Kitchen Tip Tuesday

So Long Smells

How to eliminate smells from your plastic ware:

• You can put water in the dish and add baking soda or vinegar and soak it overnight.
• My favorite--put it in the freezer overnight. I know it sounds strange, but it works.

How to eliminate smells, such as garlic or onion from your hands:

• You can rub them against your stainless steel sink. If you have a cast iron sink, you can use stainless steel cookware. :o)
• Rub vinegar over them and then wash them.

Freebies: Be careful about multitasking too much in the kitchen, it can be costly as I found out this weekend by scorching a big pot of cream of mushroom soup! :o( Admit your human and spend a little more time in the kitchen or enlist kid help--they are awesome stirers! :o)

For more great kitchen tips, visit: http://www.tammysrecipes.com/node/3415

Weekend recap

This weekend was a quiet one in that we didn't have anything planned. I did a lot of cooking. Unfortunately, I had a couple of goofs! I hate it when I waste food!!! The kids played outside with the neighbor kids literally all day on Saturday. They seemed to have a lot of fun as evidenced by the lack of crying and fighting. :o)

Yesterday we officially welcomed our new assistant pastor and his family. They seem to be great people. I am looking forward to their ministry with us.

The true adventure was moving the HUGE freezer in our basement that came with the house because there is no way to remove it without calling in experts! (We are having an electrician come to upgrade our electrical to breakers instead of fuses. and the freezer was in the way.) It is so big I was afraid to look in it because you could put a whole football team of dead bodies in it! Hubby and I got the job done. We found some intersting stuff behind it--including cleaning products we have never heard of and two axes. Interesting place to hide the axes! (NOT ours!)

For your amusement:

Rules to Live By--Minnesota Style

1. Der’s only one God, ya know.
2. Don’t make the fish on your mantle an idol.
3. Cussing ain’t Minnesota nice.
4. Go to church even when you’re up Nort.
5. Honor you folks.
6. Don’t kill. Catch and release.
7. There is only one Lena for every Ole. No cheatin’.
8. If it ain’t your lutefisk, don’t take it.
9. Don’t ya be braggin’ about how much snow ya shoveled.
10. Keep your mind off you neighbor’s hotdish.

Please Pray for me

I have had an interesting week at work. I am trying to have a good attitude, but am having a very difficult time. I can usually do some mental gymnastics and find a positive spin to put on things, but am having a really difficult time. The gymnast keeps falling off the balance beam!!! Since I am over others, I generally try to put a positive spin on new "developments" that will not be cheerfully accepted. This week has been a test for me in putting a happy smile on MY face and dealing with it. I even put a sticky note on my desk that says "It WILL get better" (IWOP--it's worse other places), however I keep having to resist the urge to tear it up--not good!! It's just been tough in that I get my attitude somewhat in check and then have more junk dumped on me. On a positive note, maybe I can put this job on my resume when I decide to be an agent for Hollywood types--I will have lots of experience in putting a positive spin on unpleasantness. :o) Maybe I'll put a sticky note on my desk that says "This is just practice for when you are the agent for a really famous person." :o)

P.S.--Don't worry I really have no aspirations about being an agent. I am just trying to add some humor. Maybe this is a gymnast that SHOULD fall off the balance beam! I do realize that being an agent would make this job seem like a cake walk--most days anyway. :o)

Thanks for listening, I feel better. Hope this doesn't make too many people think I am ready for the loony bin!

Think On These Things Thursday

Philippians 4:8 Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.

Matthew 22:37-40

Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

I have several thoughts today. First, has anyone else noticed that there seems to be those out there who are using the economy as an excuse to exploit others. I have seen it in employers--you better do this and with a smile--you're just lucky you have a job--giving people extra hours (no compensation) because they've laid off other people, etc.! I have seen it in people hiring others to do their work at really reduced rates and being smug about it. I can understand a bit of a deal, but less than half the going rate???? We won't even discuss the government!!! I think this is really sad. Talk about kicking others when they are already down. What happened to treating others like we would like to be treated. It is usually the people who would be the first to scream if they were taken advantage of. How do they sleep at night? In their defense, most of the above has probably not crossed their mind. Sorry about the rant!

We need to be careful how we treat others. Make sure the above mentioned philosphy is not allowed on our doorstep!

A lesson from "T": We were helping our new youth pastor and family move into their apartment. Our whole family had arrived early and all of us were carrying things in, including the kids. Eventually, we ended up with about a dozen adults. I didn't want the kids to get stepped on or knocked over by a sofa, so I thanked them for their help and asked them to please stop for awhile and even told them they could go to the park. The younger three quickly ran off to the park. "T" started to cry because he wanted to continue to help. I wish I had an attitude like that!

I guess my whole point is that we need to make sure we are treating others the way we would like to be treated. We should be helping others, especially in times like these. It is sometimes so easy to get focused on our lives that we forget about others and the difficulties they may be facing!

The hiccups again

I will post my "Think on These Things Thursday" post tonight. We have had a lot going on--helping friends move in, crazy at work, church, contractor at my house, orthodontist appointment this morning at 7:40... So due to the hiccups of life, I'm delaying my post and haven't been posting as much.

Kitchen Tip Tuesday

Grating Chocolate

I had a recipe to make this morning that called for you to grate semisweet chocolate bars. Since my memory was that I had the chocolate when in reality it was unsweetened chocolate, I went digging and found semisweet chocolate chips. I realized that trying to grate them on a regular stand type grate was not an option unless I wanted injured fingers! I've tried using a minichopper before, but the chocolate is not at all uniform--mainly big chunks and powder. So......

I decided to try my rotary cheese grater (that has the crank--I didn't know what the official name was 'til I googled it)!!! This worked great!! The chocolate came out finely grated. It looked great sprinkled on top my Strawberry cheesecake trifle. :o)

For more great kitchen tips visit: http://www.tammysrecipes.com/node/3407

Stuff

Not much time to post, busy weekend and week, so not sure how much I'll be able to post. A contractor is starting work in our bathroom and I have a nurse's meeting to get ready for.