cottagesweetcottage-Al-Jazeera-America

Some might cringe at this and some might say it's most awesome!  ha!  I say it's most awesome!  



I love super streamlined drawer organizers from places like bed, bath and beyond... but the price is something I'm not too fond of.  I love me some youtubers that have serious money to organize and arrange every inch of their home~ but I can't bring myself to splurge like that.  ;)  



So I did a

I know this might seem like quite a silly post, but I've seen some things and thought, "Why in the world didn't I think of THAT?"  ;)  So... I'm posting it anyways~! 

 

When I buy milk I purchase the gallon since it's only 1.88- 1.99 depending on pricing in my area.  Half Gallons run around 1.65.   We don't normally drink that much milk and I'd hate to let it spoil in the refrigerator.  

A few months ago I purchased a 25 pound bag of flour since it was more economical than purchasing the smaller 5 pound bags of flour individually.  It's definitely about the savings since we would eventually use up the flour anyway~ so it definitely works for me. 



I tried writing everything down in keeping a tally of what I baked/made using the 25 pound bag and here is my list~   



24 loaves

This officially, isn't a puff pastry but whatever you call it... it's good!  ;)   Technically it's a cream puff dough topped with a chicken/spinach/sour cream mixture and rolled up all pretty like!  



2 cups of chicken~ deboned and seasoned to your preference

1 cup of sour cream  

1 cube butter (1/2 cup) 

dash of salt

1 cup water

1 cup flour 

4 eggs 

Spinach (optional~ squeeze out as

I've been wanting to get some new kitchen towels to match my Sweetheart Kitchen and I happened upon these at the thrift store last week for .50 cents each.



  I believe they were still new since it felt like the sizing was still on them.  



Love them!





And I also happened upon a milk glass candy dish or 2 dollars











Mondays~ 


I Should be Mopping the Floor 

Homemade Mondays

I love photography and am always trying to improve my craft.  I'm blowing my own horn when I say that I take all of the photos posted on my blog.  ;)   







The lens covers I use now are not padded and I throw alot of stuff in my camera bag along with my lenses.  My lenses need a bit more padding.  



I saw similar lens padding at a well known photo site and decided to do my own.  The name

    




















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 One~  Place milk in pot and heat up till milk is almost boiling which is 180 degrees.  You don't neccesarily need a thermometer for this part but I like to

Last week I mixed up some orange peels together with some vinegar and let it sit in a mason jar on the counter to steep.  I originally made this to add to my all purpose cleaner to use on my floors but I found that it left my floors sticky.  I'll just continue on using the original solution plain since it works so well for me.  

Not wanting to throw this great smelling stuff away I decided to

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

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

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

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'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

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

Have you seen the Salad in a Jar frenzy on Pinterest?    Many times I buy salad makings and then never assemble them due to time laziness and then the ingredients go bad.  I bought a head of romaine, a cucumber, some baby tomatoes and green peppers for an easy Salad in a Jar.  I plan on adding some crunchy nuts and cheese when the hubs and I eat dinner together later on.   I'd really like

I've finally got all stocked up with the 5 things neccesary for my daily Swish and Sparkle in each bathroom.  I was getting a little tired of carrying the cleaning supplies from upstairs bathroom to guest bathroom to basement bathroom so streamlining is putting a great smile on my face since it makes everything so much easier!   Oh~  and I found the small spray bottles at a beauty supply store

I recently saw Elaine's recipe over at Sunny Simple Life for Pizza Dough and gave it a whirl this morning for our Saturday Lunch/Brunch/Dinner.  It was delish!  The crust baked out evenly and was very soft~  just the way I like it.  I was able to get two large pizzas and used two 13 by 9 cookie sheets. 





For the sauce I mixed up 2 cans of tomato sauce and added some Italian Seasoning, Onion