name!   I rarely rant but this might come across as one!  ;)  It's about the word "ONLY".  Coupled with money, people throw this word around ALOT!   At the grocery store.  Car Dealerships.  On billboards. As Seen On TV.  Retail.  Wholesale.  Everywhere!   



When you see high pressure

Many years ago I had an awesome brainstorm on how to make Easy Fried Potatoes.  I really got tired of undercooked fried potatoes that were hard in the middle but dark on the outside.
I love this because it's simple (who doesn't love simple?)and makes serving breakfast VERY fast. Prepwork makes it so easy and I love the fact that it's also economical!

Here's how I do some down home fried

When we first were married almost 24 years ago I had an official recipe for this since I was learning how to cook and knew absolutely nothing! (Those were the days!)  If I remember correctly, I pulled it out of a Reader's Digest (I read them cover to cover!) from an advertisement for soup or stuffing.   I had cooked up some deboned chicken that I made in the crockpot and it popped into my

I was able to hit my fave thrift store on Monday and came away with a few great things.  I had MUCH more in my basket and started whittling away things the closer I got to the checkout since I've been trying to be very choosy even if something is cheap.  Just becasue something is a good price doesn't mean that I have to have it!






I picked up these 6 basketweave cups for ..39 cents each

I can't believe I haven't shared this yet!  I've always hated buying Commercial Stain Removers.  They are expensive and most of the time the stains were too set in and I'd end up tossing the garments that were soiled.  





While thrifting, I was constantly seeing the same fuschia skirt that had a huge grease stain on the front.  (It looked like someone dropped a half pound of bacon on their

This post might seem silly to some but anything that helps make life more convenient, streamlines a process  and makes it more affordable is definitely a winner in my book!  And I also just love the creativity of folks on the net and how they share with others!




I recently purchased a large 25 pound bag of flour at quite a substantial savings for baking and keep it in my pantry.  Instead of