Seven Must Have’s/Nice to Have’s for the Kitchen

Ok so even though seven is the number of completion, I’m sure these may not be in your home or you may not consider these must haves (thus the title, “nice to have’s”). These are some things that I have in my kitchen that I love, and make my life easier, and cupboards fuller so I can store them).

Pressure Cooker

Let me tell you, it is amazing! Some people get freaked out or intimidated by them, but you just have to get passed it all and you will love it. I have two of them in different sizes with what I think is a 10 lb. weight for each. I love cooking chicken in there, I do my beans in there and it only takes about 1-1 ½ hours instead of like 3+ hours. I also love doing my beef chunks in there for about 20 minutes, and then they just fall apart! Mmmmmm! I think the key is to make sure you have enough water on your food, and that you don’t have the stove on too high while you cook. I usually have it on full heat till the pressure build up and the weight starts really dancing around and then I turn it down to about half to three quarters high, just so its bouncing around but not spinning in circles! Lol, man don’t I sound like a real chef with all my weird non profession instructions! Ok, or not! just make sure you have one that has an emergency release valve.

Slow Cooker

This is the total opposite of the first, but just as wonderful! A lot of people have never thought to use one but it really frees you up from stressing what to make for supper in the evening if you are busy during the day. All you do is throw your food in with your seasonings and other ingredients in and turn it on and there you go! Church is like 30 minutes away and when we can’t always afford to go out for lunch I quickly put something in there the night before, or first thing in the morning, and when we get home, its all done! Its good for almost any kind of meat, soups, stews. I found a recipe during the summer for an amazing pasta sauce, My mom has even made enchiladas in her slow cooker!

An Electric Grill

I got mine at an auction for like $11. It is great! It does sandwiches, burgers, chicken, bacon, you name it!

Whistling Kettle

This one just makes me happy! I love a tea kettle that whistles! It can be such a nice way to know that your water is boiling!

Something Red

Or another color that inspires you while you cook. For me that’s red! I don’t have any appliance that is red, just a cheese grater right now, but one day!

Coffee Maker!

Duh! When God said that man should not live by bread alone, I wonder if He knew that coffee would help. I am not addicted actually! I only drink it when I am in the mood, and that is often only once a day. I find that the smell is better than the taste, but the taste is really good too! An amazing experience (and yes it is an experience) is having coffee made from a french press! 

making it in a french press is a nice experience as well! You add your coffee grinds to the small pitcher, pour boiling water in, and stir. Let it sit for up to four minutes to let the grinds soak. You then plunge the coffee, nicely and evenly. I tell you, there is an amazing flavor that is lost in a normal coffee maker. but when you make your coffee with a french press pot to is AMAZING!

I have been trying to make one new thing once a week, in the kitchen. Last week it was Mocha Crinkles!

Mocha Crinkles

1 1/3 cups. Brown Sugar packed

½ cup vegetable oil

¼ cup. Sour cream

1 egg

1 tsp. vanilla

1 ¾ cups flour

¾ cup cocoa

2 tsp. instant espresso or coffee granules

1 tsp. baking soda

¼ tsp salt

1/8 tsp. ground back pepper

½ cup powdered sugar

Beat the brown sugar and oil in a bowl very well. Mix in sour cream, the egg, and vanilla. Set aside. In another bowl, mix the flour, cocoa, instant coffee granules, baking soda, salt and black pepper together. Add the flour mixture to the brown sugar mixture. Refrigerate till firm (about 3-4 hours).                                                         Preheat oven to 350. Make little balls and roll in the powdered sugar. Slightly flatten the cookies. Bake for 10-12 minutes. Do not over bake!

Tis' the Season to be...

...thinking about resolutions!

We are one month into this New Year, but I would like to talk about my thoughts and goals for the new year.

I hate using the word “resolutions”, because for me it implies failure. So many people make new year resolutions and within weeks they are back to where they started. For me I want to use the word “goals”. For me,  that word means “Somewhere I want to be, or achieve, by the end of the year. I will change methods and tactics, in order to get where I want to be”.

For years I have been very interested in interior decorating. I find it very hard to pursue that while renting a house, and despite that, I don’t usually know where to start. My Husband usually sees stuff we can do before I can and does it before I can (boy, does that make me feel like a failure, especially when interior decorating is a field I would like to be good at). I guess he’s just better at seeing stuff like that than I am. I guess I have also been preoccupied with figuring out how to get my household running good in a new house and with two girls, to really focus on it all. Maybe that is not my forte right now. For me, I love cooking and working in the kitchen, and they say, Write what you know. That is what I know, so that is what the focus of my blog focus is going to be for now, because that is what I know!

What are my goals for the new year? So glad you asked!

• Make (cook or bake) one thing each week

This is something I have always loved to do! I love trying new things especially things that you would normally buy at the grocery store. I want to learn more and more how to make, instead of buy them!

• Blog once a week (starting now!)

That is a big commitment for me because once I run out of inspiration it usually stops. I am also a person who, when I see something that needs to be done, I will do it even if I was in the middle of doing something else. I have been learning to stop myself when I realize I am about to leave a project, or a chore, to do something else I see that needs to be done. For example: I am cleaning up the kitchen or the bathroom, I go to put something in the dirty laundry pile (which is in my closet ::Blush::) and then all of the sudden I see my bed needs to be made, or some things need to be picked up. IF I remember,  I  have to stop myself, and go back to what I was doing first. Anywayyyyyy!!! Wow that was a rabbit trail and a half!

• Keep my weekly schedule

Monday: Tidy up the house from the weekend and bake something!

Tuesday: My day to blog, read (maybe), do school with princess A, and keep the house tidy, and watch Food Network (HGTV has nothing that interests right now).

Wednesday: Laundry day.

Thursday: clean my floors           

Friday: clean my house

If I can keep my schedule, I have everything in control, and time to spare. Before , I found things piling up, and I felt overwhelmed at times. It’s so simple, and keeps me from getting overwhelmed. It makes me happy when I get up in the morning to know what I need to do and that it’s only one or two things, and not a pile of things (besides laundry)!

• Spend time with my girls

They are growing so fast! I want to be able to have a good relationship with them, and that starts now. Even at the ages of 3 and 2 ½ months, I think for me it means cuddling my Princess C, doing school with Princess A, reading to her, and looking at her and acknowledging what she’s saying ( that is very important to her!). If I want an open relationship with my children as teenagers, It needs to start being open and interact with them now!

These just some of my goals, others are the ones we usually make. Weight loss (and I’m well on my way!), and spend more time with God, and His word.

What are some of the goals you have made for this year?

How do you make your house a home? This is an idea I want to talk about in the very near future. I want to hear some of your ideas, to feature some of them, and to learn off of you all!

  Blessings!

 Karen E.

From babies to Christmas holidays

Wow, it's been a pretty busy three weeks!

We had our baby! Almost two weeks over due! but here all the same! It's a girl (if you wondering)! Princess C came into this world Saturday evening at 11:04 pm.

A is a very proud and loving big sis!

Two weeks after her birth, The Lord opened up a door for us to move to a better, and healthier house. We are very grateful to all those that came to help. J insisted I was not to do any work with moving, but I did manage to get my fingers into it a bit.

And now we are planning to go to Ontario for Christmas to celebrate with family and friends! I'm so excited. 

Now before you think I must be running myself into the ground after just having a baby (I shall pretend you are deeply concerned about my well being), I will let you all know I feel amazing! No seriously, I do! I've been taking it easy-ish. I have not been pushing myself to the limits, I've only done what I feel good enough doing and no more. It helps to have a baby that sleeps through most of the night waking only once or twice to feed, and usually lets us sleep through the rest of the night. 

Today hopefully we can finish our Christmas shopping. Besides the usual I need to create a homemade/Pinterest inspired Christmas gift for a ladies get-together. I have an idea, I just need to pull it together. For safety sake, I shall let you know after the event, and I shall try to take pictures to share later of the process and the finished product.

Preservation from Insanity!

so I have come to the end of my pregnancy and I think that can be one of the hardest points so far. My nesting energy is gone, braxton hicks become more frequent and stronger, and I don't know about you but for me I get very antsy when the waiting games start!

Some things I do to keep me busy and occupied is create a small to do list to keep me busy enough so that I am not bored and something that requires effort, but not to full that I completely run out of energy juice.
Sunday Was kinda hard, because I was very antsy and struggled with getting impatient. I just want this baby out already!!!!

Yesterday was my due date, but I was not expecting the baby to make an appearance on D day. So, like I said I started making a to do list. Yesterrday I made bread, and homemade laundry detergent. today I plan on making this...

Source: jujugoodnews.com via Karen on Pinterest

I also plan on getting some laundry done (with my new homemade laundry detergent :0D!). We'll see what else gets done today. Tomorrow, who knows maybe this baby will want out by then!!!

Blessings!
Karen E.

I love finding and trying new recipes, I always have! what i love is when I find one the whole family falls in love with! I love finding recipe books that are practical and that use ingredients that are familiar to the regular person. I am also a sucker for finding new recipes online, my husband has had to remind me sometimes to check my books that I have instead of always going to the internet. My favorite go-to website for looking up recipes is 

I found this great recipe the other day, which I tried yesterday and everyone loved!

Chinese Chicken Fried Rice IV

1 egg

1 tablespoon water

1 tablespoon butter

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1 onion, chopped

2 cups cooked white rice, cold

2 tablespoons soy sauce

 ground black pepper to taste

1 cup cooked, chopped chicken meat

Beat the eggs and water together. melt the butter in the frying pan and then add the egg mixture and fry for 1-2 minutes. Remove from frying pan and cut into shreds.

In the same pan add the oil and onions. saute till the onions are soft. add the cold rice, soy sauce, chicken, and pepper. stir-fry for about five minutes and then add egg.

Note: I added cooked frozen veggies to the recipe like you have when you order the rice in a restaurant. add to your own liking!

Well I hope You enjoy this as much as we did!

Blessings!

Karen E.

New direction!

Ive been thinking about the whole direction of my blog lately and I don't want it to be a whole lot of randomness. I wanted to gear to towards interior decorating, but where we are at right now, yeah, it doesn't really work. We are at a temporary house (and its not worth improving anything), and I'm not sure when we will find something more permanent. 

While living in this house there has been something that I've learned with my dear husbands help. You can make a house a home and feel like a home no matter how horrible you think it is. We hated this house for the first several months we lived here, and we never thought we would stay here this long, let alone learn to actually like this house. 

Turning a house into a home for those you love is far more important than making it look stylish and picture perfect. 

That is my goal here!

Wow that was a round about way of saying that!

I'm still learning about interior decorating, but I feel the home has more dimensions like I said above. I want to expound more on my love for working in the kitchen, and my 

attempts at making this house a home.

Sorry it's taken me so long to post this, but being in my last trimester, I've been busy getting things ready, filling my freezer, canning, and getting the house ready (ish).

This is just some of what I've done!

Hopefully I'll be posting more soon. So till next time!

Blessings!

Karen E.

Long time no post!

Wow, ok so our internet has been down these past couple of weeks and so here is a recap of this past month. 

We spent the July 1st weekend in PEI camping with some friends of ours. So here is a pictury post (upposed to a wordy post)

We took the ferry across,and even though it took longer it was so worth it!

While on board they had live music, and it was amazing!

We haven not been camping in a few years, and it was so much fun! 

There was an amazing beach right at the camp ground.

 

And the kids play ground was just right there.

While we were in PEI we went to the Avonlea village.

Sorry about the blur, but I had to take the picture fast to capture the moment (for all you Anne fans, you probably know which seine this is!).

The "Tea party!"

On the 1st of July we went to Charlottetown where they had the best fireworks show this side of Montreal!

Unfortunately my camera was down for several weeks as well.  But thankfully life didn't stop! 

I don't have pictures of the Tall Boats/taste of Halifax festivals, but it was amazing! Maybe later on I can post some of the pictures from the hubby's iPhone. 

Amelia's birthday was this past weekend and here are some pics of her cakes. 

I was fortunate enough to have a good friend come over nf help me. My daughter (who turned 3 btw) loves fruit just as much as sweets,so I thought fruit cakes would be more practical and appreciated than a regular one! 

She loved it!

Well that's it for now! 

Blessings! 

Karen E.