Maple Syrup Salmon

 

 

In a rare moment I cooked us some Salmon that I’d had in the freezer for seeming ages. I found this recipe and it turned out really well! I didn’t have maple syrup so I just used pancake syrup. Yumm!!

 

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup maple syrup
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic salt
• 1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 pound salmon

Directions

1. In a small bowl, mix the maple syrup, soy sauce, garlic, garlic salt, and pepper.
2. Place salmon in a shallow glass baking dish, and coat with the maple syrup mixture. Cover the dish, and marinate salmon in the refrigerator 30 minutes, turning once.
3. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
4. Place the baking dish in the preheated oven, and bake salmon uncovered 20 minutes, or until easily flaked with a fork.

Marie Callender’s Pie Crust

 

MARIE CALLENDER'S PIE CRUST
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup shortening
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg yolk
2 tablespoons ice water
1/2 teaspoon vinegar

Beat together butter and shortening until smooth and creamy; chill until firm.
Sift together flour, sugar and salt in medium bowl. Using fork, cut butter and shortening into dry ingredients until mixture has a consistent texture; set aside.
Mix egg yolk, ice water and vinegar into dough, then form into ball and refrigerate about 1 hour.

WHEN READY TO BAKE:
Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.
When dough has chilled, roll it out and press into pie plate. Press parchment paper or aluminum foil into crust and weight crust down with ceramic pie weight or another pie plate filled with dried beans.
Bake 15 minutes, then remove weight or pan filled with beans and prick crust with fork to allow steam to escape. Bake another 5−10 minutes or until crust
is golden brown. Let crust cool.
Makes enough dough for one 8 to 10-inch single crust pie

Homemade Chocolate Milk

 

For a homemade cold chocolate milk recipe:
11 ounces milk
1 ounce water
1 1/2 teaspoons cocoa
2 tablespoons sugar
Put sugar, cocoa, and water in microwavable 12 oz glass.
Microwave for 30 seconds or until sugar and cocoa dissolve.
add cold milk and stir.

Homemade Play rug/ blanket

I started out with a fleece I got from trying out a Taste of Home cookbook.

And then I took a bunch of my kids toys:

 

I thought I would start with some electrical tape to do the lines. I got this pack plus a yellow one at Sutherlands for about 75 cents.

 

I tried taking the tape and  making roads out of them but, even though my son played for about an hour with the area I taped off below, it didn’t seem as though it would last…so I did plan “B'”

I tried sewing a ribbon on to outline the roads.

I ended up just using a magic marker. I figured I can always change it later  if it is a big hit.

I cut up a business card for the bulldozer to “push.”

 

The road dead-ends….

 

Air strip….

 

 

Farmland

 

Parking lot. All the “areas” are removable.

Pedestrian crossing

 

Copter pad from our  train set.

 

 

Orange-Lemon-Black tea

 

I made this tea for my “Sew Sweet” party and it was a big hit! So was the sewing party (or as my mom said, my “mending” party. However, '”Mending Sweet” just doesn’t sounds as good!

Now my tea doesn’t look as pretty as theirs…more like their picture but with mud mixed in. Not sure how they got theirs to look so good with black tea in it! Oh well, tastes good!

• 14 cups of water
• 6 individual black tea bags
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 3/4 cup thawed frozen orange juice concentrate
• 3/4 cup thawed frozen lemonade concentrate
• Fresh mint leaves and lemon or lime slices, optional

1. In a large saucepan, bring 4 cups of water to a boil. Remove from heat; add tea bags. Cover and steep fro 3-5 minutes. Discard tea bags
2. Stir in the sugar, concentrates and remaining water. Refrigerate until chilled. Garnish with mint and lemon.

$ Baskets or Free Boxes?

 

I see all these cute post where they use baskets and turn a closet of terror into a a true beauty. And organized system but yet one where you can still toss things in when you are in a jam. The baskets just make it look awesome!

The problem is many of those basket easily run $10 each. Now I’m not sure about many things in life, but I do know that if I looked in my closet and saw $80 worth of baskets, that would far out way the organization! So…what I needed to do was fake it!

I have a great linen closet, actually it is the only closet I have that isn’t in a room. I don’t have a coat closet but we make due. I found some boxes a while back and after covering them I tried this cute idea with the clothes pins. I thought it would be great cuz I could move the signs if I ever changed my mind or wanted them somewhere else.

Great idea, not constructed for my house. Within an hour 1 clothes pin was in half and the sign was lost. This one above held up but I knew it’s death was eminent!

So I needed a new idea. While searching for donation boxes, (Did you know that they have cardboard dumpsters? Just boxes! Fabulous) I found some boxes that were the perfect size for my closet so I figured I’d try again!

I forgot a key is to use very little glue or modge podge as I was doing here. So my paper wrinkled. Live and learn. I’ll fix it later…maybe when I don’t have 3 kids under the age of four!

 

I used these brackets to fasten the 3x5 cards I printed onto cardstock.

I was happy with the outcome!

For these I just folded the top part of the box inside. Seems to work just fine but I suppose you could cut it off. I was just worried about rough edges.

I still have some tweaking to do but thought I would post this and then get out of my PJ first! LOL!

Round up

Well, after all my whining eBay seems to have picked up this week. Christmas rush maybe. I sold an odd assortment of things, but by far not the oddest.

 

My mom found this Bat mobile new in a rental they have:

Batmobile: sold for $6.55 with $8 shipping.

It was crazy. They buyer selected free pickup, which I didn’t know I had on there, and couldn’t change the payment so it took sending another invoice and clearing up the whole mess to get my $8 in shipping. So glad I did though! Shipping cost me $7.98!

 

I was thrilled to find a chico travelers at my thrift store. Heard these sell really well. But I did some research and found this one hasn’t sold well in the past. So I was happy to hand it off for what profit I made. I mean come on! Who wants to snap all those buttons!?

Chico's size 1 (med) travelers shirt with button front and mock turtleneck black: $5.58

 

 

My hubby ran in the Warrior dash and got this free hat. I was shocked that someone would pay $7 for it! I didn’t make that much on it after fees and shipping but someone still got a deal seeing that you can get them on Warrior Dash website for $10 plus shipping. Figured October is a good time to sell these kind of things anyway!

Vikings hat: $4.12

 

I found this swim suit and almost kept it for summer but when eBay ran a special I stuck it in there. It sold for $12! Wonderful for heading into winter and an unknown brand!

I.F. Vintage style swim suit: $12

 

Nor sure when mini corduroy skirts are in season but at least one person out there is wearing them now!

American Eagle corduroy short skirt! Dark brown size 6: $4.34

 

Dress barn I’m still not sure about! They don’t sell great on eBay but they have some super cute stuff and sometimes I can’t pass them up. They seem to sell every time though at a profit. But when I look through listings it shows everything that sells, or doesn’t sell, listed at $.99. I’ve done WAY better than that!

Dress barn skirt size 12: Made $6.07

 

Oh! As you can see I figured out a way to post more than 1 picture for free. I know there is a way to use HTML and post it in the text for free as well. I just haven’t cared enough to figure that out yet! This seems to work well. I just use Picnik to make my collage! Works great!

You never know with eBay

I purchased this skirt a few weeks ago for $.99 thinking the “green tea” brand name might be organic or something. But when I looked it up on eBay I realized many people where trying to sell this skirt and no one was selling it. Even for $.99!

Well, on a whim I posted it for $7.99 after finding out it was a Sam’s Club brand.

I did see one blog post about a lady who got the skirt in this color and really wanted a white one. I’m not sure why I put it for so high but I’m glad I did!

It got one view and one bid. $7.99! Yea!!

I don’t think it will go any higher but I just made good money on that whim!!

Everything is better…with a little formalness!

 

I few month ago I got a package of invites in a bag of stuff purchased at the thrift store. I tried to sell them but they aren’t quite the latest in invite fashions. So I held on to them waiting for an inspirational idea to hit me!

Then, while patching the knee of a pair of Jeans (while they were still on me!) I thought of it! What if I get friends together for a sewing party? Actually it will be more of a patch party! So that is what I did. I called it “Sew Sweet plus Handkerchief Gal” Since most of my friends are very sweet and well, then there is me. I’m blessed. I know!

 

 

The set came with 20 invites, bows, sleeves, envelopes and online templates to print it all. Including the front and back of the envelopes!

I figured the rather “formal” wording and invitations might make it a tad more fun! I will do some baking for it and have some tea as well. I’ll try to take pictures if it all turns out!

Man Apron photo tutorial