Perfect Grilled Cheese Sandwich?

The "perfect grilled cheese" will mean something different to just about everyone.  It is about the type of bread used, the selection of cheese (s), butter on the outside, fry pan vs. iron skillet.  Lots of choices to be had.

One common thing, if I could be so bold, is that the cheese needs to be warm and gooey and melted.  The sandwich CAN not be cold on the inside and black on the outside from having heat to high.

In resent years, I like to get the iron skillet going at about 4 (electric stove, no clue what that equates other than not quite medium heat), then get the sandwich ready.  To encourage the sandwich to heat all the way through, I will take an 8" x 8" cake pan and flip it over the sandwich.  This keeps the heat in and doesn't smush the sandwich like a panine press would.  It also always for a slower browning of the bread and allows for the heat to go all the way through the sandwich.  Remove the pan, flip the sandwich, and put the pan back on.  I can get a lightly browned grilled cheese sandwich that has gooey cheese on the inside every time doing this!

So how do you make the perfect grilled cheese sandwich?

Stocking Stuffers, Presents, Christmas 2014 is coming

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens
Brown cooper kettles and warm woolen mittens
Brown paper packages tied up with strings
. . . . .

Yup, you probably know what is coming next, "These are a few of my favorite things!"

It is getting to be that time of year, the time to plan ahead for Christmas.  So here's some of my favorite things that will work for just about anyone:

• Autumn Hill Candles - we know the owners, Mike and Paula Kamorski.  Great friends and they make an awesome product.  I can not burn candles from anywhere else because of my allergies.  Theirs are soy wax and cotton wicks; totally natural and burn clean.  Scents the whole house wonderfully.  Check them out, great people, great product, great company!!
• Duct Tape - need I say more.  Great for crafting, filling a stocking, and good for repairs too.
• Water bottles - still trying to figure out which is the best bang for the buck, but makes for a great stocking "hog".
• Good Chocolate - this year it will be Dove or Cadbury most likely.
• Gift Cards - favorite stores and restaurantnts are always appreciated
• Cash - a universal gift
•  Pajamas - a family tradition for Christmas Eve (may even find some for myself this year)
• Legos - we are still buying them and probably will for many years to come!
• Minifigures
• Art Supplies
• Music Supplies - capos, tuners, strings, picks, etc.
• Chapstick
• school (or team) spirit sweatshirt
• home made anything (tweaking many things as gifts ~ knit, bread, vanilla extract)
• buy local from small business; see Autumn Hill Candles, or honey (can hook you up there too), check out Etsy (know a few folks over there too!)
• replacement things that are stocking stuffer size ~ I am gathering my list for my own family
• favorite movies that you'd love to have in your line up.  I'm thinking of "Elf", "White Christmas",  "It's A Wonderful Life" as a pre-season gift; the weekend of Thanksgiving to  get the season going.
• Look through the ABC Family Movie Line up to set up the DVR (okay, not a gift, more of a tradition)
• Some not so fun, but practical: new spinny tooth brush and hair brush for their stocking
• have had a request for a small jar of peanut butter and a chocolate bar
• favorite box of cereal that might be normally forbidden (if it isn't to unhealthy!)
• good quality kitchen gadgets

There you have it, a few of my favorite things.  What are yours for receiving or giving?

Home made chocolate sauce = yummy!

Pinterest can be a very lovely thing! I have found a few homemade recipes, for various things, that have been winners and I RAVE about them.

Probably the best is the chocolate sauce I've been making for awhile.  Here is the link to the original sight that I got it from (by the way, REALLY like this sight, spend some time there!)  What I have done, to make it my own, is figure out how much I need to make to fill a quart mason jar.  It is 1 and 1/2 of the recipe.  Here's the quantities I follow:

Combine the following 3 items directly in pan:
2 1/4 cup  coco powder
1 cup + 2 T  sugar
1/8 t to 1/4 t salt (a dash plus a pinch)

Add 1 + 1/2 cup water and mix well

Heat to a boil, stirring occassionally. 
Once at a boil reduce heat to maintain a slow boil, stirring constinently for a minute.
Remove from heat
Add 1 1/2 t vanilla
Stir again and transfer to quart mason jar

I let this cool most of the way on the counter top, with lid off.  When mostly cool, I'll put lid on and keep in fridge.  Honestly no idea how long this will keep for, we use it to often to go bad.  Hope you'll give this a try, it really is good!

 

Bread Making

I've been bitten!

                 Bitten by the bread making bug!  And in the process, created a bread snob of a son.  I am already praying for his future wife, that she may love to bake to keep this strong willed boy happy!

With a gift card, from Christmas, I bought a Wonder Mill, one of these things:

 Thanks to some friends, I was able to get to grinding

right away and making my own bread.  We ordered some

grain from Amazon, but that would get expensive quickly.

After some price comparisons, found that Yoder's Country Market

had the best prices on grain around and had what I needed in stock.

Even with the time commitment and gas used, it was enough of a savings

to justify both the time and wear & tear on my van.  I came home with a few other

things needed as well:

• buckets to hold the grain
• Gamma Lids (helps to keep item dry and in a fairly air tight package)
• Oxygen Absorbers
• a bread recipe book
• Shank's Vanilla (our favorite, but hard to find locally)

 "Homemade Bread" by Keepers at Home Sampler One

I have pretty good success with a few of these recipes so far.

We've made sourdough bread, sourdough "English Muffins", and

Wheat Bread.  All have been really tasty, mild wheat flavor, filling,

and worth doing again.

 Mini loaves, at the boys request!

They absolutely love these.

 Doesn't look like much food, but neither

finished their lunch the bread is so filling!

We have thoroughly enjoyed the bread and the act of making bread has not been as overwhelming to me as I thought it might.  Will be a hard to switch back to store bought, but can see the need, on occasion, of doing so.  In the mean time, we'll be eating our homemade bread and enjoying it!

Happy baking everyone!

 

White Vinegar ~ Another awesome use!!!!

In my search to find a home made fruit and vegetable rinse/wash, one of my favorite cleaning items showed up AGAIN!!  Hurrah!

The first site I went to, check it out here, calls for a 50/50 mix of vinegar and water.  You can spritz and wipe done hard skinned fruits and vegetables.  Softer skinned ones can be soaked.  Both should be rinsed.  This combination works, according to the sight, because the vinegar is naturally acid and helps to break down the pesticides and wax used on the fruits and veggies we eat.

I will be trying this out and checking a few other sites.  In the mean time, I will be using this to make our fruits and vegetables a bit better for us.

Homemade Chocolate Syrup ~ Is it worth it?

There was a time, not so long ago, that I would buy everything from the grocery store, blindly.  If it is sold there, it can't be harmful for me right?

I am learning, bit by bit, that just because the FDA says something is okay to consume, does not mean your or my body knows how to handle it or digest it.  There are many additives, stabilizers, food colorings, artificial sweeteners, etc that reek havoc on our bodies.  Making the switch to single ingredient foods or making from scratch is difficult and can be time consuming, at first.  However, I am finding it is worth the effort and the taste of the food is so much better.

This brings me to today's post ~ Homemade Chocolate Syrup, is it worth it?  In one simple word ~  YES!  A brief history here.  I have often been disappointed in the taste of Hershey Syrup!  It never tasted as good as I would have hoped, there was a lingering after taste that was not chocolate.
I've seen on Pinterest a couple different Homemade Chocolate Syrups and decided to make one this morning.  After it had cooled, ever so slightly, Thing One and I had chocolate milk.  I was so excited to actually taste chocolate, to have a chocolate aftertaste.  If we weren't in major need of more milk, I would have gone back for seconds!

The recipe I followed, from here, called for the following items:

•  1 1/2 cups sugar
• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 cup water
• dash of salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

That is it folks!  5 items and you can easily pronounce each word.  Here are the directions:

•  in a small saucepan, add sugar, cocoa, and salt.  
• whisk together gently.  
• add water.  
• bring mixture to a boil, stirring occasionally.  
• reduce heat and cook 1 minute.  
• remove from heat and add vanilla.  
• cool.  
• store in the refrigerator.

The taste is so worth the minimal time and effort.  Another fun aspect, I get to use a mason jar!

Quick quiz - How many ingredients in the homemade version?  Did you remember five?  Awesome, that is correct.  Now for the list of ingredients for Hershey Syrup:

1. high fructose corn syrup
2. corn syrup
3. water
4. cocoa
5. sugar
6. potassium sorbate
7. salt
8. mono and diglycerides
9. xanthan gum
10. polysorbate 60
11. vanillin, artifical flavor

Most of the items (6 of them, just over half), I recognize and know basically what they are.  If there is a link, I wasn't sure and had to look up.  Other than the vanillin, all seem to be used to help keep the items mixed well; oil and water were a common example of what needed to stay mixed.  Potassium Sorbate is used to preserve the food or give it a long shelf life.  It is also chemically made, not a naturally occurring item.  Does that make you wonder what it is doing to your body?

Keeping the homemade version in a mason jar, will allow for a quick shake to keep things mixed just nicely.  We also don't need items in this to allow for a long shelf life since it will most likely be consumed quickly.  Also, the individual items, when separate, have a decent shelf life.

Will you allow yourself about 5 minutes to make something homemade?  You might just like this version better!

 

Hurrah for Apple Cider Vinegar!

Yes, the cousin to white distilled vinegar is Apple Cider Vinegar. It's greatest asset, besides better tasting for cooking, is a natural fruit fly trap! Four simple things to create a fruit fly trap.

All you need is:

• a small jar
• Saran Wrap (or other brand)
• rubber band
• Apple Cider Vinegar

Pour enough vinegar in jar to fill about 1/3 to a half of the jar.  Use enough Saran Wrap to cover the top of the jar.  Put the rubber band around the jar to hold the plastic down (I prefer a jar with a bit of a lip so rubber band doesn't slide off!)  Poke a few wholes in the top and then set your trap near where most of the fruit flies are swarming.  They are drawn to the smell and can't figure out how to get out.  If you only have white vinegar, I might put a piece of fruit in to, to make it a bit more sweet.

Here is my current trap and it is already drawing the flies in.  Cool, right?  I think so!


P.S. There are many additional uses for Apple Cider Vinegar as well.  One I use is is about a tsp. of it in 10 - 12 oz of cold water to help settle acid reflex or a queasy stomach when yogurt doesn't help.  I tend to drink it fast and it does the trick.

Homemade ~ anything

Making anything homemade has it's advantages and disadvantages.  For awhile, making things at home, saved you money.  If you had the talent to do something ~ anything ~ you'd save $$$'s by doing it yourself.  Prices seem to be getting a lot more expensive, lately, and it's almost not worth it.  Now, to make something at home, it's for the shear joy of creating something, from something else.

Personally, I love going through thrift stores, yard sales, craft stores, (and even trash day) and wondering what I can make out of the items I see.

Here are a few things I've made and posted on the blog:

• rug deoderizer
• wood cut drawings
• knit shawl
• cable knit scarf
• baked donuts
• quilt blocks and knit baby blanket
• homemade pizza

Most of the above has been out of things we've bought; I have picked up a couple things on trash days!  I have a beautiful (now) wash stand that was thrown out.  A new door made by my dad, a new towel bar, and  I refinished it.  I also found a mini terrarium on trash day that just needed a bit of sanding and paint touch up.  I've passed up on a few things that, now, I wish I'd picked up.  Oh well!

What do you like to make new?  What do you like to make, at home, even if it would be more economical to buy new?  Do you keep a blog and want to share a link?  Would love to see some of your recreations!  Please share and maybe we'll all get a bit more inspired!

Rug deodorizer

I have been playing around with the proportions for making my own rug deodorizer because I don't care for the ones off shelf.  These seem to give me a head ache because of their smell.

So today, I made some more and thought I'd measure out what I use, in case anyone else cares to use it.  If you do try it, let me know what you think. 

Here it is:

• 1 cup each:  baking soda, Borax, and corn starch
• 1/2 T whole cloves
• 1/4 t ground clove
• 1 T ground cinnamon
• 1/8 t nutmeg

Directions: 

• sift all together to blend and get lumps out
• shake to blend smells
• if you can wait to use, the spices distribute better
• shake before using

This quantity fit well in a cleaned out, standard sized, Pringle's can.  I used a canning funnel, which also fit nicely on top of can.  I plan to later punch holes in top of can.

If you are wondering why I added Borax, it's because it is a natural flea repellent when sprinkled on rugs or cloth furniture and vacuumed about an hour later.  As we have a cat and dog AND it is flea season, it seems like a wise idea.